World Tree MUSH

    It's time to make a march.
    Kyner and his disgruntled band of knights are hanging back from the city of Paradisio, where the church that they once all supported stands tall, proud, and defiant towards the sky.
    The city seems on edge, and for good reason, with the more 'loyal' knights patroling very heavily. But the party manages to make it to the doors of the grand church unbothered, and Castiel is standing at the door, lips pursed.
    "I do not think this will have a peaceful resolution..."

Itana's a lousy marcher. Formation discipline isn't her forte. Guarding angels is - and right now, a particularly tiny one needs her.

Hood pushed back, the archer reaches across to rest her hand on Castiel's shoulder. "However it is resolved, at least it will be over." Perhaps it's less reassuring than she intends, but at least there's a quiet determination behind it.

Looking up towards the massive church, Itana does her best to bury the sense of unease - one that has nothing to do with the task. The grandiosity of this place sets her on edge in ways she finds hard to verbalize. In its constructed immensity and stony permanence, it is everything her small, nomadic life is not.

For just a moment, she squeezes Castiel's shoulder, then lets go and raises her chin.

    Illumiel stands beside her twin, placing one hand on the other's shoulder. "False chose this path. We are here to put an end to his blasphemy and free these people from this yoke." She spreads her wings, pearl, alabaster and gold, and unsheaths a pair of mundane swords. "I am with you Sister. Fear no darkness."

    Dante knows this sort of thing needs to be handled with tact, and subtlety. With all the walking through the city, Dante grips his sword tight until reaching the door of the grand church. He's more than a little surprised they made it there without being bothered.

    Once he's at the door, Dante decides to hell with it. "In for a penny."

    Suddenly, he kicks the door down with all his might.

    "OPEN SESAME!"

    "Anyone willing to take power by force will defend it with force," Matsu replies to Castiel. Her own voice is soft, but resolved. "Even if the attempt to remove it involves none." The young healer stands further back from the door, crimson eyes hardened. "One of you might want to talk with him, rather than me. I don't think I'll be able to restrain my tongue this ti-"

    And there goes Dante.

    "Well, maybe we'll still have a chance to talk. Maybe." Everything about her tone suggests she doesn't believe a word she's saying. "Regardless, when it inevitably comes to blows, fight as you will. I'll do what I do best."

    "I just... Had hoped it would not come to blows and--"
    Dante kicks the door in so hard that it comes off the hinges. Castiel cringes and makes a face.
    "Well, I suppose you are right." She murmurs to Matsu as the party enters.
    Already the church guards, men in robes with maces are moving to intercept, and they aren't stopping to ask questions as they raise their weapons on approach, fully intent to just clobber the son of Sparda.
    "Maybe. I hope." Castiel mutters. But right now that does not seem to be the case now that the door has been busted open.
    

    Dante doesn't seem to even stop as the guards rush him. He uses his sword to parry and destroy the maces, smacking guards with the flat end of his sword or the pommel of the hilt while they rush him. At least one unfortunate guard gets punched across the room by Dante, another gets push-kicked right off his feet.

    They're like gnats to him. Very ornate ones.

Aaaaand there goes the smartest man in the world. Itana stares after Dante with her mouth ever so slightly open.

She looks down at Castiel with a sigh, then up again towards the temple interior. And indeed, those with power are there to defend it.

"I suppose it was bound to happen," she mutters, inwardly grateful that this time it isn't *her* being the impulsive one. Snapping her bow into her hand, she moves to place herself between Castiel and the emerging combat. Her hand darts to her waist.

There's a double twang as Itana lets one shot go, then another in rapid succession. An arrow zips past Dante on the right, another on the left, as she tries to put a shot each into a couple of guards.

    Well, if nothing else, Dante makes a very effective show of force.

    Matsu follows behind, keeping pace with Itana, but for the time being she has very little to do. If anyone gets past Dante and survives Itana's arrows, they might receive a facefull of conjured flames, but for the most part, the Phoenix Maiden isn't an attacker when the enemy is ordinary humans. But if anyone gets hurt, they won't stay that way for long.

    Dante kicks the door off the hinges... Illumiel has a look on her face. 'The Lion, The Witch, and the Audacity of this Bitch'. She's glaring at Dante's back, then her eyes flick to the guards.

    There's a sound, like someone snapping a canvas tight. Illumiel's wings flap once, and she's surging into the open doorway, a snap of the air returning to its normal position in her wake. She shoots straight past Dante and body-checks one of the guards off his feet, into another one behind. "FALSE! YOUR RECKONING IS NIGH! COME AND FACE JUDGEMENT IN HIS COURT!" she bellows, slamming the guard into the floor, and wrenching his mace out of his hands.

    "A-ah..."
    That plaintive sound is Castiel as the violence commences. Now, as a pacifist, she had been hoping for a more... Discreet entrance and way to deal with the issue but it looks like the path of ass kicking has been chosen. The church guards are woefully ill equipped to handle an angry cambion, avenger angel, and a desert nomad storming their way in. The small congregation at this time of day can only look on aghast as their worship is interrupted very violently and people go scattering while a meek Castiel follows after Matsu.
    With the guards being unable to put up a good defense, there is... A glimpse of False up at the altar, scowling, but he quickly retreats down a back passage.
    "Oh. That way." Castiel points out.

Itana is trying to be more subtle these days, mainly out of respect and love for her angel. That vanished thanks to Dante. Now, it's clobberin' time.

As the group starts forward, Itana dips to the rear, taking up a spot behind Castiel and throwing a look behind - ensuring that if they're followed, the angel is not the first one in the line of the ambush. But so far, the danger's mostly ahead. The congregation gasps, False flees out back, and Itana sweeps her arm out to shield Castiel from any attacks coming from the pews.

"Stay back," she snaps at the worshippers as the group hustles along. "Stay back, stay back!"

The last thing she wants is for innocent people to be underfoot and potentially hurt while they're chasing a wicked bishop.

    "You folks are gonna want to leave early today." Dante asides to the congregation before he notices False up at the altar. That secret passage isn't gonna be secret for much longer. Dante turns one last time to the churchgoers before he barks, "Go on, GET!" and then heads for the passageway.

    He heads into it, perusing the Bishop with singlemindedness of a hockey masked slasher.

    Illumiel starts walking, brandishing the guards mace, resting it across her shoulder as she spots where False went. "You may run, False, but you cannot hide from His Wrath Made Manifest!" she calls after him, as she continues the Terminator-style walk, glaring at the worshippers if they even twitch to get in her way.

    Wings furl, but remain manifested, the feathers reflecting light and casting white, pearl and golden glints across the interior.

    False runs - and Matsu Shuzenji looks entirely unsurprised. "...and of course, when their power is really threatened, they run rather than face danger." Her brow does furrow a little, but she keeps up her pace. After Dante speaks to the congregation, the white-haired girl adds for the crowd, "That man just ran away and left you all in danger to save himself. He made offers of peace to the local god, then sent a conquering army. I'd suggest you don't listen to a single word from a selfish, self-serving slime like that. You don't matter to him."

    Her pace doesn't stop, however. If anything, she speeds up - which is a lot more difficult for her than some of the others here. She might have infinitely regenerating stamina, but that's not the same as /infinite/ stamina!

    People sure get out of the way fast.
    Though they look aghast at what Matsu has to say as they flee, the congregation makes sure NOT to get in the way as the party advances and make their way down the path False took. It leads to a labyrinthine series of corridors and halls in the back of the church, but the man is just bad at fleeing because there are obvious signs of his passing everywhere the group follows until they reach a larger chamber...
    Full of waiting church knights in heavy armor.
    "Who do you think you are telling my flock such things?" He snaps at Matsu, blatantly feigning innocence, "Get them!" False snaps at his men, who advance with a singleminded zeal of faith and fervor.
    A small hand sets on Itana's shoulder.
    "No evil will happen to you." Castiel says gently as the warmth of one of her barrier wards flows over the nomad.
    The knights may be heavily armed and armored but.
    Dante and Illumiel are Dante and Illumiel.

A little hand falls to Itana's shoulder. A familiar warmth floods through her. For just a moment, she closes her eyes and draws a slow breath, smiling a gentle smile. "Castiel," she murmurs. "It will all be alright."

Armed knights bear down on them, driven by False's command and call. For all that Itana brought up the rear, she's in more than position enough to do what she can. As Dante and Illumiel square up, the archer readies her bow and takes aim.

"Sar," she murmurs. There is a shimmer of something green along the tip of the arrow - and she lets it go.

The show arcs high through the vast chamber. It swoops upwards on a steep curve, sailing above the heads of the assembled knights. It nearly hits the rafters, and then gravity takes it, and it plunges -

Towards False, carrying an acrid, blood-burning poison lacing the tip.

    "Who do I think I am?"

    Matsu's eyes narrow.

    "I'm someone who's dealt with exactly your kind of bullshit my entire life."

    Her white hair flutters a little, phoenix fire rippling briefly over her tiny figure. "My parents were killed by those in power purely as bait to draw someone else out. I've spent every minute of my life seeing what power-hungry assholes like you do to the people you see as nothing more than resources. I'm everyone you've trampled on your way to get here. And I swear to the goddess that decided I'd make a good home, you had better hope the others give you a swift and easy death, because if it's my choice, I'll burn you alive."

    For now, she hangs back. The flames of Suzaku ripple across her hands; if anyone takes injury, she's ready to unleash quick healing.

    "Who am I?" snarls Illumiel, stepping forward toward the Knights without any hesitation. "WHO AM I!? I AM HIS WRATH MADE MANIFEST! I AM VENGEANCE SERVED ON THE BLASPHEMER! I AM YOUR UNDOING." She leaps at the closest knight, bringing the mace down with her inhuman strength into his chest, caving in the armour plate and sending the guy inside skidding back across the floor. "COME YE FECKLESS, YE FAITHLESS COWARDS! Do you lay your lives down for this false prophet? Come False, fight your own battles if you are so secure in your faith!" she challenges.

    It's a good thing the bishop left behind scraps to follow, because Dante's not in a mood for puzzles. Once they corner the bishop and meet his bodyguards, Dante takes in a deep breath through his nostrils. "You guys should've called in sick." He says coldly before he rushes the church knights. Rebellion surges forth to smash into the knights, indifferent as to whether or not their armor will protect them from Dante's meteoric impact. He snap-kicks at one knight before he swings wide to send the crowd of knights sprawling.

    Castiel will just have to believe Itana when she says it will be alright. But in the face of all those nights, the more peace-loving of the angel pair shrinks to the back row of the party where she can be the most helpful.
    Dante strikes men down with contemptuous ease. Illumiel craters a knight into the floor with her mace, and Itana looses an arrow...
    "You think yourself righteous, then? Show me just how righteous you are then and see if you can cast me dow- urk!" His monologue is cut short at Itana's poisoned arrow embeds into his shoulder.
    With a snarl he pulls it free, but the poison is already likely to take effect as he staggers out the next door.
    By now the knights are reluctant to keep fighting, and are doubting their great leader...
    Before the wall explodes open and False hovers above the ground, robes flowing, golden wings emerging from his back, a halo glowing upon his head as he holds out a hand.
    "I will strike you all down!" he declares as a white hot ray of light cuts through the remaining knights to lash out at his attackers.

>> SUMMARY[Matsu Shuzenji] >> Beginning a ritual.

I mean, in fairness Itana is convinced it'll be alright because she'll probably murder anything that so much as scowls at Castiel.

The poison will linger awhile. As for Itana, she's reaching for another arrow. "We don't," she shouts over the din of battle - and then the wall bursts open.

Even as Bishop False goes airborne, Itana sucks in a breath and brings her arm up to shield Castiel, counting on her back to soak up most of the punishment from flung bricks and blazing light. The blast rips by her - and across her. She coils inward with a pained hiss, doing her best to keep herself between the angel and the source of pain without collapsing. When it passes, she drops to one knee with a gasp. Much of her cloak has been burned off, the edge left in cinders; she tugs it off and discards it. Beneath, the light leather armour across her mid-back has partially melted into badly burned skin between her neck and left shoulder.

"It will be alright," Itana manages to assure Castiel, but her voice is pinched with pain and the tiny smile she offers is underlaid with suppressed agony. Turning as quickly as she can, she brings her right arm up --

--and nearly drops her arrow with a curse as fiery pain lances through her back and shoulder. Itana coils into herself for a moment more, breathing heavily.

When she looks up, it's to draw a breath, face strained with the effort of suppressing just how much it hurts. Clenching her teeth, she forces her arm up. She draws the arrow with a strangled gasp and lets it go. There's no magic to it - merely a shot fired across the open room, trying to hit False as centre-of-mass as she can.

    Illumiel looks.

    Illumiel sees.

    Illumiel is FUCKING LIVID.

    The light-ray comes in, and her wings unfurl, wrapping around herself in a defensive shield... She positions herself in the way so that she can shelter Matsu in the shadow of her defensive posture.

    Feathers blacken, their luster ebbing, but not breaing before the ray cuts out. Spreading those burnt wings, Illumiel loos over her shoulder at Matsu... "My wrath is tempered. I shall be your shield."

    Laughter fills the halls as Dante uses his sword to support himself. It was so obvious, right in front of them even! "Oh, of COURSE you're a demon..." He says mockingly, before he draws Ebony and Ivory while he unleashes a hailstorm of fire on the bishop. "And you got wings and everything! Perfect for the fallen angel routine." He cuts in over the roar of gunfire, deafening in these close-quarters.

    He dives to evade the ray of light, all the while providing Matsu covering fire. Quite literally in this case.

    A ray of supposedly holy light lashes out straight through False's own people and across the gathered group of attackers.

    Matsu is hasty in her raising of a barrier, but even just protecting herself, it's not enough time. She knows it's not enough time. There's a panicked flutter in her stomach-

    And then Illumiel is there. Taking the hit. Protecting her. Crimson eyes widen in sheer shock. "I-Illumiel...!"

    And then, that vermillion gaze hardens.

    Healing flames wash over the avenging angel. Gentle, divine fire, rejuvinating and repairing. The fire of a phoenix goddess. "...thank you." And in the next instant, Matsu's hand lowers to her side, drawing forth her Kagura-Suzu wand with a soft jangling. "I don't know what profane being you called on for this mockery of holy power," Matsu declares, locking eyes with Bishop False, "But if it's the kind to actually lend you power for a deceitful venture like this, then there's nothing sacred about it. I think I'm going to pass down judgment right here."

    There's a quick, sweeping glance at the others. "Cover me. No matter what."

    And then there's a single, piercing sound, a ringing that fills the air as the tiny shrine maiden shakes the Kagura-Suzu.

    Jangle.

    It is from the back row that Castiel does her duty. It is from the back row that Castiel shines.
    While Illumiel moves to protect Matsu, Castiel baseball slides over to Itana. In an instant her hands are on the nomad, a warmth spreading from her fingers, soothing pain and healing the archer's burns, an apologetic look on the angel's face that Itana had to protect her at all.
    Dante unloads and a shimmering reflective light seems to overtake the false bishop... False. Bullets spang and ricochet off the supposedly holy shield as he holds his hands out, gouts of brilliant fire slashing at the son of Sparda as-- his bullets weaken the shield enough for Itana's arrow to hit home.
    "Ugh!" The false angel grunts in pain.
    "Who are YOU to judge me?" He bellows as he pulls a lance off the nearby wall. In his hands it glows to a white hot brightness before he hurls it at Matsu!
    It is, likely, as Illumiei is moving to interpose herself between that lance and Matsu... Someone else is faster.
    Castiel lunges into the path to protect both her sister and the phoenix priestess--...
    It does not go well for her.
    There's a sot gasp as the lance impacts...
    And Castiel crumples to the floor, impaled.

    Illumiel's world slows to a crawl.

    She sees everything happen in that nightmarish slow-motion, able to see everything but unable to do anything about it.

    Castiel falls, Illumiel turns to look at Matsu. "Keep going." she snaps, then throws her mundane weapons away.

    "FALSE!"

    There's an echo of Authority in the air, an oppressive wave of Divine Wrath descends on the whole city. Dante might even feel his demonic heritage recoil from what Illumiel is about to do.

    Her wings regain their luster, her dress becomes divine armour, platemail, with a golden circlet.

    Two blades manifest in her hands, becoming wreathed in Blessed Flame from simply touching them. "Who am I to judge you?" she asks, coldly... the fiery wrath tempered into a cold-steel dagger of a voice.

    "Who am I? I am Illumiel, the Light of Breaking Dawn. First Light of the New Day... and you have harmed your last innocent soul."

    She lifts off the ground to level with the 'fallen angel', and then, with that canvas snapping sound... she's upon him. Her blades slashing faster than the mortal eye can see.

>> GAME >> Illumiel spends an Edge for: Dawn and Dusk. First Light of the New Day.

When there is a hurt Itana, there is an angel.

As Castiel comes skidding in and lays hands upon her, the archer dips her head and blushes a moment before offering up a smile that's significantly less pained but all the more apologetic - a silent 'sorry for getting hurt.'

If nothing else, the arrow hit home. Itana takes stock of the situation even as her burns knit. With so much of a crowd around False, getting a shot through is not going to be an easy task. For just a moment, she drops her bow and reaches for her knife.

Just in time for someone to move. Itana widens her eyes, and holds out her empty hand.

All she hears is a gasp, and then a thud.

It is, in that moment, as if nothing else in the World Tree exists. Itana cannot digest the presence of knights or fallen angels or demons or priests or the residual pain racing up her spine. She is left staring for what seems like a thousand years, into a moment all too present, laid over the phantoms of years prior.

    fire from the sky
        she sees it from a distance
            they lie unrecognizable
    and one is left behind

A tiny angel mingles with the ghosts of Damcyan, in that moment, in the most profound and anguished part of the silence that Itana has vocalized only to the one now laid among the bodies. In the space between one heartbeat and the next, an eternity of paralytic turbulence roils through her. She cannot find the words to express it. She could not spell them even if she were not illiterate. Her grasping hand falls to the floor in front of her.

She does not remember the path she took that brings her to Castiel's side. Days from now, she will not truly remember the distant sound of her own cry as she kneels over her.

Itana will not remember the way she looks up from where Castiel is sprawled. She will not remember the tears dashing from her eyes, nor the indignation and fury behind them. She will not remember her knuckles going white, her muscles tensing and springing and launching her across the room in an almost animal-like sprint.

She will not remember how, with a throat-rending howl more animal than human, she launches herself at False and attempts to slam into him, nor how she attempts to clamber atop him and stab him no less than fifty-three times.

Itana will remember a ghost among the bodies, consumed by the flames of regret and failure. She will remember only the way it hurt her more than anything in the world.

>> GAME >> Itana el-Zayl spends an Edge for: Itana kneels over Castiel, then shrieks like a rabid animal and attempts to knife-murder False like a psycho killer.

    Castiel goes down as the lance pierces her. And Dante shouts her name. The presence of Illumiel's angelic form is agony, a burning surges up his body setting every nerve aflame. But it's nothing compared to seeing a friend fall like that.

    Dante's body turns red, his skin hardening to chitin, his coat turning to buzzing wings, his hands becoming clawed, his facial features being turned to mandibles and compound eyes.

    With Devil Trigger, Dante radiates demonic energies that burn with hatred.

    "YOU'RE DONE." Dante roars, and he grips his sword once more as he charges False, moving to impale him with Rebellion and skewer him good, before summoning Agni and Rudra for good measure, delivering a flurry of sword strikes to compliment Illumiel's own, fire and wind trailing behind every strike.

>> GAME >> Dante spends an Edge for: Dante goes DeviL Trigger upon seeing Castiel get impaled, goes ballistic on evil pope.

    Jangle.

    The shrine maiden steps, turns. She taps the Kagura-Suzu against her hand, filling the air with a ringing of sound, a ripple of power. Subtle, and yet it cannot be ignored.

    Jangle.

    The flames rise and ripple, the air shimmers with divine heat. The tiny Phoenix Maiden steps and turns, following a cadence, a choreography known only to her. No words this time, no prayers to the other guardian gods, for Matsu Shuzenji calls on only the goddess within herself this time. But something in the words of Bishop False draws her attention. Something in the way he speaks gives her pause, just for a heartbeat-

    And blood-red eyes go wide with shock as Castiel falls before a superheated lance. "...!"

    There's a frozen moment. Pure shock. She watches, still and silent, as the gentlest among them takes a spear meant for her.

    Her snowy-white hair begins to flutter. The air begins to shift.

    The temperature in the chamber begins to rise.

    "Who am I?! I'll fucking tell you who I am. I'm a commoner. I'm a GODDESS."

    Jangle.

    The flames around Shuzenji-no-Matsu begin to whirl and billow. They swirl around the bells in her right hand, they flood into the talisman now held in her left. "I am one of those you've trampled in your bid for power, and I'm one of those you've invoked to justify it. I'm low enough below you to see every sin you've committed, AND HIGH ENOUGH ABOVE YOU TO TAKE YOU TO TASK FOR IT! And you know what?!"

    Jangle.

    For a split second, everything is still. Everything is silent. There is only the ringing of the bells... and then a flood of flames down into the talisman in Matsu's hand.

    "I'm revoking your right to any of it."

    She doesn't have to hurt him. She doesn't have to assault him. Those present are far better than her for that purpose. All Matsu Shuzenji has to do is to throw her talisman. To lay down her judgment. To seal away that which Bishop False has falsely profited by. A talisman to seal his 'divine' gifts, to cast down that which she rejects entirely. The others can absolutely do the rest.

>> GAME >> Matsu Shuzenji spends an Edge for: Sealing Bishop False's divine power just long enough for it to matter.

    The Kagura-Suzu jingles...
    Castiel lays on the ground, a pool of blood slowly forming beneath her.
    Itana screams.
    The Kagura-Suzu jangles.
    Dante roars.
    The Kagura-Suzu rings...
    Illumiel roils with righteous fry.
    And the Kagura-Suzu chimes.
    And in that moment, as Dante, Illumiel, and Itana give up all sense of fighting in cohesion for the sake of enacting the most ultimate violence upon this man, that his power suddenly wanes.
    In this moment, Bishop False sees his death coming for him, his reckoning awaiting him.
    "You can't- you won't-- mercy?!" He pleads in a final gamble where it is simply too late.
    But his power, fake as it is, leaves him utterly.
    The divine radiance of holy swords crash into him, his flickering shields sputtering under the assault as Rebellion pins him to a wall.
    And Itana starts stabbing him.
    And Itana does not STOP stabbing him.
    The man is well and fully dead long before anyone stops stabbing him, really.
    Which just leaves Castiel laying there, bleeding... But slowly breathing.

    For exactly five seconds, Matsu Shuzenji stands, silent and stern, in the posture at the end of her divine sealing throw.

    And then the exertion catches up to her, and she collapses, first to her knees, and then to the ground entirely.

    Only the sound of extreme violence fills the chamber, so anyone could be forgiven for noticing the tiny twitch of fingers. The faint shift of an arm. Tiny little movements from a tiny little girl.

    But move Matsu does. Even though she's spent all her strength, she's still trying to give more. To inch herself forward across the ground, a tiny little drag at a time... in Castiel's direction.

Itana el-Zayl is beyond mercy and beyond thought. She stops stabbing the body because her muscles give out and the knife falls out of her hand. She punches the pile of meat under her a few more times before falling to one side. The mess all over her arms and front can only charitably be described as blood and more accurately as voluminously errant gore.

She rolls herself over with effort and begins to claw her way across the battle zone with whatever effort she has left in her muscles. A barely-coherent but instinctive corner of her mind is still centred enough to put math together:

      i has potion
    + MY ANGEL NOOOOOOOOO
    -----------
    = place potion in MY ANGEL, save

When someone does get to Itana, she'll be in the process of scraping towards Castiel, one hand clutching a bottle of something green. It has the word 'KUR' written on it in her handwriting. It looks like a child wrote it.

    Illumiel's wrath is cold. Hard, and unrelenting... but then, she remembers Castiel on the floor... dying. Dawn and Dusk vanish from her hands, she flutters her wings, and lands beside Itana, dipping to grab the nomad bodily, and carries her over to Castiel.

    She takes the bottle, and, having seen Itana applying the potions to herself before, does the same to Castiel with all the grace of a sister barely suppressing the panick of seeing her sibling dying in front of her.

    "Castiiel... sister... you cannot die here, it is my light that show be vanishing from this world if either is to." she says, cradling her twin. "I have no powers of healing, my power only destroys, not saves, not protects..."

    Dante's DT dissipates as suddenly as it had manifested, and he stows his swords, all three of them. And he lets out a heavy sigh as he watches Itana tend to Castiel. Or try to. Dante takes ITana by the hand and gently helps her up. "C'mon. Not gonna be much help with all this space between you and Casti."

    False is dead, and it's in that moment that the doors to the chamber bust open.
    Kyner and his men storm in to... A sight that can only be described as 'the end of chaos'. False is a red smear against a wall, there's a dying angel that no less than three people are scrambling to as best they can, and Dante is helping the third person.
    The potion will likely work to stabilize the unconscious angel, but it's probably going to take some of Matsu's healing to get Castiel up again today.
    "What the hell happened here?" Kyner blurts as his men secure the church.

Itana is dragged towards Castiel like a sack of barley. She responds only with a cough, at least until she's placed in front of the source of her anguish.

To say that seeing Castiel slams into Itana's consciousness like an oncoming train would be an understatement. The rage crashes to a stop and her heart skips a beat, and then she starts to work without even thinking about it. As Illumiel takes one potion in hand, Itana pulls out another, unlabeled one and begins applying it to the wounds she can see. Her hands shake a little, she pauses to wipe them off on a fallen cloth now and then. Getting blood all over her angel would be unconscionable. She has to save her. They all do.

"Shh," she answers Kyner instinctively as she continues trying to stabilize the tiny angel sprawled out on the floor beneath she and Illumiel.

    "...we got him." Dante answers Kyner before he slumps against the wall. He's done all he can. Best to let the actual healer do her thing. Matsu would probably cook him alive if he interrupted her work, anyways.

    "The False prophet is dead, his stolen 'divinity' is gone... and my sister may be dying." says Illumiel, not looking up at Kyner. Instead, she's still gently cradling her twin. When Dante and Itana arrive, she looks at them with deseperation.

    Inch. Inch. Bereft of assistance, abandoned by even her own body, Matsu drags herself forward slowly across the ground. She can only just see the slumped form of Castiel in front of her, the figures of Itana and Illumiel around her, and yet even now she pulls herself on sheer willpower.

    "Bring... her here... or... bring me... there..."

    It's a toss-up whether that will even be loud enough for anyone to hear. But Matsu keeps moving. Inch by inch. Until she's within reach. And then, she doesn't even make distinction. She's exhausted enough that she can't afford to. She just... pushes out healing flames. A wide, undirected fan of restorative fire, pushed out by a Phoenix Maiden well past her limits. But no matter what it costs her, she's not letting Castiel die tonight.

    Kyner and his men can only watch on in rapt fixation at how haggard the group looks after the fight with False, doing their best to stabilize the injured angel.
    The potion slows the bleeding, while Kyner hoists Matsu to bring her to Castiel's side, her healing flames sealing the deadly wound off.
    Before a small hand sets on the Phoenix Maiden at first.
    "You're exhausted... Don't push yourself on my account." Castiel's voice is horse and soft as her hands find their way to Illumiel and Itana's cheeks next.
    "I'm not leaving just yet. I promised you both I'd protect you, remember?"

There is a halo of fire. It bathes Itana, washes away some of the remains of Bishop False still clinging to her upper half, knits the worst of her wounds. "Matsu," she murmurs, managing to look back for a second. The emotions are a whirlwind, overwhelming fear and concern for Castiel broken just enough that the weakness and vulnerability of the wounded phoenix registers.

She wants to save them both. Wishes she had the power. Wishes she could protect them all.

And then a small hand touches her. Itana's eyes widen.

She lays her hand over the back of Castiel's. In the moment that the panic breaks and lets a genuine smile radiate through, those looking at the right moment will see the tears of relief that escape and rush down Itana's cheeks.

    There's a soft, grumbled reply from Matsu.

    "...I'll get better. You won't."

    The flames don't stop until Castiel is significantly more stable. Only then does the healer allow herself to pass out.

    Illumiel leans into the touch of Castiel's hand, and she also reaches out to gently place a hand on Matsu's shoulder. "The danger passes... save your strength." she says softly... she looks up at Kyner. "You have work to do." she says in that deliberate vagueness.

    Dante breathes a heavy sigh of relief as Castiel is healed. "You're getting more miracles right now than some people could even imagine in their whole life." He says, fuzzling Matsu as she passes out, letting her rest in his arms for now.

    "Think with that we'd better get outta here."