Bells of Warding [Christmas Gigt]

• Bells of Warding •

» Item Name: Bells of Demon Warding
» Primary Information

» Item Description:

This item takes the form of a pin, that can be worn anywhere on the user's body. The first time this item is picked up and has energy moved through it, it 'imprints' on its owner, shifting its color to that of its wielder's passive aura. The pin changes in color in response to changes in its wielder's aura. The bells also take the shape of typical round bells, with holes etched into them with the shape of snow flakes.

When this item is touched, its user can insert their own spiritual energy. It takes a decent amount of energy to create an item from it; about the amount required to fire a cero. When the user finishes inserting their energy, they can remove their fingers from it.

From here, the user has two options. They can attach the bell in a loop by rubbing on their neck, leg, or wrists, causing a collar or band to appear. The second option is to merely press the bell against clothing or skin. From here, the bell will bind or create a piercing that molds onto the person's skin, painlessly pressing onto it to hold on. It is possible to rip off these bells or break the bands; their grips are only about as strong as iron.

The user can spawn mutiple bells by touching the first bell or the bands the bells are on, or new places on their skin or clothing. However, the effects of equipping multiple bells could be dangerous.

When the bells ring, they emit energy waves that sing outwards, interweaving with the sounds already being made. These energy waves of sound have a relatively passive effect; disrupting Death Energy and Za Koa. These usually malicously-aligned energies are disrupted by the bell's waves, by its ringing. The longer the constructs of these energies are exposed, the weaker these constructs become.

Each of the waves 'drags' energy from these constructs or effects created by these malicious energies, dispersing them and making it harder to keep those constructs together and effective. A user of the same level as the wielder of the bells would find their constructs be minorly affected by a single bell, see a decrease of up to thirty five percent by five, and a decrease of over fifty percent by ten. The stronger an opponent is from the wielder, or the greater the gap between the relevant energy stats, the harder it is for the bells to effect them, and the more bells are required to negatively impact their constructs.

For a person stronger than the wielder, having ten bells would likely result in a noticeable change, maybe up to reducing the effectiveness of such constructs by twenty percent. For a person weaker than the wielder, they would be affected much easier, to the point where ten bells ringing at once would make it difficult for twenty five percent of the original intended energy construct or attack to be properly maintained after a post of exposure.

Now, each of the bells works in a rather simple manner; they must be 'rung', and their ringing must be 'in time' with themselves and the bells around them. They can be influenced by a number of factors, including the user's own touch, their movements, and the sound of their music. What this means is that the less the user focuses on the bells and ringing them properly, the more chaotic the effect of the bells becomes.

For most users, this would translate into the bells causing a kind of 'washing over' effect from the malicious energy into their own energy constructs. For example, if the user had a musical field effect, and the bells began to go out of tune, then the malicious energy that was dispersed would begin to seep into their musical field, making it overall less effective, becoming less and less effective as the user pays less and less attention to it. This can get so bad that the amount of energy being dragged out of the enemy's abilities is next to nothing, and all the energy that is removed goes right back into the user's own constructs, making them much less efficient.

Now, for a person with Beginner focus, controlling more than a single bell would be next to impossible. For an Adept, controlling three to four bells becomes possible. For an Advanced, it becomes rather effortless to maintain up to five bells, and they can attempt more if they have them. A master is able to maintain ten bells without distraction, and a lower number without much problems whatsoever. A level of focus greater than this would result in the number of bells increasing or decreasing relative to the wielder's focus skill, but needless to say, they would be able to manipulate greater and greater numbers of bells simultaneously.

The bells are energy constructs, and the ringing that they perform are rather intense actions. This ringing causes for the bells to grow less effective as time passes. The risk and effort required to maintain them remains the same, however. The more of the bells there are, the more intense the ringing becomes, and the quicker they wear down. Essentially, five or fewer bells will start to deteriorate after three posts, and collapse completely by six posts. Five to ten bells will begin breaking down after about two posts, and be completely gone by four. Ten or more bells will often begin to lose their composition after two posts, and can be gone by four as well. However, the intensity of this decrease is substantially greater; by the time the third post occurs, the bells are substantially weaker than they were during the first and second post.

Once the bells have deteriorated, the user has the ability to choose to keep the dilapidated bells around, adding on new ones and making it more difficult but keeping the effect going, or taking a post to recover, tapping the pin twice to cause each of the bells they have called up to disperse. After a cool down of one post they can use their energy to begin making new bells.

Extra Feature: Bell Submission
By holding their finger over the bell for the length of a post, incapacitating one arm and spending a considerable amount of energy, the wearer of this bell pin can cause a kind of 'auto-pilot' mode. Essentially, this invites the bell to being 'regulating' the task of ringing the bells. The user no longer has to worry about making sure the bells keep ringing. They have to spend all the energy to create the bells, still, or maybe they feel the need to create ten new bells to deal with a situation while they have five old ones still around. A pressed into the corner type of situation.

In this case, the user may desire to activate Bell Submission. Bell Submission takes over the responsibility of ringing the bells, completely. It keeps them going in near-perfect harmony. It is not absolutely perfect, and may cause a slight decrease in the effectiveness of the wielder's energy constructs and effects in the general vicinity. But it greatly reduces the mental burden they experience.

However, Bell Submission has one major drawback. Depending on the user's level of Focus, the drawback will become more apparent. For a Beginner, it will set in after a post. For an adept, it'll set in after two. For an Advanced user, it will set in after three. For an Elite, it will go in after four. For skill levels higher than this, they will have up to five posts before this effect begins to set in noticeably.

The drawback takes effect over three posts. After the first post, the wielder begins to forget exactly what the bells are ringing for. It becomes apparent to them that the bells need to ring, and they remain mostly cognizant of their surroundings.

After the second post, they begin to lose awareness of the world around them, and begin to perform actions specifically to keep the bells ringing. If an enemy or other thing they care about comes close, they may be distracted enough to attempt to deal with it... but it will seem much more important to the wielder that they should be keeping the bells ringing, because of how deeply the auto-pilot functionality has meshed with their mind.

Finally, after the third post, the outside world fades completely. They become entranced by the bells, dancing and moving to keep the bells ringing in tune, replacing all other music and sound around their body with the sound. They become unable to hear anything but the bells, and they remain in this trance-like state until the bells have stopped ringing. Typically, this would only occur when they run out of spiritual energy, which could take any length of time... but it will leave the wielder extraordinarily vulnerable by the time it is finished.

Bell Submission has a cooldown period of six posts; to deactivate it, the user needs to tap the pin three times.

» This Present Is For:
The Melody, Sofia Montero

» Hebi Resarch Notes:
Constantly battling against the demonic forces of this world... I pondered a simple question. Does she battle them with music so that she can overcome them, or does she simply wish to enjoy the sounds of battle...? No different than they are... This was the question I wanted to find the answer to, and with this item, she will finally be able to decide for herself. Perhaps she will use it only as a melodic tool... or perhaps she will succumb to its influence, how much nicer it is to just listen to the bells ring, and ring...

Codes by: The Frost