2022-08-14: Final Sanction OR Water We Fighting For

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DC: Jean switches forms to Shadow Dancer Jean!
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Gentlewoman Adventurer Ida!
DC: Seraph Ragnell switches forms to The Loyal!
DC: You switch forms to Prime Lord Liath!
DC: Seraph Liath switches forms to Prime Lord Liath!
DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Beware of UV Rays!
DC: Talia switches forms to The Charming Sellsword!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

                                                The Past

"I do not think I will ever get used to this sight."

Cobblestone stretches out far in an array of colors in this grand promenade. In the distance, away and above, the grand silhouette of a truly tremendous cathedral rests. A grand fountain of an immaculately sculpted figure kneeling in prayer above five stone tiers pouring crystal clear water, one into the next, until it reaches the basin proper serves as the centerpiece to this gallery.

And it is lively. So very lively.

It is from the stone ledge of the fountain's basin that Liath watches the endless bustle of people that come and go. Family. Friends. Lovers. People simply enjoying the fresh air on their own. They talk, they laugh. Bicker, argue. They trade at the store fronts, eat to their hearts content. None of them seem to notice her. But her smile is warm, her arms folding gently at her midsection.

"I sincerely hope I never do."

Liath's head tilts. She draws a single knee upward, comfortably planting her boot heel on the ledge's edge. "It feels like naught more than an eyeblink's pace that they had so little, and now look at them. There is so much ugliness in this world. To see how far these people have come, how happy they are... mayhap it is presumptuous, but it feels as if a place as this was what the Goddess hoped for. I want to protect and cherish that sentiment, as long as I am able." Her smile grows fonder still.

"'Tis a peace I wish to see last for generations upon generations more."

    The Present

Lefay is a trial many drifters already know all too well. And little has changed about the Water Shrine, even after Solaris' occupation of the forests in which it was so long hidden. The puzzles. The monsters. The Aquaphants.

The creepy teleporting eyeball things!!

They are all hurdles, but none that cannot be surmounted -- and with how far the Vile Fiends and the drifters who accompany them have already come since that fateful way this strange, ancient place was discovered, they are all obstacles that can, and will, be overcome. And overcome they must be; Atlul, the Seraph presiding over the Water Trial, is nowhere to be found at its entrance, and there is no sign of hint of his presence even with a cursory sweep of the outer perimeter of the water-drenched shrine.

Deeper, then. Deeper, through the shrine carved from the very rocks themselves. Deeper, down past the winding, ramping pathways, towards a long hall framed by frothing waterfalls. Deeper, into that last antechamber.

Deeper...
      ... into the arena of Asura.

At the very center of this shrine is the chambers that once served as the final battleground of Asura, the Shepherd-turned-Hellion in the face of an impossible task. It is a large, perfectly circular stone arena set in the middle of a tremendous cavern and suspended by in the middle of the moist air by six stone pathways connecting it in a ring to the rest of the cavernous shrine. Runes are carved into the stone of the arena grounds, speaking of a time long past.

It is here where Asura was faced, once. But Asura here no longer. Nor is the Seraph Atlul, still nowhere to be found.

Instead, there is one person, kneeling in the very center of the arena. She is waiting here, her hands resting atop her thighs, one gloved and one armored. Her head is lowered, golden bangs tipped in white spilling over her features. In front of her, the sword Joyeuse is embedded in the stone of the arena. Beside it rests its companion, the shield Pridwen.

The Prime Lord Liath is waiting here. For you.

And the palpable tension that rings the spiritual air of this sacred space speaks to the fact that it is not for a peaceable encounter.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    IN THE PAST...
    
    Next to Liath, on the fountain's edge, sits Ragnell. She has no hat. Instead, she wears faux leather gloves and an indigo tunic with gold embroidery, a long ribbon tied around her neck, black slacks and brown boots. With a curling half-smile of her own, she too watches as the humans bustle throughout the promenade, going about their lives not knowing that two "divinities" actively watch over them.
    
    "That's thanks to you, you know," she replies. "You're the one who's been giving them your blessing all this time." She chuckles, bowing her head. "...It's not so often you see humans giving prayer to us Seraphim these days. Or maybe any days," she adds in a musing tone, remembering tales her mothers told her about ages past. "The world might be ugly, but I'm sure as long as you're here, they'll be just fine."
    
    ---
    
    IN PRESENT DAY...
    
    At least the music's nice, though.
    
    Yes, sure enough, as Drifters traverse deeper and deeper into Lefay, the Water Shrine, they'll hear a melody warbling like water. Is that... a piano...?
    
    Wait, actually, no, it's a harmonica.
    
    It trills and soars and thunders with a power that could only come from a being that doesn't need to pause to draw breath. This being sits back-to-back with Liath; where she faces the incoming Drifters with hands near her knees, Ragnell faces away. Her paired pistols remain holstered at her hips, but they are very there, especially as Ragnell's melody wafts into a close.
    
    And then: silence.
    
    Tucking the silver harmonica into her travel pouch at her back, Ragnell touches the brim of her feathered cowboy hat as she glances over her shoulder. "Looks like we got company incomin', Li," she drawls in the accent she deliberately picked up sometime during her hundreds of years of life. "Jus' like you figured."
    
    She chuckles then. "Well, not that it takes a genius t' figure a bunch o' Drifters travelin' around to gather gems from the Shrines would be comin' to the newly-liberated Water Shrine. But still, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel Armitage had a rough go of it in the process of helping kill someone much like herself. The only natural choice after that is to go to the moon and just let Filgaia sort itself out for a minute.

Marivel didn't arrive with the Fiends. She appears in a flash of light, seemingly ignorant of the showdown that's about to occur. She takes a few steps forward, something resembling a tricorder in her hands as she guides it around from side to side. She frowns at it, looks up, and startles upon seeing Liath kneeling there with Ragnell

"Liath..." She smiles. "How strange it is to see you here--" She steps forward, then hesitates.

There's tension in the air. Marivel slows down, cocking her head. There is a kind of absence in her eyes. A wallpaper pulled free. It isn't because of Liath's presence.

But she does say, "Ah, now is it? Did you forget my promise? You could have sent a...text..."

Something dawns on Marivel's face and she brings her hand to her forehead.

"...Nevermind, tis I who am to blame."

Her gaze drifts to Ragnell and says, "Why, you never mentioned you were such a capable musician. Using your unique physiology to perform unique melodies. My compliments."

She vanishes in another flash of light because why walk when you can teleport--and this time she appears next to Liath, on the other side.

"I did not really come prepared but an evaluation before the exams would not be remiss."

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia knows Lefay...

...and sort of despises it, with the treacherous teleporters and the like. But, she knows why they need to come. The last gemstone; the one that will unlock the way to Pentagulia, through some ruin known as Artorius's Throne. Talia doesn't ask questions, though. She walks and walks, until they come to the arena of Asura, and she stares for a moment. No Asura; no Seraph Atlul. She frowns, as she looks about, and then settles on a familiar sight.

Her red eyes widen; then, they narrow.

She doesn't speak until Ragnell finishes playing. She takes a deep breath, and then she looks at Ragnell for a moment, then Liath. She smiles, then, after Marivel speaks. "Well..."

She trails off. "...I guess I know what the trial here might be, no?" she says. "Unless... you're planning to stop us, instead?"

<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Jean's been through Lefay before, and may be again. She doesn't hate it; she doesn't like it. She's... thinking, instead. She has a lot to think about, after all. But in the present day, after all these obstacles, after many drinks and thinks, Jean arrives at the central chamber. And there, she hears... music.

Ah, Ragnell's harmonica. Jean recognizes it pretty well, but she has a feeling...

That she isn't here just to play music.

"Marivel?" Jean wonders, and sees her change and reappear; she looks to Liath, thoughtfully, then around to the others.

"...Well," Jean says, "Whether they're here to stop us or to test us, it doesn't make a difference."

The dancer pulls her fans, not a set of claws, and rolls her shoulders, limbering up despite the cold down here. She is in nondescript trveling clothes rather than one of her special dancing outfits, but it will not especially slow her.

"...We have to get Lucia to Pentagulia. That's all there is to it."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Seraph Lanval may not be someone assigned to overseeing a Trial, but even he notices there's something a bit different in the air. Not... a bad different, but different enough, compared to the last time everyone miraculously survived into a place that in theory shouldn't have existed here.
 
     He also learned that apparently the seeing eye things can't see through bubbles, and has used this knowledge accordingly. It would've been nice to know that last time.
 
     The harmonica's music is striking well before one reaches the arena where Asura was once present as part of the final test, and Lanval's among the first to approach the arena.
 
     "Mmmm... the lasht one, but there ain't been anyone ta receive ush," Lanval remarks, leaving the 'until now' unspoken as he takes a seat on the ground to hold his drinking gourd and take a sip, as Jean and Talia both lay out what must happen, and what may be about to transpire.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Been a dog's year since I've been down here, right."

    Lefay was the last stop.

    For most in this room, that is -- Josie has her own reasons for walking this path than the others seeking the holy city of the goddess, and thus has but one more to visit on her own trek after this one. It won't be a long journey from here to there, at least, but once the end comes...

    ...is not at all what is weighing most heavily on Josie's mind at the moment.

    She has rather more friendly memories of Lefay than most, the conditions at the time aside and all that. After all, she got a cool chilled flask out of the business.

    "Don't remember the music, the last time. Is nice enough, though!"

    The source will make itself plain in time. As will those accompanying it.

    "Let me guess," Josie says to Liath and her allies. "You ain't just on your own pilgrimage this time 'round. The Water Seraph here couldn't make it?"

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro's grateful to Summoner Yuna for giving them the opportunity they needed. The Water Shrine is a known quantity, he's been through it once before, this trip through it is thus much shorter with all of their combined experience. Yes, even the teleporting eyes.
 
The harmonica offers the telltale sign of what's coming in this central arena. The challenge before is long gone. What's replaced it is...
 
"Ah." He shouldn't feel especially surprised, but he is a little. After all he's seen of Liath being a part of these trials, never trying to stop them. And now... with Ragnell at her side.
 
Ruby stops short in mid-air. "Again!? Ragnell at this rate you need to offer punch cards. Present a full card and get out of one surprise battle free!"
 
Hiro though, doesn't try to talk Ragnell out of it though, shockingly. He's been through enough of these trials to know what's going to happen is just going to happen. Instead he actually addresses to Liath, "Just tell me one thing if you can. Are you doing this for Althena? Someone else? Some duty I can't possibly understand? Or... yourself? If this is going to happen, I'd at least like to get some sense of what you're fighting for here."
 
In the end, it feels like he knows so very little. However, his hand rests upon his blade hilt. And he looks sidelong to Jean, before nodding, eyes hardening with resolve. "Whatever it is, there's no way we're letting you stop us here - but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter."

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret is not a fan of this place.

Not at all. Is it kind of pretty? Yeah, sure, okay, other than the HORRIBLE EYEBALL MONSTERS.

Margaret honestly doesn't care a lot for Spira in general -- too many bad memories; the Mushroom Rock Road, to her, is a place where she lost friends, whatever the beauty of its stone structures may be. It will be a long time until she gets over that. Perhaps she'll live to see it.

But the rest of the journey is a little easier; for Margaret, with her current blade (Steel's Kiss II, glistening with a somewhat provisional attempt at an enchantment etched into the blade - you have to shoot the shot you have, after all) is able to guide herself through this place.

And thanks to the gift of someone she lost, she can take someone else with her.

"This one's miserable," Margaret says at a jump. She reaches over to take a smaller, but comparably witchy hand, and looks over. "You have my permission to whoop," Margaret says, before leaping off the ledge towards the treacherous jump -- and simply FLASHING in a glistening spark of green lines, the South Sea ring on her other hand sparkling in turn as she simply *zooms* through air once, twice, and then with a slight tumble at the end.

"Listen to that," Margaret says. "Someone's playing something, somewhere."

Down further -

Margaret, who is walking around with her sword out and the blade resting on her shoulder right now because she feels like it, enters, tapping the flat of that blade on an armored space of her gently reinforced dress. "I'm hoping that this is going to prove to be a singing contest," Margaret says. "And if that wasn't your plan, I'd urge you to take half an hour to change your plan."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida vividly remembers the last time she was here. She and Zed and Gwen traveled these halls, accompanied by her teacher's teacher--and she remembers the tricks and traps. She remembers, most vividly, the battle with Asura--she purified him then (or did she? this place is full of illusions, who knows if that was a test, too?), and gained, as proof of her courage, an icy replica of his blade.

    Ida doesn't know what to do with it. But as she strides down the final length of hallway, following the music, she thinks back to it. Ida's lips pull into a thoughtful frown as she looks at Lanval, and nods. "Altul is... elsewhere. Asura was desperate to find him, and he would've, had he been here." Ida remembers the glimpses of memories.

    She's no Shepherd, though the Asura(-apparition?) mistook her for one. She wears a capelet over her black and gold Lunarian attire, but it's jet-black, and edged with embroidered flame. Her footfalls echo through the hall as she approaches the two Seraphim she expected to find. A lump forms in her throat as she sees Liath, and it only tightens as Marivel appears. Ida does not think she's been betrayed, just yet, but Marivel's agenda is very much her own.

    "Prime Lord," Ida says, her voice as calm and even as she can manage. She bows to the two Seraphim, because she can read a room, and this one is screaming "a final test of your prowess". Part of her is eager for it.

    Ida reaches out a hand, and ice curls around her fingertips. It solidifies into a hilt, then a crossguard, and then a blade: the icy replica of the blade Asura used as Shepherd. "We're here."

<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

It feels like it's been an eternity since Layna went through Lefay. It was a desperate escape from Sin, at the time, and through the trial her latent ability to utilize water magic was unleashed. A lot has changed since then, and it took a desperate struggle against Solaris to open the shrine up to them once more.

A lot's happened since then. But none of that matters now, as Layna follows that harmonica through the halls of Lefay. It leads them all to an arena, where two Seraphim are waiting for them - and are soon joined by a certain Crimson Noble.

"Don't worry. I get the feeling they've already got somethin' in mind." Layna comments with a glance to Lanval, before looking back to the three who stand in the center of the room.

"Marivel, Ragnell, and... Liath, right?" Layna greets with a tip of her hat to each in turn. Marivel and Ragnell she's familiar with, but Liath she only knows through reputation. "So what's the plan? We gonna rumble, or did you have something else in mind? Lay it on us."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "... Guardians... barely any of this is ringin' a bell..." Gwen runs a hand through her curls and grimaces, as they make their way through the temple. "I *know* we went through here, but at the time, I was 'bout ready to keel over." She remembers them getting to the end, being cold, and being... at the Thames. Where she first got Halcyone, in fact! Good times. "Ida, weren't you there too? You must've been the one who helped the guy that was there."

    She's quiet, glancing towards that familiar head of hair. ".... Liath." Another memory, of the Seraph in the ran, shielding a small child. She looked so radiant, so beautiful.

    And then, the harmonica-- ".... Ragnell." Gwen breathes out a sigh, and musters up a grin. Jean's correct. They have to go forward. Hiro, meanwhile, has questions. "... Things are gonna get harder from here on out, so... glad you two are the ones seein' us off. If we can't get past here...." Gwen remembers Ragnell's words about the goddess Althena, offered long ago. It formed one of the largest reasons Gwen decided that it was crucial that she accompianed the Fiends for that final meeting, when they all gazed upon the goddess. ".... If we're gonna dance, well, it's only proper they get to call the tune."

    Someone with no attachment to any sort of goddess would be the best one to act, if she had to protect them. But, really, at this point, is Gwen's presence even going to be needed? They have so many more people here, and have seen so much that's dislodged their understanding of both their worlds.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    In the past... in the past...

    No! In the present,

    "Hmm hmm mm~ o/`"

    The strange witch walking beside Margaret is humming along with a vague, far-away tune. Magilou's fingers lace through the other sorceress's, and she squeezes it, just so, just once. Then Margaret opens her mouth, and Magilou ceases pronouncing a note in order to give her the most sceptical expression. "Well now you've given me permission I certainly will not be --" blink! FLASH! zoom! tumble!

    "WHOOP!"

    A beat, as Magilou rises from the ground. "That was a reflexive whoop, I'll have you know," she insists, like a cat who'd just been sighted falling from the fence. "Happens automatically, regardless of the situation."

    Magilou continues sauntering on beside Margaret through Lefay, anyway. She doesn't have a sword, enchanted or otherwise. She does have a very broad, very jointy two-pronged hat. It's a witch's hat, not a jester's hat. These are witch's books on her book skirt, too. Get it right. To the chamber --

    "Ah! Your turn, is it?" Magilou asks Ragnell, brightly, and immediately. "Well, not that I can blame you. Besides, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some frustrations to work out on your girl here for stealing you away, five hundred years ago. You know our act was unique!" She tosses her hand through her hair, and huffs. (It falls right back into her face.)

    To Liath, she smiles, and adds: "... but you know, I would love to hear your answer to Hiro, here. Kid's got a good head on his shoulders, now and then. What's your current heading?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

'You could have sent a...text...'

"Ah? My apologies! Is there a manner of tomb you require--?"

'...Nevermind, tis I who am to blame.'

"...?"

This is Liath's brief look of sincere befuddlement that inspires her to finally glance upward from her meditative position. But, when Marivel teleports to her side, any of that confusion melts away into something else: a guileless sense of appreciation.

"... I suppose not," she murmurs, her voice for her companions alone. "You've my gratitude yet again, Marivel."

But the others arrive in short order. The Vile Fiends, those who have chosen to support them... and others yet still, with agendas all their own. Despite herself, Liath cannot help but smile a small, almost rueful smile at Ragnell's remarks as those bright, gold eyes close once more.

"No need for genius," she concedes simply. "It was a natural assumption; all roads ultimately ended here, to get to where they wish to be. We are at the end of the line."

And when those eyes next open, gentleness and amusement are replaced by the unyielding edge of steel as they turn the intensity of their gaze on those who have come. They gentle, only briefly, as Layna offers that simple gesture of respect.

"That is I. And you are Lady Layna, yes? Your reputation precedes you. As does your strength."

'Unless... you're planning to stop us, instead?'

'Whether they're here to stop us or to test us, it doesn't make a difference.'

"Lady Jean is correct." They are the first words that Liath provides for those who have gathered. Her gaze turns briefly towards Talia, and then Josephine. A frown settles upon her lips.

"No. It is no pilgrimage, Lady Josie. Nor is this the Shrine's trials you find yourself at, Talia. It is the inevitable endpoint of when duties lie at cross purpose."

Armored and gloved hands press firm down upon her thighs, and with a smooth, graceful motion, the Prime Lord rises to her feet, taking her shield with her as she goes.

"I have watched you all, as you pushed through these trials. I needed to be sure -- of the threat you posed. Of what you could accomplish. What you could be capable of, if all the gems were placed in your hands." Ornate, ceremonial shield affixed to her gloved forearm, it is her armored hand that comes to rest on the pommel of her embedded sword, metal fingers clenched tight around it. She pauses, as Hiro asks that question. As Magilou chases it. Her head dips, briefly, lips pressing to a line.

"... Indeed he does, Lady Magilou," she concedes, earnestly, before that gold gaze turns Hiro's way. "Marivel and Ragnell's choices are their own; I would scarcely begin to dare to presume command over either. Nor would I dare to thieve Ragnell -- such would be an act far too complex--" just what is she picturing here--

"... But for me... This is for my duty, Master Hiro. But do not misunderstand: this is -my- choice. My choice, for the sake of my passion. For the sake of what I hold most dear, for the sake of the world the Goddess wished to build upon this star... I must stand in your way. But do not mistake it: this is my choice."

It is a broad sweep of her shield arm that sends light fracturing outward. Ribbons of it coalesce, until they all form into a simple, modestly-sized bauble of blue, floating in front of her. It is beautiful, in an ethereal way. Like it hovers between an inexplicable, paradoxical point of being simultaneously fluid and solid. A liquid crystal of water.

"I have passed this Shrine's trials and earned the right to its gem. There shall not be another of its like made, for any of you. I have impressed the severity of your goals upon Master Atlul. He shall not grant you it, no matter what you might do."

A single gem. One, final piece to the puzzle -- and only one that can be taken.

Liath's shield sweeps between the gem and the drifters. In the next moment... it is gone, again.

"... I did not wish it to come to this, but you have all come too far. I shall not do your will a disservice question your resolve to continue. I know well how much you have all given up to make it to this place, in this day. So I will say but this."

Her hand grips upon the hilt of Joyeuse. And with one, resolved motion--

"I am the Seraph Liath, Prime Lord of Althena! To those who would try to breach the sanctity of her throne, know that this day, you are my enemy! If you falter here, I will show no mercy, and doubtless she who sits upon the throne shall provide any better! If you wish to press upon your path -- then it is we three you must overcome!"

--rips it from stone, its sharp blade set aglow with a flush of prismatic fury.

"So come, then! Break yourselves upon my shield, should you dare it!"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Marivel compliments Ragnell on her musical prowess. Ragnell makes a face, then shrugs. "Isn't not knowin' everythin' someone else is about part o' th' fun?"
    
    Though as Marivel has her own exchange with Liath about texts, Ragnell just grins and grins. She wasn't really planning on having a third someone around today... but hell, it makes Liath happy, so why not. Marivel's a sight better than Agatha ever was, at least.
    
    Likewise, she smiles back at Liath's humility. "Sure 'nough."
    
    Ruby complains at Ragnell for her presence, though, and she chuckles in response. "Not a bad idea, but are you really surprised? This *is* a trial, an' you know I'm all 'bout them trials." She laughs outright at Margaret's quip about singing contests. "Wouldn't that be nice for you!"
    
    She rolls forward onto the balls of her feet and rises, then turns and faces the group, meeting Talia and Jean's eyes, then Layna as she greets each of them in turn. She quirks a half-smile as Magilou complains airily of her getting stolen away. "What can I say? She's got an *amazing* rack," she drawls back, just as airily.
    
    She doesn't *say* that Liath completely outclasses Magilou in that department. But it sure as hell is *implied*.
    
    Beyond that, though, she doesn't respond further for the moment, though Liath's claim she wouldn't presume to thieve her gets a snort, and she does give Margaret and Magilou together a curious eyeballing. This is primarily Liath's show; she's just here to support her. ...Well, and to shoot a bunch of people. Support is sometimes a violent thing.
    
    And so, as Liath cries out her defiance against the Drifters who would assail the Goddess, Ragnell draws her pistols and twirls them in her hands before lifting them to aim. "Don't really care none 'bout the Goddess neither way," she drawls. "But I *do* care 'bout Liath, an' that's just gonna have to be y'all's problem."

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Why?" Marivel asks Jean, eyes briefly slanting to Talia before back to Jean. "Why do you have to get Lucia to Althena? To save the world? To stop Zophar? Why hasn't Althena stopped Zophar already? And how would she even stop such an entity in the first place?" She looks to Ida for a moment, her eyes slanting to the blade in her hands. "But you are correct, it scarcely matters if it is trial or an attempt to stop you, it amounts to the same in the end. I myself made a vow to not let these two fight on their own. I take my vows nearly as seriously as a Seraphim would. All told, t'would be very inconvenient for me if you fell here. But surely..." Marivel smiles coldly, fangs showing. "I have not overestimated you that much, have I?"

She answers Hiro even though the question is for Liath. Is she doing this for Althena? Someone else? Some duty he can't possibly understand? Or herself?

"Yes." Marivel says. No extra assistance here.

Marivel raises her hand over her head and snaps her fingers resoundingly. A pair of clocks made out of eldricht energy ripples into effect over Liath and Ragnell's heads. And Marivel's own. "Of course, Venetia really reinvented the wheel with her trick here but I must commend her ability to bring this mystic art to a modern sorcerous platform. By delaying the emanation of a spell you can instantly cast it at some future point, oblivating the risk of having your spells disrupted by bullets and stabbing implements and the like. And of course, a clever sorcerer might think 'ah but what if I cast a spell as another one of my spells is going off?' Well you'll see in practice."

She looks to Liath and nods, "Of course."

She looks to Layna and Hiro.

"Fire tested your care for your companions. Ice tested your memory and your ability to move forward. Wind tested your compassion. Earth tested your love for the land. Light tested your faith and the Dark tested what you hid from yourself. The good and the ill. And lightning..."

She trails off there. What did Marivel learn at the Shrine of Lightning?

She doesn't share it.

Instead she summons Guillotine in her hand in staff form and slams it down.

She smiles at Ragnell and simply nods her agreement. Sure nuff indeed.

"I care a lot but you knew that. But that is not why I am here today."

Technically it IS but she didn't expect to come to work today.

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia glances at Layna, for a moment, and then her head tilts to the side. "They're not bad people," she says, "but--I'm guessing they plan to put us through the ringer, no?" She cracks a smile, then she looks back at the two Seraphim. She takes a deep breath, aware that Jean is here too; a lot of them are here, too. And Jean has the right of it.

They have to get Lucia to Pentagulia. They have to get to Pentagulia. There are questions that wait for them there.

She glances sideways at Hiro, before she nods after him. She shares that sentiment. Then, she looks at them. "Guess we'll have to keep up with the tune, then, hm, Gwen?"

She looks back at Liath. Her expression is hesitant, for a moment; duties at cross purposes, she thinks. She frowns, then her fingers curl a little bit more around Mirage's hilt. The sword lay sheathed at her side. Liath explains her duty -- and her belief in the Goddess. Something sits in Talia's stomach; something cold and angry, something furious with the world, and she finds no answers.

Not in the cruelties visited on her brother.

    Not in the words or eyes of her father.

        Not in love, family, or friendship.

Talia draws Mirage with a flourish. The divine arm's runes glow red, the magic imbued in it leaving a trail of shadow wafting after. The short sword spins in her hand, before she lifts the weapon and points it for Liath. "I've business with the Goddess. Questions about her world. I care for you, Liath... but..."

Her expression hardens. "...Nothing will stand between me and the chance to ask them!"

She holds out a hand. A magical circle -- light blue -- flares up under her feet, filled with triangles and Althenan runes. Then, a spear of ice appears before her hand, and launches at Liath like a rocket.

GS: Talia has attacked Seraph Liath with Freeze Lancer!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath suffers a terrible blow from Talia's Freeze Lancer for 93 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Jean meets Ragnell's eyes before she looks back to Hiro, nodding his way too. "It's just how she is, Ruby." Jean doesn't sound angry, or even bothered. If she's upset, she isn't showing it. But she does wait for the answer to Hiro's question, and when she says it's her choice...

"...It's our choice, too."

Se finds interesting th way Liath went about this. The way Liath handled the Shrine, and the other Seraph. There is no other way to get it, it seems...

But Marivel has a good question, too. And Jean looks back to Marivel, with a nod. "Because I believe in Lucia," Jean tells Marivel, with all the certainty of the mountain in her voice. "And Lucia says that's what she needs. So... Whatever Lucia needs... I'll give it." A beat, as she looks to her friend. "Right, Hiro?"

But Ragnell draws her pistols and twirls. "...Doesn't bug me who you care about," Jean says with a wink. "You are who you are. That's something I like about you. So..."

"Here goes."

Jean abrubtly starts the step of a dance, twirling her fans before her and whirling about, calling up the magic of the night. Soft blue light begins to waft from her, and a soporific cloud of the same rushes for Ragnell, spectral sheep dancing through it.

"Let's see if we can still keep up!"

GS: Jean has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Dream Dance!
GS: Jean has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    This ain't no pilgrimage, to put it plainly. Instead, what the Seraph Liath intends with this is--

    Josie raises a pale eyebrow, her eye on that stone as it appears, the evidence that Liath has done just as she claimed. "Well, ain't this a how-de-do," she remarks blandly enough. Her shoulders rise and fall in a light shrug and she reaches up to draw her black shotgun from where it's been holstered. "Fine then. The business of the goddess ain't no concern of mine, right, but I'll dance with you and yours. Ain't a proper trial without the tryin', yeah?"

    She glances Ragnell's way as she makes a statement similar enough to Josie's own. "Right you are. And I don't think we ever danced proper-like, yeah? So, how 'bout it? Let's see how good you are with those ARMs," Josie says, stepping up in about the same moment as someone else does.

    "Well, well. Been an age, feels like. Always wanted a professional as a dance partner. Jean, wasn't it?"

    She brings the shotgun up and about, bracing herself for the shot that's to follow.

    "Let's get goin'!"

GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Figure of Eight!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Shieldbreak expired!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has canceled their attack on Seraph Ragnell.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Figure of Eight!
GS: Shieldbreak expired!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has canceled their attack on Seraph Ragnell.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Figure of Eight!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    ".... Wait. Three?" Marivel is over there too, but she's not-- Oh. Oooh. That's what Marivel meant when she said... right. Gwen laughs. "Man, y'all know how to throw a party for us. I mean, got three different flavors of what we might be goin' up against."

    'But I *do* care 'bout Liath, an' that's just gonna have to be y'all's problem.'

    Ragnell gets a sympathetic look. "... Fair's fair. I don't wanna tangle with her none. Marivel either." And Ragnell....

    The way Gwen lingers on the cusp of some foolhardy statement betrays that Ragnell is no exception to this group of people Gwen would be reluctant to fight, each for their own reasons. But if she hesitates now, she'll be of no use to any of her friends.

    Gwen throws a grin Jean's way at her comment towards Ragnell, and gives a nod to Josie. "Then let's do this dance all proper-like, while the night's still young!" Or day.

    ...... what time is it, exactly

    As Jean twirls, Gwen jogs to the side, the long ends of the yellow scarf around her neck starting to trail a flame behind her as the courier. Where there's smoke, there may be fire....

    ... but surprise, it's a feint. The spark of ignition is the only fire here, coming from Gwen's right palm as she quickly extends it out towards Ragnell.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Comet Clip!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro gives Liath his earnest attention as she speaks. Ragnell and Marivel both he has a better sense of perhaps, what motivates them, even if so much is left unanswered. Liath though? The Prime Lord of Althena? She remains wholly a mystery to him. And thus, hearing it's her duty - and - her choice heartens him. However his brow furrows on a single word.
 
'wished'
 
The world the Goddess wished to build. The past tense of it. He doesn't remark upon that, he just finds himself dwelling upon it. And how it relates to Liath.
 
"If that's it... I can think of no better reason to fight for." He says in sincere admiration, "Save one."
 
A small smile plays upon his lips. It's is not him saying he has an objectively better reason. He's just someone who knows little of duty, save what he's learned from others on this journey bound by it. It's just, he has his own personal reason.
 
Liath announces her challenge, and he is has grown far too accustomed to this. Being the enemy of someone he has no desire to be enemies with. In this moment though, it's true. Because she stands in the way.
 
Ruby complains a bit more Ragnell's way, "Yeah but the WATER trial? Come on! You're diluting your brand!" Then as she explains it's because she cares about Liath, it's like Ruby deflates a bit... "D'awww I guess I can't stay mad at you for - WAIT YES I CAN!"
 
Marivel though poses a question of why Althena hasn't, and Hiro gives Jean a smile, meeting Talia's gaze in that moment of shared understanding, before nodding, "That's exactly it." Before he gives Marivel a genuinely sad look, "Once upon a time, you put your faith in Althena. How long did you keep that faith, Marivel? If you think you're going to sway me so easily after I've put my faith in Lucia, then you have another thing coming."
 
Before he adds to her, "Is the Goddess all powerful? All knowing? After everything we've gone through - I don't think so. And you know that she isn't. We're facing a God of Destruction here Marivel. Why isn't that your focus?"
 
His sword comes out, and suddenly he starts to break in a run, the wind whips up and suddenly he's right next to Marivel, thrusting his blade towards her belly. She's a Crimson Noble, he isn't worried about giving her a mortal wound, "Althena isn't our enemy. You should understand that better than anyone!"

GS: Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Hurricane Thrust!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro has entered Avenger Stance!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval meditatively continues to sip from the gourd as feelings and wills are explained, and for a time he could be confused for being a passive overseer of a Trial. He is a Water Seraph, after all, and this very place thrums with the categorical aspect of nature as defined by Althenian sorcery. He doesn't speak over nor interrupt the passions of those who say their reasons for being or fighting.
 
     "Mmmm." His eyes open, half-lidded, observing the dancing of light and color by blade and board of Seraph Liath, Prime Lord of Althena after one last sip.
 
     "It'sh kinda the thing, ain't it," Lanval starts to stand up. Passive, calm, rather than fiery and defiant. "Ya put it like that... the Goddess is everythin'. The whole world, everything on it, all it'd matter ish if she alone were happy. That everythin' she got goin'... ish all that needsh ta be done."
 
     Lanval spills some water on the ground from the gourd. It is not that of the purity of Althenian water magics. It has a bit of everything in that liquid mass. Some things that smell sweet, sparkle, and look beautiful. Other things that... aren't.
 
     The Water of Filgaia.
 
     "'n all of ush... we've been beholdin' shtuff beyond all we were told, 'n shown." Somewhere in this, a small number of ambient pyreflies have found their way into the water, as if to accidentally illustrate the point. "The Blue Star... Spira. Guardians... Sin. Aeons... 'n people that ain't even from here or there."
 
     Lanval reaches down to swirl his hand in there, a Seraphic Arte glyph pulling all of it into his hand. (Except for the pyreflies, which he makes a light-hearted gesture to 'shoo,' and really are only denied just by yanking the water away from them.)
 
     "Fightin' fer the Goddess 'n her world... that'sh one thing." He says, as the mass of water rests in his free hand. "But Her world..."
 
     He throws that large globule of water at Liath with a decisive, sharp sweep of an arm - the disciplines and energies of two different spiritual entities in that one mass of water that has a bit of everything in it.
 
     "It'sh bein' shared by more 'n Her and Her faithful."

GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Liath with The Nature of Water - Everything Gets In It!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Unlike so many here, Ida's grievances against Althena aren't personal. Her duty to ARMS means she might not be able to join them when they infiltrate Pentagulia--but they're her friends and allies, and she wants them to succeed even if she can't help them personally.

    And there's another layer to this, too. Ida is no Shepherd; she is something new and largely untested. Perhaps it's a pride thing--or, more charitably, a self-confidence thing--but she wants to pass these trials.

    The heiress lets the others speak, as is only polite. Ragnell, Marivel, and Liath get her full attention, though in lulls, Ida finds her gaze drawn to the faces of her friends. Layna is Lanval's dear friend, and hates tyranny; Lanval suffered greatly as a result of the Church's misdeeds. Hiro and Jean have been running from the Guard and sheltering someone that Althena calls 'Lord of Calamity'. Talia's father tormented her and her brother both.

    Ida glances to her right, and to her left. "Remember why you're here," she says, and the sword's blade comes to rest in her other palm. "Remember what's at stake." Ida sweeps the icy weapon out in a showy stroke. "Forward!"

    The blade shatters. Its fragments blow back, and fall upon Ida's skin, sinking in. As Liath brings her own weapons to bear, Ida rushes forwards, closing the space between them. Rather than lead with a punch, she twists to the side, starting the circle-walk--she takes smooth steps around the Seraph, hands weaving through quick, light strikes. Each one is a test of her defenses.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Seraph Liath with Water Dragon Form!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has entered Stoic Stance!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell fully evades Jean's Dream Dance for 0 hit points!
GS: Seraph Ragnell partially guards Josephine Lovelace's Figure of Eight for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Hiro's Hurricane Thrust for 196 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Hiro!
GS: Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Comet Clip for 70 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam and Weaken applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Seraph Lanval's The Nature of Water - Everything Gets In It for 68 hit
points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

"Aye. Can't really blame 'em, though. There's a lot ridin' on this, aye?" Layna replies with a grin and a shrug toward Talia. She looks, then, toward Liath.

"In the flesh. A pleasure." Layna replies with a nod as Liath acknowledges her. "So does yours. I hear you're pretty good in a fight."

She looks toward Ragnell, and then to Marivel. She made a vow not to let them fight on their own, huh...? Layna massages the back of her neck.

"Guess we're in the same boat, then. Me, I don't think I've got anything to say to the Goddess. ...But, these folks do, and as captain of a vessel, I've got a duty to make sure they reach their destination." Layna replies.

Marivel reiterates, then, what each of the trials up to this point has tested them on. She summons her weapon, then, and slams it down. In response, Layna cracks her knuckles.

"Had a feeling this'd happen between us sooner or later. Guess it's for the best it's now. Wouldn't want to come up wanting, aye?" Layna says. She glances, then, toward Lanval.

"Good luck over there, Lanval! Holler if you need me!" Layna calls over to her friend, before charging at Marivel!

She doesn't know what to expect from her, so she starts out simple - coming in for a quick, sweeping punch.

GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Marivel Armitage with Swab the Decks!
GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Magilou laughs, eyes falling on Marivel. "So, you're faciliating, mm? I wonder what ghouls have settled in your heart to bring you here..." And then she gasps, pointing at her. "Hey, wait a second! You're the ghoul! This is ghoul recursion!"

    Oh good, Magilou still has her sense of humour.

    And then Ragnell stabs her in the back when she's not looking!! "Egads!" Magilou yelps, a hand grasping at her chest, as if she's just been shot in the heart. "Such treachery! Who needs you, anyway?! I can always find new talent! You know Margaret here can sing and act?" She gestures to the Black Pearl, with a flourish.

    Magilou grows a shade more serious, though, hearing Marivel's questions -- why do the Fiends have to get Lucia to Althena? Why hasn't Althena stopped Zophar? Why...? "Why, indeed," she murmurs. Call it a favour, she thinks, and does not say. A favour to an old friend...

    But the past is the past, and the present is right here and right now. Right now, as Liath draws her blade from the stone, and Magilou smiles. "Lo," she remarks, fondly -- "she inherits the kingdom."

    Her mysterious eyes -- half of green and a little of purple, all infringing like a cloud hanging down -- fall on Talia's determination, as she answers Liath's own will. For just a moment, for just an eyeblink, she is sad.

    "Duty and choice have such an interesting interplay," Magilou muses -- and with a little twirl, there's a shikigami paper doll spinning, lazily, beside her hand in the air. (They're possessed of minor spirits themselves, you know. Magilou is a witch in eternal seance.) "The promises we make are such a lattice across us, over the centuries... you should be congratulated for capturing your autonomy through such a hedge maze, Prime Lord."

    Her grin is entirely savage.

    "Oh, she who sits upon the throne would scarcely recall my warmth, I'm sure. I've no doubt the mercy that woman metes is sharp as your blade! But if she wants to kill me, first... she must catch me."

    Magilou looks to Lanval, head canting, with an easy grin. "It's a good thing you're here," she asides, to the Water Seraph, "even if this is more of a vacation home for you at this point." She summons up a watery Seraphic glyph of her own, about her feet. "Hope this works... Aqua Split!" She incants, as a sphere of water -- of course it was water, it was always going to be water -- flows out to crash towards Liath.

    She grins, to Liath, sly, after her attack. "Buuuut... you know, stealing Ragnell is quite easy. All you have to do is be a hot little thing doing what you do," a thing she curiously leaves undefined, "and a few centuries later, we end up right here!"

GS: Magilou has attacked Seraph Liath with Aqua Split!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou has entered Avenger Stance!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
During the journey, Margaret answers Magilou with a squeeze of the hand and a slightly misty glance. "Of course," she says softly. "I wouldn't dare think otherwise."

Now:

Margaret frowns slightly at what Magilou says, which is not a rare occurrence, but she glances at first Ragnell then at Liath, as if doing some figuring in her head. This stops her from tapping her sword on her shoulder. This does not linger long. Liath is speaking.

Her airy words aside, Margaret's expression becomes grave. Though something Liath says - 'the world she wished to build on this star' - on Filgaia, Margaret has seen many wonders. She has heard Marivel speak (usually kind of bitterly, let's be real) about the 'Althena' that Margaret has known, and how this wasn't the 'real' Althena - or at least had changed enough to be unrecognizable.

Ragnell stops her from mulling that wine much harder. "It would be," she answers Ragnell, followed by a thin-eyed glower at the rest of what she's saying, tilting her head back and bringing her sword off her shoulder, raising it to point at the Seraph--

at which point Marivel chimes in with some nonsense about Literally Who, and Margaret's eyebrows twitch because her occult senses are refined enough to follow along with all of this even if her teeth grate at the prospect of 'held spells'.

"Well how NICE for you!" Margaret answers Marivel, before--

Magilou speaks and Margaret sputters for a moment, train of thought and attention lost for a moment. Her face reddens, hard; hard enough to reach up to the tips of her ears. She doesn't speak anything coherent in reply, other than raising up her blade, and with a forceful exhale running forwards to vault forwards, leading with the tip of the bastard-sword as she lunges!

"And the faithful have their OWN questions to ask, I shouldn't wonder!" Margaret says, and if it's kind of a non sequitur, well, she got thrown, not every ad lib can be perfect.

GS: Margaret has attacked Seraph Liath with Put The Pointy End In 'Em!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    "Awww, shucks. Sweet o' you, Jean," Ragnell drawns, grinning when she says she likes that she's herself. This Lightning Seraph might be a fickle, two-faced, mean-spirited, bitter backstabber, but there's a certain honesty to her about it. She never apologizes, because that places the burden of the wrongs she does others on them. She won't apologize, so there's no need to forgive her.
    
    She does give Marilou an arch look then when she play-acts at being through with her, though there's a sparkle in her eye that indicates she's as serious about this as the ancient witch is. "Lots o' folks can sing an' act, Magilou," she points out, smirking at her and Margaret both. "Most people don't have t' take five hundred years t' find it, though."
    
    Josie weighs in on the matter, and Ragnell smirks. "We sure haven't, come t' think," she replies. "Lot o' the battlefields we shared, we were on the same side. Though I've never really thought o' you as an ally, an' I 'spect the feelin's mutual." She tilts her head to regard Gwen as she admits she's in no hurry to fight Liath or Marivel. "But you're chompin' at th' bit to get a piece o' li'l ol' me?" she wonders, eyes sharp with understanding. She barks out a laugh and adds, "Well, that's jus' fine by me. I'll dance with all y'all!"
    
    Ruby meanwhile complains that she's diluting her brand. Ragnell shrugs. "Hey, Ru, ain't my fault y'all had to do this place last. But feel free t' stay mad!" She shoots her a wink and a wolfish grin. "You're cuter when you're mad~!"
    
    Hiro she says nothing to. She trusts that he and Liath and Marivel will work this out just fine. The same for all of them, really.
    
    It's kind of annoying like that.
    
    Jean steps into a soft, sultry dance, calling up the power of the night through her fans to send a soporific power Ragnell's way. Under other circumstances, it might work better, but she's fresh into the fight, and lightning does tend to give a *jolt*. Ragnell's able to shake that power off--for now. It does at least keep her distracted long enough for Josie to open fire with her shotgun, something that Ragnell takes head-on with arms crossed. That mitigates the force of the blow some--but it also *further* keeps her attention forward, long enough for Gwen to run to the side and hurl a fireball her way. It smashes into the Lightning Seraph, staggering her back a step or two as the flames engulf her.
    
    But her body isn't a physical one, and while she does stagger back--while the pain is real--the damage looks only cosmetic. A pock of bullet holes, a scratching of char. Ragnell herself is grinning like she's enjoying it.
    
    She charges over to Gwen first, since the courier, in flanking her, brought herself closest to her. Once she's close enough, she feints a pistol-whip, then actually brings up a leg to lash out at her with a vicious kick. Then she twirls back and around, and unleashes a rapid barrage of lightning bullets, rat-ta-tat-ta-tat-tat-tat-tat, one gun after another, upon Josie--the force of them might be enough to knock her back, too. After that, she focuses her weapons in on Jean as a bright light coalesces in the muzzle of her gun; an instant later, a laser beam fires out at her.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Pummel Kick!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Cessive Bullet!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Jean with Tempest Laser!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has entered Stoic Stance!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Jean takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Tempest Laser for 89 hit points!
GS: Marivel Armitage fully evades Layna Manydays's Swab the Decks for 0 hit points!
GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Cessive Bullet for 59 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Seraph Liath critically guards Magilou's Aqua Split for 18 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Margaret's Put The Pointy End In 'Em for 50 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"That answer right there is why I cannot let you pass." Marivel says to Jean. "That kind of unflinching faith will destroy you." Marivel does a pretty good job at this despite not even expecting to come in today.

She turns to Ruby and admits, "...You've got a point. But don't worry. I have plenty of water elemental spells. We can put the RAIN in RAINbows. It's fine."

Hiro assures her that it won't be that easy to shake his faith in Lucia. "That word again. Faith. You are giving her your faith, but is that what Lucia needs from you? Maybe what Lucia needs is a friend, someone who is willing to argue with her, someone who is willing to share their DOUBTS, someone who actually WONDERS what she's up to!"

Marivel flips her hair with her hand. "The you who exists now would be eaten alive. You might not need to think about these things because 'you believe' and 'have faith', but I assure you Zophar is. He's shown himself to be that kind of being. You can have 'faith' in anyone you don't even know. True companionship is hardly so easy, Hiro."

Layna comes in with a punch. Marivel brings up her hand and catches it with her hand. The clocks tick down gradually.

"Now that I can respect," Marivel tells Layna. "But as you say, I cannot simply let you go on without your passengers now can I?"

She pulls Layna in and bares her fangs but before she can do anything--

Hiro comes in, slamming his blade into her belly. She grimace. She might not be 'killable' through such methods but that hardly makes them 'fun' for her. She can feel pain just fine.

"You're right. Althena isn't. Or shouldn't be. As I said, creating a world like Lunar should be well beyond her ability. And yet, here we are. You breathe air stolen from FIlgaia."

She pushes Hiro back, intending to steal his sword with her stomach. This is the kind of cheap tactic you can do when you are a Crimson Noble!

"Whether Althena is our enemy or not is immaterial. Would you like to hear a story, Hiro? One I've repeated again and again but with a bit of a new twist?"

She Aports herself backwards, away from Layna and Liath as a pair of pails comes crashing down for their heads!

The timer on those clocks continue to tick down.

"And perhaps once you've heard it, you will finally understand."

GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hiro with Augmented Aport!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Layna Manydays with Augmented Aport!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
GS: Hiro solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Augmented Aport for 58 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

Jean glances back to Josie, and grins. "That's right. Today's your lucky day." And a laugh to Ragnell. She appreciates that honesty. ...She appreciates Ragnell's freedom, though she would never take the same paths that she does to achieve it. Nevertheless, for one who spent much of her life in service to a hated ideal... That freedom is attractive.

But Jean knows her own heart, much better than she did years ago. And so she'll fight.

She leaps gracefully out of the way of he laser--or well, she jumps, expecting that it's going to be lightning bullets, and mostly gets out of the way of the beam, still hit hard enough that she almost spins out and has to catch herself on her hands. She springs upward from there, and back again.

"You can still surprise me!" she says cheerfully. Her body is a physical one, but pain doesn't slow her down any, and the burn obvious on her leg doesn't stop er. She steps to the side--and begins a faster, more furious dance, delicate somehow despite its speed. Purple light whirls about from her position, and becomes a swarm of violet-and-black butterflies which obscure Jean entirely before they rush towards Ragnell, venomous dust sprouting from wings of shadow.

"She's earned it!" Jean calls back to Marivel, of her own faith. "There are worse things in this world than being destroyed!"

GS: Jean spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Jean has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Butterfly Dance!
GS: Jean has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
GS: Layna Manydays suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Augmented Aport for 133 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

Light Seraph though she may be, but Liath's will, the intensity of her presence, is as crushing as the deluge of a waterfall.

'She's got an *amazing* rack.'

"--What?"

... if not a waterfall that can be momentarily stalled in confusion.

"... Its conception was a labor of love to be sure, but it is far from something to be amazed over; there are still considerable faults in its make, and I have yet to master something of such size and scale--"

--

"--in my efforts at c--"

Clarity falls by the wayside, however, the second Liath feels the swell of Althena's magic pulsing through the air. Her gaze is instantly upon Talia, tracking it straight to its source. Sword swinging to her side, Liath elects to charge that source -head on-, choosing a full offense rather than defense. Her shield rises, but not soon enough to keep that spear from striking her dead on in her sternum; ice shatters across sturdy, spiritual flesh in a splintering of cold crystals blooming outward from its impact point. Liath falters in her charge from the force.

But she does not stop.

"I would ask for no less!"

The liquid rainbow that coats her sword shines bright as she brings it about. And the swing of that weapon is as artful as a dance, spinning a full, 360 degree arc the moment she has pierced Talia's defenses --

--shedding all that prismatic power into a sharp, circular arc of a rainbow that burns bright through the blue-tinged air of Asura's lair as it seeks to cleave into the former assassin.

"Is it yet still the ugliness of this world that you see, Talia?"

Liath lands from her short forward leap with a flourish behind Talia; the rainbow glow of her sword has been relinquished with that strike, her shield held at the ready. It is Lanval's words, however, that next draw her attention. Those gold eyes track towards the Oracle of Schturdark, turning towards the swirl of water formed in place by glyphs between his hands.

"... The strength of water is its adaptability," she murmurs, pivoting smoothly to face her fellow Seraph. "And yet, in some ways, it is more inflexible than any other element." Pyreflies sweep outward -- and that sizeable sphere of liquid is -tossed- at Liath. She reacts instantly, shield rising to meet it; the water CRASHES against her bulwark -- and the torrent of its elemental fury is enough to send her shield arm swinging -wide- open as she staggers backwards, one step, and then another.

Her words are put on pause -- a fact that is inevitable, as Ida's forward charge takes advantage of the opening provided by the Water Seraph. Light strikes impact against Liath's body; her ribs, her sternum, her stomach. Yet it is like striking steel; there's a density to the Light Seraph that belies the ephemeral nature of her element.

Her body is spirit. Her spirit is unbending.

And her resolve is unending. And that is what makes the Seraph recover in such a terrifyingly swift matter of seconds as Margaret and Magilou spring forth in tandem with might and magic, respectively. Liath tilts her blade. Her gold eyes narrow.

"Lady Ida," she says in those seconds before the offense is renewed. "What is it that -you- see in this world--?"

And then, water; Liath's shield shoves -forward-, to create space between herself and Ida. "Then perhaps to fall to me shall be a greater mercy!" she calls -- and it is her blade, not her shield, that swings. It cleaves into that flow of water, cutting it -clean- in twain. Half of it crashes into her in a motion that yanks her back to her right. The rest?

It catches along the edge of her blade.

And begins to swirl around it, like a helix. She spins, and as Ragnell fires her laser, Liath catches the ambient, electrical might of -that- as well along her blade, using it to conduct through the serpentine paths of water that flow along Joyeuse and amplify both in turn.

"And what should you do--" she begins to Margaret, sweeping low. Her shield deflects the lunge of that blade; it carves across Liath's shoulder viciously.

"--if the answers you seek are not that which you desire in your heart?"

And then, that blade -SWINGS- up.

Electricity, conducting through water, is released.

And between Ida and Margaret, a BOLT of Light and Lightning is unleashed like a smite from the unseen heavens above, cracking into the stone grounds beneath them.

Water is released from Joyeuse; prismatic lightning still dances chaotically along the blade's shining edge as its tip touches stonework.

"... Oracle Lanval. What is it you believe the Goddess desired from this land?"

The circle of Liath's blade along the ground forms runes. And those seraphic runes are reflected in the air behind her, creating a circular glyph of gold and sapphire.

"It was nothing, Lady Magilou," she insists, finally, ever humble to the very end. "My desires, and my duty, are ultimately simple ones. ... Though they have caused much pain, in the end."

And then... her words fill the air.

                       "Power from beyond the veil,
                             banish darkness!"

That glyph sears bright.

                             "Divine Streak!"

And a beam of pure, brilliant light, coruscating colors through gold to blue to violet, BURNS a path -- straight towards Magilou and Lanval both.

"--Hot... little thing?" Her brows screw together.

"--a crepe--?"

GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Boss Action!
GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend!
GS: Seraph Liath spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Lanval with Divine Streak!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Magilou with Divine Streak!
GS: Seraph Liath has entered Hero Stance!
GS: Seraph Liath spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Lightning Tiger Blade!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Margaret with Lightning Tiger Blade!
GS: Seraph Liath has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Talia with Shimmer Spin!
GS: Seraph Liath has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Margaret takes a glancing hit from Seraph Liath's Lightning Tiger Blade for 79 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Hyper, and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval solidly guards Seraph Liath's Divine Streak for 102 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Magilou takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Divine Streak for 171 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Talia partially guards Seraph Liath's Shimmer Spin for 113 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Gwen Whitlock partially guards Seraph Ragnell's Pummel Kick for 67 hit points!
GS: Weaken applied to Gwen Whitlock!
Marivel Armitage (Marivel) pages Seraph Liath and Seraph Ragnell: you cool with a buff next round? (it's a lot of temphp
and a couple buffs)
Seraph Ragnell (Ragnell) pages Marivel Armitage and Seraph Liath: fine by me
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Lightning Tiger Blade for 124 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Jean's Butterfly Dance for 255 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Seraph Ragnell!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Mm. Quite a bit. Some of it personal, some of it more important, no?" Talia says to Layna, before she looks back at Liath. Ida speaks to her -- and then charges in. Her eyes narrow for a moment.

"Oh, I remember," Talia answers Ida.

Liath charges through her icy spell. Shards of ice fly each way, as Liath closes the distance with her quickly, and brings Joyeuse around. She brings up Mirage; the short sword meets Liath's blade, two swords clashing together with a spray of sparks. Liath's blow strikes so hard, so mightily, that it makes the bones in Talia's arm scream with pain and bounces her sword backward.

The arc of prismatic light launches off Liath's sword, slamming into Talia, and pitches her back bodily. She flies backward, but hits the ground in a three point stance. Her hand and boots scrape across Lefay's floors.

"It's not easy to look past unkindness, Liath," she answers. Her voice is quiet, when she speaks. Then, she turns, as sees Liath turning and charging for the others. Though, at the word 'crepe,' Talia's eyebrow twitches for a moment.

She lunges in for Liath, charging at her side. As she gets closer, she leaps. Mirage slashes up, trailing shadow and crimson light after. Talia's leap rises to its apex -- and she does a tight turn, before the swings her blade back down, with a cry: "Tiger Rage!"

GS: Talia has attacked Seraph Liath with Tiger Rage!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Pleasure's mine. Don't think I've ever seen you dance proper-like," she tells Jean.

    It's been a minute since she's even last had Gwen as a dance partner, on either side of the dance floor. Her eyebrows lift and she presents the younger woman with a smile best subtitled as 'mischievous'

    "You've got it in one," Josie tells Ragnell, smiling lopsidedly. "No love or hate lost, here. However it goes is however it all goes, right?"

    In other words, let the chips fall where they may.

    However short the moment may be, Josie takes good advantage of it, opening up with quick salvo as if to test Ragnell's reflexes.

    Ragnell doesn't hesitate in kind. Josie would even be impressed, if she weren't a little bit busy with the 'not getting shot up' part. Ducking and weaving through the torrent of bullets sees her well -- or at least well enough, no thanks to the pair of bullets that take out an earring on one side and slice her cheek on the other.

    "...Cuttin' it close, eh?" Josie says, lifting the fingers of her right hand to stiffly brush against her shattered earring. Damn, and she liked that pair.

    But easy come, easy go.

    "Right then! Let's see about... this!"

    She drops back a step, and if Ragnell's tricked by the low angle of her rifle... that is in fact the intent. Her aim shifts upwards in an eyeblink soon after, targetting instead one of Ragnell's own weapons.

GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Scorched Wing!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath suffers a terrible blow from Talia's Tiger Rage for 112 hit points!
GS: Slow applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Seraph Ragnell partially evades Josephine Lovelace's Scorched Wing for 87 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Marivel gets under his skin with that remark about Lucia needing a friend, as something hardens in his eyes, "You think I don't? I just also give her her privacy! It's hard for her to share things, express things. When she does though, I'm there! I let her know I'm there each and every day. How many of you facing us now don't share everything about what you're up to? What you're thinking? All three of you!"
 
There's certainly some truth to what Marivel says, he just doesn't realize it, in part because sometimes he doesn't understand what Lucia is really trying to say. Hiro continues countering however, "You act like true companionship is something I need to insist upon, whether she thinks she wants that or not! You think I don't think about these things? That I just 'stop thinking' because I believe in her? I'm just not as cynical as you are. And I get it! I get why you are! That doesn't mean I have to be though!"
 
Marivel though offers a new story, a new twist on the tale. His attention is so focused on her that one might think that pail is gonna come down on his head without resistance. And then he swings his sword up, catching the pail by its bail and swings it aside. It still knocks him on the head just from the momentum of gravity, but he prevents any embarrassing Looney Toons moments. Even as his other hand throws something.
 
"Sure-"
 
That Boomerang though splits, and each one seeks to converge asynchronously on Marivel's position.
 
"-tell me."
 
Maybe he's listening, but that doesn't mean he's holding back. It's a trial, and Marivel isn't going to let him just pass it by holding back.

GS: Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Cross Boomerang !
GS: Hiro has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Hiro's Cross Boomerang  for 144 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    'But you're chompin' at th' bit to get a piece o' li'l ol' me?'

    "Of course," Gwen shoots back, cheerily. "I know you can take it. You *are* real welcome t'say uncle at any time, tho~"

    The comment is light, but it doesn't obscure the fact that Gwen shot first, at first seemingly with fire, for all the smoke and spark her scarf conjures. It'd be hard for Gwen to subject fire to anyone just yet, even if her abilities extended past the enchantment of her scarf. Not even Ragnell, who would probably enjoy a bit of spice.

    Ragnell knows all Gwen's tricks, unfortunately. Gwen may have to spice things up on her end as well.

    'Its conception was a labor of love to be sure, but it is far from something to be amazed over--'

    Gwen stares out at Liath, distracted for the moment. ".... beginnin' t'see why you're fond of her, Ragnell, oh!"

    Ragnell's now close and personal with a trick of her own, the pistol managing to half-fool Gwen into reflexively bringing her left hand up to try to redirect the blow, like she's seen Fei do once or twice. Thankfully, Gwen's laughable attempt is not tested, as instead Ragnell's leg comes up, managing to barely meet with Gwen's midsection. "Gh!" Gwen spits out, doubling back a step as Ragnell's rebellous rampage of rambunctiousness rolls on.

    "Let's try this on f'size," Gwen yells, grabbing out with her right hand towards Ragnell, hand held in an open-handed punch. "Gimme your best shot!"

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Return to Sender!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters a Counter stance!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Return to Sender for 159 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
.13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk)<{ Talia (Natalia) }>13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk) 13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT).
| Pronouns: She/Her                          Class: Assassin                   |
|     Race: Human                         Hometown: Ostagovo Manor             |
|    Theme: Dream Chasers MUSH              Wanted: No                         |
|     Role: Drifter                           Type: OC                         |
-13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk)<{ Quote }>13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk) 13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)-
| "You are wrong, no? It all means something."                                 |
-13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)~~<{ Profile }>13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk)-
| Once, Talia was an assassin in the employ of Lubov Yemelin, a nobleman from  |
| Pendrago. She was the bastard daughter of Lubov, used as an assassin because |
| he saw little use for her. She resigned herself to that life, while clinging |
| to the twin brother trapped there with her. One of these jobs went wrong in  |
| the best possible way, though, and several of her friends fought to free     |
| her. She is not yet sure that she deserves to be free -- and she fears for   |
| her brother, who she wasn't able to bring with her -- but she has a shaky    |
| resolve to try to make something better of her life. Talia still uses ice    |
| magic and her short sword, Mirage, a strange blade with teleportation magic  |
| enchanted into it.                                                           |
-13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk)<{ Groups }>13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk)-
| Vile Fiends, Wayside Outreach, Caravan Kinship, and Tomamond                 |
'13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)13:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)Dispellado (talk)'
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida does not relent, even as Liath holds firm. Her hands would protest, if they weren't hardened by years of martial practice; each jab, palm-strike, and knife-hand has no less force behind it than the last. She sees a flash of pink and black out of the corner of her eye, and darts to the side, letting Magilou take point--

    And then Liath retaliates. The Prime Lord's shield slams into Ida's crossed arms, a loud CLANG echoing through the arena as exoskeleton forms to meet it. Ida skids back a good foot or so, teeth gritted. Her shoulders sting from the impact. But Liath doesn't merely offer violence--she offers a question. Ida answers without hesitation. "Great beauty," she says, "and great injustice, never far from one another. A million little contradictions. Life."

    Buckler-sized exoskeletal shields push out from Ida's forearms, and she raises them as the lightning gathers on Liath's blade. Once again, she meets the Prime Lord's power with Hyadean flesh, but she has nothing to ground her--the blade carves a deep rent in the biometal, and the lightning rips through it like it's not even there. Smoke rises from Ida's form as she stumbles back, fingers twitching. "Ghk," she chokes out, through a jaw that just locked up on her.

    Talia speaks to her. Ida focuses on that, and breathes. "Good," the heiress says. "I know you've got it in you." Her eyes narrow as she settles back into a fighting stance.

    "This world will never be perfect," Ida continues, turning back to Liath. "But nothing is. No one is." And again, words of conviction pair with a physical strike. As Talia rushes Liath, so does Ida, in an attempt to force her to react to one or the other. Golden-bright light (with an inner core of Fafnir's flame) flickers around her hand as she drives fingers towards Liath's sternum. Should it hit, the power snaps off and sinks in, burning its way into the Seraph's corpus.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Seraph Liath with Searing Ember Strike!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

Marivel catches her punch, and Layna offers her a grin in response.

"Not bad, Marivel. Knew your magic was something fierce, but I see you've got the physicality to back it up, too." She praises. Marivel pulls her in for a bite... but thankfully, Hiro is there just in time with a sword! Layna backpedals, offering him a nod of thanks.

Marivel aports back and Layna moves to pursue - but, she finds her path already predicted, and a pail dropping on her head for her efforts!

It... really stings, actually!

Marivel says she has a story, one she's repeated but with a new twist. It's meant for Hiro, but Layna would be lying if she said she wasn't interested.

But there's still a fight going so she moves to keep on the pressure. She doesn't know what those clocks are for, but she doubts it's anything good - it might be wise to do what she can against that.

So she charges Marivel again, this time coming forward with an open-palm strike, and a stealing motion - looking to steal away some of her power and add it to her own.

GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Marivel Armitage with Plunder Power!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Layna Manydays's Plunder Power for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Weaken applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: Mighty applied to Layna Manydays!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret, leading with the tip of Steel's Kiss II, is given a challenge. Her expression darkens with thunderous fury. She reels round. Why so angry?

Well, she's mostly embarrassed, which is displacing itself into anger rather than delight, right now. But what's more is that she has to deal with a very good question which Liath raised with incisive speed -- the speed of light, one might say.

"Then I'll cry until I look like a miserable mess, I imagine," she answers hotly, "and then I'll keep living my life as best as I can!"

As plans go it does have a certain plausibility to it.

Thunder crashes downwards, bursting and smashing into the ground near her - attracted no doubt by what is definitely not Non-Conductive Material's Kiss II, in part, and making the sword bobble in Margaret's hands. Her own affinity to the thunder helps, as does experience, but electricity is never *pleasant* to touch on these scales; she forces out a breath, shaking her head once, and skipping to the side as Liath gathers her magic.

WHICH ISN'T VERY PROTECTIVE OF HER IS IT? But perhaps this is just her way; she swings down several times in a rough X, concluding the 'asterisk' with another lunge, all with the sword held with both hands; "But then, I have that luck, don't I? I *do* get to keep living my life!"

GS: Formation! Margaret has attacked Seraph Liath with Manual of Arms!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath takes a solid hit from Margaret's Manual of Arms for 90 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Searing Ember Strike for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple and Disease applied to Seraph Liath!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    "...Getsh pulled apart, shaped by everything 'round it," Lanval murmurs back, remembering much of his teachings to Ida about the nature of water. How some of it, on face value, might seem sad, unfair, or debasing - but that water is what it is, and its part and place in nature. Liath's gold eyes meet his half-open ones (that are not gold), and he holds his place as others have their say, and their movements...
 
     But no part of this conflict is at rest, as Liath begins her counter-offensive in earnest.
 
     Elctricity courses through the impure water, evaporating it - and the beam of pure, brilliant light turns what remains into scalding steam as it races towards Magilou and Lanval alike.
 
     A Seraphic glyph forms underneath Lanval as he holds out a hand and conjures what would be his shield - pure, clear water - which mitigates but does not halt the beam's impact as it pushes him back against the stone of the arena, steam rising from the metaphor of his appearance and slightly shortening his voluminous, waterfall-like beard as Liath seeks answer to her query.
 
     "Growin' up... I wash told She loved the world, wanted ta keep it happy... shafe." He reflects upon how much of it was a product of fear, being so 'little' even if he had greater power than his peers for his age. (It was said - perhaps jokingly - he was almost too lazy to exist, that his very mana had to be coaxed out of the Earthpulse lest it sink back in there and not take life. The Seraphic equivalent of a stillbirth.)
 
     "That She loved the mortals sho, doin' ash they do. 'n back then, I wanted ta do my part. Keepin' that part of Her world shafe from Malevolence, 'n all." The story is well-known. He held down that part of Meribia for half a millennium and some change, no matter how... wild, things got. (Short answer: yes, yes yes, very yes, far too much yes.)
 
     Lanval's expression hardens, as sentiments alone aren't enough to hold against the Prime Lord of Althena. They may be equals against a fell force that corrupts their own kind and others, but in terms of combat discipline and power between them...
 
     "After sheein' how bringin' her Guard on my place made that part of Meribia lessh shafe, watchin' Malevolence build 'n creep up where it shouldn't, well." Lanval moves forward at last, skipping along patches of water that still exist from the periphery of Magilou's own water-based offensive, sure looking like in movement he might be frolicking along in a place that ought feel like a vacation home to him, leaping up on high, in a pirouette...
 
     As he snaps out that drinking gourd like one might the head of a mace, bearing a far greater mass and weight than its humble size appears, going for that impact.
 
     "'m believin' whatever she wantsh, she losht her grashp on the li'l joysh that make up life fer everyone!"

GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Liath with Layabout's Lariat!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Liath goes on about her rack, and Ragnell just grins and grins. "Ain't she *adorable*?" she gushes at Gwen, color rising in her dark cheeks.
    
    She grins too as Jean cheerfully admits she can still surprise her; she grins at Josie when she concedes she's fine with there being no hard feelings about this battle; she grins at Gwen when she says she can take what she dishes out. "Y'all are too kind," she drawls in good cheer. And as Josie thinks to herself: "Easy come, easy go! However it goes is however it goes."
    
    Her eyes narrow. "...but you better not think I'm gonna go easy on y'all 'cuz o' that. I don't care 'bout the Goddess, but I *do* care 'bout you knuckleheads gettin' somethin' out o' this. I ain't here to waste my time."
    
    Jean hurries up her dance steps, now frenetic and violent and yet delicate. That purple light coalesces into butterflies and swarms Ragnell like venomous servants unleashing their dark flame. As she struggles within the flock, Josie, bloodied and earrings shattered, aims her rifle into a feint that shifts into a shot towards one of her pistols. Her aim is good at first, but Ragnell's already whipping around thanks to the flock, and what would've been a disarming shot instead only ("only") gashes a bloody streak along her arm.
    
    When she emerges, Gwen comes in and gets revenge for earlier with a powerful--POWerful--hit on her jaw, snapping Ragnell's head to one side. It's a deeply unpleasant motion, the kind where one might wonder if they're still alive afterwards. She staggers back a step, two...
    
    And then she laughs, more power coalescing and charging in the muzzles of her guns. Rather than firing at any of her active opponents, though, she shoots... towards the ceiling. A black thunderhead instantly erupts overhead, and a miniature thunderstorm rages down onto Jean, Josie, and Gwen with all the fury of hail, lightning, and a torrential downpour.

GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Storm Shot!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Storm Shot!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Jean with Storm Shot!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a solid hit from Seraph Lanval's Layabout's Lariat for 146 hit points!
GS: Riposte applied to Seraph Lanval!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Magilou grins, entirely too sly, as Liath supposes she might be the one to mete out mercy. "You're welcome to try. You'd hardly be the first of the faithful to go on a witch hunt. I'm a thousand years old, Liath!"

    There's no sense keeping that secret; it's long since slipped.

    But -- Liath asks her questions, and finally gives Magilou a statement, instead. "Every action on this earth can elicit pain, you know. It just depends on whether you acknowledge it... or deny it." She hops back, from the burning light -- not quite quick-steppingly enough to avoid The Light Which Burns, and it sizzles at her detached sleeves. ("Ouch!", she exclaims, parenthetically.)

    The bright sparks remain, on the tips of her fringe, on her hat.

    "Oh, no," Magilou winks, on the topic of the crepe. "You can't just go telling us all Ragnell's cute little pet names. I'll never let her live it down!"

    She smiles, looking aside to Ida. "Protecting an imperfect world..." And to Talia, "... though it's so hard to forgive the imperfections." Back to Liath, as she gestures, with an open palm. "They're great, huh?" People, presumably.

    Her mysterious smile moves to Margaret, here, and -- no, it's not particularly protective, but Magilou's survived for this long. "That's the blessing of the survivor," she agrees, vaguely. "To live on, in the new world." She looks, aside, to Lanval. "To decide on your own path..."

    Magilou laughs. She enjoys fighting beside Lanval, really; she's quite enthusiastic about little joys. Even if everyone else isn't quite as happy about what brings her joy, all of the time. Close enough.

    "Now!" Magilou declares, sharply, as she blows a kiss to Liath. "With a single breath, they appear!" 'They' are those shikigami spirits, a half-dozen paper dolls erupting up to try and juggle Liath. "Here they come! There's no stopping them now!" Magilou points, and the dolls move to toss Liath up to the sky -- to zero in on her in a bright, white explosion, entirely akin to fireworks. "Good Grip!"

GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Seraph Liath with Good Grip!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
GS: Josephine Lovelace suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Storm Shot for 310 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Magilou's Good Grip for 98 hit points!
GS: Jean suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Storm Shot for 297 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jean gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Too true," Marivel admits of Jean. "But I won't stand for your destruction."

Marivel cracks a smile as Hiro says he gives Lucia privacy but he doesn't answer it. "Is it hard for her to share? Or does she simply not want to? Are you respecting her privacy or are you simply frightened by the prospect of not liking what you hear? I am not asking these questions to harm you, Hiro, I am asking them because you must grapple with them honestly. Without pride. That you narrow your eyes in costernation, it speaks that you are not ready to stand by your answers. Your truths must be as self evident as speaking as to the color of the sky, come to you as easily as the water in a storm." SHE IS TYING IT BACK TO THE ELEMENTS YOU SEE. "And you cannot reach that without doubt, Hiro. A doubt that chases at your heels, ever ready to devour you."

This isn't Marivel's true test. This is simply a vow paid forward. But perhaps with the help of today...

A boomerang is unleashed! Marivel twists to the side but it swoops around her and then catches her across the back. Ah, yes. It does that, doesn't it?

Marivel is caught in the chest by Layna before she can drop down. She bowls over from the strike as she draws some of a Crimson Noble's power for her own. Marivel looks visibly weakened. And she exhales softly. "Alright."

She straightens up. "Once upon a time there was a brilliant woman named Althena. She was one of the kindest women you could know. She taught children. She was absolutely brilliant."

"She took two children under her wing. Anastasia and a particularly grouchy vampiress named Marivel Armitage. She knew more than they could ever know, but she knew dark times were coming... So she prepared their souls."

"Anastasia, the stronger of the two--her soul would grow powerful enough to wield the Airgetlahm. Tis what we call a Guardian Blade. It feasts off the soul of its wielder so only one with a powerful soul can wield it. In turn, it grants the power to channel the strength of the souls of others into its blade and in doing so, unleash the ultimate power. The Arc Impulse. the greater number of souls channeling their power into the blade, the more powerful the result."

"Marivel Armitage was already a powerful warrior, but her heart wasn't strong enough. So she taught the vampire music, taught her about love, taught her about friendship. In doing so, Marivel Armitage grew to learn what was truly important. But yes, she too had absolute faith in Althena. In Anastasia. In herself."

She brings her hand up, preparing another spell through the use of Guillotine as a focus.

"Then the end happened. Althena saw Filgaia as a lost cause--and even if the world survived, what kind of life would that be? She begged Anastasia and Marivel to come with her but Marivel, who had just lost her entire race, wanted vengeance. And Anastasia would not leave her home. So they left to fight Lord Blazer and Althena promised to help them."

"......And she had to make a choice nobody should have to make."

Marivel gestures with her hand. "Her dearest companions." She guides her hand to the other side. "Or the people she vowed to protect."

"...Althena sacrificed her heart that day. She betrayed us, not out of hatred--surely not her--but to save your ancestors."

"Ancestors, who instead of channeling their power into Arc Impulse--something of insignificant cost to them but a moment of focus... They instead decided to betray Filgaia itself and flock to a new savior. Althena. The one who would help them flee."

"And they would forget Anastasia in time. Why remember the human they abandoned to her fate? The foolish one who thought she could battle a 'God of Destruction'."

Marivel's lips twist into a sneer. "Tell me, Hiro. Are you any different from them? Oh you say you won't abandon me, you would even try to save Ana if you could. But at the end of the day, even now, you seek a Goddess's power. You insist she sacrifice of herself for you. Why should I let YOU make any demands of her? You might not wish to answer now, Hiro."

"Because now the magic happens."

She snaps her fingers again and she channels the power of the BEHEMOTH KING.

"MIGHTY GUARD!" Marivel shouts as a powerful barrier ripples around her as well as Liath and Ragnell.

And don't forget about those clocks. They finish ticking down---and further augments pulse into the trio, further empowering them.

"Tis just the beginning, after all. A tale well before time."

GS: Marivel Armitage has activated a Force Action!
GS: Marivel Armitage spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Liath with Mighty Guard!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Mighty Guard!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Mighty Guard!
GS: Marivel Armitage has launched an attack Link!
GS: Marivel Armitage has entered Link Stance!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Delay! Attack greatly weakened!
GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Marivel Armitage's Mighty Guard for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Weaken removed!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Liath with Spells In Waiting!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Spells In Waiting!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Spells In Waiting!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Marivel Armitage's Spells In Waiting for 0 hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify and Regen applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: Marivel Armitage gains 60 THP from Regen!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
GS: Delay! Attack greatly weakened!
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Marivel Armitage's Mighty Guard for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Jam, Poison, and Weaken removed!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Marivel Armitage's Spells In Waiting for 0 hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Surge applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Seraph Ragnell with Counter Attack!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Storm Shot for 273 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Charge bonus activated!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Seraph Ragnell's  for 12 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

"Then keep your eyes open, Josie." Jean winks back at her, and continues her steps.

No love or hate lost... Hm. It's funny; the different relationships people have. If she had more time, she'd think about it, but she doesn't just now; she lets the thought wash over her, like Ragnell's cheerful return does. Because as Ragnell's eyes narrow...

"I wouldn't dream of it," Jean answers. And it's true! ...Which is a damned good thing, because Ragnell's counterattack is not 'going easy'. If Jean were just saying that, it would be a good time to rethink herself! ...But she's not.

No, her dance ends for the moment, because that blast of lightning slams into Jean and knocks her away some distance, hail and rain adding insult to the injury. She spins out, loses her balance, hits the ground, and rolls. All while Ragnell laughs. That thunderstorm...

"...maybe I like you because I speak that language too," Jean admits, and smiles over at Marivel because of her statement. She doesn't smile at the story, though. She watches Marivel for a moment, before she looks back to Ragnell. The magic happens...

That question isn't for her. She wonders, if Hiro will be able to answer it. But she looks to Ragnell, instead. "...I always liked how free you are," she says. "It used to be because I imagined what it would be like, to be 'free'..."

"But the bonds I've taken I've taken for myself. I've chained myself up, of my own will, to Lucia. To Hiro. ...To ending the Shadow Dragon, not because it hunts me, but because I won't allow what happened to me to happen again. But I realized... I could walk away from all of it. Nothing could stop me from that, anymore."

She rises to her feet again, slowly, ungracefully compared to her usual dance steps. "...I just don't want to. And that made me realize that I'm already as free as I want to be. So..."

She jumps forward, hitting the ground hands-first, springs up again, somersaults--and lands closer to Ragnell, starting to move around her. This time it's only like a dance, her footwork intricate, as she tests Ragnell's defenses and strikes at points where energy gathers, striking at the magic itself as much as at Ragnell. "Here I am." And then she strikes!

GS: Jean has activated a Force Action!
GS: Formation! Jean has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Feather Step!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
GS: Delay! Attack greatly weakened!
GS: Seraph Liath accepts Marivel Armitage's Mighty Guard for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Cripple, Disease, and Slow removed!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Seraph Liath accepts Marivel Armitage's Spells In Waiting for 107 hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz and Lock State applied to Seraph Liath!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

It's not easy to look past unkindness, Liath.

Talia and Ida lunge towards Liath. And they strike, perfectly timed at the end of the Prime Lord's incantation, to pierce -stright- past her defenses. Liath looks to turn toward them both, blade at the ready to deflect -- but it is much too late to stop Ida's fingers - even grazing - from burying that burning, crippling power into the spiritual form of the Seraph... or to stop the leaping sellsword from Rolance. Reds and blacks and other, dark hues rip into the side of the Seraph; the downward stroke -slices- into skin and green fabric, screaming brief across the metal pauldron of Liath's right arm. The Prime Lord grimaces, swung away and near to her knees --

"Why do you believe you must look past it?"

Before her sword -impales- into the ground, giving her an anchor with which to halt her momentum seconds before her booted heel pushes into Talia's sternum, intent less to -harm- and more to -shove- her back.

Sword -ripped- from Lefay's stonework again, Liath rises. A long, red path marks her skin from shoulder towards sternum, where Talia's blow struck clean. Her expression is resolute. And yet... the sincerity there is not just a matter of that unflinching, unmoving resolve.

"If you believe the scars of this star, the scars that mark your soul, are a thing you must simply push past -- you have no place standing before Pentagulia's throne, Talia."

Liath has made no secret her fondness for Talia. Her fondness for Ivan -- for every single one of the individuals that have gathered around the mystery of Tomamond. Perhaps even everyone gathered here.

But she holds back nothing in the severity of her words before she -pushes- the offensive she seeks to create in unseating Talia's footing. Liath's blade swings once, twice, thrice -- several times in swift, fluidly eloquent succession, looking to carve into Talia just as much as it carves a deep, dark blue sigil into the flesh. Whatever that sigil may mean, however--

--it is a mystery that is delayed by Margaret's words and actions. Just as a final stroke comes -- the former Guardsmen interposes between them, carving down that rough, powerful X of a strike. The blow strikes clean, digging into the shockingly dense fabric and denser flesh of Althena's Prime Lord, carving a shallow but noticeable wound through the torn material of her belted midsection. Those belts hanging cut and loose from her stomach, Liath -leaps- backward, putting distance between herself and the elf.

When she lands, it is with a simple smile. "It is more than luck, Lady Margaret. But would you test luck, bringing yourself before the throne after abandoning her Guard? Would you stake that precious thing on the horrors the faithful's wrath may bring upon an apostate?"

Magilou, of course, is an attack on two fronts. Liath is all but assaulted with uncertainty as to how to parse phrases like 'hot little thing' and 'cute little pet names'; they threaten a terrible self-destructive spiral of imagination-based cascade failures that, truly, Liath only manages to soldier through thanks to sheer, unrelenting focus on the task at hand. She has -so many questions-. But for now, she focuses on the one that's important:

'They're great, huh?'

Her smile is without reservation. Her words, doubly so.

"There is naught greater."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

It is Lanval's words, and his and Magilou's offensive, that next draw her focus. Her eyes narrow in quiet thought, as Lanval speaks. Her stance widens.

And, her expression resolved (save for a perplexed ??? of a blink when Magilou blows that kiss her way), she readies herself, blade beginning to glow searing bright.

It is Lanval, first. Lanval, who moves -forward- through the lingering water that feels so at home in this environment built to support and praise it. Within the focal point of his element, Lanval is indeed a force of nature -- one that Liath cannot reasonable muster a guard against in time. That gourd -CRASHES- into her shield with such an impact that the beautiful chime of it RIPPLES outward through the arena grounds; the impact -quakes- through her arm and LAUNCHES her into the air --

--whereupon, all those shikigami appear to aid in the task of keeping the Light Seraph aloft.

In the flurry of paper dolls, glimpses of Liath's blade parrying and cutting through the swarm can be seen here and there. It is glowing brighter. Brighter. BRIGHTER. Seeming to expand--
^r--before all of it is lost in the bright, awesome explosion of white that follows in the humid air above Asura's arena.

Light clings like a haze. Smoke whips about.

And the first thing that can be seen is a blade.

It is massive. Big enough to dwarf Liath herself, composed of churning light that booms like an angel's pinion around her sword. Countless colors swirl within its depths.

And as the smoldering form of the Prime Lord falls -- she sends that tremendous blade -CRASHING- down upon Lanval and Magilou, intent to consume and cleave them within its prismatic maelstrom, its explosive impact RIPPLING outward as it shatters into countless feathers of countless colors.

"... she has lost her grasp..."

From that haze of light, Liath rises. She turns, regarding Ida quietly.

"... This world is indeed imperfect," she concedes to both the Seer and the Witch. "To be otherwise would be to become something completely else." Her expression gentles, briefly, into a smile that rings of some mote of approval.

"... It is a world worth loving. And I believe it is a world the Goddess loved, with every ounce of herself. I believe that, with all my being. But..."

The tip of her blade lowers. Her words, when they come next, are for Lanval. For Ida. For anyone who cares to listen, who cares to consider.

"... how strong should be a Goddess' grasp on the things she cherishes? Ought it be tight? Swaddling and all encompassing, until her people are smothered within the vice of her compassion? How much should she love? How much should she protect? When one can protect against every fault... what else remains?"

Perhaps it is not as pertinent to the contemporary issues Lanval raises -- and yet, Liath says it as if it -must- be relevant, -now-. Her eyes close. Her blade thrums.

Her lips part.

"... I believe in her love. And I shall honor it, here and now."

And, as shields ripple around Liath courtesy of a treasured companion, as clocks tick down to embolden her further...

                     "O magnificent song of angels..."

Liath...

            ... sings.

               "Va Rei Zue Toue Neu Toue Ryuo Toue Kuloa..."

It is a haunting, beautiful thing. Loving, and yet sad, as its warmth trembles through Lefay's grounds. And with it is laced Althena's Blessing, undeniably. Love carries power. And Liath carries that power through the current of song to the ears of her allies, to let the pinkish hue that conjures forth from her melody settle into their souls -- to restore, and strengthen them.

It is haunting. But it does not last long, before another, echoing chant fills the air.

                         "O sword of conviction,"

Glyphs form, beneath Ida and Margaret, forming a prison of light. And from it, crystals of a myriad colors begin to BURST forth.

                "loose the might of your brilliant colors!"

Before a final, great sword of kaleidoscopic, rainbow hues CRASHES down between them like the smiting stroke of a wrathful god.

                              "Prism Sword!"

GS:  Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Talia with Condemnation!
GS: Seraph Liath enters a Counter stance!
GS: Seraph Liath has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath has entered  Stance!
GS: You cannot attack more than one target at a time with this attack.
GS: That attack doesn't exist. []
GS: You cannot attack more than one target at a time with this attack.
GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Boss Action!
GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend!
GS: Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Prism Sword!
GS: Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Margaret with Prism Sword!
GS: Seraph Liath has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath has entered  Stance!
GS: That attack doesn't exist. []
GS: Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Holy Song!
GS: Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Marivel Armitage with Holy Song!
GS: Seraph Liath has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath has entered  Stance!
GS: Seraph Liath spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Magilou with Heavenly Bladewing!
GS: Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Lanval with Heavenly Bladewing!
GS: Seraph Liath has entered  Stance!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

There is some shame in his face as Marivel calls out his pride, "You think you're the first to ask me these things Marivel? You're just the most recent. I've been grappling with these questions for years. Years. And I've watched her grow, with pride." Hiro pauses, "The only answer she might give that I'm scared of is a question I'm not gonna ask until this is all over."
 
And so the story is told. For this Hiro doesn't actually do anything but pace around her in a circle, sword held at a low guard. It begins how he thought it might. Though the tale changes when she comes to the Arc Impulse, it's something he's heard of before, though not the details.
 
And the twist comes, that the people that came to Lunar... were people that might have saved Anastasia.
 
"Not all of us have forgotten her." Hiro says quietly, "Because you've told us. And now it's a story that can be shared."
 
Though she then presents the question, is he any different from those who fled, merely for seeking Althena to save her?
 
Marivel says he might not wish to answer now. And perhaps he waits until the magic happens before answering, his eyes moving over to Jean, at her answer. And there's a wan smile, and a sharp intake of breath as he takes inspiration from it.
 
"Maybe I'm not in some ways." He admits after a moment, "That's certainly what it was at the start of the journey. 'Althena will fix everything.' Lucia being cursed, Zophar, maybe even Filgaia." He admits it, "Now, we just want to talk to her. What happens after? We'll figure it out then."
 
Hiro raises his sword in a more aggressive stance once again, "The kind of strength I'm seeking isn't just to get Lucia to Pentagulia, Marivel. It goes beyond that-"
 
Making a few gestures, inky blackness moves over his sword as he imbues it briefly with shadowy energy. Then charges right at her, at the Mighty Guard she erected head on. At the last second he slashes, and a wave of umbral energy tries to pierce right through it - her other spell enchantments, and her in that order.
 
"-make of that what you will."

GS: Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Dark Sword!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval fully evades Seraph Liath's Heavenly Bladewing for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Prism Sword for 170 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Seraph Liath's Holy Song for 98 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Lock State, and Surge applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Hiro's Dark Sword for 165 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Lock State removed!
GS: Hyper applied to Hiro!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Magilou has activated a Force Action!
GS: CRITICAL! Talia takes a glancing hit from Seraph Liath's Condemnation for 85 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: CRITICAL! Magilou solidly guards Seraph Liath's Heavenly Bladewing for 156 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Margaret partially guards Seraph Liath's Prism Sword for 132 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "Man, is this what it's like...?" It's not as if Gwen herself is an innocent lamb herself. But she's had her share of being teased, and not just by Ragnell.

    Liath is top tier tease material.

    The storm begins. The open hand, now primed and ready, reaches for the black thunderhead that forms in the sky above Gwen, Jean, and Josie.

    Unfortunately, this time, just like the first time Gwen and Ragnell ever met, Ragnell's divine lightning is still enough to overwhelm the Mockingbird's ability to process it and reverse it back towards the Seraph, coming off as nothing more than a rough cloud of sparks.

    Or maybe it was the truth Marivel reveals that makes Gwen drop to one knee, panting.

    Okay, no, a lot of it is still Ragnell. But it's all a lot to digest.

    "... I guess this answers the question about what Althena might even do for Filgaia, but... Hiro's right. I think the information was what any of us really want, in the end." Gwen's words are for Marivel, but they could as easily be towards anyone here. Hiro was the first Lunar native she ever got to know. That can count for a lot of bias when it comes to believing in him.

    Thankfully, it's Hiro.

    Gwen presses her right hand to her chest, gritting her teeth, channeling the energy into her core. Lightning spikes up the right arm, up her neck, and into her right eye, but no further.

    She's not going to make *another* trip through the Lefray shrine while being exhausted out of her mind. _Once was enough._

    Gwen forces a grin, the electrivcity crackling uncomfortably up the rail of her spine. "Thanks for the boost, Ragnell!" .... there's so many better ways of doing this, Gwen, and Ragnell didn't completely contribute to this

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Bounding Flight!
GS: Weaken expired!
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!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

Layna stands back, watching Marivel carefully as she tells her tale. A tale of a goddess, a saint, and a vampire... or, perhaps, a tale of three ordinary people, caught in an extraordinary situation that no one should have to deal with. She looks toward Hiro, then - and nods, at his answer. That's an answer she can approve of.

The bigger and more relevant question now, though - can Marivel?

Well. They'll see, she supposes.

"Good on you, lad. Seems like you've really grown..." She comments.

Powerful enchantments are brought into being around their foes - if they remain, this fight will become that much more difficult. So as Hiro comes in with his dark sword, Layna recites an incantation. She draws upon the water of the shrine, calling it to her side...

...And then, she charges Marivel down, her body twisting into a powerful punch. The waters she's drawn upon follow her movements, surging toward Marivel as if an extension of Layna's fist to wash away the magic surrounding her.

GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Marivel Armitage with Waterga Strike!
GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Layna Manydays's Waterga Strike for 168 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Amplify, Quick, Regen, and Shield removed!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Jean's Feather Step for 88 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Dispel! Infect! Burst, Quick, and Shield removed!
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Seraph Liath's Holy Song for 111 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Lock State, and Surge applied to Seraph Ragnell!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia glances at Lanval -- and wonders, for a moment. Is some of what he says why she couldn't manage his trial? Or, maybe, is it a wisdom he has that she doesn't? She feels a cold anger there, still; it's not one that she can shed easily.

It is hard to forgive the imperfections.

Talia looks back at Liath. Her eyes widen at that question. "What--what would you suggest we do, then?"

The Seraph kicks her, her heel slamming into Talia and driving the breath from her lungs. She sucks a breath in -- and it's ragged. Her eyes widen, though, at those words. She sees Liath's blade come down, three times. Mirage catches the first, with another burst of sparks. Talia sidesteps the second, the wind blowing her hair back.

The third cuts into her side, blood splashing onto the ground. Talia hisses, breath catching, and then Margaret breaks into the space between them and spares her a blow that might mean the end. Talia stumbles backward, hissing, and then she shakes her head sharply. She moves to the side, as the others engage Liath. The huge prismatic blade crashes down.

Talia rushes again, this time charging through the glowing motes in the aftermath of Liath's spell. They flow off her, as she comes at the light Seraph. "I'm not inclined to accept them, no? They have to be--to be changed, or--"

She lands in front of Liath, and then leaps up. Mirage slashes out -- and Talia does a tight spin, as a white blast of light fires out after. It forms a spiral, before Talia stabs for Liath.

And a bolt of energy explodes off the blade, shooting directly at the guard of the Seraph. "Light Spear Cannon!"

GS: Talia spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Talia has attacked Seraph Liath with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie's sole response to that is to flash Jean a crooked grin.

    "Heh." It's a rather different sort of grin that's directed Ragnell's way when she cautions them that she's not about to go easy on them, even if they're not in this for keeps like some of the others. "Sure enough," Josie says. "Ain't a trial if it's not trying, yeah? 'Sides, with powers like yours, I'd feel slighted if you did! C'mon, show us what you're made of!"

    It's a taunt that, in the vague quantum state of the future, Josie might just regret, a little bit.

    Ragnell is a lightning Seraph, and while Josie's own talents dip a degree into that domain, there's wide sea of difference between throwing sparks and the odd bolt around and, well.

    Calling down a storm.

    "Shit--" Josie drops back a step, light and lightning coalescing at her right hand as she raises it towards the storm clouds. Her barrier can be perhaps only barely felt and seen.

    She's danced with the lightning before, most recently the jagged bolts drawn down by her very own beloved Akasha.
    This time, she opts not to chance it. Memories of that moment weighing heavy upon her, perhaps? Or--

    The strike drives a shriek from Josie's lungs. She's knocked unceremoniously ass over teakettle, skidding and sliding on the floor of the shrine before coming to a stop. "Oof, that smarts," she utters, rising from the floor one body part at a time. "Remind me to never, whew, mess around with you and a rubber balloon..."

    She's not even all the way off the floor as Marivel reveals a small truth, the matter of the goddess, Althena.

    Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, the Filgaian, Althena.

    "So that's the sorry tale, eh? Stuck between two bad choices, she chose her people... and left her friends behind. Well, ain't that a pretty mess," Josie opines, standing again at last. "Anyway you look at it, you're up the creek! Wonder what she's thought, all this time, lookin' up at Filgaia. You ever think she regretted it?"

    Her own smile is bitter.

    "But enough of that. I think you'n me've got a dance party on, yeah?" she says to Ragnell, gaze tilting sidelong as Jean speaks her own piece and begins her advance.

    "Ain't never been one for,"

    Josie lifts the shotgun as Jean directs herself towards Ragnell, drawing a bead on the Seraph in that instant. She pulls the trigger.

    "missin' my opportunities!"

GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Scarlet Tiger!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Cripple expired!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Gamble: Very High! Seraph Liath solidly guards Talia's Light Spear Cannon for 132 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay and Interrupt applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Charge!! You gain 55 FP!
GS: Seraph Liath has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel Armitage says, "I've traveled with you, Hero." Marivel speaks to him. "Grapple it for a thousand years and I'll consider your task complete." She is not being literal here for once. In her mind, life is the ever-questioning. "Tell me then, you seek to speak with her. Is Lucia of the same mind or do you not know? What has she said in her words?" She has been unable to catch Lucia for a conversation but more than that she wants to gauge Hiro's understanding of Lucia. Just how far HAS their friendship grown?

"Yes, you have listened to the stories haven't you? But as you know I care far less about people knowing her story--then her getting to live her true life. She is looking forward to meeting you."

And Liath--

--in defiance of certain holy edicts, she sings. Marivel closes her eyes. "...Beautiful..." She murmurs. "Ah, we are a veritable concerto, aren't we today? Then truly, I must sing as well... My own heart's truth."

Josie asks... if Althena regretted it. Marivel wonders that too, if it were the Althena she knew, it surely must have caused her no end of pain. Pain enough perhaps to corrupt? Or worse? She does not know. Or she does not say.

Gwen speaks tto her but Marivel doesn't speak to her.

Hiro lunges in first, his blade striking for her enchantments with the power of darkness, emboldened by Liath's light. The power of light and dark as one is a tremendous power. Hiro can't seem to break through it with his blade.

"Hm... Good thinking Hero." Marivel smiles. "But alas... I fight with my friends! This barrier is not so easily dispelled!"

Then Layna comes in, channeling the power of water--further augmented by the presence in the Water Shrine--slams her fist alongside Hiro's blade.

The barrier cracks, and shatters--

--and both strikes slam into Marivel, sending her sprawling across the floor.

And yet, she sings along with Liath.

There is no mystical effect. No. Marivel is drawing power from something that cannot be dispelled no matter how hard Hiro swings at it. No matter the brilliance or the technique.

Marivel stands up again. She is badly wounded. Even a Crimson Noble shouldn't be able to stand. A body, even one possessed by dark spirits, has to obey the physical existence to some extent.

"Either way, I intend to satisfy my contradictory selves... For that... Is what it means to be a Crimson Noble!"

She brings her hand back up and snaps once more as gella rains down from the sky towards Layna and Hiro.

And a quickly ticking clock appears above her companions' heads once more--but very briefly this time--

--before the clocks suddenly spin back around in reverse.

"This..." Marivel says. "This was difficult for me to do on my own, but I saw Eleanor utilize this one and I've made adjustments to my own technique...! CANCELLER!!"

GS: Marivel Armitage has activated a Force Action!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hiro with Gella Crazy!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Layna Manydays with Gella Crazy!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Canceller!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Canceller!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Liath with Canceller!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
GS: Marivel Armitage heals Marivel Armitage! She gains 300 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Gamble: Lowest! Hiro takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Gella Crazy for 54 hit
points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage heals Seraph Liath! She gains 270 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! Gamble: High! Layna Manydays suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Gella Crazy for 118
hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida steps back after her strike hits home, raising her guard. But then Marivel snaps her fingers, and reveals one of many cards up her sleeve. Ida's eyes widen. "That's a new one," she breathes, glancing at the Crimson Noble. But she can't take her eyes off Liath for too long. She looks Talia's way for a moment. Later, she decides.

    Liath has told Ida time after time that she's worthy in her own right, and that she doesn't need her approval--but Ida's heart grows lighter as she hears the Prime Lord's praise. "Thank you," she says. And then, another question. Ida keeps her eyes on that blade, even as she speaks her answer. "She's not my goddess," the heiress says. "But I think you've answered your own question. Althena's behavior is inexcusable. And the best thing you can do for one you love--"

    The incantation begins. Ida raises her voice, even as she braces, senses the flow of energy, and makes her move. The martial artist springs to the side, tumbling and rolling as kaleidoscopic fury erupts behind her. Crystal fragments and rays of light rip across her ride side, leaving marks on her flesh. Droplets of crimson and quicksilver splatter onto the floor.

    "--Is to be there when they've lost their way!" There's conviction in those words, behind the pain. Ida would not be alive today if not for that realization, and the help of her dearest friends.

    Ida sweeps out a hand, and Asura's blade condenses from the air. In a flash, it shatters, forming glistening fragments once again--and here, in the Water Temple, the fragments have more than atmospheric moisture to drink in. Watery images form around them, a total of six Idas, each with a subtly different stance. They rush Liath in unison. One starts to circle-walk, like Ida did at the start of the fight. One goes direct, driving a knee for Liath's injured midsection. Another two launch punches from different angles. One goes for a roundhouse kick. And the true Ida goes for the grapple, trying to grasp Liath's sword-arm and twist, while locking down her leg.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Magilou is possessed of so many spirits; another comes to meet Liath, as she comes down blade-first, paper doll growing to be broad as the witch. A thousand feathers break on that impossible shield, and then the shikigami breaks, too -- oh, the core heart of it is fine, don't worry -- and Magilou has to step aside to avoid the remainder of that great, bright storm.

    She doesn't, entirely. She doesn't call attention to it, either. She isn't the sort of person to wear her wounds on her sleeve.

    (Magilou is listening to Marivel's accounts, just the same, and not without interest; she knew Althena at the end, not the beginning, and the Crimson Noble's testamony is very, very interesting. She doesn't interrupt, though, because --)

    -- well, mostly because she's fighting a Prime Lord, and even with all her millennia of knowledge and power, Magilou can't afford to be too flippant in this situation.

    Just, you know. A little flippant. Call it a battle strategy if you like, but actually, Ragnell was just plain correct back there: it's really fun to tease Liath. She's adorable. This remains true regardless of how stern her assault is.

    "She lost it a long time ago," Magilou, all accented with bright lights, replies to the concept of Althena's grasp. "And really, good for her."

    She does nothing to confirm or deny Liath's belief in Althena's love, because, in the end, it's Liath's belief. No matter what she said... it wouldn't change anything.

    "But how much?" Magilou laughs, lightly. "How strong? You're talking like she did all of this on her own. A solitary Goddess... geez, that would just be a piece of work." Magilou chuckles a length longer, as she shakes her head, hand resting at her hip. "You ought to know that, Prime Lord. Why... we're not so different, you and I."

    Her eyes lid, as she reflects on the beauty of her song, of the Blessing of this world. "We both are stewards of a world in waiting," she answers the unspoken question, in a rare moment of her own mercy.

    They are in the seat of Water's power; no wonder, then, that the next Seraphic glyph which appears beneath her feet is blue as the lake, just the same. "Better watch your step... Flood Wall!" Magilou incants, as the (regular-sized) shikigami beside her hand spins, and the arte resolves --

    To an upwards waterfall erupting beneath Liath's feet, threatening to toss her skywards.

    Does Magilou think she's some sort of bouncy ball?!

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Seraph Liath with Coils of the Water Dragon!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Magilou has attacked Seraph Liath with Flood Wall!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
That's a big sword, Margaret thinks; though fortunately, it isn't quite literally a sword. Not that that would be any better were it so - if Liath could move it that easily... Margaret brings her sword back with a flourish.

"You're saying such sweet things, and yet you are still standing in our way!" Margaret answers Liath; who continues, and declares that she will continue to believe.

And yet.

The light howls around Margaret, who is on the back foot here; the benefit of Lightning in her soul is balanced by the fact that she stands in contrast to Light itself. The arcing light washes upwards, bursting and glittering around her in agonizing and blinding intensity. The pain resonates with something in her --

Something that has enucleated for a long time, and which comes out of her mouth even in the glaring light -

"We're all nice and chummy here," Margaret says even as the light veils her, "but I'm going to object to what you're saying here, manifestation of the trial." When it begins to fade, her eyes are narrowed to thin slits and her ears folded back against the side of her head in high dudgeon:

"How strong should the Goddess's grasp be? I don't know. But do you know what I do know? Do you know what I have seen? I have seen HUNDREDS of people with the love of the Goddess in their heart DIE in a miserable slogging battle with a number of necrotic maniacs in thrall to some sort of dread... CORPSE FLY BEAST... drunk on their own power and ambition, holding up signposts of valor... and how different were they from we?!"

"Were ALL of them unworthy of her love? Of her guidance and her protection? Were we all SCORNED? Was the Goddess Althena OTHERWISE ENGAGED, when we bled and screamed and wept and died in another land?!"

Margaret's voice rises, and gains a certain scorn in it. "And we didn't even have the privilege of a PRETTY LITTLE LIE to soothe our heads afterwards. What a ghastly joke. She could have ended it with ten words. She could have spared all of them. And if whoever stands in that throne isn't really the Goddess, and there's another one, the real one, the one SHE over there claims to know--"

"Well, I hope she has a good excuse," Margaret concludes, "because perhaps I haven't earned it myself, *BUT JACK DID, AND REX, AND THE OTHERS ALIKE!"

Margaret raises her blade with a crackle of electrical force, just a little one, in passing.

"Even told us not to sing and here you are singing your heart out," Margaret grinds outwards. "EVEN THAT, we weren't to do--"

With this she lunges forwards, striking at Liath. It's a harrying set of blows. Only in one or two at once, albeit with flickering speed that wasn't quite there before. She's building something up. Perhaps anger; perhaps a spell she isn't letting on in public.

GS: Margaret has attacked Seraph Liath with I'll Give You Something Flashy!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    The story of Althena is one known to Ragnell. After all, she's been talking to Marivel quite a bit behind the scenes for a while now. Still, her jaw sets as she tells that story and draws the attention of everyone through the room. It'd be a good opportunity for a sucker punch, but in that moment, she eases off a bit. It's important information. She'll let the Drifters have a moment to breathe and absorb it.
    
    Except for Magilou, to whom she yells, "I'm gonna shoot you, 'lou!"
    
    (She doesn't shoot her. For now.)
    
    "It is a lot, huh?" she comments to Jean, Gwen, and Josie in particular. (Those sparks of Gwen's really are sparks; she makes a small noise of surprise and brushes them off. Sorry, Gwen.) "How much you think it's relevant to y'all is up to you, though." She quirks a faint smirk at Josie in particular. "...I get the sense some of it might strike a little close t' home, though." That smirk broadens into a grin. "But never let that get in the way of a good fight! This dance sure ain't over yet!"
    
    She won't remind Josie not to attack Ragnell with a balloon. If she forgets, that's on her.
    
    To Gwen, she chirps, "You're welcome! Don't it feel good to acknowledge that I've been nothin' but an enormous help to you all this time, Gwen?" The joke here being that Gwen's always thought that; she's not suddenly coming to come time of revelation.
    
    Her gaze flickers as Jean remarks about freedom and bonds. She ducks her head and chuckles. "That so," she says softly. "Well... It's not like I don't know how you feel."
    
    She doesn't look over at Liath. But she does bathe in her song--in Marivel's Mighty Guard--and lets their powers wash over her, seeping away the exhaustion from the wounds she's compiled and strengthening her to do further battle. It's good timing, too, because as Gwen empowers herself with that shock of lightning, Josie raises her shotgun and opens fire with a spraying bullet blast right before Jean somersaults over to stab her fingers all over Ragnell's chakra points. It's painful, it's damaging--but the dance continues for all of them, on both sides.
    
    First, Marivel calls up her Canceler, sending those clocks in reverse. Then, as Ragnell is forced backwards, she comes back-to-back with Liath. They touch lightly, cloth on armor--and Ragnell shoots a smirk over her shoulder at her.
    
    "Seems like it's time for the big guns," she says, raising her paired pistols to punctuate her statement, because Liath has never met a turn of phrase she wouldn't take literally. "Wouldn't ya say?"
    
    Turns of phrases aside, there's a striking fluidity to Ragnell and Liath's movements next--as if they've been working together so long that they don't even need to look at each other to be in sync. A Seraphic glyph bursts into existence at Ragnell's feet, pouring light and sparks upwards as power charges into her guns. "Speak an' ye shall receive, Li! Here's the biggest gun I got!" she calls, firing off a sharp burst of charged bullets, as rapidly as when she'd backstepped earlier, towards Gwen. She might arguably have bigger guns--but this one is definitely the gayest. The light surges in roiling and shifting color, and she changes focus to Josie, loosing another barrage. "It ain't a trial without the tryin', no doubt. So try to survive this!"
    
    She claps both guns together, and through them she looses her hands, lightning keeping them afloat. Through them, a massive burst of crackling light charges, aiming in on Jean, before BURSTING forward in a blinding beam of light.
    
    "PRISM TANGO! EXTEND!!"

GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Coils of the Water Dragon for 14 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated a Force Action!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! Seraph Liath suffers a terrible blow from Magilou's Flood Wall for 72 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Magilou!
GS: Gamble: Low! Seraph Liath suffers a terrible blow from Margaret's I'll Give You Something Flashy for 115 hit points!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Blind applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Josephine Lovelace's Scarlet Tiger for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Marivel Armitage heals Seraph Ragnell! She gains 300 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Prism Tango EXTEND!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Prism Tango EXTEND!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Jean with Prism Tango EXTEND!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Jean suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Prism Tango EXTEND for 197 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jean gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

"I don't know." Hiro answers Marivel honestly, "There's a lot of things about her relationship with Althena she can't - or won't talk about. And she hasn't said which one it is." Though he then looks a bit surprised about Anastasia getting to meet him. As he awkwardly replies to that, seeming not to understand in what state of existence Anastasia is in right now? He just trusts that it's possible since Marivel does, "Well... let her know I'm looking forward to it too?"
 
His blade makes contact with the barrier, and it doesn't quite work thanks to Liath's reinforcements. He tries to push through, but eventually he calls it a loss. Though he shouldn't have, as Layna comes right in after, "Great follow up Layna, appreciate the hand."
 
He'd give her a high five, but this trial is too serious to stop for that. Especially as he hears Margaret's words. He's at a loss, hearing her pain, and grief brought to bear against Liath. All he can think is...
 
'No, none of you were unworthy.' However, he doesn't have the heart to say it.
 
Also because Marivel starts raining Gella on them. "Ow-ow-ow-ow!" And he starts getting pelted by high velocity currency. Hiro suddenly raises his shield (pot lid) over his head, as he tries to run out of the storm like someone seeking shelter from actual rain.
 
Marivel though adjusts one of her spells using Eleanor's techniques, and Hiro actually... smiles, because despite the mood shift, he's quite familiar with Eleanor's magic. Which is why he snaps his blade forward, as raging wind currents start to gather around the blade, as if they were pressurizing more and more as it's presence becomes a howling buzz.
 
"I'll be sure to let her know how well it works." A beat, "Assuming it makes it through this okay."
 
This time he rushes towards Marivel, and with a leap, tries to drive his blade right into what remains of her spellwork - and her. The sudden eruption of wind energy on contact cascades outwards in a violent eruption.

GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Sybillium Sword!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Somewhere in the undercurrents of emotion and talk of accepting imperfections and moments of flaring frustration about one's own failings, Marivel finds the platform and presence to speak her thousands-years-held truth.
 
     A painful truth of a schism and divide that can never be bridged, even as those among the two worlds find themselves reconnecting in the present and scraping up hidden truths that led to their current point.
 
     It occurs in the backdrop of a massive blade of light that crashes down upon Lanval's and Magilou's position. Lanval leaps and controts away from the point of impact, his silhouette uniquely visible as a muted shade against the brilliance as he twists and contorts his body with an agility and flexibility beyond all but a handful of mortals, feathery wisps of prismatic color rising and passing about him as he lands a great distance away in...
 
     Not the most graceful of landings. A pratfall of a tumble, catching himself in a three-point stance at the other end, as the beautiful light of that impact leaves its permanent mark upon the luminosity of this space.
 
     Space for questions to be asked. How strong a grasp? Must it be tight? To smother... how much to love, how much to protect?
 
     Liath, believing in her love, starts to sing... and Lanval listens to the magnificent melody as she channels power both of trusted friends and the Blessing that is hers to call through love. From there, Lanval closes his eyes, and seems to mute his presence in that moment.
 
     He thinks of the half-Beastfolk woman who tripped over him that one fateful day in Meribia, who kickstarted the chain of events that would tie him to the ongoing struggles of the two worlds. Her craft, her greatest love of living every time they shared a moment together and/or had to pry his grasp from the Quartermaster's Stash (Layna, one of his Seers of Water, knows this well).
 
     "It'sh a lisht there," he concedes there's no easy answer for all of them, and yet... "fer one," Lanval speaks up in the wake of the Prism Sword as he takes in Margaret's frustration with being held back from something that brought her and her own joy, opening his eyes gradually as he exerts his native Domain - the amplification of the little, small joys in life. To try and bring a bit more emotional light and happiness in the wake of Liath's beautiful singing, slowly closing that great distance between them as his eyes open up...
 
     "'Twould be a kindness if She would allow all to once more indulge in the joy and splendor of song...!" One might expect him to follow it up with a pithy 'oh yeah and booze too, booze is good.'
 
     But he hangs on that point, that one joy, that one love Liath indulges in as - with a flourish - he channels energy into those fighting alongside him against the Prime Lord. Whatever joys, whatever things bring them happiness in the moment - letting that be their armor.

GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Magilou with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Margaret with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Talia with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Seraph Lanval! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Margaret! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Prism Tango EXTEND for 79 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Prism Tango EXTEND for 80 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Magilou! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Talia! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

They sing together in unison, and, it's true - that power, those bonds, aren't the kind of thing so easily broken. Layna would admire it, if it weren't currently being used against her. At Hiro's compliment she nods, tipping her hat to him appreciatively.

"Aye, lad - thanks for the opening." She replies, before turning her attention back toward Marivel.

Satisfying her contradictory selves, huh... Layna nods.

"Wouldn't have it any other way. Seek out what you want, and take it with your own hands - that's my motto." Layna comments.

Unfortunately, Marivel already seems aware of her greatest weakness - money! Layna braces herself as gella rains from the heavens, letting them crash down onto her rather than trying to dodge through the volley. Unfortunately, this has given Marivel the opportunity to work her magic - apparently turning back time, to undo the injuries they've managed to land. Well... she already expected fighting someone as clever as Marivel to be tricky. She takes it in stride.

So instead she recites an incantation. She surrounds herself with the winds, a green glow surrounding her body, and she rides them forward toward Marivel, unleashing a volley of strikes. Drawing upon the force of a raging windstorm - but opening herself up to the weaknesses thereof.

But what fun is there in the fight if there isn't any risk involved?

GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Marivel Armitage with Dread Momentum!
GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays has entered Avenger Stance!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Hiro's Sybillium Sword for 200 hit points!
GS: Marivel Armitage has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Dread Momentum for 180 hit points!
GS: Marivel Armitage has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.

The story of Althena wasn't known so much to Jean... but her faith is a quieter thing. She is not sure how she feels about that story yet. She certainly doesn't have an answer for Margaret. Nor for anyone else. What Hiro wants, what they all want, Gwen says, and...

"I admit," Jean says. "My quest... is different. I don't need to go to Pentagulia. THe thing I was looking for there... it was a lie in the first place. Lunn was the Shadow Dragon Master all along. And he's what I wanted the help of Althena and the Chosen to stop. So what does Althena mean to me, now...?"

"...She still means song."

Jean couldn't say whether Althena regrets it. But like Josie, she'll keep up the opportunities for now. And when Ragnell replies, Jean smiles briefly. "I thought so," she says, of knowing. But the songs...

The attacks. Ragnell moves for the big guns next, and Jean sees just how she works with Liath. It's a very, very gay gun. She appreciates that fact. ...Even as it knocks her ass over teakettle again.

The blast of light hits her hard, hard enough that she should just give up here. What can she do against power like that? She's a dancer--was an assassin. Not meant to go in the light, this way. And yet...

Battered, burned, Jean pushes herself up again, from the ground. She's still smoking from the sheer power poured into her. She's almost out of the fight. But not just yet.

"But song... Music. That's what saved me first. So..."

"One more dance from me. That's about my cue."

Jean steps forward, ignoring the searing pain in much of her body, and starts to twirl. ...And then she moves forward, and forward, hopping to one foot to spin around and jump to her hands, and then the next. A spinning, swaying dance is her next maneuver, and she keeps it up as she starts to move forward. Her razor-tipped fans whirl out, but it's not just the blades on them; an energy gathers around them, her energy, not her shadow magic but something different, and she begins to join the dance that does not yet.

GS: Jean has activated a Force Action!
GS: Jean has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Endless Whirl!
GS: Jean enters a Counter stance!
GS: Jean has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jean has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    That smile fades just a touch when Ragnell jabs in towards that moment of vulnerability. "Think what you want, kiddo," Josie tells her, a little more flatly than her usual flippant approach. "It ain't your business or what anyhow. We've a trial to get on through!"

    This dance isn't over.

    Just in that moment, Ragnell comes up back to back with Liath, which prompts Josie to realize that it's like that, now, is it?

    But forehead creases.

    Wait, hadn't she been with...

    It's a small effervessant bubble of a thought: there and gone with the fact of Ragnell's nature and with the sparkling light Ragnell has begun to lay claim to courtesy of that back-to-back moment.

    She sees the very edges of that rolling rainbow coming for her and this, this she twists and ducks and weaves and almost, almost almost comes out of it unscathed.

    "Whew," Josie says, staggering and nearly dropping to a knee once the worst of it's over and done with. "You know how to put an old lady through her paces, kiddo."

    Almost absently, she gives her shotgun the once over, as if checking to make sure no parts of it suffered significant damage or the like.

    "But it sure does look like I survived, yeah?" She rolls her neck experimentally, followed by her shoulders. Her lips quirk in a crooked smile.

    "My turn."

    She straightens then breaks into a short dash, leaping headlong into the air above Ragnell. Twisting her body, she flips herself overhead, firing shot after shot at Ragnell from above until she has nothing more to give.

    ...What was that about being an old lady again...!?

GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated a Force Action!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Blinded Sphinx!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

She lost it a long time ago.

And really...

    ... good for her.

"..."

In the midst of Marivel's story, and Magilou's chaser, Liath's head dips for a moment. How much of this has she known? How much does she know beyond?

"... Indeed so."

Perhaps more than one might expect.

In the aftermath of spell and song alike, Liath stands tall, despite the numerous wounds she has accumulated. Her gaze burns bright in the dim lighting of Lefay, light two points of golden starlight in amidst the watery blue.

'What--what would you suggest we do, then?'

"That--" begins Liath, and she abruptly halts herself. Her fingers curl brief, tense, around the hilt of her sword. That fierce gaze lids as her jaw clenches.

"... That is something I cannot offer to you and your kind, Talia."

And so, with no advice forthcoming, Talia charges. Liath meets her head-on -- energy PISTONS into Liath's midsection, stopping her in the middle of her charge and -knocking- her backwards through the air. She lands in a skidding motion, gloved fingers skating the ground.

It is Margaret's fury, coupled with Lanval's first and singular point, that one important joy, that greet Liath next. Pridwen meets the first of Margaret's blows head on; sparks scream between them, before Liath's defense is thrown -wide-, the build up of what might well be anger -piercing- into the bodily spirit that is the Light Seraph, time and time again. None of them were unworthy, thinks Hiro.

"--None of them-- were unworthy--" speaks Liath as the final blow rings true, sending her careening backwards. Her heel plants to the ground, halting her briefly.

"... If you see my song as an indulgence of my privilege, I shall not stop you. You are worthy of joy. All of you are. But if you let fury blind you... if it falters in the face of what you find..."

Her eyes narrow. Her stance solidifies once more, as colors swell at her blade.

"... All you have wagered your life upon shall be for naught. Remember that well."

She shakes her head. Something begins to swell within her. A palpable power.

"... humans are at their most beautiful when they are allowed the privilege of choice. Even if it should cause them to falter. It is the same of Seraphim, too."

And despite that growing, ominous sensation, the smile she offers the Water Seraph is truly warm with sentiment.

"I hope this path you have chosen will lead you to the joy you seek. Remember well, the two-faced strength and weakness of water, Master Lanval--"

But her words end as a multitude of Idas sweep upon her. The Prime Lord is swift to defend herself -- but she is too late. Liath twists -- only to find a flurry of blows -slam- against her midsection, hammer her sides, strike a blow against the side of her head --

--before that last Ida grips, locking her down in a steel-grasped grapple, providing Magilou just the opening she needs.

Ida has a few precious seconds to get away before water defies its own weakness, going against its natural flow by Magilou's command to flow -upward- violently, consuming and drenching Liath with a hammering blow. Like a rainbowbrite bouncy ball, Liath goes flying. She hits ground, rebounding off it once, twice, before she goes rolling... and ultimately to a stop.

Right next to Ragnell.

Liath's back bumps against Ragnell's, her stumble coming to an end. And next to the Lightning Seraph, her smile is something that could out-blind the full shine of the sun, as the back of her head tips against the rim of Ragnell's beloved hat. Despite her injuries, Liath's smile is glowing at Ragnell's words as the clock turns backwards, and the Canceller's effects engulf them with rejuvenated energy.

"Indeed! Only the biggest shall suffice for my liking, Ragnell!" answers Liath, firmly. Is she-- does she--

at a certain point you really have to question how much of this is real

What IS real is the way Liath begins to -literally glow- until her entire body is insubstantial light, as if every physical blow landed against her was little more than mirage. A silhouette of colors, Liath's movements are in utterly perfect sync with Ragnell. There is no need for verbal communication, no need for even the briefest mote of thought. As if they were in utter lockstep, glyphs form in time behind Liath as they do behind Ragnell. And as power thrums into Ragnell's firearms --

-- Liath abruptly -bursts- apart at the seams.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

"And here is mine!"

This is not, technically, a gun. What it is...

... is an army of Liaths.

Very, very prideful Liaths.

The ribbons of Light that Liath have become spread outward, far and wide. The spin and spiral through Ragnell's prismatic barrage, until each one becomes a Liath all its own. Where Ida formed six duplicates, Liath seems to form countless. Each its own hue. Each its own brilliant color, until they encompass every possible shade in the spectrum.

And they -attack-.

One looks to drive a sword through Talia. Another, bashes Margaret with its shield. Another, a graceful sweep of its sword, looking to knock Lanval airborne with the motion. Another still forms directly -beneath- Magilou, looking to -collide- with her to send her airborne like some manner of retribution. Yet another swings downward, sword forward as it looks to run Ida through before -swinging- up. Even Layna and Hiro are not spared, as two appear simultaneously before them, one looking to kick Hiro towards Layna, while the other simply becomes an explosive -surge- of violet light, to ride the both of them upwards.

More and more come. More blows. More strikes. More assaults. Over and over, from every possible color, leading ever-upward...

... until they all coalesce into the singular Prime Lord of Althena, all colors becoming one searing silhouette of white.

She says not a thing. She simply -plunges- from the heavens, looking to take anyone caught by her countless assault downward with her...

... until she strikes ground with a cacophonous, colorful KRA-KOOM of impact.

GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On!
GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: You cannot attack more than one target at a time with this attack.
GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Boss Action!
GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend!
GS: Seraph Liath spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Talia with Infinitia Soul!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Infinitia Soul!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Magilou with Infinitia Soul!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Margaret with Infinitia Soul!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Lanval with Infinitia Soul!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Layna Manydays with Infinitia Soul!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Liath has attacked Hiro with Infinitia Soul!
GS: Seraph Liath has entered  Stance!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Seraph Liath gains 60 THP from Regen!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: Hiro has activated a Force Action!
GS: CRITICAL! Hiro partially guards Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 217 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Margaret takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 254 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Talia solidly guards Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 159 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Talia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Layna Manydays has activated a Force Action!
GS: Layna Manydays partially evades Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 210 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Layna Manydays receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Layna Manydays enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Magilou suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 295 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Gamble: High! Seraph Ragnell accepts Jean's Endless Whirl for 350 hit points!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated!
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Josephine Lovelace's Blinded Sphinx for 237 hit points!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Jam and Poison applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey partially guards Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 170 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "If this journey taught me anything, We're all still here, goddess or no." The logic may be off, but Gwen's confidence shines as brightly as the shimmer of light up her cheek. ".... I don't believe in Althena, but what I do believe in... is the people she chose. N' now, we're part of the same family, n' I think the future of both our worlds is gonna lie there."

    The Blue-eyed Assassin's dark thread still clutches at the back of Gwen's mind, but there is no contradiction to be found here.

    The comment from Ragnell catches Gwen just so, causing her to cough a laugh. ".... Of course. Y'always have. The Fiends couldn't'ave asked for a better teammate."

    Marivel's last song strengthens the ones that remain, and Gwen prepares herself, writing symbols in the air with her right hand.

    "...." A reflection again on Marivel's words about the forgotten Anastasia causes Gwen hand to tremble with a vague dread, and the half written words shudder and disperse, the moment gone. The dark thread tightens.

    If there was a time to prepare, it's over, and Ragnell is enthusiastically coming straight at them, straighting with Gwen herself.

    "You two make quite the couple," Gwen says, a soft note in her words to show that it's not meant to be completely rude. At least she's prepared when Ragnell gives her a proud rainbow of light, the light sizzling at Gwen's arms as she blocks.

    "Now that's a proper rainbow! Lemme see if I can give ya one of my own, Ragnell!" With renewed vigor, Gwen right index finger flies through the circle of shimmering symbols, a circle of bright sunset orange sparking into being around them. Her right hand is thrust through the center and held out, fingers splayed wide.

    "A fool's hope is eternal! RINGSHINE!"

    Like light pouring from a hole just made in the ceiling of a forlorn cave, Gwen's energy pours into the beam, leeching from the soft glimmers on her right side, the storage of energy in her ARM, and some of the light of her body.

    The reflection of light from an eternal wish.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action!
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Ringshine!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Gwen Whitlock's Ringshine for 256 hit points!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Seraph Lanval partially evades Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 212 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Lanval receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Lanval's magic brings a flush of warm memories to Talia -- thoughts of laughing with her brother, of talking with Ammy, of dinners with Liath and Ragnell and the rest -- and it infuses her, with a sense of protection. She needs that protection, now.

Her eyes soften when Liath says she cannot offer that to her. She stares at her for a second, her expression saddened, and then she rebounds from her own blast. She hits the ground, standing firm there; she takes a deep breath, as Liath begins to glow next to Ragnell. And then she bursts.

Into so many luminous copies of her, darting across the field and leaving waves of light winding and wending about. One of them comes up to Talia, blade raised, and Mirage meets it again. She parries with a backhanded motion, but the blade slides over it -- and scores a long, deep cut over her side. Talia hisses, before she lunges forward.

Her sword catches and cuts through, scattering the luminous figure, and then another, even as they strike at her. Talia parries and dodges; Talia gets cut into, blood hitting the ground.

'... That is something I cannot offer to you and your kind.'

She knows why. It's the same as it ever was: because try as she might, she holds onto things from the past. She can't get past her bitterness. She can't let go of some lies. She can't admit to some truths. She can't keep growing.

Mirage rips through another, and Talia turns, holding up a palm held facing outward -- flat towards Liath -- and a magical circle appears in front of it. A second appears under her feet. Ice begins to rise up around her, a thin coat of frost across the flagstones -- and chunks of ice into the air. "Come and gather," she enchants, "the winds and furies of the north! I call upo--"

Another radiant Liath comes. She doesn't see her. Talia makes a loud 'GRK' sound -- as the luminous blade stabs into her from behind. Talia didn't see her coming, but Talia didn't see a lot of things.

Her crimson eyes widen -- and she collapses in a heap.

GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Magilou shouts back across the battlefield: "Don't think you can sweet-talk me with casual rhyming, Ragnell! I'm SO not charmed!" She does realise Ragnell just told her she was going to shoot her, right? Right? ... nope, she's not focusing on that part of the statement in the slightest.

    (She does keep in mind, though. Quietly.)

    She hears Margaret's pain, though -- a raw, real, present thing, unvarnished by so many centuries of polish. Her anger demands an answer, and Magilou, helpless to inform it. There's nothing she can do to make this hurt any less, and her gaze lids, as she watches the Black Pearl lunge forward with so many demands.

    If only she could believe there were a satisfying answer. (If only she and Liath were a little less alike, in their secrets and their latches.)

    No... the Goddess in the Tower never did let them sing, since those edicts came down.

    "It's been a long time," Magilou reflects, for a morose moment, as she bears witness. A long time -- since Magilou was a fresh apostate, bearing those contrarian scars.

    The scar tissue never healed, but it did get tougher. She is distant. It is a valuable thing, to see someone so close to the pain.

    Song is a thing Lanval stops on, unstoppering his existence as the joyous waters of Filgaia wash over their souls. His Domain has such a different texture to Liath's -- if not, Magilou remarks to her heart, entirely dissimilar. His celebration...

    Magilou laughs, and it isn't a particularly cruel sound.

    She's just as cheerful, as Liath doubles -- triples -- over and over again, a dozen or more. "Ha!" Magilou exclaims, as they come for them, all ribbons of light; she doesn't even seem that put out, as one comes out from the ground itself (like some Joyeuse ripped asunder) to crash her upwards.

    And, indeed --

    "WHOOP!"

    It might be reflexive.

    Magilou boards her shikigami to surf the air, once she's been launched upwards; it's in this weaving that the true Prime Lord catches her, and sends her crashing down. There is a great KRA-KOOM --

    And Magilou bounces --

    Tumbles, rolls --

    Hops back up, panting a little and still looking entirely too amused by the entire situation. She might be a little completely battered on the inside. Problems for later.

    "All right," she huffs out, with a grin, hand flicking out with a flourish. There's a flutter of white light -- and a microphone appears in her hands, with little white wings on either side of it. She asides, sidelong, to Marivel's side of the room: "Now I'm stealing your thing. No takebacksies." (Microphones aren't exactly a Lunarian invention.)

    To Liath, she asks: "After all, we should set a good example, shouldn't we?"

    This, a little cruelty.

    Liath can't offer such things to mankind, and yet, by Magilou's association...

    She takes a breath -- and starts to sing. It's an energy all empowered by the little joys of water, all amplified here in Lefay's heart, though that rippling pool grows hotter and hotter by the moment with the heat of her voice and her passion.

    The water vibrates, in her harmony --

    OST: Flow - Burn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssn4xJYMpEY

    "All ye wandering hearts,
    "Standing still amid a blistering wind,
    "With justice bound tight.... never-ending sorrow...
    "You're unable to take the next step.

    "So obliterate those tears that clouded your vision --
    "Your hopes, having managed to escape the darkness, will continue to increase in brilliance...!

    "On this brilliant, brand-new day... run on through -- go ahead on your way!
    "Burn that life you'll only live once!
    "Even amid confusion, take it all away... endlessly onward -- just believe your way!
    "Unto that playing field known as 'The World'!
    "Releasing a focused light, we'll burn deep... these feelings!

    "It seems about to overflow... yet somehow insufficient...
    "When you drift amidst this noisy night.
    "Somehow uneasy, tomorrow is shaken and stirred,
    "So you've gotta keep things straight in your mind.

    "Sometimes things unseen... are more precious than what lies before our eyes.

    "Which way is tomorrow? It seems clear, but you end up mistaken...
    "...unable to find an answer.
    "But you have an encouraging heart, and unshakable beliefs --
    "If those remain firm, that's all you need!
    "A gently shining moon smiles upon you...

    "On this brilliant, brand-new day... run on through -- go ahead on your way!
    "Burn that life you'll only live once!
    "Even amid confusion, take it all away... endlessly onward -- just believe your way!
    "Unto that playing field known as 'The World'!
    "Releasing a focused light, we'll burn deep... these feelings!"

GS: Magilou has activated a Force Action!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Margaret with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Seraph Lanval with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Jean with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Hiro with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Layna Manydays with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once!!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
GS: Hiro accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 112 hit points!
GS: Hiro enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Margaret accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 114 hit points!
GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 117 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Burst added to Margaret!
GS: Margaret has activated a Force Action!
GS: Layna Manydays accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 110 hit points!
GS: Jean accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 81 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!
GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 79 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!
GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 86 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Magilou's Burn That Life You'll Only Live Once! for 116 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel obviously isn't just going to fight you FAIRLY. You have to be unfair back. Layna understanding this is wisdom.

Layna starts pounding into Marivel. Marivel is a mighty powerful caster but that naturally means her physical form doesn't exactly go to the gym. In fact, there wouldn't be much point. It's just an artifice and one she frequently has to rebuild.

Marivel is of course sympathetic to Althena meaning song for Jean. Perhaps in this, they are kindred spirits. She is just going to let Margaret yell herself out though. Because Marivel...is a creature of evil. She doesn't feel the need to answer everyone. Sure if she had PLANNED to do this today, sure, but she hasn't. She won't be satisfied until she has done her due dilligence. Marivel's body distorts from Layn'as blows. It slows the healing down enough--

--for Hiro to finish the job with a single wellplaced strike that punches through time.

Through Marivel.

Marivel looks down at the blade punching through where her heart would be if she were a human.

And then she looks up at Hiro.

"The Time of Promise." Marivel says, blood dripping from her mouth. "Will free me."

And with that the body collapses to the floor, rapidly melting away into ash as a thick black smoke arises out from the vessel.

The smoke swirls around in a swirl of darkness. Three sets of leathery wings flap out and then curl inward, protecting a body from the ambient light. Crimson eyes across thos wings snap open and look at all directions. Looking at Gwen and Liath and Ragnell. Looking at Hiro and Layna. There is still some lingering smoke present that obscures the main body.

"I am the snake that eats their own tail. A demon that hunts demons. So I was forged." Marivel says. "But less than a year now and I shall be free from the chains of causality."

"Yes," She says. "You have grown much in your journey. But you will see that what is to come is not the ending. But simply the end of the prologue."

Even through the smog, Marivel holds her position. There's a swath of poison in that body, sensible even from here, but difficult to pick out the arsenics from the cyanides. This is what Vasil meant when he referred to her people as antibodies. And Marivel is the last of her particular class.

And so her gaze focuses on Liath, now. And Ragnell. And Lanval. To someone like her, she sees them as fulfilling a similar role for Lunar. And now Filgaia.

And so each one is precious to her. Even the ones she does not know. She'd even sing for one she scarcely knew so he could be healed because every one matters to her. Every one is a new hope for Filgaia and Lunar both. And each one can go bad. Real bad.

But this does not mean they are the same.

"Liath, it would be inappropriate to challenge them further like this. Not today. I am forced to applaud their tactics. I will require more tools."

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Despite his faith in Marivel's durability, it's rough to see her take a blade like that, to see her turn into ash and smoke. She'll be fine, but what if one time too many and she's not? Still, this, like many things, is an act of faith. What she has to say though? "... I don't understand. What's coming?" And he asks again, perhaps with more gravity and anxiety in his voice, "What's coming Marivel?"
 
There's a disturbing moment where he even wonders if this is Marivel.
 
Hiro hears Liath speak to Margaret, and... he listens to her answer. If fury blinds them, causes them to falter. Then, it'll be for naught. In that moment he's in awe of Liath's sincere admiration of humanity, of choice.
 
However, the biggest gun of Liath coruscates and spiraling ribbons of light into that army of Liaths. Hiro perhaps doesn't expect the attack to come in his direction, as the blade rams into his shield, the force of it knocking him towards Layna before he's knocked asunder by the violet hue of the rainbow - separating from the prismatic light. Struck again, and again, and again by that ever shifting hues of color.
 
Battered and struck countless times, he guards against it as best as he can, but that's only about one blow in ten perhaps. And that's before she forms into one and causes an enormous eruption of light in its purest form.
 
When it's over, he staggers, and stabs his bladetip in the ground just to hold himself up, like it's a cane that he's propping himself on just to stay standing.
 
Magilou sings, and Hiro squares himself up, the song causing a certain burning passion to swell within him.
 
"Guess... that means you're at your most beautiful, right now too."
 
He says to Liath, at this being her choice. Before he charges at her, his form suddenly splitting into three that separate, forming around her like points of a triangle. Each image slashes violently, in the air, at Liath three times. Whether they strike the Seraphim through is less important. As each leaves a void like wound in the air around her with each slash.
 
The images vanish, Hiro remains.
 
Maybe he doesn't understand anything about her other than her sincere, pure feelings for humanity. He doesn't understand her mysterious duty. However, he does understand that in her own words, this choice, her choice makes her beautiful.
 
"It won't be for naught."
 
The wounds he left suddenly spasm, and draw in the air violently as it rushes in at incredible speed to fill the space, each current becoming like so many knives.
 

GS: Hiro has activated a Force Action!
GS: Hiro spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Hiro has attacked Seraph Liath with Trinity Crisis!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro has entered Hero Stance!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    '... humans are at their most beautiful when they are allowed the privilege of choice. Even if it should cause them to falter. It is the same of Seraphim, too.'
    
    Is it any wonder that Ragnell, who is so fiercely and at all times herself--who values freedom so highly--nonetheless is willing to follow Liath in her path? Theirs isn't a relationship of master and servant, boss and subordinate; it's two equals who share ideals, who fight alongside each other with trust and respect. Is it a better relationship than the one Ragnell has with K.K.? Well... who can say? But there's no mistaking the love they share in the moment they smile over their shoulders at each other, before turning to face their opponents head-on with full force.
    
    "Music, huh," she responds to Jean. "Yeah, I get that too. There's an unspoken power in it, ain't there? It shows in all your dances. You an' I, we never cared to pay that particular anti-song-an'-dance edict any mind, an' whoever you've chained yourself to, that makes you as free as I am. So you better show me how much that power's in you, too!"
    
    Josie's slight defensiveness gets a chuckle out of Ragnell. "I *will* think what I want," she replies, "Grandma." If she's going to call herself an old lady, then she'd better be prepared for others to follow her lead.
    
    Ragnell snorts and looks away when Gwen comes back at her sarcasm with utter sincerity. Sometimes you tease someone and it's a mistake. But then she calls her and Liath a good couple, and she snorts again in a different kind of way. "Yeah we do," Ragnell tells Gwen brazenly, owning it in this moment regardless of how Gwen means it.
    
    "Charmed or boo, you do you, 'Lou!" Ragnell yells back at Magilou, because she is extremely easy to egg on. (Magilou should definitely keep that in mind. One never knows when Ragnell actually will shoot you, and while she might not be the vengeful sort, she *does* have a long memory.)
    
    Jean, Josie, and Gwen each give it their all. After all, they *did* live, and it's their turn to give back even better than they received. From the swaying shadow magic that suffuses Jean's dance and bladed fans, to Josie literally jumping off the walls with all the bullets she can fire, to Gwen calling up her foolish, eternal hope (Ragnell chuckles. "That's so you, Gwen," she rumbles) to form a massive beam of her own, all that force smashes into the Lightning Seraph with all the force of their conviction--their willfulness--their love.
    
    All while Magilou sings her heart out.
    
    At the end of it, Ragnell is crumpled on the floor, panting as she keeps one hand on the floor to balance herself. She cracks a half-grin all the same. "Yeah," she croaks. "That's good." She tilts her head up, the brim of her hat hiding her expression, over at Marivel as she speaks of the Time of Promise. "...Yeah, these 'uns pass, too, Li," she comments. "They'll do fine." She shoots that smirk over at Jean, Josie, and Gwen. "...For now."

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
As she strikes at Liath Margaret steals glances towards the others. Ida is nearby of course, attempting to grapple the Seraph - something that would have seemed like a bad idea at best, without a formal invitation, not so long ago. Ah, how little a time ago it was, Margaret thinks. Seraph Boudicca! I remember welcoming her down from the mountain...

And to what?

"... Heh," Margaret says to Liath. "The blinding power of fury. You know..."

"You're right."

But before Margaret can elaborate, Liath is on the move. Is this the final challenge? Margaret thinks, but before she can think too much there is a Liath streaking for her in beauty, leading with a shield in a bullrush; Margaret moves but can only catch the shield on her blade with a KERRANG of force, managing to at least not be bowled over; her running boots throw sparks as she's shoved back nearly six yards, though, before the shade passes...

And just how many more of these tricks is she hiding? Margaret thinks bitterly.

Frustration, loss, a thousand accumulated pains in fifty years, however raw and as yet unfossilized they may be; a single wet tear runs down the side of Margaret's cheek, quite involuntarily. It runs past the made-up part of her eyelids, gathering a hint of purple along the way...

And then it quivers -

and bursts!

Because a song had reached it -- and if it can reach a tear on her cheek, it can reach the rest of Margaret.

"... If I hazard a guess here, Seraph... you mean to stay pure in your vision. Ei? So I'm going to be pure in that vision, as best as I can. I'll ask the Goddess for her explanation-- and whatever it is-- I'll live with it! Because I've lived through Hell a dozen times -- at least I'll know."

Margaret swings Steel's Kiss II round, holding it to the side. "And as for 'the biggest'... This is a little spontaneous... but let it serve what it might." Her hand tightens and she looks towards the sword. "Rune Edge!" she addresses the blade -- or rather the etchings on it, though some have been a little scuffled.

"IGNITE!"

And the blade erupts in sorcerous fire with a crackle of igniting lightning. It glows, the flames an unnatural but somehow wholesome blue, whispering with the glory of spectral memory. Raising it upwards, Margaret says, "It won't all be for naught. Because they're not all gone, are they? Not just in our hearts and memories... but in that damn pond!"

Margaret leans forwards and lowers her head, bullrushing towards Liath. As she goes she mutters the words of the spell she's so proud of, the lightning crackling round her as sparks fly from the copper plates on her boot. Run, run, run towards danger, and with a sweep of both arms upwards --

                    STRIKE!

The sword shudders in Margaret's hand, everything she had poured into this single decisive blow, the one final strike that will NOPE, THAT ISN'T HOW MARGARET THE BLACK PEARL DOES ANYTHING; no sooner has she strike that shocking upwards blow than she's twisting forwards, bringing the blade round for a thrust, for another overhead strike, an accenting blow with the knee purely for the added shock --

Let the momentum carry her into a twist, the air itself bearing her upwards as she trails sparks of starlight behind her for another accelerando into an axe-handled sword strike, the Rune Edge enchantment flaring brighter each time as Margaret is moving too fast to let out more than "Hyah!" or "Harah!" or "Koh!" as she rises.

Round and round; somewhere around the tenth blow Margaret shouts, "For everyone we've lost on the way! Now, GIVE UP THE DAMNED ROCK!"

STRIKE! STRIKE! Up into the air with another of those green-litten flits, and Margaret shifts her grip for a final towards-the-earth blow as her blade *properly* ignites, the metal itself glowing directly--

And whatever it may do to Liath, the blade bursts! Passion and flame and sorcery, poured into a brilliant second life for that reclaimed blade. Short, perhaps; but *flashy*.

GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Margaret has attacked Margaret with Premonition of Air!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link!
GS: Margaret has entered Link Stance!
GS: Margaret accepts Margaret's Premonition of Air for 0 hit points!
GS: Burst applied to Margaret!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!
GS: Margaret has activated a Force Action!
GS: Margaret has activated a Force Action!
GS: Margaret spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Margaret has attacked Seraph Liath with Don't be angry - Just be amazed!!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    With a great burst of Breath, the duplicates lose cohesion, spraying outwards as chips of ice and wisps of mist. The real Ida is right behind Liath, forcing her arm back and locking her leg. Tension races down her spine as Magilou starts to speak.

    'Better watch your step...'

    Ida lets go of the Prime Lord, and tumbles backwards. Her capelet flips up and hoods her head as she comes to a three-point crouch. (A flick of a finger returns it to its proper place.) She rises to her feet, and as she does, a certain Lordly voice cries out--Ida flashes Lanval a grin across the battlefield. A bright, sea-green light envelops her.

    Sometimes it's the little things that help you make it through. Lanval knows that better than anyone.

    Ragnell's eyes meet Liath's, and for a moment, Ida feels something akin to jealousy. They're so at ease with each other...

    But Liath gives her no time to dwell on her relationship problems. Ida's shadow sweeps out behind her as the Light Seraph threatens to dizzy and blind her; it's all she can do to raise her guard, to sweep out an arm to catch that sword on the back of her gauntlet. Another Liath comes at her from the side, tracing a bloody wound down her ribs. A third slams a pommel into the side of her head, staggering her--

    The world becomes a rainbow, and then washes out into colorless, agonizing white.

    When it's over, Ida still stands, and she opens her eyes just in time to see the smoke wafting up from Marivel's corpse. She blinks twice, then realizes--no. That's Marivel, wafting up from her shattered vessel. "You were cheated," she whispers. "You and Ana both. Althena's followers wanted to live--but did she tell th--"

    That's when Ida sees Talia lying on the ground. Her teeth jump on edge. Lanval's arte reminds her of the open, honest joy she's felt in Liath's presence, and it dulls the anger. As Magilou starts to sing, Ida sucks in a breath. Bright golden-white flame engulfs her fist, and traces its way up her arm. Her head tilts up, and her eyes lock with Liath's. Everything else seems to fall away.

    Ida blurs forwards. The mist parts around her in concentric rings; her hand cocks back, and her eyes blaze. She bares her teeth, lets out a roar of defiance--

    The impact of her fist is like a thunderbolt. The ground beneath her shakes, ever-so-slightly.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Seraph Liath with Unbroken Lotus Fist!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has entered Avenger Stance!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath accepts Hiro's Trinity Crisis for 348 hit points!
GS: Strain! Hiro takes 37 damage!
GS: Seraph Liath accepts Margaret's Don't be angry - Just be amazed! for 275 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 311 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

Layna and Hiro work together to fight against Marivel - and in the end, Marivel's body collapses and smoke rises from it. Layna looks up at the smoky form, wings unfurling and eyes staring. Less than a year and she'll be free from the chains of causality, huh...?

Layna wonders what she means by that, but figures those previously-mentioned 'chains of causality' mean she probably won't get much of answer. ...That, and this is Marivel she's talking about.

"That doesn't surprise me... the journey never ends, aye?" Layna replies. "Well... whatever happens, we'll deal with it as it comes."

There's not much more time to dwell on it, however, for Liath has elected to break out the Big Guns. ...Big Swords? Big, Incredible Expression of Light Magic? Whatever one can call it, it's power is undeniable. Hiro is knocked into her, and the both of them are sent flying in a surge of light, as countless Liaths strike out at them.

It's become almost an aerial battle now - Layna using the wind to propel her in directions to try to avoid the incoming strikes. But there are too many Liaths, and they are too skilled - the longer it lasts, the more manage to land a hit, until eventually they are all sent crashing to the ground below.

Layna coughs, but despite the terrible damage inflicted upon her... there is a wide grin on her face.

"So, that's what you've got... Not bad. Not bad at all!" Layna praises. "Your reputation don't do you justice at all."

Lanval, her close friend... he's fighting strong, too. She can hardly let herself stop when he's still doing his best amplify the joys in life - the same joys that she, too, enjoys dearly, and lives for. And Magilou proves that they aren't only ones who can draw strength from song, as she sings with passion.

With that, Layna hauls herself up to her feet fully, taking a moment to adjust her hat.

"Alright... can hardly keep on layin' around after this kinda display. I'm all pumped again." She says, rolling her neck.

"Liath! I hope you're ready. I'm gonna show you the strength of a woman of the sea - who takes what she wants, and protects what she cares about! You're gonna give us that gem... or I'm gonna take it!" Layna calls out. The winds billowing intensify... and then she charges right for Liath to unleash a single, powerful punch - but a punch with the power to tear even a raging storm asunder.

GS: Layna Manydays has activated a Force Action!
GS: Layna Manydays spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Seraph Liath with Stormbreaker!
GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath accepts Layna Manydays's Stormbreaker for 326 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    'If you let fury blind you... if it falters in the face of what you find,' Liath warns, as she responds with power in kind - to where she sees beauty, the likeness between mortals and Seraphim too. To remember the two-faced strength and weakness of water...
 
     It's his lot to know the water of Filgaia, as its Oracle... but the realities of water between Althenian sorcery and Filgaian embodiments are not so distant.
 
     "Ain't in my nature ta forget that--" He doesn't get much more in before things intensify, as Liath glows and embodies her aspect.
 
     There are many Liaths, of all colors. Light refracts, light bends, and where there may be a protection given any sort of ethereal, observable form, there is a color that is not absorbed. As no hearts are truly opaque here, there is no true shade.
 
     Lanval kicks up off the loose water about the arena, only for one such hue of Liath - something more of a lighter sea foam color - to catch him and help boost him up higher with injurious force, leaving him dancing and contorting against assaults by hues of saffron, a paler saffron, an indigo, a maroon, and... honestly it seems like saffron has the biggest bone to pick with him today because the next and last one of that sequence is a darker shade of it.
 
     From on high, he's that close to Liath as she descends, battered and bloodied (in a sense) by the ascent that he only misses the key, final, spectacular explosion by encasing himself in a bubble and allowing himself to be thrust into the ceiling.
 
     The blinding prism of infinite souls obscures his falling silhouette that one couldn't be faulted for assuming he was annihilated in the moment.
 
     And then... Magilou sings. She sings, and stirs the rippling pool with a passion she rarely seems to show beyond the disaffected, distant perspective of a thousand-year-old witch of a heart so broken so many times.
 
     To hear the inkling of looking to the future from a person who has been moored by thousands of years of pain over one's decision to abandon a world that needed her then and there from Marivel...
 
     Bubbles rise from the warming pools, refracting what lingering light remains of Liath's recent brilliance that is her birthright, bunching up in number, until it fills the chamber... and starts to coalesce on Liath's position.
 
     "'Tis true, through sorrow and fury alike... all could lose sight." Lanval would have all but wasted away in Meribia in a puddle somewhere were it not for being pulled into the orbit of the Drifters, so hurt by what seemed a rejection by the Goddess despite having held on as long as he did to keep his part of the Boundary reinforced.
 
     "And yet they doth flow forth."
 
     There's Lanval in all the bubbles. More sober, restrained, than the usual giggling and silliness that tends to transpire in the whole bubble-maze of his image, as his Domain is a thing of frivolity and joy. That even through all the tales of hearts betrayed and broken across so many years, across so many betrayals the Goddess' actions have against Her teachings among those faithful and well-meaning, it exists - and they still see it around them even now.
 
     "Just as we must away... I bid thee leave in good health, Lady Liath!" Comes Lanval's voice, booming with presence across all these bubbles, which are remarkably... missing shades of saffron. (There does seem to be a beef between this part of the visible color spectrum and Lanval, unexplainable but perhaps minor an issue in a story spanning thousands of years.)
 
     The real Lanval is seated not far off, wiping off a sleeve.
 
     "Revelry Labyrinth...!" He's not too concerned about where the stone will end up in the wake of the explosion, should Liath release it, holding out a free hand in some direction or another.

GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Lanval spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Liath with Revelry Labyrinth!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Liath accepts Seraph Lanval's Revelry Labyrinth for 277 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
Unescaped comma in final arg of ANSI by #888. This behavior is deprecated.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

There is a certain insubstantiality to Seraphim. They are, after all, spirits in the end. This seems true even of Liath, as visible as she is to everyone with the most basic of sight to see with.

And it is an ethereal nature that the Prime Lord seems to have mastered utterly: as easily as she has separated herself, so too does she recombine -- and so too does she turn her entire body into a weapon in that last, BOOMING explosion, dispersing her powerful essence across the arena grounds until they shudder dangerously in the impact. The white mist of Liath spreads across the grounds of Lefay's innermost sanctum...

... and it is only when Marivel speaks out to her, that they begin to gather once more.

She is light, all pieces of the spectrum fused into a glowing, flowing white of a silhouette as the pieces of herself form together. Strings of spirituality spin off her limbs, flow from her hair, as she approaches Marivel's smog-swaddled form.

And in that brief calm in the storm, that figure of light that is Liath kneels before Marivel, her head dipped. She has not lips for it, but her smile can be felt in the words she shares for the Crimson Noble alone.

"You have done more than enough, Marivel. Thank you. Your judgment means more to me than you may ever know."

And with this, something forms between them in a brief flash of color. Quietly passed from the Seraph to the Noble.

"I believe you are right. They are as ready as they can be. ... Mayhap, it will even be enough."

Freely given, to one of the few beings Liath may so freely give to.

In the aftermath, that radiant figure rises. The light condenses further until it forges into flesh, knits clothes upon that flesh -- forges armor over clothes. The white tips of her hair are still glowing as Liath turns her gaze upon the fallen Talia.

"..."

A frown settles across her features, lingering. Sad. In that quiet moment, she wishes she could reach out. Lift Talia up. Tell her that she already has greatness, she already has a future. She needs only see it.

She wishes.

"..."

But all she can do is be still, and shut those golden eyes.

'Now I'm stealing your thing,' announces Magilou, microphone in hand.

'After all, we should set a good example, shouldn't we?'

A little cruelty.

"... We ought," murmurs Liath, as the blistering heat of Magilou's heretical song blooms so burningly bright.

"Would that I were any example to aspire to."

And with that, she turns to face her recovering adversaries, enjoying the sound of song as it empowers them all.

'Guess... that means you're at your most beautiful, right now too.'

Liath's head tilts. She considers, for a moment. And her smile is a simple, unreadable thing.

"Mayhap that is something for you to determine, Master Hiro. Do I look beautiful, in this moment?"

In this moment. In this moment, that Hiro charges her. In this moment, as Margaret shouts out the conviction in her own vision, in her own goal, and ignites her blade in flame. In this moment, where the two collide with the Prime Lord with everything they are -- and Liath -charges- forth to greet them. Without pretense, without defense. Without doubt. She charges, and meets every ounce of what they can inflict on her, without blinking. Hiro, too, duplicates himself thrice -- airborne slashes -carve- into the air. She evades each in turn, but that is not the true danger. It is the void they have carved into Lefay's space, -sucking- in air towards their gaping wounds until they become like a hurricane's gusts, battering and beating and -stabbing- into the form of the Prime Lord unrelentingly, mercilessly. She is blown -upwards- through the vortex they create between them --

-- and it is here that she meets every ounce of Margaret's determination.

Fire ignites through the gush of winds. They carve through, burning clothes and leaving scorching black marks upon flesh with every trailing spark of her strikes. And with one final blow --

--in a burst of flames, Liath's aerial ascent is ended with an EXPLOSION of flames that eat away at the vibrant green back of her coat, burning deep into that spiritual flesh as she ROCKETS into the ground.
She is smoldering, as she drags herself to her feet once more. But to her feet she rises all the same, without pause, without even a stutter of hesitation. The back of her lone white pauldron glows orange with accumulated heat.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

And despite her wounds, she still finds her smile when next she turns to Layna, grip upon her sword still strong.

"Nor you yours," she returns, warmly. "Come. Show me the strength you can bring to bear for the sake of that which you care for most."

She lunges. A single punch. A single thrust of the sword.

And before the tip of Joyeuse can even so much kiss Layna's midsection, that fist CRACKS into Liath's sternum with enough force to practically make the Prime Lord fold inward --

--if the raging WHOOSH of wind did not throw her straight off her feet and through the air beyond.

She flips, twists -- and then she lands, skidding across the ground, before stumbling -- falling to her knees, for once, as she grips her sword for support with both hands. She clenches tight...

... and she rises, to face Ida's final assault with a clear, and steady gaze. She watches the bloom of white flame. She looks into Ida's eyes.

And after Layna's mighty blow, Liath simply cannot recover fast enough before Ida's own strike hits clean, pistoning against Liath's chest. Stonework beneath them cracks.

There are no words. Perhaps it's simply that she can't speak, in this moment. Perhaps there doesn't need to be any more words shared between the two of them.

But in that thunderclap of an impact, through the agonizing pain of that blow --

Liath, for some reason, just looks proud.

She goes flying, colliding with the ground with a cracking rebound that shatters her armored pauldron. It cracks and splinters into motes of light -- light that refracts brilliantly, within the bubbly swell of Lanval's reformation. Amidst the bubbles, Liath, from her prone position, watches. Her Joyeuse and Pridwen strewn at her side, she lifts a gloved hand, rubbing it across the dirtied, bruised expanse of her cheek as she looks upon the multitude of bubbles -- the multitude of Lanval. A spectrum of the Seraph, all his own.

'I bid thee leave in good health, Lady Liath!'

And within that countless field of bubbles reflecting her own light... Liath's eyes shut. Her fingers dig tightly into stone.

"'Tis not my health that worries me," she murmurs, a quiet confession for her fellow Seraph alone.

"Ever has it been one thing that captures my concern. And 'tis for the best that I never worry overmuch for it aga--"

Bubbles burst, in a reveling maze of exploding water brimming with Althena's Blessing. It ripples across the air like a domino effect. They engulf Liath within that almost weightless beauty, within a hundred hundred tales encompassed within them, within Lanval's Domain.

And in the aftermath...

... there is the shimmer of light, wobbling across rain. A rainbow forms within Liath's absence. Forms -- and condenses, into a staggering fall, next to Ragnell's crumpled form. She hears the Lightning Seraph's words. And she indulges a quiet smile.

"Enough," she exhales finally. "I... will not impede your path. I cannot... cannot stop you, as I am."

She exhales, slowly. And her hand reaches out, to curl around Ragnell's.

"... Make your own choices, now."

And with that, a wash of color engulfs her and the Lightning Seraph, to whisk them away.

...

...

It is in the aftermath of this all, that the Water Seraph of this Shrine, Atlul, finally emerges. True to Liath's word, he refuses them any gem, much as he might otherwise have been willing. But they are not without any hope whatsoever.

Because there is at least one Gem of Water, now securely in Marivel Armitage's possession.

One gem. One chance.

One choice to make.

In the end, the Fiends and drifters are left here to their own devices. But there is one last thing Atlul imparts them with. A warning, of a kind:

Asura's sword -- the blade he forged to cleave the world -- is no longer in the Seraph's possession. It had been taken, during the time Solaris presided over Macalania.


Taken by a knight armored fully in white.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"You're really chill aren't you," Marivel says to Layna in an aside so casual it doesn't even get ansi.

The poisons that infest Marivel do not spread out from Marivel. Wholly contained they are. Siwrling as naturally through her as any nutrients. She is not from this realm. A creature like this should not exist in reality--not in terms of an ethical judgement. And yet here it is. And it is drawn to your world like a moth to flame.

And yet, this creature that should not exist--receives a water gem--

--or perhaps but reveals it as a wing unfurls with the water gem. Behind the wing, the smoke... Something there. But what?

"Something beyond reckoning. But ere that, the Time of Promise when I am freed from bindings and my own Oath can truly shine. In that moment when time and space converge, you will meet her. You will understand when the time comes."

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX7Doyjkrag&ab_channel=NobuoUematsu-Topic

"...But this form ill fits a traveling companion. I will return anon and gift you your prize so we may find our Answers together."

"In the interim, I suggest you consider Your Answer to her. The question you've been asked since we've met."

The eyes of the demon close.

"What kind of hero you will be? The sacrificer or the sacrifice? Or perhaps... something else entirely."

Marivel's wing curls back inward. All eyes open.

"Eye'll be seeing you heh heh heh..."

And Marivel vanishes once more with a flash of light so as to not keep them waiting.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida knows not to overextend, even on a swing like that. She skids to a halt, motes of green rising from her heels as the air sweeps up in a headwind. It blows her sweat-streaked hair back, and makes her capelet flutter. Ida stands there for a moment, processing that look of pride, but then she remembers Talia and rushes over to the prone woman's side. Ida's no healer, but she can put a Gel-infused poultice over a gut wound.

    'Enough.'

    Ida looks up. Her jaw tightens, and she nods, once. "Another time," she says to Liath and Ragnell, calm and conversational. "The same to you, Marivel."

    In the aftermath, Altul emerges.

    Ida remembers Asura's memories. She remembers betrayal, rage, and an impossible task--and the fleeting moments of lucidity before he died, free of the contradiction that consumed him. Her hands tremble as Altul denies them the gem. "He's free, now," Ida says. "Free from you." Her voice is as cold as the forest above.

    But Altul doesn't let her have the last word.

    "The blade," Ida breathes, once he's delivered that damning statement. "He really..." She shakes her head.

    There will be time to wrestle with this new impending catastrophe once she's no longer burned and aching.