"R-Right!" She had to make it right, but rushing in was probably stupid. <Uh... do you two think you could watch our backs? If you don't feel like you can fight after what happened...>
Assist Alida! Try to kill the wire thing (carefully - don't want to rush in and get mulched) and find a way to break the machines. Can the magic-sense find a weak spot, or see if this is the Witch?
[Innocence]
The Alida near you starts walking determinedly towards the nearby machines, giving the mass of writhing wires a wide berth. You start to trail after her, but end up deciding that the bloody wires near Alida's more wounded body is a more pressing issue; you carefully walk over to it, stepping protectively in front of Alida's sitting form, and inspect it with your magical senses.
[Creativity]
You're... not really sure whether it's the witch. Pumsy said that this whole labyrinth is the witch's creation, but the misery that permeates everything here doesn't seem to be coming from the mass of twisting wires. The misery does seem to be stronger around them, but if anything it seems more like they're sucking up the ambient emotion? It's hard to tell, everything here feels so unnatural and works so strangely. You don't even know what this thing
should look like, let alone what would indicate whether its a witch.
Well, it doesn't really matter. Witch or not, it certainly seems dangerous. You examine the wires carefully with your magic sense, trying to find some sort of weak spot or central concentration of misery, but meet no success. Each strand of wire looks identical to every other wire; at most, you can tell that they're wrapped around something abnormal. Everything here, including the air and the ground, seems to be made from misery, or be a conduit for the miasmatic emotion, but the thing the wires are wrapping around is completely absent any emotion. Though they hide it completely from your normal sight, to your magical sight it's plainly there, like a bubble in glass.
[Bravery]
You don't have any better ideas, so you carefully step forward and thrust your halberd into the mass, focusing on the thickest knots of wires. Immediately, they start wrapping around your weapon, but you aggressively hop back and yank it free before they can tighten around it. You stop for a second to ensure the monster doesn't retaliate, and then repeat your attack. Each time you stab into the wires, they slow down and reduce their spasming, until eventually the entire mass is unmoving.
You pause to inspect it again, worried that it's only playing dead--there isn't really that much visible damage, and you're not even sure it makes
sense for living wires to die once they're severed. Your magical senses are unfortunately unhelpful; it looks about the same as it did before, though you've added a number of new holes in the empty thing the wires are wrapped around. Maybe that thing was its brain? Maybe that's what a witch looks like? You don't know...
Alida breaks down for a moment at seeing the other girls.
"Thank you, oh thank you, you came here in time. The wire creature there almost killed me."
Stop the machine, with either or both bodies, whatever can do it. After doing so, drop Effigy, removing the more wounded body and collapse.
[Bravery]
[Mercy]
You think you could struggle over to the machine with either body, but the one that you talked to Mina through is in much less pain... besides, the other body is already in a good position to watch the wireman's body in case it somehow manages to revive. You slowly make your way around the writhing wires, stopping for a moment to pick up the club you'd thrown before. You carry it to the quietly humming machine, half expecting the monster to charge at you before you can harm the machine... but it just stays where it is, content to writhe and lash at the air blindly. Mina's inspecting it now too, so hopefully she can stop it if it does suddenly attack.
You take a deep breath, then start smashing the machine with your full strength. You only have to hit it twice before it grinds to a stop, light smoke leaking from where the cable enters it, and you release the breath. Mina's started stabbing the monster, and it's clearly getting weaker. None of the unbroken machines are active, and you could smash them even if they did start up, long before they reel in whatever it is that the cables are attached to. You take a few steps forward, away from the machine, and sit down, relaxing for the first time since you entered this place. You stare at the deflated cocoon of wires that had trapped the monster, while staring at the remains of the monster itself simultaneously. Gradually, the monster fades from your view, until you realize that you can't feel your original body anymore--or its painful wounds.
You actually feel less exhausted too, perhaps because your current body is less wounded... but probably just because you haven't really gotten a chance to rest during that long fight. Looking around, the walls of wire figures that were blocking the exits seem to be breaking up, the figures retreating away from you and the others. It looks like you won't even have to fight your way out.
"G-Get away from her! I blew up one of you already, I'm not afraid to do it again," Tooru lied blatantly, shouting at the bloodstained girl. The quaver in her voice would have made the greatest opera singer jealous, if only it were controlled and not a result of the girl being quite ready to start screaming and flailing about at the slightest provacation.
Ready another talisman!
<You tried to kidnap me! Or, something that looked like you but was made of these horrible wire things like everything else here. I think it's gone now, though. . .>
As an addition, stay alert for any further threats.
You summon up another talisman, hoping you don't have to use it, while you watch Mina and the blonde. They seem to reach an agreement, and promptly split up, the unfamiliar girl slowly walking to a circle of boxy cable-reeling machines in the center of the chamber, while Mina moves to inspect a squirming pile of wires that you hadn't noticed before. There's another blond sitting near her, but Mina doesn't seem to care as she carefully starts attacking the wires, while the first blond starts smashing a machine.
[Creativity]
After a minute, both of them have destroyed their targets without incident, though Mina still seems wary of the wires. The girl near her fades away, so suddenly that you barely even notice, and the other blonde sits down in the very centre of the chamber, resting. She looks up at a deflated sack woven from--of
course--even more wires, hanging about ten feet above the ground. The sack is held up by a thick cable, and your eyes follow the cable up, where it leads into the impenetrable net of wires high above. Six other cables hang in a circle around it, each of them reaching down to one of the machines below. The whole formation seems off to you, and you stare at their top, wondering what they're there for.
Then you notice golden eyes, seven of them, arrayed across the surface of something large and smooth. There's something large up there, almost invisible among the wires and darkness, and it's staring down, directly down, at the girl sitting in the circle of machines.
Soul Gem: Glowing with a warm light.
Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: She has deep slashes along her forearms, a throbbing headache, and a lingering feeling of nausea.
Inventory: A club.
Totem: A fishing club.
Stats:
Bravery: Talented~
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Skilled!
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility Lvl2
Close Combat Lvl2+1
Totem Manipulation Lvl1
Berzerker Lvl2 - Active; Bloodied!
Painless Lvl2
Effigy Lvl1
Soul Gem: Glowing with a
dull light.
Age: 13
Hair color:
Ashen Health: A bit banged up.
Inventory: Nothing of note.
Totem: A Ribbon. The one her late sister wore.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled! Joy: Cursed ;-;
Innocence: Cursed ;-;
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Talented~ Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!Abilities:
Mobility: Level 2
Close Combat: Level 2
Totem Manipulation: Level 0 (+1)
Heal and Steel: Level 2 (Active: Mercy++)
Soothe: Level 2
Flagellation: Level 2 Soul Gem: Glowing with a shining light.
Age: 14.
Hair Color: Bright green.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: Her halberd, held defensively between her and the wires.
Totem: A halberd.
Stats:
Bravery: Amateur...
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Skilled!
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Talented~
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 1
Close-Combat: Level 1 (+1)
Regeneration: Level 2
Sixth Sense: Level 2
Semblance: Level 2
Projection: Level 2
Soul Gem: Glowing with a vibrant light.
Age: 13
Hair Color: Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine!
Inventory: One talisman.
Totem: Ofuda talismans, primarily thrown as manabolts.
Stats:
Bravery: Cursed ;-;
Joy: Talented~
Innocence: Skilled!
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility II
Mana Bolt II (+I)
Regeneration I
Gourmand I
Outburst II
Duet with Reality II