Sis, I Think We May Be Lost!~ (open)

The clones had a steady disregard for the things happening around them. Unlike their opponents, Celia, her remaining clone and the rest of her companions stayed on the movement constantly. The clone had a couple of close shaves, but it managed to avoid the sniper fire and took a graze to the shoulder. She laughed it off, however, and continued to perform a series of serpentine movements to stay clear of the fire, while continuing to fire off a series of three more illusions of the Beach-Ball Surprise spell, adding a total of 9 of them. Giving how extremely slower and less accurate the clones were compared to the original, it was rather easy to dodge shots fired from them.

The real Celia herself was having an easy time watching as the drastically slower versions of the Anti-Lily ran across the walls of a building and attempted to shoot at her. The mistake with that in the first place, was how the clones disregarded the Beach-Ball Surprises that were bouncing to and fro across the buildings. Simple physics allowed the water balls to become a bit faster in their already speedy approach. Doing so allowed the balls to easily slam into the Anti-Lily clones when they attempted to run across the wall and became preoccupied with shooting their Temporal Barrages towards the real Celia. This would have more than likely prevented any follow-ups from the clones.

Further adding to the mayhem, the real mage let loose another four Beach-Ball Surprises and allowed them to fly and bounce off the walls. Now there was a total of 5 real balls of water (7, if the clones running along the wall somehow miraculously avoid the two coming for them), that aimed to hit the other clones on the field terrorizing her allies. One aimed specifically towards Isis's opponent, which latched itself onto her face. Two others aimed to slam into the clone that Zienna was busy trying to pull the wool over with her speedy cloak and dagger attacks. Now there was a total of six false balls flying every which way and bouncing off the walls to distract them Celia and Friends' opponents (summing up, there are 11-13 projectiles flying across buildings and heading every which way).

---

Abilities used:
Beach-Ball Surprise

---

Celia is now on MP Cool Down for the next 10 turns

Lily watched as the creature somehow managed to avoid two of the quickest, free-flying bullets that came out of the portals, but didn't let her guard down. The moment the creature disappeared, Lily consumed Ten of her Rave Stacks to give herself Rave Evolution. Afterwards it was merely the method of continually moving to avoid the sniper fire. The gunslinger ran in a zig-zag pattern similar  to the Celia clone that narrowly avoided taking a shot to the head. The ebony-haired girl easily traced the fire from both rifles as she ran about. She plotted her next moves carefully and waited before acting. Thankfully, her waiting was awarded by a portal opening beneath her. Like before, the Anti-Lily attempted to shoot a round at her, but thanks to its counterparts Blind Distortion, its aim would be off by a bit, which allowed her to jump some distance away from both the portal and Headhunter Cannon round.

Now in an optimal position on the battlefield, Lily aimed one of her guns behind her and from memorizing the snipers on the rooftops, took aim at one of them and fired a single round directly towards general upper-body this time around. Consuming her remaining four Rave Stacks, Lily made use of her Phase Shift ability and on the fly switched the aim of the other gun towards the other sniper and once again, took a shot. A hit towards the two snipers was possible, seeing as they'd be too preoccupied with firing towards Isis and the Celia clone to realize the danger they were in sticking out like that.

This entire time, her second gun was pointing towards the portal that the Anti-Lily rose out of. After firing towards the snipers, the gunslinger switched both guns to full-auto and began her onslaught on the original Anti-Lily. This came in the form of the second gun firing it's remaining 10 rounds rapidly upward, starting from the base of the opened portal and gave a good range for Lily to hit the thing, should it try jumping upwards. However, with gun which had 8 remaining bullets, she'd fire along a horizontal line, in case the creature tried to dodge to either side of her aim. Effectively, the ebony-haired girl had created a "+" shape array of deadly projectiles aiming to either hit their marks, or cause an error in their opponents movements.

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Abilities Used:
Rave Evolution: Lily consumes 10 stacks of Rave and from then on, the 51st shot Lily fires will always hit its mark. 5 post cooldown.

Phase Shift (Beginner): Lily consumes 4 stacks of Rave to allow herself to change the aim and directions of her guns, even in mid-attack. 3 post cooldown.

Blind Distortion has one more post until it is up.

The damage-dodging is real. Please keep in mind that Anti-Lily's AGL ratings are vastly higher than your SPD and AGL.

---

Also, I am much too lazy to keep track of all these AND write up an elegant post for it at the same time. Seriously, there are just so many clones. Choices were made. I regret them.

Clones 1 and 2 take shots at Lily Darkson. (Head, Body)

Clone 3 has been slain. Credit is awarded to Zienna for both most damage, and last hit kill.

Clone 4 has taken Wolfram. Clone 4 uses Wolfram's [Stone Pillar] on Zienna.

Clone 5 has been slain. Credit is awarded to Zienna for both most damage and last hit kill. Clone 5 explodes, dealing damage to Isis.

Clones 6 and 7 have taken severe damage. (1/5 and 2/5, respectively.)
Clones 6 and 7 have used Shadow Manipulation, aiming for Ceila's Shadow. [CD: 10]

Anti-Lily takes damage. [45/50]
Anti-Lily consumes 8 stacks of Rave, granting [Blind Distortion].
Anti-Lily evades the incoming damage.
Anti-Lily activates T2 Ability on Sniper's Symphony Skilltree: [Share the Pain]

[Share the Pain:] Lily activates a device on her belt, cloaking her from harm for a single post. Damage Lily would have normally taken, is reflected back to the caster for x2 the original damage. [CD: 8]

Rave Stacks: 28 (24-8 = 20 | 20+4+4 (clones still active) = 28)

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Edit: duh, I forgot cooldowns.

Blind Distortion is on cooldown.
Shadow Manipulation for Clone 4 is on cooldown. [9]
Temporal Barrage for Clones 6&7 is on cooldown. [7]
Siphon Seal for Clone 3 is on cooldown. [3]
Shadow Copy is on cooldown. [13]

The clone she was fighting had slunk back to the ground, unmoving. She couldn't feel it anymore, which made her grin. That was one down. A sudden explosion placed her attention towards the Animus. It seemed she has taken care of her own battle, but the consequences might have been great. Nonetheless, that's two.

Zienna saw Wolfram raise his foot, his armor plate glowing, meaning he was about to unleash one of his abilities. For the most part, the Centurion had a set motion for each individual one, and having spent enough time with him, she knew which ability he was going for.

He stomped and a piece of the earth burst forth from the ground. Fortunately for the succubus, she was already airborne and all she had to do was fly higher to evade the rock obelisk. She knew she couldn't efficiently take on the giant. His skin was as thick as the steel he wore. Buuuut...

Instead of fighting him head on, Zienna headed over to Isis, who had been knocked down by the exploding clone. "Isis, mend yourself!"

"But--"

"You can't help her if you're dead!"

Isis looked over to Lily with worry staining her face. Zienna was right. She couldn't help them if she's dead... She used her power to heal herself, after which, she was suddenly picked up. Zienna was at her side, just fitting under the Reaver, with an arm wrapped around her chest. They took off into the sky, and for a moment, Isis was confused.

The chains on Wolfram's wrists broke and faded into smoke. The bondage between him and the succubus had been severed. He would now be feeling the full damage of anything that hit him. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Zienna knew Wolfram had to be snapped out of his trance. He was a big boy, he could handle it. "Fire a barrage at Wolfram, then light up the skies."

The animus was shocked at the request, and at first refused, but then she saw that Wolfram wasn't acting like himself. There was... something wrong with his shadow. "A-alright..."

Six more spheres were released and went directly for the guardian, splitting off so they could hit him at different angles. Two came from behind, one from above, another at the front, and the last two at each side. Quickly following the barrage, the ground and the skies were graced by circles with ethereal markings. Isis and Zienna had a great view from up high, and Isis used that to her advantage. First, she directed two lightning strikes at each of the two snipers, before scanning the ground and firing another bolt at Anti-Lily, once Lily was clear of the bolt, of course.

---

Cooldowns:

Zienna:
Dark Bondage [2 posts] [Effect Terminated by Zienna]

Wolfram:
Hellfire [Online]
Stone Pillar [4 posts]

Isis:
Lifeline [1 post] [effective on Lily for 8 posts more]
Mend: [3 Posts]
Static Field: [10 posts]

Suddenly, everything and everybody stopped, as if time had frozen. Everybody would find themselves back to where they were before the odd doppelganger appeared, and the battle that had ensued would be like a fading dream. It was a very odd thing to happen, but The World That Never Was was a weird place. But at least the number-filled abomination of a delusion was over.

Celia smirked confidently, as she knew the Anti's were having a large amount of trouble with her attacks. Surely enough, she was going to switch places with one of her clones, but something felt rather off. Suddenly, time had stopped before her and shifted them back to the start of their journey, after Lily and Isis had returned and they continued from there. Normally, one would just continue without ever once blinking, but not Celia. No, definitely not Celia. The mage was one, whose otherworldly experiences from her past, granted her knowledge on such strange phenomenon. She blinked, looking around at her companions and wondering if they felt the same. The snow-white haired young lady knew that her sister would have an odd shift in time, thanks to her being a time wielder as well, but what was the cause of such a sudden interference?

"That was... Interdimensional interference, wasn't it...?" Celia asked aloud to no one in particular, but even then she didn't stop. The woman wanted to know more about what just occurred, so she high-tailed her cute, hyperactive little butt towards their objective. There was a large grin on her face and she wanted to go identify what caused all the events to go down in the first place. "Maybe it was a defense mechanism or a sentry of some sort or a form of imitating darkness that required a need for life! Nobody knows, none of you know, I DON'T KNOW! WHICH IS WHY I MUST RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!!! She cried out with a bit of insanity. "Must dissect, analyse, sew back together, dissect again and remove pieces, find out what makes it tick! Must get my hands on it!" Just like that, the mage was off in her own, twisted little world.

The gunslinger got in her stance and was ready to disappear from the scene of battle, much like her Anti counterpart. However, something unique happened when her world had slowed to a stop. Lily felt the change in time, but the sudden change in space alongside the rewinding of time was felt as a much more powerful combo. The ebony-haired girl still had her guns drawn, her eyes widened, as she was unsure if the threat still remained at large. Her worries were eventually put back to rest and she holstered her machine revolvers. With a soft sigh, the young woman looked around for Isis and once finding her, calmly walked over to the animus and gave her a soft hug.

"Isis." The young lady said softly, but that was when she sensed the rising tension in her twin. The moment she looked away, Celia had ran off on her own and was manic in her pursuit of knowledge. Not even given herself a moment's rest, the gunslinger took off after her sister and sprinted in her direction. Lily was half tempted to pull out one of her guns and shoot her sister in the leg, but she didn't. The twin didn't want to hurt her elder sister, despite being quite agitated with her antics.

Their attack left a bitter taste in Zienna's tongue. She didn't like hurting the giant in this way, and she sure as hell didn't ever imagine she'd be telling Isis to attack him. These antis had a lot to answer for. The succubus wanted to hurt them now. Hurt them so badly they wouldn't even find it pleasurable at the slightest, even if they were on her level of masochism. Even if they didn't feel pain, she was going to make the suffer. Make them burn. Make them wish they had never gotten on a demoness' bad side. She was going to take so much pleasure in making them pay like the--

Calm yourself. You do not want to lose control.

At that moment, just when she was making a dive toward the giant, the world began to slow at a rapid pace until it all stopped. She suspected that she was caught in a trap and cursed herself, but then, she sudden found herself on the ground right beside Celia, who was just as confused as her. At first. Then the girl got excited and ran off, prompting Lily, who found herself right beside Isis, chase after her.

Isis had been blushing when she was hugged suddenly after they were pulled back in time. Feeling that her young crush has been restored from whatever damage she suffered, she sighed softly along with her, and affectionately wrapped her arms around the girl, her delicate scent wafting through her nostrils. It would be something that was going to be ingrained in her mind, along with the girls features and voice. "Lily. I'm glad you're alright..."

She was a bit sad that the hug had to end, but she was content just to know she got to feel her again, especially since that battle with the shadow had almost done her in. The thought alone caused her to cringe. She needed to become stronger... If she couldn't hold her own, then she was just holding the team down... Although she was told that she important to the team, she herself didn't see why... Though troubled thoughts plagued the timid animus, there was no telling it from her expression as she was an adept of hiding her self-esteem issues from the party. Well, except for Zienna... There was no hiding it from her...

Seeing the rest of the party following the twins, she rejoined Zienna's side. She looked at Wolfram with relief. She was glad he was alright too, and a bit sorry for hurting him.

The mage's eyes were wild and her mind was racing at a thousand miles per hour. Her knowledge of eldritch beings, magic and other odd, beyond belief phenomenon paled in comparison to what she had just experienced. Well, not really. She has had prior knowledge of it before, but to actually experience it first hand was probably what excited the elder twin the most. Celia had grinned ear to ear and with her excitement, she instantly arrived back at the battle area, only to return to nothing. Her eyes widened and seemed to fill with tears even, as she scanned around the area and realized that they had just been through a Deus Ex Machina. Tears fell as the young scholar realized that she wouldn't be getting her hands on the thing any time soon.

"It's gone... It left a long time ago..." Celia spoke to herself and slumped onto the ground, her staff dropping at the base of her knees. She raised an arm and wiped her tears, trying not to cry anymore than she needed. Holding in all of her sadness from having her dreams crushed left a pout on her lips and wide, glassy eyes that seemed to hold in a large magnitude of tears. No doubt in time, Lily would be catching up, along with the others. She'd turn to them, showing the entire group her disappointment in how things turned out. Sure, she was glad everyone was safe, but she didn't care about that. The mage wanted her research subject. "Guys, it's gone and all we have to show for it, is that big stupid castle, that is perfect for Big Sister Marigold..."

Little did she know, she had completely forgotten about why they were there to begin with. The whole point of why they even traveled and fought the bloody thing, was so that they could clear the way and have a nice new base of operations for the Darkson family. However, it was clear that to everyone else, Celia had her priorities completely flipped.

Lily pursued her sister relentlessly and nearly caught up for her. The young woman huffed while she ran, surprised that her elder twin was able to outrun her so easily. One thing that the younger twin didn't enjoy so much about their connection with one another, was their ability to feel nearly everything the other felt. While Celia may have been able to feel Lily's growing annoyance for her discord, the elder didn't care and simply continued on with her selfish impulse. Lily, on the other hand, had the ability to ignore Celia's energy altogether and only ever paid attention to it, when it came down to situations that were life or death in scope. Thirdly, she didn't really like the fact that she had to be separated from Isis again and so soon at that, it really angered her. However, on the outside, Lily was able to keep herself relatively composed and calm. She knew at the end of the day that her older sister was still being a child, wanting to make the best of her mid-teen years.

They eventually made it back to the center where they fought the Anti-Lily. Nothing as there, as the gunslinger figured. She remembered that Himeiji had explained to her how time worked and that the reversal of it, if used in tandem correctly with space, can make it seem like an event has never once happened at all. When Celia brought it up earlier, she called it an interdimensional interference, or rather, a Deus Ex Machina. Some higher power acted upon their fight and negated the events completely, sending them back to the appropriate time. This revelation must have crushed her older sister completely and it did.

Lily felt the anguish the mage felt and walked over to her. She looked down into the golden orbs that were glassy with tears. The ebony-haired girl hated seeing her sister this way and visibly frowned. To cheer her up, the young lady got on one knee and gave her sister a rather big hug. From how small and thin she were, she looked like a little porcelain doll, going up to its owner to cheer them up. She squeezed and even kissed Celia on the cheek, before she softly pet her silver locks.

"We'll kill it." She said softly and made it certain in her own icy-blue eyes. Cheer up. We cleared the way. Let's go tell Marigold." Lily instructed and ended up patting her sister on the back, before she stood up and stretched. She wanted to be with Isis again, so the young lady turned around and looked behind her to see if they had caught up yet or not.

Zienna's party arrived at the curious spot again where they fought the fake Lily and her clones. Neither she, Isis, nor Wolfram sensed the strange creature, which was a disappointment to the succubus as it denied her the pleasure of getting back at it for even attempting to use Wolfram against them. She could sense the Centurion's lowered drive because of that, even though he acted like it didn't bother him. As a sappy creation of Heaven, he saw the act as great trespass, one even greater than being allied to beings like Zienna. And although he had renounced the oath he swore when he was exiled, he hadn't entirely brushed away the values he was created with.

("Alright, can someone tell me what just happened?") Nero said, a bit perplexed. ("That gun was pointed right at me, and I want to know if I'm still alive.")

With wide grin, Zienna plucked a feather from the raven's back, which caused him flinch and cry out with a surprised yelp.

("OW! What was that for?!") the bird said, attempting to rub the spot where his stolen feather had been plucked from, and failing to even reach it.

The girl chuckled, twirling the feather between her thumb and finger. "You needed reassurance that you were still alive."

("But that hurt!")

"And so, you are still alive," Zienna said, sticking the tip of her tongue out at the raven who decided to perch on her shoulder.

("If you didn't enjoy it, I'd have scratch you.")

"Now now, Nero, we'll have our fun times, but not right now~"

As they got close to the twins, Isis waited for Lily beside Wolfram with her hands clasped together, not wanting to break the tender moment the twins were having. Zienna on the other hand, marched right up to the two, and said, "Cheer up, Celia! I'm sure the thing would pop out again, eventually."

("And I sincerely hope it doesn't take your form...")

Celia expected to be chastised fully by her younger sister as she usually was, however, this soothing outcome from Lily was well welcomed. She hugged her sister tightly and would dry her eyes with one of her hands. After sniffling, she was just about ready to thank the black-haired girl, when she had suddenly kissed her cheek. This made the vampire-girl smile even more and she nuzzled her twin back. Her spirits were raised quite a bit and Zienna's cheerful words and reassurance only furthered her happiness. She nodded to the rest of them and got to her feet again.

"Right, right... I'll make that thing my bitch next time!" The young lady said so affirmatively and it was a sudden exposure of her true, hidden persona. She quickly brought a hand up to her lips and giggled softly, her form of an apology. After that, she turned towards the horizon. From where they were, there were barely any buildings and up ahead, there was the castle that floated. A bridge connected to the castle entrance and from beyond where they stood, a massive fluctuation of power could be felt. The thing was practically alive. Like the whole world itself was living and breathing at the very center of that area. Celia smiled, wanting to connect with the world on a more magical and spiritual nature. For this moment, she was rather tranquil. "We must go tell her... I can sense her more clearly now, sis. Marigold is within this same universe, we just... Sis, I think we may be lost!~ But that's okay, because we found this, a new castle the Darkson may be able to call home for a bit." Her voice was exceptionally cheerful, yet it was rather womanly at the same time. Celia showed off a bit of her hidden maturity. "Let's go back to the ship, everyone! We have cleared the way and now I know where Big Sis is!"

Cheerfully, Celia grabbed Zienna by her hand and started with running off with the succubus back where they came from. Their path would be easy and it'd be back to the alley where they had first grouped up with one another. The mage didn't have time to wait and see if the others were catching up, because knowing them, she figured that they would follow behind quite nicely. Zienna would be able to feel the gentle squeeze the golden-eyed girl gave her, the excitement filling her quite nicely. When they reached the ship, the blindfolded woman would be able to see just how large it was. No doubt, they'd all be able to fit within it, even the gigantic Wolfram would have some room to move around in.

"Here it is, Niddhoggr! This ship was created with the combined efforts of both Lily and my older brother, Gwain! You should all come with us... I really liked meeting you four, so it'd be really sad if we just parted ways here. Since you were all lost when I found you, maybe this is our fates leading us all in the right direction now! Plus, its a free ride to anywhere that's not here, so what do you say?" The excited mage asked, bouncing up and down as she now held Zienna's hand with both of hers. The bouncing exaggerated her assets a bit, but the girl remained oblivious to that. She just looked the succubus in the blindfold and smiled happily.

Once Celia had been proven to be okay and no longer sad, the twin nodded to her and walked over to Isis excitedly. She gave her another hug and looked up at her with content, icy-blue eyes. There was even a small smile that Lily graced the animus with and she soon cuddled into her. After that entire ordeal with the Anti-Lily, the gunslinger was quite glad that none of them were hurt to the extreme or even worse. For some reason, the young girl had grown quite attached to the woman she held quite quickly. One could assume that because she is probably the first outside person, who has shown her a type of mutual feeling, that she wanted to make sure said feelings were true. This caused her to become a little clingy and the vampire girl acknowledged it, but she didn't care.

"Come with us." Lily stated, her silky, black hair shimmering lightly, as she gazed back up into the eyes of the animus. Should any of them had been listening to Celia was saying, Isis knew what the gunslinger meant by her statement. Stepping back after ending the hug, the ebony-haired girl offered her crush a hand to follow her. This time around, she didn't mind that her elder twin ran off with the succubus, to go show her the ship. Should they lock hands once more, Lily would allow Isis to lead the way, by following behind the party as they chased after the two.

Zienna licked her lips upon hearing the young mage swear. Her dirty, cute, little mouth, it seemed, needed a little cleaning, and Zienna would be all too eager to do it herself when she got the chance. As if Celia read her mind, she was suddenly pulled all the way back to their ship and offered them a ride. Zienna had no reason to refuse, especially since a ship as big as that was bound to have a room where she and Celia could be alone to finish what they started.

The succubus smiled, partly because she was teased with the girl's assets. From experience, she could already imagine just how they'd look under the clothing, but that wouldn't make the presentation any less enticing. "Of course we'd love to tag along!" she said, pulling the girl in for a tight hug. "I'd love to spend a little more time with you~" she whispered before releasing her, holding her hands behind herself and giving Celia a suggestive smile.

=====

Isis welcomed the girl with open arms and savored the sweet embrace. They locked eyes again, and yet it still hasn't become cheesy for the animus to blush lightly as she gazed upon her crush. When she was asked to go with the girl and her sister, Isis glanced back to Zienna. She already said yes in her heart, but she also didn't want to leave Zienna, Wolfram, or Nero for her own selfish reasons, however Zienna was already going with Celia, and Wolfram, with Nero on his head, followed them, much to Isis' joy.

She nodded to the girl and took her hand. Lily let her take the lead, and so she did. "I'm happy I get to spend some more time with you," she said shyly. They were the last to board the ship, and as soon as they entered, the doors shut. Soon they'd be out of that seemingly empty world.

[I guess this is the topic's end~]