2023-08-26: A Challenge for Those Who Seek Glory
- Log: A Challenge for Those Who Seek Glory
- Cast: Amaterasu, Lily Keil, Ethius Hesiod, Rixia, Cirea
- Where: South Calm Lands
- Date: August 26, 2023
- Summary: Amaterasu intrudes upon a chocobo caravan in order to test both her opponents and, it seems... herself.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
Chocobo wagon-trails crisscross parts of the Calm Lands by necessity: even here, goods and people need to cross the distances between the larger population centers of Spira. Though the lands of Spira have entered an uneasy if hopefully lasting peace, there are still the matter of Fiends: monsters can spell the doom of a particular caravan, and so it is common practice for caravan leaders to hire sufficient guards.
It is also common practice for Drifters and their ilk to offer themselves up for hire. Some come along for the easy money -- it might be a term of 'boredom' for a fair payment. Others come in the hope of something else -- something to challenge themselves against.
There had been some challenge amidst the pits of the Fiend arena. Amaterasu could say that much about her experience in its depths. But not enough. Not nearly enough. She must be nothing less but assured of the sharpness of her skill, especially now. Especially with this decision that she feels she is on the verge of resolving.
It had been a time after her departure from those darkened pits that she had, by mere chance, overheard a caravan master soliciting some adventurers to act as guards. So, these are the sorts of people who they hire to see to their safety on those long journies...
Here and now, another small group of Drifters -- and like souls -- ride aboard a caravan making its way across the Calm Lands. The journey is perhaps a day out and it has been peaceful. Whether the hired hands consider this to be blessing or boon may well ride on their own demeanors.
But alas, peace is not to remain. A line of purple-green shades erupt from the wagon-trail path ahead of the caravan and roll towards the carts; chocobos balk and are only kept from bolting by the skill of their drivers. A Fiend's attack, perhaps--?!
But there, striding through the veil of ghosts, comes a figure aglow with Veruni technology. Her faceplace shines with light from within, suggesting eyes sixfold.
"All you who seek the glory of combat... all you who covet honor and strength! Turn your weapons from the beasts of these plains, and seek you now a more fitting challenge...! I, Amaterasu, do challenge you! Show me! Show me your strength!"
In her hands she bears a polearm, its bladed head little more than a blinding streak of light.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily has to do some traveling across Spira now and thn; it's more efficient to be paid for what she was going to do anyway. With her harsh demeanor and habit of carrying weapons, it's easy to get hired as a guard when she wants to be, and this is one of those times. So far, it's been...
Fairly boring. Nothing to really challenge her. Maybe when she reaches sacred Gagazet she'll find a worthy test of power. Or maybe...
"Stop--" Lily throws out her hand to shield the wagon's leader from the shades, and then suddenly she sees... that figure.
Yes, Lily recognizes her immediately. From back then...
"Heh," she says. "I'm glad you asked." She looks to the leader beside her, "Just keep the chocobos back."
Then, she hops down off the wagon and starts to circle, moving towards Amaterasu. "Amaterasu," she says. "So, you've moved on from your last job, I see."
She is in military surplus gear, a heavy armored jacket and dark trousers, a sword at her hip that she doesn't immediately draw. "Well, I've grown stronger since the last time we met. I don't plan to be taking a swim, this time."
Lily widens her stance, "Hah!"
She lifts her hands and a gout of flame erupts from her fingertips, the fire gathering around her hands and extending to try to engulf Amaterasu entirely.
...But she does have at least one ally...
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Amaterasu with Ignition! GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lily Keil's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu solidly guards Lily Keil's Ignition for 56 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Amaterasu! GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Lily Keil!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius has been in contact with a certain other alien visitor to the two worlds who he knows took an even flimsier series of excuses for their presence than he historically has and nonetheless shares their same interest in making sure their things aren't... salvaged. Where did these undefined 'things' go, and will he ever repay her for the shotgun? (One of these questions has an easy answer.)
There's another matter on top of that. It's one thing after another, but such as it is.
...As is directly relevant to the goins-on, Ethius is one of the hired security detail for classically inscrutible reasons, and has his face covered because the smell of chocobos is one he has never been able to get accustomed to. He's otherwise looking the part of a nondescript sorcerer relative to Bevelle's cultural stereotypes of their appearances, even if the robes are a bit ragged.
His eyes widen just as the purple-green shades start to make their attack, pitching himself off the side of the wagon with a hand outstretched. Could this be someone else he'd been looking for, or--
Someone familiar. Lily takes charge of the situation in communicating to the caravan what to do (which is to say, keep the huge stinky horse-birds from getting too close, something Ethius agrees with on several levels).
"So you do." Even now, Ethius estimates he's far on the back foot even with a greater reclamation of his strength and memories from before coming to Filgaia, wasting no time in cutting his retorts short to quickly gesticulate and chant the appropriate spell for a sudden spray of dust.
"Fine Dust!" Which he could've picked up off the ground and thrown, but, sorcerers. No sense of simplicity or practicality, sometimes.
Lily does have at least one ally.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Amaterasu with Fine Dust! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Amaterasu solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Fine Dust for 47 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia's had her fill of Amaterasu's antics, given she was present in the Fiend Arena where she first emerged. But it seems like she's not done with her. She did need a ride out of the Calm Lands, back towards Bikanel so she can access the Elw Teleporters, so the caravan was convenient enough, until...
The attack, and the shriek of Chocobos. Rixia lets out a faint noise from where she'd peacefully drifted into a little nap, blinking and looking to see Lily emerging out of the wagon. And then...
"... you again," Rixia sounds pretty tired, but her voice has never really wavered up or down either way. "Wasn't the arena enough for you...?"
Rixia closes her eyes and draws her arms into herself. "... fine. You said I need to force my way through. So..."
A sudden rise of Malevolence accompanies the appearance of her Domain, in a roughly five-metre sphere around her. The blades of grass still and suspend in midair, as do a few of the errant chocobo feathers that flutter through the panic; more than that, every grain of dirt and moisture just seems to come to a perfect stillness.
A pair of large, leathery wings erupt from the foxgirl's back, accompanied by horns; one swept back along the sides of her head, the other two shorter nearer to her forehead. Light-aspected scales creep up her flesh as claws erupt at her feet and hands.
A hellion.
"... what is strength to you? I have all this power now, but... power doesn't excite me," Rixia does ask Amaterasu. "So many people compensate for their personal shortcomings with power... are you one of them? Show me."
GS: Rixia has attacked Rixia with Junction Magic! GS: Rixia has gained 3 Combo! GS: Rixia's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: Rixia accepts Rixia's Junction Magic for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Rixia! GS: Hyper applied to Rixia!
<Pose Tracker> Cirea has posed.
Cirea...
...did not get hired. What? Most people wouldn't hire HER as a guard. She's not imposing at all and that's half of the purpose of a guard: make it look protected so nobody attacks. The fact that she's actually quite dangerous does not actually matter; the point is to not have to fight.
So she didn't even try! Instead she just kind of hid on top of one of the caravans and hitched a ride. She can fly, but she doesn't want to fly cross-country if she can hitch a ride.
Right now she's on one of the cloth-covered wagons, stretched out on it like a hammock, a little fairy-sized sack that contains her stuff up there with her. A rather scratchy hammock, now that she thinks about it; this cloth, thick and rough, is meant as a cover and not as something you touch for comfort. But it is easier than flying the whole way, and unless someone else climbs on top of the covered wagon she's not likely to get caught. (And even if they did, what would they do? It's not like she was taking anything of theirs.)
The quietness of the trip certainly didn't bother her. It let her laze around (what she is currently doing) and fix a rip in some of her other clothes (what she was doing earlier). But right now is lazy time, so she is not entirely awake when Amaterasu makes her loud declaration and causes Cirea to suddenly sit bolt upright.
"What?" she asks, rubbing at her eyes before hopping to her feet. She walks, not flies, to the edge of the wagon and looks down, hands on her hips. "What do you even WANT?" Amaterasu was pretty clear about that actually!
Magic goes out and it's not Cirea's. Cirea actually does not immediately go on the offense; she gathers power, drawing an eight-pointed star in front of her in lines of light, a loop around it to hold the energy just so...
And THEN she releases it, a sparkling beam of light tinged with red and brown from the gathered energy from the spells Lily and Ethius released. It doesn't touch anything Rixia does, and in fact Cirea hops away from it as if burned, mostly out of surprise.
GS: Cirea has attacked Amaterasu with Gather Energy! GS: Cirea has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cirea has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu takes a solid hit from Cirea's Gather Energy for 110 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
It is true that there are mighty Fiends in this land -- in this part of Spira. If it was a fight Amaterasu sought, she would be sure to find it. And yet, to fight a Fiend is a different thing than fighting a human, or indeed, a Veruni. It is not simply 'sport' she is after, here and now.
So she takes the easiest route she believe exists to find the trial she desires. Once, testing her edge had been simpler; once, Spira had been in the middle of a war. Now, though... now she must create her battles herself.
For her part, Amaterasu makes no move towards the chocobos or the carts; as the hired guards protecting this caravan make their appearance, her attention appears to focus solely on them.
"I remember you," she says to Lily as she makes her appearance. "...Good. If you have grown more powerful, then show me your strength!"
Just like that, there is fire. Amaterasu raises her arm as the rolling flame reaches her; it coils about her armored forearm and blows on past. Yet, Amaterasu's armor still burns. Throwing her arm out to her side, she thus snuffs the flame; only discolored patches show that it had been. But, Lily does have at least one ally--
Before her head can so much as snap his way, a cloud of dust is thrown in her direction. It would have been nothing to her suit, yet--
"Hrn," Amaterasu vocalizes and here, that faceplate slides up to reveal her faint frown. "Technology interference... a clever thought," she remarks; even Valkyrja's blade sizzles a bit from the dust's effect. "No matter. I did not train so I could be so easily bested. Come, show me your all!"
There is another familiar face among this caravan: here is again Rixia, perhaps all of a day or two removed from their last meeting. "It did not," Amaterasu says, gazing at Rixia as she transforms with cold eyes. "I saw but a sample of your power the before. If you have inherited power, then... show me what it is that you can do."
She became familiar with Malevolence, with Hellions, during the war. Yet, she has but fleeting experience in comparison with her many decades with fighting such. This, too, may be of use in the days to come.
"But you asked me a question and I shall answer-- strength is the power to protect my people and to do what is right. To do what is necessary."
Three opponents, thus runs Amaterasu's mental calculus. Three to use as her whetstone--
There are in fact four, as Cirea, rudely awakened, makes clear.
This gives Amaterasu considerable pause. "... You are not the first of that like I have encountered, and yet... What are you?" She doesn't (immediately) answer Cirea's question.
Amaterasu, in all her decade and a half (and then some) of life has only recently encountered faeries. And in spite of their respective differences in scale (Amaterasu is on the tall side, even for a Veruni woman; Cirea is perhaps a foot in height) Cirea proves that this does not mean she should be taken lightly. In fact--
Even as Amaterasu begins to move forward in a dash, Cirea finishes pulling up the remnants of Lily and Ethius' spells. It catches Amaterasu dead-on, stunning her for a single moment.
"...Good," she says, in that instant afterwards.
Then, Amaterasu is skyborn.
BGM: Etrian Odyssey IV Super Arrange - Battlefield - Storm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCZjnuS6ESc
She falls in a diving arc. Valkyrja's light leads the assault as she moves; shadows and phantoms trail in her wake as if to carve a reminder of where she has been. She thus strikes at each of them in sequence: at Lily, at Ethius, at Rixia.
Here at her journey's end does she stop and regard Cirea.
"What do I want? This battle," she declares, sweeping her ARM forward; a curved beam of light erupts to cross the distance where she now stands and the space Cirea occupies.
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Lily Keil with Casus Belli! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Rixia with Casus Belli! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Casus Belli! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter! GS: That attack doesn't exist. [] GS: Amaterasu has attacked Cirea with Sine Qua Non! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu takes 37 damage from Poison! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Amaterasu's Casus Belli for 117 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Guard bonus activated! GS: Rixia solidly guards Amaterasu's Casus Belli for 54 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Amaterasu! GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Amaterasu's Casus Belli for 178 hit points! GS: Cirea suffers a terrible blow from Amaterasu's Sine Qua Non for 144 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Ethius's power, Lily expected. Rixia's she does not. The rise of Malevolence gets a sharp look from the mercenary, who immediately draws up to her full height in alarm. But as it turns out, it's not directed at her; she's asking these questions of Amaterasu...
Light.
Amaterasu responds to her, and Lily's attention snaps back to her. "I will."
Ethius's strategy makes sense to her; meanwhile, Cirea's magic is fascinating, the way it draws on her own spell's energy. "Power," Lily answers. "...She's right. Power is the strength to defend those close to you. Power is the strength to decide your own destiny."
"To decide for yourself what is 'necessary', instead of having it imposed on you by others."
Amaterasu comes down, next--and scythes against Lily, her armored jacket slashed through easily and a spray of blood hitting the grass below. It should be a fatal wound, but for Lily, it isn't. Those phantoms she deflects, and instead--
Lily gets back to her feet where she'd hit one knee. "...Right," she says. "I'll show you--"
"Stasis!"
Lily throws out her hand, and wills the particles around Amaterasu to start to slow, those phantoms to weaken for an instant, the very heat in the air to snuff out until ice shatters the air between them.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Amaterasu with Entropy! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu suffers a terrible blow from Lily Keil's Entropy for 148 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Amaterasu! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Ethius and Lily are both some of the first Drifters Rixia ever met, and since then, she's engaged with Ethius on other matters regarding people beyond this star. To have them here is...
Is it a coincidence?
But her attention is drawn to the fairy that gathers power from the ambient magic -- a process that Rixia's very well acquainted with by now, given the Sleeping Lion's powers-- and the beam of light is indeed a force to be reckoned with.
But Amaterasu gives her an answer, speaking of her inherited power... and gives her an answer.
"... you're right," Rixia quietly says in answer to both Lily and Amaterasu. "Perhaps with this... I can find my own eternity. But it needs to be honed, and since you're offering..."
Amaterasu's in the air, moments later, descending into a driving arc, seeking to strike directly at her--
And she throws that field of Stillness outwards, which serves to slow the warrior's approach towards her and dull the fierce and unstoppable momentum coming her way, enough for her guard to be up. It's not entirely enough; there's a grimace as Rixia's blown back a few feet.
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FVWaOVA6Xg )
"... I'll learn how to wield this power."
Hovering several inches above the ground, Rixia waits until Amaterasu's attention is split towards one of the other allies she's inevitably gained in this skirmish, and leaning forward--
--she disappears, only to reappear at the Veruni's flank with her left claw wrenched back; a sphere of purple-black gravity is charged in her palm, which she seeks to drive straight into the centre-mass of Amaterasu's torso.
"Crush."
GS: Rixia has attacked Amaterasu with Revolver Gravija! GS: Rixia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rixia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius spares a glance as Rixia's area of effect expands and a smaller passenger previously unnoticed makes thesmelves known.
"This is an elite Veruni warrior," he gives warning to them perhaps a little too late, "I would adv--"
Amaterasu's zeal is quick, decisive, and isn't treating his words as a free action as she takes to the air. A hastily conjured Symbological shield is brought up exactly *at* the point of impact(s) which is too late to fully blunt it, tossing Ethius in a tumble across the space where his only grace is that he lands upright in a kneel.
Amaterasu is better equipped, stronger, faster, and - most dangerously - aware of his capabilities.
Even so, his eyes narrow as he rises.
"The people of Spira and those traversing upon it are not for your sport." He moves in, tumbling underneath the curved beam of light intended for Cirea and not himself, finishing in another kneel as he finishes fluttering his fingers and slurring the syllables to another successful spellcast in motion - a masterful feat in his discipline.
"Optic Flare!" He calls, throwing a beam of searing, blinding, flame, doing it again-- "Optic Flare!"
A third time.
It's spammable, but he halts himself when he sees Rixia appearing at Amaterasu's flank.
GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Amaterasu with Optic Flare! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Amaterasu takes a glancing hit from Rixia's Revolver Gravija for 84 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Jam blocked! GS: Mighty applied to Rixia! GS: FP up! Countermeasures, Evade bonus, and Gleam activated! GS: Amaterasu solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Optic Flare for 38 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Interrupt applied to Amaterasu! GS: Jam blocked! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Amaterasu has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Cirea has posed.
Rixia is unsettling to Cirea in a way the other two aren't, for she is very definitely spiritually alert enough to see through the Malevolence to the Hellion beneath. She stays away from her, and the Stillness; safer to stick with the others.
Fairies, to many people, are a myth, a legend, or at least a story. They say there are several places in the oceans of Aquvy where you might find one, if you're lucky, and some people claim that they have; Meribians say the same thing about their homeland, though if anything they're even less common there.
And yet here's one, hopping off the roof of the wagon to let her wings catch her as Cirea decides *not* to use it for cover.
"My name is Cirea," she says, which doesn't answer the question. "I'm a sorceress on a journey, if that's what you want to know - and I'm a fairy!" That does. "But if it's power you want, I'm not all that bad - ack!"
The beam of light, cutting at her, hits Cirea - hits a hastily fielded structure of light and air in front of her. It's designed to disperse the incoming light, but instead it mostly explodes as it's overcharged, sending Cirea backwards with a more pained yelp.
But Cirea is already doing something, the tension of an Althenean mage surrounding her as she twists magic just so -
Behind Amaterasu, a whirling pillar of green-yellow air erupts, a howling tornado. But it doesn't push - it pulls, dragging her towards it and making it hard to move as it constantly tries to grip her and hold her back. "I'll show you what I know about magic!" It's only fair, Cirea considers; she has to keep the caravan safe after she hitched a ride.
They might not have hired her, but she pays her debts anyway.
GS: Cirea has attacked Amaterasu with Tornado Hold! GS: Cirea has gained 2 Combo! GS: Cirea has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu takes a glancing hit from Cirea's Tornado Hold for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Amaterasu! GS: Quick applied to Cirea! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
Amaterasu's green eyes narrow as Lily speaks in agreement about this definition of 'power', and ever so slightly, a thin smile snakes its way onto her face.
"Yes. Without power, one cannot hope to persist in this world! ...Or keep safe what is dear."
It's a smile that only grows as Rixia comes to agree with Lily and Amaterasu's apparently shared view. "Yes. You have potential, but that potential is wasted so long as you do not test yourself," she tells her, a critical eye on Rixia all the while.
"A 'fairy'... I see. And a sorceress. Until recently, I had not encountered such as you. Your artes, too, are unfamiliar to me. ...All the better, I should think."
All the better, for she knows not what she will face should she continue down a particular course ahead of her.
Light crosses the distance from Amaterasu to Cirea, and in that same moment, the very molecules of the air begin to slow around Amaterasu. Light, of course, escapes the trap, but being subject to more basic physics than that, Amaterasu soon finds that she cannot move her body. For but an instant, she is encased in ice.
The ice soon begins to crack, shards then chunks of her prison beginning to fall away. Flame seers away the lingering frost as Amaterasu breaks free: flame followed by flame and flame again. "This is not sport," she says to Ethius, deadly serious. "This is our shared trial. Let us together find our strength--"
Where is Rixia now? It's not on her that Amaterasu focuses, her attention stolen by Ethius and Lily both.
Why, Rixia is right here. Nearly too late, Amaterasu turns sharply to her right; she twists her body in an echo of an ancient dance. Here, the clawing grasp of Rixia's gravity goes scraping across Amaterasu's armor. She pulls away, parting from her 'dance partner'
Her expression is hard as she lands, leveling Valkyrja before her. "Hmm," she muses.
She does not have long to consider thus: a storm arises behind her and it is all she can do, initially, to keep her position steady let along escape being sucked into the vortex.
But when she surges forward, she surges with force. Hitting a target such as Cirea will indeed be a test of Amaterasu's skill, even as she swings Valkyrja in a wide arc, the better to catch such a small target.
She does not stop. Leaping again skyward, she touches down but yards from where Ethius stands and closes the distance. Here, though, it is not her blade that she introduces to him but the metal pole of Valkyrja's body. Her goal is to batter him, to knock him down--
To knock Lily down as she parts from him, introducing to her the end of her ARM in a cruel thrust. To break her and ruin her armor--
To wear down Rixia as she takes her leave from Lily, sweeping Valkyrja at her legs to render her prone, to thereby crush her. There are many ways to wage a war. At times, one must strike at the enemy's ability to sustain itself against attacks.
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Cirea with Animus Nocendi! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu's stances have changed from Avenger and Counter to Counter and Hero! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Rixia with Debellatio! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Debellatio! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Lily Keil with Debellatio! GS: Amaterasu takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Cirea suffers a terrible blow from Amaterasu's Animus Nocendi for 176 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Amaterasu! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lily Keil partially guards Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break and Slow applied to Lily Keil! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break and Slow applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Ethius Hesiod enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rixia suffers a terrible blow from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break and Slow applied to Rixia! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"A fairy," Lily repeats. She'd thought them myths. But apparently not. "Good to meet you. Forgive me if I skip the pleasantries under the circumstances." A sorceress on a journey... yes, that sounds familiar to Lily. She's the same, after all. And Rixia, who has potential, but is pretty different from how Lily remembers her. "'Eternity', is it?" Lily wonders. "That's a dangerous thing to look for."
But power isn't? Maybe it's not danger that's the concern. "...It's better that people like us are here to fight her, Hesiod. Instead of the people of Spira having to do it."
Not that she really minds. She welcomes the chance to test her magic. And so she will. But not before AMaterasu escapes her trap. Lily narrows her eyes, and then moves forward--only to be hit by the blunt ed of the Veruni weapon. She doesn't slow, letting it wreck her armor to give her a chance at casting close up. Shrugging out of the ruined jacket, Lily's strange circuit-like markings are on full display on her muscled arms, glowing violet as she changes tactics.
"If it's to be like that--"
"Let's see what I can do about attrition."
Shadows sharpen around each of them, a burst of power from Lily becoming offensive force to enhance each of her allies.
GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Cirea with Umbral Emanation! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Rixia with Umbral Emanation! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Umbral Emanation! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lily Keil with Umbral Emanation! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Cirea accepts Lily Keil's Umbral Emanation for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Regen applied to Cirea! GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Lily Keil! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lily Keil accepts Lily Keil's Umbral Emanation for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Regen applied to Lily Keil! GS: Mighty applied to Lily Keil! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Ethius Hesiod accepts Lily Keil's Umbral Emanation for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Regen applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Mighty applied to Lily Keil! GS: CRITICAL! Rixia accepts Lily Keil's Umbral Emanation for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Regen applied to Rixia! GS: Mighty applied to Lily Keil! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The talk of power correlating to hope to persist, or keep safe what is dear... perhaps, not wrong, but there's a reason he walks the path he does, he reminds himself as Amaterasu declares this a shared trial.
Even if Rixia is capable of taking care of herself, there is someone he is doing his damndest to protect her - and everyone else - from, in a situation right now where the least awful option is for her to hold onto something that should've never been brought to this place.
"If I am to oversee this trial, then I'll oversee the verdict and sentencing," Ethius is able to quip back that much just before Amaterasu takes to the skies. There's a spirited attempt to juke her within a fraction of a second, leaning to the right and then attempting to leap to the left to avoid ground zero of imminent impact.
Amaterasu stopped short of him to begin with, and he doesn't fully escape the swing of the pole. It feels like as much a humbling dress-down as the time she unleashed that rapid series of unfollowable blunt strikes to bring him and another to a kneel. With no traction mid-leap, he's rag-dolled again across the scenery with the grace that he's rolling along the softer parts of it.
The face covering he wears flies off, showing grit teeth and signs of physical exertion as he draws his staff to stand up. Shadows sharpen where the outlines begin between him and the sunlight, and there's a certain lightness he can't define behind it as Lily's words trail about how it's better people like them are here to fight her.
"You are not wrong," he concedes that much.
He gives a look over to the fairy sorceress over yonder. "I would advise flying lower," he doesn't say how much, gauging where Rixia's positioning is as he starts to once again channel forth his own sorcerous discipline unto the fold, stretching and flexing his fingers in difficult sequences as whatever else he chants is lost underneath some of the ambient sounds of battle or the faint thrum of Amaterasu's equipment.
"Dust Compress!" He calls on the completed spell, summoning all free-floating dust and detritus to rush towards and compress upon Amaterasu's position (minus any lost to having to cross Rixia's Domain of Stillness).
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Amaterasu with Dust Compress! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod gains 29 THP from Regen! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Ethius provides the gravity of the situation -- that this is an elite Veruni warrior. Rixia wasn't really going to underestimate her nonetheless, but...
Cirea introduces herself, highlighting herself as a sorceress. It's plain to see, with the control she has over her magic.
Was her father truly powerless? Perhaps he was... but it wasn't personal power that had a hold over him. It was the soft powers across the world, of personal obligation, of obligation to the state, and...
"... my power can't protect anyone. But... perhaps that was part of what had to be, when I let myself out," Rixia quietly says. "But it is true that those without power only end up being victims of this world..."
Amaterasu disengages from her with such adroitness that she can't chase, without risking herself being in the path of other magics -- but Amaterasu is inexorable, and even hovering, Valkyrja crashes onto her legs like a woodsman's axe, and she crumples onto the ground as a pile of logs would.
Lily's power brings her up, however. Rather voraciously, her power absorbs that which Lily has given, as she rises to her feet. Her shadow, playing against the stillness of her Light, seemingly clashing for a moment, and yet... light inextricably is shadow's double.
"I don't doubt it..." she remarks, before pausing to a lapse. "But... I won't let time get the better of me."
Then, she looks to Amaterasu, ignoring the throbbing pain in her legs. Her wings will have to make up for it. She focuses once more, and a sphere of bright, pure energy coalesces in her palm--
--and once more, she disappears, to reappear behind Amaterasu, where she moves to throw that sphere--
"Disappear."
--a feint, and she's warped opposite and slightly above, finishing her throwing motion that sends the sphere incandescently descending onto the ground, where it erupts with the seeming force of a star birthed into this universe, localised into a dome several metres in size.
GS: Rixia has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
<Pose Tracker> Cirea has posed.
"That's fine!" Cirea calls back to Lily. "I didn't see a human until I left home either so we're even! We can talk later!"
Cirea is really not any kind of defensive mage. She can't deflect the weapon of light; her usual defense against being shot or sliced is to buffer it with wind, but wind does nothing to something as intangible as that. And trying to do the same kind of defense with light - well, that takes practice and she's never done it.
So the arc of light strikes her, again; Cirea vanishes from sight entirely, and when it clears, she's not there at all!
Because she's dropped straight down to the ground, looking more than a little singed around the edges. The ribbon she wears like a belt, or a sash, or whatever decoration that is blackened at the tip. She needs a new one.
It's Lily's shadows that have saved her. Cirea can't manipulate those herself, only light, but she can take advantage of them when they're there. She lets the darkness surround her, reaching past it -
"Maybe you haven't seen these before, but in that case, I'll show you. - The breath of the world, released! Blow, winds! Howling Gale!"
A second whirlwind of green and yellow erupts just beneath Amaterasu's feet, a sudden surge to knock her off her feet. That alone would be bad enough, but it's followed by a downburst from the sky, an enormous blast to hammer her down into the dirt.
It might seem like that would disperse Ethius' dust. It does not; it picks up what he left behind, whirling it like a storm of tiny knives, a sandstorm ripping as much as the constant downblast of wind presses her down.
GS: Cirea has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Rixia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Rixia has attacked Amaterasu with Shockwave Pulsar! GS: Rixia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rixia gains 30 THP from Regen! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: Cirea spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Cirea has attacked Amaterasu with Howling Gale! GS: Cirea has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cirea gains 30 THP from Regen! GS: Cirea has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Dust Compress for 73 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Amaterasu solidly guards Rixia's Shockwave Pulsar for 258 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Gleam activated! GS: Amaterasu solidly guards Cirea's Howling Gale for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Cirea! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cripple, Jam, Poison, and Slow expired!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"Yes. Show me regardless," Amaterasu says, gesturing towards herself with her left hand. As so bid, Cirea does exactly that.
Has she seen these before--
In a manner of speaking, yes, though not through the means that the fairy now channels. This, unto itself, is a novel experience; Amaterasu leans into the wind as it roars about her; a single streak of red runs down one cheek when the storm ends.
"Thank you," she says to Cirea, twirling Valkyrja in hand. "Now, it is my turn--"
She lunges for the fairy with perhaps surprising force and haste, swinging her polearm blade overhead.
"You are... adept at countering technology," Amaterasu hisses out, swinging her weapon wide to sweep what she can of the dust and pressure aside. "Curious. Many humans are unfamiliar with such things." Outside gunsmoke ARMs, the most she's seen on display herself are best described as Solarian toys and other outliers. Yet to think someone not of Solaris would be adept at countering Veruni technology...
This time there is no escaping Rixia's attack. Even if Amaterasu tracks her closely, her ability to cross space itself at close range is a potent one and difficult to predict or even defend against outside reflex and instinct. While Amaterasu as a hardened veteran is indeed potent on these last two, potency does not guarantee invulnerability.
And there is the pressure of Ethius spell to take into account besides.
Sensing Rixia's appearance close by, Amaterasu makes a splitsecond decision but-- alas, she is slowed herself.
And there is light, all around. There is light and the majesty and strength of it forces Amaterasu to one knee. Gripping her Valkyrja as if it were a lifeline, she forces herself to her feet as the radiance fades.
"So this is the power of a Hellion... A Hellion and her allies." She shifts her grip on her ARM before she launches herself towards the heavens above. For an instant, she will seem to almost hang there in the air-- but it is an illusion. Amaterasu swings her Valkyrja as she begins to descent, driving back down to the land below. Light rains down about her, light joined by the rolling implosion of brillance that erupts outwards from the single point her blade touches upon striking the ground.
"And so you seek to strengthen your allies in this fight," Amaterasu says, rising from the crouch she had ended in as Lily emanates shadow. "A commendable tactic and counter to my attempt to weaken them. It is well to see that any forces you lead are prepared for the charge, but..."
Light itself seems to sharpen the edge of Amaterasu's Valkyrja. "Let me put that to the test!"
She breaks into a charge for Lily, cleaving at her once, twice, thrice. Each stroke of her ARM's edge is as brilliant as the sun, its trail seeming to cling to the stuff of the air itself however the blows may fall. Here, at the end, Amaterasu drops back, blade readied, as if in anticipation for the next attack to come her way.
GS: Amaterasu spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Cirea with Vis Major! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Rixia with Ex Aequo Et Bono! GS: Amaterasu has gained 3 Combo! GS: Amaterasu spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Ex Aequo Et Bono! GS: Amaterasu has gained 3 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Lily Keil with Trial De Novo! GS: Amaterasu enters a Counter stance! GS: Amaterasu has gained 2 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: Ethius Hesiod solidly guards Amaterasu's Ex Aequo Et Bono for 122 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Cirea solidly guards Amaterasu's Vis Major for 85 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Cirea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Amaterasu's Trial De Novo for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Ethius is adept with countering technology. It's one of the things Lily finds most reliable about him. ...Dangerous, too, but they'v ebeen through that. So 'not wrong' is good enough for her in the moment. "I'll take it."
Lily looks to Rixia for a moment--as she speaks of what her power can't do. "...Not sure I agree entirely," she says to her extrapolations on power. "Rixia!" She crumples, but then she's back up. That power absorbs her own... Yes, light and shadow are each sides of the same coin. Lily sees that.
Time, is it?
But Cirea, next, "Fair! We will! Once we drive the enemy off!"
"...You're good at working with other magic," Lily notes to Cirea. "That's handy."
She is probably the most physical of the mages present at the moment--and that may be necessary, in the next moment. She tries to maintain Amaterasu's attention, gambling that her support of others might bring retaliation.
"I'm an officer," Lily answers. "Lieutenant Keil, of the Black Wolves. Helping to lead is part of my job."
but Amaterasu puts it to the test; the RM itself cleaves through the air. Once, twice, thrice--Lily's hands suddenly become enshrouded in deeper shadow than the rest of her body, as she blocks the first, the second--
Takes the third slash head-on, slammed backward by its force, a great gash opening up on her arm. "...Heh," Lily says, and decides.. that arm needs to heal before it's going to be very helpful again.
"Light. You're good with it. ...But I have my own form of 'light'..."
"Like we agreed, I'll show you the poewr I've gained!" Lily says, and lits her free hand. The world wobbles; a sudden blur of force shimmers through the area, and then a point of brilliance appears between Lily and Amaterasu. "...A physical phenomenon..."
She closes her hand into a fist, and the point collapses in on itself--becoming a sudden, brilliant sunburst of light, a nova that causes a chain reaction that wil leave a crater in the plain when its golden explosion is spent.
"Can be manipulated!"
Boom. And in the aftermath, Lily wavers, blood trickling down her nose, her wounds otherwise already knitting together.
GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Amaterasu with Stellar Cauldron! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Recover! Break and Slow removed from Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil gains 30 THP from Regen! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: COUNTER! Amaterasu counterattacks Lily Keil with Ad Hoc! GS: Amaterasu solidly guards Lily Keil's Stellar Cauldron for 243 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Strain! Lily Keil takes 59 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Rixia solidly guards Amaterasu's Ex Aequo Et Bono for 154 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rixia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Rixia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Amaterasu's Ad Hoc for 102 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius can't quite gauge the effectiveness of what he just did due to having to cover his eyes from the blinding brightness of a newborn star (localized in a dome) and some of the whipping, whirling winds of a potent sorceress reaching him from where he stands. He decides to step back a ways before having to account for what it is Lily might add to the immense mixing of powers against a superior opponent in this place.
He can still smell the chocobos from here. He can never un-smell them. Euuugh.
The humor of the situation leaves him when he finds it in him to respond to the hissing. It is extremely curious when he carries himself as hardly more than a typical ruffian or sorcerer.
'Many humans are unfamiliar with such things.' There is a flash of a memory of a far younger himself, at the very twilight of an idyllic childhood in an underdeveloped planet he and his family never should have been at, struck at by Mecone thugs with striking memory of one face in particular.
"I am more familiar than you will ever know," an edge in the man's foice as Amaterasu repositions into the air. He hasn't much time to weave together the engraved spell somewhere on his person, its name lost to the explosion of impact of washing light as a deafening, blinding electrical shield flares outward. Light warps into various colors in its wake, a wash of immense heat against him on top of the sensory feedback of impact.
When it fades, there's faint burns on his person and some of his outfit burnt away to show some of the immaculate Symbological tattoo'ing work that makes up his spell suite, and a moment where he covers an arm over his upper chest in humility. (Humor aside, some of these might be state secrets.)
"You can draw your own conclusions," Ethius says when he regains his composure, moving in towards an Amaterasu where Lily is working dangerous magic. He weighs his odds, gauges what side Amaterasu favors, and with the striking, sharp gestures accompanying a difficult series of chants...
"Surge Bolt!"
A blast of electricity rushes forth, surging, trying to rush through any defense and dissuade hasty counterattack to try to pin Amaterasu where they stand and--
Well, he may be politely escorted out from the crater by the force of the blast from Lily's end which is... earned, for the risk.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Amaterasu with Surge Bolt! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod gains 31 THP from Regen! GS: Break and Slow expired! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Amaterasu suffers a terrible blow from Ethius Hesiod's Surge Bolt for 219 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Interrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Amaterasu has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Cirea has posed.
Lily compliments her, and Cirea has to say: "I learned the hard stuff from books! There wasn't anyone else as good as me around to practice with... but it was written by an archmage, and *he* used more elements than I can!"
No wonder there's so much about working with other elements... Cirea presumably read the lessons even if she couldn't make use of them herself, and knows how to leave gaps in her own spells to take advantage of elements she can't produce or manipulate.
It's a bit of a bad time for a scholarly discussion on magic, though. What with the violence.
Cirea is, for multiple reasons, not exactly very adept at physical combat. She's tiny; she weighs about a pound, every human, demihuman, and near-human outweighs her a hundred times over or more. She knows how to use a knife, a little bit, but mostly as a tool; her magic's always done it for her.
So her reaction to having Amaterasu come in and swing is to yell and release a tremendous burst of wind to throw herself up and away and maybe push the polearm out of line.
The result: Cirea goes flying, clipped by the blade and tumbling end over end. It takes her several meters to catch her flight and even out, and she's still breathing hard, wings fluttering.
"I'm not with the Hellion! I don't even know her!" She's seen her before, though, hasn't she? Cirea shoots Rixia a look but doesn't really want to get into that right now, either. "But I am really tired of people just kind of showing up and demanding we show our strength. That's not strength at all, that's bullying."
Cirea cracks her knuckles, light dancing over her. She twirls in place, setting up a magical circle around her, that eight-pointed star back at about ankle level - but this time it's more complex, runes settling in around it to make a second circle around *that*, a complicated layered structure.
Despite that it still feels slightly spontaneous, a little loose - Cirea learned it, but she's casting it her way, not with rigid stability.
"A thousand thousand lights in the sky above - name one and call it forth! From night to day, a star touched by another - Twinkle Star!"
Next to Lily's sphere of light, a second appears, silvery-white like starlight or moonlight in opposition to Lily's gold. It churns, barely contained but without eruption - until a second blast of light, trailing a comet tail of energy, slams into it, causing the whole thing to surge and flash bright enough to starkly light up the battlefield on the Calm Lands with intense white!
GS: Cirea has attacked Amaterasu with Twinkle Star! GS: Cirea has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cirea gains 33 THP from Regen! GS: Cirea has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Amaterasu soars, once more; the ease in which she takes to the air is commendable and formidable, indeed, and they're both playing with feints -- Rixia through teleportation, and Amaterasu through illusion, which slows the response she has to the attack long enough that she's driven back by the Light as her blade touches upon the ground. It takes a full-strength barrier from the Sleeping Lion to not just simply be washed away, which crackles and hisses and ultimately collapses after all is said and done.
"... I won't let myself be defeated by Light," Rixia murmurs, feeling the full strain withering against her body.
Lily Keil, of the Black Wolves... she is fit to lead, as she's demonstrated. Lily, too, creates a power not unlike that of a nova, and while Lily has Amaterasu's attention, she begins the charge of her own spell.
Ethius' familiarity with technology is known to her... one that she's not putting to and at the forefront, in favour of her own Hellion powers. But it is there, assisting behind the scenes, holding her body together and strengthening it.
And Cirea's own magic is as fascinating as it is foreign to her, the single-element intuitive caster, who doesn't really have the means to branch out all that much other than sheer tutelage. But Magilou can work miracles, so a sorcerer she may make out of her one day...
'The hellion.' Yes... that's how people will refer to her, from this day on.
She repeats the process -- disappearing once more. She understands Amaterasu to be quite quick on her opponent's habits, so she relies on the thinking that she'll play feint upon feint upon feint--
"How's this...?"
--and not the direct path of simply teleporting in front of her, spell ready and primed. Her eyes gleaming, as she swiftly slides in as both Lily and Ethius' spells run their course.
"All existence denied," she intones, as she plants her hand to the ground, and an ancient mandala of spellcasting surrounds both she and the elite Veruni warrior. Swiftly, from that centre of power at the core of her palm, energy runs across each intricate filigree and curve of the mandala--
"An end to the heart..."
Light rises in curtains through the curves, the Forbidden Magic threatening to unravel a localised apocalypse of mystic proportions.
"... and an end to memories."
GS: Rixia spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Rixia has attacked Amaterasu with End of Heart! GS: Rixia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rixia gains 26 THP from Regen! GS: Break and Slow expired! GS: Rixia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Amaterasu solidly guards Cirea's Twinkle Star for 107 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Cirea! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu solidly guards Rixia's End of Heart for 319 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Jam applied to Amaterasu! GS: Hyper applied to Rixia! GS: Charge!! You gain 70 FP! (That's 55 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Countermeasures, Charge bonus, and Gleam activated! GS: Strain! Rixia takes 69 damage! GS: Amaterasu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"For now, yes," she says to Ethius. However today might go, it seems, his is a secret she may seem to unearth in time -- if but for the good of her people.
Even what she attempts now is for the good of her people. To hone the blade that is herself. To prepare for the action to come. To steel herself in anticipation of unforseen powers and obstacles.
Amaterasu wrinkles her brow. "Yet, you can defend yourself," she says to Cirea. "I will not fight those who cannot fight back. By contrast, you have conducted yourselves admirably in this trial." She really doesn't see the problem here. Is it... are all Veruni like this? Is this a reason why they attempted to conquer the world after their arrival?
"An officer... yes, I remember how you behaved before. There is not much difference, in the end, between what 'we' do and what 'you' do on a battlefield." There are some of their number who would do well to remember that.
And remember that what is freely given may be at any time returned in kind.
There is no exhortation as Lily, wounded, first heals herself and then states she'll make good on her promise. Amaterasu simply inclines her head in a nod. What is freely given may at any time be returned in kind. In this case, it's light for light. It's that core chain reaction for the hardened edge of illumination that serves as Amaterasu's blade.
There is an explosion, a deafening roar of force and energy. In the aftermath, Amaterasu sways but does not fall.
Maybe it is just as well that Lily maintains Amaterasu's attention, for in the next instance she returns tit for tat, diving for Lily with the bladed end of her Valkyrja.
It may also be just as well that in this instant, Ethius' spell strikes home even as the man himself is carried away on the edges of the explosion as it rolls ever outwards. However her blade takes Lily, his spell oturight knocks Amaterasu backwards, finally dropping her to the ground. She rises swiftly, hearing Rixia's voice and perhaps sensing her approach. Light has begun to carve its mark onto the very earth itself, forcing Amaterasu to make a split-second decision about where she had ought to stand -- or where she can even reach in this moment. Here there comes another light, running its course through the magic circle.
Here, Amaterasu finds herself transfixed by an apocalypse.
Another might have died. Another might have been rended unconscious. Another would have been left bleeding and battered, barely hanging on. Amaterasu is on her knees, using her weapon as her support, but she is neither wounded nor unconscious nor dead. She lifts her head and gazes at Rixia. "The power of Hellions is... fearsome," she says, levering herself up onto her feet again. "But it will never be mine to take. I should hope my next opponent has not one such as you in their ranks--"
Cirea finishes the last sentence of her spell and this forces Amaterasu's attention elsewhere. Gripping Valkyrja tightly, she has but a moment to consider her position and the storm of stars that begins to swirl and coalesce overhead.
Amaterasu lifts a hand to cover a section of her armor above her chest and gazes up into the silvery light as it descends upon her.
She rises slowly in the aftermath, caked in dust and using her polearm again as if it were a cane. She cannot help but cough once, wetly. "Fortune smiles upon me," she says, baring her teeth in a shark-tooth grin. "We are not on Filgaia's soil." Her armor sparks, as if to speak to the damage that last spell had inflicted. "Enough. I have seen enough. I see where I am lacking... and where I am prepared."
Stiffly, leaning heavily on her Valkyrja as support, she bows to them as best she is able.
"Perhaps we shall meet again. I hope that you have grown more powerful when next we meet."
She turns and though she may use her weapon as her support and though she may drag one leg in a slight limp--
The rising mirage of twisting spirits and phantoms that coats what had been a battlefield may well disguise her retreat.