Me and Messa step into the hotel. Elizabeth isn't here! If we just sneak past the desk...
But the moment I use Body's Mind to try and conceal my presence, Elizabeth walks out from behind a door that was just across from the desk.
"You two need to get out of here, it's not sa-"
She cuts herself off when her eyes eventually land on me, and my blood stained hands.
"Oh..."
"Yeah... Sorry..." I say, trying to soften the impact.
"I'm not sure why I didn't think you two would know each other. After all, Messa did try and get a room here.""
Elizabeth...
"How could you let him do this?!"
"That doesn't matter, Isaac. All that matters is if she's in our way or not."
"It does matter! I thought you were a good person!"
"I..."
She falls silent.
"Isaac, you haven't even really known her for that long, why are you so choked up about this?"
"Because I don't want to beat someone up if I don't have to!"
I fall silent for a moment.
"I'm sorry," she says, "I should've put more- no, any effort into trying to stop him. Instead, I just... let him do his own thing, without confronting him."
"Well, it doesn't sound like you're that bad of a person, so just let us pass and..."
"I'm sorry, but... it feels wrong to just abandon him."
"You know he deserves it."
"Can't we sort this out peacefully?!" she cries.
"As much as I'd like that, Society's Vanguard has made their judgement," Messa states, gritting his teeth, "and as much as I hate the concept of it, we're working with them."
" "Haha, well... It seems I'm going to have to defend my boyfriend's awful actions.""
Just as she says that, the floor underneath me and Messa spontaneously crumbles! Even with the increased reflexes gained by both Psynesis, and the adrenaline rush from losing my footing, I still don't properly react to Messa immediately grabbing onto the back of my shirt! By the time I've even noticed, he's already thrown me across the room towards Elizabeth!
I decide to go with the flow, and try to slam her with a physical punch on the way down! She's able to block my physical attack with a reasonable amount of resistance though. I start sliding backwards when I hit the ground, as I push myself back from the attack.
She quickly turns around, trying to run back to the door she originally came out of, but after I hear the sound of something breaking, she stops dead in her place! I can't tell what's happening to her, because the reception desk is blocking my view.
Once I activate Mind's Body, it's clear that Messa jumped up from the floor below, and broke through the floor under Elizabeth with his hands, letting him grab her ankles!
After a moment, he pulls her through the floor, slamming her onto the ground!
I'm ready to jump down the hole to assist Messa, but after he slams her into the ground, he defends himself with mental energy. I thought this was a little strange, until I focused a little bit more on using Mind's Body.
Little lines of mental energy pointed out a bit farther from his back, creating an uneven defense, but also creating a message for me to read! Did he know I'd use Mind's Body in order to read this?
It read: "Don't worry about me, you go fight the leader! I'll be gentle with her."
Interesting phrasing aside, I decide to take his advice, and start running to find the boss!
Messa's first priority was using Mind's Body to keep an eye on Isaac, to make sure he escaped from the area. His second priority was analyzing the opponent's ability.
So... it's somehow able to destroy parts of the hotel. I suppose the first question should be if it's something that causes the destruction of parts of the hotel, or if that's the ability in and of itself.
It's nearly pitch black in the basement, with the exception of the light pouring down from the holes Messa and Elizabeth created. Because of this, Messa was keeping himself guarded from all angles, since he had no idea where the next attack would come from.
Suddenly, sounds of bursting pipes are heard from below! Due to the nature of Elizabeth's ability, Messa wasn't able to use Mind's Body to sense where the next attack was coming from. So, as strong geysers of water burst out the ground underneath, all Messa could do was use physical defenses to prevent his skin from getting sliced open!
Of course, if an enemy is somehow able to be pressured on the physical plane, any reasonably experienced Psynesis user will immediately try and pressure their mental defenses, as an attempt to put them against an unblockable attack.
However... if the physical pressure the opponent is under is some type of environmental or otherwise unaligned source, then if the opponent is good enough...
Messa side-steps to the left, as Elizabeth runs at him with a mentally charged attack. But, since there was a geyser pointed directly at Messa's back, when he sidestepped, the geyser was redirected at Elizabeth!
Luckily for her, the geyser only grazes her shoulder as she barely dodges the attack, but the pain prevents her from focusing as well, letting Messa dodge the attack easier. Afterwards, Messa immediately gains some distance on her by jumping backwards.
Given how sloppily that punch was thrown, I can guess that she's a not very experienced fighter. In that case, I should get on the offensive.
Messa immediately starts with a sweep, which only hits one of Elizabeth's legs, since she immediately backs up when Messa starts his attack.
It seems that she's the type to rely on her special ability to gain the advantage, only risking herself whenever it seems like it's impossible for me to fight back. After all, she immediately put myself in a situation where I can't see, and she likely knows where everything is. In these types of situations, I can either back her into a corner where she can't run away anymore, or...
Messa's thoughts are interrupted by a lightbulb immediately turning on over his head! Since Messa saw Elizabeth with her fists raised up, charged with mental energy, Messa immediately knew that he would be attacked by the lightbulb in some way.
The lightbulb explodes! Messa, predicting this, has already focused his physical energy to the spots of his body that have already been hit by the water geysers, protecting himself from the electricity that was immediately conducted to those points. Afterwards, Messa backs up as Elizabeth's punch swings where Messa's head was, causing her hand to get sliced up by the glass shards from the lightbulb in the process!
Messa immediately jumps towards her as a response, preparing for how and where she will guard!
The easiest way to dodge this attack is to run under me. But enemies like her are too scared to briefly get closer to the enemy even to dodge an attack, even if there's an alternative way of dodging! I'm going to kick to my right as I'm coming because she just hurt her right hand, and thus, she wants to block with her left hand, meaning it's likely that she'll dodge to my right, meaning she would be able to block with her left arm!
The next question is, will she block mentally, or physically? Surely one would think mentally, because mental energy is already surging through her body, right? Wrong! I'm certain that she'll block physically, since the last two times she used mental energy, she failed. Sure, those were related offense, but with her type, I know she's afraid to commit to options, especially when it comes to defense! Also, her ability is far more likely to be a physical ability, meaning that it's easier for her to use physical body enhancements!
With those thoughts running in Messa's mind, he decides to do a mental spinning kick to his right, which immediately goes through Elizabeth's physical defenses she tried to block with, using her left arm! A clean hit like that causes her to stagger, and Messa immediately follows up the attack with two more punches to the chest, and knee powerful enough to launch her into the air! Afterwards, Messa immediately jumps into the air after her, and finishes his combo by slamming her to the ground with both hands!
Elizabeth lands on the ground with her back, allowing Messa to land on top of her.
"Alright, Elizabeth. Messa says you're not so bad, so I'm inclined to try and save you when this mansion, as well as all of Direpending, burns to the ground."
Just then, an anxiety starts to affect Messa, like a miasma slowly descending upon him. His immediate reaction is to use mental energy to defend himself but... it doesn't work. Somehow, he's been forced into Body's Mind!
Just afterwards, the ceiling above him explodes, causing three giant, sharp wooden support beams from different angles to swing themselves directly at Messa!