A...Castle? (Genshuku)

[zapy]

cross watched the two in the air
he was impressed that a human held her own so well against a youkai
if the human survived all this he had a gift for her
cross smiled
he made himself known....and any minute now kaosou would come out of at castle looking for him
he was here because of ozma and because if anyone had information on why he was sealed away she would....after all she would have been the first to free him

[Kitten4u]

Yeah, she certainly saw that coming. The guard wasn't nearly as limited in the air as Andrea was since it could fly. Sadly, she didn't really have any means of countering this attack since both her hands were stuck holding her up, though she was in a reasonably good position to just jump off. In one smooth motion she flipped her feet back under her and let go of the guard's foot. She did put up her own sword to block against the guard's attack since the chances of her being able to do all that fast enough to completely avoid her sword were very minimal, and it was a good thing she did. Though, she expected the attack to be much stronger than it actually was, that was enough to mess up her landing a bit.

If the guard hadn't attacked at all Andrea would have been able to land on her feet, however that attack was enough to make her land on her butt instead. It was quite painful as well, though she would still be able to walk just fine. She would probably feel that in the morning though, especially since she happened to land on one of the remains of that machine that exploded.

Now she had to think again. There wasn't much she could do to attack the guard from down here since she couldn't fly, so she would have to wait for it to come to her. What was the best way to do that? Why to make more clouds and mess with the illusion some more of course! Andrea calmly walked back towards the castle, though she was watching her back quite closely. There's no way she was going to let that thing get an attack in on her while her back was turned. Once she was at the castle she continued to make small clouds. It was proving to be effective so far, so why not?

[Genshuku]

...Waitasecond, when did that get there? Akkei was certainly tired alright. This showed when Andrea could not keep the illusion completely intact for even more clouds, and for a while, it showed completely. It then faded back after 5 seconds of showing, while Akkei...fell. Seemingly knocked out by exhaustion it seemed, as she fell on the ground (missing the debris on the ground). The illusion seemed to hold tighter though, for some reason.

But before anyone could do anything, someone showed. Someone Cross probably didn't expect to come from OUTSIDE the castle, but outside the castle is where she came from. Through the trees, Kaosu (alone) appeared. Her hair seemed to be a bright orange, meaning she was pretty irritated, probably from having to get over here. On seeing the downed guard (which she immediately did), She picked her up and flew high enough to not be grabbed at. Then, she spoke to Andrea (and turning her head to Cross for the last bit, then turning back to Andrea).

"Ok, the fight is over. It would have been nice to actually see it, but the whole thing was probably unfair anyway. Now how did you actually MEET Akkei, how are you stopping her illusion, and hi Cross."

Kaosu waited a moment, to access their reactions and responses. Even Cross's. Especially Cross's. He was the reason that she actually had to get over here, of course. Which, of course, was quite the hassle. The first two things were said in an obviously irritated voice, but the last bit was said (disturbingly) casually.

Just like Kaosu, popping out of nowhere and asking questions without even an introduction.

Unknown to anyone else, she was reviving the spirit of Akkei, so that she could be prepared for whats to come. What that is...is secret. It involves sugar and caffeine. Oh, and magic.

[zapy]

cross looked at kaosou with a very irritated look
"what is the meaning of all of this?"
he motioned to the debris and the castle
"what are you up to?"
he was trying to get kaosou to say something without her knowing it was ozma who sent him

[Kitten4u]

So it feel without her having to waste anymore energy creating these small clouds. Excellent. Andrea ran twoards the guard to deliver the final blow when it was picked up by someone. Well that was rude. No one should ever deny anyone their kill, and this person seemed to want to continue to insult her by saying the fight wasn't fair. It was a perfectly fair fight! Just because the guard's abilities were ineffective against her didn't make it unfair.

"How did I meet it? Well, I saw the castle and then it fell out of a tree and started talking to me." Wait, did that mean that the guard was hidden by an illusion too? "I have the ability to reflect magic back to the caster," she pointed to all the clouds surrounding the castle. "I had never tested them on an illusion before, but it seems like they make the illusion vanish. And would you mind giving me back my target? It's rather rude to deny someone their kill."

Andrea didn't know who this "Cross" person was, but she assumed that it wasn't her, so she just decided not to worry about it for now. Plus, her target was still alive, and that was clearly unacceptable. Andrea was somewhat curious to know who this person was, but she wanted to worry about that after the guard was dead. She took her work very seriously, and she was still focused on killing it and probably wouldn't stop focusing until it was dead. She decided to keep the clouds up for the moment since she couldn't tell if the illusion was still there or not, and it's not like it took much effort to keep those small clouds active.

[Genshuku]

Cross seemed irritated, for obvious reasons. Might as well actually answer him. She knew nothing of his sealing up, however.

"Certain things have caused me to cause Armageddon. As much as I hate to do it, I must. As for those certain things, you won't get a word out of me about that."

With that quickly wrapped up, back to the other person.

She simply saw thr--oh right the guard said that already. Whoops. In any case, her questions were answered.

Akkei seemed to be friendly,based on what she said. It was nice to be friendly, really. The bad part is that she was just trying to kill her, after being friendly like that. For shame. And her question was answered, it was magic reflection. Ah, Reflect, how she hated it. But whatever. In any case, this person was rather...bloodthirsty? A savage with half a brain, perhaps.

"You shouldn't really interfere with Akkei's illusions, as she does have them up for me. And yes, that means I am the owner of this castle, meaning there's two reasons that I'm not letting you kill her. One being that she's my guard, and second because life is not something that should simply be tossed around. For example, if I wanted to, I could have killed you before you had a chance to make peace with whatever you make peace to. Being the God of Chaos, that's quite easy to do."

...Akkei was somewhat heavy. So, Kaosu got out the teleporter she was using for herself and used it on Akkei, sending her back to her quarters.

"And that takes care of that."

[zapy]

"life is not something to toss around?"
cross reached for his sword but then had a better idea
"and yet you want to distroy this world and end thousands of lives...i wont have it"
cross' body split in the back and first a pair of wings pushed their way out...then another pair...and third pair...and a fourth
the rest of whatever it was pulled it's way out and roared leaving the human form behind as an empty husk
the real cross flew upwards toward kaosou with the intent to end this here
inches away from kaosou there was a flash and cross stopped because something held him back
there were chains holding cross to his human form and he was unable to move any further
the chains pulled cross back into the body and the split healed
"what?!"

[Kitten4u]

So this was the guard's not-youkai boss? Well, she had no business with gods (assuming she was telling the truth anyway), so she probably wouldn't mess with her. Though, she was rather annoyed that she teleported her kill away like that. Yes, she wouldn't attack, but she would certainly cross her arms and scowl. Plus, her words were incredibly offensive. Playing with life? As if! Youkai eat humans, and humans exterminate youkai so they're not eaten, it was simply the way Gensokyo worked. Comparing Andrea to a cat that would simply play with its prey before it got bored and killed it was simply not true, she killed things as quickly as possible.

Then another guy flew towards the goddess, presumably to attack her. That must be that Cross person she mentioned before...Wait, how long has he been there? She didn't even notice come to this area, though that wasn't real shocking. Andrea did just finish a fight after all. Wait, armageddon, destroying the world? That certainly didn't sound good. Her eyes widened a bit, she was still calm, just a bit shocked. Andrea was only human and didn't actually know much about gods, there was no way she was going to attempt to fight that herself. Was it even possible to kill a god? Stabbing things until they stopped moving was all she was really good for, and if gods really were immortal like she thought they were that wouldn't really do much. Now seemed like a very good time to get help.

Good, it looked like Cross could at least hold her off for the time being, or at least that's what she thought which showed exactly how well she was paying attention. Sadly, Andrea had no idea where she was and it was very easy to get lost in this forest. Heck, that's why she found this castle in the first place. But, she certainly had to get to the human village as quickly as possible, so she darted out of the area as quickly as her feet would carry her.

[Genshuku]

So Cross certainly wanted to protect his world. That, was good. Best to have a god against her, albeit one of a lower class. Multidimensional gods frequently beat single dimensional gods in combat, for simple reasons: Just plain tougher. Had Kaosu not noticed the chains holding him down, she would have simply dodged the charge and gave him something to think about. But she did, and pondered for a second about freeing him. Then she answered herself, and gave a quick word to Cross.

"So it seems you were sealed in some way? Normally I'm against these things, but that was convenient. I'll just keep it there until the time comes. Being who I am, I could break seals pretty easily. And by the way, doing what I am doing will save far more lives than you can even count. But why, yet again I stop myself, for when the time comes."

She then turned to Andrea, who seemed to be packing her bags. Of course, Kaosu could expect more visitors later, so it was a good thing she was planning to make the castle visible soon. Of course, Kaosu's definition of playing with life meant simply taking it without a second thought or even much of a care. However, she couldn't read minds, so yeah. She was leaving though, so something for her.

"When you want to stop Armageddon, you know where to find me. Don't worry, others will be here too~"

Said in a strangely casual way, because Kaosu certainly felt like that. Just preparations, after all...

Speaking of which, Kaosu needed to get back inside. So she quite simply opened the door, and shut, speaking outside to Cross:

"Come back later, when your actually supposed to come in. You know, I do have a reason for this. I'm just not saying it."

Anyone trying to go in as of that moment would be able to get in. If so, the room was actually quite small, yet well lighted, and there was a giant mechanical spider in the room. It was one of Kaosu's finest works, being able to absorb the strongest physical hits without breaking. Even gods would have trouble with it. It looked something like this.

[zapy]

cross sighed and looked at kaosou... but then turned
he couldn't fight her like this...maybe ozma could help him again
he looked at the human as she ran off...she had impressed cross and even bound as he was cross had an important gift for her
he ran off after her
he stopped in front of Andrea
"i have a proposal for you...interested?"

[Kitten4u]

Andrea was still running as fast as she could without looking back. The thought of armageddon was another thing that would make her focus and thus ignore pretty much everything around her. She never was good at multi-tasking. Anyway, she figured as long as she only moved in one direction she would eventually make her way out of the forest. Then some guy suddenly appeared in front of her. She came to a screeching halt and narrowly avoided running into the guy. Wait, wasn't that they guy that was supposed to be keeping that goddess busy? Oh no...Her eyes widened again and she quickly looked behind her. The goddess didn't seem to chasing her at least.

Though now she was very suspicious of this guy. He was just fighting that goddess and suddenly he stopped just to offer her something? Andrea wasn't aware that she went into the castle and just didn't fight, nor was she aware that he was having difficulty fighting her. All of this just seemed highly suspicious now. Did he only pretend to fight her to gain her trust?

"Well, I suppose that would depend on what this 'proposal' is," she said raising her eyebrows. Once again, she remained perfectly calm and made sure there was no hint of suspicion in her voice.

[zapy]

"i cannot fight kaosou like this....bound to this body like a dog on a chain"
cross sighed
"i need a shrine maiden so i can gather worshipers so i may grow stronger"
he held out his hand
"you held your own and won against a stronger opponent...i would like you to be my shrine maiden"

[Kitten4u]

He was a god too? And shrine maidens could just be made? She always thought that was more of a birthright thing, though that did beg one question: How were the first shrine maidens born or created? Then again, she knew almost nothing about shrine maidens, she just knew that only a blood member of the Hakurei clan could be the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine and only they had a degree of control over the border (well, next to that boundry youkai, but Andrea liked to deny her existance). She also thought they were supposed to be virgins, and well she wasn't. Though if a god was actually coming directly to her like this surely she must fit the criteria?

This was quite a shocking question, one that she actually had to think about for a second though part of that was because she was ignorant about how they really worked. But being the avatar of a god sounded pretty awesome and surely it would command a lot of respect. Perhaps he would even be willing to help her on her crusade to eliminate youkai from Gensokyo?

"Um...Well..." she still wasn't quite sure what to think, "I...Yes. If you think I can."

[zapy]

cross smiled
"thank you"
there was a flash as lightning struck cross' palm leaving behind a blueish-purple glowing orb
"have a shrine built in my honor and set this upon the altar...it will give you a small part of my power"
he leaned toward her
"the more powerful i become...the more powerful you become"