[center][color=A45A52][h3]Graveyard[/h3][/color]
Ni Rensa, Eliza, Edith Riggs, Kilo, Joakim Fortinbras, Heisty Beardo, Kumbha Yatta, Bytan Brass, Mercury Marowit
Argus Leandros, Ike Riven, Riona Ymir, Damian Gerard, Gabriel, Sengoku Enma
[@raijinslayer][@zarkun][@oblivion666][@caits][@hatakekuro][@lunarlors34][/center]

Rallied by the command of their master, the soldiers of Fiore's finest war guild did not disappoint.  Ike's pitch-black fist of wrath bore down upon the stricken Flesh Giant as it vied to pull itself together, and when the abhorrent thing could not block in time, the massive fist struck its torso head-on.  An optimist might have imagined the entire gruesome construct falling apart in a visceral shower from that attack alone, but even in this state the monster would not be so easily vanquished.  The incredible cohesion of its despicable body held out against the Ebony Wrath's Blow just long enough for it to bend under the onslaught, like a tree in a storm, and not break.  Chunks of gore flew as the Flesh Giant staggered backward, the explosive entropic energy preventing the crater in its torso from immediately healing.

Something hideous, not unlike rage, took hold of the thing, and it made as if to charge forward and crush the soldiers of Frenzy Plant underfoot.  Before it could, a blazing green growth, aglow with the glamor of passion, snaked up from the desolate earth to ensnare it.  A wretched howl echoed across the landscape as it found its progress stymied by the huge, searing roots, but even if they prevented it from moving forward they could not stop another volley of fleshy bone spears from shooting from its mass in a vile deluge.  Even as the spears fell once more, though, a piercing white light emerged before it, and that radiant flame turned to ash every disgusting spike that threatened its maker.  When the singularity of pure heat entered its hip, it immolated the noisome meat in the entire area, and with a sound like thunder it violently separated leg from giant.  In that split second, it seemed, the battle was decided.

Yet, from the rims of the grievous wound, a surge of black smoke erupted and stretched the gap.  Ashlyn's holy magic burned against the tangible darkness, but she beheld something most dire.  The radiance cast a light on the nebulous fog itself, and in its glow Ashlyn could see that, rather than vapor, the smog appeared to be made of millions of tiny particles.  Before her eyes, these particles swallowed the light—an ill omen of something darker than black.

All the same, this unexpected and worrying response formed only a stopgap measure to keep the Flesh Giant standing, and Frenzy Plant's warriors would not allow it even a second to heal.  Each one, from the venerable Bytan Brass to the rookies like Nandy Rewman, put everything they had into projectile attacks meant to annihilate this foul behemoth where it stood.  The attack that cut through them all to penetrate the horror, though, came not from a soldier but from an outsider.  Flint's mighty Beam of Entropy, its power compounded by successive magic seals, ripped into the twisted colossus and cut jagged patterns straight through its body. His first strike paved the way for a maelstrom of earth, wind, and fire from the soldiers, their combined weight of magic crashing into the Flesh Giant to inflict more damage than the nightmarish fog could repair.  

In the midst of that tumult, a single great blade came to be.  The weight and sheen of its magnificent edge, wielded by Phoenix Wing's master swordsman, sawed diagonally through his repulsive adversary in more time than he might have liked.  Even though it wasn't a clean cut, the blade forged its way through, and with the regenerative smog already pushed past its limits, this new terrible wound could not be undone.  With all of the enormity of a collapsing building, the severed top half of the abomination began to fall away.  All throughout the graveyard, the soldiers ceased their attacks, waiting with bated breath to see if the battle was ended here and now.  None expected a secondary attack in the form of a mind-bogglingly massive eruption of magic swords to follow.  When it happened, skewering the giant throughout its body and holding it in place, even Sanders thought that the move might have been overkill.

Then, from above, a volatile ball of fire flew from the mouth of Gabriel's dragon to detonate in a skull-rattling explosion in the crater left behind by Ike's Ebony Wrath's Blow.  When the flames died in the swirling thunderstorm, all could see thanks to the surviving lights provided by Putcher that the Flesh Giant was threatening to fall apart.  The black smog that sustained it poured off its deplorable surface like mud during a shower, and heaps of tissue, organs, and bones fell free of its mass.  Not satisfied, the Oni called Enma rushed in with a Tremor-empowered club to deliver a mighty blow to its leg.  The sheer force of the strike, compounded by the vibrations with which it quaked, sundered the limb completely.  Only the blade geyser of Damian kept it off the ground now.

The amount of magical and physical force dealt to the Flesh Giant by now was nothing short of obscene, but even still, the story was not quite over.  Foul energies lay within the faltering frame still, and melted flesh poured over its wounds in a renewed attempt to regenerate.  Then, and only then, did the lacrima implanted by Argus finally detonate, blowing the abomination into smithereens in a riotous fireworks display.  Time seemed to slow down as the horror flew apart, unable to hold together anymore, and -influenced by the positioning of Damian's great blades- tumble over the cliff edge and into the chasm below.  The ruin that had come to Belka was gone.

In the moments after, the only sounds were leftover bits of flesh in the graveyard burning, rain falling, and heavy breathing.  The soldiers dared not believe that this nightmare come to life was done with.  After a few moments passed by, however, a haggard cheer arose among them.  Those with the energy left danced out of sheer joy, or embraced one another.  Tsubani Morimoto bent over the still form of Argus, applying the healing power of her Marsh Songs to bring him back to consciousness.  Behind large headstone, the axelings Kilo and Ni Rensa wiped goo from one another's faces, growing closer and closer until they shared a brief but passionate kiss.  The metal siege engine of Jillian Suede disappeared, and she heaved herself onto a rock beside her general as both caught their breath.  Cormorant Sanders, having truly felt alive in the heat of the battle, was obliged to bestill his beating heart.  His eyes fell on the black fog that thinly blanketed the ground and, suddenly curious, he swept into it with his walking stick and brought the tip to his eyes.  Widening his peeper, he peered closely at the smidgen of black staining his staff.  He increased the likelihood of being able to discern what exactly it was.  His eyebrows shot up when he did discover this, and under his breath he murmured, [color=8F9779]”An insect?  Bizarre...not like any insect I've seen.”[/color]  The minuscule creatures he initially mistook for particles suddenly flew away, joining a shadowy stream moving along the ground.  Sanders' eyes followed the stream, as many of the others did, to a point above the destroyed chapel where they appeared to be converging.

Before anyone could take action, the cluster of smog flew upward, forming a dark pillar, then a swirling vortex high in the sky directly in front of the moon in a sky inexplicably grown clear.  The synchronized movements of millions if not billions of tiny bugs, silhouetted by moonlight, seemed oddly hypnotic.  That haunting symbol reappeared in the minds of all present, just as it had when the living fog first swept through the town.  From the very center of the vortex an odd light shone, somewhere between red and purple, and it fell on a single corpse sitting against a tombstone in the graveyard.  The body was clothed in the ragged remains of an old-fashioned suit, strips of beard still clung to its sallow skin, and a broken noose hung around its neck.  Embers of the fires of Ashlyn and Riona smoldered around it.  Awash in the chilling arclight, a voice came from this cadaver, though it did not move.

[color=black][i]An invasive species, tiny and fanged, gnawing, gnawing, always gnawing.  The gnawing brings the dead to life, makes things that should not be.  How could you stand against them...how?  But alas, you've seen only dipped a toe in the waters, and they go deep, deep down.  Even as they abandon me...I, who brought the plague to Belka...they tell me: go to the drowned city.  The gnawing, crawling, all-loving deep awaits.[/i][/color]

As this last proclamation rang out, the corpse burst into green and white fire, and in seconds it was nothing but mundane ash.

Then the light went out, and the black cloud swept across the night sky, headed west.  No fog remained.  The pressure on the minds of the people faded, and at long last a quiet settled over Belka.