2024-02-25: Return From Whence He Came

• Log: Return From Whence He Came
• Cast: Siegfried, Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna, Ganondorf Dragmire, Kalisa Dragmire, K.K., Seraph Ragnell, Leah Sadalbari, Loren Voss, Azoth
• Where: Photosphere Crater
• Date: February 25, 2024
• Summary: Siegfried returns to the Photosphere Crater... with a plan. Solaris decides it is time to neutralize him. But he has come with allies.

---

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

Siegfried has returned to the site of the Photosphere. He has not come entirely alone, but it is with only a small group. It speaks, perhaps, to how much he has lost.

He walks through the debris-strewn crater. A frozen wasteland, dotted with wreckage that fell from the Photosphere; with the shattered and broken hulls of a half-dozen Solarian airships; with now-rusted Gears and broken stones. With him are only a dozen Metal Beasts, wolf-like creatures that walk with him.

It is a lonely path for the former Quarter Knight. He comes to the center of the crater, pulls Glumzambor from his back, and plunges it into the ground.

The wolf-like Metal Beasts form a perimeter around him.

EARLIER -- THE FORSAKEN FORTRESS

Leehalt obeys the commands of his master. And this means stepping into the den of one who might be an enemy, half-a-world away. He walks up, as a group of Moblins approach.

"Lord Siegfried has asked I come here," he says. "I bring a message... and an invitation."

NOW -- PHOTOSPHERE CRATER

On the rim of the crater, several dozen Gebler infantry begin to approach. Ever have they hunted Siegfried; he has struck blows against them, but Solaris is ill-inclined to allow Siegfried to live. His resurrection was a mistake.

It is one they do not mean to suffer.

An approaching squad advances, rifles pointed at Siegfried. Red dots of light shift across his armor. Siegfried looks up, at a squad leader who advances with a raised fist.

"You think I come alone," Siegfried says. "You think I am hunted. You think I am a wild beast, to be driven into a corner, then slain. You think to bring me calamity."

His eyes look at the soldier. The Metal Beast next to him snarls, as Siegfried's metallic eyes gleam -- a red reflection, as he looks at him.

"I am not alone." There is a tremendous flash of light, then; a beam of consuming light crashes down, engulfing the soldier, as shouts of panic erupt from the Gebler lines.

"And it is not you who bring calamity."

<Pose Tracker> Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has posed.

    The remains of the Photosphere is not somewhere Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has lurked around often -- it is enemy territory, she knows that much, from the days of the war with Mother; but today, the holy sword starves, and she is on the hunt.

    "Tonight, a cold and cruel promise blossoms to fruition..."

    The Paladin is not a known quotient to Calamity, perched above one of the wreckages of the Gebler battleships. A battle has already broken out -- and she draws deep a breath, powerfully pulling in the scents about her. Everything screams at her as an 'enemy'...

    The ever-familiar metallic scents of the Hyadean. The Beasts, and something much, much more than that... the scent of 'blue'.

    And yet...

    The scent of Gebler's infantry is, too, familiar. The scent of polymers, of synthetic fabric, of the slight charge of electricity in their advanced weaponry, and...

    The artificial, mysterious scent of the 'sky'.

    She soars into the sky--

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3h0Mghh8JQ

    --and with a glint of light reflected off the Holy Sword, descends into the battlefield.

    A knightly figure, garbed in tarnished crystalline armour with a pale yellow cloak. She bears ice-blue hair and a blindfold over her eyes, wielding her holy sword over her shoulder with her left arm, while her right arm remains inert and unmoving.

    "Raiders of Eluria... today, I, Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna, Paladin of Eluria, have come to exact vengeance."

<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

From on high, a cry like a bird's, but thunderous in glory. An eagle's riotous shriek.

A huge shadow casts over the field, soaring high above - and then another departs from it, falling down, down...

A void of black and white SMASHES into the ground of the crater, the shockwave of his arrival blasting dust to the sky and men to the ground. He stands - tall, too tall for a man, with skin the color of tarnished copper and hair the color of flame. He is dressed in fine robes of a style Filgaia has lost, black and embroidered with talons grasping for unknown power. Under the black is a red tabard lined in gold, with a cummerbund embroidered with an icon equally lost, like red and green spirits converging on a color-divided center. Despite his broad physique, even standing he exudes an aura of power and command, and his smile is a sneer as he regards the dogs of Gebler, reaching slowly to grasp a pair of swords from his belt. He is known - unmistakable.

        GANONDORF DRAGMIRE
        KING OF EVIL

"Lord Siegfried, I presume," he says, voice a rumble. "So this is your prey. Yes...a fine hunt. Kalisa! Come!"

He returns his attention to Gebler, his grin turning up into malice. "Such rabble as this do not require the dignity of trickery."

<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.

A hot, sticky wind blows through the ranks of the gathered Gebler forces, a wind that is unseasonal and untimely no matter the climate or the location. It passes quickly, but that sickly, desert-like heat lingers behind, leaving behind a promise of ill tidings for those so afflicted.

The winds rush inwards, swirling together With a flurry of sand that somehow obscures a girl's arrival. She appears right beside and slightly behind Ganondorf, in a position of that speaks of loyalty and obedience--Kalisa, one would presume, given Ganondorf's call. She must be still a girl, by her height, but by her stature and bearing, she retains some traits in common with Ganondorf--standing tall, proud, unflinching by the numerous soldiers that would seek to outnumber them.

And she is also dressed in a way that has not been seen in Filgaia in quite some time: bold, crimson Gerudo armor, trimmed with gold adorns her body, a delicate balance of protection and mobility. ARound the armor she has dark, tanned skin. She has bright red hair that falls all the way down her back, and two long elf-like ears. But her face--

Is covered in a white mask, covered with some purple and blue markings. Her eyes are blank white, hidden by the mask, and thus the stare she levels on the offending soldiers is inscrutible.

But her posture says she does not think much of them.

"What is thy will?" she says simply. Behind her, a black metal spear rests on her back, one which she reaches for and brings to bear in anticipation of the fight ahead.

She does tilt her head to take notice of Caoimhe. Curious...

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

And it is not you who bring calamity.

There is a buffet of wind at the end of that singular declaration. Like a little, dramatic breeze to punctuate the moment by serendipity.

But it is not serendipity that calls the wind.

And the breeze does not stop. No...

It intensifies.

Rapidly.

What was once a breeze becomes a gust. What was a gust becomes a gale.

And what was a gale becomes a true windstorm with Siegfried at its epicenter.

The source of it all? From above. There is a flash of prismatic light, a convergence of color, coalescing --

until it forms the silhouette of a faceless knight in the skies above the ruined Photosphere, wreathed in glowing armor, a truly massive, dual-bladed great sword swinging out to their side.

And then another silhouette. And another. And another. And another. Each a different hue. Each holding that great weapon.

Each -whipping- their swords about --

And each building violent centripetal force until, the winds they generate froth into comes the frenzy of a howling storm of wind, kicking up dust and dirt already disturbed by Ganondorf's mighty entrance into a great, cyclonic wall that threatens to sweep up any Gebler unfortunate enough to be caught in its wrathful wake.

At the heart of this wall of wind, another silhouette materializes, but this one with a zorch of lightning and the smell of ozone. There's a suggestion of a feathered hat, a toothy grin, legs curled up beneath, and gloved hands extended; sparks ignite as that silhouette spins with the storm and fires bursts of light.

No, lightning--bullets forged from plasma tear forward into the wind, merging with it to form deadly points of light within. Dashes join dots when bullets are followed up by lasers, until the storm conveys a sort of Morse code.

The code, of course, reads, "TIME TO DIE!"

A constellation of jagged lightning and blinding flashes of laser light build within the cyclone, conveying their violent message. And as they reach their apex--

The multi-colored silhouettes hanging above come -crashing- down. First the central figure, one of blazing red, POUNDS its sword into the abused and forsaken earth that is Photosphere's crater.

Than the next -crashes- into it, its glowing green light merging with red.

Blue next collides with the glowing mass. Then yellow. Then violet...

Each one falls into the other. Each one collapses into the last. And every time they collide --

There is a BURST of light, sending the lightning-blazed bullets within the sword into a riotous frenzy. One burst after another, until the last armored form comes crashing in -- generating a great, thunderous BOOM of a shockwave, setting off an explosive chain reaction across that lightning-laced windstorm that will knock any Gebler unfortunate enough far and away.

The winds die. And as they do...

K.K. rises up from her crouched position on the ground, her armor a shimmery white as she -snaps- that great weapon to the side.

"Get of man," she intones, voice warped by her helm.

"'Tis time you remember your place."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    It's been a long while since Ragnell's been to the Photosphere--or what remains of it, anyway. Not since the fall of Mother. That had been a grim time for the Hyadeans for a lot of reasons. It'd been a grim time for a lot of folks, really, as is evidenced by the wreckage that still remains on this barren, snowy landscape. She'd been there with K.K. as a friend to Siegfried back then.
    
    And, though she'd spent several days crossing a desert very recently, she comes today again with K.K. as a friend to Siegfried now.
    
    The wall of wind, merged with bullets and lasers, is CRUSHED forward in a rainbow shockwave into the Gebler forces. Ragnell hovers over it for a moment, as if held aloft by the storm; at the signal of that final BOOM, she then lands light on her booted feet behind the Trial Knight, falling with a bloodthirsty grin and a spin of her paired pistols as K.K. rises. As ever, they're a seemingly mismatched pair, K.K. in her pristine white armor, Ragnell in a poncho and jeans. However, their motions are undeniably in sync.
    
    K.K. makes her dramatic proclamation; as she does, Ragnell's red gaze sweeps across the battlefield, taking in not just the Gebler forces but also the unfamiliar Caoimhe, the familiar Ganondorf, and the consequently-familiar-by-proxy Kalisa. And, of course, Siegfried himself. She shoots Siegfried and Ganondorf a wink before raising her guns.
    
    "A li'l calamity sounds like a lot o' fun right now. But still--" She flashes that razor-sharp grin of hers at the Gebler forces, then over her shoulder at her partner in crime. "Well, K'? You don't think this is *all* they brought? That'd just be *embarrassin'*!"

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

What unlucky few volunteered for the front lines against Siegfried, after all this? Patriots, among them. Those who truly believed that Solaris would always triumph against the lesser forces of demons and surfacers.

It's a useful type of person. Leah Sadalbari hasn't run out of zealots to use, yet, though many now lie dead or wounded at the feet of Calamity. The entire first rank is lost, to the Trial Knight and Ragnell's joint display. Many could not even see Ragnell in the melee.

The more pragmatic second rank will be perhaps more helpful, though. They part as Leah steps out from the crowd, the Watcher making herself known with greatsword in hand. It is rune-inscribed, a feat of magial engineering--but her armor is different from before. Instead of the inbuilt mask, it cuts off at the shoulders--her face is bared, her two blue eyes staring towards the group assembled.

"Captain Voss," she instructs. "Bring the Azoth out."

Her heavy boots clink against the dead debris. She remembers this place. She remembers it well.

Runes of authority and power ring her tabard; the armor is black and gold, with indigo for the cloth.

"I am the Watcher, Grigori," she introduces for Ganondorf's and Kalisa's benefit.

"Where you bring Calamity," she says to Siegfried, "Solaris will bring order."

BGM: Finality - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoJSAClwLc4

"And what is it that you know of man's 'place'?"

"I shall exalt 'man' to the foot of God."

Leah--the Watcher--steps over the many bodies that the first assault of Calamity has left, and brings her greatsword to bear. She hefts it upward--and then swings through the air, letting loose a blast shockwave of blue and green Ether, as she adopts a defensive posture.

The second rank hesitates. Leah says, "Fall back. These foes are beyond you."

"M-ma'am!" They start to back up, hesitating as they see the foes arrayed before them.

GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked K.K. with Hurricane Cutter!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Hurricane Cutter!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Hurricane Cutter!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Redoubt Posture!
GS: Leah Sadalbari enters a Counter stance!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari heals Leah Sadalbari! She gains 198 temporary hit points!
GS: Gamble: High! Ganondorf Dragmire imperfectly guards Leah Sadalbari's Hurricane Cutter for 102 hit points!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Seraph Ragnell imperfectly evades Leah Sadalbari's Hurricane Cutter for 75 hit points!
GS: Gamble: Very High! K.K. imperfectly guards Leah Sadalbari's Hurricane Cutter for 96 hit points!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He knew it. The presence of his Gear, with the signs of fresh upgrades at that, had been evidence that Leah was plotting something.

    No sooner than he'd been cleared again for action did that assignment cross his desk. Was it just chance? If he hadn't recovered in time, would she have picked someone else? Or had she some idea of how long it would have taken him to heal and planned accordingly?
    If Loren is being honest, either seems plausible and equally distasteful.

    But at the same time...

    It's not as if he's unwilling. Not when it's 'him'. He still owes Siegfried for their dead soldiers. ...He still owes Siegfried for that moment atop the Photosphere.

    But justice and revenge don't come cheaply on the battlefield: Siegfried isn't alone this time, either.

    He remembers this place, too. Once upon a time, he had almost died here. He had even been dressed the same back then, clad in the concealing body armor of a Gebler field officer. But this time, they're not by themselves among the blasted stone and falling snows. They're not alone, and in Loren's mind--
    Maybe they're even the worse for it.

    There is light. There is light and a storm of violence. And so they fall while he watches. There's nothing he can do for them, even if he tried. Even to attempt to fruitlessly intervene could draw attention to his position, and his orders had been quite plain: leave the rank and file to handle their own and attend to the special directives he'd been given. Which is to say--

    "Azoth, come out," Loren says, turning his attention to their special machine asset. "...Your orders are to destroy them."

    As if cast by some bolt from the heavens, green light jumps from him to Azoth, a single pulsing line of connection before it fades.

    Fall back, Leah commands.

    This is the other part of it. The clause she'd included, in the event of... exactly this sort of scenario. Ether rises again: a coordinated swirl of water and earth and chromatic fire: a flower of lines and angles around himself and around Azoth and of course, around Leah.

"Paladin. Take your vengeance against us if you can."

GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Spirit Dynamic!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Extend!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Sigma Factor!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Sigma Factor!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Sigma Factor!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed to Sage!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari accepts Loren Voss's Sigma Factor for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: Loren Voss accepts Loren Voss's Sigma Factor for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Loren Voss!

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Siegfried approaches. So too descends a knightly paladin with an energy signature Azoth has never identified before. With them, a masked ally in the King of Evil and another who answers directly to him. (Azoth thinks it's important wisdom to never inflict an injury on someone in a mask you would not want to inflict on a friend who might go around wearing masks. Azoth is also not in position to willfully exercise that wisdom.) Ragnell and her Trial Knight are here, both tearing through Gebler in a beautiful dance of prismatic violence.

A jolt of electricity crawls over Azoth's visor, knowing the presence of the one he serves as a vessel for. He brings his claw to his visor, scratching lightly over the surface. Ragnell has already accounted for such scenarios and offered her compassion: that sometimes, they must fight, and she is all right with that. This is not a capital 'B' Betrayal.

Bring the Azoth out.

However helpless this bid, he turns his head toward Loren. He does not say it, this time, because neither of them can do anything about it.

(It hurts.)

"...Order received."

Ether bolts and swirls. Azoth's red energy briefly turns a colorful chromatic to match the energy pouring into him, and then he is gone from Loren's sight.

He appears in the middle of the battle, charging straight for Siegfried and gathering a bright ball of crimson. Energy blades form a halo around him, firing off while he hurls the sphere of ancient ARM energy for Siegfried.

The blades dive for Kalisa and Caoimhe in erratic, difficult to read pathways, weaving deftly through the obstacles of the battlefield.

GS: Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Spirit Dynamic for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Azoth!
GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Loren Voss's Reload!!
GS: CRITICAL! Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Sigma Factor for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Azoth!
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Azoth has attacked Siegfried with exec.ohr REFORMAT!
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Azoth has attacked Kalisa Dragmire with exec.mec DISPOSE!
GS: Azoth has attacked Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna with exec.mec DISPOSE!
GS: Azoth has completed his action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Azoth's attack becomes clear!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna imperfectly guards Azoth's exec.azoc VOID STEP for 92 hit points!
GS: Siegfried marginally guards Azoth's exec.ohr REFORMAT for 48 hit points!
GS: Jam, Leak, and Poison applied to Siegfried!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

...And those blades that fly out prove to be feints, intended to distract. In a glitched distortion, Azoth vanishes from sight again, appearing behind Kalisa and then Caoimhe in rapid succession with a brutal cleave of his claws for each.

He reappears before his opponents and shrieks out a distorted, digital roar of a battle cry while his bladed tail quivers and his claws splay, elongating with blades of energy.

GS: COUNTER! Kalisa Dragmire counterattacks Azoth with Chaotic Thrust!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Azoth's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Kalisa Dragmire fails to charge Azoth's exec.azoc VOID STEP for 271 hit points!
GS: Azoth critically fails to guard Kalisa Dragmire's Chaotic Thrust for 238 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

Siegfried glances at Caiomhe as she lands. His helmet hides his face and his expression -- and the slight lift of his head indicates his surprise. Raiders of Eluria, she says. He hesitates for a moment.

"We have no grievance against a Paladin of Eluria," he tells her. "I cannot say the same for the like of Solaris."

The ground, then, shakes when Ganondorf Dragmire descends from the heavens. There is a moment where Siegfried finds himself holding his breath -- surprised that he does hold his breath -- and then he nods, once.He looks too at the woman who arrives with him; a lieutenant, he thinks. "The one and the same. I thank you for answering my call to arms."

He turns, then, towards Gebler. As the Trial Knight descends, light exploding out amongst the soldiers descending from Gebler. Siegfried looks to K.K., nods to his friend, and then he looks back to Ganondorf. "There is much to speak of... after we dispense with these."

Then, he looks to Ragnell. It's hard to see under his helmet, but he grins. "I should hope they have more," he says. "It would be dismissive of our hospitality, today. After all, I have invited them to my home."

Or what remains of it.

Leah, it seems, does not turn his hospitality away. "Your order is unneeded," Siegfried says. "And it is unwelcome. Filgaia has no need of your god."

Green light leaps between Leah and two others. Siegfried's eyes look at Loren -- gleaming red, just visible from his helm -- and narrow. But then his attention is on Azoth, as he appears in the midst of the battlefield. Energy blades dance around him.

So, too, does Glumzambor as he effortlessly plucks the Dark Spear from the earth, and brings it up -- and the sphere of energy smashes against the Dark Spear, driving him backward. "Still made to serve, then... I will not hold my blade," he says, as Azoth reappears -- and screams.

He looks to Kalisa, then Caiomhe. "Sorceress! Paladin!" he calls out. "We bring the fight to them! I am Siegfried, once of the Metal Demons. Now, of Filgaia! Let them see our FURY!"

He leaps, and does a tight turn in mid-air. He rushes down, towards Azoth...

...and then over his head, to smash down before Loren, kick off a shattered piece of the Photosphere's shell, and come at him with a one-handed swipe of his blade aimed at his midsection. "Did you think I had forgotten? That my blade would be stayed?"

GS: Siegfried has attacked Loren Voss with Feather-Light Sweep!
GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Siegfried takes 35 damage from Poison!
GS: Siegfried has completed his action.
GS: Loren Voss imperfectly guards Siegfried's Feather-Light Sweep for 69 hit points!
GS: Cover, Hyper, and Riposte applied to Siegfried!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has posed.

    "Watcher, Grigori... Solaris," Caoimhe remarks firmly inbetween bouts of battle, as the runesword-wielding woman makes her presence known. "Now... I have names to those who brought ruin to our kin."

    The blind Paladin draws in a deeper breath, letting out a curious little chuckle in turn. "You reap the souls of men to your precious, false Order. That is the make of 'God' that the unfaithful would craft."

    The forces around the 'Blue' have gathered. The scent of the flame-haired man in particular is revolting... and familiar. Her grin just seems to turn from ear to ear, for a moment.

    "The King of Evil... ahhh, it was worth it to venture to this snow-addled landscape. And..."

    A pause, as Caoimhe regards the scent of the one that comes on hot and arid winds, bringing with it the aroma of the desert. Kalisa. "... I see."

    K.K. and Ragnell arrive in short order, bringing with them a flash of destruction, winds and lightning; there is light there, which even her unseeing eyes can 'see'. Light, the positively electric scent of ozone, and...

    'K,' the female voice addresses, of the tinny voice masked behind a helmet. The reverberations and the sound of metal make that clear enough, but also, the movement of a fierce blade...

    The 'Azoth', as the Watcher puts it, and the voice of Loren. He, too, bears the 'scents' that Caoimhe identifies with Solaris, and no doubt medical scents from his long and storied career. And he brings with him the elemental scents of Ether -- fire, earth, and water, all drawing up around them and enforcing power amongst them.

    Your orders are to destroy them.
    Order received.

    "You, bearing the scent of the Sky... grant me the courtesy of a name," she addresses Loren.

    A machine? Azoth's scents seem more complex than that; the power quickly turns chromatic, forming halos of energy that threaten to sunder her from erratic angles...

    ... but it is a feint -- perhaps, one that Caoimhe paradoxically doesn't fall for because she's not gifted with the boon of evasion. The energy disappears, and Azoth instead appears behind her -- and it's with the Holy Sword that she parries those claws across her back, distortions of energy clashing against their respective blades.

    Siegfried speaks of having no grievance with her, but less so Solaris. "Very well, Metal Demon Siegfried. I shall honour your words." Not only that -- the Dark Spear itself screams with a multitude of both sensations and scents itself, speaking to its similarly long history.

    The players have gathered.

    "You... 'Azoth'... have the scent of Red upon you."

    Pushing against the weaponlock, Caoimhe whirls in a sudden frenzy of action, her body twisting in centrifugal action -- and singlehandedly, with her right arm still just coming for the ride where it may, she brings the Holy Sword in a spinning

    SMASH

    towards Azoth, cratering the ground with the sheer impact of her blow. Endgame JRPG holy swords have gonzo for attack power, who knew??

GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has attacked Azoth with Somersault Smash!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna's stances have changed from Counter to Counter and Hero!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Azoth marginally charges Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna's Somersault Smash for 263 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.

There is a small turn of her head as Kalisa regards the fearsome display that K.K. and Ragnell put on--just enough so that she can watch, but not enough that she betrays any concern for her own safety in the fracass. More bombastic than her entrance by far, but she respects the power and skill on display. (And today is not about her, regardless. She is here to carry out her father's will.)

She is The Phantom Blade. Ganondorf's Blade.

She looks forward again, spear in hand but resting down and against her back as she watches Leah make her entrance. She notes the name, but does not react to it. She also notes that Leah pulls the rest of her forces back. So those that remain, then...

Excellent. Better to test her skill against one or two worthy adversaries than to slaughter an army without challenge.

"You are far from your home, Paladin," she comments quietly to Caoimhe. This is not the voice of Luna Meitner, that she is familiar with now. Luna's voice is rougher, while Kalisa's is in some ways more refined. Though it is no less forceful and certain of itself. "You would cast your lot with us?"

There is a slight tilt of Kalisa's head as she sees the blades come for her and starts running towards them, fully intending to weave between them to make her strike--but there is a deception, and while she turns to meet Azoth as he appears suddenly behind her he lands a great slash across her back. She stumbles, with a stifled grunt and a hiss, but the mask betrays nothing else.

But she lets her forward momentum carry her further, overextending with her spear to drive an attack home at Azoth right at the moment he reappears.

"You are an interesting opponent," she opines as she withdraws a step to steady her stance. There might be the hint of a eager smile in her voice.

She will accept the title of Sorceress, for now. Siegfried introduces himself, and Kalisa simply nods.

She bends her knees and then she jumps as a flicker of shadows surround her, and she vanishes from sight. She might appear, briefly, in the sky, spear held aloft as she crests the arc of her jump and begins to fall--

but suddenly she is on the ground, in between both Azoth and Loren, whirling around. Her spear glints as it lashes at each in turn.

GS: Kalisa Dragmire has attacked Azoth with Mirage Dive!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has attacked Loren Voss with Mirage Dive!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has completed her action.
GS: Loren Voss imperfectly charges Kalisa Dragmire's Mirage Dive for 102 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Azoth marginally charges Kalisa Dragmire's Mirage Dive for 124 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Azoth!
GS: Hyper applied to Kalisa Dragmire!
GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

You don't think this is *all* they brought? That'd just be *embarassin'*!

As if made from light itself, the Trial Knight's armor glows with a liquid white sheen as the weapon in her hand shatters. Her gaze fixes forward, unseen behind that horned helm as Ragnell asks that singular, important question. For a moment, that gaze tears away -- the presence of it felt more than seen as it falls briefly on the familiar form of the King of Evil, then the more unfamiliar one that is the woman who came with him.

And the blind paladin, an unknown to most save Kalisa, yet here all the same. It piques the Trial Knight's interest for a quiet moment, before their gaze affixes forward, towards those fallen soldiers.

"No," is K.K.'s succinct answer. "Be wary.

"This is naught but dalliance."

It's an assessment that bears out as the masked watcher steps to the fore. Unseen behind the faceless mask of her helm, eyes of molten gold narrow in contemplation of this person before her. Solaris. They are individuals that K.K., by and large, has kept watch of from a distance. This one... she has not met, but recognizes by description.

Bring the Azoth out, instructs the Watcher, and those gold eyes narrow further behind their helm's concealment. Her lips pull taut as she sees Azoth trotted out like a puppet played for their benefit.

"..."

A clawed finger twitches out a single brief spasm.

And what is that you know of man's 'place'? I shall exalt 'man' to the foot of God.

Fragments of light from the shattered remains of K.K.'s great weapon still linger in the air around her. Like a shimmery swarm of fireflies they dance as the Trial Knight takes a single step forward.

"... Then I but know that you know it not."

With one great heave, the Watcher attacks. Ether ripples rough and powerful from the single stroke of Leah's sword -- and the Trial Knight -swings- their arms up to intercept that great shockwave of blue-green power. The sharded light in the air swarms around the knight's arms, reinforcing armor with a pair of gilded, white and blue knuckles.

But even reinforced, the force of that blow is enough to -push- K.K. backwards, Ether screaming against spirit-forged armor, sheering off chunks of liquid light from straining forearms as her backwards drag digs deep, sparking furrows into the ruinous metal beneath her feet. Her left leg plants backwards, -bracing- against an upchurned plate of rusting metal, before she -smashes- through what she can of that forcefield.

In the end, the metal of her gauntlets have been shorn clear off, exposing the fair skin beneath before all that fluid light sluices back once more like the wash of the tides, reforging that lost armor anew.

Beneath her helm, K.K. exhales. A powerful opponent.

That unseen gaze is alive with the prospect of the challenge ahead as it fixes upon Leah. The Divine Arms covering her hands shatter into a thousand thousand particles of light, reforming above the knight into a gilded, white tome. It floats above all, opening of its own accord, pages flipping until it lands on a blank page. Words scrawled by magic etch upon the page as K.K. speaks her tinny proclamation.

"You who yearn for the celestial seat not yours to keep, blind to what you are, mark this well:"

And as she speaks... Leah may notice something fluttering in her peripheral vision.

Butterflies. A whole host of butterflies, violet and black in color, everey flap of their wings producing tiny little clouds of beautiful, glittering violet wing dust as they flock around her.

"'Tis the fate of all mortals who reach for heaven's lofty heights without knowing the ground beneath their feet, to know only gravity's inevitable embrace."

The book's spell is etched. And Althena's Blessing blooms as K.K. recites the words...

                       "Eater of souls, come forth!"

... and that beautiful swarm of butterflies congeal into a tremendous blade of seething shadows that looks more like some fell raptor's pinion than anything of the beautiful butterflies' dance that forged it.

                              "Dread Wings!"

A pinion'd blade that swiftly falls down with one spectral stroke, and then another, and another, to cleave into Leah with shadowy magics compelled by the Adversary's will.

"Know this Calamity as an embrace just as inevitable!"

GS: K.K. has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Dread Wings!
GS: K.K. has gained 1 Combo!
GS: K.K. has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard K.K.'s Dread Wings for 202 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

Ganondorf's eye flicks to Caoimhe as she nearly seathes at him. He nearly scoffs, but his attention does turn forward. "Let us make war later, paladin," he says, perhaps amused by the prospect of a hero.

"Indeed, I think. Quite the assortment you have assembled, Siegfried."

He shifts the grips on his sword, preparing. "Let it not be said the King of the Gerudo lacks for mettle."

Then Grigori speaks, and strikes. Ganondorf throws his blades up, the scything strike scattering against them, but the way his shoulders flex betrays the force of the blow. His brows furrow into a tunnel of focus. "Kalisa," he says, rather than answer the Watcher at once. "Attend to the toy and the device."

Then he steps forward, marching toward Grigori, and...

"Long has it been since someone irritated me so quickly," he says, and then surges forward, a powerful leap with both blades wide, then smashing them down to try and cleave the lady of Solaris in quarters in one swing.

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Blade of the Covetous!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari imperfectly evades Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the Covetous for 55 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    'Captain Voss. Bring the Azoth out.'
    
    Ragnell's razor smile doesn't fade, but it's a matter of active effort. It's just as K.K. says: of course there's more than just these rank and file. And beyond just the rank and file, there's...
    
    She of course knew that it was possible, even likely, that Azoth would be brought to this battlefield; that doesn't mean she has to like it. In a way, it's shoving her snark about the rank and file in her face--not that Leah or Loren would be doing that on purpose. But as long as they don't know her relationship to Azoth, she's sure as hell not going to betray it.
    
    Instead, Ragnell snorts in contempt at Leah's proclamation. She doesn't know if this so-called Watcher can see her or not, and it doesn't really matter to her. "Imagine thinkin' bringin' mankind to where they could get stomped on was a good thing," she drawls, loud enough to be heard by those who can hear. "Or are you hopin' t' do the stompin' yourself, Watcher?"
    
    She smirks back at Siegfried. "It *is* Solaris. Bein' dismissive is what they do best!"
    
    But she'll leave Siegfried and Azoth to each other--and, by proxy (if one can call a direct assault "by proxy"), Loren and the two... allies?... she doesn't know. She *is* worried about Azoth, especially with the frankly ridiculous force that blindfolded woman brings to bear in the swing of her sword (which itself has a peculiar aura to it), and that masked lieutenant of Ganondorf's is clearly no slouch with the spear either, but that's not something she can express at the moment. Her reassurances about them meeting in battle aside, she can tell Azoth's doing his best by following his orders in a way that doesn't directly involve her or the Trial Knight.
    
    Of course, that's probably because that's Leah stepping in closer now to unleash her own gale slash off the edge of her longsword, a cutting wind that even Ragnell can't fully escape. It slashes into her as she leaps upward, and she's thrust backwards several feet before she twists in midair and makes a three-point landing, her poncho--slashed and tattered--billowing out behind her.
    
    "Siegfried's always been one t' bring the strongest together," she quips as an aside to Ganondorf. "Still, if you're goin' melee..."
    
    She leaves the rest of the sentiment unstated; Ganondorf is already in motion to take Leah on directly, while the Adversary has called forth a certain tome to enact dark magicks upon the Watcher. If one uses brute force and one Althenan sorcery, then Ragnell will complete the triumvirate by charging energy in her pistols, then unleashing it as a burst of ARM lasers, streaking and heating the air around Leah like a meteor shower. The charge will linger on Ragnell's arms and ARMs both, too, giving her a brief burst of strength to her follow-up attacks.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Tempest Laser!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: COUNTER! Leah Sadalbari counterattacks Seraph Ragnell with Sever!
GS: Leah Sadalbari imperfectly charges Seraph Ragnell's Tempest Laser for 88 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: Blind blocked!
GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"This broken world requires salvation," the Watcher answers Siegfried. "Welcome or not."

A look to Caoimhe, as she speaks of their kin. "I have brought ruin to the kin of many," she says. "And will again, where it is needed. All else pales in comparison to 'salvation'." As it happens--she does see Ragnell. She hears her. And she turns to look upon her at her answer. "There are many on whom I have stepped. There will be more, before my mission is through."

"Hmph," the Watcher answers the Trial Knight's measured reply. But she has no other words for her in that instant, not words but blade. And only when K.K. continues to speak does the Watcher turn to watch her in turn, over the great weapon in her hands. And so she sees the Divine Arms shatter, and the gilded white tome appear. Leah does notie the fluttering. They flock, and fly, all around her. Althena's Blessing comes forth--

The blade of shadows hacks and hacks at Leah. She deflects the first with her own blade, then the second, but the third hacks against her chest and sprays blood all over the crater floor, cleaving at once through her side and armor in a wound that most assuredly should be fatal.

"...That is true," she says. "That is the fate of the mortal. That is why mission is as it is."

The wounds opened by that terrible, shadowy blade that scythed entirely throuh Leah's shield begin to heal, mending shut as flesh knits and blood regennerates.

"But I am not mortal. I was plucked from that blessed state for the sake of my duty." She swings to Ganondorf, and has more luck with his blades than she did with K.K.'s; his powerful stroke hits the flat of her sword, and the ground shakes with the force of impact. The King of Evil's raw power cracks the very earth as it travels through Leah's arms, but still she stands for now.

Just in time for Ragnell to complete the triumvirate; those lasers streak and heat the air, hitting Leah in a shower of meteors. They impact against her barrier, as behind it she swings her sword once more, in a stroke that could sever bone.

Well, maybe if Ragnell's bones were more than a polite suggestion.

Then she makes her counteroffensive. Ganondorf is a powerful physical combatant; she will test his sorcerous might with a rush of lightning from her hand, cascading off of what was once metal. She keeps stepping to swing up at Ragnell next, closing the distance in one great leap, and from there she Jumps one more time--and swings at K.K., hoping to batter the Trial Knight back from using such a potent spell again.

"King of Evil, you hold no sway over the light."

Loren had given her a potent spell, but she spares no time for him now; perhaps that is the sign that she is delivering utmost focus to this battle.

GS: Amplify added to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Anemo Charge!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Violent Rise!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked K.K. with Leaden Strike!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: K.K. critically fails to evade Leah Sadalbari's Leaden Strike for 166 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: COUNTER! Seraph Ragnell counterattacks Leah Sadalbari with Counter Attack!
GS: Seraph Ragnell fails to charge Leah Sadalbari's Sever for 184 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell imperfectly evades Leah Sadalbari's Violent Rise for 109 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari imperfectly guards Seraph Ragnell's Counter Attack for 64 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire imperfectly evades Leah Sadalbari's Anemo Charge for 61 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Azoth doesn't say it.

    Azoth doesn't need to say it. His own expression safely hidden beneath the face mask of his body armor, Loren looks away.

    The last time, it had been Siegfried and that Golem pitted against them; this time, the once-again-living Siegfried comes with more than a few allies. Did he lure them to his cause by some promise or another? Or is there some other reason for them to ally with him -- or against Solaris? Yet, this isn't something upon which he can dwell, not with so much at stake here. Leah had made it plain: failure is no longer an option. Not for him, not for any of them. It might be with some relief that she orders the surviving rank-and-file back, but...

    Upon their shoulders now falls the weight of victory. In his bag there are two vials and he hopes he won't need them.

    It's upon him that Siegfried's attention soon falls. If it diverts to Azoth, this is but a small reprieve--

    And one soon crushed by the weight of the reborn Siegfried's fury. He comes for Loren, the great weight of that blade bearing down upon him. It's just like last--
    The earth tremors and rises before Loren as a shield wall: against rock many a blade would be blunted. For Siegfried, it but slows his advance, his path strewn with the rubble of Loren's barrier his blade leaves behind.

    "That you'd forgotten how many you've slain, perhaps," Loren tells him, his head angled in a way that suggests he's staring right at Siegfried. "The dead of Urartu and Sumer... I won't forgive you for taking their lives." His hand rests on the hilt of the sword slung at his hip, and one might well think his next move would be to draw it and run at Siegfried. But his orders were clear. And he will obey his orders.

    It's that woman who addresses him, cutting into this tense moment. She reminds him of the knights he'd seen on Lunar, yet her armor is different. And that sword: what is that sword? But there's something to her stance that grabs his attention and won't let go until he -- a medical officer, who had spent most of his time at Jugend being inculcated in the arts of medicine and Ether -- realizes two important things about Caoimhe:

    Her arm is broken.
    And she cannot see.

    She asks him his name, he who bears the scent of the Sky.

    "...Voss. Captain Loren Voss." He pauses. "Who are you?"

    The other woman calls her 'Paladin'. Azoth might be the necessary target of Kalisa's interest, but, as Loren finds...

    This does not mean she is unaware of his presence. She's between them in an eyeblink, fast, too fast for him to react in any way but to throw up an arm on his own self-defence. Into his armor, the spear cleaves deeply, exposing the bodysuit underneath, but for now, he does not yet bleed.

    "Tch," Loren hisses, regarding the trio now arrayed before them. He's still close enough to Azoth to lend him more direct support, but Leah is farther away. He can but, thanks to a break in the exchanges between both sides, bear witness to Leah as her shield is rent and her wound heals without a pulse of Ether on his part.
    He does not call her name. He has come too far to act like he used to.

    Instead light spreads from his feet, and it spreads and it spreads, a treebranch of a connection breaking into an endless recursion of fracturing and spreading twigs. Azoth is easier to reach, but he can make contact with Leah even at a distance.

    And the light fades, and the earth trembles. Throwing out a hand before him, Loren grits his teeth as he focuses. The very dust and rocks rise in a swarm: perhaps they will also sting like bees. "Azoth-- you know what to do."

GS: Loren Voss spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Healing Order!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Healing Order!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Healing Order!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed from Sage to Sage!
GS: You cannot act while you still have attacks in queue.
GS: Loren Voss heals Azoth! He gains 250 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss heals Loren Voss! He gains 328 temporary hit points!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Siegfried with Terra Set!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Kalisa Dragmire with Terra Set!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna with Terra Set!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Loren Voss heals Leah Sadalbari! She gains 281 temporary hit points!
GS: Leah Sadalbari enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Kalisa Dragmire critically fails to charge Loren Voss's Terra Set for 105 hit points!
GS: Cover and Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Siegfried fails to charge Loren Voss's Terra Set for 73 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Loren looks away. Azoth does not. Not until the order is finally given.

And then there is battle.

Kalisa manages to brutalize Azoth in the same moment he descends upon her, and though she feels her spear catch and cut, it is not like striking true against a human opponent. "Mask. Noun. A cover for the face, used to disguise." A cord severs and black liquid hits the ground as red sparks appear instead of blood. "Query: why?" And then Azoth is gone again the reposition.

Not for the first time, Azoth stares down Siegfried on the battlefield. Someone important to another defender of Filgaia. "...Decision accepted." Azoth rushes to meet Siegfried's assault, only to find the thrust of his claws catching air as Siegfried's arc aims for Loren.

Caoimhe has her own way of perceiving the world. "Red," he echoes in that deep, reverberating mechanical voice as he stands blade locked to claw. "Define... 'red'." But his orders are such that he cannot wait for an answer, and he pushes into it. He takes the cleaving marks of the spin into his steel to ultimately avoid the brutal smash at the end, which most certainly would have crushed something important in his function.

Kalisa vanishes herself, appearing in a whirling slash. It screeches a horrible sound as it cuts a groove in Azoth's chest and the force of it pushes him back. She can tell from that: machine does not weigh much, for all its explosive power.

Your orders are to destroy them.

And yet the Azoth twitches with a sound of warped agony as these attacks strike at Loren. His tail rattles as it vibrates with such force it seems it might separate from his body and begin flailing like a gecko's dropped defenses.

Azoth-- you know what to do.

Azoth's lights are again shifted, taking on the color of Loren's Ether as it works to hold his severed cords and wires together.

"A...ffirmative... Us...er... Loren... determined critical to... current destruction..."

There's the loophole he was searching for. A surge of light pulses through the Azoth, flaring blindly as he regains poise to his movements. He vanishes, and this time reappears nearer Loren, determined to keep his position from overextending far beyond Loren's own range.

Another fan of energy blades forms, and Azoth swings them out at Caoimhe in a trailing formation, aiming to strike into her before spinning to hurl them at Kalisa and Siegfried in a rapid fire barrage, each intended to detonate on impact.

GS: Azoth has attacked Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna with exec.mec VERIFY!
GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Azoth's stances have changed to Hero!
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Azoth spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Azoth has attacked Kalisa Dragmire with exec.mec ERASE!
GS: Azoth has attacked Siegfried with exec.mec ERASE!
GS: Azoth gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Azoth has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna imperfectly evades Loren Voss's Terra Set for 39 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover and Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: COUNTER! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna counterattacks Azoth with Coruscant Saber!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna critically fails to charge Azoth's exec.mec VERIFY for 211 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Azoth fails to charge Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna's Coruscant Saber for 160 hit points!
GS: Siegfried imperfectly guards Azoth's exec.mec ERASE for 130 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

Siegfried barks a laugh out to Ragnell. "I can't argue."

His eyes shift to the Paladin, then. "Then we fight together!" Siegfried answers Caoimhe. His blade slams into the ground that Loren summons to keep his sword at bay. He feels the ground shake under his feet when Kalisa lands; he shifts himself slightly -- to account for her position.

"So it must be, your majesty," Siegfried answers Ganondorf. "When Filgaia has been pushed to the brink, it is the remarkable who will answer the call."

His eyes snap to the Watcher. "Not the salvation that you would offer!"

Then, he looks back at Loren. "You fight for two, then?" he asks. "I fight for multitudes -- the same multitudes that Solaris would ruin." Summoned rocks slam against him, battering his armor, but not breaking him. Then, he whirls, and Azoth's energy blades whirl too -- a rapid barrage, met by a millennia of honed swordsmanship.

Glumzambor slams into them, each counterstroke sending up bursts of light as he holds themat bay with only the greatest effort. He grunts, before he lunges for Azoth. He swings the Dark Spear up, the last two energy blades smashing into his armor and flash-melting pockmarks into it on impact. They glow an angry red-hot.

He comes down, swinging the blade down with a massive overhead, two-handed cleave aimed at the robot's chest as he crashes down to the earth.

GS: Siegfried spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Siegfried has attacked Azoth with Fallen Nova!
GS: Siegfried has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Siegfried gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Siegfried takes 39 damage from Poison!
GS: Siegfried has completed his action.
GS: Azoth fails to charge Siegfried's Fallen Nova for 229 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Siegfried!
GS: Siegfried drains Azoth! Siegfried gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Kalisa Dragmire imperfectly evades Azoth's exec.mec ERASE for 190 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kalisa Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

The clash with Watcher's blade cracks the earth, but neither warrior. So goes the battles of titans. He's not sent flying; the clash does send him back, but only a few steps. He's already sweeping his blades up for another strike when he sees Leah's gesture, and lunges sideways in a nimble sidestep. It does catch his robes and sorcerous barriers, lightning crawling up his side, but it doesn't quite strike true.

"So I see," the King of Thieves says to Ragnell, considering the Watcher carefully. But amid it all..."No sway, you say," he says, lip curling, blades slowly slipping down to an open stance. "Since when has Ganondorf Dragmire cared who would grant him entry? Your very bones speak lies, woman of Solaris."

He steps forward, a miasma of darkness seeping out of him, coming into the cracks in the ground their clash made, setting purple flame within.

"Men already grovel at the feet of their gods! Absent masters and doddering, senile lords of the land! The Gods belong in one place only!"

He thrusts his hand forward, dark magic coalescing into a sphere there that he thrusts forward, blue-black light cracking forward toward Leah.

"AT THE FEET OF MAN!"

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Dead Man's Service!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire enters a Counter stance!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Ganondorf Dragmire's Dead Man's Service for 132 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has posed.

    Kalisa's voice is different to Luna's, but... there's a certain inflection in the tone that feels quite familiar. Still, in the heat of battle, she does not pay too much heed to that familiarity.

    "We shall see. The wickedness is fulsome within the air, the promise grows ever cold... and it must find fulfillment."

    Indeed, as Ganondorf scoffs at her, her amusement just seems to return in full. "Later, indeed, King of Evil..." There is a quiet zeal in her voice, but she seems almost... intrigued.

    In a tinny voice, K.K. affirms well that those who seek lofty seats not meant for them are drawn by gravity. They speak of 'Calamity' as a coming storm, an event, as thee butterflies congeal into feathery shadows.

    A coming storm... and she'd be loathe to not be part of it.

    Ragnell's nature is not too unfamiliar with Caoimhe, at this point -- she has sensed a Seraph before, and she bears the similar marks of someone whose scents don't match with those who have true physical forms... to that end, K.K.'s as well.

    But where she might expect magic, Ragnell too draws some interest, as what she attacks with is much closer to what she expects out of Gebler, with their advanced weaponry. How varied the world has become, when she wasted away in Eluria...

    But Leah speaks of how the broken world needs salvation. Caoimhe shivers momentarily at that, but seems distracted as she lets out that low, drawn out laugh of hers, as her lucidity seems to lapse.

    "Yes... I see. An expensive salvation indeed. You wield the price of kings, Watcher. You, too, are drawn within their inevitable cycle..."

    ... it's something of an unusual comment, vague and drifting.

    Loren speaks of the dead of Urartu and Sumer. Yes, this is the nature of the battlefield -- people having grievances from the dead of one place to another, just as she bears a cross for Eluria.

    Indeed, as Loren assesses, Caoimhe is certainly not using her eyes, and that right arm of hers is possibly more than broken -- it's completely paralysed from the hand to the shoulder.

    "Captain Loren Voss. I shall remember that name. I am Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna, devotee of Granas..."

    Caoimhe not so much sees but 'senses' light coming from Loren's feet, both healing and reinforcing his allies and turning the very earth against them as rocks and dust become a very enemy by which he commands--

    "... and just as you hold a banner for your dead... so do I."

    --she holds the Holy Sword aloft, and a triplet of ephemeral shields manifests around her, assisting to deflect some of the rocks from truly tearing into her -- though some still escape their attention to hammer away at her armour.

    Define... 'red'.

    "How does one define 'red', to one who has never seen it?"

    Caoimhe seems intrigued by the machine, as she continues to communicate; even as Azoth's lights shift -- a meaningless distinction to her, other than the presence of light -- she redoubles her guard from Loren's onslaught of earth, fans of energy trailing her no matter where she retreats to.

    She slashes the very first, managing to disperse its energy; the other, however, grinds hard against crystal armour, and manages to crunch away the mystic surface that no doubt grants her protection against the hazards of evil, prompting a pained snarl.

    Her blood flows, from the cracks of the armour. It is Red.

    "... If one has experienced 'red', such as from this blood... 'tis an infinitely simple thing for oneself to define. But... how do you define 'red' to someone who has no such experience?"

    Caoimhe pursues Azoth in turn, her blade raised once more -- this time, it shines with indefatigable light, her arm drawing low as she starts to race it against the ground, prompting a thin line of light against snow and soot both.

    There's a low, almost eerie laugh as she remarks, "That is what you remind me of."

    It doesn't sound critical, as cryptic as her words are; in fact, there's an intrigue to her voice, from being able to speak to someone like this for the first time in her life. But there's a strain in Azoth's voice as he affirms what it is he must do.

    As she finishes, so does the arc of her swing -- and it's with a vicious slash upwards that she strikes wide, seemingly missing the machine by several metres.

    The true intent of her attack is made manifest a moment later, however, when large curtains of gold and blue light erupt from the scored ground, threatening to wash away at Azoth.

GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has attacked Azoth with Empyreal Paradox!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

Leah proclaims herself to not be mortal. And as she speaks...

That grievous wound the Trial Knight inflicted begins to mend, as if to reinforce that proclamation with absolute certainty.

K.K.'s horned helm cants rightward at the sight.

"Hm," comes the knight's reverbed voice. Their tome dissolves, pooling towards their hands in helixing streams of light.

"... So it would seem. And yet... this is the result of all your schemes, all your feverish grasping: this Calamity is one of your own make. 'Tis a thing that goes beyond the physical, your get. 'Tis in your very nature. Would you seek to forsake it to grasp something that cannot be yours?"

Leah springs into action just as those streams of light coalesce into a pair of short swords gripped in the Trial Knight's hands. The Watcher first comes for Ganondorf and Ragnell -- but K.K. has much and more faith in Ragnell, let alone the King of Evil. That is why she is -already- moving, -rushing- towards Leah even as she assaults the others.

Her attention turns towards K.K. She swings; the knight twists.

But even Liath can't evade a swing made so swiftly, when she is already mid-motion. Her pivot never finishes before the battering stroke of Leah's weapon CRASHES into the Adversary's side. Light -billows- out from the blow's point of impact as she is thrown -skywards- from the brutality of that strike. Spattering spindles of what was once armor spray into the open air as K.K. spins through the heavens... and stills at the apex of her ascent.

For a moment, there is pause.

And then she welcomes gravity's embrace as all that liquid light rubberbands back towards her, reforging the lost chunks of armor blown away by Leah's assault as K.K. does not try to gain distance, but -close- it, crashing towards Leah swords first.

It's a collision course she seeks, to SLAM into the Watcher with her right sword, wreathed in light. A bloom of pastel yellows and blues forms at the point of impact in a burning sphere that seeks to engulf Leah.

Before the second sword -stabs- into that mass of light.

The ground craters. There is a crackle of shadowy, inky dark in the epicenter of the sphere. A crackle that blooms and bleeds outwards until that sun of light becomes a gluttonous black sun, consuming everything it can that is unfortunate enough to be caught within its grasp -- drawing everything light and empowering within its empty, insatiable hunger before it winks out of existence once more.

"Mayhap it matters not."

GS: K.K. has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Sol Niger!
GS: K.K. has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari imperfectly guards K.K.'s Sol Niger for 59 hit points!
GS: Ruin! Amplify, Burst, Mighty, and Surge removed!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Leah Sadalbari!
GS: Azoth fails to charge Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna's Empyreal Paradox for 276 hit points!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna drains Azoth! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna gains 97 temporary hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.

Ganondorf issues his orders, and there is nothing but a simple nod of acknowledgment and an utterance of the phrase "At once" to signify that she understands.

She is his blade; she will go where she is directed.

(Does she desire to fight at his side? Of course. But she will not dishonor herself by gainsaying his orders.)

She does tilt her head ever so slightly as Azoth makes that query of her. "It is curious, that you should think to ask such a thing." That's not directly an answer, though. Azoth is, indeed, not a typical opponent for her--and now there is one more reason why that might be the case.

Kalisa is not surprised with the speed and dexterity with which Caoimhe can wield her blade--she has seen it before, on several occasions now. She watches Siegfried wield his spear though--this is the first time she is seeing it in action, and if there is ought to be learned, she will glean it, with relish.

A fight to have another day, perhaps, unless this alliance holds.

She sees two vulnerable opponents, but notes the way that this 'Captain Loren Voss' is covering the others, enchanting them with magic, and though she is in between the two she turns, charging through that dust and rubble that he sends for her--only to see Azoth appear in front of him to protect him. He calls explosive blades to bear, and Kalisa twists to the side, taking but a nick from the blade--

--but then the explosion sends her flying several feet away. She sticks her spear into the ground midflight and slams to a halt, her breathing hard and raggad as she raises her masked gaze to look at Azoth. More and more tricks, though these are not the sort she can replicate.

Well, Siegfried already called her a Sorceress. She may as well show off some of her magical prowess. She pulls her spear from the ground and takes a leap back, landing in a neat crcouch. She braces her spear with one hand against her back, her other hand raised as she concentrates.

Fire and shadow begin to swirl around her, first as tiny wisps, and then as ferocious torrents as they twist and turn in a dizzying manner. A ball of magical energy grows in front of her, that dances and churns like flame, but they are dark purples and blacks of shadow, little motes dancing off of it as it swells more and more.

And with a gesture, she releases it directly at Azoth--but it winks out right before it reaches him and reappears behind him to strike at Loren with dark, sorceress flame.

GS: Kalisa Dragmire has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has attacked Loren Voss with Shadow Flare!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has completed her action.
GS: Loren Voss critically fails to evade Kalisa Dragmire's Shadow Flare for 347 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    It's definitely a good thing that Ragnell's bones are only a polite suggestion, because if they were anything but, Leah's sword stroke definitely would have crushed them at best and cleaved them at worst.
    
    It's a good display. This woman is clearly Loren's boss, and by extension, Azoth's... keeper. She's someone who needs to get defeated to get Azoth his freedom (if that's even possible at this point, but that's not a productive thought at this point). Getting a feel of how strong she is--confirming that she can in fact see and hear her--is important information.
    
    She doesn't respond to Siegfried or Ganondorf for the moment; all three of them are busy at the moment. Ragnell does, however, bark out a laugh at Ganondorf's take on Leah's stated mission and intent. Gods to bow at the feet of man--yup, that's exactly the man he's shown himself to be to her. It's part of why she can't help but like him.
    
    For now, that monstrous swordstroke seems to cut her in half--but then Ragnell's form crackles with lightning, and she short-range teleports to just behind the proud woman, battered but at least still in one piece. The lightning that had crawled over her and flashed from one spot in space to the next now glimmers, now glows, now gleams into a greater and greater radiance in her two pistols. Crossing them over herself in a shining circle and leaving behind more lightning in their wake, she suddenly holsters them and pulls a single, stubby, glossy gun--a phase gun, to be precise--to replace them.
    
    "Weeell, let's jus' see who can stomp harder, then," she drawls at Leah.
    
    The circle of lightning shoots in towards the phase gun's muzzle in a blinding X and joins with the blistering heat and light within in a single massive beam, just as Ragnell pulls the trigger. Even if Leah manages to evade the blow, it'll melt snow and rock alike as it carves a line across the ground.

GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Leah Sadalbari with X Buster Supreme!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari imperfectly charges Seraph Ragnell's X Buster Supreme for 156 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

The Trial Knight's words are weighty indeed. "...Perhaps that is so," Leah allows. "That the destruction we have wrought in our cause comes to call. But I shall answer, if it is so."

A pause. "...For it is not by my will that I am eternal. It is a higher Will."

"Hm." She has no answer yet for Siegfried, not beyond her continued battle with his allies.

Instead, she answers Ganondorf. "A rude houseguest?" she wonders. "Or a blasphemer who would doom all creation?"

Darkness seeps out; the purple flame rushes towards her, and that sphere crackles towards Leah. Loren's fracturing and spreading fractals of light erupt in the same instant, shielding her from that blow, but the barrier is devoured by Ganondorf's magic.

"The gods that yet remain in this world are feeble, it is true," Leah answers Ganondorf. "They could not surpass Man in his glory."

"...But that which is dead can live again."

The price of kings, Caoimhe has said. And the Watcher hears it. "Kings are as nothing compared to the kingdom of God."

K.K. is thrown from that strike, but there is indeed pause; when she stills, Leah's blue eyes trace up to her. Gravity brings her back down. Leah blocks the right sword swiftly, bringing up her titanic blade to meet it in answer. That burning sphere is nothing she appears to fear--

But the darkness that the Trial Knight introduces to it turns it to a black sun that shears away the Watcher's shields, scythes through what remains of her armor, turning it gray, and dull, and worthless.

"...Maybe not," the Watcher agrees with the Trial Knight. "What I would grasp is no longer relevant. Only duty."

But who can stomp harder? It's a fair question, considering that Ragnell can teleport directly behind her. Lightning builds, and builds, and Leah looks towards Ragnell for an instant, her eyes narrowing.

"You should not have one of those."

BOOM. The signle massive beam carves snow, rock, and air alike. She is able to interpose her runeblade between herself and the beam--but it is best not to comment on what her arms look like, to either side of her silhouette.

So instead, remember that they regenerate once again, though Leah's armor, ruined by K.K., is now sleevless as well.

"I used to have metal feet," she volunteers. "I can still stomp quite hard."

She lifts her spare hand, then, and calls upon Ether. Watery magic whirls into being at her fingertips, becomes a great spear--and she launches it towards Ragnell, where it will burst into something like acid.

"Begone, spirit."

For K.K., so close, she is obligated to swing her sword--but it isn't the sword that strikes, this time, instead a pulse of lightning attempting to seize upon those shards of armor and shock the Trial Knight.

Finally, her sword returns to both hands as she rears up and leaps--

To bring down a gigantic downward stroke for Ganondorf, attempting to do to him what he tried to do to her earlier, and cut him to pieces.

"King! I will break your realm!"

GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Aqua Breaker!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari's stances have changed to Hero!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked K.K. with Anemo Pulse!
GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Colossus Dispatch!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: Gamble: High! K.K. imperfectly guards Leah Sadalbari's Anemo Pulse for 44 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! K.K. gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: K.K.'s Blind Ward may block the effect!
GS: Blind and Drowsy blocked!
GS: Seraph Ragnell fails to charge Leah Sadalbari's Aqua Breaker for 104 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Seraph Ragnell!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Ganondorf Dragmire marginally guards Leah Sadalbari's Colossus Dispatch for 194 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Blind applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Shield applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    It's a simple thing to reach in and bolster. Even the synthetic can bend to his will, if but for a time: he can reach into a body regardless of its origin and pull what was broken apart back together again. There's a power in this, too, he's come to realize of late.

    It's this that had likely enhanced his own recovery from the overdose of Drive he'd taken.

    And Azoth, as Loren delivers his next order--

    Loren will have time to wonder about those words later. In the now, there is violence. Against Siegfried, Azoth wields raw destruction as he is ordered, but it is Siegfried who speaks of the dead at the Solaris bases, and, Loren finds no small amount of fury rising within him.

     "For more than two," Loren shoots back, his frame tensing at Siegfried's words. "Do you know how many you slaughtered there? Or does standing against us make anything you do justifiable!"

    At Sumer, they might have been pleased to die for their Emperor, to stand against the foe who had destroyed Urartu. It doesn't mean that it doesn't gall him to have lost any. But Urartu, some were cut down before they could even arm themselves. No soldier wants to die that way.

    It's the Paladin who perhaps can understand that best.

    "Of Granas..." Loren cannot help but echo, drawn back to the incident within the walls of the Holy See, to the altercation deep within the ruins of the Zeboim city that followed. Is that why--?

    "So you've got a grudge, too."

    He has no deep knowledge of the faith, but he can't see the faithful letting the manipulation slide.
    He is, of course, fairly off-course about this line of thinking.

    But his attention to his allies' support has not gone unnoticed. There in the field, it would seem at a glance that Kalisa is focusing on Azoth-- as do the others they are fighting against. Green light begins to flicker and shine about Loren again, a clear sign that he is again assembling the means of his allies' support. Perhaps it was Azoth who was his intended recipient as Kalisa seemingly strikes at Azoth. But the dark flame vanishes from before Azoth... and reappears behind Loren. He has only a split-second to realize what has happened and turns his head to look back over his shoulder as the instrument of darkness and shadow descends upon him.

    He cries out as it engulfs him. It feels as if it burns, all the nerves of his body set alight. But a flame need not touch the flesh to harm. Dropping to one knee, he presses one hand against the earth as he breathes deep, nearly panting.

    But it was through Leah that he learned the sword. Flow, transience--

    He rises to his feet, drawing the blade in one swift moment, and here one faceless servant assails another as he lunges at Kalisa.

    Nor is this place he ceases. Gripping the blade hard enough that the artificial fabric of his gloves cracks with the tension of it, a strange fire has begun to burn brilliantly in this forsaken land.

    Leah had shown him the blade. Seraphita had given him the tools he needed to control fire.

    It burns recursion. It flows like water. No flame would bloom in colors of orange and green and yellow, in such a strange fractal swirl, but it is still fire no matter its form. And it roars forth across the place where the Photosphere once stood, a flame of controlled chaos for Siegfried and Caoimhe.

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Kalisa Dragmire with Extinction Rush!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss's stances have changed from Sage to Hero!
GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Siegfried with Atar Vandaka!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna with Atar Vandaka!
GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Mute expired!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna fails to charge Loren Voss's Atar Vandaka for 190 hit points!
GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Siegfried imperfectly evades Loren Voss's Atar Vandaka for 54 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Siegfried's Dark Spear collides with Azoth's chest, and the impact nearly shatters his chest. Shrapnel of steel goes flying, glittering in all the explosions of battle before scattering across the earth. Azoth is sent flying from impact, but reorients and gets control of himself by stabbing a bladed foot into the ground for friction.

He sparks openly, but his body is still a tangle of pulsating cords and chittering mechanics. It protects whatever drives the machine, if only just.

Azoth is but a puppet in this battle, pushing back against the enemy because he is ordered to. Defending allies because he is ordered to. On another day, not so long ago, it might have seemed an opportunity for perfect destruction.

Now... Azoth wonders if he can endure until the 'inevitable'. Even if he is unworthy of it.

Red. Has Azoth even seen red? Is what he thinks of as 'red' the same as theirs? (Or of his happiness, sadness, anger, love? That's always the question, isn't it?) He sees her blood and it is red. But the Azoth does not bleed.

"...Qualia," he says of these thoughts. There is something sad in it for what was monotone before, even as Caoimhe summons the light from the eruptions she's caused in the earth. They pierce up and through Azoth, and he emits a kind of red. Not in blood, but in wild, damaged sparks of a sputtering machine.

Kalisa calls his question curious. "I know of masks," is what he offers in response. But he himself does not appear to be wearing one. There's been enough damage in this battle that his visor has cracked and some of its shards have fallen. There is only a void behind Azoth's faceless face. "...They are... painful."

Shadow Flare charges, and Azoth prepares to meet it -- but then it is gone and -- "Loren!"

Why does that sound, suddenly, alive with alarm? As if it should matter what happens to the Gebler.

Circuits flash. Energy swarms Azoth, and with a swipe of his claws, more energy blades fan out. They orbit around his body like a hoop, and spin, faster and faster. He dives at Kalisa and Caoimhe, relying on fast movement to attack as just brushing past them threatens them with this blender of burning energy blades.

And Siegfried, meanwhile, finds the air around him grow hot. Scars of red can be seen in the air and the earth... remnants left behind by Azoth's attacks, now brimming with his ancient power and producing visible motes of crimson light before detonating in a dangerous chain reaction.

GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Amplify added to Azoth!
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Burst added to Azoth!
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Azoth has attacked Siegfried with exec.ohr FINALIZE!
GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Azoth spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Azoth has attacked Kalisa Dragmire with exec.mec TERMINATE!
GS: Azoth has attacked Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna with exec.mec TERMINATE!
GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Azoth gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Mute expired!
GS: Azoth has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna imperfectly guards Azoth's exec.mec TERMINATE for 243 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Siegfried critically fails to charge Azoth's exec.ohr FINALIZE for 469 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Siegfried gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam, Leak, and Poison removed!
GS: Poison applied to Siegfried!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive!
GS: Siegfried enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Siegfried has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: CRITICAL! Kalisa Dragmire imperfectly evades Loren Voss's Extinction Rush for 43 hit points!
GS: Mighty and Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire perfectly evades Azoth's exec.mec TERMINATE for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

The only place that gods belong is at the feet of men. Siegfried thinks of Mother; he thinks of the betrayal of all of Hyades.

He finds it disturbing, how fervently he agrees.

He looks to Caoimhe -- eyes widening a little, as he sees the might behind her swing. A Paladin of Granas, this one, but no ordinary paladin. There is a faint nod of approval, and then his eyes are back to Loren. "Against Solaris?"

His eyes narrow. "To stand against you is justice itself. To stand against that which would break the world's back -- to never let a breah be free. I have seen your like!"

Fire roils towards him -- and Glumzambor rises, catching Loren's Ether, and splitting the flame around him. He turns, then, to look at Azoth -- alight with crimson energy -- as he dives for Caoimhe and Kalisa both. The former Quarter Knight rushes, the Dark Spear raised.

He rushes to meet Azoth.

Then, the air heats up -- scars of red glow, brighter and brighter. They explode, and the fiery blasts erupt into a massive column of energy. It catches Siegfried -- it PITCHES him backward. He smashes into the ground, ragdolling twice over it. His helm is cracked; the lower half fallen away, revealing Janus Cascade's face.

He looks at Azoth, quicksilver and red blood both running down cuts on his cheek and lip. The Dark Spear is plunged into the ground, with a shaky hand; his armor is burnt and broken in places.

He is taking a moment to push himself back to his feet, and it is a moment he doesn't well have.

<Pose Tracker> Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has posed.

    Caoimhe has already experienced Kalisa's spearwork firsthand, but 'Sorceress' is not a title that is incorrect either -- in the way she summons fire and shadow, manipulating it with such effectiveness that she can feint with it...

    "Is the price you exact truly that different?" is Caoimhe's response to Leah. "To elevate oneself to such lofty heights, on the blood on other's backs..."

    Rather ironically, Loren is privy to an incident that Caoimhe has not yet uncovered, of the manipulation of the Ethos, of the rot within the Granas organisation. But time will indeed tell...

    "It is rote, in this life of warfare. So as you seek vengeance, others do onto your company; this cycle should only continue until one is dust." And yet...

    It is the scent of flame that draws her attention to Loren's aggression; while he squares in melee to Kalisa, it's flame that comes her way, its colours immaterial and lost on her -- but no less strange in fragrance.

    "Your flame..." Caoimhe seeks to dive first and foremost through the flame, letting the magic defence of her crystalline armour withstand through the worst, pitted and fading as it may be; she does not escape unscathed, blackened in parts.

    "No flame should bear such a sickly scent."

    Azoth is but a puppet; and while Caoimhe doesn't know of Azoth's own circumstances, she has an inkling, from the strain in his voice to the way that he is ordered.

    But there's a strangely satisfied smile when Azoth mentions the word 'Qualia'.

    "Yes. You are not of living make, and yet... you bear such inimitable scents. You are at once infinitely simple for people to define... and yet impossible to."

    But 'red' is too simple a descriptor for Azoth, with the way his body sparks -- with Caoimhe's sensitive nose catching the different way he breaks down; there seems to be no less empathy there to one that bleeds blood.

    Azoth dives for her and Kaslia -- and this time, it's with speed that he does so; energy blades burn one after another, and Caoimhe simply must present a defence with her sword -- parrying one blade after another, but ultimately pushed back as the energies wash beyond the wall of the Holy Sword, further scathing at skin and prompting her to cough blood.

    The situation of battle grows worse, however -- Siegfried being pitched backward from the blast of Azoth's remarkable heat, and unable to push himself back fast enough.

    Caoimhe darts to Cover in front of him.

    "Siegfried. The tide of battle grows unfavourable. I shall grant you cover, for I ill believe you wish to perish here today."

    And what cover does the paladin have? A shield, perhaps, as is iconic for a paladin? Or shall she depend on the sword, as she must with only one hand? No...

    "... Jahna. I have your beloved daughter here. Let her protect me tonight."

    They're cryptic words, but Caoimhe follows it up by reaching down with her head to pull on one of the ribbons sticking out of her right shoulder -- the red one. There's an ominous CLANK of metal locking into place underneath her cape, and Caoimhe sets the Holy Sword to the ground and withdraws, taking stock of Loren and Azoth both...

    That most iconic of Paladin weapons...

    A Rocket Launcher.

    BOOM

GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has attacked Azoth with ARM Meister Ribbon - AGR-1 Rocket Launcher!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has attacked Loren Voss with ARM Meister Ribbon - AGR-1 Rocket Launcher!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna has completed her action.
GS: Azoth marginally guards Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna's ARM Meister Ribbon - AGR-1 Rocket Launcher for 178 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Loren Voss imperfectly evades Caoimhe ni Maoilgrahna's ARM Meister Ribbon - AGR-1 Rocket Launcher for 100 hit
points!
GS: Disease blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.

...For it is not by my will that I am eternal. It is a higher Will.

"Worry not. Naught in existence can claim eternity, skyfarer.

"In time, you too shall remember finitude's blessings."

The words could be construed as a threat; but the Trial Knight just intones them as matter of course, like a commentary on something inevitable.

As if no will, higher or lower, could dissuade her from that singular belief.

K.K.'s blades yank back, light and shadow bleeding off their edges as she retreats a step back.

She gains distance in time to clear the area of Ragnell's assault, landing a few feet off from the cowboy hat-clad Seraph. Leah calls out Ragnell's Forbidden Laser. K.K.'s head tilts.

"Ragnell is free to claim what arms of fire she wishes. Better than you have tried to lay claim to what she can or cannot have."

The knight's clawed, gauntleted curl fractionally tighter around their weapons. Something that might - MIGHT - be amusement filters past the tinny, warping reverb of her helm.

"They have all walked away with naught but disappointment to show for the effort."

It's a fancy way of saying 'RAGNELL DOES WHAT RAGNELL WANTS' but.

It gets the point across.

Talk of metal feet and godstomping -- she'll leave that to Ragnell, though.

... Maybe Ganondorf, that commentary also seems up his alley.

Leah attacks -- and as the Watcher's sword swings, K.K. moves to intercept. Gauntleted, sword-bearing hands -CLAP- together -- and those swords SHATTER into a thousand thousand lights, swiftly reforging into a massive, ornate warhammer that quite literally -catches- that bolt of lightning. Electricity RACES down that weapon, all the way down her arms in a sudden, powerful, -painful- jolt --

But she bears through it. After all...

She knows lightning's bite very, very well by now.

Leah leaps. Electrical arcs dance along K.K.'s hammer and her arms as she raises her fresh-forged weapon high. From her peripheries, she sees Siegfried falling. Her eyes narrow behind that helm.

"Know this as but prelude for what is to come, Skyfarer!"

Light and lightning swirls around the hammer. A wall of prismatic lightning CRACKS, encircling -all- of them -- Ragnell, Ganondorf... and Leah.

                              "Hear my call,
                   O' thunder that gave birth to life!"
                           "Unleash your angst,
                      O' great genesis of this land!"

And K.K. LEAPS at Leah as soon as the Watcher makes landfall, her incantation scorching the heavens as she brings that hammer DOWN on top of her black-armored foe.

And the moment there is impact, any impact at all?

A massive glyph BLOOMS beneath Leah and K.K. as a massive column of multi-colored light, streaming whites refracting into blues and yellows and pinks and violents, intent to SMITE Leah with all its accumulated force as chunks of Photosphere dislodge and rise up all around them.

                            "Rebirth Crusader!"

GS: K.K. has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! K.K. has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Rebirth Crusader!
GS: K.K. has gained 1 Combo!
GS: K.K. has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

"Ah...so you serve a god you know cannot hear you. Heh."

The once-sealed King of Gerudo can't suppress a grin, clenching his swords to feel the strength in his fingers, once lost. "Death is not so eternal a silence...yes. This I know."

Even Leah admits that Ragnell's next trick is a surprise, and Ganondorf watches that light consume the Watcher with something like surprise and interest in his eyes. That fades to something altogether less pleased as Azoth releases a cataclysmic power against his foes, and he watches Siegfried stumble. That catches the King of Thieves' interest, and Ganondorf's eyes squint at the staggered Quarter Knight. "Hn...that's not your face, is it? How strange."

He steps forward again, toward Leah, leaving the battle with Azoth be. "I thought that art lost with me."

Leah's sweeping blade swings around on him finally, and she crashes in aiming to destroy! Ganondorf brings up both blades to catch the strike, stance wide - and against, the earth spiderwebs at his feet as forces pass through him and into the world. Fractured ground breaks further, this time, the Man from the Desert sinking deeper down until his robed knees disappear under fractured dust, which erupts upward as the ground then craters out around both of them.

And amidt he dust, he seethes, "Like the rest...YOU WILL DIE!"

A blast wave of raw dark magic erupts around Ganondorf, dispelling smoke amid black-purple nonlight. He throws one sword to the ground.

"You will die praying for your corpse-god to save you!"

He balls his fist, and the entire massed darkness gathers into him, the booming thunder whispering away into a keening silence.

"But only Ganondorf will be watching."

He launches the whole mass of his body at Leah, sweeping the entirety of his weight into a punch that channels inconceivable destructive force, strength enough that Ganondorf's own foot leaves the ground.

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Warlock Punch!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari imperfectly evades K.K.'s Rebirth Crusader for 86 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Ganondorf Dragmire's Warlock Punch for 226 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Strain! Ganondorf Dragmire takes 66 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.

Azoth claims to know something of masks. There is a curious tilt of Kalisa's head as she observes the machine, how the visor has revealed a faceless face. For Azoth, it is painful.

"Hmph. I wear mine with pride, Automaton. This mask--like everything I have--is something I have earned."

There is a smile that may go unseen under Kalisa's mask, but there is a certain amount of satisfaction as her spell strikes true, as the tricky manipulation works and strikes one who was not ready for it. It's in how she settles into her ready stance once more, takes up her spear in both hands again and just waits for the next attack to come.

Satisfaction... and a challenge. "So you can bear arms, then."

She takes a defensive bent for a moment, dancing back with light steps away from Loren's blade--not fast enough, it seems, to avoid a few new scratches that draw red from parts of her arm that are uncovered.

But there is much more grace for when Azoth follows with his own charge, a graceful, fluid motion as she sidesteps charge and blade alike, stooping under one, deflecting another with her spear, and then diving over another in a smooth, continuous motion.

"You are a strong and challenging opponent, Automaton. But I will not let you take this day."

She leaps, again, and in a flicker of shadows she vanishes. She appears high overhead, with her spear pointed down. It suddenly erupts in a furious flame that only builds and builds. There is no second flicker now, but she is falling faster and faster, with the flames mounting brighter and brighter as she falls, as she comes down with a calamitous crash of steel and fire at Azoth from above.

GS: Kalisa Dragmire enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Kalisa Dragmire has attacked Azoth with Meteor Dive!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 10 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has completed her action.
GS: Azoth imperfectly evades Kalisa Dragmire's Meteor Dive for 92 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    *teleports behind u*!!
    
    Ragnell laughs outright as Leah sees that phase gun, apparently recognizes it for what it is, and reacts by scolding her about it, just before the light consumes her, split only by that runeblade. With that kind of reaction, she expects Leah to come out--maybe not unscathed, but to survive it. She's proven right a moment later, but Ragnell's still laughing. "Right, because I'm definitely the kind o' folk who pays attention to what she *should* or *should not* have!" K.K. chiming in to exactly this effect only gets her grin to brighten. "K.K. knows what's up! <3
    
    "I gotta say though," she adds almost off-hand to Leah, "I have to wonder what God you think you're servin'."
    
    There are lots of Gods out there, after all, and pretty much all of the ones Ragnell knows of have turned out to be fake.
    
    But then: "*Used to*? What're they made of now?"
    
    Ragnell realizes a beat too late that this is the perfect set-up to get a boot to the head. However, that's not what Leah ends up doing. In a way, that's even worse, because she set her up for a perfect thoroughline, and instead gets an acid waterspear pitched at her. Ragnell snarls as she attempts to fire into it to split it, but doing so only plays into the spell and covers her in acid.
    
    But she's still not gone. In fact, as she returns the phase gun to her poncho and pulls her regular weapons anew: "I'll be gone when I damn well feel like bein' gone and not a goddamn second sooner!!"
    
    ...So she says. She does cut a sharp glance over at Azoth and Siegfriend--at Azoth as he expresses concern for *Loren*, of all people, and then Siegfried when Azoth detonates him with sparks of incandescen red light and sends him crashing to the ground--but she only has time to take the violence in, not give it a proper reaction. The Watcher is not a foe you can take your eyes off for long, even with allies fighting on your side.
    
    Prismatic lightning rises up around the ground of them. Ragnell smirks at the sight of it, recognizing it for what it is. She turns a sharper look to Ganondorf when he comments on 'that art lost with him'... Very interesting. But not something to talk about right now. She'll have plenty to talk to Siegfried about later in regards to Azoth, anyway. For now--
    
    As has been mentioned, Ragnell's guns, even the normal ones, don't use proper metal slugs. They instead channel her lightning magic into compressed 'bullets' that explode on impact. They don't have the piercing power of a true bullet, and their transformation through the muzzle makes them something different from magic, Ragnell's true specialty--but the fact that they *are* composed of Ragnell's element means that she functionally has limitless ammo that can be fired at high speed without pause.
    
    That's what she does now, unleashing a virtual and literal hail of lightning bullets as glyphs of golden light form underneath her. "But anyway, I'm gettin' sick o' you, so it's gettin' time *you* get out!" It shimmers, not quite the rainbow that K.K. forms, but there is a play of light on its edges as she fires, rat-tat-tat-at-at-at-a-ta-t-a-ta-t-a-ta-t-ta, a brief pause to charge, and then a pale rainbow of a massive laser, shot from two muzzles but joining at the center in a singular beam-- "An' take your piece-o'-shit subordinates with you!!" And then Ragnell fires another unrelenting shower of bullets until they simultaneously pierce through and merge. If her spray of fire earlier had seemed meteoric, this pours forth like starlight.
    
    "PRISM TANGO!"

GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Prism Tango EXTEND!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: Leah Sadalbari imperfectly guards Seraph Ragnell's Prism Tango EXTEND for 85 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Ganondorf grins. He knows that death is not an eternal silence--Yes, he would know.

Nothing claims eternity, is it? It could be considered a threat, but Leah does not take it that way. She stares at the Trial Knight for a long moment, and in her eyes is a mix of emotions that might include hope.

A strange thing, for an immortal.

"...Heh," the Watcher answers meanwhile at the matter of Ragnell's doing what she wants. "Perhaps that is so."

A prelude for what is to come. That wall of light encircles all of them, and the Trial Knight brings the hammer down. Leah swings not her sword but her hand to try to batter the head of the hammer away such that it won't impact her directly--

But her han ipacts, and the massive glyph is executed. That brilliant smiting light dislodges, destroys, annihilates. She leaps out of the path of it, but even the barest touch of that light overwhelms the runes on her sword, flattening and burning and cracking it, leaving her with one half of a giant weapon in the wake of K.K's power.

"That," she says to the Trial Knight, as she hefts what remains of her weapon, "I do believe." That it is but a taste.

Until that blast of nonlight--

Booming thunder. Ganondorf launches towrds the Watcher.He punches as Leah is hit, and the Watcher is thrown from her feet, her broken sword no defense as she sails back into a huge piece of ruined machinery, cracking it under her and leaving pieces to scatter and fall to the ruined ground below.

"...No," she says.

"God will save this world."

"...But not me."

Then Ragnell, who indeed noticed her give a perfect setup and not deliver, pulls her guns again. "They're made of flesh," she says helpfully. "Flesh and bone."

It is the moment after that that the bullet hell starts happening. Leah extends her hand and starts to forge a barrier of Ether, which holds up under the first few seconds of the assault before being battered through by the massive laser like starlight against her. She burns, and again, it is best not to focus on what that looks like, save that when it is done she throws away what remains of her weapon and adopts a ready stance with her hands.

"...Time we get out, is it?"

She looks to Caoimhe thoughtfully, regarding her rocket launcher as one might a particularly interesting bird. Of course, she's not the one it was pointed at; does she simply have faith that Loren and Azoth will withstand it, or...?

"Enough of this," she says, as she rises back to her feet. "With such foes before us we cannot reach Siegfried to finish him. Fighting further today is pointless for us."

She turns to Ragnell again. "...It seems you're correct, today. About that, at least. Perhaps one day you will learn more of my God. For now..."

Leah extends both hands to either side of herself, and focuses. She channels more than Ether--more Ether than a living body should be capable of channeling, restorative and shielding Water on a scale beyond even the First Class. It should rend her body asunder.

It does, a bit. But that doesn't matter anymore.

But where water is fluid, formless, this is the opposite; it imposes form, brings the power of absolute and utter stasis to bear in Azoth, Loren, and Leah herself.

"...Battalion," she directs. "Retreat."

"Azoth, you are to stand down and return to base with us. Captain Voss... Watch him."

She bends at the knee--and leaps backwards, back towards the transport.

Already two other transports--which no longer need gather the dead--fire up their weapons, preparing covering fire.

"It would seem that a Calamity is upon us, indeed," she reflects.

"One that, if the Adversary is to be believed, is of our own making..."

The soldiers warily, the first rank backing up as the others turn away, retreat.

GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated a Boss Action!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Without Rest!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Azoth with Without Rest!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Loren Voss with Without Rest!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari heals Leah Sadalbari! She gains 388 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: Leah Sadalbari heals Azoth! He gains 290 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Azoth!
GS: Leah Sadalbari heals Loren Voss! He gains 315 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Loren Voss!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "...I know that," he tells Caoimhe, the faintest note of irritation winding itself into his words. He shakes his head vehemently. "But I won't let it go unanswered!"

    Why is it that Azoth sounds almost worried when he's struck so? Does the order he's been given run that deep into his code?

    Even if he thinks that, his reaction is automatic, and the same he would have given any other ally on the field who had reacted so. "I'm fine," Loren snaps back at him. "Worry about yourself!"

    He's not fine. The sensation of the burn feels as if it's decided to linger, but it's a problem he, or Solaris' extensive medical team, can try to work out later. In the moment, what matters is bringing the fight, and if he has to shift his focus from defense to offense--

    Well, he's been educated in destruction as well.

    "I can," he empathizes at Kalisa, eyeing her warily as if sizing up whether he should strike at her again.

    Caoimhe, in the aftermath, speaks of his flame that he is visibly given pause. A strange... scent? It's bad enough that his manifestation of Fire is so haywire: he's never managed to get it to look properly, try as he might. It's as if it's following a path alien to the teachings in Jugend -- far too close to the likes of Lily Keil's Ether for his comfort. He wants to say something in respond -- some word in his own defense...
    But he can't find the right words, the means by which he could keep his bearing steady. His Fire Ether is strange. He can't deny that--

    And then there's no more space in which to defend himself anyway.

    He gets his answer soon enough from Siegfried, after all, and this is in a direction in which he is better equipped to speak.

    "So that's it. You won't stop until you've had your way. ...Then we'll have to put you down!" he shouts, gesturing sharply towards the man.

    But if his intent was to set himself against Siegfried, he'll find himself thwarted by none other than Azoth. The air grows hot, hot enough that Loren, blade in hand, draws up short instead.

    And when the dust settles, while Siegfried is still pulling himself back to his feet, Loren finds that he has more immediate concerns than taking advantage of that opening presented to him.

    Which is to say, Jahna's daughter.
    Which is to say, a rocket launcher.

    Loren does the one thing most people do when faced with a rocket launcher: he hits the deck, or tries to, feeling the fiery roar of that missile scorching along his back as he drops. The armor's been damaged beyond repair: burned down through all its ablative layers, even the bodysuit beneath is visibly scorched and frayed. If that had hit him dead on...

    Even if he had the presence of mind to conjure a barrier, he's not sure it would have entirely done the trick.

    But even as he pulls himself up, he witnesses Kalisa's strike against Azoth. And...
    And the wall of opponents they would need to carve through if they still wanted to cut Siegfried down. How long can they keep this up? How long until he's forced to use -- again and so soon -- the vials that await in his kit? It would work again, he's certain of it, but--

    Leah, it seems, might have had the same thought, for as that Ether pours down around them like the Deluge, he finds himself aware of her intention as if it were made manifest itself through her magic.

    "--Here," he says to Azoth and extends a hand, the same he would for any other ally. They need to go. That much animating Ether should let him walk out of here on his own, but...

    He's not going for the ships himself until everyone else is heading clear of the field. Leah had said to watch him. And he's still medical.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Simple to define, and yet impossible to. Azoth regards Caiomhe with a shift of his antenna that might indicate interest or surprise were he some manner of beast. (And isn't he some manner of beast?)

But his orders are to destroy.

Though his manipulation of his own lingering energy sends Siegfried to the ground, the Azoth is not convinced this is enough. His attention falls on his temporarily fallen target. Whoever this individual is to others he has come to know and respect -- even when he fought, once, to defend their family before with all he could give -- his orders are absolute. Destroy. And it will take so much more to destroy Siegfried.

"Target not yet eliminated. Releasing failsafes. Energy charge: 77.3..." Azoth gathers his energy blades to his side as he advances, holding his claw palm up as one dances on its hilt above his grip. Their centers turn darker, almost black, as the edges brighten to a blinding crimson. This deadly charge will not be enough before Siegfried gets a second wind. They will collide once more, before all is finished.

Distantly, there is a clank. The sound is of the lower priority until it isn't.

Because a

rocket

hits the Azoth.

The smoke from Caoimhe's most paladin of weapons clears, and one uncanny tick at a time, Azoth's head inches a spin to look at her. He is faceless, but it has never been more apparent she is being balked at.

Half of his visor also crumbles and falls away. So does an antenna.

Kalisa then descends, in part shadow and flame and all in fury. Like a comet from the sky she strikes down, and she feels it -- her spear hitting that metal chassis, scraping down, meeting with its wires and cords to overheat, sever, and rend this machine inoperable --

And halfway through this decisive strike the machine is gone. Azoth reappears a few feet away instead, collapsed to the ground. Strange, mechanical fluid leaks in black, so thick it refuses to soak into the ground. Red arcs dance between frayed wires. Azoth's arm shakes, rattling its mechanical joints, as he sweeps it to his side. The blades he has gathered with him follow the arc of his motions. They flicker in and out of existence.

Ether floods in. Azoth's red light becomes blue, but his motions drawn to a fluid stillness with the stasis and protection they grant, as if time were stopping in his circuits. The new order is given, and just like that, every sword vanishes for good.

He looks up and sees Loren's hand. Azoth grips hold of it, and despite all the monstrousness of his mechanical claws, the edges do not threaten to break any skin. Azoth is up, airborne again.

"...I will remain within visual range."

Leah said to watch him. Whose fault is it, really, if Azoth underestimates how far he can go ahead because he does not have Loren's exact lens prescription on file? They will retreat together.

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

"You did once," Siegfried tells Loren, still kneeling. "And yet... I remain. I will not surrender to death so easily, a second time."

He looks at Azoth, even as he is struck by a rocket -- and seems ready to advance, despite all of the damage.

Caoihme advises him to fall back. Siegfried looks at the Paladin -- there is a moment of hesitation, for a second, as retreat is not in his nature. But, it is as Ragnell said: he is the one who called them together. If he falls here...

Then what calamity will they bring?

He looks to the King of Evil -- and then there is a nod. "A body given to me," he says. "So that I may return. I know something of the value of borrowed life."

He looks to Caoimhe, then he nods. "And I know not to waste it."

He pushes himself to his feet -- and regards Leah. Then, he regards those between him and Leah. It is a difference, from the day he died and today. Today, he has more comrades; he has those who can stand beside him and offer the power to join to his.

It is not enough, yet, to win.

But it can be.

He watches them depart; he sees them take to the sky. He watches as Loren and Azoth pull back, at Leah's orders.Siegfried's gaze hardens.

"It is," he declares, "a beginning."