Swamp of Lost Loved ones

*Kaele was flying mid-air when Jae came-to. She didn't want her to overwork herself even more than she already had.*

"Hey, hey, Jae. Calm down! You can't get him alone, and we need to come up with a strategy." *She mumbled, half talking to Jae and half to herself."

"Oi!! Err..." *Kaele yelled up at the man, not knowing his name. When they landed, she saw his face and gasped.* "Masque?!?"

"Stay back!" shouted Masque to the girls as he used his staff to propel him into the air to get the Akuma.

*It then launched vines and trees at Masque, but Masque managed to evade them while he practically danced in the air.*

"You can't stay away from me!" shouted the Akuma as it launched another attack.

"I'm not going to." shouted Masque as he started running down the vines and trees as they shot upward, "Stone of Demons! HELLFIRE!"

*After shouting those words he threw the little red stone straight at the Akuma, who used his vines to grab it, but as he did so, it burst into flames and spread across all the vines and roots at a rapid rate. The Akuma attempted to pull back all of its vines and such to protect itself, allowing Masque to easily shoot into the air toward Kaele and the girl.*

"Hellfire consumes everything it touches! Even the Devil himself would burn in its presence!" shouted Masque toward the now screaming Akuma.

*Jae noticed Masque and his powerfull attack and the flames were unbeliveably bright, the akuma was screaming in pain and agony, she knew the akuma is drasticly weakened and she wanted make the final blow*

"Kaele, let me down now, let me attack once more!" said Jae in a commanding tone of voice

Masque looked at the girls and shouted, "Stay back! Those aren't normal flames! They are magical flames straight from the underworld!"

*Masque then flew toward the girls to make sure they didn't do anything hasty.*

*Jae looks at Masque with a conserned look*
"Are they gonna kill the akuma fast enough?"
*Jae looks down at the burning akuma*
"Will this be our final attack?"

"As long as I let the fires spread, nothing can survive it. Eventually it will spread, but when it does, only I can stop it." spoke Masque as he held up the blue stone.

"EXORCISTS! AGH!" screamed the Akuma as all the swamp water evaporated and the plants turned to ash as his metallic flesh started to melt.

*Kaele wasn't paying much attention to anything other than the agonized akuma. The flames, bright yellow at the tips and burning fiery blue on his melting flesh, mesmerized her thoughts. She always wished she could have such amazing objects as Masque did, but she knew she was too polite and go steal them.*

"Y-Yeah, I don't think we don't need to attack anymore." *She said empty-mindedly, answering someone's question. Kaele was standing on air carrying Jae still, and drifted down to a tree to set her down. Her eyes were still focused on the akuma. She idly remembered that Miranda was still waiting for her, and that Kaele hadn't seen the little boy since she saw the Level 3 rear its ugly head.*

*Jae quietly lie down on the branch Kaele set her down on, she was unconcious. she turned her head and opened her eyes slightly, she saw her baby brother again, but this time with her parents and a 5 year old Jae. They looked happy together, she looked happy. She cried slightly, seeing her past in front of her, it was painful*

"Im glad were all done here, now that the akumas near gone, we should find the Innocence thats causing these mirages" said Jae, sounding exausted

*Kaele gasped, and jumped back farther into the air.*

"WHAT?! Those things are mirages?!??"

*Jae looked confused, she thought Kaele knew that already*

"Well yeah! the Innocene is causing them! thats what's luring humans here and why im here in the first place. and why im seeing my family..."

*Jae looked a bit sad, still seeing the mirage of the family she lost long ago*

*Masque stayed near them watching the great blaze, but noticed how quickly the fire was spreading. If it continued like this, they themselves could be in danger.*

"Thats enough. Time to end this before the hidden Innocence piece gets destroyed too." spoke Masque as he looked at the little blue stone. This was his only one, and soon it'd be gone. He shouted to the sky, "Stone of Angels! HEAVEN'S RAIN!"

*He then tosses it into the sky, swallowing it whole. A few moments later a blue flash could be seen before it started raining. Masque then took out a flask from his pocket, opened it, and used his gloves to bring the water into it.*

"This rain is magical with the power to both undo Hellfire as well as heal poisons and wounds." said Masque as he closed the flask and put it away. "The rains will heal these lands, but the Akuma shall stay damaged because it doesn't live. I'll finish what I've started."

*Masque then used his staff to fly toward the parted melted Akuma as fear struck its eyes. It tried to speak and move, but only garbled sounds came from it.*

"Unnatural being. Let me rid you of your pain. Your soul belongs to me!" shouted Masque as he swung his staff down onto the melted mass of metal.

*The wind picked up as the normally invisible soul of the Akuma became a glowing translucent blue form as the chains broke, forcing the soul to be painfully snatched into the stone. Shortly afterward the wind died down again.*

*Jae was mesmorized by the power Masque unleashed*

"Amazing...should we start looking for that Innocence? I can tell u didnt destroy it..."

*Jae tried to ignore her halusination*

*Kaele was very confused. First the akuma was on fire, along with a tree or two, and then suddenly it was pouring, and then the rain stopped. She sat on the tree branch she was on, observing the people below.*

"Err..." *She mumbled, jumping down behind Jae.* "What did you do with the akuma's soul? I thought you said you weren't an exorcist, Masque."

*Masque looked down at Kaele with the biggest grin his mask could possibly make.*

"I'm not." Masque said eerily, before he went back to normal, "The soul is safe, though. I can assure you that. Lets look for the Innocence. Maybe the illusions can show us where they lie."

*Masque then turned around to see where those illusions had run off to.*

*Jae now only saw her little brother, he was running playfully and waved his arm like he wanted her to play with him. She jumped up quickly*

"Ill go this way, it looks like hes leading me somewhere"

*Jae turnes to Kaele and Masque*

"You guys follow your own mirages, if there both leading us to the same place, well meet eachother to where ever their following us"

*Jae jumps down the tree and sticks the landing. She tries to follow her mirage but has a hard time doing so because of the muck and vines*

*Kaele's eyes were wide open when Masque first said something to her. She finally felt what it was like to be a loli.*

*She silently searched for her illusion, but didn't see anybody except for Masque and Jae far off in the muck. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, unconciously invoking her flames. It was her late mother, or her mirage. Kaele hadn't seen her for so long, and she looked so real...*

*Kaele began to follow the illusion through the sludge, forgetting with each step she took that the illusion was false.*

*Jae kept running after her illusion, but she had a hard time doing so cause of the vines and muck. But it seemed her illusion glided easily through the swamp better than she could, since he was faster, she lost sight of him quickly. The cheerful laughter faded. She stopped to catch her breath, she turned aroun to see if Kaele and Masque were still in sight, all she could see was swamp gas and vines. When she turned back around, she saw her little brother again, but this time, he was just standing there. Jae walked slowly towards him, but he just dissappeared instantly when he was just an arms length away from her. When she looked up, there was a huge tree. She was at the heart of the swamp*

*Masque turned from the others and looked around. He didn't see any illusions that were his own, so instead he decided to get an arial view of the swamp to see if he could spot anything unusual. He used his newly recharged staff to allow him to float into the sky, high above the trees.*

*Kaele wasn't paying any attention to anything other than the illusion. She tripped on a root and landed face first in the watery sludge. The cold liquid snapped her out of the trance for a second. Taking her only chance, she invoked her flames and shot out of the forest before the fog and confusing envirnment of the swamp could pull her under again.*

*Jae thought this should be where the Innocence is, considering this is the heart of the swamp. But no one else was around, she thought she would meet Kaele of Masque by now, so she decided to walk around the tree to see if she could run into one of them. she walked for about 4 minuites until she saw a shadoy figure in the distance. It was to tall to be Kaele, so she thought it was Masque. She walked towards the figure*

"Hey Masque, is that you?" she said in confusion

*when Jae got closer she started reconising who it was. it was the phycopath who killed her parents. Jae was confused to why she would see him here, she didnt love him in any way, if anything she hated him. But she felt really scared and she starting steping back. The man started moving, starting the very same chainsaw that massacred her parents. He turned around and began to strike her, just like that one night. Jae let out a blood curdling scream that went through out the whole swamp*

"J-Jae!"

*Kaele dived through the air in the direction of the screech. When she made her way through the trees, she saw something she'd never imagined and never hoped to see. Jae was being injured and thrown around by nothing. The scratches came from no where. Kaele stood there for a moment, feeling helpless against an invisible adversary. Her mind was blank with fear. Paranoid, she fabricated a spherical shield of blue blaze to protect herself from the swamp. Not a second after she'd created the shield and found Jae, Kaele felt the guilt in the pit of her stomach.*

"Who's there?!" *She shouted hysterically.*

*Jae noticed Kaele, all she did was look at her. Jae was still being hit an thrown around like a human rag doll*

Jae yelled at the man, "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? YOU KILLED MY PARENTS DIDNT YOU? WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!"

*She didnt get a response. Jae was on the ground, weak and beat up. She never felt so weak before, she couldnt find the strength to fight the one man she wanted dead. But she just couldnt even look at him, the pain from her childhood memories were just too painfull for her to comprehend. But she looked at the man any ways, he was right above her looking like he was gonna kill her. Jae even looked him in the eyes, the exact same stare. Jae was paralized with fear.*

*Kaele observed that Jae seemed to be looking someone in the eye, but no one was there. She felt a plan. All she had to do was ignore illusions of her own and convince herself that there was no one there.*

*Kaele sprung forward towards Jae. She carefully glided her arms underneath her weak frame with speed. Satisfying a little curiousity, she lunged for the area that Jae had been staring at so fearfully. As she expected, only Jae could see and be affected by the illusions she saw. Kaele skidded through the mush to a halt only feet away from the tree.*

"You okay, Jae? Do you still see him?"

*Jae looked down to see if he was still there, he wasnt, but Jae was still frozen with fear*

"Thank you....Kaele..." she said sounding tired and weak
"Im sorry i was so much trouble..."

"I'm just glad you're okay..." *Kaele lowered her down in betweens the roots of a large tree to serve as a seat.* "I have a feeling the Innocence is protecting itself by using a crippling memory or other weaknesses of the such to make sure you chase them instead of find it."

*Kaele searched around, but there were no illusions in sight. She figured it was searching through her psyche for something that would hurt her more than the image of her dead mother.*