Dirge of Sorrow, Hymn of Hope [Holly, Private]

A small flower had been held delicately by the stem, between two of her fingers. Holly had walked down the ruined streets of Twilight Town with a camellia flower to symbolize, no to commemorate the deaths of hundreds and mayhaps thousands? There was a cruel smile spread across her lips as the dead littered the streets their corpses pinned beneath buildings and their blood pooling up as sustenance for the scavengers. While it hurt her pride in not being able to admit that was all her doing, she couldn't be angry at the "Thing" that caused all the death and destruction in the first place. Truly, it was a work of art.

While Holly walked the massive burial ground that was the ruined town landscape she had summoned her dark powers to begin infesting the bodies. Every step she took the ground, walls, flowers anything with life began to mold and decay with the exception of the new minions she began to add to her army. The Undead. Quite literally, the woman couldn't take their hearts for they were already stolen. However, what of their bodies? The ones that hadn't been too mangled or properly buried would raise once more as hollowed out husks of who they used to be. Fueled with darkness and unyielding loyalty to their mistress.

A bitter fog fueled with a chilling wind started to creep into the streets. The woman who had been asked to come about? She had become a target without even realizing it. Opposites attract one another and that is the most truest of statements, when one puts together the concepts of light and dark. The major poles of the universe had a constant tug-of-war and every day it seemed like the dark pulled the rope further away from the grasp of light.

Small pieces of ice had started to gather beneath her feet with each step taken. Holly's smile only widened as she homed in on that source of light. A beacon just telling Seeker of Sorrow that it wished to be snuffed out. Her tongue ran along her lips at the thought and soon they met head-to-head.

Yellow eyes that burned with power and lusted for more, she gazed upon the songstress' form. "Ah, yes, the idol. I remember you from when I was growing up." She would be the one to speak first as the anticipation to turn her into a heartless greatly aroused her. "Doing your civil duty and coming to aid the people of Twilight Town? I figured as much, which is why I came..."

Whether or not the woman knew what the necromancer was talking about didn't matter. What did matter was the fact Tsumiko was a prime target for Holly. From what was said across the worlds the woman had a big heart and a lot to give. Maybe she could give the Heartless army exactly what they needed, the tool necessary to bring out the end of everything. Everyone.

Accompanying Holly would be victims of the recent attack. Even those Tsumiko had passed by began to stumble and move about, making noise, hissing in empty tones, and beginning to surround the woman. Women, men, children, any and all were used as corpse puppets by the Heartless.

"...So I can devour your Heart and add you to my collection!" Holly declared making her intentions clear from the get go.

Holly couldn't help the laughter which escaped from her after she heard Tsumiko's response. "Good. You're the type who scream as they're being broken piece by piece!" She exclaimed. From there, it appeared as though the songstress wanted to make the first move.

Wind whipped and gathered before it changed from a torrent, to a zephyr and eventually into a full on vortex. The bodies were easily picked up and tossed into the air. Holly wanted to see the constitution of her opponent and to test this she caused the possessed bodies of the children to cry out. All once they kicked and screamed inquiring as to why she tossed them around so aggressively. Each of the available bodies in the twister had stated their discomfort but then all at once, they had started to vomit their innards towards the songstress. Muffled cries and coughs followed by the sounds of convulsing accompanied the sickening act, as they spewed out the liquid all over the place. The vortex of wind didn't help remedy this at all.

Holly on the other hand hadn't been affected whatsoever. Sure her hair had been taken out of its neat bun and her clothes whipped about, but there hadn't been any lasting harm on her. A confident smirk ran across her lips and with a bit of her own wind magic, gathered them into two of her fingers (index and middle specifically.). "I've only ever had one opponent be this potent in magic. Lets see if you're any different!" And with a downward swing of her hand, she brought about a slicing malestorm. One that had effortlessly cut the vortex in-half, dispersed its wind and energies (along with the people), then aimed to bisect Tsumiko right down the middle.

Holly grinned inwardly as she felt the darkness begin to spring in the woman's heart, it was still so prominent yet beaten down by whatever faux reassurances she gave herself. Tsumiko was going to make a delicious meal and an even greater Heartless. Her abilities spoke volumes by which she crafted a sonic boom to barrel forth and completely destroy her malestorm. The Heartless' response to this came in the form of her taking a firm stance and gathering a similar amount of wind and fought the songstress' sonic boom with one of her own.

As the two forces collided with one another, they created a resounding explosion that would have shattered the eardrums of any normal person and more than likely kill them. Should there have been any others around at the time, they'd surely fall to Holly's dark influences and its ability to passively coerce them into suicide while also giving up their hearts to darkness. One way or the other, the woman of darkness wasn't going to make this easy and saw her opportunity to provide more pressure.

Rather than move out the way of Tsumiko's slice to her body she instead let it happen. When that odd blade connected with her skin rather than it sliding through as possibly intended, it had instead traveled some distance through her body and stopped at solid mass. Only then did that "wound" explode with a cloud of darkness. Considering how close the silver-blue haired woman stood there was a low-chance she'd be prepared to dodge the cloud. Outside the body, the cloud made it hard to see where anything was and inhaling it brought about haphazard effects on the body. Mentally, Tsumiko would find that her inner, darker urges begin to grow further.

Unlike the songstress, Holly was able to operate within her own darkness and smacked the blade out of her body (and hopefully by extension, out of Tsumi's hands) and unleashed her series of strikes. There was no weaponry needed besides her own fists and legs, something Ophelia trained Holly in extensively and thus, each hit that impacted her opponent's body would have surely brought echoing pain throughout it.

"If you'll want me to leave, you'll have to do better than that!" Holly grinned as she continued to beat on the woman's body, before taking a strong, firm stance and delivering a double palm-strike to Tsumiko's chest and hopefully sending her flying.

When the final hit connect, Holly had walked her way out of the cloud of darkness, her heels clacked against the ground and echoed eerily throughout the alley. The undead who had finally landed, gathered around the area then on Holly's orders, observed the mature woman. There was a victorious smile on her lips. "Oh, that felt marvelous. Too bad you weren't exactly up to snuff, 'songstress.' Now then, as promised, I will proceed to break you in all the right ways and partake in your heart as I do so. Be good girl and make sure to scream."

There was a sadistic step in her tone as she laughed at the thoughts, oh the dark thoughts that traveled back and forth through her head. She advanced upon Tsumiko who was still likely reeling from that bout of strength. The Heartless approached and licked her lips oh so hungrily, knelt before the battered woman and placed a single hand against her breast. She groped it, molested the woman for a moment before her hand coated itself in darkness. From there, she started to reach out into Tsumiko's heart and tried to bring forth her darkness. All the while, used this to send painful pulses of electricity to burn and torture the songstress.

Holly softly relished in her victory over the woman and dwelt on the thoughts of how wonderful to make the former idol, into a seeker. Everything was going as planned, so perfectly timed and executed that she had let her guard down. It was at that she noticed a rejection of her own Darkness at the hands of something sinister. The act happened all that she hadn't the chance to properly evade or react. Her mistake had costed something dearly and that was the infernal weapon that lodged itself into her shoulder. Holly's eyes widened, her mouth left agape, but her astonishment was interrupted by a powerful gale.

Flung back, she landed with a harsh thud and had began to scream out in pain. She instinctively grabbed at the stump where her arm had once existed, only to see the limb dissipate into darkness. Pain that didn't feel good by any means had started to travel through the entirety of her body, which made her writhe in pain. Oh how her wails shook the very foundation. Irritation, anger, hatred rang through her mind.

"Fuck taking her heart! Kill her, kill her, kill her! ALL OF YOU KILL HER!" Her orders were barked and not a second later, shrill shrieks and hisses came from all around. The raised dead that the woman summoned had all began their swarm to their location. Within moments the battleground had become active with the dead, their intent to rip Tsumiko to shreds. Holly, during the chaos, picked herself off from the ground and formed a corridor of darkness. She had been defeated. A bitter taste entered her mouth as she gave Tsumi one last look. She'd be paid back in full for what she had done.

Her vengeance now set, she stumbled her way through the portal and exited the world.