Once scattered by Arahabaki’s teleportation trap, the Seekers wound up on the very tips of the furthest branches of the vast subterranean computer network’s forked paths. Gradually, however, they’d worked their way inward, navigating their way past the trips and traps of the elevated maze. They pushed their way through the emergency response crews, getting ever closer to the towering pillar that dominated the area’s center. In its vicinity the different module chains coalesced as they routed into three main processing centers, where three quartets of the heroic intruders faced off against their stiffest competition yet by way of two Shinra Administration big shots, and a surprise interloper in the form of Senator Armstrong. Yet even they could not bring the Seekers’ story to an end. Though it took a lot out of the three teams, they claimed victory over some of the staunchest opponents that Midgar had to offer, and stepped onto the final set of bridges -these ones through tunnels of torii gates- to be conveyed toward Arahabaki’s final destination.

The three bridges converged at a large, trapezoidal module attached to the central column itself. Among the teams arriving there, the one in the worst shape by a country mile was Goldlewis, Zenkichi, Sakura, and Susie. With no team medic and only modest sustain at best, they’d been forced to slug it out with little more than their own sturdiness for survival, so Blazermate and Sandalphon were sights for sore eyes. Everyone in Midgar knew the name of Public Security’s head, but maybe nobody other than Zenkichi knew what Konoe was really capable of until today. First with the Zephyrus mech and then with his own two hands, Konoe had put his challengers through the wringer, and Goldlewis was only too happy to trudge on over to Blazermate for treatment. “Hoo, boy,” he breathed. “Outta everyone I figured we might run into on our way down, I did not bet on Konoe, lemme tell you what. Gave us a real lickin’.” He stretched out his shoulders as the medabot tended to his wounds. “Whew. Whatever that healin’ stuff is you got, it sure does a body good.”

Sandalphon hadn’t expected Konoe either, and while it sounded like her comrade’s quarter had a rough go of it, things hadn’t been much easier on her end. “We received a guest of honor as well. Rufus Shinra, here to finish what he started last night, perhaps.” She paused for a moment as she recalled the night’s events. “Come to think of it, we should be ready to engage with one or both Consuls at any point. I cannot imagine they will allow us to destroy their Guardian.”

“That’s what I’ve been wonderin’,” Goldlewis told her, his brow furrowed. “It was a Consul that told us the way down here to begin with. Dunno why, he sure seemed like the shit-stirrin’ type, but we’d be fools to write him off.”

With that, Sandalphon could agree. Normally she’d be more inclined to analyze after a fight to see what could be learned and optimized from the experience, but she figured that Rufus Shinra was a once-in-a-lifetime opponent. For now, then, she focused on what came next. The Worship Hall was extremely cluttered with technological equipment, all funneling toward a circular area in the module’s center. Countless nodes, prongs, and other doodads seemed to be arranged in a rough dome shape, strung together with braided cords and hanging circuit boards like talismans. Beyond lay a huge doorway covered by a bright blue wall of light that shone and sizzled like it was one hundred percent energy, and in the circle’s center -the most dramatic spot possible- sat one man that everyone ought to recognize by now. With that distinctive combination of fur-collared overcoat and silvery mask, together with the ears and tail of a jackal, Karen Travers was unmistakable. He was sitting in a meditative position, but by the time the Seekers approached, his deep red eyes were open.

“Karen,” Goldlewis muttered as he came to a stop at the head of the pack. “Wondered when we’d see ya again. You ain’t here for a fight, are ya?”

The Psych-OSF’s Septentrion First Class stood, stared for a moment, then shook his head. “...No.” When the Seekers seemed surprised, he decided to elaborate. “We’re here for the same thing, after all. The answer. The source. The secret behind the Administration’s power, and the instrument of this city’s subjugation. Once we have it, we’ll be able to set everything right. Back to how it should be.” He shrugged. “Besides. One against twelve? I don’t like those odds.”

Sandalphon narrowed in on one thing he said. “So it’s close, then? The Guardian?”

“Yes,” Karen replied, half-turning to look at the doorway. “So near, and yet, so far.”

Stepping forward, Goldlewis narrowed his eyes at the wall of light. “What’s this, then? The…we got told the way’s impassable.”

“You were told correct. Unless you happen to be one of very few VIPs, this wall will atomize you the minute you touch it.” Karen reached down and lifted a steel lockbox from where it sat behind him while he’d been meditating. Out of everyone here, only Sakura, Midna, and Roxas had seen this sturdy-looking box before, shackled to the corpse of Truman Zanotto before he turned to ash the night before. It had never been recovered; evidently it had found its way here.

Karen walked past Goldlewis toward the wall of light, then set the box down and sent it sliding across the floor with a kick. The veteran watched, baffled, as the lockbox slid closer, on a deadly collision course with the security field. Just before touching it, however, the wall blinked out. Just like that, the way was open, without Roxas even needing to try his luck.

Turning, Karen beckoned the Seekers. “After you.”

When the Seekers proceeded, Karen didn’t move to join them, instead watching them head in. Before passing him, Goldlewis paused to give him a skeptical stare. “What’s your angle, partner? You sounded mighty interested in whatever’s down there.”

Karen nodded, his arms crossed. “That’s true. However, you all have a better shot of getting there than I. Backup is on the way, so I’ll wait until then.”

That didn’t really satisfy Goldlewis, but he knew he and his team couldn’t afford to delay. “If you say so.”



The Salvage corps detected it first, though for a little while the discovery preceded a hasty check and more thorough recheck of their equipment. Nobody, after all, wanted to believe what they saw. Yet the long-range scanners did not lie. Lead Engineer Clarke immediately began to make some calls, starting with the Sector 07 militia, and the order went out to start getting ready. Those in the know tried to keep things quiet in a vain attempt to suppress the panic, but they knew better than everywhere that there was no salvaging this situation, and word quickly got out. Within five minutes, sirens were ringing out across the slums to signal an all-too-familiar state of emergency. Within ten, citizens throughout sectors 06 and 07 were sounding the alarm in Deep-Paris and Detroit. Up above, the police and guards of the plates must have surely heard the terrible din, but no soldiers were dispatched. Up in the City of Glass, Vandelay Campus lay dormant, crippled, a tough nut to crack thanks to all the robots that lingered there but unable to take any action. To the east, Detroit lay defenseless without DespoRHado, its cyborg remnants scattered and its android corps vanished. What remained of Psych-OSF and Peace Preservation lay quietly in wait. No help would be coming.

The people of the undercities began to act, disorganized and frenzied by fear. Some hunkered down, taking shelter wherever they could. They prayed that out of every rock that would soon be overturned, their enemies might happen to overlook theirs. Some took up arms and rallied, heading to the undercity walls with all the weapons, armor, and vehicles they had. This was the rainy day that every prepper had saved for. But most of the citizens fled, taking to the streets en masse with their families to flee northward however. Cars and buses got overrun, train stations swamped. People were trampled. It was chaos.

It wasn’t long before people could begin to make visual confirmation on the enemy force. The Machines were marching from the desolate Valley of Ruin beneath a stormy sky, less a rain and more a flood. Compared to this army, the force dispatched two days ago looked like cannon fodder, assembled from tin cans and children’s toys. For starters, there were plenty of robotic beasts, the same sort seen -and typically avoided- in the flooded district, from apelike Clamberjaws to terrifying Widemaws to vicious Snapjaws, along with the towering Tallnecks that sustained the Machines’ communication network. There were plenty of bipeds, shooters, and life-sucking noxin drones, but today the Machines were fielding a plethora of new units, practically alien in appearance and heavily armed. Primarily quadrupedal, these war machines came in two varieties. White and blue war machines like Loudmouth, Halo, Spread, and Duelring featured built-in shields and tech weapons so futuristic that their function was difficult to make out. Meanwhile, the black and red models were biomechanical-looking monstrosities with bloodthirsty behavior and strange gimmick weapons, like Cucumber, Sunbather, Scarf, and Porter. Even among those horrors, there seemed to be elites. Like Chatterbox, a titan with the stance and muscles of a gorilla, and Sinister, an aerial weapons platform capable of threatening Midgar’s plates. On spiderlike legs strode a mobile fortress in the shape of a gigantic clock. And through it all plodded not one but three immense Engels, their saw-arms swinging in anticipation of destroying Midgar brick by brick.

Eventually, the Machines’ march stopped in front of Midgar, and from the ranks strode three humanoid figures. Two of them looked simultaneously very similar but very different, twin brothers with contrasting styles. Adam and Eve walked out ahead of their brethren with confidence, the former wearing fancy clothes and the latter half-dressed in the garb of a berserker. Other than their looks, the brothers had one thing in common: that they didn’t look at all like robots. That couldn’t be said for the man who followed behind them, though. Half mummy and half machine, he strode with unblinking eyes and unwavering purpose. Never once deviating from the path ahead.

In front of Midgar, the city’s defenders had gathered. Without the Administration’s support or DepoRHado’s muscle their numbers paled in comparison, but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality. Neuron’s finest were here, including Jin Wong, Alicia Lopez, Alan King, and Marie Wentz, led by Maximillian Howard. So too were the remnants of the Hermits and Zone 09, from Mudrock to Wind Chimes to Mudtooth, and not even Karl was missing this party. The bravest souls of Sector 07 were here, not just Isaac Clarke and the other scrappers but the militia as well, including Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, and Aerith. Even Clara and Svarog stood amongst them, ready to defend their new home. On the other hand were the plucky bunch of misfits fresh from Vandelay Campus: Chai, Peppermint, Macaron, and Korsica. A number of armed civilians joined them, interspersed with various heroes who’d come to lend their strength to Midgar’s defense. With little more than 808 and Hal’s drone around for support, this ragtag bunch stared down the Machine horde and its leaders, waiting for the inevitable.

Eventually, Cloud broke the silence, leveling the Buster Sword at the twins and their masked companion. “Well, say whatever you’re gonna, and let’s get on with this.”

“You’re definitely brave, throwing your lives away like this,” Adam remarked offhandedly. “I’m eager to see what makes you tick.”

His little brother Eve grinned wildly. “Well, what’re we waiting for? Let’s play!”

“Just a moment.” Nox spoke in a highly mechanical voice, not to mention a strong French accent. He stared at the gathering of heroes, then up at Midgar. “Last night, my noxins drained every drop of Wakfu from every living thing in this region, from the smallest mouse to the largest tree. After all these years, I finally have enough. I do not need your lives, and you need not throw them away. It is all inconsequential. When I succeed, none of this will have ever mattered. I will undo it all.” Nox paused, then sighed, hanging his head. “I know you don’t believe me. I just thought you should know that if you insist on dying, just how little it will matter.”

Chai stepped forward, standing beside Cloud with his scrap guitar raised. “Uh, not gonna lie, you’re preeetty scary! But if we’re trading ultimatums and all that, I guess you should know something too.” He grinned. “That you’re underestimating the people of Midgar.”

From within the army of defenders, a balding man in a green suit with purple hair stepped forward. “Now!”

Hundreds of eyes turned skyward as a huge number of darkly-dressed figures leaped from the Sector 07 plate high above. They hurtled downward through the air, then grabbed onto their pods to slow their falls and land around the defenders. YoRHa had arrived in all their glory, weapons at the ready and spearheaded by a handful of androids in Flight Units, with none other than 2B and 9S at the forefront. At the same time, the psychics with Transport powers embedded among the militia stepped forward, activating their abilities. Orange fields appeared in the air, and a moment later dozens of Psych-OSF defenders appeared from thin air. Yuito, Hanabi, Luka, Gemma, Kasane, Naomi, Arashi, Shiden, Kagero, Tsugumi, and all the rest had arrived, joined by Septentrions Second through Sixth Class: Fubuki, Sasha, Milla, Seto, and Kyoka. It was Crenshaw who enacted the final, desperate measure: a delivery straight from the heart of Supernatural Life, a squad of intelligent Other Weapons under the command of Peach.

Together they all formed a united front against the Machines, a lot beefier than the paltry resistance presented moments ago. Even still, Eve cackled with laughter. In a move rather similar to Chai, he magnetized a load of surrounding scrap to his body, creating a huge metal arm. “Bahahaha! Now THIS is more like it!”

“Oookay,” Chai muttered, still pretty overwhelmed. With his friends at his back, however, he wasn’t about to throw in the towel. “What do you say we take care of Mr. Shirtless?” he called over to Cloud.

The Soldier brandished his blade at Adam. Barret, Tifa, and Aerith stood ready to fight alongside him. “We’ll handle the fop.”

“Hmph,” Adam smiled, pushing up his glasses. “Then allow me to witness your deaths firsthand.”

“I’ll leave this to you two. I must conserve my energy.” With that, Nox teleported away, retreating to his mobile fortress. In his wake, man and machine clashed in a bid for Midgar’s future. The final battle of the Ever Crisis had begun.





Inside Arahabaki’s core, the Seekers found a long, arduous descent through predominantly magitech facilities, a jumbled nest of sophisticated power stations (including more than one thrumming miniature reactor), laboratories, and workshops, winding every which way but ultimately leading downward. In response to the intrusion a lockdown had been enacted, so instead of any employees the Seekers found more of the turrets they’d encountered in Arahabaki and handfuls of easily-dispatched Vandelay robots. The road they took led them to not one but several lifts, all carrying them deeper underground. With no serious challenges in the team’s way, the tension seemed to mount, building up the further they got underground. Finally, after what seemed like forever, a sliding door opened to reveal a huge, dark hallway, lined on either side by row upon row of large, ominous red pods

Of course, that paled in comparison to what lay beyond the hallway. On the other side, the black and red gave way to overwhelming, brilliant green. There lay a circular room of incredible proportions, reaching much higher upward -and much, much further down- than the hallway itself, the whole thing filled with a staggering abundance of brilliant green energy, so thick in the air that one could practically taste it. “Is that…mako?” Goldlewis breathed, dumbfounded. Over the green void reached a long bridge that terminated at a large industrial facility, covered with tanks and pipes.



And as the Seekers approached the end of the long hall, an entity blipped into existence above the bridge. It was simple in appearance, yet oddly terrifying. Five curled fingers and a featureless white glove–to those who had seen it before, there was no mistaking it, nor what it represented. It was Master Hand.

Right afterward, a nebulous purple energy began to coalesce on the bridge in front of it, and a second later Consul Y warped in. Though his face was hidden, he gave off the distinct impression of furious indignation, as if utterly vexed by the fact that the Seekers had gotten this far. “...You got close, I’ll give you that,” he told the intruders after a moment. “Very close. You even took some of my best pawns. Replacing them will be tiresome. But I’m afraid this is checkmate.”

Just then, the pods (now mostly behind the Seekers) began to burst in quick succession, and from within dozens of women began to emerge. Some wore full armor, others no more than barebones undersuits, but all appeared to be exact copies of one another–not to mention the police officer that some might know as Akira Howard, with her short brown hair and severe expression. Goldlewis and Sandalphon both remembered seeing her die last night, however, shortly before the fight against Jena Apotheosis that also claimed her brother. Yet here she stood, several dozen of her at once in fact, and every single one of them held an X-baton like she’d been born with it. Not only that, but when they held out their hands, red legions of all kinds -barely visible to the Seekers- manifested beside them. These weren’t just cops, but legio, born and bred.

“Officers,” Y called out, raising his voice. “...Arrest them.”



After leaving the empty cell behind, Nadia just wandered the jail for a little while, no particular goal in mind. Were anyone around, they would have seen an unusually listless, morose-looking Ms Fortune, but for now her teammates had spread out through Mercy Dreams again. They were tying up various loose ends throughout the miserable jail, either collecting the all-important Dreamcatcher or delving into various cells. In theory Nadia wouldn’t have minded taking another crack at a cell to see what was inside, whether for the chance of good loot, stress relief, or cutting into the prisoners’ ghastly racket, but right now she just couldn’t muster up the energy. Awakening after the battle with Robin had shown her just how tired she really was, and then her little chat with ‘Minette’ drained the rest of her vigor right out of her. After that joyless, short-lived reunion, she just felt angry, lonely, and more than anything, cold. By now, the chill of this inhospitable place had seeped through her skin and into her bones. The poor feral wanted nothing more than to feel the sun on her skin again. Nadia made her way back down to the fifth layer, where she waited for the Seekers to reconvene, reconstructing the facade of the smiley, jocular Ms Fortune who could never be hurt again.

Once everyone finished attending to various matters in Mercy Dreams, the team met back up in the cavernous cell where Ten Piedad once slept in the statue’s arms. Now that stone woman lay in pieces, and the whole area had suffered the consequences of the subsequent fights against Ten Piedad and Robin Goodfellow. Withered, thorny briars had torn apart the trails of tile and left treacherous snares behind, while bullet holes from Jesse and the warframe’s firearms could be found everywhere. Most of the dead flowers had been reduced to chaff, some of which still smoldered with radioactive flame, and as the heroes headed toward the train station Nadia found herself staring as the desiccated flora. Though those memories were fading, she could still picture the lumenflowers from the dream world, eerily beautiful in full bloom. In front of her were nothing but long-dead husks, yet in that mysterious place, the flowers lived on in splendor. Could Robin have continued on in there, if the Seekers didn’t slay him in the dream, too?

When she and the others descended the steps inside the dark doorway beneath the ringed arrow, they discovered a station very much like the ones she and Jesse saw in the Home of Tears and in Falldown Mall. It featured a primarily dark green tile floor, interspersed with patterned tiles in the same beige as the walls. Shiny steel formed both the railings and the bars over the two gateways, a simple portcullis over the human-sized one and then interlocking bars over the much, much bigger one. And just as Nadia had come to expect, she could see a Magikrab waiting dutifully by the smaller gateway. This place wasn’t exactly hospitable, but at least it wasn’t flooded and dripping like its Home of Tears counterpart, and for once the feral couldn’t detect that eldritch, anathematic feeling that radiated from the depths of the other stations. “Guess that freaky aura disappeared with Robin,” she reasoned. Given her run-in with the nightmarish Nowhere Monarch back in King’s Station, and what the Magikrab in Falldown Mall said, she had to assume that other ‘archangels’ like Robin lurked in the Under’s other stations. Hopefully she and the others wouldn’t have to find out.

“Over here,“ Nadia piped up, heading over toward Magikrab. “We gotta talk to this dude. Don’t worry, we’re pals. Two peas in an arthro-pod.” While she’d originally assumed that these stations were all home to identical magical crabs, she distinctly remembered what the last one told her: that they were actually all the same crab. Which was weird, but compared to everything she’d seen today, that revelation was small potatoes. “Hey li’l guy. Can we ride the train?”

The crustacean clacked its pincers together eagerly. “Of course!” Its voice was whimsical, childlike, and far too peppy for a place like this. “Now boarding at Platform B. Just ring the bell, and wherever you want to go is just one stag ride away!”

“Great.” Nadia waited a beat, then crossed her arms. “Well, where can we go? Somewhere nice, I hope?”

“Why, they’re all nice in their own unique ways. Just like people!” After a moment of silence, Magikrab cleared its throat. “Well, let’s see…we’ve got Glowcester Road, Mournington Crescent, Falldown Mall, King’s Station, Queen’s Station, Bard Street, Aldgrave Tomb, Cherry Cross, Dirtmouth, and Night’s Bridge! Any of those sound good?”

Nadia listened to the options, scratching her head until she heard a particular name. “Wait, Dirthmouth? Ain’t that the village where we ended up after comin’ from the Metro?” It had been a few days, but the name sounded familiar.

“That’s right, the one and only terminus on the Stagmer-line above ground!” The Magikrab stepped to the side, and with a grinding sound, the grate over the small passage slid upward.

The feral let out a sigh of relief. “Ohh, thank goodness. I’ve been dying for some fresh air.” She jogged through the gateway, waving for the others to follow along. “C’mon!”

On the other side of the tunnel, the Seekers emerged to see a small, somewhat dreary train platform of a familiar style. It featured stonework formed from interlaid bug shells, hanging signs inscribed with unfamiliar symbols, and plenty of wrought iron in the form of elegant, spiked railings. Poles topped with glass globes of lumaflies bathed the area in stark white light, including the faded brass bell that hung by the platform. Down below, there were no train tracks, just a stretch of earth running off into the gloomy tunnels on either side. “Well, here goes,” Nadia chirped, ringing the bell. “Man, I can’t wait. Hope it’s not a slow-comotive, eh?”

Right away a distant rumbling began, and after a moment the Seekers’ transportation pulled up to the platform. It wasn’t a train, but a procession of giant, mustached stag beetles, each outfitted with a set of chairs that would allow two passengers to ride comfortable. The first one gave a gruff grunt, staring down at the unfamiliar creatures in front of it. “Well, what’re you waitin’ for?” he grumbled, kneeling down. Behind him the others followed suit. “All aboard!” So this was what the Magikrab meant by ‘nice on the inside’. Smiling, she climbed up and seated herself, legs crossed and ready for a ride.

After another moment, the stags were off, bearing the heroes onward and upward through the fathomless bowels of the Under.

---

Somehow the trip didn’t take that long, despite the distances involved, and the moment the stag came to a stop at the station Nadia knew that she’d seen this place before. It felt like longer, but just two days ago she and many of her teammates had arrived via the other track, arriving from the Metro through one of those giant cat flaps on a physics-defying train pulled by an enormous orange feline. She remembered that lift against the far wall, slowly but tirelessly rising and falling. Just like last time, she didn’t plan to wait for it. As tired as today left her, the excitement of returning to the surface world at long last cut through her weariness and filled her with gleeful energy. After gathering herself she leaped right off the stag before it could kneel down. “You guys are the best!” she called back, hitting the ground running. “Stag-geringly good!” Already able to feel traces of fresh air, she leaped and jammed her claws into the wall, finding purchase in the grooves between the shells. As fast as she could, the feral scrambled up to the ground floor, raced through the quiet longhouse, and pushed through the front doors to set foot in Dirtmouth, the Fading Town.



Even in daylight Dirtmouth had seemed desolate, a shell of its former self with its best and most prosperous days far behind it, but at night it gained an oddly somber outlook. Its strangely-shaped buildings, carved from materials unknown to mankind, loomed like tombstones over a graveyard where countless dreams and ambitions had quietly come to rest. The lumafly lamp light dispersed through the banks of mist to cast pale across the rounded walls, making the wrought-iron fences and benches cast pitch-black shadows. Only the aged Elderbug with his heavy cloak and sad-looking mask gave Dirtmouth any signs of life at all. Despite all this, Nadia couldn’t be any happier. She closed her eyes, filled her lungs with crisp mountain air, then slowly let it out. While she and the others had returned too late to feel the sun’s rays, the sight of starry heavens after so much time underground still did her a world of good.

“Oh, my,” the Elderbug murmured, shuffling over to the new arrivals. “Good evening, and welcome back. If visitors are a rarity here, it’s even rarer to see those who’ve gone below return.” He shuddered, and the fronds of his cloak ruffled softly. “When the crane broke, I feared the worst.”

Nadia smiled. While they didn’t really know each other, she couldn’t help but like this ancient insect. He gave off such a grandfatherly aura. “Nice of you to worry, but never fear. We’re ‘trained’ professionals.” She headed over to the edge of the cobblestone pathway, taking in the impressive scenery for the second time. In front of Dirtmouth, the ground fell away, leading down into the gargantuan spiral basin known as the Chasm, ringed by immense stone serrations and glowing amber outcrops. The moonlight shone down on yellow grass, gnarly trees with faded red leaves, and various sets of mining equipment laid down after a hard day’s work. Beyond the jagged upper ring of the Cavern lay mountains as far as the eye could see, stretching out beneath the night sky. It was good to be back.

After another moment, she turned back to the Elderbug. “Don’t mean to trouble ya, but is there anywhere we could crash for the night? We’re pretty much dead on our feet.”

He nodded. “Almost all of these houses are long since empty. I cannot guarantee that they’ll be comfortable, but they’re yours.”

His words were music to Nadia’s ears. After a long day of traveling, fighting, and even dancing through some of the weirdest and wildest locales the Under had to offer, it was finally time for the Seekers to get some well-earned rest.

”We met Armstrong of all people, and he’d just assassinated president Shinra” Midna informed the team once they’d all regrouped, and were filling each other in on what had gone down apart, holding up the spirit of the old man ”So the city’s lost its head as well as most of its armies now” which was a pretty dire state of affairs.

She could only hope that their sources were right, and that the robots were going to be coming straight for the heart where they were rather than spreading out to sack the city in general. If they did, well, Armstrong would be getting his wish. It would be a slaughter of unimaginable proportions. Hopefully her crushing of the president’s spirit after filling people in on his fate didn’t end up being predictive symbolism in any way.



They set off as soon as everyone was filled in and fighting fit again, as there was no time to waste, particularly because of the prediction that there’d be at least one Consul standing in their way to slow them down. Not to mention the master hand, assuming he showed up right before this Guardian as well, which Midna brought up as a possibility ”Last time it more or less introduced a natural hazard, one that almost froze us all to death, but it seemed like showing up and interfering was a thing it had done before, and we should probably expect it to either meddle in some way, or be a sign that something really nasty is already up ahead”

After they descended deeper, bypassing what was meant to be an impassable door thanks to Karen’s help, both predictions of opposition unfortunately came to light at the same time.

At least the hand seemed to be polite enough to wait where it was initially, while the Consul sprung his trap all around them, the strange pods snapping open and revealing humanoid figures.

”Your first mistake was sending pawns to capture a princess” Minda shouted at the Consul even as she reacted to the pods opening by slamming her bo staff (already pre-filled with lightning) into the occupant before they could even finish rising. Electricity flared, wrecking the machine who’s own dying surge added to her own, and then the clone was down before it could even act.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for many of the rest who, as Midna stepped back from the one she had prevented from entering the fight, began to summon reinforcements of their own, namely hazy red shapes. Presumably these were similar to the ones they’d seen Nuron use before, though them being red rather than blue was initially a bit concerning.

”Don’t like the looks of whatever those are, but at least my skin isn’t crawling in their presence” she observed however, which meant she probably wasn’t being redshifted, which was something.

Most of the shapes floated by their summoners, but others shifted under them to act like steeds, while yet more seeming to engulf them like armor. One of the latter proceeded to use strength granted by her legion armor to rip the pod she’d just emerged from the wall to hurl at the princess, at which was as good a signal as any for the carnage to begin.

Princess grabbed the improvised projectile out of the air and smashed it down infront of her as a shield to block an incoming blur, only for whatever that was to cleave right through the pod. She stabbed her staff half blind towards it through the gap it had made, and yet her weapon went right through the legion like it was a ghost.

”What the? That’s not fair!” She barked in confusion as she stepped back, before shifting gears to the targets she could hit, raised the shotgun she had in her other pair of arms, and attempted to blast one of the unarmored clones. Yet when she did this, another shape swooped into the way, this one surrounded by a shimmering barrier that absorbed the shot.

Worse still, the foe that had sliced through the pod took this time to circle round her swiftly, wrapping some kind of invisible chain round Midna’s feet, trapping her in place. Then it promptly sliced at her, cutting a gash in her back.

Seeing a sitting duck, another clone came riding in on the back of a legion, looking mostly like she was floating air, forcing Midna back on the defense again. She blocked the clone’s x-batton swing with her staff, only for whatever her foe was riding to claw the shotgun out of her hands before she could use it. In response, Minda crescent moon slashed her Sharpened Volcano Fragment into reality, the obsidian fire ax sweeping through steed striking rider instead, and engulfing her in flames.

The clone bailed off of the side of her steed and onto the ground where she tried to roll around to try and put the fire out, but Midna caught her with a staff strike before she could recover, lightning slamming down into the lightly armored figure along with the strike. Then she kicked her shotgun to portal it home, as she started summoning strikers. The first were her chillfos, that finished the job on the downed clone, skewering her with their frozen and ending her life, which caused the shape that had been about to pounce on Minda to shrivel up into a much smaller and seemingly inert state.

Roadblock came out next, taunting the legion that had chained and slashed her, causing it to wail on its shield instead of trying to strike down Midna. Then she summoned up her initiates who began trading fire with clones using long ranged legions to try and pick off Roadblock from behind.

Finally skywave fired a pulse of energy that healed Midna, and then struck a pair of advancing clones, blinding them and preventing their advance. All of this gave Midna the moment she needed to reach forwards, grab the spirit of the dispatched clone, and press it into her chest.



The split second plan she’d made worked perfectly, as the princess’s sight suddenly filled with a second set of combatants, specifically 5 different kinds of red hued beings that seemed to be chimaras wrapped in armor with ‘neuron’ and ‘police’ branding stenciled on them. Unfortunately the side effect this new boon came with was greater than usual, as all of her strikers suddenly dematerialised before their time as a result of their spirits spilled from her body and onto the floor.

”Goddesses, stop taking things from me!” she complained, but there wasn’t much time to mourn the loss of power, as the legion that had been distracted by the now gone forever Roadblock now came for her instead.

”Please work” she prayed as she raised her bo staff, blocking the strike of the sword legion, and then swiping the fire ax under her guard to clip its leg, this time connecting. The legion burned, backing away in confusion that it was now targetable, at which point a grinning behind her mask Midna commanded ”Sick him!” as a follow up to attack

Her wolfos burst into reality, only to look very confused, unsure of what target it should be attacking, for it was still blind to what she could see. What was not blind was the beast legion of the clone she had slain to gain the sight, which emerged from its core at her command and pounced on the sword legion right before it could move to strike the confused wolfos.

”What? Yes! Now it's an even fight” Midna cheered before promptly smashed a shadow fist into the sword legion, sending it careening across the room to crash into one of the pods. Unfortunately, she was very wrong about the fight now being even, as that demonstration of her new found ability to fight back against legions promptly put a massive target on her back, half a dozen sets of eyes turning to focus on her specifically.

”Alright then, come on then pawns” she taunted as she tossed her ax into a portal, one that conveniently ate up her dropped strikers (which she could always use for something esle after all), and then launching Erendira‘s Gun-lance into one of her free hands as she used the other to grasp and mount her wolfos ”come fight fight me on an even playing field!”

Seval obliged, chagrin forwards with x-battons raised and various legions at their command, to which Midna responded by counter charging, guiding her wolfos with her hand while her new beast legion raced alongside her.

Having had enough of the prison, Sectonia let the others explore it and find what they will, she wasn't keen on getting trapped in another mirror or another weird dream. She waited until she was informed that the group had found the item they were looking for, the Dreamcatcher. Curious, but considering all the stuff that had been going on so far, Sectonia was a bit too tired to deal with any shenanigans that came with it at the moment.

Sectonia was happy to get out of not only the jail, but the underground as a whole as Nadia, having made friends with some strange creature, pointed the group to some sort of strange transit system where they rode large stag beetles. Being the big lady she was, she took most of the seats of her transit, meaning that one of the smaller party members had to ride with her, if they even wanted to.

Upon reaching the surface and being told the houses were abandoned by the elderbug, Sectonia decided to take one for herself as everyone else debated on who got what, taking the fanciest looking of the group. She wasn't pleased about having to be this 'squatter queen' as it were, and the looks of the abandoned house didn't help matters much. So she summoned some of her antlers and got herself ready to sleep, at least until an ally came looking for help.

Once of the first of Sectonia's teammates to start seeking shelter among the empty ovoid huts of Dirthmouth had been the crew's original cat burglar, Ms Fortune. For a while now she'd been longing for an escape from the inhospitable confines of the underground, but as much as she appreciated the chance to fill her lungs with fresh mountain air, the Charm's surroundings weren't exactly warm or comfortable. Pretty soon she began to poke around the quaint little houses, trying to find somewhere she could tuck in for some much-needed rest. A former alley cat wasn't picky when it came to places to hole up for the night, but she never liked sleeping with one eye open. Plus, her room the Mizzenmast back in Limsa Lominscuttle Town had kind of spoiled her, and Habbo Hotel hadn't been half bad, either. Determined to seize the best lodging she could before anyone else took it, Nadia soon made her choice. One of the huts had once belonged to a weaver, and that artisan had left behind plenty of scrap cloth that could made into blankets. Once Nadia laid down her heavy jacket, belt, and various weapons though, she still had one glaring issue. And as tired as she was, this one couldn't wait until morning.

ust as Sectonia was settling into her own hut (the biggest and fanciest of the bunch, though realistically that wasn't saying much) she received a visitor. Nadia poked her head in, a cheeky grin on her face. "Hiya Toni. You got a minute?" After her guest stepped in, Sectonia could get a good look at her, not to mention an idea of how she'd changed. Down to the bare essentials of jet-black leotard and modified Mantreads, Nadia possessed a silhouette dominated by a huge amount of voluminous snow-white hair, a cape of curls all the way down to the base of her tails. "You might have noticed, but a buncha the spirits I've fused with had something in common." Grinning, Nadia flipped her hair for dramatic emphasis. "I mean, it 'locks' good, right? I knew it'd be handful, but I figured it'd be a small price toupee. After all that fighting in the prison, though..."

Nadia threw her hands up. "It's such a pain in the ass! It's SO heavy, I'm constantly distracted. It's always flying everywhere, getting in the way while I'm doing stuff, and it blocks my equipment. As if covering my left eye all the time wasn't enough. Plus, all kinds of crap gets tangled in it! I mean, look." She ran her fingers through her hair for a moment, and to her own dismay pulled out a root sprig several inches long. "I mean, comb on." After flicking it away, she crossed her arms. "So I figured I better get rid of it. Hair today, gone tomorrow, right? A shoulder-length bob works just fine. And I figured, well, nobody does style like Sectonia. You're not just any royal after all, you're the 'hair apparent', nyahaha!" She clapped her hands together pleadingly. "So whaddya think, Toni? Hairdo a girl a solid?"

Sectonia, having to make the best of a bad situation, was about ready to get to bed. A few Antlers could be seen cleaning the place as the queen laid on a bit of bedding from her camping set. She wasn't expecting anyone to come to anyone after the day they had all had. But considering the advice that was being asked, it made sense Nadia would come to her, the true eminence of beauty, to maker herself more beautiful.

Nadia would see a bit of a snicker on Sectonia's face before she got up, saying. "Well, its good you came to me. Outside of perhaps Primrose, none of the others really understand beauty. " She then looked at Nadia's hair, and could only shake her head. "Welll, you are right. There is far too much hair here to do much, and keeping it proper would take quite a bit of effort." She ran her hand through Nadia's hair and pulled out a few pebbles, shaking her hand clean in disgust.

Grabbing one of her ice Antler who was cleaning, she said. "Well, we should get started then. Although I do think I can do better than a simple bob cut." Sectonia then went to work. Seeing how extremely volumetric Nadia's hair was, she decided the first round of curating this issue would probably require something a bit stronger than scissors. A pair of swords used as a large set of scissors would work though, and Sectonia summoned both of them and got to work.

First Sectonia used her swords as large makeshift shears, making sure Nadia's tail was out of the way before shearing the back of her hair down quite a bit so that it was more managable. She then picked up her ice antler and used its ice powers on their 'warmest' setting to mist wash Nadia's hair and get rid of the gunk in it, pulling out a brush to comb out all the icky part, knots, and just random junk that this mane of hair had all around it. "I suppose its a good thing the downsides of your fusions can be handled with a simple haircut. Its a good problem to have." Sectonia said, as she pulled out what were fairly large scissors by Nadia's standards and started to clean up the relatively neater mess she made.

The steady stream of cool air made Nadia shiver, causing goosebumps to crop up all across her skin, but after being stuck underground for so long she could take it. That went double if it meant getting clean, or at least, cleaner. Nonstop adventuring -and exercise- in all sorts of bizarre environments tended to leave a mark on someone, be it physical matter or just a good pong. Even if the others were in the same boat and would probably understand, Nadia wanted to be presentable. As Sectonia got busy cutting the feral's hair down to size, she idly wondered if she'd always felt this way. A poor orphan had more vital things to worry about, after all, and someone she fused with could have very well made her more self-conscious. Then again, even if she'd always been the rough-and-tumble, tomboyish type, the Fishbone Gang had always called her a diamond in the rough. Nadia Fortune, thief of hearts and wallets, robbing you blind and looking good while doing it--that would never change. Providing Sectonia's aesthetic sense wasn't too dissimilar from her own, of course.

"See, I was talking to someone about this, Primrose I think," Nadia mentioned, continuing the thread of conversation that Sectonia began. "The changes from fusion, they're purr-etty serious, right? Say I just stuck to humans, or catgirls for that matter. Even then a teeny-tiny change in my face or voice should be super noticeable. Uncanny, even. But when I looked at my reflection, it's just...me. My voice doesn't sound weird to me. Nothing seems like a problem, I guess." She paused for a moment. "But that's kinda weird, too. It's like I'm numb to it. I only noticed the hair thing 'cause it got so annoying." Upon reflecting, though, Nadia gave a sheepish laugh. "Sorry, I guess you can't relate, huh? Not a lotta people like you around after all. The pickings must be pretty slim."

Sectonia paused for a bit upon Nadia self reflection. "Yes, the lack of beauty is quite noticeable... and yes beautiful insect spirits are quite rare as well. Considering we are in a place full of them. Especially those of any real power." Sectonia said, before she went back to her work. As she cleaned up Nadia's bangs to get that hair out of her eye, Sectonia continued. "I suppose when you gain power and it changes your form that can be a concern. but you seem to have realized the key to it, your still you. Sectonia said, moving to another section before continuing, musing a bit herself. "Its caught me off guard a bit with some of the strange things I've had to deal with. If you have concerns about your looks because of a fusion, I can make you presentable. And if I can't, Kamek has that item that will make it possible. That and that orb are honestly why I've been looking at other avenues of power. Although so far they seem... lacking."

As Nadia heard this, she couldn't help but give a wry smile. She'd used both the items that Sectonia mentioned already, and in fact, she'd been the one who discovered the orb. Did they really have to little to talk about that they both needed to go over stuff they already knew? An extrovert like her ought to be able to do better. They did have one pressing concern at the moment: whenever Sectonia tried to trim back the bangs over Nadia's left eye (bringing her massive scissors rather close to her face in the process) she found that the hair grew back immediately. "Don't worry about that," she advised after a few attempts. "I think it's stuck that way 'cause I fused with that assassin chick. Like it's her curse or somethin'. I woulda gotten rid of it already if I could. It's not that bad though, and it makes me look all mysterious. So 'eye' don't mind."

The feral shifted her posture slightly to get more comfortable, making no sudden movements that might result in an errant clip. "That whole prison was super freaky, huh?" she asked after a moment. "Not just the horrible monsters, either. All those poor people stuck in a trance. Blurring the line between dream in reality..." Though she wasn't about to share it, her unreal encounters with Minette and Black Dahlia weighed on her most heavily of all. Instead, Nadia laughed helplessly. "After all that, I just wanna black out 'til morning. Gimme some sweet, sweet oblivion."

"Very well. I suppose a hair clip will also solve the issue." Sectonia said, giving up on dealing with the bangs and finishing her work. Sure Nadia wanted a bob, but that was plain... but an egyptian bob... Now that was fancy. Even if it was just a bit of jewelery in the hair that could be easily taken out...

"Much of this area has been horrid. That prison was weird, agreed. You were fortunate you weren't locked in a magical mirror for an undisclosed amount of time. And with your doubts earlier, I assume it played with your mind quite a bit. Perhaps thats why I ran into that mirror instead, hm....." Sectonia said. She ignored the oblivion comment, only partially. "It'll be easier to sleep without that mane of hair, I'm sure."

After a few more snips, Sectonia was almost done. All that was needed was the final touches. Summoning one of her fire antlers, which she was about the same size of now, she had it use its heat on its 'coolest' setting like a hair dryer to finish up. "I will say, after fusing with that last spirit, and that item we found yesterday, its a bit awkward to be smaller than my own summons. So I suppose we have something in common there."

Even after getting cut short, Nadia's locks remained quite thick and prone to fluffing up. Rather than try and force a certain kind of hair into a shape it wasn't suited for, the expert aesthetician could modify the original vision to make the style suit the hair, rather than the other way around. Once the drying completed, the final results were in: a rather short but poofy bob. After getting a look at her reflection with the flat of a blade, Nadia looked pleased. "Hey, not bad! Cute, yes purractical." She grinned at Sectonia. "You're a real cut above, Toni!"

"Yes, well, naturally." Sectonia said. "If the bangs get into your eyes remember a few hairclips can help." Sectonia then let out a silent yawn, her work being done. "Now if only the others would come to get beutified. Either way, its getting late. Careful with your dreams, mine have been weird as of late." and with that, Sectonia lazily shooed Nadia off and went to sleep when her antlers had cleaned the place to her liking.

It was good to see Sakura again, Karin thought, and the other street fighter was clearly pleased. She ran up and wrapped her arms around Karin, forcing Karin to support her weight.

”Ah! Karin-chan! I- Oof.” Sakura regretted her cheerful reunion hug, clutching her own bruised ribs from the battle against Konoe.

”You’re hurt?” Karin asked.

”Nothing I can’t sleep off,” Sakura reassured her with a wink. ”Or nothing that these two can’t fix. Blazermate-san, could you do me the honor of saving my butt again?” Sakura asked. And in what would be a week of rest and recuperation went by in a few moments.

Sakura bowed to the healers gratefully. ”Arigato.”

”Ah, well, now we will fight together for certain, Miss Sakura. I know it was tactically sound for us to separate, but…”

”Awww, you missed me?” Sakura teased.

”Hmph. Well, yes.” Karin said. It was a two-sided attack, because the unexpected sincerity also caught Sakura off guard, meaning Karin was the winner of this discussion.
”...Oh! …Well, good. I missed you too. It was scary for a little bit, there, huh? ” Sakura said, rubbing the back of her head. ”I’m just glad we managed to beat Konoe non-violently, at the end of it.”

”Rufus Shinra hardly deserved anything but a thorough stomping. Fortunately we were able to deliver.” Karin said, coolly. ”And it seems that Shinra, and Armstrong, have both perished…I suppose Rufus felt no desire to protect his father. Only this wicked place and his seat of power.”

Later on, Sakura and Karin were quiet as the conversation with Karen was underway. Sakura squinted at the box. That whole thing with Lili’s dad was still a mystery to her. All that mattered now, though, was that Karen didn’t want to fight.

Once they were inside, they saw their enemy. Sakura smacked Karin on the shoulder and pointed, wide-eyed, at the Master Hand. Naturally, Karin’s eyes were already drawn to it. ”What on Earth is that ugly thing?”

”The big hand! It showed up the last time we fought a Guardian. Koreda yo!” Sakura clenched her fists.

”Not yet. A cowardly consul blocks our path.” Karin said. She stepped forward.

”You overestimate yourself. What is it with you villains and always believing you’re the omnipotent height of creation? So bold for nothing more than a lackey.” Karin said. She turned to face her opponents…opponent?

”W-wait, huh? What? Is that..? But how-” Sakura shook her head and got into her fighting position.

”Stay close to me, Miss Sakura. We can take them.” Karin rushed ahead to meet the clones in battle and to give the ranged fighters and supports some more room to operate. Sakura and Karin met baton and armor with fist and ki.

They found that one of these women would make for a decent street fighter all on their own, but a platoon of them had them on the backfoot. Sakura blocked one strike and struck out at her opponents face, smacking them down. Before she could push the offensive she had to duck and dodge under the twin swings of another officer, before she winced as someone zapped her in the back.

Karin whiff punished one Akira, sending her flying, but another one struck her face.

Their fight was primarily a two on four, with each street fighter primarily dealing with two of their own legio. But often it was a two on five and occasionally a two on six. Karin was stern and concentrating as hard as she could, but the look on Sakura’s face made it plain that she did not like how this was going.

If there was one good thing about being outnumbered, it was that Karin and Sakura could access their V-Triggers at an exponentially faster rate. ”Come on! I’m not scared!” Sakura shouted, bursting into blue flame that coalesced around her hands and feet. She took both of her opponents on at once, catching them both in a flying spin kick.

The burst of light and power caught the attention of the others. The officers had power of their own, and Sakura found her arms bound to her body as blue chains wrapped around her. She gasped, looking at the anchors.

”O-oi! Let me g- aah!” Sakura cried out in pain as the Akiras took the opportunity to start wailing on her. Sakura just had to grit her teeth and take it, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt the solid impacts and electricity course through her. Electricity could weaken her ki, and she felt herself start to get dizzy.

”Kanzuki-Ryu Guren No Kata!” Karin shouted angrily, also enhanced by V-Trigger. She swept through Sakura’s attacks with a series of palm strikes that finished with a powerful elbow to send them all spinning. She took a thwack on the back of the head for her trouble but returned fire with a slicing kick that forced the Akira to back up.

The chains dropped after the couple second beating, and Sakura slapped either side of her head to refocus herself.

Karin was indignant when a clone did the very same thing on her. Suddenly, she was wrapped up as well, with nothing she could do about it. ”You lowly- ugh!” She was kneed in the gut for her trouble.

Sakura rushed to aid Karin but found herself wrapped up AGAIN. ”Oh come on!” She shouted angrily. Her muscles bulged and she found a loose point to break free in less time than before, the astral chains losing some of their efficiency. The officer that rushed in to take advantage of Sakura’s weakness was blown up by a fiery uppercut that sent her flying.

But it did prevent Sakura from coming to Karin’s aid, who spun away from a solid impact as the chains released themselves. She parried the next attack and went full evasive, gritting her teeth as she tried to avoid the batons that would be deadly if she let herself get overwhelmed. Karin wasn’t nearly as tanky as Sakura was. Sakura had a higher vitality by default but her time in the World of Light had given her abilities to survive damage that Karin simply lacked through no fault of her own.

Sakura blasted the ground in front of Karin with a Hadoken to force the horde off her. She swept in and pressed her back against Karin and the two stood back to back, breathing heavily. While they were worse for wear, the officers they faced were wary to charge in lest they receive another strong blow from the two fighters. They weren’t exactly damage-free themselves. Still, in a knock-down dragout fight like this, the advantage lay in the party that didn’t need to fight more opponents immediately afterward. In this case, that meant that the ‘clones’ currently had the advantage despite going blow for blow on the pair.

Back against Karin’s, Sakura clenched her raised fists, while Karin’s hand flattened out into her usual knife-edge palms.

”You holding up?”

”Splendidly!”

"Not gonna lie...should've seen it coming." Zenkichi admitted to Goldlewis as Blazermate tended to their wounds. "He always did have a big head. Of course he'd come running to 'stop the evildoers' once word broke that somebody busted into Arahabaki. But we got him. Good thinking on sending his own fist back at him, there." Stretching his aching muscles, Zenkichi let out a sigh of relief. "I am looking forward to a long night's sleep tonight. Thanks for the heals. And don't worry too much about Konoe, he's...had a change of heart, you could say." Zenkichi added in explanation of their possibly former enemy's presence.

Sighing, Geralt reintroduced herself briefly, just making sure everybody could keep track of her with this new appearance. "Think you were right, Goldlewis. It's not gone, but that tension, that feeling I was describing is a lot less intense. I feel calmer, more sure-headed. Though I'd have preferred to remain a man, I think." The scowl on her face as she remembered her...new situation showed just how much she'd have preferred to remain a man, but what was done was done. Until they rescued Peach or found another Spirit to fuse with to tip the balance back to male, she was going to remain a woman.

When the Seekers reached Karen, Zenkichi jerked his head to prompt Konoe to make his presence known. "Konoe here tried to keep us from getting further inside. I'm sure he has plenty of information that you'd find useful, and that he'd be more than willing to give you, to help make up for his crimes." The man in question took a deep breath, nodding resolutely.

"Anything I can do to help, Major General. I'm responsible for so much of the misery plaguing this city...it's time I make things right." Konoe declared, walking over to the side, a good distance away from Karen, and kneeling down. "If you have handcuffs on you, I won't resist."

"We might not have needed you to get through the wall, but there's still plenty you can do to help in the cleanup. Tell him everything about your plots and schemes, and it might just make things a lot easier to get sorted once this is all dealt with." Zenkichi told Konoe, fixing the man with a hard look.

As the Seekers descended further into the core of Arahabaki, both Geralt and Zenkichi were astounded by the sheer scale of the underground structure. They'd already gone down quite far, and it still seemed to go much, much further down. How deep inside the world were they? How much further did Arahabaki go? And what was housed in its depths, serving as Galeem's Guardian?

Their ruminations were halted by the appearance of both Master Hand and Consul Y. Geralt immediately drew her steel sword upon seeing the hand, but Zenkichi was just confused. The others' warnings, however, had him take the threat seriously, and he drew his greatsword as his Phantom Thief attire appeared.

The pods opening behind them made the pair spin around, eyes widening when they recognized the woman they'd fought on the helipad, with Zenkichi muttering, "Cloned...Legios? That could have been real friggin helpful before all this." Geralt, meanwhile, changed out her sword for the Hateful Flesh. Even if she couldn't see them very well, she remembered that this thing could still hurt them. Casting Quen, she sighed.

And the fight was on. Zenkichi threw a Rakukaja Sandalphon's way to keep her up, while Geralt took up a defensive stance, wide swings of the Hateful Flesh keeping the Legios back. They tried to punish the delay between swings, but Zenkichi stepped in, a hefty upwards slash knocking aside a blow from a Sword Legion, only for an Arm Legion's punch to send him stumbling back while Geralt was ensnared in ethereal chains. "Dammit!" She cried, struggling against the bindings.

"Got your back! Triple Down!" Zenkichi called, Valjean's gun attack forcing a few of the Akiras to back off, though a couple took the hit and wailed on Geralt, easily breaking through her Quen shielding as she grunted. Once the chains broke, however, she retaliated with a vicious spinning attack, the blade of the Hateful Flesh dragging right through a Beast Legion. Even the Siderite blade failed to find true purchase, however, and the wounded creature kept up the assault while Zenkichi found himself similarly pinned.

Geralt roared, lightning crashing into the battlefield and zapping one Howard clone, leaving her open for a follow-up shot from Geralt, who leapt at her and crushed her beneath a brutal overhead swing. She slashed out at an Axe Legion, which blocked the attack and retaliated with a slash of its own, knocking Geralt back. "Damn, these things are a pain!" She groaned as Zenkichi drew his revolvers and forced back a pair of approaching clones.

"You can say that again!" Zenkichi agreed, quickly swapping his guns for his sword, breathing a little heavily now. "Feels like there's no end to these damn things..." He grumbled as he parried a Sword Legion, only for the second blade to slide along his gut, drawing a pained groan from him. He rolled under a follow-up swing and lashed out at the clone controlling it, batting her aside with his large weapon and having to immediately block a blow from an Arm Legion. "Anybody got any bright ideas?!" He called to the others, dodging a backhand from the same Legion.

It was immediately obvious that Roxas and his group weren’t the only ones freshly coming from a tough fight. Shinra’s son, and of course that Konoe guy they’d all been warned about. Although the latter had apparently now joined their side, evidenced by his lack of Galeem’s influence. If only everyone they freed could be that easily convinced to help. Otherwise they’d have Sam and Kale there with them as well. But those two apparently had other ideas and now nobody knew of their whereabouts as far as the Nobody was aware.

”After seeing how Shinra runs this city and meeting Armstrong for myself?” Roxas commented, ”It’s almost a good thing all this stuff started happening. City was gonna be rotten no matter who won that election.” Of course that also begged the question of what happens to the city next. Assuming the Seekers succeeded and everyone was freed… well both the President and his election challenger were still gone. So even without the crisis at hand there was still going to be a huge power vacuum just waiting to be filled in with all this smoke finally cleared up.

But with Konoe there he was able to open the wall without Roxas even having to lift a finger. A bit of an anticlimax from the Nobody’s perspective, since his Keyblade was no longer needed. But oh well, best not to complain about any of the extra back up. And Roxas was… not prepared at all for what was waiting beyond. Big open chamber and… was that a giant white hand being chained over there? Was that the Guardian? No time to think. Another Consul showed up, not the same one from the debate though. He summoned a bunch of red pods that revealed a small army of Neuron Policewomen that all looked… creepily identical. Like they were clones or something.

”Umm…” Roxas stammered, having nothing he could really say in the face of this strange and confusing mess he now found himself in the middle of, ”...Is anyone else weirded out by this?” he asked, readying both his Keyblades. Roxas vaguely remembered seeing some of these officers in action the other day, so the thought of having to fight a small army of them was… not pleasant.

Well, nothing for it now. Roxas went on the attack as soon as he could. He sprinted toward one of the clones to strike at her, but something invisible slammed into him before he could get close and sent him sprawling back to his starting position, ”What?” Roxas looked around as he got back up, but saw nothing except for the clones of Akira Howard. He ran for another attack that ended in the same result.

”How are you doing this?” he muttered, now trying to attack what he thought might be invisible enemies around him. But he hit nothing but air. Or was it air? Moments after something invisible seemed to grab and throw him back to the ground. This had to be the clones’ doing. And maybe taking down the clones would stop whatever this was, but how was he supposed to do that when the invisible forces were all around him and not letting up?

”Fire!” He shot a firaga spell at one of the clones. That at least connected, but for any type of attack Roxas might launch, the clones could fight back not only directly but indirectly through whatever invisible enemies were helping them. That meant that Roxas had very little in the way of options. He managed to fight off clones once and a while, but kept getting ragdolled by the invisible things helping them. And it wasn’t long before this was starting to feel impossible.

”Agh!” Roxas grunted, having just been pummeled by invisible attacks. He had no choice but to use Curaga to get himself back on his feet, ”What am I supposed to do here?” He fought off the incoming incoming attacks for what it was worth, but those invisible enemies just couldn't be touched. He managed to knock out a couple of the clones, but just getting to them was hard on it's own because of the invisible things they were commanding. Let alone the fact they were capable of fighting on their own. The prospects of this battle were getting grimmer and grimmer by the second.

"How are we supposed to fight enemies we can't even see or touch?"

While they were waiting for the rest of the team to group up, Kamek found himself inexplicably drawn to the book that Robin Goodfellow had been using and reading from. The same one that seemed to have driven him mad from revelation. He had had trepidation about that before, but for some reason the potential cursed nature of the tome held less of a concern for the mage after his fusion.

As it turned out, there had been nothing to fear. It was true, the book did, when he looked it up, contain himself, but it was hardly a complete summary of his life, more of an entry in a bestiary. Indeed it contained nothing about his illustrious career in villainy pre his king’s delivery via stork for example, something he definitely had.

Having suffered zero sanity damage, he then proceeded to flick through it for other entries of note, such as said king, and then attempted to look up Mario, only to find he was not present. Indeed, the book seemed to only contain people and things they had encountered in the prison, which was interesting and odd. As was the way that an entry for a ‘Raziel’ appeared when Therion rejoined the group, sporting a new look, one very reminiscent of the features of the individual in the entry.

He headed over to meet the man, relaying the information about the book to him, and then others via pearl, as well as hearing the thief’s analysis of what they could do about the safe. Namely that without a key, brute force was their only bet.

”Shoulda gone for muscle in the first place” Bowser told his advisor, before he promptly kinetic strike module the safe across the room. This did not open it, but it did dent it a bit, which prompted the king to insist ”See, a bit more of that and we’ll have what’s inside!”

”yes, well, if whatever is inside is not utterly destroyed as well” Kamek muttered irreverently, before sighing and leaving his king to it.

As for the other of the human pair’s question that she asked once she arrived, namely about being ready to leave, Jr’s reply to that was ”Yup! I am one hundred percent ready to blow this joint, coz I am beat”

Indeed that really did go for all of them, except maybe Rika who still had energy from somewhere. Possibly the same source as the lollipop she stuck in her mouth once she learned that they were done fighting and getting a ride out of the dungeon. Specifically they were headed up to dirtmouth for a rest, and though the town wasn't exactly the greatest place to camp down for the night, it was, probably, safe. More so than places unknown or actively turned against them by a consul, so up there they went.

The stag beetle transportation was somewhat unorthodox, but only somewhat, and though a bit bumpy it did the job. Said jostling also helped Bowser, who spent most of the journey biting the safe to try and gnaw it open, resulting in it having a bunch of dents and holes in it by the time they arrived.

Up top they were finally freed from the cold stagnant dark and into the cold fresh dark of the night time air at the surface. So only a moderate improvement. Entirely neutral actually given that the past sundown state of the surface was an indicator of how late it was, one which reminded the Troop that they had not actually eaten dinner yet, and so rather than bunk down at once, they set out in search of somewhere to buy a meal.

Unfortunately, though the town was not entirely abandoned due to the miners, said miners where not exactly the most picky of eaters, and so the best they could find was a stall operating out of the back of a chuck wagon operated by one Bang Ersandmash

“Bilimy, don’t you look famished in a half, chewing on a chunk of metal of all things” the man said as soon as he saw Bowser, who was still gnawing on the safe that did not look anything like a safe any more, before launching into a sales pitch “well then step right up, you've come to just the right place for some top quality nosh. I’ve got coronation chicken sandwiches if you want sumin light, or a classic fish n’ chips or a steak and kidney pie if you want sumin more filling. Though for a big guy like you, I could whip up a full breakfast for dinner. bacon, fried egg, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, hash brown, grilled tomatoes, the works!”

”Deal” Bowser replied at once upon hearing that list

”Sir, we don’t even know the price yet” Kamek began to point out, but his king would have none of it

”I heard bacon and that’s enough for me. So fry it all up chef guy, and give it to me stat. Give me two even” he said to the man, before adding ”and make us some of the other stuff too while you're at it. Pair of pies, two helpings of chips, and … nah skip the sandwiches but the hot stuff, give us the lot”

“Blimy, what an appetite. Don’t you worry, I’ll av your supper done in a jiffy” Bang replied with delight, turning on ovens, stove tops and fryers galore to service the king’s ravenous hunger, only to be interrupted by Kamek asking ”One moment, what do you have on your menu that’s vegetarian?”

The man looked affronted at the very notion, asking “You what? Does it look like I’m serving rabbit food here?”

Kamek breathed in. Breathed out. Then rather than take this floated up in the air so he could look down upon the chef, then leaned so his beak was near to pecking the man’s nose and ”I am the one with the money, so find me something on that little menu of yours, or we’ll have a problem” while mana flowed loosely around him, causing him to radiate directionless, formless power.

“Aright alright, lay off it. It ain’t the time for you, but I can do you a cream tea, with scones and the like” Bang replied, holding up his hands, not wanting to get in a fight. At least not with otherwise paying customers.

”Very good” the Mage replied, as he floated back down and retook a more typical demure posture, yet also looking very smug.

At least up until Rika, having seen all this go down along with the other two (more taken aback) troop members, piped up with ”ooh, ooh, I wanna try” before pointing the barrel of her gauntlet embedded rifle at Bang and demeaning he ”Gimmy all your sweet stuff!”

”Ah, no, young mistress there are limits please do not directly threaten the man” Kamek told her, floating up again and using his want to gently lower the gun for her, before offering Bang a sincere if rather ironic apology ”I’m sorry, I seem to have set a poor example. Please do continue, and also let me pay right away so there are no more misunderstandings”

“I… right. That’ll be … 300 gold?” Bang replied carefully, which got him a look to which he responded “what you think it's easy getting bacon and fish up here? I gotta make a living come on” resulting in a sigh and a shrug from Kamek, before he forked over the gold

“Pleasure doin business with you” Bang said as he raked in the gold, before getting back to his cooking.

Soon enough the troop had been served their exotic meals, which for the most part were greasy and fatty, but at the very least filling, and after a hard day of violence and terror, that was more than enough. Probably not worth 300 gold mind, but it was enough. Kamek, soothed by sorely missed tea, was in no mind to complain however, and so they left without incident, finding their way back to the area the team had decided to squat in.

Having just eaten they weren't quite ready to pack it in for the night, but they also were not in a state to do anything productive either. Jr attempted more repairs on his clown car, but dirtmouth wasn’t exactly somewhere with a bevy of spare parts on hand, and his mind was much too tired anyway. So instead he and Rika ended up playing with some of the games that had been looted from Porky and not gifted to the orphans.

Kamek had less issue getting to sleep, so ironically it was Bowser who was the productive one, waking Kamek back up again with a loud crash as he delivered a flurry of blows, kicks, and tusk goarings to the safe which finally gave up the ghost and snapped open, revealing its contents: a formless, seething mass that defied identification.

Not that the king didn’t try, fail, and then try and pass off the question as to what it was to his advisor ”Kamek, what is that thing?”

”I have no idea. And working out what it is can wait till morning. Goodnight sire” was the mage’s sleepy grumpy reply, before he promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.

”Huh” Bowser replied, before thinking a bit, and then instead of going to get some sleep, went over and joined his kids for some late night gaming.

They lasted about 30 min before they too were all out like lights.

It was nice to see the whole team come back together, not that Pit doubted any of them. By the time everyone reconvened and swapped information about what they'd all run into, the angel was still raring to go. The administration was throwing everything they had at the Seekers, and they were coming out on top every time. It wasn't baseless optimism that kept the pep in Pit's step, it was the confidence that they were going to succeed and free the hundreds of thousands of people that lived in Midgar. He could only hope that everyone could work together after that. With all of their leaders gone, including president Shinra as recently discovered, the citizens would have no choice but to come together if they wanted to have any chance at protecting each other.

He didn't spare any words for Karen when they ran into him - didn't really seem like the right vibe. But he didn't share the suspicion that some of the others held for the man. Like he'd told Luka the night before, if the psychic trusted his brother then Pit would trust him too. And since he opened the way for the Seekers, that was another point in the trustworthy book. No one wasted any time in continuing on.

"Jeez, how big is this place?" Pit asked when they were on their second elevator going down. Did it reach all the way to the Earth's core or something? He couldn't see how far down the structure went, even after getting to what had to be the final stop. Passing through the red-lined hall and out onto a walkway, the only thing he could see was green, green, and more green. Pit had been idly spinning the two halves of his bow in hands as the group moved, unable to just stand or walk still with so much tension and the promise of action ahead; but when the Consul and Master Hand suddenly appeared, he immediately snapped the bow back together and held it up to draw the ethereal string back.

"You!" he shouted, shocked to see the Master Hand here. Or "a" Master Hand. Somehow, Galeem had made a bunch of copies of him. Instinctively he searched the area for the left hand counterpart, though it didn't appear to be around. Pit hadn't seen Master Hand at all since awakening, but he knew that the Seekers in general had seen him a few times already... or seen a few different ones. So he really was enthralled by Galeem, protecting its Guardians!

The various shouts around him confirmed that a few of the current group had run into the hand before. Had they tried fighting him? Freeing him? Pit couldn't truthfully say that Master Hand was a good guy, but he was the kind of antagonist that preferred some amusement over destroying the world. He'd fought together with the Smashers before, and probably would again - if he had his free will.

Of course it wouldn't be easy fighting him. Pit knew from first hand experience that Master Hand was strong. More than that though, the Consul was right there - and his words triggered a flood of enemies at the Seekers' back. Pit whirled around to see the red pods opening up and the Neuron officers climbing out of them. Wait... are these all copies too?! Pit thought, vaguely recognizing one of the women that had pulled him and a few other Seekers out of the Astral Plane a couple days ago - then recognizing another, and another as the same person.

Well they were in for it now. Pit could tell the clones had their chimeras, or legions, or whatever with them because he could vaguely sense the beings - enough to know they were there, but not enough to tell where they were. This was going to be tough.

While the Seekers and the clones spread out to engage each other, Pit turned back ahead. He fired not on Master Hand, but the Consul beside him. If he hoped that a surprise attack could make it through the man's defense, he was left disappointed. Consul Y created a vortex that sucked in the light arrows headed for him, utterly destroying them in the process.

"Gahh!" Pit yelled in frustration. So that wasn't going to work, and with the Akira clones numbers overwhelming the Seekers, he had to switch gears and actually focus on the problem at hand. He turned again and rushed into the thick of the current battle, exchanging his bow for orbitars. Properly equipped like this, they'd move autonomously to block attacks - it was what he'd done last time they were facing these invisible things too.

He took control of one of the floating shields, using it to shoot at the clones around him while the other was left free-flying. As with its namesake the shield kept orbit around Pit and zipped through the air to block incoming damage. Most of the time this was the melee strikes from a clone, as it was a little slow to react to the legions. It could prevent multiple attacks in a row at least, relieving Pit of most of the danger of combos and follow ups while he kept himself mobile.

What was the play here? he thought to himself. Maybe there was some kind of self destruct button they could find to stop all of the clones at once?

An Akira came at him, bringing her baton down onto one of his arms. The strike sent a jolt through Pit's whole body and he let out a hiss of pain. He grabbed her before she followed up, dropping down to roll onto his back while dragging Akira with him, then tucking his knees and kicking up into her stomach. The clone went flying, dragging her legion with her. As Pit jumped to his feet he brought the orbitars together above him to pelt the airborne officer with a flurry of energy shots.

He didn't check to see where she landed since he was immediately under attack again by another clone. He felt something slash his side so he whirled around to face it, but as expected seeing nothing but the Akira the legion was chained to. The orbitars were back to neutral now, spinning around Pit to fend off unseen claws as blades.

It wasn't just Pit struggling; most everyone was having a hard time fending off the clones while they had their invisible legions on hand.

"Here!" Pit suffered a few blows as he disengaged, hopping back to the edge of the fighting and charging up the orbitars. "Stay back!"

When the charge shot was released it came in the form of that giant, pearlescent winged shield. With only the bridge and the hall for footing, it would be hard for the clones to dodge - and it would shoved them all backwards, doing some damage the giving the Seekers a little breathing room until it faded in just a few short seconds. Whether the legions could make it through unscathed he didn't know, since he couldn't see them. The worst would be if they were totally unaffected, so Pit had to assume that was the case.

Being above ground was going to do wonders for the group. They'd be able to get some fresh air, rest in relative safety, and recuperate their minds before delving back into the chasm tomorrow. They had the Dreamcatcher and all of the mask pieces, so there was only one task left to them: their confrontation with the area's Guardian.

In a way Therion was looking forward to that. Not because he wanted to fight whatever it was they'd find (the Red Eye had been crazy, he couldn't imagine what they'd have to contend with this time), but because it would mark the end of their mission in the Under. Hopefully they'd all be afforded a break after that, and then maybe the next location would actually be somewhere nice. A tropical island? A country with wide open plains and quaint villages? Hell, he might even take a desert again over being stuck with cliffs and tunnels.

But all of those thoughts could wait until the next day. For now, getting the hell out of there and above ground. The cheerfulness of Nadia's friend the Magikrab followed by the swift arrival of the horse-sized stag beetles lifted Primrose and Therion's spirits a little. Both of them, like many of the other Seekers, were running low on stamina. Today had been quite a lot, and it ended on a somber, unpleasant note. Hopefully the rest of the night was easier. The two Orsterrans shared the same beetle, with Therion hopping up into the back seat and reaching down to help Primrose up to the front.

The ride itself was about as nice as it could be given the steeds and the route. It wasn't too bumpy nor too long, so thankfully neither of the Travelers were left saddle sore. They disembarked easily, watching Ms. Fortune speed ahead as Primrose gave their beetle a few grateful pats. Though she and Therion took the lift themselves, they weren't slow about it. They both hurried over and practically jumped off of it once it took them up above ground.

The air was brisk and fresh, and the moon and starlight was a welcome change from a cavern's darkness. Primrose made her way over to where Ms. Fortune and the elder bug were speaking to overhear what the latter had to say. Therion was content to bask in the night for a little while, parking himself on a small boulder and looking out over the abandoned town and the chasm.

Wonder where Tingyun and the dwarves ended up? he thought. He squinted, surveying the landscape further away as best he could. If not for that map the Seekers had gotten early on, it would have been nearly impossible to tell where they were under ground - which made it all the harder to guess where the dwarves would have arrived after going straight up.

He gave up looking long before Primrose came to fetch him, letting him know that they were free to stay in any of the huts in the area that weren't already claimed by someone else.

"Sounds good," he said, hopping off of his perch. He stretched his arms out, giving the area one last look. It was basically devoid of life now, the few miners gone and little establishments dark. He had no want to explore, so he figured he might as well get some sleep while it was available. Hopefully without another weird nightmare.

After Therion swiped one of the remaining pizzas for himself and Primrose to share, the two of them wandered through the town as they ate. "We're quite spoiled for choice, hm?" the Dancer said facetiously. All of the huts looked the same on the outside, and the insides weren't much better. "I think Sectonia and Ms. Fortune went that way. We'd might as well keep nearby in case something happens."

With no arguments from Therion, the two picked out a pair of neighboring huts. They bid goodnight to each other, after which Therion entered his chosen sleeping place and closed the door. Primrose lingered outside of her own a little longer. She'd caught sight of a flickering flame in the distance as they were walking around, something she'd nearly forgotten about...


Primrose strode to the Confessor's home with purpose, but when she reached it she did not immediately enter. She stood at the door, her face cast in shadow. She only had her assumptions about how the Confessor's power worked, and she didn't even know if she had the right "food," but even so... whose spirit would she ask the bug to fetch?

Yusufa's? Did she remain dead as last Primrose knew her, or did she return to life in the World of Light? Did she meet an early end again, here?

Could she ask after her father's soul? If he was made to live again, the pursuit that Primrose had dedicated her life to would vanish. Her heart would be empty - would her father's presence after all of these years fill it?

Yet another terrible option came to her. What of the other six people she called friends? Alfyn, Olberic, Tressa, Ophilia, Cyrus, H'aanit... She wanted to know that they fared well, somewhere out there. Jiji would be able to tell if one of them had been reduced to a spirit if she asked, surely? ...but what would she do if they had died?

Primrose stood there and breathed. She reached for the dagger she always carried with her, caressing its hilt. She knew she was agonizing over a choice she didn’t have to make, with a crucial lack of information. She had to speak with Jiji.

Her eyes flickered to the doorknob, finding it was still unlocked since Therion had picked it a few days ago. Much too slowly for her own liking Primrose took hold of it and pushed the door open.

"...Jiji?" she called, stepping into the space. Her voice was harder than she would have liked, so Primrose quietly cleared her throat. "I came by the other day seeking your ability."

The rotund insect turned toward the newcomer, bright eyes peering out from a featureless, ink-black face. When she saw Primrose, the bottoms of her eyes rose in an expression of gladness. “Ah, hello again. How have you been faring? Have you come to me because of your regrets?”

Regrets… That was how she spoke of her ability last time too. The dancer wouldn’t have put it that way, but she supposed it was right all the same. Parting often led to regrets, via death or not. Primrose didn’t reply, instead she dropped her bag from her person and knelt to take out the container storing the rancid egg.

Soft, round, with a noticeable smell; that was the food Jiji had mentioned she needed to perform her spirit power. Therion had guessed that as an insect, Jiji might like berries - but bugs were attracted to these kinds of things too. The acrid stench of rot tingled Primrose’s nose in a bad way when she unscrewed the lid and took the egg out. She held one hand up to pinch her nostrils closed while the other offered the egg to the Confessor. It certainly fit the qualities Jiji described.

"Could this have been what you wanted?"

The moment she caught a whiff of the oozy, gelatinous globule, Jiji started wriggling her stubby little limbs with excitement. As gloomy and no-nonsense as the Confessor normally seemed to be, it was easy to imagine her salivating. “Ooh, yes! That sublime odor, the miracle of life gone delectably sour…there’s truly nothing better. If you will allow me to enjoy this morsel, then I promise you my services.”

The sight was amusing enough that it momentarily pulled Primrose out of the pit of heavy thoughts she’d been digging in her own mind. She smiled slightly, handing the egg to Jiji. She was all too eager to be rid of it anyway. "It’s all yours."

Jiji accepted the egg graciously, then delicately set it aside on a shelf against one of the walls, just far enough that the odor would be less intolerable for her client. Though the Confessor delighted in these uncommon delicacies, she was temperate -and considerate- enough to know that not everyone shared her unique tastes. Besides, there was no guarantee that Primrose possessed any lingering regrets. The meal could wait until after services had been rendered.

While she watched Jiji stow the egg, Primrose considered what else she’d heard from the Master of Masters so many days ago now. Different kinds of revival arts, procuring an empty vessel to rejuvenate a spirit’s “ka”... would she have to prepare that in tandem with Jiji bringing the spirit itself to her? When the bug was finished, Primrose spoke.

"Could you explain your powers to me?" she asked. Previously it had been a little hard to understand the Confessor, but whether she knowingly kept her words vague or was just addled from sleep and hunger, Primrose would soon find out. "How does the… procedure work?"

After sitting herself back down, Jiji faced her client with a solemn gaze. “It is not for me to question the workings of the masters. Only to practice the art that has been bestowed upon me, so that the weight of this world’s guilty might bear down a little less heavily. I can only tell you that my ritual will return to you what you’ve lost, giving you the chance to confront your regrets face to face. How you deal with them is up to you.” She paused for a moment, peering into Primrose’s eyes. “...Yes, I can see the regrets you’ve left behind. A dark stain hidden away in the darkness.”

The dancer held her gaze. So Jiji sensed something… and Primrose wasn’t about to walk away before finding out what, especially if it meant the possibility of bringing a loved one back.

"Bring it here," she breathed, "I have to know."

“Then as promised, we will begin the ritual,” Jiji said, her voice ominous. “Please stand back. And ready yourself. Our lingering regrets are not easily dealt with.”

After the dancer backed away, Jiji extended two of her limbs out from beneath her cloak and waved them like the legs of a swimmer. She began a wordless chant, her cry rising in pitch with each intonation. Almost immediately, the ground in front of her began to churn with some sort of black substance like oil or tar, but as it gathered it rose into the air, somewhere between ash and shadow. In streams the darkness coalesced around a central point, quickly growing outward as it accumulated to form a body, a head, arms, and legs. The whole process, bizarrely fast, came to a head within seconds. The dark mass solidified with a wave of displaced air that expanded throughout the Confessor’s home, instantly blowing out the dozens of candles and sending Jiji herself skittering into the shadows, panicked.

Only her eyes were visible, peering from a safe distance, as a woman landed on the ground. She possessed a captivating elegance, wearing a coy smile as easily as she donned crimson silks and jingling gold embellishments. Her sizeable ponytail was a rich dark brown, much like her eyes, but the light within had been snuffed out long ago. The dancer stared at the broken mirror before her with revulsion, maybe even indignation. Then, without a word, she attacked.

What happened was unlike anything Primrose had considered. So bewildered was she by the conjured reflection that she could only stare until she felt the sharp sting of a dagger start to sink to her stomach. Primrose backed away quickly, pressing a hand to her new wound. It wasn't deep enough to be deadly.

The woman, the other Primrose, stood up straight and reset her battle posture... no, not quite - she looked like she was going to dance. She wasn't a copy of Primrose as she was now, but a reflection of the past. The "original" Primrose. It was hard to tell from when. As she'd awoken in this world? From a time before? By the look in her eyes, perhaps even before she'd started to travel Orsterra in earnest.

"What is this?" Primrose demanded. Her eyes searched for Jiji's in the darkness while her counterpart performed the familiar steps of the Peacock Strut. Recognizing that the other Primrose was about to go back on the offensive, this time with empowered magic, the Seeker began conjuring her own spell to counter. Two Moonlight Waltzes crashed together in the center of the room, engulfing it in total blackness for a moment as the shadow magic burst apart.

When the spells faded out, the other Primrose was already completing the last steps of another dance. She’d used the shadows as cover while the current Primrose had drawn her polearm. The two women clashed, one with a lance in hand and the other wielding a dagger in one hand and a fan in the other.

It had taken two rousing dances for the shade, but now both Primroses were about equal in terms of their magical and physical strengths. But if the conjured “regret” was from an earlier time in her life, then the other Primrose had much less battle experience.

The Vengeful Spirit blasted out of Primrose and through her counterpart. She was resilient, but she staggered long enough for a swipe of the ice lance to take her legs out from under her. The shade’s back hit the ground, and she stared up at Primrose in quiet fury. It was surreal.

"What is going on?" Primrose asked, her voice showing some anger that matched her double’s. The Confessor herself had always been vague, but had she been duped by the Master of Masters? Had her expectations just run wild, leading to this? Unfortunately the answers she sought didn’t come to her. Jiji was still hidden away, and the other Primrose surged up from the ground to engage her double once more. She swiped at her opponent with the fan, a chaotic blow that slapped Primrose about until she regained her senses and shoved the other woman away with the shaft of the lance. It was clear she would have to deal with this, whatever it was, before anything else.

Primrose spun the lance in her hand and then struck, slicing through the other dancer’s side as she twisted away and conjured another spell. Her own Dirge of Dusk swirled above her hand, dark and ominous. Three shadowy orbs shot out, though all were neatly punctured or deflected before they could reach their target. Jiji’s home shook slightly with the shocks of battle.

Both Primroses stared each other down, one desperate and angry and the other stubborn and contemptuous. The latter seemed to realize that in a drawn out battle, she would lose. She activated her Battle Boost, giving her body a shimmery glowing aura. Not to be outdone, the first Primrose did the same with a mirthless smile. The building’s interior lit up, light and shadow flickering and bouncing around the room.

Primrose stowed her fan and cast Moonlight Waltz before rushing forward with her dagger poised to strike. Primrose let the spell hit her and jammed her hand into the ground, conjuring the Black Serpent to wind its way toward her other self. Primrose tried to dodge, but the serpent followed, engulfing her for a moment in dark flames. Primrose used the superior reach of her lance to stab at Primrose, but Primrose twirled toward Primrose. Because she wasn’t strong enough to stop the stab completely, she held her dagger up to block and let her other self’s strength push her closer until she was in stabbing range herself, of herself. Primrose raised the dagger and thrust it down toward Primrose’s heart. With a huff Primrose dropped the lance and pulled out her own dagger, moving to let Primrose’s sink into her shoulder so she could line up her own attack against Primrose.

In the blink of an eye it was done, and the room fell into darkness again. The shade coughed, her mouth filling with blood. A lung had been punctured. Primrose didn’t let her guard down, expecting the reflection’s Encore to activate. When it didn’t, she laid her own body on the ground. The other Primrose was once again looking up at her, this time confused. The Seeker could practically hear her own thoughts; how could this happen? How could I die before getting my revenge? Primrose didn’t pity her other self. How could she?

Jiji slowly, carefully crept back out of the darkness. “Ah, you seem to have come to terms with your regrets in a most novel, and dare I say brutal, fashion.” The body of the second Primrose quickly disintegrated, even the ashes seeming to fade away. Their departure left behind one thing, familiar and yet subtly horrifying at the same time: a spirit. Primrose’s spirit. “...What a joy to behold. Farewell for now. I will think of you as I savor my meal.”

It took a few moments for Primrose’s mind to catch up to what she was seeing. The “lost spirit” that Confessor Jiji was able to summon… it was her own? After an already stressful day, both physically and mentally, she could hardly process what had happened.

"Ah, wait," she started to say. But Jiji had already mentioned that she couldn’t say how her own powers worked, in so many words. "..."

Primrose picked up spirit gently, cradling it in both of her hands and peering at the dancer inside. She was smiling coyly in a way that had covered up the misery she’d felt at the time.

What am I to do with her? Primrose wondered. She recalled something else the Master of Masters had said; that a spirit was like a bookmark. She could treat this spirit like a bundle of data, knowing it would have the same effect on her self as any other spirit. Armed with the knowledge she had now, she could guess at what itemizing it or spirit binding it would do. Summoning her old self as a Striker… that would be a little too vain, even for her. But the thought made Primrose puff out a half-hearted giggle. She really needed some sleep.

Since Jiji had already dismissed her, Primrose made her way to the door, chased out by the sound of wet munching. She was disappointed, but that feeling was nothing new. It would have been too easy if things had turned out the way she assumed they would, and the gods had done everything in their power to make sure her life was anything but easy. Before leaving the Confessor’s home, she had to deal with the spirit. She didn’t want to tell anyone else about this, let alone see the “Primrose spirit”, and leaving it behind felt wrong. There was really only one thing to do, then. As she left and headed to the hut she'd picked out for a well deserved night's sleep, she took the spirit and pressed it to her heart with both hands. The gesture was reminiscent of an embrace.

Roland had been given a bit of time to himself to rest, while Susie and Blazermate had to fight their own battles. Having his perception blocking mask on really helped him sometimes as while there were shinra forces, most of them didn't know who Roland was and just percieved him as 'oh him? he works here." and ignored him for the most part. Much like the others, he found the healing stations littered around and cursed Shinra for hiding something that would revolutionize things, but then the same could be said for K corp, and they were a wing that did horrific experiments, so...

Roland was one of the first at the location, just waiting around for the rest of the group. Coming in groups, it didn't take too long for everyone to eventually make their way back here, although some of them looked a bit different. He also heard mumblings of who they had fought, and he found it... interesting that one of the groups had fought and beaten Armstrong? Guess all those muscles were for show, all the strong people in his world weren't all that well built due to not needing it.

Well, that would have to wait as they encountered the Consul, who upon being encountered on what was quite the crazy bridge, summoned some ghosts behind him. Ghosts Roland, Susie, and Blazermate couldn't see, and soon understood they were chimeras and legions. However, they also saw a few people they could see, and they would have to be the ones they fought. Blazermate assisted her allies like she normally did, healing them and summoning her engineer to set up a turret and dispenser, while Susie hopped into her business suit and shot rockets. Roland knew that there was something... wrong with all of this, but he'd need to work a bit before he went after the big guy.

All this talk about working with his new friends reminded him of the Floor of Social Sciences, and he started by opening fire with his X gun upon one of the stand users, much like Susie was with her missiles. This wouldn't give him any emotion level just yet though, but until he understood the chimera/legion situation, he wasn't going to dash into what could be a massive blender.

The appearance of a Consul did not take Sandalphon by surprise, but it was hardly something that she or the others could take in stride. With only the appearance of that ominous floating hand as foreshadowing, the Seekers found themselves confronted by one of the World of Light’s hidden masters, some of them for the first time. She herself had seen Y face to face, as it were, just last night, but in some ways it still didn’t feel real. Generally, the various ills that plagued mankind could not be attributed to any one individual, instead being complex and often interconnected societal or systemic issues. That was why suffering proved so hard to quash, as she knew all too well. Here and now, though, she could meet the eyes of a man who’d orchestrated countless plots, stoking the flames of war with lives treated like chaff. It wouldn’t be unrealistic to call him a root of evil. This was a special occasion, and it offered a rare opportunity.

So why couldn’t she pull the trigger?

It made no sense to indulge a villain in conversation. Their words were poison, and any stalling for time could invite extra complications. Last night, she put an ether bolt in Jena Anderson mid-speech, interrupting her monologue. Right now, though, Sandalphon kept still. The fate of Akira Howard still lived in her memory–the suddenness and completeness of her annihilation as the Consul pulled her into his vortex. The archangel told herself that she was merely being logical; if her preemptive shot was statistically unlikely to eliminate the threat, singling herself out for his ire would be a needless risk. At the same time, though, she felt uncertain. Was this…fear? Surely not. Could her fusions really have affected her that much?

Either way, Y didn’t give anyone much chance to focus on him. Instead he called in reinforcements, and not just any reinforcements. The sight of Akira Howard alive and well shocked Sandalphon, but the archangel quickly realized that this -none of these- were her. Just copies, produced through artificial means like cars on an assembly line. And there were lots of them. As more clones climbed, leaped, or simply fell from their pods, Sandalphon quickly counted the glowing red containers along the hallway’s walls. Six pods per row, four rows per section, three sections per side…if every one contained a combat-ready clone, the Seekers were looking at around a hundred and fifty enemy combatants. And though her negligible red matter contamination meant that she couldn’t see them, she expected that any Neuron officer would come with a legion. The legatus devices strapped to their left forearms all but confirmed it. Sandalphon gripped her staff and steeled herself. This was going to be rough.

When the team moved to engage the clones, Giovanna led the charge, with Goldlewis not far behind. Since many of the clones had already switched their x-batons to blaster mode, the melee fighters were forced to forge through a punishing bombardment of laser shots, all much weaker than the ether bolts fired by Sandalphon’s gunstaff but far more numerous. The legios equipped with Bow Legions seemed happy to remain at a distance, charging up powerful light arrows or raining down flurries of bolts. Still, they were only an annoyance compared to the rest. Once he closed the distance Goldlewis went whole hog, leaving huge bruises and breaking bones with each titanic swing of his coffin. He could fight a whole lot better than these clones, and his enormous height and weight difference gave him a huge advantage, but his enemies’ legions more than made up for it.

Right away Goldlewis wound up fighting tooth and nail to work his way past the legions, which barely registered his weightest blows while plastering him with wounds in return, in the hopes of taking down their masters. With every exchange, however, he found his efforts confounded by some new and dangerous ability. Arm Legions could unleash lightning-quick barrages of punches, fling off explosive bolts from their fingers, grab him, or merge their arms into cannons. Sword Legions could send ethereal swordblades twirling up and down their chains, or execute precision strikes that could cut attacks short. More than once they tried to sever the chain Goldlewis used to wield his coffin like a flail, but luckily the solid metal held. Beast Legions were not only vicious fighters, but also capable of letting off projectiles, tornadoes, or mind-numbing howls. Axe Legions were the worst of all, able to put up barriers to protect their masters or leave explosive axeheads in the ground. And naturally, all of them could bind him and give themselves a free second or two to whale on him with their bludgeons. The clones’ bag of tricks kept putting him on the back foot, and when the veteran gave an inch, his enemies took a mile.

Protected against the gunners thanks to Zenkichi’s Rakukaja, Sandalphon watched the situation closely as she cycled between offense and support on a continuous, precise rotation. Against one clone, legion or not, any Seeker could triumph easily. Against two, they could certainly manage. Three was where it started to get shaky, and it hardly stopped there. Things looked sustainable at first, with many team members racking up a few kills, or even seizing the chance to power up. Midna strove to even the odds as things escalated, and together Sakura and Karin fought expertly. The reality was, though, that everyone was taking damage, and the situation only got worse as new clones arrived to take the place of those that fell or tired. Blazermate could handle emergencies as they came up, but Sandalphon found herself using her healing skills soon after she built the requisite SP. She changed her focus to getting as many bodyshots as possible to charge her skills faster. As the fight went on, wave after wave of healing radiated outward like divine ripples. As long as she and Blazermate kept it up, the Seekers had a chance–and a certain somebody knew it.

After showing Pit that it would take a lot more than a few measly arrows to send him packing, Y had watched the battle dispassionately from behind, his arms crossed. Master Hand floated overhead, silent and practically motionless. Despite a strong start from the Seekers, the Consul could see the balance slowly shifting in his favor. In order to expedite the process, though, he needed to sever the intruders’ lifeline.

“Officers,” he called out imperiously. “Prioritize the enemy medics. The blue support droid, and the tall woman in white.”

With no will of their own, the clones obeyed. Some immediately sent their legions after the healers, then used their partners to yank their chains and fly in after them. Once close, they attacked with their x-batons in gladius mode for the most damage. Sandalphon was beset within seconds, taking a flying kick to the stomach that almost knocked her over. As she fought to right herself, three legios attacked her at once alongside their monstrous phantoms. She tried to leverage her range advantage, striking with her gunstaff and defending herself with razor wires, but the archangel could hardly fight against foes she could neither touch nor see. Even using Vault to leap upward failed as a Beast Legion locked its jaws around her ankle and dragged her back down to the ground. Meanwhile, the clones with Bow Legions zeroed in on Blazermate to shoot her out of the air. Worst of all, the teammates that hastened to the pair’s aid would be punished for their heroism as packs of clones up to a half-dozen strong rushed to blindside them.

The sight of the Seekers’ struggle made Y snicker. Singling out the healers, even if it cost him some troops, had been the right move. Once they went down, their allies would all fall like dominos, each death increasing the burden on those that remained until even the strongest amongst them had no choice but to buckle beneath the weight. “Now you begin to see. You were doomed the moment you chose to oppose me. To oppose progress.”

Just a few moments after the Consul said this, his gaze shifted past the fighting, to a lone figure racing down the hall. Confused, he leaned forward and squinted to verify what he was seeing, impossible though it was. After another moment, however, he couldn’t deny what his eyes were telling him. It was Hayato Howard, the hotshot rookie officer who’d been his favorite pawn right up until last night. Caught in the crossfire between the Alpha helicopter and Jena Apotheosis, he’d given his life to make sure the terrorist-turned-monstrosity had been destroyed. Or so it seemed. “Officers!” Y called out again. “Stop that man!”

A squad of clones waiting for their turn at the back of the crowd turned to engage Hayato. The policeman slowed down, a look of horror on his face as he beheld his sister’s face, worn by faded copies running his way to attack. After a moment he shook his head, composing himself, and summoned his Sword Legion to take them on. Blue and red legions clashed in a flurry of sparks and heavy metal, blade against blade. Hayato’s took first blood with a wheeling downward slash, prompting a heavy cross-cut as his legion recovered. Before it could be hit, Hayato pulled his partner toward him, then hurled it right back the next second. It struck with a dual-bladed uppercut as its opponent recovered, flinging the red Sword Legion into the air. That opened the way for an Arrow Legion to zoom forward in a corkscrew dive, then finish with a point-blank arrow blast. After shielding itself, the blue legion pulled Hayato over, who used its arms as a springboard to somersault forward and come down with a crushing gladius blow. He planted his weapon’s tip and used it for leverage to launch a kick into the Arrow Legion’s chest.

The next second, an Arm Legion snatched Hayato out of the air, punched him in the gut, then tossed him up for a two-handed smash. Instead the young man executed a Perfect Call, stunning his attacker as his Sword Legion burst out of him. It whirled around him in a diagonal upward slice, followed by both swinging one another over their heads for a quick chain of overhead smashes. Wasting no time, a Beast Legion lunged at him again and again, but on the third near-miss a Perfect Dodge allowed Hayato to strike back. His partner lashed out like a spinning top against the Beast Legion while he unleashed an acrobatic baton combo on the legionis, and as their assault culminated, the Axe Legion and its controller attacked together. They went on the offensive while protected by rotating red shields, but Hayato commanded his Sword Legion to summon rotating blue blades with Round Sword, and together they beat through their foes’ armor to knock them both back. The next moment all five closed in again, but before they could mob him, Hayato ordered his Legion to use Auto-Bind. It flew out in a circle and ensnared the whole group, chaining them to the ground, before spreading out flat on the floor and spinning forward like a sawblade to take all five out.

Y narrowed his eyes, his attention no longer on the Seekers’ fight. “Hmph. Do you really think you can win?” At his command, even more clones broke off to engage Hayato. They attacked en masse, quickly overwhelming him and his legion, which vanished to recover. Hayato fought back, but it was a beatdown, and once the clones sent him rolling across the floor he could rise no higher than his knees, spitting out blood. As the facsimiles of his sister closed in to finish him, he gritted his teeth and made a vital decision. Grabbing the legion core that clicked and gyrated in the heart of his legatus, he yanked it out, hesitated for a split second, then jammed it into his own chest. Instantly a blinding blue light emanated from him, spreading across his body until it engulfed him completely. When the flare died down, a hulking being with long, disjointed claws and flowing hair stood there, neither human nor legion, but something in between.

Beneath his mask, the Consul’s lip curled. “Kill it!”

Instead the fusion lunged, so fast that it almost seemed to teleport. Its claws cleaved through a clone before she could call her Legion. As she fell to her knees, the fusion grabbed her head, lifted her, then bounced her off the ground and dispatched her with a kick. The others tried to fight back, but it wasn’t any use. The fusion unleashed a storm of energy scythes that hurtled through the air like boomerangs, slicing into his enemies, and after flinging them far and wide he threw himself forward in a berserk rage. With incredible speed and power he carved into the clone army, evening the playing field for the Seekers within moments. As the insurmountable pressure let up, they could rally and begin the fight anew. After staring in astonishment, Y realized that his certain victory was about to become a crushing defeat.

“Enough!” he yelled. Immediately, the remaining clones stopped fighting and scattered, fleeing from the Seekers to a safer distance. Hayato’s berserk energy came to a head just after as his legion fusion overloaded, reverting him back to human form. Goldlewis stood his ground with a white-knuckle grip still wrapped around his coffin’s chain, his heart pounding as he gasped for breath. Giovanna leaned on Rei for support as she made her way over, also panting. Though she felt the pain of her wounds more keenly than ever, Sandalphon held fast and worked another miracle, healing the team with Angelic Praise. Everyone watched the clones, and especially the Consul, with great suspicion. Nobody believed this was over for a second.

Y crossed his arms, scowling. “It seems you’re all very intent on causing us trouble. I can see why that fool S is so afraid of you. You’ve already slain several Guardians, after all. While their Consuls’ backs were turned, of course. H, X, M, L, A…none so much as lifted a finger to stop you, and now here you are, ready to destroy another Guardian.” He held his hand out dramatically. “Well, the buck stops here. I will not be disgraced like they were. Your misadventures end here!” The Consul snapped his fingers, and two of the Akira clones nearest to him turned to face one another. They lifted their x-batons, then violently struck one another’s necks, killing each other instantly.

All around the Seekers, the clones paired off and, with neither hesitation nor ceremony, executed one another. When they died, their spirits fused with their legions’, the ashes of their bodies corrupting into red matter. The fused spirits then began to fuse together themselves, becoming swollen red-black masses of vividly glowing red matter. “Now you’ll see the true inner workings of legionic fusion!” Y declared, spreading his arms. “Witness the door opening to the future of all humankind!”

Goldlewis gave a heavy sigh of resignation. “Why’s it always end up goin’ this way with these folks?”

“Hey, if we can hit whatever he becomes, I’d say that’s a step up,” Giovanna joked.

Y activated his vortex, vacuuming up not just the fused spirits, but a vast amount of the luminous green mako energy around him. The more he absorbed, the brighter his body shone, purple energy radiating outward from the glowing core in his chest. “Though I forsook my humanity and became Moebius, I have never forsaken my true goal: the salvation of mankind! And what better time than now, with the enemy at the doorstep and this world’s destructors before me? Behold! Within me, all will become one. Even you! A singular nexus of existence!”

The purple singularity detonated, destroying the bridge around him, and alongside the wreckage it began to fall downward into the giant reactor. Before it could fade into the vortex of green, however, the luminous purple resurged, and up from below rose a huge figure of ethereal, sinuous flesh, his three heads covered in enormous, multi-eyed masks like Y’s own, and his body interspersed by giant spurs of bone. As it arose, Master Hand disappeared, leaving just as suddenly as it came. That left the team alone beneath the glare of twelve giant red eyes as the Consul’s powered-up Moebius form let out a skull-rattling roar. The Soul of Ambition was ready to fight.

“...That ain’t right,” Goldlewis muttered.

”Are you ready, Seekers of Light? To become as gods!?”



Immediately, a solar sniper round from Sandalphon’s Eye of Sol slammed into one of his eyes in a burst of flame. “See,” Giovanna said nonchalantly as she assumed her fighting stance. “We can hit him. This isn’t so bad.” The archangel did not reply, but a fleeting smile passed across her face as she clicked a full magazine into place, then crouched down to better aim her next shot. Once handed his minigun by the UMA, Goldlewis spun up its barrel, and with a scowl Hayato switched his x-baton to blaster mode. It was time to bring Y’s delusions to an end.



After stepping back out from Sectonia’s chosen hut into the night, Nadia stumbled, her knees almost giving out beneath her. She’d tried to keep herself as cheery as ever during the haircut, but in truth the feral was bone tired. It had taken more than she wanted to admit just to stand up again, and now even staying upright proved to be a challenge. Her stomach rumbled, giving voice to her powerful hunger, but Nadia knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she’d pass out well before she got the chance to choke anything down. Groaning, she pushed herself forward, retracing her steps toward the dwelling she’d claimed. Listlessly she watched Chucho playing around in front of her as she went, staring at the tireless specter as he chased the mists swirled and scattered by the chill nighttime breeze. The little guy really did warm her heart, but she regretted that she couldn’t curl up beside the warmth of a live dog. At least she probably wouldn’t have a hard time falling asleep tonight, no matter how cold it was. Within a couple minutes, the feral drunkenly lurched into her chosen hovel, clumsily barred the door behind her, and collapsed into bed. Too tired to figure out her designated sleeping bag, she wrapped herself in it, piling up the old tarps and tapestries of the long-gone weaver. Seconds later, Nadia Fortune was asleep at last.

---

Though Nadia fell into a deep sleep, so far gone that it would have taken a thunderclap directly overhead to rouse her, her slumber that night couldn’t exactly be called peaceful. She tossed and turned all night, never waking, but never at ease for long. As much as the cat burglar yearned for sweet oblivion, an uneventful skip straight to morning sunshine and restful rejuvenation, her night was plagued by dreams. They lacked consistency and coherency, making little sense to begin with and then shifting unpredictably. Like playing a card game whose rules she didn’t know, Nadia kept getting dealt bad hands. Stitched-together plots, nonsensical scenes, and amalgamated characters left her baffled, and just when she began to get immersed, it would be time for another shuffle. By the time Nadia finally woke up to rays of early sunshine peeking through her domicile’s windows, she remembered nothing.

It took her a moment to recall just where she’d gone to bed the night before, in fact. This was Dirtmouth, the hollow husk of a town where she and the others ended up after the Metro, and where they’d managed to drag themselves after days in the Under. She rubbed her eyes as she thought about their trip. Out of every new acquaintance they made while underground, only one person remained with them: Ganondorf. They’d traded Rubick for him, essentially, and lost Omori along the way. Had that been a good trade? Ganondorf was a real wild card, and he didn’t seem to like her very much, but at least he actually did stuff. That’s what counts, she supposed, but hopefully he’d end up liking her at some point along the way. That was a secondary concern, though, because today was the big day. Again. She couldn’t afford to roll over and go back to sleep. With all the mask fragments gathered (or so she thought, at least), the time had come to topple a Guardian.

How many days since the last one? After the Orphan, Blue Team enjoyed a day of rest and relaxation. After that, a day of travel, first sailing through the pirate-infested Sea of Serendipity and then rattling through Nyakuza Metro. Had they really fallen into the Chasm, fought through the Womb, and ended up in the Home of Tears that day too? Crazy. Then another full day in the Home of Tears, and yesterday had been a tour of different Under locales from the Hive to Hollow Bough, toppling bosses like bowling pins. So, four days. Realistically speaking, that was incredible progress. Luck really seemed to be on the Seekers’ side, guiding them on the right path. Of course, each day did feel rather like a Herculean labor. Down in the Under, she’d completely lost track of time. It could’ve been a year, for all she knew, and in some ways it sure felt like it. But now the time had come, and if Nadia Fortune was going to help save the worlds today, she needed to get some food in her, pronto.

Nadia stretched her stiff, creaky body, popping bones to relieve pressure and get herself moving again. After that she donned her coat and scampered out into the glorious sunlight. Now that was a sight for sore eyes, her inability to stare at the sun notwithstanding. Whatever all those people did deep underground couldn’t possibly be called living, not without the source of all life shining down one’s skin, filling the soul with the power of stellar radiation. She’d spent so long squinting in the dark that it was almost blinding out here, but she adjusted quickly, and once she could see Nadia began her search for food.

Already the grand, fantastical landscape of the Chasm was buzzing with activity. Crews of miners had emerged along with the sun to start the day’s work, filling carts with fragments of magic-infused minerals like condessence crystals, noctilucous jade, titanite, and smithing stones. Even the hardiest workers needed to eat, and wherever the most workers could be found, Nadia figured she’d find the grub. She jogged across the Chasm, using her climbing and jumping skills to take more direct paths than most could hope for, and found her way to the biggest camp. Reeves Quarry was where most of the miners -and their hauls- came to be taken care of, divided into living quarters and on-site processing. Juxtapositioned against the workers here, Nadia stood out quite a bit, but everyone was too busy -or otherwise occupied- to give the catgirl anything more than a surly side-eye. She followed the sound of a booming voice toward the foot of the big building, surprised to find herself crunching along a path of quickly-melting snow on the way, and spotted what looked like a big cart above the heads of the crowd. When she climbed onto a stack of stone cubes, however, she realized her mistake.



This wasn’t a cart, it was a sled. It was the size of a small building, and judging by the smoke spiraling upward from its chimney, it possessed its own mobile forge. Instead of suitably huge dogs it featured a team of oversized snow golems tethered to the front by leads, the movement of which across the earth left trails of snow that the huge sled could glide on. That voice she heard before, bellowing for hundreds of feet in every direction, belonged to a mountain of a man who could only be described as a walrus with legs, complete with tusks. Right away she realized that this smith wasn’t selling food, but she stayed a minute to watch anyway–Muk’tuk was putting on quite a show.

“And this! One of my very finest cauldrons!” Muk’tuk hoisted what must have been an impossible heavy turquoise basin with just one gloved flipper, using the other for emphasis. “It came to me in a fit of PURE INSPIRATION! That night, I could hear my ancestors speaking to me. Through my MUSCLES!” He flexed his huge tattooed arm, his bicep bulging through the outer layer of fat. “And they told me: seek DEPTH! A cauldron made in the merfolk style, forged of abyssalite! Every detail, lovingly engraved. You see, it looks like a FISH!” He held it sideways above his head like a priceless relic so that his customer could see it properly. “And for my people, you understand, fish are special! We LOVE them! If the ocean is the cradle of life, then this is the mother of all cauldrons!”

Muk’tuk managed to make the sale just before the customer ran out of patience, raising his product’s price by extolling its craftsmanship and using his sheer enthusiasm to seal the deal. After a bit more haggling in order to sell off some furniture, cookware, and tools, the crowd dispersed, and the walrus let out a sigh of relief. “Hooh! That’s all of them…for now!”

Nadia sidled up to the sled, making no bones about how impressed she was. “Quite the silver tongue you’ve got there, big guy!”

The artisan chuckled, his belly shaking. “You flatter me! I have full faith in my products, each and every one. Not just as commodities, but as works of art! I merely try to open my clients’ eyes to their virtues!” Though Nadia couldn’t see the smile in his eyes thanks to some very scruffy eyebrows, the upturn in his mustache clued her in. “What can I do for you, my feline friend?”

Nadia shrugged. “Dunno. I don’t need any works of art right now actually, I was dying for something to eat and just followed the crowd.”

“Dying, you say? Goodness!” Muk’tuk made a big show of concern in a joking manner. “Well, we can’t have that now! Wait right there!” He disappeared into his sled. After a moment, he appeared with a squat, cylindrical can, which he extended to Nadia. “Here! I don’t barter, but when clients come angling for a discount, they bait their hooks with fish! As it turns out, there CAN be too much of a good thing, hahaha!”

Nadia accepted the big can, her eyebrows raised both at its weight and its price. “For free? You spoil me!”

“Think nothing of it!” Muk’tuk raised his mitten and tweaked his mustache slyly. “Or rather, think of Muk’tuk, next time you need something made! Wood, metal, and bone most of all, it matters not. All merchants need money, but for me, the relationship is more important! Build a strong enough ‘ship, and we can conquer even the roughest waters!”

The feral grinned. “Well, I’m sold! If my friends need anything made or fixed up before we head down, I’ll send ‘em your way!”

After waving goodbye, Nadia ran over to the nearest corner she could find. There, away from prying eyes, she wolfed down the fish, devouring every last morsel. Not her typical breakfast fare, but she was starving, and this helped take the edge off. “Hah…” she breathed, pleased but hardly full. With such a big day ahead of her, nothing short of a feast would do.

As the battle raged on, both Zenkichi and Geralt found themselves flagging. Each heal from Sandalphon, and each pass from Blazermate before she had to peel off and heal somebody else, was like a fleeting breath of air to a drowning man. Even the Hateful Flesh could not fully affect the Legions now that Geralt was cleansed of much of the Redshift she'd received (and the Blue Evolve), which made her progress much slower than it could have been. The massive cleaver still kept the Akira clones further back than they might have liked, but with X-batons that could transform into blasters, even that couldn't keep her safe from them.

Strikers were summoned, Signs were used, and Zenkichi threw in some serious AoE with Triple Down, Megido, Megidola, and even One-Shot Kill due to how close some of the clones were. They did their best to scatter whenever Zenkichi's gaze turned on them after the first couple of attacks, but the fairly wide areas of his skills meant that Zenkichi soon found himself a priority target, aside from the medics. Which was another problem, because it prompted Geralt to transform to her LCCB Assistant Manager Identity and take the defensive. This, of course, prompted a full-out assault from a half-dozen Akira clones, which chained her down and pummeled hier practically into oblivion. A careful application of Aard once she was free sent the closest ones stumbling, which Zenkichi followed up on by frying a pair with Megido while the others backed off to regroup. Geralt quickly shot the Spirits left behind, ignoring the items they turned into and firing on the clones.

Hayato's appearance marked the turning point of the fight, though for a moment it looked as though the young Neuron officer proved to be no match for the sheer number of clones at Y's disposal. Then, however, he fused with his own Legion, becoming a monstrous-looking hybrid and once more unleashing a brutal series of attacks on his sister's clones. "Damn, kid..." Zenkichi muttered, dodging out of the way of a Sword Legion's blades and returning his attention to survival.

And after a short while of the Hayato fusion slaughtering clones, Y decided that enough was enough, and called them off. Panting, Zenkichi leaned on his sword while Geralt summoned the Judicator to provide extra healing while the Seekers regrouped in the moment of peace. It didn't last long, however, as Y had the clones start executing one another, making Zenkichi pause. Geralt, however, had an idea of what was about to come, and turned her gun on the Spirits with a cry of "Stop him! He's going to Fuse!"

It was futile, however, as the Spirits barely lasted moments before being corrupted, and fusing into masses of red matter that proved rather difficult to destroy. As Y sucked all of the Spirits and red matter into himself, Zenkichi sighed and shook his head. "Ya know, all this becoming one stuff is reminding me of an anime I watched as a teenager. It didn't work then, buddy, and I doubt it'll work now." Zenkichi chided, reloading his revolvers. The sight of the corrupted, massive creature made him hum. "You remind me of the last fake god I killed. Guess you'll be number 2, then." He stated simply, unloading his revolvers into the Soul of Ambition before pulling out his greatsword. "Let's do this!"

Geralt began firing her pistol at the Consul formerly known as Y, building up Tremor stacks (not that she was sure they'd even do anything) as she walked forward, unloading her pistol and running to the side to avoid a burst of lasers that were fired at the Seekers. "Don't think this is gonna do much..." She relented, transforming back into her normal identity, and pulling free the Hateful Flesh once more. Hopefully this thing would be more vulnerable to it, like the Chimeras were. Geralt rushed to the edge of the hallway platform they were on and leapt to a floating piece of debris, swinging the Hateful Flesh out on its umbilical tether to slash at the Soul of Amibition, before retracting it and pulling forth a glob of explosive flesh and tossing it into the monster's side. She summoned Fizz as well as a flight of Bombers, instructing the Striker to avoid damage as a priority as she moved out of the way of a swipe of the thing's limb.

Zenkichi, meanwhile, jumped to a different platform and paused to take a breath. This thing was big, huge, and dangerous. Exactly like the Demiurge. All he had to do was bide his time, avoid damage, and take whatever opportunities this thing gave to hit it. He played a more patient game than Geralt, given his lack of ranged options besides Valjean and his nearly-depleted revolvers, silently cursing that he didn't have more to work with. It'd come in time, though. Until then, he had to make do with what he had, ordering Valjean to launch a One-Shot Kill at their enemy.

In contrast to many of the others, Midna was not slowed down by the horde of clones and their legions, because unlike everyone else here, she could see what she was fighting crystal clear thanks to her most recent fusion. She was also used to fighting against armies. Evasive foes, big singular targets, and situations where she had to worry about hitting friendlies or breaking stuff caused her challenges.

A room packed full of foes however? She made quite the dent into their numbers. Her shadow hand rose and fell with nary half a second between swipes, slapping legions out of the sky, and crushing mortal bodies beneath. With her own legion at her side, she was also hard to chain down, as the beast clawed and rammed those trying to do so, giving the four armed princess time to either join her strike to her own legion, or seek and destroy the clone at the other end of the chain, dealing with two problems at once.

Still, her own prowess at this new dimension of warfare turned out to be nothing compared to that of a trained expert at taking down foes like these, as Hayato (not that she knew who he was) appeared at just the right moment and the proceed to lay waste to swaths of their foes in some super powered form.

”Goddesses, you have got to teach me how to do that some time, whoever you are” she called over to him. There would not be any time for lessons however, as Y forced the remaining closes to ritually sacrifice themselves to him, before seemingly feeding off their lifeforce to achieve what he claimed was a form of godhood.

Midna was not impressed by this assertion of divinity, which seemed to be a hearteningly common trend.

”You won’t be the first half formed god I’ve dealt with either, and you won’t be the last either, but you might well be the uglies” Midna shouted up the three headed wanna be god even as she spurred her steed into action, and tugging on her astral chain to get her beast legion to follow suit.

In tandem, the pair of wolves raced along the corridor, onto what was left of the bridge and then, upon reaching the place where it was broken, leapt into the mist of mako.

The green energy, supposedly the life blood of the world itself (and given that the Consul had fueled his ascension with the lifeblood of the clones as well as with mako, she was inclined to believe this claim of Avalanche) ripplied around beasts both of twilight and astral realms as they sailed above the bottomless pit below to land upon broken fragments of the bridge that where now floating in the air around their titanic foe.

Part of the frontrunners of the pack as they were, the trio drew the attention of the titanic floating foe, causing one of the secondary heads turning towards them, and to unleash three beams from each of its eyes that forced them to weave to and fro to avoid being blasted. Midna, astried her Wolfos, retaliated, raising up her stolen Gun-lance, pushed lightning into it to charge its own magical mechanism, and then started pinging bolts of energy back at her foe, though it was more annoying levels of harm rather than anything with suitable punch for a monster that size.

She was trying to get closer, and so she focused on that for the most part rather than trying to charge up any bigger attacks, leaving the sniping to the likes of Sandalphon. Unfortunately doing so brought her into the titan’s reach far before she was in reach of it. A mighty hand smashed down, missing the trio by a hair, but setting the platform they were on tilting rapidly to the side, bright rapidly beginning to transition from floor to wall.

”No no no, come on come on come on move it thing!” she demanded of her wolfos as it first stumbled and then began scrabbling, claws and paws not able to find grip on the increasingly vertical surface, all too far from the next spot to leap. Rather than drop into oblivion, or rather waste energy getting her Flygon to catch them, Midna grabbed and gripped her wolfos with three hands and her legs grappling it as best she could, before then reached out her shadow hand, grasping the edge of the broken floating bridge segment, and physically hauling herself and her minion over the edge as the edge became the top, and then placing them both down on the underside of it.

”Move move keep going we’ve lost time” she urged her steed, before taunting it by saying ”You don’t want to get replaced by the new thing do you?”

Said thing, unburdened by the lack of a rider, had indeed made better progress, yet though it had managed to leap to safety before being tipped into the void, it had not managed to get much further than that, the tight leash between them preventing it from going more than a dozen meters ahead. Given how tightly together they’d been so far, the relatively restrictive distance was new information to her, though it did explain why the clones had not simply hung back and sent their mostly untouchable minions forth en masse while avoiding any risk of harm themselves.

”Huh, maybe I should replace you when it comes to riding around, seeing as you can run around more than that thing” she noted, but now was hardly the time to change steeds. This was going to be a problem however, as her plan had been to try and bind the titan as the clones had bound them, but it seemed that for that task the chain was too short, and their foe just too large.

”Ok, new plan, lets get all the way past him” she decided, and then spurred her steed onwards. Sticking together because they had too, the pair of beasts raced on, leaping from platform to platform, going past the foe entirely, until they landed behind him, on the other half of the broken bridge.

The way forward to the goal now lay ahead of them, but rather than push on she turned back and stayed in the fight. She knew for sure that she wasn’t going to be able to take the guardian down alone after all, and she was hardly going to leave her friends and allies to face this monster without her either.

Instead she charged more electricity into her lance, and then whipped it out in a slash, sending a man-sized crescent of energy towards their foe, hitting him in the back. Her volley bomb would have been a lot better against the massive foe, but ironically she could not hit him with it, due to him not touching the ground anywhere. So instead she harassed his rear with the lance, and her Charr Pirate Musket which despite her lack of training she didn’t really have any issue hitting him with due to his size.

Unfortunately, the size also meant she wasn’t doing much, and there were no vulnerable eyes back here, so she resorted to some bigger firepower. Or dragon power.

Out from a portal came Vibrava, increased to venerable size, flying forwards, claws out, glowing a royal purple before it raked both down their foes back. That got its attention alright. Or a third of it anyway, as the consul half turned so one of his heads could see her and then try to laser beam her.

Her beasts pounced too and fro to avoid fire, while Minda focused herself instead on recharging her lance and then, at just the right time, sending out another slicing wave.

”You're going to have to try harder than that!!” she taunted him, at which point he raised up one of his hands, splayed out the fingers, and used them to fire beams instead. That certainly stopped her firing back as her wolfos’s mad scampering threw off any attempt at hitting back with using manual dexterity.

So she used her mind instead, opening twilight portals, and willing a stream of sand to blow forth from the twilight realm and to wrap around the head that had her in her sights, and making it so that it didn’t anymore. Now it was he who had trouble aiming, and so he resorted to what simply did not require it: slamming his hand down onto the still intact side of the bridge she was on. Yet this had been exactly what the princess had wanted. Her beasts leapt back, avoiding the blow, only for her to leap off of her steed in-order grab the wrist of the titan with her shadow hand. She then proceeded to swing round it, drawing the astral chain connecting her to the Beast Legion all the way around said wrist, binding the hand to the bridge as a result, and in a very awkward pose to boot, restricting his movements somewhat.

It also gave her beasts free rain to start mauling the hand’s wrist, as well as creating a somewhat risky ramp all the way up to the false god’s heads. Not that she could take it, being the other half of the binding and all, and so instead she joined in in trying to do as much damage to the hand as possible before it got loose in hopes of crippling one of their foe’s ways of attacking, four dragon claws racking at the purple ‘flesh’ while her shadow hand smashed into its forearm again and again.

Splendidly might have been an exaggeration on Karin’s part. The battle was beginning to wear both of them down. Fortunately, the Seekers were relieved when Hayato arrived, turning into a bestial form of incredible strength to turn the tides in their favor.

This, of course, prompted their true foe to turn into a giant purple three-masked monster. After forcing the clones to eliminate each other, which earned a startled gasp from Sakura and a disapproving raised eyebrow from Karin.

Sakura turned to face the giant monster. ”Why do you crazies always ramble about your stupid motivations when you’re trying to kill people…?” Sakura asked herself, a bead of sweat rolling down her face.

”Hmmph.” Karin narrowed her eyes. It was like Jena all over again. Giant monster. Floating platforms. With her grapple hook, she could maneuver and strike Consul Y, hit-and-run style.

Sakura stayed behind on the ground. ”Overdrive Ostritch” She called out, and her new Spirit appeared at her side. It began chucking its Sonic Booms, or rather, Sonic Slicer, but Sakura just thought of Guile when she saw them.

Sakura charged up a big hadoken, and began lobbing them like artillery shells. Since this target was so big, she sacrificed speed for damage and size. They travelled through the air at a sprinters pace and exploded on impact.

Karin meanwhile hooked up to a floating platform and then leapt to another one. She would have to be careful not to fall. She tried to threaten Consul Y with her presence, baiting him into swatting at her so she could avoid it and take the heat off her teammates.

If he didn’t, then she would grapple to his right most mask and slam into it with a kick, before pushing off with a powerful impact that would send her flying back to hook back to the bridge and to safety, before repeating the process.

As the clones and their nearly invisible partners approached the group, Roland moved up to deal with one of them taking the flank, clashing with his hammer in a defensive flourish to get a feel for the opponent's power. He soon found the clones themselves individually weren't much of a problem, it was their collective might and their invisible partners that were the real issue. From his first clash however, Roland's emotion level went up and he got the power Rake, with a chilling, yet silly voice saying. "I’ll scrape your wisdom…" He then moved to the next clone in line, not staying in one place for too long to allow their invisible partners to counterattack him as he laid into the next clone with his swords.

Susie had stayed in the backline alongside the healers, acting as a bit of a mobile defense platform. She was assisted by Blazermate's sentry gun, whom would soon eventually reach level 3 as all the clones were commanded to go after her and Sandalphon. Being the mindless constructs they were, they ignored the stationary gun shooting them to go after the healers, which at least gave the two some relief from its sheer firepower and pushing power slowing down some of the clones rushing them.

Seeing the backline getting assaulted, Roland went in to help them. Using his lance to clash with a clone that was charging in with his weapon and intercepting and overpowering him. This leveled his emotion to 2, giving him Timber, as a metallic large voice said "I want to be warm… I need something stronger…" Although this wouldn't actually help against the clones as Roland was already stronger than them in most regards it seemed. Of course putting him in the main brawl around the healers.

Blazermate, seeing all the ranged attackers try to go after her, summoned her projectile shield to protect herself. She also lowered herself to try to fry a few of them and defend Sandalphon as well, as some of the melee attacks that didn't fully pass through the shield were negated by it as well. Susie also coming to the healer's aid by using her mech to throw people around and scatter them, which in turn allowed both the sentry gun and Roland to pick off the ones far off. Still, with so many clones coming at once, it was a bit of a tricky situation. Susie then had an idea, they were targeting the healers at Y's command, but did he know she had one as well? And with that she summoned her Striker whom started to throw potions at Sandalphon and Blazermate as they got damaged while placing down a seal on the ground which ended up rooting a fair amount of clones as they didn't have the self preservation to dodge the slow move, giving the healers a bit more of some breathing room.

Relief from the assault came when a newcommer came, and through a series of events caused Y to reveal his true plan. A disgusting plan according to Roland, to devour everything. And he started with the clones, eventually turning into a giant monster and shattering the bridge he was standing on. "Another one? Come on, thats not fair!" Roland said, echoing Goldlewis' distaste of the situation. Blazermate meanwhile mentioned. "He ate a lot of weak spirits, What does that actually mean though? Is he strong or weak now? Well whatever he is, he is sure tanky." Susie had to think about what was going on herself. She didn't fully understand what all of this was, but considering he used Moebius as a proper noun to refer to himself... well there were a lot of things that word could mean. But for now, they all had to fight this giant creature.

Blazermate had been gaining a steady amount of Uber during the clone fight, with Roland having clashed a few more times with the clones before they were absorbed, at least leaving him partway through emotion level 3 and giving him the power "Oblivion", and a womanly voice saying "Staying alive is all I can do in a life like this…". And he was sure that this buffed Consul was stronger than him, so Timber was in effect as well. In addition he gained an EGO page "False Throne", which he saved to use for later as it was more for utility than raw damage. For now though, Roland could only unload on Y with his ranged weapons such as his crossbow and shotgun.

Susie didn't change up her tactics much either, turning to the now mutated Y and firing her missiles at him. Blazermate's engineer spirit had vanished at this point, but he did leave behind a half full level 3 sentry and a level 3 dispenser for the moment, so there was some damage output coming from her as well for the time being. She was mostly waiting to see what this guy would do next as she healed and overhealed people as she had an uber ready and waiting to be deployed.

Dawn rose above the underground, peeking in through the windows of tomb like buildings that made up dirtmouth, a sight unseen to the ‘heroes’ for several days.

In response, each and every koopa rolled over in bed to shield their eyes from its unwanted glare. That left Rika to rise with the dawn out of some built in military discipline, stretch, yawn, sigh, look to her left to see that the others where indeed still a sleep, and to then, as she had several times at this point, follow their example and lay back down to try and get a little bit of extra shut eye.

In the much cleaner and tinder home across from them. Sectonia had tidied up the place as best as her minions could, but there was only so much you could do to the outside of these abandoned houses in a single night even if your minions were magic. Emerging from her seized ‘house’, Sectonia floated around a bit, looking around to see if any of the others were up. Now was the time to head on over to defeat the guardian of this area or so she thought. So she thought that a few would be up early to do some preparations or something.

The sight of her moving caught the eye of Rika, her internal clock refusing to let her get that extra bit of shut eye, and so she used it as an excuse to give up and go say hello. As a result, a few moments later the door to the hut swung open, revealing the ship girl, and, behind her, the sight of a few tents that the Troop had set up inside of said room as a way to avoid cleaning up like Sectonia had. It also revealed a strange floating shape sat in the wreckage of a safe just sort of sitting on the ground of the home.

”Hi, hello! You’re awake” she noted rather redundantly, informing the queen that ”The others aren't, they’re having something called a ‘lie in’ which is kinda boring to be honest”

”No it isn’t, is nice, gimmy 10 more minutes” Jr groaning countered her, to which she just shrugged with a look on her face that clearly showed she didn’t get it.

Seeing Rika greet her, Sectonia lazily drifted over. ”Ah, I see… I suppose they do tend to take quite a bit of the beating when it comes to the fighting, don’t they?” Sectonia said, musing at how the boys hadn’t gotten up yet. ”Still, considering we will be fighting another powerful spirit, it would be best to get prepared. I doubt their ‘lie in’ is beauty rest.” Sectonia said, letting out a classy lady “oh ho ho” laugh afterwards.

”Is ‘beauty sleep’ another expression” Rika asked, uncomprehendingly tilting her head to one side ”Because I don’t see how sleeping makes you beautiful? People mostly look kinda silly while napping”

”If you don’t sleep enough you end up with bags under your eyes and such” Kamek informed her, before grumbling ”Like I’m going to it seems” as he gave up on getting some more rest. Jr too for that matter, the prince standing and popping Mimi, who he had been using like a soft toy, on his shoulder. Bowser, the heaviest sleeper in more ways than one, apparently was managing to ignore sun and sound just fine. Sectonia wasn’t surprised at that revelation.

”What was that about powerful spirits anyway? Can we at least have breakfast first?” Jr asked as he wandered over.

”Don’t you have some pizzas left over from yesterday?” Sectonia asked, implying that was what she ate this morning.

”Snrk- wuzzat? Pizza?” came a grunt as talk of food was, rather unsurprisingly, the thing to actually wake the king of the Koopas.

”Yes yes, we’ll eat, but it may be wise to try and find food again rather than going through our rations” Kamek attempted to say, but it was far to late, as boxes where already open, and opening slices already in mouths, by the time he had finished.

The mage sighed, accepted that it would be more trouble than it was worth to try and stop this now, and instead moved on to Jr’s other question, namely about the spirit ”At any rate, to answer your earlier question your young master, we still have one more mask fragment to track down”

”Wait we do?” jr replied with his mouth full, while his two pokemon kept munching away at their own slices (and his grapple worm a bit of batnip), before asking ”I mean I haven't been keeping track but it felt like we were done, right?”

”It did seem to be the end of the line, which only means it will be tricker to work out where under the world the last one is tucked away. We will need to scour every nook and cranny!” he declared, which got a chorus of groans from the rest of the troop who had apparently been on the same wavelength as the young boy.

Sectonia groaned too, but more internally as she had more class than that. ”Hmph, I thought we had them all too. I was intending to double check though, I suppose it was a good thing I did…” Sectonia said, not hiding her irritation of having to go down and explore the rest of the underground. She really didn’t want to have to go through that ‘dungeon’ again…

”I suppose we should take inventory of what we have either way. Perhaps someone ‘misplaced’ the last one.” Sectonia said, squinting her eyes.

”I’m quite certain. There was that great spider we encountered, Asgor simply gave us his, you found one in that repulsive gauntlet, then it was that unnerving pizza fellow, the impostor bee queen, the Necrodancer, the Caretaker, and then finally Robin Good fellow. Eight in all” Kamek listed off, and at which point Jr wondered ”Wait so did Porky not have one?” and to which he got a shake of the head.

”Strangely not … though now I worry who might have the last one. It seems entirely within F’s character to simply be holding onto the last one himself” Kamek rationalized with a sight

”Well I want to beat the snot out of that annoying runt anyway, so works fine by me” Bowser said, now speaking coherently thanks to food, before remembering ”Oh and speaking of inventory, I got that weird blob thing out of the safe from the prison” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder to point out the strange formless, seething mass to point it out before asking ”Any idea what it is?”

Being the residential magic examiner, even though she was only guessing most of the time based on vague hints, Sectonia looked over the strange blobby mass. It took her a bit to guess at what it did as she looked at it for quite awhile. ”From what little I can gather… its some kind of… primordial mass of some sort? It has no shape… Perhaps it copies whatever item it comes into contact with?” Sectonia said, never having seen an item like this before. She doubted it could duplicate anything, as such an item would lead to some… new conquest plans if she could have two of some ancient artifact… But wait, if it could duplicate anything…

”Why not see if this can duplicate a mask shard?” Sectonia and Kamek said at the same time. For Sectonia, it would be quite the relief to not have to go underground if this worked, although it would also be a bit of a waste of such a powerful item if it could actually copy anything and work…But there would be no way of knowing until it was too late.

”That’d mean we just need to jump down that pit again and we’re done here? Sign me up” Jr remarked, to which his papa and sister both nodded agreement.

”It would make things easier, I suppose” Kamek admitted.

”Well if it works and F had the last piece, it would ruin his plans and that sounds lovely.” Sectonia said.

”Then let's get to it.” Bowser asserted, casually picking up the item duplicating material and then commanding ”Kamek, get us a mask fragment and let’s finish this already”

”Ah, it's not that simple. I don’t exactly have them all on me, nor do I quite recall which ones we do have. It would be quite a problem to make a copy of a fragment we do have after all. Having 4 top lefts won’t exactly help us after all” Kamek reminded them

”Perhaps if we assemble the mask we have, and fit the goop into the last missing piece?” Sectonia offered.

”Hmmm. That might well work” Kamek agreed, before assessing that ”Either way, we need to get all the mask pieces in one place, which means getting everyone in one place”

”Well, with that plan set, perhaps we should do some pre fight preparations. Maybe see what items we can get from what spirits we have.” Sectonia said. She was also thinking about meddling with the respec orb a bit, hm….

”Oh, oh, we got a bunch of spirits from the prison didn’t we? I almost forgot about those” Jr asked, which got a nod from Kamek, and then a groan from Rika because it meant she was on hat duty again.



The resulting pile of things was rather unpleasantly alive, though it became less so as the fish rapidly expired. After being a little disturbed, Bowser shrugged and said ”Bonus snack I guess”, before promptly starting to roast the the fish

”Hmm… The souls seem like they are interesting. But the other items… they really are unpleasant.” Sectonia said, agreeing with the troop. Seeing Bowser roast the now dead fish with his fire breath was mildly amusing though.

”Why is everything alive down here as it were? Is this all part of the guardian’s plan for this area or something?” Sectonia questioned looking at the other treasures.

”Given it is locked in a sealed box, and possibly in a dream if we need a catcher to attack it, I’m not sure if it has a plan. The strange thing that was the Guardian of the endless blue certainly didn’t I’m sure, nor that big dragon” Kamek noted, intentionally leaving his king’s doppelganger out of that list even though he mostly still fit it.

”This one’s also made of rocks, so it's less gross than the other stuff at least” Jr said, poking the strange centipede with the butt of his paintbrush a few times before picking it up, resulting in it grappling his wrist.

There was a brief moment of panic before everyone realized that the stone centipede was just sort of chilling there, and was entirely willing to be removed to boot.

”Still pretty weird” Jr concluded.

Sectonia absently nodded with the young koopa, agreeing this place was just weird in general. They had found a few interesting trinkets, but only a couple that were useful and not outright disgusting. Well either way, Sectonia decided to grab a handful of spirits to see exactly what they could do. From what she could understand, they were both a currency item, and could grant some bits of power if she had enough? Although she wasn’t sure if that would lead to any… physical changes or not.

The troop ended up pocketing the rest of the items, savory or not, before having some toadies pack up all their camping equipment. With that, they were all set to go, and the first thing on the agenda was getting all the mask fragments together. Fortunately, while the team was all over, and the fragments with them, the handy dandy link pearls meant solving that issue would be easy as pie, with Kamek radioing out and checking in with everyone, and requesting they meet up back at the stagstation, seeing as he knew they all knew where that was, and informing them about their plan to use the item replicating mass to fill in the missing piece of the mask based puzzle.

He also mentioned the items they had just gotten, just in case someone really wanted a rock centipede or a strange healing heart.

Ganondorf kept quiet during the departure from Mercy Dreams. Having come off the heels of three fights in rapid succession - not to mention all the trouble he had to go through in the Cathedral above as well as reaching it in the first place - needless to say he was tired. So the thought of being able to ride back to their next destination was a welcomed one. Even though said ride turned out to be giant beetles with seats mounted on them, Ganondorf chose not to look the gift horse in the mouth and climbed aboard.

Even during the ride itself, he mostly chose not to make conversation and took the opportunity to rest his eyes a bit. He’d pretty much all but decided already that he would be resting for the night as soon as he was able to. Even if Dirtmouth had places to see or things to do, he reasoned it could all wait until morning. And for once he knew for certain that it was indeed nighttime up on the surface. Up until now he had no choice to make a guess as to the approximate time of day given that the likes of sundials didn’t exactly work down here. But now that he’d seen the surface - albeit briefly - it allowed him to recalibrate his sense of time as it were.

Ganondorf sleepily opened his eyes as all the beetles came to stop. Dirtmouth, as it was called, looked like a pretty miserable husk of a city. Maybe it used to be something greater in times past, but those glory days were clearly long behind it. It was filled to brim with abandoned huts and hovels that looked like they could be knocked down by a strong enough breeze. But in this state of exhaustion and the evening growing later by the second? Beggars couldn’t be choosers.

”If it’s all the same, I’m going to turn in early.” he announced to the other Seekers as they disembarked from their rides, ”Whatever there is to do around here, I’m sure I’ll see it for myself in the morning.”

He only paused momentarily for any kind of response he was offered in return before he took off on his own. He didn’t wander far, only enough to find the least uncomfortable-looking hovel he could find and claimed the abandoned dwelling for himself. He entered inside and rested his weapons against the wall nearby. He supposed he probably should have at least ate a meal but he was already ready to fall back asleep and so he’d just wait until morning and eat breakfast instead.

It didn’t take Ganondorf long to drift off into sleep.



In his dreams, Ganondorf found himself elsewhere. He was leading a siege against Hyrule Castle and its surrounding town. His veritable horde of Moblins, Bokoblins, Lizalfos, Dinalfos, Aeralfos, and Darknuts threw themselves at the Hylian defenders. The Gerudo King’s invasion was unannounced and unexpected. This had allowed his forces to cut a swath through Hyrule’s lands and sweep up bases and outposts that had become poorly defended due to years of peace and complacency. Now the King was holed up in his castle along with his whelp of a daughter. Apparently the coward wasn’t even brave enough to lead his own men, having left that task to his and Zelda’s Sheikah bodyguard.

She at least was no fool. She consolidated the Hylian forces and focused their defense on Hyrule Castle and the walls of Castle Town. And it seemed she had also managed to send for reinforcements from the Goron and Zora tribes, providing some meager defenses coming from the west and east respectively. And just like Zelda’s father, it seemed King Zora was also too cowardly to come out and fight, but at the very least Darunia was willing to directly lead his brothers into battle.

”So all you have to your name is a single Sheikah general and a foolhardy Goron chieftain?” Ganondorf scoffed with an arrogant smirk, ”Don’t make me laugh!”

But there was another among the ranks of his enemy’s forces that Ganondorf took no notice of at first. And why would he? The green-clothed brat couldn’t have been any older than eleven or twelve years old! But whatever that boy was doing, it was effective. First he managed to call out to a Great Fairy to use her power to raise the waters of Lake Hylia to flood the northwestern quadrant of Hyrule Field, wiping out the base and portion of Ganondorf’s forces that were occupying it while also giving the Zoras free reign to take back control with their aquatic dominance. Then he and Darunia were able to coordinate a rock slide attack from atop Death Mountain. It damaged Kakariko Village but also gave the Gorons the chance they needed to retake the area and push out Ganondorf’s forces there.

”Everywhere I go, there always seems to be one of you annoying Heroes standing in my way.” Ganondorf mused as he fumed with anger and frustration. He shot a glare at the nearby Koume and Kotake, ”Do it!” he ordered them. The twin Gerudo witches wasted no time. They floated upward on their brooms and began casting magic of their own. This awakened the bones of the dead littered around Hyrule Field, calling forth a horde of Stalchildren and Stalfos to join Ganondorf’s army of darkness. And although he had lost his forces in the east and west, his army was now consolidated for a central charge against the gates of Hyrule Castle Town.

And so while the Zoras and Gorons now had freshly reinforced opponents to deal with on their ends, this left the green-clad kid with little choice but to come face the King of Evil on his own. How pathetic! The kid was too small to wield his sword properly and had to hold it with both hands. And were those… masks hanging at his waist? What good did he expect those to do in the heat of battle?

”You annoying brat…” Ganondorf taunted young Link as the kid approached him, ”...it’s time you learned what happens to those who defy me.” Ganondorf summoned his Trident to his hands with a crack of lightning, ”And you… you’re about to understand… just who it is you picked a fight with!”



Link ran toward him but Ganondorf didn’t even let him get within reach before he threw his Trident forward, the weapon outright spinning through the air at Link and forcing him to dig in his heels and try to block it. But Ganondorf’s physical strength was much greater than the boy’s, and so he found himself knocked to the ground by the attack. And without much time to react before Ganondorf himself came launching forward with a shoulder tackle that led into him lashing his arm out into a lariat that sent Link flying further backward. After this Ganondorf recalled his Trident and jumped straight up in order to throw the weapon back down at the ground. It was aimed for Link but he managed to roll himself away from it in time. Except Ganondorf then used his own magic to call down a powerful bolt of lightning that crashed into the Trident like a lightning rod and sent out a shockwave of thunder and lightning around it.

Now Link was finally able to get within sword reach of Ganondorf. But he was still at a disadvantage, being so much smaller and thus having a smaller reach than his opponent. But Link’s courage remained unshaken and he fought regardless. After a few exchanges it became clear that Ganondorf was toying with him, ”What kind of pathetic excuse for a Hero are you?” he demanded after knocking Link to the ground a second time. Link had no choice, and grabbed a mask that was hanging on his belt and quickly placed it on his face. The mask imbued him with power as well as transformed him. Soon Ganondorf was staring down a taller, more muscular version of Link with white hair and dark clothes. His weapon had also changed, and now appeared to be a helix-shaped greatsword that he wielded with both hands.

”That’s more like it.” Ganondorf laughed. The two then clashed, Ganondorf’s dark power vs the dark power of the Fierce Deity Mask that Link now wore on his face. They seemed even for a while, Link even managed to give as much as he was taking. But after several moments of evenly fighting, it soon started to appear as though Link was burning through his power and stamina faster than Ganondorf was. Even in this stronger body, Link was still only a child with far less combat experience than Ganondorf possessed. And that became clear when Ganondorf managed to knock Link down a third time, resulting in his mask tumbling off and forcibly reverting him back to his original child form. Link struggled to grab the mask but then Ganondorf’s boot came stomping down on it, cracking and breaking the artifact into splinters.

”Hahahaha! Looks like I win, Hero.” Ganondorf raised his Trident and finally managed to finish the boy off for good. For a moment the Gerudo just roared in triumph. Finally, victory was his, and soon enough the Castle would fall as well! But then he heard what sounded like a slow applause, clearly a mocking gesture. Who would dare?

“Well congratulations,” said the helmeted stranger. He was short, and his helmet was shaped like the head of a reptile with a drill on top of it, “you defeated an inexperienced whelp wielding a power he did not fully understand or control. All hail the mighty Ganondorf!” The Consul’s tone was one of vicious mockery. And already Ganondorf hated his guts and wanted to split him open right now.

”I’ll make you regret your words!” The Gerudo King shouted just before he went on the attack. But whatever advantage he had over Link was certainly not present against this man, whoever he was. In fact now it was Ganondorf’s turn to be toyed with by the Consul. He wielded all manner of raw elemental power. It all really served to fuel Ganondorf’s rage even further.

“Ha! Not so big and tall now, are you?” Consul R taunted with glee. No matter how hard Ganondorf came at him, the pompous Consul always had an answer and a bit of mockery in response.

Soon the rage overtook him and Ganondorf underwent a transformation. His body bulged and grew into the big and monstrous form of Ganon. Maybe now the Consul wouldn’t be so gleeful. Unfortunately for him, Ganon got the opposite response, “Finally stopped back, have you? Good, that just means I get to stop holding back too! Behold! The primeval power of Moebius! Revert!”

There was shuddering and quaking in the distance, coming vaguely from the direction of Death Mountain. Soon something enormous and outright colossal in size exploded from the volcanic top of the mountain and made its way down into Kakariko Village and later into Hyrule Field. This thing looked like a hulking machine of stone, metal, and magic. It crawled around on four legs like some kind of colossal lizard or salamander. It unleashed flying Sentries and Magma Bombs on all those who happened to be in its path. Whether they were Goron, Hylian, or one of Ganon’s monsters, it made no difference. Divine Beast Vah Rudania made no distinction between friend and foe and seemed only to obey the command of the Consul who manifested it.

When the Divine Beast eventually reached Ganon, it actually managed to dwarf him in size, and by quite a lot for that matter. But the blind fury of Ganon held no logic or reasoning and he attacked the mechanical monstrosity anyway. He found himself assailed by countless Sentries and Magma Bombs. Trying to scale and attack such an enemy clearly required more finesse if not an outright stealthy approach. And both of these things were impossible for Ganon to do in his current state. And so, almost inevitably, he was overwhelmed and crushed by the power of the Divine Beast. The last thing he heard was the cries and laughs of glee coming from Consul R.

Ganondorf awoke in a brief fit of rage. But in moments, he remembered where he was and wrote off the dream as just that - a dream. Maybe it was somehow Galeem’s doing, as a form of torture or torment. But more likely it was probably just a result of his exhaustion the previous night combined with the stress of fighting so many battles over the course of a single day. Either way, good riddance to it. Ganondorf collected his arms and then emerged from the hovel he had spent the night in.

Seeing as how he skipped supper the previous night, the first order of business was to find a meal. And Ganondorf supposed he may as well see what a few of the Seekers were doing while he was at it. From what he gathered, Sectonia and the Troop were taking inventory of their spoils from the previous day’s battles. It might have been interesting to look into that himself if Ganondorf had not been preoccupied with thoughts of food instead. The next Seeker he managed to bump into was Nadia, who told him she had just come from a smith’s shop. Similarly, this information could be useful for later, but Ganondorf’s thoughts were not on weapons and armor right now.

”I don’t suppose you’ve found anywhere we can get a meal yet?” he asked the feral with a grumble. This was almost making him miss the bug-based meals of Toriel’s cooking. …Almost.

Besides what had transpired in the home of Confessor Jiji, the night had been thankfully uneventful. It wasn't a particularly good night's sleep, but it was uninterrupted by ambushes or any other nasty surprises. Any rest they could get was ultimately a good thing. Of the Travelers, Therion awoke first. He usually did. With no strange nightmare to plague him like the night before, he was a little more upbeat than usual. He stepped out of the little shack after dawn, wandering off a little ways to do some stretching. Then he was off to the outskirts of the Chasm to see what the other early risers were up to. If nothing else, he had a few things he wanted to part with - the less encumbered he was, the better.

As he did that, Primrose began to rouse herself from her own slumber. It was truly morning by then, but the dancer lingered a little longer in her own chosen hut to comb her hair out roughly before re-securing it in her usual ponytail. She freshened up a little, as best she could with what was on hand. With no leads on her fellow travelers and the Jiji's ability turning out to be nearly opposite to what she expected, Primrose decided that first order of business after their work in the Under was finished would be going to get a real bath somewhere nice. Maybe the hot springs in Gerudo Town, or getting back up to that heavenly spa. It would be nice to take Jesse, Ms. Fortune, and maybe even Rika along too. She was sure that Queen Sectonia would be up for another trip there.

When she emerged from the building as spruced up as she could make herself, there were still a handful of people around. She could hear shifting inside of nearby huts, most likely the rest of the group slowly stirring into wakefulness. She could also hear the sound of men working in the pit, continuing to mine whatever they could find on the fringe between above and beneath the earth. It was there that Primrose made her way to, considering the activity was likely to draw others towards it. Though she couldn't imagine going back under ground that way. She shielded her eyes from the sun, taking her time as she walked. The sunlight felt good after days underground.

In the various mining camps she flirted for free breakfast, leaving a trail of longing stares after her. She also spotted Nadia with a new haircut, though she scampered off somewhere quick. As far as preparations went, Primrose didn't have many to do. Her mana was replenished, and her few pieces of weaponry seemed alright. After the meal, she was more or less ready to go.

It was only a little while later that she came upon Therion. In the light of the sun he looked much more different than he had underground. It was easier to see that his skin had a pallid blue tint, and it was stretched tighter over his bones. It was an unhealthy look, but the man himself didn't seem any worse for wear. Primrose's own changes from the night before were subtle enough that they might go unnoticed, her height besides, but Therion was shrewd. He noted them immediately, though he opened the conversation with something else.

"Sold some of the stuff we don't need," he told her. "Actually, 'sold' is a bit of a strong word. Thought I was supposed to be the thief."

He wasn't upset about the paltry sum he'd gotten back; most of of it he hadn't paid for anyway, one way or another. It was the principle of the thing was all. He had elected to keep hold of most of the minerals and gems he had in case the next place their adventure brought them to didn't except geo as a currency and wouldn't exchange. The sack of it he'd accumulated wouldn't do him any good if that was the case.

"So what happened? You didn't go right to bed?" Therion asked as the two of them moved away from the bustle and up away from the crater for now. It was quite obvious what he was referring to.

"Well... It's a long story," Primrose said, in the way she would when she was intending to brush something off. Last night was hard on her mentally, from the experience in the prison with Robin, the phantom battles against Simeon, and then facing off against her self to top it all off. She hadn't wanted to let anyone know about what had happened at Jiji's, but after getting some rest and doing some thinking... and seeing Therion's altered form before her now, recalling the conversation she'd had with Ms. Fortune in the Home of Tears and how she'd cut her hair back down to her original length... maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to let everyone know there was a way to get back to normal, at least a little bit. "...so listen well."

She explained what had happened, and how the regret wasn't a fallen friend but an alternate self. She mentioned how the other Primrose had become a spirit without any ashes, and that she had fused with it. Truthfully, she didn't feel any more or less like "herself." Every spirit she'd absorbed had become a part of her, and she felt as natural with them as she felt without them. Still, if it helped any of the others, they could find more of those grotesque smelling eggs below.

Therion was bewildered by the story, but there wasn't much he could do besides accept it as truth. He'd been doing some thinking too, both the night before and that morning. Things had been getting supernatural in a real spooky way lately - the dreams, the archangel's book that Kamek had shown him, and now ghosts of living people. He had kept his nightmare from his friend, feeling that it would become prophecy if he spoke it aloud. But it was time to come clean. He returned the favor and told her about the village he'd dreamed of, the familiar inhabitants and its ultimate fate at the hands of a Consul.

His tale was grim, even if it was just a dream. Primrose pressed her lips into a thin line, thinking.

"...as you said yesterday, there isn't much use in worrying," she said. "But we'll be extra vigilant, just in case."

The call on the linkpearl came at a good time, just after the travelers had wrapped up their preparations and their more serious conversation with each other. The comment about the mask fragments surprised Primrose - she had thought they'd had all of them. She had many of them on her person now, so she wasted no time in heading to the station to meet with the Koopas. Naturally Therion tagged along.

"We'll be right there," she sent back via pearl. She'd tell them all about Confessor Jiji in person once everyone was back together.

Roxas was still getting roughed up even as the Neuron Officer showed up to help the Seekers. But after that, a lot of the clones and their legios seemed to back off and leave him alone. Guess this stranger was a bigger threat. Well, at least that meant Roxas could catch his breath and actually think for a second. Well, he would have, if he hadn’t been immediately distracted by the sight of Hayato fusing with his own Legion into… something else. Whatever that was, it was effective, taking clones left and right. And it also seemed to have the Consul frazzled too.

Speaking of, Consul Y then recalled all the clones to him and… fused with them? All of them? Fusing sometimes had unexpected side effects, but doing it en masse like this? That couldn’t possibly be good. But at least it left him with a form they could all see and hit, so that was at least something!

”It’s about time.” Roxas grumbled after seeing Sandalphon’s shot actually hit the Soul of Ambition, ”I was getting really tired of those invisible legios.” he began to run toward the newly formed boss enemy. Roxas was actually still banged up a bit from the beating he had been taking earlier from the legios, but he did get a healing pass from Blazermate overhead that gave him a much needed pick-me-up. That was just going to have to do for now. He had no MP, and even if he did, he would have wanted to preserve it to try and hit this ugly thing as hard as possible as soon as a chance opened up.

Speaking of opportunities, right about now was when Roxas saw Midna anchoring the boss’s arm to the bridge. Well, he had no MP still, but a shot was a shot. He dashed up to the spot on the bridge where the hand was and parkoured up onto it. From there Roxas ran up along the arm. The other arm inevitably tried to swipe at him, but Roxas was able to clear over it like jumping a hurdle. As he got close he saw the eyes of one of the heads glow in order to charge and shoot a laser attack. This he managed to block with his Keyblade causing the shot to redirect elsewhere. All during his run, Roxas had been taking potshots at the boss's heads using his RockGun.

But once he was close enough it was time to change it up. He ignited his StepSword and wielded it alongside a Keyblade in his right hand. He launched himself with the StepSword’s dash attack in order to get in a quick slice on the boss’s left-most head. He followed that up with a Keyblade strike and then used another StepSword dash to dodge an incoming laser shot resulting in him landing on the boss’s left shoulder and followed with a quick combo of slices.

Roxas didn’t want to be too risky so he used one more StepSword dash to launch himself away from the boss and back down to the bridge where Midna and her summoned creatures were positioned. His MP still hadn’t recharged, so he went back taking potshots with his RockGun. It was a good opening Midna had given him, but now that it was used up the only thing for Roxas to do was to keep stalling for his MP to recharge.

But once it did, then he could fight more earnestly. That had essentially become his strategy and fighting style. Fight more aggressively when he MP to spend, but reign it in and be more cautious while his MP recharged. And right now he was in one of those recharging phases. Of course, he’d capitalize on whatever opportunity one of his friends gave him like he did with Midna at the bridge. This did also make Roxas wish he had thought to buy some ethers or something similar. If he had items that could more quickly recharge or restore his MP, then he could be a lot more aggressive with his attacks and spells. Oh well, that was just something he’d have to think about in the future.

"Remind me to stockpile some Ethers if we get out of this alive." he quipped to Midna moments after he came back from his assault on the boss's heads, "The less time I have to wait for my magic to recharge, the better."

Pit was a real 'never say die' kind of guy - he tried to be, at the very least. So even with being outnumbered by the clones and their legions, which most of the party could hardly see let alone fight, he didn't consider the battle a lost cause. But not being a lost cause didn't mean it was getting any easier. Usually it was the opposite, and that was very much the case here.

After the charged shot shield pushed a host of Akiras back, more clones rushed around them with their legions leading the way. Whether their weapons were in baton mode or blaster mode, the cloned women never let up on the attack. Their legions were the same, slashing, ramming, and running amok through the group of Seekers. None were spared from taking damage; certainly not Pit, who remained in the thick of battle. When he wasn't directing the orbitars to shoot they were spinning non-stop to deflect as many attacks as possible from their wielder as he dove in to try and take the heat off of Sandalphon and Blazermate. Lots slipped through, snapping against the angel. He countered as best he could with the orbitars themselves fire wildly, but also punches, kicks, and even the occasional flash of teeth if he thought it helped. But the enemy was fighting on another plane of existence (as he understood it), and it was tiring enough that Pit couldn't even bite out a snappy reply to the Consul as he bragged about his plan.

With a stubborn grunt Pit shoved one of the clone officers away from him and jumped, using the head of another as a boost higher up. His shields came together once more, below him this time, protecting him and firing at the group below at the same time. The new vantage point gave him a great view of the newcomer making his way onto the scene, another person Pit only vaguely recognized from a few days ago. The male officer proved a threat to the Consul's schemes, immediately drawing away a large chunk of the clones - and then more, as he transformed into a fusion of man and legion.

"Whooooa, awesome!" Pit couldn't help but exclaim. He could feel a second wind brought on by the man's timely appearance, easing the Seekers' burden. He could still fight! And fight he did, going for the officers behind the legions that he couldn't see. At least, until, the Consul called them all off.

It was too much to ask that the Consul had realized he was on the losing side and would simply give up, but Pit had no idea why he'd have the attackers halt if not that. Without going on the offensive they wouldn't even be able to cover the man's retreat, should he try and run. He didn't run though, instead issuing a new kind of order. When the first pair attacked and killed each other, Pit actually yelped in surprise.

"What are they doing...?!" he said, confused and a little disturbed. It was only when Geralt called out that the Consul was going to fuse that he understood. All of the clones were sacrificing themselves for the one that controlled them. That was messed up - not that the villain cared. On top of that, during the man's monologue Master Hand disappeared. And though the scene in front of him had his attention, Pit noticed the departure all the same - as he'd been waiting for his chance to get close to the hand. "Hey, wait!" he yelled, in vain.

Things were moving fast, but at least they were moving toward the end point. Swallowing his frustration with the Master Hand, Pit returned his focus to the Consul. He recognized this as the words spouted before battle. Now returned the Palutena Bow in all of his blue and gold glory. "Get on with it so we can put you down!"

The creature that arose from the fusion of the Consul and the mutated clone spirits was massive. It also didn't scare Pit one bit. It was like Giovanna said, if they could hit it then they were already in a better situation. Sandalphon went ahead and confirmed that for them, pulling a wide grin from Pit despite the chilling execution scene just before.

"Just another day in the life of the good guys," he said, like the Consul's transformation was something normal and expected. For many of those present, it might as well have been. Following that he went right on the attack.

The glowing red eye sockets of the monster's masks were obvious weak points in Pit's professional opinion, but he guessed that the purple fleshy parts of it would be vulnerable too. The light arrows were flexible enough to try for both - starting with the charged up shots. Bigger, stronger arrows peppered the Consul's new form, some accompanied by orbs of fire. The came as fast as Pit could shoot them, which was pretty fast even including the charge time. When the spirit monster moved to swipe a mighty arm across the broken bridge, the angel jumped for the floating fragments in the ether. He could still shoot the regular arrows as he moved, and these twisted through the air to home in on the monster's big eyes.

Their latest enemy might be big and scary, but Pit would much rather fight it and dodge a bunch of lasers than keep battling an a mini-army of invisible, intangible inter-planar enemies. Even beat up as he was, he still had plenty of mobility in him left to hop around between both halves of the bridge and its debris, letting his arrows fly as he did.