Welcome to Gaia! ::

Gypsy gave a harsh gasp at Gado's attack and fell to the side as her demonic half receded inside of her with a silent whimper only she could hear. With her down, though, Ost was instantly limited in his actions.

She laid on the ground struggling to breathe, though she, at least, was still conscious.

Ost's orders had been clear. If the line broke he was to withdraw immediately so that the King could prepare the defenses for what was to come. But, he had to make sure that he could withdraw in safety and there was still one method that he had not tried. Likely enough it wouldn't do more than slow down an enemy this powerful but it was something that the hybrid had only had to do once before, more than one hundred and fifty years ago. But, he had to prepare properly. And, he was immediately between an overwhelming opponent and the objective he sought. Not good.

He fired one powerful blast of primal ice straight at the soul reaper's face, intending more to momentarily blind him than damage him, and jumped soundlessly. He did not jump high but foreward, avoiding the reaper's immediate range of reach and landing just next to Gypsy. He reached down from his height to scoop her gently into one of his enormous hands. While his fingers were hard claws the palms of his hands were amazingly soft and comfortingly warm, an aspect that was drawn more from his demon blood. He then moved to gather the other two into his other hand and hold all three to his chest before jumping a short distance away toward the castle.

Then he turned, his chest swelled gently with a large breath and his three part jaw opened wide as the inside of his throat began to glow a subtle azure. Then, with his black eyes fixed on the man and his blue eye glowing brightly, he screamed. The cry was so powerful as to be nearly impossible to hear but it wasn't just sound. A column of black and azure blazed from his mouth to strike the man with an enormous concentration of primal ice. It would freeze everything around him in a very strong mass of ice but whether it would hold such a powerful opponent for more than a few seconds was not Ost's concern.

As soon as the blast was complete, before the ice could even finish forming he would turn and leap toward the castle as fast as possible with his passengers held close and safe for the time being. Only at this point would it be safe to speak. His voice in this form was deep and calm but less cool than usual. His mouth also did not have to move for him to speak as they could hear his words through his chest directly.

"Hold tight and stay calm. We will be back at the castle momentarily."

Ost swiftly leaped across the terrain to the castle. He had no reason to be stealthy this time and moved at his full speed. The landscape flashed by beneath him but he kept his vulnerable charges close to his chest. There they were sheltered from the wind and attack both. The trip back to Lareth's Castle was over in just a few minutes.

((Exit))

As Gado left, Ilea gave a soft whimper and closed her eyes. He'd simply left her. Which meant she was likely to die here, alone.

She tried to think of a way to save herself and opened her crimson eyes to look down at the wound through her belly. It looked horrible and bled freely despite her hands over it. Of course, she was also bleeding out the other side as well, so her attempt to stem the flow with her hands was futile. The sword thrust had been bad enough, but the twist Gypsy had made only made it even more damaging.

Admittedly, she'd survived worse before. But that had been when she'd had a connection to Goh. He'd made it so that she wouldn't die unless he wished her to do so. So she hadn't died from worse wounds than this in the past. But now...

Now she knew she was going to die.

She felt her vision beginning to darken around the edges and it became harder to think as she laid there in the grass, her body slowly relaxing as she continued to bleed out. Her breathing was slowing down as well until she felt like she was floating, as if her mind was separated from the rest of her.

In that moment, she knew how close to dying she was. Her crimson eyes blinked and a single bloody tear rolled down her face to disappear into her dark hair. She didn't want to die. Especially like this, brought down by a single sword thrust. And alone. She'd always thought she'd die with someone holding her. But apparently that wasn't meant to be.

She blinked again and found her eyes staring up at the clouds in the darkening sky, watching as the stars slowly appeared, and noted that it was actually beautiful to look at. Then her eyes closed as her breathing slowed even more...

At first, Ilea thought she was hallucinating when she saw the ravens. But it quickly became clear that she wasn't when two of them transformed into restraints that held her perfectly still, making her give a weak protest.

Then the different raven moved to her wound, causing her to cry out in pain as it was sealed. She gave out a small scream when the blending of blood happened, forming a connection between herself and the creator of the strange birds. It was an experience that was far from painless for her, much as the severing of her connection to Goh had been.

The pain made her body struggle against the restraints until, in her weakened state, she finally passed out from it. Once she was unconscious, every barrier in her mind was torn away, giving the one she was now bound to full access to every memory she had as well as the knowledge that her creator would likely be coming after her at some point, when Goh's anger had run it's course.

Goh appeared through a swirl of shadows, having tracked Ilea this far. He knelt beside a patch of ground and held his hand over it, sending a small bit of power into it and pulling up a puddle of blood. Another touch of power and he was able to tell that it was Ilea's blood, meaning he was on the right track.

He let the blood go and looked around for the likeliest place for her to have gone or been taken and let his eyes rest on Lareth's castle complex in the distance. Those crimson eyes narrowed harshly at the implication of where his Ilea was now located.

He was determined to get her back, one way or another.

But he knew he would have to be careful in retrieving her. So he faded from sight through the shadows once again...