One Night in Mayohiga [Mission]

[Layla Amare]

As the buildings, both ruined and miraculously intact, began to grow sparser and smaller, Layla knew she had reached the outskirts of the city.  This marked the farthest she had traveled thus far into what was occasionally being called the 'shadowlands'.  Or, as she had thought of it up until that point, the outer circle of the city.  This far out, the term 'city' only loosely applied, as much of it was apparently smaller villages that were absorbed into Mosaic City as it grew.  And her destination was one such village, where apparently portals of some sort had been forming.  Did they lead into another world, or to another part of this one?  Layla didn't know.  Even though she had always been more likely to believe in supernatural happenings than her peers, even she would hardly have believed such a thing was possible.  But after being attacked by formless and monstrous creatures and fighting them off with a power drawn from within that manifested as a Buddhist guardian king, she was willing to give at least some credibility to just about anything.  So if there were supposedly portals forming in the outskirts, she would at least investigate before dismissing it.

Besides, there was adventure to be had.  Dangerous, exhilarating adventure, coupled with the excitement of discovering something that, potentially, no one else had.

She stopped for a moment, taking in her surroundings.  "Now that I think about it, I don't actually know what I'm looking for,"  she said, thinking out loud.  'Portals', as the strange blonde woman who wrote the job request put it after translating something more incomprehensible into layman's terms, seemed self-explanatory.  But she couldn't actually know if they were portals of the video game variety or something more subtle.  She would probably know what she was looking for when she saw it, but...  "I wonder if I'm far enough out," she said, doing another visual scan of the immediate area.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

You continue walking towards the village that was supposedly being torn by reality. When you finally notice it, you begin to move towards it. Despite walking towards it, the image of the village never gets any bigger. Odd. And yet as you continue walking, things other than the village begin to blur. Before you know it, you're standing at the edge of the village!

The village itself has an indescribably odd feel to it. Odder than the other shadow infested areas, I should say. Just what made it like that? Though, you think you can safely say that you may have experienced the "issue at hand" within the village. You have a few options to consider now.

A. Explore the village a bit.

B. Try to leave the village.

C. Examine the village further.

[Layla Amare]

Not long after Layla asked that question, she caught sight of what had to be the village she was looking for. She knew that was the case because she continued to walk toward it, but it wasn't getting any closer. The entire outer circle was full of abnormalities, what with being covered in purple fog, full of nightmare monsters, and looking more or less normal from within the lockdown, but even for that this seemed especially out of the ordinary. Like...some kind of spatial distortion, if such a thing existed. Layla's first instinct was to run toward it, and investigate more, but the problem of not actually getting closer to it was a constant barrier to that.

Until, that was, she found herself standing right at the edge.

Layla looked behind her, trying to make out any kind of landmarks she had just walked past, but she couldn't see any nearby. It was as though she had just teleported...or else had in fact walked the entire distance to the village without actually noticing it.

...Portals. Right. Those kind of portals.

Now that she was here, though, the village as a whole felt very odd. Much like her experience walking out here, it was something wholly different from the usual abnormality of the outer circle. But, other than what she had just experienced, she couldn't quite place what it was. It just felt...weird. This...merited some investigating. There didn't look to be any shadows in the immediate vicinity, so Layla didn't see any problem with exploring a bit. She started to walk deeper into the village.

((Option A: explore))

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

You decide to explore the village a bit to get a feel for the area. After a few steps of walking though, you find yourself well into the heart of the village. Upon trying to get back out, you find yourself not getting any closer to the edge. Deciding to try another way, you are met with the same result. It would seem that you are stuck in here for the time being.

You decide to explore the area a bit given that you really don't have any other options. The village itself seemed rather normal. At least, more normal than most of the villages found out here. None of these seemed to be deteriorating at the rate of the others. Aside from that detail, you notice a group of shadows closing in on your location.

Temporal Hand

• Agi

Absorb: Repel: Null: Rs: Wk: Elec
Time Magus

• Zio

Absorb: Repel: Null: Rs: Wk: Fire
Greater Oculus

• Garu
• Tetrakarn

Absorb: Repel: Null: Rs: Wk: Pierce

[Layla Amare]

Only a moment of exploring landed Layla in the center of the village, and any attempts to leave failed. If she kept walking for long enough, maybe she would just suddenly find herself there like last time, but...well, that wasn't guaranteed, and as long as she wasn't moving forward she was making herself a target. Never was this more obvious than when a group of shadows spotted her looking around the village and closed in on her.

One of them looked fairly familiar, with wizard-like robes and cape with massive hands on its sides, but the other two were entirely new to her. A hand walking on its fingers, and a floating eye. Two of them seemed to have some sort of time motif, with the hand wearing a watch just below its masked 'head', and the wizard...well, Layla couldn't quite place it, but she still got a rather timey-wimey impression from it. So long as they didn't actually start warping time though, it didn't matter. She just had to find what weaknesses she could hit, and deal with them. She called forth Yamantaka to hit all three of them with a light attack, dealing what seemed to be normal damage. None of them were weak enough to be taken out in a single hit either.

Meanwhile, the hand and the wizard hit Layla with elemental attacks, one of lightning and one of fire. Layla braced herself and took both hits. They hurt, a lot, but it was fine. She knew from experience that she could take several more. Meanwhile, the eye-like shadow surrounded itself in a shimmering barrier.

Best to leave that one alone for the moment.

Instead, Layla focused on the two who attacked her. The wizard had just hit her with lightning, so doing the same was probably not a good bet. The other one, though... Layla summoned Yamantaka again, calling down a bolt of lightning that was...surprisingly effective. The hand writhed for a second, flailing its fingers around, before dissolving into shadowy particles. Meanwhile, the wizard hit her with its own lightning spell again, and the eyeball erected another shimmering barrier, this time around the wizard.

Well, crap.

Well, what was the worst that could happen? Other than her attacks being bounced straight back at her, that was? If that was the case, she was just going to have to take it. Standing around hesitating wasn't getting her anywhere. She summoned Yamantaka once again, hitting the pair of them with Mahama, and...it effected them the same as it had before. Normal damage. That was underwhelming. The shimmering barrier still surrounded both of them, though, so she hadn't broken through it.

The wizard dropped another lightning bolt on her, and this time the eyeball joined in with a wind skill. But as long as Mahama was still working, Layla had no reason to stop. Summoning her persona one more time, she called forth another flare of light that finished both of them off at once.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

Following your victory over the shadows, your vision seems to blur quite a bit. However upon examining the situation a bit better, you realize that your vision isn't blurring. It is simply the village.

You feel as if you're moving around the village despite remaining stationary in that time. This feeling lasts for a few moments before you're dropped off in another spot in the village, right in front of a rather large shadow.

Temporal Jotun

• Megido
• Hama
• Dia

Absorb: Repel: Null: Wind Rs: Wk: Pierce, Elec

You sense that this thing is the cause of the strange things happening in the village. You should probably take care of this thing before doing anything else. (Not like you have a choice anyway.)

[Layla Amare]

As the remains of the shadows finished dissolving into nothingness, Layla found her vision blurring. Immediately, she felt unsteady on her feet. The world seemed to spin around her, fading in and out of clarity. That...wasn't right. There was no way she was already so tired after fighting those shadows. Something similar had happened after fighting that monstrosity on the full moon, but that had been different. That was a case where adrenaline had kept her going despite being hit by a couple of very powerful attacks and using a number of skills in succession, then wore off when the danger had passed. But just now she had been in little more danger than usual. She raised her hand in front of her, ready to brace herself against the first solid, vertical object that came into focus...only to suddenly realize that she could see her hand clearly.

Wait...

She was clear, everything else was blurry. Her vision was fine, the village...wasn't. And the unsteadiness must have just been dizziness from...whatever just happened. With that in mind, Layla managed to get a better sense for what was happening by taking in what she saw in the brief seconds when everything was slightly more in focus. She caught brief glimpses of buildings, dead plants, scattered objects...but they weren't the same each time. Then, the next thing she knew, everything cleared up again, leaving her in a different part of the village with a large creature in front of her. It was easily at least twice her size, possibly even three or four times, and looked like a four-armed giant seated atop a rocking horse. A white, upside-down mask covered where a person's face would be. From the way she had just appeared in front of it...it had to be the cause of whatever was going on here. A shadow that was creating 'portals' pulling an intruder across the village to confront it seemed more likely than the alternative, at least.

"Huh, couldn't be bothered to come find me yourself?" Layla asked, to no response. Well that was disappointing. A good fight deserved a good exchange of banter beforehand. Then again, the only shadow she'd encountered that had talked at all was the ripper thing from the full moon. And that, it seemed, was an exception and not anything resembling normal.

But first, she was still feeling beaten around a bit by the last fight. Calling forth Yamantaka, she directed her Persona to heal her. It raised a skull-fashioned goblet and poured out its contents, which washed over Layla to heal her. Feeling refreshed, she braced herself for the giant's attack. It swung forward on its rocker, creating a bounded field of light around Layla. Much like the last time she was hit with a light-based attack, however, it didn't hurt all that much. This, despite the shadow in front of her clearly being stronger than what she had fought just before. That confirmed beyond any shred of doubt she had left that she had a natural resistance to light-based attacks, then.

Of course, it also meant that attacking it with light herself wasn't in her best interest. Which left the options of hitting it directly or striking it with lightning. Deciding that the latter sounded more appealing, Layla called forth Yamantaka again and brought down a lightning bolt on the giant...with favorable results. It rolled back so far on its rocker that it nearly lost balance and fell over, then lurched forward again in an overcompensating attempt to stabilize itself. Layla used the giant's moment off-balance to step back, putting some distance between herself and the giant before it could attack again. When it did, it didn't attack with light again, but by generating a few small balls of energy above its head, then pulling them down toward the ground. Layla had a second to recognize the energy balls as being oddly similar to (if drastically weaker than) the mass of energy that would have wiped out the group fighting the giant ripper shadow if it hadn't killed itself with it, before the energy came crashing to the ground and exploded in a wave that knocked her clear off her feet.

She was standing again seconds later, still able and ready to fight, but the message was clear: that attack, whatever it was, was bad news. She couldn't take more than a few hits of it, if even that much. Fortunately, she knew the giant's weakness and was more than capable of using it. She called down a second lightning strike, knocking the shadow off-balance again and taking the second that gave her to catch her breath. Once again, however, the shadow attacked with a mass of energy that did more damage than it rightfully should have. Just what was that attack?

Getting to her feet with more difficulty this time, Layla summoned Yamantaka again for a third lightning strike, this one putting it so far off-balance that it really did fall down. Using its four arms, however, it was able to get up again, but could no longer sit up straight and instead slumped forward. Only for a second, however, before a veil of healing energy surrounded it and it was able to sit back up again.

"You're...kidding," Layla said through heavy breaths. It was still unsteady, so it hadn't managed to fully heal itself. In fact, it probably hadn't managed to heal off more than what Layla had done with her last attack. But if it kept healing, this would quickly turn into a battle of attrition that Layla doubted she could win. She was very quickly becoming exhausted, and if the fight continued much longer she wouldn't be able to keep it up. At least, not without putting herself at a severe disadvantage. The best she could hope for was that the shadow was equally unwilling to draw the battle out. Putting her hopes in her opponent having some degree of intelligence, but not too much, Layla summoned Yamantaka for a fourth lightning strike. And, sure enough, it took longer to get up and was now leaning dangerously far forward even when standing still. She was doing more damage than it could heal, at least. The giant seemed to realize this too, as instead of trying to heal again it started to wind up for another really strong attack.

Layla braced herself, but no amount of preparation could keep her from being slammed to the ground by the wave of energy that followed. This time, her vision really did blur, shifting in and out of focus as she struggled to get to her feet. That...she was certain, was the last of what she would be able to take. One more hit, and she was done. If she was going to win, it would have to be with the next attack. Otherwise, she was dead. For real, this time. There was no way she was going to miraculously come back a second time. That...couldn't happen. She still had regrets left. She still hadn't done everything she wanted to with her life. No amount of self-reassurance that she was 'already dead' was going to change the fact that she still had a lot of living left that she wanted to do.

"Yamantaka!" she managed to shout, even before getting back to her feet. With the sound of shattering, the Terminator of Death once again rose above her body, detached arms spread wide and one, holding a vajra, held high. A bolt of lightning came crashing down on the giant, knocking it to the ground one final time. As Layla finally managed to stand up, the shadow struggled to do the same, even as its rocker mount began to dissolve. Two arms pushed down against the ground while two more were raised high, as though trying to create another portal. Those two arms continued to hang in the air as the rest of the shadow dissolved under it, then fell to the ground as nothing more than black particles.

Layla let herself slump against the wall as she watched the shadow's final moments. She would need to rest a bit before going back. Possibly a lot more than a bit. That...was way too close.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

Mission accomplished!

You received your reward: Armor mod of your choice!