2017-08-14: The Bonds of Battle

• Log: The Bonds of Battle
• Cast: Hiro, Lemina Ausa, Seraph Ragnell, Jean, Gwen Whitlock, Lucia, White Knight Leo, Seraph Edna, Corwynt, Thessaly, Seraph Lailah, Garan Dantear
• Where: Outside the Temple of Rejection
• Date: 8/14/2017
• Summary: Exhausted from a run through the Temple of Rejection, the Fiends meet up with Gwen and Ragnell to prepare for their journey west. When the Guard unleashes a surprise attack and trap the Fiends, two groups fight it out, each person with their own reasons.

---

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

In the distance, a yellow and tan tower looms. At this distance it doesn't look terrible, or ominous.

In fact it makes the landscape of the coastline fairly picturesque, the late afternoon sun sparkling as it cuts across the ocean, half-hidden behind it. The Temple of Rejection isn't called that though because it's known for it's hospitality.

"You should just be glad you weren't in there Lucia. That horrifying elephant thing alone. What'd Jay call it? Chaugnar whatsits... you know what? Doesn't matter. The point is we don't want to go back in there. Just- No way! We're better off heading West and looking for another way home."

That's Ruby, fluttering over near Lucia, just as Hiro finishes breaking camp and rolling a shoulder with a wince before lifting up the gathered tent bags. "I thought it was kinda fun, but it's honestly too much risk to go back after we set off every alarm."

He hefts those onto the back of the wagon, "Well now that you're here Gwen we couldn't be more ready for the trip West."

After all Filgaia's Super Courier was from the Badlands and you really couldn't get a better guide than a native who makes frequent trips through it. "Still I kinda regret we didn't make it through to the heart of the temple." A beat, "Hey Ragnell, mind bringing Jean over to the wagon?"

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"Uuuugh, don't remind me," Lemina kvetches, as Ruby recounts their incredible experience at the Temple of Rejection. "I think even my blisters have blisters... I don't ever want to go in there again." There's a thoughtful pause, and then: "... Unless I can just nick the offerings and get out again mega-quick... heh heh heh."

She's needed some... help, with the wagon, to put it delicately. She hauled a few hundred pounds of stone statue back from the Sult Ruins a few weeks ago, despite her better judgment, and has *every* intention of keeping it until either they make it back to Lunar or it becomes too much of a hassle to keep carrying. *Either way*, right now, it's a problem.

"UuUUUGH," she mumbles, shoving the heavy thing around -- until she gets the genius idea to make a ramp of ice and tilt it on its side. Surely she can push, pull, or drag a few hundred...

... nope. Still needs help. Tiny noodle arms.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

The Temple of Rejection... Yeah, it's a hell of a dungeon. Ragnell's been once, and though she made it out in one piece (barely), she is in no hurry to go back again. Ragnell wasn't there with Hiro, Ruby, and Lemina when *they* tried to go in--she actually ran into the group after leaving Lacour earlier in the day, which was good timing since she'd intended on checking up on them anyway, not having seen them since Lucia's reawakening. Apparently they've seen better days, although arguably that describes the Vile Fiends, just, in general.

"Headin' West, huh..." Ragnell muses, sitting on the wagon. "Been meanin' to start that trip myself." Now seems as good a time as any. She snorts at Lemina, though, half-smiling as she says, "The apple wine *is* mighty fine, but I doubt you'd be able to get out so lightly. --Hm?" she looks over at Hiro, then at Jean. "Mmm... sure, no problem." She hops off, then heads on over to Jean to help her over to the wagon. "Leg's still givin' ya trouble, huh?"

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Jean wasn't in the Temple with the others, largely because she can't walk. She was able to spend some time doing some preparations to leave, but... Well, now she's going to need some help with the wagon too. She's not a statue at least.

Right now Jean is dressed sensibly enough for this, a wrap skirt and a long-sleeved top, and 'helping' is going to have to mean 'carrying'. "Thanks, Ragnell," she says first, a little ruefully. Her chair is already in the wagon, so she was sitting on a rock.

"Still can't walk. I was hoping I'd be recovered by now, but..." A shake of her head. "At least I've got good company!"

She doesn't even mention the booze, except, "Maybe on the next camp I can try what Lemina brought me!" She does try to keep some cheer going; it's a bit of effort, given her injury.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"I can't believe you went in there! Y'really think you can survive out west?" Gwen makes a show of sighing dramatically and shaking her head, completely disregarding the fact that she herself went on a trip there.

... It didn't go very well either. And her auntie was strangely tight-lipped when Gwen told her about the strange items they had found there.

Her grin fades with the more sobering notion of making the trip out west. The sudden decision has her inwardly frowning over the exact hows, but it's balanced with the idea that they'd be getting out of an area that was slowly growing more and more accustomed to seeing the Guard as a force for good. Which, really, they were. It was hard to pick a person among them that seemed to be at fault for their firm adherence to their goal. But wouldn't that just be looking for an easy answer?

People do what they can to get by. They can't be any different. In a world where Malevolence was gaining hold, they were tasked with standing against it. But that's just not the way things were done in Filgaia. ... Right? Right.

oh guardians gwen just doesn't wanna have to fight against them, it'd be bad news all around, man oh man she REALLY doesn't want to fight them

"But yeah. I dunno the best way of getting past Aveh, but maybe the Schrodingers may have an idea or two. There should be room for most or all of you in the back if you guys need to hide. Maybe if you guys're out west, maybe they'll focus on helpin' people here in Adlehyde. We could figure out what's goin' on with Lucia, maybe hit up some of the Baskar tribes t'see what they know." Gwen climbs up onto Gulliver, trying to coax out the nervous energy in her legs. "It'll be one big adventure! Everything'll work out just fine!"

Hopefully she can send Noah and Morgan a message or two to covertly say she was needed for something. But, with how steadfast she's been on making sure the stock lists were up to date, things shouldn't pile up *too* quickly.

EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE, GWEN IS SURE OF IT.

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Lucia just spent the better part of the afternoon gazing into their campfire. She has good days and bad days and this seems to be the latter, unless she's exhibiting heretofore unobserved powers of scrying through flame. Be it meditation, rumination or just plain old hibernation, the Lord of Calamity has retreated deeply into herself. She's listened little and spoken less, dull-eyed and strange, and on her pale wax statue of a self, her cloak and hat seem taudry in their brightness.

The return of Hiro and the others is like tossing a jug of water on the coals of a sauna; it disrupts her, causing her posture to straighten and her eyes to flicker, but in the end there's even more haze around her than there was before.

---

A blinding flash; not pure white, but a sickly green superimposed on the kind of metallic silver you can taste. A roar too distant to hear but not too distant to feel, to echo from skeleton to skeleton until those lucky enough to still have flesh attached are given the faintest taste of what the others suffered. Of what twisted choices wrought. The greater good? Or only the taint of greater evil?

On a hill, Lucia frowns, turns, and looks to the west.

---

Here and now, malevolence roils and rushes around Lucia, a maelstrom of broken promises, hopeless betrayals, bitter regrets that could be seen from space by the right eyes, in the right places. Does she feel the tempest that beats with the heart of the world move with her, as she rises, as she plods towards the ice and silently helps Lemina push her stone?

What is she looking at, there in the middle distance between her nose and the rock, between the wagon and the horizon?

What does she know? And what is knowledge worth, set against emptiness?

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

The Vile Fiends are alone, isolated, wounded. This is not a good situation for them to be in--especially this far from civilization.

The earth begins to tremble. A cloud of dust appears on the horizon, growing ever-larger--like a dust devil approaching the tower, cutting a swath through the forest and plains. To most inhabitants of Filgaia, this would be bizarre and anomalous... but the Fiends know what this means. It means they need to start running, now.

Even 'now' might be too late. The gleaming bulk of some immense something crests a hill, propelled by dozens of strange, paddle-like legs. It's a ship of some sort--a landship, belching smoke. On its beak-like bow stands White Knight Leo, his arms crossed as he observes the Fiends in their last-minute preparations to flee. Good, he thinks. He caught them just in time. He knew allowing them to become complacent was a smart idea.

"VILE FIENDS!" White Knight Leo roars. "Throw down your weapons and surrender! The Lord of Calamity ends here, but your lives need not end with hers! Surrender, and you will live free of her corruption!" He doesn't expect them to. Deep in his heart, he hopes they do.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna is... ... ...

... ... Well, she's here.

Why? God, well the Shepherd and his crew of invisible friendbuddies are very 'technically' allies of the Guard. And they share the mutual goal of stopping the Lord of Calamity... And when a certain Earth Seraph couldn't help by overhear that they were going to be closing in on that very same terrible bringer of ruin, well.. She decided to hop onto that landship and have a little looksee for herself. And so, here she is, blonde hair whipping in the wind and her umbrella opened up and laid against her shoulder as she peers out calmly into the distance.

"Huh. Well what do you know. They're actually there." Edna drones in near monotone. Just a faint bit of wonder in her voice. A sigh follows. "Alright, I guess we're actually doing this, then. Fun." She murmurs to herself, though not actually taking any time to get herself visibly ready. For those that can see her anyway.

For now, though, she watches, and waits to see juuuuuust what those poor fiends are going to do about this pleasant little tea party that's come to pay them a visit.

It should prove to be mildly interesting at least.

<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.

White Knight Leo's cape flares dramatically as he poses, which is normal for his capes - partly because the weather surrounding such a paragon senses that his heroic demeanour would be improved by a gust of wind, and partly because Leo's local second in command typically expends a nearly negligible amount of Althena's Blessing to ensure that the dramatically appropriate happens when it is, er, dramatically appropriate. This time, however, the wind is a little more intense; instead of an even flow carrying the promise of the season, it ebbs and then surges in fitful, barely contained gusts.

A short, solid man steps forward silently beside Leo, the dark colour of his frayed gi a marked contrast with the Beastman's gleaming white. Wind shifts the fabric of his uniform, exposing the thick web of scars upon his chest for a moment before the breeze snaps the garment closed again. A puff of a breeze sets dark hair shot through with iron grey stirring. He remains silent as Leo barks his command, then steps forward as the White Knight offers the Fiends a chance at surrender. It's an offer the Guard Captain had been leaning toward after Adlehyde, when he took the measure of the young man named Hiro for himself, and found what Leo had - a boy of strong convictions. Misguided but honest. Giving him and his companions a chance seemed wise.

Now he knows better.

The dark-haired man steps off the Dragonship's bow and floats gently toward the earth, carried upon winds that coil and surge around him as the Blessing of the Goddess hums through him like a well-struck note. "The White Knight's patience extends this far, and no farther," he says, his baritone tight, hard, and controlled. "You are young, and convinced of your own immortality. You think any mistake can be forgiven, any error corrected. You are wrong," he stresses. "You have spent so long huddled amongst each other, regurgitating each other's praise like mouthfuls of stale vomit, convinced that because your companions praise you that you swallow something other than filth." His eyes narrow. "And so before you open your mouths to bark out your reflexive denials, consider that some choices are final, and can never be taken back."

The little man lands softly, and starts moving forward. "Holy Seraphim, stand aside, if you please," he says as he strides toward the group. "My business is with the Lord of Calamity." His eyes shift toward Jean, and the greenish white of the Blessing begins to shine out from his irises. "Her, and one other."

The clouds begin to darken.

<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.

Somewhere behind White Knight Leo, aboard the landship's top decks, is a woman swathed in black.

Her figure makes a stark contrast to Leo's and Garan's white plate, donned in silks so dark that it absorbs the vibrant, blood-and-gold colors splashed across the horizon, silhouetted as she is by the dying afternoon sun. Of average height, if not an inch or two taller, she does not cut with the same overwhelming presence as her present companions; she is no commander, nor is she an Imperial Knight of Rolance.

But she sways upon the eddies left by the ship's hurried traverse across the sands with ease, as sure-footed as anyone can be under such circumstances - surrounded by strange machinery and jostled by unstable ground. Her face is veiled, obscured from view; what little is visible of her face is laden with an alabaster complexion and set with eyes like amethysts. She has no visible weapons on her person, save for the hilt of a dagger poking out from an embroidered sash belted around her waist. Either she does not mean to engage the Vile Fiends with any modicum of force, or she doesn't need any.

At Leo's bold declaration, she says nothing to add to it, but lashes do quietly hood - just a hint of her readiness to face the worst, should it come.

And come, it might.

Save for the official files provided by the Church's praetors and investigators on the field, she knows nothing about the Vile Fiends or the company they keep. There have been musings on that end; inevitable, for a creature who lives most of her life inside of her head - what kind of lives they had led up to this point, what convinced them to follow the Lord of Calamity, hopes, dreams and greatest regrets. All things that she cannot help but wonder, because of her underlying nature.

That gem-like stare shifts towards Corwynt when he bolsters the commander's urgings with his own, and past, towards Seraph Edna, who she can see quite clearly.

But with the gauntlet thrown, she moves. Like liquid shadow, she situates herself to the back and somewhat to the side of Garan Dantear.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

After her talk with Ragnell before, Lailah realized that it probably didn't matter what she said to the others about Lucia because they were going to have to find out themselves. In the end, there is only so much she can say without potentially risking breaking her oath. Still, even though it's a lot to think about, in the end the older seraph has confidence that things will end up right somehow, even if it takes awhile.

Of course, nothing else matters when she and Edna got word of the fiends being around and Lucia being amongst them and that is why she decided to join forces. There was something important that she needed to see for herself and the only way to get there was to get right in the fray right?

She glances at Edna, "Be careful okay?" The fire seraph smiles at her before looking ahead and when she spots Ragnell, Lailah can't help but sigh to herself. Always getting into trouble that one. Regardless, this is no time to consider what could happen and she follows the group as they approach. She seems ready to do whatever is necessary.

<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.

It was duty that brought Garan Dantear to Filgaia in the first place, and it's duty that brings him here, now.

Though his path had intersected with one of the Vile Fiends during the Lacour Tournament of Arms, that had been a quite different bit of business than the assignment that put him in the ranks of the Guard: The tournament had been a personal matter, a challenge set for himself by himself, and so there'd been no need to deal with Lemina as a Guardsman. Today, though, was something of a different day. Today was work.

Dressed in his silver-chased white plate over red leather, the Imperial Knight does indeed keep himself between Thessaly and the foes ahead, a shining bulwark for the midnight-dark witch. Dantear makes no speeches, instead easing his sword in its scabbard and keeping his shield arm limbered: He has no illusions that the Fiends will surrender peacefully, and unlike the tournament this will not be a friendly bout. The red-haired man looks grimly determined more than anything else, the look of someone with a job of work in front of him that might be unpleasant, but nevertheless must be done.

After all, once it's done, they can go back to where they belong instead of traipsing around this bizarre sandy world full of insane people.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Gwen gets an easy grin as Hiro watches Ragnell help Jean on over. "Of course." And then towards the pair, "Knowing her Ragnell? Jean'll be back on her feet in no time."

Ruby just watches Lemina push up the ice ramp, fluttering around her and providing no help whatsoever, not that she could, "Yeah at this rate we're going to trade up a laid up dancer for a laid up sorceress. Hey Lemina! Just leave it!"

For a moment the grin fades as a wave of nausea hits him, and he steadies himself against the side of the wagon. "Heh. That's the spirit Gwen!" He feigns that nothing's wrong himself. Before he steps over to Lucia, and looks in the distance, towards whatever she's looking at. For a while he doesn't say anything as if he's trying to figure it out on his own what she's looking at. His feet shuffle, there's a smile on his face and despite the maelstrom it feels like there's no amount of spiritual pressure that could wipe it off.

"So. Lucia. Gella for your thoughts?" Which is when Leo announces himself. And Hiro starts, whirling around but his eyes wide and startled- whereas Ruby calls, "OH CRAP IT'S THE DESTINY!"

Throw down your weapons gets more a take out his weapon. It's this strange silver saber that's fluted with a butterfly wing motif on the guard. But he's sure not pointing it at Leo and that ship. That would be foolish. He's seen what it's main cannon can do, he's seen it's top speed. Forget the top landspeed of the average fiend- even Gulliver minus wagon would have issues.

He looks one way as Corwynt strides onto the bow and down to the Earth, then behind them at the pretty tower looming in the distance. His eyes fasten there for a short while. He's only looking back at Corwynt when he tells him that some choices are final, his gaze cutting between him- "My choice is to stand with Lucia and the friends you look down on."

To Leo- "The way I see it all of you are trying to assassinate someone whose only crime is having the courage to try to help our world- It doesn't matter who ordered that!"

He raises his sword like he's going to order for them to make some gallant charge and then he pivots and suddenly slashes it the other way- "EVERYONE RUN! RETREAT! HEAD TOWARDS THE TEMPLE!" "Red Dragons and their future consorts first!" There's no time

He's not passive in this retreat though, he starts by trying to cover it by speaking a quick incantation. A sudden gale force wind starts blowing in Leo's direction. Maybe he's hoping to take him off guard. Will it? Unlikely since it's the White Knight of Althena, but if it even drives him back long enough for the others to start running... And then- "Go go go! Don't let them line up a shot with that cannon!"

GS: Hiro has attacked White Knight Leo with Force Gale!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo critically Guards a hit from Hiro's Force Gale for 24 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

Leo raises a hand, and slowly lowers it to shoulder-height. In the Destiny's bridge, the helmswoman takes note, and eases up on the throttle--there's no need to pour on the speed now that they know their quarry is on foot. A breeze blows out of a small vent on the side of the bridge, bearing with it the sound of the Destiny's gunnery chief: "Preparing firing solution now, sir!" Leo nods, even though he knows she can't hear him. If necessary, he'll give the order to hold fire--they're close to Gounon, and the Destiny's main gun can bring terrifying force to bear.

"How?" Leo demands. His nose wrinkles, visibly, as the miasma enveloping Lucia reaches him in earnest. "Explain to me what she alone can do!" True to form, Leo's next move is to leap off the deck of his ship, arcing gracefully through the air--Hiro's spell catches him about halfway, gale-force winds slamming into his chest. The White Knight lets out a hiss of breath as he's knocked back--but he lands on his feet. Like some sort of cat or something.

The White Knight responds in kind. Hiro might be trying to get away, but Leo's not about to let him. He raises his hand, clenches his fist, and a boulder about five feet away from Hiro quivers as if struck. Then it lets loose with a shower of razor-sharp fragments of rock, because Hiro's just having that kind of day.

GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Hiro with Earth Edge!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Hiro guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Earth Edge for 57 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Helping, carrying, it's all good. Ragnell grins at Jean's words of thanks and winks. "No problem. Who am I to pass down a chance to carry a pretty lady in my arms?" she teases. A good thing that Jean isn't that heavy, though; Ragnell's not a noodle-arms like Lemina, but heavy lifting is not, generally speaking, what she's here for. She's at least strong enough to carry Jean over to the wagon and get her seated, in any case.

She glances to one side at Gwen's relentless optimism, then smiles at that too. It's maybe a little *too* relentless, but that's humans for you. Sometimes you just have to force the reality you want into existence. "Yup. Just oooone big ol' adventure," she drawls with dry humor. Of course, reality itself often has other ideas...

Her smile fades as she glances to one side at Lucia. For all that she acts normal on the outside, and for all that Ragnell is good for various reasons at keeping up walls against Malevolence, it... really is powerful and sickening, the aura around her. And the way she's been acting is... weird, even for Lucia. Like she's not entirely there. Ragnell really doesn't know Lucia well, despite all the on-and-off hanging-out she's done with the Vile Fiends, so it's hard for her to gauge if this is normal. It doesn't seem normal based on what she's seen of her previously, but Lucia *did* come out of a coma only a few weeks ago. For now, she leaves Lucia to help Lemina push her stone. There's other things to concentrate on.

Case in point: the sudden bellowing of smoke from the horizon as a landship approaches at top speed, soon to hone in on the wagon. White Knight Leo stands on its bow and roars at those below to throw down their weapons and surrender, to trade Lucia's life for their own. Ragnell glances at the others--Edna and Lailah, standing up on the bow nearby. (She gives both of them a slight nod. However this goes down, she won't take it personally. Being a natural-born trouble-maker, Ragnell would have no end of grudges if she did.) Thessaly, who sticks close to Garan, #2 of the Lacour Tournament. Corwynt doesn't bother with any niceties at all, striding right on up to tell her to step aside so he can get at the Lord of Calamity and, based on his line of sight, Jean.

Ragnell peers at him for a second or two. Then she glances up at the still-injured Fiend, already seated up in the wagon. "...Seems like this gentleman wants to ask you t' dance, Jean," she says in a purposefully neutral tone. She doesn't ask or suggest or offer; she simply makes this one observation, and lets the rest go as it will. That includes Hiro's refusal to just sit back and let the Guard kill their friends. Ragnell expected no less, really.

What she *didn't* expect, but really should have, was for Hiro to call for everyone to GET THE HECK OUTTA HERE before covering said retreat with a spell aimed at Leo. Ragnell laughs outright at that. "Well, hey, long as we're keepin' it feisty--!" And then she aims up towards the bridge at the witch lurking behind Garan and gets off a couple of shots. She looks squishy; if she gets hurt, then it'll slow the pursuit down faster, is Ragnell's logic.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Thessaly with Twin Bullet!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.

DC: Thessaly switches forms to Dark Magic Parolee Thessaly!

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"Not a chance! I need to know what secrets this thing holds, and the only way to do that is to get the stupid thing back to Vane!" Lemina declares to Ruby -- shortly before Lucia offers a helping hand, and at last it goes into the wagon. "... Hey, uh -- thanks," Lemina offers, a little awkwardly. Sometimes she's not sure what to say to Lucia. Sometimes she's not sure what -- can be said... but, in spite of it, she considers the blunette a dear friend.

That's the last pleasant thought she gets to have for the evening, apparently. Now the Destiny is here to ruin everything. In an instant, Lemina is scrambling around the cart, retrieving the gear she'd loaded onto it earlier -- including, most notably, her staff... aaaand her umbrella.

On which note: She ends up locking eyes with the Earth Seraph abroard the landship, and though there's a little bit of sadness about it that even Lemina can't quite mask, it looks like it's time to armor up. Raising her staff, Lemina starts to layer sheets of ice over her forearms, legs, and chest it's not exactly the best protection, but it's better than nothing.

"Hey!" she calls to the Seraph. "Why are you here? Is the Shepherd just another one of Althena's poverty-stricken itinerant priests!? Or are you guys just a bunch of whipped puppies?!"

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Lemina Ausa with Ice Armor!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa heals Lemina Ausa! She gains 100 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

"Flatterer," Jean says to Ragnell as she's carried, and doesn't sound like she minds that flattery a bit. She grins back.

Jean, for her part, hasn't been that talkative while sitting by the fire with Lucia; she tried a bit, but had no illusions that Lucia was listening after a while. She talked more to give her some pleasant noise, or because it's nice to talk with a friend.

Malevolence roils, and Jean closes her eyes against it, a quietly difficult breath the only sign that she gives of its sudden arrival. It pulses in her veins, beats behind her eyes, and Jean is accustomed to its presence but not to this degree. It's enough. ...It's more than enough.

"Lucia...?" She sounds worried. Dark eyes flick to Gwen after and she puts on a smile, "Don't worry. It'll all be fine." She's not entirely sure, but she can tell the girl is nervous.

The rattling along the earth, the trempling, the dust on the horizon--Jean frowns, seated in the wagon, bandaged leg stretched out. Her eyes go sharp and move towards the horizon, and there's nothing she can do about it. Immediately when Leo starts to speak, Jean turns around to look at him, to start to say something... until Corwynt comes out as well. Immediately she looks to his attire, his dark gi and the scars on his chest. Corwynt begins to speak, of mistakes and praise and filth... Some choices...

Dark eyes focus upon Crowynt's greenish-white. She is watching, when his eyes shift towards her, and she knows. Jean is silent for a long few moments. Then... Only then...

Her attire is bright, compared to Corwynt's, coral and green, though her bandages are tan, thick around her broken and worse leg. But her arms are strong; she carries no weapons, but her side-tail moves over her back as she lifts herself off the side of the wagon , rotates her body, and lands down on one foot in front of it. "He does," Jean says to Ragnell about Corwynt. She does not limp; she pushes herself off of the wagon and catches herself on her good leg, adopting a familiar stance.

A Shadow Dragon stance.

"Some choices are final," Jean agrees. "Some things cannot be forgiven." She draws in a breath. "I know that."

"So come at me, whoever you are." Her stance remains set, as well as it can on one leg; she has discipline at least. Hiro called for them all to run, but... "I won't hide from the things I've done."

GS: Thessaly takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Twin Bullet for 52 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.

Pale hands lift when Hiro, to both is credit and folly, calls for a retreat and that is when Thessaly acts. Elegant digits and their black-tipped nails score the air around her, strains of fell sorcery thickening the air and coalescing around her figure in a shroud of midnight mist. They fold within themselves, delicate hands extending out, cupping upwards; somewhere ahead of her, sands swirl and turn into hardened earth, coruscating upwards in twisting tendrils and reaching towards the skies, to form a crescent-shaped barrier at the perimeters of the camp in an effort to block any attempts of the Vile Fiends' party to vacate towards the Temple - their very own Thunderdome, where no one but the victors can leave.

"I am ready, my lord," she tells him, her voice barely a whisper - but one that strangely carries.

As the party starts breaking apart to engage, she remains by the white-and-silver bulwark Garan provides, eyes searching the crowd....

...and falling on Gwen Whitlock, and the Seraph by her side. If there is any conflict, none surfaces from her expression, as difficult as that is to see given the covering on her face.

"Miss Whitlock," she says quietly, dulcet tones gentle, still, despite their present circumstances. "This is unfortunate, I do not wish to see you injured, here. I still owe you a debt. I am afraid, however, that today will not be the time in which to colleect it....I wish that were not so."

She sounds genuinely regretful...and is.

Bullets fly while she is addressing Gwen, and she attemps to retreat a few steps; one slug cuts through the fabric of her clothes, leaving her to bleed. The pain sharpens the look in her eyes, and triggers the inevitable dump of biochemicals in her system, enlivening dormant senses and causing her heart to race within her ribcage. The taste of gunpowder and cordite laces the air around her, and her supernatural senses follow it to the source.

Her hand points to Ragnell, palm flat against the air. Whatever she wields, it is not Symbology and she fires that unerring streak of black lightning wreathed with purple arcs.

GS: Thessaly has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Funeral March!
GS: Thessaly has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna gives Lailah a sidelong glance. "I'll be fine." Probably. She leaves that part out. But really, she'll probably be fine! Maybe.

Her gaze goes back to the fiends and settles on Lemina, whom is already looking her way. Hm. How about that? She watches almost boredly as the mage ices up while throwing out questions and insults. All of which just make Edna smirk ever so faintly. "If you want to bring up poverty, then I suggest you look in a mirror first." She smoothly replies, stepping out towards the edge of the deck, and up to balance on a railing.

"And if you must know-" She caually hops off. Sailing down, down, down... until she lands on the ground with a thud. "I was just curious to see if you geniuses were actually dumb enough to let your guard down this badly after all." She straightens up. "Looks like Mr White Knight got the drop on you after all, huh?"

Her smile grows juuuust a little wider. "...By the way, you might want to step aside."

SHUNK.

A spire of earth juts up from right under Lemina a second after that warning is given. Nice.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Lemina Ausa with Earth Spear!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Seraph Edna's Earth Spear for 98 hit points!
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Thessaly's Funeral March for 42 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

So caught up in letting herself know that EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE, Gwen fails to realize the statue Lemina is attempting to haul away. Looking through the the opening in the wagon's reinforced cloth covering to the back to see if Jean is loaded, Gwen catches sight of the statue Lemina and, just a moment later, Lucia, are pushing. She wavers for a moment, feeling a brief flare-up of nausea, but it leaves.

"C'mon. There's tons of ruins in the Badlands. Ruins and ruins inside ruins. We really can't be-"

And at that moment, there is nothing more terrifying for Gwen to hear that Leo's loud cry. And with it, everything begins to blow away, like a rickety house in a sandstorm. Everything, blowing away.

Her business. Her connections. Her hopes and dreams. The whimsical idea of being the neutral party, the person who could just slip in and out of conflict and let the consequences drip off her like water off a duck's back.

She's got no one to blame but herself. "Everyone in the wagon, *right now*," Gwen snaps, then winces, surprised at the anger. "We gotta create distance. This ain't the time to take them on!"

Hiro has another plan- one that could work. Yeah, if they could get further in and hide, it'd certainly be a better idea than taking them on.

Staring down at the the reigns in her gloved hands, she takes a breath. It's Leo. Maybe there can be some sort of thing worked out. She looks up again and sees-

Gawan. Thessaly.

Guardians, why do you do this to her, she really just wants to feel like things ae going to be okay

Thessaly's words cause Gwen to smile sadly as she dismounts her horse. "It's okay. I don't wanna see you injured either, but I guess I'll have to take a page from Mr. Dantear here. I mean, I'm kinda screwed now, y'know?" She can't leave Ragnell to take them on herself. "As for the favor, naaah, don't worry about it! I can't cash that in now." She steps next to Ragnell. "If y'can't get past us, you'll have trouble later on." Off goes her glove. "Don't force me t'tell you to not hold back, y'hear?!"

A shot is fired, but not at Thessaly. She fires it instead at Garan.

Gwen can't follow her own damn advice.

<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.

And there it is. Corwynt stares at the stance of the young gypsy dancer, his eyes bright and brilliant, blazing with the power of Althena's Blessing. From within his gi, a blue light begins to shine from a crystal hanging around his neck upon a silver chain - the Rememberizer, an artifact of the Goddess herself, which grants those who call upon the Blessing the gift of perfect recall. And so it is with the little man, memories pouring into his mind, growing up out of the depths of the years, as real and fresh as they were when he first experienced them.

The smell of his mother as she wrapped her arms around him. The touch of his father's hand upon his shoulder, squeezing gently, approvingly as the yung man looks up from a warehouse swept clean. The taste of a cinnamon bread he grew up loving every single day. The dawning of a spring day, the breeze carryign the promise of summer.

The warmth of his mother's blood as it splashed upon his face.

The sight of his father's head dropping from his shoulders.

The sound of a scream that tore his throat as his world was ripped asunder.

"I am Corwynt, Captain of Althena's Guard, known by some as the Storm Fist," he says, dropping into a stance of his own - a basic guard of a little-known school known as the Academy of the Smiling Breeze, its practitioners made up mostly of the elderly and children... and one other. "But not today," he says, and the winds begin to howl as he calls upon his power. "At this time, at this place... I am the brother of a murdered sister!" he roars, tears torn away as fast as he can shed them, ripped into the winds that scream with every ounce of sorrow he has felt in a dozen years of perfect memory. "Son to a murdered father, a murdered mother!" The Seraphim - and Ragnell in particular - will begin to feel the gathering of a storm as the clouds overhead start to wind and shift inward. "I am Corwynt Marikson, once of Meribia!" he screams. "And this day, A SHADOW DIES!"

The barest flicker of movement, and Corwynt tears toward Jean on a howling gale, his right fist driving toward her heart.

GS: That attack doesn't exist. [garan]
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Garan Dantear with Crackshot!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Garan Dantear takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 106 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

'Explain to me what she alone can do!'

Lucia actually has explained, in detail and at length; to everyone, from nursing mothers on the street to certain notable champions from the wrong side of brig cell bars.

But today she has no answer, as she blinks spots of miserably brilliant light from her eyes, light that no one else can see. As her allies -- her friends -- for what feels like the thousandth time -- throw themselves into battle, into utterly mortal danger, on her behalf.

The calculus is good; they are saving the world, in saving her. But her heart beats fiercely with the growing awareness that even were the world not at stake, this fight might have happened anyway. What does that mean? Why would that happen?

Air and earth explode around her; shadow rises and bullets fall. Ice, fire, righteous declarations on all sides.

'Some choices are final. Some things cannot be forgiven...'

The words fall into Lucia's heart like stones into a pond. They strike a terrible chord, almost as terrible as Corwynt's mighty blow.

'I won't hide from the things I've done.'

Lucia shields her eyes from something no one else can see and it does not block the brightness at all, does not still the hum in her marrow, silence the tunic fork of cataclysm. She shields herself from the sight of her friends standing up and falling down.

She cannot look; she sees too much, even through her fingers.

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> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell didn't really expect Thessaly to wield Symbology; Althena's Guard is of Lunar, where Symbology is basically unknown. Nor is she surprised when the witch casts a barrier, a large dark done, that encapsulates the area. Of course the Guard would want to keep their prey from escaping. She's a little more surprised, but not by much, when Jean hops out of the wagon to fall into a Shadow Dragon stance--and surprised, legitimately and genuinely, when Corwynt calls up a storm in response. Indeed, as a Lightning Seraph, she can feel that storm in her essence of being, including the pain and power within it, though not the memories. Those she's not privy to. Her eyes narrow as she listens to his diatribe. A Shadow, huh...

Well... ultimately, it's not her business. And from what she knows of Jean and her past, no doubt she'd want to face this herself anyway. Besides which, Ragnell's already claimed an opponent, and really, it's as good a one as she could ask for. Still: "Hmm? That lady in the red and black a friend o' yours, Gwen?" Ragnell asks, noting the way Thessaly addresses her. "Not that that really matters right now, all considered--got a couple friends over there myself," she adds dryly, nodding at Edna and Lailah.

Then she shrugs. "Well, it is what it is." After all, if the barrier is Thessaly's, it probably won't vanish until she gets knocked TF out. Gwen steps up next to her, and Ragnell nods to her, then looks back at Thessaly and Garan. "No hard feelin's," she adds to the two. She half-smiles, then jerks her head towards the other combatants. "Plenty o' those flyin' around as-is."

While Gwen opens fire on Garan, Thessaly returns Ragnell's bullets with black lightning, powerful and eerie. Ragnell dives to one side, but the force of the spell still cracks by her with considerable force, searing along her hip. She finishes the roll but comes up with a grimace of pain; Seraphim bodies aren't like human bodies, but they still experience pain when introduced with force, particularly magic.

Lightning for lightning: Ragnell lifts an arm as a glyph forms beneath her feet. "By the by, since we're keepin' this friendly," she calls, "what's your name?" She saw her frequently in the arena, seemingly cheering on Garan, and Gwen knows her too... It seems worth learning it, one way or another. A flick of her hand, still carrying its pistol, and she concludes, "Lightning!"

This time, golden-white lightning cracks through the air, not forward but from above, down towards Thessaly.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Thessaly with Lightning!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Whatever the belief differences were happening between the guard and the shepherds group, there was on thing they did have in common and that was ultimately to stop the Lord of Calamity. Seeing the conflict for herself would give Lailah a chance to discern what she could about all sides and that is a driving force for her choosing to be here today.

The fire seraph does seem hesitant to engage at first. After all, it was a little different than when she was fighting with Sorey and they had a clear goal. Here, her thoughts seem to be a little different than the others. Regardless, her focus is not on the fiends team itself exactly. Rather, she is focused on Lucia and moves towards her.

There was a lot she knew about Lucia but hadn't been able to see for herself yet. It was a way for her to see just what kind of malevolence she was emitting. Of course, she had seen it from afar but being this close to the source was different. She had to be able to feel it to know it's power.

At the same time, moving closer puts her in the middle of it all too and the fire seraph is not sure that is where she wants to be. Regardless, she moves towards Lucia and as she does she feels the power of malevolence. The same malevolence that she has felt before. It stirs up something and she aims an attack directly for her.

The fire seraph conjures up a red aura of pure fire that, should it not miss it's mark, seems to emit an afterburn effect and she aims it directly for Lucia.

GS: Thessaly takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Lightning for 51 hit points!
GS: Seraph Lailah has attacked Lucia with Photon Blaze!
GS: Seraph Lailah has completed her action.
GS: Hiro used the Force Action Protect! He takes Seraph Lailah's attack on Lucia on himself!
GS: Hiro has activated a Force Action!
GS: Hiro guards a hit from Seraph Lailah's Photon Blaze for 43 hit points!
GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Hiro!

<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.

There's a faint nod and little more from Garan when the witch announces she's ready; he doesn't take his eyes off of the confrontation ahead. That would be the purest foolishness. That one of those helping the Fiends is the same woman who'd helped Thessaly in Lacour draws a frown to the Imperial Knight's features, but there's no sign of hesitation, still. There are things that he must do, after all, things that are compelled of him by his duty. He has always been a dutiful one, even when the burdens placed upon him have been unpleasant ones.

But the confrontation turns violent quickly enough, and the strange weapons of Filgaia are among those brought to bear, shots slipping past him and hitting Thessaly, while Whitlock fires at him. The knight is moving, trying to protect the black-clad woman, but that leaves him vulnerable, Gwen's shot piercing his armor, cutting through leather and leaving a bleeding gouge on his arm.

Dark blue eyes turn towards the deliverywoman.

"Very well," is all the Imperial Knight says, suddenly bursting into forward movement as lightning flashes. Despite his heavy armor, Dantear is still fast, aiming to rush shield-first into Gwen.

Which would, of course, also conveniently bring him in reach of the one trading electrical blasts with Thessaly.

But, first things first.

GS: Garan Dantear has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Knight's Charge!
GS: Garan Dantear has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"Hey! RUDE! We have to sleep some time, you know! We can't just go forever and ever and expect it to be fine! And hey, what do you mean I should --" thud. Lemina gets hit in the solar plexus with a giant spear of rock and hits the ground hard. The icy armor she made takes most of the actual damage for her, but that doesn't mean it isn't awful; she flops around for a couple moments before actually prying herself back up.

"I wasn't ready!" says the girl who just spent a good ten seconds armoring herself up with ice. "But -- uuugh, I'll show you! What gives, anyway? Talking mega-smack might explain why you're here, but you're not even the only Seraph here! Why don't you tell me what you're really up to, huh?"

Whirling her staff around, Lemina locks eyes with Edna -- at least until she hears Corwynt's cry. That gets her nervous in a big way; she picks up with the casting quickly, chanting a little faster, hopping a little higher.

A harsh spear of Lemina's own streaks for Edna. This one, of course, is ice rather than earth -- but far be it from Lemina to let herself be outdone magically, even by a Seraph.

GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Garan Dantear's Knight's Charge for 101 hit points!
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Edna with Ice Lance!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Edna critically Guards a hit from Lemina Ausa's Ice Lance for 27 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Even accounting for her unusable leg, Jean's form is otherwise perfect. The artifact is unfamiliar to her by sight, but she knows that intent look. She knows it just as much as she believes that she is no longer an ordinary dancer to the Guard.

She intends to live long enough for that to matter.

It is not Corwynt's face alone that she sees when he faces her. She stares at him, mouth set in a thin line, and hearing murdered, murdered, murdered she remembers other faes.

She blocks them out with the same necessary will that she's had to use before. The clouds shift overhead, and Jean sees Corwynt. He mentions Meribia...

It all makes sense. A shadow dies.

Corwynt Marikson tears forward, the wind crashing towards Jean, and that wind whips around her just as Corwynt moves towards her; Jean lunges to the left, skirt whipping as she lands on her hands and springs upward, landing again on one leg and reassuming her stance, ignoring the sharp pain in her leg from being treated so roughly. ...Well, mostly ignoring; her teeth grit. It's obvious, to someone who knows how to look.

"All right, Corwynt. My name is Jean. You know what I am. You know the kind of things I've done."

"...But there are things I have to do." Jean lunges forward, down on her hands again into a springing kick straight for Corwynt while he may be coming at her. But she can't entirely aim the way she'd like; she has to swing mid-air to kick along his face to compensate for her leg.

"I knew a day like this would come!"

<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.

At Gwen's gracious words, she dips her head. "This is regretful, but such cannot be helped. I can only hope this is resolved s quickly as we are able." Though with vengeful declarations searing the air, Corwynt's white-hot words only thickening the tension among the rest, she knows that at the very least, this altercation will be a tremendously violent one. And when Gwen moves to attack Garan, she presses her lips together. She will have to trust, for now, that Garan can handle himself.

Thessaly remains by him, her back turned against the knight's as she engages the Seraph from her higher vantage point - here, she can see, but from down below Ragnell can do the same.

No hard feelings, she says.

"Agreed," she says softly, violet eyes lingering on the other woman and taking in her rough dress, and form-obscuring poncho. She knows what she is, and had she been free to explore her talents on that end, there had been a time, once, when she conversed with her kind freely - a young girl, not even ten. Memories sharply remembered, still, in spite of the onset of years, for she cannot help but remember everything she experiences in all of its terrible, beautiful detail.

"My name is Thessaly," she says. "And you are, my lady Seraph?"

Lightning splits the ephemeral space between them, and she attempts to move away - the bolt licks over the crimson trail pouring over her arm, the shock of it rattling her teeth. But she manages to keep standing.

A hand reaches down, to dip two fingers into the blood from her own arm, still carrying Ragnell's magic - if she cannot hurt her significantly from without, she will try to do so from within.

She brings it to her lips, and whispers a quiet word through her veil.

The change is internal, it feels like a burn - blood scourged until made to boil until something that feels like a debilitating illness settles heavily upon the air around the Seraph. Lashes lower further, eyes glinting with focus. But there is no malice, exuding as always the air of a young woman who must do as she is bid.

Or else.

GS: Thessaly has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Malevolent Curse!
GS: Thessaly has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell critically Guards a hit from Thessaly's Malevolent Curse for 23 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Brave Sir Hiro would have bravely ran away but- that's when he notices the crescent barrier that just formed. Part of him wants to try to plow through it to freedom- but he's not familiar enough with magic to know to risk that. Fortunately he knows two people who are- "Lemina! Lucia! Is there anything we can even do about that?!"

Everything breaks into chaos. He sees Ruby flying high as Ruby is wont to- Edna sending her spears of Earth against Lemina- and Ragnell firing upon Thessaly and Gwen backing up Ragnell against the Sir Dantear, and on Lucia. Lucia. With her hands over her face, Lucia standing in the midst of chaos. Normally that would take most of his attention all of it- but it's drawn by Jean. Jean as she takes up that stance, Jean as Corwynt says that, Jean as Corwynt engages her with terribly fury.

There's shock and he doesn't know what to say to that. He just feels the pressure in the air.

Because of that Hiro doesn't notice the boulder lifting until the last moment. By the time he whirls around rock edges are flying at him. He manages to get his arm up at the last moment as a few imbed in the buckler strapped to his arm. He However a few more graze across his tunic revealing mail beneath, as spots of blood blossom all over him- staining blue to violet.

With a hiss of pain, he pants once as if trying to steady himself- it's like a bucket of ice water to the senses bringing him back to the matter at hand. The White Knight of Althena, who would be the end of him, the end of Lucia if he didn't pay attention. "Maybe if you'd stop attacking us you could ask her yourself!" Hiro calls back, "But for starters she knows about a threat to our world that you and our Goddess are totally blind to! I've encountered it myself!"

And then moving just inside of his vision is the silver haired seraph, austere and regal and it takes him a half a heartbeat to see who she's moving towards- Lucia. Lucia who is alone in this chaos. He won't let her be alone. Suddenly his legs start to move. His off-hand whips to his belt, to what looks like a holster for a curved piece of metal. Leo is still in the distance, he takes it up and flicks it while moving, sending it spinning within the howling storm of chaos. It moves in a chaotic arc, whipping end over end and for the longest time it doesn't look like it's going to go anywhere near the White Knight at all.

Until it's past the storm- when his aim proves true enough, that he read the winds just enough that it's aimed right at Leo's unprotected neck?

But what of the boy himself running to get there between Lailah and Lucia? He gets in the way and he burns. Does he burn! That's a strangled noise as he's caught in the red heat aura that ignites his orange cloak and he's cooked within his armor.

Another call of a word and suddenly the air is lifting around him, trying to provide some relief by lifting the heated air upwards in an updraft. It takes him some time to speak without his throat feeling like it was on fire, "It was you before wasn't it? With Sorey?" He rasps. He wasn't able to perceive her at the time but he saw the fireworks, he bites back the pain and says, "No matter what you feel she's not trying to hurt anyone!"

GS: Hiro has attacked White Knight Leo with Boomerang Throw!
GS: Hiro takes 4 damage from Poison!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Hiro's Boomerang Throw for 42 hit points!
GS: Hiro takes Cover! He gains 50 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"Hmm? What, was I supposed to wait while you ate dinner, drank tea, laughed with your friends, and had a good night's sleep before I attacked?" There's a heavy air of sarcasm tinged in that question as Edna calmly and slowly walks her way forward, even while Lemina recovers and forms that ice lance.

"What we're really up to?" The seraph tilts her head slightly and blinks slowly. "Wow. It's like you haven't been listening to the big, incessantly loud, incessantly zealous white knight over there at all." Beat. "Well, okay. I don't blame you for not listening, but-" Suddenly Edna stops and raises a foot.

Lemina tosses that ice lance right at her, and in response, she stomps the ground, which causes a slab of earth to shoot up in front of the girl. The frosty spell impacts with the wall, and then pierces through. But by that point, Edna's already tilted her head aside, letting the dangerously pointed length come to a stop just past the side of her head.

"-you should clean the wax out of your ears and tune in at least a little." The earth seraph steps around from that pierced wall of rock, letting it sink back down. "If you kept your ear to the ground more, you might even have avoided this little tea party." That said, she slows to a stop and blinks again. "...By the way, you might want to run." She smiles faintly.

"Air Pressure."

Right after that's said, the ground in a ten foot radius around the mage glows with a golden sigil, another forming in the air above, as crushing pressure starts exerting within that zone, quaking and pulverizing the ground in a controlled space.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Lemina Ausa with Air Pressure!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa critically Guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Air Pressure for 23 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

The dome settles over the engagement zone like a dark mist. The Destiny is outside, but that may be cold comfort to the Fiends, who are stuck inside with Leo and his lieutenants.

The White Knight casts a glimpse at Thessaly and Garan as they engage Lucia's guards. He remembers the voice of the young woman with the wagon--the one aiding the Fiends in their escape. He vaguely remembers her telling him everything was going to be fine as he lay, dazed and bleeding, in the remains of one of the Coliseum's supports. He still has the makeshift bandage she used. He's not alone in this, it seems--she knows Thessaly, too. The sooner the Lord of Calamity dies, the sooner all this can end--and the sooner these misguided, foolish people can start doing right.

Corwynt, though, doesn't sound so amenable to that--at least in the case of one of them. Meribia. On some level, Leo was aware, but here it's all being spelled out for him.

"Very well, then," Leo shoots back, at Hiro. His head turns to Lucia, his gaze locking on the young woman--as though he could make her meet his eyes just by glaring hard enough. "Explain yourself!" he demands. Lucia is not in any state of mind to answer him, but Leo does not care. It is taking more and more focus to block out the awful, churning, sickly sensation of the Malevolence around her. And then, a whistle--Hiro threw that boomerang. Leo watches as it whirls into the gathering storm, and the currents cast about by Corwynt's fury send it whirling unpredictably. Leo keeps one eye on it and the other on Hiro, and Lailah unknowingly buys him the moment he needs. The boomerang spins out, racing towards him, but Leo's one step ahead--he raises his blade to parry, and the weapon glances off, cutting a line across his shoulder before embedding itself in the ground. Hiro might be under heavy pressure from Lailah, but Leo isn't about to let up, either. The swordsman takes a step towards him, his blade scything through the air in a single, artful sweep. Energy leaps from the blade into the ground, seeking Hiro out.

GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Hiro with Demon Fang!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Hiro guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 84 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.

Corwynt's fingers close on air at the end of his charge; he snarls and plants his legs hard, digging into the earth as he stops his forward momentum, his feet tearing up furrows as he grinds to a halt. Even as unpracticed as she must be with a form she'd prefer to walk away from, even with all the pain, the dancer's movements are fluid and graceful, swift and inexorable as death itself.

But he knows how to look, and he's seen enough.

The little martial artist turns to face his dancing adversary, his expression and face hardening at her words. He resumes his stance, muscles swelling, Blessing pounding within his bloodstream. "You are partly correct," he answers her levelly. "I know what you are, Shadow Dragon. I know what you've done. And it is good that you knew Althena's justice would come for you." It is then that Jean moves into a springing kick, and Corwynt moves with her, his stocky, solid form an unavoidable contrast with the dancer's lithe grace. She leaps into the air, far more swiftly than he could have managed, and drives a kick downward.

Corwynt takes it cold, making no attempt to evade; Jean's strike drives down and connects hard onto the little man's collarbone between neck and shoulder, a powerful blow that might have been crippling if Corwynt had not been absolutely prepared to take it with everything that he had.

And then his right hand clamps down upon the shin of her broken leg.

Whirling in a tight circle, still holding Jean by a broken limb, Corwynt spins once as quickly as he can, whipping Jean's body around like a pinwheel before throwing her across the ground as far as he can manage, calling the winds to batter her as she tries to tuck and roll. The little man watches for an instant with raw satisfaction before gritting his teeth and rolling a left shoulder that's already beginning to tighten. "But you have only one thing remaining to do with your life," Corwynt corrects Jean as he starts walking toward her, eyes dancing with emotion and the Blessing of his Goddess. "Leave it."

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"No, I get that! I mean why you guys! The Guard are just dumb, I get that! But..." Lemina insists to Edna. "She's not the Lord of Calamity!" A pause. "Iiiii... have no actual way of backing up that statement!" Another pause. "And I didn't have a great sense of what malevolence felt like until a couple months ago because it doesn't happen in Vane!" Another pause.

Lemina purses her lips, and admits, "Man, even I think my argument sucks. Mega-ouch..." She has to focus on defending herself, too, though. She brings one hand behind her to retrieve her parasol, then freezes it to give herself better protection against the sheer force pushing down on her. ... then again, that might just be a case of magic pushing against magic. It's hard to tell. Physics is strange on Filgaia.

"Stop telling me to step aside and run!" Lemina insists to Edna, a little heat -- not quite anger, but definitely heat -- entering her voice at this point. "If it's just about your attacks, whatever, but I'm not gonna just -- abandon Lucia!" She points her staff at Edna's feet, and declares, "I guess it's time to turn up the heat!"

Whirling it in a circle, Lemina summons a ring of fire right below Edna, finally remembering to shift her staff back to a two-handed grip and put away her ridiculous parasol.

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Edna with Fire Ring!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

So this is what it's like to really put things on the line. It felt a lot better when she was reading about it in stories. Gwen nods soberly to Ragnell. "Yeah. She and Leo helped defend the tournament goers when some strange guy attacked it. He was incredibly strong. Could pluck bullets out of the air. If it weren't for efforts like hers, things would've gotten a lot worse."

But that doesn't explain Thessaly owning a 'favor'. "She needed a hand getting back, so I helped her." The words are spoken dully, without much in the way of further explanation. Technically, that's what happened, after all. Gwen was being nice and got Thessaly to the Inn, where she met Garan and healers helped patch them all up.

Moving towards Ragnell, she leans to murmur something in her ear, but decides against it, masking her efforts with a banal, "She's powerful. And so is Garan." Even an innocent warning about keeping Thessaly away from Lucia, even if she doesn't disclose why, may expose too much. Besides, it goes without saying.

Garan's shield looked powerful when Gwen saw him use it as a weapon in the tournament, and here, it's just as painful as it looked. Pushed back, Gwen's ARM pressed protectively over her chest, she grunts, and nods. "Mr. Dantear," Gwen offers, rolling back her sleeve to expose the full extent of her metal arm, a bullet deposited into her shoulder, "this is why I wasn't in the tournament. You're gonna probably face a lotta people with ARMs."

Stretching her ARM, she aims at the knight. "If you can't get past me, you'll get ground to dust by people loads more experienced than little ol' me!" The force in her voice disrupts the casual feel of her words, but she manages a smile.

At least she's fairly matched.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Garan Dantear with Coil Cannon EX!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Garan Dantear guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 79 hit points!
GS: Seraph Edna takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Fire Ring for 144 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

"Huh. That so," Ragnell says, glancing over at Gwen when she explains the nature of their acquaintance, as well as that both she and Garan are powerful. "Good to know." She doesn't question further--either on the nature of the favor, or the hand Gwen gave Thessaly. So to speak.

Ragnell isn't privy to Thessaly's thoughts or her past, but when she introduces herself as requested, Ragnell's red eyes widen lightly, then narrow. This time, she takes a closer look at this young woman clad in veils--and at her protector, particularly as he leaps off the landship to slam his shield into Gwen. *That* gets her moving, specifically around and behind Gwen; she might not be a very good meat shield, but Ragnell doesn't particularly relish the idea of dealing with Sir Knight while *also* trading artes with a witch.

"Thessaly...?" A slight pause. She reaches up and tips the brim of her hat, but there's something harder, more calculating and assessing in her eyes now. All the same, there's no malice in her either; she's merely gotten serious. For some reason. "The name's Ragnell," she replies, her light tone belying her demeanor. "Keen as a bean t' meet ya, Thessaly. Saw you cheerin' on your sir knight here when he was in the tourney. You must be real proud o' him, gettin' second place like he did."

Thessaly touches fingers to her blood and then to her lips. Ragnell frowns--and then she feels it: a curse carrying from the magic she'd sent flying to the magic that makes up her body. "--Nngh!" she grunts, clutching her chest as heat seems to surge from within--but she stands fast against it, much like she had the illusions that Ginny had set upon her months ago. She rides through it, endures it, and then breaks through the other side, her grin long and wide and very, very sharp.

"Hmmmmm," she murmurs, eyes just as sharp. She lines up a shot towards Thessaly, concentrating her own power, which illuminates the muzzle of one of her pistols. "Pretty nasty trick, that. Why're you in the Guard, again?" Then she fires, a solid burst of electric power shooting out straight towards Thessaly. "Tempest Laser!"

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Thessaly with Tempest Laser!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Thessaly takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Tempest Laser for 59 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"Wow. Yeah, your argument is terrible." Edna drones after her spell fizzles out. "You and everyone else in your little club keeps saying that she's not the Lord of Calamity, and maybe, just maybe I might believe you in any other case. But-" She shrugs a shoulder. "-The Malevolence flowing out of her like a fountain doesn't lie. What is that supposed to be, then?"

Edna slowly and calmly rolls her umbrella against her shoulder as she listens to the mage as she gets more heated. "Mmn. What a great friend you are. Abandon no one. Stick by your buddies no matter what." She smiles ever so slightly. "Really, it's pretty inspiring." She says that, but her smile isn't extending to her eyes.

At 'turn up the heat' Edna glances down when she feels the temperature rising, and immediately decides it's time to get the hell out of dodge. Flames engulf her, burning at her before she manages to manipulate the earth with a stomp of the foot to launch her away by way of a stone platform. "Tch... ow." She sails through the air... and is soon descendinf upon Lemina. "Unfortunately, you've got no evidence. I have zero reason to believe you when what I see says otherwise, and when you know now what Malevolence does to people and the world."

The earth seraph tucks into a forward flip, closing up her parasol on the apex. It glows a brilliant gold as the white clad girl bears down upon the mage from above. "By the way, you might want to step aside."

And then she lets loose a heavy overhead swing with a lot more power put behind it than might be expected from a girl of her size.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Lemina Ausa with Sunshine Swing!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.

Thus far in his time on Filgaia, Garan indeed had not had to deal with ARMs; during the tournament in Lacour, the Imperial Knight's defenses had seemed all but impenetrable. But now... Now, Gwen had exposed a vulnerability in the Unstoppable Bulwark.

Fortunately for Garan, he's not just some brute. He's adaptable. He learns.

Crouching low, the knight swings his shield up in the way of the shot from Gwen's rather literal ARM, though the impact against the pristine, white-lacquered steel is still impressive, resonating down his arm and tugging at the injury he'd already sustained.

"There's just one problem with your reasoning, Miss Whitlock," the knight says from behind his shield. "You're basing it on a faulty assumption."

White light gleams over Garan's form, shining in those dark blue eyes of his as he focuses his own control over the Blessing. He wasn't much of an overt magic-user, though he'd shown some tricks towards the end of the tournament, but now... Now that light, that Light, focuses on the back of the knight's right hand, tracing lines over his arm, tracing an elaborate sigil on his hand that's visible through his armor as that power flows into it, flows through it...

...And into Thessaly.

"I don't have to get past anything," Dantear elaborates.

"That's why I have her."

GS: Garan Dantear has attacked Thessaly with Bolstering Light!
GS: Garan Dantear has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
<SoundTracker> Between Dragons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roa_01VT-7s

Lucia is not so much blind to Lailah as she is blinded by flame -- her nearness, and everything brought with it, penetrates the barrage of sensation surrounding her as surely as a laser. She lifts her face at the last moment, far too late to defend herself, only for Hiro, with clockwork predictability that she in no way takes for granted, to sacrifice himself for her.

He immolates. No, too passive. He is immolated.

An instant later, Jean breaks. She is broken.

Leo makes a demand: 'Explain yourself!'

Corwynt makes a demand: 'Leave it.'

Lucia opens her eyes.

Light spills out -- it overflows the chalice of herself. It weeps like a rose overburdened by dew. It explodes like the heart of the sun.

"POWER," she says, she invokes, she describes, but it's an afterthought to the feeling that pours through the campsite. It is defiance. It is affection. It is promise and prayer.

It will not see her friends torn asunder. It will not see them destroyed.

The Destroyer destroys destruction. It is to healing as the frigid roof of the world is to ice clinking in a cocktail glass. Litanies invoke Althena's power and soothe sickness, mend wounds, but Jean is neither soothed nor mended -- she is restored.

Lucia turns away from Leo, locks eyes with Jean instead.

"LIVE."

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

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Somehow Lailah doesn't think that Hiro's suggestion for talking is going to go well. The comments about the threat do cause her to pause and look directly at him, "What are you talking about?" It's possible her words get lost in the heat of the battle but it's a question that seems important to ask, although its basically the same thing that Leo asks only moments earlier although directed at Hiro, not Lucia. "What threat?"

Then Hiro moves to block the attack directed towards Lucia. Well, one thing is clear she definitely is not going to make progress with so many of Lucia's followers around. For her part though, at least it wasn't completely wasted. Although, it wasn't what she intended, it still gave her a small amount of satisfaction.

"Hey Edna..." Lailah smiles. "He really got 'burned' on that one huh?" She points towards Hiro and laughs a little. Edna's remarks to Lemina get a smile from Lailah. That was basically the earth seraph she was used to seeing in battle. She may look tiny but deep down Enda was fierce and she was glad they were on the same team.

Lailah focuses her attention back onto Lucia but is more cautious this time. She doesn't throw anymore attacks towards her for now. What she does realize though is that there seems to be something wrong with Lucia. It doesn't make sense to her and she avoids trying to attack again instead focusing on Edna, "Hey Edna... let me help you out a bit!" A wave of healing energy is focused on the smaller seraph. Hopefully Edna doesn't take that as a sign she doesn't trust her.

GS: Seraph Lailah has attacked Seraph Edna with Imbuement!
GS: Seraph Lailah has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa 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> Hiro has posed.

Both Leo and Laihlah ask the same question, but in different ways and- "You really want her to explain herself while you're attacking us!?" Hiro knows that technique well by now. He knows it from Leo, he knows it from Alisha. And so he sees it coming. But seeing it coming and defending it against it are two different things.

Right now with Lucia behind him he's not going to step out of the way, but he does step into it. Kneeling down, his shield arm held at the ready, his silver saber set to parry. Cutting his blade low he scythes into the energy, keeping his head down behind it simultaneously. Energy bleeds up and over the shield and he finds himself shoved backwards from the sheer force against his arm.

On fire, bleeding, and now with a scorched looking shield- he takes a knee again, gasping for breath. Before pulling himself back up. Squinting against the storm, he looks one way, then the other. Even if Lailah is offering support to Edna she might easily come back and he had to cut them off or they were going to be in trouble. And so, he makes a short spell chant and- "FEROCIOUS WINDS!"

It's a simple call, not even the name of the spell or technique but a description of what's coming. Corwynt's influence over the winds is powerful but it can only extend so far especially when he's focused on tearing someone apart. Winds above howl as they twist and spiral and descend into a twisting vortex that is visible mostly from the scattering dust.

But it's effects are moreso. They're moving so fast in its endless revolutions that the pain from its friction sears like the bite of a blade and buffets like a bludgeon.

Even over the call of the winds though, he hears it- POWER. His eyes squinting against it can see it gather and the light float into Jean. But more importantly- is the other word, which causes his heart to swell with pride as Lucia says something he could have never expected. LIVE.

He's in awe of both. The woman they call Destroyer and yet brings life. The other who feels that her fighting can only cause death in her guilt- and fights now to preserve it.

He knows now that he'll do whatever it takes to be certain that- LIVE is a reality for them both, and that's what causes him to pick his way back up to his feet and face down the White Knight, raising his sword at a middle guard. He didn't think his swordsmanship could match Leo's on his best day. And yet today, he told himself he'd somehow manage. For all of them, but especially those two.

GS: Hiro has attacked White Knight Leo with Vortex!
GS: Hiro has attacked Seraph Lailah with Vortex!
GS: Hiro takes 7 damage from Poison!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.

She has always been a perceptive child - even from this distance, she sees the Seraph's eyes widen. It cannot be shock, for beings such as she are long-lived, and have seen enough horrors and wonders in this world, perhaps even across worlds, that to conclude that a mere young woman would be able to do so would be downright conceited and laughable. So if it is not surprise, at the utterance of her name, it can only be one thing, and one thing only.

Recognition.

But how?

The mystery is enough to give her pause, turning it over in her head, a prized gem clutched in wanting, assessing mental fingers. Has she come across Ragnell before? Impossible - she remembers every face she meets, and she does not remember this one.

It is the name then, but how? Where had she heard it?

Thoughts that she must table for now, when the air around the Seraph changes. It tickles every instinct geared towards fight or flight, and while she can sense no ill will, something has shifted and it would be folly in her part not to give it the due caution it warrants. "Well met, Seraph Ragnell," she says quietly. "And that is kind of you to say. I have never known Sir Garan to be anything less than exemplary in everything he does."

It works, but only a little. There is no pleasure when she sees her clutch the front of her chest, and no surprise when she manages to overcome it. Born of Lunar, Seraphs were creatures of legend - of power, as well.

She takes a breath.

How can she overcome such a...?

That self-doubt costs her. As Garan leaps from the ship, attention split in twain, the tempest laser cuts through cloth and sears her flesh. A cry of pain erupts from her lips just when she triggers a spell on instinct. She suddenly vanishes, disappearing into the darkness left by Garan's shadow, only to cross it and melt out of it, forever to go wherever he does. And then...

The eldritch bond that ties her to Garan pulses, his own power surging into her body. Her back arches, lips parting in a soundless cry. As shadows suddenly come alive around her, as if in defiance of the light that fills her, her eyes burn with violet fire. Her blood rushes fast and hot in the open channels of her veins, heart beating with the pace of war drums, sinking her further in their present battledance. Her hands come up, not as a plea for the heavens...

But as a command.

The skies split and black and violet lightning crashes down from above, and torrents of black fire tear the sands asunder, leaping up towards Gwen and Ragnell both at where they stand - as above, so below.

GS: Thessaly has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Lailah takes a glancing hit from Hiro's Vortex for 50 hit points!
GS: Thessaly takes a solid hit from Garan Dantear's Bolstering Light for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Thessaly!

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Jean spent years away from this style, but she can't escape it as easily as running away. She knows it; it knows her. That can't change, it seems. But what does that mean?

There's so much left to her because of it, because of the death that flows in her veins despite everything. Her master said that she would never escape it. And hers she is, watching the small man who nevetheless is larger than she is. Her own Blessing she does not call upon. His words she does not forget.

What muscles of hers show in her legs are perfectly extended; she hasn't been able to call much on her body while she's been injured, but her grace is undeniable. Nevertheless she has raw force, even without the hate necessary to draw out her style's deadliest power. Instead she has closed herself off, hadened her heart in order to save her friend, answer this call against what she was.

What she is.

Jean feels flesh on her bare foot and starts to bounce off of it, except that Corwynt grabs her leg, which means she tries to move off of it with full force and has it yanked down again.

"Aagh--" Jean coughs, a rare sign of pain from a woman who grew up with agony as a close friend. Corwynt whirls, and the stretching of her injured leg in whirling her around makes her so nauseous that she can barely thinks. Only her long training in brutality lets her even manage to tuck down and hold her leg against battering winds to try to make it less awful an injury.

Her bandages are red with fresh blood when she hits the ground skidding. Scrapes and tears open up as Jean hits the ground, head down, on her back. She can't even move. Her eyes try to open, but mostly she wonders whether her friends would be better off. If this wasn't right, somehow, the end she ought to have.

But Lucia answers. Lucia's power answers her thoughts, her fears, and her wounds, and life pours through her so fiercely that she lets out the gasp one might expect from a first breath after nearly drowning. Jean sits up with a start, but she doesn't look at Corwynt. She looks at Lucia, who's locked eyes with her, hears her words.

"...I will," Jean answers, and the words don't matter to her as much as the heart of it--her heart.

It's almost enough to get at a truth that's far beyond her... But for now she can't.

Jean looks finally to Corwynt, narrows her eyes, and rises to her feet. She bends, and shadows rush from her hand down her bandages, snipping each and every one of the bloodied things. Beneath is whole, pure flesh; her friends who have helped her change these bandages have seen the horrific scarring left as a result of her injury, and it is gone.

Jean adopts another Shadow Dragon stance, but this one is different; this one uses both legs. "Corwynt Marikson!" Jean calls, cracking her neck. "...Do you think you're the only one to have a family stolen?"

She draws in a quick breath, and changes her stance immediately, hands up as she draws something from her palms that was not there before. "Yes, I am a Shadow Dragon!" Her stance widens, "But I will use this power for what I think is important!"

Jean shimmers and fades, before all around Corwynt are three Jeans, another Shadow Dragon technique; each spins and starts throwing needles, dozens all told, for vulnerable pressure points to weaken and slow.

"I won't deny what I've done. But I will end the Shadow Dragon Cult! One way or another!"

None of them are real; the 'real' Jean emerges right behind Corwynt, "I'm done with being told what I have to do with my life!"

GS: Thessaly has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Totentanz!
GS: Thessaly has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Totentanz!
GS: Thessaly has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Thessaly's Totentanz for 55 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Thessaly's Totentanz for 125 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"It's..." Lemina frowns. "It's not like that! I don't know how to explain it -- it's like, a curse, or something! If I had all the books of the Magic Guild of Vane at my fingertips maybe I could figure it out, but -- you just... you have to trust me!"

And then Edna keeps right on antagonizing Lemina. Fortunately, the mega-dark mage seems ready for a physical assault; when Edna closes the distance, she raises her own umbrella once more, meeting it in a clash for the ages!!

"You're right, though! I'm not gonna just abandon my friends!" There's a pause, before she adds, "... though maybe I'd change my tune if all of them were paid up on guild dues..." Hopping back, she shakes her head and says, "No! Not even then!"

Lemina sees an opportunity in her backstep, and decides to take it. Before Edna can even get situated from her landing, she swings her staff up once with tremendous force. At first, it looks like she's just summoned another ring of fire at Edna's landing zone.

Then it explodes straight up. "My mother didn't raise a daughter who'd abandon someone!"

After a moment, she adds, "... are all Seraphim ripped under the gauzy outfits?" as her arm starts to sting from the earlier parry coupled with the exertion of that hard vertical swing.

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Edna with Pyro Pillar!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Edna guards a hit from Lemina Ausa's Pyro Pillar for 116 hit points!
GS: Seraph Lailah heals Seraph Edna! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Hiro's Vortex for 56 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

Corwynt tears into Jean. Leo's never seen him like this--not at Adlehyde, not at any point in time before that. "Corwynt!" he shouts, over the roaring wind. "Be vigilant! The Lord of--"

The Lord oF Calamity does not want Jean to stay down. The light plays across Leo's face, and his mouth falls open. It does nothing to dispel the sickening, roiling curtain of Malevolence. It could very well be nothing more than a manipulative and oddly-silent mastermind ensuring that one of her pawns stays in fighting shape. Leo clenches his teeth, and turns his attention back to Hiro. True to form, he is being resourceful, pulling away part of Corwynt's windstorm for his own use. Leo digs in his heels--he can't outrun it, can't parry it--and wills the earth to come to his aid. Rock and stone rise up around him, climbing up his legs, encasing him. The windstorm comes down on him, sandblasting away the outer layers, and tearing long, winding cuts into his arms and torso. Leo focuses his will, grits his teeth--

The earth around him erupts. Jagged spires of dirt and stone rise up in a circle, the cyclone dissipating with an audible pop and a rush of air. Bits of stone flake off Leo's face and arm as he extends a hand towards Hiro, and more of those stone spikes erupt from beneath.

GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Hiro with Rock Viper!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Hiro critically Guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Rock Viper for 23 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

Edna looks Lailah's way for just a moment. She gives the fire seraph A Look. "Really. Puns. Right now." She sighs, but seems more amused than anything. "That's Lailah for you." The healing is appreciated. Because burns hurt! ...Well, the actual ones anyway. But sometime the figurative ones too.

Sometimes.

Her attention is returned to Lemina juuuust in time for her to get bathed in a flame pillar! Wow! Who would have thought!? Edna opens up her umbrella and shields herself through the last bit, the force sending her sailing backwards, until she sails through the air and lands roughly some distance away. "Okay, so you're about as stubborn as you look." The white clad blonde murmurs, dusting herself off, for all the good it'll do right this moment. "Yeah, I should just trust you with no basis. Mhm. That makes a load of sense. I'll do that."

Pause.

"... Not."

It lasted a couple seconds at least!

But there's something more important to address here. Something of world haking consequence! Edna narrows her eyes and opens her mouth and; "Who are you calling ripped? I'll have you know that I'm the most ladylike lady that ever ladied." Except her tone remains ever so calm. Is she actually bothered? Maybe.

And that's judging from the way she raises her foot.. and stomps! With much more force this time. What follows isn't just one, but many rocky spikes that burst out of the ground in a rough line as they tunnel towards Lemina viciously.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Lemina Ausa with Rock Lance!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Seraph Edna's Rock Lance for 195 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

As Gwen is pushed back the first time by Garan, she feels Ragnell against her back, but not that flicker of exchange between the Seraph and Thessaly. As Gwen's mouth forms a grim line, a hand hovers back to one side of Ragnell protectively.

Ragnell may be a Seraph, but Garan's blows may do more damage to her than Gwen herself.

.... Not that Gwen is particularly hardy herself. She's hardy *enough*.

But that's the problem. In actual combat, Gwen's not really all that flexible. Every skill she's honed is just enough to get by- the rest is supplied by a powerful ARM that has no business being attached to someone who goes through her life acting as if she could simply be a normal courier. She really doesn't have much beyond that up her sleeve, when it comes to combat, for all her current attempts to diversify.

With one action, Garan reveals this flaw, focusing on empowering Thessaly through that strange bond between the two, instead of directly engaging with either Gwen or Ragnell.

She smiles.

There really is a silver lining to all of this, even as she stares what may be a very, very *very* painful attack.

".... It really *is* great that the Guard isn't just a bunch of crooks lookin' to scheme people out of their money, eh?" Gwen muses quietly under her breath.

As Thessaly's attack hits, the courier is blown back, flipping over before colliding with the ground. .... Well, that could've gone a lot worse, right?

She's still alive, after all.

Hauling herself to her feet, her hat having been tossed away in the blast and a smear of blood staining her pale red hair a deeper shade of crimson, Gwen lets out a breath. "Well, you're definitely not holdin' back! I guess I better hold up my end of the bargain finally, eh?" She walks into the fray, rolling her ARM up loosely, then letting it fall down into the steady hold of her left hand, her boots attempting to gain a hold in the dirt below as her ARM begins to crackle. "This way... I guess I won't feel too bad..."

The courier fires, a burst of electricity, aimed straight towards the lady in black.

It may be telling to Ragnell that Gwen never flinched in surprise when those shadows arched briefly out of Thessaly.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Thessaly with Special Delivery!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.

Corwynt walks forward toward Jean, his hands tensing as he prepares for a kill - to slay the only member of the Shadow Dragon cult he has met in his adult life. She is broken and beaten, and nothing can stop him.

Until something does.

Light screams out from the vessel that is the Lord of Calamity, and Corwynt stops in his tracks, wincing and lifting a pair of arms to guard his eyes from the sudden surge. He assumes it to be an attack - the Destroyer lashing out to prevent him from slaying one of her minions. He did not expect a healing. He could not - Lucia's corruptive command of the elements was known to cause harm. For her to also have the power to heal would imply that she, like the Dragons or the Seraphim... that she...

"No," he snarls, his eyes blazing as Jean begeins to rise. "No no NO!" he roars, throwing his arms down, addressing both the Shadow Dragon and the Destroyer with his gaze. "Calamity you are named, and Calamity you are! Not enough to betray your Goddess, not enough to corrupt the world itself with your putrescence..." Corwynt asks, tears streaming from his face. "You would steal even this tiny scrap of justice from the world too? Is there no small thing you would leave free of your depravity? Why? WHY?"

And then he realizes, and stands still in place. Jean - all three Jeans - send their needles biting into his flesh - Corwynt lifts his arms as they strike him all over, his body quivering as he struggles to resist the poison, to contain the wellspring boiling up inside him. "Oh, my Goddess," he finally whispers, lifting his eyes to the sky. "I should have known. I should have known." Corwynt shakes his head, tears pattering on the earth. "I was selfish, focused on my own desires... instead of the duty that lies before me." More water begins to spatter down as the winds pick up again - no matter how much Leo and Hiro keep stealing away for their own purposes, there is more yet to be found. Jean appears behind Corwynt, only to find herself face-to-face... with Corwynt, as a second image of the man steps out of his back. "If you truly seek to end the Cult..." both Corwynts say, and then they twin themselves again, until the Jeans are each facing an identical opponent. "...then make a gift of your own life, and begin the process." All four Corwynts drop into a stance, ready.

The fifth walks toward Lucia.

"Oh, my Goddess, forgive your poor servant," Corwynt says, raising his head slowly to lock his eyes with the Lord of Calamity. "What poor man would pluck a thorn from his side, however painful... when the devil stands before him. Forgive me," he repeats himself. "My duty is clear." The little man lets out a breath, pushing the Blessing of Althena out into the air, the howling winds sending it stirring. He exhales until his lungs are empty, until he has pushed as much of the air that is his native element out to rejoin the world. And then he breathes it in again, calling to the fragments of the Blessing that graced him, drawing them back toward him.

He begins with the air inside the lungs of the Lord of Calamity.

GS: Corwynt has attacked Lucia with Steal Breath!
GS: Corwynt has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

"You don't hit like it! And anyway -- what's with the monotone? Are you this bored? If you are, just go!" Lemina points out -- nevermind that as the fourth place finisher in a tournament of arms Lemina has no place saying someone is or isn't particularly ladylike for their combat prowess.

Yet again, Lemina gets hit square-on in the gut for her trouble, the line of stone spires buffeting her back over and over. This time, there's no ice to save her either -- just spikes to the gut. The worst one catches her in the outer thigh instead, leaving a flesh wound that some poor Lingan surgeon is going to have to call 'impressive' later.

It doesn't seem to stop her, though; Lemina seems a firm adherent of the 'fall down seven times, stand up eight' principle. "Okay... okay. So you're not gonna leave if I ask nicely... I mean, I guess that was obvious from the start, but..."

Planting her feet firmly and shifting her staff to a spear-like grip, Lemina says, "Guess I gotta send you home the sad way!" Despite her bluster, Lemina doesn't seem to be relishing this; it's getting harder and harder to feel good about fighting back against the Guard and their allies. They're not... all Borgan...

As Lemina chants and twirls, a large claw of ice forms on the tip of her staff as she advances. Stepping forward, Lemina swings it toward Edna once... and then something strange happens.

The claw grows. By the time Lemina takes a second swing, going the other way, it's more than a few feet in length... and it doesn't show any signs of stopping. By the time she comes in for a third swing and a final cry of, "FREEZE CLAW!" the claws of ice are longer than the staff itself, and threaten to cut deep.

GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Seraph Edna with Freeze Claw!
GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Edna guards a hit from Lemina Ausa's Freeze Claw for 171 hit points!
GS: Hiro used the Force Action Protect! He takes Corwynt's attack on Lucia on himself!
GS: Hiro has activated a Force Action!
GS: Hiro guards a hit from Corwynt's Steal Breath for 25 hit points!
GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Hiro!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Hiro questions both Lailah and Leo and the fire seraph sighs. It's true they were attacking and had technically engaged first but still there were answers she needed and Hiro had been the first to say they should talk to her. Of course, now she knows that is going to be impossible. The battle lines were drawn but at this point she wasn't sure what it was going to take to break a side.

In helping Edna unfortunately Lailah has unwittingly made herself an easier target and she misses the vortex of wind and destruction moving towards her until it's too late. Her feeble attempt at blocking doesn't help a lot and she feels them within her. The winds seem to rip into her clothing enough that a small opening is visible on the cuff of a sleeve. "Ugh."

Feeling like she has no choice but to fight back, Lailah turns towards Hiro. "Well, I guess there's not much else we can say is there?" She frowns before quietly saying, "Flame Vortex". As she does this, fire begins to swirl around and up until, much like his wind vortex, a funnel appears. This one being bright red with pain enveloped within it.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell glances to one side as Hiro and Lailah exchange blows, Lailah because Hiro leapt in the way of a spell meant for Lucia, Hiro in retaliation towards her and Leo. This glance also lets her bear witness as Lucia brings forth a healing beyond light, restoration beyond will that flows, to mend Jean's old injury in an instant and make her leg whole once more. Her grip on her pistols tightens and her lips thin--but she has other things to worry about right now. She looks back towards her opponents, sees the light flowing in and through Garan before materializing into Thessaly, who then reacts to the laser blast from her pistol by sinking into Garan's shadow and materializing next to him. That *does* get surprise, where previously Thessaly correctly interpreted her reaction as recognition. Ragnell is older than any human in existence, but that doesn't mean she's seen *every* trick in the book.

The skies open above, not at Ragnell's or Corwynt's call, but Thessaly's, to bring down black and violet lightning down upon the sands and then up towards Gwen and Ragnell. She flips to one side to avoid the bulk of the magical assault, but it still rips through what part of her essence it can reach, and there is intense pain. Ragnell grits her teeth, her poncho torn, her body crackling with the agony of her own element but wrong in some fundamental way. "Y'all right there, Gwen?" she drawls, coming up on her feet, the fight not yet gone from her. Indeed, she hadn't reacted with surprise at Thessaly's odd teleportation act, something Ragnell files away for later. For now, she instead looks towards Garan.

"You don't have to get past anything; that's why you have *her*... huh?" she says. "*Damn*, you're stupid." Now what's that supposed to mean? Ragnell doesn't power to explain when she then looks over to Thessaly. "So I note you didn't actually agree with me about bein' proud a' him--or answer why you're in the Guard," she calls to her, her tone taking on the lilt of a taunt. "In fact, that sounds a lot like 'I hate his guts but I'm not allowed to *say* that.'" She shows her teeth. "Am I close?"

It doesn't actually matter if it's close or not. Garan basically just admitted that Thessaly is his weak point, or so Ragnell interpreted his remark. If her taunt is enough to rattle her, either with its truth or falsehood, that's good enough. Regardless, she lifts up an arm again, once again concentrating to call about the golden power of lightning artes through and around her, glyph at her feet as motes of magic dance upwards. "One true sword to smite the masses! Thunder Blade!!"

Lightning for lightning: at the same time that Gwen shoots, a massive green sword made of pure electric magic hurtles down towards Thessaly, embedding itself in the earth as it hurls power in a wave all around itself. A heartbeat passes, then two; then the blade bursts apart in a mighty thunderclap that sends concussive force out towards the witch.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Thessaly with Thunder Blade!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lailah has posed.

Hiro questions both Lailah and Leo and the fire seraph sighs. It's true they were attacking and had technically engaged first but still there were answers she needed and Hiro had been the first to say they should talk to her. Of course, now she knows that is going to be impossible. The battle lines were drawn but at this point she wasn't sure what it was going to take to break a side.

In helping Edna unfortunately Lailah has unwittingly made herself an easier target and she misses the vortex of wind and destruction moving towards her until it's too late. Her feeble attempt at blocking doesn't help a lot and she feels them within her. The winds seem to rip into her clothing enough that a small opening is visible on the cuff of a sleeve. "Ugh."

Feeling like she has no choice but to fight back, Lailah turns towards Hiro. "Well, I guess there's not much else we can say is there?" She frowns before quietly saying, "Flicker Flame". Paper falls from the sky and illuminates in a bright firey ball of destruction. Within it, small explosions can be seen, enough to leave a pretty good mark should they hit.

GS: Seraph Lailah has attacked Hiro with Flicker Flame!
GS: Seraph Lailah has completed her action.
GS: Garan Dantear used the Force Action Protect! He takes Gwen Whitlock's attack on Thessaly on himself!
GS: Garan Dantear has activated a Force Action!
Garan Dantear (Garan) pages Gwen Whitlock and Thessaly: /chicken butt/

GS: Garan Dantear guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 73 hit points!

DC: MISS! Thessaly completely evades Thunder Blade from Seraph Ragnell!

GS: Hiro takes a solid hit from Seraph Lailah's Flicker Flame for 59 hit points!
GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Hiro!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"Bored?" Edna drones on. "Who said I was bored? This is actually the most entertainment I've had all week." She says with a faint smile. She lets up on the rock spires and starts walking forward a Lemina recovers, setting her umbrella back up against her shoulder. "Not to mention- I saw you fight in the tournament. You really need to have a second look in the mirror, huh?"

That claw forms and the earth seraph blinks. Well. That's something. Earth magic flows through her umbrella and she uses it as a shield to block the first strike. But the second, as it grows much bigger, is too strong to just weather, and while she blocks it, the blow *also* carries her away...

Away as she flies several feet, hits the ground, and rolls. "Ow. ow ... ow. ow..." Edna grumbles in a broken string with each rolling bump. She slows to a stop and sighs, dragging herself up to her feet, rather impressive cuts on her torso and trailing downwards, after the ride ends. "Seriously... I guess I should stop playing around too." Icy blue eyes settle onto Lemina some distance away, and the girl closes up her umbrella. "Let'ss see who's left standing after this, huh?"

Right then, Edna stomps the ground, but this time, something different happens. Stone slabs burst upward, threatening to crash into Lemina and keep her still. ... Keep her still for what comes next. She points her umbrella forward, a small sphere of gravity and earth magic swirling together, growing bigger and bigger... bigger still, and then-

"Terra Mine."

Once it grows distressingly large, the orb of gravity is fired off with a burst of air pressure, hurtling right towards Lemina and threatening to explode upon impact into a crushing burst of explosive pressure.

GS: Seraph Edna has attacked Lemina Ausa with Terra Mine!
GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action.
GS: Lemina Ausa has activated a Force Action!
GS: Lemina Ausa critically Guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Terra Mine for 34 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.

She has caught their attention.

There isn't any other way to interpret it when Gwen levels her ARM towards her direction just when Ragnell needles Garan from where she stands, having evaded most of her onslaught. The seraph only continues to hold her fascination, though those eyes sharpen from above her veil. Most days a calm and dignified individual, something finally breaks through that cool, placid stare, a brief spark of something much more volatile, burning from within the darkest depths of her - an abyss that under any circumstances should not be touched unless absolutely, utterly necessary.

It may be because of that surge of temper that as Ragnell moves to strike, she is suddenly gone, dissipating into mist and rendered intangible for a few precious seconds - she had performed a similar trick to evade a devastating blow from the mysterious and powerful being that laid waste to the Lacour arena just weeks ago. The ghost of her drifts past and through the Seraph, and the moment she steps back into the light of the dying sun, she solidifies again.

Never far from her knight, always covering his blind spot despite her tricks. She already knows what he is going to do, anticipating it; the mark of a close working relationship and tremendous familiarity with the other.

"To say either way will be to confirm whatever set of suspicions you already harbor," she tells Ragnell, her hand sweeping to the side and calling forth black energy, lightning and fire coruscating over the length of the hellfire javelin that she has willed into being. Rearing back, she whips her arm forward and sends it flying, intending for it to spear through Ragnell, from her back and through her chest....

But it splits into evanescent strings, like fine black wire, in an attempt to spool around the Seraph's limbs - around her throat, over her wrists, her arms and legs. The end of the bundle materializes in the dark witch's hand, pulling it taut and her free set of fingers poised over the strings.

Like strumming a harp, she strikes them all with a flick of her fingers.

Vibrations shoot out through the protrusions, to tighten and cut savagely through muscle, bone and sinew, in an attempt to reach precious arteries and veins. Nails dance over the lengths, fire and lightning sparking between each, transmitted like deadly, bloody cords from sheets of music that only she remembers.

GS: Thessaly has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Devil's Trill!
GS: Thessaly has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro sees the rise of Earth and like before he feels his magic dissipates. He's not certain how to defend an attack coming from below and he's sure not sure he's fast enough, but he has to try. Back-stepping with a single foot, he scythes his saber in a low diagonal arc. The spikes rise, but not so many reach him.

And the ones that do they have blunted tips instead- their heads falling, slamming into his mid-section and chest which causes him to rise off the ground. Wheezing from the hit to his ribcage.

"The Princess- Alisha. Your man over there, Corwynt. They tell me all the time that duty is everything. To their people or to the Goddess... it's not the same with you though. When you had her- you weren't sure. You weren't sure it was-"

Corwynt body flickers and he knows the danger instantly. He remembers from Berserk how all of them ganged up on him. One of them walks towards Lucia. Hiro darts her way. He was barely a mage before this trip to another world. He was more a dabbler. A few clever tricks and cantrips, self-taught and Grandfather nurtured. Lemina's teachings at least give him the instinct to feel that shift in the flow of air around Lucia.

He can't stop whatever he's doing. He's not half the mage Corwynt is- but there's a prayer on his lips that he can redirect it to whatever Goddess is listening and stop whatever he's doing to Lucia.

At this distance it's just a subtle redirection with a word. Sort of like one of his boomerang tricks. His own Blessing of Althena granting him that the air starts to move out of his lungs rather than Lucia's. His face twists like someone suddenly surprised by being underwater, and then he claws at his throat.

He rasps, dyspneic. He tries to speak but he can't. Struggling. High pitched stridorous noises erupt from his throat. And then there's Lailah. Right now unable to breathe or say anything, it feels like a cruel joke but he knows the Seraph didn't mean it that way. A funnel of red envelops him within it.

Fire consumes further air. And he can't even shout as he's incinerated, he has to bear it in near silence other than the roar of flames and the whispering of winds. His tunic on fire, his breath stolen

"E-"

It's just a sound- not even a word, "E-"

"-nuff..."

Is he giving up?

And that's when he breaks into a breathless run against Corwynt's flickering double, the blade against the ground, scattering dirt, until he cleaves in an upward strike to try to cut off the assault from his double.

GS: Hiro has attacked Corwynt with Poe Sword!
GS: Hiro takes 7 damage from Poison!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Thessaly's Devil's Trill for 71 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.

"...and I am afraid I am quite jealous of my own secrets."

GS: Corwynt takes a solid hit from Hiro's Poe Sword for 117 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.

It's probably no surprise that after that, Gwen would shift her attention towards Thessaly: The black-clad witch is a powerful danger on the field.

That is, of course, part of why she and the Imperial Knight stay close together.

As the courier lashes out, Garan moves in concert with Thessaly, twisting around to interpose himself, once again bringing up his shield to intercept the burst of electricity Gwen was aiming at the pallid young woman. The guard is hardly perfect... But the knight is robust enough that even as Gwen's electricity crackles over his shield and his arm, he doesn't buckle or waver, instead keeping his protective barrier between Thessaly and as much harm as he can manage.

"Foolishness. You attack Thessaly because you believe that injuring her will undermine my ability to fight. Her powers are impressive, and it's true that with her at my side I can focus on other things than offense... But it wasn't with her powers that I fought in the Lacour tournament."

To him, it's simple sense. Together, they're stronger than they are apart.

"But I can assure you, that the only thing seriously injuring her right now would accomplish is your own death. This is not a tournament."

Garan lunges forward, staying close enough to Thessaly that he can protect her while she lashes out at Ragnell with her dark energy... His sword singing in the air as he lashes out once, twice, and again at Gwen.

"I am not playing."

GS: Garan Dantear has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Knight's Rhythm!
GS: Garan Dantear has completed his action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Garan Dantear's Knight's Rhythm for 124 hit points!
GS: Garan Dantear takes Cover! He gains 50 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Lucia is not really in a conversational state right now. Someday she and Corwynt will have shouting matches over the nature of the Goddess' will, the difference between profound faith and blind conviction. Perhaps in a further, happier future they will discuss Althena again over tea.

Right now, though, she has no pupils to stare into -- locking eyes with her is like locking eyes with the blank emptiness of a statue of self-same Althena. Her blue hair billowing everywhere, her arms outstretched, her power overwhelming -- the comparison is especially striking. It is poignant like deja vu can be; it is painful, too. The truth hurts, and no one here is ready for Lucia's, least of all Lucia herself.

Fortunately, she shines quite brightly. It is easy to look away. To tear up into blurry vision. To deny. To justify. To see only the shade of one's own heart. Power is a mirror in that way.

But air rushes from Hiro, flame rushes to him, interposed between this ageless young woman and her executioners, and his expression is the first thing that truly reflects in her eyes. Their color returns, that glorious verdant green so entirely lacking from this sad world that one wonders if it's because she horded it all for herself.

"HIRO!!"

He's still standing, and so are the others -- Lemina and Gwen and Ragnell, each locked in their own battles. Each locked in the same battle. There is no benefit in remaining here.

It is time to leave.

A tithe of that transcendence remains with her, stirring her skin to lambent gold, and it infects the darkness surrounding the campsite as she passes through it. There is a sense of tension, and then a sound that isn't shattering glass, but nonetheless, something has broken. The sky was already falling, with darkness and lightning and flame. Now it falls a little more.

The tower is clearly visible in the distance.

Lucia makes her way towards it with single-minded intensity. It would be pretty fair to criticize her for leaving her friends behind. On the other hand, maybe she's leading the way to extremely dubious safety.

Power is a mirror.

Come, see for yourself.

<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.

Lemina lets out a low grunt as the giant orb of earth and gravity comes toward her; the only thing she can do is try to stop it before it reaches her -- which she does by spiking her staff into the ground, those tines of ice coming back up and then coalescing into a wall in front of her. It, rather than she, eats the worst of the massive, magical power brought to bear; it can't handle everything, though, and a wave of pressure still nearly bowls Lemina over.

She keeps her footing, though... but she's starting to run out of gas. Her chest heaves up and down with heavy breaths -- she needs a second. Instead of attacking with her staff, thus, she puts it away and retrieves one of her few other weapons: her Knockout-branded bow, still kept after the tournament. (Or would that be rented to own?)

"... looks like both of us," Lemina answers -- and then, out of the corner of her eye, she sees Lucia start to leave. "... And honestly, despite you being kind of a mega-jerk, I don't have any real problem with you, so..." She starts to move toward Lucia, doing her best to retreat. She offers no further aggression to the Seraph; she just wants to get out of here with everyone's life intact. ... on both sides, perhaps, even.

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

'It's not the same with you, though. When you had her, you weren't sure. You weren't sure--'

Leo's eyes narrow. Cracks shoot through the stone spires around him, and they start to crumble, bits of rock and stone and debris falling to his feet and merging seamlessly with the ground. "I am not an assassin," Leo says, his voice cold. Does he sound a little defensive? Maybe. "Perhaps if you put aside your asinine thoughts of heroism for a moment, you'd understand!"

In his mind's eye, Leo remembers Mauri, coldly looking on as one of the village children limped away with a skinned knee. Before the illness, she would've cared for him, but--

"Irrelevant!" Leo snaps, at no one. "She brought Malevolence to Filgaia! Her very presence here is damning! This land has already suffered enough--lawlessness, war, chaos, horrific demon invaders! Would you add Malevolence to it as well?" Hiro's moving to protect her again. Leo rushes in, and in a moment's time, he locks eyes with Lucia.

He's not sure what he sees in those eyes this time. His blade jitters in his hand. The Lord of Calamity's influence is pernicious.

And then, the barrier Thessaly cast collapses like mist before dawn. "No," Leo snarls. They're running. "Garan, Corwynt, Thessaly! After them!" Leo raises his blade, and gives chase. He raises a hand, signaling to the Destiny to resume its pursuit.

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Jean watches Corwynt's tears once she's risen, no longer broken but whole again. This woman raised by the Cult who stole Corwynt's family stares at him as he weeps for justice. Justice...

She looks emotionless as she sends forth her needles, and she looks emotionless as Corwynt whispers, as the winds pick up, and as she finds herself facing a double--or the real man? She can't tell, with all of these.

Each of her images adopts a ready stance as Jean pours more of her energy into maintaining them, hands up before herself in knife hands. After all, she still doesn't have her weapons. Her body will have to do.

"You don't know what it takes to destroy them. All you'll do is kill those forced into action. You'll never find the heart." Jean ducks down, and her images match her movements as she swings in close to jab at an armpit, hit a knee; brutal, swift moves meant to draw a fight to a conclusion. She can keep up the fight that way for a few moments, trading blows. But she can't hold forever this many. Though...

"Lucia!"

Jean sees her in his sights, feeling that magic of his, and lunges, dropping to the ground and sweeping before she rolls forward and handsprings into a front-flip. Her doubles shimmer out of existence in an instant. Corwynt's will surely be on her in moments. But she heard what Corwynt said. Moments may be worth buying.

As Lucia shatters something with her golden magic, Jean lunges at Corwynt while Hiro runs. Jean doesn't think this one is a double, from what he said. But even if it is, she may have something to do.

Hitting the ground near-silently, the Shadow Dragon uses precision. She rears back and her hand is covered in black energy, shadows deeper all around her.

"Shadow Dragon Palm," she intones, and brings her life-savaging touch straight for Corwynt's back. It can be felt like the absence of warmth all around, like a sudden chill. It's a technique of death, violent and brutal.

"I'm sorry," she says, "But I can't die here."

Using the confusion as best she can, Jean lunges to grab Hiro, carry him in both hands, and run as fast as she can after Lucia.

Any blows that try to follow them she'll take for herself. "Come on!"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.

"... ...."

Edna lowers her pointed umbrella and sighs. She doesn't attack Lemina from behind or anything. She just stands there and watches. This whole mess isn't going to be resolved today, that's for sure. She certainly doesn't *hate* those so-called vile fiends now. There' just a certain obligation to do something about the Lord of Calamity, as i apparent.

But that certainly isn't happening with their reserves run so low. With that in mind, Edna turns away herself. "See you around then." As long as this situation remained the same, they certainly would be. And so the blonde plods off. "C'mon Lailah. We're done here. Save the bravado for the knights." Beat. "And the cleanup too."

Lazy seraph is lazy.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Well, ain't that somethin'. Ragnell wasn't holding back with that last attack, so to see Thessaly evade it completely... Gwen wasn't kidding. But this only raises Ragnell's opinion of Thessaly, quite frankly.

Especially with that spark of some passionate flame in her eyes, just before she disappears. It's too boring to fight an opponent who doesn't *care*.

Ragnell has walked through people before. She's even walked through people with something very terrible inside. And, yes, people have walked through her. So the sensation of Thessaly passing through her isn't as unnerving as it might otherwise be--but that's not the witch's attack. Ragnell only grins when she hears her murmur at her back, of her jealous love of her own secrets. "Well, aren't *you* a shy one," she purrs, the taunt this time of a completely different nature. "I just love a mystery..."

She whirls around then to attempt to defend against Thessaly's attack, but when that magic javelin breaks apart into innumerable strings, it's impossible to evade them. Ragnell is tied up neatly, by her legs, her arms, around her throat. The only reason she isn't eviscerated on the spot is because, before the spell can complete its deadly song, Ragnell calls up the lightning that makes up who and what she is to break the threads, shattering them and allowing her to stagger back. The effort isn't without its cost; there are as many shallow cuts on her body as there were strings, and even a slight cut can be deadly if there's enough of them.

But before Ragnell can mount a counterattack, the sky *breaks*. Darkness shatters, opening up to the last blaze of sunset, and Ragnell turns just in time to see Lucia fleeing in the direction of the Temple of Rejection with singleminded speed. She chuckles wryly, then looks back at Garan and Thessaly. "Welp, looks like playtime's over," she remarks, in blatant and deliberate contrast to Garan's earlier statement that he's not playing around. "That said, it'd be mighty annoyin' if y'all followed and dropped one o' them barriers again, so--"

She lifts one gun over her head and fires a powerful burst shot into the air; it comes down a second or two later as a torrential downpour of needle-like lightning rain down upon Althena's Guard. It won't last more than a moment, but it's a moment that they have to deal with defending against an attack rather than chasing after the Vile Fiends 'n' Pals.

By the time the squall has ended, Ragnell, too, is in hot pursuit after Lucia and the others, possibly while dragging Gwen along with her.

<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.

In Corwynt's defence, he really does want to go after the Vile Fiends like Leo told him to. But after Hiro strikes (his blade cleaves the clone in two, ripping it into wind and motes of light), Jean drives forward, smashing her hand into Corwynt's back.

And through it.

The little man shudders, sagging noiselessly forward as Jean's fingers emerge from the centre of his chest. He slowly turns toward Jean, mouth quivering, the light dying in his eyes as he whispers a single word.

"Murderer."

The clone vanishes and, a dozen yards away, Corwynt collapses to the ground, a dozen needles still in him.

<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.

With Ragnell rounding on her, Thessaly shifts, once again falling over Garan's shadow, irises aglow with whatever it is that Ragnell has sparked within her; passion, subsumed utterly by iron control, but no less potent for it. The intensity of it can be seen, felt around her aura and for all of her calm deliberation and the strategic way she attacks, it doesn't change the fact that in the thick of it, surrounded by war and hell and accompanied by someone she must protect at all costs, she burns like stormlight.

But it only seems to heighten Ragnell's pleasure and her words about mysteries has her nodding once. They, at least, are in agreement there. "So do I," she says quietly, the implication clear as crystal no matter how unvoiced - that Ragnell present her own puzzle and one that she is certain that she ought to pursue.

But at another time.

With the Vile Fiends escaping, she takes a step forward, though the command from Leo and Ragnell's latest trick stops her, calling up a shimmering barrier over herself and Garan when it strikes....but once it is over, she turns her eyes back to the Destiny. Whatever her expression holds isn't visible, the veils do nothing but hide it.

"It appears this bout may not be over just yet, my lord," she tells Garan quietly. "I should see to your injuries before the next."

And the rest of Destiny's crew, and the agents on the field, but the Imperial Knight remains her priority.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

Gwen does something incredibly stupid- she guards against Garan's oncoming onslaught of blows, but instead of pressing backwards, she forces herself against Garan, using the metal of her ARM.

"Seeing what'd happen if she got too close to Lucia was a risk I didn't wanna take," Gwen says under her breath, as Garan's blade strikes dangerously close to her face. "Maybe nothin' would've happened. Pretty possible." Another strike. "But there's a limit to how hopeful I'm gonna be-" One more strike, and Gwen's ARM is forced down, the blade cutting into the top half of Gwen's chest. As the blouse and vest tear, blood seeps through, running patterns through the whorled skin underneath. ".... So I'm glad it's you."

So much makes sense. Garan wasn't being protective of Thessaly, really, when Gwen brought her in that day.

He was being protective due to an entirely different reason, wasn't he?

"I can take a lotta pain," she utters with a shaky breath. "But that sorta pain she's dealin' with... better I deal with your sword before that."

Something in the air seems to resolve itself; the barrier's down. "... Please tell her I said sorry, if y'could, Mr. Dantear." There's a weak smile on her face, but the sentiment seems genuine. Gwen's already pushing back from Garan, an effort that is aided by Ragnell coming over to drag her away.

She doesn't resist; she simply holds on the cut, letting Ragnell do the leading for her.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro's sword cleaves a clone of Corwynt into motes of light. And then he falls to the ground onto his knees, gulping, drinking in air. A breath of air never tastes so sweet as after so many are denied. His name never sounded as wonderful as from Lucia's lips.

Leo says irrelevant, and the boy while gasping looks at him. His expression looks pained as he knows Leo is a good man above all else, "Y-You're bla... bla-ming the... wrong person... for... for... that..."

He feels dizzy from the oxygen suddenly flooding him once again, "... there's... you're not... not seeing... everything..."

The barrier shatters under Lucia's power and twilit light floods in. Corwynt- seems to shatter under Jean's blow. That same technique as before. On the rooftop in Adlehyde, in the arena... he not sure what to say but it feels like he wants to. He's being hoisted up into Jean's arms, and suddenly he's moving away.

It's only once they're leaving and being taken far, far from there that he knows what to say. "Thanks Jean."

He just tries not to think about the image of Corwynt collapsed, with that word on his lips.

-=-=-

And what of poor Gulliver? What of the wagon? It has no driver without Filgaia's Super Courier. And yet, a few moments later, there's a crack of leather reins. And Gulliver lurches forward into a canter, then a gallop, taking off after the party with the wagon.

Twisted up in those reins are precious pink pawsies. "Thattaboy!"

From the driver's seat, a tiny dragoncat sticks out her head to the side, and gives their pursuers a grin as she calls out. "Like I was going to let you confiscate our stuff!"