Mermaid's Cave [BP/Darth]

If he'd been above water, Triton would have yelled in surprise as a spell sheared just over his head and crashed into Octogon, making it flail again. He couldn't tell if the magic had been Judith's, as if the water mulled the signature on it. Just to be sure, he kicked against the water beneath him to rise up to the surface... just in time to hear the Acolyte of Wisdom speak in tongues, presumably to the giant monster, and finally opt to attack it so it wouldn't feed on her. A swift scan of the room told Triton the Wizzrobe was nowhere to be seen... yet its overpowering magical presence was still there.

It didn't take a Zora of his marked genius to realise what was going on here.

"Distract it!" he shouted, not to the Wizzrobe or the priestess it was possessing, but to his Familiar, which sprung into existence and threw itself at Octogon to do just that. Triton, meanwhile, made a mad dash for Judith's staff, which had been tossed aside presumably because the Wizzrobe didn't need it, and clutched it with one hand before leaping to a side to dodge another magic attack. "Release her," he said, wishing he sounded more confident. He wracked his brain, not doubting that he would need to somehow outsmart the Wizzrobe. What did he know about possession? It was a method employed by servants of darkness, quite obviously. There was no reason why a normal person couldn't use it as well, there was just not much reason why they would.

...wait, didn't servants of darkness share a weakness?

Yes, they did, but light magic was not among his arsenal. When his familiar was sent hurtling through his head, evidently sent flying by the giant Octoroc, however, Triton decided he would have to do something he normally left to Thria: bluff like his life depended on it. "Release her," he said again, forcing himself to sound more threatening this time, "Or I will make you." As Octogon reared itself back up, he gathered magic at the tip of Judith's staff. It was a simple Fireball, but if he masked the nature of his spell maybe the Wizzrobe would be fooled into panicking, allowing Judith to take over once more...

"Permit me to cast you out, fiend! Holy Light!"

Exhausted by her efforts to contest her possessor's domination, the next several seconds proved a blur for Judith, her dormant soul scarcely able to process what was happening from behind eyes that were no longer hers. Freed from Octogon's deadly grasp by the beast's enraged flailing, the Wizzrobe wasted no time in forcing the priestess' body upright, only to be intercepted by Triton before he could reassert control over the summoned monster. The Zora said something, and then he was preparing to cast a spell, Judith just barely catching a hint of the signature arcane motes swirling around her companion.

One thing was clear: Whatever threat Triton had uttered, it had had a pronounced effect on the Wizzrobe. Now beset on three different fronts, the evil wizard decided to forsake sorcery in favour of a rather unorthodox tactic.

If there had ever been any doubt that Judith was an unwilling marionette in this struggle, it could be safely discarded- she would never have charged headlong at a fellow mage with the intention of tackling him to the ground. Sprinting with a predatory gait she herself could not believe she was capable of, the priestess felt her arm carry out the swiping motion required of Nayru's Affection (that such a holy spell could be used in the service of evil sickened her to her very core, even more than her own possession had), likely to counter Triton's casting, and then she was briefly airborne as the Wizzrobe directed her to launch herself at her companion.

As she collided with Triton, Judith sensed the Wizzrobe's loathsome presence receding from her mind. An opening? Gathering what remained of her willpower, she sallied across her mindscape to regain her body... and was surprised when the foul sorcerer crumbled before her onslaught, offering not even a token attempt at opposing her. Galvanized by her success, she pressed onward, excising every last trace of him, until at last he was teetering on the precipice. With one final push, she forced him out of her body, and at once she was assaulted by a myriad of sensations- a burning in her lungs as if she had been holding her breath, a bitter chill racing across her skin, and an intense dizziness that threatened to overwhelm her. The crimson glow had faded from her eyes, though, and she was free once more.

Too late did she realize that this was precisely the outcome the Wizzrobe had desired.

Manually withdrawing from her mind would have been too time-consuming, so instead he had exploited the instinctive need for liberty innate to all sentient creatures, deliberately allowing Judith to prevail in the mental struggle, thereby allowing him to exit her body immediately. He had materialized a short distance from the priestess and her companion, somewhat disoriented by his violent expulsion, but no moreso than Judith, who was lying in a crumpled heap atop Trtion, pinning the Zora.

She had manipulated him, so he had manipulated her. Now the more-heroic of the duos were little more than fish in a barrel....

"Impressive." The Wizzrobe clucked his tongue, staggering forward with one hand raised. "I can see why my disciples failed to defeat you. But your persistence will not avail you, now that your strength is spent. This ends here." A familiar orb appeared in his palm, the very same magic he had cast through Judith.

In his dazed haste to dispose of the two mages, however, the Wizzrobe had made a critical error. His spell had not gone unnoticed by Octogon, the beast's primitive mind recalling altogether too well what had harmed it more than anything else in the chamber. Leaning close to the platform, the monster disgorged a massive boulder from its maw, aimed squarely at its former master.

Taken unawares, the Wizzrobe was unable to evade the incoming projectile, which smashed into him, its momentum carrying him straight into the wall and dashing him against it. Quite literally caught between a rock and a hard place, the proud sorcerer was reduced to a bloody smear upon the stone, his flesh pulverized and his bones shattered.

There was no time to rejoice at the unceremonious, ironically fitting end for their wicked adversary- Judith knew that she and Triton were about to become the sole objects of Octogon's attention. Still queasy from the aftereffects of the Wizzrobe's possession, Judith rolled off of her companion and willed herself to a stand, giving the Zora a helping hand up as she did so.

"T-Triton... The mouth... its mouth..."

His ruse had worked. Thinking he had been about to cast one of the only spells that could cause it tremendous harm while leaving its host largely unscathed, the Wizzrobe had undertaken action to get itself out of Judith's body, relinquishing control to her and giving Triton a much more vulnerable target- or at least one he was much more willing to destroy. The downside to all this? Casting was very difficult when he had a Hylian woman pinning him to the ground. They were the vulnerable ones right now, the Wizzrobe well able to take them both out with a single spell if it so wished...

When Triton had finally managed to squirm his arms around in such a position he could gently grab Judith's arms and start pushing her off of him and to the side, he interrupted himself with a wince as Octogon destroyed its former master. Ah, yes. Instinct. Self-preservation. Things that had forced him to completely reconsider the angle from which to create his Familiar spell many times when he had been developing it. One would think a being like the Wizzrobe would have accounted for it in its plans. Then again, the Zora supposed that panic was a very real phenomenon and no plan ever survived contact with the enemy.

He let the priestess help him to his feet but did not return her staff yet, looking at the beast before them and the mass of tentacles under it. She was right. He hadn't seen a weakness when he had been underwater. "We'll have to fight it above the surface, then," he agreed. "I have no spells that can impact it hard enough underwater to cause any true damage. However, if we can keep it in the water, I may be able to slow it down, creating an opening for you." He remembered how his Electric Aura had affected the beast's writhing tentacles. "My Familiar may be able to serve as a distraction, or a target... we have options."

When he looked, Octogon had turned towards them, its eyes focusing on them. "We'll just have to decide very quickly."

"Y-Yes...! H-Have your Familiar draw its attention!" Triton's ingenuity in developing the spell was certain to pay dividends in this struggle, affording them precious moments with which to devise a plan of attack, and once more the young priestess was struck by the stark contrast between herself and the battle-hardened Zora. As she had admitted earlier, she would have perished many times over were it not for him; his formidable sorcery would be the key to victory.

Even so, Judith knew slaying Octogon would be a challenging endeavour. Her own offensive options were limited- Magic Bolt seemed to harm it, but without the Wizzrobe's arcane might to buffer her casting, it would be neither swift nor potent enough to have a meaningful impact on the battle. What was she to do..?

The answer came to her in a flash of divine inspiration as she took her staff back from Triton, and she made a mad dash for the centre of the platform, hoping to put as much distance as she humanly possible between her and Octogon's grasping appendages, as well as allow herself room to dodge if it spit another rock. Once there, she inhaled deeply, desperation flowing through her despite an earnest attempt at forcing herself into a state of serenity, then let the first notes of Nayru's Wisdom pour forth from her lips. If her power was not sufficient to defeat this beast, she would instead use it to benefit another, as per Mother Nayru's teachings.

Judith had not taken the time to communicate the specifics of her idea to Triton, but she had faith he would understand. He was a man of Wisdom, and she had already performed the song for him once before. Armed with the blessing of the Goddess, he could perhaps score a decisive blow against Octogon... She only prayed that the Zora's Familiar would prove an adequate diversion, lest her melody make her a prime target for the abomination lurking within the water. Nonetheless, the acolyte kept her eyes wide open as she sang, watching the hulking monstrosity as it menacingly circled the platform...

Triton clapped once, his Familiar once more springing to life. Owing to Judith's song, the critter shone a little more brightly than Triton was accustomed to. Octogon zoned in on Judith, but the selfsame sense of preservation that had done the Wizzrobe in would be the priestess's rescue. "Go!" he cried, waving his open palm at the monster, and his Familiar leapt, fearlessly soaring up and forward towards the monster. It landed between its eyes, causing Octogon to flail around again in an attempt to get it off despite its ethereal nature. This had the double benefit of making it stop its attack on Judith, and distracting it from what Triton was doing as the Zora dove backwards into the water and started swimming around it to pick up speed.

He could still hear Judith sing if he strained himself, and he hoped it would lend just that little bit of extra punch to what he was about to do. If not, this could end very, very badly. His Familiar was still there, clinging to Octogon, when Triton breached the surface, skimming over it just long enough to calculate where the monster was before diving back under and angling himself. With the angle he wanted, he kicked against the water beneath and behind him as hard as he could. The speed he had already built up lent him momentum, so that when he breached the surface at this new angle, he launched himself out of the water, his momentum sending him sailing into Octogon.

His Familiar vanished when Triton impacted Octogon through it, not only because of the impact but also -mostly- because Triton needed his magic elsewhere. As he had launched himself from the water, he had set the air around him crackling with electricity. Now that he was quite literally on top of the monster, there was a much larger surface area of that Electric Aura that could directly touch the beast. Now he just had to keep it up longer than Octogon could fight it...

It was a strange day to be a mage, it seemed. Apparently taking a page from the Wizzrobe's spellbook, Triton hurled himself at Octogon, using the diversion provided by his Familiar to build up momentum before slamming into the space directly between its bulbous eyes. Judith might have balked at this display of reckless courage, were it not for the unmistakable aura of churning energy that had surrounded her companion, alerting her to the true nature of his strategy.

The monster's bellowing attained all-new heights of volume as Triton's electrical currents made contact with its sodden hide, and it began to violently thrash about, sending great gouts of water splashing onto the nearby platform. This was her chance.

Shutting out the pain in her ringing ears, Judith ended her performance with a flourish, thrusting her staff-arm forward and taking aim as she whispered the final lyrics. Octogon's maw, still wide-open to accommodate its thunderous roars, made for a very tempting target indeed.

"THE SEAS ARE MOTHER NAYRU'S DOMAIN! RETURN TO THE DARKNESS WHICH HATH SPAWNED THEE, DEMON!" Having invoked her deity's name, the priestess fired a Magic Bolt straight down the creature's bloated throat. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as it screeched even louder (forcing Judith to cover her ears), even as its struggles devolved into impotent squirming. Ten long seconds passed, in which Octogon failed to extract Triton from its face, before Judith, not wanting to risk a prolonged battle, loosed a second Magic Bolt.

Assailed from within and without by magics backed by the Goddess of the Arcane, Octogon had time to choke out one last boulder, which Judith only very narrowly sidestepped as it came crashing down where she had been standing only moments ago, her skirt fluttering in the wake of the impact. Luckily, she need not have feared a follow-up attack, for the effort had expended the last of Octogon's strength; unable to endure the arcane electrocution any longer, the great beast shuddered one last time, then suddenly went very still, steam rising from its flesh.

Dropping to her knees at the sight, Judith found herself at a loss for words. Was it over...?

As Octogon collapsed into the water, life leaving its many limbs, Triton leapt into the water once more, swimming to where Judith had evaded the beast's last-ditch effort at killing her. "Are you alright?" he asked as he popped up and pulled himself unto land. He had heard her shouting over the crackling of his Electric Aura, and found himself concerned for the otherwise soft-spoken priestess.

She didn't seem injured, at the very least. Giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, he took hold of his Siblings' Stone. "Thria," he said, not waiting for his sister to confirm she was listening. "We've found and eliminated the Vire and his masters. Wizzrobes." Thria made an indignant noise on the other end. "I'm as appalled as you are. Once we've recovered, Sister Vilcaron and I will do a rudimentary sweep of the temple to make sure we got all of them, but I want you to petition a small squadron to perform a more thorough investigation. I want to know how they got in and if Lord Jabu-Jabu's domain is at risk of being similarly breached."

"I gotcha brother." With that, Thria left again, the sound of her flippers on the wet floors in Zora's Domain the last thing that echoed through the stone.

Triton turned back to Judith. "Zora's Domain will send warriors to get rid of the last remnants of resistance," he explained. "Considering the situation, do you think we can count on the Order to help cleanse the shrine?"

Legs still shaking, Judith slowly rose to a stand. Her initial exhilaration at being alive was altogether too brief, quickly replaced by a potent weariness that struck her to her core. The elation of victory was dampened by the tragic circumstances which had given birth to the conflict in the first place... As well as the lingering possibility of a turncoat among her Sisterhood. Was this what it meant to be an adventurer? A warrior? Cupping a hand to the scratches Vire had inflicted upon her midriff, the priestess scanned the eerily still surroundings. Triton was right to be wary- it would not do to topple this aquatic titan, only to fall victim to some remnant of the Wizzrobe's coterie.

To that end, she was immensely grateful when Triton requested reinforcements from the Zora's Domain. Truly, the Zora were stalwart allies... Although many among them, Triton included, did not share her faith, they were willing to put their lives at risk for the sake of the Cult, despite having no real obligation to do so. Judith would not soon forget their generosity, and she vowed to see their loyalty repaid in full.

"I... I am well, Triton. Th-Thank you for petitioning King Zora on our behalf. Your people's assistance would be invaluable in seeing this temple r-restored to its former glory... R-Rest assured, once I have informed my Sisters of what transpired here, they will dispatch a relief force, so that the Zora need not sh-shoulder the burden of scouring these halls a-alone. You have done us a great service, and we owe you a debt. If there is ever a-anything you and yours require, do not hesitate to entreat us for aid. It is... the least we can do."

She was beginning to worry that Triton might find her overflowing gratitude grating, that he might think her repeated thanks to be nothing more than empty platitudes, but the truth was simply that she felt it necessary to stress the point. No words seemed adequate enough to express the depth of her appreciation. Mayhap her rural upbringing, with all its emphasis on hospitality and reciprocity, had caused her to feel this way. After all, she had first joined the Cult out of a desire to repay her own debt to them, had she not?

In any event, these were thoughts for another time. Spinning on her heel, Judith moved to retrieve Sister Augustine's Mermaid Suit.

"L-Let me catch my breath a moment, then we shall resume the cleansing."

There was yet much work to be done.

~*The End*~​