2018-10-26: Lava Quod Est Sordium

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<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.

Over the past few weeks (or in the case of Jay, like a couple of days), various Diggers have responded to the call for adventurers to cleanse the corruption choking the former Sacred Grounds of Linga. Some who entered did not return. Others fled with wounds and warnings. A few, however, emerged with odd items drenched deep with the unmistakable aura of Malevolence. Experts have been consulted, and the word that came back was unanimous: all four would need to be dealt with at the same time, lest the corruption return.

And to break the spell on the Grounds, the purification would have to be done there.

The upper level of the caverns is as dark as when you last left it; a dark purple haze sifts through the air, bringing with it a lingering sense of wrongness that touches all of the senses. The tang of rotten meat for taste, a wisp of cold for touch, a low moan for sound. Those with spiritual senses can sense even more - the sheer wrongness is like a soul curdling like milk that's been left out too long.

Those carrying the objects will feel it even more keenly - time is of the essence.

<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

It wasn't so long ago that Catenna was certain that the most dangerous thing in the Sacred Grounds of Linga was those damned chets.

Then they found an artifact. A thing of Malevolence. It's been bothering her ever since - but as luck would have it, she has the means to remove Malevolence from things. And the experts have had their say on where best to do it.

The sense of the place is wrong. Visibly unsettled, Catenna, in her long ceremonial dress, sets to work quietly lighting a few sticks of incense and setting them on the ground to try and ward off the tainted overtone of this place in at least some measure.

She's quick about it. "We do not have much time," she says as she picks up a long stick and draws out a few arcane marks on the ground with a piece of chalk wedged into the stick's butt end. One of the symbols is the mark of Celesdue. Looking over to Lydia, she nods expectantly.

Your call as to whether she knows Sorey's coming, but even if he does, he could probably use a hand. Good thing she and presumably also Lydia can provide.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

The Sacred Grounds of Linga was a place of great significance to Jacqueline. It would not be inaccurate to say that her initial visit, which felt like so long ago now, had set her on the path she currently found herself.

Corrupted and profaned as the Sacred Grounds were now, Jacqueline's heart pained for it. She wanted to do what she could to return them to their former glory, and so she had set out on two separate trips into the tainted halls - the first with people connected to that fateful day, and the second with friends...and enemies, one of which she was unsure where to place in her heart.

The first item had been entrusted to another, but the second she carried in her hands now - a mysterious note in a language neither she nor her friends had been able to decipher.

Jacqueline shivers as she carries the note back through the caverns through which she had retrieved it. She had stored it in her most durable bottle, but even that wasn't enough to completely mask the overpowering sensation of wrongness emanating from it.

"...Agreed. We...need to do this quickly." Jacqueline says with a nod toward Catenna as her friend begins to set up a ritual. Jacqueline was resilient, certainly, but even she's not sure how long they'll be able to last.

Particularly if all four items are brought into the same space once more...

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Lydia is holding a piece of paper in her hand. It's ... it's a piece of paper with strange writing on it but the important thing is that it's MALEVOLENT LIKE HECK. Lydia doesn't color it in due to inconsistent translation efforts.

"I feel like I'm holding metal demon porn right now." Lydia says, glancing over to Catenna. "Like their real freaky shit. I can't wait until we're done with this noise." She frowns. "But I can't help but wonder if someone put it all here intentionally."

She looks around. "Though if it's taking this much effort, I'm not sure we're gonna be OP enough to actually subdue it. Maybe with enough of us..."

"Team work makes the dream work." Lydia reassures herself.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

 Generally Sorey has people keeping him abreast of malevolence related things, and he's been told that something is going on in the formerly Sacred Grounds of Linga that he should probably try and help out with. He's been approached about a few other nasty malevolence outbreaks as well, and with everything going on down in Krosse and the upcoming confrontation with Mother... it was good to have a chance to take care of one of these problems.

 And so the Shepherd shows up fairly soon after the group with the items starts to gather. Sorey has his business face on at this point, and for those who can see them, three of his Seraphs are trailing along as well. Lailah, Mikleo, and Dezel spread out, keeping an eye on the area as Sorey walks over and raises a hand. "I know you've all been doing a lot of work here, so let me know where I can lend my support. I don't want to leave this place contaminated any longer than we need to, and any help would be appreciated." He's seen that some of the Shamans have gained the ability to fight back against malevolence, and he won't like - Sorey appreciates having help with this. Especially knowing Filgaia can fight against malevolence without him having to be there directly helping.

 He knows he has to go back to Lunar eventually, but this curse will remain. Having good people able to keep pushing it back gave peace of mind.

<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.

Prissa, who may or may not have made a new sword or two - or a sword approximating one that she has already prepared, at least, as an interim measure - pauses to look towards the paper Lydia is carrying with sudden interest.

Otherwise, the sword-making saint of this generation has come strapped with iron. She left the Drum back at the Caravan, so you know it's serious - and that you won't have access to Field Desynth this time!

"This place needs to be aired out, spirits or not," Prissa mutters. To Lydia, she asks forthrightly: "Will Rigdobrite be helping us, then? You can talk with - is Rigdobrite it or he? Or she? I forget."

<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.

    Chime had been making random trips through the Sacred Grounds after her first trip~ Mostly map and record purposes for the Academy and herself. Because why not! Also when not encountering an owlbear of shotgun wielding owlbears it was fun. Also important given the changes that had occured~

    She's now mostly humming to herself as she joins the growing group outside the Grounds with the various items within gathered. Maybe the purification would go better with all the items together instead of just the sword? Only one way to see! Well, to watch and see!

    The increased ambiance of the malveolence from the items gathered through does make Chime's smile slightly less cheerful, and she keeps absently checking her crossbow's in their holster or rubbing the back of her neck under red spiral curled hair as she watches and listens.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied wasn't certain if she was up to the task.

    Malevolence, to her, is much more debilitating than it is for other people; however, she was in possession of one of the items she'd procured from the site -- in her case, a thoroughly soaked Artemis Leaf that'd been wrapped in Malevolence that she promised to hold onto, for Avril, Jacqueline and the others...

    ... and that's why she's here as well -- she's leaning on a staff as she struggles to follow, with a pallor that's a little more pronounced than before. "Thank you... I won't be able to-- help purify, but..."

    But she still has closure here, in the sacred grounds of Linga, where in a way, things began for her.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida has been alternating between keeping the bag with the Malevolence-drenched weapon on her person and storing it in the (largely useless) sealed container provided by Linga's Symbologists. She's made sure not to keep it in one place for too long, lest the miasma sink in and fester--but now, she carries it back into the Sacred Grounds, the Symbological container tucked under one arm.

    "I can feel it festering," Ida says. She reaches up with her free hand, adjusts the brim of her hat. The hem of a brand-new duster sweeps about her ankles; it has the weight of cloth, but there are also heavier plates made of dark, strange metal bolted to it. It might have been custom-tailored for her. She gives Lydia a very even look, and takes a deep breath. The stink of rotten meat lingers in her nostrils. "We still don't know who or what placed these objects," she says. "We should prepare for the worst."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Once, Avril had come to the Sacred Grounds on little more than the sense that something important was awaiting her here.
    She'd found an ancient, untranslated letter -- but more than that, had met certain people for the first time.

    Thus, to think that when she'd returned to Filgaia that the place had become corrupted...
    Accompanying a small group into its depths to both make peace with a past event and purify a small portion of the grounds, they had found in the depths a terribly corrupted herb. Carrying it out in the hopes of purifying it...

    Well, they had simply found it wasn't possible without retrieving other similarly corrupt objects from within and, returning, and casting out the Malevolence from them jointly.

    Avril had volunteered.

    She accompanies Riesenlied now, the somewhat sharper tinge to her expression the one suggestion that the environment here is weighing on her. The Malevolence can't touch her unless she permits it to do so, but it's the same as having to wade through muck regardless.

    "Yes. With these items here... I do not believe it will release its hold on them easily," Avril states, drawing the hilt of her ARM.

<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.

It wasn't too long ago that Elvis had followed a group of Humans into the ruins of Linga. Having been on site for his own means of understanding a spiritual-like power that was difficult for him to see, being around it felt like it was slowly becoming more visible. Especially after looking at that discarded piece of weaponry. It practically frothed with Malevolence.

And yet...

Elvis of the Four Sentinels has the impeccable ability to be at the right place, at the right time. He was here once more near the base, trying to perfect his new invention, the MALEVO-LENS (patent pending) when others began to assemble. The Humans seem to be able to see it betetr than he. As currently to him it is akin to a heat shimmer with the faintest color.

He scans the group. Some familiar faces, some not. Riesenlied, Avril and Jacqueline get the longest looks. Particularely the Tainted. He has things he wants to tell her now. Things thusfar found. But with so many around...

"This should make for excellent research on what we know about Malevolence." A quill is put to a massive, ironbound tome held out in front of him. A daintly pair of spectacles adorns his face. Not that he needs them, mind you. But they make him look like a REFINED scientist. "Certainly seemed odd such small trinkets were kept in trapped rooms."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.

    Who knows the comings and goings of statues? Human urgency is lost to them.

    But surely when she found a friend concerned, the Beast of Lohgrin appeared.

    Malevolence is a blight on the land, and it is their responsibility, after all, that it is here now. Were it not for Lunar - this desert-planet would be safe. They brought this sickness here, and it is right for them to redress the fault.

    She does not know the sacred grounds of Linga; she can guess at their importance.

    It is a terrible thing - Malevolence. The Beast has no flesh to flense, but that purple-tinted sickness goes far beyond skin deep. It shudders the soul with ill portent. It is, in a word: unpleasant.

    An iron mask cannot betray any emotion, but there is a pained shade to her voice - feminine, for those with ears to catch it - when she speaks. "My strength is yours," and the rest is reassurance. "We will not fail in this." Were they to fail...

<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe_vKfCmTxQ&t=1092s

For a long time, nothing out of the ordinary occurs. Catenna scratches arcane marks into the floor, the chalk forming a stark outline against both the gloam of the cavern and the mix of dirt and mushroom sporata coating the floor. The opening moments are no different than any of a hundred others in your lives; Jay offers a warning. Lydia cracks jokes. Sorey offers reassurance. Ida speaks from experience. The Beast offers strength. The others exchange words of fellowship. The simple, casual acts of companions and acquaintances preparing for a difficult task.

Then, the world changes.

The bearers of the Malevolent items feel it first; a faint shiver or pulse from the burdens they carry, one that will be picked up by Shepherds and Shamans alike seconds later. For the others, it begins as a slow, pulsing drone, echoing out from the darkness, accompanied by the sound of dead and dried-up leaves softly tumbling along the stone on the ghost of a breeze.

And then a word.

festering

And another.

fools

They come then; from out of the darkness, faces made of mist, floating into the light and then dissolving into nothingness. A soft moan echoes out from the shadows, then another. Then a chorus. The sense of wrongness grows deeper, darker, and Riesenlied will be the first to scent the acrid tang of charred grass as the Artemis Leaf begins to smolder, black smoke bleeding out from the veins of the herb like a gaseous wound. More words echo out, as faces form on the outer edge of a circle, slowly closing inward.

you will fail

The mouths yawn wide, moaning with a scream of despair that falls away into a death rattle.

you brought your doom with you

The faces drift closer.

DC: Wedding Dress switches forms to Caries In Carne!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Seraph Beast with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Elvis with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Riesenlied with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Chime Isa with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Prissa with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Sorey with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lydia Seren with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Catenna with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action.
GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Lydia Seren completely evades Mundus Senescit from Wedding Dress!
GS: Riesenlied guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 92 hit points!
GS: Riesenlied enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Mundus Senescit from Wedding Dress!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Riesenlied with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 131 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Sorey with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 132 hit points!
GS: Sorey guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 78 hit points!
GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 78 hit points!
GS: Chime Isa takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 73 hit points!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 155 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Elvis with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action.
GS: Elvis takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 127 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Seraph Beast with Mundus Senescit!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    There were many gathered here with her; Riesenlied needn't be alone. Jacqueline and Avril were here, as those who procured the leaf with her; Catenna and Sorey were there to lend their abilities of purification where hers falls woefully short without a Medium. Lydia is there with the words that make her smile anyday -- teamwork makes the dream work.

    And even Elvis is there too... she isn't surprised, curious about research as he always is -- Ida too, as she thinks of how far she's come... the others she's not quite as familiar with, but nonetheless she is heartened--

    --which makes the sudden eruption of smoke from the Leaf all the more frightening as she grapples against it. "Ahh--"

    She hears the moan, as it rattles against the echoes and starts to sink into the corners of her mind. The scream, however, is what hurtles her back and slamming against a nearby fallen log.

    It's all a bit much for her; but as she struggles to her feet, she whispers, "I'll try to help..." as she continues to clutch against that small bottle where the Leaf smoulders.

    Still from her fallen position, she raises a hand-- and garners energy through to Avril, perhaps more sensing her through the Sea Medium than she can see right now. Everything's blurry...

GS: Riesenlied has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with ...I am not Afraid...!
GS: Riesenlied has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Riesenlied has entered a Reflect stance!
GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
GS: Riesenlied heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Avril Vent Fleur gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Rigdobrite is a...I dunno." Lydia, 'High Priestess' of Rigdobrite, says. "A shrimp in a--"

She looks towards Beast, eyes wide. "BEAST! YOOO! MOM TOO!" She hops up and down excitedly before grinning, more confidently than before.

It falters somewhat when everybody is teleported into some kind of world of black smoke world of bleeding faces and screaming mouths. Do they have teeth? Can they bite?

Lydia, ever intent on being a light in the dark, continues cracking jokes. "Wellp, we're going to have nightmares tonight aren't we?" She doesn't dare glance towards Sorey, staring ahead and frozen in place by a deep primal terror that controls everything from the neck down. "Sorey...never saw a hellion like this. What ...what is this?"

She hears words. Spoken? In her mind? She isn't sure. But she reaches for the silver medium in her posession, drawing it into her hand.

Lydia is often terrified beyond all measure, but despite these feelings being intense and powerful, she has yet to succumb wholly to it, to just give up.

And today is no exception.

"But..." Lydia says, straightening up. "Nightmares or not, we will live to dream them!"

She raises her hand into the air, channeling the power of her Guardian into her hand and...and...!

...And summons the power of cartoon-star shaped projectiles and flings them at those masks opening wide, trying to push the dark menace back with the power of praising the sun.

"Mom! Can you hear me!" Lydia shouts. "Prissa??"

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Wedding Dress with Interstellar Vibe!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Lydia Seren's Interstellar Vibe for 115 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

 The fact that the malevolence would take shape once they had gathered the items that it had attached itself to was not unexpected - Sorey had seen this sort of thing before, although each one had been unique in its own way, just as this one had. The Shepherd narrows his eyes as the feeling of malevolence in the room begins to rise, swelling upwards as it gathers into ghostly, unnatural shapes around the room. The outpouring of evil, hatred, and negativity is enough to push back against the Shepherd. But as soon as those dark faces behind to appear, Sorey's wooden sword whispers free from its sheath, the Shepherd turning to draw his weapon in the face of the oncoming horror. His blade bursts into life, blue flame racing up its length as the Shepherd raises his weapon to block the oncoming rush of darkness.

 It still flows around him, bringing a horrible dark chill to his veins for a moment, but Sorey steps forward into the fray with weapon drawn. "This is a strong one - we need to focus on creating a purified area and then push it outwards and deny the malevolence any place where it can fester here!" Sorey's voice is calm and purposeful, and he brings his sword around in a wide arc, the blazing flame along its length lashing out at the surrounding darkness.

 "This isn't a single hellion," Sorey shouts to Lydia. "It's like the collected malevolence of this place is coming together - it means our job is much harder because this won't go away until we've purified the area!"

GS: Sorey has attacked Wedding Dress with Crimson Edge!
GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Sorey's Crimson Edge for 86 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna's expression takes on a pained look when Lydia mentions Hyadean porn. She closes her eyes for a second and then returns to work, all the more urgently. "You may be right. But we must try." The Shepherd being here certainly helps, and Catenna nods to Sorey crisply. "We must cleanse these objects at once. The more of us can contribute...."

But it's too late. Even as she opens her mouth to begin the ritual, she can feel something in her gut. Something droning and pulsating, like tainted blood through a vein she did not realize she actually had. Catenna looks up, her shoulders tensing and her eyes darting back and forth as she tries to close in on the source of those sounds.

She wishes she hadn't.

Smoke oozes out around her. Catenna shields her arm with her sleeve, coughing into it. She's close to the artifacts - too close to try and elude this. Soon enough, the smoke swallows her up - and she can see the impressions of faces with mouths agape outlined through the smoke, hear the screams echoing through her senses like bats in the nave of a cathedral.

"...Then the only thing to do is to remove our doom," she growls through the miasma, her voice raspy with effort. The howling and fumes threaten to choke her out and drive her into flight. Steeling herself, Catenna drops to her knees and sinks into the source of the smoke - and she holds her hands out.

Chanting sonorously in Zortroan, she brings not gravity to bear, but a soft, silvery light. Fight or no fight, she's going to try and purify some of that Malevolence - even if it is just this one piece.

Piece by piece, Catenna resolves. If I can isolate little pieces...!

GS: Catenna has attacked Wedding Dress with Purification!
GS: Catenna has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Catenna's Purification for 50 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"I imagine so...the placement of it all seemed too...perfect." Jacqueline comments with a glance toward Lydia, and then a reassuring smile. "Hang in there. We'll get through this."

She looks toward Riesenlied, then.

"Just stay close...they'll take care of it. I know this must not be easy on you." Jacqueline murmurs to Riesenlied. She was surprised she had been able to make it - but glad, too, at the same time. And Avril provides a reasonable point.

This would not be easy.

Elvis enters the room around that time, attracted Jacqueline's attention. He looks at her and she looks back, eventually offering him a nod and a polite smile.

And then, not longer after, everything changes.

"A-ah!" Jacqueline yelps, as she feels a pulse emitted from the note in her hands. She recoils back a bit but remains strong as words emerge from the darkness...and soon, misty faces follow and that terrible senation intensifies.

She remains strong, but the others...

"...We can't fail. We can endure this." Jacqueline says. That scream of despair chills her but she holds strong.

"Just focus on the sound of my voice!" She says, drawing out a bottle filled with a lavender fluid. Rather than the usual cork, there's a device affixed to the top of it, the purpose of which becomes obvious as Jacqueline points it at the bulk of the faces and sprays.

The solution is intended to weaken that which it coats, but she's honestly not sure how that'll actually...work in a situation like this.

She tries not to think about it too hard.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Sapping Solution!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Sapping Solution for 15 hit points!
GS: Weaken! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.

    Chime's humming continues as she watches the ongoings with interest, without hovering around anyone in particular as the short elf moves about listening. If nothing else, the ceremony itself would make an interesting tale for later~ Granted, as the short elf comes to a stop while looking around she ponders a moment about other tales she's heard of ceremonies like this. Then she squints as the people conducting the ceremony react to something.

    "Never an easy task, is life?" Chime says outloud, in an startling cheerful voice as the thing arises from the ground or appears out of the air, the mist-formed faces and carried words. "What an unusual form~ Is it physical you think?" she asks glancing at Jay and Reisenlied closest to her even as she draws a single crossbow and takes a short at the center of a mist-formed mouth.

GS: Chime Isa has attacked Wedding Dress with Potshot!
GS: Chime Isa has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Chime Isa has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.

As calm as the professor is, his senses are not yet tuned for Malevolence well. The voices are-- something heard, almost incomprehensible and unnoticeable if not for the fact that Elvis knows what noises caves make, and that sound was not one of them.

And as the intensity of the pwoers from beyond grow, the man of brawn and brains begins to feel it, as well. "Something is growing, or perhaps drawn here. To these items..." he muses, writing down in his book. The man seems largely unphased by the odd sensations others may be experiencing. Perhaps he is just ignorant of it? Or isn't showing it?

Those perceptive can see his quill-handed shaking slightly, messing up his penmanship, much to his frustration.

And then the scream. Elvis nearly flails about, dropping his valued book, and glasses fall to the ground. "What IS IT with things screaming in my ear lately?!" The man takes a deep breath. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" YEAH, how do YOU LIKE IT?!" says the man screaming and a pained amalgamation.

An angered swipe of a hand, and coruscating pillars of hexagonal stone erupt out of nearby walls in a wave-like pattern. The Professor looks flustered and angry that something dare interrupt his writing. "GO AWAY!" Now what good it would stone manipulation do against something that appears metaphysical is anyone's guess.

GS: Elvis has attacked Wedding Dress with Hi-Crush!
GS: Elvis has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Elvis has completed his action.
GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Chime Isa's Potshot for 17 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Chime Isa has lost 1 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Elvis's Hi-Crush for 34 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Elvis has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Breath is the foundation from which all else flows. It's an esoteric thought, but it was one of the first Precepts that Ida's mother taught her. Training with Kalve and Jackie helped her refine her understanding of it, and put it into practice. Her time as a Hellion helped her grow accustomed to breathing deeply even when at the center of her own personal miasma. The naturalist-turned-martial-artist seems oddly at ease--or at least, not freaking out--even as the mist congeals into faces. Riesenlied can nevertheless feel the sharp spike of terror that answers those faces.

    Ida thrusts a hand forwards, chi illuminating her fingertips. The wave of horrific, Malevolent force meets with Ida's life-energy, marshaled behind a sense of purpose. Tendrils of Malevolence curl outwards like unraveling fabric. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Riesenlied fall. "You're here," Ida says. Cracks start to form in that sense of purpose as doubt creeps in.

    Why should she listen to you? Why should anyone listen to you?

    Ida lets out a hiss of breath. She steps forwards, and the Symbological containment device tumbles from Ida's hand, bouncing to the floor. She thrusts her other hand forwards in a palm strike, chi flaring. It illuminates one of the faces in ghastly relief. "We're here," Ida says. Her voice sounds a little ragged. Malevolence curls around her ankles.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Open Palm!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Open Palm for 64 hit points!
GS: Prissa takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 77 hit points!
GS: Seraph Beast guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 88 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Prissa with Mundus Senescit!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Prissa takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mundus Senescit for 155 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.

Prissa's perception of the supernaturally adept is not the best, but she can see what's in front of her face. She grimaces at the sight of the face, but she listens to Lydia's explanation instead. Her eyes turn towards others - the Hydaens, the Shepherd, Catenna - but the glance is brief, before the faces turn into something far worse. Another world!

"Seems likely," Prissa says as she whips out her shamshir, the blade glittering desert-bright for a moment. As Lydia speaks, Prissa grasps the weapon with both hands, sweat running down her back. She thinks for a moment about how terribly far away it was that she made this blade.

She sweats more. When one of the tendrils of darkness comes towards her, she lunges forwards in a twisting skewer that would have been totally bad if she'd hit a guy in the tummy with it - and had he not been guarding - but against something like this, it may be as much demonstration of futility.

"I am here," Prissa answers Lydia, voice flatter and somewhat louder. "More stars!!"

GS: Prissa has attacked Wedding Dress with Shamshir - Memories of Home!
GS: Prissa has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Prissa has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress guards a hit from Prissa's Shamshir - Memories of Home for 67 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Jam, and Poison! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.

    Take care not to listen closely to the whispers of the world, lest your ears catch the keening of the banshee, and all its mortal sorrows.

    It comes from nothing and to nothing they return.

    And in that nothing-space does the Beast of Lohgrin bear witness to the shape of darkness: faces which catch at the world and fall away. It is a dark blanket thrown over them, heavy with its sins. She bears up under it, even as it grows larger, stronger...

    "We will not fail," she says, though the words are strained.

    It is well enough to say that - but though her pieces shudder and remain standing true, there are others who fare so much worse. "I will not allow it!" She declares, and the wind picks up around Riesenlied like a little tornado, to buffet away the nightmares.

GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Wedding Dress with Buffeting Headwind!
GS: Seraph Beast has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress guards a hit from Seraph Beast's Buffeting Headwind for 86 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    It was not bound to be easy. A force like this desires to spread, cancerously.

    Something reaches out at them from the darkness.

    A cry escapes Avril's lips. One arm is raised, to little avail at the frothing sensation of decay that seems to surround and cling to her wherever she so turns. Lifting her left arm in a guard -- as little protection it may be, against the surge of Malevolence -- she wills forth the blade from the ARM's hilt, Absolute Zero extending into reality in a flash of light.

    There were images of a woman like this once, Elvis may recall. Long-haired, clad in regal robes. Brandishing a most singular blade.

    "Riesenlied-- the leaf is...!"

    She's noticed it two. Blade borne against the darkness around them, she murmurs a brief 'thank you' as the benediction wraps her in a warm embrace.

    And then Avril closes her eyes. From what direction...?

    There.

    She lashes out with the blade, apparently blindly.
    Don't look with your eyes. Look with your heart.

    "Do not stop! I will do what I can to keep it at bay!"

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Spirit Saber!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Spirit Saber for 27 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.

As the moaning faces draw closer, their dissonant cries resonating from within the broken acoustics of the cavern, words spoken and shouted aloud seem to bounce back into the centre of the circle. Jay's spray slashes across the mist, her voice echoing back, mocking her

fail

as they begin to melt like a waxen candle. Lydia's and Prissa's shooting stars and Sorey's arcing flame follow, and a trio of wailing wisps evaporate into particles, their death cry a shivering wail whose echo lingers. doom

Catenna's voice drones back to her as she fires a wave of brilliant purification energy; this has more effect than anything else thus far, actual cries of strident pain splitting the darkness. For an instant, the mist masks cease their advance, as if watching as their fellows flicker and die. But then the ranks close, and the faces press forward, slowly tightening the circle, cutting off room for maneuver. Elvis's angry swipe brings stone crashing down upon them, but the mistborne creatures flow around the broken earth, Chime's crossbow bolt firing through a mouth that has already dissolved away. Ida's chi blast proves more effective, scattering a pair of them.... but for each one struck down, more continue to press inward.

no escape

From her position crouched against the log, Riesenlied and Avril will be all but drenched in the black foulness belching outward from the Artemis Leaf, bathing the immediate surroundings in a wave of poisonous darkness. But then the Beast of Lohgrin calls upon the power of Althena - and though the Seraphim is far indeed from the seat of her Goddess's power, the howling winds tear at the masks of mist, ripping the darkness away from the immediate vicinity.

It is in that moment - with pure, unblinking clarity - that Avril's blade spears through the Artemis Leaf... which shudders, visibly, and then begins to dissolve away into shimmering motes of light. The faces moan, the stones shuddering with their despair... and then, from where the scion of Luisa Rey let it fall, the rusted blade begins to shiver and smolder.

you cannot hide the threads of your life

The faces begin to shift, their pace slowing as they almost seem to draw more of the darkness into themselves, gaining force and substance as they do. They continue their advance again... only this time, the whispering hiss of silk on steel underpinning their wailing cries, as blades of darkness spear inward from the void.

they will be severed

GS: Wedding Dress has spent 2 Combo on Poison and Disease, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Miserabile Visu!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Riesenlied with Miserabile Visu!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Seraph Beast with Miserabile Visu!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Elvis with Miserabile Visu!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Mala Ipsa Nova!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Prissa with Mala Ipsa Nova!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Chime Isa with Mala Ipsa Nova!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Mala Ipsa Nova!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Catenna with Mala Ipsa Nova!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Sorey with Mala Ipsa Nova!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lydia Seren with Mala Ipsa Nova!
GS: Wedding Dress takes 9 damage from Poison!
GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action.
GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Miserabile Visu for 0 hit points!
GS: Riesenlied has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points!
GS: Disease and Toxin! Statuses applied to Riesenlied!
GS: Catenna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Catenna completely evades Mala Ipsa Nova from Wedding Dress!
GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mala Ipsa Nova for 126 hit points!
GS: Sorey guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mala Ipsa Nova for 126 hit points!
GS: Seraph Beast guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Miserabile Visu for 0 hit points!
GS: Seraph Beast has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points!
GS: Disease and Toxin! Statuses applied to Seraph Beast!
GS: Prissa critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mala Ipsa Nova for 69 hit points!
GS: Prissa has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Chime Isa takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Mala Ipsa Nova for 149 hit points!
GS: Elvis guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Miserabile Visu for 0 hit points!
GS: Elvis has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points!
GS: Disease and Toxin! Statuses applied to Elvis!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Mala Ipsa Nova from Wedding Dress!
GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Lydia Seren completely evades Mala Ipsa Nova from Wedding Dress!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Miserabile Visu for 0 hit points!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has been weakened by Disease! They take 20 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points!
GS: Disease and Toxin! Statuses applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

What Catenna is doing has an effect - but it's taking effort. Catenna is not Sorey. The Shepherd's power to cleanse Malevolence is great; Catenna's is worth only a fraction of that granted to the boy chosen by the Seraphim. She struggles visibly to keep the magic up.

The ranks of moaning faces close in on her even as her light dims for a moment. She can hear the dreadful hiss of veiled metal and silken folds somewhere behind the chorus of groans and wails, and she can feel them closing in on her. The trains of Catenna's long dress brush the floor, pale blue fabric rippling.

The darkness closes in with severing thrusts that rip through air and horror. When they do, Catenna's ready for them. She whirls back and away, her hair and dress billowing. Another slicing bolt of darkness threatens to impale her, entirely too close. It threatens to sever the threads of her life and she can feel just how close to doing so it comes.

She lets out her breath in a hiss, then turns to look towards Avril. The Artemis Leaf is gone.

Something else smoulders now. The blade Ida brought with her.

"The artifacts," she gasps, her eyes wide. More edged blades of dread begin to whirl her way, but she's already sprinting towards that blade.

The problem for Catenna is that none of her regular Arcana can actually hurt a phenomenon this metaphysical - they all depend on its having physical mass. All she can do is stop in front of the blade and step through the purification ritual as quickly as humanly possible. It's like she's casting the spell at double speed, struggling to try and level the purifying light upon the Malevolent artifact before it can stab her, then struggling even more to try to hold the spell up, then struggling even more than that because Catenna just can't do this as well as Sorey can.

But it's all she can do. So she does it.

GS: Catenna has attacked Wedding Dress with Purification!
GS: Catenna has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied winds up drawing a lot more of that inky, choking air than she'd intended to; as she draws her hand to cover her mouth, she lets out an ill cough as she doubles over from the darkness exuding from the Artemis Leaf--

    --but fortunately Avril is there, blade striking forth as the bottle is broken and the corrupted item disintegrated into nothing more than flecks of light, the rest of the darkness blown away by Beast's winds. "T-thank you... you two..."

    She hears Ida's tone as she senses that sharp spike of fear -- a fear that she thinks she intrinsically understands.

    She also hears Lydia shouting towards her, and Jacqueline as well. Their voices guide her, as she splays her hands to the Dragon's Tear, which begins to shimmer with the colour of emotion--

    An emotion to help repel against the despair threatening to surround them. And as the light begins to surround and cascade against her...

    She opens her mouth, to wordlessly, aurally chant the Song of the Giants.

    The song's energy washes against the Drifters, to those that have been harmed most by the faces of despair that threaten to surround and wound them. Motes of light, individually delicate and threatened to be swallowed by the Malevolence around them -- but with comfort, knowing that they aren't alone.

GS: Riesenlied has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Elvis with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Seraph Beast with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Prissa with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Chime Isa with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Sorey with Empathic Prayer - Riesenlied!
GS: Riesenlied has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Riesenlied takes 7 damage from Toxin!
GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
GS: Riesenlied heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Jacqueline Barber gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each!
GS: Riesenlied heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Reload! Avril Vent Fleur gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
GS: Seraph Beast gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each!
GS: Riesenlied heals Seraph Beast! She gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Seraph Beast gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
GS: Elvis gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each!
GS: Riesenlied heals Elvis! He gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Elvis gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Catenna's Purification for 50 hit points!
GS: Riesenlied heals Sorey! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Sorey gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

 Unfortunately, it seemed like purifying all of this malevolence was going to be easier said than done. The swirling mass of faces and horrible feelings of doom and despair continue to swirl around the group, pressing in from all sides and threatening to do terrible harm. If that threat can be followed through with more than just the raw power of darkness that was being flung around... well, Sorey couldn't say for sure, but what he was feeling was already bad enough.

 As the darkness transforms into blades of malevolent energy, Sorey brings his sword around in a spinning arc, knocking several of them away. More continue to pile in however, and the Shepherd finds himself being pressed back by the force they are projecting at him.

 "Nrg... this really isn't messing around!" the Shepherd exclaims, clearing the area around him with a flourish of blue flame for a moment. "Concentrate on purifying the objects if you can, and I'll see about dispersing this darkness to try and give you a bit more room to work!" There's not much more Sorey can say - being able to cleanse larger areas of malevolence with a strike means he's better off remaining mobile and trying to cover for people. As Riese's song fills the room, Sorey flashes her a smile of thanks before he brings his sword upwards. The force of the blow is enough to bring Sorey into the air - and as he comes down, he brings the blade downwards as well. The motion unleashes a huge wave of blue flame with races across the room, trying to burn away as much malevolence as he can in a single move.

GS: Sorey has attacked Wedding Dress with Tiger Blade!
GS: Sorey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress guards a hit from Sorey's Tiger Blade for 135 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.

Darkness folds before her like the world itself being reforged. Prissa is able to parry an incoming blade with her shamshir despite what is obviously a distinct lack of military training; the next one hits her in the shoulder, a piece of it breaking off as she twists away, her back smacking against Lydia's. Fortunately Lydia is now made of metal, so she won't get knocked over. Good planning, Prissa!

"Lydia," Prissa says, with effort.

"For heavensturn, I was making a present. When I was small one day they found a stone that fell from the skies in the deep desert. My mother helped bring it in. She said when she touched it, it was cold. And I saw it before we put it in the supplies. They saved a slice, for its beauty..."

Prissa reaches with her less stunned hand towards her hip - and draws out what looks like a gladius-scale short sword. She twists it round and proffers it to her.

"I figured," Prissa says, "that I should give it to you now."

The blade looks... like a cross-section of one of those nickel-iron meteors. The big ones that fall out of the sky and end up in science museums, but polished to a glossy sheen, and with every swiss-cheese hole sharpened to razor fineness.

                   CHONDRITE - The Paradox Blade of Heaven
                                -INCOMPLETE-

"Use it in good health," Prissa tells her. "Or give it to Rigdobrite, I do not know how this works. Style is half the battle, you know!"

She breathes in deeply, looking towards the lights coming from Riesenlied and struggling against the darkness. She's singing, Prissa thinks. Is that the solution here? Singing?

Instead of swords?? Improbable, Prissa reasons further.

GS: Riesenlied heals Prissa! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Prissa gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
GS: Prissa has spent 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Prissa has attacked Lydia Seren with Emergency Sword Rental!
GS: Prissa has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Prissa has completed her action.
GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Prissa's Emergency Sword Rental for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Lydia Seren!
GS: Reload! Lydia Seren gains 15 extra FP from Prissa!
GS: Lydia Seren gains a Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.

    Chime doesn't frown at the lack of effect as she draws her other crossbow and aims at a different section of the mist firing off a bolt. This one aimed at a face that doesn't look focused on her but someone else as she methodically works down a mental list of what to do while examining the mavolent creature as best she can and the others around her.

    "Fail? Doom?" The cheerful elf asks in an almost mocking voice if not for the quality of curiousity. "No escape and only death? Oh my~" she's almost singing. "Probably not~ This is but another moment in a drifter's lift that we simply choose to stand an do something no one else can."

GS: Riesenlied heals Chime Isa! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Chime Isa gains 15 extra FP from Riesenlied!
GS: Chime Isa enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Wedding Dress with Potshot!
GS: Chime Isa has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline hears her voice thrown back at her and flinches slightly, but shakes her head. It was trying to mock her, to make her angry to make her lose hope. She wouldn't let it work.

"Stay strong, everyone! We're in this together!" She urges as they continue to fight against it.

The faces shift and draw more darkness into themselves before sending blades of shadow spearing toward them. Jacqueline raises a pillar of earth in front of her defensively, but the blade manages to shear right through, catching her across her side. Her cloak and light armor provide protection, but she feels the searing pain as if it had struck her directly. She backpedals with a wince - and that's when she hears the Song of the Giants.

Riesenlied's song, which comforts and invigorates her.

"Thank you! And now...!" Jacqueline brandishes a Crest from her pouch. Light begins to shine in the midst of the faces before detonating in a bright burst.

"You're doing well! Keep going!" Jacqueline urges. She stays near Catenna, just in case she needs to take a hit for her friend.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Profit Through Preparation!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Chime Isa's Potshot for 54 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Profit Through Preparation for 30 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.

The Stone has little effect on halting the advance of what seems like death's door itself. "Getting... hard to breathe in here..." The Sentinel states. It feels like what he thinks Humans that smoke those tubed plants must feel, how they hack and wheeze and look like they died a little inside.

Stay in educational facilities, Human younglings.

Avril moves gracefully, and as her weapon pierces the leaf, her poise and figure cuts a silhouette that makes Elvis' eyes light up. He has seen her somewhere, hasn't he...! An ancient book, one speaking of...!

No, that is impossible.

'...Bring her to me. She is of utmost priority...'

...Was it?

A gentle song, sung by Riesenlied, helps cure the ailments circulating around this miasma of emotions made reality. An appreciative nod toward her. "I know not the rituals in which to stop this, so I will do my part to keep it ay bay!

And so, Elvis decides the smart idea is to try and punch some ghosts. The punches probably do little, but the after-image shockwaves they produce just might, as they fly faster than the average eye can track.

GS: Elvis has attacked Wedding Dress with Rapid Punch!
GS: Elvis has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Elvis has completed his action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Elvis's Rapid Punch for 170 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    A very familiar silhouette, indeed.

    This time, her blade cuts deep enough.

    Not until the leaf begins to burn with light -- she can feel it, as the Malevolence departs -- does she draw her sword back. Assuming a guarded stance -- blade held before her, its tip directed towards the heavens -- she glances back at Riesenlied.

    "Concentrate on purifying the objects. We shall not fail here," she intones, her gaze returning to the haze of darkness pulsing around them.
    One may be purified.
    Three remain.
    And this force is that which desires to consume everything.

    "--ah?!"

    Like so. The trial on Lunar may save her heart from being consumed, but it doesn't make the touch any easier to bear. Doesn't spare her the bite of despair that wafts close to her heart.

    Give up. Give in. Lie forever in the darkness--

    A song pieces the shadows. A wordless song.

    "...Riesenlied. Thank you," Avril murmurs, before her gaze glides across the multitude of the faces.

    Lydia is granted a blade.

    "Lydia."

    She steps in, assuming a position at the young shaman's back. "Shall we?"

    Amidst the shadows, only her blade glitters as Avril delivers one thrusting strike, right for one of those faces.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with White Blade!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Avril Vent Fleur's White Blade for 64 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.

    There is no escape.

    The Beast of Lohgrin does not try.

    She stands sentinel as the darkness presses forward, and the cries lance in past her plates to a place deeper than iron. She has no blood to curdle; it is no advantage. It only means her soul is laid bare, with nothing wrapped about it but her cage of metal.

    Her form shudders, plates sliding over each other as she struggles to keep coherence. But Riesenlied sings a song without words, and it is light and solace against the worst of oblivion. It seeps into the places the toxic darkness took hold; it eases the burden. "Thank you," says the Beast, in eminent gratitude.

    The others stand in defiance, and there is one whose calling is plain to a Seraph. The Beast of Lohgrin cannot purify Malevolence - she has not made pact or promise. She has her own strength. "Shepherd!" She calls, as the wind picks up about the boy. "Stand firm!"

    It is not a thing to blow away the darkness, this time - Sorey has strength enough to force the Malevolence back. It is soothing summer breeze, picnics and strolls, and it settles about him in his defence.

GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Sorey with Fortifying Tailwind!
GS: Seraph Beast has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Fail. Doom. No escape.

These aren't words that Lydia hasn't heard before coming from inside her own head, quite frankly. She turns her thinking around. In a fashion, isn't this like finally getting to beat up those voices in your head?

Still, it doesn't seem like direct assault will work. Purification, Lydia thinks, that seems to be the way. She has purified small objects before, but this seems way beyond her normal skill. Still, there is a particular source here for all of this isn't there? That's right.
Shehe hears Riesenlied's song reaching out to her from the distance. Even if that energy doesn't reach her, she can hear Riesenlied doing her best too.

"I hear you," Lydia says. "And I hear you, Prissa!"

Her friend arrives. Through collission. Lydia steadies her with one hand as Prissa tells her a story.

What the fuck is heavensturn, Lydia thinks, first.

Then Prissa offers her a sword. Lydia is not really a swordsman though she seems to rely on blades as such with some frequency. Lydia takes Chrondite into her hand and looks at it for almost a moment before yelping because a dark spear nearly skewered through her face.

She is able to use the blade to smack away the rest so open up some breathing room. When she finally has a second, Lydia looks to Prisssa and smiles to her.

"It'll be okay." Lydia says. "I will use this as a channeling focus."

And with that she wields the Paradox Blade of Heaven (holy shit is that actually what it's called, Lydia will think, if she ever gets to hear the name) up into the air, taking in a deep breath and channeling Rigdobrite's power through it. The blade brightens even further than it already has, glowing a blazing white that pushes back the darkness as stars are wont to do.

Then, the short blade twinkling like a star is turned to face downward as Lydia pushes further, channeling the power of purification into the blade and punching it towards that piece of paper she's been carrying.

Light erupts out from the blade and lashes out in several arcing directions as the energy erupts in all directions around Lydia, each one lancing off rapidly like a falling star.

In reverse.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Tendrils of foul darkness curl up from the sealed, Symbol-covered wooden box. The wood is blackening, crumbling, as if burning to ash in a heatless fire--or rotting away. Within is a length of metal that is so corroded it's almost impossible to tell what it originally was, aside from 'probably a blade of some sort'.

    You dropped it, you idiot girl.

    Ida has no response to the hateful little voice. She freezes in place, staring out at the swirling faces, watching as the darkness condenses into knives.

    'you cannot hide the threads of your life'

    "I know," Ida says. The others are shouting, helping each other, but she looks lost in her own little world. Like it's just her, and the Malevolence. "I'm afraid. I'm so afraid." She's buckling. Is she buckling? She already fell to Malevolence once, and now she's just standing there, radiating fear. "I embrace this fear--"

    Three blades rush at her from three different angles.

    "--And its strength."

    Ida spins on a heel, twists, bends back at the waist. The first blade grazes the hollow of her neck, leaving a lingering chill behind. She carries the motion through, tucking and rolling across the cavern floor. One of the blades glances off her armored coat. The last pins its hem to the floor.

    Ida rises, pulls hard on her coat--the spectral blade shatters, and she stands. "I embrace this fear," Ida says, "and with it, myself." She steps forwards, into the whirling darkness, and strikes. Her right fist blurs forwards, trailing golden afterimages in its wake. Everyone else seems to be approaching this differently, but... perhaps she can, at least, be something solid for the others to fall back to if need be.

GS: Lydia Seren has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Wedding Dress with One Billion Trillion Stars!
GS: Lydia Seren has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's One Billion Trillion Stars for 132 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick! Statuses applied to Lydia Seren!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Steel-Breaking Fist!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Steel-Breaking Fist for 90 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oiHFWarHVs

Shepherd and Shaman bring flame and light alike, each ripping holes through the shadowy forms. Empowered by the gift of the Beast of Lohgrin, Sorey's fire actually keeps rolling down the corridor toward the cave exit and beyond; the dancing blue lights linger for a moment on the cave floor, providing a somewhat safe - and possibly tempting - path back into the light for any who might choose to take it, to flee from the darkness into the light of safety. But the window is closing.

Chime's second shot fares much better than the first, actually embedding in the shadowy mask she fires upon, prompting an agonized cry. The bolt slowly starts to flow down toward the cavern floor, the shadowy form now with the consistency of molasses rather than mist - indeed, all of them seem to be more solid in form. The downside is made manifest as Jay fires a brilliant blast of light from a carefully prepared Crest; the masked creature's skin sizzles and bubbles, but it seems less affected by light as it grows more solid. That said, the more solid they are, the more susceptible to physical violence they become, as evidenced by the way Elvis's flickering fists batter the spirits into submission. Still, they continue to advance, the circle down to two thirds of its original size.

no escape

As they move forward, tenebrous filaments begin flowing out from the masks, giving them thin, fibrous limbs composed of writhing tentacles. They writhe and dance as the creatures of darkness move forward - some lash out toward the Diggers, grasping, while others twine together, linking in a twisted serpentine caress. The motions grow more frantic, bordering on the obscene... and only the most clever, or observant, will note that in so doing, they are attempting to close the circle around the remaining Diggers, and separate them from the mobile form of the Shepherd.

no escape from life

Lydia and Avril's blades punch holes in the twisting, octacular monstrosity - its scream is a twisted and broken cry as it explodes into violent bursts of light. Ida fares nearly as well, her chi strikes crushing the monster before her. But from her position, clear in its face, she - and Elvis, who is nearly as close - will see the wispy lines of smoke flowing out from the shattered body and into the creatures beside it, which grow darker and more solid after absorbing the substance. It is then that Ida and Elvis, Avril and Lydia, each pay the price for their valour - the limbs of the darktopi sharpen into blades formed of shadowy filaments, that lash out in blistering, flickering cuts. For others, the sheer vileness of the mist becomes more powerful as it concentrates, flooding their lungs with a darkness that burns. And then there are the singers, above whom shadows descend from the stalactites overhead, sharpening into long, jagged spears of shade.

no escape from life... but death

GS: Wedding Dress used Mystic on Wedding Dress! Status effect durations increased by 2! Temporary HP duration increased by 2!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from Seraph Beast's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield! Statuses applied to Sorey!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Mors Vincit Omnia!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lydia Seren with Mors Vincit Omnia!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Elvis with Mors Vincit Omnia!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Mors Vincit Omnia!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Sorey with Mortui Vivos Docent!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Chime Isa with Mortui Vivos Docent!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Seraph Beast with Mortui Vivos Docent!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Morior Invictus!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Prissa with Morior Invictus!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Catenna with Mors Vincit Omnia!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Riesenlied with Mors Vincit Omnia!
GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Vincit Omnia for 211 hit points!
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Vincit Omnia for 219 hit points!
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Sorey has activated a Force Action!
GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Morior Invictus for 103 hit points!
GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mortui Vivos Docent for 150 hit points!
GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Vincit Omnia for 41 hit points!
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Elvis enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Vincit Omnia for 108 hit points!
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Riesenlied takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Vincit Omnia for 104 hit points!
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Prissa guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Morior Invictus for 112 hit points!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Vincit Omnia for 113 hit points!
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Chime Isa guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mortui Vivos Docent for 95 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.

    Chime smiles brightly at Riesenlied, offer her a nod before turning back to look over the misty forms. "I think you're mistaken~ Oh so very wrong." she remarks casually to the malvolence about. She doesn't move quickly as she moves to a spot roughly center of everyone, speaking loud enough to be heard, in a voice overflowing with cheer, hope, and confidence.

    "There's a moment we'll reach a decision, not to cower and crash to the ground but to face our worst demons and with courage found we stand with friends. We won't retreat, even as we stare down death for the taste of victory of is sweet." Chime calls out, as a pulse of energy sweeps off the brightly smiling, cheerful elf. It covers the entire area as her cheerful hopefulness literally seems to run off her in waves, she's that confident in herself and everyone around her.

GS: Chime Isa has attacked Chime Isa with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Catenna with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Elvis with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Lydia Seren with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Prissa with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Riesenlied with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Seraph Beast with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Sorey with Stand Up! Fight On!!
GS: Chime Isa has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Chime Isa has completed her action.
GS: Chime Isa takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Chime Isa!
GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Catenna!
GS: Wedding Dress takes 4 damage from Poison!
GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action.
GS: Seraph Beast takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Mortui Vivos Docent for 80 hit points!
GS: Seraph Beast takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Seraph Beast!
GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Riesenlied!
GS: Elvis takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Elvis!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Lydia Seren!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Prissa takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Prissa!
GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from Chime Isa's Stand Up! Fight On! for 0 hit points!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Sorey!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

 If it had been a year in the past, Sorey would probably not have noticed the more deliberate motions inside the chaos of the malevolence that is flowing about the room. But he can see now that its trying to close off the drifters who are working to purify the objects, while cutting him off on the outside where he is trying to dispel more of the general malevolence that is out attacking people.

 The darkness may believe that there is no escape, but the Shepherd disagrees. He disagrees wholeheartedly, because there is always a way forward when you have hope and friends around to help you with fighting against the darkness that is trying to overwhelm you.

 The lashing tendrils batter at Sorey, the darkness forcing him back and away from the other Drifters. He staggers for a moment from the force of the blows, sliding across the ground for a moment.

 But he can hear Beast encouraging him, Riese singing to bring strength to the group, and Chime unleashing their power... and with friends who are doing everything that they can to fight back against this darkness, how can he do any less?

 "Alright, we're going in full power, Lailah!" Sorey states - and with a flash, the platinum haired Seraph appears next to him, smiling.

 "Right! Let's do it, Sorey!"

 "Fethmus Mioma!!"

 And through the darkness, a flash of light as Sorey and Lailah join together - replacing his normal clothing with a brilliant white and gold outfit, his hair transformed to a shining blonde color, tiled off with a large red feather, a red belt around Sorey's waist. An absolutely massive red and gold sword appearing in his hand as Lailah takes the form of her divine weapon, and Sorey throws himself forward into the mass of malevolent darkness before him, bringing his blade up in a move that involves a massive pillar of flame that sears the swirling darkness with intense, purifying flame.

DC: Sorey switches forms to Armatus Fethmus Mioma!
GS: Sorey has attacked Wedding Dress with Vermilion Crescent!
GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Sorey's Vermilion Crescent for 94 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    The song isn't sufficient; Riesenlied's voice starts to choke up just a little as she holds onto her throat, and she winces and struggles for a moment longer as her knees buckle and she drops closer towards that morass.

    ...no escape from life...

    Struggling as she may be, however, she does notice the weave of masks, the shroud of darkness to start to attempt to separate them. Away from the Shepherd, the Shamans, and individually be trapped and separated from one another. She hears Chime's encouragement, but...

    no escape from life... but death...

    She bristles hard for a moment, clutching at the Dragon's Tear--

    The blood-stained girl looks up from deep beneath her mind. "... that is what I chose. You know that... you just haven't... have you, Riesenlied..."

    --the darkness gathers around her. They form into powerful spears of shadow, threatening to pierce and impale her on the spot.

    A loud screech interrupts--

    --and Riesenlied's eyes widen as she's suddenly lifted off the ground, away from the inky blackness. A feathered mass, easily eight foot in height, with the body of an ursine menace with the face of an owl...

    ... and a shotgun in one hand, the one not holding Riesenlied up on its shoulder.

    It's the owlbear they spared and sent back to the woods from their run. The one they finally made peace with, all of this time...

    "A-ah!?"

    The owlbear's eye glints, and it roars as it begins to stomp towards the darkness towards Avril and Jacqueline, and with a 'ca-click' pump-acts its shotgun and blasts the masks of darkness with owlbear-approved... slugs...?

    "You came back...!" she whispers faintly, feeling heartened.

GS: Riesenlied has attacked Wedding Dress with Return of Owlbear - Shotgun Edition!
GS: Riesenlied takes 12 damage from Toxin!
GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Riesenlied's Return of Owlbear - Shotgun Edition for 96 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

"I will do my best," Catenna answers Sorey with visible effort and audible strain, struggling to keep on purifying the artifact in front of her. She's nowhere near as mobile as Sorey in her ability to bring purifying energy down upon a source, nor even as powerful. But it at least enables her to come along behind.

He can do something immediately. Catenna needs more time. It works out.

With Jay staying near her and urging her on, Catenna's able to dig a little deeper, coax out a little more magical energy.

Until shadows plummet from the ceiling and extend into long tendrils. Catenna's so absorbed in her spell that she doesn't see the end of her life coming. She continues to chant.

Until she jolts forward and coughs up a mouthful of blood as three shadow spears punch into her back and run her through completely.

Only the fact that Catenna's sitting at an angle prevents anything vital from being hit. One of the darkspears rips through her thigh and punches a gruesome wound into her leg. Another one slashes through soft tissue in her side and the third one hits just above it. It's still enough that she wilts forward, too catastrophically hurt to even manage more than a weak cry. Falling towards the floor, she seems like she's completely out of the fight.

Until, at the last moment, she forces her body to turn. She feels herself hit the floor on her side, then she flops over onto her back, lying there face-up and bleeding out - while Malevolence bleeds in.

And yet... her voice comes through again. It is much, much smaller and weaker.

The colour of the light shimmering around her shifts. It fades to a dim, sickly bluish tone as Catenna raises her voice. She's pleading in her own language. Sitting up with obvious effort, she clutches one of her Mediums in her hands. Avril can feel what she's trying to do more clearly than anyone - the spell is close to familiar. The sensation she's trying to evoke is one that's not new to her.

Catenna squeezes her eyes closed and clutches the Medium. She does something she rarely does: She lets out a high, straining cry of sheer ungodly effort.

And the light peaks to a brilliant, shimmering oceanic blue.

Shimmering out from around her on the last note of her scream of effort, a wave of magic roars out, like ocean water. The curdling feelings of this place are briefly interrupted by the scent of the sea. Gleaming droplets of water dance through the air - and those they touch are blessed by a refreshing touch. Healing waters.

For just a second - a silent second - a shadowy, coiling shape writhes through the circle of masks. The Guardian of the Sea appears for just a moment.

GS: Catenna has spent 1 Combo on Inspire, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Catenna has attacked Catenna with Material - Sovereign of the Deep!
GS: Catenna has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Material - Sovereign of the Deep!
GS: Catenna has attacked Riesenlied with Material - Sovereign of the Deep!
GS: Catenna has attacked Lydia Seren with Material - Sovereign of the Deep!
GS: Catenna has attacked Sorey with Material - Sovereign of the Deep!
GS: Catenna has completed her action.
GS: Catenna heals Catenna! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Catenna gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: DISEASE! Catenna tries to heal Riesenlied, but it doesn't work!
GS: Riesenlied gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Catenna heals Lydia Seren! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Lydia Seren gains a Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.

As the combat continues, and the items are purified, Elvis notices an interesting turn of events-- the souls, emotions, tenebrous shades, whatever they are, are becoming more of a whole form. While his first attacks did little, it feels as though those punches did... something.

And yet, as well, these strange shadowy beings borne from Malevolence close in on all sides-- more accurately, on all sides against the party, and then separately toward another. "It looks like a diversion tactic of some kind! They aren't as mindless as we perceive them to be!" he yells. Chime's call out feels Elvis with an odd sensation of resolve.

"Keep Going! I'll make sure they don't surround us!" he shouts, rearing a fist back, infusing it with power. Blue and purple energy ripples around Elvis, his Detonation Aura brought forth, and pooled in to his fist, it takes time to channel.

Those spirits close in and begin to attack with ethereal edges. The man holds out a hand, calling out to the earth around. He manages to dodge most of the attacks, but some leave haunting injuries upon him. The earth around them glows with an infusion of magic, an attempt to strengthen it as much as possible before unleashing his attack, lest this cave collapse in the aftermath.

He's been through that too many times as is.

When the energy comes close enough, the punch is released, and it sounds akin to a cannon going off indoors. The room will vibrate, and a shockwave of conical energy will rip out, attempting to dissolve all this spiritual nonsense.

GS: Elvis has activated a Force Action!
GS: Elvis has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Elvis has attacked Wedding Dress with Locus Upper!
GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Elvis has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Elvis's Locus Upper for 185 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.

    The Malevolent host tries to weave a web, and the Beast of Lohgrin moves, quick as you like, to make their task all the more difficult. Her evasion does not see much success. She is not acting to purify the objects, after all. She is acting in support.

    She is not the only one who does.

    The cloying dark claims there is no escape from life but for the end, and once more the Beast is compelled to wonder, distantly, if it is possible in strange aeons for a thing without death to die. It is this distance which gives her some manner of protection which the mortals in her company cannot know. It is little enough protection, when the Malevolence seethes.

    She is not the only one hurt by it.

    And so hollow eyes turn to find - "Ida!" Calls the Beast, across the nothing-space of their battlefield. "You have grown so much - you are stronger than that which threatens you!" And it is not just belief, in her voice: it is pride.

    The lancing tentacles strike at her flank, and she leaps from their grasp.

    She will not see them fail.

GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with You Are Stronger Than This!!
GS: Seraph Beast has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Seraph Beast's You Are Stronger Than This! for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Catenna heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur gains a Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia lets out a roar as she strikes at the darktopus but it feels like no matter how bright the light shines, darkness will have its day one way or another. Lydia is panting for breath--whether she is actually running out of stamina or if it's psychosomatic is unclear. Maybe it's Mother, maybe Filgaia is already so weakened, but--

--ah.

A spear of darkness has just punched through her chest and out the back. Not the worst wound you've seen Lydia make but she JUST finally got rid of the crutches! And now this happens! Lydia hacks out some silver fluid before swiping the tendril off of her with the blade.

Lydia is still going to be aiming for that paper but it seems like it'll take more than just one blast to knock the stuffing out of it. She thinks she can still move. Thank Rigdobrite. Distantly she hears Chime's encouragement. Like hell, she thinks, is she gonna be the first one to fall over here.

Catenna's power washes away the malevolence, preventing it from festering inside the wound, even going so far as to knit some of it shut for Lydia. Or maybe that's Lydia's own body, but she's still bleeding considerably from a wound like that. Of cuorse she is.

Lydia summons the power of BEING RADICAL and skates pop out from underneath her feet. She swings Prissa's Star-powered blade and starts skating up towards the monster, even more recklessly than before, almost out of spite. She lashes out rapidly with the blade. She isn't especially skilled at bladework but it's not like you get sword lessons against giant octopus shadows unless your name is Claude so it may not have really made a difference anyway. Rather than move farther back, she moves in closer, trying to take advantage of her speed and proximity to make it harder to, say, punch a SECOND hole through her chest.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Wedding Dress with Sunlight Shiv!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Lydia Seren's Sunlight Shiv for 99 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Absolute Zero strikes true. Pulling back, Avril glances over her should as Lydia lets loose, the faintest of smiles at the corner of her mouth.

    It's with sudden shock -- etched across her expression -- that Avril realizes they've been effectively cut off from the others, twining tendrils as an impenetrable barrier between them. "--No!" she cries out, rushing for the barrier as if about to attempt to cleave it in twain.

    She isn't fast enough.

    The writhing filaments snap through the air, swinging right for her, among others.

    She draws upon everything she has, muscles in her legs coiling as she prepares to spring out of the way of the oncoming lash of shadow.
    It isn't enough. She might clear a large part of the incoming strike, but the trailing end is what snares her around an ankle and sends her slamming into the floor. She sprawls there for a moment, blade's hilt just inches from her fingertips.

    'We won't retreat', the woman's voice rings out, just in that moment where Avril slowly pulls herself up onto her hands and knees.

    "That's right," she breathes. "It is far too early to... simply acquiesce to your wishes," she tells the darkness, that cheering power descending around her.

    She can feel it.
    What Catenna is attempting to do.
    Perhaps it might not be surprising that Avril does not rise to her feet, remaining kneeling instead. From beneath her wrap, she has produced a stone tablet engraved with a single snowflake shape, her gloved hands running along its edges as she thinks upon it. Impresses her will. Tries again to trace back that bond--

    Lifts her head to stare at the sight of the... shotgun-toting Owlbear, here to repay a debt.

    --and in the heart of that moment of pure shock, astonishment, gratitude even...

    ...the connection to the weakened Guardian is reforged.
    Healing power from Lucadia roils forth.

    It's answered by the ghostly flickering form of the heavily-furred beast that is Aru Solato. Guardian of ice.
    Its great fanged maw splits in a roar silenced by the presence of Mother. And it charges, gouging claws into the earth and dredging up great ancient pillars of ice.
    All the while its form statics, as if it were a transmission from a long way aways, and glitching.

    Avril has gone white in the face, her gaze unfocused -- casualties of the effort of the summoning along a damaged route.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Material - Primeval Frost!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Material - Primeval Frost for 106 hit points!
GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida's lips twist into a look of concentration. Malevolent smoke curls off her hand, even as the lingering touch of the phantasms chills clear through to her bones. It burns. "It's nothing more than a shade," Ida says. The darkness closes in around her, but it's having a hard time getting a grip on her now. The cracks are still there, the fear is still there, but that doubt and uncertainty is not. "Breathe," Ida says. "Focus--"

    And then Catenna straight-up gets run through, and Ida's tranquility sharpens to a razor's edge. She blurs over to the fallen Shaman's side, leaving a chi-laced afterimage in her wake--and in doing so, she almost misses the blades coming for her. One of them drives straight towards the small of Ida's back, racing at her with terrible force--

    There's a sound halfway between a human howl and a blade striking something it cannot break. Ida lurches forwards, the blade falling away; one of the light metal(?) plates on the small of her back is bent, strangely, but the coat remains unbroken. There is going to be a nasty bruise there come tomorrow morning, but it isn't the impaling strike the thing might've been hoping for.

    "Miss Barber--!" Ida cries out, as she scrambles to her feet again. She smells the scent of the sea, hears the distant roar of a tidal wave, sees a phantasmal, serpentine shape. She feels a weight in her coat pocket, reaches in, and pulls it out. 'It' is a chunk of ordinary-looking rock, a piece of red granite with the old Baskar symbol for 'fire' carved into it. Ida looks at it, and pain, fear, anger, resentment, and hope well up within her.

    'You are stronger than that which threatens you!'

    Ida swallows. She thinks back to the dreams Moor Gault sent her about blades, and how they must be forged. She raises the Medium, and speaks.

    "Moor Gault!" Ida cries. It almost feels like she's asking for forgiveness. For a moment, there's nothing--perhaps Mother's presence is too strong for someone with no ties to the Guardians to get through. Perhaps...

    And then something ignites in the center of the chamber, its pure, brilliant light driving back the darkness. Moor Gault, the great Vermillion Bird, is as ethereal as Lucadia and Aru Solatu, but his presence is very real--sparks of white-hot flame flicker from his wings, alighting on the hands and weapons of those nearby, wreathing them in pure, brilliant fire.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Material - Phoenix Wing!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Lydia Seren with Material - Phoenix Wing!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Elvis with Material - Phoenix Wing!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Sorey with Material - Phoenix Wing!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Prissa with Material - Phoenix Wing!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Catenna heals Sorey! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Sorey gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Phoenix Wing for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Sorey!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Phoenix Wing for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Elvis takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Phoenix Wing for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Elvis!
GS: Prissa takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Phoenix Wing for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Prissa!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline observes with a frown as her light seems to have lesser effect than she expected. Hm...is it just her, or...

"Everyone! I think it's solidifying!" Jacqueline warns. She can see that as both a good thing and a bad thing. But it was something to keep in mind!

Tendrils begin to emerge from the faces - masks? - lashing out at them. Jacqueline tightens her cloak around her, using its durable ironcloth make to protect herself. It was proving to have been a rather fortuitous find.

It still hurts...but less!

But it's movement... Jacqueline backpedals, watching it carefully. It's trying to surround them. Trying to separate them from...

"Sorey, look out! They're trying to-" She starts, but massive column of flame indicates that the Shepherd had already noticed. "...Oh, nice one."

It looks like he can take care of himself, so she focuses herself on keeping an eye on Catenna, who is still hard at work attempting to purify the Malevolent items. She moves to protect her when those tendrils come for Catenna, but she's too late.

"N-no!" She shouts, shocked. But Catenna is still alive - she endures it and calls upon Lucadia for healing. She hears Ida calling out to her and nods.

Jacqueline draws out another Crest, sending out a massive stone pillar to strike at the masks - and provide them both with some extra protection. And as she's doing so, that's when she sees it.

One of the creatures that had been plaguing her nightmares for sometime entering the fray and firing at the darkness with its shotgun.

"Mister Owlbear...!" Jacqueline says in surprise. Here to help...! It was a strange sight, for sure.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Pillar Crash!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Pillar Crash for 128 hit points!
GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Jacqueline Barber!
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.

Yeah, Lydia: That's its real name.

Prissa reaches for another blade but her lack of slashing in her immediate area is a sign that she is about to be overborne. Staggered beneath a shivering, burning darkness, she grits her teeth. It's like a sandstorm, she tells herself, a *spooky sandstorm* do not let the slamming of your heart and the drizzling spray of your adrenal glands tell you otherwise--

Power flows from Chime and it is enough to stop the shuddering. Ida calls upon a Guardian. Several others do.

Prissa does not come from this culture; Prissa comes from a culture which is almost obstinately non-theistic, not least for complicated reasons not discussed here. There is no Guardian to whom Prissa has ever prayed, and her gestures towards the Goddess of Althena were entirely social in nature.

There is, of course, a Guardian who Prissa does resonate with...

Prissa sorrowfully enough pulls out the BIG thing from over her shoulder. The horse-killing sword is a cheap temporary replica that she made without art and which she honestly disdains, but right now you can't be too much of a beggar. Drawing backwards, she swings it forwards like an anti-cavalry baseball bat into the darkness.

It may be a sword she disdains, but it IS real sharp. And heavy! It weighs like twelve pounds - and for a sword, that's actually pretty considerable.

GS: Prissa enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Prissa has attacked Wedding Dress with Zanbatou - The Horses Were Screaming!
GS: Prissa has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Prissa's Zanbatou - The Horses Were Screaming for 87 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.

Darktopi writhe and shriek in fury, the monotone wails reaching a crescendo as they continue to close, ever inward. The sense of wrongness comes to a boil, as well, hissing against the senses of the warriors gathered. The creatures scent blood; they scent the end is near.

They are proven to be mistaken.

Chime's cry matches Catenna's own, the first exhorting her allies to rise up to the fight, the second calling upon the powers of Celesdue to ensure it is so. With the appearance of the Guardian, however faint, the shadows actually cease their forward progress entirely, the murmurs quieting as they huddle, recoiling from the presence of its power. And then Ida screams a call to Moor Gault, fire joining water in the air over the gathered warriors. The shadows writhe and shrink. And, for the first time, they slowly ease backward.

A rusted blade burns into ash, and the first page of words begins to smolder and burn.

Avril Vent Fleur is the first to take full advantage, bringing yet a third Guardian onto the field. Bergs of thick winter's ice split the stone floor of the cavern, sending the closest shadows flying - those further are frozen entirely in place, their semiliquid forms congealing in the arctic freeze. This makes them easy prey for Elvis, who shatters three with a single blow, then crushes more as they fail to get out of the way. On the other side, Jay's stone pillars crush more into icy chunks that ooze liquid shadow like blood, slowly flowing across the floor. The darktopi abandon the circle - now with three massive holes in it - and withdraw toward the deeper shadows, reforming their numbers, preparing for another assault. But then---

fethmus mi...what

Malevolent monsters howl in fury and agony, as the Prime Lord and her chosen Shepherd carve their way through the mass, scattering them again - and where Sorey swings his purifying blade, the shadowy blood does not get reabsorbed - it vanishes entirely into wispy fragments, like the ghostly embers of a funeral pyre. The corrupted note burns harder as the shadows withdraw, lashing out in desperation at anything near.

you cannot

Desperation echoes where despair once reigned.

you must not

The shadows flow together, absorbing into each other, and a powerful surge of Malevolence pulses outward like a physical thing.

we will take your greatest power, your greatest strength, your brightest light

Darkness surges forward, hungry, only the purifying light of Fethmus Mioma keeping it at bay.

we will make it our own

A towering form rises up to the ceiling of the cavern, towering thirty feet overhead.

we will end you with it

Darkness breaks like glass as a beast of shadow spreads its wings, jagged shards of ebon light lancing down toward the assembled group. A monstrous avian form - with the snarling head of a flame-eyed, rabid ursine - descends upon the Shepherd, seeking to quench his light from the world.

<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
GS: Wedding Dress has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Sorey with Mors Mihi Lucrum!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Sorey has activated a Force Action!
GS: Sorey guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Mihi Lucrum for 105 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Prissa with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lydia Seren with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Seraph Beast with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Elvis with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Catenna with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Riesenlied with Manu Morituri!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Chime Isa with Manu Morituri!
GS: Catenna takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 96 hit points!
GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 79 hit points!
GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Chime Isa takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 77 hit points!
GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 135 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Beast guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 104 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Elvis guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 83 hit points!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Manu Morituri from Wedding Dress!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 106 hit points!
GS: Prissa has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Prissa completely evades Manu Morituri from Wedding Dress!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Material - Phoenix Wing for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Lydia Seren!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Manu Morituri for 197 hit points!
GS: Lydia Seren enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Catenna calls for a miracle. Lucadia answers, racing out in a vast cascade of living oceanic might.

She calls for a miracle.

And she gets one.

A furious roar bellows out from the entrance to the Sacred Cave. Where Sorey has opened a path, a figure emerges. His expression furious with rage and desperation. His staff blazes with the light of the noontime sky as he leaps boldly into the fray. Instead of being used to escape to safety, that slim, little gateway to the outside world allows someone from outside to get in.

And what he sees has made him quite irate.

"Catenna!" Cyre Lorentz roars, leaping through the air on a rush of wind. He lands, striking the earth with the glowing tip of his staff. Light washes upwards in a great tidal wall, desperately trying to press back against the tenebrous onslaught. "Catenna, are you alright? Sorry I'm late! I got held up!"

Held up doing what?

Held up dancing around an evil post-it note to try and purge the evil from it, that's what.

But now he's here. Better late than never, at least.

"What the hell IS that thing?" Cyre growls. "Some kind of... Night-Owl Bear...!?"

GS: Wedding Dress takes 6 damage from Poison!
GS: Wedding Dress takes 10 damage from Toxin!
GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Wedding Dress with Empyreal Bolt!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Empyreal Bolt for 81 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia Seren screams keeps on charging. She rushes along through the darkness, shards of ebon light ripping along her arms and legs, spraying silver in a drakengard kind of manner as she rushes along but even shortly those splotches are absorbed by the darkness around her.

She takes a hard hit in the head, which is ironically probably the place she can least take it, tumbling backwards back to the ground, grunting as she rolls along the floor, hacking out more of that fluid. She's a messy fighter in more ways than one.

Lydia stares into the sky for a bit, closes her eyes, and then reaches out to Rigdobrite.

"I can't move..." She whispers. "Everything hurts..."

She takes in another ragged hacking breath.

"So come on... Come on, light a path for them!!"

Rigdobrite crackles into view, even in the darkness, appearing like a shining star in a night sky. His glowing eyes pierce through even the darkest of shadows as it peers around inquisitively.

Lydia closes her eyes. She doesn't have a Dragon's Tear or anything like that, but her mother does. She curls up around the injury as if doing so might help it heal faster.

Mom Lydia thinks. It's you who taught me how to inspire others. I...I'm not great at it...but I'll do my best!

<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna has no real relationship with Lucadia. Calling forth the Sea Guardian when she could not be certain the Guardian would hear her words took as much effort as she could muster while bleeding out. But it did what it was supposed to: The oceanic magic knits the worst of her wounds, and she's able to breathe a little easier, turning to one knee just as Ida reaches her.

She looks up at the martial artist with a tight, reassuring smile. We'll be okay. She can only convey that through her expression despite the fact that she's pale, drawn and in obvious pain, with blood dappling the front and back of her dress.

But the darkness is surging. It roars around Catenna, practically feeding on the energy she'd just poured into herself and her friends. As it whirls about her, she can only defend herself by sidling backwards, nearly falling over again in the process. More and more of her lifeforce seems to vanish into the Malevolent nightmare. It is taking her brightest light and there is nothing she can do about it.

It is calling forth the Greatest Owlbear and there is nothing she can do about it. She can't purify it fast enough.

Until help arrives. Catenna widens her eyes. "Cyre!!" she gasps, her heart suddenly soaring. "Cyre, we need to stop them...!"

Her heart thumps in her chest. A new wave of adrenaline floods through her - Cyre is here, and things will be alright. Bowing her head, she closes her eyes tightly. "The greatest power I can call upon," she whispers, "cannot be claimed by a power like this."

Catenna bows her head. Her voice drops to a whisper. This spell comes more naturally, though she's exhausted, in pain, bleeding and on the verge of losing consciousness. She murmurs words she has known all her life, forcing them through the agony she's suffered so far - through the distance between herself and the spirit she was raised to know.

    Light can exist when things are darkest.

A buildup of power can be clearly felt. It grows and grows - and the serenity of it is stark in this horrific place. And then, just above Catenna, a pair of shimmering blue butterfly wings flit apart.

The glimpse is brief. The Guardian of the Moon sits, as always, atop a golden crescent, the long train of her dress touching the ground. With simple grace, Celesdue lifts a delicate hand and gestures into the maelstrom of darkness - and the shadows are briefly interlaced with shimmering light.

Gravity multiplies. Light itself strains. Celesdue winks from view, but the force of gravity magnifies and magnifies to try and bind the Greatest of Owlbears - to simply render its movements too sluggish to bear.

GS: Lydia Seren has activated a Force Action!
GS: Catenna has attacked Wedding Dress with Material - Merciless Queen!
GS: Catenna has completed her action.
GS: Lydia Seren has spent 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Baby The Stars Shine Bright!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Chime Isa with Baby The Stars Shine Bright!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Riesenlied with Baby The Stars Shine Bright!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Prissa with Baby The Stars Shine Bright!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Sorey with Baby The Stars Shine Bright!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Catenna with Baby The Stars Shine Bright!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Catenna!
GS: Lydia Seren heals Catenna! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Catenna gains 15 extra FP from Lydia Seren!
GS: Catenna gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Chime Isa!
GS: Lydia Seren heals Chime Isa! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Chime Isa gains 15 extra FP from Lydia Seren!
GS: Chime Isa gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Riesenlied!
GS: DISEASE! Lydia Seren tries to heal Riesenlied, but it doesn't work!
GS: Reload! Riesenlied gains 15 extra FP from Lydia Seren!
GS: Riesenlied gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Catenna's Material - Merciless Queen for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Sorey!
GS: Lydia Seren heals Sorey! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Sorey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Reload! Sorey gains 15 extra FP from Lydia Seren!
GS: Sorey gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
GS: Lydia Seren heals Cyre H. Lorentz! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Cyre H. Lorentz gains 15 extra FP from Lydia Seren!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Prissa!
GS: Lydia Seren heals Prissa! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Reload! Prissa gains 15 extra FP from Lydia Seren!
GS: Prissa gains a Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

 The massive malevolent manifestation comes hurling out of the darkness, taking the shape of a fell bird in an attempt to rend Sorey limb from limb. In any other situation, where he was fighting without much support and relying upon his own power, Sorey would probably have taken a serious blow as the creature comes hurling at him from out of the darkness.

 But Sorey is not alone, and just as he is working to support those working to cleanse the items anchoring the malevolence to this cave, his allies are providing him with support as well.

 As the massive beast slams into him, the Shepherd brings his divine weapon around and slam into its claws just before it hits. The two of them lock together, blue sparks of flame flying from where Sorey's blade is making contact with the construct of darkness. And even though he is pushed backwards, almost back into the wall of the room, the Shepherd holds firm.

 For a moment, the shining form of the Shepherd is blocked off from the rest of the room by the massive, dark shrouded form of their foe. But as others begin to focus their energies once more, struggling to purify this darkness, a flickering halo of flame appears around the manifestation - and Sorey pushes it back with a massive shove from his weapon, buying himself some room for a real swing.

 "This is it! This thing knows that we're close to purifying it! Focus everyone!"

 It's the best encouragement he can give - he hopes the others can feel how they are pushing back at their foe. "This is the end of your darkness!!" Sorey proclaims, locking both hands onto the hilt of his divine weapon. "We will purify your evil!!"

 And with that, the Shepherd channels both his and his Prime Lord's power into the sword, a massive pillar of flame erupting from the blade as he swings it around in a wide arc. The blazing fire aims to cut through the malevolent manifestation, and even beyond that - carving a line of fire across the upper part of the room, which tries to draw in malevolence from all around and purify it in flames.

 "Flamberge!!"

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

    The cascading effects of Aru Solatu, Lucadia and Moa Gault in conjunction causes the metal within Riesenlied to bristle, as if on end; a faint reverberation from within her impurity seems to echo, ever gasping as the effects of the Ley touch upon her mind once more.

    It helps prepare her for the assault to come. Her eyes widen slightly as she gazes deep towards the incoming shadow, but the owlbear she's seated upon holds its wing and withstands through the pressure--

    --though it lets out a screech as it stares towards one of its kin, much more endowed with the form of an avian and the face of an angry bear rather than its opposite. It snarls. "S-Sorey!" Riesenlied exclaims, gasping.

    Riesenlied's head droops for a moment, the cascading light of the Dragon's Tear emanating from her-- to her makeshift mount that's come from deep within the woods. It's time for the owlbear to shine!

    "I can feel it... the feelings of those that dwell upon these grounds..."

    She weeps ever so softly as she closes her eyes and hears Lydia's voice. She feels her pain, but more importantly, her voice, her inspiration... "Lydia..."

    Celesdue descends upon the Greatest of Owlbears--

    --and her own Owlbear lets out a ground-shattering roar as it... weeps for its fallen comrade for a moment.

    And then it levels its pump-action shotgun, ironsights in line for its friend.

    You'll believe that, today...

GS: Sorey has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Sorey has attacked Wedding Dress with Flamberge!
GS: Sorey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Wedding Dress with Somewhere - Even an Owl May Cry!
GS: Riesenlied takes 10 damage from Toxin!
GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Riesenlied's Somewhere - Even an Owl May Cry for 99 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress guards a hit from Sorey's Flamberge for 179 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.

    Chime's smile never falters, it's a grin of confidence and cheer. Even looking a little tired after that interesting trick of hers, she stretches slightly in place and then in a violent motion slams her crossbows together using a catch on the bottom of the grips to rearm each on in turn, but before she can start firing the battle changes.

    "Oooh~ That's a neat trick! A bad choice of tricks, but a neat one!" she says brightly with a smile, even as the monstrous rabid ursine with eyes of flame attacks Sorey to stop him.

    In the time it takes Chime to start chiding of all things the monstrous entity trying to kill them, Lydia calls upon her power to further aid everyone, while Catenna also begins a counter attack along with Sorey and Riesenlied

    "I mean, really. Going from an incorpeal form that kept most of use from being super useful to a corpeal form that all of use can strike~ Thanks!" Chime calls out, as she brings both crossbows up and begins to unleash a seemingly unending string of bolts.

GS: Chime Isa has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Chime Isa has attacked Wedding Dress with Heavy Barrage!
GS: Chime Isa has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Chime Isa has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress guards a hit from Chime Isa's Heavy Barrage for 99 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Their opponent's form changes once more. No longer is it a conglomeration of faces or betentacled masks, instead shifting into a massive and...very familiar form - the form she had so feared.

For a moment, that fear takes her - but she forces it aside. She was past that now. She takes cover behind her pillar as jagged shards descend toward them. It offers her protection but it can't absorb all of them. But she emerges, cut but still alive, to see Cyre appear on the scene.

"Cyre, good timing! Look after Catenna!" Jacqueline urges. And then, Catenna calls upon the Guardian closest to her heart - and Celesdue answers.

The bearowl is bound. Now was the time.

"I'm not...afraid of you anymore!" Jacqueline says, stepping out in front of her pillar. "You hold no power over me!"

From within her pouch, Jacqueline draws two Crests. The first sends energy tearing through the ground beneath the abominable bearowl's feet, sending stones flying upward. The second conjures lightning which bombards the beast and sends the churning stone crashing back into it.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Dualcast - Voltaic Quake!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has canceled their attack on Wedding Dress.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Dualcast - Voltaic Quake!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Dualcast - Voltaic Quake for 121 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.

Elvis' punch rings true, at the cavern they are in vibrates with his might. cracks spider the cavern, though the Veruni attempts to seal what he can quickly with his magics.

The fight rages on, and Elvis can only think of what his superior told him now. Like a haunting thought. More haunting than ghosts, apparently. But was pain is influcted upon him, he snaps back to attention. "Hope that purifying is going well!" he shouts over the combat.

As the fight progresses, he swears he can see the manifestations just slightly better. Was it him? Was there some kind of inuring process to recognizing these things for what they were?

Well, one this was definitely visible-- that giant creature that just appeared. Perhaps it was so prevalent with Malevolence that those unable to see it can't ignore its presence. "No, idiot! It is a night owl spliced wit ha bear! Can't you-- WHY am I arguing this right now?!"

Instead, careful movement of his hands calls upon the latent waters of the cave to spring forth, from the walls, the air, the underlying currents of underground streams, to converge o nthe creature ahead-- the water gaining quite the heated temperature from the boon of Moor Gault and by extension, Ida. "Press the advantage, it cannot surround us now!"

Hopefully, anyway.

No telling what it can still do.

GS: Elvis has attacked Wedding Dress with Hydro Pressure!
GS: Elvis has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.

    Mortality is such a tricky thing.

    They are wounded. Catenna, especially so. It is a good thing a path was blazed through the darkness, because from it comes - "Cyre! Take care of her!"

    They are hurting, but the Beast of Lohgrin must believe in them. Even so, she cannot deny the moment of terror which clutches at her as the Malevolence resolves and bears down on Sorey. "Shepherd!!" She yells, as for a terrible moment he is obscured.

    But he does not stand alone - both literally and figuratively.

    He fights back.

    "You will take no one. I am amongst the indomitable!" Cries the Beast, as the wind picks up. She launches herself at the creature the Malevolence has manifested, with a gale's force as she moves to run it down.

GS: Seraph Beast has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Wedding Dress with Ramming Speed!
GS: Seraph Beast has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Elvis's Hydro Pressure for 188 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress guards a hit from Seraph Beast's Ramming Speed for 133 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.

Prissa falls back another step, nearer to Lydia, even as the darkness surges towards the light. Darkness predated light, didn't it? It's the stronger of the two... or is it? The shadows gather, darken, curdle together...

and move away from Prissa. Prissa sheathes the zankutou as she says over her shoulder, "Hey -" Cyre comes in but Prissa's attention is at her friend, who is suffering. "Eh - come on! Rao Lydia, ed'c dinhehk ehdu y fiend, oui ghuf?" Anxiety is creeping into her voice as she reaches for her knife belt. "Ur cred ed'c kuehk vun dra Shepherd! Becc yht cmyk!" Prissa half-screeches as she pulls out a weapon and --

The knife she grabbed flicks through shadow-shard. The shadow-shard wobbles and bursts like ink, thrown asunder.

Prissa blinks several times and looks at the knife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFjE5A4UAJI

The world seems more vibrant when she looks up. "Rao Lydia," Prissa says, before remembering to talk normal to her: "Just take care. I'll cover you -"

And then she tosses the knife into the air, catching the blade between index and middle finger as she looks towards the great creature. Dread certainty locks down into her back as she lets her eyes flick momentarily towards Rigdobrite's apparition, then back towards the creature.

"It thinks to go for the Shepherd, but it wool have cause to regret," Prissa concludes.

Her arm comes back slowly... and then:

Snap!

The blade flies ahead. It is, in a certain sense, an ordinary blade, but in the dark of the night the blade's damascene pattern-steel seems to shine of its own accord. Prissa's aiming for an eye.

GS: Prissa has activated a Force Action!
GS: Prissa has activated a Force Action!
GS: Prissa has attacked Wedding Dress with totally a normal knife but totally click the link for music!
GS: Prissa has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Prissa has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Prissa's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Prissa's My Best Knife Ever for 107 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Jam, and Poison! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Prissa!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    The Guardian vanishes mere seconds after it upends spears of ice, the billowing edge of its glacial presence enough to lend aid in vanquishing the dark.
    Avril returns to the here and now by inches: she draws proper breath again, color begins to return to her face. Her deathly grip on the Medium eases, and her gaze refocuses, now on the broken edge of the circle.
    Her shoulders sag. With some difficulty she stands, stooping once to reclaim her fallen sword.

    "Just... a little more..." she murmurs, taking a defiant step towards the remaining shadows at the edges, no matter how drained or debilitated her body may feel from contacting the now-distant Guardian.

    Those monsters are about to try another push. She can tell. This is no time to falter--

    They burn. Turning, Avril faces the source of the blaze.

    It is glorious.

    The Malevolence screams its denials, presence raking across Avril's senses. She turns, as if to face each 'speaker' in turn.

    "Wait--"

    A premonition?

    "Something's-- not right! Something's coming!" she cries out, as a dark looming form begins to rise.

    She turns towards it, blade flashing in the shadows.

    Holding her ground as best as she can -- though more heat, more energy is sapped from her simply by dint of being in the thing's presence. In the end, she's forced back in a series of steps, one eye squinted shut against the onslaught.

    "I apologize," she states simply, thrusting her blade before her.
    In an eyeblink, there is no blade at all.
    "But this must end, here. You will not triumph."

    She pulls the trigger.

    And rushes forward, launching herself skywards. Once, twice, she lashes out with the trailing luminous beam emitted from Absolute Zero.
    And as she arcs downwards...

    Renders unto the Omega Owlbear one strike more.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc for 109 hit points!
GS: Break! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Moor Gault leaves without a word. Nevertheless, Ida can't help but feel like she's made a step towards reconciliation.

    "We have this," Ida says, her voice a whisper. "We have this!" No sooner has she spoken than the darkness congeals into a nightmarish creature--a grotesque bear-owl. Malevolence surges out alongside it like a tidal wave, threatening to drag them all under and drown them in itself. Ida grips the Medium tightly, steps forwards, and drives forth a hand in an open-palm strike. The motion is slow, languid, deliberate. The surge of chi accompanying it is not, nor is the cry that tears free from Ida's lips. Ida's life-force meets with the Malevolent wave and parts it. A deathly chill races down her spine, and numbness lingers in her hands, but it isn't the killing blow the monster might've been hoping for.

    Ida draws. Her hand darts into the holster at the small of her back, coming up with Devil's Due in the blink of an eye. She takes aim at the creature's center of mass and fires, sending a slug racing at it with pinpoint precision.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Chi Bullet!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Chi Bullet for 142 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.

The Abominable Bearowl emits a deafening battle cry, shaking stone spears from the roof of the cavern as it declares its defiance. But as Chime has said, the unthinking tactics of the Malevolent manifestation have played against its favour; ebon blood spatters from wounds as Chime and the Friendliest Owlbear take their shots. Jay and Elvis summon water and stone, each slowing the creature as it tries to charge forward, tearing at the tenebrous flesh that forms its body. It roars again, lowering its head as the Beast of Lohgrin advances ---

 --- a titanic crash ---

and the walls of the Grounds of Linga shiver once again as the Malevolent beast stumbles backward. An amazing knife, and a nearly as amazing not-a-lightsaber, rip into the struggling creature. The corrupted words burn still hotter as Ida unleashes her assault; another scream physically pushes the martial artist away from the creature's towering bulk. It pulls itself to its feet -

Where the purifying blade of the Seraph sinks two yards deep into its chest, pouring Fethmus Mioma's flame into its body.

For a long moment, they hover in place - Sorey and Lailah's twinned forms pouring raw power into the Malevolent husk, burning it away from the inside. Red lines begin spreading out from the impact point, spreading across the creature's chest, crimson shifting to white as the fires burn hotter... and then, in a desperate, furious effort, the shadows burst open from within, dozens of smaller figures tearing their way out of the larger, shadowy owlbears driven made with pain and rage. They scurry away from the Shepherd and his scourging flame, their keening desperate and agonized, as they charge headlong toward the rest of the group.

The sheer fury, violence, and momentum of the charge is chilling. But if you do not hold... then the open mouth of the cave, and the wide world beyond, await.

GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Sorey with Mors Tua Vita Mea!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Mors Tua Vita Mea for 181 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress drains Sorey! Wedding Dress gains 90 temporary hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Prissa with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Seraph Beast with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Elvis with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Chime Isa with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Riesenlied with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Catenna with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lydia Seren with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum!
GS: Riesenlied enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Riesenlied has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Riesenlied completely evades O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum from Wedding Dress!
GS: Catenna has activated a Force Action!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: Catenna takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 120 hit points!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 123 hit points!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 144 hit points!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: Seraph Beast critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 50 hit points!
GS: Seraph Beast has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Cyre H. Lorentz completely evades O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum from Wedding Dress!
GS: Chime Isa has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Chime Isa completely evades O Deus Noctua Ursus Impetus In Unum from Wedding Dress!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: Prissa takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 128 hit points!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 369 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: Elvis guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 142 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Mens Rea!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress takes 10 damage from Poison!
GS: Wedding Dress takes 12 damage from Toxin!
GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Cyre H. Lorentz completely evades Mens Rea from Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    They're wearing down, but so are the creatures from the Malevolent depths; Riesenlied can sense their desperation, moreso than she can feel herself withering as the morass of impurity grows from within. She bites her lip as she gazes to Lydia, stammering, "Just... a little more..."

    She closes her eyes, and knows instinctively to trust the Friendliest Owlbear that she's seated upon; as the rush of creatures threaten to drown them, the owlbear--

    --leaps high in swan dive to the air!

    "Even if I do not carry the silver flame... or the Guardian's own..."

    Her brow furrows as she concentrates and holds the Dragon's Tear aloft. With a final, soft breath she raises her hand to the air and concentrates the weave of photons that begin to emanate out of her form.

    "This is the sum feeling of all of Linga's denizens... they do not wish you here. You do not belong here..."

    She lays her hand down--

    --and a cascading light shines down softly, radiantly, effulgently; towards the owlbears that charge towards them.

    "Please. Let us have closure on this matter."

GS: Riesenlied has spent 1 Combo on Disease, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Riesenlied enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Wedding Dress with Sacred Exorcism!
GS: Riesenlied takes 8 damage from Toxin!
GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

As the light of the Moon fades away, Catenna breathes heavily, her shoulders rising and falling with sheer exertion. The help from Lydia, well, helps - a lot. But it's not enough to drive away exhaustion and pain. She can feel her wounds keenly - and even more keen is the sheer thickness of the Malevolence. Much of it has congealed. Enough of it has tainted her that she's going to have to purify herself when this is all over.

The shadows burst. Catenna widens her eyes as they erupt into countless more shadowy owlbears, maddened and screaming towards the band of Drifters. With her sword broken in the earlier adventure here and no replacement at hand, all Catenna can do is try to shield herself with the simple wooden stave she came with, lurching back with a few unsteady steps.

It's almost enough. She's able to bat one of the owlbears away. Another, however, steamrolls through her - but though the hit is strong enough to hurl her, it's not enough to put her directly in its clutches. She glances away with a yelp, hits the ground, rolls, and comes up to her knee, scraped, her dress torn in places, more wounds joining the three punched through her moments before.

The thud of her heart in her ears is practically deafening. Catenna swallows a hard lump in her throat. The darkness is preying upon the Shepherd himself - sapping his very lifeforce.

"I can't let this continue," she breathes.

"Cyre, keep them away from me," she manages. Her voice is still drawn and weak - he of all people knows that she does not sound like that. It's taking all she has and some she doesn't to stay in the fight. Stepping back, she begins to move her arms once more.

And as she begins to chant sonorously in a tongue that might be Baskar and might be something else, a shimmering light begins to mount.

Catenna's power to Purify is, as we've said, not as great as Sorey's. But he's on the front lines. She is not. She can take a moment to exert effort - to weave the spell. And she pours her all into it - fuelling the Spell of Purification with every ounce of arcane power she can muster.

The light shines brighter as Catenna fights as hard as she can to purify as much of the cavern as she can.

GS: Catenna has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Catenna has attacked Wedding Dress with Polarity Clutch!
GS: Catenna has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Wedding Dress's attack becomes clear!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Memento Mori for 123 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

 "Oh my there are a lot of them!" Lailah states, appearing as a more insubstantial form behind Sorey. "I'm not sure we can 'bear' to have this many running around the cavern!"

 "Yes, but if we let them escape the malevolence will just flow out into the rest of the world!" Sorey replies, clearly not happy with that possibility. They're pushing the purification fairly well, but it's disturbing to see that there are so many of the creatures rushing away and towards the potential freedom of the outside world.

 Sorey is battered by the mass as they surge past him, generally pushed aside and knocked around by the creatures before they finally manage to break past. Dazed for a moment, Sorey loses his chance to attack the mass of escaping shadowy constructs with his sword, leaving him with only one real option.

 "I guess it's time to try that one move we were working on, Lailah. Ready?"

 "It worked out in practice - just believe in yourself, Sorey!"

 The Shepherd spins his blade around, driving the tip into the floor. Extending both of his hands out in front of him, with Lailah's own insubstantial form taking shape behind him, the Shepherd invokes the power of the Seraph of Flames. One hand is extended to the right, and Sorey chants, "We call upon the absolute flame!!"

 A burning spark appears on one side of the pack of charging malevolent constructs.

 "Not even elemental ash will remain!!"

 A second spark appears on the opposite side... and both erupt into massive conflagrations of fire, streamers passing between the two of them as Sorey creates a pair of miniature suns to bracket and embrace the escaping owlbear constructs.

 "Duel the Sun!!"

GS: Sorey has attacked Wedding Dress with Duel the Sun!
GS: Sorey has completed his action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Riesenlied's Sacred Exorcism for 0 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress suffers Infect, extending negative statuses by 1 turn each!
GS: Wedding Dress has been weakened by Disease! They take 18 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points!
GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Catenna's Polarity Clutch for 30 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Catenna has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Sorey's Duel the Sun for 191 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Chime Isa has posed.

    The crossbows in Chime's hands begin to glow, the bolts changing to a brillant white light. The short ARMs Meister grins, saying "Oh my~ Numbers won't really help here." as she nimbly dodges backwards and to the side evading every errant swing or rush at her till she's out of the crowd of figures. Then those crossbows come up, and she says "My your days be bright~"

    Despite the location, despite the area, Chime fires upwards into the air. Each bolt vanishes within seconds without seeming to hit anything, only to come tearing back down across the entire field as javalin sized bolts of light shattering into fragments of energy on impact among the many scurrying figures and the remains of the gaint monsterous form that remains.

GS: Chime Isa has attacked Wedding Dress with Arrows of Light!
GS: Chime Isa has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Chime Isa's Arrows of Light for 37 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Chime Isa has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida's breath catches in her throat as the bearowl's form starts to fracture--it's like it's tearing itself apart from the inside-out. "We have--" She doesn't finish the thought. The bearowl rips itself to shreds, but each of those shreds is an owlbear, a Malevolent apparition with claws and fangs and a burning desire to escape the cave. Ida is right in the way.

    "Stop them!" Ida shouts, her eyes going wide. She takes aim and snaps off a shot at the owlbear in the lead, but it doesn't even slow down. Then the horde is upon her, and Ida vanishes under the tide of Malevolent monsters.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

The shadows burst open revealing more owlbears formed of pain and rage that charge at the party. Jacqueline conjures a pillar of earth in front of her, using it as a barrier against the tide of ursine terror. It's immense and crushing...but she's not down yet.

She exhales, using the pillar she's standing by to prop herself up. Fortunately, she didn't need to charge in at them. She's exhausted and running low on energy, but there's still one last thing she can do - call upon the most reliable Crest she has. Lightning crashes down toward the owlbears.

"Just a little further...!" She urges. If any of them escaped unpurified, who knew what they would do...? And what's worse, the Malevolence they carried would only continue to spread...

GS: Jacqueline Barber has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Lightning Strike!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Strike for 94 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Catenna," Cyre growls. She's hurt. Real hurt. Lydia is, too. Jay. Everyone. He whispers a curse under his breath-- this is what he gets for being late. This is what happens. But it's fine, they're both still alive-- and Cyre is going to make sure that they both stay alive.

The shaman roars, wind swirling around him in great, surging gusts. It's angry. It's angry like he's angry. Sure, his connection to Fengalon might be somewhat more tenuous than it should be, the Demon Mother's influence distorting the voice of the planet no matter how he struggles to fight through the static. And yet--

And yet, when you spend your entire life walking with the wind, it's inevitable that there's some spark, some link there that's just impossible to sever.

Even as the darkness rises to swallow them in an endless tide of shadowy owlbears, the wind continues to howl. "Catenna, don't worry. Do everything you can. I'm right here..."

Cyre slams his heel into the earth. The tempest surging around him whirls upward into a towering vortex. The static screams in his ears. He hears the Mother's influence crackling in his brain. But still, he drinks deep of that link to the wind. His arms twist and deform, becoming something more bestial than human. He holds one arm high, the wind twisting into a brilliant spiral around his clenched fist. With a terrific yell, he swings his arm into the swarm into the darkness, unleashing a veritable horizontal tornado forged of brilliant, emerald wind...! "They won't get even an inch past me. We're getting out of this alive!"

GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Wedding Dress with Tornado Fang!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Tornado Fang for 38 hit points!
GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Hyper and Quick! Statuses applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
GS: Wedding Dress has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia lays on the floor! In pain!!

She gets like maybe three words of what she says and one of those words is her name. She blinks a few times in a kind of hazy state. Then she smiles, a kind of twisted smile from the pain but a smile nonetheless. "Okay." SHe says. "I've got...one last trick at least. Nice thing about a Silver Medium, is the summons last a wee bit longer. Just enough time."

She curls up once, then drops into a crouch, holding her wound with her hand. Shepherd, she thinks, that's another word she's got.

Did darkness predate light? Is it stronger? Those two questions might have different answers, but stars, while they provide light, are not just light. A sun that collapses in on itself becomes darker than any void.

"Not letting you go..."Lydia whispers.

Owl bears claw and lash out. Lydia weaves around their strikes, aided by Prissa's cover, but a few swipes get in all the same. Nowhere vital though. If Lydia has anywhere vital left.

But...

"You think ... we'll let you run..? After all that shittalkin'?!"

And with that she gestures with a hand and, well...

...attempts to drop a giant rock shrimp whose eyes are stars right down on top of it.

"MATERIAL - RIGDOBRITE!" She shouts.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Wedding Dress with Material - Rigdobrite!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's Material - Rigdobrite for 85 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.

    Owlbear begets owlbear - owletcub? - after owlbear, coursing through the nothing-space like a flood. And before the Beast of Lohgrin can move to stop them, someone else is stopped.

    Ida cannot stand against the wave of despair given form.

    "Ida!" Cries the Beast, and wind eddies about her as she leaps - not away, but deeper into the coursing current. Plates lock together as she stands in dire opposition, blowing back the Malevolent fleeing figures.

    Not only to disrupt their course - but to reveal the woman swept away.

    "I have you!" She angles herself as a physical barrier when she finds Ida, to catch her against overlapping plates. It is most likely not a comfortable stop - but it will give her something to hold onto rather than be crushed or taken.

GS: Seraph Beast has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Wedding Dress with Howling Gale!
GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Seraph Beast's Howling Gale for 139 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.

Despite everything the group pours in to this Malevolence based creature, it remains standing...!

"What is the weakness to this type of being?!" Elvis calls out to the group. Punches, water and earth is about all he has! But he hasn't used all of his tricks just yet!

But Elvis has to stop and take a look at Sorey at that pun. Even an alien knows a bad one when he hears it.

It is almost too much to bear.

"Careful!" he calsl to Riesenlied, seeing her mobilize to help stop the creature. She was sick, and it would be bad if she got too hurt and couldn't recover properly. It would be a wasted effort! "Fine, if it is tough, I'll break down whatever it has for fortitude until nothing is left!

The surging of numerous copies come, but Elvis refuses to relent, even when beaks and claws land and feel like they gain purchase on something inside Elvis, rather than his muscule and clothes. "Nngh! I fought some of you before, I'm not gonna stop at you!"

When an explosive bit of power is gained, the Professor rockets forward, rearing back a fist. He stops abruptly and throws the fist-- nut it too, stops centimeters before reaching its target, ben spontaneously continuse, as a fakeout one-inch punch!

The wall behind the creatures might shatter. Collateral damage, Can't make an omelette without breaking a few... walls?

Something like that

GS: Elvis has attacked Wedding Dress with Dropping Straight!
GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Elvis has completed his action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Elvis's Dropping Straight for 119 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Wedding Dress has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    She hits the earth, dropping into a crouch for moments, before leaping back, out of the way.
    At least, out of immediate range, or so she hopes.

    It is not entirely to be: Burning light trends its way across the Owlbear's chest in a magificient fracture, only to rend open.

    There's no clean escape from the horde that bursts forth.

    Are they the kin of those we were able to save? But--

    She cannot permit them to leave.

    Battered, beaten by the horde, Avril still stands firm.

    "Enough!" she declares, as forceful as any majesty. They do not listen.

    So be it.

    She takes one breath.

    She draws power from within.

    And in an expenditure of magical might that Elvis might find very, very familiar -- the same power she had used in combat against him up atop that mountain on Lunar in fact -- she releases it.

    In one clean forward surge of ice, splashing out in an array of crystalline spikes of frost.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Courant Glaciaire!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Courant Glaciaire for 207 hit points!
GS: Wedding Dress has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The Beast's gale forces the owlbears back, away from Ida. As the Seraph moves to cover her, the young woman half-stumbles, half-scrambles out from the horde, eyes wide. Two long cuts trail down the length of her face, while her shirt is cut almost to ribbons, and soaked with blood. She fumbles a Heal Berry out of her pocket and into her mouth, and stumbles further towards the cavern mouth. Is she running?

    "Beast!" Ida cries. Her voice is an agonized rasp. She raises Devil's Due, her hand steady even as her body shakes from pain and exertion. Ida takes a breath, feels the chi flow from her into the weapon. There's barely any gap there now. "MOVE!" Ida pulls the trigger. A roaring gout of Dragonfire tears from the gun's barrel, infused with Ida's lifeforce. She rakes the weapon across the owlbear horde until the Dragon Filament shuts off, and the flame stops.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 5 Combo on Poison and Gatling, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Dragon's Breath!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Dragon's Breath for 172 hit points!
GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
GS: Wedding Dress has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.

The last gasp of the howling creatures sends them surging forward, in a tide of shadow, tooth, and claw. They rip and tear, slaver and slash - but the gathered purifiers meet them with stony plates and raw muscle, with fire and ice, emerald wind and purple lightning, with brilliant light and another frigging Guardian.

Then Sorey and Lailah fill the cavern with the light of twin suns, and suddenly every strike is connecting with purifying purpose. Twenty seconds pass, and the creatures are down to half their number. Then ten. Then five. Then two.

Then one.

The last creature slumps to the cavern floor, riddled with wounds, its form dissolving into a rising hail of light.

kill and slay you

A coughing wheeze echoes out, as the sense of wrongness begins to bleed away, replaced by the serenity brought by Shamans and Shepherd.

like lambs to the slaughter

The form dissolves entirely, its last breath a whisper on a fresh, new-born wind.

but we were---

The thought never finishes, as the last scrap of paper burns away, taking with it the last of the creatures. For those with the spiritual senses to feel such a thing, the sense of Malevolence still lingers... but you may be able to sense - and if not, Lailah certainly can - that these echoes will soon fade. And thanks to your efforts, the Sacred Grounds will return to their former glory.


                              M E A N W H I L E


From a hill a few hundred yards distant, a purple-haired woman in a white uniform lowers her binoculars, a moue of displeasure forming on her lips. She suppresses a sigh with the ease of long practice, then pulls out a small dark rectangular object, clicking it on. "First field trial has concluded," she says in her low voice as she moves down the hill, toward where Vierge is concealed. "Results seem to confirm Lieutenant Voss's reports from his sojourn on the lunar world. In addition..." she continues, her voice fading away.

F I N