2023-01-20: Starry Heavens

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<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Lunar stands upon a precipice.

How far would you go to save a world?

                                    ---

The temple known as Artorius' Throne is one steeped in history. Very little of it is good history.

A thousand years ago, this place was built as the Empyrean's Throne, the shrine of a Seraph Lord lost to history long before it was even truly lost. It was the staging ground for a horrific plan of good intentions.

In the aftermath, its name was changed to celebrate the engineer of that plan. For the sake of Glenwood's stability, history would remember him as a hero, before it forgot him entirely.

Three decades ago, Artorius' Throne was made the seat of power of a new Seraph Lord. In an era of dwindling Shepherds, the last of their order thought it best to protect the Empyrean Maotelus from the ever-growing Malevolence of Rolance by founding the peaceful land of Camlann.

Peace doesn't last. War finds everyone, even Camlann. Artorius' Throne became a staging ground for an atrocity born of callousness.

Two decades ago, a Shepherd lost everything to the indifference of a general of Rolance. He soaked Artorius' Throne in blood and sullied Maotelus' soul in the name of heinous, unending vengeance.

Artorius' Throne became the staging ground of a calamity born of unsatable wrath.

                                    ---

Five good souls captured stand upon a precipice.

How far would you go to save a life?

                                    ---

A thousand years of bloody history makes its mark on Artorius' Throne.

Malevolence has a way of giving a paint brush to the agonies of the spirit -- giving face to the foulest memories. And a planet has the longest memory of all. Within the wet clay that is the Lord of Calamity's curse, the maelstrom of Malevolence here has shaped Artorius' Throne into a sickening mix of the beautiful and the profane. The painstaking stonework of a shrine once meant to sunder the source of Malevolence in the human heart has now been warped by the abundance of that very same contradiction that has seeped into every ounce of its architecture. Like irony given form, Malevolence soaks like long-accumulated cobwebs in the stone walls and floors here; pathways spindle outward into the skies until they becoming incoherent strings of stone that once paved a way forward. Motes of black and violet decorate once polished and pristine white grounds like fireflies of contradiction.

At the apex of the Highest Stairs, the open air plaza leading towards the throne of the Throne fares no better. The tempest of Malevolence is thickest here: A series of once-grand pillars that once formed an archway leading towards the grand double doors of the throne room are now largely crumbled and eroded; only a few of them are still whole, and several have been weathered down to stumps of what they were. Chunks have been shorn from the white stone floors, here and there; rubble literally floats around the promenade, suspended in mid-air like the ruin of this place was caught and preserved in amber.

At the very top of this twisted mockery of a Throne, the skies become a cosmic bruise of violets and golds. Where the sun would dwell in the sky, there is only a pitch black hole, radiating a corona of sickening oranges and yellows.

This is not just the Malevolence of a Lord of Calamity. This is...

-Something- seizes upon the grand tempest, as the Drifters approach the doors of the throne room. There is a feeling of great, spiritual pressure... before all that mass of Malevolence is pushed -outward- from the promenade. Like a great wind pushing away a sea of sand, every granule of Malevolence is shunted from this area until only the basest, ambient levels of it remain. It frees this space from Malevolence's corrupting, clouding taint...

... in the same stroke that it shapes the Malevolence that once infected this stretch of landscape and stonework into a grand dome encompassing all of it, a density of calamity that prevents anyone else from entering.

Or leaving.

And, with Drifters, Fiends, and allies still caught within this dome, the source of this act slowly emerges from the far end of the broiling stormwall of bruising colors. Their armor is pristine. Their helm is faceless.

The Trial Knight's intent is clear, in the forging of a grand, double-bladed Divine Artifact in their grasp.

"Not another step further shall you take freely."

This is the stopping point.

                                    ---

One foul soul has long fell off the precipice.

How would you save his life?

WHY would you save his life? ...

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    There are good things and bad things about most situations. For example, right now, a significant portion of Malevolence is getting pushed out of the area, giving people of all stripes but especially Seraphim a much-needed breather from its poison. That's good! But the reason why that's happening is because of the Trial Knight locking everyone in with them with intent to do ferocious battle.
    
    That's bad.
    
    Something else that's good: the warbling melody of a harmonica, so pure and sincere it might itself provide protection from Malevolence, its tone somewhere between hopeful and melancholy. It might even be a little heartening to the Drifter crowd, at least until that door opens and they're all locked in. The bad part, naturally, is that it's one Seraph Ragnell playing it as she leans on a column nearby K.K., bent over her instrument just as her wide-brimmed hat it bent over her brow. She plays one last wobbling note; the Trial Knight speaks. She looks up at the crowd with a sardonic smile and tucks that harmonica away. It being Lunar, she's dressed in an indigo tunic embroidered with gold over a black undershirt, gloves and boots, a long neck-scarf, black slacks, and gun belts that hang holstered pistols on each hip.
    
    "So I'm hopin' even after all the Shrine nonsense none o' y'all are gonna say anythin' like, 'Ragnell, how could you?'. I mean, none o' y'all actually forgot that I work for the Trial Knight, right?" She winks as she pushes up the brim of her feathered cowboy hat. "An', let's be honest, I've been treatin' y'all with kid gloves for a li'l too long now."
    
    Her gloved hands settle on the handles of her guns. It's a small, simple action, but somehow it reeks of menace. So too does the glint in her red eyes as they narrow, bowing her head to cast a shadow across her face. "It's high time y'all got a reminder o' where we all stand."

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

It is not only the Trial Knight who is already here. In fact, it's not even just the Trial Knight and Ragnell. Nor is it just the harmonica which now has bonus accompaniment through the mournful but rich and vibrant tones of a violin. The music from the violin ceases shortly after the harmonica fades.

Marivel Armitage steps out from shadow along with the Trial Knight, twirling her microphone around in her hand. The violin has vanished away into the darkness. For now.

"I take it you saw the same video as we have, right?" Marivel asks. "A time that is barely a blink of a moment past yet surely feels like an eternity ago. In all my time on Filgaia, I have seen many terrible things. It is a harsh world, a dying world.... The Baskar have even sacrificed children as part of their rituals."

She exhales out some wisps of black smoke. "But I don't believe I've ever seen anything quite so monstrous as someone sacrificing their own infant kin to damn a world. It just goes to show you that for no matter how long you live, humanity can still find ways to surprise you."

She tosses the microphone into the air, catching it as it drops back down.

"It's what I love and hate about you but two sides of the same coin. I cannot pick and choose."

Her eyes glow crimson, even in the darkness. Despite her words, her posture is a relaxed and comfortable one. She seems about as untroubled at the end of the world as you can be. "I hope you were able to save the wyverns." She says, knowing just what the price is if they weren't able to. But she doesn't linger on that topic for too long.

"Do you remember the Love Shrine?" She asks rhetorically. "I was there too, but I had to be cautious. New energies and I--difficult to know how they'd interact. But I know why Love carries a sword." She smiles. "I've always known. They won't fight alone so long as my soul perseveres."

"But what about you? Do you have your Answers yet?"

DC: Talia switches forms to The Charming Sellsword!
DC: Kaguya switches forms to Kaguya of the True Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    Amidst a lot of people who've had a lot of experiences with the Trial Knight and Ragnell's trials over the years is... ... ...someone who's never met them before or know their deal, at all! Here's Rixia, not terribly long into her initial hire into Guardship out of pure coincidence (and wanting to eat fresh bread and have socks without holes), who's here to help save someone very dear to Magilou, her teacher-slash-parent-figure-it's-complicated, and also Mister Leo.

    Rixia's nnnnnot having a good time in this Domain; excess Malevolence just seems to exude off off her, and though she's hanging on, it's clear it's not leaving her unscathed. She's gurgling a little because she feels extremely nauseous and the nausea is maybe the least impactful feeling it has on her. She has her gunblade planted on the ground to prop herself up, and she's-- currently busy thinking of Nice Things to stave off the feelings, like...

    Pearl's pickled radish and salmon sandwiches...
     Lychee-grapefruit-cherry cocktails and high-shelf rum...
     Freshly laundered bedsheets and pillowcases and fluffy down pillows...

    "--fresh fluffy xiaolongbao... and red velvet cake... and Ruby giving me my bread back..." Rixia blurts out of nowhere, inbetween sweating and being filled with snot like wild and on the verge of tears because the Malevolence found loose threads in her social anxiety and abandonment issues to tug on and is going to tooooooown on her right now.

    It may be prudent to Purify her at some point before she becomes the Towering Hellcake Hellion, after this.

    Stumbling to the very of the stairs, Rixia looks ready to take a break rather than freshly engage with a fight, and the Trial Knight and Ragnell's presence puts her on edge. Oh no, oh no no no, they look menacing... well, Ragnell looks very cool, with her forlorn harmonica playing that soothes her for a moment.

    "I, um... I don't know who either of you are," Rixia admits. "But weren't you at the meeting before, miss?" she asks Ragnell. "Um..."

    Her attention is on Marivel, though. "Oh, Miss Leviram, you're here too!" She sounds so relieved. "I've had such a rough time here--"

    She starts talking dramatically. Black smoke comes out of her and she cowers for a moment into herself. Oh no, what's going on here? Why's she standing next to the scary person in the armour with the cool-looking double blade?

    "I mean-- I mean, yeah, that guy sucks for doing that..." Rixia that's an understatement, "Why do we look like we're about to fight about it though...? Aren't we here to stop-- stop the Lord of Calamity? Save Magilou's dearest friend? Maybe not linger here too long...?"

    Does she have her Answers yet?

    Rixia's head droops. "Right now my Answer is I wanna stop throwing up a little inside from the Malevolence and rum and pickle sandwiches and maybe curl up underneath a big heavy blanket...?"

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

The trip up the stairs was a time of reflection. A reflection upon the journey, of how far they've come. Of strength won - of strength still deficient.
 
Things achieved, things yet to achieve.
 
Of what horrid price a Shepherd paid for vengeance.
 
Most importantly, the warmth of a hand. The spiritual pressure of malevolence is nearly unbearable, but they endure it together. And then once at the top, that malevolence clears, shifting, and shaping around them - twisting into a barrier.
 
And there he is- but the he is not Heldalf, not the Lord of Calamity.
 
Not one step further shall they take freely.
 
His eyes shift over to Ragnell, and there's this momentary sigh, then a touch of a smile, "How could I? Nah, I won't question that."
 
He knows where Ragnell stands, and even if he doesn't truly understand, he won't question it. Though Marivel stepping out- well, he can't say he's surprised either. How many trials has this happened already?
 
It's the Trial Knight his brown eyes settle upon after a time, "I suppose I'll just ask you one. Why? You were so invested in banishing the Lord of Calamity from the Blue Star. Why bar our way now?"
 
Hiro's sword moves out of his sheath, he doesn't expect to talk his way out of this, "Isn't bringing our strength against him to bear, and seeing if we come out alive on the other side trial enough?"
 
Because he doesn't expect this to end in anything other than another battle, his eyes move sidelong to Talia, then Ivan... and finally Leo. Even with the malevolent pressure outwards, the pressure was still enormous, but they were together - and they have to endure this.
 

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

There's so much. Too much. The very foundations of this sacred place have been profaned in the most catastrophic of ways. Bloodstained alabaster, corrupted into something that seems to thrum with vile, heretical life. Putrid power pumps through veins that pump foulness into every recess and pore of what once could have been something pure and brilliant.

And now, it's not.

The malevolence would be more than oppressive were it not being partly siphoned away. How many seraphim would instantly begin twisting into something horrible just by being in mere proximity of it all...?

And yet...

There is a sound.

And yet--

There is a terrible, riotous, clamorous sound.

It doesn't have any meaning to it.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

No words are impressed upon the sound. There is just a single note, a single vowel held as a crystal clear tone that shatters the oppressive atmosphere with bizarre juxtaposition.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

There. At the very fringes of the malevolent wall. There is... someone. There is someone who seems to be wearing something that could be a mishmash of knightly attire, dyed so dark violet that it could be black. There is no meaningful heraldry, nothing worthwhile to identify who the armor belonged to. Well.

No. That's a lie.

There's... there's...

A Z in bright green against black, on that tabard.

And that sword is familiar, too, as is the hair as the mysterious knight charges heedlessly straight at one Seraph Ragnell.

And all the while, that note sounds--

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAIIIII FINALLY MADE IT, SWEAR BY MY EVIL MOM'S PUTRID LEFT PSEUDOPOD, I HAD TO SWIM SO DAMN FAR BUT I'M FINALLY BACK--"

Oh.

Oh, that's Zed.

Zed is swinging his sword at Ragnell. Zed, what are you doing here? Where have you been? Why are you... suntanned......?

(Zed may have been stuck on Spira after losing his teleportation key to a cactuar in a very ill advised needle counting contest.)

GS: Zed has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya, formerly of the Veruni, has come here to stop the Lord of Calamity--or die in the attempt. There is no other way, no other path now. She looks to the terrible sky of this place, and towards the Trial Knight as they reach. Suddenly, the Malevolence is gone--and one may notice that it finds no purchase in Kaguya on its way through, that there is a faint sparkle of red when it passes near her. ...But only faint.

This dome...

Kaguya turns her head to look at Ragnell. "Nah," she says to the Seraph. "I respect that." She then looks to Marivel. "And you do what you gotta do, too."

"As for me..."

"Trial Knight," Kaguya speaks up. "Once, I observed with you. The trials of 'humanity' were irrelevant to me, an alien and an invader. A spy for the 'enemy'. I defied the Guardians. I fought against those who would defeat Mother. ...All that, and more."

"But that's not why I'm here today. The Guardians--that's between me and the Guardians. But ever since I got involved in the Lunar's conflicts, I've had a tie. And now..."

"I've sworn an oath on my own name to defeat the Lord of Calamity. I've thrown in my lot with humanity's. So no matter what stands in my way..."

Kaguya draws the divine artifact 'Zeikfried' from her side, hefting it to point it up at the ceiling in a ready stance, finger off the trigger.

"I'm with them now! So you'll have to Try me too!"

"I haven't taken a 'free' step in years, but now, here, I take this one of my own will!"

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia made her way through Artorius's Throne at the side of Hiro, Jean, Lucia, and her brother. Jean and Lucia were forced to stay behind -- leaving them to make the trek upward. Upward and upward, until they came face to face with a familiar foe -- with multiple familiar foes.

Malevolence has transformed this place. It seems to form physical alterations, as it does in great amounts; it makes a presence, here, that is hard to ignore. She slows as she reaches the top of the stairs. Her eyes peer up, at the terrible sky, and the white-armored figure.

The Trial Knight.

Her blood runs cold. Then, her eyes drift towards Ragnell. "...I don't know," she says. "The kid gloves are a little nice, no? But... I suppose I'm not surprised. You, though--" She looks at Marivel.

Then she narrows her eyes, glancing at Hiro. "Looks like we've got another thing to go through, first, no?" she says. She reaches to her side, drawing her Meribia-bought short sword. Mirage is destroyed; plain steel will have to do.

"Trial Knight," she says. "I suppose I'll have to pay up to get through, then."

Then, Zed crashes down.

"HE IS STILL ALIVE?" she shouts up at the heavens. The Goddess, maybe.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"I WOULDN'T DIE EVEN IF YOU KILLED ME," Zed shouts, still somehow mid-slash because talking is a free action and Zed has many animation frames to spare

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"That is... hot?" Talia asks.

Then she stares distantly into the void for a second and also an eternity as she learns something about herself she never wanted to know.

YOU DIED

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro follows Zed all the way down, pupils shrinking. Then at the impact, he looks Talia's way after a moment, "I GUESS?"

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

Up they go. To the face of the future. To find out what the true face of the Lord of Calamity is. To find a truth. To find a way forwards. Perhaps, ultimately, a way to find an answer.

Walking up the stairwell. Tears in her heart if not in her eyes. And then, instead of the hoped-for climax, the final confrontation, there is someone else here. Several someones.

The Trial Knight, looming ahead of them, and then--

-- the air shifts --

-- and that strange presence of Malevolence, the sense of intoxication looming in the corner, the dread that Margaret's decades of sorcerous discipline had been subconsciously applied to keep her step light and her heart brave because to fall into temptations would be incredibly bad, moves away from them.

The Trial Knight is not alone. Margaret glances at Ragnell for a moment, and then at the rather diminutive but personally familiar, rather recently familiar in fact, form of Marivel. But it is Rixia, perhaps, who is the little weight that determines the way that the droplet of water that is Margaret flows down the back of the hand of History.

Margaret comes up behind Rixia and reaches to pat the beastwoman's shoulder. "It's alright," she tells her. "It will be alright." She is telling herself as much as Rixia, but perhaps it is something to hear. Her eyes rest on Marivel, though.

"I haven't, no," Margaret tells her, "but it seems you've put yourself in the middle. You and your secrets, I suppose." Her lip quirks up for a moment. "Does Love carry a sword? How interesting." Margaret rests her hand on the hilt of one of the several swords at her sides, although there are only two present out of four scabbards.

"But why" Margaret begins before being interrupted by ZED IMPACT. She turns her head to shout towards him, "I AM SPEAKING HERE, THANK YOU," and then attempts to resume where she left off:

"But why stand in our way? Are you unsure we can handle it? Compulsion, perhaps? I'd assure you... I don't know for certain if *I* will measure up. Or if *we* will. But I think we'll go as far as we can. We'll surprise all of you old people, and believe me, I'm pleased to put it that way, for once."

Margaret blinks for a moment, and then her head cants to the side. "How fast are you?" she asks Marivel.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    The Four Wyverns have all been saved, Purified from the brink of achieving full Fell Dragonhood.
 
     Lanval made sure that they'd have Vessels to hide in while they rested, and entrusted them in Layna's care. This is a gesture that buys them time at best, but damnation on that front has been staved off. If they don't succeed in their mission, it's a moot point. They're not entertaining 'if.'
 
     Lanval stays manifested alongside Layna up the staircase to the plaza as a gesture of a shared burden and confidence everyone here will achieve what they've all set out to do. Water is notoriously vulnerable to Malevolence corruption, as by nature, pretty much everything gets in the water - but he remains resolute throughout. (Layna serving as a vessel helps immensely, in this regard, but even she alone wouldn't have been enough had he strayed at all.)
 
     He doesn't need to add color commentary to what they're seeing - and it's tough to with the incredible spiritual pressure as Malevolence vacates the promenade. Lanval doesn't look at how it appears at this newfound set boundary by the Trial Knight and their challenge... and Ragnell's reaffirmation of her loyalties and duties.
 
     "Mmm." Lanval's eyes open half-way, and then side-eye over to where Marivel's standing as the violin music ceases. (Zed charges right behind him in the background. He doesn't pay the screaming much heed.)
 
     She says her part, of her horror of what she saw in that Iris Gem. Something that seems to have convinced her to stand alongside K.K. and Ragnell. He politely takes hold of his drinking gourd and has a drink while she says her part.
 
     "The four of 'em are shafe 'n reshtin' in Layna's care, right now," he says of Marivel's hopes, as it segues into Love's Cradle.
 
     "A long, long time ago... Ragnell over there shaid she'd bring an end to a shad, shad shtory. All of 'em. Paraphrashin', of courshe. Right in Love's Cradle, then." Lanval remembers helping guide the mortals through there on virtue of being a nature spirit and thus have somewhat better heading in places where the physical laws of existence start becoming 'a polite suggestion.' He remembers that's where both Boudicca and himself took their oaths to Filgaia.
 
     Still, of that ghastly sight, of that grave sin by that Shepherd who sacrificed his own infant child to damn a world to ruin. That's a crowning jewel of awfulness, unforgivable even beyond their sudden end.
 
     Lanval closes his eyes as he lowers the drinking gourd. "If that'sh all it took ta make ya shtand like that right now, Marivel, well, we ain't gonna need ta fight." Lanval remarks.
 
     He slowly opens his eyes, half-way. "'Caushe it don't look like it'll be much of one, if that'll make ya waver."

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "Ah, the inimitable Trial Knight! How wonderful to see you again," Magilou smiles, and her wan eyes disagree with her sharp, sharp smile. "And, as ever, with them..."

    Her gaze goes straight to Ragnell, and no, she does not look surprised.

    (She makes no comment on the sacrifices of Michael. Of Michael -- this time.)

    "Ragnell," she says, sardony dripping from every edge, "how could you?" Magilou grasps her heart, as if shot through. "Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal...!"

    Then, Zed crashes in.

    And Magilou laughs.

    "Well," she remarks, cheerfully, "since Rokurou's still tied up in a battle, I suppose this sword-for-brains will have to do!"

    She turns back to Ragnell, veiling her smile behind the paper doll shikigami she's holding. "It's been a while since we've gone all-out against each other, huh? Maybe I'd better take this seriously..!" And so, she twirls towards Ragnell --

    And her shikigami extends, to batter Ragnell with that oversized paper doll. "Spin, spin...!" She crows, and it doesn't seem like she's being particularly serious.

    But then, it's Magilou.

GS: Magilou has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Great Cycle!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo of Raculi is here, despite the grueling journey and the harrowing revelations within. He makes the ascent one step at a time, his gait slow and deliberate--fatigued, perhaps, but he's still going. Though he's still a distinctive feature, he wears the plain, undyed homespun and scale armor of a common soldier. Only the blade at his side marks his station. Has he taken Pearl's advice, and decided to confront his master simply as Leo?

    That's a complex question, and not one the White Knight wants to think about right now. He saw the Trial Knight. He was expecting Ragnell, their accomplice. He was... not expecting Marivel to be helping administer this trial. His face flashes through surprise, then exhaustion, and finally settles in grim resignation.

    "Trial Knight," Leo says. If he focuses on them he can at least muster some reserves, and look like he's not completely lost. "Heldalf was like a second father to me. If anything of that man remains, then I am here to save it--even if that means sparing his soul the weight of more death."

    Zed appears. Leo's lip curls into something that's not a smile. "I..." Kaguya's there. Rixia. Even Hiro. "Am not alone." Maybe if he clings to that, this will all work out.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan is here to help his friends. He used the word out loud and everything! And maybe help save the world in the bargain, though let's not get ahead of ourselves. But the foes they find at the top of the steps are... not the ones he expected. Ragnell has been something like a friend herself, at times, but now she's back to doing whatever mysterious thing she's committed herself to do that goes beyond all that, and their sometimes-sort-of friendship is even more awkward and complicated than usual because he turned into a wrathful bird a while back and she... well, that's for worrying about later. For now, she gets a 'must you?' kind of a Look.

Turning to K.K., he grumps, "I'm with Hiro. Can we at least get a reason why we have to be tested? If you don't oppose our cause, recklessly knocking us around to confirm our resolve before we get there really isn't very practical..." K.K. and Ragnell have put him and his sister out of commission a number of times in the past, even risked killing them -- which he resents on its own -- but on a more practical level, this sort of thing is a serious threat to their group's fighting strength!

Then the faintly familiar(?) figure of Zed comes bursting on the scene, and gets some eyebrow-raising reactions.

Ivan turns with a baffled look to his sister. "What is-- ... nevermind, I don't want to know!"

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    This land has seen more obscenity than most. It's steeped in the very soil -- human memory might fade and buildings might crumble away but the land remembers. Even if they defeat the Lord of Calamity... will that be enough? Corruption, once set, is not so easily washed away.

    This, Avril has learned throughout all the years since that fateful day she awoke in the hand of a Golem.

    Sins are not so easily forgiven.

    Is it any wonder that as they ascend towards this final battle that they find their path barred by another? The Trial Knight seems keen on living up to their name... and they are not alone.

    "We meet again, Trial Knight," Avril says simply. She has grown, perhaps, since they met her last -- but has it yet been enough?
    Perhaps that is for them to determine in the future that lies ahead. There are many for them to test this day, even with the allies they have gathered by their side.

    "Ragnell... and Marivel. I see you have joined their side once again." A simple statement of fact, this; it is hardly judgement. "We must not tarry here long. I trust that you do not mind that we attend to our business here?"

    Which is to say, Avril has decided to fight, to whatever end it brings her, and has no intention of arguing against the conflict to come. She reaches to take hold of Absolute Zero's hilt, and...

    'aaaaaa'

    ....someone else is screaming. Avril slowly, wordlessly, turns her head.

    Expressionless -- though nonplussed would be the truer word for it -- she watches Zed as he charges right on past her, blade bared as he rushes Ragnell.

    "Zed...! So you are not-- It is good to see you again," Avril declares, extending her free hand towards him.

    And her gaze falls on Magilou, a person who she has not perhaps spoken to properly since an ill-fated voyage nearly several years prior. "...One cannot choose their allies," she remarks, and with a twist of her wrist, summons the blade from the hilt.

    Zed will not be the only one to engage in direct melee with Ragnell. Avril darts in, seeking to catch the Seraph from an unexpected angle.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Innocent Saber!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 135 hit points!
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Magilou's Great Cycle for 92 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Innocent Saber for 55 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

     Running late, though with her own reasons. She catches up to the others she had just made the journey with. Hooded and masked. Walking steadily (Despite how she handles stress and certain... obstructions.) Shige's lantern is as is most frequent, held out before her. A guiding light for lost souls. This one is potentially beyond her, like the dragon. She was never told how she could help, if she even can with her particular patron. She'll do her best though.
 
      There's a distinct thought that she should have probably had more to drink as soon as she steps in and she's glad for the mask hiding that flicker, that moment of worry. A look of disgust that breaks the facade behind the mask just briefly.
 
 The idle mention of sacrifices from a heritage she only recently learned about gets her attention though. Focused on what else she's saying as well. Eventually though, she steps up, joining the others. Silent, but for the click of her boots. The shadows at the edges of her light twisting and angry. She can't tell how much is bleedthrough of what she's experienced and what she's been exposed to. Trying her best to shut it out. Embracing her duty as a guide. Finding it hard to speak at the moment. Even as her own shadow gives away her agitation. Twisting and turning whenever it's at the corner of someone's eyes. Angry seeming. Furious at what's happened in this room. It's just a trick of the light though, right?
 
 Finally, she opens her mouth. Terse. Agreeing with him. "No one will be." Which.. from a death shaman may not be as comforting as she thought it would be. She does turn her head to Rixia and murmurs in a tone almost a whisper, "Can't go without sharing notes." Closer to her usual self. A struggle in this kind of ugliness. Trying to be reassuring even then. Even if it's cracked her mask.

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

A twinkle in crimson.

Unseen, the weight of the Trial Knight's attention still falls on Kaguya for a precious few handfuls of seconds in the throng of Lunar's defenders.

"..."

A clawed finger twitches exactly once.

"Hm."

The music of the knight's comrades dwindles and dies as they address those who have assembled. In those precious moments before, though, it seems for a fleeting moment that they were simply finding ways to spend the time. Finding ways to wait.

It's an oddly human sentiment that is barely even a phantom of a suggestion before the double-blade of the Trial Knight is fully forged, providing proof of its existence in the declarative way its bottom blade strikes the stone beneath their feet. Impaled in a shallow furrow, K.K. nonetheless maintains their grip on their weapon as their gaze sweeps across the others. Some faces so very familiar. Some, like Rixia, perhaps less so.

Ultimately, though, their gaze fixes upon Kaguya again -- and the gun, the Divine Artifact, that she presents.

"An oath is a thing not forged lightly," begins the knight slowly. Their fingers tighten along the haft of their grand weapon. "... and broken, even less so." They consider her for a long moment. The knight remembers their conversation so long ago, deep in the catacombs of Krosse.

"'Tis motives personal that compels you to their side, is it not?" they ask. That metal-warped voice offers no condemnation for the fact. Just wonder.

"... Very well. If you stand at the side of the get of man, you stand also as my enemy, Lady Kaguya. If you have sworn an oath -- I would see you fight for it to your dying breath."

Magilou invokes the name the people of Lunar have given K.K.; the Trial Knight's head turns as called upon, and despite the tenseness of the moment...

"It has been some time since Spira," that tinny voice acknowledges all the same, almost conversationally. "And yet your vexation remains as constant as the inevitable rising of the tide. Would that we were here for tales once more. Those you spun for me of Ragnell's foibles with your troupe were greatly illuminating, indeed."

Just what could that be--

But no. There is no more time for that. K.K.'s attention shifts towards Avril. "The fractious queen," they intone in recognition. It has, indeed, been years now since last they truly met. Has she come far enough--?

But ultimately, it is Hiro, Ivan and Leo that receive the lion's share of their attention, for their questions and declarations both. Hiro and Ivan question why. Leo proclaims he will save the Calamity that was once a man he knew. K.K.'s gauntleted fingers stretch and re-apply their grip upon their weapon.

"Once, there was a man," they begin, after a moment, suddenly and seemingly without addressing any of them in particular. "A great man, some called him. A knight. A hero. Protector of his people. A great man, they called him, even as he committed a sin incalculable. He did it not of malice, but of callousness. There was no intent to harm the innocents in his way, but instead a lack of care as to their fate. 'Twas by the hand of this man that a village that was born for peace was stained and anointed with crimson innocence shed in war."

Their grip tightens on that weapon. They YANK it out of the ground with a smooth flourish, even as they speak.

"The lives lost needed retribution. And so another great man, a Shepherd of peace, made a sacrifice crueler still to see it done. Within both their human acts was Calamity born. The knight suffered casual cruelty after casual cruelty. The people of his life shared his fate. Retribution laced into his soul and hollowed out his life. They took his loves. They cursed his child. And when he attempted to find an end to it all, to save himself, to save the ones he loved... he found he could not. His sins would not abide escape.

"And so his punishment continued. Tragedy and misery were his only companions. It mattered not what he did. It mattered not if he felt rage or guilt, if he sought damnation or salvation. If he wished to atone, or languish. Even battlefields warped to his presence, creating atrocity and monstrosity in his wake. The curse yearned for only one thing: his suffering. And suffering became the lens through which he saw this world. If all he did led only to more suffering -- would it not be better, then, to cast aside pretense, and drag the world down with him? Mayhap when all was silent, he too would know its touch."

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

The Trial Knight stops here. There is a figure in the distance, closing in, but their gaze falls on Leo.

"Would you save that man, White Knight?"

The question seems to come not out of lack of belief. It sounds more, as if it were a challenge being leveled.

A trial being put forth.

"You ask why I stand in your way, when ere upon the Blue Star, I cast Calamity's Lord out. You ask a foolhardy question. This Calamity is of the Silver Star's make. It shall be of the Silver Star's reckoning. I do not stand against the Lord of Calamity anymore than I stand for him."

That sword -swings-, the violence of its motion whipping winds briefly as its tip points towards Hiro. Towards Ivan. Towards all of them.

"I stand where I always have, and always shall. Against you. Against all your get. If there is more motive to be grasped in that, then know but this:

"Resolve is not always tested fairly. And it is not always tested for your own sake. 'Tis the nature of your world, and all things that have a heart that beats wild within their breast."

Talia speaks of payment. In the aftermath of their answer to the others, it seems the knight might have something to say to her, too. But the figure is growing closer. The voice is growing louder. And then --

                ZED INTERRUPT!

A long second passes. K.K.'s head cocks to the right as the violence begins with the wild cry of a dark savior with a healthy beach bod tan.

"... Ah. 'Twould seem the time to begin has been decided upon."

SO ZED DECLARES.

"So be it."

Light glows above K.K. -- and it forges into another Divine Artifact, a floating book, flipping through pages. And as K.K. -launches- themself towards their foes, that book begins to channel the knight's arcane might of its own accord, siphoning power to scroll out an incantation of magic.

And as K.K. swings their blade upwards in the dead center of Hiro, Ivan and Leo, conjuring forth a MASSIVE dragon of golden light and pure force with which to consume them --

A spell of Althena's Blessing creates two churning lances of crimson and black shadow in the skies above, screaming through the skies for Talia and Kaguya.

"COME! Let us see what wages you are willing to pay!"

GS: K.K. has activated a Boss Action!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talia with Demon Lance!
GS: K.K. has attacked Kaguya with Demon Lance!
GS: K.K. has gained 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    'Must you?' that look Ivan shoots her says, and Ragnell raises her eyebrows back in a light, 'I must.'
    
    This is, after all, her mission. But Ivan's never really vibed with that part of her. That's fine, though. Her appreciation of Ivan, and his of her (?), has nothing to do with that.
    
    They probably really should talk about the firebird incident, but Ragnell does so hate a heart-to-heart. She'll leave the talking to K.K. where Ivan and Talia are concerned.
    
    Hiro's at least willing to take it in stride, as is Kaguya, and she smirks at them both. However, she leaves it at that as she focuses on Avril instead. "'Once again' ain't exactly accurate. It implies I ever left their side in the first place," she points out. "But nah." She bares her teeth in a broad, sharp grin as she draws her pistols. "Let's get right to it!"
    
    So she says, but she doesn't immediately strike. Lanval brings up, in paraphrase, something Ragnell once said about sad stories, and she shrugs. There's a flicker of something that might well be relief when he says that the Wyverns have been purified, that they're in the care of a Seer, but it's there and gone as fast as a shooting star.
    
    Some of that is, admittedly, due to Zed shooting-starring in himself, sword-first, at the Lightning Seraph, screaming the whole way.
    
    She whips her guns up to brace against his meteoric sword stroke, but guns are not really meant for parrying, and the force of his entry smashes both of them backwards into the wall. Massive cracks spider up and along it, and Ragnell grunts in pain--but also anticipation.
    
    If anyone around could put up a good, hearty fight, it's Zed. She snorts, then laughs long and loud. "Been a while, man! Great timin'!" A beat. "Is that a tan??"
    
    As Magilou whirls that paper shikigami at her, she shoves him to one side and uses the shikigami's spiraling force to get out into the open, taking several bludgeoning blows in the process. This means that Avril's left behind a bit as she attempts to give Ragnell a good old stabbing--but only a bit, as that silvery blade slices into her side as she passes by.
    
    "Man, this guy *would* be your type, Magilou. Yvain's gonna be jealous!" Ragnell drawls at her erstwhile travel companion. To her current companions, she calls, "A'ight, K', Marivel--here's to showin' these punks what's what!"
    
    While she has the distance, she whirls backwards in a spinning backstep and unleashes a rapid series of lightning bullets on Avril, *rat-ta-tat-tat-tat-tat*, to not just overload her but also attempt to force her back and away. She segues from that into a Seraphic arte, glyph glowing beneath her feet as she raises a hand and points it at Zed; a sparking, sparkling lance of lightning shoots forward towards him when she calls, "Shock Lancer!"
    
    And then she turns on Magilou and launches herself at her--
    
    To attempt to kick her, repeatedly, in whatever parts of her scrawny body she can reach.
    
    They're both very serious!

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Successive Bullet!
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Zed with Shock Lancer!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Magilou with Heartbreaker!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

This is the second time.

Marivel's eyes widen faintly as she sees Rixia come forward, less because she is surprised to see her here at all but more because she wasn't expecting Rixia to approach her. "K.K and Ragnell are my friends. That's Ragnell." Marivel nods to the Seraph and then another nod to K.K, "And the Trial Knight over there--Is K.K."

Zed arrives. Marivel waits for his arrival cinematic to complete while looking down at her microphone.

"Welcome back, Zed."

She gives Hiro a nod. It isn't a bad question really. "Almost time." She tells him, ambiguously.

But then she turns her attention back to Rixia. "Alright. I'll give you a minute. But we're about to fight because I won't let them fight alone. You have your own comrades, don't you?"

She waves a hand to Kaguya. "Naturally." She laughs though that gun does give her pause.

And then she glances to Talia. "...You seem like you've grown. Your face seems a little more--"

She trails off as Talia shouts to the heavens and dies forever. Marivel lets it go.

"Lost my train of thought." Marivel admits, looking up to the Heavens herself. If she sounds a bit sore about it it is because she's a traditionalist who believes in the importance of a good monologue before a boss battle.

Margaret admits she hasn't found her Answers. Marivel turns her gaze to Margaret. "She sure does. Swords are, after all, quite good at piercing the heart." She can't help but smile at the care Margaret shows Rixia. Or maybe it's because she's telling off Zed. Why not both?

"Put myself in the middle?" Marivel asks. "I'm afraid not. I am the Boundary. I've put myself at the End. And tis not my secrets I keep today. If you wish to know why the Trial Knight bars your path, that is not my secret to share."

"For me, of course, it is hardly a secret at all. I'll tell you right now."

The eyes gleam. "They are my friend. Out of all the people on Lunar, they best uphold my Clan's work. And I promised they would not fight alone."

"There." Marivel says. "No longer a secret, mm?"

She nods to Avril. "I've never left, though I do not consider it a 'side'. A pity I cannot face you today, Avril." Her gaze slants to Leo. "Don't worry, I'm counting on you, really." She smiles at him too.

Lanval draws her gaze next. He confirms that the wyverns are alright. "Good." Marivel says. "Did Ragnell say all that? Can't say I dislike it, though I haven't given up on happy endings just yet."

She still hasn't. Despite everything. Nor does she answer the accusation of it just being that that got her to stand like this. Apparently, Marivel feels like she answered her reasons for standing there have been answered but she does confirm one thing.

"I was standing with 'em well before I saw that video." Marivel admits. "Perhaps I was standing with them the day Ragnell said that if the world was to be saved--it had to be a world worth saving."

Lanval opens his eyes.

"Taking this one seriously?" Marivel asks. "I'm honored."

And with that she raises up her arm and snaps her fingers.

Rixia will find a protective shield shimmering around her--but will also find the world around her speeding up. Or more accurately, herself slowing down.

"Take all the time you need, sweetheart." Marivel says before turning pivoting to face the others.

"This isn't even my final form."

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzR46Pxpmf4&ab_channel=Afflictive

And her face explodes into a thick miasma that, despite its potency, is probably way nicer to deal with than the Malevolence lurking outside--but that doesn't mean it's pleasant. The full power of a Malboro's breath is in that.

The miasmic fog lingers. Lanval can hear in his ear.

"Your mirthful spring is built atop the bones of lost heroes. Your waters are their blood."

It's difficult to even see Marivel within the putrid green gas.

Shige, running late, is more likely to have to worry about all that incidentally rather than as a focused target but Marivel is pretty thrilled to see that Shige's shadows have a mind of their own.

"Lovely," She says. "Belle's not here I'm afraid. But let's see if you can give her what she's looking for, shall we?"

She

GS: K.K. has attacked Ivan with Obliteration Cross!
GS: K.K. has attacked Hiro with Obliteration Cross!
GS: K.K. has attacked White Knight Leo with Obliteration Cross!
GS: Talia solidly guards K.K.'s Demon Lance for 53 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Hiro solidly guards K.K.'s Obliteration Cross for 40 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Rixia with Take All The Time You Need!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with Bad Breath!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with Bad Breath!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Shock Lancer for 132 hit points!
GS: Interrupt blocked!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Zed has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with Bad Breath!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Take All The Time You Need for 0 hit points!
GS: Slow applied to Rixia!
GS: Kaguya suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Demon Lance for 124 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Magilou suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Heartbreaker for 166 hit points!
GS: Seraph Lanval suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Bad Breath for 0 hit points!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Entangle, Hex, and Interrupt applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: Margaret partially evades Marivel Armitage's Bad Breath for 0 hit points!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disease, Disrupt, Jam, and Weaken applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ivan takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Obliteration Cross for 112 hit points!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Avril Vent Fleur solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's Successive Bullet for 110 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP!
GS: White Knight Leo solidly guards K.K.'s Obliteration Cross for 42 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Brother..." Talia says, looking sideways at him. "...Let's be careful, no?" Maybe don't address what transpired a moment before.

Then, Talia spares a glance towards Kaguya. They owe each other a conversation -- but it has to be when the world isn't ending. So, then, it must be later. She looks back to K.K. Her expression hardens, a little bit, then. "The nature of our world? That's... that's depressing, no?"

A lance of black and red energy explodes down towards Talia. She lunges forward, conjuring up a shimmering barrier of blue-white light, which the lance of energy slams into -- shatters through -- and hurls Talia backward. She hits the ground, rolls a couple times, and then springs back up.

"Why, though!?" she asks. "Why do you insist on opposing us? No matter what is at stake!"

She lunges in, sword extended -- and Talia speeds up into a near-blur, stabbing her sword hard for the center of K.K.'s mass. "Super Sonic Thrust!"

GS: Talia has attacked K.K. with Super Sonic Thrust!
GS: Talia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Interrupting? INTERRUPTING!? "Uh excuse you, but I started shouting like a FULL MINUTE AGO," Zed protests, "I was CLEARLY reserving my spot in the talking queue! Hrmph. HRMPH!"

Hotness? HOTNESS!? "Hot? Me? Hoh, of course. Not only am I CRISPILY SUNBURNT and SEA-RUSTED to this amazing shade of bronze, I am also the best kisser among all Hyadeans!" What "You want proof? After she kissed me, the flame witch Agatha MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED. Clearly she was DEFEATED BY MY AMAZING KISSING SKILLS THAT I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE I POSSESSED AT THE TIME."

(Zed may be forgetting about the part that it kind of broke his brain for a while there, but in his mind, a bout of madness is but a trifle! In his heart, he has defeated her, AND SO IT IS.)

(The more terrible implication is that somewhere along the line, Zed learned about what 'hotness' means, and has apparently decided that he is the hottest. Where? How? Spira probably, nobody wears enough shirts over there.)

"BUT YES, it is good to see everybody again! Nahahaha!" Avril seems to have prompted this particular tirade. "I have been long in the shadow, but such is the way of the Dark Hero. One must regularly recharge oneself in the deepest heart of darkness so that one is prepared to fight with all one's strength! And my brain is NOT A SWORD."

"But my sword," Zed adds, smugly posing with the flat of his blade reflecting his SPARKLY SMILE. "Does have a brain... Kind of."

(Somehow, Doombringer's shame is palpable. It may not be a Divine Artifact, but...)

ANYWAY, HE HAS A FIGHT TO FIGHT. Though the arrival of the Dark Hero has foretold the inevitability of battle, it's through the descent of one particularly heavy sword that it is joined! Violence ensues! "Thanks!!" He answers Ragnell, because to Zed violence is just another kind of conversation, and he has always been the earnest type. "I didn't actually mean to get it but I guess enough sunlight and saltwater will do it?? Something about oxidation???? I dunno I could only make out like half of what that spirally-eyed guy was saying about it but I guess a big enough zap will fix it maybe? I dunno if I want it fixed but--"

RAGNELL OBLIGES.

ZZZZZZZAP.

"Agagagagagagagaghhh--" Zed yalps, his skeleton briefly highlighted by the tremendous current sluicing through his body. (Along with a POSSIBLY WORRYING cylinder right in his chest cavity that seems to have a RADIOACTIVITY warning label. Or maybe that's just his Zedder Ray Reactor?) When it passes, he's left sizzling, but... Half a shade less tan!? OH NO!??

"Agh! My tan!" Zed grouses, "Rude, but I guess I kinda asked for it?? Nahahaha, here, have something in return! It's <<SWORD!>>"

(It is in fact sword. Or in this case, a bolt of white-hot energy that shoots up out of Zed's sword-- and then falls from the sky like a bolt of lightning, but not at all like a bolt of lightning because somehow this has mass. It's more like a waterfall of kinetic force that's vaguely sword-shaped?)

GS: Zed has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Inner Secret - Heaven's Howl!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Shige Kiwako partially evades Marivel Armitage's Bad Breath for 0 hit points!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disease, Disrupt, Hex, and Slow applied to Shige Kiwako!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    Rixia feels Margaret's hand touch her, and she wheezes a little and nods a few times, even as her eyes start to water from the intense pressure the Malevolence is having on her. "I-it'll be all right... it'll be all right," she keeps whispering, repeating Margaret's words onto herself.

    Lanval's simple confidence is infectious too. He gives some context too, of who Ragnell and K.K. are. There's history here, between these Drifters and these two she doesn't know about... her confusion still stands, though. Why are they fighting? People like Ivan and Hiro seem to echo the same thing.

    "Yeah... though if I go, my cocktail book's yours," Rixia grins weakly, trying to make a joke, but it doesn't much sound like one right now. "Wait... it's still in my diary. Okay, I can't die here until I write it out into another book, because my diary's going with me to the grave."

    Marivel mercifully gives her a minute, so she tries to re-centre herself as the Junctions from the Sleeping Lion start to take fold. She's not ignorant of the story K.K. tells, as Marivel introduces her to them -- of how the man Leo saw as a father had committed a great crime of callousness, of people being swept up in his warpath. ... that was her story, too. Even back then, Rolance and Hyland continued to trade blows, not caring about the little that was consumed in their path.

    "... Mister Leo saved me, at least. I'm just one of Glenwood's many war orphans, and Mister Leo didn't have to give me food and shelter when I tried bumbling my way into the big city, and he did. And that counts for a lot more than either of these two other men have done for me," she adds her piece.

    Then, cruelly, battle is joined as Rixia starts to see the world speed up around her, which is kind of like Marivel softballing her because she *is* a Time Mage, as much as she protests--

    "Time---!!"

    There's a sense of fed-up-ness and frustration that she's channeling into her incantation, manifesting her blessing of Althena as an enormous clock manifests upon the ground and starts speeding up around Shige, Lanval, Margaret and herself.

    "I don't get it! And I don't like it," Rixia finally blurts out. "I'm a product of Glenwood's forever wars and I'm frustrated at all the adults in this room who're very, very stuck deep in the sands of the past! I'm just a kid, but sometimes... it takes a kid yelling at grown-ups for something to change!"

GS: Rixia has attacked Shige Kiwako with Hasten Time!
GS: Rixia has attacked Seraph Lanval with Hasten Time!
GS: Rixia has attacked Margaret with Hasten Time!
GS: Rixia has attacked Rixia with Hasten Time!
GS: Rixia has completed her action.
GS: Rixia accepts Rixia's Hasten Time for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Rixia!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Rixia gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro finds himself looking at Leo, remembering the confrontation of him and General Heldalf at Mount Gagazet. Thinking of the weight he carries on his shoulders now...
 
However, the Trial Knight tells him his question is foolhardy, then explains. And at the end of his explanation, "The enemy of all mankind to the end..."
 
There's something, dubious in his tone, like he's not sure what to believe here, what their real motivation is.
 
"Then whose sake is our resolve tested for this time?" It's not cheeky so much as genuinely trying to figure out the nature of this trial.
 
The time comes, the light glows, the divine artifact floating as it channels magic. Their blade swings as a massive dragon of light is met momentarily by a swirling arc of black.
 
It's not enough, the gold dragon cleaves right through it, blasting him backwards, but he somehow keeps his footing with only a small stumble. "Talia! Leo! Keep them guessing!"
 
-before he launches himself back at the fight, a blade extended in a thrust at the joint in their armor, wind swirling as he becomes a blur of movement as he tries to come at him at a different angle.
 
"Even if you don't stand with the Lord of Calamity - surely you can't think it's better that this CURSE continues to plague the Glenwood!"

GS: Hiro has attacked K.K. with Hurricane Thrust!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"I understand," Kaguya answers the Trial Knight, their armor gleaming before her. "It's personal," Kaguya agrees. She doesn't explain what. But she understands what they're saying. What they're doing, if only as regards her and her alone. She has chosen her side...

And she stands by it.

The man...

Leo wants to save him, but Kaguya doesn't think that's possible. For now though--all K.K.'s questions boil down to action, for the small Veruni. The churning lance of crimson and black screams through the sky for Kaguya, and slams into her armor. The gunner steps into it, aand it blasts apart part of the cloth concealing green metal beneath. She did not approach unprotected.

"I'll pay everything I have to!" Kaguya says. "To be part of this world, I'll put it all on the line!"

Kaguya lowers Zeikfried and begins to channel its power--rock and stone and dust whirl about the barrel as she lifts it, right for the Trial Knight. She FIRES, and Althena's Blessing rockets out for someone who was never born on Lunar at all, a shot crashing forward to latch golden-yellow bindings about K.K. and move forward.

"Zeikfried, I call upon you! We won't abandon them now!"

GS: Kaguya has attacked K.K. with Earth-Binding Shot!
GS: Kaguya has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Fractious," Avril echoes, her left hand returning to her chest for a moment. "...Yes. I shall not deny it. But neither am I now incomplete."

    Theirs is a determination that may well await another time, another place. Here and now... Ragnell the Seraph of Lightning shall be trial enough for her.

    But Zed is here, and without Rebecca (or probably even Dean) that means it falls for Avril to deal with herself Zed's... Zedness.

    "Kissing can... lead to a defeat?" Avril furrows her brow, deeply concerned. "I see... then I shall need to be careful..." Wait, does that mean that she's worried about Rebecca potentially--

    "Another time, perhaps we shall," she tells Marivel. But the both of them claim that they never left the Trial Knight's side in the first place. Avril tilts her head to one side, quizzical. "Have you not? I have not seen the Trial Knight ever by your side," she says, plainly.

    ...oh, she meant literally...

    But just as she promised, she does not mince words. She is for Ragnell even if--

    --Ragnell is just a little too quick for her. Just a little. "Ah--" Avril gasps, suddenly the focus for a barrage of bullets. She falls back under that ferocious assault, deflecting a few of the bullets with the flat of her blade. "This must not..."

    She has drawn out her Medium in her left arm, bearing both almost as if she were seeking to use sword and spell in accord. Holding it out before her, one close to her might catch the scent of the sea.

    And then become engulfed as the spell washes out from the Medium's center, pulling herself, Magilou, and Zed to the depths of a phantasmal ocean. There is no end to the sea.

    "Lucadia... share in us the majesty of your Bottomless Sea!" Or its might, shared now among the three of them.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Zed with Bottomless Sea!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Magilou with Bottomless Sea!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Bottomless Sea!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Bottomless Sea for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Zed accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Bottomless Sea for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Zed!
GS: Quick applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Rixia's Hasten Time for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Rixia's Reload! activated!
GS: Seraph Lanval gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Margaret accepts Rixia's Hasten Time for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Rixia's Reload! activated!
GS: Margaret gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Shige Kiwako accepts Rixia's Hasten Time for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Rixia!
GS: FP up! Rixia's Reload! activated!
GS: Shige Kiwako gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Talia's Super Sonic Thrust for 46 hit points!
GS: Disrupt applied to K.K.!
GS: Riposte applied to Talia!
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Earth-Binding Shot for 108 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break applied to K.K.!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Hiro's Hurricane Thrust for 64 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Hiro!
GS: Magilou accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Bottomless Sea for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Magilou salutes K.K., as they invoke those stories. "I'll tell you more some other time," she assures them, with cheer which Ragnell may well be able to tell is even more fabricated than it usually is. "So don't die here, okay?"

    Magilou, that's the enemy. Magilou, please.

    Magilou laughs, when Avril stumbles over the defeat of a kiss. "Oh, yes. Love is a battlefield, you know," she says, positively scandalous.

    She laughs more, at Zed, and it positively distracts her as Ragnell springs into action. "Oop!" She yelps, as her quick-step backwards is interrupted by a sharp kick to the solar plexus -- more serious than their joviality lets show, at least, because they take their jokes very seriously -- and she's juggled up, for a high kick to her middle, sending her tumbling away.

    In the middle of the air her battle screen transitions to the sea, though -- and Magilou floats in something like water, just long enough to set her feet on the ground. "What a lovely abyss," she compliments her.

    "If we're to speak of water... better watch your step!" Magilou slips effortlessly from banter to invocation, as her paper doll spins beside her hand, and a blue Seraphic glyph alights beneath her feet. "Flood Wall!"

    Just as she was juggled up, now she seeks to juggle Ragnell, with a wall of water like some waterfall in reverse.

GS: Blitz! Magilou has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Flood Wall!
GS: Magilou has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo listens to K.K. like they're the only two souls left in the world. His ears twitch, almost mirroring that persistent, characteristic tic of K.K.'s fingers. His hand moves towards the hilt of his blade, but does not touch it. For all he's cursed the Trial Knight, he knows their power. They nearly killed him at Krosse--stabbed him through. He could've bled out and died if no one else had been there. "He cared for me," Leo says, and as he does, he remembers the knight who came to Raculi, and humbly asked for shelter. He remembers a wise man, stern but kind.

    Was that all a lie? Leo shakes his head, as if to jar the thought loose before it takes root and festers.

    "I have to," Leo says, his voice dry and tight. "He made me what I was. If he's suffered so, and I--I wasn't there, then I must!" He sees the shift in the Knight's posture a moment before that blade comes down. Leo's own blade clears its sheath with a ringing bell-tone, reflecting K.K. in its mirrored edge. He bares his teeth, shifts his weight back, brings his sword up to guard.

    The dragon slams into the full force of Leo's guard; sparks fly, and Leo's face twists in a grimace of pained exertion. Motes of sorcerous light land on his clothing, igniting tiny little flames. Sweat beads on his brow. As the last wisps of K.K.'s power fade, for now, Leo's shoulders sag. He pitches forward a half-step, catches himself, and looks at K.K., wild-eyed. "DEMON FANG!" he roars, and he steps forward, sweeping his blade from left hip to right shoulder. A crescent-spike of power rips from the weapon's edge, racing along the ground towards K.K. "Behind you, Hiro," Leo says. Why does he have his strength, when Leo himself is struggling? It--it's Heldalf. He doesn't know him as well as Leo does. He might as well be a stranger to him.

    That's it.

GS: White Knight Leo has attacked K.K. with Demon Fang!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 3 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: K.K. critically guards White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 41 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Seraph Ragnell solidly guards Zed's Inner Secret - Heaven's Howl for 82 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Magilou's Flood Wall for 89 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover applied to Magilou!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    "Wait, is *that* why Agatha fucked off?" Ragnell utters, eyebrows rising incredulously at Zed. A beat. Then she grins and gives him a thumb's up, or as best she can while holding a gun. "Good job, Zed! I never liked her!"
    
    Ragnell doesn't really think that was the cause. But she's more than willing to go along with it. She really never did like her--but then, Ragnell doesn't like most Hellions.
    
    "Your sword has a brain, huh," she adds, looking down at Doombringer. She looks back up at Zed. "More of one'n' you?" He goes into how the tan happened, and she looks (actually is??) interested. "Huh! Wouldn't'a ever guessed! A big enough zap, you say?"
    
    Yeah, Ragnell's like that. Just like her laughing at Zed's electrocution sequence is her being like that. "Least we know it works!" she says cheerfully at Zed's outrage.
    
    Avril, though--Ragnell stares at Avril for a half-second. ...oh, she meant literally...
    
    "Pfft," she utters, one side of her mouth cracking up into a smile. That's *just* like Liath.
    
    So Ragnell takes this sudden realization the best and only way she possibly can in a situation like this: with outrageous lying. (Is it a coincidence that Magilou does the same? Hmmm...) "Didn't you know? The Trial Knight can disperse into particles of light! They're always everywhere an' nowhere at once!" she declares. "Even when it looks like any of us are alone, there's a part o' them, watchin', waitin', by my side--an' by yours!"
    
    That oceanic might that Avril summons up *is* a lovely abyss, though Ragnell doesn't deign to compliment it like Magilou does. Instead, she narrows her eyes, letting Avril go for the moment as Zed brings down his <<SWORD>>. It might not be lightning as her weapons tend to be--it's too solid for that--but that solidity ironically makes it easier for her to skate currents of lightning through the air and use them as a shield with which to defend herself. It shatters immediately, and the blow knocks her right into the path of Magilou's Flood Wall, but it's the *idea* that counts.
    
    As the Flood Wall launches her up, though, Ragnell turns and vaults with it. She is a Seraph of the storm, and water is just what she needs to bring it forth. While in midair, Ragnell curls her legs up beneath her and fires several shots into the ceiling. They bloom with stormcloud strength, whorling outwards in a massive dark cloud with ominous light flashing within--right over Avril, Zed, and Magilou's heads.
    
    "Storm Shot!" Ragnell shouts, quite simply.
    
    When she descends, so too do bolts of crackling elemental force and sheets of torrential rain.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

K.K. gives quite a speech in response to their questioning about why this fight must happen, and Ivan's dismay only increases as it goes on. He looks to both Talia and Hiro for hints that perhaps they understood it better than he did. He even checks with his umbrella, briefly, to no avail.

"Well, thank you for trying to answer, I guess... all I really got was that you don't care for humans... if that's all it is, maybe you should call yourself the Punishment Knight instead!"

If he was hoping to lodge more complaints, they are interrupted by the gathering of light that forms into a radiant dragon. Ivan dashes to one side in an effort to skirt the blast, but is thrown aside. He lands roughly but catches himself in a roll, springing up and pulling several throwing knives into his hand, and flinging them. The fully armored figure of K.K. isn't the ideal target for such a thing, but perhaps if his aim is true enough, one may find its way into a gap, or pull the knight's attention away to let another attack land.

Ivan's own attention is pulled toward Leo, who is explaining why he needs to try to save the Lord of Calamity. Is it even possible to save someone who's caught in a curse that pulls everyone they care for down into a whirlpool of suffering? It seems perhaps that Leo's survival is a sign that Heldalf was already beyond caring about others when they met. Or perhaps not caring was a roundabout way of caring, under the circumstances?

"Leo!" he calls. "We'll make sure you can deliver those sentiments to him!" He makes some accusing hand gestures at K.K. and Ragnell in case they don't realize they're the ones standing in the way of such a noble wish.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Zed with Storm Shot!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has canceled their attack on Zed.
GS: Ivan has attacked K.K. with Memories of an Assassin!
GS: Ivan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Zed with Storm Shot!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Storm Shot!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Magilou with Storm Shot!
GS: CRITICAL! Zed suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Storm Shot for 278 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Storm Shot for 288 hit points!
GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Magilou solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's Storm Shot for 116 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Marivel makes her reasons a bit more clear, with a crimson-hued truth. She is here because K.K. is their friend - and they won't fight alone. They, of all the people on Lunar, best upheld her Clan's work.
 
     Standing with them well before she saw what she did with the Iris Gem. Taking it seriously...
 
     Lanval hasn't tried to turn away Rixia from being here, which may say plenty despite how little actual experience and contact she's had with pockets of Malevolence this... pronounced.
 
     Or exposure to Marivel's final form, as she bursts into that bloody miasma that makes up the shape that hides inside the guise it does. Venomous, bloodied words. Lanval doesn't technically have ears despite the metaphorical appearance, but there are truths that exist regardless of whatever senses are used to convey or distort them.
 
     His eyes close, as he takes a sip of that drinking gourd as he seems lost in that miasma surrounding and lingering about him.
 
     Just as Rixia finds her place to do what she can, with what she has, and it feels as though things start to move again, Lanval offers a little smile.
 
     "Blood, shweat, 'n tearsh," he murmurs, "they're alwaysh bein' shed, 'n we don't alwaysh get ta keep the know-how of where, when, or why - or if they even had to, ta begin with."
 
     A wide, sweeping wave of cleansing water emanates from the Water Seraph with an incantation lost but a sweep of an arm visible, pushing back against the awful, foul Malboro-spewed gas to cleanse whatever ails the quartet surrounding them - for Shige, Margaret, Rixia, and himself.
 
     "For the onesh who ain't yet bonesh, the onesh loshin' more blood ash the daysh go on... gotta keep 'em goin' on that little shomethin' ash they work fer greater than that."

GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Rixia with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Margaret with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Shige Kiwako with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Hex removed!
GS: Margaret accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Disease and Disrupt removed!
GS: Shige Kiwako accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Hex removed!
GS: Rixia accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Slow removed!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

Despite the grim words that the Trial Knight says - the revelation of the darkness, or perhaps - Margaret isn't sure, can't be sure, but her eyes flick towards the armored figure. Are they saying how... is this how MALEVOLENCE ITSELF...? It's dizzying, almost too dizzying.

But it isn't them she's fighting. Nor the other Seraph. It's Marivel. The sad old girl. Margaret gazes at her in silence for moments as she speaks. She says a strange word, an ancient word - video - but she thinks she understands it.

But the rest --

"Your work?" she asks.

But the rest - she shows mercy towards Rixia, and perhaps Margaret is thankful, and maybe it's all a ploy because IT ISN'T EVEN HER FINAL FORM. Marivel's face becomes fog that emanates outwards and the smell reaches Margaret almost before the effects reach her stomach, leaving her enshrouded in the foulness for a moment. She doesn't cry out protest; she retches, wretchedly; she reels as the world sways; she sinks to one knee for a moment, although she can hear the others, hear Rixia. She rises upwards --

And as the miasma dissipates, she sees the clock. Margaret looks at her hands for a moment - turns them left and right in wonder - and then looks towards Rixia. "... My dear," she tells her. "I won't let you down. This..."

"I didn't even think of it," Margaret says. "It's like a double boiler for melting chocolate, isn't it? You can only light a fire so much." A beat. "By the Goddess-- Rex, I--"

Then she barks something that might be a laugh or a sob, and sweeps a hand up through her bangs, eyes wet.

"The end?" she says. "I don't believe in ends, Miss Marivel. I thought I'd run into one so many times. I thought it was cynicism, but now I think it was just a scab. Maybe I've just been infected, some sort of reverse malevolence - benevolence? - from associating with heroic types for so long."

"I was just thinking about that," she says to Rixia. As if she has all the time in the world. "At the base of the steps and all that. Thinking about what could have been. How misfortune's worked out for me. Of course, it's luck, too. I know that all too well. But if there is a real, true goddess, or a god, or a guardian watching over me, well --" Margaret sniffs deeply --

And from the nauseated look on her face, regrets it, because some of the Smell was still in her nose. Spitting on the ground, she says, "What was I saying. Heavens. Alright, then, if you're going to put yourself in the way, I'm going to ask you one more time, Miss Marivel: how fast are you?" Cleansing water washes over her, and finally gets the TASTE (mostly) out of her mouth. And this from someone who regularly hits on a pipe. She gives Lanval a brief and sober look, a nod, and then picks up where she left off:

"BECAUSE," shouts Margaret -

(Alright, all of you. If I'm the one you're going to look up to-)

There is a sudden surge of starry light around her. The usual nebula is denser, more luminous. Possibly the effect of Rixia's spell; the stars in that shrouding halo more like streaking lights, since if you're not in that hastening enchantment, it's not any faster than usual. But light, they say, has a constant speed.

"I" says Margaret, who suddenly becomes a greenish-blue-streak that appears to Marivel's ten o' clock,
"Am quite" Again, at her eight,
"certain," at her six,
"that I," her four
"am faster," her two

"than that," Margaret concludes before she becomes a sort of Margaret shaped blur with more violet, led in front by whirling and *loud* motions of steel - yes, loud! Sword swings lead to fast end velocities, after all, and they're now under several different layers of accelerant magic. But sound, too, has a speed that you can't exceed. That's what makes whips crack.

But the blows aren't lethal. They're flashy but they're almost *stage swordwork*. There's the occasional actual nick and slash but she, unlike Love, isn't going for the heart, although as she sweeps away to yield some distance there is a final effort to smash with the basket-grip handle at the forehead of the smaller woman.

"Remember what I asked of you, Seraph!" she calls gaily to Lanval, then back to Marivel as she cracks a grin. "If you've had enough, I'll give quarter any time. After all,"

Wink~ "I do owe you one, don't I? *Exactly* one."

GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Crimson Orbit!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

     Shige's running late means she catches that miasma just as it washes over them. Coughing into her arm and definitely breaking character for a moment, she waves her hand before her face. She composes herself though.
 
 Standing up straight, she twists and extends her arm out into the smoke.
 
 The beacon flashes, pushing against the smoke almost. Figures in the toxic mist. Barely visible, pushing back against it. Protecting those still able to fully stand on their own. One last chance to make things right. An attempt to strip the lingering nastiness that comes with the miasma. Aided by Lanval's cleansing water. "I don't know who you're speaking of, but if they need a helping hand onward." She's trying to sound serious. Like she's fulfilling the duties of an office. It's undercut by coughing and scratchiness though.
 
 "People get mired in the past all too often." She adds at Rixia's outburst. That light expanding to cover both herself and the others. A familiar feeling for two of them at least. There's another joke that starts from the death shaman at the mention of taking things to the grave, but she swallows it back down. Not the time. Even if she's moving faster and technically has more of it now.
 
 Responding to Lanval, she calls out, "Even at the end, you don't always have all the answers. You've just got to do the best you can."
 
 The feline doesn't seem to be moving faster as she works, though like most cats, it's a conservation of momentum. Or something. Still, the revelations happening around her, the questions. She really doesn't have an answer, never claimed she did. Instead she says, "I'm not the judge, just the guide. If I can get them back where they belong, alive or not that's all I worry about." That sounded better in her head, but she's trying. And getting a little more confident in the role at least. This trip, the people she's met. Things change, things stay the same. Helps put it all in perspective bette.r

GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Rixia with Hallowed Ground!
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Shige Kiwako with Hallowed Ground!
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Seraph Lanval with Hallowed Ground!
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Margaret with Hallowed Ground!
GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
GS: Shige Kiwako accepts Shige Kiwako's Hallowed Ground for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Disease and Disrupt removed!
GS: Lock state applied to Shige Kiwako!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Margaret accepts Shige Kiwako's Hallowed Ground for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Jam and Weaken removed!
GS: Lock state applied to Margaret!
GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Margaret's Crimson Orbit for 134 hit points!
GS: Drowsy applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Rixia accepts Shige Kiwako's Hallowed Ground for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock state applied to Rixia!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Ivan's Memories of an Assassin for 136 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Shige Kiwako's Hallowed Ground for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Entangle removed!
GS: Lock state applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Something about the story of Georg Hedalf strikes an unusual chord inside Zed's noggin. To be so utterly ruined by poor fortune-- though a curse cast upon him in retribution for making the kind of calculation that treats lives as numbers, and not the result of accidentally happening upon an ancient artifact-- is... A familiar story.

But in the end, Zed does not know Georg Hedalf. Heck, he barely knows why he's here fighting at all, except that people he knows and cares about are fighting. For Zed, that is enough to unsheathe his sword. After all...

...Years ago. Years ago, now. He made a promise. He swore to a young swordsman and his beautiful, azure-haired companion that he would be there to do everything in his power to help see their journey to fruition. And Zed does not so easily break his word, even across the gulf of time and space.

"Just 'cause it's not normal doesn't mean I want it gone!" Zed says huffily. "You don't need to zap me so hard that it all flakes off, you know! I like my sunny patin--aghaghaghaghaghaghahga--"

Again, a tremendous blast of electricity rakes down through the Metal Demon. Hyper-conductive as he is, being made of living metal, he is a natural lightning rod, soaking in shock after shock until he's left smoldering and scorched, and...

With the most beautiful alabaster complexion, utterly without flaw, as if electroplated in youthful perfection.

"MY TAN!!" Zed yelps, but... He may have his revenge yet!! A wave crashes down, Guardian Power made manifest. An age ago, this could have burnt him to a crisp in a different way, but now... He is counted among those who call Filgaia home. Lucadia's power swirls around him, buoys him. He glances up at the sloshing waves and... nods. "Yes, kissing can be a deadly weapon, albeit one leveled at the heart and not at the... heart. Metaphorical heart instead of beating, blood-filled heart. You get it? You get it!" Zed... smirks, "But, in my time in Spira, Doombringer--" His sword, "--and I learned of another mighty weapon. Two heads are better than one, colorful witch. But do you know what's even better than two heads...!?"

Zed... leaps. His off-hand reaches for his sword-- no, for its shadow! A flickering thing cast in the lightning still coruscating across the ceiling, but larger than the blade itself by Zed's proximity to the flashing bolts! With a sound of exertion, he yanks it free of the sword, forming... a second sword. A shadow-sword. One that writhes and flickers with the infinite dark of the far-off, starless void between living worlds. With a grin, he flips over in mid-leap, and...

...Lands... on his sword...

...Which lands... on a Lucadia-conjured, phantasmal wave.

"Behold...!" Zed declares, as he surfs his shadow sword directly into Ragnell, "Ultimate Kahuna! BIG WEDNESDAY!" He sails...

Past Ragnell...

Catches a sudden swell...

BACKFLIPS in mid-air--

And comes falling, shadow-sword-surfboard-tip first, like a madman riding a guillotine blade of uttermost shadow! "DROP TUUUUUUURN!"

GS: Blitz! Zed has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Saint Arts - Cosmic Convergence!
GS: Zed has gained 5 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    Ragnell lies outrageously, and Magilou is /so proud of her./ "They see you when you're sleeping, they're here when you're awake, so something something something end the world for goodness' sake~ o/` ... like that, right?" Magilou asks, adjourning her off-key singing.

    Does Magilou know that attacking Ragnell with water is a bad idea? Perish the thought. She'd have to have known her for centuries to be so familiar with her sorcery.

    Anyway.

    Storm Shot cracks out, and a shikigami extends over Magilou -- not unlike an umbrella -- to catch the bolt as it blasts. The shockwave of the impact still has her stumbling, and she fits the motion into a twirl.

    (She takes a moment, while she's spinning, to lay eyes on Margaret and admire her SWEET SWORD MOVES.)

    "But, you know... in a place like this..." Magilou says, as she spins back to Ragnell. It's a red Seraphic glyph, beneath her feet, as she incants: "Paint the town red... Blood Moon!"

    And in a spell animation unsettlingly like some of those decorations leading up the steps to this place, a scarlet moon rises, above Ragnell, to burn her inside and out.

    She takes a moment to remark, honestly surprised, afterwards: "Wow, you shocked the tan right off him..."

GS: Blitz! Magilou has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Blood Moon!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    There is a long, long pause.

    Magilou's song may resound all the more in Avril's silence, in fact.

    "I see... so the Trial Knight has seen..." Avril closes her eyes, and some fell shade akin to anger fleetingly crosses her face. "...There are moments which they are not permitted to witness," she declares, defiant as she opens her eyes to stare down Ragnell once again. Feathers: somewhat ruffled.

    (For real, though, it's probably waaaay more disappointing and not as scandalous as you there in the audience are thinking!)

    "The... heart," Avril echoes, frowning. "So she did not truly disappear with a kiss. I see." Crisis... averted?

    "...Thank you," Avril says to Magilou, as if uncertain in this particular moment.

    A storm is brewing. Avril tenses, easing slowly into a stance that suggests she is preparing to bolt at a moment's notice.

    'Storm Shot' calls out Ragnell then, and it seems nearly an understatement for the storm that is to come. 'Run', Avril might have prepared to attempt, but she was ultimately unprepared for the deluge of bolts that are unleashed their way, all the while interposed with a torrential rain. None strike her directly, but they do not need to: the earth itself cracks as one hits close to her as she attempts to evade the storm's wrath. The force -- and charge -- of it is enough to send her hurtling back to sprawl upon the ground heavily.

    "I see that you shall not yield easily," Avril tells her opponent as she gathers herself to her feet, blade and Medium both born in both hands still.

    

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.


    Avril directs her blade towards the heavens and, with a mere moment's focus, brings around her an array of ice shards set at her back as if they were the wings of a bird. "Neither shall I!"

    They erupt one after another, a barrage of swords of ice that descend like avenging angels for Ragnell.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Courant Glaciaire!
GS: Cripple expired!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has canceled their attack on Avril Vent Fleur.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Courant Glaciaire!
GS: Cripple expired!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"If this Sorceress of the Past frustrates you, then become a Sorceress of the Future," Marivel says. "But ere you forge your future, you must contend with the past and present for without doing so, you will simply devour the past and take its place, changing nothing. Are we stuck in the past, Rixia? Or is the present merely a recurring history?"

A thumbsup pokes out of the green smoke towards her comrades for a moment before the fog fades and Avril...

Marivel stares at her for a moment.

Then she sighs, "How do I keep walking into that rake? My apologies, Avril. You are correct."

She looks to Ragnell, "Who's Agatha?" If she can be banished by a kiss she's probably pretty powerful. The more powerful you are, the more vulnerable you are to attacks like that she's pretty sure.

Her hand spasms slightly at Ivan's words but she's able to hold her tongue.

This isn't her final form! Even the gas isn't her final form! Because Marivel hasn't changed her form. Just normal magic with a dramatic flair.

Margaret doesn't believe in ends.

"Oh there's plenty of endings. Almost as many endings as there are beginnings I'd say." Marivel says to Margaret. She is asked once more if she's faster or slower than Margaret. "Hm, I don't know if that is the right question, Margaret. I mean... speed. Is it really all that useful?"

Margaret intends to prove just how useful speed can be as Margaret gets her FASTEST WOMAN IN SPACE on and dashes around Marivel. Steel rips across her body, sending ichor and smoke ripping out from Marivel's vessel. Faster than sound. Certainly faster than Marivel Armitage. She can't even defend herself. Does she even try?

"Woof! Impressive mystical art there, Margaret!" Marivel says. "You certainly have learned a thing or two!"

She steps back, spinning her microphone in her hand as she listens to the Answers--or lack thereof--put forward to her.

"Too true, Shige. If even after all this time I don't have Answers, how can I expect them from people with one percent of my current lifespan."

She taps her cheek with her index finger. "Well, I expect much of humans because they've given me reason to expect much." She slants her eyes to the shaman. "Tell me, do the sands of time hold no sway over you, Death Shaman?" But she doesn't argue against the role of a Death Shaman. She seems to know it.

To Lanval she murmurs, "Yes, you are correct about that. But that just treats symptoms. I seek a cure. I do not seek eternity for my loved ones, simply a full life."

She steps back again and looks to RIxia who speaks of Leo as well. "You are that," Marivel tells Rixia. "But you are more than that, are you not?"

She raises her hand again and adds to Margaret. "I am not as fast as you, Margaret. However... does that really matter?"

And with that she throws her Microphone into the air as she shouts, "MIKE DROP!"

And TIME...IS FROZEN.

Marivel takes a moment to dust herself off as the microphone hangs in the air. She walks first towards Lanval.

She paces around Lanval's frozen form for a minute before saying. "Well it worked for the Wyvern."

"ROCK GAZER. ROCK GAZER. ROCK GAZER!" Marivel chants. Then she cups her chin. She considers... "AAAAAAND ROCK GAZER!"

She leaves those spells hanging in place as she approaches Rixia. She considers her for a moment from afar before ultimately drawing out some knives. She throws several at them from many angles and they freeze in time, moments before impacting against her body.

She shoves her hands into her pockets, skipping along as she approaches Shige.

"Mm.... I think I'm going to borrow your shadow for a minute..."

"BOOGIEPOP PHANTOMS!" Marivel shouts as the shadow underneath Shige opens up and expands into a yawning abyss, one that might swallow Shige up if she doesn't catch the ledge in time.

And then Marivel teleports over to Margaret. "...Mm..."

She snaps her fingers. "APORT APORT APORT APORT AAAAAND APORT!"

A pail falls for Margaret's head. THen another! Then another! Then another! And then another!

The timestop fades as Marivel is now reclining once more against a pillar.

She tosses out a wave. "Yo. That's my speed."

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

The book above the battlefield flips to a new page. It has a new story to tell on parchment that will forget its tale after it is told.

A new magic to weave.

Even as it works so autonomously from its master, the Trial Knight is scarcely idle. The way they move, even in that heavy suit of white armor, is nothing short of seamless in its grace. Skirts of white whip at their back as they -tear- their weapon upward, spinning the dual-bladed sword in a fanning circle in front of them before it snaps towards their side.

That's... that's depressing, no?

"Is that the lens through which you choose to view the world, girl?" is K.K.'s question as they rise to a full stand.

"Mayhap you and Heldalf share more similarities than not."

They act.

The book is still reciting a tale of weaving darkness on its own pages, pen working feverishly in accumulating shadow as Hiro launches towards the knight. His first question is not answered -- not immediately, not in the thick of the fight. Hiro's blade thrusts for a more vulnerable joint; it meets the edge of one of those grand blades instead, deflecting -just- enough that the edge of his weapon shrieks across denser chestplate.

"'Tis not a question of what is better or not," their words finally come, ringing with the hollow chime of metal.

"'Tis a question of what this land deserves, boy. Not just this land -- but the entirety of this star. Think you this is the damning stroke of an anomalous tragedy? Or is it but one of an endless procession of your get's transgressions that but by fluke of fate came to be the one to express the enormity of your sins upon this star?"

Whose sake is their resolve being tested for this time?

"Mayhap it best you ask the ghosts that writhe beneath your feet for whom this act is for."

They -push- Hiro away with one, firm, -shove-. A second later, though --

Super Sonic Thrust!

The stab of Talia's sword, generating such great momentum behind it, is met not with a blade as with Hiro --

--but with a hand wrapped in metal, gripping tight upon its blade.

The force of the blow is still enough that they scream bodily backwards several feet; the knight's back CRACKS against one of those broken pillars.

But they grip the blade tight.

"The makings of monsters is not for your ken," they answer. That hand grips -tighter-, blade trembling around the steel of their grasp.

"Why do you insist upon fighting for this world? These people? Do you believe, deep in your heart, that they are worth it?" They exert greater pressure. A circle of light blooms behind them as they lean inward. The gold edging of their armor begins to glow molten.

"Tell me, girl.

"What cost would you be willing to pay to truly take that next step forward for the Silver Star?"

What would she really give, for this world?

And they -push-.

Their hand releases that sword for a moment. For only a moment. In the next --

The great blades in their other hand SHATTERS into a thousand thousand motes of light, coalescing rapidly into twin forms.

K.K. has snatched them from the air and carved them downward in twin diagonal slashes to the left and right of Talia's body before they have even fully formed into a pair of viciously curved short swords.

A small kernel of a glowing brand will linger on Talia's form, regardless of its success.

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

If they mean to press their advantage, though, it is Ivan that ultimately comes to the aid of his sister -- Ivan, and unexpected, sorcerous help from a woman not born of Lunar, yet wielding its gifts all the same. Through Zeikfried, Althena's Blessing is focused and brought forth at Kaguya's call; her shot strikes shockingly clean, bands of yellow-gold binding around K.K.'s body seconds before they can advance further upon Talia. The power behind the shot is enough to knock the knight back -- and position them perfectly for knives to collide with the armored hide of the being that has so plagued so many of them, for so many years. Some bounce off armor -- but several more bite into the gaps of armor that Hiro had also aimed for, dragging the knight's attention into a singular focus upon Ivan. Their arms snap wide as they are struck; they are briefly thrown off balance from the suddenness of it.

And then, their attention lays squarely upon Ivan.

"... Well struck," they say of both Kaguya AND Ivan, and it sounds... painfully sincere. Knives fall from joint gaps as K.K. rises again. Althena's Blessing fluctuates as they -break- the bindings on their limbs, lingering remnants still clinging tenaciously to their frame as they regard Ivan.

"'Tis not the umbrella, but you wield your weapons well. But you ill understand." Their head cants. The book above scrawls more furiously still.

"The mantle of Trial Knight was ever one your get placed upon my shoulders. Should it comfort you to view my acts as punishment instead, I shall not stop you. Ever has there only been one role I chose."

Whatever THAT might be, however, goes unsaid. Instead, the knight begins --

"But you, boy. There is much more to you than this, is there not? A kindling spark inside."

Whatever more they might have to say is cut short with the call of a familiar technique.

DEMON FANG!

And it sees K.K. spinning, swords igniting into light and reforging into a spear as they catch that burning bloom of power right upon its edge and -yanks- upward.

A mass of light screams towards the sky, colliding with the barrier of Malevolence above -- but even the remnants of Leo's technique is enough to knock thew Trial Knight backwards one step, and then another. Smoke rises from their armored chest, where the blow struck true. They regard Leo, for a silent moment.

"Your guilt is misplaced. Your worry festers in fates not only belonging to your mentor. If you cannot save him, is it possible to save others dear to you?" They speak slowly, as if questing -- seeking something within the White Knight. That spear turns to liquid white, dissolving into so many shockingly warm motes as their armored frame shifts.

"Tell me true, knight. Tell me upon this promenade, soaked with the sins of his past: How will you save him from this fate?"

The quill's scribbling stops.

"Why would you save him?"

A black gate blooms behind K.K..

And they leap.

What comes next comes from the Gate sigils glowing as they unlock its depths. Althena's Blessings are not merely the good -- they are also the bad. Everything that is humanity.

And it is a torrent of terrifying shadow that BURSTS forth from the gates of magic, a great stream of pinks, violets and blacks that cascade across the entirety of the battleground intent to engulf Ivan, Hiro and Leo in its furious path.

The molten glow of K.K.'s armor trimmings continues unabated as they soar through the skies. They hit floating rubble, -pushing- off it to another, and another, using them like leap frog's stepping stones to gain greater and greater height --

--until they DESCEND, rapidly.

For Kaguya.

There is a great war hammer in their hands seconds before it STRIKES stone so hard that the pathway EXPLODES all around them and the Veruni.

And from the fissure...

... a great, snapping dragon's maw of light, looking to consume her.

"You carry an Artifact of great import. A weapon of bonds. Making them, and severing them."

They rise, slowly. Gold glows gloriously in defiance of the misery that surrounds them just beyond the veil.

"Can you aim it true?"

GS: K.K. has attacked K.K. with Savage Beckoning!
GS: K.K. has gained 1 Combo!
GS: K.K.'s stances have changed to Hero!
GS: K.K. accepts K.K.'s Savage Beckoning for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to K.K.!
GS: Mighty applied to K.K.!
GS: K.K. spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: K.K. has attacked Kaguya with Dragon Ascendant!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: K.K. has attacked Talia with Calamity Stance!
GS: K.K. enters a Counter stance!
GS: K.K. has gained 2 Combo!
GS: K.K. has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ivan with Ignite Terror!
GS: K.K. has attacked Hiro with Ignite Terror!
GS: K.K. has attacked White Knight Leo with Ignite Terror!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: Hiro takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Ignite Terror for 68 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease applied to Hiro!
_____________________________| QUICK TIME EVENT!!!|_____________________________
_                                   MIKE DROP                                  _
_                                                                              _
_                                                                              _
_  Seraph Lanval, Margaret, Rixia, and Shige Kiwako:                           _
_  +qte/react <guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>   _
GS: Kaguya fully evades K.K.'s Dragon Ascendant for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Rixia takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
GS: Talia suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Calamity Stance for 121 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Ignite Terror for 61 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease blocked!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Margaret takes 110 damage and gains 45 FP!
GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Magilou's Blood Moon for 147 hit points!
GS: Disease applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Seraph Ragnell critically guards Avril Vent Fleur's Courant Glaciaire for 65 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Zed's Saint Arts - Cosmic Convergence for 342 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Seraph Lanval takes 115 damage and gains 45 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Nevermind," Talia says, with a glance -- and a briefly flat look -- at Zed. "I'm fine, now."

She looks towards Hiro -- and nods, fiercely and quickly. "Right!" she calls out, before she looks towards Leo. Her eyes widen for a moment. He means to save the Lord of Calamity? But--

But she doesn't know if that can be done. "Ivan..." She wonders if those sentiments will be enough. But, maybe, that's her pessimism speaking.

She looks back to K.K. "Maybe, but... I would like to see the world become better than unfair, no?" Talia says. "And besides--"

She closes in with K.K. They grip her blade, and she feels the sword straining; it's just a steel short sword from Meribia, the twelfth forged by a blacksmith's shop in a day. The hundredth in a week, most likely. Sold to Guards and adventurers alike.

"Not all of them," Talia admits. "Some people are terrible. Sometimes, the world lets us down. But some of them--"

Talia is hurled backward. She gets thrown, cracks formed in her blade -- it's halfway to breaking now -- and flies back, before blades of light are thrown by K.K. into her. She is slashed into twice, blood spilling on the ground. She screams, hitting the ground in a heap.

The glowing kernel clings to her.

"Ngh..."

She takes a second to push herself up. She does only after Kaguya and Ivan came to her rescue -- forcing herself to her feet. Blood runs down her side, from the worse of the two wounds from the magical assault from earlier.

After K.K. descends for Kaguya, hammer in hand, Talia leaps again. She jumps into the air to meet the Trial Knight head-on. Her sword swings back, and then she stabs outward in a flurry of mid-air strikes, before she swings her foot around in a final kick at their helm.

"STARDUST!"

GS: Talia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Talia has attacked K.K. with Stardust!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

K.K. answers his question, and Hiro- "What this land deserves? What this star deserves?"
 
So shoved, he grunts, then shouts at him, his indignation, the same words Lucia told them, "THIS STAR WAS MEANT TO BE A PARADISE! You think I don't realize that people keep trying to turn it into some HELL!?"
 
In a moment though, that anger deescalates, "We can still build it into that - together. Enough of us just have to take responsibility - to redress past wrongs! Current ones-!"
 
It's still impassioned though, after Lucia saved him that day in the grove, he feels like he can see it so clearly.
 
But... he also thinks of Ragnell in that moment, and her tale of Bradamante, as one of those past wrongs. How can he make it up to her? How can he have the strength to overcome sorrow? It's such a tall ask.
 
Hiro looks to Talia in this moment trying to smile despite the desperate situation, "Let's take the first steps towards making it that way, Talia."

The smile fades not long after, "Leo..." Hiro says his name, trying to comprehend the depths of his guilt. He can only imagine how he'd feel if something horrible happened to his Grandpa while he was away.
 
Before he nods at Ivan's statement, jaw setting in resolve, "We'll make sure you're there for him NOW!"
 
That torrent of pinks and violets and blacks of shadow threatens to engulf Hiro in that gloom. And he leaps away, wisps of shadow, still clinging to him - as if trying to draw him in, raking at him with icy fingers.
 
He tries to respond in kind, with the gestures of his hand, with incantation spoken as he takes a knee, "Phantoms combine and tear asunder!"
 
Two scythe like arcs of green wind energy rise up, in separate locations, each edge turning white, "Cross Blade!"
 
Each rushes in, trying to catch the Trial Knight at the center of the convergence.

GS: Hiro has attacked K.K. with Cross Blade!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: COUNTER! K.K. counterattacks Talia with Counter Attack!
GS: K.K. suffers a terrible blow from Talia's Stardust for 262 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay and Drowsy blocked!
GS: K.K. partially guards Hiro's Cross Blade for 91 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Hiro!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Talia suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Counter Attack for 308 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Talia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

The Dragon comes, of purest light. The pathway all around Kaguya explodes--there is nowhere to go but up. And so 'up' she goes, bending at the knee and leaping from the fissure, somersaulting into the air with the sound and fury of a Veruni warrior, turning mid-air as she barely evades the dragon's maw to look down at K.K. once again.

'You carry an Artifact of great import. A weapon of bonds. Making them, and severing them.'

"Lord Zenrus believed in me enough to give me the chance," Kaguya says. "...And I need that chance," she admits. "I came to this world in hope. I won't leave it in despair."

Can she fire it true...?

"So you'll see. I can. And I will."

What the land deserves? Well. Kaguya has ideas about that--but first, Talia comes in to help, even as she's up in the air from that attack, and Talia smiles grimly. "...Thanks!" she calls to her.

It doesn't make up for that day, but maybe, a little at a time...

For now, though--

"But you're not my main target!" she calls to them, to the Trial Knight. "...I can get the idea of punishing 'man' for the sins of their parents. I do. The Guardians even now are punishing the Veruni for the actions of our forebears, and of a few now. ...But that's not the world I want to see. And that's not the world I'm fighting for."

She's lining up her shot as she talks--and gold brilliantly blossoms from the barrel of Zeikfried, as circle after circle line up from its targetline.

"And so--Witness this bond!"

"GREATER SEAL!" Kaguya fires, and a golden blast of the Blessing and her own magic both tears forth for the Trial Knight.

GS: Kaguya spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Kaguya has attacked K.K. with Greater Binding Shot!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    The fact that Lanval hasn't turned Rixia away, told her it was too dangerous, counts for a lot. It also means that she can't disappoint him, by going off and turning into a Hellion or anything. She takes a little breath, as that cleansing water drops upon her and washes away some of that nausea that's gripping her. It's a good thing she wasn't in the path of that Bad Breath, that's for sure.

    "It's the little things that make life worth living," Rixia agrees. "I dunno... I just never want to grow up to be someone who only cares about big uncomfortable things like war and politics and peace. I'd rather think about cocktails and bread and comfy socks."

    Margaret takes a moment to tell her she won't let her down... or another person? Then she bites her lip, as Margaret continues. How misfortune's worked out for her too... "... when I was little, I remember Althena showing up on the puddle I was trying to drink out of. I told myself that the Goddess was a liar... it's weird that I ended up in her Guard, but it's not the Goddess that's bringing better outcomes day after day, but the people doing the little, but important things."

    But Margaret suddenly is bathed in the stars, and she's fast! Steel arcs in the air, and she thinks to herself: I want to be able to swing my sword like that too. Maybe ask her later...

    "Being a guide's important," Rixia chimes with Shige. "And you can be a guide in all kinds of quiet and meaningful ways. Sometimes, that's just giving someone a little pep-up drink and a kind ear, to guide them on their way..."

    Marivel has choice words for her. If the Sorceress of the Past frustrates her... become a Sorceress of the Future.

    But what does that mean? What does past, present and future all mean to her? The past, both personal and global, threatens to continue to devour her; the present has constantly been a battle for validation, affection and keeping them; and the future constantly threatens to take those all away for her.

    But--

    MIKE DROP!

    Time is Frozen just as Rixia begins to shout something out. Her body rigidly stiffens and then slows down to a crawl... and then nothing. Her eyes seem to strain as Marivel appraoches her, considering from afar, and then-- some knives are placed from many angles, threatening to stab at her once this pocket of frozen time continues to flow.

    "...y..."

    Marivel's form continues on towards others. For Shige, a yawning abyss; for Lanval, deadly earth; and for Margaret, buckets. (Buckets? That pails in comparison to the rest!)

    "...you're..."

    Marivel can spot it. Her eyes are continuing to strain and track her in this field of stopped time. Her words are being gurgled out at a painfully slow minutiae. Yet--

    --Time resumes--

    --and Rixia is simply not THERE anymore, the knives converging on empty space where there should be a snow fox beastgirl who's currently struggling against the restrains of time. Where is she?

    No, dear reader! The question is -- WHEN is she?! For, you see:

    ~*~ THREE SECONDS BEFORE THE PRESENT ~*~

    The microphone begins to descend. But within this pocket of stopped time, a dome of negative light and the horrible noise of a clock's gears grinding to a halt overtakes the space around Rixia. She begins to move, and the fox darts outwards--

    ~*~ TWO SECONDS BEFORE THE PRESENT ~*~

    --she jumps--

    ~*~ ONE SECOND BEFORE THE PRESENT ~*~

    --takes hold of something in the air--

    ~*~ TRULY -- NOW ~*~

    --and is suddenly holding the microphone to shout into it, nose bleeding from the horror of timestop:

    "...you're... not the ONLY ONE WHO CAN STOP TIME!!!"

    The shouting -- or more accurately, the shouting laced with the horrible backlash of energy built up over only three seconds of Cheating Time -- erupts out of her in waves towards Marivel!!

GS: Rixia spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Rixia has attacked Marivel Armitage with Shockwave Pulsar!
GS: Rixia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Rixia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Who's Agatha? "A witch Hellion who was real hot for fire," Ragnell tells Marivel, matter-of-fact even through her spicy pun. "She used to run in Crucible with K' an' me, 'cuz she sucked but she was strong an' she was useful. Then she left an' I honestly stopped thinkin' about her 'til just now."
    
    Ivan makes an accusatory hand gesture Ragnell's way. She wiggles her fingers back in cheeky greeting, but for all that it's irreverent, it *is* an acknowledgement. She's not sympathetic to Leo's plight, but Ivan can be as angry as he wants with her.
    
    Magilou's off-key song gets her a wolfish grin. "Yeah, exactly! You always know what's up, Magilou~!" She laughs outright when Avril gets ruffled about her lie. She's absolutely picturing something sexy and no amount of metatextual correction will convince her otherwise. "Too late for that, baby girl~," she croons.
    
    But lightning descends, and as Magilou utters, it does indeed shock the tan right off Zed. "Yeah, no kiddin'," she says to her, before pointing out to Zed directly, "But let's be real, Zed, you had two other folks here you coulda jumped. If you REALLY didn't want your tan gone when you knew electricity could get rid of it, you shouldn't'a jumped me. Or are you sayin' you want me to go... easy on you?"
    
    Of course, it doesn't really matter at this point now that Zed is as pale as the virgin snow. Is he actually even paler than he was before he left...?
    
    Avril notes that she won't yield easily, and so neither shall she. Ragnell smirks at her. "That sure is the point," she replies, ambiguous and once again matter-of-fact. Is that also a pun? It might be with all the icy blades Avril summons to dart in towards her. Ragnell snaps her paired pistols up to shoot them out of the air as they scythe down towards her, shattering them and turning what would have been a vicious skewering into a biting blast of sharp hail--still painful, but much less of a threat, comparatively speaking.
    
    However, in doing so, it pins Ragnell down long enough for Magilou's Blood Moon arte to kick off, summoning an eerie scarlet moon overhead and calling up punishing flames up and around Ragnell. As she snarls in pain, writhing under the heat, that gives Zed his opening--and he surfs clean into her with his massive blade of darkness, kicking it down and through her like it might clean her in twain.
    
    It doesn't. But for a moment, in the wake of explosions of fire and shadow, it looks like it might have.
    
    Breath and form ragged, trailing lines of steam, Ragnell staggers up to her feet. As big of a beating as she just took, she's... smiling. She laughs again, even. "Damn, what a rush...!" She snaps one hand up. "It's been a while since I had this much fun!" She cricks her neck, back and forth. "If y'all're that serious, I'm just gonna have to show you how serious *I* am, too..."
    
    She holsters her pistols, and from the back at the back of her waist, she draws... a smaller, stubbier gun. It's barely gun-shaped, even--just sort of a rounded, gunmetal handle. There's a lever to one side with a color scale; it's about 65% up, past yellow and edging into orange. A warning tag on it states that it's the property of something called the Federation and any non-Federation member caught using it will be punished accordingly. (Guess what Ragnell is decidedly *not*.)
    
    Ragnell traces a circle in the air with it, and where her hand goes, a Seraphic glyph materializes in its wake. Cycle and cycle and cycle, and then there are three interlocking glyphs, crackling in midair with golden energy. ""
    
    As she motions, she squeezes the trigger to the strange device with medium strength, charging it up. Despite its small size, in its muzzle grows a white, white light that rapidly grows searing in strength. The three glyphs slant in towards it in an X-shape, then shrink into a trio of targets--targets that zero in on Avril, Zed, and Magilou.
    
    "X BUSTER! SUPREME!!" she shouts, and squeezes the trigger that one last bit.
    
    A MASSIVE bolt of blinding white phase blaster energy explodes outwards, then splits into three into the target trios. Splitting it might weaken the beam, but that's a good thing, really. That lightning nonetheless contains the energy, directs and channels it, and guides it forward to those Ragnell would test.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with X Buster Supreme!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Zed with X Buster Supreme!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Magilou with X Buster Supreme!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mute expired!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Rixia's Shockwave Pulsar for 369 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Purge! Drowsy removed!
GS: Purge explodes for 20 damage!!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Ivan partially guards K.K.'s Ignite Terror for 86 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ivan gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated!
GS: You do not have that Force Action. [evade]
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's X Buster Supreme for 240 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated!
GS: CRITICAL! K.K. takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Greater Binding Shot for 205 hit points!
GS: Hex applied to K.K.!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: Magilou has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: CRITICAL! Magilou solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's X Buster Supreme for 151 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's X Buster Supreme for 249 hit points!
GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Shige Kiwako takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"Punishment Knight it is, then!" Ivan decides petulantly, and perhaps unwisely. Mostly he just feels like this name would probably be annoying, whatever K.K. might say about it.

But Talia receives the brunt of an attack, and Ivan looks back urgently at her scream, moving close to her and unfurling his umbrella, which issues forth a brilliant burst of light with a knockback energy pulse toward K.K. to help buy her more time to recover.

A kindling spark inside.

Ivan frowns. "I'm part monster, kind of, probably," he says. "But whatever various sins you're holding against humanity, I'm sure I'm human enough to be part of the problem." He glances over at Hiro, who's taking a more optimistic bent, and finds his resolve growing a bit stronger. "And maybe part of the solution, too, who knows!" He still isn't quite sure what the problem is. A malevolence thing? An all-the-violence-and-corruption-of-history thing? Who could argue, either way? And yet it still seems unfair.

A torrent of terrible shadows roils forth -- Ivan holds fast behind the barrier of his umbrella, its light growing stonger before the protective power finally snaps near the final stretch of the wave as it passes, forcing him to take the remainder of the battering as though he's holding an ordinary umbrella in a real storm.

GS: Ivan has attacked K.K. with Umbrella Rebuke!
GS: Ivan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
GS: K.K. suffers a terrible blow from Ivan's Umbrella Rebuke for 145 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Hyper removed!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Ivan cries out, and Leo's head cants briefly in his direction. Hiro adds his own words of support, and Leo glances at him, in turn. "I'll try," he says. "I will."

    But K.K. has their own rejoinder. 'If you cannot save him, is it possible to save others dear to you?'

    Leo met K.K.'s force of arms with his own, and barely managed a painful stalemate. He can do even less against the onslaught of their words. His ears twitch again, and then flatten back. "She--" His fingers tighten. "She..." His breath hitches, and then his eyes go wide with fury. "You LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!" But K.K. didn't carve this emotional wound into Leo. He did. And only sometimes did Mauri show him where to cut. His voice is raw. He sees the anti-light flowing a second before the eruption, and throws himself to the side, skidding as he hits the stone. A shadowy tendril slams into the back of his hand, and sinks in. His fingers go cold and dead. The blade falls from his nerveless grasp.

    Leo doesn't want to think about the answer to K.K.'s question. What happens if they don't want to be saved? Could he bring himself to bring them to justice? What does that even mean?

    Leo's good hand reaches up to clasp the crest upon his neck: the lone symbol of his office, beyond his blade. He closes his eyes for a moment, and the White Dragon's power washes outwards, encompassing Hiro, Kaguya, and Ivan with a bright, steadying aura.

    Leo hasn't spared any for himself, it seems.

GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Hiro with White Dragon's Protection!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Ivan with White Dragon's Protection!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Kaguya with White Dragon's Protection!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Hiro accepts White Knight Leo's White Dragon's Protection for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Hiro!
GS: Kaguya accepts White Knight Leo's White Dragon's Protection for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Kaguya!
GS: Ivan accepts White Knight Leo's White Dragon's Protection for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Ivan!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 

    "Everyone has a grand, glorious plan from the shadows until I stab them in the torso sixteen times." - Margaret Blackpearl, QED, Esq.

Margaret herself laughs in triumph, concluding with a flourish even as she looks towards Shige as she purifies the ground around her, limning her in a holy sort of light. She tilts her head back, not with arrogance but a sort of acceptance. Her eyes are misty, almost, and perhaps - perhaps she's taking this burden, these hopes she's being offered RIGHT HERE - with due gravity.

"Well," Margaret tells her, "That dep"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR0N2eguwb8

T I M E H A S S T O P P E D.

Margaret stands there, her mouth slightly open and her eyes slightly lidded, in the very action of a word - a single phoneme hanging, all but visibly, on her lips. She had clearly been bringing her blade around.

But suddenly -

Time resumes.

A pail slams onto her head! Margaret thrashes for a moment; in that blurring green light it looks ridiculous, but it also means she's able to get it up and off her head in time to be struck by another two of them, although perhaps crucially she is not behelmed viciously in the process. "Gahhh!!!"

Reeling for a moment, Margaret grasps herself internally. Get hold of yourself, she thinks. It's some trick! This is the Trial Knight's friend, not the, I don't know, Genocide Knight or the Removing Everyone's Feet Knight!

They all believe in you, you pitiful woman, Margaret thinks as she pulls herself upright, eyes blazing. "That's--" And then one of her ears folds down in self-protection at the sudden amplified Voice of Rixia! Margaret's head turns to look at her, eyes bugging slightly. A master of time itself? Margaret underestimated her, it seems -- quite severely.

"Well, I suppose you've over come my last trick and I've been proven the greater fool," Margaret tells Marivel with a heave of the chest with a sigh. "I suppose you won't hold it against me if I try my best. It isn't just me, you know? You can hear them, can't you? Because it's like the aphorism of the pig and the chicken's involvement in your church day fry up. I feel rather like a chicken - I'm involved -"

"But our friends there," Margaret says, and it may be horrifying to several people (not least of them Margaret) that she is including *Leo* in this list, "they're committed, you know? So," she raises her hand to her lips and looks at Marivel. "Good luck to both of us, hm?" And then she blows a kiss. A little pink-purple heart that -

Flies at her before bursting -

"Ha! I lied," Margaret says, as instead of turning into a streak she just sort of... expands; one Margaret becomes four, then sixteen, then sixty-four, then two hundred and fifty six, and at that point you'd need to be a reploid to keep up. This may stimulate the part of the Crimson Noble Brain that seeks to enumerate objects, but be that as it may, Margaret in 'actual' reality isn't much shy of this; she rushes inwards, and spirals round Marivel, stabbing downwards.

But the blows are low. She seems to be avoiding the head, and, perhaps, the heart.

Perhaps she is stung, somehow, by the idea of Love wielding a sword.

... or she even now isn't filled with malice or (the little m form of) malevolence. Whatever her goal, whatever she may see in the dark actions of the Trial Knight, Margaret thinks, now, of a donut, freely given.

GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Illusion Kiss!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link!
GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Twisting Flurry!
GS: Margaret has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Margaret's Illusion Kiss for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Drowsy, Jam, and Slow applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Margaret's Twisting Flurry for 67 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Listening to Marivel's question, she just shakes her head. "Time has it's way with all things. The eternal march. One component of one of the only guarantees of life." She pulls her lantern in closer once she's established something of a perimeter before she continues. "I get the feeling you're chasing the question, not the answer at this point. You haven't even gotten to the right starting place." She adjusts her grip and continues again, taking a stance with the lantern behind her and her claws at the ready. "When I go, someone else will take over. I'll tell my stories to them and find whatever awaits me at the end. All things must come."
 
 When the time stop snaps, she was already trying to move away. Catlike reflexes do have some merit even with beastfolk. The floor opening beneath her. Opening into a toothy maw, she's already halfway to jumping away from it. "It's all in the reflexes" she says cheekily. A brief moment of levity in what might have been one of her nine lives. She's totally got those, right?
 
 As she swings her lantern around, the shadows shift and manifest. Forming in the light. A hunched figure, bent backwards, making a low, croaking and gurgling noise. With the stopping of her hand jostling the light, the figure disappears and reappears, staring deep into Marivel's eyes. A supernatural horror, or a manifestation of Shige's shadows, it's always so hard to be sure, but it's unsettling and comes with a lesser feeling of 'wrong' paired with a suppressed feeling of fury that is gone as suddenly as it was there. That lantern flicked for a moment. Almost like it wanted to go out. A candle in the wind.
 
 Her head twists at the... thwap? Really? "You okay?" She doesn't know Margaret's name, but they're all here and... well that's how she met more than a few others here, what better way to make friends than in the face of indescribable horror. Or a time stopping vampire. Either or.

GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Marivel Armitage with Onryo's Wrath!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Shige Kiwako's Onryo's Wrath for 106 hit points!
GS: Entangle blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    A short time after Marivel speaks of seeking a cure for the world's ills... the MIKE is DROPPED. She gets to arrange things as she pleases, such as freezing Lanval in place, and... throws lots of rocks. When time begins again, Lanval sees there's rocks gazing moments before both Lanval and said rocks fail to see eye-to-eye, grazing and battering him across a nearby yawning abyss that doesn't catch or swallow him.
 
     A pot catches him, as he momentarily disincorporates into the insides of one such APORT'd pail to surf across some of the waves of power that are going on around them. This would be (almost) cool and awesome, were he not ejected from within the pail in a clumsy, humbling tumble that terminates on his seat upright.
 
     It does get him a front-row seat to Rixia finding her footing as a fellow manipulator of time (or being manipulated by time, and aware of it), of countless Margarets (Lanval holds up a free fist to try and fist-bump some of the passing ones becuase of course he's going to), of one of Shige's shadows (he tips a bit from the gourd to one of the mouths of the strange ghostly figure, why? sharing drinks is great).
 
     "A full life fer anyone... don't think any of ush can really determine that for another," Lanval says as he stands back up. "'n I dunno 'bout you, Marivel, but hearin' 'n bein' around theshe three... well, if I shaid I think I'd be goin' againsht what I jusht shaid! Ha ha ha!"
 
     He laughs, somehow, through all of this, another incantation as he swings the contents of his drinking gourd up, the element of water blessed with that little touch of mirth as it settles upon the quartet again, touching upon and reinforcing those small joys that keep them going through the deepest, darkest, dankest muck that is... everything outside of K.K.'s place of influence, physically, but metaphorically...

GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Margaret with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Rixia with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Shige Kiwako with Happy Hour!
GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Seraph Lanval! He gains 70 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Margaret! She gains 71 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval heals Rixia! She gains 90 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    K.K.'s determination... Magilou hears it, across the way. She smiles, to herself.

    No: she is smiling for them.

    The Trial Knight is a performance; Magilou is a performer.

    Curtain's up.

    "Ah," she purrs, as Ragnell pulls out her X-Buster. "Such an illicit weapon..."

    A glance aside to Zed and Avril, and she says, mildly: "Be careful."

    The beam BLASTS down --

    And the blaster energy meets a beehive barrier of white, interlocking light, shining and visible only where it is struck. (It is struck very, very much; it is very, very visible, for a moment.) That's a Light elemental trick -- defensive, protective, shining.

    But when it fades, Magilou is still standing.

    "Now!" She declares, as she takes her shikigami in hand.

    She blows a kiss; of course she would. Her shikigami flutters, and tumbles, towards Ragnell. "With a single breath, they appear!" And another erupts, beneath Ragnell -- "Here they come! There's no stopping them now!" And another, and another, and another, juggling her up into the air --

    "Good Grip!"

    As Magilou points, it's like fireworks, that explosion of light which erupts around Ragnell.

GS: Magilou has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Magilou has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Formation! Blitz! Magilou has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Good Grip!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "...You may tell your Trial Knight that they may not again look upon me as we hold hands," says Avril, glacial. She regards Ragnell with a look that might well be fatal, if the eyes alone could do as such.

    ...Well, she is not called the Ice Queen for nothing, as it were.

    (Sometimes... it really is just that innocent.)

    Ragnell promises them in this moment that she's about to show them just how serious she is and produces an ARM.

    Avril has seen a good many strange ARMs in her life -- indeed, she has one in her hand -- but she has never seen one with that look and shape before.

    (Perhaps she should have taken a close look at some of Ethius' gear... maybe.)

    Light begins to glow, blindingly, from the muzzle of that unfamiliar ARM. Avril steadies herself at Magilou's warning, as if preparing to evade what is to come, but even in her wildest dreams...

    Even with all the foreknowledge in the world.

    ...she did not anticipate the size and scale of the beam that erupts from the ARM. It strikes her dead on even as she dives to the side, its targetting power inescapable wherever Avril might try to fly. Both blade and Medium alike scatter across the floor as Avril drops, curling in slightly on her side.

    She does not so much as move immediately, and when she does, it is slowly. She rises onto her hands and her feet, slowly, reaching one shaking hand for her Medium, now within arm's reach. It glimmers.

    With a weighty breath, Avril rises to her feet.

    "Very well," she tells Ragnell. "Should I fall here or not... let it not be said that I gave it my all."

    She breaks at Ragnell in a run, with nothing at all in her hand but Lucadia's Medium. Stooping, she scoops up Absolute Zero mid-dash, its blade evaporating.

    She leaps as she closes on Ragnell, and ah, here light itself erupts from the ARM's hilt.

    One, two.

    Gravity itself has ceased to have any effect. She hangs there, as if held perfectly by an array of hidden wires.

    Three.

    Still she defies physics, even as it begins to attempt to reclaim her hold, as she starts to descend.

    And four.

    Charges spent, the brilliance of her whip's beam fades like so much light at sunset.

    Avril, quietly, touches down.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"No??? I came at you because we're friends, and friends fight friends, that's what friends do!!" Zed has a skewed vision of friendship, but then he WAS best buds with Claude Kenny, and their relationship was literally built on a foundation of mutually swording each other in the sternum for fun and sport. "I GUESS I should have seen this coming, but I was just SO HYPE to actually get to hang out with people I know again instead of RANDOM SURFERS and DEPRESSING FAITH-BROKEN TREE PEOPLE. And the Trial Knight doesn't count! I can't have MEANINGFUL SWORDVERSATIONS with KNIGHT PARTICLES, Ragnell!"

Zed... was lonely, is why he came to fight Ragnell... It seems.

But it ultimately doesn't matter anymore, because Ragnell just outright flash-vaporized his tan. Or rather, forced Zed's partially oxidized surface layers to reduce right back into their virginal living metal modes. It'll take some sunlight and some salt to get him back to normal again, but... He'll get there.

He'll get there.

More importantly: there is a fight on, and getting distracted by whether or not his skin has a healthy bronze glow is DEFINITELY not conducive to dealing with someone as dangerous as Ragnell.

To wit, the weapon that she pulls is something that Zed recognizes almost instantaneously. "Hey," he says, "Isn't that Claude's phase pist--"

Whatever he would have said is erased by the flux of brilliant light that slams into him. A wash of exotic particles scrubs his body clean, but goes even deeper than that. It sizzles at his bones, burns at his blood. Zed grits his teeth, filled with a deep pain that he hasn't felt since Claude's gun ran out of power.

The tremendous power of the Federation is... not to be underestimated.

When the wave passes, Zed is left smoldering, his makeshift knightly armor falling apart, to reveal...

Oh, he's still wearing his usual jumpsuit under there. Good. Good.

"Maaaaan," Zed drones, woozily, "That brings me back. That really brings me back. Haaaah, it's been way too long..." He stumbles, tips, and--

Catches himself mid-fall, kicking off the ground with sudden force. "Ahhh Ragnell, you reminded me of some good times. And somethin' else too." In his hands, there are... two swords, not one. Doombringer and its shadow, still an unreasonable size, but wielded as if it were light as a feather. "I never got to show Claude my new stuff! But that's okay! I'll get to someday! In the meantime... I can practice on you!"

"Let's go! DOOMBRINGER--"One slash! A nimble horizontal slice. "--SAKURA--" The second! A crushing diagonal blow with the shadow-sword. "--SUPERNOVA--" Zed pivots with the sudden apparent weight, a pulse of inexplicable gravity pulling him in the right direction for a third slice, again horizontal, completing a swordtastic Z, but...

...Then he comes back around, for a fourth cut: A twin-sworded, overheaded swing. "--SSSSSSAIIIHAVEN'T DECIDED ON THE LAST WORD YET--!!!" As his blades crest their course, they merge once more. Doombringer blazes, flashing with the brilliance of a galactic arm. "GO! GO!!" Zed swings it down in a massive vertical chop! "GOOOOOOO!"

His sword smashes ground... And unleashes a devastating, point-blank explosion.

...One that is in GARISH shades of green and pink.

GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Zed spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Zed has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Ahh," Marivel says of Ragnell's explanation. "Well I'm glad I'm not filling in big shoes, so to speak." She doesn't need that extra bit of pressure.

Marivel raises her hand into the air to catch her microphone. But as she does so, she hears the sound of knives clashing against one another.

"How...?" Marivel turns her head just in time to see Rixia intercept the microphone, catching it with her hand and dispelling the frozen time.

"Well well..." Marivel smiles. "So it seems... Mortals once again shatter the barriers put before them..."

Time magic is very powerful and so when it is disrupted, the backlash is that much more severe. Marivel's head snaps back as she slams against that pillar, arms twisting painfully as blood drips from her eyes, nose, and mouth in a severe reprimand against the idea that her mastery of time magicks can remain wholly unchallenged.

But Marivel doesn't seem upset. On the contrary, she seems thrilled. Before now, Marivel looked at Rixia the one might a child--someone to look after, to care for, to nurture--but now she sees a heroine hidden through those tears and and past that pain. Her fangs seem longer than before. Her pupils are thin slits. The void drips out of her teeth in thick splotches of oblivion.

Shige does not pull Marivel into a frustrated place even with her accusations. Marivel doesn't expect to be understood by any mortal, really, in the end--especially one she scarcely knows. But Shige unleashes her own shadow against Marivlel. A feeling of wrongness is weaponized against Marivel even as the shadow binds her legs together. Marivel looks back at the manifestation of Shige's shadows.

A tear appears in her left eye, whisping away as smoke. Marivel doesn't seem horrified, though, or unsettled.

No if anything? Marivel looks...........

Nostalgic.

"We may have exiled ourselves from the Abyss," Marivel whispers to Shige. "But that does not mean it as left us. I feel the call of my birthplace even now. Would you...like to visit?"

She prepares her magicks but in the meantime, Lanval tells her that nobody can truly determine a full life for another. "You think they wanted these ends?" Marivel scoffs. "Please, whose will do you think I am acting upon?"

She focuses on Lanval. "Mayhaps it is beyond my reach," She tells him even as he continues supporting his comrades with his mirth. "But that does not mean I won't reach for it. Struggling with all your might, Lanval...! That is what life IS!"

She raises her hand but--

Margaret splits into many Margarets. They're impossible for Marivel to count in the midst of a battle situation. The myth of a vampire needing to count pathologically is a bit overstated--but it is true that a swarm of illusions does tend to play havoc with their predatorial instincts, particularly when their sense of smell and their hearing can't pare things down for them.

She is stabbed in the leg, then in the foot, then in the waist. Marivel drops to a crouch and closes her eyes, pushing the illusions out of her mind, putting her mind in a place without flame, without time, without anything but emptiness..

And the monsters that made that place of nothing, nowhere, and nowhen their home.

Marivel opens her eyes again, now pitch black. Inky darkness spills out of her mouth--probably just her flair for the dramatic right? Right?--and she holds her fingers out in a triangle.

"Stop."

She says as color drains from the room. A glimpse of the abyss erupts out from Marivel, particularly focusing on Margaret, Lanval, Rixia, and Shige--though the color effect expands well past them even if it is done without harm.

There is the sensation of the air being sucked out of the room, for them, the sensation of time peeling away into an endless nothingness. An eternal moment expands out to infinity, expressing nothing but silence.

Marivel walks towards Shige. No, it doesn't quite feel like walking. It is more like someone is taking Marivel's body and making its legs move, its arms move like one might move around a doll, an expression of self in the third dimension.

"I was born outside of time." Marivel whispers to Shige. "The absence of light, well, you're all accustomed to that sort of sensation by now. But there is no time there, Shige. Nothing changes. Nothing lives. Nothing dies. They want so much to bask in the alien light, they want to take it from you."

"Even we did, once long ago."

"I will not condemn her to that existence. The one who saved yours, the one that most are so eager to forget. Not so long as in her true heart she desires to LIVE."

But in her focus on Shige, it might be a good time to take her down. Maintaining this presence is surely something even she can't do for long.

GS: Marivel Armitage has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Booster!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Marivel Armitage's Booster for 0 hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz, Quick, Regen, and Surge applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Marivel Armitage has attacked Rixia with DemonAngle!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with DemonAngle!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with DemonAngle!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with DemonAngle!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Magilou's Good Grip for 327 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated!
GS: Seraph Ragnell solidly guards Avril Vent Fleur's Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc for 149 hit points!
GS: Break applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Delay blocked!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Zed's Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova for 522 hit points!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Lowest! Rixia solidly guards Marivel Armitage's DemonAngle for 84 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Drowsy and Hex applied to Rixia!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Catastrophic! Gamble: Moderate! Margaret takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's DemonAngle for 115
hit points!
GS: Drowsy and Hex applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Amid the fracturing stone, K.K. watches as Kaguya chooses to rise to avoid a fatal fate. She speaks to them. And the knight...

"... Hah."

Exhales something that could almost be construed as mirth beyond the obscuring metal warp of their helm as they rise back to their feet.

An indulgence perhaps only Kaguya might hear.

"So be it."

Hiro shouts of the paradise this land was meant to be, voice quaked with rage. Talia speaks of making a world 'better' than unfair.

"You see in unfairness naught but the ugliness of it. Listen well, girl, and engrave these words to your heart."

Talia leaps. And the hammer dissolves away, motes floating upward.

"Until you see the entirety of this unfair world's nature, you will never hope to better it. All you will do--"

K.K. leaps.

"--is be SUCKED INTO CALAMITY'S EAGER MAW!"

The knight and once-assassin meet halfway through their charge. Talia's blows are many and mighty, carving into armor, chipping at the glowing gold fringes that adorn it.

K.K.'s is singular. A single stroke, delivered by a glowing palm.

The blue blade of a short sword makes up the rest of the reach, screaming a deflecting path across Talia's sword as the tip of its blade touches upon the single kernel left behind in the wake of the Trial Knight's last blow. A singular, strategic strike.

Aimed to touch upon where Talia's defenses are weakest.

It's when her boot impacts against K.K.'s horned helm that the little mote K.K. left behind ERUPTS into a coruscating bloom of sapphire energies, ripping and raging outward through Talia and BEHIND her. Vapors of sapphire light ripple outward.

The force of that single, innocuous strike will knock Talia backwards like a ragdoll even as K.K. collides with one of the half-standing pillars of the promenade, CRUSHING it beneath the immensity of their impact. Dust swells, and belches outward.

Within the swirling cloak of debris, K.K. drags themself back onto their feet, an ugly, deep fissure scarring deep along the once-unmarked surface of their faceplate, threatening its sanctity.

"... Meant for paradise, was it?" exhales K.K..

"Do you know the shape of paradise?"

Hiro's scythes of energy come crosswise. Twin swords melt along K.K.'s arms, becoming a pair of powered knuckled gauntlets, reinforcing their own armor as they meet those blades, fists-first, -stamping- one foot forward as winds collide against the Divine Artifacts lacing K.K.'s knuckles. They rage for several intent, intense moments in which the whole of K.K.'s arms tremble -- before wind sheers off, past, and -through- the knight's limbs, carving through K.K.'s armored epaulets and leaving wisps of green energy snaking past their hands all the way down their shoulders. Clawed fingers tremble briefly.

"... Paradise is the curse invoked in the name of the greatest sins."

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Light blooms off the Trial Knight's hands as the knuckles that once adorned them become little more than a memory of white and gold.

"If that is the shape of the better world you seek, you have failed more greatly than Heldalf and Michael themselves."

But K.K. does not advance. Instead, their cracked but faceless helm tilts Ivan's way, almost thoughtful. The scar his sister has left upon that helm catches in the light, twinkling faintly.

"Punishment Knight it is," they echo. "Very well. But know this.

"I see you clearly. And you are no monster, Ivan."

Is that... encouragement?

Probably not. Even now, it sounds like simple assessment.

"Whether or not you are a problem or solution shall depend wholly on your choices."

And thus comes a choice: the umbrella is brought forth.

It is a good choice.

Kaguya and Ivan attack at once. The knight has only the time to say, "A shot well-aimed requires only one bullet, for one target, Lady Kaguya. I pray you choose it well--"

Before twin bursts of light converge upon the Trial Knight, consuming them within their cross-hairs like the mightiest of dual techs. They are met with an attempt at defense; K.K. braces themself.

But they swiftly overwhelm, consuming, -driving- K.K. backwards within those great torrents of power, until --

"... Take aim... and show your vision of the world to the one who needs it most."

When all fades, K.K.'s armor is glowing with all the mass of heat that swirls around them from those twin attacks. Whoever they are, they must be baking alive within that armor.

And yet, they still stand. And stand strong.

"'Tis not I who brought her into this, White Knight."

But still, K.K. does not attack. And soon, the reason why becomes terribly clear:

The book above is writing a new tale of magic.

"'Twould behoove you... to learn the ways in which a soul might be saved. To know one simplest fact."

A tale of space sundered.

"You cannot save any if you do not know the shape of their heart, and what salvation that heart truly yearns for."

The quill stops.

And the sky splits.

It's like a mirror struck with a stone. Fracture marks spread spiderwebbing patterns across the skies, until the structure of reality is too compromised, and shards of it fall, revealing a gaping void within. Jagged fractures of space tremble -- before they are drawn -in- towards that void, that hole in the shape of things, as it becomes a churning vortex of where all logic and sense goes to die.

A vortex looking to catch and crush all those who stand before the Trial Knight.

GS: K.K. has activated a Boss Action!
GS: K.K. has attacked Kaguya with Black Hole!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talia with Black Hole!
GS: K.K. has attacked Hiro with Black Hole!
GS: K.K. has attacked White Knight Leo with Black Hole!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ivan with Black Hole!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: Hiro takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Black Hole for 256 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Kaguya solidly guards K.K.'s Black Hole for 125 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Kaguya enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Talia takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Black Hole for 67 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Ivan solidly guards K.K.'s Black Hole for 110 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
GS: Ivan enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Black Hole for 291 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Lanval heals Shige Kiwako! She gains 66 temporary hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Lowest! Shige Kiwako takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's DemonAngle for 66 hit
points!
GS: Drowsy and Hex applied to Shige Kiwako!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Slow expired!
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Lowest! Seraph Lanval fully evades Marivel Armitage's DemonAngle for 0 hit points!
GS: Drowsy and Hex blocked!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia meets K.K. in a midair strike.

The glowing palm comes at her -- and a shimmering, brilliant short sword catches her blade. Another large crack runs up through the store-bought sword. Then, the sword bites into Talia, where K.K. put that kernel of light.

She shouts in pain, the blow tearing into her -- and throwing her back again. She hits the ground, bounces, and ragdolls along it. She comes up again.

It's slower, this time. Her leg shakes.

"This... world's true nature?" she asks. "But--but how?"

She looks at Hiro, her eyes wide for a moment, and she glowers. It seems they think ill of paradise; of course, the Goddess has left them with many questions and fewer answers. Though, she hesitates. Did the Trial Knight offer her brother encouragement?

Kaguya and Ivan force them back. Talia grits her teeth, and then she goes running forward again. She swings her cracked blade around. "You only learn the shape of someone's heart by trying to help, though!" she says, as she charges in close to K.K. "I think Ivan figured that out!"

She likes to think she did.

She leaps -- and the void is formed, space ripping and trembling. Talia is caught in the vortex and whipped about, shaken violently. She turns around, though, with it. She leaps off.

And she slingshots her way towards the Trial Knight. She lands in front of them, and then slams forward with her. Talia goes into a spinning leap, her sword slashing up after, before she does a final thrust -- and a pointed burst of light shoots off her sword.

"LIGHT SPEAR CANNON!"

GS: Talia has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Talia has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Quick added to Talia!
GS: Talia has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Talia spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Talia has attacked K.K. with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: Talia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
GS: Gamble: Low! K.K. takes a solid hit from Talia's Light Spear Cannon for 144 hit points!
GS: Delay applied to K.K.!
GS: Interrupt blocked!
GS: K.K. has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: Kaguya used Force Action: Mystic on Hiro! FP up!
GS: Disease removed!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Something like mirth. Kaguya grins. She got something out of K.K., anyway. Perhaps only she hears it--but she hears it, all right. And she attacks at once. A shot well-aimed... And one target.

Is she going to choose the right target? She doesn't know. But she knows she's aimed at the wrong target many a time before. Perhaps it is a kindness, that the Trial Knight offers this advice...

"...I'll do that," Kaguya promises quietly as she hits the ground again. But who? That remains to be seen.

Leo's bright, steadying aura helps Kaguya--it's going to be very important in a moment. But he is furious, he is emotional, he is...

"Leo!" Kaguya shouts. "Don't let them get to you! You're a Knight! You can face this!"

Because--Kaguya thihnks they have a point, here. Mauri... Kaguya remembers her madness. She remembers it well. But she doesn't have time to dwell, because the sky splits. The gaping void looms before Kaguya, and she grits her teeth. There's not a lot she can do other than bear it--and she cradles her weapon toward herself to shield it against the powerful magic. I slams into her, and she is thrown from her feet--but having braced, she hits the ground in a roll, hopping up to another stance after she does. "...I knew you were strong," she says. "...But the target I have to show my 'vision' to... I think I know who it is."

She hefts the Zeikfried--and then fires it, not at K.K., but at Hiro, sealing the malefic energy roiling around him. Then she stows it at her belt. "But that shot isn't for right now."

"Hiro!" Kaguya calls. "...If you die out here, I'm going to teach Ruby all the real bad swears!"

Then she bends at the knee and leaps towards the Trial Knight, whirling mid-air to extend her arms--and slam her fists directly towards the center mass of their armor.

"Haaaah-!"

GS: Kaguya has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Kaguya has attacked K.K. with Falling Star!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    Stopping Time For 3 Seconds turns out to have horrific consequences because, alas, Lanval, Margaret, Rixia is not a master manipulator of time, but rather... a burgeoning novice who's only starting to dig at the very surface of the iceberg of time. Like Marivel, Rixia is suffering the backlash as well, as blood drips from her nose and mouth, her body entirely unused to the very idea of suddenly being even a few feet away in the span of an instant that is, at the same time, eternity.

    "How? Granny Rui warned me to never try to stop time, and I think I get why," Rixia wheezes as she kindly tosses the microphone back in a soft arc for Marivel, wiping some of the blood off her mouth and gurgling. "Looks like I'm going to learn the wrong lessons from her, sorry Granny, but... I gotta make my own Time."

    Margaret proceeds to split into four, then sixteen, then-- she doesn't have words for numbers that high, and as she rushes down, she exclaims: "Margaret! I--I wanna learn how to use a sword like you! It's okay if there's a gun in it, right?!"

    She's become an instant fan!

    Shige's words mean a lot to her, of how time is an inexorable and unending march for everyone, and when someone's time comes... ...

    But she doesn't want that...

    Rixia's greedy. She wants to seize time for herself. She wants to hold onto it so tight and never let go. Just bundle it into a little sphere and squeeze it until it won't compress any further...

    Maybe that's the answer. She won't be a Sorceress of the Past, or the Present, or the Future. She doesn't need to be any one of those and lose out. Someday, she'll obtain it. That beautiful little point of time she calls Eternity.

    But her thoughts are soothed, again, as Lanval shows his mirth -- a lesson repeated again and again: if you can't enjoy the small joys in life... colour drains from the room, and a glimpse of the abyss emerges and focuses down upon her; the air is being sucked straight out of her lungs, and time is peeling away into nothingness...

    Rixia finds this so appealing that she nearly, wholly succumbs into this attack, disappears into the Abyss, but realises that what looks almost identical to what she wants can still be completely antithetical:

    "This... this isn't my eternity. This isn't the eternity I want..."

    For the second time, now, she holds the gunblade and holds it high. She's going to find the resolve to carve her way to what she wants, until it looks and feels and resembles what she wants.

    "Sleeping Lion, give me your power...!"

    >> triangletriangletriangletriangle-- limit break!

    A deep crackle of electricity and light whirlwinds around Rixia's feet, heralding the blade of light that slowly coalesces into existence. Up, up, up... the blade of light cuts a swath through the abyss, forming not colour, but its own form of colourlessness within the light that absorbs all. And then... it begins to descend.

    "The eternity I want... is a beautiful, shining, perfect point in existence...
     A fulsome eternity that doesn't fear any future...
     An invincible eternity that's forever buried its past!
     Miss Marivel!"

    Oh, she knew Marivel's name all along?

    "This is my present to you! Let my Light drown this Abyss!!"

GS: Rixia has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Rixia spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Rixia has attacked Marivel Armitage with Blasting Zone!
GS: Rixia has completed her action.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Falling Star for 213 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Kaguya takes 60 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"Not a monster...?" Ivan frowns for a moment, then nods. "Well, that's what I said, isn't it? I'm more human than I am anything else, for better or for worse." K.K. says that it's their choices that will decide whether they're a problem or a solution for humanity's ills.

"You say that, but then you show up trying to stop us when we're doing the right thing! If you think it's wrong and want to change our minds, then say so! Don't just go on about the... the nature of the world, while you swing a sword at us and --" The sky opens up. "--and try to suck us into vortexes!!"

With a flash of his summoning ring, Ivan calls forth a longsword, stabbing it into the ground to give himself something to hang onto in the upsweep, as the whirling forces buffet and tear at him. Finally, he goes flying and... then it's the umbrella's turn again. He holds it up as if he means to fly with it, calling for its light and protection to hold off the worst of the vortex's power.

"And while you're at it--some punishment for the Punishment Knight!" Its light swirls, seeking to envelop K.K.'s person, though precisely what effects its contact may bring are entirely up to the discernment of the umbrella.

GS: Ivan spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Ivan has attacked Ivan with Umbrella! Lend me your strength!!
GS: Ivan has launched an attack Link!
GS: Ivan accepts Ivan's Umbrella! Lend me your strength! for 0 hit points!
GS: Pray grants a random effect! Regen applied to Ivan!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Ivan has attacked K.K. with Umbrella! Do what you will.!
GS: Ivan gains 56 THP from Regen!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

The Trial Knight speaks, and Hiro tries to listen over the roar of the winds crashing against their gauntlets.
 
It's disturbing, thinking of himself in the position to commit some great sins.
 
Still he takes his time thinking about it.

Ivan's response to K.K's dilemma is... well kind of astounding, in Ivan's own way, he can't help but allow a smile, "More of the solution than the problem - in my opinion."

Leo's fury, his despair. Hiro sees it all as he shouts 'You leave her out of this!' What happened? What happened with Mauri the Red Priestess? The girl so unhinged she'll burn innocent people to death in one moment, but call out for Ronfar or Leo the next.
 
"Leo... you're getting into your own head. You have to get yourself out of there if you want to beat him!"
 
Hiro says with a certain sincerity, even as his protection washes over him. The White Dragon's Protection of one of Althena's most sacred creatures.
 
"I don't know what it looks like." He admits to them, the Trial Knight, "Maybe it's just better. Better than this. ... Maybe it's just learning from our sins so we don't repeat them. Maybe the error is just trying to seek perfection, some purity of ideal."
 
In the end, he doesn't know. He just knows he wants better. He just knows this place was supposed to be better.
 
Space sunders though, the sky splits, and he's drawn in, he tries to dig his heels in, but it catches him, draws him within, shows him the true fragility of his existence.
 
And once it's over, spits him out, as he gasps, taking a knee.
 
He tries to rise once - then hits the ground again, "Then... we'll learn."
 
About what paradise can look like? About the shape of hearts? About the salvation they yearn for?
 
Yes.
 
Hiro still can't bring himself to rise, until Kaguya makes the ultimate threat, "You'll WHAT?" Yep that gets him up. "Ragnell's already done enough!"
 
Taking a breath, he steels himself, his entire body feels, shattered, broken beneath the force of that black hole. The pain hurts with every step he takes towards the Trial Knight.
 
And then he triples. After images trying to slash brutally down on them. Leaving gouges in the air, void spaces.
 
That collapse, and demand to be filled, by the sudden violence of the wind itself. "SATISFIED!? Don't you dare teach her the Bomb!!"
 
Does he mean the F-Bomb? ... No, that's too vulgar for him, it's just the Bomb.

GS: Hiro spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Hiro has attacked K.K. with Trinity Crisis!
GS: Hiro has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Hiro's stances have changed from Avenger to Hero!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! K.K. suffers a terrible blow from Ivan's Umbrella! Do what you will. for 234 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Drowsy applied to K.K.!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Hiro's Trinity Crisis for 127 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Strain! Hiro takes 46 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Watching Marivel look sad at the onryou gets a genuine look of confusion from Shige. Head canted, shoulders briefly slumped in a 'What?' kind of pose. That's something for later. Then there's an invitation to visit the abyss.
 
 "In any other circumstance, I think my curiousity alone would suggest I should take it." She puts her foot down and steps forward, another click of boots against stone. "Here though? I've already escaped a one way ride. I shouldn't risk it again."
 
 Lanval's drink is... well, appreciated on some level by Shige. A nod to him. And a patting of her satchel offering a return drink. Later. Confident there will be a later at this point because she's going to do her best to ensure it.
 
 With the color draining from the room, Shige slows down. Cautious again, on her toes almost literally as she prepares for the other natural fear in so many, that of the unknown. She works her free hand's fingers. Claws briefly visible. Maybe thinking she'll need them.
 
 There's still one color visible though. She lifts the light in her hand and returns the whisper, muffled and quiet behind the wooden, featureless mask. "There are other ways forward. You just have to know when to reach out and ask for help." She turns her head, lifting the lantern. The blue flame within still visible and quite noticeably, well, blue. "You look for that help, you look for guidance. You don't go it alone." Something she's stated before. Almost droning in her intent to make sure no one that needs the help, goes alone on their last journey.
 
 "I don't know who you're talking about." She says more audibly. "But the help's there if you'll ask and take it." She swings the lantern around. Casting the same shadows, dark in color or not. Then the light flickers again and that same feeling of wrongness expands from the light. "Or you can keep treating everything as a joke until it's all, but too late."
 
 With the last word, spectral hands reach up, clinging at Marivel. Mist clinging just above the ground. That vibe of being watched. Of something wrong.
 
 "Even here. Even now there's a light to try and help guide the way."
 
 The whole time, her eyes are watching Rixia and Margaret move. Trying to keep eyes on herself. If Marivel wants to have a one on one conversation, she'll indulge to help them. The light's there, guiding them too right?

GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Marivel Armitage with Haunted Ground!
GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Ragnell pauses when Zed declares that he chose to jump her because they're friends and friends fight friends. "Aww, Zed," she utters, genuinely touched. She'd half-forgotten that he was just Like That. It's been a while, and that's just not the frame of mind she tends to enter these things with. She does smile, though, and it's not her usual sardonic sort of smirk.
    
    "Well, you can jump in some saltwater an' get a new tan, then," she tells him. "For now you're jus' gonna have t' deal with it!"
    
    Magilou, on the other hand, gets a wink. "Illicit's just another word for fun~. I know you know that plenty well, Grandma~."
    
    And Avril's innocent umbridge gets a snort of a laugh. Holding hands? That's really it? And now that she's *said* it, Ragnell's inclined to believe her. Avril strikes her as the painfully, endearingly honest sort. "You're jus' gonna have to tell 'em yourself. They do as they please," she says cheerfully, because she can already picture that conversation and it is *glorious*.
    
    She unleashes the might of the phase blaster; when its beam peters out, she tucks it away and reaches for her regular pistols. It's no wonder why: that blaster is powerful, but it's *too* powerful. It's just not something to whip out whenever she pleases. "It's not Claude's, it's mine," she tells Zed. "Found it at Fil Delfi." Her mouth quirks up in a half-smile--and she opts not to tell him that Claude fixed it up for her. While it would be funny, it would also be doing him dirty. If she ever needs future repairs on that blaster, she'll need to not screw the one person who she knows can maintain it over.
    
    For now, though--for now, there *is* no stopping them now. And that's a good thing. Between the XP boost they'll get from this battle and the match that's to come, Ragnell can be reassured that they really are ready. Magilou and Zed she wasn't really worried about--she's honestly just fighting them for fun--but Avril's a different story.
    
    She won't have to worry at all.
    
    Countless shikigami whirl about her in a monumental squeeze; Avril leaps up and descends, searing the air with a laser whip; Zed zigs and zags with his shadow blade until bringing Doombringer down upon her in a vertical chop. Ragnell is swallowed up in their explosive light, white and white, and pink-green, with a roar of pain as they envelop her.
    
    When the lights die down... she's still there--but she's badly beaten, crouched down and panting as she's covered in burns and sears and wounds of all kinds.
    
    "...Good practice, Zed," she says between pants. She looks at Avril. "Guess you'll get to move on after all." She quirks a half-smile at her, briefly catching Magilou's eye. "Good for you."

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
"A full life? It's a blessing, for certain," Margaret says. "I suppose even the longest life might have its share of latter day triumphs and delights. But forever -- that's quite a long time--"

And her eyes flick for a moment towards Lanval. "Why, thank you," Margaret says to him, with sweet warmth. And a slight correction of, "I believe." To Shige, she says, "Well enough, so far. But the lads against the Trial Knight are what you might call old acquaintances of mine, and I know many of the people here. I have a certain *concern* for their..."

"Well-being," Margaret concludes, glancing away. (She looks at Rixia. "Absolutely. Do you want to try--")

But then...

The color begins to drain from the world, along with its air.

They're going into...

... Somewhere.

And when she said 'do you want to try,' she was already shifting her grasp on her weapon, and Margaret looks downwards as the blade, an undeniably real thing, begins to fall out of her hand.

Stark terror fills her again. How fragile I am, she thinks in the small place that still has cogent command of her faculties. To nearly fall apart like this. Being glib like this is hard work! No one respects a mummer's art!

She can hear Rixia somewhere. She can see the Thing that was within, without, around, coming-in-through Miss Marivel there, approaching Shige. She has something to say. Margaret curls her hand into a fist in frustration and tries to run forwards to intercept...

... and goes exactly nowhere.

Harder! In the end she only feels a hunger in her lungs, a desire to pant for breath. One that she can't quite do, even if she can't quite --

I can't move, Margaret thinks. That girl's doing something but it's charging. This Thing is speaking to whatever Shige does professionally, or to her damn lantern. I'm not going to - It's going - NO, Margaret thinks. Come on, Mag, just -

Her eyes flick down to the ring on her finger. Back up. The ring sparkles -

Margaret jitter-shifts in the Rift and is suddenly immediately adjacent to where Marivel is, at which point her newly emptied hand tightens its fist and comes up to punch the Creature in the side of the head with freight train acceleration.

"I guess we've got that in common," Margaret says, to the thing-in-marivel, or to what she speaks of. "Everyone wants what they don't have, don't they?"

GS: Margaret spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Desperation - Three Gods' Realm Fist - Oh No My Manicure!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Marivel Armitage partially evades Shige Kiwako's Haunted Ground for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Blitz, Quick, and Regen removed!
GS: Hex applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Evade bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Rixia's Blasting Zone for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Rixia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Margaret's Desperation - Three Gods' Realm Fist - Oh No My
Manicure for 66 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo cups the glowing Crest in one hand, and starts to work the fingers of the other. Feeling creeps back, bit by bit, but it was yet another moment of weakness he doesn't need. Losing focus mid-battle is deadly enough when one isn't in the middle of the Lord of Calamity's Domain, facing the Trial Knight. Thankfully, he isn't alone.

    'You're a Knight! You can face this!'

    'You have to get yourself out of there if you want to beat him!'

    Both of these are true. If K.K. weren't holding that Malevolence at bay through force of will, it would be clinging to Leo, searching for a way in. But something else tries to crush him in its stead.

    The black hole's pull grabs Leo and starts tugging him in; he digs in his heels, instinctively working at the tainted stone beneath his feet. His sword flies past, and he reaches out to grab it before it flies into the vortex. The ground crumbles. Leo's bones creak, and he's forcibly yanked into the air, his limbs kicking. He finds no purchase--

    For one terrible moment, Leo sits at the edge of the singularity. Then it's gone, and he falls out of the air, landing with a heavy crunch. The breath rushes from him. He plants his free hand and pushes himself upright. He takes a few stumbling steps towards the Trial Knight, his gait unsteady--

    No. There's a deliberateness there, alongside the dizziness. Leo rises on one leg in a sort of crane stance, brings the upper around, and then

    DRIVES that other leg, piston-like, right at K.K.'s center of mass. He doesn't have Breath enough in him for the Howl, even if he could bring his shaking arms to do the form.

GS: White Knight Leo spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked K.K. with Thrust Kick!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    There is void, when color drains, before Lanval can say or do much of anything. Tempest. Power. Pressure. There really is nothing to behold, over in this corner of the nothing, and that...
 
     Lanval stands up, walks forward, and asserts a) a sense of space, and b) he does not feel like following the normal rules of locomotion, but nonetheless c) staggers without rhythm but with choice and will in how he continues to flaunt the idea of 'please walk normally.'
 
     "Jusht shtrugglin', huh." He answers a bit late to all of that, as he holds up a bottle of... something. The '...something' is warranted. This isn't a Holy Bottle, or a stolen Brewte Force, or the contents of someone's Gear oiling can (this has been a thing sometimes), or any of that.
 
     It's a bottle of wine, of unknown vintage. He holds it up against this absence of light, as if using it to filter the 'nothingness' into funny and strange colors from the color the beverage itself bears, illuminated somewhat by the backdrop of Rixia's light into the abyss.
 
     "Don't mean ta eaveshdrop," Lanval says. "Yer talkin' 'bout... that. An exishtence where nothin' will change, all that'sh left ish ta take." He closes his eyes. "I can guessh why ya managed ta live here, even with all that'sh gone... the way it hash."
 
     "Ya didn't take joy fer yershelf."
 
     He opens his eyes. "It was shared. Thou shared it in turn."
 
     "And then it doth appear in cruelty, where joy was shared, hardship was not."
 
     He walks marginally more upright. Marginally, as the aura of water in all its forms great and not violate the nothingness, making it... more damp? Is that an improvement? He still holds the bottle of wine upright like it were a lantern against the nothing.
 
     "But even in the ignorance that doth permeate... the well wish for those beyond onself remains." He holds up the bottle of wine, flipping its grip in his hand. "This joy that doth carry the wish of wellness by those who would give to a world they would never meet...!"
 
     And he smashes it. Even if it doesn't make purchase on Marivel's body, there is an escaping force that is - in a simple word - colossal. It should seem like the waste of a good bottle of wine, to smash it like that, but...
 
     It is something beyond the concept of 'what flavor this is' and 'what's in it.' Within the waters that pour and gush out in defiance against this taste of the world that is the Abyss - without anything other than a desire to take what is beyond that is something, anything at all.
 
     It is the essence of a well wish for the enjoyment of those who come after, heart and soul poured into a 'mere' beverage. All of this, somehow, given power through the sanctification of a potent Water Seraph. Something that goes above and beyond even just that of a Seraphic Arte that is his birthright to perform as he sees fit.
 
     This is the gift, the work, of a vow.
 
     "If thou shalt stand in our way, the mirth that is yet to be shared among all that know this - and shall know this - cannot be, and thus...!"
 
     "I bid this trial its Maiden Bon Voyage!" He rears back as it all bubbles and gushes in an enormous crescendo of a wave to, quite simply, fill the space with the elemental concept of a kindness and happiness made by those who would not be there to share in it themselves.
 
     Born from hearts who believed this is a joy to be shared.

GS: Kaguya used Force Action: Mystic on Seraph Lanval! FP up!
GS: Seraph Lanval spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Seraph Lanval has attacked Marivel Armitage with Maiden Bon Voyage!!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Thrust Kick for 257 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to K.K.!
GS: Marivel Armitage partially guards Seraph Lanval's Maiden Bon Voyage! for 196 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Purge! Hex and Surge removed!
GS: Purge explodes for 72 damage!!
GS: Marivel Armitage's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Poison applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

How do they grasp the world's true nature?

To that, K.K. offers only maddening silence.

Perhaps they simply do not wish to give the answer to those who are their enemy.

Perhaps the answer is not theirs to give.

In the moment of combat, it matters little. What -does- matter is Talia's declaration -- and how she uses the power of the hole K.K. has created to -slingshot- herself towards the Trial Knight.

The sky is knitting itself back into shape as K.K. snaps their right arm to the side, conjuring forth a grand lance that instantly ignites with a blaze of pure will. All that heat gathers towards a crackling mass at its tip.

'You only learn the shape of someone's heart by trying to help, though!' she had said. The knight's head dips.

"'Tis just so, Talia," murmurs the knight beneath their breath, seconds before the former assassin lands before them.

"So then let us see the shape of yours laid bear!"

Talia leaps, spinning light a corkscrew. As heat and might gather at K.K.'s weapon, that first upward slash CARVES a deep scar into chest armor, providing a brief glimpse at what must be flesh beneath.

The Trial Knight drags backwards with the blow, going with the momentum. Gaining distance.

And when that final thrust comes --

The blazing fury of K.K.'s massive lance is thrust forth to meet it.

Broiling flames are launched from the tip of the lance. They expand like a miniature star going supernova, becoming a radiant bloom of raging heat that burns into and through Talia's sharpened burst of light to capture the woman herself within its broiling depths.

For a few seconds, Talia is the core of a star, burning away at the essence of her, burning down to the spirit of her as if it could scald to the very -heart- of her--

--within the passage of the next second, K.K.'s lance meets Talia's blade, and the sellsword's light bursts VIOLENTLY off the Trial Knight's armored body in shredding ripples as the very tip of their charge meets Talia's cracking blade.

And shatters it.

Pieces of superheating metal goes flying as K.K.'s lance runs through Talia's very weapon before it runs through HER, looking to pierce straight through that massive bloom of flame and through her center mass.

Heat born from pure passion ripples. The sphere of flame wobbles with instability.

And as K.K. charges -past- Talia, that would-be star EXPLODES, a ripple of heat radiating ever-outwards.

Back to the conflagration they have created, K.K. lands only a precious handful of feet away, feeling the heat scorch at their armor as their head tilts up to the swollen, festering skies.

"... 'Tis a heart that yearns to be in the right place.

"But that place is not here, girl. Not today."

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

A faceless visage, ruined by the mark of a well-placed scar, turns to those who remain.

I don't know what it looks like, Hiro had confessed. But...

They'll learn.

"Earn the way past this threshold, and you shall take another step towards knowing."

And this is the payment.

After all, it is as they said...

The steps taken forward will not be for free.

Kaguya believes she knows who her shot is meant for. For the Trial Knight, that seems to be enough -- the fact that she doesn't seem to deem them as the target, well -- it's hard to gauge approval from armor, but perhaps it can be gleaned in body language.

However, there is little else to be said in this chaotic, violent moment, and little opportunity to say it. The knight has chosen their -own- target. They have delivered their own strike. And now--

Leo stumbles towards the knight, but to view it as nothing more than desperation would be a mistake. Leo has no words -- but in this moment, force of action says more than words ever could.

An action delivered in a piston-blow to K.K.'s midsection with enough force that it SHEERS away armor. If there was ever a doubt there is a creature of seeming flesh and blood beneath that all-encompassing armor, there is little to doubt now. The blow is powerful enough to launch the knight STRAIGHT into the air --

Where Kaguya catches them in mid-air, SLAMMING her fists into the exposed body beneath. It hammers as loud as a thunderclap to follow Leo's own, -spiking- the knight into the ground into a sickening crunch of metal that rebounds them upward --

-- giving way to Ivan's demands of the entity heretofore known as the Punishment Knight, delivering condemnation and punishment in turn. The umbrella once more conjures its dread power.

And if K.K. had defenses to be mustered, they do not, a fact that could well be attributed to Hiro as he and his duplicates slash DOWNWARD, capturing K.K. within an emptiness in the space of things -- filled soon after by a restraining, -dragging- jail of violent wind, catching K.K. in mid-air just long enough for the light of Ivan's umbrella to HAMMER into them.

Once more, they are consumed. Once more, they crash. Once more, they rise...

... but do not aggress.

The book above begins to dissolve, as the Malevolence surrounding the arena begins to quiver.

A silhouette in dust, K.K.'s fingers twitch in an involuntary spasm.

"... Take it," they intone.

Take the step.

"... And heed well... the shape of the man beyond those doors."

They do not attack. But the knight still stands. After having so violently attacked Talia...

Dust begins to settle, offering the briefest glimpse of a cracking helmet and an eye of molten gold beneath--

GS: K.K. has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: K.K. spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! K.K. has attacked Talia with Absolute Domination!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: Talia suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Absolute Domination for 275 hit points!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated!
GS: Talia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Talia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Please understand," Marivel tells Margaret. "I have nothing but the deepest respect for your sorcery."

To Shige she says, "I think saying that I am going it alone is a bit cruel to poor K.K and Ragnell over there, to say nothing of Ashley! I mean I did just say I came here to help my friends fight, didn't I?"

With that said, she starts walking back towards K.K and Ragnell--she doesn't expect the grip of the Abyss to relinquish its grasp so readily.

But something grasps at her ankles. She shakes it off without a second thought. But that moment of time that Shige stole back from Marivel, taking full advantage of her proximity in the process--

--gives Margaret time to punch Marivel in the head.

Marivel spins through the air in an almost anticlimatic manner, spinning through the air with intense sakuga animation only amplified by the cartoonishness of it all.

Before she hits the ground she speeds away, propelling herself away through space.

"She never wanted eternity. Just her life." Marivel says to Margaret. "I did not understand when I was young, all these feelings humans had. Their little hypocrisies that built their identity."

She pushes up into a standing position. "I've always admired them. In this, Althena and I were of one mind--or so I thought."

She nods to Margaret. "The grass is greener on the other side."

Lanval speaks the truth and perhaps this is why the Guardian curse ultimately did not take hold of Marivel--if there ever truly was one. Marivel, more than any of her people...

...loved humanity.

And that is why her heart aches.

Rixia is starting to realize the restraint of a promise to her own grandmother. But in this timeless eternity where there is naught but to devour or be devoured where light has no sway but the eyes can yet see the horror--she sees that this is not the sort of eternity that she deisres.

But there IS an eternity she yet desires. And this isn't the only eternity within Marivel's grasp. Marivel quirks an eyebrow as Rixia reveals she's known Marivel's name all along.

The second oldest name of hers.

The Endless Abyss is not so easily destroyed, but Marivel could only unleash a glimpse of hell within the moment--and a glimpse is all that Rixia needs to banish. The light expels out from her, the washed out color returns to normalcy as Marivel steps backwards, her skin burning amongst the intense light.

Marivel laughs softly. "You fooled me into thinking you were a babe who needed my protection..." Marivel clutches her sides, laughing despite the pain.

She shakes her head. "No, no, you are not some mouseling. In fact..." She grins. "Maybe you are a lion after all."

Marivel is tiring. She had to do a lot of fighting herself to get to this point.

And finally there's Lanval, bringing out the full of his mirth to bare, the power of his own Vow behind it.

"You've grown real quick too," Marivel admits. "Even a Seraphim can move at the speed of human when given proper motivation, mm?"

"But." She says softly. "Who says we are standing in the way of future joys?"

The jug slams against her, sending her sprawling back towards Ragnell and K.K. She bounces across the floor, slides, and then comes to a stop.

"Ahh... This Vessel... Really isn't enough."

She stands up--but then drops down into a crouch. She exhales out more of that smoke, turning to look at K.K.

She looks straight at that golden eye.

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

FOUR YEARS AGO

  1. -1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: #E8DB488 "For my part... there is something that must be set to rights. I make for the Gutter."


Siegfried turned, then, in the Photosphere. The moments before the ancient starship's fall; the moments before his death. He walked, then, but he did not walk alone as he strode towards the once-home of the Tainted.

  1. -1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: #E8DB488 "Yes, we shall. Stories worth the telling."


And after him strode the Trial Knight. Once, a blade sworn to Siegfried's service; then, a friend. Two knights, who had defied a goddess, fought heroes, and walked side-by-side. One fell that day.

That should have been the end.

PRESENT

It is not the end.

The sky churns -- the ground has cracks and splinters in it. And, in the distance, there is a shuddering roar that echoes through the place. The Malevolence seems to grow stronger, and motes of sickly gold and deep violet wash over them all. But there is something else, cutting through it. Sparks, as a blade cuts along stone.

And then a figure leaps through the air, doing a mid-air spin. An ARM breaks through the dust from where the Trial Knight fell -- as blasts of ion energy slam into the ground between K.K., Ragnell, and their opponents. And then a figure in blue armor slams down.

Siegfried looks different now.

He isn't nearly as tall -- a tall human, but not the seven foot giant of before. He is not as broad-shouldered as he once was, either. His dark blue armor is deeper blue, more ornate -- and more human, now. Parts are lined in gold; parts are crimson.

His eyes, a gleaming metallic red, look through the visor. "Trial Knight," Siegfried says. "You said, once, that there are stories worth telling. Yours and Ragnell's do not end here. COME!" he shouts, as he points the Dark Spear Glumzambor towards them.

His eyes meet Zed's, for a moment. Then, he glances at Marivel -- not quite sure who she is, in all truth.

"We leave this place!" His other hand holds up a green gem -- a teleport gem. "Let the Lord of Calamity stand or fall on his own merit!"

His fingers crack into the gem -- and motes of green light begin to swirl out around him and his allies.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel's bit of drama screeches into the equivalent of a 6 car pileup as the ground cracks and a new Siegfried appears.

Marivel stares at him. But she has an idea of what this means so at first, she just seems to wait--waiting to see ewhat he'll do.

Yours and Ragnell's do not end here. COME!'

"Wait they probably weren't going to--"

Marivel starts being teleported away. Her eyes bug out in frustration, rage--but lets face it, mostly disbelief.

"WAIT! I DON'T CONSENT TO THIS!" Marivel shouts--

--but it's too late, she is already being teleported away with her friends.

"FUUUUUUUUUU---"

*blink* She's gone.

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

The Trial Knight's lance glows brilliantly -- and Talia stares, eyes widening as she gets closer. They agreed with her, but it wasn't quite what she expected either. The lance slams into her at the end of her strike. Flame explodes off it, and it catches her with its fiery brilliance.

There is a massive, resounding explosion. It blows back debris and dust, leaving a burnt crater. The former assassin's blade is caught by K.K.'s lance, and the store-bought short sword explodes into so many shards.

She gets thrown -- and pieces of superheated metal slam into her side, before the spear stabs into her gut--

--and with a RIP, out the back.

She collapses, but before she hits the ground, the star of fire and heat explodes. Talia is pitched into a column. It cracks mightily. Talia crumples over uinto a bloody heap, blood running down her. "N...ngh..."

She doesn't register the arrival of Siegfried -- or the terrible roar.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

The battle culminates. Zed is left utterly alabaster and terribly scorched, but intact. He huffs softly-- mostly to dislodge leftover soot from his lungs though. "Good practice," he agrees, extending a hand to the fallen (perhaps even Fallen?) Seraph.

But then someone he knows all too well appears. They look different now. They're... smaller. Their armor has changed. But they are absolutely, definitely Siegfried.

The two demons lock eyes. Zed's hand tightens around the hilt of his sword. It looks as if, for a moment, he's about to do something unwise--

But too late. The Azure Knight is gone, taking the Trial Knight, Ragnell, and that fluffy vampire with him.

"Siegfried," Zed mutters. "What are you doing back from the dead...?"

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

White metal crumbles slowly from a once-faceless helm.

A gold eye looks sidelong towards Marivel before turning towards those who face them.

The knight's gaze hoods--

Ionic energy bursts forth, and those close enough will see that molten gaze widen in naked surprise.

This was not the plan--

Trial Knight, says a familiar voice they thought had left this earthly plane. They recognize it instantly.

You said once...

That gaze seems to almost gentle, for a moment, before sharpening.

"Indeed so."

Caught up within the teleportation matrix of Siegfried's gem, K.K. is whisked away.

The last thing that can be seen of them is that helm crumbling away just enough to reveal the barest corner of what looks almost like the tension of a smile in the wake of Marivel's panicked, disbelieving shouts before they are gone.

This is a moment, for them, to be happy for.

They'll just have to explain to Marivel later.

---

And the second K.K. is gone?

The Malevolence rushes back in. The oppressive, calamitous presence is back.

But the way forward is now clear.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"T-talia...!"

Ivan's eyes widen with horror. He is not interested in much going on on the battlefield now besides the grievous injuries that have just befallen his sister. There is the quickest flash of a dirty look towards K.K. for waxing poetic about understanding the shape of hearts while carelessly tossing about potentially fatal attacks, and then he rushes toward Talia at the pillar, offering her a homemade healing potion (it makes everything look blue for a while after you drink it, but under the circumstances, that's not the biggest concern...!!).

"Does anyone have anything better than this...?!?"

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Yes," says Avril, approaching both twins. "Please, permit me to tend to her."

    Even with the Medium, though... it will take some time to bring her to rights. More time than the rest of them have.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya gets that impression--something like approval. A faceless visage...

The book dissolves, and Kaguya listens to K.K.'s statements. She listens to their words. No, they don't attack, but--

"What the--" Kaguya stares at Siegfried as he appears. And then he is suddenly gone. Thye leave.

The Lord of Calamity...

The Malevolence crashes in. Kaguya stops staring when K.K. has disappeared--and then Talia falls. She looks over at her, and her eyes widen. "Talia!" Kaguya shouts in alarm. She's not exactly Talia's friend--not even close--but even so--

"Hey, hey--" She rushes over, after Ivan. She is a little slower tthan he is for sure. But she starts to feel around in her bag. "Shit, I've got--No, I used up all the Elixirs," she says, "But I've still got some stuff--"

But Avril is there, approaching. She has...

"I..." Kaguya looks to Avril. "...She's not my friend," she says. "But she's someone I hurt. Please, take care of her."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    The void fades, and yet, another strange thing happens before them - the voice of Siegfried. Lanval remembers, keenly, the last time he thought he saw Siegfried alive was him walking off towards his destiny. With Marivel taking her leave, and the Malevolence starting to filter right on back in (with interest! this is a Domain that really wants to make all the space for itself), Seraph Lanval turns about-face to those in need.
 
     "Mmmm," Lanval murmurs as he looks to Avril and the fallen, gravely injured Talia. He remembers how she desired to grasp the power of Purification as a Seer, but wasn't able to complete his own Trials. How much she's resolved to do better, after all that's happened with...
 
     "'M gonna give a healing Arte ta help keep her shtable," Lanval says, "but 'm gonna be trushtin' ya with the resht, Avril," he says as he prepares one such Seraphic Arte for healing. The moment Layna pokes her head back in, he'll be returning to her as his Vessel to hold his strength for the Lord of Calamity ahead.
 
     They all have key parts to play here, and he knows his.

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Heldalf taught Leo the way of the sword. Leo honed that skill, growing it into a style he taught to others. This is neither of them. This is something he learned on Mt. Gagazet. He still doesn't know the full of his ancestors' story--the scope of the political struggle that led to their exodus, or how they managed the crossing to Meribus. It happened, and he exists because of it. In returning there, he--like Pearl--started becoming more than what he was.

    Leo's lips twist in a savage grin, but what K.K.'s done has already taken the triumph out of this moment. "TALIA!" the White Knight cries, eyes alive in horror as she slumps to the ground. He glances back and forth between her and K.K. and Ivan and Marivel.

    'Does anyone have anything better than this?!?'

    "Ivan!" Leo's fingers are still a little numb, but he unwraps an Apple Gel and throws it, fastball-style, to Ivan.

    Then...

    A cold shiver works its way down Leo's back, and he turns to face the source. That spear. He... he's read about it. The man himself seems different, but he should be dead, if he read right, and--

    "Who," Leo says, as Siegfried steals away with his allies, "is that?"

    He's looking at Kaguya. She's the one who Knows Things.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"Probably a zombie or something," Zed says, submerged entirely in malevolence but otherwise apparently fine. Metal Demon physiology is a hell of a drug. "I don't think I approve of Zombie Uncle Sieg."
Zed says, "...Zuncle Sieg. Yeah. That works."

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako looks Marivel in the eyes, her own lit by the eerie blue light of the lantern. "You know what I mean. Almost every time I've seen you, it's at arm's length and irreverent." She stands up straight and smooths her clothes out, not even reacting in surprise to Marivel getting sucker punched.
 
 In a way, she feels she's proven right as Marivel is snagged by a teleporting... person? She actually did try to bind her magic, focused through that medium to force him to drop her. "Get back here!" She calls out, a chill down her spine as she does so. She can't place the vibe, but there was something...
 
 The shadowy figure of a ghost does appear. A faint shadow. It looks around and shrugs before fading away again. Called back by Shige. Who immediately turns and checks on the three closest first. They'd been wrapped up in the same fight. "You three doing okay?" keeping it quick and short, sounding only a little exhausted.
 
 The question is repeated, sort of to the rest, "Everyone good?" Like she can really fix all their ails in one moment. She can try to help though. Even if she'd rather just sit down and figure out why there's something at the back of her mind. Raging, frightened. Both?

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    'She' never wanted eternity -- Rixia knows who she refers to, because Marivel's told her about Anastasia. That she didn't understand the feelings humans had, the little hypocrisies that made them, them...

    "... I know. I just wanted a full life too. But it got a lot more complicated than that..."

    She won't admit it today, but some part of her knows how that feels. Despite being mortal. Despite being part of, ostensibly, 'humanity', even if she feels like humans kinda just propped themselves ontop and that's kinda rude to Beastfolk everywhere. But that's beside the point.

    It's the way these people chase after a better future, no matter how much it may fail them; it's the way they keep pressing on despite how much the past drags them. These trials, one after another...

    Marivel compliments her and tells her that -- maybe she is a Lion after all. Rixia furrows her brow, even as the gunblade continues to radiate light in all directions. "I cheated my way to power," she admits. "But power's not meant to be fair, or else this entire story happening now wouldn't be playing out..."

    But suddenly, K.K. tears into Talia, and the sky churns, blasts of energy erupting into the ground from above. The blasts herald the arrival of a figure in blue armour. Who...?

    ... she doesn't know, but importantly, he takes Marivel away with K.K. and Ragnell -- a frown, for a moment; in the midst of all of this, as they split away to who knows where.

    "T-Talia--!"

    Rixia whips her head towards Talia as Ivan cries in horror, and Kaguya urges to heal her. Avril approaches, and Lanval assists with a healing technique of his own. Her gurgling and panic continues as she hurries to help as well, as that fresh wave of Malevolence hits her--

    >> alert threshold met for user condition
    >> user emotional and mental duress detected at extreme levels
    >> prioritising short-term user survival over user safety
    >>junctioning to omit emotional fluctuation... ... ...

    --then she stops, sagging for a moment. Her expression is much deader for a moment, then she breathes in deep, not seemingly realising the change in her own behaviour. She nods at Shige when she asks if she's doing okay. "Please take care of her. I'll... I'll help finish this," she murmurs.

    She doesn't notice the faint purple veins creeping up from on the corners of her cheeks either, as she turns towards the way forward.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

A price paid for the next step. He certainly wants to know what lies beyond, and what he can learn from it.
 
But when Talia falls - "TALIA!" Hiro worries that it's a price paid in blood, distantly he perceives what happens next - that figure that takes away the others (Is that?) - that Marivel was taken with them for the ride, but Ivan is there first.
 
And like him he's fumbling for something healing.
 
"I don't! I-" Fortunately Leo does, and Hiro nods quickly in relief as he tosses Ivan an Apple Gel.
 
The malevolence rushes in, the Lord of Calamity waits.
 
He can wait a little longer.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Oh, y'know. The head general of the Hyadean army, Siegfried, and his super powerful Dark Spear Glumzambor. He apparently got better since he died! On account of being alive."

Pause. "I don't think he's a zombie, Zed."

"...But he's a problem for tomorrow. Today..." She looks ahead.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

She's making fun of me, Margaret thinks with an impotent impulse, thrashing her shoulders. But then she steps closer, and -

There she goes.

"A life," Margaret answers Marivel, "can be an eternity, if you let yourself be there for those - those little moments." But then her head lifts up. "What did you say?" Margaret suddenly demands, but then Lanval is echoing what she said JUST that moment and it would be validating but - no - the goddess, right? Althena? She knew something --

-- and she's being washed away.

The Abyss recedes, like a tide on an angle that can't really be concieved. As ordinary time and reality comes back, Margaret can suddenly hear her heart beat in her ears. She flushes and sinks to her knee again, looking after Marivel as she grimaces. Come on, she thinks. Rex, come on, I - alright, it's settling - settle more -

Margaret swallows several times, and then exhales with great force. Her eyes flutter shut for a moment. They've driven them...

Something roars.

Margaret does not recognize who Siegfried, nor his new host, is. She does, however, recognize a powerful warrior. She thinks many curses to herself, concluding with, and I am already weary. She pushes herself upwards even so, making herself stand upwards, feeling a strange cold shiver up and down the back of her spine that makes her legs feel like gelatin for a moment -- but it passes.

Forcing out a breath, she says, "Well - wait -"

Aaaaaaand he's gone. Along with Marivel, apparently.

Margaret puts her hands on her hips and purses her lips.

Her attention turns then towards Talia. A dear friend? Perhaps not. But she's - Margaret blanches slightly. Especially when the scope of the wound becomes clear. "Don't move her too much," she says, but it's a rather bleak statement. She falls silent rather than speak more will. Avril - yes - and Seraph Lanval.

Margaret looks at Lanval, and then turns her head to look towards Shige. "... Thank you, for your trust," she says. Raising a hand to wipe her forehead with the back of her arm, her eyes then fall on Rixia.

"... My dear," she says, turning to face her properly. "We discovered something. Did you feel it? I suppose I was at the center. But it was you doing it. I can teach you how I fight - and I will teach you as much of my magic as you can handle. But against this creature, perhaps..."

"Perhaps this is the fruit of the crucible of trial," Margaret says, though her eyes cast towards Talia again, guiltily. "But I think that I touched something beyond even the realms I reach with the everyday wonders of the Black Pearl. Call it," what to call it, Margaret, think of a cool name "the Three Gods' Realm; and I think, if you can call on that spell you used again..."

"Well," Margaret says, looking back to Rixia, "the Lord of Calamity seems to mostly innovate in *horrible* ways. I didn't quite get it off, but I have a trick or two, yet."

"... And," she says, "don't feel bad. In some things - many things - cheating's just what they call it when you haven't yet run."

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"I dunno, pretty sure anything that's come back from the dead is a zombie," Zed says, apparently having decided that zombies are a form of categorization in the same way that tacos and sandwiches are.

You know. Like how a hotdog is a taco, 'cause it's meat in the middle and starch on three sides.
Zed says, "I mean he's definitely not a Crimson Noble. Not anywhere near enough lace."

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

There's a cry for help. It takes a few moments for it to catch up to Shige's thoughts. Something swirling around. Something buried, repressed. Others panicking get her attention though. It feels slow. Like she's lost. Then it whips back into place as that oppressive aura appears again.
 
 She turns on her heels and makes her way to Talia. The lantern swaying back and forth. The figure behind her appearing, wearing dark armor. Looking haggard, worn down. Old. An ancient soldier wearing ancient armor and carrying bags. Walking through Shige, forgotten magic swirling around his hands, trying to do his best to save someone he would never have known at the guidance of the feline.
 
 Shige herself has crouched down. Placing the lantern down to try and keep the creeping malevoleance away.
 
 She knows some basic first aid herself, but this is almost wholly through the magic of another. In a way. A memory.