World Tree MUSH

    True to her word, Mau was waiting by the gates to the cemetery come nightfall.
    The groans of the restless dead can be heard for several blocks away as the roaming zombies in various states of decay rattle the cemetery fences and walls, unable to escape and too mindless to try the gates.
    The gates, which have a contingent of Dorn's city guard waiting in case anything DOES escape are waiting for the next squad of adventurers to come through so they can lock the gates behind them. That would be Mau's party tonight.
    "Okay here's the deal." Mau says once everyone arrives. "Matsu, you're going to stick with me; I'm don't doubt that you can take good care of yourself but I wanna keep an eye on you, myself." She says before motioning for the nearest zombie staring through the gates at everyone.
    "So before we go in, let's get you all the quick and dirty rundown: we've got your typical mindless undead here, note the vacant expression and hungry groaning. On their own they're not too dangerous, a child can outrun them and anyone with a weapon can outfight them. In a HORDE though, they're extremely dangerous. We're going to try and move fast so they don't cluster up enough into one that'll be a problem for us later. If you have to get in a fight with one, aim for the head or sever or break the neck somehow, for a quick kill. They die for good if there's no connection to their brain." She says tapping her temple twice.
    There's a pointed look to Ghost, "If you have silencers for those guns, now's the time to put them on, because these guys are attracted to movement and loud noises."

"Hello."

The voice comes from a spot somewhere off to the left of the gates. There was no other sign of Itana coming. She's just there, concealed in the shadow of one of the fence pillars and wrapped up in a dark cloak - which she's only now begun to push back the hood of a little. It's not her first go-around with traveling in the dark.

Her eyelids dip a shade. The undead are familiar foes. They think - or perhaps don't - much the same way from world to world. "Maneuver or separate them if you can. Not all zombies move slowly, but most of them do."

Itana unshoulders her bow with a huff and slides an arrow into her free hand, squinting through the gate in anticipation.

    Matsu Shuzenji is here, and her expression is all business. She's brought all her purification tools, and notably, once her attendant Karin has dropped her off, the woman takes a few steps back and waits. She notably looks more than a little nervous, unlike her young charge.

    At the explanation of their gameplan - and her specific location therein - the young Phoenix Maiden nods. "Understood. In truth that's probably the better arrangement. I am... passable in combat, but much better suited to a supporting role." She's very much a force multiplier. "I do have one question. You've described their physical vulnerabilities, but what about spiritual? Can they be purified of the curse that animates them? Does the cleansing power of flames affect them as unholy creatures?" It helps to know what her options will be.

    Marceline can't hide her disappointment; she didn't really do a terribly comprehensive job at interacting with the dead but she eventually arrives from behind the cemetary gates. She lowers herself, lightly perching atop the gate and kicking away a questing zombie's hand without too much thought.

    "Hey, just one thing. If you're planning on doing like. Wide-area holy magic stuff do me a solid and let me know?" She pulls down the collar of her flannel shirt to show off her bitemarks. Just. Y'know. To make everything as clear as possible.

    "Anyway, if it's noise you want and maybe a distraction." She shakes her guitar a little, fingers clamped over the strings to keep it quiet. For now. "I'm not super worried about them being interested in me and. Well. I can stay out of reach AND stay nice and loud. So Ghostie-kins can blast away and the rest of you can do whatevs almost as loud as you like. Prob gonna drag 'em from further out in the yard though, so no matter how interesting I make myself you're prob gonna get more than a few playing through on ya." Hairtoss. "Or we roll the dice and I can maybe take one of you out to safety at a time if it gets too gnarly."

    "Sucks. None of these dudes I found so far can even flip me the bird."

    The L403A1 came with a suppressor by default, so Ghost was way ahead of Mau as he screwed the can onto his rifle's muzzle. He did the same for his Glock 19 too, checking the chamber and stowing the pistol in his holster. If he was surprised Mau knew the concept of a suppressor, he didn't show it, as the operator was focused purely on the briefing. "Silent and violent, just my style." He nodded in approval.

    Zombies weren't his usual forte, his adversaries were the living and very much lethal. But he'd seen an episode or two of Walking Dead and definitely saw Dawn of the Dead. He knew what he was getting into here. Just shoot 'em in the head, and they'd have this by the ass.

    Flicking the safety off his assault rifle, Ghost advanced and pulled night-vision goggles down, the quad-lens device illuminating the crypt with a dull green hue. He flicked an IR illuminator on while he was at it, trusting the undead couldn't see in infrared.

    "If you're gonna be a diversion, be fast and loud." He told Marceline. A zombie's hand grasped Ghost's shoulder, he just poked it with his combat knife without a word until it released him.

     A nearby shadow stirs, twin glowing green ovals opening upon its surface as it peels away from the wall. Yes, it's Mao Mao, and he's... not wearing anything. Making his way over to a nearby trashcan, he pulls out his usual outfit and dons it in a few quick motions, double checking his sword before sliding the scabbard through his belt.

"Stupid bird horse girl stole my entrance, took me hours to find a clean trashcan..." he grumbles to himself, shooting frustrated glances at Itana and, when she's not looking, even blowing a raspberry at her. But after getting that out of his system, he sighs and nods. "Typical zombies, nothing to it. I did a little scouting, at least what I could see without actually going in. I'm almost disappointed at how easy this will be."

Then, directed at Matsu, "What /doesn't/ fire cleanse?"

    Stelle's eyes track across the zombies pressing up against the reinforced fencing. She hears the magic words, 'Aim for the head', which earns a nod. She summons her bat into her hand, and rests it over her shoulder as the group forms up.

    Stelle takes point, and just tanks through the zombies with her high durability and several superstrength BONKs that send one zombies head flying across the cemetary grounds.

>> SUMMARY[Stelle] >> Batter up!

    That's when Itana raises something that Mau was about to bring up!
    "Ah yeah, not all of them move fast, but the ones that do... Well I like to call those 'cheating fast zombies'. They tend to be a bit more... Fresh. They're *incredibly dangerous*." Mau says as the cemetery gates swing open for the party to start advancing. If one starts coming at you, well... Either kill it quick or run. Do *not* get bitten by any zombie otherwise it's a trip right to the Temple of Galatea." She says, making a face at that name. But then to answer Matsu, Mau nods her head. "Fire's good. Cleansing or purifying also works, if you can uncurse them they'll turn right back into a normal corpse and drop right there. I saw Andy do that once, they just dropped re-dead again super quick."
    "Let's try and stick together for now, but if a horde forms, we'll definitely need the distraction." She says to Marcy as Stelle valiantly takes point and starts playing The Bonk of the Dead, Mau is next in, keeping a pace that should be easy for Matsu to follow.
    But the creak of the gates has turned heads, and several of the shamblers are starting to slowly make their way towards the party.
    "Our best bet's to check the old mausoleum where I killed Thanatos way back when." Mau considers. "Geeze, 16 year old me was pretty lousy at this." Pause. "But then again what 16 year old ever knows what they're doing, right?"

Itana does not return the raspberries. Poor Mao Mao does not even get the satisfaction of a sass-off.

"I am unfond of cheating fast zombies." Itana narrows her eyes and draws her cloak around herself before fading towards the flanks of the party. She doesn't even come in through the gate. She steps a few metres away and jumps the fence.

Shamblers begin to make their way towards the little gang. Moving in silence, Itana checks her surroundings for immediately-close undead, then tumbles into place behind an old gravestone and readies her bow. The arrow in her hand snaps to the bowstring quickly.

When Itana starts shooting, it's with speed and precision. She's aiming to put arrows through necks and brains, either to shut down head-to-brainmeat communication or to just de-brain the zombies entirely.

The nice thing about a bow: Compared to guns and swords, Itana can be extremely quiet, beyond the twang of bowstring.

    "Fast zombies." Ghost said dryly, "Lovely." He wasn't going to hold back on anybody's account, especially after seeing Stelle nonchalantly send a zombie's dome flying across the night sky. Bonking them seems to work just fine. It was time to test if green tip did any good.

    He did as ITana did, and took position near some gravestones as he rested the rifle on top of the stone itself. Ghost took careful aim at a portly zombie to start off the night.

    Canting the rifle and bracing it against his shoulder, Ghost used the rifle's off-set red-dot sight to snap off quick and well aimed shots at some of the undead. The rifle let off muted coughs as 5.56 NATO rounds splatter zombie skulls like rotten fruit.

    Briefly, he watched Itana at work. She was as capable with a bow as she was with a rifle it seemed, and he approved of her talents. Using his rifle's illuminator to guide his steps, Ghost went slow and steady, contrasting the sudden single-shots of his rifle as he dropped zombie after zombie, decapitating zombies like it was a carnival game.

     "Fast zombies? Now things are getting interesting." Mao Mao says with a small, shark-toothed grin. Dashing through the gate, he decapitates a nearby zombie with a quickdraw stroke of his blade, then just before it hits the ground he uses the flat of his sword to knock the head into the distance. "Fooooooore!"

With how quickly he hops between undead, it seems almost like a game to the cat, simply trying to outpace everyone else in how many he can take out in unnecessarily flashy manner. "Haha! Did you see that one? PERfectly equal quarters!" Though as he goes, he does respond to Mau's comment about the horde. "Geraldine- hiyah!- can unleash its energy- hyoh!- to create an opening, if that happens! It's my special attack I save for- hhrrraagh!- dramatically appropriate moments! Only, it takes /everything/ I have... which is why it's- take that!- dramatic!"

    "If purification is effective," Matsu says, lifting her voice up for everyone to hear, "Then I'll amend Lady Mau's instructions. If you get bitten, come straight to me." She's already got a spread of ofuda in one hand, and the warm, welcoming glow of Suzaku's purifying flames is beginning to flow through them. The young shrine maiden is careful to stay close to Mau, but she certaily doesn't stay passive along the way. Any zombie that happens to come within throwing range is going to find an ofuda flying straight at it - and a burst of purifying magic to wash away the curse animating it.

    As they walk, however, Matsu observes, "I could... try and purify it from here. But it would probably exhaust me enough to knock me out for a few days, and even then it's not guaranteed." Curiously, out of earshot of her attendant, Matsu is a little less formal in her speech. "But if we can find the source of the curse... then I should be able to pull it off with much less effort and much more certainty."

    Stelle starts out with one-handed swings, bonking braincases off shoulders... but as a few start to gather ahead of the group, she switches to a two-handed grip. She starts to growl lowly, as that bat begins to light up. First the golden 'circuit' lines take on an ethereal white-silver glow. Each time she bats a head off its shoulders, or every time a zombie tries to bite and just fails to penetrate her skin, that bat glows a little bit brighter.

    Eventually she looks like a really brutal Jedi, swinging a glowing bonk stick like its the last night of a week long rave and she's the only one in the moshpit.

    Welp. Let the melee begin! Marceline bypasses the gates again, simply raising from her seat and dipping down into a low hover near the group. Being mobile as she is means she can kind of do what Itana and Ghost are doing. Pick off anything that gets too close. Though her methods are a bit heavy handed, they're not really as brutal or energetic as Stelle and mostly she's keeping to the rear of the group.

    She seems almost bored and halfhearted. She'd be perfectly content to leave a horde of zombies alone but, well, these interesting people she's following along with have a problem with all this and since none of the walking dead are nearly so interesting...! Too bad! Mass desecration it is! "So like. If it's not home boy or his cult, not his goo-jar or even your demon dude with the emo-goth name... Like, what? Or do these things just kind of casually happen over here? Maybe that's why your old boy picked this spot in the first place?"

    Once the party is in and the gates are sealed shut, it's time to move. Mau draws her longsword in her main hand and her short blade in her long hand as she sticks close to Matsu. Between Itana's silent archery and Ghost's marksmanship zombies are picked off neatly, while Mao Mao and Stelle go to town.
    "Nah these things don't usually happen without a Lich or death knight or something like that." Mau replies to Marcy who thankfully keeps the perimeter clear. "So I'm pretty sure it's homeboy's cult curse leftover from when broke his phylactery." She says as Matsu ofudas a zombie that gets a little close and the thing immediately collapses to a heap of inert re-dead corpse.
    "Let's not rely on dramatics and try to get a definite job complete on this one. I'd rather not have to carry people back to the Cat's Meow for the night." She does say to both Mao Mao and Matsu amid halting a zombie by stabbing it in the solar plexus with her short blade and using her longsword to neatly clip its head from its shoulders.
    "Anyway the mausoleum's deeper in, in that direction." She points the way out before a series of hungry howls pierce the air.
    "Ah... Great."
    And with that, several zombies come RUNNING at the party from around a crypt. They look fresh. ... Fresh-er than most anyway.

Itana prefers to lurk. Seeing others following the strategy is more than enough evidence that she's doing the right thing.

She leaves it to Mau to lead the way in the open, plotting her own course by darting between bits of cover. With each move, she takes a quick look to ensure she's not dashing into a waiting undead horde. The careful approach moves her along in a perpetual flanking position, out of sight and silently covering the main group.

And then come the howls. Ah, great.

Itana's arm snaps up as the zombies come trundling into the fray. Instantly, an arrow is in the air, then another, lofting towards a couple of the zombies. Itana's leading her shots adeptly, making mental calculations of how fast the zombies are moving and how fast her arrows are flying in the wind.

Itana cannot read. But she can triangulate her shots instinctually. They're aimed for the heads.

>> GAME >> Stelle spends an Edge for: Rules are made to be Broken

    On they go, with Matsu taking shots of opportunity every time they present themselves. She doesn't sling her ofuda /that/ often, but by the time things start to change, she's still had to take another handful from her pouch.

    And she's immediately glad that she has them, because that's when the howls of the ravenous undead arise.

    "...I'm holding you all responsible for jinxing it," Matsu remarks in a dry tone, already beginning work on a spell. Divine fire begins to suffuse five talismans, which the tiny miko releases into the air. They begin to spin in a circle, while she chants under her breath, forming her hands into several complex patterns in rapid succession. When she finally directs her hand forward, pointing with two fingers, all five talismans suddenly dart forward and towards the ground, each hitting a point such that they surround a wide area of earth between her and the charging zombies.

    The instant they cross into the space those five ofuda mark off? She suddenly shifts her hand upward - "Haaa!" - and lines of holy fire suddenly appear between each ofuda. A pentagon of earth suddenly erupts with divine, purifying flames - hopefully catching a few of the zombies within it.

    Ghost stomped a zombie's head to mush as it crawled toward him, missing its legs and an arm. He made a note that he'd need his uniform cleaned out later. Zombie insides weren't exactly known for being pleasant on the nostrils, and that was to a seasoned vet like Ghost.

    There was no arguments from Ghost, they had to keep moving. If Soap were here, he'd either be cringing at all the actual undead or treating this like a night out on the town, the world's most macabre bar fight. There were times Ghost liked flying solo, but he really missed his Scottish brother in arms.

    MEANWHILE, Soap MacTavish was boredly playing Go Fish with Gaz on-base. Poker was banned after..The Incident. "Got any threes, Gaz?"

    "Nope."

    "Steamin' Jesus. I miss Poker Night."

    "You and me both, mate."


    Back at the crypt, Ghost advanced towards the mausoleum, aiming at the faster moving zeds as they dashed towards the party. Headshots, headshots, and more headshots. Ghost was going to need to be efficient.

    Howls. Rapid movements, and a couple of the heavy hitters are distracted with the shamblers. She shoulderbarges one shambler away from her, then draws her offhand along the length of her bat, intoning words that seem to resonate with some kind of higher authority. "Rules, are made to be broken." The bat begins to shine with barely contained energy, and the Trailblazer steps forward to meet the oncoming fast zombies. She grits her teeth, and with a 360 sweep, aims at head-level as she unleashes the fury of her ultimate technique, cleaving the very fabric of reality for a brief moment, then slamming an overhead swing to send that 'rip' surging forward.

    If that doesn't take out the zombies, and a good few behind to boot, it'll at least knock them back long enough for the others to get into position to deal with it.

     It's right about when Mao Mao is yawning while leaning on a gravestone, balancing another severed zombie head on the tip of his sword, that he hears the howling. "Finally, something more appetizing." he remarks, flinging the head at one of the running zombies before darting in and cutting its legs out from under it- only for one of Itana's arrows to strike it between the eyes before it can even fall. "Wh- hey! That still counts as a point for me!"

Unfortunately while he's complaining, Stelle takes the opportunity to wipe a whole bunch of them at once. Mao Mao is at a loss for words, simply sputtering gibberish until he can finally compose himself enough to flusteredly shout, "That still only counts as one!"

    Yep, this is a fairly easygoing Monday night! Tuesday? What day is it here? Marceline is letting her mind wander while she responds to sort-of threats with disinterested swipes of her greataxe-shaped instrument. "Got it. So it's just bad juju leftovers. That simplifies things."

    Except that it probably super doesn't. Although for her! Her part in this becomes easy! Yay, that. "Hey, do these guys even care that I'm here?" She grips one zombie by it's fancy burial duds and gives it a shake. "Helloooo-" Shake-a-shake. Then, howling. She looks up from her momentary distraction, sees the chaos brewing in her group preparing to engulf the onrushing cheat-zombies and she shrugs, looking at her zombie. "Nah, dude. They got this. So. Which rock is yours? Looks like you had a good one too, dang." One-sided conversation with an animate corpse. Marceline never claimed to be completely even keeled!

    "Oop, we're falling behind. C'mon fella." Drag drag. "Yo, save some for the cat! He's getting moody! There. I got you, bud."

    It's Monday.
    But that's neither here nor there as the cheating fast zombies come rolling up on the group...
    Only for Stelle to take out a big swathe of them.
    The few that she doesn't catch drop with arrows and bullets in their braincases.
    The zombie that Marcy converses with groans and tries to claw and bite at her but... Well. It kind of just ends up getting dragged along for the ride before Matsu's purifying flaming ofuda star incinerates a few more of the undead.
    The party arrives at the mausoleum Mau pointed out, and the catgirl casually kicks the door in.
    It's pitch black and she starts striding inside before pausing.
    "... You all probably can't see in the dark like I can huh." She realizes. "Well except maybe Mao Mao and mmmmaaaaybe Marcy? Anyway sec." she says before holding up her long blade.
    "Flamestrike!" She declares, which causes the sword to erupt in fire, which she holds aloft like a torch and uses the light the way down, occasionally using her FLAMING SWORD to light old torches in their sconces as she makes her way down the stairwell.
    "This brings back some memories. Suvdaa, Andy, and I were looking for a girl that went missing. We ended up bumblefucking our way into a cult meeting and Thanatos turned all his goons on us." She chuckles. "I was all... 'Man, you brought all these guys here to die, but I'm only here to kill you'. Sent chills down *everyone's* spine." She says by the time the party reaches the bottom of the stairs into a wide open underground chamber.
    "... Funny. I remember leaving a LOT of corpses here." Mau muses rubbing her chin as something large shifts in the darkness.
    "Oh there they are." She ways WAY too casually as a mass of dead bodies all clinging tightly to one another move in unison like a golem of flesh with a sickly green glow emanating from its chest.
    "Ohhhhhhh." She says, realizing as it lurches towards the party.
    "Looks like a chunk of phylactery still had some power in it."

Itana blinks a couple of times at Mao Mao's antics. She straightens, then sighs and buries her face in one palm.

Seeing inside the mausoleum is outside of Itana's paradigm. Mau helps by setting her sword on fire. Only at that point does Itana actually fall back into formation, prowling along behind the catgirl heroine with an arrow already in hand. Down the stairs they go, Itana frowning intently at the lack of zombies waiting for them. "This feels more problematic than you might think."

Oh. That's why.

Instantly, Itana whips her arm back and her bow up. "Scatter!" she barks as she releases an arrow towards the golem's centre of mass. She shouts a word as the projectile leaves the string.

Fire sparks at the tip of the arrow - and as it plunges towards the golem, power builds along the arrow's mass. If it hits the shambling amalgam of corpses, it'll explode in a huge burst of flame and force.

    Stelle's bat dims after she unleashes the power stocked up inside. She follows Mau and the others into the mausoleum, and...

    "Is that a flesh golem?"

    That does indeed seem to be a flesh golem. This simply won't do, she can't bonk the head off of this thing, and she used up her ult juice on those cheating zambos. She sighs. "I've got nothing for this thing, what's the plan?" she asides to Mau with a similar nonchalance.

     "I am NOT getting moody!" Mao Mao snaps at Marceline, though he does moodily kick another head out of the way as he follows the group to the mausoleum. When they reach the dark entrance, he nods and affirms, "Yeah, I can see in the dark just fine. Cat eyes, you know."

But then Mau does the whole flaming sword shtick, and with a small growl Mao Mao taps his blade against the floor, the metal clinking with a spark just before the whole length is engulfed as well. "Yeah, I can do that too. Hrmph."

His grumbling is interrupted, however, by that... mass of corpses, which sends a shiver even down the intrepid hero's spine. "Eurgh, there's that boss zombie alright. I wasn't expecting something that... creepy." he says with a brief gag of disgust, before swinging his sword in its direction to let loose a fireball. He really doesn't want to /touch/ that thing.

    Ghost backed up, averting his gaze as Mau unleashed a torrent of flames. "Bollocks!" He grunted, covering his night-vision goggles to avoid them being burnt out. They amplified light, and right now there was plenty of that. He turned his NODs off in favor of just using his eyes and the red dot in his reflex sight for now.

    "Phylactery's part of the lich's essence, right?" He asked, opening fire on the mass of the dead calmly to chip it away with bursts of fire. "Think we're gonna need a bigger boot for this."

    A mass of corpses rises up, moving as one entity and menacing with both sheer mass and cursed energy. The crimson eyes of Matsu Shuzenji narrow slightly, turning towards Mau. "...You and I are going to have words later about consecrating once you're done dealing with a curse."

    In the next instant, each hand is filled with ofuda, each shimmering with purifying flames. She whips herself around and flings them, a one-two scattershot barrage aimed at flinging as many talismans as possible onto the body of the undead monstrosity. The more she can nullify the unholy energy animating this thing, the better.

    "Yeah, dude, I'll be fine. Use something for light for everyone who can't- Whoa, Z-man, no hands unless you're buying dinner for everybody. C'mon." She drags her tagalong zombie down the stairs with every intention to indulge in harassing the poor donk until he breaks.

    Then at the bottom they're greeted with a green-glowing unholy mass of corpses all squished together. "Oh my Glob that is the most disgusting- Z-man, watch the door buddy." She shoves her zombie back onto the stairs, probably tripping the brainless dope. He'll be fine while everyone scatters, right? Eh. He can't really get any worse off.

    Marcy grows, quickly passing four meters in height as her fingers lengthen into knifelike claws and her face develops a snout with far, far too many interlocking teeth. Her voice, distorted by the transformation, booms in the room's acoustics, "Do what you gotta do to this thing. I'll just. Well, whatever."

    She wades in, stepping over anyone in the way and claws right in behind where Itana's arrow exploded into all that entangled flesh.

    She moves to make the thing turn away from her group and expose its back. Maybe it has weak spots? Most likely, it's at least less dangerous when facing away from enemies!

    That sure is a zombie golem.
    "Yep that's a zombie golem. And we're gonna hit it until it can't move and then consecrate the remaining phylactery shard powering it." Mau answers Stelle as the golem takes a swing at Mau and Matsu.
    A deft swipe of Mau's long blade relieves the golem of its fingers before the others lay into it.
    "In our defense, Andy was just an acolyte back then!" She does point out to Matsu. "Galatea's head is so far stuck up her own... Anyway she doesn't pay acolytes much attention!"
    Itana's arrow strikes true, erupting with enough force to send smaller limbs and chunks of flesh free while Ghost chips away with his carbine and Mao Mao's fireball slams into the beast.
    "Yeah, a phylactery's usually where a lich keeps their soul." Mau replies to Ghost as she runs up the golem's arm. The beast is however, so focused on Marcy as she makes herself grow, and it tries to wail on her!
    Only for Mau to leap off the shoulder and twirl in the air, bringing her flaming blade down onto the undead amalgamation's back in a swift strike.
    The amount of damage the party does seems to be enough for the golem to lose cohesion, collapsing into a heap of writhing corpses as the phylactery shard tumbles out with a few glassy clinks on the ground to land at Matsu's feet after her barrage of talismans hit the thing with their purifying force.

That is a tall Marceline. Itana blinks twice and maneuvers aside to make way for the Very Big Were-Marcy.

The arrow does its job, anyway - Itana was trying to blow parts off the golem, and it worked out just as planned. Drawing another arrow, Itana sinks into a crouch and waits for a clear shot. Mau and Marceline ensure she has no need to take it. As the construct collapses, the archer exhales heavily and flicks her hair back, then straightens up again.

"I suppose that's something you know how to deal with properly," she muses with a nod towards Matsu. Itana sure doesn't.

    Stelle, takes a few steps back as the others pile in on the zombie golem. No point in overkill since there's already so much being layered on the thing. Between Matsu, Marcy and Mau alone, and then Itana's exploding arrows and Ghost peppering it, she'd just get in the way, block someone's line of fire, or even take hits meant for the monster instead.

    She muses to herself, almost like she's reciting some kind of mantra she's been told. "We are the Nameless. These are not our stories. We just tell them to others."

    Ghost dropped his magazine and slapped a fresh PMAG into his rifle. With a hearty thwack of the bolt-catch, Ghost nodded to Mau. "Right." He watched Marceline grow absurdly tall for a moment, and she helped take the golem down. Mau taking the beast down while Ghost riddled the creature's side in bullets should've been enough, especially with Mao Mao and Itana unloading on it too.

    Another fresh magazine was slapped into the rifle as Ghost deftly moved aside, watching the golem fall apart. "Don't suppose smashing it'll destroy the bauble, will it?" In the darkness, him staring at Matsu might've been more menacing than the undead, with that skull mask of his he fit in well.

    Marceline takes a bit of a beating! The thing hits really hard because of course it does but all the people in the room collectively hit harder! Hard enough that she barely has time to do anything else. When it's clear the thing isn't really up to continue functioning, she simply hurls the amalgam of corpses down to the floor, spits out a tooth and then returns to her normal form.

    Much better fuel economy this way. "Whuff, is that it then?" She flits back to her impromptu companion, pat-pat-smacking his face lightly. "Yo, still in there dudeman?" Ah, so maybe there was a sane reason to drag a zombie down here afterall. Back over her shoulder, "I guess keep messin it up until my man here goes back to forever sleep."

     Between the brutal assault from all parties and- Marceline just grew VERY large, Mao Mao takes mental note of that- well, anyway, the flesh golem goes down surprisingly quickly. Keeping his blade alight, the cat hero steps over to nudge at it with his foot, ready to strike if it shows any signs of being Not Quite Dead.

"Huh. I was expecting... more. I guess that's all it can muster since the real boss is already gone." he says with some disappointment, before shrugging and turning toward Mau. "Welp, guess that's it then. Just gotta clean up that phylactery and we can go claim that big, fat reward."

    Mau's explanations only seem to draw a soft, expasperated huff from Matsu. She remains on her guard while the others batter the golem, until it at last loses its cohesion. When the remnants of a much greater evil come clattering to her feet, the white-haired girl leaps back defensively, prepping a talisman for counterattack. But it's... just sitting there. For now, anyway.

    Letting out a soft breath, Matsu relaxes, turning her gaze up to Ghost. "It might weaken it, but the energies would still linger here for some time. It's better if I purify it now." To Itana, she adds, "More or less. A more experienced shrine maiden might be able to manage with much less power, but... well. A kami dwells within me, so I may as well use her strength."

    Already, the healer is preparing more ofuda, flinging them to the corners of the chamber. She does pause long enough to add a general warning: "If any of you will be damaged or wounded by holy purification, I'd suggest that you leave the room. Preferably the cemetary, but at least the room."

     Once Matsu starts talking about purifying the thing, flinging her ofuda around and preparing whatever ritual she has in mind, a thought occurs to Mao Mao. "Oh, sorry. Don't want to interfere with that." he remarks, blowing on his sword to put out the flame before carefully sheathing it. "Alright, go ahead. Geraldine absorbs energy, I'm just not taking any risks."

    Mau's flaming sword extinguishes itself after she deals that blow to the golem and she casually embeds the point in a writhing corpse, which only wiggles all the more as she leans on her sword a bit.
    "Andy was a kid back then. Now though he's a fully ordained priest of the light- you should see him, wow he grew up too. ... Still thinks he's a pup though." Mau says as Matsu gears up to consecrate the remaining chunk of evil.
    Marceline's friend groans at her. Might be best to deal with that curse so he can go back to his rest.
    "I would've brought Andy along buuuuut his temple was all 'please make a donation for our priest's time' and probably didn't even tell him I came to see him." She huffs, resting her hand on her hip. She does look to Marcy though. "You gonna be okay if Matsu does her work?"
    And then to Stelle: "So who're the Nameless?"

    Stelle's eyes snap up as Mau addresses her. "The crew aboard the Astral Express. Trailblazers following the Path of Akivili the Trailblaze. I'm still learning what that all means, but... it's what Miss Himeko told me."

Itana presses her lips together. Holiness is no particular threat to her - not with Castiel around so often - but the thought of vacating occurs to her nevertheless. She's not exactly a sociable person most of the time.

Instead she settles for hanging back and observing, shrugging her bow back into place over her shoulder and crossing her arms across her ribs. She scuffs an arched heel against the chamber floor before beginning to move along the periphery of the chamber, fighting back her instincts to look for treasure. This isn't a world where that sort of thing would be acceptable.

    /I miss dungeons with treasure in them,/ she reflects.

After a moment's thought, she cants her head towards Mau. "I don't know if this helps deal with your Demon Lord problem. If it continues to surface, perhaps we'll fight together again."

    Marceline takes a seat on the stairs by Z-man, legs outstretched while she watches Matsu. "Mmmh. Not sure." She takes the zombie's hand in one of hers and gives it a pat. Course, the dude may or may not see her as a viable target what with her being undead too but whatev. "I imagine it's a bit like being in the sun. Kind of reminds me of scraping my knees as a kid. Just in case, though." She flips out a pair of sunglasses and slips them on.

    "Gotta protect the peepers. On your go, dudes. Hey, don't look directly at the flash. Or whatever's gonna happen."

    "No issues here. Do the thing, priestess." Ghost nodded as he stepped back, just to be safe. Far as he knew he was still human, but the things he did...it might not have agreed with holy magics. You could never be too careful.

    When Mao Mao puts his sword away, Matsu cants her head slightly, curious; but his explanation seems to satisfy her, and she nods her head slightly. "That is probably wise. Thank you." She continues her work, though there is a brief glance up at Mau. A corrupt temple fobbing her off for not being able to pay the fee? "...your temples aren't unlike some of our larger shrines," she remarks, with just the faintest hint of bitterness. But the white-haired priestess continues her work, laying out ofuda, both in the corners of the room, and in particular around the fragment of a great lich's phylactery. Once she is satisfied, Matsu takes a step or two back, and pulls from her pouch a kagura-suzu. Something that almost looks like a wand, with tiers of bells almost like a small christmas tree. She brings it around, a slow circle that ends in front of her face and...

    Jangle.

    A slight jiggle of the wrist, and every bell fills the underground space with pure, clear jangling. A slow, graceful movement, a careful, practiced spin, and... jangle.

    It's a little different, for those who've seen her conduct greater rituals before. She has spoken prayers to Genbu the ebon tortoise, Byakko the pure white tiger, and Seiryu the azure dragon before. But for a curse of undeath, a curse so inimical to the living, there can only be one guardian deity to call on - and that deity dwells within Matsu herself. This time, there is no chanting, no incanted prayer, because Suzaku the vermillion bird has made her flames Matsu's own.

    A soft, shimmering fire envelops Matsu, whirls about her, flows through the space that she's delineated with her ofuda. It is a fire that doesn't burn, only warms. A holy fire, a fire of life. With each jangle of her bells, it pulses; with each turn, it shifts and shimmers. Until, at last, she brings her hands up, and shifts them downward, and all the sacred heat within the chamber flows down and through her, into the ofuda around the phylactery - and from there, a torrent outward, filling the space, resonating with the talismans at each corner of the room, and then rippling outward across the cemetary.

>> GAME >> Matsu Shuzenji spends an Edge for: Purifying a phylactery shard of a Demon Lord's general, and the area around it that has been tainted.

    Oh, Marceline's gonna feel it. The sunglasses help, some degree of resistance to fire helps maybe but the purifying aspect is kind of a lot. 

    Maybe she should've taken the chance to bolt out when she had it. She grits and bears it though, back bending as she very nearly collapses onto the stairs. She's just not built for this kind of thing anymore! Poor Z-man is probably done. Again. At least that bit's reassuring. She lets the corpse go and does her level best to not try and just burrow into the wall but once it's over, she lays there. Lightly smoldering and absolutely, totally not breathing. 

    Also she weakly lifts a hand and silently signals a thumbs-up. Gonna need a recharge. Probably a long one. Probably helps she wasn't the intended target, at least?

     Mao Mao has his arms folded over his chest, nodding in approval at all this very traditional ritual stuff. "Perfect. Just like they do it in the ancient texts. Could maybe do with a few more ancestral spirits, but that's just down to preference." He does at least go over to Marceline and offer her a hand.

    "Oh my GOD you will not believe how bad it gets." Mau grumbles back at Matsu. "Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I'm like one hundred percent certain it's Galatea's fault. She's so... Basic."
    Mau casually blasphemes.
    But then she silences. If Marcy is gonna be fine, far be it from Mau to tell her to get to minimum safe purification distance as she observes Matsu set to her task and--
    That warm fire spreads.
    It certainly spreads enough to floor Marcy, but also once it's done the green glow of the phylactery fades away, dying down to nothing as the purifying fire spreads out to the cemetery as a whole, causing the undead to burn to ash an fade to nothing on the winds...
    "Nice." Mau says, nodding approvingly. "Alright, let's ditch this crypt and head back into town. Drinks are on me at the Cat's Meow."

    Stelle falls silent again... in fact, she's already gone, seeing as her parts done and Mau has other matters to attend to.

    <This is not my story.>

    Breathing a bit heavily, Matsu Shuzenji holds her posture, waiting without words to see the results of her purification.

    It seems to have worked. More pressingly, however, it seems to have floored Marceline. Matsu quietly stares for a good several seconds. "...Please don't stand in the purification radius next time. I'm not sure why you even did it this time." With a long-suffering sigh, the Phoenix Maiden straightens up, briefly glancing at Mao Mao again. "I am the ancestral spirit. A phoenix goddess dwells within me." She doesn't bother to retrieve her ofuda; they've pretty much all burned to ashes and dust by now, their very existence falling apart after conducting and directing the sacred light of Suzaku. "I will need food as well. ...something sweet."

    "Nnh." Marceline rolls onto her side, waving off Mao Mao. "No, dude, too red. Just need a min." Yup, gotta wrangle that temptation to haul up and bite or something and Mao Mao's outfit is farrrrr too red to resist, she feels. So best she crawl her crazy ass back to the inn in her own time.

    "Mmmf. I just didn't want my fella here to go out again alone." She drops her head to the stairs. "Besides." She offers a fingergun. "Still here."

    FGhost remained respectfully silent during Matsu's ceremony. He did however look in surprise as Marceline refused to clear the area. That was when he broke the silence. "Wait, the fuck are you-"

    And then Marceline tanked a whole lot of holy magic. THe zombie likely was dusted now. Ghost walked over and pulled Marceline to her feet. "What the fuck are you playin' at? Gonna get toasted next time." He barked in exasperation, before he slung Marceline's arm over his shoulders.

    He sighed heavily. "I got her." He said in resignation.