2023-02-25: On The Seeking Road
- Log: On The Seeking Road
- Cast:Marivel Armitage Hiro White Knight Leo Margaret Mariel Shige Kiwako Kaguya Zed Seraph Lanval Seraph Harmaus Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Pentagulia - Goddess Square
- Date: February 25th 2023
- Summary: Marivel unleashes an assault against Pentagulia... But to what aim?
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
There is about a day before Belle's warning comes to past. It begins with a series of empathic pulses emanating from multiple locations within the city. The first is a pulse of fear, then anger, then hate, than horror and terror. Each pulse emanates from a trove of empathite crystal hidden away in parts of the city. The sky turns red as flame and the moon shines a deeper scarlet. Meteoric flame crashes down to the city streets then rises back up to meet the heavens above. Screams fill the streets as men and women, filled with rising terror, crackle with black ash and smoke before they turn to monstrous form before your very eyes.
There is no sensation of the Lord of Calamity's malevolence--not outside of what you bring in with you. Nor is there any extra sense of malevolence within those that turn that typically accompany those that turn into hellions.
But in your minds, resonating through your very soul is a familiar voice indeed.
Pentagulia. Children of the Goddess. You have burned me, sent war to another land, kidnapped, tortured, and killed children. You have abandoned and forgotten the Guardians. You have perverted our rituals and our instruments.
Marivel. As promised, she has made her move.
But worst of all, you've forgotten your past. You have forgotten Anastasia who died so that you could live in this false paradise. You fear Lords of Calamity, a title for charlatans and play actors, tossed around by those who wield power for their own ends and you hold faith in a false Goddess that has abandoned you just as she has abandoned the Blue Star. Those you have held up as saviors and heroes have done countless terrible things.
But the empathic pulses aren't the only problem to worry about. Out from the earth rise heroic golden shades. Some are recognizable--carrying the form of Kamui and Gami for instance--and others are wholly lost to time, only remaining as part of this world within Marivel's memories, their names lost to all but for the one who cannot forget.
I, Marivel Armitage, last of the Crimson Nobles, Queen of Evil, Sorceress of Time, yadda yadda, have come to inflict a trial upon thee. A trial of Time and of history's Judgement. Rise up above it if you can or I shall take your so called Goddess's head. Face the horrors of the Abyss and show me your Answers.
Though the shades fight against the beasts, they don't seem to be able to differentiate between any of you and the monsters. More solidly is a full squadron of gears that seem to have taken to blocking off the exits to the Goddess's Square where a massive charge of elden sorceries is being channeled. Three of these are readily recognizable.
Revelry. Qubeley. Asgard. Each recognizable as of Marivel's design due to the maker's mark of one eye a piece.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEXxsEOq8ZY&ab_channel=HuskybytheGeek
The fourth gear is new. Similarly cyclopean, it nevertheless stands different from the other three--even from the legendary Asgard. It is a tall blue machine with a similar design aesthetic to Weltall but taller and winged and is definitely banned by the Treaty of Iscariot. As weapons of the present in this blast from the past it is clear where the Master of these machines is.
DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Heroes!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya arrived in Pentagulia after the matter of Ghaleon and Lucia, arriving later in that same alley as everyone else. She is technically still a member of the Guard, though she isn't entirely sure that status will protect her after the things that the Lord of Calamity had to say. But that turns out to be irrelevant today; she hasn't run into any trouble, until now... and this trouble has nothing to do with the Guard. Or perhaps everything to do with the Guard.
"What the--" Screams, everywhere. Kaguya steps out of the teahouse she'd been sitting in and feels the pulses of emotion, sees the blood-dark moon. Screams, and turns to monstrous forms. "What is--"
That voice. Marivel's voice.
"No," Kaguya says, "Tell me you didn't--"
"DAMN IT, MARIVEL!" Kaguya shouts to the heavens as she sees those golden forms and the Gears starting to rise. "Is THIS what it means to protect Filgaia!?" Kaguya demands of the sky. "Is THIS what helps the world? Trial my ASS, this is just pointlessly awful!"
She pulls Zeikfried, the legendary weapon, and she does not have to remind herself of her oath. She fulfilled part of it... But--
"I swore to protect this moon," Kaguya says. "...And I'll do it. Even if it means I have to destroy a friend."
She darts off, towards the square, and hops up against a building. Double-jumping, Kaguya springs off a wall and against another until she's high up enough to fire at the new Gear's 'faceplate', and as she does, electricity crackles all around her. She fires a single shot--
"People of Pentagulia!" Kaguya shouts from her high vantage point, "Take cover in your homes!"
GS: Kaguya has attacked Marivel Armitage with Void-Binding Shot! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
And what about our deal? That we would bring you to her, and talk first? And only then would you decide?
Hiro threads his way through the crowd of panicking people, the chaotic eruptions throughout, right towards the horde, his own empathite radio in his hand.
Does the word of an Evil Queen mean nothing? How many people upon your own Blue Star have done the same? Forgotten their past - sent war to distant lands? Do I see you in Solaris butchering its civilians for the crimes of the Gebler?
You've abandoned your own world in a time of intense strife for your vendetta. You've abandoned your daughter who is suffering from a terminal disease for your vendetta.
I hope you feel Anastasia would be proud of you.
It begins with a simple thrust, and a rush of wind with his sword as he stabs into the armor plating of the Asgard like creation, "... Because right now? I am not." He ends simply, and now vocally.
GS: Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Hurricane Thrust! GS: Hiro has gained 2 Combo! GS: Hiro's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Kaguya's Void-Binding Shot for 106 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel has been in Pentagulia, too, even if she did not stick with the group. She figured that she was (possibly) more likely to be identified by the guards here, for several reasons - though the one she gave, if asked, was that she has already been imprisoned by Althena's Guard once and that that was enough, thanks.
But she's still HERE. She's here when the empathic pulses start, and that is enough to get her on the street; she's here when Marivel's voice sounds in her mind.
"Marivel..."
Mariel approaches from the harbor. She's carrying the staff she's been seen with several times lately: a long staff of ancient wood, irregular and bent in a few places like a heavy limb of a massive tree, topped with a faceted crystal held within twisting branches, as well as her usual big satchel of items.
It's chaos toward the harbour too, and Mariel is having trouble moving through the panicking crowds. Her pace is slowed several times by stopping to help someone, because Mariel will not pass someone hurt without offering aid, even if there's little she can do. She is not immediately fighting spirits and especially isn't fighting the monsters, but it's not mutual - she has to run to evade them several times, or go around a longer route.
"Marivel!" She has no idea if the Crimson Noble can hear her at all. "Marivel, you made a promise! That we'd see her together! That afterwards... Not that you would - you would - " Mariel grips her staff, and the crystal on it shimmers for a moment, faintest white.
"The people of Pentagulia have nothing to do with this; leave them out of it! You've already hurt them so much! And if I have to stop you from making another mistake..." Mariel doesn't know what she'd do. She can't fight them. The monsters are people; she saw some burn in the red moon. The spirits are the remembered and the forgotten. And as for Marivel herself...
Mariel wouldn't win that fight. But she has to do something.
She made a promise, too. To Marivel, her friend.
GS: Mariel has attacked Mariel with Alone in the World! GS: Mariel has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mariel's stances have changed to Sage! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: Mariel accepts Mariel's Alone in the World for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Time has passed tensely in Pentagulia and to be honest, Lanval is completely lost because everything in this Holy City looks the same (aside from the harbor). When all hell breaks loose, there is - at last - a very comfy-looking depression in the ground that looks almost as good as that one spot on Luca's streets. That one spot, that got destroyed when the Guard beseiged Luca. There will never be a spot as comfortable to lay in like that spot but holy crap, this new destruction-made depression is almost looking as good. (It's a water spirit thing, you'd have to be one to understand.)
"...Mmmm." Lanval takes in the words, the condemnations, the Trials, remembering what happened at Artorius' Throne. He takes a sip from his drinking gourd.
He spent over five-hundred years holding up his part of the Boundary of Meribus until a bizarre decree and the Guard's destruction of his place of influence put it to an end. (To the latter's credit, that place was... not a great one, by mortal standards, moral standards, or even to the word substandard.) Althena, in her re-emergence, has spent that time condemning him and his actions and presence often by Ghaleon proxy. He now lives on, and of, Filgaia as a direct servant to the embodiment of its water. To an outside observer, maybe one wouldn't blame him for letting Marivel do her thing after how much he's been wronged.
"I'm gonna do ya one lasht sholid," Lanval says to the thin air that is Althena's, "'caushe I ain't forgotten who I am." Lanval, the Mirthful Wellspring. Also, he told Ghaleon he's staying standing up, give or take a minor allowance in angle for his interesting interpretations of the idea of locomotion.
So he goes along the beseiged streets, paralell briefly to the quiet will of Hiro and the overt call of protection by Kaguya, swaggering along like he has no care in the world, whistling along off-key to some obscure song from memory that's about thirty percent made up on the spot, coming across one of the golden shades that rise. They are larger, stronger, and sturdier than him from memory.
This doesn't stop him from abruptly head-butting one of them in the breadbasket.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Marivel Armitage with Carefree Stroll! GS: Seraph Lanval enters a Counter stance! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 3 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage partially guards Hiro's Hurricane Thrust for 80 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Hiro! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Hm.
You know, when Belle gave her warning, Zed was not sure what he was supposed to be expecting. Something akin to the day that the sky broke over Adlehyde and disgorged a swarm of demons upon the city was absolutely not on the list, though, he knows that for a fact.
Zed squats like a gargoyle atop one of Pentagulia's identical, gothic spires, staring long at the crimson sky. Something about what the so-called Queen of Evil claimed resonates with him. The worship of a false goddess is, after all, the very same thing that brought ruin to the survivors of Hyades.
If there's a mote of truth to what she says, does he have the right to stop her from doing the same...? The Dark Hero makes a face, turning his gaze briefly back onto the bundle of letters in his lap. He'll have to finish reading the replies later.
Slowly, Zed stands. He sighs at the entire situation-- if she were not turning ordinary people into monsters for the gall of living in a place that is utterly unhospitable to life, maybe... maybe he'd be right there with those cyclopean monsters...?
But sadly: She is.
And so: He is not.
With a 'hup,' he leaps down upon several of the golden shades, the blade Doombringer flashing with light as it's swung down--
In the same instant, rays of hellish, heavenly light streak down into several other shades, flashing down into one Gami and another Kamui and another whose face none but Marivel know. "You know, method matters," Zed grumbles, "Maybe don't turn people into monsters next time?? It makes you look extra evil, and not in the fun, charming villainess sort of way!"
GS: Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage with Inner Secret - Heaven's Howl! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
To Margaret, Marivel Armitage is less than she is to some others. But she knows her, she remembers her. A sad girl, buying donuts. An old-seeming girl; one who has great sorrow within her heart.
Less-than does not mean 'equal to zero.' But it does clarify some things for Margaret, as she steps out of the inexpensive rooming house where she has been sharing a glorified cubicle with her aide-de-camp, healer assistant, and improptu save point, to see the skies darken and to hear the people scream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ijP0i_5zdk
"Alright, **** discretion," says Tera Gram, reaching up to unclasp her cloak and shake her shoulders a little. Her right hand is drawn out and then tucked into a slightly better place as she grasps one of her three swords with her left, drawing it outwards in a backhanded grip and twirling it around. "Get ready," she warns Dollie.
"STARLIGHT EXPRESS--"
Fwish! She leaves the cloak behind.
Moving with the barreling speed of an express train in optimal conditions, feeling her heart pump like a steam engine, Margaret runs through the streets. When she finds one of the beasts, she is faced with a momentary terrible quandrary. What is she going to do with them? This beast was a man a minute ago. Now he's -- this.
Dare I? Margaret thinks.
Margaret opts to punt on the question after side-stepping a swung claw by punching the beast in the head sixteen times with a hand-guarded left fist.
After this she runs, hearing others. Perhaps drawing nearer to - yes, Margaret thinks, and also, no, because those are Gears and they aren't the ones that "MOTHEROFGODDESSANDHERSIXTYFIVESPAREDRESSES," Margaret bursts into the slipstream of her own enchanted speed, "WHATHAVEYOUDONE"
A thin wind reaches her ear. A voice -
Ah, Margaret thinks. Swip! To the right -- an armored hero of ancient days, visored and wearing duraplastic armor, turns one gun of memory towards Margaret, who kicks him in the head three times, executes a mid-air twist, and throws the golden shade over a nearby gentleperson's fence-wall.
AND THAT IS WHY
There's just kind of a sparkling FWIP and Mariel has a towering elf-woman next to her. "Heard you calling," Margaret says, before twisting round to parry and fight momentarily with another of the shades DIRECTLY OVER MARIEL'S HEAD. Fortunately both she and the shade are much taller than Mariel. "Call it a stylish moment, but I believe in my promises too. What's happening, do you know?"
Margaret resorts to her lightning-handguard-punch methodology but the handguard is already showing signs of wear. AUTHENTIC SWORD ACTION is inevitable.
GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Crimson Orbit! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
There had been a warning, without question. But what was there to do regarding? With Marivel nowhere to be found and Lucia swept away to take audience with the Goddess, it was all that Avril could do to seek a path forward, as things stood.
Pentagulia is a large city, however, and there are many places to search and far more to speak to. When the day comes that a crimson moon shines and meteors scream from the heavens, it is not Avril who stands in the Goddess' Square.
No, there is another, one who ventured into the forbidden city by other, long-secret means.
He walks slowly towards the golden shades, Marivel's statement ringing too in his mind. It serves only to stir the darkness within him, to make his rage and hatred nearly reach a boil.
So she is here to force a trial upon the city, the failure of which will result in the death of the Goddess. So she is here to kill the Goddess Althena.
So is he.
"IT TAKES IT NOT FROM ME!" snarls the Seraph Harmaus, ears flattened against his head. "ALTHENA IS MINE! HER LIFE IS MINE!"
Light, well-chased with darkness, surges from his corpus in a terrible rolling bolt; it splits into a trio of tarnished-gold rays as it descends for the heroic shades. Let none stand in his way, not even one of a similar mind to him.
GS: Seraph Harmaus has attacked Marivel Armitage with Burning Vision! GS: Seraph Harmaus has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
If the White Knight's loyalty to the Goddess was ever in question--not that it was, of course--that question died along with the Lord of Calamity. In the wake of the grand battle at Artorius' Throne, Leo returned to a hero's welcome in Pentagulia. There were celebratory feasts and formal reports and rumors of a new high honor, bestowed by the Goddess herself. If Leo appeared a bit more haggard, and rougher around the edges, well... it was undoubtedly a grueling tasl.
Leo laid his master to rest in a simple grave near the ruins of his burned home. That was the most peace he's had in weeks; he has hated every moment of celebration. He cannot get his former mentor's words out of his mind. Why isn't he happy? He should be happy. Why can't he relax? He should relax. What's wrong--?
Everything is wrong.
Five Minutes Ago
Leo sits at his office desk--a magnificent affair made from heartwood from Volgran Forest--a blank sheet of paper on the table. The dictation quill hovers expectantly, sparkling with faint sorcerous luminescence. Leo is dressed in full uniform, but his eyes are dark, his hair is mussed and brittle. Even his horn has lost its luster.
And then, in that moment: screams. Fire rains on the city. A voice Leo knows all too well echoes in his heart. His face contorts into wide-eyed shock, then slack-jawed horror, then contorted fury. "Marivel," Leo breathes, and his voice could freeze the air.
NOW
'People of Pentagulia! Take cover in your homes!'
Kaguya isn't the only one who's taken to the air. Pentagulia is so well-urbanized that--with a little control over the earth, which is present everywhere in the masonry--one can run across the rooftops, if one is daring and athletic enough. From her vantage-point, Kaguya might be able to see it first: a familiar red-and-white figure sprinting across a row of townhouses, towards the same machine she just fired at. "Dame Kaguya!" Leo's voice is tight and strained, not its usual authoritative roar. "Where in the HELL is she!?"
'She' should go without saying.
Leo takes to the air, vaulting forwards in a tremendous leap. His blade leaves its scabbard, gleaming as he falls on the machine Kaguya fired at. He drives it at the Gear's neck, with all the force of his fall behind it. His eyes flicker with dull embers of rage.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Luminant Scythe! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige's found herself a quiet spot to hunt down books. Things to learn. Things to read. Things to enjoy with a good cup of whiskey. The book is snapped shut and set alongside her pack. Replaced in hand by the ghostly lantern.
Each pulse of emotion causing her shadow to shift as it stretches behind her. Echoes of the past, attached to those emotions. Or opposed to them even. The light seems to grow brighter. A beacon of sorts as she looks up at the sky.
"You could have done something to teach the forgotten. You could have made sure their stories were heard. Instead you'd create more misery and destroy more stories?" She sounds angry at this. That lantern held firmly before her. Figures almost visible around her at the edges of the light. Figures long forgotten, but lingering.
As the monsters twist and change and are met by both golden shades and Shige's own. Figures in ancient armor. Grasping raging ghosts with wild hair. She's marching her way forward through it all until she catches up with the rest. Slipping her mask on under her hood. Obscuring a look of actual anger, bordering on rage itself. A far cry from her usual self. "If I have to drag her to the end of the line myself, I will." Voice quiet, barely contained. Lashing out at a recently turned monster tries to get in close. Claws out and raking. "This will not happen again." That part is much quieter. And the masked face turns towards Zed briefly. That's something for later. Protect the others first. Judgement later. Right?
Somewhere at the edge of all of this, the drowned out rational part of her mind wonders if she shouldn't try to guide the golden spectres as they swing away at friend and foe.
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Marivel Armitage with Cat's Claws! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Margaret's Crimson Orbit for 41 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Zed's Inner Secret - Heaven's Howl for 48 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Seraph Harmaus's Burning Vision for 122 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Gamble: Very High! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Seraph Lanval's Carefree Stroll for 59 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There was a time, when Marivel and Gwen had met outside of the Irington Bakery. A promise was made, and Gwen had an additional, optional decision she had to make: learn about a thing that was coming in the future.
'But I have to warn you, knowing the future is to be bound by it.'
Gwen decided against knowing, feeling the weight of her own hubris weighing on her shoulders. She'd try to stop it, if she knew. It's just her nature.
She flips up the brim of a nonexistent hat in greeting to a Marivel that isn't there, as Marivel's voice speaks to all of them directly. "Ain't sure what t'think, that you'd have this much faith in us." The hurt expression and neutral tone is a mask; this faith feels too heavy.
Marivel must know what will naturally come next. She'll be indisposed, as her friends rectify the damage her rage has brought upon the city. The Fiends will look like heroes, facing off against Marivel, and Althena's Guard will seem weak in comparison. Perhaps this was Marivel's intention? Her feelings were, and still are real.
".... We need to figure out how to undo this enchantment," she says, to any companions that happen to be nearby, the moment she comes across them. "We gotta let those Gears keep the citizens trapped here in the meanwhile, or they might escape and hurt people outside. They're the victims here; don't let them hurt anyone."
Her right hand has the buckle undone over her palm, which is then pointed at a heroic shade gaining an edge over a transformed citizen. She fires.
"Zed," she yells out, seeing the Hyadean launch at a Kamui and Gami lookalike, "if there's any you feel y'can't fight, lemme know. We'll share!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Marivel Armitage with Coil Cannon EX! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage critically guards White Knight Leo's Luminant Scythe for 50 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 52 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage partially guards Shige Kiwako's Cat's Claws for 45 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Poison Ward may block the effect! GS: Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Not at all Kaguya! This is a gamble for something more important to me! Marivel answers and when Kaguya insists she'll even destroy a friend to protect the moon. That's the spirit! You have a suitable weapon for it don't you?
As Kaguya pops a shot off towards the new Gear's faceplate it impacts solidly against the visor. The electricity crackles around the impact point. Kaguya telling the people of Pentagulia to take shelter might be more pertinent. Civilians rush into their homes--even Pentagulia's strange nature can only withstand so much and an invasion from hell is more than enough.
Hiro asks if the word of an Evil Queen means nothing. Marivel responds with a, Well I believe the deal was to escort me to Pentagulia, things didn't really pan out that way did it Hiro? And it was to let you talk to her ere I pass judgement on her, was it not? Once Althena comes out I'll be happy to let you have a long chat with her. If she comes out.
Hiro's other accusations go unanswered for the time being.
Asgard summons up a barrier to protect itself from Hiro's stabbing thrust. He can hear Hob from within, "Chrrp! Krrp!" The barrier disperses a significant amount of the damage. "Kreee! <3" Hob adds.
As Mariel hesitates to attack the monsters, she notices something is strange about them. Though they are rushing for homes and making a general fuss of things, they don't seem to be attacking anyone. Perhaps some lingering humanity or...Something else?
Oh don't sweat it Mariel, we'll see her together! Personally I feel like I'm being very restrained. Mariel, surely you don't think these people are actually innocent. Or that they truly have nothing to do with this.
MAriel understands it at once. The footprints of the monsters--they are leaving human footprints.
Lanval helpfully head-butts an illusory Kamui. She lets out a yelp and promptly E-Rings, leaving a strange tank of energy behind! It ... kind of looks like a tankard actually. Like Lanval could just...
No! That'd be crazy! But...inviting? It is liquid...
Hands are tied I'm afraid, this is what happened. I can't edit my memory! Besides, I need the emotional energy! Can't supply it all on my own!
rZed takes out SHINIGAMI!? and a Kamui with his light--more E-Ring explosions. These are definitely not as durable as the real thing.
Margaret punches out a monster! There is a crackling around the monster as it tumbles to the floor. It fell...too easily for its appearance. Indeed, if Margaret lingers--she will see the illusion fades around the monster as a properly KONKED OUT Guardsman lays on the floor. Margaret is able to take down a mini-Asgard from the past with a few quick kicks to the head. Yeah, definitely not the real deal.
Harmaus! HARMAUS! Will you stop murdering your soul for a second and think rationally oh NEVERMIND.
Harmaus incinerates an Anastasia and MArivel shade as he comes crashing down with light chasing darkness.
Anyway I gotta finish my spell to open up a portal to Hell and then I'll hear you all out about how I'm just the worst mom!
Marivel can't be seen with all these giant robots in the way, but Leo's tactics tell her she's likely in the very center of the Goddess Square. Plus, he does know Marivel loves her theatrics. NEvertheless, while he dives for the new gear's neck, it reaches out with a hand and catches the blade.
"Pardon me, White Knight Leo, but the Mistress is not ready to see you now." Belle's voice echoes from the gear Lucifer as she starts flying up into the air, higher and higher.
"Perhaps stories must be felt to be truly understood." Belle muses aloud, though she is as unfailingly calm as ever. Shige too, slashes at a monster--
--She feels some resistance but the illusion on a healthy young man fades as the monstrous illusion fades from him. He's wounded, but not seriously.
A shade of Yue is blasted in the back, chains erupt from her arms and send her tumbling forward as she fades from existence thanks to Gwen's timely shot in protecting a civilian-turned-monster.
Gwen speculates quietly as to Marivel's true intentions, but Marivel really does get quiet here.
"Chrrrrp!" Nob says from within Qubeley whereupon the gears unleash their counterattack. The shades are dealt with easily enough. The only one who is spared their assault is Mariel.
Lucifer continues going up higher and higher with Leo. He might have to find a way to escape or he might have a tough way of getting down. There's other alternatives but the claw squeezes tightly...
It points a plasma rifle down at Kaguya and takes several pop shots at her too!
MEANWHILE
Asgard approaches Zed, Gwen, and Hiro. It throws several quick jabs at them, a barrier rippling around it with each strike.
Harmaus, Margaret, and Lanval have to deal with Qubeley coming in hard, firing minidrills at them before trying to catch them with the very big one at the top of its head.
Meanwhile Shige has to deal with Revelry trying to pounce right on top of her.
"LET'S PLAY." The hero of Quartly singsongs merrily. "TAG YOU'RE IT!"
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Hob And Nob Love You! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Marivel Armitage's Hob And Nob Love You for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify and Hyper applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Zed with Whirrr!! Click! Bang! Booooom!! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hiro with Whirrr!! Click! Bang! Booooom!! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Whirrr!! Click! Bang! Booooom!! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Harmaus with Crack! Thoom! Snap! Bam Bing Bangy Zoom!! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with Crack! Thoom! Snap! Bam Bing Bangy Zoom!! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with Crack! Thoom! Snap! Bam Bing Bangy Zoom!! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gamble: High! Hiro suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Whirrr!! Click! Bang! Booooom! for 189 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with Joy And Revelry! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Wings of Lucifer ! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Kaguya with Crimson FOOM!! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Kaguya partially evades Marivel Armitage's Crimson FOOM! for 142 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Seraph Harmaus fully evades Marivel Armitage's Crack! Thoom! Snap! Bam Bing Bangy Zoom! for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Crack! Thoom! Snap! Bam Bing Bangy Zoom! for 83 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Wings of Lucifer for 169 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Margaret takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Crack! Thoom! Snap! Bam Bing Bangy Zoom! for 95 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Zed takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Whirrr!! Click! Bang! Booooom! for 204 hit points! GS: Shige Kiwako takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Joy And Revelry for 69 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya shouts back at the White Knight Leo, "She's in the square! We have to get to her, fast!"
Her loyalty to the Goddess is irrelevant here; she chose to safeguard this world, and that includes the people of the Goddess's Holy City. Would they do the same for her? Probably not. But that doesn't matter. What matters right now i that Marivel mentions something more important...
"Not helping," she shouts back. "I do have the weapon. Sorry, but... If we're all at odds--"
Kaguya doesn't much like her answers. Not the ones Marivel is giving. But what she's saying--emotional energy, her memories, a portal to Hell...
POP POP. Potsots!
Kaguya shoots down three of the projectiles before they can reach her, bang bang bang, but the fourth hits her hard and knocks her through the air, forcing her to alight down against a rooftop briefly.
"Leo!" Kaguya calls. "I got you! Jump!"
Then she fires, not at the phantoms or at the Gears, but for Leo. She fires a shot to reinforce his power--the White Knight's power. It will encase him in a golden, glowing glow--
And her, too.
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Whirrr!! Click! Bang! Booooom! for 243 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Kaguya has attacked White Knight Leo with Binding of Purity! GS: Kaguya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Kaguya's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Rings of energy escape around Lanval's headbutting as he stumbles upon that strange cylinder-shaped canister of something with a letter on it. Is it its grade? It must not be very good. But he picks it up, anyway, giving it a sloshing around as Qubeley comes helping themselves in. He seems to miss the miniature drills firing around him outright, and they miss him. A moment of odd levity, in a place and situation completely bereft of any and all of it.
Then the huge head drill comes bearing down upon them. He deftly avoids it, backflips, and lands atop the head-drill where... he spins around it at incredible speeds with a cartoonish gurgling and yelling before being hurled back towards the ground, where... he gracefully rolls back and up to his feet, cancelling most of the excess momentum with uncommon grace and poise that is a lot more common to him than he lets on.
"Hey.... mmmmrmrmrmmrph," he shakes his head to deal with some of the lingering dizziness because being incorporeal doesn't render one immune to that kind of disorientation, "Harmaus," he says to the angry, screaming Hellionized Seraph who is all too eager and ready to keep down the path of Dragon-ing with his present obsessions and contradictions empowering it, "'m with ya on one thing - the truth we're lookin' for... we ain't gonna have it if it keepsh up thish way."
"I know ya didn't ashk me," Lanval asides to Margaret, who is already in lightning movement with her own speed and decisive offense at her beck and call, "but I believe in the shimple shtuff in life."
"'n life... it'sh reeeeeeal complex," he holds up the Tank of Dubious Lettered Grade, gives it a sloshing, and attempts to channel it into powerful Seraphic Arte magic. The actual chant is lost to some of the utter chaos and destruction erupting around them, "sho 'm gonna break it down liiiiiiiike thish,"
Lanval's eyes open to a brilliant aquamarine as he stands before the Gear that dwarfs him, and says with a smile, definitively...
"Not like this. Blessed Drops!"
And this is how Qubeley gets an on-site mid-battle car wash with huge sanctified globules of shining water.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Marivel Armitage with Blessed Drops! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Kaguya heals White Knight Leo! He gains 132 temporary hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to White Knight Leo! GS: Mighty applied to Kaguya! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Seraph Lanval's Blessed Drops for 66 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
"They did not ask to have their home attacked," Mariel responds to Marivel. "Some of them may be, but most of them, no! You said it yourself, the last we spoke: is it fair that they must worry about something five thousand years passed? There is no need to take it out on them...! If this is how you would like to draw Althena out, I do not think it is a plan worth following. Marivel..."
She knew the depths of Marivel's feelings. But she thought... if she's being honest, she simply thought better of the Crimson Noble. She still does. This is a mistake, born of emotion - and one Marivel may regret, she feels, when her heart cools.
She needs to stop it from getting worse. From making the mistake unforgiveable. She believes in Marivel, but yet... "We made a promise," she says, more to herself than Marivel (or indeed anyone else). "And how can there be an 'after Pentagulia' if you end it like this...?"
Mariel's response to being threatened from above is to crouch, mostly so she can duck past.
This turns out to be the right idea when Margaret, who has decided to be Margaret again, has a swordfight directly over her head. "I don't know," Mariel says, from her crouched position - she crabwalks several steps to get out of the direct line of fire. "Marivel seems to be doing something, but..." She doesn't know what, even though she can feel power starting to build.
Her grip tightens on her staff as she, rising from her crouch, spots something. Something about the footprints... She doesn't understand why Marivel has done this, but she clearly has. Why? If she could figure out why, she could figure out what the whole *plan* was. She wants high emotions, but why? Chaos, but for what purpose?
"Don't kill the monsters!" Mariel raises her voice, uncharacteristically letting it carry a bit further as Margaret knocks out a guardsman. She winces at the look of him going down, but at least he's not dead.
"Thank you. But I need to see Marivel." She waves with her free hand toward the square - and starts to move that way once Margaret is free, staff held diagonally as if she could defend herself with it. It's certainly better for parrying with than her bag would be, so perhaps she finally counts as armed, though Mariel doesn't seem inclined to use it as a weapon.
Instead, she draws some nuts from her satchel and scatters them. They burst into light, weakening those they strike and drawing away energy. None of Mariel's own powers, here; just the wild flora of Filgaia. She *really* debates pitching one at Harmaus too, but she's not sure she can actually catch him from here. Kaguya, at least, is a known quantity. He isn't.
She catches sight of Hiro, and hurries toward him, hoping that Margaret is following. "Hiro!" Mariel waves, one gloved hand over her head energetically to try to catch his eye.
GS: Mariel spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Mariel has attacked Marivel Armitage with Powerless Nut! GS: Mariel has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Now you're just lying. That was the original deal when you were keeping us in the dark about your intentions. It was updated once you made it clear your intention was to kill Althena - and you accepted it.
The clang of his blade off the barrier causes a glower, How can you treat this MASS MURDER like its all a JOKE?
Asgard approaches, striking him with several quick jabs, which overwhelm his guard in short order, sending him sprawling, before he forces himself back up.
Hearing Kaguy's shouts, he cries out to those nearby, "We have to get to the square fast! Fend off anything that gets in our way long enough for the civilians to get out."
It's a strange sight, seeing Mauri and Ghaleon head the evacuations, but right now he's just grateful, "Gwen! Zed! Let's force our way through!"
With a few hand gestures and spoken words, "Cut them to pieces, Razor Cyclone!" Wind forms in funnels, which separate into boomerang like razors of green and white wind energy, spreading through the horde.
"Mariel! Stick with us! We'll get you to her!"
Don't kill the monsters though? "We'll do our best, but we have to stop her before this gets out of hand!"
GS: Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Razor Cyclone! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
You know, the first time the REAL (smol) Asgard punched Zed in the face, the Metal Demon's forehead proved to be eminently impenetrable. It's perhaps not to his credit that he attempts to do the exact same thing to a GIANT ROBOT version of Asgard. It may not be the true Earth Golem, but even Zed can't block a fist that large with his face without feeling the hurt. He's sent flying, first by raw kinetic force, and then by the barrier that surges after him. He crashes into a nearby building, hanging for a moment out of a hole that used to be a mass produced mural of Dragontamer Jian, who honestly is probably better left forgotten.
"Ughhhhh, Gwennnn, I need to learn to... fight giant robots better." And Surtr isn't even here! With a groan, he pulls himself out of the rubble and rolls his shoulders tenderly. "Guhhhh. I got marble dust in uncomfortable places...! You'll pay for that!"
Zed points at Asgard with the curve of his sword, by which we mean he makes like he's about to chop at it from way the heck over here. "And also for wrecking someone's..." Zed frowns. "...House? Temple? Place of work? Everything in this city looks the same... Tch!"
He flicks his wrist once, twice, thrice! Each time, he sends a cutting crescent of pure, glimmering starlight at the mighty golem. "Miss Queen of Evil, don't you have better places you can be using these giant robots? You're not worried at all that we're gonna wreck them?"
GS: Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage 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. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Hiro's Razor Cyclone for 78 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret answers Mariel, "I don't understand it either, but I'll get you to her if I can manage it, or I'll know the reason why." Hedging, Margaret thinks. She looks towards Hiro as he forces his way - moving with Mariel is easy for her, of course, given her fleetness of foot.
Margaret hears damnably familiar yowling. Her right hand begins to hurt. She looks upwards and says to herself in tones of great distaste, "Why in the Goddess's name is HE showing up at THIS time, doesn't he have a club to attend?? Some shaded pit in the depths of Tartarus??"
Margaret knows what Tartarus is. It's what you get if you don't scrub your teeth with baking soda and mint oil at least once a week. Use a soft cloth and not too much force.
There are larger problems than tooth decay before them. Margaret looks upwards, her ears flattening back against her head as she stares up at Quebeley's approach. Something the size of a Gear. How the hell am I supposed to fight this? Margaret thinks.
The first drill missile, she dodges, but she doesn't dodge enough; thrown flying to the side, she lets out a grunting yelp of disquiet and pain. Still, unbreached, she leaps upwards just in time to see -- another one coming for her. This one she avoids with that flick-dash from her magical ring, which is, at least, a known factor, but then Quebeley is descending with a massive head drill.
*I* can dodge, Margaret thinks, but if I do--
-- what happens to Mariel, to Hiro, to the annoying man? Her teeth tense upwards as she stares upwards. The drill is at least two Margarets wide. Margaret is holding a perfectly decent but refurbished steel sword from Filgaia, and she cannot even manage a two handed grip on it.
All I have, Margaret thinks, is speed, as the drill comes down.
It will have to serve, she thinks further, as she sucks in a deep breath. "RUNE BLADE--"
The shadow of grinding death descends!
"-- IGNITE"
The blade erupts in sorcerous light...
... and to Margaret's eyes, the drill seems to slow. Huh, Margaret thinks. It's spinning the opposite way to Filgaian drills. That's funny. Wait, she thinks, hopping to the side, does that mean --
Quebeley comes down. To external observers there is a sudden noise like two grinding blades are intersecting, sparks flying everywhere. It stands, dismayingly, in an ambiguous height relevant to one Margaret for long seconds, but there is that screaing noise of machinery.
To Margaret, she strikes - strikes - strikes again - strikes a thousand times, each and every one of them WITH the drill. She can see where she's hit the enormous thing and left small marks, but, Margaret thinks, what am I doing? I can't possibly destroy it. But it seems to be speeding up. Wait, she thinks, striking further, an irrational hope in the back of her throat:
How fast CAN it go?
Strike, strike, strike again. The drill lifts upwards slightly as Margaret feels a spark zwwwing over her cheek. She screams from beneath it, her voice emerging but faintly from the din, "Hiro my boy!"
STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE "Don't sell yourself short --"
STRIKESTRIKESTRIKESTRIKESTRIKESTRIKE "If you believe --"
SSSHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR "YOU CAN DO ANYTHIIIIIIIIIIIIING"
At the last moment Margaret does a backflip, slamming the suddenly-overspeed drill from the side and also hurling herself outwards in a seemingly random direction; with three gray-green sparkle-streaks she is able to end up stumbling and smelling like a machine room near Mariel again, but distinctly alive and as whole as she was in the first place.
Mariel gets a wink, because you always have to keep the side up, even as, no doubt, SOMETHING will happen to the Gear behind Margaret.
DC: Margaret switches forms to Rune Blade IGNITION!
GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Twisting Flurry! GS: Margaret has gained 2 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
As the Not-Yue tumbles forward, Gwen does a double-take, realizing who it is-- or, really, who the shade is taking the visage of.
Gwen Whitlock says, "... Sorry." Gwen can't help but apologize."
Gwen Whitlock says, ".... Zzed," Gwen croaks. ".... That's.... an Asgard. Y'don't get better at fightin an Asgard, you just pray you survive!""
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
As the Not-Yue tumbles forward, Gwen does a double-take, realizing who it is-- or, really, who the shade is taking the visage of.
"... Sorry." Gwen can't help but apologize.
Mariel spots something up about the 'transformed' citizens, but while Gwen hasn't noticed the human footprints, she does notice the fact that none of the citizens are attacking them, while the shades spare no one. "... Yeah, they're only attacking the shades--"
'Ow' is the sound you make when you hit your shin against a coffee table, or get a papercut on your index finger. 'Ow' is not the sound you make when you get pummeled into the dirt like a cheap coin under a press, but that is the sound Gwen makes.
".... Zzed," Gwen croaks. ".... That's.... an Asgard. Y'don't get better at fightin an Asgard, you just pray you survive!"
Hiro calls her name, and Gwen grunts and nods. "On it, Hiro! Zed, let's do this! We're gonna deliver Mariel over there one way or another!" Zed's crescents are followed by a running Gwen with her right arm hooked back. Operating on the same deadly art a coffee table uses to take down its prey, she slams her right fist straight for the shin. "SPECIAL DELIVERY!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Marivel Armitage with Special Delivery! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 180 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 132 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige's not her usual self in the slightest, the rage all, but palpable around her. When Revelry tries to pounce her, she twists and rolls, softening the blow and ending back on her foot with the rattle of bottles and the chain securing herself to her lantern. "Wrong place. Wrong time. Wrong guide." as she lifts the lantern high, the figure of the shrouded ghost appearing behind her. It's own fury mimicking the masked feline's. It flickers and appears closer. Making a horrible croaking noise before lashing out. Twisted clawed hands leaving behind angry rents in the air. Lingering motes of Shige's shadowy magic.
"You talk of being alone." She beckons with the lantern. "You'd inflict that on another? I can do something this time. I can stop it now." She starts to walk past Revelry. None of her usual.. helpful ghosts are present at the moment. Soldiers, faces shrouded. Tarnished. A mirror of the shaman's mood. "No better than the demons. I will drag you to the same judgement they deserve if I have to!"
Shige might be in another place at this point, so to speak.
There's part of her mind still yelling at her. Telling her she can do this by keeping the others safe. Even as grudge borne ghost tries to share its misery. Sharing that sense of loss and anger. Hoplessness even.
There is a moment of hesitation. As she comes to a stop, looking around. Lost. Is that screaming something else? She doesn't quite drop the lantern, though it goes slack in her fingers for a moment.
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Marivel Armitage with Onryo's Grudge! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Perhaps another time, another place -- Harmaus and Marivel could have been allies.
Perhaps Harmaus could have been an ally to any of them, if it had been but a few hundred years earlier. But his path was set before a single one of them came to Lunar -- or before the first Lunarian set foot on Filgaia in ever-so-many years. The path before anyone is never set in stone, it is true.
But Harmaus is ever seeking to continue along it. It just so happens that in this moment, his desires and those standing against Marivel's trial happen to align.
"Knows I this! Seeks it slaying Her! This-- I cannot allow!" calls out Harmaus to Marivel.
He can't allow it, because he is the one who will take Althena's head. Suitable payment for her centuries of lies.
For the death of another Lord of Calamity.
He is a blur of light as the drills come roaring for him. Blink, and he is not there; the marble tiles of the plaza shatter and kick up into the air from the space in which he had stood but moments before. Light, well-tinged with purple flame, consolidates in a spot far to the left and well away from the destruction rent by Marivel's machine.
"Seeks it skewering I? I shatters it to pieces!" he calls out, tarnished-gold light swelling about him.
Lanval calls out to him.
"If truth it seeks..." He lashes his tail. "...Then minds it its methods! It slays my Lord of Calamity!"
He has not yet forgotten, even if another goal takes priority at this moment and time.
The light around Harmaus solidifies into swaying chains that burn to behold, surging forward in the next heartbeat as if to attempt to bind and hold the thing that is Qubeley.
GS: Seraph Harmaus has attacked Marivel Armitage with Radiance Shackle! GS: Seraph Harmaus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Harmaus has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Shige Kiwako's Onryo's Grudge for 120 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Shige Kiwako drains Marivel Armitage! Shige Kiwako gains 72 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo hears Marivel's voice--her words, her rationale. It only stokes the fury in his heart. "To the square, then!" he shouts back to Kaguya, and there's an edge of anger in his voice this time. He will speak his mind when they've found her.
Lucifer presents more immediate difficulties.
The Gear's massive hand snatches Leo out of the air. He feels his ribs creak as Belle tells him Marivel isn't ready to see him--as if he'd come to her castle on a social call when she was busy. His breath hisses between his teeth as Lucifer squezes tighter.
'Leo! I got you! Jump!'
Kaguya's aim is true. The spiritual bullet zips between the Gear's fingers and strikes a sliver of Leo's exposed tunic. The crushing pain starts to dull. As the spots clear from his eyes, Leo grips Lucifer's index finger and shoves with both hands, the surge of spiritual might reinforcing mortal muscle and bone.
Lucifer's hand gives. Leo's blade rises, then falls, to cut through the Gear's massive fingers. Sorcerous light gleams on the flat of the weapon, focused laser-like on where he thinks the Gear's 'eyes' should be. (Leo doesn't know much about that aspect of Gear engineering, beyond that they have mechanical eyes, somewhere, so you can see out while you're sitting inside.)
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Radiant Blade! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Mariel's Powerless Nut for 0 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Weaken Ward may block the effect! GS: Interrupt applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Weaken blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Seraph Harmaus's Radiance Shackle for 46 hit points! GS: Entangle blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from White Knight Leo's Radiant Blade for 207 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Margaret's Twisting Flurry for 139 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel is too busy with her ritual to be amazed that Kaguya has a gun that buffs people but it's pretty amazing.
"WAH WAH WAHHHH" Nob shouts as a sudden wash FWOOSHES through the Qubeley, cleaning it of what might be centuries of dirt and grime but also sending it tumbling onto its back. "WaAaAaAAaAhhhh" Hob wails with the kind of cartoonish squeal that is almost reassuring.
There is no answer coming to Hiro. Marivel is done talking for the moment. Ditto Zed. It's unclear if she could even hear these latest pleas. Seems like you're gonna have to deal with her Gears first.
Hiro backs off from Hiro and sends ghostly clones spiraling into air, cleaving through a whole slew of them. These are not recognizable to Hiro. The only person who still remembers these ghosts is Marivel herself. Maybe even Anastasia has forgotten their names.
Mariel is able to catch Qubeley and Revelry both into something that drains their power. There's some sputtering and they trudge backwards closer to one another. Zed meanwhile pushes Asgard back with several quick swipes. The barrier is holding strong but Zed is clobbering Asgard with such ferocity it is STILL being pushed back. Perhaps it is weaker, or perhaps it is our heroes that are stronger.
Gwen follows up with a powerful punch right to Asgard's shin, breaking through the weakened barrier to collide it against the gear's leg. It sinks to one knee, still as impassive as ever.
"Squeee!" Nob is so happy to see Gwen. This isn't stopping Nob from piloting the mecha.
Shige doesn't get an answer from Marivel but she does get one from Belle. "Well," Bell says. "She is a demon. The Mistress is not human. She is not even from this reality." Shige tries to walk past Revelry by surrounding it with ghosts but she's having difficult really getting past it. Revelry is big and low hanging and there's just no real way to just walk past. She could try climbing Revelry? But this might prove to be a bad idea in a moment.
Harmaus affirms his right to having wanted to kill a lady for longer than anyone else here! This is true. Even Marivel only very recently even considered the possibility that Althena wasn't simply...deterred somehow. Harmaus's chains lash out and bind Qubeley as it struggles to tear into Margaret with its drill. Despite the chains inflicting thinck burns against the machine, those chains are already starting to SNAAAAP.
But it gives Margaret enough time to do what she wants to do.
Margaret speeds up. The Qubeley has no magic. It's just a giant construction bot. She strikes at the drill. It speeds up. She strikes at it again. IT goes even faster. Faster and faster Margaret makes the drill spin before
*CRAAAAAACK!*
The drill partially snaps off its hinges and rapidly slows to a stop as automatic safety mechanisms within the Qubeley engage. It flops backwards and Hob says, "Bwaaaaaah!" All three gears on the ground are now nice and close to each other.
Leo feels true fury. Belle meanwhile is as chillax as ever. So what if an empire falls? Or survives? She's seen this theater play out again and again.
Lucifer's pincher claws are pried free from Leo and he swipes down at the Gear, cleaving off not just the pincer but all three of them, sending them tumbling to the ground.
There is one eye on Lucifer and it is very big. It stares down at it. Light flashes into it as it lets Leo drop.
And it keeps rising.
And rising.
BGM INTERRUPT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeKbCcq9gT8&ab_channel=Dworim
Lucifer flies so high up in a flash so that it is not even a dot in the sky. Belle flicks some dials and knobs and says, "Preparing Morning Star Bombardment. Prepare Mechanized Program BRUTEJUSTICE.EXE"
"YAAAY!!" Revelry cheers and leaps away from Shige, ghosts falling off its body as it crouches down into the dirt as Qubeley floats up into the air, spins around upside down, and inserts itself into Revelry's back.
QUICK TIME EVENT!!
Asgard darts forward, interposing itself between you and the other two gears, summoning a barrier between you and they!. Mariel drained them of power earlier so instead of anything happening immediately, they slowly start charging up, gestalting their power systems along with one another. You're going to have to break through that barrier!
But Revelry isn't idle during this process either! It fires off a slew of minimissiles into the air and they soar up into the air before coming back down in multiple locations around!. "Lets play catch!" Revelry sings. "You throw first then back at me!" They do look small enough that maybe you can knock them back to Revelry somehow?
And finally....
"TARGET LOCKED!" Belle shouts as Lucifer's particle cannon points down towards the Goddess's Square, intending to unleash the full power of a weapon banned by the treaty of Iscariot against this location. "She said to trust you can handle this... And you said you'd protect the city..."
From orbit, Lucifer unleashes the fully charged cannon. A massive swath of energy comes crashing down. Leo and Kaguya are going to have to do something to stop that from unleashing massive damage to Pentagulia! In the sky, it looks like it's just a new star in the sky.
But in an instant it'll be coming down with all its might. They'll have to time their movements perfectly to catch the blast!
_____________________________| QUICK TIME EVENT!!!|_____________________________ _ GAVEL _ _ _ _ _ _ White Knight Leo, Seraph Harmaus, Shige Kiwako, Gwen Whitlock, Margaret, _ _ Zed, Hiro, Mariel, Seraph Lanval, and Kaguya: _ _ +qte/react <guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge> _
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Shige Kiwako takes 106 damage and gains 45 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Kaguya takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Hiro takes 80 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Mariel takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Zed takes 71 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! White Knight Leo takes 73 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Margaret takes 0 damage and gains 15 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Seraph Harmaus takes 110 damage and gains 45 FP!
GS: Seraph Harmaus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! Gwen Whitlock takes 80 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Low Success! Seraph Lanval takes 112 damage and gains 45 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Harmaus. Of course, Harmaus is here. Because it would be worse if he were here, so obviously he is. Kaguya frowns, up from the rooftop and looks down towards him. "Your Lord of Calamity was an asshole and so are you!" Kaguya shouts down at him.
Marivel doesn't have an answer for her. That's fine. She has plenty of answers for Marivel right now. None of them are very nice. But Leo hears her, and Leo can answer. They can talk about it in a minute. Since, he's still at it--
Shige Kaguya doesn't know, but she seems to have the same idea as the rest of them. Across the battlefield Margaret is helping Hiro, and Hiro--Hiro passes on ehr shout.
The others are going on--
The Event occurs. "Morning Star..."
"MARIVEL!" Kaguya shouts, full of fury and pain both. Then she moves. She starts firing wildly down at Asgard's barrier, and then darts from building to building as the missiles come down, each one barely getting past her at the point of explosion. But finally, Belle shouts--
"DAMN YOU!"
"Leo!" Kaguya calls. "...Together! Destruction, and protection! We can do it!"
She throws her arm back, charging up power in Zeikfried. The gun's black and gold appearance shines in the gloom of the dark moon, gathering light after brilliant light.
"Haaaaaaah--!"
Kaguya LEAPS upward, the green Veruni armor at her arms showing after all the explosive missiles. She puts the weapon out before herself and begins to line up her shot, straight for that star. "Hitting a moving target... Can't be that hard, can it? It's moving my way!"
Midair, the small Veruni lines up her aim, and Zeikfried is practically a new star in the sky.
She FIRES, and the spiritual bullet carrying the hopes of Filgaia and Lunar both rockets up towards the machine in the far sky.
Kaguya herself is but a blip in the heavens as she fires.
GS: Kaguya spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Kaguya has attacked Marivel Armitage with Greater Binding Shot! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Margaret once again saves Mariel, this time from a drill. Mariel couldn't *not* see it coming, but her only plan was to escape, darting between two buildings where it (hopefully) couldn't follow her (quickly).
But she was clearly not expecting Margaret to be able to stop - no, *break* the drill. Her eyes widen as she hunkers down, this time against the noise and the dust rather than any attack directed at her. It washes over her in a wave, making her robe billow but leaving Mariel herself thankfully unharmed, unless having ringing ears counts as harmed.
"...thank you," she says, quietly.
"They're under an illusion, not a transformation!" Mariel clarifies for Hiro. "Their footprints are human, and one that Margaret punched," sorry about your disguise, Margaret, "started looking like a Guard."
Mariel wanted to talk to Marivel as one of the people close to her, as someone who might - emphasis on *might* - be able to get through to her. And now several people have decided that the way to defuse this is to get Mariel to her.
No pressure.
Now it's even more important that she figures out what Marivel is doing, and what to say - and to do. She must want chaos, Mariel thinks. She wants emotions to be high. But why? To do something, obviously, but what and how? A ritual is building, and if she had *time* she could open up and try to figure it out, and though she's trying to do it as she moves, doing that while under attack is a tall order.
Especially with Asgard beginning to form a barrier. Mariel knows the original Asgard would make something nearly unbreakable; this one, she thinks, may or may not be weaker, but it's *slower*, and that's critical. Mariel whips a bunch of small red flowers out of her robe and draws upon her own powers, doing something else new:
She uses the staff as an amplifier, or perhaps a focus. The crystal glows faintly as the verbena sublimates into a hundred thousand points of light, surrounding Mariel and others nearby as she releases the energy bound into the flowers. "Go!" she says - and throws herself through where Asgard is forming the barrier at a dead run, her footsteps trailing the same glimmering red light as the flowers did. Others affected by the flowers have the same shimmering footprint.
Accelerated by the verbena, Mariel takes a zig-zagging path to avoid falling missiles. An evasive maneuver, and she speeds up again; she does not try to knock missiles back by any means, perhaps unsurprisingly given it's Mariel. "Marivel!" she calls again, out of breath from the speed of her run. "This has gone too far! The city...!"
With a beam like that, she can do nothing. She has to trust others to handle it.
GS: Mariel has attacked Hiro with Red Verbena! GS: Mariel has attacked Margaret with Red Verbena! GS: Mariel has attacked Mariel with Red Verbena! GS: Mariel has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Red Verbena! GS: Mariel has attacked Shige Kiwako with Red Verbena! GS: Mariel has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Hiro accepts Mariel's Red Verbena for 0 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Hiro! GS: Margaret accepts Mariel's Red Verbena for 0 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Mariel's Red Verbena for 0 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Marivel isn't answering any longer, and that makes him rather unhappy with the situation as a whole beyond even you know, the mass murder.
Or at least maybe so he thinks? "An illusion?" He eyes her, "What is she up to? ...Alright!"
Lucifer though starts complicating matters! Along with Revelry! Mariel sends verbena his way, giving him the speed to help him through what comes next. "Everyone charge! We have to disrupt whatever they're doing!"
And Hiro suddenly charges right through Asgard before he can put up the barrier.
Revelry though lays out the terms of the game, and deciding to charge right through rather than play the game? He's suddenly scorched by a variety of minimissiles.
When it comes to Lucifer's Particle Cannon though, Hiro suddenly yells, "Everyone down! Brace!" His reaction to this however is simply to raise his shield, perhaps taking position in front of Mariel since she has little means of defense, "Slash through bloody iniquity, Dark Sword!"
A magical field forms, runes shimmering before enchanted magical blades careen towards the blast, attempting to disperse some of its energy before it strikes the city itself.
It may not do much compared to Kaguya and Leo, but he has to try SOMETHING at this point!
GS: Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Dark Sword! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Greater Binding Shot for 164 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Poison Ward may block the effect! GS: Hex and Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Hiro's Dark Sword for 191 hit points! GS: Dispel! Amplify and Cover removed! GS: Hyper applied to Hiro! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo falls. This time, there is no one to catch him. A radiant golden glow pulses around him as he reorients in mid-air, twisting to hit the ground shoulder-first. He reaches out, spreads a hand--the amber crystals on his gauntlet burn brilliantly. Below, a good twenty square feet of roofing softens into loosely-packed silt over a slate frame. The White Knight slams into it with a heavy CRUNCH, kicking up plumes of freshly-made sediment as he skids along the building. He plants a hand beneath himself, shakes his head, and scrambles to his feet. He hasn't missed the ominous glow building in the sky.
Leo throws that same hand forward, and SPIKES of earth erupt from beneath Asgard, slamming into the barrier. Missiles streak at him, and Leo shields his head with his arms, simply enduring the blooming explosions. Kaguya's shield flickers with each impact. And then...
It's going to fire, Leo realizes.
Pentagulia is the Goddess' seat of power. The Goddess has much to answer for, but she is not here. Pentagulia contains the rotting, diseased heart of a conspiracy against two worlds. Pentagulia contains thousands upon thousands of people who have no idea this conspiracy exists: clerks and stablehands, shopkeepers, housekeepers, scribes, servants. Even those who're far from innocent--is Marivel's trial justice?
Leo doesn't think so. It's something he can cling to, even in his misery.
"FORWARD!" Leo roars, and this time he sounds almost like his old self. He plucks something white and gleaming from around his neck. The symbol of the White Dragon glows with a pure, pearlescent radiance all its own. As Kaguya takes her shot, Leo lines up behind her, holds up the Crest. It burns.
An aurora of white spreads across the sky as Leo draws on more power than he ever has. Motes of power fall to earth as the barrier expands, landing on Hiro, and Lanval, and Margaret.
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Moderate Success! White Knight Leo takes 75 damage and gains 30 FP!
GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
What, no combat banter? That's against the rules! Talking is a free action, Marivel! But you can't have battle conversations when there's only one person talking! "Of course you can get better at fighting Asgard!" Zed protests, "I definitely got better at fighting Asgard. But this is too big. A too big Asgard! There's a limit to certain things, Gwen! Even though I may transcend such things with time, it requires appropriately DRAMATIC TIMING!"
Like... right now.
"...What, we need to get..." Zed's gaze pivots from the giant robots, which are EVEN NOW commencing a combination attack of truly terrific proportions, to... a small Elw. One that Zed very much recognizes. "Mariel... Mm... Alright! Gwen--"
A barrier materializes. Zed vanishes in a flutter of scarf and a flurry of motion, and only a moment later appears behind the adorable ancient. "--I leave the launch to you! Throw me, as hard as you can, toward our destination! As for you..."
Zed... Gently wraps his arms around Mariel. The screen frame briefly devolves into sparkles and blooming roses...
Shortly before the Elw is hucked up onto his shoulders and secured in place there with two synthleather-bound hands. "Hold on tight! Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times during our flight. Watch your step on the dismount. And as always, thank you for flying Zedder Airways...!"
What... what is he talking about? He's not a vehicle. He's not an airship. But what he IS is a delivery vector.
"GWEN," Zed shouts, "DO IIIIIT!"
(Shige might, if she realizes what Mariel is, briefly catch sight of a Metal Demon and an Elw cooperating for the greater good. Cats and dogs, getting along!! Or as the case happens to be-- bunnies and devils!?)
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Hiro with White Dragon's Protection! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seraph Lanval with White Dragon's Protection! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Margaret with White Dragon's Protection! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Margaret accepts White Knight Leo's White Dragon's Protection for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Lanval accepts White Knight Leo's White Dragon's Protection for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Marivel Armitage used Force Action: Mystic on Margaret! FP up! GS: Shige Kiwako takes a solid hit from Mariel's Red Verbena for 0 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Evade bonus, and Gleam activated! GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Hiro accepts White Knight Leo's White Dragon's Protection for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Hiro!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It is the nature of water to eventually erode just about anything, for how much of it gets taken, infiltrated, and otherwise divided and shaped by outside forces, as Lanval stands and makes his declaration that it won't be like this.
"Hm hm hm." A musing, mirthful thing to Harmaus' snarling about what all transpired. What happened was not light-hearted, but there was a hard-won victory in all of that sequence through Artorius' Throne.
He's given up on following Margaret's movements and is assuming the totality of any space that has, or had Margaret, is just one whole Margaret, and that is how he is going to keep his life simple in the moment.
He catches something rise up, something big, then progressively tiny, then invisible save for the great lights about to strike down.
"That 'tis not the light of relief!" Lanval calls as he tries to hurl himself through to Asgard's barrier - forming plenty of energetic static from the impact as he tries to charge through it with swings of his drinking gourd, having to work with everyone else's approach through it (or around it)....
Revelry tries to play catch. He swings the drinking gourd around to try and deflect a whole lot of them, but some may yet explode and scorch around and about him in short order as a new set of craters invites him to take a rest, a chill pill... but he stays upright.
There's a blast coming. He staggers and stumbles along forward, as the White Knight finds his resolve to stand and keep protecting something worth putting his everything into. The aurora of white envelopes the presence of someone tapping into all that is water - great and less so - and Seraph Lanval comes up from Leo's left flank while the barrier expands. Should it fail...
It's not going to be 'it' that fails. It's for all of them - and 'they' can't fail here.
"I stand with thee!" Seraph Lanval calls, whirling the drinking gourd by its rope as sanctified waters flow forth and, in its mists, impart further blessings upon Hiro, Margaret, Leo, and himself - channeling upon both the forces of Schturdark and his own many years of experience as a Lord of the Land to reinforce their armaments with water itself.
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Hiro with Lord Of The Lake! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Margaret with Lord Of The Lake! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked White Knight Leo with Lord Of The Lake! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Lord Of The Lake! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
When you're halfway stuck in the past, it's easy to miss things like incoming attacks from machines. Standing there in a stupor, she was too late to get out of the way of the worst of it and finds herself battered, bruised, nowhere where she was thinking she'd been 30 seconds ago and slightly clearer headed.
She thought.
There's an image she's pretty sure is head trauma related as she lays in the aftermath.
Her hand grabs the chain at her belt and pulls the lantern over to herself. Then she sits up. Stands up and sorts herself out.
Mostly. Turns out it's a good way to snap her out of things! Maybe. Probably not good long term, but there are a lot of people that need help and she was partially right. She can do something now this time.
The lantern is raised and the shades return to her. Something of a rallying cry, or the echo of one filling the area. Each of the memories of soldiers and healers past moving to try do their best to help the living. "Sorry." Is all she can think to say. Processing what's actually happening here and now. Trying to keep focused on the now in particular. Even Zed gets aid. Though the feline can't shake a sense of.. something at the idea of doing so.
This is a later problem.
GS: Hiro accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Hiro! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Zed with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked White Knight Leo with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Hiro with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 2 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Shige Kiwako heals Zed! He gains 187 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Zed! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Hiro! He gains 189 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Hiro!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Uh...." Gwen obliviously gives Nob a stunned thumbs up with her left hand.
Overhearing Mariel's comment to Hiro, Gwen's brain tries to digest this new information.
Which is remarkably hard, since there's a barrier between them and where she's trying to go. Or, get Mariel to. Becase then, Mariel will convince Marivel to do the thing, that is already set in stone. So what was the plan again?
Ah, right, DRAMATIC TIMING! "... Zed? Y'got an idea?"
'Throw me, as hard as you can, toward our destination!'
".... Throw you what?" Mariel's Red Vervain was a blessing, but this seems a little much. _Surely Gwen misheard._
However, Zed is placing Mariel adorably on his shoulders in a vision of two races coming together for peace and the greater good!
"... W-wait, lemme warm up the Mockingbird first! This strength's lopsided right now!" Gwen grips her right hand into a fist, and clenches her teeth, forcing the energy gathered in it straight into her body for a tempoary boost, except, on a shorter span of time than she's done this before.
It feels like drinking a soda and getting a belch stuck in your throat, except it's in a bunch of nerves at once, and it's hitting the right side of her face, and finally the skin around her right eye, in such a way that.... it may actually have broken a few blood vessels in the way.
So yes. Gwen has charged up so fast she gave herself a black eye.
None of that matters! _It's time for launch!_ Gwen hefts Zed and a safely secured(?) Mariel on her right shoulder, and, like a lady athlete trying to qualify for the shot put championship. "GRAAHHH!"
GS: Shige Kiwako heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 194 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Uh...." Gwen obliviously gives Nob a stunned thumbs up with her left hand.
Overhearing Mariel's comment to Hiro, Gwen's brain tries to digest this new information.
Which is remarkably hard, since there's a barrier between them and where she's trying to go. Or, get Mariel to. Becase then, Mariel will convince Marivel to do the thing, that is already set in stone. So what was the plan again?
Ah, right, DRAMATIC TIMING! "... Zed? Y'got an idea?"
'Throw me, as hard as you can, toward our destination!'
".... Throw you what?" Mariel's Red Vervain and Shige's healing were blessings, but this seems a little much. _Surely Gwen misheard._
However, Zed is placing Mariel adorably on his shoulders in a vision of two races coming together for peace and the greater good!
"... W-wait, lemme warm up the Mockingbird first! This strength's lopsided right now!" Gwen grips her right hand into a fist, and clenches her teeth, forcing the energy gathered in it straight into her body for a tempoary boost, except, on a shorter span of time than she's done this before.
It feels like drinking a soda and getting a belch stuck in your throat, except it's in a bunch of nerves at once, and it's hitting the right side of her face, and finally the skin around her right eye, in such a way that.... it may actually have broken a few blood vessels in the way.
So yes. Gwen has charged up so fast she gave herself a black eye.
None of that matters! _It's time for launch!_ Gwen hefts Zed and a safely secured(?) Mariel on her right shoulder, and, like a lady athlete trying to qualify for the shot put championship. "GRAAHHH!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Bounding Flight! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 65 THP from Regen! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock accepts Gwen Whitlock's Bounding Flight for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Hyper, and Quick applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed is launched. Zed is launched with all the might a courier can muster. This is her right, this is her domain. For what is a thrown object but a package, and what is a courier but one who sees packages delivered to their final destination? There is no stopping this. There is only to do or die.
At the moment he is tossed, Zed kicks off of Gwen's hands, adding to his already tremendous velocity. But that's not all. "Hold on tight," he reminds his passenger as Asgard's barrier rises, invincibly, in their path, "For Zed... It's MORPHIN' TIME."
Zed's eyes flash. His body shines! It blazes with green, otherworldly energy, before resolving into the inexplicably mechanical form of one Zedder Robo (Dragon). Shige's summoned specters lift their voices, and it's as though the DARK HERO has revealed his true form amidst the victorious din of his OPENING THEME SONG...! But he's not done there. He's not done by a longshot. Mariel is still mounted to his shoulders, but there is a wall in their way, and Zed must break through.
"And for this... Once again...!" Zedder Robo declares, "TRAAAANSFORM!" Limbs fold inward, collapsing into the strange mecha-man's torso. An ENTIRE THRUST COLUMN emerges from its hips, replacing its legs. His upper body fuses together, forming nothing less than an UNSTOPPABLE WARHEAD. Mariel, atop his shoulders, is secured... by a handy seatbelt.
...As Zed has transformed... into a cheesy, pulpy rocket ship.
"YEEEEAAAAAAAAARRRRRT--!" Zedder Robo roars, plunging straight through Asgard's shield like it were a pane of glass. It weaves this way and that, missiles twisting after it like fireworks at a carnival, but a flash of an emerald laser beam erupts from the rocket's nosecone, scything through the lot and setting them off prematurely. The destination is ahead. All he needs to do...
...Is get Mariel there.
"You've got this from here, miss Mariel!" Zed's voice intones from everywhere and nowhere at once. "I'll cover you from the beam! Go and knock some sense into your friend!" Rocket-Zed twists down toward ground level, closer than ever to the center of the square. The seatbelt around Mariel comes undone and a panel hinges up to nudge her out onto the flagstones... As Zedder Robo rises, humanoid once more, to interpose itself between the Elw and the column of all-consuming Golem-light.
Arms spread wide, all he can do is become a wall... And hope that Mariel can take care of the rest...!
DC: Zed switches forms to Zedder Robo Dragon!
GS: Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage with Ultimate Zed! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed gains 57 THP from Regen! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Margaret accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret pants for breath as the Quebeley rears back. "Well, you're welcome," she tells Mariel. She needs a moment. A moment enough for the Gears to stagger backwards. Please, she prays to the Goddess: Let them smash into each other and fall into a heap. Even if they block the entranceway, we can climb -
"DAMNATION AND WASTE FIRE" Margaret shouts as they begin to combine themselves together. The fire of her blade dims, though it doesn't go out -- it probably can't, but Margaret may want to try and prolong this blade, if only because she only has so many and is certainly anticipating several battles at this fine pace. And then --
Mariel draws on something of her own. An energy pours into Margaret and she is SUDDENLY THRUST INTO THAT STATE SHE REACHED WITH RIXIA'S AID!
"GAHHHHHHHH" Margaret half-howls half-screams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IfaVEhMKGw
The world changes color as Margaret shakes her head once and leans forwards, into air that feels more like thin water. She can feel it swirl around her, a sensation normally only felt when one dips one hand out of a window in Neo-Vane, or on a Filgaian train...
Margaret surges forwards, her burning blade smashing into the air, disrupting the forming barrier long enough for her to get past it. For it's moving so slowly, like mercury on the coldest of cold days...
She turns then, bicycle-kicking her way up the back of the Asgard unit to reach the top of its head, jumping into the air and flit - flit - flit - the sparkling distortion of the ring Rex had left her feeling different, like, like swimming in lime gelatin - kicking two of the missiles from the side, hitting one at the wrong angle and SEEING that it is starting to explode, letting her flit-zip away from it...
Into the air. She can hear Leo, screaming - the sound is so interesting, Margaret thinks. It's slowed down, like an extended note, but somehow she knows it's exactly what he is saying. The barrier ripples outwards, and Margaret rises.
Alright, Margaret thinks. Time to be the hero.
With what, Margaret thinks further. I don't have attack magic. I'm not going to hit it in time. I can't dash faster - if this was flat ground I might be able to run but it'd still -
The blade in her left hand still burns. Margaret looks into the curiously decelerated flames. She sucks in a deep breath and raises the weapon upwards even as the billowing cool water -- AND THE RESULTING AIR BILLOW - of Schturdark rises from beneath her.
"Alright, then," she says to the onrushing thing. "I'll show you what a real sorceress can do." Her left arm brings backwards, her entire body turning with it as she does, twisting in a way that would be quite unpleasant to do on the ground but involves no contact with the ground. This is not a motion bodies usually take, but bodies usually aren't in the air for long.
Won't be enough, Margaret thinks. But - I've been using the - yes.
There are three green-glass explosions in the air as Margaret twists herself in place 360, 720, and 1080 degrees in a full rotation before HURLING the burning blade outwards and upwards towards the blade, a spiralling disk of sorcerous flame that erupts as it flies. And when it touches the beam front:
It explodes! Not into nothing, but into SOMETHING - into a cloud of incinerating metal shards, each of them refulgent with the frustrated dreams of soldiers of a long-ago land and the sorcerous might of the Black Pearl of Houndstooth!
At this point Margaret is going to have to figure out how she lands, but that is a problem for the Margaret of the future.
GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with A Continuous Motion...! GS: Margaret has gained 3 Combo! GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link! GS: Margaret spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with THE GREAT DIVIDE! GS: Margaret has gained 2 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Zed's Ultimate Zed for 181 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Gamble: Low! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Margaret's A Continuous Motion... for 56 hit points! GS: Slow blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Margaret's THE GREAT DIVIDE for 192 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Lanval earns for his part a glare as Harmaus stalks away from him. Were there other matters than the right to take Althena's head--
Of course, Kaguya probes the matter more bluntly.
"Ah??" Harmaus utters in response to Kaguya's remarks. "It speaks such of my Lord? It speaks falsely?! I tolerates traitor not at all!" Fleetingly, the cat-shaped Seraph pivots Kaguya's way, a bolt of corroded gold flinging in Kaguya's approximate direction. She won't even have to move to avoid it; it slams into a nearby statue instead.
Harmaus, for his part, does not linger. "But, ah-- has I much, much to attend!"
This being the obstacles in his path, of course.
The chains do not hold Qubeley long. For all Harmaus' seven hundred and seventy-seven years, he is an infant next to Marivel -- and her technological might. He snarls wordlessly as the machine breaks free, though he has but little time to consider the failure of his arte.
Here, Lucifer begins its assault.
Charging for the barrier, corrupted light swelling about him, Harmaus would apparently seek to knock down this particular wall. But there come missiles from above and little room even for a spiritual being to evade them. There are explosions.
Harmaus slides from the rubble in the moments after, shaking dust and debris from his coat. Ears flattened against his head, he glares balefully at the descending beam.
Light, terrible, golden, rent through with corrosion and dark flame, leaps out as a nimbus about Harmaus' corpus as he begins to rise into the air. Could this be the mark of his transformation to his Hellionized state -- to again draw the darkness out into the light?
The light swells. He is the dawn, but it is a sickly, ill-omened dawn.
The light flashes.
"HER HEAD IS MINE! MINE!" Harmaus screams to the sky above. "FIRST LIGHT!"
The light flashes green.
GS: Seraph Harmaus has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Seraph Harmaus has attacked Marivel Armitage with First Light! GS: Seraph Harmaus has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Seraph Harmaus's First Light for 257 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel isn't answering anyone. But she did say why. Even a Sorceress of Eld needs to concentrate sometimes... but what sort of magicks is she concentrating on? Is it really what she said it was?
Kaguya, Hiro, and Leo band together to push back against the orbital strike. Intense light presses against Hiro's blades--and perhaps that little bit of extra aid is what allows the power of the White Dragon to clash against that of the Morning Star, pushing it back--as Leo further provides aid to his allies in the process. The energy presses against this power of Leo's, a power that rivals that of the Morning Star itself. But it's only resisting. Leo can feel himself being pushed out by the pure inertia of the plasma energy.
That is until Kaguya takes aim with a power of her own, like Vegeta distracting Cell--she fires the shot into the beamstruggle and presses it back. The struggle is further added with the help of ZEDDER ROBO and Margaret further pushing against the beam that weakens with every consecutive strike!
The final push comes from Harmaus's own light that rapidly crashes hard against the Morning Star's bombardment, pushing it back--nearly to Lucifer itself.
Leo can feel the weight leaving him, Hiro can see it pushing back farther and farther until suddenly the blast loses just enough cohesion that Kaguya's blast punctures through it, the energy of the Morning Star disperses as the power of Zeikfried slices through Lucifer. The power of Satan stands nothing before the power of a cool gun.
"GNGGH!" Belle grunts as the blast punches right through her, leaving a thick hole in her midsection. Lucifer rapidly descends as its power thrusters cut out.
Others prepare for some terrible shit to happen.
"Chrrrrp?"
"Krrrrrp?"
Hob and Nob are getting confused as to what game this is but they know what to do next.
And terrible things are about to happen as Lucifer rights itself up at the last moment, hovering behind the other three golems.
Revelry rapidly transforms, forming a large handle as Qubeley's eye closes shut--the two golems form an impromptu DRILL HAMMER that Asgard hefts up into its arms. Asgard fuels the Drill Hammer with his barriers as Lucifer ejects the wounded Belle to the ground and affixes itself to Asgard's back, forming wings.
Belle sets her eyes on Shige. She doesn't say anything. But she waits, patiently. Expectantly.
But there is a bigger problem as Asgard says, "ACTIVATING TIMESTOP PROTOCOL." He swings the drill hammer to the side, singular eye narrowing.
The combined machines start to glow red from overheating, swinging its hammer in a ferocious rage at the heroes (and cat) arrayed against it. ANd one by one...
The Timestop protocol activates, freezing each hero (and cat) one by one in time.
This is the last chance to stop Marivel's invasion. It's a matter of whether you can dismantle this combined mecha or if it'll freeze you in place first.
GS: Marivel Armitage has become ENRAGED! GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Harmaus with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Zed with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Gwen Whitlock with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Hiro with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Mariel with TIMESTOP! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Kaguya with TIMESTOP! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Marivel Armitage has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: CRITICAL! Zed takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Ruin! Regen removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Zed! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Zed! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Harmaus with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Zed with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hiro with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Mariel with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Kaguya with Drill Gavel! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mute expired! GS: Enrage purges all positive status! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 154 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya partially guards Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruin! Mighty removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Kaguya! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Kaguya! GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 242 hit points! GS: Mariel accepts Mariel's Red Verbena for 0 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Mariel! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Mariel takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Ruin! Quick and Shield removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Mariel! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Mariel! GS: Mariel suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 139 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Mariel gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Mariel receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Mariel enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Margaret takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Ruin! Amplify, Burst, Quick, Shield, and Surge removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Margaret! GS: Margaret takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 69 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
DC: Margaret switches forms to I Am The Starlight!
GS: Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruin! Burst, Quick, and Shield removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Lanval receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Seraph Lanval! GS: Shige Kiwako heals White Knight Leo! He gains 186 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo solidly guards Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Ruin! Amplify, Burst, Quick, Regen, and Surge removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from White Knight Leo! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: Seraph Lanval partially evades Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 113 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 151 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Hiro fully evades Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak blocked! GS: Hiro solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 67 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hiro enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Mariel used Force Action: Mystic on Zed! FP up! GS: Entangle removed! GS: Gwen Whitlock solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 88 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Shige Kiwako takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Ruin! Quick removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Shige Kiwako! GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 185 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruin! Amplify, Hyper, and Regen removed! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Leo shouts Forward, with the Blessing of the White Dragon coming upon him, shielding him from harm. He'd stop to offer thanks, but he can't stop. Nor can he offer the same to Lanval for his own blessings right now, or Shige for his healing.
They all keep him going, inexorably towards the Square where they are supposed to find Marivel. There's no stopping, none of them can stop lest things get worse, get more out of hand.
They need to talk to her, but in order to do that they need to stop her. The Time Stop protocol activates and- Hiro freezes. The Drill Hammer looms, as if to come down upon his head and...
He twitches. The hammer descends, his shield moves at the last moment to intercept it, sparks flying as his shield slams against it in a parry. He doesn't know why he avoided it, perhaps a faint gleam is the only evidence as to why.
He doesn't waste this opportunity however, as his sword gleams, and suddenly his image splits, while the Time Stop is still active, the threefold images of him leap at the combination of Asgard, Belle, and Lucifer.
Each one slashes down so brutally it leaves a gouge in space at the point where he slashes each of Marivel's creations, leaving that scar present for all to see.
"Enough, Marivel." It's not until the Time Stop effect ends, that each gouge spasms, and collapses, the wind rushing in violently and explosively against each of them.
"Now we hold you to every single one of your broken promises."
GS: Hiro has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Hiro spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Hiro has attacked Marivel Armitage with Trinity Crisis! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro's stances have changed from Avenger to Hero! GS: Hiro gains 63 THP from Regen! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Harmaus solidly guards Marivel Armitage's TIMESTOP for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Harmaus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Seraph Harmaus! GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Seraph Harmaus! GS: Seraph Harmaus takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Drill Gavel for 73 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Harmaus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Seraph Harmaus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mid-run, Mariel is abruptly picked up by Zed.
"Eh...? Zed, what are you - "
Who is then thrown by Gwen.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Mariel squeezes her eyes closed, clenching her hands and legs against Zed's shoulders and upper back in a desperate attempt to *hang on*. Her ears blow back from the speed, flopping in the slipstream. Even the arrival of a seat belt does not convince her to either open her eyes or let go.
She's still clinging when he gets to where he's going, though by then she has opened her eyes. She's going to have WORDS for Zed and Gwen later, but right now she can just barely catch her breath. "...thank you," she gets out, and half-steps, half-falls out of Zedder Robo, catching herself on the staff and pushing herself back upright.
There's one obstacle left. One thing stopping them from approaching Marivel. And Mariel hates hurting living beings... the machines, who Marivel cares for so much, count as much as any. (That, and she isn't entirely sure how much some of these particular ones think for themselves.)
"I'm sorry," Mariel says, and these aren't words for Marivel. These are words for the combined machines. She reaches into her satchel, retrieving one - two - three pouches, all of which she opens up and dumps into a cupped hand. In each of them is a gritty green-grey powder: dried seaweed of a particular type, ground up, treated by some alchemical process and mixed with some other ingredients. Little flecks catch the light inside it.
Mariel holds her cupped hand high, raising it to near her staff. The staff's crystal glows once again as she channels her own Elw magic through it, a little mote of trapped pink in the crystal catching all the facets and casting a tinted band of colours across the powder. The little glittery flecks catch and absorb this, shining with an irregular rainbow; more of the colours involved are from the red side of the spectrum than the blue.
And then she pitches it at the combined robots, dispersing it into a large cloud.
Against living flesh, the powder is itchy and little more. Against metal, it weakens it; iron becomes a brittle thing, gold softer, steel strangely stretchy and taffy-like. The combination of Elw alchemy and Elw sorcery takes root, weakening it for what comes after.
"Stop them - " Mariel doesn't say anything else before a hammer catches her, and time stops, freezing her in midair. That's her last contribution.
GS: Mariel spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Mariel has attacked Marivel Armitage with Smarna Weed! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Mariel's Smarna Weed for 47 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Poison Ward may block the effect! GS: Poison and Shieldbreak applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
The people on the ground, the people in the air (of whom there are suddenly more); all are working together. Kaguya maanges to hover in place thanks to the sheer power of her weapon, but only for so long.
As Harmaus shoots back at her. She's lucky it didn't hit; she grits her teeth, and has some words for him in a minute.
Before that, as everyone works together, and Kaguya pushes back the power of Satan--
She has a very cool gun indeed.
Kaguya finally starts to fall, and hits a rooftop with her knees bending to absorb the impact. She narrows her eyes down at the remaining Gears. There is much to answer... But--
The Golems combine. Kaguya narrows her eyes. She hears of it; timestop protocol. It's... something of a problem. But the machines are overheating. It swings its hammer...
"I DON'T THINK SO!"
She feels time starting to slow to a stop around her, and Kaguya vibrates with power. She forces herself to keep moving, even as she feels the effect start to slow her down. It's beginning; that hammer is slamming towards her, and oh--it hits, all right. Kaguya takes a terrible blow from it, her armor crunching again as she sacrifices more plating in order to avoid being incapacitated--and blood starts to drip from her side, where the armor crunches in against her hard enough to draw blood. Still, she works to aim.
"AND HARMUAS!" she calls. "You can betray my ENTIRE ASS!"
She aims, closely. The world for her seems to fall away. There is only her heart and the target.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Just after Hiro, Kaguya FIRES, and power tears from her as she does, a tiny green spiritual bullet moving for center mass of the combination mecha--where it may well trigger a chain reaction.
Mariel gave the last of what she had for them to take these shots. Kaguya aims to make this count. Elw magic... Well, why not?
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Kaguya has attacked Marivel Armitage with Moment of Truth! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret looks downwards. At Pentagulia, from - wow, Margaret thinks, I am almost as high as Neo-Vane.
She glances momentarily over at Harmaus, but if he's spending his anger at the bright light - well, as a wise general once said: Let the enemies fight, if they are fighting. Her eyes look downwards then. The great machines.
I could stay here forever, Margaret thinks. Maybe I would, if I died right here. It's not sleep at all, is it? No, it isn't.
Not right now, Margaret thinks.
Zwip-zwip-zwip as she moves downwards, hair trailing behind her as she dives downwards. This means that she's able to see the first time someone becomes temporally locked...
The hammer, Margaret thinks. Her eyes flick to the side. Would this work? Could it possibly work? Feh, she thinks, listen to what you told Hiro a minute ago, you old bag! Of course it could! And so Margaret leans into her downwards dive and -
zwip! 'Reappears' on the shoulders of the combined horror-machine with her sword present. Margaret looks carefully for things she can stab but she is surprisingly unproductive in absolute terms. She doesn't seem to have a lot of hope to just carve through heavy steel, so she looks for tubes, cables, joints... stabbing, twisting, tearing.
And when she feels a tightening in the magic around her --
Margaret throws herself forwards to be as close to the head of the great Gear as she can be.
Rex, Margaret thinks: If you're there, either give me a little luck or get my seat ready--
even as time slows down.
GS: Margaret has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Weightless Steel! GS: Margaret has gained 2 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Seraph Lanval's sense of the world around him gradually returns as the Morning Star laser is dispersed with, give or take a few other artifacts and distortions from visuals of incredible power on display to protect and reinforce - analogous to how organic corporeal beings eventually have their sight return once a bright light fades (to a point).
Enough to see the remaining weapons combine their forces into a weapon of comparable destructive power for how much earth, stone, and everything it can move as Asgard hefts the immense DRILL HAMMER over them. As the hammer comes swinging down against the ground near where Seraph Lanval stands...
He's not 'standing' there any more, backflipping right at the moment of impact that tosses him on up high to give him a better view of a disconcertingly large chunk of Pentagulia. It separates him from the lot, for a moment, making it difficult for him to hear the exact call-outs of defiance and reckoning of Marivel's broken promises while he's just airborne like a large flying albatross.
"I know naught if thou can hear me," Lanval says as he catches hold of something that nearly falls out of him - it's a bottle.
It's a bottle of wine from somewhere down in Glenwood that Lanval got his hands on during one of any number of strange bouts of wanderlust the Drifter life imparts.
"Though many might yet head a path of strife and stagnation," he thinks mid-flight, "#-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +aquamrine and thou hath far more years than mine own... I doth notice but one constant."
"Though mayhaps the path and means may never be clear... all doth search for mirth." Do the people here of Pentagulia feel fulfilled, safe, and optimistic living in this Holy City? He's not sure. There's lots of things people are unsure about with Althena and everything, but as he starts the descent with the bottle of wine in hand, feeling... something... slowing him, he can't put a finger on it (something-something time being stopped, from what he's hearing?), he can see how Hiro is going far faster than the surrounding.
In his hand, the culmination of a well-wish of wine-makers gone, that they did not get to live to see. Though the wine and its contents will not fulfill the wish of being shared as a drink, it will be shared as a wish of well-being and better times, and as he comes down upon the combined machines...
Should he reach there 'in time,' there will be an exploding bottle of wine upside their collective heads, and... a not-small watery force of explosion and a light, fruity flavor of whatever vintage that was. The well-wish for something better from the past, for a future's enrichment.
Or, you know, a sopping wet super fighting robot.
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Full Clip! 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.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
What is Zed doing? Zed is being the best kind of taxi. THE FLYING KIND.
He's probably getting a lecture for this later. But that's fine. A lecture later means he's alive to hear it and she's alive to deliver it. All in all a much better situation than the opposite.
The last of Lucifer's light fades away, leaving Zedder Robo scorched and burnt in its position over Pentagulia. Smoldering, its armor trails smoke into the sky-- but it is burnt, not broken. "Tch-- is that all you've--"
TIME HAS STOPPED
...
And so... time has resumed once more.
"--Got?" Zed looks up just in time for a DRILL HAMMER to slam into him. He's sent hurtling through the air, into one Cathedral tower and out the other end and into yet another one tower beyond. "Hnnng... That... was pretty cool... But...!"
Gripping crumbling masonry with metal hands, Zed lifts himself out of the crumbling rubble. Cape-like cloth erupts from his shoulders, resolving into a single, stylized 'wing.' "I've got another trick up my sleeve too...! Take this-- ZEDDER SHIIIIINE!" Rivers of emerald light flood down from on high, seemingly materializing from empty space. They swirl down, surging into the Metal Demon's battered battle form. He begins to glow, radiating a brilliance that is at once blindingly white and emerald green. "Shine..." Zed rises, shining like an emerald sun. "SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--" He flings himself forward, fully intending to ram straight into the combined machine (WHICH IS SUPER COOL BY THE WAY, HE NEEDS TO FIND OUT HOW TO DO THAT). But then, just in time, he catches sight of Mariel's Elw magic-- and abruptly pulls up. "----AAAAAAAACK!?" He aborts, diverting from his intended flight path at the last moment, but...
The energy he built up... has momentum of its own! It sails into the fused gear, even without Zed himself at its core! "Oh..." Zedder Robo scratches his cheek, as his surge of energy erupts in an explosion of blinding, viridian brilliancce. "...That works... I guess...???"
GS: Zed spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Zed has attacked Zed with Zedder Shine!! GS: Zed has gained 5 Combo! GS: Zed has launched an attack Link! GS: CRITICAL! Zed accepts Zed's Zedder Shine! for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Zed! GS: Zed spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage with SHINE SPAAAAAAAAARK!! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Sweat drips down Leo's brow, tracing streaks through the grime on is face. Above him, the barrier swirls, currents of pearly-white shifting to better absorb the Lucifer's ruinous onslaught. Where, Leo thinks, was Marivel keeping this monster? His muscles start to knot, painfully, from the shoulders up. He's losing ground. The clear, pure energies of Lanval's power reinvigorate him for a few moments, but it's only once the Lucifer stops firing from the combined onslaught that he allows himself to sag.
The White Dragon's miracle lingers in the sky above. Motes of light descend on Pentagulia like a blessed snowfall. Leo slumps forward, gasping from exertion. The Crest dangles from his fingers, the gleam on its rune faded--its magic's spent, for now. But the enemy is--combining in a different way...? There's no time to think. Leo unsheathes his sword one-handed, the familiar glow of his aura igniting around him and condensing on the edge. Normally, he precedes this with solemnity--a degree of ceremony, even, in its own way--but he killed the man who taught it to him, and what's left, for now, is rote. The moment of desperate transcendence is gone.
Leo's blade slices through empty air. The great force of the Lion springs forth, howling, rushing directly at the robot's center of mass.
Time stops. The hammer is on a direct collision course to slam into Leo and drive him into the ground.
GS: White Knight Leo spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Lion's Howl! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Mighty expired! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
It's not the feline beastfolk's day. Slowed down, she doesn't get out of the way of the follow up as best as she'd have preferred. Battered though, not beaten. Shige struggles back to her feet and staggers for a moment. Teeth gritted and mask blown away by now. That's also a later problem. Instead, she brings the lantern back around.
They're running low on time, probably literally. That is genuinely a problem. And she's thinking that trying to keep the others going isn't going to help.
The shadows around her stir. Any shades she can get her magical fingers on drawn in. Earlier had been her personal manifestations. The representations of her magic, or the ghosts that follow her for other reasons. She still never talks about it. Forming up around the square. Uniforms and armor from a wide range of periods. Cold, angry at the attacks. Or reflecting the feline's own feelings. As one, they surge forward. A mass of soldiers and guardians to stop the machines from completing an awful mission.
Belle is given a look in return. "Is watching this part of your punishment? Seeing my worst nightmares visited on others?" She turns away, continuing her channeling. Guiding the shades. "I'd still see you to where you belong-" The light in the lantern goes out as the mass of shadows attack. Only reappearing as they begin to dissapate, energy spent. Stealing what they could. "-Even if you allowed this to happen." It's a duty and one everyone deserves. Judgement comes after anyway, right? She sounds tired either way. Taking just a moment to swat at a smoldering patch on her blouse. Probably the remnants of the cloak at this point.
She beckons to Belle after. "If we survive this. I'm taking you to rest." Even if she has to yell at people or something. She's actually at a loss, but you have to play by ear sometimes. She's not sure if they'll beat the time stop.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
A giddy, surprised laugh leaves Gwen as Zed's gamble works (much to Mariel's horror, likely).
However, the overarching danger of this future attack still remains, whatever form it will take.
The hammer swings towards the heroes, and, running high on the rush of yellow energy flowing through her right side, Gwen charges into the assault, barreling through on momentum alone.
*twitch*
The glowing Mockingbird.... goes dark, its glow disappearing behind the fabric of her right sleeve.
She has a moment to make it work. "HAUUUUUUGHH!!!" Heaving the dead weight of her right hand into combined mass of machinery, Gwen pushes the remaining amount of energy back through her right hand.
And it feels like the worst sort of sensation ever.
If forcing that energy into her nervous system felt awkward enough, the way it's just drained out feels painful on top of awkward, like the entire affected part of her quickly fading to nothing but pins and needles. She could call it 'pain', but 'pain' would at least signal a release. This is just that awkward space inbetween, like waiting for a sneeze that never comes, and then trying to puke at the same time.
The punch will be delivered, in its own distorted 'singing toy on low power' sort of glory, but that's it.
Which is doubly bad, as she's right there, in danger's way, as time stops.
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Marivel Armitage with Eclipse! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Marivel Armitage with Coronal Discharge! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Quick expired! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Your next attack with the Sneak flag will display with the name Light Everlasting. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Shige Kiwako's Eclipse for 285 hit points! GS: Purge! Poison and Shieldbreak removed! GS: Purge explodes for 41 damage!! GS: Marivel Armitage's Weaken Ward may block the effect! GS: Delay applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Weaken blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Light -- and Malevolence -- fleeing from his form, Harmaus slowly, gently descends back to the broken tiles of the plaza. His tail twitches once, twice.
There, before him, Marivel's machines begin to transform, assuming the shape of an enormous gavel which Asgard holds in one hand.
'ACTIVATING TIMESTOP PROTOCOL.'
Harmaus bares his teeth in a snarl, a single thread of light erupting from his form before he charges ahead as if to defy what Asgard would wreak. "BE SILENT--" he roars, in response to Kaguya's final taunt, before the hand on the clock freezes.
For, even so, time does not obey Harmaus' wishes. Even in the early centuries of his long life, it never had.
Time stops.
He moves with a certain suddenness once it resumes, but it is still not enough to spare him the hammer's touch. It clips him, sends him to slam into the scattered debris of the square.
GS: Sneak!! Your feint does not reveal that you spent 1 Combo on Poison Better get that pose addition ready. GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Seraph Harmaus has attacked Marivel Armitage with Light Everlasting! GS: Sneak! You have gained 3 Combo! Only you see this message. GS: Seraph Harmaus has gained 3 Combo! GS: Seraph Harmaus has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Seraph Lanval's Maiden Bon Voyage! for 382 hit points! GS: Dispel! Purge! Delay removed! GS: Purge explodes for 18 damage!! GS: Marivel Armitage's Poison Ward may block the effect! GS: Mute applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Margaret's Weightless Steel for 217 hit points! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Slow applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Interrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts White Knight Leo's Lion's Howl for 414 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Kaguya's Moment of Truth for 318 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Strain! Kaguya takes 44 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Gwen Whitlock's Coronal Discharge for 302 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Jam Ward may block the effect! GS: Jam blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Seraph Harmaus's attack becomes clear! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Seraph Harmaus's Pallid Sun for 271 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Poison Ward may block the effect! GS: Disease and Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
It is simply a pale finger of light, a ghost of a mote shed through the clouds of an overcast day. It is little more than nothing in the grasp of time brought to a standstill.
But time resumes.
Then, with frightening ferocity, that fragment of light transfigures into the forge of everything. The mote has become a star, its light pale and terrible as it burns, consumes, and transfixes that which stands before it to become little more than eternal shadow against its glory.
GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Hiro's Trinity Crisis for 333 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Strain! Hiro takes 58 damage! GS: Marivel Armitage has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Zed's SHINE SPAAAAAAAAARK! for 316 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
It begins with Mariel spreading some strange powder against the metal. Such a simple seeming compound and the metal twitches and distorts and bends as it becomes dry and brittle at the perfect time, at the perfect moment.
Belle tells Shige. "No. My punishment was to see the world I failed to protect plummet into decay, despair, death, and dread. I would have been alone if not for Marivel so I stayed by her side. But now I am just another one of the chains tying her to a past she needs to move on from. My mistake was to think that of Death as a simple thing. Of spirits that needed to move on, and life that needed to die. In truth, life and death are not so simple. There is no shame in living a thousand years just as there is no shame in living twenty. None can choose the time of their passing, not even the Crimson Nobles."
"But I'm ready. I've given my last regards to my Pen Pal. I want to return to the river and one day be reborn and learn to love again."
Shige slams her fist into the machinery, clobbering thick slabs of armoring right off it.
Gwen unleashes her own punch. Her fist knocks free one of the Lucifer's wings and it tumbles to the ground.
Lanval swings a bottle of wine that looks silly but you'd be surprised how much damage exploding wine can do when the armoring has already been atrophied thanks to Mariel's efforts. thick shards of glass puncture through the armoring leading wine to pour into the sensitive circuitry behind it. Lanval probably has no idea that there even is sensitive circuitry there but luckily--he didn't need to.
Margaret punctures her blade right through Asgard's eye. The light blinks out as she presses into it, all defenses even in a legendary gear gone thanks to Mariel.
Leo punctures through Qubeley's eye simultaneously--he is also forced to lean against it to really get it in there, but he can feel the palpable strike. Where was Marivel keeping this monster? The answer may surprise you.
(Her Garage).
Hiro and Kaguya strike next, though Hiro's strikes are not immediate evident. Kaguya unleashes the power of her spirit gun yu yu hakusho style--the blast of light struggles until...
Harmaus, instead of betraying Kaguya's ass (for now) adds his own light everlasting, augmenting the spirit energy of Zeikfried with his own immense power of Light--the beam punctures through the machine, opening up a widening hole in Asgard's center mass.
At which point finally Hiro's own slashes finally 'activate'. The arms of Asgard are shorn free and the right damage legged cut out from underneath, sparking and sputtering.
And yet... It's still active.
...For about half a second before the Zedder Robo basically accidentally knocks it over with one last surge of power that sends everything crumbling into pieces.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Hob and Nob pull themselves free from the wreckage and make cute noses. They spin around happily like there was just a rousing round of playtime before floating back through to the Goddess Square. Following them...
Marivel is sitting in the center of an arcane circle surrounded by runes of a language that none of you know except for Mariel, who can pick out a word here or there--but not enough to really discern the meaning except for one word. Empathite Crystal is present in droves, channeling their energies into Marivel. They feel like those 'monsters' and 'ghosts' that you were doing battle with earlier.
"...She didn't come. Even when I threatened her city. Her people. Her faith. She didn't come. Ragnell must be right about her. I cannot fathom any other explanation. Why would she betray me and then abandon the very people she betrayed me for? All she had to do was show up. Just show up and scold me like old times. She didn't even need to say she was sorry."
Abysa. The Crimson Noble word for 'Home'. But its more complicated than just a portal spell. Whatever it is. That is the word that Mariel can pick out.
Marivel sighs, "Yeah okay, I mean, I'm sure I could come up with some legalese to justify an unbroken promise, but I admit it--asking me to do that, I had to play along at least. But how dare you say that I would abandon Filgaia, abandon Kamui...? I would never abandon my duty, my brethren, my family. If I could be there, I would be... But I cannot be there because I am in the Memory Maze. Fortunately, ARMS will not need me to succeed in their task so you need not worry about them. But you know what's WRONG about those statues? That always bugged me more than anythiing? The EARS. They're all WRONG."
She dusts herself off and stands up, stretching her arms above her head.
"Ashley Winchester will plummet into the Memory Maze himself after Heimdall Gazzo's defeat. I can tell you this now that you cannot interrupt what has to happen. And with that, the timeloop I have been a part of for five thousand years will finally be closed. It is only in this moment where I cannot interfere with ARMS' work yet before the Time of Promise has come to pass that I am completely and utterly free of pacts and obligations."
She looks to Leo. "Sorry about the mess. I really did the emotional energy. With this much empathite They should be protected from any serious injury. Still, you're right. There is no real justification for any of this. How could there be? All this just for one woman? Ridiculous."
"...But every time I try to save her, every time--it does not pan out. I am too slow, or we are too weak, or she's gone by the time I can reach my hand, or the methods to reach her are gone... I just... Even if she despises me, she deserves to live. So I took a gamble. Liath told me that her faith in you was absolute. I told her I was willing to gamble everything on this one shot. This one timeline."
She looks to Lanval. "I haven't felt true mirth in a long time. Joy no longer lingers with me. I can only absorb it from others and it soon fades away. That is the sort of vampire I am. You can't give it to me Lanval."
She looks to Kaguya. "You've really grown into someone dependable. Trusting you with the Veruni--I can't say for sure. What happens with them is outside my vision. But if anyone can improve their fate--it's you and Dean's crew. But out of all the adventurers out there, you have the hardest job you know? It's easy to save the world, but it's way more difficult to save people from themselves. People who need saving from themselves are always in close contact with their tormentors."
She looks to Zed. "Not even the blind would miss your inherent kindness. Don't let your pain ever eclipse it just because someone might prod it."
She focuses on Margaret for but a moment. "10/10 no notes."
She doesn't say anything to Mariel. She doesn't need to. She can look at Mariel and everything they need to know about this moment is shared in that look. But what needs to be said, with words, isn't in this moment.
To Gwen she adds, "You may be an unsung hero when all is said and done, but that's actually a good thing. You lift up those around you. In this, you are not unlike Anastasia. In the end, the kindness you deliver to all around you will be your most satisfying delivery."
To Harmaus...
Marivel proves that she still tries to save everyone every time even though she already knows it's doomed to favor. "Step off this Seeking Road before it is too late, Harmaus."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"But it's not over. There's one last thing I need to show you. One thing I need to see. Those machines, they were just to stall for this moment. Yes. I was waiting for this moment for thousands and thousands of years...."
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oYslv-lWYY&t=19s&ab_channel=Sakuranoangel
The empathite finishes their work and the light dims to black. The empathite turns black, then cracks into dust as their gathered energy is expelled into Marivel. The Time Medium floats out of Marivel's inventory and hovers over her head, shaking. The glow in Marivel's body shakes and shudders as she opens her mouth.
And devours it all. You can even see the energies pouring into her mouth until all is consumed.
Then, there is a pulse of light centered on her. Then an explosion of it.
"I shall become an imitation of light and save Anastasia. That is all that matters. And you shall find what YOU seek..."
And when the light fades...
There stands a young woman with long blue hair pulled into two very long tails behind her, held together by two impressively sized red orbs. She wears heavy brown traveling boots and a long purple and white dress. The hair resembles a bit how a certain Crimson Noble wore their hair while wearing her sun protection outfit. She wears brown gloves and her are protected by a pair of vambraces and shoulder pauldrons--other than that, she could look like any other traveler you might find along the road.
If not for that set of Elw ears--recognizable to anyone who has met Mariel. She extends her hand out to the side and sparkles coalesce into the form of a large blade, nearly as tall as this woman who herself is larger than life, bigger than any human or even Elw could be. A giant, readily thrice as tall as the shortest of you. A side effect of the power of Marivel's memories, perhaps.
But the blade itself is familiar to those have visited the Sword Cathedral near Meria Boule: It is Airgetlahm, here. It should not be but Marivel's will, her memory, her need brings it forth all the same.
Althena? Anastasia? Althenastasia?? SHE takes in a deep breath, and lets it out slowly like someone who had just learned to breathe. She lowers her head and then she smiles.
A black portal erupts behind her, leading into a sickening place that makes your souls quiver.
It feels a little bit like Marivel.
The blue haired Elw woman turns and walks towards the portal. "We'll have to continue this discussion inside. I... Marivel?...This was just her vessel..."
"But the real deal... To see her, there is not enough space here. You'll have to go inside. This isn't something you want open for too long."
And she steps inside. And the dark portal to the Abyss remains.
And a choice to follow the Seeking Road yourself.
<==== TO BE CONTINUED