2022-06-29: Operation: 7th Nail
- Log: Operation: 7th Nail
- Cast: Ganondorf Dragmire, Ratatoskr, Seraph Ragnell, Scythe Riebaure, Josephine Lovelace, Erzebet Lefanu, Tragedienne
- Where: Great Sea
- Date: June 29, 2022
- Summary: Ganondorf Dragmire, the warlord from the Great Sea who has been conspiring with Odessa since the beginning, calls upon Odessa's troops to assist him with eliminating a dangerously unpredictable variable. So he says, but why is the target in a hermitage under a mountain that looks like it's been sealed for millennia...?
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.
Ganondorf is not the most aggressive of Odessa's leaders, and often leaves things to Vinsfeld. But he has suddenly put out a call to assist him with disposing of a certain wildcard. He has provided mostly that the target could become a big problem if left on his own.
The King of Thieves himself stands with a statue's patience at the meeting point assigned: A volcanic island in the Great Sea, barren but for stone and a heat that should be impossible this close to the sea. He turns, tarnished-copper skin and bronze-red hair, eyes raking across the arrivals from Odessa. Then he leads.
Inland some ways, there is an overhang, easily missable without careful search. Beneath the overhang, a door sealed in stone, marked with an unfamiliar emblem, a mark like a three-hooked claw. A familiar enemy, these doors, often requiring finding hidden seals and ancient spells--
Ganondorf places his hand on it and obliterates it in a crackle of darkness and lightning. "Come," he commands, and descends into the darkness beyond.
The cavern is blazing heat, and large. One might expect to be troubled on the way through; the kind of intense digging adventure that is part and parcel of the adventuring life on Filgaia. But much of what is here takes one look at Ganondorf and squawks and hides; and what does not, is dispatched swiftly. Ganondorf is not playing this place's game.
It's over an hour of travel downward, through magmatic caverns and stone walls, before Ganondorf stands before a massive door, hewn from solid stone and locked with a keyhole the size of a man. "Be wary," he finally says, half-turning to his entourage. "The one within will know we are here. Do not trouble yourselves with details. Know simply that he must be destroyed."
And then he strikes the door and it explodes open with a spark of power.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
It's rare for some of the bigger names of Odessa to consciously ask for Ratatoskr's presence directly rather than take his reports by some other proxy. There is a looming sense of validation only tinged with disappointment and maybe an encroaching sense of mortal terror that he ought to become more familiar with!
He vents the compressed air within his ARMs by necessity for the sweltering heat. Any excitement and interest he might get in fighting any of the local creatures or denizens is... unfulfilled. He scarce gets a chance to look at some of the more interesting markings and patterns before it is summarily obliterated. He tries to predict and get ahead of the matters once.
Exactly once, with the massive door and the large keyhole.
Instinct allows him to live to reconsider ever trying that twice. He has seen what he could do before. That's why it was worth the risk, with all the barely-concealed youthful tics of feelings and nerves where he may, in reality, perspire details in place of moisture.
(no, that's weird, but the metaphor stands)
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It's not often that Ganondorf calls upon his Odessa allies to help him with something. Thus when he does, given that she joined up because of him, naturally Ragnell shows up for the call. She gives him a cheeky salute and a crooked smile upon arrival, then follows him deeper into the overly hot island. She takes in the sights as they move along, and takes in the sights when the stop, and takes in the sights when he blows up the door.
"Nice," she comments, and follows again.
It's a good thing that Seraphim are by and large unaffected by temperature; it's even better that Ragnell's a type to enjoy heat anyway. It's fun to watch Ganondorf straight-up bully the dungeon into submission, grinning as they go. After an hour, they arrive at last before another door, so enormous that the keyhole is as big as she is.
"But the devil's in the details, an' who am I to turn down a chance t' dance with the devil?" she faux-complains. Even so, she draws her paired pistols, twirling them each before tapping the barrel of one of them on her shoulder. "But then again, I never say no to a good fight, either~."
This is a blatant lie--Ragnell is familiar with the better part of valor--but it *is* true that she enjoys fighting, and especially is looking forward to seeing just what the King of Thieves can do. As Ganon explodes this new door open, Ragnell bobs on the balls of her feel and smiles brightly.
"Why so nervous?" she asides to Ratatoskr, as if they hadn't all seen what Ganondorf can do, as if the size of the door on its own implies what kind of enemy they're about to face.
<Pose Tracker> Scythe Riebaure has posed.
Scythe Riebaure was all too happy to accept a mission from a man he considers a peer in the sorcerous arts. That Scythe considers Ganondorf a peer at all is testament to both his egotism and how little he's dealt with the King of Evil.
Lambda insisted Scythe deploy via a transport craft, and he grudgingly obeyed; he made sure he was well-prepared, but he knows his reserves of power are not infinite. As the salvaged landing craft rests on the beach, he walks across the rocky terrain, breathing in the hot air as if tasting it. "The Ley is stronger here," he observes, as the others gather. He's no Crest Sorcerer, but if he didn't know about this sort of thing, he would've had a poor education indeed. "What's kept it from ebbing, I wonder...?" Definitely something of interest. "Regardless." He looks up at Ganondorf, a confident smile on his lips. "Well met, King of Evil." The others get slightly more cursory greetings.
The door. Scythe studies it for a moment, and gets as far as "Is that a claw--" before the symbol, and the door it's engraved upon, cease to exist. He offers a playful shrug, and continues. As they proceed into the cavern, Scythe takes the opportunity to flex, so to speak, blinking across treacherous paths and across lava flows. He keeps everyone else in sight, because while he's arrogant, he's not stupid. Ganondorf is a powerful man, and yet he needed help. Whatever dwells here is of tremendous import indeed.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It isn't the typical sort of assignment Josie, disreputable archaeologist at large, finds herself called upon.
It should be noted, for context, that the sort of assignments that she has become willing party to have included attempted arson, assassination, sabotage, attempted mass death, guerilla warfare, and other such nefarious things of note. But when it comes to the requests handed down from the King of Thieves...
Frankly, she can't really say that she has even spent much time in the man's presence, what with most of her orders coming direct from Cocytus itself. Perhaps later she might be given opportunity to wonder about that.
But in this precise moment, this may be a job that is well-suited to her particular set of skills. When it comes to infiltrating a previously unknown location... when it comes to an application of force and debilitating devastation... well, who else but Josephine Lovelace?
She's quiet much of the way in, almost pensively so, as if something were on her mind. It appears that a good half of her skillset might be not entirely needed when the occupants turn tail and run and even the doors and seals prove little obstacle. But no matter, that. It just means she can save it for the business at the end.
(She's quiet, yes, but that doesn't mean she doesn't slip behind Scythe and try to clap him on the back. Because she can.)
Once and only once, she lingers by a carved wall, her gaze lingering on a particular section.
But then, she is an archaeologist. Would it be unusual to look?
Even the heat doesn't provoke any particular remark from her. She'd spent long enough crawling the wastes of Aveh, if her history with Odessa is to be any judge. Maybe the only difference is in the intensity. She just wipes at her brow, has a drink, and carries on.
Only when they arrive below does she say anything, lingering before that great door.
"...So who's the lucky winner?" she asks, drawing her shotgun. "Always heard the saying, 'know your enemy' and all. Seems the moment, yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Fuuuuooooooohhhh this place is too hot by half!" Erzebet Mara Lefanu had said upon landing. She had worn a simple suit of clothing with trousers and a suit-coat, thin against the heat, but even so. She took the straw hat off to fan itself. "With this sort of conditions, I'm going to have my picnic first, so please, don't mind me."
With this, Erzebet
BP: 61/335
drained three
BP: 67/335
dark glass bottles of
BP: 73/335
something thick and red she had brought with her, and left them all on the barren coast. Perhaps some poor soul in the future may use them to send a message in the bottle. After this, and the doffing of the coat and a rolling up of her trouser legs, she had marched forwards.
Down down down, to goblin-town. Erzebet had, in fact, attempted to sing a marching song for about two minutes during the journey, but the mood did not stay long with her.
And when they reach the door - Erzebet twirls round Haborym's singular pistol module before sliding it back into its thigh holster, spreading her hands for a moment at Ganondorf's words. She looks around for a moment, seems to find Ragnell (her glasses appear to be involved in this, though once spotted she seems to be able to chat just fine) and asides to her, "Very strong, very few words. It's quite a mystique, isn't it?"
"Yes," Erzebet asks. "He's not alive by any chance, is he?"
<Pose Tracker> Tragedienne has posed.
The door opens. In the next instant, terrible flames gush forth from the opening, reaching out to consume any in the path of the doorway and for some distance besides. It is a conflagration, a bonfire, and it seethes with the fury of the earth itself. When it finally dies down, the chamber within is visible.
Great pillars of white stone rise from the floor to the ceiling of the chamber, a great rocky platform in the center surrounded by magma. The platform is white stone, rising from the magma, with the walls of the chamber being brown rock. There is a red circle in the very center, inlaid with a flame design. On the center of the huge slab is a pile of rocks obscuring the symbol and, beside it, a gigantic hammer. The hammer is head-down, red metal, inscribed at the side with a diamond upon with three triangles rise from the upper sides and tip of the diamond, the symbol carved out. The haft is something like gold, and perhaps this treasure is the object of the search. However...
"Who disturbs this sacred place?"
The rocks move, starting to unfurlinto what appears to be a gigantic man made of stone. A great round body with powerfully thick limbs, ridges at the back, and a wide face. His black eyes narrow as he looks upon the group. "Ah... it is you. The tyrant and his foul servants."
"You will find I am more prepared for your treachery than were Fado and Laruto," the great stone man rumbles, and leans down to pick up the huge hammer in one hand.
"In this age and for every age..."
Magma begins to seethe all around the platform, the island itself shaking with tectonic force. The shaking doesn't stop. He sweeps the hammer down in one swing, then another, and hefts it out before him, other hand out for balance.
"Darumaka, Sage of Fire, will stop you here!"
OBJECTIVE: Defeat Darumaka before the volcano erupts!
DC: Tragedienne switches forms to Darumaka, Sage of Fire!
GS: Tragedienne has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Flame of Warding! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Flame of Warding! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Scythe Riebaure with Flame of Warding! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Flame of Warding! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Ratatoskr with Flame of Warding! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Flame of Warding! GS: Tragedienne has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tragedienne has completed her action. GS: Seraph Ragnell fully evades Tragedienne's Flame of Warding for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Tragedienne! GS: Seraph Ragnell activates Evade bonus! GS: Erzebet Lefanu suffers a terrible blow from Tragedienne's Flame of Warding for 108 hit points! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a solid hit from Tragedienne's Flame of Warding for 99 hit points! GS: Scythe Riebaure takes a solid hit from Tragedienne's Flame of Warding for 108 hit points! GS: Scythe Riebaure activates Arcane Font! GS: COUNTER! Ratatoskr counterattacks Tragedienne with Counter Attack! GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Tragedienne's Flame of Warding for 143 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Tragedienne! GS: Ratatoskr activates Arcane Font! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Tragedienne's Flame of Warding for 65 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Tragedienne! GS: Josephine Lovelace activates Guard bonus! GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Ratatoskr's for 49 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.
They ask him questions. He leaves most of it for the Sage to answer.
The wave of fire, Ganondorf answers by drawing his blades, knocking it aside.
"He lives, as the stones live!" he answers Erzebet, words whose literal meaning might be a no but whose tone, and the angry rock man waving a warhammer at them, mean yes.
"The Goron always were warriors. Even you, a scholar, wield your hammer with conviction," Ganondorf rumbles. "And yet..."
His lips curl in spite. "And yet still you grovel at the feet of your traitor gods. The world has no more use for you!" he roars, and then thrusts his hand forward. Lightning crackles between his fingers, but he utters no spell before scathing lightning roars across the distance. Stone should go untroubled by the workings of Wing, but it crackles across his stone body nonetheless, debilitating spasms enforced by a power other than Filgaia's law.
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Tragedienne with Dark Lightning! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action. GS: Tragedienne suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Dark Lightning for 239 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Tragedienne! GS: Tragedienne activates Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell glances over at Erzebet when she addresses her. Then she smirks. "The mystique's half the fun! Nothin' like a good mystery, am I right? 'Course, we're not here to solve any mysteries..." To Josie, she chuckles and adds, "On which note--guess we'll be findin' out in just a moment."
The chamber within is torturously hot. It reminds Ragnell pleasantly of the Fire Shrine, though she does wonder a moment how their temperatures compare. Given that they're both volcanic in nature, maybe about roughly the same?
She takes in the massive pillars and the platform and the flaming circle at the center. There's a hammer there, and perhaps that's their objective, but Ragnell doesn't move towards it. Instead, she waits a moment, and is rewarded when a voice greets them. She looks up at the rock-man, and gives him a cheeky salute of his own when he identifies them as 'the tyrant and his foul servants.'
Fado, Laruto, and now Darumaka... For all that Ganondorf had told them not to mind the details, Ragnell commits those to memory. And a *sacred* place, huh... Given what Ganon's told her about himself and about the goddesses he opposes, she can't say she's surprised to hear this. Still, she came here committed. When Darumaka swings his hammer and sends massive shakes that disturb the magma--or maybe it's the other way around?--Ragnell leaps up and floats for far longer than a personally naturally should, evading the splashes of liquid-hot rock. It's a damn close call; no wonder Ganondorf decided on forming a party.
In the air, she twists around to let herself land on one of the pillars and opens fire on the rock-man--or rather, she opens lightning, considering that's what her bullets are made of--to rebound her that way even as she attacks. The power she gained in the Ice Shrine would be useful here, but... better to keep that as a card up her sleeve, she decides. Odessa doesn't need to know every little thing she can do.
"A scholar, huh," she remarks aloud. "Hate to see what a career fighter could do!" (She does not sound like she would hate it at all.)
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Tragedienne with Storm Runner! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's Storm Runner for 86 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Tragedienne!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
'Why so nervous?' The anthropomorphic arrangement of persistent lightning asks of Ratatoskr by his level of Resonance, who was at best two-thirds of a second from annihilation some moments before as he flares his tail's metallic segments out in a bristled, alarmed state.
"...I want the details," he says in an uncharacteristically small, borderline pouty voice, and is appreciative that Josie asks the question.
He is on the back foot in these environments, something he has heeded a lot better since the days where he mucked around where the Primarch of Fray had been trapped. Extreme heat renders the compressed air weapons... unusable, at best.
That he's just off to the side when the flames gush out from the open door, and only just so, is providence. (Unless you are someone he likes to talk to regularly, then that's the opposite.) It doesn't dissuade him from following in when there's a voice, the excitement seeping back into him as Erzebet's query as to whether they're 'alive' seems like a 'yes.'
"Sage of Fire...?" Ratatoskr muses aloud to himself as he sees the creature of stone assert identity and will. "I know of an Oracle, and See--"
Magma and quakes happen. He is loosed from the ground and just avoids a splash of magma from the edge of the platform, hurling himself forth with a flying knee strike that - by whatever sequence of events - eventually has him struck head-on by a hammer swing that sees him tumbling about the stone platform with streaks of quicksilver ignited and obliterated by the dark lightning that crosses the way.
The light in his solid yellow eyes do not leave him as he claws himself up to a stand. He is a Hyadean, bio-engineered to Mother's tastes as a warrior and conditioned to find comfort and fulfillment in it, and that doesn't change here.
"I won't forget this...!" Ratatoskr grins about half-wide as he takes off running again - on all fours to start as he takes in breath anew to go upright and fling himself into a rushing elbow strike into an outstretched palm up towards the chin. There are claws on his hands, but yet, they are not engaged in scratching.
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Tragedienne with Generic Fight Command! GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action. GS: Tragedienne takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Generic Fight Command for 57 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Comrades," Erzebet interrupts the Sage of Fire when he says 'foul servants,' though at least she's mostly disputing the servants part. She blows out a huge breath and pulls out her gun, narrowing her eyes.
Her stomach tightens.
The question of whether or not what she was *really* asking is true is left for the mystery to be resolved through the affray of arms. Erzebet absolutely meant 'is it possible for me to eat him' and that is still in the air, as is the lava, whose burst makes Erzebet end up toppling through the air like some ridiculous cartoon-drawing character as she simply lets herself be swept up, slapping into a wall and --
Oh, that's the part that's not quite typical. She has dug her fingertips to the first joint into the wall, her shoes serving on a similar if less notable basis as she turns her head. "This is certainly a way to make a big splash," Erzebet calls to Ragnell, even as she pops off a short combination of rounds -- the ARM converting droplets of blood into high-heat, high velocity lead -- even as she kicks off into a backflip, landing in a low crouch and firing all the while.
"So you've done this before!" she calls to the Sage, basically without thinking.
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Tragedienne with I'm Burning 4 U! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
In fact, even the Fire Trial might have given her something of a leg up in this regard -- the heat in here is perhaps comparable to Yvain's own test, but neither does it outdo it.
"Seems like," Josie remarks to Ragnell.
The door opens, then, and this presents all of them with the true answer to the nature of their opponent. But first, there is heat to be had: as Scythe remarks, the flow of the Ley is intense in this place, and there is no place more intense than this innermost sanctum. It certainly rises up to meet them, manifesting as flame itself as they breach the doorway. Lightning sparks at Josie's fingertips: though the flame tests her ward well, it still flows about her rather than against her. She might be forced back a step but she, at least, remains more or less unscathed.
Where there is great heat and flame, though, there are things that can withstand and dwell within it.
Such as the Sage of Fire, who here makes his home.
"A Goron! And a big one, too. ...I ain't all that foul," Josie remarks in passing, though neither does she appear to put up much of a fight regarding the descriptor. Rather, her brow creases as the stone man lists particular names, names that hold no meaning to her, and then provides his own introduction. Her gaze tilts towards Ratatoskr. He's asking the same questions that stick out to her -- well, a few of them. What's a Sage, against an Oracle or Seer? What power does a Sage command?
Somehow, she doubts she'll get much answer from either party here: the man who leads them, or the one they fight against.
Traitor gods? Does Ganondorf mean the Guardians? Or...
"Right," Josie says, perhaps more to herself than her opponent. "Let's see if'n you're up to a dance or three!" She whips her shotgun up and about, cracking off a shot for the Sage as if to test his reflexes. He's a big one, all right, but she's had more than enough experience to know that big doesn't mean slow.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Tragedienne with Argent and Sable! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Erzebet Lefanu's I'm Burning 4 U for 62 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Tragedienne! GS: Tragedienne suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Argent and Sable for 178 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Scythe Riebaure has posed.
The door opens, and fire pours out. Scythe steps back, instinctively readying a displacement, but it's unnecessary--for the moment. He glowers into the room, face twisted in a sneer, searching for the assailant. "Clever trick," he says. "Now where are you..."
The rock uncurls into a massive humanoid shape, grasps the hammer, and speaks.
"...hiding."
Scythe has barely enough time to take in the words, but take them in he does. "I knew this was no ordinary assassination," the Crimson Noble says, cutting off oh-so-briefly in mid-sentence as he vanishes and reappears in mid-air above the platform. He blinks again as a torrent of magma surges up from beneath him, reappearing three feet away. "It'll take more than that to--ghh!" Another burst of lava erupts in front of him, momentarily lighting him with its infernal glow. In the next heartbeat, he's gone, vanished with a soft *pop* that's quickly drowned out by the roar of flames.
Smoke rises from Scythe's jacket as he reappears next to Josie, and bright red burns mark his skin. A lock of hair is still smoldering. "You're trying my patience, old man!" Scythe roars, raising both hands. "Face the might of a Crimson Noble! INFERNO!"
Heat curls up from the magma pool, washing out at Darumaka. Scythe sweeps a hand out in a wave, and small, localized explosions rock the air around him.
"He's been hiding in a hole!" Scythe shoots back, at Ragnell.
GS: Scythe Riebaure has attacked Tragedienne with Inferno! GS: Scythe Riebaure has gained 1 Combo! GS: Scythe Riebaure has completed his action. GS: Tragedienne has activated a Force Action! GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Scythe Riebaure's Inferno for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Scythe Riebaure! GS: Tragedienne activates Guard bonus and Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Tragedienne has posed.
Ragnell's salute gets a scowl, but there are many things he may say for Ragnell to keep track of. Erzebet's insistence on comrades does not slow him down. He's rude like that. But it is probably impossible to eat him. He doesn't respond to Josie's identification of him--or, immediately, explain the powers of a Sage. "Hmph. Paltry tricks, sorcerer."
"Ahrgh!"
Lightning crackles across the distance, but the Goron--for he is indeed a Goron--spasms as the power of Ganondorf's darkness surges through him and his hammer both. He growls in pain and anger and then replies, "It is you for whom the world has no use, tyrant! Your evil will be stopped!"
Ragnell's lightning bullets crackle towards him, and he interposes his hammer, apparently more resistant to lightning when it isn't filled with darkness. Nevertheless, the force of the gunshots is enough to provide her rebound. "Some kind of spirit?" he rumbles at Ragnell dubiously, and then looks to Ragnell. But Ratatoskr is faster, and the Goron's arm is jarred through the hammer with the sheer force of a Hyadean's jumping kick. "What are you?" he inquires of the Metal Demon, "You will not have time to remember!"
His flying elbrow strike into a palm up--Ratatoskr lands the elbow strike, slamming liquid metal into hard rock, but the Sage evades the palm, swerving with great speed despite his stony bulk. Erzebet's lead forces him back, and while he defends easily against the bullets themselves, he does not expcet the way they melt and keep melting, roaring with pain as they press into what passes for his flesh. Josephine's firearm is something he's still not familiar with, as evidenced by how he reacted to Erzebet; he stands to tank the blow, and it cracks into his stony hide, knocking him back with its sheer force.
"You know nothing of dancing, human. But you will dance well indeed when my spell is complete!"
The explosions rock the area around Darumaka, and he slams his hammer down, countering them with a shockwave that dissipates most--but not all--of its force.
"Hmph. Crimson Noble... They are dead, boy. Like your master should be!"
He calls to Erzebet, though, "Aye. I was one of those who sealed your master away long ago, with my brothers and sisters. A seal it seems I will have to restore when I finish destroying you!"
He swings his hammer down at Ratatoskr, and whether it hits or misses it will issue forth a shockwave at the ground. He extends his hand--and the magma erupts towards Erzebet meanwhile. The heat intensifies abrubtly where Josie and Scythe stand, becoming a curtain of devastating temperature.
For Ragnell he issues forth another eruption of flame, but the room shakes harder, and the rock between Ganondorf's feet gives way to a huge blast of fiery rock.
The flame erupts around him suddenly, his every motion wreathed in it.
"It's true. I am not a great warrior among my people. But I am enough to deal with you!"
GS: Tragedienne has attacked Ratatoskr with Wild Swing! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Lesser Eruption! GS: Tragedienne spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Scythe Riebaure with Banked Ember Punishment! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Banked Ember Punishment! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Lesser Eruption! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Greater Eruption! GS: Tragedienne has attacked Tragedienne with Shield of Raging Flame! GS: Tragedienne takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Tragedienne has completed her action. GS: Tragedienne accepts Tragedienne's Shield of Raging Flame for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Shield, and Surge applied to Tragedienne! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Ratatoskr takes a glancing hit from Tragedienne's Wild Swing for 76 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Tragedienne! GS: Ratatoskr activates Evade bonus! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Ratatoskr receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Ratatoskr enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Tragedienne's Lesser Eruption for 321 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Tragedienne's Banked Ember Punishment for 30 hit points! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Tragedienne's Greater Eruption for 77 hit points! GS: Mute and Weaken applied to Ganondorf Dragmire! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Erzebet Lefanu suffers a terrible blow from Tragedienne's Lesser Eruption for 133 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Erzebet Lefanu! GS: Scythe Riebaure takes a solid hit from Tragedienne's Banked Ember Punishment for 73 hit points! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Scythe Riebaure! GS: Hyper applied to Tragedienne! GS: Scythe Riebaure activates Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.
Ganondorf was once a king - would say he still is. He knows when people seek his wisdom. He gives none.
Partly that is because he is defending himself, though, as Darumaka reveals more and more of his strength as Sage of Fire. The stones at Ganondorf's own feet fall away, magma and fire erupting into him. But the King of Evil leaps, swings his blade down and cuts the very gushing Earth in twain, reducing what could be a deadly encounter with Filgaia's beating heart into mere spatter. He touches down a moment later, patting the fire off from his robes.
"You will find none to aid you, Sage," Ganondorf rumbles. "With Courage shattered, your Hero lies forever with the Ley. And Wisdom too lies broken. The Seventh will never come."
His lips split in a wide, fiendish grin. "You are the last, Darumaka. Once I have your head, you Sages will never trouble me again."
Then he surges forward. Ganondorf is a large man, and seemingly rotund besides, but he moves like lightning across the stone , ending only when he has swept both blades in a murderous scissor through Darumaka's chest.
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Tragedienne with Blade of the Covetous! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell simply grins at Ratatoskr's bristling metal tail. Sometimes it's fun to be a jerk in a more subtle way.
But there is a battle ongoing. As Darumaka sends a gout of flame her way, Ragnell pushes against the pillar to charge straight through it, banking on being able to get through fast enough to not take too much of a hit.
This is a gamble, and it's a gamble she loses. But then, that's the nature of gambling, isn't it? Sometimes your opponent's hand is just better than yours. She slams to the stone floor in a snarl of pain, engulfed in fire. A normal person would have been burned to a crisp; Ragnell ends merely nicely charred, and she gets up afterwards all the same.
"I'm thinkin' he should crawl back into that hole," she shoots over to Scythe. She half-smiles and shrugs at Erzebet and Josie in agreement, then hisses and winces. It really would be much worse if she were a creature of flesh. Lucky for her that she's not.
Darumaka declares he's enough to deal with the lot of them. "You're strong, I'll give ya that," Ragnell replies as a golden glyph forms at her feet. "But I think we'll at least give you a run for your money, honey." She glances briefly at Erzebet when the Goron responds to her--but doesn't stop casting. A blade of lightning *thunks* down from out of the air near Darumaka, potentially zapping him on contact; however, it doesn't disippate, instead crackling a moment until EXPLODING with concussive force.
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Tragedienne with Thunder Blade! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Tragedienne critically guards Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the Covetous for 64 hit points! GS: Tragedienne suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Thunder Blade for 307 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Tragedienne activates Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet glances at Scythe as Scythe declares himself a Crimson Noble. She adjusts her glasses, having no further comment on the matter.
"MY master?" she answers the Sage, before there is an eruption of flame that bursts around her. The superheated rock, logically, should engulf and kill her.
Well, it almost does! It's a pretty close thing in objective terms and Erzebet can feel hot-pitted sensations, like someone just ground out a cigar on her skin before, you know, everything happened, even as she vaults largely clear; she ends up doing an impromptu somersault, smelling of lightly cooked meat even as she hops back up, grimacing at the pain.
The burn marks shrink, but gradually.
Erzebet glances over towards Ganondorf at his pronouncements. Then back at Darumaka.
She scratches her head with the iron sights of Haborym. "Well," she says, "I see. Hm, interesting, interesting. Yes... It's like that, then."
"I understand everything now," Erzebet says, before raising her gun and opening fire towards the legs of the fire sage -- though every time she shoots, this time she does that damn blur-dash thing she has somehow picked up, probably from the direct intervention and tutelage of Valmar, which may make it trickier to get a direct bead on her.
"So what are you hoping to do after all this, then," Erzebet calls, towards -- Ganondorf, in an air of breezy curiosity in so far as this is compatible with zipping around shooting at a big fiery man.
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Tragedienne with KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action. GS: Tragedienne takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL for 138 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr overcommits to the palm strike, and in those solid eyes do they light up as the Sage of Fire leans right out of it. He tumbles ahead in order to allow other attacks within the sequence to progress clear of him, and give himself space to answer the query as he comes upright with a bit of a shake in his left leg from where the hammer first struck him.
"Will you?" This isn't asked with a snappy, condescending tone. He doesn't repeat it as an exclamation. "I'm a Hyadean! My people were brought to Filgaia a long time ago..." Somewhere in the heat, he remembers both what he saw in that vision of the last days of Hyades... and what that 'self' of his said. His people have been conquered twice-over. Even as the combat intensifies, he tries to answer to the best of his ability.
What helps(?) - Ratatoskr's voice is loud. His bloodline was bred and perfected to be equal parts skirmisher and battlefield messenger. He doesn't talk over Ganondorf's boasts and threats (and facts), because he wants to hear them too. This hesitation nearly costs him the capacity to elaborate further, because Darumaka is swinging.
Ratatoskr's backflip is nearly too late, the impact of the hammer boosting the momentum in which he takes leave of the ground, where he finds himself bodily smashing up against a nearby pillar at injurious but not life-threatening velocities (by Hyadean standards).
The upshot is that this hurls him completely out of reach of the shockwave, which would have done... worse. It's enough of a shock it takes Ratatoskr a moment to grasp at the pillar with his claws for traction, as eruptions abound on the ground where he could have slipped (thus allowing him to avoid being clipped by the spells).
So he does what this tactically advantageous position demands: spoiling the advantage by talking some more.
"The Hyadean people were conquered by a World Eater parasite by the name of Mother... the few survivors taken and made into their loyal soldiers, only to be discarded again when they came close to conquering and devouring Filgaia! I am one of those who remain...!" There may be pride, there may be sorrow, but the saddest his face can manage is 'a smile.' So he's smiling.
"But you know... I'm getting to live in times like these. I can't ask for anything more...!" The smile widens back to a grin as he watches some of the exchanges happening from his present perch, even if he has to re-assert his grip by some of the seismic forces on display. Where Ganondorf celebrates the imminent demise of the last...
"Not a great warrior? Not a great warrior!" He's mocking that. "If you're the last... and we never see more 'Sages,' I'd like to keep what it's like to fight one!"
Fight one, he shall, as he slides down from the pillar when given the seeming all clear by the present pattern of volcanic explosions, taking off running to their flank, and bringing an elbow and knee together in a crushing blow.
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Tragedienne with Cracker! GS: Ratatoskr has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action. GS: Tragedienne critically guards Ratatoskr's Cracker for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Easy there, Chase. Ain't gonna make your folks happy or none if you burn to cinders, yeah?" Josie remarks, eying Scythe when he reappears.
With Courage shattered, and Wisdom lying broken...
So says Ganondorf, as he engages a foe of which nothing was known until but a short while ago, one who had perhaps long since retreated from Filgaia's stage. For what reason, there goes the question--
But Josie didn't get where she was by asking a lot of inconvenient questions, at least not from those disinclined to answer them. Tonight she does as she always must.
And briefly, Josie cracks a brilliant grin. So she knows nothing of dancing? "Demonstrate a few steps for me n' all. Promise I'm a quick learner!" she tells him. In this moment, Josie is truly in her element. "But you ain't seen one've these before, have ya? Been sittin' in that hole for a dog's age, if I'm any judge!"
Even in Zeboim, they had ARMs. Even in the aftermath of Zeboim, there had been ARMs. There have always been ancient relic machines, regardless of the age--
But the carving -- the thing that had been depicted in the carving -- she'd seen before the doorway had been like nothing she'd ever seen before. Is it possible that...
But there is heat, and Darumaka is indeed a master of fire. Where there is heat and fire, there is thus a need to dance quite well, indeed. Sparks flicker at Josie's fingertips as she casts forth some manner of shield before her. Fire flares about her like the wings of a bird but, some few critical tongues of flame find their way through. She staggers, if for the moment. "Not... bad," she tells Darumaka.
"...Heh. Now you're talkin' my kinda language! C'mon, let's see what you've got!" Gorons are made of fairly tough stuff. They're hell if they can get their hands on an ARM their size, or so she's heard. Nothing as so much like a large, walking tank. Or a small Gear, comparatively. A tough nut to crack, by any means. If Josie drops back a step, then of course she's just buying herself time. She's got herself, one fully functional arm, and a mysterious shotgun -- compared to what her comrades are packing, is that really enough?
It's enough if she aims properly.
Squeezing her left eye shut, she takes the moment to aim, targeting an area near to the neck. For a Goron, that might just count as close enough to a weak point, considering every other part of their body.
Then she pulls the trigger.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Tragedienne with Scorched Wing! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace takes 33 damage from Poison! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Tragedienne takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Scorched Wing for 140 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Tragedienne!
<Pose Tracker> Scythe Riebaure has posed.
Josie speaks, and Scythe's right eye twitches--not at the name, precisely, but something in what she's implying. "We've severed ties," he says. "And you, Lovelace, lack the right to chastise me for recklessness." His voice is tight. Does he sound a little hurt, or is it nothing? A momentary distraction.
"So you know of us," Scythe says, his lip curling in an imperious sneer once more. "We aren't nearly as dead as you think, old man." Which is technically true because Marivel Armitage still exists, but she's not important right now. Scythe steps into a fighting stance; a knife appears in his right hand, held in a reverse grip. "Tell me, Sage, why didn't you know he'd escaped until he was on your very doorstep?"
"And if it took seven to do the job the first time, what makes you think you can do it alone?" Scythe doesn't know Ganondorf's plan, but that's not the point. The point is styling on his foe, and making himself look smart. Unfortunately for Scythe, he--and the others--have challenged Darumaka in his place of power.
Heat washes over the Crimson Noble, and he snaps an arm out; a bright shield rises in front of him, and then collapses a split-second later from the searing wind. Scythe snarls--
And vanishes, only to reappear behind and slightly above Darumaka, driving his combat knife down at the Goron's shoulder. "Bleed!" he commands.
GS: Scythe Riebaure has attacked Tragedienne with Empty the Vein! GS: Scythe Riebaure takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Scythe Riebaure has completed his action. <Characters> Marivel Armitage says, "hm having trouble coming up with a name for this mystic art. what kinda names did y'all give your mystic arts."
GS: Tragedienne partially guards Scythe Riebaure's Empty the Vein for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Tragedienne has posed.
The Goron smiles grimly when Ganondorf invokes the Seventh, but does not explain. Instead he replies, "Hmph. Broken they may be, but you lack Power, yet. I do not need the Hero to defeat you! There will be no seal! You will die here, fiend!" His resolve flares with his shield, and Darumaka hefts his hammer and clashes it with Ganondorf's swords, a great resounding clang echoing throughout the chamber. "You are King of nothing, tyrant!"
He doesn't move to crawl back into that hole. However, that doesn't mean that he can ignore Ragnell--the golden glyph she summons is not a magic he knows. "What is that--" Lightning crashes down towards him. "Ungh!" He stumbles backward as the blade seethes through his metal hammer and through his whole body before it shatters the ground at his feet, destroying precious stone that has persisted for ages as it explodes outward.
He sees Erzebet's wounds healing as he stumbles back, and narrows his eyes again. "Trickery," he replies. "You will not be able to wash away the wounds of the volcano's eruption!"
The ground continues to shake; it becomes clear that this is tied to him, somehow, as a red light begins to shine down upon him from the top of the chamber.
Ratatoskr explains the Hyadeans. The Goron stares at him for an instant, and the way he grasps at the pillar for traction is beyond what a human should be capable of--because he is not one. "The World Eater who fed upon this planet... you are one of HERS!?" His rage stokes. Ratatoskr wants to see what it is to fight one, and so Darumaka obliges, curling down into a rock again as Ratatoskr's blow showers upon his stony hide, and leaps upward to dislodge him. From this position he slams back down into the stone, rocking the entire platform.
"Your strange weaponry will avail you not," he says to Josie. "I will show you the power of your elders!"
Josie's shotgun blast catces him in the neck, and blood and stone both shower outward. It doesn't slow him down, but it proves that he may well be mortal.
And Scythe--
"So you still claim that mantle... We shall see, dweller in the dark."
The questions he asks get a grim smile too. "Do you think I have not been preparing for this? Gathering my power? Fool."
"Hmph. I need no Hero for this," he says again--but Scythe's knife comes down into the wound Josie already opened, and Darumaka roars with pain and fury both.
"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Darumaka crunches down into a stone again, rolling back to the center of the chamber. He unfurls, a rocky trail left in the stone, and lowers his hammer to the ground. His hands come together in a meditative posture. "...It is almost enough. I have entertained your reckless assault long enough."
A light begins to glow between his cupped hands, like a tiny sun, a ball of flame so dense that the rocks in the room begin to rise from the floor and float towards it.
"It is the end... for you."
"FACE DIVINE JUDGEMENT!"
He closes his hand around the fireball--and slams it to the ground enough that the entire floor cracks into pieces, treacherous to stand upon, and the flame bursts out from his fist. It grows into a dome, bursting forth until it has covered the entire chamber. There is nowhere to run. But he calls out, as he casts the greatest of his spells--
"FACE DIN'S FIRE!"
GS: Tragedienne has activated a Force Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Tragedienne has attacked Scythe Riebaure with Din's Fire! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Tragedienne has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Din's Fire! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Tragedienne has attacked Ratatoskr with Din's Fire! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Tragedienne has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Din's Fire! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Tragedienne has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Din's Fire! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Tragedienne has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Din's Fire! GS: Tragedienne takes 40 damage from Poison! GS: Tragedienne has completed her action. GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Tragedienne's Din's Fire for 145 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Purge! Cripple removed! GS: Seraph Ragnell activates Evade bonus! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Erzebet Lefanu suffers a terrible blow from Tragedienne's Din's Fire for 377 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Purge! Cripple removed! GS: Erzebet Lefanu enters CONDITION RED!! GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Tragedienne's Din's Fire for 260 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ratatoskr activates Arcane Font! GS: Scythe Riebaure takes a solid hit from Tragedienne's Din's Fire for 273 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Scythe Riebaure gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Purge! Disease, Hyper, Poison, and Quick removed! GS: Scythe Riebaure activates Arcane Font! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a solid hit from Tragedienne's Din's Fire for 278 hit points! GS: Dispel! Purge! Mute and Weaken removed! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire activates Guard bonus! GS: Josephine Lovelace suffers a terrible blow from Tragedienne's Din's Fire for 324 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Purge! Disease and Poison removed! GS: Your next attack with the Sneak flag will display with the name White Witch.
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.
"And you are Sage to your own jailer, fool!" Ganondorf roars, clashing steel to steel with the Goron Sage's hammer. "Look at the state of this world and tell me your Gods yet guide it!"
The exchange ends with a disengage, during which Ganondorf checks his robes for something within. Conversationally but perhaps dangerously, Erzebet calls to him. Ganondorf's eyes stay on Darumaka, but he does speak. "I shall do as my agreement with your warlord Rhadamanthus. I shall conquer."
Power flows around him, darkness flaring in swirling whirls of purple and black. He makes no effort to dodge the oncoming explosion of Din's Fire. It washes across him, and should score him to bones at once.
It does not. A face emerges in the flames, an image like a demonic hog - two long tusks, a sneering, wide mouth, deep-set eyes.
Ganondorf emerges from the flames, burned but still standing. In his hand, a glittering five-edged trapezohedron of a crystal. He clenches his fist around it tightly, staring at Darumaka and baring the back of that hand two him.
An emblem on the back of his hand - an empty golden triangle.
"I have enough of Power to endure trifles like that," Ganondorf declares, and his entire body surges with dark might before he lunges forward and drives his ENTIRE STRENGTH into the Goron Sage!!
"NOW! VANISH!"
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Tragedienne with Warlock Punch! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action. GS: Tragedienne suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Warlock Punch for 424 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Strain! Ganondorf Dragmire takes 36 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Seven of them? Or was it four? Or three? Ganondorf is speaking of two things as if he's nearly done, Erzebet thinks. Damn! Counting is more important than I thought, she thinks further.
He knows about Scythe, if Scythe is in fact a crimson noble, Erzebet reasons, but he hasn't really recognized me. That's interesting, if he is what he says it is. It's suggestive. Those 'other memories' seemed to suggest some kind of planetary affair, but...
"Trickery?" Erzebet says. She -- giggles.
Of course, her bluff is immediately called. THE SUN erupts - in its aspect of searing Light and horrific FLAME, which washes over Erzebet. For a moment Erzebet's thought is clear and simple: Oh, this is it -
The flame washes over her. Actinic in its brightness in both light and agony, her vision erupts into a solid mass of pulsating black-red-white as she staggers backwards, fumbling around - she brings back Haborym to prop herself up. The barrel is glowing cherry red as the flame washes over. Erzebet's clothing, mostly light cotton, burns away; her hair is definitely not in a good state.
For a moment she does seem quite dead. Clothing burned onto a crust of ash.
Her head lifts up. The ashen flesh on her neck drops away, revealing something rather like raw skin. It looks damp. Let's leave it at that, kids. "Wow," Erzebet says, surprisingly clear considering her state. "I mean -- wow."
"You said trickery," Erzebet says, rearing upright and kicking back to un-stuck Haborym towards the sage. She unloads weapons fire on him, the semi-automatic firing mechanism of Haborym swiftening to the point of something nearly automatic as that ashen scabbing falls away and the places where the lenses of Haborym's glasses have *stuck to her face like bug eyes* standing out in shimmering orange, her mouth splitting open like a stab wound and forming a smile.
"This isn't a trick, darling!! This is something a sage must never have SEEN! Uwaaahheheheeheheheheah!" She suddenly hurls Haborym into the air --
No, she's getting the gun somewhere where it's relatively safe, namely 'up in the air'.
AND THEN...
GS: Erzebet Lefanu spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Tragedienne with Rainbow's Cemetery! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has launched an attack Link! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has entered Link Stance! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has activated a Force Action! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4tVJASr_54
Erzebet simply disappears.
Indeed, she almost seems to leave an outline behind her!
Not so. Erzebet erupts out of the layers of carbonized flesh *which had lain atop the greater part of her virally-infected biomass, to wit: most of the body* and which she has already, for the functional part, regenerated. Her boots rip off but she does not really need them; she throws herself round in a clumsy overcranked-zoetrope of a roundhouse kick aimed to smash against the Sage's belly with strength that could tear stone. Then backwards to land on her back, to double over, to do a hand plant and THROW herself upright --
To try and land on the Sage's SHOULDERS and smash her hands down in a flurry of chops towards his neck and lower jaw -- concluding with one last horrible ghoulish effort to grasp his head and hold onto it as she leaps OFF at a spinning angle --
But her hands are slippery with gore; her grip is poor.
Hopefully, he has retained his dentist's contact information.
Erzebet then rushes backwards, knocking over that lingering shape, reaching up to grasp Haborym and lower it to her lips. "Phooh," she aspirates, even though the weapon produces shockingly little gunsmoke at the best of times. ("ow" she says, because the barrel's still hot.)
GS: Erzebet Lefanu spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Tragedienne with Our ways are not your ways - and there will be to you many strange things.! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It really is a fascinating conversation that Ganon and Darumaka are having, Ragnell reflects. She's privileged to have some of the context, due to conversations she's had before with the King of Thieves, but there's still quite a lot there that's beyond her. Maybe she'll ask Ganon about it later. He's surprisingly chill for an evil tyrant--something she likes about him.
But right now, there's still a battle going on. Her Thunder Blade strikes true, though this doesn't keep the Goron from saying plenty *more* interesting things. "Hmmm... So you know about Mother too, huh? Guess you'd be plenty old enough for that..." She considers asking if he knows someone named Zenrus, and decides against it. It's not going to matter a short while from now.
There's no evading that massive dome of fire, either, as it expands outwards. Din--now *there* is a name that Ragnell recognizes. She'd already put those particular pieces together, but it's good to know which Goddess specifically this one serves. Or at least, those are her thoughts before the flames impact, at which point she's snarling in pain. It's not as bad as before, but then, this time she's not trying to charge right through it. Definitely not one of her better tactical decisions.
All the same, one can only hover on the edge of a dome before falling through. Ragnell hits the ground, breathing ("breathing") flame as she supports herself. She holsters her guns. And then... she pulls a stubby, rounded, gun-like object out in their place. Wheeling her arms slowly, lightning forms before her in the form of a Seraphic glyph, this time vertical instead of horizonal. They crackle in the air until Ragnell points that object at Darumaka. Its muzzle glows a brilliant light, and the lightning glyph shoots in towards it in an X-shaped motion--
"X BUSTER!" she roars, pulling the trigger. A bolt of absolute force, only barely kept in check by a cage of lightning, blasts forward towards the Sage of Fire.
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Tragedienne with X Buster! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Erzebet Lefanu's Rainbow's Cemetery for 67 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tragedienne gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Tragedienne partially guards Erzebet Lefanu's Our ways are not your ways - and there will be to you many strange things. for 146 hit points! GS: Tragedienne activates Guard bonus! GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's X Buster for 93 hit points! GS: Tragedienne enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Disease and Poison expired!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
The palpable rage at the truth of his existence doesn't elicit much panic on Ratatoskr's end for the emotion alone, as he's dislodged and sent back as the platform is slammed. The neutral is thus reset, and Ratatoskr's claws grasp into the ground to prevent himself from sliding into the magma. Two segmented plates from his tail start going molten from close proximity to it, urging him to limp back forward.
"The World Eater is no more...! I could tell you all about those who--" Darumaka's pained screaming cuts Ratatoskr off, and just as well, as the Sage of Fire declares it's 'almost enough' and decides that it is 'the end... for you.' Divine judgment is faced.
There is, exactly as advertised, nowhere to run. Ratatoskr's limbs ventilate their empty payload of compressed air habitually and instinctively as he can do naught but lower his stance and brace, arms over head as Din's Fire burns at temperatures that melt away the outer-most layers of his blood red armor. It should be enough to do away with him, were it not for the grace(?) of being knocked somewhere to Ganondorf's left flank, some ways behind.
The Power that defies Din's Fire by proxy deflects just enough of the divine flame that the Hyadean historian is spared disintegration. The remains of his helmet fall off, revealing a largely human-ish head shape with silvery hair that has a terminal case of helmet hair, some falling over his face around his forehead horn.
Ratatoskr, as his deepest desire, witnesses. To call it 'majestic' is a lie. It is, in a word, utterly frightening. But that grin doesn't leave him, burnt flesh cooling and knitting itself to a paler pigmentation that will regain its proper color in time.
'Don't you want to see how it ends? What comes after them, together?' His own voice in the depths of Melehan echoes.
"Not yet...!" His voice strains, scrambling desperately and pathetically behind Ganondorf upright. He was spared by chance, but far from unharmed as alien energy gleams through the horn. He hurls himself in there with a series of strikes. Punches, elbows, knees, kicks, but the sequence isn't smooth in execution and tempo (his left arm's musculature needs a bit more time to repair itself). He weaves himself around Erzebet's combination from above, ending it with trying to stab that horn into the Sage of Fire's chest.
"Good... bad... everything's happening... and I'm going to see what's next...!" He tries to hurl the Sage up with a burst of strength to coincide with how Erzebet tries to leap up, the horn's energy discharging in a large vertical column of Pure Undistilled Laser.
"Serpent's Outraaaaage!"
GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Force Action! GS: Ratatoskr used Mystic on Ratatoskr! Status effect durations increased by 2! Gained 100 Temporary HP! GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Force Action! GS: Ratatoskr spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Tragedienne with Serpent's Outrage! GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action. GS: Tragedienne suffers a terrible blow from Ratatoskr's Serpent's Outrage for 264 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie waves her right hand through the air, as if to dismiss Scythe's remark. "Lemme tell you a secret, Chase," she says, glancing at him sidelong for just the moment. "I do what I want."
It's not exactly a secret, all considering.
"I'd reckon it's more the capable for handling you, old man," Josie replies, with a roll of her shoulders. "I've more than plenty where that last came from. You wanna try me again?" She seeks to demonstrate by example, taking another shot at him.
She is rewarded. There is blood. However old he might be, whatever strange power he has, Darumaka is still a Goron, still flesh and blood and living matter. What lives, can be killed.
This is the sum and total of the law, as Josie understands it.
But, ah. The doing of that may not be quite so easy.
FACE DIVINE JUDGEMENT
This is a force that Josie knows not at all. Fire, yes, she knows all too well. Fray, the consuming burning force, she has reason to understand just as plainly.
This is fire, but it is more than fire. It is primordial. It speaks to the cauldron-heart at the center of the world, of the star eternally burning in the skies above. Josie looks into the flame as Darumaka bears it up, brings it down, and knows, knows, knows her feeble magics won't be enough to hold it off. Her father taught her well, yes, but she escaped him long before he could teach her properly. ...So be it. In girum imus nocte, and all the rest.
She flies, running as if she could outpace the flame.
And so, of course, in accordance with the sentiment, she burns. There is a cry, perhaps lost in the din; Josie drops, rolling a short distance across the floor. But even as she comes to a stop by the wall, she's able to watch as Ganondorf unleashes the full force of his power against the Sage. ...Where, has she seen such a...
She has enough time to contemplate this as Erzebet's apparent corpse comes into view. She should know better, but still she rises to her knees in a hurry, her throat feeling as if it's closed up. It's just like, it's almost like--
She should know better. Erzebet yet lives, perhaps can't truly die. "Ha," Josie more or less vocalizes, hefting her shotgun, her gaze flitting the length of the cavern, taking in all her compatriots and their current positions. Well then. Well then--
It's almost fitting that a great beam of light erupts before her in the same moment she takes that shot. Not that seeing it will necessarily help Darumaka: she's not even aiming at him.
"Well," she says to Ragnell. "Ain't that a pretty toy."
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Sneak!! Your feint does not reveal that you spent 2 Combo on Headshot Better get that pose addition ready. GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Tragedienne with White Witch! GS: Sneak! You have gained 1 Combo! Only you see this message. GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Josephine Lovelace's attack becomes clear! GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Silver Cloud for 91 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Tragedienne!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie doesn't aim at him because she doesn't have to. The single bullet travels far, ricocheting and rebounding off of the walls, of compatriots' weapons (Harborym, Ragnell's ARM) before finally flying home for its true target.
Darumaka.
<Pose Tracker> Scythe Riebaure has posed.
He bleeds. Good.
But unfortunately for Scythe, this stone has little blood to give; there's barely enough to paint the tip of his knife. The Crimson Noble brings the blade to his lips, and licks, and fights down the overwhelming urge to gag. He manages to turn it into yet another dismissive sneer. "Then we'll see if it's enough," Scythe says. "It's six against one, old man! What could you--"
The air surges with raw Fray--energies of an unthinkable scale. Scythe's lips pull tight, baring sharpened canines. He raises his hand; that glimmering, heat-mirage shield erupts around him, with more power behind it this time. It keeps Scythe from being incinerated instantly. He closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and holds firm as the Sage's power tries to erase him.
The smoke clears. Scythe still stands--barely. His skin hasn't been carbonized, at least, but his jacket is a smoldering pile behind him. It caught fire halfway through, and Scythe ripped it off before it could burn him further. His upper body has more burns on it than intact flesh. His eyes narrow with pain--
But he casts a quick glance back, nevertheless, to see if Josie is still alive. She is. Good.
"Not bad," Scythe says, wiping blood from his face. It's an understatement, of course--part of him is terrified, and he would be a fool if this weren't the case. But he has an image to keep up. His hands tighten; he brings them together, touching his fingertips as if clutching an invisible sphere. "Face my true power!" His voice rises into a pained, enraged shriek, and the full force of--something--does indeed come down on the Sage of Fire.
The space around Darumaka seems to detach from the rest of the cavern. He can still move freely, but yet he remains rooted in place, as if he could roll for miles and not move an inch.
Scythe reaches into nothing and pulls free a brace of throwing knives. He hurls them at Darumaka, and they stick, as if pinned in an invisible wall. He blinks to the side, pulls another brace free, and repeats the process, until the Sage is surrounded on all sides by blades, poised to bury themselves in his stony flesh.
Scythe pops into the space next to Ganondorf, and snaps his fingers. The spatial 'bubble' rejoins the rest of reality. The knives rush at Darumaka.
GS: Scythe Riebaure spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Scythe Riebaure enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Scythe Riebaure has attacked Tragedienne with Spatial Chains! GS: Scythe Riebaure has launched an attack Link! GS: Scythe Riebaure has entered Link Stance! GS: Scythe Riebaure has attacked Tragedienne with Death of a Thousand Cuts! GS: Scythe Riebaure has gained 2 Combo! GS: Scythe Riebaure has completed his action. GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Scythe Riebaure's Spatial Chains for 0 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Tragedienne! GS: Quick applied to Scythe Riebaure! GS: Tragedienne activates Arcane Font! GS: Tragedienne has activated a Force Action! GS: Tragedienne solidly guards Scythe Riebaure's Death of a Thousand Cuts for 79 hit points! GS: Tragedienne has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Tragedienne has posed.
"You understand nothing," Darumaka shouts back at Ganondorf. "The world is for more than your domination! You will see!"
But power flows. A face emerges in the flame... and Ganondorf has enough Power, it would seem, to resist that spell. Darumaka grits his teeth and stares forth at Ganondorf. "NO!" he roars, and swings around to face Ganondorf once again--
"UNGH--"
The Sage is knocked backward, stone shattering at his feet with merely the /echo// of the impact of Ganondorf's attack. The entire room shakes, nearly apart, as black power crackles forth from the Sage's whole body. There is a marring imprint, flesh scoured and scorched underneath where Ganondorf's fist impacted... But...
"NO," the Sage roars, "I will not allow it!"
But then--"What... are you?" he asks of Erzebet. as she seems almost to melt before him, disappears. He knows she is not gone. He hasn't seen this not-trick before, not in this way. The roundhouse kick slams against him first--and it does seem to crack something from the sound of it, though he grunts with effort to keep upright. But then she throws herself uprigt, and her chops and grabs hit. His teeth chew stone; they do not break. But there are cracks in his stony flesh now, and wen Erzebet rushes back, he wobbles on his feet for an instant. "Gh--" There will be many strange things in this moment. "Not.. enough!"
Ragnell's bizarre gun is something he stares at for an instant. The glyph makes more sense--Ragnell roars out her spell, but this time he is prepared for her powerful magic. He rockets up molten magma, letting it cool into a gigantic mass of stone, which would neatly defuse and ground any lightning that comes at him. ...However, the mysterious X Buster is more than lightning; the barrier shatters, and though most of its force is spent in breaking the barrier, there is enogh left to scorch through him, to prompt another roar.
But Ratatoskr says th World Eater is no more. That is true. He can sense it. Nevertheless...
He sees Ratatoskr's face. He still grins. His flesh knits. And that question...
rNot yet, he says.. the horn gleams, and Darumaka forces imself up again. And Ratatoskr charges. He weaves around, and his horn stabs straight into the Goron's broad chest. This is not itself fatal; he's pretty tough. But Ratatoskr is strong enough to force him upward, and though he defends by rolling into a ball against that terrible laser, he is terribly burnt when he comes down again.
He has not yet picked back up his hammer.
"...You live? You are stronger than I expected. No matter. Soon, my spell will be complete," he says to Josephine. "Soon, even the King of Evil will be forced back. I have only... to buy a little more time..."
Josie chooses not to aim at him. He wonders why. His patience is rewarded. The bullet ricochets from place to place, and he turns towards it, putting out his hands. The bullet sinks deep into his palm, more stone shattering as that hand becomes useless, too. "Gh--"
"What power is that!?" he roars at Scythe, and suddenly, the air stills. Darumaka is locked in place. So, as ever, be endures, curling himself up with arms out to serve as a shield. The knives all point around him--and then they come. The knives bury themselves inside him, and Darumaka sways once. "You..." He coughs, and there is blood in it.
"...So that is it, is it? ...Rauru... I have done my duty."
Darumaka straightens his back, and looks dead at Ganondorf, ignoring all the others. "You may have beaten me... but you can never destroy our hope, King of Evil. There--" He coughs forth blood and rocks, stumbling backward, but straightens again. "There is... another..."
Swaying, Darumaka finally falls, and exhales his final breath in an awful rattle. For a moment, there is stillness.
...and then a spirit emerges from his body, a spectral image of himself, and is drawn as if by inexorable force toward the crystal in Ganondorf's hand.
The crystal gleams blue, and shines in the light of the magma. The ground stops shaking. The earth is silent. The flames die, and the magma begins to cool.
This place is sacred no longer.
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.
Ganondorf steps forward as the light fades, kneeling to seize the fallen crystal. His jaw sets, crooked. "'Another'," he mutters. "Impossible. ...the game continues, then."
He tucks the crystal away, and turns to regard the warriors who have fought with him here, with cold, thoughtful eyes.
"You have done me a great service," he says.
Then he simply steps forward, beginning to leave. "But call, and Ganondorf shall answer."
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr, in his time out in the wide wonderful world outside of the Photosphere, has become accustomed to hyperbole nicknames. So many 'demons,' so many 'evil,' at least one recent case of a 'death's' something or another. He has had the experience of being alongside Ganondorf in at least one other excursion where he bore witness to his Power.
Watching the exchange of events that follows, somewhere in Ratatoskr's labored breathing and shaky fighting posture in wake of all that might have him believe - somewhere, deep down, in a heart that has difficulty parsing what pain and fear are supposed to teach due to Mother's machinations - that this title may not be hyperbole.
A spectral Darumaka escapes the fallen body into a gleaming crystal, and a part of him finds something like relief. He crosses his arms around himself, stretches and flares out his tail, and otherwise looks the part of a very lanky nineteen-to-twenty-five year-old man who is also a bio-engineered alien weapon. The gradually cooling chamber doesn't invite him to take in stores of compressed air, as Ganondorf acknowledges their assistance and grants them his boon.
His mood settles in a positive direction, despite all of it. Good? Bad? Something of import happened here, and he was here for it.
'There is... another...'
He thinks on that.
<Pose Tracker> Scythe Riebaure has posed.
'There is... another...'
Darumaka's last words linger in the air. Scythe's lips twist in a grim, satisfied smile, but he has no answer to the Sage--no taunt, no denial, no mockery. His throat tightens ever-so-slightly as he looks upon that crystal. Is it the old man's soul in there? Scythe seeks out Ganondorf's eyes, but the warlock king is not eager to answer.
"The game continues," he murmurs, as Ganondorf turns to leave. This... was not a routine operation. There are things moving here that maybe alien to this world. Scythe shakes his head, tries to bury that feeling. He'll find out. He'll swing this to his advantage, as he always has.
"Let's quit this place, Lovelace," Scythe says. "The transport will be waiting for us." He turns, to follow Ganondorf, but...
Scythe spares a look behind, at Darumaka's cooling corpse.
There are others.