2024-11-02: Bloodborne

• Log: Bloodborne
• Cast: Lucifer, Eizen, Seraph Lanval, Seraph Ragnell, Lily Keil, Hiro, Seraph Cavall, Josephine Lovelace, Layna Manydays, Magilou, Ida Everstead-Rey, Margaret, Gwen Whitlock, Shige Kiwako, Velvet Crowe
• Where: Ruins of Eluria
• Date: November 02, 2024
• Summary: Lucifer is making a play for the control of all the universe... ...and has enslaved an old friend, who has lost himself.

---

<Pose Tracker> Lucifer has posed.

At Armlock City, as he perished, Raphael spoke of Eluria Tower.

It didn't take long to realize that something was terribly wrong at Eluria Tower. A few Drifters scouted it, and found the immense tower of blue steel -- made out of the remains of Eluria Castle, but with a distinctly Nedian bent -- had come alife. Panel lines of blue and green glow across it. Occasionally, Symbols hover in the air.

When the Drifters arrived, they find it already under siege and from the most unlikely of allies: an army of Metal Beasts, a few squadrons of Moblins, and the former Quarter Knight, Siegfried, near the forefront. He rams the Dark Spear Glumzamor into an Iron Treads -- slamming it back -- and turns.

"Caoimhe spoke true of this place..." He mutters, under his breath. Then, louder, and to the approaching Drifters: "Go!" he shouts. "We will hold their armies back!"

The way ahead is into what was once the courtyard of Eluria Castle. The walls of the castle are warped -- ancient stone blocks that curve and turn, reshaped to narrow towards the two great open doors leading into Eluria Tower properly. Those doors glow... but the way has been forced open already.

The tower, inside, is a place of astounding technology. Having been to Nede, it is clearly a Nedian construction -- albeit Filgaian material converted into that. Blue metallic walls lead up high, until there is darkness. The room is dark at the top, and a wide cylinder. The walls are aglow, with Symbols and panel lines there.

Inside, Lucifer floats.

The traitorous Wise Man hovers before a holographic map that displays the Milky Way galaxy. Individual stars are shown though most are an accumulated mass. There are portions highlighted blue -- others are highlighted green and yellow, though those are much smaller. Those familiar with such things would recognize it as Federation territory. There is also crimson highlighting around one area in particular, with arrows pointing outward.

Invasion plans, it would seem, for an entire galaxy.

Lucifer is a young Nedian man, seemingly; he wears black robes that have red lining, with a golden shirt underneath. His pale blue hair is cut short, and his lips have a near-perpetual sneer on them. "The power this world houses," he says. "How fascinating. I've found quite the tool here. You would be welcome in my armies."

He looks back at those entering. "I'll have need of them, to bend every last star system to my will," he says. "But if not... every great conquest must start somewhere. Warm up, perhaps, for Gabriel?"

There are shadows high above. They are dark, but there is a sense of movement above.

Lucifer smiles.

And a low, terrible growl echoes from above.

DC: Lucifer switches forms to Ultimate Analyst Weapon Lucifer!

<Pose Tracker> Eizen has posed.

Those who have once explored Eluria Ruins may already know of the beast that lurks here.

The unsettling weight of Malevolence builds. It pierces the atmosphere with dread like jagged static.

It moves again with a pitched screech of an edge scraped against the Eluria's inner metallic make. The walls tremble with a warped echo from the impact of something large. Something heavy. Everything goes deathly still until the sound tapers back to silence.

Then it is as if the shadows descend themselves, and an impossible amount of Malevolence surges down with it.

Darkness dives, and four claws crash into the ground floor. Black wings stretch high with a bellowing roar that rattles the tower like it were nothing more than sheets of aluminum.

The dragon rises to his full titanic height, looming above the gathered. His dark scales are marked with deep grooves of red across his entire body, whether from countless battles fought -- and clearly won -- or from intense Malevolence trying to escape from the inside out. He is a dragon of spikes and sharp edges: segmented plates shaped with jagged points, back and limbs crested with spines, and teeth overflowing from his eager jaws in everything length in and curved in every direction.

Gold eyes, bloodshot with crimson, gleam with predatory intent, but lack the focus of one who truly acknowledges what stands before them.

His maw opens slightly as flames tinged by black and violet Malevolence begin to smolder at the edges, escaping in threatening wisps past his fangs.

DC: Eizen switches forms to Fell Dragon Eizen!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Word traveled down the grapevine along the Drifters and their own little pockets and cliques. Lanval knows things are bad at Eluria Malevolence-wise, so he volunteers to get there immediately in case they're about to take another enormous chunk of Ley and reduce the land to lifeless salt.
 
     Imagine his surprise - or see it for oneself, he's right there - to see even the King of Evil's own minions trying to hold the line against Paradox Pokemon. But, it makes sense, he reasons immediately, either someone like that wants to rule a world that's actually alive and/or simply does not feel like sharing with the likes of the Ten Wise Men.
 
     "Mmm." He nods his head to Siegfried, waves a hand, and gestures onward. His only challenge is the stairs, but just as it seems like he'd have to deal with all that... beyond the first few flights, it's all bizarre super-advanced Nedian technology. (Bonus: less stairs.)
 
     This is where the levity ends.
 
     "Hey, you," Lanval clears his throat. "One of 'em Wise Men typesh, yeah? 'm Seraph Lanval. Oracle of the Guardian of Water, Schturdark. Formally, 'm gonna ashk ya ta leave, 'n not very nicely."
 
     He slams a bottle of Holy Bottle against the edge of a barrier wall. It breaks perfectly for stabbing. This is a very deep and symbolic thing, in Lanval terms - there is nothing more aggressive a gesture than to turn something that once contained joy and goodness into something that harms.
 
     But then... the Fell Dragon comes down. Lanval doesn't yell out to those gathered here to brace themselves, even against a threat that stands to be on par with Heldalf and the Fell Dragon who might - might - yet be saved through the sacrifice and continued care of Shpeherd Sorey. If they've come this far, they know who they are, what they're here for, and all the difficult challenges thus far that seemed to tug across irreconcilable differences.
 
     Eizen's presence is still a thing of immense danger, and Lanval drinks deep from his drinking gourd as he wobbles from the titanic seismic force that crashes down upon the rooftop. Everyone will feel what they will of this Fell Dragon, and of what Lucifer is doing. He'll let them to it - he knows his role here.
 
     The faintest feeling of mirth, against the overwhelming sense of the odds always being against oneself - finding that little small joy when so many terrible things seem so much greater - is the substitute of a spoken call for action and reaffirmation.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Ragnell didn't come here with the Drifter crowd. She was already here, helping Siegfried and his armies with the siege on Eluria Castle. As the Drifters arrive, though, she half-turns, her paired pistols in hand as the wind tears at the feather in her cowboy hat.
    
    She shoots a glance towards Velvet, Magilou, Hiro, and the others, and snarks, "'Bout time y'all made it." As Siegfried declares that they'll hold their armies back, though, she looks his way. "I'll leave that t'you an' yours, Siegfried. Never been much of an army gal." She smirks and crooks her head towards the crowd. "An' someone's gotta keep an eye on these 'uns."
    
    And so, like it or not, Ragnell decides to force her way into the party, as she is sometimes wont. The interior of the tower is full of Nedian technology made with Filgaian materials. It's delightfully alien to her, but they aren't her main concern.
    
    What *is* is Lucifer within--and, more to the point, his "ally." Ragnell narrows her eyes at him, looking up even before that growl reverberates. She knew of him already, of course, having come here before and found him here--with some of the same company, even. But facing a Fell Dragon is always a terrible proposition, especially so for a Seraph. She has better resistance against Malevolence than most of her kind, but it never feels good, it always feels horrible.
    
    "Sure feels like a final confrontation, Eizen," she murmurs, red eyes locked on the great and terrible creature as Malevolent flames begin to gather in his maw. "I never knew ya before you became this, but... for your friends, an' for your li'l sister, I ain't gonna leave you like this."
    
    One way or another.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Very, very wrong. Lily Keil could no longer stay back on Nede monitoring the situation. With the knowledge she's gained of the Rifts, she is confident enough that she can help against the Ten Wise Men. ...But she didn't expect an army on their side, this time.

Lily is dressed in Symbologically-enhanced gear this time, black on black with gold, inlaid with runes and workings that channel and enhance her power. The top flows with long, bell sleeves; her boots are more mundane practicality, steel-toed and sturdy.

Her black hair is down, but gathered partially by a circlet that finishes the magical focus.

"I can feel the power radiating from the tower," Lily comments when they get close. "But..."

There is an army indeed. And Lily nodss firmly to Siegfried. "We'll make use of this time," she agrees, and today, at least, they are not enemies in this matter.

The great doors have already been forced open, and Lily is one of the first through them, skidding to a stop as she sees the Wise Man hovering before his display. She recognizes the map immediately for what it must be. She doesn't immediately draw the ARM at her belt or the sword at her other hip, but instead looks sharply at the map, then at Lucifer. he does seem young. But then, so does she.

"There's more power than you've yet discovered," the witch comments. "...Welcome in your armies, is it? But you haven't started to talk about compensation, yet. I'm sure that fighting with you would afford me a lot of chances to grow my power, a lot of new sights to see."

She narrows her golden eyes. "...But while I'm a mercenary..."

"You remind me too much of my father for that. I'm going to recommend to the Captain that we refuse this contract."

Lanval's mirth helps. Espsecially in the face of that crushing presence of Malevolence that makes Lily grit her teeth. S he has never forgotten the spidery creature of her own Malevolence, shown to her by the Guardians. She remembers it now.

A Fell Dragon...

Lily breathes in, and the runes on her clothes crackle. She begins to hover into the air, too, her eyes starting to cloud over like ink on the surface of water, filling in with utter darkness.

"Magilou," she says. "...I hope you have something in mind for the dragon."

Her eyes have locked onto Lucifer.

"Because I'm giving this one all I've got."

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

"We're coming up on the tower. Don't worry. If he's there we'll figure out some way-"

"Don't bother saying anything." She replied, subdued in any emotion save 'annoyed' as her folded Parasol came down for a sharp rap at the base of Ruby's neck. "I don't want to hear it."

The rap didn't actually hurt Ruby in this form, long and sleek, limmed in crimson energy, with elongated snout and feathered wings which upon flapping, the occasional one that drifted off became fiery cinders in a trail behind them. They flew towards the tower, as Hiro patted her neck.

"If the Wise Men are planning on doing anything to him, we'll make them pay."

Edna said nothing for many long moments, long enough that it might be considered approval, until WHAM, the Parasol came down on Hiro's head as well.

Rubbing his head, Edna was not glaring, but rather looking past him, beyond him. "What did I say?" This time, it was subtly softer, as that crimson streak was suddenly halted by the sudden wave of malevolence that crashed into them like a stagnant bucket of ice water to the face.

Ruby stopped short for a moment, as Hiro gritted his teeth, and then once they flew on. It was only when she spies the dragon for the first time that she utters the words, "Hello Brother." Then without too much affect states, "Far from home. Just like you, not to resist a voyage somewhere new."

Out of the periphery of her eye though, atop the tower, she spies a familiar hat. "Awaken, red earth." Then without pointing her Parasol the ground just suddenly SMASHES up underneath Magilou in a lance of rock.

"Your pest control is growing lax." She says as if it ought to be common sense for a sailor to know that you should drive rats off the ship, but more likely she's just annoyed that she didn't come tell her right away.

Hiro momentarily looks 'are you serious?' but figures such an arte probably isn't a real threat to Magilou. "I guess this is just... how they greet each other?"

"We won't be running this time." Ruby speaks, wings flapping with great giant gusts to keep her in place as she flies across from Eizen, preparing for extreme dragon on dragon combat.

Despite trying to look like a proud strong independent red dragon here for a confrontation, Ragnell will catch the tip of Ruby's tail waving her way as if to say 'Hi Ragnell look at me I'm rad now.'

"You sound like you were a great guy from what I've heard before." Hiro says as he looks down the snarling dragon, things now different than they were before... Heldalf, and Sorey. "Let's see if we can't keep that your legacy."

Ruby then cranes her neck down to look at Lucifer, to look at his Galaxy maps, to look at all of it and- "Wow - do you see this jerk!? We're having a moment here and he's just waltzing in to try and conquer the Galaxy!"

Didn't... didn't Lucifer set everything up here first? Details.

"Moron." Edna instantly replies to Ruby.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.

Filgaia is a world both like and unlike Lunar in many ways... certainly more like than either to Filgaia. But yet, there was still something in the way the wind blew that spoke of ill portents... there had been many, in recent days.

And so the wolf's travels had brought them here, to a ruined city, and a conflict already in progress. More of those strange creatures that never were, but more importantly...

A Fell Dragon.

All the hackles rise on the back of the wolf's neck, and they charge ahead. No matter the danger, whatever foul deed is afoot must not stand.

The seraph bursts into the control room. Seemingly a normal animal in form, except for the orange fur that runs along the top of their muzzle, over their head and ears, and down their back and tail, with white fur elsewhere. A thick, heavy chain is looped twice around their neck, and two piercing blue-green eyes lock on Lucifer.

They do not understand the star map, but they understand the intent of a conquerer well enough. "Thou hast stolen much already from our stars, scurilous tyrant," declares Cavall with a snarl. "I will not permit you a trifling more."

The presence of Eizen's Malevoelnce is... heavy, to say the least. It is a sad thing, to see a Seraph in such a state. But Cavall trusts the might of their fellow Seraphs to carry the day, and Lucifer is still a looming threat regardless.

DC: Hiro switches forms to Ruby the Red Dragon of Lunar - And Hiro!!

GS: Hiro has attacked Magilou with Rock Lance!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Access! Hiro takes 60 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie came loaded for bear.

    The business that went down at Armlock, well, she hadn't been present for that mess: she'd been elsewhere at the time, making good on her comment that she'd try and get her personal cannon through the portal next to help deal with the Wise Men-- and then, she'd heard about what happened and had to do an immediate about-face regarding. Sometimes it's just like that.

    Still, though. From what she'd heard, it seemed that there was dissension in the Wise Men's ranks, and while she's of the 'let them fight' mindset normally, well. Some threats don't bear letting slide, especially when there's Malevolence thrown into the mix.
    Especially when there's been rumor about a Fell Dragon in the ruins that Lucifer's trying to weaponize. Especially when even old enemies are helping hold the line for the sake of the world. And especially when someone is saying the sorts of things Lucifer's saying.

    "Thanks for the consideration, right," she calls up at Lucifer when he makes his offer. With a grin, she reaches down to pat, once, the cannon she'd (with aid) hauled all the way in her). "But I'll pass. I've had my fill of 'conquerin' the world and all that' types," she finishes, and it is only by force of will that Josephine avoids a sidelong glance at Lily.

    Lily, who as Josie had similarly noted earlier, is also loaded for bear.

    Of course, there is one little wrinkle in the bravado and brave front and all, and that comes in the form of the Fell Dragon, Eizen, as he makes his appearance. The rolling crash of Malevolence is well-felt; Josie winces, in spite of her tempered will. "...I'll leave that one to you lot," she says, her earlier mirth gone in the face of the Fell Dragon's presence. "Do it properly-like, now."

    As for her, she knows exactly who she's aiming for.

<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

Word travels fast and Layna, who'd been spending time with her crew, decided it was time for her to act. What waits at Eluria Tower affects all of them - and so, with Lanval heading there as well, Layna has volunteered to join him.

And it's telling, the forces arrayed at the tower. What would be their enemies at any other time joined together, laying siege to their target. Layna runs past, and as Siegfried shouts at them to go - she offers a tip of her hat. Words aren't necessary, here.

And then, eventually, she skids to a stop. Waiting for them is the Wise Man she can only assume is Lucifer. The map she doesn't recognize, but when it comes to battle planning, she knows a thing or two. She can recognize invasion plans when she sees them.

"Already planning ahead? Smart, smart. But... don't get too far ahead of yourself, aye?" Layna comments. She looks toward Lanval as he introduces himself - and makes his feelings known.

"Captain Layna Manydays, Seer of Water. I'm with him." Layna introduces with a gesture of her thumb toward Lanval, following his example. "...But I'm gonna have to disappoint you. Trying to order me around is like trying to command the winds or the sea! Not gonna happen, aye? So you can stow those high hopes of yours."

...And that's when a terrible growl sounds from above. Layna looks up - and then the shadows descend, Malevolence billowing forth. It's enough to make even Layna recoil back, driven back a few steps by the force of the Fell Dragon's landing.

"...Well, damn." Layna mutters. His very presence here screams danger, tugging at the corner of her mind - but she's able to push the reaction back. She glances toward Lanval - he drinks deep from his gourd, and Layna can feel it, that faint feeling of mirth fighting back. She cracks a grin, mustering her defiance.

"...Let's split up. Lanval, you gonna be good with him?" Layna says, nodding toward Eisen - before turning her attention back toward Lucifer.

Either opponent is one that would demand their full attention... they'll need to fight carefully here.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "Whatever it takes, huh...?" Magilou said -- quietly -- and to herself.

    Velvet knows who said it first.

    This historical witch tends to appear when Edna is in her worst trouble -- and she's always redoubled that trouble, even if she solves the problem in front of her. A woman who should be dead, a woman with a gravestone, and yet over long centuries she refuses to die. She's more long-lived than most Seraphim, these days, and twice as annoying.

    At least she never shows up on those shikigami surfboards for very long.

    "Oopsie!" She chimes, as she quick-steps back away from Rock Lance. There's no Seraphic glyph as she replies: "Hiii-YAH!", because the Hidden Arte she invokes uses the lesser power of the Dryad dwelling in her paper doll. The ball of water careens over to Edna, and where it impacts...

    ... it will be sure to splash Hiro, too. (She's not aiming for Ruby, except, perhaps, for the fact that they're riding on her and it's inevitable.)

    "Hiiii~!" She lilts, waving a hand up over her head. "Sorry, sorry! We're still in the middle of eating them! Would you like a nice, juicy rat? They're delicious and nutritious! Tell them, honey!" She adds, grinning to Velvet.

    Why is she SO painfully cheerful? Doesn't she know what's here -- what Ragnell's friends are really fighting back?

    She salutes to Lily, as she calls: "Don't worry! I have abso-zero-tootley-NOTHING! Haha, we're all going to die!" Ah. She's just lost it. Good to know. Ragnell might ask, quite sensibly, why she's lost it so vivaciously, as she hops down from her shikigami doll and faces up to the towering form of Eizen.

    "But... a thousand years have passed."

    There it is. There's the yawning abyss where her heart should be, shattered and empty, all the joy leeched from her voice in an instant --

    "Soooo... hey! Bienfu's drinking buddy! Heeeeyyy!!" Magilou calls out, waggling her fingers to Lanval. "You wouldn't leave a girl hanging in the noose, wouldya? That's not my kind of swinging!" Magilou, you're about to die, can you stop that for five seconds. "Here's the situ-rations: we're on the menu unless we take care of that dragon. And we can't kill that dragon just with unlimited power!" Which might explain why she doesn't call Lily over. "Eizen's a stubborn guy, so we'll need a special trick!" She waves to Ida, and calls her: "You too, phoenix girl!"

    Magilou is doing GREAT. Magilou is SUPER NORMAL. Magilou is --

    -- finding an excuse somewhere in here to squeeze Margaret's hand. Don't examine that too hard. She's having a normal one, she's fine, she's great, no problems with Magilou, don't worry.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Elluria is not the sort of place one can travel without preparation, but Lucifer has forced everyone onto a tight timetable. Ida has family--distant, ancestrally-linked family--in New Arctica. Thankfully, Hazel Raye of the New Arctican militia had noticed the abnormal activity at Elluria Tower, and shared what information she could.

    Ida arrives on foot, and makes her way through the bedlam at the tower's base. Siegfried's voice catches her ear, and she turns to face him, her expression grim. She blinks, and her right eye is the bright green of Fafnir's until she blinks again. She follows Lily into the tower without another word. Catastrophe Sal flies alongside her, bearing a very important Held Item: A wrought-metal brazier, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, with a long carrying handle. Bright, pure flame burns within it, thinning out the ambient Malevolence and making it more bearable. The focus in her compound eyes matches her Trainer's.

    The inside of the tower is marvelous and alien, but familiar. Ida takes it all in, but there's no time to stop and stare. Ida cranes her head up, meets Lucifer's eyes, and shakes her head. "No thank you," she says. "I--"

    Ida's gaze goes unfocused for a moment as an absolute tidal wave of Malevolence roars downwards from above at Lucifer's command. She recognizes it. Ida sets her stance and digs in her heels, and even then, she stumbles back as the Fell Dragon lands.

    Ida looks up at Eizen and swallows. Even in the heaviest armor she has--the refurbished Hyadean stuff, with her reinforced longcoat overtop--she feels vulnerable. She takes a breath, wets her lips, and whistles a command to Sal: Stay evasive. Don't let them put out the brazier.

    But Sal has sighted something--someone--else. She points. Ida turns to look, and her mouth falls open at the sight. "Is that... Ruby?!" Awe gleams in her eyes, despite the crushing weight of Eizen's Domain.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval quietly hands over the previously broken bottle to Layna, the intent clear on where it is meant to go (and which end), and nods sagaciously.

GS: CRITICAL! Magilou mostly evades Hiro's Rock Lance for 58 hit points!
GS: Blind applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Magilou has attacked Hiro with Dryad!
GS: Magilou has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Magilou's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Magilou gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
GS: Hiro fails to charge Magilou's Dryad for 50 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret's journey to here --

Well, it's been a long and winding road in general. But the journey to THIS place, who and how she was when she came to Eluria, she could trace back to a Nedian department store. Holding up what had seemed to be miraculous garments to her, she wondered if they could be real.

She'd left with twelve sets. To the Nedians they were efficient heat-smart garments. Margaret knew what they were: They were silk, or near enough to it. Three layers sewn together and you can put mail on top. It was extravagant and unreasonable for anything other than the most wealthy of knights or sacred warriors.

In this, perhaps, Margaret just followed her own example. And that's why she's got a lot less skin showing today than she did before. She has also come *heavily* armed for her usual habits. Three of the seemingly enormous supply of rehabilitated arming swords from the badlands; a triangular dagger or short-sword (it's big enough to qualify for the latter, but it's marginal) on the other side of her hip; and a naginata, much like her weapon of old, strapped on the back.

She even tied her hair back.

The good news about this arming up is that it has not slowed her down; or if it has, it is not consequential. She has the naginata out for the approach, though it would seem that they have unlikely allies. Her expression has been grim throughout the journey and she has not said very much. She remained near Magilou. Looming, perhaps. A literal bodyguard! (she is like two Magilous in size)

"For the love of the goddess," Margaret says as Edna suddenly throws an Arte at Magilou-- she can't do much -- okay, they're bantering. Margaret lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Her good hand reaches over to adjust the straps on the bracing gauntlet on her right hand, which has remained numbed, but at least amenable to bracing. It's holding the weapon right now.

Which means when she lowers that hand, Magilou squeezes it.

Margaret looks over to her. (She squeezes back.) She takes a deep breath in through her nose.

"Well," Margaret says, raising her head up. "If it comes to that, Dollie and Veren will take care of the lads and the lasses. I'm in excellent company... and you know, Rex, he died holding back an entire Spiran force. I heard it all third-hand, of course, but it was..."

Margaret takes another sharp breath.

And then she smiles, rather suddenly. "Well! I can't let him show me up at that Farplane, or whatever it is." Another squeeze, and she brings her left hand up to brace the naginata -- stepping forward a pace and pointing it towards the Fell Dragon, Eizen.

"You!" she calls ahead. "I am Margaret of Houndstooth, and whatever madness this old bastard has in store for the stars in the sky, know this!"

Margaret lowers herself slightly - a readied stance. "This planet isn't big enough for the both of us."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Like Lily, Gwen was surprised to see an army had already beaten all of them to the punch. Seeing Siegfried there seemed like an answer to a question she hadn't had time to ask herself yet, especially as Siegfried bids them to go on while they hold those armies back. Gwen hesitates a moment, seeing Siegfried amongst the Metal Beasts and the few squadron of Moblins, then nods, turning to leave. "... I'll give 'em hell in your stead." It's hard saying that he'd see or make anything of it, but the courier herself is ready to trust him at his word. She's got no reason to suspect he'd do anything else.

    To Ragnell, Gwen greets with a more casual flair, giving her a wide grin and a slow wave of her left hand. "Glad t'see you too! Care t'join us?" There's no sign of that weird lapse in behavior that Ragnell observed when they fought Azoth; though, really, there's likely other things to be worried about.

    Especially when they reach the rather Nedian interiors past the courtward, and further beyond... Lucifer, floating in front of a map. Gwen can't say for certain, but they seem similar to maps she's seen when they met Claude's family and friends.

    .... Well, similar, in that they indicate there's more to the world(s) than Filgaia and Lunar.

    "So the divide wasn't just with those two back in Armlock," Gwen says aloud, her eyes noting the maps. "We took care of two of your conspirators in Armlock, plus one on Gabriel's side. I'd say you're countin' your chickens before they've hatche-- oh no."

    Gwen's confidence leaks as she feels that wave of malevolence. "How the hell..." Gwen doesn't have it within herself to make a quip. There's history here, but Gwen is ignorant of it. This was a Seraph... someone some people here knew.

    She considers it a small blessing that she doesn't know.

    The courier does, however, grin at Ida. "Ain't Ruby a real beaut? Anyway--" She tugs off the glove on her right ARM with a flourish, grinning towards the group collecting to fight Eizen. "I ain't sure what's goin' on, but if Lucifer's actually managed to somehow get a Fell Dragon under his control, I 'spose it's my duty to kindly help convince him t'stop. Got at least one of his kind under my belt as is. Josie's right. Won't be long; a smarmy type like him'll go down reeeeeal quick."

    She extends that grin up to Lucifer, as she makes a point of stepping further and further away. She wants his attention, and with it, a clear shot, even if it means getting a taste of what he's capable of in teturn. "You get alla that, Luci? Us bumpkins're kickin' your ass!" Isn't Josie the one who gives people nicknames?

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige's not thrilled to be here for a myriad of reasons. The malevolence in the air simultaneously bringing back a number of bad memories, none of which quite make it as far as some of her other memories, but it took things getting worse for her to push herself forward. She's not proud of this and won't be admitting it any time soon.
 
 The feline walked the majority of the way to the situation. Arriving in time to get called out for being late. (No it wasn't aimed at her, but she can feel it all the same.
 
 She looks up, then back down to the base of the tower. She takes a moment, patting herself down, checking kit. CHecking what she's carrying on her back. Checking a shiny new shotgun and finally making her way inward.
 
 Lanval is breaking glass again and that, more than anything dredged up some of those memories she'd been avoiding and she clenches her teeth. Takes a breath and says, "Really should try to get you a better bit of bar brawling things." Trying to make a joke. Trying to diffuse her own tension with humor. It kind of works. Maybe.
 
 She hasn't turned and run yet. She also hasn't tried to kill a bottle of rum. She's not sure if that's the right call at this point.
 
 Standing up straight, she rolls her shoulders back, pushes those thoughts down to be worried about later and... indulges in a different vice to try and calm her nerves. "I don't know what's on that map-" She notes, with a nod of her head as she pulls a cigar out and begins to fiddle with it. Trying to light it with a proper lighter. Her lantern isn't here today, she's still surrounded by eerie, creeping shadows though. And when she lights up, they briefly disappear, then seem to manifest in the smoke before disappearing again.
 
 Then the shotgun is slung around and she replies to the offer of joining an army by pumping it and leveling it towards the Wiseman. Her eyes only briefly lifting as things start to go wild around. Almost overwhelmingly so. Her aim faltering just a moment as she tries to focus on whether she should try to help with one, or the other.
 
 The decision might be made for her though.

<Pose Tracker> Velvet Crowe has posed.

Something is happening at Eluria Tower.

Velvet Crowe's response, normally, would be, "What's that, and why should I care?" She is not nearly as versed in Filgaian geography as she is Lunar, where she seems to - rather inexplicably - know its countless geographic features like the back of her hand. More to the point...

Filgaian problems are Filgaia's problems. Should the Lord of Calamity truly care about them?

Whatever the truth of that feigned indifference she normally brings to bear on most matters, however...

She -does- know Eluria Tower.

She knows it for one singular reason.

There's nothing I hate more than someone else trying to control the direction of my life.

The same reason Malevolence - typically so rare as to be unfounded in Filgaia - hangs so heavy in the air here in Eluria.

She knows it well. The feeling that might normally be so oppressive to others is like a warm embrace to Velvet Crowe as she pierces through on a straight, single-minded path towards the tower beyond. A warm embrace... and one that chills an icy feeling in her gut in the damning familiarity of it. -His- presence lingers in the air here, unmistakable in the fiery taste of that Malevolence on her metaphysical taste buds.

It was exactly the same feeling as when they found him, in the heart of Eluria's ruins.

"..."

There are people already here when Velvet, Magilou and Margaret arrive, fighting the forces arrayed at the Tower. Save for Ragnell, Velvet doesn't recognize them; she has no context to place any significance upon the large man in knight's armor, leading his armies from the front, nor any of his eclectic allies arrayed there.

She doesn't pay attention to them. Not a single word of gratitude is offered as she sprints her way through the warring forces. So entirely tunnel-visioned is Velvet that not even Ragnell's signature snark gets the reaction it might normally drag out of the returned Lord of Calamity. Just a brief, sharp, golden-eyed stare, before that glare affixes forward and Velvet pushes on unerringly.

"... Just don't get in my way."

Otherwise? Not a single second is spared. They have their reasons for doing this, and it's certainly not for her. And it's the same for her.

The most she can offer them is to stab straight into the heart of the problem with eyes wide open.

No -- she only stops when she gets inside. Only stops when she catches sight of Lucifer, floating there in all his familiar pretension. And her attention only tears -away- when someone suddenly aggresses upon Magilou with an abrupt pillar of earth bursting forth from the ground. Gold eyes widen in alert. They snap to the side.

"Now's NOT the time, cat--!" she begins to snarl because - yes she's absolutely blaming Ruby for this even if Ruby doesn't do Earth magics - only to suddenly stop. Eyes widen for a different reason, as she spies that gold-haired, seemingly young woman riding alongside Hiro.

She remembers an illusion, cast by Melchior, so long ago. Of a seemingly young woman with gold hair. A woman - a Seraph - that Eizen called sister.

Edna.

For a second, Velvet stalls out. Magilou's teasing words feel distant and numb in her ears, and she can't even bring herself to torpedo the joke in true, blunt, straightwoman form. Something like regret bleeds into that typically unassailable stare. Her jaw clenches.

"..."
going to tear someone else's brother away from them again, are you
"... Do what you want."

And then, after giving tacit approval to abuse Magilou(??), she rips her stare away to focus on Lucifer beyond.

"Oh. It's you."

She doesn't recognize those holographic maps. Frankly, it doesn't interest her regardless. But she can piece together the context clues. None of it, however, is relevant to her. Not Lucifer's ambitions, nor his traitorous acts. For her, it's just opportunity. After all...

"Good. You were next on my list, anyway. I've got a score to settle with you."

Velvet's bandaged hand snaps out, fingers splayed wide to call attention to it like an implicit threat: Lucifer knows what it is. He's seen what it does. What it reduced one of his comrades to. She wants him to know. She wants him to be afraid of it.

Like every single person in Marlind was.

"You're going to regret ever stepping foot on Lunar, you basta--"

A roar.

Gold eyes widen once more.

"No--"

And a black-scaled dragon she has burned into her memories sweeps past, the beat of its buffeting wings billowing her wild, raven hair as the force of its impact makes her stagger back one step, two, bandaged hand lifting to cover her eyes. She knows that scarlet seethe glowing between its scales. She knows the flames bubbling from its maw. The same flames that nearly incinerated her last time.

She remembers that dragon, and how it could have killed her. Except...

... except...

"... Eizen..."

Bloodshot, gold eyes gleam.

And Velvet Crowe starts to run, straight towards that dragon. We're all going to die! Magilou proclaims, and Velvet single-mindedly rushes straight towards her death. How could she not?

She knows him.

"EIZEN!!"

                         My wheel is mine to hold.

How could she ever forget him?

<Pose Tracker> Lucifer has posed.

Lucifer's smile becomes all the colder and crueler, as Eizen slams down. Hovering in the air as he does, the Fell Dragon's terrifying descent does not make him shake. He instead floats high. And proud.

"Leave?" Lucifer asks Lanval. "I think not. I was created to conquer this galaxy. This universe. And this is the seat of my power."

Then he looks down at Lily. His expression twists into a sneer, again. "Tch. So be it," he says. "Then I'll happily rid myself of you insects."

He looks at Cavall. "Your stars? Don't be tedious," he says. "You've no claim to them. As insects cannot own their filthy nests, you can't own the planet you happen to put your feet upon."

Then, he looks at Layna. His eyes narrow. "So, you won't be a trusted lieutenant, then. So noted," he says. "Which means I have no further use for you!"

Then he looks down at Velvet. "You... the one who killed Jophiel. I'll have you know -- if my beast isn't up to the task, I'll kill you myself."

Then, his pale eyes look down at Gwen.

"So you have found a way to slay us. All the more important to succeed here," Lucifer tells Gwen. "Gabriel would leave nothing but ashes of the universe. I would conquer it! And for that... I need a greater power."

He smiles at her, coldly. "And I've found a way to bend that power to my will."

There is a scowl from Lucifer at Ruby -- a Dragon, in her own right, and with company on her back -- flying in. The Wise Man tilts his head to the side. Then he holds a hand up. A large, golden Symbol flashes before Eizen's eyes.

"Wyrm," he says. "Kill them! Do as your master commands!"

Then, Lucifer looks to those facing him. "Now, then... feel the scouring winds of devastation!" Lucifer shouts. "AND WITNESS THE BEGINNING OF YOUR WORLD'S HISTORY!"

Wings of energy explode from Lucifer's back. Huge wings of crimson and violet energy, as circuit-like lines of red ignite across his cheeks and hands. He lifts high, like the living weapon he is, and then he throws a hand down. Lightning explodes off his hand, and huge arcs of lightning hurtle down for Lily, Cavall, Josie and her huge cannon, Layna, Gwen, and Shige.

GS: Lucifer has attacked Lucifer with Wings of Apocalypse!
GS: Lucifer has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucifer accepts Lucifer's Wings of Apocalypse for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Lucifer!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Lucifer with Wings of Power!
GS: Lucifer has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucifer accepts Lucifer's Wings of Power for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock state applied to Lucifer!
GS: Hyper, Mighty, and Riposte applied to Lucifer!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Lucifer with Reflection!
GS: Lucifer has gained 1 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucifer accepts Lucifer's Reflection for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Lucifer!
GS: Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: Lucifer gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Lucifer has completed his action.
GS: Lucifer has attacked Lily Keil with Thunder Storm!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Seraph Cavall with Thunder Storm!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Thunder Storm!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Layna Manydays with Thunder Storm!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Thunder Storm!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Shige Kiwako with Thunder Storm!
GS: Shige Kiwako marginally evades Lucifer's Thunder Storm for 136 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucifer!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: CRITICAL! Layna Manydays marginally evades Lucifer's Thunder Storm for 196 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil fails to charge Lucifer's Thunder Storm for 258 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace fails to charge Lucifer's Thunder Storm for 247 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Eizen has posed.

Every Fell Dragon was one a Seraph. The one called Eizen is a distant memory, now this monstrous creature that's devours humans and seraphim alike. But those memories are still carried in the friends that once walked beside him.

Lanval stands armed with a bottle. His joy turned to harm may well mirror the draconic foe before him. But mirth steels itself against the portable Domain of a dragon that pulses off of Eizen like a dying heartbeat.

Family, friends... Everything I ever tried to hold onto... All of it trickled away.

Ragnell makes her vow. She knows freedom, and this isn't it. They did not know one another, and because of Malevolence, will never get the chance.

In the end, what matters isn't whether we get killed or not. It's whether we can take control over the direction of our own lives.

Ida stands before him as a seer, facing a level of Malevolence that threatens her to forgo purification in favor of Hyadean 'gifts'.

But I do fear one thing... I'm afraid that when I turn into a dragon, I could end up hurting the very people I want to protect.

Magilou has her own 'mirth' brought to battle. Magilou is great. Magilou is normal. She looks into the eyes of a dragon and surely she remembers nothing.

I'll have everyone dying from laughter the way only a reaper can.

She is not alone. Margaret stands at her side, protective and unrelenting, with a declaration.

...This fist will take everything back. Just like you told me to!

Ruby swoops in. Another dragon. Is Eizen's roar territorial, or simply acknowledging the powerful presence before him?

Edna greets him.

She can be... abrasive, but when she smiles it's like nothing else.

... Nothing.

Are faded memories all that remain? Well... Velvet? You remember: his wheel is his to hold.

But Eizen no longer has hands, and golden Symbology flashes before him at Lucifer's commanding call.

Eizen's claws rake into the ground as his wings poise in scythe-like arcs. He raises his head, widens his jaws, and blasts a bright, burning ball of Malevolent flame like a cannon shot toward the center of the group. Even if a direct hit is avoided, fire and metallic debris rain down in a thick layer of the dragon's Malevolence.

Survival is in two parts: strength and luck. The unluckier you are, the more strength must be cultivated to survive.

GS: Eizen has attacked Eizen with Luminous Gain!
GS: Eizen has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen's stances have changed to Stoic!
GS: Eizen heals Eizen! It gains 228 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen applied to Eizen!
GS: Eizen has attacked Velvet Crowe with Malevolent Misfortune!
GS: Eizen has attacked Magilou with Malevolent Misfortune!
GS: Eizen has attacked Margaret with Malevolent Misfortune!
GS: Eizen has attacked Hiro with Malevolent Misfortune!
GS: Eizen has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Malevolent Misfortune!
GS: Eizen has attacked Seraph Lanval with Malevolent Misfortune!
GS: Eizen has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Malevolent Misfortune!
GS: Eizen has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Eizen gains 28 THP from its Cautious!
GS: Eizen gains 31 THP from Regen!
GS: Eizen has completed its action.
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Gamble: Highest! Hiro critically fails to guard Eizen's Malevolent Misfortune for 278 hit
points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease applied to Hiro!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Cavall critically fails to charge Lucifer's Thunder Storm for 249 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Low! Margaret mostly guards Eizen's Malevolent Misfortune for 66 hit points!
GS: Disease applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: COUNTER! Velvet Crowe counterattacks Eizen with Arthur's Maxims!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Gamble: High! Velvet Crowe fails to charge Eizen's Malevolent Misfortune for 255 hit points!
GS: Disease applied to Velvet Crowe!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Velvet Crowe has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! Gamble: Moderate! Seraph Lanval mostly guards Eizen's Malevolent Misfortune for 29 hit points!
GS: Disease applied to Seraph Lanval!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Lucifer with Voltie Double Tech!!!
GS: Gwen Whitlock critically fails to charge Lucifer's Thunder Storm for 223 hit points!
GS: Eizen mostly guards Velvet Crowe's Arthur's Maxims for 45 hit points!
GS: Lucifer mostly evades Gwen Whitlock's Voltie Double Tech!! for 39 hit points!
GS: COUNTER! Seraph Ragnell counterattacks Eizen with Counter Attack!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Moderate! Seraph Ragnell mostly charges Eizen's Malevolent Misfortune for 136 hit
points!
GS: Disease applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Highest! Magilou fails to guard Eizen's Malevolent Misfortune for 246 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: Lowest! Ida Everstead-Rey perfectly guards Eizen's Malevolent Misfortune for 32 hit
points!
GS: Disease blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen mostly evades Seraph Ragnell's Counter Attack for 29 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    "You know it, Gwen," Ragnell says just as casually back at the super courier. She does note that she's back to normal... but now isn't the time to focus on that.
    
    Ragnell crooks a smile over at Ruby as she waves her tail at her. She'll get a two-fingered salute in return, tipping off the brim of her hat. "Lookin' good, Ru."
    
    Her gaze goes towards Edna next, riding astride Ruby with Hiro next to her. "So you made it too... Good for you you could make it. Well--" Her smile fades as she glares back at Eizen. "Not *good*. But you know."
    
    She takes Edna's Earth Arte in stride. It's not *her* she's hitting with that, and Magilou manages to dodge it, mostly. One might ask why she's losing it so vivaciously, but she has a pretty good idea. This is an old friend of hers... and this kind of behavior is the only way Magilou can handle her own despair. That, and Margaret's hand, apparently. Velvet is not exactly one for hurt/comfort play, it seems like.
    
    Especially when she's grappling with her own feelings about Eizen. Ragnell doesn't mind that Velvet doesn't even seem to notice her snark. For someone like her, it'd be *more* wrong if she did than otherwise. It's enough to get acknowledged as even being here--even if it's to be told not to get in the way.
    
    "Wouldn't dream of it," she replies, plain and simple. And, more seriously: "Not for this."
    
    She does chuckle at Magilou volleying that orb of water right back at Edna, because as Magilou has demonstrated, this is a moment that needs a laugh to stay super duper normal and fine. "Ahhh, friendship. Don't it jus' warm th' cockles o' your heart?" she drawls loudly. (Her accent is thicker than usual right now...)
    
    Ragnell trusts Lanval, Cavall, and the others to take care of Lucifer. As annoying a little bug as she sees him, he's strong enough that he can't simply be ignored--so it's good that there's enough of them here that they can split the load more or less fairly. "Right back atcha," she quips at Josie.
    
    She's going to be one of the most actually normal people here tonight, so she'd better make the most of it. Especially when Lucifer raises a hand and commands Eizen to kill them. A Fell Dragon wouldn't need to be egged on, but that's not the point here, is it? She grits her teeth and narrows her eyes as those golden Symbols flash to force him to bend under Lucifer's will.
    
    "Fuck that guy," she snarls, just before the Fell Dragon unleashes that massive burst of black fire.
    
    Ragnell leaps back to avoid a direct hit, opening fire with both barrels in a rapidfire burst, each pistol firing lightning bullets in turn back and forth. Whether they break through the Malevolent flame or not is irrelevant. It is the will to rebel that matters, and she'll continue to rebel even as that flame and debris slam into her in the wake of that fireball. She snarls in pain, sent slamming into the ground and rolling along a fair distance--but she gets back up, whirling up to her feet in a spiral of crackling light. She's quite firmly in the back line now.
    
    So when Velvet rushes in, screaming Eizen's name, Ragnell stays in the back line and charges lightning up in her paired pistols. Let the Lord of Calamity claim the attention. It's always been Ragnell's self-appointed role to support the star, anyway. When Eizen is properly distracted, she *fires*--not at his face, but his massive feet. A fragmenting, spiraling burst of electricity erupts and spiders outwards along the ground beneath him, potentially locking his claws in place and slowing him down.
    
    It won't last long. But this isn't a foe that can be overcome by brute force alone, and they'll all need every edge they can get.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Eizen with Electric Boogaloo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Gamble: Very High! Eizen marginally guards Seraph Ragnell's Electric Boogaloo for 50 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Blind, Entangle, and Jam applied to Eizen!

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Ah," Lily answers Magilou. "Well, I guess it's a good day to die."

But a thousand years...

'Unlimited power' isn't enough. Lily knows where she's best allocated in this fight, then. She ahs no special tricks of Malevolence, no purifying power, no sacred might. She has only the power of destruction.

But she does hold the power of destruction.

"Ruby!?" Lily exclaims in surprise at seeing the little dragon a big dragon. But Josie is there at her side with the cannon. "Josie," she says. "I'll make sure you get a chance to use that thing."

Her cannon. "...But I'm glad you said that."

Ida's brazier...

But Lucifer ansswers her. "I'd rather see this planet turned to ash than see it ruled by you," Lily answers. But he has control of Eizen--Lily's eyes slide for an instant to Velvet, and back to Lucifer.

She pulls a Pokeball--and then, Lucifer's lightning courses through her. Lily's form twists as it blasts about her, thrown from her feet bodily and against one of the walls of the chamber, smoking as she hits the ground. In that hand is still clutched that one Pokeball. She drags herself up.

"That's... about what I expected," she coughs, and opens her Pokeball. From it emerges a draconic creature of much smaller scale than Eizen, of orange coloration, with outstretched blue wings and a tail ablaze with flame.

"Charizard," Lily instructs. "ANTIMATTER!"

Rearing back, the flame Pokemon breathes suddenly, and that spectral blue flame sticks to those fighting Lucifer, infusing them with power--with the power to overwhelm even a Wise Man's defenses.

Then...

Lily looks into nothing for a moment--no, into the world beyond. She intones in an ancient language, "'Initiating System Omega.'" Shadow drapes over Lily's shoulders, down her arms, across her face. In moments she is gone, but her voice remains.

"'Organic Core reconfiguration in progress.'"

A dull light shines from her center mass, and Lily's voice echoes through the room despite no apparent presence. Circuit-like patterns--not Symbols, though an amateur could mistake them for such--ignite along her limbs, violet-tinged and brilliantly burning--until abrubtly the antire form collapses, falling into a black pool of purest shadow.

"'Interlink established.'"

A humanoid form rises from the shadows. Her chalk-white skin is too smooth to be real, unnatural. Her black sclera and white pupils are adorned with blue irises. Her long, blonde hair looks to be some synthetic fiber--but her face has no mouth or nose, just an incline along the central vertical. Bony plating protects much of her form, the Symbological attire apparently changed with her. There are ridges at her shoulders and joints, claws on the many segments of her fingers, spikes at her wrist and elbows and knees and feet and hips. Circuity glows gray and sshifts into violet as she begins to use her magic, and dust floats around her.

"'Stage Division achieved. Reconfiguration complete.'"

Division does not smile. She cannot smile. But she lifts her too-long hands with too many joints towards Lucifer. "My turn." The Pokeball she'd used floats upward, but Charizard does not immediately retreat. Instead, he roars, and touches down beside Division. "Allow me," she says, and her other hand rises up, gesturing.

There is a scream, and the world lurches, space-time itseelf rent as Division attempts to take Lucifer's location and shred his connections to space-time itself, briefly trying to knock him out of touch with the world around him--and violently batter him in the process.

"FILGAIA WILL NOT SUBMIT!"

DC: Lily Keil switches forms to Omega - Division!

GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lucifer with N o w h e r e!
GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Access! Lily Keil takes 30 damage!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Lucifer marginally evades Lily Keil's N o w h e r e for 126 hit points!
GS: Disrupt applied to Lucifer!
GS: Disease and Entangle blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

Ruby points a talon at herself like 'What did I do!?' at Velvet's accusation, but doesn't actually respond to it, instead grinning toothily at Ragnell and Gwen's compliments. "Hey Lily, long story, tell you later!"

Edna tries to open her Parasol, but despite her best efforts she gets splashed right in the face with the arte, for the moment looking like the grumpiest wet Seraph that could ever be.

"Then perish."

You can tell how much these two really like each other.

Whereas Edna, her gaze droops at Ragnell's comment, just subtly... and in a subtly changed echo of her comment, she says, "You would know."

However, the dripping wet Seraph then faces down a sight of someone she's never seen, but always heard about. Despite the subdued interactions between brother and sister in times before, she knows of Velvet Crowe. She couldn't fail to, and perhaps she'd heard the rumors she was back.

"... I thought you were asleep."

But she didn't believe, not really. And after Sorey went to sleep to help Maotelus heal, she didn't think she'd ever pin her hopes on someone else to take care of this problem.

"Fine."

That is all the acceptance she has of her presence, in contrast to the ferocity of her battlecry, the call of her brother's name.

And the Golden Symbology that controls what's left of him. She stares balefully at Lucifer, but says not a single word, her silence more telling than anything at all of her anger.

Ruby squints at Lucifer, eyes narrowing as he commands Eizen, "... Okay wow. Just. Wow. Not to copy Velvet but before this is over I am going to DEVOUR YOU!"

The burning ball of malevolent flame crashes into Ruby, who abruptly crosses her wings, before they flare out to creep flapping, but the malevolent flame takes hold into wisps of violet that burn all over her.

"Ruby! You okay?"

"Of... course." She says, pained, as cinder like feathers begin burning off the flames as she flies in a circle, "Who do you think I am? I'm Ruby... the Red Dragon of Lunar! AWAKEN, FLAMES!"

And as she roars, a circular mandala of fire erupts in the space in front of her, fiery spirits that she's summoning as per Magilou's instruction, "Alright... Magilou... let's do it! DOUBLE CALAMITY FLARE!"

It collapses into an enormous wave of flame that carries through the air, conjoining with hers, inexorably towards the Malevolent Wyrm. At the same time, Edna is looking into the Wyrm's eyes. Every time she looks, she knows she'll find nothing else than what she sees right now.

Every time, she ends up being disappointed anyway.

"I command thee... Rock Trigger."

And at the same moment the wave of flame comes, does a piece of the tower jut out to try and impale him. This was always and forever, his choice. Even if she can't understand how he felt... she'll still be here for the end.

GS: Hiro has attacked Eizen with Calamity Flare!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Access! Hiro takes 44 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Eizen critically fails to guard Hiro's Calamity Flare for 267 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Regen removed!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval can't put into words in the moment how absolutely frightening the idea is that someone's found a way to put shackles on a Fell Dragon to compel them to do one's bidding. (Ways to point them somewhere like putting a target on someone, yes, but to verbally command is... new.)
 
     There was Heldalf and Maotelus, but that seemed to be from a place of a then-mutual understanding between them, and it's pointless to speculate now because a wandering mind under this much Malevolence is a death warrant for a Seraph's entire sense of being.
 
     Lanval catches Magilou's hand squeezing of Margaret as she addresses him. He just nods politely. She has her own small joys she wants to protect. (It's that or Bienfu's continued suffering, either works.)
 
     A sly smile to Shige as she mentions about a 'beter bit of bar brawling things.' "Ya have no idea how long I've been 'round it," and in a roundabout way, it's his turn to be a bouncer.
 
     With Ruby and Edna doing their own bits as the latter has to now come face to face with what's left of who was once close to them, well... he knows Velvet's speaking true, and the emotion screaming out of the original Lord of Calamity's voice says all.
 
     It is strange times when one of the modern day's relative equivalents of what was Maotelus' gift to the world (albeit from a different source) and a Lord of Calamity are outright joining forces.
 
     Lanval stands his ground by conjuring a Seraphic Arte of his birthright element of water, pushing back against the sweeping wave of cursed flame. He avoids being directly struck head-on, but the wash of Malevolence and the residual 'blessing' of the Reaper's Curse - or perhaps an artful, wistful, nostalgic fabrication of the idea, though he's hundreds of years too young to have ever met or known Eizen - settles around the physical, spiritual, emotional periphery. (It blots out some frankly frightening things going on over near Lucifer's part of the battle.)
 
     How much misfortune was he surrounded by, in those hundreds of years as Lord of the Land? The abject cruelty of a false Goddess preying upon faith and the present lack of Althena (wherever she may be, she has to be somewhere) to pit the Guard against where he upheld his reinforcement of the Boundary protecting Meribus?
 
     And what fortune he found through all of that, that goes beyond value and cost - the small joys that made enduring that all the worthwhile.
 
     He dances along past Ragnell's shooting, knowing Layna's got matters handled on the other end of it as he pirouettes, chants up some unheard Seraphic Arte phrases as he spins and comes to a stop to hurl some conjured water like a huge, spilling, washing wave.
 
     "Spilling Goblet!" Lanval calls as the sigils of Seraphim sorcery disperse, threatening to try and challenge some of the Fell Dragon's Malevolence-fueled might and armor. After all... Shepherd Sorey entrusted everything to him, to everyone.

GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Eizen with Spilling Goblet!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Eizen mostly evades Seraph Lanval's Spilling Goblet for 41 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "I'm non-perishable!" Magilou chirps, to Edna, flashing her a V for Victory. She assures Velvet, a moment later: "Don't worry a whit, that's how I know she's well."

    And Velvet... charges right in, which might indeed reveal to Ragnell why Magilou didn't turn to her for comfort, in this moment. Velvet has just as many scars, in this place; Margaret, on the other hand, has just heard the stories. (She's told her a few. Late at night, generally, or after a good few drinks, but a story is a story.)

    "That's our Velvet," Magilou says, and don't call her smile sad. It isn't sad to smile. "Yup... this is the way."

    (She doesn't have a good feeling.)

    Flame scours out, and Magilou thrusts out a hand, creating a beehive-barrier of light --

    -- which SHATTERS as the full force of a Fell Dragon's fury slams into it.

    If you listen closely, you can hear her crying out, as she's thrown back against the smooth-to-clinical Nedian walls. It's not a loud noise; it's not theatric. She's not performing the pain she's suffered. Margaret was clearly right in thinking she needed a bodyguard, today.

    "Guess I'd better change," she says, her voice wobbling a little as she picks herself up. "Super Absorber..." She means to change literally: with a sweep of her hand, her pink-purple-blue becomes red, white, and black, her witch's raiments shifting in colour, leather-bound books turning black and green with sorcerous might.

    This is a dress she puts on more often, around the Ten Wise Men. She'd have to wear it in this situation, though, even if Lucifer weren't a horrific force in the room. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?" She grumbles, to Lucifer, as she dusts herself off. "... bringing everyone to him."

    As if Eizen would have been perfectly happy being alone, with no targets nearby to incite his rage.

    With what she says to Lily about power, she might be poorly-allocated, facing up against Eizen. But even though she doesn't have a heart-eating claw, a pact with the Guardian-guardians, or the power of the Red Dragon...

    ... she can't just turn away from him. Let's say she flipped an unlucky coin.

    "You heard her," Magilou says, stepping up beside the RED DRAGON OF LUNAR, holding a shikigami between her fingers. A red Seraphic glyph alights on the ground, as she invokes: "Calamity Flare."

    And it's time for double the wave of flame, rising up to distract the Fell Dragon. As the flames roar, she looks over -- up -- to Ruby, and adds: "Fine work. You've been practicing, I see. Seems you've earned your awe, today." The awe from Ida, that is!

    She's glad for Lanval's own aura, as much as it's being challenged, right now. Is his realm of little joys why she's able to keep bantering, instead of losing her mask? Questions for later.

DC: Magilou switches forms to Scourge of the Self-Righteous ~ Face the Wrath of Magilou Mayvin!!

GS: Magilou has attacked Eizen with Calamity Flare!
GS: Magilou has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Magilou's stances have changed from Avenger and Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Magilou gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
GS: Access! Magilou takes 30 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.

Cavall snarls, "This world belongs to the mortals who call it home. It is not yours to conquer, and I will not tolerate ambitions such as yours."

A way to bend that power to his will... Cavall lets out a bark of surprise. "You dare... To see one of our brethren fallen into such madness is a tragedy enough. I will not countenance such an insult!"

Cavall takes the initiative when the attack comes, charging forward to try and get ahead of things and to deflect the blow for the others--instead they are flung back with a whine, landing on the ground in a crumpled heap. With effort, Cavall forces one paw underneath themselves, and then another, slowly rising. "Your foul sorceries will not bring me low."

Lily's Charizard lends them all the aid of spectral blue flames, and Cavall watches curiously as the magic settles on them. "A curious power... thank you, Friend Lily."

But even with this power, the Ten Wise Men's power is immense, and there were others the lightning struck. Cavall doesn't know Gwen, but althenian runes appear beneath their feet as they cast a spell of protection on her. "Take heart, mortal. I will help fortify your resolve."

It is the power of the earth that flows up into each of them, and for the Seraph it hardens their appearance, lending their fur and coat a distinctly mineral-like appearance.

GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Guardian Oath!
GS: Seraph Cavall has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Seraph Cavall's stances have changed to Stoic!
GS: Seraph Cavall gains 23 THP from their Cautious!
GS: Seraph Cavall has completed their action.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret's eyes flick towards Velvet. Oh, crap, she thinks, near-visibly on her face, as Velvet speaks first to the other Wise Man (who Margaret has put outside of her mind except as a tangential 'he's over there, if you see a big explosion or a flash or something, dodge' kind of matter) and then to

Eizen.

Velvet screams. "Well, shows she's healthy," Margaret answers Magilou with a face that continues to say: crap. Her eyes saccade to the side to look at EdnaRubyHiro for a moment, but then back to the fell beast before them.

Nothing for it. She does not roar a challenge: she speaks clearly and deliberately, glancing at Magilou once more as she does: "Starlight Express."

The nebular corona of the spell whips into place. Margaret can feel her pulse quicken and the world slow down, and when she looks back to Eizen she can see the bloom of flame already erupting. Margaret leans forwards and starts running.

From the outside it's a sort of purply-silver blur as she slams her feet into the ground with uncommon force. Sparks fly behind her as she swerves to the side of the flames, the rain of metallic debris that rises up washing over even as she swings the naginata round and then up into a guarded stance. Over a dozen of the fragments ping and streak past the mail on her legs, jagged slashes doing little beyond making her lose a step of approach. The thirteenth carves a thin slice on her cheek. She doesn't notice it.

The ring on her hand gleams and she streaks forwards even faster, green mingling with the purple. As she gets near enough that the Fell Dragon is suddenly enlarging before her, she swings the blade round for a chop at one limb, following it up with a stab towards the front-chest beneath the neck -- then in another flash of green streaking back, and somewhat upwards. Inertia keeps her about twelve feet in the air for a few moments before suddenly jerking to the ground.

GS: Margaret has attacked Eizen with Swift Retribution!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    The god-like display of lightning and feathers would be awe-inspiring, but Gwen is on the wrong side to find any comfort. Dashing ahead, Gwen finds the Mockingbird's integration into her body makes for an excellent conductor.

    Gwen realizes she really should have learned that lesson by now, but it's not as if she could really evade such a penalty.

    Lucifer's efforts earns him a Voltie, who attempts (and mostly fails) to do his own electrical storm to counter Lucifer's. Hopefully, the little Joltik distracts Lucifer long enough as, on Gwen's side of things, something worrying occurs.

    Temporarily overloaded from her unsuccessful first bout with Lucifer, Gwen's ARM jerks and contorts before Gwen reasserts control.

    Ah, crap. This, already? Gwen grimaces. Serves her right, for flying so close to that proverbial sun. However, it won't do to back away now, as the redhead notices Lily's rather impressive powering up.

    Better to double down and hope no one noti-- okay, it's good that Cavall notices. Gwen gives the Seraph a wink and a thumbs up in lieu of a proper thank you.

    "Sorry," Gwen then says, now angling her ARM away from Lucifer, her left held high to catch Voltie as he falls back down from his unsuccessful run. "Hate t' be the deliverer of bad news, but you're likely the last thing on her mind right now." She can't help but let some offense leak in her her cheer; as short a time as she's gotten to know Velvet, hearing her yell Eizen's name like that... that's... a lot of pain.

    ".... she'll have to make do with whatever's left of you by the time we're finished."

    Positioned as she is, it's easy enough to switch sides and aim her ARM up at Lucifer, readying to fire.

GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Seraph Cavall's Guardian Oath for 0 hit points!
GS: Protect and Shield applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Gwen Whitlock is now being protected by Seraph Cavall!
GS: Cover applied to Seraph Cavall!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lucifer with Special Delivery!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Gwen Whitlock's attack becomes clear!
GS: Lucifer marginally guards Gwen Whitlock's Blackmail for 107 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lucifer gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock drains Lucifer! Gwen Whitlock gains 52 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

Lanval hands Layna the broken bottle. She accepts it, nodding back grimly. The intent is clear, indeed.

Lucifer looks toward her, her eyes narrowing.

"Nah. Lieutenant? You're already undervaluing me. But, hey... the feeling's mutual, aye? This world's got no use for you, either. So let's see you out." Layna says, crackling her knuckles.

Not that it'll be easy - especially with the Fell Dragon at his command. And then, wings of energy explode from Lucifer's back. Layna can feel the surge of power - and its all the warning she gets before he sends waves of lightning rush out. She leaps back - but the lightning still jumps to her. She grits her teeth as it crackles across her form.

She shakes her limbs out, still jittering form the lingering charge, before rolling her neck.

She glances toward Lily nearby, who presents a dragon of her own. But Charizard doesn't fight - instead, bestowing upon them the power to fight the Wise Men. Layna flexes her fingers experimentally.

"So this is that 'Antimatter' I'd heard about, aye...? Not bad." She notes. Trusting that Lanval has things handled on the other end, Layna takes her cue to rush in toward Lucifer. She recites a quick spell under her breath and as she closes in, pure, clear water surges up around her. She drives her fist straight toward him and the water follows suit, waves crashing in simultaneously like an extension of her body.

GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Lucifer with Waterga Strike!
GS: Layna Manydays has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Eizen critically fails to charge Magilou's Calamity Flare for 196 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery adds  Blind!
GS: Blind applied to Eizen!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "When did she...?" Ida glances at Gwen, her eyes wide.

    'Eizen'.

    Ida notes the name. Every Fell Dragon was a Seraph, once, and this Seraph--Eizen--had friends and family. (Even if they trickled away, in time.) Ida's gaze flicks between Magilou and Edna, and then settles on Velvet. "I'm with you." A strange thing for a Seer to say to the Lord of Calamity, but Ida and Velvet had a heart-to-heart a while back.

    "Just like the one back at the Lightning Temple!" Ida adds, raising her voice as she addresses Magilou-who-is-completely-fine. "Just tell me what I need to do!"

    The control Symbol ignites in front of Eizen's eyes, and Ida's face twists in a snarl. "Oh, you horrid little--"

    Ida leaps to the side, curling into a tuck-and-roll. Eizen's fireball detonates behind her, and metal shrapnel flies up to meet her. Ida comes up to a crouch, and raises her arms to guard herself. In a heartbeat, Living Metal flows from her skin, hardens, and takes the impact. The harsh, grinding shriek of metal on metal pierces the air. Ida clambers to her feet, gasping. She doesn't want to think about how close that was.

    "We're not going to leave you like this," Ida says, clenching her fists until the exoskeleton creaks. "Eizen--!" The martial artist blurs forwards, the atmospheric moisture within the tower condensing around her. Countless microscopic water droplets form a sort of prism, refracting her image--solid footwork might be enough against a human-scale foe, but a Fell Dragon demands more advanced tactics. Ida drives a hand forward in a chopping strike at Eizen's ankle, aiming to distract as well as injure. She and Ragnell are of similar minds at the moment, apparently.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Eizen with Water Dragon Form!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed to Stoic!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Lucifer mostly evades Layna Manydays's Waterga Strike for 48 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lucifer gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Lock state removed!
GS: Hyper applied to Layna Manydays!
GS: Eizen mostly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form for 46 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Eizen fails to guard Margaret's Swift Retribution for 137 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

The feline felt it, rather than saw the lightning coming. Trying her best to hop back and away from the lightning strike. She's singed and every bit of hair and fur on her is standing straight out for a moment. A rather.. uncomfortable thing if one must know.
 
 There's bickering going on behind her and there's a realization that Hellions can be controlled by the Wise Man. Which is definitely a problem. A big one.
 
 And her first instinct is to, for the first time in some time not involving resurrected metal demons is to pull the trigger.
 
 She reigns it in. Flipping the shotgun up and resting it against her shoulder. Instead starting to chant under her breath. She can't help others if she panics and lapses into wreckless behavior. She can't help others if she's laid low.
 
 The smoke from the cigar seems to dissipate, figures instead coalescing into being around her. Faint outlines. Long gone soldiers from memories of Eluria's past. The echoes and shades of the lost. Briefly moving to protect the shaman before fading away again.
 
 She lets her breath out again. More smoke briefly revealing the figures, disappearing just as quickly. "This will be little more than an Epitaph." She sounds strained, but she's trying to keep things together when he taunts that it will be the seat of his power. "And I will take you home."
 
 She really wishes she felt as confident as she's trying to sound.
 
 She does briefly watch Lanval though, "Yeah, but a chair leg. A bit of wood. The plates you know?" She's trying to joke. Trying being the operative word!
 
 She looks to the others and continues trying to put on the facade of confidence on until it. "I'll do my best to keep you all on this side of life." She notes, more to those fighting with her. That didn't come out as confident as she'd like.

GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Shige Kiwako with Gathering Shadows!
GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Shige Kiwako's stances have changed to Sage!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
GS: Shige Kiwako accepts Shige Kiwako's Gathering Shadows for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Surge applied to Shige Kiwako!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

     Except, Gwen doesn't.

     It won't be the first time Gwen's tried to drain a Wise Man, and the second time won't be any easier than the first. However, as Gwen gets close enough to, Lucifer finds the scrappy courier being as tick-like as her Pokemon.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "I'll be holdin' you to that, Tiger," she tells Lily.

    "Heh," she answers Ragnell, baring her teeth in a fierce grin. They have their own to see to. And while Lucifer is, for sure, not any of Josie's...
    Well, she's seen his like before, up close and personal, even. Best be done with it.

    Just once, she glances over at Gwen and her lips curve in a lopsided smile.

    She's caught something all right among Lucifer's terms of 'endearment' to the others: he's got a particular take on just how much their existence matters when weighed against his own. "Insects, eh?" Josie taps her foot a moment, scrunching up her forehead as if thinking about something. Just once, she nods. And then she says:

    "Funny thing 'bout insects, right? No matter how much you think you've wiped 'em out..." She glances around herself, at everyone. "...They've a real good habit of popping back up again, as hale and hearty as you please. You think you can wipe us out? Let's see you try!"

    She may well live to regret that taunt.

    "What a choice, eh?" she 'asides' (it would be an aside in any other context) to her allies of the moment. "Annihilation or subjugation! Me," she says, jabbing a thumb at her chest, "I'm tryin' something else out. Let's see how it works!"

    Lucifer's own response comes as sheaves of lightning. The problem with a big metal cannon is that there's not precisely room to guard or evade without potentially sacrificing it or herself: Josie holds her own ground as best she can, but...

    "Damn," she says, smoldering lightly as she rises. "That one was a doozy. You okay there, sweetie?" ...She addresses not one of her allies, but instead the cannon. It's also taken a hit, but fortunately, as Gryndille was built to take a licking and keep on ticking, the same can be said of the cannon. "--Right! Lily! I know you can still hear me!"
    She uses Lily's actual name.

    But it's not the first time she's seen a transformation like this from her old comrade-in-arms.

    "Keep him busy! I'm gonna-- do my thing!"

    Crouching down alongside the cannon, she squints a moment through the sight and absently pats the cannon on the side. "C'mon now, let's see how you do 'gainst a bastard like this--"

    Something like a rising mechanical scream rings out from the cannon. All along its length, lights flare and flash. Like a contained eruption there comes the first shot, roaring through the air for the place Lucifer now occupies.

GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Lucifer with Do Not Take Pity!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Access! Josephine Lovelace takes 30 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Lucifer mostly evades Josephine Lovelace's Do Not Take Pity for 152 hit points!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Velvet Crowe has posed.

I thought you were asleep.

"..." Velvet Crowe's gaze fixes firmly forward in the moments before she rushes at the spectre of one of the few people she called friend.

"... I was. You can thank that asshole and his friends for waking me up."
maybe it'd be better if they hadn't but
He took Eizen's will.

He took Eizen's freedom.

Hate swells freely and untamed inside Velvet. She had always worn her heart on her sleeve before becoming a Therion, and now? That has become practically literal, as the wrath that suddenly possesses Velvet makes her bandaged limb BULGE with distending, fearsome sentiment. Even with that limb bound, Malevolence seethes from her like a storm, a corona of bruising blacks, blues and violets framing her as her eyes fling wide with fury.

She knows.

She knows, Eizen's will is already gone.

She knows, Eizen's freedom is already gone.

She knows, Eizen is already... already...

But it doesn't matter.

Whatever Lucifer did -- whatever the thing that -was- Eizen is -now- -- the Wiseman stripped away even the pretense of dignity from the man she knew valued his freedom above all things.

Part of her hopes the others don't kill him.

Because they'd give him a merciful, swift end, and right now?

Right now she wants Lucifer to SUFFER.

Hate grips her as she sees the Fell Dragon that was Eizen, bound by Symbological runes, respond to Lucifer's commands like a puppet tugged on strings. All that violence and all that fury rendered into a hollow simulacrum of what it once was makes revulsion rise like bile at the back of the Lord of Calamity's throat.

Eizen's roar all but shatters her eardrums in its ferocity, but it might as well be a mewl to her, because it is not -his- roar.

Eizen's claws cleave through stone and mineral and earth like they were melted butter but he might as well be scraping steel with a blunted butterknife to her, because they are not -his- claws.

Eizen's flames could burn this entire tower to slag...

... but as Velvet Crowe flings herself straight into the dead center of the conflagration, eyes wild and and voice pitching raw with her bloodied scream of frustration and anger...

... it might as well be a warm, flickering candle in a winter wasteland to her.

Because it's not -his- flames.

It's. Not. -Him-.

"DAMN YOU"FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH

So she can deal with the hellish pain that wracks her as she flings herself into the heart of a star in miniature.

She can live with the agony as Malevolent flames bake even -her- Malevolent-wrought flesh right down to the core, as if she were bearing the brunt of Eizen's cursed misfortune.

She can -survive- -ANYTHING- this sick joke throws at her, because--

"EIZEN!!"

It's not even CLOSE to what the real Eizen could have inflicted on her.

Velvet Crowe BURSTS free from the broiling ball of Malevolence. Her hair is alight with twisted, burbling flames; her skin is scorched in ugly, gradually healing marks, here and there. Her left arm snaps to her side, bandages burning away within Eizen's tempest as that thorny, clawed limb bloats into behind, flames chewing through the density of its Malevolence-packed spirit-flesh.

It hurts. Her body protests in pain.

She pushes past it as she flies through the air, lips peeled back in a sneer.

Voice hitching in her throat.

"LOOK AT ME!"

Twinned flares from Ruby and Magilou frame her as she descends. Rocks burst forth from the groubnd in a spire in miniature to impale through the center of him. And as Margaret stabs forward through the air --

Velvet descends as she ascends, bursting past flashing green as she lands on that rock-forged pillar with rage and resignation in her eyes.

"I want you to see me!!"

Electricity spider-webs out across the ground to slow the Dragon down. A great, rushing wave of water crashes into the rocks towards the dragon. And, leaping from one craggy ledge, Velvet -rides- those waves, attempts to capitalize on the opening the Seraphim provide to -thrust- her arm-blade into the breast of the beast, enough to gain purchase.

"I want you to see Magilou!!"

She hardly even thinks anything of it. It isn't the first time she's worked with Seraphim. ... One of them is the baleful monster she stares down now, as her claw lifts.

"I WANT YOU TO SEE EDNA!!"

And then SLAMS down, to DRIVE those large talons straight into Eizen's chest and then -curl- deep inward to section off a chunk of that seething, beating engine of Malevolence the Dragon calls a soul, and draw it in towards her waiting, ravenous palm to devour a portion of what was her friend and make his strength - his REAL strength - her own.

"I WANT YOU TO KNOW!!"
i'm so sorry. i'm going to save you
"THAT THE LORD OF CALAMITY IS GOING TO END YOUR PITIFUL LIFE!"
i swear i will save you
Seraph or Hellion. Purifier or corrupter. It doesn't matter to her.

All that matters is that they are all acting of their own will.

That they're making their own choices.

... It's what he always wanted, of everyone.

DC: Velvet Crowe switches forms to The Lord of Calamity - I'LL DEVOUR YOU!

GS: Velvet Crowe has attacked Eizen with Hell Claw!
GS: Velvet Crowe has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Velvet Crowe has completed her action.
GS: Access! Velvet Crowe takes 30 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Lucifer has posed.

"You can certainly try!" Lucifer spits back at Ruby.

Then, his eyes are back onto Lily.

"That's a poor choice for your world, then!" Lucifer snaps down at Lily. His eyes narrow a little at the cry for Antimatter -- he knows well what it means -- and sees the shadow shoot over her, rising up in her changed form.

Space time shifts around Lucifer. He feels it -- starts to slip towards it -- and then there's a flash of crimson light, and he reappears across the room.

The momentum he'd already built sends him into the wall.

Then, he throws a hand out towards Division. Beads of crimson light form -- then slam downinto her, and come flooding back towards his hand. "Blood Scylla!"

He looks at Cavall, catching the way they bring up a defensive spell around Gwen -- and then holds a hand up. A ball of lightning forms above his hand -- and flies down, slamming into the floor before them.

"This is the workings of the universe, not some mysteries of what you call gods," Lucifer tells Cavall. "And it will be more than up to the task."

The ball of lightning explodes into a massive blast of electricity that hurtles straight for the dog Seraph. Then, he turns -- Voltie's lightning blast slamming into his fist, which he bats off with annoyance.

Then Gwen's ARM fires. He jerks to the side -- and she rises up, arm slamming into him. He's forced backward -- and some of his life drained away, into her. His pale eyes flash with anger.

"You... insolent WORM!" he shouts. Which is when Josie picks herself up -- and fires Gryndille's cannon. It clips him, slamming into his side, and sends him flying backward. He smashes against the wall; his Symbology-powered barrier falters, and the robes are torn and burnt where it struck.

"Gh... if you keep getting up," he says to Josie, "then I will have to CRUSH HARDER."

He swings up his hand. Wind begins to swirl around it, the vortex pulling in debris and dust kicked up from Eluria Tower's floor. That same wind hardens into two huge crescent blades of compressed air -- and they both shoot down. One hurtles for Gwen; the second is loosed for Josie.

Layna is on him, not a moment later. Her fist, infused with pure waters, slams up at him -- and he raises his forearm, catching it with a martial artist's grace. It skids over--

--and then he vanishes in another flash of crimson light. He appears behind her, and his wings flash -- and then a half-dozen feathers of violet and crimson light go hurtling for her back.

"I will not leave what is rightfully MINE!" Lucifer spits at her.

Then, her whirls, lookng down at Shige. "Home? No, I don't think you will. My home is here, now--and the rest of this galaxy besides!" he shouts, before he throws his hand towards Shige.

A massive column of hurricane-force winds explode off his hand, and pick up blasted pieces of metal, dust, dirt, and a few rocks from outside. It shoots towards Shige, seeking to engulf her in the wind and hurl her backward.

His unfurled energy wings flare, brilliantly, again. "Wyrm!" Lucifer commands. "Hurry and dispense with these! I have need of you!"

The golden Control Symbol flashes, again, directly in front of Eizen's draconic face.

GS: Lucifer has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Lily Keil with Blood Scylla!
GS: Lucifer spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Seraph Cavall with Levin Blast!
GS: Lucifer has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Wind Blade!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Wind Blade!
GS: Lucifer spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Layna Manydays with Apocalypse Feathers!
GS: Lucifer has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Lucifer with Wings of Power!
GS: Lucifer has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucifer accepts Lucifer's Wings of Power for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock state applied to Lucifer!
GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Lucifer!
GS: Lucifer spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Shige Kiwako with Scouring Gale!
GS: Lucifer has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucifer gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Lucifer has completed his action.
GS: Layna Manydays has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Layna Manydays critically fails to evade Lucifer's Apocalypse Feathers for 286 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: CRITICAL! Eizen mostly guards Velvet Crowe's Hell Claw for 143 hit points!
GS: Velvet Crowe drains Eizen! Velvet Crowe gains 20 temporary hit points!
GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Lily Keil mostly evades Lucifer's Blood Scylla for 27 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Lucifer drains Lily Keil! Lucifer gains 19 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Josephine Lovelace mostly guards Lucifer's Wind Blade for 160 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shige Kiwako mostly evades Lucifer's Scouring Gale for 86 hit points!
GS: Disrupt blocked!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Cavall mostly guards Lucifer's Levin Blast for 168 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Cavall gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Lucifer with Voltie Double Tech!!!
GS: Gamble: High! Gwen Whitlock marginally charges Lucifer's Wind Blade for 158 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucifer!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Protect! Seraph Cavall takes 40 damage!
GS: Lucifer marginally guards Gwen Whitlock's Voltie Double Tech!! for 94 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lucifer gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Eizen has posed.

Bullets fly through the flames, pelting into the Fell Dragon's hide with a rumbling growl. But it's when Ragnell's spiraling electricity hits his feet that Eizen truly reacts, snarling out as the effort to lift a heavy claw turns into a small battle unto itself. He snaps out his jaws, angling his head to cleave down at Ragnell with his erratic fangs, slashing more than biting.

Ida is there with the same intentions to busy Eizen's attention, slamming into one of his trapped ankles enough to unbalance his heavy body. He twists his head and opens his mouth wide, and Ida will see brightly gathering flame before it rushes directly for her.

Eizen's rings fan out and beat down to launch himself above the ground, and Lanval's waters only reach as far as his dangling talons. The back of his throat alights and smokes before he fires another stream of flame in Lanval's direction.

Ruby and Magilou engulf the Fell Dragon in flames of their own, and for a moment he cannot be seen, but he can be heard, rattling a horrible shriek beyond the fire before he lurches forward on a powerful flap of his wings. Air currents tremble in his wake, and he throws the whole of his chest muscles into the flap, slamming his thumb talons together to try and pincer Ruby with them before crashing claw back down to the ground on Magilou and ripping up in a hauntingly familiar one-two strike.

...But a piece of the tower is speared through that claw from Edna's Rock Trigger... where a certain Spilling Goblet had managed to weaken the scales.

That weakness helps Margaret's chop bite into Eizen's scales instead of bounding off, and the second finds one of the crimson grooves near his throat, sinking in. The Fell Dragon cries flames into the air above, and then, as Margaret falls, snaps out with a claw to try and swipe her down into the ground more quickly and roaring down at her fallen form.

But his roar is a whisper compared to the Lord of Calamity. Velvet's claw bites into his chest, holding firm even as he thrashes. His body trembles with power and this time, instead of power, he punches forward with his horned skull and swirled wind. Velvet's demands echo. For Eizen to look. For Eizen to SEE.

Gold symbology appears before Eizen's face once more, covering his eyes.

The Fell Dragon opens his maw wide and clamps down over the Symbol, shattering it into glittering dust. He spits an explosive ball of flame in Lucifer's direction, spreading his wings and cutting grooves into the tower as his claws spread to steady him. He roars anew, shaking the tower around them before setting his eyes back onto those before him with mindless violence behind them.

They have his full attention.

GS: Eizen has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Eizen has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Vengeant Fangs!
GS: Eizen spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Eizen has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Fire Breath!
GS: Eizen has attacked Seraph Lanval with Fire Breath!
GS: Eizen has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Eizen has attacked Hiro with Wing Beat!
GS: Eizen has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen has attacked Magilou with Lighthouse!
GS: Eizen has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen has attacked Margaret with Seize!
GS: Eizen has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen has attacked Velvet Crowe with Last Throes!
GS: Eizen has attacked Eizen with a Brother's Selfishness!
GS: Eizen has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen's stances have changed from Stoic to Avenger!
GS: Eizen gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Eizen has completed its action.
GS: CRITICAL! Eizen accepts Eizen's a Brother's Selfishness for 0 hit points!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Eizen!
GS: CRITICAL! Velvet Crowe mostly evades Eizen's Last Throes for 66 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Velvet Crowe!
GS: CRITICAL! Hiro fails to evade Eizen's Wing Beat for 88 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple and Delay applied to Hiro!
GS: CRITICAL! Margaret mostly evades Eizen's Seize for 107 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Seraph Ragnell fails to evade Eizen's Vengeant Fangs for 204 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: CRITICAL! Magilou critically fails to evade Eizen's Lighthouse for 226 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Blind expired!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Seraph Lanval mostly evades Eizen's Fire Breath for 51 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Lanval's Poison Ward may block the effect!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Ida Everstead-Rey critically fails to charge Eizen's Fire Breath for 175 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Being a lieutenant isn't so bad," Lily opines to Layla. "...But it doesn't seem your style, no."

Josie uses Lily's name, and that's a surprise itsself. To answer her question, the strange eyes of the creature turn towards Josie. "I do," she answers. "And I will."

Beads of crimson light cast toward Division, and she is ready this time. She extends a hand to the side and tears the air itself--ripping open a portal across the room. It batters closed before the rest of the bolts can hit her, though not without cost--one does. But from her new vantage point, Division lifts a clawed hand towards Gwen. "I'm familiar with the workings of the universe," she answers Lucifer. "I've made weapons of destruction. Things to bring civilizations to heel."

She waves her fingers and Gwen will feel lighter, all of a sudden--able to defy the laws that say that she should stay on the ground. In fact... she'll have a hard time staying on the ground as Division mimes throwing and hurls Gwen towards the enemy.

"That woman," Division says of Josie, "Is too stubborn to die. And you'll have to contend with me, instead!"

What is rightfully his. Is that how it is?

"What makes it yours?" Division demands, and rushes through the air, her fingers splitting into blades, and beginning to whirr terribly as her hands become buzzing saws, the very air torn by the force of the space distortion they represent. As she approaches--

She can't smirk. But Division can start swinging her arms, trying to rip Lucifer apart with what passes for her hands. "Captain!" Lily calls. "While I have him busy!"

To Layna. Because Lily knows even her power isn't enough on its own for someone like this.

"You'll find you can't control this world, either! You can't control US!" she shouts, her voice continuing to echo.

She keeps her back to Shige and Cavall. ...She'snot doing much support right now herself.

But Charizard continues to circle the tower, re-upping his Anitmatter effect for as long as no one stops him.

GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lucifer with Bone Saw!
GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Access! Lily Keil takes 30 damage!
GS: Gamble: Lowest! Lucifer marginally evades Lily Keil's Bone Saw for 110 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lucifer gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

"Like a roach." Edna replies to Magilou, seeing the V out of the corner of her eyes. "That had better be for 'Velvet'."

No matter how this shakes out. Nothing about this feels like a victory today.

Velvet responds, and Edna gives her a blank look for several long seconds, before she looks at Lucifer and says, "Thanks, asshole." It's not like her to swear, but she gets this one.

She can't help but despise this man, even knowing how little of him is left. Like Velvet she knows what was stolen from him, even as a creature of instinct and malevolence.

But her brother is her top priority.

Ruby might preen some at Magilou's praise, "Well I did have Lunar's greatest witch teaching it to me! ... And it's true Ida - I'm Awesome." As Hiro flashes a momentary smile, "Oh so now you acknowledge her." "Haha... Hiro you're ruining my moment."

Eizen's wing flaps in that moment and Ruby struggles against the air currents to maintain control, even as his talons slash through Ruby's chest, at the one point slicing one of the few areas not covered with feathers.

It is not blood that spills forth through, it is red energy, like molten ichor that drips out. "Guh! Hey! That's no way to treat a lady... dragon!" As she flies forward, to try and swoop back around.

Edna looks. She looks again. She knows it's the definition of insanity. It's the same thing she would always insult others for.

'LOOK AT ME!'

In this moment, the woman her brother admires screams what she always wanted to say.

'I want you to see me!!'
'I want you to see Magilou!!'
'I WANT YOU TO SEE EDNA!!'

"..." Edna's grip on her Parasol subtly twists, in this storm of malevolence, she knows such thoughts are poison to her. "Brother."

"Hang on...!" Ruby shouts, and her entire body glows brighter, and brighter red, until the shape of a dragon is subsumed wholly within that aura, becoming light, and those within it seeming to vanish inside of her.

That light in just the vague draconic shape becomes a blur, streaking forward into as a flash of light, with a crack of thunder as it speeds up fast, slamming into Eizen, through him as a crimson sonic boom.

The aura peels off of Ruby after, as she appears on the other side, wings flapping - and the wound on her chest partially healed, and Edna sees the last glimmer of Golden Symbology fade to Velvet's blow.

Just a small thing, the freedom of what's left of him, this instinctual beast that's left behind.

"... I want that too." It's just a small thing in the wake of this, the emotion that creeps into her voice, but for someone like her, it's everything to admit that. Her Parasol is raised, as she speaks, "Gravity rules everything... Gravitrigger!"

And an Orb of Gravity is angled close to Lucifer, not because she intends to do anything to harm him directly herself.

It's just that if Eizen, in the process of being drawn to it happened to crush him.

That'd be just swell.

GS: Hiro has attacked Eizen with Radiant Aura Wave!
GS: Hiro has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Recover! Cripple and Disease removed from Hiro!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Access! Hiro takes 39 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval keeps moving even as the Spilling Goblet doesn't hit a direct mark, going into an impressive backflip as he's met not with the temperature wash of flames, but the corrosive Malevolence's potent ambience. His chances, his luck, when he hits the ground...
 
     He does land atop a fragmenting part of the tower - of ill enough fortune one *should* assume they're about to fall to their death - but he lands weightlessly with all the grace of a drop of dew as he internally focuses with one eye open. The Malevolence-fueled fire doesn't 'latch' or continue to burn him, tipping the drinking gourd as such that it spills a little and starts to cleanse away the flickers of flame around him that is now detached from the raging maw of the beast.
 
     This work would be undone the moment Eizen so much as breathes in his direction again, but one small space of breathing room at a time.
 
     He hops back a bit to more stable (barely) ground when Velvet tears into Eizen and demands that he SEE.
 
     Lanval hears Lucifer's demand... and Lanval gets to SEE Eizen just devour the Symbol that would have been his fetters, and he has himself a small mirthful chortle.
 
     In a way, a Fell Dragon getting to assert their own identity, such as it is when there is nothing left but rage and destruction. He doesn't let the moment linger too long, as he he channels more Seraphic Artes over the roar of flame going Lucifer-ward, and with that...
 
     An outward sweep of a cold, shocking wave of water. Mostly harmless, but traveling across most of the expanse of the tower where those who have Eizen's attention are fighting, to wake them up from the drudgery and dread of the Malevolence in a brief reprieve - what happened might be a small victory, a small joy, a little way to keep their heads all above the water (figuratively).
 
     Between Ida, Margaret, Hiro, Ruby...
 
     Edna, a beloved Sister. Velvet, one who kept hold of her life between her own hands. Magilou, who is going to die but maybe not today. Bienfu, who might be brave enough to stay along those extra days...
 
     Even Ragnell, perhaps by chance.
 
     "Wake Up Splash!" Lanval calls as that chilling wave of water gently strikes.

GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Hiro with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Velvet Crowe with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Margaret with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Magilou with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Wake Up Splash!
GS: Recover! Disease removed from Seraph Lanval!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Hiro accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Recover! Delay removed from Seraph Lanval!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Recover! Cripple and Disease removed from Seraph Lanval!
GS: Seraph Lanval accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Magilou accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Recover! Disease removed from Seraph Lanval!
GS: Margaret accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Recover! Disease removed from Seraph Lanval!
GS: Velvet Crowe accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Recover! Cripple and Disease removed from Seraph Lanval!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.

Cavall accepts the wink and the thumbs up in stride, offering back a simple nod of acknowledgment.

"I refuse to believe the universe is so callous as to permit naked tyranny or the desecreation of a fallen brother-at-arms!" Cavall retorts to Lucifer. Lightning comes, and Cavall readies their stance, spreading their legs and ducking their head as they let the energies wash over them.

Cavall is pushed back, scratches in the floor where their claws dug in, but their protective spell took the brunt of it, it seems.

But Cavall doesn't just have protective magics. The power here is immense, and Cavall changes quietly, causing a circle of runes to form around the wolf seraph's feet... and suddenly they spring up around everyone the feet of everyone on this side of the battlefield.

The vitality of the earth flows up into all those present, bringing them much-needed succor in the midsts of such a dire battle. (Though Cavall notes that Lily, for some reason, seems oddly resistant to it. Questions for later.)

GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Seraph Cavall with Renewal of Life!
GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Layna Manydays with Renewal of Life!
GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Shige Kiwako with Renewal of Life!
GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Renewal of Life!
GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Renewal of Life!
GS: Seraph Cavall has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Cavall gains 29 THP from their Cautious!
GS: Seraph Cavall gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Seraph Cavall has completed their action.
GS: Seraph Cavall heals Layna Manydays! She gains 108 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Cavall!
GS: Seraph Cavall heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 108 temporary hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Cavall heals Josephine Lovelace! She gains 139 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Cavall!

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Like I told you -- worms, bugs, you're gonna have to try harder 'n that if you wanna crush us!" Josie taunts Lucifer, well aware of how exposed she and her beloved cannon are like this. "Let's see what you've--"

    Wind sails like a detonation for her and the cannon's direction. Just toughing it out isn't an option; neither is running. Instead, with an abbreviated incantation, Josie raises a snapping wall of lightning before her and the cannon.
    It helps... somewhat. Straightening her jacket in the aftermath, she drops down alongside the cannon which continues to hum to itself. A quick check is all she needs to know it's still doing alright.

    In that moment that follows, she glances across at her allies on both sides of the field.

    They knew him. Whoever that dragon used to be. The kindest thing now is for them to end it.
    And therefore, the kindest thing Josie can do is keep Lucifer's eyes on them, and hope that they can at least shatter his hold over the Fell Dragon.

    Of course, as it happens, such a feat proves to not actually be necessary. Nobody's home as far as the being that was Eizen is concerned, but even like this, is it possible some faint instinct to seek freedom remains? Or is even that supposing too much?

    And as for the rest of the side she's standing along with...
    Rune light wakes beneath her and the cannon. Neither are they the only ones in such need.

    "Damn," she mutters to herself, before flipping up a panel on the side. "Gonna make me look like I've gone soft, like this."

    Her left hand flies acros a series of buttons and keys. Lights flash in response all along the cannon's length, running in hues from red to violet and back again.

    What follows is a brilliant outward wash of white, sparkling light. For an instant, it is as if a monochrome aurora were cast across the field.
    And then even that is gone, leaving onlt its traces in its wake.

GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Her Heart Is Strong!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has launched an attack Link!
GS: Seraph Cavall heals Shige Kiwako! She gains 111 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Cavall!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace accepts Josephine Lovelace's Her Heart Is Strong for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify and Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: You have set up an attack Link! You must complete the Link using an attack with the Follow flag before any other
actions! If you do not wish to complete, you may +round.
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Inspire!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Lily Keil with The Gift Of Courage!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Seraph Cavall with The Gift Of Courage!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Layna Manydays with The Gift Of Courage!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Shige Kiwako with The Gift Of Courage!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Gwen Whitlock with The Gift Of Courage!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Josephine Lovelace with The Gift Of Courage!
GS: You have finished a Link/Follow chain!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Access! Josephine Lovelace takes 30 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil accepts Josephine Lovelace's The Gift Of Courage for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Lily Keil!
GS: Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: Lily Keil gains Combo from Inspire!
GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Josephine Lovelace's The Gift Of Courage for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: Josephine Lovelace gains Combo from Inspire!
GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako accepts Josephine Lovelace's The Gift Of Courage for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Shige Kiwako!
GS: Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: Shige Kiwako gains Combo from Inspire!
GS: Gwen Whitlock accepts Josephine Lovelace's The Gift Of Courage for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Gwen Whitlock gains Combo from Inspire!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    'You would know,' Edna says, something subtly different in her tone.
    
    "...I would," Ragnell agrees, echoing that subtle change back.
    
    It's as much acknowledgement as either of them will make of that *other* Fell Dragon.
    
    She didn't see Shepherd Sorey make his last stand and sacrifice himself in a gamble to purify Maotelus. That was firmly a battle for him and those tempered to stand up and fight to make. But she knows of it, and she knows more or less what those like Lanval gained from it. Sometimes you have to give up to gain.
    
    Ragnell isn't very fond of the idea, but she grasps the truth of it all the same.
    
    She shoots Ida a look as she shoots for Eizen's ankle too, giving her a curt nod of acknowledgement. She recognizes Margaret's Starlight Express as she activates it, and frowns briefly. 'She'd better keep herself in one piece,' she thinks.
    
    Because she can hear Magilou's cries of pain, and she knows the witch well enough that she's not exaggerating for a bit. This is Magilou, raw and real, and that's frightening to Ragnell in a way she refuses to express.
    
    "He *definitely* knows that," she quips to her instead in regards to Lucifer. Her tone is too grim for it to be a light-hearted joke, though. As Lucifer bends Eizen to his will again, she can only feel fury on his behalf.
    
    She didn't know Eizen personally--not as a Seraph--but she knows enough of him from Edna, and has her own strong feelings about freedom and the power to choose for oneself, for it to be impossible for her to feel otherwise in the moment. It doesn't change as he snaps those vengeant fangs at her, slashing towards her; she's far enough away that he doesn't simply snap her in half, but they cut deep all the same, and she snarls in pain as the approximation of blood flies from her wounds. She staggers back, wounded, but not yet down for the count.
    
    At the heart of it all... Velvet takes on all of the fury and all of the pain that the Fell Dragon vomits onto her and makes it her own through that black and twisted claw of hers. Ragnell can't know *her* heart, but she hears what she screams and understands how she must feel. In *this* moment, all Ragnell can feel in return for the ferocious first Lord of Calamity--
    
    --is respect.
    
    Ragnell already has a love of her life, and that's in no danger of changing or fading, but she gets all over again why Magilou fell for her.
    
    Better yet, when Eizen is faced again with those golden Symbols--he SNAPS at them, CRUSHES them between his jaws, and momentarily turns to Lucifer to spit a fireball his way. Despite all her many feelings about Fell Dragons in general and this one in particular, Ragnell *lights up*. All the more so when Edna lends her Gravitrigger in support.
    
    "Hell YEAH!" she cheers, pumping a fist. "GET 'IM, EIZEN!! GET 'IM, EDNA!!"
    
    Oh, he's paying attention to the rest of them again. Yeah, that tracks.
    
    Ragnell has decided to run support this fight, though, as limited as her capacity for that is. But she can at least take off some of the worst of her companions' wounds and strengthen them to continue the battle. Lanval gets some of the Malevolent poison that's been passing around the room, clearing up various debilitations, with that gentle, bracing splash of water. Ragnell whoops, shaking her head as her red eyes widen.
    
    "Feels great," she says. "Lemme do you one back!" In turn, shimmering golden light shines up around her, then flows out towards Magilou, Lanval, Ruby and her passengers, and Ida to heal and energize them with lightning-themed white magic. Velvet doesn't get a heal; clearly she can heal herself. That, too, is part of Ragnell's respect. "Positive Current!" she calls.
    
    This might be the only time most of the people in this room have ever seen Ragnell heal anyone.

GS: Seraph Cavall heals Seraph Cavall! They gains 120 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Seraph Cavall!
GS: Seraph Cavall accepts Josephine Lovelace's The Gift Of Courage for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Seraph Cavall!
GS: Seraph Cavall gains Combo from Inspire!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Magilou with Positive Current!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Lanval with Positive Current!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Hiro with Positive Current!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Positive Current!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Positive Current!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell heals Seraph Ragnell! She gains 107 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: Seraph Ragnell heals Hiro! He gains 210 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Hiro!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Recover! Poison removed from Seraph Lanval!
GS: Seraph Ragnell heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 120 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Seraph Ragnell heals Seraph Lanval! He gains 110 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Lanval!

<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

"Aye, it isn't." Layna replies to Lily with a smirk.

Lucifer's forearm catches her fist - and then he vanishes. Layna senses him behind her and starts to move, but it's too late. Feathers of light flash from his wings, burying themselves in her bucket. Layna stumbles forward, breathing in sharply - but a wide grin splits her face.

She's in rough shape... but it's times like these when she feels the most alive - when the thrill of battle is at its highest.

"'Yours', you say! You don't know who you're dealing with." Layna retorts. "I'm a pirate, lad! I'm in the business of taking!"

Lily calls out to her, and Layna nods.

"Aye!" She calls back. And as she does, she feels the rejuvenating strength of the earth flow up into her. She looks toward Cavall, offering them a grateful tip of the hat. And then, there's that aurora - white, sparkling light over the battlefield... Layna's grin only grows the wider, before turning her attention back to the fight.

Division tries to rip Lucifer apart, and Layna dodges to the side before rushing him from behind.

"I don't care if you think it's yours. I'll steal it! I'll take everything away..." Layna thrusts her hand forward before drawing it back. An attack, but not on the physical level - an attempt to steal the very vitality away from him, and add it to her own. "...Until you've got nothing left but the clothes on your back!"

GS: CRITICAL! Layna Manydays accepts Josephine Lovelace's The Gift Of Courage for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Layna Manydays!
GS: Layna Manydays gains Combo from Inspire!
GS: Delay! Attack weakened!
GS: Eizen fails to evade Hiro's Radiant Aura Wave for 218 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hiro drains Eizen! Hiro gains 116 temporary hit points!
GS: Blitz! Layna Manydays has attacked Lucifer with Plunder Life!
GS: Layna Manydays has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
GS: Lucifer mostly evades Layna Manydays's Plunder Life for 67 hit points!
GS: Layna Manydays drains Lucifer! Layna Manydays gains 35 temporary hit points!
GS: Seraph Ragnell heals Magilou! She gains 113 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige ducks low as Lucifer sweeps his arm out towards her, the debris and detritous mostly caught on an ancient phantasmal sword or scattering around behind her. Only catching fragments and scraps that bounced from the floor. She'd been quicker than the first time at least.
 
 She straightens up and begins to chant again, mimicking someone else's style and efforts. Seen many a time, never done by herself. There's still an effect. A memory dredged up and given brief life again. It almost seems like she's done it before. Like telling an old story.
 
 There's a faint grimace as the spell finishes and she sweeps her arm out towards those most battered by the fight.
 
 Even with Cavall providing help in the form of an Earthen barrier. Doubling up on some of her own defenses with some restoration to boot!
 
 She does flinch away briefly at the bright flash from Josie, though mostly out of reflex as she can't help, but feel invigorated by it.
 
 The shade mimicking her actions completes by this point, sweeping a shadowy limb the other way. Bringing with it a healing spell and a feeling of reassurance... hopefully. Memories of a soldier rallied and reassured.
 
 "A resting place isn't always a home." the feline retorts to Lucifer's snap, half wondering if it's really smart to try and taunt the Wise Man that could definitely be a mortal threat.
 
 There's a faint genuine fatalistic smile at the idea that she'd probably just continue her work anyway.
 
 Maybe gallows humor does help. Even if it's through a grimace.
 
 "Keep piling it on." She calls out finally to the others, still trying to sound confident. Trying to borrow someone else's bravado and guidance maybe?

GS: Shige Kiwako has activated Force Action: Extend!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Lucifer is plenty powerful, more than Gwen was willing to admit. Few people could take on someone like Lily, or, well, Josie's *cannon* for very long.

    Not even he can keep a hold of a Fell Dragon.

    ".... A Fell Dragon... maybe you were able t'get a wrangle on him before, but now that he's goin', you got no chance of gettin' that control back." Gwen fights to keep the strain from her voice as she looks up at Lucifer.

    She was going to say something else, when she sees that wolf Seraph's magic runes appear below her feet, followed by Josie's(!) own contribution in that sparkling energy that infuses Gwen and everyone else.

    But that isn't all.

    Being a woman made of flesh and the added weight of magical metal and muscle required to move it, Gwen is used to her footsteps feeling solid on the ground. So, Gwen's first instinct, when she *doesn't* feel that, is to briefly panic, as Lily displays her abilities. However, once those grey blue eyes catch sight of Lily's hands and connects two and two together, she manages to gather her wits.

    Then, Lily throws her at Lucifer. (Really, Gwen should feel a little flattered that all Lily felt she needed to do was make Gwen not so constrained by the bounds of gravity.)

    Gwen has to think fast, because Lucifer's within punching range. Still, a punch feels it wouldn't be *enough*, so perhaps she can--

    Oh damn it all she's just letting loose a cannon of her own on him, right to his *face*.

    How's *that* for weapon of destruction?!

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Blitz! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lucifer with Coronal Discharge!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Lucifer critically fails to evade Gwen Whitlock's Coronal Discharge for 326 hit points!
GS: Misery adds  Shieldbreak!
GS: Jam and Shieldbreak applied to Lucifer!
GS: Shige Kiwako spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Blitz! Shige Kiwako has attacked Layna Manydays with Doc's Memory!
GS: Blitz! Shige Kiwako has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Doc's Memory!
GS: Blitz! Shige Kiwako has attacked Seraph Cavall with Doc's Memory!
GS: Blitz! Shige Kiwako has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Doc's Memory!
GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Shige Kiwako gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
GS: Shige Kiwako heals Layna Manydays! She gains 337 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Layna Manydays!
GS: FP up! Shige Kiwako's Reload!!
GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 407 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: FP up! Shige Kiwako's Reload!!
GS: Shige Kiwako heals Seraph Cavall! They gains 368 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Cavall!
GS: FP up! Shige Kiwako's Reload!!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Cavall receives 375 temporary hit points.
GS: Seraph Cavall enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Shige Kiwako heals Josephine Lovelace! She gains 373 temporary hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: FP up! Shige Kiwako's Reload!!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Josephine Lovelace receives 375 temporary hit points.
GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "If we survive, it's a victory," Magilou points out, to Edna. "Keep fighting on, right?" Isn't that what he'd say?

    But what do they do about him...?

    "We can't kill a Fell Dragon," Magilou explains, in the wake of Ida's question. "No matter how many Calamity Flares we throw. The Malevolence inside of him will regenerate him, again and again, a star which cannot be extinguished. But --"

    Her explanation is cut off, in the middle, by an agonisingly familiar one-two clawstrike. Magilou tries to quick-step back, but she's not as quick to step as a dragon; her side is torn, mercifully on the black side of her outfit, and she's thrown aside again.

    "Ugh," she murmurs, dazed on the ground. Lanval's Wake-Up Splash gives her a good slap (so Edna doesn't have to!), and she rattles her head, kipping up to stand again. "Thanks, Mirth!" She calls out, raising a hand in a salute. It might seem like a silly title, but Lanval might be the best one here to appreciate how much respect Magilou puts on that energy.

    Upright again, her fingers curling around her chin. "... he wouldn't want this," she says, softly, as if to herself -- though others can certainly still hear her. "His will taken twice over... it's rather cruel. He's lived for centuries, alone... I guess we're fools to think it's to avoid this, though he strikes against his puppeteer even now."

    'Lived.' That's the key word, there. She told Margaret once that Eizen was the sort of person who lived with his whole heart, or something unimaginably sappy like that. She'd deny it, of course.

    "Death is the tarot of endings, door closing in the face of false hope. The card I drew... when I divined this day. If you're able to purify enough of his Malevolence... we may be able to stop the chain reaction." She pauses, and adds: "We can end it."

    It hurts. But it hurts a little less when Ragnell's positive current feeds into her, energising her from hat-tip to pointed toe. "Ha-HA! That's the stuff!" She cheers, pumping a fist. "All right!"

    Gravitrigger is Edna's answer to Eizen, and Magilou backs her up, this time, invoking: "Gravity Gale!" An orb of Shadow erupts from the sky, as Wind twists around to engulf the Fell Dragon... if only for an instant.

GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Magilou has attacked Eizen with Gravity Gale!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Magilou gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
GS: Access! Magilou takes 30 damage!
GS: Gamble: Low! Eizen critically fails to charge Magilou's Gravity Gale for 346 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery adds  Break!
GS: Break applied to Eizen!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Magilou drains Eizen! Magilou gains 100 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
So that's one strike. Margaret can tell that while it did hit home, thanks to that supporting splash from Lanval, that it was a scrape on the proverbial mountain. When she lands she sees the claw coming towards her; she rolls forwards, and ends up being smashed forwards when the leg comes back further than she expects.

Skidding and trailing sparks, Margaret recoups with another green-streak flash as Velvet speaks to Eizen, calling his full and furious attention towards Velvet herself.

Margaret's attention is focused on Magilou, who is not armored - who has only her artes for protection - and who is being borne upon by the Fell Dragon she had declared immortal. Or at least, not vulnerable to being killed.

The impulses war within Margaret. Protect the others (especially Magilou). Fight the Fell Dragon. If she tries to protect them with her body and her arts then they will die slowly; she is fast, not durable, at least not innately. If she just strikes Eizen, then what will it do, however swift her blade? Not for the first time, Margaret curses the arts she was born in harmony with.

This bitter, dark recrimination is not helped, perhaps, by the Malevolence that is pouring off of Eizen. But there is, then, a splash of water lands upon her, a cool drop of water clearing her head. Margaret blinks slowly (for her) once. Then she looks down for a moment.

A blur of motion later: the leather strap she'd used to hold the simple scabbard for the naginata is removed, the scabbard discarded, the leather strap wrapped round and tied tight with teeth and her better hand to bind the polearm to her numb right hand and its not-as-numb arm. The strap is tied tight, the grip on the weapon short and tight.

A faint nod, a quick breath, and she kips to her feet.

Then she sparkles green as she flash-steps once, then twice at a somewhat different angle -- an angle to throw her into perhaps one of the most perilous places she could be. But from a certain angle, too, perhaps the safest.

To stand momentarily atop the Fell Dragon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wDIOPdJA_g

"I have had enough out of you, you pestilent ghost!" Margaret shouts, even as she slams the naginata down -- not so much to wound as to... dig into the scales... to anchor herself. She crouches - indeed, she almost seems as if she's going to take the seat on the back of the Fell Dragon -

And her left hand pulls out the arming dagger. The painted-on runes gleam. "Rune Blade -- IGNITE!" Margaret shouts, and the runes glow hot-white for a moment before the entire weapon bursts into arcane flame, just as she twirls the grip around and begins to stab it down, a series of shallow and furious blows at the left-hand side of Eizen's neck!

"Look what you're reduced to!! The lackey of some maniac from a hell-hole in space!!" Margaret shouts, riding the wave of fury. "Even if you've lost all cognizance I take offense ON YOUR BEHALF!"

"You think you can sweep them all, eh!? Like one of those damned pocket monsters they're so fond of!? Well I'll show you what's what, you bastard! This is what you get when you cross a magus of Neo-Vane!!" Margaret screams as the stabbing continues. The blade, burning-bright as it is, can't be digging in that far, but she's leaning to the left as well. Maybe she's going to go for the throat --

Or maybe try to steer Eizen *away* from the others, and perhaps towards a wall, which Eizen may freely destroy without harming anyone to whom Margaret is attached. "VELVET! EVERSTEAD! HAUL YOUR ARSES! I'm going to run out of knife before I run out of neck!!!"

DC: Margaret switches forms to Rune Blade IGNITION!

GS: Margaret has attacked Eizen with To Mount the Immortal Beast!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Access! Margaret takes 30 damage!
GS: Eizen critically fails to evade Margaret's To Mount the Immortal Beast for 74 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple and Weaken applied to Eizen!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida lost track of Velvet for a moment when the fireball hit. That changes the moment the Therion next speaks--demanding that whatever's left of Eizen look at the people he once knew. The tension around Ida's heart tightens. Whatever pain Velvet and Magilou are in right now, it must be nothing compared to the emotional agony. (And that's not even counting Edna. God, Edna.)

    Eizen's jaws gape, and for a moment, Ida once again stares into the maw of a Seraph-turned-beast. Yvain, she thinks, distantly--and then she grits her teeth and lunges. Ida crosses her arms in front of her face, letting her battered armor and exoskeleton soak the worst of the heat. Even then, it's blistering, corrosive, agonizing. Ida cries out in pain. The flames intensify, and Ida disappears into the blast.

    A moment later, she charges out the other side, changed. Living Metal exoskeleton encases her, smoldering and soot-stained, but bright with the blue and gold of her family crest. A lock of hair smokes, visibly, only to be doused a moment later by the familiar waters of Lanval's healing. A moment later, something equally unfamiliar happens--an invigorating *snap* of electricity. Ida glances about before settling on Ragnell. (Ragnell?!)

    "I know we can't--!" Ida says. "We need to purify that!" Don't they? Ida realizes, a moment later, that she's never seen a Fell Dragon die, and has no idea if it's even possible for her to do that.

    Margaret ups the ante. Ida, descendant of a legendary dragon-slayer, bares teeth in a grin edged with desperation. "Right behind you! I'm going for the wings!" But to do that, she has to clamber up a very large, very angry Fell Dragon. Ida leaps after Margaret, the armor tipping her fingers twisting into claws. She digs them in--though to Eizen, it won't be anything more than a scratch--and hangs on, waiting for her next chance.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 5 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Stoic stance ends!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains 20 THP from Cancel!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Cover applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Velvet Crowe has posed.

                    Are you going to kill that dragon?
                 Even knowing important she was to Zaveid?

                       All the more reason to do it.

Those memories are both months-fresh and yet thousands of years away for Velvet Crowe as her hoarse, fury-drenched words punch through the din of battle, the roar of a dragon -- even the commands of a Wiseman. She spent a thousand years dreaming an impossible dream with her brother.

She spent a thousand years living a life of adventure with her Menagerie.

It all felt so real, but it was all the vapor of what they wished they had. A wealth of memories that are all just the fluff of dreams.

Those words Eizen imparted on Laphicet. Those were the cold, hard reality. So much has changed... so much she can never, ever get back... and yet it feels like it was barely yesterday since she last heard them.

Those memories are still painfully fresh. How Zaveid couldn't understand. The conviction in Eizen's eyes as he said it:

'I'm not the one who's cursed.'

But now...

...

She feels a piece of him, all Malevolence and directionless power trying to be roughly herded. Willful fury and broiling heat that backs at the back of her mind.

But she doesn't feel -him-, just that sick joke of a Malevolent echo.

She sucks in a breath.

And in the next, she is -kicking- off of the Fell Dragon's black-scaled hide just as he thrashes with the tremendous horns of that great head. She misses direct contact with the sweep of that broiling maw, but the gusts of wind catch her as she flips backwards through the air: snapped off to the side like a gnat swatted by the brush of a horse's tail, she goes twisting through the air until she hits ground in a boot-scraping tumble, only stopping as she SLAPS her scarlet Therion claw into the grounds of Eluria's tower, halting her momentum with a scream of metal and stone.

Her body is engulfing the piece of the thing that was once Eizen, digesting it and making it a piece of hers, by the time she looks up with baleful gold eyes. Her sclera now a bloodshot-red like Eizen's, the aura of the Lord of Calamity burgeons with defiant fury, adding slashes of scarlet to its bruise-colored haze.

"Ragnell, watch out -- MAGILOU!" Velvet cries out as Eizen sweeps both of them up in his indiscriminate wrath. No one is safe -- not even Edna, in this moment. Her gaze tears from the witch to the mage as Margaret is similarly subjected to his fury -- but she can't afford to let concern tear her attention away from the Fell Dragon. She has to assume that they can fend for themselves. That they can survive this.

She has to trust them all.

So she drags herself back onto her feet, stumbling out a few wobbly, staggered steps. Her right knee, the joint... she must have hit it wrong. She grits bloodied teeth as she turns her narrow-eyed, scarlet-smeared gaze Eizen's way...

... just in time to see that Symbological array gleam...

... and just in time to see him -shatter- it between his ungodly maw and subject Lucifer to his wrath, too.

And despite everything, despite the pang of pain she feels in her heart to see that mindless violence still burning in his stare -- Velvet grins a vindictive grin and laughs a rough, spiteful laugh as fire spits upon the Wiseman.

"... God, you always were so annoyingly persistent," Velvet mumbles, affection bleeding past the guarded fury of her tone. She shakes her head, limping another step towards him. She bends at the waist, bracing her dislocated knee against the palm of her claw before--

CRNCH

--one swift smack and a white-hot flare of pain later sees it put back in place, if not truly healed.

"--ghhk---!--guh-good. Haha...hahaha... this... this is how it should be. No pissant, wannabe dictators. Just you." Velvet straightens. Gold eyes hood. She looks downcast for a moment. Clawed and human hands both clench tremblingly tight into fists.

His wings spread. His roar booms. She can feel her knee ache and tremble as the force of it quakes the ground beneath her feet.

But all she can think of is the man who enthused about building underwater tunnels for secret bases and was willing to go to war with Rokurou over the classification of a stupid beetle of all things.

The memories are thousands of years away.

The memories are so recent they're within arms reach.

"... Just you, and us."

She stumbles another step, and then another, intent to take a suicidal charge towards Eizen once more. Maybe it -will- be stupid enough to have her killed. Maybe she'd just have that coming. But it doesn't stop her...

... not until she feels a spiritually-empowered wave of cold water blow past her in a drench of Seraphic magic. She starts, her eyes widening; the surprise is enough to send her a few more, limping steps forward with a sharp gasp, but the wave feels... gentle, supportive.

One step. Two. ... The limping stops.

"...?" Velvet blinks. She looks down at her knee; the pain, the soreness, is just... gone. And for a second, a brief second, in the lull between Eizen's onslaught... the Lord of Calamity pauses.

She looks back at Lanval, feeling the purifying power of his waters correct her hobbling injury, as she listens to Magilou explain. She knows; even for her, killing a Fell Dragon would take too much from her. But...

She looks to Ida, recalling their conversation. Oracles, and Seers. A way to purify Malevolence that they never had, a thousand years ago.

I've decided; I'll make use of you.

"... Ida," she begins, pointing a human finger the woman's way -- and then Lanval. "... you're an Oracle. Aren't you? Try to deal with as much of that Malevolence as you possibly can. Until you feel like you'll break if you try to take on any more. And then push -harder-."

She looks next to Magilou, Margaret, and Ragnell -- to Hiro and Ruby. Her eyes narrow. "Magilou... everyone..." Her bloodied lips twitch in a violet sort of smile.

"... keep hitting him. We need an opening, and I'm pretty sure I can count on all of -you- to be tremendous pains in the ass."

Her gaze turns. ... and then hesitates, briefly, before finally falling on Edna.

"... Edna..."

I'm sorry. I wish we could save him.

I don't want to take your brother away.

"... you know what we have to do. Right?"

But I have to.

Chapped, blood-smeared lips part.

"'Sometimes, death can be a relief someone desperately needs.'"

And then she breaks out in a -sprint-, eyes widening, claw enlargening with a bloating pulse.

"FIGHT AS HARD AS YOU WANT--"

And it -sweeps- out as she leaps into the air towards Eizen and -drags- that claw into him, swipe after swipe after swipe, each one devouring bits and pieces of that Malevolence with every blow -- trying to soften up the unending cascade for Ida, Lanval and the others to get a foothold. And if they can... if all of this is possible...

"--YOU'RE NOT GONNA STOP ME!!"

... she'll do what she has to.

What Eizen would have done for her, in a heartbeat.

GS: Velvet Crowe has attacked Eizen with Nightmare Claw!
GS: Velvet Crowe has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Velvet Crowe has completed her action.
GS: Access! Velvet Crowe takes 30 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Lucifer has posed.

The Control Symbol is bitten and shattered. "What madness is--" Lucifer spits, before the fireball comes flying for him. He vanishes in a burst of red light; it slams against the wall, explodes, and shatters apart.

"The corruption in this land... so it's more than I can control," Lucifer muses, as he reappears. "So be it! I'll be a dragonslayer, too, before the day is done!"

He cranes his head back towards Division. His eyes narrow. "You're not ready to witness the power that I command," Lucifer says. "You'll understand what it means, when this is through!"

She slashes into him, her hands cutting and ripping into his armored robes -- and one slashes into his shoulder, which begins to stain a dark blue. Then, Lucifer slams a palm against Division's head.

"Now," Lucifer cries out, "DIE!"

The lightning bolt explodes off his palm, shoots a centimeter away, and into Division's armored head -- lest she move or raise her defenses quickly.

He flies through the air, in an arc around the gravity that Edna summons. His eyes narrow -- he shoots her a glare -- but he can't very well answer, mid-flight. His attention is diverted instead towards Cavall.

They, again, reinforce their allies.

"I think not!" he spits. The wind begins to whip up around them; Cavall finds that the air above him grows thick. Moisture beads on the ground -- and then huge bolts of lightning explode down, smashing towards him.

He comes to a stop, looking at Josie. "What--" The lights flash along the cannon. "A support mechanism. Captivating," he spits. Then, he sends out a trio of feather-shaped energy blasts that come raining down upon her.

"A pirate? Then I suppose you're the first common criminal I'll put down," Lucifer says. Then, he smiles. "Deliberately. A few thousand happened to be nearby."

Layna's hand thrusts forward. Light explodes from him, drawing down to her -- and then cuts off, the stream of light exploding into sparkles. Lucifer teleports away, above Layna.

Then, he sends a blade of wind rocketing down towards her from above.

"No, imbecile," Lucifer snaps at Shige. "A home is what you dominate so that cretins can't have it. Become learned!"

Gwen is thrown at him. Lucifer turns, eyes widening -- and her cannon slams into his face. Symbols flash; the barrier is weakened, not gone. The cannon fires, and he gets SLAMMED down into the ground.

When he stands, blue blood runs down his face. He looks up at her. "You... insolent, foul CREATURE!" he shouts. "Whatever machinery is embedded in you, it is NOTHING compared to me! I am a work of art! I AM THE MASTER OF THIS MISERABLE PLANET!"

Lucifer raises his hand into the air. Flame swirls up and spins around him, a raging firestorm that moves with his hand. Then, he swings his hand down -- and the fire streams outward, coursing towards Shige, before it curves. It bends, then slams outward for Gwen.

"Now, burn!" Lucifer cries. "FOHN WIND!"

GS: Lucifer has attacked Lily Keil with Thunder Bolt!
GS: Lucifer has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Seraph Cavall with Thunder Cloud!
GS: Lucifer has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Energy Feather!
GS: Lucifer has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Layna Manydays with Wind Blade!
GS: Lucifer has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Fohn Wind!
GS: Lucifer has attacked Shige Kiwako with Fohn Wind!
GS: Lucifer gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Lucifer has completed his action.
GS: Eizen critically fails to guard Velvet Crowe's Nightmare Claw for 314 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eizen gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle and Jam removed!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Layna Manydays fails to evade Lucifer's Wind Blade for 265 hit points!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil fails to guard Lucifer's Thunder Bolt for 236 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace marginally guards Lucifer's Energy Feather for 371 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Lucifer!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Gwen Whitlock critically fails to guard Lucifer's Fohn Wind for 330 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Protect! Seraph Cavall takes 83 damage!
GS: Seraph Cavall has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Cavall mostly guards Lucifer's Thunder Cloud for 181 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Seraph Cavall enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Eizen has posed.

Eizen takes again to flight, wreathed in a black and violent miasma of malevolence that only the gleam of his golden eyes pierce through. He fans out his wings once more to hang in the air, launching a barrage of flaming orbs down upon Lanval and Ragnell to try and crush their resolve where the weight of his Domain will not -- but it is too late to stop the spread of mirthful water and revitalizing lightning.

Ruby, radiant with light, takes to the sky. Eizen leaps up, wreathed in Malevolent darkness, and they both surge through one another, switching sides. But where Ruby reappears recovered, Eizen makes a lumbering pivot with fresh new grooves across his plated scales.

But there is a fleeting moment between flame breath and Gravitrigger that two siblings born of the same Earth Pulse have their eyes on the same goal just before Edna's Gravitrigger pulls at Eizen's massive, draconic body. Magilou's own Gravity Gale joins in, and there is exists a small window where Margaret sees a clear path to her intentions even as Eizen fires more flaming orbs on Magilou. One is spat in Edna's direction.

It misses.

Margaret's Rune Blade bites into him once, then again, and again and again and again and again. He may not understand what she says, but he understands a hot knife plunged repeatedly into his hide. Eizen flails in the air, wings fluttering at erratic angles that have him spiraling like a wounded eagle. His neck thrashes and twists, gnashing at the air and his tail swings out, cleaving a brutal groove into the wall of the tower as the Fell Dragon pushes himself off and roars.

Ida's clawed grip into his flesh is lost within the incessant stabbing.

The Fell Dragon kicks off one wall only to slam directly into another, and his entire body comes crashing down as his wings desperately claw up for something to hold onto.

That something may well be Margaret.

His body turns and twists. It explodes with Malevolence that Ida will most certainly feel, but his ire remains on her. Her every wish, her desire, to protect those she cares for steers Eizen's crash landing well away from Magilou as the Fell Dragon aims to slam into the ground with Margaret in claw and smash her into the floor as momentum drags them both to a crashing end.

The whole weight of him forms a dented crater in the metal floor of the tower, cracking every glowing line of blue glowing tech along the way to make them fritz and fizzle out. There he lies for Velvet's approach while twisted, broken wing bones crack and struggle to pop back into place.

There he screams as she devours all that she can, Malevolence rippling off of him in relentless waves of agony and slowing his regeneration. His wings stretch out. His claws sink into the ground while every muscle quivers with the strength to rise again. His jaws open, neck pulled back like a viper, with Velvet standing right before him.

The moment hangs.

There is precious little time to act.

GS: Eizen has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Eizen has attacked Seraph Lanval with Draconic Drive!
GS: Eizen has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Draconic Drive!
GS: Eizen has attacked Magilou with Draconic Drive!
GS: Eizen has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Eizen has attacked Margaret with Howling Dragon!
GS: Eizen has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Eizen has attacked Velvet Crowe with Tyrant's Fete!
GS: Eizen has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Tyrant's Fete!
GS: Eizen has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eizen has attacked Hiro with Dragon Dive!
GS: Eizen has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Eizen gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Eizen has completed its action.
GS: Gamble: Highest! Hiro mostly guards Eizen's Dragon Dive for 163 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Eizen drains Hiro! Eizen gains 94 temporary hit points!
GS: Seraph Lanval mostly evades Eizen's Draconic Drive for 77 hit points!
GS: Seraph Lanval's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus!
GS: Eizen drains Seraph Lanval! Eizen gains 53 temporary hit points!
GS: Surge added to Margaret!
GS: Margaret has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Gamble: High! Margaret mostly charges Eizen's Howling Dragon for 250 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Ragnell mostly evades Eizen's Draconic Drive for 77 hit points!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Eizen drains Seraph Ragnell! Eizen gains 48 temporary hit points!
GS: Gamble: Low! Shige Kiwako mostly evades Lucifer's Fohn Wind for 83 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
GS: Magilou has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: Magilou mostly guards Eizen's Draconic Drive for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Eizen drains Magilou! Eizen gains 55 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

A splash strikes Ruby, and something within her evaporates like steam, intermingling into the heavens at the Seraphic healing arte. "Thanks Lanval! Now I can go all out!"

Even before Ragnell cheers them and Ruby has to resist the urge to strike an aerial pose - "Hey Edna Hiro - what say we do a barrel roll next pass just you know... it'll look super rad."

That's met with a light smack by Edna's parasol to her side. "Oh fineeeee!" Then Ragnell charges them with healing magic, and lightning currents suddenly zip through Ruby's wings as she flourishes them in one wide flap. "OH HELL YES!"

"Don't tell me what he'd say." Edna tells Magilou in an irritated tone, "I don't want to hear it. You of all people can't tell me what I want to know."

How
Did
You
Feel

Edna for one fleeting moment has her eyes wide at the flaming orb coming straight at her. It misses, and Ruby swings away just in time to avoid a worse outcome, before Eizen swings up, then explodes with malevolence as Ruby starts to burn brighter, and brighter.

Then flames explode out to meet malevolent energy, burning, burning - before it rips through Ruby's flames, but diminished, as the energy buffets her, and the dragon jerks spasmodically, as her breath can be heard, once... then again...

Velvet made a point, not long before, and Edna always knew, but that moment drove it home. Back on the mountain she had a vain hope she could find a way, and figure out what she always wanted. But for all the hopes of bringing Heldalf back, it couldn't be done.

Despite everything, she's learned enough on this journey to know there's only one way this was ever going to end.

"I know."

She remembers the one time he told her of Velvet Crowe, and what she did. A sister feeding his brother for all eternity, so they could both sleep, could both rest.

Because of that, part of her always thought it would have to be her.

But now?

"He would want it to be you."

It's not cowardice, to cede it to her. Maybe she doesn't know all about why her brother felt the way he did, but he put his life on the line to defeat one Lord of Calamity.

The best possible way for him to go, is for his own to finish him off.

Magilou's words however do impart something important, and as much as Ruby thinks she knows this, she's never seen it done, much less done it herself.

"... It's what we were always afraid of with Lucia. That she wouldn't survive. Again and again we were told it had to be done..." Ruby is silent for a few long moments, ruminating on this as she flies, heated air currents making it simple as she turns around. Hiro tells her quietly, "It's what he needs right now. I wish it didn't have to be this way."

And Ruby rumbles after a moment, "Heh... but it is. I need... no I want to do it. Not as Althena's Dragon... but... because..." Her cat like eyes, even now look upon Magilou, and there's a slow blink, "...because I don't care what they say about themselves. They deserve better!"

And she can't give them better.

Moon Halo - Instrumental - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqPpZ-enm2s

But she can give them this.

Ruby suddenly spirals upwards, climbing higher over the battlefield, over Eizen, and spreads her wings out wide, as there's a bright corona of light.

And then a feather falls.

And another.

They shine orange, drifting down to the ground, but somewhere in the middle of the journey, they turn bright azure, like a slow burning flame. The first one touches, and it ripples out like water, blue flames growing, billowing with each wave.

Another feather touches the ground, and it builds upon the first, in a growing fountain of blue flame, that grows brighter, and brighter.

And then with one great beat of her wings, the flames of purification are sent as a great wave, to stream over him. As Ruby calls out, "Nngh... it's so much! I'll need all the help I can get! Everyone!"

This time there's no attack from Edna, nothing save locking eyes with the Lord of Calamity from atop the dragon, as she commands - no it's not a command at all, not really.

"Finish it, Velvet."

It's what he'd want.

GS: COUNTER! Velvet Crowe counterattacks Eizen with Arthur's Maxims!
GS: Velvet Crowe fails to charge Eizen's Tyrant's Fete for 200 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Velvet Crowe gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to Velvet Crowe!
GS: Velvet Crowe enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Hiro has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Hiro spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked Eizen with Feathers of Purgation!
GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hiro has completed his action.
GS: Access! Hiro takes 37 damage!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey mostly guards Eizen's Tyrant's Fete for 92 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

The strength of the earth flows into Lily, but in this form there is no room for it; the magic is drawn off, her circuits flaring as her body takes it in as power instead of allowing it to heal her wounds. She flares with power. But a different power is more compatible with her new body. White, sparkling light flows through her, and Division surges with force.

Courage, the field had called it. Lily is not bound by fear...

But informed by it.

Gwen figures things out well enough. That's fine, since Lily doesn't have time to help. She's busy with Lucifer.

He bleeds, and Division sees it. Her eyes are wild, but focus on that blood. "SHOW ME THEN!" she shouts, a psychic impression shuddering through the room in answer--

But he commands her, and for a moment, it looks as if she might obey. That lightning bolt explodes off of Lucifer's palm and into Division, and she jerks mid-air, run through by electricity, and flies across the room, falling into a tangle of limbs on the stone floor.

She smokes there, still for long moments. The Wise Men's power is not to be denied.

A finger twitches. Then another shifts. Too many joints stir, skittering like spiders across the ground as Division pushes herself up from the floor.

To one knee, then to both. To hands, then rising again, until she floats on unseen strings up into the air once more. "I..."

Division straightens; many of her spines and spikes are gone. The plating at her head is blackened with electrical burns, though her synthetic hair remains a curtain down her back. She lifts a too-many-fingered hand towards Lucifer again, and while it's difficult, she still does it. "...Already have once or twice, I think."

"...The woman I once was. In one of your Fields. She told me... that she had conquered fear, in me."

"That it was a part of me, but would never hold me back. And maybe that's true. I should be afraid of you."

"But instead..."

She starts to rise higher into the air above the stone, even as Eizen bleeds Malevolence. She extends her arms in both directions. "I see power, all right. And I just think..."

"...Can't I do that, too?"

She pulses in place, violet and white and blue and orange and golden light suddenly shining about her circuits. Then, the world starts to shift.

Division does not close her eyes. But suddenly, spikes and spines rip themselves from her arms, beginning to orbit and rotate up and around Lucifer. They collect in a ring, faster and faster and faster still.

The glow around Division becomes blinding, and the orbit collapses inward. Spikes of bone, spears of organic matter, all white and gray and shining crash inward towards Lucifer's body.

Division's limbs start to crack as she holds out the power.

"DON'T LET HIM INTERFERE!"

GS: Blitz! Lily Keil has attacked Lucifer with Bone Orbit!
GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Access! Lily Keil takes 30 damage!
GS: Lucifer critically fails to evade Lily Keil's Bone Orbit for 373 hit points!
GS: Strain! Lily Keil takes 50 damage!
GS: Seraph Cavall used Force Action: Mystic on Layna Manydays! FP up!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    A good turn is given one in kind. Cleansing water, mystical in nature, still picks up physical impurities as it travels. It's water's lot in life, everything gets in it. Ragnell's Positive Charge channels outwards in return for the assistance, and for a moment Lanval's beard hairs stick out at end all pointy-like as the curative half of Althena's elemental aspect of Lightning kind of zaps him awake.
 
     "Mmmph," he grunts out an acknowledgement as he stands a little more upright in the wake of far more desperate, frightening exchanges of near-certain death among the gathered.
 
     Still, even through Magilou's gratitude, he's just in earshot to hear her speak of the cruelty Eizen's facing even now - it's something he wouldn't want. Lanval, himself, would never wish Fell Dragonhood on anyone - not even the likes of the late Seraph Harmaus, whom might be among the least sympathetic of his kind.
 
     With Ida and Margaret taking their chances head-on, and Edna having to endure just seeing all this head on, while Ruby doing her own best to hang on in dragon-to-dragon conflict....
 
     And Velvet.
 
     '...you're an Oracle. Aren't you? Try to deal with as much of that Malevolence as you possibly can. Until you feel like you'll break if you try to take on any more. And then push -harder-.'
 
     Lanval nods solemnly, has a drink of his gourd, and...
 
     More fire. He whirls and moves again, flame only grazing him as he wipes some of what he's drinking off his face. It extinguishes a few embers.
 
     ...And then...
 
     "One mayhap think it truly be a cruse to see thy friends at thy lowest hour..."
 
     There's a growing aura of water in all forms, great and... not, on top of the mirth. His native Domain is that of small joys, and somewhere, in some way, to endure the Malevolence and face it head on means having to be willing to face the feelings that have taken them over.
 
     "...But is it not a blessing more than curse that thy friends still doth see thou as such?" Lanval asks of a being who cannot possibly answer, as he spreads just a tiny touch of the power of Schturdark, inching past the intimate connection of pact for most whom Filgaia would consider friend and defender.
 
     (Those that aren't, like Ragnell, and those who are mortally dangerous to give such an intimiate connection to, like Velvet, only technically do not receive this. But they can have the buff mechanically anyway for gameplay purposes... enjoy!)
 
     And so, Lanval with open, glowing aquamarine eyes, stares head-on into one who lived the life of that of a dangerous curse for their blessing, empowering as many as he can to fight through to the mass of Malevolence that empowers them.

GS: Seraph Lanval spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Hiro with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Velvet Crowe with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Margaret with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Magilou with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Lord Of The Lake!
GS: Seraph Lanval gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Ragnell accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!!
GS: CRITICAL! Margaret accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Margaret!
GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!!
GS: Magilou accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!!
GS: Hiro accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Hiro!
GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Ragnell wouldn't have thought that Velvet would voice any amount of concern for her, let alone three whole words. She's a little touched, genuinely. Her healing seems to have done actual good to people's health *and* morale too, even Magilou's--healing is not a usual Ragnell activity, as previously mentioned--so when Velvet starts giving out those orders, she grins and winks.
    
    "Babe, you *know* that's my specialty," she jokes, rather more upbeat than she was a few moments ago.
    
    It's still a wretched thing they have to do to someone in a wretched state of being, but he's far less wretched than that pissant Wise Man would've made him be. That's something.
    
    She can only hope it's a comfort to Edna, too--and fortunately, based on her response to Velvet, it does seem to be that way.
    
    More or less.
    
    So even though Eizen bombards her and Lanval with flaming orbs, she takes part in that mirthful joy, laughing as she zips in between impacts. She suffers for it--the Malevolent miasma is choking, clinging, even now, always and forever--but by the time it's over, her resolve remains. Lanval's blessing technically may not reach her, but she'll accept the spirit all the same.
    
    It's genuinely sad to her to see Edna have to face him, to see him attack her like it means nothing. But they're all closing in on the end. Ruby shines that radiant light as she voices how all this mirrors her and Hiro's fears for Lucia and wishes better for those now, and Ida and Lanval will do their part too--Ragnell is confident in that. (In them.) Margaret lands on top of Eizen to stab him like no dragon has ever been stabbed before, and Ragnell's respect leaps up for her too. Velvet is at least already a Hellion; Margaret is a normal-ass human being. Props to that kind of absolute batshit bravery. No wonder Magilou fell for *her*, too.
    
    And so Eizen falls as well, literally, his massive bulk SHAKING the room and cratering the metal floor. Ragnell had provided support up until now, but now it's her turn to pour on as much power as she can--to keep the others safe, to give Velvet the opening she needs, to make sure Edna can see her brother finally put to rest.
    
    And so, an enormous golden glyph erupts around her, sending up particles of light coursing through the air over the Fell Dragon. It's an arte that Velvet might well recognize; there's another Seraph she knew who could use it, too.
    
    "I, who stand in the full light of Heaven..."
    
    Crackling bolts climb and climb and climb, past any semblance of a ceiling, towards the heavens that shouldn't exist within an enclosed space.
    
    "...command thee, who opens the gates to Hell."
    
    They meet a glyph high above, forming a supercell that mirrors the one at Ragnell's feet, only this one reflects down over Eizen's draconic form.
    
    "Come forth, divine lightning!"
    
    There is a great illuminating flash. Ragnell murmurs, "Rest in peace, Eizen."
    
    And then she stretches out one gloved hand and raises her voice ferociously:
    
    "INDIGNATION!!"
    
    Lightning BOOMS as the supercell envelopes the entirety of the Fell Dragon, framing him in sparkling brilliance that radiates white, gold, and indigo the further out from its core it glows.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Eizen with Indignation!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Eizen critically fails to guard Velvet Crowe's Arthur's Maxims for 311 hit points!
GS: Eizen critically fails to guard Hiro's Feathers of Purgation for 359 hit points!
GS: Blind applied to Eizen!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: CRITICAL! Eizen critically fails to guard Seraph Ragnell's Indignation for 347 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Eizen!
GS: Blind blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.

It is only belatdly that Cavall notices that Eizen has bitten through the control magic Lucifer was using. Their (imaginary) muscles tense. Does this hinder or help their efforts to stop Lucifer's machinations? Cavall rightly is not sure, at this point.

Josie's cannon, oddly, blesses them with light and courage both. Cavall is uncertain how such a contraption works, but they nod to Josie in gratitude. "Thank you for the aide."

Cavall, as a rule, does not have a hat to tip in return to Layna, but the wolf can offer their own nod of acknowledgement.

Shige and her shade bring memories of a soldier rallying to action, and Cavall takes in the memory, then nods tothe shaman. "Thank you, Friend Shige."

But Lucifer takes offense with their reinforcement, summoning more lightning. Cavall stands their ground, drawing up energy from the earth to resist it--and making their appearance grow even rocker in the process, as more and more of the earth adorns their form. Lightning comes crashing down, blasting away shards and pieces of the armor to stike at the wolf directly. Cavall lurches, just a bit, but the armor does its job in blunting the worst of the damage.

"Your foul sorceries will not forestall my duty to these mortals and to my fellow Seraphim!" Cavall barks back.

"You are the master of nothing but delusions."

Cavall shakes their head, and the great thick chains around their neck suddenly change into a chain and anchor, the broad tine of it hooked around their neck. With a shrug of their shoulders the anchor slips off and thuds into the ground, several loops of chain unspooling from their neck with it. The end of it is caught in their jaw as it slips off, and the wolf leaps back to get some space, pulling the chain tight.

With a jerk of their head that believes massive strength but somehow looks effortless, the anchor is sent flying into the air, swung around to hook right into the hole in the wall Eizen blasted a moment before.

Cavall yanks, tearing a huge section of the wall away. It circles about overhead before the wolf anchors themselves to the ground. Their head yanks down suddenly, slamming that massive piece of wall right at Lucifer.

GS: Seraph Cavall spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Seraph Cavall has attacked Lucifer with Continental Shift!
GS: Seraph Cavall has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Cavall gains 26 THP from their Cautious!
GS: Seraph Cavall gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Seraph Cavall has completed their action.
GS: Lucifer critically fails to evade Seraph Cavall's Continental Shift for 297 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret's blade stabs. It stabs and stabs and it stabs but she was not boasting when she said that she would run out of knife before she ran out of blade. Margaret thinks, in one of those weird asides you remember later, that the triangular weapon seems ill suited for it - is it the geometry? Could the rune marks be improved?

And then the wing claw grabs her and with every bit of strength she has she tries to will her nerve-damaged hand to grip onto the naginata's hilt harder and then it does not work out like that. The leather strap pulls - it tightens - choking against metal and Nedian synthetic and flesh beneath - and then with a sudden pull she is yanked away. There are several complicated cracks.

The pain is blinding. A moment later it becomes worse; blind, sickening spins and a crash and a crack. The armor, though not enchanted, does its job to some extent. She does not burst or rupture, and twitching reflex keeps anything horrid from being crushed. Sprawled out afterwards, Margaret stares at the ground, the pain coming like a sick tidal transmission from an acidic satellite.

Her heart keeps pounding. Am I dying? Margaret thinks as she hears the screaming and the burst and the affrays. I -

Can I get up?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h5vpEq542k

            Yes, you can

The ring on her left hand glows and she jerks back in another of those flashing-steps, staggering back afterwards but upright. She takes a deep breath as she hurls away the still-simmering arming dagger. Another breath. Eizen is -

Moving... more slowly?

Her memory feeds her, somewhat confusingly, what Lanval just said - feels the cooling touch of the Seraph's watery nature.

The pain in her right arm erodes. Her heart is still pounding. Shaking her head once, Margaret's left hand comes round to grasp one of her swords and draw it out of its sheath. "Alright, you scaled bastard," she heaves, feeling a paradoxical adrenal thrill run up her spine: "If you're so damned desperate for me to -- be the hero -- then I suppose I can indulge you for a moment."

And that, she thinks as she feels the air thicken like gelatin around the upwards swing of the sword, is all I need.

There's another green flicker and Margaret finds herself suddenly standing next to Eizen. One foot comes up to rest on the dragon's forward *knee* to push herself forwards before her left hand begins to lay inwards with the burning blade.

That one's for Silf, Margaret thinks. For Griz. For Jack, for those summoners, for all those poor bastards in Adelhyde-- for Rokurou and Eleanor-- and hell, for *Velvet*, for *Magilou* -- the sword breaks but her left hand's already letting go, the handle of the sword falling away from her 'working area' with dreamlike slowness (for Margaret, anyway) as she pulls the second. "IGNITE!"

"For REX and for all the poor bastards you ate in Lunar - for everyone you menaced here - for each and every poor fool in Krosse - for every life and dream and sunshine memory that COULD HAVE BEEN BUT WASN'T, because of YOU --" Margaret shouts, not really knowing she's doing it. The second blade breaks. Last one: out it comes - "IGNITE!"

The electrical affinities in Margaret means that, despite being frankly somewhat caked in cold sweat from exertion and agony, she can feel the crackling gathering of the forming supercell. Her slashing turns more into chopping. "DIE! DIE! WHY WON'T YOU DIE!!" She finishes with another of those little flips to try to STAB the blade inwards, twisting it as she does and raising her other leg upwards to *kick* on the hilt as she throws herself away and --

-- greys out for a moment, coming to herself in a squat near the ground, facing -- facing where? Her head snaps around without agony. That's good, Margaret thinks, panting rapidly as the lightning comes down.

GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Margaret has attacked Eizen with Yet Staring Across This Bare And Wasted Land!
GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link!
GS: Margaret has attacked Eizen with New Life Will Be Born Beneath The Blood-Drenched Sands!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Access! Margaret takes 30 damage!
GS: Eizen critically fails to guard Margaret's Yet Staring Across This Bare And Wasted Land for 192 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Margaret!
GS: CRITICAL! Eizen critically fails to guard Margaret's New Life Will Be Born Beneath The Blood-Drenched Sands for 229
hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Neither is the Seraph the only one to bestow Josie with much-needed energy. Shige's shamanic power rains about her, renewing her spirits and smoothing over the scrapes of even her beloved cannon.

    "Surprised? You thought all my baby here can do is shoot? This ain't a one-trick pony, now!" Josie declares, jabbing a finger in Lucifer's direction. "This's the product of thousands of years of effort-- just ask /her/!" she says, jerking her head roughly in the direction of Lily/Division as if to underscore that point.

    Of course, that revelation hardly stops Lucifer from an offensive strike on her (and the cannon's) position. Josie has to scramble for her their collective defenses. At a snap of her fingers, lightning again rises about her in an attempt to intercept the bursts of energy. It's... a functional attempt, though she and the cannon both are rather worse for wear after. If it weren't for the much-needed support from the others, that might have been it for her contributions: she'd have been down for the count and the perhaps the cannon would have been, too.

    But instead, now, the cannon is still humming with power, and Josie is still standing alongside it.

    "You heard what she said!" she calls out, echoing Lily -- Division's -- own sentiment. "Let 'im have it! Make 'im regret he ever lived!"
    Don't let him interfere.

    She's flipped up the panel again, her fingertips hovering for just a moment over one of the buttons. Full power? Just about -- enough to leave her with a shot remaining if he's somehow still standing. From there, it's deceptively simple: she ducks down alongside it, she gets Lucifer in the crosshairs. Once again, her baby, her weapon, begins to sing so sweetly as it ramps its way to the limit, and then further beyond.

    "And-- GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Josie roars.

    She fires the cannon after that. There is no sound, not at first: the eruption of light that lances across the distance leads the way, like a bolt from the blue. The roaring howl of the cannon's discharge follows thereafter.

GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Blitz! Josephine Lovelace has attacked Lucifer with From A Cloudless Sky!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Access! Josephine Lovelace takes 30 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    The Mockingbird's recoil throws Gwen back across the air; it's a miracle she was able to keep it trained on Lucifer for that lucky shot.

    "If you're so miserable... maybe you're not that great a fit for this planet as you think you are. Not as a ruler. But you could still be a *part* of it. If some goddamn part of you can deviate from that programming you were cursed with? You might have a chance--"

    Too little, too late.

    A firestorm closes towards Shige, and, as Gwen least expected, it came towards *her*.

     The courier that charged into lightning and worse, on instinct, *flinches* backward, throwing her ARM in front of her instinctually. A scream is ripped out of her throat as she's bowled over by heat, hot, searing pain.

    If it weren't for the reinforcements from Shige and Cavall, Gwen would not be standing right now. If Voltie wasn't doing his best to be a distraction, or if Layna, Lily, and Josie weren't throwing heavy attacks of their own, Gwen wouldn't be able to take Lucifer by herself for this long without risking going into a powered up form. That is the brutal truth. She needs them, and that's why, she puts herself forward, so their efforts also don't go to waste. They all work together, a machine of deadly proportions, each part correcting the other.

    Lucifer doesn't need to know any of that. He may even be able to tell, by the red blood and smell of singed clothing and hair. She's no work of art, but Auntie Frea is nothing but meticulous in her projects.

    As Gwen stirs and opens her eyes, it's perhaps out of that other instinct, buried deep within her by the Mockingbird, that naturally is drawn to the shape of Ruby's wings, spread out as her feathers of purification fall.

    It's beautiful. It calls to something else inside her, something like fate, or destiny. But, it also brings to mind the little dragon she befriended alongside her childhood friend, and the gang of friends that surrounded them, all trying to help Lucia.

    They've all come so far, haven't they?

    However, no matter how seeing Ruby spread her wings stirs something deep inside her, to something like inspiration, Gwen has to tear her eyes away. As Lily said, if Lucifer gets wind of what's happening at the other side, and if he tries to interfere...

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEfF2FOtpvo

    "This insect...." Gwen gets up, gagging and stilling that shiver of revulsion and fear that, while conquered, will never truly go away. ".... this _foul creature_, I believe you called me?" She wipes the smear of black from her face, and, like she's done so many times before, forces a grin, and stands to her full height, holding onto her ARM with her gloved left hand, which sizzles at the contact of leather on magic metal. "It *also* runs on *lightning*. So you've been powerin' me up this _whole damn time_, Lucifer! I gorged myself on you, and now, you'll take every piece of it back with you _to hell_!!"

    Gwen is no Seraph, but the ring of pale gold slings towards him from the collapsing courier is every bit one of indignation.

GS: ROU|LET|TE: Catastrophic! Lucifer critically fails to evade Josephine Lovelace's From A Cloudless Sky for 353 hit
points!
GS: Lucifer's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Misery adds  Mute!
GS: Poison applied to Lucifer!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lucifer with Ringshine!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    They're worried about her. She can hear Velvet calling her name -- Magilou, that's it -- and she can hear Margaret igniting her Rune Blade.

    "Someone like me... could never, right?" Magilou asks Edna, her voice thinning. "I told them, too... how my feelings broke. But that... that was fine by him. I guess he'd say it's because he never trusted me anyway... hah."

    She's smiling, but it's not that funny. Eizen slings flaming orbs, Magilou raises another of those beehive-barriers -- this time, strong enough to deflect the dark, burning flame. Is it because the Rune Blade is protecting her?

    "We all knew what we wanted... and we moved towards it. When we went to defeat the Shepherd Artorius, it's because we chose to do it... every one of us. When he burned his life to the wick... he chose not to back down. Even knowing the burden of his Curse, he came with us to face the next Lord of Calamity... and judge her wanting. After Maotelus grew quiet, what were we to do...? Those of us too sinful for paradise, we roamed Lunar, and appeared where we were needed... to keep it from ruin."

    It doesn't escape her that it's someone else's wish which keeps Eizen from landing on her bodily.

    She closes her eyes, clasping her hand near her heart. "But it took too much from him," she says. "And that took too much from me. It hurts! It's agony! He echoes in the skin of that beast, his will painted on its scars, and each time I look at him I see my failures that day! If I'd known the depths of her treachery, if I'd worked harder to uncover her plot -- if I had, if I had, if I had! And there are so many miracles in this age, but we're too old for miracles! Like Xenobia, we die!"

    Has Magilou told Velvet about that part, yet? It's not important, right now.

    Malevolence pours off of Eizen. Even Magilou's pure heart, so prized by Melchior in her youth, struggles to resist so much horror -- which makes the honest she offers Edna all the more foolhardy, as the despair presses in around her defences.

    "I can't help but see him," she says, wiping a tear -- a tear! Was she not barren?! -- from her eye, as Lanval invokes the might of his Guardian. "... I just can't help it."

    She's not particularly Filgaia's defender -- as she said, she's tasked to Lunar's defence -- but this is a Lunarian problem, so perhaps it's enough for Schturdark to offer assistance, anyway. There are many things in Filgaia, these days, which belong to Lunar...

    ... for instance, common Seraph.

    There are enough Normin in the area that Magilou can sense, reaching out, that she's able to jump on her shikigami and invoke -- "Now!"

    Soaring into the sky, she summons them. The Water Normin living on the coast outside the ruins -- the Earth Normin from the nearby mountains. An overabundance of Ice Normin, considering the chill from the North, and the Wind Normin who made her feline home at the very top of this tower, scared to move out lest she attract the Fell Dragon's attention. All of them find themselves called here, channeled through Magilou, as she invokes: "Army of immortals! 49 souls!"

    Through Magilou, and down, each Normin rains -- red, blue, black, white, yellow -- hey, there's Bienfu! -- and is that Edna's parasol plushie?! -- as Magilou places her hands upon her hips. "Will you withstand their assault?! Or will you fall before them?!"

    She soars in close to the epicentre of the Normin explosion, before she's blown off of her shikigami by the force, declaring: "This is the end...!"

    And it is, isn't it?

    The end.

GS: Magilou spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Magilou has attacked Eizen with The Host of Forty-Nine!
GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Magilou gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Magilou gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Magilou has completed her action.
GS: Access! Magilou takes 30 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucifer critically fails to guard Gwen Whitlock's Ringshine for 412 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lucifer gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive!

<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

Lucifer teleports above her, sending a blade of wind crashing toward her. Layna recoils back, cuts deep. She breathes in, and out - but even with a large slash across her shoulder, she's still grinning... though it takes on a darker tone.

"Aye, I'm a common criminal. ...But better men than you've fallen to common criminals like me. You feel like you're on top of the world right now - but that just means you're gonna leave a bigger crater when you fall." Layna rolls her neck. "All it takes is one."

Great power is brought to bear against Lucifer. Like Lily said - they can't let him interfere. Layna recites an incantation under her breath, and an aura of wind surrounds her - and she rushes in, her speed enhanced considerably.

"You've run afoul of a pirate's greed, lad. I told you, aye? I'm going to take everything. The future is ours to grasp! And if you're going to take our future, claim yourself the master of my world... then we'll just take it back! To hell with anyone who'd call themselves our 'master'!" It's as if she senses the gaps between her allies' attacks, weaving in between them anywhere there's an opening - rushing in with a punch. And with each hit that connects, a little bit of energy is shaved off, stolen away - added to her own stores.

Until, finally, one last time, she approaches - but this time, it isn't with her fist. Her hand disappears briefly into her coat and draws something out - the broken end of a Holy Bottle, courtesy of Lanval, into which all of that stolen energy is gathered and driven right toward Lucifer's gut.

GS: Layna Manydays spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Layna Manydays has attacked Lucifer with The Hand That Seizes The Future!
GS: Layna Manydays has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
GS: Lucifer critically fails to evade Layna Manydays's The Hand That Seizes The Future for 328 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lucifer gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Layna Manydays drains Lucifer! Layna Manydays gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Velvet Crowe accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Velvet Crowe!
GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!!

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Once again, Shige manages to avoid the worst of the Wise Man's attack, warned by the shadow behind her as she shifts her stance, catching the heat burn, but not the worst of the flames that tried to overwhelm both herself and Gwen. Though with the scream from Gwen, she falters, looking back to her. She still stands defiant and Shige lingers long enough to turn back to Lucifer, pumping the shotgun. One ghostly hand snatching the shell out of the air and setting it in a pouch at her side while her own hand snatches a different shell. Ornamented in minute scratches and steeped in something from the other side.
 
 Her ear perks up and she glances sideways as the control rune's effects are broken and there's discussion of trying to resolve the issue and... there are Seraphs and others here better suited to handling a still living dragon. She will do what she can to help. Later.
 
 For now, she raises the gun, steeling herself. She hasn't actually ever pulled the trigger on someone herself. She's been the catalyst, but there's something else to doing it yourself.
 
 She doesn't flinch as she pulls the trigger on the death touched ammo (Isn't all of it?). She had wanted to say something pithy. See you soon, or something. It didn't come. There's not enough confidence in her skill there to even pretend this isn't anything, but piling onto a tattered enemy.
 
 The quicker this is over, the quicker she can try to keep people on one side of the line besides. Especially with a dragon, which she risks a look towards. Two.. dragons. One's a friend right? She's torn halfway between putting another shot forward (And more) and swinging to the other side as the blue flames erupt. Not the kind she's familiar with either.

GS: Blitz! Shige Kiwako has attacked Lucifer with Caster Shot!
GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Shige Kiwako gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action.
GS: Lucifer critically fails to guard Shige Kiwako's Caster Shot for 249 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lucifer gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shige Kiwako drains Lucifer! Shige Kiwako gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Lucifer has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida hangs on for dear life as Eizen thrashes. An opening. She needs an opening, then she can leap to the neck, or to the wings. But she isn't Eizen's primary target--and she realizes this as the Fell Dragon grabs for his other passenger.

    "MARGARET, LOOK OUT!" Ida screams. Eizen's Malevolent magic roars outwards like a physical blow. The wave plucks Ida from his hide, leaving her clinging by clawed fingers--and then rips her free entirely. She flies off the great dragon's body, with only a split-second shift in weight to turn her flight into a tumble. Ida hits the ground shoulder-first, and there's a sickening POP.

    Ida clenches her jaw until the muscles in her neck cord against her skin. Hyadean tissues pull and twist beneath her skin as her dislocated shoulder slips back into place. An armored jacket of subcutaneous reinforcement encases her bruised ribs.

    "I hear you!" Ida cries. "First time I've ever had to, but how can I refuse the Lord of Calamity *and* the Red Dragon of Lunar?!"

    BGM: Masayoshi Soken - Revenge of the Horde - Continued https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h5vpEq542k&ab_channel=chi-kasu

    "SAL! NOW!" Ida screams.

    Catastrophe Sal has been following Ida's instructions to the best of her ability. She grips the handle of the brazier tightly, keeping it lit despite the increasingly-acrobatic maneuvers she's pulled. Eizen alone would challenge the Butterfree's evasive abilities; Ruby adds a further complication, however unintentionally. But Sal trusts Ida, and Ida trusts Sal. A trilling cry--scared but defiant--echoes through the hall as Sal jukes towards Ruby, the brazier tracing out a path of relative calm in the storm.

    Ida cups her hand and thrusts it outwards, at the brazier. The flame within responds, growing higher and brighter until it's a tiny sun. Sal trills again, awed.

    One thing Ida learned from the Lightning Temple is that with Malevolence this thick, sometimes it's best to get a foothold, first. That's what Sal helped do by bringing the brazier in, and keeping it lit with Moor Gault's purifying flame. Now Ruby's expanding on that foothold. "Keep at it, Ruby!" Ida cries. "We've got you! The first time's always a little rough!"

    Purifying flame leaps from the brazier, tracing out arcane circles along the floor. More of it coils around Ida, twisting into rune-like shapes. Most of it curls around her fist--the right one, the grafted one.

    "ASURA!" Ida roars. "SOREY! THIS IS FOR YOU! VELVET--NOW!"

    And Eizen, too. And Edna, and Rokurou, and Magilou, and Velvet. But that doesn't need saying.

    Ida charges--blurs--across the torn floor, and up a metal ramp made by Eizen's thrashing and rending. She leaps, clearing a good ten or so feet with an assist from a sorcerous gust. The wind feeds the flame. Her hand is almost too bright to look on as she descends on Eizen, fist-first.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Eizen with Unbroken Lotus Fist!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Eizen critically fails to guard Magilou's The Host of Forty-Nine for 437 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Magilou!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Eizen critically fails to guard Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 327 hit points!
GS: Eizen has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Velvet Crowe has posed.

He would want it to be you.

Velvet doesn't think she deserves it. That faith. That trust. ... That reminder of an old friend's respect.

But there was only ever one thing she could do.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"

And with a bestial roar of defiance that masks the pain and regret, she sets about to do just that. Because this is who she is. The Lord of Calamity.

And she refuses to not live true to herself, ever again.

That clawed hand DRAGS into that hide, engulfing gulp after gulp of Malevolence, dragging it within the contradiction-drenched depths of Velvet's heart. Alone, she can't eat that Malevolence -- not faster than the endless furnace of Eizen's heart can replace it, anyway.

But she's not alone.

There is Lanval, drawing upon the power of his role to connect with all those who he can reasonably connect to, to empower them, to grant them the strength and blessing to push on past the horrific maelstrom of Eizen's rage.

Velvet does not receive a Guardian's largesse. To do so would be disastrous for everyone involved.

And yet seeing it, feeling even the fringes of how these people help and support each other, reminds her of their Menagerie, of every good memory, every good thing, that came from the horror and selfishness that spurred her on in the beginning.

And it emboldens her to draw into the reserves of Eizen's stolen power and -use it- to keep -pushing-, her gold eyes igniting into blazing pits of hellfire orange that bleed off Malevolent heat into the ether just as Eizen's so often had when he became enshrouded in his curse.

There is Hiro, and Ruby. Ragnell. Margaret. The brilliant feathers of a true Dragon ignite, and the light of the most powerful of Seraphic Lightning Artes sets them even further aglow in ethereal patterns of potent embers and smiting arcs of divine lightning, casting all the tower aglow in a myriad of light and heat.

Light and heat that bolster and inspire Margaret past her own agony until she is all but dancing within the tempest, venting years of frustration against the very concept of contradiction that fuels the draconic husk that was once Eizen.

There is Ida, the purifying flames of Moor Gault rushing around Velvet within the tempest so close she can feel the heat of it singe her cheeks. Purification is an impossibility for her; just as much as a Fell Dragon might, the fringes of her Malevolence that those flames burn away are almost instantly replaced. ... But she can still feel it, like a sickening pull to try to be something that she cannot. Something she can never be.

Despite the lurch in her stomach, though, a smile, exhausted and affectionate finds her lips. How can it not? ... This is part of Phi's legacy, too.

... And there is Magilou. Magilou, who recounts the past -- whose so-called shattered heart still finds it within itself to move a tear to the corner of her eye as she confesses things she has not even told Velvet. The Lord of Calamity's blazing eyes widen in surprise and empathy for the most important person in her life as shadowfire engulfs her, both bleeding off of -her- and crashing into her like a tidal wave from Eizen's last, desperate impact.

If I had.
    If I had.
        If I had!

Velvet Crowe is lost within the blazing tempest of the Fell Dragon Eizen. It tears at her, and even the Lord of Calamity is not immune to the agony of it all. But she doesn't try to retreat. She doesn't try to even defend herself.

She accepts all of it, every ounce of Eizen's pain and rage, even as Magilou soars above with her host of Normin.

And within the heart of the storm...

VELVET--NOW!

Finish it, Velvet.

    BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnhbVFOK6yQ

"I WILL, DAMMIT!"

Velvet Crowe, Lord of Calamity, EXPLODES out of the Fell Dragon's final, desperate fury, her entire form a flaming silhouette of shadow-fire in which only that conflagrant stare and scarlet-seethed claw can be made out. The draconic drive was Eizen's gift and his curse, the sorry misfortune of his life weaponized to prove he would never, ever be ruled by it.

And it is all of what Velvet channels in the power she has stolen from him for these fleeting, final moments as forty-nine immortal Normin souls drag her out of the Malevolent tempest and high into the air, her clawed hand drawn back.

"SERAPH EIZEN!"

And with blazing eyes full of fury and violence and aching melancholy, Velvet Crowe crashes down into Eizen, striking him with her sword arm so hard the blade shatters -- so hard that, combined with the furious onslaught of all the people who fight with her to free one of the few people who she has ever known as a friend, it will knock -him- aside, to expose that scale-hide breast of Malevolence flesh.

Her clawed hand rears back, an orb of swirling Malevolence gathering superdense like a neutron star of contradiction in her palm.

And it all comes SLAMMING down, right into the dead center of his chest. The ground beneath him fissures further, cracklines spewing molten gouts of Malevolence all around them as she uses all that densely compacted shadowfire to drill through his defenses, to drill past the lingering shroud of Malevolence embracing him.

Deep, deep down, past the boundaries of flesh, into the demesne of spirit, until scarlet talons can find the core of what was once Eizen.

"Master of your own wheel! Greatest explorer of the Silver Star!!"

And -grip-.

<Pose Tracker> Velvet Crowe has posed.

        In a world of featureless white,

    BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr6WmT1hj6w

Velvet stands on the deck of a great ship. It was a beautiful thing, a long time ago. It is long lost to time now, and the people who remember it by name can be counted on a single hand.

But the Van Eltia sails forever in the featureless shores of Velvet Crowe's soul.

She stands there, near the bow, her arms crossed under her chest not in the cocksure defiance of the Lord of Calamity, but in the bitter melancholy of the girl from Aball who has lost so much in her life. She hugs her arms around herself, not casting her gaze out towards the featureless white, but towards the wooden floorboards of the ship so many of her most painful and most beautiful memories can be found.

She doesn't look out. She doesn't look behind.

She's afraid of what she'll see.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Eizen," she murmurs, her voice a quiet, tremorous thing.

"I wish we could have explored the Blue Star together. You and me, and Eleanor and Rokurou... and Magilou and Laphicet." A soft "hah" escapes her. "Even Bienfu."

"But this is all I can do for you. ... This is all I could ever do for anyone."

Her arms squeeze tighter. Her hands, one human, one hideously clawed, tremble at her ribs.

"You had a good life. You kept your sister safe. You kept your world safe. ... I hope you finally rest now."


        In a world of blazing flame and determined violence,

Velvet Crowe's eyes fill with tears as her devouring claw sinks down deep into the Malevolence-wrought scales of the Fell Dragon Eizen's chest. Heart in hand.

"WE FREE YOU FROM THIS CURSE!"

She tears her friend free from the the pain of this cursed life he has been bound to for over two hundred years.

And just hopes he can find the freedom he deserves in the next.

GS: Velvet Crowe has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Velvet Crowe spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Velvet Crowe has attacked Eizen with Impulse Desire!
GS: Velvet Crowe has completed her action.
GS: Access! Velvet Crowe takes 30 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Lucifer has posed.

"What are you doing!?" Lucifer shouts, eyes turning towards Ruby -- and Magilou -- and Velvet. He starts to turn.

'DON'T LET HIM INTERFERE!'

The spikes and spines that tore free of her slam towards him. He sends blasts of flame and gusts of wind that beat back some, but others ram into him. He sputters, body shaking, and blue blood begins to run where he was struck.

"Get... get away from me!"

Cavall's anchor goes flying -- slamming into the wall that was torn open. Metal groans -- and ancient castle stone cracks. Then, a huge piece of the wall tears free, and smashes into Lucifer. He flies across the room, through the holographic galaxy -- which winks out, finally, when he passes through it.

Gwen's ring of lightning shoots around him. His eyes flash as he turns to look at her. "Silence!" he shouts. "You dare to think you can use my power against me!?"

She dares. The ring slams into him, smashing him again against the wall, as electricity explodes out every which way.

Layna weaves in, a moment later -- and slams the broken Holy Bottle into his gut. He grunts, smashed back against the wall -- blue blood running down his stomach, as the light explodes from the bottle.

It gives Layna a moment to get clear, just before Layna takes aim. She fires, the shot slamming into him. It smashes him back into the wall. Blue blood runs out of the corner of his mouth., down his chin.

And then his wings beat, and he rises up. The wings burn parts of the tower's metal walls away. His eyes glow.

'Make 'im regret he ever lived!'

"You don't understand what it is to have my power!" Lucifer screams. "You insolent, ignorant wretches! I will--" His wings flare out. Light begins to grow and gather. Josie shouts for everyone to get out of the way; then, there is a brilliant flash of light. It slams into Lucifer, smashing him back against a still-intact wall of Eluria Tower. The Symbols on his body flash.

Antimatter burns through them.

Then he and the wall turn to ash, an outline of black in a blast of pure white light -- and then nothing, as the beam rips through the wall. Lucifer explodes into a thousand motes of light with a final scream.

And sunlight shines through the hole, as those lue motes of light fall to the floor.

GS: CRITICAL! Eizen critically fails to guard Velvet Crowe's Impulse Desire for 478 hit points!
GS: Break, Cripple, and Weaken removed!
GS: Strain! Velvet Crowe takes 50 damage!
GS: Eizen has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Eizen has posed.

A Fell Dragon wrapped in darkness below, and the Red Dragon shining brilliantly on high. Ruby cuts through the Malevolence to reveal Eizen's clear silhouette. He hisses in the brightness of the feathers, head thrown back as feathers burn away the darkness.

Margaret carries the feelings of the murdered, of the devoured, of every tragedy that befell those who found themselves too close to the Fell Dragon Eizen. Slash and stab and twist. Kick and chop. Blades broken on dark, now deeply scarred scales. For every wound that tries to stitch back together, Margaret gives two more.

Eizen pushes up on a cracked claw to swipe at her, only to crash back to the earth under the divine radiance of Indignation. A path to freedom strikes down, any roar silenced under the deafening crack of thunder that joins it. Silence and stillness follow as the Fell Dragon lies prone, but the Malevolence still pulses strong.

His eye rolls in his skull to settle on Magilou, beholding her as even she spills a tear. Does he see? Can he see? His gaze remains fixated, even as the Normin rain down. A particular, wayward plushie falls as such to lie in his vision, blocking his view from whatever further emotions Magilou may wear raw on her face.

His pupil thins. There is another terrible lurch, tail and claws swiping at the air and Malevolent flames shot aimlessly, but Sal protects the brazier of Moor Gault's flames. Ida takes to the air, descending down like Ruby's feathers, like indignation, like Normin before her, and crashes her fist of purifying flame into the dragon's center. Malevolence surges, pushing back against the seer's fist like a physical force.

It is as Velvet described... power enough to feel her body, her bones, her very soul threatening to crack under the strain. But she must push harder, even as the pillar of Malevolence threatens to engulf the tower itself.

All the while, Lanval, Lord of the Lake and Oracle, extends his blessing and strengthens those who would fight. What joy is there in this grim battle with only tragedy as its outcome? To be seen. To be loved, no matter what one has become. And the most terribly, frighteningly precious joy of all:

To have his friends here with him at the end.

Velvet's scream of determination cannot be ignored. She drills through the Malevolence. She grips. And ripping her arm back, she frees the companion and friend who once answered to Eizen. Moor Gault's flames push through the weakened Malevolence strike true.

Everything becomes pure, white light. Including the dragon. And then, only the dragon. Particles drift away, dispersing gently as the purified Malevolence no longer holds its shape and breaks apart and leaves behind an unanswered question.

How
Did
You
Feel

The pirate. The explorer. Edna's brother. Why did he selfishly leave her to her loneliness, she who would live alongside him, no matter the cost?

Motes of bright light wash over Edna as the Fell Dragon of Rayfalke Spiritcrest fades away, gently setting her upon the ground in place of a monster to perch on.

A dented and scuffed pendant clatters at her feet, catching the sunlight that now shines into the tower. With a broken hinge, it lies open, revealing the small self-portrait Eda once drew, protected and unmarred, within.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily could indeed tell a lot of stories about Josie's cannon. The effort that went into it, both in its original incarnation and in its second life. Her eyes glint photonegative at Josie's statement.

She will make him regret, if she can.

Get away from me, he says.

"No."

They don't understand, he says. But Division thinks... she does.

And when he bursts into nothing, Division hovers there, looking at him.

"...Could you ever have been anything what you were created to be?" Division wonders of a man not totally dissimilar. "Was this defiance the only one in you...?"

Her shoulders sag. Her limbs are no longer cracking; they are cracked. Ichor drips from her body where bone spikes have flown free. But still, she looks where Lucifer was.

Her machine...

"When you're created to destroy..."

"Can you ever really do anything else? Ah..."

Division wobbles, and falls, dropping down towards the stone floor.

Charizard rushes in. No longer needing to continue reinforcing the Antimatter field, he dives down, wings outstretched, to catch Division as she falls. Though his arms are thin, they are strong enough to support her, and they glide down to the ravaged stones below. He holds his mistress there in his arms, looking down at her as she turns to shadow once again, inky darkness that coalesces into the form of a young woman with black hair.

"Josie," she starts. "We..." She looks to where Velvet and Magilou and Eizen and the others all struggle, as Purification holds... and the Fell Dragon is put to rest. "We... did it..."

Lily slumps and Charizard roars his mighty voice into the air, open-mouthed, the flame at the end of his tail burning brightly.

He roars in triumph... and in worry.

But the Malevolence that poured off and was purified has touched neither the Pokemon nor his mistress.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.

It's something that someone's sister should never have to see, but that doesn't mean the world doesn't force it anyway. She's seen it. Again, and again. The lack of recognition in his eyes.

The understanding there's nothing left of the man he was.

But acceptance comes slowly.

"It's what you've always said, isn't it?" There's bitterness there at Magilou's comment. "You're not like the rest of the self-centered, emotional earth-dwellers. ... I've never once accepted your excuses."

It's why she always tried to chase her off. However at her words, Edna's Parasol opens, and for a time her face is hidden at Magilou's pain, "See? You wanted to cry out to us more than anyone else to be saved. The Witch, who traveled with my brother. What a laugh. So heed this moron, if you're too old for miracles, then I'm definitely not capable of granting one."

Sorey isn't here any longer, and the Shepherd was never a symbol of hope to the world entire, not to those who lived back then.

She still doesn't look at her, "A Lord of Calamity began this..." She doesn't say what she means there, but her eyes still don't look at her, "... so I'll let one end it too."

Maybe they needed the scourge that is Velvet Crowe, the Lord of Calamity all along, to end the Reaper's Curse.

'SERAPH EIZEN!'

Velvet shouts, and Edna does not react, she watches, amidst the maelstrom of attacks, as that Clawed Hand comes closer and closer to the Reaper.

'Master of your own wheel! Greatest explorer of the Silver Star!'

And even if her eyes are hidden from everyone else, she meets her brother's gaze as Velvet takes his life, literally in her hands.

Lucifer doesn't even rate a look from Edna, even for what he did, she can feel that schadenfreude later.

"Edna..." Hiro says quietly, and she replies, "Don't say a word." Without any fanfare, she leaps off Ruby's back, drifting down, as she looks up. Zaveid told her that he didn't want her to suffer for his choice, that he was to kill him.

A selfish sentiment, something she didn't expect from him. Doesn't he understand? She thought, he understood - that he was all she had.

"I think I understand now."

But maybe that's not true, despite her best efforts to deny it. Maybe he understood her trying to cling to a dim hope for so long, to preserve all that she had, would only make her suffer.

Every time she looked in his eyes and saw nothing of the brother she loved. She looks at the pendant, fallen on the ground.

"Sorry... it took so long."

And says Goodbye.

Face still hidden by her Parasol, she turns slightly in Velvet's direction, "Thanks. I won't say it again..." But... after another beat, "... Thanks."

That was twice, but it wasn't that she forgot she said it in her grief.

Once was for her Brother.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    At the comedown of the pitched final assault to save a Fell Dragon from themselves by ushering them away, Lanval falls to his seat and breathes in. It's his favorite hobby, after all - allowing those who knew Eizen their time to say their final things in peace. For a moment, a scene of tranquility and calm in the relief that comes of weathering the storm.
 
     ...Then an eye opens, as he sees the sparkles glinting on the ground, while Lily reminisces.
 
     "...one shec," he says, as he wobbles back up. "Thanksh fer conveyin' the messhage," he says to Layna, as he looks down to all those blue sparks.
 
     "'m not gonna ashk ya ta leave another time," he murmurs as e kneels down with a little finger and starts Seraphic Arte-like spray cleaning to wash all of that leftover Ten Wise Man sparkles off the side of the tower.
 
     "Don't come back," he tells the remaining motes of light.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Right. It's too much to think any morale gained would last. Ragnell didn't know the particulars of the story Magilou tells--the particulars of Eizen's last stand, and of Magilou's self-retribution involved with it--but she sobers to hear her tell it now.
    
    Edna has her own words for it, and they're words she has a right to say. Ragnell tips down the brim of her hat to shade her eyes for a moment; then, slowly, as Eizen's form flakes away to leave nothing but a locket, she ambles over towards Magilou, to coincidentally and conveniently be there for her as she gives Edna space to grieve and be grateful. Margaret can and will fill that role too, no doubt, but a little extra can't hurt.
    
    Lucifer looks to be reduced to ash just as much, and good riddance. Ragnell sends Josie a brief nod in acknowledgement of her taking care of her side of business, but her gaze goes towards Lily. Those created to destroy, huh...
    
    "..."
    
    ...but she just isn't that nice to pity that Wise Man in this moment. Not when there's someone she actually cares about going through something far more painful, in her opinion. She looks back at Edna, and there her gaze lingers.

<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.

They bring everything they have to bear against Lucifer - and empowered by Antimatter, it proves to be enough.

"Yeah, I'm insolent as hell." Layna agrees with a shrug as he screams. And then, Josie's cannon consumes him. There's nothing left of him but charred stone and motes of light, beginning to fall to the floor... and even that won't last long, as Lanval moves to clean it away.

"Any time, lad." Layna replies to Lanval with a nod, a grin, and a tip of her hat.

...She goes quiet, then, at a glance to the side - where the battle against the Fell Dragon has reached its grim conclusion.

...They may have won today, but it wasn't without loss. She doesn't know them, really - for now, the best thing she can do is give them space.

...And, get her wounds treated - with her adrenaline starting to fade, they're really starting to sting...

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    There at the end, her cannon -- Gryndille's arm, Sharon Wyatt's creation -- helps destroy another threat to Filgaia. It's enough to make one wonder a little bit, for just a moment.
    Those who are created to destroy, huh. When there's nothing left to destroy, then what?

    As if to provide one possible answer to that question, one by one the lights on the cannon turn red and then in sequence go dark as the weapon's low humming turns to silence.

    Josie stands and turns to watch as the dragon that was once a Seraph turns to light and fades on the wind. He would have been born on Lunar, as the Seraphim reckon that, anyway. It's a long way from home, but-- they'd said he was a traveler. From just that much, she can understand: returning home is an action without completion for people like them.

    Josie steps away from her silent cannon in the next instant, approaching Lily -- herself again, Lily -- with a smile that she doesn't truly feel. "Yeah," she says to her.

    "Yeah, we sure did."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.

The chunk of castle wall sends Lucifer flying, right through the holographic representation of his aims, shattering it.

Cavall can think of no finer rebuke than that. They yank their head back, separating anchor from wall chunk and bringing the anchor to a rest around their neck, chains neatly looped. In the next instant, it is simply a chain again, looped around their neck.

The wolf slowly releases the borrowed power, layers of earthen armor dissipating along with it. Cavall will not mourn the loss of a tyrant.

Cavall turns to witness the end of the Fell Dragon Eizen in silence...

And when it is over, Cavall tips their head back and howls in lament.

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige hesitates a moment longer. There's a lot to take in here and this didn't go like the last.. myriad times she was there for a dragon's fall. There's new scratches in the shotgun. She won't try to explain them.
 
 And with those last words noted, he's gone just that fast. A scattering of light and a catastrophic hole in the wall. She turns, watching the others, swinging the shotgun around only to find that something else is happening. Something she doesn't really have words for. And... she still has a duty. A small leatherbound book is pulled from her satchel and she looks to the hole where Lucifer had died and makes a note. Writing out his last words, same as she'd do for anyone. She'll linger around her for a couple of reasons, but particularly, she can't help, but feel like someone that power mad, that spiteful might have a hard time accepting that kind of long rest. If there was even anything there to guide along. That thought bothers her more than anything else and she turns instead to the fallen pendant.
 
 She hadn't heard those words. She can only guess that there's a story that should be remembered and told, same as with the other fallen dragons though and after gathering her thoughts, she slings the shotgun around. First to tend to the living.
 
 Only having caught part of Magilou's story about what had happened and- That's a later issue. She'll do her best to reach out to get the information, if for no reason, than to make sure someone remembers who they'd been.
 
 And it doesn't take a long dead surgeon to tell her who to prioritize. She begins to gather the errant shadows around herself, the memories fading away, replaced by other more recent memories. Bringing aide to stabalize Lily first, then turning to look for others who might need a bandage first, then proper healing second, so to speak. She's not going to stop. The impact of all of this can come later when she lets herself find a quiet place.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The Malevolence is crushing her. It's like being in the Lightning Temple again, except worse, because she's taken on so much of that weight personally. It's like she's trying to break through a wall, and the wall's trying to break her at the same time. Ida's heartbeat thunders in her ears. Her hands shake. Her vision has long since smeared into a bruise-colored streak of nothing. Every breath is strained.

    Ida remembers the Umbral Mirror, which she thought she could never fix, and pushes harder. Harder. More. More. Her head is splitting. She has to keep going. Let the fire flow through her, burn out, burn up, burn, burn, burn.

    As the light fades, it also reveals Ida, lying on her back with eyes half-lidded. She watches the motes of light that once were Eizen, and tries to catch her breath.

    Sal settles down beside her Trainer's head, in complete silence. Wisps of smoke waft up from the brazier, which burned out during the final push.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

    "You're right," Magilou tells Edna, quietly. "And in a place like this... I can't chastise you for saying it."

    In a place where Velvet reaches in, and grasps...

    "This is the end," she repeats, to herself, more quietly. It's not the invocation of her Arte, now.

    She looks to Ruby, and says: "... it's a good thing we had such a powerful Red Dragon on our side." Not a cat! A dragon! A dragon who has Magilou's respect, too. "The Flames of Purification are really something..."

    She turns to Ida and Lanval, and adds: "... and your Guardians are, too. I didn't know if we could pull it off, but your faith came through for us. Thank you."

    She's personally exhausted, too, though. And so Magilou claps a hand on Ragnell's shoulder, leaning on her as she looks over to the locket. "You're welcome," she says, to Edna, making a heroic effort to stay genuine in the face of all this. "He lived here a while... take the time you need. Looks like Josie and the others sent Lucifer back to hell, so... it should be safe for a while." She pauses. "... not that you're in much danger," she adds, "with such a powerful companion. We couldn't have done it without him, too."

    Phoenix deigned to allow Magilou to channel him, THIS TIME, just to protect Edna. It's a handy reminder of just how terrifying that little Normin is.

    "Or without you."

    And if she leans on Ragnell a little harder, surely it's just all this real talk sapping her shattered soul. She does straighten up a moment later, though, to go find Velvet and Margaret. "It's finished," she tells them, wan. "He's not trapped in those scales any more... thank the Gods. Hah, it's embarrassing to have regrets..." She's not about to let either of them be one of hers, though, looking over them to make sure they're not harbouring mortal wounds.

    Just, you know.

    Subtle like.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

 
Margaret's focus returns. She's trembling a little and as she sees the passing of Eizen -- who she never knew, save as a dragon and as a beloved story -- as well as Lucifer, to whom Margaret's opinion can be summarized as 'good riddance.' It is thus Eizen she thinks of. She rises upwards, steeling herself to not shake too much.

She looks down at herself. With one glaring exception, currently bleeding, everything seems there. She reaches up briefly to check her ears, finding the very tip-point of one has been grazed. She tucks her bleeding right hand under her arm, wincing as she puts pressure on it.

The first person she really focuses on is Ida, who briefly makes her wonder if she was the sole survivor. The feeling twinges her weary body but soon enough she can see Edna and Ruby and Magilou - hear Magilou. Ah, and Velvet too.

She walks forwards, nearer. She remains quiet. It wasn't her friend to mourn.

But, at least, Margaret understands.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    So, in regards to Gwen....

    She was, indeed collapsing, though she catches herself halfway, and instead just sits.

    In the quiet following Lucifer's death, as well as the Fell Dragon's, Gwen keeps quiet, her legs laid out in front of her. It's a mournful day, but one that was a long time coming. Seraphs who become Feel Dragons don't come back from it. Lucife didn't cause it, but he certainly rubbed salt in the wound.

    Voltie has parked himself on Gwen's curly singed hair, making concerned noises.

    "It's okay, Voltie. They lost someone, so... we're having a moment of reflection," she explains, quietly. "... it sounded like he was a really awesome guy." She lets out a breath. ".... You need a snack? I can still give you something... it's not like you take that much from me."

    Voltie doesn't remove himself from Gwen's head, even as she raises her ARM, now laid over with a tattered sleeve, briefly showing some of the scarred flesh beyond. Gwen sighs, gingerly reaching up with her left hand to scritch along Voltie's head. ".... You're a good pal, Voltie."

    She hurts, but, she can't be hurt anymore than she's already been. She and fire have been slowly approaching some understanding, but the magic kind will always kindle that old fear, when she's hit badly enough.

    Everyone else where that battle was, however...

     It's only after some time passes that Gwen finally speaks up.

    ".... Cavall. Shige. Hate to ask, but... healing. Please." Her voice is small, and the way her tears tickle her tickles is painful against her damaged skin.

<Pose Tracker> Velvet Crowe has posed.

                     To me, humans are an inspiration,
         living to their fullest with the limited time they have.

Maybe this is why a monster like her exists.

Maybe only she could have done this. Like Eizen did for Theodora.

She recalls the words he said then and she finds strength in them even as she wants nothing more than to break down.

She's not the cursed one.

But she can save the ones who are, the only way she can.

                     Malakhim aren't immortal, either.
              We have our own ends to face, myself included.

"... Eizen..."

She is there, kneeling in the crater that once held a Fell Dragon. Motes of light illuminate her as the vestiges of Eizen's legacy burn off and away from her, slowly revealing pale skin and tattered clothes and wild raven hair beneath the shroud of shadow and flame as it bleeds away.

It feels so warm. It almost hurts, how comforting it feels.

She curses Lucifer. She wishes his end wasn't so brief. She wishes he could be stuck in her heart, screaming forever, trapped and impotent and feeling the hell Eizen felt, every day.

She wants to grip onto those motes. She wants to draw them in and hold them and never let them go, to keep some semblance of the friend she had and lost.

She's lost so many without ever getting to say goodbye. An eyeblink. A dream. And then they were all gone.

... Why does she have to find another only to feel what remains of him slip between her fingers?

She never reaches out. Her claw relaxes.

And everything that was the Seraph Eizen filters away like little fireflies of memories past her scorched and bloodied cheeks.

  I don't know if that day will come in five hundred years or a thousand,
                             or even tomorrow.

All she has now is the phantasm of Eizen's pain, the burden of his curse, taken in and added to the morass that will be with her forever. It's like a sick joke. It's not fair. She wants to scream at the heavens. She wants to--

Thanks. I won't say it again...

Misty eyes widen as she hears that voice she has only so recently become acquainted with. A tear rolls past soot-stained cheeks.

... Thanks.

And the Malevolence burning around Velvet Crowe ebbs, with every beat of her heart...

... until it all fades into simmering embers as bandages once more wrap and bind her left, sinister arm into a semblance of humanity.

"....... Are you sure a Seraph should be thanking the Lord of Calamity?" she asks, her voice cracked and hoarse and rung out with wry exhaustion. The black locks of her hair obscure her face from sight as she presses palms into the ground.

She doesn't point out how Edna expresses her gratitude twice.

She knows what the second is for.

"He talked about you a lot, you know," she says, after a long time, and then finally pushes herself onto her feet. Her palms rise and press into her face, pushing back as if to try to tame the wild mass of her hair.

It hides the way she rubs the tears from her eyes as she speaks.

"I can see why he was so proud of you."

And the smile she offers Edna when she can finally find it in herself to face her is a genuinely warm thing. Perhaps it shouldn't be the kind of smile a Lord of Calamity is capable of.

But isn't that sort of contradiction the heart of what makes a Hellion?

She walks, then. There's a hitch in her step; the pain of her injuries weigh on her almost as much as the remnants of Eizen's Malevolence. Still, she walks.

Until she reaches Magilou.

She looks Ragnell's way, for a moment. And though she doesn't say anything, a look can say a thousand words. Hers, hers just says two, painfully heartfelt.

        Thank you.

It's only then that she looks back to Magilou. To Margaret.

Hah, says Magilou. It's embarrassing to have regrets.

Velvet stands in silence for a long time. Those gold eyes hood as the last vestiges of hellfire orange bleed from their depths. As the final traces of Eizen's legacy dwindle to nothing but the weight on her spiritual shoulders.

"... He lived with everyone. He lived to his fullest, every moment," she says, her voice quiet. "He didn't regret a single second. He didn't."

She speaks with certainty. It's not just because she held his metaphorical heart in her hand. It's not just because she felt the dying embers of her friend and let them go.

... It's because he was her friend. -Their- friend. And they know him.

"And he wouldn't want you to, either."

And regardless of her own injuries - numerous and not in small part self-inflicted though they are - she holds her bandaged hand out to Magilou as Margaret approaches.

"... Let's go, Magilou. Margaret."

Because Magilou is hurting. And even if Velvet is, too, she wants to be there for the witch. She wants to share her burden. She wants to share everything she can with her.

           So I choose to live here with them, moment by moment,
                      giving it everything I've got.

Because that's what you do for the people you love.

Choice Scarf goes home.