2022-06-18: A Storm On Two Fronts
- Log: A Storm On Two Fronts
- Cast: Adeline Bascroft, Seraph Lanval, Cyre H. Lorentz, Seraph Boudicca, Josephine Lovelace, Venetia Vuong, Hiro, Rani Vela, Pearl, Marivel Armitage, Gwen Whitlock, White Knight Leo, Rixia, Seraph Liath
- Where: Lakehaven Heights
- Date: June 18, 2022
- Summary: The Vile Fiends and their allies find the location of the Wind Shrine -- but Althena's Guard stands in their way. Can they prevail over the Goddess's soldiers /and/ the Wind Trial? None of them may have a choice on where to focus their attention. Come on down for a fight for the wind gem!
<Pose Tracker> Adeline Bascroft has posed.
Rumors of elemental shrines are in fashion lately.
As it happens, one such shrine is in Hyland -- nestled in a windy valley in the Margravate of Grysveil. The Vale of the Three Gales is aptly named: a Y-shaped valley, which has a propensity for strong winds being blown through it. An ancient ruin sits at the center, windworn to the point of the stones being smooth. Unfortunately, there is also another terrible rumor about the Vale.
That would be the guardian.
A powerful, tiger-like creature made of magic; not, some say, a Hellion (for anyone can see it), but with powerful wind magic. In the last seventy years, it has been a menace. A berserk beast, known for striking at local travelers and savaging a couple of farming villages.
There is no word of a Seraph.
Today, as the Vile Fiends approach, they can find the windworn tower -- a tall thing at the center of the Y-shaped valley. Its sides are worn smooth, and it looks spindly and imposing. The entrance is ahead, leading into darkness.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It's not Lanval's lot to know the ways of wind. As a Water Seraph, he is uniquely aware of the mischiefs Wind Seraphim can and do pull on his 'kind' of Seraph, but that's neither here nor there.
The talk of a tiger-like creature with great sway over wind magic is interesting from a Filgaian standpoint. Lanval's not from the Glenwood part of Lunar, so the legend is completely new to him.
"...Don't think we're lookin' at a Hellion," Lanval means to say 'for,' as he's not looking at them yet. It wasn't more than a few years ago that he always hid in a bottle for every trip into Glenwood, due to a childhood(-equivalent) ingrained thought that it was just a horrible Malevolence wasteland. Here, now as the Oracle of Schturdark and one capable of bestowing the power of Purification by pact with a much stronger sense of duty and purpose than before... what ambience there is doesn't slow him much, as he ambles along in his own unique way.
"That the tower...?" Lanval asks. "I know I ashked 'bout the lasht four, but 'm gonna ashk again! Theeeeeere'sh... a lotta unattended towersh about..."
That it is spindly, imposing, and that the way inside is dark will not stop him.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
There is another tiger here.
Or. Not yet, but there is certainly the potential for a second tiger to manifest, which is honestly a worrying prospect. One tiger is bad enough, but two!? Two tigers!??!
It'd be downright cat-astrophic!!
But no, there is a Cyre, and the Cyre is quietly approaching the great cat with his sacred talisman flickering and glinting where it dangles from his neck.
"Well," he says to the beast, far too close to be... 'safe.' Or 'sane.' "What manner of creature are you? I don't know whether I should sit down for an impromptu synod or sue for copyright infringement."
One way or another, he reaches out, the wind gently flowing around him, between one tiger and another (potential) tiger. "Come, will you speak with one of your own, ancient? Or does your duty forbid even that?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The Seraph Boudicca has been -- occupied with another Star, by and large, of late. (Her fate is tied to Filgaia, now, and so she must see to its people.) But when Hiro called for her aid, she answered; she owes him a debt for his forgiveness and his understanding, and it is one she pays without hesitation.
But -- a tiger-like creature, made of wind magic...
"What a strange coincidence," the Seraph Boudicca reflects, with proper, measured tone. She holds no audience with Fengalon, but it is Cyre who has given her much education on the Guardians' impact, after all.
"No, I do not suppose it is a Hellion," Boudicca sighs, as she walks beside Lanval -- higher up, because not only is she tall, she's also floating a few inches off of the ground. "Such a ferocious power... I am sorry wind magic crafted such a thing."
She smiles, faint and troubled, to her fellow Seraphic Oracle.
"Forgive me, but I have aught concept of which tower it is... I know little of my people. Were Nimue here, she would know, perhaps... but even through my ignorance, I shall do what I can."
She looks forward, to the Shaman, and nods. "... besides, we have with us Cyre, as well. He fain knows Filgaia's winds, and will surely aid us now." So they'll be fine, right? Right?
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Wonder if the stories and all 'bout this place are true, like," Josie remarks, approaching rather suddenly from behind. This may be just as well as the cigarette smoke emanating from her person likely would have given her away regardless. "Somethin' about a wind tiger? Seems pretty familar, if you ask me." She shrugs loosely, rolling her shoulders. "Right. So, I feel like we should get while the getting's good. Ain't seeing a tiger or none about now, yeah? Just a right old tower."
Josie has been questing the shrines herself, as it so happens. If asked, she'll point fingers at Yvain. It's not her fault she got tasked with such a bothersome thing. It's only because she likes Yvain so much that she's even attempting it.
And it's just coincidence that she's here now.
Yes.
"Well, speak of the devil!" she crows, in Cyre's approximate direction. "You ain't the one playing Guardian 'round here, yeah? A completely different wind-tiger, right?" She gestures vaguely with her cigarette and cracks a lopsided grin.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"Towers are the shorts of the fortifications world," says Venetia Vuong, whose hair looks unusually wind blown and who looks unusually pissed-off even by her usual standards, almst entirely because of the wind. "Comfortable and easy to build, appropriate for many locations, durable..."
As a magician of power and potency, Venetia Vuong is concerned but not fearful of this beast. Like many magicians through history, she respects it and its power. She is entirely willing to hang back in favor of Cyre, who may be able to speak to the beast closer to its own level.
"Then it's a creation of wind magic, at its basis, not a beast?" Venetia asks Boudicca, as if finding the distinction consequential.
DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Crimson Noble Marivel! DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Wind Shaman Cyre!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Not many shrines left. It felt like the end was in sight. Hiro felt dawn towards the expedition to the wind shrine in particular. The wind was always something he felt a special connection with, embodying freedom and adventure. Like it was calling to him. He's uncertain if he's being called to now.
"Looks like." He comments to Lanval, "And no sign of the Guardian. So far so good right? Maybe it's out today." Ruby flaps up high to survey everything, before yelling down over the loud rush of the strong winds, "It's either in the top of the shrine or it's going to ambush us annnyyyy second now. No in-between!"
"What? No! What makes you think that?!"
"Look Hiro - how long have we been doing this??? You just get a sense for this kind of thing!"
"Come on. We can at least try to be more positive about this than that. Maybe the trial is... sneaking by it unnoticed or something..." "Yeah yeah... anyyyyy second now..."
Ruby flies over to Cyre as he tries to reach out, and considers him for a moment, "You're trying to find it...? What... do you have a cat sense or something?" A beat as she flies closer beside his head, and sideeyes him, leaning in with a cat like grin, "Is it tingling...?"
Ruby would just like to remind everyone that this theme is dubbed by Working Designs.
<Pose Tracker> Rani Vela has posed.
Rani Vela, having found the path to Filgaia, has left her explorations there for now in order to attend to matters back home. She had to check on Glenwood--and hearing about a resurgence of a particular monster, well, she sought to investigate. She approaches in time to find the Vile Fiends herself, recognizing Hiro immediately as she sees them. The beastwoman is tall, with purple hair and great high ears, along with a blue dress under chainmail. Her shield and mace are stowed, but visible, and her blue eyes are focused.
"Here for the monster?" she wonders.
She hears Lanval, a Seraph, mentioning that it might not be a Hellion. But then, she doesn't sense any Malevolence, either...
"Wait. I'll go with you."
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Those are usually called allergies," a tiger says to a dragon. Both are cats, so this distinction is ultimately moot. "But there's a lot of wind here, that's for sure."
The wind goes woosh. Woooooosh.
"So why not try talking to it? We might be kin. Maybe not though. Who knows~" He glances Josephine-ward then, and shrugs. "Nope. This time it's not me."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
A tiger of wind, that wreaks havoc. What little she has heard tells Pearl enough to know it's unlikely to be some errant Aeon, somehow manifested in Lunar without the pyreflies. Unfortunately, that also leaves Pearl unable to much contribute to speculation. But is that ultimately a problem?
Pearl walks behind Hiro and Ruby, calm and collected. Ready for trouble, because trouble is always present at these things. "Still. I wonder what challenge awaits us." She pauses. "...Will wind, too, see if we are willing to sacrifice ourselves?"
Look, she's noticed a theme.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel doesn't exactly have a strong connection to the Wind (or an anathemic reaction such as to Light) but this is one of the few remaining Shrines so she is lending a hand. Part of her dreads the coming of the end of this venture but it has to be. Every journey has its end.
What's more surprising is that the Guard hasn't really interfered with their progress--nor any of the Heroes or other associates of Althena. She considers it might just be a delaying action as it stands but for what purpose? She can only guess. Perhaps there's some villainous plan in the works.
"Unfortunately I only have bat senses. My capacity for cat power is significantly lower as a result." She glances to Rani, not recognizing her, but ultimately--for now at least--Marivel is not hiding her form NOR is she being lazy and taking her batform.
"I imagine we'd be feeling it if it were," She adds to Boudicca. "Are you holding up alright? It must be strange for you to come to a shrine like this."
She is quiet for a moment. "Better or worse than the plane, do you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Adeline Bascroft has posed.
Inside, they might expect to find a tiger, after all this.
And they do. It is a majestic creature -- green and white, with darker green stripes along the back. It seems to emanate mystical energy; wisps of green and white light roll off it, like smoke, and it seems almost ethereal somehow. There is also something wrong with it, for its eyes glow a baleful red, and it roars with anger. Those sensitive to such things can feel it: an unending, ceaseless rage that is far beyond a human anger.
Something, long ago, made this noble guardian into something feral.
And it is imprisoned, for it slams into a powerful barrier of blue-white magical light. There is a man standing near it, wearing purple-and-black robes; he holds out a Sealing Rod, and there is a flash from the barrier where the tiger hit it. "Your grace, it's done."
Adeline Bascroft, the Margravine Grysveil, straightens her back. She is a tall woman, with strawberry blonde hair and violet eyes. She keeps her expression carefully neutral; her armor, half-plate, is worn over dark blue clothing with green and gold lining. Her eyes turn to the mage, and nods. "Good," she says. "This thing will trouble our lands no more... for a time. Let's make it longer, eh? Now, this--"
And then she holds something up: a green, glimmering gem. It's one that came with the Shrine.
"--should be fuel to render your barrier permanent, yes?" she says to the mage.
"Aye, your grace."
There is another attendant here; a long-limbed, lanky elf with a spear. He looks up -- and to where the Drifters are entering. The inside of the tower is a circular, spacious room, leading up to impossible heights. The black-haired elf narrows his eyes. "Your grace," he says. "We've intruders."
"Tch," Adeline says. "How irritating..."
Adeline isn't alone -- there is the wizard and lancer with her. There are also, as it happens, other people here to give her assistance.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Last time Gwen was in an elemental shrine, there was a lot of fire, a lot of memories being overcome bit by bit, a guardian whose mask hid the face of a friend, and exhaustion.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Last time Gwen was in an elemental shrine, there was a lot of fire, a lot of memories being overcome bit by bit, a guardian whose mask hid the face of a friend, and exhaustion.
The idea of going into a shrine about darkness seemed far too risky, but wind? That was Hiro's entire deal. And she can better support the Fiends in regards to wind than to darkness.
Or, well, fire, but that didn't stop Gwen at that time.
Staring down into the dark entrance in the center of a steep valley, Gwen makes a face as Ruby comes back with her report. "Y'sure we ain't just at the Darkness Shrine, or a back entrance to the Darkness Shrine? Or..." It's a joke.
Wind's supposed to be free and open! Storms and spring winds, full sails, sand storms, tornadoes! Not dark and cramped!
Nodding to Lanval and Boudicca, Gwen breathes a sigh of relief. "Between Boudi n' Cyre and all of us free spirits, maybe we'll come to an understandin'. 'Hey, what's the hubbub about', n' 'how can we make things easier for you n' other travelers' n' all that." She interlaces her fingers behind her head. "Cyre's got it in one. N' if it wants a fight, we can give it one. Win-win!"
But that's before they go inside. Gwen frowns. "..." Marivel clearly jinxed them all. ".... What's the plan, guys?" she whispers, softly. "... 'make a distraction n' bust the big kitty out'?"
DC: Adeline Bascroft switches forms to House Bascroft Retinue!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The last time White Knight Leo dealt closely with a Sealing Rod, it burst open to reveal a darkness beyond Malevolence--a darkness that sank into a nearby Fiend and twisted it into an even more nightmarish monster. Adeline might not have noticed it, but Leo has been on edge since this particular Rod was first revealed.
The White Knight stands before a rune-etched support column, one hand on the hilt of his blade, and the other on the scabbard. He's in full uniform, his red cape blowing in the wind.
"It's all gone smoothly, yes?" he asks, glancing at the magus. His ears twitch as the tiger throws itself against the barrier, and flatten as it persists. He turns to Adeline, and his lips thin. What should he tell her, if anything? The sealing rods are a link to the rot within the Church, and he can't--doesn't--trust Adeline, not yet. "Would that there were another way, but... this creature has sown enough destruction as-is."
Footsteps. Leo's ears twitch again, and he spins around, whirling to face the entrance. The first step of the worst-case scenario unfolds before him. Leo's eyes dart between the interlopers, before focusing... on Pearl. His head tilts downwards, his hair casting his eyes in shadow. "Turn back," he says, and he draws his blade. "This place is not for you."
For an instant, the wind catches his hair, and in that instant, it reveals aching, soul-deep regret in his eyes. It's gone in the next heartbeat.%
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The last time White Knight Leo dealt closely with a Sealing Rod, it burst open to reveal a darkness beyond Malevolence--a darkness that sank into a nearby Fiend and twisted it into an even more nightmarish monster. Adeline might not have noticed it, but Leo has been on edge since this particular Rod was first revealed.
The White Knight stands before a rune-etched support column, one hand on the hilt of his blade, and the other on the scabbard. He's in full uniform, his red cape blowing in the wind.
"It's all gone smoothly, yes?" he asks, glancing at the magus. His ears twitch as the tiger throws itself against the barrier, and flatten as it persists. He turns to Adeline, and his lips thin. What should he tell her, if anything? The sealing rods are a link to the rot within the Church, and he can't--doesn't--trust Adeline, not yet. "Would that there were another way, but... this creature has sown enough destruction as-is."
Footsteps. Leo's ears twitch again, and he spins around, whirling to face the entrance. The first step of the worst-case scenario unfolds before him. Leo's eyes dart between the interlopers, before focusing... on Pearl. His head tilts downwards, his hair casting his eyes in shadow. "Turn back," he says, and he draws his blade. "This place is not for you."
For an instant, the wind catches his hair, and in that instant, it reveals aching, soul-deep regret in his eyes. It's gone in the next heartbeat.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia doesn't really understand what's happening here, but she kinda knows Shrines are bad news after everything she experienced last time in the Shrine of Darkness... and-- well, to be honest, a scary tiger sounds like something that's a good idea to deal with. She doesn't know what the significance of the Sealing Rod is, though, but Adeline has mages handling it.
"Um-- well, maybe we can ask them for help? Those're the Drifters, right? They're kinda interested in the shrines...?"
A pause, as she scratches her cheek. "Why do I have a bad feeling about today? Uhhm..." She tilts her head, looking to Leo as he suddenly declares them to turn back. She looks back at the lancer, then at Adeline.
"Oh... hmm... oooh..."
==== +buckets: Lakehaven Heights ===============================================
'| *White Knight Leo (Boss 1) - Marivel Armitage (1/4) '|
'| '|
'| Unassigned Players: Hiro, White Knight Leo, Seraph Lanval, Rani Vela, Gwen '|
'| Whitlock, Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Liath, Seraph Boudicca, Pearl, Rixia, '|
'| Venetia Vuong, and Adeline Bascroft '|
DC: Rixia switches forms to No matter how hard you try to hold onto it...!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Hey Rixia." Marivel says, waving a hand to her like they're old pals. "Hey Leo," She adds, waving a hand to him like they're old pals. "And hey to you too," She adds, waving a hand to Adeline as if they are old pals. She's never met her before in her life but that doesn't mean she can't be chill about this.
Leo seems to be focused on Pearl. She glances to her for a moment and then steps forward summoning Guillotine in her hand in staff form and leaning against it.
"You know nothing will keep me from my goal," She tells Leo. She slowly reaches a hand out and aaaaims it towards Pearl.
She boops Pearl's nose.
A glowing crackling red and golden aura infuses Pearl, boosting her speed, her toughness, her power!! This is the power of one of the greatest wild arms buffs available especially in conjunction with lock state! That's right--
It's BOOSTER.
Marivel pulls her hand back.
"You need not allow your valor and mercy to hold you back against me, White Knight." She adds, reaching out with her other hand and--
She wiggles it up and down in a 'come at me' gesture.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Pearl with Booster! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"The vibration of the breeze is concordant with viridity, the -- the tone sounding is..." Boudicca tries her best to answer Venetia, before giving up, with a sigh which stirs the wind about her. "It feels so," she settles on, insufficiently, to describe why she thinks there is wind magic rather than Hellion's power in this place.
She looks, to Marivel, grasping one of her braids between her gauntlet-clad hands in a nervous gesture. "It is different," she says, quietly. "This is a hallowed place to my ilk, I am sure, but... why am I unsettled..?"
Is it because of the rumours..?
She steps inside, steps forward -- and her attention orients, immediately, on that creature made of magic. Boudicca reaches out a hand. "What scar lies in you, beast, that you roar so...?" She asks, and her voice will break over the words, trembling with the emotion of facing up to the tiger. "Please, we must help it..."
The breeze rolls out, ahead of her, with her gesture; it is harmless, as it flows through the intruders to the Shrine. Perhaps it reveals something of Leo's feelings, even so.
"Sir Leo," Boudicca says, with the Beast of Lohgrin's voice, "surely you know my responsibility to this place." She is a Wind Seraph -- a Wind Seraph who helped Althena's Guard herself, once upon a time, in another form.
Perhaps she recognises the reluctance of people who wished to do good and found themselves here -- which is why she causes no trouble for Rixia, in turn.
Her gaze drops, to the gem in Adeline's hands, and Boudicca cries: "... wait! You mean to use such a gem for your machinations?! No! You cannot!" Her voice rises loud as she keeps moving forward -- Boudicca has no intention to stealth, Gwen.
What is she supposed to say, here? Surely there are words, old words, words she should have learned, words she ought to know. She does not know the words. She cries -- "I am the Wind Seraph, Boudicca, and I will not allow it!"
The green sigil which alights at her feet supports her claims, as the breeze swirls around her -- and the wind billows out, to blow into the crowd Adeline has gathered around herself. "Buffeting Headwind!"
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Buffeting Headwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Pearl accepts Marivel Armitage's Booster for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Pearl!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
The tower is reached. And, perhaps, is breached. They are not the first ones to get here.
Statistically speaking this sort of thing isn't unlikely, and so Venetia takes a moment to unpin and then repin her hair so it isn't all flopping around and getting caught in lethal Althenian machinery or something. During this time, her eyes flick from Adeline to her crew and over to the other Guardsfolk there, arrayed against them.
Althena's guard, Venetia thinks. Logical, really.
Her eyes go from the mage to the lancer again, then to the Margravine herself. Half-covered by diaphanous lace, her eyes are in some ways more obvious and clear than they could ever be in a plain and bare face. They rest on her for a long moment, even as she lets a hand rest down near her side. She hears that quivering note in the voice of a being older and, in many ways, greater than hers - Boudicca, pleading.
Venetia contemplates her next move in a single shining heartbeat. The tension is thick as fog. Her hand moves - not near her gun, which is being left in its holster at the moment. She is reaching for... a small pouch? Into it, in fact.
Her other hand extends towards Adeline as she aims to lock eyes with her. Her palm up, her fingers half-curled. She makes a little beckoning gesture.
"Jewel inspector," she states, with a flat arrogance that *even for her* is absolutely taking a little effort. "Give her here, now." Her hand moves -- drops a handful of change, which she kicks forwards -- and that hand comes up to pluck out a Crest Graph, twisting it round and pressing it forth.
The inscription glows. Adeline may feel an obscure tension, like going outside just before there's a storm -- and then that kicked-over handful of silver coins tumbles and takes flight, aiming upwards at her!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Precious Metal Sign ~A Fistful of Gella~! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"A tragic misfortune of their birth." Ruby says to Cyre, as she almost definitely sets off allergies too despite totally being a Dragon, not a cat. Whereas Hiro answers, "Maybe. Though perhaps it's not going to be about the sacrifice of one's self, or a comrade... but of casting something important to you to the wind." He speculates, though he certainly doesn't know that for sure. Once they're inside though...
... Hiro's eyes assess the situation right away. The barrier, the man in purple and black. The Sealing Rod. The Gem. Even Leo is here. Swift and decisive action is required... yet he still is who he is. Hiro draws his sword, though he keeps it pointed at the ground as he addresses Adeline and the man in robes first. "You don't know what you're doing, using that kind of power." Hiro says calmly, "If you do this, you'll be playing into the hands of a being more dark and terrible than you can even fathom."
Hiro looks to the other Vile Fiends, "We need that gem! Don't let them complete the ritual-" Hiro adds, "-or break that rod! We don't want what's inside that to come out!"
He definitely means what's inside the barrier right? The guardian? ... No actually. No. He doesn't.
Hiro moves forward in the wake of Boudicca's wind spell and Venetia's Crest Graph spell, trying to capitalize on the opening, with a flurry of slashes and fancy footwork, as he cuts a beeline straight for the figure with the Gem; his sword flashing at every attendant of the Magravine that gets in his path until he's stopped or even the Margravine herself. He can unfortunately spare no more time for negotiation - not if he wants to stop this from happening.
"You know what's in that rod Leo." As Hiro now asides to Leo, there's no actual venom there though, just resolve to keep trying to push forward to get the gem from the figure with the black robes, his objective clear. "Which means this place is for us."
In the midst of the battle he catches sight of a noble snow fox, and despite being engaged in battle calls out to her. "Hey Rixia. Uh, surprise? No hard feelings though-!" "Maybe some hard feelings - Noble Snow Fox - I was the one who ate your bun!" "Why would you bring that up now!?" "I don't know! So she wouldn't feel as bad!? She's a sweetie pie topped with caramel and whipped cream!!!"
GS: Hiro has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Sword Dance! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Adeline Bascroft solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Buffeting Headwind for 55 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Adeline Bascroft! GS: Adeline Bascroft activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval is happy that he doesn't have to unintentionally aggravate people as to whether or not this is the correct tower now. He keeps to his fellow Oracle's side along the way in there, and as they come in and observe the Guard presence and the strange (but undeniably angry) entity's sealing... Boudicca takes point on what can't be allowed to happen.
Lanval's taking a close look at the instant in which he can see Leo's regrets, two eyes half-open as he observes the White Knight's declarations as Hiro draws the red line sverbally. Don't let them complete the ritual, nor break the rod - and take that gem. Leo has made his position clear: turn back, for this place is not for them.
Seraph Lanval staggers forward a few steps - the Fallen Seraph, according to decree of Althena Herself - and comes near where Marivel is giving Pearl her confidence and strength.
Seraph Lanval's defiance is as such he sits down and has a drink from his gourd.
He will trespass and he will drink.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Liquid Courage! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Seraph Lanval's Liquid Courage for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Adeline Bascroft takes a solid hit from Hiro's Sword Dance for 122 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Adeline Bascroft!
<Pose Tracker> Rani Vela has posed.
Stepping inside..
"...Addie?" Rani stops short, surprised, to see Adeline here--though perhaps she shouldn't be, considering where it is. "...that is, Adeline. What is...?" She looks to the monster being sealed, the gem, and the various Guards around. At first, she frankly doesn't see a problem. The monster is already being sealed. What does a gem matter?
"The White Knight." Rani looks to Leo for a moment. Leo may recognize her; they may have met in passing, when Rani was working directly for Mauri in Azado. It was some time ago, though. But the way he looks at Pearl--Pearl, who is the one who...? ...No. It isn't Rani's problem anymore. Besides, there's plenty of other history here.
She looks to Adeline--and then to Hiro again. No, he doesn't mean the Guardian coming out. Something's in... the rod?
"..Damn," she mutters, looking to the Guard and the Fiends--and then she sighs, as she pulls out her shield and mace with a clanking. "...Hiro," she says. "I'm going to need a detailed explanation of what you're talking about later."
She opens her eyes, and looks up to the ceiling. "...Sorry. But he helped me find Azado's survivors' fate. ...It's a matter of honor."
She raises her mace to the air. "Holy power, shield us with the might of the Earth!"
Althena's Blessing settles down--not upon the Guard, but upon the Vile Fiends.
GS: Rani Vela has attacked Hiro with Steel Curtain! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Venetia Vuong with Steel Curtain! GS: Rani Vela has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rani Vela has completed her action. GS: Hiro accepts Rani Vela's Steel Curtain for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Hiro! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Adeline Bascroft solidly guards Venetia Vuong's Precious Metal Sign ~A Fistful of Gella~ for 53 hit points! GS: Venetia Vuong accepts Rani Vela's Steel Curtain for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Venetia Vuong!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Well.
Well, well, well.
That thing that Cyre spies in that magus' hand, that sure is a thing he is intimately familiar with. It's not the first time one of those rods has been perverted beyond their original and sacred purpose. The shaman's gaze narrows into lethal daggers, golden eyes glinting maliciously at the wizard with the wand. But he soon has other things to concern himself with.
Other, tiger-shaped things.
The beast's shape and livery are familiar. Fengalon is often depicted with much the same hues, after all. Coincidence? Perhaps is the beast was not also a tiger. But it is a tiger, it is channeling the wind, and it is wearing the colors of Filgaia's winds. But there is something more then as well. There is a wrath, a deep and terrible fury at the creature's heart. Something that has seeped into its mind, driven it to madness. Cyre sucks in a breath.
He releases it, and explodes into motion. Hand blazing with emerald light, the shaman surges towards the barrier, towards the guards standing between the drifters and their goal, and...
...Races past them. He presses his palm against the barrier. He fixes his gaze on the beast within, locking eyes with it. Shield though it may be, no barrier is truly impervious. Or at least, this one is not-- not yet. If it were, they wouldn't need a catalyst to finish the seal. It may not be completely impervious now, not truly. Not to the smallest of things. Not to the wind.
Motes of emerald light probe the bubble, seeking a path inside. Seeking a way to make contact with the beast within. "Speak to me," the shaman tells the raging beast. "Hear my voice. You can trust me, ancient of wind. You and I... Are alike, aren't we?"
He's just... going to talk to the tiger?
Not... deal with the people trying to seal it?
No, perhaps he simply... trusts those around him to do what they can do, while he does what he must do.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Perhaps, with so many present who are uniquely tied to the element of 'wind', there can be only one response, and that is to *storm* on in. Leave stealth to the shadows! "Right, focus on freein' the Guardian," Gwen says, nodding to Hiro as she watches Boudi swoop in.
Gwen then says the words she should never, ever, *ever* utter in the usual circumstances: "I'll handle the mage."
Only pain can be found here, but Gwen thinks she may have an angle.
The more serious talk of sacrifice, meanwhile, Gwen leaves be. To cast something precious to the wind... what could she afford to throw away?
After Hiro's apology, the last thing Rixia may want to see is a Fiend stepping forward, straight for her. But never fear! "Well, we *were* gonna try to solve the problem in a way that's fair for both parties, but y'guys kinda screwed th'pooch on that whole deal." Gwen raises her hands up in a shrug. "But, like, it ain't too late. If you've already met us, you'd already know we're pretty swell people!"
oh god she must sound so much like pre-spear Janus right now and _she hates it_
"Soooooooo, how 'bout steppin' back? Though.... I guess I gotta fight ya since either way it'd be real back if y'did. Cause I don't blame you in the least, n' reallysorryaboutthis!"
She surges forward like a speeding train, throwing her fist forward, straight for poor Rixia's midsection.
It's okay. It's her left fist.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Rixia with Sorry to punch you fast-like 'cause you seem swell! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Sorry to punch you fast-like 'cause you seem swell for 49 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Adeline Bascroft has posed.
"It has," the wizard confirms to Leo. "Neo-Vane produces powerful artifacts, I must say... shame I could never get into their schools."
"Their loss, Denston," Adeline answers the mage, with a shake of her head. "You handled it well. Were there..." She hesitates a moment. Has she heard the rumors? Or is she just being concerned? She keeps her expression pointedly neutral. "...any difficulties?"
"None, your grace," Denston replies.
"I think not," Adeline says, when Rixia says they could ask them for help. "I've heard that the Lord of Calamity's group has been spotted at several ruins -- and that man and his cat are among them. Besides--" She looks at the gem in her hand. "--Denston theorizes this barrier will hold for a few months at most. I intend to be sure this beast is sealed for decades. Or longer. It's my duty, as Margravine of this land."
Her fingers clinch about it, then she ducks it inside of a pouch on her doublet. Her violet eyes scan across the people coming in. She looks at Boudicca, for a moment; apparently, she has adequate Resonance.
"I plan to seal this beast away, before it destroys more of my lands. And, yes, deny the Lord of Calamity and her allies what they seek," she says. Then, she looks at Venetia. "No, I do not think you are." She brings up her shield -- and then the silver coins and wind slam into the kite shield with a clatter. She draws her sword, with her hand; a silvery blade, with a hilt styled like a falcon's wings.
Then, she looks at Hiro. "Really? That is what you have for me? 'Stop what you're doing or an indescribable darkness will consume you!' I've heard better from more desperate."
"Not so fast!" the lancer shouts. He rushes forward, and Hiro's blade slams into the lengthened sword-like blade of his spear. Sparks fly when the two meet.
"Well struck, Roundelph!" Adeline calls to him.
"My thanks, your grace," Roundelph the lancer answers. The elf's eyes meet Hiro's. "No further, you!"
'Addie?'
Adeline's eyes blink once -- they turn towards Rani, and more emotion than usually shows in them is there. It's pure surprise; her eyes widen for a second. "Rani? What are you--"
But the cleric -- the former cleric? -- calls up a spell, to strengthen their allies. A flicker of hurt is in Adeline's eyes, before they narrow. She sighs. "Very well, then. We shall do this the hard way. You come to the Margravate of Grysveil and do violence, and I shall answer that violence with steel!"
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tu5tLE4flc
The lancer strikes first. Roundelph steps backward, giving himself on a little space, and then swings his spear up. The bladed weapon is stabbed forward -- hard -- for Hiro's midsection.
Adeline brings her blade up, then steps forward -- and strikes for Boudicca. When she does, she becomes a blur; a rush of blue and green, surging forward, with her broadsword extended out before her in one hand. "Super Sonic Thrust!"
She rushes for Boudicca, stabbing for her midsection.
"My lady, I do not know who that woman is to you... but she stands with our enemy!" Denston calls out. He puts the Sealing Rod into his robes; instead, he pulls his staff from his back, and holds it up. Flame swirls around his staff -- and then it drops down, a fiery orb hurtling straight for Rani. Denston snaps at her, then.
"Begone!"
Adeline glances at Rani -- then grits her teeth, before her eyes catch Venetia. They narrow, for a moment.
The tiger stares down at Cyre, through the barrier. Its eyes are glowing red -- a baleful, pure red light. Then, the tiger slams his head down, headbutting the barrier where Cyre touches it, and smashes into it. He bounces back from it -- and the tiger roars at him.
Cyre's mind reaches out.
There are no words, then. But there is a flash -- a memory, shared with him. It is tainted by anger and fury; like a red pall, cast over it. It shows when this tower had fanciful carvings in another time, when the outside was well-decorated, and when great banners streamed off it, blowing wildly in different directions in the crosswinds. A time when this shrine stood tall and proud; when it was venerated, in ages long past.
Adeline glances at Cyre, then Venetia. Then, she calls out loudly: "PARSLEY!"
What comes is a rush of feathers. A bird leaps through the air, jumping from the shadows. One might recognize it, instantly: a chocobo, one of the famed Spiran riding birds. Most of them have yellow plumage, but this one is different. The feathers are an orange-red, and there is a considerable might, in how it flies through the air--
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIkXkPPGpDw
--and tries to jump kick Venetia across the room.
"KWEEEEEEH!" Parsley shouts as he delivers his mighty kick.
GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Hiro with Lancer - Skewering Spear! GS: Adeline Bascroft has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Delay expired! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Adeline - Super Sonic Thrust! GS: Adeline Bascroft has gained 1 Combo! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Rani Vela with Wizard - Flame Bomb! GS: Adeline Bascroft has entered Stoic Stance! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Venetia Vuong with Parsley - Choco Rush! GS: Adeline Bascroft has gained 1 Combo! GS: Adeline Bascroft gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Adeline Bascroft has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
In some ways, by fluke or by fate... this is inevitable.
Walk a path to confront a Goddess, and you will one day find the ones that guard the way.
Violence erupts in the Wind Shrine of Guinevere. It is not the first time such a thing has happened in a hallowed place, and it won't be the last. But this time, it isn't mediated, nor part of any obvious trial. This time, it is a moment of cruel serendipity, that brings Fiends against followers. For however spontaneous an event this is, however...
... it does not go without an observer to preside over it.
She sits at Guinevere's upper levels; she does not try to hide her presence, but her arrival in the Wind Trial is so unobtrusive one might wonder if she had been here all along, simply waiting.
But waiting is, indeed, what she does. Dressed in green as ever, asymmetric armor gleaming against the rippling greens of the sealed tiger beneath her, sword and shield resting on the balcony to either side of her, the Seraph Liath makes no move to intervene here today.
She does not fight alongside the Fiends. But neither does she aid the Guard, despite her position.
In the Trial of Light, her temper got the better of her.
In the Trial of Darkness, she faced a tribulation of her own.
But at this moment?
Liath intends only to observe. After all...
Unconventional as it may be, there is a trial taking place here today.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
She waves her hand (cigarette included) in Cyre direction. "Of course, of course. Ain't much reward, right, crashing about 'round here, yeah? Just wondering what all it is. From what I've heard, it ain't a Hellion..." She'd almost wonder if it were a Fiend somehow, instead. Still, if they want to get in there with a minimum of trouble (and windy tigers), now is best for them to get moving. And so she does!
For a little bit, that is.
Speak of the devil. Or maybe of the 'wind-aspected tiger'.
"Well, ain't this a pretty mess," she says, taking a drag from her cigarette. "Here we've come all this way to do the trial, and you've beaten us to the punch? Ain't half fair, by my reckoning." She gestures, broadly, with the smoldering end. "Still, guess we can knock off early. Hand it on over, princess." Josie grins, and it's not a properly nice one at all.
"Leave the tiger where it is, though."
She is at least pragmatic about that part of things, as she casts her half smoked cigarette aside and smoothly draws the shotgun from its holster. Her gaze scans those arrayed before her -- Leo, of the Four Heroes. Pass, she'd rather not get a sword to her middle. That princess over there. Also pass, she's got far too many there for her to want to tangle with directly. But the third...
"Hey, kiddo. Wanna see a trick?" In one hand she flips the shotgun around and, with overdramatic aplomb, ejects a set of spent shells. They jingle where they land. "Pretty good, eh? Ran into some trouble on the way here, right."
Something glints in her dark eyes. "Only took a couple choice shots. For both of 'em."
Which is to imply, perhaps, that she... doesn't miss?
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Heart and Dart! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Venetia Vuong suffers a terrible blow from Adeline Bascroft's Parsley - Choco Rush for 122 hit points! GS: Delay, Disease, and Disrupt applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Josephine Lovelace's Heart and Dart for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify and Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Hiro solidly guards Adeline Bascroft's Lancer - Skewering Spear for 63 hit points! GS: Break applied to Hiro! GS: Hiro activates Power Burst! GS: Rani Vela critically guards Adeline Bascroft's Wizard - Flame Bomb for 48 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Adeline Bascroft! GS: Rani Vela activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The first thing that catches her eye is the sealing rod, and Leviathan lets out a roar within her that could shake the heavens. They were almost a victim of that twisted weapon. The want it destroyed. Thankfully, Hiro reminds her to stay that, for Leviathan's rage is strong. Second, she sees the Wind Gem, and she growls like a wolf, that rage echoinmg out. Third she sees Leo. Her cold grey eyes look on him, as he draws his blade. She knew this day was inevitable, the first time she met him. She had just expected she would be the knife in the dark to slip through his honourable armour. Not looking him in the eye, hoping to dissuade him. She sees the regret in his eyes. She can read it. Her own face still struggles to show emotion.
"...Leo." She says. Not Commander, not White Knight. Not anymore. "I will not. No longer will I allow another to define my place. This is the Shrine of the Wind Trial. A Trial we planned to take. You would use a relic of the Seraphs to power Borgan's twisted invention, when you know what lies inside." She was not there for those battles. But Leviathan was, and their memory is strong. "...This is not the man I believed you to be. Do the chains of others bind you now?"
Her moment of seriousness is interrupted by a 'boop', which Pearl recoils from like she's been hit. She's clearly startled by this moment of touch, even ifn it grants her strength. Lanval takes a seat. Is this to be her duel, then? Very well. She meets Leo's regret with her own, but determination in her eyes. She has a place now. She has a cause. She has a life. It will not be ended here. Wordlessly, she surges forward towards Leo, before launching into a reverse roundhouse at his head, before dropping into a sweep at his legs. She has no intention of slaying another hero today, but still she has to beat some sense into Leo.
GS: Pearl has attacked White Knight Leo with Ebb! GS: Pearl has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
"Miss Leviram?!" Rixia looks flabbergasted for a moment, but the thought that she's just casually waving at her just unnerves her more! This doesn't feel good at all! She can... caaaan... can't sense that Boudicca is leaving her alone, because alas, her Resonance still sucks. When's she going to upgrade that? She finished a trial and everything!
"I--I don't really see why we're fighting... can't we just... hey guys, come on! It's a good thing that scary tiger's being sealed, right?" Rixia stammers, though Hiro's tone and his drawn sword makes her blood freeze. She hasn't seen her friends like this... just what's happening?
A pause, as her eyes widen and he addresses her and Ruby--
RUBY REVEALS HER BETRAYAL.
"R-ruby! I trusted you!" Rixia whines, eyes full of tears. "I TRUSTED YOU!"
ugh, the day's just begun and she wants to eat pie topped with caramel and whipped cream now...
Then--
WHAM
Gwen's fist is in her midsection and Rixia has this tormented :I look where her tears are streaming out and she's trying to hold it in as she whines high-pitched, "you had me at hello........"
she doesn't even want the pie topped with caramel and whipped cream now, she'd just throw up.
she just wants a blankie.
Rixia's on the ground sort of Spiderman-seeing Josie's trick halfway down. "O-oh... cool trick... that's, um, what do they call them, bullets, right? ... sounds really scary. Miss Leviram taught me about them. Ooh, I want to throw up..."
>> .......
>> detecting... non-zero chance of user termination
>> scanning mental and emotional state of user
>> compensating.
Rixia's body remains there for a moment, but suddenly a flash of data-cubes erupts before her hand -- and a gunblade appears out of the ether, just like that! It pauses for a moment... then it rattles, rattles, and just wholesale lifts its user up, bringing her back up to her feet.
"W-wait, wait, I'm going to get punched again...!" Rixia whimpers. "I don't even know what that scary lady with the ARM's gonna dooo--"
Then Rixia flies across as her gunblade takes initiative, diving at Gwen first as it aims point-first with a thrusting attack that suddenly detonates into a fierce explosion; the poor fox girl's basically along for the ride as it uses the force of the explosion to half-step towards Josephine and carve at her with a vicious overhead swing--
>> override junction --stat-atk-j dispel
--and dissipating energy suddenly gorges around the blade, feeling to Josephine in particular like crass, artificial Symbological magic.
"i don't wanna get punched agaiiiin...!!" Rixia whines at her gunblade.
GS: Rixia has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Twin Lance! GS: Rixia has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Rixia has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Dispel Drive! GS: Rixia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Rixia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Althena's blessing settles upon him, strengthening his armor with the power of the Earth. "You'll get one. You have my word." Hiro definitely doesn't call attention to the fact that Gwen sounds like Janus. As Adeline calls him out, Hiro actually - smiles???
"Been years since I started this journey, but some things just don't change - like being called a fibber." Hiro's advance is stopped solidly by Roundelph, sparks flying at the tip, back-stepping away from the Elf. "You don't seem like bad people though. Just a bit too zealous for your own good."
Hiro's sword trails in a small circle as he wants for Roundelph to advance, remembering Alisha's spear techniques. When the spear flies forward, Hiro's blade edge meets it, diverting it just slightly, but the haft cracks back into him on the backswing causing a break in his shield.
"Not bad." He says to the Lancer. As he swivels his sword into what looks like it's going to be a quick riposte, but the movements of his sword hide the movements of his finger behind his shield. "Phantoms combine and tear asunder-" Two bladelike arcs of wind energy form from separate directions mid-incantation. Then begin to move, trying to collide perpendicular into the Lancer. "-Cross Blade!" Trying to break through his guard, he hopes to create an opening large enough for him to dash right through to the man in robes.
Ruby cries out to Rixia, "Look I'm sorry!!! I'm just contractually obligated to mess with newbies in the Guard - but that's before I got to know you!!! Can't I just buy you a few more buns to make up for it?" Hiro looks over his shoulder just long enough to see... a puzzling array of orange-red feathers... FLYING??? As he scrambles to get clear, "Is that a... I didn't even know they could do that!" Hiro cries in alarm as it tries to kick venetia across the room.
GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Pearl's Ebb for 133 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst! GS: Hiro has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Cross Blade! GS: Hiro has gained 2 Combo! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Seraph Boudicca fully evades Adeline Bascroft's Adeline - Super Sonic Thrust for 0 hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Rani addresses their foe. Venetia's eyes flick towards her. "Addie?" she asks her.
"The short version is that we need those gems," Venetia tells Rani: "For the long version, ask the short blonde." She is absolutely sticking Marivel with this one, as petty revenge. Her eyes turn forwards then. Her lips thin.
The blessing of Earth rests on her shoulders most comfortably, of course. Her strategem is foiled by the simple fact of a shield being raised - which, Venetia thinks, I should have probably planned around; how WOULD I use that against these people in armor? Other than by using a gun instead, obviously --
There are strikes and blows but Venetia is left relatively unscathed, and she is in the process of pulling out her gun when Adeline suddenly calls out sharply--
"Parley?" Venetia says, head tilting, before
C H O C O B O K I C K
Venetia spins around a full 720 degrees, her gun popping high up in the air and thankfully not discharging. This unexpected pirouette seems to be the limits of what her martial arts training as a child can bring her, and she is left with a throbbing arm -- and before her -- "A red bird?!"
Her head tilts back, arrogantly... tracking the toppling gun... and then with a little hop up she catches it by the barrel, says "HA," tosses it into the air to catch it by the grip and --
KICK
It goes flying across the room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faFVITbv60c
Venetia's mouth is left slightly ajar at the sheer effrontry of the animal, and for the first time, Venetia looks at a chocobo and really *sees* the animal - the four hundred pounds-ish of enormous bird, wired for efficiency by aeons of evolutionary pressure, grown to great scale, and then -- somehow, perhaps by sorcery -- tamed and bent to the service of Mankind.
Her jaw tightens. In the time it would take her to use all but the most elementary Crest Graphs, she thinks, that enormous claw would go straight into my abdomen. Damn! I should layer that spell upon myself whenever I go into an unfamiliar doorway. If I die right now, I die for real. Her eyes narrow. "As you wish, beast," Venetia says --
What ensues is best defined as a grown woman getting into a fist-fight with an animal. Venetia is certainly coming out of this one bloddier than she went in, but perhaps if Parsley has a weakness, or if she can maintain pressure -- or vault upon the bird's BACK --
-- or at least stun it. Yes, Venetia thinks at a point when she goes for an elbow strike at the bird's beak: Stunning is going to be enough of a task.
GS: Formation! Venetia Vuong has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Buried Eagle Exploits Opportunity! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Josephine Lovelace suffers a terrible blow from Rixia's Dispel Drive for 195 hit points! GS: Dispel! Amplify and Hyper removed! GS: Josephine Lovelace activates Countermeasures! GS: Adeline Bascroft suffers a terrible blow from Hiro's Cross Blade for 135 hit points! GS: Break applied to Adeline Bascroft! GS: Adeline Bascroft takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Buried Eagle Exploits Opportunity for 97 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo has activated a Boss Action! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Demon Fang! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seraph Lanval with Demon Fang! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Pearl with Demon Fang! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 3 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
"Marivel Armitage," Leo says, his voice low and tight. They last parted on decent terms, but now Leo's all tension as he looks at her, coiled like a spring and ready to strike. What happened? "I know. In the absence of a sworn guardian... consider this your Trial." Where is the Guardian? Leo isn't certain, but the hideous RAGE boiling out of the trapped beast is not a good sign. 'Don't hold back', Marivel says, in more words.
Boudicca speaks. Leo looks at her, his eyes still shadowed. "I cannot allow you to release this beast, Honored Seraph." As if that's their primary motive in coming here.
'You don't know what you're doing, using that kind of power.' A shadowed glance at Hiro. 'You know what's in that rod, Leo.' Leo's face is, for a moment, lined with tension--but it quickly sublimates into... nothingness.
Doubt is poison. He cannot doubt. He has to stop this madness, but the Goddess Herself has made her wishes clear. He just--he has to set things right, to find whomever's responsible, and bring them to justice.
He is completely silent as Pearl calls him out, demands to know where the honorable knight is now. In a way, their positions have reversed.
And it's Pearl that strikes the first blow. Leo steps forwards, taking one hand off his blade and twisting it up to guard his head--but Pearl's fist bats it aside and slams into the White Knight's temple. He staggers back, pain spiking through his head. Pearl's kick strikes him in the shins, sending him skidding back across the stone. Puffs of dust rise at his heels. The only reason he isn't knocked prone is a combination of raw tenacity and stabilizing Earth sorcery.
He can hear Rixia panicking, and his heart twists. "Stand firm, Rixia," he says, trying to project confidence and righteousness. "Demon Fang!" Leo whips to the side, lining up a single strike; light glimmers on the edge of his blade, and he brings it down in a clean, air-cutting stroke. A wave of light rips through the air, surging at Pearl, Lanval, and Marivel all at once.
GS: White Knight Leo spends 1 Combo on Inspire! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Rixia with Leo's Encouragement...?! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Gwen Whitlock partially guards Rixia's Twin Lance for 84 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Rixia! GS: Gwen Whitlock activates Countermeasures!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca feels gratitude, to see Cyre go for the Barrier. She'll trust this magical beast to him.
"The Lord of Calamity is not whomst you think!" Boudicca says, to Adeline, clutching a hand by her heart. "Once I, too, thought her the Destroyer who would doom us all -- many hardships I brought about, in my quest to set upon her! But I was misled, as you are..!" She says that, so earnestly, but... it might sound just as much like she is the one being fooled.
"And this beast -- 'tis a thing of magic like mine! It is no Hellion! If it is rampaging, there must surely be some reason!" Boudicca insists, shaking her head, swiping her hand forward. "If you would only let us--!" Here, she gasps, and silences herself, as if she's realised she's doing the opposite of distracting Adeline and her people from Cyre.
Luckily, Boudicca is shortly distracted from outpouring a dozen-dozen words into the wind by -- sword. "Ah!" She gasps, again, as her heels lower to tap against the ground -- but only briefly; she launches herself up, on the breeze, leaping out of the way of that sonic thrust entirely.
She comes to rest behind Adeline -- and instead of striking her with the opportunity, she turns to the mage. "... please, Hiro speaks true. You must keep that artifact safe, else we all shall come to ruin!" Boudicca insists, and reaches out, with a glyph, to gesture to Denston and the Sealing Rod hidden in his robes. The breeze eddies around him, in a glowing shield of -- protection?
She looks to Rani, now. "I know you not," Boudicca says, "but if you know this woman -- please, you must help us convince her." If they don't manage to reach an accord...
Boudicca is very worried for Venetia and The Danger Bird. And so, the wind buffets for Parsley, now, with a seraphic glyph below her feet -- "Beaufort's Prediction!"
GS: Rixia accepts White Knight Leo's Leo's Encouragement...? for 0 hit points! GS: Rixia gains 2 Combo from Inspire! GS: Mystic extends positive status by 2 rounds! GS: Seraph Boudicca used Mystic on Adeline Bascroft! Status effect durations increased by 2! Gained 100 Temporary HP! GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Beaufort's Prediction! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rani Vela has posed.
"A VERY good explanation," Rani repeats herself to Hiro, as Adeline looks to her. She looks--well, not hurt, but apologetic. "I know what you have to do," she says, and inclilnes her head. But then--
Denston calls out, and Rani looks to him immediately. She raises her shield when the fireball snakes out, and it bursts upon it, exploding into a rush of flame before her that makes her sweat with its heat--but does not get past her defenses.
Venetia asks a question and explains some things. "Don't worry about it," she says of the nickname, and then says instead, "Right. You need the Gem. Then the Gem Hiro's going to get."
As she watches the battlefield and hears from Hiro, Rani focuses on Adeline again. "...The chocobo is new," Rani comments. She does not move to hurt it.
Instead, she draws herself inward again, the tall woman raising her mace still like a magic staff. "O flowing blood of the earth..."
Another spell rises from below, as if it's the ground itself spectrally shielding the others.
"So we're not fighting to let the monster out, right?" she confirms. "Just the Gem."
Her spell vanishes inward around her companions of the moment, their energy restored and strengthened. Boudicca, though... Boudicca wants them to help convince her...
"Even if I believe you," she says to Boudicca, "How can I argue that she shouldn't seal away a monster that's ravaged her lands? If you have some answer for what to do with the beast, then it would go a long way."
GS: Rani Vela has attacked Hiro with Saint Litany! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Saint Litany! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Venetia Vuong with Saint Litany! GS: Rani Vela has gained 2 Combo! GS: Rani Vela has completed her action. GS: Hiro accepts Rani Vela's Saint Litany for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper and Regen applied to Hiro! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval suffers a terrible blow from White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 213 hit points! GS: Seraph Lanval activates Power Burst and Gleam!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
The tiger's wrath is incredible indeed. If the barrier were not standing between the two, Cyre would... Probably not be having a very good day right now. But the shield holds, for better or for worse. The shaman staggers back from the impact nevertheless, because that kind of power is still nothing to scoff at, contained though it may be. His fingertips stay pressed against the shield, regardless, a point of contact that must be maintained. When the tiger fades back, he fills the void, once more pressing his palm into the bubble.
Breathing steady, the shaman closes his eyes and reaches out. Images flash across his mind, of a Wind Shrine that was not merely some forgotten ruin. Once upon a time, this was a true place of worship. Its present state is not even a shadow of its former self.
But... is that truly what drove its guardian to madness...? His thoughts focus, trying to refine the image, to find familiar iconography, if it even exists in the creature's imagination. But...
Ultimately, confirming theories is not what he intends to do here, and quietly pushes that thought aside. With this creature, in its state, words are not going to help. Instead, Cyre turns to images as well, to share something of his own, to communicate to a mind crushed by deep and primordial fury.
He shares... Visions of his world. Of Filgaia. Of the sacred places of the Baskar people, so many of them now weather-battered husks of what were once thriving communities. He envisions the wind-scarred mesas of his home, where once his people were stewards of a place that had never been truly green or lush, but which is now so much more barren than it once was.
He imagines... The shrines of Fengalon, only one of the Guardians but the one closest to his heart and to this being's nature. He communicates the sacred rites, performed by smaller and smaller cadres of priests as the years go by, the image tinged in sorrow and regret.
But then he wonders, was this enough? Could neglect alone cause this much rage? He focuses on the dogged priests, endeavoring to fulfill their duty no matter how hard it might be, then he turns his imagination to... The statues of Fengalon and Noua Shax deep within Wehaca's ancient grotto, to their image as it once was, then to how they were profaned by the Trial Knight and the power of Malevolence, then again to how they stand now, weathered but sacred once more--
As if to ask: 'What did this to you? Was it solely abandonment, or was there an outside force.'
And furthermore, to establish something important: That this being is not alone in being forgotten and abandoned by the world. And if there is something more than just that--
That it is not alone there, either.
GS: CRITICAL! Pearl takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 176 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 185 hit points! GS: Adeline Bascroft suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Beaufort's Prediction for 146 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"I see." MArivel tells Boudicca with a nod. "Do not sweat, it was never going to be easy."
She bobs her head to Rixia and gives her a smile. "Just do what you feel you must, Rixia... Though I must admit, is stealing someone's bun a forgivable crime? I cannot say."
As for what to do with the wind beast. "Mm. Let's see what happens."
Her eyes widen though. "No..." She says. "WAtch out Venetia! Red Chocobos are amongst natures most dangerous monsters!!" On the other hand, can she learn the dreaded Choco Meteor Attack today? Let's find out.
But before she can worry too much about that opportunity, Leo unleashes a powerful demon fang across Marivel's chest. She slides backwards, black smoke pouring from the wound as she sinks to one knee. Her eyes slant up towards Liath. She smiles but does not protest her lack of interference in either capacity. She deserves a break anyway. Instead she straightens up, rearing back with ehr hand as she aims to slam it into Leo's body and drain strength from him and make it her own.
But also, lets face it, she's gunning for that Demon Fang skill. Obviously.
"There's only two remaining after this," She tells Leo. "But WHICH two? OoOOoOOOOoh it's a mystery~~~"
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Skill Drain! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Sorry," Gwen says softly as she's still within whispering distance of Rixia's ears. "If I don't do this, they'll do worse to you for betraying 'em." As she pulls back to within Rixia's field of view, there's a serious look of concern in her gaze.
Gwen didn't take on Rixia because she thought Rixia would be an easy target. She took her on because she wanted to give Rixia the easiest out she can manage, even if it's without Rixia having any say in it.Besides, any level of magic would give Gwen a hard time
Oh Guardians Josie joined in, leaving Gwen in a curious predicament of being *right* that she and Josie would be fighting on the same side again, and also, being really frustrated that they are. Josie doesn't hold back any punches. This is a situation where all punches _need to be held back_. "Josie, I think I can handle this okay," Gwen lies through her teeth over her shoulder at Josie, accompanying it with one of her easy grins. "I 'ppreciate your help n' all, but, like...?"
OH GUARDIANS SHE COMIN'
Gwen throws up her right ARM as a shield, Rixia's weapon thrusts against it, the two clanging with the distinctive sound of metal against metal.
Was that... an ARM? Rixia this is not helping Gwen's case at all, she's trying to help you!
"Ahahahaha, man. Yeah, totally can handle this by myself. Even more sure of it now. Josie, I bet you'd do real good against the other Guards."
Does Gwen really need to punch this sweet person again to save her?
She does, doesn't she.
"All I gotta do is disarm that nice weapon of yours n' everything will be right as rain!" OH GUARDIANS SHE SOUNDS MORE LIKE JANUS, this isn't good
Gwen uses her right fist this time, slicing through the air to try to swipe the gunblade clean out of Rixia's hand.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Rixia with pleasepleaseplease stay down! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's pleasepleaseplease stay down for 66 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Seraph Lanval's quiet defiance might mark him as a mere observer on the surface, as Leo returns his words to those others he's had extended run-ins with as he drinks of the very Water of Filgaia within that gourd.
"Mmm. Yer callin' it our Trial, then," Lanval remarks as he muses quietly over the White Knight's response to Marivel, eyes tracking over to where Cyre is attempting to do his thing with the trapped tiger.
This chooses to be a mistake. Leo, even in fighting doubt, is one of the finest swordsmen to walk the land today. There are many Demon Fangs like this, but few move with such velocity and width. The visible effect is not unlike a bowling ball against a lone pin, hurling Lanval into the air and bouncing off of some overhanging architecture with grit teeth bared and beard hairs flaring out in comical exaggeration.
There is a moment where one eye opens up to catch a glimpse of Seraph Liath, observing them. This passes in slow motion until Lanval's descent to the ground is devoid of the smooth, acrobatic ability that belies the projected body of an overindulgent wastrel. (Not that he isn't one, even with his vocation.)
He bounces twice, and lands face-down a ways off as other shows of power fly above him - more concerned about his gourd rather than his own projected self.
"Yer committed." Lanval pulls himself up, 'bleeding' water of the Blue Star from his face. (This water is sticky, thick, and syrupy sweet, like the processed sugar-filled soft drinks found in the Seed Cities.) He stays out of Pearl's way during her masterful physical combat. (He's seen and practiced his own for technically centuries, and it says a lot if he's holding a young mortal's own proficiency in high esteem.)
"Ash it sho happensh," Lanval slurs as he stands upright, "'m gonna have my answher ash to why... everything. Sho." Lanval marches forward, like there's no care in the world. That he will defy the grim determination of one of Her greatest warriors, just march forth, high stepping... and try to push himself past him.
"Shtay there if ya want! Shee ya later~! Ha ha ha!"
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked White Knight Leo with Carefree Stroll! GS: Seraph Lanval enters a Counter stance! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Trust me, between the two of us, we got it locked and loaded," Josie says to Gwen with a grin and a little shake of her head. "I give it a minute, maybe two. Might even give us the leverage we need with the others, right?"
Is she... considering a hostage situation??
Josie, for her part, lets out a low whistle, when Gwen just ups and punches Rixia in the gut. "Damn, didn't think you had it in you, kiddo," she remarks, saucy half-smile and all as she turns a glance Gwen's way. "Keep that up, and we'll have her crying uncle before long!"
She kicks absently at one of the fallen shells. "Sure is. You know much about ARMs, kiddo? Wouldn't mind givin' you a demo or none. See that tree--"
But something strange has overcome Rixia (or so it seems) and that strange blade appears right in her grip. "Huh. Ain't that a trick. You sure you ain't got yourself an ARM afterall--"
The strange blade seemingly launches itself into an explosion, carrying Rixia along with it, and Josie is too stunned to do anything except stare at it all, utterly poleaxed.
She's sprawled out on the ground before she even knows what happened, her whole entire cool moment utterly ruined. "Damn, damn, damn-- right, let's have it out here, then!" Josie snarls, scrambling to her feet and stooping for her fallen shotgun. "From the top, then! C'mon, girl! Let's see what you've got!"
She doesn't so much as give a how-do-you-do as she quite openly takes a shot for the gunblade-wielding girl.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Rixia with Argent and Sable! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: White Knight Leo takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Skill Drain for 41 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage drains White Knight Leo! Marivel Armitage gains 20 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Adeline Bascroft has posed.
"I imagine it will continue happen, if you keep on with such lies," Adeline says back to Hiro -- shooting a glower in his direction.
It becomes a frown when she sees the way that his crossed blades of wind catch Roundelph under his guard, throwing him backward. The elf goes flying, rolling a couple of times, and starting to scramble to his feet. This leaves Hiro running for Danston, whose eyes quickly turn to him and widen; like many a classic Althenan mage, he prefers to not be up close and personal with a swordsman.
Parsley lands on the ground, kicking his talons against the floor. The chocobo fixes Venetia with a black, beady-eyed stare, and the all-too-twitchy movements of a bird's head. Somehow, that gaze is judging. Then, Venetia rushes in -- and strikes at his beak with her below. His head snaps backward and he squawks, before he slams his own head back at her with a mighty swing, letting out another loud:
"KWEEEH!!"
Parsley tries to headbutt her back.
"And why should I trust you? You've come to my demesne! You've struck the first blow!" Adeline answers Boudicca, with a grunt. "And I've no reason to trust this beast to you, either!"
She grits her teeth and turns, but not as fast as she would like. That leds Boudicca land, near the mage -- who is already backing away from Hiro. He looks at Boudicca, with widening eyes and alarm (and confusion at a barrier around him) -- and then he shakes his head firmly. "No--I am loyal to House Bascroft! Lady Adeline is our leader, and she has shown herself to be skilled--ready to lead us to glory, in Hyland and all of Glenwood! If she says this beast must be contained, then I place my faith in her! As I have my future!"
Adeline turns her head, to look at Rani -- and then there is a flicker of anger. "You know why I need to? And you're still fighting with them? What about--" Adeline grits her teeth, quieting down. "You don't trust me?"
The lancer rushes at Rani, a moment later. He lowers his shoulder -- and Roundelph tries to shoulder check her, and slam her to the ground. That makes Adeline shake off her stupor, and call out: "Keep your eyes on each other!"
The wizard holds his staff up -- and then several forks of lightning explode off it, hurtling straight at Hiro and Boudicca alike. Arcs of lightning shoot out, scarring across the stone floor and exploding into sparks where they hit. Adeline looks back at Rani, for a second, and then to the others.
After his headbutt, Parsley looks at Venetia -- then flaps his wings. A pale green light wafts down over him, and begins to heal the roughed up feathers on his head. He stares Venetia in the eye as he heals himself of her efforts.
Cyre's mind shares images. The tiger rears back, roaring again -- but pauses for a moment, as shrines to Fengalon are shared. They are unfamiliar; Cyre can sense a pulse of uncertainty and curiosity. Similar, yes, but also something that the spirit has not seen before. Then, the rage comes back, and the guardian spirit slams into the barrier again, causing it to shake.
And the image comes back. The tower -- and Cyre realizes, at one point, that the tower was much higher. He sees an image, then; a tall woman, with green hair, smiling. She reaches a hand down -- and pats the head of a small, green-and-white tiger cub. She rubs it, behind the ears.
The tiger roars, again, and it's pained.
GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Hiro with Now! Everyone!! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Rani Vela with Now! Everyone!! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Venetia Vuong with Now! Everyone!! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Now! Everyone!! GS: Adeline Bascroft has gained 1 Combo! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Adeline Bascroft with We Are the Shield!! GS: Adeline Bascroft accepts Adeline Bascroft's We Are the Shield! for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Adeline Bascroft! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Parlsey - Choco Medica! GS: Adeline Bascroft heals Adeline Bascroft! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Adeline Bascroft! GS: Gamble: Moderate! White Knight Leo solidly guards Seraph Lanval's Carefree Stroll for 55 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst! GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Argent and Sable for 172 hit points! GS: Hiro partially evades Adeline Bascroft's Now! Everyone! for 240 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hiro activates Power Burst! GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Rani Vela's Saint Litany for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Regen and Surge applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Shield applied to Rani Vela! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Adeline Bascroft's Now! Everyone! for 300 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Power Burst! GS: Rani Vela partially guards Adeline Bascroft's Now! Everyone! for 210 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
"I'm getting punched right now, Ruby!!" Rixia whines even as she floats through her fight, "If I still have a stomach and an appetite, I'll take you up on iiit..."
Gwen, however, whispers a sorry and tells her that if she doesn't do this, they'll do -worse- for betraying them... Josie sounds pretty terrifying, in all honesty. Are they going to hold her hostage here? That'd inconvenience Mister Leo...
As she crumples, she wonders if they... really would? Would they? Hilde seemed so nice and encouraging, even when she told her she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with herself, when she admitted she's hesitant about fighting. And Leo...
Leo tells her to stand firm! Rixia winces internally as inspiration wars against internal panic, spinning further into herself as she thinks deep: Oh no, now the BOSS knows I'm panicking and I'm projecting a really poor showing! What if I get fired? What if I get held hostage? What if I inconvenience them?
What if I get
abandoned
again
>> ... ...
>> abnormal emotional spike detected in user
>> compensating.
Rixia's body twitches for a moment as a barely perceptible 'twshh' whistles through the air.
>> regulating... administering admixture for blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar.
>> de-escalating emotional graph within acceptable reference range..
Her panic visibly dies down into a rather unnatural dullness; she breathes once, twice, and starts to... slack, is perhaps the word. Her eyes don't carry that panic from a moment ago. "Stand firm... stand firm..."
It might disconcertingly feel like Drive at play here.
Gwen comes at her again -- and the difference this time is night and day, as she just about brings herself to bear and lets herself be struck, with a lot less whimpering and whining as she mutters in Gwen's vicinity, "Not going to... get thrown aside again..."
Josephine fires a blast at her, and she holds her gunblade up in turn -- a portion of the buckshot bounces against her, but the rest grazes and draws blood; she snarls again, hissing viciously, "Never again!!"
Her response this time is a bit odd -- she slashes in a full circle into thin air this time, seemingly missing everyone; as she swipes, though, small fiery discharges of drawn Magic float into place in the air around her, and as she completes her rotation--
"Burst!"
--the glyphs explode in unison, surrounding the immediate area in a wreathe of synthesised fire.
GS: Rixia has activated a Boss Action! GS: Rixia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Rixia has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Fated Circle! GS: Rixia has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Fated Circle! GS: Rixia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rixia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: Venetia Vuong accepts Rani Vela's Saint Litany for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Regen and Shield applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Shield applied to Rani Vela! GS: Venetia Vuong suffers a terrible blow from Adeline Bascroft's Now! Everyone! for 282 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Venetia Vuong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Rixia's Fated Circle for 107 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace activates Countermeasures! GS: Rixia drains Josephine Lovelace! Rixia gains 54 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
She feels the hits connect, solid and hard- yet not as strong as she could manage with the Shadow Dragon power. But that's not what she needs right now. Leo responds with the Demon Fang, a move she tries to counter with her own. It does not go well, and Pearl is sent tumbling back herself. Lanval and Marivel rise into the fight, and Pearl pulls herself to her feet. Tsk.
"...Very well." Pearl responds. "Then we have no option but to best you." She pulls into a defensive stance, channeling her water-like chi around her into what might be armour, watching Leo intensely. Waiting for his next move.
Waiting for his resolve.
GS: Pearl has attacked Pearl with Swallow Shell! GS: Pearl enters a Counter stance! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Pearl heals Pearl! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Okkkayyyyyy - I'll call you later girl!" Ruby calls out to Rixia with a sort of whispery tone and a gesture like she'll statue her. "I feel like it's a good explanation - but I don't know if you'll think it's only a detailed one." Hiro calls to Rani, because he understands it's an explanation which typically has two outcomes, either they believe him, or they don't. Hiro says as the Litany rushes into him with a Prayer that strengthens his sword arm and starts to ease the feeling of a bruised side. Boudicca backs him up on the rod, and Hiro tries to clarify firmly to Rani, "Not exactly. However you might feel about the idea of the Guardian getting loose - you don't want it sealed by Zophar's power. It will just make everything worse."
Hiro meets his glower with a sort of grim resolve, "Shame that I'm not then. Ask your own comrades about all the things they assumed about us that are no longer adding up for them after your campaign in Spira." He doesn't cite specifics... one of them... it isn't his place to say. And the other... well despite where Leo is standing right now, he trusts that he isn't doing so out of zealous fervor.
More importantly he trusts him.
"Is this all about GLORY to you?" Hiro says, seeming aghast at the Mage's answer, "That's the sort of thing General Heldalf would say to justify one of his atrocities."
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to move anyway, as the wizard fires arcs of lightning. Hiro dodges to one side. Then rolls to the other - trying to force his way to gain ground - however a bolt strikes him eventually, blasting him back from his forward progress.
Sucking in a breath as he gets up, Hiro says raspily, "I've had enough of that kind of motivation." As he slams his palms together, and amongst the Hyland retinue, the wind rises, forming into spinning boomerang like razors of shimmering green and white that then diverge into a multitude of smaller whirling creations of spell energy that move chaotically as it tries to make things so much worse for Adeline's whole retinue.
GS: Hiro has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Razor Cyclone! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Rixia's Fated Circle for 232 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock activates Countermeasures! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rixia drains Gwen Whitlock! Rixia gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Adeline Bascroft solidly guards Hiro's Razor Cyclone for 96 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Hiro! GS: Adeline Bascroft activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
There is a majestic THONK as the heads of the two apex species of the Filgaia-Lunar system collides. Which, in time, will inherit these planets? Even God does not know. Venetia reels back, breathing out. Her eyes swim for a moment, one hand coming down to her Crest pouch as the bird gazes at her...
His wings flap. Not in threat -
Green light.
Great, Venetia thinks. It has the blessing of Althena or something. But she's already moving in the face of this opportunity, moving to stand, not so much to the west of Parsley, as to his north-east.
She anwers Rani, tersely; "The blood of the Earth... it has its fury as well as its ruth. I'll show you the power it reveals to those who dare to plunge the abyss." ("And you're right about the creature by the way just to put you at ease--")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnmXeIyyvsg
BUT THEN:
Venetia's gaze returns to Parsley, the bird's spell concluding itself. She raises her hand, which is now full of one of those Xtra-Large Crest Graphs (for Big Girls, Boys, and Fell Sorcerous Entities), held cupped in the palm of her hand. "You're the core, aren't you? What a shame...!!"
Her eyes widen as the accumulated resonance of earth-energies thanks to the benedictions of Rani as well as her own earlier assay in the arts snaps into place, the very energy of the land taking in a subtle breath that may briefly startle even the guardian beast, even if it in turn may understand that it is being fought *for*...
The Crest Graph glows!
"Even immortals are mayflies to the bones of the planet! Erupt, ancient fury! CAUSEWAY OF THE GIANTS:" Venetia STAMPS her foot here for emphasis, or perhaps for more, because there is a sense of a subtle shaking of the Earth, enough that some might glance at the tower walls, but -- it passes:
And then resurges as induced metamorphic/igneous intrusions rush upwards, black stone hexagonal pillars erupting in a wave in front of Venetia, aiming to rise up and overwhelm and force back Parsley... towards the entranceway into the tower... and perhaps...
THROUGH!! To his doom!
What's a bird going to do in such harsh, windy condi-- well, perhaps it will break line of sight.
GS: Venetia Vuong has activated a Force Action! GS: Venetia Vuong spends 2 Combo on Interrupt and Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Hexagonal Prism Sign ~Giant's Causeway~! GS: Delay expired! GS: Venetia Vuong gains 15 THP from Regen! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Adeline Bascroft takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Hexagonal Prism Sign ~Giant's Causeway~ for 211 hit points! GS: Interrupt applied to Adeline Bascroft! GS: Adeline Bascroft has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Marivel's eyes widen at something behind Leo, and he glances back, half-expecting a trick. But there's no mistaking the telltale silhouette, or the sounds, or the vibrant red-orange hue of those feathers. A chill runs down his spine. Lady Adeline managed to tame one of those beasts? For a moment, the White Knight is reminded of his own uncertainty. Her soldiers vouch for her, but does 'glory' even mean anything?
The momentary distraction is enough to give Marivel and Lanval their opening. Leo twists back as the Crimson Noble lunges forwards, turning her open-palm strike into a grazing hit. It still impacts something solid--Leo's wearing a chain shirt beneath his jacket--and it still rips at something inside him, sending blood-red tendrils spiraling out from the point of impact. Marivel gets the daintiest sip of the White Knight's life force, and with it, the knowledge of the very martial skill he just used.
Lanval ambles right past. Much like the water he embodies, he can move with speed and force when he wants to, and as the Seraph shoulder-checks Leo, the White Knight once again goes skidding. The impact jars his sword-arm, and he grimaces, before forcing himself back into a fighting stance. He glances at Pearl, and sees a subtle change in her posture, and the expectation in her eyes.
'That's the sort of thing General Heldalf would say to justify one of his atrocities.'
'Stand firm... stand firm...'
The words burrow into Leo's mind, Hiro's determination a sharp counterpoint to Rixia's alarming, hollow echo. Has he already lost?
No. No!
The White Knight whips out an arm, trailing amber lights from his gauntleted hand. Part of the floor beneath Lanval shudders, shifts, and rises up in a spiked stalagmite of ancient stone. It only retracts ten seconds later, once it's been given a chance to stab him through.
Leo himself is already rounding on the other two. Brilliant Light gleams on his blade as he swoops at Marivel, trying to hook the weapon into her and toss her into the air. If he manages that, he follows through with a devastating vertical slice, trying to spike her back down like a volleyball. The moment he hits the ground, he whirls around on Pearl, sweeps his blade through the air twice, and follows through with a stab at nothing. Two crescents of light energy sweep out from his sword, and then race towards Pearl!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seraph Lanval with Grave! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Pearl with Luminant Scythe! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Light Spear Cannon! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage partially guards White Knight Leo's Light Spear Cannon for 117 hit points! GS: Cover applied to White Knight Leo! GS: Marivel Armitage activates Guard bonus! GS: COUNTER! Seraph Lanval counterattacks White Knight Leo with Counter Attack! GS: Seraph Lanval partially guards White Knight Leo's Grave for 162 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I... know not," Boudicca confesses, a shade helplessly, to Rani. "No explanation have I for its assault, only a deep and dwelling unease. Would that I knew more -- knew of this -- I would answer you, I swear it. The people must be defended, but..."
She shakes her head, and clasps her hand, to her heart. "I do not act to gainsay your loyalty," she tells Danston, quietly. "Only, I pray, defend yourself well. If my words as Althena's attendant still mean aught to you, let them carry this. For when I was a Beast... I offered you aid, and saw the worth of your hearts." Her eyes have gone grey from a thousand tears, as they look to him.
They find Leo, in the din of the battle. Her brow arcs up; she pauses, in the chaos, to reflect on him. Perhaps it's a characteristic of spirits to be a little disconnected, a little discordant to the tension of the situation.
This is, of course, her first mistake. The lightning arcs through her, uncontested -- she cries out; the pain is something which strikes beyond any electrified flesh, but it is pain, nonetheless. "Ah--!" It's lucky, perhaps, that Rani poured that magic into her, to counteract the force.
She staggers to the ground, from where she was floating -- one heel makes contact with the stone, and then the other. The lightning grounds down, to earth. Her braids frizz in the aftermath.
"They look up to you," she says, to Adeline. "Please, I say again, stop and listen to us. We have not come to unleash a monster, but to understand -- to gain ever more understanding! If I must fight you to convince you of such a thing..."
Finally, she takes her tonfa into her grasp; twin wooden sticks, clasped in either hand, she takes them and blows past Adeline with all the speed of the wind, lashing out at her legs as she passes. "Soaring Vortex!" Boudicca announces, in the flow.
GS: COUNTER! Pearl counterattacks White Knight Leo with Counter Attack! GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Luminant Scythe for 187 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to White Knight Leo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Soaring Vortex! GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Adeline Bascroft solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Vortex for 84 hit points! GS: Entangle applied to Adeline Bascroft!
<Pose Tracker> Rani Vela has posed.
"I trust you," Rani answers. "But I owe him my help in this, regardless of my feelings. The people of Azado... they aren't dead, Adeline. Many escaped. And I'd never have known if not for him."
She pauses. "But finding a way to deal with that monster is next." Rani is--different than before. She was always calm, but there's something else in her now.
But the lancer rushes, and while Rani brings up her shield, she's knocked down by the lancer getting into her guard before she can interpose it. With a loud clanging, the beastwoman hits the floor of the Shrine, the breath partly knocked out of her by the impact. "Gh--"
Rani rolls quickly to her side and starts pushing herself back up, briefly losing her look at Adeline, as she drags herself back up with raw strength. "I guess that's fair," Rani answers Hiro when he says he feels like it's a good explanation. "We'll find out." A pause, as he mentions... Zophar? "I'll believe it for now. But we're going to find another way."
Venetia mentions the fury of the Earth. "..All right," she says. And the aside is pretty helpful. But--
That's some earth magic, all right.
Boudicca.... doesn't know, meanwhile. A Seraph, admitting she doesn't know. That's something. "Put that unease to use. If you don't shape up, she'll beat you. She's gotten stronger since I knew her."
Then Rani surges forward. "I appreciate your loyalty," she says to the lancer as she tries to get within his guard instead, lifting her shield up and slamming it towards him to try to knock him back and off his balance, mace at the back. Both shine with holy light as she empowers herself with her own white magic.
GS: Rani Vela spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Celestial Reverse! GS: Rani Vela enters a Counter stance! GS: Rani Vela has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
There's some kind of goddamn red horsebird out here and that's-- admittedly actually kind of a concern. Didn't Cyre read about red horsebirds somewhere in that book of Jay's? Something about... Cocoa Comets...????
...No. Focus. There's something-- someone here, whose pain has not been salved in aeons. The shaman steadies his breathing. In. Out. In. The beast throws itself into the barrier again, but this time Cyre is ready. He exhales in the same moment that he presses his forehead to the wall, eyes fixed on the creature's furious, blazing-red gaze. Wisps of green light flicker in his breath.
That woman. That place. This place. Whatever happened here, it cannot have been the result of the peaceful, grinding decay of time. There's too much pain. Too much rage. You loved her, the shaman states with images of affection, there is no need to ask. The pain is obvious. The pain of loss is as clear as day. Cyre's eyes tighten in sympathy.
He is sorry-- not for the pain or for the rage, because these things are only just if something has been taken-- but that it, that all of this happened. The desire for revenge, to slake the pain in one's heart with the blood of those responsible, are as much a part of the heart as love and hope.
Images, again, the language of the heart that transcends the limitations of man and beast. He communicates a vision of the woman who means so much to him, of the way her fingers played across his scalp, too. Of... the pain he would feel if something were to happen to her. Of the terrible lengths his heart would scream at him to go to. These are... more abstract things. Flashes of pure emotion, more than concrete images. The Shaman does not try to slake his curiosity further, now.
He only extends a hand, or as close as one can get, in the language of the soul and the mind. It is a wind that brushes the beast's cheek, a simple, sympathetic gesture that says: 'I understand. You have been grieving all this time. Let me share your pain.'
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel sees the Light gleaming off of the White Knight's blade as he darts in. She raises the Guillotine up, blocking the strike with the bloodborn weapon. IT, at least, does not seem to combust so readily when exposed to the Light.
"Ah, Leo. Tis true that the Light is anathemic to me--but surely you did not think t'would be that easy."
Oh no she's going oldtimey talk that means she's getting serious. She flips backwards to open up some space. She isn't going to take any chances with that light--she needs to give it her best shot. "Perhaps this Trial is not for us--nay, tis for thee."
And with that she brings up her staff, spinning it around in wild arcs before she twists it up and shouts, "DEMON FANG!"
A ray of power ripples across the ground towards Leo! Luckily he should be able to handle one Demon Fang without much--
"And why not another! Double Demon Fang!" Marivel shouts again as she twirls the staff one more time, sending a second energy burst, intending to reinforce the first!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Double Demon Fang! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen's not sure what's worse: the sound of her fist hitting Rixia earlier, or how Josie is *complimenting her*. "... I'm tryin' to knock her out," Gwen mumbles, with a wince. "You're makin' me feel like the bad guy here even more than I already doo--shit!!"
So this is what Janus or one of his squad felt like, when their hubris is lodged right back at them. First off, even if this is after the fire shrine, it's still fire, and fire will always draw a reaction from Gwen, especially if she doesn't feel that quenching calm of justification and noble struggle behind her. Maybe, if she felt the same here, and didn't feel like a complete asshat due to Josie being... Josie...!
So yeah, Gwen falls down real good.
But, like Rixia, Gwen has her own system of getting back up, ingrained so deeply that no ARM is specifically needed. Which, to be fair, is kind of a problem in situations like these.
Getting up first on one hand, then one foot, then two feet, Gwen groans audibly and she gets to her feet. Then, she plants her hands on her hips and turns to Josie. "See, this is what I was tryin' to avoid! You even *seen* how easy a magic-user can blow through me? Might as well be like blowin' on a piece of wet paper!" Well, the jig is up: Gwen didn't have this handled at all! But it's not as if she played a convincing part in this whole play she tried to construct out of whole cloth.
Josie rises to the challenge, and Gwen sighs. "Fine, fiiine. She's got a decent defense n' offense now, so the playin' field's leveled all appropriate-like. But we're stoppin' when she's down, okay?! We ain't here for that kinda violence!" This was so much easier when she felt like she could be all puppies and sunshine and charging into battle. "Hookay, here we go!"
The first order of business is to get that gunblade out of Rixia's hand, or, a least, disable her ability to hold it. Letting Josie take the lead, Gwen steps back and takes her time with her aim, waiting for the right moment and--
*BANG*
A shot fires from Gwen's right palm, aiming for what seems like Rixia's dominant hand. "sorry!"
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen's not sure what's worse: the sound of her fist hitting Rixia earlier, or how Josie is *complimenting her*. "... I'm tryin' to knock her out," Gwen mumbles, with a wince. "You're makin' me feel like the bad guy here even more than I already doo--shit!!"
So this is what Janus or one of his squad felt like, when their hubris is lodged right back at them. First off, even if this is after the fire shrine, it's still fire, and fire will always draw a reaction from Gwen, especially if she doesn't feel that quenching calm of justification and noble struggle behind her. Maybe, if she felt the same here, and didn't feel like a complete asshat due to Josie being... Josie...!
So yeah, Gwen falls down real good.
But, like Rixia, Gwen has her own system of getting back up, ingrained so deeply that no ARM is specifically needed. Which, to be fair, is kind of a problem in situations like these.
Getting up first on one hand, then one foot, then two feet, Gwen groans audibly and she gets to her feet. Then, she plants her hands on her hips and turns to Josie. "See, this is what I was tryin' to avoid! You even *seen* how easy a magic-user can blow through me? Might as well be like blowin' on a piece of wet paper!" Well, the jig is up: Gwen didn't have this handled at all! But it's not as if she played a convincing part in this whole play she tried to construct out of whole cloth.
Josie rises to the challenge, and Gwen sighs. "Fine, fiiine. She's got a decent defense n' offense now, so the playin' field's leveled all appropriate-like. But we're stoppin' when she's down, okay?! We ain't here for that kinda violence!" This was so much easier when she felt like she could be all puppies and sunshine and charging into battle. "Hookay, here we go!"
The first order of business is to get that gunblade out of Rixia's hand, or, a least, disable her ability to hold it. Letting Josie take the lead, Gwen steps back and takes her time with her aim, waiting for the right moment and--
*BANG*
A shot fires from Gwen's right palm, aiming for what seems like Rixia's dominant hand. "Sorry!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Rixia with Crackshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval might have laughed in Leo's face, but when he feels the earth beneath him shift, he might be (is) laughing a bit less. He is a Water Seraph, even suffused with the blessing of Schturdark. In the elemental theory of Althenian sorcery, it is Earth that divides, shapes, and contains Water. He is beholden to these rules.
The stalagmite spears through his foot and leg as it shoves him up... but at the very point, he sets down his other foot and balances and braces against a point so fine that it should only pierce through. Instead, he chooses to embody a(n overly large) raindrop to drop, coil, and roll down the length of the structure - pushing up to loosen his leg while tumbling backwards into Leo's direction at roughly around the time just after he loosens the crescents of light at Pearl.
It is followed up with him thrusting the drinking gourd up at his chin as he continues to lie prone, trailing more otherworldly water from where he was pierced.
"I get it," Lanval says after he speaks his blow, "but the moment ya got a crack, shtuff will get through. Even water, through rock."
"Y'know that crack'sh been open. It ain't gonna mend 'till we hear from Althena," says the Seraph she has expressly banished from this land.
GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 219 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Rixia! GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked White Knight Leo with Jeers!! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"And I'm tryin' to psych her out," Josie says, now that the cat is well out of the bag and hiding under the stairs. "Looks like we both missed the mark, yeah?"
There are more immediate things to worry about anyway.
The very way that Rixia bears herself is most decidedly off. The girl shouldn't have been able to deflect her shot that smoothly. Josie narrows her eyes.
"Something wrong," Josie says, glancing sidelong at Gwen. "What is that sword she's got? It's almost like it's..."
Wielding her, rather than her wielding it. But there's no sense of something actually possessing her, like with a certain other young lady of Josie's acquaintance. Or maybe it's not the sword at all, maybe she's taken some sort of--
"Shit! Look sharp!" It's remarkably akin to a glyph, that, but the energy about it's all--
Josie throws out her right hand, a sparking shield blooming about her. Fire blooms and bursts before her, some tongues of flame snapping past her face and about her torso as her barrier largely holds. "What the hell was that?! That wasn't a spell!"
Not as she knows it, at least.
"Oh, don't you pin this one on me, girl! I ain't the one who threw punches first!" Lightning still clings to her right forearm. "See if'n you can soften her up, like," she tells Gwen, working her fingers on her right hand gingerly. "I'm gonna have a look-see myself about how she handles real magic!"
The lightning collects in her hand as she wheels about and hurls it like a javelin for Rixia. "O, thou lightning!"
And she glances Gwen's way almost as an afterthought. "Sure. Let's see if'n we can get the others to stand down too, even, once we get little miss under control. Yeah?" Oh no.
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Rixia with Bolt Lance! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Rixia takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Bolt Lance for 192 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: White Knight Leo accepts Pearl's for 146 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Adeline Bascroft has posed.
"It's about making sure our House survives!" Denston answers Hiro. "We lost too many of us in Spira, to Sin and the rest--and Lady Adeline is the best hope we have!"
Glory, but maybe something more complicated, too.
Hiro summons up a gale. Wicked winds rip and tear through them; Denston yelps, nearly sucked into the vortex, until he plants his hand down. Even then, his robes are whipped at, and tears begin to appear in them. Roundelph grits his teeth, even as a loose piece of stone slams into his side.
Adeline deflects a stone on her shield, then shakes her head sharply. Parsley, for his part, is yanked to the side -- and into the path of the hexagonal towalers rising from the floor, forming a tower.
He smashes into them, with a cloud of dust erupting. Parsley squawks, but vanishes into the resulting cloud of debris.
"Parsley!" Adeline shouts, her eyes widening sharply.
She looks at Rani with violet eyes, and they're not so calm and cold anymore. "They're not--but--it's been years! And this is how you wanted to reunite?" She frowns. "They are little more than bandits, Rani!"
She looks back at Boudicca -- and her eyes narrow. "What is there to understand!? This creature is a menace! And, besides--"
The wind blasts her backward. Boudicca's spell smashes her back into the barrier, which is solid as stone, and ripples when she hits it. She steps off it. Her eyes flicker to Venetia, for a moment. Then, back to Boudicca.
Thus far, Adeline has spoken with a refined accent; a practiced upper class accent, common in the manors of Ladylake and the halls of power in the Kingdom of Hyland. It slips here, into something much more rural and familiar to Rani. "You bloody dobbers made one mistake," she snaps. "Y'hurt my bird."
Adeline charges for Boudicca. She lunges at her, sword raised -- and then thrusts it outward for her midsection, with another hard stab. As she gets in closer, there is a wall-shaking crack-BOOM of thunder. Then, a bolt of lightning drops down for Boudicca.
"Super Lightning Blade!"
Roundelph pushes himself from the ground, spinning his spear up behind him. "We are the shield!" he cries, as he charges -- hurtling towards Hiro. As he gets close, he leaps -- spear swinging out in a circle. An arc of white light is left, before he stabs down -- slamming the spear hard at Hiro.
"Rondo of Light!" he shouts, as he stabs.
Then, Denston holds both hands over his head. "Frost of the heavens, gather at my command!" A magical circle erupts under his feet. "And rise forth! ICE WALL!"
Huge spikes of ice shoot out of the ground -- forming a wall that erupts across the chamber, and shoots in a line aimed for both Rani and Venetia.
Behind the barrier, the tiger slows. It stares down at Cyre with red eyes, staring at him for a long moment. It feels Cyre's own memories -- and its expression, to the extent it has one behind those baleful red eyes, is sorrowful.
It shares another memory. That woman from before; green hair that fades to a paler shade, like a Seraph, but this time, she is wrapped in cloying violet and gold Malevolence. The guardian spirit steps towards her, in a chamber grown dark -- dusty -- abandoned. It starts to reach closer, to nuzzle her.
She summons a blast of wind, to blow him back.
Then she screams -- and then she roars. Her body shifts, Malevolence swirling about her. Dark and hideous, purple motes of light that sink into her. The Seraph screams, doubling backward, and draconic wings break from her back. Her hands turn into scaled claws, and she expands outward. A tail smashes into the wall--
--a place Cyre can see a huge gash in the stone, now. And then, the newly made Fell Dragon's wings beat, and it rises upward and smashes free of the temple. The tiger stares up. The guardian's eyes begin to glow red... and redder still.
It's those same red eyes staring down into Cyre's. A rage that is not its own; a rage from a Fell Dragon, shared by its creator, like a blanket over the spirit's mind. But to sever that connection would be to sever the last link to the woman the spirit knew.
GS: Adeline Bascroft gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Adeline Bascroft gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Adeline Bascroft has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Adeline Bascroft takes a solid hit from Rani Vela's Celestial Reverse for 152 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Adeline Bascroft! GS: Shield applied to Rani Vela! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Adeline - Super Lightning Blade! GS: Adeline Bascroft has gained 1 Combo! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Hiro with Lancer - Rondo of Light! GS: Adeline Bascroft has gained 3 Combo! GS: Adeline Bascroft spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Rani Vela with Wizard - Ice Wall! GS: Adeline Bascroft has attacked Venetia Vuong with Wizard - Ice Wall! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Adeline Bascroft gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Adeline Bascroft gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Disrupt expired! GS: Adeline Bascroft has completed her action. GS: Hiro solidly guards Adeline Bascroft's Lancer - Rondo of Light for 148 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hiro activates Power Burst! GS: Hiro enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Break expired! GS: Rani Vela has activated a Force Action! GS: Rani Vela solidly guards Adeline Bascroft's Wizard - Ice Wall for 115 hit points! GS: Rani Vela activates Guard bonus! GS: Venetia Vuong critically guards Adeline Bascroft's Wizard - Ice Wall for 60 hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Adeline Bascroft's Adeline - Super Lightning Blade for 186 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay and Drowsy applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Power Burst and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Gunfire races across the battlefield, and strikes Rixia's dominant hand; for a moment, Gwen enjoys success in what she seeks to do, as the gunblade just falls straight out of her hand and clatters on the ground.
"You..."
Her left hand's bloodied and doesn't look usable now; still, energy is weaving around her, seemingly being ambiently sucked out from the errant Ley in the air, knitting her back together even as she snarls listlessly.
"You're trying to play with me?? Don't... mess with me...!!" Rixia growls, finding something objectionable in the interplay between Gwen and Josie -- and her emotions and mindset, perhaps, twisting it much darker than it is, despite Gwen's efforts to try to play it soft with her so she doesn't get punished.
Gwen doesn't seem to cope with fire well, but...
Then Josie feels it -- another distortion in the air, as spheres of whole pockets of magic just get ripped out of the air towards... her. Is it her after all? Or is the gunblade just a focus?
Then Josephine creates a lance of lightning, and Rixia raises her right hand to create a barrier out of that Drawn magic -- but it's not enough, and she's sent hurtling back across dirt and grass, slamming against the cliffside of the valley.
>> threshold for self-preservation exceeded
>> confirmed: non-zero risk of self-termination independent of user survival rates
>> user consciousness level below combat-awareness
>> compensating.
The fight seems over for a time, but as the dirt cloud fades -- she's disappeared from her little crater, suddenly appearing above and in front of both Drifters, the gunblade suddenly back -- in her right hand, in a slight flash of data cubes.
>> enhancing user motor functions, rerouting strategy to direct elimination
>> obtaining risk factor: chance of permanent neural damage 7 percent
>> assessing... ... ...
>> risk accepted on behalf of user.
"I'm so sick of people toying with me," she -- warbles, at this point, a pallor cast over her face. Her nerves are frayed and showing, a little purple against her pale face.
As if picking out Gwen's comment about how a magic user has the advantage, she gathers a sphere of seemingly-pure, raw energy in her hand. It crackles and hisses, its unstable nature plain to see for all.
"Deep despair..."
She motions to throw the sphere, then--
--suddenly disappears, before reappearing behind and to the right of the both of them, before finally finishing her softball throw that nonetheless has the sphere LANDING on the very earth, threatening to scorch both Drifters in raw, unsynthesised magical energy expanding in a mid-sized dome that creates a very neat and round crafter in its wake.
"Where are you looking?"
GS: Rixia has activated a Force Action! GS: Rixia has activated a Boss Action! GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rixia has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Shockwave Pulsar! GS: Rixia enters a Counter stance! GS: Rixia has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Shockwave Pulsar! GS: Rixia enters a Counter stance! GS: Rixia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Rixia's Shockwave Pulsar for 204 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl crosses her arms infront of her, as Leo's blades of light head for her. And then she darts forward for him, through the light. It shreads her ki 'armour', but it's enough. It protects her assault as she drives for Leo, and rolls forward into a rolling axe kick at his shoulder, before kicking into the air to land a small distance away.
Indecision. Regret. Uncertainty. The dull not his blade, but they dull his instinct. Pearl charges forward again, with a series of rapid punches, signifying an offensive shit. And in those strikes, so close only they can hear each other. "...Sometimes the only just thing is treacherous. Rot cannot always be cleansed from inside. That may be the only way to stop it reaching your heart- or cleanse what is there."
She remains in close contact, so that they may have this conversation, fist, blade and words, that none may interrupt or overhear. Not in this chaos, surely.
GS: Pearl has attacked White Knight Leo with High Tide! GS: Pearl has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield expired! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Rixia's Shockwave Pulsar for 94 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo solidly guards Seraph Lanval's for 82 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst and Gleam! GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Lanval's Jeers! for 167 hit points! GS: Mute applied to White Knight Leo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst and Gleam! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Double Demon Fang for 128 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Pearl's High Tide for 175 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty and Quick applied to Pearl! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst and Gleam!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Thank you... I understand this isn't an easy thing for you." Hiro says to Rani, because she's going up against someone she trusts."Oh!" Hiro says as Denston clarifies and he immediately calls back, perhaps realizing that he was better intentioned than he thought, "I actually have no problem with that part then! Just you really don't know what you're doing here - invoking that power!"
Hiro suddenly gives Adeline a look as her accent changes, "What... that... that was a change." However it is a prelude to a fierce onslaught as Roundelph comes at him, and something about his stance, rather than charging forward, he braces just as that gleam of white light forms. His shield comes up as the spear circle completes and the thrust begins, and sparks fly as it feels like his feet are GROUND into the stone by the sheer force of the strike. Eventually the blow knocks him away, raising dust, but his guard somehow still remains intact, nothing vital was struck.
"Not bad. But I've seen that one before from a Princess of Hyland - Azure Lance style, right?"
In the midst of the chaos from their united attacks almost certainly noone notices as Ruby flies high overhead and appears to vanish.
And suddenly, "Wha-What's going on?" There's a teenage girl, almost certainly a peasant by her simple white tunic and white pants that cut off at the ankles. She's pink haired with a yellow bow on her head, and a simple pink one around her waist that's on the other side of the mage... "Are you... soldiers of Hyland? Oh thank goodness! I got separated from my caravan when the beast attacked-!"
Ruby puts on her best damsel in distress act, though she's not the best actress, she's just modulating her voice and being quieter and hoping they don't recognize its the same one as the Dragon that was flying around. And possibly will not work at all, but all she needs to do is make them doubt for a few seconds. "I ran away and hid here... please you have to protect me. I'm so scared-" As she moves closer like she's going to cling to him for sanctuary and succor-
Then suddenly there's a BAMF when she gets close enough, making her a much smaller flying target as she tries to swoop to grab the green gem with her mouth. "-YOINK!" Of course, she's very likely to miss, even if it wasn't guarded...
... she kind of forgot again how tired this makes her to do that so she's moving a BIT slower than normal. However succeed or fail, it likely makes a good enough distraction for Hiro to set up what comes next as he darts across the room in a near straight line, sword held like a spear, as it catches ablaze...
"BURN! BURN! BURN!"
And he tries to drive that flaming blade straight through a line of as many of them as he can.
GS: Hiro spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Link! GS: Hiro enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Rubyvention! GS: Hiro has launched an attack Link! GS: Hiro has entered Avenger|Link Stance! GS: Hiro spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Battalion Sword! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Adeline Bascroft solidly guards Hiro's Rubyvention for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Adeline Bascroft gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Hiro! GS: Adeline Bascroft partially guards Hiro's Battalion Sword for 126 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Adeline Bascroft gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Oh right, she just admitted she's terrible against magic to a very talented magic-user who is liable to use that against her later on! However, Josie likely has fought against and with Gwen enough to know that fact from the beginning.
But it seems that Josie was also putting on a little play of her own. "Majorly..." Gwen sighs in agreement. "You're right. Should've just tried t'convince her to stand back instead of tryin' t'be all clever-like. But I got enough juice from workout t'fire now, honestly," Gwen says, holding up her right hand as she wills it to begin glowing brighter.
GUARDAIANS she still sounds like Janus!!
But that's the *least* of her worries. "Yeah, I know, right? Might be an ARM." Nono, Josie's not pointing *that* out, but the whole lot of damage that's heading their way like a sea of arrows on a clear blue day. "Damn it, her hand..."
Rixia is in the air, and... There. Those cubes. The gunblade is back in the mage's hands, and Gwen doesn't have much time to do anything but guard with her arms and prepare for the force of that sphere.
Like a kite, she sails backwards, rolling away several times before her momentum is lost. "Gh... I'm the one who screwed this up... definitely." She gathers her strength and staggers up, her right ARM still glowing bright. "... But... you... ain't th' only one who has their ARM pre-equipped..." Gwen's teeth clench as she feels the yellow gold energy spider up her inner shoulder and up her neck. "But I ain't sure if it's playin' nice with you..." The upper part of Gwen's neck glows with yellow energy infusing the nerves closest to the top levels of skin. "If you can still hear me, please listen-- if you went from wanting to run away to seeing our actions as toyin' with you... the only one on strings is you, right now, from what I can gather."
The energy glows in the pupil of her right eye, the inner beat of her clockwork heart in tune with its wax and wane.
"If you are acquaintances with Hiro n' Ruby, that shows me enough to not want to hurt you any more than I have to. Because they know a good person when they see them!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Bounding Flight! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Gwen Whitlock's Bounding Flight for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Hyper, and Quick applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia feels the soreness and weariness of having to come to grips with -- evidently -- an enormous intelligent bird... she turns at the calling out of the animal's name, still hunched over, slightly.
She brings herself up to a fully upright stance. One hand goes to her hip.
"Perhaps you shouldn't CALL it to the battlefield, then," Venetia continues. "You sic it upon someone and complain about their self-defense... pfeh!" Her other hand sweeps upwards. "Why do I even bother. Overdweller ears hear what they want," the last sentence mostly to herself. And then there is a wave of ice coming towards her --
A Crest Graph comes out and blue-white smashes against opaque purple-translucent, the two stones -- for yes! Ice is a stone; water is its molten form, curiously fluid at the temperatures of many planets -- contending. Neither one if that hard; the rebounding shrapnel makes Venetia wince, but she stays where she is.
As the trash settles -- Venetia is briefly baffled at the sight of a green-haired girl where there was previously a flitting cat. But foes yet remain; they may be down a bird, but there are many other bipeds to contend with!
The same Crest Venetia brought out is held aloft, its inscription glittering-- The central crystal flies towards Denston while the smaller subsidiary crystals (all thirteen! lucky!) move in a somewhat wider cone, one of them swerving at the last moment to avoid Hiro.
"I take it she loves the bird," Venetia says to Rani, breathing heavily after the invocation.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong gains 15 THP from Regen! GS: Disease and Disrupt expired! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Adeline Bascroft solidly guards Venetia Vuong's Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~ for 80 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Adeline Bascroft gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Pearl's foot slams into Leo's shoulder. Something pulls inside, painfully, and Leo grits his teeth; he backpedals, rolling with the motion to try and disengage, but--
'DEMON FANG!'
Leo leaps to the side as the wave of force surges at him. It catches his right thigh, knocking him off-balance. The second Demon Fang strikes him full-on in the leg, forcing him to shift his weight forward and off that limb. Pearl comes in for another assault, her drumroll of punches landing on the White Knight's chest. His guard is wide open; his arms are beside him, bent at the elbows, his fists clenched in pain. Pearl meets his gaze again, and in that moment she can see just how right she is.
Leo's face is pulled tight. His eyes are big and dark with pain. But beneath it all, there's an energy she hasn't seen often from him. He's desperate. It's a contradiction.
Leo stumbles away, and sucks in a breath. His whole chest aches, now, because chainmail can only do so much against the strikes of someone who can break stone with her bare hands. "Pearl," Leo chokes out. "The Goddess--I can't forsake--"
'Y'know that crack'sh been open.'
Lanval might sound like a slurring drunk, but in that moment, he cuts through to Leo's core. In the next moment, his gourd strikes Leo on the chin, with a solid CRACK, knocking him clean off his feet. The White Knight flies back in a high arc, hits the ground, and skids. Clouds of dust spray into the air. For a moment, there's silence from that little corner of the temple.
But then Leo springs out from within, blade at the ready. "TEMPEST HOWL!" he roars, and pure white light billows up around him as he tries to leap clean through Marivel and Lanval, throwing them aside. His blade seeks out Pearl, dropping down on her in a strike from left shoulder to right hip. Leo is bruised, in pain, and favoring one arm, but he's still a master swordsman. She can tell he's looking for an opening to hit back.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Tempest Howl! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seraph Lanval with Tempest Howl! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Pearl with Flashing Crescent! GS: White Knight Leo enters a Counter stance! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has entered Stoic Stance! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Flashing Crescent for 211 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Pearl enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Regrets is regrets, right," she seemingly commiserates with Gwen, tilting her head almost as if in apology to her left. "But we have what we have, here and now. C'mon. Up and at 'em, eh?"
It even seems for a few moments as if they've succeeded, Josie starting after a short delay in Rixia's general direction. She doesn't get more than a few steps before stopping short.
"Tch. She's still kickin'. Careful, now! --Wait, what's she on about?" A crackling sphere of energy has gathered in the girl's hand. Rixia motions to throw it--
And then there she isn't, simply gone from the point in which she'd stood. Is it sheer chance or experience that has Josie look to her right in the moment that follows, that then gives her those few split seconds needed to throw out her right hand and again spin up that sparking shield as raw magical (however Josie might fail to recognize the foreign power for what it is) energy detonates around them both.
She's standing in a crater when it's done, lowering her arm as the ground steams about her. "Damn..." Her arm hurts. She's going to pay for that tomorrow. So be it.
"She's not messing around," she mutters, glancing over at Gwen. "If'n you've something up your sleeve," and her lips curl in a half-smile even here and now, "now's the time, kiddo! As for me..."
She hefts Orias the Bitter and without warning, squeezes the trigger.
Shells erupt through the air towards Rixia, some of their paths coming quite close to the place where the girl -- possessed, drugged, or something else altogether -- stands. But not one will strike her, not even the last shot which detonates spectacularly somewhere above her head.
"Right. Sure and sure enough, you've made your point, girl. I ain't takin' you lightly, now, right? 'Cause this," she says, ejecting shells from her ARM in a once-again overdramatic display. "This ain't me toyin', now!"
And she simply unloads upon Rixia's position, without hesitation and without ceasing.
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Rixia with The Herald! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has launched an attack Link! GS: Josephine Lovelace has entered Link Stance! GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Rixia with The Flame! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: You have finished a Link/Follow chain! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Rixia takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's The Herald for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Riposte removed! GS: Jam and Slow applied to Rixia! GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's The Flame for 219 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Entangle applied to Rixia!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
And... There it is. The vision that plays out across the shaman's senses is... Tragic. Heart-wrenching. What happened here? What was the source of that Malevolence? Was this... No, was she a Lord of the Land? This place, then... Was her transformation a result of the worship coming to a halt, or...
No. None of that matters. The only thing that does--
Is this pain. This tragedy. Cyre draws back, but it's not emotional recoil, it's... The tears on his face are hot, the agony seizes in his heart. To witness something like that, to know that you tried to help, but that it wasn't enough. That the person you loved is... Beyond your grasp, perhaps forever. To know that there may be nothing to blame, nothing to take vengeance upon, nothing to salve the pain-- To cling to that memory for so long is... He can't imagine how unimaginably agonizing that is, how deep the wound must be. He is, after all, a mere mortal. How long has this being suffered?
Cyre takes in a breath and presses back in, rejoining with the beast behind the barrier. This is... hard to communicate. The emotions rushing between the two muddle his thoughts. To communicate with a beast on this level, even an intelligent one, inevitably leads one to become more bestial in their thoughts as well. But he holds to himself-- and to something else.
There is a lesson that the wind teaches all who live, whether or not they listen.
Cyre conjures the image of that little cub and its mistress, of the gentle fingers behind its ears. He summons the memories of love and of warmth, of the good times before the bad. The message is nuanced, hard to put into words, harder still to put into pictures. But he tries. He tries to show the Guardian this: That even after their separation, it still remembers those moments it cherishes so dearly-- the things that will never fade, etched in the heart as deeply as the rage and the grief. The fact that it can remember these things even in the throes of its fury is proof.
But... that bond it clings to now is painful. It traps it, chains it. To be free of the pain means releasing that bond. To sever that link forever.
The Wind teaches this. Fengalon's First Lesson. All things are transient. The world ever moves forward. To cling to things that are gone only digs one's nails into one's palm. But this is... hard. This is one of the hardest things in the world. To understand that the past is past--
In this, Cyre again conjures the images of his own world's ruins, of those people still trying to keep the embers alive. Grieving, all of them, in their own way. But they still hope for better. Even his fellows cannot truly let go. The lesson is a hard one. All things that live are imperfect, nobody can follow such lofty principles all the time, and there is no guilt in clinging to what someone loves, but...
In the end, all things are carried away by the wind.
But this does not mean that the memories must disappear too. Again, he summons the images of that young guardian in its most joyful years. These will be there, always. To let go of that bond does not mean to let go of love, or of warmth. It doesn't mean letting go of old pain, either, or the grief of loss-- it means... It means an opportunity to find new people, new places. They will never truly fill what was lost-- but that is the way of life. The wind may take away, but it also guides to new meetings. To other lonely travelers who can share stories of love and of pain, shoulder burdens.
This bond-- the shaman tries to communicate-- releasing it means acknolwedging that the woman you loved is gone. That is painful beyond imagining. But so too is this. The difference is, the pain of letting go will someday fade as well, but the pain of holding on may never do the same.
I am here with you, Cyre says with the breath of the wind. His eyes never look away. If you wish to let go, then I will do what I can to help with the pain.
'Because I don't think that woman you loved would want you to suffer forever. Especially not because of her.'
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Tempest Howl for 201 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Reaper applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Seraph Lanval activates Power Burst and Gleam! GS: Marivel Armitage critically guards White Knight Leo's Tempest Howl for 57 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"You --"
Boudicca is the wind; surely this is how she can launch such speeches into the breeze, in the middle of pitched conflicts. Even so, she can scarcely get a word out before Adeline charges forward -- and even though her legs bend, Adeline's sword buries, expertly, underneath her steel chestplate. It isn't nearly as messy as such a wound ought to be. "Ah--" Boudicca breathes in, pained, before the lightning calls down. "--aaugh!"
She staggers back, wresting herself from the blade, a hand coming to grasp her midsection. "You are... correct," is what she says to Rani, and surely she's referring to Adeline growing stronger. "As you say, I shall redouble my efforts."
She may not shape up in entirely the way Rani expects.
"I... regret that we must join battle with you, and cause injury to those you love," Boudicca says, a little note of hesitation, as the wind flows into the wound and stymies its progression. If her physical metaphor were to leak, her mortal companions would surely be concerned. "Would that we did not come into conflict... but Hiro requires what is enshrined here, and I swore him my aid."
She shakes her head, taking another step back. "That you see nothing to understand about this beast... is a focus I once knew. 'If a thing threatens humanity, all that remains is to destroy it!' For many years, I was sure I could defend them... only through an uncompromising offence." But even though she talks about those experiences, she's talking to Adeline.
Can she reach someone who has reason to hate them?
There are people who taught her otherwise, amongst the Drifters -- Cyre amongst them. Boudicca has faith that he will succeed, and she carries that faith forward, into her own conflict.
A Seraphic glyph, unannounced, rises at her feet, as she gestures open-palmed to Adeline.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Wind Rose! GS: Delay expired! GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Seraph Boudicca's attack becomes clear! GS: Adeline Bascroft solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Be Not Afraid for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Adeline Bascroft gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Restore! Dispel! Cripple, Entangle, Mighty, Regen, and Shield removed!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
But the wind which tears for Adeline is a gentle breeze. It balances the scales; all things are brought to a neutral state, once again.
"Be not afraid," Boudicca says. "We are not bandits. We are simply people who ask 'why', in this complicated world. I beg you, let it complicate you."
<Pose Tracker> Rani Vela has posed.
"NO, it's not how I wanted to reuinte!" Rani answers back. "But Azado wasn't years ago for me. You don't know how long I spent there, after Sin struck, and I was pulled out of the rubble. Thinking everyone I knew there was dead! While Althena ABANDONED us!" They're little more than bandits... She has no particular answer for that.
Denston creates his magical circle, and the line of ice crashes towards Rani, too. She throws up her shield and hunkers down, drawing off power from the spell with her own Blessing but still finding her entire shield and forearm encased in painful ice. It cracks and shatters as she moves her arm and starts forward again, stepping carefully, inexorably.
She doesn't look surprised at the accent change. However...
"I'm just doing what honor demands," she says to Hiro of his thanks. "I'll decide if I believe you after."
Venetia mentions the bird. "I assume so," she says. "She didn't have it when I knew her."
She says nothing for now to Boudicca, because monsters are something she usually defeats rather than talks with, too. ...Usually...
To complicate...
She sighs. "...Enough of this," Rani says, and closes her eyes, raising her mace once again. "May peace reign over our hearts. Peace, and health, be upon us."
Her mace shines--and healing starts to rain down not just on the Fiends, but on Adeline's party, as well.
"...If you really want to 'complicate' things," she says to the msterious Seraph, "Then I'll just keep healing all of you until someone takes me down."
GS: Rani Vela has attacked Venetia Vuong with Tranquil Litany! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Hiro with Tranquil Litany! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Adeline Bascroft with Tranquil Litany! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Tranquil Litany! GS: Rani Vela has attacked Rani Vela with Tranquil Litany! GS: Rani Vela has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rani Vela has entered Sage Stance! GS: Rani Vela has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia doesn't make any abnormal motions against Gwen's right ARM charging up, nerves infused with energy -- yellow, unlike her purple one; however, the gunblade (??) invisibly does so, perhaps detecting a mild kinship for a moment.
>> detecting... abnormal swell in energy -- synthetic origin, location: right arm
Rixia herself picks those words out for a moment, however. That if she went from wanting to run away, to believing she's been toyed with... is she the one in control? No...
Gwen isn't motioning to attack her at present, though, but she instead has her hands full with Josephine. The first salvo of shells don't strike her directly -- instead, they detonate somewhere above her head, leaving her ears ringing, if she's even using her sense of hearing right now.
Then Josephine unloads--
"You're right..."
I want to forget...
--and Rixia manifests another barrier of raw, unsynthesised magic to prevent herself from being shredded apart by the consecutive blasts from Orias the Bitter. The barrier warbles and shatters after a moment, but the magic goes straight back into her. Now that's efficient recycling.
Still, she's brittle, her knees are bloody and shaking, and her nerves look more frayed than before. She looks physically sick.
"... there's no running from this pain."
I've always wanted to run from this...
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tybwx5d0R0A )
She plants her still-functioning hand on the floor, and darkness spreads from out of it. It spreads, and spreads, covering the valley's dirt path and grassy knolls in a strangely beautiful sea of stars.
An infinitely still sea of stars, all gathered into one.
She disappears, into that teensy, teensy little microcosm of compression. There is silence, in the absence of motion. An eerie stillness from which no sound, no scent, no vision, and absolutely no feeling can escape...
A glimpse can be seen -- Rixia's hand motioning, the only form of movement in this singularity.
An enormous Symbological mandala erupts underneath both Gwen and Josephine, and a split second later, everything seems to converge into one -- all the stars upon the midnight sky, all the sensations entrapped within this little fantasy chamber, all the lingering regrets and fragile, teensy little hopes and desires...
"Absolute denial."
Will I be forgotten again?
The magic fades soon after, the microcosm merely that -- a fantasy -- but the energies summoned is all too real.
GS: Rixia has activated a Force Action! GS: Rixia has activated a Boss Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Rixia has attacked Josephine Lovelace with End of Heart! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Rixia has attacked Gwen Whitlock with End of Heart! GS: Rixia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rixia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Rixia's End of Heart for 297 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Rixia takes 16 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock solidly guards Rixia's End of Heart for 134 hit points! GS: Strain! Rixia takes 15 damage! GS: Rani Vela heals Adeline Bascroft! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Shield applied to Rani Vela! GS: Rani Vela heals Venetia Vuong! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Shield applied to Rani Vela! GS: Rani Vela heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel feels terribly for her friend Leo. She doesn't like having to hurt him. He's a good man. She has always said he was a good man, even when her faith in him was at its nadir.
She extends her hand towards Leo who unleashes another wave of the hateful pure bright light. But for all the wounds and destruction of her body and spirit the Light has done to her--
--for some reason, Leo is not having the same fortune. Marivel chants out a spell in a language he does not recognize and the light impacts against a barrier--some of that energy splashes over Marivel but the burns are milder than they ought to be due to the interfering magicks.
"This is a hint," Marivel murmurs to Leo as she twists her hand and the Tempest Howl blast aimed for her shrinks and distorts as she pushes her hand against it.
A dark energy pulses into that energy from her fingertips and the darkness spreads through the light rapidly and more rapidly as she looks towards Cyre. One might be forgiven for assuming she's distracted.
But then she punches the rapidly darkening energy before her, crushing it into her fist before expending it out in a fierce burst towards White Knight Leo.
"I'm a sorceress of eld, Leo, but I can feel your kindness in every blow. Even now your heart cannot be buried. I envy you, that it is too strong to bury."
GS: Amplify added to Marivel Armitage! GS: Marivel Armitage has activated a Force Action! GS: Marivel Armitage spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Erg Phasor! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval takes a moment to re-center himself and relax, lying on the ground, as the White Knight takes his lumps. There's a lot of dust and debris surrounding where they fall, and then... that gleam of light. One of Lanval's eyes open.
Then both of them, without the shine of color behind it in shock as the sheer tenacity and will of a man verbally cornered physically rebukes it all, and it is Lanval's turn to once again to-- not be hurled aside.
Leo goes clean through him when he stands up in a last-second rise to his feet, the left-over momentum hurling Lanval aside exactly as Leo intends. To toss him out of sight, out of mind, to be seen as something that can be disproven if vanquished outright. Otherworldly water trails from the direction Lanval's manifestation takes across the scene of the melee, rolling in-between blows over with that exotic gunblade-like weapon and its opponents and coming up shy of bumping into Cyre.
He's able to put the stop to that before comedy happens, rolling a few times to a kneel as Leo and Pearl seem about in the place to square off between one another. For all intents and purposes, Leo appears to have ejected Lanval from that engagement.
While Leo's looking for that opening to hit back, along his peripheral vision...
There are bubbles. Way over yonder there's also a bright colorful water-aligned Seraphic glyph underneath Lanval so it's not a surprise to anyone there, but there are bubbles. They keep increasing in number.
"Leo, c'mon. I ain't too proud ta shay ya could get me in a shtraight fight," Lanval continues to slur, his speaking tempo slower from whatever governs fatigue and injury to a Seraph. "But what'll it change if ya plunge a shword in all of ush?"
There's more bubbles. There may now be more bubbles than visibility of the surroundings, which - given Parsley's presence - may be a Jerk Move.
"Do ya think She'll shtop makin' the callsh she'sh doin'?" He doesn't name examples. There's many, there's a lot of people shouting, and he's being very careful not to talk over Marivel or Pearl in the process as the bubbles start to reach critical mass as they surround Leo's position.
"Even ash the 'Fallen Seraph,' I'd like ya on yer way in good health - 'n a better path." Images of a more somber-looking Lanval staring out from those bubbles begin to rupture in explosive, watery bursts around Leo's position.
"Or the labyrinth yer gonna be in won't be one of revelry," the actual Lanval wipes his mouth and flicks that hand outward, detonating the last of the bubbles.
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked White Knight Leo with Revelry Labyrinth! GS: Seraph Lanval takes 48 damage from Reaper! GS: Quick and Shield expired! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Adeline Bascroft has posed.
"I didn't... I didn't know what became of you, after I heard about the attack," Adeline says, her expression faltering for a moment.
"I know not of what you speak!" Denston answers Hiro.
Adeline frowns at him -- feeling a little caught at her slip -- and her guard is back up, after a moment. Roundelph gives Hiro a look, but he nods. "You met the princess?" he asks. Not, of course, that he knew her; but everyone knew that she practiced that style.
Adeline then turns her head -- staring at the girl that seems to wander into the battlefield. "What are you doing?" she asks. "This place is--you should not be here? And this--"
This is a trick, she realizes. Adeline grits her teeth -- and when Ruby appears, she tries to yank herself back. The result is Ruby grabs the green gem, tearing it from the pouch on her belt, but Ruby is sent into an awkward spin.
"Why, you--"
She starts to turn, until she sees Roundelph smashed aside by Hiro's blazing sword. Denston leaps away from it, rather than get skewered. Adeline's eyes widen, and she swings her sword up -- catching the blade. They meet, in a shower of sparks, and Adeline just barely holds it at bay.
Denston is struck by a crystal, which slams into him. That knocks him backward, and the wizard's feet stumble, as he tries to keep himself upright.
Adeline looks to Boudicca -- ruffled by a gentle breeze. She stares at her for a second. "I'm well familiar with how complicated the world is," she says. "Perhaps you're not bandits. But you're claiming this is complicated, when there is a simple truth: this monster has already taken lives and destroyed homes. That is not complicated. That is not something I can overlook."
She blinks, as the healing magic from Rani settles over her -- and she sees Denston standing up, and Roundelph dusting himself off. Parsley lands, too, wings flapping.
The guardian tiger, as it happens, does not know -- or at least, cannot explain in detail -- why his creator fell to Malevolence. Cyre's emotions come over him, and he feels the lesson of Fengalon. All things must come to an end; all ruins are scoured by the wind; all towers are worn smooth. Even the one his life was built on.
His red eyes stare at Cyre. The tiger is silent, now. There is no roar; no slamming into the barrier. He stares a moment longer.
And then the eyes fade; from red to a softer glowing green. The tiger slumps, then, into an exhausted heap.
That gives Adeline pause. She turns, staring at the tiger. "What in the...?"
GS: Adeline Bascroft gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Adeline Bascroft has completed her action. GS: Rani Vela heals Hiro! He gains 210 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
The rage... fades. Cyre watches the exhausted tiger slump to the ground with tired, proud, tear-swollen eyes before similarly falling to his knees. The gentle glow of emerald light fades, the shaman finally relinquishing the arcana that he had been maintaining for all this time. "You did good, buddy," he sighs, wiping his face on his sleeve as Lanval VERY NEARLY CRASHES INTO HIM. It's okay. Cyre is fine, no harm done. The tiger is also fine. Everything. Everyone. They're all fine.
He fixes Adeline with red eyes-- from crying, not from supernatural fury. "I... was able to help the guardian let go of its rage. There's... a story here, though I'm not sure it's mine to tell. If the guardian allows, I will be its voice."
He looks to the Althenian mage, then to the knight-commander again, "...There is no more danger here from the guardian. I swear on the name of my god. Please, release the barrier."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Azado, Venetia thinks. She's heard of it. That city Sin struck. Her jaw sets, even as healing sorcery rests upon her - she straightens up, immediately considering her enemies, but -- they're getting soothed, aided as well.
Venetia's grumpiness in expression only increases, but she does not object aloud. Hopefully they will not pay overmuch for something like this...
She moves sideways, nearer to where she spotted her gun a moment ago. She ends up next to it at JUST the point when Adeline's attention turns out to the rest of them - particularly Boudicca. She crouches - gradually -- and when she sees the bird, she goes the rest of the way. Hand on the gun's barrel.
She waits.
The tiger-beast -- it's easing -- it's... sleeping?
Venetia looks at Cyre. Helpfully, he explains! More or less. "You were rather peeved about your feathered friend there, a moment ago," Venetia calls. "I imagine it's something similar."
She looks at Cyre and attempts to mentally transmit to him: Back me up here.
Venetia Vuong's many talents do not include telepathy.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The faith that Leo so believes in. The goddess that Leo will not forsake. "...Even if she has forsaken you?"
She doesn't have time to respond, as Leo cuts her from shoulder to opposite hip, blood seeping from the wound, even as her robes hide the worst of it. But she knows when a wound is going to scar, and that one will. Perhaps, most tellingly... Pearl cries out in pain. Not for the first time in an age, but it's genuine. Not the fake mistimed grunts she used to in the guard. The White Knight's blade is sharp and brutal, despite the way he holds himself back. Even dulled, even restrained, Leo is still a forced to reckon with.
Bleeding or not, she stands up to face him. Determination in her grey eyes. Hope in her grey eyes. She falls into a stance. "Walking this path will destroy you." She says it sadly, or as sadly as her level tone can indicate. "So I ask you something, Leo. Do you choose to exist, or do you choose to live?"
And Pearl moves like the sea. She flows in, and out, and strikes suddenly for above and below, chi that smells like the ocean surrounding her hands and feet, pulling Leo into whirlpool, before crashing down on him with an axe kick that hits like a tidal wave- and yet there is no lethal intent. She is fighting to stop him. To make him see.
That this is the fist of someone who chooses to live, against ther sword of someone who chooses to exist.
GS: Quick added to Pearl! GS: Pearl has activated a Force Action! GS: Pearl spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Pearl has attacked White Knight Leo with Six Waters Kata! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Erg Phasor for 200 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to White Knight Leo! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: White Knight Leo critically guards Seraph Lanval's Revelry Labyrinth for 75 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Pearl's Six Waters Kata for 229 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Pearl! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst and Gleam! GS: White Knight Leo has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Regrets is regrets. "Right, right, ahead of ya there..." Gwen is up and at her feet, a wide grin on her face. "Really? Y'gonna ask me what I got up my sleeve?" With a flourish, Gwen undoes a few buttons and rolls the fabric of her right sleeve up in a quick motion, exposing the engraved plates of her ARM to glint in the light. "Full deck of aces, right here!"
Which is a terrible way to play any card game, but it just sounds cool to say it.
It's a moment that doesn't last.
Someone --Rani-- shouts out something that draws Gwen's attention temporarily. Something about Azado, and Althena abandoning it. Sin's attack...
Gwen remembers the oceans withdrawing as she gazed out the window of that tower, that terrible day.
There is no running from this pain.
And stars spring from the void that Rixia cast at their feet, an absence that draws out darker feelings Gwen tries to staunch inside herself. A black hole that nothing escapes, compressing everything is sucks down to an impossible weight, then--
Absolute denial.
Gwen's ARM shines against it, the Mockingbird's light sucked into the greedy blackness, but when the spell breaks, it still continues to shine.
But for how long? Not much longer, even if Gwen tries to hide how her ARM's light is beginning to bleed red, a visible meter of her health.
Rubbing her mouth with her left hand, Gwen spits blood onto the dirt, speckling it dark red.
"I don't run. _I overcome_."
Thrusting her right index finger into the air, Gwen draws a glowing circle in front of her, dotting the insides with indecipherable patterning, then pressing the center and affixing it to her now splaying right hand.
Using her left hand to steady her right, Gwen crouches her center of gravity lower to the ground and aims.
"The eternal circle which has no end... Ringshine!"
A colorful blast of red and yellow weave towards Rixia, Gwen's face growing pale as she pours her all into this last shot.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Rixia with Ringshine! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Ringshine for 271 hit points! GS: Rixia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Rani Vela heals Rani Vela! She gains 210 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Althena..." Boudicca starts, and does not finish, in the wake of Rani's brief rage. The word is laden with a thousand of those complications. For a moment, she looks to Marivel.
A simple truth...
She looks to Rani with admiration, as she declares what she does, with healing rain. "A remarkable conclusion... I would talk with you, later, should you deign to greet me." She can hardly take it as a given; Rani seems conflicted, about their position, here.
But -- a simple truth -- Boudicca frowns, clutching a hand to her heart, as she struggles to answer Adeline's own concerns. She struggles, until Cyre manages to reach that beast, just the same.
"Look," she says, as she gestures to the tiger. "Do you not feel the shift in the magics?" It's not just a hypothetical question -- given Rixia's outpouring, amongst others, Boudicca can't be entirely sure mortals can pick up the wind. "There was a reason it was so violent... and when a problem is addressed, it is eased. The rage beneath its skin is sated. Surely... because someone listened."
Boudicca, of Lohgrin, glances away. "This is the way of Beasts of the wind, you see. So often, we are seen and not heard."
She is silent, for a moment, sadness crossing her pale eyes.
"These people... they wish only to hear the truth, just the same. To ask why... to know the answer. But for this audience, they require the Wind Gem. Please... I wish for them to have it."
GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Quick, Regen, and Surge expired! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Full deck of aces, eh? Now you're speakin' my language, kiddo!" she says to Gwen, flashing a grin. "Now ante up!"
But even now, the girl's still standing, in a manner of speaking. "...Kiddo, you can drop your weapon any time you like," Josie says, lowering her ARM just a scant few degrees. "But if you wanna keep dancing with us lot, I ain't bothered by obligin'!" Surrender might not just be good for Rixia, given how she looks right now, though -- it might also be good for Josie, whose ability to counter and handle Rixia's odd technological magic is becoming rapidly frayed.
"Wait, what's she--"
There is, for a time, darkness. The darkness of the night sky, of that impossible inexpressable loneliness that one possesses when gazing up towards the heavens and their infinity. There are stars and the dark and nothing else at all. Strain as she might, Josie can't catch so much as a hint of Rixia's presence in the depth of the night.
"That's a Symbological--"
By the time she sights that, it's already too late. A sparking barrier, conjured and spun only half the way outwards, scrapes and strains against the pressure of all the forces drifting here in the dark: the stars, regrets, hopes, wishes, dread.
And then Josie's counterspell fails outright, another casualty to the hungry dark. For a moment all that Josie can see that yet remains is a brilliant red -- a glow far brighter than the dull red-on-black that keeps flashing behind her eyes. Swaying as the illusion ends and dropping to one knee, she realizes what it had been, deep in the dark.
Josie, unable to stand any longer, collapses to her knees and, her ARM slipping from her hands, raises the fingers of her left hand to her lips. They come away bloodied but this is little concern in the moment.
"This will hurt," she promises Rixia. "Sorry, kiddo. But I hate losin'... and I'll be damned if I let little Gwen wiff. Painra."
She extends her bloodied fingers towards Rixia, a bruisy light erupting from her hand in a rolling wave.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 2 Combo on Poison and Interrupt! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Rixia with Painra! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Painra for 41 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Interrupt and Poison applied to Rixia! GS: Rixia has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Rixia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Rani shouts how Althena abandoned them in Azado. Hiro remembers that night atop that lighthouse. A flaming bird spewing forth destruction across the city. What was going on in that city? Even to this day he doesn't know for sure...
... but he certainly has a guess. "Guess we'll find out." He says quietly, hoping she does as her healing litany pours into him, keeping him going longer.
So few in the Guard know of what he speaks. Zophar's best trick was redirecting focus on Lucia - so that noone would know he exists save an Old Man, a Boy, a Flying Cat and someone immediately declared the Lord of Calamity. It's a frustrating cycle, convincing even a handful that he might exist. However, it's a burden he's taken up.
"I suppose you don't at that." Hiro says to Denton, and there's a sort of good natured resignation to that idea. Before he confirms to Roundelph, "Alisha and I clashed a few times over some misunderstandings... I always liked her though. Hope she's doing well."
However Ruby's ploy occurs, and Ruby is put into a spin, and the little Dragoncat actually crashes to the floor - the gem popping out of her mouth with dragonsaliva all over it. "How was my... acting..." Hiro smashes aside Roundelph, before crashing into Adeline. Eventually the momentum is lost, he cannot press that blade through, and the flames gutter out. As he leaps backwards, trying to keep Ruby and the gem covered as his eyes dart from side to side to try and keep anyone from closing in. "I give it a 6.5... good first attempt!" "Oh... come on..."
And then Cyre reaches the tiger. It's eyes moving from a red - to green, it collapsing. Hiro looks towards Cyre, at his explanation... and slowly he slides his sword into his sheathe. "I know you have no reason to trust us." He says to Adeline and her retinue, "However, words are but wind - you can see with your own eyes what Cyre just accomplished."
Hiro has a rueful smile on his face, "That doesn't mean words are useless though. Just takes something greater behind them." He holds up a hand, "Can we end this here? No matter what you might think of me - us. The last thing I've wanted ever since I started on this journey... is bloodshed."
GS: Hiro gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo comes to a stop at the base of a column and slumps forward, grimacing as his injured shoulder protests. The first thing he hears as he collects himself is Pearl's scream of pain--and while the others can't see his face, his ears flatten and droop. His upper body bunches up. He brings himself to turn around--he didn't hear someone hit the ground, she must be all right--
And Pearl, Goddess bless her, is still standing. All three of them are still standing. Leo laughs with relief, though his smile doesn't meet his weary, tearful eyes.
'...Even if she has forsaken you?'
'--While Althena ABANDONED us!'
"She hasn't," Leo says, his voice raw with desperation. "She HASN'T! My--my sister was there, damn it all, do you think you're the only one who's--" Bubbles well up, and Lanval speaks, cutting his words off before he can even start his rebuttal. Leo gestures to the floor, and rock rises up around him, clinging to his body in a protective armored shell.
But as Lanval noted earlier, water will wear away even the hardest stone, given time. The bubbles touch off in a deceptively cheery-looking cascade, dousing Leo with torrents of bright water. Marivel speaks to him, and turns his own energies against him--as the last flakes of armor fall away, the darkness slams into him, knocking him back. Leo hits the ground again and skids, before scrambling into a three-point crouch. Pearl is there to meet him.
"Pearl," he says, "I have to believe. If not for Her, then none of my--none of this--"
None of what? hisses the voice in the back of his head. No one would respect you? No one would adore you? No one would acknowledge you as a hero?
Leo draws his blade as Pearl rushes at him. The whirlpool swallows him; from outside, all it's all that's visible. The dull sounds of blows being struck are half-swallowed by the sounds of the tempest. But when it dissipates, Pearl is upright, and Leo drops to the floor, back-first. His blade lands five feet away, embedding itself point-first.
Leo sucks in a pained breath, and looks back over his shoulder, at the Guardian. "....What," he chokes out. "what have you done?" It's asleep. How. How is it asleep?
<Pose Tracker> Rani Vela has posed.
"...You had no way of knowing," Rani says, and her anger that was fresh in the moment relents.
But the tiger is docile, now. Cyre explains; Venetia... also explains. Rani looks over to her, for a moment, and inclines her head. She notices the grump. But it's fine. She does notice Boudicca, too, mentioning that the problem is solved. And that she wants to talk to her. "...We'll make some time," Rani says to Boudicca stoically. "I can at least hear you out. But I see no reason to keep hurting her friends if you're trying so hard to talk this out."
Since, notably... Rani hasn't targeted Adeline except with the healing spell, so far.
She finally replies to Leo's retort, "She went to war in Spira, Sir Leo, and Azado still burns to this day. I know what that says to me."
She looks to Hiro, negotiating, looks to the other battles ending, and walks forward, stowing her mace and shield both in a clear sign that she at least is done fighting.
"...Well, Hiro," Rani says, reaching the group, "I've fulfilled my debt. You have your chance to talk, and to get that gem that's so important to you. But I'll still want that explanation, and soon."
She looks to Adeline. "...The threat to your lands seems to be over." She hesitates, for a moment, and something softer enters her expression, but she keeps her silence after that for a few moments yet.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia scarce hears Rani shouting about Althena abandoning Azado, either because she's so lost in whatever it is the Device does to her... or perhaps she's not surprised. Because it's not like pockets of shadow didn't exist inside the Goddess' domain; underneath the shadow of Mt. Zulan, Sagahli was one of those pockets of deep shadow.
But the situation appears diffused, because the enraged guardian has let go of his rage. Then, there would be no need of the barrier... or this fight, all this time.
She hears Leo's own desperation. Of his sister, there in Azado...
Rixia finds herself at a disadvantage as the spell ends, and overextending as Gwen's light shines through her singularity -- and the colourful blast weaves through and clashes against her barrier; it holds for one, two seconds--
Then it cracks, as Josephine disrupts her concentration through Painra, wracking pain throughout her beleaguered body. The blast comes clean through and she disappears into the light for a moment... and is on one knee when it fades.
"I will not... accept this."
What is it like to have strength...
It's almost like... you could do anything you want...
Rixia tries to rise again, but her body's faltering -- blood intermixed with raw energy leaking out, unable to be contained properly as the gunblade starts to... hiss with raw, visible static, and then wink out in a flash of corrupted data cubes.
"I will not fade... yet..."
Never being played around with...
Never being abandoned...
There's a loud hiss once more, as the static just seems to engulf Rixia once more -- and when it dissipates, and the errant anomaly in the magics in the air fades... she's not there anymore.
I don't want to remember this.
Let's sleep now and wake tomorrow.
It'll be better tomorrow. It has to be.
<Pose Tracker> Adeline Bascroft has posed.
Adeline is quiet, when Rani tells her that. She looks at her -- then she glances away.
There is a formless, wordless feeling in Cyre's mind. The guardian spirit assents to Cyre telling his story.
Adeline looks at Cyre for a moment, head tilted in confusion -- but she does look back at the tiger. The one who, before, had violently been smashing at the barrier. Now, it lay still and exhausted; that is no great surprise, perhaps, given how long it had raged. Adeline frowns, before she looks to Cyre.
Then, to Venetia, when she explains. She understands that; she understands some of what Boudicca says, too. She nods once. "I... see."
She glances back at Boudicca, then. "I would not give it to you," she says. "I do not trust you, still. But..." She glances in Ruby's direction. "It seems something has prized it from me."
Roundelph looks at Hiro, then shakes his head. "I've never met the princess. I heard she returned to Ladylake," he says. "But...I know little else."
She looks at Leo, then, for a moment. She looks at Rixia, too--and finds she isn't there. Adeline hesitates for a moment. Rani points it out, but so does everyone.
"Denston, bring the barrier down," she says. "It seems the beast is pacified. If it isn't..."
She leaves that unsaid. The wizard nods -- and there is a motion from him. The barrier fades -- and the tiger doesn't stir. Adeline watches a moment, then nods. "We withdraw. We shall need to find Rixia."
She motions -- glancing once at Rani -- and then she starts for the doorway. Her retinue falls in.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel strangely enough doesn't immediately start screaming about Althena.
She approaches Leo and instead of answering his question. "Hey," She says softly. "If it gets too hard... Just stand back. It'll be over soon. Good or ill. The Time of Promise approaches."
And with that she turns, leaning on her staff as if it's keeping her upright--as she hobbles away.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
Conflict. Of ideals. Of philosophies. Of chocobos.
"... my. The red ones truly are thrice as mighty. And thrice as aggressive."
This is Prime Lord Liath's initial musing on the matter of the sights she's borne witness to today. It's not the only one. It's not even the most important one. But it is the one that most instantly stands out.
But there's more. There's so much more. From her vantage point, she can see much. From her experience, she can see more. In the way these people fight. In the things they say.
Leo. She knows the conflict inside of him well. She watches as his heels dig in even as his footing wavers.
Pearl. Shining brightly in her conviction. To live, not simply exist.
There is a certain kind of... pride...? that glints in those bright gold eyes as she watches Lanval try once and again to reach out to Leo; as Boudicca appeals to her opponents not just with violence, but with words, with kindness. With a gentle breeze.
And she reserves a small smile for Marivel, the Crimson Noble she knows has noticed her. Still prepared to seek out her goals here. Still ready to face the truth behind the woman she once called friend.
So many she knows and cherishes. And so many she does not, but would dearly love to.Those gold eyes fall upon Adeline and her entourage. She watches, with quiet curiosity, at how the young woman reacts to what unfolds before her, refusing to trust in Fiends, yet choosing to show the slightest sliver of faith all the same.
That gold gaze lingers on the Margravine Grysveil or a few contemplative moments longer.
It's as the barrier fades, and the tiger is freed, docile, thanks to Cyre's tireless and heartfelt efforts, that Liath's gaze pulls away and she stands, a smile warm as sunlight on her lips at the sight of that healed Guardian. All thanks to one willing to reach out, and listen.
"Mm," she exhales, in some pleased, proud way. Her eyes slip shut. The Wind Gem is secured. Which leaves...
"Lightning and Water yet remain," muses the Prime Lord to herself. She recalls what Ragnell told her of the state of the Lightning Shrine. Gold eyes crack open, staring at her open, armored palm.
"... So be it."
And with that, she steps away, her body bleeding away into a thousand thousand shimmering colors as she departs from a shrine with a wind no longer burdened by the rage of the past.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre watches silently, exhausted in his own right, until Adeline gives her assent. The weight of anticipation lifts from his shoulders and he slumps with a relaxed sigh against a nearby pillar. "Well," Cyre says, one ear flicking as he gently places a hand against the Guardian's flank, "It seems my friend here gave me permission."
"There is a tale here to be told," the shaman begins, his voice taking on the practiced tone of the Designated Fireside Storyteller. "Once, all that you see before you was the heart of sacred life. These towers stretched into the sky, parapets adorned with flowing banners extended like fingers to brush the underside of the clouds. People gathered from all 'round to pay respects to the Wind, and it was good. In this city, there lived a beautiful Seraph, a gentle soul who loved and was loved by a young tiger cub. Together, the Seraph and her Guardian were happy for a very long time, but..." Cyre pauses, the memory still visceral and far too real in his mind. "...But it was not to last. In time, the city was forgotten. Abandoned. Its once thriving temples were left to collect dust and memory. There, in the heart of her dying city, a terrible Malevolence came upon the Seraph, twisting her in an instant into a monstrous Dragon. The Guardian tried to calm her heart before the last, but the Seraph, with the last of herself, pushed him away-- to safety-- as the transformation began."
The shaman gestures to the ruins, "...Her claws tore a scar into the stone. Her wings shattered the dome of the temple. The Dragon flew into the horizon, but... Her Guardian, the one she loved so dearly, who she protected unto her last, could not let her go. Her Guardian held tightly to the tether that still bound them to their beloved Seraph, and through that bond, their mind was infected by the Fell Dragon's limitless fury."
"That was years and years ago," Cyre says with a pained wince, "And... ever since, they have been suffering here. An eternal agony, born from their love, and their desire to keep the last living symbol of their precious Seraph alive, no matter how much it hurt."
"It's no wonder they're asleep now," Cyre finishes, "They must be so tired."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
She should leave him there. Give proof to the guard that there is only bad blood between the traitor and the White Knight. Just make it easier for him. But...
She cannot leave a friend to lie there in such despair. She kneels down to support him. "You choose to believe. You believe you must because you are unable to see that any other path exists. Light blinds as easily as shadow." Even as she bleeds, she is well enough to do this. "Your belief is not why people follow you. Your belief is not what makes you a good man. People follow you because you are a good man. And it is because you are a good man that staying the course you have chosen hurts." Is that how it works? She doesn't know for sure. She is simply speaking what she thinks needs to be said.
"It was Leviathan that granted me freedom. It was the Spirans who accepted me without reservation. But without what you had shown me, I would be simply repeating Lunn's atrocities on others like me. You and Skylr Paer showed me that I could be human and not a weapon. So now you try to hammer yourself from a man into a sword and shield, it is my role to try and help you see that is not what your should be."
She reaches to her pouch, pulling a healing herb and applying it to Leo. "...When I first met you, I thought you a gullible buffoon who is easily misled and manipulated." She pauses. "...And I fear that is all true, because you have lived according to your ideals of justice, your heart and your faith. But that is also what made you a man I could trust and respect, despite all I have been through. That is what made you are good man."
She pulls back. This conversation weakens his position every second. "Your heart, your justice and your faith... they stand at odds now. And which one you choose to follow will be what determines if you continue to be that person." Hopefully, these moments in the shade will finally show him that other paths exist, rather than Althena's false, blinding light.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"..." Gwen groggily stumbles backwards like she was suddenly struck with a terrible hangover, the gold draining from her right side into the dimming glow of her ARM. ".... Sorry Joossie. Gonna haff'ta finish this later...."
She stares for a moment longer than she normally would, as her brain begins to see the world collapse into a muddy mess. Rixia was there, and now she's gone. Is she okay? Did Gwen kill her? That would be bad. Gwen didn't want to kill her. She seemed like a good person before that swor.d.. thing took over. She will find a way to send Rixia creme puffs, to make up for what Ruby stole. That sounds like a great idea.
And she'll sleep, before that. She'll sleep a long time, even if there might be a Fell Dragon that once was here, because Fell Dragons wouldn't eat sleeping people. That would be silly. Fell Dragons are silly. They are not good to sleep on, being angry and thorny and hard. The ground is hard too, but it will be a better bed. Gwen will sleep on the ground. It will be wonderful, to sleep. Is there something Gwen is forgetting? Ah, there's people here. Do they have places to sleep? The tiger has fur. It will be soft. It may appreciate someone sleeping on it, after so many years of being alone. It's very tired, according to Cyre. So sleepy.
Gwen understands that. She'll give the Guardian a big hug.
"... Don't worry, precious tiger... gonna... lullaby.... sl....."
And, with a unceremonious 'piff' of a body quietly hitting the ground, Gwen is down for the count, out cold to the world.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The tiger creature's rage quells, thanks to Cyre's dedication - but Lanval's focus remains upon that of the White Knight whose inner fight wears away. The need for conflict among the gathered starts to wane as the once furious beast is released, and with it, the way the jewel has been secured through Ruby's determination. Six of eight, though a great obstacle remains for one of the remaining two.
Adeline calls for her entourage to withdraw. Rixia has disappeared, and Leo is given the invitation by Marivel to just stand back if it gets too hard.
Lanval returns closer to the range that could be considered 'the melee' after having had to channel his Arte from a somewhat larger distance than would legally be considered 'part of the melee,' sitting down not far off from Leo. Not within arm's reach, but a good half-second of getting up and running if Leo had the strength, as a tired and exhausted Lanval has another sip from his drinking gourd.
Another taste of the world's water beyond, both great and not. Usually, more 'not' than 'great,' but it is his duty and right to know Filgaia's water.
He hears Cyre's story. He doesn't mull upon the similarities to his own loss of his place of power and influence. He doesn't intrude upon Pearl's intent to help Leo with his wounds even if it were within his power to restore them.
One of his own, who found a new way in her life where one did not seem possible, may give him the courage. If there's a small joy that will be born from this conversation, he will see to it they can savor it together.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I understand," Boudicca says, nodding, to Adeline. She can scarcely blame her for not trusting her, but... to let Ruby take it is enough.
"... thank you," she says, when Adeline orders the barrier down, and declares it time to withdraw. "I hope your young ally is safe." Boudicca doesn't know Rixia, but that won't stop her from worrying. Neither is she going to stop the Guard from leaving, at that.
She is proud of Pearl, for reaching out, just the same.
But... Cyre tells a story, with all the gravitas of the storyteller.
Boudicca's eyes might have been a less complicated green, once upon a time; perhaps two hundred years of iron washed them out. Malevolence, that thing which preys --
Tears flood her grey-green eyes, again, again, again. Boudicca's breath -- the air -- hitches in her throat; she sinks to her knees, and curls her arms around herself.
A world unfamiliar to her; a woman she did not know existed. Oh, he describes just what was kept from her, so many years -- the protection of humans by Seraphim. The symbiosis between them. The danger inherent in the dwelling.
"I knew not," she says, too quietly. "I knew not."
What this place meant -- to whom.
Boudicca cries, quietly, for a woman she has never and will never meet; for a beast who echoes too much of her, pained in her heart.
<Pose Tracker> Rani Vela has posed.
Rani looks back at Adeline when she glances at her, and nods. "...I--" She pauses, and looks to the others for a moment. She watches Cyre starting to tell a story, and the others talk...
"...Looks like you got what you needed."
She is quiet, at the start of the story. ..But as hse looks to the exit where Adeline is heading...
"...Excuse me."
Rani speeds up her walk towards the exit, following Adeline out. She can catch up and get her explanations in time. First...
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo glances about the room as he waits for his answer. Fear spikes in his chest as he finds no sign of Rixia, only two injured women and an oddly clean crater in the floor. "Rixia...?" he says, ears flattening. Did he fail her, too? Did he--
'Denston, bring the barrier down.'
In those five words, Lady Adeline takes that fear and magnifies it tenfold. He didn't order her to. Technically, this is her demesne, but that she's listening to the Drifters, first and foremost... Leo's jaw tightens. If that beast sprung out, she and her troops could make good their escape, and--
It does not. Lady Adeline and her entourage make their exit, leaving Leo alone with the enemies of Althena.
Leo sits. He listens. Cyre spins a tale of grief, and Leo's gaze falls to the floor and stays there. "We meant no harm," he chokes out. It feels tiny and pitiful and he hates it. Why can't he stand up? Why is he acting like this when he needs to be a hero?
Pearl explains why. Tears well up in Leo's eyes, but he doesn't try and rebuff her, nor does he turn down the healing she offers. He should rebuke her. He should, at least, tell her that this will be damning for both of them if the clergy find out. But he can't do that, either. Doubt is poison. Contradiction creates cracks in the soul.
He can't bring himself to meet Pearl's gaze.
Once she's done treating him, he rises, his balance unsteady--but should she help, he doesn't turn that down. "Thank you, Pearl," he says, his voice the tiniest whisper. "But--I have to. Please... go. I must bring the Goddess around." His hand grasps the hilt of his blade, pulling it free from the stone. The Goddess gave it to him when she appointed him White Knight. "I must."
He clings to it, the tiniest bit of shelter in the storm.
"There is no one else who can."
And with that, he follows Adeline out into the wind.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie gets her wish in the end. Gwen's blow cannot be mitigated, or avoided.
Rixia is down for the count. But at what cost?
"..."
Just like that, Rixia isn't present at all anymore.
"...Heh. Looks like all that weren't even necessary," Josie drawls, finally dropping back onto her haunches and letting her long legs sprawl out. Her gaze has turned towards the proceedings underway elsewhere on the field, as various other parties stand down.
"...So that's what's up. Poor kid," she remarks, as Cyre explains what happened with the tiger who is now... sleeping peacefully, likely for the first in an age. "Still, all's well that ends..."
Gwen chooses this moment to collapse.
"...well. Huh. Don't that beat all," Josie quips, shrugging her shoulders as she can do little more herself at the moment. "Don't suppose anyone's got a spare potion of three."