2023-03-04: Drown Your Secrets
- Log: Drown Your Secrets
- Cast: Marivel Armitage, Mariel, Zed, Rixia, White Knight Leo, Margaret, Shige Kiwako, Seraph Lanval, Avril Vent Fleur, Gwen Whitlock, Seraph Liath
- Where: Pentagulia - Goddess Square
- Date: March 04, 2023
- Summary: The struggle against Marivel takes a deeper, darker turn.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Last time....
Marivel brought forth a vision of the final days of the Zeboim through trickery and the power of a whole lot of empathite. You battled spectral heroes and non-spectral gears to reach Marivel at the center of the Goddess Square where she lamented...
...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.
And then after some words of ... encouragement? She utilized the energies stored up by the empathite to transform her vessel into a facsimile of the Althena she knew, a blue haired Elw woman--with some affectations suggesting that some of Anastasia got into the mix there--and summoned a portal to a place Marivel has called 'The Abyss' before leading you through the portal.
The Abyss...
It is suffocating. It is dark. You can scarcely see ahead of yourself, illuminated solely by whatever instruments you've brought with you--and the glow of the Goddess ahead of you. Between the light you have, you can see there is a dark purple platform underneath you expanding outward and leading to a thin pathway beyond, though who built these methods of traversal in a land such as this is unclear. There's dark energies here that make it difficult to move but the Goddess moves through with an ease that makes her feel like she's floating on air. Periodically drifting glowing purple wisps provide some additional light.
The Goddess just looks into the darkness, back turned to you.
"Just an Simulacrum... Bit of Anastasia filtered in there but that's mostly in the hairstyle, the sword, the armor..."
A voice in the darkness whispers these words but though it is a whisper, the pure volume of it pushes your hair back like a breeze. "Once again... She does not come... So I had to build my own. But at least you can see what she was ere she was your Savior... But she should not have saved you."
A faint shaking ripples underneath the platform you are standing on.
"What of the people whom could not escape? What of our the pact between our people's that has stood since my father's time?" The whisper in the darkness murmurs. "She abandoned us... and you throw how grateful you are for that in our faces time and time again..."
The shaking rumbles across the platform again. Heavier this time.
"I ought to thank you, White Knight Leo... I would have not imagined Althena had simply left us to die if not for you being so eager to spread her good will to my world with your good natured imperialism... I had wondered for so many years that I lost count, but simply abandoning us? It had not occurred to me until you so graciously lent a hand to my world. I would have slept all the way until the Day of Promise if not you--and so, Leo... I do very much sincerely thank you. The good, the bad... It all comes back to you."
'Althena' turns around to face you. Then she cracks a mischievous smile at the lot of you. You've seen this exact smile on Marivel's face before but it feels ever so slightly more real on Althena's face. She snaps her fingers once in the air before she takes a step back and falls off the platform.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"So if she cannot or will not lend the aid that is expected, I shall extract the Promise from her children as in accordance to the terms and conditions of our old alliance, our old friendship..."
And then rises up over it as a creature rises up underneath her feet. The platform's shaking is heavier than ever.
"I shall serve you in defending your people, if you defend mine. A simple common defense treaty. Spoken by my true soul and a promise quite unbreakable from me. All you must do..."
It's just the head you see at first. By itself it's half the width of the platform you are standing on. The face is long and draconic and, black fumes drift out from between its fangs. Six crimson eyes open up along vertically across its face, their crimson glow illuminating the face. A mouthful of fangs grins. Saliva drips out of the mouth, splotching onto the platform and scorching it black.
"Is prove you can compensate for the assistance Althena failed to provide. Hiro gave me a theory. That Althena had to act to protect Filgaia by evacuating those infected with Malevolence... It is a plausible theory. If Zophar and this poison existed back then, I certainly missed it. But Althena was brilliant, so you must also prove your will, that your Answers can match or surpass hers."
Then other crimson dots start opening up across the sky, each with their own glow. It might take a moment to realize these points of light are not from separate entities, or some kind of strange stars. No, they are eyes along six thick black leather wings that sprout out from Marivel's back. That back is long and serpentine, pulling back into the darkness. You can't see where it ends just yet, no matter how much light drifts into the abyss as the body eventually curves down underneath the platform though judging from the shaking...
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfTWgMgknpY
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Pure Blooded Daemon Of The Eternal Instant
Ouroboros
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
One claw comes slamming down into the platform. Then another, digging thick greaves into the floor. You can see crimson lines crawling up them and the Seraphs can sense Malevolence gradually being drown into those lines and gradually consumed. Lanval in particular can sense other strange ancient maladies gradually pulsing around this manifestation of Marivel's soul.
"Ere my peoples' end, I had not received my true name... So I have chosen Ouroboros! The dragon that eats their own tail! Come and give me the Answers I've been searching for!"
"Give me thy Answer to Life here at its edge!!"
She doesn't attack until you are ready because she is a traditionalist.
DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Ouroboros Encircling The Moon! New Content
DC: Zed switches forms to Manic Blade Master Zed! DC: Gwen Whitlock switches forms to Chrysopoeia! DC: Margaret switches forms to I Am The Starlight! DC: Seraph Liath switches forms to Prime Lord Liath!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel came all the way to Pentagulia not just to speak to Althena, though that had certainly weighed on her mind. She had questions to ask, both about her past - the past that Marivel would not know, or that she wouldn't ask her - and about the present.
She also came to Pentagulia because Marivel did. She said she would support her friend - for they are friends; for all that Mariel has only known Marivel for a handful of years she feels closer to Marivel than anyone else in ages. Since the Elw left, certainly; everyone she knew before that has long since died or passed on to a realm beyond, and since then she has been more solitary than she wished to be.
Mariel knew some of what weighed on Marivel. Not all of it. Not even close; it's more than she ever guessed. More than she ever *would* guess. Her memories were more than she ever could have
"Marivel..."
When the path to the Abyss forms, Mariel turns to look at the others. "I'm going in," she says, and begins to walk.
---
On the other side, it's dark. But there's light.
This place doesn't feel familiar to Mariel. The opposite; it is dark, and unfamiliar, but less unpleasant than it could be. Here, Mariel can feel Marivel even more than she did before, even though she is looking at someone who must be, at least in majority, Marivel's memories of Althena. Mariel's own ears press against the sides of her head a little further before she shakes her head, causing them to return to their normal position.
The light on this side - at least in part - comes from Mariel. It's the phosphorescent green glow in a bottle that she brought forth from her satchel, some alchemical compound of mushrooms and a tincture, but now shot through with hints of white and silver as she causes it to brighten more than it would on its own.
There is also, however faint, a feeling of Filgaia close to Mariel. Not enough to make it feel like home. But enough to make the Filgaians feel they can remember it.
"Marivel," Mariel says, on this side. "I didn't know your history entire, because you did not tell me. And that I don't hold against you." She wouldn't. Secrets about herself are Marivel's to keep, or not; even Mariel does not tell all about her, there are things nobody living knows about who she is and what she has done and she is nowhere near as old as Marivel is.
"But..."
Mariel grips her staff. The staff she suspects is Althena's, or was Althena's, long ago. An Elw tool left on Lunar; whose else would it have been? As her hands tighten against it, the sensation of Filgaia rises, then ebbs back down, still little more than an echo of a memory.
Marivel - Ouroboros - rises.
And Mariel still can't strike her. Even if Marivel asked her to, directly and literally; she cannot bring herself to do it.
"Everything you are, everything you were, all that time... I'm sorry it hurt you. I'm sorry it still hurts you - I'm sorry that *she* hurt you with her absence! But some things..." Mariel squeezes her own eyes shut for a moment, then open. She doesn't finish the statement. Some things don't change. It may never be possible to save Anastasia. But Mariel understands the desire to try. What is she doing except trying to save the world from a mistake?
"The past has a hold on everybody. But all we can do is move forward. Toward the future..."
GS: Mariel has attacked Mariel with Focus! GS: Mariel has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mariel's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Mariel has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed is the Dark Hero.
That is to say, he is a hero who fights in the dark so that other people don't have to. Which does mean that he has a particular <resistance> to darkness, but ALSO that he should by all rights be here, in this space, alone. If his word were good, then he would be doing battle in this pitch black abyss to spare everyone else from risking life and limb to do the same.
But he's not.
So is Zed a liar...?
No! Because nobody said that the Dark Hero had to go it alone! If people volunteer to walk beside him in the darkness, who is he to tell them no!?
That is the logic that plays out in Zed's head as he follows along the form of a goddess, listening and nodding along quietly as Marivel-- with Althena's voice-- speaks to them. He understands, he understands, he is absolutely keeping up with everything. (He is absolutely keeping up with maybe ten percent, and that is a generous estimate of Zed's comprehension of Lunar history as it relates to the Crimson Nobility and the Elw.)
What does stick in his brain, though, is how ancient this grudge must be. It reminds him, in a way, of Uncle Zeik's wounds-- the scars of certitude that drove him to do unspeakable things in the name of a Mother who wanted only to devour her children and the world that she had promised them. Old pain, Zed reasons, is a dire poison for immortals.
It's a lesson he will have to learn, lest he fall prey to it himself someday.
But mostly he is silent because he is not the subject of Marivel's scorn. He is in many ways an observer to these proceedings. An outside force who is only here because of the bonds that tie him to those who are actually feeling the pain and anguish of these terrible moments. He is here for them. They have chosen to fight, and so he will fight alongside them. If Ratatoskr were present, surely he would be squealing like a schoolgirl about all the history unfolding before him, but he is not.
Nevertheless, the scars of history are something he can understand. The pain of seeing honored ancestors harvested for their bones and transformed into weapons of war. The agony of living as the child of a doomed world, where every scant scrap of his own history that he can find is an invaluable treasure. These, he knows.
But he also knows something else as Marivel unfolds her war form in all of its terrible glory.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh--" A squeal, like a schoolgirl!? "--THAT'S SO COOOOOOL!"
Yep.
Yep he is fanboying a little bit about fighting an actual demon from heck. He's even doing a little dance with his sword. "Oh man, no wonder Noe-Noe is so into you guys!! I wonder if she figured out how to do something like this too? Oh man, I can't wait! Let's go, let's go!"
Zed...
Leaps boldly forth and goes to slap at this helldemon with his sword.
Pulling aggro... is perhaps not the best choice here, but it's Zed. Come on. What's he going to do, not charge sword-first at the coolest helldemon he's seen in, like, ever?
GS: Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor! GS: Zed has gained 2 Combo! GS: Zed's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 59 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia is frenetically on clean-up duty after the sky seemingly erupted into red and people turned into monsters through the power of not-Akasha (no, it's just trickery this time), and by the time she's caught up with helping those less fortunate to a safer place, she's sprinting to the square in time for...
A portal... oh no, oh noooo.
Rixia contemplates turning around, but by some strange twist of fate, she finds herself further and further drawn into it--
...
...
Rixia lifts her head up, staring towards the Goddess before her. She flails, and swims to the platform, as purple wisps provide some guidance for her to move towards. Her face is scrunched in some mild flavour of agony. "Anastasia. That's who you told me about before..."
She does not come.
But she should not have saved her.
"... I have... a lot of experience with not being saved by a Goddess, thanks..." Rixia remarks bitterly, through the miasma and sensation of the Abyss. "This isn't the first time... every single time... Marivel..."
She clenches her hand to her heart. "Someone ancient tells me I don't even know how grateful I am for all the sacrifices that've come before. How we spit back in the face of all that's come time and time again... I've even genuinely felt sorry for ever being born..."
She grits her teeth, feeling a sudden well of anger as Althena turns to face them. "I don't get it...! Every one of you old generation tell me how grateful I should be, but the first time I even saw Althena was when she promised how great a world she'd create -- while I was trying to drink from muddy puddles because Rolance or Hyland decided to roll over the latest village I sought refuge in!"
Rixia thrusts her hand to one side. "Is this the great world that I, an eighteen year old, should be grateful for?! I don't get it! I know I don't get it! I've seen, at Artorius' Throne, how much I don't get! But... rrgh..."
That anger starts to subside from her, as her face further contorts. "I already know, from Ruth and Acacia and Eleanor, that running away does no good. No one's going to clean up if we don't do it... so no matter how awful it feels... the world continues to leech on heroes, existing on their goodwill, until they're all spent, then looks towards another, discarding the previous like dry and used husks."
A bright flash, and in a shower of translucent datacubes, the Sleeping Lion is in her hand -- and she knocks the hammer back. Marivel urges them to prove that they can compensate for the assistance Althena failed to provide to Filgaia.
"I don't feel like answering for the Silver Star -- a world I don't like -- right now. I don't like boasting that I'm fighting for the entire world. I don't have that kinda confidence. But..."
Marivel continues to manifest, as her form becomes one of a dragon, with six crimson eyes and six wings, with a serpentine body threatening to be swallowed into the darkness. The claw comes onto the platform, and she struggles to keep standing, as Malevolence continues to exude through the lines and into Marivel herself.
From the manifest folds of the Abyss, darkness transforms into small motes of purple magic that absorb into her body. Draw, and Junction... ... should you be absorbing that stuff, Rixia?
>> tactical level, extreme threat detected
>> routing junctions, assessing user emotional landscape
>> junctioning for self-survival
"I'm Rixia, from Sagahli in Zulan... I'm eighteen years old. I like fluffy milk bread and warm socks and a comfortable bed to sleep in. I'm gonna fight... for my right to have that much in the world, Ouroboros!"
GS: Rixia has attacked Rixia with Junction Magic! GS: Rixia has gained 3 Combo! GS: Rixia's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter! GS: Rixia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: Rixia heals Rixia! She gains 180 temporary hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Rixia! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
A blasphemy has formed in the Goddess' Square, a yawning gate to... somewhere. Maybe nowhere. White Knight Leo--bruised, muddied, and bloodied from the fight against the Gears--stands before it, sword in hand. Tension knots in his muscles as he steps towards the imperfect vision of Althena. Marivel's wearing it like a mask. Maybe she wears every form like a mask.
Leo is silent. Anger boils up inside, but there's so much trapped in there now that it can't escape. He says nothing, even as Marivel steps into the portal. From behind and beside, Mariel speaks up:
'I'm going in.'
Leo follows. The darkness coils in. It's like the fabric of space-time here is dense black velvet--muffling, smothering. The White Dragon's Crest glows at his neck, still faintly radiant from his earlier channeling. It illuminates the false Althena's face.
The White Knight's stony silence breaks once Marivel addresses him. "Was it truly my hand that awakened you...?" His voice is thick with pain. "I didn't know. None of us knew these pacts and promises you speak of. Would you keep punishing us for Althena's trespasses? Would you punish us for your pain?"
The platform shudders. Leo steps back from the edge, eyes widening, ears flattening. Ouroboros' shadow spreads across him, drowning out the light. Horror widens his eyes. His ears flatten against his head. Malevolence coils around his ankles like a friendly cat. Rixia steps forward and makes her stand, and Leo is right there beside her in an instant, blade bared. "You heard her, vengeful ancient," Leo growls, and there is something almost manic in his eyes. "Light Spear Cannon!"
As the first syllable leaves his lips, Leo is in motion, stepping forward in a two-handed stab. His blade cuts through the fabric of the void, carving shining light upon eternal darkness. It gleams on the sword's edge as he charges forwards, makes that stab, and then carves upward with all his might.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Light Spear Cannon! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret heard what Marivel had to say. It was a strange conflict. It rankled her, to think of the many put in peril - even if the magical illusions did buffer their bodies from much harm. These people were her peers, her countrymen, if you could call it a country.
And on the other hand, Marivel speaks of being forlorn and abandoned, and Margaret knows a thing or two about that.
Oh, she also burned out a sword and had to sit down for a few minutes. She had entered that realm of atrocious speed where it takes a lot out of you, it seems. There were not many minutes to sit down: her colleague, Dollie, had tried to make up the difference with several healing spells (and as a free bonus, would have healed anyone else too, if they didn't have their own preference).
But other than a brief, shy hug for good luck, Dollie didn't go with Margaret. Margaret, however, did go with Mariel. She made a promise of her own, after all.
In the Abyss, Margaret's eyes widen and her ears flat back at the sight - of - no, it's not the Goddess. It feels sacriligious, but Marivel has said by innuendo that she knew the Goddess, long ago. Somehow, before she was a goddess. Margaret's brow furrows then. She speaks.
Then Margaret does.
"Then it was meaningless," Margaret says.
"That's what you're saying," Margaret continues. "It was folly, all of it. You're thanking the White Knight and I can tell that you mean it but -- none of that was our intention... it was nowhere near our GOAL. Perhaps we never had a goal. It was the thing," Margaret continues, putting a hand on her hip and looking at the ground. "The thing to do. We went because someone had to go. It was a lark, perhaps. Perhaps we all thought we'd rise."
"Instead we fell," Margaret continues. "Somehow we didn't all perish on Filgaia, despite your Gears, despite the gunsmoke ARMs, despite everything. Somehow we came back - and soon enough we all went back to Spira, and that did enough for enough of us."
Margaret's arms fold. "None of it mattered! None of it! And if what you say is true... all that we did was break out of our comfortable little sanitarium, and bring a plague back to Filgaia, which bears burdens enough."
A couple of spots of salty water land on the strange stone of the abyss-floor.
"I hate scenes like this," Margaret says. "I didn't come from anything in particular. The only lucky break I had was this body, and even it's hitting its limits. I certainly can't slay you with my looks. I don't have anything ancient or legatastic to proffer you. You should have another noble knight here to contend against you, but I suppose they died in Spira."
Her eyes turn momentarily towards Rixia. (Zed's actions also occur and are perceived by Margaret, who has chosen to take a different angle in her monologue and will get to him later.)
"I should hand it to you this far," Margaret says as she sticks her right hand into her dress pocket, letting her elbow hang a little insouciantly to the side. "You don't seem like the sort to object to us low-down villeins coming to your show, at least."
Her left hand grasps the hilt of a sword and draws it up, raising it up in something like a salute. She has no pure white light like the White Knight does. Her eyes turn upwards for a moment. Leo is furious, Margaret thinks. Am I?
"Don't worry, Rixia," Margaret says. There is a nebular bloom around her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3yqv2PGugs
"I'm not a hero at all," and that's when Margaret starts running forwards, leaning catty-corner to the side as she streaks ahead and kicks upwards. In the dark gloom of the abyssal space, the violet aspects of the Starlight Express aura get rather muted, meaning that Margaret seems like more of a dark red streak than the usual vague purple, even as she slashes and twists, the blade flashing light shooting stars and actually leaps over, past, and ABOVE Leo for a moment, coming up past him and going for a different arc, running in a circle-eight on the ground --
What, to... draw fire?
GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Crimson Orbit! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Light Spear Cannon for 118 hit points! GS: Cover applied to White Knight Leo!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
With a portal to the abyss, a thing she's seen before, albeit very briefly. She works her shoulders, adjusts her grip on the lantern and lifts it high. Walking in. She was already drinking prior so no last minute bouts of courage.
There's quiet consideration of the words. Of the idea that this goddess could not or would not help. This is above her pay grade. Signficantly so. She's hooded. masked. Hiding behind all of it in a way really. The guide at the end for a completely different world. Even then it's hard to mask how furious she is still over even the perception of an attack on an unsuspecting people.
She doesn't speak though. Not yet. Not while the six eyed dragon hauls itself before them. The creature manifesting, corrupt. Monstrous.
Despite imbibing earlier, her voice is clear when she finally does call out. "I never will have the answers you seek. I guide those to finality. Anything I learn is to make sure they're not forgotten." She raises her lantern. Casting long shadows. Reflecting off of the pale mask, ethereal almost in itself. "You should have been doing the same. You keep accusing us of forgetting, but do you even remember yourself?"
She rolls with the shuddering and shaking. It's not quite the same as the sea, but she's in her role. She shouldn't fumble. She's already judging and she'll scold herself for that later, but again, she's still angry and it happens.
The shadows cast are moving. Following the lines cast by the lantern. Leaping to Zed's shadow. To Rixia's as it closes in. A silent spectre, something lost. Angry. Clawing at the demon that has manifested with a clinging bitter cold.
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Marivel Armitage with Mute Horror! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Shige Kiwako's Mute Horror for 0 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Interrupt applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Mute blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The whole of it was horrifying. All this going on in Althena's own... not even her backyard, it's practically in her living room. There's all sorts of other pieces found to have been unsettling, unfitting, and bizarre - and this whole demonstration alone could have defined that finest point.
But there's more.
Seraph Lanval watches the facsimile of the remembered Althena that Marivel embodies have her say, to everyone, and then leave to an Abyss. To look from the outside in, he can tell... this is something a league beyond Artorius' Throne.
"Not alone," he replies to Mariel as he takes a sip from his drinking gourd. To take a piece of the very water of Filgaia itself into a place like what he's looking into... well, if Schturdark disagrees, he'll cross that bridge the next time they reach out to him.
He keeps close to Mariel and the phosphorescent light from the bottle. In absence of all else, the presence of Marivel ahead is otherwise their beacon, as staggering steps move along the strange dark purple floor that may be as a flimsy plank above the void.
Lanval freezes at the first ripples to reassert his balance, as the emotional crescendo of a sorrow thousands upon thousands of years festering recount what their existence and actions mean to them. From gratitudes given to the actions of the White Knight Leo, to Hiro's theories as to why this all happened...
And the even more unsettling transformation that awaits, Lanval has to plant both feet to keep hold on the platform as it shakes underneath the enormous winged serpentine figure that unfolds between them.
"...They're pullin' in a lot of Malevolence," he alerts on cue, "'n... a buncha other shtuff I don't got a name for." He realizes in the moment 'Malevolence and I don't know what else' isn't that helpful or specific. "Conshumin' all of it at once--"
Marivel introduces herself as Ouroboros, the dragon that eats their own tail, and that more or less answers the 'consuming' part. Others speak their resolve, of a young woman caught up in so much when she yearns for things that seem so trivial to have in comparison, of a commander fighting to hold true to himself in a world that seems to go against professed principles and so many unexplainable actions that seem to achieve nothing good to the people of Lunar and beyond - as Margaret points out what problems were caused by their coming to Filgaia and what came from there.
"I got shomethin' ta shay, too, 'bout what ya told me with joy," Lanval adds, and then... he meets the grinning, ever-hungering true form of an aggrieved ancient with that dopey smile he's known for. "'n I'll tell ya when yer ready ta lishten."
It seems understated, compared to the shouts of passion and defiance by the mortals, as he winds up his drinking gourd by the attached rope, leans back...
And tries to bonk it against one of the big toe-claws clutching the platform, as if an entirely cartoonish act of violence - but that drinking gourd carries far more weight and power than something that size and character should.
"Don't wanna shout over everyone elshe," in a bit of humility before mortal danger at a scale beyond anything he's known now.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Marivel Armitage with Bonk! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Margaret's Crimson Orbit for 36 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Quick applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Jaeja."
So had spake Harmaus, upon Marivel requesting -- again -- that he turn away from the end of his seeking road. "The end is before me. I has it in my sights! It will not turn me back. I go ahead, to the truth." Thus he had said, in those moments before she had rent a wound into reality.
And before the heretical -- or perhaps apostate -- Seraph had scattered, perhaps heading off in search of his ill-liked Goddess.
Althena is his to slay, he'd said, and so long as this move of Marivel does not take away what is his by rights...
The square is no longer blocked, though, and this is the important part.
For here into this space comes Avril. Judging by the blade in her hand, she had tried to fight her way in, if to no avail.
"Whatever has..."
She pauses, regarding the tear. "It is... Marivel, is it not?"
Her grip on Absolute Zero's now-empty hilt tightens. "...Then we cannot leave her."
She plunges, into the warp in reality, with scarce a moment's hesitation.
So this is the Goddess -- Marivel's vision of the Goddess. She has ever only seen Althena carved in stone or depicted on Canvas. Was this truly how...
"Althena was once a woman," Avril says, gazing up at the image that Marivel has crafted. "She, too, had come from the Blue Star, Filgaia. ...I have heard tell of the flight of my own people from Filgaia, once upon a time. It is said that the world came under attack, and in spite of the efforts to forestall its end, that end still came. I..."
Her brow becomes lined. She narrows her eyes and advances one step towards Marivel's construct.
"Will you judge my people the same way, Marivel? We who fled or hid as the world fell to pieces? We, who have returned? ...I do not know Althena. I cannot claim to know her heart, or of what she was capable... without her words, I cannot presume to answer for her."
She brandishes Absolute Zero, now a blade.
"But I cannot permit you to attempt this, either, Marivel! I do not presume to know the answer you seek, but this... cannot be it!"
There is a monstrosity encircling the moon. Avril, blade in hand, does not shirk from it. Leaping into the air, she turns her unbreaking blade upon Marivel Armitage.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Marivel Armitage with Misty Soul! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Seraph Lanval's Bonk for 169 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Misty Soul for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage has adjusted their boss level for 10 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
---EARLIER---
Gwen looks at the portal, and frowns. ".... This is gettin' beyond my ability to understand," she admits sullenly, with a shrug. "I was thinkin' this was all a means t'make us look like heroes and any members of the Guard who are absent look like villains-- just, she didn't tell anybody she was doin' it because it'd make us acccompliances. But, thing is, there *are* members of the Guard who're there because their heart's in the right place. N' Marivel's shown herself fightin' alongside us multiple times. So..." Gwen does have an inkling, though, and it's yet another moment that ties back to her meeting with Marivel in front of that bakery, as well as the other nuggets of things. The moment one person goes in, Gwen's decision is clear.
"Guh, I'm gonna need Chrysopoeia Mode again, aren't I....." Gwen whines, and she unceremoniously begins to disrobe the top part of her layers of clothing. These fabrics were an investment, after all! If she rips through them now, she's practically flushing money down the drain. But it's not like there's a safe spot to stash away. "Uh, Mr. Leo!" she calls out to the poor, tired beastman. "..... If I stash several layers of clothing here, on the square, do I have your word it'd gonna be here when I get back?" The last item of clothing is thrown off, revealing....... Gwen's usual Filgaian outfit. Had she really been wearing all those layers, on top of her already very well-covered outfit? ".... Whew, I was sweatin' like a forge like it is." She rolls back her right sleeve, keeping it in place with her sleeve garter, and does the next. Then, her gloves are tossed on the pile of clothes, revealing a second reason for the layers: the Mockingbird's glow was obscured every time she had used it in the battle up until now, as well as any indication there was a difference between her two arms.
She claps her hands on her cheeks a few times, and concentrates, and then gives a thumbs up to anyone left. "..... H'okay! I got this. Doin' this now, against whatever's on the other end. Be back before y'know it!" And she walks, into the portal. Hiro and who stay back can search for Lucia; this, Gwen can take care of. She'll see them make it to their goal, as well as whatever waits beyond.
==NOW==
Humor is all well and good, when Gwen can safely be a proper goofball, but when things get serious, her tone changes to match, even if Zed's enthusiasm is appreciated with a small grin in his direction.
Marivel's quandary reminds Gwen of Ragnell's own problems, and how, for all Gwen sees her as a friend, there is a gulf between the two in understanding. Gwen is a mortal, and thinks like a mortal. To hold the weight and pain of so many years is something she has trouble understanding, especially when she's met people with vastly different takes. Mariel, for instance, is a genuinely gentle soul in a harsh world.
Ragnell had apparently shown up in the trials leading to here, and many of the Fiends, allies, and Guard alike had to fight against her and K.K.. Gwen can take care of this; Marivel's woe has gone too far. "You helped us a lot, Marivel. And I really appreciate it." Gwen sounds out her words while simultaneously making the mental command for Mockingbird to begin charging. She doesn't need to charge for long; it's still warm from when she used it last. "... You know how I feel. When there's a problem, I try to solve it. I don't care about fate or destiny, or chances.
"... You wanna throw the weight of your pain on my friends, then it becomes _my problem_." She holds up her right hand. "Mariel and Avril're right. And right now, we're gonna fight for the same people who've fought for us a million times over by now." She frowns. "So that's my answer. _Chrysopoeia Mode_." Like when she enables this halfway, yellow gold energy laces up the nerves in her right shoulder, up her neck, and into her face, her right eye. But here, it goes further, turning a genuine warmer tint.
It'd be easier to see, but Gwen is rushing forward as a fast pace, thrusting her charged fist straight into this new Goddess's body.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Marivel Armitage with Bolide Barrage! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Bolide Barrage for 120 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Ouroboros's head pushes into the platform to get a closer look at Mariel. "Each year that goes by is a chain. I've always intended to walk into the future, but each moment that passes by I feel myself growing more and more distant from the world. Tis all well and good to say we must walk into the future, but few can do that for forever. Will we be Alone But Together, Mariel, or will we be but Together But Alone in this world. Every day I feel myself becoming a true beast. Is walking into the future your Answer to Life?"
Zed comes chargin' in. Marivel can't help but be charmed by Zed's way of life. Zed slaps her in the face with his sword.
CLANG!!
"A true Hyadean through and through, but one that has not forgotten true strength. Tell me, Zed, your Answer. What does it mean to live the life of a Dark Hero when they meet their end?"
Rixia speaks up about how her own difficult past. "IS that your Answer, Rixia?" Ouroboros asks. "Tis a simple life. I can provide these things you. A meager pact price for a great reward. An ill suited pact for a daemon, but I do not dislike it."
Leo speaks up as well. He rightly says that it isn't exactly fair to punish those over pacts, hopes, and loss that is well before their time. Marivel has had a long time to learn that this is just how mortality affects a people.
"Do you find this to be punishment, White Knight Leo? Perhaps so, but any daemon is a being of contradictions. What you call 'punishment' can turn to a 'reward'."
Leo unleashes the power of LIGHT against Ouroboros--and despite being in this realm of darkness, the light from that cannon shines all the brighter for it. But in unleashing the power of Light... the hunger of the Abyss takes note of the foreign substance even as it digs through Marivel's scales and unleashes a black-purple spray.
"Hahhnhnnn..." Marivel says. "What is your Answer, Leo, after all the stories I shared?" Her eyes turn to gaze to Leo. "Have you not punished Spira for YOUR pain? You must at least be able to defeat me, my friend."
Shige steps in here and says she'll never have these answers. Marivel is actually stopped cold. The long neck twists the head around so that it can look directly at the Death Shaman.
She summons a spectral spirit to claw at Marivel. Ouroboros grabs ahold of it with a claw and simply says this to Shige, "Then you have failed as a Death Shaman."
She opens up her maw and bites into the ghost, tearing it apart as its energies fuel Marivel's own.
Margaret claims to be a small villain. Ouroboros chuckles. "Slay me with your looks? You could try. Call yourself a villain if you'd like. Wear that mask. But wear it proudly. Humility ill suits a proud villainess."
Margaret dashes around, speedily slicing into the hide of Ouroboros but she's finding it difficult to really get good hits in--she's making progress but those scales are HARD.
Marivel knows that Lanval is wiser than he appears and Ouroboros listens--though if she's really LISTENING, maybe that's for Lanval to say. "Very well," Ouroboros says to Lanval. "Take your time but best be sure of what you wish to say..."
Bonking Ouroboros with a gourd doesn't SEEM like it should hurt Marivel where swords not augmented by mystical light have failed but Lanval's Gourd slams into the back of Marivel's head and smashes it to the arena floor, cracking it. The Ouroboros shakes its head from side to side rapidly.
"Ah, it is heavy with mirth, then?"
She starts pulling her head back when Avril appears and recognizes her--despite not seeing the transformation take place.
Ouroboros snaps back suddenly, all eyes on Avril.
"...Do I even need to, Avril?" Ouroboros counters. "They are actively seeking to destroy the very planet I live on. Destroying your people would be self defense as it presently stands but THAT Answer can yet be averted, Avril." Her eyes slant into thin slits. "But I suspect you are actually closer to the Answer than you might suspect..."
Avril unleashes the power of a blade of ice. The Queen of the Veruni slices her blade into the hide of the Queen of the Enenra. Marivel is able to shake Avril free by twisting her body about but it was a palpable hit... "I could not even save Yue. She is bound by stronger chains than I. Your people will force me to judge all ere I wish it." There is a mournful echo in the words. Marivel cannot hide her true self. Every word has to be how she truly feels. Maybe on some level--she just wanted to bare it out.
Gwen has her theories but it's what Gwen says that Ouroboros speaks to. "Yes, I love you Gwen. Irrespective of pretense, you always lead with your humanity first. But..."
The Goddess intercepts Gwen --- and is pushed back. Althena is clobbered right on the chin as Gwen, Super Courier, delivers a punch right against her cheek. The Goddess continues to smile for her, sliding back against the Ouroboros. "But what will you do when for all you fight your friends, they still fall before your eyes?"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
The Goddess acts first. She raises her hand into the air, snaps again, and a scarlet moon coming down behind the Ouroboros. It charges up a blast and unleashes it towards Leo and Gwen, threatening to bathe them in painful crimson light before fading away.
"Chrysopoeia Mode, how fascinating?" She beams.
"My turn." Marivel says, snapping a claw of her own in imitation of the Althena Simulacrum.
Time gets wild, particularly for Rixia, Margaret and Avril. Moments are stretched out, longer and longer until the three of them find themselves being pulled back towards positions they had been just moments before. Marivel then rises up into the sky, moving through darkness as if it were nothing before slamming her claws, crackling with dark energy towards the three of them!
But Ouroboros doesn't linger long. It swirls around underneath the platform along with anybody still lingering upon her back before slamming against the bottom of the platform with such strength that it the very earth underneath Lanval, Zed, and Shige explodes upward into sharp and thick shards. Leaving the stage in the middle of a fight and ruining rotations?! She really is evil.
But then Marivel spins back up, rearing back with her head.
"Mariel," She says, "Please, I need to know..."
And with that she breathes forward draconic flame towards her!
Althena then raises Airgetlahm into the air and starts channeling power into it.
"But for now... Face the ultimate magic...! ARC IMPULSE!!" The two shout together, the blade drawing power from both Althena and Marivel as she swings down with explosive force towards everyone...! But...!
GS: Marivel Armitage has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Heroes! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Marivel Armitage's Heroes for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Drowsy removed! GS: Hyper applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Rixia with Basic Relativity - Sands of Time! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with Basic Relativity - Sands of Time! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Basic Relativity - Sands of Time! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with Basic Relativity - Tera Break! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Zed with Basic Relativity - Tera Break! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with Basic Relativity - Tera Break! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Basic Relativity - Drawing Down The Moon! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Basic Relativity - Drawing Down The Moon! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Mariel with Intervention of Ouroboros! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: COUNTER! Rixia counterattacks Marivel Armitage with Draw - Counter Magic! GS: CRITICAL! Rixia takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Sands of Time for 281 hit points! GS: Delay and Drowsy applied to Rixia! GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Zed suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Tera Break for 226 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Zed! GS: Mariel accepts Mariel's Focus for 0 hit points! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Tera Break for 156 hit points! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Sands of Time for 178 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Drowsy blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Mariel solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Intervention of Ouroboros for 150 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: White Knight Leo solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Drawing Down The Moon for 69 hit points! GS: Delay blocked! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Margaret partially evades Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Sands of Time for 131 hit points! GS: Delay and Drowsy blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from Rixia's Draw - Counter Magic for 209 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
ARC IMPULSE!!
Marivel and her makeshift Goddess roar out in tandem, drawing the mighty simulacrum of Airgetlahm high into the heavens. Down it crashes--
--but--
Within the Abyss, there is a flash of light.
It is blinding, like the crack of lightning. Every color of the rainbow sparks within the dark of this place for an ethereal moment in which everything is illuminated. Bolts of red and blue and yellow and green and purple and orange and everything in between crack through the air --
--and form into a single point of blazing white just before Marivel, 'Althena,' and their ultimate magic. The light fades away, within that diffusing haze of white.
And in its place in the Abyss' shadow-drenched skies is the chosen Prime Lord of the Pentagulia's Goddess in all her green and gold splendor, the broad surface of her shield Pridwen bristling with an inky flow of color as it intercepts that Arc Impulse in a crackling surge of conflicting energies.
Liath's expression is one of steeled resolve; her bright gold eyes narrow.
"Marivel," she begins, voice strained against the weight she is warding.
"This is not the way!"
And with that, she -swings- that shield with -just- enough power to deflect the Arc Impulse, light CRACKING off a big boom of an explosion as she spears for Marivel, sword drawn and thrust in an inky swarm of rainbow colors.
"And I will not stand to see you walk it a step longer!"
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Marivel Armitage with Shimmer Spin! GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Seraph Liath's Shimmer Spin for 84 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Liath! GS: Shige Kiwako takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Tera Break for 78 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
"I--I'm not, Miss Margaret... but it just hurts how often I end up having to fight people I care about," Rixia admits a little lower in tone to her, as the swordswoman of the Black Pearl steps up beside her. Leo is there to reinforce her as well, though quietly, she's unsure of what all happened in Filgaia, and how much Marivel is putting it on him. If she'd been there earlier, maybe she could know the further truth, but...
She senses the spectre within Shige's lantern, and nods to the woman in the mask. "I'm here too, Shige. I'll help guard you."
Lanval quietly notes the Malevolence, but he has something of joy too. She reflects on his wisdom from earlier -- to enjoy the little things in life. Yes. Just striving for warm milk bread and fresh socks (weren't those the other way around?)... to seek to have a little smile day to day... that's important too.
Avril speaks of how her people left the world too. Would they be judged similarly? "Miss Avril..."
There's a frightening eruption as time gets wild, and moments are stretched out... longer and longer -- and Rixia doesn't feel like her movements are her own. And then the claws slam through them while they're trapped, and Rixia's forced to only guard in turn, bearing the brunt of the attack with her gunblade and a shimmering shell of magic that bursts back towards Ouroboros in turn.
Marivel calls for Arc Impulse, the ultimate magic -- Rixia grimaces further and seeks to redouble her defences, but...!
A gleam of light in the darkness comes. It is Liath, come to defend against the blast with her shield as it cracks off in a large blast. In awe for a moment, Rixia stops to breathe-- then redoubles her attention to Ouroboros -- Marivel. Then...
"... I guess that's my answer today," Rixia answers Ouroboros in turn. "Does it have to be a capital A Answer I'll live with for the rest of my life? I don't know... that sounds really hard. What if I feel differently in a year? What if I feel differently in five years? Maybe I'll get bored of milk bread and only want to eat rice. Maybe I think socks suck after moving to a temperate place and want to wear sandals. Maybe I think being a Drifter's not for me anymore and I want to just be a botanist and care for plants...?"
>> strategic level 2, synthesizing tactical data
>> identifying threat patterns... targets acquired
>> queries identified in dialogue pattern...
>> [answers]
>> determining logical outcome...
A shimmering red and gold aura surrounds Rixia for a moment, soon establishing itself as a powerful barrier around which an otherworldly pattern appears. She's positioning herself in the van, ready to protect those behind her. Maybe this is, subtly, her answer.
"I think... it's pretty enjoyable to find and try out answers... don't you think?" she speaks through bated breath, because time is heavy and she's struggling.
GS: Rixia has attacked Rixia with Royal Guard! GS: Rixia enters a Counter stance! GS: Rixia has gained 3 Combo! GS: Rixia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Delay expired! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: Rixia heals Rixia! She gains 194 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Basic Relativity - Drawing Down The Moon for 83 hit points! GS: Delay blocked! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
"...Thank you, everybody..." Mariel did not expect so many to be willing to enter. Not behind her - she's no leader, and would never claim to be - but along with her, to reach Marivel where it is hardest.
The presence of Malevolence, however faint and being slowly drawn away from her, is enough to make Mariel feel ill.
There's the practical matter, of course: Mariel always feels nauseous around Malevolence, the foul energy completely at odds with her own. It's even more vile than her connection to the dying planet she loves, because she does not love it and feels it as the blight it seems to be.
But worse is that it's being absorbed by Marivel, and not that alone. Attuned to the flow of energy in the world as she is, Mariel can feel it, even in this strange mental realm. And it both pains and worries her.
If she holds that, deep in her heart... Mariel will just have to face it along with everything else.
Everything else like, say, a dragon, reaching forward to peer at her. Mariel can safely say that in all her long life this has happened zero times in the past, and even knowing that it is Marivel it's a frightening thing. She starts to take one step back - and then consciously does not, stepping forward right back to where she was before. She deliberately plants her staff, more to prevent herself from moving away than for any other reason.
Mariel bends down. She sets the phosphorescent bottle on the ground. It stays put for the moment, though it could tip over at any time and roll around. She meets Ouroboros' - Marivel's - eyes quite deliberately.
"I didn't have an answer for a long time," Mariel says, quietly. "I was here to ... fix a mistake, an accident. When my brother Vassim did what he did - when he so hurt the world - all I wanted to do was heal Filgaia. I didn't have a future planned past that."
"It was the people that came to see me - humans - who taught me that even if this world belongs to humans now, there's still a place in it for me... and you. Not as a memory, but as a living, growing thing. A flower that can grow in the desert, despite the struggle... a person who can live with hardship, despite their struggles... is the most beautiful thing..."
She trails off. It gives Marivel the moment to breathe in, breathe out - Mariel is untouched by the spells of time but instead surrounded in a gout of flame. When it clears, Mariel is still there, still in the same place - she hasn't taken a step back, though she has hunched down to cover her face against her robe. Part of her robe is charred around the lower hem, and other parts are sooty with smoke, but she's still standing.
"So that's my answer," she says, as if she hadn't stopped, and if she didn't hurt - her face is reddened from the heat. "For now. Life is growing. Changing. Being better. And ... tomorrow has to be able to be better than today." It may never get there. But it has to be *possible*.
Marivel winds up the gigantic Airgetlahm. (It's *not* the Guardian Sword, Mariel notes in passing, or at least Marivel's memory isn't; it doesn't look the same as the times she saw it complete. So that answers that.) "No!" She raises her voice, this time. With what Marivel said about Arc Impulse, when they spoke about it, she knows that Marivel is drawing upon her [bonds] to power it - she must be -
And it is stopped, by a shield carried by a Seraph. Perhaps Liath's bonds were stronger, or Marivel didn't have her whole heart into it. But it stops, and Mariel lets out the breath she didn't know she was holding.
From her satchel comes what looks like a bunch of grapes. It looks like that because that's exactly what it is - but here, in this land of memory, the grapes sublimate, fading into energy that swirls away from Mariel, touching many hearts and bodies and energizing them. The lingering scent fills the air, of green growing things and ripe fruit, covering up the smell of dragon and ashes.
GS: Mariel spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Mariel has attacked Rixia with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked Seraph Liath with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked Seraph Lanval with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked Shige Kiwako with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked Margaret with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked White Knight Leo with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has attacked Zed with Emperor Muscat! GS: Mariel has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: Margaret accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! activated! GS: White Knight Leo accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! activated! GS: Seraph Liath accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
CLANG!!
It's a simple way of life, the life Zed lives. He goes from one battlefield to the next, fighting according to his conscience and-- too often-- pure nepotism. But it's one that has served him well and won him many friends. For many, it's a life that could be said to be well lived.
And yet Marivel challenges him-- what is his answer? What is at the end of the Dark Hero's path?
"I have no idea!" Zed says with the biggest, widest, most absolutely in-the-moment-joyous grin. The ground itself turns against him, as if rebuking his utterly irreverent attitude. Regrettably, Zed still shares the Hyadean propensity to get ABSOLUTELY WRECKED by magic, though it's less bad than it once was. He's launched high, body riddled with shards of jet black stone. With a wad of quicksilver blood, he spits a pebble from his mouth and hurls himself down like a falling star. Doom Bringer, a blade that had witnessed the end of a world, shines like an inverted star, radiating a tangible, cosmic darkness into the abyssal void. "Don't get me wrong! I hope that I can live with no regrets-- that I can follow my conscience all the way to the end-- and that I can enjoy my life for as long as I can with everyone who I can share it with. But you're looking for an answer-- a singular <<thing>> that it all distills down to. And I say--"
He strikes, delivering a tremendous overhead blow right at one of the demonic thing's wings. Curses flood out from the ancient blade, infecting not the body or the soul-- but fortune and destiny itself. But this is Marivel-- her destiny is already so dark, what harm would a little more shadow do? "--That I have no idea!"
He kicks away, landing on a fragment of shattered landscape, floating upside-down in the abyss. "...The meaning of a life is not fully understood until it comes to an end. Any answer I can give to you now, even as I'm still living my life, would be incomplete, inaccurate and dishonest. I don't know what my life will mean for the world and its people when I leave it. All I can do is to do all that I can, reach as many lives as I can, and hope for the best! To worry about anything else would be counter to that goal! Nahahaha!"
GS: Zed accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! activated! GS: Rixia accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed tastes purple.
He glances around the void to determine what the source of this rejuvinating violet sensation might be, and upon espying Mariel, gives her a hardy, merry thumbs-up.
Elw and Metal Demons, getting along? Living together??? This world has gone mad!!
GS: Zed spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage with Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Avril Vent Fleur accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YEOx-jx9Q
As she twists and twirls, Margaret's eyes scan over the rest of the group. She has some time to wool-gather. Starlight Express's unexpected benefit, if you're the one using it: Time to think. Until it bursts your heart, anyway -- but that was with an older man, and he was tending to fat, besides.
Shige, Rixia. Avril and Gwen. Alright, alright, Margaret thinks. We can work with this - the Ouroboros, Marivel, Althena, whatever her manifold names, speaks. Some of the words come to her, in particular.
"Don't tell me what to do with my life!!" Margaret snaps back, with a sudden burst of heat. "I'll play the role I want to play and nothing else - I'm going to speak from my heart, and if it disappoints you, too bad! You can kill me if you have the guts, but I'm not -"
Wait, Margaret thinks. Am I running backwards? She looks behind herself. "Going to let you call the script after all of this, missy! It takes more than a doughnut to buy my time on the stage--"
A claw comes down! Margaret sees it, but whatever miraculous confluence of luck let her defeat a burning drill not so long ago seems to not be holding here. The claw may just move more simply, or be less telegraphed. Either way, Margaret manages to start moving in the right direction to be thrown clear, bruised, rather than smashed. The glow around her doesn't fade, but she doesn't get up for apparent seconds.
(To her, it was longer. It hurt.) But when she rises, there is a flash of light - luminous seven-color hope - and Margaret gazes up at the Seraph Liath as she descends. The knight of promise, she thinks, perhaps. Or not.
Margaret looks round. She might kill us, Margaret thinks. Even by accident. How long can I ride this rail?
Her eyes rest on one of the people present. "Do you want an Answer with a capital An? Fine," Margaret says, kipping up and starting to run again. "Here's mine--"
And with a swirl of fabulous light...
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdOWGZU3ktI
Margaret's left hand, empty of her sword (for she sheathed it for a moment) clasps the upper arm of the White Knight. The nebula expands to take him around, as the world flows more slowly. MUCH more slowly. It feels a lot like drinking too much coffee.
"Sorry," says Margaret, with wet cheeks. "This is selfish of me. Don't panic. I'll be fast."
She swallows.
"Leo," she says, without preamble.
"I - I wanted to tell you that I've always looked up to you. But I don't know if that's the right way to put it. I've ADMIRED you. For as much as I loathe all of this hero-justice-goodness stuff -- it's always seemed like a millstone to grind good people into paste, so indifferent people can enjoy the benefits without having to be good themselves. I suppose it was immature of me," Margaret says, her eyes turned upwards, "and I suppose I was immature, too. I dreamed of ruling a city in the sky... and I did want to take it from your peer, from old big Borgan."
Her eyes come down.
"Everything's different now," Margaret says, "isn't it? There's good to go with the bad. I can't tell you what to do but I can hear the pain in your voice. I'm just some orphan from the streets, ultimately, however much Miss Ouroboros may chide me for it. But I don't care about her right now. I want you to know -"
Her hand tightens for a moment.
" - that throughout all of this - I've always been cheering you on. And so has - everyone else. Well, I can't speak for EVERYONE, everyone. But I can speak for about sixty people, Leo. My dear Hounds. And except for the new recruits on Filgaia -- and we've had people JOIN us, Leo, NEW people joined us, they WANTED to come with us, US! -- everyone -- all forty-one of us who ended up out there on Filgaia... All of us have always looked up to you. You may have been misguided, or stern, or strict at times, but you've always had your heart in the right place."
Margaret's eyes come up to meet Leo's then.
"Even here, even now. Even hearing about the Goddess, finding out things like this. Because all of that is true and it matters, but you know what, sir, so do I, so do all of them, and what's more, so do you. So if after this, you're tired of the whole Hero business - if you'd rather hang up your sword - come and join us. We have a village out there. Out in the bad lands no one wanted. But we took it back. We make game boards now, Leo - selling them on to the taverns in Filgaia - isn't that silly? But you should see them playing it -"
"Just remember," Margaret says. "Even when everything burns, there's always another place for you. And I don't want you to have to stumble for it, if you seek it out."
"Maybe that won't be how it goes," Margaret says, with tears on her cheeks, even if she's smiling. "Maybe you'll want to chase me and clap me in irons for desertion. You'd have a case. I won't sit still for it, of course. You'll have to run me out of Glenwood. Even if you do take that way, come to my village, eh? I'll buy you lunch."
A silence there stretches for several subjective moments. Margaret then leans inwards, bringing her left arm up to pull Leo into a tight, ylang-ylang scented hug for a moment. Then to let go, or to loosen. There is space, perhaps for a reply.
"Alright," she says. "Monologue over. You don't have to listen to anything I said. But I've always thought of you as a friend. There's my own arrogance. I'm going to let you go now -"
Margaret relaxes her grip, the nebula retracting as Leo returns to something more closely related to conventional time. "Mind your step!"
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
She had not seen it, but there is no mistaking it. Somehow, she already knows who it must be: it had come bubbling up from the depths without her having to so much as think on it.
But that is the nature of the power of the Ley, is it not?
The entire focus of Ouroboros is soon upon her.
"I do not deny this," Avril says, gazing up at Marivel's many eyes. "Yet, this does not reflect the will of all of my people. There are some who wish to return to the world of their ancestors' birth and live as any might. I believe we may yet find another way to surmount our 'wall'." But it will take time. But it will require them to live true to their dream, even if it means sundering that of others. But she does not yet have the answer.
But she does not yet need to present it, her answer. Her solution.
She lands, having already opted to lend weight to her words by that show of force. This is her intention: she will not be turned from this path.
"I, too, wish to save her. In this we are alike, Marivel. But, would you condemn her as well?"
She may well condemn the lot of them -- the Veruni, the people of Lunar. Is her role now to be as judge to all creation?
Time winds backwards and struggle as she might, Avril is inexorably dragged back to the place in which she had stood. Neither can she move as there comes down that shadowy strike from the claws of Ouroboros. She cannot help but cry out.
Within the darkness, there is a flash of light. Is that...?
Avril has seen her before, though they have had little opportunity to speak. Is that the Seraph...?
And she speaks, and she delivers until Marivel her ultimatum.
"..."
Avril sets aside her blade, bringing forth her Medium which glows with its own inner light.
"I can give you only my answer, Marivel. It is not the answer you seek, for it is my own."
She brandishes her Medium; the scent of the sea joins the swirling impression of Mariel's muscat in the air and may well remind one of a fine glass enjoyed on the seaside on a warm, sunny day.
"I seek only to travel, and to know." There is light from the Medium now; Lucadia's protections descend in full.
GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Inspire! GS: Margaret has attacked Margaret with Premonition of Darkness! GS: Margaret has attacked White Knight Leo with Premonition of Darkness! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Margaret accepts Margaret's Premonition of Darkness for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Surge applied to Margaret! GS: Margaret gains 2 Combo from Inspire! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Margaret with Tidal Wall! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Rixia with Tidal Wall! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Zed with Tidal Wall! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Tidal Wall! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Seraph Lanval with Tidal Wall! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 2 Combo! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Avril Vent Fleur accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Rixia accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Rixia! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: White Knight Leo accepts Margaret's Premonition of Darkness for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Quick applied to White Knight Leo! GS: Quick applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: White Knight Leo gains 2 Combo from Inspire! GS: CRITICAL! Zed accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Zed! GS: Quick applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Margaret accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Margaret! GS: Quick applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Delay! Attack greatly weakened! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Zed's Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker for 152 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Zed drains Marivel Armitage! Zed gains 73 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige Kiwako shakes her head at the rebuke and says flatly, "Death isn't an answer, it's the end of a journey and the beginning of a new one." She shrugs. "Or were you hoping I'd be more than a guiding light to the end at the end of a tunnel?"
The shadow is torn assunder, but was it ever really there? A lingering doubt? The manifestation of Shige's own life maybe. She's a ball of bad habits, but she's never decided a bunch of innocent people needed to be dragged in.
"I'll ask you again. Do you even remember what you're accusing us of forgetting? What have you done to make sure they're not forgotten? Have you shared their stories? Inscribed their epitaph where others could learn it?" She steps forward, "Have you written their stories down? Have you shared their last words? Have you taught their dreams? Or are you standing there, pointing an indicting finger?"
That shade and copies of it spread from where the first had been torn apart. Whispers, accusatory eyes. Pointing fingers of their own at both figures. A manifestation of her own frustration at this point.
The fact that she's shouting down a dragon is definitely a combination of actual anger towards Marivel for... you know, the town and some alcohol. And a good amount of righteous indignation.
The spikes jutting from the ground just catch her. Knocking her away rather than impaling which is preferable in any circumstances really. She does land on her feet though. Somehow. It's a cat thing, don't worry about it. She brushes herself off briefly, looking offended in only a way an annoyed feline could before stepping forward again. "I offered to learn more before and it wasn't taken." She's been knocked out of her indignation and once more, she might be a little more clear headed. Debatably. Those shades linger though. Staring.
"I'll do whatever I have to, to keep these people safe though." she finally says, taking another step forward. Then another. She's terrified really, but what else is new.
GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako accepts Mariel's Emperor Muscat for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Mariel's Reload! activated! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Marivel Armitage with Haunted Ground! GS: Delay expired! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval doesn't laugh at the almost comical report of his successful endeavor to apply a proper bonking. In fact, he overcommits a bit, whirling a few times in the follow-through and only catches his balance about the time it takes for the question to be asked about what it's heavy with.
"Heavy with lotsha shtuff," Lanval answers, "that'sh the thing 'bout water... everything getsh in it, 'n I got a piece of the water that getsh everything in it riiiiight here."
Beat.
"But that ain't the Answer yer lookin' for, huh--" Comfortably conversational (...as a relative) circumstance does not last, because he is still standing before an immense beast continually feeding off of what he's going to call, for lack of a better learned term in the moment, 'everything spiritual.' Even outside of the time warping, looking at it is weird and alarming and distracting, as Ouroboros slams that platform and Lanval finds himself hurtled and tossed about sudden sharp stalagmites in as injurious a manner as a trip suggests.
It is water's nature to be shaped by the earth containing it, after all, and for a moment Lanval is contained (and stabbed and bludgeoned, but mostly contained), when...
Liath appears, preventing the Arc Impulse from making good on punching Lanval's ticket (...and everyone's), speaking their protest on the way Marivel steps. He sort of slithers and tumbles out clumsily from some of the jutting earthen spikes in its wake.
"...Sorey's entrushtin' ush with a lot, here," both to himself and vaguely in Liath's direction. "...'n Maotelus too," of a Fell Dragon whose legacy and being is not yet clear to him but his anguish about the way the world has gone heartfelt.
A hand rests against one of the jutting spikes, and he gets himself steady(-ish).
It is here in this sequence that Mariel shares the sublimated grapes, and Lanval's eyes flash briefly in aquamarine as he considers the flavors, what sorts of wines could be made of the stuff. A warm smile, over in Mariel's direction.
"Sho, are ya ready ta lishten yet?" He asks of all of Marivel. "'n I'm not takin' 'yes' for an answer! Ha ha ha!" Wait, what.
As Lucadia's protections dawn upon him in the wake of Avril's declaration of her own answer - assertion that it's hers - Lanval's incantation is lost over some of the noise and declarations and heartfelt calls of the others, but not the name of the spell as a Seraphic Arte glyph forms underneath him. "Endless Flow~"
There is a flowing river of water racing towards Ouroboros, heedless of the lack of barriers into the void. Water is just going to get everywhere* in this nowhere, in some indescribable quantity where volume is not a concept that fully applies in the Abyss.
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Lanval receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Marivel Armitage with Endless Flow! GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Punishment. Reward. The White Knight snarls, baring fangs as Marivel sinks verbal claws into him. Did he harm Spira because of his pain?
"Yes," Leo says, his voice a strangled creak. "I still see Mi'ihen, and Luca, and Bevelle." Malevolence coils up his legs, and he bares teeth, his body going rigid in its cold embrace. "I know. I know that leads to horror that even the likes of you can't shake." Leo sucks in a breath; the 'air' of the void is cold, and stifling, but it animates him. "Does everything have to be a test? Does it have to be judgment?!" But it's so much grander if it is, isn't it? So befitting of the White Knight, the slayer of the Lord of Calamity, the hero of Heroes.
The moon gleams crimson. Leo shifts his feet back, sweeps his sword up as he follows the swell of Marivel's sorcery. It moves, effortlessly, into the path of the beam, reflecting it harmlessly into the void beyond. The hilt of Leo's blade starts to grow cold and hot at once, but he holds on.
Ouroboros and the mockery of Althena move in tandem. Leo's eyes shoot open. "BRACE!" he bellows, and he presses two fingers to the Crest around his neck--
The faintest pulse of pearly-white is all he gets. The energy's exhausted. Leo's eyes widen.
And then...
"PRIME LORD!" Leo shouts, his voice ragged with fear. But Liath's shield holds, and in that anxious moment, someone grips his arm. He turns to face her. The world slows.
"Margaret," Leo says, and his eyes mist. He recognizes the spell before he recognizes the person--really, wasn't she here all along? Didn't he know, on some level, that it was her? Leo listens. He can't hold back the tears. He's maybe more vulnerable than she's ever seen him. "I can't," he whispers, as he returns her hug, pulls her close. "But thank you." They let go, and the flow of time resumes with a shuddering pop. Some of Margaret's speed clings to Leo as he exits her pocket, and he blurs across the platform, leaping up, alighting momentarily on Ouroboros' neck and then jumping higher. Leo pivots at the apex of his leap, sucks in a breath, and descends, aiming to cut clean into the base of Ouroboros' skull.
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. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Shige Kiwako's Haunted Ground for 0 hit points! GS: Dispel! Hyper and Shield removed! GS: Hex applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Seraph Lanval's Endless Flow for 50 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Liath enters and declares her Answer. Mariel is glad that everyone followed her in. Zed Zeds. Avril persists. Margaret is Margaret. Leo snarls. Lanval flows. All is a kind of energy, a heated vibration that pushes her on.
This Goddess mockup smiles so gently at Gwen. Regret briefly flashes in Gwen's eyes as she jumps back from her advance, mutely continuing to her next move. The courier can't give an Answer now, unfortunately; with how the world is beginning to shift and turn in her mind's eye under the effects of her ARM, it's hard to speak, much less think too long on one given thing to the next. The world is flowing, and Gwen is a filament, an open wire. She leaps up, arcing in the air like a meteor.
She has a delivery of utmost importance.
Something tastes grape in Gwen's mouth-- Mariel? Yes, fighting, in her own way, on her own terms. It makes the crimson light she crashes through a smidge less painful, which she's grateful for.
Her palms, filled with dusty gold, try to crash down on that serene face of Althena, in order to deafen some iota of the force of sorcery the two opponents have.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Marivel Armitage with Ignis Fatuus! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards White Knight Leo's Luminant Scythe for 56 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage partially guards Gwen Whitlock's Ignis Fatuus for 91 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Mute blocked! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
The power of the Arc Impulse crashes against Liath. The eyes along Marivel's face widen in shock--the first moment where she hasn't been acting like everything was going more or less according to plan. Althena steps backwards and looks towards the Prime Lord as well, all attention on her as Liath strikes Marivel with a positive rainbow of power. Marivel yelps out in surprise and pulls back, hanging her head.
"Liath..." Marivel says. "I thought .... We agreed... You were to take advantage..."
A shakiness in Marivel's tone enters that wasn't there before. She always said that Liath was adept at staking her heart.
"I don't understand..." Marivel says. "Why didn't I meet you... Ere my secrets drowned me...? The Answers I seek, do you have them, Liath? I want to have your Faith, yet I cannot find it. If Lord Blazer destroyed them, how can I expect them to handle what is to come? It is so much worse, Liath. I won't allow another apocalypse like that to come to pass!"
Rixia asks if it has to be a capital A Answer. "Mm..." Ouroboros considers. "But tis still simple pleasures you desire, is it not? Will you find others?" Rixia then comes up with another answer. Enjoyable to try and find the answers? That the Answer is the pursuit of answers. The Ouroboros considers this response and can find no fault with it. "Yes... It has often seemed that way..."
Mariel has yet another Answer. And of course like all answers, it is only for now but Marivel considers the words all the same. Mariel reminds Marivel of smells that she had once thought utterly lost forever. In a way, that expresses through scent what words fail to find. "Mariel... I've been struggling for a long time. How do I escape the moment? Even now, I remain in the Memory Maze. Yes... I am here to fix a mistake. Just like you--but you have found the strength to escape past that Truth into the unknown?"
Zed is also honest. He says he has no idea but there is still yet hope. Marivel considers his words for a moment and then adds, "Perhaps I ought to have said 'Answers', have I allowed my poetry to get away from me? Well, Zed..."
"That is a Correct Answer." Marivel says. And she, wholly subsumed by fate and destiny, is fiercely wounded by the Cursed Blade as it digs into the Dragon's hide. Marivel hisses through it, grinning through many fangs as Zed's enthusiasm infects her. Some part of her just digs the FIGHT.
Margaret tells her not to tell her what to do with her life. "More like it!" Marivel taunts her.
But she watches as Margaret tells Leo how much she admired her but she can't listen to the whole of it as Avril comes in.
Would she condemn Yue? "No." Marivel says honestly. "I cannot."
Avril gives her an answer. "Are you certain...?" Marivel says. "That is so different from my Answer?"
They're empowering their defenses, she realizes. Do they intend to simply weather her until she tires out? It isn't the worst plan.
"A Guiding Light is exactly what I expect you to be, Shige."
Shige asks her if she remembers what she is accusing others of forgetting. Marivel says, "Do you listen?" to Shige. "Everyone has things they have forgotten. I certainly don't expect the living to remember the ancient dead. What do you think this is about Shige? Those who do not learn the mistakes of the past repeat them not unlike a serpent eating its own tail, just as shamans who cannot give comfort and assurance to the dead are ill deserving of Ge Ramtos."
This time the shades linger around her, Marivel doesn't feel the need to make a point again and the shades rip free invisible augmentations.
Lanval unleashes his waters against the endless serpent. "Water is not endless..." Marivel murmurs. "Only mud is eternal." She has her own faith.
Lanval isn't going to take yes for an answer so Marivel doesn't give him that.
Leo asks if everything has to be a test, a judgement? "....I cannot risk a lack of preparedness." Marivel admits. "GUHH..." the GUHH comes from Leo slamming his blade into the back of the Ouroboros. She sways unsteadily for a spell. "If you knew what was coming, if I could tell you... You'd think I wasn't testing enough..."
Gwen slams her own fists into Althena. The gentle smile doesn't fade. Like all she wants is for Gwen--not to prove herself, exactly, but to SHINE. To LIVE. To JOY.
"Every moment delivered," The Goddess says. "Is a blessing." She pushes off of Gwen, Elw ears twitching as she moves further back off towards the tail end of the Ouroboros.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel's body crashes into the platform, causing it to SPIN AROUND VERTICALLY. This seems less intentional so much as a biproduct of the Ouroboros crashing into it.
Marivel does not let up on the assault. The Ouroboros chants in an alien tongue channeling multiple spells into a singular moment. Rocks come crashing down towards Rixia, Margaret, and Avril. Then Fire bursts out from underneath their feet. Then Air slashes at them before transmogrifying into water that comes crashing down from above before repeating again and again until the Spell Loop is broken.
Lanval, Shige, and Zed are assaulted not by the Ouroboros this time but rather Althena herself. She summons that moon again, this time from above as it blasts down quick and repeated scarlet light towards the three of them. "Is it time to listen? But you can only reach out your hand, you cannot force one to take it."
Then Althena grabs for Gwen, laughing heartily as she leaps from Marivel, intending to leap into the air and just pile drive her into Leo! "Brilliant...!"
Marivel pushes back up, slower this time as she gazes at Liath. Questioning. Wondering. Seeking. She turns her gaze to Mariel. Wondering. Questioning. "Why did you come here?" She asks, more for Liath.
And she doesn't attack them--but the Simulacrum does. She swings Airgetlahm in wide--almost amateurish arcs towards Mariel and Liath--but it's the POWER behind each strike that is concerning. It's like getting punched by Xantia.
"...Sakura always said I never understood... That I could not understand..." Marivel murmurs. "I thought I understood her, but then she suddenly... hated me so much again... Perhaps I simply cannot walk with humans after all."
GS: Marivel Armitage has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Marivel Armitage spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Rixia with Intermediate Relativity - Spells On Loop! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with Intermediate Relativity - Spells On Loop! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Intermediate Relativity - Spells On Loop! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with Intermediate Relativity - Mobius Moon! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Zed with Intermediate Relativity - Mobius Moon! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with Intermediate Relativity - Mobius Moon! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Advanced Relativity - Fearless Goddess Wandering The Night! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Advanced Relativity - Fearless Goddess Wandering The Night! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Intermediate Relativity - Spells On Loop for 187 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Quick, Shield, and Surge removed! GS: Delay and Interrupt applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Charge bonus activated! GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Margaret has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Mariel with Shadow of Airgetlahm the Guardian Blade! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Liath with Shadow of Airgetlahm the Guardian Blade! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Redress! GS: Zed suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Intermediate Relativity - Mobius Moon for 200 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Dispel! Infect! Shield removed! GS: Delay blocked! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Marivel Armitage's Redress for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Regen and Surge applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Marivel Armitage gains 61 THP from Regen! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Mariel takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Shadow of Airgetlahm the Guardian Blade for 87 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Mariel gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Avril Vent Fleur suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Intermediate Relativity - Spells On Loop for 172 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Quick and Shield removed! GS: Interrupt applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Shadow of Airgetlahm the Guardian Blade for 64 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Advanced Relativity - Fearless Goddess Wandering The Night for 100 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay and Slow applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Rixia solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Intermediate Relativity - Spells On Loop for 151 hit points! GS: Dispel! Riposte and Shield removed! GS: Interrupt applied to Rixia! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Rixia has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Advanced Relativity - Fearless Goddess Wandering The Night for 233 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Intermediate Relativity - Mobius Moon for 84 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Dispel! Infect! Shield removed! GS: Delay blocked! GS: Shige Kiwako takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Intermediate Relativity - Mobius Moon for 89 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Delay applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Evade bonus activated! GS: Seraph Lanval used Force Action: Mystic on Mariel! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia receives a grape from Mariel, through the power of magic -- and she goes, "Mmmm!! Wow, that's so... delicious, and juicy, and tasty... is that a grape? I haven't ever had a grape before!" she just wholeheartedly exclaims to the Elw, because sometimes, you just really need to appreciate things. Avril's power, too, washes over her. It fills her with strength, that wall of water.
She has to regard what Margaret speaks of, though, because it resonates with what she's struggling with. Of how it's a millstone to grind good people to paste... was that immature of Margaret? ... was it immature of herself, too?? Margaret wasn't talking to her but she kinda wants to make board games too... when she's tired of being a hero...
"If he's silly enough to do that -- which he won't be -- I'll break you out in turn, Miss Margaret," Rixia huffs in turn. "Also, I want to make board games too, sometime. I love the colourful little wood meeples they have... it's so silly every time they talk about how their sheep got stolen, but I can't help but grin... they know what they're on about."
Rixia listens to Marivel's response in turn. "It's simple pleasures... but... Lanval's taught me that it's important to take the little, simple things in life. Of course, it's not like you're wrong either. I get it. I mean, if we didn't have people who could see the big picture... I mean, for instance, what if I ate every single grape in the forest because I liked it so much, and everyone started joining in, and there were no grapes left? I think a lot of that kind of thing has happened..."
She doen'st get to finish, because Ouroboros crashes on the platform and rattles her, and then rocks come down to try to crush her -- but there's another magical shell that protects her from the worst of it. It's not done, though -- Rixia leaps to one side to avoid the fire, trails of embers sparking at her clothes; and then a slash of air and water.
>> ...
"It's important... I think both's important. Marivel... do we have to keep fighting right now? I'm so scared at what's going on here, in Pentagulia. I feel like something really bad's about to come down. ... I'd rather have you at my side for it."
The elements come with a crash, and Rixia--
>> answers: searching
>> answers: searching
>> answers: searching
--Rixia's just not there anymore. Marivel sees a certain cat-shaped microphone hovering in the air for a moment, then it disappears.
The fox girl has reappeared several paces to the side. "... hehe. I've been practicing with your gift. Do you like it?"
>> query: [answers]
>> user response: [socks] [grapes] [board games]
>> evaluation of user response: illogical.
>> cannot return satisfactory answer to query.
>> ... ...
Rixia doesn't even notice the shift in what the Sleeping Lion is evaluating, but she darts back in turn. "I can play with a bit of fire too!"
In the peak of her jump, she rears the gunblade back and throws her whole weight into a wrenching, spinning swing -- and glyphs of fire manifest in her wake, one for each arm of the clock. When she hits 'twelve'--
"Burst, Fated Circle!"
They explode.
GS: Rixia has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Rixia has attacked Marivel Armitage with Fated Circle! GS: Rixia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Drowsy expired! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: Mariel has activated Force Action: Extend!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
A Correct Answer, or as correct as any Answer can be when the question is Life. Zed's grin widens just a tiny fraction, his spirit swelling with the thrill of battle. He is a Hyadean, after all. For that warlike race, the rush of conflict is not a negative thing. It's a matter of competition, of self-improvement, of finding a moment of meditative self-awareness and self-actualization in the crucible of combat.
And Zed's exhuberence is, as ever, infectious. Despite the dire circumstances, he just can't help but to enjoy himself. That is, maybe, his secret to a life well lived.
Or maybe he's just a battle-crazy fight maniac who can best communicate his true feelings not with words but with the clash of blades and the interplay of fist and foot.
(Someday, he and Rokurou Rangetsu will meet and they will engage in a roiling battlefield bacchanalia the likes of which Filgaia and Lunar had not witnessed in at least an age.)
But for all that he's enjoying himself, he certainly does not enjoy the moment of <<pain>> when a cascade of crimson light slams into him. Again, she exploits that critical weakness of all Hyadeans-- they're all kind of crap when it comes to dealing with sorcery. Zed grits his teeth through the pain, and in the moment it seems as though he's grinning.
"Nnnngh," he grunts, lifting his blade over his shoulders with a sound of exertion. "What's the deal, goddess lady? I'm having a great time fighting a hyperdevil here...!" Doom Bringer ignites, blazing a fiery, citrine green as Zed leaps--
And comes crashing down, shining sword swinging hard, into the image of the Sword Goddess. At the instant of impact, it erupts, exploding in a cavalcade of blinding shades of green and gold. "Though I guess I can have a good time fighting a goddess too! Ahahahaha!"
GS: Zed spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage with RayBlade - Zed Saber! GS: Zed has gained 2 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Rixia's Fated Circle for 62 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Rixia drains Marivel Armitage! Rixia gains 41 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel has never been more relieved that she isn't doing this alone. Marivel standing alone... only [bonds] can stand against it. And though Mariel does not know everyone here, she knows enough, and their purposes are united. She can feel, distantly, as people's hearts do not become one but come into alignment: Margaret and Leo, Zed and Gwen, Rixia, Avril Shige, Lanval, Liath - all of them.
She treasures the feeling. It feels good to be united.
'How do I escape the moment?'
"I don't know," is Mariel's immediate response. "But we can find out." Every moment delivered, every moment lived, is a blessing. Marivel's memory has that correct, even if Marivel herself does not.
Mariel is searching for something else in her satchel when Marivel charges in. It's not even aimed at her, precisely; the platform is merely slammed into by Ouroboros, causing the whole thing to swing and spin dangerously. Mariel wishes, as she so rarely does, that she had her hands out of her gloves; she could grip better then.
Here and now all she can do is cling to her staff, which has anchored itself somehow - it refuses to move, and when the platform spins all the way around she hangs off it, legs dangling in an undignified fashion. She's just glad that the platform returns to right-way up in time for her to land on it again, practically faceplanting.
Mariel rolls. It's a reflexive movement and one that saves her from the arcing Airgetlahm. Mariel has no idea how to use a sword, and not much more of how to stop someone from using it on you; she ends up circling around her anchored staff, using it as cover, because it seems as sturdy as a massive tree. It can take strikes with barely a chip that would practically throw Mariel off the platform if they connected with her solidly.
Once, the Guardian Blade touches her, and for an instant Mariel feels it; the connection through Airgetlahm, through its bonds to Marivel. She reaches for it, an Elw's reflex -
Marivel can, for an instant, feel Mariel more than she could before. Just a sense of presence that is indefinable and lasts only for an instant, but it is there nonetheless. There's sadness, and hopefulness, and determination, and...
Mariel, who was expecting it, is not slowed down by it. She finally finds what she wanted - an apple, brightly coloured, almost unnaturally so. It looks like candy, rippling through red and blue and yellow and green, and its power is released the same way as the graple but more intensely. A sheer burst of energy flows through the unity of purpose, less reinvigorating and more empowering.
It seems that though Mariel cannot strike Marivel, she does want this to end. Perhaps this is her determination.
GS: Marivel Armitage used Force Action: Mystic on Mariel! FP up! GS: Mariel has attacked Zed with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Rixia with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked White Knight Leo with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Seraph Lanval with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Shige Kiwako with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Margaret with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Seraph Liath with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has attacked Mariel with Status Apple! GS: Mariel has gained 4 Combo! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: Avril Vent Fleur accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: White Knight Leo accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Margaret accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Margaret! GS: Marivel Armitage critically guards Zed's RayBlade - Zed Saber for 54 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Zed accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Zed! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rixia accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Rixia! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
As Gwen is grabbed by Althena, she manages an answer.
"...Uh--!' Surprise, bewilderment, vexation at Althena's eternally beneficent demeanor. This is, after all, the closest Gwen's been to really seeing the Goddess Althena, outside of statues or artistic renditions. While it's combined partially with parts of Anastasia, Gwen would be unable to tell what's really changed.
It's unfortunate that this is the one that's pile-driving her into Leo.
"--Guhhk!" Gwen's body is a great blunt force weapon, as it turns out; her frame, while deceptively lean in many parts, is packed with muscle just from hauling that ARM around and adjusting her balance for it.
Too bad for Leo.
Reality slows down. Her brain, meanwhile, refuses to. It just makes the disconnect between brain and body *worse*. This mode had always been a tightrope act for Gwen, a balance between response and her ability to keep up with it. It just might go downhill from here, except--
The minor miracle of Mariel's marvelous apple.
< Optional BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhHrFfT-Xxs
If Leo's day wasn't bad enough, Gwen isn't of much mind to at least be polite about what she's about to do next.
The courier springs up into the air, using poor Leo's body as a launching pad. Where before she used her palms, Gwen uses her entire body, intending to slam straight down on Althena the same way she just piledrived into Leo.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Marivel Armitage with Jarngreipr! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage critically guards Gwen Whitlock's Jarngreipr for 47 hit points! GS: Jam blocked! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Seraph Liath accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Seraph Liath! GS: Seraph Liath enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Leo refuses the call, and Margaret sees him go. He leaps off.
Margaret stands there for a moment.
"Ah," she says, to herself, rhetorically. "But that's not quite true, is it? But I'll take a little white lie. Because it's not that you can't. I can see both of your legs, Leo. It's that you *won't...*"
Margaret's head tilts forwards.
"Yet," she concludes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPXIgEAGe4U
A seaside smell in the air. The taste of sweet, too-sweet grapes in her mouth. Margaret's eyes close for a moment. She slides her right hand back into her dress pocket and walks forwards, taking a deep breath and letting it out. She approaches Marivel.
As she walks, her head turns to look at Rixia with surprise. "Ah! You were listening?" A beat - "-- I don't know what you mean, but..." Margaret's left hand points towards Rixia, across her bust because Rixia's on her right. "I like how you're thinking, darling!"
"You're welcome in my crew as well."
And somehow it feels like a victory. Maybe that's her real Answer.
Back to her walk. Margaret's eyes stay forwards. A slam spins the ground and Margaret has to jog-slam-dance in place. Margaret strides forwards. Rocks fall; she doesn't die, although her efforts to kick them aside with her reinforced running boots is somewhat indifferent. Margaret is bruised by the time she's through the first wave of the storm, but she's making a *point* here, damn it. What are a few bruises to an immortal moment?
Margaret sweeps a hand through her hair. "What I don't UNDERSTAND about these tests is..."
"Where's the preceding CLASSES?" Margaret continues. "It's a test in what sense, exactly? I mean this is hardly rigorous. Granted that whatever enigma lurks in the truth of the goddess is going to be something we don't understand, and it's not like this is the yearly qualifications for your Silver Magus degree, but what if we came through but half of us were crippled? I mean, these battles aren't a joke, and even my Starlight Express can only carry me so -"
THUMP; A rock smashes against her shoulder. "gh... So far. Point exactly."
But Mariel's there. Mariel, who she did make a promise too. A fruit-flavored burst of energy washes out over Margaret, and she looks towards her. "... I think I get you," she says to Mariel.
(Alright, Margaret thinks: Rescue attempt. I don't need both hands that badly, do I? It's not like I have to pull her loose.)
"So, Ouroboros!" Margaret says, raising her left hand up. "I'm going to teach you a lesson of my own. Why don't you -" She puts her hand to her mouth: "Take a seat?" And then she flicks it outwards, with a wink, in a purple-pink heart that flies through the air.
IT IS A LIE. THE KISS IS A SPELL. The blown kiss is a trigger on the greatest extension of edge-case enchantment that the Hounds of Hell, who certainly didn't have anything better to do with their time before going into the bartop gaming industry, were able to extend the boundaries of the white polarity of Althenic magic. The spell enhances; it supports; it buoys things... the same way that mushrooms enhance perception, or that ten cups of coffee support running, or that an explosion buoys a dandelion seed.
On contact comes spectacular and surreal hallucination --
And that's when Margaret dives inwards, aiming for whatever seems to be the most central part of the great Ouroboros. Carving and slicing didn't work? How about -
"ATATATATATATATA"
Stabbing? Skewering, twisting at each one, aiming to carve between and pop loose scaling? To reveal a tender belly that has been held close and cherished, perhaps since long before any of them were born? Well, she *was* invited to own her villainy, wasn't she?
GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Illusion Kiss! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link! GS: Delay expired!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
Are Liath's bonds stronger?
She wouldn't say so. But for the people who matter to her?
The Seraph's bonds are as unbreakable as they are irreplaceable. And she would walk through heaven and hell for them.
If anything... it's because of the strength of both hers and Marivel's bonds that she overcomes.
With that spinning stroke of her rainbow-coated blade, the Light Seraph lands with a smooth click of armored heels upon the platform. Her blade snaps to the side, her shield held close, her eyes shut.
I thought .... We agreed...
"Oh? Ought I just use you to my own advantage, like some paltry decoy? I seem to recall you despising being used so."
Liath's eyes open, as she stares straight upward at the grand, terrifying Ouroboros that Marivel has become without so much as flinching.
"You are no distraction to me, Marivel, and I shall not treat you as one.
"You are my friend."
Memories of rejuvenative grapes and fresh apples fills the abyssal air with their scent. A being of pure spirit herself, the scent of fresh fruit budding on the vine is more than enough to bolster the Prime Lord's essence, the pastel prism splendor of her sword intensifying in its shining, liquid-like majesty as she turns her head to regard Mariel, tipping her head.
"You've my gratitude, my lady," offers the Seraph sincerely, as she looks back toward Marivel and the makeshift Goddess she has crafted.
"White Knight," is her simple, if warm, greeting for Leo -- after all, he has something of his own to deal with, with Margaret. Despite herself, a small but radiant smile touches on Liath's lips as her fingers tighten around the hilt of her sword. Fond.
And it is that same fondness that she brings to Lanval and the half-murmured words he offers, even as the Ouroboros begins its offensive once more.
"They entrust it with you because they have faith in you, Master Lanval. In all of you," is her answer, even as her body lowers, even as that gilded gaze focuses upon the approaching form of the spectre of Althena.
"No matter what ugliness might exist in this world, no matter what the genesis of it, they believe in the life here, enough to bet all they have on it." Her stance widens in readiness.
"As do I."
The Airgetlahm swings, and the Joyeuse is there to meet it in a parrying stroke; the blow is easy enough to predict, but the sheer power behind it is overwhelming. So much so that it swings Liath's sword wide, its rainbow colors bursting backward in a prismatic arc with every countering blow that numbs Liath all the way up to her shoulder. With the last, she is blown -backwards-, flipping through the air with a flutter of green coattails as she lands in a skidding crouch across the platform.
Why is she here? Does she have the Answers Marivel seeks?
"... Because I have come to my own conclusion, Marivel. And it has led me to stand on this side opposite you. Not for them," Marivel knows it cannot be for them.
"For you."
Liath stands. She lifts Joyeuse up, the blade humming with Althena's magics as she stares straight ahead upon that simulacrum.
"I cannot give you the Answers you seek, Marivel. But I know this: you will not get the Answer you -need- like this. You will not from the one who sits on Pentagulia's throne. You cannot."
Is she denying Marivel's wants? Maybe. But...
"This spectre is an albatross 'round your neck, Marivel. And I will see it cast out, lest it weigh you deep into the muck!"
The point of the sword taps Liath's forehead. And beneath that forged form of Althena, sigils of the Goddess' magic form, complex and ebbing with gold-cerulean energies.
"Thou who wouldst take revenge,
carve here thy holy seal!"
Ebbing brighter and brighter... until it ERUPTS in a chasm of blinding, beautiful light.
"Eclair de Larmes!"
GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Twisting Flurry! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Marivel Armitage with Eclair de Larmes! GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval doesn't get a 'yes' answer and is happy that he doesn't have to reject it. A small joy to hang onto in a pitched time within an empty place where the thrum of spiritual energies about this are Malevolence and other assorted sundries of spiritual corruption and wrongness across some sort of negative rainbow spectrum.
The crashing platform flips Lanval up, and he's in a rough place to deal with Althena as Marivel remembers her, the summoned moon blasting scarlet lights that he spins, twists, flips, and does his best to avoid. For the most part, he does - at expense of Lucadia's protection, which fails and fizzles out as the explosive impacts eradicate it and leave him a little singed in his wake. Somewhere, he sips on the gourd's contents before landing.
"That ish true, ain't it? Shoemtimesh... ya got people who dunno the hand ish there, or what they can even do with it."
Lanval wipes his mouth and flicks a hand out - the droplets spiritually nebulizes into elemental power along the motes of power shared with him, returning some of Mariel's shared essence of the grapes in turn as vapor still rises from him where the heat of the moon's blasts still yet singed him.
He listens to Marivel's murmuring. "Mmm... I never met or knew Sakura," Lanval states the obvious as he seems to detach, somewhat, from the surrounding drama and yelling of those screaming their answers and insisting their places and desires, "but bashed on what ya told me not that long ago... I might have an idea."
How can a 570-odd year-old elemental spirit that never lived those times, never truly knew Althena, or even met Marivel prior to a few years ago, have an idea? Does he? He's been refusing to share - at first out of politeness for letting others be heard, but...
Mariel's prismatic apple washes through him, compounding on the wonder of the grapes whose very essence she shared with others... and Lanval just takes another drink of his gourd, a larger hit of it.
"Yer gonna be ready ta lishten when ya got no choice but to," he says of the denizen of the Abyss whose shape would surround Lunar as it would consume itself, "ish what I'm thinkin'." It's a frightening prospect for anyone, this gap of scale, power, and breadth of time between herself and virtually everyone here, but somehow... the Water Seraph's composure and resolve holds, in this place, even where a simple errant tumble or mistimed flex of power can, and would, put a stop to his existence and anyone else's here.
It cannot be in mirthful mockery.
GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Liquid Courage! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval accepts Seraph Lanval's Liquid Courage for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Margaret's Illusion Kiss for 0 hit points! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Jam, Slow, and Weaken applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage solidly guards Margaret's Twisting Flurry for 58 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak blocked! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo alights on Ouroboros' neck, kicks off, and skids to a stop on the platform. Some of the disjointed time still clings to him, turning every movement into keyframes with most of the tweening cut out. It's a little eerie to watch. "Is that..." His voice is similarly disjointed, like it's fast-forwarding at points, but without any change in pitch. "...it? Just test after test?"
Leo rises from his crouch, whips around to face the false Althena. That voice is too much like hers, and--
"Gwen--!" Leo stutter-leaps to the side, but Althena is damnably, alarmingly fast. Gwen slams into him, digs in her heels, and launches off his back. Leo sucks in a shuddering breath. He has to endure this. He has to. "Begone, spectre!" he growls, and as Liath's sigils ignite, four ethereal light-blades form around his sword, circling it. Leo steps forward, sweeps out in a wide cut from shoulder to hip. All four of the phantom blades detonate at once, in a wash of blinding light.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"There are many more like her in this world. That is what I believe," Avril says, gazing unflinching up at Marivel's many eyes. "When there is so much in the world that creates 'walls'... there will always be those like her. To rise up against that which binds us and shatter a 'wall' is no mean feat. Marivel... I admire your conviction. Yet, conviction alone... it cannot serve us!"
This is what she has learned from her friends. Rebecca. Dean. Gwen. Kaguya. And so many others -- those who cannot choose and those who can alike.
She shakes her head. "I cannot say. I only know that it is my own answer."
Is it possible that this, too, is what Marivel desires?
There is no room in the moment that follows to consider that further -- to follow up upon it. Ouroboros begins to cast spell after spell, and though Avril darts to the side to attempt to avoid the spell that follows, she accomplishes no such thing: the flame merely licks at her heels, but the shot of pressurized air slices into her body and water pours down from above. Driven to her knees by the onslaught, she can brook no defense against the spells as they repeat again, and again, the cycle ending only when Marivel so decides.
She remains on her knees, both arms wrapped around her midsection. Taking a deep, shaky breath, Avril lifts her head to gaze up at Marivel.
"Even so... one day my journey will come to an end. I..."
There is light. It is a brilliant, revitalizing light, borne from a single perfect apple.
Slowly, Avril rises to her feet.
"But that... makes the now all the more precious!"
With the Medium in one hand and her blade again in the other, Avril makes a short dash here in the darkness. When she leaps, she rises unnaturally high, her white blade catching the light of the many explosions of spells about her.
Once. Twice.
Her blade cleaves into the flesh of Marivel's Ouroboros.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Marivel Armitage with Radiant Blade! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Marivel Armitage with Seraphic Soul! GS: Delay expired! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige's head shakes in response. "You're right. And I've learned from my past. I have the ability to stop some atrocity from happening again? I'm going to take it." She might be glaring at Zed as she says that, but she shifts her gaze back. "There's better ways to get your ticket punched."
With the lantern held high, she continues, "And I don't intend on leaving your friend behind without making sure she not only gets where she belongs, but that this doesn't keep happening. You though."
She does her best to sidestep and avoid the falling red light, wincing when she's hit squarely, but holding that light high anyway. "You're not out there with a friend that lingered just to help you. That clung to a cursed existence. Stop. Let's go and see her off together instead of whatever this all. Is." She gestures around. Scowling.
The beacon is lifted again. Drawing on the less negative part of her thoughts. The ones hse's dredged up herself to try and protect the others. To make sure they're not also going to be taking the same one way trip Belle will be soon enough.
GS: Shige Kiwako accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Margaret with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Mariel with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Zed with Rousing Spirits! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 3 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako heals Margaret! She gains 238 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Margaret! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Zed! He gains 185 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Zed! GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from White Knight Leo's Radiant Blade for 132 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage's Blind Ward may block the effect! GS: Blind blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Seraphic Soul for 122 hit points! GS: Delay blocked! GS: Quick applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Seraph Liath's Eclair de Larmes for 212 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 188 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
The Ouroboros stares at Rixia while she utilizes her own time manipulation--did she draw it with her power earlier? Or was it perhaps... "........................."
".....I do like it," Ouroboros is forced to admit as it cannot lie in this place. But Rixia makes a different kind of offer in a way. Must they fight? She'd rather have Marivel at her side.
But first she explodes a series of glyphs against Marivel's hide. Her scales---the scales of her soul?--they are starting to look a whole lot less invulnerable. The ravages of time may not touch her physically but explosions sure do.
"Hey!" Althena says to Zed. "I'm glad you're having a great time! I'm sorry about Marivel, she's a total tsundere."
"He doesn't know what a tsundere is--" Marivel shouts back to 'Althena'.
"Oh she can't be honest with her feelings." Althena steps back before swinging Airgetlahm into the Zed Saber, pressing against it, still grinning wide without an ounce of hatred. Marivel remembers the people who compose this simulacrum a certain way.
Mariel taps into the Guardian Blade herself, using it....
"Yes...." Marivel murmurs. "Tis not a blade for cutting demons, but for uniting hearts at the cost of the wielder's soul."
It might not be simply the assault weathering Marivel, but by wielding this blade she is gambling away her own essence. Unlike Anastasia, Marivel is not truly a suitable wielder--and even the reflection of the Guardian Blade is endeavouring to obey its rules. Marivel remembers how it works, and that is its own weakness.
"There's no time left." Marivel murmurs sorrowfully. "The Time of Promise is upon us..."
"Whuupp!" Althena shouts as Gwen takes hold of her, lifting her up into the air and slamming her into the ground, head first. "Watch the Ears!!" She complains, rolling through the strike and cricking her neck.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"I love learning," Marivel says, turning her attention to Margaret. "Ah, well, I mean--tis hardly I to blame if you didn't attend class, Margaret. But I am scarcely the first to provide a Trial--indeed, this is actually my first." The others were just helping out a friend--more on that later.
Margaret unleashes a kiss! "H-hey...! NOW?" Ouroboros says but no--the kiss IS A LIE. It's a spell! And Marivel sees something, in the hallucinagenic haze...
"..." But she doesn't comment on it. She knows what she sees is not something that can truly exist in this place.
Margaret stabs into her hide repeatedly again and again, tearing free loose scales, pools of shadow erupt out of Marivel with each successfully pried free scale. And yet...there's still so many on the elder wyrm. Maybe this fight isn't winnable. Maybe that's the point.
Maybe Marivel wanted to see what you would do in a fight you could not win. To see how you face the End.
Leo carves deep into Althena. An imitation of light is seemingly not resilient to it. Althena stumbles back, darkness and light intermingling as they pour out of her. They weren't ever really enemies.
"Are you happy, Leo?" The 'spectre' asks. "Are you enjoying your life? You need not lose your sister for me. You need not lose your joy...for me. Live with a song in your heart, my son. That is...what I think I would have wanted for you. A vanguard against the Evil, but one who can smile."
Marivel admits to Avril, "I have always admired you. How you have seized the life you wanted. It seems so effortless to me. What else must there be besides Conviction?"
Even so one day Avril, who may be the oldest person here in fact, even her journey will come to an end. Marivel seems stunned by the admission--and then lets out a laugh. "Yes, Avril. That is certainly an Answer... I can't believe you of all people... You really are different--Dean, Rebecca...Is this thanks to you? I knew Dean was someone I could trust..."
She cries out in pain as Avril's blades dig deep into her hide. Each strike is more than a blade against a normal person's flesh. Each strike scars Marivel's very essence, her soul. It hurts that much more.
But yet, she stands.
"My answer.... My answer was that life... is allowing ourselves..."
"Allowing ourselves to step on fire."
Shige's words finally reach Marivel. "...Belle... Off together huh...?" That's all she says, that's all she needs to say.
Lanval tells her that she'll be ready to listen when she has no choice to.
"That so..." Marivel says softly. "Then let's hurry that process up a little. You're killing me with the suspense." He doesn't know Sakura. Nobody does. But you can certainly guess what words an angry mortal after the end of the world might have for a so-called hero, couldn't you?
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
And Liath just...shatters the whole plan with a few simple words. With a plain truth that Marivel has shared with just about everyone here.
Marivel never wanted to be the decoy. Marivel never wanted to be abandoned. And yet, for this moment, she gave Liath the opportunity to make her one, to do whatever she wanted while eyes were on her.
And she didn't take it.
Tears drift quietly from her eyes. "Liath..."
"...My sister from another world. Of light, and yet... Yet when I see you, I..."
Liath can see it, all of you can, a pulsing purple glow within the flesh of Armitage. A heart. A true heart. A nuclear from which the rest of Marivel spawned in the Abyss.
Not for them. For you. And Marivel knows it to be true because if it was for them, Marivel knows, Liath would not be able to be here.
Liath unleashes a blinding power. Marivel cries out again in true pain as it explodes around her and then...
TIME HAS STOPPED
When it resumes, the Ouroboros is gone. All that remains is Althenastasia hovering in the air, Airgetlahm in hand.
And Ouroboros, far beyond the reach of the mortal--still in sight, but far away...
Mariel and Liath stand alone on the Ouroboros's back.
"Then do it..." Marivel gasps out. "Cleave it from my neck, for you two have always guided thy stakes to my heart!"
And from Marivel surges out a stained glass creature--thoe who have seen the Sword Cathedral recognize this visage as the Stained Glass construct of Anastasia, this agony of Marivel's, this specter, this loss is pulled out of Marivel and raises a stained glass representation of Airgetlahm--
--and then her face cracks away into the form of a skull as it swipes for Mariel and Liath!
MEANWHILE
Althena hovers into the air.
"Without the aid of her companions..." Althena wonders aloud. "Can you bear the weight of the Arc Impulse, can you overpower it? Prove thy capable where she had failed so she can walk with you without trepidation?"
She draws power from the denizens of Hell into the blade, the ones that come ever closer seeking your light.
"ARC IMPULSE!!"
And she swings the blade down. Only this time, Liath is not here to stop it.
However...
NO! I won't let you...!
A visage of a long purple haired woman with an Airgetlahm of her own shimmers briefly into position--summoned from Marivel's true heart? Or Anastasia herself? It cannot be known. But she steps forward and blocks the Arc Impulse.
"I cannot.... You must walk into the future... And live!"
She dampens the power of the strike before flickering away again leaving you to deal with it.
Except for Rixia who did not want to keep fighting. Hob and Nob pushed her out of the way and are now licking her face with robot kisses.
GS: Marivel Armitage has become ENRAGED! GS: Marivel Armitage has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Marivel Armitage spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Mic Drop - Arc Impulse! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Zed with Mic Drop - Arc Impulse! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with Mic Drop - Arc Impulse! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Mic Drop - Arc Impulse! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with Mic Drop - Arc Impulse! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with Mic Drop - Arc Impulse! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with Mic Drop - Arc Impulse! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Liath with Advanced Relativity - Saint Anastasia! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Mariel with Advanced Relativity - Saint Anastasia! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Gwen Whitlock with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Zed with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Shige Kiwako with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked White Knight Leo with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Lanval with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Margaret with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Rixia with When The Horizon Darkens Most! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage heals Rixia! She gains 92 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Rixia! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Rixia with HOB AND NOB KISSIES! GS: Marivel Armitage takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Marivel Armitage gains 64 THP from Regen! GS: Enrage purges all positive status! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's HOB AND NOB KISSIES for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Mariel accepts Mariel's Status Apple for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Mariel! She gains 187 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Mariel solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Advanced Relativity - Saint Anastasia for 69 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Mariel gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Mariel! GS: Hex blocked! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Zed solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Mic Drop - Arc Impulse for 170 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Strain! Marivel Armitage takes 100 damage! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 189 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Mic Drop - Arc Impulse for 466 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Marivel Armitage takes 100 damage! GS: Gwen Whitlock has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Marivel Armitage heals Zed! He gains 89 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Zed! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Mic Drop - Arc Impulse for 188 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Avril Vent Fleur enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Strain! Marivel Armitage takes 100 damage! GS: Seraph Liath partially guards Marivel Armitage's Advanced Relativity - Saint Anastasia for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hex applied to Seraph Liath! GS: Delay blocked! GS: Margaret critically guards Marivel Armitage's Mic Drop - Arc Impulse for 81 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Marivel Armitage takes 100 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage heals Margaret! She gains 118 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Margaret! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Mic Drop - Arc Impulse for 260 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Strain! Marivel Armitage takes 100 damage! GS: Marivel Armitage heals White Knight Leo! He gains 84 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Please react using the attack number in +queue. GS: Marivel Armitage heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 88 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Seraph Lanval solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Mic Drop - Arc Impulse for 114 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Strain! Marivel Armitage takes 100 damage! GS: Marivel Armitage heals Seraph Lanval! He gains 84 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
>she's a tsundere
"Oh??" Zed repeats, his eyes widening.
>he doesn't know what that is!
"Actually I do!!" Zed puffs his chest out a little bit, which is remarkable considering he's presently locked in a blade to blade clash with (a recreation of) Filgaia's most famous holy swords. "I am ALL ABOUT those ancient Zeboim animes!! I know all the deres! Tsunderes, kuuderes, derederes, jonderes, the works!"
And it's even true! The Photosphere had all manner of records aboard, and Zed had the best anime teachers to hand down all of their (blursed) knowledge. We can thank them for so much of what makes Zed... Zed.
"Oh wait, but if you're a manifestation of Marivel's memories, then that means... Marivel... ALSO likes anime!?!?" Has he found another SWORN COMPANION this day? Truly, it is a blessed one! The clash ends with a burst of energy, sending Zed sprawling and tumbling across the void. "Tch, not bad... That sword isn't bad at all--"
It shines with the light of the spirit, a radiance that Marivel must remember from a time long ago.
But another moves to soften the blow-- one who Zed doesn't recognize. In an instant, she's gone just as soon as she arrived. And yet--
There. An opportunity.
"Hrrrah!" Zed roars, bringing the shining Doom Bringer up to cleave into the brilliant, blinding light. Radiance floods the world all around him-- even softened, the Ark Impulse is... incredible.
But Zed is not alone. There are so many others here. The deathly specter of one who owes his kind nothing but scorn and hate. The envigorating energy of one of Filgaia's rare fruits, reminding him in the moment of his adopted homeland. Zed grits his teeth, braces his weight, and presses in. Doom Bringer, a blade of a long fallen world, blazes defiantly against the remembered light of a dying planet. It feels like an eternity, but--
The light fades.
Zed still stands.
"Not... sure that counts... but...!" He steps forward-- and charges, rushing the goddess of the blade. He slashes-- Once, horizontally. A second time, diagonally. A third time, across again...!
His initial hangs in the air for a moment, before Zed swings one last time, roaring--
The -=Z=- flashes...
And EXPLODES!
GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Zed spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Zed has attacked Marivel Armitage with Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed gains 59 THP from Regen! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia breathes a soft breath as she feels Mariel's power flow through her, in the shape of an apple that kaleidoscopes in the sheen of the whole rainbow. Was the apple merely a metaphor for their unity, their bonds? She's not sure. But...
"Um-- well, it's this game where you get sheep and trade it for other stuff," Rixia explains awkwardly to Margaret, but she tells her she likes how she's thinking. A bigger grin. "I wanna be part of the crew!"
It does feel like a victory.
Liath tells her that she doesn't want to treat her as a distraction. That she's her friend. "So many of them feel that way, Marivel..." She makes sure to listen to Lanval, too. People who don't know the hand they've been played, or that it's there in the first place...
Is the now precious, as Avril posits? Rixia... Rixia believes in the present. The past is full of scars. The past is scary, full of dangerous, unfinished business that threatens to become her future. But the present is so fragile, so fleeting. Surrounded by so many people who hold such high hopes for the present, that it'll turn the future into a shining miracle...
Can she believe in that?
Rixia has bold words about how maybe she'll just like sandals in five years, or she'll get bored of bread. But she doesn't admit that a part of her wishes she could just love bread forever, and capture the moment, too.
>> user thoughts incomprehensible...
>> query is inconclusive at this point in time.
>> more reference material must be gathered.
A blinding light envelopes them all, and then--
She can feel it.
Time has stopped.
Rixia glances around in that space for a moment, but she can't see anything. Light is in her way again. Light...
When it resumes, however...
She looks up to the Althena-Anastasia simulacrum too. "... you've only ever been a distant name to me, save that one time you showed yourself to everyone when I was little. I wanted to blame it all on you. Maybe that's unfair too. Marivel feels much more strongly about you... I don't understand everything. I don't know... but I'll figure it out, at my own little pace..."
But she readies her blade. Can they endure this, without Seraph Liath's interference? Can she overpower it?
Just as she's about to respond, Hob and Nob bops her out of the way!! She yelps and calls out, "H-hey! Cut it out! Oh geez, you two're too cute--"
But she witnesses a visage of a purple-haired woman. Who is this? Is this the Anastasia Marivel has told her about -- but one of truth, this time? She doesn't know. If Anastasia were truly here, Marivel wouldn't have to suffer so much. But she blocks the strike, and urges them to... walk into the future and--
"... ..."
Rixia pats Hob and brushes Nob as well. "Sorry, I can't stay here..."
>> user thoughts and actions illogical
>> self-preservation chances have decreased
The fox girl actually runs into the blade where the others are, drawing her gunblade out as she manifests her Junctioned magic as a barrier to lend the others. "I'm not going to sit idly by! Even if I don't understand everything, the journey to learn things is an answer in and out of itself!"
The barrier immediately starts to creak and crack underneath the duress of those who seek their Light.
"I'm scared of the past... I constantly fear for the future!
Only a comfortable present brings relief and joy to me...
But I know if I just sit there and let the world wash over me...
Then I'll lose what little comforts I do have!"
It's not enough to imitate Light.
She has to become Light itself...
GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage accepts Zed's Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova for 360 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel doesn't need to use the Guardian Blade to understand [bonds]. They are so integral to the Elw and how she views the world that it would be hard *not* to. Even now, she feels Marivel - though in this pocket of Marivel's making, how could she not? She's everywhere around her.
"Marivel," Mariel says, lifting the staff from where it anchored - rooted itself, really - into the ground.
TIME HAS STOPPED
Time resumes. There are fewer people here than Mariel expected; her, Liath - who she knows not nearly as well as she knows Marivel - and... Marivel herself. Ouroboros, but even having named herself so Mariel doesn't think of her as the monster she presents herself as.
Everyone else is so distant. Far away, facing 'Althena', or 'Anastasia', or both; the past that Marivel can't move beyond.
There is nothing Mariel can do for them from here. Nothing except get to the heart of the matter.
Marivel demands it. Demands that they cut into her own heart, the core of her energy, and Mariel feels something building in her. Something that has had its time come.
The stained glass Anastasia reaches for her, and Mariel - moves forward. Past her, charging past; the stained class blade catches Mariel in her shoulder and all she can do is push through it. The blade doesn't break, but glass as it is, leaves a vicious cut behind, immediately bloody and staining her green robes.
It draws a pained gasp from Mariel, who is no battle-hardened soldier. The pain actually takes a moment to register, so sharp is the blade, but she feels the blood immediately. But despite the pain, Mariel keeps moving. Right toward Marivel, where the glowing heart lies.
And then Mariel does something she has never done before.
When the Guards captured her, she struck none of them.
When she fought Seymour, she did not lay hands on him (though she did dump purifying salt on him and then felt guilty when it actually worked).
When she fought a Clysmian, she did not strike it directly.
Even when she fought against the fragment of Zophar, she never actually hit it physically.
But now, Mariel hits Marivel.
It's not a good hit. Mariel both has no idea how to throw a punch and isn't really trying to do so well; the only thing she remembers is to not tuck her thumb in so as to not break it. It isn't a powerful or effective blow; it's an overhand smack with her less wounded arm, more of a frustrated blow than anything seriously meant to injure.
Mariel sags against Marivel's side after she's delivered it. Her eyes are wet. "I will not!" she says, sounding firm despite this. "I can't! I will not kill you! I will not hurt you! Every living thing is precious but you are - you are - "
She does cry, a soft sound, hastily choked back. "You are not the only person who has lost. My brother - I do not know whether he lives or dies, I can never see him again on this side of Filgaia. But it's because of that we have to grow strong...! I never thought I could, but you helped show me... Marivel, please... You have people who love you... people who want the best for you. To live is to grow - never to forget what came before, never that. We cannot replace those loves, nor the time you spent with them, and that isn't what we are trying to do."
"Please... come back to us. Let us - let us move forward. Together. To find the truth of then, and the truth of now, and the future you couldn't see on your own... the cycle is only stagnancy, not living. And they would have wanted you to live... You made a promise with me, and I will keep it."
She pushes herself up with both hands, leaving a bloody handprint on Marivel's currently-draconic flank. And then she offers one hand. To the dragon, Ouroboros.
GS: Mariel has attacked Marivel Armitage with Alone Together! GS: Mariel gains 55 THP from Regen! GS: Mariel has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
'...can you overpower it?'
It's a call that Gwen cannot ignore. Lightning burns in her veins, charting a song of spiteful endurance. Nothing can stop her. She crouches and makes a nimble leap up, intend on at least snagging Althena's foot, or if she could manage, a leg to cast her down to the ground.
What shall the courier do, when her friends die around her?
Her Answer is so clear--
__Light.__
Something minuscule cracks in Gwen's body, or perhaps the Mockingbird, like a glass fuse. It's too much. She's pushed herself too far, flew too close to the sun that is Althena.
As Gwen falls back, her eyelids beginning to lower, she sees the vision of the purple-haired woman. Anastasia?
And as this vision fades and time begins to revert into a mortal's pace, there's Mariel, fresh from landing the only physical hit she's ever landed on someone, crying at Marivel's side.
And Gwen smiles, her eyes closing.
Her answer is....
To trust that her friends won't die, even if she can't stand there with them.
When Gwen lands on the floor, unconscious and casting a small whiff of smoke, her body has reverted back to her regular state. She's still alive, a testament to just how scrappy the courier can be, but it will be a while before she's conscious again.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Healing, courtesy of Shige, seeps into her frame, sinking deep into her bones and soothing some of the ache from her recent tribulations. Avril exhales a quiet breath and is able to stand that much taller.
What else must there be but conviction?
"Kindness," Avril answers, quite simply. "Understanding. Without them, what is conviction but an unyielding, endless winter?"
These are the lessons her friends have taught her.
"Nothing continues forever," Avril continues, shaking her head. "Yet, is that not so to bring about a new beginning? A seed grows because what is left from those who have gone before nourishes it. In time, I will..." She pauses there, stopping midway through her declaration in exactly the same way someone might react had someone walked across their grave. What was that feeling, just now...?
"...My journey will come to an end. Yet, that need not be 'my' end," Avril finishes, her conviction in that moment but a touch shaken.
And then, she strikes. Landing after she has delivered her last, she faces Marivel's monstrous form with blade in hand, as if she were about to launch yet another attack if she were so pressed.
"Then... I would say there are times when our immolation is well worth it."
It is just as Liath says: no one wants to be left behind. No one wants to be the sacrifice. Even Avril herself has her own concessions she would rather not make but feels she must.
In this, again, she and Marivel are of similar heart.
"Is this not enough?"
And... time stops. Was it an eternity? Was it an instant? Ouroboros is not here. Nor is Liath, or Mariel. All that is present is the amalgam of Anastasia and Althena, sword in hand. This time, she says, speaking her own promise. This time, there is no escape.
They must bear it.
But they are not alone here. It is but a spectre, like and unlike the fusion of women that stands now before them all. She tells them they must live, that they must carry on to the future. She swings her own sword as if to deflect that holy blade, and--
It's time enough, in the end. Avril, her own blade vanished from her hands, leaps upwards.
All that she bears is her own Medium. "Lucadia--"
Everywhere there is light, a brilliance that affords little space in which to step, to turn, to leap to avoid it. Avril does all that she can, for that is the most that she can.
Call to me. I will bring you victory. It isn't words so much as it is an impulse, a sense that she can spin into a single coherent thought. It is as it ever will be with that old thing in the dark corners of her being, that calls out and ask that she plunge past her own wall into the darkness one more time.
"If I have need..." she murmurs aloud, "then I shall call to you. But not yet. I am not yet--"
Shards of ice spin into being in a halo about her form as she plummets through the light, each catching its brilliance in a riot of color. She can see her, that shade of Marivel's. Althena and Anastasia, as one.
"--finished! Overhead Sorcery!"
One at a time the shards erupt from their positions around her to rain down upon the amalgam as she falls.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Avril Vent Fleur spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Marivel Armitage with Overhead Sorcery! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo! GS: Avril Vent Fleur gains 56 THP from Regen! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Mic Drop - Arc Impulse for 400 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Marivel Armitage takes 100 damage! GS: Marivel Armitage heals Shige Kiwako! She gains 83 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Overhead Sorcery for 260 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Something happens in a blink (stopped time, not that those stuck in time typically get to see) and there's Althena in the air, wondering aloud about whether Arc Impulse can be withstood - or even overpowered. All to see if she can walk without fear.
"...Mmmm." Lanval grunts in thought, but his eyes are wide when all that power drains into that blade, and when it comes down...
...
...
A shimmering visage steps forth to hold it back, and Lanval acts - taking his gourd in both hands, not even by the rope, and just hurls its contents forward, gushing, without commentary or levity behind it.
It's not often that he lets that much water flow out of the drinking gourd like an enormous erupting geyser - he has the very water of Filgaia on tap. It is vast, and yet deeply precious to the drop, and channeling that much of Schturdark's power by proxy is never done lightly.
...And yet...
Lanval does his part less as a singular effort to save his completely metaphorical skin - when he shoots out that geyser of water to help push back, it's part of whatever collected countermeasures people are taking to hold themselves. He only draws it back as others start to release hold of their own vast array of defensive powers, slamming a hand on top of the gourd to forcefully turn off the spigot, as it were.
"Mmmm." He takes in continued existence, and a quick census, almost everyone's accounted for. "Now, then." Now, then, he's sharing.
"...What ya shaid about joy... that ya 'only abshorb it from othersh and it shoon fadesh away.'" Lanval technically doesn't have lungs but he does sound winded in the moment. "Shtartin' ta think... a lot of it'sh been 'bout havin' joy taken."
...On another look, Lanval's frame seems to be noticeably less large, in the moment. Somewhat shriveled, even, as if malnourished. How much of his own power did he channel into that? Even the usual character of his voice is a bit more strained.
"...Thish the world ya knew? Empty... except for what ya could take." The undercurrents of all the absorbed spiritual corruptions that empowered Ouroboros and just about everything here is all taken, absorbed, consumed. "It'sh... true. Ya can take away joy from each other, real eashy." He meekly snaps his fingers. It's not very loud. "And yer right, I can't *give* ya joy."
"No one ever gave ya any."
Seraph Lanval, Partially Dehydrated Water Seraph, is even struggling to hold the water gourd for over-long, as seen with the bit of fumbling after the finger snapping.
"They shared it with ya inshtead... until it got taken." Lanval has to sit down, so he does. His eyes are dim, even this open. "It'sh become a zero shum thing for ya shince, huh. That ya gotta take that joy, 'n keep it. The way ya talked 'bout abshorbin' it 'n then havin' it fade."
"Yer afraid what we're lookin' at might be jusht ash bad... or worshe, huh." Althena already isn't here to meet them directly within her own seat of power, even with all that's gone on here... that's already bad and foreboding unto itself.
"'m with ya on one front - it ain't alwaysh eashy walkin' with mortalsh. The day I watched everyone in that monashtery take their leave, when I couldn't follow 'em in turn... an earlier day when the one mortal - my firsht 'n only mortal friend for sho long - ended up teachin' me why they were called 'mortal.'"
"Or the day over five hundred yearsh later when that shared promishe between her 'n me came to an end by the Guard shmashin' up the Copper Rapier." Lanval's head is bowed. His once flowing beard is scraggly-looking, more like a dripping, leaky faucet rather than the waterfall it typically is. "But I never once thought the world around me'd be better off misherable... I don't think that'sh jusht 'caushe 'm the Mirthful Wellspring."
There is that one thing he's been curious about just as Marivel said it here in a moment of emotional overflow in the highs of this strange, frightening existence that few would easily point at and go, 'that's a person there' at.
"...'m kinda wonderin', though I'll never know for shure, if... yer other friend picked up on that whole thing 'bout joy bein' taken inshtead of bein' shared, that... shomeone washn't tryin' to take a chance at happinessh away from ya."
Lanval doesn't have the strength to muster a return blow - he overdrew on the defense against the Arc Impulse even with divine assistance. "That whatever they did then... they did what they could ta share the chance of what more joy there'd be after 'em."
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
"Tsun...dere?"
Liath's unbreakable will can at least bend for a few seconds after her spell has completed its bright channeling; she blinks, puzzlement possessing her features as she lifts her shield-bearing arm to tap her gloved finger against her chin.
"It has the sound of insult and yet... not?"
She can't even parse it into a bizarre tangent, she's so perplexed!
Confusion is a thing you can ill afford on a battlefield -- even one waged over memories and emotions. Perhaps, especially so. And so the Prime Lord's attention swiftly refocuses as she catches those tears, hears them in the sentiment behind Marivel's words. Liath's expression softens as she straightens, motes of Althena's Blessed light dancing like prismatic fireflies around her as she watches Marivel.
She sees it. She feels it, the pulse of it. It might not be the same heart a human might possess, or even what might account for a Seraph's.
And yet, within that pulsing purple, it is unmistakable.
Liath's eyes flutter in a blink. Motes of light slowly orbit Liath in dwindling patterns as her magic fades--
Time s t o p s .
A moment crystallizes.
And when it passes, there is nothing left where Liath stood but those motes to mark her passing.
---
When next gold eyes reopen, Liath finds herself upon the back of the Ouroboros, the dragon that so eternally eats itself. The perpetuating cycle.
But she is not alone, here, either; gold eyes turn to look sidelong towards Mariel, a woman she scarcely knows but is of indisputable importance to Marivel. She listens to Marivel's request... and her eyes shut again, even as that Stained Glass spectre forges into being from Marivel's depths. A visage of loss that springs upon her and Mariel both. And as Mariel seeks to charge past the glass-shard representation --
The Seraph of Light meets it head on, the swing of its glimmering Airgetlahm met with the broad, spiritual steel of Liath's ceremonial shield, Pridwen.
The blow is a resounding yet simple one, powerful enough that it knocks Liath towards bodily towards her right -- and yet the Prime Lord remains undeterred. Eyes narrowing, she -surges- forward, to intercept another blow -- acting as a bulwark between the skull-faced spectre and Mariel, taking the brunt of the thing's violence so that Mariel --
Can get in One Good Hit.
Despite herself, despite the emotion of the moment, Liath can't help but smile a big, radiant kind of grin.
"Hah," she exhales, as her sword ignites into a furor of pastel hues.
"Well struck, Lady Mariel."
And with that, Liath's sword burgeons into a grand pinion of light.
And with one stroke, Liath looks to cleave that glass-forged apparition with a blade easily three times her own size, that cuts not through the physical -- but strikes at the physical. But this time...
... this time, there is no attempt to destroy, no attempt to cleave. This time, when that blade swings --
--it comes with nothing less than a flood of warmth. Of happiness. Of love.
Of bonds that can never be broken.
Liath turns that blade to an upwards strike, into and through the Anastasia creation. It envelopes them both within the torrential light and sentiment that it carries, letting Mariel speak her honest words straight to Marivel's heart. She dares not let anything interrupt that moment.
And when that light slowly fades -- as it dies off the Joyeuse, as tinier pinions of every color are all that are left in the radiant blade stroke's wake -- Liath emerges from that warmth, her expression heartfelt, her smile subdued but sincere.
"This is your Answer, Marivel. Is it not?"
Do not forget the pain. But do not let it rule you.
Remember...
"There are so many things worth moving forward for, Marivel. And I want you to experience every single one."
GS: Seraph Liath spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Marivel Armitage with Heavenly Bladewing! GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action. GS: Shige Kiwako has activated Force Action: Extend!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Once again, Shige has this fleeting thought of being wildly outside of her accepted pay grade for this kind of thing. Not that it shows. It's why she wears a mask on duty! That way she can be impartial. Totally not so she doesn't show fear at the worst things. Or other emotions that might distract. (Probably all of the above really.
"Friends should be there right? Let them know they're not alone and they're remembered."
She stands there now. Holding the lantern. Checking on the others, making sure they're not about to immediately fall over. Which is probably why she's sent bowling away with the hit that leaevs her sprawled on her back. Stunned for a moment. Mid-air, she'd tucked around the lantern, protecting it. Not at all sure what would happen if it broke really.
There was a sound of breaking glass regardless and there's now a pool of strong smelling spirits beneath her. Which was bound to happen sooner or later really. It left her ears ringing though. With a groan she rolls over. The sound of glass shifting and falling out of the bag accompanying the sound as she forces herself to her feet. First to her knees, then grabbing the lantern and using it, she stands up. Spitting to the side she straightens her back and holds the lantern up again. Ignore the shaking of her hand. She is.
The lantern's wobbling doesn't change the faint shade moving to help secure her arm. Moving to help support the others. It never will be clear how far this is just a manifestation of some magic, but does it matter? She doesn't try to drown the crimson noble in ghosts though. She'll just make sure everyone else is still standing. Able to escape this darkness, right?
As she walks, each shadow twists and becomes a reflection of the grizzled old surgeon, trying to save each person who needs it most. Making her way to Gwen, trying to put herself between Marivel and her.
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Chirurgeon's Spectre! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Zed with Chirurgeon's Spectre! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Shige Kiwako with Chirurgeon's Spectre! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked White Knight Leo with Chirurgeon's Spectre! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Margaret with Chirurgeon's Spectre! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Seraph Lanval with Chirurgeon's Spectre! GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Mariel with Chirurgeon's Spectre! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 3 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Shige Kiwako heals Margaret! She gains 286 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Margaret! GS: Cover applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Shige Kiwako! She gains 277 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Cover applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Zed! He gains 280 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Zed! GS: Cover applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Shige Kiwako heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 283 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Cover applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Avril Vent Fleur enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Stab, stab, stab -
"Ah, well, fair enough. But I have to tell you,"
- stab stab stab -
"That as a villain and a bandit --"
-- stabstabstabstabstabstabstab
"-- I object to ALL trials!!"
She dash-slides backwards with a shower of sparks from copper-clad heels, doing a little hoppity-dance in place for a moment, sweeping her blade clean as terrible, beautiful LIGHT shines down...
As the afterimages fade, Margaret has the impression of Marivel whisking herself away, along with - who? mariel? Damn it, thinks Margaret, along with the Seraph, and what's left in front of them is... the looming form of Althena.
Margaret stares upwards.
Well, Margaret: You thought this was categorically impossible to happen. That with no promise of afterlife to breach or to torment, the Goddess couldn't grab you if you stayed on Filgaia, with the occasional foray into Spira to buy more Portal Keys from the surcharge-happy Al Bhed merchant with the funny name. (And fair's fair: He thought your name sounded stupid, too.) Then you eased that to sneak into the outskirts, so you could fight the Lord of Calamity. Then you came to Pentagulia. Now THIS has happened.
It isn't the 'true form' of the Goddess. She still hasn't met HER. But...
Margaret's ears flatten against the side of her head as she stares upwards.
The blade descends...
And look at it in slow motion. When that visage appears, to parry or at least to absorb some of the force, Margaret sags with visible relief, swings herself upwards and grasps the hilt of her blade backhanded. She then looks over, astounded, as Rixia comes in to her aid (so Margaret feels, anyway - she helps others, of course) - but Margaret is already leaping. Up into the air -
Pwip! Pwip! With green flashes from her enchanted ring, up she goes even as the shadow dissipates, memory not enough to stop the present day, but enough to take off some of its edge. Not enough, perhaps. But Margaret is heading upwards...
ARC IMPULSE is not stopped, only blunted. The burst washes upwards.
Margaret is nowhere to be seen.
But...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xTzwdA4oAg
"I'm terribly sorry, Anastasia," Margaret says. (She picked up a few things here and there.) "But I'm going to have to decline your request. Not because I disagree with you..."
"Not because I reject your sentiments... But because,"
A great light is coming. From Rixia. From the distant position of the Seraph. From good old Lanval, from others. But Margaret doesn't have light in her. The flash of lightning; the glow of stars on the blackness of a gorgeous night, sure. But she doesn't have LIGHT.
She has Darkness, and up in the air, she casts, for a moment, a tremendous brockenspectre on the shades beneath them. For only a few moments can it last, but perhaps it's enough for her point.
"I intend to THRIVE--"
The shadow draws out a great blade. Enormous! One that reaches through the Abyss, not with peril but with the great beauty of a cloud crossing the sun in a mountain valley. That, too, is Darkness, after all.
"And I think I like flying better."
A METEORIC DESCENT: the blade held backgrip in Margaret's left hand, she descends towards the spectre of Althena, even as she feels Shige double and redouble herself. Margaret has nothing more to add, nothing more to say. She can't tell this thing her feelings: it would be a mockery to do so.
But what she can do -
Is laugh; laugh with scorn, and hope, and triumph. Isn't that what villains do? The blade aims to carve into the great thing, like a cut curtain at a grand theater.
GS: Margaret has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Margaret has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Margaret has attacked Marivel Armitage with Weightless Steel! GS: Margaret has gained 2 Combo! GS: Margaret gains 61 THP from Regen! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Shige Kiwako heals Seraph Lanval! He gains 286 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Cover applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Margaret's Weightless Steel for 213 hit points! GS: Entangle and Slow blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Seraph Liath's Heavenly Bladewing for 234 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
'Are you happy, Leo?'
Leo's eyes widen, and then narrow. The simulacrum's words cut like the sharpest and most merciless of swords. His jaw trembles. He's caught between his own best hopes--still buoyed by Margaret's words--and all the things he knows, and can't face. This is not the Althena he knows. Is it the Althena he would have liked to know?
Maybe. His heart can't bear the thought, either way.
Leo steps back, his hands trembling. He can't bring himself to strike the simulacrum again, yet--but his pupils dilate, and sweat beads on his brow. "The Goddess chose me," he whispers, as he stares through the amalgamation of Anastasia and Althena. "She chose me to protect her people. All my life, I've--"
TIME HAS STOPPED
Suddenly, the simulacrum is in the air, sword bared, and Marivel is far away. "This is her," Leo whispers, "her fear. Her fear of failure." He raises his blade, supports the flat with his other hand. Rocky armor spreads across his skin. It is barely, barely enough to keep him standing in the face of the annihilation that follows. The second Anastasia is a flickering after-image.
Leo's still standing afterwards. "All this because you had to know our measure. Because you couldn't trust us without it." His face twists. "Fine. FINE! TAKE IT!"
Where in the earlier battle, Leo's movements were rote, this time they're wild, barely-controlled--Marivel has sown terror into the heart of Pentagulia, and may seek the death of Althena herself. (That 'may' is only there in Leo's mind because he doesn't have a window into Marivel's thoughts.) The energy that erupts around him is spiky, fiery. The gleam of his sword is like the rays of a sick sun. The sudden, erupting ROIL of the lion's head is half-formed.
It's a tremendous destructive force, regardless.
GS: Shige Kiwako heals White Knight Leo! He gains 279 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to White Knight Leo! GS: Cover applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! 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 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: White Knight Leo gains 56 THP from Regen! GS: Cover expired! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage accepts White Knight Leo's Lion's Howl for 292 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Delay! Attack greatly weakened! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Mariel's Alone Together for 0 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.
"I see..." Althena says as it is proven that even Arc Impulse was not enough to stop this crew of Drifters. "In passing down your stories, your feelings, the millions of memories you have left with us... You are Mortal...But Immortal as well."
BGM: MORTAL BUT IMMORTAL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttL7-p3-6qo
"So...!" Althena says. "You like ANIME as well, do you, Zed? Show me your passion for anime!"
And Zed does by unleashing the most anime attack imaginable. The Z explodes. "Gahh..." Althena stumbles back. "The passion of a true Hyadean...! So this is that...!"
Rixia does not fight but that does not means her words are unheard.
"In the end... I want to trust the power of humanity too," Althena tells Rixia. "Because I want to trust humans... I cannot protect you the way I'd like to. I'm sorry, Rixia... But though your life was hard... You still seized hold of many precious things. That is beautiful to me."
Rixia does not fight, but she does lend her aid to protect others... Hob and Nob float happily behind her, seemingly oblivious to the whole fight, chirping all the way.
Gwen tumbles to the floor. Althena flickers, appearing underneath Gwen, catching her body and setting her down. "No, most deaths are from falling. You faced it bravely." The voice is filled with fondness. The partiality for humanity is something Marivel and Althena share.
"Kindness." Althena says to Avril. "Understanding. You are correct. Though Winter is neccessary, without Spring there would be no worth to it. Just as Life needs Death, Death requires Life to have its meaning. That Mortal Instant... One barred to us for a long, long time... Very well, Avril." Althena bows her head. "We will assist you in bringing Spring to your people."
Avril is not done. Ice shards come crashing down upon Althena, skewering the imbued vessel with many a frozen spike. Althena stumbles. "You feel stronger now... that you have found your companions. I congratulate you, on finding the Spring to follow."
Lanval has to share his words with Althena rather than Marivel directly--but through the Airgetlahm, they are still connected. Marivel could be on Filgaia and the Airgetlahm could still reach her thoughts. That is its power.
Lanval speaks about stolen joy, and shared joy. To Lanval, Althena listens quite carefully. They all know how wise the drunken master can be. Even when his words seem foolish you cannot trust that they are so.
Lanval doesn't fight, too exhausted to keep at it.
"We are beings of contradiction." Althena repeats that phrase. "Perhaps what is to come is the greatest punishment. Or perhaps, it is the greatest reward. That is our gamble, we are willing to bet even our own soul for it."
"There is no true happily ever after, no joy lasts forever but in your heart the memory of it can last with you for the rest of your journey as you chase your dreams."
There is a hesitation and then... "...They loved Anastasia, you know." Althena says. "Lots of people did. Even Desire..."
They trail off. "...But perhaps the wished to share their pain and the wound of it frightened us from future joy with her. We can never know for sure... She is long gone. And she kept her promise in the end..."
Margaret leaps into the air, escaping the worst of the Arc Impulse. Althena can't help but whistle wryly at that.
"Well well...!" Althena says as she's sliced through the neck, more explosions of light and dark erupt out of the vessel's body as she stumbles back, struggling.
Her gaze turns to Leo.
"Could you protect them even if you weren't chosen?" Althena asks him, not unkindly. Because then she smiles. "I believe you can."
Leo steps forward, and slays another who would have brought Calamity to Lunar if she had not been stopped--even if she wished to be stopped. As Leo kills the image of his own Goddess, she turns and smiles to Shige--as if to suggest that imitation soul she may be, she will still...allow her to guide her into the unknown.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
MEANWHILE on Marivel's back.
"A tsundere," Ouroboros says in a voice that's maybe too booming for something they'd really prefer to keep quiet. "Is someone who acts all harsh before gradually coming to enjoy the presence of the lead character in the story and show them kindness. You know, like Ragnell." Marivel really can't help herself.
Two things happen simultaneously.
As Mariel goes for Marivel herself, Liath readies a strike of her own. It is powered by warmth, by happiness, by love--
--but most importantly, bonds that cannot be broken, bonds that you can put your faith in.
The ghost of Saint Anastasia the Sword Magess doesn't stand a chance. The real Anastasia would not blame her for her death. On some level MArivel knows that even though the guilt will likely pound through her soul until she can finally one day free her. If she can free her.
Actual light overcomes an imitation of light and plows through the glass construct--the imitation Anastasia that the Granasian Church had cursed Marivel with. The glass explodes around Liath.
This is your Answer, is it not?
Do not forget the pain. But do not let it rule you.
Because you must be willing to step on fire.
That is life. That is the answer that Marivel's parents gave her when they willingly faced Lord Blazer's soul consuming flames.
And that is Marivel's answer too for so long as she knew it.
"Liath..." Marivel says. "...Can we still experience them together?" She had called Liath sister. And though it may not be literally so, this form of Marivel cannot lie. "I want to walk on fire with you."
As this is happening, Mariel rushes past and--
She won't hurt Marivel. She says this, but this is a lie.
Mariel hurts Marivel most of all--not long after Liath hurt her most of all--as she delivers that painless bonk above Marivel's heart. Pain surges in Mariel's arm as she bonks a body too hard for her to punch through
And yet, cracks form from that harmless strike because it was secretly a two hit combo as Mariel cries.
And says something without saying it. 'You are. You are...'
Conviction crumbles away to Spring as the very name Marivel has chosen comes under attack. She shudders under the weight of Mariel's words. And what Marivel asks of Liath, Mariel DEMANDS.
The cracks continue up and around Marivel's body. "I..." She says.
Tears flow freely as she sobs up, "I wanna be fweeeends...! I wanna travel together...!!"
She was always a Crybaby. The Ouroboros shatters all around, exploding into nothingness--
--leaving only a tiny bat behind with wings that look like a less mature of the ones that the Ouroboros carried. It's Marivel. She's a Mascot Character.
Unfortunately Liath and Mariel stand above the Abyss with no floor between the two of them.
Marivel finally struggles and reaches out and the Time Medium responds one last time as a thick CRRAAACK erupts across it.
TIME FREEZES AGAIN. And when it's back to normal--
--Liath and Mariel are safely deposited on the Abyss Platform's floor along with the bat form of Marivel who is sobbing up a storm.
"The Kepler Belt..." She weeps as energy leaves her. "I don't want it to devour all of you...! I don't want it to devour this galaxy....!"
The galaxy?? Did she just say the galaxy?? She sure did.
But without Marivel's power sustaining the Abyss Gate--it starts to close. Our heroes will have to rush through or be left behind. With or without Marivel.
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel isn't sure what to expect out of Liath - whether she'll go for the blow, or not. The way she does it - Mariel appreciates it. She'll have to tell her so later, because now is not the moment. (Honestly, in the moment she is thinking very little of Liath, or indeed anyone else here except one person, which she will feel guilty about later.)
And Mariel, who is usually so clever, has to admit one thing:
She did not think at *all* about what would happen if Marivel stopped being a tremendous dragon while she was standing on top of her.
If she had time, she could find a way to float down, but she doesn't *have* that moment when she starts falling immediately as the Ouroboros shatters. She reaches out, grabbing wildly as she falls. "Marivel! Liath - !"
Time stops once again.
It restarts. Mariel is sitting next to the bat, the staff in one hand; she rises with the aid of it, still trying to ignore her bloody arm. She'll treat it when they get out of here, because she can *feel* the tenor of the Gate start to change. And Marivel is saying something about a Belt... "Then we'll do it together," she says, but isn't entirely sure how to start. She can worry about that later.
Together.
Mariel's eyes are still wet, her voice is still thick with emotion, but she raises it: "Go!" she says, reaching down. She picks up the little bat, cradling Marivel carefully against her body before she starts to run, stumbling at first. "Someone - please, Gwen - "
She's not all that fast, and she's using her staff for partial support - honestly she's probably the slowest person here, aside from those who cannot rise themselves - but she fully intends to throw herself through, even if it is at the very, very last moment, the closing gate nipping at her boots.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
'Could you protect them even if you weren't chosen?'
In its last few moments, the simulacrum--the memory--cuts Leo through to the core. The White Knight breathes through clenched teeth. His hands shake. And then, all that helpless, angry tension boils out of him, leaving... absence. It's worse because there was truth in the false Althena's words. He didn't start this journey seeking the Goddess' favor. When he started out, Althena was missing, and--
And now, Marivel is back, and sobbing, and a tiny bat. Leo takes a moment to process this--she, too, is all right, nobody is going to die in this horrid place--before Mariel points out the gate. Leo is bloodied, but he still has it in him to help Mariel--and, potentially others--out.
He'll figure out the rest when he's back in reality again.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret, who is right there, looks at Leo, at the question of the shade.
She doesn't say anything, but she does smile for a moment.
And then they come back. Margaret can hear the thin cries of Marivel Armitage in some form. She can't SEE her but she's there and, okay, fine, there's no real time for her to react. Margaret's head turns around, but her ear twitches a little at something Mariel says.
"You know," she answers her --
There is a spiralling streak of light, and Margaret appears near the exit. On the threshold in fact, and facing inwards -- watching. She makes sweeping 'come on, come on' gestures with her left hand, watching, waiting. Counting, perhaps. (How many did come out?)
And when all are done, she'll even sweep up for dropped property.
"I used to be a courier myself," Margaret remarks to Mariel, as she makes it through.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It's Lanval's turn to listen after he's said his part. The mortals are beings of contradiction, and there's that little contentious something that comes from them, amplifies it with the glue being negative emotions bridging between them, and... making a spiraling mess of things. He's come to accept life with them regardless of that, but he's paying attention about 'what is to come.' How the desire to share their pain and resultant wound was too frightening to bear even for the sake of someone everyone loved so dearly.
"Mmmm," Lanval murmurs contemplatively as he makes exhaling motions. (Even now, Lanval enjoys breathing as a hobby. It's a favorite, he thinks all Seraphim would enjoy it.) He nods along in consideration of those words.
Ouroboros shatters to Marivel's wailing and crying as a tiny bat, and a number of difficult to grasp things are heard in sequence. Lanval looks up to see how Liath and Mariel are just suddenly there, and something about the galaxy being eaten by a belt. As they walk to the end, will they have to do away with belts to save the day?!
...
"Long ash there'sh a joy worth sharin'," he says, with a wheeze, as he chucks his bottle vessel behind him and disincorporates. The sphere of light that is the closest possible visible approximation to the 'actual' Seraphim form chases after it as it bounces along the path towards the portal, Lanval's disincorporating self catching up inside of it just as that bottle bounces into the portal.
He hopes Layna will be careless about the Quartermaster's Stash on the other side of that, because he's going to need a drink and Pentagulia is not going to have a lot of that.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige's face, no longer covered by the wooden mask shows she's not used to not having it on in this sort of situation. She's got one eyebrow raised, a distinct look of 'What the hell?' when they're talking about anime. A hand slowly goes up and she checks her head. She chews her lip briefly, decides she's not touching that and instead turns to try and stabalize Gwen. The others having the situation under control as far as she's concerned. Back to all of the threats. She'll... rely on magic to try and do just that. Any basic first aid supplies she's got are probably soaked through at this point and well. We won't go there.
She does respond as she works though. "Even where it's coldest, you find life enduring. Thriving in the cold. It was beautiful back home in the evening. I used to look forward to it."
With everything falling apart around them, the fight over. Her efforts good enough for at least getting the woman up and out right? The feline beastkin will never be mistaken as a powerhouse. Sure she's got SOME muscle to her just by nature of carrying a great big lump of haunted and/or cursed brass around. Said lantern is belted into place. She has all sorts of chains to secure it to her twinned gunbelt. Crouching down, she apologizes, "They broke my bottles. Also this won't be dignified." before trying to take Gwen. Either in a supported drunk carry if she's coherent, or a fireman's carry if not. And she reeks of bourbon, rum and vodka. So she's having a great time.
Mariel's given a thumbs up either way and she starts to walk. Steady. Don't go too fast or you'll fall. Don't go too slow or you'll get stuck in hell. It's fine. She can collapse outside.
"You'd better hurry Marivel. After we get outside, we're taking care of Belle and if you're not there I'll make sure she can haunt you properly." There's an attempt at levity. Kind of. Motivation of sorts at least.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Althena -- the simulacrum of Althena -- tells her that since she wants to trust humans, she couldn't protect her in the way she'd like to. ... she's not certain how to feel about that. She knows this isn't the true Goddess, but the Goddess in Marivel's heart. So perhaps she has a much kinder answer than the real one would.
"My precious things..."
People seem to... drift around her... time's strange again...
Away in the distance, Marivel's Time Medium cracks, and the Ouroboros starts to shatter. She hears Mariel's shout, Margaret's faraway comments... she can't hear Leo, but she can feel his quiet resolve. Lanval speaks of joy, but his voice is so far away... so far...
...
The problem of gaining the insight into consciousness when Time Stops is that... as Marivel well knows, the instantaneous and the eternity can indeed be one and the same.
Everything's dark...
Where is everyone?
I promised people I'd see them again.
But I can't remember where I'm supposed to meet them.
In the rapidly collapsing darkness of the Abyss Gate, Rixia runs, but her legs are heavy. She doesn't have any point of reference. Light is useless in the Dark, on its own, without anything else to cast its light -- and thus its shadow -- upon.
I want to go back.
I want to be where everyone else is...
Am I... all alone again?
Everything just seems to tar further around her, a viscous and cloying darkness that threatens to swallow her further.
Time...
It doesn't wait for anyone.
... no matter how hard... I try to hold onto it.
Rixia tries shouting. Her voice sounds muffled, and hers is a silent scream. She is buried in a coffin only known as 'herself'.
... it escapes me ... and ...
... is this the end...?
...
And then, before she even realises--
Time has resumed, and she's suddenly seeing the Gate before her eyes. Margaret's voice is very clear to her now. Mariel's calling for someone to pick Gwen up. Leo's marching on ahead, bloodied, but helping others along. Shige urges them to hurry. The fox girl helps, as well.
But once you realise that the Abyss is in your own heart...
You don't soon forget it.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
Marivel can't really help herself on the matter of tsunderes. But it's okay:
"Ah, yes! Like you and Ragnell!"
Liath can't, either.
Glass and light-forged feathers drift around Liath in the wake of her final blow, one reflecting off the other to create a display of glowing ephemera as Liath turns to regard Mariel and the Ouroboros beneath them -- Marivel. The Crimson Noble asks a simple question.
...Can we still experience them together?
Liath's expression gentles.
"Of course. I would be proud to walk through flame side by side with my sister."
And just as she couldn't help herself earlier, she can't now in the way a smile blooms at her lips as Mariel's words reach Marivel, and the Crimson Noble sobs her truest wishes. She smiles, even as cracks appear in the firmament that is Ouroboros. And as it shatters--
It's that reassurance of a smile that remains, just before gravity overtakes them all,
just before time overrides it.
One minute freeze-flows into the next. Where once the Prime Lord was in freefall, now she stands upon the purple surface of the abyssal platform she had been standing on moments earlier. Bright gold eyes sweep the area, taking stock of everything around them. They linger on the prone form of Gwen, brows furrowing faintly at the courier who gave everything she had. Liath's armored fingers squeeze brief around the hilt of her sword as she sheathes it once more at her side, and mounts her shield at her back.
And then, her attention turns once more to the bat that Marivel has become, a far cry from the intimidating splendor of that Abyss-forged Ouroboros. The Noble weeps about something called the Kepler Belt -- about it devouring not just them, but the entirety of the galaxy. Liath blinks once -- but her answer remains the same.
"Then we will not let it," is her firm response.
"Put your faith in them, Marivel. They have more than earned it."
Just what this Belt is, and the existential dilemma it represents, are questions best left for another time. The Abyss Gate begins to close; Liath can sense it before she even sees the sight of it. As power leaves this place, she springs into action, leaping across the platform in a flurry of motion. Mariel has secured Marivel. Lanval is taking care of himself. And the rest...
"Collect your wounded and fly!"
... this is the best she can do for the rest.
At the apex of her leap, Liath fragments, splintering into dozens - hundreds - of ribboning colors that stream radiant, illuminating pathways as they exit out the shrinking Gate.
There is so much more yet to come, so much more yet to deal with in Pentagulia alone. But those are adventures for another day. For today...
... for today, saving Marivel was all that really mattered to the Seraph.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4lJsmCqvCI
Ouroboros's war against Althena and the city of Pentagulia ends not with a bang, not even with a murder. In fact, despite everything... Nobody died. There's some bruising, an air of uncertainty that doesn't subside too quickly, a broken bone here and there--but in the end the true danger... The terror that was unleashed...was calmed before it could erupt into something truly terrible. Whether the people of Pentagulia see those that protected them from Marivel's war as saviors or villains... It is hard to say, though the rumor is likely to be that White Knight Leo slew the daemon that threatened their peace once more. Stories oft have more power than reality. A blessing, a curse? Well, that too is a contradiction--both are true simultaneously as many things are.
It is what it is.
The Abyss Gate closes moments before the dire denizens within can snap through themselves. What they ARE is a story for tomorrow.
One cycle is shattered and it won't be the only one before this chapter closes. The Ouroboros can no longer chew on its own tail and must face an uncertain future. But she does so with hope in her heart for the first time in what felt like millenia. Liath's call for faith in mortals is finally heard after so many ages of seeing that faith repaid in tragedy and death. To hold onto hope is easy, but to regain it once it has been lost... It is quite difficult.
Rixia had said that Answers can change with time. As Marivel reflects on this, she wonders--if Ouroboros was a trap of a name, can she just...change it? Conviction is admirable, but in the end even conviction must melt away into Spring so that the new can bloom.
Well, she has a whole future to think of new one. That too is a story for tomorrow.
For now, after so many millennia, she finally has one.