The Deep Road's End [Mod]

[Layla Amare]

At long last, after several trips and hours of walking, Layla had finally reached the depths of the massive sinkhole.  Down here, the only lights were the faint gloom of a not quite pitch black sky up above, and whatever else she provided.  Her Persona itself gave off a faint light, and so she kept it summoned to have enough to see by.

She could tell, from the way she could sense shadows from deeper within the depths, that this wasn't the end.  She hadn't yet reached the absolute bottom, just the bottom of the deep road she had been following thus far.  But from here on out, the shadows were even stronger and more dangerous.  By now, however, she knew that she could handle them.

[Erithania]

Don't be a fool with your gold.

Golden Mother

Skills
Niflheim
Panta Rhei
Death Chill
Enduring Soul

Null: Ice, Wind
Weak: Lightning, Fire

[Layla Amare]

As if to welcome Layla to the depths, a feminine form lay sprawled out on an elaborate chair just ahead. Or, at least, Layla had to assume it was elaborate. All she could see was that there were some kind of sails hanging off the back. And also that both the shadow and chair seemed to be made of gold.

...Wait, gold?!

As if that wasn't enough of a warning sign, it seemed to be in no hurry to stand up from its chair. As though it was saying 'you are no threat to me whatsoever'. Instead it just waved a hand as though shooing her away. Most shadows would have attacked by now, but this one just seemed to be taunting her. Layla cautiously took a step closer...then immediately had to get out of the way as the pressure where she stood dropped in an instant. She turned back and watched a tornado form on the spot where she had been standing seconds before.

...Oh. That...that was bad. She could tell, immediately, that the attack was stronger than anything she had faced up until that point. Sure, the shadows of sun and moon had wielded skills on that caliber, and were stronger themselves, but Layla had resisted or outright blocked them. Such wasn't the case here. She didn't have a good way to defend against them, though, so she would just have to avoid what she could and hit it with her strongest attacks in the meantime. Since Vajrabhairava was already summoned, she wasted no time in hitting the shadow with a bolt of lightning. Back to basics, even if they didn't always apply: if it used wind, try retaliating with lightning. And this time, that seemed to be the right choice, as it immediately recoiled from the attack and almost fell over.

Almost.

Within seconds, it had managed to right its chair again, and fired off another attack. This time, the light emitted by her persona, that reflecting off the golden surface of the feminine shadow, and even what little was left of the light from up above, all disappeared into an all-consuming darkness. The darkness then seemed to take physical form, and pummeled Layla from all sides. Were she not resistant to darkness, that would have been a much greater concern, but as it was she managed to shrug it off with no trouble. Plus, it didn't seem like it was even as strong as the wind attack she had managed to avoid.

She fired off a second bolt of lightning, successfully knocking the shadow's chair over this time and charging in as it fell to get in a final blow. She ate another mass of darkness in the process, but it was of little concern to her. As she reached the fallen shadow, she pulled out her custom-made otta and struck at its vital points, finishing it off.

"Whew," Layla said, stepping away from the shadow's remains. That thing had been incredibly strong. But fortunately by moving in a timely fashion, she had managed to avoid the worst of it. Maybe she really wasn't ready for the shadows down this far yet. Or maybe that one had just been more dangerous than most. She couldn't be sure. But for now, it was over...

...yeah, that thought lasted all of a few seconds. Rather than try to avoid, she instinctively dropped another bolt of lightning on the shadow as she felt the pressure drop around her again, causing her to get caught up in the whirlwind that followed. She was thrown aside, dizzy, as the whirlwind subsided, but she struggled to get back to her feet and stay standing. The wind hadn't hurt quite as badly as she had expected, possibly due to her own strength by that point, but she could tell that she couldn't keep taking hits like that. Especially if her balance was going to be utterly destroyed by cyclones like that. If she managed to stay standing, she figured that she could take two more, tops. But even that may have been overstating things.

She closed her eyes to calm herself down, then directed Vajrabhairava to drop another lightning bolt on the shadow. Once again, she managed to drop it to critical condition, but after it had just gotten back up like nothing happened the last time, that meant very little. She braced herself for the retaliation...and it came in the worst possible manner. The very air around her froze, encasing Layla in a column of ice. All sensations of feeling in her body vanished, leaving her completely numb as the column of ice shattered. She dropped to the ground, unable to stand. Her head swam, her vision faded in and out. Vajrabhairava, which she was only able to catch a glimpse of before being forced to lower her head again, seemed to be flickering in and out of its manifestation as well. The strength to stand back up seemed to have vanished, entirely.

So, she would just have to sit.

She had that much strength, at least. She could roll until she reached the edge of the path back up, then brace herself against the wall of the sinkhole. From there, she managed to summon enough energy for one final attack, dropping a third lightning bolt on the shadow. From the light of electricity arcing around its body in the aftermath of the attack, Layla could see its golden body start to crack...then shatter.

Layla breathed a sigh of relief as her Persona faded. That...was way too close. Even one of its dark attacks, if it had managed to get one more off, would have been the end. Even if it hadn't killed her, it would have robbed her of the remaining strength she had needed to finish it off.

[Erithania]

Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on the RNG.



You found an Ice Amp Accessory. Woo.

[Layla Amare]

Whew. This time, it definitely stayed dead. Dead enough that even after Layla healed herself a bit and approached the remains, it hadn't managed to come back. Instead, it just dissolved completely, leaving only the chair it had been lounging on and an amulet of some sort that looked...valuable, yes, but not of much particular use to her. She could probably sell it to someone, at least. And as for the chair...no, there wasn't much chance of taking it back. Even if she wasn't badly beaten up, it was still a quarter mile climb back to the surface. The sail-like decorations on the back and the cushions though...those might be a different story.