2018-10-28: Seekers
- Log: Seekers
- Cast: Grahf, Fei Fong Wong, Riesenlied, Leon Albus, Lily Keil, Elhaym van Houten, Josephine Lovelace, Noeline, Xantia
- Where: An unnamed seaside town
- Date: October 28th 2018
- Summary: The Black Wolves are seeking a ship east. At a port town, they find someone who has been seeking Fei instead.
<Pose Tracker> Grahf has posed.
The planned crusade to Elru continues apace for Drifters and others across Ignis - the threat of Mother's rise and the dire fate that paints for the world is something that cannot be ignored by those who believe that humanity should continue to flourish upon the face of the world. The leader of the Metal Demons - their idol, touchstone, and focus of adoration - must be stopped.
And so there have been many who are working to prepare for the crossing to the destroyed continent. The haunted remnants of Elru, now home to monsters, Metal Demons, and other dire things, would be a challenge to approach. But the bigger problem was finding enough boats - and with the interest in sea transport of late, merchants are making offers with an eye towards making a profit. It has made buying or renting a boat more challenging.
But Fei and his companions are looking for transport to the east... and they are about to plunge into a more difficult battle. This of course begged the question... was he ready?
Judgement on that matter would be rendered.
As the Wolves turn a corner leading to the dockside, where their next candidate for seaside transport awaits, they find that the area is unsettlingly empty. Given that the average dockyard is usually quite busy, the sudden lack of human presence is probably enough to put everyone on edge. The are is hauntingly silent... until the heavy tread of boots sounds from across the street.
The dark shrouded form of the Seeker of Power is one that a number of Drifters have beheld before - when Grahf had taken the idea of the tournament to determine the strongest as something of an offense, and sent his own fighters to demonstrate to the warriors of Filgaia what he considered to be an acceptable level of strength. For Fei the figure is more familiar, although for reasons he probably does not entirely understand himself. But Grahf appears atop a nearby building, one foot resting upon the lip of its roof as he gazes down upon the group.
Upon Fei in particular.
"Good." The words have a faint echo to them, an undercurrent of both power and barely controlled anger. "After all this time, your growth is pleasing. While you are still short of your full potential, your continue to mature into your appointed role."
Grahf raises one hand, and points to Fei - his burning gaze flaring for a moment as he continues. "But if you have grown enough to face the challenges ahead... that is yet to be determined. Are you prepared for your task, Slayer of God?"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong had some time to learn a bit more about Grahf and what he learned wasn't...really all that much but it was illuminating and terrifying in what little he did learn and from what he heard between Mariel, Lombardia, and Siegfried--it's no wonder someone like Grahf felt like destroying Lahan village was but a trifle. After all, wasn't he in essence responsible for far worse?
Fei too was wondering if he was ready to go to Elru. Self doubt is not uncommon for the man but what was it Xantia had said? They have no alternative but to win. While that is a comfort, win' is a complicated term that can mean many different things and involve many different sacrifices.
"I don't like this..." Fei tells his friends. "Where is everyone? Is this Boomerang again?"
The group turns a corner.
Fei freezes. The entire dockside ... is empty. Entirely. Except for one sets of boots. Fei hasn't exactly memorized the sound of Grahf's boots, it freezes him in place. He turns suddenly towards the nearby building, up and up towards the masked man. Considering how Fei reacted to K.K just for being reminded of this man, it's not hard to guess his feelings on the real deal.
"You..." Fei says. "What are you...?"
He doesn't answer the question, which is also probably not too surprising. Instead, though he's trembling, his fists clench and he says, "What did you do to everyone here?" His teeth clench as rage bubbles within him, nearing the boiling point. "I... I know what you've done!!"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied had recently returned from an excursion to Linga that had left her rather ill and wan, exposed to Malevolence -- and given her vulnerability to it in particular, it hasn't left her walking out of the sacred grounds for the better. But the Black Wolves expressed a desire to obtain their own boat, so that they aren't so vulnerable as to be targetted on the Fereshte... and she can't exactly disagree with that.
The docksides are quiet, however, the lack of human presence unsettling...
... and when the Seeker of Power appears before them, her eyes widen as she holds her hand to her chest -- where the Dragon's Tear resides, echoing with a faint orange din of anxiety.
Her lips purse, as Grahf addresses Fei in specific.
She had seen him at a distance in Lacour before, but even then, she could already feel the dread power welling up beside him. It is a power not unlike that of Id...
"Of what task do you speak of...?" Riesenlied sounds concerned, the way he speaks of Fei as if he's on a pre-ordained path. "'Slayer of God'... do you mean Mother?"
She swallows further.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon is walking towards the head of the group, as he often does. It comes naturally to him; it's especially prevalent with the Black Wolves. When he spots and hears the eerie silence, he quiets down nearly instantly. Talk of the boat's specs and crew is ceased. He falls quiet, and then he stares ahead at the armored figure.
His silver eyes narrow, slowly, at him. His hand drops down, slowly, towards his side; his fingers find the handle of Argent Divider, currently folded up into shotgun mode, but he doesn't draw the weapon.
His eyes shift towards Fei. When Riesenlied asks, he looks back towards Grahf.
"I would second my friend's question," he says, his voice tight, contained, and neutral but tense in its inflection.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The sorceress is at the rear of the group, meanwhile; it was always her way to take up the rear guard, and even in vaguely civilian attire she falls into that position easily. But here...
Silence, emptiness--truth be told, a lack of people is not itself unsettling for Lily Keil. ...But the difference is stark; the fact that the dockside is not as expected is enough to make her quietly look from corner to corner, quickly assessing the changes, looking for a source. She lifts her left hand, gloved, to forestall the need for her to answer Fei aloud. Talking could hide vital information, or reveal their position more fully.
There. The tread of boots draws Lily's attention, as surely as she feels the rise of the Dragon Tear's aura in the moment. ...But then, the sound wouldn't be necessary, really--not with the raw power present.
She's heard what Fei said of the man. She's seen him in action for herself. ...And something in her blood already starts to boil as she watches him. Both eyes settle on Grahf. What connection might there be, between the Seeker, the Demon?
Dog at Lily's side crouches down, beginning to growl with an uncharacteristic ferocity, but she does not move to attack; indeed, it seems that she has stepped in front of Riesenlied.
Lily, for her part, lowers her right hand towards the holster at her hip. "...And I would remind you," Lily says after Leon, "That this man does not belong to you. Don't think that we fear power."
Lily doesn't move to strike, but another note of tension wends into the fabric of Ether here on the docks.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly had come here because of course she did. She has to get on this boat and sail across the sea to Elru because she sure isn't walking and they don't have XLER-FUEL tanks to strap onto Vierge and then discard onto the ground to explode when a Lamb touches them. To say nothing of Vierge being busted up and, oh yes, she also loves many of the people present.
Then they round a corner.
No people. Only Grahf.
Elly falls silent, starkly inconcievable levels of tension running up and down her spine as she looks at this man who she has never seen before. She is reminded obscurely of the Trial Knight but that is an approximation at best: "ah!" she manages to say, the crackling pressure almost bowling her over.
Almost - she struggles, she breathes, but she seems to have no words for the seeker of power just yet.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"So what are the odds, do you think?"
Thus runs Josie's chatter moments before they turn the corner. "Think this one will balk once they hear where we want to go, too?"
And as they round the bend--
"Hold up. Something's wrong," Josie mutters, slowly easing a sidearm from the holster at her hip, until-now hidden by her longcoat.
A dockyard shouldn't be as quiet as this, nor as empty of people. The archaeologist is on high alert, scanning for any sight or sound of trouble.
Trouble, she finds. As do they all. Her gaze lifts to the figure standing atop a building across the way. She has not seen him before, no. Yet perhaps 'already knowing Grahf' is unneccessary, given the current sense about the man.
Her forefinger inches over the trigger.
But she does not draw on the armored man, in an unusual display of restraint.
Or perhaps, prudence.
The shrouded man has words for Fei alone, it seems.
'Slayer of God'. Her forehead creases; sidelong she looks the younger man's way.
And then there is Fei's response.
"...Junior? Do you know this guy?"
Lily and Leon, it seems, are similarly familiar with him.
It's enough for her. So then, to Grahf, Josie speaks: "Listen, whoever you are. I don't know you from a Gob's uncle, but here's a proposition for you: leave the kid alone."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline has made a whole life out of carefully balancing a natural need to be wary and a natural impulse to be, well, impulsive. This is a bit of both. New Petra is progressing well - well enough that it seems their brethren are not actively looking for them, not now that Mother is awake - but she can still see the wisdom in having as many modes of transport as possible. At the same time, Riesenlied desperately seems like she could do with a change of scenery, and a quiet and calming trip out to somewhere they haven't been in some time.
She's been... a little more clingy than usual, both out of concern and out of sheer feeling for her beloved, and it's possible to catch the occasional touch of a giddy smile whenever she forgets herself for a moment. Her hand is linked with Riesenlied's, and buoyed up by good cheer and renewed hope, she's peering at a nearby store's window as they round the corner such that it actually takes her a moment to realize that something feels off.
Whatever she might have been expecting to happen across Filgaia as time wore on - shouts and screams, massive invasions, a cloud of enemies rolling in to overshadow the sky - the last thing on her mind was the thought of someone actually trying subtlety. She's even about to say something immediate in response, but the first wave of anxiety off of Riesenlied makes her mouth hinge shut again. Instead, she clasps the other Hyadean's hand in their own, offering a quiet sort of support. "... if you ask me, when it comes to Filgaia, merely standing on your own two feet can be considered enough of a test."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia hasn't really been doing too much in the way of searching for a means of transportation, or making any plans at all in relation to getting to Elru. Which is for the best, she'd have absolutely no idea what she's doing. She'd probably secure transportation from a place called Stan's Previously Owned Washtubs or something.
She's been off doing her own things instead, which at least for the past few days saw her doing a few odd jobs in Old Petra. Anything that needs muscle, that's something she can be counted on for. As the rest of the Black Wolves gathered there after their own recent activities, she felt she might as well come with on this latest venture - even if she couldn't offer much insight, just being among friends is always worthwhile!
This doesn't quite end up the way she expected. The lack of people on the dockside unnerves others before it starts to worry her, but that worry is soon replaced by an entirely different sort when she hears a voice she could never forget. Her eyes widen as she lays on the masked man on the rooftop. "It's you... Grahf, the Seeker of Power...!"
It doesn't feel like it's been as long as it has. For one thing, she saw a vision of him in the Umbral Mirror, as the one she fears above all others. Someone who uses techniques similar to her own, but much more powerful, making it hard to believe that she stands a chance. And, more importantly... someone who threatened to take Fei away.
Even so, her fear doesn't show outwardly. In spite of herself, she steps forward, first turning to Fei to caution him, like last time, "Don't listen to him, Fei!" Then she raises a balled fist towards Grahf. "He's not interested in anything you have to say! Just... just go away and don't come back!"
Grahf will undoubtedly remember this girl from that time at the Lacour tournament. The unknown factor using a crude version of Shevat Open Palm techniques. Back then, Grahf told her that following Fei's path would be filled with hardship. 'I don't care how hard it'll be, I'm staying with Fei,' she said at the time. And indeed, all this time later, here she is, having done exactly as she said. One thing's for sure: once she puts her mind to something, she is not easily dissuaded from it.
DC: Lily Keil switches forms to The Traitor Witch!
<Pose Tracker> Grahf has posed.
About ten minutes before, Grahf had simply appeared and released the power of his aura. The result had been that almost everyone in the area had passed out or run away from the sheer, overwhelming pressure and terror that was invoked by feeling that much energy flow through the dockside. Standing firm in front of the Seeker of Power was not something for those weak of mind or will. It could be said that simply maintaining one's consciousness was an achievement in the face of absolute power.
Not that he has any intention of providing Fei with that sort of comfort. His job isn't meant to be comfortable. Merely accomplished.
"Coddling the weak will not reshape this world. Those who cannot stand on their own are doomed to be tinder to the flame." Truth be told, Grahf does not particularly care for what happens to the teeming humans upon this planet - they will live and die as they will, and as long as they do not interfere with his world... he does not care. Only the boy is important. But...
That burning gaze turns towards the others as they speak, throwing out their own demands - asking their own questions. It is impossible to see what sort of expression crosses Grahf's face at these interruptions, but almost as if dismissing the words of the rest of the Wolves as unimportant for the moment, he turns to look back at Fei. "So is this your answer? Do you believe that by leaning upon others, you can avoid your destiny?"
There is a flicker... and with a rush of air, Grahf is suddenly standing six feet away from Fei, not on top of the building across the street. The sheer aura of menace and anger he projects at this range is like a physical pressure, pushing back at this in front of him.
"In the end you will be alone, and they will be dead."
One hand reaches up to grab the top of his mantle, and Grahf tosses it to one side - the flowing cloth vanishing as he discards it. Underneath he wears the same form fitting body armor from the Lacour tournament, and Grahf takes a single step forward. "Very well then. Let us test your power, Godslayer - and the power of your companions. Satisfy me, and I will consider you prepared for the task ahead. The Metal Demons' 'Mother' will be a good warm up for you."
And the aura around Grahf surges upwards, hammering Fei and the group like a physical force. "As for the rest of you - show me you are worthy of standing at his side."
GS: Grahf has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has attacked Riesenlied with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has attacked Leon Albus with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has attacked Lily Keil with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has attacked Noeline with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has attacked Xantia with Aura of Menace! GS: Grahf has completed his action. DC: 1 turn has elapsed in the battle against Grahf! 4 turns remain! GS: Noeline takes a glancing hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 71 hit points! GS: Xantia critically Guards a hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 27 hit points! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has lost 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil guards a hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 78 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 129 hit points! GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 124 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 65 hit points! GS: Leon Albus guards a hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 80 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Grahf's Aura of Menace for 76 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied, perhaps, was not one of weak resolve; it requires a significant presence of mind to have faced down the threats that she has, whether it was the Demon of Elru, or Gebler, or Sin or any of the threats in particular.
"Your words... are no different than Id's..." Riesenlied whispers with a pained, strangled cry -- Lily steps in front of her to protect her, and Noeline's there by her side; but the aura pervades her mind, which has already been so open to Malevolence, let alone her empathic power.
"Ah-- hh..."
She's the first to drop to her knees, buckling as the Dragon's Tear continues to wildly pulsate. There's a deep red fear in there.
"It's just like in Taben's Peak, Fei-- remember what Ruby said--"
She pauses. Fei was... not at Taben's Peak, was he? No, he wouldn't know what was spoken there. 'In the end, they will be dead, and you will be alone...'
She looks to Noeline as she whispers, "I'll try to protect us, but..." Her fingers tremble very gently. Concentrating is difficult right now.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei looks towards his friends for a moment, his gaze lingering on Elly, but his attention is firmly arrested by Grahf a moment later as if he's afraid that if he looks away Grahf will vanish from his sight. Or worse. While Fei would be grateful to know that Grahf merely frightened everybody off, he can't be entirely certain that's what happened--but even so, he doubts he has the luxury to worry about it. Perhaps Grahf can be reasoned with, but Fei is not the diplomat for that job. At least...not yet.
He is touched by their words, truly, but the stronger part of him is the fear that Grahf will take them away from him, just like he took Lahan away...
(It was him right?)
Noeline reminds Fei of just what Filgaia is and even as that powerful force slams into him, Fei is able to hold his ground rather than go flying. Still, the fact that he does skid several feet just from Grahf's aura is likely notable in of itself.
"Filgaia... I know what you did." He curls his hands into fists. "You made this happen. You were destroying the world and the Elw in their desperation to stop you... For what?! Why?! Wasn't there enough war on this world?!"
He doesn't argue the notion at all that he leans upon his friends, though he does try not to think about it--is that the problem? Does he rely too much on them? Is he unable to stand on his own two feet? Has he failed the very same test Noeline proposed? Nevertheless, he charges forward in a series of quick punches--simple but hard hitting--for Grahf's upper body. He knows it won't be enough, but he hasn't even had the chance to warm up yet. He needs to pace himself or he'll be overwhelmed in moments.
"Taben's Peak?" Fei asks, eyes focused on Grahf. "What do you mean?"
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Grahf with Hoten! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Grahf guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Hoten for 41 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
The powerful, crimson aura around Grahf strikes into Leon -- who raises an arm and braces against the worst of it. Some of it breaks around him, parting to each side, a small V-shaped break in the shockwave of red energy. He looks up, then; Leon's eyes drift back to Grahf. His eyes widen for a moment. He only heard of this: of what Lombardia, the long forgotten Metal Dragon, claimed. That Grahf was struck down by the Elw, for posing a threat to all Filgaia.
His lips part, and then form a hardened line. He glances towards Fei, and lets the question stand. "Don't let your anger get the best of you, Fei," he says. "Whatever he means for you to do..."
Slay a god? Would that be metaphorical?
"...he wants it for himself, not for you," the captain concludes. He follows Xantia's example. Leon swings up Argent Divider from the holster on his hip, the oversized shotgun aimed for Grahf's armored body. He fires, a crack-boom splitting the air, and a slug screaming off for that armor.
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Grahf with Shotgun Blast! GS: Leon Albus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly feels her spine tremble. She tightens her hand as Grahf speaks and as he disrobes he proposes a test of power and contention. The aura smashes into her and her eyes tear up and her face flushes and she sets her teeth. This is an emotional tension, a spiritual pressure. She swallows dryly.
She looks to Leon for a moment, and to Lily; then towards Riesenlied as she falls to her knees. Her arm feels a shiver as if she craves reaching out. But that is an act of mercy and her intuition is that this man before them would focus on that - and would no doubt destroy Riesenlied in the process.
Elly steps forwards instead. She makes her spine stiffen, and she takes in a breath, and --
-- Probably Lily can sense it happening the most clearly, because she is putting together another complicated Ether-shaped structure in the air. This one a combination of factors, placing upward momentum into the sea supplemented with the inverting pressure of the air itself. There is a sudden change in air pressure and with a pop-SPLOOSH, a harmless water-spout rises out of the sea.
The water rises and --
"You don't have the right to test anyone!" Elly shouts out, imploringly.
-- does nothing because the stonework of the dock, mortar and cobblestone, rises upwards abruptly to try and surge up and grip the great warrior from the waist down, to sink him into the foundation like an antlion trap. (The waterspout just kind of hangs out, spraying trivial-ish amounts of sea water around.)
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Grahf with Terra Cage! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Grahf takes a solid hit from Leon Albus's Shotgun Blast for 20 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Leon Albus! GS: Grahf takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Terra Cage for 58 hit points! GS: Weaken! Statuses applied to Grahf!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Grahf's words are massively aggravating to Xantia. He acts like none of them other than Fei even matter. It makes her want to prove him wrong so badly. But... she's up against a truly massive amount of power. Even if it wasn't so easily perceived, she knows that well enough from experience. She'd much rather avoid anything like that devastating palm strike to the stomach ever happening again.
However, Xantia is only intimidated on a subconscious level. As soon as it becomes clear to her that a fight is inevitable if she is to survive, instinct takes over. She responds to the clear signs of preparing for battle by crossing and uncrossing her arms in front of her, unleashing an aura of force of her own. It clashes against Grahf's, unable to repel it, but reducing the impact to where she's merely pushed back a bit.
She grits her teeth. Already, this feels the same as last time. Even if she responds to Grahf in a similar way, he's always going to out-power her. Hearing Fei speak of what Grahf is supposedly responsible for doesn't do anything to help her confidence. But what choice does she have? All she can do now is her best.
"...fine. If it's a test of power you want, I'll show you how much stronger I got thanks to my friends helping me."
To that end, electricity crackles to life around her body - an application of Ether that she didn't display in the last fight with the Seeker of Power. While unsure if just that will be able to make a significant difference, any edge over last time is worth a try. Waiting for Fei to strike first, she follows right behind, jumping high to launch a single electrified punch directly for Grahf's face.
GS: Xantia has attacked Grahf with Elemental Fury! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Grahf guards a hit from Xantia's Elemental Fury for 40 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
'Tinder for the flame'.
This 'Grahf' reminds Josephine of someone.
Given her feelings about that person, perhaps this is not precisely a positive comparison. Her gaze darkens; at her side, her forefinger twitches, minutely.
"Hey."
"I'm all for standing on your own damn feet, mister. Hell, it's practically a necessity in this world. But first thing first: stop talking about us as if we're not here."
By now, she's snapped the sidearm upwards, for all the good a bullet might do against an armored foe.
"And number two -- I'm repeating myself now -- leave the kid. The fuck. Alone--"
It's an ill-timed goad, particularly when Grahf then proposes a test.
A test of strength and, perhaps, of will.
His very presence itself washes over her -- or perhaps more accurately on the metaphysical level, through her. Josie staggers, twisting away from him as if suddenly afflicted; the hand that holds the ARM quivers in the air only to veer away. "What did you... do to my... ngh..."
It takes her a moment to shake off the fell force that seems to cling to her mind, to again plant her feet firmly upon the city streets, to once more draw on the armored figure. Fury lights in her eyes.
"It's always about 'tests', isn't it? Well, here's my answer!"
She pulls the trigger.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Grahf with Out Of The Blue! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Grahf takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Out Of The Blue for 82 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Diplomacy? Diplomacy is well and good. ...Lily doesn't imagine for a moment that this will end peacefully, though. Grahf's presence alone demands it. ...And if there are other reasons, she's certainly not thinking of them. Grahf's presence alone seems to lock her into fight rather than flight, and her eyes remain on him--both, including the one that should not be there, that is the wrong color.
Dog keeps up her position in front of Riesenlied for the moment. But Grahf... His focus is clear, at least. But what he says?
"...That's the purpose of a soldier," Lily answers coldly. "We stand so that the weak can remain where they are."
The burning gaze does not stop her. ...But her lips twitch when Grahf suddenly moves, when he is present. The pressure that he exudes--
Lily can feel it, sharply, understand its presence in an instant. She forces herself to stand solid, lets its burning power crash through her. Dog stops growling, abrubtly, looks to Lily--
"Dog," she says, "Go."
In an instant the black-furred canine bolts to the side, leaving the immediate blasting zone.
Fei is a reminder; what Grahf has done. ...The power he wields. And in an instant, Lily glares Grahf's way... but it is not righteous indigation. Before Lily says anything, indeed, she feels the sudden structure of Ether being built from Elly. Complex; useful.
"The Captain's right," Lily adds. But like Fei, she needs to warm up. The feeling of tension in the air around her builds sharply in an instant. She does not offer a verbal retort at first; no, in the wake of Riesenlied falling back, Lily's answer is a surge of anger of her own, one easily felt with by those with the senses to notice.
It builds--and the air around Lily ripples with building, held-back power before she steps forward and lifts her other hand; a crackling set of sparks in gold erupt around Grahf's position, becoming a quickly-expanding sphere of nuclear fire.
To Elly's precision, Lily's power is a sudden rent of the world as it was, forcing the air itself into the shape she wills.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Grahf with Break Order! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Grahf guards a hit from Lily Keil's Break Order for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's eyes narrow at the incoming wave of energy; the Hyadean grits her teeth against it, and though it buffets her backwards a couple of steps from the sheer surprise, she manages to hold her ground. By the time it's over she's pushed back against it - pushed through it, in fact, using the illusory power of Duras Drum to make her passage that little bit easier, her presence just indistinct enough to slip by and shield Riesenlied from the remnants of the pressure.
"... that's my line. At least, I think it's my turn," she replies to Riesenlied with a toothy grin, giving herself just enough turn to turn and place her hand over the other demon's to clasp their hands together. Noeline is still a novice when it comes to spiritual matter - but she does at least have a fervent hope that her action will be symbolic enough to count, an offering of her strength through the part of the Dragon's Tear she wears. "Don't push yourself. I'm with you."
When she straightens up, it's slow and cautious, knowing that this isn't the time to be too brash. "And when, pray, do these tests end? Time and time again, we have faced down such bravado. Time and time again, we have stood against it, leaning on each other if we need, and yet none of you will ever credence the fact you might have been wrong."
She pulls at thin air, her metal shaping and shifting itself into her 'sword' - and planting the oversize slab of metal into the ground, positioning it between the pair of them and Grahf's presence. "If you are expecting us to quail, you should think again. After all--"
GS: Noeline has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Noeline has attacked Riesenlied with When I'm With You...! GS: Noeline has gained 2 Combo! GS: Noeline has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Noeline's When I'm With You... for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Riesenlied gains 15 extra FP from Noeline! GS: Riesenlied has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Noeline with ...I am not Afraid...! GS: Riesenlied has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riesenlied has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied heals Noeline! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Noeline gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
<Pose Tracker> Grahf has posed.
It is notable that there is nothing of the cursed taint of malevolence in Grahf's aura. There is anger, rage, and menace - but there is no room in his soul for that dark curse. And as Fei throws himself towards him, the dark man brings up one hand to intercept the blows thrown at him with an almost casual motion, turning aside or absorbing the blows with a steady, measured stride that matches Fei's own restraint. "Do not sell short your own accomplishments. Though you blind yourself to your power, your true nature is that of a destroyer."
Grahf's body twists, and he unleashes a single, punishing blow towards Fei's midsection. The force of it sends a wave of dust racing back down the street, splashing against a shop on the far side and causing a crack to appear in one of the windows. "You ask why - you must have spoken to *him*." The dark man scoffs as he looks down at Fei. "You cannot understand. Not yet. You have not truly lost what is important."
That red gaze turns to look at Rieselied, Lily, and Noeline. "Lost Metal Demons, rebels against your own kind. Have you accepted the enormity of what it is you set out to do?" He raises one hand... just in time for Leon to pull out a shotgun and discharge it at him at near point blank. The shells slam headlong into Grahf, but whatever the armor he is wearing it appears to be more than sufficient to stand up to a load of buckshot at this close of a range. It does buy Elly a moment of distraction, however - Grahf's attention is drawn by the complicated ether formation in the bay, and the ground manages to surge up and grab onto him from below. The warped cobblestones grip onto Grahf fiercely, trying to deny him movement, to keep him from lashing out and striking anyone.
Those burning red eyes turn to regard Elly - and perhaps he was planning to utter some threat. Perhaps he was planning to tell her to stay out of this. But whatever those words were, they are never spoken as Josie and Xantia both go on the attack. He brings one hand around, deflecting Xantia's attack before it can slam home. The ether she channels disperses into the air, seemingly torn apart by the shimmering aura that surrounds Grahf. But Josie's bullet slams into his armored shoulder, the bullet shattering into pieces as it strikes. She does get a grunt however, and Grahf turns around and looks at her for a moment. One hand comes up, and he speaks quietly. "There is only one end to life's test."
He snaps his fingers - and the ground underneath Josie explodes upwards in a surge of power.
The air seems to buckle as Lily unleashes her own power, transforming the air itself into a burning vortex that begins to melt the very stones around Grahf. He watches for a moment before raising one hand, the very gesture seeming to half the burning steams of ether and arresting them in place, even as traces of steam rise from his armor and the stone around him pops and hisses from the heat of Lily's attack. "Interesting... such Ether control..." he muses for a moment. A well-coordinated effort.
Still wrapped in stone to his waist, the blowing embers that burn in the sockets of Grahf's helmet dim for a moment, as he gathers his focus for a moment. Both of his hands come back down to his sides... and his power flares for a moment. Bits of debris, pebbles and dislodged stones roll away across the street as the Seeker of Power gathers his aura, the raw ether around him crackling black and red as he focuses his energy. And then instead of lashing out at his foes, he places one hand against the ground, his knuckles barely brushing against the cobblestones of the street.
And then he makes a single, focused sound - quiet, and hard to hear over the rumbling being produced by the raw power surrounding him. But it is a focused 'SHUUUP!' that rings in Fei's head like the sound of an old church echoing back from his childhood.
The ground shatters - pieces of stone erupt upwards in all directions, and the fronts of nearby builders crack and break. Windows explode in a wave that races down the side of the street, sending a cloud of finely pulverized glass out across the shattered pavement.
Grahf sets one foot up onto the lip of the ten foot deep crater his punch has gouged out of the ground, and his gaze turns to take in the Wolves... wherever they have ended up after the sudden upheaval of the ground they were standing upon. "Acceptable. Come - show me what you have next."
GS: Grahf has attacked Grahf with Seeker's Aura! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Grahf takes a solid hit from Grahf's Seeker's Aura for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Grahf! GS: Grahf has activated a Boss Action! GS: Grahf has attacked Leon Albus with Rock Breaking Fist! GS: Grahf has attacked Lily Keil with Rock Breaking Fist! GS: Grahf has attacked Riesenlied with Rock Breaking Fist! GS: Grahf has attacked Noeline with Rock Breaking Fist! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riesenlied guards a hit from Grahf's Rock Breaking Fist for 137 hit points! GS: Grahf has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Snap Punch! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Finger Snap! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has attacked Xantia with One Handed Throw! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Noeline has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has lost 1 Combo! DC: MISS! Noeline completely evades Rock Breaking Fist from Grahf! GS: Grahf has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Rock Breaking Fist! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! DC: 2 turns have elapsed in the battle against Grahf! 3 turns remain! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Grahf's Snap Punch for 95 hit points! GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Grahf's Rock Breaking Fist for 204 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Leon Albus takes a solid hit from Grahf's Rock Breaking Fist for 294 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Grahf's Rock Breaking Fist for 104 hit points! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has lost 1 Combo! DC: MISS! Xantia completely evades One Handed Throw from Grahf! GS: Josephine Lovelace critically Guards a hit from Grahf's Finger Snap for 33 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied does not feel Malevolence within Grahf.
But perhaps that's what makes it that much more remarkable -- that there exists so many different kinds of malice within the world. Whether it is the Demon King's Malice, or Malevolence, or the kind of world-shattering hatred Mother exudes...
Grahf addresses them.
"... please, tell me..."
She's rocked against the ground as Grahf shatters it well and truly, a chunk managing to whizz by even as she attempts to duck against Noeline's slab of a sword; it cuts deep against one arm and causes her to falter again.
Noeline's words keep her going. She's here. She's with her...
She can scarce sense Lily, still withstanding for her sake. She feels Elly's concern for her for a moment, and her exasperation. Leon's insistence that whatever it is he seeks--
"That's right... just like in Taben's Peak. Those that have dwelt long and alone upon a seat of power..."
She staggers to her feet as she holds the light of the Dragon's Tear in her palms.
"Kinship and camaraderie are as anathema to them. Anything to prevent them from feeling that loss ever again..."
She bites her lip, and when she lifts her head up--
--she's crying, actually. But it isn't the tears shed from the fear of standing in one with an aura so powerful; no, rather...
"What did you offer father?" she plaintively asks. "Lombardia spoke such. Lord Siegfried joined with you to punish the world... why..." She shakes her head. "Was it because of the loss of his friends -- the loss of Lacan?"
Her ears are throbbing with the inexorable thrum of the world Grahf has torn around her. But she stands strong, and banks deep on the emotion of togetherness...
Upon the sensation that drew a giant back to the berth of the Photosphere. The sensation that coaxed a little bit of hope in a blue knight once broken by the loss of his dearest...
She sings, the Song of the Giants, coalescing motes of light emanating around the Wolves to ease their pain, and push back ever so briefly against that Aura of Menace.
GS: Riesenlied has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Noeline with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Leon Albus with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Lily Keil with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Xantia with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied has gained 2 Combo! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied heals Noeline! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Noeline gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied heals Lily Keil! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Lily Keil gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied heals Josephine Lovelace! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Josephine Lovelace gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Fei Fong Wong gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied! GS: Riesenlied heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Elhaym van Houten gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei exhales faintly when Leon tells him to calm down. It's hard. It's hard as heck for him to calm down right now. In fact, it's not really the fact that Leon is telling him to calm down that works. It helps, sure, but it's the other part of it that helps the most: 'He wants it for himself, not for you'. In a roundabout way it's like saying Grahf wants Fei's rage for his own sake, not for Fei's.
Fei opens his mouth to correct Grahf on who he talked to, but shuts his mouth. The last thing he should do is help Grahf know who he talked to. Last thing Lunar needs is for Grahf to come by and destroy THAT world too!
Destroyer
Destroyer
Destroyer
It's thrown around so much these days, isn't it Fei? That's right, there's so many destroyers out there. Maybe even amongst your friends.
But there is one thing Grahf isn't denying at all. He isn't denying his hand in devastating the world in the slightest. Fei focuses his anger purely into his fists, out of the rest of him. It's the closest thing to calm he can do even with Leon's words, but hey--it's something.
Riesenlied reminds him of something that happened on Taben Peak. It's hard to remember, but it's not like the words ring wrong to him.
But then...maybe that's what Grahf means. He hasn't lost it yet. Kinship and camraderie may be anathema to Grahf, but it's not as if he doesn't know what it is, or that he hasn't experienced it at some time. He grits his teeth, "Riesenlied don't-- don't say her name he'll..."
There's a faint noise from Grahf and Fei grimaces as he grabs at his head. Did Grahf hit him? Do something to him? It's hard to tell for sure, but he's clearly in pain. Something with Fei screams impotently.
Fei curls his hand into a fist and bites into it until he bleeds. "Elly...hang in there." He says. "Don't let him hurt you." He normally wouldn't find it neccessary to say something like that, but Grahf's words do appear like he might be turning towards her.
Fei is rewarded by this hesitation by a punch to the gut. Fei grimaces, bowling over. Words vanish from his throat as the air is forcefully pushed out of his chest. Fei grimacs but--he can still channel chi. Ice erupts around him, trying to catch Grahf before he can get out of the way.
"You..." He says hoarsely. "You consider Mother a 'warmup'...? I thought she was who you wanted me to..ghhkkk."
GS: Xantia gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Riesenlied heals Xantia! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Xantia gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Grahf with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Leon Albus gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Riesenlied heals Leon Albus! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! Leon Albus gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied! GS: Grahf guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
At Grahf's address to them, Noeline's eyes light up with a spark of emotion. It isn't simply anger - not when it's so controlled, so careful and certain of itself and the way it's kept in check. It isn't exactly amusement, though the derisive snort that accompanies it is certainly expressive enough. Somewhere in between, perhaps.
"... how dare you," she remarks with a fanged grin. Talking throughout a battle has always been a very Noeline thing - another front on which to press your opponent's concentration. This time, however, it's a little more personal.
"To call us lost, and then compare us to our brethren in the very same breath. To make light of our struggles as if we had acted on a whim. We are not foolish children - we knew, fully and completely, what it would mean for us to take this path."
She shoves a shoulder into her sword, bracing it in place against the initial wave of stone and rock to try to deflect as much as she can away. The moment there's an opening she abruptly wreches the weapon from the ground in the start of a spinning strike, tearing the last of the wave apart as she pushes forwards through it.
It's a mixture of her own strength and sheer momentum that allows her to bring her sword up in an arcing sweep - which is actually placed to feint out a guard from their assailant. Noeline's well aware the man could probably deflect even a weapon the size of hers - so at the last moment she twists the blade, and what would have been a deflectable slice is instead a hammering blow.
GS: Noeline has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Noeline has attacked Grahf with Black Velvet! GS: Noeline has gained 1 Combo! GS: Noeline has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Noeline has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Grahf guards a hit from Noeline's Black Velvet for 82 hit points! GS: Quick! Statuses applied to Noeline!
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon didn't, really, expect the shotgun shells to do all that much against Grahf. He frowns, and lowers the rifle for a moment. He is distracted, briefly, by the way the ground bends and collapses at Elly's command. His eyes narrow, for a moment, and then he glances at Josie. "Talkative one, eh?"
He flips a switch on Argent Divider. There is a soft click from the inside, when that switch slides into place. Leon keeps his distance; he lets Fei, Xantia, and Noeline brave getting closer for the moment. Then, Grahf punches the very ground. Leon shouts -- and a piece of stone slams into his shoulder, ripping through the fabric of his coat and shirt alike. He is hurled back into a building.
He stumbles away, blood running from a cut on his forehead and his shoulder. The ex-soldier spits on the ground, before he levels Argent Divider at Grahf.
"You want to test us, is it? See if we're strong enough to face Mother. See if you can make Fei do... whatever work you intend for him," he says. "We're not going to allow that."
Argent Divider's rectangular upper barrel gleams. Then, a beam of aquamarine light explodes from it, shooting off towards Grahf with a flash. A little lightning crackles and arcs about Argent Divider, after firing.
GS: Leon Albus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Grahf with Code.17 ZULFIQAR! GS: Leon Albus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leon Albus has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Leon Albus has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Grahf guards a hit from Leon Albus's Code.17 ZULFIQAR for 35 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Leon Albus! GS: Grahf has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia is not too surprised by Grahf being ready to deal with her attack. She is surprised by the way in which he does so. Thrown back after her punch is deflected, she manages to land perfectly on her feet, but regards herself in confusion. Her electric aura... it's as if it was sliced in half, the energy arcing across her body only still reaching up to her waist, just cutting off there. How did he do THAT?
It doesn't take much effort on her part to restore her aura, but it's distressing to know that her power can just as easily be shut down like that. That's something she never realized was even possible. And yet...
When Xantia stands firm, covering her head as what is effectively a localized earthquake happens, no debris actually touches her. That's a rather improbable coincidence. Those watching more closely may have noticed the sparks dancing around her shooting outward, protecting her from a shower of glass. She seems surprised by this herself when she lifts her arms and finds herself unscathed, but she's not about to complain.
Surrounded by energizing lights following Riesenlied's song, she feels further emboldened. Casting a brief concerned look to Fei, she quickly refocuses on Grahf, deciding the best way to keep Fei safe is to make sure the Seeker of Power keeps away from him. Thus, she yells out in his defense.
"What do you know about Fei's true nature?! Besides, Destruction and Rejuvenation are two sides of the same coin!"
Not her own words - those were Id's words, spoken to her. Even at times like this, or perhaps especially so, she finds that a comforting thought.
Not about to leave it at that, she continues, "It's always about Loss with people like you! Nobody needs to lose anything to become powerful! Just wanting to keep others safe is enough! I'll show you!"
With that, Xantia makes a motion as if to charge - and then she vanishes. Not really, although it's a 'blink and you'll miss it' affair, seeming to reappear on the other side of Grahf, having dashed past him with an extreme burst of speed. A streak of red is left in her wake, the afterimage fading quick. The actual attack was a simple one, another single Ether-charged strike for the midsection in passing, banking on the hope that her speed would make it impossible to dispel her power this time.
GS: Xantia has attacked Grahf with Cardinal Impulse! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Grahf takes a glancing hit from Xantia's Cardinal Impulse for 42 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily's aura doesn't show Malevolence either, but the anger in it builds. ...For some reason, even, it spikes an instant after Grahf asserts Fei's nature as destroyer. She glares sharply as she hears it, and only replies after, "Metal Demons." ...Surely Grahf only included her in that because of the fact that she was standing with the others. "I won't let you choose for him what he'll be," Lily snaps at Grahf then.
"Deciding someone else's destiny, forcing them down a path for your own benefit..."
Lily's magic burns--but Grahf stops it in an instant, and Lily only gets angrier. "You--"
Power flares; black and red, and Lily does not have time to block, to counterattack in the instant; the sheer power of the attack slams into her, pulverized glass ripping through her sleeves, tearing at her cheek. The shattered ground and its shockwave sent Lily rocketing backwards into a wall, which itself cracks under her impact. She falls to the ground, silent, in a half-crouch, one hand on the stones. The glow of gold from the circuitry at her skin is visible now, under blood and shredded fabric. But her first answe is not to talk--it is the feeling of Riesenlied's light again. Togetherness--hope. A song...
She breathes in, and the power flows through her. For an instant, she knows peace. ...But only for an instant. In the next her eyes snap back open, and fill with black like ink flowing into vials. "I know what you're looking for," she says to Grahf. Lily breathes in, and Ether around the sorceress spirals, flowing into a suddenly-visible vortex centered on her. "...And there is much to do."
The lights about her wink out; her aura, briefly, disappears completely, all sense of her presence fading. With the next heartbeat it returns, burning as surely as the red, blue, gold, violet eruptions making new pupils and irises, flooding back in lines towards her hair, down her cheek, across her skin. Spectral wings erupt from her person, and the cobblestones around her start to lose mass, their surfaces turning to ash until Lily stands, becomes to float upwards. What was simply accepting peace turns to drawing on it, drawing on anything Lily can find.
"<...Absorbtion protocol online. Limiters released--awakening stage.>"
She intones the words in Zeboim distantly, robotically; the wounds she's already suffered don't go away, but neither is she relying on her legs to hold herself up any longer. Fury boils within her hot enough that sensible fear has no space to breathe.
"We'll do what we must," Lily declares, her voice half-echoing with the spatial distortion around her. "Fei... you don't have to be afraid. What he wants isn't what has to be. ...You don't owe him anything."
Lily sweeps forward suddenly, turning to the side, stopping opposite Fei on the other side of Grahf and sets out her hand. There's a crackling of red power, there--crimson, pulsing, threaded with black. ...The sorceress's hand moves forward, fingers together, to grasp at Grahf. The space around her distorts as if by gravity--
"He's one of us, now. And anyone who seeks to cause him loss..." As her hand gets closer, there is one more red flash--and then an eruption of Ether. It is not a complex form, not a beautiful construction; it is a power that snakes and twists, seeks to twist life energy against itself, to open sets of ancient wounds suffered in surely countless battles, to crack bone in lesser opponents. Against Grahf? Who knows what touching that power could do?
Regardless it surges from Lily's fingertips, and Lily finishes as Xantia strikes through in incredible speed, shouting, "We'll answer in blood!"
DC: Lily Keil switches forms to Awakened - Omega Stage!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Grahf with The Tracks of Wound-Fires - Wounds! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Grahf takes a glancing hit from Lily Keil's The Tracks of Wound-Fires - Wounds for 54 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Grahf! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Lily Keil!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Some people like the sound of their own voice," she comments back to Leon, though her gaze leaves Grahf not a second.
The bullet shatters against the armor plating, provoking briefly baleful glare from Josephine. She had expected something like it -- some reaction from this man so like to another such being -- but there's a difference between anticipating it and seeing it.
"Ha. Don't I know it," she scoffs to his face, her lips twisted in a scowl. "But you'll have to forgive me," the former-academic says, in a tone that suggests she entertains anything but forgiveness, "if I fail to turn my test in early!"
Her gaze flickers over at his hand. And then the magus' daughter shifts her footing before uttering the words of the spell aloud -- for once loudly so: "To me, thou lightning--"
As the ground scorches upwards to meet her -- and thus catches the opposite (if not equal) force she's flung at it. It's not enough to spare her entirely (blink and you'll miss her wince as some of the power slips her makeshift electrical barrier) but it is enough to buy her the time she needs to fling herself backwards, free of the roiling geyser of raw energy.
She lands in a crouch, rocking up to her feet once again.
Lombardia, Riesenlied speaks.
Now she remembers. She has heard tell of this man before. "So-- you're the one. You're the one who forced our ancestors' hand," she speaks, her expression an unusual cast of grim for the generally happy-go-lucky archaeologist. "The one who's stolen the world's future."
'Glad you didn't hear this', she had thought back then.
"And for what? Were you attempting to kill that 'god' of yours even back then? Heh. People like you just don't give up. Normally I'd congratulate you for sticking it out, but..."
The song rises in the background. Strange, even if she doesn't understand it...
It's almost a little as if her heart can.
A heartbeat more and she holsters the sidearm. Slowly, she reaches for the ARM holstered against her back and draws it slowly from its holster.
"...I don't feel like it. I'm tired of people like you."
With a spin of the long gun, she aims right for the armored man. She's aware, briefly, distantly, of Lily's again-change.
"Tell me again what I ought to be doing. I dare you," she spits at him, before pulling the trigger.
And continues to walk towards him.
Continues firing on him.
GS: 2 Combo gained from Boost! GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action! GS: Josephine Lovelace has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Grahf with Knocking On Heaven's Door! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Grahf guards a hit from Josephine Lovelace's Knocking On Heaven's Door for 92 hit points! GS: Cripple, Jam, and Weaken! Statuses applied to Grahf!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly answers Grahf with that same frustrated heat. It is not a glorious or ringing tone of voice. It's honestly kind of pleading and querulous - but it is authentic - and perhaps that makes a difference: "Then why do you have to make it harder!! Do people not have enough suffering in their lives, without more being added?!"
And yet maybe it's working. Maybe they can confine him. What do they do from there? It's like a dog chasing a train: What does the dog do when it catches it?
Grahf erupts and Elly is thrown to the ground. She doesn't scream - which could be good or could be bad - Riesenlied can see, at least, that she has survived intact if momentarily stunned. The song of giants brings her upright, or at least sitting upright, breathing heavily. She gets up to her feet, with a struggle. Guns are firing - that's good; people who can shoot guns are at least provisionally alive!
Others are tired of Grahf. They're all tired, aren't they, Elly thinks as she looks out towards the sea. Maybe of life's challenges? Where is there strength to defy someone like this - to defy the seventh voice telling them to pave their path in murder?
He even wants them to slay Mother! What a sick joke, Elly thinks. Perhaps he's using -reverse psychology- on us. At this point Elly breathes out and that waterspout from last time crashes downwards like a sudden wave, the wind within it just kind of... ceasing and leaving all the upraised water to fall down towards Grahf.
Which would be mostly a distraction if it didn't flash to ice, the salt forming an outer layer. Elly breathes out as Xantia, possibly, is left surprised by what she just passed through. There are crevaces - weak spots, inevitably, passing out like angel's wings or sedimentary patterns from Fei and Lily's current position.
The ice is jagged but not deep-rooted. It'd be hard to deal with. Elly frowns for a moment - Lily? she thinks - and she sees, ah, she's got -That- coming up. The power's flowing into her - "Josie, don't stay too close!" Elly calls.
Ugh! What was I going to say!
> Elly lost her train of thought...
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Grahf with Aqua Confine! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Grahf completely evades Aqua Confine from Elhaym van Houten!
<Pose Tracker> Grahf has posed.
Riesenlied speaks, and there is merit to what she says. If Grahf were the sort to have shown any hesitation in his chosen path, then she would have been quite persuasive. As it was, she simply showed that she had the wisdom of one who had endured many trials, who had come out the other side wounded by stronger for the struggle.
It is all noise in the wind when she says one name.
Grahf is suddenly *there*, standing in front of Rieselied with the same speed he had used to approach the group earlier. He reaches out to grab her by one horn and LIFT her into the air, eyes blazing from under his mask as he speaks. His words are a low growl, but the hatred behind them is clear for all to hear. "What does HE think he knows of LOSS?? OF PAIN?!?" With a single motion, Grahf hurls Riese to the ground with a tremendous amount of force, one hand rising as if to reflexively smite her from the face of the earth.
An attack from the person he considers to actually matter draws his attention instead. He takes Fei's strike on the arm, the ice wrapping around his closed fist for a moment before the Seeker of Power shatters it with a broad sweep of his hand. "This is why your growth is not complete," he declares, turning to face Fei - Riesenlied forgotten for the moment. Noeline throws herself forward, twisting her blade around so that it is a blunt strike as opposed to a hammering blow - and it's a clever enough hit that rather than knocking it aside Grahf instead is forced to absorb the blow. It slams down into him, the force causing him to rock back slightly before a backhanded fist pushes the Metal Demon away.
"Those without power cannot comprehend when the gods walk among them. You deny your senses, content in thinking your strength allows you to shape the world." The crackling discharge from Leon's weapon slams into Grahf, a ball of energy sizzling and twisting in front of him. But it begins to fade... and it becomes clear that the man had caught the blast from the Argent Divider directly in front of his face, crushing it between his fingers until it disappears in a splash of green energy. Xantia's incredibly high speed attack comes in a moment later, but her blow barely makes contact as Grahf twists around with an unexpected burst of speed, deflecting her aside with a single smooth motion.
But Lily's transformation - that is interesting. The surge of power is interesting, in a more intellectual manner - compared to the energies that flowed through him, Lily's awakening is curious but somewhat tepid. No, what is interesting are the *words*. He turns and walks towards her, the crackling line of energy reaching out towards him. But Grahf reaches out and *grabs* it, the seething energy writhing in his grasp, causing the material of his glove to smoke and blacken. He seizes it... and tosses it aside, his gaze fixed on Lily. "<Interesting. What program gave rise to you? Surviving for this long is certainly unexpected...>" he asks, in the same language that she had spoken with her initialization. He raises one hand, and Lily can see the Ether in the air suddenly warping, as if to wrap around her and drag her closer to the Seeker of Power in a rather rough and unfriendly manner. "<One of her little projects that survived...? Or something unforeseen?>"
Thankfully for Lily, and attempts at actually grabbing her physically are forstalled when Josie opens up on him with her gun. The shots ring out, and Grahf has to divert his attention to avoiding the bullets she is throwing towards him. However it is clear that several of them strike the dark shrouded figure, exploding as they slam into his body as the sheer reaction of the ether flowing through him causes their mass to combust in a spectacular manner. Elly brings her Ether power around, the swirling mass of water coming down towards Grahf - and he snaps one hand out to the side, a surge of ether dispersing her attack before it can fully coalesce. Another quick motion and Grahf steps in front of Elly...
...and just gives her a shove, to push her back away from the group.
Turning, Grahf extends one hand in front of him, the crackling, burning area surrounding him flowing down one arm and gathering in his palm. A twisting, seething mass of black and red energy hands suspended there, and his eyes flare as he regards the Wolves. "Engrave the truth upon your souls - you know nothing."
The world turns black for a moment.
The ground buckles. The fronts of buildings behind them are stripped away, bits flying off to splash in the distant harbor. The sheer force of energy that Grahf releases is diffuse, not focused on any one person - but it leaves crumbled ruin out in a large path in front of him to the edge of the water, tiny splashes in the distance marking where bits of debris, wood, stone, and the occasional entire house have been swept outwards to the sea.
GS: Grahf has attacked Lily Keil with Invisible Grasp! GS: Grahf has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Stop That Before You Hurt Someone! GS: Grahf has gained 2 Combo! GS: Grahf has attacked Riesenlied with Enraged Shaking! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Light of the Netherworld! GS: Grahf has attacked Leon Albus with Light of the Netherworld! GS: Grahf has attacked Xantia with Light of the Netherworld! GS: Grahf has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Light of the Netherworld! GS: Grahf has attacked Noeline with Light of the Netherworld! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Grahf's attack becomes clear! GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Grahf's Hundred Shadow Fists for 242 hit points! GS: Riesenlied has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten guards a hit from Grahf's Stop That Before You Hurt Someone for 0 hit points! GS: Lily Keil takes a glancing hit from Grahf's Invisible Grasp for 95 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Grahf's Light of the Netherworld for 118 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from Grahf's Light of the Netherworld for 65 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has lost 1 Combo! DC: 3 turns have elapsed in the battle against Grahf! 2 turns remain! GS: Noeline takes a solid hit from Grahf's Light of the Netherworld for 171 hit points! GS: Noeline enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Grahf takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Grahf has completed his action. GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Grahf's Light of the Netherworld for 165 hit points! GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Leon Albus critically Guards a hit from Grahf's Light of the Netherworld for 25 hit points! GS: Leon Albus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grahf has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It all happens in the space of an instant.
The battle was getting far more intense, as bullets fly and the battle is similarly adjoined in melee; intermixed within it, she can sense a worrying amount of coldness from Josie, one that gives her pause as she whips her head to the archaeologist. Her senses are going haywire for a moment as Lily activates that form that filtrates her mind--
--long enough for her to be terribly alarmed when Grahf suddenly appears before her.
There's a loud, strained cry as she's seized by her horn, and seized up and torn into the air. He shouts.
She stares towards those glowing red eyes, as he seizes her so close. The Dragon's Tear pulsates with a mixture of emotions at such a rapid pace it can't really keep up--
"Why-- why...?"
She feels the ground next, sharp and jagged and shattering with a burst as she's smashed to the ground. She doesn't get up. She wasn't in perfect condition what with Linga beforehand, and it was probably a miracle she got as much out before it all petered away, really.
"... how could you trivialise his pain? Were you not both allies?" Riesenlied whispers shakily; her head feels as if a bell is ringing, reverberating as her vision doubles. She's not getting up from that.
Yet, even as she's thrown like a rag-doll, her love for her father clear shows.
"I know what Lord Siegfried knows of loss... of pain... it is not the pittance you..." She doesn't quite finish it, strainedly breathing out.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei sees it. Fei sees Grahf summoning power beyond power. With power like that, Fei can't help but wonder, what does he want with me? "Your power..." Fei sinks to one knee, tries to tap into that source of power that he does from time to time but he finds he cannot reach it.
He can't see it.
He can't even hear it. It's just Fei right now. Only Fei.
He closes his eyes. Time slows down as that ground quakes beneath him. Is he giving up? Is he just so tired of these tests that he feels the urge to just fail them out of spite? It's a tempting offer. Xantia shouts that rejuvenation and destruction are two sides of the same coin and he can't help but feel repulsed in that moment. Who would say something like that? Is that not just a sick justification for the horrible things you can do? No. Xantia wouldn't say it if she meant it as something like that. She means something different...but what?
But Riesenlied. Riesenlied manages to crack that mask just a bit. Fei opens his eyes again.
"You've been around even that long?" Fei asks when Grahf shifts to the ancient tongue. While he doesn't seem to speak the language, it is apparent he can understand it. Grahf becoming a little more human in his eyes--thanks to Riesenlied, that's what it takes. Fei shifts his movement closer to Elly--she is out of the radius but he moves closer all the same before he swings his hand in a single motion and sends that destructive pulse back up into the sky. His arm makes a sick crunching noise as he does so, but he's managed to do it at least.
"Ghghkk!!" Fei crouches, grabbing at his arm. "He..." He means Siegfried. "He knows a lot about loss. I can tell it, just from listening to his words." Perhaps that is the difference between Fei and Grahf. Yes, maybe it's just that. Maybe Fei hasn't lost what Siegfried has, what Grahf has, maybe that's the only difference.
He clings to that difference in this moment. Is it leaning on others? Yes it is. But it's all he has.
"And so have you! You've known loss too..."
For the first time, he feels like there's a chance against this monster, that there's hope.
He runs right for Grahf, his chi nice and balanced as he punches the floor and sends a hefty wave of fire crackling towards the Seeker of Power.
"And if you know loss..." It's not Id. It's not Id at all. It's just Fei, in this moment, grinning like a wolf with fangs bared.
"That means you can lose!" Okay maybe it's not the most empathic of realizations.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Grahf with Kakei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly's eyes widen in astonishment as her formulated weavery just - dissipates. She falls backwards as Grahf is upon her and she topples and she lands and she cries out at the indignity of it, but also in fear:
Because he's gloating, isn't he?
Elly feels her eyes prick. No, she tells herself, no no no NO, but it doesn't really help. Don't SOB at least you miserable cuckoo, Elly tells herself: At least don't cry like a baby while everyone -
Everyone --
Fei ---
Something in Elly's mind clicks. It would be incorrect to say that the world slows down, perhaps more correct that Elly abruptly - pressed in the horror of seeing the entire harbor start to disintegrate, faced with the terror of watching her loved ones get rent asunder after everything - entered a different stage of reasoning, of direct perception.
The force pouring off of the towering man is inconcievable. Elly can, at most, barely comprehend its outlines - and that through the gift of genetics and training and bitterly-won experience. She can SEE how big the force is - feel the strength that is sliding out of him like the atmosphere pouring down a mountain valley -
It's passed.
Elly cranes her head forwards. Her eyes, wet with tears, squeeze shut, and --
SOMETHING ripples into existence. It is honestly hard to see clearly because it isn't anything at all. Lily can probably understand it better than most - it is a set of irritatingly incomplete Ether formations, like sheets of torn-up rags draped outwards, held in existence despite their incomplete nature by bitter will.
They 'face' inwards. Towards Grahf - waiting, like pockets of gas in a coal seam. One, in fact, 'goes off', a sudden cracking rise of an unnatural stalactite in front of the Seeker of Power as Elly raises a trembling hand from the ground.
"I DO know SOMEthing," she rasps to Grahf as the weird greyish soap-bubble effects undulate, straining to stay intact. If he focuses into that morass, it will snap outwards at him - he could probably make an educated guess that it is in fact pretty much explosive gas, and outbound Ether from his location would set it off.
"I know all of you - ALL of you - want to lecture to a schoolhouse of corpses," Elly rasps.
"Over and over - the lesson is that you're all helpless, that you're weak, that you're feeble... you're not the only one who teaches from that book...! The only thing you teach us is how cruel you are... that we have to become like you, or die...!"
Elly trails off, strangling. One of those weird bubbles suddenly bursts into a gale of wind that transitions into a bellowing surge of furnace-fire, igniting some of the driftwood in the increasingly-reorganized harbor. (Is that flotsam or jetsam now?)
GS: Elhaym van Houten enters a Counter stance! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Grahf with Sacred Elemental Boundary! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"RIESE!" Leon calls out. "Get--"
It proves too late. Grahf rushes her and slams her down to the ground. He grits his teeth, and then he snaps Argent Divider out to the side. The weapon's barrels snap and unfold outward, in time for a blade to telescope out. The handle slides back, to form more of a hilt. Leon grips the weapon in one hand, and then he goes charging in. He ducks low at the outpouring of power.
He ducks under a shattered building, a few chips of the stuff slamming into his shoulder. The slab of wall that was falling smashes into the ground behind him, like so much dust. Then, Leon leaps. He swings his sword backward, as Fei punches the ground and Elly calls fire. Leon falls down in the midst of it.
He slams his blade down, slashing across Grahf's side, before his feet hit the earth -- and then he stabs the blade forward, hard, for his midsection.
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Grahf with Nortune Cold Crash! GS: Leon Albus has gained 2 Combo! GS: Leon Albus has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Grahf guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 94 hit points! GS: Grahf guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Sacred Elemental Boundary for 84 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Grahf guards a hit from Leon Albus's Nortune Cold Crash for 35 hit points! GS: Hyper, Mighty, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Leon Albus!
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Riese!" calls Noeline in the midst of her strike, panic creeping in at the edges of her voice before she claws it back; her limbs feel tense and heavy for an instant before she pushes straight through the sensation, following through with her blow as hard as she can.
It isn't in hopes of harming Grahf any more than she already has - instead, it's so that she can use the weight of her sword to pull herself further to the ground, suddenly low enough in profile to try to slip past at least part of the man's wild attacks. She hisses harshly as the ground and the air explode around her; she feels her breath almost knocked out of her, and her arms quiver with the weight of her weapon, but-- still, she manages to somehow keep her feet.
It's all instinctive from there; in the midst of the cacophony of sound and motion she's found a way to use the momentum of her wild lunging dive. Her sword blinks out of her hand as quickly as it came; a little roughly, she manages to sweep Riesenlied up into her arms, bolting sideways out of Grahf's immediate range as she races for cover. "Riese!" she calls again, her voice hoarse and rasping - and she grabs for Riesenlied's hand, connecting the two of them together as she does her best to pour her essence into the Dragon's Tear.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
His power reminds her not only of a certain ivory-armored knight, but of an elemental force of a man.
Her eyes glint -- the sole point of light in an otherwise grim face -- before she smiles unkindly. "...Heh. You're like him. You fight like that devil, Id."
But further elaboration on this topic may be delayed.
Lily unleashes the full force of her strange magic, again attaining that strange state Josie's seen her reach before. It immediately gets Grahf's attention.
It's the same language that Lily had spoken. The one that Josie knows personally now to be spoken Zeboim. She knows not what he -- or she -- say, but his intent is clear. At once fury drains from her expression, to swap dancing partners for shock.
He-- he understands that? How--
More pressing dangers make themselves known.
"Lily! --Don't you touch her!"
Josie, naturally, would do better to watch her own space.
For a heartbeat the world turns pitchblack.
The power. She can taste it. She twists her body, draws herself in. It's all an attempt to evade the incoming implosion she can already sense the rumbling edge of, the place of detonation far over the horizon. She's the daughter of an archmage; she had such awareness instructed to her from an early age.
It does not remain far-off. The world implodes, slashing past her, cutting into every part of her body she can't stay from its fury.
When she lands, it's atop the broken cobblestones of a ravaged port. Briefly, her rifle as a support, Josie drops to one knee amidst the devastation.
In time to see Riesenlied drop.
"Riesenlied--"
Things have taken a turn for the worse.
Surging to her feet now, she reaches for the contents of a single pocket to sieze a special bullet and as quickly as she can, relaods her rifle. Then, raises that rifle to assume a stance that would be at home with any military marksman.
(She learned, once. From Lily.)
"Tiger! On three--"
She doesn't actually count down.
"--Three!"
Before she fires over Grahf. The 'bullet' implodes midair into a cloud of dust, a smokescreen of a sort.
Cover, as she'd once said to Lily when talking tactics, for you to give 'em what for.
The 'them' in that statement had always been left conveniently vague.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Lily Keil with Distraction Fire! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Distraction Fire for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Lily Keil gains 15 extra FP from Josephine Lovelace!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
By the end of her charge, Xantia already knows that it wasn't enough. All that speed, and he still saw it coming. What is she supposed to do? Can't she make a difference at all?
Turning about, she missed what exactly happened to Riesenlied, but she can certainly see the result. That makes her heart sink even more. For all her earlier bravado regarding protecting people you care about, it feels like she's constantly failing at that.
And then there's what happens between Grahf and Lily. She has no idea what that particularly power Lily uses actually is, but when Grahf speaks that language, it immediately parses in her head that it's the same one she's heard Lily speak... and that this probably means that Grahf does know what that power is. Which instantly makes her extremely worried that this is going to end badly for Lily.
Feeling like there's no time to hesitate if she doesn't want another one of her friends slammed into the pavement, she lets out a yell, her charge this time extremely straightforward. She doesn't end up getting anywhere with it, because by then Grahf has already turned, gathers a mass of energy... and Xantia suddenly comes to the realization that maybe it's a very bad decision to be running directly at that.
Abruptly, she hits the ground. No fanfare, no subtlety, she just lets herself drop like a rock. Just in time to avoid the most unfortunate result, but even prone and most of the energy washing over her back, this is a painful experience.
It takes her a moment to get back to her feet, shakily, as the thunderous force that passed her by continues to ring in her mind. With a shake of her head, she forces herself to refocus. She hears Fei speaking nearby. He sounds confident. This helps her own confidence.
Her approach continues to be unsubtle, a straightforward charge. But this time, Grahf is forced to contend with Fei's attack. Banking on this to give her an opening, and not very concerned with fighting fair, she attacks from behind, driving an open palm strike towards his spine. She puts all her considerable physical strength into it, knowing full well that if did this to any regular human, this would be a paralyzing strike, if not worse. Somehow she doubts the same would happen to Grahf, which makes this feel perfectly okay.
Not even an attempt at words this time, and no visible emotion in her expression. All she seems to be concerned with now is causing pain.
GS: Xantia has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Xantia has attacked Grahf with Shatterstrike! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Grahf critically Guards a hit from Xantia's Shatterstrike for 21 hit points! GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Clinging to loss, clinging to pain... It's a story that seems to repeat over and over, in Filgaia. Lily Keil is no exception.
Its spectre is there when Grahf appears before Riesenlied; Lily's inhuman gaze snaps towards the pair of them, her pupils shrinking in alarm. It is there as, exempted from the crush of Elly's power by the Gazel's great control, Lily sees her view cut short for an instant by the crystals of salt around her. There, as Josie talks of their future stolen. But Lily can't think of history in the long instant that Riesenlied is lifted up--a feeling besides rage stirs in her... as Riesenlied is thrown down.
A woman with no fear or her own safety can find it in the face of loss of something mattering more: Riesenlied falls, and only the whisper that comes from her fallen form answers that question. ...Anger is a secondary emotion, some say; it is now. Fear transmutes, and stokes the reactor inside the floating Wolf.
"Captain--" Grahf speaks to Leon. Lily could begin to answer, once she can talk again... but her words dry up. That Grahf would know the language is not out of the realm of possibility to Lily, who knows that the ties here must go deep indeed. No, for her as well... it is the words that strike her. Even as her magic is seized, tossed aside, causes air and stone to bubble while it dissipates, Lily freezes in place. "<You-->" Even those who can't understand her words can hear the shock in the voice. "<What do you-->"
Air warps; Lily makes no move to even try to counter it, staring at the closer Grahf. The pain of its grasp is irrelevant to her, though the fact that she does not struggle means she does not wrench up against its full power; she ignores the squeeze at her arms, the bruising beginning, the creak of bone--
"Tell me!" Lily demands. "Who are you talking about? TELL--"
'Lily! --Don't you touch her!'
In pursuit of an answer, Lily was not prepared to defend against the coming strike, but Josie was. Josie's voice stirs her back into awareness, makes her blink and rush backwards again, out of melee range. "<...He speaks it too,>" she snaps instead, recovering herself. And in the moment, the strange Ether-forms that Elly conjures are, in their way, more real to her than the air around her as she is right now. The incomplete masses, hovering on the edge of existence, of possibility--they click into place in her mind, begging to be finished. ...But that is not what they are for. The strange morass persists, even as only a part of it crackles away. It is there, and it seems to Lily to pulse with Elly's breathing. She speaks; the sorceress can't help but hear her counterpart's words.
Xantia's worry; Elly's talk of another way; Fei's talk of loss...
Lily's eyes snap for an instant to Leon as he strikes--but then she hears it. As if reading Josie's intent, she looks towards Grahf again in the same instant Josie begins speaking to her, and her stance shifts, hands up in readiness. Today, 'them' is the Seeker of Power; so force around her spikes again, the world distorting, creaking in protest at its treatment. It may yet end badly for her, as Xantia worries; but for now, Lily can factor in Xantia's presence, as--
Boom. The smoke descends, and there is a flash of white light. The heat it brings is only the beginning; debris flash-melts as the field gives way to a pincer maneuver of frigid power, ice erupting fromt he ground, cracking the stones, building towards Elly's magic, at the same time that a column of flame descending from the heavens. Lily weaves with her hands like a conductor, one down, one up, moving--
The powers meet, and burst, turning to golden nuclear flame spotted with specks of black-violet. ...Specks that erupt, draw everything towards them. ...And the instant that they touch Elly's Ether constructs, a chain reaction begins that distorts gravity, begins to unmake air and space and ground.
"Yes. I know nothing," Lily breathes before she can speak no more from the sheer power channeled through her form, crackling with power that she can barely direct, that blanks out all thought. ...It is not the same inflection at all.
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Grahf with The Island-Grinder - Maelstrom! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Grahf has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has lost 1 Combo! DC: MISS! Grahf completely evades The Island-Grinder - Maelstrom from Lily Keil!
<Pose Tracker> Grahf has posed.
Engaging Grahf in a discussion about loss and suffering is not exactly the best way to earn his respect. If you want his ire, however, Riese seems to be finding a way to get him quite angry. There is, however, a measure of respect there as well - the Metal Demon is still alive despite that, and she is still focused on Siegfried. It would be a shame if she were unable to see her father to his end. Pain... how little you know. But... Grahf's voice is low, and he turns to look at Riese for a moment. "Tell your 'father' when you see him: my ambition and knowledge were insufficient before... but I will finish what we started."
Seeing Fei's reaction, how he gathers strength, feeling that somehow a slight hint of weakness is enough to cause him to rise up and obtain a bit more strength... was that the correct path then? Could hope truly make him stronger? Or was it simple foolishness, bravery gained from misunderstanding - and thus a brittle, weak thing that would snap under the first true strain? Widening his stance, Grahf takes the first blow from Fei head on, the impact of the two men clashing causing debris to leap up in a field around them in all directions. He spins around, disengaging for a moment - but by pushing Fei away he also knocks him clear as Ely unleashes a massive barrage of ether that comes crashing down towards him. The flames slam into his aura, burning away and searing at the raw energy surrounding the Seeker of Power for a moment before he manages to disperse them. But that too gives Leon an opening, and Leon comes around and smashes his blade him, the weapon getting a clean hit on Grahf's side. The blow strikes home, the edge grinding against Grahf's side...
He looks down, grabbing Leon's blade and forcing it backwards.
"I felt that one. Very good."
Xantia comes at him from behind, but the familiarity that Grahf possesses with her form of martial arts means that despite the force of her move, she is unable to actually score a direct strike with her blow. But before he can respond, Grahf looks up as Lily begins to channel even more energy into Elly's attack, heightening its power to a considerable level.
"Reckless..."
Grahf's hand comes around, a claw extended as the aura around him blazes with dark light. Elly and Lily can feel the Ether in the air distort as their opponent imposes his will upon it - and the entire mass of energy goes flying off into the distance. There is a twinkling in the sea, some distance away as the combined power of the three touches the water...
And for a moment, a second sun rises in the north.
Grahf turns, and raises one fist. But there is no attack that follows the motion. Instead there is a deep rumbling that resounds through the harbor front. A vibration as if something vast had awakened... and then the sea parts, a massive horned head of metal arising from beneath the waves.
Grahf's Gear rises at his command, its arms crossed and sea water streaming from its armor in a continuous cascade. It rises until it's feet are just above the quay, and then begins to float towards the group. The raw menace of the machine is clear to see, but the other striking feature about it is how alien it looks compared to the other Gears that the Wolves have seen. The armor does not show any signs of segmentation, no separation over the joints to allow for motion. Instead it flows together, heavier plates tucking back under themselves to flow into the rest of the machine in an unbroken whole. It looks like a living creature, made of metal and on a heroic scale.
"Very well. You have proven you will not die in vain against what rises in the east." Grahf turns away, presenting his back to the group as his Gear continues to approach. "If you insist on casting your companions into the crucible with you, so be it. But remember Siegfried's lesson. When that which is weak is burned away, will you grow stronger to protect what is left? Or will you recoil and become a coward once more?"
He does not attack, giving the Wolves a chance to continue to strike... or speak, if they are of a mind to do so.
DC: 4 turns have elapsed in the battle against Grahf! 1 turns remain!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied is, inexplicably, alive, yes; she's witheringly breathing, gasping very quietly as she hears Fei reaffirm Siegfried's loss. He knows that, as much as she does; and he's right in turn -- Grahf has known loss, has he not? The pain in his voice is unmistakable.
She hears Josephine's burst, as Lily's power still glowers further; she senses Xantia's concern from a distance, relieved that she's still on her feet.
She withers, further, knowing that there's only so much she can speak without choking, feeling her blood well; she feels Noeline by her side, as their rings shimmer, as her partner pours her essence in through the Dragon's Tear to keep her upright.
"Noeline... I'm here..." she whispers.
Strangely, it is the words of another masked knight of trials that echoes in her right now.
You must think of yourself as well as others, Riesenlied. For their sake, as much as yours. Or you may well leave those who depend upon you with naught but memories to protect themselves with.
"I'll always... be here by your side..."
But Grahf speaks to them, once more, as he ascends on his Gear, shining like a second sun...
Tell your 'father' when you see him...
"I... I won't let you continue to use him," Riesenlied whispers. "His heart is proof that we are more than what the world deems us to be. As I once vowed to Equites, at the base of the Guardian Temple... that we are more than just mere killers."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hope, the world's first double edged sword. Fei doesn't have much of it, quite frankly, but when he can find it he grabs onto it so tightly. Some might call that hanging on to dear life, others may call it strangulation.
Nevertheless, Fei for a moment understands how Xantia can enjoy fights. There's something pleasant about seeing your growth in action, about feeling your fists colliding against that of a superior opponent and yet not being blown away by that power. It's a cheap kind of confidence but like much junk food, it's tasty and addictive.
But just as Fei was starting to think this was really possible, that he found something to dig his fingers into--it's over.
Fei blinks. "Huh?" He almost sounds dissapointed (He did say he enjoyed sparring but what is a spar but a fight with a coat on?
Grahf's Gear rises up. It looks so familiar. It seemed even familiar that day, didn't it? Grahf too. Was Lahan really the first time he saw this man?
Fei grimaces and holds his head in his hand for a moment, exhaling faintly, before shaking his head.
"I'm... not insisting on anything. I've begged them not to go." He shakes his head. "The last thing I want to see them do...is go to Elru..."
He curls his hands into fists. "But they have the same curse we do." We? He must have mispoke, but he doesn't correct himself. "They can't turn away from those who are suffering." Fei's estimation of Josie might be a bit off but he believes what he's saying evne so. "...If you cared so much about them, you would have made a better future than this." He looks up, struggling to stand but he isn't going to try and fight Grahf's gear on foot he isn't insane.
"Lacan failed Siegfried. Maybe Siegfried failed Lacan. I don't know what they lost...but..."
He looks to Elly for a moment. He smiles at her. Then he looks back to Grahf.
"But if they were both so wounded, they should have walked into the light together rather than rip themselves apart. I won't give up on him."
Not again.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia lets out a noise somewhere in between a whine and a yelp when Grahf makes an unexpected move just as she strikes. In the moment, she doesn't even really know why that startled her so much. What was she worried about, that the sudden movement would cause her attack to do more damage than she was intending? She was already going for maximum damage in the first place!
In hindsight, that may be the very thing that startled her. In that instant just before landing her blow, it felt like what she was doing was wrong. She just couldn't feel okay with purposefully doing that much grievous harm. She has no problem with it when fighting monsters, but even though Grahf may be larger than life... she was unable to parse him as a monster in her mind.
She is thus surprised to actually feel relief that Grahf was skilled enough to keep her from connecting cleanly, regardless of what the result would have been if she did. That, just now... that wasn't her. With Grahf apparently deciding to leave on his accord, she holds a defensive stance for a moment, before relaxing it when the Seeker of Power turns his back. Not interested in a second try, it seems. Or to trade more words with Grahf.
Instead, she turns to Fei, offering him a smile. "Caring about others isn't a curse. It's a choice. The right choice." Perhaps not the easy choice, but then, when was the easy choice ever the most interesting one?
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
All that she's trained and he still pushes against it - Elly's main consolation, other than the fact that all of her precious friends, to be listed now:
LILY, ominous yet sympathetic
LEON, who reminds her of her dad (sorry you had to find out this way Leon)
RIESENLIED, who she is bound to by chains of guilt and charm
NOELINE, who Elly has found endearing since first meeting
XANTIA, a mysterious figure who reminds her of herself in some ways
JOSIE, the big-sister-like figure Elly never had
and
FEI FONG WONG, who needs no further explanation
Have not, in fact, been murdered or even severely mutilated. She sags backwards, her Ether potential temporarily depleted, chemicals in her brain utterly spent to the point where she feels anomalous and confusing bursts of emotion and can barely focus her eyes. The rising of the sun - were we fighting all night? Elly thinks confusedly, before she hears the sound of a Gear engine...
Elly struggles upright, panting for breath. She is able to focus and the first thing she focuses on, perhaps understandably, is the Gear. Elly, shaking with terror and Ether exhaustion, stares at it. If he's going to level this town - oh, she thinks, with a squirt of guilt, why must so many cities suffer because -
Siegfried's lesson.
She absorbs Grahf's words, even as she coughs weakly.
"He... he isn't a coward," Elly says, though it is a piteous thing indeed. She finds she's still crying; an effort to roll onto her side and push herself upright comes to nothing, barely resisting th eurge to curl up, to try to burrow into the ground.
"... why are you all... so afraid," Elly says, half in delirium. This can, at least, be heard by Fei, somehow. Call it good luck.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
There is a certain pride Lily can feel in Leon, as his attack makes a clean hit. ...Even if it isn't enough to bring down their foe, it shows that he can be struck, proves concept. It's one of the many thoughts that swirl around Lily's mind, impulses that seek to impact her actions, largely noted and discarded before anything comes of them in the instants that she is watching, acting.
She can see Fei's strength, too, and she wonders, not for the first time, something about that. Something about what's happening... what isn't happening...
But she is thinking of nothing at all by the time that she finishes her attack. She cannot hold thoughts, cannot hold a concept of mind when suffused with so much power, briefly becoming a font of sheer destructive force. ...But when awareness returns, she looks and sees Grahf still there--and feels and sees the explosion to the north both. Whatever was there at the horizon is gone, now; water that has flowed through the ocean, up to the clouds, into rivers and back down again--it ends there, never to return. ...But not Grahf.
Not Grahf, as the Gear rises, and Lily, hovering, starts to falter, shifting back towards the ground. She lets out a ragged breath, pain evident in her features. "...Haaah..." Now that the spell is expended, Lily is visible again, a trickle of blood falling from her nose, from her eyes. "<...Need..>" She murmurs unintelligibly besides that in her old strange language. But ater Grahf speaks, Lily looks up. She can see his back.
"I know..." she breathes, "I know fire. I know how it burns. What it takes. Fire cannot exist without something for it to burn up. ...To generate power, there must be fuel. This is... always true."
"...The suffering of the world isn't my problem," Lily says simply, form still inhuman. "But he is. I won't abandon him to you." Lily still doesn't stand, for now; one hand remains on the air as if touching ground, helping her balance, helping support her staying up.
"I have burned before. I will again. But there are things I have to know."
"<Whether you're willing to tell me or not. I will know the truth.>"
The aura of unreality about Lily begins to fade; the light recedes, her eyes returning to normal, her form returning to reasonably human, as she lands lightly on the ground some inches below where she'd hovered. But the words of a half-delirious woman slide past her mind.
Lily lets out a faint, slightly wet laugh. "...Even now..."
She wonders, if they really can save Siegfried. ...She wonders if spite is a good enough reason to join practicality in helping.
<Pose Tracker> Grahf has posed.
The Gear arrives, extending one hand down to allow Grahf to step onto it. As the Gear raises him to the point where he can step onto it's shoulder, Grahf turns to look back at Fei. "We walk the same path, though you do not yet realize it. Grow stronger, and together we shall crush the twisted logic of this world." That burning gaze turns to the others, as Grahf's Gear begins to rise into the air. "If you believe that his cause and yours are one, then gather your courage and power. You will need them for the tribulations to come."
He has seen their determination now - for the time being, they will serve to move the plan forward. It is hard to say if it is the absolute arrogance of a man who believes in his cause above all else, or the madness of one who has lost everything and discarded all other paths but what he has deemed righteous. But the Seeker of Power departs into the sky, leaving behind the Black Wolves... and the shattered part of town they were intending to visit.
One thing is for sure, there are no boats to be found today.
DC: 5 turns have elapsed in the battle against Grahf! No turns remain! Time has expired! The battle is over!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei finally exhales a breath he hasn't even realized he's been holding in. They walk the same path..but he doesn't know it yet? Is he suggesting he's just farther ahead in his thinking? Fei doesn't like the sound of that, but it's hard to argue when he knows so little about what drives this man. He watches him go and then he looks to Lily. "Thanks," He says to her. "Honestly...I'm pretty embarrassed...that you guys went this far for me like that."
Indeed, there's a faint blush on his cheeks that he can't quite banish. "I'm...sorry."
Lily, Leon, Riesenlied, Noeline, Xantia, Josie, Elly? They are all very important to him, he knows. Imagining losing just one of them is unbearable, beyond thinking about.
So he doesn't. It's much easier that way, right now. There will be time enough to mourn later. He can only pray he can handle it even though it feels so very much like he can't.
He hears Elly ask why they're afraid. Fei can't answer that. It's not as if he knows even if he knows. Instead he rests a hand on her shoulder. "You see right through 'em, huh? I'm sorry, Elly. I think...it's a good time to get a new boat."
MEANWHILE
Hammer lays down in a nearby alleyway, drool dripping out of his mouth and with swirleyedd up eyes as he has yet to recover from feeling Grahf's aura. Honestly, this is probably the best he could have hoped for.