2022-10-22: Phantasia
- Log: Phantasia
- Cast: Marivel Armitage, Asgard, Zhang Xiumei, Janus Cascade, Eleanor Klein, Venetia Vuong, Avril Vent Fleur, Azoth, Jacqueline Barber, Dean Stark, Gwen Whitlock, Seraph Boudicca, Ida Everstead-Rey, Ruth Pauling, Juni Vandrer
- Where: Meria City - Central Commercial District
- Date: October 22, 2022
- Summary: Vinsfeld's ambitions have made the Prophets move their plans up. Those plans include, inexplicably, an attack on Towering Tim -- the enormous clocktower at the heart of Meria. While Meria's knights are dealing with (concerningly) an army of Metal Beasts, others have to handle the champions of the Prophets...
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
The green glow that lights the halls of Yggdrasil feel as if they provide no illumination at all, but rather call attention to the darkness, the pulse of it that hides within every facet of the geometric shapes along the walls.
Leehalt Alcaste waited in its main chamber. He could appear before him in an instant, but he is patient, after all there is satisfaction in summoning someone instead. A display of power.
When Janus inevitably arrives, the heavy footsteps of his Golem companion muffled upon the ground, he does not even turn around.
"I am disappointed Janus. Your incompetence has forced us to move up our timetable to keep the ambitions of a mere human like Vinsfeld in check. With your many gifts I would have thought you would have had ample time to drain every drop of life force from the Guardians of this world. Yet you have only managed to collecte a paltry amount, hardly adequate to our needs."
Leehalt's voice rasps, as dry as parchment, sounding half mummified already from the rejection of Filgaia towards his transcendence of humanity, but there was obvious power there.
"Have you nothing to say for yourself?"
A single red eye peers out of the metallic face that is now the only one he can wear.
The breath comes strangely now, less like a wheeze and more like a motorized fan.
His hands are empty. The Prophets' sorcery makes even Glumzambor's power useless against them, anyway. Still, he meets Leehalt's eyes unblinking.
"Frankly, they don't have much left to give," Janus says, blase. He waves his hand, dismissive. "We'd need one of the Greater Guardians or the Lords to get much haul, you know that."
If Janus stares long enough, he might wonder if the man has eyelids, yet he knows for a fact that right now he just chooses not to, "And was it not your task to locate their shrines? Were you not the great-"
A sneering disgust, as if for Janus' prior humanity, "-drifter, prior to your initiation into power? I thought this would be a trivial task for you. Apparently, I expected too much."
The shadows of the room feel as if they are deepening further.
"Your unworthiness is plain."
Janus doesn't, at this point, so why should this old mummy?
Janus scoffs, hand scraping on his now-metal waist. He can't make that arcing, mocking look he used to, the frozen mask of his Demon form an ominous glare. Anyone but Leehalt might be intimidated. The shadows draw nearer, but Janus dares to keep that glowing Demon eye on Leehalt.
"You want a refund on your purchase?" he sneers, patience exhausted. "Use your stupid spell and be done with it, then. You and I both know Glumzambor isn't bonding anyone else anytime soon. If you're done barking, I should get ready for the move on Meria."
Despite the taunt, Leehalt doesn't make any motion to cast a spell. "Do you truly think that you are such a prize that you are beyond my wrath? I need not waste even the smallest speck of power to bring you to heel. ...Asgard, restrain him."
And despite how well they got along, the similarities they saw in each other, survivors both of them, that came back from beyond death to celebrate it.
There is not even the smallest hesitation in gripping Janus on both sides, his barriers pressing down on him. He does not say anything. He obeys. Even to restrain someone Janus is certain he likes better than the prophets.
Because he can't do otherwise.
Asgard meets his blazing eyes. And there is nothing. It is an utterly mechanical look. There's no soul in them, no passion, no burgeoning emotions like he showed Janus. There is not even an apology. Simply a matter-of-fact statement.
"He is my master."
There's a shimmer of his form, and Leehalt warps across the room and comes nearly face to face with Janus, and somehow his hand slips right through Asgard's barrier, to put his fingertips at his chin.
"Do whatever it takes to retrieve every last drop of that Guardian Energy, Janus. Do not fail me in this, or else you will find yourself shrieking in the hollow obscurity of the grave for the remainder of eternity."
He'd sneer. He'd snarl and spit. He doesn't have those parts anymore. By carving himself down to a being of power and terror, he lost the ability to defy greater power still.
Leehalt's hand is by no means gentle, but it's not the expression of sorcerous glory that Janus expected him to strike with, either. He has wielded another power to cow him this time.
His body trembles as he struggles to tear himself free of those barriers, and ultimately...
Ultimately....
...goes quiet.
"...Understood," he says, cold.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
Elsewhere, in Meria City...
Towering Tim is one of the great landmarks of Meria City. A great clock tower at the heart of the city, said to be built upon a base of ancient ruins, which has long overlooked the central district of the capital. In front of it is a large square, where people come and go as they please.
An attack on it is unthinkable -- and today's happens only because of a clever distraction.
The first part happens in the market in the square: at several booths, wooden crates burst open, and something from another age and another conflict erupts. Metal Beasts -- organisms of living metal, looking like armored wolves, more metal and ARM than flesh -- erupt out. One lunges for a constable; another smashes over a cart. Shouts and cries erupt.
On a nearby roof, a man watches: clad in white robes, with sandy blonde hair, Malik Benedict cracks a smile. One hand grasps a railing, as he looks up at the clock tower. "All right, Asgard, Janus... it's show time," he says. "And Janus--"
His grin grows more crooked. "Don't let us down. Get us that shrine's energy."
Then, he vanishes in a burst of light that rises up around him.
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Gentlewoman Adventurer Ida! DC: Seraph Boudicca switches forms to Oracle of Moor Gault! DC: You switch forms to The Amnesiac Girl! DC: Avril Vent Fleur switches forms to The Amnesiac Girl!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus' metal face cannot grimace at Malik's cocky grin. "...right," he grunts back.
By now, Janus Cascade barely resembles a man. Hair like steel needles, a face like a demon's mask. His elbows marked with webbed fins but his hands are thick and gleam like polished silver. But still he wears that red coat and black shirt of his, the sleeves now long since tattered.
He raises a hand, the Dark Spear appearing there. He glances to Asgard, a glare at the barrier giant. "Keep up," he orders him.
And then he bursts from the roofs, a spear of anti-light accompanying him as he crashes into the side of Towering Tim, blasting a hole completely into and through the clocktower's innermost chambers. "WE'RE GOIN' RIGHT TO THE MIDDLE!" he roars.
DC: Janus Cascade switches forms to Successor of the Spear!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
The screams of Meria Boule are processed by Asgard. The metal beasts are having their fill.
He has his orders.
He doesn't say a word as his aural processes pick out certain screams being silenced, picks up the sounds of battle being joined.
He has his orders.
Janus gives him orders, he catches something in the tone, but he treats it as he would any other order, "Acknowledged." They are here to break through, into the shrine. His internal processes move distantly to what the two once shared.
He has his orders.
If something has changed between them, then it is not something he can acknowledge or prioritize.
Asgard follows behind him, cold, silent and ready - as the Anti-Light of Glumzambor erupts and decimates the tower, revealing the inner sanctuary.
He will destroy any who try to stop them. And that shiver throughout his circuitry as those excited fluctuations occur? He will experience it once more.
Following orders is his priority...
... experiencing those fluctuations once more is his pleasure.
"... Good."
And despite how mechanical he'd seemed before, Janus might hear just that tingle of nascent emotion from Asgard.
"None will stop us."
Asgard's pace subtly quickens, as they barrel right towards their goal.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
~5000 years ago
It was raining. Marivel, wearing a hooded cloak, pushed open the doors to the old tower and stepped inside. The monument had not seen much use but her father's writings spoke of an important figure to the Elw here, a powerful Guardian and Marivel would need all the power she could get so she could avenge her parents and save her world--even as impossible a task as it semed right now. There were no murals or plaques commemorating the Master of this place for the Federation did not care for worship of the Old Ones her people and the Elw shared in the worship of.
She hadn't told anyone she had planned on coming here. She didn't want to get their hopes up. She didn't even tell Althena.
So she knelt in supplication on her own, bowing her head. She hadn't been as religious as her mother or father... Having traveled with Luceid in person, the Guardians seemed a little less distant and unreachable than her parents seemed to treat them.
"Please...." Marivel says. "Lend me your aid, of all the Guardians, you are the only one I can turn to."
There was nothing for a long moment. She kept praying.
And then a voice echoed in her head.
So you come again.
Marivel was confused, she had visited the tower before but hadn't gone inside. Until recently the doors had been barred for her and her people.
"I..." Marivel was still young, still nervous. "Came because I hoped you could lend us your aid. The Guardian of Desire told me my people repaid its debt--"
And so you rush to rack up debt once more
"Please...bring them back. I'll pay any price. If it is within anyone's power it is within yours. Give us another chance to stop this."
I will not. Your people are destined to fall to the Soul Devourer, you are destined to survive it. That is the way it has always been
But Marivel paid most of her attention to the first part of that. "...So you can."
I can. A simple change. But I won't.
"Why not?!" Marivel demanded, tears blurring her vision. The intense grip of loneliness around her heart intensified. She would never see them again. She was all that was left. She had to do something...!
The only way to prevent their demise is to sacrifice you. And as you are now, you are too eager to throw your life away and it would be spitting on the grandest act your people have ever performed.
Marivel's heart sank. She clenched her fists tightly. The words rang true. It had been her fault. If she hadn't spoken up on behalf of humans so fervently....they wouldn't have rushed into danger to protect them. They could have weathered it, let the Devourer win and been the inheritors of this world but...
But instead they gave it to the humans she loved so much.
The woman she loved so much.
"But..." Marivel says. "As things are now, their sacrifice will mean nothing. Filgaia won't survive the damage they're doing to themselves let alone the Devourer. Anastasia--we'll die and that so-called grandest act will mean nothing!"
Marivel realized she had overstepped and bit at her lip, looking down. "I...I'm sorry--"
There was no answer. As if the Guardian was considering her words.
Nah, don't apologize kid. Didn't say I wasn't gonna lend a paw. Was always going to, but it's what happens here. But I want you to remember you're picking up a big burden here. Even for you it'll be tough to carry. Always is.
Marivel felt something in her hand. She knew what it was immediately. She bowed her head again. This wasn't what she hoped for but at least she could save Ana, at least she could save her.
"Thank you," She says, paying little mind to the strange way the Guardian was talking. "I promise I will stop Lord Blazer...!"
She didn't hear the Guardian mull aloud as she hurried off as there were scarcely seconds to waste.
Poor kid. Maybe it'll work out this time.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Meria City is Marivel's turf. She has defended this city since she was a child. While she could not prevent any and all hardship from befalling this land, she is still to this day extremely protective of this territory--and the rest of Aquvy, but particularly Meria City.
And even more than Meria City...
This particular clocktower.
This particular Guardian Lord who never abandoned her no matter how churlish or desperate she had become. Who seemed to understand her. Who showed stern compassion when she didn't have anyone else to turn to.
ARMS gets a notification shortly through the ARMS systems that danger is coming to Meria City. She puts a call out for any and all ARMS agents who happen to be available to defend a particular clocktower within Meria City. As usual, she neglects to mention just what's so important about this clocktower but it will be apparent shortly anyway.
She does not come marching in from behind. Rather, she appears in a flash of dark power, eyes at full crimson glow, in front of . The rage in her expression is incalculable. Perhaps her keen understanding of the timeline is fading the closer the Day of Promise comes to pass. Black leathery wings push out of her back, her fangs lengthening, her claws sharpening.
"You saved Ana's life once before," Marivel sneers at Asgard. "So I was happy to let you play around at being a servant to those fools. And certainly, I don't expect anything from Janus BUT him being a dime a dozen backstabbing scumbag. But you..."
She flexes her claws.
"Even if it is you, I will not allow you to harm the Guardian I've served all this time."
She extends her hand out as the stone medium of Time appears in her hands. Now isn't the time to hold back. Without even waiting for a response, she extends her hand out to Asgard.
She says something in a language nobody here knows that echoes around in the skull as she gestures with her hand as she intends to hit Azoth with the wear of time. Joints creak. Armor rusts. Movement slows...
This is her duty and a Crimson Noble never abandons their duty.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"What on earth!?"
Xiumei cries out, as she runs down the street. The return of the Hyadeans wasn't that well-known to Aquvians; there were some encounters between their militaries and the Metal Demons, but the majority of those were brief engagements. She never saw a Metal Beast until today, and it draws a stare from her. But, there is also a hiss in her mind.
Varius knows these.
That makes Xiumei tense. She is clad in her Biometal's armor, running with enhanced speed. She shoots down one of the wolf-like Metal Beasts, three shots from her Pulse Cannon putting it down. Then, she skids to a stop behind Marivel, and lifts up her handcannon, aiming it for Asgard.
Xiumei tenses, as she looks at him.
Asgard has been an enemy -- but a complicated one. One bound to Varius and Avile, but changed; an enemy who, also, has changed a lot since she met him.
"Asgard... you have to stop," she says. "We can't let you do this!"
==== +buckets: Meria City - Central Commercial District ========================
'| *Marivel Armitage (Boss 1) - Hiro and Layna Manydays (2/3) '|
'| '|
'| *Janus Cascade (Boss 5) - Gwen Whitlock, Jacqueline Barber, Venetia Vuong, '|
'| and Eleanor Klein (4/5) '|
'| '|
'| *Asgard (Boss 6) - Azoth, Dean Stark, Avril Vent Fleur, Marivel Armitage, '|
'| and Zhang Xiumei (5/6) '|
'| '|
'| Unassigned Players: Janus Cascade, Ida Everstead-Rey, Seraph Boudicca, '|
'| Asgard, Juni Vandrer, and Ruth Pauling '|
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
The attacks begin. In a lovely little teahouse, Eleanor is startled from drinking her tea by the sound of alarms, and her brother Tristan immediately stands, his own cup forgotten. "We have to go," he says, looking out over the city. "I have to go. Sorry, Eleanor."
He moves to pick up his sidearm, and Eleanor stands, too, a worried expression on her face.
"Tris!" she calls, stopping him halfway out the door, as he looks to her.
"Yes?"
"...Be careful. I have a bad feeling about this."
"...I will. I promise."
-=-=-
Eleanor Klein gets the message from ARMS in the next few moments. Shortly thereafter...
Eleanor runs into the square, even as her brother has run the opposite direction, towards the Metal Demons. She is dressed for tea, not for battle--but she still has her ARM at her hip and her Crests in her satchel. And she sees Marivel--
The Guardian she's served...? It must be. "Marivel!" she calls. "We're with you!"
Then she charges towards the clocktower, looking to Xiumei as she goes, and questions. "Xiu!" Eleanor calls, "I'll count on you to protect Marivel!"
She's worried about her, when she's like this.
But for now, Eleanor's magical blue anklet shines and she suddenly runs faster, surer than before, rocketing up the ruin after Janus and focusing golden light in her hands as she does. She doesn't have time for anything else. She can just hope Venetia is here too.
Pure Light crashes out towards Janus as she catches sight of him, warring in the air with the Dark Spear's Unlight. She lowers her hands and says, "JANUS CASCADE!"
"We won't let you do as you wish."
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Janus Cascade with Brilliance! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
AS IT HAPPENED...
Venetia had come to Meria Boule in order to stake something out wholly unrelated to this benighted event, and had stayed over because she deserves nice things and the occasional vacation. Also, she wanted to try to tell some people at a local tourist trap something, but that wasn't worked out.
WHICH MEANS
"I'm on the scene," Venetia had replied to Marivel, already pulling on her Sorceress Trousers.
AND SO
A giant hole in the wall of the clocktower. Ah, Venetia thinks, putting together several disparate pieces. If they're after a Guardian, Venetia reasons-- she nods once -- and runs!!
As she runs, she yells.
"JANUS CASCADE! You no-talent son of a sandworm, I see you're ripping off Everstead just as bad as you'd ripped off Smithee! Who are you going to imitate next, because I'm going to take a moment to recommend -- the first king of Aveh! And do you want to know why, Cascade?!"
"He's probably too far ahead to hear me," Venetia huffs. Rather than go for her Crest pouch, she reaches for the other pouch, which contains an invention intended to silence crime forever: a gun! "CASCADE! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN WHIP YOUR ASS!"
Perhaps Venetia speaks for many when she concludes this statement with gunfire, aimed at the flank of Janus Cascade. Several clouds of gunsmoke trail her completely-normal and-in-fact-probably-slightly-below-average speedy pursuit.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Janus Cascade with Five Rounds of Standoffish Lead! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Asgard with Bad Breath! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Asgard suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Bad Breath for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It had been chance alone that had put Avril in Meria Boule in the first place. (Chance, or so it seems -- come another few years and Avril will regard these turns of events quite differently indeed.)
The premonition had come almost too late.
"Dean-- Boudicca-- we must go!"
She had taken the both of them by the hands and she had run for the clocktower plaza, only minutes before everything began to become undone. Just like that, the city is under siege, and Avril runs for the very heart of the storm.
"Janus... it's him," she utters, catching sight of the figure as he crashes into the side of the clocktower. "Dam Dairam, he is--"
If she stops mid-sentence, it is for a very singular reason: without feeling more than the presence of a Guardian's power, she knows whose shrine this is. "...The Time Guardian," she adds, glancing towards Boudicca. Of course she might not know. She frowns, wrinkling her forehead. "I feel almost as if..."
But she shakes her head. No. There is no time for that. Not now.
"Over there, we may yet manage to..."
Ah, but Janus isn't alone, is he? The Prophets didn't want to risk matters this time.
She lets go of their hands, and into her own she draws her blade.
"Asgard... I do not wish to fight you," she says, directing the tip of her blade at him. "Yet, neither can I permit you to destroy this shrine. I know that you will do as you must." Her eyes narrow. "So shall I."
She lunges for him in the next heartbeat, testing his barriers with Absolute Zero's edge. Whether or not they can defeat him, she doesn't know. But perhaps they can stall him.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Innocent Saber! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Asgard suffers a terrible blow from Avril Vent Fleur's Innocent Saber for 124 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Sorry! Coming through! No hard feelings!" Azoth calls out as he weaves and dashes through the chaos of the streets, spinning on heel and making a finger gun at a wolf shaped Metal Beast to blast with a beam before forming a sword to crash into another.
These are not the true source, he understands, and a hole blast through the clocktower confirms it. This isn't something Azoth can ignore.
He bolts in after Marivel and the others, flailing his arms as he comes to a harsh stop on one foot and slams back on his heels.
Asgard. They've fought before. Several times, in fact. Azoth frowns, hand to his chest where his core lies.
"Is this part of your adapting? Learning, growing... living?" He smiles, faint. "...Or are these just your orders?" Does it always come down to that in the end, for entities like them? Whatever developments they make, they remain chained. Asgard's friends -- and Azoth does think it sounds like they want to be friends -- call out to him. They don't want to fight. But everyone's going to have to.
Azoth shakes his head. "I'm still unauthorized to go all out. But..." Lines of blue light glow through his synthetic skin, eyes brightening. "Whether it's stopping you, or teaching something new... I'll try to make you feel alive."
GS: Azoth has attacked Azoth with Artificial Resolve! GS: Azoth's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Azoth accepts Azoth's Artificial Resolve for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Meria City is under attack by an army of Metal Beasts, of all things. It reminds Jacqueline all too much of Adlehyde. This... things like this should have long since stopped happening. Why are there Metal Beasts, here? It feels... too concentrated - one or two, perhaps, but an entire army, enough to do so much damage to the town...?
She had been running a stall in the commerical district when it happened. A typical business day for her. And then, they began to burst out. Naturally, this will draw her attention... at least, until the side of the clocktower explodes.
"A diversion...?" Jacqueline gasps, and frowns. She doesn't know why the clocktower would be so important as to be a target, but... It seems significant. She sweeps a few of the bottles on her stall into her bags, leaving the rest for town's defenders. They might need them. With that done, she draws out her Artificial Copy Sea Medium, turning her eyes toward the clocktower and doing a few mental calculations in her head. She draws on the Medium's power, a Jump carrying through space and dropping her into the hole torn into its side. She breaks into a run, and soon its clear that she isn't the only one who noticed. Familiar allies are gathered here... but so are familiar foes.
Janus, and Asgard... the Prophets arranged this, then? A frown crosses Jacqueline's face. This place must be more important than just a signature landmark, then. If they're here, then it has to be related to their plans...
She doesn't bother to announce herself - she draws a bottle of foul-looking liquid and hurls it at his feet where it erupts into a misty cloud that seems to cling to the body of those caught in it, making every action that much more difficult.
"Hello, Janus." Jacqueline greets. "I think they've already said everything I would, so I won't trouble you further by repeating them. Still... you're looking less like yourself by the day."
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Janus Cascade with Trouble Bottle! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean isn't a member of ARMS, but he *is* a friend of Marivel's. He trusts that if she says something is in dire need of defending, it's exactly what she says, and he trusts that there's a good reason for it. He doesn't need to know what it is. There'll be time to learn that later, once the bad guys have been beaten off.
Also, there's Metal Beasts all over the streets. Even if Marivel weren't here, even if Avril hadn't taken him and Boudicca by the hands and led them into battle, Dean would be running in to protect people just the same.
"Right behind you!" he calls to Avril, squeezing her hand as he runs alongside her. He screeches to a halt at the edge of the clocktower, then tightens his free hand into a fist.
"Janus...!!" he hisses, spotting the one person who he just can't forgive. But-- "Huh? There's a Guardian here?" he utters, looking over at Avril. Marivel above shouts about serving a Guardian--is *that* what this is about? ...Wait, what's he thinking, of course that's what a jerk like Janus is after! Dean is about to sprint over to block the way of the twisted ex-Drifter when Avril spots someone else--and when he looks, he sees--
"ASGARD!" he shouts, Twin Fenrir flashing into his hands as he races towards the Golem. Dean doesn't want to have to fight one of his beloved Golems, but he knows that fighting is something Asgard enjoys--something that lifts his spirit beyond the shackles of his masters's orders. So, without hesitation, he opens fire on the giant metal man, bullets flying in from behind Avril with no danger of ever striking her. Dean and Avril have always been in sync like that.
"Boudicca, you watch our backs! Me and Avril will stop him!!" he shouts over his shoulder. To the foe ahead, he adds, "Asgard, I know you love fighting... so if you wanna get past us, you gotta fight us first!!"
Azoth says much the same as he charges in and snaps to a halt. Dean shoots him a fierce smile. "That's right! So we'll stop you here and now!"
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Asgard with Dual Shooter! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Dual Shooter for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover applied to Dean Stark! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Of course Gwen is here. And it's not just because the scent of trouble is in the air-- she's been a proper courier, doing her job and living a nice and proper normal life making money from taking inanimate objects and moving them to another location in a timely fashion using a Gear whose fuel costs more than the hay it took Gulliver to go the same distance. However, Gulliver couldn't fly or swim, and, as far as Gwen knows, is in the care of a good friend who hopefully is keeping safe on some lone paradise of an island with plenty of crabs, fish, and coconuts to eat and no trouble to speak of.
Meanwhile, Gwen has found trouble. Crates that thankfully she was not involved in the business of transporting have brought trouble to the city life, making the courier take up the title of crime-fighting... wolves? Things as much biological canine wolf as her right arm is a biological human arm.
"Why can't a nice gal make a decent livin' in these dark times without somethin' poppin' up to make that decent livin' all miserable?" Shots fire, the spaces of time between eaten up by the action of inserting the proper ammunition into the bend of her right ARM. No need to turn to bullets of ozone and lightning just yet is still young. Which, it undoubtably is, because no one would waste their money on shipping so many wooden crates of live animals and not have some sort of plan in place, unless this was for the world's worst petting zoo.
And speaking of the world's worse...
One of those loaded bullets screams through the sky, aimed straight at the former Great Drifter from the right palm of Gwen Whitlock, super courier, who has wedged her super back and super foot between a railing and a wall to try to account for the super recoil. And if a bullet wasn't enough to announce her presence (which it wouldn't, Janus likely has many more notable things being shot, thrown, and stabbing at him at this very moment) Gwen yells at him at the top of her lungs.
"JANUS Cascade, get your lousy sack of fish gills off that goddamn tower n' fight like you remember what shavin' your face felt like before y'shave the last of my saintly patience!!"
It's alright, Gwen's not holding her breath. She's already starting up the tower. To the middle, like the young man kindly shouted out.
The worst part, perhaps, is that even if Gwen properly appreciated the position Janus was in, that pile of pale red curls would still be visible as she jogged up insides of the tower, no wind or strategic leaping to sidestep whatever obstacles and doors that might be in her way going up. Just endurance and determination.
If Gwen knew, she would still do the same exact thing, just with the added insult of open sympathy in those eyes for Janus. She'd even cry for him, like he didn't openly try to kill her, her dearest friends, and innocent bystanders multiple times.
Like she could stem the tide of hubris just by being present.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Janus Cascade with Crackshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca follows Avril, light as the wind, for all the heavy armour about her. She may be called Oracle, but she does not see -- relies on Avril, for this. And so Boudicca is here, at the plaza, with Dean. She would be here for the Guardians, to be sure -- Avril helpfully translates the name, though she understands their presence more intuitively -- but there is an extra layer of concern, over her grey-green eyes, for someone far more mortal.
'Speaking of which, I'm not friends with Janus Cascade or his buddies either.'
When someone speaks so few harsh words, they are stark, against the canvas. He is here, to harm Dam Dairam, who is here. And Asgard is here, and Avril sees him, and Dean --
"I understand!" She says, to Dean, taking stance behind him. But first, she turns, and cries -- "Ida!" Boudicca calls, over the din, to the other Seer bound to her. "Please, do not allow Janus to --" she pauses, for a breath, as she tabulates what he could do. "-- stop him!!" She settles on.
Boudicca frowns, turning to the golem. "Asgard... I am not here to fight you," she says, and it is not as clumsy an injury as it might seem.
If she wants to distract him, after all --
"But, they are. Smoke Sigil!" She declares, as she snaps her fingers, sparks a flame in the oxygen of her air. It spirals to Dean, wrapping him in Moor Gault's hearthfire, warming and supportive.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Dean Stark with Smoke Sigil! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The search for Harmaus in Guild Galad turned up inconclusive. Fortunately, there's still a chance to head him off at the pass--he has those train tickets, and they'll leave a paper trail if he uses them. Venetia thought similarly, and Ida had planned on meeting her on arrival to see if she'd found anything.
Ida was not expecting another horror to unfold the moment she made it to the center of town.
First, the screams, and the too-familiar howling of alien beasts. Ida--who had been strolling down a thoroughfare, taking in the sights--stops in her tracks, eyes focused on nothing. For a few heartbeats, she is elsewhere as her fear-brain recites its litany. Adlehyde. Claiborne. Adlehyde. The Photosphere. New Arctica. Adlehyde. Adlehyde. Adlehyde. Scars upon scars upon scars. Her hands twitch. Her eyes slide sideways as something growls nearby, a gleaming, lupine Metal Beast loping out of an alley. Red blood stains its jaws.
The horror grows dull as Ida prepares for violence. In one single, practiced motion, she whips Devil's Due from its holster and puts two rounds between the Metal Beast's eyes. She triple-taps, just to be sure.
At some point, Ida heard Marivel's voice. Clock tower. She'll get there soon.
NOW
The roar of gunfire rips through the air in the clocktower plaza, deep and resonant; it's a steady rhythm to the twisted melody that is the howling of Metal Beasts. Those howls are pained, angered--and the moment the gunfire stops, a figure leaps through the haze of smoke and ionized particles left by Janus' horrific assault. Boots land on the clocktower catwalk. One of the Metal Beasts lands behind the figure a moment later, scrabbling forward, jaws bared. Quicksilver drips from a gunshot wound in its torso.
The figure twists, aims, and BANG, the Metal Beast falls dead.
The smoke parts. Ida Everstead-Rey steps forwards, her face a mask of carefully-controlled outrage. Her gaze flicks to Asgard for a moment, and mingled pain and pride rise up in the back of her mind.
"Cascade," Ida says, and her flesh begins to BOIL beneath her clothes, silvery Hyadean tissue erupting from human skin. It knits itself into place with record speed, forming gleaming exoskeleton: the blue and gold of her family's colors, accented with black and white. "Making another Adlehyde, hm? Stealing Glumzamber wasn't enough, was it? You have to claim Siegfried's murders, too?!"
GS: Dean Stark accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Dean Stark! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 4 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Cover applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida turns to Boudicca, and nods, as the exoskeleton creeps up her jawline and cheekbones. "Got your back," she breathes.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
AS BEDLAM BROKE OUT...
Ruth, left to her devices, already prefers elevated positions. She's simply vibing in Meria Boule at the balcony of an indistinct tall building nearby.
When a flock of panicked pigeons pass by, her eyes shoot open with life as so many tiny little hearts with fear prove a prelude to so many others when that message from ARMS reaches her. She becomes far more animated in the moments that follow like someone who never could find rest from the sort of thing that's happening right now. Adrenaline courses through as she races back into the building to ascend even higher, pain shooting through her left arm as years of wear and tear fail to successfully communicate that her mortal shell can no longer bear the stresses to such degree.
"I'm taking position," she remarks with far more subdued emotion in her voice. She's holding.
NOW...
Four deafening shots fill the air, shooting for the marauding Metal Beasts that are coming up against a weaker flank among Tristan's unit. A serpentine tongue flicks from the lips of that shooter, the violet-hued shine of their eyes bearing down upon the scenery. Emanations of Malevolence from her person stay on high as to not descend upon locals, until such time they're clear.
The monstrous form that is Janus - features present seeming to have some vague resemblance to the armoring Ida can call to her person, a thought she may have later - crashes into the clocktower. Ruth doesn't consider so much whether or not she can, or should, pursue. It's a hell of a jump. Her gargoyle-like form is large, ungainly from the asymmetry of only having one wing...
None of this matters. She leaps like she might swoop and glide that distance, a monstrous hissing shriek as she barrels in that direction with the Malevolence-altered curved bayonet blade sweeping towards the wielder of the Dark Spear in her attempt to close the gap.
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Janus Cascade with Scarring Blow! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni Vandrer hears things kicking off. There's a low grumble from the fuzzy alien as she contemplates just what kind of trouble it actually is. You know, maybe it's a party or something. She takes a pull from a mug. A long one. Then she sniffs it and wrinkles her nose. People running by gets her watching the windows. The metal beast though? That's something new and gets a sharp curse in her own language. She did remember to pay at least! Slapping money down under the mug as she unslings her gun, hidden away under her poncho. Combat loaded, shell checked, barrel pointed right at one of the beasties at the door and bang.
Out onto the street she tries to assess the situation. And pulls her hood up, the sun is bright and she's... able to aim straight at least. A few more shots ring out as she tries to pick off more of those metal wolves as they chase after the unarmed panicking civilians.
Loading fresh shells as she moves against the crowd, barrel low and ready and trying to assess the situation. A few familiar faces make that much easier at least! Even if it's been a while. Things are clear enough, she shoulders her shotgun and when there's a clear shot at the golem, she takes it. Figuring the biggun is probably the bigger threat to both the building and the general populace. Force of habit and all really. The shotgun's sharp report is followed up by an immediate reposition by the diminutive alien. Leaving behind an orange marked shell where she had been.
There's a glance at her wrist, shotgun on sling briefly and a few things are updated as she listens to them. Tower needs protection, bad guys need shooting. Usual ID things you do! Mostly. Does mean she's skirting the edge of the fight to put herself between the wolves, golem, unfamiliar face and associated friends and the clock tower though, bowing to the local's knowledge on this. Improv and all.
GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Asgard with Warning Shot! GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action. GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Juni Vandrer's Warning Shot for 19 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Janus Cascade fully evades Eleanor Klein's Brilliance for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Gamble: Very High! Janus Cascade solidly guards Venetia Vuong's Five Rounds of Standoffish Lead for 70 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Janus Cascade takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Trouble Bottle for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple, Jam, and Mute applied to Janus Cascade! GS: Quick applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: CRITICAL! Janus Cascade suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 111 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Janus Cascade! GS: Janus Cascade partially evades Ruth Pauling's Scarring Blow for 60 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
The shrine of Dan Dairam is a glorious thing, with fine stonework. The path leads down, down into the tower, into the ruins below. It's as though time has stood still here. No dust. Not even sign of animals moving in. No spiders or lizards nesting here from the blasting heat that is Filgaia's every moment.
Janus and Asgard charge onward, heedless of assault. The final room is a larger space, bordered at the corners. In its middle, a silent reflecting pool awaits a pilgrim with tranquility. Above that, a whirling gyroscopic mass of energy, one of the Chocks that bind the Guardians to Filgaia...pacemakers for the Ley.
And beyond both, the altar to Dan Dairam, a tablet inscribed with ancient Elw prayers and Baskar secrets floating above it. Janus grins. "We're here! Asgard!"
He skids to a stop in front of the tablet, sweeping his blade in a blast of shielding light to repel the initial waves of attacks. Then he holds his hand up, and power begins flowing from the tablet into what looks for all the world like a Sphere in his hand.
"Hold 'em back, big man!" he calls, and pulls his hand back. The Sphere remains, siphoning an unknown power.
Janus Cascade no longer looks remotely like a human. Red lights shine where his eyes should be. His mouth does not move. His voice sounds like it's coming from a speaker. And in his hand, he holds it - the Dark Spear, Glumzambor, its blade pulsing with force.
"Sorry, ladies, I was not listening to your invective on account of my dedication to my profession."
His blade comes up and he catches Ruth's soaring flight on the blade's edge, grunting before he moves himself aside enough she can tumble past. He raises Glumzambor at her and it makes a loud BANG sound and a bullet of light roars at her.
He fires a similar shot into the ground, and it fractures long-sacred stonework on its way down to fire jetties of rock at Ida and Gwen, forcing them to move.
Then he levels it higher, and a wave of lights emerge from the blade, raining down on the rest, Eleanor, Venetia, and Jay facing a rain of power.
"Now."
There's something scything in his voice as he seethes. "I'm not feelin' the most generous today. So how about you do me a solid and die for me?"
GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Ruth Pauling with Bolt Action?! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 2 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Shockslide! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Shockslide! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Eleanor Klein with Multiblast! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Venetia Vuong with Multiblast! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Multiblast! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action. GS: Venetia Vuong solidly guards Janus Cascade's Multiblast for 66 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's Multiblast for 159 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Janus Cascade's Multiblast for 64 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Janus Cascade! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
Drifters call, many familiar to him, "I have my orders." He says to Xiumei, mechanically, as if that ends all discussion on whether he will stop or not, "And you have not the strength to stop us." That subtle synthetic emotion, like he's daring her to try.
The problem is that Janus and Asgard are moving so fast, that it seems only a matter of moments before they will arrive.
Marivel would impede their advance? "I have no data on designate 'Ana'." Asgard says to Marivel without looking at her. Is it truly so, that all of this data has been wholly excised out of him, a large portion of his life, his existence. However, that does not mean he does not know Marivel. "I do know your power." His optical sensors zoom in on the Medium and there is excitement shivering throughout his circuits. "Show me more."
The invocation of the Time Medium causes Asgard's steps to slow. "Optim-zzhk." His systems appear to halt for just a moment.
Long enough for Avril to move in with his Saber.
What she finds is that his barriers are momentarily not up. Her strike shrieks across metal and then. His eyes turn deep crimson, "Impressive. But I have learned much since our last encounter." And his barriers flare back to life, as Marivel finds her magic being gradually absorbed... by a trick...
... that Magilou taught him. Everyone thank Magilou.
"Affirmative - Queen of Ice."
Despite all that she just harried him. Asgard immediately stomps past him, as if he simply has his priorities
"I will do as I must."
Azoth calls out to him on the way."My orders are why I must fight. Every fight, the smallest most imperceptible fluctuations of data it brings, is my pleasure." Now he looks at Azoth, "Will it be enough?"
Dean's shots ping against his newly erected barrier, testing it with sheer volume. Asgard gives him the ritual greeting of the proud Golem culture. "Dean Stark." By charging in and sending a punch descending towards the center of his rib cage. "Welcome."
Asgard's sensors have long adapted to Seraphim. And Boudicca says she is not there to fight him.
"Is not lending your support to your allies in the middle of battlefield, the same as choosing to fight yourself?"
Juni's shotgun shell strikes Asgard from behind, skittering off his barrier. The Golem catches her reposition out of the corner of his eye.
And moves onward...
Why is the belligerent Golem not attacking?
Well...
... he has his orders.
The moment they arrive into the Sanctum, Asgard stops right in the center of the path towards Janus. 'Hold them back Big Man.'
"Acknowledged, I am the Fortress of the Gods."
The Golem's fist shines, growing brighter, and brighter in its light.
"Come. All of you."
The Golem drives his fist downward into the stonework, as the energy of his barrier shines, and starts creating an ever widening crevasse. That then becomes simply disintegrating stone, as that shine erupts outward.
"AND BREAK YOURSELF UPON ME!"
A part of the Clocktower just crumbles outright, collapsing upon a good number of those following them inside.
~Elsewhere~
Melody who has been listening to the audio of the battle - abruptly tries to charge Malik, who just shimmers away from her reach as she cries out, "STOP TEACHING HIM USELESS THINGS!"
"Useless? My dear sweet Melody you just have no sense of drama."
GS: Asgard has attacked Dean Stark with Iron Fist! GS: Asgard has activated a Force Action! GS: Asgard spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Asgard has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Barrier Flood! GS: Asgard has attacked Azoth with Barrier Flood! GS: Asgard has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Barrier Flood! GS: Asgard has attacked Marivel Armitage with Barrier Flood! GS: Asgard has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Barrier Flood! GS: Asgard has attacked Juni Vandrer with Barrier Flood! GS: Asgard has attacked Asgard with High Powered Barrier! GS: Asgard has completed his action. GS: Asgard accepts Asgard's High Powered Barrier for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Hex removed! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Asgard! GS: Mighty applied to Asgard! GS: Dean Stark solidly guards Asgard's Iron Fist for 64 hit points! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 220 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling solidly guards Janus Cascade's Bolt Action? for 68 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 205 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Juni Vandrer suffers a terrible blow from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 306 hit points! GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 235 hit points! GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Barrier Flood for 105 hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca partially evades Asgard's Barrier Flood for 163 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Janus Cascade's Shockslide for 173 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Janus Cascade! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"We'll have to see about that," Xiumei says. It's not quite what Azoth says -- she doesn't want to fight him. She doesn't want to fight, as a general rule, but she has come to accept the necessity of this.
She glances at him for a moment, and then the others. Her eyes do fall on the black sphere that Janus unleashes, though -- and the siphoning energy.
She frowns -- but she rushes forward. Asgard said he would hold them back; she'll have to get through to stop this. She leaps up into the air, as the barrier explodes out at her, disintegrating stone. Her leap takes her over the shockwave, armored feet scorched by the leaking energy, and then she lands, coming down for Asgard.
As she descends, cubes of light form -- a cylinder appears in her hand and a blade of energy explodes to life, before she chops the Pulse Saber down for Asgard.
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Pulse Saber - Jump Slash! GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action. GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Saber - Jump Slash for 126 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's Shockslide for 193 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Janus Cascade!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth gives Dean a bright smile right back. "That's right."
But his focus must be on Asgard. Will it be enough?
A false smile dances across Azoth's face. "It doesn't matter either way, does it?"
The longer they take, the more opportunity Janus -- who is looking like he's not feeling fantastic -- is going to have making a mess of something important. The Time Guardian...
Asgard seems content enough to fight for his own sake enough that the orders are not intolerable. Is it better than the alternative? Azoth knows that, with the right reprogramming, he wouldn't know the difference himself.
The barrier explodes, the stone disintegrates, and the clocktower collapses down toward him. Azoth isn't quick enough to move, smashed under rock and rubble. A bright slice cleaves through the offending stone, and Azoth explodes out of it, bursting toward Asgard to form a brilliant blade of energy.
He smashes it directly into the shining barrier, detonating it and letting the exploding energy scatter like webs of lightning, calculations rapidly trying to identify the barrier's composition and unmake it.
GS: Azoth has attacked Asgard with Power Strip! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel has a very high opinion of Dean because he is also a big fan of golems. Marivel is a big fan of golems too. In fact, one of the reasons MArivel is such a big fan of golems is the one she's trying to shutdown right here and now. It is difficult to maintain anger against someone who you spent so much time believing in especially since it might not really be their fault due to it being due to some 'programming', perhaps? Nevertheless, Marivel seems less inclined to shrug off that it's just Asgard's design here--maybe she felt that shouldn't be enough to control him anyway which seems at odds with how she treats Azoth but, well. It might also just be easier to see clearly when something isn't so up close.
Or maybe she knows a little more about what makes an Asgard.
"They cannot corrupt an Asgard's heart. If they could do THAT they would've gone for the original."
That said, one thing is pretty consistent about this particular Asgard. He does love a good fight.
"An Asgard's capacity to grow is nothing to scoff at," Marivel grunts as she ceases her temporal assault on Asgard. If those barriers can absorb her magic, it's best that she not hit him with too much of it. Last thing she wants right now is a Timestopper to go off. It'd waste precious seconds--potentially fatal.
"But how'd you learn to do that...?" Marivel has a feeling mostly because she gets that same headache tic she gets whenever she dwells on that particular sorcerer too long. Sorcerers don't get along for a reason, their schemes tend to bump up against one another and this is no exception.
No data on Ana. Did they delete her from memory? But why would they? Knowing OF Ana wouldn't impede his ability to work.
Not enough time to worry about it. "Alright, if that's how you're going to be..."
The barrier explodes out from Asgard and slams into Marivel, disintegrating her lower half like she was Amon or something. In a spray of blood and smoke, Marivel collapses to the ground. Asgard won't think that was enough.
Marivel's body rewinds itself, blood and smoke refills her vessel as the wounds pull back into her body as if they were never there.
"Keep him adapting!" Marivel suggests to her friends. "Don't let him get used to any particular form of violence or he'll use it to empower himself!"
She has already called for her own Asgard unit but it will be MINUTES before it can arrive. Far too long unless they can at least shut down one of these agents of the Prophets down. The clocktower itself can be repaired, she thinks, the important thing is that they do not absorb its power.
"They don't have the skills or wit to mess with an Asgard to that extent." Don't they? Or does she just refuse to believe it? "Perhaps the name faded away. Long blue purple hair. Had a grumpy dog with her at the time? You had a match but you later helped her out of a jam. Several thousand years ago. Not that long."
She looks to Boudicca for a moment. She doesn't like Boudicca seeing her like this. Not yet. She brings her hand down her face. "Xiumei, you still have the Timestopper? I should be able to throw him into another dimension for a while but we'll have to make it count and time it just right."
She flexes out right arm. It enlongates and gets bulbuous and doesn't seem to match the rest of her body though the claws remain very sharp as she beats her wings up into the air and comes crashing down towards Asgard, clawing into him, examining the defense energies so she can puncture a spell through the shielding later.
The clawed strikes she unleashes seemingly twist and wrap around Asgard--shifting the flavor of the temporal assault to keep Asgard adjusting to fend off her sorcery by continuously adjusting its flavor.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Asgard with Bloody Mari! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Azoth's Power Strip for 209 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Mighty and Quick removed! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 62 damage! GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Bloody Mari for 123 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Dan Dairam's shrine is lovely. Jacqueline wishes she could've visited it under better circumstances. Right now, though... they have a problem. There is a tablet, and Janus has a sphere, into which power is being drawn...
"...We need to stop this, quickly." Jacqueline murmurs. It's probably evident enough to all of them. Of course, stopping it isn't something they'll be able to do without opposition - Asgard and Janus are here, after all, and either of them alone would be a dangerous enough opponent. Fighting both of them...
...Well, they'll just have to do their best.
Glumzambor is raised high, and power rains down upon them. With a grimace Jacqueline backpedals, raising her cloak protectively against the onslaught.
"Sorry... I'm not feeling particularly cooperative, either, due to my dedication to mine. I'm afraid I'm going to have to be difficult." Jacqueline replies. She draws a Crest Graph, slotting it into her left gauntlet and invoking it with a hand gesture. A thick, clinging fog begins to billow up around his position to obscure his vision - though leaving that of Jacqueline's allies unhindered.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Janus Cascade with Obscuring Fog ! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
It's good that she's not alone here, Venetia thinks, since 'That Crest' wasn't prepared when she left. Then again, she reasons, 'That Crest' might not... hm.
"Get him!" she calls encouragingly after Ruth as she lunges towards Janus Cascade. Hurrah!!
In. Down. Nearer to the man - what remains of the man. For a moment Venetia thinks he's been wholly transformed, and she steels herself to avoid Looking at Ida. The two do not seem to be having similar experiences, even if perhaps the route is not entirely dissimilar.
"And what profession is that, at the moment?" Venetia says with brass, nonetheless. She holsters the gun JUST in time for that barrage to come downwards. Venetia swirls herself mostly out of the way, raising one hand in a defiant gesture that manages to ward off at least one of those blasts - barely - another bursting against her with an "ngh!" of displeasure.
"I refuse," Venetia says, and she pulls out -- a big Crest Graph.
Huh.
"Do you know why, Cascade? Because of this. This refutes you. This is the key of your undoing! When you cry out in your sleep, it is THIS that you see - the true face of God!" it's a crest graph
"Ida!" Venetia says, because her last name is a little long. The Crest Graph is held higher and-- there is a red-jeweled flowing-and-sparkle that slides towards her, vaguely similar to but not very similar to a spiralling pattern of blood, if blood had a crystalline tendency. It has no smell. It simply fades.
Venetia then gives Janus an extremely smug smile.
("We may need to coordinate at this point if he's not cresting early," Venetia mutters to Jay.)
GS: Venetia Vuong spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Persephone Sign ~Death Defiance~! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Venetia Vuong heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 90 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Venetia Vuong's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor Klein has more reason to appreciate Ruth Pauling. She knows this somehow, but does not know why.
Janus... is not listening. "Hmph. You're not the only one dedicated to a profession," she says, and thinks of how Ida worried over Janus and her own fate. ...Is this what 'better' looks like?
Eleanor moves to leap out of the way, but the blast hits her all the same, and she's knocked backwards as a result. She stumbles, but does not fall. Instead, Eleanor reaches into her satchel, and pulls one of her Crests, the symbols of Fray and Muse clear upon its gilt inscriptions.
"The power of the Ley is strong here... This is a holy place." It's a shrine, so it should be--but Eleanor means something more than that. She notices the alar, the tablet, and that power flowing into something of a sphere.
"You seem always to want to interfere with powers beyond you, Janus Cascade."
Venetia refuses. Eleanor smiles. "Good work. I'd better not slack off myself..."
She lifts the Crest upward. "By the motion of the starry heavens, see the fate read for you in the sky! Lustrous Brand!"
A big blast of pure white light crashes down towards Janus, though Eleanor is keeping an eye out for Asgard. The column is blinding--
GS: Formation! Eleanor Klein has attacked Janus Cascade with Lustrous Brand! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"It is quite different," Boudicca says. "Because I will not allow them to be harmed for their convictions."
It's easy for her to say that, but --
The Sanctum. She is visitor, but they are too many; Boudicca looks up, to the stonework, and feels a deep, deep sorrow. "I am sorry," she says, and not to Asgard.
And Asgard -- is using his barrier. Boudicca leaps, all carried on the wind, but the overwhelming wave of energy catches her in the air regardless. She tumbles, and falls, but it's all right. It's all right, if she lands with a crunch, because her body is a metaphor, and the real pain doesn't come from her bones.
Wind billows her up, just the same, and she nods to Marivel. There is concern, in her eyes; she does not dredge it out into the open, here, but she feels it regardless. She is... old, Marivel, and Boudicca worries. "I understand," she answers her. "I will vary my approach. If it will support you, then..."
True to her word, it's a green glyph beneath her feet, as she incants: "Beaufort's Prediction!" And it isn't the Guardian's power, which gusts from her to blow into Asgard, but her own Seraphic magic.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Asgard with Beaufort's Prediction! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Asgard suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Beaufort's Prediction for 107 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean flashes a thumbs-up at Azoth. It's always so emotionally empowering to fight alongside his friends--not just him, but Avril, and Boudicca, and Marivel, and Xiumei, and everyone else too! That especially means Ida and the others who're fighting Janus; Dean counts on them to handle that ENORMOUS JERK. By comparison--no, even in general, he doesn't even really consider Asgard an enemy, even as they fight on opposite sides with enormous stakes on the line. It's not Asgard's fault he has to follow stupid smelly old JANUS CASCADE'S orders.
So when Asgard whirls a massive fist in towards Dean's ribs, Dean literally rolls with the punches, lifting up and arcing through the air before crashing into a nearby wall. "UGH," he groans, sliding to the floor--yet, somehow, managing to land on his feet.
"Y-your punches are as strong as ever, Asgard," Dean adds, grinning through his grit teeth, one eye winked shut. Are his ribs broken? It sure *feels* like they are--but thanks to Boudicca's supportive magic empowering his defenses, he's actually managed to get away with just a bunch of bruises and cracks.
That's actually really good, considering their opponent.
He perks at what Marivel says, too, about Asgards. He may or may not fully understand, but all the same, he shouts in agreement, "Yeah! Golems are stronger than this! We'll break through to him someday!" But... huh. Mix up their approaches, huh? "Okay! We'll do our best!"
Which means since Boudicca supported him just now, she'll have to support someone else. Obviously that's how this works. Dean flashes *her* a thumb's-up in gratitude all the same, and staggers, then runs, up to join Avril. The combat rods that extend from Twin Fenrir's handles flash with burning light.
"Avril! Let's beat him back together!" he shouts as he swings those rods in towards Asgard. If they manage to get past his barriers and land true, they'll leave horrible, melting burns--an extreme heat to contrast Avril's supreme ice, and potentially greatly weaken the Golem's defenses.
A true physics attack, even if Dean doesn't realize it. If Avril does, maybe next time around they can coordinate it even more effectively.
GS: Dean Stark spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark has attacked Asgard with Burning Magazine! GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Asgard solidly guards Dean Stark's Burning Magazine for 65 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida gives chase. Her footfalls pound out a rhythm on the stonework, heavy and steady, like the beat of a war-drum. "They're here for the Guardians," the martial artist says, glancing back at Dean and Boudicca and Avril. "We can't let them!" Whomever is pulling their strings, they need the Guardians' power for something, and Ida knows full well the Guardians have so little to give as it is.
Asgard takes up position, and Ida's guts twist. So far she's had no luck getting through the Golem's barrier, and the feeling of pride-confusion-rage doesn't help matters.
"Fine," Ida says, "then I'm prying that sword from your lifeless hh--"
The rest of the invective dissolves into a sharp hiss of breath as the floor shatters, throwing up a spray of fast-moving stone and hellish force. Ida skids to a halt, but is caught flat-footed; Janus has simply not given her time to stop, much less dodge, despite her reflexes. The blast picks her up, the stones hammering against her armor with a sound like an avalanche hitting a metal barrier. She hits the ground back-first, her breath rushing from her lungs. Pain spikes through her shoulders.
Hyadean reflex takes over. Impulses race down copper-striated nerves, and alien ferromyomer contracts. Ida sucks in air, pushes off with her shoulders, and kicks up onto her feet.
'Ida!'
The heiress' gaze flicks backwards, to Venetia, as she raises that Graph, not perhaps That Graph, but one Ida recognizes. One that scared her witless, when she first saw it used, but now...
Crimson leaves a lingering pattern across Ida's flesh, interspersed with nodes of quicksilver. The pattern vanishes a moment later.
Ida is already on the move. She knows Asgard won't simply let her attack Janus; he has his objective, and he will defend the ex-bandit until he's too broken to move. She moves for Janus anyway, running towards him--right up until Asgard moves to intercept. She skids into a crouch, balances herself, sets up for the necessary calculations of weight and movement. Her arms sweep out to try to wrap around Asgard's barrel chest.
"He's proud of you," Ida says, and then she tries to SLAM the Golem headfirst into the ground, a mighty suplex of the style of Gusong.
There's more force behind it than usual. This may because she heard those awful crunches, saw Boudicca getting thrown around.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Janus Cascade with Overturn the Black Tortoise! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Asgard used Defend! He takes Ida Everstead-Rey's Overturn the Black Tortoise attack on Janus Cascade on himself!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth's descent is a thing of emotion as much as it is momentum, and Janus' cooler, more detached approach to just dealing with the whole of it works out for him in letting herself stagger and slide along the chamber past him.
It's the fold of her right wing that saves her from a sure kill from Glumzambor. Ruth does not have clean line of sight to that weapon from behind the wing, and is only able to ascertain and acknowledge what she's been struck with as feeling deeply unpleasant as the light washes against her, through her - unpleasant burn-like markings on the large bat-like wing that serves as shield in this context.
She holds the defensive posture to protect against scattering shots that do not angle for her. Her tail, animated as it gets in moments of physical impasse otherwise, wastes little time dipping into where she keeps her ammo and goes through the motions of getting a new set loaded. Her bat-like wing smolders from where that shot makes impact as she sweeps it back out and reorients back on her feet.
She stands in the presence of something deeply sacred (as Eleanor points out), that her very nature threatens to befoul. Rising gradually, Malevolence seeps about Ruth's form as her tongue flicks again at Janus' spiteful snarl. Of Marivel over younder calmly bargaining to herself over upsetting developments. Of utterly implacable fortresses given the joy and curse to resemble and parse this existence in the context of a person.
'How about you do me a solid and die for me?' Ruth's gaze never quite meets the glowing red of Janus', to a spreading, monstrous, fanged smile.
"That would be unkind to those beyond." To bitter laughter, as the miasma of guilt, shame, regret, and despair coalesces into a muggy, unpleasant rain that gathers upon Janus' position. This, alone, isn't particularly injurious.
It trails off to more hissing as she snaps, intensifying what Malevolence-conjured rain (...indoors, somehow) pools into a splashing wave against Janus.
It is a rather elaborate form of schoolyard shoving.
GS: CRITICAL! Asgard solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Overturn the Black Tortoise for 78 hit points! GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Janus Cascade with Deluge! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Yes," Avril confirms quite succintly, coupling it with a nod of her head. She can feel its presence, even if she knows not why she knows acutely whose shrine here rests.
Whatever ones such as Janus and Asgard are intending with it, it cannot be permitted.
Particularly when they have involved innocents -- innocents she can do nothing for, lest the deed be perpetuated regardless. No, now is the time to deal with Asgard and Janus directly, and hope that others might intercede where they cannot. ...Does Dean appreciate the weight of this choice?
This is what it truly means to become a 'hero'. At times, your own option is to...
"We shall not permit it," she answers Boudicca. "Please, if there is anything at all you might do to aid them..."
Because to be a hero also means that you can only hope, regardless, in spite of it all.
She strikes at Asgard then and it is not entirely as she had expected: she had anticipated a barrier to block her blade's edge, but instead her unyielding weapon scrapes across metal.
"...That, I do see," she tells Asgard, falling back as if anticipation of his retort. But instead it is no blow thrown her way but rather...
"You've absorbed her spell. With it, you have re-energized your barriers," she observes, blade held before her still in anticipation of his attack.
But it isn't him they must guard against here in the Sanctum -- not properly. The very walls come crashing down and though Avril avoids being buried under masonry, she is still struck by it; sent reeling backwards perhaps it is Dean who catches and steadies her. How much damage can this tower take? It still stands -- for now.
'Let's beat him back together', Dean exhorts, and Avril nods to affirm her commitment to this plan, in whatever form it might take. "Yes, of course!"
Dean opens with fire, channeled through his ARM's combat rods.
When an object is subjected to extreme heat and then extreme cold...
Avril drops back a step, blade turned skyward before her as she closes her eyes. A spray of blue crystalline ice consolidates out of the very air behind her, granting the suggestion for the moment of the wings of a very frigid angel. She opens her eyes, and after the other the icy darts fly for Asgard in a glacial barrage.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Courant Glaciaire! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Courant Glaciaire for 75 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
As Dean slides down off the wall and nonetheless leaps back into the fray, he does indeed catch Avril, who avoided being crushed by those same walls but only barely. He gives her a firm smile and a nod before they commit to their next attack.
Does he appreciate the weight of their choice? For right now, he isn't thinking about it. He's simply doing what he can to stop Asgard and Janus from hurting the Guardians further--and trusting that his friends and companions will take care of their parts.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The foolhardy courier's guile is rewarded; had she spared a second longer in getting up the tower, Gwen would have had to try to break through the barrier that is Asgard.
The reward? Getting a good solid look at the man Janus had become. Gwen's a millionaire of misery.
".... Janus..."
She instantly regrets her earlier comments; Gwen had never considered his physical transformation would further itself. Their earlier battles had spoiled Gwen in some ways, making her believe the man's exterior was in no way attached to the slimeball she knew lied underneath. Crack that crust and he'd just emerge, just a little worse for wear and ready to go back to...
... ruining everyone's lives, yes. But at least... Gwen could pretend she could repeat the same steps over and over and over, until one day the outcome changed to something just a little bit different.
Janus is a dedicated man.
Their dance doesn't change a whit. Gwen hesitates due to some reason or another, and Janus doesn't. They try to kill each other. One of them sometimes dies in some way. They continue at a later date.
Janus commands rock to force Ida and Gwen to move, and despite the courier's desperate charge, it works for Gwen the same way a light pole diverts a speeding car off a road. Gwen may be past Asgard's ability to block, but as she slides a smeared dab of red on the scared stone, it's not as if Asgard necessarily needs to worry immediately.
"Should know me better than _that_," Gwen hisses, blood splatter marring the freckles on her face.
'...it is THIS that you see - the true face of God!' Gwen glances out of the corner of her eye towards Venetia, sparking confusion on her face as she tries to haul herself back up. Ah, wait, it's a distraction!
The courier will use this to her advantage.
There are no words the red-head can offer as she does what has always come naturally to her, even back when she used her left arm instead of her right. Back when things were still terrible, and punches still needed to be thrown.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Formation! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Janus Cascade with Special Delivery! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni Vandrer is not a big alien and falling building tends to hurt. The chunk of building only at the last second getting caught out of the corner of her eyes, she gets her hand up to avoid... well the absolute worst of it. There's a dark spot showing through her hood already and she's refusing to acknowledge or touch it. Out of sight, out of mind. Really though, it's hard to ignore that kind of hit and she's slow to get up.
"Yeah. Talky time is over." She says that like a taunt. Or she thinks she did. Might have came out as an attempt to make sure nothing was scrambled as it almost sounded questioning too. She works her fingers a few times and focuses on what's at hand. The gun is propped against against the edge of the wall, giving her some stability while she tries to gather her wits that were probably knocked out with that last one. There's a faint laugh from the fuzzy alien and that illicits a worried internal voice to pop up briefly. Which itself is worrying.
Either way, she suddenly lurches into action, suddenly focused, head shaking some of those cobwebs loose long enough for her to fire a trio of what can best be described as a fireball crossed with a ton of sparks. Black painted shells falling to the ground with a clatter before she's on the move again. Let's try to avoid getting hit in the head again!
There's a brief moment, not recognizing Ruth as being on their side that she tracked the elf with the shotgun until it was clear whose side she was on. Barrel's lowered and she slams the next shells in place. Training making up for any brain fog at this point, just short of being instinct even. She's also ignoring a flashing warning in the corner of her eyes and a faint noise of alert from her wrist. The reaction everyone's had? It'd probably be bad to let this place fall. Maybe the drink earlier helped. Hurt or not she moves closer, advancing the whole time, trying to take advantage of her equipment. Vaguely wishing she'd brought her rifle. Maybe Aeschere too. That's a good reason to keep it up right? She'd settled on protecting those here right?
GS: Juni Vandrer spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Asgard with Collateral Damage! GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action. GS: Asgard partially guards Juni Vandrer's Collateral Damage for 98 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Asgard! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Janus Cascade takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Obscuring Fog for 0 hit points! GS: Blind and Weaken applied to Janus Cascade! GS: Quick applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Janus Cascade solidly guards Eleanor Klein's Lustrous Brand for 54 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Janus Cascade suffers a terrible blow from Ruth Pauling's Deluge for 83 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Janus Cascade! GS: Riposte applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Janus Cascade partially evades Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 117 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
"Idunno, thief? Grave robber? Tomb raider?" Janus taunts Venetia. "Let's go with Drifter. Stealing everything here's not so different from what every one of you does! I just brought better equipment!"
Venetia sure follows that one up with some kinda sentence. Despite his deeply inhuman appearance, Janus gives a very human skeptical quirk of his head. "I know that one didn't hit your head, lady," he says, flatly.
Whatever that spell was, though, it seems to have gone off on Ida. Well, that's fine. "'ey there, sweetheart!" Janus jeers - and though his face just DOES NOT move, there's something about his posture that says he's grinning like an asshole at Asgard's intercept. "Good work over there, tallpockets!"
Jay's move sheethes him in fog, but his pulsing Demonic strength prevents it from clawing at him too badly.
Then a beam of light disrupts the fog and also shatters the floor Janus is standing on, earning a scream from Janus. But when the light clears, Janus is still there, Glumzambor's blade sizzling as he sweeps it to scatter the remaining particles. "You got me there," he says. "I just can't help myself! It's not like the Guardians are doin' anything interesting with all this, eh!?"
He levels Glumzambor at Eleanor, and light sparks along it before a COLUMN of electro-light blasts downrange at her, crackling with force.
He sweeps it from there, a strange, swirling spectral light crackling along Ida's body until it vices tight around her, suffocating.
Then he moves. He crashes down on Ruth, but her infused mystic rain sends him crashing down. He lands on his feet, sweeping Glumzambor up, a scything blade of light ranging down to cut into the gargoyle Hellion and Jay both. Then he turns on Gwen, finally. ...he doesn't say a word. Just lingers on her for several seconds.
Then he blurs...past her.
And reappears in front of Venetia.
"The gods ain't impressing me," he says, and drives Glumzambor directly into her stomach.
The shockwave of his passing is what hits Gwen, sending her clattering.
GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Eleanor Klein with Nova Blaster! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Life or Death! GS: Delay expired! GS: Janus Cascade spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Ruth Pauling with Demon Fang! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 2 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Venetia Vuong with Blasphemous Stab! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 2 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Demon Fang! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Dark Spear! GS: Janus Cascade enters a Counter stance! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 2 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action. GS: Eleanor Klein solidly guards Janus Cascade's Nova Blaster for 97 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! Ida Everstead-Rey partially guards Janus Cascade's Life or Death for 71 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Janus Cascade's Demon Fang for 257 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated! GS: Ruth Pauling enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
Asgard sees Xiumei leaping at him, and-
-there's something unusual in this moment. Xiumei will see it from her aerial position, the curve of those synthetic lips at each corner. "Good."
The blade of energy explodes to life, and the saber pulses down skittering a heated line across his crossed arms. And then his fist whips out to try and catch her just as she hits the ground, with a strike of his barrier encased knuckle as if he intended to knock her back over the edge.
Azoth comes at him, a blinding blur - the blade cleaving across his defenses, and briefly it breaks his barrier, even as the Golem catches it. And he finally answers him, "It matters. I would prefer to do battle with you - when you are holding nothing back." Does he sound bitter, about the lack of authorization Azoth has received? "But it will suffice."
Because it has to.
Asgard tries to tug him upwards, while his forehead comes down in a colossal headbutt.
Marivel asked where he learned that. "From Designate: Magilou. So I would advance beyond my measure."
Marivel shouts good advice, and her shifting temporal assault suddenly harries him as her claws come crashing down. Asgard's Barrier manages to ward off the worst of the temporal assault. Lashing out, he tries to grab her directly by the head in those giant fists. "No data found." Asgard announces of blue-purple hair, a grumpy dog. Immediately he drives Marivel down into the floor, and through it in a cause and effect decision that application of force is the best way to halt a temporal assault.
"Running checks. No entries found in deletion log."
Can it be true? Does he really have no data of Ana? Of Luceid? Could the prophets delete even the evidence of the deletion from him.
Gusts begin to blow Asgard's way, and through it, he rushes up to her, driven back every few steps, battered by the gust, until inevitably he aims a barrier encased fist down at her.
"And yet you offer Magical Assault." The Golem notes, as if pointing out the contradiction in her words.
Ida moves past him, and Asgard moves so fast that it feels unfair to defend Janus. "Auto-Defender Active." Ida manages to pick up Asgard in response. Then slams him up - down and - she suddenly finds her target point on the ground alit with his barrier, and it's like she simply can't finish the Suplex. He impacts it with far less force than usual. And shoves her aside. "Improvement noted. Countermeasures have long been active."
Asgard nods Janus' way, "I have this, Janus. We will show them."
Perhaps Janus understands after all.
Dean calls out for Avril to help him assault the Golem, "Come then. Dean Stark! Queen of Ice!" The rods swing against his barrier and again and again he deflects them. And again - someone might see that Golem's smile.
Icy darts fly at Asgard and the Golem's arm knocks them away, shattering them into ice crystals.
And then he simply tries to blast them both away with a pulse of his barrier that tries to eat into their magic.
Fireballs launch at the Golem that detonate into sparks. The Golem retaliates by sending out another wave of Barrier Energy that seems to just - stick with Juni, like static electricity, infecting her form. What exactly is his barrier energy that he can manipulate it like this?
And he doesn't say anything to her because well, isn't Talky Time Over? Not talking is fine by him. He can just enjoy the rush of the fight.
GS: Asgard has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Barrier Knuckle! GS: Asgard has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Barrier Knuckle! GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo! GS: Asgard spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Asgard has attacked Azoth with Savage Analogism! GS: Asgard spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Asgard has attacked Marivel Armitage with Savage Analogism! GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo! GS: Asgard has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Barrier Pulse! GS: Asgard has attacked Dean Stark with Barrier Pulse! GS: Asgard spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Asgard has attacked Juni Vandrer with Barrier Clash! GS: Asgard has attacked Asgard with Fortress of the Gods! GS: Asgard accepts Asgard's Fortress of the Gods for 0 hit points! GS: Lock state applied to Asgard! GS: Cover and Riposte applied to Asgard! GS: Asgard has completed his action. GS: Juni Vandrer takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Barrier Clash for 54 hit points! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Juni Vandrer! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Pulse for 62 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber critically guards Janus Cascade's Demon Fang for 60 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Janus Cascade! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Dean Stark takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Pulse for 46 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Amplify, Burst, and Cover removed! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Guard bonus activated! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Savage Analogism for 70 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey used Defend! She takes Janus Cascade's Blasphemous Stab attack on Venetia Vuong on herself! GS: Seraph Boudicca solidly guards Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 31 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Azoth solidly guards Asgard's Savage Analogism for 88 hit points! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a solid hit from Asgard's Barrier Knuckle for 89 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's Blasphemous Stab for 138 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hex applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's Dark Spear for 144 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
A smile? Xiumei's eyes widen. Asgard has changed so much since she last met him. Her blade meets his crossed arms, sparks flying where it strikes. The Golem's fist flies true, catching her in the midsection, with a loud crack.
She gets hurtled backward, slamming into the ground, and rolls across it a few times. She forces herself up -- eyes shooting at Eleanor, for a moment, to check on her -- and then back to Asgard.
She holds her hand up; the Pulse Cannon appears in flashing cubes of light, taking the form of her handcannon. She fires, sending a trio of energy blasts hurtling for Asgard.
"Can you remember Varius and Avile?" she asks. "They're still worried about you, Asgard."
If he can't remember what Marivel asks him about, then maybe... then maybe his memories were damaged. (Or, worse, taken.)
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst! GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action. GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst for 70 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Zhang Xiumei! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"The original?" Azoth glances to Marivel, but only briefly. It's the middle of a fight, after all. He regards Asgard, wearing a more thoughtful face. Golems... stronger than this. What makes a Golem, Azoth wonders.
Besides sheer overwhelming power, that is. Even Asgard's shields are enough to do considerable damage. Juni takes head damage and giggles. That can't be good.
It matters. If an android can feel shame, Azoth does: because he is holding back. Rather, he is being held back. An, erroneous crimson jolt of light passes through Azoth's eyes with a wince. ...He still doesn't have the authorization. Even if the face of Asgard's power, it's not for him to choose. This isn't part of the overrides' plans for him. It's just not in enough of an obstacle for them to interfere otherwise.
He makes a series of beeps that, if one did not know better (and do any of you?) would sound like frustration.
Held back. Small. So. Small! Asgard towers over him, grabs him, yanks him up hits him with that headbutt. Azoth smashes back into the ground, entire body making an echoing, metallic clang as the ground dents. Azoth ricochet's up and off, reorienting his body to flip back over in a crouch -- one hand needed to catch himself.
The light in Azoth burns brighter. Red, for a flicker, in another error. This isn't something Azoth can brute force. It may not be anything anyone can. He still charges Asgard, wild ARM energy gathering around him and forging into a collection of blades. But they're exploding against Azoth before he can even close the distance between them again and cleave into the golem, the force of it knocking Azoth back against the ground.
Colored smoke escapes from his joints, red light overtaking his bright veins again as he holds his own head up with a sway.
Asgard is right. This... will have to suffice.
GS: Azoth has attacked Asgard with exec.ERROR Fatal Exception! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Asgard has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Asgard takes a solid hit from Azoth's exec.ERROR Fatal Exception for 297 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Lock state removed! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 44 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Light gleams through Ida's exoskeleton like a candle in a paper lantern. Sweat beads on her forehead. But despite giving it her all, there's nothing but the muted clanking and sizzling of Asgard's barrier hitting the floor. Janus' taunt echoes in her ears. Asgard grabs her arm and shoves her out from beneath him; she hits the floor and skids, coming to a stop as Janus finishes his sweep. The hazy, spectral light clamps down around her ribcage, and starts to crush. Ida gasps, and forces Breath into her ribcage and lungs and heart. Pain shoots through her chest, and she can feel her skeletons creaking beneath the onslaught. The flow of time starts to slow, for Ida, and only Ida.
The martial artist pushes herself up, the light clinging to her like a shroud as she clambers to her feet. That pause to meet Gwen's eyes gives Ida the few precious seconds she needs to reorient, to nearly match Janus' speed as he becomes a blur of violence.
Glumzamber gleams.
A moment later, a hideous, wet CRUNCH splits the air. Glumzamber's tip has missed Venetia by less than an inch, because the weapon has cut clean through Ida, instead. Blood slicks the floor, hot and two-toned. Ida's body twitches, violently, more blood dripping from her lips. So, she thinks, as her thoughts start to grow hazy. This is...
no
Ida's body jerks back again, numb, desperate fingers gripping Glumzamber and shoving hard. He doesn't know Venetia. He doesn't have Ida's trust in her.
Ida's body hits the floor with a heavy CLUNK--or does it?
Something blooms.
Swirls of crimson] and quicksilver and ametrine ignite around Ida's body, a lifeline her autonomous processes are all too eager to grab. A hand, helping save her from decades of torpor, or worse.
In the next heartbeat, Ida's on her feet again, presses a hand to her chest, and shivers. The wound is gone. Aside from the blood, there's no sign it was ever there. "You're not taking anyone else," Ida chokes out, and she leans into his memory without even realizing. Knife-like exoskeletal protrusions form around both hands as she drives them for Janus' stomach, eyes wide and wild.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Light gleams through Ida's exoskeleton like a candle in a paper lantern. Sweat beads on her forehead. But despite giving it her all, there's nothing but the muted clanking and sizzling of Asgard's barrier hitting the floor. Janus' taunt echoes in her ears. Asgard grabs her arm and shoves her out from beneath him; she hits the floor and skids, coming to a stop as Janus finishes his sweep. The hazy, spectral light clamps down around her ribcage, and starts to crush. Ida gasps, and forces Breath into her ribcage and lungs and heart. Pain shoots through her chest, and she can feel her skeletons creaking beneath the onslaught. The flow of time starts to slow, for Ida, and only Ida.
The martial artist pushes herself up, the light clinging to her like a shroud as she clambers to her feet. That pause to meet Gwen's eyes gives Ida the few precious seconds she needs to reorient, to nearly match Janus' speed as he becomes a blur of violence.
Glumzamber gleams.
A moment later, a hideous, wet CRUNCH splits the air. Glumzamber's tip has missed Venetia by less than an inch, because the weapon has cut clean through Ida, instead. Blood slicks the floor, hot and two-toned. Ida's body twitches, violently, more blood dripping from her lips. So, she thinks, as her thoughts start to grow hazy. This is...
no
Ida's body jerks back again, numb, desperate fingers gripping Glumzamber and shoving hard. He doesn't know Venetia. He doesn't have Ida's trust in her.
Ida's body hits the floor with a heavy CLUNK--or does it?
Something blooms.
Swirls of crimson and quicksilver and ametrine ignite around Ida's body, a lifeline her autonomous processes are all too eager to grab. A hand, helping save her from decades of torpor, or worse.
In the next heartbeat, Ida's on her feet again, presses a hand to her chest, and shivers. The wound is gone. Aside from the blood, there's no sign it was ever there. "You're not taking anyone else," Ida chokes out, and she leans into his memory without even realizing. Knife-like exoskeletal protrusions form around both hands as she drives them for Janus' stomach, eyes wide and wild.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Janus Cascade with Muscle Memory! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"The Guardians are doing all they can!" Boudicca can't help but cry, to Janus's taunts. She shakes her head, and clasps a gauntlet-clad hand to her chest. "I will aid them," she promises Avril, though she fears...
No. She will do all she can, too, and turn them away from this place.
The Barrier Knuckle crashes in. Boudicca crosses her arms in front of her, and yet she cannot stand fast in the wake of Asgard's vast fist; if Marivel hadn't said anything, she certainly wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't the original deal. She crashes to the wall of the Sanctum, and -- THROUGH the wall of the Sanctum, having elected to go incorporeal rather than leave a crater.
Moments pass.
Boudicca finally emerges -- from a different wall, she got kind of lost trying to find her way back in -- and declares: "I am a magical being, Asgard! If you cannot appreciate the nuance between my magics, then you still have much to learn!"
She gets back in time to see Azoth flickering -- red light. Danger. "Hold on!" She cries, as another Seraphic glyph erupts, about her feet.
"The world exhales! Soothing Breeze!" Boudicca incants, as a fresh Spring breeze, warm and refreshing, swirls from her to wrap about her allies. ... if only the wind's healing were enough to salve Ida, when she's delving deep as this.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Azoth with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Juni Vandrer with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Marivel Armitage with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Dean Stark with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Dean Stark! He gains 57 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated! GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Azoth! He gains 59 temporary hit points! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Zhang Xiumei! She gains 61 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated! GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 57 temporary hit points! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor does not appreciate Janus's perspective very much. Not very much at all. "You think we're the same?" she says. "Hardly."
Gwen is up there in melee; Venetia is--"NO!"
- -1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE is Ida who is struck down, and Eleanor stares for an instant in horror. Except... that light blooms. Venetia's miraculous spell works. The wound is gone, and Eleanor sags in relief. It gives her confidence. As does... something else.
"The Guardians aren't your only concern anymore, servant of tyrants."
The Glumzambor crackles with power as it rushes towards her. She throws out her hands, and a barrier erupts into being, not Crest Sorcery at all but something different, perhaps older. Her will forces the spear to slide acros that barrier and past her, for all that the explosion that results still burns her flesh. But the power she gathers will help.
Eleanor narrows her eyes. "You always have an answer, don't you? You think yourself so clever."
"...And yet, you remain a pawn. A pawn of these Prophets, now. A pawn of Ganondorf, before. Will you ever manage anything in your own name, Janus? Or will you forever be lost to history as 'someone else's weapon'? at best?"
She considers Ruth's rain of Malevolence. "...Don't be too hard on yourself," Eleanor tells her, as she decides what to do. That kind of power could be dangerous in a place like this, but...
She eyes the locus. This center of power, devoted to Dan Dairam. And she understands what must be done. Eleanor spreads her feet, stabilizing her stance, and closes her eyes. "Ruth!" Eleanor calls. "Please, shield me!"
GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Marivel Armitage! She gains 65 temporary hit points! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor does not appreciate Janus's perspective very much. Not very much at all. "You think we're the same?" she says. "Hardly."
Gwen is up there in melee; Venetia is--"NO!"
It is Ida who is struck down, and Eleanor stares for an instant in horror. Except... that light blooms. Venetia's miraculous spell works. The wound is gone, and Eleanor sags in relief. It gives her confidence. As does... something else.
"The Guardians aren't your only concern anymore, servant of tyrants."
The Glumzambor crackles with power as it rushes towards her. She throws out her hands, and a barrier erupts into being, not Crest Sorcery at all but something different, perhaps older. Her will forces the spear to slide acros that barrier and past her, for all that the explosion that results still burns her flesh. But the power she gathers will help.
Eleanor narrows her eyes. "You always have an answer, don't you? You think yourself so clever."
"...And yet, you remain a pawn. A pawn of these Prophets, now. A pawn of Ganondorf, before. Will you ever manage anything in your own name, Janus? Or will you forever be lost to history as 'someone else's weapon'? at best?"
She considers Ruth's rain of Malevolence. "...Don't be too hard on yourself," Eleanor tells her, as she decides what to do. That kind of power could be dangerous in a place like this, but...
She eyes the locus. This center of power, devoted to Dan Dairam. And she understands what must be done. Eleanor spreads her feet, stabilizing her stance, and closes her eyes. "Ruth!" Eleanor calls. "Please, shield me!"
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Yeah..." Jacqueline murmurs with a nod back to Venetia. This won't go well if they're not working together.
The Guardians, though... Jacqueline frowns.
"The Guardians are the ones that maintain this world. Regardless of what you think about everyone else who lives here, you live here too. Taking their power won't do any good for you, either - unless you don't care about that anymore, either." Jacqueline comments. A swing of Glumzambor sends a blade of light hurtling toward her. With a gesture of her left hand, a pillar of stone rises to intercept the attack. What remains of it continues through, still carrying enough force to send her back several steps.
In one swift motion, another Crest Graph is inserted into her left gauntlet and cast. This time a mystical dark wind blows toward Janus. It doesn't cause physical harm - instead, it strips away reinforcements, while strengthening present ailments.
She can't linger on this too long, because -
"Venetia- Ida!" Jacqueline gasps out, as Janus lunges toward the former with a stab... which is intercepted by the latter. It's... awful. Is she going to lose another friend...?
...But, no, she's still moving after that. Somehow. Jacqueline breathes a sigh of relief before turning her attention back onto the fight.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Janus Cascade with Mysterious Wind! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia glances to Gwen, perhaps sensing her DOUBT. Doubt is understandable when the miracle has not yet been revealed. Venetia seems confident, though her poise of insouciance does not last long; after a moment, enough to give her message, she is getting another Crest *the hell* out. "Yes! Get him!" Venetia shouts.
She watches Janus as he moves. Her teeth tighten. She has a bad feeling about this. "You're not doing much with your brains, but we were content to leave them in your possession," she snipes at Janus even as her lack of agility seems to be taking its toll on her. He binds up Ida and --
-- Smashes onto Ruth and --
-- then he is there, in front of her.
Venetia stares ahead, almost plodding. As...
Ida comes in.
Venetia holds her breath. She tenses her abdominal muscles. There is a small pain and for a moment she wonders if that's just what it feels like before you die, that you have the little pressure that runs up into your brain through your nerves and then that's it; that you spend the rest of a subjective eternity feeling that one thing --
-- But Ida staggers -- falls --
* Death defied!
-- and rises anew.
Venetia stops holding her breath.
"Did you, and your masters, think that you would be the only ones to come up with new ideas?" Venetia tells Janus. "Did you think your pride, your initative, your unique ARMs, would avail you forever? I suppose I'm talking to the wrong person. But then," she says, "you've had a rather close acquaintance with the remains of the stars, haven't you?"
"But you're making a big mistake to think you're the only one with such things," Venetia tells him, drawing out another card. "I've touched the stars myself. SELENITE SIGN!" she bellows, as the Crest Graph glitters and there is a sudden eruption of saline-quartz crystals from the ground, aiming to pinion and fence in Janus.
It's not that big, but perhaps it will confine him - and that might be the worst thing.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Janus Cascade with Selenite Sign ~Cavern of the Crystals~! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Somewhere in the exchanges, the unmoving face that speaks discusses how the Guardians just aren't doing anything interesting with all this, and in Ruth's present posture she observes the Granasian rosary digging into her arm. There feels a likeness in the preceived uselessness and incompetence between Granas and the Guardians as shared.
This stops when Janus turns focus back towards her, and there's a moment where her eyes meet. That rancor shoots right back up, a feral show of fangs as she hurls herself into the blade of light that scars the sanctified ground of the shrine underneath, a spray of unsettlingly purple blood where it strikes into and through a leg. It's not enough to halt her from raising the rifle and discharging a shot as Janus appears distracted or fixated upon Gwen.
It misses completely, as it happens with the timing where he blurs away past Gwen and towards Venetia, burying its round into a wall somewhere.
Ruth falls to a kneel as the consequences of her aggressive encroach manifest in the period of time that exists between a grievous injury and a Hellion's Malevolence asserting its warped self-image against that reality. Her left shoulder shakes with a strength it no longer has, and boasts in spades at the same time.
Over yonder, her eyes widen at the visceral injury Ida suffers to that unsightly spectral light - and how ametrine forms in colors completely novel to what she's seen. Her tongue flicks from injuries and bursts of emotion here and there and everywhere.
The sharp focus Ida's experience invites her senses to notice reinforces that there is something the Guardians have done, and continue to do.
"You know," Ruth's voice is barely audible above the cacophony of violence, "when you decide there's nothing left to you, nothing to do, but to just bring it all down... because that's the one thing you could ever accomplish."
Malevolence flares around Ruth's form, stone-like flesh hardening, discoloring to something like bronze... and further eroding by application of patina. Her outfit follows this curious discoloration, down to her rifle.
"I've known someone like that," she starts to rise again, finding strength on the bad foot, "I don't see a smile. I don't see tears. But you have a face... show me."
She feels awful. She feels incredible. She feels, rising up anew as even her hair fuses in its current shape.
"Show me your face when even that's taken from you."
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ruth Pauling with Heart of Patinated Bronze! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling heals Ruth Pauling! She gains 175 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage frowns. No data available at all? Obscuring it, she could understand, but even Solaris has difficulty wiping an AI clean slate. Could it be just a matter of age? But he doesn't seem to remember any of them. Even Kamui has largely recovered most of her memory after being confronted by it but Asgard still seems...
"Surely you must remember Varius and Avile..." She says softly. "Your friends? Though you cannot see them, they still fight on."
"An Asgard... They are defenders first, but who are they built to defend? They are built to defend the land, the world that we live on. It is their purpose to protect all life. Those Prophets controlling you, they are putting Filgaia in danger. This is the Time Shrine, Asgard, if you are to weaken the very flow of time itself--you could break everything. Existence on this plane could fall apart as the temporal arc fails to maintain cohesion. The Hounds would be freed, a common occurance instead of the rare danger they are now."
Asgard claims he learned the trick from Magilou. Marivel's expression is extremely grouchy but she doesn't comment on it because she doesn't want to give Magilou the SATISFACTION.
She twists her hands inward, a barrier protecting her skull but the barrier itself is not bigger than Asgard's fist. He is able to lift her up the ground and slam her through the floor without so much as needing to shatter it. Marivel's bones explode from the force of Asgard's strike, wounds rip open as she is caved in on herself--
--but again, Marivel's body rewinds itself, snapping back together grotesquely. Her eyes are strained. This is the determination of a sorceror of eld.
Azoth asks a question.
"Yes, the original Asgard was gigantic, a shield that could not be destroyed, a true protector of Filgaia. One that took no orders but followed its own heart. Not a servant, or a weapon, but a friend to those with the heart to..."
She shakes her head. "Some things you cannot remove from a golem such as an Asgard while letting it remain an Asgard."
She had told Lan as much about Azoth.
Marivel is struggling. She can't go hog wild while surrounded by friends, she can't fight to her fullest despite her threats so long as she thinks there is anything left in Azoth that might be her old friend. More than a friend. Like Althena, someone she looked up to as a child.
She pays little mind to Ida dying horribly at first. She lives to see another day. She knows this. But... There is a moment hesitation, a little uncertainty in her understanding of time's flow.
So Boudicca's breath of fresh air is a relief. And so is the death defied. She's a true sorcerer now, Marivel thinks, don't dishonor her by thinking she can't handle a single asshole with a demon spear.
She steadies herself up and adds, "Let us cease dancing around the matter. And see for ourselves...!"
A blue aura ripples out of Marivel as she darts forward, aiming to press her hand against the barrier--
--but this particular trick does not comport to the rules of this realm. Will a barrier be enough as that blue pulse slams out for Asgard--
--before pulling back into herself.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Asgard with Life Drain! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Asgard has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Asgard takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Life Drain for 105 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage drains Asgard! Marivel Armitage gains 49 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Under Ruth's protection, Eleanor is able to focus. Eleanor puts away her Crest, and folds her hands in the shape of something strange and distant to her--it looks almost like prayer. "O holy light," Eleanor intones, "Shining in the depths of Filgaia... Lifeblood of our planet. Hear me." Her sleeves billow in an unseen wind, her skirts swirling about her feet as she begins to rise from the ground. Her strange yellow eyes close, and her hair, too, moves by unseen force. Rising, she comes some feet above where she was, her arms extending in focus. The world fades away, until she hears only the heartbeat of the Ley. Light sweeps around her, beginning to coalesce. It burns, roiling off of her like a corona, and she grits her teeth with the pain of channeling it. But it's necessary.
"Sacred light, hear me! Answer this Sage's call!"
There is no moment of silence. The battlefield is too chaotic for that. But the attack, when it comes, does not come from Eleanor. It does not come from the air. It comes from below. From the depths beneath the roiling nexus--the very power that Janus draws upon ROARS of a sudden in answer, and a blast of purest Light explodes towards him along with the force he drains, radiant and golden both, cascading outward.
Eleanor hits the ground a moment later, gasping for breath on one knee.
GS: Eleanor Klein has activated a Force Action! GS: Eleanor Klein spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Janus Cascade with Incandescence! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen had done the big talk about how she'd be the one to put Janus down if he came back. To talk about how she'd be the one who'd not let her friends be hurt again. Hiro paid in blood for her inaction, and many others had done the same.
What a fine amount of sand all that talk amounted to, when faced again and again with the parts of herself she continually fails to change. She just stares into those red glowing orbs of eyes, and dares to continue onto the next verse of their promenade, while her friends suffer against his blade.
He pauses, and it is long enough for Gwen to do the same.
".... It still i--" It may not have mattered even if she finished. The words feel flat against her teeth, and the rest just comes out as bile as Janus becomes a blur, a foul wind to violently bowl her over like a child's tea set forgotten out in the yard before the first blast of wind from a passing sand storm.
In Gwen's upsidedown view, Ida falls, having come to the defense of Venetia despite suffering the tight grip of Janus's light. Ruth's brutal melancholy is a weapon onto itself, and Eleanor wields her own light, weaving in that strange force of light she's had since... why does it feel like it's been forever, like she'd fit into that role of.... whatever it is?
Maybe it's the ears.
Rolling herself back up onto her feet with a brief stagger backwards, Gwen takes advantage of Venetia's crystal construction, charging through with her right hand, now relieved of that leather glove.
"Gonna keep treatin' me with kid gloves or are you gonna kill me proper-like, Janus?!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Janus Cascade with Return to Sender! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters a Counter stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Ida, watch out!" Dean shouts as Asgard intercepts her would-be attack on Janus--but it comes a little too late. Glamzabor crunches through her, and Dean's not nearly close enough to help; after all, that attack was meant for Venetia, and Ida saved *her* from it. But an instant later, colors flow, and she's back on her feet as if she'd never been hurt at all.
That's good! Probably. It's good in this instant, and that's good enough for Dean. He does grimace when Asgard even seems... *buddy-buddy* with Janus, though. That's a hard one for him to see.
At least Boudicca's healing wind flows up and around him and several others, soothing the wounds he's endured so far. He puffs out a sigh of relief, then flashes her a smile of gratitude. It would've been better if she could've helped everybody, but he understands sometimes you can only get so many folks at once.
Asgard bids Dean and Avril come, and launches another barrier at them. It shreds the magical defenses that had been lain upon him a moment earlier, but the wind still flows in this place, and new ones settle in to take their place. Dean breathes a sigh of relief of his own--quite aside from the magic, getting rammed with that thing *hurt*--but he's still on his feet, and that's what counts.
Marivel still calls out to Asgard. Dean lets her; she sounds like she knows what she's talking about, and that's what's important. He'll do what Asgard responds to with him, which is to keep fighting.
"He's as strong as ever," he remarks to Avril. "Looks like we'll have to bust *that* out!" He raises his paired ARMs. "Ready? Go!!" he calls, and fires a burst of brilliant energy that streams forth and spins inwards--ready for Avril to claim as her own power.
GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Formation! Dean Stark has attacked Asgard with Javelin Bullet! GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Juni Vandrer! She gains 63 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated! GS: Asgard critically guards Dean Stark's Javelin Bullet for 46 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni Vandrer is not a fan of this extension of a field. She swats at the nastiness a few times and decides to ignore it for now. Turns out a head wound has the advantage of hurting a lot more! That's probably not good. The idea that she's no better than some pompous goober trying to break a clock tower gets a snort out of the alien. "I'm not here on that kind of mission." Pause. Was that out loud? Hm. Still, there's a golem trying to tazer her and she's not exactly appreciative of the idea. There is one thing that her mind latches onto though. "Remains of the stars?" She asks, maybe even logs it if the fidgeting at her wrist is an indicator. Something to follow up on. Maybe it's the crashed ship finally? ... Probably not, but she has to check now. Venetia's given a look too. Lots of new angles to approach.
Still. Golem. She hefts the shotgun up and only hesitates long enough to check on Ida, half moving to try and combat drag her away only for her to you know, not be dead. There's a scowl. She's not sure if she saw that right. Even if her HUD's telling her she did. A sharp shake of her head, a wince of pain and the next shot is an ugly combination of flechettes and powder. Or nails. Basically nails. A second follows it, she's not conserving ammo for something this big and she's hurt, who knows how long she's in the fight anyway!
Then ther'es blinding light. Blinding even with an auto-reactive response from her system. She covers her eyes and backs away, trying to return to the partial cover she'd been using before through a mixture of practiced movement and her tail, funny enough. She was about to bark out her annoyance at it, but bites her tongue. Almost literally. A warning would have helped the bad guys too. Now she's blinking away spots and some paint.
She's uh, aware of the attempts to save the biggun and she'll feel bad for them later if he breaks. It? Whatever. Problem solve now, apologize later if necessary. That pragmatism is briefly interrupted though. There's a breeze that gets her to stop and lift her head, tugging at her hood. Vaguely reminding her of home while easing that pain. She adjusts her grip and adjusts her aim. Wrist hooked in a way to support her gun as she tries to see if maybe she can spot... a way to render the golem combat ineffective. Step away from that training for a minute. New world, new life. There's only so much hesitation she'd be up for even now though.
GS: Juni Vandrer spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Asgard with Powder Burn! GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action. GS: Asgard suffers a terrible blow from Juni Vandrer's Powder Burn for 75 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Cover and Riposte removed! GS: Interrupt applied to Asgard! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Asgard has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
There is, against the odds, a smile.
What is it that brings Asgard joy in this moment? Is it his own ability to demonstrate all that he has learned? Or is it that they bring their all against him?
Or is it simply a matter of his function? His directives are to learn and evolve -- to guard. Today, he fulfills his functions in earnest.
Avril's spells shatter against his barrier as much as Dean's spell-fueled rods. Avril has time enough to experience a most-fleeting shock at how easily this particular one-two -- involving a manipulation of ice she hasn't yet demonstrated before him -- was overcome before the barrier erupts outwards and quite literally sweeps her off her feet.
"Dean...!"
She picks herself back up slowly, an action hastened by the swirling breeze that is around her and within her.
Avril is then just in the right place to see it: Ida's intercession on Venetia's behalf, even as Dean calls out in warning. "No--!"
It happens so fast.
But Ida is not so easily defeated. She'll do as she must, just as they will do as they must.
Grimfaced, Avril nods. "Yes," she answers Dean, her blade flickering out of existence from what had been Absolute Zero's hilt. Twirling it above her head, she drops back a step then and, falling in alignment with Dean, directs the bladeless ARM towards the swirlingly bolt of energy.
She pulls the trigger just the once, adding her power to Dean's own as the plasmic bolt erupts towards Asgard.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Formation! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Javelin Bullet! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Asgard solidly guards Avril Vent Fleur's Javelin Bullet for 79 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Asgard! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Guard bonus activated! GS: Janus Cascade solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Muscle Memory for 72 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: COUNTER! Janus Cascade counterattacks Eleanor Klein with Counter Attack! GS: CRITICAL! Janus Cascade solidly guards Eleanor Klein's Incandescence for 170 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam and Mute applied to Janus Cascade! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Strain! Eleanor Klein takes 59 damage! GS: Janus Cascade solidly guards Venetia Vuong's Selenite Sign ~Cavern of the Crystals~ for 53 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Janus Cascade takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Mysterious Wind for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Dispel! Infect! Hyper removed! GS: Hex applied to Janus Cascade! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's for 241 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Janus Cascade critically guards Gwen Whitlock's Return to Sender for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus glares as Ida surges to protect the mouthy caster.
He watches her die. Blood rushing from her by what seems like gallons. "Well," he grunts. "That's one."
Then he turns to cut Venetia in half.
But before the blade can fall, that strange magic assures Ida's recovery. He half-turns. Staring. Silent. The gleaming bead of his eye swivels to peer at Venetia.
"Ah," he says. "Feel like I'm not the only one defyin' Granas' design, here."
His eyes cut to the Sphere, floating before the altar, power flowing through it. He surges back, toward it, repositioning himself, Glumzambor beginning to gleam as he draws more and more power from it.
Eleanor's words cut him, though, and his reply is only Glumzambor blazing even brighter...at first. Jay's toxic wind slices through his spirit, but it doesn't stop him anymore than Venetia's quipping. Her Selenite Sign does hold him down, briefly, but...within, the light grows higher.
Ruth.
Ruth sees through him more clearly than anyone. That solid, locked face cannot show his strain. His frustration. His anger.
And finally, Gwen. But before he can answer that, the Ley itself fires on him - the Chock erupting with an ANNIHILATING PILLAR of light, scowering his metal flesh, leaving mercurial Demon blood to spatter the floor.
But before the light has even cleared: "YOU KNOW WHAT!" he screams.
"MAYBE I'LL DO JUST THAT, GWEN!"
He shoves his hand into his pockets, pulls out two items, and rams them both into his weird grille of a mouth, where they vanish. Power flows through him!
And then the air around Glumzambor stops glowing black, and just inverts.
"MAYBE I'LL DO JUST THAT! ULTRA!!"
The rest of the phrase is inaudible, as the SCREAM from Glumzambor drowns out his roar, twisting spirals of horrifying negative light shrieking across the field, pulverizingng stone, shattering ancient brickwork, and vaporizing bone, snaking to seek out his enemy's and fill the entire reflection room with a Demon Knight's supreme light.
GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Janus Cascade with Power Apple! GS: CRITICAL! Janus Cascade accepts Janus Cascade's Power Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Janus Cascade! GS: Hyper applied to Janus Cascade! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Janus Cascade with War Respite! GS: Janus Cascade accepts Janus Cascade's War Respite for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple and Jam removed! GS: Burst applied to Janus Cascade! GS: Mighty applied to Janus Cascade! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Janus Cascade spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Janus Cascade has attacked Gwen Whitlock with ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W!! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Janus Cascade has attacked Eleanor Klein with ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W!! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Janus Cascade has attacked Ruth Pauling with ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W!! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Janus Cascade has attacked Venetia Vuong with ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W!! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Janus Cascade has attacked Jacqueline Barber with ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W!! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Janus Cascade has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W!! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 2 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action. GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W! for 286 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Venetia Vuong solidly guards Janus Cascade's ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W! for 111 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
That trio of energy blasts hurtles Asgard's way, and his Barrier cleaves them right down the center, as he's awash with the remnants of them. Asgard has figured out context clues enough from his time learning to understand what Xiumei is REALLY asking, thus he answers, "No data prior to first logged encounter with designate: Zhang Xiumei." And in that moment, he looks at Marivel as well.
Who presses her hand against his barrier, "I remain-"
A flash, a glimpse of a line of Golems towering unto the sky amidst a hell of fire. Advancing. Advancing inexorably towards extermination.
The mummified face of Leehalt looming over him-
Marivel snaps back as his barrier puts an end to her probing. "-an Asgard."
Azoth charges with his collection of blades, and Asgard welcomes it. Even as it cleaves through his barrier. Even as several of those blades pierce his form, and detonate.
In the aftermath. The Golem looks upon the Android.
And now his smile becomes a grin of savage glee. However the Golem doesn't instantly come at him, because he's being harried on multiple sides. However the Android would feel the slow build of charge within him. It's not that he's failing to attack at obvious opportunities...
... it's that he's readying for something that's taking nearly the entirety of his power output.
It starts with a crackle of electricity about his armor that looks as if it is merely damage from the battle. These tiny arcs of power just bleeding out.
"Then I will learn this... nuance." Asgard notes to her, "From whomever your successor might be."
Dean calls that they will need to bust 'that' out and Asgard turns to him - as if anticipating something he hasn't seen before by the mere excitement in Dean's voice. Energy launches towards him, whereas Avril claims it with a plasmic bolt of her own. It strikes Asgard's barrier. And the Golem, pushes back, only for more, and more of that energy to leak through.
And then - his barrier doesn't get broken through, it just vanishes. As the bolts careen into his armor, and he's awash with light. Flechettes and powder in quick enough succession manage to put Asgard momentarily on the back foot, like Juni somehow managed to interrupt - his power cycling. However... it's far too late to halt it entirely.
It just keeps building, and building this charge around his coat-like armor, as each one changes from yellow to monochromatic flashes of black and white. Even as the room is alit with Janus' Ultra-Negative Rainbow, gleaming over his form.
Then, all is quiet, the Golem stands still. Before it erupts like a howl of thunder that bathes the room in a flash of light.
Vision clears and arcs of electricity scythe outwards, racing chaotically across the room, and contacting the edge of a blue barrier... which a whole section of the shrine will suddenly realize he's extended it outwards past them. More and more stonework crumbles, and they'll have to be quick-footed to avoid all of it moving at such angles. In the midst of it all he stands, the barrier rippling with each arc of electricity.
The Golem asks a question, that feels like a whisper amidst the crashes of thunder and light, "What is it like, to not just feel alive, but to be alive?"
His barrier spasms, then ruptures consuming them all in a hell of monochromatic lightning and blue light.
And in the smoking aftermath, the Golem tells to articulate to them all an epiphany only discovered after fighting all of them countless times from the moment of his reactivation.
From a state of death, until a state of mechanical life the moment in-between, when all is wagered on the outcome.
"Now. Now I understand."
GS: Asgard has attacked Asgard with High Powered Barrier! GS: Asgard accepts Asgard's High Powered Barrier for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disease, Interrupt, and Jam removed! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Asgard! GS: Mighty applied to Asgard! GS: Asgard has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling used Defend! She takes Janus Cascade's ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W! attack on Eleanor Klein on herself! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W! for 247 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling suffers a terrible blow from Janus Cascade's ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W! for 231 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Asgard spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Gjallarhorn! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Gjallarhorn! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Dean Stark with Gjallarhorn! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Gjallarhorn! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Azoth with Gjallarhorn! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Marivel Armitage with Gjallarhorn! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Juni Vandrer with Gjallarhorn! GS: Asgard has completed his action. GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Gjallarhorn for 115 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Janus Cascade's ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W! for 255 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Gjallarhorn for 162 hit points! GS: Azoth solidly guards Asgard's Gjallarhorn for 103 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Janus Cascade with Counter Attack! GS: Gwen Whitlock solidly guards Janus Cascade's ULTRANEGATIVE R*A*I*N*B*O*W! for 147 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark partially guards Asgard's Gjallarhorn for 204 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Asgard's Gjallarhorn for 143 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"Then, how..." Xiumei frowns. No, she knows how; the thing that Varius and Avile feared happened. Beings like them can have memories taken away.
She looks concerned.
Then he concern mounts rapidly, as the barrier vanishes. She throws her hand cannon to the side -- the weapon winks out into so many cubes of light -- and she looks up at the arcs of electricity, in the wake of Janus's attack. The barrier explodes out at her, and Xiumei leaps. She jumps up high.
The edge of the barrier strikes, scorching along her. Arcs of lightning shoot up at her -- and she somersaults, coming down at Asgard. Her hand wheels back, and she throws the cross-shaped weapon that appears. An energy field surrounds it, as Xiumei lands. She rushes in, the Pulse Saber appearing.
She slashes across Asgard as she runs past, and her boot-clad feet skid over the stones. Sparks erupt as she pivots, and lifts her hand. The Pulse Cannon reappears, and she fires several blasts of energy at Asgard.
"I'm glad you understand... but there's more to learn, still!"
GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Formation! Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Soaring Cross Strike! GS: Zhang Xiumei has launched an attack Link! GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Formation! Zhang Xiumei has attacked Asgard with Rushing Pulse Blitz! GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action. GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a glancing hit from Asgard's Gjallarhorn for 122 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Zhang Xiumei's Soaring Cross Strike for 80 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Zhang Xiumei! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Zhang Xiumei's Rushing Pulse Blitz for 122 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
The Ley fires. As a practicing Crest Sorceress when she is able to hold her sorrow-empowered contradictions, no wild throes of the descent into Hellionization can numb Ruth to understanding the scope of power that nearly incinerates a young man who bears... a deeply uncomfortable likeness in their manner.
That he screams through it at all is further disorienting, Glumzambor's power inverting. Negative light unmakes, in... simple terms.
Overwhelmed, Ruth's thought processes start to sink towards the instinctual as her tail clutches around the rifle while her wing tries - in vain - to cover her.
The vitrol she spat to Janus, from a place she rejects being in. A place she embraces being in. Living in the years of a heartless monster who has a heart. Mutually exclusive truths, that Malevolence draws and grants strength.
The defending wing does nothing to blunt the disintegrating force. It should end. By physical laws, no choice but to let go.
She cannot. She refuses. Her will is a deafening screech as her entire body locks in a threat posture. Wing flaring out, leaning forward into it and screaming into a void of negative light. The other anchor - the fear, pain, and anguish surrounding her.
Eleanor, in her present position, is exactly where she needs to be to not be disintegrated, for that shadowless reversal of light fails to travel past the monstrous figure ahead of her.
The patinated bronze 'skin' disappears, leaving behind the standard stone-like look - but her posture remains stiff like a statue, beyond the lowering of her gaze and shallowing breathing - like her will may only go so far as to leave her an intact corpse.
GS: CRITICAL! Janus Cascade critically guards Gwen Whitlock's for 75 hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Miss Ida!" Azoth calls out, and if only the Time Guardian could pause time for them then. But sickening, horrible as the crunch is, tragedy does not stick. Death is defied another day. Azoth barely witnesses it within the headbutting.
That's when a soothing breeze sweeps over Azoth's chassis, weaving into his joins and chasing away the smoke, cooling his systems a little more. "Boudicca...?" He doesn't look up as he says it. He already knows, but it sounds like he hadn't registered her voice just then, either.
Red light stabilizes to blue. It's in time enough to face the catastrophic, howling destruction of Asgard's barrier as a storm of blue lightning rains down upon them. Azoth convulses from the wild energy, forcing his joints still and redirecting his own power output to stabilize within its terrible ravaging. He's starting to smoke again, despite Boudicca's previous efforts. Instead of a wince, one of his eyes flickers like a faulty light bulb.
Marivel speaks of Asgards. An Asgard, this Asgard. Defenders of the land. And if the Guardian of Time should be threatened, the flow of time is threatened with it, and Filgaia itself. A fight that demands Asgard move against his purpose...? A true protector of Filgaia. No orders. Not a servant. Not even a weapon.
"A fight from your own heart..." Azoth says. "I'd like to see that."
Light flickers around him, forming wings of swords. Pink light bleeds into his blue, his eyes taking the same gradient.
What is it like, to not just feel alive, but to be alive?
Now. Now I understand.
Energy sparks and sputters in Azoth. His chassis rattles with the power he's trying to hold. It continues to ravage him as his execution stalls, calculations hung on Asgard's words.
And his own lack of answer.
A snap of Azoth's fingers, and the blades orbit Azoth wildly before blossoming outward, firing like an array of layers to converge on Asgard's position and detonate into him.
GS: Azoth has activated a Force Action! GS: Azoth has activated a Force Action! GS: Formation! Azoth has attacked Asgard with Blade Server! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Asgard takes a glancing hit from Azoth's Blade Server for 184 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 33 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
More. He draws on more power. How much power can he truly have? Venetia wonders, even as there is a sudden burst of LIGHT thanks to Eleanor and Venetia holds her breath. He's screaing - he's screaming words. He's not dying.
Can they defeat him?
What have they drawn together? A quartet of powers from other realms - a sage, a warrior in the fashion of the Hyadaens, one who rides the strange energy of Lunar, and herself, with the blessing of meta-thallium. Together with the cunning of herb and swiftness.
And yet, he has a dark spear. And perhaps that is enough.
Venetia has one Crest in her hand and so she has to use it in a defensive mode. In a trice she is surrounded by crystals, twice, not intersecting her thankfully- and then comes that negative rainbow, washing over the rubble with a sudden comprehensive cracking collapse, adding the glittering chunks of quasi-saline crystal to the breaking and eroding brickwork. When the light fades, it may seem she is gone - but soon enough a thick shoulder shoves out of the rubble.
"So it's like that, is it?" Venetia forces out through her teeth. "Alright, then."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXHS_dtRB4Q
"Once," Venetia says, "there were festivals in the Earth. The green and silver would merge, and the accoutrements of life would be drawn forth. Forged and cooled, shaped and decorated, the great bells would sound!"
"Dinoginos - and Dan Dairam! Look favorably on your children, for the sake of the past and the myriad futures beyond! FESTIVAL MODE:"
She changed Crest Graphs out while in the rubble. Raising it up with both hands, blood dripping down the left side of her face, the Ley concentrated does not drain but breathes, and what comes forth rises above Venetia, and it forms a simple and prosaic shape. A pot? Yes, it's quite like a pot, an old thick battered grayish pot that isn't decorated. It seems to bubble. There is a suggestion of heat above it.
Venetia sweeps the Crest Graph downwards: "Foundry Sign."
The pot tilts. It's not a pot. It's a crucible, and there is metal within.
The pot whips forwards, like a demonic (to Janus Cascade) and angelic (to everyone not Janus Cascade) familiar, shaking like a wet dog. Each shake dispenses a streak or ladelful of *hot bronze*, which throws up myriad streaking sparking droplets of glowing metal as it paints a great zig-zag in front of him - sweeps to the side - and comes round for a pass from the left side -
Another pass, sweeping in to start from the center and painting a three-layered spiral that tries to encompass Janus exactly where he was standing -
A final SLAM down with a showering splatter of molten metal of the nearly-empty crucible, followed by it rising upwards and turning upside down to drop the last sparking dregs - and then SLAM downwards as if dropped from a great height (which, well, it is) before the sorcerous infusion begins to depart. The metal remains, low-grade as it may be.
GS: Venetia Vuong has activated a Force Action! GS: Venetia Vuong has activated a Force Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Venetia Vuong has attacked Janus Cascade with Foundry Sign ~The Statuary Garden~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
No prior data but that's...impossible.
Isn't it?
Marivel gets a flash. A vision. A Leehalt. A line of golems.
Marivel backs off as the whiplash hits her. She brings her hand to her forehead. It's impossible.
It should be impossible.
But... If it's impossible then...
Marivel steps several feet back. She takes a breath though she does not need to breathe. She feels the light of the Negative Rainbow. So long as Azoth is here, she can't reach him.
"Dan Dairam... My friend is not gone, is he...?" Marivel murmurs. "What is truly...going on here?"
She lets her hand drop and shakes her head.
"Well, if there is not even an ounce of this truth within you..."
She extends a hand. "I'll put you on ice... Hell is as good a place as any...!"
The shadow from underneath Marivel enlongates and passes underneath Asgard's feet. It is just a shadow, even Asgards leave shadows--
--The shadow enlongates and expands into a triangular form around Azoth's feet--
--and suddenly the floor opens up underneath him. Well, maybe not so suddenly--
--threatening to swallow him whole.
At least that's the plan. Marivel doesn't expect it to be that easy--but perhaps this will allow her friends to take advantage of the unusual form of assault.
"I'll find the answer another time." Marivel wihispers. "All the Answers that I seek and more."
"DEMONANGLE!"
GS: Marivel Armitage has activated a Force Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Asgard with DemonAngle! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 3 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Low! Gamble: Lowest! Asgard solidly guards Marivel Armitage's DemonAngle for 50 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Drowsy and Hex applied to Asgard!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The situation is growing desperate. Boudicca can't help Ida, because Asgard's barrier consumes. She is not faster than it; it is well, when she lands, that she is a spirit who cannot be killed so easily.
"I... am glad you understand," Boudicca expresses, hands clutching together. She has not drawn her weapons.
"But what is here is precious to us, and I fear the damage may yet grow too much." Avril asked her to help the Guardians -- and there's one thing she can do, through her Seers, which may yet grant them the strength.
"Ida!" She calls, across the battlefield -- "Dean! I shall spark flame!" Her hand extends, and her fingers click, together, flint to steel. Moor Gault's fire feeds on the bellows of her, and flows out, to Dean, and to the undying Ida.
"Key...!!"
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated a Force Action! GS: Formation! Seraph Boudicca has attacked Asgard with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 195 hit points! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Juni Vandrer takes a solid hit from Asgard's Gjallarhorn for 250 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Juni Vandrer enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
For a moment, the barrier is downed.
For a moment.
Light, terrible and bright, wicks across them all, shining from a point far from where any of them now stand.
Asgard has but one question for them all. What is it like to be alive?
"It is... everything," Avril settles for, after a moment's time. Her gaze settles on him and the expression on her face is quite the complicated one. "...Are you not alive yourself, Asgard?"
Do golems not, in their own way, live and dream and hope?
And then that moment ends.
"Dean-- take cover!" she calls out, knowing full well by now what Asgard's next action will be, once that barrier-deploying system comes back online. It's impossible to stop it now.
As she is, that is.
She could--
You must not die says the darker half. Yes. So many depend on her, and not just the boy at her side. An entire people are waiting for her return, after five thousand years. It would be the sensible thing to do, and Avril has ever been sensible.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the Avril-who-was had been sensible.
"No," Avril says, her voice just above a whisper. The ice crystals grow rapidly from the ground by her feet to meet the light in a spray before her.
Even her barrier of ice -- in her current state, with most of her power far from her grasp -- takes heavy damage. As it stands, there are bright flashes of pain even as she holds the line. As it stands, great chunks of her icy wall are sheered away, forcing her to twist and bend behind her defenses.
But when the brilliance fades, Avril is still standing. Steam wisps up from about her feet, the only remnants of her wall of ice.
Boudicca shall spark flame. That, she hears without question.
"You shall not move from this place," she tells Asgard, directing the empty hilt of Absolute Zero again in his direction. Her finger eases over the trigger, but this time she does not pull. Instead, she leaps.
"Behold," Avril breathes, and now the trigger is pulled and now there is light, trailing her like a comet.
Behold her, she asks of Asgard, and do not look for a moment at her companions. The light trails her as she descends like a falling star, and then it is before her in arcs, again and again and again.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Asgard with Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc for 257 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Asgard enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The ultra negative rainbow hits. Gwen made sure of it the moment Janus paused to eat those two items and in the way she charged into it with her right hand out like she was an annoying tourist attempting to pull the worst forced perspective photo right before her death.
The light clears.
Now, Gwen's nice, pressed, smartly tailored clothing is as tattered as Janus's own, the loveably mussed up curls is slicked askew with sweat and dried blood, and the finely detailed panels of that right ARM are outlined by the energy being converted.
".... That was..... a damn fine effort there, Janus. Gonna be feelin' that for weeks..." To catch an energy field is not a great strategy. Gwen will never be able to absorb all of it in one go, and what portion she does steal suffers even more during the conversion process.
That is to say, Gwen's ARM is extended in front of her not just to catch, but because it's becoming very hot.
Lightning is expelled out in a messy explosion, looking like a pale imitation of Venetia's festival of lights.
But Gwen is setting up some fireworks of her own, even if she already feels exhausted. Her ARM's still hot to the touch; it'd be uncomfortably hot if she touched it with an ungloved left hand. She's not even going to think about whether or not she's running a fever due to it. "... But I ain't _done_ yet. Not until I exhaust every vein in me, because..." Is she crying? She's crying. Shit, this is as embarrassing as it was when she was little.
At the time, Gwen always felt like it looked like she only did it to get her way, as the weird-looking kid with the patchy eyebrows and the feather fine pale red fuzz that did nothing to protect her head that a scarf couldn't do better.
But sometimes, you had to cry, because it was Little Twister, and no Ethos orphanage was going to change the fact that life was hard whether you were ill enough to be inside its walls.
The extended ARM tenses and projects a magenta red circle around the wrist. Her left index finger writes the pattern in white and completes it, swiping with a spray of gold dust. "It ain't too late."
But it is. Gwen can't afford to hesitate any further.
Somehow that ring holds her in place as she fires, her boots lifted up by the recoil of everything she had still left inside her.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! 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 Janus Cascade with Ringshine! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
'Well. That's one.'
Ida heard those words as the darkness rushed in. Later, she'll have time to reflect on them, and wonder what Janus was thinking when he said them.
For now, she shoots a glance back at Juni and nods once, which is definitely not something a dead person would be able to do. As that fierce, searing light surges from the Ley, Ida looks away, raising one arm to guard and the other to shield her eyes. When she looks back, Janus is... still there, still fighting. Ida expected that. Sometimes she wonders what it would take to kill him, since clearly nothing's stuck so far.
Gwen speaks up, and horror shoots down Ida's spine. "Gwen," Ida says, "Gwen, no--"
Because Ruth just cut deep, her words illuminating a change that Ida hadn't noticed until the Hellion pointed it out. Back when he'd first bonded with Glumzamber, Janus seemed exultant in his new power, but now there's something deeply, horribly familiar to him. Something that reminds Ida of the lowest points of her life.
A kaleidoscope of earthshaking power washes through the shrine--Glumzamber's might made manifest. Ida throws up her arms and digs in her heels, and the wave washes over her. Pain spikes through her body; her armor starts to fracture, and fall away in bloodied chunks. The light reduces them to vapor. Her skin burns and blisters beneath. The shockwave hits next, tearing and battering. Ida screams.
When the barrage ends, Ida sags, catching herself at the last minute. Everything aches. That Sphere is still there, warded by Asgard, siphoning power from the Shrine.
And then Boudicca cries out to her, and the fire in Ida's heart reignites. "To the Heart's...!"
The flame catches Ida's hand, and she clenches it tight against her chest, letting it grow. Burning Seraphic runes trace their way down her arm as she drives her fist towards Janus' face, a burning, crushing brand to complement Venetia dumping molten bronze on him with great sorcerous ceremony.
When Ida pulls her fist back, metal drips from her fingers.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Formation! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Janus Cascade with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Recover! Hex removed from Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Cover expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Nothing they do seems to affect him for long. Eleanor manages to wound him, at least, with that wondrous display of Light... and even still, he draws power. And then, he brings forth his own terrible light. Jacqueline's eyes open wide in surprise. With a gesture of her left hand she quickly constructs a protective dome of earth around her. Her gauntlets begin to glow, projecting a barrier to reinforce this.
This helps - but only in that it enables to survive it, the sheer power blasting her into a wall. She collapses, unmoving, in a pile of rubble - from her earthen dome and the structure around them.
...And then, the rubble shifts. Gasping for air, Jacqueline hauls herself out of it. She's on her last legs, glasses lenses cracked, but she's still standing. Jacqueline exhales.
"I'm not- ...I can't let this happen." She says, with some effort. She draws from the Crest Graph deck contained in each gauntlet - four in total, two in each hand. These are cast quickly in succession, one after another - and which each cast a well of elemental power surges into existence around her. Fire, water, earth, and wind - the four core elements of Crest Sorcery, each taking their respective place on the points of the compass around Jacqueline.
Her hands begin to move like a conductor's, her gauntlets glowing as they manipulate and direct the energy she's brought into being. An explosion of searing flame, a pillar of earth, a geyser of water, and a howling tornado... each of these burst into existence beneath Janus's feet. But she is not finished. Jacqueline extends her hands and the elements converge on her next, raging about her as they war against each other. But these are brought together, united as one, and Jacqueline directs them forward, unleashing them forth in a beam of raw elemental power.
Their energy spent, the wells around Jacqueline vanish - and her own energy spent, she staggers back a couple of steps.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action! GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Janus Cascade with Elemental Symphony! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
From the ground, Eleanor can see her attack's success. Unfortunately, it opens a conduit, for a few brief seconds--her connection to the Ley is still there as Janus strikes back out at everything with his horrible un-light. The backlash from Janus's attack hits her hard, flowing through her and causing her whole body to spasm, forcing her down to a hand on the ground. "Aaah--!"
But while it hurts, it does not kill. It does not disintegrate, it does not destroy, because Ruth shields Eleanor from the brunt of the effect, exactly as she'd asked. She is where she must be. ...And she understands that, for a moment. She is... where she must be.
"Thank you, Ruth," Eleanor says quietly, as she tries to catch her breath. She can't stand, not after that attack, even shielded--the outgoing and the incoming both are too much.
She has no words for Gwen, who courts death. For Venetia, the greatest sorceress in the world. For Ruth, who saved her. For Ida, facing her mirror. And for Jay, steadfast against evil. Eleanor reels still, behind Ruth, tears stinging her eyes. Her satchel has fallen; her firearm is still at her side. And she still feels that heart's beat. The elf lifts a hand from the ground and pushes herself to a seated position, where she closes her eyes again. "...Stillness," she murmurs. "The absolute essence of..."
"No. That isn't it."
Her eyes open. "I--!"
Eleanor reahces out to Ruth, pulling herself up with the other woman's strength and posture, stiff and all. "By purest Light I call!" Eleanor's voice is strong, despite her feet being unsteady. "By the power of the Sun! By the power of the stars!"
"In the name of the Three Goddesses I call!"
Eleanor spreads her hands, and a golden barrier begins to shimmer into being before Janus, to protect her companions. It is brilliant to look upon, but does not blind the eye; it is a gentle, warm light. It is Eleanor's.
"A shield to repel all evil! PERFECTED DEFLECTION!"
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Eleanor Klein has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Perfected Deflection! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Eleanor Klein has attacked Ruth Pauling with Perfected Deflection! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Eleanor Klein has attacked Venetia Vuong with Perfected Deflection! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Eleanor Klein has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Perfected Deflection! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Eleanor Klein has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Perfected Deflection! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Eleanor Klein has attacked Eleanor Klein with Perfected Deflection! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 2 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Eleanor Klein heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 283 temporary hit points! GS: Lock state and Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Eleanor Klein heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 279 temporary hit points! GS: Lock state and Shield applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Eleanor Klein heals Ruth Pauling! She gains 283 temporary hit points! GS: Lock state and Shield applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 365 temporary hit points! GS: Lock state and Shield applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
The Javelin Bullet soars forward and strikes Asgard, and it's only after a moment of exultation that it occurs to Dean that it's strange that the move hit him so easily.
The next instant, the room is awash with negative rainbows and chaotic electricity. Dean, knowing that the shrine itself is in danger, braces himself against it and stands his ground, twin ARMs crossed defensively before him. Avril shouts at him to take cover, and he shouts back, "I *am* cover!"
The Mountain Medium empowers him, after all. It might not be an impenetrable barrier, but he has its strength all the same. True, he screams in pain as each blow lands. But each scream grows quieter after the next--as he manages to grit his teeth and endure them.
What's left behind is the mountain. It may not be tall... but it takes on the lightning strikes and remains after the storm has passed.
What is it like to be alive?
Asgard claims to understand. Dean pants, swallows hard, and frowns.
"There's more to life than fighting, you know," he rasps. "Like friendship! And fried noodles!"
And possibly fsteak, though he doesn't mention that one. He may be old enough to drink now, but Dean may well always be a boy at heart.
Boudicca calls to him. He coughs once, staggers forward a step, and regains his footing. Avril calls up her considerable power, and he too beholds her... and it restores his smile. She's giving it her all. He can't do any less.
Boudicca sparks flame. It flows outward on the wind to Ida, igniting her fist as she drives it towards Janus's face. For Dean's part, it ignites the flow of energy that he draws into his paired ARMs, then fires out in a MASSIVE fireball for Asgard, following furiously in Avril's icy wake.
"IGNITION!!" he roars, hair and scarf blown backwards in the wake of that heat.
GS: Dean Stark has activated a Force Action! GS: Formation! Dean Stark has attacked Asgard with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Dean Stark has gained 1 Combo! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Eleanor Klein heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 285 temporary hit points! GS: Lock state and Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Asgard has activated a Force Action! GS: Asgard takes a glancing hit from Dean Stark's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 97 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Eleanor Klein heals Venetia Vuong! She gains 284 temporary hit points! GS: Lock state and Shield applied to Venetia Vuong!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth only has one good ear for hearing people call out their will. To hear Eleanor at all when there's screaming of lungs or great power among all... Eleanor brings forth a gentle, warm light. Cruelly, Ruth gave up the ability to feel physical warmth when she came to her new life, but it is a bright, beautiful light to contrast the warped negative rainbow that still dances in her retinas.
She does not flinch against Eleanor using her for physical support. There aren't words she can give. Her tail makes creaking noises as it moves again, down the rifle... and opening the rifle to remove its remaining three bullets.
Ruth tilts her head against the shaft. A single tear leaves her, slinks inside... and the tail closes it up... but doesn't let go.
She can't.
She rises, unsteadily, lifting a shaky left arm towards the sky*...
* ceiling
...and fires that single teardrop into the morass of ambient light. From there, a rainbow starts to shine down upon Janus' position.
Thin. Hollow. Beautiful at face, but bereft of qualities that would invite peace or tranquility. An oppressive feeling as to whether or not strife was worth it. The tail end of a storm not worth weathering for its costs.
Ruth slumps back down to a more pious kneel, wordless.
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ruth Pauling has attacked Janus Cascade with Hollow Radiance! GS: Ruth Pauling's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Ruth Pauling gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Low! Janus Cascade takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Foundry Sign ~The Statuary Garden~ for 197 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Janus Cascade suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Ringshine for 217 hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Janus Cascade takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 104 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Janus Cascade takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Elemental Symphony for 228 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Burst, Hyper, Mighty, and Shield removed! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Janus Cascade takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Hollow Radiance for 234 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Janus Cascade gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni Vandrer is concussed, electrocuted and now having all of her work burnt away by the expanding energy field, a thing she quickly scurries away from the expanding field, using the same corner as before to try and mitigate the worst of the field. Her armor's on display. She might have blunted some of it, thankfully, but there's a mental beratement going on in her head that she should have been thinking this through better. A separate mocking monologue points out even her system knows she's got her brains scrambled, but training should have kicked in! Aside from stripping the blueing away from her gun and giving her that unpleasant burnt fur smell, it's also destroying some of her 'camoflage'. Not that it matters now. That same mocking voice happily points out she's probably stopped bleeding after that at least.
She racks the slide and catches the shell, twisting it between one thumb, another jamming in a brass shell. Old school, durable. Heavier duty. "Being alive is more than just staring down your death." She lifts the barrel and sights it in, grimacing, focusing. "It's making your own decisions. It's who you meet and who you're remembered by." Her own take on friendship and her abandoned mission. Failed or not, she'll do her best to remember who she thinks she's failed.
Then she pulls the trigger. There might be some shred of sympathy from the alien. She's known AI that she'd consider a friend. This one apparently had some in the room, but that sympathy can't hold your hand sometimes. The report of the shot is harsher than any of her previous shots and about knocks her over. Mixture of sheer recoil and injury. The shell detonates violently for such a small payload too! She pushes herself back to her feet using the barrel of the gun, then leans against the wall to load another shell. Screw it, she's stuck here either way.
GS: Juni Vandrer has activated a Force Action! GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Asgard with Custom Explosive Round! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action. GS: Asgard solidly guards Juni Vandrer's Custom Explosive Round for 114 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Mighty and Quick removed!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
The obliterating nega-radiance from UltraNegative Rainbow fades. Janus stands there, panting. Still that human.
He didn't even kill anyone with that one. "How god damn sturdy are you people!?" he yells, finally annoyed. His blade sweeps up, smashing Gwen's followup shot aside. Now that he's shown his fangs, they show theirs. Venetia conjures a...pot? His confusion lasts only until it starts pelting him with literal molten bronze. With the Dark Spear's power he's able to force much of it aside, but still, he burns afterward.
Covered in metal and also BEING metal is a bad time to get hit by lightning; that one gets him to scream, as it crackles across his frame. "Hnnng!" he snarls, turning, that face a mask in Gwen's direction. It ain't too late, she says.
He holds up the Dark Spear, bracing against the annihilating light from her. "For what, pray tell, Whitlock?" he says. He can't spit, anymore.
He's caught again; Ruth's teardrop erupts around him in blazing rainbow light. Jay's masterful manipulation of four different elements leaves him staggered and burning, but...
Still alive. He rises higher.
Ida's blazing fist slams into his face. He doesn't flinch, but he does slide backward.
...to the altar. To the now BRIGHTLY glowing Sphere.
"Alright," he says. His hand snaps out to grab it. "That oughta do 'er."
Then, with it in hand, he drives Glumzambor into and THROUGH the tablet, and hurls the sacred stone into the reflecting pool. "Let's make sure our kitty friend takes a long nap, shall we?" he says, with a cruel chuckle.
But something...else, happens.
The Chock sparks. The pacemaker of the Ley, the binding pin through Filgaia's diseased spiritual veins, starts to spark, and crackle. Perhaps something Eleanor did caused this. Perhaps it is an act of the Guardian in whose name this place is consecrated.
Whatever the case, when the tablet hits the water, a JOLT of light fires down from the Chock, forming a pillar that unites heaven and earth and realms beyond. And the pool changes, shifts; shows moments old and new, past and future.
Janus watches it silently for several long seconds.
He is my master.
His gaze shifts up to Asgard, battered from all sides.
... ... ...
He blurs again.
The next time anyone can find him, he's behind Asgard, Glumzambor blazing. Its eye open. Watching. As Janus drives the blade into Asgard's gut.
"Blame your master for this," Janus says, glacial.
And then with full force he flings Asgard into the pool of tidal time.
GS: Janus Cascade has activated a Force Action! GS: Janus Cascade has activated a Force Action! GS: Janus Cascade spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Asgard with Crossfire Sequence! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 2 Combo! GS: Asgard takes a solid hit from Janus Cascade's Crossfire Sequence for 269 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Charge bonus activated! GS: Asgard has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
"I will never... stop."
Asgard tells Xiumei slashes and his whole form twists away from the strike. The moment she follows up with the pulse cannon, his barrier reforms.
"Never."
He has infinite capacity to learn, to grow, to evolve. He cannot let himself stop.
"Aren't you?" The Golem asks Azoth, "Seeing it?"
A blossom of swords fires like lasers, his newly reforming barrier taking them all on, as its taxed beyond repair. When he's finished, his form has sprouted multiple swords. "Orders or not, I would still be fighting with all that I am."
Asgard turns to look at Marivel, "On ice? You seek to render me inoperable? Inert?"
The shadows form beneath him. "You will not." As the shadows tear at his form, his barrier simply forms underneath him, and he rises out, as if from a sticky quagmire of magic. As it clings to him.
"Not while there is so much left for me to know."
Boudicca and Avril may have something to say about that however, as Moor Gault's fire washes over him from both Dean and Boudicca, right before she beholds Avril as light trails at him like a Shooting Star, arcing at him over and over and over again-
In the aftermath, his whole form is glowing orange, superheated gouges all over his form.
"Fried...zzshck...noodles?"
The Golem seems confused about how Fried Noodles are the key to life...
... "Dean...shkARK... I do not eat."
Juni makes a point down the barrel of a gun. Is living, making one's own decisions? The shell flies at Asgard. The Golem holds out its hand. Grasps the shell within its palm. It detonates encased within it. The Golem's fist is smoking, its fingers fall lax in the aftermath.
His ocular sensors move to behold the sphere. "It is... done." The pacemaker of the ley crackles, and a part of the shrine hits the water. The Temporal Anomaly forms, even as Asgard turns back to his opponents. "This is... over. Now we le-
It is perhaps a small mercy that he does not have to see it coming.
The spear enters Asgard's back impaling him wholly. His Auto-Defender program does not offer him defense from the one he is protecting...
"Ja... nus..."
The Golem says, with Glumzambor pierced through his back...
The Golem reaches pathetically for the tip of the spear.
"... blame? No..." The Golem's head lolls to the side on mechanical joints, to stare at Janus and there is something disturbing perhaps in the way those crimson eyes look at him. "I will... see him..."
Him?
Who is he talking about?
He has no time to clarify it. As he's flung, as he lands into the pool with not a splash, but a ripple for all his mass-
"-again..."
The Golem sinks into the temporal morass slowly. His hand trying to grasp for the edge - but it is not something he can swim out of, not against the torrent of time. His form twists, and distorts, then simply blinks seemingly out of existence.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus watches Asgard erode to nothing in the river of time.
He raises a palm and fires another blast, this time at the CHOCK ITSELF, causing a sputtering, crackling reaction that brings its gyroscopic rings to a stuttering stop.
"Heh. Well, that probably broke somethin'"
He shoulders Glumzambor, and tosses a casual look to the Drifters come to save Filgaia. Except with his locked, metal face, it's a murderer's glare, too.
"Think I'll take my leave. You kids have fun picking up the mess, yeah? You like that kinda thing, I remember."
Light ignites under his feet, blazing bright, illuminating him from below. Then he's gone.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel says, "Just for a little while big guy. Until I figure this out. I have a theory and I don't care for--"
Asgard rises out of it. "Ah."
Marivel pauses a moment before banishing the shadow away. "Big guy indeed."
She cups her chin, studying the Golem as some kind of puzzle--
--so intent on this that she doesn't see the inevitable. Janus has something in his hand.
"You---!" She turns suddenly. "How dare you! When your fate comes, you will not be mourned, you'll be forgotten!!" She is not a fan of Janus--and the way he plunges his blade through that tablet only makes her angrier though it is not the kind of anger that Janus might be hoping for. It's an anger expressed to someone pissing all over the rug, not the existential horror that Janus might be hoping for. MAybe she just doesn't want to let him see it. But so focused on what Janus has done--
--she does not anticipate what Janus is about to do. He blurs and strikes Asgard down.
Marivel doesn't say anything. She just stares at him balefully.
...until Janus throws Asgard to the pool of time.
Marivel doesn't look to him. She looks on as Asgard sinks into the pool of time and ceases to be.
Why hadn't she noticed it sooner? Because it would have been a problem, MArivel realizes.
"Another memory hidden from myself." Marivel says, calming. "...Ah..."
"Another lynchpin moment."
She brings her hand to her forehead. "..."
"...See you then, Asgard."
For once she doesn't teleport away. She just looks on the damage.
Inevitable, she thinks, that there would be another time looper.
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
-=Another Time. Another Place (?).=-
Auto-Repair Cycle Complete
Running Diagnostics...
Working
Working
Complete.
Full Sensory Reboot - Complete
Flower petals waft within his field of vision, as the chirps of birds hang heavy in the air. Asgard sits up, the scar of Glumzambor still within his chest.
There are more flowers gathered in this place than he has ever beheld...
"Where am I?"
Ponderously, the Golem gets up, as the buzzing of inserts grows closer to him. Opening a hand, a flower petal's flight is arrested in his palm.
"Is this really... Filgaia?"
In these moments, the Golem picks up new fluctuations within his system, as a new nascent emotion forms within him...
... awe.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor holds up her barrier, for a few moments. But her barrier did not protect Asgard. She had no idea that he would need it, for all her foresight. But it clicks into place, suddenly, when it all happens. That pool changes, and shifts, and Eleanor sees. Her eyes flash, as Asgard falls into the pool, and in hrer mind...
-=-=-
Flower petals dance all around, the chirps of birds in the air...
-=-=-
"...?" Eleanor wonders, and then looks towards Janus, still there briefly. He destroys something important. "No!"
Eleanor reaches out towards him. "I..."
Did it help? Did it matter?
Eleanor can't tell, in the moment, and she tilts over, a thud marking her return to the ground and unconsciousness.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
A brilliant golden barrier bursts in front of them. This power... it's remarkable. Jacqueline finds herself utterly curious as to how Eleanor created it... but in the moment, she can only be thankful for its presence.
Janus is blown back toward the sphere. He grabs it... and Jacqueline realises what's about to happen before he does as it as she watches him winding up that terrible dark spear, but she's unable to do anything about it.
"No!" Jacqueline calls out, reaching out. What can she do? Can she Jump over there in time? ...No, she doesn't have the energy left - and even if she had enough for a single Jump, it wouldn't be enough to stop it. She can't think of a spell in her arsenal that would be able to stop him with what she has left...
...And in the end, it's too late - the tablet is stabbed through, and cast into the water. Jacqueline throws her hands up, shielding her eyes from the initial jolt of light.
She doesn't expect what happens next. That Janus would turn on Asgard, stabbing him and hurling him into the pool of time, and then leaving...
Jacqueline stares, at a loss for words... until eventually, she finds the energy to haul herself over to the now empty pool, her steps slow and staggering. She stares into it, and stares at the space where the tablet once was.
"...I'm not sure what happens now." Jacqueline admits quietly. How significant was that, on a cosmic scale? What happens now?
...She stands there for a moment, quiet, before looking back at the others.
...There are a lot of people hurt right now, itself included. She can worry about the consequences later - right now, there are people here and outside in the city in need of treatment. If the world can still hold itself together for now despite what just happened, so can she.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"It's fine," Marivel says quietly...repeating something Dan Dairam said to her a long time ago.
"It's what happens here."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Drop it--" Ida says, but the words die on her lips as Janus... acts, and does not give them time to stop him. Rage ignites in her eyes, and a trickle of blood drips from a burn wound on her forehead. Time starts to slow as she takes one step, two steps, and breaks into a run. For a moment, she doesn't know if it's the effects of adrenaline and alien nerves, or time itself unwinding like frayed threads.
The Ley pulses beneath Ida's feet, and she stops dead in her tracks. Her eyes widen, and she stumbles back, staring at the damaged(?) Chock, at the pillar, at the pool. Her jaw trembles as her back hits the wall, and she presses herself against it, fighting a strange temporal vertigo.
She sees Janus move just a second too late. "ASGARD!" she screams, and she feels a tightness in her voicebox as Fafnir grabs at nervous functions he cannot reach. She wants to reach back. All she can do is watch in horror as he disappears into the timestream. When Ida's gaze flicks back to Janus, her left eye is brilliant emerald green, and tearing up. She takes a step, fists clenching as she forces herself towards him. She has to stop him. She has to kill him, or put him out of his misery, and kill the people using him before they even think of getting their claws in her, and--
Janus is gone. Ida's legs start to shake. "Eleanor," she whimpers, as her friend stares, reaches out, collapses.
A moment later, Ida follows her, crumpling to the ground. The crying starts in earnest not long after.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Asgard--!" Boudicca cries, a hand outstretched. Could she withstand the flow of time, as a spirit of the wind? Could she bear it? She wishes she could; wishes she could take his hand. But it is not just herself she must think of, hearth smouldering in her heart.
And Janus -- Janus, in the wake of his act -- "You... you misbegotten, unpietous...!" She cries out, and, she thinks: she should stop him. She should make him stay, answer for --
She cannot. Her mind is reeling, from the Guardian's peril and the feelings in her own heart. Too many, too much, and Boudicca wishes she could simply haunt Dean, at a moment like this. But Dean -- but Avril -- and Ida, and even Eleanor, collapsing down...
"I will heal you," she says, to the Drifters, in the wake of Janus's violence.
"I will do what I can," is all she can offer, to Dam Dairam, in the wake of Janus's atrocity.
And at least she does not need to sleep.
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni Vandrer is in a spot where she can see the windup, but not in a position to do anything about it evidenced by the click of a dry fire. Another day, another failure. She's really not sure what the consequences here are going to be, but that obnoxious inner voice of hers is back again. Telling her she could have done more here. "Huh." Is all she can figure to say out loud at this point. A faint, confused sound. She'd been too slow to try and catch Janus before he disappeared to boot, halfway to a reload. She really doesn't know how good or bad this sort of thing is. She.. makes a note to follow up on this. More than a few people here definitely know the story and if she's going to throw her lot in on one planet, she might as well go for the other too.
She steps forward, looking into the pool, but not saying anything else right now. There's that sense of being out here alone again. Out in the dark. That gets pushed down alongside that annoying nagging voice. Planting the butt of her gun against the ground, she starts to crouch down to check on Ida, thinking basic first aid before catching up with herself and looking to the others. They're better at this and she instead backs away and sits down. Watching.
It's Marivel's comment that gets her attention though. Ears twitched, followed by her head towards her. That a local 'shit happens' situation?