2017-11-04: The Rogue Brother

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=============================<* Gunsmoke Desert *>==============================

The Gunsmoke Desert occupies the northwestern portion of Ignas. This desert is different from Aveh's. Instead of rolling dunes of sand, it has dry and cracked ground, and the mountains that rim it also intrude into the interior, forming stunning rock formations that can look as beautiful as they look impossible. The settlements here are hard-pressed to survive, consisting of countless small towns. The lucky few are connected by railways to the Seed Cities scattered about the Gunsmoke. Many are lost to the sands, which cover them and a tremendous concentration of ruins from Filgaia's past. This makes these badlands the heart of Drifter activity in Ignas.

<Pose Tracker> Elena has posed.

MOMENTS AGO

Just outside the borders of November City, sticking out of the desert like a green and beige sore thumb, one of countless Ethos Workshops takes a break, the sound of grinders, saws and various machinery dying down. There's a Gear inside, a civilian Tin Robo model that's missing an arm and a leg, repairs underway. The Ethos priests hop down from here and there, putting a dinner together, kicking back to relax.

Another enters. His tattered robes are more ornate, a different color. Etone, not just some Ethos Gear fixer. He's seen better days, judging by his wounds, dirty hair and robes in dire need of replacement.

"Brother! You look like you could use some food and rest, please, come in!" one says. Another seems skeptical, looking over his shoulder to a billboard filled with wanted posters. "No, hang on, that's--!"
Mathius' form distorts, letting off an ominous purple, red and black aura that quickly fills the workshop. The skys above cover, purple lightning striking the roof of the workshop with calamitous force. "I'm hungry, brothers. I'll feed on that warmongering of yours."

NOW
Sunset in November City is typically a nice sight. Today it's obscured by a storm, which broke out unexpectedly and violently. What's more, heavy smoke and flames rise from an Ethos workshop near the northern horizon. Those who can perceive Malevolence and other spiritual shenanigans can clearly sense he build up in the distance, the unnatural air of the storm, the purple lightning. Needless to say, the Adventurer's Guild, the Church of Granas and the Ethos are on high alert. All able bodies should deploy before this worsens.

Arriving at the workshop gives a better view of what happened. Barrels of fuel and sensitive Gear parts have detonated, engulfing the workshop in flames. There was fighting, too. Dead priests, some shot, some scorched by lightning, some blown to pieces. Drained of life, too.

But where's the culprit? Inside the workshop?
He couldn't have left, this is still the eye of the storm in every sense of the term. The presence hasn't gone anywhere.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

One thing about Lily's experiences in the war is that to this day, she's always prepared for danger to break out suddenly. ...An explosion is a cue, a message, and she operates on instinct to begin with. Usually it turns out to be nothing, really, an unimportant noise.

Not always. Not when it comes with that sickly-sweet aura, that scent and feeling and sound and sense beyond the mundane, trickling by unmistakably against Lily Keil's mind.

The truth is, she's pale, single visible golden eye bloodshot. Her clothes are black, hardly battle attire with a long dress and shawl.

...But she has a beautiful rosewood-stocked rifle strappd to her shoulder, and her stoic expression suggests wariness as she walks. But how did she get here?

MOMENTS AGO:

Lily Keil hears the sound, spots the storm out her window, and feels the intrusion of Malevolence. Accordingly she's heading down the stairs with an ARM in all defiance of hotel policy, albeit not in her hands. On her way down the stairs she spots Fei and Elly, and continues down into he lobby. She looks between both, and doesn't linger on Elly.

"..."

NOW:

Heels click against paving stones as Lily comes to a stop outside the workshop, looking over the flames and corpses. The way they died...

"I'll pull up the rear," she suggests, taking her weapon into her hands and checking its ammunition over.

Her satchel rests about her hip. The fact that she still looks terrible doesn't stop her presence being somewhat... harsh. The aura about her senses remains unpleasant. So does her glare.

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Who better to take down a rogue Etone than another Etone?

...not that, and Rosaline would be the first to tell you that, she's a real Etone just yet. She's still new at this! But with the November City branch of the Ethos stretched thin lately, beggars can't be choosers.

She and a few friends were actually hot on the Brother's trail, having followed some promising rumors towards the workshop, and then...

Rosaline stops in her tracks, her eyes drawing wide open as Malevolence makes itself felt. "Oh no... Oh no."

Her companions might not be quite as spiritually-attuned as she is (it's a healer thing), and so might not have felt the wave as early as she did, but her drawing her ARMs makes it clear enough that there's danger afoot.

She doesn't hide the horror in her expression as the group arrives. "Stay sharp," she whispers, tearing her eyes away from a priest's corpse, peeking in through the worshop entrance before going in, furtively if she can manage it.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Not long after the Trial Knight's first wave of appearances, Talise Gianfair had come to a decision.

The White Warrior is a problem born on Lunar. Talise is a person born on Lunar. Her hopes of becoming the Dragonmaster someday have been robbed from her, but she can at least serve the Blue Star by doing her part to defeat the sources of the Malevolence that even now sweeps the planet.

Hence the clatter of hooves. The large gelding horse gallops swiftly out from the city. Talise's coat streams behind her as she spurs the horse on into the storm. She has just enough resonance now that the purple flash in that lightning is perceptible to her quite clearly. No more haze; the gift of the Seraph has begun to reach full flower in her, despite her own apparent lack of any tangible manifestation of Althena's blessing.

"Althena's name," Talise growls as the workshop comes into view, flames and bodies strewn everywhere. She slides down off the back of her horse with a thud of plated boots. "I really wish the Trial Knight and the damned Witch would just cut this out already."

I should've beheaded both of them when I had the chance instead of letting their sickness run rampant acros the Blue Star... but I was too weak, she chides herself with a bitter and oft-repeated thought as she looks back to her companions. Steel hisses as she draws Rastaban, shifting it to her right hand, checking her shotgun with the left. "Ida, Ros', stay strong," she cautions. "And keep close. If there's a Hellion in there, we'll have to be really careful. Sorey's not here to help us or purify them so we'll have to make sure we take them without injuring them too seriously."

Her gaze shifts as she speaks, towards the door of the workshop. As the storm of malice rages around her, the tall half-Beastwoman readies her sword and steels herself with a bracing of her shoulders.

Her toe comes into contact with something. She looks down, into the eyes of a dead priest.

Colour draining from her cheeks, Talise reaches down and slips a gauntlet off to check the poor priest's pulse, just to be sure. Her eyes darken, and she lifts them to behold the true extent of the devastation. Bodies, some town apart, some scorched.

Talise clicks her teeth together and lets out a low, angry hiss through them before clamping her lips shut. Do not let your anger rule you.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

One thing about Lily's experiences in the war is that to this day, she's always prepared for danger to break out suddenly. ...An explosion is a cue, a message, and she operates on instinct to begin with. Usually it turns out to be nothing, really, an unimportant noise.

Not always. Not when it comes with that sickly-sweet aura, that scent and feeling and sound and sense beyond the mundane, trickling by unmistakably against Lily Keil's mind.

The truth is, she's pale, single visible golden eye bloodshot. Her clothes are black, hardly battle attire with a long dress and shawl.

...But she has a beautiful rosewood-stocked rifle strappd to her shoulder, and her stoic expression suggests wariness as she walks. But how did she get here?

MOMENTS AGO:

Lily Keil hears the sound, spots the storm out her window, and feels the intrusion of Malevolence. Accordingly she's heading down the stairs with an ARM in all defiance of hotel policy, albeit not in her hands. On her way down the stairs she spots Fei and Elly, and continues down into he lobby. She looks between both, and doesn't linger on Elly.

"..."

NOW:

Heels click against paving stones as Lily comes to a stop outside the workshop, looking over the flames and corpses. The way they died...

"I'll pull up the rear," she suggests, taking her weapon into her hands and checking its ammunition over.

Her satchel rests about her hip. The fact that she still looks terrible doesn't stop her presence being somewhat... harsh. The aura about her senses remains unpleasant. So does her glare.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Not long after the Trial Knight's first wave of appearances, Talise Gianfair had come to a decision.

The White Warrior is a problem born on Lunar. Talise is a person born on Lunar. Her hopes of becoming the Dragonmaster someday have been robbed from her, but she can at least serve the Blue Star by doing her part to defeat the sources of the Malevolence that even now sweeps the planet.

Hence the clatter of hooves. The large gelding horse gallops swiftly out from the city. Talise's coat streams behind her as she spurs the horse on into the storm. She has just enough resonance now that the purple flash in that lightning is perceptible to her quite clearly. No more haze; the gift of the Seraph has begun to reach full flower in her, despite her own apparent lack of any tangible manifestation of Althena's blessing.

"Althena's name," Talise growls as the workshop comes into view, flames and bodies strewn everywhere in various states of deadness. She slides down off the back of her horse with a thud of plated boots. "Damn it, if the Knight's responsible for this...."

I should've beheaded the Knight and the bedamned Witch when I had the chance instead of letting their sickness run rampant acros the Blue Star... but I was too weak, she chides herself with a bitter and oft-repeated thought as she looks back to her companions. Steel hisses as she draws Rastaban, shifting it to her right hand, checking her shotgun with the left. "Ida, Ros', stay strong," she cautions. "And keep close. If there's a Hellion in there, we'll have to be really careful. Sorey's not here to help us or purify them so we'll have to make sure we take them without injuring them too seriously."

Her gaze shifts as she speaks, towards the door of the workshop. As the storm of malice rages around her, the tall half-Beastwoman readies her sword and steels herself with a bracing of her shoulders.

Her toe comes into contact with something. She looks down, into the eyes of a dead priest.

Colour draining from her cheeks, Talise reaches down and slips a gauntlet off to check the poor priest's pulse, just to be sure. Her eyes darken, and she lifts them to behold the true extent of the devastation. Bodies, some town apart, some scorched.

Talise clicks her teeth together and lets out a low, angry hiss through them before clamping her lips shut. Do not let your anger rule you.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

It's an ominous sense of forboding that fills the air - a thick, sickly sensation that weighs on the mind and incites negativity. Jacqueline can feel it from within the city itself, and she knows right away what it is.

Malevolence.

Such a massive build-up of malevolence...it brings to mind the tragedy at Port Timney, and the Otherworldly Hollow beneath it.

Jacqueline has no intention of letting the same thing happen here, to November City. Something must be done about it. She's no Shepherd, but maybe they could hold it at bay until word could be sent to him...

She's also heard other rumors, sent to her by those in the know - rumors that someone she had once pursued might be in the area.

Could they be connected...? Well, if it was who she thought it was, then she had a score to settle with them.

She makes her way to the sensation, but not before changing into a more combat-suitable outfit.

Her coat is different than the one she wore in Bledavik, a nice dark green with white stitching rather than the black she wore back then. The style is different, too.

That coat was too recognizable...and it had been scorched beyond usability, anyway. This one had been reinforced with a mixture of hers, so it should provide her with more protection and not get scorched to pieces.

Getting close, though, it looks like she isn't the only one who's followed this sensation here. She gives the others a nod, but she doesn't speak, just in case it gives them away to whatever it is that's lurking inside...

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude C. Kenny intended to spend his spending his evening relaxing, as he is still recovering from yesterday's failed attempt to solve the mystery of a ghost ship. As it stands, the only mystery he solved was whether or not it was a fish that swam into his pants (yes, and he doesn't want to think about it). He is lying on the roof of his hotel in November City, drinking a beer and enjoying the night air.

Malevolence surges, but Claude is about as magically sensitive as any three kitchen mice you could name. He keeps drinking his beer. "What a nice night," he says to himself, and then Lily Keil bursts out of the door of the inn, carrying an ARM and looking angry. Claude frowns, looking at his beer, which is half empty. "She's fine," he decides. "She's got all that magic stuff, she can totally take care of herself."

...

"Like she did against all those Goober people at Shaka Khan's place."

......

"Who put out all those posters with her face and a reward on it."

.........

"In a town that all but has a sign that says 'it has been 40 minutes since our last felony murder.'"

............

Claude drains the last of his beer, grabs his weapon belt, and begins running across the rooftops.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Yesterday, Ida made yet another attempt to exorcise the ghost ship haunting the harbor of Jolly Rodger. It did not end well. Now, after getting her wounds tended to and hooking up with Talise and Rosaline, she's back in November City. Rosaline said she had a lead on Brother Mathius--an outcast, criminal Etone of some sort--and Ida promised to help her.

They were just meeting up in the lobby of Hotel Renais when something ripped through the still air.

Ida arrives at the workshop on foot; there wasn't enough time to get her horse from the stable, and she wouldn't want to risk her in these circumstances. She's breathing a little heavily--she ran most of the way--but when she sights Lily, she feels a little less afraid. She gives the sorceress a nod, and what she hopes is a brave, hopeful smile. She still looks like a mess--just less of one. She's wearing a patched-up army-issue overcoat over a sleeveless shirt and slacks, and she is unarmed.

She swallows, and steps over to make a sign of benediction over the body of the nearest priest. Once that's done, she starts examining it for signs of what exactly killed him.

Dealing with dead bodies is getting much easier. Ida hates herself a little for it.

<Pose Tracker> Ryudo has posed.

AWHILE AGO

Lately, Ryudo has had his fill of job postings from members of the cloth. As far as he's concerned they can get down on their knees and slam foreheads into the pavement repeatedly until their gods descend to fix the damn problem. The Adventurer's Guild mistook this disdain of his for an attempt to barter. He was about to tell them that no amount of money could make him put up with this sort of crap, until he overheard someone who fled the scene describe the horrors they witnessed. This sounds...slightly familiar. While he doubts the perpetrator is who he fears it to be -- they haven't been heard from in years -- he can't leave the possibility to fate, no matter how much he doesn't want to deal with the Church again.

"I'll the job.", he says with the most reassuring (and fake) smile he can muster.

NOW

Ryudo, a mercenary who seemingly thought it was a good idea bring along his pet tracking hawk with him to the scene of this disaster, scowls as Lily monopolizes his prefered position at the rearguard...but offers no protest. That would require talking it out with her. He does, however, prove incapable of allowing Talise's remark to slide. "Without injuring them? Lady, your people should be offering more money, because that sure doesn't sound like the contract I signed on for. 'Secure and neutralize' is the name of the game. If you don't like it, make sure you subdue them before they get within my striking range." He hefts a bastard sword onto the shoulder that the hawk isn't occupying to punctuate.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

WAR, WAR NEVER CHANGES.

Anyway, Fei's decision about K.K is mostly that they wear a mask and do sketchy shit. He doesn't have some grand philosophy about it, he just has an understanding of what he deems to be appropriate behavior. Using Lahan to encourage the growth of a Hate Plague is not appropriate behavior, so his fists will naturally gravitate towards K.K's face.

Well not their face, because they wear a mask, but like the mask that they're wearing, that's what will be suffering collission damage. Fei's dislike of violence is still present in his nature, but there's always exceptions, you know. Even with a guy like him. It helps that he spends a lot of his time with very violent people which makes him chill out a bit.

Fei tends to be a little uneasy when Malevolence is a thing. It feels like it's encouraging him to misbehave. He spots Lily heading down the stairs and follows after her. "Hey Lily, hey--you holding up okay? Oh the uh--"

NOW

"Right, right." Fei says. He looks towards Elly, shoves his his hadns in his pockets, looks at the corpses.

"Well," He says. "This is completely awful."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

EARLIER IN LITTLE TWISTER

"Are you sure about this? With that bounty on your head and everything?" SIlas Madigan, one of the few members of the Little Twister Ethos Orphanage, taps his large fingers against the worn table. "I mean, I'd appreciate the help n' everything, but you've already helped in recounting your run-ins with this... Malevolence, you called it?" Bringing a massive hand to rub at the rough shadow of a beard, he looks with concern at his childhood friend.

"I want you to stay here. That's why you became what you are, right? For the kids. Besides, if that stuff infects you, that's gonna put a huge dent in keepin' this place runnin'. This stuff works on negative emotions n' such in ways that ain't pretty." Gwen stands up from her chair, adjusting the poncho and scarf she used to keep her identity safe when she came in. "This is something I can do. I can't do what you're doin'-" She tilts her head as the bear of a man stands up as well, moving to stand before her, and then chuckles.

Gwen knew what was going to happen before Silas even moved, but it still manages to take the breath out of her when Silas grabs her in a giant hug. "G... guardians, y'know you still gotta give me some breathin' room when you do that, SIlas!!"

She lies. She wouldn't have her friend be any other way.

NOW

"Guardians...!" Gwen loosens the wild rag from in front of her face, exposing the freckles below her blue-grey eyes. "This is... damn..." Even better than SIlas didn't end up on this trail. He'd be red-faced and weeping over the bodies.

.... Does that mark her as somehow less empathic, that she sees all this and assumes nothing more than for them to go find the source? "Without someone like the Shepherd here, there ain't much we can do t'bring the guy back. Hate t'be the one sayin' it, but we might have to put 'im down before he gets even worse."

Sure, it makes her feel really tough saying that, seeing on how she's not alone here, but she doesn't feel eager to be the one to do it. What sort of man was Mathius before he became what he is now?

... What would drive a man to shed his former self for this?

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda... honestly doesn't feel anything, from her current position at a November City restaurant. At least not anything supernatural. She's pretty dead to that kind of thing!

... but she does hear, outside her window, the bustle of people in gear, and eventually, a look out the window and the sight of the fire. That gets her attention -- especially when she realizes it's in the direction of the Ethos workshop.

She steals off into the night almost immediately -- though at the very least she remembers to leave her 10 gella for dinner. She's dressed as she normally is, of course; she doesn't have the time to get herself looking meaningfully different as she sprints for the workshop.

She spots Jay, en route, and almost immediately forms up with her. At this point, that much is automatic.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

A LITTLE WHILE AGO

Elly is consumed by awkwardness at the sight of Lily. She's walking around ARMed. She's doing surprisingly OK, but - but - but - Elly feels a sort of ongoing permanent shrivelling in her gut, full of embarrassment and an obscure sense of shame, before --

No, nothing changes. She doesn't know all the protocols, beyond having done a seminar on field interrogations. (It was less bad than you think, until you got near the end of the flowchart.)

She glances at Fei.

NOW

Elly has been jogging along behind Lily. She has a purse which has been restrapped along the way to be more of a hip bag, since it would be kind of goofy to just have it dangling from her shoulder like a handbag. Otherwise she is relatively nondescript, having hot-swapped back into that denim peasant dress she has been using so as to look mostly like a -Lamb-.

"It is," she tells Fei. She fiddles with her bag strap. She looks up at that doorway and then glances at Lily. She's going to bring up the rear. Fei isn't willing.

Elly breathes in and out several times, quietly. "... Cover me, please," she tells Lily, then steps forth, moving to enter the workshop.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

LAST NIGHT

"Augh! Accursed armor!" Zed yells as he struggles to pry himself free of the dread grasp of the SQUASHFRIED COSTUME... "Why did I ask to be welded in!? THAT DIDN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE, ME. I--" Zed... manages only to trip and fall down a flight of stairs, instantly knocking himself unconscious.

NOW

SOMETHING EXPLODES.

Zed.. bolts straight up and stares into the distance. "What," he says, then looks down at his armor. "...What!?" He says again as he picks up his sword. "AUGH! WHY NOW!?"

Zed... Leaps out the window of his hotel and begins charging across the rooftops like an orange bolt trailing a great, bright green cape. That is exactly what he is, in fact. The Dread Blade, Gourdzambor is clutched tight in his hands. What is even happening, here? Why are there suddenly explosions? Why does the air smell like evil??

Is Sieg here!?

THAT WOULD BE BAD.

...

But then, why is he running TOWARD the fire?

(Because Zed is a fooooool, that's why)

<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.

 Eruptions of malevolence are often interesting events, which is why Agatha had spread her net of watchers wide over the wastelands of late to see what might happen to turn up. After all, the point was being stirred by several hands now, and it wouldn't do to just let it boil over without at least one chef in the area to watch.

 Plus her 'allies' in dealing with these problems often had their own agendas, and it didn't hurt to have a look over things herself.

 There are always ravens in the city - as one of the few sources of water for miles around, not to mention the unending amounts of trash and food that humans tend to produce going about their day to day lives, the birds would come from far and wide to sup upon the bounty provided by humanity.

 That some of these ravens are jet black things with glowing red eyes tends to go unnoticed - the birds are, after all, black and more intelligent than one might give them credit for. That several take up roost around the burning workshop to watch the goings on shouldn't be surprising. The birds enjoy such spectacle, after all. And perhaps something shiny and interesting to snatch might turn up.

 Elsewhere in the city, Agatha sits back and smiles, her black eyes glowing dimly in some hazy bar's back room as she considers the goings on. Just what would come of this little... incident?

<Pose Tracker> Elena has posed.

So it turns out the Ethos are not very good at building design. The workshop is a round building with a large pit in the middle so that a single Gear (in this case a busted up Tin Robo) can be docked in there for repairs. There's no windows, no back entrance. It's just not a very well-designed building for Gear repairs of all things. But there are holes in the building, so it may as well have windows and back entrances NOW.

Inside, there are more priests. These ones are alive - they can be saved. There's a dozen in all, in various shapes of health. One's missing an arm, one has a bullet lodged in his neck but he's spamming low-grade healing Ether at himself hoping someone gets to him before it stops being able to keep up, one has burns everywhere. One is stuck under a Gear's finger and may have broken legs. The flames rage on! You'll need to work swiftly to save them.

Elena is here, of course. Watery healing spells radiate out from her to help, and she volunteers to help get the poor priests to safety if others can just give her a hand real fast because she can't get to all of them on her own. The situation is dire enough, that she doesn't even snark at Ryudo for his disrespect.

But if you think it'll be as easy as getting priests out of a flaming building...

The winds pick up. A barrier of wind forms around the area. Now you're even more literally in the eye of the storm. Mathius descends from the sky, swooping down with a crash on the roof of the workshop.

"Welcome! ... or something dramatic like that. I didn't think about what I wanted to say. Something about war, I guess? How ridiculous it is that half of the Aveh-Kislev conflict is being conducted by a very member of our faith? That's not what I signed up to do. So... I'll just uproot it all. The Ethos, the Church of Granas. I have the power to do that now!"

His features twist. Mathius reveals his Hellion form; his nails extend like talons, large feathers pierce through his robes behind his arms, legs and back. His eyes become avian and his mouth extends like a beak. Unless your name starts with C and ends with laude, then all you see is the blond young man standing on a roof.

"I'm glad I found that knight. I'd probably be dead without him. I doubt you'll have that luck!"

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Janus Cascade's Guild status is.............interesting, and he has about all the spiritual awareness of a bag full of particularly dim hamsters, but...

In a bar not too far away, as the ridiculous explosions start going off, he catches something in the eye of the woman across the room. A long, silent look, judging; weighty...

He kicks off the table. "Well, I'm bored," he declares to the two gentlemen currently playing knifey-spoony beside him. "Let's go find out what's blowin' up and maybe shoot at it."

The barmaid goes back to work while the Cascade Gang DEPARTS IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE

AND THEN:

Janus walks in behind a bunch of people who are actually supposed to be here, grinning like the tremendous jerk he is. "Well, well!" he declares, apparently oblivious to the gravity of the moment. "Looks like someone had a party."

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

MEANWHILE, ON THE ROOFTOPS.

There is a BRIGHT, ORANGE KNIGHT leaping boldly from building to building like some kind of vaguely vegetable-themed super hero. "What is this even!?" Zed screams as a dude further up ahead suddenly turns from some kind of fat friar guy into literally Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent, AKA Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, the Lord of the Star of Dawn. Does that make him Lucifer? Doesn't matter.

What does matter is what happens next.

"AAAAAAAAAH," Zed screams as he leaps from the next building over, somersaults through the sky, and...

Goes to punch that guy right in the face.

With his sword.

So it's less of a punch and more of a sicktastic dragoon jump.

"YOU'RE A LITTLE LATE," Zed yells as he continues stabbing furiously with a sword that clearly looks like it's meant to be hacking and slashing. "IF YOU WANTED CANDY, YOU SHOULD HAVE SHOWN UP LAST NIGHT! Instead, all I have left to give is BUTT KICKING!"

"HAVE AT THE--" Beat. Zed pauses and looks to Claude. "Oh. Hey there buddy." He looks back to the serpent-bird-man and continues hitting it with his sword, "HAVE AT THEE!"

GS: Zed has attacked Elena with Pumpzamber!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Zed has canceled their attack on Elena.
GS: Zed has attacked Monster Mash with Pumpzamber!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

I'm glad I found that knight. I'd probably dead without him. I doubt you'll have that luck!

There is a crack, a splintering sound, in the distance. One perhaps lost within the cacophony of chaos spawned by the former Etone. Easily dismissed as nothing, easy to ignore what it is. A warning sign.

*KRA-KOOM*

A warning of dire things to come.

The hint of their existence in Mathius' words is almost like a warning in and of itself; as if summoned by his bold proclamation, the walls of the workshop splinter VIOLENTLY apart seconds later. Light pierces through the side of the building like a lance splintering a shield, a pointed berth of power that sears sight and burns flesh as it cleaves a sudden, angry path through the workshop from west to east.

Light, burning light, shears a furrow with perfect precision through those who have assembled here today. Powerful, but more than that, tactically exacting to sunder the group before they even get the chance to organize, scattering a select group of Drifters away from the rest of the flock and cutting them off from the Hellion beyond.

And within that spear of light, the Trial Knight leads their bloody and violent charge with singleminded purpose, driving back those unfortunate enough to be in their path before coming to a stop before at the edge of the workshop. Smoke rises from white armor. Light floats in dangerously serene-looking motes as energies diffuse around their frame.

They spare no words.

The violent and dangerous gleam of their curved blades, it seems, is as clear a message as they intend to send.

                             O B J E C T I V E

                  Last 5 rounds against the Trial Knight!

                                    OR

                   Drop the Trial Knight to 50% Health!

GS: K.K. has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Swallow Dance!
GS: K.K. has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Swallow Dance!
GS: K.K. has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talise Gianfair with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: K.K. has attacked Lily Keil with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: K.K. has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 82 hit points!
GS: Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 135 hit points!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 140 hit points!
GS: Elhaym van Houten critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 20 hit points!
GS: Lily Keil critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 28 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 26 hit points!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Zed's Pumpzamber for 50 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Talise speaks of trying not to injure the Hellion too seriously. Rosaline nods, silently. But will that even be possible? None of this can end well, can it? "She might be right," she says in answer to Gwen, perhaps surprisingly. She doesn't look happy about it, at least.

She moves in and surveys the situation. Her heart skips a beat at the sight of Elena struggling to keep the situation from deteriorating even further. "Elena! Oh no..."

She holsters one of her ARMs, moving in to help a Sister out, lending a well-padded shoulder to anyone who needs help walking, and a healing spell to anyone who needs help living.

She can't keep this up for very long at all, however, as Brother Mathius makes his expected entrance. "I... I'll take care of this," Rosaline says in Elena's direction, not believing one word. But still, she has to try. This is an Etone, or was until recently. It's an Ethos problem. This is her duty.

And so, she runs for one of the partly collapsed walls, climbing up with surprising grace for someone holding an SMG with one hand.

"Please surrender!" she says as she reaches the roof, pointing her weapon at the Brother with a shaky hand. "It doesn't have to be this way! You don't have to uproot our religion! We can talk things out! W-We can get you help, it's going to be all right!" Is it? Is it really?

Oh, Lord.

Zed opens the hostilities. But then, let's be honest, they were already well and truly open when several priests died. Rosaline pulls the trigger, spraying bullets somewhat haphazardly.

GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Brother Mathius with Etone-in-Training Attack!!
GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Rosaline Calice's Etone-in-Training Attack! for 86 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Talise looks up from the body she's checking on and fixes her eyes on Ryudo. "Check who's paying you here, tough guy, 'cause it ain't me," she says shortly, before glancing towards Gwen and setting her jaw. She forces a breath out through her nose in a short rush.

The last thing Talise wants to do is kill a victim.

Then Squashfried shows up. Talise's foul mood breaks for just a moment as she stares at the gourdy Zed. She scratches her temple in utter bafflement.

But there are more important things to take care of right now. She moves forward, pressing her lips together as Mathius comes swooping in. With her Resonance high enough to actually see this stuff clearly now, Talise is given the privilege of watching as the twisted Etone reveals his Hellion form in hideous, excruciating detail. Her jaw drops just a little, then tightens as she clenches her teeth, letting out a hiss of breath. "Althena damn it," she growls.

Her ears prick, then. "...That Knight...."

She looks back over her shoulder towards Ida and Rosaline. "...We need to stop this from ever happening again," she says-

*KRA-KOOM*

Light blasts suddenly blaze through the shop. With no time to really prepare her defenses, Talise gasps and raises Rastaban defensively, on an angle. The magical assault slams around the weapon and into her shoulders and upper body, cleaving away rings from the mail she's got on under her coat, tearing away strips of the heavy coat. Teeth clenched, Talise growls in pain under the heavy assault. "Ros', get to cover," she shouts.

In comes the Knight. Talise narrows her eyes, then looks over towards Ida.

Then Talise hurtles forward. Rastaban sweeps through the air as the swordswoman goes hurtling at the armoured Hellion, blade hissing through the air. "Trial Knight!!" the tall swordswoman roars as she leaves the rogue Etone to someone else and throws herself headlong at the source of the problem.

She barrels at K.K. head-on. Bunching her shoulders, she leaps forward with a hard blod of her weapon, swinging a hard two-handed blow aimed to try and rip one of the arms off the White Knight - or at least deprive the Knight of one of those sickle blades.

"I won't let you keep trying to test this world," she growls as she winds up to deliver the backswing. "Not without a fight from me!"

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked K.K. with Surge Rolls In!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily spots Ida's smile--and immediately looks her over, eyeballs her condition, while she nods back at her. It's encouraging in its way... Inasmuch as any acknowledgement can be encouraging. She doesn't try to stop her anyway--she just registers her presence, adds it to her calculus of the coming battle.

She fails to notice Claude coming along partially for her sake. But given that she still looks kind of ill... Helping might not be a bad idea.

EARLIER:

"I'm fine," she answered Fei. "...Thanks." It's not quite grudging, more that she remembers to be nicer to her friend. They can talk later. ...Much later. If they have to, about this. Her kindness towards Elly is largely in not saying anything about being captured by her countrymen.

That would involve talking.

BACK TO NOW:

"Anything that springs at you dies," Lily replies coolly to Elly, in acknowledgement. Ryudo looking at her position gets a glance back, but the talk of what to do...

She has her own intentions about this. ...She declines to share them. Instead they move onward, into the space with more priests, people in clear danger. Lily's eyes flick over them, guessing which is worst, which is actively dying...

The wind comes. Lily's already shifting, weapon ready, towards one of the fallen priests, the one with the bullet in his neck. She hears the words... and watches him shift. A shiver runs through her that doesn't show on her face.

She says nothing to him--but what she was going to do is changed abrubtly, at the crack in the distance, and the paranoid young woman lifts her left hand mmediately. Light crashes about them and Lily steps backward and puts her arm before her, as a barrier of darkness erupts into being all around her, egglike in the way the shadows themselves guard her and sap life from incoming blows.

She rises to her full height again staring down white armor, strange light. "...Fei, Elly. Targetting new combatant." Her voice is low, loud enough only to be heard, as she takes a breath and levels her ARM. She takes aim--

At K.K.'s feet, a red glow shifting about her hands and where the ammunition rests in her weapon--and she fires, the bullet hitting the ground and erupting into a burst of bright, deadly orange flames as Lily herself shifts behind wreckage to give herself a firing platform.

Her weapon keeps smoking for the moment. "...Trial, is it?" she asks.

GS: Lily Keil has attacked K.K. with Hearthblaze!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 18 hit points!
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Surge Rolls In for 95 hit points!
GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Lily Keil's Hearthblaze for 16 hit points!
GS: Lily Keil takes Cover! She gains 50 temporary hit points!
GS: K.K. enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida sees a human form move, deeper in. For want of a pistol, she clenches her hand into a fist, and feels the pulse of her life force as it flows down into it. She steps through the doorway, and sees--

"Granas," Ida whispers. "Rosaline, over here!" Survivors. "Survivors! They need healing, now!" Ida is not a medic--that part is Lily's job. She rushes over to the man pinned behind the Gear's finger, braces her hands beneath it, and lifts. It's not much, but little by little, the massive chunk of metal starts to rise. It's much harder than similar feats have been, recently--Ida hasn't been eating or exercising regularly, and she's lost enough weight and muscle tone that it's visible. She's managed to lift it a few inches when someone speaks. The Malevolence thickens, as if its source just revealed itself. Ida looks up through the giant hole in the roof, her eyes narrowing as Mathius appears.

"You, Ida says. Her voice is like acid. Anger floods her system, providing much-needed backup to her poor, weary muscles. And then an orange blur appears. Astonishment butts in to join the fear and anger as someone who is unmistakably Zed just kind of barges in. If nothing else, he has given her a distraction.

Something Mathias said, though, sends a chill through her bones, as if in counterpoint. Her eyes widen as his form shifts and changes, just like the poisoner's did at that village.

"Hellion!"Ida screams. She shifts her stance, trying to put the Gear part between her and Mathius--

A beam of light cuts through the wall like a knife through butter. It sears through Ida's shoulder--the exact shoulder wounded on board the pirate ship yesterday. The young naturalist lets out a scream of pain and drops the Gear part--better ensure the priest is out of the way!--and presses her hand to the injury, trying to staunch it. Her eyes turn wide as the gleaming, flawless figure enters the room with all the single-minded motion of an onrushing freight train.

"You," Ida whispers.

A game for a child

A gleaming, flawless figure looks down at her in a burning warehouse. They look away, as if she isn't even worth the effort.

"You." Ida's pupils constrict to pinpricks. Her lips peel back from her teeth in an ugly snarl. She is terrified, but it is the terror of a cornered animal facing down the predator that has cornered it.

who knows not her own limits.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Ida screams, incidentally and unintentionally cutting into Talise's own determined speech. She races across the workshop floor, heedless to self-preservation as she engages the entity that has made her life a living hell since before Adlehyde. She grabs a twisted chunk of rebar off the floor, and drives it towards K.K.'s center of mass like a lance. No thought of quarter is given.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked K.K. with Rebar Lance!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Rebar Lance for 18 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline nods to Matilda as she approaches. It was good to know that one of her CaraKin would be here to help out, especially considering the state of the priests inside the building.

"They're still alive...we can-" She's interrupted as the winds begin to howl and form a barrier around the area, and a blond young man descends from the sky, crashing onto the roof. Jacqueline looks up. It's a face she recognizes from the posters...at least until it transforms, becoming more avian in nature.

"You've forgotten your duty, Mathius. Stealing supplies meant for innocent people isn't the way to go about it, and neither is this!" Jacqueline calls out.

It is around this time that the Trial Knight appears, crashing through the walls and separating some of their number from each other. Jacqueline frowns, but decides it might be wise to focus on one of the bigger issues here.

"...Matilda, first things first, we should tend to the wounded. Then we can deal with this problem." She says, lowering her voice. She reaches into her bags, pulling out an array of potions. One she keeps for herself, but the rest are tossed toward the injured priests. Fortunately, they didn't have to actually drink them, just get splashed by the liquid.

Ida tries to pull the Gear part off the priest being pinned, but drops it in her fury...but fortunately, a set of earthen tendrils conjured by Jacqueline lash out, wrapping around it and holding it up just long enough for someone to reach in and free him.

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude C. Kenny vaults over a chimney and lands on the last building across from the workshop; he stops to cinch and secure his weapon belt, his eyes taking in the scene. Looks like... a fire of some kind, maybe? Cause for the fire brigade to show up, certainly, but he's not sure why so many people have their weapons out.

And then Zed shows up, and he thinks he knows why.

"Zed," Claude growls, a complex little surge of emotions welling up in him. A faint flicker of pleasure at the sight of an old rival, anger at the old betrayal, regret for the anger, then irritation at the regret. It's hard to say what he thought he should feel from a man who might be a close friend but is also working to destroy a world... but is also capable of caring for and saving the people in it.

Life was a lot less complicated when he didn't have to think so mu---

The walls of the workshop burst outward as a result of... nothing at all that Claude can see, and then suddenly a rush of light spears into his body, bypassing the Federation armourweave entirely. Claude emits a strangled scream and then sinks to one knee, clutching a hand to a chest that is suddenly cold and shivering. What the... hell did he just get hit with? His eyes scan the field, but all he sees are... people with weapons, and a few animals, rushing to attack the scattered Drifters. Moving.. together somehow? It doesn't make sense.

Talise's shout catches Claude's attention, and then he sights on the large knight in full-body armour. Not typical for the area, but clearly he or she takes the whole 'knight' thing literally. Another two seconds of observation are enough to confirm it in Claude's eyes - the men and beasts alike are moving in a pack, and this 'Trial Knight' is its leader. From a distance, with the benefit of small unit training, it's not hard to pick out.

And so Claude draws the heavy four-barreled pistol from its holster at his leg, drops to one knee, and sights carefully. Ida and Talise are darting around, and so he waits until the flow of battle starts separating them from their target. He fires two barrels into the gap, then starts running along the roof again.

GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked K.K. with Lancaster Pistol!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Distribution Theory!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Jacqueline Barber heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Claude C. Kenny's Lancaster Pistol for 20 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ryudo has posed.


"Then stop barking orders like you're running this gig, princess.", is the mecenary's sweet reply to Talise.

Ryudo is no medic. On his average day, one would even expect him to snub any attempt to help the wounded in favor of idling about on guard duty without being paid extra - especially with some of his least favorite nuns numbering among the humanitarian aid. Instead, he's among the first step forward and help lever the Gear's finger away from the priest trapped beneath. "-Shit- that's heavy. Skye, hurry up and pull him out!" ...Fortunately his sparkling conversational skills remain, otherwise one might have mistaken him for a different person at first. The hawk proves surprisingly adept at following such a specific order, dragging the man out before Ryudo's spine receives undue adjustment.

Catching his breath, it's only them that his eyes happen to cross those of Elena and Rosaline. His expression shifts into something unreadable as he turns away, standing and taking up a position along the perimeter. "Take your time, they're paying me by the hour."

The mercenary shares a glance with his hawk as the winds become most peculiar, announcing the arrival of the one responsible (?) for all of this. With the formation of the barrier, it seems that a quick escape isn't in the cards. Ryudo glances upward, casually hefting his sword into a defensive stance as he advances toward the priest's perch. "So...your peers spit on the teachings of your 'god', and that makes this okay? Are you sure you shouldn't have stuck around? You revolutionaries all seem to be cut from the same cloth, really."

Then something unsuaul happens. The distressed looking green hawk at Ryudo's shoulder...talks? "Ryudo, that man isn't what he seems! He's possessed by a poweful Malevolence. He's a Hellion with an avian nature, do not take him lightly!"

Ryudo offers his apparent talking animal companion a raised eyebrow. "Seriously? I thought I smelled bird breath, but it was a little too strong for yours. If that's the case..." With the bizarre...Pumpkin Knight?...and Rosaline initiating hostilities as well, there's no reason to hold back at this point. "Let's take out the trash." Tapping the medium strapped to his chest, Ryudo extends a hand as shards of ice manifest in the air and sail toward the distant Mathius.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"... Thank you," Elly answers Lily before she enters the workshop proper.

The sight of the mutilated priests fills Elly with a subtle disquiet which she hardly notices - mostly because of the obvious, larger disquiet regarding mutilated people in front of her. "Oh, no -"

Her head snaps up as her long red hair flutters in that sudden barrier of wind. The man with his strange birdlike form descends from above. He speaks about the war - and how meaningless it is. "No - you can't just kill your way into peace!" she cries out, but any speech on this matter is pre-empted.

"Knight?"

THOOM!

They come! The Trial Knight storms in and sweeps around as Elly's head turns, hair arcing behind her as sheer disbelief crosses her face. She does not have time to be afraid, to doubt herself, or to scream. All she can do is move. As the blade comes towards her, Elly leaps into the air, slamming down in a brief bicycling kick motion that sends her flying in the air and somersaulting, landing in a half-crouch and staring at the Knight with wide eyes.

"You!" Elly yelps. Then Ida storms in and Elly looks at her, agog again, even as she remembers hearing Lily speak. Elly hops back a pace or so, perhaps to avoid that sheath of fire. "We can't just add to the heat in here," she worries aloud.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked K.K. with Cyclone Kick!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! K.K. guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Cyclone Kick for 132 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei glances towards Janus. That guy ... looks familiar. He frankly is jealous of his ability to not give a shit when seeing corpses. He looks up towards Mathias. He blinks a few times. He says, "Oh." after a moment. "He's part of the Church of Granas?" It's not something that really mattered to him since as far as he could tell, the only religion that seemed to make a lick of sense was the Nisan Orthodoxy and that has less to do with the religious aspect and more the everything else. Still, he does say, "Holy shit," though his eyes widen when he mentions 'the knight'. "Hoooly shit..." He jerks his head around and--oh--Lily and Ida are already moving. Fei reacts to being stabbed at first, swinging his hand up reflexively and catching the blade against his palm. The weapon still digs deep into his hand, causing it to bleed terribly, and Fei slides back from the force of the strike. "Y--you again...!" He manages, as much in a shock that his hand didn't get get bisected as much as anyone else, but he snaps his hand back before it gets any worse. He grips at his arm to distract from the pain in his palm.

"You're alive..." He says. "What you did to Lahan... It's..."

Unforgivable? Fei cuts himself off from saying that, not that Fei has exactly forgiven himself for his own part in that. "--That land suffered enough."

Ida goes completely bonkers, but Fei is almost as much about Lily who is acting as cool as a cucumber. The last time Fei fought K.K he got hit by a tidal wave and a burning warehouse and if K.K survived that too, well, he isn't anybody to mess around with. Stay cool, he thinks, stay cool this time. They want you to flip out. That's what they want.

"Elly--! This is the--oh, right--uh..."

He twists about and throws an elbow strike for the shoulder joint.

"Shit shit shit shit shit..." Fei is hissing under his breath. Stay cool. Stay cool. They want you to go out of control.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked K.K. with Joint Strike!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Joint Strike for 56 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda takes direction... fairly well, honestly; when Jay tells her that the first priority is the wounded, she gives a firm nod and says, "Right. It's -- best if we don't draw attention to ourselves in that manner first, anyway." She pulls out Freischütz, and carefully empties the reservoir of its usual payload of rocks; she replaces them, instead, with a big old handful of blueberries.

Normally, she'd have to feed someone to get the healing effects -- but Freischütz takes away that tedious step. It also means she doesn't have to get anywhere near anyone to help! She sticks close to Jay, but focuses on assisting the priests further from them; it avoids exposing either of them to harm or the chance of isolation, but still does the job. ... it isn't quite as efficient as actually feeding someone blueberries, but the speed and distance are an improvement.

She does not try to banter. She has a job to do.

<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.

 "Oh good, the screaming has started," Agatha comments as people start shouting. She picks up a chicken wing and starts devouring it, smiling all the while.

 "Yes Ida. Kill him, then the rest. I've got at least fifty gella on you snapping and just murdering everyone!" the witch continues, leaning back as she continues to watch through the eyes of her ravens. Really, who needed to pay for plays and concerts when the best shows were for free?

 As for her 'ally'... "Hmph. I hope you don't break too many of them, Trial Knight. I've a few I'm still working on."

GS: Ryudo has attacked Brother Mathius with Crackling!
GS: Ryudo has completed his action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Ryudo's Crackling for 92 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

The familiar voice of Janus causes the mostly disguised Gwen to grimace, but she's already turning to face him, her freckled face and small amount of red hair peeking from her hat giving him and his gang the necessary clues needed to sleuth out her identity.

After all, the question Janus openly asks cannot go without a single comment. The old Gwen refuses to let it rest there, all unharassed and innocent. She stares at Janus. A long, silent look, (not quite) judging. Weighty. ".... Y-yeah," she finally says, after a cough.

QUICK. This is an OPPORTUNITY. Gwen clears her throat. "Hey, uh, Janus. There's a priest here that's gone berserk. Y'think you got a minute to spare? Y'think you could cover me while I go help these fine-"

'I'm glad I found that knight. I'd probably be dead without him.'

"Guardians," comes the squeak from Gwen as the spoken token of gratitude seemingly summons the Trial Knight. Gwen presses the covered Mockingbird protectively to her chest as the blow of those curved blades come, rending the cloth away from the metal ARM in their wake. "... D-damn," she breathes. "This's... gonna be awkward, fightin' you..."

So, she'll just assemble what tools she has available to her! Now it's *Gwen's* turn to say something stupid. "Hey Janus, show me you can keep up wit' me! It ain't gonna be like all those times before- this time, I'll keep up with you n' then some!" Surely the notion of competition would provide a tasty enough carrot for the pale-haired Drifter and his gang. Pressing a bullet into her ARM, Gwen centers her sights on the Knight, aims, and fires, pressing her body back to absorb the recoil. "I'll start out slow so you can keep up!"

Maybe this'll work out okay?

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked K.K. with Crackshot!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 20 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

If it's any consolation, Fei, being able to respond like Janus to most things isn't a particularly desirable trait.

Janus, for his part, tips his head at Mathius' speechifying. It isn't entirely clear if he sees it or not; the man's poker face is a hell of a thing, sometimes.

Fortunately, he isn't the only one reacting, and behind him, Romero the cowardly ninja squawks, "He's some kinda' man-bird!?" in horror.

Janus rolls his eyes over his shoulder to glare at Romero. "Keep your head on," he grunts. "Evil magic or whatever ain't nothin' on us! It's all spooks!"

The Knight makes his eyebrow narrow further, but that grin recovers itself soon enough. "Well, well," he says. "Looks like this bloke's got the locals all up in a tizzy, eh?" His ARM is already describing an arc up to a firing line when the light comes out, and even Janus throws his arm up to protect his eyes. "Shit," he mutters. "That's magic, alright..."

He's considering his next step when...a mysterious soulless ginger arrives! Janus would recognize those freckles anywhere. He cocks an eyebrow at the disguise, but shrugs gamely. "I was lookin' for somethin' to do anyway," he says, and his eyes glide toward K.K.. "And that's mighty interesting..." he adds. "Dario, make us a formal introduction, if'n ya'd please."

Dario's revolver was already in hand. His introduction is a blast of lead.

GS: Janus Cascade has attacked K.K. with Gillius TH12/23 Magnum!
GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action.
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Janus Cascade's Gillius TH12/23 Magnum for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Brother Mathius has posed.

There's the knight. Mathius grins, insofar as a beak can transmit that. Perhaps he shouldn't, but in his madness he can't consider that the knight could turn on him at any moment if they felt like it. Or that he's a tool. No, K.K. is their savior. They showed them there was a way out and powers to call upon.

"It MUST be this way!" he answers Rosaline. "Nothing made sense before this! MY faith, just another tool in some idiot's political games! I'll just destroy it all and look after myself from here onward!" Suddenly, Zed. Mathius catches the Demon's blade with one of his hands, his skin hardening under it. "And it'll take more than some plucky heroes to stop me."

He's shot, before he can attack. Zed had distracted him from Rosa just long enough. He swings his arm, trying to throw Zed, and his sword, towards the other Etone. Along with lighting. A lot of lightning. It's Ether, obviously.

Ice lances at him, too. He bats it away with one hand, taking a bruised hand over a pierced chest any day of the week. "Mercenaries. You're all the same. Today you'll fight me for money. Tomorrow you'll slit your mother's throat for some more. Who are you to judge my solution?" Elena is over there, frowning. For all KINDS of reasons. She might have said the same thing to Ryudo at some point, but somehow it feels from coming from someone else.

Mathius produces a flintlock pistol from his sleeve. He levels it towards Ryudo and fires. Standard bullets, enhanced by lightning Ether. They ring out like thunder and fly like light.

Then his eyes turn to the healers. The pistol is aimed at Matilda and fired again, but there's a bit more to the rounds this time. Darkness, sin. Malevolence, maybe? It won't affect Matilda, if she lets herself get shot, but when the rounds plant themselves into the ground, into the walls, or even into her, they pulse darkness out. And all of that darkness singles Jacqueline out, trying to squeeze out her vitality, including the freshly gained benefits of those potions.

MATTERS OF DYING PRIESTS:
K.K.'s entry certainly did no one any favors. Still, dedication can see some of them out. Between Ida's momentary support freeing one, Matilda and Jacqueline giving more dedicated healing alongside Elena, Lily choosing not to mercy kill one of them, and even Rosaline having spared a minute to get one on their feet, it seems seven of the twelve priests are pulled out of the burning building. What's left of it anyway, thanks to the Trial Knight. Elena volunteers to take them to the edge of the battlefield and try to get them out. She even spares Ryudo a line.

"... I would very much appreciate if you could break his jaw, mister Ryudo," she asks of the Geohound. "For I cannot spare a moment to do it myself."

GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Brother Mathius with Will to March On!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Brother Mathius's Will to March On for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
GS: Restore! Brother Mathius clears debuffs from Brother Mathius!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Zed with Anemo Blast!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Rosaline Calice with Anemo Blast!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Ryudo with Mindless Executioner!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Matilda Whitehead with Mindless Executioner!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Sins of the People!
GS: Matilda Whitehead takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's Mindless Executioner for 48 hit points!
GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's Sins of the People for 0 hit points!
GS: Disease and Weaken! Statuses applied to Jacqueline Barber!
DC: MISS! Zed completely evades Anemo Blast from Brother Mathius!
GS: Rosaline Calice guards a hit from Brother Mathius's Anemo Blast for 54 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Rosaline Calice!
GS: Ryudo takes a solid hit from Brother Mathius's Mindless Executioner for 109 hit points!
GS: Brother Mathius has completed its action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Zed likes to think that everything is still fine, and that being a demon just means that the people who were his friends are still his friends, but are now naturally obliged to try and fight him. This is fine. This is good. No hard feelings.

Zed knows it's more complicated than that.

Zed has other things to think about.

"You know," Zed says as a part of his brain idly reports that something else big and dangerous and vaguely knight-shaped has shown up and maybe we should pay attention. That part of his brain is quietly dragged out behind the amygdala and shanked because Zed has other things to think about damnit! "I know how that is! Nothing making sense, I mean. Sense and the making of sense isn't something I really understand. But you don't see me turning into a giant lizard bird and whining about it, either!!"

The giant lizard bird takes umbrage. Electricity lances out in great, crackling arcs. Zed roars a triumphant 'HA-HA!!' as he... catches the bolt on the business end of his sword. Now, normally this would be a problem. Doombringer is, ostensibly, made of some kind of metal. But Zed is smarter than to fall to mere physics. Zed... Made sure to get Devet to properly ground his awesome pumpkin-themed battle suit! It was the only safe way to make sure that the Jack O' Blaster didn't accidentally electrocute any children, after all. The lightning courses through the blade, harmlessly down Squashfried's arm, into his leg and then down into the rooftop.

Zed levels the weapon at the Hellion. The dread blade, Doombringer, ignites with the LIGHT OF ZED'S SOUL.

He jumps, swinging right for that lizard bird's gun arm.

GS: Zed has attacked Brother Mathius with RayBlade - Zed Saber!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Zed's RayBlade - Zed Saber for 70 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

"That's not true!" Rosaline answers Mathius' words, but struggles to find a followup she's satisfied with. Besides, bullets are already flying.

Rosaline has a Zed, a sword and several gigawatts thrown at her. With her still-free hand, she clasps her Ethos cross, to which her crests are attached. A magical shield bubble appears around her, deflecting the brunt of the lightning, while Zed manages to make the rest a non-issue. She still cries out in pain as some of the malevolent sorcery arcs and crackles even into her shield-- The Hellion's power is no joke.

The shield gives out, but the junior Etone is already on the move. She dashes across the rooftop, looking for some cover while she continues spraying her two ARMs almost nonstop, hopefully making it harder for the rogue Brother to counterattack.

She packed a lot of ammunition. She figured it might be one of these days.

GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Brother Mathius with Spray and Pray!
GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Rosaline Calice's Spray and Pray for 40 hit points!
GS: Weaken! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
GS: Brother Mathius enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

And so they come.

The first by way of Elly's parrying blow, the sudden and unexpected force of it enough to send the knight in white armor skidding backwards with the shriek of metal against dusty, stone earth as they lift blade-hefted forearms to blow the lion's share of that ferocious force. Eyeless, faceless, the knight's gaze is yet still undeniably searing as it settles upon Elhaym.

"Destroyer," they address her, as if any other name, any other title, would be no less than a lie to her nature. The hilts of those curved short swords twist within the knight's grasp.

But whatever the knight might have in store, it falls by the wayside as Talise immediately cuts through and pierces the Knight's defenses. The heavy edge of the Rastaban crashes down just as the Knight's shortsword swings up; they clash in a short-lived rain of sparks before the full momentum of Talise's motion knocks that sword from their grasp. It flies through the air, but K.K. seems unperturbed; and this close, one thing is painfully clear with those with the sight to sense it: for however much they may be associated with it, however often they might be seen around it, however much they might be perceived at the epicenter of it...

... there is seemingly no Malevolence to be found on the Trial Knight themself.

A fact that may, if briefly, distract from the fact that the knight's flying sword is literally breaking apart into fragments of light, much like the one in their grasp --

"Then you must fight much harder than this, bard."

-- and a massive war hammer is forging itself from nothing within their grasp.

"For you will stop nothing of significance as you are now."

It comes, right when Fei and Ida spring upon them, one shouting frenzied, fearful rage and the other sweeping in with cool defiance. That hammer lifts, and like it weighed little more than a feather, K.K. SWINGS it upward just as rebar scrapes harmlessly across armor and elbow collides with the hard coverings of the knight's shoulder...

... and all three are suddenly at risk as a massive dragon's head spun of golden light looks to sweep them all up within the hammer's titanic momentum.

"You do not come with purpose," the knight's voice comes cold and absolute, piercing through the dragon's roar. And while they address no one specifically, their words cut all that more sharply as if to single out Ida. Like she were not worthy of direct address. "You flail, haphazard and afraid. What can you kill? Those who have not the strength of will to take life have no place partaking in this struggle.

"Better to play your games, waiting for the end to cull you."

If they mean to press their advantage, it is Lily's actions that divert the knight's attention. Their head twists just as that bullet lodges into the ground. Sparks ignite. Warhammer glows.

And just as that flame bursts forth, two swords, not the blunt end of a hammer, literally CLEAVES through the conflagration, letting the rest of that dwindling heat wash over them as those graceful, undaunted motions carry through -- one sweep horizontal, the other vertical, carrying a cross of pure kinetic power to pierce through Lily's coverage and BLOW it to pieces -- and threaten to catch her within that piercing, relentless crossfire as well.

"The trial all must face. Whether they wish it or not."

There are others, then -- from afar. K.K. can sense the intent attention of marksman pinpointing their location, and their reaction is immediate: as Claude peels off those shots, K.K. -twists-, spinning with physics-defying, sense-defying grace for someone so heavily armored as they -cleave- through each of those shots in turn with their twin blades. The diffused force hits their armor, ricocheting off with much less impact than it could have had, before K.K. -tosses- one of those blades Claude's way. If it bites into him?

It will immediately burst into a strange, purple-white orb of shimmering light, singing a somber song into Claude's soul as it infests his spirit in a way that disrupts the very life of him.

Regardless of outcome, that blade dissolves into light soon after as Gwen and Janus follow suit. Two bullets fire off in tandem, and K.K. -- literally tosses their swords into the air as they swipe gauntleted hands forward to -catch- those bullets, one after the other in short order. The force sends them lurching backwards, hands smoking... but the bullets of the Little Twister Twins' (??) ARMs fall to the ground shortly thereafter in a harrowing clink of lead on stone.

"You asked me of my purpose," they utter, slowly, and there can be no doubt their words are meant for Gwen. A second later they -charge- forward just as their swords fall, snatching them from the air. Their blows come like a blur of sharp edges -- stabs and slashes aimed first for Elly, caught in their path. And then for Janus, stabbing a flurry of blows for him to unsettle before aiming to KICK him in the gut and send him -launching- towards Mathius --

--and then, they come to a stop. Right next to Gwen Whitlock.

"This is my purpose.

"And you have not the luxury of mercy to indulge in it."

Before driving blades into her with a stroke like a thunderclap.

GS: K.K. has attacked K.K. with Coil!
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Coil for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to K.K.!
GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action!
GS: K.K. has attacked Lily Keil with Obliteration Cross!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talise Gianfair with Dragon Ascendant!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Dragon Ascendant!
GS: K.K. has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Banishing Sorrow!
GS: K.K. has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Dragon Ascendant!
GS: K.K. has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Thousand Swords!
GS: K.K. has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Thousand Swords!
GS: K.K. has attacked Janus Cascade with Thousand Swords!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: CRITICAL! Talise Gianfair guards a hit from K.K.'s Dragon Ascendant for 104 hit points!
GS: Janus Cascade takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Thousand Swords for 100 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Thousand Swords for 180 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Dragon Ascendant for 43 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Banishing Sorrow for 47 hit points!
GS: Poison and Disease! Statuses applied to Claude C. Kenny!
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from K.K.'s Thousand Swords for 74 hit points!
GS: Lily Keil critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Obliteration Cross for 31 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline focuses on the Crest, trying to keep the Gear part up just long enough for the Priest to be freed...but it does mean she can't really defend herself when the darkness pulses out toward her, constricting her as if trying to choke the life out of her.

She falls to her knees with a cough, feeling dazed and somewhat ill. With a wince she forces herself to her feet and assesses the situation. Well, they had saved over half of them...she feels terrible about the ones they couldn't save, but that was better than nothing. She nods her thanks toward Elena and then to Matilda, before turning her attention back to Mathius.

"And then what?" Jacqueline asks, drawing another Crest. "After you've destroyed all of it, what will you do? Are you going to just kill and harm more innocent people? Because I won't stand for that."

She punctuates her statement by invoking her Crest, bringing a bolt of lightning crashing down toward Mathius.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Brother Mathius with Lightning Strike!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Strike for 65 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Dragon Ascendant for 105 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

The shot rings out, and grazes Matilda along the outer edge of her thigh; she loses her footing for a moment, but quick footwork means she mostly just takes a little bit of a flesh wound. She opens Freischütz's reservoir again, getting the berries back out, but doesn't quite have time to reload it just yet -- at least, not with the kind of thing she'd like to, which is bullets.

So, of course, she'll have to improvise. She reaches into her coat, fishing out some empty glassware and slamming it into the reservoir without really thinking too much about it.

"You can't possibly have been so naive as to think faithful organizations somehow 'above' politics," Matilda notes, her tone withering. She fires a few quick shots off, sending shards of glass for the attacker, returning fire as best she can. "And as for fighting you for money..." She glances off. "... I don't see any reason to argue the point."

GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Brother Mathius with Holding The Trigger!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Matilda Whitehead's Holding The Trigger for 99 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Round: 1/5

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

The point at which Ida screams, Lily remains still, thinking back to the weapons in her care. Her lips twitch at the new complication of the moment. She does however remain cool, remain that rock for Fei to look back at. Elly starts to shout back, but...

Well, Lily doesn't. She does however intend to keep her word about protecting the young woman with her. The black-haired sorceress continues to exude no Malevoelnce herself, focusing more on her allies. Fei's difficulty, Fei's injury.. And Elly's, well--

"Acknowledged," Lily answers about the fire. It's--well, it's kind of a good point. Her attention flicks to Matilda and Jay in particular, assisting the wounded, as her skirt shifts in the wind, whipping about her ankles as her hair flutters about her.

The Ether--that she notices. There's so much of it, that she can spot, that she can sense, now that she's experienced more of it. But she can't focus on that. ...She is drawn more to the strange way Malevolence is not about the Trial Knight, and about--

The piercing force crashes towards her in the wake of her distraction, the cross crashing towards her as it utterly does away with her flames. Once again she meets light with raw darkness, a shield of shadow erupting before her and impacting the force--as her whole body is shifted backwards with the impact, her arms jarred as she holds up her shield.

"...All right," she says simply. "I'll face another trial."

"I don't require mercy," she says, shifting her ARM to her back, "And I don't lack will." Lily comes out from her cover and steps forward, boots clicking against the stony ground. "But if you don't get ahold of yourself they're right, Ida." She shifts her address immediately as she extends her hand and Ether pulses about them, a red radiance appearing about Ida and glowing outward, a warm pulse of light.

"Come at me instead, if you want to test someone." Still she sounds calm, as if barely here. "...I welcome a chance to improve."

GS: Lily Keil has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Red Aura!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Lily Keil heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Talise doesn't have much time to bicker right now but she does make a mental note to throw Ryudo in the harbour if she ever finds a city with a harbour again.

More worrying is how Ida reacts. In the heartbeat she has to notice, Talise clicks her teeth together; she can see more than anger in the woman's actions, mostly just reading fear.

Talise can't fault that.

As the Trial Knight mocks her so flatly, Talise clenches her teeth indignantly, but the massive hammer and dragon have their own piece to say. The flame and light of it roar across Talise, burning with a titanic pressure that tears at her coat and pounds against her body. Breath caught in her throat, she plants a heel, but the raw power of the Trial Knight pushes her backwards one foot, then a metre, then one more. Her hair whips out behind her as she winces with pain, fighting to bear the blazing pound of the magic.

All she can think of is the Knight's voice echoing in her mind. They are ALL involved. Every one. And if you feel so strongly, then show me you have the strength to MAKE ME do what you want. Or I will drag ALL OF THEM into this, and you will be too weak to stop me.

Talise's eyes widen as she stares past her weapon at K.K. before her. She can hear the way the Knight mocks Ida. Places a trial before all of them.

Then this is my fault. I was too weak to kill the Trial Knight before.

I have to be stronger. I HAVE to be!

"Don't let them get to you, Ida," Talise growls, her heart pounding in her chest. As the Knight spins away to attack Gwen, Talise begins to move again, dashing forward through the remnants of dragon-light and brandishing her blade as she leaps up onto a piece of scenery, then lunges after K.K. with little time to waste. Her battered coat billows behind her. Strong hands wrap around the hilt of Rastaban all the more tightly.

"Nobody here should have to face what you're giving them, Trial Knight," Talise growls as she swoops in. "If you want a playmate so bad, then take me with you and you can trial me all you want!"

Rolling an ankle, she touches one toe to the ground and pivots deftly. Rastaban's blade sings with a hiss of steel slicing air itself as Talise lashes out with a lightning quick stroke aimed to rip into the Trial Knight's dominant arm. Then she whips the blade back with impossible grace, flicking it in a hard slice upwards before she sweeps in.

Her elbow comes up - and she attempts to drive it violently into the Trial Knight's helmet, following up swordsplay with sheer physicality.

"Just leave Filgaia out of it and deal with me," she shouts.

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Kalve with Infinitely Rippling Stream!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Talise Gianfair has canceled their attack on Kalve.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Kalve with Infinitely Rippling Stream!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Talise Gianfair has canceled their attack on Kalve.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked K.K. with Infinitely Rippling Stream!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Infinitely Rippling Stream for 141 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ryudo has posed.

Unfortunately, Ryudo is not a ninja, and he left his homeland of grumpy swordsmen behind before they conducted live fire exercises with deflecting bullets. This doesn't stop him from trying -- he reads the angle of the shot and steps to the side while attempting to deflect -- but his shoulder jerks as it catches the shot. The only upside is that it didn't seem to get itself lodged in there. Ignoring the pain, he offers a wordless grin to the departing Elena, a rare show of comraderie for him. That he can do.

"Me? I'm just a dumb mercenary. One listening to some sad sack tell himself that it's okay to be shitty person because he's not getting paid for it. I'm not getting paid for this counseling session either...does that mean I can apply for Sainthood now?"

While Ryudo is keeping the priest distracted, he's busy signalling behind his back to Skye with a hand gestures. Right on cue, the hawk swoops downward and grabs him by the arm and hoists him into the air. "And lo, the Geohound did ascend unto the heavens, his many sins forgiven for his one act of selflessness!" Ascending through the hole in the roof, Skye lets out an irritated grunt as he heaves his talons forward and lobs Ryudo forward in a mighty show of strength. "But alas, heaven was full, and he was stingy with donations." The greatsword is held aloft as he descends toward Brother Mathius, cleaving downward in a merciless arc.

GS: Ryudo has attacked Brother Mathius with Falling Crescent!
GS: Ryudo has completed his action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Ryudo's Falling Crescent for 90 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Don't listen to them, Ida!" Fei says. "They're just trying to piss you off!" Either that, or everybody is really keen on giving them fighting advice. "Remember what we found in the ruins!" Damn, he thinks, just how strong must that guy be to lift the hammer like that? But if their only purpose is to fight, antagonize, or kill...

Fei brings up his arms as the hammer slams into them. He is flung into the back wall. He cracks against it and barely rolls out of the way before flaming debris crashes down at his location.

His head jerks towards Lily as she offers to be K.K's training buddy. "Lily!" He says, shocked. "Really? You're already--" He looks back to K.K. "...We can get strong without help from this person..." He curls his fingers inward. "...Though I think there's more than enough 'power' in this world as it is. You ask these questions, shoot insults at people like you see in their heart--but can you take what you can dish out?"

He darts inwards, starting with a roundhouse kick for K.K's chest and then twisting into two strikes with his fist--but that's really just leadup to what Fei's really going for.

As he moves in for his last strike, he unleashes a wave of ice from his hands,that billows out and encompasses a large chunk of the room, smothering away flames where it expands.

"Elly! We have to cool the room down!" Fei shouts.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked K.K. with Suikei!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 123 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

The sword strike on Fei brings something of a shocked glance from Elly but at this stage only a glance. He's still striking. She swallows down that surge of momentary anxiety. She was not expecting to do this today. She hadn't even had dinner!!

Of course, neither did those men of god. Unless death is a meal.

She has time to recover herself as K.K. absorbs a singularly immense quantity of violence, including Fei's strike, Ida's fury, others she knows less well. She assumes Lily fires somewhere in that shining, spangling mess of violence. Then the knight comes towards her and

shhhhhhingk

She throws herself away from it, which means that there is only a gash along her abdomen, rather than a horror repetition of a nightmare that Fei may have had in the past. Even so Elly clutches an arm to herself, reeling. She fumbles in her bag. She's reaching for the telescoping rod -

Her fingers brush something else.

should
should i
everyone's in danger... I would just put them in even more danger like this... Those people are hurt, dying... Is it worth it to simply solve the problem like that, if it hurts so many other people?

Her eyes water up, but other than a pained tightening of her face, she doesn't scream or cry out. She sucks in breath through her teeth. Her hands curl tightly. She forces herself to straighten, that hot thread across her belly already fading out. (The blood is at least soaking into the cotton shift she had on underneath it.)

"I understand. I'll try," she says, tilting her head forwards. Her mind gropes back to the words of Kahm Yugh. That instinctual feeling. That reaching beyond the forms and patterns of drills.

A MEMORY - this one, not ancient, honest, true believers!

Science class. Everyone is in their circle. Elly is the red spot among the sea of blonde, but the teacher is demonstrating a practical experiment with a flask of liquified gas. The air they breathe is in large part this, but compressed so, it becomes a liquid - it's poured onto a palmful of play goo, which contorts and crystallizes. Like it's dying, Elly thinks, even if she knows it's just goo.

One of the other children grabs her hand--

BACK HERE NOW

Elly jerks her left hand forwards. The air above her, inclined in a curious teardrop shape that would give someone with a freeze-frame camera an interesting insight into the way Ether is shaped and formed, freezes from the inside out; oxygen shifts out, making fires flare fractionally more, the water vapor forming a thin shell over a long snaking chamber of volatilizing liquid nitrogen.

Then it tumbles forwards, falling without grace or preamble onto K.K. "Don't touch it!" Elly cries out in warning. WHATEVER it is inside spills out like a cooling fog, though anything at ground level may suffer a distinct lack of oxygen. Hopefully this doesn't include too many priests, and does include a lot of spot fires.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked K.K. with Aqua Ice!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Aqua Ice for 80 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida's makeshift weapon skitters from her hands. Fear surges up her throat as she looks up at the Trial Knight--she has never felt more unarmed than she has before now. Talise and Lily try and caution her--try and get her to control herself--but everyone has been telling her to control herself, to rein in her anger, to not do what she so desperately wants to do. Talise's valiant attempt to try and pull K.K. off her only makes it worse.

Monster.

... I abhor senseless violence ...

You do you.

Weakling.

If you are not a violent woman, then what are you?

Coward.

You do you.

'Remember what we found in the ruins!'

It's Fei's voice that manages to get through, but too late. The immense, dragon-headed hammer comes rushing down at Ida, and she springs to the side. The weapon's face glances off her left shoulder, and Ida feels something go *pop* sickeningly. Her face twists in a rictus of pain. She sags away as Talise charges in, dangerously close to having both arms out of action. Then the light enfolds her, the pain vanishes, and all that's left is a sense of warmth. Ida looks back at Lily, and nods. Her face is pale. She remembers a giant machine that had its guts torn open by human hands. She remembers what Jackie's been teaching her.

"Like Rie--" Ida can't finish the word. She killed Adlehyde. Don't finish that sentence, you'll sound like even more of a weakling idiot. Idiot girl. "Shut up."

Fei goes for the roundhouse. Ida sees an opening as he moves aside, driving her right fist at the spot where K.K.'s sternum should be, under the armor. Her left fist strikes high, and the right comes back again for a kidney punch.

The fire is spreading. Stop it. Go do something useful instead of flailing against this brick wall. SHUT UP. You're going to die. DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked K.K. with Unladylike Fisticuffs!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unladylike Fisticuffs for 78 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

With the speed of the battle, as well as the Trial Knight's pointed responses to all, Gwen's heart can't help but feel sympathetic. He's openly calling them all out on their flaws and weaknesses, dragging them into the harsh light without a moment to think or respond.

So she tries to resolve it, the only way she knows how: brutal optimism. "The knight's here t'test us, right? So when they're talkin' to you, it's to test your resolve. Answer back just as strong! They can't know y'all like you all can, y'know? So don't let the words get to you! You can always think 'bout them later, it's not like a test!"

... This is the extent of Gwen's inspirational speech capabilities.

Positive thinking has many limits in a battle, especially when cleaved through with a sharp edge As K.K. begins his next attack.

If Janus has a moment to spare from being pummeled towards Mathius, he'll get the benefit of a wide-eyed look of distress from Gwen, her mouth hanging open in a horrified grimace.

But the moment doesn't last long, for she's not excused for her recent example of hubris.

The blades slice down Gwen's poncho, further tearing it off to expose the layer of clothing below, as well as drawing blood. Gwen staggers back, her breath tasting like copper in her mouth.

Time for a witty retort. Something like 'I'd have it no other way' or 'you better not go easy on me.' Something cool and daring. But all Gwen can think of is just how powerful that attack felt against her ARM, and how this man(?) could have attacked her at the oasis. Left her to die. It would have been easy for him to do.

So instead, Gwen does the one thing that's come quite natural to her since the ARM was grafted onto her. For someone so weak, so sick, so frail, to slowly realize, as they built the body strength to sustain the ARM's weight, just what they were now capable of, some things came first before the more complicated techniques of holding a teacup, or shooting from a vantage point most don't have to deal with on a regular basis.

So basically, Gwen tries to punch the Trial Knight in the face. Ida has the right idea, after all. Together, their fists shall pave the way!

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked K.K. with Return to Sender!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Return to Sender for 58 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes Cover! She gains 50 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Janus' grin doesn't go anywhere, but the way he quirks his head suggests he was not particularly expecting that to be the response to Dario's shot. "Fast," he mutters, and Gwen can tell his tone is more analytical than he usually lets on as being. "Wonder if that's armor or magic?" About the ability to stop the bullets altogether, presumably. "One way to find out!" His grip on his bayonet tightens. The blades leap for him, and he moves with a practiced skill, slamming the butt of his gun into one; twisting the weapon so the bayonet catches the other, whirling around so a third strike slips to either side, and then he's bringing the gun up to finish the maneuver with a spear to the Trial Knight's gut - but instead the kick beats his spear up, and Janus' feet entirely lift the ground, the man rocketing back through the magic and fire interdicting Mathius' end of the fight from K.K.'s he hits the ground butt-first and then impulses ass over teakettle, ending up flat on his back and groaning. "well that sure wasn't fuckin' magic," he groans, slamming the butt of his ARM down to take stock of the situation. It's a new fight, but in its way, similar enough. Demon man (bird? Said Romero?) fighting a bunch of Drifters. "Oh, hey, Ryudo's here," he notes to himself. "Shit, thought for sure that guy'd get eaten by a sandworm."

Janus' relative detatchment from the situation gives him little inclination to judge the man's sins. So he doesn't; He shifts from his panting kneel up to a shooter's stance, rifle aimed and ready. "Nothing makes sense out here," he grunts. "Damn fool never figured out something that obvious?"

The air splits with the sound of thunder - the sound of Janus loosing a round at Mathius.

GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Brother Mathius with Sniper Shark R!
GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

"God damn does this knight dude ever like the sound of his own voice," Claude mutters to himself as he hops over an alleyway, landing on the far rooftop. He pauses briefly to reload the Lancaster pistol, then holsters the weapon - no point in sniping again when the knight is good enough to cut the bullets out of the air, but no sense in not reloading it. Never know when you might need more bullets. He looks up in time to see the Trial Knight winding up in his direction; he ducks behind a chimney but the blade passes through it like it was---

n
                                                                 o
                       t
                                             h
                                                           i
            n
                                    g

Claude staggers forward, mouth working noiselessly as sensations rush through him. Voices from the past, echoes of memories, words thrown at his back, whispered in the shadows. He's blocked them from his ears for most of his life. But he's heard them like this before - during the Trial, when the Guardians weighed the quality of his soul... and found it wanting.

                                     daddy's boy
                 won't let him fail
                                                         son of a hero
            such a disappointment
                                             worthless
                             you can't protect her
                                                                        pathetic
    apple fell far
                              i'm disappointed in you, son

Claude's hands start shaking, and he keels over, sucking in a ragged breath. It's like that again, but worse. "D...damn it... can't..." He shivers, then - alone, in the dark, and with a poison eating his soul, he does what many lost children far from home have done: he calls, ever so silently, for his mother.

I'm sorry, I don't take calls from 1-800-LITTLE-WUSS!

The young man looks up, eyes wide as he stares around the field. "I... wh..."

Claude, you dumbass! the voice of his mother echoes out, roaring in the silence of his mind. You better stop whining like a little baby, or I'll give you something to cry about! Maybe I'll spank your little baby bottom, or change your little diaper, huh? How can someone who me and Roddick trained be such a sobby little child, huh?

"..."

OOOOH Trial Knight, I'm so SAAAAAAAAAAAAD, Trial Knight! Maybe once you kill all my friends you can give me a little lolly, Trial Knight, and then I'll snuggle up to you and give you a big sloppy kiss, Trial Knight! The voice hardens. Or maybe instead you could pull your head out of your goddamn ass and start $#*&ING HELPING THEM!

                                      "OKAY!"

The rooftop explodes in a roar of chi, slate tiling scattering out from around where Claude is enveloped in a corona of brilliant white light. Tears boil off his face as despair sloughs away, replaced by the rising tide of the young man's battle fury. "My name is Claude C. Kenny!" he screams to anyone who will listen. "And if you're the trial? Then I'll... have..." Claude clenches his fists, chi exploding up in a brilliant column as he screams a single world.

"VIIIIIIIIIICTOOOOOOOOOOOORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Claude C. Kenny with VICTORYYYYYYY!
GS: Claude C. Kenny takes 9 damage from Poison!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
GS: DISEASE! Claude C. Kenny tries to heal Claude C. Kenny, but it doesn't work!
<Pose Tracker> Brother Mathius has posed.

"If you understand then you should be fighting alongside me!" Mathius demands of Zed, which is clearly not going to happen. "And yet instead, you're trying to STOP me. Do you even get what I'm saying? This war is a joke. FAITH is a joke!" Doombringer comes for one of his arms. Mathius leaps from the building top, the blade grazing the arm and taking a few of his feathers. He flies past Zed, turns on a dime, fancing him again. "Fall!"

Grenades. Glowing grenades. A dozen spheres of death, arcing with dark lightning, right for Zed. But not all of them launch. Some remain in the air, idling about like mines.

Rosaline and Matilda open fire. They fill Mathius with lead, and he hits the ground, his flight away from Zed interrupted. He gets back on his feet, his Malevolent aura growing stronger. He can't fall. He won't fall. He refuses.

He heals rapidly. Raises his hands, towards the two gunners. "Deny it all you want. Call me naive for believing in something. I'll call you dead and get on with my life!" Sparks fly from his hands like blades of lightning, trying to repeatedly lance through the both of them. Until more lightning interrupts the Etone, Jacqueline chiming in.

He grunts, adjusts his footwork to not fall from the impact. "When I'm done? Don't know. Maybe I'll rebuild the Church free from its corruption. What I care about right now is that all of it BURNS!" He swings an arm at her. The remaining grenades, up above, attempt to shower extra death on the merchant.

Ryudo decides to push a lot of buttons, having so much experience doing it with a certain Songstress. And predictably, it works. The upset Hellion glares at him, barely containing his anger. "You, a saint? You may as well have been born of Valmar himself!" Ryudo's sword is a lot harder to argue with. Mathius throws himself to the side, but Ryudo's blade crashes into his foot and pins him in place. Painfully. He falls to the ground, rumbling. Then he gets shot, to add insult to injury. He can't dodge with his foot impaled to the ground.

His Ether goes into overdrive in response. Enhanced by Malevolence, a storm erupts from his body. Purple lightning lances about, cutting winds follow. The storm overhead contributes, bolt after bolt striking down around the birdman. Janus and Ryudo are caught in the center of the blast! It's a wild, all-out show of force, not aiming at the two of them so much as trying to level the entire area around himself, which they happen to be in.

GS: CRITICAL! Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Janus Cascade's Sniper Shark R for 113 hit points!
GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Claude C. Kenny with VICTORYYYYYYY!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 hit points of damage, and burn off their temporary hit points!
GS: Claude C. Kenny takes 6 damage from Poison!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Zed with ARMs to the Poor!
GS: Brother Mathius enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Jacqueline Barber with ARMs to the Poor!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Matilda Whitehead with Anemo Sparks!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Rosaline Calice with Anemo Sparks!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Ryudo with Malevolent Storm!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Janus Cascade with Malevolent Storm!
GS: Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from Claude C. Kenny's VICTORYYYYYYY for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Claude C. Kenny clears debuffs from Claude C. Kenny!
GS: Brother Mathius has completed its action.
DC: MISS! Zed completely evades ARMs to the Poor from Brother Mathius!
DC: MISS! Jacqueline Barber completely evades ARMs to the Poor from Brother Mathius!
GS: Ryudo guards a hit from Brother Mathius's Malevolent Storm for 105 hit points!
GS: Janus Cascade guards a hit from Brother Mathius's Malevolent Storm for 108 hit points!
GS: Rosaline Calice takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's Anemo Sparks for 56 hit points!
GS: Matilda Whitehead takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's Anemo Sparks for 59 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Matilda calls Brother Mathius naive. "It's NOT naive! Just because there are a few bad apples doesn't mean... doesn't mean..." Meanwhile Ryudo is Ryudo, which is upsetting in its own way, especially since Rosaline isn't very familiar with the Geohound just yet. Mathius voices his own crisis of faith, loud and clear.

Rosaline would protest to all this, but can't choke anything out. So she focuses on shooting and trying to remain alive instead.

The malevolent Etone's power only grows stronger. Rosaline knows she can't weather the storm he's conjuring up, as was demonstrated a moment ago, and so she tries her very best to duck and weave between the bolts, and actually managing quite well until one catches her in the shoulder, sending her sprawling.

She winces in pain. Fire spreads below. Priests are dead and she could have helped them, instead of pretending her knows how to fight. Her friends are fighting the Trial Knight and she can't help them. They're going to die. they're all going to die and she can't do anything. That other self, the one she met not so long ago, wants to come out. She's going to lose control again and-- and-- and--

Would that really be so bad?

She wavers up to her full height, staring the Hellion down with rare intensity in her eyes. She remains standing silently for a moment, until--

"I'LL KILL YOU!" she roars out, echoing a good friend.

She bounds off back towards the immense gathering of Ether, ignoring the bolts and the cutting winds tearing into her as she raises her ARMs, both weapons steady as they discharge a hail of bullets right for the Brother's vitals. She did warn him.

DC: Rosaline Calice switches forms to The Wrath!
GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Brother Mathius with Feel my Rage!
GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Rosaline Calice's Feel my Rage for 102 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"I just said!" Zed complains like some kind of teenaged girl being denied a pumpkin spice latte. "That I understood but also that I don WHINE about it! And besides! Just because I understand where you're coming from doesn't mean that I don't think you're being kind of a JERK about this whole thing!"

And then... Grenades.

Zed stares at them as they descend, crackling and popping with incendiary arcs. His eye twitches. "What," Zed says flatly, "What are these even!?"

The armored swordsman holds his blade level to his hip. He takes a step, lunges through the tumbling explosives...!

He lands beyond them, each one suddenly suspended in mid-air.

The Metal Demon flourishes, and each and every one explodes where they're pinned.

"Hrmph! Faith is a joke? War is a joke? Let me tell you something. Of course it's a joke! This whole thing. This whole mess. It's all just a joke. Laugh at it! Laugh at all these people throwing away their lives chasing after something that might not even exist. People diving into hell, because someone on top convinced them all that there's something scary out there trying to take away what they love."

"I dare you. LAUGH AT IT!"

"AND I'LL CUT YOU TO RIBBONS!"

"You see, that's the thing." Zed lifts his blade high. Doom Bringer burns with a different sort of malevolence. "It's easy to look down on everyone, to hold yourself above everyone else. All you gotta do is look at the things they think are important and laugh at them. But you see, that's a problem, there."

"'Oh, if only they listened to me. If only they all agreed with me. I have SO MANY good ideas! Oh--' Zed sing-songs as that terrible glow only grows more intense. "'--IF ONLY I HAD POWER.'"

"Don't make me laugh. You don't understand the nature of power."

He turns his blade, swings. A current of raw misfortune arcs out of the blade and carves through the air to cling tightly to the feathered serpent. "That's why you and I would never see eye to eye. You see, I get that I don't know a damn thing! Hahahahahaha!"

GS: Zed has attacked Brother Mathius with Sealed Blade - Demon Breaker!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Zed's Sealed Blade - Demon Breaker for 88 hit points!
GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
GS: Brother Mathius enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ryudo has posed.

Brother Mathius may have slipped away from a grevious body blow, but Ryudo will take whatever advantage he can get. Driving the blade into the priest's foot, he kneels and puts his full weight into the blade so that the others can make the best advantage of the opportunity. This includes a surprise -- a low flying Janus who tumbles into their side of the chaos. "Cascade? They interrupt your confessional or something?", he quips back with a grin. He's pretty sure the man wasn't hired to intervene here, but he doesn't have the time to speculate right now. He knows the important thing: Janus can get the job done when it suits him, and he doesn't need to know why it does right now. A fact punctuated by the expertly placed shot. "Let's put this zealot down before he bore anyone else to death with his sermons."

Unfortunately, their unexpected reunion is punctuated by the Brother's angry reprisal. Caught at ground zero of the malevolent electrical storm, it's all the Geohound can do crumple forward onto his sword and minimize the amount of exposed surface area that he offers. That shit ~hurts~. But if there's anything he just learned, it's that those verbal barbs struck home. And no one knows how to twist that knife quite like Ryudo. "Ha! Y-You hear that Janus?" The pain is visible on his face and is evident from the stutter, but he forces himself to hold on to glee to spite it. "I'm the son of Valmar now! And all I had to do was hurt a priest's feelings."

Rising to knee once more, the Geohound hams it up with the most Machiavellian theatrics possible, grinning with a deviously twisted arch of the brows. Or is that simply the pain? "Very well, I will be your devil. And it's time to give the devil his due." Ryudo keeps the blade in place until a moment of opportunity presents itself -- in this instance Rosaline's unbridled fury, and Zed's own faith questioning theatrics -- before his eyes snap shut in concentration. The blade remains anchored in place as an unusual aura of purple ki envelops Ryudo...coalescing into three kneeling phantoms of himself that surround the former priest.

The phantoms of Ryudo aren't hampered by the job of hindering the Hellion's escape. They grimly rise, each assuming their own combat stance, and strike in unison -- a diagonal slash across the torso, a stab to the midsection, and swing at the neck from behind.

GS: Ryudo has attacked Brother Mathius with Kenbu - Shiden!
GS: Ryudo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

The birdman swings his arm at her. Jacqueline invokes a Crest quickly, a pillar of earth pushing her back and out of the range on the attack. The grenades furiously bombard the area where she had been but a moment before, leave nothing but a crater fuming with a black and purple smoke.

...It was a testament to what could've happened had she not gotten away in time.

"Look at what you've become. How can you build a Church free from corruption when you've already let corruption take hold of you? You're in no position to be casting judgment upon others." Jacqueline replies.

Sure, she had a friend who was a Hellion...but that friend at least seemed to still have her head on her shoulders.

She starts pacing, unsure of how to proceed. There were a few things she could do here...but with the fire spreading, there was a good risk of accidentally worsening it. She had options if it looked like the building was about to collapse, but...

Her thoughts are interrupted as Rosaline roars out in fury and starts firing on Mathius without concern.

Even Zed appears to be showing a rare serious side of himself...

...Well, while he's still here attacking them, she can't hold back, either. The Malevolence combined with his own willpower seems to be rejuvenating him. They would need to wear him down a bit further if they wanted to get anywhere....

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Brother Mathius with Pillar Crash!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has been weakened by Disease! They take 100 hit points of damage, and burn off their temporary hit points!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Ryudo's Kenbu - Shiden for 56 hit points!
GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Pillar Crash for 71 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Blades gleam in the crackling light and heat of the workshop as K.K. snaps their swords back towards their sides once more. Within the polish of their armor reflects all the chaos and violence here today, as if they were embodying all of it.

"You cast aspersions without knowing what to blame. This violence that has come and shall come here is beget by naught but your own natures." The tip of their left blade lifts, pointed forward, the blue, gold and white of that weapon tinted by the flames.

"The base ugliness that festers within all of your get."

It is so easy to focus on the obvious threat of the blade's tip. So easy to be lost in the most immediate danger. So easy to have one's attention stolen by it as it drives upwards towards Talise Gianfair the moment that her blade sings and to carve into the right arm. So easy to let the sound of metal shrieking on metal drown everything out as that blade looks to drive in and bite through Talise's right shoulder...

... that one might not notice the tiny thread of red light unraveling from the hilt.

"It is not playmates I seek," the Knight seems to coldly reprimand, even as that elbow drives into their horned helm with a strong enough impact to send them lurching towards the right, metal denting inward ever-so-slightly from the blow.

"It is not a game that you play here today."

And yet still they drive that weapon forward, point first, aiming to drive -through- Talise...

... as that red thread looks to snare around her shoulder and neck.

"You fail yet still to see the stakes. And it shall cost you."

And the thread keeps spinning.

Spinning, towards Fei as the knight charges towards him and his chilling attack fearlessly. "Do not bother with questions when you know there is but one way to truly glean the answers," they proclaim, seconds before that spinning leg drives into their chest with the crunch of foot on metal. Fists impact, one after the other, and as that ice billows outward, freezes at the Trial Knight's white armor, seeks to hold them in place -- they -burst- through in a furious shatter of frost, armor damaged and ice clinging relentlessly to hands and legs but still moving -relentlessly- forward, looking to drive their blade into Fei's midsection.

And the thread looks to twine as K.K. lunges past, looping around Fei's midsection and spinning still, a scarcely-seen thread of red within a haze of sapping heat and warming frost that carries on...

... for Elly. Oxygen fluctuates. Cooling, freezing ether tumbles, crashes, and K.K. -throws- that sword. It meets that teardrop of condensed magic, of volatile nitrogen, point-first -- and punctures -through- it as the diminishing blowback collides into them in shards of ice that imbed in white armor.

"You have yet to embrace what you are"

... And that sword continues onward, intent to impale into Elly's midsection, one final connection before those threads of red all alight in the tangled net K.K. has woven throughout the cacophony. Only a single second passes.

"Not nearly enough."

Before those red threads all burst in violent red energy in unison, sucking life and passion from wounds and spirit alike.

It is within that second that K.K. turns -- and finds Ida, driving towards that opening. The first blow hits, the sound of fist on metal resounding as the knight lurches forward; whatever might be under that armor, its hard to say under that layer of protection. But as her left fist comes--

"No."

It meets the palm of the Trial Knight with a resounding thud. Fist creaks against metal. Metal coils around her hand, so very, very cold. Like the grip of death itself.

"You shout freely of wresting the life from one's breath as if it were something tawdry and insignificant. A child. Playing games."

The sword still in their hand glows.

"Who knows not of what they speak."

And then SWEEPS up, as a gout of pure cerulean energy EXPLODES forth to catch Ida off her feet within its torrent.

"... Nor possesses the spine to truly see it through."

And that tidal wave of force careens past whether it catches Ida within it or not, screaming violence as it aims a head-on collision for Claude at the very, exact moment he makes his defiant shout of victory.

Lily makes her challenge; they hear her, accepting their trial. "'Tis not something to be accepted," the utter slowly, even as they see Gwen approaching from the distance. Their hand loosens; the short sword in their grasp and the one discarded both vanish in flashes of swirling white motes.

"But you shall have it, if such is your wont."

And K.K. drives forward as Gwen does. No weapons. Nothing but fists for fists. The courier drives their fist forward, and just as she does, K.K. moves with surprisingly fluid grace, using their own momentum and Gwen's to diffuse the force of that blow like the flow of water. It'd be difficult to identify that form, esoteric and not of this world as it is --

--and Gwen likely will not have the time, as a single palm drives into her midsection with disruptive force powered by her own forward momentum... and aimed with unerring precision to do the most damage possible.

No more words. No. Instead, they turn to face Lily. Their right hand snaps out. And around it, light congregates. As if reality itself were the forge, that radiance molds itself down into a weapon from nothing but light. Metal, blue and gold and white, takes shape in the form of a large war scythe, its blade stylized to look as if it were emerging from the gaping maw of a lion. They hold it tight with one hand...

... and then it begins to glow orange with raw heat.

"Come."

The sound is like a cannon when that scythe swings. Because from it, heat sparks air and ignites it into a bubbling sphere of pure, liquid flame, birthed like the rage of a small sun as it tears through the workshop and barrels for Lily. Heat for heat, it seeks to engulf her...

... before K.K. blitzes past, bisecting their own broiling ball of flame upon the edge of their scythe...

... and everything unfortunate to be caught within as the entire thing ruptures in a blistering explosion.

GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action!
GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action!
GS: K.K. has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Demon Fang!
GS: K.K. has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Scarlet Skein!
GS: K.K. has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Scarlet Skein!
GS: K.K. has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Demon Fang!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talise Gianfair with Scarlet Skein!
GS: K.K. has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Karmic Resonance!
GS: K.K. enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: K.K. has attacked Lily Keil with Absolute Domination!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: Elhaym van Houten guards a hit from K.K.'s Scarlet Skein for 83 hit points!
GS: K.K. drains Elhaym van Houten! K.K. gains 82 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Round: 3/5
Health: 75%

GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Demon Fang for 122 hit points!
GS: K.K. takes Cover! They gains 50 temporary hit points!
GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from K.K.'s Scarlet Skein for 84 hit points!
GS: K.K. drains Talise Gianfair! K.K. gains 175 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from K.K.'s Karmic Resonance for 160 hit points!
GS: Lily Keil critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Absolute Domination for 37 hit points!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Demon Fang for 87 hit points!
GS: K.K. takes Cover! They gains 50 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Scarlet Skein for 48 hit points!
GS: K.K. drains Fei Fong Wong! K.K. gains 231 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

The storm surrounding Brother Mathius beats down on Matilda as much as it does anyone else, though she manages to shield herself a little with a quick back-step and thrown-up arms. ... it's not much, but it helps, at least. "... This -- it's not the Symbology I'm familiar with..." she murmurs, less aware than most of her colleagues of the true nature of Mathius's attack.

"I have no interest in your plans for the future," Matilda offers, flatly. To Rosaline, she adds, with a little more gentleness, "... I'm sorry, but the world simply doesn't work that way, Miss Calice. Any organization must be able to play politics... or die -- even something with as pure of intentions as a church."

She doesn't seem much deterred; she takes a moment to steady herself, and then... rather than hang back with Freischütz, she actually moves in. Her step is confident and smooth. This ... may actually be a new one, for those who have seen Matilda fight before. It's not a very polished motion, but it's got a certain crispness to it -- her posture isn't quite what one might be used to seeing from her. There's a military vibe to it, too... it'd take a certain amount of experience with military training to know what military approach her movement echoes, though.

Matilda steps up to the Brother, and comes in for what, against a Hellion, no doubt seems like a terrible idea. Her play is honestly fairly simple; she aims for a quick grab at any part of her target she can find, then a hurl to the ground followed by stomp after stomp after stomp. It's not subtle, and it's certainly not timid.

GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Brother Mathius with Planting a Seed!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Matilda Whitehead's Planting a Seed for 71 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Not enough," Lily counters Fei, and her voice slides, cold and certain without bothering with varnishing it. "Not enough. Not until I can crush them." ...Not it. Them. Though it, too. She glances then to Fei to gauge his condition, does the same with Elly who seems to be having a difficult time. ...Seems at first, anyway. But her eye filters over Elly going through her things. ...She remembers something Seraphita said, stares a little overlong for a moment, before she feels the spell--

Don't touch it. It's an amazing spell, a fascinating effect. It lingers in Lily's mind as she looks over Ida, puts together the way she's talking, seems to be talking to herself. She nods back her way.

But there is not time for easy gauging of the battlefield. There isn't space for that. The Trial Knight is in motion, and Lily shifts her stance accordingly. Powerful responds to Elly--what Elly is, this is still unknown to her. But one way to glean the answers, as he says to Fei...

It is not something to be accepted. But is it her wont? "It is," Lily says, preparing herself, taking a breath that could be final; she can see the sheer strength in this being, feel it. ...Moreso, as the weapon forms from light. Her eye remains focused on him, on his weapon. Come, he demands with his glowing weapon, and Lily eyes the liquid flame crashing towards her. The heat blisters at her skin before it comes close to touching her, searing at her injured eye just from proximity. A faint glow appears at her hands, blue as she works it. "Hah--"

She disappears completely from sight as K.K. slashes through their own fireball, momentarily engulfed by the sheer force of it. It sparks all around her.

...When the flames die out, she is covered in blue-white mist, and that too fades from view a moment later. A burn at her cheek, blackened char at her hands that held the line, gloves ruined. Ashes and cinders fall from her form. ...But she stands.

"...Amazing," she breathes, huffing once, again, her lungs hot from the superheated air. She narrows her eye. "...But my enduring isn't enough." Ida is hurt. Ida could use further help. But at the moment Lily is lifting her hands instead, going completely still.

A golden glow fades into being, pushing through the ruins of her left glove, turning to where he ended up. "...But I'm in support, now." She glances to Fei, and Elly--shifts her stance to widen, to press her boots apart, and lifts both hands. The golden glow coalesces, starts to give a sense of pressure. It draws from all around it--

And there is the sense of something snapping as her hair whips back and a golden beam crashes forward towards K.K., heat without flame that begins to burst, exploding all around it and rending matter where it is, rending life as best she can. It crackles with power.

So does she. "Not enough," she murmurs, staring into white armor.

GS: Lily Keil has attacked K.K. with Alphashock!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Lily Keil's Alphashock for 108 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.

 A long, drawn out sigh. "If you use that much power, fallen knight, are they actually going to understand what they are facing?" The ravens all burst into fractious laugher for a moment, their cries echoing around the battlefield before they fall silent once again. Their mistress continues to watch, her eyes on the field of battle through her creations.

 Certainly as a group, there were those who could stand against the Trial Knight and his malevolence here, but what was there to GAIN by it all? Agatha just sighs again, picking up another slice of meat from her plate and devouring it all in one bite. A sight that would probably have raised the hair on the waiter had he been around to see it, given that in the brief moment she had done so the witch had not resembled anything human.

 The joys of having your own private room in this sand pit of a city.

 "You can beat them down all you want, and they'll keep standing back up. It makes them worthwhile projects, but there's so much risk of breaking them..." Ah well. That was why K.K.'s style and her own different. A chef could use a tenderizer to great effect, but overdo it and all you had left was mush...

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Metal and metal rasp together as Talise lands a hard blow on the White Knight. She pushes her tongue into the pocket of her cheek, fighting to force her emotions aside. Do not let your anger rule you. Taking a step back to give K.K. just a moment's respite, Talise winds up for her next blow, driving her elbow home, then beginning to pursue the Knight. Her blade comes up to try and bat aside the sword --

But the Red String of Death was far too subtle. She failed to see the stakes, and it cost her. She connects only with the point of the blade, and deflects away what should have been a killing blow.

The blade still slashes across her shoulder. She widens her eyes, and hisses with pain - and then there's a flash of red, and something cinches around her throat and shoulder.

Talise can't muster a sassy response right now because the red line is digging into her neck. It bites into the spot at the very top of the scar Siegfried had cut into her months before. A wet sound slips from the pit of the tall swordswoman's throat as she struggles against the throttling grip, her sword-arm left hanging out at an awkward angle, coming up all the higher as the thread cinches all the more securely. The fabric of her coat begins to tear; chain links beneath it buckle and strain. She sucks in a breath but it won't go down.

Only the fact that K.K. has others to smite prevents her from being killed instantly. But the fact that her face is turning blue doesn't bode well for her future.

Talise can hear K.K. storming through the room, and she can hear Rosaline Calice screaming. Once again, her friends need her and she's failed them.

A horrible feeling bubbles up in her chest. Anger. Anger at herself. Anger at K.K. for hurting Ida. Anger at K.K. for hurting Rosaline. Anger at herself again. It's a hot feeling that steams at the back of her throat like a volcano about to erupt

As she fights to draw another breath, her vision blurs. That volcanic rage churns in her chest. But her mind resolves things more clearly.

"You might hurt someone pretty bad if you keep going off like a firebomb," explains Uncle Piet with a smile as he bandages the girl's injured arm.
"But I wanna hurt them!" shouts an eleven-year-old Talise. "They deserve it!"
"They sure do," says the patient old man as he cinches the bandage. "But you tried it this time, didn't you? And you got hurt."
"'s 'cause I shoulda hit 'em harder," little Talise sulks as she looks down at the bandage on her arm.
The old adventurer tousles the girl's hair. "It's 'cause you didn't think. You can't just run into things like it's enough to be mad. It's not. You gotta think. Don't let your anger rule you and you'll show 'em a thing or two, got it?"

Talise's left hand rises. Her fingertips curl beneath the red cord. As her face turns blue, she focuses her mind. Lets her anger bleed out of her.

And lets the magic of the gauntlets bleed through her.

Hooking her fingers, she draws on the immense strength of the gloves - and with a short tug, she's widened the strand enough that she drops from it. She gasps for breath, colour returning to her face. For the first few seconds she staggers, lurching back.

But her hands find her sword. She breathes in, then out.

"Uncle Piet," she whispers into the empty air. "You're right... I can't be the angry one. But it's hard when all I want is to protect my friends...!"

Talise fights to keep her control. Lets her eyes follow K.K. She watches the Trial Knight - tracks that roiling ball of flame. Knows that she cannot match that power. Knows that trying to do that will make it harder for her. Understands that she cannot protect her friends by fighting the battle K.K. wants to fight, on the Trial Knight's terms.

She moves, perfectly realizing that she's doing it. With deliberate smoothness and fluidity, Talise ducks low. Waits for Lily to strike with that rumbling power. Watches for the Trial Knight to react.

Snaps Rastaban outward with a two-handed thrust, aimed to pierce through an opening in the Knight's defenses - and follows it up with another slash. Then another. Another, another, another. Like a dance of blades, Rastaban seems to multiply itself, so quickly and surely is Talise swinging it, though in fact there's only one.

"We won't let you do this," Talise breathes between slashes.

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked K.K. with Ten Thousand Relentless Streams!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Hubris, thy name is Kenny; about half a second after Claude proclaims his victory, he eats an Air Slash in the face. That's right, an Air Slash. Because yet another person is stealing his awesome moves for their own and renaming them other things. This is, in many ways, more aggravating than the despair clawing at his soul thing. Also the nearly dying thing.

Claude charges straight into the attack, ducking his left shoulder into the concussive force and throwing it away from his body; this is the plan, anyway, because what instead happens is the hit spins him around like a top. He nearly pitches off the roof, but catches himself at the last minute. He sucks in a ragged breath. This guy... is hitting nearly as hard as Berserk. Or, given what he's sensed it do to him, and given the reactions of the others, this thing might be more appropriate. He licks his lips. He may not have enough power to---

Oh I'm sorry would you like some cheese with that---

"Got it, thanks mom," he growls, then leaps off the building. Claude hits the street and rolls, then advances forward. Light flashes as Lily fires more of that whatever-she-has in the armoured titan's direction. "Coming through," he offers as he leaps over Lily's head; he touches down and accelerates rapidly, white lines of light trailing from the tips of the fingers of his right hand. Claude inhales deeply, focusing the roaring tide of chi into the palm of his hand, honing it into a spear of iron will. Memories, provoked by the Trial Knight's intervention, come whispering out from his past.

The root of the Edarl Blade Arts was always a martial art... but over time it became more art than martial. The first lesson I had to learn was this: cut. When you strike, strike to kill, without hesitation. Anything less is death for you and those you protect.

Claude draws the right hand back, chi spiraling inward.

Yeah, Roddick's poetic and stuff. Just punch dudes until they run out of dudes or you run out of punches.

Claude flickers forward in a sudden burst of speed, thrusting his right hand toward the centre of the Trial Knight's chest... and a half second later, a lance of pure will blasts outward, sending a shockwave echoing outward.

GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked K.K. with Palm of Destruction!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Ten Thousand Relentless Streams for 111 hit points!
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Claude C. Kenny's Palm of Destruction for 75 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

"Hah! If I told these jokers what I get up to, their hair'd turn white!" Janus grunt-laughs back to Ryudo, covering for the pain of the tumble. He sucks in a breath because his side hurts. "But lemme give you some advice; if a ginger sweetheart by the name of Gwen Whitlock ever tells you to fight a demon knight 'for old times' sake', don't."

Which is when Mathius buries him and Ryudo both in terrible power. He throws his ARM up to try and block the worst of it, but he is protected best by the most powerful guard of all: FRIENDSHIP.

"I GOTCHA BOSS!!" Dario hollers, leaping through the divide and hurling himself at the assault bearing down on Janus. A blast slams into him and bowls him into Janus, who staggers a few steps back from the hit, but still he grins and swings his gun up again. "Good work, Dario!" he laughs, and sights down the gun. "Don't let it get to your head too fast, Ryudo," he quips back at the other Drifter. "One time I had a nun call me a -- hah, well, maybe not in a house of the Lord."

The sarcastic 'piety' mostly serves to keep eyes on him - hopefully even Mathius' - as Romero suddenly emerges from his own hiding spot to fling waves of needles at Mathius, hopefully keeping him busy defending himself for a few seconds while Janus lines up a shot on the man's throat and --

The ARM screams like thunder as the shell flies.

GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Brother Mathius with Cascade Gang Cooperation!
GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Brother Mathius has posed.

Bullets. Countless bullets pierce through the fallen Etone, still stuck to the ground due to Ryudo's blade. He can't dodge. Can't leap away. He can barley guard himself, as lightning arcs around him and, in vain, tries to intercept bullets, but can only catch so many.

Then he's sliced by misfortune itself. Doombringer seals his fate, but he can't know that yet. Luck will turn tonight, but whose?

He's then sliced, and sliced again, and again. Ryudo doesn't give him an opportunity to rise, and just when the Etone would have said it can't get any worse, it does. Jacqueline crushes him with the raw force of the earth. He's freed from Ryudo's blade, FINALLY.

No, wait, Matilda goes Hulk on him. Battered and broken are two great words to describe Mathius after that. His aura, though... his aura endures. Malevolence seeps into his wounds, healing them, slower, and slower, but it's keeping up.

AND THEN, he is filled with needles. This sucks. It also hurts. The pinprick projectiles have an easy time penetrating even the priest's hardened skin. It's raw willpower alone that sees him rise despite his state.

He has so many comments to answer. Everyone said their piece. Striking pieces, in some cases. They anger the Etone. They don't understand. They can't understand. How far is he willing to go to prove his point? He erupts with lightning again. The storm intensifies. It starts raining. But it's not the party he aims at. The dozens of lightning bolts, from him, from the sky, surge towards the Ethos workship. They strike the Tin Robo. The Gear rises out of the maintenance pit. With the one hand it has, it grabs the leg meant to replace its missing one and jams it in the socket.

The Gear advances out, lightning arcing from it whenever anything gets close. Its march is clumsy, but it makes for the party and for Mathius. Is he using lightning Ether to move the Gear, or is that Malevolence? It's probably both.

"That machine is like me. Willing to go all the way for one final crusade. I don't care what you all have to say anymore. Die."

The Tin Robo swings its hand around madly, attacking the lot of them with no regards or safety of accuracy! But there's something else. Something worse. Why is it getting so hot?

FIELD HAZARD: The Tin Robo's Slave Generator is overheating.
It turns out you're not meant to "pilot" Gears like this.
It's going to explode if Mathius doesn't stop powering it.

GS: Brother Mathius has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brother Mathius has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brother Mathius has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Janus Cascade's Cascade Gang Cooperation for 58 hit points!
GS: Janus Cascade takes Cover! He gains 50 temporary hit points!
GS: Brother Mathius enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Brother Mathius with Will to March On!
GS: CRITICAL! Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Brother Mathius's Will to March On for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Cripple, and Mute! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
GS: Restore! Brother Mathius clears debuffs from Brother Mathius!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Zed with One Final Crusade!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Jacqueline Barber with One Final Crusade!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Janus Cascade with One Final Crusade!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Ryudo with One Final Crusade!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Matilda Whitehead with One Final Crusade!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Rosaline Calice with One Final Crusade!
GS: Brother Mathius has completed its action.
GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's One Final Crusade for 90 hit points!
GS: Matilda Whitehead takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's One Final Crusade for 97 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong says, "Nice!" to Elly, though this is probably less to do with her freezing a child's hand off and more to do with her unleashing the power of ICE SCIENCE. His heart's pumping and most of his efforts are in keeping calm rather than letting what tends to happen when he gets excited happen. Just see this person as another person you have to fight. They probably have friends. He hasn't met anybody so determined just to WRECK SHIT. Even if words wouldn't stop those people from Kislev, even if it wouldn't stop Gebler, they at least had reasons to fight. Grahf keeps unleashing these tests too.

What are the tests for, OLD MAN? What are they FOR?

"Only one way," Fei murmurs. K.K. prefers action over sentiment, is that it? Fei can understand that.

He raises his hand forward K.K. The blade slams into it, cutting deeper than it did the other hand. Blood spurts out around it as he's thrust past. Fei sees the thread. Like a thread of fate.

You know, fake, there's an easy way to get what you want

Fei looks towards Lily and says, "Crush who?? If we just rely on our power, what makes us so different?" For all his wounds and burns, he is still able to stress out about this shit.

Come on that's what gets you off. Power. The question mark over there--I could at least get their helmet off, I'll be focused don'tcha worry

Fei places his fingers into his head. K.K.'s getting into your head, you're letting them into your head. You're not going to do it, damn it, you're not going to be their plaything. You ain't their monkey. You're not their monkey!

"Not...this time..." He manages, more strained. "I'll do it... I'll do it on my own."

Fei feints a strike at K.K's face but twists at the last moment to reach up and grab at the helmet's horns, fully intent on using them as handles to strike at K.K repeatedly with his knee though frankly, his true aim is probably just to get the dang thing off.

But surely it could not be that easy. Even those glancing strikes hurt like hell, Fei hates to imagine what it'd be like if K.K. gets past his guard.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked K.K. with Hoten!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
DC: MISS! Jacqueline Barber completely evades One Final Crusade from Brother Mathius!
GS: Rosaline Calice takes a solid hit from Brother Mathius's One Final Crusade for 189 hit points!
GS: Ryudo takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's One Final Crusade for 95 hit points!
GS: K.K. guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Hoten for 68 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Red streaks. Lines in the air. Elly sees K.K. coming towards her, and is able to leap aside - to avoid receiving an abdominal puncture to go with her cut - but then she ends up in that entangled web.

Her eyes turn to Fei for a fraction of a second before that enervating wave flows through her, washing things out of her. Her muscles slacken. She lets out a breath. She staggers.

why is this person picking on me, Elly wonders.

Perhaps a couple of months ago this would have turned on the water works, begun the pity party, and set her into a spiral of defeat, emotional, spiritual and physical alike. Now there are people she is afraid for, more than there is the fear of K.K.

She struggles for words. She feels ten thousand statements in her mouth. Five hundred pleas. None of them manage to emerge. Her eyes narrow as she reaches for another voice. That same pressure she'd touched before. She doesn't announce herself, her hand curling. Her eyes turn towards K.K. and thhhhhhhhat's the exact moment the Gear starts moving.

-Shit-, Elly thinks.

"Everyone, look out! The Gear!" Elly screams, along with a syllable that doesn't mean anything because she lapsed back into her native tongue. However, the inflection on "-RUN!!!-" is pretty clear.

I have to make this work, Elly thinks as she resumes the course she chose a moment ago: This has to work. It knocked back a - a - why can't I remember -

Her will moves out. Instead of sprawling loosely over a chunk of terrain, a cubic centimeter of space, hopefully intersecting with K.K.'s helmet, is spotted - held -

The temperature in that point spikes with an near-instant intense surge. It will spill out, of course, but between heartbeats, that cubic centimeter shares a temperature with the surface of Filgaia's sun.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked K.K. with Thermo Cube!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Cube for 32 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

He's looking weakened. Good. They might be able to...

And then he suddenly strikes the Tin Robo with Malevolent lightning and it raises from the maintenance pit and charges clumsily at them. Despite its clumsiness, though, it was still a giant hunk of metal arcing with lightning, and a hit from that could - and most likely would - put someone down for good.

Reflexively Jacqueline leaps back, conjuring an Earth Pillar while she's in mid-air once more to give herself something to kick off of to get more distance.

The atmosphere is heating up, though...

She looks between the Gear and Mathius, and she has a sudden flashback.

A flashback to a certain experiment with a certain Professor, and a jar full of electrolytes that detonated when she put too much lightning into it.

"Everyone, the Gear is overloading! It's going to explode if he keeps putting power into it!" Jacqueline shouts, concern clear in her voice.

She reaches into her bags, pulling out a bottle of foul-smelling liquid. She hurls the thing straight at Brother Mathius, hoping that the sheer overwhelming sensation would be enough to distract him and stop him from channeling power into it.

And if that fails...well, she immediately starts looking around for an exit, a hand reaching into her coat for something just in case...

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Brother Mathius with Reliable Repellant!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

A gauntlet tightens around Ida's hand. She grits her teeth, thinks back to the corpse of the Metal Demon monstrosity slain by her ancestor--how she peeled its armor open with her bare hands. She shoves against K.K.'s grip with all her strength, chi pulsing through her body, but it's not enough. The pain is distracting. The pain--

Energy erupts from beneath Ida's feet, flinging her away. She tumbles gracelessly, and hits the ground. Smoke rises from a fresh burn wound that trails its way up her right leg. She bares her teeth, and tries to climb to her feet. The pain is wreaking havoc with her concentration, the way she manipulates her chi. Before, she was able to block it out, but that was while she could still focus enough to use the arts her mother taught her. A voice comes back to her.

It isn't just about concentrating your chi with your strikes. It's not just about concentrating your chi where you receive strikes. Don't let the pain disrupt the natural flow, don't hide from it. Channel it! That is what it takes to become a demon!

Pain

Ida's hands clench, claw-like, as she focuses on it--the sharp, tearing pain in her shoulder, the searing burn tracing up her leg. In the distance, she hears the crackle of lightning, and Mathius's voice. Idiot. You were focused on them that you forgot who the real enemy was.

Pain

Ida suddenly shoves off the ground, leaping back to her feet. She takes a breath, looks up, and watches the Tin Robo march out of its restraining cradle, smashing everything in its way. That idiot, Ida thinks. Is he powering it himself? The generator--the generator is supposed to be doing that. He's going to--

A dreadful sense of purpose grips Ida's heart. As the Gear stomps forwards, she springs into the air, alighting momentarily on a chunk of burning machinery as it swings for the spot she was lying moments ago. She springs again, sailing gracefully through the air and landing right in front of Mathius. Wreathed in Malevolence and lightning, he cuts a terrifying figure. Ida's pupils are pinpricks. She is heedless of her own safety.

"STOP," Ida says. As if to drive her point home, she twists on her injured leg, swinging the uninjured one right at a core meridian point at the fallen Etone's sternum. He is a Hellion. Closing with him is a terrible idea. Ida does not care.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

The Trial Knight is a blinding shape of white as Gwen thrusts her fist into K.K.'s face. The knight's movements are nothing like the bandits and scavengers she's dealt with. A surprisingly hard punch was usually enough to drive the point home and scare them off. The knight is beyond her meager attempts at hand-to-hand combat, wisely turning her momentum and strength against her instead of dodging or blocking the move. Then it's their fist against Gwen's midsection, and the world tumbles, the courier crumbling to the ground like a child's limp doll.

It would be good to move. To rise. Keep going. Even words would be great, about now. Something encouraging, a rallying cry for her friends and comrades, a bid to keep going because, damn it, she's still going so that means everyone else should be going, because they're all going to do this and succeed

*hahh*

But with the wind knocked out of her, all Gwen can get out is a harsh wheeze. Ow. Ow. -Ow-.

-- Do you care to continue in your foolish quest? -- The odd presence of Rigobrite is felt in Gwen's mind, not unwelcome, but not encouraging, either. -- Dan Dairam got your tongue? --

Somehow, coming out of a shrimp comet, the words just feel mischievous and playful instead of cutting into Gwen's fragile pride.

'So you can hear me still?'

In response, the medium, pressed in a secure pocket in Gwen's vest, begins to pulse weakly with a warmth, prompting Gwen to gently clasp her left fingers over it, feeling the comforting heat. Like a heartbeat.

'You can hear what my heart is saying, can't you? That's my answer.'

--Then rise, and will them a piece of that feeling.--

The courier slowly gathers her strength and sits up, clasping the stone tablet to her breast. "... Medium. Starstruck Fool." The warmth expands beyond her, the power of the medium casting her pale red hair astray as a quiet starfield that expands over the arena. Motes of light settle onto a few souls, offering a pulse of health to keep them going, if nothing else.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Brother Mathias has brought out his secret weapon. It's basically a walking tank. The City of November should count itself lucky that the Tin Robo doesn't have some kind of ridiculous thermonuclear railgun.

That's a totally different robot.

(Golem fight when, staff?)

Zed stares as the enormous, scrapped together construction machine goes on a rampage. An ordinary civilian gear like this would ordinarily not be too much of an issue, but...

It's a little more than an ordinary civilian gear.

The thing crackles with electricity, pulses with malevolence. Its reactor screams as it's overclocked beyond any safety regulations would ever be okay with. The gear... The gear is overloading.

And its fist... Slams right into the orange knight.

He craters a rooftop and disappears into the smoldering rubble below.

For a moment, everything is quiet. Everything is still. Outside, the battle rages, but the building, ruined though it is, is silent.

And then a BEAM erupts from within the ruins.

"Hahahahaha, oh, wow. You hit me with a giant robot," a voice says, reverberating as if being played on a loudspeaker. "Wow. Do you even listen to yourself?" The beam widens, carving a column of emerald light through the sky. "It's willing to go all the way? It's a robot! But fine. I guess if you're done listening, I'll just carry on. Besides, it seems like Ida and the others have you covered. Now..."

Something appears in the pillar. A shadow that rapidly resolves into...

Into, uh.

...

"The wind, the sky, the earth, and the people all raise their voices to the heavens!" The figure roars, looking... looking every bit like someone stuck Zed's green hair on top of some kind of '70s super robot. BECAUSE THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS. "They call for justice!" The figure's eyes flash! "THEY CALL FOR COURAGE!" Its antennae glint in the sunlight! "THEY CALL--" It poses! The air explodes, inexplicably, behind it! "--For The Dark Hero to descend and bust a cap! AND SO I HAVE COME! NOW...!"

Zed squeezes his hands into fists, spreads his arms wide, and... FLEXES!! "Now, Tin Robo. Let me put you out of your misery. Here we go!!"

A port on Zed's belly opens, revealing a circular, emerald lens.

"ZEDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR-----!!"

The lens glows! It gathers power, little motes of light accumulating in that little, crystalline core. Brilliant, green energy shines like a tremendous, blinding beacon. A pharos of raw spirit, of unbridled, unrestrained, uncontained ZEDDER RAYS!

"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM--U!"

A flash! The sky is set aglow! A GREEN SUN RISES! The Zedder Beam streaks down across the battlefield, aimed... Square at the haywire robo's out-of-control reactor...!?

FIGHT, ZEDDER ROBO. DEFEND THE SAFETY OF THE CITY!!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Brother Mathias has brought out his secret weapon. It's basically a walking tank. The City of November should count itself lucky that the Tin Robo doesn't have some kind of ridiculous thermonuclear railgun.

That's a totally different robot.

(Golem fight when, staff?)

Zed stares as the enormous, scrapped together construction machine goes on a rampage. An ordinary civilian gear like this would ordinarily not be too much of an issue, but...

It's a little more than an ordinary civilian gear.

The thing crackles with electricity, pulses with malevolence. Its reactor screams as it's overclocked beyond any safety regulations would ever be okay with. The gear... The gear is overloading.

And its fist... Slams right into the orange knight.

He craters a rooftop and disappears into the smoldering rubble below.

For a moment, everything is quiet. Everything is still. Outside, the battle rages, but the building, ruined though it is, is silent.

And then a BEAM erupts from within the ruins.

"Hahahahaha, oh, wow. You hit me with a giant robot," a voice says, reverberating as if being played on a loudspeaker. "Wow. Do you even listen to yourself?" The beam widens, carving a column of emerald light through the sky. "It's willing to go all the way? It's a robot! But fine. I guess if you're done listening, I'll just carry on. Besides, it seems like Ida and the others have you covered. Now..."

Something appears in the pillar. A shadow that rapidly resolves into...

Into, uh.

...

"The wind, the sky, the earth, and the people all raise their voices to the heavens!" The figure roars, looking... looking every bit like someone stuck Zed's green hair on top of some kind of '70s super robot. BECAUSE THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS. "They call for justice!" The figure's eyes flash! "THEY CALL FOR COURAGE!" Its antennae glint in the sunlight! "THEY CALL--" It poses! The air explodes, inexplicably, behind it! "--For The Dark Hero to descend and bust a cap! AND SO I HAVE COME! NOW...!"

Zed squeezes his hands into fists, spreads his arms wide, and... FLEXES!! "Now, Tin Robo. Let me put you out of your misery. Here we go!!"

A port on Zed's belly opens, revealing a circular, emerald lens.

"ZEDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR-----!!"

The lens glows! It gathers power, little motes of light accumulating in that little, crystalline core. Brilliant, green energy shines like a tremendous, blinding beacon. A pharos of raw spirit, of unbridled, unrestrained, uncontained ZEDDER RAYS!

"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM--U!"

A flash! The sky is set aglow! A GREEN SUN RISES! The Zedder Beam streaks down across the battlefield, aimed... Square at the haywire robo's out-of-control reactor...!?

FIGHT, ZEDDER ROBO. DEFEND THE SAFETY OF THE CITY!!

DC: Zed switches forms to Monsterous Zedder R!
GS: Zed has attacked Brother Mathius with Zedder Beam!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Reliable Repellant for 0 hit points!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Roundhouse Kick for 91 hit points!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Zed's Zedder Beam for 155 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda almost manages an extremely sick slide under the Tin Robo's flailing arms. ... almost. Instead, it clips her hard along the shoulder, and she lets out a short shriek. When Jay calls out, though -- that gets a very different noise. Less a shriek, more a grunt of frustration with an undercurrent of worry beneath it.

Scrambling back up to her feet, Matilda takes only the tiniest moment to assess her options. Ida, like her, is in close; she could take this time to press the advantage and get vicious... or she could recognize that closing was kind of a bad idea in the first place and take a few careful steps back.

Reaching into her coat, she pulls out the box of bullets she keeps for special occasions, slamming it into Freischütz's reservoir-slash-magazine-slot instead. Rocks and glass are nice, but sometimes you just need bullets from a gun.

Or more accurately, Mathius needs bullets from a gun until such time as he stops overloading a Gear.

GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Brother Mathius with Seven Bullets!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has completed her action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Matilda Whitehead's Seven Bullets for 182 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Medium - Starstruck Fool!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Medium - Starstruck Fool!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Medium - Starstruck Fool!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Talise Gianfair with Medium - Starstruck Fool!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ryudo with Medium - Starstruck Fool!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Rosaline Calice with Medium - Starstruck Fool!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Talise Gianfair! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Claude C. Kenny!
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Claude C. Kenny! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Rosaline Calice! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Ryudo! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Janus Cascade takes a glancing hit from Brother Mathius's One Final Crusade for 95 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Rosaline would voice her disagreement with Matilda's point of view, but she's in a murderous fugue state right now, please understand.

Mathius is engaged in a war of words that Rosaline has checked out of, for better and for worse. Right now the bullets are speaking for her, at least until she runs out of the. Clickclickclick. Clickclick.

"Tch."

And then ammunition becomes the least of her worries, as her a flailing Tin Robo's giant hand catches her square in the back, sending her crashing back down into the workshop proper, although in a corner away from the pitched battle and only moderately on fire.

Now, the nice thing about Ethos facilities is that an Etone in a pinch can always find an ARM tucked away SOMEWHERE. Rosaline qualifies as an Etone in a pinch right now. She swings open a cabinet, and...

A moment later, she's climbing back up the side of the building again, using her clawed hand to enhance her grip, because what she's holding in the other is heavy, and several of her ribs are broken at the very least...

She slumps over the edge of the rooftop, gritting her teeth through the pain as she steadies her Ethos-branded napalm launcher.

"Final crusade all right. Just... Just DIE!"

Great balls of fire fly forth, unheeding of what (or whom) they set ablaze besides Mathius. It's fine, this place was already on fire.

But just then, Rosaline feels the power of Gwen and Rigdobrite course through her (Is this what Shrimp Heaven is like?), soothing her pain enough to let her notice that there seems to be a Gear version of Zed now, or somesuch.

...Maybe her grip on reality is still tenuous.

GS: Rosaline Calice has attacked Brother Mathius with One Woman Apocalypse!
GS: Rosaline Calice has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ryudo has posed.


Ryudo had a good run of keeping Brother Mathius locked in place, his grin at Cascade's antics concealed behind the hilt of the blade, but it was inevitable that someone would drop sufficient firepower forcing him to abandon the position. Surprisingly, he does so without complaint -- once the earthen pillars are summoned, he yanks his blade free of the man's foot and rolls the hell outta there. He climbs to his feet once more and immediately commits himself to a charge back into close quarters. The mercenary has barely enough time to register the fact that the priest is remotely controlling the Tin Robo before he's having to break off and throw his body to the side. A narrow miss -- one which connects solidly with his leg instead. "Shit!"

Pulling himself upright again by using his sword as cane, the Geohound leans against the wall while considering his options. What's the most damage he can do at this range? Besides, you know, talking. Mind games aren't the best weapon of choice when you're on a timer, at least if he's to take the alchemist at her word. The pain in his leg begins to ebb, but it'll be a moment before he's serviceable again.

He has a few choice words to share with the good brother, but that will have to wait for a moment. For now, he buys himself a moment with another ranged barrage -- summoning forth an even larger hail of ice shards that come crashing down into both Mathius and his new assistant.

GS: Ryudo has attacked Brother Mathius with Crackle!
GS: Ryudo has completed his action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Rosaline Calice's One Woman Apocalypse for 172 hit points!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Ryudo's Crackle for 153 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

A red haze surrounds K.K. like a curtain of mist, accumulating as each burst thread winds its way back to its creator. They weave themselves through armor, strengthening it, shielding it, enveloping it -- and through them, the Trial Knight finds strength from the strength of others.

It is a wavering veil of scarlet that grows to its zenith as the heat of their final stroke billows at the Trial Knight's back. Their helmeted head turns, regarding Lily in the distance... scorched here and there, clothes blackened, but otherwise...

Clawed, metal-wrapped fingers tremble subtly around the considerable weight of the war scythe's haft as the weapon cracks and splinters into shards of glimmering white. Not enough.

"No," they agree, the warped metal din of their voice almost contemplative in those brief, quiet moments.

"It is not."

Golden light -hammers- forward within that space between moments where peaceful thought gives way to uncompromising violence. Heat billows at that veil of crimson; life bubbles against light as K.K. stretches out their right hand, palm forward and clawed fingers splayed. The polished armor reflects the mixture of warring hues as they concentrate that barrier of stolen light towards a singular point around that beam.

When it explodes, it is in a haze of gold and scarlet as fragments of ethereal armor peel away in crimson chunks and blinding light...

... giving Lily only a fraction of a second to react as K.K. pierces through, the pointed end of a spear that simply was not there a second before driving upwards to skewer Lily before seeking to blast her away with a cacophonous explosion of radiant, beautiful light.

It is with spear in hand that the Trial Knight turns just as the Gear rages with life. They are an armored silhouette against a backdrop of madness as the former holy man funnels fetid corruption into an old weapon of war. Heat blisters, warping their frame within that growing intensity.

And it is through that chaos that Talise wades, driving the point of Rastaban directly into that weakened shield of glowing red. Into her own, stolen life.

The Trial Knight does not move. Does not dare. They simply shift their free palm, spear tip tapping earth as each stroke of Rastaban's blade cleaves more and more of that pulsing barrier of red away from the knight. Each super-powered infused strike cracks that bastion of threading power further and further, unwinds the twine that protects the knight from harm.

--until the very last stroke bursts through, scraping a swift scar against armor seconds before the Trial Knight's spear sweeps forward with the snap of their wrist.

Talise has half a second to celebrate scoring that direct blow before the tip of a spear looks to cleave through her within a burst of white energy.

"There is naught for you to stop," intones the knight as Mathius and his gear rages directly behind them. The spear twitches, intent on -slamming- Talise into the ground in another explosion of searing radiance... just as Ida rushes off towards Mathius in all her frenzy. The Knight's words reach, for Talise and Talise alone.

"... naught for you to stop, but the hatred upon which all so greedily sup. You wage your war against the nature of man. Bear witness now and know this as truth:

"You are not prepared for the task."

The Knight, pointedly, does not pursue Ida. Does not stop her. Whatever they have planned, though, K.K. is waylaid by both Claude and Fei's sudden emergence from amidst the broiling heat. That spear is tosses aside, hitting ground and shattering into white nothing as Claude blitzes into the Trial Knight's defenses. Palm meets fist, as K.K. matches force for force, an exchange of nothing less than pure and unadulterated physical might. There is no hesitation, no second guessing. They match, and -push-, seconds before that spearing tip of power willpower -batters- through. White cloth whips backwards, tears and throws itself to the winds. And K.K.... -forces- their way past.

Somehow, some way, that knight is still standing in the aftermath of it all. But retribution does not come, because the knight is already moving the second that Fei's hands find those horns. He tugs, he hits, knee jamming into their midsection and using the force as an attempt to dislodge that helm. It holds fast, unnaturally strong, like it was -welded- onto that armor. But just as it feels like it might loose, or just snap--

--Fei will find his assault prematurely interrupted as a palm lances out, intent to drive into his jaw...

... followed seconds later by a cannonade of blinding white.

The Knight stares, for a moment, at Fei Fong Wong, in that moment of impact. Watching. Quietly assessing.

"What will you do, when this land becomes the next Lahan?"

And perhaps pointedly, the temperature seems to rise as they utter that question, the heat of the Gear beyond's slave engine growing towards harrowing degrees.

It is a question that comes seconds before Elly's screaming warning, seconds before she ignites space and reality mere centimeters from the Trial Knight's helm. Heat condenses within a single spike. Grows to absurd temperatures. And the Trial Knight?

The Trial Knight reaches out, and grasps the surface of the sun.

Armor bubbles. Armor -melts- within that heat. The knight ignores it all, ignores as it bakes furious heat within its palms. They focus upon that little star, that spark of Ether in their hands...

... and they unbind it to give form to the truth of it.

A cube of intensity billows into a riotous sphere as sorcery not of Filgaia threads with the etheric tampering in nature. That thing becomes hideously large and hot, like the true face of Elly's destructive nature...

... before K.K. -hurls- the thing at her. Within their grasp, that sphere reforms, and Elly will get a brief glimpse at what looks like skin, like mortal flesh, beneath those melted gauntlets...

... before K.K. grips that spear and lunges -forward- with intent to impale her within that sun she helped to birth.

It will puncture. Shatter. And within the explosions, the Trial Knight, aflame, carries on towards Gwen in the midst of her determined assistance -- intent to drive that bladed weapon into her as all that dispersing heat condenses into the gaping majesty of a dragon's maw.

GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Round: 4/5
Health: 69%

GS: K.K. has attacked Lily Keil with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: K.K. has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: K.K. has attacked Talise Gianfair with Obliteration Cross!
GS: K.K. has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Dragon Ascendant!
GS: K.K. has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Absolute Domination!
GS: K.K. has completed their action.
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten guards a hit from K.K.'s Absolute Domination for 183 hit points!
GS: Talise Gianfair takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Obliteration Cross for 154 hit points!
GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 129 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from K.K.'s Dragon Ascendant for 73 hit points!
GS: Lily Keil critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 27 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Out of the corner of her eye, Talise can keep partial track of a few things - like the fact that Ida is shouting, and rushing over to launch into melee combat with a Hellion.

Althena fucking damn it, her brain screams. Is she out of her mind?!

But then, there's Talise, locked into a melee with K.K. - who seems to be putting out no Malevolence at all, now that she thinks about it.

She does not have much time to process it. No time to celebrate as she slashes and slices in a flurry of strokes, peeling off the Trial Knight's defensive field. She finally breaks through and is rewarded with the squeal of--

An old man with a heavy beard clucks his tongue in the recesses of Talise's mind.

Right. Don't celebrate. Focus. She breathes in and begins to move.

The Knight is faster. Talise can't even move to help Ida, before the Trial Knight snaps that spear out with radiant force. Chain links snap and fall away beneath it as the weapon punches through armour, then muscle.

The point of K.K.'s spear erupts out Talise's back. The tall swordswoman lurches and coughs wetly, her eyes emptying as she hacks up a mouthful of blood. Her fingers twitch and Rastaban nearly falls from them.

'You are not prepared for the task.'

Bodily, Talise is hurled away, hitting the floor and skidding for several metres. She leaves a bloodstained streak behind her. Groaning, she struggles to her feet, but blood oozes from both her stomach and her mouth.

Until a mote of light dances through the air at the summons of Gwen Whitlock. It hovers for a moment before lifting. Touching to Talise's forehead. Her half-empty eyes go wide.

Light radiates through the tall swordswoman. A pulse of power surges through her veins like blazing starsilver, bright as wildfire. The power of Rigdobrite glitters for a moment in the blood oozing from Talise's midsection - and flesh begins to knit and close. Organs begin to reconstitute. The wound pinches in on itself, reduced to little more than a painful pucker concealed by what's left of her armour.

Talise blinks rapidly, then lifts her eyes towards the sky for a moment - and then to Gwen. She can't find the words across the distance between them, but the super courier is given a grateful look - profoundly grateful.

I owe you one, Gwen, Talise thinks as she comes back to her feet. She kneels, and picks up her sword. Brings the weapon out to her side; her back is to the Trial Knight.

"You're absolutely right," she says in a low but clear voice, heavy with pain, but stable. "But you're also absolutely wrong.

"'Cause I know all about that hatred, Trial Knight. How it feels to feast on anger. What it's like to hold your pain close to your heart. Fighting that hate... that's my life."

Talise draws in a breath, and concentrates on her breathing. Only then does she turn.

"That's been my trial my whole life!" Talise growls. Blood beads down her chin as she closes ranks with the Trial Knight one more time. She barrels in straight away -

And ducks at the last second. Curling into a ball, she does a forward roll past K.K.

Coming out of it shockingly quickly, the swordswoman puts her shoulders behind her swing as she wheels to come at K.K., meeting the Knight with a hard arc of a blow. Her gauntlets resonate with power, wild and raw, yet controlled - somehow, barely. The strength of an Ogre amplifies Talise's own immense natural strength. All of that power pours into an arcing blow as Talise swings. Swings for her life.

Attempts to slash through the Trial Knight with a slash so hard, it seems to tear the air itself.

Rastaban swings in the space of a heartbeat, a lightning-fast *SNAP* and then the air shreds. A steely ring hangs in the air for several seconds, thrumming disturbingly. Things seem to hold there, as if a second stretched on into eternity.

"Maybe I'm not prepared," Talise whispers into that shimmering, timeless note. "But that's life."

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Kalve with Savior's Storm!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Talise Gianfair has canceled their attack on Kalve.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked K.K. with Savior's Storm!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Brother Mathius handles the needles and BULLET easily enough. He's pinned down, so the rest should just be clean-up ---oh, or he could be a lightning wizard. "Shit," Janus hisses out, as Brother Mathius releases his thunder once more. The Tin Robo sweeps him off his feet, sending him tumbling until he ends up once again flat on his ass, with Mathius between him and the robot.

"Boss!" Romero yelps. "I don't think this is how yer supposed to do control robots!"

"This is some wizard shit!" Dario growls. "Only thing you can do with wizard shit is murderin'!"

Janus reclaims his feet with a gurnt. "Yeah..." he says, and plucks a Cartridge from within his jacket - it snaps and crackles with unreleased power, filled with a pure but cold light. "And I got just the thing to give 'im," he says, putting the Cartridge in his teeth and yanking the bolt back on his rifle.

"Aw NUTS," Romero yelps, and dashes for a shadow. "Hey! Hawkboy or whatever!" Dario yells, considerately considering Ryudo's safety. "Watch yer eyes!"

Janus slides the Cartridge into the chamber and then grips the bolt firmly, eyes flashing up to Mathius. "Yo! Mister Priest!" he calls. He thrusts the bolt home and locks it in place - and the entire frame of the Sniper Shark rattles with a sudden release of power, that then pulses through Janus, as well. "GOT A LITTLE LIGHT FOR YA!"

And then he charges - faster than before, sturdier than before, he swings the butt of his gun into Mathius' jaw with an inhuman strength, enough to rip him free of his bindings and vault him into the air...

And just as he lines up with the Tin Robo's core, Janus raises the Sniper Shark into position and pulls the trigger, releasing a tremendous blast of shining light that blinds the eyes - and eliminates the body.

GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Brother Mathius with Rising Nova!
GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action.
GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Janus Cascade's Rising Nova for 202 hit points!
GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Savior's Storm for 36 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

The manifestation of the Zedder Beam is tragically directly behind Elly. But Gwen... Gwen is not. The starlight rests on her. It eases the hot fervid anxiety in her mind, the tension she can't define. The image appears in her mind quite sharply - seeing old Maison use a small appliance to fry a single egg...

She feels like that egg. But a bit less so, now.

A bit. Her eyes rest on Ida but then Ida's leaping towards the Gear. She has no time to mourn.

The sun is rising on her face.

Elly lashes out against it. The countermagic, the unweaving of what was weaved, is not normally visible, but in the face of something so spectacularly bright (to say nothing of the density of techniques being thrown around), it can be seen rather clearly. The heat disipates, forming hot gas - not harmless, but not an attack vector -

But there's too much. Elly steps back a pace and

shrk

it hurts, she thinks, her heart trembling. The fire... she raises up her hands, which shake. Her tears finally spill over, vaporizing instantly.

Her ears ring. Things seem to be fading for a moment. How silly of me, she thinks. To...

...

The benefit of this sudden burst of shock and blood loss is that Elly stops doubting herself, which is a large part of what K.K. has probably been trying to communicate to her. In fairness to Elly van Houten, K.K.'s tutelage came while she had a gnarly bite on her thigh, from a giant wild dog. A meta-analysis has shown that this does tend to reduce several key learning outcomes.

The superheated gas and fire surging around Elly and only barely managing to not cremate her swirl around and gather into the space between her palms and K.K.'s body. If she has glimpsed that mortal flesh she gives no sign of it. For the moment her eyes are blank and clear like a still pond in a high mountain pass.

"Leave him alone," Elly says, despite that glassy eyed look on her face.

A dragon then roars. It's not literal: instead that superheated fury screams out of Elly's palms, which remain velvety soft and lacking any indication of work beyond a slight singe around the curl of her left thumbnail, which she had neglected to trim a week or so ago.

The concentrated heat and shrieking Fire Ether radiate outwards in a simple sinewave, and afterwards, in the dazzled aftermath of that screaming strike, Elly staggers back, blind, and clutches at her side. She feels something wet. But it feels warm, so her hand...

That ringing dissipates, and she blinks furiously, just in time to stagger again.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked K.K. with Thermo Dragon!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: K.K. takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Dragon for 85 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Brother Mathius has posed.

Jay throws a stinkbomb into Mathius' face. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!" he screams, struggling to keep his concentration. Ida demands he stops and then kicks him away. His concentration breaks, but the Tin Robo, rather than stop, starts sparking and flailing madly as it burns off the power it had built up. He's shot some more, because his foes have decided he hadn't been enough so far. Thank you Matilda! Then he's set on fire. Very much on fire. Mathius crumbles to the ground, rolling about to try to put the flames out. Ryudo helps by hurling giant shards of sharp ice at him. It puts the flames out but creates a lot more problems, like gaping chest wounds and a missing arm. A problem which only gets worse with Janus and his crew's contributions. His jaw breaks and he's hurled upward. A shot is lined for two foes at once.

It pierces through Mathius and strikes the Tin Robo... but misses the reactor by less than an inch. It still plows a hole through the machine.

Zed has a solution for what's left of the Tin Robo problem. It involves a giant laser. The beam rips through the civilian Gear like it's not even there. That frame isn't built for combat. That armor is to withstand sandstorms, not attacks. But a Slave Generator is sturdy. Though the Tin Robo is completely obliterated, amongst the scrap that falls to the ground is the red hot reactor.

Despite all this, Mathius is still getting back on his feet.

Missing an arm, sure. Bleeding, sure. His will endures however - and therefore, so will he. His Hellion constitution can barely keep up with his injuries. His aura is dying down. It was Janus' shot that took the greatest toll on it. Malevolence can't afford to bleed out of him anymore, it's all being used to keep him together. Maybe it was his unwillingness to back down and do nothing that did this.

Conflicting views. His faith. His greed. His hatred for war. Was he doing what was right by being an Etone? Was he being played? None of it matters anymore.

His hand reaches out. Lightning blasts down from the sky, and from him, into the Slave Generator. It hovers in the air, turning redder, redder, orange, yellow, blinding white. The last of his Ether attempts to finish the job.

"None of you... have the will... to stop... what ails the world."

GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Brother Mathius with Will to March On!
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Brother Mathius's Will to March On for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Brother Mathius!
GS: Restore! Brother Mathius clears debuffs from Brother Mathius!
GS: Brother Mathius has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Will to March On!
GS: Brother Mathius has completed its action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Brother Mathius's Will to March On for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Restore! Brother Mathius clears debuffs from Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily looks back at Fei as he asks. "...It," she corrects herself, not entirely sounding certain as she shakes her head, momentarily struck by the thought. ...But only momentarily. "...Them," she admits. "I can't talk about this while we're fighting, Fei!"

Anything. It could be anything. Still her mind swims, still she's trying to recover physically from her ordeal, from the fever and the longing for what she felt before. ...But Elly calls out. Elly's inflection--

The Trial Knight is in motion. The Trial Knight has agreed with her. Lily's golden eye regards him sharply as she continues to focus her magic upon them, destructive power held with both hands. She stares into him, into his armor, as she sees crimson light, watches the explosion--

The spear comes. She does not have time to erect a barrier this time, but she throws out her hand, and the point of the spear rips free hot red blood as she shifts it just off-course, such that it gashes her side rather than impaling her completely.

The light blasts her backwards nonetheless, sending her flying backwards to hit the ground skidding, rolling at the end and coming up to her knee. She narrows her eyes. But--

The Gear in motion gets her attention. "Shit," she mutters, coming back to a reality in which she's been focused on the Trial Knight while people are still bleeding out. While the Hellion is still at work. The Hellion who she can't help; she has no way of making that connection. And Jay... Jay mentions...

It doesn't matter. Elly--Elly of hated Solaris, but Elly with Fei--is struck, is burned, and while her magic roars back... Lily can see her starting to fall. In an instant she makes her choice. Rushing up, she springs upward, a black vision crossing the battlefield to catch Elly, putting a hand on her back. "Shh. Hold on." It has a hint of gentleness, only a hint, that she has not extended to Elly since she returned from Gebler's captivity. Her ruined glove does not hide the red glow of her hand, as its light begins to suffuse Elly, begins to knit wounds and heal burns and restore sight. It shines from within her--and bursts outward, to allies, to those close to extend in an aura about her, as Lily's hair floats as if gravity almost doesn't apply to her for a moment. Her eye is closed.

Her Ether shifts out to Fei, to Talise, to Claude. Lily's chapped lips press together. She focuses.

She is lost in the light for moments, opening her eye only as it reaches past its zenith. Only then does she see what comes.

GS: Lily Keil has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Red Emanation!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Red Emanation!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Talise Gianfair with Red Emanation!
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Red Emanation!
GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
GS: Lily Keil heals Talise Gianfair! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Lily Keil heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Lily Keil heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Lily Keil used Mystic on Elhaym van Houten! 100 Temporary HP gained! All statuses cleared!
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

There should be something comforting in knowing that Rosaline's inner demons are on the loose as well, having slipped whatever hold she had on them. It would mean that Ida has someone to relate to, here, someone as helpless before her own rage as she is. Fate being what it is, it doesn't really register. Ida's whole world has condensed to herself and Mathius--she is aware of what's happening beyond that, but everything is rage and hate and frustration and visceral immediacy. Matilda puts bullets into Mathias, Ryudo cuts him to ribbons with ice, but it's--it's still not enough. Cascade hits him with some horrific ARM, but it's still not enough. What--what will it take to--

Mathius's lightning crawls over the Gear. A bolt of it hits the ground before her, jolting her. She has to--

She's in grade school, sitting in class, attentively taking notes. The boy behind her--the one she's repeatedly told the teacher about--starts kicking the back of her chair. Ida ignores him, keeps taking notes. He keeps kicking, and when that doesn't work, he takes hold of Ida's braid, dunks it into his inkwell. Ida whirls around, and slaps him across the face before he can do anything else.

"Ida!" the teacher shouts. Ida shrinks back. Her tormentor--the boy from House Anaheim--snickers behind his hand, and whispers to his friends.

She's in college. She watches as one of her classmates throws a fistful of ten-gella coins over a bridge, and into the gutter of the street below. The people passing by take notice. Some of them start to pick through the garbage and rot, searching for the money. "I wonder if they'll fight for it?" the young woman says, turning to Ida. Ida wants to scream at her. She wants to slap her, to berate her for her pointless, callous gesture. She does nothing.

She meets with Riesenlied for the first time since Adlehyde. The Demon woman is obviously wounded, and Ida cannot help but sympathize--or perhaps pity her. It's overshadowed by her fury, which sits in the corner of the hotel room like a mountain that could blow its top at any moment.

"I could not stop the tide of hatred," Riesenlied says.

'Bullshit', Ida wants to say. 'You didn't even try. You were there, and you aided them. I don't forgive you for it. Apologies won't make those people come back from the dead.'

Ida does not say it.

It's as you said--you can imagine them more like humans now. There is sorrow in this, a deep sorrow that people have always known from war... but I think there is also hope.

Miss Miang... where are you? I'm so lost.

"Liar," Ida says. He's right. Stop lying. "Liar. Murderer. Apostate." Ida's hand balls into a fist. She surges towards Mathius, striking for his left shoulder with an open palm. Lightning crawls across her body, but the pain is fuel, and it only keeps her going. She puts her weight into it, trying to shove the Hellion priest off-balance; if she can do that, she'll throw herself after him in a reckless charge. Her eyes are wide, and the pupils are tiny little points. She draws back her fist; chi wreathes it, glowing. "You can't, either," she says. Her voice is low and dangerous. She's riding a wave of fury so perfectly she might as well be calm. "Your anger isn't deep enough."

Ida's hand strikes like a pile-driver, a corona of red-gold flame wreathing it. It's like what she did when trying to stop Id and Siegfried from reducing her to a carbon stain--except turned on another person.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Brother Mathius with Steel-Breaking Fist!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Brother Mathius takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Steel-Breaking Fist for 179 hit points!
GS: Brother Mathius has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Is he willing to just take the head off with it if that's what it takes? Fei isn't sure.

That palm slams into Fei's jaw. Seconds is plenty of time to prepare a guard, but Fei doesn't. He just needs a little more time... but he doesn't get the time. The energy blast rips out of K.K's hand and slams into Fei's face. His body is subsumed by light. He vanishes within it. K.K., much like Grahf, knows the words to pry open his wounds.

It's pain.

It isn't just about concentrating your chi with your strikes. It's not just about concentrating your chi where you receive strikes. Don't let the pain disrupt the natural flow

Fei lands in a crouch, panting for breath. He's a tough guy, emotional pain notwithstanding, but the burns across his body are real. He sees Elly bleeding. His heart thumps.

A cross flies across his vision. He sees the young boy standing before him.

You finally ready?

Is it happening again? Is it happening again? Is it going to just keep happening over and over again? Nothing changes, this is all pointless, nothing changes. Why did you even come?

The young boy shoves him into a chair.

Keep this up and you'll die more pathetically than usual. Let the real boy handle this

He starts walking forward. He is almost past the curtain when--

'Leave him alone'

Fei reaches up and grabs the boy's hand. Somehow, he is able to hold the boy in place.

BGM INTERRUPT: AVANTASIA - INTO THE UNKNOWN - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECKvMS0VzEk

'No', Fei throws the boy back into the chair in an easy motion, standing up. The healing energy from Lily's red glow, her ether, it feeds into Fei's own aura, lingering around him. Don't let the pain disrupt the natural flow. Fei's body practically glows from Lily's energy as it intermingles with his chi.

Fei stands himself up and closes his fists. It was so simple. He only ever had three words he wanted to say. How does Elly always know how to boil everything down into its pure form like that? It's like she can reach into that tempest of his soul and reach the eye of the hurricane.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked K.K. with Tenbu!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Tenbu for 32 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elena has posed.

Ida's hand pierces through Mathius' chest. The lightning stops. The Slave Generator falls to the ground and begins cooling off, though you really don't want to go near it anytime soon.

Breathless. Mathius stares into Ida's eyes. He almost looks human again for a split second when he smiles. "No. No, I guess I didn't. Maybe... if my words can have struck but one of you... then..."

He doesn't finish his thought. His body breaks apart into motes of purple light. Malevolence flies off, unpurified. It taints the ground, it taints the air. It taints the storm and spreads to part unknowns. But the fallen Etone is truly dead, and no remnants of his mindset will bring him back.

The walls of wind surrounding the area calm.
The rain stops, the storm recedes.

Ida hand's is covered in purple, gooey blood.

<Pose Tracker> Elena has posed.

Ida's hand pierces through Mathius' chest. The lightning stops. The Slave Generator falls to the ground and begins cooling off, though you really don't want to go near it anytime soon.

Breathless. Mathius stares into Ida's eyes. He almost looks human again for a split second when he smiles. "No. No, I guess I didn't. Maybe... if my words can have struck but one of you... then..."

He doesn't finish his thought. His body breaks apart into motes of purple light. Malevolence flies off, unpurified. It taints the ground, it taints the air. It taints the storm and spreads to parts unknown. But the fallen Etone is truly dead, and no remnants of his mindset will bring him back.

The walls of wind surrounding the area calm.
The rain stops, the storm recedes.

Ida's hand is covered in purple, gooey blood.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

The malevolence taints the ground.

It taints the air.

It taints--

Wait.

Why is everything still GLOWING GREEN

"HEY IDA," Zed yells as he rakes the ZEDDER BEAM right down over towards that expanding puddle of glowing purple ooze, "YOU PROBABLY WANNA DUCK."

zedder power, burn through the evil purple goop...!

<Pose Tracker> Elena has posed.

Zed has created a Malevolent Crater, or perhaps it's a Malevolent Hole. It might be dangerous if you like, get close. You might trip and fall. This doesn't actually change much.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Look, it's still better than a malevolent puddle lying out in the middle of nowhere. At least you can cap a malevolent hole.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

OSHA is more OK with a malevolent hole than exposed malevolent ooze

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

The fiery hot blade meets Gwen's flinching ARM, the heat, force, and blade translating into searing pain through the integrated nerves. Pain, to ensure Gwen doesn't push the Mockingbird too far, but not the same amount as a normal, human arm. To have it so akin to a human arm would entail more pain than most would be prepared to deal with. The entity it was created from could withstand so much more than a human ever could.

Striking a balance was necessary, to avoid the human attached to being unable to keep up with the situations she may find herself in.

Frea, you really, really tried.

A patch of whorled skin is exposed underneath the layers of clothing that are burned away by the knight's attack, Gwen gazes up at the face of K.K., grey-blue eyes wide.

"...."

She breathes.

"...."

The ARM sparks, throwing a wide field of electric energy, Gwen giving one final primal yell of resistance.

GS: That attack doesn't exist. [st.elmo]
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked K.K. with St. Elmo's Fire!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida was not expecting to hit him that hard. There's a horrible, hot, sticky feeling around her hand, and she feels her knuckles striking dirt. The rage is gone from her eyes like morning mist before the dawn. The dying former Etone rasps out a few last words. Ida listens to them, mute with slowly-dawning horror. She reaches down to cup his face in her hands, as if she could somehow fix this, but it's no good--Mathius's eyes close, and his body starts breaking apart into its constituent Malevolence.

It's all over her. It oozes down the floor, seeping into the ground. Ida doesn't seem to hear Zed, and the green flash... doesn't even seem to register, even though it hits dangerously close.

Ida just stares down at her bloody hand, realizing what she's just done. She looks like she's either going numb or about to scream.

<Pose Tracker> Ryudo has posed.

Ryudo knows the Cascade Gang well enough at this point to read that something big is coming, but Dario's concern for him is almost touching. (Even if neither of them can remember the other's name.) Ducking his head after chucking the spell, he manages to avoid getting his eyes cooked by Janus bringing some of his finest arts to bear. "Skye, I think we're getting outdone over here. We should probably get back into the fray before..."

That happy looking lady proceeds to put her fist straight through the good brother's chest, a gruesome sight for those who can't see his Hellion visage.

"...Before, well, that happened."

The Geohound sighs, leaning back against the wall again rather than joining the others. A troubled look is on his face, a fact which the hawk Skye notes as he settles down on the youth's shoulder. "You were planning to kill him yourself, weren't you? Because you knew it wouldn't matter if you did it."

"Shut up, bird. Just because there's an opening in the Ethos now doesn't mean you should start practicing your sermons."

"Heh."

GS: CRITICAL! K.K. takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's St. Elmo's Fire for 88 hit points!
GS: Disrupt, Jam, and Jam! Statuses applied to K.K.!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Janus' grin wides as the Nova fires off, but a look of shock enters his face as Mathius is merely critically wounded rather than atomically annihilated.

That gun has done that to literal nobody of any consequence so his continued surprise at this development is probably a sign of some sort of head trauma.

Regardless, he yanks the Bolt back to load up a more mundane cartridge. "I hit him!"

"Saw that!" Romero yells.

"But he's STILL ALIVE!" Janus calls.

"Saw that, too!" Dario says.

"Shhhhiiiiit!" Janus snarls, raises the gun up in its more normal firing mode, and--

Watches Ida rip out a man's heart.

He stares, some blank, faraway thought expressed in his eyes at the blood and goop. "Welp," he declares, and lets his gun fall.

"I think Gwen is hanging out with some bad people, Romero," Dario asides.

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Molten metal splatters in glowing orange patterns across the ground as it drips in thick droplets from the Trial Knight's hands. And yet they seem, difficult as it is to tell through that all-concealing armor, wholly unconcerned with the molten heat radiating from their palms. As if they could not afford to be worried about a matter so trivial.

As if nothing else matters but their purpose.

Spear snapped to the side, once more it crackles away, the light breaking apart and reforming into those familiar short swords, molding into their exposed palms. That horned helm tilts towards the fiery remnants of their work.

Leave him alone.

Leave her alone.

Fingertips spasm.

And a dragon consumes them.

It is difficult to see, within the proverbial dragon's maw, how the Trial Knight moves with the momentum of that firestorm of Ether. Difficult to see how the flaming winds whip and scorch at once pristine white armor, melt a horn to slag. It is difficult to see -them-.

And yet Fei Fong Wong finds K.K. regardless, unerringly in his determination to defy expectation.

Airborne and soaring from Elhaym van Houten in the midst of her rippling outpouring of power, foot meets chin with a CRUNCH of metal. Up, the knight spirals towards the ceiling. Punches a hole through it. And up does Fei follow, twitsting through the air, spinning that foot about...

... only to find the knight facing him when that foot comes hammering down.

THOOM

The shockwave ripples downward from its point of impact, indiscriminately coning outward from the skies. Rippling force picks up dust and rock and knocks them aside like ragdolls. And within the center of that kinetic storm, Fei and K.K. hold paused, like they were frozen in amber.

Foot meeting a bare palm far sturdier than it has any right to be.

Within K.K.'s other palm, their sword gleams with deadly intent. Frozen in mid-air, they could strike, aim for Fei's throat, perhaps reset an unending cycle...

... but it never comes.

It is inscrutable in those moments; inscrutable even more than K.K. typically is. Why they don't act, why they seem to simply... fall, without taunting, without belittling Fei's attempts, without so much as saying a word, as if Fei has reached something, accomplished something... an open question.

But fall they do. Fall through the skies, landing on ground hard enough that it craters beneath them with fracturing stone. Hard enough that dust kicks up a veil of pulverized rock around them as they rise from their crouch, one horn melted off their helm, standing tall, proud.

An unbending pride that endures even as electricity -pulses- through them, convulsing lightning arcs through conductive armor as they rip backwards. Armor smokes. The knight staggers. They should be open, easy prey, unseeing as Talise charges forth, weapon gripped in her empowered grasp.

She disappears within the veil. There is a flash. A crash. A cacophonous boom.

And both K.K. and Talise RIP from the dust and debris seconds later, the Ogre-strengthened blow of the Rastaban caught between the pincered clench of half-melted gauntlets as the raw strength of the blow sends the knight digging back through rock and earth in deep furrows. They blow past Gwen, punch through a nearby wall somehow yet unruined with an explosion that demolishes the poor structure's formerly good luck... and come to a stop, held tight, within the unyielding cold of the desert night.

"'Tis one thing to conquer one own's hatred," utters the knight as that blade trembles within that pincered grasp.

"And something else entirely to triumph over another's."

And within, there is the sickening sound of bone crunching into nothing more than waste, something that Talise and the Trial Knight can only hear, and not see, from where they are. But their words doubtless illuminate, uttered so surely to cast away any doubt over what has just transpired, and by who's hand.

"She does not know what it means to kill.

"But she shall now."

And with that, K.K. seeks to -push- forward, to overpower and -hurl- Talise back through that wall, back towards the destruction within...

... back towards where Ida Everstead-Rey stands, shocked beyond all sense over what she has just taken with her own hands.

"Or she will break in the trying."

By the time anyone looks for them, the Trial Knight will be gone.

Leaving only the devastation and wounds beyond flesh left behind speak to their presence.

Round: 5/5

Health: 62%

                             O b j e c t i v e

                             C o m p l e t e ?

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Well. On one hand, they were no longer in danger of the Gear exploding. On the other...

Well, Brother Mathius was reduced to nothing more than a stain on the ground. Jacqueline stares in open-mouth horror.

She's seen people killed before, but it's different to see someone she knew do it in such a brutal fashion.

Jacqueline takes a deep breath and shakes her head.

Did it really have to end this way?

...Maybe it did, but she still felt awful about it. Like maybe she could've, should've done something.

...She couldn't dwell on that now.

It seems as if the Trial Knight is going, so...she decides to put the situation out of her mind and focus on everyone's physical health over their mental health. She couldn't do anything for that. She begins to root through her bags, pulling out some potions before glancing toward Matilda.

"Could you help me assess everyone's condition? We should start getting everyone patched up." She says. Undoubtedly some people were going to be hurt after all of this, and they would need someone to help with that.

Mathius, of course, was beyond help.

Maybe he always was, but a part of her wasn't sure...

...But now she'd never know.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Truthfully, Talise doesn't know Lily well enough to be surprised by that touch of gentleness to that magic. She draws in a breath and lets it happen, shooting Lily a look of profound gratitude and mentally adding her name to the list of people she owes thank-you drinks to.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see where Ida is hurtling towards. But then she's vanishing into the veil of the Trial Knight with a roar of magic. Sheer momentum and power drive her forward. Her boots scrape through floorboards; she shoulders through the wall along with the Trial Knight, and they both erupt into the night. A desert wind snaps Talise's coat and hair dramatically.

Her muscles strain. Her strength alone isn't sufficient to force Rastaban past K.K.'s defenses.

"Remember what I told you," Uncle Piet chides.

Talise breathes in, and lets off some of the power. She takes a half-step back. The Trial Knight's words hang in shockingly quiet air.

Punctured by the snap of bone. Talise's blood runs from hot to cold in the space of a heartbeat, and the Trial Knight cools them even more. The woman's bright green eyes go wide as she clicks her teeth together. "Ida," she breathes.

In that moment of distraction, the Trial Knight throws her with no resistance. She sails through the air, smashing through the wall with a wince, then hitting the ground and skidding across what's left of the workshop, until she comes to a halt just metres from where Ida stands, coping with the enormity of what she has done.

Or she shall break trying.

Althena damn it. Althena damn it. I should've beheaded the damn Knight when I had the chance. Damn it all. Ida....

The physical blow itself is far from the worst Talise has taken. She inhales and sits up. Rastaban in her off hand, she looks up at Ida, watching the woman struggle.

Struggle with the enormity of doing what Talise had sincerely hoped no one would do.

"Ida," Talise murmurs with her heart in her throat. She sheathes her weapon as she moves towards her shattered friend. She reaches into her coat and comes out with a small metal flask.

Talise has no medical supplies on her. Ida will have to make do with Talise gently trying to wash her friend's ichor-stained hand off with vodka and a rag. It seems like such a small, ludicrous thing in the face of what has transpired. It's still the only thing she can think of doing. A small thing for a friend.

She can't find words that don't sound sad and hollow. She doesn't try.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Light kneads into Elly's side. It hurts, but it's a different, purer sort of hurt, like things are going backwards. Her vision clears faster than it might have, and warmth pours into her limbs - not fire, but warmth -

There's Fei!

Elly struggles a little against her body. It's brief. And then K.K. is leaving. Elly smiles at Fei, shaken, a little pale, but alive. We did it! her face says.

A moment passes.

Elly's eyes slowly shift focus to take in the complete and total shambles surrounding them, at about the time when K.K. vaults away, moves out of her field of vision. Fei, and probably Lily if she's watching closely, gets to see the look of consternation and sheer, refined, extra-virgin aghastness that crosses Elly's face as the focus of combat leaves her.

"... Oh... goodness..."

She sees Ida in that cockpit and there is a crystal-clear look of horrified anticipation on Elly's face, but it passes when she sees Talise getting up there with her. She lets out a breath, shoulders sagging.

"Ah... are the Etones... alive?" she asks Fei, and perhaps past him, Lily, if Lily is paying heed. "We should help them, Fei!"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

'She does not know what it means to kill. But she shall now.

Ida forces herself to look up. Thick, violet blood drips from her chin. She sees Talise flying in through the wall. Talise, she thinks. She sees one of the Cascade Gang looking at her, and whispering something to his buddy. She sees Jacqueline Barber--sweet, gentle Jacqueline Barber--staring at her in horror. Talise comes rushing up to her. She holds perfectly still as the other woman washes off her hands. She would be both appreciative and angry, but she feels numb. "Talise, I--" Ida says. "Don't blame..." Her breath hitches in her throat. Her stomach lurches.

She rises, and rushes past Fei and Elly, behind a half-shattered pillar. She doubles over, bracing against the wall with her still-bloodied hand. She would empty her stomach onto the floor, but she hasn't eaten in four hours, and there's nothing in it. After a little while of this, the horrible, sickened feeling starts to subside. She sits against the pillar, and curls up.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda... doesn't react with nearly the horror that Jay seems to. She turns away from the resultant smear after one last look at Ida, and instead focuses on Jay. "Certainly," Matilda says. She dumps the reservoir back out, getting rid of its bullets and once more loading it with blueberries.

It's... pretty dispassionate. She does her best to check everyone out, of course, and is not stingy with the healing -- but she doesn't seem particularly shaken, either. She does not make any effort to check on Ida.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Well, Fei thinks as K.K. is able to block his strike even after blocking a SUN CUBE and afterwards getting hit by Elly's SUNG DRAGON along everything else, you've had a nice run. At least Elly's going to make it, probably. And hey, only 2 or 3 craters is pretty good all things considered

But the strike never comes. What is this person after??

Fei recognizes in this moment that beating the shit out of K.K. isn't going to make him happy. It might not even help anything. If when it happens, he expects he'll just feel old and tired. Or he'll fail and will be dead, or worse.

He is thrown back away from K.K as the electricity courses through him and he crashes to the ground in a frankly heap. It's unpleasant, but far less unpleasant than getting stabbed in the throat by a huge-ass sword.

He groans, rubbing at his forehead. He looks towards Ida. He grimaces. He knows what it's like to bludgeon someone to death with your own hands before you even quite realize that's what you're doing. Your hands just feel so sticky afterwards.

But soap helps.

He slowly raises a thumb up towards Elly before letting his arm drop. They didn't die! That's a pretty good outcome!!!

But he sits himself up gradually and says, "Yeah, yeah we should." He looks back towards Ida, then back to Elly. "I'll be right there."

He approaches Ida and will rest a hand on her shoulder if allowed. "Hey," He says. "If you want to talk about it, you're not alone. I guess--that's all I can really offer, but you carried the burden to save us today. Thank you." He hopes, if nothing else, that Ida doesn't end up like him even if--all things considered--he made it through today in one piece.

In both aspects of that phrasing.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"Ida... I don't," Talise murmurs as she lets the alcohol rinse away the tainted blood of the possessed man Ida Everstead-Rey has just murdered. She does her best to clean up the blood with a bolt of cloth that only has a few stains on it, most of them unsuspicious. Her eyes hold on her friend, following where Ida's gaze goes, towards Jay, then towards the ruffians over there.

Talise lifts her gaze towards Janus and his Gang, and she narrows her eyes a little. It's not so much a threat as it is a silent wall she's attempting to build around Ida. Sass off at her when she's hurting, deal with her extremely tall friend with very large muscles who looks like she could probably bench what's left of that Gear.

When Ida does run, Talise makes no move to stop her. She just moves after her and silently takes up station on the other side of the pillar, watching over her like a mother cucco over a little chick.

As Fei moves closer, Talise sinks into a crouch. She nods gravely as the man speaks, lifting her eyes to find his. Her appreciation comes without words.

"You're a good woman, Ida," she murmurs. "And we're here for you."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily hears the words. Lily knows; a first kill. ...One like this, no less. The balck-haired sorceress, so focused on Elly in that moment, on the Trial Knight, looks once towards Ida... and K.K. is gone when she looks agin. She doesn't like fading that way. She doesn't like not knowing.

Elly looks, ask questions... and Lily hears the tone. She glances around the room herself. "...You'll be fine," she says to Elly, unneccesarily, softly. She looks to the bodies, to those who are not corpses, to those being helped and those who need it, those looking here...

And the scent of blueberries.

"...You should help them," she agrees, and takes her hand off of Elly. The woman in black takes a step away, glances over her shoulder at her allies.

 She looks at Ida, whose hand was so bloody, and remembers. She remembers...

Her fingers curled, the sticky feeling of partially boiled blood through her glove. The smell of burning flesh. As Fei moves to comfort Ida...

Lily turns away. "I'm leaving," she says simply, without explanation, and steps past and over the dead to walk into the night, onto the paved streets, and away.

Her ARM clinks against her as she moves out of view.

<Pose Tracker> Ryudo has posed.


Eventually, Ryudo seems to decide on something and pushes off the wall. He makes his way over toward the pillar by the stranger who landed the killing blow, a firm frown fixed on his face as he approaches. The frown is simply his default setting, though she's unlikely to know this this. Glancing down to her, he ultimately decides on fixing his gaze straight ahead instead. If he were in her shoes, the eyes of another would be the last thing he'd want.

"The Etone is dead. There was nothing left of the body. If you admit to killing him, that's your own business."


"But do not describe the method. There's being honest with yourself, and bringing trouble on yourself. The latter does no one any favors."

...And that's the most that he can do. He won't simply volunteer to lie and take credit for the kill when it's not being asked of him. He missed his opportunity to make that the reality, regretfully. Harboring no illusion that this person desires the company or insights of a stranger, he immediately turns and begins to make his own way out.

He'll give the nosy Songstress an abridged version. That way she won't ask for details she doesn't need to know.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Matilda's face impinges on Elly's peripheral vision. Something about her. Like Lily, she thinks. (Elly is still a little spaced out.)

But not that spaced out. Ida rushes past her. Elly steps after her, with a wince at her wounds but no more than that. (They don't rip open or anything.) "Ah - miss -!"

Closing the distance, Fei gets there first but only by a pace or so. Crouching down, Elly offers quietly, "Can I help you up? You fought really well."

What else can I offer her? Elly thinks, mentally reviewing her inventory.

* 3x Rosesol
* 3x You Know What This Is And We're Not Giving It To Ida
* 1 bag cinnamon candies
* Misc.

Elly doesn't offer anything. Not all moments need to be filled with material exchange, after all!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

It's over.

Gwen is still in that sitting position, dazed and spent, as she looks over. The Trial Knight is gone, his quixotic words leaving Gwen alarmed. She? Which she?

Sitting slowly up, Gwen looks over at the retreating Ida, and the mess left behind.

What could politely be termed 'the mess'.

It wasn't enough. You can't heal through little bits of hope and stardust and expect everything bad will go away.

If there was anything left in her stomach after K.K.'s punch from earlier, Gwen discreetly expels the rest, turning away from the scene. Pulling the remains of her poncho to layer over any exposed skin, she stands.

But didn't she say as much, earlier? He'd have to be killed.

She doesn't feel so high and mighty now, declaring such an act without the will or want to do the final blow.

It's one thing to abstain from a killing blow or shot, but it's another to openly declare that it was a necessary requirement without any intent of doing it herself.

Seeing fellow friends go to tend to Ida, she moves over to Janus and his gang. "... Thanks for helpin'." It was worth saying, at the very least. "Sorry it couldn't end up with the lot of us cheering over some beers, but..." She can't even draw up the humor needed to add necessary sheepish edge to her words. ".... Thank you."

It feels weird to thank a dangerous man you basically goaded into fighting, but right now, it feels a lot better than doing nothing.

And it gets Janus to stop looking at Ida.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Someone Ida doesn't recognize offers her advice. Advice? She doesn't know what to make of it. Of course the Etone is dead. What is he getting at--?

He's gone, perhaps thankfully.

Fei. Ida looks up at him. She looks very small and vulnerable, despite all the blood she has on her. She listens to him, looking more lost than he's ever seen her. She hears Lily's voice, but Lily isn't coming over here. Talise reassures her, and Ida isn't sure whether to thank her or vehemently deny what she just said, because there's still Malevolence-thickened blood beneath her fingernails. She can hear someone else throwing up in the background.

Elly. That's her name, right, Elly? Ida looks over at Fei, then at the woman he fought beside--as if seeking Fei's reassurance that she's okay. She offers Elly her hand, and finally speaks. Her voice is small. "Did we save as many as we could?"