2017-02-25: The Lord of Calamity: Lucia the Destroyer!

• Log: The Lord of Calamity: Lucia the Destroyer!
• Cast: Alisha Diphda, Amelia Rose, Hiro, Jean, Kalve, Lemina Ausa, Lucia, Skylr Paer, Seraph Edna, Seraph Lailah, Sorey, Zed
• Where: Outside the Ruins of Memory
• Date: February 25, 2017
• Summary: The Shepherd's retinue, along with two Guardsmen, find Lucia, the Lord of Calamity, and her band. A battle unfolds.

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<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
<SoundTracker> Zophar's Theme

History casts a long shadow, even when the last vestiges of sunlight are fading from the sky, replaced by moons whose tithe is meager in comparison. The only real bright spot left in this strange and lonely place comes from a campfire about three quarters of a rolling hill over from the ancient tower itself, in the lee of a hill. And even it is low on its coals; less of a blazing beacon and more of a glow.

A glow around which many figures gather. They're just silhouettes now, black against the brown-gray of the twilit hills. Some loom large, their weapons adding stark lines to their shapes, slung across backs or held in hands. Others are far smaller -- really, a whole spectrum of humanity-and-then-some seems to be meeting there, right down to something that might be a bat, if bats were friendly and often sitting on a cloaked man's shoulder.

There are a fair quantity of dramatic cloaks in general.

Definitely suspicious.

But what takes things from merely 'from a distance this kind of looks like a cult' to a five car alarm situation is the malevolence, which isn't something most people can feel in the slightest.

Those that can, however -- it can't really be overstated. Coming over a hill and into sight of this gathering is like walking into a swirling maelstrom from the side. Darkness flows in vast currents. It tastes like bile and smells like metal in the same way that blood can, when spilled in the wrong ways. And it feels... cold.

Cold not like a blizzard is cold, but like the systematic execution of a thousand surrendering soldiers is cold. The kind of cold that wounds the world.

The malevolence here is an identity, and it breathes. It beats with its own pulse, subsuming that of all around, which instinctively speed up to match it. It is as though the whole world vibrates with malice, with breathtaking hatred. It is a violation, an assault, cloying as a rotting pear, overwhelming as an oncoming train.

Unstoppable as an avalanche.

---

Meanwhile, around the fire:

Lucia watches Kalve draw the map with appreciative interest, leaning forward and pursing her lips thoughtfully. She asks many questions. Few of them make sense without the context that her geography lessons are really, really, /really/ out of date. And she listens attentively to his speech about Method Mercury, too.

"I have never thought of battle as a mirror before," she murmurs, subdued. It sounds like she will be chewing on that metaphor for a while.

One of the books, she offers for inspection. It's from the Metal Demon era. It is a romance novel. "We unearthed these from the tower where we crashed," she explains, before realizing that it's time to do introductions again. She once again rattles it off with almost unsettling ease:

"Lemina, Jean, these are Kalve and Zed, who have come to aid our mission. Lemina is the Junior Premier of the Magic Guild of Vane and a very dedicated mage. Jean is the star dancer of Giban's Caravan and a mighty warrior. Kalve is a Maker, Seeker, and of the Method, while Zed is an Ultimate Macho Man, The Grim Reaper's Pen Pal, a warrior among warriors, and the hero who walks in the dark so we don't have to."

Those who know her, know that the odds that she understands what a Macho Man is zero and who the Grim Reaper is, near-zero. Prior knowledge isn't even really required to interpret that innocently serious litany of titles.

GS: Lucia has fully healed herself.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Sorey had spent most of the previous day doing what he loves best - research in preparation for exploring some unknown ruin somewhere that could provide even more information on the past! Really, the comparisons between this world and Lunar were quite interesting, and he'd discovered some interesting historical commonalities that he wanted to follow up on.

Unbeknownst to Sorey, of course, his activities had stirred up some interest back in Adelhyde - and there were rumors from several members in Althena's Guard that the Shepherd might be heading out this way. Rumors that would quickly get back to their allies, even if they spread much more slowly in town thanks to no one not from Lunar knowing who the Shepherd was.

But Sorey wanders along with his companions, their pace more meandering than anything else. After all, it isn't as if their errand had brought them out here with anything that resembles a high degree of urgency. Just a nice casual exploration of the Ruins of Memory, that shouldn't be a problem at all.

Until they get close enough to see the fire of the camp on a nearby hilltop, and Sorey comes to a halt. His eyes raise upwards, looking towards the fire for a moment.

And his hand drops to his sword.

"I sense malevolence," he states quietly to his companions. "More of it than I've felt since coming to this world." He wouldn't call it incredibly strong, but given that there had been almost none of that fell miasma drifting about since they arrived on Filgaia, the presence of any is enough to put him on guard. It isn't something he enjoys, but Sorey has grown used to dealing with that choking, terrible miasma. Because if he follows it, then he'll find something he can confront and deal with as the Shepherd. "Everyone be careful, and let's find out what we're dealing with."

And with that Sorey takes off up the hill, moving quickly across the dry ground as he closes on the campfire. The only sound of his approach is the faint whisper of boots moving across grass, the ripple of his white mantle as it breeze tugs at it.

And then the friendly brown haired young man that Hiro, Lemina, and Jean had explored the Sacred Grounds with appears from the darkness, his cloak swirling about him for a moment as he stops at the edge of the campfire. He looks around for a moment, surprised at the crowd... and then his eyes focus on Lucia, and he stops.

Sorey's wooden sword whispers from its sheath, the lacquered carvings glowing in the light of the campfire. "Who are you?" Sorey asks, his eyes locked on Lucia.

And in response to the malevolence in front of him, the Shepherd's blade blazes to life, the wooden weapon becoming a tongue of blue fire that lights up the top of the hill in contrast to the warmer light of the campfire.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Wait. What's this!? There are... More friends! More... lady friends!? Zed's eyes cut briefly in the direction of the blonde and bluenette as they make their way up the hill. There may be a brief sparkle. Just a little bit of one. Llllllaaaadies.

And then it's gone again.

"What ho!" Zed says with a proud grin that only grows wider and more radiant as Lucia recites all of those amazing and probably woefully inaccurate (or at least misleading) titles. "It is exactly as she says! I am Zed, and I am all of those things. More beyond, too! It's good to meet all of you, I'm so excited to be here, lending my strength and skill to this glorious mission! I've never met people from the moon before. Hahahaha! Isn't it... Kind of dry up there?"

It is kind of... A moon. Or it looks like a moon from down here, at least.

But then, there's more talk of martial arts and the naming and exchange thereof, "Your dragon is wise in her ways, Hiro. Everyone knows that red is the only color that can compete with green. So naming your style in tribute to the red dragon is only natural! Though I'm more familiar with... Other sorts of dragons. Hmn." Beat. "Well, anyway! We'll have to spar soon! It'll be great! Tons of fun!"

Kalve gets a look. A capital L look. The kind of look that says 'wow you really have no idea how this works, Kalve. You need to pay more attention, Kalve. Gosh, Kalve!!' It's a very specific look. "Of course I can have more than one rival! What do you take me for? Some kind of... Rival Limit Haver? No, there is more than enough Zed to go around! And by rivalry, we all grow as warriors! It's only sensible to have as many as possible!"

But then... Then.

Then...

Some... Guy with a glowing sword appears on the hill. Zed frowns, his jovial attitude briefly fading to the background. And then it's back again, back with a VENGEANCE. An awesome, grinning, victorious vengeance. Suddenly, Sorey isn't the only one with a sword. A wicked, curved edge glimmers in the moonlight. Zed's grin flashes over the crescent of his brandished blade. "Oh? Oh oh oh? Who are you to ask for names before giving your own, stranger!? I am Zed, the ULTIMATE MACHO MAN! The GRIM REAPER'S PEN PAL!? And who are you? And..."

"Can you tell me how you make your sword do that?" Zed's eyes flicker to the blue flames. "That is really cool and I'd like to know how to do it myself if at all possible."

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

For Alisha Diphda, it is just a hill, just like any other on this dry and dying world. The princess knight steps a little after Sorey, her eyes looking ahead as she scans about. The Ruins of Memory sounded appealing to investigate, of course. Except that they didn't end up making it that far.

Instead, they crested the hill, and she sees a couple of things. She may not be able to see the malevolence, nor see the Seraphim, but she can see the shimmer of blue fire up the Shepherd's wooden ritual sword. She can see something else too.

A tall, statuesque woman, clad in robes of crimson -- as red as blood. Blue hair, worn long, and those green ices that were said to be icy.

And even if she cannot see the malevolence, her other senses do not lie. After all, she can hear the Seraphim. She can /smell/ the malevolence. Thick, putrid; cloying, and it hurts, in a way, for her to come face to face with it. For the first time, she starts to understand what it is.

"She... Sorey!"

TWO WEEKS AGO -- ON LUNAR

"Alisha."

Alisha looked up, from inside Ladylake's cathedral. The princess put down her copy of the Celestial Record, resting it on the pew in front of her. The young woman turns, as an older woman steps through the cathedral, blue uniform's coattails trailing after her. Alisha sees the stern woman -- and the small smile for her pupil, that so few see.

"Master!" the princess cried.

Lady Maltran came to a stop before her. She nodded once, then. "Alisha, I have news. I am off to Meribus. There has been... an event."

That brought Alisha to a pause. She wasn't one for outbursts, usually, though. She tilted her head sideways, then noddded. "An event?"

"There are reports from White Knight Leo," Maltran said. "That... the Lord of Calamity has been spotted in the north."

"That--"

NOW -- FILGAIA

Alisha's eyes widen. She reaches down, but she left the letter in her inn room. "Sorey, that--Lady Maltran wrote about this, and--" She looks around wildly, as if she could make contact with Lailah, Edna, or Mikleo. She can't. Instead, she looks to the ones near the woman in red. Near Lucia.

She steps forward and she practically screams. Maltran saw her; Maltran knew the truth. That is more than enough for her to go on.

"Miss Nash!" she calls out. "Helen, Alex, all of you--get away from her! Get away from her this instant!" Her hand comes over her back, and swings down her sword. "That... that is the Lord of Calamity! You have to get far away!"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna, being the lazy sack of bricks she was, didn't even bother to walk. She's walked enough in the past week to justify never walking again. And so, she's dwelling inside Sorey as *he* makes his way to these ruins. Ever since they met up again this is what she's decided to do. At least, that was the plan before she sensed that sickening miasma of malevolence. Clear as day, it was.

Sorey would hear a sigh echo out from inside himself, and then a golden wisp of light leave him. In a shimmer of earthen energy, Edna regains her corporeal form, standing some steps away from Sorey as he comes to stand before those at the campfire. She pushes down the wretched feeling that comes with being in contact with large amounts of malevolence and casually opens up her umbrella, setting it against a shoulder.

Icy blue eyes rest upon all before her, and she makes no moves, unsure if those present can even see her. But there is one aside she makes to the Shepherd. "...This much sheer malevolence... I'm sure you must already know who this is, dear Shepherd." She murmurs, remaining outwardly calm and relaxed, but inwardly keeping her guard up. There was noo doubt; They are standing before the Lord of Calamity.

<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.

The Guard is /always/ after the Destroyer and her crew. But sometimes Althena is merciful, and luck itself almost seems to be on their side. Today? Priestess Amelia Rose and her compatriots aren't here specifically for the great Evil that they've been hunting down. No, it's a case of a certain Skylr invoking the Shepherd's name upon this blighted world. A quick report later, and Amelia set out with the kind of desire to find the man that she once adventured with bordering on obsession. His presence amongst the Guard itself would bring not only further truth to their goal, but a much needed boost of morale given how stranded they are.

Amelia isn't blind to such pragmatism. And likely Leo isn't either.

Thankfully, Silver had acquired Sorey's scent somewhere amidst the adventuring, and it didn't take all /that/ much to end up being tugged along by the dog's lead towards Sorey. It might seem a bit reckless from the soft-spoken Priestess, but she's rushing behind the dog as though she would put her life in his paws. Which she would. But she also believes in the dog's intelligence and snoz.

"Skylr! We are close, I think. Ah!"

Just as Sorey comes rushing up the hill, not too far behind does dog and Priestess. At the last second, that wave of Malevolence finally hits the sensitive priestess' sorcerous senses, and she tumbles /up/ the hill. Right into a vague, graceless roll that at least prevents her from hurting any limbs. The lead drops, Silver rushes in front of her, even as Zed draws his blade, and she pops up on her knees. Even as Alisha proclaims her words, the priestess slowly pulls herself to a knee. She's coughing, retching, her soul feeling that sickness in the area.

"Sh...shep..." Hack, cough!

Slowly, painstakingly, as Silver howls and barks, she gets to her feet.

"Princess...is that...I can feel her. YOU! You are...Lucia the Destroyer! Aren't you!? I can...can feel your evil!" Spits out the Priestess, both hands gripping her cane, the woman fighs to her feet. She'd look drunk, if she wasn't so sickly looking.

A swift breath, and scrambling for Silver's chain, she grasps it. Pulling up her cane defensively, she lets out a breath.

"All of you. Flee. This woman intends to destroy the world. Anyone who would help this sick world's destruction...I will have no mercy for!"

<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.

Oh no no no no.

Skylr has heard, same as a few others, about a rumor that Sorey is in the local area. On one hand, Sorey. On the other hand, SOREY. She is both excited and terrified about this specific combination of circumstances, especially when Alisha is probably with him which just devolves into Skylr's brain going into *loud raptor kazoo noises*

tweet

No wait. TOOT. That's a actual kazoo noise.

Following Amelia, Skylr is alarmed when Amelia tumbles down the roll. "Amelia, Miss Amelia--!" She rushes after her, only to freeze when she at least visibly recognizes the woman, only to hear her thoughts get confirmed by several different people. One hand reaches behind her cloak, the tip of a ivy and flower-carved wooden bow appearing in her grip.

The kazoo noises get slightly louder.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro is eager to get into a sparring match with Zed as soon as possible so they can start geeking out about swordsmanship, but right now he's distracted by just how wonderful Lucia is being. It's really such a striking difference from the first time they met in the Blue Spire. He finds himself watching her a little long- until she brings up the books again and he looks away.

Hiro has no idea about the whisper of bootsteps across the grass. When Sorey sees him, he's got that same easy grin on him that they'd seen in the ruins. It's only once he gets to the edge of the crowd that he notices, "Hey is that-" He even waves at him, "-Sorey? What are you doing here?" He grins, "Well if you want to take a load-" But that's when he notices his eyes upon Lucia, the sword whispering out of its sheath.

A blue blaze encompasses it, and his friendly demeanor sort of fades into seriousness. "Sorey. Come on, put that down." And then Alisha appears too, "Princess- look I know what you're all thinking-" He takes one step that way, then another, hand upon the hilt of the length of iron in his sheath. "-you saw the posters. Didn't you? From Althena's Guard?" He's not making any sudden moves yet, but there's nothing he wants to do more than get in front of him and Lucia. "This isn't what it looks like. So let's all calm down for just a moment..."

The pink cat like being on his shoulder hunches backwards as Edna, "Hiro- they're jumping out of that one- out of Sorey. I think they're Seraphim." Hiro blinks, because he's not actually seeing her- and Seraphim are a legend right? "Ruby- are you sure-" "They're heeeerreeeee."

He doesn't consider the implications of that. As Amelia shows up, Hiro holds up a palm- knowing she's from Althena's Guard and thus less likely to be reasonable, "It's not like that! Everyone just- back off- back away from Lucia right now." His sword has slid out halfway by now, the saucepan lid roped to his opposite wrist held at the ready.

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

"Do you live underground?" Kalve asks. Well, they did say they were from the moon, and as Zed so helpfully pointed out, it's very... moon-like. "It doesn't look very hospitable..." He trails off... pretty much as soon as he opens the book he's offered, actually.

Wow.

Okay.

Uh.

Fortunately, Kalve's shattered composure is fortunately saved by the fact that danger looms. He jerks his head up towards the incoming parties, tensing. His incredibly loud poncho (SO MUCH COLOR) makes him stand out a little, though the malevolence certainly draws the attention of the spiritually-aware before he can sear their eyes.

He closes the book, setting it aside carefully. Kalve steps over the map he's sketched out and puts himself up next to Zed, black gauntleted hands hanging loose by his sides. He takes a breath, eyes drawn to the blazing sword, and then exhales as he gets a better look at the enemy combatants. They mean business. Those aren't the words or actions of people who really want to talk things out. Violence is inevitable.

And thank Mother for /that/.

Kalve clasps his hands behind his back. Zed has his weapon drawn; Kalve doesn't even seem to be carrying one. "I do not recommend continuing on this course. Is it not said that even an army could not stop her? And you do not even outnumber those of us collected here." He nods his head away, downhill, towards fields of flowers reddened by the setting sun. "Tactically speaking..."

"...you should come back with more men."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

(I, too, sense the Malevolence, and I must stress that we all must proceed with extreme caution.) A soft-spoken voice within Sorey intones before pausing. (Sorey, do not lost sight of what you believe to be true and good in your heart.) And then voice goes quiet once more. An unusual practice for the Seraph known as Lailah. This silence contines all the way to the camp itself until a wisp of red emanates from Sorey and arcs into the nearby ground.

Springing forth from the spot emerges a tall green-haired woman in red and white vestment whose arms come out to her side before folding in front of her. A grim expression graces itself upon Lailah's face as she shifts her jade green eyes towards Lucia and then her various other companions in turn. She promptly brings her left hand out to her side and flips her hands over to reveal a hand full of long cut pieces of paper.

Lailah's left hand is now brought up in front of herself defensively as she takes a step towards Sorey. "Such intense malevolence...this can only..." She trails off as she looks between her compatriots now with concern. "....it can only belong to one person, the same person whose Malevolence can change the fabric of the world itself!" Alisha has already spoken her title and Amelia her name. Lailah bows her head in deference now, her green eyes closing. A maelstrom of thoughts, worries, and concerns storm within Lailah's mind at tempestuous speeds. Green eyes reopen with fiery intensity as she stands ready to support her friends however she can in whatever comes next.

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

There's no one who loves dramatic cloaks more than Lemina. When she took up with Lucia, she thought that might be the end of the dramatic cloak -- but no, now there's a whole new world of people to shock and surprise!

"Oof," is all Lemina meets Zed's numerous sobriquets with. "I thought Ronfar was going to be as weird as it got..." Lemina mumbles, with zero self-awareness of her own weirdness quotient. She adds, hastily, "Lunar is /not/ full of mega-magic mole people! We live on the surface, thank you very much!"

Introductions are interrupted, unfortunately. Alisha shouts at Lucia's assembled friends to get away from her -- and while Lemina's seen the wanted posters, she didn't... /quiiiite/ realize that this was as big a deal as it was. There's a bit of a line between 'wanted' and 'actively being pursued across planets.'

Glancing between her assembled allies and the shouting Guard members, Lemina purses her lips for a moment... and then figures there's really no way around this, and calls back, "Sorry -- not a chance! I'm not going to just abandon these people..." There's a pause, before she appends, "Especially not before they start paying Magic Guild dues!"

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

"Oh, it's nice to meet you Klave, Zed!"

But Jean stops in her own pleasnatries as soon as the fiery sword is drawn, her head turning and her eyes narrowing. She remembers the pleasant boy she explored a ruin with. She remembers others who are the same. But he's only the first, not at all the last, and the dancer Closes her eyes a moment.

She lets out a small breath, looking for some kind of quiet.

Opening her yes, Jean looks to the kind princess, and then to Amelia Rose. "No mercy," she repeats.

"If that's how it is..." Jean widens her stance, "Then there will be no mercy for me! I'm not leaving!" A shake of her head, "She's none of those things. She's my friend. And anyone who comes after her," she starts, and pulls two fans.

"Goes through me!" A quirk of a smile, "I'm glad you're with us," to Lemina, as she spins the fans in her hands and eyes the others.

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

The Lord of Calamity was sitting on a rock reading an ancient (evil?) tome, but as she is approached -- aggressively -- she rises to her feet, setting the book aside. Her blood-red cloak flows all around her, and her eyes catch the firelight, their green set aflame twice, from natural red and sacred (blue.

They look /straight/ across the camp at Edna, meeting her gaze straight on. The full weight of her attention is heavy like an outsized sword, like giving a graveside eulogy. It doesn't direct the malevolence, particularly, but she is ancient, even by Seraphim standards. Too old, the kind of old that defies the natural order, that should not be.

She glances between the Early Bloomer and Lailah the Pure, bestowing upon both of them a long and eerily blank look that is, like a mirror, apt to reflect the prejudices of those who view it. In reality it is, if anything, an unasked question. But it seems there is not time for questions now.

Everyone is talking; demands go out on all sides, sharper than drawn knives -- and there are plenty of those, too. For her part, Lucia is apparently unarmed. That, or her weapon can't be seen in the same way that the curvature of the world is invisible to those who stand upon it.

She says nothing for long moments, now looking /past/ the opposition, almost through them, as though tracking a larger, stranger battlefield than this one. That, or she's just zoning out, trying to figure out who 'Alex,' 'Helen' and 'Miss Nash' are.

When she finally has something to say for herself, it shakes the heavens, a single word that pucks an already-taut string of reality, making it snap. It sounds like all languages and none, resonanting in the heart. And it's extra-special because it's an onomatopoeia.

"...POWER..."

White light pours over her, as sudden and startling as a flashbang, illuminating her every detail -- the hat, the pendant, the hair. It is exceedingly easy to interpret, in the moment, as the Lord of Calamity powering up for a royal rumble.

Hiro and the others know better. Their stalwart ally, uninjured, has just healed herself...

GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Calm Litany!
GS: Lucia has completed her action.
GS: Lucia heals Lucia! She gains 100 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

OK - Zed's comment is not the first thing Sorey expected upon getting to the top of the hill. Really, that was just kind of weird. But he doesn't have a lot of time to respond to the strange man with green hair who has already drawn his sword, as Alisha speaks up and identifies the woman standing before him. The Lord of Calamity. ...Lady of Calamity? But it seems like all of his companions can easily recognize the source of this malevolence. Therefore...

It's Hiro's words that cause Sorey's head to turn slightly, and he looks at the dark haired young man he had gotten along with so well with in their previous encounter. "...it would probably be too much to ask if you can feel it. The malevolence... it clings to her like a shroud." There is another flicker of light as Mikleo appears as well, standing just behind Sorey. The white haired Seraphim pulls out his staff, and nods once. He doesn't anything to add to what Lailah and Edna had observed of the situation, but no matter what... he's got Sorey's back.

"I've not felt this much malevolence during my time as a Shepherd - the entire area is steeped in it." Sorey closes his eyes for a moment, and concentrates. Lailah, Edna, and Mikleo can feel it through their bonds, as Sorey calls upon the power of Purification that is his to claim as a Shepherd.

And then Lucia unleashes part of her power, and Sorey narrows his eyes for a moment. "It seems like she isn't going to talk with us. Edna, Lailah... everyone. " It seems that there are people here who have come to help - aid unasked for, but not unwelcome either. "If she is the Lord of Calamity, then we need to purify her. Because Filgaia will suffer just as much as Lunar has from the malevolence that would be spread here."

And with that, Sorey walks forward, his sword of blue flame held low at his side. He walks directly towards Lucia, and holds up one hand. "Lucia is it? I don't know what it is you're hoping to accomplish on this world, but with this much malevolence... I can't let you walk away from here." He stops, and raises his sword. He knows what's going to happen next. He heard the tone in the voices of the people whom he had thought might become friends. Sorey closes his eyes for a moment, and takes a deep breath.

"As the Shepherd, it is my duty to stop the Lord of Calamity, and purify the darkness that is consuming our world!"

And Sorey steps forward, preparing to bring his wooden blade down towards the blue haired woman.

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Lady Amelia!?" Alisha exclaims, turning to look over her shoulder. She freezes up for a moment -- more as she sees Skylr approach from behind. But, she realizes, they may be helpful. Especially since...

Since...

Her eyes fall first to Hiro's sword, then to Zed. The princess feels her blood start to run cold as she realizes what is happening. She shakes her head quickly. "You don't--you don't understand!" She puts a hand over her heart; the other grips her spear all the more tightly. "The Lord of Calamity can warp you mind, body, and soul! She can--"

'POWER.'

Alisha feels it as much as she hears it. The word reverberates, and she looks back at Lucia. She trembles despite herself, then she looks down. "I'm sorry," she murmurs, before she looks up. She nods, once, to what both Edna and Lailah said. "I'll stay by him, Lady Lailah. Like I promised I would. If Sorey falls, then..."

Then it would be the end of this world -- and theirs. She heard that voice; she heard that strange, terrible power, and she felt the chill it sent up her spine. She knows where she has to be.

She runs right along with Sorey, rushing, and she grips her spear tight in her hands. "Sorey! I am right beside you!"

<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.

Barely keeping her lunch down, Amelia sweats out a few replies as she manages to get to her feet. A head-nod to the younger priestess, and her lips are a thin line.

"Priestess Paer." A sucking breath. Out. She tries to be confident, but the /feeling/ around the area has her reaching deep just to stay afloat. Teeth grit. Another breath.

"Be cautious. Let's finish our duty without having to make funeral rites for the innocent." She whispers to the young woman. Even as her hands tremble, her purpose is clear, and she manages to stand tall.

And then Kalve speaks. A Destroyer, one who could lay claim to armies? Well, it's not like he's wrong. The elf offers a bitter smile. "Mmm. We might be outmatched, alone, then. However, we have our duty by Althena. And I believe in the Goddess. Even if she should have the power of an army right now, that does not change anything." A hand runs through her hair, flicking her silver-grey locks in the air.

Lemina speaks. Some part of that voice is familiar, but flat-footed as she is by the Malevolence in the area, she can't make it out right now. "Taking people in...the Destroyer does nothing by turn innocent people to sin and destruction!" Finally offers the Priestess, words firm and carrying despite her volume.

The calm priestess can't reign in her growing anger, however, as Jean speaks. So familiar, and yet so distant. She shudders. One hand goes to her head. A deep, deep gasp, and she focuses on the green haired one.

"Cursed Destroyer! How dare you turn honorable warriors to your hand! Tainting them...forgive me! Forgive me, all of you! I will see you cleansed before Althena, and this corruptor of innocents turned to dust!"

And then Lucia is speaking up, offering her fel Power to the world. And the Sheperd speaks his role truly, and asks that they 'purify' Lucia. Silver barks, and then, Amelia kicks off of cane and her legs both in a rather reckless attack towards Lucia. Her cane slides apart mid-air as she leaps, spinning those slivers of metal in the air, before lashing down towards the Bluenette! It may well, however, fall upon someone else entirely!

GS: Amelia Rose has attacked Jean with Bonk!
GS: Amelia Rose has completed her action.
GS: Jean takes a glancing hit from Amelia Rose's Bonk for 22 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Lailah emerges from Sorey afterwards and Ruby looks straight at her. It's possible that Lailah and Edna may recognize her as a baby Red Dragon- but she looks like a winged cat dipped in Bubblegum paint- so it's easy enough to mistake her for that. "And there's another one- Hiro. I don't like this." Ruby's hair stands on end.

Kalve however says something that unfortunately he doesn't have time to explain the Lord of Calamity but- Lucia says POWER and heals herself- a reminder of what she's capable of right now. But that is likely to cause tensions to increase so instead of the full explanation he tries to relay what's important, "She used to be able to take on an army- but- she got struck by a powerful curse! She's recovering but- we have to defend her!" He hopes that gets it across.

The hiss of metal against the side of his sheath continues as Sorey tries to explain the malevolence- and his mind whirls around the explanation, but fortunately it's already at the forefront of his mind. "That's the curse you're feeling! It's not- it's not her!" Wait, did he say?

"Hiro- he's the-"

Shepherd. Hiro grew up on legends of Althena, the Four Dragons, the Dragonmaster... and the Shepherd. The word stuns him for a moment, was Sorey really the Shepherd? Is he really going to fight one of the legends he grew up on? Does he believe in Lucia that much?

Of course he does.

"If White Knight Leo, one of the four heroes can be wrong-"

Sorey is advancing forward, sword lifted to bring it down upon her. And Hiro all but dashes to get in the way. He doesn't want to see what those Blue Flames- so like the fires Lucia rained down from the sky at the Blue Spire could do to her.

"-then the Shepherd can be too." His blade slides out the rest of the way, as he comes in at Sorey's flank, Ruby fluttering off into the air. A criss cross of diagonal slashes to test his guard in a flurry of swordplay and footwork. "Even if it means fighting you, I believe in Lucia! Duty or not- I won't let you do this!"

Others are coming in too- Alisha- he remembers what her gauntlet did to that wall. He suspects with that spear she could poke holes in him all day long with little difficulty. And there's the Priestess with that whip cane. Sweat beads on his forehead. But he's made his decision- he made his decision before they came to this world.

Now he had to live with the consequences again.

GS: Hiro has attacked Sorey with Basic Attack Command!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Sorey critically Guards a hit from Hiro's Basic Attack Command for 17 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna's eyes narrow at Lucia's gaze. It's... blank. Cold. Almost unfeeling. There's no malevolence behind that gaze, but it's unsettling all the same. Nonetheless, the earth seraph meets Lucia's gaze evenly. At least until...

'Power'

Not that she expected there to be successful negotiations with the ones harboring the Lord of Calamity. Sorey is charging forward. As is Alisha. And the others are soon to follow suit. Edna sighs to herself and continues to take her time. She casually closes her umbrella and peers across the campsite at all present. No doubt Sorey and Alisha would work as a team. Which meant that she and the other Seraphim should work to keep the others busy and away from them.

The earth seraph's gaze lands squarely on Zed as her lucky victim and she points her umbrella at him, beginning a short incantation. "Eyes over here, moron." Beat. "Not that you can see me anyway." A little smirk forms on her face, and then Zed is suddenly beset by a surge of earth and a rising spike of stone jutting up from right under him!

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Zed with Earth Spear!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Seraph Edna's Earth Spear for 99 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

What.

Sorey is ignoring him?? What!?

Zed looks aghast! He looks offended! Disgusted! "Well! I never! Fine. Fine! If you don't want to tell me, then... Then have it your way!" D-did he just pout? Is he... Is he harrumphing like some kind of slighted starlet!? Zed huffs and puffs and taps his sword against his shoulder like he'd suddenly lost interest in all the world, even while all the world descends into madness and violence.

It's only when Zed notices-- when he realizes that finally the situation is turning to something that makes sense-- that his foul mood seems to lift like the morning fog before the noonday sun.

"Oh."

"OH!"

"KALVE, HEY KALVE! WE'RE FIGHTING!" Zed grins, his sword a whirling, silvery razor. "Race you! Let's see that how that mirror style does... In PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS! But keep your eyes open. Watch well! That goes just the same for all of you, because today... Today you bare witness--"

Zed poses.

"--To this--!"

He poses again, one hand dramatically fanned out over his face.

"My secret sword style!"

Tactical analysis. Dude with glowing sword. Prissy lady with people running away. Priestesses? Hah! "Target of opportunity!" Zed vanishes, he disappears into a rush of motion and a hurricane of violence. He surges between the Shepherd's entourage, darting to and fro, before finally appearing in front of Priestess Paer. "Here we go! Behold as I become a storm that divides the battlefield!"

Zed winds up. "DARK HORSE--

ZED SPINS. IT'S A LITERAL VORTEX OF SLASHES UP IN PAER'S FACE.

--==SUPREME TORNADO==--

GS: Zed has attacked Skylr Paer with Dark Horse - Supreme Tornado!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Skylr Paer takes a solid hit from Zed's Dark Horse - Supreme Tornado for 106 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

Kalve shoots Zed a quick glance at his excited calls. He nods fractionally, his stance widening. There's a look on his face, and a certain sense to his even minute motions. He's gone from keeping Zed out of a fight to flip-flopping and silently letting him off the proverbial chain. Regardless of how he feels about keeping who and what they are under wraps...

...well, sometimes you just need a good fight to get the blood flowing.

And then: 'POWER.'

A sharp inhalation. Kalve is moving when Sorey starts forward. He strides across the space between himself and the suddenly-bright Lucia in a few quick steps, but he doesn't go for Sorey. He sees how this is going to play out. Hiro is in motion to protect her. The other, though...

Kalve suddenly interposes himself between Alisha and the Lord of Calamity. He plants his feet and makes a corkscrewing motion with both arms extended forward, swatting the back of one gauntleted hand towards the haft of her spear and then thrusting his right hand forward, palm presented, intending to strike her in the midsection and send a shock through her body to kill her momentum.

A misunderstood hero would probably take this opportunity to warn her about her present course of action, or try to dissuade her from the attack. Instead, Kalve smiles, just a little.

He /does/ speak to someone he didn't expect to see. He raises his voice, speaking past Alisha. "Your duty to your Goddess is pointless without the ability to successfully carry it out, Priestess Amelia," Kalve calls, directionlessly.

GS: Kalve has attacked Alisha Diphda with Liquid Metal!
GS: Kalve has completed his action.
GS: Alisha Diphda critically Guards a hit from Kalve's Liquid Metal for 7 hit points!
GS: Kalve takes Cover! He gains 50 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Lailah seems to be keeping a watchful eye on her friends and apparent allies, but her attention seems to be focused mostly on Sorey. He was saying everything she hoped he would for it was the task of the Shepherd to purify the Lord of Calamity. But could he possibly be ready? Could any of them? Lailah says a quiet prayer for their safety before turning back around in a small semi-circle, her left hand drawing back. She then throws her hand of rectangular papers into the air where they float freely around the green-haired Seraph's person. Lailah is now free to return Lucia's gaze. There is no hatred or prejudice there, but pure determination on her part....

...for a moment...

The Seraph's pale face soon becomes clouded with concern. To face the Lord of Calamity at this juncture? "Do not be afraid to retreat should the Malevolence and her power be too overwhelming!" She warns Sorey before looking slightly more relieved at Alisha's firm words. The alleged Lady of the Lake nods to Alisha and then stands up a little straighter, her back straight and head up. "...we all fall. That is why we must stand with him." And Lailah then proceeds to do just that. She begins to chant to herself as a green light and circles begin to appear on the ground, surrounding her.

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"Lucia hasn't even had the /time/ to warp my mind!" Lemina calls back to Alisha, rolling her eyes. "Besides, if she tried anything like that," she adds, "I'd notice! Because -- sorry, but it's not 'Sasha Nash,' but..."

Dramatically pulling off her cloak to reveal her cute-cute black dress, she finishes, "Lemina Ausa, Junior Premier of the Magic Guild of Vane!" ... not that Vane is exactly a big deal... or that a few of their assembled allies even know what it is...

... it's the thought that counts, okay?

The instant she sees magic and blows starting to be exchanged, though, she makes a snap judgment -- she needs to interrupt /something/, and the silver-haired seraph's channeling is as good a target as any.

"Hey!" she shouts at the woman. "I think everyone here needs to chill out!" She summons a small chunk of ice, and with a gesture, sends it flying straight at Lailah. It looks like there's only one way to solve this...!

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Lailah with Ice Pick!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Lailah takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Ice Pick for 95 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.

BACK ROW! BACK ROW! Skylr was slotted in the back row, how did Zed manage to skip the rules and bypass Sorey and Alisha?! Not to mention that he literally has a sword and she does not. Her winds warn her. Or at least try to warn her - it's an asset of her magic, after all. She can sense them change as Zed begins SUPREME TORNADO. It's not enough, however, of a warning.

Actually, it may never be enough.

Ow.

The flurry of blades go. Left, right, back, forward, sideways, from five minutes ago, from ten minutes into the future, it is his supreme use of and mastery of bladework that allows him to knock the younger priestess around and around and about. In the end, she's lucky she's still standing, little blue sheep dancing around her head. (She's the only person that can see those.)

She uses the chance to spin her way away from him, howver, her hands lifting behind her, removing the lovely, carefully carved bow. It's been well used. From behind it, she also pulls out an arrow, a delicate shaft, compared to him, not dangerous, fletched with delicate snow-white and blue-tipped feathers. She takes two steps backs as she sets herself in bow stance, inhaling softly, feeling the wind around her. She sets the arrow to the string, exhaling again as she does so. She looks at Zed. She closes her eyes, inhales- opens them, exhales, and fires.

This is probably not as scary as Zed's swordnado. .-.

GS: Skylr Paer has attacked Zed with Zen Shot!
GS: Skylr Paer has completed its action.
GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Skylr Paer's Zen Shot for 49 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Sticks and stones break Lucia's bones, but she isn't too perturbed by all the mean names Althena's Guard levies against her. Not because they aren't harsh judgements, but because she's heard them all before. Her expression does not so much as flicker.

She does have something to say to Sorey, though it isn't very coherent. "...Duty..." she repeats, in a more normal voice that could conceivably belong to a girl, and it sounds like a koan nontheless. A really /weird/ girl, then.

A really sad girl. Her sorrow is piercing, triply so when Hiro makes it clear that he's forced to fight another hero of his. She doesn't know who the Shepherd is or what the Seraphim are. All she knows for certain is that she, too, is bound to the wheel of duty.

Her hand gestures like a razor, and more of that white light showers across Zed and Kalve, as though her aura is flaring outwards to engulf them, support them. It is like a cool hand on a fevered brow, and it cares not at all whether it flows across flesh or metal... it strengthens and soothes with equal measure. It is the opposite of Destruction, admittedly, but who's to say the Destroyer has to be pidgeonholed into one power?

She certainly didn't hesitate to help them, despite their... strange... fighting styles. But then, they showed up out of nowhere and declared themselves her allies.

The Lord of Calamity doesn't hesitate to reward them.

GS: Lucia has attacked Kalve with Calm Litany!
GS: Lucia has attacked Zed with Calm Litany!
GS: Lucia has completed her action.
GS: Lucia heals Kalve! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Lucia heals Zed! He gains 100 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

In other circumstances, it might be funny to Jean that Lucia just answered these charges by healing herself; she can see the humor. Unfortunately right now it just seems like something inevitable.

She doesn't hold the same hopes as Hiro did about resolving this without some kind of a fight. And running isn't an option at this moment.

The talk of the Shepherd is alarming, but Jean has a knack for staying calm in combat. What afects her more at first is that Princess, who claims things that obviously aren't true so fervently. "I understand enough," the green-haired woman answers, before she looks to the elf Amelia. She hears that prayer and her lips thin into a line. But that doesn't cause her to act. The path Amelia is on causes her to act, especially with Hiro busy with the Princess. The dancer practically falls into a sprint to the side, throwing up her arms and spinning through the attack to minimize the actual parts that hit her on the cane. "/No/," she repeats simply, and turns to face her. "...My name isn't Helen, either," she adds based on Lemina's words. "It's Jean, the dancer."

Then she's in action again, bending at the knee and somersaulting backwards into the air, throwing her fan and letting it bounce right towards her hand, a cutting, lovely weapon. Anothe follows right after as she spins through the air and back towards the ground.

GS: Jean has attacked Amelia Rose with Razor Dance!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
GS: Amelia Rose critically Guards a hit from Jean's Razor Dance for 19 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

"Edna, Lailah, we don't want anyone to get hurt if we can avoid it! But... be careful." A strange thing to say for what might be the decisive battle between the Shepherd and the Lord of Calamity. But when push came to shove, Sorey was sure that 'Hiro' and the others had their reasons for being here. They could talk about it, but there were already too many people getting ready to fight. And he needed to purify this malevolence. The pressure of it was already pushing at him - how could Hiro and his friends not feel it?

Sorey's blade snaps around, the wooden blade clashing with Hiro's iron one as the two men clash for a moment. Sorey blocks the initial strikes, pulling back with only a nick in one sleeve from Hiro's flurry of strikes. "I know you can't feel it, but the malevolence she is putting off is a threat to everyone here. Sooner or later, even you will succumb to it and transform into a Hellion! None of you deserve that sort of fate - being lost to darkness!"

The Shepherd brings his blade around, the streamer of blue flame from his weapon snapping around to his side, and then darting forward in three lightning fast thrusts aimed at Hiro's chest. The wooden sword won't do much physical damage, but Sorey's power strikes at both body and spirit. A solid blow will leave even a normal human dazed, even if they haven't been corrupted by malevolence.

As she unleashes her power, speaking a single word, Sorey narrows his eyes. Just seeing Lucia unleashing her power though - it's strange. Sorey was expecting a bit more... offensive of a foe in the Lord of Calamity. But that malevolence can't be denied...

GS: Sorey has attacked Hiro with Striking Fang!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Hiro guards a hit from Sorey's Striking Fang for 76 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"She--it can happen in an instant! I /saw/ it! I saw what her power can do! Villages wiped out, families torn apart, my soldiers, I--" She stammers to a stop, to hear the real name. Her eyes widen, a little. She knows the family name, at least. And then she hears Jean's name, too, and looks at her.

Her leaf-green eyes widen and she looks, for a moment. "Then... you're...! But why did you both lie--"

Alisha's question to Lemina and Jean is interrupted by Kalve shooting in front of her. She comes to a stop only narrowly by throwing her heel out in front of herself and skidding to a stop, dust thrown up by the motion. She finds herself looking at Kalve, even as his gauntleted hand knocks her spear aside, and she starts to tumble right into his palm.

Until she steps, smartly, to the side. She hears Lailah's voice, gasping, as the electrified palm slams at thin air instead of smashing into her. "You--" He is smiling, even as the Lord of Calamity supports her allies (yet holds back her full power). "Why are you involved in this? What do you hope to gain? Do you not know how dangerous she is!?"

Then, Alisha pushes forward. With her first step, she swings the butt of her spear for Kalve's side, before she pulls it back with both hands. The princess knight is merciful, but she is a trained warrior. She learned at the hands of Lady Maltran, the Blue Valyrie. And--

'...we all fall. That is why we must stand with him.'

Alisha's spear stabs forward, the long double-edged blade plunging hard towards Kalve's midsection. "Hya!"

GS: Alisha Diphda has attacked Kalve with Blitz Strike!
GS: Alisha Diphda has completed her action.
GS: Kalve takes a solid hit from Alisha Diphda's Blitz Strike for 86 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.

Even mid-leap, Amelia hears those words. Kalve has one heck of a point, and she even draws a breath as it hits her almost as hard as a swat to the ribs. She lets out a breath, but never /quite/ scowls. She knows, in her heart, the man has a point.

"That's true. It looks like I have no choice but to offer my life to carry out the Goddess' will!" Returns the Priestess. At least she's honest though perhaps, in this case it might well be unwanted.

Still, her 'gaze' hardens just a moment towards the sound of Kalve's voice. "I wonder. Do you have anything you hold just as deeply? Why do you fight?"

Those sharp slivers of metal attached to her cane find far less purchase than she expected, and not in the person she expected! She lands, taken abreath, both due to Jean's swift work and the aura filling the area. The hilltop is chaos, and even the sharp-eared elf can't take it all in. Nor can Silver, but as the dog leaps back, he barks three time. A pause. Three more barks. The first fan hits metal, ricocheting back to Jean off of her cane as it reforms back. But the second fan slashes through her right side, opening up a crimson wound across Amelia's right side. She ducks back, into a roll, sighing briefly. The elf can take the pain, but the surprise hits her.

"H...Helen!?" There's a moment's pause. Realization hits her. And then Amelia Rose's cheeks slip twin tears. It's all she can offer, but her face says it all.

There's sorrow, but not betrayal on her face. "Princess. They're not...lying. It's not them. That FILTHY DESTROYER has corrupted and put them under her spell! Kill her! Kill the destroyer now, and maybe we can...Helen...JEAN! Just hold still, and I can..."

A woof from Silver, and she makes a reckless rush forward, only to pause and feint with a cane-strike diagonally towards Jean's chest! Only then does she pivot, spin, and then try to offer a sweeping kick to Jean's legs! She's trying to knock the woman off her feet!

That cane gets dropped, and then, she's trying to pin down Jean and punch the Dancer straight in the face if she can get anywhere close!

GS: Amelia Rose has attacked Jean with Bedside Manner!
GS: Amelia Rose has completed her action.
GS: Jean takes a solid hit from Amelia Rose's Bedside Manner for 51 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Hahaha! Yes, behold this blinding storm of blows, young priestess! Keep your eyes open so that you can try and follow! IF YOU DARE! AHAHAHA--

Hah--?

"Uwah!?" Zed gasps as the ground beneath him suddenly upends. A spike of solid stone erupts from down below, slamming hard into his gut and abruptly aborting his assault on the young priestess. "What!? Who did that!?" Zed coughs as he's flung skyward, which coincidentally makes him a fine target for Skylr's counterstrike. An arrow lands in the swordsman's shoulder with a dull thunk, his teeth grit with sudden fury. One might even call it a... Demonic rage.

"You... You lot do not play fair," Zed concludes, pirouetting through the sky like some kind of aerial ballerino. He spins, somersaults, then finally lands... On the very same spike of earth that launched him into the sky. "But that's fine. That's just alright. Because you see, for every ounce of honor you lack, I, the Dark Hero, will supply threefold! THREE TIMES AS HONORABLE! THAT IS WHAT I A--"

Something... Makes the world go bright. Zed blinks through the glare and the glow. Unfamiliar warmth surges through his limbs and settles in his metallic bones. He feels like he could take on an army. Like he could carry a mountain on his shoulders! Zed squeezes one hand tight, then slowly nods. "This... Of course. This is fate! The blessing of destiny itself! I do not know what you did to make the earth rise against me, priestess. But you have earned my ire!"

"Now, behold--" Zed lifts his sword into the sky-- holds it, silhouetted against the moon. "For I fight... In the name of those people from the moon! But if you think her aura is impressive..." The air around him seems to... Shimmer. Glow, even. But it's no light that issues forth, but its opposite. Not darkness, but... Anti-light. Like a reverse star bursting forth from the mysterious swordsman. It whirls into the air, then blasts downward upon Skylr, a cyclone of raw personality, blazing hot-blood, dark, demonic energy and pure, distilled ill fortune!

Basically, Essence of Zed.

He doesn't seem to have noticed that there are invisible people throwing spells at him yet. Apparently.

GS: Zed has attacked Skylr Paer with Sealed Blade - Demon Breaker!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Skylr Paer guards a hit from Zed's Sealed Blade - Demon Breaker for 132 hit points!
GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Skylr Paer!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

You have no idea how happy Hiro is that Lucia found these allies. He was quite worried about Alisha's spear at his flanks, "Kalve! Thanks for the hand!" Whereas Zed shows off his swordsmanship, giving Hiro a moment where he wonders how it would really turn out if the two sparred. And Lucia- actually healing their allies! "That's it Lucia! With your help we'll definitely pull through this."

Then there's Jean- and he's so proud of her, darting into battle once again to defend her friends. And even Lemina-

The two clash, and Hiro is surprised by the force Sorey can put behind that Wooden Sword, numbing force, when his blade of iron can't even nick it. And those Blue Flames? Can he really fight the Shepherd? "I can't feel it, but I know what it is! It's not coming from her!" He insists. Alisha asks why they lied, "It's because Althena's Guard has- the wrong idea about us! We didn't want to lie."

But Alisha- saw her power do that to villages, all those people? Even Hiro is horrified at the thought. Lucia could have done that but, "It couldn't have been her- I saw her-"

Sorey's blade snaps around and drives his guard high, and as he thrusts, his sword can't get into position. But he had his shield. A simple bronze saucepan. It darts in the way and-

The Shepherd's Sword stabs right through it, severing one of the rope bindings that held it to his wrist, carving through the handle between his thumb and finger, sending the saucepan into shards of metal upon the ground. And that feeling that washes over him? Even if it barely nicked his hand- what did he do? He's stunned speechless for a moment before waving his hand, "Ah come on- no shield again."

"Hiro!" Calls Ruby who's flapping above the camp, "I'm alright Ruby, just need- something-" That already puts him at a disadvantage. He's already looking for ways to improvise from his environment, eyes darting here and there and he had to keep his opponent back for a few moments- "-Lucia- Jean- Lemina- anyone- have anything I can use as a substitute?" His injured hand whips around to the boomerang in the holster at his belt, tugging it out. He casts it over Sorey's shoulder, the projectile spinning in an arc, as he desperately tries to keep his guard of just his sword up- warily taking a few steps backward near the stack of supplies to look for something, anything.

On the boomerang's return arc though- he raises his injured hand, flexing it, and mutters something- the breeze subtly shifts. And while it originally looked wide- Sorey is right back in it's path.

GS: Hiro has attacked Sorey with Boomerang!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Sorey guards a hit from Hiro's Boomerang for 41 hit points!
GS: Hiro takes Cover! He gains 50 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Lailah nods her head adamantly towards Sorey when he wishes her and Edna well. "The same is true of you and Alisha!" She says with concern evident in her words. Her attention then goes to with whom they faced as well as Lucia herself. She too would join the battle as soon as her incantation finished. But before her blessing could be given, a chunk of ice smacks into her causing the Fire Seraph to stagger and then crumble briefly to a knee. The green magic circles around Lailah disappear into nothingness as her green eyes look for whomever threw that. She soon stands back up and pinpoints the source of the chunk and the pun. Chill out hmm? "I do not know who you are, but I disapprove of your chilly reception." The floating papers around Lailah before to swirl before reappearing in her left hand as she turns towards Lemina now.

"Let me show you how to warmly greet someone with an explosive hello!" Lailah exclaims as she spins and tosses the quickly conjured orb while praying that it punnels her foe powerfully. The orb will travel along its natural trajectory before suddenly exploding outwards at the next movement of Lailah's hand. Only after launching this attack does Lailah takes a moment to brush the still clinging ice off her dress. Her eyes and attention do shift over towards her fellow Seraph's fight. "Edna! Will you be alright?!" She shouts out over the commotion to her earthen ally.

GS: Seraph Lailah has attacked Lemina Ausa with Photon Blaze!
GS: Seraph Lailah has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Seraph Lailah's Photon Blaze for 76 hit points!
GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Lemina Ausa!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Sorey gets a brief hum of acknowledgement from Edna. "Kind of hard to not hurt anyone when they want to hurt you." She says that, but she's going to grudgingly do her best to not lethally harm anyone at least. She's still got to defend herself. "But sure. Don't maim anyone. Got it." She rolls her eyes, having finished casting a minor earth arte upon Zed.

And that fool still doesn't seem to realize that he's under attack by Seraphim. Ah, how stupid. Yet convenient at the same time. Edna shakes her head and starts uttering another incantation. "Still can't see me, huh? Then let me jog your vision a bit..." She twirls her umbrella and then points it skywards.

The tip of her implement of abuse lights up with golden energy, then she points it to the ground. The glow vanishes, and then... Right below Zed again, something forms. This time, a large magic circle forms, and several glyphs take form in the air. Then a crushing pressure starts to shake the air around the DARK HERO. The ground breaks apart as gravity seems to grow far too strong in that one moment.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Zed with Air Pressure!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Zed critically Guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Air Pressure for 27 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Alisha asks why they lied, and Amelia seems to start to cry; it's not a sight she enjoys. But there's the question of what Amelia plans to do, and Jean's face sets.

"I lied because I saw one of the Chosen among your group. They've persecuted me and my friends for years, since long before I even met Lucia!"

"You--" Amelia rushes forward, and Jean rushes forward, seeing an opening. The can hits her chest hard, with burising and reckless force, and she ops off her fet to avoid the sweep. Instead she takes a fist straight to the cheek, her head shifting to the side under its impact as her eyes narrow right at Amelia Rose. "And your first approach to this is to kill someone! Get ahold of yourself! I don't like fighting, but I sure won't hold still for you!"

Jean twirls around acrobatically, on one foot and ankle spinning as both fans fall into one hand and her elbow /slams/ towards the priestess's kidney in a move that isn't quite dance at all.

"Sorry, Hiro!" Jean calls. "You know what weapons I use!"

GS: Jean has attacked Amelia Rose with Feather Step!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
GS: Amelia Rose takes a glancing hit from Jean's Feather Step for 36 hit points!
GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Amelia Rose!

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

Alisha moves quickly. She knows exactly what to do to, and does it quickly enough that she probably didn't have to think about it. This alone says far more than any questions he could have asked does. She didn't just get swept up in this; she's a trained warrior. That means she should know what battle is.

This is good. It means Kalve doesn't have to do any soul-searching about human versus Demon society if he ends up killing her.

Power caresses him, a feeling like physical calm flowing over his body. He opens and closes his hands. He's almost abuzz with vitality. He feels... /good/. Is this the magic he's sought? Is this what it can do besides destroy? Kalve almost laughs.

The spear-butt swings in towards his side. Kalve gets hit, the haft meeting him with a dull clanging like she'd just struck a man in solidly-built plate armor rather than wearing some loud poncho. He hops a step to the side, moving with the blow, and whips his arm around in a crescent sweep to slam into the side of the spear-thrust towards his gut.

His palm claps against the spear, turning it aside just enough. It slashes across his side, cutting through the edge of his poncho and sparking against his body armor(?). He twists away, arms swaying, raised in a defensive stance. He can spare Hiro all of a glance and a quick nod, unwilling to divert his attention too much. Though...

"'She'll cut down innocents without mercy,'" Kalve says to Alisha, his voice taking a tone of recitation, "'and seeks to turn all lands to ruin. This entire world will be reduced even beyond the dust if things continue this way.'" Amelia might recognize those words -- /her/ words, from the caravan. He loses the odd tone, canting his head slightly to the side, keeping himself between Alisha and Lucia.

"Have you ever had something you wished to save beyond all else, warrior?" Kalve asks. He sounds like any wisened instructor you might care to mention at that moment, probing to make a student find the point themselves. "Beyond all reason? What if you were asked to trade ruin for its safety?"

Kalve claps his hands together. There's a flash of yellow light between his palms. He makes a complex motion with his right hand over his left, and a shape appears in the light. He grasps it with his left hand, and then sweeps his arm out, as if to fling it like a discus. Except... it isn't at Alisha. "Hiro," he calls, briefly, alerting him before he gets something round tossed at him. It looks like a light shield made of translucent yellow... well, light, with an array of hexagonal plates set into the front like extra armor. There's some kind of pressure plate on the reverse with a pair of cuff-like objects on either side to grip his arm when it's set into it.

Kalve doesn't at all look when he throws. His aim is surprisingly good, considering. Instead, he holds Alisha's gaze, raising his voice to answer Amelia nearby. Why /does/ he fight? "Survive," he says to the Priestess, though he addresses the princess knight simultaneously, "and I may well tell you."

GS: Kalve has attacked Hiro with Silhouette Shield!
GS: Kalve has completed his action.
GS: Hiro takes a solid hit from Kalve's Silhouette Shield for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Hiro!

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Lucia, a pillar of red, stands very still, like the eye of this battle's storm. Half the people here would spill her heart's blood on the hungry ground, and the other half are proclaiming their loyalty to her in various measures, some with words, all with actions.

It stirs a feeling in her heart that she cannot name.

Brilliant lights dance in her vision, but where they dwell makes no sense. Althena's power... it feels close enough to touch, but just as she begins to sense it, the remnant of a darker power rises to veil her sight.

She wavers on her feet; the hem of her robe ripples, and her eyes, already glazed, unfocus further, her pupils narrowing to pinpoints. Something presses on her from all directions, something that makes ears pop, a rising darkness.

Her throat fills with choking miasma, and she shrinks back from Hiro and Kalve's now extra-shielded wall, towards the campfire. It's hard to describe her behavior as afraid -- if anything, she seems ill enough to swoon at any moment.

She'll have stepped in the fire in a moment. Hopefully her angry cloak is fireproof. Its infernal light casts her into sharp relief, one half of her lit up in bold oranges by it, the other half pitch black as the night sky overhead.

And, all around her, the Malevolence intensifies about three-fold, going from very bad, to very worse.

GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Cursed Calamity!
GS: Lucia has completed her action.
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Lucia's Cursed Calamity for 0 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"Sorry if the shoulder I gave you is a little mega-cold!" Lemina shouts back at Lailah; unfortunately, because she's taking the time to pun in Lailah's direction, she's /not/ taking the time to protect herself as well as she probably could. When that orb explodes in front of her, setting her more than a little bit on fire, the Junior Premier of the Magic Guild lets out a sharp cry.

Pulling out her umbrella, she pops it open and closed a few times, trying to fan herself off with almost no success. It's at about this point that she decides to dispense with any attempt to help herself and focuses on what's really important: bombarding Lailah with magic!

"Oh, and your puns are terrible!" Lemina shouts back at Lailah -- though there's a grin on her face, in spite of the being on fire, that indicates she doesn't really mean that. "I'd better /lance/ this before the infection spreads!" The sharp, pointy chunk of ice she summons this time is a lot longer, and a lot more... well... lance-shaped, than previously. How appropriate! It streaks for Lailah at high speeds.

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Lailah with Ice Lance!
GS: Lemina Ausa takes 7 damage from Poison!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Lailah critically Guards a hit from Lemina Ausa's Ice Lance for 24 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

"Alisha!" Sorey calls out as she breaks off to deal with another opponent. Klaive was certainly pressing her, and there's a part of Sorey that cries out to help protect his friend. A glance back at the Seraphim show that they're also being pressed by the enemy, but that's...

No, they were doing this to give him a chance to fight the Lord of Calamity. To put an end to the nightmare that was consuming their world.

He does chuckle at Edna's comment. "Alright, keep the maiming to a minimum if you can. I trust you and Lailah to know what to do!" And Mikleo, but his friend was the ace in the hole, one that Sorey hoped he didn't have to use.

And yet Hiro was so certain that Lucia wasn't the destroyer. But then again, he couldn't sense the malevolence swirling about them either. And because of that, Hiro could be mistaken, no matter what she believed. "The Shepherd doesn't kill people, Hiro!" Sorey states after a moment as the two men cross blades. He dances back as Hiro hurls the boomerang at him, but it seems like a wild throw to buy himself some space. "The reason the Shepherd exists is to purify those who have been consumed by malevolence! To allow them to return to their normal lives! I-"

"Sorey! Look out!" Mikleo calls out from behind him. Sorey turns just in time to bring his sword around to deflect the boomerang on its return trip, but the wooden projectile skips off his blade and slams into his shoulder, sending the Shepherd staggering for a moment. It gives Herio enough time to dig up something he can use to defend himself.

The young man in white levels his sword, looking over the blue flame as he considers Hiro and Lucia. "If you were in my place, Hiro, would you be able to take the risk? The malevolence spreads as long as the Lord of Calamity walks the land, and people suffer and die because of it. That's why I became the Shepherd. To protect people from that fate."

And with that, Sorey springs forward, his sword catching the ground. The blue flame transfers from the wooden weapon to the earth, where it suddenly races forwards! In its wake, the shimmering purple haze that Sorey can see as clear as day is burned away. But the wedge of fire cuts across the ground, racing right at Hiro like a shot. But Sorey's immediate follow-up is stymied by the surge of malevolence that washes across the ground. He falls to one knee for a moment, almost gagging at the wave of sickening darkness that washes out across the campground.

GS: Sorey has attacked Hiro with Cantering Flames!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Hiro critically Guards a hit from Sorey's Cantering Flames for 23 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Can you be sure of that?" Alisha says, more heatedly than she wishes she had, to Hiro. Her voice shakes -- and in her mind's eye, she sees Clem's outstretched hand as the knight was pulled screaming from her horse, into the tornado. She squeezes her eyes shut. "I saw what this power can do!"

But she tenses when she hears Jean's words. Her mouth opens, then closes, and she shakes her head quickly. She hears Amelia, too, and she hesitates. "Priestess Amelia! Sorey can purify the Lord of Calamity! We won't have to kill her!"

She looks back at Kalve, then. Her eyes meet his -- and then share stares, before she darts to the side. Her spear had swung down after the stab, and then she feels something rush out. The sick, stirring feeling of the Malevolence that rushes from Lucia. It chokes the battlefield; it makes her head swim and her eyes sting. She looks at Lucia, and she knows where it comes from. She stares at her. "You--you have to stop this!"

She cries that to the Lord of Calamity, and then she sweeps her bladed spear up. Light ignites, flashing along the edge of her spear. And then, a long, jagged fang of light sends sand flying, as it rips across the ground, and hurtles towards Lucia and her blood-red robes.

"Demon Fang!"

GS: Alisha Diphda has attacked Zed with Demon Fang!
GS: Alisha Diphda has completed her action.
GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Alisha Diphda's Demon Fang for 43 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Zed!

<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.

"Y...you can't be that ignorant! If she lives, she will just further curse this land! No. You have just been taken in, blinded by her. I won't...I won't blame you, Jean! Anyone who would fight this hard, must just be enslaved by her powerful spells! Do not let her evil seep into your soul, Jean!" Practically begs the elf!

And then Jean twirls in hand, and an elbow crashes right into her kidney! There's a horrible sound as Amelia bends over double, fluid falls to the ground, and she all but dangles there for a second. Her consciousness wavers, only for Silver to leap forward! A sharp bark, and Amelia gasps. A light clawing to the ankles has the woman awake!

Good thing Kalve is there, as the blind woman constantly uses what little focus she can spare to hunt for openings to lash out at Lucia. She's the target, in the end, after all. And Kalve is always there, despite so much chaos. Despite herself, her respect grows. As does her irritation.

"I can understand that. I would fight for Althena, to protect her, no matter what it cost me. Oh? Althena would never ask me to ruin what she created. But in your case...I understand. You are being used. Your knight's honor, turned to Evil." Her tone is one of pity rather than anger at this point.

Amelia stumbles back, both from the strike's effect from Jean and Lucia's pure Malevolence. A sucked breath, and she 'gazes' at Jean. "Can't...can't you feel that evil radiating off of her? It wracks my soul! Make it stop!"

Alisha calls out. And that alone makes her pause mid-attack, ears wiggling.

"What are you!?"

Amelia ducks into a slide this time, Silver barks, but it's a wild strike! Fully distracted by Alisha, the Priestess follows up her legs with a two-handed slam of her cane! Right towards the knees! Seems the woma is trying to cripple Jean's dancerly legs! How rude!

GS: Amelia Rose has attacked Jean with Dirty Deeds Done Doctorially Expensive!
GS: Amelia Rose has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Jean takes a glancing hit from Amelia Rose's Dirty Deeds Done Doctorially Expensive for 54 hit points!
GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Jean!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Jean only has fans- and her fists, even if she doesn't like showing that side of her off. Hiro definitely knows that. Sorey deflects the boomerang with his sword, "It's okay Jean!" He makes a small hop to catch the boomerang in it's deflected arc and slam it down into it's holster- and upon landing he turns over one of their packs with a foot, turning over the empty mess kit inside, "You're being /all/ our shields by fending them off!"

It's a shame romance novels won't make a good shield against the Shepherd- there's that whole stack of them right over there. But even if they would, that'd make Lucia sad. He still remembers how she looked when they found them.

Kalve calls out his name though, and Hiro's head whips in his direction, just as a round circle enters into his vision. Leaping into the air, he catches the edge of it, hand on the hexagonal plates, before slamming his arm into the grip. "Wow! This is- marvelous." He rotates his wrist as if testing the balance, "Thanks!"

He can't really actually salute him with a hand right now, using a swing of his sword instead and a hand- a grin upon his lips. But Lucia- he sees her backing up, and he's not sure it's fear. Instead she looks like the curse has taken hold, like that day in the Spire. He can't feel what's going on with her, but he can see it. And his steps cause him to dash over, to catch her by the arm just before she steps into the fire and try to steady her- "Stay with us Lucia. Just hold on." He whispers.

But his eyes move over his shoulder at the Shepherd's accusation- at Alisha's- "Yes I'm sure Princess! Sure enough to bet my life on it! And I know that's what the Shepherd does! And I know I'm asking you a lot- but I'm not going to abandon-"

Sorey springs forward- sword pointed at the ground- his hop is going to be short and Hiro knows it, but still he bends low at the knees, wary of the abilities of the Legendary Shepherd. A shimmering purple haze juts out of the earth, and a wave of flames moves forward at him. Slamming his arm into the ground, the flames wash over the hexagonal plating in front of the shield, and disperse.

He feels something in his very soul again, but it's... not as intense than last time.

He'll have to thank Kalve again later, he likely saved his life.

"-I'm not going to abandon Lucia. She's not what you think she is."

Sorey is down on one knee though? What happened!? Maybe that attack took a lot out of him? Or maybe he scored a lucky hit that he didn't realize. But if he hesitates? What will happen to Lucia?

His shield arm juts out, bleeding palm outstretched, and he begins an incantation. The natives of Lunar would recognize it as Sorcery, the winds picking up around his feet, swirling- gently swishing the foliage around- "And I'll keep moving forward, keep fighting, until everyone else realizes it too!"

The power that swells up inside him is released, as a duo of funnels descend on the Princess Knight and the Shepherd a vortex of swirling winds that tears apart their immediate area- and attempts to lift up the pair of them- and sweep them away.

GS: Hiro has attacked Alisha Diphda with Vortex!
GS: Hiro has attacked Sorey with Vortex!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Sorey guards a hit from Hiro's Vortex for 56 hit points!
GS: Alisha Diphda guards a hit from Hiro's Vortex for 57 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.

"Uh oh."

The words are murmored softly as the air glows. Into light, into a cyclone, yet another blast of wind and sheer force of personality. It is everything Skylr Paer is not. It is hot-blooded to her tsundere, it is dark to her light, is is demonic to her goddess blessings, and pure, distilled ill fortune to her, uh... to her floof. Yeah, we'll go with that.

In essence, it burns at her. Darkly. It finds that light that she cherishes, and it eats at it.

And eats.

And eats.

And eats.

"Never... never give up..." She whispers. "That's what mama said. We have to protect the sheep... that's what papa said. We have to protect the innocent." She inhales, and exhales slowly.

"I am Skylr, Priestess of Althena." She keeps talking to herself, her fingers shaking as she puts another arrow to her bow, with the feeling of the poison burning through her small frame and the darkness.

"I am a protector."

"I swear for this."

The winds change, again, guiding her quivering hands. "I fight to protect them... to protect my sheep. Our history..." She's still mumbling. The arrow fires.

"For ALTHENA!"

GS: Skylr Paer has attacked Zed with Arrow Blast!
GS: Skylr Paer takes 5 damage from Poison!
GS: Skylr Paer has completed its action.
DC: MISS! Zed completely evades Arrow Blast from Skylr Paer!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

"I must confess that I'm starting to warm up to you. But then again, you're the one that's on fire." Lailah would have remained deadly serious if she had entered combat with the Calamitous Lucia as she harbors no ill will towards this fellow punster. And when she tries to fan out the flames, Lailah's eyes actually go wide. "Y-you are going to feed the flames by doing that!" The Fire Seraph warns of her enemy before Lemina refocuses on her and gets to the point by throwing an ice -lance- at her now.

Seeing the mighty attack come flying in towards her, Lailah conjures a wall of ignited paper to block the attack. The flames melt most of the lance, but some of it ice-i-trickles through Lailah's guard and still is enough of a blow to cause her to almost lose her balance. She takes in a few deep breaths as she surveys the battlefield before seeing the immense displays of power on display from both sides. Her brows furrow with concern before she calls out to the Shepherd. "Sorey! We shall stand with you, but do not press yourself forward carelessly!" The wizened Seraph warns before looking to the Princess' condition too. Her concerned frown remains.

Finally, her attention returns to Lemina. "I do not wish to test your might to its fullest, but if you're burning to do so then we'll see if you can stand the heat." She then tosses a piece of paper straight for Lemina that ignites mid-flight, attempting to shower her opponent with embers.

GS: Seraph Lailah has attacked Lemina Ausa with Searing Paper Cut!
GS: Seraph Lailah has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Seraph Lailah's Searing Paper Cut for 81 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

There it is again! That feeling. That sensation... Of being watched. Is this what it's like to have a stalker!? That notion of cold creeping down the spine, the mysterious magic in the air, the... Wait, no. That's actually there. That is legitimately a magic circle there. Zed's eyes widen again as suddenly the air seems to densify. Everything grows heavier. He feels the steel in his bones groan against the strain, but...

BUT--!

BUT ZED DOES NOT FALL!

"Hnnnnngh!" Zed groans, rolling his shoulders, feeling a pop as his body strains against the Air Pressure. "Too bad... TOO BAD! For you see, while you can weigh down my body--" A thump. Zed slams a fist against his chest! "In here. What's in here-- my soul! MY SOUL WILL NEVER BE WEIGHED DOWN BY GRAVITY!"

"I AM ZED! I am not merely a pretty face. And not once... NOT ONCE--" Zed yells, leaping despite the immense force pushing him downward. Somehow, he manages to jump straight out of the magic circle. With as much power as he put into his jump, Zed practically soars, bird-like, into the air once he breaches the outer fringes of Edna's sorcery. "HAVE I SKIPPED LEG DAAAAAAY!"

It's true.

His record is impeccable.

"HWAAAAAH!" Zed roars, cresting his leap. An arrow slings through the space that Zed just vacated; had he been caught by the arresting force of gravity, perhaps the story would be different, but... "Your faith!" Zed calls mid-backflip. Did he hear her prayers? Does... Does he have a Demon's ears!? "It is commendable! But faith alone is not enough on the battlefield! Train to shoot better! Shoot where I am going to be, not where I am! Ahahahaha--"

Wait.

That... That feeling.

It's a terrible sensation. Zed might be a demon, a monster beyond compare, but this... This is beyond even that. He is about as magically inept as a block of metal, but his soul, his heart, it feels that palpable, unmistakably ominous aura. It draws his eyes immediately towards Lucia, and he sees...

Someone... Taking advantage.

"No--" Zed growls. He pivots mid-air, scarf briefly, impossibly, hardening into vanes of solidified steel wool. "No, that is not a demon's fang! You want to see a demon's fangs!?" Zed lands between Alisha and the calamitous bluenette. His roar shakes the air, he braces his blade against the blow, cyclone winds hammering into his body, blasting through his moss-green hair. Zed grits his teeth, eardrums throbbing, quicksilver blood hammering against the inside of his skull. The lingering glow of Lucia's magic fades further, but has not yet yielded. "This... This is not my fang. This is my PEERLESS BODY! But..."

"Here. Let me show you. OPEN YOUR EYES, PRIESTESS GIRL!" Zed yells, lifting his sword into the air. If she or Edna looks, they'd see... Almost the exact opposite of what he did moments ago. There is no darkness radiating from the swordsman, not anymore. Instead, the glow emanating from his HEART OF HEARTS is a wreath of blinding, celestial light! This too is Zed. His passion. His bravery. The light of hope that twinkles in the depths of a demonic heart. "HERE! BEHOLD A DEMON'S FANGS!" The light surges upward, blasting along the line of his upheld blade. It blasts into the sky, and then...

Zed swings his sword.

Pillars of light smash into the earth. One is aimed right on top of that distant priestess, the other... Well, Zed WANTED it to hit that fangy princess, but he seems to slip at the very last moment, stumbling forward into his swing! The pillar of heavy light somehow ends up... Right on top of Edna!?

DOES HE KNOW THEY'RE THERE!?

GS: Zed has attacked Skylr Paer with Inner Secret - Heavens Howl!
GS: Zed has attacked Seraph Edna with Inner Secret - Heavens Howl!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Edna critically Guards a hit from Zed's Inner Secret - Heavens Howl for 21 hit points!
GS: Skylr Paer guards a hit from Zed's Inner Secret - Heavens Howl for 61 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

"You just keep Lucia safe!" Jean calls to Hiro, "And we're fine!" She doesn't have anything to say about being their shields, though admittedly it lifts her spirits, helps her keep fighting even under these circumstances.

But she's still fighting Amelia Rose, and she shakes her head at what she says. Once Amelia is down she answers, "It's not that I'm ignorant, Amelia. It's that you're /wrong/ about her. A girl like her, who lives the way she does, who wants only to help the world... There's no way that's this Destroyer." A pause, as she rises, "And I'm not concerned with evil seeping into my soul." It's soft, and jean looks down to see if Amelia is done in her gasping, if she's down and her dog is just watching carefully for her. ..Jean likes that dog.

"What evil?" Jean answers Amelia. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"" But there's a qetion and there's a strike, and this time the Priestess swings at her; Jean isn't fast enough to avoid a swing straight into the backs of her knees and the top of her calves, knocking the woman from her feet and knocking her to the group. "Ugh--" She rolls upward and leaps back upward, acrobatic as ever, but Amelia can see that she's slower than she was as she tries to recover from the way that abused her muscles. She lifts one hand above her head, stretches the other partway out beside her, and starts to make a wing pattern that quickly moves into a dance. In instants Jean twirls, and between her and Amelia is a purple, noxious cloud of gas that is cloying to the breath, like pollen, affecting the senses and harming the lunges. "Dance... Magic!"

GS: Jean has attacked Amelia Rose with Moth Dance!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
GS: Amelia Rose guards a hit from Jean's Moth Dance for 44 hit points!
GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Amelia Rose!
GS: Jean takes Cover! She gains 50 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

"Knight's honor," Kalve muses aloud. "I suppose it is, isn't it, Zed?" He doesn't know if his companion can hear him over the din of combat. He doesn't expect an answer, anyway.

Alisha sidesteps him, trying to get past. Kalve tries not to let her. It doesn't really matter, though: she does something he doesn't expect, firing a jagged fang of light across the ground. Kalve tracks it just out of his field of vision and dances around her instead, circling to keep Lucia to one side and putting Alisha in his field of vision alongside most of the battlefield.

"Ah; I see." Kalve's voice is placid. He's still smiling at Alisha. "That was an interesting technique. Tell me, where did you learn to fight?" He cants his head the other way, hands falling to his sides.

One snaps back, brushing his leg and the dull metal there. The metal shifts like it was opening, that hand coming back up incredibly quickly, and Alisha -- should she be paying attention to him, rather than the very distressing things coming from the Lord of Calamity -- is suddenly looking down the barrel of a gun. It's heavy and odd looking, with a thick barrel and an aesthetic like it was assembled out of opaque broken glass. The light gleams off of its surface oddly.

It sounds a little strange when it fires, too.

There a noise like 'whirr-WHUMP' instead of a sharp crack, a ripple of electric blue haze flickering out of the dense barrel. Part of it rotates, the cylinder shifting each time he fires, three shots stitched upwards along the side of the princess assailing his present charge. Kalve might be looking to stagger her before he pumps rounds into her vitals.

A suitable test, Kalve thinks.

GS: Kalve has attacked Alisha Diphda with Paradigm Shift!
GS: Kalve has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"I wish I was a little /less/ on fire!" Lemina calls back, still wincing a bit; she's only a little singed now, though. Unfortunately, she's given no reprieve -- the paper whips past her, showering her in new sparks /and/ possibly even a nasty papercut. Lemina is more worried about the former than the latter, admittedly -- even as she takes time to center herself.

"Is this... a hunk of mega-burning love?!" Lemina calls back, considering her options as she continues to meet pun with pun. "I was trying to keep my cool... but if I can't just put you on ice, then..."

Closing her eyes and briefly chanting, Lemina finishes, "I'll just have to take us out of the frying pan and into the fire!" She thrusts one hand forward, and from it erupts a large gout of flame -- one that detonates on impact, threatening to keep Lailah off balance for at least a while.

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Lailah with Flame Bomb!
GS: Lemina Ausa takes 4 damage from Poison!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lailah guards a hit from Lemina Ausa's Flame Bomb for 106 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Seraph Lailah!

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

There's definitely a very real darkness that the world needs saving from; Sorey isn't wrong and Alisha isn't either. Lucia bites the inside of her mouth until it bleeds, but no amount of willpower is going to make this stop. If that were the case -- if she were the source of this, or had control over it -- everything would be very different, indeed.

'What are you?' asks Amelia, and the question rolls through her like a pearl of water down a shattering glass, but her throat is too clogged to answer. 'I'll keep moving forward!' swears Hiro, and that makes her eyes burn with the need to respond, but she still -- she can't.

The one that snaps her out of it is Zed; she saw Alisha's blow coming and had made no move to stop it, to protect herself, but she was not expecting this last-minute save. It jars her expectations, and turns her choking into coughing. Almost tripping over her own feet to avoid slamming into him, she winds up stumbling to her knees on the far side of the fire, and stares up at the light, light, light that he emanates...

It can't banish what ails her, but one of her black-gloved hands drifts upwards, unconsciously, to catch a tear she did not expect to shed, which has formed at the corner of her right eye.

She stares down at it, baffled. What could it mean?

GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Lucia's Brooding!
GS: Lucia has completed her action.
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Lucia's Lucia's Brooding for 0 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

The winds lash out, battering at Sorey for a moment as Hiro does his best to drive them off. The spinning winds leave gashes and cuts across Sorey's arms and legs as he covers himself as best he can from the whirling, windborn debris. But Sorey struggles against it for a moment, until the funnel pushes him back and away. He tumbles through the air for a moment, almost pushed back down the hill until something grabs him, bringing his movement to a stop.

The Shepherd looks up, and smiles at the extended hand that is holding onto his own. Mikleo is standing against the wind, his staff driven into the ground to provide some purchase against the blowing winds, his hair tousled by the intense breeze. Sorey looks over, and shouts, "Alisha, are you OK!?!"

He can't wait for a response though, and instead pushes himself to his feet. "We can't let them get away. Even if..." He pauses, looks at his friend. "We've got to stop them. We can work out what's going on once we've made sure they can't escape."

Sorey holds out his sword, and closes his eyes.

"LUZROV RULAY!"

It is like a clean breeze off the sea, blowing across the hilltop. It spreads out from where Sorey is standing, pushing back the malevolence for a moment - the power of a Shepherd, hand in hand with one of his Seraphim. And where had stood a young man in a white mantle before now stands someone that even those without any spiritual sensitivity can sense. Sorey's clothing has transformed into a white garb, trimmed with gold and highlighted with a blue light that seems to shine with an otherworldly light. His eyes have changed from their usual pale green to a brilliant icey blue, and his hair has become a pale blonde, with a long tail bound with a ribbon as blue as the sea that whips around in an wind that seems to exist only for his sake.

And instead of his sword, Sorey carries an intricate white and blue bow, looking as if it was crafted in the image of some sea creature. Sorey raises his weapon, and as his speaks there is an echo to his voice, as if both he and Mikleo were speaking as one. "Hiro! Lucia!" he calls out. "Forgive me! But I can't let you escape!" He draws back on the shimmering blue string of the Armatus, and several arrows of shimmering water appear on the weapon. Sorey sights... and the barrage of shots lances across the hilltop, each one slamming into the ground and erupting in a pillar of water in a pattern around Lucia and her protector.

DC: Sorey switches forms to Armatus Luzrov Rulay!
GS: Sorey has attacked Hiro with Shattered Deluge!
GS: Sorey has attacked Lucia with Shattered Deluge!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Hiro takes a solid hit from Sorey's Shattered Deluge for 107 hit points!
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Sorey's Shattered Deluge for 123 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"Tch."

Edna has been stationary all this time, doing the bare minimum to be a hinderance to at least someone in this conflict. That malevolence that Lucia is putting out makes her want to hurl, but she keeps her wits about herself, settling for just frowning deeply.

...Which for her is a mild crease of the brows

But that does prove to be distraction enough for Zed to totally maybe accidentally target her with a pillar of sundering light! Does he know the Seraphim are there? ....No. He's just an idiot who misfired. She sighs and raises her umbrella, coating it in earthen magic as she opens it up and raises it above her. The pillar crashes right into it, and Zed would witness his strike inexplicably being halted about five feet away from the ground by an invisible force. The sheer force makes Edna wince as she holds fast against the power. But it eventually fades.

When it does, she lowers her umbrella, looking not too worse for the wear, barring some soot here and there. And she closes the implement. "You got my dress dirty." The earth seraph glowers at the DARK HERO, SAVIOR OF FILGAIA. And she starts tromping forward. Even if the fool can't see her. Even if he can't hear her. She's walking right up to him with clear purpose.

That purpose becomes clear soon enough. Her umbrella glows with earthen energy. She stops just before him. And then she swings. "Idiot." FWOOSH. How about an invisible impact from a mysterious force right upside the head?

Fun times.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Zed with Sunshine Swing!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: Zed critically Guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Sunshine Swing for 19 hit points!
GS: Seraph Edna takes Cover! She gains 50 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.

"THAT! Is the power of Althena-- you may dodge now, but you will never dodge your fate!" Skylr calls out to Zed. "With these people --" She gestures around her- "We will win, or we will die trying." She pauses, and looks up. Hey, guess whose second element is LIGHT?

"..."

Her glare as she levels her gaze back at Zed would kill if she could utilize it. Instead, she steps, and sizzles. Unlike the concept of Zed eating, and eating, and eating away at her, this hurts significantly less than everything else so far, and it still chunks her heavily. Skylr is ...

A bad member of Althena's Guard. But she at least recognizes when she needs to retreat, hobbling away from the field with a twirl of wind around herself.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.
<SoundTracker> Through the Fire and Flames

Lailah locks looks with Lemina. "I see you are smoldering with both puns and power." She muses aloud as she readies an array of new papers to be thrown. They seemingly materialize out of nowhere as Lailah advances towards Lemina. "But my allies are locked in battle with the Lord of Calamity's lieutenants! I am sorry, but I must go to their aid so our MATCH must come to an end. Prepare you go all out and see if you can even hold a CANDLE to my firepower." She calls out to her foe whom promptly answers with flames of her own. Lailah, committed to what she said in heart and deed, actually runs forward into Lemina's attack in an attempt to catch her by surprise.

Through the fire and flames of Lemina's attack, a battered Lailah emerges definitely worse for wear. Her clothes are singed, but her determination is unharmed. The Fire Seraph has paid this cost to be precisely where she wanted to be. Her hands sweep out to her sides in a grandiose gesture before one hand goes high while the other goes low. "Dance for me, bright flames, in a crimson storm....." She brings up and thrusts both of her hands forward towards Lemina. "...Flare Vortex!"

It starts as fiery flash of flame that hits the ground near Lemina's feet. At first, nothing happens as the attack may have sizzled out. But then it happens. The winds around Lemina's feet pick up with increasing fury before erupting into a towering cyclone of flame that quickly seeks to engulf Lemina should she not escape from its path.

GS: Seraph Lailah has attacked Lemina Ausa with Flare Vortex!
GS: Seraph Lailah has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa critically Guards a hit from Seraph Lailah's Flare Vortex for 23 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.

Jean is strong. Amelia's skills at the martial arts are a slapdash lashed together over far too many years of wandering in pilgrimage. Her reactions aren't anything like the trained dancer's own. If Amelia has an advantage, it's in pure experience. Even as much as she gasps and seems to be winded by /something/ in the air, she constantly seems to be on guard.

"...Then you really cannot feel it. That woman you call Lucia, her mere presence is /revolting/! You are far too innocent, Jean. Please, just..." Her mouth closes, and silence. Inwardly, her heart pounds, and something small dies for just a second.

A butterfly dance, and fumes waft her way. Perhaps the worst way one could assault Amelia! She coughs, sputters, and generally looks like she's struggling to remain on her feet. Whenever she seems to almost collapse?

Silver is right there, the dog trying to keep her in place. Not a single attack aimed towards the Destroyer and her entourage, but only to protect his mistress!

Both dog and Priestess stumble out of the fog, and coughing, Amelia spins her cane-whip above her head! Barely able to stand thanks to both the horrid fog of evil, and Jean's own pure martial arts, the woman leaps towards Jean, and past her!

For all of her seemingly slow movements before, she's a ghost past the other woman for a brief instant. The crawling, serpentine whip tries to wrap itself as she puts all of her physical strength and speed in a desperate rush past Jean, as it aims to lash around legs, arms, and throat. And then, finally, a single brutal tearing from both hands as Amelia seeks to rip her stretched cane's length across every vulnerable piece of flesh she can get at. And yet, it all stops short of ripping at any arteries, the Priestess not finding it in herself to outright try to slay the martial artist she's come to know. Even now, she holds the smallest of doubts that Jean might have not been corrupted by Lucia's touch!

GS: Amelia Rose has attacked Jean with Exsanguinate!
GS: Amelia Rose takes 8 damage from Poison!
GS: Amelia Rose has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Jean takes a glancing hit from Amelia Rose's Exsanguinate for 137 hit points!
GS: Poison and Cripple! Statuses applied to Jean!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Jean calls out to him- his cape fluttering in the wake of his impromptu windstorm and- "I'll-" Which is when Zed pivots, scarf whirling about him in mid-air, landing between Lucia and Alisha. "-/we'll/ manage." Allies like this, all united in a cause- maybe they could beat back the Legendary Shepherd and the Seraphim- that he assumes are here.

Part of him still frets about the state of Lucia- but he can't take his eyes off his opponent.

And in short order the Shepherd shows him why.

Like an image straight of legends, the Shepherd calls out something- he doesn't know what it is- and a breeze blows back his hair and almost whips his cape back into his face. Shielding his face with his arm, when he looks back there's-

His surprise is obvious. "Is this the power of the Shepherd?" "Hiro I think- Silverfish- one of the Seraphim- is with him somehow!"

In his hands is a bow that looks like some myth come to life, and as it's bowstring is pulled back, Hiro raises his shield against what he assumes is a straight forward attack.

How wrong he is.

The shimmering arrowheads curve past his guard, striking the ground, geysers of water erupting and driving him in the air. He wants to cry out Lucia's name, but he's gotten a mouthful of water and all that comes out of it is a strangled burble as he's cast into the sky, and down-

He impacts hard, rolling, and vomits up a stomachful of water, wiping a hand past his mouth, "Lu- shuh-" His eyes move over to her- his lips pressing together as he grits his teeth, "Even if you think she's the Lord of Calamity- she's having a hard time even standing up- is this how the Shepherd is supposed to bring hope to people?"

And yet, didn't he attack Sorey when he was down on one knee too?

Standing up straight on wobbly legs, he wipes a hand past his mouth- "Well- I don't have any intention of running away." "Hiro! Hiro don't! Get some help!" At first his steps come slow against the water slick ground, but eventually he starts to run- he hops once, whispering something, and upon hitting the ground, a cantrips worth of wind magic vaults him high into the air.

His sword is raised high overhead, and upon his descent straight at the Shepherd, he tries to drive his blade downward into him with a vicious slash.

"DODGE THIS!"

GS: Hiro has attacked Sorey with Poe Sword!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from Hiro's Poe Sword for 101 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

The wind whips and tears at Alisha, throwing her to the side. The princess knight stumbles, her footing thrown off, and she takes a deep and shuddering breath. Her eyes widen, as she looks back at Hiro, and stares a moment. She can't quite fault him for that sort of determination.

But... the person receiving it...

"You don't--you don't understand!" she cries out. "Please! This is about much more than belief!"

And then Zed lands right in front of her, taking the shot meant for Lucia. Alisha stares in surprised confusion, before she shakes her head. "Ah! What are--" And then she sees him swing his sword. She calls out: "Look out!"

She can't do more than call a warning. Kalve is back on her, and she gasps, before she turns to face him. "I was trained under--nnh!" The shots fire into her, one after the other, smashing into her armor. Two bounce off, but one tears through. A bloom of red begins to spread on her side, and she stumbles. "One of... those strange weapons."

She breathes, a little more raggedly, then.

Her eyes widen sharply, though, when she sees Sorey push himself up -- and then feels the blast of a clean breeze. She can't see the change, still; she can't see the Seraphim. But Alisha knows what happened. Armatization.

"Sorey..." she murmurs. Then, she looks back at Kalve. She grits her teeth, and then she lunges forward. She spins her spear over her head as she leaps, and it becomes a blur, trailing away a soft golden light, before she lands, and then stabs her spear forward -- and a light burst erupts off the spear blade as it comes at the Metal Demon.

"Rondo of Light!"

GS: Alisha Diphda has attacked Kalve with Rondo of Light!
GS: Alisha Diphda has completed her action.
GS: Kalve takes a solid hit from Alisha Diphda's Rondo of Light for 111 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

On the one hand, Lemina feels like she's outclassed and needs to end this quickly... but on the other hand, that's coward talk and would destroy her opportunities for more puns! She backpedals away from Lailah as quickly as she can, trying to maintain separation.

It proves wise; the backpedaling puts her in a perfect position to block part of that rising flame with her umbrella, and leap back from the rest. She's still a little singed, but at least she's not in particularly dire straits -- nor extremely on fire again. "I don't know -- I'd call this lukewarm resistance at best!" she calls to Lailah, even as beads of sweat form on her face.

Her fist clenches, and she considers her options. It isn't /quite/ time to cede ground outright by trying to focus exclusively on defense... and any shield she could throw up would probably get melted by those flames, anyway.

So naturally, her solution is to just get right back to the grind. "Here we go! Mega-magic flame, engaged!" she shouts, eyes narrowed. "Do you take your opposition medium-rare? Or mega-well-done?" she asks, before letting loose with...

... a much smaller blast of fire than she used earlier. Maybe she's bluffing? Or maybe she's running out of gas...

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Lailah with Flame Strike!
GS: Lemina Ausa takes 6 damage from Poison!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lailah guards a hit from Lemina Ausa's Flame Strike for 81 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Gorgeous azure light makes the tear on Lucia's fingertip shimmer, and she looks up to stare at Mikleo and Sorey as they combine into something -- someone -- more. She is lovely in that moment, more blue than red herself, with her hair spilling over her cloak and the ground, pooling around her knees where she's fallen. It, too, blows in the unseen wind. Her face shines with a sort of openness that replaces the usual blankness; it is still inscrutable, but no longer on the defensive.

It is the look of someone who has just seen a long-lost friend. It is hope, raw, unmitigated, blinding in its radiance.

The curse prevented her from sensing it fully before, but it cannot block the strength of Sorey and Mikleo's Armatus. It blasts through her awareness like a spotlight. She is poleaxed. She is saved.

"--Althen--" she breathes like a star-crossed lover, and then the pillars of water explode around her, "--blurbleblurbleblurb!!"

The Lord of Calamity is lost to the waves for entire heartbeats, during which time there is finally some relief from her Malevolence. Will there be anything left of her, after? The Shepherd may know the nature of his powers, but her allies do not.

But eventually the tides recede, and she's still sitting there, soaked to the bone, battered by massive forces, but no more purified than a stone.

And the Malevolence comes gushing back outwards from her, like a spreading puddle of blood, as strong as ever.

She rises, crackling with sparkling blue-green energy, which buoys her several inches off the ground. It flows down her form from crown to toes, blasting her cloak back, and her hair too, and drying them both, to boot.

Staring at the Shepherd, her eyes gush more of that magic, rather than tears; her pupils have disappeared entirey beneath it. He can't see the hunger with which she stares at him, at them, but he can feel it. He -- they -- have, or are, something she needs.

Her arms thrust out to either side.

"...POWER..." she intones again, and this time, once it is named, it explodes out of her like fiery swords, swords that pierce her allies from behind, from beneath. They aren't harmful, however; quite the opposite, as the sigils fade into their recipients, they feel pierced by something else entirely.

Their hearts fill, overflowingly, with the strength of Lucia's convictions. In that moment they can feel what she feels -- a terrible, burning urgency, newly inflamed by that most dangerous of incendiaries, hope. She must find the Goddess Althena. She /must/.

She /will/.

GS: Lucia has attacked Hiro with Power Charge!
GS: Lucia has attacked Jean with Power Charge!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lemina Ausa with Power Charge!
GS: Lucia has attacked Zed with Power Charge!
GS: Lucia has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Hiro takes a solid hit from Lucia's Power Charge for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Hiro!
GS: Jean takes a solid hit from Lucia's Power Charge for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Jean!
GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Lucia's Power Charge for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Lemina Ausa!
GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Lucia's Power Charge for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Zed!

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

"No, I can't feel anything like that," Jean says again, forcing herself not to look away as Amelia Rose calls her 'innocent' of all things. Obviously she hasn't been fighting hard enough. ...Maybe she's been fighting too hard. It makes a good time to try with her magic.

Jean, for her part, makes no move to advance on Amelia while she's recovering, makes no steps to advance past Silver's guard to attack. If the poisonous dance is enough, it's enough. ...It isn't, but Jean wishes that it had been, that this battle would be over. But she sees Amelia out of the fog, spinning her whip.

There's a sharp intake of breath as she leaps to the side, but that's enough. The whip wraps itself about her hips and about her leg and about one arm, and the /tearing/ is helped by gravity as Jean moves to fall. It's awful, and nasty, and Jean's normal dancer's clothing offers her almost no protection against this segmented whip's blades. Somehow she is silent save for breathing and thudding against the ground. She certainly shouldn't be, under that kind of pain. It's a grievous attack... and then there's a sword through her.

A sword of conviction, a sword of the feelings of her friend, and it is not what she needed to get up, but it is enough that getting up is a brighter prospect. She's fighting for Lucia. Jean narrows her eyes at Amelia. "I respect what you can do. ...But my beliefs aren't easily swayed by pain."

She lunges, taking a fan in each hand, and hacks down and to the side and around, spinning around her opponent with another strike in each movement.

GS: Jean has attacked Amelia Rose with Razor Dance!
GS: Jean takes 10 damage from Poison!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
GS: Amelia Rose takes a solid hit from Jean's Razor Dance for 86 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Zed doesn't see Skylr retreat. This is for the best, probably. He's busy being a human-shaped wall for one of his NEW FRIENDS. Zed stands strong when Lucia stumbles into him. He glances back just in time to flash a grin and completely miss the strange umbrella-shaped thing enduring his CELESTIAL HOWL. But he does see... Something block his attack. Something... He cannot see?

"What kind of honor are you talking about?" Zed asks over his shoulder in Kalve's vague, general direction. "Knights? Is that what these people a--" SPLOOSH. Zed stumbles forward. Water... Water...? No. That's not right. It's not raining, is it? No, it was... More magic. Magic from things he cannot see. No, is this... The power of the Guardians? He frowns as the blast engulfs her-- an attack he couldn't possibly deflect. Not this time. Perhaps he should have thrown himself in front of that one instead? But... But... does Filgaia reject Lucia just as it rejects the Metal Demons? But she came from here originally, didn't she...?

But then, that power! Zed sees the swords coming! He grits his teeth, reflexively leaning away from the blow. C-could this have been a set-up all along!? WERE HIS ALLIES ACTUALLY HIS ENEMIES!?

No.

No. The blades that pierce his body do not tear his skin. They pour their power into his very heart. Flooding his soul with... With urgency. Desperation? He has no inkling of what darkness afflicts his new friend, but he does know that her soul is greater. Her determination is invincible. Her hope...

Her hope fills his heart.

Zed's eyes widen. Something washes against the walls of his mind. Something light and warm, frantic and fleeting. He's... Not sure if he likes it, but in it he feels something... Something familiar?

No, there's no need to think. There's no time to think. "Alright then! I'm getting pretty tired of this magic coming out of LITERALLY NOWHERE! And I think I've got an idea as to what's causing it! So--" Zed poses majestically. He dips to one side, presses a hand to his face, and... feels the wind blow through his hair? It's... Pretty heavy wind, in all honesty. His poor eardrums scream at the sensation, but to Edna, it would look vaguely like this idiot somehow managed to move just in time to turn her strike into a glancing blow!

"Here we go!" Zed beams, flinging ~SOMETHING~ into the ground. The world suddenly... Fills with smoke. Thick, white, powdery smoke. The kind that sticks to everything and doesn't let go. It's like a devilish mixture of talc and *glitter.* Zed... Is equipped with GLITTER SMOKEBOMBS.

"When the earth, the sky, and the people cry out--" Zed yells behind the veil of smoke. "When justice takes a sick day and life is making you blue-- look up!! AND I'LL BE THERE! ZEEEEEDDDDDDDD SUUUUPEEEEER"

He steps through the veil.

And whirls like a humanoi cyclone.

"SWIIIIIIING!"

He... He appears to be attacking the ground.

But somehow, his blade finds its way up towards a blindspot in Edna's guard!?

Did he see her??

Or... Is the *GLITTER SMOKE* sticking to her!?

GS: Zed has attacked Seraph Edna with Tactical Smokebomb Technique!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Edna guards a hit from Zed's Tactical Smokebomb Technique for 61 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

It wasn't going to be that easy, Sorey was certain of it. But there is a nagging feeling he has that his attack hadn't worked because something was wrong? Was he just too weak, or was Hiro right. It was hard to say for certain. But Sorey wasn't going to give up now. And the way Lucia is looking at him - it's disturbing. He doesn't understand that look - and maybe if she would just speak in something other than monotone single words, he might be able to understand it better.

But then Hiro is rushing at him, and Sorey tries to take a step back, to get a bit more perspective on the situation. But Lucia's protector is even more determined (and faster) than he expected, and the slash from his sword cuts into Sorey's side. There is a flash of light, and then a faint stain spreading along Sorey's side.

He grimaces, and looks at Lucia's protector, his blue eyes sad. For a moment, he wonders if he would be doing the same thing given what Hiro knows. A moment to wonder, before he lashes out with his bow to push the other man back. "...I wish there was a way that I could help you feel what is coming off of her. So you could feel just how powerful the malevolence is. I'll try and find a way."

And then Sorey pulls back on his bow again, his eyes narrowing. A shimmering arrow appears nocked in place, and Sorey suddenly snaps the bow back up, aiming directly at Hiro. A flash of light, and suddenly the arrow glows with a blinding incandescence of purifying energy.

Hiro only has a moment to realize that this could be extremely bad before Sorey fires at him from very, very close range.

GS: Sorey has attacked Hiro with Saint's Arrow!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Hiro guards a hit from Sorey's Saint's Arrow for 91 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Puns aside, Lailah had launched a serious enough attack that it should have had her opponent taking her more seriously. But it seems that her foe may be outpacing her. The swirling tornado of fire subsists and finds Lailah the more worse for wear out of the two despite it being her attack. This encounter was growing quickly out of hand and the Fire Seraph looks distractedly towards Lucia as she begins intoning some sort of presumably powerful attack and/or dark ritual. There was no longer any doubt in her mind that she was a Lord of Calamity. For Hellions became stronger when within a Lord of Calamity's domain and her supportive sorcery seemed to be a prime example of this.

The Fire Seraph in the red and white dress drops to her knees and begins to speak a soft incantation to herself. But once again, she is interrupted by an attack before she can complete it. Since she was already kneeling, there just isn't enough time for Lailah to get out of the way and she gets pummeled by the attack with lays her out onto her back completely. "....burnt out." She whispers back, unable to help herself despite her increasing injuries. She struggles to get back up, but only remains on her knees where she stays to catch her breath.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"....?"

Well that's odd. Did that fool actually manage to detect where her attack was coming from and turning it aside without actually seeing her? ...Suppose there are people, and creatures, out there that can do that. Still mildly infuriating, but still. There are more important things to worry about. Like that bomb!

Edna takes several steps back, out of the radius of the explosion. But.... But... Glitter? IS THAT GLITTER!? No. NO. UGH. It's clinging ALL OVER HER. Through all the smoke and sparkles, Zed would find himself able to make out the vaguely humanoid glitter shape moving in the smoke. And he strikes!

The earth seraph swings her umbrella up to parry, and it slices across her side rather than doing anything much worse. She takes a couple more steps back, and then she frowns.

"...... ......"

Icy blue eyes glance down to regard herself. Her once white and beige dress is now covered in soot and glitter. Not to mention the bleeding cut on her side and the glitter clinging to her skin. Slowly, Edna's gaze squarely rests on Zed.

"You are dead, sir."

She doesn't make any dramatic motions. She doesn't chant any spells. She just raises her foot...

...And stomps the ground.

A huge spire of stone blasts upwards at a spearing angle right in front of Zed with alarming quickness.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Zed with Rock Lance!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: Zed guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Rock Lance for 76 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Alisha says this is about much more than belief. In a sense she's right. It is. Hiro believed- and still does believe in the legend of the Shepherd despite crossing swords with him. But he believes in Lucia more- what tips the balance? What truly does? Lucia's own belief that her mission will save Lunar? The evidence that he saw before his own eyes within the Blue Spire? The stories he once read and wished to be a part of- or is it something else too?

If it is- can he admit that, even to himself?

He lands upon the ground, splattering water spray from Sorey's last attack, staggering a step or two-

But then POWER a word he knows well- fiery swords appear around him- and he welcomes them; filled with the strength of Lucia's convictions- bringing a brief smile to his face. It courses through his arms, through his body.

"You don't get it! You're not feeling her- you're feeling the real Destroyer! It's-"

It's such a good thing that Kalve threw him that shield.

Sorey is already sighting him down, and warily he takes a step back, raising his conjured shield.

The arrow of incandescent energy makes contact with the plating at the front, sliding him backwards a step as he feels the energy wrack his soul. There's no malevolence in him to purify- but it doesn't make it hurt any less. Closing his eyes against the blinding brilliance, he tries to push forward, and only keeps himself from being pressed back even further.

The blinding light disappears, and he almost swoons from the effort, staggering a step or two before trying to regain his footing, "-and I wish I could make you believe what I know to be true. Lucia didn't come to Lunar to destroy it-" Raising his sword, he swipes it downward, carving an arc through the the space of nothing but air- the air pressure visibly swirls around the blade in streaming wisps of wind. "But since you decided to point your sword at her rather than stop and listen-"

Raising it back over his head, he whirls it around in a centrifugal rotation, the wind picking up and the gale force of his swing becoming so dense around the blurring of iron that is his sword. At once he stops the motion, swinging the tip of his sword towards the Shepherd combined with Seraphim- "-then I'll make you!"

It launches the teeming mass of swirling wind at the combined pair- upon striking, either them or the ground, it erupts outward in a concussive blast that devastates the earth around them.

Apparently Hiro can- break wind.

GS: Hiro has attacked Sorey with Sybillium Sword!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Sorey critically Guards a hit from Hiro's Sybillium Sword for 29 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.

Amelia's lashing cane finds it's blade, and she wounds the great martial artist she's ended up fighting with. There's a few good moments of silence before Jean, but then even Amelia's mouth opens. She looks back, and yet, Jean finds it in herself to stand despite her technique.

'My beliefs aren't swayed by pain'.

A single statement, and yet, the elf is smiling. It's almost amused, that smile, as she offers it towards Jean. "My own beliefs haven't been swayed...since before you were born, little one. You have more physical skill than me, Jean. Unfortunately..."

Hack. Slash. Fans lunge, finding at first a single metal cane, and then across her body. A deft slash across her leg. Another across both arms as she leaps back from a hack towards her stomach. Jean shows her dancing slices in full, and in every moment, Amelia is sliced acriss stomach, arms, legs, and at one point, even her neck. It's a defensive dance that has her standing through sheer defensive instinct.

Amelia listens to her dog, Silver, as he gives a last three set of barks. The Priestess turns, spins, and then lays out a dance that someone born before Althena's arrival in the flesh might know. Except this time it's with her cane lashing out as a whip, her little strength left offered to try to slice and slow ankles, wrists, and other vulnerable places on Jean's body.

Just enough that both sides can escape, even if she doesn't realize it.

GS: Amelia Rose has attacked Jean with Vivisection!
GS: Amelia Rose takes 7 damage from Poison!
GS: Amelia Rose has completed her action.
GS: Jean takes a solid hit from Amelia Rose's Vivisection for 129 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

Power.

The field is awash in power.

Kalve can't really comprehend it. It defies definition from one who has never been able to touch it. It makes his ears ring and his skin warm, just being in proximity. He doesn't know why Lucia has so much of it. He knows what he wants her to do with it.

But if she can, Kalve silently reasons, why does she need protectors? Something to consider, he thinks.

"Strange?" Kalve glances down at the shard gun. "Mm, the design does look foreign, doesn't it? Do you think it's too conspicuous?" Kalve is momentarily distracted by considering that very thing. "The pattern emerged rather naturally, once I --"

Something happens. It's a counterpoint to that /power/. He glances aside, at the Shepherd, mouth turning to a frown. "...mmm." He exhales.

Alisha dives at him. Kalve's left palm flickers, and a white dagger materializes from the same light from before. The color isn't quite the same; it's less translucent. It looks like it was carved from stone instead of colored glass like the shield. He raises it in a reverse grip like a guard, tracking her with the gun --

Light explodes off the spear. Kalve's feet move, scraping the ground, but he gets hit. The light slams into him, knocking him back off his feet and sending him spinning. He tumbles sideways across the hilltop, rolling into the field of wildflowers he'd been puzzling over less than an hour before. He loses the dagger somewhere.

He fires from the ground, another report from that weapon. The flicker-flash of electric blue picks him out among the shadowed field. He rises to his feet, swiping his empty hand across his mouth. He looks at his fingers, and then at Alisha. The sound of a second shot rolls across the hill. He doesn't make any moves to close in on her. He's not so far down the hill that he won't spot her going for Lucia from here. Hiro is nearly out of his range, though...

Kalve starts to walk back towards the center of the battlefield, moving diagonally instead of straight at her. "I will allow you a moment to finish your thought," he says, generously, waving his weapon away from her. He isn't here to exterminate anyone. This is practically for fun. "Should you perish, I would carry word of your skill to your master and school."

GS: Kalve has attacked Alisha Diphda with Mass Driver!
GS: Kalve has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Alisha Diphda takes a solid hit from Kalve's Mass Driver for 157 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

Alisha has never dealt with firearms before (and hadn't met Zaveid on Rayfalke Spiritcrest). The knight sees Kalve fly backward, and she already starts to run forward, spear swinging back in her hands. This time, she prepares to go for a slash. However, she isn't quite used to the weapon. It looks /very/ foreign to her. The dagger that he made appear...

That, too, she wonders about. She wonders a lot more, still, about her opponent. Her mouth is open, to say so, when the shot fires. This time, it doesn't catch her armor, but below it -- and right in the stomach. Alisha gets shot clean through. Two blossoms of blood quickly stain her shirt red, both behind and in front, and the blow pitches her back.

She stumbles forward, then, and her mouth opens. "Nngh! I... my master and school, they aren't--"

They mean nothing, if she can't see this through.

But the princess knight can't manage to say that. She crumples forward, then, collapsing to her knees. She lets out a wet, ragged breath, before she crumples over to her side.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Zed's eyes glimmer in the smokey haze-- no, wait, there's just glitter stuck to his eyeballs. He... He doesn't seem to be particularly bothered? That's kind of... Weird, all things considered. But to a metal demon, a creature whose entire body is made of living metal, a little something like 'glitter eye' isn't about to stop Zed. And what is it that Zed sees with those eyes?

...An outline of something otherwise invisible.

There's... There's something in here with him. "You... You...!" A spike of stone rises beneath him. Zed grunts as it smashes right into his chest! Something snaps! SOMETHING POPS! Metal bones crack and break, sending Zed skywards once more. His body twists and bends like a blade of grass in the breeze.

"You are... The one. The one I was looking for! KAAAAAAAAAALVE!" Zed roars, his body suddenly STRAIGHTENING OUT. "KALVE, THEY HAVE INVISIBLE PEOPLE! THEY HAVE INVISIBLE PEOPLE, KALVE! But--"

Doom Bringer shines, moonlight flickering like quicksilver across the flat of the blade. "Now that I know you're there, invisible creature, there is nothing that can hide you from me! My eyes will pierce all illusion, shatter all delusion, they can see from here to the end of tomorrow and can even find the socks you've lost in the wash!"

Zed pivots, light flooding across his sword's edge. "If Claude can do it, so can I!" With one more twist, he swings Doom Bringer through the air. The atmosphere compresses, densifying as it concentrates in the space around the sword's path. Zed presses his feet against the shockwave as the air snaps back, flinging him forward, downward.

Straight at Edna.

Zed swings.

"Take this! I open my heart to you! LOOK NOW, OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE!" He skids, cutting past, then turning about to slash again! And again and again and again, Zed tears into Edna like a cutting wind, as if from a dozen directions at once! "THIS IS MY PILED SHOT! FORBIDDEN MOVE--"

--==ASTRAL DANCE!==--

GS: Zed has activated a Force Action!
GS: Zed has attacked Seraph Edna with Forbidden Move - Astral Dance!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Edna guards a hit from Zed's Forbidden Move - Astral Dance for 164 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

When Lailah starts to wilt under Lemina's assault, Lemina... more than anything... is a little surprised. She didn't /think/ she was outpacing her opponent so intensely... though she /has/ had a small amount of Lucia's support in the process. Her eyes widen a little, and she takes a few steps back, even as Lucia's power -- and, for that matter, Lucia's /resolve/ -- courses through her body.

She considers moving to support one of her allies, but for a few moments she just stands there, a little bit agape, as she attempts to figure out what to do with herself. There's an urgency, but at the same time, confusion -- she isn't going to press her assault on someone who's clearly starting to take serious wounds, least of all someone whose heart seems to be in the right place.

She looks to Lucia herself for guidance, then, folding her umbrella and breathing in a little, still sweating and clearly uncomfortable from the... /significant/ number of times she's been set on fire.

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Lucia is occasionally accused of being, shall we say, mercurial. Earlier Ruby said that she had the personality of a turnip, and it's true that she's about as readable as one.

But would a /turnip/ have this moment of transcendent power, of infusing her allies with her own strength, and then totally bail?

No. Because turnips don't have legs. Or transcendent power.

It is actually initially unclear when she left; Sorey and Hiro are locked in mortal combat, as are Alisha and Kalve, and they were closest. But sooner or later someone (like Lemina, who's actually looking) will notice the relative absence of Malevolence, or maybe the tragic way that the ratio of red to blue in this battle has shifted in blue's favor.

The Lord of Calamity has faded away like a bad memory.

GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Run Away!!
GS: Lucia has completed her action.
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Lucia's Run Away! for 0 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Damn it.

This fool is tenacious.

And he's coming for her. Like a blue of black and green, from all over. Edna tries to defend herself, and she manages to parry the first few strikes. But they grow more and more numerous, and before long, it feels like she's being struck from all sides. The earth seraph grits her teeth as she's slashed in the back, turns around to swing, but finds her side sliced into, spings around too late to late to strike, only to find herself slashed in the legs.

She sinks down to her knees, but her blue eyes burn with a fury bubbling beneath the surface. Edna remains strong, and raises her umbrella and block the very last strike, forcing Zed back. ".... ....." But despite that fury, she remains calm and stays her hand. Panting lightly, Edna rises back up to her feet. She surveys the battle situation and spies Alisha down...

"Tsk-" The DARK HERO gets one last look before his eyes make out a vaguely glitter clad form moving away from him. It doesn't retailiate. ...He's safe from reprisal. Instead, Edna steps over to Alisha and points her umbrella upwards. "Now isn't the time to be falling over. Stand up." She orders, the tip of her weapon expelling soothing light to heal wounds over a large area.

While she does this, she glances over at Sorey. "Hey you, Shepherd. We're not finishing this tonight. As I'm sure you've gathered."

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Sorey with Healing Circle!
GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Alisha Diphda with Healing Circle!
GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Seraph Lailah with Healing Circle!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Edna heals Sorey! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Seraph Edna heals Alisha Diphda! She gains 100 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

Kalve slows. He stands in the field, watching Alisha stumble. He waits patiently, head canted again as if listening for something.

She crumples; collapses. He nods slightly. Kalve inhales, exhales a little sigh. "It's important that you honor your teachings, warrior," Kalve says. His voice is getting closer. "In this way, the next generation of students could learn from how you failed." He's walking towards her, unhurried.

Kalve stops next to her, standing over her prone form. The Demon steps on the haft of her spear, raising the gun. The barrel looks terribly large when it's that close. She's crippled; he might as well finish her off. It's common sense that you simply don't leave wounded deer.

Although... it looks like it's time to go. He may as well stop this. They've seen enough.

He looks up, clearing his throat and raising his voice. "Sorey," he calls. "I believe that is the name I heard?" He waits a second or two. "Your companion is currently bleeding to death. Without immediate medical attention, she will expire. I am told dying from a stomach wound of this nature is particularly excruciating, and takes a frankly unreasonable amount of time. I recommend you cease your attack and tend to her."

Kalve steps off the spear and takes a step away, holstering the gun. The concealed metal piece closes up again, hidden against his leg. "Zed, it is time we made our exit. Our new ally has already taken her leave. Forget your invisible opponent and disengage."

The Demon turns to go, striding across the hilltop. Vibrant flowers are trampled underfoot.

One, very close to Alisha, is stained silver.

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Jean's eyes flicker over Amelia Rose's smile, the amusement in the elf's face. There is none in Jean's expression. All that's there, beneath an obvious determination, the glimmering of something else, something too hard to judge in the brief moment before she attacks.

Bark bark bark, Silver says, and Jean watches this different kind of dance, watches and feels as these vulnerable places can be found indeed; a slice through an ankle, a hack down a calf, a slash across her wrist and a curving wound down the other, down to her waist and just above her knees. All of these places are found as Jean, rather than defending herself, just starts turning with Amelia, eyes completely on her dully heedless of the great pain she's in.

The feeling in her face begins to manifest as something readable; it's sorrow.

"I'm sorry," Jean murmurs, and her hand shakes as she lifts a fan and looks down at it, but... "I--"

Her gaze cants toward where Lucia was, by sheer happenstance. She sees--"Lucia!"

That's a lie. She doesn't see Lucia. She looks to Amelia, "Another time. Please, next time... Don't make me fight you."

Wounded or not, she takes off, bolting after her red-coated friends with great speed.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Sorey knows that this is a challenging fight. Hiro isn't someone to be underestimated, but he expects that he can eventually overwhelm Lucia's protector using the Armatus. But then several important things happen at once.

Lucia is gone.

And both Lailah and Alisha are down, and look like they are not able to fight any longer. Of the two, the second is far more important to Sorey.

He can understand the Lord of Calamity running - she would want to protect herself, and keep from being purified. But Sorey is always someone who follows his heart. And given the choice between chasing Lucia and helping his friends, he will always choose the latter without hesitation.

As Hiro lunges at him, his sword unleashing a tremendous blast of wind as the other man focuses his power against the Shepherd, Sorey brings his bow around and blocks the sword. The eruption of magic flies out in all directions, countered by a shield of water that Mikleo had thrown up between Sorey and Hiro's strike. Sorey looks at Hiro for a moment, and then...

...leaps backwards, landing between Alisha and Klave. And he looks at the strange other man for a moment, before kneeling down and setting one hand on Alisha's shoulder. "Are you hurt?" he asks in that same double voice. And then Sorey raises one hand and does something that pretty much anyone from Lunar would say is flat out impossible, given the destructive magic he's been flinging around.

A circle appears around him, glowing with a brilliant blue light... and a healing spell washes out across the top of the hill. Sorey looks around for a moment and states, "It seems the Lady of Calamity has left - Edna is right. There is no more reason for us to fight here." He pauses for a moment, and looks at Hiro, Jean, and Lemina. He isn't sure who the other two are, but these three he has spoken before, and they were people he respected. Had respected? He wasn't sure on that front.

And so the Shepherd opens his mouth to say something else... and stops.

As Master was fond of saying - you had to find the truth yourself. And Sorey looks at Hiro for a moment. They both had their own truth right now. It remained to be seen whose truth was the correct one.

GS: Sorey has attacked Seraph Edna with Elixir Vitae!
GS: Sorey has attacked Seraph Lailah with Elixir Vitae!
GS: Sorey has attacked Alisha Diphda with Elixir Vitae!
GS: Sorey has attacked Amelia Rose with Elixir Vitae!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Sorey heals Alisha Diphda! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Sorey heals Seraph Edna! She gains 100 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Lailah's heart wasn't in this fight. It was still very much in her body. But she is appreciative of Lemina not kicking her when she was down, literally. This gets a solemn nod from the wounded Fire Seraph before she goes to navigate the now destroyed campfire, looking for her allies. She had caught glimpses of them here and there, but wasn't able to track them completely. Her own injuries were slowing her search. She was too careless in her fight and was PUNished for it. But now the only thing that Lailah was concerned about was ensuring her allies were okay and hadn't suffered in the wake of her own incompetence.

The crumpled over princess is the first of her allies that she finds and those jade green eyes of Lailah's grow huge when she sees the state she's in. Making her way to her side post-hasted, Lailah yells out "Alisha!" as she runs. She quickly kneels down next to her and attempts to steady her by holding onto her shoulders. It's only then that Lailah remembers that the princess can't see her still. "It's Lailah and forgive me for smelling like burnt teacake." And then she acts in harmonious contrast to Edna by also applying her own healing magic to the area but with her own touch. They may have been going about things differently, but the two Seraphs were definitely thinking alike. She too looks to Sorey now and nods approvingly of his words.

<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.

Amelia's legs, slashed up by all of those fans as they are, finally give out. A few breaths, and she hears Jean's words. There's silence, and yet she can't find it in herself to respond, to try to lash out. The shudder through her body isn't about the horrific pain running through her form.

The pain of her soul is far worse.

'You...ignorant..." A shudder. Then one more, as her hands clench hard enough that her hands bleed. She hears Alisha's collapse. She's rushing over, even as Jean rushes off.

"YOU MAJESTIC IDIOT!"

Howls Amelia Rose, just as she's ignoring her own bleeding wounds in favor of trying to stop the Princess'. Curse her for being a proper healer.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Slash! Slash! Slash-slash-slash-slash-slash! It's moments like these that Zed feels most alive! This is entirely because Doom Bringer is an awful, evil, malevolent blade that only gives Zed a break when he soaks it in fresh blood. But all good things must come to an end. In this case, it's because he gets punched in the chest by a parasol. Zed gives a solid 'OOF' as he reels back. "You'll pay for interrupting me!" Zed complains. "I do not accept credit!" Doom Bringer glitters ominously in the moonlight. Or maybe that's just the actual glitter stuck to it. "Only cash or check!" But then...

Kalve is giving the order to retreat.

Oh. It... It looks like Lucia just noped the fuck out? There's a little, dotted-line outline where she was standing but is no longer. But she's the Destroyer, right? Why didn't she just... Destroy them all? Could it have been that strange feeling that she infused him with? Fascinating. Not that it particularly matters right now.

"Hrmnnnn. Okay!" Zed ponts over at the shepherd and his flock, "I'm showing you mercy today! Rejoice! But not too hard. We are still enemies for now, after all! But you there. You! The one with the glowing sword. You, we will talk later. You must tell me how you did that trick, or I will never be satisfied!"

"But for now..."

"ZED--" Zed yells, "AWAAAAAAAY!" He hurls another cluster of bombs at his feet. And at the shepherds. And pretty much everywhere. Glitter gets on everything. The world becomes... Sparkly.

And Zed is gone, leaving his crime of glitterbombing tragically unpunished.

How evil can one man get!?

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Only a little," Alisha manages to Sorey, when she feels his hand on her shoulder. This is what some would call a lie. Her eyes fall on the silver flower, and her lips sputter -- but then she feels the rush of healing magic, between Edna, Sorey, and Mikleo. She lets out a shuddering gasp, and tries to push herself up. Then she falls back over.

"More than a little," she admits. "Did... did she escape? Is everyone...?"

Her eyes lift, slowly, to look around. She can't see the Seraphim still -- and then she hears Lailah's voice. Her head rolls over, in her direction, and then she manages a weakened smile. "Ah, Lady Lailah! You're... oh, I can smell you--ah, that isn't hallucinating from the blood loss is it?"

She shakes her head. "Are you--are you fine? I saw... I think it was an Ausa dueling with you..."

Alisha's eyes move, after a moment, to Edna. She /has/ lost some blood, and thus her filters -- normally quite secure -- are a little off.

"Oh, Lady Edna, you're shorter than I thought!"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna isn't Sorey. She's not Lailah either. She's definitely not Mikleo.

So to the surprise of no one...

BONK.

There goes her umbrella.

"Shut it."

Not even a wounded woman is safe.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

There is a shimmering flash, and then Sorey is back to his normal self. He winces for a moment at the rather bad gash in his side, but Edna's healing has helped with that. For the moment - he wants to bandage it up soon. But he looks at Alisha for a moment, and then over at Edna and Lailah.

Edna would probably be OK (the sassy comment helps - as does the fact that she's willing to give Alisha both lip and a bit of umbrella), and so Sorey walks over and offers a hand to the silver haired Seraphim whom has been his partner in starting this journey. "Are you alright, Lailah?" he asks, concerned as he kneels down next to her. "I'm sorry, I..." He pauses, and looks in the direction of the departed Lucia. "...I lost focus. I hoped that if I could purify the Lord of Calamity here, we could put an end to the problems back home." He holds out one hand to her. "Do you need any help?"

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

In the wake of his wind explosion he's splattered by wet dirt and mud, and has to close his eyes for a moment- but when he opens them he watches the Shepherd- infused with his Seraphim partner leap away almost unscathed, having parried it with a bow. It had taken everything he had to even hold the Shepherd off and he feels out of the two he's definitely the worse for wear. Chest heaving, he leaves his sword in that position for a moment- readying himself just in case but- Jean calls out for Lucia- and he looks- and doesn't see her. "Lucia?" Ruby swoops into camp and- "I can't believe her! She- prioritized that pile of trash over everyone fighting for her?"

"Ruby. It's fine. Let it go." He's used to Lucia's mannerisms by now. He doesn't blame her for fleeing, no matter what the reason. Her mission was too important for her to fall.

After a moment he sheathes his blaade, looking towards where Alisha has fallen- and he squints but- no still nothing

"Look after the Princess, Sorey-" But he remembers what Ruby said, "-and your other friends too."

And then he takes off into a staggering run-

When he eventually catches up, he claps Jean on the shoulder, "Good job out there." He says with a smile, "Hey Lemina- thanks for sticking with us."

Given Lemina's priorities, the show of loyalty with sticking with them impressed him a lot.

And after a moment he looks serious again, "Getting home is going to be even harder than we thought."

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

When Lemina sees Lucia retreat, she decides it's time to join the rest of her little band in escaping; she's not the first one out, even! ... Mostly because she's a little dumbstruck by the fact that Lucia will just stone bolt away in the middle of a battle, but -- you know, who's counting?

As she catches up with the rest of the group, separated in significant part by how short and slow she is, she's fairly winded; she gives Hiro a brief nod, her hands on her knees. She looks like she's about to pass out from overexertion for a moment -- but no, at least /that/ doesn't happen.

"I'm not going to let you guys go until I get at /least/ one round of membership dues," she says, a big grin on her face. "Plus I /know/ Lucia's magic will mega-revitalize the Guild, and totally upend everything we know!" ... Is she serious?

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Lailah lets the others takes over once they near and tend to the princess. This lets the green-haired Seraph to catch her breath as well fold her hands in her lap. Alisha might not be able to, but the others would be able to see Lailah's poor condition. But she takes a deep breath and simply starts giggling at Alisha and Edna even if it hurts a bit to do so. "I would say that she got the short end of the stick, or umbrella in this case. But I am unsure if it applies more to Edna or Alisha." The Fire Seraph admits before flashing a weary smile, her green eyes focusing now on Sorey. She does accept the offered hand, a grateful expression on her face. "Thank you for your concern, Sorey. I will be fine, b-but I think I need to rest." And without any more warning, she disappears in a flash of red light that travels in a slight arc into the Shepher himself. Hopefully, he's gotten used to travelling with Seraphim by now.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"Hmph."

Edna huffs mildly. "You're useless if you're dead. Remember that." She mutters to Alisha, then she follows suit with Lailah and vanishes into a wisp of golden energy. She flutters into Sorey to dwell for a time after that. She wasn't in super condition either. Not after that green haired fool's last attack.

She'll have a Terra Mine with his name on it if they ever crossed paths again.

Jerk.

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"O-ow..." Alisha groans, when Edna smacks her.

But then she looks up in the direction of Lailah's voice. She winces, once, and glances at Edna too. She nods once -- and then the Seraphim are gone, vanishing back into him. She lets out a shaky breath, and looks about. The Guard, she realizes.

She stands up, finally. It's shaky. "We should... get back soon, Sorey."

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Sorey looks back at Alisha and Edna for a moment, and chuckles as he helps Lailah to her feet. "It looks like she's going to be alright, at least." He pauses, and there is a faint flicker of something on his face. "Even if it means that we didn't defeat the Lord of Calamity, the fact that everyone is safe is what is important." But still... to have been able to finish this...!

Who knows when they will get another chance like this?

But as Lailah and Edna vanish into his body (followed a moment later by Mikleo) Sorey smiles and inclines his head. "It was our first skirmish - we'll all learn and do better next time."

But Sorey turns and nods to Alisha, walking over to offer her his shoulder, seeing as she is still not all that steady on her feet. "I don't think the guard will be a problem, but... yes. We're definitely not going to make it through the ruin today. We should head back to town and rest."