2018-12-15: World Eater
- Log: World Eater
- Cast: Mother, Catenna, Fei Fong Wong, Elvis, Claude C. Kenny, Jacqueline Barber, Sorey, Ethius Hesiod, Lunata Croze, Tesni Inoue, Tethelle Cirdian, Malfi, Seraph Ragnell, Elhaym van Houten, Shalune Amira, Ida Everstead-Rey, Ashton Anchors, Arleph Ardan, Josephine Lovelace, Hiro, Rosaline Calice, Xantia, Cecilia Adlehyde, Lan Lilac, Gwen Whitlock, Jack van Burace, Cyre H. Lorentz, Chime Isa, Lady Harken, Rudy Roughnight, Amadeus Umbra, Amadeus Astra, Harken
- Where: The Photosphere
- Date: December 15, 2018
- Summary: Deep in the heart of the Photosphere, Drifters of all stripes come head to head with Mother. Can they stop her from gorging herself on the very life-energies that sustain the world? (ICly takes place during the Photosphere Sequence.)
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aZE0g4u-8c
The innermost citadel of the Photosphere is a place only, until today, seen by Metal Demons.
Desperation means that such a momentous occasion is unremarked upon. Lolithia felled, some Drifters ventured down into the Gutter. A few have raced through cavernous chamber where the Golem stood guard, towards a single stairwell at the back, rising to a door that has already been blown open. Today, a well-sealed door will not stand between Drifters and their prize. As they rush through the room, they find a place clad in darkness.
The circular room has two tiers. The lower one, which the Drifters enter upon, is a ring about a central platform. A short set of stairs -- no more than a meter high -- lead up to that platform, upon which Mother's chassis rests. There are clear, glowing lines of light all across the floor, which are placed in intricate patterns, but all lead inward towards that central platform -- save for two circular indentations on the lower tiers. Each is colored a dull grey. The darkness casts long shadows, which both fall over and from Mother.
Mother's features are accentuated, rather than hidden, by the darkness.
The mask-like face, which had appeared a few times inside and outside the Photosphere, is the most familiar. A porcelain white face mask, like a human woman's, looks down on them impassively. The rest of Mother is a thing of curved horns and spikes, of alien armor that resembles a crustacean. The monstrosity floats over the center of the central platform, where her body curls to a curved, horn-like point. Whatever ARM or spell keeps her floating, it is not apparent.
Her voice is soft and melodic, as ever: "Good... good. You have come! Welcome. My children... you join me for--" And then her voice changes inflection, to something raging and dark, and devoid of any hint of gender, sanity, or goodness. "--eternity."
The lines all across the floor begin to light up. It is a distinctly mechanical process, as they flicker online. Some, indeed, flicker for longer than they should. Throughout the Photosphere, there have been hints of the damage sustained by age and a crash landing. Even inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Metal Demons' erstwhile god, there is evidence of that damage. The circles on the ground also begin to light, the indentations begin to glow with a menacing red energy that gathers and builds.
"Let there be light."
For the first time in ages, the darkened room floods with light. Walls that had been colorless, dark greys are lit up up to reveal that they are great windows -- glass covered in thick dust and dirt, outside, which looks onto the frosty, brown rock of the Arctican permafrost that the Photosphere is embedded upon. The floor is a light grey, and the lights that criss-cross the floor are all aglow with a brilliant white. Mother, too, is shown to be white--
--and that, more than anything, she looks like bloodied, red flesh encased in pristine white and gold arm. The hint of sinew and meat, dripping with color, can be seen slightly behind the mask; it is visible beneath armor plates, like ribs. Mother floats down, her facemask turned down on those who come in to greet her.
"All you were and all you are is irrelevant. All that matters is what I will define you to be," Mother says. "Call to your false idols. Scream your defiance. It strengthens you. I will use that..." And then her voice shifts, again, from beatific to demonic. From calm entreaty to enraged scream. "...or I will slay you here and now, and devour your souls when I am through!"
OOC: For the first round, there will be no coded combat. Another pose will drop in thirty minutes. This is a chance to pose in, react to the room, and shout at Mother. It is also a chance for any latecomers to arrive.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
the land she traveled through was a dead place. the ruins of villages which once seemed like they could be baskar. the skeletons of huts long given over to decay. the fresher destruction - the scarred walls of arctica. the closed gates of the only city that remained. an empty place outside those walls. endless and vast, an endless track for a lone lost soul under the moon, her companion lost to the ravages of battles she would never have chosen to put a young owl through.
she had wondered what things could live in a place like this. the strangers, yes. but something more. things she could conceive of only in myths. stories passed down from her mother.
-~-
Catenna had left the bones of Yarobeleedt behind without a second look. She'd taken her rest and then pressed onward without much to say. The focus in her eyes is uncharacteristic of her - more reminiscent of the kind of quiet intensity Ethius has been known for.
The threat in front of them is not some Hyadean forced into being there by beliefs and old loyalties, nor even a Stranger with thoughts and hopes. The threat this time is existential. One which nearly silenced her bond with Celesdue. Cut off countless Zoa Priests and Priestesses from the Guardians they held dear. With someone like Riesenlied or Kaguya or even Ambrosius, she can attempt to empathize with them, to find the humanity behind their actions and make a connection.
Not with Mother. The threat is too dire - too hungry, too vicious, too malevolent. Too existential.
You are not who we would seek... but you are all we have.
Sliding the Silver Moon Medium into her left hand, Catenna looks down at it intently for a moment, then returns it back to its spot on her belt. She looks up to her shoulder, meeting the eyes of Saarda-Shanta, the small white Owlet perched there, alert and intent.
<Time and circumstance have moved the field of things considerably,> the Totem Bird of Celesdue opines, cocking her head to one side before they step into that darkened, two-tiered room.
'Welcome. My children....'
The hackles on Catenna's neck immediately rise at those words, and as the lights begin to pulse to life. The flood of light sears her eyes, and she squints as she holds one arm up to shield herself from the initial glare. But it comes down after a moment, the Moon Shaman letting her eyes adjust.
And letting herself take in Mother for the first time. A thing more biological than Catenna might have expected - yet in some ways, it seems to make sense. A thing that is not Hyadean so much as it is a parasitic abomination - less a machine than an entity which must have enslaved and used up Hyades just as she wishes to gnaw the bones of Filgaia.
With a slow step, Catenna moves forward, even in the face of those uttered words. The Zortroan shaman's chin rises slightly with the very defiance Mother seeks to turn into strength for herself.
"This time, the mistakes of history will not be repeated," Catenna declares, her voice steady and with a glacial cold to it. "The strength you wish to cultivate in Filgaians will be your undoing. I speak for the people of Elru, and for all those of Filgaia. For our friends from the very Moon that is Celesdue. For all the people of the Blue world and the Silver, and all those who love the land and the heavens... and for the Guardians... we will show you the truth."
With a flick of her jacket, Catenna unshoulders her bow and notches an arrow, eyes flaring with determination.
"Filgaia is not your plaything!"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
What was it Fei had told Catenna?
The past failed. But the future still has a chance. Pity the future is now.
After Yarobeleedt's defeat, Fei didn't go back that much though he did help Jean before returning to rest but it'll take more than a day to fully recover from the wounds he's taken from Luceid, from Yarobeleedt, from Lolithia, even from his fight from Siegfried which feels like it was weeks ago but was, in actuality, not all that long ago at all.
Yarobeleedt gave Fei a clue as to what Siegfried was up to. He seemed enraged to hear the name. It gave him hope that Mother's most stalwart defender didn't turn out to be her most stalwart defender at all. Yarobeleedt when pushed in a corner was certainly very dangerous, but if Siegfried were defending Mother here--it would have been far worse. Nevermind that Harken helped slay Yarobeleedt in the first place. Also a good sign.
Catenna had said that the future would see the mistakes they make today but Fei hopes that they can be forgiven for there's enough sins weighing on his back.
"Just a little more," Fei repeats to himself like a mantra. "Then you can rest for a little while."
He draws out a small item from his chest pocket, his own hand obscuring it except for the chain. He clenches his hand tightly, then puts it back into his pocket.
He stands up. He says, "Alright then."
And then he makes his way forward. He takes a long look around as he examines his surroundings. "We're here." He says.
He steps forward, looking up at Mother. The creature's expression doesn't look intimidating in of itself, but it's just another deceiving mask.
What's with her voice, Fei wonders. Is that new? But it doesn't really matter. Whatever the reason is, there's no quarter to be expected here.
Fei lets Mother speak. It gives him more time to rest his aching muscles rest, just a little more time to prepare.
He says to Elly, "Finish the cast."
And then he gives a look towards Ashton (if he's around teehee), then he slides a foot back, taking up a pretty basic martial artist's stance.
"Mother, your crimes against Filgaia are unforgivable." Fei says. "But your crimes against the people of Hyades are unimaginable. I won't let you hurt them anymore. Siegfried's line will be safe from you."
"I'll bury you as many times as it takes."
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
This is it. The moment that will change history. At the end of this day, either this world will continue down its path of fate, or will fade into obscurity, with nothing left upon it to remember its name.
If there was one thing Veruni understood, it was adversity and how to overcome it. From the division in ranks so long ago, to the rigors and trials of spacial seas, to the very planet attempting to purge them. The Veruni endure.
And if Elvis has anything to say about it, they will endure this too. The man has joined with the chorus of Humankind that have stepped forth to sing their song of life, to drown out this creature who seeks to snuff them out, or worse, assimilate them into her 'children'.
"This is it," he intones to others. "Remember what you have learned in your days. Because if you don't there won't be another chapter in your book."
The room once gazed upon in secret, now open to all. A nexus of time expanding, if anything. Many decisions of utmost importance were once made in this room. Now only one more will be made, in this confluence of history.
Mother reacts, as a beast who has had its meal delivered unto it. Elvis wrings his hands in anger. For all the times people have seen him fighting, he has always had his Power Gloves donned.
Today, he does not wear them.
"Your reign ends here today," he says angrily. Elvis almost seethes. "You stand in the way of all my research and purpose. You must be dealt with."
Arms flex, sinew and muscle groan loudly. "Harshly."
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny should not be here right now. Not in this system, not on this planet, not in this place, not at this time. According to the laws of the Pangalactic Federation, and of the Navy he serves, his presence here on an Underdeveloped Planet could be affecting the destiny of millions of people. For the past two years, he has been trying - with limited success - to minimize the chances of drawing attention to himself.
But between the Golems, the Metal Demons, and whatever the hell Gebler is supposed to be, the world he not-so-affectionately named Cow Patty Planet has stopped being Underdeveloped, and started being very, very scary, to the point that he is now running through an alien spaceship on his way to kill a giant bug queen. And in the nearly two years he has been trying to leave this planet, he has come to know its people. To see them struggling against powers they can barely comprehend, let alone contest with. To watch them lose the people they love most in the world, then stand up and honour their legacy.
And what has he done? He's held back. He's lied to them. He's tried to protect them, and watched them die. He's stood alongside them, and been beaten down. He's been judged by their gods, and been counted a failure. Felt the sting of the Guardian's words at the end of his trial, words that still haunt his memory.
Why is it that here on Filgaia... on one of the only worlds among the stars where you could be anything and anyone you chose... Even here where the name 'Kenny' means nothing... why do you cling to it so?
Because it was easy, Claude thinks. Because it's a habit. Because... because it's who I am.
And who is that?
The son of a hero.
That's about who your parents were. What are you?
Claude C. Kenny emerges quietly from the passageway with the other Dawn Chasers, in the direction of a room that previously held the Teardrop. His sword is out and in his right hand, but the Lancaster pistol he usually favours is still holstered at his hip. Instead, in his left hand, is an extremely strange-looking device only a handful of people have seen before - a small rectangle made of some sort of bizarre material, topped with a flat crystal surface. Lights, letters, and numbers can be seen dancing across the surface of the whatever-it-is as Claude shifts to a defensive stance, swallowing his fear as he takes in the obscenity that is Mother.
"We're about to find out," he says softly, his eyes hard as he stares at the creature.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline Barber was not ready for this. She had spoken with some friends and unexpected allies, and as a result was able to steel her determination...but even so, the enormity of this undertaking was not lost on her.
Mother was an ageless entity that had consumed countless lives - perhaps even countless worlds.
How many times before had she found herself in this situation - with 'heroes' arraying themselves before her in an attempt to put an end to her conquest?
How many times had she ended them?
Jacqueline wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. But...even so, she knew that not challenging her was not an option. If they were to have any hope of survival, they must fight. They would either die here and now against her, or wait for their demise. Or...
They would win - they would force her back, and halt her plans. That was Jacqueline's goal. She had no choice.
And so she walks into the innermost citadel of the Photosphere. It is dark, but within Mother can be seen, accentuated by the darkness. Jacqueline remembers that face. She remembers the Abomination from outside the Photosphere, and she remembered her arriving to taunt them about the Tainted.
"I am not your child, and you are no mother." Jacqueline says quietly. As she steps into the room, it begins to light up.
"My mother is Madeline Barber. She taught me everything I know about Crest Sorcery. She loved and cared for me - she made me who I am today. You're nothing but a false mother and a parasite." Jacqueline says. Mother retorts - who they are and were is irrelevant. Jacqueline shakes her head.
"No. For the sake of Filgaia, and the children you've branded as 'trash' and discarded...I won't let you. This world doesn't belong to you. I won't die here - there's far too much I've yet to say and do." She says. She sounds calm and composed as she stares up at Mother, but a bead of sweat and subtle trembling makes it clear that she's terrified.
But even so...she would see this through.
She couldn't let Mother destroy anything else.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
The message that Mother had imparted to the world during the initial invasion of the Photosphere had been... disturbing.
Sorey didn't have the sort of experience that he would have liked with evil deities from another world, but he was sure he was going to learn more than he might have wanted to in short order. The minor discussions he had been able to have with some of the friendly Metal Demons had painted the image of a distant yet powerful figure, which fit into what he had always heard about Althena back on Lunar. The fact that she cared nothing about the Metal Demons who followed her... that was disturbing. And Sorey hoped that did not bode true for the Goddess who ruled a good portion of this world.
And while the Metal Demons had often held at least a humanoid bent, there was something about Mother that set Sorey on edge. He had not expected something quite this vicious, and as the Shepherd joins the group that as come to confront her at last, he listens to the other speaking. The Shepherd does not speak at first, but his companions do have a few things to say.
"Hardly the sort of thing I woudl want to call mother. But you're as bad as any Hellion - worse if you have even a tenth the power you claim," Mikleo states, the Water Seraph raising his staff into a ready position. On Sorey's other side, Lailah nods once, her eyes narrowing as she looks up at the strange otherworldly being they have come here to stop.
"This one will probably be more challenging than anything we've fought before. Are you ready, Sorey?"
"Yeah," Sorey replies, closing his eyes for a moment. He draws his wooden blade from its sheath, leveling it at Mother and considering what to say. The others have quite a bit to say - all he has is his promise to the Guardians that he will work to set things right.
But that promise can be enough. "Filgaia may not be a perfect world now, but under your control it would be so much worse!" he declares. "So on behalf of the Silver Star, I'm here to put a stop to your madness - and to give both the Metal Demons and people of Filgaia a chance to forge a future without living in terror of your power!"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The strange Symbologist of unclear motive, Ethius, is among the rear of the Drifter strike team whostorm into the innermost levels of the Photosphere. He still has a hand over the lower half of his mouth, which has gone beyond 'humorous anecdote' and is now 'bizarrely obsessive.' Even now, he wants to try and hide his face. This is the only hint of reservation in him - but he is true and well exhausted. It is not just from physical wear. His mind has been racing the entire time. A mind he has never willingly bared to anyone.
It's overwhelming. He cannot help but see it. He cannot help but hear it. He cannot help but feel it. To be surrounded by such an environment entirely alien to Filgaia. His ability to suppress natural body language falters. His breathing can be heard. His posture is not completely straight.
Patterns, everywhere, in colors that don't feel like they belong. They criss-cross his psyche as he beholds the chamber... and then she speaks.
'Welcome. My children...'
Just as how one's ears struggle to reconcile the two tones of Mother's very voice, so, too, does her eldritch appearance invite eyes to behold their form and never quite leave. It doesn't leave the mind even if one blinks. It may not leave the mind even if they tear their eyes out. She commands attention, as a world-devouring monster across a span of time that exceeds many, many human generations. Many find it in them their defiance, the words they will inscribe into forever. Ethius...
...Takes a few conspicuous steps to the side, allowing any that might be behind him to step ahead and proclaim themselves, and their defiance. He does no such thing, almost approaching meek when the chamber fills full of light. Exposing, piercing light - and exposure to the surrounding scenery.
His eyes turn away as she continues.
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Ethius bears the appearance of a reasonably simple man, maybe even a scoundrel from western Ignas. He is armed with but a quarterstaff, and some random odds and ends that may well just be primitive garbage compared to the splendor of this alien craft. Little reason for him to stand out, beyond some of his stranger mannerisms. He might be content to just be seen as an extra, just another presence as he metaphorically stands on as close to the sidelines as one may appear to be able to in this chamber.
I see it. That...
Ethius repositions himself several steps, for reasons unclear, as his eyes continue to track somewhere that appears entirely irrelevant to the situation at hand.
...That's...
He continues to be silent.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata had a pretty rough time getting to the inner sanctum with Mother.
First came the initial assault that she joined in with the Black Wolves; that wound up being rather close to a disaster, with the Rephaim shutting down entirely as she spent all of what it had against Lolithia. Then Yarobeleedt proved to be quite the distraction as their path forward collapsed, necessitating another roundabout battle to finally finish Mother's Beloved off...
... which dropped them to the Gutter, giving her and Shalune a chance to... 'talk', as they rescued several of the Tainted on their roundabout way up and around back towards the catacomb after joining in with Maitreya and the other Deurmods.
The ex-waitress and claimed of Ge Ramtos doesn't look particularly amazing by the time she arrives; she's still got her Yggdrasil jacket on, armor plating dinged and singed apart as she lurks inwards into the chamber.
Nothing's changed.
She stares wearily up towards Mother as she taunts them. Her words just feel dull on her. It doesn't feel new, even. She should feel more, faced up against a world-ending threat such as her, yet--
Nothing will change.
Let there be light.
She stares as the darkened room fills with light, gripping Freiheit with her fingerless gloved hands.
vrm
She gives it an experimental rev. The gasoline tank is full again.
Lose here and the world ends.
vrmmmm
She twists Freiheit's handle again, ignition roaring in the combustion engine inside of it.
Win here and... she just goes to the next threat in line.
She blearily stares up, eyes lined with circles as Mother calls them irrelevant.
Krosse with the Malevolence, maybe. Or maybe Sin will make an appearance? Or the Veruni will attack. Or Gebler will fly down... not a darn thing will change...
She lowers her head to stare at the ground.
"... you're welcome to my soul if you can get to it," Lunata mumbles, noxiously annoyed. "Plenty darned enough as is."
She reaches for the cord starter and tears it aside--
-vrmmmmmrmmmm-
Fire ignites along the fluted length of the red-hot blade; she recklessly heaves it up and over her shoulder.
Nothing's gonna change... when the heck did this become our life? When's it gonna end? I hate it... I hate it... I hate it so much...
That wicked grin she showed Yaro is back on her face.
"But... heh... ahahah... you know, I feel for these guys.
I get feeling scammed and cheated out of everything you ever had by some false god..."
Oop, her rictus grin has touched each side of her face again.
"... so play with me.
Play with this death waitress. 'cause win or lose...
There are only losers to be had here."
<Pose Tracker> Tesni Inoue has posed.
Tess had been here how could she not but she'd not been on the front line until now, she was not sure what she'd be seeing when she arrived here, but a sense of horror and awe gripped her as the Terran Beheld the mother. There is a fear deep down an old fear of the other that rears its head and the fear that not only what Mother would do to the people of this system, and this system? They would be in the heart of Civilized space.
She recalled what the Guardian had said to her about pride, hubris and that she was not that which they seek. Maybe her people had become arrogant in the last ten thousand years? She didn't even pay the Guardians any worship, yet? They'd still asked her, she still had to pay out that faith they had in her and if she'd been honest she was coming to love this system as much as she loved Earth and Sol.
"You had your way with this world and it's people even some of your own children seek to put an end to this madness. You will not have your way with the races of this world or the world itself, we all pay for our sins in the end. It's time for you to pay up..."
Her data pad she was using to map the way is put away now maybe it giot an image or two of here but ther'es no time for that as she moves to draw the Dead Man's ARM. Maybe she'd got stuck on this world for a reason? Either way she'd stand to the end for it.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
The Photosphere is hell.
In her time in it, Tethelle has not seen a single thing she would consider anything but alien. It's all just faintly wrong to her; made by and for a group that sees no need for aesthetics or the nature of Filgaia, but forces things to fit until they are properly Hyadean.
But that alone wouldn't be hell, that would just be culture shock. There's also the feeling of unease that penetrates the place. It spiked when Tethelle saw - and battled - Lolithia; it's getting worse now that they're even closer to Mother. And Tethelle knows to pay attention to these feelings.
Only the constant warmth of the Medium she carries penetrates the spiritual gloom, now that Mother is awake - and at that it barely manages. All Tethelle can tell is that Equites is, in some way, attentive. That she's watching over her. She may not have been the Priestess Equites may have wanted, but she's the Priestess Equites has chosen, for better or worse.
And Equites' priestesses have a very direct way of standing against the darkness.
"MOTHER!"
The voice is Tethelle's, barely audible even before she enters the room. She practically charges through the doors at first but slows once she's in the strange, dark room. It's hard to see, aside from the terrible centerpiece of the room, and Tethelle cannot see in the dark. Her Medium gives light, after a few moments - the gold-green common to it - but it's barely enough to do more than highlight Tethelle. It makes her a target, honestly, though she doesn't seem to care.
Though as she gets a better look at Mother, she momentarily regrets that. Tethelle holds her sword cross-body, defensively, as she looks up at the... monster. There's no better word for it. She's not even a Metal Demon, as Tethelle had originally thought; maybe she attacked Hyades, but that doesn't mean she isn't Hyadean or something like them. She reminds Tethelle of an insect, or a deep-sea animal, something she's only seen drawn up in nets.
"We're harder to chew up than you think," Tethelle says, advancing more slowly, carefully stepping toward the stairs. "I'll fight you as long as it takes, and I'm not alone. We are never alone! And all of Filgaia stands against you!"
It's a boast, and Tethelle knows it. 'All of Filgaia' doesn't stand here - less than a hundred Drifters do, if you count the ones in the Gutter and the ones elsewhere in the Photosphere, and what allies they could bring. But she feels it anyway, and she means more than just the physical; the light of the Medium pulses brighter, just a little, as Tethelle draws on her connection to it.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi does not enter the room first. She misses the lights on the floor going on. She gazes up at Mother's bulk. Mother is more imposing than she expected.
No matter. "We," she stammers, "believed in you." There is rage and heartbreak behind those words. "BUT NO MORE!" She hefts what looks like a bone lance made from someone's spinal column and assumes a defensive stance. "For Hyadeans! ALL Hyadeans! And for Filgaia...!" She takes the risk of dying here, and perhaps she will. But at least it will be for a good cause.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell had last seen Mother when she and a certain someone had confirmed to Siegfried that Mother was not, in fact, driven mad by Malevolence--she was just Like That. She hadn't been planning on sticking out her fake loyalty to the devourer goddess (*she* hadn't been the one to swear her fealty), so having Siegfried declare that Mother Must Die was awfully convenient for her.
It's a bit heady. Mother's stronger than any opponent she's ever reasonably faced. She could die tonight. She doesn't intend on it, of course, but death doesn't give a damn about one's intentions. So to fight her anyway...
It gives her a thrill. One that sends a wide, sharp grin slitting her mouth as Mother declares, in essence, that they submit or die.
"Nah," she drawls, twirling one of her guns around her finger, gaze scattering across those in the room, lingering briefly on Sorey, Mikleo, and Lailah. Just about every Drifter here is worthy of notice, though. After all, regardless of anyone's individual motives...
"You want us dead? You're gonna have to work for it, babe."
...they're facing the same impossible odds.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly van Houten has had a pretty long day, but she is as fresh here as she can be. During the brief precious moments before they got here, she washed her face, smoothed out her hair, took a sol, let its usual after-effect shiver wear off - now she is fresh.
She might feel it in the morning... but let it come! Because that means there will *be* a morning.
The room is grotesque to Elly for a reason very different from many others. Not for being alien, for being advanced, for being above them - in her own interior vision, this place is a what-might-be as much as a what-once-was. The figure of Mother is grotesque, too, in its own way. She speaks of other worlds.
How many might there have been? Elly wonders. How many people, like the Metal Demons that died - like the Hyadeans that they were and what few survivors might be again? How many worlds did she go through? How many? Something about it puts iron in her spine. She grits her teeth, looks at Fei --
And she doesn't say anything to him. Her eyes widen, as if she's surprised at something he's said. But then she nods once, and her eyes turn towards the horrid THING before her. Mother calls to them and invites them to shout their rage. Fei says something a lot simpler to her, a lot more direct. It is perhaps telling that a short sentence from Fei comes to outweigh the words of a calamity to the skies.
Finish the cast, she thinks. (INSERT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5gtS5mamvs)
Elly's eyes focus on Mother, looking dead on at her. Her expression speaks but her words don't. In a moment she leans herself forwards into terrible focus. There may only be one shot here, she thinks. Her hands come up and she puts them together with enough force to pap! lightly.
The plan develops for her. A fourfold mandala. Chill the flesh to suppress quasimetabolic activity. Breach with a earth pulse. Transmit a massive voltage overload. Conclude with incineration. Mother is many things, but all of the meat, the ivory, the leering and immortal life before her. To Elly it tells her that Mother is material. The Ether structures, diaphanous and faint, begin to form at her command -
And her eyes widen for a moment.
Whose idea was that, Elly wonders. Why did it begin with ice? Elly's eyes flick round, over the assembled Drifters from across two worlds. Everyone is here, even Shevat, she thinks, as her eyes cross over Claude's figure.
Is that the same plan 'she' had? Elly thinks further, as her focus returns to Mother. Or am I just choking? No, she thinks: not now, not NOW, not HERE--
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune mumbles something tiny and uncertain to herself under her breath. Contrary to popular opinion, she is honestly a pretty grounded soul, and the whole idea of this - of running through Photosphere's corridors and passageways in a dead run as she tries to be some kind of hero - kind of flies in the face of a lot of her common sense. Ideally, she would like to go home and curl up in front of a fire. Ideally, she would like to gather up Lunata and Jay and tell them they don't need to fight anymore, whether with themselves, each other, or the world at large. There would be hugs - and some yelling, probably, but Shalune things that it's about time.
* * *
Her coat jostles as she runs, and inside one breast pocket, a little hard oblong of plastic can be felt against her chest. The thought of it draws a slight wince - but at the same time she rests her hand over the pocket, fidgeting at the zipper.
* * *
That's not really an option right now, though. One way or another, without even quite realizing what it would mean, she's got herself into this situation - given herself an obligation to see it through, to at least witness the fruits of her work and pit them against their enemies. Now it's time to get herself out of it and see it through, and then maybe she can have that other stuff. Assuming that Jacqueline and Lunata get out just as safely.
* * *
Her boots skid as she enters Mother's throne, and she pushes; without even realizing she's done it, Shalune has instictively thrown herself forwards in a swirl of pink hair and dived behind a console, bunching herself up behind it for cover's sake. In a flurry of movement, she takes stock of herself - spare ammo canisters in one pocket, a collection of nostalgic bombs in a paper bag in another, some jammers she and Devet knocked up tucked in the back of her belt, the Medium in her inside pocket, and--
* * *
She unzips the zip she's been playing with all this time, reaching inside. The remote is too simple for words - just a single red button, and a strip of paper haphazardly taped on that reads "DIABLO" in her scrawled handwriting.
"... ... okay," she mutters, wrenching a segment of her staff into place as it starts to hum with energy. "Okay."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Mother's lair is bathed in shadow. Those who dare enter it are silhouettes, outlined by the light cast from the command center outside. One of them wears a duster, a wide-brimmed hat, and the sort of combat armor they give to neonate Hyadeans. Ida strides into the chamber like a gunslinger approaching a village square at High Noon, but without a trace of romanticism. Her eyes focus on the figure before her, which she's seen only in glimpses. Her right arm--encased in a gauntlet made of form-fitting blue-and-gold plates--tenses, and the fingers of her right hand clench in a fist.
'Good,' Mother says. She calls them all her children. The chamber activates, and Ida's whole body floods with fresh adrenaline. Elvis speaks. Ida has stopped being surprised he's here. She soaks in his encouragement, in Fei and Elly's presence here--in the presence of so many comrades, battle-hardened just like her.
"No," Ida says. "You will not."
Ida does not draw. She keeps advancing. "Hello, creature they called Mother," Ida says. She isn't seething. She isn't screaming out her rage. Those who know her well will know that this is Ida at her most dangerous--when given a single, essential task, a threat that must be neutralized.
Outside, a speaker in the hallway crackles. The Voice issues forth.
"Orphans of Hyades, no victory awaits you at the end of Mother's path. All that awaits there is betrayal. All that awaits there is the endless appetite of the very beast that devoured your world--the thing you call 'Goddess'. Break from her, and you will live to rebuild that which she stole from you so long ago. Defend her, and she will lead you like lambs to the slaughter."
"You will not define me," Ida says. "And you will not inflict that horror upon anyone else, as long as I draw breath." Jacqueline tells Mother who her mother is, and Ida thinks back to a woman with a scarred face and a warm smile. Painful memories and unconditional love. A flawed, wounded woman, but a strong, brave, gentle woman. A woman who gave Ida the tools she needed back when she set out on this journey.
Ida's hands move like lightning. Devil's Due all but leaps into her hands, and in a heartbeat, she's aiming it at Mother. Just like Flora taught her.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
To himself, in silence, Ashton wonders. Is the age-old damage within this sanctum marks of the ancient battle Fei told of? Where is the spot he said that Lee Byeong-Ho died?
In truth, it doesn't matter. Those days were ancient, lost before time was lost. Like Catenna had said in the breather they'd had before, Ashton has no ancestor that fought in that battle. But he has himself in this one. And perhaps some day his children's children's children will talk about this and the small part he played.
That, too, doesn't matter. Not now (even if a scrap of Ashton's ego enjoys turning the thought over a few times). This is the time to live in the moment, for the moment is the future - all the future, for everyone.
So there's no hesitation on Ashton's part as he enters along with the rest. The flood of Drifters, rogue Hyadeans, Veruni, cultists and Guardians know what else are like a swarm.
The others give speeches, declare themselves against Mother's actions, pass sentence for her unthinkable crimes.
Ashton simply draws his blades.
~~
I'm sorry you two are stuck in this. I know it isn't your fight. It's mine.
Don't be stupid. These things are as much a threat to us as they are to you.
Still. This life is a partnership between us, and I've dragged us into a fight that's far too big.
And I said--
If you're so sorry then after this I demand a new hat!
--Yes! New hats and we are appeased!
...You two are just too much. Alright. Hats. After we save the world.
Creepy and Weepy rear up over Ashton's shoulders, hissing at Mother. The swordsman spares a brief glance to Fei - and to Elly in turn - then sets his eyes on the gravest threat Filgaia has known.
He speaks, but not to Mother. There's no words needed for her. But to his fellows... "Guardians watch over us all. Strike true, and I'll see all of you on the other side of this."
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Talking about Mother, trying to think and discovering a few things about her does not change the fact they are facing some spiritually corruptive, hungry planet-cracker organism. It destroyed a lot of other worlds. Crashed on their surface, defeated the living species there, adapted them to it's uses and then moved on to the next, betraying it and repeating the process.
This is a terrible fact. It's something that's very clear, even with the knowledge he knows that very few others in this world would be privy to. Yet, there's one thing that bothers him, still. Why here? Did she mean to COME here at all, or did she get stuck here and just tried to make the most out of it?
All of theses questions drifts into his mind as he faces the face, the voice of this creature, looking upward at it all. He adjusts his gloves, tight and white clean. He swipes at his hat, twisting it on his head with his long brown red hair fussled beneath it.
"One thing perplexes me most, Planetary Parasite." Arleph speaks, admist all of everyone speaking. This is an important part. "Did you mean to come to Filgaia? Or..."
He smiles, pulling on his glove.
"Are you just stuck here, like an helpless little, oversized infant? I bet that's it. I doubt you meant to come here. Just took an opportunity."
Arleph straightens, taking in a deep breath, his gaze fixated on the other people, then at the Image of the Mother. "Well then. I guess we'll have to see, won't we? I'm afraid the Humanities of Filgaia are not yours to take control of. Not without a fight."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
So this is it.
Massive ARM cannon hefted in her arms, Josie traces those final few steps into the innermost sanctum of the Metal Demons' Mother. With a sigh and a groan she sets the Nostos cannon down, kneeling alongside it as she sets it to brace, gives it one last check for damages, runs her fingers along its length as if stroking a favored pet.
All the while, the enormous presence of Mother looms above her. Addresses them.
Welcomes them.
Josie gives the cannon one last pat before she stands, drawing a long slow breath as she stares up at the bulk of Mother. One hand absently goes for her hip flask.
Right. I dropped that.
So she draws out a single cigarette instead, lighting it with a snap of the fingers and a wiff of ozone.
This is it. I've still things to do. ...I won't let this be the end.
For your sake.
"I'll pass on all that," she drawls at length, as if considering the offer and tossing it aside. "Here's a tip, if you want to get willing recruits, try sweetening the pot a little next time, eh?" She takes a long slow drag, as if to savor what could very well be the last hit of nicotine she may get in this life.
The wayward archaeologist takes a look around her, as if to take in the collective responses of the others now present, and then shrugs. "Though if you ask me, you ain't gonna get a second chance. That's life sometimes..."
A moment more and she tosses her smoke aside, grinding it out underfoot.
A moment more and she palms the last core from her jacket pocket, stooping to slot it into the cannon.
A moment more and she's gazing up at Mother again.
'Mother'... huh.
Her heart is in truth pounding, for reasons she would never care to admit.
It's not just excitement.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Mother's lair is bathed in shadow. Those who dare enter it are silhouettes, outlined by the light cast from the command center outside. One of them wears a duster, a wide-brimmed hat, and the sort of combat armor they give to neonate Hyadeans. Ida strides into the chamber like a gunslinger approaching a village square at High Noon, but without a trace of romanticism. Her eyes focus on the figure before her, which she's seen only in glimpses. Her right arm--encased in a gauntlet made of form-fitting blue-and-gold plates--tenses, and the fingers of her right hand clench in a fist.
'Good,' Mother says. She calls them all her children. The chamber activates, and Ida's whole body floods with fresh adrenaline. Elvis speaks. Ida has stopped being surprised he's here. She soaks in his encouragement, in Fei and Elly's presence here--in the presence of so many comrades, battle-hardened just like her.
"No," Ida says. "You will not."
Ida does not draw. She keeps advancing. "Hello, creature they called Mother," Ida says. She isn't seething. She isn't screaming out her rage. Those who know her well will know that this is Ida at her most dangerous--when given a single, essential task, a threat that must be neutralized.
Outside, a speaker in the hallway crackles. The Voice issues forth.
"Orphans of Hyades, no victory awaits you at the end of Mother's path. All that awaits there is betrayal. All that awaits there is the endless appetite of the very beast that devoured your world--the thing you call 'Goddess'. Break from her, and you will live to rebuild that which she stole from you so long ago. Defend her, and she will lead you like lambs to the slaughter."
"You will not define me," Ida says. "And you will not inflict that horror upon anyone else, as long as I draw breath." Jacqueline tells Mother who her mother is, and Ida thinks back to a woman with a scarred face and a warm smile. Painful memories and unconditional love. A flawed, wounded woman, but a strong, brave, gentle woman. A woman who gave Ida the tools she needed back when she set out on this journey.
Ida's hands move like lightning. Devil's Due all but leaps into her hands, and in a heartbeat, she's aiming it at Mother. Just like Flora taught her.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"No. We will not."
BGM Change: Eternal Blue - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L1f-ZwApUU
"Even so revealed, your twisted presence casts no light upon this star. Your existence is unwelcome."
For the first time in a long time, Lucia stands in her original garb, black with a military sense and a red cloak. "I will tolerate it no longer! In the Name of the Blue Star - I will see you banished!"
She may only have the barest fraction of her power to call upon, cursed and suppressed. Despite the 'I' there is no chance that it can be anything but 'we', for alone she would be unable to do much here.
In place of power, she only has allies. It is not enough. And yet it must be. She came up on the rear of Jean's strike team along with Ruby and Hiro, moving at her own pace.
Hiro puts a hand to the Medium he has. Even now he still hadn't figured out how to call upon it. Perhaps there is a reason for that.
Because you think you can have everything and everything will turn out just as you will it.
You're a child who can't make hard choices. Your choices are simply running away.
Hiro does not call upon the Guardians, nor Althena. He simply remembers the choices that brought him to this point, he simply looks sidelong at Lucia. "... I'm here, no matter what happens." He says quietly, as he draws his sword, facing down Mother. The revulsion he feels makes him shiver. "Because you're only just another step on our this journey of ours." The Shepherd's presence in the room a stark reminder of that fact. "Not the end."
Whereas Ruby looks sidelong at Fei. "... How many times has it been already?" She says mutely to herself.
Hiro looks sideways at Jean, "You've been preparing me for a fight like this for a long time. Didn't think it'd come so soon though. Promise I'll make you proud." His lip turns up into a small grin at Ragnell's statement as he turns to face Mother, sword in hand, "Let's make her more than work for it."
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Late during the battle against Lolithia, Rosaline conjured up a large magical shield to protect downed Drifters from a rain of energy. It's possible that some people missed that, because raids are very chaotic. The Etone's magical reserves certainly felt it, however. She looks like she's seen much better days, her habit partly torn and her skin pale, but she's still standing and ready to stake her life on this battle.
This is what is asked of her, no more, no less.
She has already drawn an uncommon combination of ARMs, the SMG called Esdras and the shotgun named (ironically enough) Mother's Mercy. As she mutters one last prayer under her breath, she takes in the awesome and horrifying sight of the Metal Demons' once-goddess and matriarch. It calls them its children, summons light, speaks of false idols. Rosaline grits her teeth.
"I don't know what you are," she shouts, her heart feeling like it's going to beat out of her chest, "but you are no goddess, and no mother besides! No god would make its worshippers into slaves, no mother would abandon..."
She trails off, thinking on it for a moment. Tears bead in her eyes. Oh. Yes, right. That's what happens when you don't prepare your defiant speech in advance. So instead, she takes a deep breath and focuses on a simple truth, one that may prove much more useful to her here.
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm going to kill you!" She draws a line across her neck with her SMG-holding hand, then takes aim, a white aura forming around her, burning like a flame.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has seen quite a bit of the Photosphere by now, wandering through more of it than strictly necessary because of a combination of personal reasons and just getting hopelessly lost in its winding passages. But she finally managed to make it back here, in the nick of time, rushing up to join the group of gathered Drifters bound for Mother's chamber.
She's been in her element, all told. All she had to do was fight. The thing she's best at, or, in her darker moments, the one thing she feels she's good for. She normally enjoys a good fight, but somewhere along the way, it all started to feel... different. Either way, there wasn't much of a choice but to keep fighting. Several major battles are already behind her. Alhazred. Yarobeleedt. Lolithia. Yet her body feels perfectly ready for more. Her mind... she doesn't really know. She's been kind of mentally distracted a lot.
Perhaps it's because she never really understood the bigger picture, not beyond the most basic - that they have to fight Mother, and they have to win. That should've been all that mattered. But there's more to it all than that, at least, for most people. Is that true for her, though? Or is she still just following the people she cares about, doing what feels right to her, without any other concerns beyond that? And why is she suddenly wondering whether that's a good enough reason to be here?
Even so, to any others looking at her, these concerns are probably not visible. Because she'll give anyone who does so a cheerful smile, maybe even a wave, appearing totally immune to the tension in the air. Rosaline, in particular, she's glad to see is looking better, and gives her a receives a pat on the shoulder in passing.
As could be predicted, it's Fei's side she moves to. The look she casts his way is one of vague concern, but it too is quickly replaced by a smile. It'll be alright. They just have to finish this fight, and everything can start going back to normal. She faces the being before them with as little fear as she displayed in the face of any other threat she ran directly towards in the past.
"I don't know anything about what a mother's supposed to be like. But I know enough to see that you're a really terrible one, just... throwing away your children like that. But even if you were a good mother..."
She takes her combat stance, a close match (but not quite) to Fei's, ready to finish this. "I won't let you or anyone else harm Filgaia!"
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia Lynn Adlehyde follows behind Claude, armed with a case full of Mediums - the sacred stones proof of her contract to no less than nine of the world's great guardian spirits - her ancestral staff, her package of Crest Graphs...
And not a single sacred stone. Her fingers linger over her chest as they breach the door, some quiet gloom hanging over her. Perhaps it is a marvel of Cecilia's mind that she can be torn up by her own problems even here, in the heart of hell. Then again, when her own problems deal with their ability to hurt the demon they now face...
She looks up. Meat and gold, a horrid union. "Mother," she whispers, and squares up her stance, swirling her staff upward. The shifting tone, the terrifying calm even on horrific words...
Cecilia holds forth her hand, trying to grasp what few motes of free Ley she can still find. The Mediums pulse in her pocket. They tremble; afraid, but attentive.
"This is the moment," she says.
Her eyes adjust slowly to the new light, and she dares to seek Mother's mask for her defiance.
"You have ruined more lives than I can even imagine...and here you stand, crowing about it. You are no mother. You are not even a queen. A queen knows that she serves her subjects! A queen knows that upon her back stand all the people trying desperately to live! You..."
Light, around her; the soft warmth surrounding Tethelle burns around Cecilia, the presence of the Guardians, with what tiny scraps of power they still have to give her.
"You are a beast, and you must be destroyed!"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
There had been a great rush of noise, of quaking panels and groaning metal. The Sentinel had fallen as if to a knee. And Lan had sensed something in the distance, something that reeks of greed and hunger, of an endless yearning for more, more, more. A parasite, a cancer.
It can only be their Mother.
Thoughts of Gwen and Loren are a thousand miles away from the shaman as she settles her heels mre firmly into her sandals, as she crosses her fingers like a ward between herself and the pulsing, hideous flesh-and-porcelain monster in front of them.
Unlike so many of the others, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't have anything to say.
Lan takes a deep breath and slams her heel into the ground with a wordless kiai, motes of silver slowly coalescing around her as she casts.
DC: Jean switches forms to Shadow Dragon Apostate! DC: Lan Lilac switches forms to Helpful Nomad Lan!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen followed a very disjointed path to get here. First she came in with Jack, hoping to find whereever Rudy disappeared to, got separated, then rejoined with the Fiends. Fought Boomerang. Got separated again, met up with a Talking Cucco With A Sword, and lost a lot of her equipment in the process. Then, as the invasion grew more tense, she came across Lan and Loren.
She cried, when she shot at Lolithia. Just how different would the golem's heart be from whatever hers looks like now?
"I guess you could say the only I'm able t'be here because the Hyadeans brought with them the reason and the means for a class of ARMs t'even be around. But at the same time, I don't feel any gratitude to you specifically. You took their homes, their will, their actual ability to chose their own fates." Gwen's boots tread across the ground, her ARM still warm and ready at her side. She's still winded from the battle with Lolithia, but she can't back down. "They deserve a place to be, and if Filgaia is their only one, it's a good one. We make dumb decisions, do the wrong things, and we fight over the stupidest reasons. But ultimately."
She smiles, pressing her left hand over her heart. "A friend of mine told me this: this world is made of love and peace. And even now, I still believe him, especially now." She points a bare right hand straight at Mother, summoning all the bravado and wishful thinking she'd ever had as a child, reading all those one gella novels, hearing those stories of brave Drifters of ages past. The smiles of her friends, both here, and not here.
"I am Gwen Whitlock, super courier, and no one will take this flawed, beautiful world from me, or all my friends!"
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen followed a very disjointed path to get here. First she came in with Jack, hoping to find whereever Rudy disappeared to, got separated, then rejoined with the Fiends. Fought Boomerang. Got separated again, met up with a Talking Cucco With A Sword, and lost a lot of her equipment in the process. Then, as the invasion grew more tense, she came across Lan and Loren.
She cried, when she shot at Lolithia. Just how different would the golem's heart be from whatever hers looks like now?
"I guess you could say the only I'm able t'be here because the Hyadeans brought with them the reason and the means for a class of ARMs t'even be around. But at the same time, I don't feel any gratitude to you specifically. You took their homes, their will, their actual ability to chose their own fates." Gwen's boots tread across the ground, her ARM still warm and ready at her side. She's still winded from the battle with Lolithia, but she can't back down. "They deserve a place to be, and if Filgaia is their only one, it's a good one. We make dumb decisions, do the wrong things, and we fight over the stupidest reasons. But ultimately."
She smiles, pressing her left hand over her heart. "A friend of mine told me this: this world is made of love and peace. And even now, I still believe him, *especially* here." She points a bare right hand straight at Mother, summoning all the bravado and wishful thinking she'd ever had as a child, reading all those one gella novels, hearing those stories of brave Drifters of ages past. The smiles of her friends, both here, and not here.
"I am Gwen Whitlock, super courier, and no one will take this flawed, beautiful world from me, or all my friends!"
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
"They are my toys!" Mother shrieks back at Fei. "Of course they -- and YOU -- are my playthings!"
There is a rage in her voice. A rage that is unending; that magnifies, with no petulance, when Elvis challenges her. Mother's rage is a raw and pure thing -- an emotion unclouded by the facets and complexities that any human, Hyadean, or Elw might feel. Hers is pure.
"To be a mother is to crush. To be a mother is to ruin. To be a mother is to DOMINATE. I will do far more than..."
Her voice becomes kind and gentle, again. "...play."
Her face turns, slightly. She looks down at Arleph. "Of course I did. This world is but another meal in my aeons of hunger."
Her rage billows; more and more at the challenges, at Lucia's fierce cry, and all those standing against her. Questioning her. Vowing to destroy her.
Opposing her.
"I am a World Eater, little princess! I scavenge the stars and nebulae, while your ephemeral kind hides in rock and metal until I drink the marrow from your bones!" she screams at them. The room comes aglow, with a slowly building crimson. "And I chose to end this NOW!"
The circular indentations on the floor, on the east and west side of the rooms, are filled with glowing orbs of crimson light. Each rises and grows, before blossoming in a pillar of crimson light. That crimson light then contracts inward, pushed to assume a shape. In each, a floating figure clad in a red robe stands there. The crimson robe flutters in a wind that whips outward from Mother's pedestal. The two figures turn, their masked faces looking towards Mother.
"My Umbra and Astra. My Amadeus." Mother speaks to them. "Deliver unto me your power!"
The two figures move in a unison that is eerie. They turn, and hold out their hands. Every inch of the figures is clad in red cloth--no, is made of it. When <INSERT CHARACTER NAME> looks close, <PRONOUN> realizes that the barest hint of skin and eye are, in fact, multiple layers of red cloth of slightly different shades laid over one another. With palms outstretched, they both send flickering bolts of light -- racing in dots and ashes, flying like photons -- towards Mother's monstrous form.
"Witness, humans! Witness how my traitorous daughter powers me! Witness as I command THE LEY!"
The numerous intricate patterns in the floor shudder and glow, brighter and brighter. Then, all across Mother's carapace, points upon her armor begin to glow. Brilliant, bright points of blue-green energy shine bright enough that it hurts to look at them directly. Then, after that, they erupt into countless beams of light. Ley-infused beams of light fire, and rocket across the room. When they strike the glass walls or the floor, they bounce.
The chamber becomes a criss-crossed maze of death, as energy fire fills the whole of the room. Ricocheted beams come from the side or behind, from the oddest angles imaginable. And, over all of it, Mother's unhinged, peeling laughter echoes louder and louder.
MECHANICS:}
* Mother is supported by two minions, Amadeus Umbra and Amadeus Astra! Defeating one will force Mother to lower her current adjusted boss HP amount by 6.
* Up to six people can attack an Amadeus in a turn.
* Please use the +bucket system for this! Start by typing +bucketsignup. Then, type +bucketjoin umbra, +bucketjoin astra, or +bucketjoin mother.
* We will need to set buckets every round, to reflect movements (because the code for that is forthcoming). Feel free to change targets from round to round, but work this out with people on <Big Scene>!
DC: Amadeus Umbra switches forms to Amadeus Umbra!
GS: Amadeus Umbra has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Amadeus Umbra has attacked Mother with Regna Umbra! GS: Amadeus Umbra has entered a Reflect stance!
DC: Amadeus Astra switches forms to Amadeus Astra!
GS: Amadeus Astra has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Amadeus Astra has attacked Mother with Regna Astra! GS: Amadeus Astra has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Amadeus Umbra's Regna Umbra for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Mother gains 15 extra FP from Amadeus Umbra! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Amadeus Astra's Regna Astra for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Mother gains 15 extra FP from Amadeus Astra! GAME: astra does not match available +buckets for this scene. Use +buckets to view available subdivisions! GAME: umbra does not match available +buckets for this scene. Use +buckets to view available subdivisions! GAME: umbra does not match available +buckets for this scene. Use +buckets to view available subdivisions!
DC: Mother switches forms to Hyadean World Eater Mother!
GS: Mother has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Elvis with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Malfi with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Ashton Anchors with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Arleph Ardan with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Jean with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Shalune Amira with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Lunata Croze with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Lady Harken with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Sorey with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Catenna with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Chime Isa with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Hiro with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Lan Lilac with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Rosaline Calice with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Tesni Inoue with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Xantia with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Jack van Burace with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has completed her action. GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 104 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 131 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Lunata Croze guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 125 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Shalune Amira critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 48 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Shalune Amira! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 112 hit points! GS: Catenna takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 96 hit points! GS: Lady Harken has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Lady Harken completely evades Ley DOMINATUS from Mother!
GS: Hiro guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 118 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Arleph Ardan critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 48 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Arleph Ardan! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 39 hit points! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Tesni Inoue takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 103 hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 40 hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Sorey guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 118 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 138 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ashton Anchors! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Chime Isa takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 207 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 113 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Lan Lilac takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 104 hit points! GS: Tethelle Cirdian takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 200 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 196 hit points! GAME: Jean has placed the Mother bucket!
GS: CRITICAL! Xantia critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 43 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Xantia! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 38 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Malfi takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 130 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Malfi! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 116 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 118 hit points! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 209 hit points! GS: Rosaline Calice takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 96 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 195 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jean takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 123 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Jean! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
More Shamans stride up with her to throw their defiance into the face of Mother. Catenna glances over at Tethelle, nodding gravely when the Shaman of Sword speaks her piece, then again when Lunata arrives to issue her defiance. Cecilia, carrying more Mediums than Catenna could truly hope to, joining them as well.
And Fei - a man who's no Shaman, but his stake in all of this is clear. Catenna inclines her head as if to add gravity to his words.
They're pretty words - all of their words are. But they disguise the very odds they spoke of just moments before. The mistakes made that brought them to this point. The inability of a generation long past this one to do the impossible. The impossible thing is in front of them even now. How could it be any more possible today, even with Silver Mediums in hand? Does Catenna even have a right to speak on that topic, with no ancestors of note that she knows of?
Centuries ago, a tall man with long, braided locks and a Stone Medium stands with a staff in his other hand, before a tide of Metal.
Catenna shakes her head firmly and scowls forward. She can feel the Mediums trembling against her hip - and she can feel her own fingers shaking a little. She can feel the Owlet on her shoulder shaking, too. But there's no time to dwell on them all.
Being afraid is natural. But there is always hope.
Hope that diminishes just a little as Mother calls forth two crimson-clad figures in masks. Or perhaps two masked figured that are crimson cloths. The pulse of the Ley fills Catenna with a sickening surge --
Riesenlied, she realizes.
Screaming rays rocket through the room. With a gasp, Catenna lunges away from a few of them. The Owlet flutters from her shoulder, the little bird weaving easily through the rayfire. Catenna rolls under a blast, cuts beneath another - one cuts too close for comfort and scorches violently across her back, searing through the lower half of the Katsuragi-length coat she wore for the sake of mobility. With a wince of pain, Catenna darts away from the next blast, then hits the ground, rolling to try and get into the clear--
<I understand,> Saarda-Shanta muses, swooping back towards Catenna to land on her shoulder. <None would support Mother willingly now. It is the Amadei which bring her strength.>
Catenna clenches her teeth. "And Riesenlied," she whispers, her voice pinched in her throat. "We must bring her down." The words are almost lost among the laughter.
The next ones are not. "Everyone!" Catenna calls out. "One of them at a time!"
Don't make mistakes, she tells herself grimly even as she begins to gather her magic. Celesdue's magic. I do not want my ancestors speaking of me the way Fei speaks of the past.
Motes of silver-blue light dance in the air around Catenna as she begins to draw power. Even here, in the shadow of Mother, she can feel the connection to the Moon clearly - as if Saarda-Shanta was not evidence enough that Celesdue is, in her way, with her. The arcane power builds over the space of a second or two as the Moon Shaman winds together a familiar spell.
Catenna thrusts her palm forward with a shouted word of power in the Zortroan tongue - and gravity begins to shift.
The direction of gravity suddenly swings around for Amadeus Umbra, and for Umbra alone. No longer is it pulling Mother's servant towards the floor. All at once, Catenna flips the switch on that cloth servitor and attempts to yank it bodily off the ground, trying to pull it up towards the ceiling and crush the Amadeus into it with a burst of inverted gravity.
GS: Catenna has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Grav! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Rudy Roughnight takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 202 hit points! GS: Rudy Roughnight has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi is in too much of an attack stance to duck Mother's light attack well. One of the laser lights glances off her upper left arm, leaving her bleeding. "My turn," she snarls, jabbing her bone lance right at Mother's thorax, aiming right for a section that looks like meat, or muscle. Fury and despair power her thrust. A brief part of the back of her mind wonders if Mother can appreciate the irony of being stabbed (or attempted-stabbed) with her most loyal son's bones...
GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a solid hit from Catenna's Grav for 90 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Amadeus Umbra! GS: Malfi has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Malfi has attacked Mother with Improv Tango! GS: Malfi has gained 1 Combo! GS: Malfi takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Malfi has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jack van Burace has posed.
Where others run forward and dash to the opening one swordsman walks. Some scream definace at the thing called Mother as Jack van Burnace, last knight of Arctica turns to look at the horror made real there hanging in the air above them. He doesn't join in the shouting, in the defiance thrown back into the face of a thing that calls herself a goddess. He just watches for a moment
A sigh escapes the swordsman. He thought to feel hate at this thing there. The cause of the death of his country. He should feel hate. He should feel such a desire for death that it should overwhelm. Jack though feels...pitty. a touch of sadness for the deaths caused by this thing in its thrashing madness.
"Not just a beast," Jack calls towards Cecelia. "But a mad one. And all the more dangerous for it." His hand raises one hand to pull the last scrap of cloth that covers the knights crest on his blade.
He smiles though, feeling that familiar rush even as the thing there starts getting mad. Starts shouting about devouring the world. Adreneline begins to sing and the smile that etches itself across his face. He isn't one to back down from even a fight such as this of course. "One more fight, eh friend?" This to the little wind mouse on his shoulder.
Hanpan just shrugs. "Save the world one more time. Whose counting, right?"
"At least," As Mother's minions appear and things start to really heat up. "We'll be in good company this time."
"HEY HARKEN!" He shouts as the world turns into wite flame and pain. "TRY NOT TO DIE!"
...and as the lasers zero in, the swordsman draws...and the mouse just facepalms. "...really Jack?" The mutter lost under the roar of a battle suddenly joined
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
So, it has all come down to this.
The long history of the Wehacan people has been defined in many ways by this specific moment. The warriors and god-walkers whose mission has always been to stand in defense of the world and its Guardians- everything has been leading to this.
And for all of that history, the fear and apprehension that had been throbbing through Cyre Lorentz's veins were briefly dispelled by, of all things, the words of a Death Waitress.
"'We're all losers here?' Seriously, Lunata?" Cyre mutters and sighs, quietly adjusting the position of the mask sitting over his face. Though maybe she does have a point. Everyone here has lost something to this monster sitting in the middle of the room. This... This biomechanical horror who hides her monstrousness beneath porcelein perfection. A fusion of the artificial and the organic-- is she responsible for the state of the Hyadean people, or is she truly something different, alien and distinct?
They need only see her bleed to find out.
Catenna speaks out. Cyre chuckles warmly and walks forward to stand alongside her, "I've always wondered, why did the demons pick our world, among all the others in the sky. Why Filgaia? Why not descend on some dead world and start anew from there? But that was always the plan, wasn't it? You're no mother, you're just a parasite. I don't know how you beat the Hyadeans on their world, but this time we've had a thousand years to prepare for you."
Cyre reaches up as the bolts of stolen Ley pour down, nearly consuming him where he stands. The wind howls around the symbol of the Silver Medium of Fengalon as Cyre focuses on drawing on the very Ley that the Mother has stolen. He forces it together, gathering it into a single point.
And then he gestures at an Amadeus, sending that mote of power flying at it. Where it lands, it blossoms, erupting into a tremendous explosion of pressure and power. "...For what you've done to Hyades, for what you've done to Filgaia, we've come to seek justice. Today, from all corners of this beautiful world, from all walks of life, we have come for a single purpose. We have gathered and bound ourselves together. Strike like the braided spear, break through like the woven arrow! Gather, gather and go forward! This nightmare ends here!"
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Grand Pressure! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Mother takes a solid hit from Malfi's Improv Tango for 83 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Malfi!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata's laugh just seems to ring across with Mother's unhinged, like they're in a contest for unhingedness with each other. The criss-crossing beam glazes onto her, first washing onto her jacket and shoring some of the fabric off--
--but the spectral arm of Ge Ramda has put a stop to that in relatively short order as her eyes flit towards the Amadeus.
She lets out a hiss of pain... and realises that it hadn't quite cut as deep as it did. But there's a flowing thrill coming out of her.
The Carakin's here. Ethius, whatever he's doing... Catenna, doing as a Guardian Shaman must. Jacqueline... espousing what her true Mother is like. Shalune--
"Come with me, Lunie!"
... well, there's that, as the ex-waitress streaks across the room with a whirl of fire as she spins and tries to just set that red cloth ablaze. As the blade touches, she triggers--
-=BOOM=-
--and sends herself spiraling backwards with a raucous laughter. "Ha ha-- ha ha... HA HA HA! -This- is what it's come down to!"
Her eyes gleam with manic glee.
"I'm absolutely crazy about this!"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Amadeus Astra with Sweet Sacrifice! GS: Lunata Croze has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.
Chime moves into the room Mother resides humming softly to herself as she goes. She's watching the group of somewhat mismatched characters more than listening to being they've all come to stop. But when Mother does finishes, she remarks in an amused voice "But ever shining is the lands light of justice it seems~" as her eyes move from Metal Demon, to Veruni, to Seraphs, to the rest of the group.
"Guess I shouldn't hold back either~" as she draws both her crossbows and maniplutates the handles of each. The appearance of both changes, turning more metal than wood and a second block appearing over the top of each as the string vanishes giving the crossbows a more blocky appearance of a gun shooting bolts. Which may explain some of the tricks she performs with them.
"This'll be quite the fight it seems~" as minions appear, then the room is filled with energy and beams and power. The short ARMs Meister doesn't for once have time to respond as she takes a direct hit, dropping to a knee. "Ugh~ Unpleasant." as she lifts a crossbow and fires at a potshot at Mother as she looks around to consider how best to use support so many.
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Mother with Potshot! GS: Chime Isa has gained 1 Combo! GS: Chime Isa has completed her action. GS: Amadeus Umbra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Amadeus Umbra completely evades Grand Pressure from Cyre H. Lorentz!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
There's a lot to consider here. So many people, so many familiar faces. Lunata, Shalune - her closest friends. Catenna, Ethius, Arleph, Cyre, Tesni - her Caravan Kinship. And the others, other people she had come to respect and rely on. They were all fighting for the same purpose, the same world.
"...You're mad. I'm going to have to defy your idea of what a mother is." Jacqueline says, shaking her head. Mother screams her intentions, and then the room glows crimson. Two ominous looking figures appear on either side of Mother, bizarre and disturbing.
And then, Mother brings the full force of the Ley against someone. Jacqueline extends her hands in front of her. A force field appears around around her, generated by her gauntlets. Countless beams of leyfire erupt from Mother, showering the room.
Jacqueline winces, as the force and effort sends her to her knees. Her barrier manages to absorb most of them, but as the barrage intensifies, some manage to pierce through, impacting her directly.
She's breathing heavily at the end of this...but even so, Jacqueline forces herself back to her feet.
"I-It'll take...more than that, False Mother." Jacqueline says. She looks to the side briefly, as she watches Lunata charge toward one of Mother's minions.
"Lunata...please be careful." She says, and then chuckles ruefully. "...But, I guess I'm one to talk."
Jacqueline reaches into her bags, drawing out a bottle of lavender liquid. She grips it tightly...and then hurls it directly toward Mother's pristine, porcelain face.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"...World Eater..." Claude C. Kenny breathes, a river of frigid chill rolling over his spine. His mother, his mentor and teacher, once mentioned something about these creatures, during a training session which involved demonstrating the need to control qigong while under the influence of outside forces.
So she got him drunk. He was 14.
In between the fractured fog of memory, he remembers something about World Eaters - about a mission that ended in tragedy. About how Federation doctrine on these creatures constitutes of a single word: run.
But instead, he advances forward; lines of violent, scintillating light flash into being, but Claude's tricorder - sensing the shift in energy from the leylines - transmits the incoming paths to the contact-lens HUD in his left eye, filling his field of view with prediction lines a second and a half before they come into being. And so Claude dances and weaves, shifts and rolls, escaping with little more than a few contact burns from a maze of light that should have killed him outright. He slips past the final wave, rolls up to his feet... and then stops, about five yards in front of a creature that defies all logic, all sense, that wants to drink the marrow from the bones of the planet.
He looks left and right. Doesn't see anybody.
.......
"AIR SLASH!" Claude shouts, firing the projectile at point-blank, scampering back rapidly.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Mother with Sapping Solution! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes 10 damage from Poison! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Power builds in her mind, in her heart, in her soul. The starlit silver of Rigdobrite's blessing trickles into Lan's veins as she channels her deity's power.
She can't expect to come at a monster like that with just her bare hands, can she..?
Silver mist overtakes her figure as Mother's beams of ley energy bounce and careen throughout the room. Even as fast as she is, Lan can't entirely get out of the way - a brush against a stray beam burns cold, like slapping her hand onto a sheet of ice. But she's fast enough, and that's what matters.
She lands on her feet, steam rising from her skin where scratches and scrapes seal over. Lan can't maintain this long.
She's going to have to make it count!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Mother with Air Slash! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action. GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Lan Lilac with Starlight Shimmer! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Lan Lilac gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Lan Lilac! GS: Lan Lilac heals Lan Lilac! She gains 0 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius' eyes remain focused on something else entirely, through all the two-toned tirades. It takes his everything to keep them where he's looking.
... ... ... ... ... ...
It takes his everything to keep out of mind everything that seems to be going 'wrong.' Mother has hold of the Ley. To say nothing of... he refuses to go that far, because he sees it. It is...
Energy fills the chamber. There is hardly a meaningful defense that can be offered against power of that magnitude, criss-crossing at angles almost indefensible. It grows hot from the heat of the strangled Ley power, it grows deafening from her laughter... her laughter.
Beams of light scald Ethius. He stays holding on his feet with his quarterstaff. His footing doesn't appear assured, at first, as he falls to a kneel when one such beam strikes a knee. Mother's laughter continues to build. He can't hear himself think. He can't hear himself chant. He can't see himself flutter his fingers.
He knows what he saw. He knows what he can do. He knows what he must.
...Then, all of a sudden, seemingly from nowhere...
A peculiar construct within this chamber may soon find itself subject to a significant quantity of Symbologically conjured particulate matter, threatening to jam parts of its construction! This doesn't rule out the possibility of neighboring, interconnecting devices facing problems.
Ethius stands at his tallest, hand away from his face. Said hand is gestured in the direction of a part of the peculiar construct. His face is visible - he looks like he's aged to maybe his mid-thirties, and is starting to grow in a white beard, but otherwise looks unremarkable. Just a human man, with an unyielding gaze. Why even bother hiding that face? He doesn't look like anyone familiar.
He puts back the iron grip on even the slightest tics of the human body, almost statuesque now. Unyielding. He says nothing, as if the gesture alone would scream louder than even Yarobeleedt's most ear-splitting shriek. The culprit to this deed is unamibugous.
It's a nice sentiment, but it seems wasted, doesn't it? Could've had it in him a few moments ago as everyone screamed defiance. Why is he attacking that construct, and not quite Mother directly...? She's right there.
GS: Amadeus Astra takes a glancing hit from Lunata Croze's Sweet Sacrifice for 70 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Lunata Croze! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Mother with A Curious Action...! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
The surge of the planets vital energy that is unleashed by Mother is enough to blast Sorey backwards for a moment. He manages to put his sword between the beam and his body, but the tremendous flow of energy is more than enough for him to be slammed backwards, only skidding to a stop as he slides out of the way of the beam. With his clothes smoking and a few burned spots appearing on his skin, the Shepherd grunts for a moment before he pushes himself upwards.
But he's not alone here, and he can see that the two minions who are pushing energy towards Mother are going to be a problem if they can keep feeding her energy. "Lailah, can you feel that...?" he asks quietly.
"Yes, it feels like the planet itself is crying out from Mother devouring its very life. We can't let her keep doing this!" the Fire Seraph states quietly, and Sorey nods once.
But he finds that he isn't alone where he's ended up - by some twist of fate, Sorey finds himself near to Hiro... and the supposed Lord of Calamity he had been fighting for so long. But Sorey doesn't do anything threatening. Instead he grins, pushing himself back to his feet with his sword as he glances back at Hiro, Jean, and Lucia. "Some monster trying to devour the Blue Star... I'm sure there's some who would say this isn't our fight. That the Blue Star was supposed to be barren of life to begin with. But I can't stand here and watch this monster devour this world and use it for her own reasons. And sooner or later she'd come to Lunar and do the same." He levels his sword at Umbra for a moment, and smiles. "We might have had our differences in the past, but I think we can agree that we can't let this stand.
"Lailah. Fethmus Mioma"
There is a flash of light as Sorey and Lailah merge together, the Shepherd reappearing in an outfit of pure white and shining gold. In his hand he holds a tremendous great sword, and he turns and throws himself into the fray. It takes him only moments to dash through the crowd, the massive Divine Weapon coming up and striking down towards the Amadeus Umbra. Flame trails in its wake, and the Shepherd aims to bring his purifying flame right down into one of its shoulders!
DC: Sorey switches forms to Armatus Fethmus Mioma!
GS: Sorey has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Vermilion Crescent! GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sorey has completed his action. GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Chime Isa's Potshot for 20 hit points! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Chime Isa has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell grins and winks at Hiro as he chimes in on her jab that Mother'll have to put in a lot of effort first. Lucia... well, she seems focused for once. Best not to disturb her. If things get really bad, maybe she can call in a favor from Ruby to take a hit from her, she reflects, the thought not serious.
Maybe it should be, though. When Mother calls upon her subordinates and then lasers the entire room, there's really... nowhere for Ragnell to even try to evade. The beams slam into her, tearing through her, nearly ripping her gun from her hand and her hand from her arm and her arm from her shoulder and you get the gist. She's left on the floor, smoking.
But--and this is important--she gets back up. Sure, she's staggering. But she does it. Between Gwen, Elly, the Fiends in general, the Shepherd's Retinue in general, Cecilia, and more, there's *far* too many people here she needs to impress to just decide to take a smoke break.
That thought is also not serious. It's her coping mechanism, go off.
The constructs feed Mother power. Mother sups from the Ley, and Ragnell's eyes narrow, knowing what that means. And so, it might be just sheer spite that, when Mother cackles madly, Ragnell charges a shot and fires it into the air, only for it to hail down on the parasite's carapace in the form of a torrential, thunder-and-lightning downpour. She considers a quip, but... all considered, it'd probably just get lost in the crowd. Better to focus.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Mother with Squall Shot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Sapping Solution for 33 hit points! GS: Weaken! Statuses applied to Mother!
<Pose Tracker> Tesni Inoue has posed.
Tesni Inoue hears Jacqueline's words about what a Mother is, she thinks about her own mother the last time she saw her before setting out from Earth along with her father. They had bene proud of her for how hard she'd pursued her goals. Even her dad finally came around about her not joining the Navy she looks to her friend and says.
"I'm with you and the rest of the Caravan to the end."
This wasn't her world, but the idea of Mother destroying all that was good here, she also was here with Arleph. She looks to Arleph and calls out.
"Whatever happens I don't regreet the trip we have been on Arleph."
She was a speck and she knew it the universe was so large yet here she was?. The lizard part of her brain screams fight, live, but something else scream never again, never be food again.
Adrenalin surges through Tess's body her heart is hammering, this is fear a primal fear. She moves and it saves her from being just turned into a spear even then she's hurt pretty bad even then.
"WE ARE NO ONES FOOD!"
She opens up on Mother with her ARM laying down a volley of fire, to lend cover to the more skilled fighters her so they might get up close if they wished to do so. Also what the hell was Ethius up to?!
GS: Tesni Inoue has attacked Mother with Rapid Fire! GS: Tesni Inoue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tesni Inoue has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
The battle starts with a bang - and searing, devastating pain. Ashton tries to brace himself against the barrage, but there's too much coming from too many directions. A blast takes him in the back, staggering the swordsman.
Staggering, but not dropping.
The Drifters surge forward. Amidst it, Ashton hears Catenna's words and manages a reply. "We shall keep Mother busy! Be quick with the red ones!"
There's a flicker - and Ashton is gone.
Then another flicker as he re-appears on the second tier platform. Already his swords are working, slashing at the air - and turning the air to a swirling energized projectile. "HURRICANE SLASH!"
Obviously, defense is out the window now. That attack proved the firepower they're dealing with, and taking another hit like that last one might kill some people. It's time to simply start assaulting them with overwhelming force.
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Mother with Hurricane Slash! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Mother's goal may be to frighten and demoralize Filgaia's defenders. It may simply be what she believes, deep in her heart; that she is superior to all other forms of life, even as she destroys them. That nothing matters, except Mother. That all she can do - all she will do - is hurt and dominate.
What it primarily does to Tethelle is make her angry.
Tethelle starts moving once the light stabilizes, and that saves her from annihilation by the Ley. It does not stop her from damage; one of the beams catches her as she dives forward, burning into her side, and then her back as she continues onward. It hurts, but not enough to stop her.
Tethelle picks herself up from the stumble and accelerates. Not impossibly - she's no Quick Draw artist, and she can't push her body beyond human limits of speed. But she does a flat-out sprint toward Mother, leaping over another one of the beams and coming down running, bounding toward the inhuman monstrosity of Mother. That Mother can draw upon the Ley, even crudely, infuriates Tethelle as much as what she's saying does. She lets the anger power her. It's remarkably freeing. She doesn't have to worry about what she's doing; what she is doing is *right*. She holds that righteous determination and focus, laser-like.
"You don't understand anything about being a mother," Tethelle growls, before she lets her voice raise to a shout: "And if you want to end it, try! Even if we lose, I'll resist you to my last breath!" The Medium pulses again, brighter. "We're here to stand against you, whatever it takes!"
Tethelle lands in front of Mother, spins, and strikes. She turns the first blow into a second, pushing upwards to pivot her blade, holding it overhead before bringing it down at an angle, using the impact to push herself around the great being. The movements are formalized and yet not; precise in how she moves, Tethelle nonetheless is using no pattern, no learnable style to control her blows; she is difficult to predict as she maneuvers herself around. It's hard to draw Mother's attention, but she's sure trying.
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Mother with Formless Blade! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has gained 2 Combo! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"I wanted to love you as he did," Ida whispers, as Mother continues to rant. "But I will not, and cannot love a monster." She glances sidelong at Fei, though Devil's Due remains trained on Mother. She feels the gun warm between her fingers, feels the way the bits cultured from Hyadean tissue--Kalve's--resonate, deeply and strongly. The Amadei make their appearance, and Ida's eyes narrow. All hell breaks loose.
A beam of raw energy lances past Ida's right shoulder, coming far too close. Ida weaves to the left, jerking her head aside moments before another beam strikes her between the eyes--but the third beam hits. Ida twists, turning a clean heart-shot into a blow that punches through her right shoulder. Her eyes widen in sudden agony; a mixture of crimson and quicksilver splatters the floor behind her. Ida bites back a scream, staggers, stumbles. Hyadean blood spills from her, mingling with the human, and Hyadean Living Metal surges into the wound to plug the gap.
"Your cruelty is impressive, creature!" Ida shouts, "but you have a poor sense of strategy!" She screams words because the alternative is screaming in pain. She trains Devil's Due at center mass--it's hard to tell where Amadeus Astra's center of mass is, but there's presumably some sort of shape beneath that robe.
Ida pulls the trigger. A single, chi-laced shot rockets at Mother's support, training brilliant white-gold sparks. Ida glances about the field, having taken her opening shot. Lunata, Shalune, Ethius--no. Ethius is targeting... something else. Dust is puffing out of important-looking machinery. Puzzling, but not the biggest threat.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Amadeus Astra with Chi Bullet! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Claude C. Kenny's Air Slash for 149 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
A splash of ink lurches from shadow to shadow, a midnight stroke on a black canvas. A transparent flutter scything between heartbeats in the Photosphere's bowels. The victorious crowing of Filgaia's finest echoes through the halls above, defiant cries with a spirit so tangible it almost has a taste. Thick. Electric. Like you could reach out and take a pinch and store it for later.
My loyalty was never to you.
But, alas. There is little time for such frivolities.
One renegade Quarter Knight ducks her head briefly as an impressive implosion claims the seal to Mother's quarters. They're working quicker than she anticipated, and hell, that's with her assistance. She skulks through the girders and rafters of the superstructure as a barely-visible outline, little more than a billowing mirage on a hot summer's day.
Your hunger blinded you. My rage sustained me.
There are more subtle ways into Mother's domain, of course. Which is why this particularly vengeful phantom simply presses a small, alloyed tag to a panel before a tiny irising door. It hisses open before her without incident. After all, why would a Quarter Knight be denied passage anywhere in the Photosphere?
And I will end what you started.
The cloaking device hums off, just as Mother's chamber is flooded with light. A scarlet-cloaked phantom familiar to some, clad in heavy armour and wielding a terrible scythe snaps into sight as a great and terrible silhouette--being backlit will do that to you.
Bitch.
Traitorous moves aren't a surprise this late in the game. Not with most of the Photosphere rallying against Mother. Still, maybe to some, the sight of one of those storied mass-murderers known as the Quarter Knights is a little spooky. Maybe the fact that the Quarter Knight in question seems to dissolve into two separate shadows that rejoin into one whole form as a means of dodging the searing beam of pure Ley energies that rake through the spot she was just standing in is spookier still.
More specifically, a Harken-shaped shadow reforms above Lunata Croze's head.
"You still need to keep a clear head until you've won." she advises her, coldly, but not cruelly.
The dread scythe Azrael leaves Harken's hands. Specifically: she boomerangs it cruelly at the robed figure code-named Umbra, who feeds Mother energies siphoned from the helpless Riesenlied far below. This is about when a certain voice from a certain ponytailed fool rings loudly above the din: 'HEY HARKEN! TRY NOT TO DIE!'
Thanks, Jack.
"I don't have a great sense of justice anymore," Harken admits as she phases out of existence and reappears in a blurry patch of speed somewhere above Umbra's head, catching Azrael as it spins. The momentum brings her with it. To wit, it brings her down--towards a robed head. Ready to split it with a terrifying blade that drinks life. "But I will tear you apart, and then Mother. Unless you flee now."
She didn't leave a lot of time for thought, or choosing options here.
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
Elvis merely grimaces at her statements. It was as if she was handling multiple personalities or something. What she once was, and what she is now. As though she is reflecting who she truly is, and at the same time, attempting to be what the Metal Demons once thought of her. And it isn't working.
For the moment, the Sentinel has little to say in return. No barbs to sling, no statements to make a point of. He lets everyone else do their talking. He has said his peace.
"What is wrong? Can't manage to deal with your problems alone?" he eventually says on the appearance of the pair of robed individuals. They infuse her with some kind of energy. That cannot be permitted. "Okay, strategy time, like I said before! Those need to be dealt with! Now!" Suddenly Elvis is bellowing orders to Humans, and whether or not they listen is irrelevant. Strangely, even as a self-proclaimed scientist...
...He sounds as if he has issued orders before. And with experience.
Mother begins to unleash the might of the leeched leyline, unleashing a torrent of lasers, reflecting a spectrum of pain and fire around the room. With a bit of worked Veruni magics, two slates of stone spring into being, flanking Elvis as the fire comes in. He gets grazed by a few lines of light, but with the appearance of stone, shelter can be found, though it is uncertain for how long they will stand. "The room is reflective to this energy! Try to make cover with what you can!
The battle is begun in earnest. Humans retaliate, and Elvis is not going to stand idly by. "HNGH!" the man lets out, as he crouches, the floor graoning from the shockwave left him his feet exploding outward, propeling him at Mother, fists raised. "It has been a long time since I have really fought! Let is see what your form of metal and flesh is capable of!"
A flash, and a dozen punches have already been thrown. A second or two more? dozens more.
GS: Lady Harken has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Azrael - Bloody Fang! GS: Lady Harken has completed her action. GS: Elvis has attacked Mother with Rapid Punch! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elvis has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Mother makes things unambiguous and Elly tries not to fall into her interior trapment, the feeling that she's made a critical mistake but she can't put her finger on what. This isn't an examination she can make up, there is no second-chance here, no compensatory point or instructor's judgment. It's time to grow up -
'witness how my traitorous daughter powers me'
Elly's eyes suddenly snap into focus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doEwWzMz99A
The streaking rays of blue-green light shine around them and cast her in strange relief as Elly is moved to speak despite her resolve to not call attention to herself until she had completed her work, 'the cast,' until things were fully set. She can't help it. The plan she made feels cursed now. There can be no reason to hesitate. "Don't you dare call her your daughter!!" Elly cries out with sudden heat, even as the rays begin to fire and Elly pivots herself around, raising her chin as the streaking light flows around her and -
It's like I could feel it coming. Is this where 'she' couldn't? It's not Ether but I can feel it tickling near me, in the place where I had my training, Elly thinks, the thought trailing off into something without a strange subtle echo as she ends up getting a glittering, buzzing stripe of pain along her bicep where, in fact, she did not look completely well. Her hair is singed in other places too, the long red locks flashing to smoke in tiny spots. This is inevitable, it is not the first time. The danger of a long style.
Another interlocking set of rays come towards her and don't refract so much as bulge, the air having condensed into something so dense around her for a moment that the weavery is distorted. That warping fades as Elly cries out:
"You're not a mother at all!"
Which is accompanied by a sudden whirling distortion, the entire hugged-tight Wind-ether pattern hurled like a visible shockwave towards the great monster!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lady Harken appears above Lunata's head mid-attack.
You still need to keep a clear head until you've won.
In slow-mo, for just a few frames in the midst of her flame swirl, Lunata's rictus grin is adjoined by her silently holding up one Lunie-finger to Harken.
...
...
(it's the pinkie finger because it's a promise, what did you think it was geez)
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Mother with Please... I'm serious.! GS: Elhaym van Houten has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Ethius Hesiod's A Curious Action... for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
To be frank, Arleph have no idea of the true capabilities of something like this. However, in the deepest recess of his soul, he figured that 'giant honkin' lasers of life energy' was probably going to be part of it. Something that feeds on life like this is probably going to deploy that sort of energy as a weapon of mass destruction.
Unfortunately, he's been correct about that.
Arleph throws a palm out, gritting his teeth tightly at the incoming BEAM, the invisible screen of protection straining under the flooding of destructive power.
"Tchhhhn! Of course you did, Parasite! Of course you did!" The Symbologist strains beneath the blast's array, lowering his hand and panting. Already? Did it take that much just to block that thing? He gave it everything he had to block it and yet... "A delicious, spiritually active world! But you didn't expect the amount of resistance here. How strong it was! But something's wrong, ainnit? Else a coward like you would've left already two thousand years ago."
Arleph slams his fists together, a symbological circle spreading out of the impact, swinging one of his free hands before him aimed at the Gigantic Construct that fired the beams. He's aware Ethius is doing something. He trust(distrust) Ethius enough to know that he's probably noticed something and is working on something. Best to give him the time to do... whatever he's doing.
The motes of light of the aftermath of the appocalyptic blast condenses into motes of light. Shockwaves of the various attacks around them, the remains of energy, heat and kinetic waves pushing into balls, streaks through Mother like hyperactive destructive rays, slamming back into Arleph himself.
"You're stuck here, aren't you. Either Filgaia is THAT juicy a target or you just couldn't leave. Amazing."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The world around Shalune twists and tears in a way she isn't ready for - she yelps as she clutches her hands to her head for a moment, pulling her bobble hat down over her ears as she tries to block out the pressure all around her head. "Gh--" she hisses to herself at the sudden force, but in the next moment she blinks with a mild sort of surprise. Perhaps it's her relative lack of spiritual concentration that's doing it, but the feel of the Ley fades almost as quickly as it arrived, leaving her head clearer.
And sharper, too, especially when she hears Lunata's laughter over the sudden din. That more than anything is what pushes her up to her feet, forces her to start to move; the way she springs up is less of a spring and more of a stumble, maybe, but it's still enough to get her feet down one in front of the other, feeling the familiar weight of her shotstaff in her hand and the way it vibrates in her hand.
"I'm with you!" she calls back, even if she's not sure which way she's actually supposed to yell it or where Lunata might be compared to the all-encompassing form of Mother looming above them. Thankfully, that narrows her options down to the obvious - and under the assumption that any covering fire is good covering fire, she places her staff at her hip to let the thing buck with energy, sending a brilliant green line of laser fire across the intervening space to scatter across one of the figures twisting around Mother's form. "Just-- keep your head, okay?! Stay safe! Or at least safer!"
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Amadeus Astra with Emission Line! GS: Shalune Amira takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Mother with Mote Reclamation! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a solid hit from Sorey's Vermilion Crescent for 155 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
For all of Rosaline's murderous bravado in the face of Mother's formidable presence, it is hard to murder someone when they're filling an enormous room with bouncing beams of Ley-infused light. Rosaline makes a valiant effort to leap and weave between them for dear life. She had a test run earlier today, and this one goes at least a bit better, the beams merely grazing her. The wounds are serious, but at least she isn't dead.
Her desperate escape leads her away from the alien matriarch and closer to one of the Amadei. "They're supplying power to Mother...?" she says, likely stating the obvious, but it's good to stay on the same page sometimes.
People already need to be healed, but no one is on the brink of death just yet, and Rosaline wasn't kidding about being mad as hell. She raises the hand holding Mother's Mercy and mutters a prayer incantation, then points it forward, issuing a beam of brilliant etheric light towards Amadeus Umbra. With her hands already full, she doesn't even bother to acknowledge her now-redundant Crest Graphs. Too much is riding on this for her not to fight with everything she has.
From the corner of her eye, she spots Lunata, focusing on the same opponent as her. It's... well, it's nice that she's still alive and in one piece, at least.
GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Sacred Beam! GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The shouts of the people fill the large room. Catenna speaks of Filigia not being Mothers plaything. Fei speaks of protecting the Metal Demons as well as the humans, while Elvis speaks of his own research and purpose; reasons noble and selfish both have merit here it seems. Barber speaks of her roots and what leads her here, while Claude keeps his words mostly to himself. Sorey speaks of hope while Ethius stands in silence. Lunata prepares herself for battle. Tensei makes her proud claims while she moves to her weapon, Tethelle speaks of the unity of the combatants. Malfi speaks of betrayal while Ragnell speaks of how they will survive. Elle, Ashton, and Shalune readies themselves for war, while Arleph speaks boldly.
The question is where is Rudy? Where is Jack? Behind the group, a few explosions occur. Who knows exactly what transpired as Rudy attempted to get here and catch up with the rest of the group, but with a powerful barrage of laser, one goes to the back of the room. There is a pained grunt and as the group disposes, Rudy is revealed at last, his side bleeding dramatically. He was hit bad.
But the Hand Cannon is raised up, a powerful shot rings out, a simple but effective shot aimed at a vital part of Mother.
There are no words from Rudy as he looks toward Mother. While others feel fear and anger, there is nothing but calm. Hes found his reason. His purpose. As long as Rudy can defeat this thing, will he find justice, stop this war, avenge the fallen? The serenity Rudy makes it seem as if everything hinges on this battle. Not just for this land, but for his very sense of being.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Gwen..." Hiro says with a smile, which seems proud, "... we'll make your Auntie Frea proud."
"I have learned differently in my travels. To be a mother is kindness. Compassion. It is to take part in the simple joys of others. It is a song when a child cannot sleep. It is a warm meal to fill the ache of hunger. It is a nurturing hand offered to one in need."
Lucia steels herself as her rage erupts, but somehow she manages to keep her voice even in her condemnation. "You are no Mother. Your own words mark you as simply a ravener who has corrupted the title to their own ends. I will not allow you to bring an end to our works here on this world!"
Hiro takes a step in front of Lucia as Mother calls upon the Umbra and the Astra. The two figures rise, and his face has an expression like the sight of them has given him a sour stomach to match the one he already had from Mother.
And that is when it feels like the world comes to an end. As everywhere erupts into light. The light feels like it is all consuming, coming at all angles and directions. Raising his sword, he parries one, while another slams his shield aside. And then he's so struck by several. Lucia hastily raises a blue shield which ripples instantly under the assault.
"You are a disease - a pestilence - I will see you burned out before your infection spreads any further!"
The Shepherd addresses her and Lucia gives him a surprised look, that seems strained, "That is the wisest course. Should we fall here..." She does not finish.
Hiro recovers just in time for his face to split into a grin at Sorey, "Couldn't agree with you more Sorey. We can worry about the rest later. Right here and now - let's help the Blue Star get back on track."
It's always a sight to see the Shepherd Armatize, and Hiro shields his eyes for a moment, squinting painfully. "The creature's servants must fall!" "... don't need to tell me twice Lucia." Hiro uses this moment of Sorey's transformation to start rushing forward, dancing through the maze of reflecting ley lasers. It feels like an endless slog just to keep moving forward, and he marks his advance by Sorey's flames.
Eventually as Sorey goes right, Hiro leaps up high, using the blinding flare of flaming light to mark his descent, as he crosses at the opposite diagonal of the Shepherd with a gleaming length of silver. "DODGE THIS!"
GS: Hiro has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Poe Sword! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Mother with Snipe Bullet! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Rosaline Calice has canceled their attack on Amadeus Umbra. GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Amadeus Astra with Sacred Beam! GS: Rosaline Calice has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Squall Shot for 72 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Seraph Ragnell!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia hums an affirmative at Jack. "A creature that consumes and enslaves. A Demon." Her fingers clench tighter, but like Jack, it is a pain of sadness, of the fear of the fight. She finds she can't muster the fire she spat at Siegfried, the hateful words that boiled in her stomach so many times before. "A real Demon," she breathes. Not of metal or dreams or anything else. Just...hate.
Cecilia sucks in a breath, trembling. "Jack, Rudy, Claude, Tethelle. We've come a long way together. One way or another...thank you."
She smiles thinly, then levels her weapon. "Now let's get her!"
The others rush ahead. "Those creatures," Cecilia murmurs - "No!"
The Ley is indeed commanded, as Mother siphons off the very life of the planet. The blasts scream in and careen around; Cecilia slams her staff down, and the Mountain medium erupts in light, a vision of mounting stones grinding out of the steel. Mother's attack slams into them, shattering the vision but leaving Cecilia only winded for it.
"So this is your strategy!" she calls. "Never satisfied...but no, why would you be?! All you know is evil! Then--!"
Cecilia grips a crest from her case and thrusts it out, pellets of ice gathering up around her even before the Crest fully forms in the air. Muse above and Muse below, united in offensive rune... "I will silence it! We all will!"
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Mother with Freeze Lancer! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has gained 2 Combo! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Tesni Inoue's Rapid Fire for 66 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Mother guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Hurricane Slash for 85 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Mother!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"...We will not be toys of those who are stronger than us. We are noone's toy." Fei says. How eerily familiar that is to Ida. "Destroy the Amadeuses first. They fuel her power, her barriers."
FEI IT IS TOO LATE FOR TUTORIALS. And also to the point, he's not going after the Amadeuses himself. Maybe he's hoping to keep Mother's attention focused on him rather than on someone like Cecilia or the other shamans who are bound to be like artillery batteries. Presumably. Even in his memories/dreams, he didn't exactly see a shaman battling Mother in them but with all the corpses there were bound to be some present at least at some point right?
Catenna isn't the only one worried about making mistakes, but the mistakes Fei is worrying about might be a little different.
"Do you feel it, Mother?" Fei whispers.
Mother commands the very Ley against her opponents but this was to be expected. Fei is hoping that Riesenlied will be freed and eliminate the power that Mother is supping on. Destroying Mother is important, but it's more important to survive. Survive until that happens.
Even against someone as tough as Fei, ley infused beams of fire are bound to hurt. They lance along Fei's body even as he twists to minimize the damage, but he can't minimize it all that much and he is thrust down into a kneeling position. He potion berry to tend to his wounds, closing his eyes as they knit themselves shut with the aid of his chi. Hard to say what hurts more compared to last time, but this time at least--they are stronger too.
He stands back up.
"Your children are growing up." Fei says. "They see you as you are now. Not a creator. Nor a destroyer. But oblivion given form. Child soldiers are not children forever. When I see them, I see what they could be. When I see Riesenlied, I see a defender of this world just like Asgard. They can all be like that, they still can be all like that. In their champions' eyes, they too love Filgaia. I refuse to let you use them anymore!!"
Fei dives in, throwing several strikes for Mother's body.
"STEEL BREAKING FIST!" Fei shouts.
Finish the cast, he thinks, finish the cast.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Mother with Hoten! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Formless Blade for 104 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
'I will do far more than... ...play,' intones Mother, above, shifting tones and all.
Even Josie's expression flattens out, a faint twitch visible by the corner of one dark eye.
"Huh," she utters, gaze thereafter hooded.
The same gaze that snaps sidelong as the glowing orbs arise from both side platforms, coelescing into the forms of two bodies. Loyalists? Thus runs the querying thought, before Mother intones the nature of their power.
The nature and the source.
Whatever ice had run in Josie's veins prior boils hot now. "You bi--"
The floor lights up.
Memory speaks.
"Did you forget that Symbols are not the sole magic in this world, stupid girl?"
His voice rings in her ears as the Ley energy burns bright, burns high. Is sent in a richochet around a chamber that now seems far too small and tight. "The power of the Ley is a power we control not, however ancient our practice and tradition. A pity. It would allow for feats challenging even the greatest of sorcerors we produce, should it be guided with a learned hand."
There's nowhere to dodge. Besides, it might risk the cannon.
"To me," Josie intones, calling up a crackling barrier of electrical force.
Most of it falls before the beams that impact her. She bites back a scream, grinding her heels against the floor. Holds fast. Pushes through.
Smoke smolders from her form in the aftermath.
She still slowly slides the Reaper's Hand from the holster at her hip.
Nostos isn't ready. It needs more time.
"...I'll tell you what I think of that," she states.
And sighting one of the Amadeus, she squints one eye closed and takes that shot.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Amadeus Astra with Out Of The Blue! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Amadeus Astra takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Chi Bullet for 65 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jack van Burace has posed.
Lights and fire suffuse the room and though it all blurs a swordsman. Bluring out of existance in between breaths as he tears though the arena, intent on the massive and very obvious target there in the middle of it all. The cause of all the power and pain of these Metal Demons. The second of his own personal demons. One that Cecilia confirms is the real thing. Not just a Metal Demon.
A beast of hate.
The swordsman smirks slightly. He has been a beast of hate and insicurity and loss. He didn't find it was very fufilling in the end. "Cecilia what the hell is that thing doing?" He calls out though as the sword screams free of sheath.
The pressure of the draw-cut slashing outwards. Scattering light and the very air itself to slam its own form of defiance into Mother's monstrous form.
"I mean whatever it is we should stop it because I'm assuming its bad." He adds as an afterthought as he bounds forwards, concentrating on the beast and not the minions for now. Though he sees Harken's entrence. He was never sure she was there, but he figured she wouldn't miss this for the world.
The roar of a familiar canon though brings a smile to his face as Rudy says hello in his own special way. "I love it when the gang's all here."
GS: Jack van Burace has attacked Mother with Blind Draw! GS: Jack van Burace has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Jack van Burace has posed.
Also, you're welcome Harken.
GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a solid hit from Lady Harken's Azrael - Bloody Fang for 172 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Lady Harken!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"... I, uh, can't really remember my mom, but I'm pretty sure that ain't what happens?" Gwen idly comments with a nervous chuckle.
She used up all her bravado in that earlier comment. Now, there's only Gwen, doing what a Gwen normally does in tense situations like this: make weird comments as a means to avoid the looming sense of certain death. Also, fear. Lots of fear.
So when she finally turns away from the grim visage of Mother, there's a tremble in her lip, masked by a wide reflex of a smile a moment later. Then, she sees Hiro there, and nods, her smile becoming something less of a mask, warming like a a spring bud after the first thaw.
I'm not really as brave as I make myself out to be. But right now, I think I can manage this, at least. For them and their future.
"Cecilia!" Gwen shouts, spotting the blonde shaman from afar. "We'll handle the others. Keep wailin' on that beast!"
Sorey goes one direction, Hiro goes another, intersecting their shots. Gwen lifts her ARM and fires a bright charge of yellow energy at the red-robed figure. "Here'sa big Badlands hello for ya!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Coil Cannon EX! GS: Gwen Whitlock has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Talking was going to be useless here, that much was obvious from the start. That was never why Xantia was here to begin with. But to hear Mother speak the way she does, so completely, well, evil... that just makes things that much easier. When that's the case, there's no real need to worry about whatever complicated circumstances there may be. To fight is the only option now. Just fight, and don't think about anything else. She can do that. She can do that better than anything.
"I know all about being hungry, but you're going way too far! Alright then, you want to play? We'll see how you like this game!"
That's as far as she gets, before the room is suddenly lasers. So many, it's nigh-impossible to avoid. And yet... Xantia is doing a pretty fine job of it, hopping, backflipping, and cartwheeling through the maze of beam fire as if she had practice at it. Because she did. She got trapped in a beam maze room once before. That went more poorly than it does now - it only took once to get the required insight in the angles that beams are going to bounce at to do this much better at it than before.
It all goes well right up until she's nearly closed the distance between her and Mother, and a beam gets sent straight for her. In a reflex, she waves her right arm, as if she were capable of physically knocking the beam aside... and actually succeeds at doing so, as she strikes the beam aside with her bracer. This act is painful, and knocks her arm aside, but... it worked, somehow.
Ignoring the burning sensation left on that arm, Xantia immediately launches an attack of her own, shifting her bracer use from defense to offense as its energy blade springs into existence. Rather than charge the rest of the way, Xantia then throws her arm forward, as if punching from a distance. With that, the blade instantly elongates, briefly becoming a long red energy spike to attempt to pierce through whatever it is Mother is made out of, before returning to its more common size.
She's never done that before. But she doesn't worry about it. This isn't the time to worry about exactly how you're taking the world-eating monster down, as long as it happens.
GS: Mother guards a hit from Elvis's Rapid Punch for 133 hit points! GS: Xantia has attacked Mother with Crimson Flash! GS: Xantia takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Please... I'm serious. for 107 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Mother critically Guards a hit from Arleph Ardan's Mote Reclamation for 39 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan has lost 1 Combo! GS: Amadeus Astra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Amadeus Astra completely evades Emission Line from Shalune Amira!
GS: CRITICAL! Amadeus Astra takes a glancing hit from Rosaline Calice's Sacred Beam for 97 hit points! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Rudy Roughnight's Snipe Bullet for 141 hit points! GS: Mother has adjusted their boss level for 29 opponents! GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a glancing hit from Hiro's Poe Sword for 62 hit points! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Freeze Lancer for 166 hit points! GS: Mother guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Hoten for 92 hit points! GS: Amadeus Astra takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Out Of The Blue for 158 hit points! GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Jack van Burace's Blind Draw for 29 hit points! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jack van Burace has lost 1 Combo! GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 128 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Xantia's Crimson Flash for 26 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Xantia! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
The first shot to slam into Mother a bone lance. It slams into the armor on Mother; Malfi, perhaps betraying her goddess but standing for her people, rams it home and sends out a gout of blood. It is not quicksilver, but red. The sort of too-bright red to never, truly, qualify as human. The next attack, a pot shot from Chime's crossbow, bounces off the white armor; a score mark is left, but little else.
"I will tell you what a mother is." Mother responds to Jay matter-of-factly. Her solution splatters over the alien armor; it begins to eat away, and yet the way the armor's layers peel back is not natural. It is no thing of human or Hyadean metallurgy. Claude finds this out, as he rushes in, and he throws an Air Slash down into hits metallic hide.
It bounces off, sparks flying.
Ethius looses a shot into the peculiar construct: a small piece of metal, poking out of one of the columns built into the side of the room, between panes of glass that look out onto underground permafrost. This appears to draw Mother's direct attention.
"You should mind your foe!"
Before she can counterattack immediately, though, because Ragnell's hail of thunder and lightning from her shot slam into the white carapace -- and leave it scarred black here and there. She screeches at Ragnell, inhumanly; she can see a Seraph, to be sure. Tesni's shots strike the carapace, some denting in -- and some bouncing off. The armor is some of the strongest they have seen.
It says something about Ashton, then, as he comes down -- and his blades bite into the armor that Ragnell and Tesni weakened. Another gout of too-bright blood sprays at Ashton, perhaps hitting him (or a dragon) in the face. Tehtelle's blade slames in too, not a moment later. One strike, then two, and more bright blood sprays out with arcs that seem impossible.
Then, it stops. Something within mends.
The armor itself dents inward, a crater left when Elvis rushes in, and slams a fist hard into her armor. It sends a jolt up the length of the Veruni's arm, when he strikes true. "But you shall all be my children!" she cries to Elly, to Jay, to all of them. Elly's winds rip and tear into the armor; it crumples along odd lines, where the shockwave impacts.
Arleph's spell slams into that armor. It resists in ways it should not -- Arleph's practiced eye can see the construction and fault lines are different. It doesn't break where he would expect. She snarls at him, but does not answer him directly.
Rudy has no words -- and yet Mother turns to look down at him. "What have we--" Which is when his hand cannon shot fires, the round bursting off the faceplate and leaving it scarred badly. Cecilia's ice spell wedges into the neck not a moment later, and while blood isn't drawn this time, it sticks between the armor, and reveals a few cracks.
"You... ...again!" Mother says to Fei, even as his fist slams into the strange, armored breastplate that is on her body. Some of that armor dents in about his fists. The armor is thick, though -- it turns aside Jack's Arctican blade, his stgrike bouncing away with sparks. Xantia finds the same, too -- that red energy spike digs into the armor, but it resists. Sparks fly, as the two strike.
At the center of the armored breastplate covering the vaguely feminine form of Mother's torso -- only vaguely like a humanoid's, and with no hint of limb -- a bead of angry red light abruptly grows. Motes of crimson light begin to draw down into it, one after the other, until the bead of light is a churning, roiling ball of flame.
It fires out eight beams of fire, closely packed together, in a triangle shape. It washes over a section of the battlefield -- and catches Claude, Josephine, Fei, and Xantia in its fiery blast. The floor underneath is left glowing red hot in places; it scores burn marks against the glass wall, blackening it in places, though never quite burning through.
One of the red-cloaked figures holds its hands to the sky. Its cloak already shows tears, from where the gravity around Amadeus Umbra pulled it to the floor. It is smashed down, and yet lurches up -- rising with a jerking, unnatural motion. That strange, jerk-like motion lets it yank past the mote of energy than Cyre sends flying. It smashes against a glass wall instead.
The thing turns, in time for a Divine Weapon to hack into its side. It stumbles past in an odd way, then -- and mostly certainly does not dodge the way Hiro's blade rips through its cloth more. Silver bits spray onto the ground, and a hint of something foul and thicker: large, worm-like pieces of metal. More of those writhing worm-like shards are splattered on the ground, when Gwen fires her ARM's beam through its midsection.
It wavers, but stands.
It speaks, finally, in a wavering and inhuman voice -- not robotic, but so monotonous that any sense of individuality or self is gone. Its voice is as a chant, a funeral dirge, even as it sings the praises of its goddess:
"Holy Mother, wreathed in despair
"Shatter this world as you have all others
"And let its broken ashes be thine glory!"
<Pose Tracker> Amadeus Umbra has posed.
A ring of violet light erupts around Mother. The ring soars inward, adhering to the white chassis -- though now charred and cracked, in a few places -- and infuses it before the glow of light vanishes entirely.
"Loyal servants! Waver not!" Mother cries out in her beatific voice. The two horns that curve outward shine -- thousands of small runic characters engraved upon them come aglow with a sickly green light. Then, there is a flash, and two beams of light fire. Each shoots over the two red-robed figures; they are scanned, as the beam rises from foot to head, and then that same sickly green glow is left upon them both.
Then, Mother turns. "Ghosts of the past should DIE!" she screams down at Elly. There is a titanic, fiery flash from her -- the first and only warning that Elly, Elvis, and Lunata get.
Around the three, a ring of red light appears. The ring is wider, with a line around each edge -- and strange, alien runes aglow with energy are in the center of each. These rings twist and roll about them, shimmering in the light, and crackling with a deep red lightning. The rings, also, burn -- and act as a way to close the character in.
Mother's voice cries out, bellowing, demonic, and furious: "BURN!"
From the ceiling, there is a terrific flash of red-gold light. Then, a beam of hellfire screams down -- and fills each ring. When it hits the ground, a fiery explosion rises upward; each person caught inside of the red rings, unless they escape or defend themselves, finds themselves consumed in a titanic column of fire from the ceiling. The fire flickers after a moment and dissipates -- and the ring vanishes with it.
Smoke wafts from the floor, burned black in three places, where each flame hit. Embers rise and drift away, and a few places of the metal floor are half-melted.
The other Amadeus is jerking, as well. It seems to hardly care about Lunata's eerie, terrible laughter. The ex-waitress slams a whirl of fire into the many red strands of cloth that make it. The thing turns, and there is a hint of eyes -- and no emotion, as flame begins to lick up the side of the red-robed figure. Ida's chi bullet slams into the side of the red-robed figuring, shooting out the back.
Bits of metal shards fall on the floor. Oddly, those shards of metal twitch.
"TRAITOUS DAUGHTER!" Mother screeches, as Azrael swings down -- and the blade shreds through part of it. Cloth scraps scraps and metal slivers go flying every which way, raining down onto the ground. Which is when Shalune's beam of laser fire cuts across the air--
--and it arches over backward completely, falling onto all fours, and scrambles like a spider to escape the strike.
Rosaline gets a good look at how it does that.
The energized beam that she fires slams through its groin and explodes out its head. Gouts of silver shards, of rusting and corroding steel, and wires explode from both exit wounds as it swerves to stand upright. Josie's shot blasts through its shoulder, and sends another spray of metal and red cloth out. It swings its head around.
Then, it raises a hand -- and directed by Mother's will, the thing looks towards Lady Harken. Its expression is impassive where it can be seen -- and hidden otherwise. Its hand pulses, and then a ray of purple light bleeding red explodes off it, firing towards the Quarter Knight.
Mother chuckles at that -- and then turns her gaze upon all. "Do as I command! Witness your planet's hatred turned upon you! I will be one with the Ley!" Mother screams, hard enough that the faceplate that covers whatever her true face is shakes. The metal rattles, a staccato percussion to her furious words.
By now, they all know what is coming.
Because Mother does it again. Lines of blue-green energy explode from all across Mother, criss-crossing the floor -- shredding through some of the floor plating that has been peeled or broken up in the course of this explosive fight so far. Beams ricochet off the glass; they bounce off the floor, bending into strange angles. The blasts of light even fire between legs and over shoulders, to strike some of those who seem unaware -- or never expected them coming. This time, they burn with a purity that those in tune with the land would feel familiar.
It is Filgaia's own power, claimed and turned against them. The land screams -- and the Guardians would, but the spiritual oppression of Mother silences them. Their presence is a hammering in the minds of those here. A plea: to be aloud to be heard, to be aloud to live.
"BURN UNDER THE WEIGHT OF WHAT IS MINE!"
GS: Amadeus Umbra has attacked Mother with Regna Glorio! GS: Amadeus Umbra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amadeus Astra has attacked Lady Harken with Melancholy Ray! GS: Amadeus Astra has completed its action. GS: Amadeus Umbra takes 9 damage from Poison! GS: Amadeus Umbra has completed his action. GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Amadeus Umbra heals Mother! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Mother has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Xantia with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Mother has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Verdensforbruk! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Mother has attacked Elvis with Verdensforbruk! GS: Mother has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Mother has attacked Lunata Croze with Verdensforbruk! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Malfi with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Ashton Anchors with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Arleph Ardan with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Shalune Amira with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Sorey with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Catenna with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Chime Isa with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Hiro with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Lan Lilac with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Rosaline Calice with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has attacked Tesni Inoue with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Jack van Burace with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Ley DOMINATUS! GS: Catenna takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 98 hit points! GS: Shalune Amira takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 203 hit points! GAME: Tragedienne has cleared all buckets for this scene.
GS: CRITICAL! Lunata Croze guards a hit from Mother's Verdensforbruk for 179 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Lunata Croze! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 112 hit points! GS: Hiro critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 41 hit points! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny critically Guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 100 hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Sorey critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 37 hit points! GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 200 hit points! GS: 2 Combo gained from Boost! GS: Catenna has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Tesni Inoue critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 44 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Tesni Inoue! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Tesni Inoue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Mother's Verdensforbruk for 48 hit points! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Rudy Roughnight critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 41 hit points! GS: Rudy Roughnight has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 43 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 118 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong used the Force Action Protect! He takes Mother's attack on Elhaym van Houten on himself! GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Mother's Verdensforbruk for 306 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Fei Fong Wong has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Lady Harken takes a solid hit from Amadeus Astra's Melancholy Ray for 122 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 124 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 119 hit points! GS: Tethelle Cirdian guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 115 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Rosaline Calice takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 123 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Rosaline Calice! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 108 hit points! GS: Chime Isa takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 106 hit points! GAME: Josephine Lovelace has been added to the Amadeus_umbra bucket! GAME: Claude C. Kenny has been added to the Amadeus_astra bucket! GAME: Sorey has been added to the Amadeus_umbra bucket! GAME: Ethius Hesiod has been added to the Mother bucket!
GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 175 hit points! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Cyre H. Lorentz completely evades Ley DOMINATUS from Mother! GAME: Elhaym van Houten has been added to the Mother bucket! GAME: Cyre H. Lorentz has been added to the Amadeus_Umbra bucket!
GS: Xantia guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 135 hit points! GAME: Ida Everstead-Rey has been added to the Amadeus_Astra bucket!
GS: Malfi takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 99 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Lan Lilac takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 136 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Lan Lilac! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GAME: Shalune Amira has been added to the Amadeus_Astra bucket!
GS: Rudy Roughnight used the Force Action Protect! He takes Mother's attack on Gwen Whitlock on himself! GS: Rudy Roughnight has activated a Force Action! GS: Rudy Roughnight guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 118 hit points! GAME: Tethelle Cirdian has been added to the Mother bucket! GAME: Jacqueline Barber has been added to the Mother bucket!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
A part of Catenna still can't believe how fortune has turned: She's fighting alongside Lady Harken and Malfi against their goddess. But then, Mother has made her position on things all too clear.
But she's fighting alongside someone else, too. The wind surges. Catenna widens her eyes. "Cyre!" she exclaims, a spark of happiness in her voice that radiates through the chaos.
Cyre understands, Catenna can tell. So do the others. As Sorey lashes out with the sacred flame of the Shepherd, Catenna sweeps back a distance and lets him unleash, and Saarda-Shanta follows along with a flap of little winglets. <Whatever happens to Riesenlied, we absolutely must disconnect Mother from the Ley,> the little Owlet advises. <But the powers we have at our disposal are not sufficient to dispose of the Amadei quickly.>
Catenna's mouth fills with the steely bite of disappointment. "Support, don't aggress."
<Yes.>
Then I may have already made the mistake my ancestors will rebuke me for, Catenna realizes as she begins to move again--
<No,> Saarda-Shanta assures as she flits past Catenna. <Remember that you do not fight alone.>
Catenna swallows a lump in her throat. She glances towards Sorey, towards Gwen, Hiro and Cyre - and she sets her jaw, freshly determined. Dashing through the ley-lit room, she shifts her focus to holding Mother at bay. It's the best she can do for her friends and lover alike.
Once more, the Photosphere itself vibrates. Those furious lines of energy erupt from Mother like talons of the Ley. The glow of them bathes Catenna in sickening blue-green light as she tries to lunge through the crossfire. Gasping, she leaps over one ray, only for another to rake across her arm and send her sprawling. Another slashes within inches of her, nearly ripping off her head as she scrambles to rise. The crossfire is stifling, keeping her from truly getting close and cutting her off from her approach to either of the Amadei. "Cyre!" Catenna screams over the din. "Don't let up!!"
She can see what Umbra did to mother - that ring of violet light pulsing and strengthening to infuse the hideous goddess of Metal and flesh. Clenching her teeth, Catenna draws herself up and tosses back her thick, dark hair.
"What you have done to the Ley will not spare you," Catenna declares, her voice firm. "For the lifeblood of Filgaia is not yours on which to slake your thirst."
Leveling her right hand, Catenna fights down a surge of fear. The motes of light that dance around her as she gathers her power gleam with the shimmering silver of lunar energy. She collects power within the space of a few seconds. Ley lasers rip the air around her; one slashes shockingly close to her, spraying shrapnel across her side. Blood runs down her flank and hip from a hundred little cuts, but she merely winces, forcing herself not to stop. She can't stop.
"Be robbed of your servants' aid!" Catenna shouts as she gestures once, imperiously.
And a silver ring of light shimmers around Mother. Rays of moonlight ripple up and around her - and they whirl, pulsing as they shine brighter and brighter, to begin trying to strip away those gains she earned from Umbra's supporting power.
GS: Catenna has spent 1 Combo on Disease, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Catenna has attacked Mother with Dispel! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Catenna's Dispel for 0 hit points! GS: Mother suffers Infect, extending negative statuses by 1 turn each! GS: Mother has been weakened by Disease! They take 40 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points! GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Mother! GAME: Lan Lilac has been added to the Amadeus_umbra bucket!
GS: CRITICAL! Jack van Burace takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 128 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Jack van Burace! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
When Xantia says your hunger goes too far that is saying something.
Fei always had his own goal in coming here. There were many who wished to save Filgaia but Fei only ever wished to save one girl, one hyadean, and yes lets include his pals as amongst those he wishes to save.
Fire is unleashed by Mother. The fire burns along Fei Fong Wong's body. His attunement to the Guardian of Flames provides some resistance, but not enough. Never enough.
Mother screams about the ghosts of the past. Time slows down for Fei Fong Wong. He sees who Mother is focusing on and his feet move on their own.
He pushes Elly out of the way, far too gentle to be a shove, not nearly a tackle. He smiles at her as the fire hits him full on, his body wholly covered in flame.
When it finally fades, Fei is still standing, severe burns covering the whole of his body. The icy chi mist rippling away from his body, cooling him down.
"You're right." Fei says, smiling the only peacefup smile he has had these past few days. "Ghosts of the past should die. But what do you think you are, Mother, but a ghost of the past?"
He turns his back on Mother and approaches Elly. "But neither I nor Lee nor my mysterious power will save the day today. Today belongs to the people of Filgaia."
He says this as if he is not one of them.
He hugs Elly tightly.
"Finish the cast..." He says. "Elly...LIVE!"
The strength gives out and he passes out in her arms.
GS: Ashton Anchors critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley DOMINATUS for 43 hit points! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
For Sorey, it has always been about protecting people - that and learning more about the two worlds he has found himself protecting, because his passion is learning about the past. That there has been so much more to discover, an entire new world's worth, has just made his journey all the more meaningful. But as his sword slashes down at the creature supporting Mother, Sorey glances back to see Hiro following him into the fray.
And he smiles. Because he knows that despite the terrible situation he has found himself in, Hiro is not a bad guy. He's fighting for what he believes is right, and while he could be wrong... Sorey is increasingly certain that there is more to Lucia's situation that meets the eye.
They've put the hurt on one of Mother's assistants, but it's still up and kicking - and they need to press the attack.
But Mother continues to wrench at the very life force of the planet, pulling energy forth and blasting the entire room with incredible streams of energy. He can feel the planet itself screaming as the creature in front of them rips the energy free, using it to batter its defenders with incredible streams of power.
"You will NOT!" Lailah shouts, appearing in front of Sorey, Hiro, and Lucia and throwing out a spread of her sacred paper talismans. The beam of energy slams into the slips of paper... and it rebounds, pushed back by the Lady of the Lake's defensive barrier. She struggles against the beam, looking back at Sorey and shouting, "I'll handle this! Do what you can to stop that thing from passing her more of the planet's life!"
Sorey nods once, and another flash of light appears on the battlefield as he releases Lailah's divine weapon, allowing it to disappear as the Fire Seraph handles the defense. Immediately behind the Shepherd, a new figure appears. Grinning his usual pointy toothed grin and looking at Umbra from under the brim of his hat, Dezel takes a moment to assess the situation. "You know I'm not really the team player type, Shepherd. Although I suppose that I can probably play along some in this case," the Wind Seraph declares, and Sorey smiles for a moment before he glances at Hiro. "I'm going to try and draw it's attention high! I believe I've seen you use some wind magic in the past, so if you can use my attack to boost your own, go for it!"
A glance is shot back at Gwen, and Sorey shouts, "I'm going to see if I can make an opening for everyone! Get ready!" He extends a hand to the side and shouts, "Let's do it Dezel! Lukeim Yurlin!"
The Shepherd's white form appears again, but instead of the red highlights it had possessed before, instead the feathers in his hair are green, and instead of the huge gold and red sword, he instead bears an array of gold and green blades floating around his back like a pair of wings. With a smooth motion he leaps into the air, raising one hand and summoning six of the blades to hover around his right hand. "Strike forth, oh blades of wind!" he shouts. And the divine weapons shoot downwards like tiny stars, each one aiming to embed themselves into Umbra and distract it as they carve into its limbs.
"Whirlwind Slash!!"
DC: Sorey switches forms to Armatus Lukeim Yurlin!
GS: Sorey has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Whirlwind Slash! GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sorey has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
One of Mother's rays richochets onto Malfi's left foot, leaving her limping (and bleeding). She staggers but remains standing, and strikes once again at Mother's crustacean-like thorax, aiming her lance between the plates as best she's able.) "I will not call you Mother...what is your name?" she demands, though she's pretty sure Mother considers her beneath her notice and won't dignify her question with a response. The room has erupted in a chaos of magic, ARMs-fire, and missile-and-hand weapons, plus the technological assaults at Mother's command. Fortunately Mother is a very, very large target and difficult -- though not impossible -- to miss.
GS: Malfi has attacked Mother with Beyond the Impale! GS: Malfi has gained 1 Combo! GS: Malfi takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a glancing hit from Sorey's Whirlwind Slash for 74 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"Careful, huh..." Lunata is forced to whisper as she listens to Jacqueline for a moment. For a moment, it's like her combat buzz has evaporated from her--
Ghosts of the past should DIE!
She stares towards her as the ring of light erupts; there's that twisted grin again as she pushes against it with Ge Ramda's spectral claws. For a moment, it feels as if it will work, bristling spectral power resisting against flame--
BURN!!
There's a terrific eruption, as the light erupts from the ceiling. Lunata melts into that light for a moment as Ge Ramda's claws visibly evaporate; when all's left, Lunata--
Lunata is still...
There.
Jacket shredded to just one sleeve now, whatever necromantic ooze beginning to show as whatever passes for a semblance of life starting to fall apart.
Yet she's still GRINNING.
"Oh, don't worry, Lunie. I'll keep my head... I'll..."
She stumbles past the blackened, charred bit of floor. She dumps Freiheit to the ground beside her for a moment.
She's got Orochi-Agito instead, stooped to that quick-draw motion in a fashion not dissimilar to Arctican Fast Draw or Clear Water, Still Mirror--
She glances towards Fei and Elly for a moment, as he shouts and drops to Elly's arms.
"Being assembled in this way... it was something that Fei said that rang utterly true with me."
Her eyes flash.
"Violence is Filgaia's language. And by that metric--"
Lunata summons an elemental sphere of Cut towards the Astra as her arm blurs into several whirling, whipping motions blinding.
"I'm a goshdarn linguist!"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Amadeus Astra with Cherry Ronde! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Mother guards a hit from Malfi's Beyond the Impale for 63 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Malfi! GS: Amadeus Astra takes a solid hit from Lunata Croze's Cherry Ronde for 144 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline's potion splatters over Mother's armor, but it doesn't react in the way she expects. Still...it seems to have some effect.
"I've already heard." Jacqueline replies dryly. "You said to be a mother is to 'crush, ruin, and dominate'. What you want are pawns, not children. If that's what you think a mother is...then I have to say, I feel sorry for you."
In the distance, she can see that the Quarter Knight, Lady Harken, has joined the battle. She's...somehow still incredibly intimidating, even if they're ostensibly on the same side. Jacqueline makes a mental note to steer clear, focusing her attention on Mother. Still, thought, she can't help but smirk appreciatively at Mother's shout of rage.
Mother attacks, and Jacqueline winces as beams of Ley energy are fired down upon them. She can feel it more intensely now - the purity of Filgaia's power, turned against her. She's ready for it this time, and manages to get the barrier up more quickly...but even so, it's draining her energy reserves quickly.
"A mother's role...is to love, to teach, to care for...to protect her family, and to ensure that her children can grow and go on to make the world a better place. Did you ever have anyone like that? Did anyone ever truly love you, False Mother? Without having to be coerced and brainwashed?" Jacqueline asks, nearly stumbling. Nearby, Elvis has created some earthen barriers. Jacqueline takes advantage of this now. She can generate her own if necessary, but their presence now makes things easier on her. With a gesture of her left hand, a pillar of earth launches out, aiming to strike Mother while also extending the cover.
She finds her gaze drawn toward Lunata for a moment, and she appreciates that even in the midst of battle, Lunata was minding her language.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Mother with Pillar Crash! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Pillar Crash for 27 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Mother makes an insane assertion. Others deny it, but Ida doesn't do so outright--after all, there are many terrible mothers out there. "I will tuck my children in at night, and I will tell them of the time great heroes fought and slew a monster who threatened the world." Listening to Ida's words, one might make the mistake of assuming she's not scared. It's not true. She's terrified. Her fear is not an obstacle to struggle against, but something that gives her power.
'We are noone's toy,' Fei says. It carries, and Ida hears it, despite the din. She glances at him, and in his movements, she sees something familiar--an echo of what Jackie Sayo taught her. A prototype of the fragment of what might have been the Demon Fist's original style. There's no time to marvel.
'Witness your planet's hatred turned upon you!'
Gouts of raw Ley rip through the room once again. Ida rushes for one of the stone slabs Elvis conjured, throwing herself into a tumbling roll and crouching behind it. As extra insurance, she throws up her gauntleted right hand; the plates on the forearm split apart into a makeshift shield. The power of the Ley goes right through both. It scours her. It burns Hyadean flesh, and the pain is enough to make her momentarily light-headed. Her legs give out from under her. When she comes to a few precious seconds later, Ida is lying on the ground, human and Hyadean blood dripping from her burned right arm. She pushes herself to her feet, sees Mother renew her assault.
"ELLY!" Ida screams. Time slows.
It all happens so fast.
Fei sags and falls, his body a scorched ruin. Red haze seeps in at the edges of her vision. Her right hand tightens into a knot of flesh and metal and rage. "Begone, creature!" Ida roars. She surges back towards Amadeus Astra, chi burning off her right hand. The inner core is brilliant flame, the outer corona brilliant gold-white.
"STEEL-BREAKING FIST!"
Her hand comes down at the Amadeus like a pile-driver.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Amadeus Astra with Steel-Breaking Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Amadeus Astra has activated a Force Action! GS: Amadeus Astra takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Steel-Breaking Fist for 85 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.
The second time Chime is faster, but not fast enough. As beams of energy and hellfire explode everywhere the ARMs Meister takes enough hit. Chime lets out a little cough as she remains on a knee for a moment. "Well~ That's twice now and it looks like most of us are still standing~" she calls out cheerfully.
BGM Shift:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=467Q0kd9pug
Chime calls out cheerfully in a voice filled with hope and strength, "The battle seems unwinnable, but all we need's a miracle~ We're going up, We'll never be denied!" as that cheer seems to literally roll off her in a wave to give strength to others as she picks herself up and gets ready to continue the fight herself.
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Jack van Burace with It's Okay!! GS: Chime Isa has attacked Jacqueline Barber with It's Okay!! GS: Chime Isa has attacked Catenna with It's Okay!! GS: Chime Isa has attacked Gwen Whitlock with It's Okay!! GS: Chime Isa has attacked Ashton Anchors with It's Okay!! GS: Chime Isa has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with It's Okay!! GS: Chime Isa has completed her action. GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's It's Okay! for 0 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The air thrums, and once more Shalune pushes herself to the side, breathing hard as she feels the air compress around her senses and press in on her. Hard-headedness won't save her this time, it seems; she grits her teeth hard enough it sends a lance of pain though her head, but at least that's something she can focus on rather than the increasing blackness at the edges of her vision.
Another dive behind a console affords her another chance to catch her breath, sort of - the unpleasant sensation is overwhelmingly all around her, but being out of Mother's sight is something of a comfort. Her hand strays back to her pocket as she winces, her mind racing as she tries her best to sum up the pros and cons in the space of an instant, separate out the addled fear from the determination. Not yet - not just yet.
Still, she can barely tell when the best time would be. The battlefield is already chaotic, and despite Lunata's protests Shalune is not at all sure that the spirit of her suggestion is really being kept up, so much as just the letter of it. ... ... that thought, wildly formed, makes her snort despite the tension, or perhaps in spite of it. Lunata absolutely would argue that it only counts if her head actually does come off.
She risks a peek around her cover, watching the Amadeus Astra's movements carefully. The one saving grace is that they're fighting all together, a positive army of Drifters... and not just Drifters.
She yelps when she's picked up all of a sudden, a lurching moment of paranoia - and then again in sheer relief as the hand is familiar. Big Shal moves through the battlefield with a slow, steady pace as the golem deposits Shalune on the scaffolding on its back; it is a machine, after all, and the energies of the Ley do not seem to have a hold on it. Its progess is inexorable as it steps forwards--
--and as it draws an arm back and then forwards with astonishingly speed, a straight faster than any the golem has ever managed before, followed up with a twelve-foot uppercut from a metal fist.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Amadeus Astra with Big Shal - It's Showtime!! GS: Shalune Amira takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Don't worry," Cyre says, grinning under his mask. "Do what you need to, Cat. I'll be right here. Let's show this parasite just how strong this world and its people really are."
After all, this is what he was born to do.
This is the purpose his people took upon themselves.
Though there's more meaning to it now. When he'd left so many years ago, turning his back on the way of life he was brought into, he had nothing. Nothing real. There was an emptiness there, a void that he couldn't fill. It was all meaningless competition, ancient and ill-understood traditions and empty effort. But now-- now he has a real reason to fight.
He has something in this world worth fighting for. That, more than anything else, is the strength his journey has brought him.
The prodigal son of Wehaca hears his planet's scream, he feels its anguish. The monster steals again of its lifeblood, turning it to destructive ends. But as the beams close in, Cyre again raises his hand as if in benediction. This time, they don't burst around him as they did before. They're drawn in, pulled into his open palm and through arteries and veins and nerves. The power of the world suffuses his very being, blossoming into a dome of brilliant, emerald light.
His fingers close around his medium-- and he presses it to his heart.
An all-too human yell gives way to something far more bestial, something deeply and undeniably primal. The emerald hemisphere surges outward, blasting through the Mother's sanctum like a storm's first breath. It shatters like glass, twisting upward in a tornado of light as the Nahual of Fengalon emerges once more into the world.
With a world-shaking roar, it lunges and strikes. Again and again and again, Cyre swings massive claws in a vicious and feral combination strike as he tries his damnest to rip that one red-cloak to shreds. The wrath of the planet shall be known, here and now...!
DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Nahual - Fengalon!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Tiger Breaker! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's It's Okay! for 0 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
That should hold for now. She feels better... less sick. Less weary. Clear and pure, like water.
Lan focuses her attention on the nearest wrapped body, frown growing deeper as she watches it spasm and jerk. She's reminded of the tomb guardian, and how it had writhed in madness, and how it had felt to kill something she should have been able to save.
It's all this horrible thing's fault. Yeah. The awful things that have happened, the planet dying, the suffering of its people...
"It's all her fault," she whispers. An echo of Myyah Hawwa nods in agreement.
If this monster's being held up by corpses, then it's her duty as a shaman to lay the dead to rest. Even if she has to finish putting them in the grave herself.
--no, that's not ri--
Lan kicks off of the metal floor, a blast of ley energy sizzling a stripe across her back before she's clear. "Haaaaaaaaaaaa!" She charges the closest Amadeus, closing the distance in the span of two breaths to rain open-palmed blows upon it.
GS: Ashton Anchors takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's It's Okay! for 0 hit points! GS: Ashton Anchors gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Move Like Water! GS: Lan Lilac takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Amadeus Astra takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's Big Shal - It's Showtime! for 140 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius doesn't so much as blink in the wake of this apparently ineffectual, pointless action. He seems to make this weird side gesture with all utmost sincerity. His mind races across deeply-ingrained processes and reasonings he does not grasp the origin of. The dust within the nearby mechanism(s) are just a means to an end. He is aware of the exact quantity of dust he has introduced. How it moves through - or doesn't - tells him leagues, parsed in an impossibly small amount of time.
He has never been in this chamber before.
He has never seen Mother before.
He still knows what this is.
Mother scolds him. This sees Ethius blink. The phrase 'World Eater' pulses through his mind. He can feel his heart beat - no, the thrumming of something else around this chamber, so primal and great in nature that his own body is confused by its own rhythm. At any given moment, he is inches away from a fear-induced heart attack.
His facial expression does not change. He exhales. In doing so, however foolhardy it is, he seems to further detach himself from surrounding affairs while incredible power rages about. Every odd ARM screams for him to look their way. Every 'off-beat' physical feature one bears might be competing for him to look. It is this one detail, above all, that stands out.
The touches of the natural beauty of Filgaia, the light of the moon, the gentle breeze of wind, all surge. A great silver light - Celesdue's - descends upon Mother, and however momentary, a feeling of the immense pressure abates. Ethius' chest pounds a bit less... and then the breeze grows fresher, more lively, in the presence of the Nahual...
...and he faces away from Mother, towards that column. That should line his gaze up to Amadeus Umbra-- no. Past the flying red cloth construct. He still has to use his quarterstaff for balance to stay upright. He is surrounded by the calls of defiance and will. He considers the very presence of those Lunarians who have been swept up in this, and once more closes his eyes. He considers the presence of the one confirmed Veruni whom has openly boasted his support. He considers the odd comfort in which one other seems to be able to summarize some running theories he himself may have. He even considers the odd dress of one in white.
A hand goes to his forehead as he stares at the column, keenly looking for any flitting of dust that might appear. His mental map of this odd construct's build processes itsel--
Ley power dances across the chamber again. Ethius pays for his foolishness as one such beam descends upon him. Searing, agonizing, hot--
--he doesn't slam the quarterstaff down on the cold floor loud enough for the echo. It's a reminder to himself.
It is my responsibility. This mission statement coherently survives all-consuming pain. His hand comes off his forehead as he twists fingers in a jagged, painful curls and directions that only the most dedicated Symbologists practice as he evenly chants out the syllables.
An electrical spell seems to go towards the strange thing in the column, of nebulous purpose and even more questionable effect on this desperate battle to sever Mother's connection to the Ley - any damages incurred to nearby systems continues to be incidental.
After nearly two years of the Drifter communities Filgaia and Lunar having to put up with this nonsense, it appears now that it's Mother's turn to suffer a strange man who seems unfettered by much of anything, to do exactly as he pleases - no matter how weird, inconvenient, or even dangerous - and refuse to give any such explanation for why.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Mother with What Is He Even Doing...! GS: Ethius Hesiod takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GAME: Arleph Ardan has been added to the Mother bucket!
GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's It's Okay! for 0 hit points! GS: Catenna gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's It's Okay! for 0 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Amadeus Umbra guards a hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Tiger Breaker for 91 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle's dance-like sword skills carry her around Mother, to the rear of the giant... bug? Parasite? Monster? Demon? Tethelle isn't a biologist, and she's angry anyhow; she settles on Demon. She may not be metal, but she deserves that much and more.
"Right!" she calls back to Cecilia, as she momentarily pauses her assault, both to open a path for other people past her and to deal with Mother's inevitable response. She can feel the power building, so it's only a matter of time until, as the Amadeus speaks, it crests.
The fire comes, but it isn't aimed at Tethelle. She staggers backward anyhow under the sheer force of the Ley, but she's close enough to see some people hurt Mother, make her screech. Not so invincible after all, she thinks, looking more fierce than anything else.
Someone - Elly? no, Fei, she thinks - goes down, but she can't worry about that now. She can't. She has to keep fighting, even if she wants to keep them safe. It only makes her more angry, though she fights it down; determination, not rage, will serve her best here...though the rage doesn't hurt. She reaches for her Medium instead as the Guardians scream; she can't hear them, but she feels the tingle in her arm through the Medium, the pulse of gold-green light radiating from the etchings on the stone plate.
It shelters her from the blast, as Tethelle is momentarily surrounded by a halo of that same energy, a rippling aura like off-colour flame; the ley blasts impact it and *splash*, buffering Tethelle from the worst of the impacts. She holds the Medium in front of her like the plate was a shield, mouthing a prayer before speaking normally. "This isn't the planet's hatred. It is *your* hatred. Filgaia rejects you, demon! I will be Equites' blade and nothing you can say will stop me!"
The flaming aura around Tethelle shifts, flowing into a golden sword tinged with green, made of burning energy and about eight feet long, the very pommel surrounding her fist clenching the Medium. Tethelle can't possibly swing it - and indeed she doesn't; it fires away from her like a cannon-shot, the recoil sufficient to cause her to stagger backwards from the backblast.
"Filgaia will never be yours!"
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Mother with Arcana - Shining Sword! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tesni Inoue has posed.
Eithus may be on to something with how his actions seemed to gain mother's direct attention. Tess can see just how heavily armoured Mother is. It's not too shocking but still to see just how tough she is may have Tesnei change her tactics here she'll stop shooting and lower her rifle as she gets to moving again as she knows something else will be coming.
"I am not your child and never will be."
She hears the words of many including Fei, Ellie and more and it helps to keep her moral up. Hate? Hate is something mankind will never be able to shed no matter how hard it tries and remain itself it may be the counterbalance to the potential it has for compassion in the end still she feels it turns against them the land screams and she braces herself for the impact, she's not feeling so good, but it could be worse it could be worse.
Live, survive, was that not the purpose of life in some way live? This world could be something greater than it is now, if it lived to reach the stars, she would fight for this world to have that chance.
"A mother helps to guild helps her children to become better than she, to achieve more than she did. To support and love them."
It seems Jay has had an effect on Tess mortal and the Teran keeps going. She raises one arm even as her body feels like it's burning.
"BE SILENT!"
Her symbology tattoos may be glowing a bit as she channels a power focusing her entire will on the material world she attempts to do one thing. She reaches out with Telekeinit force to grab Mother and crush what passes for her throat if she can find it, maybe then she can help stagger the constant barrage of magical power that's being thrown at the defends of the world. Yet she thinks about the rage of the world? Fei is then dropped, she has not known the man but his worlds alone make her feel a sense of loss as he seemingly falls.
GS: Tesni Inoue has attacked Mother with TK Choke! GS: Tesni Inoue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tesni Inoue takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Tesni Inoue has completed her action. GS: Jack van Burace takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's It's Okay! for 0 hit points! GS: Jack van Burace gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Energy, fire, rings. It flies left and right and everywhere. Ashton's flesh sears, dark robe burning. But he presses on.
Mother's too-red blood splashes across the swordsman. Creepy, redder now than before, ROARS in furious victory. But the wound is hardly a fatal one - Ashton knows that, even if his two partners are caught up in it all. He can only press his attack and strike harder. Faster. Don't stop.
But even as he's seared and singed, he sees it. Fei goes down. There's worry in Ashton's heart - but also a promise.
TWENTY MINUTES AGO
"But honestly, in this moment... I am mostly just worried about Elly." He doesn't apologize for his selfishness. Instead, he focuses on Ashton.
"If something happens to me, I'm counting on you." He tells him.
It takes several long seconds for Ashton to process the fullness of it. But to Fei? He does nod. "I won't let you down. My friend. Let it not come to that."
NOW
A promise was made. And while he hoped it wouldn't be needed? It will be kept.
The Double Dragon Duelist vanishes again from where he stood - and is suddenly interposed between Elly and Mother. Without hesitation, he's already using his blades to trace a diamond in the air. Ice forms along the lines, pulling together to a shield. Smaller motes of ice - sharp flechette-like slivers - launch off of it in a barrage.
Ashton grits his teeth, preparing to take what comes. He's been forced to forsake one promise already in the maddening battles of the Photosphere. He's not going to give in on another one.
GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a glancing hit from Lan Lilac's Move Like Water for 48 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Lan Lilac! GS: Ashton Anchors has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro's blade bites into silver and shreds red cloth as he hits the ground and pivots back around. The terrible servants hymn wringing within his ears. "How can anyone worship this thing!?" The boy says aloud to the Shepherd - to Gwen. The dirge itself feels like an insidious cancer, as he can see it empowering its goddess- "We have to stop that song right now!"
However, Mother makes it clear what's coming, and he has to momentarily abandon his assault as the criss-crossing beams of blue-green assault. Before it had felt like a slog, but this time he has a better sense of the room's geometry. Huddling down in his position, he catches one on the edge of his mirror-shining blade, splitting it as it goes off in two different directions.
Back skipping, another catches his shoulder, causing him to gasp and put a hand up to there. It still sets him out of position as he stares at the creature's creepy face.
"That power is not yours to possess." Lucia says in reproval. While Ruby clambers down behind Lucia to take cover as the Princesses shield is pounded, "SHE SEEMS TO BE POSSESSING IT REAL WELL LUCIA!"
"Then we must loosen her grasp."
Ruby however spies Fei and- "Fei! FEI!" Ruby flies to the edge of Lucia's field and bangs against it with tiny pawsies. "YOU IDIOT! IF-If you died..." Something in her voice sounds so defeated as she gulps back tears to something soft, nearly inaudible to anyone except her, "... I'm guh-gonna be real mad when I see you again."
Hiro can see all of it as Lailah climbs free of the Shepherd to try to hold back the assault, as another Seraph joins in. He doesn't know him, but he can at least follow it. "Well if there was any time to shed that loner cred..." Hiro grins, and glances towards Ragnell in that moment. However, as Sorey calls the shots, he says, "That's right. Don't worry. I've been taking full advantage of Lemina's magic training. Just give me an opening for it and I won't let you down."
Reversing his sword behind him, he juts out his opposite hand, and begins a long incantation. The wind is already rising as a result of the Shepherd's armatization with Dezel, and he takes full advantage of it. Ending on a simple - "FEROCIOUS WINDS!"
As Sorey's six blades shoot downwards, Hiro conjures a cyclone on the spot. The centrifugal force attempting to trap the servant of Mother within, and whip it about wildly so the blades can keep biting into the red cloth over and over again.
"Gwen! Finish it now before it sings again!"
GS: Hiro has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Hiro has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Cyclone! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Mother with Northern Cross! GS: Ashton Anchors has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
It doesn't take that keen an eye to see that Xantia's weapon is proving largely ineffective here. Whatever that armor's made out of, it's proving quite resiliant. Seeing how much better fisticuffs were doing, it looks like that's the better answer here. Suits her just fine.
She isn't given any time to follow up, however. The attack that's charging up is easy enough to spot, but impossible to escape given Xantia's position directly in front of it. All she can do is take a defensive stance and weather it as best she can. This is a terrible plan. She's never going to be able to withstand something like that if she just keeps standing there. Not without some kind of active defense, and it certainly doesn't look like she has anything like that.
And yet, after the flames pass over her... Xantia is still standing. Badly burned in places, yes, but not as bad as it should be. Never as bad as it should be.
Exactly what she did is unclear. It didn't look like she was doing anything other than dig into her position and crossing her arms in front of her. But she must have done something to grant herself resistance against that. Perhaps this is a result of the training she did with Lily to improve her Ether control. If that's paying off right now, it couldn't have picked a better time to do so.
She herself doesn't worry about it. Mainly because she has a bigger worry. Fei was right there with her until a moment ago. He isn't there anymore now. She immediately looks around in a panic. "Fei? Fei?!"
And then she spots him, cradled in Elly's arms. She doesn't know his condition, but it doesn't look good. Though she feels an impulse to go check and make sure, at a time like this, another impulse tends to win out instead. The impulse to make the responsible party pay, and render them incapable of hurting anyone further.
With a roaring yell, Xantia turns back towards Mother, and launches herself directly at the world-devourer, lightning bursting out from within her body. In the unlikely event that any tactics were going to be employed, they're definitively out the window at this point. Now, she's just going to punch this thing in front of her, as hard and as often as she can.
GS: Xantia has attacked Mother with Elemental Fury! GS: Xantia takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Ethius Hesiod's What Is He Even Doing... for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline makes a face as she gets an unfortunate close-up of that skittering Amadeus. At least she blasts it for its troubles, if not quite in the way she intended.
Then comes another Ley beam barrage.
And once more, Rosaline finds herself leaping and running away from Ley death beams. She isn't particularly attuned to the land, at least not nearly as much as her shaman friends, but she can hear something screaming as beams shriek past her. She manages to outpace them for a time, but soon her overwhelmed senses catch up to her. The apocalyptic din of battle, the flashes of Ley light, that scream.
"STOP IT!" she shouts, clasping her ears, before a beam hits her arm directly. Flesh burns away. Blood sprays out. She lets go of one of her ARMs.
But when the smoke clears and Rosaline stands up, she finds herself still holding one ARM, and this time in a position much closer to Mother. Well, this is appropriate.
"This world isn't yours-- You're nothing more than a COMMON THIEF!"
She had been waiting for this moment for a long time. She had never been sure if Mother's Mercy had been made from a piece of Mother, or if it was just a random name, but blasting away at Mother with her namesake shotgun ARM still feels providential, in a way.
"Praise be," Rosaline says, between blasts.
GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Mother with Mother's Mercy! GS: Rosaline Calice has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rosaline Calice takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
It is as if some small measure of Hell itself has bubbled up from beneath the ground, such is the searing heat and the brittle dryness of the air as the very pulse of Filgaia is siphoned into the terrifying visage of Mother and released against the assembled defenders of the Planet. The Quarter Knight's gaze swivels quickly to follow the twisted form of the Amadeus follower she just tried to bisect, ducking beneath a blinding burst of Ley energies in the interim.
Memories from that woman bubble to the surface, similarly. Memories of the stone battlements melting from the heat on an otherwise frozen night.
'TRAITOROUS DAUGHTER!' shrieks Mother, who has probably not actually laid eyes on any such treason that Siegfried and Harken were planning until this very moment. This must be an unpleasant revelation. For her part, Harken readies her terrible scythe behind her back with one arm, the other hand held out to steady her. Azrael hums like an engine on standby, a violent nimbus glimmering around the blade.
"I never bent my knee to you," Harken clarifies kindly for Mother's sake, her voice carrying coldly over the din. "Only to Siegfried."
There is, however, a lot to take in at once that commands even the Quarter Knight's heightened senses. The perfidious Amadeus preachers continue to bleed the planet's energy to Mother, the man in the ponytail that Harken recalls giving Siegfried so much pause--falls. In the span of a heartbeat, sacrificing himself for another. The ginger-haired woman. The curtain of fire intensifies chamber-wide. An Alien God's wrath briefly focuses on her.
A lot to take in at once, as I said.
"Tch." Harken mutters darkly, leaving the wounded Amadeus for now. She springs backwards, but the motion is predictable. Especially to one with infinite cognition. A searing lance of unlife pierces the Quarter Knight's breastplate as though it were tissue paper, and her eyes briefly dim as whatever fel forces animate her are sapped.
But purpose and a righteous fury are powerful things. And the glow of recognition returns to Harken's face even as she is slammed against a wall. The wall craters, murals and runes of infinite beauty ruined in an instant.
"Vambrace, you dolt! Are you with me, or not?!"
There's a flash of guilt. Those aren't her memories to use, but whatever--desperate times call for desperate measures. The scarlet-clad knight yells her challenge to Jack and gathers her strength. She catches his gaze from across the chamber, looks towards one of the shambling Amadeus, and then...
... she is gone.
Reappearing at the moment Lunata Croze invents what may well be a new Fast Draw--something to talk about if they survive this day--and unleashes it on Astra. It isn't that Harken teleports, no, that's cheating, it's that she moves too fast for the camera to follow, for dramatic effect. A lurid, glowing red eye is the first thing to appear in the face of Amadeus Astra before the rest of Harken materializes, seemingly, around it. "I still draw breath, servant of Mother. You'd best fix that."
Unlike the overhead chop of last time, Harken's scythe bites through the air in a berserk horizontal sweep with more force than finesse. More instinct than training, on this one.
GS: Lady Harken has attacked Amadeus Astra with Killing Intent! GS: Lady Harken has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lady Harken has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Lady Harken has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Arcana - Shining Sword for 100 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
After his assauly, Elvis backs off, his right fist red on the knuckle's crest. "Not much out there that can stand to my attack! Impressive, nut not invulnerable!" he says, spying that dent.
Mother, in her terrifying glory, lashes out again. "JUST TRY ME!" he snaps back. And boy howdy does she. Him, and two others nearby suffer as rings open on the floor, and flames hot as FIlgaia's core erupt. Elvis reacts quickly, stomping the ground as a massive pillar of water erupts under him and surges upward to combat the flame. The water is quickly fought back, but it buys Elvis enough time to smash his way to escaping, getting seared by superheated water in the final moments. "You are gonna have to-- oh damnit!"
Others weren't so lucky. It seems that Fei kid ate the attack for the young lady he is often with. "This is no time to be... damn..." That kid is fried. But what was it he said? It sounds like they have a plan. "Miss." He doesn't quite remember her name.
"...You have to stay strong." The man still winces from those boiling burns. "It is the best you can do for him right now." The man reaches out a hand. Powerful energies erupt around him, then slowly travels, coalescing into a small blue-and-violet sphere in his hand. "Allow me to help you."
And with that, the orb rolls down his fingers, and hovers at the tip of his index finger, which lightly touches her forehead. There is a moment, and then there is a shockwave of power that infuses her. Stronger. Faster. Durable. The ability to lift boulders and dodge bullets feel within her grasp. Though it is a fleeting feeling. The power of water and earth intertwined is quite the sensation.
"Use it well! Let is rejoin the fight!" His left hand makes an upward gesture, forming a small stone barricade to place Fei behind, and Elvis leaps back toward the fray.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ghosts of the past... Ragnell glances from Mother to Elly and Fei. Interesting. She files that one away for later, even as flames slam down and bolts of light once again sear through the room. She's more prepared for the attack this time around, so manages to stay on her feet when she backflips out of the way of a direct hit, but that power... She grimaces as she lands, red eyes narrowed. That's the power of the Guardians, the power of Filgaia, without a doubt. As a bearer of a stone Medium, she can tell at least that much. She wonders again how Luceid intended on getting what they wanted out of all this before rising up in a casting pose, golden Seraphic glyph lightning up at her feet.
"Pierce through! Shock Lancer!" she shouts an instant later. A lance made of pure lightning materializes and shoots directly forward towards Mother, potentially cracking her dumb face.
She falls out of that pose, ready to dodge again, smirking briefly over Mother getting bent out of shape over Harken. Then she glances over towards Hiro, Sorey, and the others fighting one of Mother's venomous servants. She smirks as she hears clips of conversation about shedding loner cred--ahh, that must be about Dezel, given how he suddenly merges with the Shepherd. Too bad she hasn't shed her own, though in her case, it's less about being a loner and more about being whimsical about who she helps, isn't it?
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Mother with Shock Lancer! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Elvis has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Ready Yourselves!! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Tesni Inoue's TK Choke for 0 hit points! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tesni Inoue has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
Jack receives a smile from Rudy Roughnight. Its quiet, but sincere. "We get so little time" Ill cherish these moments." The battle is raging and he says hell cherish this? He seems so at peace, almost zen-like. It feels so right. Using overwhelming numbers and firepower to take out a Metal Demon threat. One of many. But these people are not meant to be like him. They have other purpose than this fight.
"Youre welcome, but youll leave, Cecilia. Ill see to it," Rudy offers calmly, as if he could affect this outcome on his own merit alone or knew of something in the future. Fei is attacked before Rudy can think or react, a blast tearing into Rudys right shoulder. More blood flows. He blinks as he looks toward the fallen warrior, the only brief act of regret he can afford considering the vicious battle. As Gwen speaks about her own mother, he gives his request: "Make sure you live," he states as he calmly replaces his cartridge with another one; so many different methods to kill, so little time. Despite the powerful ARM of death in his hands, his eyes and smile are warm as he makes his gentle plea. Hes still child-like, even as the powerful energy meant for the woman slams into Rudys armored glove, the smoke rising from the intense blast. In the wake of effort, he adds simply, "Please."
Rudy takes a step closer, his ARM twirling about his right hand as runes glow on his left forearm, displayed in front for all to see. When the weapon is aimed, the attack is unleashed, blaring forth an explosive round.
As the monster makes her missive known, Rudy offers his mere inquiry without lack of compassion nor malice. "Mother, if you die, does this end? Will the Metal Demons stop?"
...That's what Rudy wants to talk to Mother about?
GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Mother with Boosted Shell! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
One good shot is all she needs. The plan is simple: the plan is death. Down the both of her servitors, then take the fight to the alien queen herself.
Something's wrong with those creatures, though -- she can see it in the way it moves when she shoots it. Is it alive? ...Is it 'itself'?
The floor again glows with the stolen Ley. Somewhere, somewhere, Mother bends Riesenlied to her will. A darkness falls upon Josie's expression.
Countered by the light, shining dully from the cannon as it continues to draw in power from the core.
Still not there.
Mother has begun to glow: wrath made reality, all in the form of the blazing bead continues to grow.
Is unleashed.
Right where Josie stands. Holstering the Reaper's Hand, she dips to scoop the entire length of the modified cannon into her arms, cradling it like a mother might an infant. She breaks into a run -- as much a run as can be managed with such a burden, leaping with cannon in tow as flames rain down.
Her coat is aflame when she lands. Every muscle in her torso and arms screams from the exertion. She rises, still hovering over the cannon, and shucks off her longcoat. She loved that coat.
Let it burn, then. We go into the circle at night and are consumed by fire.
Let it burn. Only one thing matters right now.
The supports slot out again. Again, the Nostos cannon stands ready and waiting. Humming. Brightening. Josie again pats it. Lovingly? Reverently? Who can say?
And she stands, drawing the Reaper's Hand once more.
"It ain't yours," she says simply, drawing a bead now on the Umbra, the closer of the two to where she stands. "Not us. Not this planet. And definitely not Riesenlied. Things like you..."
She pulls the trigger.
%R "...Oughta burn in hell."
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Arleph reflect back on awful mothers he's seen in his life. He's pretty sure that this one takes the cake, as it is barely one to begin with but on the most bare definitions.
Having Mother snarl at him is something of a comfort. Words CAN hit home on something as massive and horrible as this. The armor's protection and reaction do give him some pause, it's probably time to shift gears on that matter.
But first: Hatred.
The lines of blue-green energy slams into the invisible shield Arleph thrusts out, gritting his teeth. A large part of it get filtered away, but also another massive amount SLAMS into him, making him stagger back from the sheer strain of the attack. This is raw energy, a purity that he wasn't expecting to see. So, she DO really have the power of digging into that Leyline.
As if that was ever something in doubt.
Still, despite the strain, Arleph finds the time to let out a laugh. "You? Take us as your children? You must be disillusional, Parasite. I don't know how long you've been eating civilizations from other worlds but you've stumbled on us."
The Symbologist breaks out from his shield, one arm swinging out in a rapid flash. Light and ice form around from wrist to elbow, slciing out into the air as he gets on the move. "I do not know if the Hydeans had spirituality like we did or that you drained it from them, or if you've done it to all others, but you wont get away like that with Mankind!"
The ice slash is brief, swift and precise, attempting to aim between seams, to wedge itself nastily. "We may forget, we may repeat mistakes, but know this in your final hours: we will face worse than you, in the future. Mankind have struggled worse things than you and will struggle again!"
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Amadeus Umbra with The Quick And The Dead! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Mother with Azote Flash! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan takes 10 damage from Poison! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Northern Cross for 72 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Elvis's Ready Yourselves! for 0 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Amadeus Umbra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Amadeus Umbra completely evades Cyclone from Hiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia offers Rudy her small smile. Her ever-dependable rock... "I know you will," she says.
Sadly, such a moment cannot last. "She's siphoning the Leyline!" Cecilia calls at Jack, struggling to keep her voice under control. "It's...it's like the planet's soul! Its lifeblood! And besides that..."
Her hand reaches down to the Crest Case, where her Mediums shake like frightened children. "It's what the Guardians exist in...if she controls that...."
Her eyes narrow, her fingers shaking. "The Guardians would die! And Filgaia would die with them!"
And Mother proves it. That light burned once; Cecilia swings at it with her staff, this time, her own barrier barely withstanding the brunt of that power. Cecilia struggles to stay upright, light playing around her fingertips. "The...the demons controlling the Ley! Attack them! I'll work with Tethelle to hold Mother off!"
Fei goes down. Cecilia tracks it; sees he's fallen in Elly's arms; and though it stings that she can't run over, she squares herself and focuses, reaching down and grasping another Crest. Crest magic is powered by the leyline, she thinks; like her Guardian summoning, if Mother draws too much Ley, Cecilia will be down to the very few tricks she knows how to do with her staff...
For now she thrusts a hand into her Crest case. "I can hear them, their sorrow and fear! You can't, even if they scream inside your belly, can you!?"
She thrusts another Crest forward, Fray and Fray united in assault. "They called out to me. They've been calling out to me my whole life! And that's why I know how scared they are!"
Her fingers clench around the crest, light blooming in front of Mother's mask. "And why I know I have to fight you with everything that I am!"
The bead of light explodes, an untyped Destruction spell igniting toward Mother's core!
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Mother with Heart of the Crests! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny has seen enough of Mother - and heard, and smelled, and felt enough of her, for that matter - to know that the best option for him is to get the hell out of Dodge. He fires another laughably-effective Air Slash in the World Eater's direction, watches it splash across the monster's armour plating, and grits his teeth angrily. This creature - Mother - is a being of power he simply cannot hope to match. Unless...
The tricorder's HUD pings a frantic alert to the boy from Earth, spotting rising temperatures in time to warn him; Claude sucks in a breath and slams his foot down into the floor, stomping up stone pillars that block the concussive force of the blast, parting the seas of flame to either side of the young Federation officer. They don't stop the heat, however, and the power of convection forces Claude to scramble out from cover almost immediately afterward. He scuttles away from Mother, sucking blazing air into starving lungs. For all that Claude is tired - he's been fighting off and on for more than an hour, first while breaking into the Photosphere and then again when faced with the remnants of the Golem Lolithia - he's on a roll, seeing the dangers, picking his targets, staying alive.
Others, however, are not; Claude grits his teeth as he sees Fei dropping into the arms of his flame-haired friendgirl. Claude keeps breathing, scanning the room, watching through the tricorder-HUD lens, trying to track the energy flows. It's hard, through the frantic chaos of Mother's leyline assault. But she's pulling the power in from something else, other than those lines. It's...
"The minions," Claude breathes, and then half a second later, Cecilia's cry cuts through the din, confirming how matters truly stand. The young man licks his lips and drops down to one knee, sheathing his curved sword as he does. His right hand slides under his tan jacket, then comes out with yet another strangely constructed object; this one a dull silver that Ida and the Dawn Chasers have seen before, in glimpses, shielded partly from view by legerdemain or environmental effects. It's an item Lady Harken will remember, because she's had it pointed at her face before. It's an item Ethius will no doubt be angry to see at all, much less carried openly. But at this time, in this place, Claude doesn't give a damn about hiding. Not if it means this world dies. And so Ensign Claude C. Kenny of the Pangalactic Federation Navy raises his father's phase gun in both hands, and aims it---
---about eight inches from Ragnell's face, actually. It's not his fault she's see-through.
A target lock paints over Amadeus Astra; Claude draws in a deep breath and lets loose a scream of warning, that gives the poor lightning Seraph - and anyone else in the vicinity - the chance to clear the firing line.
"LIGHT COME FORTH!"
And then the young man in alien raiments unleashes a blade formed of the purest, brilliant light upon those who would bring calamity upon the world.
GS: Mother guards a hit from Xantia's Elemental Fury for 97 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Xantia! GS: Claude C. Kenny has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Amadeus Astra with Sword of Light! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Mother guards a hit from Rosaline Calice's Mother's Mercy for 76 hit points! GS: Rosaline Calice has lost 0 Combo! GS: Amadeus Astra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lady Harken has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Amadeus Astra completely evades Killing Intent from Lady Harken!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
A blast rings out, and Gwen flinches back.
A familiar glove intersects the blast- not her own, but Rudy's.
'Make sure you live.' Gwen's face wrinkles with open worry. "... Rudy..."
Why is he talking like this? Has he given up? Is he scared? "I will, don't worry, just please-"
Sorey says her name, and Gwen looks up, her face still drawn into that worried grimace. It's the right time to witness that transformation, turning Gwen's expression to one of awe.
So that's what a Shepherd is, huh? To inspire hope in the midst of despair.
Chime Isa adds an extra burst of inspiration to Gwen. Sure, there's no real time to manage a sizeable blast. But what Gwen *can* do is-
"Choke on this!!" Yes, that's Gwen, running *straight* at Amadeus Umbra, using the two wind mages' magic to help push her forward. Her fist thrust forward.
She can worry about these questions later, and the planet, and about how strange Rudy is acting, about what's next. She'll do this.
THIS IS HER DPS, _DROPPING PUNCHES per SECOND_
GS: Mother guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Shock Lancer for 78 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Amadeus Umbra with Special Delivery! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Rudy Roughnight's Boosted Shell for 98 hit points! GS: Amadeus Umbra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Amadeus Umbra completely evades The Quick And The Dead from Josephine Lovelace!
GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Heart of the Crests for 35 hit points! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has lost 1 Combo! GS: Mother guards a hit from Arleph Ardan's Azote Flash for 93 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The part that baffles Elly is 'you shall be her children.' Does she mean them personally? It is not certain - it does seem more specific than merely that she will take human and beastman into her thrall as she took Hyadean - even when the rest is becoming horridly clear. As the room erupts into war and screaming, Elly finds herself in a half-crouch, smiling for a moment at Mother's recognition of Fei's blow.
Fei, she thinks -
But the chants of the Amadeus rise. The voice of an angel cries, and then Mother turns to look right dead at her and Elly tenses upwards. A ring of light is forming and she is already developing a countervalence that would have worked great if it was what she had thought, but when the rune forms, Elly finds herself rising upwards with grim familiarity. Maybe I'll wake up now, she thinks, when she suddenly and without dramatics is pushed back.
She stumbles out of the ring.
Fei is there. The fire lands on him.
"AH - Fei!!" Elly cries. From her perspective the walls of the world fall away. He keeps speaking, he keeps walking, he turns towards her. He's fine - he's even hugging her. Then he goes limp.
Elly supports him, but it's a losing game. She ends up slumping down to her knees and it is probably a sign that she is about to join him, in a field of battle like this. "... Fei," she says quietly, reaching up to stroke his hair, stained now with soot and grease. "I... You aren't a ghost," she says. Her eyes are wet.
"Don't - Fei, please - j, jump up or do something," she says to him, her voice drooping. "You did it so often before, please, I -" Her breathing quickens, her face contorts and she is sure that she must have just been killed because she wants to collapse now. To implode. She cradles his head to her, and
'you have to stay strong,' someone says.
Elly thinks to herself: I don't want to be strong. I never was. I just tried to pretend - but then she realizes that it was someone saying that. She looks towards Elvis, purplish eyes wet with tears, before he moves to strike. She clings to Fei but then the real miracle happens:
What comes into her is (to Elly's perspective) a transient charge-space of potential Water-type Etheric energy. He makes a barricade then and Elly realizes it. The world slides back into focus and she whispers to Fei with quiet ferocity, "I will. I'll be there. I promise. Whatever happens." She moves behind that barricade.
When she comes back - and she does not move far - Fei has been carefully, almost reverently placed.
Elly breathes out, her bangs hanging partway in her eyes. She raises a hand... sweeps it forwards...
Before she sent a rampaging wind towards Mother, almost a probing strike. This time it is something far stronger. The wind whips upwards as she pushes forwards, and she is able to pour all of what she has into that wind because the 'water' that Elvis had given to her by whatever means is able to go into it, forming a super-saturated cyclone - a pocket tropical storm - and this is thrown towards Mother, the winds forming slow zones interleaved to guard the innocent as Elly looks towards Elvis for a moment.
She grins at him in a way that doesn't seem like it's quite her usual expression and says to him, "Thanks. I was gonna choke there, but I think I've got it now." Back ahead, she murmurs something to herself. "-So, ice...-"
"This planet wasn't yours... TO BEGIN WITH!" Elly cries, as a sudden pulse of fire erupts well above Mother's head. This accomplishes nothing directly... but the fire came from a shift in the thermal flows of the room... which means that the entire 'cyclone' collapses downwards in a massive sheet of rain that approaches a physical discharge. Still, not enough force to do more than splash.
Until it flashes into jagged icicles mid-pour, frozen fractal knives aiming to stab her from all directions!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Mother with Aqua Confine! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Amadeus Astra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Amadeus Astra completely evades Sword of Light from Claude C. Kenny!
<Pose Tracker> Jack van Burace has posed.
Again fire and light and death rips across the room. This time though Jack isn't faster than light. He almost is but the flames born of stolen life wash over him. Hanpan's shield of wind isn't even to save him and the flames lick his clothes and burn the end of that ponytail of his.
He rolls to his feet as the flashes of flame vanishes. Trying to vainly put himself out the man looks this time towards one of the Mother's very annoying little figures. Anger blossoms in his eyes as he fixes on the figure there...even as the flames start to fade around him. There is a salute tossed towards Chime as he smirks slightly. Working together. That is how they win....
Cecilia tosses information his way and he snarls. "Wonderful....fine! If the only way to end that happening is to put them down, then thats what we'll do!"
Vembrace, you dolt!
Memory or not. Fake or not. There is a vicious and joyful grin suddenly blossoming on his face as he hears those words. Still it inspires him. a memory of a better time. A happier time. A simpler time.
"Fine! But only because you asked, Harken!" He shouts his reply as he nods once towards Cecilia and Rudy. Trusting Rudy to the princesses defense as he blurs towards one of the demonic minion he drops low. Coming in under Harken's wild swing, bluring himself. Not quite as fast as her but still faster than any human has a right to be as his blade tears though the air towards the creatures side, trailing wind and traces of the fire that once set him alight.
GAME: Tragedienne has emptied all placed buckets for this scene.
GS: Jack van Burace has attacked Amadeus Astra with Wolf's Bite! GS: Jack van Burace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jack van Burace has completed his action. GS: Amadeus Umbra takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 135 hit points! GS: Amadeus Umbra has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GAME: Sorey has been added to the Mother bucket! GAME: Catenna has been added to the Mother bucket! GAME: Malfi has been added to the Mother bucket!
GS: Mother has adjusted their boss level for 23 opponents! GAME: Ethius Hesiod has been added to the Mother bucket! GAME: Tesni Inoue has been added to the Mother bucket! GAME: Tethelle Cirdian has been added to the Mother bucket!
GS: CRITICAL! Mother critically Guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Aqua Confine for 39 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has lost 1 Combo! GAME: Cyre H. Lorentz has been added to the Mother bucket! GAME: Lady Harken has been added to the Amadeus_astra bucket!
GS: Amadeus Astra has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jack van Burace has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Amadeus Astra completely evades Wolf's Bite from Jack van Burace! GAME: Shalune Amira has been added to the Mother bucket!
<Pose Tracker> Amadeus Astra has posed.
With each use of Ley energy, the patterns on the floor glow brighter and brighter. Arleph and Ethius may notice, however: the patterns glow brighter after each Ley-infused strike finds its target. The Ley is building up energy, and losing practically none. With it, Mother has a power that is only self-replicating.
The Owlet speaks, offering its wisdom -- and Catenna does not fight alone.
Her spell burns into Mother. Unlike her so-called children, Mother is a creature of sorcery--but she is not invulnerable to it. A ring of silver light contracts, and then it burns away the very imbued power that the Amadeus gifted her with. Fei's words echo in her ears as that power burns into her.
"No... no..."
Mother's words are cut short, as Malfi impales her -- lance smashing into armored plates, and almost digging through. The smooth faceplate looks down at Malfi. "I am destruction. I am your goddess."
Her armor is mighty. Jay tells her what a mother is -- and Mother laughs, in that unhinged way (that isn't so different from Lunata's). The pillar of earth slams into white armor and shatters into so many rocky fragments.
It begins to dawn on Mother that Ethius is not, in fact, witnessing.
He moves to the column, and electricity crackles through it -- something on the column flickers. A glowing green screen, with alien runes. It flickers, and then it goes silent.
"What are you doing!?"
Tethelle provides a different answer to Mother. Mother is subjected directly to the power of the Guardians -- shielded by her Medium, she rushes in. Mother cries at her, as she charges: "Filgaia is nothing without me!"
Tethelle's sword, last time, did not find purchase. This time, it does -- the gold sword, burning with green, slams into the carapace-like armor and breaks through. There is red meat below; then a gout of bright red blood explodes out, splashing all over Tethelle, and driving the shaman of Equites back.
Tesni, however, makes an unfortunate discovery: Mother has no throat. Armor plates buckle, for a moment, before pushing back against her telekinesis. If the World Eater breathes, she hasn't lost air.
Ashton interjects himself beside Elly, then rushes back in. His blade doesn't draw blood like before -- or like Tethelle did, this time. Instead, he dents in armor, hammering away at it more and more. Armor folds about it, with each blow. Xantia comes in, not a moment later, wreathed with lightning.
Sparks explode and lightning arcs away from Ashton, as the redhead's fist drives into the armor, crumpling a portion of it in. Blood begins to ooze, from where cracked armor has dug into the flesh beneath.
"I will cease at nothing, little beastwoman," Mother spits back at Rosaline. Mother's Mercy fires; the shotgun round clips into the faceplate, and a massive crack shoots up the middle. Blood begins to ooze and drip from it. "HOW DARE YOU!"
Ragnell's shot slams into Mother. It bursts through some of the armor upon what is, roughly, her shoulder. Lightning crackles over it; her armor shudders but holds, as Mother floats there, largely stationary.
Mother looks down towards Rudy, Ragnell's lightning crackling over her. "This will never stop. All of this is my gift to you: war without end!"
The explosive round punches in another, massive dent on her armor. Then, Arleph Ardan's ice slash comes in -- it smashes into the armor, denting it in further; the shards of the broken ice rain down onto the ground. Mother screeches down for him: "All of my consumption makes similar promises! It avails them not!"
Cecilia's spell explodes, next to her -- but it slams into the heavy, armored plating along the back of her head. While it is blasted black with soot, it is unbrken. "They are right to fear."
Elly's fractal ice knives explode, slamming into the battered husk of Mother's carapace. Somehow, she withstands -- still floating there, but dripping with that eerie, far too bright red blood.
She listens to Elly...
...and laughs.
"Your entreaties are the desperate cry of the vanquished!" Mother answers Lailah, voice distorting on the very last word.
The Amadeus Umbra looks up. There is a slow, clothed blink of its eyes. It jerks hard to the side -- yanking away from the worst of the wind-driven blades. Two, however, slash it. Cloth strips go flying up high where they slash.
Then it whirls, and it swings up both arms; the elbows snap at an unnatural angle, to make an X-shape, as the Nahual of Fengalon is upon it. It blocks the blow with its arms -- and then ducks down, trying to slide under Cyre's legs. The creature slips under, then springs back upright.
It leaps, then, jumping over Lan's attack. She still clips it -- and the Amadeus tumbles over, before it lands in a handstand, walking on hands across the ground a few steps. Then, it leaps again -- jumping over the cyclone that Hiro swirls up. The thing goes into a tight pirouette. It looks down at Josie.
And then it opens its mouth--no. It tears open its own mouth, fabric shredding, and it swallows the bullet she shoots at it. Its head bulges out, a bulbuous growth billowing outward, then buckles straight back in. The thing looks at her with eyes that, Josie realizes, are actually more cloth strips. The whole of its exterior is, somehow, red cloth.
Which is when Gwen punches her fist straight into the back of its head, and then through it. The head explodes; cloth strips burst outward, to reveal a body that is composed solely of writhing metallic worms, maggots, and wires. They all explode outward, in a titanic torrent of quicksilver blood -- but it begins to tarnish, quickly, and then fade into a blackened pool of filth upon the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
The red-robed figure stumbles after Lunata's sphere appears, whirling slashes leaving fluttering red ribbons that rain down behind it. It turns, then, and its body shifts, swaying side-to-side. Ida's hand comes down for the Amadeus, and it bends hard to one side. Ida scorches along its left side, flame whipping and jumping up the robes, but it snaps back upright.
It does so in time for Big Shal to launch an uppercut into it. Its body slams upward. It smashes into the ceiling and... sticks there. Its arms and legs bend backwards at the elbows and knees; it scurries over the ceiling, before it drops back down away from Big Shal.
It curves its body around Lady Harken's blade, bending at the waist and back in a most unnatural way, and drops to the floor. Mother's shrieking, at this point, is wordless -- and no less enraged.
Then, it ducks down underneath Claude's phase gun, and the beam of light explodes over the Amadeus's head. The Astra has to duck backward, skittering over the floor to roll away from the worst of it. It turns its head, the very leakage from that titanic beam causing the fibers on the end to burn and curl.
To escape Jack, the thing has to duck low, splitting its legs at the middle. The sword slams into the glass behind it, scoring it. Sparks fly, and the Amadeus almost topples. A red-clothed hand slams into the glass hard, forcing itself to stand. It raises a face made of winding strands of red cloth across it, and gazes up towards Mother's form. Its eyes widen, with something between terror and hope, and then it holds its hands up.
Like its brethren, its voice is an eerie, monotonous chant.
"Holy Mother I beseech thee
"Spill forth your judgment on the unworthy
"Let them find your justice in rot and decay!"
The red-robed figure lurches forward. Its body shakes and convulses; and then a mouth opens, ripping fabric and revealing tightly wound crimson cloth that makes an impression of diseased teeth, of a long tongue, and a gaunt jaw. It wretches, keeling over, and spews out wriggling, still-living maggots of steel. Their bodies twitch and sputter, before they fall still at Jack's feet.
Then a blast of sickly purple light explodes out, as a ring, that rockets over the entire chamber.
Mother's carapace has been largely stationary throughout the fight. As the ring from the remaining Amadeus washes over everyone, they feel their life being drained -- their power being reduced by such a ploy.
"Yes... yes! It grows! It gathers! It is mine!" Mother shrieks, her faceplate rattling in the armored casing of her chassis. She begins to levitate higher, now; the carapace lifts up further from the ground. There is a thin, brown funereal shroud across the armored carapace -- and it wafts upward, as Mother lifts up.
Bright points of light glow across her body. They glow in the eyes of the face mask; they appear at the end of each horn, on the tips of spikes, and in depressions all across Mother's armor. The points of light grow larger and glow brighter. Then, from each point, a beam fires, all centered on a single point hovering before Mother.
"WITNESS YOUR NEW GODDESS!"
A colossal beam of light explodes out from it -- white at its core, and bleeding blue-green at the edges. The beam shreds across the room. It starts on the eastern end, slashing into the floor. Where it strikes, the floor begins to melt through -- and then the beam is dragged as Mother rotates, surging across all those here. The beam cuts across one wall to the other, east-to-west, and it leaves a glowing, molten trench in the middle of the floor.
And, worse, the points of light still glow across Mother's carapace. With a shudder, another set of beams begin to fire into another, centralized point...
Mother intends to fire that shot again.
GS: Mother has completed her action. GS: Mother has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Mother has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Elvis with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Malfi with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Ashton Anchors with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Arleph Ardan with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Shalune Amira with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Lunata Croze with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Lady Harken with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Sorey with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Catenna with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Chime Isa with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Hiro with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Lan Lilac with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Rosaline Calice with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Tesni Inoue with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Xantia with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Jack van Burace with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Ley Animum DESPONDEO! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors used the Force Action Protect! He takes Mother's attack on Elhaym van Houten on himself! GS: Ashton Anchors has activated a Force Action! GS: Catenna has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Catenna completely evades Ley Animum DESPONDEO from Mother!
GS: Ethius Hesiod guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 159 hit points! GS: Sorey guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 147 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 151 hit points! GS: Lunata Croze guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 154 hit points! GS: Lady Harken takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 131 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ashton Anchors critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 60 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ashton Anchors! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Hiro critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 58 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Hiro! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Cyre H. Lorentz completely evades Ley Animum DESPONDEO from Mother!
GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 52 hit points! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Amadeus Astra has completed its action. GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 172 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: CRITICAL! Tethelle Cirdian guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 195 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Tethelle Cirdian! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 157 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 174 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Seraph Ragnell completely evades Ley Animum DESPONDEO from Mother!
GS: Chime Isa takes a solid hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 265 hit points! GS: Chime Isa has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Rudy Roughnight used the Force Action Protect! He takes Mother's attack on Cecilia Adlehyde on himself! GS: Rudy Roughnight has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Rudy Roughnight critically Guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 66 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Rudy Roughnight! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Rudy Roughnight has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 154 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 155 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lan Lilac guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 153 hit points! GS: Malfi takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 133 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 157 hit points! GS: Mother has completed her action. GS: Rosaline Calice guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 151 hit points! GS: Tesni Inoue guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 157 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jack van Burace takes a glancing hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 164 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Jack van Burace! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Seeing Mother's ley-beam weapon building up power, Malfi does the sensible thing and takes refuge behind a pillar. She almost makes it in time, but one of the beams grazes along her back as she ducks. She bleeds. She escapes truly serious injury, but at a price: she's no longer within range to attack Mother with her usual (now unusual!) weapon. She does the only thing she can: uses her long-range attack, a destructive attack from her internal batteries. She only hopes Mother won't absorb it!
GS: Malfi has attacked Mother with Assault with Batteries! GS: Malfi takes 9 damage from Poison! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Malfi's Assault with Batteries for 67 hit points! GS: Xantia guards a hit from Mother's Ley Animum DESPONDEO for 157 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Mother's beam criss-crosses around the floor once more. Lunata darts about just for a moment, throwing her arm up before the light sinks into her form for a moment even as she throws her arm out and lets it sink into her; the light singes and burns for a moment longer, as the Ley threatens to disrupt the necromancy that holds her body upright--
"C'mon, Lunie, what're you waiting for...?? Press the button already...!" Lunata calls towards Shalune, even if it might be a bit premature. They need to hold on a little bit longer... just a little bit...
She skids along the floor, letting out a hiss. That grin's nearly gone-- but she realises just how important it is to keep it up.
"Nearly forgot."
She drops Orochi-Agito at this point and flashes the black matte shotgun piece out.
There's an engraving upon it... and a little extra below in crayon:
'Zeldukes is in Heav
en now'
... it looks like there might've been more, but the ARMs had to be sawn-off to accomodate to her tiny arms' length...
"... I cleaned the statue of the one Guardian I believed in all this while. And y'know what? One of you just blew it up like it were a piece of trash y'didn't give a care about."
She flits a glance towards Jay and Shalune again.
Then she charges forward as she absolutely misunderstands what a gun should be used for--
"So here! This one's from Zeldukes!"
--and looks to pop the Astra straight in the face, point-blank.
GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Amadeus Astra with Bring Me to Life! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Amadeus Astra takes a solid hit from Lunata Croze's Bring Me to Life for 137 hit points! GS: Amadeus Astra enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
They are putting pressure on this thing - and hopefully that will allow them to deprive Mother of Filgaia's own life energy, to keep her from killing the planet any further than she has so far. Sorey can only hope that Filgaia will absorb this energy once it has been released, that they aren't allowing this monster to irreparable damage with every moment that passes.
And she's still dragging in more energy. They've hammered Umbra, but it appears that Mother is going to continue to draw in greater amounts of energy each moment, and this time the attack is absolutely massive. Sorey throws his hands in the air in front of him, and a moment later Lailah jumps in as well. The massive beam slams into the both of them, pushing Sorey backwards. He remains standing... but feels a dull, spiritual thud as poor KOed Lailah returns back to her host in order to recover. "Damn, thank you Lailah," he tells her quietly. No affirmation, but he can still feel his connection with all of the Seraphs and his Squires. She's okay for now.
With her assistant down, that leaves only two targets left for them to deal with. Sorey pauses for a moment just to MAKE SURE that thing has gone down for good, and then looks back at the others who were attacking it. "I don't think it's going to get back up - we've just got to deal with the other thing, and hopefully that will weaken her and keep this monster from destroying Filgaia any further."
The Shepherd raises one hand, putting it to his head as he grimaces. "...Lailah and the others... they can feel the world screaming every time she drags that power out to attack us..." He can feel it too, but its nothing like his Seraphim can perceive. "We need to stop her..." He looks at Hiro and Gwen, and nods once. "I'm going to hit Mother while we work our way over to that other thing supporting her. The others are hammering it, but we should try and make sure it's down before we turn our attention to her."
A pause, and the Shepherd adds, "Given what she just did, I'm going to hit her fairly hard. We can't let this go on too much longer." He smiles at Hiro and Gwen, and flits up into the air, dashing towards Mother.
"Dezel, we're gonna have to go all out here. The longer this goes on, the more damage she is going to do to this world and the Guardians, and we promised we'd help."
"I can't really disagree, given everything that's going on here. Make sure you and Mikleo finish her off - I'm definitely going to need a nap after this one."
Sorey holds up one hand above his head as he looks at Mother, and shouts: "We won't allow this to go on any longer! If you can't feel the screams of this world as you steal it's life, then we'll just have to pass that feeling along until you stop!"
An immense magical circle appears for a moment, and hundreds of glowing, spectral copies of Sorey's divine blades appear around him. "COME DIVINE WINDS! SCOUR THE SKIES OF DARKNESS!"
Sorey drops his hand, and the blades begin to rain down towards Mother - each one unleashing a blast of wind energy that continue to build until a massive, slicing tornado of wind magic erupts around the planet eating abomination.
"Sylphystia!!"
GS: Sorey has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Sorey has attacked Mother with Sylphystia! GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sorey has completed his action. GAME: Elhaym van Houten has been added to the Mother bucket!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Close enough to Chime to feel the aura of her strength now, Catenna draws in a breath, the woman's hope and spirit filling her senses. The Moon Shaman's heart thuds in her chest.
It will be okay, she tells herself, this time with much greater certainty.
Ghosting past Catenna on soft white wings, Saarda-Shanta turns away from the fight, then climbs higher. The little Owlet seems quite intent on keeping out of the line of fire. But both she and Catenna can hear what Cecilia's saying.
The Leyline is being gobbled up like so much dinner. And without the Ley, there can be no Guardians. And without the Guardians--
Without the Guardians, there can be no Filgaia.
It will be okay, she reminds herself. The Mediums vibrate at her hip, still trembling with the horror of the battle - and the Owlet will not venture close. It's up to Catenna. To all of them. They're not the ones the Guardians might wish for.
But we are what they have, Catenna reminds herself as she begins to move again, dropping back a few metres to allow warriors more martial and aggressive than she to take advantage of her spell and strike with vigor.
It pays off: One of the Amadei goes down. It will be okay, she tells herself.
When Mother speaks again, Catenna shouts back at her with defiance. "You are no goddess of mine!" she declares in a ringing voice. "You never shall be! Whatever happens this day--"
Mother is in no mood for a conversation. Purple light blazes through the chamber. Catenna shies away from it, throwing her arms up to try and shield herself with her bow. The Owlet flutters along with her - but even as she does, she can hear Mother screaming with mad triump. As the parasitic goddess lifts higher and gathers energy, Catenna's eyes grow wide with dawning horror.
"Oh no," she breathes.
Mother opens fire with a beam that could shred the Photosphere itself. Blinding light sears itself into Catenna's vision. The floor itself is carved and decimated, metal rapidly turning into a superheated fluid as Mother carves herself a new trench.
<The amount she has consumed is growing very concerning,> Saarda-Shanta opines from far above.
Catenna breathes heavily as she dangles from the talons of the fully-grown Great Owl. The huge bird hoisted the Moon Shaman almost to the ceiling of the great chamber. Catenna hangs there like an ornament, her face pale as she watches so many of her friends laid waste below - and Mother still shines with gathering energy. She can do this again, Catenna realizes. The Ley. Riesenlied... our friends must not have been able to stop Mother from using Riesenlied.
A not-insignificant part of Catenna wants to cry. So, so many have been hurt and wounded - how can they ever stand against this?
It will be okay, she reminds herself, even as the Mediums shudder. She can feel the Owl's talons shaking.
With a beat of wings, Saarda-Shanta descends, letting Catenna down. The huge Owl shimmers, contracting back into her Owlet self and touching down on Catenna's shoulder once more. Fearful or not, the Totem of Celesdue seems intent on sticking with Catenna now.
As she regains her footing, Catenna draws in her breath and raises a slender hand high above her head. "Your feast will inevitably end," she declares in a clear voice, papering over the fears Mother is sure to know are there. "And I will never behold a goddess in you.
"Merely a leech," Catenna states as she gathers power.
The motes of light that go dancing up Catenna's arms are not lunar silver this time. They're a calming shade of oceanic blue.
But what bursts out from around her as she levels her arm is not calm in the slightest. With a roar of surging water, two vast curtains of water whirl into existence. They burst forth and combine into a single, mounting wave, cresting as gravity pulls upon it. The Moon and the Sea move hand in hand. Lucadia... please, stand with me, here, now....
The tidal wave has swelled into a massive, roiling thing by the time Catenna pushes it towards Mother, gravity pulling it in upon her to try and crash into her with thunderous force. If she can somehow flood Mother out - pour water into that firing port - perhaps it will help. Perhaps it will impede her. Perhaps it will buy them all precious seconds.
Perhaps it will do neither. But defiance is all she can muster now.
GS: Catenna has attacked Mother with Tidal Wave! GS: Catenna has gained 2 Combo! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Mother guards a hit from Sorey's Sylphystia for 187 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei is still breathing! That means he isn't dead!
But he doesn't seem like he will be moving anytime soon. It seems he meant what he said.
Today is your day.
Ruby calls him an idiot but Fei never claimed to be anything but a fool. Ashton takes up the mantle that Fei wasn't able to hold on for long.
And in his inner space...
Fei sits in a wooden chair. He looks at the spinning screens. He sees Ruby's pain. He sees Elly's sorrow. He sees Xantia's anger. He sees all their anger.
A red haired man places his hand on Fei's shoulders.
"Plan going well so far, Junior." He says. "For now...let us see if Filgaia can choose its destiny."
The nightmare smiles.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The strange Symbologist, who seems to have a very poor grasp of priorities by any standard, watches the green screen flicker. The alien runes that pop up... are not understood in terms of content, but elements of how it all comes to - once more - speaks educationally to him. From the corner of his eye, he can see sights that threaten his attention. A great beam of light--
Priorities. (Or a lack thereof.)
One has noticed them. The one he seems to have been flying under the radar of screams at him. Ethius can feel his heart stop when Mother screeches rage at him. For how much he hides his face, and what a poker face he's held, it is shattered as he bares his teeth in a cringe. ...Plain ol' human teeth. That's a human face, through and through. Why does he even hide it? Her rage presses down upon his very mind as he comes to a kneel, free hand clutching his head while the one bearing a quarterstaff presses against the nearby wall. His breathing shallows, as a purple light washes over - there is nowhere to hide from that.
Mother starts to cackle. It grows, it gathers. It is hers. They are... too late.
I am not too late. His mind struggles to give the rest of him that thought. I know not the logistics that has made these entire circumstances possible. The miscellaneous trains of thought of 'DEATH, DYING, FLEE, OBLIVION' do their damndest to be transcribed. He fights through it.
Ethius witnesses the new Goddess by letting himself sink to the ground, barely keeping himself up while the beam of light sucks out the chamber's oxygen. He does not avoid it so much as he endures it, limiting his oxygen intake and letting the immense heat wash past him. He knows it is not the first time he's had to operate in environments so hot that he could barely breathe, if at all.
A much more important realization dawns as she cuts that swatch through the chamber.
...Yes. She just did my remaining survey work. Ethius reasons. She did not aim the beam where it was critical the architecture remain intact. ...His very location might be what saves his life. He's too close to something she can't afford to risk the destruction of.
Mother cuts a more concise roadmap for him. In another humanizing moment, Ethius coughs and sputters, eyes wet from irritation and stress. He puts his free hand up against the wall to rise up, using his quarterstaff for further balance.
Mother asked what he was doing.
Here is his answer, not in spoken common tongue, but a series of syllables and the flittering of fingers as he finds the strength to take his hand off that wall... and his gaze sharpens with another blink as he stares down the mostly-obscured construct.
With this...
Symbological heat - a great quantity - is applied. It threatens to fuse the dust within into glass, to fuse together blockages within critical systems. The ratcheting heat threatens severe harm to the structural integrity or worse, the means in which to safely cool or disperse said heat standing to be compromised. Much smaller, quicker-cast spells of heat are applied with almost a musical rhythm, specifically targeting areas where the electrical surges were most visible in order to further attempt to void critical systems.
This man knows exactly what he's doing to something he should not have an inkling of understanding about - but does, to a level far more initimate than is logistically possible. Dust, electricity, and heat - a sorcerous tag-team - threatens to systematically do great damage to whatever it is that he deems a far more critical target than Mother or her Amadeus drones... all from just from simple observation.
What even is it?!
Ethius continues to refuse to verbally engage Mother, or lay eyes upon her.
He is instead doing what he knows best.
GS: Ethius Hesiod enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Mother with He Knows...!! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Mother critically Guards a hit from Catenna's Tidal Wave for 31 hit points! GS: Cripple, Jam, Mute, and Poison! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Catenna has lost 1 Combo! GS: Mother takes a glancing hit from Ethius Hesiod's He Knows...! for 0 hit points! GS: Shalune Amira has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
--now--
Shalune's mind screams at her as she feels the air warp and twist once more; this time, it tears through her senses like a physical thing, sending her stumbling again as her hands hit the ground and she feels a wave of vertigo that threatens to overwhelm her. It is only with an effort that she manages to hold on to the scaffolding on Big Shal's back lest she pitch off, and to be honest Shalune doesn't even really know when she became such a survivor. But there's a well of determination that rises inside of her that makes her fling herself to one side in a diving roll, crashing against the golem's body for cover.
Her hand goes to the pocket of her coat, finds that little hard block of plastic, grips it in her hand tightly enough that it creaks as if about to split. Screwing her eyes shut, she brings her other hand up to her head to clutch at her bobble hat, and hesitates for just a second with her finger above the button marked 'DIABLO'.
'C'mon, Lunie, what're you waiting for...?? Press the button already...!'
--NOW--
Shalune pushes the button already.
* * * DOWN ON THE YGGDRASIL * * *
"The alarm! Someone's launching without authorization!"
"They're going to blow the entire damn hatch off!"
"Is it Lunata again!?"
"No, it's--"
Both voices are drowned out by a cacophonous roar - and one that isn't just the noise of engines.
* * * UP ON THE PHOTOSHERE * * *
One of the walls of Mother's throne room suddenly begins to glow a vibrant red, and then a brilliant white; it is not the building of Mother's power or some eldritch light of the Guardians, but the good old-fashioned superheating of metal under duress. Countless pipes twist and begin to buckle - an alarm, purpose unknown, begins to blare through part of the Photosphere's corridors. There's an impact against the wall, and then another, and then another--
Shalune draws in a deep breath, hauling herself up as she cups both hands at her mouth to call, above the din: "DIABLO INCOMIIIIING!"
--and with Asgard waiting outside and Lolithia brought to a standstill somewhere below, it is indeed the third of the Elw golems that is revealed through the hole it has just torn in the Photosphere's defences. It stares impassively, an immense presence - and to be honest, it's a wonder that it can even do that much. Much of it is still half-slag, pockmarked and covered with rents in its armor from Ethius' torching back in Adlehyde. One eye is missing; what repairs have been done to the golem's exterior seem liable to tear themselves apart in an instant, parts of the plating grinding against others with a vicious noise.
And yet, it stands, fury seeming to radiate off its motionless exterior. Did she even really need a button to call it here, Shalune wonders in the empty moment, her mind grasping wildly at the sight. She should be elated - but all she can find space to be right in this instant is breathless. Then she remembers herself, and adds: "--GET DOWN!"
Diablo roars, the twin pods on its shoulders gathering a maelstrom of energy. It is too much for the golem to handle in its state: instantly, it becomes obvious this is the only attack the poor beleaguered machine is going to have the chance to get off, and already Diablo is losing height and balance as its legs begin to give way. But it is still enough - and the air is suddenly alive with energy as two gigantic crimson beams of pulsing energy slam into Mother's faceplate, tearing through the air and filling it with the stench of ozone.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Mother with The Crimson Wind - DIABLO! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's The Crimson Wind - DIABLO for 214 hit points! GAME> Tesni Inoue looked at you.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
He stands.
Energy and chaos and blood all around - and Ashton stands in the face of it all.
The beam rakes over him, disintegrating the icy shield that Ashton's placed up. He does just as he promised he would: he takes the hit for Elly. A little part of the mercenary's heart swells - he's keeping his promise to Fei.
But another blast like that is going to be too much. Even if Ashton can take it (and he can, he's a goddamn tank), a lot of the others won't. And while Ashton knows he's tough, taking down Mother is going to take all of them.
Twisting his head, the Symbological Swordsman looks back to Elly. "Use me as cover. And tell Fei I expect to be in the stories he tells about -this- battle against Mother."
TWENTY MINUTES AGO
Ashton looks over to the others, with a glance spared to the Priestess of the Moon. "While I agree with you all, I must also agree with Catenna. I don't intend to die here and I've got no desire to. But if it comes to that..." A little dark smile quirks the corners of Ashton's lips. "I have to say this is a cause worth it. What greater monster is there to fight?"
NOW
If it has to be - at least it'll be on his own feet and for a cause worth more than nearly anything.
Most of Ashton's robe is gone by this point, seared away by repeated energy blasts. The armor under it is scarred, even though it holds. For once, the man's skin is visible - and every one of the sorcerous tattoos that criss-cross it glow with intensity. His blades lift - and he leaps.
Hurled into the maw of it, Ashton moves like lightning. Fleet of foot, no. But he still has the practiced dance of years training for moments like this. Two shortswords still stained with quicksilver slash again and again as Ashton stabs for where Mother gathers that energy.
"SWORD! DANCE!"
Victory or lose all of Filgaia.
Maybe Ashton's not going to have such a hard time when he takes Maya Schrodinger up on her offer to try and save the world.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She's fast, but the deeply unsettling creature wrapped tight in red cloth is much faster. Lan's blows whiff more often than they miss, but none of them strike true. It's Gwen that puts the last nail in its coffin, and Lan huffs out a "Thanks," as she scans the floor. That laser attack's a real pain, and she doesn't want to get hit with it again.
Instead there is only one laser, but it is much, much bigger. This isn't an improvement!!
The length of her hair, pulled back in a ponytail, nearly strays into the path of the beam; rather than allow her hair to be zapped, Lan twists to take the hit across her side instead. "Ugh!"
She's going to have a burn there for a week! But her hair is okay, which is the most important part.
-so ice-
Lan's eyes dart over to Elly. Huh, she's not wearing a Solarian uniform...? --but what pretty hair--
There's one devil left to bury, and then...! Lan feels silver in her veins, in her soul, shining brighter, singing purer! The small weight of her medium presses into her skin where it's hidden under her shirt. Not yet, not yet... Instead, she feeds chakra into her ribbon, using the boost of agility to rocket across the room toward the other red monster. Lan chants under her breath, all the while trying to herd Astra into others' attacks with a series of precise knife-hand strikes.
GS: Ashton Anchors has activated a Force Action! GS: Ashton Anchors has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Mother with Sword Dance! GS: Ashton Anchors takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Amadeus Astra with Dancing Dagger! GS: Lan Lilac takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle's magic sword cannon tears into Mother, more effectively than her actual sword did. That's a plus!
The minus is that Tethelle is not sure she can do that again. With Mother drawing on the Ley, it's harder to pull enough power from the Medium to do it, especially as Tethelle is not the most practiced of spellcasters; she's a priestess all right, but she has different areas of focus.
"Conflict is one thing," Tethelle spits, "your war is another. We don't want or need your *gifts*. And if everybody you speak to tells you something, why don't you listen?"
The purple ring washes over Tethelle. It saps what's left of the aura around her; it's little more than a shine around her hands, as if they were on fire but only faintly and in a distant sort of way. And it *hurts*; Tethelle feels her energy being sapped. But there's a core - a center of something purely Tethelle - that burns all the brighter for the struggle.
"You are not a goddess! A goddess could be respected, worshipped! All you know is anger and fear and hate and hunger! There is nothing to respect, nothing but evil! You ARE the demon!"
Tethelle summons what power she can, and the aura around her arms spreads down her sword, lighting it up and silhouetting it in green-gold light. And then, for all that it pains her, she forces herself forward, toward the wound she just opened in Mother, roaring wordless defiance as she approaches.
Tethelle doesn't slash. She *jumps*, bringing her sword with her, intending to carve a huge vertical gash up Mother on her way to the top, the 'head' of the demon. She doesn't go down, either; she tries to hang on even as Mother's sheer presence causes her to spiritually recoil, grab onto the back of the 'head' (or at least the pinnacle)' of the monster and chop downward, her sword trailing wisps of Guardian-light left over from the Medium as she slams her blade downward again.
And again.
And again.
Tethelle is strong enough - trained enough - to fight Metal Demons, Metal Dragons, even Golems and Gears. She tries to think of Mother as nothing but that, no matter her size, ignoring the feeling of *filth* she gets from the distorted, stolen ley energy to simply batter her apart or shear huge chunks of armouring away.
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has activated a Force Action! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Mother with Heaven and Earth! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tethelle Cirdian takes 4 damage from Poison! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Mother laughs in response, a concerning, unhinged laugh, and Jacqueline winces. It's...a little too familiar, actually. She glances briefly in Lunata's direction.
She...kind of hopes Lunata doesn't get this bad...
Things are looking bad...but nearby, she can hear Chime trying to encourage everyone. It helps invigorate her a little more - at least to shake off some of the fatigue she'd been feeling. She looks back toward Mother and frowns.
"Filgaia was doing just fine without you, thank you." She comments. "If you can't show an ounce of kindness, or remorse for your actions..."
Jacqueline shakes her head.
"But then again, if you were capable of that, you would've stopped after the first planet you've slain. The first innocent lives you stole and corrupted." She inhales...and then a look of horror crosses over her face as something sickening washes over her. It leaves her a little unstable...and thus, completely open as Mother gathers the power of the Ley into a single beam...which is released with devastating effect. Jacqueline throws her hands out once more. Her barrier surges as the beam collides with it. It halts it...for just a moment, and then there is the sound of glass shattering as Jacqueline is sent flying before rolling to a stop.
Her gauntlets crackle, and the light around them begins to dim as Jacqueline's own energy reserves begin to fade.
"N-not...not yet..." She forces out. "Not while everyone...is still counting on me..."
And that's when she hears a great roar, and hears Shalune calling out.
"Shalune...you did it...!" Jacqueline breathes out. She looks at Shalune with a look on her face that's a mixture of awe and being rather impressed. Particularly as the ancient Golem unleashes its full power upon Mother.
...Jacqueline couldn't stay down either. Even though it might take everything she has...Jacqueline stands to her full height, sends Mother a defiant look, and gestures with her right hand.
A spear of light goes flying right toward the crack in Mother's mask, detonating as soon as it comes into contact with something.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Mother with Profit Through Preparation! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Sword Dance for 112 hit points! GAME: Malfi has been added to the Mother bucket!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
A firm smile and a nod is passed back to Elhaym when she unleashes elemental hell on Mother. He even has to dodge a bit to avoid its effect as he re-enters combat! Quite powerful, indeed.
The Drifters begin to deal real damage to her. That neon blood ripples out upon the floor, Mother acting no worse for wear. A strange aberration for certain. It had to be those strange robed figures-- one of which was just turned to black ichor. "Good! Keep it up!" he calls out.
He will turn his attention to the other one. Hands are worked and readied, as a great power builds in the room. It seems like the one spare creature aiding her just leeched everyone of a bit of their power, gone unnoticed. Fueling their deity. And with that awesome power, creates a beam of energy that lances out and melts whatever it touches.
Reflexively, the Sentinel raises another stone barrier and ducks for cover. Unlike the rest of the attacks he used stone to block, this cuts cleanly through, leaving a perfect chiseled top section separated from its base. One of the giant man's biceps was barely touched by it as he fell into cover and was severely burned. "DAMNIT!" he calls out, quickly fetching a spray-like medicine to apply to it.
The man peers over the barrier, seeing that one last strange creature. In a burst of power, the barricae erupts, as Elvis surges toward the robed creature. But rather than lob a punch, he goes in for a grapple, to hold it still for a good hit on another's part!
"HIT THE DAMN THING!" he calls out!
GS: Amadeus Astra takes a solid hit from Lan Lilac's Dancing Dagger for 142 hit points! GS: Amadeus Astra has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother has adjusted their boss level for 17 opponents! GS: Elvis has attacked Amadeus Astra with Lariat Grab! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GS: Elvis has canceled their attack on Amadeus Astra.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The crimson beams wink out too soon, their destruction stopped dead as a terrible shearing noise races through the golem's structure. Diablo pitches suddenly to one side, and a series of pops and explosions along one arm and the pod at its shoulder put more weight still behind the certainty that it was only going to get one shot. Defenceless, already falling away, the golem has no real way to defend against any counterattack that Mother chooses to make.
But perhaps it doesn't need one. The arm that has not yet begun to malfunction lifts in the direction of Big Shal and Shalune, curls its hand up - and lifts a single thumb as it begins to fall away. Big Shal, in recognition of a purpose fulfilled, meets it in kind.
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
A firm smile and a nod is passed back to Elhaym when she unleashes elemental hell on Mother. He even has to dodge a bit to avoid its effect as he re-enters combat! Quite powerful, indeed.
The Drifters begin to deal real damage to her. That neon blood ripples out upon the floor, Mother acting no worse for wear. A strange aberration for certain. It had to be those strange robed figures-- one of which was just turned to black ichor. "Good! Keep it up!" he calls out.
He will turn his attention to the other one. Hands are worked and readied, as a great power builds in the room. It seems like the one spare creature aiding her just leeched everyone of a bit of their power, gone unnoticed. Fueling their deity. And with that awesome power, creates a beam of energy that lances out and melts whatever it touches.
Reflexively, the Sentinel raises another stone barrier and ducks for cover. Unlike the rest of the attacks he used stone to block, this cuts cleanly through, leaving a perfect chiseled top section separated from its base. One of the giant man's biceps was barely touched by it as he fell into cover and was severely burned. "DAMNIT!" he calls out, quickly fetching a spray-like medicine to apply to it.
The man peers over the barrier, seeing that one last strange creature. It too falls quickly under the fury of combined attacks. A look back to mother. He has to break through her armor. Wringing a fist, he charges his Detonation Aura, his arm fueled with blue-violet energy.
With a sudden burst of power, Elvis shatters what is left of his barricade and charges Mother. "See what it is like when the planet turns against you!" he booms as he closes in.
GS: CRITICAL! Mother guards a hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Heaven and Earth for 219 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Tethelle Cirdian! GS: Elvis has attacked Mother with Dropping Straight! GS: Elvis has gained 2 Combo! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GAME: Tragedienne has cleared all buckets for this scene.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
The intense inhumanity of the Amadeus pounds at Hiro's skull as he watches it twist and writhe, watches it evade and swallow the attacks. Watches it explode and vomit metallic maggots. It turns his stomach. It makes him feel like he wants to vomit. "N-Nice shot Gwen..." His teeth rattle even as he says it. A chant rises from the other - and horror dawns on him. Unfortunately he can only obey that command, and witness.
The colossal beam of light explodes out, and Hiro finds himself lurching for cover behind Lailah's shield.
The Fire Seraph's field grants him some measure of protection, as the beam slashes across the floor, cutting across and just barely missing him. And he has to light-foot back at rapid pace, as the melted floor catches the wrappings around his feet on fire from the sheer molten heat. "No thanks." The youth says as he pats out his feet, "You're no goddess I could ever worship."
Sorey states that Lailah and the others can feel the world screaming. And if one watches Lucia closely, it's like she can feel it too. Something thrums in her ears even beyond Mother's shouts. It crawls beneath her skin. Hiro perhaps in these moments is looking at Lucia, even as Sorey warns him, "Yeah... if she keeps this up... the Blue Star might not be able to take much more of this." How many times had this world been decimated? Put on life support? How many efforts were trying to keep it alive? He'd discovered some of them in his travels but... if Mother kept using this world's power again...
Lucia recovers just long enough to say, in a pained way, "Hiro. Don't let her fire again." And that aligns perfectly with what he feels to do it.
Hiro inhales sharply through his teeth at the warning, "Just 'fairly' hard?" There's a sense of good humor to that, "Go for it. I've got your back."
Hiro starts to break into a run, as Sorey summons hundreds of blades as they rain down in a whirlwind. Hiro tries to read the winds as best as he can, before hopping into mid-air, then barking a command as a sudden column of wind sends him up further. Once he's up high in the center of the Maelstrom of blades, he runs his hand along the length of the blade, as it ignites into flames.
Then dropping down dead center, he touches his blade on the barest edge of the currents, starting a chain reaction where he ignites the twisting blade wind from the top down in a feat that allows for surprising synergy, "BURN-"
Freeing his blade from the currents, he stabs it down into her carapace as he falls down the side of her, "-BURN-"
Before landing dead center in the middle of Sorey's conjured tornado of spinning blades, and springing out of the bottom just before the flames would reach him.
His final cry only coming when he gets clear and the deed is fully done and he's turned that space into a raging inferno. "-BURN!"
GS: Hiro has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Hiro has attacked Mother with Battalion Sword!! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Mother guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Profit Through Preparation for 144 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Filgaia is nothing without me, Mother says, and that piques Elly somehow. Ashton comes near her and she breathes out silent relief, even as they are treated one by one to the personally murderous attention of this great entity. The offer comes -
And it suddenly blooms in Elly's mind. Is this why they all were talking about destruction, conflict, war? Has Mother been putting ideas in people's heads? She's been here over a thousand years. Even the Ministry, she thinks, couldn't do something like that, not even through -
The horror is redoubled. Does this mean, thinks the defector from Gebler, that *this is what the Emperor fights?*
Fortunately Elly has learned to fall-forwards when cosmic truths intrude into her brainpan. The laughter helped.
As did - what? She feels a subtle heat in the area. She glances around. What she feels is coming from Ethius but she has not time nor wit to place it. Not with this enemy before her. Mother is assailed by other creatures, whether Diablo or Big Shal. Ashton is there too, suddenly - Her lips part for a moment in surprise.
"-- Right," she answers him, giving another glance towards Fei and then when Ashton runs, she follows him, getting closer. This is not smart for a mage, but when Mother's shrieking ray of scintiilance arches through the exact spot she was standing at, about 1.2 seconds later, this is proven to be a path of wisdom.
Her heart pounds. There has to be an answer, she thinks. Mother is calling up all this power -
All this power, filling the room.
Oh my god, why didn't I think of that.
Elly glances abruptly over her shoulder, but after a mis-step she tightens her right hand, raising it up to press her knuckles against her forehead and glare out from the shadow of her upraised arm towards Mother. Is this even possible, she thinks - will trying kill Filgaia even faster -
There is no choice, she thinks. Not right now. She swallows, focuses, and -
A burst of flame ripples out, orange-red shading towards that intermediate stage that's not quite green as it intensifies in heat. The flame lingers over Mother's carapace even as others strike. The blast walks itself forwards, as if aiming to smother Mother's collarbone (approximate) and superheat the air she breathes. If she breathes at all.
Anticlimax? "I think - it's doing it," Elly says behind Ashton, which is PROBABLY good.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
During the course of the battle, Ragnell finds Claude at her back. She wouldn't care if it weren't for the fact that he aims his "Sword of Light" at her head. She realizes it when he shouts about LIGHT COME FORTH and, rather than looking behind herself, dives to one side to avoid the incoming attack. She does so, if barely, and comes up nettled.
"CLAUDE IF WE LIVE THROUGH THIS I'M GONNA FUCKIN' MURDER YOU," Ragnell informs the Resonanceless lad. She knows he can't hear her. She just feels better for having said it.
A wave of power shoots out from Amadeus. Ragnell grimaces, feeling it drain the power from her. But--yes, there's a bunch of Drifters already on that. More importantly is the beam that Mother shoots across the room, absolutely shredding it as she shreds herself only *kind of* metaphorically. This time, Ragnell doesn't even try to evade the normal way; she straight-up teleports in a burst of lightning, reappearing well above the battlefield and falling down in turn. She lands light on her feet after the beam has already passed, calling up another Seraphic glyph.
"O blade of heaven's will, lay waste to our foes," she chants, hat and poncho waving in the motes of light that ascend around her. She raises one arm, then thrusts it towards Mother and her hideous tongue and torn red garments. "Divine Saber!!"
A glyph materializes underneath her in turn, and six massive bolts of lightning strike down at various points of the edge of the circle before sending a seventh, final one down in a brutal, torrential blast. Here's hoping that'll be plenty of distraction from firing again, though Ragnell kinda doubts it.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Mother with Divine Saber! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Mother with Thermo Misericordia! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Mother guards a hit from Elvis's Dropping Straight for 109 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother guards a hit from Hiro's Battalion Sword! for 130 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The cloth-wrapped thing spins, looking down as if to regard her personally. Josie tenses mere seconds after she lets that last bullet fly, muscles in her legs coiled and ready to spring.
It swallows her bullet.
It swallows her bullet. "What--" Of all things she's reminded of Id.
It's a recollection left by the dusty side of memory lane when she realizes that even those eyes are just cloth. Is there anything there under the wrappings?
A chance glance at the other as Gwen -- little Gwen, that girl with the ARM attached to her body -- drives a fist through its head. She gets her answer.
She doesn't, as the grimace suggests, particularly care for it very much.
A beam of light that scythes through the air -- narrowly missing the Astra she'd shot at before -- serves as the punctuation mark on that particular observation.
She's on board with that general sentiment it carried: burn it. Destroy it.
Some things just shouldn't exist.
'Nothing without her'. 'Endless wars'. What is Mother?
Some things might have to remain for now a mystery. Josie ducks into a crouch to check on her still-charging ARM, gaze flickering across the crowd while she has the chance remaining -- sighting Fei who appears to be in a bad state and Elly who tends to him -- and
and Mother changes
and everything burns
"Though a spell may be of the Ley, there are means to counterspell such magics. Watch closely, girl, for I will not demonstrate this to you again," says her father's voice, in memory alone.
Her lips move soundlessly as the light swallows everything. Light against light, Symbol against Ley. Enough to push through, force back. Continue on.
She still burns. But she does not burn as much.
Bright amber shines in the aftermath of the light.
Then a glorious glowing green.
The Nostos cannon is fully charged and ready to fire.
Except that Josie doesn't do that. Instead she jostles the core in its seat, jamming it in so more of its connectors meet the hungry ports of the modified ARM.
More power. She needs more power than this.
The lights brighten, a radience that would put even the greenery of spring to shame.
More... more than this...
DC: Josephine Lovelace switches forms to Repurposed Ancient Cannon Nostos!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Her Heart Is Strong! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Her Heart Is Strong for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Cover and Riposte! Statuses applied to Josephine Lovelace!
<Pose Tracker> Tesni Inoue has posed.
"Filgaia existed long before you arrived, I am a student of its history. It will be far greater without you!"
She's also spending a moment to recover from the effort of trying to choke mother. It seems she does not breath and she will have to keep that in mind as the battle rages on.
"Endless war, you call it a gift I call it a curse of mankind which it attempts to break free of. You will not drag us further back into that madness!"
She has her ARM but she also has something else she can, do. She endures Mothers' wrath and it's painful she is so afraid she wants to run but where can she run to? There is nowhere to run she's burned she's hurt she's trying to push on she grits her teeth she knows not how much longer she can hold out but she endures it for now. She's not sure what Ethius is doing, she knows Arleph is alive and so is Jay as well. Catenna is still fighting damn hard too as is Jay. She reaches into her duster and pulls out a Medium, she's not able to use much but there is one thing she can do. A being had enough faith in her to give her some sliver of its power, one who doesn't even worship it. That action left a mark and this has to be what it's for.
"Noua Shax, come on this is ... what you gave me this for right?! NOUA SHAX! COME FORTH! HELP THOSE WHO FIGHT FOR THIS WORLD!"
For a brief moment the horned lion like being appears before Mother as she goes on about being the new Goddess of the world, and does not say a thing, well it it kind of does as it lets loose a massive bolt of lightning to smite the planet eater before the Guardian fades away.
"BEGON DEMON! YOU HAVE NO PLACE IN THIS WORLD!"
She's still afraid but running and hiding will only end up with her dead or worse, she has to fight it is do or die today.
GS: Tesni Inoue has attacked Mother with Material - Rage Hammer! GS: Tesni Inoue takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Tesni Inoue has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Misericordia for 84 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Divine Saber for 37 hit points! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Mother bleeds from the rounds of her namesake. She screams in indignation. Rosaline can't help but flash a satisfied grin at the sight.
But this feeling is short-lived, as disproportionate retribution immediately follows. Mother proclaims her divinity and gathers power for a massive beam attack. Rosaline leaps and flattens herself to the ground, raising her wounded, empty arm to conjure up a translucent shield.
This is the best she can do, and yet she feels she might as well have brought an umbrella, for all the good it does her. She screams in pain as the light sears her body. Her sorcerous shield and the symbological weave of her Ethos uniform are strained to their limits keeping her alive, and she doesn't immediately realize that the onslaught has ended at first, too consumed by pain.
And yet... She's still alive. That's good.
Trembling, she gets up-- to her knees. Her knees are good enough. She looks around her, seeing people in pain, people fallen, people still fighting despite it all. She takes a deep breath, interrupted by wincing. They need a miracle right now, she realizes. Several of them. And she may be no miracle worker, but she can at least try.
"O Lord," she whispers.
"Shine your light on we humble sinners,
Show your endless mercy to us heathens,
That we may shatter this false idol in your name."
Golden light shines through the grey clouds of Arctica, illuminating the desolate landscape. They filter in through the windows, and onto the assembled group. Its healing rays only carress a lucky few. Rosaline wishes she could save everyone, but she feels her limitations keenly even now, as her call for a miracle actually goes answered.
She feels the warm light mend her charred body, and manages to stand up straighter.
"Grand Gospel!" she shouts, defiantly. The light of hope shines brighter for a blessed moment, before fading away. This seems enough for her, at least.
GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Rosaline Calice with Grand Gospel! GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Grand Gospel! GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Shalune Amira with Grand Gospel! GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Sorey with Grand Gospel! GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Grand Gospel! GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Grand Gospel! GS: Rosaline Calice has gained 2 Combo! GS: Rosaline Calice takes 10 damage from Poison! GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action. GS: Rosaline Calice gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Rosaline Calice heals Rosaline Calice! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Rosaline Calice heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Tesni Inoue's Material - Rage Hammer for 142 hit points! GS: Rosaline Calice heals Sorey! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Tethelle Cirdian gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Rosaline Calice heals Tethelle Cirdian! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
There should be some measure of joy in this, or at least some satisfaction at driving her fists into this abhorrent creature, Xantia dimly reflects. But there isn't anything like that. Even if she appears angry on the outside, this is not even an act blinded by rage. For all the fury in her attack, what she actually feels is... very little. She's been noticing that for a while now, how her heart hasn't been in any of this. Of all fights, this last big push, with the stakes being the very world itself, why would this be the fight that feels so... empty?
When Mother declares that her gift is unending war, there is a part of Xantia that finds itself somewhat receptive to that idea. Simply because she knows there'll be a use for her as long as there's a need to fight. But is there a place for someone like her in a peaceful world? It's hard to picture herself doing anything else than what she's doing right now.
However, her verbal response is one of absolute certainty: "Nobody wants a gift like that! This ends right now!" No matter what she might feel, or not feel, this is just what needs to be done. There's no choice. She just has to keep fighting with everything she has, and so she will. Her punches are having an effect. If she can just get through that armor...
But Mother rises, and makes a triumphant statement. It's clear enough that an attack is imminent. Xantia falls back somewhat, trying to at least not be there at point blank range again when whatever's coming this time happens. She at least succeeds at that much. But there's no avoiding a beam as big as that from her position. In the end, she's forced into another defensive stance, hoping to somehow weather it with the aid of her elemental aura.
This time, after the beam washes over her, she is down on one knee, the aura of lightning dispersed. For a fleeting moment, she wonders if they're going to lose here. If Filgaia's going to lose here.
She changes her mind when a golem bursts onto the scene. A golem she recognizes. "Diablo..." She had no idea it was working again, who's using it, and how it got here, but... it certainly feels like just the thing that was needed to tip the scales right about now.
In no time, Xantia is back on her feet and starts back in Mother's direction, gathering energy in her right hand, glowing a brighter and brighter white as her pace grows faster and faster. "You... you said Fei was your 'killer'. Even if that made any sense at all... that's not who Fei is right now. He doesn't want to kill anybody. So I..."
Xantia leaps up, draws back her arm, and declares with little fanfare or emotion: "I'll make sure he doesn't have to."
With that, her fist flies forward, discharging the gathered energy in a massive explosion.
GS: Xantia has activated a Force Action! GS: Xantia has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Xantia has attacked Mother with Exploding Fist! GS: Xantia takes 10 damage from Poison! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
What meets Gwen's fist doesn't feel like what a face should. Not even a Hyadean's, and she's punched a few. More like something akin to sinewy rotten fruit, or like a gourd that has sat too long in the hot sun. Tarnishing quicksliver blood coats Gwen's right hand as she jerks it back, desperately trying to flick the fluid off of it, her mouth open in mute shock. "T-thanks," she squeaks, as Hiro woefully attempts to compliment her.
Mother's declaration of godhood redirects Gwen's disgust and horror. Now she has to stare at this thing, this... goddess? This mass of wires, of contradictions, of chaos and noise. Of unlimited power, sucked from the planet itself like a parasite on a vein.
The first demonstration gives Gwen a new appreciation for the pain Rudy took for her, minutes earlier. Filgaia can't take this. Gwen couldn't take this. This is, after all, her home. What is she, if her horizon is taken from her?
She doesn't want to think about it. One hand strays to her chest, then to the impression of the pendant, held underneath the fabric of her blouse. "...."
Keep going. That's all she needs to do. Keep the vision of the sky in your eye, and press forward.
Just- yes, she'll do what Sorey says. As Sorey dashes up into the air, Gwen turns to Hiro and laughs nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "Man, wish I could do that."
Summoning up whatever courage she still has left, Gwen smirks up at Mother. "If takin' on energy that ain't rightfully yours is what makes you a goddess, well. Guess we're both goddesses." Gwen points with her left hand towards Mother. "My first act as a goddess will be to kick your sorry ass!"
The right hand, of course, is charging. It needs time, and, unfortunately, energy, something that reflects in the paleness of Gwen's cheeks.
She can't take much more. She needs to make this count.
Now.
Hefting her right ARM up with her left hand underneath to support it as Hiro's fire lingers in the air, Gwen grunts, letting the crackling ozone held within burst forth. "... because there's only room for one of us!"
GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action! GS: Mother critically Guards a hit from Xantia's Exploding Fist for 35 hit points! GS: Mother has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny misses his frigging shot, and invokes the ancient litanies of his people to increase his accuracy in times of great stress, an invocation which goes back to the ancient days of the old Earth.
"Goddamn busted-ass auto-targeting PIECE OF---"
The remainder of this storied benediction is cut off by the howling storm that is Mother's fury, empowered by the spirit of Filgaia itself. Between the targeting recticle, the warning lines, and the frantic chaos of the fight, Claude misses an incoming blast; the energy knocks him spinning into another, and then a third, and then the fourth catches him from below and sends him spinning upward, trailing smoke and fire. The boy from Earth lands hard and bounces harder, but manages to stick the landing. He goes down to one knee, hissing in air from between his teeth as he tries to fight through the pain.
It takes a while, as the pain is considerable.
The short break proves somewhat to his advantage, as it gives him a moment to formulate a plan. The minion is too swift to pin down with the phase gun, but the World Eater... Claude considers the size, then glances at his father's sidearm with a doubtful expression on his face. This thing is supposed to be capable of ripping through everything short of capital ship armour... but Siegfied and Berserk stood up to it. It stands to reason Mother would as well. And it's the biggest shot he has to throw.
Except for one.
Claude closes his eyes, sucks in a steadying breath, then forces himself to his feet. "Command override," he says, his voice cracking slightly, as his fingers find and snap open the second safety on the butt of the phase gun. "Confirm voiceprint." Letters spool across his eye.
Voiceprint matched to ENSIGN CLAUDE CLESS KENNY. Confirm identity.
"Kilo-6506-7315-1486-5308-9131," he recites quickly, snapping the backplate closed, because old habits are hard to break.
Identity confirmed. Set timer.
"Twenty seconds," Claude answers, and a timer begins spinning down on his HUD. The boy from Earth breaks into a run toward the World Eater, then raises his voice. "MOVE MOVE MOVE GET CLEAR!" he screams, waving his hands in the air, his voice frantic and insistent. He takes a step...
0:09
...another...
0:08
...his arm pulls back...
0:07
...and then Claude throws the phase gun directly at the part of Mother that is charging that beam, even as the little weapon begins to glow with a brilliant, suddenly blistering light.
0:04
"FIRE IN THE HOLE, YOU GODDAMN---"
0:00
The world goes white.
GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Mother with Dying Light! GS: Claude C. Kenny takes 4 damage from Poison! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action. GS: Gwen Whitlock has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Mother with Corona Discharge! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
You would think that having blocked several World Blasting Beams would make it easier, as you know what to expect. No, it turns out. Being slammed by several MORE beams does NOT mean you get better at parrying them. That just makes you weaker.
Arleph does not spend the time to answer this time around, gritting his teeth as the searing PAIN of heat and hate plows straight into him. She's probably correct on that, they probably said all that. Yet, there's something different about this one confrontation, he's pretty sure. He knows things that she does not... or at least, he hopes that she does not. It's a wide Galaxy out there.
If she can leave at all.
However, in the midst of all of this, there's something that gather his attention. Ethiu's actions are curious, even as Arleph struggles with the pain of being blown clear from the Leyline blast of energy. He falls to one knee, gritting his teeth as he looks around. He blinks. There's a moment where the world stops for him, the pain pounding in his ears, his heartbeat furious and frantic.
He looks around, he blinks.
"Oh." The Symbologist's eyes widens, brightens. "Shit."
In that split moment, he looks up at the figure of Mother. He did pull a lot of bravardo, well placed or not, but it's time to put some trust on some very shady man.
Arleph sucks in a breath, standing up and swinging an arm to the side. "HEY, MOTHER!" He shouts, two fingers firing upward as a symbological run spreads out form below him, his concentration split.
It's time to gather some attention away from him.
"They might have all said that, but the galaxy's a big freaking place, you pulsating piece of chitinous crap! I spit on your stolen Godhood! You are stuck on this level of existance, forever at the mercy of stealing things that aren't yours! So COME ON, BIG GIRL."
Arleph's spell goes off. Wherever he is, from where he spied Ethius, a spread of bubbling foam spreads over him, sealing down his wounds and burns, vaguely smelling of antiseptic solution and cleanser. Really weird.
"You're a tiny little parasite in a big damn pond, 'Mother'! You ain't getting off this planet at all, or even Lunar! You're just as blind, stuck and helpless as anyone in life! SO GO TO HELL!"
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Multilayered Foam! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Arleph Ardan heals Ethius Hesiod! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
The advantage of being a creature of living metal and/or alien chimeric flesh is that you aren't limited to the rigours of the human skeleton. Harken's expression is priceless as the confusing patchwork of scarlet flesh and scarlet robes coils and bends around her scythe. A wide-eyed look of shock, made worse by the blinding flare of light that the boy from Earth produces from a small device. Now, not to get all particular about things, but most of those memories are pretty foggy because that was a slightly different Harken back then, a big drugged-up puppet on Alhazred's leash. So when the phase pistol shrieks and the roof of the Photosphere splits, binding particles rent from existence, she is reminded of the time a similar noise and light nearly dissolved her entirely.
In short: hesitations, at such a stage in the game, are dangerous.
Mother crows of her victory as Filgaia's new reigning divinity. Harken swivels her head, attention coming back too slow now, as the floor beneath her feet begins to bubble and melt before the wrath of infinite power unleashed. She wonders, briefly, if she has helped to buy Filgaia's defenders enough time to turn the tide before the world fades to white. . .
. . .
. . . ... from the beam of light comes, after a few terse moments, a scythe-wielding silhouette that looks kind of drippy. Drippy in the sense that their armour is running down their arms and legs in molten rivulets, but they yet remain on two feet, enshrined in a pulsating sphere of energies that seem very diametrically opposed to things borne of Ley power.
A tattered cloak and scarlet hair billow in a gale of destruction as the Golem Diablo nukes a tremendous hole in the ceiling of Mother's inner sanctum. "Good," mutters Harken as her senses return to her, despite also nearly melting. "Even as you gorge yourself on Filgaia's lifeblood, you're playing a losing game..."
The Quarter Knight turns her baleful gaze on Mother, now. She swore to Siegfried, in the company of the Trial Knight, Ragnell, and Elvis, that she would excise this tumour from the planet. "I stood guard over your tomb once, in another life."
"This time, I'll make sure there isn't enough left to bury."
Many are the slings and arrows cast against Mother. Precarious is the path to fight her, alight as it is with spellfire, with ancient weapons of war, and failing machinery. Harken delights in this, and a scarlet whorl of motion flits across Mother's antechamber with renewed and desperate swiftness. Her aim: to scale the body of an alien Goddess and gouge every vein, cut every tendon she comes into contact with.
A Pangalactic Federation phase pistol explodes somewhere not nearly far enough away. All is white, save for the silhouette of a killer with a winged headdress and a reaper's scythe.
Thanks for the camera tricks.
GS: Lady Harken has attacked Mother with Azrael - Moonlight Step Form! GS: Lady Harken has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
The Amadeus is torn to so many shreds, exploding into a terrible assemblage of metal bits and writhing mechanical worms. Cyre's expression contorts into a sickened grimace. It's a disgusting sight, but none so disturbing as the sight of the Mother seeming to now really and truly awaken. She's right; she IS destruction. The death of worlds, forged into a singular malevolence. Can there be a greater evil? Something worse than this parasite that devours stars for the sole purpose of perpetuating her own existence?
And she has the gall to claim that Filgaia's worth is inexorably tied to her own.
No.
Never.R
The planet's lifeblood is twisted into a calamitous light. Rage and fury, terror and disgust all churn and blend into a vitriolic melange in Cyre's belly. It rises, forcing itself up and out in a single, terrible roar. The Wind Tiger surges forward into the beam and...
Flickers.
It disintegrates around the destructive ray, seeming to come away into a haze of ley energies. It seems for the briefest moment that the Nahual of Wind has simply dissolved, turned to light by the might of this calamitous godhead.
And then there's a glint of silver within an outstretched hand. Cyre, leaping from a tide of barely solidified slag, gathers the dispersed energies of his greater form around himself again. The tiger is woven back into the world, right smack-dab in the middle of the Mother's all-consuming gaze.
"You... How selfish can something get...? How does something like you even come about? On what world, under what sky, would you be allowed to exist!? You... Are no goddess," Cyre snarls as the light solidifies all around him. A pair of enormous claws materialize over his hands. "The winds tremble. I smell their fear-- But that's why they have us. We, stupid, limited, mortal humans-- we have only our short mortal lives to lose."
"One moment, a blink in the eternity of a planet's life," the winds scream and howl. The Shepherd's power is only one facet of it. There's something else here. The breath of the world is gathering, the air itself vibrates with power and anticipation, even as the Mother prepares to drink deep again of the world's dwindling lifeforce. Cyre brings those claws together, interlinking his fingers as the wind gathers around them. "It's an easy choice... If you're a goddess, then I'll gladly gamble this mortal life to sever your eternity! We fear, but we will not be paralyzed by it! Fengalon!"
His hands come together. A vast, emerald tornado blasts out from their union! And he surges forward into it, charging at the speed of sound with hands outstretched to plunge deep into whatever part of the Mother is about to unleash another one of those beams. "Use me! Let my courage set your winds into motion! Together, we shall strike down a god!"
And then Claude hurls his self-destructing phase gun at the exact same spot.
...And maybe, just maybe, Cyre's tornado-powered polish hammer will end up catching it along his claws.
And maybe, just maybe, the wind tiger will drive that exploding ARM right into the Mother's heart.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Mother with Wrath of the Wind God! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Corona Discharge for 113 hit points! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Claude C. Kenny's Dying Light for 256 hit points! GS: Mother guards a hit from Lady Harken's Azrael - Moonlight Step Form for 137 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The way those things move is horrifying in ways Ida hasn't witnessed before. It isn't boneless, and it certainly isn't Hyadean shapeshifting--it's like the thing beneath is a grotesque parody of a humanoid form. Jack and Harken rush towards the Amadeus Ida is fighting, giving her the chance to disengage. "All yours," Ida says, to the both of them. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the other Amadeus twitch, collapse, come apart. Ida has seen some revolting, horrifying things in her tenure, but she still has to swallow, repeatedly, to still her stomach. The shockwave makes things infinitely worse. Ida's world swims. She stumbles away from the remaining Amadeus, her face pale, veins colored blue and bluish-quicksilver standing out at her neck.
Mother gloats. Lights ignite all across her body. Ida feels, hears, and sees the buildup of power, even as she hears the Guardians pleading.
Ida sets her feet and closes her eyes. Light washes over her, and for a moment, she's completely lost in Mother's fury.
Then the shockwave abates. Ida still stands. Chi blazes off every inch of her body, illuminating blackened, scorched, half-molten armor and burned, bleeding flesh. Quicksilver and crimson drip down her body. She shudders with each breath, as if it were taking all her effort to stay upright and breathing.
mother
"Wretched creature." Ida steps forwards. Smoke and steam curl up from her. It's taking every last drop of life force to stay conscious, much less mobile. Then a roar that is definitely not Mother echoes through the chamber, and Shalune screams for everyone to get down. Ida does as ordered, throwing herself to the ground and flattening herself against the floor. She risks a glance up, and sees--
DIABLO
--Somehow functional enough to fight, despite lingering, horrible damage. She shuts her eyes as the Elw weapon unleashes its fury upon Mother, and focuses. Living Metal seeps out of her, forming makeshift patches over the burn wounds. She can wonder over how Shalune managed that later.
A ray of light shines on her. The simple act of breathing becomes less agonizing. Ida shoves herself to her feet again, breathing heavily, and flashes Rosaline the 'OK' sign with her gauntleted right hand. Her exposed skin is a mottled mess of burn marks and strange, metallic spots. Mother looms before her."What's wrong, leech?" Ida hisses. "Weren't expecting your 'children' to resist you like this? Weren't expecting us to want something other than you?"
Ida breaks into a sprint, racing at the demented alien overlord. She remembers Kalve standing before a console, working through test after test--trying desperately to figure out a way to stabilize Mother, to excise what he thought was a disease. If nothing else, watching that console gave Ida the broadest outlines of what Kalve thought was inside his mother-goddess. She holds on to it, rage mingling with pain and fear. About twenty feet away from Mother, Ida jumps, a mixture of Rosaline's healing, desperation, and a second wind powering her. The floor vanishes from beneath her, and she rises up, up, up, in a chi-powered leap very similar to the one Claude made when she first met him. For a few seconds, she stares into that hateful face.
"This is for Kalve, creature#654"
Between Tethelle and God Damn Diablo, Mother's mask has taken more than its fair share of punishment. Now she has to contend with Ida. The martial artist falls at her, chi blazing around her, driving an open palm right at her face.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The way those things move is horrifying in ways Ida hasn't witnessed before. It isn't boneless, and it certainly isn't Hyadean shapeshifting--it's like the thing beneath is a grotesque parody of a humanoid form. Jack and Harken rush towards the Amadeus Ida is fighting, giving her the chance to disengage. "All yours," Ida says, to the both of them. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the other Amadeus twitch, collapse, come apart. Ida has seen some revolting, horrifying things in her tenure, but she still has to swallow, repeatedly, to still her stomach. The shockwave makes things infinitely worse. Ida's world swims. She stumbles away from the remaining Amadeus, her face pale, veins colored blue and bluish-quicksilver standing out at her neck.
Mother gloats. Lights ignite all across her body. Ida feels, hears, and sees the buildup of power, even as she hears the Guardians pleading.
Ida sets her feet and closes her eyes. Light washes over her, and for a moment, she's completely lost in Mother's fury.
Then the shockwave abates. Ida still stands. Chi blazes off every inch of her body, illuminating blackened, scorched, half-molten armor and burned, bleeding flesh. Quicksilver and crimson drip down her body. She shudders with each breath, as if it were taking all her effort to stay upright and breathing.
mother
"Wretched creature." Ida steps forwards. Smoke and steam curl up from her. It's taking every last drop of life force to stay conscious, much less mobile. Then a roar that is definitely not Mother echoes through the chamber, and Shalune screams for everyone to get down. Ida does as ordered, throwing herself to the ground and flattening herself against the floor. She risks a glance up, and sees--
DIABLO
--Somehow functional enough to fight, despite lingering, horrible damage. She shuts her eyes as the Elw weapon unleashes its fury upon Mother, and focuses. Living Metal seeps out of her, forming makeshift patches over the burn wounds. She can wonder over how Shalune managed that later.
A ray of light shines on her. The simple act of breathing becomes less agonizing. Ida shoves herself to her feet again, breathing heavily, and flashes Rosaline the 'OK' sign with her gauntleted right hand. Her exposed skin is a mottled mess of burn marks and strange, metallic spots. Mother looms before her."What's wrong, leech?" Ida hisses. "Weren't expecting your 'children' to resist you like this? Weren't expecting us to want something other than you?"
Ida breaks into a sprint, racing at the demented alien overlord. She remembers Kalve standing before a console, working through test after test--trying desperately to figure out a way to stabilize Mother, to excise what he thought was a disease. If nothing else, watching that console gave Ida the broadest outlines of what Kalve thought was inside his mother-goddess. She holds on to it, rage mingling with pain and fear. About twenty feet away from Mother, Ida jumps, a mixture of Rosaline's healing, desperation, and a second wind powering her. The floor vanishes from beneath her, and she rises up, up, up, in a chi-powered leap very similar to the one Claude made when she first met him. For a few seconds, she stares into that hateful face.
"This is for Kalve, creature!"
Between Tethelle and God Damn Diablo, Mother's mask has taken more than its fair share of punishment. Now she has to contend with Ida. The martial artist falls at her, chi blazing around her, driving an open palm right at her face.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Mother with Lotus Sets Its Roots! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Wrath of the Wind God for 222 hit points! GS: Mother guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Lotus Sets Its Roots for 66 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The powerful blast begins to form. The blue haired young man glances toward one person as the beam moves toward her.
"Cecilia!"
Rudy almost engulfed by the blast, but is thrown to the side at the last second as the floor buckles under his feet from the molten transformation of the ground. Still, he's rather burned as he rises up, witnessing the powerful attack from Claude. "Huh," he comments simply in response.
Mother responded to his question with seething hate, so he figures he won't get a conversation from her. So, he calmly takes aim with a new cartridge of bullets. He only fires one, a simple bullet, but the gun begins to whirl. It seems that Mother isn't the only one preparing to do something. Question is: will Rudy live long enough to pull it off.
GS: Rudy Roughnight gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Rosaline Calice heals Rudy Roughnight! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Mother with Swift Shot! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia's blast spell barely dents the armor. Cecilia curses; shuffles back. And then...the Amadeus speaks.
"No, no, no!" Cecilia yells out, but what can she do about it? The Guardians barely scream for help - it is far closer to a begging mewl. Cecilia shakes, fingers clenching around her retrieved Crest as the light gathers together, Mother releasing unfathomably power, the light of the world itself turned to death. She can practically feel her vitality slipping away - faint though it is, protected by what power the Guardians yet have perhaps. She can tell this evil's power. And then that light--
Fails to reach her. She knows that shape, so sturdy even in this. "Rudy!?" Cecilia yelps, and then again: "RUDY!"
She rushes forward, dashing up to the young Drifter's side. "Rudy, you're--"
....not dead, at least. She checks him over a few moments, then satisfied by his calm response, looks up just in time to see Claude BLOW HIS WEAPON UP. "Cluade!?" she yelps, with alarm of her own.
And while Jack and the others crawl all over the last Amadeus, she grits her teeth, glaring up. "You are not our goddess! YOU are a thief! Stealing light from worlds to feed...what!? Ambition!? You steal the voices of people and Guardians and call yourself their queen rather than their murderer! I'll have it no more!"
She thrusts her arm out, her form flickering as the Ley - what little can escape Mother's gluttony - flashes around her, trying to form the shape of Noua Shax. The leonic sputters and sparks, but it still manages to open its maw. "MATERIAL!" Cecilia screams.
Lightning flashes back toward Mother - a paltry showing compared to Mother's annihilating ray of Ley dominance. Yet nonetheless - potent in the hands of a Shaman.
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Mother with Material - Rage Hammer! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Mother guards a hit from Rudy Roughnight's Swift Shot for 63 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Rudy Roughnight! GS: Mother guards a hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Material - Rage Hammer for 105 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jack van Burace has posed.
There is suprise on Jack's face as he feels the impact of glass on the blade of his sword instead of whatever Astra is made from. "Would you hold still!" He growls out as he dances back from the being that drains the very life of the planet into the demon that threatens to destroy all of his world.
He can't take the time to align the perfect shot though. There isn't any time to stand still with fire once more filling the room and the rage of the Mother crashing amonst the assembled defenders of Filgaia. Again the ground around him erupts from that power and again he almost manages to skip away. Hanpan's shield counters some of the molten explosion and his speed counters more of it.
But still molten metal and flame shrouds him, his hair and clothes burning in the wake of the attack even as he dances away and towards Harken. And he smirks slightly though and reaches out to grab her arm, using his momemtum to sling around her tall form. One shoulder touches hers as he rolls across her back.
"You know, you might not be the same." Comes his smirk, a smirk that would be familiar to her stolen memories at least. "But that doesn't mean we don't make a bad team now does it."
But there are more important memories to make now rather than dwell over times past. He lauches himself away from her with that speed of his, even as Harken dissipears. Even as others narrow in on Mother. Even as Diablo explodes the roof of the chamber with its own bewildering power. He uses that boost of speed gained by his quick trip around a Quarter Knight to blur forwards, Hanpan weaving illusions in his wake. His form splits once, then splits again. Four half-there versions of the swordsman zigzagging forwards towards Mother.
"One way or the other, we are ending this today demon." He shouts, his voice amplified as his sword cuts though the air to bisect towards Mother's screaming face. Or what passes for a space. Then he'll be bouncing away again.
Because being that close to that thing with all the other firepower coming at it is not the best of ideas.
"A demon and a thief!" He calls as he shifts away, the four becoming one again. "And after today there won't even be enough of you left to remember!"
GS: Jack van Burace has attacked Mother with True Draw! GS: Jack van Burace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jack van Burace takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Jack van Burace has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Jack van Burace's attack becomes clear! GS: Mother guards a hit from Jack van Burace's True Draw for 129 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
Malfi's battery-powered blast washes over Mother's armor, burning away some of the armor's outer layers in patches.
Sorey's strike is considerably flashier. Hundreds of Divine Blades slam into Mother from the side. Each one slashes in; some never go further than piercing through the armor, but a few manage to dig in deep, and leave the armor cracked and battered.
Catenna's Tidal Wave, summoned by Lucadia's will, smashes into and splashes over Mother -- driving her backward. Where the water strikes the glowing points of light, though, it flashes into steam. The heat of the Ley is strong indeed. Over the din of the battle, Mother cannot pay mind to Ethius. The sudden flood of electricity and heat into the column makes several loud, tell tale 'pops' -- of something starting to short out.
Deep within the Photosphere, a siren howls. No one is in that section to hear it.
And, indeed, they have bigger problems.
The top of Mother's chamber shatters. A glass window leading to the outside breaks apart -- and rocks from the tundra outside spill into the inside. Diablo's roar, all bright red, echoes through. "IMPOSSIBLE!!" Mother shrieks -- before a veritable hurricane of fire as it begins to burn through Mother. Armor on the left side begins to melt, molten rivulets running down to the floor. Flesh behind the armor cooks, with a sizzling, smoking smell. She rocks, thrown to the left side of the dais.
Which is when Ashton Anchors meets her. Short swords slam, over and over -- and too-bright red blood sprays out, as he hacks through armor with a sword dance. The World Eater begins to wobble.
The Amadeus finishes its song. Its body sways; then, Lunata's shotgun blows a chunk out of its head, burning away the fabric. Burnt, writhing steel maggots slam into the ground as it stumbles back from her. There is no verbal response; not even a recognition of the term 'Zeldukes.'
As it lurches back up, though -- Lan's ribbon whips out. It slams into its neck, and then Lan is on it. One knife-hand makes it stumble forward. The next strikes the neck. The Amadeus opens its mouth -- it screams in a monotone, before it explodes in a gout of dying metal carrion worms and tarnished, rotting quicksilver blood.
"NO!" Mother screeches. She whirls on Tethelle. "I do not listen to my SLAVES!"
And Tethelle rushes in, once more. Her blade slashes down, striking just below her her head, and strikes through armor and flesh. Too-bright blood sprays out in great geysers, as sinew-like flesh is torn and shredded through. Mother's shrieks echo over all of it. Jay's spear of light slams into the chest, and erupts out the back. The ball of energy in front of her twists, shuddering, yet not winked out. Elvis is next, slamming his energy-infused fist into her armored chassis. The breastplate caves in, blood exploding into the Sentinel's face, and a few points of light wink out.
Without the Amadeus, she has difficulty controlling the Ley, it seems.
Hiro lunges in, commanding her to burn -- and then strikes with Sorey's magic. His blows slam down, one after the other, carving through armor and shredding it. Mother shrieks; this time, as Hiro's wind rips through her, a gout of that eerie, almost cherry red blood splashes over him. Elly's fire soars over his head, and scorches near her face.
She snarls -- and confirms that she, indeed, does not breathe.
Ragnell's seven shots of lightning rip into Mother. Sparks explode outward; there are sickening pops of flesh, as it cooks and sizzles. She shrieks at Ragnell.
Mother can scarcely pay Josephine's newly deployed ARM mind. Tesni invokes her Medium; the horned lion form of the Lightning Guardian appears, and an eighth huge bolt of electricity slams into Mother. There is a thick smell of ozone, wafting in its wake.
Xantia rushes in. Her fist has an explosion blossom from it -- but the armor on the thing withstands. It buckles in, but even battered, it is mighty. It holds.
"He -- all of you -- ARE WHAT I LET YOU BE!
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
Gwen's ARM blasts a chunk from the armor, sending a splatter of bright red blood on the thick glass behind Mother. Arleph's insults go, for the moment, ignored; she is faced with over two dozen assailants. She faces an ARM she does not, in truth, understand.
The little phase gun goes flying. It bounces off one carapace plate, then locks into another. There is a shudder.
Then everything goes white.
The titanic explosion hurtles Mother across the other side of the room. A full side of her armor is left on the ground, blackened and bloodied; torn, cooked meat is revealed. Her alien body, made of thousands of overlapping strands of muscle and sinew, is abundantly clear. She makes a wheezing, hacking noise behind the blackened facemask.
Harken erupts in the wake of it, as the great ball of Ley energy winks out. She shoots through the aftermath -- and her blade slashes through tendon and flesh. Gouts of blood shoot through the air, splashing all over the ground, before Mother whirls to the side to try to throw Harken off. And, again, beads of light begin to form -- she starts to summon, haphazardly, that Ley energy. "I DEFY YOU!" she screams at Cyre, before he drives his hammer home. It rips into the broken flesh, and breaks through, splattering burnt meat onto the ground. It turns, catching Ida's fist on a piece of steel, and turning it back -- even as the horn that she struck breaks apart.
Rudy's shot blasts another chunk of armor away. A wicked crack is left torn through part of Mother's chassis, now.
"I claim... what... I dreamed of...!" she screams back at Cecilia. Another summoning of Noua Shax, and another blast of lightning -- this one rips through Mother's form, sending arcs of electricity cascading over the whole of her body. The points of light begin to ignite, one after another -- refusing to be snuffed out, as long as Riesenlied is down there. Jack rises, leaping past the glowing points--
--and his blade slams down, four times, as he splits apart. He slahses through much of her head. She screams, blood splashing outward. "Silence--"
There is a terrific shudder.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ynFJ-_QSU
Somewhere, deep within the Gutter, the connection between the Leyline and the Ley Dragon is severed.
It is apparent in this room as a flicker, at first. The patterns all along the floor flicker first -- and then the growing light wavers, and fades back to that dun grey color. The effect reaches Mother, next. The points of light all across her now battered carapace begin to wink out, one by one. Afterimages and motes of Ley energy drift away, but there will be no second shot of that utterly destructive beam that she loosed.
"No... NO! My connection to the Ley! This cannot BE!"
Mother screams -- and it is primal and enraged. This is not so different from what they have heard thus far. But, there is something new in that scream: fear.
A presence suddenly is felt. It is a humming within each Medium; it is, for those bound by oath and love, a knowledge. The veil between the Guardians and Filgaia has not fallen away entirely, but a hole has been torn through it -- and it waits for a hand to grasp that veil and pull it down utterly.
"ENOUGH!" Mother screams, as Jack's blade slices away a final chunk of armor away from her shoulder. Grisly red meat can be seen inside, pulsating. "I will not suffer this world any longer! I will consume it! All of it! NOW! AND YOU WITH IT!"
Circuits and runes engraved upon the ancient being's armored chassis all light up at once. Runes begin to circle through the air around her; some crackle and explode into static. However, after that, a blast of lightning explodes outward from Mother. It comes in waves and arcs, shooting wildly and uncontrollably across the whole of the room. Some of it leaps and jumps from person to person.
The lightning, it seems, is not damaging. It drains the soul itself, however. ARMs spark and overload; a spell fizzles in someone's hands. It wicks away at one's protections and strengths.
It is followed by a terrific, uncontrolled pulse of dark red light. The wave of energy shoots out in a shockwave, with Mother at the center of the ring. The light is tinged purple at the edges -- and it blasts back at all in the room, seeking to hurl them back into the wall (or, worse, into that still-molten trench cutting across one side of the room).
"Die... die die die DIE! DIE AS YOU WON'T IN MY DREAMS!"
The World Eater turns, battered and burnt carapace facing all of them -- as she backs up towards the broken, rock-strewn area where Diablo pushed in from. An orb of fire forms; it churns and roils, like a glowing star, before Mother. Her faceplate cracks; a single, crazed, golden eye is visible -- and a hint of a face of sickened, too-red meat. The monster has no words for them.
She screams.
A cone of eight red beams is loosed -- fire scouring the ground and trying to burn through all of those present.
GS: Mother has become ENRAGED! GS: Mother has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Elvis with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Malfi with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Ashton Anchors with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Arleph Ardan with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Shalune Amira with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Lunata Croze with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Lady Harken with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Sorey with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Catenna with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Chime Isa with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Hiro with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Lan Lilac with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Rosaline Calice with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Tesni Inoue with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Xantia with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Jack van Burace with Neregate Harlow! GS: Mother has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Neregate Harlow! GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 122 hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action! GS: Claude C. Kenny critically Guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 64 hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action! GS: Mother takes 4 damage from Poison! GS: Mother has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Sorey critically Guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 39 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Sorey! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 64 hit points! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Seraph Ragnell completely evades Neregate Harlow from Mother!
GS: Jacqueline Barber critically Guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 16 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has activated a Force Action! GS: Tethelle Cirdian guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 55 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 27 hit points!
GS: Shalune Amira gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Rosaline Calice heals Shalune Amira! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 29 hit points! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 188 hit points! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tesni Inoue critically Guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 36 hit points! GS: Tesni Inoue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Rudy Roughnight guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 21 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 46 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 200 hit points! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Cyre H. Lorentz completely evades Neregate Harlow from Mother!
GS: Lan Lilac has activated a Force Action! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Lan Lilac completely evades Neregate Harlow from Mother!
GS: CRITICAL! Elvis critically Guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 72 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Elvis! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 60 hit points! GS: Hiro guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 83 hit points! GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 110 hit points! GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lady Harken takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 98 hit points! GS: Lady Harken enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jack van Burace takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 80 hit points! GS: Malfi has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mother has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Malfi completely evades Neregate Harlow from Mother!
GS: CRITICAL! Rosaline Calice takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 46 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Rosaline Calice! GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 71 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
In the tumult, Malfi is barely aware of a young blond human man cursing and tossing *something* at Mother.
Until the something starts to glow. The glow builds and builds, until it exceeds even her capacity to adapt to it. She throws up an arm to shield her eyes from it.
Still taking refuge behind that pillar, Malfi is in no position to attack Mother. She draws from her internal batteries instead, using them to replenish her life-force and speed her natural regeneration. The pain from her injuries starts to fade.
She will survive this. She must.
Crouched as she is, Mother's fiery wave completely misses her. What a lucky break!
GS: Malfi has attacked Malfi with Electrocutie!! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Malfi heals Malfi! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Malfi enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 100 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: 2 Combo gained from Boost! GS: Catenna has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
So, so many of their hopes are in play. Catenna can feel them, like tangible things - friends of hers gathered here, Cyre, who means more to her than just about anyone, allies and acquaintances. Jay and Tethelle and Arleph and even Ethius, who's off tinkering with something. Catenna opens her mouth to--
...do nothing. She presses her lips together. Ethius's instincts are often bizarre, but here, she is inclined to put her faith in him. No one else in the Caravan Kinship is as single-minded as he about destroying threats to the world order. If Ethius feels his course is right, then it probably is.
And she can see someone else. Cyre calling forth the power of the Wind Guardian. Catenna sets her jaw and nods. "Cyre, keep pushing!" she calls to him.
Their pushing has paid off, a little. Mother's control over the Ley has reduced - and somewhere far below, something happens.
The ley connection cuts off. Things flicker. Catenna widens her eyes as realization dawns on her. "Riesenlied," she gasps, curling her fingers at her throat. The Mediums hum with love. The connection between Human and Guardian pulses and grows. More than ever, Catenna can feel it. Saarda-Shanta is here, of course - but what she feels now is more. Serenity. Calm. Peace. Love.
The Moon Shaman flicks her hair back with a huff. "As I said," she says levelly. "Your feast is at an end."
And so may Filgaia be. The grisly, ancient power of Mother herself mounts and builds - and that hideous pulse of red light burns forth, tinged with a hideous violet.
The spell blasts through the room. Catenna throws her arms up to try and shield herself from it. But it's futile. Virtually nothing could stop Mother's screaming rage. The energy burns across Catenna's arms, her body and face, and she cries out into the blast - but it's not just with pain, but with defiance.
"We will not die!!" she hurls back. "THIS WORLD... IS NOT YOURS!!"
Silvery light shines around her. Not only around her, but around the Owlet. Catenna takes her Silver Medium in hand and holds it close to her heart, letting the light build. Letting the serenity and love build.
<Then you understand,> Saarda-Shanta murmurs - and the light swells.
Something bursts out of the field of Mother's ray. It's an enormous white shape - and a cry booms through the room.
"HOOOOOOOOOO"
The Owlet has grown again. The Great Owl of Celesdue ascends into the open skies created by the arrival of Diablo. Upon Saarda-Shanta's back, Catenna sits, burned and bloodied, but drawing her bow into one hand. Motes of light dance through the air, trailing behind the Great Owl and the Shaman of the Moon as they ascend as far as the room will allow them.
Those motes of light resolve themselves. They take on the forms of a thousand butterflies. Carried by a breath of night air, they whirl upwards, towards a clear space in the midst of the room. Towards something that was not there before.
Towards a golden crescent. Towards the dusky-skinned woman sitting upon it, the pale train of her dress descending what seems like miles. A pair of huge blue butterfly wings shimmer behind her. When Catenna has invoked her before, the Guardian of the Moon has only been visible for a second or two - not what is happening now. Celesdue is plain to be seen, made manifest clearly and truly. A soft harp note can be heard, faint, fingers playing across what seems to be an invisible series of strings crisscrossing the crescent to either side of her.
The Guardian lifts her eyes towards the white shape soaring through the room - the Great Owl and its rider.
<Then act as you feel best,> Celesdue says, more felt than physically heard - and it echoes from two places at once. From the manifest Guardian herself - and from Saarda-Shanta. (Or is there any distinction between the two?)
With a flash of gold, Celesdue holds her hands out. A vast golden bow whirls into existence. Those blue butterflies shimmer together, blurring into a radiant arrow of pure moonlight. The Guardian notches it - and with the shimmer of harpstrings, she lets that arrow go. It streaks across Mother's chamber like a comet in the night sky - not towards Mother, but towards Owl and rider.
As Celesdue herself closes her butterfly wings and vanishes, the arrow reaches Catenna and bursts. The light of it shines around and through her, and through the Totem Owl beneath her. The surge of it is incredible - a clarity of purpose she has never felt before. Reaching back, she draws an arrow from her quiver, and it too shines with moonlit blue. The power is hers to deploy. Celesdue has given her the right to bring it down. To support all those below. To help them end this. To repair the errors of a history she can barely fathom.
"These are the hopes of Filgaia," Catenna intones as she lines her shot up, Saarda-Shanta angling to get her just the right firing line. "Demon... experience them and know your final peace."
With a smooth motion, Catenna lets the arrow fly. It knifes through the chamber, sailing towards Mother. If it were an ordinary arrow, it would hit her right in the mask.
But it's no ordinary arrow. Should it connect, it is insubstantial. It will pass into her.
And as the power of the Moon Guardian pours forth, gravity will wreak havoc. Filgaia's grip on Mother loosens. Traction suddenly becomes impossible. Even the rays she might fire will begin to behave in odd ways as gravity acts upon them with erratic fervor, diverting them from their courses. Gravitic effects begin to play haywire around the Metal Demons' parasitic demon-goddess, spasming appendages and body parts.
Catenna's voice rises over the din of battle.
"NOOOOOOOOW!"
DC: You switch forms to Great Owl Saarda-Shanta! DC: Catenna switches forms to Great Owl Saarda-Shanta!
GS: Catenna has spent 1 Combo on Disease, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Catenna has attacked Mother with Material - Indomitable Empress! GS: Your rage has died down! You can't act this round, and you've received the Shieldbreak and Entangle status effects! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Catenna's Material - Indomitable Empress for 0 hit points! GS: Mother has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points! GS: Disease and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Mother!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
With both of her servants down, Sorey hopes that they've finally managed to cut Mother off from the power she's been drawing upon. It already feels like there has been too much taken at this point - part of him wonders if there is anything he can do afterwards to try and return this energy to the planet.
...he would probably have to ask Lucia. Perhaps she would know.
Mother's latest attack rages at him, and this time Dezel materializes in a flash of green light. He throws his pendulum out, the spinning ticket creating a green shield that absorbs the blast. But he's already pushed, and after a moment the Seraph fades away... although his defense was strong enough to keep the beam from getting through.
"Damn it's... really hard to generate energy with that witch dragging in every bit of power from the Earth Pulse..." Dezel sounds run down to the ragged edge, which wasn't surprising if there was some bleed off from Mother's efforts to draw in Filgaia's life energy. "Sorry bout that Sorey... looks like it's up to you and Meebo now..."
Sorey nods once, and drops back to the ground as his Armatus dissipates from around his body. His clothing fades back to his usual blue and browns as he speaks quietly. "Thank you Dezel - we won't let your effort be in vain," the Shepherd declares, making sure that his friend knows that his efforts are appreciated.
Dezel is a rough guy - best to make sure that he doesn't feel left out.
"Gwen, Hiro, Lucia... we can't let her get up. If you've got anything left, hit her as hard as you can. If you can't..." And the Shepherd turns to his companions in this fight, and he smiles faintly. "Well, toss a prayer to whomever will listen. I think we're going to need every last bit to stop her." Sorey doesn't know if Mother can survive the battering that she is going to take, but she's also something... else. It doesn't mean he won't regret if she dies, but something so antithetical to life remaining on this planet would spell the doom of everyone on it.
"Mikleo, you ready?"
"For this very moment. Let's go full throttle out of the gate, Sorey."
"Right. Luzrov Rulay!"
Sorey disappears in a flash of light once more, and rather than a sword of the wings of blades he had created before, instead he holds a large, gold and blue bow lightly in his fingers. He drops down to one knee, sighting Mother's horrifying mask along the line of the arrow of shining blue water he forges out of thin air. He draws the arrow back, shimmering light intensifying along its length as the Shepherd concentrates his energy. "Oh bow of the heavens - let the raging vortex swallow evil!"
Sorey releases the arrow - and it transforms into a barrage of blue lights, each arrow spinning around to crash into Mother from all sides. A moment later he reaches down and across, creating an even larger arrow of shimming energy than before, and takes aim once more. The ground around the Shepherd shakes for a moment as he charges the energy for this last attack.
The arrow flies - a single razor thin beam of light that aims to strike the World Eater in her mask covered face.
"Aqua Limit!!"
DC: Sorey switches forms to Armatus Luzrov Rulay!
GS: Sorey has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Sorey has attacked Mother with Aqua Limit! GS: Sorey takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Sorey has completed his action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Sorey's Aqua Limit for 217 hit points! GS: Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Mother's Neregate Harlow for 74 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Ragnell's threats wash over Claude C. Kenny's stupid, Resonanceless face. What a dingus.
The boy from Earth's inner nature is sufficiently positive and optimistic that, for the briefest of seconds, he actually thought that exploding a Federation sidearm in the big bad alien's face would kill it. He does not achieve this lofty ambition... but the smell of charred and rotten Hyadean flesh is a revolting, yet still sweet, victory. "God damn it, stay down," he snarls, and then the heat alarm flickers on his HUD. Judging that what kept him alive the first time stands a good chance of doing so again, Claude focuses the chi, stomps the ground, shoots up the spikes.
The stone wall parts the sea of flame once more. This is good.
What is bad, however, is that Claude is fresh out of Federation handheld defensive weaponry... but the keening wail of the World Eater being torn from the ley energy sends a bolt of steel up the young man's spine. "This is it!" he shouts, eyes flashing. "Finish it! NOW! This may be our only chance!"
The return of the Guardians passes Claude C. Kenny by entirely; if Chapapanga has chosen this moment to swing by and mock him, then he doesn't know it. He instead focuses his efforts on shaping chi, pulling both hands back, pouring everything he has into the cerulean flame gathering between his palms. A low cry escapes Claude's lips, fingers twitching as he shapes primal energies, sharpening the edges of it. He takes seven or eight seconds - an eternity in a fight like this - but he knows that if he's even going to scratch the surface of this behemoth, it'll take everything he's got.
And then, he's got it.
"DRAGON'S HOOOOOOOOOOOWL!" Claude roars, throwing both hands forward; a screaming drake forged of pure killing force blasts out from his palms, streaking toward the scorched mess that is the World Eater's body.
GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Mother with Dragon's Howl! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Claude C. Kenny's Dragon's Howl for 209 hit points! Lunata Croze says, "... you /just/ broke free of the /thing/ that's eating you." Lunata Croze says, "... fine." Lunata Croze says, "I already promised myself."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata--
--can't help but let out a faint and desperate laugh, as the last of what feels like the the threads that bind her very energy start to fall apart. She can feel herself falling apart at her joints as she weaves away from the falling Amadeus and gets caught in Mother's last, desperate blast.
Then something...
Something happens. The Ley connection to Mother shatters, and a warmth can be felt in... the other Mediums.
Not hers.
Nothing but the cold touch of death.
Not yet.
Lunata's face contorts.
Your punishment is not yet meted.
She can feel it again -- the presence of the Guardian of Death, as the veil renews around them. Her face contorts further. For a moment, her rictus grin has turned to that of a most evil scowl.
"... you just broke free of the thing that's eating you.
And you're still going at this sand-clock business."
Her arms tremble slowly as she rises to her feet. She exhales for a moment.
"... fine.
Fine. Have it your darn way.
Drag me down to heck and scald my soul in the Shadow Realm for all eternity for all I care..."
Her eyes flash for a moment.
"I already promised myself.
I'm gonna play the role of the coward..."
And that scowl jerks all the way back to a grin, as some muscle on her lower jaw nearly snaps.
'Iyoooo--' goes the taiko drummer.
The whistling noise of the shamisen.
A beauteous mountain emerges in the background, cascading with fluttering petals that blossom in the spring. Yet, the darkness of a netherworld casts in the foreground, the march of a thousand oni illuminating lights...
And as she speaks, it is in double--
"So though its scent still lingers on...
...So though the stench permeates us."
Lunata breathes out and slowly lowers herself to another battou-stance as she focuses, a crest of three erupting behind her.
'Setsu' alights, for the harsh and wintry chill of nature that takes all, akin to the palm of a Reaper that sees fit to take where it has once sown.
"For whom shall the glory of this world remain unspoiled...?
... Spoiled thus is the world from all our vainglory."
'Getsu' alights, for the forlorn beauty of Filgaia, looming high in the sky and imploring us to ever higher reaches. As Celesdue alights over them all.
"Arrive ye today at the yonder side...
... and succumb to a mountain evanescent in existence."
'Ka' alights, for the blossoming of spring that shall shine beautifully, the evident power of life once more repeating the cycle...
The cycle...
The cycle...
"Cast aside all earthly desires.
Embrace impermanence."
Her form yet disappears into a blurring motion, and she looses herself to appear above Mother's form with as much glee and abandon as she's ever been able to muster into herself. A gleam the colour of moonlight can be seen, as she flashes an inch of her blade out--
"...Midare--
--Setsugekka..."
She descends.
GS: Lunata Croze has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Mother with Midare Setsugekka -Yomotsu-! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle hangs onto Mother's back even as she flails around, bracing her feet against an unpleasantly organic armour plate as she smashes in again and again and again. It's like riding rodeo, not that Tethelle has ever done that - but she's seen it done, once or twice.
'MOVE MOVE MOVE GET CLEAR! FIRE IN THE HOLE, YOU GODDAMN --'
Tethelle doesn't know why Claude is yelling. She doesn't need to; she trusts Claude. Tethelle lets go with her hand and *springs* off Mother with both legs, sending her arcing through the air away from the monstrous being even as Rosaline's power washes over her (must thank her later). She realizes, as she tumbles, that she's going to land inverted.
Tethelle lands on her hands, catching herself in a handstand before rolling back to her feet, away from Mother but also away from a Phase Gun exploding. Everything is white, for that instant; she moves on instinct, rising with her eyes squeezed shut. She dropped her sword, but she picks it up without needing to see it - she *knows* where it is, resting it over one shoulder as she squeezes her Medium with the other hand.
It doesn't protect her. Not completely, anyway; she cannot dispel the blast as it comes for her, but she can move with it, sliding across the floor, her boots kicking up metal fragments as she gets dangerously close to the molten line. Tethelle drives her sword into the ground with a squealing sound, braking herself by twisting it so that the flat stops her movement.
"We're more than slaves! The Guardians guide and protect, but they do not control! And you're not even what they are! We will never be slaves! Not to you or anyone else!"
As the Great Owl appears, Tethelle feels a light in her Medium, and holds it before her. It's glowing - more than it was before, and Tethelle draws the power out, forming it into a blade. It's not like the blade of energy she summoned before; this one is more physical, more real - metal, gold at the base before shading into green, and then red near the tip. And very, very big - longer than Tethelle is tall.
She wields it, along with the Medium in her hand, like it weighed no more than her physical sword, which appears to have been subsumed into the core of the weapon. It isn't stable; Tethelle can barely maintain it, as energy shoots up and down the blade and the whole thing pulses brighter and dimmer like a heartbeat. But it doesn't need to last long, today.
With a wordless cry, Tethelle wields Equites' own sword against Mother, great sweeping arcs that carve perfectly, precisely.
"I am Tethelle Cirdian," Tethelle roars, "Priestess of the Sword, a blade against the darkness! This is the end, Mother! We reject you and everything you stand for!" Her blade shines brighter, brighter, as she swings, though the pulsing of the energy gets more intense, too. Near the end, it starts to fade - but for one last sweep, it brightens to be nearly blinding. "And today... you are the darkness I must cut!!"
DC: Tethelle Cirdian switches forms to Sword Shaman Tethelle!
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Mother with Material - Divine Blade! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Lots of things explode. It's actually quite lovely.
"Ha! *Ha*! Hahahahaha!!" Ragnell crows as Mother wails and screams about her connection to the Ley Point being severed. She pumps a fist, knowing that this severance means that the others must've gotten Riesenlied free. "Serves you right, you bloated tick!!"
She can feel the energy of the Guardians returning as well, via her stone Medium. As the others give it everything they've got, from Claude's massively exploding light swordgunwhatever, to Sorey's change to his fusion with Mikleo, to the calling of Guardians left and right, Ragnell dashes about, evading Mother's attempts to sear them all away with her series of red beams. In her hand, she trades her pistol for a certain stone plate bearing the emblem of Rigdobrite. "Consume THIS!"
She holds it up high and, in a way similar to yet distinct from her usual Seraphic artes, she chants: "O countless falling stars, come forth! Material - METEOR STORM!" Above the battlefield, blazing meteorites sear down and SLAM, one after the another, around and hopefully also into Mother.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Mother with Material - Meteor Storm! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
When the last Amadeus screams Lan winces from the loud sound, an action that rolls into a shudder as red and silver and ick splatters across her. "...e-ew."
She can't stop now, Lan is harshly reminded. She's got to finish what they started. As long as Mother dies, the planet can be saved. As long as Mother dies, Lan's own safety isn't important. She can go all-out if she has to, to bring the wrath of the Guardians down on Mother. To cut out a cancer. To save the battered, imperfect world that she loves.
Mother screams, her armor slowly bashed and sheared and burned away. What's underneath pulses and writhes and bleeds more of that horrible un-blood.
Looking directly at it for more than a few seconds makes her feel sick.
Red light and heat wash in columns across the room, the gravity invoked by a Chosen of Celesdue warping even the laws of physics with its power.
--an can you hea--
That... voice is familiar. Lan's forehead wrinkles as if she's fighting off a sudden headache. "..."
--hat's gotten into you? why are you--
Someone she's fond of...?
Her fingers slide up beneath the hem of her top, touching the smooth plane of her medium. But she doesn't know anyone like that, right?
Lan blinks away her doubt and draws down a comet, a silver shooting star that passes harmlessly through the ceiling - but devastates whatever it impacts. "COME!"
GS: Lan Lilac has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Mother with Material - Shooting Star! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Ashton doesn't hold back. Surrounded by too-bright blood and molten armor, he presses the attack. Everything he can manage goes into the assault - hacking, slashing, blades sparking with sorcerous energy. It isn't enough - but the greater force of everyone combined IS.
Mother wobbles. Something far away snaps her connection to the Ley. The great monster howls, more like a petulant child than a goddess. Ashton moves to strike again - and everything goes white.
Moments later, the mercenary is able to regain his bearings. He looks over towards Claude with a look of shock on his face. Later, he'll have to ask the strange man some questions about just what that was. But now is not the time.
Finding himself thrown by the explosion back to ironically near the boy from Earth, Ashton braces himself on a knee.
~ ~ ~
I need you both now. Please.
You always have had us with you, boy.
We -are- part of you, after all.
We haven't forgotten the agreement we made months ago. As long as we share this body, we will cooperate.
And she and her Demons won't take OUR world! You humans speak of it, but it is ours as well!
Thank you. Thank you both.
We still want our hats, though.
YES! Hats!
~ ~
The two dragons on Ashton's back grow. Magical power surges - not just his, but theirs as well. They grow and strengthen... until Creepy and Weepy are once more dragons rather than mere riders on the swordsman's body.
And just behind Claude's howling drake comes the fury of TRUE dragons to show him what that means.
Flame and ice tumble out with a roar, surging at Mother's beaten form. Perhaps it will be enough.
GS: Ashton Anchors has activated a Force Action! GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Mother with Dragon Breath! GS: Ashton Anchors takes 4 damage from Poison! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Lunata Croze's Midare Setsugekka -Yomotsu- for 228 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Arleph's insults are not really effective. That's fine. That was simply something he was doing as an attempt to get the attention off Ethius. He feels most of his words has been hitting home pretty hard, anyway. It turns out 'Goddesses' have one hell of an ego to bruise.
What's bruising, too, are lasers. If they come out alive out of this one, he'll have to do something about them, maybe... create some sort of mirror defense spell to deal with them. As Arleph takes the blast head on, staggering back to a knee and breathing hard. His clothes are burned, his flesh beneath crackling from the blast and blackened in parts. It hurts. It'll take time to heal. But he's alive.
He looks up. The grotesque form of Mother, the layer of sinew, muscles and flesh, pulsating when exposed by the lack of it's support units. How many worlds have she assimilated the knowledge, technology and spiritual powers to evolve itself to this point? How many cultures have been snuffed out to satisfy this thing's hunger?
He tightens a glove, gritting his teeth. That knowledge, that certanity plowing through his pained body push him on. The Hyedans suffered.
But Arleph knows, for a fact, that others did. For millenias.
"Hahahah... hahah... See, Mother?" The Symbologist lets out, staggering to his feet, arcane winds pushing around the tattered remains of his jacket. Funny how that thing always comes back. "You've eaten your fill of other worlds, but this is your first time to tangle with humanity. How does it taste, this determination? This ancient might? How does it feel to be at the wrong end of this entire thing for once, you overgrown flea?"
A magic circle spreads from his feet, drawing itself in zigzagging lines, from diffrent direction in an calculated manner, meeting with each others in the center. He's no Shaman, but he can feel and see the Guardians returning. He can feel the Material in his pocket.
Grudiev. He smiles to himself, giving a tap on the Medium inside his pocket. Don't worry, you big guy, he remembers the promise. Give your strength to your actual followers.
"BEHOLD, MOTHER! I HAVE SEEN WHAT LIES BETWEEN MATTER, EARTH, WATER AND AIR!"
Arleph push both open hands, fingers pointed at the abomination. Thousands of smaller little lights of ice starts sprouting from his finger tips, glowing in the lights around them and breaking down into small rainbows.
"YOUR EXISTENCE SHALL BE CLEANSED FROM THIS PLANET, THIS GALAXY AND THIS UNIVERSE! MAY OTHERS LIKE YOU FEELS YOUR DEATH, MAY THEY TREMBLE BEFORE OUR RESOLVE AND DESPAIR."
"MONOMOLECULAR ICICLE!"
The circle below him shatters as a veritale torrent of thousands of miniature icicles, razor, impossibly sharp, flies to the chitinous nightmare. They seek openings, they cut, they pierce, wedging between atoms and as tiny as they can be to cut. Sever. Kill.
It's rather beautiful, really. Physically improbable, but beautiful.
GS: Arleph Ardan has activated a Force Action! GS: Arleph Ardan has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Mother with Monomolecular Icicle! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
With Mother's minions dealt with, the only thing left is to deal with the World Eater herself. They bring judgement down upon her from all sides, and as they do so Mother seems to become more and more unhinged.
"...This is no dream, False Mother. This is reality. And we won't bend to your whims so easily! I refuse it!" Jacqueline shouts, curling her hands into fists.
And there is a shudder. Jacqueline can feel it - she can feel Mother's connection to the Leyline being severed. A defiant grin crosses Jacqueline's face.
"...And reality rarely goes the way one wants it to." She concludes.
And then, Mother screams. Runes circle and lightning erupts out from Mother. In response, Jacqueline's gauntlets begin to crackle ominously. She only gets a brief moment to try to figure out what this is before Mother unleashes a pulse of dark red light tinged with purple. Jacqueline extends her hands out, as her barrier extends...
But something's wrong. It lasts for only a second on contact with the wave of energy. Jacqueline gasps in a panic and braces herself...but for a moment, it looks as if she was consumed wholly by it.
When the smoke clears, however...Jacqueline is still there. She looks worse for wear - her clothing is singed, there's a faint streak of red down the side of her face, and her glasses are cracked. But...she's still standing.
"I-I...I refuse." She repeats. "I refuse!"
Jacqueline's gauntlets have gone dark, and returned to their original size. That's...one long-term problem solved, she supposes.
"...Thanks. I guess it's time to do things the old-fashioned way..." She murmurs, slipping them off and storing them safely away. And then, from one of them, she draws out a couple of Crests.
Nearby, Jacqueline watches as Catenna calls upon the power of Celesdue, pinning Mother with a moonlight blue arrow.
"Thanks, Catenna. Let's hope this works...!" Jacqueline says. She finds herself glancing toward Lunata, as she says some things that are...frankly a little worrying, but she'll have to wait until later to address. Right now...Jacqueline stares into Mother's single golden eye.
"I defy you, False Mother! It's like I said, this is no dream! Now!" Jacqueline brandishes the Crest in her left hand. Energy tears through the floor beneath her, sending rubble flying up toward her. And then, with a gesture of her right hand...
"FACE REALITY!!" With a cry, Jacqueline swings her right hand down like an executioner's blade, sending lightning crashing down from above. Down toward Mother and the torn up rubble alike, sending both it and a molten rain upon her.
And with that...Jacqueline stumbles back, breathing heavily. That was...all she had. If this drags on much longer, she's not sure what she'll do...
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Mother with Dualcast - Voltaic Quake! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
Elvis connects against that plating of hers, and this time pours a great deal of energy in to it. Pain ripples in his arm, but he refuses to yield...!
And metal giving is his reward, as the entire chestplate caves inward viciously. "YES! TAKE THAT!" he shouts, skidding backward to a halt. A massive grin is on his face, he seems positively giddy. "You don't stand a chance!!!"
Elvis... pauses for a moment.
...How long as it been since he felt like this? Its been over a century, hans't it? A young Veruni with a headstrong attitude biting off more than he could chew, using gadgets, intellect and raw power to best his sparring opponents in the humdrum activity aboard the Locus Solus.
...Why now, though? Was it truly because everything was on the line, that some former self has decided to emerge for but a moment?
Did he really think he could change so much back then?
...Maybe so. But now, unlike then, he can. And because he can, he will.
Mother retaliates despite her greivous injuries. Ethereal lightning tears out and strikes at those in the room. Elvis does his best to ddoge but gets clipped, finding his aura being sapped from him. "What is this?!" he calls out, though wills it back in place, though now weaker. A second volley is leveled at the group, though there is a timely intervention, one that has happened as Mother is on the edge of life.
A Guardian appears.
"I'll... I'll be..." he says, watching the incoming assault from Mother be rent asunder, and the girl from the preparation area strikes back with the fury of a primal entity who guards this planet.
"This is it! Give her everything you got!"
Elvis looks up to the cancer that has almost been cut from this world. With every last bit he has, he channels his impact magics into his left fist this time.. It is sheathed in light that is hard to look at dead on. And with an explosive liftoff, the Veruni Sentinel rockets at high speeds toward Mother.
"Let's see what I can do if I put absolutely everything in to a single strike!!!" At the point of impact, it is recommended to look away. There are hazards involved, not including blindness and retinal damage from the resulting magical outpuring.
GS: Elvis has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Elvis has attacked Mother with Locus Upper! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elvis takes 9 damage from Poison! GS: Elvis has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Tesni Inoue has posed.
Tesni sees Claude do something with his weapon she almost sears for a moment and is already running before he gives his warning she has an idea of what's coming, this also means she needs to corner Kenny later and have a chat to him. She's got to stay alive and Mother is getting more and angrier she hears Ida yelling about Kalve, she had no hate to that demon hell she'd worked with him several times on digs. She presumes the worse that he's been another of Mother's victims. She could be wrong about that she does not know and then comes the force of Mother's wrath she forces her way through it her duster is a mess at this point she's clearly burned and hurting from all the laser fire. She now goes back to her ARM pulling the weapon out, she flicks a toggle. She then pauses at Catenna's words, the pale purple haired woman takes those words to heart.
"Your rampage across the stars comes to an end this day, we will have our future. Those you stole the future from will get it back and will, at last, be free of you, Mother."
She levels the Dead Man's ARM at Mother deep inside its Nanotech forge has been working overtime to produce a single round, a very powerful one. Lady Harken would well recall this round, the round is produced a loaded into the firing chamber of Tess's weapon and she levels the weapon looking for Mother and she aims the round for what passes for a face on this horror from beyond the stars.
"It's come up Aces and Eights for you Mother, DEAD MAN'S HAND!"
She fires the round launches out of the weapon and if it breaches Mother's hide? It will burrow in for a moment before the thing detonates with enough explosive force to do harm to a Gear. She will try to get back now as others are letting rip with everything they have, and she does not wish to be in the way. She's looking for Arleph, Jay, Catenna, Ethius and anyone else from the Caravan who might need help, hell anyone who's been fighting today she'll be looking to help.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
...and as the howling dragon of chi is met by the howling dragon of... dragons, Claude looks slightly to his right.
And sees a dude with two dragons on his back.
And, despite the time and place, goes completely white with surprise, then guilt, then confusion, then shame.
Does anyone make a 'Sorry I totally bailed on you when you got dragons on your back' card?
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Mother's connection to the ley is disrupted. The Guardians can be felt once more. They stand with you as much as a Guardian can stand. One way or another, Riesenlied is freed.
And Ruby sees it first. During this furious assault of Mother's, Fei stood up once more. His head hangs low, his hair hanging over his face. His burns remain but they don't seem to be bothering him as much as they should be. His hp bar still says -1 too. That's concerning.
Ruby sees him smiling, though he still does not lift his head. He is looking right at her.
The hair strands shift ever so slightly and a yellowed eye stares at her.
Then it winks.
Fei's body then turns and starts walking away.
"Tell her," He whispers for Ruby's ears alone. Or is it just in her head? "We'll see her on the outside."
He has no more words for Mother. The return of the Guardians, the roar of G, is louder than any word or thought.
Mother's last sight of her supposed 'killer' is his back.
<Pose Tracker> Tesni Inoue has posed.
Tesni sees Claude do something with his weapon she almost sears for a moment and is already running before he gives his warning she has an idea of what's coming, this also means she needs to corner Kenny later and have a chat to him. She's got to stay alive and Mother is getting more and angrier she hears Ida yelling about Kalve, she had no hate to that demon hell she'd worked with him several times on digs. She presumes the worse that he's been another of Mother's victims. She could be wrong about that she does not know and then comes the force of Mother's wrath she forces her way through it her duster is a mess at this point she's clearly burned and hurting from all the laser fire. She now goes back to her ARM pulling the weapon out, she flicks a toggle. She then pauses at Catenna's words, the pale purple haired woman takes those words to heart.
"Your rampage across the stars comes to an end this day, we will have our future. Those you stole the future from will get it back and will, at last, be free of you, Mother."
She levels the Dead Man's ARM at Mother deep inside its Nanotech forge has been working overtime to produce a single round, a very powerful one. Lady Harken would well recall this round, the round is produced a loaded into the firing chamber of Tess's weapon and she levels the weapon looking for Mother and she aims the round for what passes for a face on this horror from beyond the stars.
"It's come up Aces and Eights for you Mother, DEAD MAN'S HAND!"
She fires the round launches out of the weapon and if it breaches Mother's hide? It will burrow in for a moment before the thing detonates with enough explosive force to do harm to a Gear. She will try to get back now as others are letting rip with everything they have, and she does not wish to be in the way. She's looking for Arleph, Jay, Catenna, Ethius and anyone else from the Caravan who might need help, hell anyone who's been fighting today she'll be looking to help.
GS: Tesni Inoue has attacked Mother with Dead Man's Hand! GS: Tesni Inoue takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Tesni Inoue has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Material - Divine Blade for 235 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
It is as if the world is ending, and perhaps in a sense it is. If Filgaia perishes after all of this, at least Lunar will be spared, and uncounted worlds afterwards. The light, the heat, it all washes over the field.
Elly is a little anticlimatic in what she does at this point, which is to just keep her spell going. Something like that. She probably has a plan. She watches the flame and when Mother thrashes, when Mother screams, she keeps it following her. There is a lot to do -
And then that siphoning comes.
Elly narrows her eyes. She grinds her knuckles into her forehead, a gesture she never did before. She keeps that flame alive even as Mother screams. She is thrown backwards, only able to bring herself down so she is hurled partway backwards - the full measure of the advance she made in the leewards side of Ashton Anchors!
The wind brings the stink of burning alien flesh to her nose. Elly's face contorts. The world-eater turns towards them and a beam lances towards her and:
For a heartstopping moment Elly thinks: I need to block that. I can counterspell it. Turn it away from Fei.
A syncope later she has the sudden and terrible feeling that it won't work. This is why Elly stares straight ahead at the ray as it arcs towards her and only at the last possible moment does she dive away from Fei. She dives to the right, her left hand trailing behind her. The beam does not, quite, miss her.
As the pain runs up her left hand with screaming force Elly stumbles and falls, landing on her chest as her eyes stay wide and she swims and she grasps on that vision, the Ether-pattern that has kept flame on the massive form of Mother even now. It's wavering, she thinks. She tastes bile. She runs hot, then dreadfully cold. I'm going to pass out, she thinks, even as she makes out the manifestation of the Guardian -
Someone yanks on her hair. I told you you were gonna come back.
Pain makes Elly's eyes swim and wards off a swoon. "But -"
The Guardians are halfway here already. Don't think about it too much. But I told you I remembered everything. What you're trying to do has a name, and you can do it because you didn't cover thirty percent of yourself with ice spells.
"But I can't -" Elly pants, before a piece of small rubble falls on her wounded left hand and she yelps and she rolls onto her back and then from that position she looks towards Mother, two blue-purple eyes meeting one yellow.
From here Elly raises that hand up. It feels like someone else is doing it, not least because it is incredibly painful, but she curls the hand that was once dominant for someone else and gives Mother a little hand gesture. A thumbs-up. Her face is sick pale, but somehow, she smiles, just a little bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNrjtYd_BsM
The spell that comes out of Elly next is itself almost anticlimax. It's the familiar serpentine streak of intense plasma that she has used before, arcing from her - around her midsection - towards Mother, even as Elly forces herself, slowly and hesitatingly, to sit upright. The burst's target, though, is specific:
That space she had kept sheathed in fire. That one spot, now thermally weakened. In the chaos of war it would be easy to miss. Mother had much greater things to worry about than a single hot spot, however intense.
But how charred, how melted, how carbonised is that one specific spot?
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Mother with Thermo Dragon! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Material - Meteor Storm for 196 hit points! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Lan Lilac's Material - Shooting Star for 171 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Several crazy things happen at once, none of which Rosaline can quite process, focused as she is on casting her spell and not immediately collapsing in the process. The light seems to help several people stay in the fight, herself included. Good.
The important part is that Mother's mask is crumbling. The Guardians are lending their aid again, and as complicated a relationship as Rosaline has with them, she has to admit they deserve this one. But Mother is far from having said her last word.
Lightning sparks out of her. Rosaline, once again, puts up a magical protection, but the false goddess is clever. The spell flickers away, as if shorted out. Then comes a pulse of red light sending her flying across the room. She crumples into a trembling heap, barely having the strength to look up at what comes next.
A tiny sun rolls over them all. Rosaline can only count on the lingering protection of the miracle she just invoked, and can feel it being washed away by the power pouring over them. Once again, Rosaline lives in a world of pain for a few moments.
...
But, as they say, the soul still burns.
"Mother..."
She is still injured, still in horrible pain, but once again she's running towards the alien monstrosity, screaming her throat raw in defiance. This seems to be the final push, or at least their final chance at it. And while most of her power is spent, she can't stop here, especially not when she vowed the kill the abomination before her, who it should be said really does make her incredibly mad. This might give her spell a little extra kick.
"I only have one last thing to say to you!"
She extends her hands forward. A halo of bright, shining swords manifest around her, before she raises her hands, sending them flying up until they rain back down straight onto Mother, with the intent of not only cutting but pinning her down.
"GO TO HELL! Swords of Revealing Light!"
GS: Rosaline Calice has activated a Force Action! GS: Rosaline Calice has activated a Force Action! GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Mother with Swords of Revealing Light! GS: Rosaline Calice takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Ashton Anchors's Dragon Breath for 172 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Again an invocation of the Ley --
Or so it seems.
Josephine Lovelace is no Shaman, bears no Medium.
But she is a daughter of a magus most learned, and as is her birthright knows certain things.
The atmosphere in the room has shifted, as if a weight has been moved somewhere. It doesn't take an adept to realize what has happened.
Riesenlied.
"You'd... better still be alive, Sunshine," Josie murmurs, finally taking her hand off the core.
Lily... Leon... you guys better have worked things out.
Funny how it goes. She'd gotten into this because she'd crossed paths with the two of them -- been forced into in fact, a thought that brings a twisted smile to the archaeologist's lips. Shouldn't be here now, like her reflection had said. There are other things she should be doing. Let them all work it out. And yet-- right now she almost feels--
It almost feels right.
Mother screams her defiance. Screams her desire to consume them -- all of them. The planet. A spark leaps off the end of the Nostos cannon in the wake of that strange lightning. Her gaze flickers towards it; she can feel the trembling of the cannon, can see the slight dip in output of the ARM's potential. "Shit--" Josie utters. Mother screams her defiance; there is a red red light.
All she does is move her body, covering the cannon aglow and burning with the heat of the energy roiling within it. All she has to do is fire it. Just one shot. She'll protect it with her body, just so long as she can fire it--
She just has to keep it from harm until then.
Which is why she doesn't cry out, though the flames roll across her body. Her vest is burning. She sheds that too. Her shirt's scorched. Her flesh.
And on that night years ago, amidst the flames that swallowed up everything, she had reached out a desperate hand.
Josephine won't forget it. Which is why--
Josie laughs, a sound that breaks into a dry cough as she unfolds from around the ARM. "You won't 'suffer this world', eh? A little too late for that, I'd reckon. As they say, 'buyer beware'," she quips, sliding back, using the ARM itself as her support every inch of the way. Everything hurts. Her back sings agonies with the movement. But all she needs to do now is make one shot.
"Anyway."
The sights are crystal -- scavenged from the best of the stones collected in Stone Forest. Really, she should make more using them. Even as the Photosphere crumbles, she can sight perfectly precisely where she wants to shoot.
"I ain't the forgiving type," Josie slurs against the pain, "and you certainly ain't worth forgiving. So this is the last time I'm gonna say it: this is our world."
"So go to hell."
She pulls the trigger.
The cannon screams, the energies gathered within it spinning up into one furious shot.
"Sunshine! This is for you!"
It erupts with enough force that even with the cannon braced, even Josie crouched next to it is flung backwards and to the floor of the chamber.
She'd taken care to reinforce the shell of the round after Harken. She'd even taken care to fill it with as much jagged pieces of shrapnel and explosives as she could get into it.
All for this moment.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action! GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune rasps out a breath, feeling fatigue begin to build in her muscles - or rather, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that she can no longer ignore the fatigue she's been doing her best to ignore all this time. She feels hot, shaking at the same time - and shaking a little further as she watches and feels Lunata give part of herself over to the Guardian of Death yet again, her teeth gritting at the sight.
Carefully, she hoists herself up on Big Shal's scaffolding, peering over at Mother - just in time to yelp as she and Big Shal are buffeted by Mother's thrashing, helpless attack, the golem doing its best to cover the cockpit but her arms ablating away even as they rebuild themselves. That, too, makes her head swim - the golem might be nigh-on indestructible, but that means by definition it isn't indestructible.
"That's enough!" she calls over the din of everything, realizing all of a sudden that the golem isn't just protecting her - it's walking forwards inexorably, pushing through the outpouring of power with its usual implacability. And in another flash, she knows why - it's to put her in range.
Her knuckles are white on her staff as she swings it up to her shoulder; working feverishly, she rams at a catch along its side, ejecting the spent canister and sliding a new one home with a satisfying sort of ka-thunk. She could-- use her Material, she supposes... but then, she's someone who can't even remember her Guardian's name most of the time. Better, perhaps, for humans to solve human problems. Or something philosophical like that, she supposes, as she pulls the trigger. The shotstaff bucks in her hands, but doesn't fire, not yet - not until it has built up a sphere of energy almost the size of the mechanic herself.
Probably she should think up some catchy last words, but she's honestly too tired and too spent to do much more than sigh out a tiny, quiet "--shut up already." Instead, she braces herself against a railing as she launches the shot, the recoil nearly sending her up and over the back of it as the brilliant sphere hangs unnaturally in the air and then extends forwards into a shining line.
GS: Shalune Amira has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Shalune Amira enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Mother with Soaring Clouds! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hope comes with a flicker. The patterns in the room changing, the light wavering. Motes of light drifting off. The creature enrages, screams, Lucia's hair flows in waves behind her as its fury thunders against her. "You are correct in one singular way..."
She does not follow up immediately. Because lightning explodes off of Mother, crackling-soul draining unlight. It ravages Lucia's barrier, sapping away at it, and for a moment her face is twisted up in a silent scream as Ruby is knocked away by it, sent spinning across the floor. Hiro on the other hand nearly drops his sword under the assault on his soul. "No..."
And that is just the beginning, red light pulses, and scours through them in a more physical way, the shockwave of force knocking him backwards.
Hitting the ground in a roll, his hand spasms as he tries to keep his hold on his sword. Sorey is asking him to give a little more, and he feels like he doesn't have anything left to give.
Lucia is on the ground, blue hair spilling out all around her, as she puts down a hand, and tries her best to rise just a little.
Hiro's vision blurs at the sight of her and Ruby, and he understands that he has more to give after all. "Don't worry Sorey..." The youth inhales, as he flexes his fingers to grip his sword, "...I've got more than prayers left to give." Hiro pries himself up to his feet with a wobbly gait towards the wounded World Devourer.
-=-=-
Just as Fei's body comes near Ruby, who is in a daze as she beholds him smiling, "Fei..." And then a thought occurs to her... that perhaps she got that one wrong. That that smile just isn't quite Fei's. Ruby's eyes follow him and she murmurs as a plea that probably doesn't even reach him. "Don't go..." And Ruby pushes herself to get up.
-=-=-
"You sound scared."
Hiro says to Mother as his eyes pass over Gwen back on his way to her horrible ravaged carapace, "And you should be. Someone as ancient as you should know - the people of the Blue Star? They're survivors. Some of the toughest people I know come from here."
In those moments he thinks of Lucia, Gwen, Fei, Elly, Riesenlied, Noeline, Lily, Leon, Ida, Lunata, Shalune... more besides. So many from Filgaia that he'd met, fought alongside, learned from.
Planting his feet, Hiro raises his sword over his head, feeling the wind currents flooding back towards him. "And you..." The Shepherd's flash of Armatization with Mikleo is like cyan light in his vision. When it becomes enough, he spins around once, then raises it overhead, and with a two-handed throw between his palms, slings the blade straight at Mother. "...YOU'RE NO MATCH FOR THE SPIRIT OF EVEN ONE OF THEM!"
It becomes akin to a spinning boomerang, swirling with concentrated wind currents. It flies after the razor-thin arrow of Sorey to attempt to imbed in mother's tortured carapace.
Lucia stirs, as if she recollects the end of her thought. The one thing Mother was correct about.
"That... is... enough."
The currents contained around the blade try to burst outwards like a pressurized air cannister, the blast of air attempting to detonate the creature from the inside out.
-=-=-
Ruby is having a hard time flying right now, but she slowly flaps her way over to Elly's shoulder. She doesn't land until after her spell goes off, and when she does she almost slips off outright, claws clinging, as she murmurs near Elly's ear, "He told me to tell you..."
She wants to say the word Fei. And perhaps she will decide that if she has to clarify. Right now though 'He' is perhaps the most accurate.
... either way she delivers the message straight to her.
GS: Hiro has activated a Force Action! GS: Hiro has attacked Mother with Sybillium Sword! GS: Hiro takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida falls out of the air, tucks, and rolls. She comes up a a knee, sees Claude--standing as though he just threw something--and then everything goes white. Ida shuts her eyes, grimaces as impossible energies pour into the air around her. She can only guess at what he did, but she has a good guess. She rises and turns to face the enraged goddess. Raw terror races down her spine, joined by a frisson of triumph. Mother is hurt. Mother is bleeding. Mother is lashing out in rage. Ida doesn't let down her guard. Cornered animals are the most dangerous.
"What's wrong?" Ida says. She grins from ear to ear as she turns towards Mother, advances on her with even steps and fists raised. "You announced your intent, creature. You've telegraphed. And now, that you're against the wall, all you can do is lash out and shriek like an animal!" Ida sounds much more confident than she feels. Fei's clinging to life. Half of her expects someone to die within the next minute or so.
She's almost right. Rays of brilliant red trace lines across the battered, ruined chamber. Ida ducks beneath one, and twists to the side as another arcs in--and a third slashes across her right hip. A howl of pain tears free from Ida's lips. She's approaching her limit.
Far below, the Ley Point shatters.
Something grows warm in Ida's pocket. It's the Medium. It doesn't burn, as she was terrified it might, and she glances down at it a moment--and then up, as Celesdue is made manifest through the will of her shaman, resplendent atop a great white owl. Her breath catches in her throat. As poor a time and place as it is for such feelings, she feels humbled. Almost ashamed. As Cecilia said, the Guardians have been struggling, too.
"Firebird," Ida whispers. "I can't promise a miracle."
Ida drives her right fist--the one infused with Hyadean flesh--towards the exposed meat that is Mother's form. The meat that Kalve had been obsessing over for weeks, trying to excise. She flows from the first strike into a seamless combination of punches. She weaves behind Elvis as he approaches, springs into the air, alights on a broken, rib-like part of Mother's carapace. "But what I can promise you... is my best!" Ida throws another punch, and another, and another, battering the alien devourer with her fists. It seems so small compared to the energies everyone else is letting loose with, against incarnate guardians, but it is her best.
Ida leaps again, and finds herself face-to-mask with Mother once more. "No, creature," Ida hisses. "The only thing dying here is you." Her fist comes down at Mothers throat like a falling meteor, blazing with the force of her life. A shockwave of displaced air precedes it, followed by a booming roar.
"FOR HYADES!" Ida screams, over the sounds of her own fist striking home. "FOR FILGAIA!"
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action! GS: Josephine Lovelace has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Mother with The Tenth Black Night! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Mother with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Dualcast - Voltaic Quake for 229 hit points! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Elvis's Locus Upper for 258 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Tesni Inoue's Dead Man's Hand for 195 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The appearance of Diablo brings forth a welcome set of fresh air, as Ethius turns his gaze upwards to their emergence. He looks the barely-there Golem. He - Ethius - did that to Diablo. At the time, it made perfect sense to do what he did. A flash of some logic that eludes him - was it logic, or a madness?
Many details have yet to become clear. Ethius remarks in a moment of introspection he can scarce afford. As he watches Diablo put their all into one tremendous blow, Ethius watches their every movement.
He catches the blonde-haired boy in conspicuous white hurl away an item that leads to a blinding flash of light.
He turns to Arleph as the verbose, theory-flinging Doctor seems to give him some trus--
Ethius accepts the protective layer as a safeguard, but brings a hand back over his mouth.
It is approaching three years. I recognize this passage of time to be troubling. My own three years. Mother's...
Lightning explodes outward. Ethius can guess its arc before it fires and takes a dramatic dive off to the side - but he does not account for the way it jumps and moves. His body feels numb. The rest of him... drained. He has only enough wind in him, however enough there is, to cross an arm inward to a few slurred syllables to cast something.
He doesn't get to stand before he's launched up against the wall by the red shockwave, and hits his head... again. Red beams fill the air.
Ethius recovers, and walks forward calmly with his quarterstaff like a walking stick. This strange man, acting as he does. One beam strikes into him, hurling him back, but some sort of Symbological safeguard - one he just cast before - stops him from having a hole through his torso.
Celesdue - Guardian of the Moon - comes forth as a signal to all who stand before Mother now. Ethius stares up into those open skies, and a brisk, refreshing, but rather cold air splashes upon him as he watches Catenna begin the history-defining final assault upon Mother.
A hand goes up to his bloodied head... but not for long.
It makes sense. The reason as to why eludes me. To what end, I cannot say. He reflects underneath the golden crescent. I understand it may not have began with Mother. It will not end with Mother.
His gaze might even be chilling, with how level he can keep it. How he is finding that composure of his, before a screaming terror that is beyond any one of them.
The origin of the insight is troubling. It will need to be addressed. Ethius remarks silently to himself. I cannot disagree. No. It is correct.
Ethius walks forward deliberately. The tip of his quarterstaff stabs at a few cables still yet within his way - insigificant to eyes fixated upon Mother, but he can guess - no, he knows - their true value - as he stakes his claim somewhere in Mother's eight o'clock direction. He accounts for where everyone is, what they're doing, and takes a few steps backwards instinctively.
There is a feeling on his person - from something he holds - that feels it holds greater clarity unto itself.
What I seek, to the exact specification... that much remains uncertain. What I do, when I am to find it...
When satisfied, Ethius throws his right hand up on high in a forceful gesture. Sorecerous power exudes from him, washing out from him as an origin point - but even then it seems a bit muted. This is by design.
"I call to a star that enables the patterns of life itself, its existence itself an unstable, sustainable chaos..." These are the first words he's clearly stated this entire encounter with Mother. Somehow, the battlefield itself dims a few shades as his words rise up. The light of the Symbological runes grow in its intensity. "Relieve your ceaseless pressure at my call, and bathe them in the unrestrained maelstrom of your prominence...!"
Ethius swings the hand down towards the earth in a crouch, his fingers spread out as far as they can possibly be, to a final shout that seals off the ritual required.
"SOLAR STOOOORRRRM!" The calm breaks for the final words. A great flame falls down from the opening above, angled with incredible care. It spills forth, threatening to bathe Mother in all sorts of cosmic rays - cosmic rays that do awful things to ARMs. Ethius slowly rises as he finishes this final chant, and he can know one thing of utmost importance.
I am to destroy them.
The ^Technology Hunter^ Ethius Hesiod has filled a missing gap in his lost memories...
...and has achieved access to a new Class: ^ARM Breaker^!!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated a Force Action! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated a Force Action! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Mother with Solar Storm! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Arleph Ardan's Monomolecular Icicle for 223 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Dragon for 232 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Rosaline Calice's Swords of Revealing Light for 114 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It's like a rubber band being pulled so tight that it snaps. It's a balloon being filled so much that it bursts. It's a dam facing a flood too high for its walls. A cup overflows.
The Demon-Mother's connection to the Ley Collapses.
Cyre's-- the Nahual's-- eyes suddenly flash.
Cyre surges out of the catastrophe that unfolds around the Mother, his body smoldering and singed, but not broken. No. The opposite. Green sparks dance across the wounds and burns, sealing over, fusing together into winding sutras of emerald fire. "Fengalon..." Cyre rumbles, a familiar presence nestling itself in an old, familiar nook at the back of his mind. "You heard all that, huh...?"
The sentiment is apprecited. But your prey still lives.
"Yeah, I know. For now, that's still the case. But..." The shaman rises as the crescent moon rises. Celesdue's gentle light falls across his back. He sweeps his hands wide, a halo of jade light spinning out into a great, whirling mandala, "But this is where it ends. I feel the breath of the world...!"
Dark, life-smothering energies sweep over him, threatening to swallow him entirely. But rather than sinking into his body and soul, it meets a wall of churning storm-winds. Crimson light blasts into Cyre's barrier, shearing outer layers off in a nightmarish imitation of the aurora. But still it stands strong...!
"You deny me...? Hah. Hahahahaha...!" The tiger draws its arms back, the mandala over its shoulders building to a crescendo-- a halo that seems to encircle the moon in the sky. "And you call yourself a goddess!?" Motes of ambient essence gather, the mandala unfolding, growing, revolving faster with every passing moment. At last, the pressure is too much-- and Cyre roars...!
The accumulated energy surges forth in a great spiral of etherlight wind. The air itself seems to rise in reply to the Tiger's roar and rushes forward like a tide of shooting stars...! "I can't even begin to imagine how many lives you've taken. How many worlds you've consumed. Hyades, Filgaia, they've only been stepping stones. But now... Now...!"
"This planet will be your grave!"
The column of wind floods out around the parasite-god. Then, as the Wind Tiger clenches a fist, all of that power-- the wrath of the storm, the howling voice of the world-- collapses in around her... And explodes.
"AWAKEN - AIR!"
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Mother with Awakening Air! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's The Tenth Black Night for 232 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
The Quarter Knight of Scarlet ascends the chassis of the beast at a gallop. Crescent arcs of moonlight, blisteringly cold against the searing heat of the unleashed Ley energies, follows Azrael's arc through Mother's form with each hop and leap. She knows nothing of Mother's physiology, only that it must be cut. The blood that slakes her hair and face is older than anything she's ever touched.
Quoth Jack Van Burace, with the audacity to touch her--to use her as a swinging post of sorts: 'You might not be the same, but that doesn't mean we don't make a bad team now, does it?'
A rogueishly handsome knight named Garret Stampede grins at the Sword Princess of Arctica. "Hey now, we don't make such a bad team, do we?"
The more time she spends elbow-deep in ichor and pulsating flesh, the more time she feels closer and closer to exacting revenge for a woman already dead, the more those memories feel like they might belong after all. Harken wrenches a fistful of tendon from the carapace, taloned gauntlets biting deep. That the parasitic Goddess is denied her tether to the planet's energies means only one thing:
Riesenlied is freed.
Harken feels a sense of profound relief at this fact. Even as she repeatedly punches Mother's fractured mask with the grace of a boxer on autopilot in the 12'th round. Even as roiling arcs of black lightning, through which the world's colours look twisted and wrong, coil through her hands and spark across her face. Even as the monster shrieks--nay--screams, with force sufficient to toss the Quarter Knight into the air.
There is a view from above. Harken can see it, as her body spirals loosely near the top of her flight arc. A boy with beautiful golden hair strikes with his fighting spirit ablaze about his fists in the form of dragons. Symbology and crest sorceries flare painfully, great arcing blades of ice and thunderous explosions of lightning dancing alike. The power of the Guardians rushes to fill the void, channeled through just and pure hearts. A girl wields death in her blade, and moves with perfect grace.
Were she a better woman, Harken would fall to the ground and let Filgaia's heroes bury this angry alien God and put to rest a legacy of endless conquest and consumption. Were she nobler, she'd accept that her lot here was served, and maybe in just some tiny way, she'd offset all the horrors she'd wrought.
Harken is not that better woman.
Before her fall has ended, Harken adroitly swivels midair and clasps her scythe with both hands. Her eyes are alight with the empassioned rage of a dead woman, given one last shot at revenge. Arctica's Sword Princess feels, for a moment, like she has finally woken up in a body that isn't hers, but her course of action is already set.
"Lord Siegfried bids you farewell."
The scythe shrieks. It is swung from a low angle, coming up towards Mother's mask at an appreciable fraction of Mach 6. The form is perfect, classic Arctican Fast Draw. The blow--
--shatters the scythe Azrael in an explosion of alloyed fragments.
GS: Lady Harken has activated a Force Action! GS: Lady Harken has attacked Mother with Fast Draw - Magnum Fang! GS: Lady Harken has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's Soaring Clouds for 186 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Hiro's Sybillium Sword for 222 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 229 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Solar Storm for 186 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Jam! Statuses applied to Mother! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Not enough. Still not enough. At moments like this, for all the power she has, even Xantia laments not being stronger. Even so, she shouts back at Mother upon landing, "You don't control me! You don't control any of us! And you never will!"
There it is. At this crucial moment, her emotions come flooding back all at once. This is no time to feel bad about what you can't do. You simply have to do the very best you can. There's so many people here, and they all want the same thing. With everyone's power combined, everyone's will to be free from this monster, somehow they'll find a way to make it happen.
As if answering her positive outlook, it's at this moment that elsewhere in the Photosphere, a different group succeeds in making their fervent with for the return of someone important to them a reality. Though Xantia may not consciously realize that until later, it's plain enough to see that someway or another, they now have an opening, a chance. Mother herself is making that much obvious, the way she's reacting.
The following attack feels like a desperate one. Lightning goes every which way, virtually unavoidable. And when it's about to strike Xantia... she smiles.
Moments ago, she recalled the summoning of a certain Guardian by Tesni and Cecilia. Xantia knows THAT Guardian quite well. "That's right... you don't like the Guardians very much," she thought to herself at the time. And Noua Shax sure didn't seem to like Mother much either. It only seemed appropriate to ask for a little help as well.
And so it was that Xantia moved her left hand to the inner pocket of her clock, to touch the medium kept within, softly speaking the word, "Material." In response, the translucent image of Noua Shax briefly covers her body, creating a lightning aura far more powerful than the one she is capable of creating herself. With it, rather than getting drained by the lightning, she drains the lightning instead, rapidly gathering an alarming amount of electricity, glowing so brightly that it's hard to even still see her in that giant swirling ball of energy. Which then starts to move towards Mother, slowly, purposefully.
A shockwave follows, dark red light rippling out from Mother, hitting the empowered Xantia head-on. That one doesn't get absorbed, it knocks her off her feet, landing several feet back.
And then she gets up again, starts that slow walk back towards Mother. Another red beam is sent her way in response, more focused this time, striking her dead-on once again. This time, she doesn't fall. She keeps walking, pushing back against it. Even with her lightning shield, this is a excruciatingly painful effort. But it doesn't stop her. When others attack, the red light winks out, and Xantia is still standing. Now it's her turn.
Raising both arms aloft, she directs the lightning from her body to gather there, forming into the instrument that she by now is very used to shaping. But it's different this time. There's so much power surrounding her, the effort takes longer than usual, and the result is much bigger than usual. Much, much bigger. By the time she's finished directing all the energy away from her body and onto her hands, the lightning hammer that she's managed to create would look daunting even to your average Gear.
If Fei's still watching in his headspace, he'll see Xantia staring directly at the 'camera' as she speaks, "This is from Fei... and from me."
With that, she swings her arms forward, sending the massive electric construct crashing down towards the creature who would threaten all of Filgaia.
GS: Xantia has activated a Force Action! GS: Xantia has activated a Force Action! GS: Xantia has spent 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Xantia has attacked Mother with Megavolt Hammer! GS: Xantia has gained 2 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhLfLUtBZA4
The light from the Phase Gun blinds completely, Cecilia holding up her arms to shield her eyes. The dizzying power it blasts Mother with - so that's the kind of power Claude had in store?
But it's gone, now. "...thank you," Cecilia whispers. She suspects she knows how personal a choice that was. She cannot waste it. Will not.
And fortunately, something else - far away but critically close - does the job. Cecilia feels it rattle her bones as the veil weakens - and as Mother's grip on the Ley cracks. She feels the presence and power with a renewed vigor, like a splash of cool, clean water across her.
"It's back," Cecilia calls. "It's time!" she calls, mostly aimed at Rudy and Jack.
And then she dares to step forward, across a field scarred and scorched.
"We will not allow you to consume anything. Not anymore!" They're winning. She has to believe in that. "We will not stand by and be killed! Filgaia has fought too hard!" She sucks in a breath and cries: "Material!"
A tablet leaps out of her case, a twirling stone plate with the mark of a searing flame.
And it orbits her, hovers about like Mother's own beasts once had; flits about her head, waiting. "You have scarred this world and her people. More than that, you have scarred countless more! I cannot dare to speak on their behalf...but I can attempt to show you how Filgaia deals with killers." And then she raises up her voice again, and cries: "Material!"
A second tablet leaps from its case, whirling around her, a stray flash of power revealing it as an icon of whirling winds. Cecilia strides closer still, the Ley around her gusting her tunic. "You brought the Ley here, hoping to abuse it. But you forgot, didn't you? Ley gathers. It pools. Forms lines...and points."
She steps into a swirling Leypoint, invisible to most, and it reacts to the aura around her and her will, bursting into a radiance of silver light. Cecilia kicks her staff, whirling about her, the tablets dancing merrily between it. "MATERIAL! MATERIAL!"
Two more; gushing waves, stolid earth."
Cecilia watches the screaming, hateful thing, surrounded by four icons of power. Mother's final attack lenses around her, slamming into the Leypoint and scattering like light through a prism. She feels the drain on her power, but her body stands unscathed. She draws in a slow breath. "You stole their voices so that they could not speak. Could not save us. But you underestimated us. So many of us will carry their will, even without their voice! And I..."
"I will speak, when they can't. Where the Guardians weep because their voices cannot reach, I will speak!"
The Ley bursts around her, for just a moment - and then with a flash of brilliance, not one but FOUR Guardians stand, eyes blazing and power crackling.
The Guardian of Earth, Grudiev, a titanic azure dragon, leader of the Elemental Guardians, power gathering in his crystalline form.
Shaman...Innocent One...
The Guardian of Water, Schturdark, the mighty black tortoise who started it all when he called Cecilia to his prison, sucks in air like it were water, preparing a mighty blast.
You have come so far...
The Guardian of Wind, Fengalon, graceful white tiger, claws flexing in preparation to dash.
Ours is not the throne upon which you must swear...
The Guardian of Fire, Moor Gault, the mighty red phoenix, draws in a powerful breath, heat surging around it.
...But we will answer your words!
And then all four shriek, four elements that should conflict - four powers that should tear each other apart - bearing down upon Mother in concert, as Grudiev's light tears across the distance, ripping up the ground, and Schturdark's water gushes through Moor Gault's vaporizing blast alongside dashing Fengalon, tornados leaping from the tiger's claws.
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has activated a Force Action! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has activated a Force Action! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Mother with Material - Guardian Beasts of the Four Corners! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Awakening Air for 199 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Red lasers cast fire like explosive blooms across the field. Gwen just has those precious moments to prepare.
"HIRO! LUCIA!" And like the concerned idiot she is, she just shouts their names instead, as the fire washes over her as well..
When Gwen emerges on the other side, much of the outer clothing falling to cinders. She's worn several layers in order to survive her self-appointed job of 'super scoutcourier', most of which were blown away in her encounter with the swordscucco Kokkuri Hanzo. (.... it's a long story.)
What's left is her protective undergarments and pants, protecting the fragile, pale freckled skin underneath. There are scars there, both the whirled tissue of the old, and two significant ones that are new. The pendant hangs from her neck, openly exposed, the green of the simple circular design contrasting with something underneath, notably:
A pulsing, glowing sunburst is on her chest and back, slightly to the left, like an otherworldly tattoo.
Otherrs will likely be too focused to notice. Gwen herself is too dazed to give it much thought. She glances towards Hiro, and then to Sorey, and offers a weak, but heartfelt smile. "I'll give it my all."
She gazes at the struggling body of Mother, and raises her fist. "... It's time to rest."
"You've done too much."
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Lady Harken's Fast Draw - Magnum Fang for 266 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Mother with Special Delivery! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Xantia's Megavolt Hammer for 233 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Material - Guardian Beasts of the Four Corners for 230 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
While the holy power of Rosaline causes Rudy to have a bit more vigor; the strength needed for one last push. The blue haired boy looks to hear, giving her a nod. It's odd to think that she was one of the first that he did digs with, even before he met with Cecilia and Jack.
Things were so simple then.
Rudy begins to shed a tear, even as his face struggles to show any sort of emotion. The red balloon, the fires, the bodies.... They remain in his mind. Maybe without Mother, it just might go away.
"I wanted to understand you... To understand myself," the drifter explains. "But you don't seem to know. And even if you did know, you don't care." The ARM begins to whine, filling itself with power. "But that's okay."
The left forearm glows, even as the power of Mother slams into Rudy and causes him to slide back a few feet. Rudy lifts his battered and bruised face. "But I have friends that I will defend. A WORLD I will defend, even if it hates me. I'm fine if I never understand because you won't hurt them. Not anymore."
A glance is given toward the room and the brave souls with him. "With their help, I killed Berserk. I'll kill you. Because that's what I do. The difference is you and me though, I'm sorry that I have to kill you."
The bullets tear through the air, each having incredible power, the recoil enough to cause Rudy to slide again once more. While Cecilia rages with the Guardians and Jack uses the power of his blade, Rudy just has his gun which smokes from the superheated volley it unleashed.
"Goodbye, 'Mother'."
GS: Rudy Roughnight has activated a Force Action! GS: Rudy Roughnight has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Mother with Gatling Raid! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 181 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Rudy Roughnight's Gatling Raid for 206 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Jack van Burace has posed.
It isn't dead.
WHY ISN'T IT DEAD!
Jack growls as he skitters back across the ground. He brings up his blade to try to shatter that wave of pulsing energy but even that blazing fast slash to counter it does little against the pulse of pure wicked hate. He is knocked backwards, slamming against molten metal on the far trench. A half shout of pain and anger tears from his mouth as he staggers and goes down to one knee.
It would be so easy to rest now, when faced with such overwhelming horror. The door is right there. So many escape routes from this horror. So many ways to retreat as his lifeblood spills across the torn chamber. Fear. Always a companion gnaws on the logical side of Jack's brain. Fear. Loss. Hasn't he given enough to combat this menace? Hasn't he seen enough....
His eyes flicker round to the faces he knows. Harken, Cecilia, Rudy, Jay, Gwen so many of them his friends.
...or whatever Harken is. Its complicated.
Grip tightens on his sword as he shifts his stance, eyes narrowing even as one of the dissipearing motes of Lay drift by.
"No."
He refuses to let fear win. He refuses to let this demon win. Life is hard. Life is painful but it is better to life it than to run from it. He's learned that over these past few years. So he stands, shifting his stance as he raises his eyes to the screaming form of the demon across the room as he steps for the whisps of Ley energy and....
<<Jack>>
A voice explodes in his head, echoing, roaring in his mind. He almost misses a step as he catches himself, eyes wide.
<<You know my name...speak it...>>
The swordsman shakes his head again. This time though he doesn't stumble, instead he looks up towards the demon as he stands tall. He does know the name. Somehow. Some why he knows the name. .>>
Others shout their defiance towards the demon and call upon the Guardians in great rituals. Jack simply smiles...
"...Justine..."
A lions roar sunders the air, echoing though the chamber. Reverbating off the walls as the veil between the world and the Guardians is peeled away but the presence of the Guardian of Courage face as a sudden explosion of ice and snow erupts around Jack. It isn't Justine that answers his call, but the Guardian of his native land. Aru Sulato swirls from the storm, the hazy afterimage of the Guardian building behind Jack as he steps towards the demon. The presence of the Ice Guardian, only an image but still enough to sheath the steel around Jack in frost. He grins viciously, wickedly almost as his blade is sheathed in ice. "You have been defeated once before. That time you were sealed. This time..." His stance shifts. "...this time we take your head."
The last words are roars as he brings his blade crashing down, the Guardian behind him exploding into frost and snow as an massive blade of ice launches from his sword to tear to try to do just that.
He really is a simple man when it comes to things like this.
"Dissipear."
GS: Jack van Burace has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Jack van Burace has attacked Mother with Guilty Blade! GS: Jack van Burace takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Jack van Burace has completed his action. GS: Mother takes a solid hit from Jack van Burace's Guilty Blade for 223 hit points! GS: Mother has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
Mother comes to a slow, lurching stop.
It is not entirely of her own will. Catenna reaches out to the Moon Guardian, and suddenly the demon goddess is lurched and slammed about. She is drawn to a stop, frozen in the air. She screams -- a wordless, bloodcurdling sound in the wake of this newest threat.
The Shepherd, changing his Armatization to Mikleo, draws back a shimmering bowstring of blue light. The barrage of aqua-colored energy slams repeatedly into Mother, shattering more of her armor and digging into the flesh underneath. The faceplate, for the moment, holds.
The force blasts from Claude slam into Mother. Her broken armor and flesh ripple with pulses; then, two explosions erupt out of the back of her. It sprays the ground behind her with more gore -- and yet she isn't buckled, due to Catenna's mighty spell.
Lunata descends, lit by moonlight and a flash of kanji. Her blade cleaves down through Mother, slashing into the armor. A great geyser of blood explodes out into the air after her, as a V-shaped chunk of breastplate is cut away in one great stroke of her sword.
Another sword comes down. Tethelle uses Equites's blade to slash twice through Mother. The first strike breaks through armor -- and then second rips out the side. A second geyser of blood erupts, to match the one that Lunata ripped through it. Then, Ragnell holds her meteor aloft -- and the meteorites swarm in. Trails are left through the sky, white vapor that leaves intricate patterns like the now dun ones on the floor.
They blast into Mother's armored and charred flesh, ripping into her. It is punctuated by Lan's comet, which smashes into her back and then rips out the front, with another spray of blood.
Ashton's dragons breath their fire. Flame rolls over her, charring flesh; it melts through some of the armor that remains, and fire begins to lick up her, her very flesh now burning with a flame that spreads over her. Mother's screams only grow more intense.
Arlpeh's thousands of small icicles slash through her armor. They rip through, making a mess of her. More of her body is shredded away; the floor is turning, quickly, into a charnel house. Mother looks down through it, her golden eye looking briefly down to Jacqueline.
"You cannot COMMA--"
Jay unleashes her twin spells. Lightning slams into her from above; the earhth explodes up into her from below, and held as she is, her body is ripped into. The underside of her armored body is blown apart in an instant. Elvis's fist impacts, a moment later. This flash may be less blinding than the one that Claude caused before, but the way her body shatters around the fist is telling.
Tesni's round lodges into the side. The explosion that blasts out rips away another chunk of carapace, revealing the horrific body beneath: little but meat and flesh. Mother screams, her golden eye locked onto Fei's back, as he walks away. Locked onto Fei's back, and missing Elly's.
The plasma-wrought dragon flies.
Mother screams as it slams into a section of charred, carbonized flesh. The spell erupts through; then fire blasts outward, showing the ground with chunks of the goddess. Mother lurches. "You... no--no--I--I killed--"
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
Brilliant, shining blades of pure light skewer her. Mother's words are cut off with another scream as Rosaline's power rips through her and skewers her from multiple angles like a pin cushion.
Nostos fires.
It is a deafening, thunderous noise. The shell that fires from Josie's ARM blasts an enormous hole through Mother. It shoots out the back, slamming into the glass on the other side of her -- and shatters a window that, until now, only a golem had managed to crack. Another geyser of blood explodes out of her.
Shalune's shotstaff is smaller by comparison. The shot, however, slams into part of the mask; it blows off a chunk of it near the jaw, shattering it. A portion of a gnarled, lipless mouth is revealed -- and shattered, pointed teeth from where it blew through.
That mouth can be seen screaming, now, as Hiro rams his sword up into the chest of this creature. Air explodes outward; her form buckles, blood splashing and spraying, and Mother lurches forward as the blade strikes true.
Id'as fist also strikes true. She slams it into Mother's throat. It bursts through flesh, splitting aside blackened and torn meat, and then shatters a bone deep within. Her scream, this time, is gurgling.
Ethius's solar storm erupts around her. Cosmic rays burn through her flesh -- burn through armor, and cause the pieces of technology in her carapace to smoke. To spark. To explode and crack apart, in showers of fire and burnt metal.
Cyre causes the very air around her, at Fengalon's command, to rush in. Mother's scream has no air to transmit it; then, it explodes outward, a titanic eruption of dust exploding away, as she sags in the invisible chains of Catenna's gravity snare.
Xantia reveals her Medium; a surprised look registers in the visible eye of Mother. The way that Xantia draws in the lightning -- and strides towards her. Xantia directs so much lightninginto a hammer -- and then swings.
It slams into Mother and rips her from Catenna's bindings. Chunks of armor and meat are held in place by Catenna's spell, even as Mother's body is slammed into the Arctican tundra that spilled in. Rock is stuck in her; blood runs through frost and stone alike. Gwen rushes up -- and punches her into the rubble, smashing her backward. She collapses, there. When she floats up, her body trembles.
It shakes.
Harken's fist slams, repeatedly, into the armored remains of the faceplate. Then, she flies back -- and she comes down. Harken's scythe flashes, and Mother screams out:
"HARKEN!"
The blade shears through the mask. The thing falls away in multiple pieces, fracturing around all of the points it was struck earlier. The face behind it is not beautiful: it is an ugly, raw thing. Two huge, golden eyes; no nose, but nostris; and a lipless mouth of razor sharp, long teeth. The scythe slashes through the head, and blood explodes outward.
"No... NO! I will not allow this! Initiate drive sequence!" Mother bellows. There is a shudder, below all of their feet, inside of the Photosphere.
She begins to rise back into the air, floating -- wobbling. The cause of the lurch is clear, as the Arctican tundra that spilled into the broken windows of the Photosphere falls away. There is a tilt, and then daylight -- and that twisted mouth smiles.
"If I am to go to hell... then I will BRING YOU WITH ME! Come to mine own hell! Star drive--coordinates: Hyades!"
Which is when, from the sputtering, crackling column that Ethius Hesiod overloaded earlier, a holographic screen appears. The runic characters are illegible, but they are understandable: they flash a repeated, brilliant red. It doesn't take a translator to know what that means. "No...!"
There will be no trip to the stars. The Photosphere rises into the skies, the very ground underneath their feet shaking as the starship lifts up -- and cannot bear its own weight, after so long.
<Pose Tracker> Mother has posed.
Rudy lifts his ARM. The sunlight that begins to pour into the room glints off the barrel of the gun, coalescing into a cross shape -- and then a superheated volley of rounds fires, hurtling towards Mother's carapace. She opens her mouth; she makes to scream something out.
Jack rises, speaking a name -- and Mother finds the swordsman rising. Aru Solato gives his blade the ice it needs; the ice to cut, the ice to bury, and the ice to leave the past where it belongs. His sword comes crashing down.
Four tablets swirl around Cecilia. Daylight streams in from shattered windows, and four sunbeams are refracted and reflected to crossover Cecilia -- as she steps into the Leypoint. She calls upon the four Guardians, and she swears her oath.
The four elements swirl around Cecilia. Then, they crash together -- merging in a blast of heat, a gust of wind, a crash of water, a cascade of earth, a rain of bullets, and a flash of blade. The bullet rips through her golden eye; the sword shears the head away; four blasts of elemental power quarter her. Mother's body shudders -- a brilliant white glow gathering in the center of her corpse.
tThen, it expands outward. Her remains are consumed, wafting away into smoke and ash.
Sunlight pours into the room, between clouds in the Arctican sky. The Photosphere shudders -- and rumbles -- as the World Eater passes from life to death.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi moves to stand near where Mother's body dissolved, breathing raggedly. She is sore and wounded, but this needs to be done. "I...believed in you," she whispers. Probably no one else can hear her, or understand if they do, since she's speaking Hyadean, but her tone is clear. It's equal parts disillusionment, grief, and grim determination. With a flourish she lays her bone lance down where Mother's body last lay. It was made from Yarobeleedt's spine, so it was like he had a part in killing her, too.
He would've been horrified.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The spell does what it was supposed to do. Catenna keeps her hand held out, but it's not necessary. Celesdue's power has done to Mother what it needed to do.
The punishment wreaked upon Mother is extreme - almost beyond belief. The Great Owl swoops through the room, descending, as Catenna and Saarda-Shanta alike watch it all unfold. The Photosphere itself rumbles as Mother threatens to take them all to hell with her. Back to Hyades itself.
The red sigils flash - and it becomes clear what method lay behind Ethius Hesiod's madness. Catenna's jaw drops slightly.
The Owlet's beak drops slightly too.
When it's all over, little remains but smoke and ash. The darkness is replaced by sunlight as the Great Owl descends. Catenna slips from the bird and hits the ground on her knees - and with a flicker of light, the huge Owl contracts. What drops into Catenna's waiting hands is what the bird started as - a tiny Owlet, exhausted and with eyes half-lidded.
The Moon Shaman looks up towards the space Mother once occupied, then down at the Owlet in her hands. Her body throbs with pain and exhaustion, battered beyond what she could've conceived. But -- "We've done it, haven't we," she whispered.
The Owlet doesn't answer, but Catenna can feel the air of immense lunar satisfaction radiating from the Totem Bird. The Moon Shaman's usual grace breaks; tears of relief stand at the corners of her eyes as she hugs Saarda-Shanta close to her chest. She wants to use the word 'joy,' but the sight of Malfi moving towards the spot of Mother's recent end forestalls that thought.
The scars of Mother upon Filgaia are one thing, Catenna reflects. But the wounds she inflicted upon Hyades are grievous. Their people were used, just as Mother would have used us. And even though their Mother abused them... they have still lost the only Mother they have.
Catenna lifts her head again. The tears that trace down her cheeks are less joyous than they could have been, and there's no smile here, for her emotions are mixed now, even with one of the most dreadful foes of human life ever to exist now little more than dust and memory. All she can do now is swallow her heart and look for Cyre, checking to make sure her beloved is alright.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline can't help but feel a sort of dark satisfaction as her spellwork cuts Mother off immediately. Jacqueline stumbles back. Casting those two spells took most of the rest of what energy she had left, though. Even a potion at this point would make it difficult for her to keep going.
But still, she finds just a little more energy in fear as Mother bellows a command. The floor shudders...and from the hole in the wall, Jacqueline can see that they're rising!?
"No...!" Jacqueline says, horrified. She brandishes her Crest again, but...
It isn't necessary.
It's already been dealt with.
Jacqueline looks toward that column, the device that Ethius had been messing with this whole time.
"...Did you know...?" She asks, looking at him. She frowns, and shakes her head. ...That was a question for later. For now, she just looks in Mother's direction as the World Eater begins to fade away.
"...Sorry. Not today." She says, shaking her head.
She's...exhausted. But she feels relief. She's alive.
They're alive.
They're alive.
...But, they weren't out of this just yet. Her eyes stray to the sky outside. There was still this problem to deal with, but for now.
"Lunata, Shalune...everyone! Are you okay? Does anyone need any help...?" She asks, looking to join up with her friends.
She's one to talk, looking as battered and on her last legs as she does.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre, the Wind Tiger manifest, briefly locks eyes with the other manifestation of Fengalon that Cecilia conjures out of the ambient ley.
Briefly, he wonders if all cats share Schrodinger's unique... talents.
But his reverie is cut short but a much more important-- and much more triumphant feeling. It swells in his heart, a warmth that radiates to every corner of his body. The Mother... Is dying. It's dying, and all it can do is spite them with a power that fails her at the last.
And it's all because Ethius Hesiod is a goddamn hero.
The wind tiger laughs as it descends, the avatar-form dissolving into a cloud of emerald lights before being swept away in the rushing ley. Even the horrifying, monstrous face hidden behind the Mother's porcelein facade isn't enough to shatter his good mood. "It's done. It's finally done. A thousand years and it's finally over...!" Cyre staggers as he hits the floor not far from where Catenna had landed. His strength briefl flags, and he staggers into a near-stumble. He's spent... A lot. Everyone has. But...! "You picked the wrong planet, you damn space-parasite! That's what you get for giving us a full milennium to figure out how to kill you! Nyahahahahahaaaaa~ha..."
Cyre goes silent as he turns to watch Malfi mourn her people's fate. He might not understand, but the meaning is clear.
"...There's going to be a lot to do after this," he sighs, moving to gently drape an arm over Catenna's shoulders. "The Hyadeans need to heal as much as the rest of us do. Maybe even more. But for now..." He turns his face, smiling, to the sun, "For now, I think we've all earned a brea--"
Beat.
"H-hey guys," Cyre frowns, suddenly looking very worried. "...If the monster was in control of the Photosphere's drive systems... And we're still in the air... And we killed her..."
"...We... Should probably start looking for a way out."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei(?) hears Ruby. He looks back one last time with a sad smile. Mother's continued frustrated howls mask out what he says.
And then he is gone. Where to?
See Lydia's last pose in the pain of loss -Daughter- scene to find out!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Ashton slumps. He's beaten; bloody; burned; and burned out. Exhaustion from the intensity - not just of this battle but the several days of fighting into and through the Photosphere - is weighing heavily.
But this is no place to rest. They've got to get out and help the (many) wounded out with them.
Then can come the grieving and the rebuilding. And finding out what happened to those who sought Riesenlied.
The still too-bright blood is wiped off on what's left of his dark robe before Ashton sheathes his blades. In his head, Creepy and Weepy congratulate themselves for a job well done and talk about hats. Outside... there's still a job left to be done.
Half walking, half staggering, Ashton approaches Elhaym van Houten. The woman Fei was willing to sacrifice so much for, and for whom in turn Ashton was willing to put his life on the line for.
Ashton holds out a hand to the woman. "I don't think we've actually been introduced. Ashton Anchors. You must be Elly."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
There is something deeply, profoundly satisfying about feeling Mother's flesh crunch and pulp. The same flesh that Kalve spent days obsessing over--the flesh that he thought was sickness--gives beneath Ida's fingers. The blood of a world-eater splatters her face. She lands in a three-point crouch, in the spreading pool of Mother's blood--and she rises. She sees the hideous face of the thing that called itself 'Mother', and it's like all the illusions have been ripped away. All that's left is a screaming, dying parasite.
Mother shrieks out commands. Ida doesn't know what a 'star drive' is, but 'Hyades' makes it all too clear.
Nothing happens. Ethius Hesiod's gambit becomes clear. She looks at the strange, dangerous man, and brings her Hyadean hand to her brow in salute.
What follows is quick, ugly, and necessary. Ida has seen Cecilia call upon the Guardians. She's seen Rudy's flawless synchonization with his ARM. She's seen Jack's--Garrett's--swordplay. And yet, she isn't prepared for the conflagration of violence that is Mother's last moments. She watches it anyway, committing it to memory.
Mother's ashes float away on the breeze.
Ida lets out a breath. It feels as though the weight of a world has been lifted from her shoulders, but it's also left a nameless emptiness inside her. Kalve devoted himself to finding a cure for his Mother, but now she's dead. He's lost the only mother he's ever known. The Hyadean people have lost their goddess, and all the false promises of sanctuary.
we died for you
It's a battered, bleeding, weary Ida that looks up at Cyre. That's a good point, there, but she still gives him a stare that says 'can't it wait five minutes'.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
As Cyre flops down beside her, Catenna leans into his arms without thought. Keeping the Owlet cradled in one arm, she lifts her other hand to brush her fingers over the curve of his cheek, then tilts her head to give him a surprisingly long kiss.
Catenna never kisses Cyre intimately in public. Here, though, she does. A couple of tears trace arcs down her cheek, ending at her chin and dripping off.
When she does break the kiss off, it's with a little sniffle, her hand lingering at his shoulder. "...We should get out of here," she agrees, her voice a bit thick with emotions. Then she breathes in, and slowly, her usual reserve begins to return. The Moon Shaman rakes the back of her hand over her cheeks to wipe the tears away.
<Our peril is not nearly at an end,> Saarda-Shanta observes with an air of tremendous weariness. <Starting with the fact that we are probably going to crash into the ground in the foreseeable future.>
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The Solar Storm dispatched, Ethius makes no further motions to stand out. No further motions to speak, no further motions to rally, as he takes some careful measured steps back... and puts his hand over the lower half of his face, again. He is drained of spellcasting energies - twenty units of Gooey Stuff is not, exactly, an ideal nutritional supplement for a series of heavy duty life-or-death spellcasts. He finds he has additional problems with the scorch marks on his clothes that expose much of his Symbological tattooing out in the open. He is very extensively tattoo'd, as though the totality of his spell access were a thing so meticulously and laboriously designed.
He doesn't like that being seen either, but he only has two hands. The most he can do is to just try and camp one of the shadowier corners he can find in the short term, which is a tall task. There are more pressing concerns.
Mother screams, Mother curses... Mother speaks of initiating a drive sequence.
Ethius stands taller, as if at alert. The column crackles and sputters as if to communicate to him, specifically, what her odds of making that work are. He can guess.
She won't be going anywhere.
There are no smiles, no gloats, for the man to impart upon Mother. He has nothing to say. This is also because the Photosphere is still capable of limited flight and that remains a near-worst case scenario. He is not clear exactly on the case scenario scale but that this is very bad.
There are gawks. There are questions. There are good questions to be had, like what Jay asks.
"Move." Ethius says, in an even tone of voice. "It is perilous to keep our present position." Back into the rhythm of being inscrutible and distant. A few steps ahead, he closes his eyes and lifts his hand up from his face to touch his forehead again, which is still bleeding.
Once again, the same distance - but at least some vague assurance that he has the right idea, after so many claims that seemed empty and outlandish.
Some answers will have to wait a little while longer.
...
They're not the only ones frustrated. They also have much bigger problems to deal with!
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle's blade pulses once, brightest of all, and then flares, vanishing and revealing the Baskar-made sword that formed the core of it once again; the sword she repaired before coming to the Photosphere and has not put aside for anything since.
She wields it like she was born to it, dancing between and around other people's attacks against Mother; backing off when things she can't dodge appear (like earthquakes and thunderbolts) but otherwise keeping herself close. It's not a frenzy, because it's carefully controlled; it's a master martial artist at work, one whose tool is a greatsword.
The Photosphere itself shifts under Tethelle's feet, the first thing that takes her from the martial trance she's gotten herself into. It moves, and for a moment Tethelle fears something new - but then it shifts again, nearly knocking Tethelle from her feet, and fails to rise further.
And Mother herself, architect of so much pain and suffering, falls.
Tethelle crashes to one knee, using her sword to hold herself up, point pressed against the floor of the room. She gasps for breath, the mad energy she was practically running on fading with the end of the threat... but eventually she pushes herself up. Her face has an unaccustomed expression on her face.
She - along with everyone else here - did it. The vague divine purpose that sent her to Adlehyde long before the Metal Demons attacked it, the more expansive quest that it turned into - it's done, or at least mostly done. Mother is dead. The Metal Demons - the Hyadeans - will not be an organized threat. She's done what she'd originally set out to do. Was it worth it, she thinks?
Of course it was. She would give everything for Filgaia, and the people on it.
Tethelle slips her Medium - hot to the touch, still glowing along its engraving - back away, into the pocket on her sword carrier that she keeps it in when it's not in her hand. It's more a series of straps than an enclosed pocket, so the Medium is still visible when she does. She does not do the same with her sword; it needs to be cleaned first. She has rules about swords, and so it stays in her hand.
Anything she could say doesn't seem like it would be up to the moment. But for a moment, Tethelle lets herself feel satisfied at the completion of her divinely-granted task. Satisfied... and a little exhausted. "Thank you," she says to the other Drifters, here and now. "It is a great thing for Filgaia that was done today. But Cyre's right. I'm afraid we're not done yet."
And, if Cecilia is right, there's still more to do after that...
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It's done. It's over.
It's over.
It's... over?
She listens hard for that strange voice again, but... nothing. Maybe she was imagining it.
It's not like a Guardian actually talks to its chosen, anyway. How silly, to think that for even a second.
Standing next to the remains of Amadeus Astra, Lan watches the others rejoice, weep, snap at each other. "I can't believe..." she begins, but trails off. That they killed a self-proclaimed 'goddess'. That the planet can be saved now. She looks back to Elly, only glancing curiously over her before searching for Gwen. ...Oh geez, Lan just ran off and left them, what was she thinking?!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Even sprawled on the floor, Josie is in the right position to see to what end her shot takes.
Her smile is a satisfied one.
Slinging one arm over the still-uncomfortably warm cannon, she exhales a breath and... watches.
Even when Mother promises to drag them all to her hell.
Even when the Photosphere shakes and shudders, as if it were beginning to rise.
Even when Mother seems to rise for that one moment, she just continues to watch.
Of all things, her thought turns to the Diablo, now damaged.
You really did do it, Lunie. Damn. I'm gonna have to step up my game to keep up with you kids.
If that's the future of ARMS development, then it's in good hands. "...Damn," Josie comments aloud, pushing off the cannon to slowly stand. "Look at me getting all soft in my old age," she complains.
This would be a good time for a drink. Or a smoke, or, hell, a nap (just not here).
The Photosphere, though, shudders again.
Josie blinks, her expression flattening out as Cyre says the words.
"Well, shit. Guess we're not out of the woods yet. Hey kids! It's time to get out of here! C'mon, grab your asses and run!" Reaching down she yanks the core from the cannon -- still some charge left in it, for all she drained in just one shot -- and stuffs that into her pants pocket.
She's tired. Her body aches. She really could go for a drink.
But there's still something she has to do in this life, so, cannon in tow, she turns to make good on the 'keep living' part.
- - - - - - -
ON ANOTHER SIDE OF THE FIELD
A figure clad in black body armor skids into the room. Behind the face-concealing helmet, Loren Voss grimaces at the sight.
This wasn't how he'd meant it to go-- where is--
There. He finds what he's looking for. Running around and looking for something, he guesses.
"Come on," he tells Lan. He grabs her arm.
"We're almost out of time."
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
There's a moment in Arleph's heart where he fears, when he hears the words. That fear is tempered with a level of certainty. He had a very good idea of what Ethius was doing with the systems, getting rid of her control.
He just didn't think, for that moment, that Mother had a Jump Drive of some kind. In a manner, he should've expected it. He doubt Ethius knew, himself, yet he knew enough to destroy the systems of the area.
Arleph snaps out of his fatigue stupor, gasping out as he stands to his feet, shaking his head. "Yes." He calls out, looking up. "I do think it is time for us to get out of this place, as soon as it is possible."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly lapses into a reverie, probably bordering on shock, after she releases the Thermo Dragon. She dreams strange dreams in those few seconds, but the real miracle is that she reawakens. In fact, she sat up before that lapse.
It is when Jay says 'everyone' that Elly snaps to attention. She looks down at herself and blanches, cradling her left hand close to herself as she pushes herself upright, swaying visibly but managing to achieve her feet.
She sways - and then there's Ashton there. "Ah," she says, then, with wide eyes, "Hello, yes, oh goodness, I must look awful." (she does) "I'm Elhaym van Houten, but please call me Elly," she says, extending her right hand outwards. "Thank you," she says. Then, turning her head, "But oh, Fei - Fei's far worse off than I --"
A passing talking cat calls to Elly, "He said he'll see you on the outside!"
Elly sags. "If he was able to run off with those injuries..."
Elly then looks round, to the massive form of Saarda-Shanta, to Tethelle, back to Ashton.
"... Are we flying?"
<Pose Tracker> Harken has posed.
The ghosts of the past should stay dead.
Tumbling end over end, a silver polearm falls to the floor of Mother's sanctum with a clatter that is, ultimately, quite insignificant in the scale of things. A cloud of spiralling mirror-shards hangs in the air, all that remains of the terrible scythe's blade brought to bear against a Goddess.
The ghosts of the past should stay dead.
For a moment, she felt the undivided attention of a being as great and old as the stars. And it was furious.
The ghosts of the past should stay dead.
Her face twisted into a grin as she fell. A great and furious blow--the Sword Princess's old masters would be proud. If any still lived.
The ghosts of the past should stay dead.
you couldn't stay dead.
Consciousness floods the mind of the woman who once called herself a Quarter Knight. She lands on her feet without thinking about it, despite having given herself to death moments ago. There's nothing to claim her, after all, as the Photosphere shakes and Mother turns to ash.
A scarlet gauntlet, mostly-melted but at least now hardened, grabs Jack Van Burace around the shoulder from offscreen. "We are leaving." its wearer announces.
> Path A: Go With Harken
> Path B: Go With Someone Sane
<Pose Tracker> Tesni Inoue has posed.
Tesni Inoue is somehow alive Mother seem to be dead or on her way there now and she'll back off but then the word jump comes up? There's a look of concern on her face then fear.
"We need to get off this thing before something else happens."
She looks to Jay. Ethius and anyone else.
"We need to go."
She mutters something else to herself.
"Help anyone who can't move, we are not leaving anyone living behind."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
As the dust settles, there's a few thoughts that begin to form in Gwen's mind.
When he spoke of the spider and the butterfly, and how both should live, did Vash mean beings like Mother as well? Would he be sad, if he knew she had a part in Mother's death?
After all, she feels... guilty, now. Especially after hearing Rudy.
She begins to realize, as her adrenaline high begins to fade, that she's really, really cold. Like, in a way she's not used to, since she's usually wearing a lot more clothi- oh.
Oh. This is... yeah.
If Janus was here, he'd probably laugh his ass off.
' There's also... something else. Something about a ship? And flying?
Even if her brain has some notion of there still being more to be concerned with, her body has had enough. Energy bars are not enough for this level of output.
Those closest to Gwen will see that pulsing light on her front and back begin to slow, then dim, but not completely. "... s'goodnight...."
Ash and dust fly up from the impact as she falls.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Are we flying?
Ashton's weary brain tries to process that.
No, lectures Weepy inside his head, I'm fairly sure we're falling.
Oh.
Well then.
Ashton snaps out of his thoughts and looks to Elly. "We should run. Probably."
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It isn't like Catenna to suddenly pull Cyre into a kiss in public. But... Given the situation, and the emotions running high, who could blame her? He jolts briefly in surprise, before gently leaning into the embrace. In this, their hour of victory, he can't not. He takes a moment to let himself enjoy the kiss, and when it breaks, he lifts a hand to tenderly wipe some of the tears from her cheek. "...Yeah, let's get out of here."
The Photosphere shakes and rattles. Cyre turns his head to meet Ida's glare. His eyes briefly widen, but soon his stare tightens again. "We can rest when we're out. Jay's got potions; patch what you can and get moving. It'd be an awful end to the story if we kill the Demon Queen and half of us die trapped on a sinking starship."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia doesn't relax until Mother is dust.
The Guardians flicker and fade away; their Mediums returning to Cecilia's side, floating for a few moments with rather more whimsy than the beasts display in their full forms; and then each waits patiently for Cecilia to tuck them away.
Cecilia looks up at the sunlight. "It flies," she says, with quiet awe.
Then she stumbles, a bit, hand coming to her chest as she strains to breathe. Exhausted. She feels so tired. "We..."
Cyre says it first. "I think...we need to go. This place won't last much longer!"
MEANWHILE, BELOW:
Stone fingers hold fast to a cracked and scorched frame. This one had fallen far, farther than it was meant to. The great footprints he had made in his sprint to reach splash behind him, more than a mile of running done in seconds.
Glowing eyes stare silently into the other's silent pair. Dead? Or merely exhausted anew? Missing data, missing data...
He kneels quietly, setting the half-slagged and more-ruined hulk down gently into the snow. Its hand is upturned in a motion his memory knows, one thumb extended.
Gold eyes turn down to their own hand, fingers quietly extending outward, two up. As the boy had taught him, but he knows it as another sign as well. ...
His fist tightens again, and Asgard stands tall, stepping over Diablo's fallen body to chase after the fleeing Photosphere.
Others will fall. They always do.
He will catch them. He always does.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida meets Cyre's eyes, and the fight leaves her. Then Catenna pulls him into a kiss, and she looks away, her right hand tensing. Her heart aches. Kalve, she thinks.
"I know," she says, to Cyre. "This has just been--" One thing after another after another. "Potions..." Would be helpful.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"If we're falling, we just have to wait, and we'll get to the ground," Elly tells Ashton.
She giggles then, briefly, into her right hand.
"We should get to the Fereshte," she states afterwards, graver than a mortuary college. "If we're falling Vierge couldn't get here in time-- Maybe Fei's going to call Weltall--"
<Pose Tracker> Jack van Burace has posed.
The last vestages of the Guardian's power fades from around Jack and the swordsman watches Mother fall. The sort of last knight of Fenris...sort of. Look it is really complicated. Regardless though the swordsman slides his weapon away as he watches the demon fall, consumed by the Guardians summoned by a Princess.
"...you never do something by halves do you, princess?"
He calls towards Cecilia as he looks around at the mess that the battle has caused. His sword rests against his shoulder, Hanpan flattened out next to the swordhilt on his shoulder. Exausted little wind mouse.
He takes a dep breath. "...I think Cyre there has a good idea ther--"
Thwack.
We are leaving.
The smart thing to do would be to go with the rest of the Drifters. The risky thing would be going with the crazy ex-Quarter knight. Hanpan starts to give him a side-eye even as Jack starts to grins.
"Hey! Princess!" A flash of a grin towards Cecilia, even as he hooks a thumb at Harken. "I'm leaving!"
Renage choice engaged.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia gives Jack a long, blank stare, but is clearly too tired to tell him to please stop hanging out with insane andor extremely dangerous andor extremely dangerous insane people. It has never once actually stopped him, so even as the room spins, she straightens up, glancing from Jack to the Quarter Knight who, let us take this moment to remind the audience, KILLED HER FATHER THANK YOU
And manages to strain a smile. "Try not to get lost on the moon this time?" she offers.
She doesn't walk anywhere because she's not sure if she'd stay conscious if she left the Leypoint. Turns out there's a reason she doesn't just multi-summon like that all the time.