All things said, Ba'al turned to face their new arrivals, some new challengers introduced to either hinder them or to help them along the way. Since they had only appeared, it remained to be seen which would be which. It also raised a question though, since they hadn't completed this recent challenge, did they still have to do the twenty four, or only twenty three like the rest of them? And if the latter, did that confirm, in a way, that more than one person could win these challenges? That would be useful to know.

"No, this is not a dream," he confirmed with a nod before introducing himself. "I am Ba'al, Supreme Commander of the Goa'uld Empire. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." It seemed he would have to do his introduction again, to impress upon these people that he wasn't someone to worry about, in comparison to others.

Sword resting idly, he went on to further elaborate on Saber's explanation, with no offense intended to her. Probably. "We were brought here by a nigh omnipotent being to compete in a series of Challenges, the completion of which will grant the victor a wish, for whatever they desire. Defeat will result in us being trapped here, while death is itself irreversible."

He then gestured to the entrance of the armory. "There is the door out if you would prefer to leave though." He was looking forward to seeing what the newcomers reactions to the eclectic city beyond would be

Kavinsky

As soon as the explanations began, Kavinsky retrieved a packet of cigarettes from his coat pocket, lit one up, and took a long drag from it. He was very glad he did, as the exposition from the gathering of freaks was enough to make him want to sit down and not get up for a very long time. Either he had been slipped a mickey, or this was some seriously deep shit that he was in. Groaning, he paced about, still listening to what was being explained to him, hands stuffed in his pockets and puffing away at his cigarette.

As the dude in robes, Ba'al, introduced himself, Kavinsky had the courtesy to introduce himself, as well. "M'pleasure, your Supremely-ness." He said, half sarcastically. "Y'can call me Vin, Vinko, Kavinsky, whatever." Seeing as he was getting a few stares, he rubbed the back of his head and tried to continue his introduction. "I, uh, drive around. Like to party. But, y'know, I'm from LA, and who doesn't, there right?" He tried to evoke a laugh out of the crowd, but getting nothing, he fell quiet. "I'm, ahh, just gonna go get some air."

Dropping and stamping his cigarette out on the floor, he mosied over to the door and emerged out into the city. This time he actually did sit down. Oh, hell. Oh, fucking hell. Did he actually die again? Was this some kind of batshit-crazy afterlife that he wound up in? This wasn't cool man. Joke's over, very funny. He wanted off whatever dumbass ride he was on. Though he knew that this was all a little too real to be a hallucination or a dream.

"I need a friggin' drink." He muttered weakly.

"Ugh..." Buwaro groaned as he sat up, rubbing the side of his head. It felt like he had slept on Thadius again. Which was impossible, since she was in her left cloak pocket.

"Mornin' Rhea, Mormon' Kieri..." He mumbled sleepily. He then realized there was a distinct lack of wool cover falling off of him, which made his ruby red eyes shoot open. Only then did he realize he was not where he was when he fell asleep.

"Kieri? Rhea? Mr. Sinclair? Anyone?!" Buwaro called out as he got to his feet "...Mommy?" He patted himself down, thankful that whatever had dragged him here at least put his cloak back on him before they took him. It was small comfort, however, as he realized he was alone.

'I didn't make THAT big a mess when I spilled that soup, did I?' Buwaro thought to himself, remembering how he had ruined last diner. After taking a brief look around, he realized he had been taken to a small grassland just outside a building with a sword hanging above it's door. It was bittersweet- it told him wherever it was he was at wasn't completely foreign, but the sword's blue hilt simply reminded him of Kieri. 'I wonder where she is right now...' He thought to himself, his ears folding down as he went inside...

...And ran head first into a gaggle of weapons. And people holding those weapons. Only then did he realize that he was without his disguise that he usually had to wear into villages and other populated areas. And considering some opinions towards demons..."P-Please don't kill me." He sputtered out, slowly backing towards the door.

(Still a tad bit lost on where and what everyone is doing; if this post contradicts with anything I'll edit, :T)

Shuffling of metal rang softly around the armory's walls, originating deeper into the vault...

With a trembled hand, the knight grabbed another short sword from the shelf. The added weight made him stagger backwards against the wall, a few small daggers clinking onto the floor. He bent his knees in attempt to retrieve them; stopping when the ridiculously large pile of weapons in his arms began shaking violently. His strength was going to fail him, and the king knew it. Pushing himself off the wall, King Knight proceeded to stack weapons from the armory into his arms. This was once again a point in his life where he wished for the company of others, more arms, less work for him. Obviously this was not the work a man of his class was entitled for, but what choice did he have? Without proper knights in his control he was bound with tedious labor.

He reached to his side for a hung shield only to feel his knees buckle under him. King Knight wheezed in shock as his body slammed into the ground. The weapons for his future army scattered soundly across the stone in front of his fallen form. King Knight pulled himself up in a panic and began to hug some of the many swords he took. Even though he knew the facility was empty of life, (though he was incredibly wrong), he still didn't want to leave evidence of his presence. He dropped his bounty and gripped his helmet in panic.... there was soooo much work to be done!

at the very least, he knew there was no one else in the armory; absolutely no one else in the armory to see him stealing their possessions... he had time!

"At the end, we shall be granted a reward, to wish for what we desire,"

Those words sprung hope far greater than anything Takatora could grasp. A wish for anything he wants. Already he has an idea in mind.

"My wish is simple. There is a problem afflicting my world. One that has caused me to lose sleep whenever I get concerned with handling it. With this wish, I will use it to eradicate it without problem." Takatora said. A brief moment later, and he scoffed. "Of course, it's still a dream..." Takatora muttered, ignoring the pain of his pinched arm.

"No, this is not a dream. I am Ba'al, Supreme Commander of the Goa'uld Empire. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Although this would freak the Overseer out, it didn't. Perhaps it was because of the fact that this possibility of gaining a wish is more real than he thought.

"The name's Kureshima Takatora. I'm the Overseer of Yggdrasil." Takatora said, hoping that someone would catch the name. Suddenly, someone popped up. It was Nobuo.

"Hey there! The name's Nobuo Akagi! Super Sentai expert extraordinaire!" Nobuo said.

"Super Sentai?" Takatora had heard the name before. Back when his brother was a kid, they used to watch it all the time on TV. Of course, in an era where you must man up, at least in his mind, only one thing entered his head. "Aren't you a little old to be a Sentai expert, otaku?" Takatora said. Nobuo turned Takatora around and pointed a finger at him.

"Never underestimate my knowledge base of Sentai! It's been twenty-nine years in the making!" He said. Takatora scoffed. Two new characters came, one being a golden knight that Nobuo instantly ran towards and marveled at its shiny golden armor. It was going to be a long night. Takatora walked to the woman who called herself a king.

"You say you wish to return to someone named Rin. She must be a very special person if you're willing to go through hell to go to her." Takatora tried to make small talk. Lord knows he'd tell people about his younger brother if given the chance.

Ranma had stopped, heard the various debates concerning the morality and justness of taking life and the consequences of such and decided to hightail it out of the room, preferably before she heard more. Some of the people in there reminded her of Nabiki, the conniving Tendo sister who was the cause of much of her problems. Nope, no spending time about Nabiki-esque people for her, nope nope. The best option was to stay clear of such people since they tended to find ways to make her dance in the palm of their hands even if she was on guard to such a things. Swiping a few of the golden coins on her way out, the redheaded girl sprung towards the shorter buildings to begin roof hopping.

What she saw was what looked like a large celebration of sorts, congregating about the giant spiraling tower that had lit up before the Trial started. She also saw that bottom most section of the great horn-like structure was now a stark bone white as opposed to obsidian black like the rest of the tower, which was mildly curious in and of itself. Mass inebriation and partying seemed to stretch outwards from the areas closest to the tower that pierced the heavens, and as she watched she saw excited chatter spread more good cheer through the neighboring districts, causing more and more denizens to suddenly go wild with life for some odd reason.

Races of all kinds were intermingling and making rowdy with one another, engaging in celebrating in their own ways. Here she could see various toga clad humans of European descent getting off on fermented grape juice. There she could see what looked like a humped bipedal lizard thing wrestling with a giant green humanoid with tusks, surrounded by no doubt the betting pool. Hell, she even saw transforming police car mechas filling up on the premium gasoline while watching their surroundings with a practiced gaze. "...This is so weird..."

Then the smells began to trickle into the aquasexual's territory and her pigtailed sproinged up ramrod straight. The scents of grilled vegetables... sizzling meat... fragrant herbs... Ranma quickly remembered that celebrations typically had FOOD. Wonderful delicious stomach sating edibles that.. Coughing and practicing her facial expressions and various tones of voices, the pseudo-girl then gleefully ran into the throng of festivities and began to work on the vendors for free wares. Given that everyone seemed to be in a good mood for some reason and she WAS amazingly cute, the martial artist soon had various bundles of food in hand. Sitting down on a bench to munch on her "little bit of everything snacks", the girl's ears perked up as she caught snatches of conversations drifting about, smirking to herself as she caught the reason why everyone seemed to be in such good states.

"First Trial cleared in record time..."

"There's hope we can go home!"

"Yaaaargh, the newbs can at least do a passable Raid it seems!"

"If they can keep this up..."

Saber

Saber smiled at the little girl. She wasn't always sure what to do in such situations, but she was certain a reassuring smile would help. In this situation, even if the girl believed she could defend herself, Saber would not allow her to go without some form of defense. She was a child, a child who could be far too easily harmed by people who would unquestioningly do evil. The King of Knights straightened, watching as one of the newcomers seemed stunned at the city as they attempted to leave, and there was another... creature of some sort. It looked like an animal walking on two legs, and Saber was truthfully unsure of what to think of it. It seemed rather startled, somehow. On the subject of the city... perhaps Archer was right to scout it out. The city may have changed...

She paused again when the man in the suit, Takatora, spoke to her.

"... Rin is very important," Saber began, unsure of how to put it. She had mentioned a Master previously, and Rin was so incredibly important... and of course there was Shirou, who was a close friend and whom Rin cared for as well. Of course, Saber's concern for Rin was on several levels, both as her Master and for other reasons. "I must return to her."

She glanced at the door, then back at the others. "We should investigate the city, to see if it has changed."

With that, she proceeded out of the armory... and thoughts of investigating the city fled her mind as she smelled the scent of food. Truly good food.... Ah, she had been pulled from a meal as well... Saber's armor dispelled in a flurry of blue lights as she immediately headed directly for the source of the smells.

Having separated himself from the philosophical debates happening, Vash managed to re-fill his gun with ammo and tuck a bit more away in his pockets for later. Deciding he needed some fresh air, he made his way out of the armory through one of the back doors, and it wasn’t long before he caught the sounds of some sort of celebration happening. Plus, the smell of delicious food… He couldn’t help but wonder if they had any donuts… His mouth watered at the thought.

His mood already greatly improved, he made his way towards the sounds and smells of celebration.

Archer

From his lofty perch, Archer had been more than able to observe as the festivities really got going--as well as notice the colour-changed tower. It was a simple thing to surmise that the entire tower would change colour as their tasks were completed... and when it was all white, there would probably be one last hurdle for the group to overcome. It wouldn't really come as a surprise, the mystical seemed to have a flair for the dramatic. Or maybe he was unduly influenced by the way the Grail War was doomed to end every time.

Continuing his observations a little longer, Archer scanned the festivities a little longer before descending to ground level, landing in front of a stall owner with a disarmingly expectant expression and a knife in hand.

---

It was with a surprisingly pleased expression that the Knight in Red continued preparing ingredients for the still somewhat-unnerved stall owner. Cooking was, perhaps, his only skill that had minimal links to combat or his true abilities, yet it wasn't something that a Counter Guardian was ever called on to display. Even Rin hadn't needed such a thing--partly because she could cook for herself perfectly well, and partly because cooking anything would have given the identity game away too early. Thus, for the first time since he had died in the first place, Archer was working in a kitchen.

It was a pleasant experience, but he'd have to find a way to remove that actual stall-owner from the cooking process entirely. That way, he would have total control over the kitchen.

---

Suwako

A wish, huh? The girl had split away from Saber the first chance that she got in order to explore the city without any 'adult' supervision, even taking a few of the coins conveniently left lying around. Once outside, it was abundantly clear that the architecture here was a mess that made even Gensokyo look balanced. That, at least, was mostly traditional architecture: the enormous western mansion, witches' houses, and the underground nuclear reactor were pretty limited. This looked like someone had seen the architectural variety in the sealed-off world, then decided to up it a thousandfold and scatter buildings with no reason at all.

The festival atmosphere suited the craziness and the humming blonde, wandering along and looking for anyone that might like to give a young girl something for nothing. Festivals were, in her experience, about being given things just for being there: it was the benefit of being a god; people liked to give you something for nothing.

"Hello Kavinsky," he added, listening to the man ramble about Los Angeles before he departed. Sadly, Ba'al's humor didn't extend that far. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing lost.

Yggdrasil? Now that was a term Ba'al hadn't expected to hear here. But then again, what with King Arthur being here, of all people, he supposed one of those others being here as well shouldn't be much of a surprise. Still, he hadn't been aware that Yggdrasil was an actual thing, though just as obviously this man was no Asgard from his world.

"So, I take it you are one of the Asgard then," he asked curiously, displaying further his knowledge of Tau'ri lore, as well as that of galactic affairs. Irrelevant for the most part, it was still useful information to have.

Much to his relief, the new company Buwaro found himself in seemed more interested in whatever weapon had engrossed them to notice him too much. Before long, they a started to leave the building, and a wafting scent told the purple furred fire demon why-food. His stomach grumbled, reminding him that he had not eaten after last night's soup debacle.

'As long as they're okay with it..' Buwaro thought as he followed behind the group, deciding to tag along till he could figure out what happened.

And what a colorful group it was. Among other things, there was a large man in a gold suit of armor with a flourishing red cape behind him, a girl with pink hair in what looked like a marching outfit, and a tall guy in a red trench coat and blonde hair that stuck straight up. He briefly wondered how he could get his fur to do that when he noticed...Well, he wasn't sure what they were. There were two of them, and they had handles of some sort, but the shape of them were completely unknown to him.

'Probably a good idea not to be on the side that has a hole on it though...' Buwaro thought warily, gravitating towards the only person who had paid him much mind since he arrived. Well, it was only a glance, but it was better than nothing. She was a girl dressed in armor, not unlike the Knights from the books Rhea used to read him whenever they had to hide out somewhere, if a bit less covering. She seemed quite comfortable in the armor, as well as with the sword she carried at her side.

Normally, it would be easy for Buwaro to open up a conversation with anyone who didn't try to chase him out of town, but between the sudden change in scenery and the strange company he found himself in, he still felt a bit rattled. Eventually though, he found his voice.

"Um..." He began, hoping to get the swords women's attention "Can you tell me where I am, and...Maybe how to get to St. Curtis from here?" He finished, still hoping he was at least close to where he needed to be.

Saber

Saber paused for a moment, her pursuit of food briefly stopped when the dog-like creature walked up to her and began asking about... Saint Curtis? She supposed she should not have been so surprised that he could speak... The King of Knights glanced towards the stands once more, the smell of food coaxing her ever closer. She was not sure how to answer the creature, as well, she had never heard of such a place. "... I have never heard of any 'Saint Curtis', I am sorry."

She certainly did not know how to reach such a place from here, let alone even know what this place was. She was not able to help in this case, to say the least. Saber turned away from the strange being and, without further hesitation, proceeded further into the food stands. There were so many, oh, what to choose... in spite of being a Servant who did not require food to live, Saber did indeed feel hungry. Even if her link with Rin was as strong as ever, eating also helped to more quickly replenish any mana she had used. And therefore-...

...

... Was that...

Saber paused for a moment. Indeed, there was no mistaking the red-clothed, white-haired figure for anyone else. Archer was cooking... and Archer's cooking was... quite, quite impressive... Eyes shining, the blonde girl approached the stand. Yes... this was excellent! "... Archer! I... I am unsure of why you are at this stand, but I will not question it!"

Saber's heart may have been beating faster with excitement. Yes, the promise of good food was upon her.

Kavinsky

Perhaps there was a merciful deity looking down upon the undead man's plight. No sooner had the plea for alcohol left his lips, an honest-to-god toga party came barreling down the street, swilling wine and having a grand old time. A small, mischievous smile worked its way onto the dead cruiser's face as he stood up, pushing his sunglasses back up onto his face. In no time at all he was in the heart of festivities, guzzling wine from a nearly comically-oversized goblet. He belched loudly, laughed, and then dove further into the party, very obviously attracted to the greater concentrations of women and things that at least mostly resembled women.

He wasn't really sure what the party was about, nor even really what was going on at this point, but Kavinsky sure as hell wasn't the type of guy to pass up a good party. Nor was he the type to not contribute to a party in some way or another. He felt that the party was missing something, and only now that he was beginning to feel the onset of inebriation did he realize what it was. Tunes, man! With a lightning bolt and a crack of thunder, Kavinsky summoned his ghost car next to him. The cherry-red Ferrari gleamed proudly in the sunlight, the almost ethereal beauty of the car dazzling the party-goers around him. Kavinsky climbed into the passenger seat, started the engine, and then retrieved a cassette from the glove and slapped it into the tape deck. Turning up the speaker volume as far as it would go, Kavinsky gestured for more booze to be brought his way as he nodded his head to the thumping beat now playing from his car.

Sorin

The city was celebrating, apparently over their victory over the first trial set before them. Judging from their idle chatter, Sorin could tell that this was far from the first challenge that the "residents" of this planar conflux had witnessed. Were victories so scarce that a reaction of this scale was appropriate? Furthermore, how had they known the outcome of the challenge? He hadn't seen a soul other than the other challengers, their quarry and some manner of cat-thing throughout the challenge. So many questions that begged for answers; this place only became more confusing the more he "learned" about it.

Sorin was eager to get out of the crowd, and before long he had managed to weave his way to the outskirts of it. Such a large number of people he found tiresome, the heat of day was oppressive, and Sorin was already in a foul mood. All of this was wearing down his willpower, and drawing him closer to the primal, visceral urges of his kind. The thought of feeding disgusted him, but at the same time, he could not deny its pleasures. The idea of such a depraved, debased act simultaneously gave him the same sick thrill that it had given him for more than six thousand years, and had him curse his weakness that kept him so closely tied to mortality.

Still, the young, blonde woman at the edge of the crowd was setting off predatory urges in Sorin's mind. She was fresh, healthy, clearly inebriated, and likely easily swayed. A fresh fruit ripe for the picking. Silently damning himself for being so pitiful, he approached the white-robed girl as she drank heartily from a bottle of some manner of alcohol, her companions' attention elsewhere.

"Pardon me, my dear," He said, a siren's song in his voice and an entrancing fire in his eyes, "I'm afraid I can't quite find my way home. Would you be so kind as to escort me?"

Her already glazed eyes took on a duller look as she smiled at Sorin, taking his arm with her own, "Of course, it'd be my pleasure."

Sorin smiled like a wolf as he set his hand, cold and deathly, over her warm and lively one, slowly leading her off away from the crowd and any prying eyes.

It certainly didn’t take Vash very much time to get into the party, as, before long, the red-clad gunman found himself rather inebriated, ranting with a smile on his face to the three-foot-tall yellow salamander creature walking beside him, bottle still in hand. Tied around his forehead was what appeared to be a necktie. Where did he get it? No one knows. “So then — and this is the best part,” he continued telling his epic tale, stumbling along as he did so. “The dragon thing, just when I thought it had had enough, changed shape.” he told it. “And I mean toooootally changed shape. Wasn’t even the same dragon anymore — all bright and shiny like it was — and stronger, too!” he paused to take another swig. “So then, I started fighting against that dragon, cuz you know, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt — but then, that guy, you know, the guy I mentioned earlier? I saw him up on the dragon’s neck, trying to kill the thing,” The salamander nodded, listening intently. “And then, before I could even do anything, I saw that girl — you know, the girl I mentioned earlier? And she was coming at the thing with her sword like this,” he stopped and swung his bottle-hand out in front of him to demonstrate, taking on a sloppy attack pose. “So you know what I did?” he asked rhetorically, looking back down at his amphibious companion. “I didn’t wanna see anyone die, so without even thinking, I launched myself off the rocks and tackled her out of the air!” he exclaimed, lunging forward and tossing himself onto the ground.

“And then… it was all over. I saw the dragon collapse, and then, the trial was done…” he continued dramatically, still lying in the dirt. “I couldn’t save the thing, unfortunately…” he trailed off. “But!” he spoke up triumphantly. “At least I tried… and that’s the important thing, right?! You gotta at least try to save everyone! You gotta try…” he rambled, starting to bring himself up off the ground.

At that moment, he noticed Saber standing only a few feet away from him, ordering food from the sand where Archer was cooking. Vash stopped and stared for a few seconds before a reaction finally kicked in. He began pointing frantically at them. “Look! Look!” he told the salamander. “It’s them! It’s those guys! You know, the guys I told you about earlier?” Still crouching on the ground, he turned the salamander’s body so that it faced them. “Say hello to my fellow challengers!!” he grinned.

"I understand." Takatora wondered how Rin fitted in to Saber's life. The obvious conclusion he first thought was that Rin was Saber's wife, though part of him had thought of the possibility of them being sisters. He instantly figured why he thought that:

"My life's nothing but distractions, after all."

He wondered how his own brother was holding up, especially with himself not being in his world. He idea of them being sisters caused him to worry about Rin's well being with her big sister gone. His mind shifted to Ryoma and his assistants. How will they hold up without him? He felt confident in Ryoma, though. After all, he was the one who introduced him to Helheim Forest, so if there's anyone with more knowledge to Helheim than he did, it'd be Ryoma.

"So, I take it you are one of the Asgard then," Ba'al asked Takatora.

"Asgard? No. I'm just human." Takatora said. The gates opened and Takatora followed the others. Nobuo stopped gushing over King Knight to gush over at the Police Car transforming robots.

"AAAAAAH~! THEY'RE LIKE MACHINE ITASHAAAAA~!" He ran over to the cars refueling. Takatora simply rolled his eyes and went on his walk, noticing the chattering people talking about how 'newbs managed to do a passable raid'.

"A raid? A raid on what?" Takatora asked. He had no idea what the hell happened...

That was...Cold. Buwaro sighed-if this person didn't know one of the biggest cities in Media, chances were her traveling companions didn't either. The carnival stops here did cheer him up a little bit though, and the smell of food did even more for his mood.

He stuck around the girl with the sword as she made a beeline towards one particular stand, where apparent a friend of hers was cooking. He saw her icy mood dissapate immediately as she looked at Archer's cooking ('white hair, red cloak...' Buwaro noted). He had to admit, it did look very good, and if he was serving it..."I'll have whatever she's having." Buwaro told Archer, curious as to what that would get him.

As he stood at the stand though, a rather loud yell rang out as the man with the strange hand held weapons approached the stand, looking like his adopted older brother Iratu looked after he drank. He caught bits of a story he was telling a short yellow lizard as they came, something about trails and dragons, and that piqued his curiosity-any information he could get at this point was welcome. Besides, he seemed friendly enough. He approached the stranger and cleared his throat, hoping that this newcomer wouldn't be as rowdy as Iratu was when he got drunk.

"Excuse me," he began "but can I ask you what was that about trails? I think I'm supposed to help you in them, but honestly I'm...Well, kinda lost..."

Martin

It was a massive effort for the mouse to drag himself back to consciousness. Every nerve and synapse in his mouse body told him to lie there and fall back asleep, until everything stopped hurting. But he fought that urge, knowing that if he was feeling like this something might have (and probably had) gone wrong, and that he needed to get up before things got worse. He rolled over, the feeling of cold, fresh snow against his paws. Head pounding, he managed to get up onto one knee and open his bloodshot eyes.

Oddly, the scene around him was very reminiscent of his home of Mossflower woods. The same tall trees, the distant sound of a flowing river, chirping birds...but something didn't feel right. This forest was darker, somehow. And not just because of the skies overhead. Light seemed to stop just above the treetops, casting long shadows over the frozen ground and foliage. A damp chill settled in the air, making him shiver and rub his arms as Martin managed to stand, albeit somewhat shakily. He looked himself over for any obvious injuries and found none, though for some inexplicable reason he felt as if an entire band of bandits had beat him to a pulp. As that thought crossed his mind he panicked briefly and reached towards his sword belt, breathing a sigh of relief. The sword was still there, the same one his father had given him years ago. "Now then..." He muttered to himself, "What to do now..."

There were no obvious paths through the thick woods. In the distance he could make out what appeared to be a range of mountains, but they were much too far to be of any help. The only other distinguishing feature he could pick out was the distant sound of a river, barely audible. "Well..." He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I suppose that's as good as any places to go." Making sure the sword was secure inside it's sheath, he adjusted the red bandanna around his neck and set off into the snowy woods, entirely unsure of what lay ahead.

Ah well, so this man wasn't the Asgard. No real loss on Ba'al's part, since it didn't otherwise waste his time or lose him the chance to gain any useful information. Whether he was or not wouldn't have mattered, because the only information Ba'al had to go on was old Earth legends, created by Christian monks, or something like that, so they could have been skewed any which way.

Still, he had his answer, and Ba'al was content as he followed the group out into the impromptu street carnival that had developed outside, the collective inhabitants of the city as eclectic and varied as the buildings themselves, and so too were the attractions. He did note the change in the tower, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that eventually the white would reach the top when they were at the end of the trials.

For the moment though, Ba'al wandered the streets, taking in the sights and sounds, the chatter of the people. He was a bit alarmed that they were apparently the group to fastest clear the first trial, since it hadn't been exactly smooth sailing. That didn't bode well in the future, at least as far as he was concerned. Who knew what they would have to do in the future, and things would most certainly get harder going on. Still, he was a Goa'uld, he could manage anything that came up.

He was a God though, and after that workout he needed some sustenance, so he partook in some food, and walked, spotting other Challengers going about their own enjoyment, all the more lucky to get free stuff because they were Challengers. He observed, he learned. Who knew when this knowledge might be useful after all. So he went on, and looked for something that might present itself as interesting, though no such luck for the moment.

Archer

The Heroic Spirit had successfully manoeuvred his way into total control of the stall, with the actual owner unable to do more than watch in mute amazement as the now-sleeveless hero usurped his role with a physical skill that he couldn't even hope to match. With Saber approaching and all the food now mentally catalogued, Archer stepped up to the task and detraced his kitchen knives: whilst more suitable for the task than what he planned to use instead, he had a course of action in mind that made something a bit more dangerous easier.

In short: the hero was about to use Kanshou as a cooking implement. As the blonde opened her mouth to state her surprise at Archer's cooking, he blurred into action: one hand would seize the ingredient to prepare and toss it, the other would move the knife in such a way that the now-sliced pieces landed, hissing, on the grill. Even as that happened, the next would be seized.

As the meat was seared, it got turned in an equally dramatic way, with the knife spinning as both of the spirit's hands ignored the heat of the metal plate to overturn the food. Then, it was caught and the same seemingly-careless vegetable slicing ensued. There was definitely less-ridiculous ways to serve teppanyaki to Saber and the other adventurers that were oddly attracted to the stall, but with a Servant's reflexes and Archer's cooking ability, they were unnecessary.

Saber

Saber's eyes seemed to shimmer, as she displayed an open-mouthed smile, watching Archer prepare the food. She had not seen this sort of food prepared in person before, it was something neither Shirou nor Rin would make. But Saber had rather dedicatedly been watching television programs all about cooking, and was therefore aware of such food preparation. That said, it had hardly been such an impressive flurry of action as Archer was displaying currently. Indeed, he was applying his abilities as a Servant to the act of cooking, and this made Saber all the more eager to taste the meal he was creating. However, she heard voices behind her, and turned to look over her shoulder. It was Vash, looking somewhat inebriated, and a yellow lizard-like creature he appeared to be attempting to introduce to them.

"... Ah... yes, I'm Saber..."

Saber's eyes drifted back towards the flurry of motion as a vegetable was sliced apart. She should not simply ignore those speaking to her... but... but... the food! Oh, she was growing hungrier by the second, and watching its preparation...! There was an irresistible allure of scents already wafting from the stall, and she could not look away, not even for a second! But Vash was attempting to speak to her... but the food was being prepared and could be ready at any time...

Needless to say, Saber did not look particularly focused on anything but the food Archer was preparing.

---

Jakuzure Nonon

There wasn't too much going on in the armory, and though the big horn-cannon things looked kind of impressive Nonon didn't see much of a need to go grabbing them when she had built-in ones. That played her favorite music, too! So she headed out, and quickly found herself in the midst of lots and lots of people. Many of these people were drinking. Drinking what, well, even from here she could tell, was alcohol. Nonon rolled her eyes. "Of course the best way to celebrate is to get so drunk you don't have any idea what you're celebrating about! I hope all these morons enjoy their hangovers."

She shrugged, and headed on through the crowd. To an outside observer, it would appear that there was a hat simply bobbing along. Nonon's size made it difficult to see her through the crowd, after all. Little did she know that she was approaching another hat, this one with eyes.