2023-04-14: Nemesis

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<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Cirea's teleporter whisked them away.

But where could possibly be safe? At first, it might seem that the teleporter has led them to somewhere considerably unsafe: the roof of the White Hero's Tower.

It stands high over Pentagulia, matched only by the height of the other towers of the Four Heroes. There is a stairwell leading up -- and doors over it, which are closed. Apparently, Ruby and Cirea's planning included a barricade for that. There are several large crates, shoved atop it.

And Althena's Guard may not know they are here, yet.

But it seems there is nowhere else to go. The fall would surely be fatal. There isn't another teleporter here. But then there is a gleam from the necklace about Hiro's neck; the one gifted to him years ago, by Nall -- the young man atop Taben's Peak, guarding a group of orphans, who was also so much more.

Nall speaks now, through it.

"Hold on! Just a little longer, Hiro... help is coming!"

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Help is coming.

Help is coming.

Help is --

    Something is c o m i n g --

From the grand roof of the White Tower, something can be seen. It's nothing more than a glint of light in the distance on the moon's backdrop, at first. But it's getting larger and larger, faster and faster.

It's the sound of it, first. A howling, like it was carving the wind itself.

And then the sight of it.

A massive lance sculpted ornately of white, gold and blue, inspiring a horrid scream in the skies as it crashes down towards--

                              B O O O O O M !

The lance EXPLODES across the tower roof just as the Fiends and their fleeing comrades reach it. Stone is swiftly churned into rubble, kicking up an obscuring plume of dust as debris and weapon racks fly --

-- and then starts to slow in mid-air until all of it stops, seconds before they can hit the the Drifters, or fall.

Chaos, chunks of stone large and small hover, beset by floating swords, axes, maces, and all manner of other weapons thrown free from their racks from the impact point of the lance; around them all shivers semi-transparent auras of shadowy and prismatic hues as the power of Althena's Blessing suffuses the ruinous landscape that was once the White Towers' roof -- as if the ruin itself was being held in a freezing amber of darkness and light.

And amid the dwindling cacophony and chaos, the chime of metal bootfalls can be heard.

Within the haze, a silhouette can be seen. It's unclear when they arrived -- simply that they are HERE, -now-, approaching from the opposite end of the crumbling grounds of the White Tower's pinnacle. A hand, wrapped in white and gold armor, emerges from the dwindling dust cloud, gripping onto the haft of that lance. With a single, smooth motion, it is yanked free from the fissured stone it has made its humble home... back into the hands of the one who threw it.

"Get of man."

BGM: Caelestinum Finale Termini - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptrUUOxTF8c

A voice, tinny, warped beyond recognition in a way that makes it terrifyingly recognizable, cuts through the dying groan of crumbling stone.

"Those fool enough to stand with them."

A faceless helm, emerges through the dying remnants of dust.

"Know this as truth:"

... The armored form of the Trial Knight, standing inescapably at their point of no return, pressure not felt since Love's Cradle exuding from them oppressively.

No. Not the Trial Knight.

"You will not escape what is coming."

Their Adversary.

                             O b j e c t i v e

                                  Nemesis

                         Reduce K.K.'s HP to ~66%!

DC: You switch forms to The Adversary of Mankind!
DC: K.K. switches forms to The Adversary of Mankind!
DC: Gwen Whitlock switches forms to Chrysopoeia!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia appears in a flash of light, with all of the others. Her sword is slung over her shoulder -- resting on her sleeveless jacket -- and she looks about for a moment. Her eyes widen, with dawning realization and dawning worry. They are atop the White Hero Tower.

There isn't anywhere to escape to. No way down -- well, none survivable -- and no clear way forward. "This--this might be a tough spot," she manages. She stammers it out. "But--"

A voice, from Hiro's amulet.

She stares for a second, but that sounds hopeful. Indeed, Talia can see something coming. A gleam of light, in the distance. Something getting larger and larger. Something that makes wind howl. She realizes, all too late, that this is not what she thought.

The lance slams into the tower, shattering stone when it hits. Talia shouts in a panic, jumping as it explodes. Stone, weapon racks, and more is frozen in place by some great spell.

Talia had landed in a three point stance. She hops to -- leaps to her feet -- and turns to look at the Trial Knight as they step through the haze of light. Her eyes widen, as she looks at K.K. The full weight of their pressure is on them, set to drive them backward.

But there is no backward.

Talia slings her new sword down and lifts it, pointing it towards K.K. Their alabaster armor reflects in the two-toned, gold and silver blade. Her crimson eyes narrow.

"You..! Here? Now!?" she demands.

Then, she sweeps the sword down, in two quick slashes. When she does, she sends two fangs of white light exploding across the ground, and hurtling off towards K.K.

GS: Talia has attacked K.K. with Double Demon Fang!
GS: Talia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Talia's Double Demon Fang for 69 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Talia!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel grimaces as a massive lance explodes the roof. "Really cuttin' it, aren'tcha...?" She mutters to herself as she turns her gaze up to the floating chunks of stone and the weapons alongside them. Then her gaze finally settles on K.K. Marivel seems to have largely recovered.

"Yes, I suppose I am fool enough to stand with them." Marivel quips back to K.K, crossing arms.

The pressure is heavy. The power takes form. Not a Trial Knight--but an Adversary.

Her gaze is briefly distracted by the necklace as it starts speaking before turning back to K.K.

"Not going to go easy on an old pal of yours?" Marivel asks. "You said something last time we met that's really stuck with me... So I'm not really inclined to fight with you because I really do owe you, and I did promise I would never let you fight your battles alone..."

Her gaze slants towards Gwen for a moment before looking back to K.K.

"But you showed me another way to fight together... But just so you know..."

"I'm not escaping anything. The ritual underneath this city will drain the life out of Lunar. And I'm pretty sure you'd rather I do what I can to stop that rather than be stopped by an 'Adversary' here."

She jogs towards The Adversary, swinging an arm back as her nails enlongate sharply, black fire rippling along the knuckles like a bleeding charcoal painting, lashing for the 'face' in a single smooth motion.

"I'd rather have a nice walk around the grounds, talking about nothing--but the instrument of Lunar's doom lies under the surface."

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
The cool breeze of freedom! Surrounded by towers.

Margaret blinks several times. She then shakes her sword a little; the pitted, destroyed metal of the honorable blade, burned out by her invocation, blows away in the rooftop breeze.

Margaret looks at the barricade. Then at Ruby and Cirea. Then at the others.

"Alright," Margaret muses. "Alright, we can do this if we have a quarter-hour before they find us. We're going to need to - wait, can I... hnnnhh, I could catch a handful but... perhaps if we figure out a goal and I - Oh, goddess," Margaret grouches as her ears flick back.

One flicks up at Hiro's necklace speaking.

Margaret exhales... and then something howls...

The sheer immensity of that glorious white lance smashes downwards. Into the tower. Exploding and bursting as stone becomes rubble and racks become kindling and as weapons endure only through the strength of good solid steel and Margaret's nebular aura flashes on and she stares and --

-- it's --

Stopping.

Margaret's eyebrow twitches several times. Terror washes through her but those parts of her are already tired. The familiar cold tension of battle rises through her as the Trial Knight steps forwards. Margaret sees a sword near her and reaches for it, teeth gritting --

And stops.

The sword comes loose, if with some effort, as if she's pulling it out of honey. Margaret takes a discreet, modest sort of practice swing. Her eyes swing to the side. Then the other.

Her lips slacken... and then she looks up with a new light in her eyes.

"Well, well, well," Margaret says, stepping forwards with exaggerated heel taps, which make the copper bracings on her running boots make clear noises. One hand goes to her hip as she raises up the blade. She makes herself stare at the Trial Knight. Towards their *visor*.

This is madness, Margaret thinks. But if this be madness, let me ride it, she thinks further.

"That's where you're wrong, you see," Margaret says, "because unbeknowst to you, I've been executing a powerful charm upon my comrades here throughout our journey, and you've just put us in the worst possible place for it."

"They," Margaret says, "as well as I, not to exempt myself," a pointing of the blade at her own cheek. (Gee, Margaret thinks, this blade is shorter than I'm used to. Thicker, though. It should do. And if it doesn't--)

"have the benefit of ALTITUDE - for you see, this spell makes one stronger, the higher one is, as long as your feet rest upon the ground -- upon earth *or stone* -- and do not leave for more than a few moments at a time," Margaret continues as she *steps forwards*, "and as you'll notice, we are in fact quite high up."

Margaret glances at Magilou then, and to Magilou, she winks repeatedly with tension in her jaw and face, "And we seem to be on stone, now don't we!"

To most, this is nonsense, but probably deliberate efforts to bait a bull. Maybe she hopes to make the Trial Knight fall off the side. To a few, if for divergent reasons, it may be *hopeful*.

GS: Margaret has attacked Magilou with Shout! Choreography In The Field!
GS: Margaret has attacked White Knight Leo with Shout! Choreography In The Field!
GS: Margaret has attacked Zed with Shout! Choreography In The Field!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Hiro hands over Lucia to Jean in short order. "Jean, you good to watch after her for a bit?" He's still trying to get his bearings on their surroundings, and that's one hard fall. He trusts Jean to have the best balance if something were to happen.
 
When suddenly his pendant glows, and his head jerks up, "Nall!?" It's kind of the last voice he expected to hear. As Ruby flies up and yells straight into the pendant, "YOU COULD DO THIS ALL ALONG!? WHAT THE HECK NALL!?"
 
Timing not withstanding, Hiro, takes a deep breath, "Okay. We'll hold out. Let us know if there's anything else we need to do."
 
He calls out to the rest of the group, "Help is on the way. We just have to hold ou-" Something is c o m i n g -- words die in his throat, "What is..." A massive lance crashes down, as suddenly he can see nothing, as weapons fly off their racks and he falls, landing amidst the chaos. But all of it slows, stops, as some sort of magic holds it all at bay between darkness and light.
 
A silhouette approaches, and the figure's voice is a familiar one. Hiro draws his sword. No longer the Trial Knight, but the Adversary of all Mankind.
 
"Again. Again. You must really hate us. Always at the worst moments." The boy says, still battered and a little bloody from the fight with Leo, "We will." He says in contradiction, despite the fact that he knows this is the worst moment this could possibly happen.
 
Even at their full strength, they've never beaten this Adversary. Not once.
 
His eyes slip briefly over to Jean holding up Lucia's body. "We will because we have to." They can't win, perhaps, but delay...? Maybe they can do that.
 
He's asking the impossible of all of them, even himself in this moment, but all the same he springs forward towards the epicenter of that horrible pressure, feeling it beat down upon him.
 
As he brings his blade down upon them in a ringing blow, as a shockwave spills out from the point of impact, trying to blast through their form and throw them off balance.
 
"You must think this is necessary, but there's NOTHING necessary about doing this here and now!"

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

I mean, there IS a way down, if your name is Zed and you can turn into a super robot that can also itself turn into a rocket ship. Like, there is probably no obstacle keeping Zed from just picking up half the party and rocket shipping away RIGHT NOW, except--

Well, he's Zed.

That doesn't mean he's necessarily slow-witted and wouldn't think about that, but it DOES mean that he's fundamentally a massive, insatiable drama queen.

Which is why, when he's about to suggest that they do EXACTLY THAT and the boss healthbar abruptly scrolls across the bottom of the screen and the music kicks in, his jaw snaps shut right then and there--

And he vanishes.

Because he's running right for K.K., to sword him directly in the face.

"Yeah so I know I'm not someone of the 'get of man' or anything," Zed says with a fierce grin as his blade blazes with celestial starfire, "But I'm gonna fight you anyway. This whole thing turned out to be a HECK of a time, let me tell you! Totally worth the swim across the sea! It's too bad Ragnell distracted me from swording you before, but she's not here time!"

"All that to say," Zed finally swings as he finishes, having ruthlessly exploited the fact that speaking in combat is a free action and thus theoretically takes up a near-zero amount of time, "Engarde, Trial Knight! This will be a bout to remember!!"

GS: Hiro has attacked K.K. with Concussion Sword!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked K.K. with Gentle Caress For Those With Claws!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Where is Zedane? Well, he disappeared after that last engagement in a puff of smoke. And Zed was right there instead! WEIRD!!

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    In the depths of the tunnel network, they had found a shelter. Nor had Avril, Rebecca, and Dean been the only ones to have found that place: the doors of their cells and others had been flung wide by the White Knight, and within, they had reconvened and recovered with their allies.

    Their allies, and with Kaguya. Kaguya, who remains as ever a complicated connection for her queen: one she could call friend and yet also one who retains herself a complicated connection to the Radicals of the Veruni. One with whom she has schemed and plotted with in the past, and one with which whom she has taken up arms against. An enemy may become a friend, without question: but the transition period of such is ever uncertain, fraught with what might come to pass.

    On this day she meets Kaguya again, yes, and once more there is the opportunity for a scheme to be put into place. 'If they should need her', Kaguya had asked.

    They had stayed in reserve while the others had gone ahead, and only when the sound from further within had become too much did they race into that chamber. There had stood Lemina and Leo and another, and,

    then they were not there anymore. They are atop the roof of the White Tower.

    "...This was your plan," Avril remarks, of Cirea and Ruby. The wind catches her long silver hair and she turns to gaze at the horizon. Help is on the way--

    There is a glint of light. Without understanding the reason why, Avril's hand finds the button for the transmitter that Kaguya had left with her as she throws herself free of the stone-detonating strike. A faint rain of dust and rubble falls over and about her as she rises slowly to her feet.

    "...Trial Knight," Avril speaks, gazing long at the armored figure. "Is there no other moment that might suffice?" As if to answer her own question, she closes her eyes and shakes her head, her expression growing stony. "No. There cannot be any time but this. For that is ever the way of trials and tests... we cannot chose the manner in which they arrive."

    She draws her blade, its edge glittering white in the light.
    And she also draws forth her Medium, which blooms with the bolstering scent of the sea.

    "Then... let us proceed."

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Tidal Wall!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Dean Stark with Tidal Wall!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Kaguya with Tidal Wall!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Zed accepts Margaret's Shout! Choreography In The Field for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Zed!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!
GS: Blitz! Zed has attacked K.K. with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Kaguya accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Kaguya!
GS: Magilou accepts Margaret's Shout! Choreography In The Field for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Magilou!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Hiro's Concussion Sword for 56 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disrupt applied to K.K.!
GS: Shieldbreak blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Hiro!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Gentle Caress For Those With Claws for 27 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: K.K.'s Break Ward may block the effect!
GS: Break and Poison applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. fully evades Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

r
    (BGM: Succession of Witches -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BQw3qZ9H8A )
     (I might have killed someone who cared for me...)

      (They did nothing but protect and care for me and all I did was betray them...)
     (He's tough. He used that earth spell. He's fine.)
       (That doesn't really change the fact that I hurt him...)
     (Just focus on survival for now. You have to survive... you have to survive...)

    Rixia is one of the people who took the teleporter Cirea and Ruby provided; now, they're on the roof, a place possibly more unsafe than where they were before, but... perhaps, with an opportunity for escape as well. She's not looking well. There are distinct purple veins running up from the corners of her cheeks, and her eyes are strained and red.

    Something is coming.

    >> detecting enormous signal of hostility
    >> strategic level imperative: survive
    >> shifting to tactical level 1

    Rixia suddenly thrusts her hand out and a shield of synthesised paramagic walls around her, moments before the lance impacts against the tower they're on -- it's far more mighty and devastating than even her shield can protect, and she's going to lose ground, until-- everything starts to... slow.

    >> warning -- warning
    >> estimated enemy strength far exceeds user skill
    >> unable to calculate mode of escape
    >> calculating best odds of survival...

    Surrounded by suspended weapons and debris, their adversary arrives on the scene. Unlike so many others here, she doesn't know the Trial Knight. But...

    There's one truth that's very readily apparent to her.

    >> no change in odds detected, proceeding with tactical level...
    >> objective: eliminate all enemies.

    "I can't... disappear yet..."

    (BGM: Premonition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i31Kmzp_t08 )

    Her seemingly puppet-like body buoys, and leaps into sudden action as she wrenches her gunblade to her side and strikes in a swift spin, leaving fiery orbs of synthesised magic in her wake in a full rotation of the clock -- and when she hits 12, she shouts, her voice warping in a not dissimilar way to the Trial Knight's:

    "I must... sUrvIvE...!!"

    A quiet flare of Malevolence starts to well inside of her, then disappears again as she squeezes the trigger, detonating the orbs in quick succession.

GS: Rixia has attacked K.K. with Fated Circle!
GS: Rixia has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo accepts Margaret's Shout! Choreography In The Field for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Cirea has posed.

There is, indeed, a barricade there. Do not ask how Cirea helped move crates.

(Or you can; she has a wand for that.)

"All we need to do now is get down!" Cirea says, proudly, taking back off from where she landed to use the teleporter and fluttering around. Well, she has an advantage here, because she can just... fly down, but she's pretty sure she can make a windstorm to slow big people down... fortunately, the Mysterious Voice in the Pendant (that's Nall) offers another option. "We should be good to go any minute." Pause. "Aaaany minute."

Something is certainly coming. Cirea looks up at the sound of the wind, expression hopeful for about two seconds until she realizes something is wrong, that thing is coming in way too fast to be anything good, that it is going to LAND ON HER -

Well, not her directly, as it turns out, but it's hard to judge when something is coming in that fast from so far away. An explosion makes a mess of a large part of the roof, sending fragments and shattered weapon racks everywhere, and Cirea's response to *that* is to dive behind someone bigger than she is, which is everybody except Ruby.

She peeks out from where she ended up behind Margaret when none of the shrapnel actually *lands* and ends up floating in midair. Huh, she thinks. That's weird.

"It's you!" Cirea raises her voice as she rises back up to about head-height, no longer hiding behind Margaret. She looks at K.K. for a long moment. Then again. "...who are you?"

Cirea has a pretty good excuse for her confusion: she spent all but the last few months shut up in a tower with no source of information more recent than a few hundred years. And K.K. hasn't exactly been around since then.

Everybody else seems to know K.K., though, and nobody seems to be on their side. Cirea is pretty good at reading the room (or the roof, as the case may be) and begins gathering magical energy in her hands. She draws symbols with her fingertips, barely visible as glittering runes.

"Trial this," Cirea says, followed by, faster: "Come, O gale, at my command! Wind Hammer!"

A sudden sphere of greenish wind energy swings out of the sky, hammering horizontally at K.K. in an attempt to literally launch them off the roof! Cirea is not exactly holding her breath to have that happen, but it would be a pretty big timesaver.

GS: Cirea has attacked K.K. with Wind Hammer!
GS: Cirea has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Cirea has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    BEFORE

    Leo lies on the floor of the hidden room, his blood drying around him. Bits of sorcerous earth cling to his ruined uniform, the last remnants of the spell that helped save his life. Everything aches. The Fiends are gone, and Lucia with them. Then--

    A flash of light. Leo sees a figure approaching through blurred vision. A familiar voice speaks.

    'Holy Litany!'

    Brilliant light floods into Leo's body. His wounds knit. His exhaustion fades like morning dew. He rises as the Goddess Herself addresses him.

    'Leo. You are not yet done. Chase them down -- stop them. Such is the command of your Goddess.'

    A moment passes. Thoughts swirl through Leo's head--the Fiends and their allies pleading with him, trying to reason with him, telling him the Goddess had gone too far. That she might not even be the Goddess. But standing here, in front of her, he does not have that luxury. His faith is a wreck of its former self, but it hasn't yet broken wholly, nor has his stubborn pride.

    Even if he did, he saw what she did to Marivel. He tries to hide the fear as he clasps his hands and bows.

    "Your will be done," Leo says.

    NOW

    There is no backward.

    A bright white flash heralds the arrival of someone else from below. Leo's uniform is more red than white, but he is otherwise in distressingly good condition for someone who just got wrecked by no less than three different people. He isn't even out of breath as he starts to address Hiro. "Hand her over," he says. His voice drips tension. "The Goddess--"

    And that's all he gets out before the HOWL--

    Leo hits the deck. Debris sails over him, chunks of masonry and steel and crystalline reinforcement that moments ago, were part of his Tower. When he rises, he sees...

    "Trial Knight," Leo says, terror and fury in his voice in equal measures. "Fell creature, you have NO RIGHT TO INTERFERE!" Adrenaline draws him into tunnel vision. His blade slices through the air, sending a wave of screaming vacuum-force right at K.K.'s chest. No preamble, no tirade about them trespassing on holy ground.

    It's as if he thinks going right to righteous violence can spare him from what he knows he has to face.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval appears along with the rest, after having disengaged from a harrowing encounter with a Seraph who has all but embraced his eventual fate under the throes of Malevolence. A Seraph that even outside of those circumstances, none would mourn would calamity befall them, but... nonetheless, he holds fast to the belief that they're all going to find and confront the truth of what's going on together.
 
     One truth is that they are presently stranded atop one of the towers, to once again look and see the strange repetitive structural constructions that unnerved them so on the ground. It's even worse from this on high.
 
     "Mmm." Lanval smiles at the voice from Hiro's amulet, looking up, a finger stroking at his chin and parting the beard hairs underneath. "Help? Lookin' a bit more like shomeone'sh--"
 
     "Oh."
 
     A Seraphic Arte incantation is lost to the commotion that follows, where behind Lanval is a large array of bubbles there as if prepared to try and catch as many as he could - a safeguard that not only proves unneeded in the moment...
 
     But one that doesn't escape the grasp of the power that holds so much debris and danger in place, his recently conjured bubbles also suspended in those strange shadowed and prismatic hues as Seraph Lanval's eyes open broadly without the color of his power behind them, like even he's taken aback by that more than he is the seemingly averted impact.
 
     The voice of the Trial Knight might be the most grounding thing here, even if he might recognize it within the sobering moments that follow that death-defying excitement of a deadly, thunderous impact striking them where they stand.
 
     Grounding... but not comforting or reassuring.
 
     He remembers the choice he made down at the center of Love's Cradle, when how Boudicca and himself were acknowledged for bleeding for the sake of Filgaia - and the pact they made.
 
     With only a momentary glance in Rixia's direction, Lanval does not shout or scream defiance nor echo what is said about the threat facing Lunar with what's going on under there... but instead sits down in a pious-looking kneel, and has a sip from the drinking gourd.
 
     A piece from the very water of Filgaia itself, of which he has borrowed much already today... but this is a matter of Lunar's survival, isn't it? Is invoking this within the bounds of the pact, some my wonder if they are able to take leave of the immense presence and pressure of the Trial Knight's spoken truth and challenge.
 
     He does not look conflicted of this.

GS: Blitz! White Knight Leo has attacked K.K. with Demon Fang!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Things have not been great. But when you're Dean Stark, you don't let that stop you. After prison, and then escaping from prison, and finding a shelter, and reuniting with Kaguya and the others, and staying in reserve, and hearing all the rubble and chaos, and chasing on up to join everyone just in time to see a massive lance smash the side of the tower and suspend rubble in the air as if frozen in time, one would think it would be reasonable to be disheartened.
    
    But Dean heard Nall's voice saying that help was coming, and he trusts this implicitly. "Okay! We'll hold out for sure!" he calls over to the pendant. He might be too far away to actually be heard, but that's fine.
    
    As the shining form of the Trial Knight--or rather, the Adversary--approaches, Dean faces them with grit teeth and Twin Fenrir flashing into his hands. "You! What're you doing, showing up at the very end?!" Dean demands. "Fine! You wanna 'test' us? We're gonna pass with flying colors--just you watch!!" He nods firmly at Avril as she draws her own weapon as well as her Medium, and at the others already opening fire.
    
    As Lucadia's power washes over him, he brings his paired ARMs together and charges directly at K.K. in that headlong way he's always preferred, wheeling around the rods that erupt from the handles to slam them into that shining armor. With the way those rods superheat in an instant as he charges, they might make it VERY uncomfortable for whoever's in there.

GS: Dean Stark accepts Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Dean Stark!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with A Contemplative Nursing Of An Unquantifiable Size of Drink!
GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Seraph Lanval's A Contemplative Nursing Of An Unquantifiable Size of Drink for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Dean Stark spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked K.K. with Burning Magazine!
GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

The Adversary is come.

But admidst the devastation there is a sudden sound of space tearing. A shimmer of light, a crackle of noise--and the light blazes green before Kaguya appears in the flash. Within the haze the small Veruni rises from a crouch, unholstering the Zeikfried and narrowing her eyes at the Trial Knight. She stands between Avril and K.K., making clear her alleigance for this battle.

"Man," Kaguya says to Avril, "You really took my request seriously."

Kaguya is dressed in her usual attire, green Veruni armor beneath fine Lunarian clothes, and she continues, "You got it, Avril."

We cannot choose the manner in which they arrive...

"But you're also right about something, Trial Knight." Kaguya hefts up her weapon, raising it above her shoulder, arm bent, barrel pointed upward. "They won't escape."

!?

"...They'll triumph. I believe in that enough that I'll stand with them, even though I could've gotten away by now."

"Not just because that one's the Queen, either."

She doesn't grin, though. For all the quipping, she's deadly serious about this, as she pulls a vial from her pocket and downs the contents immediately, settling into a combat stance.

...Rixia's voice is very, very concerning in the moment. But Kaguya can do little more than look at her a moment. "You will!" Kaguya calls to her. "We're all getting out of here!"

"C'mon, guys!" She nods to Dean, as he talks about passing the test. "Let's go!"

Then she looks to the others gathered. So many she knows... and...

"Leo," Kaguya says. "...Gonna have to say goodbye here."

GS: Kaguya has attacked Kaguya with Formula El-25!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya heals Kaguya! She gains 84 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Kaguya!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    The Trial Knight is come, and Magilou, Millennium Witch, snaps sardonically at Hiro's necklace:

    "Greaaat help, Nall! You've always been such a PEACH! I AM NOT BRINGING YOU A FISH FOR THIS!"

    She stomps a foot, stormy, gesturing with all the animate humour of someone who isn't facing down a guillotiner blade. (One notes that the paper doll spinning beside her can elongate out to offer a one-way surfing trip through the air; Magilou could survive that fall. Is she offended at being called a 'fool', then? But look at how she's dressed! And how she's acting!) She points at Hiro, and insists: "I'm going to find a way to blame you for this, mark my words!!"

    A light pause, as she looks back to Jean: "... just make sure to keep an eye on her, won't you?" She doesn't look from Jean to Lucia; she doesn't have to. She doesn't have to tell Jean why she's telling her to be careful, either -- why she's suggesting she focus.

    The Adversary of Mankind...

    ... it's easy for her to joke in front of pressure like that.

    And it would be easy for her to leave.

    But Margaret is injured, Magilou thinks. Rixia is still young. Kaguya is growing into herself, and Hiro is coming to realise how heavy his cowl really is. Talia and Ivan have much to lose from the inquisition, she's sure; it's even possible carefree souls like Lanval, Gwen, and Dean wouldn't escape. It would be a shame for a channeler like Shige to be cut down so early, even. And it would be a shame if Leo died before he realised the full extent of his follies, she thinks, just the same. Cirea she has no dossier on, of yet, but Magilou remembers enough to know she did help them escape; that, at least, is worth a scrap of a thought. Another scrap, to Avril, whose fussiness doesn't demand crimes paid this grievously.

    (She does not, notably, worry about Zed. If he's half the sword idiot her sword idiot is, he's going to come out of this nourished and flourishing.)

    Magilou sighs, pulling her hat down over her ears. "Ser-ious-lyyyyy? You show up here with your Middle Common all hoity-toity and now you'll kill half the party just to see if they can do it? Hey, Adversary, I've been keeping notes on these suckers the whole way through, and it's sooo rude for you to come undercut me with a final trial here! You know half these cretins crumble under a time limit and exam conditions!" Perhaps she and Margaret are of a kind, the way they patter.

    She certainly winks back to her, with a grin.

    Another moment to evaluate.

    There's more to consider, here, than brute force. K.K. is an evaluator. They want to know the measure of man. Interrupting that process could be as deadly as standing aside... particularly given the strength they hold, as Adversary.

    ... but she's got skin in the game.

    "You'll indulge me making some small effort to clear you out of our path, then, I hope," she says, and give her credit: she doesn't outwardly flinch, as Rixia is puppeted along. "You've more than enough power to spare. Super Absorber," is the incantation she invokes, as light flashes into her, fluttering lilac and baby-blue butterflies. The light blinds her form, for a moment --

    Where there was pink and midnight blue and purple, now there is red and white and black; her books are GREEN, now, not bound in traditional leather. And the light continues to pulse, around her, breaking down the various magicks in the air and carrying them into her blood, minute by minute -- passively, constantly.

    When she invokes her spell, it is with no preamble.

    "Violet Storm."

    The water spout which picks up around the Adversary -- a swirling upwards current -- carries flame throughout it, impossibly, in a marriage of flood and fire. It shouldn't be possible.

    Perhaps that's true of them, just the same.

DC: Magilou switches forms to Scourge of the Self-Righteous ~ Face the Wrath of Magilou Mayvin!!
GS: Blitz! Magilou has attacked K.K. with Violet Storm!
GS: Magilou has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

With a flash, they appear... elsewhere! They made it! To... wait, they're stranded on a tower?! Ivan looks around. "So -- what's the plan? Was this the plan?"

Evidently Nall is going to be able to help them, so they just need to stay in one piece until then. Easy! Probably. Except then K.K. drops in with a show of terrible force.

Indignation wars with dread -- confrontations with K.K. have ended in brushes with death for the twins on several occasions. He draws closer to Talia, reflexively.

"...What are you in the way again for?! They should call you the-- the...." Ivan sputters, trying to think of something suitably unpleasant that starts with K. Wait... What DOES it stand for, anyway?! Trial doesn't start with a K!

"N-nevermind! Adversary suits you just fine!"

He draws forth a throwing knife from his coat, sending it racing through the air on a precision course toward the most apparent gap or weak spot in K.K.'s armor.

GS: Ivan has attacked K.K. with Memories of an Assassin!
GS: Ivan has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

As a feline, Shige should land on her feet. She doesn't. There's a myriad of reasons why, but the teleport has disoriented her briefly. Which the lance's impact really did a number in convincing her to speed things up. A shake of her head, her feet in something of a combat stance before her head's even caught up with the reflexes.
 
 Lantern in hand, she fiddles with the feed on the side and the light flares brightly. They're already spotted, no need to be stealthy. You know, with the attack inbound and all.
 
 "All things must come." Is her response to the challenge by the.. tin can. That's what she'll dub him. A hint of fatalism sneaking in after all of this. Probably not helped by the corruption blasted through her admittedly. Might be something to fix sooner rather than later. Post... everything going wrong.
 
 The idea that any of this was planned from Avril gets a snort from the feline. Ear twitching as she catches the hint of that. A quick shake of her head and she looks to the knight. Tired looking. Giving a proper response. "I have a passenger to escort back home. You will get out of my way. Or you will join her on the ride home." She narrows her eyes. Her shadow creeping along the ground, growing sinister. Pinpricks of light forming baleful eyes. "I'm done with this... everything." She sweeps the lantern around. "This sterile, dead place."
 
 The shade rises, angry looking. Face shrouded by hair. It's movement jerking and erratic. It gets right in the armored figure's face and fades away. Leaving behind a sense of malice. That cold, uneasy feeling one gets in a haunting.

GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked K.K. with Mute Horror!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    ".... This is not a great spot..." Gwen's grin is stiff as she glances around, looking first for all the exits available to them. Like Talia, she comes to the same conclusion. The crates show some forethought, but Gwen briefly wonders if Ruby and Cirea forgot that they couldn't fly.

    Or, maybe, that part was also considered as well, as Hiro's necklace gleams. Gwen turns her head and steps over to Hiro. "... Hey, isn't that that one guy, from Taben Peak? Nall, right?" Just, what is the plan here? "So... do we need to bust down those crates when the time comes or...?"

    -B O O O O M-

    The courier shrieks and falls backwards as the lance pierces the air, completing part one of K.K.'s very impressive entrance.

    Shock marrs Gwen's freckled face as she gets up. A rictus grin begins to stretch her lips, but it doesn't meet her eyes as she steps forward. "..... Man oh, man... I haven't seen that white metal helmet of yours in... a long time, heh..." Gwen's voice falters, her usual humor drowning in a sea of alarm. A quick glance over the scene reveals no easily available exit, save leaping off and trusting their fates to the grim whims of gravity, now that Leo's cut off the other means of an easy exit.

    Do or die.
    
    "... Remind me, have I ever used this on you, before? My memory ain't as sharp as I'd like it t'be, eheh." Gripping her right ARM to her chest, Gwen produces the only ace card she has on her-- one that is not completely ready to be used. The pale gold light of "If it is, oh boy, you're in for a treat." There's a sound, like a wine glass breaking against the floor, and glowing pyrite moves up Gwen's right ARM like quicksilver. Unlike the halfway mode of before, when they faced several Guard members, this is a complete transformation, echoing what she did during Marivel's stand in the Void.

    ".... As everyone said, more or less, we'll try," she manages to mutter, before words become too hard to manage.

    Sharply extending her right ARM back out, Gwen releases a bullet of light straight at K.K., the orb looking like a giant sparkler that sucks in sound with the smell of acrid smoke.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked K.K. with Coil Cannon AZOTH!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Rixia's Fated Circle for 114 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Rixia drains K.K.! Rixia gains 70 temporary hit points!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Cirea's Wind Hammer for 38 hit points!
GS: Interrupt applied to K.K.!
GS: Hyper applied to Cirea!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. partially guards White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 89 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Dean Stark's Burning Magazine for 126 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison applied to K.K.!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Magilou's Violet Storm for 61 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: K.K.'s Break Ward may block the effect!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disease applied to K.K.!
GS: Break blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. takes a glancing hit from Ivan's Memories of an Assassin for 82 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Shige Kiwako's Mute Horror for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Interrupt and Mute applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon AZOTH for 134 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Them. Here.

"Now."

The single word rings with an air of implacable, absolute certainty to Talia's demand. They are here, now. There is nothing that can change that fact.

They can only change what comes next.

The lance in K.K.'s hand dissolves into so many motes of light; the flickering flakes dance like fireflies as they converge to a point high in the sky above the knight. What was once a lance is forged now into a floating tome and quill, currently closed as that faceless helm turns to regard all those who have come.

"You bear yourself with frustration. You gnash against the irrationality of this moment. The senseless cruelty."

And as that tinny voice speaks, the book cracks open, quill coming to life as it scribbles an incantation with ink that seems to glow with the brightest and darkest colors of the spectrum in ebbing measures.

"If you would wail, wail to your gods. My ear turns deaf to it. But if you would stand, stand for yourself. And I shall meet you. But know this."

And the knight's armor ERUPTS, white, polished plate beginning to literally -glow- as metal becomes something more spiritual, something more fluid protecting and concealing the proud silhouette encased within.

"No matter what fate you bemoan, my cruelty shall come regardless!"

Talia is the first to spring, bearing that sword upon the Adversary; twin fangs of light CRASH across K.K.'s glowing figure, and at each point of impact, their armor seems to -ripple-, prismatic hues shuddering out like a disturbed lake of refracting light. K.K. takes a single step back -- but it does not stop the new source of light glowing at their palm.

"You have found yourself a new weapon, girl. Will you use it -- or shall you waste its potential?"

Fast on her heels is Zed, coming in hot with customary zeal and defiance; as if in a show of respect, the Trial Knight says nothing against the Hyadean's claims, does not deride him -- instead, they -leap- back as he advances, landing upon a large chunk of rubble suspended in mid-air just as a blade engulfed in celestial flame swings --

-- just in time to meet the edge of another blade, shining and sharp, with a crystalline CLASH of impact.

"Zed," intones the knight. "You have come far from those days on Filgaia. And yet your will remains a constant. Keep fast to it."

Are they -- giving him advice--?

"It may well become a matter of grave necessity, when Master Siegfried returns."

And with that, K.K.'s graceful parry becomes a -push-, looking to -shove- Zed back towards Talia.

"Out of respect for both you and him, I shall afford you no quarter!"

Their legs tense upon that floating stone.

Fell creature, you have NO RIGHT TO INTERFERE!

And then the knight -springs- in a smear of crackling white light, straight for Leo and his fang of force.

One might be able to catch the slightest glimpse of that short sword in K.K.'s hand shifting and morphing, before--

-- a HAMMER -crashes- through the White Knight's Demon Fang, powerful vacuum force sheering through liquid-white armor in rainbow-shivering impacts as the rest of that force is dissipated... just in time for the face of that hammer to impact the ground with force enough to make the tower grounds quake as a mass of shadow FISSURES from the grounds, becoming a great sheering force of darkness like a guillotine in reverse that aims to sweep its way through Leo, Zed and Talia alike.

"And yet," utters the knight, their warped tone blithe and scathing through the dwindling dark, "this fell creature interferes freely. And what right have you, White Knight, to stand upon this tower?"

This White Tower. The tower of a hero--

"No. This monument to foul farces is exactly where I ought tread freely."

Not going to go easy on an old pal of yours?

The familiar voice stops the Trial Knight from aggressing further; shadow knits a solid stopgap in the great chasm they have carved through the roof with their attack as a faceless, horned helm tilts Marivel's way.

"'Twould do disservice to you and I alike to give any less than this, Marivel."

She speaks of the other way they showed her. They do not respond, but for a moment, there is a precious, rare second of stillness.

"... Come, then. Test the mettle of this Adversary. We shall see the measure of fool you are--"

The words -- somehow, not insulting in their tone -- come to an end as Cirea attacks with a hammering gout of wind sweeping through the sky. Marivel comes at the same time, brandishing claws of rippling black flame. She comes for that faceless helm --

And the Adversary meets them -both- without hesitation.

Wind strikes at the knight -- but rather than resist it, K.K. goes -with- the powerful, torrential tide just as Marivel springs upon them. That hammer swings in the same motion, beginning to glow bright --

--and as K.K. is lifted skywards, the hammer sears into the longer, sharper form of a war scythe, the vertical crescent of its blade coming crashing for Marivel just as her claws -sear- across the knight's armored helm in ripples of prismatic light and broiling shadow.

Neither Cirea nor Marivel are human; but that does not mean K.K. spares them any mercy as a great pillar of white light BURSTS from the very tip of that war scythe, aiming to bring Marivel up into the air with a searing discharge of whites, blues and violets as the churning, blinding wrath of that force of light looks to sweep Cirea up in its wrath too.

Whether they are caught or not, K.K. twists through the air, landing upside-down upon a chunk of rubble in the skies a second later. Who are they?

"Naught more than a monster," is their answer to Cirea, cutting through the dying roar of their assault.

"Any claims beside are naught more than pomp."

Booted heels push. And K.K. comes crashing towards the rooftop of the White Tower just as Dean and Hiro spring upon them, a glow of whites and violets encircling their form as the book above begins to scrawl anew.

Blade meets blade as K.K. intercepts Hiro in mid-air with the edge of their scythe; the sword knocks scythe wide as the shockwave of the impact RIPPLES outward, just as Dean's superheated rods BLUDGEON against the falling knight's chest, twin blows sending prismatic shivers across glowing armor. K.K. does not answer either.

But neither do they stop, as they seek to catch Dean and Hiro up in their descending wake --

--and engulf them in a sudden, explosive DOME of Althena's Light, rippling in hues of blue, white and violet as it swirls radiantly around that singular point of impact.

"... Necessary. Mayhaps," says the knight, amid the dying haze.

"But 'tis my choice all the same. To stand against you. To defy you.

"To see that you come face to face with the inescapable truth."

They do not bother to explain why. After all...

... Perhaps it's enough that they claim themselves adversarial to all that Dean and Hiro cherish.

It is as they rise that they feel a swell in sorcerous power not of Althena's Blessing. Shige's phantasm is felt before it is experienced -- its sapping curse rides through the knight as its angry visage makes itself known to them. Malice crackles through that shining armor -- but its glow does not quite ebb.

"If you would move past me, then move. But if your step falters, know that the fall is not one you shall stand back up from!"

Horror and malice are things the Trial Knight has become far too acquainted with, in their long life.

But it does weaken, even if a little; and it does distract, as a Guardian's might fluctuates and strengthens. K.K.'s faceless helm turns, regarding both Lanval and Avril alike as they summon two Guardian's might to strengthen themselves and the ones around them. Kaguya soon joins them with supplements of her own, not of the Guardians' strength. Their head tilts.

"So you stand with humanity," they note of Kaguya, first and foremost. The tome above begins to scrawl notes of starry blue and white even as shadows draw and swell along the knight themself.

"And you, Oracle of Schturdark. Do you yet stand with them, even seeing what madness they have gladly invited into this holy land? Would you stand with them, when their blight is the pulse upon which this entire star spins its rotting orbit?"

They consider for a moment. And then they dismiss their warscythe, hands snapping to the side as two bolstering gauntlets of ornate blue and gold overlay over their clawed armor.

"... So be it. Let us proceed. But know that if you do not come at me with the whole of what you are--"

Shadow channels through the Knight; Light through the tome. And they both come to a fever pitch --

"-- You shall know naught but the fallow taste of oblivion's embrace!"

And are -released-, as sigils form in the air around Kaguya and Avril, creating a beautiful constellation of shimmering, light in so many hues of cosmic whites and blues that RIPPLE with explosive wrath--

--just as a tremendous, yawning void opens up beneath Shige and Lanval, tendrils of pure shadow spun by Althena's Blessing creating a horrid maelstrom of darkness and raw negative energy.

Neither light nor shadow fade from the knight or from the ambience in the air as they turn to regard Margaret and Magilou both in turn, head cocked to the right.

"You would treat this moment as a mummer's farce," notes the knight dispassionately of Margaret -- Magilou too, perhaps, but then... her antics are known to them, aren't they? The greater meaning behind that shift in Magilou's form is clearer still. As are the contradictory swells in magic. To go against someone like the witch in a blow of magic would be foolhardy indeed--

"Very well. A farce this is indeed. Permit me show you the consequences of it."

--but foolhardy the Knight is, apparently: for as water and fire congeal and sprout beneath the Trial Knight, sweeping them up, plentiful magical energies for Magilou to pilfer BURGEON forth from the knight in spades to spare. Water batters as fire broils, an impossible combination carrying the Knight skywards --

--until hands of shadow and light CLAP together within the grand spout of magic.

Sheer power and force ripples across the knight's armored figure, but they fight through it as twin spheres of darkness and light RIP through shadow and flame. They spin around each other like double helixes of opposing concepts, ripping through their fellow, contradictory forces -- until they both collide at the base of the sprout, creating a blooming BURST of burning bruising shadows and blistering, radiant prismatic hues that cannot possibly coexist --

--and yet create a force between them impossibly powerful in their impossible contradiction as they seek to engulf Magilou and Marivel alike.

It is in the aftermath that K.K. falls, darkness and light spinning around them in clustering orbs of magic as they hit ground. And then...

They feel IT.

Their unseen attention instantly turns upon Rixia, at the exact moment of that blip of contradiction within her.

"You."

A clawed hand points her way, as gauntlets dissolve from the Trial Knight's forearms. The tome scribbles fjuriously.

"It has you, does it not? I sense it."

One clawed finger spasms, once.

"The tremor of contradiction--"

For a moment, it seems as if they might just reach out and GRASP upon that brief flare, if such a thing were even possible -- yet if it were, their attention comes to an end as that throwing knife CRACKS and -ricochets- off the glowing panels of K.K.'s shoulder joint, courtesy of Ivan. His gambit gives Rixia the time she needs to detonate those orbs, fabricated magic bursting in ripples of sorcerous fire that gobble up the hazy air around the knight viciously and briefly obscure the knight.

"There is no finer name for what I am to you and your kin, boy."

Slowly, the Trial Knight steps through the flames. A great, double-bladed sword manifests between their hands as they march inexorably forward.

"And you will have to show me much and more than that if you wish you and your kin to see through to the morrow. There is more to you, beating hot in your breast. Show me--"

The tome finishes its scribe.

"Or PERISH!"

And a great mass of light descends from the heavens, CRASHING into the ground between Rixia and Ivan. White-yellow light flickers -- a spark of black and violet crackles within --

--and the unsightly fusion of dark and light reveals itself as shadow RIPS through the orb of light in an explosion of chattering, sorcerous skulls of pitch black, looking to rip through Ivan and Rixia alike in a furious flurry of Althena's contradictory blessings.

Remind me, have I ever used this on you, before?

A bullet of light FIRES towards K.K. -- and immediately, the knight INTERCEPTS it with one powerful swing of their double-bladed sword. The impact wars and rages -- before that acrid, sucking orb is split in twain, the bullet colliding POWERFULLY with the knight in flashes of reds, oranges and pinks that ripple across the disturbed sections of their armor.

It is powerful, indeed -- and yet, even so, it cannot stop K.K. from completing that swinge -- as a massive GOUT of flame that mixes both radiant lights and dismal darks together in a horrific flare of power ERUPTS beneath Gwen, to consume her.

"Treat me, then, courier.

"But show me know less than all this side of you can give. I shall accept naught less.

"And nor should you!"

GS: K.K. has attacked K.K. with Ataraxia!
GS: K.K. has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Interrupt expired!
GS: K.K. accepts K.K.'s Ataraxia for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to K.K.!
GS: Cover and Riposte applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. has activated a Boss Action!
GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend!
GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Lanval with Negative Gate!
GS: K.K. has attacked Shige Kiwako with Negative Gate!
GS: K.K. has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Grand Chariot!
GS: K.K. has attacked Kaguya with Grand Chariot!
GS: K.K. has gained 2 Combo!
GS: K.K. has attacked Dean Stark with Guilty Resolver!
GS: K.K. has attacked Hiro with Guilty Resolver!
GS: K.K. has gained 1 Combo!
GS: K.K. has attacked Magilou with Bright Shade!
GS: K.K. has attacked Margaret with Bright Shade!
GS: K.K. spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Poison!
GS: K.K. has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Shadow Fire!
GS: K.K. has attacked Marivel Armitage with Glorious Ascent!
GS: K.K. has attacked Cirea with Glorious Ascent!
GS: K.K. has gained 4 Combo!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ivan with Chaotic Fusion!
GS: K.K. has attacked Rixia with Chaotic Fusion!
GS: K.K. has attacked Zed with Abyss Divider!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talia with Abyss Divider!
GS: K.K. has attacked White Knight Leo with Abyss Divider!
GS: K.K. has gained 1 Combo!
GS: K.K. takes 27 damage from Poison!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Abyss Divider for 155 hit points!
GS: Delay applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: Riposte applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Power Burst, Guard bonus, and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Hiro takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Guilty Resolver for 210 hit points!
GS: Dean Stark takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Guilty Resolver for 176 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Margaret takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Bright Shade for 88 hit points!
GS: Disease applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur solidly guards K.K.'s Grand Chariot for 117 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Zed partially evades K.K.'s Abyss Divider for 103 hit points!
GS: Delay blocked!
GS: Riposte applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Rixia solidly guards K.K.'s Chaotic Fusion for 58 hit points!
GS: Hex blocked!
GS: Seraph Lanval suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Negative Gate for 172 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Cirea takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Glorious Ascent for 177 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Shadow Fire for 184 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya solidly guards K.K.'s Grand Chariot for 162 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Charge bonus activated!
GS: COUNTER! Talia counterattacks K.K. with Blizzard Blade!
GS: Talia takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Abyss Divider for 148 hit points!
GS: Delay applied to Talia!
GS: Riposte applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Sufferer and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako partially evades K.K.'s Negative Gate for 156 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage critically guards K.K.'s Glorious Ascent for 37 hit points!
GS: Magilou takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Bright Shade for 63 hit points!
GS: Disease applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Ivan takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Chaotic Fusion for 101 hit points!
GS: Hex blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    Leo arrives with fanfare; he seems forgotten to her, in the wake of her desire to survive. Lanval stands with her as well, providing quiet presence and support; yet he also seems forgotten to her, in the wake of her desire to survive. Kaguya is present, something she didn't expect; she should be overjoyed, but... she also seems to be forgotten. Magilou drains magic from her, causing her body to convulse for a moment as Stocked magic is drawn out, but she doesn't seem to care, giving the Millenium Witch her power.

    "More..."

    More power just seems to manifest as Rixia -- or more clearly the Sleeping Lion -- continues to draw minute amounts of ambient magic from the air, constantly building power.

    The Trial Knight addresses Rixia directly, the blip of contradiction not unseen by them. It has her, doesn't it?

    "I'll do what I must..."

    >> large-scale emanation of power detected
    >> taking evasive action...

    The mass of light writhes and erupts from the heavens, threatening to engulf her and Ivan both -- and Rixia simply lunges through it, meeting the melding interstice of dark and light, skulls striking and seemingly bashing her already-battered body further. She withstands. She proceeds.

    >> unable to fully mitigate damage
    >> conditioning user to maximise self-survival

    "I'll do what I must to survive... what of it? Are you going to judge me?"

    Rixia's next attack takes her close, with erratic, almost janky movements that take her left, and right, and left -- the third feint is what she goes with, and gravitic energies well within the chamber of the gunblade along with her vicious two-handed stab followed by the trigger squeeze--

    "Regret awaits...!"

    --a deep, bass-y THOOOOOOM accompanies the implosion of the gravity well she conjures, which threatens to sink in on the Trial Knight as she violently arcs her gunblade out in a backwards slash out of their armour.

GS: Rixia has attacked K.K. with Revolver Gravija!
GS: Rixia has completed her action.
GS: K.K. solidly guards Rixia's Revolver Gravija for 179 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Rixia!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Steel clatters against steel. Demonic blade grinds and clashes against a weapon that one could be forgiven for mistaking as divine. Metal-shed sparks casts brief flashes of light across both faces. K.K.'s is hidden, as it always is, behind a helm. But Zed's-- is a fierce of a grin as ever.

At least, until the Trial Knight mentions that name.

"Tch, didn't you hear? Siegfried's already back. Or someone who looks a lot like him, anyway," Zed answers, a split second before a parry becomes a push, sending him hurtling across the rooftop. He whirls through the air, somersaulting to regain some modicum of control over his balance, only for the Trial Knight to continue his assault.

A wave of darkness rushes towards him, threatens to sweep him away. But the instant Zed contacts the ground again--

Margaret's enchantment activates.

Power that has no place inside any Metal Demon surges through him, arcane energy blazing through his veins. With a roar, he charges into the wave of darkness, splitting it like a comet carves through the pitch black void. "Sieg should have earned his rest. Whatever brought him back shouldn't ever have happened! Instead, that drive of his is probably going to get him into trouble again. After everything that happened with the Mother, if he walks down the wrong path..."

"I'll have to be there to sword him straight, or if that fails, to put his spirit back to rest! But for that I need strength! So let me break against you a bit, Trial Knight!" Again, he swings as he approaches, blade scything at lightning speed up and into the knight's guard--

As he finally notices that Leo decided to show up. The demon flashes the paladin a smirk. "Look who joined us! White Knight Leo fighting alongside a (Metal) Demon! See, a little heresy ain't going to kill you! Nahahahaha~"

GS: Blitz! Zed has attacked K.K. with Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite!
GS: Zed has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

"No chance Leo." Hiro interrupts Leo's pitch, "She's coming with us, and nothing you can say will change that."
 
Things get worse though, rapidly escalating in short order.

"Sure Magilou, blame me all you want ONCE WE'RE OUT OF THIS!"
 
And in fact he seems pretty sincere about that? Maybe he's feeling somewhat guilty for what happened in Goddess Square still.
 
Ruby, who hid with Cirea notes, "Hey you weren't kidding about the Sorceress thing. Neat!"
 
Complaints over the cruelty of the moment will not change a thing. An eye is given towards Dean as the two charge. His and Dean's blow are met by that explosive dome of light, which hurtles him backwards, into the tip of a frozen blade. It digs into his back, before gravity takes him down, spilling blood around him.
 
Still though, he gets up, his blade looking like it weighs far heavier than before, from just the wounds of the prior battle being fresh. "That's... the truth you want to convey?" There's a moment of almost incredulity, "Life or death?" Hiro asks with a slight rasp, "'Madness in this Holy Land'?"
 
He blames himself for that, perhaps, this idea of trusting too much. In the end though, something weighs heavier, "You think Zophar doesn't have a hand in what's going on here? The only madness would be letting things stand as they are!"
 
Trying to rally himself, he takes a step, then another, before he trusts his feet enough. "Everything we have... to hold off this madness!" And he takes off into a run, a leaping blow as he tries to drive his blade down, two handed to bite into their armor, if the blow finds purchase at all.
 
"DODGE THIS!"

GS: Hiro has attacked K.K. with Poe Sword!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: K.K. solidly guards Hiro's Poe Sword for 71 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. suffers a terrible blow from Zed's Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite for 212 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to K.K.!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret turns her head. "They're strong," she tells Cirea. "You could probably guess but this isn't bluff you're seeing on their end." She did not seem bothered to be used as shelter. Cirea can see, at that angle, sweat on her skin. Anxiety, perhaps.

"I mean I'm not exactly classically educated," she remarks to Magilou, "but it's quite unfair to pull exam terror on top of everything else. There are limitations to the wickedness one might subject anyone to, I would say."

And then the Trial Knight turns their attention upon Margaret and it is her turn to tense up. She finds water smashing against -- no, not her, towards --

Great hands smash over each other in that fiery sea, steam and force smashing outwards in helical force and throw shades and shadows and force and a blast upon Margaret, but while that hurts -- she can throw up her right arm, the already-damaged one, and the funny thing is that she thinks she can feel that, just the tiniest bit, in her right hand.

And when it fades, she says -

"A farce?"

Margaret looks up.

"It's no farce," she says.

"I've been doing this sort of thing for a very long time. Decades, though I suppose by the standards of some, that's not that long."

"Do you know when it all came to a head? In Spira. Half of my people dead or gone, and there I was, against a Summoner and her escorts. You're familiar, I'm sure. I faced them down and I realized there that it didn't matter. Stand or die, run or retreat, it didn't matter. The battle was already lost. And a moment later I realized I was completely free. I was the fastest individual in Spira. I could simply -- at any point -"

"Leave."

"Nothing could stop me from doing whatever I wanted. And for a moment there I paused, and do you know what I found I wanted, oh Adversary?"

"One of my people, Dollie. She was perfectly safe, I imagine; she would have thrown up her hands and the Summoner and her people weren't cruel. She might have been happier now. But in that moment, I just thought that -- felt that, more accurately -- I wanted her to be safe. I wanted her to come through everything she had come through, too."

"And in the end, that's what I did; I fled, with her, and we ran. And through the year of arduous, grinding, humiliating labor to fatten the coffers of an usurious Al Bhed - everything I did to buy, with money, a key that meant freedom, not just escape but real FREEDOM for everyone I had known who still lived - sometimes I was frustrated, or angry, but never once did I feel doubt. It was the happiest I'd been since I was a child."

"Even now-- I wish I wasn't here -- I wish I could think of a clever way out for everyone else -- but the only regret I would have? The reason I don't use what I do have, just to save my own hide, or one or two others with me?"

"The only regret is that they are in such danger, too. Because I've seen enough of them, of their lives, to know that I think they've come through their fires too."

"There, an ancient terror, finally having doubts dispelled after *aeons,*" Margaret says, indicating Marivel.

"There, a young girl, barely twenty summers if she's that, and she's struggling and trying her best." Indicating Rixia.

"Siblings, tormented by their past and bringing their strength to bear," Margaret continues, now for Ivan and Talia.

"A hero, wracked by the useless shackles of his honor. Now who could that one be," Margaret continues, a little wry.

"And for the ones I don't know -- well, I can tell a trend when I see one."

"I turned my selfish, greedy eye on my heart and what I wanted to be is -- the person who is right here, and now."

Margaret thumps her chest with her right hand, wrapped in cloth as it is.

"So: No," Margaret says. "It's not a farce. I'm being utterly serious and utterly selfish right here and right now. I'd act the same if you fought me alone; I would tell lies and mockery and I would give you something to remember. You can think me a fool, perhaps, or a vainglorious peahen--" A pause to look at Lanval.

Margaret explicitly calls to Seraph Lanval, specifically, "BUT A GORGEOUS ONE:"

Then back to the Trial Knight: "But if you don't like it, you can leave. Or stop me, if you think you can. And," Margaret leans a little to the side, "if you think I'm not taking you seriously..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SSMx0bijfc

"Then watch this, if you can," Margaret says, before leaning forwards and rushing forwards to leap up towards the Trial Knight -- aiming the completely ordinary weapon to stab at the Trial Knight's visor!

A decent hit, and a fair remark, except there's a green flash and she ends up near the amber morass of sorcery where the weapons float and tumble and Margaret grasps the hilt of a spiked mace and a run and a leap and she swings it DOWNWARDS to strive to smash it into the shoulder of the Trial Knight--

Another green flash and she's up in the air and grasping onto a lance, bracing it in the hollow of her right arm and shouting as she does, "WATCH WHAT A FOOL CAN DO!!" And that's when Rixia's gravity pulls her downwards, aiming to smash the spear tip-first into the Trial Knight *somehow* because right now she isn't particular. As the moment fades, Margaret is cartwheeling towards the left side. Nearer to where the Trial Knight's great lance made its furor; and where the armaments of the Guard remain. *Ripe for the picking.*

GS: Margaret has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Margaret has attacked K.K. with This Is How I Fight!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    'And you, Oracle of Schturdark,' the statement is spoken to Lanval, who is listening even when his eyes are closed and is taking in a piece of the Water of Filgaia he is sworn to protect and help bear the burden of, and K.K. asks if he stands with them when he is literally kneeling down.
 
     The response is non-verbal. Lanval stands up, answering that question as directly as can be, and 'so be it' indeed.
 
     His eyes open as he runs forward, or... gets about a step and a half in before raw negative energy envelops and embraces his every step, taking away the certainty of the ground beneath him in favor - or the scorn - of this shadow hewn of Althena's Blessing.
 
     He whirls with it, chaotically, facial expression a wide, almost comical grimace of bared teeth as the rope tied to that gourd is held tightly while it flails everywhere. With every swing, a splash of water that disperses about in roughly seven large globules of a fundamental elemental force that is ailing, yet continues to sustain the world of its origin.
 
     The world that Althena betrayed and took from, so long ago.
 
     "The whole of what I ammm," Lanval's voice is muted out of the range of aquamarine text as shadow still clings and roils off of him, inverting his coloration to more yellow-ish where one's sight passes over it, "well--"
 
     Lanval can't talk over all the other cacophonies of energy and the other things K.K. has to say, in choice, to all others, as these large globules of water splash and splatter uselessly against the ground.
 
     "Mmmph." He's still upright, staggering forward through all that, as he holds the drinking gourd aloft - and those splashed puddles of water coalesce again into spheres, floating about to various Lunarians - Hiro, Margaret, Cirea, Leo, Talia, and Ivan. (One might have been bound towards Rixia but it doesn't get far enough to her due to some of the power at play, but it is in reach of Shige.)
 
     And so, he declares.
 
     "I do."
 
     In the process, those blessed are offered a chance to take this blessing of Water to empower them to stand against the latest Trial.
 
     Even the one who just opposed them to what could've been the very last.

GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Hiro with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Margaret with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Cirea with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked White Knight Leo with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Shige Kiwako with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Talia with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ivan with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Hiro accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Hiro!
GS: Cirea accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Cirea!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Margaret accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Margaret!
GS: Talia accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Talia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Nall's reaction to Ruby and Magilou is, sadly, lost in everything that happens.

Talia's eyes snap towards Hiro, as he charges in. Still willing to rush right in, even after everything has gone so terribly wrong. There is a reason she likes him. They aren't alone, either.

She looks sideways at Rixia. Talia looks at her with a nervous expression -- catching, perhaps, the Malevolence -- and then she bites her lip. "Rixia..." She hesitates. "Don't push yourself too hard, no?"

Then, she looks backward -- and her eyes widen as she sees Leo. She freezes, for a moment; worried, terrified, that he will attack too. That it will be a battle on two fronts -- that the help he offered as Mystere will prove the lie.

But no.

Leo also rushes the Trial Knight. Her brother's knife flies -- and Magilou's spell. She grits her teeth. "Brother... we just have to hold them off, no? We can do this!"

Bravado, because she doesn't have much else.

K.K. answers hers. She didn't doubt that they would. "There has to be a reason for that cruelty!" she says. She swings up her blade, and the weapon glimmers, reflecting that light back. She thinks of Liath's words to her.

'At the least... even the smallest piece of Yemelin's legacy seems to fit you much the better.'

"I don't intend to waste it," Talia says. She darts forward. "And if you're so determined to stand against us, then I'll turn it against you!"

Their hammer smashes down into the ground. Flagstones shatter -- and Talia is hurled backward by a fissure. It hits the ground her her feet -- and she kicks off a rock that tears out, kicks off the flagstone, and comes crashing down for K.K.

Magic shoots up the length of her sword. It flashes -- turns into a sharp coating of ice, blades of the stuff erupting off it -- and she slams it down for their armor, before the ice explodes into a rain of razor-sharp crystals of ice and dust.

And as it connects, Talia leaps.

She twists back. In midair, magical water rushes around her -- in streams and a flash of blue light, and she brings her blade back.

Then she launches out a rapid set of thrusts -- her blade becoming a blur of a half-dozen strikes at the Trial Knight in mid-air, before she turns around -- grips the sword with both hands -- and slashes down over her shoulder at them to finish, punctuating it with a brilliant flash of light.

GS: Talia has attacked K.K. with Stardust!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
GS: White Knight Leo accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"Something more-..." Ivan has kept his power of flame locked away since the incident when he transformed, unsure how much--or how little--emotion it might take to change again. It was hard won for his friends to help him regain his original form. Who knows what would happen if he were to lose control and run amok here, adding to the chaos and violence. And yet -- he watches his knife glance harmlessly off of K.K.'s armor, before a flickering light descends, then explodes into shadow, ripping through the air and throwing him aside as the energy blasts through him. Can he really stand against this with mundane weapons and an enchanted umbrella? Maybe he really does need more...

If... he can just his head cool, it should be all right. He's been practicing this -- the incident before was an extreme situation... he'll have to chance it. He unclasps his amulet, feeling the familiar ebb and flow of power spark back to life. He retrieves another throwing knife, but this time, instead of tossing it, he slices a rift in the air itself, and blast of liquid fire surges forth from within.

"If you insist, you can have my fire, but... not my fury! That's reserved for..." Well, never, at this rate. "Enemies who'll show their true intentions instead of speaking in riddles and hiding behind masks and... mysterious initials!"

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Yeah," Marivel admits. "T'would be a disservice. But I just wasn't sure what to say. Even though I knew this was coming. Everything I felt I could utter seemed...insufficient."

A discharge of power sends Marivel flying up into the air as a surge of Abyssal energies crackle against the hammer--a Magic Seal since Marivel is a cheeky sort and prepared it in advance.

She is flung up into the air, her expression still pensive. Maybe in this moment, being pushed up in the sky she does finally feel like she might have the words.

But first...

"Gwen," She says. "Thank you for your advice before."

But she doesn't explain any more than that as a twin pair of leather black wings erupt out of her back. She flaps once, twice---holding her position. Leo, she thinks, is supposed to be stopping them but K.K refers to Rixia's contradiction. She gives the gunblade wielding warrior a look as well. Up here, Marivel can take a moment and get a feel for what's going on in the battle and, in doing so--that contradiction. Now is definitely not the time to inquire--she can pass that work onto her old friend instead.

Wait. Margaret is talking about her?

"I mean," Marivel says. "That's just it, isn't it?"

Her gaze turns backs to K.K as she finally tells them what she thought of to say to them.

"Anyway, I can't fight like I did in the Abyss... but I never intended on doing you a disservice. But first I wanted to say..."

She smiles, "I'm glad to see you. I guess that's all I really have to say."

And with that she swoops down, eyes thinning into crimson slits as she comes down, a claw growing in cartoonish proportions to the rest of Marivel's body as it rips out of her arm and comes down towards The Trial Knight or The Adversary--

--but just like now, she intends to call them Friend.

"She told me to believe in them," Marivel says. "Even when I wanted to and couldn't... So I'll keep on believing in them until the end. That gift is one I won't throw away again!"

GS: Ivan accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Ivan!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked K.K. with Bloody Mari!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
GS: Ivan spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Ivan has attacked K.K. with Molten Roar!
GS: Ivan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako shakes her head, "I know where my path inevitably ends." The phantasm gives the knight one last glare as it fades away. Replaced by the feline beastkin stepping forward to replace it.
 
 Shige's hand lifts the lantern higher. Showing her face in the spooky light, "I'll be your guide as well."
 
 She's slow on getting out of the gate. Lashed by negative energy and clinging shadows more or less returning the favor of the shaman's previous attack. Lashing, further darkening the feline's mood. She'd covered her face with one arm and the lantern with the other as she landed, though soon enough she slashes the air with the lantern like she's trying to banish the shadodws away.
 
 She's briefly distracted by Zed stating more are back. Fingers clenching. Shaking. Then she just, closes her eyes. Letting her breath out. Glancing briefly down after. She takes the cigar she'd tried to settle herself with before the teleport and actually takes the time to light it with the flame of the lantern. This is probably unhealthy on multiple levels. She puffs the cigar a few times and after lifting the lantern, blows smoke past it. The smoke taking the forms of people she once knew. Still shades. Still something of a fragment of her memory maybe. That same level of malice from before lingers. She's trying to center herself. Trying to pull herself away from that anger and frustration. The feeling that she'd broken a promise being captured. That she's being stopped from guiding someone where they belong. That she can't just fix this.
 
 The shades of fishers and hunters this time. Barely visible, only at the edges of one's vision. Figments of Shige's memories this time rather than something local maybe. "I'll keep going and I'll keep them safe." The shades create a circle. That haunted feeling intensifying.
 
 Stub between her teeth. She stands up straight and says firmly, "And I'm taking the people home where they belong." Living or dead. Preferably the former for most. Marivel's given something of a look after. Maybe that's where the guilt's coming from. Well. Not her directly anyway.
 
 "Mr Poltergeist, going to need your help after this again I think." That's closer to her normal voice. She's pretty sure she's got a grip on what's going on. Maybe she can purify herself though? That was supposed to be a thing right? Though, she's not afraid to ask for help. That's the right choice.

GS: Shige Kiwako accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Shige Kiwako!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked K.K. with Haunted Ground!
GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! K.K. solidly guards Talia's Blizzard Blade for 78 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Talia's Stardust for 141 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Riposte applied to Talia!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Bloody Mari for 70 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. partially guards Margaret's This Is How I Fight for 142 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to K.K.!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Shige Kiwako's Haunted Ground for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Cover, Quick, Riposte, and Shield removed!
GS: Hex applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Please react using the attack number in +queue.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Ivan's Molten Roar for 218 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to K.K.!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Cirea has posed.

Oh no, it's Leo.

"Oh crap, it's him!" Cirea squeaks, practically in Margaret's ear, as Leo rushes in the same way as the rest of them. She wasn't expecting anyone else to get into the room so quickly. She prepares another one of her wind spells -

And it goes unchanted as Leo doesn't try to arrest or even slow down the group. No, he strikes at K.K., immediately, without hesitation. Cirea doesn't entirely get that either but she is absolutely not going to turn down the two of them fighting each other. The odds suddenly got a lot better... if only because it's a lot easier to run away from Leo when he's distracted.

"Uh, of course I wasn't lying!" she responds to Ruby, afterwards. "You haven't seen anything yet. Just watch me!" Cirea rubs her hands together, turning back after her summoned sphere of wind slams into K.K. She can't take her eyes off them for that long...

...and for good reason, given their response. It's light, but while light may be the best plan to strike at Marivel, against Cirea it's a mistake. She understands light as she understands few other elements.

But despite that, the wave of light catches Cirea, and she curls up. It hurts - she's a fairy from a hideaway tower, she has been in actual *fights* maybe twice in her life and they were both within the last six months. She lets out a yell as she fights against the light, hiding her entirely from view.

Then it clears, and the truth is also clear: Cirea has surrounded herself with a barrier, also of light, a complex and strangely diffused version of the Spell Absorbers that some black mages have mastered, or attempted to master; instead of drawing the power into herself, she has formed it a path to take, orbiting around her like a cloud of fireflies. An efficient, if limited, barrier, not a way to absorb energy. It shows she's a surprisingly skilled sorceress; that ability is not common.

"A monster?" Cirea says. She isn't sure about that, if only because she has mixed views about the people called 'monsters'. But if they want to be opposed so badly, who is she to stop them? Plus, that blast *hurt*. "Well, I don't know about that but I do know that I don't want everybody to be trapped here. After I went to so much effort to help get them out!" Another chant, though only the last part is audible:

"The breath of the world, released! Blow, winds! Howling Gale!"

Where Cirea limited herself to a single strike before, this time she releases a tremendous whirlwind of green and yellow - right under K.K.'s feet. It whirls viciously as a *second* blast of wind strikes from the sky itself, a tremendous downburst of pressure that catches them between the two, hammer and anvil.

And though Cirea uses no water magic herself - it's not her kind of Arte - something about what Lanval does imbues it with the power of water, and the downburst is followed by a sudden, if very brief, downpour. "...huh," Cirea says. "I didn't mean to do that." She didn't know she could do that!

Maybe she should give Lanval a high five. Just, you know... later.

GS: Cirea spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Cirea has attacked K.K. with Howling Gale!
GS: Cirea has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Cirea has completed her action.
GS: K.K. solidly guards Cirea's Howling Gale for 82 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Riposte applied to Cirea!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    'No chance, Leo.'

    Hiro is no less determined to save Lucia, and by extension, so are the others. Nothing has changed. At the very least, Leo thinks, the Trial Knight might soften them up.

    It is deeply wishful thinking.

    Most would respond to Leo's opening strike with a deflection, a barrier, or an agile attempt at evasion. K.K. chooses none of the above. The defaced tower quakes beneath Leo's feet as the Trial Knight brings down that hammer. The wave of shadowy force slams into Leo head-on, battering his blade aside. He flies back into the high, ornate parapet; a metallic crunch splits the air, and he sags to the ground. Something shifts like an aftershock. Leo's eyes shoot open, and he plants a gloved palm on the stone; the amber-hued nodes on the gauntlet glow as he tries to mend the cracks.

    It's a hasty patch job. It's a risk. But K.K. has so effortlessly scarred on HIS Tower, the seat of HIS judgment. It's more than just collateral damage. It's a challenge.

    'And yet, this fell creature interferes freely. And what right have you, White Knight, to stand upon this tower?'

    Leo rises, and bares fangs.

    'No. This monument to foul farces is exactly where I ought tread freely.'

    Leo sucks in a pained breath.

    'See, a little heresy ain't going to kill you!'

    'A hero, wracked by the useless shackles of his honor.'

    And then--

    'Leo. ...Gonna have to say goodbye here.'

    "Dame Kaguya." Leo's voice is a pained creak. "You, too? Is--is no one--have all of you fallen under--the Goddess Herself--" The White Knight's eyes dart from combatant to combatant, not with a warrior's sense of appraisement, but with fear. Anger. Confusion. "GODDESS DAMN YOU, BE GONE!"

    And all of it focuses directly on K.K., as if so desperate to answer that challenge. He barely notices the familiar pulse of Lanval's greatest blessing. His body is a blur as he charges forward, leaps off a jagged chunk of roofing, and twists in mid-air. His sword clears its scabbard, gleaming with the light of Althena's Blessing as it falls right for K.K.'s neck. It's a mighty stroke, but a wild one.

GS: Blitz! White Knight Leo has attacked K.K. with Luminant Scythe!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Luminant Scythe for 162 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Aww...! Kaguya asserts that not only will they not escape, they'll triumph, and that's why she'll stand with them. Dean beams a broad grin at her. Character development! He always believed in her too.
    
    Not everyone is doing so well in the face of the Adversary... but it's a big battle. Dean has to have faith that everyone here has someone here that will support them--that he doesn't have to be the one to directly help all the time (though he'll still always give it when needed). Character development.
    
    That grin becomes a frown of determination, though, as Dean looks back at the Trial Knight. "I don't have a god. There's lots of gods out there and I'm not sure which ones are real and which aren't. Maybe none of them are real. But that doesn't matter to me! Because if there's a fate to bemoan, I'll stand up against it! For myself! And against you, and anyone else who'd try to force their cruelty on others! So get ready--I won't show YOU any quarter!!"
    
    And well he shouldn't, considering that K.K. weaves and dances with all those that would cut them down with, if not necessarily *ease*, then with the readiness of one who's weathered countless fights. They change weapons and wield magic as readily as they retort against all who stand up to them. Marivel and K.K. have their own moment, true, but Dean pays it no mind--really has no choice when K.K.'s explosive dome of light magic rams into him and Dean as they bring their swords and rods to bear. Dean, a small man even now that he *is* a fully grown man, is sent flying, and he lands with a loud OOF. Fortunately, Avril's magic from earlier means that Lucadia's power soaks some of the blow--literally--and so he's back on his feet an instant later, as spry as when he was a teenager. Already the searing heat of his rods has cooled; he doesn't need to fear burning himself. He's never feared his ARMs. Avril gave them to him, after all.
    
    "Then we'll face that thing you call 'truth' and take it on without flinching!" Dean shouts back. He doesn't look at Leo--isn't even thinking of Leo--but perhaps that might resonate with him. Whether it does or not: "There might be terrible things in this world. But it's still a world worth saving!"
    
    He truly believes that, with all his being--and perhaps that's what makes him a fine Seer for Moor Gault and especially Boudicca. And though he's been beaten back, he doesn't hesitate to hurl himself back into the fray. As Hiro goes high to bring down his sword, Dean goes low to lash up his rods, the first sweeping in a feint, the second jabbing forward into any chink in that shining armor he can find. If he *can* find it, he won't hesitate to open fire with both barrels, as it were, either to deal some crippling damage or to open the Adversary up to the same from someone else--like Avril or even Kaguya, perhaps. Dean isn't picky, but he always stands with his friends.

GS: Dean Stark has attacked K.K. with Violence Vice!
GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
GS: K.K. solidly guards Dean Stark's Violence Vice for 56 hit points!
GS: K.K.'s Break Ward may block the effect!
GS: Break blocked!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Marivel mentions her name, and Gwen looks up, her eyes wide with gold. She smiles, a flash of expression that is like a passing butterfly, before she returns her gaze to K.K.

    'Treat me, then, courier.'

    Gwen yelps and cries like a kicked dog as fire erupts underneath her. Her rational mind is not as in control at this second, so all the parts of mental resistance she had built before, during the trip to the fire shrine, barely is able to restrain her fear. Also, there's just the whole part of her being on fire, which is always a loss.

    But, with that loss comes the access to things she's locked into her subconscious. The pyrite gold glow of her ARM briefly flashes faint blue, generating a field of frost. An enchantment of ice, a reminder of that unfortunate encounter with the tome in that underwater shrine in Spira that Zed had to pull her off from.

    The frost travels with her right ARM as she dashes from the diminishing field of flame towards K.K., leaping up in the air with a nimble eagerness.

    The rime of ice her fist brings neatly contrasts with the fire in her scream, as Gwen comes crashing down towards the trial knight.

     With her prison clothing now in as much a tattered state as her previous clothing, the glowing courier is clearly isn't there to help Leo believe the Fiends are on the side of good. But, if Gwen were to offer something in her defense, she'd say she's a pretty color.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked K.K. with Rime Edge!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 19 damage from Poison!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Yes," Avril says, turning her head just a fraction to regard Kaguya. "It would seem we are in dire need of your assistance." She is, as always, deadly serious even with such words.

    There is no turning back. They are here, astride the roof of the White Tower, caught here between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea. There is but one escape from this battle and it is not one that Avril shall choose. As she says, it is not permitted that one choose their own trials: such is the nature of existence. There is naught they can now do but bend with the storm, break under it...

    'They won't escape'. Even in spite of herself, though her expression betrays not a twitch otherwise, Avril's gaze slowly slides towards Kaguya. She is otherwise a perfect statue. But Kaguya continues; Avril's attention returns to the Trial Knight.

    "If we must now be tried, then it shall be so," she says, echoing the sentiment. "I do not intend to flee."

    Or triumph.

    She glances, sharply, in Leo's direction, as if making some decision within herself as to whether to treat him as an additional opponent on the field or not. But, he makes the decision for her when he turns his attention -- and his blade -- K.K.'s way. An ally is an ally in the heat of the moment, from whatever direction they may hail from.

    For but those few heartbeat instants as she gazes at K.K., she catches still the scent of the sea.

    The whole of what she is. Ever so slightly, she tilts her head in a shallow incline of a nod, as if to acknowledge the Trial Knight's words. Yes, there is no escaping this moment, which has been so very long in coming. To be divided unto oneself is to grant unto Malevolence a warm and inviting home. That was the lesson she had learned in Filgaia and in Lunar's western lands... and once she had gone east, the warning she had been given in the wake of Luca's fall.

    There is shadow.
    And here, there is light.

    Avril shies away from neither but stands in the full majesty of the heavens that erupt about her. But as above, so is below: the barrier wrought of the Sea Guardian's magic holds fast in its own shimmering blues and greens, brilliant under the display of light. Avril hunches her shoulders, she closes her eyes, but still, she stands.

    "Dean..." she utters, but a moment later as the light begins to fade. She straightens, turning towards him as he rises to his feet.

    "I must not now hold back. Please..."

    Please what? A flicker of something -- confusion? -- crosses her face and she turns her attention back towards K.K. Sword in hand, she advances towards them. Ice trails in her footsteps, cracking like broken glass.

    It is Avril who opens her eyes. It is still Avril; it has always been Avril. But the hand that wields the blade is steadier; her gaze, more certain and assured. When she leaps into the air, shards of ice trail after her like a comet's trail. And perhaps, like a comet, when she swings her blade and cuts but the air itself, there is a single streaking beam of light.

    No, not like a comet. Like a meteor.

    BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PajtbXEK9cc

DC: Avril Vent Fleur switches forms to The Ice Queen!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked K.K. with Soul of Lolithia!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Then you've got it," Kaguya says, and even if there is a moment of doubt... It is true. Kaguya nods sharply to Avril. Until she chooses to bring out 'the whole' of what she is.

But Magilou's actually making an effort. That's a surprise to Kaguya, and she glances over at her becaue of it. But Magilou can take care of Magilou. And Ivan, hopefully, can take care of Ivan. Kaguya has to take care of herself, instead.

"I do," Kaguya answers. K.K., as she look s to the tome above, for a moment. "...And with this old man," she says, jerking her head to Lanval, "Whether he likes it or not."

"So I'll come at you with all I have!" As Kaguya shouts, she charges into the attack; the beautiful constellation slams into her, and the formula she prepared erupts to life, filling her with power at the cost of defending against this terrible magic. It is purely her nature as a Veruni that leaves her standing in the wake of the celestial punishment, that and a certain will that sees her here facing the Adversary.

"A farce, huh?" Kaguya says. "Then we all have our parts to play. ...Is what I want to say. But if I'm going to be on their side," Kaguya says, "Then I can't treat this as just a test!"

'It' has Rixia in its grip, all right. Kaguya looks to her in alarm. "Rixia!" Kaguya calls, and she hasn't alawys had the best relationship with her, but, "There's some things that are more important than just survival! Don't lose yourself to it!"

Regret awaits. Kaguya does not like the sound of that.

But Margaret has more to say. Margaret who claims it's not a farce after all... "...So that's what you found," Kaguya says to Margaret. "I wondered. But we all found something, in Spira. What I found was..."

"Something else." Bodies piled on a ship.

"What I found was why I can't hold myself apart and act like I'm too cool for all this, though. That it's some abstraction that I can 'think out' instead of living. What I found..."

Leo answers her, at this point, and Kaguya shakes her head at Leo. "You know as well as I do that this isn't right. No Goddess who would order the things we've done has a right to the name. If she's Althena at all. ...That Goddess played me, Leo. And she's playing you, too."

She doesn't think he'll listen, but...

"It was fun knowing you," she says more quietly, and turns back to the battle. She can't smile back at Dean in the moment, but she can appreciate what he's saying. Gods and reality and quarter...

Kaguya takes aim, then, and she points the Zeikfried at K.K., a foe wielding a host of legendary weapons. "The power I draw on..."

Kaguya sees Dean shooting, and gets an idea immediately. She stows Zeikfried at her hip before bending at the knee and starting a sprint--for what remains of a wall, then up to a huge chunk floating in the air, leaping to a second, and a third until she is able to LEAP from there high up above the battlefield. The light of explosions glints against her armor as she sails down through the air, head-first, arms spread out to either side. One folds in, as Avril's magic trails after her, as the blade of light from her blade crests toward K.K., and Kaguya whirls mid-air to spin into a terrible KICK straight for the Trial Knight's chest--

At which point she stays up close if she can, following up with punch after punch in an effort to dent through that terrible armor.

She has no words for her Queen.

GS: Kaguya has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Kaguya has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Kaguya has attacked K.K. with Falling Star!
GS: Kaguya has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "THANKS, I WILL!" Magilou yells back to Hiro. Their arguing is extremely normal. Maybe that's a comfort, of a sort, just the same.

    She laughs, though, to Margaret -- "Oh, there are no depths to the Adversary's wickedness. And that's coming from me, Lunar's foremost evil sorceress!"

    Magilou's borrowing from a lot of people right now. Perhaps she thinks nullifying some of the magic pouring off of Rixia will help her survive.

    ... she is worried about her.

    "Nothing worth doing is worth doing po-faced!" Magilou pipes up, cheerfully -- in defence of Margaret, or just to defend her own manner? It's difficult to say.

    (And how much of her own humour is a farce, given how she escaped Lemina, back there? Never mind that.)

    But shadow and light tear through her spell, and even as she annuls the power around her, Magilou still has to quick-step back, hop-hoppity-hop, in a gesture which looks so much more carefree than it is. The magic overwhelms her passive nullification, washes over her -- but because she's breaking it down to its component parts at every moment, she's at least able to stay standing, throwing her hands up to protect her face and steady herself against the breaking wave of contradictory power.

    (Do not think that where the attack disappears, touching that lilac-soft aura, its power disappears just the same. No: the power expresses itself inside her blood, exploding into her very spirit, even as her skin and her hair are spared. But Magilou -- as the Trial Knight surely knows -- has an excellent poker face.)

    But the Adversary's attention falls on Rixia, and Magilou says: "Oh, she's rather been through it, this past quest or so. But trust me on this one: she's not done yet."

    On the heels of Rixia's own Gravija, Magilou's paper dolls spin, and she invokes: "Gravity Gale." Darkness gathers, in a wide circular flash; it contracts, around the Adversary, as dark Winds swirl around the explosion. As that circle pulls in and resolves, it's clear there are four dark magical artifacts -- teleporters, perhaps, or great dais intended for some ancient proclamation -- and they SQUEEZE as they contract, swirling, down to nothing at all.

    And so, the bubble fades. If only the Trial Knight were so easily crushed.

    In the wake of it all, she finds Margaret, to remark: "And you are truly the peak of peahens!" IS THAT REALLY WHAT SHE PULLED OUT OF THAT SPEECH?

    Not just that -- "I hate to say it," is how Magilou approaches this, all too casually, "but Kaguya's right about something -- I know! I know. We're not islands in the sea of all this. We're part of it, too. And selfishness is a fine trait in this situation, you know. The selfish desires of Lunar's villains have seen it safe so many times. So, you see... they will escape because I want it to be so, and what could be more powerful a statement than this?"

    Beat,

    "Excepting 'Magikazam!,' of course."

GS: Blitz! Magilou has attacked K.K. with Gravity Gale!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
GS: K.K. partially guards Gwen Whitlock's Rime Edge for 111 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! K.K. takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Soul of Lolithia for 211 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur drains K.K.! Avril Vent Fleur gains 97 temporary hit points!
GS: K.K. solidly guards Kaguya's Falling Star for 99 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Kaguya takes 81 damage!
GS: Gamble: High! K.K. solidly guards Magilou's Gravity Gale for 94 hit points!
GS: Delay blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Magilou drains K.K.! Magilou gains 12 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Flames of shadow and light wash across the grounds of the White Tower's pinnacle. They refuse to snuff as K.K. wades through them, great, dual blade snapping to their side with a mighty motion that violently churns the very wind around them.

Siegfried is already back. Haven't they heard?

"Indeed so. 'Twas by his hand that I was shepherded from Artorius' Throne," imparts the Trial Knight quite calmly despite the calamitous bedlam of the moment. Flames rise, tongues of blues and violets wrestling and sparking against their white-and-prisming counterparts.

"He yet remains a man marked by his honor, and his duty. Where that path may take him yet is one I cannot say for him; only he may choose. But if you would choose to ready yourself for the day he takes the world's stage once more..."

That dual blade swings out, horizontal to the ground, as K.K.'s free hand lifts, clawed, armored fingers turning inward in a beckoning gesture.

"Then break yourself freely upon my body, til your steel is as unbreakable as your will!"

K.K. charges, just as Zed does. And they meet him in the middle of his charge at full force, that massive double-blade swinging to meet him head on. They do not hesitate. They do not slow themself. They do not afford any mercy.

And yet, despite that, Zed's blade proves itself the faster.

Seconds before that massive Divine Arm can come in for the parry, it's darker counterpart cuts through the distance and into K.K.'s defenses with a powerful impact. The sword SHEERS across armor that seems to almost cascade like waves around the impact point; despite how strangely fluid it all looks, there is obvious strength and density to it as Zed's weapon cleaves through, pieces of reds, greens, blues, yellows, pinks, violets flecking across the open air before dissolving into nothing as the blow rings out in a strangely beautiful chime of impact.

It lasts only a second before K.K. goes flying. They CRASH into a piece of upended, floating pillar and punch -through- it, twisting in mid-air to -stab- their blade into another caught chunk of debris like an anchor. For a moment, fair skin can be seen beneath the liquid fissure carved into that spiritually-sown armor --

--before it all seals up anew into a radiant haze of pearlescent white.

"... You are well on your way, Zed."

With that, the double-bladed sword is -hurled-; it lands with a CRACK at the south-eastern corner of the ruined rooftop as K.K. lands once more. And with the smooth pivot of their heel, their attention turns...

... towards Rixia.

Are you going to judge me?

"Yes."

The answer comes simple and firm, somehow cutting through the deafening, bass-y THOOOOOOOM of a gravity well being birthed with the well-timed squeeze of Rixia's trigger. Gravitic forces bloom around the Trial Knight --

And they do not dare try to outmaneuver it as increasing mass imprisons them in mounting pressure. Instead, they take a step -forward- towards Rixia, prepared to intercept --

--when all that gravitic force is just exponentially amplified with the bolstering power of a witch's nigh-endless reserves of magic.

Force mounts too swiftly; armor seems to dent in little bursts of color around the Trial Knight's armor as even they struggle within the dual-tech maelstrom. And within the storm of rapidly escalating weight, Rixia lashes out; that gunblade CARVES up their armored sternum, revealing once more the briefest flash of what might as well be flesh and blood beneath what has for so long been an intimidating force of armor. It carves --

--and at the gunblade's apex, just as it reaches towards the chin of that helm, it is caught by a single, shining palm.

"'Tis the judgment that your heart yearns for, with every beat of uncertainty that swells within it."

They clench tight, even as gravity CRUSHES down on them.

"I hear it. I cannot but.

"The chorus of mankind's despair--"

Gravity wanes, just as Hiro recovers enough to charge for the knight. K.K. looks to SHOVE back Rixia just as they turn towards Hiro. In one second, they are weaponless.

In the next --

-- it is twin short-swords that meet Hiro's blade just in time to intercept it with a raucous CLANG of impact. They hold the momentum of his attack, the force of it enough to send prismatic shivers down their forearms... but they hold it, all the same, as they lean their weight in towards the one who has so staunchly guarded Lucia up to this most harrowing point.

"You still know not of just how deep his touch seeps, yet," is their answer to Hiro. What is the truth they wish for him and his allies to see?

"Nor do you understand just how far your kind has enabled that madness." They apply pressure...

"But you will."

And they -shove-, to -knock- Hiro back with force; they follow through on the arc, releasing those swords as they do.

The short swords go flying, impaling into the ground in the north-west corner.

The others come soon after, with answers to provide their Adversary in word and will alike. Kaguya and Dean in tandem, one a Veruni standing with humanity, the other a mortal standing with the woman who might well be their doom; K.K. sweeps out as they rush towards them, gauntlets once more reinforcing their armored hands in ornate filigree. A kick comes -- and it meets one gauntlet-bearing forearm in a CRACK of impact, just as Dean's assault is met by the Trial Knight's second hand -- only to miss, with precious few seconds too late, thanks to the Drifter's feint. Rods CRACK into shimmering, weakened portions of armor with enough force to unsettle K.K.'s footing -- and with it, provide Kaguya the time she needs to capitalize on that opening. The two of them attack - one in a flurry of blows, and one in a discharge of force and heat - and together, they are enough to KNOCK K.K. skyward; through the air the Adversary flips, the decisive -snap- of their hands sending those gauntlets crashing down into the ground.

They land, embedded into the Western side of the roof, just as Leo and Marivel spring upon them.

It is Leo who meets them first, full of sound and fury. A blur of rage dashes across ruin hoisted in the air. And it is the scythe that greets Leo -- CLASHING with the edge of Leo's sword seconds before it seeks to play the part of the executioner's axe. The weapon stops the sword from cutting their neck clear from their head -- or seeing if it has the strength to.

But it can't stop that light, redirected, from CARVING through the Trial Knight's helm, sheering off a chunk of it that leaves a glimpse of a eye of molten gold staring at him, as if the burning intensity of its gaze can sear right into his soul.

"You cannot make me," they intone, even past the damage Leo wroughts, even past the power of his blade.

"For in this moment, in this blighted city--

"I've more right to stand upon this tower than you, who knows not the shape of what he is."

The swing completes itself. The scythe is dislodged from K.K.'s hand, landing in the Eastern point of the tower as K.K. pushes -off- that rubble; the tension holding it aloft gives away, to send both it and Leo crashing towards the ground as Marivel rises to meet the knight -- meet the Adversary -- meet her friend, with a grand claw ready to rake.

That gift is one I won't throw away again!

And, in that moment, seconds before contact with that shadowy claw, the knight murmurs,

"I hope you never relinquish it. You are just as worthy of it as they--"

THWOOM

The Trial Knight goes flying. They CRASH at the Southern end of the Tower with a kick-up of dust and a shudder of force. Slowly, they stand again.

The great hammer they have wielded so often with such great force manifests as they rise, the head of it SMASHED into the ground so forcefully it sticks there as they walk forward.

It is three, four steps in, before wind manifests directly beneath them. They look down, head tilt.

A second later, that wind GUSHES upward, before a second downburst of pressure HAMMERS into them, catching them between two, crushing currents of wind. Within the vortex, flashes of rainbow hues can be seen as the silhouette of K.K. twists and turns, explosive flashes of armor bursting and re-mending visible only as impressions.

By the time Cirea's assault ends, the knight is in freefall, hurling a massive lance towards the North-East...

... just as shows of force intercept the knight in tandem. Margaret, empowered by all that she has seen, empowered by the selfish desire that both she and Magilou so powerfully demonstrate, lunges.

And it is just then that sword STABS into the faceless plate of K.K.'s helm with enough force that the blade itself splinters, SHATTERS --

--and leaves a burgeoning scar of an opening in its wake as Margaret grasps weapon after weapon to smash and STRIKE the knight with in a flurry of speed and skill. It is, perhaps, foolish to engage them so directly.

But Margaret does it without fear. Without hesitation. And...

"Hah--"

Even through the onslaught, the Trial Knight seems to -- chuckle, as if in warm approval--

--before Talia's blade - the blade of her family's legacy, the blade that she found by happenstance and fluke in the bowels of Pentagulia -- the blade weighted with a history all its own -- thrusts into the Trial Knight, empowered by the flow of Lanval's element. Water falls in a downpour of rain around them courtesy of Cirea's assault combined with the Seraph's, washing ruin with cleansing water as blow after blow hammers into the Knight. One, downward slash punctuates that final motion --

And in a FLASH of light, rainbow prisms seem to BURST across K.K.'s figure, revealing glimpses of gold and green beneath armor, a glimpse of a bright eye that seems... sad...?

Before a booted heel presses against Talia's midsection and SHOVES, powerfully.

"That is how it must be, Talia," they intone, distance gaining between them as a frigid cold of a force long locked away comes bearing down upon K.K.

"Ever will I be your enemy--"

The Ice Queen is a force unto herself. She is Avril. But of a different kind. Assured. Certain. Powerful. She leaps, just as Gwen's ARM glows a frosty blue. Ice combines with ice as Gwen crashes down towards the Trial Knight with the Ice Queen herself. Shards of ice bloom through the air, flakes of frost forming crystalline patterns as a fist and a blade COLLIDE with the figure of the Adversary of Mankind.

For a moment, there is a blinding, whiteout sear of cold light. And in its aftermath...

".... 'Tis incomplete."

... There stands K.K.; the glow of their armor is literally -flash frozen-, impossible as it might seem to freeze -spirit-. Cool air swirls around them in a thick mist. And yet --

"You are certain. You are strong. ... But you yet lack something. Something the courier possesses in spades."

The tome floats down from its lofty perch, settling at the North. Frost clings to that helmet, where cracklines bloom upon the frozen point of impact of Avril's blade. Glimpses of the knight's mouth can be seen, mouthing a single syllable word.

"--"

But what it is, is lost within the burgeoning roar of flames as a BLAST of flame SURGES past Gwen and Avril alike --

STRIKING that helm dead-center upon its cracking, frozen wound.

It can be seen sundering -- beginning to split--

"Enough!"

And that is when all those weapons, each of them scattered to a point across the battlefield, ignite with blinding white light.

Althena's Blessing suffuses the grounds of the White Tower in a glorious beacon, blooming outward with radiant light that fills and bolsters K.K. even as the cracklines in their helmet begin to shine. Each weapon pulses power outward, first light...

... and then shadow.

It is a contradiction of Althena's might. A waking impossibility. And two contradictory impulses of magic lace into the souls of all those gathered and seek to burn DEEP through the veins of their spirit...

... just as K.K. leaps.

"If you would be selfish, I would have you know the shape of your heart! If you would fight for this world, I would have you know the shape of its soul! If you would fight for but a lone person--"

Another weapon manifests in their hand. One might assume it is that spear they use so often, conspicuously missing now... but it is not.

A... sword? Ceremonial. Ornate. Different in design from the others. ... recognizable...

"-- I WOULD HAVE YOU SHOW THEM HOW SPLENDIDLY YOU MAY SHINE FOR THEM!"

And the Adversary plunges.

            "DRACHOMACHIA!"

That sword impales through the dead center of the rooftop. And shadow and light rush towards that epicenter...

... before every ounce of force the Divine Arms has generated is EXPUNGED in a MASSIVE dragon's maw, engulfing the whole of the tower as the magic-sculpted monstrosity ascends with burning might towards the heavens.

Fit to smite all those who cannot withstand their Adversary's wrath.

... In the aftermath, the knight rises. Their horned helm tilts up. Momentous amounts of force linger, as if unable to mend -- and the force the knight themself has brought to bear has deepened those wounds all the more.

Their faceless head turns.

Glowing white armor fractures, the ebb of its light refracting into a thousand different colors along the freshly-scored fault lines. The cracks spread in spider-webbing patterns from the point of impact outward along the helmet. They grow, towards the back of the helm... down along its faceless faceplate. They grow, and deepen.

And then they shatter.

With the shattering, shards of fractured armor blow back behind the individual known as the Trial Knight like a thousand glittering stars, twinkling in an endless array of color.

With the shattering, long hair billows back from the force with fresh freedom, like a waterfall of spun gold tipped in white.

With the shattering, fair features are revealed.

With the shattering... eyes of intense molten gold crack open.

And with the shattering...

Liath, Seraph of Light, Prime Lord of Althena's Church -- no.

Liath, Adversary of Mankind, stares down those she has sworn herself against unflinching and indomitable.

Free of artifice. Free of facade.

                              Your Adversary.

                    O b j e c t i v e C o m p l e t e

GS: K.K. has activated a Boss Action!
GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend!
GS: K.K. has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!

GS: K.K. has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On!
GS: K.K. has attacked K.K. with Pathomachia!
GS: K.K. has gained 1 Combo!
GS: K.K.'s stances have changed to Hero!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: K.K. accepts K.K.'s Pathomachia for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Hex removed!
GS: Hyper and Lock state applied to K.K.!
GS: Mighty applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. spends 2 Combo on Poison and Link!
GS: K.K. has attacked Rixia with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Shige Kiwako with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ivan with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Magilou with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Kaguya with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Dean Stark with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Lanval with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked White Knight Leo with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Cirea with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Zed with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Hiro with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Margaret with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Marivel Armitage with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talia with Psychomachia!
GS: K.K. has launched an attack Link!
GS: K.K. spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: K.K. has attacked Rixia with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Shige Kiwako with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ivan with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Magilou with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Kaguya with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Dean Stark with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Lanval with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked White Knight Leo with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Cirea with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Zed with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Hiro with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Margaret with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Marivel Armitage with Dracomachia!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talia with Dracomachia!
GS: Hiro suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 87 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Hiro!
GS: CRITICAL! Hiro solidly guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 164 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: White Knight Leo accepts K.K.'s Psychomachia for 152 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Dracomachia for 273 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Margaret takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 52 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Evade bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Margaret partially guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 227 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 43 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Dracomachia for 327 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 138 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Kaguya!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Charge bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya solidly guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 175 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Kaguya enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Gwen Whitlock partially evades K.K.'s Psychomachia for 69 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: CRITICAL! Talia takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 112 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Talia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, Sufferer, and Gleam activated!
GS: Talia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Magilou has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: Marivel Armitage suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 90 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Talia takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Dracomachia for 186 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus, Sufferer, and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage partially guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 252 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Magilou solidly guards K.K.'s Psychomachia for 42 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Magilou solidly guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 175 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Dean Stark takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 84 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Dean Stark!
GS: CRITICAL! Dean Stark solidly guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 159 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Ivan suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 121 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ivan gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Ivan!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Sufferer, and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Ivan suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Dracomachia for 383 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Zed suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 131 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Zed!
GS: CRITICAL! Zed takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Dracomachia for 188 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Zed receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Cirea takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 75 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Cirea gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Cirea!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Cirea solidly guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 171 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 130 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Seraph Lanval's Poison Ward may block the effect!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Dracomachia for 197 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Rixia takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Psychomachia for 52 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Reaper applied to Rixia!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Rixia suffers a terrible blow from K.K.'s Dracomachia for 391 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Ivan...!"

Talia feels a hitch of nervousness to see her brother remove the amulet -- and draw upon his fire magic once more. She frowns, but she can't argue. Believe that he can control it... and hope that he won't lose control again.

Talia tries to follow the flow of the battle. It's maddening; so many weapons, wielded by the Trial Knight, hurtled to and fro. She ducks under Leo when he is struck, and she manages to dart around Hiro.

K.K.'s armored boot hits her in the stomach, hurtling her backward. She gets kicked back, smashing across the ruined floor; she bounces once, before she rights herself.

"It doesn't make sense!" she demands. "If you don't like the work of the Goddess... then you could help us! If you know more of Zophar... then you could tell us!"

Shadow and darkness are summoned. Their weapons are animated -- except for the one in K.K.'s hand. Talia's eyes widen. She knows it; she saw it, not all that long ago. Her sword nearly held it at bay, for a moment, until they knew better.

The blast of draconic energy slams down and smashes into Talia, before she can reason it out. She gets hurled away from K.K. and the center of the tower, smashed backward -- slamming into a battlement at the edge. She almost teeters over the edge, but slams her sword down into the stones.

The helmet shatters.

Talia stares at that familiar face for a few seconds. Everything is silent -- or maybe her shock is such that the sounds mean nothing to her. A dozen little encouragements come to mind; help offered to Ruby; dinners shared at the Festina Lente. Kindnesses and joys that bound them together.

They're shared, too, with this figure, staring down at them.

"No," Talia says. "No, no--this isn't--"

Her hand shakes on her sword as she lifts it, blade pointed up at Liath. "Liath," she manages. Then, louder. Then she's screaming. "Liath! You... you can't be serious! You--you care! This isn't true!"

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    People reach out to her. Margaret speaks of how she's struggling and trying her best, even as their attacks work in tandem; Lanval tries to reach her with his power of revelry, his dominion as Lord of the Lake, but... his blessing doesn't reach her, at this point. She can feel Marivel's eyes upon her, being what she is. It's coming further and further to the fore. Magilou...

    Magilou's trying to draw some of the magic away to keep her from this strange tempest of contradiction, between the ARM that's seemingly manipulating her, and the Malevolence besides... and it seems to sustain her further, some of the veins fading back slightly.

    Kaguya's voice cuts through her, telling her survival isn't the most important thing -- some others are. "If I disappear here... that's the end of everything...!"

    Talia urges her to not push herself too hard, and she looks to her with that vein-streaked face for a moment. "I have to... I have to!" she whips her head back to Leo for a moment, her eyes widening. She tries to not think of how he's already back up and fighting alongside them.

    The answer from the Trial Knight is simple, and firm.

    Yes, she is going to be judged.

    >> user emotional landscape unstabilising
    >> adjusting supply to bloodstream...

    A despicable scowl further twists in her face as she says, "Fine! Judge me, scorn me, berate me! I'm done being played by forces out of my control! By history that's too heavy for any one person to bear! I'm done watching my closest people fight one another, and forcing me to fight them too!"

    >> extreme concentration of energy detected
    >> shifting all junctions to defence
    >> compensating for user...

    K.K. leaps, however, and urges that if she is to be selfish, they would know the shape of her heart. The Adversary plunges-- and an eruption in the shape of a dragon's maw shatters the whole tower, seemingly fracturing her with full force as she disappears into the shadow of the explosion.

    ... in the aftermath...

    The visage of the Trial Knight is seen. It is a person, no, a Seraph, that she has seen a few times before. "You..." she scowls, her face further wrenching. "I don't know what your reasons are for doing this, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all!!"

    More and more energy gathers in a virulent crackle, this time bearing the presence of a small mote of light that pulsates with eerie, forbidden stillness; it pulses, pulses, pulses, further radiating out with each charge she gathers. This is ancient magic that she should have no knowledge of; synthesised from a distant catastrophe, now wielded in her hands.

    "I'm not running away! If you're going to stand in my way, then I'm going to eradicate you!"

    The young fox girl rises, throwing her gunblade with one swift throw that sends it plunged onto the ground, sweltering with that force of Light that she's gathered. Liath has brought her Light to bear, radiant and burning; this is Rixia's own Light.

    Cloying. Still. Suppressing...

    Compressed.

    And it threatens to engulf into a singular shining light in an eternity that rejects past, present and future, having no need of them.

    "Absolute Denial....!!"

GS: Rixia has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Rixia has attacked K.K. with End of Heart!
GS: Rixia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Rixia takes 30 damage from Poison!
GS: Rixia takes 48 damage from Reaper!
GS: Rixia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
As she finishes her cartwheel, Margaret answers Cirea, breathlessly. "Don't be too hard on him. He's not a bad sort. This is more than just a job or a contract to him. I'm sure he'll come around, unless we die horribly."

Margaret would give Leo a thumbs up or something but honestly there are larger chocobos to wrangle right now. At this point the sphere of watery magic touches her and it's like a fresh splash of water in the morning, the taste of deep well water, and the sense of a hot bath at the end of a long and happy day.

Margaret's head blurs for a moment at Magilou's words, as if she's trying to put together if it was a compliment compliment or, you know, something else -- but she decides that the answer is yes, and she smiles, just for a moment, even as she ends up skimming backwards away from those swivelling strange conjured artifacts...

There was a time when Margaret was jealous of things like that. The best her magic can do is help others - she has eked out the margin to be able to throw a glamour on people, completely skedaddling their senses for a short period of time, 'enhancing' their ability to trip hardcore. But that was as far as it went.

Margaret's magic always sat elsewhere. And right now she's enhancing her speed. As she turns towards the wrecked material travelling with glacial slowness, Margaret reaches towards a number of arming daggers and pulls a lot of them with a hand blurring like a reciprocating engine. She looks over her shoulder then as the Trial Knight lands...

Something is coming.

Riding the edge, Margaret can start something now. The daggers she pulled out are plucked free one after another. They are sent sailing forwards with a pivoting pitching throw of the left arm, accelerated by the velocity improvement that Starlight Express has given to Margaret. Forward they fly, tracing narrow arcs towards the Trial Knight. The terror comes.

First light smashes against Margaret, who bows her head and grits her teeth. She pulls out two more knives before the darkness comes. It is overwhelming...

But in the darkness, stars can shine. And there is a glittering streak, like a star cluster through a dark nebula... until...

Margaret, shaking, stands upwards, reaching over to grasp a stout battle axe. As she pulls it free with a wrenching of her hips, twirling around she calls out, "HAH! AND NOW, THE"

Margaret freezes up.

The axe, slowly, falls from her fingers, her left hand momentarily as numb as her right. "... what...?"

GS: Margaret has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Margaret spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Margaret has attacked K.K. with Trying Night of Trial Knights!
GS: Margaret takes 29 damage from Poison!
GS: Margaret takes 41 damage from Reaper!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Talia takes 33 damage from Poison!
GS: Talia takes 51 damage from Reaper!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
GS: K.K. solidly guards Rixia's End of Heart for 126 hit points!
GS: Disease, Disrupt, and Mute removed!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Rixia takes 29 damage!
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Margaret's Trying Night of Trial Knights for 156 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

"Okay! Blow them away! Show Hiro how wind magic is really done!" Ruby tells Cirea, as Hiro eyes her, "She cast one spell and you assume she's better than I am at it!?" "Absolutely!"

Whereas with Magilou, "GOOD I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!" Hiro quarrels back, but perhaps it is comforting to have them both in agreement of the idea of a FUTURE blame game.

It is deeply wishful thinking for Leo, to believe the Adversary of All Mankind will merely soften them up to be taken by them.
 
"Like it or not, it's what's in front of us Leo."
 
His blade is met by their twin short blades, holding the momentum back. "You're right!" Hiro admits even as he's knocked back, skidding across the floor of the room, back peddling to prevent his wounds from catching him in a stagger, "I have NO IDEA! I just know... the kind of threat he represents! If humanity has enabled him. Then it's up to us to FIX IT!"
 
There is so much going on here, his mind swirls at the implications of all of this, and then that strange contradiction occurs, as it beats against his defenses, the power, stripping away something as it burns against his spirit.
 
He's rendered speechless, as K.K. leaps and the sword impales. Hiro's only defense is instinct, as he cuts his blade, and dark shadow of an arte rises out to meet it, as if to dull the force of the blow.
 
It still strikes so hard, that explosion of shadow and light. Smashing him down to the ground with all of that wrath. Beaten down to the floor, he tips his head groggily as that faceless head turns, as cracks spread, as the armor shatters.
 
"L...Liath?" Taken aback. Even as Ruby says, "REALLY!? Just... REALLY!? If I'd known this I wouldn't have looked that hard for that book!!!"
 
He doesn't understand. He doesn't get it. His mind searches for a way to just, make sense of it all.
 
But in the end, it's what he told Leo.
 
Liath is who is in front of them right now. And so he gets up. The words ringing in his ears, if he would be selfish, they would know the shape of his heart. If he would fight for this world, then they would have him know the shape of its soul, and if he would fight for but a lone person...
 
Rising to his feet, "It's been you, ever since... back then, on the Blue Star - in Krosse?" He says after a time, as if incomprehension is trying to correct itself, and not quite getting there. He takes a deep breath, then another, "I won't say it doesn't matter. I won't. All those times you fought - alongside us, even if you weren't helping us."
 
He eyes Liath, as he takes a step forward, raising his blade, even as he hears Talia's scream of outrage, "You told Ivan and Talia how much you enjoyed your dinners together."
 
Hiro runs at Liath, his blade bursting into flame, he charges right through, an arc of flame spewing right out of it.
 
"That matters."
 
He can't ask them to do this. He can't. So he acts. They need to buy time for whatever Nall is trying to do.

GS: Hiro spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked K.K. with Battalion Sword!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro takes 22 damage from Poison!
GS: Hiro takes 51 damage from Reaper!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock solidly guards K.K.'s Dracomachia for 175 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    'You still know not of just how deep his touch seeps, yet.'

    'Zophar', again, this malignant presence Hiro insists is involved. Leo's mouth opens, lips still twisted in that snarl, but he remembers. He remembers how the Prime Lord herself inadvertently released the sickening thing hiding inside a Sealing Rod.

    "Proof," Leo says, "and not a SINGLE SHRED OF PROOF! All we have is the WORD OF THE LORD OF CALAMITY, and someone who nearly BURNED THIS CITY TO ASH FOR PETTY REVENGE!"

    K.K. meets his strike with a block that stops his physical blade cold. The energy slices into them, but K.K.'s words score a far more devastating blow.

    "I KNOW MY DUTY!"

    Do you?

    "MY DUTY IS TO THE GODDESS!"

    Is it?

    "MY DUTY IS TO THE SILVER STAR!"

    All of it?

    "I AM ALTHENA'S OWN CHAMPION--" And the words are ragged now, as if Leo were trying to make up for conviction with sheer volume. He sucks in a pained breath, and his snarl wavers as he turns to Kaguya. She's trying to reason with him. All he feels is another knife right through his heart.

    It's as good a distraction as any. Force slams into Leo's body again, sending him tumbling over backwards. A cracked rib breaks. Pain lances through the White Knight's torso.

    His sword falls from his hand, and is swept off the rooftop with the rest of the debris.

    "No," Leo says. He plants his hands against the earth that is his birthright through the Blessing. Against the Tower that is his by right as White Knight. The pale stone responds, extruding a thin, crystalline shield--

    'DRACOMACHIA!'

    It is nothing before the raw force of the Trial Knight's fury. It shatters like an eggshell. Leo clings tight, his face a mask of terror. When the light fades...

    Their armor. It's breaking. Leo watches, stunned in every way he can be, as golden hair blows free in the wind. A blade he recognizes. A face he trusted turns to face him.

    "No," Leo says, as if his denial could somehow erase the reality before him. "No, no, NO!" Krosse. She almost killed him. And yet, she'd been nothing but loyal and honest and virtuous, and this can't be happening, it can't, it can't--

    Leo falls to hands and knees, bruised and bleeding. "Why?" he whispers.

GS: White Knight Leo takes 29 damage from Poison!
GS: White Knight Leo takes 57 damage from Reaper!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

    Though Dean wasn't aiming to inspire anyone with his fighting, it's great to see Kaguya joining in on his style and just unload on the Trial Knight. He shoots her a fierce smile, of two comrades fighting together on the same battlefield against the same enemy. Avril's voice rises, though, and he looks over his shoulder at her with wide eyes.
    
    He hasn't borne witness to the Ice Queen very often. The last time was a long time ago indeed. Even so, he understands right away, and eyebrows setting with determination, he nods once, sharp and decisive. "Okay. Let's give it everything we've got, Avril!"
    
    And so he begins to call upon the flames of Moor Gault, to combine inexplicably with the icicles of the Ice Queen, and begins to lash his ARMs rods outwards to form the outline of a great firebird--but before he can complete the maneuver, he catches K.K. calling forth an ornate sword and shouting something. Something that seems important.
    
    'If you would be selfish, I would have you know the shape of your heart! If you would fight for this world, I would have you know the shape of its soul! If you would fight for but a lone person--I WOULD HAVE YOU SHOW THEM HOW SPLENDIDLY YOU MAY SHINE FOR THEM!'
    
    
    
    It's in that instant that Dean keys onto a notion.
    
    For all that K.K. fights with incredible force here that none of them can take lightly, for all that they call themselves the Adversary of Mankind--
    
    Actually, they're a kind person, aren't they?
    
    Much kinder than Volsung. Even kinder than Id.
    
    The sword plunges, and a great dragon's maw engulfs the tower, Dean and Avril and Kaguya and everyone alike.
    
    The wrathful darkness swallows him whole, and Dean screams in pain. Nonetheless, the protection of Lucadia--the sturdiness that the Mountain Medium gives him--lets him jerk his arms together to cross the rods of Twin Fenrir together to block some of that torrential flow of energy. At the end of it, he slumps down to one knee, panting and bloodied and looking up in time to see the Adversary's helmet shatter.
    
    He doesn't know Liath well. He only knows her in passing, but that is enough to know she's kind. So with the insight he just had...
    
    "Oh," he utters.
    
    "So it was you, huh?"
    
    ...well, it just makes perfect sense, and also no sense at all.
    
    So for that moment, Dean hesitates like he sometimes does when his own kindness puts him at war with his determination. He looks over at Avril--the Ice Queen, with her implacable stance--as if to seek guidance from her, even though he already *knows* what she can and will do in this state.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    In the wake of Lanval's delivered blessings, he stands (mostly) upright, holding the drinking gourd gingerly in both arms for the weight it has within such a modestly sized jug, with a few side-glances every so often at the increase of power and presence of the Ice Queen and Kaguya's grasp of Zeikfried. While not deep enough on par with what is imparted to a Seer, it is a sign of trust and understanding - a shared sign of struggle between those of Lunar (and Shige) and how this all comes towards his own oaths to a different world but an Elw teleporter away.
 
     'Enough!'
 
     Lanval's stopped being surprised about how K.K.'s voice can carry even when they aren't screaming aloud, as the weapons come to life. Light, and dark - opposing forces like he had to endure at Love's Cradle even with the immense pressure of a Malevolence-filled Anomalous Orb poised to corrupt the force of Love itself.
 
     It has gotten no easier in the time that has passed, or the strength that Lanval has gained. If he lives to retrospect, he might wonder if the trial by its nature is ever fiercer not because one is weaker, but because they're stronger.
 
     In the present, shadow and light explode and toss Lanval upward with vocalized stammering. Opposing forces, where to resist one would oft necessitate vulnerability to the other.
 
     The Water Seraph takes hold of himself just as he sees the magic-made dragon's maw fly up, up, up...
 
     And he starts running down the side of the ascending apparition. Each contact of Lanval's feet against its hide kicks up sparks of light and tendrils of darkness, each one threatening to - and making good on - tripping him over, where he tumbles against it downward.
 
     He's racing to get back down to the ground before it ascends and absconds with him into oblivion, scrambling and staggering 'upright' (perpendicular to the actual ground) as he races to come to the bottom...!
 
     He makes it down in one last pratfall, tumbling and bouncing once before terminating that tomfoolery in a graceful three-point landing that slides across the rooftop just in time to watch the armor fracture (where he, oddly enough, seems to flinch more when the yellow-ish hues shine towards him).
 
     "Your armor doth be broken...!" Lanval stands upright, and as they completely shatter...
 
     Liath. Prime Lord of Althena's Church, Seraph of Light--
 
     Adversary of Mankind.
 
     Of all the people who would be prone to tomfoolery, exaggerated reactions, and everything - there's no shouting of 'wait, what,' as screams of disbelief and confusion wash through them.
 
     But not Seraph Lanval, Oracle of Schturdark, and continued drunkard.
 
     "This doth not change mine answer." He says, in lieu of sword or sorcery.

GS: Seraph Lanval takes 28 damage from Poison!
GS: Seraph Lanval takes 41 damage from Reaper!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"Oh right, I almost forgot that's where I saw him. This whole experience has been kind of a whirlwind. It's felt like I've been torn into three different places at once...!" Zed already has a hard time doing much in the way of 'paying close attention' at the best of times, and this has absolutely not been the best of times. At least, he appears to. Time has shown again and again that he's not nearly as clueless as he seems.

"...But if Sieg is being led astray again... If Glumzambor needs to be stopped, then I--" Need to be stronger. Need to grow to be able to turn aside even that monstrous relic-blade. That thing that seems at times to channel the very essence of the divine, if it is brought again to Filgaia's throat--

Then a it's only right that a devil of equal mettle appear to meet its challenge.

Again they meet each other in an instant of violence. But this time, there is no clash. His blade slips beneath the Trial Knight's guard, and--

For the first time in Zed's life, he cleaves truly into the Adversary's armor.

"...Maybe so," he answers, flicking his blade-- and the sparks of multicolored light still clinging to it-- to one side. "But," he lifts it, raising it again to the ready, "...I've also still got a long way to go."

Maybe it's all in his head. Maybe he's building Siegfried up again, making him bigger than he truly is, but--

No. He can't afford to take the chance. The risk of what might happen in the wake of such a defeat is too great.

The final gasps of Hyades still burn bright on the horizon of his memory.

More pour in, carving deeper and deeper into the Trial Knight's form. The Queen of the Veruni advents, and Zed allows himself a moment to appreciate her technique, even as the Adversary finds it wanting.

Gwen gives it her all, a flash of magic from a place that was as alien to the Hyadean as the Hyadean was to the world. Althena's blessing and its myriad permutations are not something that Zed can ever know.

Which is perhaps why, when the Trial Knight unleashes that power, it can so easily find purchase in what amounts to his spirit.

"What--" Zed grunts, wincing as the sorcery digs into his nerves, burrows into the channels of his soul and holds it fast. It's a terrible mismatch-- even now, the shape of Zed's spirit is not one that is native to Filgaia or to Lunar. But it achieves its goal. He is unable to move as the Trial Knight unleashes their full might, conjuring a simulacra of Lunar's highest divine beasts. Zed's protests disappear into the cataclysm as it consumes him entirely--

No. Not yet.

In the aftermath, he still stands, though nearly at a knee, blade buried in the rooftop, its edge casting a pristine shadow of scorched tile, a wedge in a field of ash where the draconic essence had run amok. "You... you're... The one who was with the guard... that one time!"

Zed--

Only vaguely recognizes who this person is?

It matters little. To Zed, they have only ever been one person. She has only ever been the Trial Knight, and that means that to Zed...

The challenge still holds.

They aren't done.

"We aren't done!" Zed roars, lifting his blade from the rooftop. It surges, blazing with fighting spirit rendered into alien starlight. "The battle isn't over yet! You haven't shown me my limit yet, Trial Knight! Whoever you really are, whatever you really are-- doesn't matter to me! You have always been--" The shackles of light and shadow burn away as lunges-- and delivers a series of four cuts.

The first three carve the shape.

The fourth bisects it.

It's a fundamentally narcissistic arte. What else could describe 'carving one's own initial into the enemy and then making it-- and them-- explode in the most magnificent way?'

Zed roars as he delivers his fourth blow. "--One of my greatest, most favorite foes!"

GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Burst added to Zed!
GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Boost!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"It's all right, Talia!" Ivan calls. "I just have to stay calm!"

There's not really that strong a precedent for that, Ivan...!

Many blows are exchanged, powerful magics suffusing the battlefield. Draconic energy bursts outward, slamming into Ivan and sending shockwaves through him. He unfurls his umbrella, casting up a barrier, but he can barely stay on his feet, and once it has passed, his steps are shaky. He looks rapidly around to find Talia, clinging to her sword, nearly fallen from the tower. "Talia!"

He rushes toward her, holding out a hand if she needs it to help her find safe footing.

At the same time, the Adversary's mask falls away... revealing a familiar face.

Ivan blinks a few times -- the new information doesn't seem to go. They've eaten dinner with Liath! She's their friend! She found a sneaky way to help them find a book they needed to find Lucia... ... it's true she was inflexible when it came to defying her employers when they were arrested, but that's... ... that's very different from declaring yourself an enemy to all humans.

"Wh--what are you doing being Liath?!" He looks to Talia, concerned with her reaction to this level of betrayal. He can feel fire flaring within him, threatening to jump from his body, and has to make himself breathe.

"We like Liath! Put the mask on and be someone else!!"

As if that were possible! Regardless, showing her face is unlikely to turn her back into the person they thought was their friend. They can't let their guard down. He lets some of that roiling flame flare freely, and channels it into a spiral that rages round his arm toward Liath.

GS: Zed spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Zed has attacked K.K. with Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Ivan spends 4 Combo on Poison and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ivan has attacked K.K. with Inferno Heart!
GS: Ivan enters a Counter stance!
GS: Ivan has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Ivan takes 31 damage from Poison!
GS: Ivan takes 48 damage from Reaper!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Why is it that Marivel fought with K.K? Why does she call the Trial Knight friend? It doesn't really make any sense does it? Someone who inflicted Malevolence upon Filgaia is someone she could never see as a friend, right? That's what her character would suggest, really. She wasn't really forgiving of the other threats to her world.

So why this one?

Marivel shared her intent to gamble on the future with Liath in Spira. Marivel battled with Liath with all her ferocity and pain amongst the backdrop of Sin.

Marivel battled with K.K, tasting something unexpected. She asked for K.K to visit her home so they could talk...

And somehow the two grew to trust each other enough.

And somehow Marivel found a confidant when she felt there was nobody else in this world who could truly understand the weight on her shoulders, the agony coursing through her soul every moment as she consumes the maladies of the world.

Together they agreed to allow themselves to step on fire, and in doing so they shared their secrets.

Marivel, her form, her goal, her darkness, her messiness, her plans....

K.K their faith, their identity. Liath, their friendship, their sisterhood.

Even though Marivel is bound to fight alongside humanity, and the Adversary is bound to be arrayed against them (Marivel by her people's vows, Liath's by her own), she found someone she didn't have to be a mentor with, or a servant to, or an old lady with, or someone who she had to keep secrets from.

Her first true companion in this Hell. Her found sister in more ways than one.

That being said, Marivel takes some heavy hits of her own. As Marivel stands herself back up as the power of a Dragon is turned on her--shadow and light slams into her Marivel and she is subsumed by it for a moment, body vanishing in its twilight.

But when it fades, Marivel is in a crouch. "You weren't kidding, Sis..." Marivel groans. She isn't in her full form here so she just can't endure that kind of power output.

But she does look to Talia. "She does care." She tells Talia. "I know nobody who has more faith and love for humanity than her."

She pushes up to her feet and smiles again.

"It's only been a few days, but I'm glad I could see your face again, Kev--"

She bites at her lip, composing herself.

"But well, I'm not gonna chastize y'all or anything after she worked so hard to remind me how cool y'all are."

She extends out her hand as a Dark Portal to the Abyss opens up behind K.K, not unlike the one she had unleashed upon Pentaglia earlier, though this one is far less stable than that one. And it isn't the only one. On the side of the tower, there is another.

"I've decided on a new name, Liath." Marivel says, smoothly switching back.

Getting down on all fours, she rushes and tackles Liath, intending to push Liath through--

--for a moment, traveling through the void, the push of Marivel's body expands exponentially, drawing from the Darkness and her full nature, just for pushing strength--

--and to whisper in Liath's ear, so she can have a preview of the name.

"Caduceus," Marivel whispers. "A merchant, a traveler, a purveyor of tales and stories and memories. As I step into the flames, that is what peers through the fire."

And out they go the other portal, Marivel aiming to seize Liath up in a claw and drag her down the side of the tower, heedless of property damage.

Because that's what friends are for.

She listens to the shocked expressions of the betrayed and she says, "You still believe."

Less a question, and more a certainty that grips her.

GS: Marivel Armitage has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Marivel Armitage has attacked K.K. with DemonAngle!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage takes 26 damage from Poison!
GS: Marivel Armitage takes 55 damage from Reaper!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Gwen, too. She is able to realize that on some distant remove, an awareness that blooms beneath that which now guides her.

    She falls to the stone rooftop, ice raining down after her. One after another the shards come, littering the rooftop with Avril's ambient magic. She cannot help but to express it as she moves in her current condition: it comes as easily as breathing to the Queen of the Veruni.

    And this is, as the Trial Knight notes, an incomplete awakening. Might that be the reason why? Might it be that if Avril were not still divided unto herself, a heavy line separating herself and herself, that her control would be sufficient to keep such 'atmospheric' effects in check? Many of the Veruni tales are fractured and incomplete themselves, but the story of the Veruni homeland says nothing of a realm encased in ice.

    There were rolling fields, before the Fires took them.

    What is it that Gwen possesses that Avril lacks? The question lingers for Avril somewhere on the boundary between who-she-is and who-she-is, edging step by step into more conscious consideration. But, ah-- though that question lights in her eyes, she never has the opportunity to approach it...

    Not in this precise moment, that is. For when the fire comes, this similarly turns that thread of thought to ashes.

    Light and shadow, once again. One circles on the other endlessly about Liath, a contradiction to all Avril has ever learned about the magic of Lunar.

    And then, here is the sword, brought into hand. If Avril had not been present in the plaza, perhaps she would not have recognized it now -- or at least, realized how terribly familiar it was and how long ago she might have last seen it. Her grip on her own blade tightens.

    And here it is: the trial come in full. Fall now, and the Veruni people will be damned to wither and fade. Fall now, and she will never waste another day talking about nothing with the people she loves most. Fall now, and her journey will end here.
    What else can she do but endure? Ice rises to meet light and shadow and the draconic energy within. It endures a few moments before it shatters and even the Ice Queen is thrown back against the rooftop. Were it not for her barrier she might have been flung further, perhaps even from the rooftop itself.

    Avril the Ice Queen, bearer of the title Lolithia, rises to her feet, brandishing her blade at...

    She holds that posture for but a few moments overlong.

    Liath... is the Trial Knight.

    She is still divided. A part of her wishes no more than to stand down in this moment.
    But another part of her knows differently. It is no old thing in the dark that whispers into her ear now but a full understanding that fills her and moves her.

    "Then, I shall grant you your wish," proclaims the Queen, who it is said punished her own people gravely for their slights and misdeeds.

    Who never once showed mercy on the battlefield.

    "You had bade us break ourselves upon your body. I shall oblige." Avril, herself, doesn't move. Instead, a cold wind has begun to blow. The tower trembles, once.

    When the flower of ice blooms, it does so all at once and without any trace of delicacy or compassion: the whole edifice is a towering of jagged ice shards rising heavensward to reach the Adversary of Mankind, the Seraph Liath.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked K.K. with Fleur de Glace!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes 32 damage from Poison!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes 60 damage from Reaper!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: K.K. solidly guards Hiro's Battalion Sword for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. partially evades Zed's Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova for 215 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Zed takes 39 damage!
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Ivan's Inferno Heart for 216 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Gamble: Lowest! K.K. takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's DemonAngle for 49 hit
points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Drowsy and Hex applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: K.K. partially guards Avril Vent Fleur's Fleur de Glace for 183 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Avril Vent Fleur takes 32 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya works in time with Dean, for once. Dean, who had always seemed to believe in the possibilities of her heart. Dean, who she absolutely won't admit to how it feels to work with him today.

They strike as one, and K.K. is knocked skyward, upward, and Kaguya has a few instants to breathe before she must follow up her assault. So she watches the others. She watches them strike at the Trial Knight, Leo who was her staunch ally despite their differences, Talia who was once her hated enemy for... For reasons she still can't remember--

And she sees a sadness under K.K.'s helm, for a brief instant. She wonders.

But Avril's power is 'incomplete'. Kaguya's fingers tighten into fists; she knows full well that Avril is 'incomplete' in this power. If she can manage it, perhaps that will never change. ...Perhaps...

To know the shape of one's heart. To know the shape of Kaguya's heart, it burns deeply, and Kaguya's hands twitch as she takes one knee. It's hard, for some reason--she should know her own, and yet--

And yet, for an instant, as Kaguya's inner nature is laid bare, there is a flash of red light that shudders from her, that seems to cause her some pain for the way she calls out against it. "No-- Not--Not now! I won't--"

The light flashes--and disappears, forced back down again, before the shadow and light both rush to that epicenter. The dragon's maw ascends, and Kaguya is smitten as well. She curls in on herself to guard, folding her arms before her and enduring. That massive force, that horrific damage, cracks through the remnants of her armor, and there is a terrible noise as ancient-made metal shatters beneath its power. She grits her teeth against it, and the pieces of her breastplate hang loosely underneath her garb.

But she lives through it. ...She lives, enough, to see--

To see that face. The face of someone who always seemed to be the very pillar on which all that was good in the Church rested. The face of--

"You--" Kaguya's mouth twists in anger. "LIAR!" she shouts at her. "...You were the best of us! You were the only one--but it was--"

"BUT IT WAS FAKE ALL ALONG! She played me, and YOU played me! How much have you known!? How long has it--Has it--"

Kaguya stumbles as she rises, the small Veruni pointing accusingly at the Adversary. "You always pretended to be so honest, to be exactly what you were, and instead, you--YOU--" Kaguya's hands shake; she doesn't go for her weapon, though. Instead she brings one hand up to her chest as if the pain is localized there, and starts to stammer out, "I--I--hate--"

The light gathers in her hands, red and fell, and the rock around her starts to wear away as if by erosion, a steady decay starting to spread under her feet. And White Knight Leo falls. Leo falls in denial, and he whispers, and Kaguya stops short of finishing her sentence--and turns towards him. He has the same...

"..."

Kaguya grits her teeth. "I--"

She looks to Dean, looking to Avril, and as if by gravity her expression turns, too, to regard the Ice Queen.

...Whatever she sees there makes her decision. The ring of decay around her ceases to spread, and starts to shrink, as Kaguya instead closes her hands around that red power and forces it back down.

Whatever else she was going to say is cut off by crackling red that bursts around her.

GS: Kaguya has attacked Kaguya with Fragment!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya takes 27 damage from Poison!
GS: Kaguya takes 55 damage from Reaper!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: Kaguya accepts Kaguya's Fragment for 179 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Kaguya!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "Mankind's despair isn't going away any time soon," Magilou shrugs, palms to the sky, shaking her head. "And struggling against a finger trap's never gotten anyone anywhere. Why bother?" Isn't she concerned about Rixia's Malevolence at all..?

    ... well, maybe it's incorrect to say it doesn't bother her. She's just always had a different way of dealing with this sort of thing.

    But they would know the shape of her heart -- the shape of the world's soul -- the luminosity of her brightness.

    "Haha, the Light and I..." Magilou starts -- and she does, mind you, finish her sentence, in much the same way the Adversary has been finishing theirs. Light and darkness cannot exist together. Healing and destruction cannot, either.

    Even so, as Drachomania floods over them, a beehive barrier of light erupts at Magilou's fingertips, translucent and shining where it is struck. The dragon's maw washes over the protection of Magilou's strongest defence, and even as she passively annuls the Artes around her, the sheer VOLUME of the Adversary's power forces her to a knee.

    The knight's not the only one who has to rise, after that.

    Magilou does, too.

    Her hand curls at her chin, as that armour shatters, all by degrees. Her eyes narrow, just so, obscuring the purple leaking in above her green eyes. "Oh...?" She asks, rising tone, as each fair feature comes to light.

    Her grin widens. "No wonder," she says, with all the dawn of realisation. "I should have guessed... she's always been such a loyal woman." Ragnell, of course; she could speak of no other.

    "By the way -- with regards to you, is it 'she', now, or do you still like 'they' at this stance?" Magilou's out here asking the important questions. Margaret knows why she'd take care with pronouns, anyway.

    But Magilou's foolishness has only ever been one side of her, and she can hear the shock in Ivan's voice, so soon after he asserted he'd be fine so long as he stayed calm. She sees the way Kaguya's nature flashes, red and bright and dangerous, as she struggles with herself. She hears Talia and Leo crying out denial; she hears Margaret freeze. And Rixia can't stop herself, Magilou supposes, in a state like this.

    It's hard for anyone to stay calm, in the face of something like this.

    Magilou...

    OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ER7tTyTpQA Ego Likeness - Seance

    ... Magilou's been in the face of an awful lot of things.

    She steps forward, and it's Kaguya whose shoulder she claps a hand onto, feeling that tension through her fingertips. "Leave it to me," she assures her -- and now, at least, her tone is serious. "You don't have to. Not here. We're not islands, remember." Kaguya's a part of this, and that means the party can cover her, too.

    And what of Magilou's parties?

    Once upon a time, she knew the Church, too. A singular force who could host forty-nine Seraphim... not that they called them that, back then.

    Oh, don't call Normin 'common Seraphs'. Their assistance has helped humanity for untold centuries.

    That's why they're the ones Magilou calls, as she invokes: "Now!" And Margaret's spell -- she needs to have her feet on the ground, if she wants it to work. Perhaps Liath can appreciate the gravity of Magilou leaping upon her paper doll shikigami, then, and surfing up into the air, a dark star shining above.

    "Army of immortals! Forty-nine souls!" The invocation calls on bonds infrequently grasped; cat Normin don't like to congregate in society, and even dog Normin have homes they prefer to settle. There's an earth Normin, looking up from the fallen log he's claimed as his own; here's a water Normin, her attention distracted from the ship leaving her port. A fire Normin leaves his hearth; a wind Normin leaves her wild dale. A dozen, two dozen, three, four --

    Four dozen Normin, plus Bienfu, sail down from the sky as their souls channel through Magilou's body. There she stands, on her shikigami, hands firmly upon her hips. One Normin's power might not be enough to do much damage... but there are forty-nine of them, all crashing down to attack at once.

    "Will you withstand their assault?! Or will you fall before them?!" She demands this of Liath, as she begins soaring down, to meet the supernova of energy which explodes out.

    "This is the end--!"

GS: Magilou spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Magilou has attacked K.K. with The Host of Forty-Nine!
GS: Magilou has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Magilou takes 38 damage from Poison!
GS: Magilou takes 48 damage from Reaper!
GS: Blitz expired!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    'But you yet lack something. Something the courier possesses in spades.'

    ".....!"

    K.K. is.... complimenting... her? .... is it even a compliment if you have so much of something that the Trial Knight seems to see it as something that someone needs to be complete? Why does Gwen feel some amount of pride? Avril is so fierce, so beautiful, so calm, even moreso now. Or is that Gwen's perception being modified?

    Gwen will have these thoughts later, when she's not fighting for her life, as well as the lives of the people she's come to consider so dear to her.

    ( Obligatory BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt-uPV15vTY&ab_channel=sleeping0dragon )

    The contradictory pulses of magic are like molten lava to the bonfire in the Mockingbird; it tries to convert it to muchly needed energy, but too much of it exists for the rest of Gwen's body to handle. So, the body of Gwen tries to evade on a field completely covered with the same contradictory energies, like a sparrow caught inside a burning foyer.

    And then comes the next attack, making that burning house collapse down, down down.

    The small Metal Dragon fossil that imbued ARM and Gwen alike with the potential of possibility is little defense against the maw of magic, but as Hiro had said, they would, and she would-- prevail.

    Pain is a hollow spectator following behind the courier's footsteps, and that urges Gwen to move and press forward, charging the Mockingbird for another blow against the Trial Knight, as she had promised them.

    The Trial Knight, in white armor, cracking, blonde hair falling down like spring rain--

    Gwen stops. Like an echo of Dean actions, hesitation weighs heavy against her shoulders, like an avalanche. She has her own memories of Liath, but the one that defined the Seraph was a rainy day in Spira, where a child was sheltered from the rain as she and Gwen talked. She was beatific; like a statue come to life. Gwen had been in battles against her, so to be fighting her again would not be out of the ordinary, but this directly, without that pretense of Liath doing it out of obligation.

    ".... Another trial," she says, softly. "For.... you? Your... contradiction."

    Her left hand-- the one she reserves for the realm of humans and business, that served that letter to K.K. forever ago-- raises.

    But this is still *their* trial.

    Her face saddens, but she nods, determination in her eyes as she leaps backwards, drawing her ARM back to charge, giving others the space to attack as before. The charging resumes, sooty violet of dusk changing to a brilliant rose red, then the yellow of sunlight.

    As the others attack, Gwen projects to orbs of light into the air, then fires a beam that connect the two straight through Liath as they come falling down, in the dark to light of twilight.

    An illusion. A paper crane of a contradiction, made possible by light, as Gwen's gift to Liath.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Gwen Whitlock has attacked K.K. with Selenelion!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 26 damage from Poison!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 44 damage from Reaper!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Gamble: Moderate! K.K. takes a solid hit from Magilou's The Host of Forty-Nine for 224 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! K.K. partially guards Gwen Whitlock's Selenelion for 185 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to K.K.!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

    It doesn't matter.

    It doesn't matter at all!!

It's odd how serene a person can look when couched in such intensity. The hood of Liath's gaze is a calm one, even as those knives from Margaret's earlier assault not completely embedded in spiritual armor fall from her glowing armor with little, metal *clinks* -- but it is a stare that sears right down into Rixia in a way it never quite managed in the gentle warmth she always couched herself in as Prime Lord. Her lips are a set line of impassive neutrality; Joyeuse turns in her hand, electrical arcs of shadow and light dancing opposing crackling routes along the edge of its ceremonial blade.

Rixia denounces her, and she does not object to it. She proclaims she will eradicate the Adversary -- and the Adversary just turns to face her fully, as if to welcome it, if she truly can.

Eyes of molten gold narrow as the Light Rixia wields burgeons. Stagnating. Compressing.

Rejecting.

"..."

K.K. says not a word. She just brings the blade of Joyeuse up --

-- and -thrusts- unflinchingly into an engulfing light of absolute denial.

Within the cloying light, Liath is lost. Stillness engulfs her, as if it could still the beat of her heart, as if it could reject a future that includes her in it. It suppurates at her soul as she is lost within that cold gathering.

... and then, there is a spark of frantic, lively shadow within its depths.

Erratic patterns of Althena's Shadow lances outward through the sweltering burst of still light. They move with wild, irrational movements, as if in direct rejection of the suppressing stillness of Rixia's light. They expand outward, growing like throbbing veins along a cracking eggshell --

--before Light and Shadow both burst in mutual rejection of two completely opposite ideals, leaving Liath, blade impaled into the ground, shining armor wobbling in shudders of prismatic life as it seeks to reassert itself from the pain of absolute rejection...

... but still standing.

"... You have the right of it. It matters not. All that matters is I am your foe, from now until the last day I draw breath..."

Gold eyes affix on Rixia.

"... and you have not the strength to unmake."

Joyeuse rips outward, pointing at Rixia.

"Your magicks are powerful. But there is no rejecting a thing you dare not know."

If she means to advance, it is the clatter of weapons that draws her attention towards the others. She turns from Rixia then to regard Leo with an expression that, though not unkind, is cool in the face of his broken words.

    Why?

"..."

Liath - K.K. - turns to face him fully, long golden hair flowing like a veil behind her, unbound from the brains she so often had them in.

"Would you see if I told you, Leo?" she asks, and despite everything -- she offers him a small, sad smile.

"You would not. For you do not wish to know. Better to know me as I am before you now."

Her head tilts, in that owlish way the Trial Knight so often does.

"A monster, dwelling in a land of them."

Others have similar reactions. Their weapons fall. They do not aggress. Out of uncertainty. Out of kindness.

Out of betrayal.

Magilou, at least, speaks first with the most cogent and important of questions:

... with regards to you, is it 'she', now, or do you still like 'they' at this stance.

Despite herself, Liath smiles. She cannot help it. It is completely incongruous with the violence and wrath she wields as easily as breathing... and yet she must express herself, all the same.

"She shall suffice, Magilou," says the Adversary, head cant. "'Twas ever meant a monolith, this armor. ... But mayhap the time for the impersonal has ended."

As for Ragnell, well. Her smile lingers.

"... But most of all, she is free."

Dean seems to see something within K.K. and Liath both that makes sense, even if not at all. Margaret stammers disbelief in the face of one who had been a cornerstone of the Church.

Lanval...

    This doth not change mine answer.

Gold eyes turn toward him. The kindling intensity within them seem to warm in some imperceptible way that never reaches the Seraph of Light's lips.

"Nor mine," she replies, and it carries some of that gentleness of the Prime Lord's.

"You are my enemy, Seraph Lanval, and always shall you be."

... Even if the contents of the words are damning in their finality.

But Talia and Ivan...

... Both express shock. Denial. What they see cannot be there. And yet...

... And yet, Liath turns to face them both fully, as if to show them the whole of herself, donned in that perfectly shining, white armor, Joyeuse in hand.

As if to present them with a fact that they cannot deny.

She cares. This can't be true. It isn't.

"I can be no less of who I am in this moment than I would ever bid either of you to be. You are Talia. You are Ivan. And I am this. 'Twas my choice that brought me here.

"And 'tis my choices that shall ever endeavor to bring you and all your get low. This is truth."

Absolute, and inescapable.

But...

    It matters.

There are those that still fight on, despite it all.

Hiro first, shouting of the value of memories shared, runs at her. She moves to meet him, blade crashing against blade as the shining edge of Joyeuse locks with Hiro's burning blade. The Trial Knight's strength is great -- Liath was always so, so strong -- but the warmth and happiness and imaginative cheer that so often graced those fair features simply are not there as Liath leans her weight into that blade, pushing upon it with that recognizable strength even as the flames -sear- at her.

"It has always been me. At Lahan. At Krosse. At Wehaca."

Every where. Every time. Every horror.

So why?

She pushes more firmly. Takes a step forward. Begins to push Hiro -back-.

    It matters.

"As does this."

And with one motion, armor broiling from the heat, K.K. looks to -knock- Hiro back and advance upon him --

When a roaring flare HITS Liath with full force from Ivan, in perfect match to the sudden charge of Zed. Flame rolls through Liath, superheating armor, catching on the Dark Hero of the Hyadeans' blade, as three strokes carve a distinctive, signature shape -- and the third cleaves it CLEAN through, the blow so powerful that liquid chunks of armor BLOW back in rainbow hues through the skies and cut down into spiritual flesh as K.K. goes flying; it lasts only a few moments before the armor reasserts, but even so--

"Come, then! And we shall see what heights you might reach together!"

There is a light in Liath's eyes, and an inferno of a smile on her lips, as she twists in mid-air, landing firmly on her feet. If nothing else, whatever she may be, one thing is true.

In these moments, in the heat of a fight with no artifice, Liath is truly in her element.

Before she can truly engage, though --

    LIAR!

Something in that shout of pure hate causes Liath to pause.

The knight in white armor turns, to regard Kaguya with a carefully controlled stare. Piercing. Thoughtful. Her brows furrow, as she feels something -- sees it, within the eroding rock being eaten by some spiteful, crimson light. Her lips pull into a frown.

    She played me, and YOU played me!

"... Indeed."

And Liath does not seek to placate Kaguya. She does not seek to soothe. She just turns...

"I have betrayed you. The Goddess has betrayed you. You see it now, do you not? The rot at the core of this apple's shine. You will hear no apology from me. This is the side you have chosen, Kaguya, and I afford no succor to my enemies. If you wish to curse me, then I welcome it."

Gold eyes narrow.

"But I will not abide so twisted and festering a hate--"

The temperature in the skies plummets. A flower of ice blooms. And before the Trial Knight can complete her thought, bring her verdict down upon Kaguya with force --

The full, fearsome power of the Ice Queen - at least, as she is now - crashes into her with frozen, chilling wrath.

Blooming petals of ice catch Liath. They bring her high into the air. Higher and higher -- where she sees...

Magilou.

Channeling the authority of forty nine Normin, all with great and horrible intent. Like there could ever be any other way to mete them out.

    This is the end--!

If one thinks they can hear a wide-eyed Liath murmuring "so adorable--!" before the face of oblivion, well.

It's probably just a trick of the senses, isn't it?

A supernova blooms, engulfing Liath with its power. She is lost within the Normin storm for a few seconds in which the true weight of their power is truly and undeniably known.

Common Seraphs? No.

They are fearsome, all on their own.

But even a super Normin supernova must end. And as it does, Liath falls, just as....

Kev--

    I've decided on a new name...

Marivel tackles Liath in mid-air. The Adversary and her friend fly through the portal blooming behind them, and as they twist through the void, the Crimson Noble whispers something. A name. A name for a teller of tales. An eternal traveler.

Liath smiles, and it is a smile of such radiance it could warm the very Abyss they fly through.

"... It is perfect."

Out the other portal they go. Marivel hurls. Liath flies like a ragdoll, aided by the orbs of Light Gwen provides, lancing through K.K. on her violent journey down towards the tower's side. Her body is smoking. Her armor ripples with so many prismatic after-effects. She CRASHES into the tower's side --

--and Joyeuse STABS into stone to halt her progress, just before she can fall completely.

"... Yes. This is the end."

Slowly, Liath drags herself up. Still standing tall. Still ready to fight.

"... An ending to a sad farce I let linger far too long."

Her words are steel. Her will is absolute.

The inkling of melancholy is a drop in their ocean as a tempest of light and shadow begins to mount, and Liath begins to rise off her feet.

Crackling suns of light and darkness begin to bloom, slowly expanding with terrible intent as Liath's power begins to build towards a crescendo...

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia's hand grasps a hold of Ivan's. With her brother's help, she finds her footing.

But little else.

Hiro pushes ahead; Ivan sends out a blast of flame. They press the attack, not believing or understanding. And Marivel tries to explain, but...

It's not an explanation that reaches her ears or her heart. She stares, as the Normin come rushing in, and then Gwen's beams of light.

It matters, Hiro says.

"N-No--" Talia steps backward. "I--I can't accept that! You've done more than that--!"

It isn't enough. Liath is rising, despite everything, and a brilliant glow coming off her. But there are more lights, then. Several lances of silver light fire -- exploding across the horizon, and then striking near Liath -- and then past, to slam into the distant countryside.

But it is a distraction.

And more than that: it presages a large, silvery airship. The Mayflower sweeps in, low, near the direly damaged tower -- and a young man steps onto the deck. Nall stands there, eyes fierce, gripping a rail. "Captain Bart--hold for long enough for them to get on!"

"Aye aye!" comes a voice inside.

Then, Nall looks up. His eyes meet Hiro. "HIRO! JUMP ON!"

The Mayflower hovers there. Briefly -- but their escape has come.

Help has come.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

It's difficult seeing Liath with different features than he's always seen her with. Hard, to know that that was beneath the mask. The same face, but unsmiling.
 
It matters.
 
As does the motion of her not rejection perhaps, but validation with a counterthrust. He's knocked aside, as the flames gutter out, just after Ivan strikes her.
 
Liath has much to answer for, and answer she does, even if the answers are not ones everyone might like. He certainly doesn't like them.
 
In the end its reality, but he does offer one counterpoint. "She's not... the Goddess." Hiro rejects that. "And you, are not a monster." He rejects that too, even if she serves in a land of them.
 
In the end, as Talia steps backwards, Hiro finally gets up, just as silver fire streaks down, and his eyes grow wide with relief. "Nall!" Whereas Ruby shouts right at him, "It's about time!?!"
 
"Jean you got her!?" Hiro shouts as they all arrange for the escape, for the rescue.
 
In the end though, he trusts Jean does, and instead he goes to Talia. "Talia." He tells her, with a meaningful look in his eyes, "We've gotta go."
 
It's a horrific truth, but they cannot stand transfixed by it forever, "Jump for it." He tells her, because the alternative is...
 
... "Because we're not leaving you behind."
 
And jump he does, as Nall bids, but only after the others do as well.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel drops to the ground, looking far more winded than Liath, but willing to keep at it should she need to. She doesn't have an undamaged Time Medium and can't just refresh herself back to perfect condition right now so she knows damn well she can't match Liath's stamina right now even recovered as she is.

She does gives Kaguya a bit of a deadpan look as if to say 'really?' when she radiates HATE ENERGY. There's no escaping Marivel recognizing the presence of HATE ENERGY.

"This isn't what I imagined when you mentioned piracy," She says mildly with an upraised eyebrow.

But she straightens up, readying her claws for another go even if only to cover their escape but--

Marivel takes a step back. There's something really sad about Liath shedding the mask and having nothing but her face to bear the weight of the world now. If only the illusion could've lasted forever--a contradiction of Marivel who is also relieved that the truth is out and the opportuniy for honesty is finally here.

"I'm holding you to that promise." Marivel says. "...I'm not fighting for them."

A mirror of Liath's own words to her in the Abyss.

"I'm fighting for you. So if you still want to meet Ana... Drop by the Chateau whenever you want. Maybe you'll get the chance, if for a moment."

"Have a good night, sis."

And so Marivel aports HERSELF to the Mayflower's deck.

Maybe it's for the best that they don't know but... It still hurts to hear their completely understandable reactions to this revelation.

She meant 'sister' after all and even when it's completely reasonable, it's never nice to see those faces and those words directed to someone you love so terribly beyond words.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Emotionally, so many are deteriorating around them. Entire worldviews, shattered. Deeply devoted trust and wonderful life experiences, stained in the color of blood and hatred. Yet, Seraph Lanval stands through all of that as Liath makes her point clear. Neither answer will change.
 
     Seraph Lanval is her enemy, and always he shall be.
 
     For all the foolishness, perhaps the destruction of his place of power - even if he held onto it by a thread - already put him through that particular crucible of having such sincere trust and devotion shattered and discarded.
 
     He musters a mirthful smile to that.
 
     ...
 
     Liath's power builds anew to greater heights than that of what Lanval had to run down to not be carried away and consumed into nothing within the heavens (he would assume, a dragon's maw no matter how the shape is made is not a place one wants to be when it closes).
 
     But there's more lights. More strikes nearby. A strange ship of Veruni make appears. Veruni, those that are designated anathema to Filgaia, as someone (Nall) screams for Hiro and the others to jump on.
 
     There is a discordant, distant tranquility in the moment in which Lanval turns his back to Liath, draws out the kiseru-style 'smoking' pipe (which is, as always, for bubbling), and blows out a bunch that grow in size to help provide a safety net for those waiting to make a jump. (Not so much for Kaguya over there, but that's standard fare.)
 
     The relief that there is an escape at all is a small joy, and his pact doesn't prevent him from just messing about on a seeming Veruni vessel. Until then...
 
     Lanval just waves an arm up and follows the others off in an almost playful, devil-may-care way.
 
     There's no more words to trade between those who share a sincere and unambiguous understanding of where there is an irreconcilable conflict between them and their goals for those they live alongside.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    In the sunset of Gwen's last attack, the glowing lacework decorating her skin now glows red, an unfortunate signal that she is running on fumes.

    The glow of gold drains from her veins, and the courier's body slumps, unable to keep responding to her brain's screams to keep going. A numb left hand fumbles with her limp right; she'll slap Liath, but what then?

    Confusion, betrayal, and the fierceness amount of hate are voiced around the slumped courier. Yet, like Dean, perhaps, Gwen struggles with her own feelings on the matter. What would be the most appropriate?

    'She's not... the Goddess. And you, are not a monster.'

    Hiro manages to put his finger on the pulse of what Gwen was struggling to understand.

    Everyone has had their moments with the Seraph of Light, enough that it would make sense as to why so many are hurt, and why Liath's words sting even more.

    Still, from the first day, everything had been a trial, something they had to overcome. Was this just an advancement of that, or does some sense of loathing extend to the Goddess, to Lunar, to Filgaia, or even, Liath herself?

    Gwen doesn't know. She couldn't understand Janus, who openly wore his contempt on his sleeve, but she still withheld her hate.

    Why did Janus deserve that, but no one else didn't?

    ".... Hiro..." Gwen looks at the young man she had tried to lecture on so many topics back when they were imprisoned. She felt she had to keep everyone's spirits up, but, was it even needed? She grins, and sniffs, rubbing her nose with her left arm.

    As the Mayflower comes in as their savior, Gwen stammers. "... V... veruni...?" Clearly her brain is too exhausted if she's seeing something that reminds her of the Veruni in any fashion.

    Her body recognizes the most important part: they're safe.

    Which is why, for better or worse, the hapless redhead just passes out on the spot.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya, for her part, is in no position to oppose K.K.'s judgement this time. The power that could have made the difference is the same power that she forced down. If she were at this alone, then surely, that would be all. Because there is something to feel--is something to see, is something to sense. Kaguya cannot completely control it.

...But Magilou reminds her she isn't at it alone, with that shoulder. "...Thanks," she murmurs. She's part of it. She will have to accept that even now, when it's not so glamorous for her. "Magilou, I..." There's no time to talk, really. So that's all she says just then.

And of course, it would be the Ice Queen's fury that shields her first. Her complicated relationship with Avril lives to see another day. "...No," Kaguya says, when Liath starts to rise again. "I see the rot," she agrees. "...I see a lot. I see so much wrong with it. With them, too."

"But the choice I made..."

"Isn't... to fight in hatred. So I--"

She can barely stand, but she starts to. Liath claims it's the end, indeed, and her absolute will manifests. The tempest starts. And Kaguya grits her teeth--

Then there are lights. Silver light. And a--

"What," Kaguya starts, as she sees a ship of what is very definitely Veruni make bearing down on them. The Mayflower is here, and Kaguya stares to see it--to see Nall. And hear the name of the Captain--

"Ah."

"So," she says to Magilou, "This might get a little complicated! Because there's not alone and REALLY not alone!" With that, she takes off at a dead sprint, leaping off of the tower and sailing through the distance, WITHOUT the help of Lanval's bubbles, because--well, she wasn't going to have that help anyway.

Still, she hits the deck hard and rolls, but then immediately, of all things, puts her hands up in a sign of nonaggression. A glance to Marivel and, "I'll explain later."

Then she looks to the cabin, and starts walking that way. "We have DEFINITELY got to talk, Captain," she starts in her usual swagger, and then grows a lot more serious. "...If the Moderates are willing to deal with a defector, anyway."

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "Good to know!" Magilou says, pointing finger-guns to Liath, as she confirms her pronouns anew. And, well, obviously she's a clown, but that's still genuine.

    Magilou doesn't particularly view K.K. -- Liath -- as her sworn enemy. The two of them have much common ground, in the realm of breaking all illusions. And Magilou is the sort of person to describe herself as an evil witch, after all. She's still curious about Liath's experiences; about Liath's feelings.

    Even if she doesn't have many of her own to speak of.

    But Magilou wouldn't very well be Magilou if she wasn't willing to antagonise people she liked... particularly given these circumstances. They're too dire for a proper conversation; she meets Kaguya's eyes, and nods, anyway. She hears what's in her name, as Kaguya trails off.

    The Normin Army Magilou commands is VERY adorable -- and VERY dangerous. Liath has to get more distance from them in the wake of it, at least, though it's no surprise to Magilou that she does indeed withstand their assault. And so, at the foot of the tower, a crescendo begins to build --

    And the Mayflower builds on that suspense, too.

    "YOU'RE LATE, NALL!!" Magilou yells, ever ready with criticism, as Bart swoops in to save them all. Well -- to save Hiro, and obviously Magilou is coming, too. She invited herself.

    She looks over to Kaguya, as she says it might get complicated -- and of course, she grins. "I love it when the thing is complicated." She insists, which is... well, let's call it support. Let's call this support, too: Magilou's entirely willing to yoink Rixia over, given how invested she is in fighting right now. "Fight's over, kiddo! Survival's on the boat!" Lanval will probably make sure no one falls off with those bubbles of his. Probably. Magilou could help, but

    (That's the end of the sentence.)

    Conveniently, she can soar across onto the deck with one of those shikigami of hers.

    And of course, the first thing she says to the Captain is: "Soooo, where's the bar?"

    Do Veruni even HAVE bars on their ships?

    SHE'S ABOUT TO FIND OUT!

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel's frown deepens. "I'm sure it's a perfectly reasonable explanation." She says, completely sincerely.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
The revelation to Margaret (who is, frankly, already kind of running on something near her third wind) of the true nature of the Trial Knight - the sight of it being the Seraph Liath -

Well, the good thing is that you can only take so many skull-cracking revelations at once. Margaret knows, she remembers, but her brain helpfully reminds her of other factors. Especially when she looks with alarm towards Kaguya as she glows, struggling. Towards Magilou; the march of the Normin...

What must that cost?

Liath confirms her pronouns, but in that time Margaret is doing mental math. They're incapacitated. By luck and pluck she's lasted this long. What can she do? She's fast. That's it - is that enough? Maybe, Margaret thinks, if...

And then lights shine.

Margaret's head turns to look upon a Wonder: the Mayflower.

Floating ship of some kind, Margaret thinks.

Well, she thinks, that's probably it then, but I can probably get -

Oh it's Nall.

Anticlimax again. Margaret finds herself giving a brief, jittery laugh, but then pushes out a breath. The selfish decisions of Margaret's heart send her skidding forwards -- she looks towards Leo for a moment, but whether it's trusting in the Goddess's minions to not throw him off or simple logistics, it is Gwen Whitlock who Margaret hucks up like a sack of potatoes before power-jogging over and doing that green-flash thing to skip over the rather fraught gap.

Once on the deck, she sits the hell down. Hopefully nobody needs her desperately for a few minutes.

(And Dollie? Well, Dollie-kateers, the miscellaneous healer miscellaneously vaults forwards and uses a miscellaneous feather charm to make good her own escape. She, too, sits the hell down.)

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

The Adversary of Mankind's power reaches an oppressive apex. Her eyes shine with baleful gold light mixed with swimming shadows as she holds her armored hands to either side of her. Spheres of magic burgeon--

And just as it reaches its zenith, lances of silver light pierce the skies around Liath and -past- her, exploding to create a horizon of fire.

Gold eyes widen; the unexpected assault knocks Liath from her skyward ascent and disperses the power she had been building in blinding bursts of shadow and light. The Trial Knight falls, disappearing past the ledge of the tower.

... but it would be a grave mistake, to think that was her end.

A way out arrives, as promised: a silvery ship of Veruni make. Fiends and Drifters alike make a swift exit, leaping upon the ship to a freedom that brief distraction affords. There was a way out, after all.

There always is, when the skies are your limits.

---

It is from a balcony of the White Tower that the Seraph that vowed to be humanity's Adversary drags herself back onto her feet. With an expression best described as stoic, Liath watches as the Veruni warship carrying the Vile Fiends and their fellow Drifters begins to flee. For five seconds, she watches in silence as that airship becomes a thing more distant, the unflappability of her features doing little to disguise the way the wheel of her thoughts turn behind her gaze.

Slowly, the one who calls herself the Adversary of Humanity shuts her eyes.

"... No."

One glowing, clawed hand reaches up heavensward. Within their armored talons, they frame the silhouette of the Mayflower. As if, but with the curl of those fingers, she could pluck the entirety of it from the skies.

K.K.'s golden gaze open, then narrows. Fingers curl.

The tiniest ember of bruising violets flickers in a sea of molten gold.

"No escape for Fiends."

And something lurches in the heavens.

For as long as K.K. has been an active force in Filgaia and Lunar alike, the Trial Knight has never used Malevolence directly. In combat, they relied on their personal might, and the sorcerous gifts of Althena's Blessings; even when they made use of Malevolence in their mad bid against the Guardian Lords, it was all done through the proxy of an Anomalous Orb. Perhaps the reason why is as simple as the revelation of who was behind that helm this whole time: a Seraph can't make use of Malevolence without imperiling themselves. Harmaus is living proof of that fact.

And yet.

And yet...

Fingers curl. Against an armored palm, they twitch and tremble as the skies of Pentagulia dye hues of existential bruises. Clouds swell and darken as they rapidly reach a tipping point and begin to rain.

Liath's left hand grips her right to steady it as it begins to tremble up towards her shoulder, just as the sky splits open to a cavernous void just behind the Mayflower.

And a great mass of Malevolence like the talon of some immeasurable beast spills forth from the hole in things as it swipes the side of the Veruni ship.

It lasts only a few seconds. Just a few seconds for that terrible confluence of contradiction to reach out -- and clench.

Malevolence swarms like a tempest along the ship's starboard and -through- it. A chorus of what sounds like a thousand, thousand agonized cries that cannot be answered fills the Mayflower from bow to stern. Horrible, chaotic. ... sad.

And by the last second, all that Malevolence rushes backwards as the hole in things seals itself as if it were never there.

The volume of Malevolence was immense -- but nothing that could not be resisted by those who have spent so much time understanding Malevolence and shoring the spiritual strength to stand against it.

But...

... its touch lingers on the Mayflower in a way that will stay until purified, to speak nothing of its violent, dramatic flare. It means little, in the immediate sense. For all intents, it seems like one last attempt to halt their attempt to flee -- one that failed, despite however impossible the act itself should have been.

For now... it simply lingers there; the lingering taint of a vast contradiction.

Like bait.

---

At the apex of the White Tower, the Adversary of Humanity's trembling fingers slowly uncurl. A breath she does not need spills from her lips. For a lingering second, she watches the Mayflower as those shivers running through her die, with something akin to a bittersweet sadness in her stare.

"... It was a heartening deception... wasn't it?"

After the next, her eyes shut. She turns.

"Would that it could have lasted."

And white light consumes K.K., the Trial Knight, the Adversary, leaving nothing but her violence in its wake.