2023-10-20: The Dark Knight Returns
- Log: The Dark Knight Returns
- Cast: Siegfried, Leah Sadalbari, Seraphita, Azoth, Loren Voss
- Where: Sylvaland
- Date: October 20, 2023
- Summary: A monitoring station operated by Solaris in Sylvaland suddenly goes silent.
DC: Loren Voss switches forms to Gebler Medic Loren! DC: Tolone switches forms to Wind Element Tolone! DC: Seraphita switches forms to Element of Fire Seraphita! DC: Azoth switches forms to WARNING: OVERRIDE ACTIVATED!
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Solaris operates monitoring stations throughout Filgaia. They offer a way to track communications, large scale movements, and military activity; a way of having control that they rarely advertise.
This one, in Sylvaland, went silent an hour ago.
This is often the actions of Shevat or the Veruni. But something about this one was different; the radio call to Etrenank said, only, that a single armored individual was attacking. Shortly after, it went quiet.
When they arrive, they find rubble.
The entire building has been collapsed. The large satellite dish has been cleaved in half; the metal frame of the antenna is a bent, crumpled mess on the ground.
The attacker is hard to spot, at first. He rises from the rubble, where he had been sitting -- and he swings his blade off his shoulder.
A human, at first glance; some six feet tall, but clad in armor. The armor is familiar, though; dark blue, though parts are now stained black and gold. It is sleeker, but the cut is familiar. As is the blade: one wielded by Janus Cascade, with an eye near the hilt, and a jagged black, grey, and blue.
It is Glumzambor, the Dark Spear.
And it is wielded, again, by Siegfried. He rises, and crimson eyes -- glinting, reflectively -- looking from behind his helmet. His blade is lifted, and he readies himself.
For his ancient enemy; for those he knew would come.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
One hour ago, a monitoring station went entirely silent. It was not long thereafter that a party was put together to investigate. On this...
Yes. One individual in armor. The Watcher would lead this party, and bring some of their best oepratives.
NOW:
The enemy comes. A silent ship slams against the shore, and suddenly a great metal door slams open, from which Solaris's team emerges. A set of guards, first, with their weapons out, Ether at the ready, to secure the landing site.
Then, out strides a woman in black. The Watcher over the Shepherds, in her dark armor as ever, carrying a gigantic sword on her back. But it is not that sword. No... She sees it.
"So, you are alive." Her distorted voice is familiar.
"This is your warning, then?"
She directs her companions; out, onto the grounds.
"For you knew we could not but respond."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita actually has been to quite a few of Solaris' monitoring stations, because - when she's on a certain type of task - they make a convenient staging ground.
It may seem a little strange to have one of the Elements out and talking to the -Lambs-. But really, except for the Drifters who've met her, who's going to assume the friendly, cheerful, slightly weird rabbit woman is on an information-gathering trip for a humans-first sky city's army? She blends in - and, more importantly, she's not so antagonistic to the surface-dwellers that she can't have a normal conversation with them.
But she wasn't here today. She was some distance out, at a different facility, and she only got redirected to meet up with the ship at almost the last moment she could; much more and Seraphita would have missed it as it ran silent and fast.
Seraphita, being an Element and thus definitionally one of the most powerful sorceresses in Solaris, bounds out toward the front of the group. She's already got Ether in hand, though it may not be entirely obvious unless you look at her for a moment; the clenched fist wavers like it's in a heat haze, the fire-aspected Ether controlled and contained well enough that that's the only sign.
It goes against how she taught Loren how to look at fire - to be able to bottle it up like that - but when you are the expert, you get the advanced techniques.
"You can't just cut down an entire building like that! What about all the people who were inside? What did they ever do to you?" Seraphita's approach, apparently, is to... scold Siegfried. Not that there are many people inside these remote stations, in most cases, but 'not many' is a long way from 'zero'. "What did you even want from them?!"
A momentary pause. Barely a beat, just enough time for Seraphita to catch her breath, before she continues, "Also, you're dead. Are you a ZOMBIE SIEGFRIED? Because I heard that zombies and ghosts come out this time of year, and you're definitely not a ghost because, uh... you're not see-through?"
She's still spinning up the fire Ether. She's doing something with it, the other Ether-users can tell - it isn't immediately visible, but she's not just wasting time for no reason.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth comes when he is called. That is not a function anyone needs doubt. He is there with the Watcher, not looking anything like a human, but the facade done away with and the machine looking like he's in his own suit of armor at glance. It takes only a second look to see the cords and wires of his innards and legs that do not bend like a man's. He waits in the ship, claws clicking one after another against the edge of the ship until they arrive.
He waits for Leah's direction to drop down, not quite landing as the ground seems to reject him, leaving him floating a few inches from it. For now, he remains no more than a few steps away from Loren where he can help it -- though steps is a guideline. Azoth continues to glide.
The antenna of his head of a helmet perk up and swivel like a beast's ears as he regards the rubble. One could project a sense of interest onto such a mannerism. One could also not do that.
Red light fills Azoth's visor as he observes this possible target, scanning over a familiar weapon but a less familiar wielder. There's enough similarities and enough information Azoth's gathered via osmosis to understand. No, not that this is Siegfried, enemy of Solaris, and someone who should be dead. What he understands more than that is that this is very likely a member of Riesenlied's family.
But Azoth is a weapon.
He is only a command away from being wielded.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's funny, sometimes, how much something can change in a moment. It's a lesson that Loren has learned often throughout his life, and yet each time it feels as if he's been taught it afresh. Everytime there is routine that has proceeded just long enough for it to be violently torn asunder. One moment, he's grumbling over paperwork.
In the next, he's learned that something terrible has almost certainly happened.
He went to school with a couple of the people stationed at Urartu. Not friends, no -- no one he went to Jugend with is a friend -- but it doesn't mean that the realization passes without emotion. Communication doesn't just drop into complete silence, not after a reported attack. Just one individual -- could it be...?
When Sadalbari's orders come in moments later, whatever Loren might feel about the campaign to come, he keeps it to himself. He's a soldier -- an officer. He was well-trained to carry out his orders, whatever they might be and entail.
"Was that Urartu? It's..." Completely leveled, he doesn't say. He can't see how anyone got out of there alive, he doesn't say. There, as their ship grinds towards the shore, he can see at last the silhouette of a figure amidst the ruins, and there, as the smoke clears, he can see them clearly.
It's not the Demon of Elru that stands there amidst the rubble, but such a realization engenders no relief for Loren. The figure that stands as if to challenge them should be dead -- must be a walking corpse. "No... how?" he utters in shock, suddenly taken back all those years to a battle atop the Photosphere, to the ice and the cold and the pain. Loren himself had nearly died from a wound that Siegfried had inflicted, and by that very blade he now bears in his hand and suddenly, even the body-armor of a Solaris field operation uniform feels far too slight for the mission ahead.
The man before them should be dead. The man before them has laid waste to an entire base. But even so, Loren won't run away.
"...Major," he says, sliding his helmet's visor into place. He's ready, even so.
DC: Leah Sadalbari switches forms to The Watcher Eternal!
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Siegfried looks towards the woman who killed him. He looks at her, and he doesn't feel fear -- fear is largely alien to him -- but there is something. An acknowledgement of danger; an acknowledgement that he took things too far.
"I died," he says, glancing at Loren. Confirming what Loren thinks -- and all but says. "And I was brought back. But I did not come to deliver a warning."
He levels Glumzambor towards them. "I came to deliver a prologue."
His head turns towards Seraphita. When his eyes look at her, the light catches them, and they gleam in a metallic way. "I didn't check," he says. "Nor did I intend to. We are -- and we remain -- at war."
He doesn't answer if he is a zombie. (Or a ghost.) And his helmet hides his face, beyond the faint reflection of his eyes. "I've returned, and it's all that you need to know."
But he is different. The person that Loren fought stood well over seven feet; he was broad-shouldered, just too large to be human. This is a man of six feet, and his frame is slimmer than the one Siegfried had before. He has changed, somehow.
He lifts his left arm, the right hand gripping Glumzambor. The forearm plate lifts, showing the short, snub-nosed cannon that was hidden under the armor. A pulse of white-blue light explodes out, hurtling towards the Watcher.
Then, Siegfried charges. He can see that Seraphita is doing something with fire Ether; he cannot tell what, but experience with battling Ether users taught him to not wait. He sprints towards her, and swings Glumzambor out one-handed.
Despite its size, it moves fast -- and he does a long, sweeping slash across her, as he spins on one heel. As he does, light gleams off his blade -- then jumps off it. It's a twisting edge of blue, pale green, and pale gold light that hurtles towards Loren.
He finishes his turn, then looks at the fourth here. Unfamiliar to him -- and silent, too. Azoth is scanning him, and he narrows his eyes -- and then there's a flicker from the eye in Glumzambor, before a crackling black-and-white cone of light erupts from the eye. It scans across Azoth, unless he ducks away.
And it burns -- a light that seems to pry through armor, that bombards him with a strange radiation.
"A new tool of Solaris," he says. "No matter."
DC: Siegfried switches forms to The Knight of Gunmetal!
GS: Siegfried has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Ion Cannon! GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo! GS: Siegfried's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Siegfried spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Siegfried has attacked Azoth with Eliminate Scanner! GS: Siegfried has attacked Seraphita with Feather-Light Sweep! GS: Siegfried has gained 2 Combo! GS: Siegfried has attacked Loren Voss with Negative Lance! GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo! GS: Siegfried has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari critically guards Siegfried's Ion Cannon for 48 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Siegfried! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Azoth solidly guards Siegfried's Eliminate Scanner for 58 hit points! GS: Azoth's Poison Ward may block the effect! GS: Reaper applied to Azoth! GS: Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Loren Voss partially guards Siegfried's Negative Lance for 106 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Seraphita takes a solid hit from Siegfried's Feather-Light Sweep for 192 hit points! GS: Cover and Riposte applied to Siegfried!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
The Major is aware of Riesenlied's familiar relationship with Siegfried. It will change nothing in her orders to Azoth. It will change nothing in how she interacts. ...And, she believes, Riesenlied would be aware of that.
In the moment, though, she looks back. She looks back at Siegfried, a man she once killed and yet who is here. She did not kill him easily. That was then...
"We are at war," the Major agrees. "Casualties are ours to consider, today."
And there, a cannon. The light explodes outward, and Leah puts up her hands, crossing her arms in front of her to block the blast. It is a powerful attack, and it scythes through the armor on her arms, stopped there but not without cost: flesh bubbles and bones crack.
Then, begin to to weave together again, to heal, as she lowers her arms and flesh is exposed through what was armor.
"You are not the only one changed, Siegfried."
"ORDERS!" she calls. "Azoth, Voss, Seraphita. You are to subdue the enemy by any means necessary. Everyone else, make a perimeter."
"The first man to let through reinforcements will answer to me."
Leah rushes forward then, reaching back to gather up her blade. It's as big as she is, and she pulls it one-handed, swinging her other hand toward its hilt as she lifts it from the ground--
And hacks upward diagonally. "You are obsolete, Siegfried. Your presence in this world is no longer required."
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Siegfried with Violent Rise! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: Siegfried takes a solid hit from Leah Sadalbari's Violent Rise for 122 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Leah Sadalbari!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita's glad she's not the only one here - having Loren and Azoth is reassuring, even if Azoth is looking like he currently is. (Having Leah here, in contrast, is a bit like having a landslide on your side; you're glad it isn't pointed at you, but you don't really want to be in it.)
"You could have left a note!" is Seraphita's response to that. "A prologue's part of a story, so get writing!"
Seraphita gets her orders, and they were about what she was going to do anyway. She doesn't verbally respond to them because she's a little busy prepping her Ether, and when Siegfried comes at her she's ready.
Well, almost ready; the blade catches Seraphita anyway, though she rolls with the blow rather than let it bisect her. She tumbles, coming up with a handspring off the ground, landing surprisingly well for someone who's *already* injured and, unlike Leah, does not immediately heal from it.
Then she opens her still-balled left hand. "Got it~"
Seraphita makes a pulling gesture, and energy pulls away from Siegfried. Ambient Ether, a little bit, but it digs deeper, pulling at the energies in Glumzambor, in his armour; the cannon in his arm, the light in the sword itself, the power surrounding him. She pulls it all away from him, as much as she can.
It comes to her and surrounds Seraphita like a just-visible aura. At first it's a faint glow, but then it ignites, leaving her in the center of a bubble of weird multicoloured flame - reds, sure, but blues and greens and yellows too. She keeps the variety of energies moving, never letting them burn out while she draws upon them, using them to feed her own Ether.
GS: Seraphita has attacked Siegfried with Ether Drain! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita has launched an attack Link! GS: Seraphita has attacked Seraphita with Burning Heart! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: Siegfried fully evades Seraphita's Ether Drain for 0 hit points! GS: Mute and Weaken blocked! GS: Seraphita accepts Seraphita's Burning Heart for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Surge applied to Seraphita! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He'd died, and yet, had escaped the unyielding coil of mortality. Such a thing shouldn't be possible. Of course, Loren himself has attempted a similar trick as near as he dares: stopping his heart to fake his own death for a time. Life and death are not so starkly removed from one another as some might think.
But even so, that gambit of his had been no 'true' death. The Demon had died that day, Loren is certain, and yet, Siegfried had crawled his way back. Undeath, Unsent -- there are possibilities yet that might serve as explanation but even Loren doesn't consider them long. No: he knows it already. He can see it. The Demon Siegfried yet breathes.
Still-- something isn't right. Hadn't Siegfried been... larger? Broader? It seems impossible, and yet, he can't help but think that he's certain it hadn't been this way before. Do Metal Demons change their shape? Had death reduced him, somehow, as payment for his return?
he does not have long to consider it.
Once, he would have shouted in alarm as Leah is struck so, forcefully enough to audibly shatter bone and melt flesh. Once, but no longer: what had been no longer is. She is restored unto her own eternity in the span of heartbeats. This is Leah's reality now.
He is not unshaken by this fact. Neither is Loren utterly unnerved. Her orders take precedence.
The dead take precedence.
The dead, which may as well include Siegfried, after a fashion.
Loren has not long to consider it, at all. Light gleams from Siegfried's blade and Loren, throwing out a hand, absorbs the brunt of the shock with the hard-edged crystalline barrier that erupts before him. Unintentionally, he'd put more force into its creation than he'd meant, the backlash of forces spent and absorbed washing over him. He winces, faintly; he hadn't meant to try as hard as that. And yet, the body remembers as much as his mind would rather not.
"...Don't take this one lightly, ma'am!" he calls to Seraphita. Green light swells at his feet, gathering in a widening swell as his magic circle grows. Like paired arms, two-dimensional planes of light grow outwards from the outer edge of the ring, snapping through the air to briefly touch her and Azoth. "...That goes for you, too."
Whatever he might think of Azoth, they can't afford to lose.
GS: Loren Voss has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: You have activated the Force Action Extend! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Seraphita with Spirit Dynamic! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Spirit Dynamic! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Spirit Dynamic for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Azoth! GS: Cover and Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Loren Voss's Reload! and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The reports of Siegfried's death are not a misunderstanding, according to personal account then. Siegfried died. But now, Siegfried is here. This could be fascinating in any other circumstance than the one where Azoth's job is to assist in the 'correction' of this 'mistake'. And also eat a blast of radiation.
Eerie light shines against Azoth's chassis, eating into the black plates and peeling the edges like an old paint. Crimson energy flares in response, Azoth surging with warnings, guarded only by rapid calculations that seek to understand and mitigate this new energy.
Azoth does not move aside from the damage blossoming against him. A tool is not supposed to show pain. He waits, and then... Orders.
Azoth vanishes.
He reappears, closer -- but not close enough to crowd the melee with Leah and Seraphita. His body whirs and screeches as metal joints make tiny shifts for more flexible movements, Azoth's posture turned bestial. His mechanical tail gleams with red energy around its bladed end and through its segmented length. It elongates, upward, the tip spinning like a drill before extending further in a thrust to pierce for Siegfried's armor while Loren's Ether sends green arcs through the limb.
There's no effort to act anything more than the tool he's been accused of being, because what an effort that would be.
GS: Azoth has attacked Siegfried with exec.azoc TRANSMUTE! GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo! GS: Azoth's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth takes 51 damage from Reaper! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Siegfried solidly guards Azoth's exec.azoc TRANSMUTE for 122 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Siegfried! GS: Jam blocked! GS: Mighty applied to Azoth! GS: Seraphita accepts Loren Voss's Spirit Dynamic for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Seraphita! GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Loren Voss's Reload! and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Siegfried's eyes narrow -- they can see that much behind his helmet -- when Leah's flesh begins to knit together. "So I see," he says. "It will not stop me!"
Her blade swings -- and he is struck, armor carved into. Sparks fly, as the blade bites into the armor but doesn't cut through it. "Your rotting empire is all that is obsolete," he says. "And Filgaia has suffered it long enough!"
He swings the Dark Spear around, this time with both hands. Green and blue light gleams across the blade -- and when he chops it down for the Watcher, the Dark Spear explodes with a massive flash of light that threatens to hurl her backward.
Siegfried's eyes narrow again when he is told to leave a note. There is a different quality to that narrowing of his eyes. (It's confusion. He doesnt know what to do with this.)
He feels energy tugging at him -- and then Siegfried leaps, in a way Leah and Loren never saw him do so before. He yanks away from the ambient energy drawing away, and ripples and wafting tendrils of it fall away, as he goes spinning into the air. His cape flutters after, before he swings his sword backward.
He descends, his blade crashing down at Seraphita. He slashes down, then yanks backward -- and red light ignites off the blade, draining into him when he does.
He lands, then his head snaps towards Loren. He saw him providing assistance -- troubling. His left hand lets go, and there is a crackle of light across his opened palm, and then a trio of glowing rings of light explode off his hand. They swirl around Loren, about ten feet wide -- something that seems to hold him in place.
Then, a bolt of red light fires out for Loren, from his palm. It causes a shuddering distortion, through Ether defenses and armor alike.
Then he pivots, turning, as Azoth's armored, drill-spinning tail slams down -- striking forearm armor. Sparks explode off it, before he swings around the Dark Spear with both hands. He chops it for the tail -- then levels it.
And Siegfried takes off like a shot, his cape fluttering as he shoots straight through the air, the two-handed sword aimed for a stab straight for the center of Azoth's chest.
"BREAK!" he commands him.
GS: Siegfried has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Nemesis Hazard! GS: Siegfried has attacked Seraphita with Phantom Fang! GS: Siegfried spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Siegfried has attacked Loren Voss with Future Disconnected! GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo! GS: Siegfried has launched an attack Link! GS: Siegfried spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Siegfried has attacked Loren Voss with Fallen Nova! GS: Siegfried spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Siegfried has attacked Azoth with Nova Blaster! GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo! GS: Siegfried takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Siegfried has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari takes a glancing hit from Siegfried's Nemesis Hazard for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Seraphita takes a glancing hit from Siegfried's Phantom Fang for 84 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraphita gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Seraphita enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Siegfried drains Seraphita! Siegfried gains 45 temporary hit points! GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from Siegfried's Nova Blaster for 209 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
After that bolt of red light flies for Loren -- and Siegfried flies for Azoth -- the former Quarter Knight kicks off the ground in front of the android. He leaps into the air, spinning around, and swings his blade down.
It gleams, a brilliant red -- and then ignites with a fiery light -- and he drops down, stabbing the blade straight down for Loren.
"FALLEN NOVA!"
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Siegfried's Future Disconnected for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Loren Voss! GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP! (That's 15 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss solidly guards Siegfried's Fallen Nova for 113 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Siegfried drains Loren Voss! Siegfried gains 63 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
A note. ...Leah is glad they have Seraphita, not just for her power, but because she can appreciate a little confusion sown in the enemy. No one's really prepared for Seraphita, it seems.
"That's right," she says when Loren speaks up. "Do not take him lightly."
There's another reason she didn't assign the nervous soldiers who are currently making perimeter to assault Siegfried. It would be a pointless waste of their useful lives.
"I imagine it will not," she says of stopping him. And then Leah swings her blade, and narrows her eyes underneath her helmet, still unable to be seen for the moment. "We shall see," she says of her empire. "But our mission is not yet complete."
The light slams down at the watcher, and she leaps, letting it carry her backward instead of standing against the full might of its power. She lands on her feet, still further burned.
"...It would seem I require stronger armor."
A pull of her sword. She watches Siegfried strike at each of her allies. Loren, in particular...
"Voss," she says. "This is no test. Adapt, or die."
She pulls her sword back, stabs it into the ground, and then steps forward. "...Your armies are gone," she says. "With what do you make war on us? Yourself? 'Mother' is a false god, cast down. Your soldiers have become part of this world."
Leah then extends her hands, her gloves mostly just ruined metal and plastic about her fleshy fingers. Then, she lifts them up--
Ozone rends the air. Terrible lightning cascades forth from her fingertips, for Siegfried, crackling across the battlefield in horrid arcs of sheer Etheric power.
"Our soldiers, meanwhile, are legion. This very world bends to obey us."
GS: Shield added to Leah Sadalbari! GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Siegfried with Anemo Torment! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Of course I won't!" Seraphita's response to Loren - well, she wants to wave along with it, but she's a little busy both with her hands and her attention. "But you shouldn't, either. And Azoth? Try not to die! If you have to retreat to stay alive..."
She wants him to, but she can't really override Leah. Which is uncomfortable, even if Seraphita is used to not being the highest-ranking one around.
Siegfried doesn't just get away from Seraphita's grasp at energy. He cuts it on the backswing, ribbons of light breaking into pieces around him.
This is something Seraphita has never experienced before, and it's a *very* unpleasant sensation as it carves through not just the Ether but the sense she uses to detect it; half-blinding her, a chaotic maelstrom of colour and disorienting sensations.
She yelps, staggering, momentarily unable to tell what's real and what's her sixth sense. Despite this, somehow Seraphita manages to tell where Siegfried is, shoving at his arm and partially deflecting the sword; it hits her, but not blade-on, more smashing than slicing.
He's moving on, and Seraphita lets him. Blinking back the spots and light in her eyes, she reaches with her Ether anyway, focusing those ribbons of energy down to a point that burns not just red but white, so bright it sends stark shadows across the battlefield.
She sends that point straight at Siegfried's back like it was magnetically attached, letting it split into a blazing line on impact.
GS: Seraphita enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraphita has attacked Siegfried with Plasma Flame! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Siegfried solidly guards Seraphita's Plasma Flame for 104 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Siegfried takes a glancing hit from Leah Sadalbari's Anemo Torment for 80 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Siegfried!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Seraphita mentions he should retreat, and Azoth turns his head to regard her. "Invalid input."
The light in Azoth's visor constantly follows Siegfried's movements, making his best estimations to follow the patterns. To watch as this man cuts through space and overwhelms with his attacks. It is little wonder the people of Filgaia once referred to his kind as metal demons. Each time Siegfried speaks, those antenna of his point in his direction, perked high. Curious.
Every blow against the other combatants in this war makes the overrides seize. Every moment Siegfried stands alive is an error to Azoth's commands.
But would it really be so bad if Siegfried succeeded?
Even without the overrides driving his every behavior, Azoth supposes he'd miss Loren and Seraphita. Regrettably, Leah's the most likely to survive on her own.
(Sorry Leah.)
Azoth's tail proves a slippery, erratic thing, slithering back through the air like a livewire as it retracts to its appropriate length. Siegfried's charge aims true, and his sword pierces Azoth directly into his middle.
Sparks dance from the consturct's 'wound', threatening harmlessly along the length of Siegfried's blade. Azoth's visor dims and he collapses as Siegfried kicks away, barely able to pulse out the energy of an attack.
GS: Azoth has attacked Siegfried with ex?c.?? ERR?R! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth takes 49 damage from Reaper! GS: Reaper expired! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Azoth's attack becomes clear! GS: Siegfried partially guards Azoth's exec.azoc VOID STEP for 273 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 46 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"ERROR: Unauthorized command."
Azoth appears above Siegfried in a ripple of pixelated light. He swings down with a brutal swipe of his claw, the attack augmented with an additional blade of ARM energy leading the strike and explosion on contact.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I'm not planning on dying here!" he shouts back at Seraphita, his grimace mostly hidden behind his helmet's visor.
Siegfried hadn't moved like that before -- possibly couldn't have moved like that before. "How--" Loren gapes in the moment, taking a step back as Siegfried dives towards Seraphita.
This ends up being the last movement he makes--
For a time.
The light takes him, the glowing rings snapping neatly into place about the place he stands. Or stood, as the case may be: even whatever purchase he could have had on the fractured earth is stolen as the light seizes and holds him firmly in its grasp. He can't even so much as struggle against it.
Once, he might have imagined Leah interceding into such a circumstance. Hadn't she done so atop the Photosphere? In other instants when he'd been in trouble?
Major Sadalbari gives her command.
...Or had he, then, only imagined that was her intent? Caught like this in the web that holds him, Loren can but turn his gaze slowly towards the red flare of light speeding his way, knowing that he can rely only on himself.
Adapt or die.
He is not incinerated. Rock rises to meet Siegfried's attack: rock crumbles and sloughs off, rock is reduced to ash. But neither the rock nor Loren are utterly destroyed. Still held fast by the light that so pins him, Loren exhales sharply, his gaze wide-eyed and on Siegfried alone.
There's something... wrong about Siegfried's body-- he's certain of it--
"What are you!" he shouts, and with this, the remnant of the rock that had shielded him but moments before rises with a cracking roar to surge forward like a battering ram of old for Siegfried. The very air trembles in its wake and even that strange light may no longer hold Loren.
GS: Loren Voss has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Siegfried with Terra Axiom! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Siegfried suffers a terrible blow from Loren Voss's Terra Axiom for 117 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt and Interrupt applied to Siegfried! GS: Siegfried has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Siegfried lands before Loren. Before he can try to press such an advantage, though, Seraphita's ribbon of bright red-and-white light shoots across the battlefield. It slashes a hole through some debris near him, before it slams into him.
Despite being but a point, it sends him flying backward with explosive force. He spins, anchoring himself by smashing foot and blade into the ground.
Then, he turns, and sees Leah advance -- ruined gloves held up -- and send lightning hurtling for him. A dome of white, crackling light erupts, and much of the lightning is scattered across it, though the force drives him back.
"It was not you who freed my people from that false goddess," Siegfried says. "And that is a debt I will repay. I will not have an army built upon lies -- and there are many who would fight for a future with Filgaia that lacks you."
His fist slams into the light that Azoth fired -- batting it away -- as if dismissing Azoth as broken. Down and out from the fight. Then, Azoth appears above him; his eyes widen, and he looks up at Azoth, and quickly swings up Glumzambor.
Dark Spear meets the claw, holding it at bay, even as blasts of energy slam into Siegfried's armor, battering it. For a moment, they are locked in a parry, nearly face to face.
Azoth can see more than hints of the face underneath the helmet: Janus Cascade's, though with silvery veins threaded throughout, and lean and withered.
Siegfried hurls him back with a push of his sword, then.
"The end of Solaris. The end of Gebler," Siegfried answers Loren, even as the rock that protected Loren a moment before lodges free -- and hurtles forward. The rings of light around Loren shatter as the rock slams into Siegfried. He is hurled, smashing into the ground, and rolling once.
He pushes back to his feet, and faces them. "I've returned to pay my debt and liberate this world!"
The armored plates on his chest split -- revealing a trio of cannon nozzles, short and ugly, underneath. Motes of light draw into them -- then a dozen beams of blue-white light explode out, each arcing, and shoot across all of them.
GS: Siegfried has attacked Siegfried with To Conquer the New World! GS: Siegfried has gained 2 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Siegfried accepts Siegfried's To Conquer the New World for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disease, Disrupt, and Poison removed! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Siegfried! GS: Stagger removed! GS: Siegfried has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Proton Volley! GS: Siegfried has attacked Azoth with Proton Volley! GS: Siegfried has attacked Seraphita with Proton Volley! GS: Siegfried has attacked Loren Voss with Proton Volley! GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cover, Mighty, and Riposte expired! GS: Siegfried has completed his action. GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Siegfried's Proton Volley for 70 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Seraphita solidly guards Siegfried's Proton Volley for 75 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraphita gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Azoth critically guards Siegfried's Proton Volley for 53 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Indeed--Leah does not give orders for Azoth to preserve his own 'life'. She knows his limitations better than that. If it makes Seraphita uncomfortable... then it does.
But Leah will rely on Seraphita all the same. And Azoth, for that matter, even as he appears and disappears through his strikes.
Once, though--once, perhaps Leah would have intervened. But not today. Things are... different.
But Loren lives. And Leah's eyes narrow. "It was not," Leah agrees with Siegfried. "Hmmm. So there are. But will they follow you?"
It is a danger she begins to see; someone who could rally their many enemies... is it Siegfried who is the one to do it?
She does not know, for now. But 'what he is', "The end of Solaris, is it...?"
Blue-white beams crash into Leah's sword, as she interposes it before herself to guard against the attack. A few crash into her, as well--but most hit the sword, which cracks under their power.
"This world... has a greater destiny than you know."
"You will not be the instrument of its liberation."
Leah lets her weapon stay in the ground as she focuses her hands, instead, a complex Etheric form erupting into being around her. It is more powerful than she should be capable of, should tear apart her body even to use.
It does not. Instead, she extends her hand..
"Azoth. You are not permitted to end your battle just yet."
Healing blue Ether surges from his feet, empowering every circuit. It brings with it coolness, relief...
Command.
"Now. Fight!"
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Azoth with Without Rest! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 2 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari heals Azoth! He gains 272 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Azoth! GS: Loren Voss solidly guards Siegfried's Proton Volley for 78 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Claw meets blade, locked and woven. There is no face for Azoth to wear an expression on as his midair form beholds the visage behind Siegfried's mask -- a combatant that has has faced before. And a... friend of a friend? Were Janus and Asgard friends? Were Azoth and Asgard? There's a lot of questions. Today, the only answer is violence.
But one antenna swivels. The light of his visor contracts, most of it left black except for a single red question mark.
It's only a flicker, all red light again even a moment before the force of Siegfried's might hurls him away and Azoth twists through the air to 'land' in his hovering state. An erroneous, flickering shield of light veils him, cracking like old glass as beams smash against the surface.
Ether in blue fills him. Wires that once snapped pull like magnets back toward each other and use the energy to close severed gaps.
"Command received."
His obedience is instant. Any thought, any opinion, any emotion -- if Azoth in fact possesses any of these things -- is forsaken to spare no single scrap of him from fulfilling his purpose. Power surges, both in Leah's command, in her Ether, in Azoth's ancient ARM energy so complex in its design that only an advanced AI could hope to calculate it in the chaos and urgency of combat. Data gathers, computations complete, and dust scatters as Azoth rockets after Siegfried with blinding light coursing through his every circuit and wire.
Not red, or even blue, or that brilliant gradient he sometimes adopts. White. Overwhelmingly white.
Blades of manifested data and ARM energy blossom into being around Azoth's body, struggling to keep pace as they trail after him with streaking tails of light. As they catch up, they spin around him in a blender's orbit in time to attempt contact with Siegfried. Then they gather like a fan of cards in a thick slash upward before slamming down, detonating with no regard to his own structural integrity.
No matter how battered, as long as this chassis still moves, Azoth will battle without rest and without end.
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Azoth spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Azoth has attacked Siegfried with exec.mec DELETE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Siegfried has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Siegfried takes a glancing hit from Azoth's exec.mec DELETE for 193 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Hyper and Shield removed!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Well not NOW!" Seraphita didn't mean for him to leave now. But it's better than dying...
...isn't it? She volunteered for this. Azoth did not. It makes a difference. And yes, it makes her uncomfortable, but it's not like that's news to Leah; she's had THAT discussion with Seraphita before.
Having finally cleared her eyes of spots, Seraphita can see again, and she focuses on Siegfried. She can't see into his helmet from this angle, but she can sure hear what he's saying - "Solaris isn't going to be defeated just like that! If you want to destroy it, I won't let you! I'm Seraphita, the Element of Fire, and I'm not the only defender of Solaris!"
"We want to help the people world, too! It's not us against them! It's us for them! I want to make things better!"
Seraphita hunkers down against the blaster shots from Siegfried, forming a hemispherical wall of flame in front of her. Constantly churning, it does a fair bit to disperse the blasts, so they don't come into her as bright or focused or intense as they otherwise would.
And then, for the first time this battle, she really lets loose.
Seraphita 'rolls' the shield up into a sphere of fire, which she 'lifts' overhead with a surprisingly physical motion, physically raising it into the air. But as she does the sphere shifts, narrowing and flattening down to a slim cylinder of rolling white-red flame, the tip a brilliant point of light.
Letting the Ether construction drop into her hand, Seraphita can feel the heat and energy tied in it. If it wasn't HER Ether, she would have burned her hand off; but it is, so she manages to rear back with it, barely keeping the intense flame and heat under control as she flings it like a giant eight-foot spear. "Hup!"
When it hits the ground - or, ideally, Siegfried - it explodes, spraying sparks and almost liquid jets of flame like thermite gone berserk as she literally tries to melt right through his armour in one go.
She is, now that she doesn't have to try to pressurize flame, controlling the jets - mostly to keep them away from Loren, and Azoth, and Leah. It means there's a lot of aerial launches, vertical plumes of fire and even fireballs that get suddenly redirected.
GS: Seraphita has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Seraphita spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraphita has attacked Siegfried with Thermo Lance! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Siegfried suffers a terrible blow from Seraphita's Thermo Lance for 262 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The blade never touches him.
In reflection, he'll realize Seraphita's role in also saving him and that will be another thing that Loren will have to sit and think about. In the moment, the bulk of his focus is on Siegfried. Something isn't right, his mind is telling him: there's something about the Metal Demon's body and the way it can move that is different from what he'd seen back then and yet is all too familiar.
And yet, in the moment, he's unable to thread the needle.
His boots touch the ground once again; he's freed from that which had bound him.
He is their end, Siegfried promises him.
And Loren thinks of whose bones must be buried under the walls of this place. Not his friends, no. But they had family and surely, dreamed of a better future with those they loved. There is no difference between those of Solaris and those of the surface world, the Watcher had told him, and yes, this is true. What grants them dominion is an illusion. In his own way, Loren had learned but not accepted this lesson years ago.
Yet, he has to believe in that brighter future of which the Watcher had also spoken, the path of which lay through Solaris alone. He has to believe in that dream.
And he can't let the deaths of the people who had served here go unanswered.
"'End'?" he barks, after the volley has ended. Sparkling motes of golden ether linger in the air, the remnants of the barrier he had summoned that had stood between him and obliteration. He's breathing hard from the effort, but even so-- he won't be bested so easily. He exhales sharply amidst the smoke and haze and it almost sounds like a laugh. "Just-- try it! You're not ending anything," Loren promises, light spreading again at his feet in a chaotic tangle of fractal lines. "Not today!"
Not like the last time. Light surges upwards, outwards: a more artistic eye might call this a tree of many twisting branches with Loren the trunk, the light at his feet the roots. For him, it's merely a matter of efficiency: he's the source and the manifestation of light the channel. This is all simply a replication of the pattern of complexity that itself is entwined with the phenomena of life.
Like all things, it is a matter of formula. And by this formula, he'll ensure that today, no one ends.
GS: Loren Voss spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Loren Voss has attacked Seraphita with Restorative Arc! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Restorative Arc! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Loren Voss has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Restorative Arc! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Restorative Arc! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Entangle expired! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss heals Azoth! He gains 282 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Azoth! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: Loren Voss heals Leah Sadalbari! She gains 309 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss heals Seraphita! She gains 365 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Seraphita! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss heals Loren Voss! He gains 402 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Loren Voss! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Siegfried looks after Azoth, as he is pitched away. There is a question mark there -- literally and figuratively -- but he provides no answer. Just a gloance in his direction.
He looks back to Leah, when she speaks to him.
"There are things I question about my life," Siegfried answers the Watcher. "But I will never question that where I lead, others will follow."
His eyes narrow -- flicker to Azoth. Realization dawns upon him. "Another enslaved by Solaris," he murmurs, under his breath. "More the pity."
He launches forward, swinging his blade out in a massive circular arc -- and a moment later, it explodes with a blast of crackling, fiery plasma that leaves an ugly red arc in the after after it. He turns, then, and Azoth is already shooting for him. He moves with blinding speed.
Siegfried struggles to match it, but he does manage to turn, and his blade swings up. He can't hope to catch every one of the ARM blades in the spin, so he catches three key ones. Others strike, smashing into his battered armor.
But three cuts -- and three of those blades of energy held at bay, breaking on his blade. Then, he swings his sword into them -- and they turn a deep, ugly red -- and he drives the sword into an upward slash into Azoth's chassis, before he leaps, and SLAMS the blade down.
It explodes with crimson plasma, when he strikes down -- the very same as it did when used against Loren.
"FALLEN NOVA!"
He whirls on Seraphita, then, throwing his hand up. Crackling white light appears, and the giant spear of flame hits it before the barrier can fully form. It shatters, panes of white light flying out like glass shards -- then winking out of existence.
The fire Ether smashes him backward, hurtling him through rubble. "If you would improve this world..." He snarls. "THEN START BY BURNING AWAY THE ROT AROUND YOU!"
He sees Loren send out a massive burst of light -- to heal and strengthen his allies -- and he rushes forward, between Loren and Seraphita. His blade swings out, a wide arc, aimed at cutting through both of them as he does a wicked spinning cut.
"I have ended more of your like than you have or will ever know," he answers Loren. "And my eyes are unclouded, now. My intentions, unrestrained. You speak of today? I speak of the future, you blind fool!"
GS: Siegfried spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Siegfried has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Dark Spear Burst! GS: Siegfried enters a Counter stance! GS: Siegfried has gained 2 Combo! GS: Siegfried spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Siegfried has attacked Azoth with Fallen Nova! GS: Siegfried has attacked Loren Voss with Azure Whirlwind! GS: Siegfried has attacked Seraphita with Azure Whirlwind! GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo! GS: Siegfried has completed his action. GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Siegfried's Fallen Nova for 258 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Siegfried drains Azoth! Siegfried gains 98 temporary hit points! GS: Gamble: High! Seraphita solidly guards Siegfried's Azure Whirlwind for 264 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Seraphita enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Leah Sadalbari partially guards Siegfried's Dark Spear Burst for 201 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Siegfried! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Loren Voss solidly guards Siegfried's Azure Whirlwind for 237 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
There are days when Leah speaks of the 'good of the world', in what she does for Solaris. There are days when she speaks of a greater destiny, without comment on what it 'good'. This is the latter.
his is the latter, and she does not waste time pretending to pity Azoth. She uses him, as Solaris does, for a purpose. And that ancient ARM does its work.
As does Seraphita's preternatural Ether. Leah watches, for a moment--but only a moment, before she concerns herself with the results. From the way she moves, it would appear she trusts Seraphita not to blast her--or them.
She does not have to watch the sparkling motes of golden Ether that haze around Loren, as he makes his promise. She 'feels' rather than sees the branches of the tree he makes. Life itself...
Where her wounds were natural to mend already, energy floods through the Watcher.
What he says of those who will follow seems true. The Watcher considers her foe, from behind her mask, and considers that this may be a greater danger than one base indeed.
Plasma blasts down for Leah, and her sword cracks again under the force of it. Her armaments are no longer sufficient to her power, or her foe's. So be it.
The blazing energy Loren gave her continues to shine even through the blast Siegfried sends at her, her injuries again severe--and starting to heal. It takes more time this time, though.
It is not until Siegfried's attacks finish that Leah rises from one knee, and starts to walk forward, her arms now bare, her mask still intact.
"Not 'today'," she agrees with Voss. "For the 'future'... we will see."
"I do not intend for you to have one."
She lifts one hand, and begins to weave Water Ether. Her stance widens, water surging at her feet as the sheer power of the magic she begins to perform spills out. It lacks the intricacy of Seraphita's weaving, but it has power beyond what Leah has ever displayed in the past.
"I see now, why my master has given me the 'gifts' that he has given me."
Clouds begin to form well over Siegfried. Rain begins to fall.
"...So that I might complete the work I started that day on the Photosphere!"
She slams down her hand--and a terrible flood erupts from the sky, slamming down towards Siegfried, set to wash away the shattered remnants of stone and metal and Demon alike.
"You will never unite this broken world! You cannot! No living man can!"
GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Siegfried with Aqua Prophecy! GS: Leah Sadalbari enters a Counter stance! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 2 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari gains 30 THP from Regen! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Siegfried takes a glancing hit from Leah Sadalbari's Aqua Prophecy for 134 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari drains Siegfried! Leah Sadalbari gains 64 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The command is still in effect. Siegfried offers his pity to a savage machine, acting only in violence with a body that cannot handle the strain of it. Joints pop and bolts shoot out of him. Cords snap and spew important technological fluids. Wires break and fray.
It may not be strange now to wonder if there is any damage that could be inflicted upon this construct that would hurt more than its standard operation.
Pain is thankfully not the goal. Getting Azoth to stop functioning is. In this exchange of blades -- physical versus digital manifestation -- Azoth receives every strike full on. Up and tearing through his feeble chest plates and across his helmet, down and back the other way. Instead of blood, Siegfried is rewarded in sparks, white briefly turned red.
Briefly.
At this point, the Azoth should not get up again. There's too many disconnections. Too much sputtering and rattling. By all rights Siegfried has smashed this construct beyond reasonable function.
But a command is a command.
Ether threads him together to ensure he fulfills it. There's more processes to deprioritize, shut down, and redirect shreds of power from.
Azoth resonates with an inhuman, digital screech. White hot energy leaps across his body in violent arcs. He vanishes, reappearing in the air again, hovering well above the battlefield as one claw rises and energy whips and wisps around, drawn toward the space above him. Intense spikes of power throb, and data in the form of a massive blade far larger than himself begins to pull from the vortex, forged in it.
With a directing swipe downward of Azoth's arm, energy snaps like thunder and the swirling, radiant storm vanishes in a flash, leaving te blade to fall toward Siegfried like a guillotine.
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Azoth has attacked Siegfried with exec.azoc EXECUTE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth gains 29 THP from Regen! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Siegfried solidly guards Azoth's exec.azoc EXECUTE for 121 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Siegfried! GS: Poison blocked! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 34 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Loren's power is... welcome. Unexpected, too; Seraphita didn't expect it to be that *intense*. "Thank you!" she calls out, never one to forget that kind of thing. Even in the middle of a firefight.
She needs it, almost immediately, when Siegfried comes in with his sword again. Seraphita is an excellent mage, a trained Element, but she's never been especially good in close-quarters combat and she doesn't even carry a weapon. She doesn't have *any* good responses to that kind of assault.
A leap back is not a great response, but firing a blast of Ether helps. It's not aimed at Siegfried. It's not aimed at anyone - it's just a dull concussion that sends her rolling back several additional yards.
Even so, she's hurt. She knows she's hurt; that blade cut deep, and she doesn't regenerate without assistance. She should probably stay down, and if it wasn't for Loren's spell she *would* be down or nearly so. Seraphita tries to rise but she only gets up to one knee, breathing hard and trying not to show any more than that.
"Maybe I am!" she calls back. "I believe in Solaris! And I believe in people! We can all work together and make things better!" She has a dream, too; different, but close, to Loren. She doesn't want to dominate. She just wants to guide, and to help. "It's like they say, when ants work together they can tie down a lion! But not when people do THIS!"
Seraphita sweeps one arm, taking in the battlefield, before making a downward stroke with two fingers, a snapping movement. This one's not tricky - it just takes a lot of power.
And it strikes from surprise. The first sign is a hiss of steam from high above as *something* dives through Leah's water; a faint shape, hard to discern, that slams into the ground and explodes in a hellacious spherical blast, flame whirling in place as she simply tries to take Siegfried out with raw force.
GS: Seraphita has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Seraphita has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraphita has attacked Siegfried with Thermo Dragon! GS: Seraphita has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraphita gains 29 THP from Regen! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: Siegfried takes a solid hit from Seraphita's Thermo Dragon for 186 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"And-- that makes it acceptable--?"
It's as far as he goes before Siegfried's blade intrudes: he can't move, still channeling Ether. He can only stay where he stands, unflinching as the blade connects.
He's bleeding, yes. He claps one gloved hand over the rent in his armor, red continuing to seep from the wound for a moment more.
But it could have been worse. Without the Ether he had worked and the few trailing remnants that had clung to him after, he might well have been dealt a far more serious blow than this. It had been so once on the past, after all: Siegfried had once impaled Loren with that very blade and only Lan's magic -- and medical intervention -- had kept Loren alive long enough to ultimately survive.
But that was the past. This is now.
Loren straightens, fixing his gaze on Siegfried.
"...You're the fool," he hisses, peeling his glove away from his healed wound. "There is no future without today!"
A rain has begun to fall, and Loren cannot but note its origin. "I don't care what your reason is! You killed them, and for what? Because you decided we needed to be eliminated?" He grits his teeth, feeling them grind together. "You don't get to make that determination!"
His dream is an impossible one: something a part of him desperately wishes for and another can scarcely look at for the fear it will melt away. And yet, what Leah told him then, when she shattered the world he'd still clung to, had let him believe that it might not be so impossible. That he might suffer, yes, for its creation, but that someday, surely...
Is it really that different from Seraphita's, even if his might involve one or two very specific people at its core?
"--I'm done with this!" Loren snaps as the torrent descends and Azoth screams, lunging for the kill. Perhaps he takes a cue from Seraphita as he throws his arms wide and takes a breath, urging the rains away from his space in the same moment as he summons his own flames.
Orange and green and yellow. The flames are strange and rise in a swarm, in a dry pocket that extends erratically towards Siegfried. Sweat beads on Loren's brow: controlling two elements in the same moment, let alone the one he still struggles to master, is a trick with which he is ill-experienced. He's forced to continue to gesture, to urge forward the fire that seems more mobile blurs of paint and tangles of light than the crackling flame it should manifest as. Try as he might, he had never been able to correct its atypical form.
But at least, this time, it should only burn what he intends it should burn.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Siegfried with Atar Vandaka! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss gains 31 THP from Regen! GS: Cover expired! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Siegfried partially guards Loren Voss's Atar Vandaka for 86 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
"You mend quickly," Siegfried tells Leah. "I see nothing but a challenge."
The skies open -- and water comes crashing down. But a barrier rises; white light forms in a dorm, and the massive flood smashes and splashes over it, and Siegfried darts out through it, battered, but tearing through.
Then there is a hiss of steam, and he turns -- to see flame that rips through the water, heralded by a flash of steam. Siegfried throws out another barrier, only just catching it. Seraphita's flame breaks through again.
It slams him backward, downto the ground. He stabs the Dark Spear into the earthm then pushes himself up.
"Perhaps no living man can," Siegfried says. "But I stand between life and death! And you waste your belief, to put it in these people!"
He turns -- surprise registers in his metallic crimson eyes, to see Azoth up -- and then he swings out Glumzambor, catching that guillotine blade of energy. It slams him backward, armor plates on his arms bending and buckling in a few places with the force of it.
"I have seen the madness that Solaris has wrought. Will bring again. The only strangling 'today' is you!" Siegfried snaps at Loren. Fire and light cascade towards him -- and slam into another barrier of crackling light. He holds it for a moment.
Then, he lets it shatter. It seems too easy, for Loren, as the energy blasts the barrier backward.
Because it is.
Siegfried uses the two streams and the barrier to push himself high into the air. He flies up ointo the sky -- and then descends, a good distance away, and vanishes into the line of trees of the Lost Woods.
Leaving them with rubble, those who died inside, and precious few answers.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Seraphita believes. Loren believes. Azoth will obey. That is enough, for now.
"Hmph," the Watcher answers Siegfried as he speaks of challenge. "Challenge enough."
She sees his barrier. She sees the way he pushes himself up, and the way he speaks of life and death...
Perhaps it is so.
"It is not madness we bring," Leah says. "But order."
"And you..."
Siegfried is gone. He disappears into the trees, and the mission is over.
"Azoth." There is a pause only so that there is time to acknowledge her orders. "Stand down."
"Seraphita," she says. "You did very well. I respect your belief. I hope that one day it will serve you well."
"...Loren." She uses his first name, this time. "You showed spirit. You showed backbone. You succeeded in your mission."
She looks up to the sky. "...It is I who have failed, today."
The Watcher shakes her head, looking back to her allies. The Solarian operatives before her.
Then she says to the soldiers watching the perimeter, "Inspect the rubble. Find survivors if you can. Find records either way."
Leah brings up her hand to her ear, where she has a radio. "Yes," she says.
"...Mission failed. Target is still at large."
"For now."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"And--? Prove what you say is true! Or else, it's just--"
Bluster, he doesn't say, for as he shifts and pushes with his split focus, something comes into terrifying clarity for him: it feels too easy. This is the moment where the alarm bells go off for Loren: save for his talent for healing, nearly everything else in his life has been hard-won (or at least, that's how it feels).
But it's already too late for him to make the necessary corrections, whatever they would be. Siegfried isn't there anymore, rising instead to the heavens themselves to make good his escape.
No, Loren thinks, as the light of his strange fire dies away. Even if he had made the right corrections, it wouldn't have been enough. "Damn," he hisses, shoulders slouching. "This isn't going to be the end of it." Grimacing, he shakes his head as if to thereby clear his mind.
Leah-- praises him and the others. The only one she has a reprimand for, as it happens, is herself. Loren himself says nothing. Showed 'backbone', was it...?
Well, he knows he's only barely leadership material. But rather than say anything, he inclines his head in a shallow nod. "We'll begin search, rescue, and recovery operations, Major." Maybe they'll find someone alive. Maybe.
He has to believe in something, and it might as well be Solaris -- might as well be Sadalbari, and the dream of which she'd spoken.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth zips after Siegfried in pursuit, no matter how impossible reaching him might seem in the moment. Only by Leah's word of command does he vanish, instead reappearing beside her.
"Or -- der recei -- ved."
Azoth's voice is a cracked, broken sound, starting from an already inhuman place and warped by damage. He bobs in a gentle float, sparking from every bit of exposed inner mechanism and one arm hanging only on hinges. Without much in the way of a face, there's no indication he has any particular opinion about the state he's ended up in.
Words were exchanged with blows. Azoth offered none of consequence while belief and conviction collided. Azoth scans the faces of his 'users', gathering the last fragments of data. He watches Loren for a notably extended moment.
But there's no reason to be concerned about a little robot's judgments. The overrides hold strong.