@pile
Even with the ash-things level of speed, the overlapping fields of fire from Giju and the demonshroom consistently tag it with ease, destroying much of what remains of its body. Of course, its was in no way spared, now being little more than the neckbone and the very back of the skull, reducing the red aura that substituted its damaged body to a sort of billowing wind-like thing, weakened to the point that the spore tendrils can actually encroach upon it.
And then, things get exponentially worse, with Aya effectively "turning off" the physical body, as all energy in the area had been instantly sapped, placing it into a deathly, suffocating blackness. The body is, or better damn well be, completely and utterly dead at this point, unable to muster any possible efforts considering the complete destruction of what little energy it still possessed. But, in spite of this, the aura continues on, seemingly unaffected by the cessation of physical motion, pass through Aya as though she was not there, not physically wounding her but, for lack of a better phrase, taking her thoughts with it, sending a malign numbness through her body and mind, as though standing was suddenly a strange thing to her.
The aura weaves through the spore tendrils. flowing forwards like a great tide of water with anything it touches disappearing in a blinding white ash. Shortly, it reaches the cleaver, still entirely unharmed by all that occurred around it even as the spore coating was blasted away in a screamingly hot spray of material. It comes over the cleaver, and then...
There is a black line that appears across the lines of sight of all present. For a split instant, it almost appears like a mirage, a minor hallucination, but all that appears above the line shifts slightly, like a structurally insecure building falling. Giju is mostly unaffected, being above the line, but its course passes straight through Aya and the demonshroom, splitting them clean in half, and the things aura and body are just below it. Furthermore, this again reaches Aleia through Aya, despite their disconnectedness, creating another, similar line through the throne realm and Serafall. An instant later, there is an explosion of black from the lines, somehow even darker than the perfect lack of energy created by Aya, and those in direct contact suffer a sensation similar to being trapped in a chaotic, grinding mess of fanged maws. Simply put, both entire dimensions had been cut into two, with something leaking in through the lesions. At least for the moment, what occurs in the portion that the thing, its aura, and the cleaver are in is entirely unknown, seemingly cut off from the demonic influence that used to pervade it.
@Paul_Frank
The lamprey-things prove unexpectedly lithe and swift, managing a center mass bite before the cutting winds sever them from the beast, spraying an incredibly noxious liquid over the area in massive quantities. Meanwhile, the pressure blasts seem to blast clear through the fleshy portions of the beasts head, stopping again at the bone, with one passing through the gap between its jaw and neck. This obviously completely tears open its neck, prompting some extremely loud noises not dissimilar to chocking as some fetid black liquid pours from the wound.
@The_Divine_Phoenix
"... uh huh. I'm going to be honest with you: that's a lost cause. This place is extremely unstable and there are great forces at work. And even if there was no metaphysical issues afoot, the planet has literally lost too much material and energy to maintain any pre-existing life. You're better off abandoning this place and trying again somewhere else."
@DMUA
"... Aye. I am not of this place, as should be clear."
The brass figure speaks in response.
"My presence disagrees with this place. That I am aware of, and it saddens me, but there are things here that must be done."
@WHYNAUT
The Shadow's analysis and attempt at control reveal quite a few things about this "creature." Primarily, it is not an insect, or even alive at all. It's an automaton composed entirely of an unworldly iron and obsidian. Even further, it's physical capabilities are immense, not even mentioning how it's body, coiled and layered around and over itself, composes about 50% of the African continent, and it possesses a variety of esoteric effects, although many seem somehow alien to Elfen's mode of cognition and aren't of much help in regards to information. But, what can also be discerned is the automaton's age: several trillion years, at minimum, yet not a single atom of its structure displays any amount of decay whatsoever. In fact, due to that lack of decay, it's entirely possible that its true age could be many orders of magnitude older than the aforementioned estimate.
@Core
As Matricardo slashes the thing, his blade-arm merely bounces off of its armored hide with an audible "tink". In response, the many crawling legs reach out at immense speeds, piercing him at several different points. Matricardo could notice that every single one of those spots would be instantly lethal to someone with a normal physiology, showing a significant degree of intelligence on the creature's part.
Meanwhile, the shroom emperor's strike does actually cleave through the thing's hide, given how Apocalypse is capable of cleaving space-time, sending the lower portion moving slightly backwards, a black liquid seeming to slosh about within. But shortly after, many layered glyphs and bands of light form over both ends of the wound, seeming to reverse time itself to undo the damage. Shortly after this, the thing begins to move rapidly, pulling more of it's body from what appears to be underground at a great rate, constantly raking past the shroom with its bladed limbs.
And then, finally, the Shadow's tags appear across various portions of the creature, but don't appear to do much of anything.
On top of this rather concerning encounter, the two can distinctly sense a great, new heat within the core. This is not just the heat of the core somehow being reinvigorated, but a more unearthly, mystical heat.
