Annabelle was entranced by the sight of the girl, not especially for her good looks or extravagant attire, but for the peculiar situation of it all. An imprisoning crystal, a horned girl, and all seemingly descended from the very heavens. As far as her imagination could help her, the raven-haired girl was convinced that this 'meteor' had carried with it not a treasure or rare material, but a fallen cosmic being. A girl from beyond the stars, or even the moon perhaps. Whatever she was, she was not of this world.

That she was encased in crystal and seemingly mid-defensive position spoke to Annabelle of a fight which had gone awry for her. This, coupled with her having descended in a flash of light gave her the idea of a punishment. She spoke up, standing by Ciel as Cecilia moved to touch it.

"It is almost as if... she was cursed to be imprisoned here. Encased in this crystal, and cast to our realm. Maybe she's a goddess?" Annabelle proposed. Her looks and attire certainly seemed to reflect as much, anyways. "We should be careful not to upset-" Annabelle's voice caught in her throat when the light went dark and a chill cracked into the air.

"C-careful Cecilia!" she called out, extending a hand as if to draw her away. This thing was dangerous, perhaps even angry. Annabelle was not keen on disturbing it, but she also held the same sentiment as Cecilia, if only out of a concern for the rest of the realm as well. If this trapped young girl was a powerful being, she certainly did not want some dirty and arrogant empire to offend her, and bring ruin to the land.

"Maybe... we can try waking her some other way. Maybe she can hear us if we shout?"

---

"I suppose my curiosity got the best of me," Locke said as he stopped the offer of food with a simple gesture. He wasn't exactly gracious about eating another's food. Who knew what sort of savage ingredients one could have added, even if she did have the visage of a noble. Those who came from below were often dumb, disgusting creatures.

The relative peace that the two shared had been broken by the sound of a collapsing building. Such chaos was not unexpected, but it was too close for comfort. Was it the result of some rapscallion who only knew to destroy, or was it just aging architecture. The more important question was, was this a sign of a threat or not. If dangerous people had been closing in, then that they would have to fight again. To fight again so soon was not how a mage made do.

"Be ready." He told Artemisia. It was better to be prepared than not to be.

Footsteps came from the way of the wreckage. Were they even footsteps? If they were, they must have been someone of considerable stature for him to hear them all the way from over there. If need be, he'd let the other handle all of the diplomacy. It wasn't like anyone in the group was good at it, but Locke was especially bad. Not in the sense of him being completely unamiable. Moreso, he sincerely wished to not to capitulate to lower forms of life.

Ciel fidgetted nervously next to Annabelle, having returned from his outpost with nothing to report. It turns out that the inside of the tower had much more to note, namely the, Ciel hesitated to call her a human, lady that was seemingly trapped within the crystal. He didn't know to act otherwise, other than to stare confoundedly at the figure with the crystal. Was she even alive? Ciel had never tried being encased in crystal before, but surely it would stifle one's breath at length?

The horns reminded Ciel of the crude depictions of feykind he had found along his travels. There was an undeniable glint of a gemstone that Ciel could discern through the cloudedness of the crystal, as well as even more lavish riches that lined her clothing, something that made Ciel feel strangely misplaced. Was this how goddesses looked like? Ciel didn't have an answer apart from vague memories of some sky god he had been told of, so Ciel instead silently agreed with Annabelle's suggestion. Although what that even implicated, Ciel was still in the process of comprehending.

Before Ciel investigate further, he perked up and froze still. It was faint, but Ciel could hear it; the crumbling of a nearby building, a dozen horse's gallops away and back towards the ground. It didn't sound like the tower itself was collapsing, and far enough out of their immediate concern. With a few brisk but light steps, he pressed himself against the crystallized remains of the wall, feeling the gust of wind that still blew in from the gaping hole in the side of the building and peered over. No Mark to staccato outlines from this range, but the movement of unnatural streaks of purple-black and yellow through the haze of billowing dust soon defined the answers to his query.

Two people. One large purple, one smaller blonde. They didn't look necessarily hostile, but considering that they had just climbed out of the collapsed wreckage of another, probably more sturdier building, and that Ciel's climbing skills were probably not going to be very useful if said tower was going to collapse, Ciel decided to pull back out of line of sight.

"M-ma'am? T-two people approaching." Ciel reported back to the two spellblades who were still looking toward the crystal. A peon like him was unfit to discuss matters of divinity or even simply ancient curses. He felt much more fitting doing his own job, scouting and notifying. "Swordsman a-nd mage."

Sadly, the larger crystal wasn't as fragile as the former, and mere contact wasn't able to make them shatter. Yanking her hand away from the strange, energy-draining object, Cecilia frowned at what just occurred. The crystal itself was brimming with magical energy and it had the effect of draining energy too. Made sense, in a way. Even goddesses probably had trouble breaking out of something when their energy was continuously drained from them, rendering them conscious, perhaps, but helpless.

"Oh," Cecilia said, snapping her fingers at Annabelle. "That might work...HELLO! ANYONE IN THERE? ARE YOU SLEEPING, OR ARE YOU ACTUALLY IN DANGER AND NEED HELP?"

She prided herself in her far-reaching voice, but unfortunately, no response was had from the crystal maiden, and their troubles only continued. The lilac-haired lancer turned in the direction Ciel was looking, and, narrowing her eyes, saw two more adventurers approach. A scaled half-human, prodigious in size and girth, and his elven companion, boasting mammaries that one could describe only as 'massive'. The elf, in particular, was waving rather energetically...

"Thanks for the tip, Ciel. Keep an eye on 'em and keep us informed if they look like they're gonna attack Arte and Locke, okay? As for this crystal...Annabelle, I'm going to try to whack it with my sharp stick to see if something's gonna happen. Could you do me a favor by destroying all those small crystals too? And then maybe sending one of your summons to start tapping at it? Going by the stories, we could solve this just by getting Locke to kiss it, but, well, let's try everything else first."

With that, Cecilia braced herself again, this time striking the surface gently with her spear, alert for any changes in the crystalline tomb as Annabelle hopefully began to clear out the smaller ones.

At first when Cecilia's spear struck the large blue crystal, nothing of any considerable noteworthiness occurred. A simple 'tnk!' noise sounded, as if the woman had just playfully jabbed at your average lrage, common rock on the ground. However, as Annabelle began to shatter the myriad green and pink lesser crystals that lined the entire whole of the tower's cavity, slowly but surely a change was happening. The glow from the small crystals began to diminish for each large collection that was destroyed, and likewise, the blue hue of the larger, imprisoning crystal began to fade, making it ever slightly more clear and akin to see-through glass, rather than blue-tinted crystal.

It didn't seem like the crystal had any malevolent or insidious mechanism to protect itself either. As the smaller crystals shattered and disappeared, no other change than the decresing color-saturation and the dimming of the outward glow would be noticed. It seemed the Spellblade had managed to successfully find a means with which to do... Something... to the crystal, without having to risk her or her companions' health. Huzzah! As the color drained from the crystalline prison, Cecilia would also notice that any strikes she made against it were beginning to chip away at the outer surface, and as the thing grew weaker from continued destruction of its smaller brethren, these small chips would gardually develop into cracks.

Continued crushing of the small crystals seemed to be the way forward to cracking the big blue one after all.

Meanwhile, on the plaza below...

The burly lizardman, the buxom high elf and the - now unconscious - paladin, were quite lucky. Behind them, the church they had been in seconds ago finally collapsed entirely, causing a huge wave of dust and gravel and petty debris to flood out of the alleyway they had just left. A huge, billowing cloud rose from the location where once the imposing structure had been, slowly descending like an unwanted blanket on the area just around it. Distant shouts of surprise and confusion could be heard from far away.



"General Nomoronth!"
"What is it?"
"We've finally secured both the north and south gates completely! They're fully under our control, sir!"
"Good and?"
"... And? Oh! Reports suggest that we've managed to deal with most of the adventurers and mercenaries from the south. The majority of their remaining numbers seem to be falling back towards the eastern gate now."
"East gate? What about the forces of the eastern nations stationed there?"
"Ah, yes well... It seems, sir, that once we seized both of the north and south gate, they turned around and abandoned the ruins... The east gate is completely unguarded, according to our scouts."
"... So, they didn't even try to stay and resist. Hmph, cowards."
"Sir?"
"Nothing. What about the Palagrian force south of here?"
"Sir! Reports state that they're slowly pulling back towards their own borders."
"Has any enemies fled their way?"
"Not since they took actions against the retreating merchants from earlier today."
"Heh, wise choice, dogs.... If you stayed, we could've accused you of interfering in Imperial affairs..."
"Sir, what now?"
"Hm? YOu need to ask, boy!? Have our forces march on the east gate from both north and south! Take it, hold it and then begin to move into the center of these decripit old stones! Don't let anyone stand in our way! Cut every non-Imperial down, no prisoners, no mercy."
"S-Sir! Understood!"

The young aide ran off once again, leaving the stone-faced general to watch his lackey's back with a discontent sneer. At least now things would begin to progress faster, and with any luck, their men would seen encounter whichever fool sellsword had acquired this fallen treasure, and then they could just wrest it from their cold, dead hands. Really though, what possible treasure fell from the sky? A moonrock? Some kind of shiny star bauble? What a complete waste of time and men.

The general let out a tired, irritated sigh and turned around, surveying the impromptu camp that had now been established. So many of these reserve-troopers had suffered injuries from those blasted southern adventurers and their cutthroat-masters. So many had needlessly lost their lives as well. While he held no respect for these still-wet-behind-the-ears pups, they were still soldiers of the Empire, and more importantly, they were under his control. To lose soldiers to something as pointless as a hunt for some phantom treasure? Ridiculous. It almost made the man want to laugh at the sheer absurdity.

... But he wasn't the type to laugh... So instead he kept watching his men and his camp go through their motions, waiting for further news.

Kaze leaned back, his spinal column letting out several loud cracks before he shook the dust from his touch hide and armor. This was just a day full of adventure, he'd have some stories to tell when he went back and visited his people. Insane dark magic users, buxon elves, a paladin who didn't seem to know Smite Evil, and now up ahead two noble looking people. Well, noble by human standards. Who brought a horse into some ruins?! Or dressed like they were going to go to a party?! The pink humanoids were certainly an odd lot.

The elven woman summoned up a thing. Lesser Angel? It didn't look very angelic...but had anyone ever truly seen one? Whatever, he shouldn't judge. But when she called out to the two ahead, just as Vani fainted, made the big mans eyes widen slightly. "Just some forewarning, Miss, this is kind of a free for all and not everyone is as nice as I and the unconscious one..." He rumbled to her quietly. Since Vani was out he just grabbed the collar of his cuirass and dragged him along behind. Approaching the two at the tower while looking upwards.

The pair would see that his enormous sword was sheathed across his back and that he was battered, but still fully functioning. The cross-shaped wound on his muzzle had been healed, the darker scales silvered and fresh looking. "If you're peaceful, we're peaceful." He called out to them as he moved. The closer he got to them the bigger he seemed to get. He had one of those 'fills the room' kind of energy, but really he only towered a smidge over a foot to two feet over the pair. While he moved he looked at the strange crystal growths. Those didn't look very natural...

Oh. That certainly sounded like a viable option. Annabelle's eyes drifted to the various crystals around the room, and the vague notion of some kind of "lock" came to mind. The presence of these strange structures certainly started to make more sense in her mind. Wasting no time, she retrieved her sword from the holster at her lower back, and set to work alongside Carpenter. It didn't take much effort to shatter the fragile structures, even for her tiny familiar. A sword crashed through the air, sending fragments flying about, while the little red blob simply opted to root itself into the floor and punch out with a flat cylindrical shape, impacting the crystals even quicker than Annabelle could herself.

In short work, they'd dismantled a good number, and by then Annabelle had noticed the changes occurring to the imprisoning blue crystal. A smile washed over her face, and she continued the shattering with increased fervor. Eventually, all that she could see within the room had been shattered, with Carpenter working to search for any smaller formations that might have been hidden in the nooks and crannies of the cavity.

"I think... that's all of them," Annabelle said, turning to the fallen goddess crystal. The image of a crack forming upon the surface where Cecilia's spear had struck gave her a measure of certainty that they would succeed with this puzzle, and an eagerness (and perhaps a hint of fear) warmed her spirits.

Oh, that worked! Once her spear finally did more than just bounce away from the large crystal, Cecilia stopped, patiently waiting for Annabelle to finish her sweep of the smaller crystals in the room. It didn't feel as if anything changed, beyond the weakening of the imprisoning crystal, so that had to be a good thing, right? Briefly, Cecilia turned towards the opening in the wall again, narrowing her eyes. Pillars of smoke and dust still rose, but as far as new battles looked, it didn't seem likely. The imperials then? Made sense; adventurers were liable to just fight each other afterwards.

"Thanks for the assist, Annabelle. Gonna pick up the pace now, cause I don't really think we have too much time. Just, like, y'know take cover and all, yeah?"

As her tower companions prepared, Cecilia did as well, muttering a few arcane words to bolster her physical and magical defenses before she grasped her spear again. Measuring the distances carefully to ensure that her spear, if the crystal suddenly gave away, wouldn't end up skewering the women within, the spellblade took a breath, before unleashing a flurry of light blows, intent on chipping away the crystal with multiple strikes, rather than cleave it apart in a singular one.

With the eradication and almost complete absence of the smaller crystals in the tower now, the large blue crystal had lost much of its opacity. In fact, it was more clear and see-through now than it was blue, and the glow it had emitted before was all but gone, no longer visible in daylight hours. However, as Cecilia began to try and carefully chip away at the object, she would find that even with herself holding back and practicing restraint, each strike cracked and fragmented the large crystal, casuing much more damage than she had anticipated.

Furthemore, the cracks seemed to spread on their own, the sound it made reminiscent of crunching and shattering ice, as the tears in the surface began spread all over the prison-like object. Eventually,t he cracks, tears and chipping had become so prevalent and all-encompassing that the entire crystal was covered it, and, began to shudder and tremble - bits fell off even without provocation or outside interference and the big thing bega to emit a low, hollow ringing like, as if wind was blowing through a narrow gap or some such.

Crrrrrrrrrrsssshhhk!

A sudden strange, unfamiliar and obviously unfitting sound then left the crystal, and as it did, beams of light - white and pure, began to spill from the cracks in the surface. Fortunately for those in the tower, it didn't seem as if they were harmful - as nothing happened when one of these floodlights fell upon their frames... Though they were quite intense and very blinding to try and stare at directly... And then, there was ntohing. A soundless burst of bright, blinding light so overwhelming you might have thought you were dead and travelling towards the Heaven. But not just the tower, no, the plaza outside was also able to see the brimming, flooding luminence leave the cavity which the fallen star had caused. But more important than that was the utter and complete silence. No noise, no speech, no voice no background sound... All sound, in a 500 foot radius from the tower, were lost for what felt like a frozen hour... But was actually less than ten seconds.

As the light quickly faded then, the sounds of the world slowly came flooding back into the ears of those affected by and caught in the sudden silence. For those outside the tower, nothing had changed at all, in fact they could almost be forgiven fro having thought it was a hallucination or daydream. Those inside the tower, on the other hand, were privvy to quite a non-disputable sight that confirmed that which had just happened to be reality. Where once frozen in place like a statue, trapped in the blue star that fell from the heavens, stood now the horned girl - purple hair and dark garb, with her long drape-like cloak over her shoulders - in the very place that her prison had once been, on the same floor as the three liberators. She still held the same pose as she had before, with arms crossed and held infront of her face with knees slightly bent in towards each other, and her single visible eye was still closed. But she was free. No longer trapped in the clutches of the star-crystal-cell that had confined her.

Mmph...

A soft, cutesy moan then suddenly left the girl's lips, and her one eye slowly opened, as if she had been asleep while standing. Her shoulders relaxed and her arms slowly lowered themselves to hang along her sides. Her posture straightened, and with lazy, slow-moving motions, she turned her head to the right, then the left, then looked down at the floor and then up at the ceiling. Finally, she landed her gaze on te three individuals infront of her.

... At which point, her eye shot wide open, an expression of absolute confusion and terror spread across her face and she let out, with a sweet but panick-filled voice:

"WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON!?"

Artemisia raised an eyebrow at Locke’s gesture, slightly curious at his refusal. Although she was de facto exiled, she still managed to make enough money for herself to keep up elements of her older, more lavish lifestyle. That was something that extended to the food and supplies that she purchased, so the jerky that she was idly munching on now was actually some nice stuff.

“More for me, then.” She shrugged, before packing the rest back away and washing down the snack with a healthy sip from her flask. Artemisia was just about to wonder about how to pass the time waiting for the rest of the party to return when a loud crash rang out nearby. She didn’t need to be hold to stay alert, although her horse thought otherwise, whinnying and bucking at the sudden noise. Thankfully, by the time the figures appeared from the dust clouds of the ruined building nearby, her horse was back under control.

What she saw was a strange sight to behold. The two of them were being approached by an elf girl and a huge lizard man, dragging the body of a knight, armor and all, behind him. The sight of that alone kept her on guard, and she raised a hand in a gesture to not get too close, despite the lizardman’s neutral greeting. In fact, she didn’t often see lizard people… another reason to be suspicious.
Still, there was no sense to be needlessly undiplomatic.

“If that is your intention, then ours is the same,” she finally replied, flicking her eyes towards Locke to see if he was on the same page. She finally dismounted in an act of peace, keeping her hands on her horses’ reins. Her eyes then glanced back towards the lizard, and the elven girl, about to ask what was up with the unconscious knight, but then she remembered that the elf girl had called out while she and Locke were still a bit distracted.

“We don’t have much in the way of supplies. I might be the best substitute for a proper healer here though. Set him down and I’ll have a look at him.”

---

They came in peace. Maybe. Considering how they had been carrying a momentarily disabled ally and were looking for a method to heal them, the chance of them stabbing Locke in the back was low. Though, Locke wouldn't perish the thought of such an action. The lowborn were not beholden to the same standards as his own people. If they truly came in peace, Locke wouldn't attack. He didn't want to put the effort into another fight. His goal was to stay alive throughout this. Not much more.

With the elf with fat sacks asking for aid for their disabled friend, Locke didn't really care to help them. Artemisia offered, so the noble/merchant would do it herself. Locke had no interest in wasting his magic on another. What was more interesting to him was the being that came with them. Unlike the unconscious knight-man, the massive leather-wearing lizard, and the fat elf, he couldn't exactly see the being with perfect clarity. Like the fairies that he commanded, it too was a being seeped with magic. That meant that another was likely a summoner. Considering how the knight-type was unconscious and the massive lizard was... well... It meant that only one who could summon such a being was the elf with the inflated chest.

He was obviously interested in such a being. Not the elf, of course. She could go away forever for all Locke cared. No, the statuesque summon was what he wanted to know more about.

For now, he'd bide his time. His interest didn't quite extend enough to run up to the fat-filled elf and ask her about what exactly that being behind her was. Maybe when he was safely back inside of one of those filthy rats nests they called inns, but not now.

---

"Just some forewarning, Miss, this is kind of a free for all and not everyone is as nice as I and the unconscious one."

"Ah..."

Mentally Yinha nearly screamed at herself as reality hit once more again. That was right, it had become a free for all here after...oh! The star that had fallen in this area! Frankly speaking, she'd mostly been absorbed with tracking down those undead after detecting them. Then had come the nearly dying, and a crazy old man, and a building collapsing among other things that had been more immediately concerning than the free-for-all. The High Elf seemed to quickly shut her mouth, however, before quietly following along with Kaze as they moved over to the people at the bottom of the tower.

Truth be told, however, upon getting a closer look these two figures seemed more well-dressed than she'd expected. While the woman seemed wary enough at first, she at least seemed to be peaceable when they came over with the unconscious Wood Elf Paladin to try to get some more help. Not that Yinha herself didn't have a good amount of mana left...but conserving amidst this greater overall situation seemed to be wiser. Yet the other individual was visibly a male human, but seemed to give off some kind of 'air' that slightly got under the elf's skin. He was even wearing a mask at that. However, regardless of this Yinha gave a soft smile to both the man and woman and a light bow before she helped move Vani over to the woman and spoke again.

"Thank you. It feels like it has been one thing after another today, especially when things broke out around here. But if you need, Miss, you may request some assistance from my angelic summon here if that could help."

As she finished speaking, the High Elf mage's eyes seemed to trail up the tower and then back down at Artemisia.

"I pray whatever that fallen star is, it isn't something dangerous to everyone here."

Yinha let out a small sigh after her comment, some worry reflected in her eyes as she simply stayed in place with the noble looking woman that would be looking over her former compatriot.

As the crystals began to crumble of their own accord, and an unnatural sound burst from between the cracks, Annabelle prepared herself for the worst, and hoped for the best. Carpenter returned to her side with a quick jolt of speed, hopping around the corner of a hole in the wall, and she spread her stance, one hand hovering over her sheathed sword. She doubted her ability to fight a goddess, but if the entity so choose to, she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

Her forearm shot up to her eyes, and she averted her gaze as the blinding light enveloped her whole body and the room around her. She grit her teeth and a grunt of shock escaped her, waiting for the wave of brightness to wash away. When at last her sight returned, and the room was left with silence and one new, small body, she stood straight.

Annabelle waited and watched for the strange girl from the heavens to speak. What she didn't expect was the shock of the girl. Visibly recoiling as the girl shouted, Annabelle's hand quickly darted to her sword, briefly but hesitantly afraid that the horned girl was angered. When she appeared only simply frightened and confused, her grip relaxed. She looked to Ciel and Cecilia in turn, before speaking.

"M-miss... Er... H-hello. Are you alright? Do you know where you are?" she asked, mustering a light smile.

"M-miss... Er... H-hello. Are you alright? Do you know where you are?"

These words were spoken by the hemomancer-spellblade before the horned girl. Said woman was also dressed in attire that made the youthful horned girl's attire seem modest. The purple-haired, newly freed and confused girl simply stared - first at this woman who had spoke, then her gaze trailed to look at the young man-boy, and the other woman of nobleblood in the room. The horned girl blinked, several times, as if trying to swat away the morning weariness of freshly awoken slumber out of her eyes... Before she let out a string of new, largely equally plethora of words.

"LIke hell I do! What the heck's this place anyway!? Where's Severanoxis?! Who the frack're you guys!? More importantly, how'd I even get here!?"

The girl was... Agitated... to say the least. Of course, in her eyes, she had only been blasted by the multi-elemental attack of the world-boss and one-of-a-kind siege hydra, Severanoxis, mere eye-blinks ago. So it would come as no surprise, for anyone who knew the full situation, that suddenly standing in the middle of a dark, crumbling tower with three strangers, as opposed to the open gorge with sand, sunlight and sheer cliffs around you, was a bit of a mildly disorienting experience. Sadly for our dear girl, Severanoxis was not a name familiar to the people of Oublioth - as it was a creature from a different world entirely. Regardless, the girl kept scanning her surroundings fervently, before adding - in a slightly less frantic tone.

"... Wait... Did the servers just shut down? Is this some sort of post-lobby for those who stayed online until the end? Are the devs here too? Wait, why can't I see my HUD or hotbar, or your names for that matter?" ... Obviously, to those without the knowledge of computer games and modern terminology, this would all sound rather much like, well, complete and utter mumbo-jumbo.

Well that was good, the silent clown and the noblewoman weren't hostile so long as they weren't hostile. He did give the pair a once over and wasn't impressed by them. Either really agile, or magic users. His ears twitched when he heard a strange sound, like ice breaking. It was too warm for ice to be here...and it was up? He glanced up just in time to catch the disco lights from the breaking star, but not the cause of it considering pisspoor angle.

And now a few seconds of loud sound, and everything was done. Then came a panicked yell making his eyes narrow. Feminine judging by the more shrill tones. He released Vani's gorget, letting him slump to the floor fully now, before crouching down. "I'm gonna investigate that yell." He said before lunging upwards. He didn't need buffs to make a good height of ten feet, and the stonework had plenty of finger holds for him. Well, more like claw holds.

He pulled himself upward, his claws slipping between the gaps of the stonework, his feet only providing some slight upward push since the 'claws' of his boots were quite thick and didn't fit in the gaps as well. The further up he went the more clear peoples voices were. He quickly reached the top and carefully peered over the edge. Three women, a young looking male, and nothing else. From here he listened in, curious about what was going on since he didn't see anything particularly threatening.

---

Crrrrrrrrrrsssshhhk!

Wait, what was that sound-?

The well-endowed elven mage looked up just as Kaze seemingly did, before the odd sound seemed to be followed by a spectacle that left Yinha's eyes shooting open wide. A massive burst of light that seemed to emanate from the top of the tower...where the star had fallen. Alongside the unnatural silence, it seemed somewhat more akin to the magic that her very teacher knew. Safe to say, this was something that set off some alarm bells in the Angelic Mage's mind, but even more so outright stunned her for those seconds that felt like a forever before the sound came back.

And whose voice was that, which came right after in some kind of shriek?!

"I'm gonna investigate that yell."

"Is someone hurt?! Wait for me!!!"

The mage called out in an almost frantic voice, giving an apologetic motion to Artemisia with her hands in haste as Vani was now placed in her care. Then the angelic summon came over, however, and picked Yinha up underneath the arms as it tried to hurriedly carry her up to the tower's top.

Admittedly the summon seemed to struggle slightly, but while it wasn't on par with Kaze's climbing skills it was doing its job at least. Bit by bit the elf and her bodacious bosom moved up into the air, the angelic mage and her summon scooting up and up to try to reach the right height. Those upon the tower's top would come to eventually see a statuesque being with wings on it, carrying in its obviously struggling arms the elven mage (who wasn't bad on the eyes at least). Though as she looked at the situation, Yinha let her summon know to drop her off on the tower's top...though as soon as the message was given-

"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!""

Safe to say, the Guardian wasn't wanting to carry her weight more than it had to in this particular instance. Tumbling over the side, the High Elf's body pitched forward as she hit the ground and abysmally failed to stick the landing. While it was a rather negligible distance, and she wouldn't be tumbling off the top of the tower, such a sudden drop was not something she had been prepared for either. Thus, with all the grace of a caffeine-addled elephant with four left feet, Yinha ultimately fell flat on her face in front of the assembled group on the tower's top.

Truly a graceful sort of beauty.

Well, if the Imperials weren't aware of shit going on before, they definitely were going to be aware of it now.

As the light faded, and the celestial maiden turned out to be much less maidenly than Cecilia figured, the spearwoman turned, stepping off closer to the edge in search of any sign of immediate danger. Well, there was the Lizardman, climbing up. And there was an elf floating up as well. Locke and Arte looked like they weren't doing anything about 'em. Had a deal been struck? Or...

Naw, it was probably fineeeeeee.

Squatting by the edge, Cecilia waited until the Lizardman reached all the way up, poking his head up from the platform, before smiling at him. "Hello," she said, "We're actually just about to leave now, so could you move?" How long had the flash gone on for? How much time did they have before this place was teeming with military? It was a race now, for sure. A hell of a race. A sprint and a marathon, combined! Hopping up to her feet, the spearwoman slapped her calves, loosening them up, before turning back to the confused maiden.

"This must be very confusing for you right now, Maiden, but understand that we mean you no harm. This kiddo here is Ciel, and that's Annabelle over there. I'm Cecilia myself, the lizard over there is a stranger, and that elf is also a stranger...so this must all be very strange for you." She chuckled, but the grip on her Ensorcelled Spear was tightening.

"Imperials gonna be swarming around this place now. Not certain if a star-maiden such as you would know of them, but they're bad news and will probably want to do dirty deeds of the bloodline-boosting type to you. So it's probably in your best interest to make yourself scarce, right? Not to, y'know, presume or anything."

Would really be nice if Arte or Locke sent a sign. Cecilia really wasn't certain if she should yeet the lizardman and the elf off the tower or not.

What's up with these guys?

The purple-haired and horned girl stared in a mixture of confusion and bewildered annoyance at the trio before her... Who were soon made into a quintet by the addition of a lizardman popping his head up from the side of the open tower-wall, and the suddenly belly-flopping elf... Wait... How'd she done that? Summons couldn't pick players up and levitate them? Was there some sort of glitch? Did the game wonk out after shut-down and things just broke down? No, that didn't make any sense at all - stuff didn't just go off the rails just because you shut down a server, in fac, if the servers were shut down, shouldn't everything have just frozen? Or at least kicked them out the login screen?

Also, what was with the way these guys talked? Calling people 'miss' and 'amiden'? Who did that? Well, those nerdy roleplayers might, but ... Oh, wait... Of course.... Of course the geeky types would be the last ones to stay online, to play out their silly little fantasy about the world's end or somehting. Great. They all seemed hardcore about it too, not even responding to the mention of the absent HUD or hotbar. Heck, maybe their settings had those things disabled so they could immerse themselves in their delusions... So gross.

Still, the sudden mention by the girl who was dressed considerably stylish than the rest of the mottley assembly had the horned girl confused. Bloodline-boosting? What was that? There wasn't any system like that in the game. Was it some kind of roleplay-centric term or something? And who or what were these Imperials? Furthemore, where exactly were they? Where'd the Herculon Gorge gone? So many questions and nobody willing to answer. Damnable kids and their make-believe-pretend games...

"I've got no idea what you're on about, hoss." The girl said, sighing and shadking her head while also shrugging her shoulders.

Moving her hand up to touch her temple, the young girl - who looked to be in her mid-teens - closed her lone, visible eye and spoke a strange sentence, at least strange to the locals.

"Shift Communication, Help Channel, Call GM." She said, with a staright and serious-enough expression. "Hello? Did something happen to the server-shutdown? I can't access my menus or see my HUD, and I've clipped through to some... Strange.. Unfamiliar area..." A brief pause. "Hello? Anyone there?" Her eye opened again, as her mouth curled into a slgiht frown.

"What gives? Not a single GM online?" She muttered in slight irritation. "Shift Communication, Customer Support Channel, Call Staff." She tried a different venue. "Hello? Anybody there? I've run into some issues here, can't access the main menu. Is the server still running?" Questions asked into the empty air, as if the girl expected some divine voice from above to speak from nowhere and everywhere and answer her inquiries. Obviously, no such reply came. Even more obvious was the apparent frustration this was bringing to the young lady as her slight frown turned into a scowl. "Seriously? No customer support staff either? You're not exactly pulling this whole thing off with any kind of class, guys. Jeez, if I'd known I get stuck in some buggy-ass limbo with unused assets and a buncha roleplaying chuunis I would've just logged off before the timer hit zero." She spoke, to nobody in particular, apparnetly not adverse to airing her inner thoughts to those around her.

Moving forward from the spot she had been standing on since her awakening, the young lass took to striding towards the open wall-section of the tower, where the others had congregated. As she drew to the edge of the crumbled and collapsed brickwork though, her eye went wide and her jaw dropped like it was being pulled down by very localized Jupeterian gravity. As she stood there, staring out at the ruined royal plaza of the Forgotten Ruins, the others could hear a strange, unsettling noise... like the girl was gargling and breathing and had had her toes stepped on, all at once. Her eye twitched, blinked and she seemed to slightly shudder as she stood there, taking in the unfamiliar sight.. Until...

"WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!?!"

With the loud outurst echoing and bouncing off the surrounding structures, the girl didn't even stop to hear any explanations or anything. Instead, she stepped off the ledge of the platform, into thin air. Like one of those saturday-morning cartoon characters who didn't realize there was no more ground under their feet but kept going anyway... Only to then fall comically down as the revelation of their situation struck them. Fortunately, for the young lady, rather than plummet to her unceremonious death she instead slowly descended downwards, as if the wind had grabbed hold under her arms and was gently lowering her down onto the ground below. Oddly enough, this was happening without the girl having many any effort to cast a spell, or even make a motion to do so. She was slow-falling, effortlessly.

Of course, even if she was going down at a slow and safe pace, the fact remained that she was still going downwards... And with her get-up as it was, her large, drape-like cloaked fluttered and billowed majestically... But the very miniscule skirt-like part of her dress also did this... And the girl didn't seem to aware of this issue herself, as the black-lace undergarments she was wearing was put on display for anyone watching her, or looking up from below, at the time of her descent.

Touching down on the ground with a light clicking of her shoes, the horned one looked around. Her mouth was shaped like a cute little 'o' and her amethyst-like eye stared in wonder as well as disbelief at the scenery around her. This place... Was not Oubliette Online... There was no area or location in the great VRMMO that looked like this. She knew. She had been and explored every part of that in-game world. This place didn't exist. It didn't.

...

...

..

But it did.

"Ho... Wh... Whe... You... So..." Having trouble finding the words ... Or any words, for that matter, the girl kept saying syllables for a while, before turning around and realizing that there were others down here too. Another fancy-dressed lady, and a dude in... What was that? A Circus Vanity Set? Gilded Court Jester's Apparel? No, it wasn't either.. It was... weird. Was it hacked, or perhaps custom, designs? Wait! There was a third person! An elf, on the ground... With his eyes closed... Looking a bit banged up... Had he used the sleep-command or something? In the middle of an unknown area like this? The heck was going on here? So many questions and ponderings and mysteries, the young-looking girl couldn't begin to know where or what to wrap her head around... And it was giving her a migraine.

Eventually though, she straightened her posture, took a deep breath, turned to face the two punks at the bottom of the tower, along with their horsey, and spoke. Arms folded infront of her stomach and her brow angled diagonally downwards in discontent.

"Okay, look. I know you guys're way into this whole roleplaying your characters thing, but could you please cut that out for a moment and just answer me?" She half-asked, half-demanded, half-requested. "Where are we? Does any of your systems or tabs work? And has there been any news or info dropped by the gamemasters, customer staff or devs?"

She awaited a full response.

---

"By the gods! What was that light?"
"And... Why... Why did all the sounds of the world suddenly drown out, then return?"
"Was it a spell?"
"A curse?!"
"Ws this the work of the fallen sky-treasure?"
"You men! Stop squabbling like housewives! Keep pushing onwards! Once we secure the east gate, we'll march to the center of these ruins and find whatever force caused this ruckus!"
"Yes sir!"

Kaze blinked as he climbed and looked back down, the elven woman was using her summon to get up here. She asked if someone was hurt, as if he'd know! He couldn't see through things nor did he have any form of pain sense. He hung there, waiting for her to catch up before he felt a fingertip upon his brow. Cecilia could see his pupils turn into slits, a sure sign of annoyance from the unwanted contact.

The woman said they were going to be going down soon, so he shrugged and started to slide down. His claws leaving deep furrows in the ancient stone, a good indicator of how tough they were. Most likely from his monk training, which was one of the first things they did. Body hardening without having to use Ki. He hadn't really paid attention to Yinha's summon launching her into the opening. She'd be fine, it seemed they had stumbled upon less asshole-ish adventurer's this time.

He had missed the gobbledygook the dragonoid woman had spoke as he touched down on the ground. Almost immediately a piercingly loud exclamation burst from up top. Apparently something was happening now? He wasn't climbing up again to check shit out a second time. Looking up he got to see the new womans undergarments. Why did the mammalian races have such frilly underwear? It's not like anyone except their mate was likely to see them...unless they goofed like this fluttery trollop.

When she landed she looked confused, but his judgement of the pink peoples facial expressions wasn't exactly the best. But...well...the confused partial uttering of some words kind of did it in for him. She was severely confused. When she recovered he tilted his head slightly at the words the was speaking. "Tabs? system? The hell is a gamemaster?" He questioned before reaching out. He placed the back of his hand against her forehead, clearly checking for her temperature.

Was she running a fever? Delirious? Was it contagious? Or was she just utterly insane?

"Eh?! H-hey! Don't just touch me!"

Wait... What? Touch? I could actually feel this lizard-bro touch me? Like, his scaley hand actually felt like it was on my forehead. That's... That's impossible! The game didn't have any kind of sensory simulation for touch and feel! That sorta stuff would be sci-fi tech! Wait, maybe that was me unconsciously touching myself? But I'm wearing the headset, so I couldn't... touch... my.. forehead...

The girl recoiled from the lizardman's touch. The only thing that the large reptilian man would have felt was soft and smooth skin, no raised or lower body temperature than any other healthy human. The horned girl, however, was now seemingly in a state of renewd, self-absorbed bewilderment, looking at both her hands infront of herself, as she slowly closed and opened them in what looked to be some sort of excersising motions... Or perhaps she was just making sure they could bend properly?

What gives? The HUD and hotbar's gone, I can't call or hail the Customer Support or GM channel. I can't open any tabs or menus, I can't see the other players' names and I can't force a logout! On top of that, now I can feel when somebody's avatar pokes me? Did... Did I fall asleep? Is this just some lucid dream? Come to think of it, a lot of stuff here don't add up, like this weird location and the overly detailed costumes and all the other guys are wearing. Even with the VR-high quality textures, their equipment just looks way too... Detailed and realistic...

The girl had stopped clenching and opening her hands by now, and was instead looking like she was deep in thought, contemplating something so deeply that her entire mind was consumed, rendering her largely oblivious to the world around her.