Isirona led them, not back towards the gym like Zali thought, but instead towards one of the rooms in the back. She shouldered a door opened, revealing what appeared to be a sort of glowing red ritual circle with two people standing on either side, and one person in the center of the circle. The room itself was partially damaged, with most of the furnature (which was just desks and a few shelves) were pushed against the walls to make room for the circle.
The one inside the circle was knelt down like she was in incredible pain and Zali reconized the girl as someone from one of her classes. She wasn't sure exactly what she was, but she was sure that she was a demon of some sort.
The other two people, a man and a woman had their arms outstretched towards the circle, but they seemed to falter a moment as Isirona and the other's burst into the room.
Isirona's hands opened towards the circle, and the red of the circle seemed to flicker as her magic sparked from her fingertips and into the circle itself. Some of the sigils on the inside began to change, and the magic started to turn a shade of purple like Isirona herself was taking command over the spell.
"Kai! The one on the right!" Zali shouted as she fired a beam of energy towards the woman on the left. The woman stepped back, breaking her concentration on the circle and crossed her arms in front of her like a shield to block the beam with a wall of her own magic.
Kai took one step forward, then slammed her other foot against the ground in front of herself and her flames gushed out like a tidal wave of white flame. The man shouted in fear and stumbled back, tripping over a table that had been knocked over behind him.
Kai's flames opened like a curtain as she stepped towards him, her hair and fur engulfed in the fire. "Yield." Kai ordered, her voice carried by the crackling inferno that licked the wooden desks and shelves in that corner of the room.
The man whimpered, but attempted to fire lightning at the fox deity, who simply caught the bolt in her hand effortlessly. The electricity crackled up her arm before aiming her hand back at the man and returning the bolt into his chest where he yelled out in pain and moved into a fetal position as the electricity sparked up his body. He finally relaxed, and stayed still on the ground.
When the first bolt of lightning was fired, Zali's eyes widened in fear as she turned towards Kai and the other mage. The other woman smirked and went to shoot her own bolt of lightning at the young mage, only for the blast to be caught by Sylvia in both her hands before the seemed to wrap the lightning between her hands before holding her arms out and clapping in front of herself sending a wave of thunder and lighting out in front of her, throwing the other mage off her feet where she slammed into the wall behind her before collapsing on a broken desk and lying still.
Sylvia then turned to Zali who was now staring at her in complete shock. "Are you alright Zali? You looked determinded a moment ago, but now you look like you're ready to run."
Zali's hand moved back to her chest where the crackling of magic felt far too close in her chest. "Lightning and I don't really get along." The mage explained.
"I heard, but that's how it is for most people." Sylvia tilted her head like she was confused before turning back to Isirona who looked like she was incredibly focused on changing the ritual circle's pattern. Most of the sigils had changed and the color was now a deep purple to match Isirona's magical energy.
"Speak to me, what have they done to you?" Isirona called as she continued attuning her spell.
"I-I don't know!" The woman confessed. "They were mad at me! They said I was a monster!"
"What were they doing to her?" Sylvia questioned.
"It was a broken cleansing ritual." Isirona explained, still trying to undo the magic. "Instead of attacking her mana pools, it was directly attacking her demonic energy."
"A person can do that?" Sylvia questioned.
"The spell's effect is already placed, and I'm having difficulty reversing it's effects since it's resisting my own demonic energy." Isirona explained.
Kai's flames dimmed and she stepped over the ritual circle, much to the shock of the others. "Kai don't!" Zali called, but the fox seemed unphased by the spell circle. She simply walked over and stood behind the woman who was kneeling on the ground where she placed both her hands on the girl's shoulders. Kai's hair caught fire once more, but the woman didn't seem to burn at all. Instead she seemed to relax under Kai's magic.
Isirona waved her hands to the side, dispelling the circle entirely as Kai's magic clensed the woman of the curse the two mages had placed on her. Kai's hair dimmed and the woman leaned forward so she was on her hands and knees.
"Why did they hurt me?" The woman questioned.
Zali glanced down to the mage that Sylvia had thrown across the room finding her completely out of it. She didn't reconize the woman, nor the man. "They were part of that cult that attacked the Guild School?" Zali questioned.
"It's possible. This school was advertised in Exodious as well, so it's entirely possible for them to have known about it." Isirona explained.
"Why would they even bother coming here then?" Sylvia questioned. "If this is another world why would it effect them?"
"They could have been here like the others." The young mage confessed, turning to look at the younger succubus. "At our old school they just wanted to make Isirona and Vanessa suffer."
Kai scoffed in her anger, the woman's hair seeming to glow. "They should mind their own business."
"Unfortunately there's not much that we can do about it." Isirona admitted. "Some people just can't change."
"How do you feel?" Kai asked as she helped the woman up.
"Sick to my stomach, but my whole body doesn't hurt anymore." The woman explained.
Isirona clapped her hands together above her head and Dale and Ciera appeared beside her before they each reached towards one of the mages where vines wrapped around them, holding them into the air and completely imobilizing their unconscious forms.
"Now, is everyone alright?" Isirona called.
"We're okay." Sylvia called. "It doesn't look like anyone got hurt."
"This might not be all of them. There may be more."
"Hey guys, there's a Zealot on the dance floor. Maybe we should-" A young man made his way into the room but froze seeing everyone. As Isirona and her nymphs turned to face him, he threw his hands out infront of himself, and the three girls were thrown off their feet. Isirona collided into the woman on the ground who in turned knocked Kai off her feet. The man went to do the same to Zali and Sylvia, but the succubus held her hands up and blocked the force wave, her feet sliding back only a few inches.
Before the man could do anything more, Kai was already back on her feet where she stepped forward, pushing her hands out in front of herself where flames exploded from the ground. The man threw himself out the doorway, falling onto his back to avoid being burned to a crisp.
As he rolled to run down the hallway he yelled out "VAX!" As Kai unleashed another wave of flame through the doorframe. The man just barely managed to scrable out of the way as Kai lept over her fallen friends, sliding through the doorway and slapping a blast of magic out of the air with a puff of flame exploding from her fingertips. Sylvia and Zali followed her out, and looked down the hallway just as the man collected himself beside the woman he seemingly called to.
"I warned you idiots multiple times to watch out for the succubus. You were to cast wards to prevent your magic from being detectable." The woman snarled.
She was standing in dark blue and light green robes with gray hair and solid white eyes that seemed to be glowing with an unnatural light. She was holding a intricuit wooden staff in her right hand, that seemed to be made from several sticks woven together like a braid. At the end of the staff, the sticks branched out like the horns of a deer, with a large white pearl seated at its center. Vines and flowers decorated the woman's hair, and held it together in a long braid that extended down to the middle of her back.
"They didn't listen to you Lady Vax! I was out scouting like you suggested!" The man whimpered.
"Yield or suffer!" Kai ordered.
"A half-breed fox does not get to order me. Neither does a bastard daughter of a King or a half-wit mage." The woman snarled.
"I may not look like much, but I assure you I have earned my title as True God." Kai retorted. "I will not ask you again."
"Don't waste your breath. I will never yield to you." Vax retorted, moving her staff forwards a bit. In response to the small action, large thorny vines shot out from the concrete floor, crumbling some of the stone to pieces. As the vines lunged forward straight towards the small fox, flames exploded in front of her, and the vines seemed to light ablaze like kindle.
"And you use dead wood against a fire god?" Kai questioned. "It seems like you're the one who's daft."
Vax glared at the fox, most unimpressed with her mouth. "You speak like you're a threat."
"Clearly if you have time for banter you believe me to be one." Kai noted. "Otherwise you must really just like talking."
"I do enjoy the sound of my own voice." Vax grinned.
Isirona stepped out of the room, standing at Kai's left as she glared over her shoulder at the druid before her.
Vax grinned, and sickly purple magic sparked on her left hand as the smell of death and decay began to permiate the corridor. "My dearest Lady Isirona. It's been so long since we last spoke."
"Vax." Isirona snarled. Never has Zali heard such venom and hatred spill from her lover's tongue. It was as though speaking the name caused her pain. "You shouldn't be here."
"I should be dead you mean?" Vax waved her off. "I'm not exactly alive Isirona. It's not as though it truly matters though does it? I'm here, and I'm a threat to you. Shouldn't that be what you focus on?"
"What do you want?" Isirona retorted, her words still dripping with spite and anger. Her expression was a mask on her face, like hundreds of emotions were collecting in her mind.
"The same thing that I always have. I want your kind to know their place." The druid-like necromancer growled. "I want you all to suffer, then bow."
"I'm going to enjoy knocking you down a size." Kai admitted.
"Don't act like you're any better. The gods know just as little. You may have given life to this world, but you never truly try to maintain it."
"Don't speak for all of us." The fox warned, her hair catching fire as she glared ahead of herself. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't trying to make this world a better place."
"The humans here didn't ask you to come here, and after fighting a war for Exodious, one in which humans were all but cast aside and left to die, what makes you think any of us want gods or demons anywhere near us?" Vax retorted.
"You are not welcome here." Isirona snapped.
"Come on now. Your words may be filled with rage, but they lack the tact you once held. Could it be that you're nervous?" Vax questioned, a vicious grin on her face. Her only answer was Isirona's hands tightening into fists, which got the necromancer to laugh wickedly. "You're still terrified of me aren't you?"
"Isirona, what's she talking about?" Zali asked.
"This is the necromancer that trapped me in my book." Isirona explained.
"A book that was an abomination to everything mages stand for!" The necromancer roared. "Magic takes years of study and practice! Teaching it to children with a book is a violation of that very thing!" A beam of purple light exploded from the top of Vax's staff where it fired straight at Kai, only to have her block it with her vicious flames.
The beam was swallowed by Kai's light, and the fox responded by pushing her wall of fire towards her. The necromancer raised her staff in both her hands and slammed it against the wall of flame like a ward, holding it at bay. The woman seemed to pass through shock before quickly recovering, and holding the flames at bay. She clearly did not think a little blind goddess was capable of such powerful fire, but was able to hold her ground.
The second Kai's flames died down to allow one of her friends to attack, a vine broke free from the ground at Vax's feet and like lightning. It shot past Kai's fox ear and wrapped around Isirona's neck where it yanked her back violently, and slammed her against the ground as it dragged her to Vax's feet.
"ISIRONA!" Zali shouted as she went to rush past Kai, only for the fox to stop her with her arm.
Vax seemed to glare up at Zali before looking back at Isirona who moved to her knees, her fingers clawing at the vine around her neck. Realization dawned on the necromancer, and her face broke into a wicked grin. "This is him isn't it? The reincarnation of your previous lover?"
"She's one of my students here. You killed him didn't you?" Isirona retorted, the hateful glare still on her face.
Vax touched the head of her staff to Isirona's forehead. "Then if I erase her from your mind, it won't effect your memories of him will it? After all, he's the one who introduced you to the wizard's tower, and we wouldn't want you forgetting that now would we?"
Isirona's eyes widened in fear as magic sparked up Vax's wand.
"CHYSOLITE!" Kai shouted, getting Vax to look up at the fox in shock as green magic exploded from behind the necromancer. Her eyes widened as she went to turn just as a green, crystal claw grabbed hold of her face. Chysolite's form appeared, followed by a dark green cloud that flowed from behind the woman and her friend as Chysolite towered over them. She stood at least eight feet tall, with her massive horns now on full display. Their length allowed them to drag across the ceiling, cutting lines about an inch deep into the foam tiles. Her wings extended behind her like a back drop, preventing any sort of escape from that direction, and the mist itself hid everything bellow her waist, and blanketed the floor around her completely.
Even though Vax's eyes were nothing but white, it was blatantly obvious they were filled with nothing but fear as Chysolite lowered her head right above the necromancer's leaving her solid purple eyes to spill magic right over her face.
"Die."
The Zealot's word was more like an order, before green electricity exploded from her fingertips, slamming point blank into Vax's skull. The woman's head seemingly imploded in on itself before the Zealot dropped her to the ground where she fell to her knees first, before her face slammed into the floor with a wet THWACK.
Zali rushed past Kai, sliding across the ground to catch Isirona as she fell sideways. The young mage pulled the vine from her lover's neck and rested Isirona's head on her lap, one hand cupping her face while the other cradled her head.
Kai and Sylvia rushed over beside her. "Did she manage to get the spell off?" The fox asked.
"I could sense it as it sparked on her staff. I don't know if it made contact, or had enough time to finish." Sylvia explained.
"We likely won't know till she wakes up. I can do a lot of magic, but I can't bend the wills of other's with my Zealot magic." Chysolite noted.
"Why would that matter?" Sylvia asked.
"I am the reincarnation of her previous love, and if she doesn't remember him, then she won't remember ever joining the tower." The young mage explained as she looked down at the succubus.
Isirona stirred, her hand moving to her forehead like she had a headache before she lowered it to look up at Zali who was staring down at her with a terrified expression.
"What happened?" Isirona asked.
"Izzy?" Zali called.
"How do you feel?" Chysolite asked.
The succubus glanced around at all the worried faces, before her hands moved to her temples and she tightly shut her eyes. "I feel hung over." She admitted before looking back up at Zali with a pained smile. "I don't think I'll be teaching tomorrow."
Relief rushed through Zali's body as a smile touched her lips. "You remember everything?" she asked.
"I don't think I would know if I've forgotten anything, but yes. I managed to cast a barrier before I left the room. The man who entered was the same man I had expelled, so I knew the kind of magic I would be up against."
"If you managed to shield yourself from it, why did you get incapacitated?" Kai asked.
"The magic burrowed deep in it's attempt to remove memories. Although it couldn't remove them, it's violation of my mind was still painful." Isirona explained.
"I'm just glad that I don't have to make you fall in love with me again." Zali admitted, getting Isirona to show off her signature grin.
"I don't think it would be too difficult a task."