Archmage MC

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 4 Roland - (5/40)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (58/120)
Level 6 Susie - (17/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 763

With Karin finishing up the rest of these things, there wasn't much to do but collect their leftover spirits or in Blazermate's case, heal. And she'd soon find with Geralt going into a blind rage due to the guardian spirit he had absorbed earlier, that she'd have a lot more healing to do especially for Goldlewis. Roland, after picking up the spirit of the thing he beat, noticed this blind rage followed by guilt and had a bit of empathy for Geralt. "Hey man, I've been there before. You'll get the hang of controlling it at some point." Roland said, although in his case, it was a bit different. He would've said more, but there wasn't time for it as another big enemy appeared, chasing after the VIP they had just rescued.

With their flight, Blazermate and Susie were able to get away from the big creature without too much difficulty with Blazermate able to help the slowest member of their group if they weren't too heavy. Roland, still charged by his emotions, was also pretty fast even though he was on the ground. Without her hands being free though, Blazermate was unable to heal anyone as she flew, which also meant she wasn't able to give anyone an uber if they needed it. At least they could get a headstart with the creature posturing and acting all threatening.

When they escaped the portal, something wasn't right. Out of a case the VIP had, was some purple liquid that the hermits called the 'elixir of immortality'. And boy these hermits were being awfully suspicious Roland thought, expecting a backstab but not surprised about it. And even though they had been running and fighting all day, having even fought some of these hermits earlier, it seemed their elixir had caused them to redshift. "Well, thats one way to become 'immortal'." with Blazermate saying. "I am so sick and tired of everyone we meet backstabbing us in this city!", Roland almost giving a schadenfreude chuckle at her naivety as he got ready to fight.

Having no time to rest, Roland was still at emotion level 3 so he was starting combat a lot stronger than others had seen him at this time and started to intercept and clash attacks like he usually did. Having more than 4 allies with him in this fight, he had his full strength gain from Courage and numbers appeared above the heads of the hermits. But due to the sheer amount of them, keeping to the number path would be difficult, meaning they'd be resetting every 10 seconds when someone inevitably hit the wrong one. Susie decided to stay at range and fire her missiles at whatever Other she could, and Blazermate did what she did and healed, having a projectile shield to deal some damage and protect others from ranged stuff for awhile.

After a few amount of clashes, Roland had gotten his emotion to level 4, gaining "Power of the Past", reducing his speed but greatly increasing his strength. This came with the usual quote being emitted, from what sounded like a witch. "I want you to feel it all the same… The misery of forgetting it all… losing it all…". Roland also got an EGO page, "Faded Memories", which he used right away to give his allies and himself a possible strength buff. Roland, donning a decayed looking dress, blasted the area with a strange dust that smelled of cinnamon that attacked the mind of the Abberations as the yellow wisps changed the immediate area into a ddecrepit ruin filled with emerald mist., with some pillars able to be used for cover if needed for the 10 seconds it would be up. This would spawn platforms for those who were on an already elevated part of the environment, not caring for if they were friend or foe so they wouldn't fall.

Once the area dissipated, with Roland clashing during the whole thing and Susie shooting her missiles to give some cover alongside Sandalphon, Roland had finally gotten to Emotion level 5 as the fight was wrapping up. This was the final push everyone needed as Roland gained "False Present", giving himself and every one of his allies a strength and defense boost, but making them take more mental damage if there was any. And with this quote, a much more sinister witch voice could be heard, saying. "Drink this potion, it’ll give you courage. You’ll be braver than anyone." He'd also gain the EGO page "Harvest", but the battle was closing soon so there wasn't really much reason to use it.

World of Light

Zenkichi Hasegawa
Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 4 Roland - (3/40)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (56/120)
Level 6 Susie - (15/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Lvl 4 Zenkichi - (75/40) -> Lvl 4 (78/240)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 1638

With the defeat of the Tyrant, Roland did what he came to do and crushed the spirit to see what he'd get. Last time he got a crossbow, this time however, he wanted to see what would happen. Susie, with Blazermate's help looted the crate meanwhile.

For Roland

Robosaurus Hunter Bundle
A full suit of futuristic armor modeled after the apex predators of the ancient past. It provides solid defense and limited EVA operations, as well as better defense against electricity, heat, and dark/void attacks

Inside the freighter are a handful of Bacon Agaric samples, which are mushrooms that taste like bacon and provide 20% healing when eaten, various components like modular frames, automated wiring, circuit boards, and crystal oscillators, a radio control unit, and some packaged liquid biofuel. (For Susie)

Roland was expecting a weapon, but got armor instead? Were these always just random? Seeing as the two bots knew what was going on, he asked, and Blazermate gave him a resounding. "Yep! Be glad its not bolts or something. We've seen weird things come from crushing spirits sometimes." Roland shrugged, and decided he'd at least try this armor the next time he got the opportunity to change.

Having discovered another rift with a VIP inside, Roland, Susie and Blazermate were told where to meet up. They met up with everyone else at the portal as Goldweis and Geralt jumped in to handle what was in there. While waiting, Roland decided to pass some time asking Zenkichi. "So... what did you do while you explored the area?"

As Zenkichi met up with the others while Goldlewis and Geralt headed into the portal, Roland struck up a conversation. "Checked out the lower areas. Found a kid. Sounds like he made it back alright, or I think Halo would've said something." Zenkichi's tone was a bit more matter-of-fact than the others were probably used to, and he sighed. "I hate this place already."

"yeah. I hear ya pal." Roland said giving a knowing sigh. " Me and the robot sisters over there fought some giant dinosaur robot for supplies. Pretty sure the pink one has them." Roland continued, being a bit more expressive than Zebkichi but sharing his disdain for the area. Susie only looked at the two chatting puzzled, but mostly just sat around doing a bit of bookkeeping on her PDA. Blazermate stood at attention, but more or less was waiting as well.

"Nice. Hope you got something useful out of it. I've got a couple Spirits but...not sure what I'm gonna do with em. Actually...lemme crush this one." Pulling out the Lady Nya'gai Spirit, Zenkichi glared angrily at the monster before crushing its Spirit. The umbrella that it left behind was..not actually unexpected. He'd have to give it a closer look later, though.

It was then that Sandalphon called for the others to enter the portal, and they went in. They had to wait around a bit while the fliers activated some moving platforms that wouldn't have looked too out of place in a Mario game. Carefully traversing the platforms, Zenkichi found himself wildly uncomfortable here. Being inside of one of these portals, in another dimension, was disturbing. It felt fundamentally wrong.

Perhaps even more wrong than that was the strange portal of dark energy that appeared, letting out a group of armed combatants that looked very, very strange. Definitely not human, especially given the centaur-looking one they had with them. "They...definitely don't look friendly." Zenkichi muttered.

"Do ANY of these monsters look friendly?" Roland said with a bit of sarcasm as he pulled out a sword and got ready for combat.

"I mean, they're not here right now but some of the Machines look kind of friendly" He retorted sarcastically, Closing Statement appearing in his hands as he buffed Roland's attack with Tarukaja. "What do ya say we take the sword guys?" Zenkichi posited to Roland.

He didn't have to tell Roland twice. Getting a buff from Zenkichi, Roland went in to clash swords with one of the sword guys. His first slash caught the creature off guard, but the creature pushed him away by overpowering his second slash. As he did the smell of coffee whisked by him as he remembered a certain coffee nut librarian. He gained some Courage from this clash, with a gruff voice saying"There’s nothing that can stop us!" buffing his strength by an additional 10% as he had 3 allies backing him up.

Blazermate and Susie meanwhile went to work on the centaur and the two cannon soldiers. With Blazermate's ability to conjure a projectile shield and Susie able to give Blazermate a good solid wall to hide behind, it was surprisingly effective. At first Susie went for the centaur that charged her, pulling out her business suit and getting ready to box it as Blazermate healed her and summoned her engineer spirit to start making a sentry gun. The cannon guys backed up the charging centaur, aiming at Susie's business suit as they weren't aware of her weakness quite yet. Susie still reflexively blocked her pillot seat with a single fist, while using the other to punch the centaur down and away, which sort of gave that away later, but their target would quickly change as the engineer constructed his level 1 sentry which started to shoot at the centaur and put continuous damage on it.

Zenkichi followed closely after Roland, his sword coming down in a heavy overhand swing on the other Voidranger. The space-themed villain deftly deflected the sword sideways, thrusting in with its other blade. Zenkichi tanked the hit, one hand coming off the Closing Statement and letting it crash into the ground as he drew his pistol, point-blank dumping its cylinder into the Voidranger's gut and recovering a bit of health.

The dual-wielding swordsman quickly stepped sideways when the revolver clicked empty, attacking with both blades while Zenkichi stowed his empty pistol. Once again tanking the hits thanks to Closing Statements bulk making it difficult to block with, Zenkichi retaliated with a series of heavy slashes, trading blows with the first hit, while the Voidranger dodged the second and third.

"Valjean! Deathbound!" Zenkichi called as a follow-up, a wide swarm of hands appearing from the ground beneath them all, swiping twice at both Voidrangers. The first attack caught his enemy off-guard, leaving it open for both the second swipe of the summoned hands to strike it, as well as a running slash from Zenkichi. The attack had enough power behind it to bowl the Voidranger over in a tumbling roll backwards, which it dextrously recovered from by pushing off the ground with its hands and springing into place.

With Roland dealing with one of the Voidrangers and Zenkichi dealing with the other, one of the cannon guys broke off from its fight with Blazermate and Susie to shoot a shot at Roland. Using his hammer at that time to clash against and parry the sword of his current target, he had to reflexively counter the shot only to get knocked back by it. Susie capitalized on that by striking it with a giant fist while Roland rolled back to his feet and went to break through another sword combo using his lance. This gave him Gleaning as a higher timber voice said. "Good… Very good… I’ll be smarter the more I eat, right…?" To assist Zenkichi, Roland gave him a bit of cover fire from his gun, shooting the creature he was fighting.

Being near the ranged fighters now, the centaur and the other cannon soldier attempted to get Susie off of their third partner. Knowing to aim for the girl inside the giant robot, they focused their attacks there, but Blazermate activated her projectile shield to neutralize the cannon shot and slow down the centaur long enough for Susie to grab it, spin it around, and throw it away. Susie then went back to working on the unfortunate cannon guy before her.

"Thanks!" Zenkichi called as a burst of gunfire hit the Voidranger, giving Zenkichi an opening to crash the Closing Statement into its torso, following up with a rising diagonal slash that was caught and deflected before Zenkichi took a slash to the chest. Grunting, he bashed the Voidranger in the face with the crossguard of his sword, stunning the enemy long enough for Valjean to land a One-Shot Kill, which performed just as advertised, reducing the enemy to ash.

"I see why you got this job." Roland said as he went to clash his giant sword against the other Voidranger, easily overpowering it's first slash and slightly parrying the second, but getting hit with it's final part of its sword combo. It then took a defensive posture as Roland struck at it with his daggers in 3 quick dashes. The Voidranger took to damage but that was all Roland needed to get to Emotion level 3. This time, he got the power of Home, in which a young girl's voice said. "Friends. Oh, friends. Will we get to go home?" Which caused the numbers 1 through 4 to appear over the enemies heads. As well as an EGO page, The Homing Instinct. Roland said. "Hit them in order to do lots of damage." As Roland did just that, firing his crossbow on the distracted centaur which caused the 1 to disappear over its head and causing it extra pain. Susie followed up by shooting a missile at the one with 2 over its head, the extra damage finally destroying the cannon soldier.

Zenkichi charged the weakened Voidranger, his speed and dexterity boosted by Closing Statement against the wounded enemy, and crashed into it with a savage swing down its chest. The Voidranger skid back from the blow before leaping in to counter-attack.

Roland, having gotten an EGO page, decided why not use it now? And with a flutter of will-o-wisps the area changed into a grass hill with a road leading to an emerald castle with Roland now wearing a suit and top hat. With a one armed bow and a snap of his fingers, a small prairie house was conjured, then fell on the Voidranger. The Centaur, rearing up to attack Susie with a rush from its hooves, was immune to the attack, but the Voidranger wasn't so lucky as it got hit by a literal house that disappeared a second after it landed filling every one of Roland's allies and himself with hope and 10% more power. Although hit by a house, the attack didn't seem to do as much damage as you'd think.

Rushing in once the house was gone, Zenkichi stood over the stunned Voidranger, looking down on him and shaking his head. "Tough luck..." He muttered, stabbing his sword down into the enemy, who dissolved into ash immediately with the killing blow.

"And make that two."

And with 2 left, one weakened, the fight goes on...

World of Light

Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (23/110)
Location: The Under - DRG
Word Count: Less than 750.

Getting out of that crypt was something Sectonia was all for and once she had her soul back and was offered a way out, she was all for it. It was suggested that they contact ganondorf and the others that hadn't entered the crypt with them, but apparently they had found a way out of the under on their own? Well, she guessed thats fine? Either way, they had a bit more to ascend until they got to the area with this 'dream' manipulation item thing, and the next spot was a giant tree with red vines invasive infecting it. There were many bugs about, some small, some large, and some in nests like the various wasps. There were also 'other' things that, by observation, were quite dangerous to step into as one zombie from the crypt soon learned.

"From a crypt to a parasite infested tree." Sectonia said with a sigh. She perked up a little bit though when they ran into 4 dwarves, one of them she... sorta recognized? But the outfit and face was different. After they gave their names and objective, she said. "Hm? Wasn't your name Scout?" pointing at the dwarf with the grapple gun. The dwarf gave her a curious look. "I'm a scout, sure enough, but that's just my job. Ain't a name." Sectonia gave a short hmph, before saying. "I see, the other dwarf we saw must've been too embarrassed to give out his name then."

And there wasn't all that much time for more chat, as the glyphids and other bugs started to swarm as if something agitated them. Seeing as they were all hostile, there wasn't much to do but fight them. Seeing as Sectonia flew, she could stay out of the range of many of the grounded glyphids which noticed this too, and only ever tried to even go after the queen when she got close to a wall and she was the 'closest', but they really never got the chance. There were ranged bugs though, and these would be much more likely to target Sectonia since she was closest to them.

First, to deal with the ground targets and help those were were bound to it, Sectonia summoned her antillions to assist with their fire, frost, and lightning. Thanks to the fire caused by the dwarven driller's flamethrower, when he set a bug on fire and her ice antillion hit it with its ice attacks, the bug would die almost instantly out of shock. Of course there were... hundreds of them so the occasional thermal shock kill wasn't a big deal. Sectonia herself also caused a bit of chaos at first with her passive tesla coil shocking nearby glyphids and her spells able to do some AoE to clear some of them out. This was until she got hit by the acid of an acid spitter and changed her focus.

Sectonia ended up dedicating a lot of her time dealing with the red bugs crawling on the ceiling that spit acid that burned like crazy or the purple ones that spit webbing as they tended to target her more than the others. The purple ones were very easy to see, as their bio luminescent coloring made them stick out. The red ones however, could hide in the darkness better. If she hadn't eaten that moon stone, more than just a couple would be able to hit her and her allies with their acid once she was on the case of dealing with them. But thanks to that item, she could see in the dark fairly decently. It wasn't perfect nightvision, not at all, but her sight radius was bigger than the others in the darkness. Although there wasn't all that much darkness for long with the koopa troop doing their thing and Sectonia's own magic flying about.

She would find however, while hunting the acid and web spitters, that her swords and new staff were far more reliable due to the... uneven segments of the cavern roof and walls. While still fairly spacious due to the tree's giant size, it was easier to stab these bugs than strike them with lightning in most cases.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (0/40) Level up! Learned EGO Pages.
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (53/120)
Level 6 Susie - (12/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 1006

Well, that fight happened. Blazermate thought it was unnecessary, since they were all in it to make the city better and beat this ever crisis right? Roland held no hard feelings, as that was just how things went, and Susie was more annoyed than anything. At least these hermits gave Roland the ammo he needed for his new crossbow and more ammo for his gun. Susie meanwhile looked around the base for anything worthwhile. Seeing as they traded in intel, perhaps she'd hear something juicy. Although to be fair, they already had a goal in mind. And Blazermate healed up the hurt Hermits, seeing as they were allies now.

Looking about the ruins outside the hermit base, there were a few locations of interest their sniper angel looked out for. One caught the interest of Susie and Roland, a large robot called a Tyrant. It was said to be guarding some supplies, and no one was sure what those were. But they would be valuable, and the robot itself was greatly damaged already.

Having learned that he could make weapons from creatures, Roland was more willing to fight the damaged Tyrant, but only with support. He had that support though, as Susie was interested in what it was guarding and Blazermate wasn't hard for Susie to convince, as the medabot even though she was complaining earlier about having to fight the hermits was fine helping her friends. And it was a good thing that Blazermate came, as her projectile shield would make the Tyrant's ranged weapons fairly useless for a short time. And with Blazermate being able to pre buff both Roland and Susie, and charge her own abilities in the meanwhile at her own request. "Usually we get jumped, its rare we get time for me to get all fully charged like this." Blazermate said. Having seen her abilities firsthand, there weren't any complaints from Susie or Roland.

Their assault wasn't purely stealthy however. While they could get ready, once they started to advance on the Tyrant, it went into defensive mode. As Blazermate and Susie flew to advance while Roland had to run along the ground, the Tyrant opened up with its attacks much like they thought it would. With her shield charged, Blazermate simply deployed her projectile shield to nullify the anti air missiles headed the team's way. Even the Plasma cannon got evaporated by the projectile shield, giving the team an easy time getting in melee range.

And oh boy once that distance was closed, everyone went to business. Sure Blazermate's projectile shield didn't last much beyond the initial rush up, but thats all the group needed. In melee range, its frontal cannon was completely useless as while it could turn, the rest of the team was too fast for it to get a shot off. And as it only had limited missiles, soon realizing that the blue shield like object that the one robot had used seemed to blink them out of existence, waiting for the shield to go down to use the rest. Susie flew about on her transporter, keeping to its side and shooting it with her blaster, with Roland and Blazermate on the other side hitting it with Kritz.

Seeing something glowing was probably a bad thing, especially since it was cutting through its armor, or so thought the Tyrant. Well if its ranged weapons weren't going to work, it'd use its jaws and tail. Shifting its body, it struck Roland with its tail in an attempt to get him off of it. Roland's counter went off, but the tail was just a bit too strong for his current weapon and knocked him back. Seeing Roland take that hit, but being mostly fine because of his overheal, Blazermate took the opportunity as the Tyrant was recovering from its attack to smack it a couple times to get some uber, before going back to heal Roland. Susie meanwhile plunked away at the robot with her blaster, unable to get any elements due to their team composition.

Seeing an opportunity as Roland recovered, the Tyrant tried stomping on him, but Roland wasn't new to combat and rolled out of the way before retaliating with his own gun. Unlike when he was krit boosted, the damage was much lower, but there were spots to hit to at least do some kind of damage. This whole exchange gave Roland Timber, a mechanical voice saying. "I crammed all I could find into this empty canister… yet it is… still cold…" as Roland gained a surge of strength as the Tyrant was stronger than he was. It wasn't enough yet to allow Roland to overpower the giant mech, but at least his attacks would be doing more damage.

Blazermate, now being the focus of the Tyrant, got into a defensive stance with her shield up as Roland got back in to deal with the Tyrant. Seeing Blazermate as a flying target that healed, the Tyrant started to shoot missiles at her while trying to swipe at Susie with its tail. Susie's transporter let her dodge the tail swipes without much issue. Meanwhile Blazermate had to defend from an AA missile using her arm shield before Roland got back and tried to deflect a second missile going for her with his hammers. Of course the missile overpowered him, but Roland was starting to get a bit more reckless as Blazermate gave him more heals. After clashing with another kick using his large sword and only deflecting the attack, another message floated through the air as Roland got Courage, a beast like voice saying. "Friend. Oh, friends~! Let’s not be scared!" Although since there were only two allies with him, Roland only felt the normal power of his heightened emotions instead of the abnormality. Still, he wanted to get this fight all done and over with and with a couple slashes with his twin swords on a joint that exposed itself as it made another swipe at Susie, the Tyrant stumbled for a bit.

Susie saw this and took advantage, hopping into her business suit and tackling it to the ground. The trio took this opportunity to get some damage in before the Tyrant, seeing things weren't going to be easy, decided it'd spend all its missiles to get back up, making the trio not only disengage, but hitting Susie, Roland, and Blazermate's arm shield with said rockets as it got back up. Noticing Susie in her giant mech, it used its superior size to bowl her over in a charge as she was recovering form the missile strike, causing her mech ot fall over for a bit. Seeing its opportunity, it tried to shoot her with its plasma cannon and finish off one of them, but since Blazermate had been in the recent dogpile, she had gained another dose of Uber and used it to protect Susie from the devastating weapon, not only confusing the Tyrant as it thought it had gotten one them, but giving Roland an opening to strike at an exposed weak point. Which his distraction and the two invincible robot girls attacking all at once, with Blazermate being able to swap her uber to Roland if he was in danger o being attacked, the Tyrant eventually fell.

World of Light

Grift of the NecroDancer

Level 12 Nadia (76/120)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC
Group Word Count: 1820 (+3)

Bit by bit, the Seekers scattered throughout the Crypt amassed the requisite points and made their way to their final destination. Finding it wasn’t exactly difficult to begin with, but by now the heroes found no shortage of undead denizens only too happy to point them in the right direction. Even in the short time they’d been here so far, the newcomers were attracting a lot of attention. Fresh meat was a hot commodity in this bizarre sepulcher, and from the outset the some of the new contractors’ hungriest and most hopeful predecessors were out for blood, gunning for the Seekers in order to win a new lease of life. Rather than fall prey to the horde, however, the newcomers danced their way through a handful of high-profile victories, not only squashing a couple rival contractors but even knocking a couple Floorbosses down a peg. Frankensteinway, the Dead Ringer, and Coral Riff were no pushovers, after all. Though some undead were jealous, many were now rooting for the Seekers, especially the three who outmaneuvered Floorbosses: Bowser, Primrose, and Ms. Fortune. Hyped up by the newcomers’ meteoric rise, the dead knew just what was in store and couldn’t wait to see it; even if salvation might be beyond their reach, they could live vicariously through the Seekers as they went on to contest, trounce, and regain their souls from the NecroDancer.

Nadia and the others scarcely needed to ask directions; the tide of bones, ectoplasm, and rotting flesh practically swept them all the way to the lich’s lair. Before long, she came to a stop in a grand, vaulted throne room of dark stone brick, evil black spikes, crimson banners, and infernal flame. A steady beat filled the place that dictated the flutter of firelight and tapestry alike, just audible enough to build anticipation for now, as the undead spread out to create a perimeter around the dance floor. On the far side of the room, watching the horde filter in with a deep scowl upon his face, was the NecroDancer himself. He was bald, gray-bearded, noseless, and vividly red-eyed, with only the thinnest veneer of shrunken blue skin stretched over his bones. His black robes and fancy shoulder pads were complimented by a magnificent mantle of rich ruby red, though, with a collar of suitably impressive height. Somehow, he looked exactly how Nadia pictured him.

Next to the NecroDancer floated an opulent golden lute, awash in the purple aura of sorcery, and to either side of his throne lay huge shelves full of parchment scrolls, no doubt all his ill-gotten contracts. Quite the track record, Nadia thought, crossing her arms as she met the NecroDancer’s eyes. Too bad we’re gonna smash it today. As they sized one another up, she put on a confident smirk, as if to say ‘I thought you’d be bigger’. With both her wins and her friends at her back, she could afford to be a little cocky. She, Primrose, Bowser, and Sectonia had all danced their way here to the finish line, while Junior, Kamek, Rika and Therion waited in the wings. Somehow, the thief had managed to repossess his soul all on his own, which both surprised and made perfect sense to Nadia at the same time. If there was some clever loophole or workaround, of course that clever conniver would find it. Only Artorias abstained, which also made sense. No matter how hard she tried, the feral couldn’t picture that edgy, angsty antihero tearing up the dance floor. For now, everyone had a few moments to speak before they posed their official challenge to the NecroDancer.

In that lull, one other familiar face put in an appearance. “Room for one more?” a bright, high voice chirped from behind the Seekers. When they turned, they found the tall ears, fluffy tail, and winning smile of a certain foxian beauty: the Crypt’s Amicassador, Tingyun. She winked at them. “I knew I had a good feeling about you, benefactors! After seeing you for myself, I couldn’t help but want to tag along.” When she snapped her fingers, ghostly wisps gave rise to the realization that since Therion saw her last, the fan-dancer had earned herself another 1100 points, putting her at ten thousand exactly.

Nadia grinned. After Reva it was nice to see a friendly foxgirl for a change. “The more the merrier!”

Therion hadn't expected to see her here, especially not as a competitor, figuring that she might as well have been part of the "staff." But, no, seeing as she'd lost her soul just like the rest of the unlucky people who'd been trying to pass through, it made sense that she'd take the best opportunity given to her to win it back. With that train of thought he was surprised more random contractors didn't throw their lots in with the Seekers.

"It can't hurt anyway. Join the conga line."

Sectonia looked over the area, not really enjoying the massive amount of undead. “Well, I suppose the fact that this one relies on trickery instead of raw power is shown evidently with the company he keeps. But speaking of trickery, I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of it.” Sectonia said, musing at the past couple hours.

”Can’t fault the guy’s style though, this is a great final boss chamber” Bowser commented, before adding that ”and yeah, I’d almost be disappointed if he doesn't one up his floor boss” apparently in full badguy critic mode.

”Well or the style of someone else Galeem gave him” Kamek replied inorder to kick their foe down a few pegs, before suggesting ”Speaking of trickery, perhaps it would help if we held back on our intervention unless things looked dire? You know, keep the exact numbers of our forces obscured till the final moment”

“This is a good ‘final boss’ chamber? It's just a crypt with some drapes. Where are the neon lights, or the dramatic moon backdrop, or the opulent crystals. It's a ‘mid boss’ at best.” Sectonia said, giving her own criticisms.

Nadia stared at the two blankly. “The heck’re you guys talkin’ about? Shouldn’t we be…I dunno, strategizin’?” She glanced over at Tingyun. “You oughta know somethin’, right? Anyone ever fight… uh, I mean, dance against this skele-bum before?”

Tingyun tapped a slender finger against her cheek thoughtfully. “Why certainly, my noble benefactor. However, the NecroDancer is a most daunting opponent. In addition to possessing destructive sorceries, he can leverage those unfortunate contractors whose souls have been devoured to support him.” She narrowed her eyes at the ghoulish lich. “Of course, having lost everything once already, I have no intention of tasting such bitterness again. If we’re able to win our souls back and escape with our lives, it’ll be a first for the Crypt. Better late than never~”

“So it’s just like the Floorbosses?” Nadia received a nod from the Amicassador, then smiled glumly. “And here I was thinkin’ we’d actually have to out-dance him. Figures.”

Primrose looked from Tingyun to the NecroDancer. After seeing the bosses that she and Nadia went up against she'd had a feeling that the NecroDancer might be more of the same, but to have it confirmed left her feeling disappointed.

"I hope I'm not the only one let down by all this," she said. Nadia nodded her agreement.

“Hm? Were the floor bosses not just a more complex dance fight?” Sectonia said, catching a hint of what Nadia had just said. Unlike the others, she took the slow safer path of dealing with other contractors than going straight for a floor boss like the others.

Nadia chuckled wryly. “Nah, they just try and kill ya. Can’t dance on ‘em if you’re dead I guess.”

”And I suppose much like the other dancers, you can’t fight back. Wonderful….” Sectonia said, rolling her eyes in a sarcastic tone.

”I would not be surprised if he would be as bad at that as the other undead seem to be. Quite the hypocrite really, creating a dance based dungeon when he is incapable of doing so. Perhaps he is sour about that, which is why he has built this place to strip the talent from others” Kamek psychoanalysised rather loudly.

"You think so?" A man yearning to express himself but being unable to might have cut a tragic figure, if not for the whole stealing souls thing. She appraised the lich sitting on his throne, a subtle smirk forming on her face. "Then I suppose he really won't like being shown up."

"The motive doesn't matter," Therion pointed out. "Just beating him at his own game."

”Strategy wise, I dunno. Maybe if Sec goes first she can use her speed up power on people once she’s got her soul back?” Jr, who was the tactical stratgist of the troop’s sub group depite his being a wreckless kid, suggested ”It’d make playing keep away way easier for everyone, that is for sure”

“Well if you insist…” Sectonia said, taking the bite of flattery and offering to go first. Even so, she knew herself that Primrose at least was better than her at this, so at least the group had that in their back pockets. She did mention softly to Jr.s plan, almost inaudibly for the others. “Although I am not sure you all will even need my assistance in that manner…”

As the Seekers approached with Sectonia in the lead, the clattering and groaning dead grew quiet as the grave. All eyes (or eye sockets, as it were) lay on the NecroDancer, and after a moment, the lich stood up from his throne. “So. These are the intrepid newcomers garnering fame in my Crypt, come to die,” he rasped, his voice a bone-dry, papery growl full of menace. His red eyes narrowed at Tingyun. “And I had such high hopes for you, my Amicassador. Was one undeath not enough?”

Tingyun stared back at him coolly. “Aw, let’s not fight~”

“Hmph.” The NecroDancer turned his attention to Sectonia. “You’re the first, then? Let’s get this over with.” He raised a bony hand and snapped his fingers to start the music.

"Good luck," Primrose bid the queen.

"I'd say break a leg but, you know."

Sectonia nodded, acknowledging the gesture. To be frank, she was nervous, but she wasn’t going to show that to anyone here and steeled her resolve for this ‘dance fight’.

Starting with a slower song it seemed, at least this ‘NecroDancer’ had taste. The other club music she had been dancing to was… fine she supposed, but this was more something she preferred. Perhaps he knew what his opponents would like, but as to why she didn’t know. Maybe a way to drop their guard?

Out of everyone in the group, Sectonia was the weakest of their dancers. Still, she wasn’t going to let some ugly creature beat her grace. Although unlike the others, she didn’t actually fight a floor boss, so she wasn’t aware of their unique mechanics of being able to attack while they dance. Her opponents had passively done their attacks while they danced, but this was more deliberate.

Unfortunately for her, the slow start to the song made it difficult to actually dodge the attacks of the NecroDancer and still keep herself on beat. While he didn’t start with any minions, only himself, that didn’t really matter too much. In fact, he seemed to not even care too much about dancing, only giving minimal effort. This let him concentrate his attacks on the queen. Getting hit by chain lightning and icicle rain wasn’t the best feeling, but she at least had a great amount of magic resistance so she only took half damage from them. She could at least teleport away from the occasional slower spell as the NecroDancer took advantage of Sectonia’s inability to really dance away from his spells. Still though, she had to enact her magical barrier from her pipe of insight to not take too much damage from an oncoming large fireball as the song finally went to the chorus.

And as if on cue, the Necrodancer summoned two minions with a showmanship flourish, a Golden Bat and a dancing mummy to join in as the song went from a slow organ waltz to something far more energetic. If she wasn’t dancing for her ‘soul’ as it were, Sectonia would actually applaud this undead fiend’s choice in music as the rock guitar paired with the organ was something she liked and for a moment she kept up with the accelerated beat of the song once the guitar dropped unaided, using her wings to flutter to the faster instrument of the guitar while still doing her waltz movement to the organ.

She found herself flying a bit higher over the battlefield than she was before with her ‘excitement’. This faster pace also allowed her far more opportunities to teleport in order to dodge attacks. The NecroDancer meanwhile, had stopped with his vague dancing and was just attempting to strike down this giant bee with more rapid spell casting as his minions attempted to approach Sectonia, but only the bat could get any damage in as she was too high for the mummy and its backup dancer, another mummy, to hit with their attacks.

The NecroDancer, meanwhile, used her height advantage to hit her with harder to dodge icicle rains or lightning strikes. While Sectonia had more opportunities to dodge with her teleport, the increased stress plus her lack of dance experience put her off-beat, which really messed with her teleport timings and made her get hit roughly every other attack. Upon noticing this after getting hit twice, she summoned her Chaos Shield, which absorbed a large amount of damage for her for its duration.

And then the song sped up, again. Considering how difficult she was finding it to dance on beat already, and how the Necrodancer didn’t even need to follow the beat to do anything, Sectonia needed to use what she had been using previously to out-dance the other contractors, her Hsate. While still fast, the song had slowed down a bit to roughly when it started to enter the chorus, even if it sounded really distorted now. But now wasn’t the time to enjoy the music, but to keep herself on beat so she stopped taking so much damage from the various fireballs, icicles, thunder, and the occasional rock thrown her way. Sure her Chaos Shield was durable, but it did have a limit and she really didn’t want to have it expire too soon as she really didn’t know when the song was going to end, it just seemed to keep on going and going.

The necrodancer noticed Sectonia’s use of haste, although probably a bit too late. This intruder had gone from being very off beat, to keeping up with the song now? He was frustrated with her defensive magic and now something to speed her up? He was tired of this nonsense, and unlike Sectonia, he knew the end of the song was coming up. He wasn’t going to lose to some… Amateur that cheated to win. And with the song on its slower end where it started to finish, the NecroDancer channeled a big spell and having gotten used to how she blinked on certain beats, hit her with a massive necro blast before the song finished.

Sectonia meanwhile had only gotten a small boost from her Haste, and it wore off at an inappropriate time, the blast connecting and shattering the remains of her shield and dealing some nasty damage. She was still flying as it were as the smoke cleared and the song ended, with Sectonia barely, barely beating the NecroDancer as a lot of her off beat moves were during the part of the song worth massive points. But with the lich playing with his food as it were and hoping he could finish her off before the song ended to claim another soul, he underestimated the Queen's hardiness however.

Still, Sectonia was showing signs of damage after tanking so many attacks, having difficulty toughing out the damage she had taken. She would heal in time, using a combination of her Pipe of Inisght’s passive regeneration and her new barkskin ability that increased her health regeneration, but it was a close one in both regards.

“Whoooooooo! Hell yeah!” Nadia cheered along with the koopa troop and a whole crowd of undead as everyone went nuts. Sectonia might be feeling angry and sore, but she’d managed to achieve something remarkable: defeating the NecroDancer in his once-sided dance-off, despite all the cards stacked in his favor.

Understandably, the NecroDancer did not share the Seekers’ nor the audience’s enthusiasm. With a deep scowl, he addressed the bug that beat him. “...I will return your soul after this.”

Individual Count: 1071 (+2)

World of Light

Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (15/110)
Location: The Under - Necrodancer
Word Count: Less than 750.

Well, there wasn't all that much to do but head on and do these 'dance battles'. Sectonia decided to, instead of going into the deep end like Bowser, to 'practice' on some of the undead ghouls. This she'd find, was a good idea if a bit unsavory. These undead creatures could barely keep to a beat as advertised, they were unsightly, and the smell... Well, she did learn something from her first fight. She was unable to attack. Or more specifically, the rules were that a contractor couldn't attack during the dance fight. Self buffs were ok though, and with that known aver the course of a few dance fights with a few more undead, Sectonia got her score to 1000 without much trouble and decided that she'd try to do her dance fight against much more beautiful creatures. That way her building rage at the ugliness of everything around her would be soothed, if just a little bit.

Her first real challenge came when she looked over the other Contractors, and found some long legged plant creature that looked like a leek onion. It didn't seem like its mental facilities were all there, only saying a single word which Sectonia would learn is its name after the fact. Seeing as Sectonia was only really accustomed to a more noble kind of dance instead of the more bombastic view of a lot of what she had been hearing, this was probably one of the best, or worst, opponents Sectonia could've chosen. Being a ballerina dancer, which was close to Sectonia's dancing style of more of a ballroom dance. However, the shockwaves left behind by the Hisuian Liligant's occasional powerful stomps were ineffective as Sectonia just floated over them. Sectonia meanwhile used her Haste during 'faster' parts of the song to keep up with the dancing style she was used to, as hasting herself 'slowed down' the song from her perspective letting her keep the beat easier. With the pokemon, while a good dancer, unable to really change its dancing style to match the song, when the song was over Sectonia had won with more points thanks to her haste and had gotten 1500 points from the plant pokemon.

Her next challenge was with Fleurina, a duck wearing what looked like a Tornado. Being a wind type creature, it did a more spin like dance that was a much faster pace of what Sectonia was doing. This had the opposite effect of what her previous opponent did. While Fleurina could land fast parts of a song with no problems, but due to it living up to its decorative bottom, it couldn't handle the slower parts of the song. And on top of that, there was tons of turbulent winds as this tornado duck danced, which was annoying for Sectonia has it made her own dancing a bit difficult. At least until she put up her Chaos Shield and the winds just bounced off of her more or less as much like herself, they weren't attacks, just something passive that happened. All in all, this dance was harder than the former, but more because of the winds than the method of dance, and gave Sectonia 3500 points.

So far, Sectonia had gotten 5500 points, and hadn't turned any of the other contractors into the undead which she was secretly thankful for since she had only danced with things she approved of after her little training session. But she still needed 4500 points, and at this point the koopa troop had finished their fight with a floor guardian and gotten their score completed in full. Finding another contractor, she came across a pink haired, very excitable girl that just seemed to have small balloons come out of them whenever they moved. Shrugging, as she was more rushing to save face than selecting someone of a good disposition, Sectonia went into a dance fight with this one. Out of the three, this was the hardest of the three. Unlike the others, this one just focused on the dancing, and considering her name was Party Girl, she was very, very familiar with these kind of song beats and could dance at both the slow parts and the fast parts. Although she was a bit aggressive with her dancing, which caused her to get knocked over by Sectonia doing one of her hip sways as the girl tried to trip up the bee queen instead.

Still, Sectonia was behind the party girl for a majority of the dance fight, until the whole knock over part, which brought the two on even footing. And this wasn't something this party girl wanted, so to try to land a strong finisher near the end of the song, they pulled out a large cannon filled with confette and fired a confette cannon ball as a dance finisher at Sectonia. Apparently from what Sectonia learned later (And feel to a lesser extent now) this attack would often knock out her competition if she was in a losing position, while acting like a bit of a flourish and thus avoiding the contractor rules a bit. But considering Sectonia was much, much tougher than anything the party girl had danced with before, this backfired as Sectonia survived the hit without much pain, and the confette gave Sectonia a sparkling finish instead, winning her the fight and giving her the remaining 4500 points she needed to challenge the necrodancer. Although now she was covered in glitter and confette, and that annoyed her when she realized that fact considering how difficult glitter was to get off. Although considering the party girl lost all of her points and became a zombie version of herself, there was only so much Sectonia could rage at.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (21/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (44/120)
Level 6 Susie - (3/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 1619

Susie and Roland didn't have as much luck as some of the others of figuring out where the Hermits were, and as they rejoined the group alongside Blazermate who had just been helping out the town passively. The others had found a proper way to get in contact with the hermits, and it was about time to go and see them. And when they got there, it seemed that they'd all be getting into another fight.

Still, before that, both Susie and Roland caught some of what they said in the converstaion they ended up easedropping on for a little bit, about how the hermits 'traded in information'. Both knew what that meant, but in their own ways. Blazermate meanwhile, not really having to deal with subtly like that, just bemoaned. "There has got to be a reason everyone wants to fight all the time. You usually only robattle once or twice a day normally..." if only she knew what some of her allies in other areas knew...

Well, there wasn't much for it since they were going into a fight, so the group chose their opponent. Blazermate, as she noraally did, stayed out of the way as best as she could, summoning her engineer striker to give her a turret for cover while she flew and healed whoever needed it. Since she could fly through the air, a vast majority of the hermit forces couldn't even touch her. A few would throw molotovs at her, but hitting a fast airborn target wasn't easy with such throwables. The gun drones they threw her way meanwhile were a bit more trouble.

Susie decided to fight the person who attacked using chemical warfare. Being a robot, she was immune to most of the things and Lester was well aware of this fact. Susie decided to take this person not only to show that she could fight well and smartly, but also because she was more or less looking for something worthwhile in this area if these 'hermits' were so powerful and tech savvy. Lester meanwhile attempted to try to change her opponent to someone that could do reliable damage and that she could reliably fight, but the person she tried to swap with, Kabal, was already engaged with someone and Susie, knowing how to abuse the whole 'Galeem' state, fired a shot on Lester with her blaster which got her attention and forced her to fight Susie instead of using her poison to harm all her organic team members.

Speaking of Kabal, he was fighting Roland, one of the few people who could probably keep up with his speed. Keeping him from assisting Lester, Roland clashed and intercepted his first move with his own, a clang of hooks against swords. As the clash finished, due to Roland's memories of the library ability, a short storybook picture appeared in the minds of everyone, A picture of thousands of stylized gothic eyes with the words "Big Bird with its many eyes, watched over the forest to seek trespassers. For Big Bird's eyes could see very far, and things we cannot see." being heard as a creek of an ancient forest could be faintly heard. This didn't interrupt their vision, but there was some creeping dread of what that meant.(Big Eyes) This had the effect of Enchanting Kabal, making him more likely to target Roland, forcing Roland to take more damage from Kabal, but also increasing his power when attacking Kabal and healing slightly upon successfully landing an attack.

The second clash between Roland and Kabal didn't go nearly as well as the first, with Roland's hammers being overpowered by Kabal's quick and brutal combo string with his hatchets. Roland countered the next onrush with his own using his two handed sword, but only managing to parry Kabal, instead of overpowering him. The next memory triggered, with another story page manifesting, a message in that same storyboard narrating voice saying. "To keep the forest's peace, Long Bird weighted the sin of those who entered the forest. For Long Bird's scales were fair and just, and could weigh any and all kinds of sin." giving Roland (Long Arms), making him immune to all types of status damage, including the bleeding that Kabal would inflict with his next series of attacks that would overpower Roland's counter.

Susie meanwhile had flown up in her transporter after blasting Lester a bit with her blaster to keep her aggroed, Lester commanding some of the less prominent hermit goons to attack Susie and assist her, as her poison was ineffective on the robot secretary, instead needing to use their weapons as weird makeshift explosives instead of their intended use of slow acting poisons. Susie flew up to not only dodge the rush of the melee reinforcements, but to summon her business suit to deal with the new oncommers. Crashing down in her mech, Susie caused those below her to scatter to not be crushed. Those that had molotovs waited to throw them at her when given the signal from Lester, but they did deploy a drone or two to give them some ranged support. Susie, seeing one of the hermits that had dove out of the way, picked them up and threw them at one of the drones to destroy it, before getting in a boxing match with a few of the others and trying to toss bodies at Lester to keep her distracted and clear some space to Susie could get into position to end the fight.

Blazermate did what she did, heal and well, heal. Her engineer turret had defended her from a few of the drones aimed at her, but not being stupid, the hermits then threw their molotovs at the much easier to hit sentry eventually destroying it. This exposed Blazermate to more of the gun drones, but she had been healing enough to at least defend herself from them a bit more with her projectile shield, either blocking or zapping the drones. While this was temporary, hermit didn't know that and as Blazermate healed up Roland who had taken another losing clash from Kabal as he was unable to keep up with his speed with Kabal leaving his hatchet in Roland after a hit, before zooming behind him to rip it out. Kabal noticed Blazermate was a healer as the damage he had recently inflicted upon Roland was disappearing fairly fast. Since he was unable to really get her in a melee combo like he could Roland, he did show something he could do that he hadn't used yet, and threw his hatchets at the flying medabot. While Roland didn't know what this attack would do, he did get in the way and deflect them with his club. "Your fight is with me." Roland said, trying to get in a cool one liner as he moved in on Kabal with his giant sword and crashing through the defense that Kabal put up to protect himself.

Susie having cleared a few of the goons around her mech, had also cleared herself to be open to a combo move from Lester and the few of her support left that let her combo her explosive gas and their molotovs to make a large explosion around Susie's business suit. The suit absorbed most of the explosion, and thanks to all the smoke it caused, Susie was able to fly out with her transporter under a smoke cover and get up and over Lester as she looked into the explosion she caused to see if it took out the large mech. This let Susie decend from above and pick up Lester and piledrive her into the ground, causing a bit of a shockwave that also caused whoever was near her to stumble and knocking the poor lady out.

Roland meanwhile had gotten to emotion level 3, and with it, had gotten his new memory. With a chirpy voice saying "If I punished them, then there won’t be any more bad people, right?" (Punishment), giving him his next power. And at this time he was now moving on par with Kabal in speed, and with his new ability Punishment, was now winning these clashes and getting some damage on him. As whenever he took damage from Kabal, Roland's next attack was much stronger and could overpower his attack. And with Blazermate healing up Roland when he got hit and Roland throwing himself to intercept the counter attack from Kabal, the two were keeping each other up pretty well as Roland made some progress on widdling down and beating Kabal. As Roland started to get the upper hand on Kabal, and only grew in power as he fought, Kabal was still moving as he always did. And while Kabal had the upper hand at the start of the fight, Roland had quickly caught up and was surpassing him.

Seeing this, Kabal decided enough was enough, and after parrying Roland's dagger strike, went in to use everything he had in a large combo. Having broken through Roland's attack once again, this caused Roland to falter and get Staggered. While Roland had seen everything Kabal had at this point, Kabal was going in for the most brutal moves he could including enhanced versions of his hook stab and slam. And with Roland staggered, he was fully open to this barrage. Seeing Roland taking a large amount of damage, Blazermate ubered him halfway through Kabal's combo, causing Kabal to go from doing massive damage, to no damage to Roland and allowing him to recover from his momentary lapse. And with this inability to be hurt, Roland took this into his advantage to do his own combo using his gun, swords, and giant sword to out power Kabal and put him in a wounded dizzy state before the combatant collapsed from his battle damage leaving Roland the winner of his fight. Roland gave Blazermate a smile and a thumbs up, as something like her was rare even in the advanced technological city he was from and extremely helpful for a fight like this.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 3 Roland - (18/30)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (41/120)
Level 6 Susie - (0/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: Less than 750

As they progressed through the area, the two bot ladies and Roland were not too enthusiastic with what they saw. Blazermate was constantly worried about Red Shift herself, since it was some super aliment she couldn't help anyone with, and from what little she could understand or gather, even the low levels of red shift if exposed long enough would turn people crazy in a depressed way, from what she could tel by looking at the towns people around here. There wasn't really much of interest for Susie herself around here from what she could tell as she went through the area. And finally Roland was just apathetic to the suffering of the area, having seen this and far worse from the backstreets. It sucked sure, but there wasn't all that much he could do about it right now, so there wasn't much point in putting any brain power behind it.

Still, even with her apprehension about the whole red shift stuff, if she came about someone who was injured that wasn't outright hostile, she wasn't against healing them to get them off their feet. Susie and Roland meanwhile decided to go on that lead Blazermate had found, looking for that path that was mentioned that would lead them to the seeming location of the hermits. Although not knowing the area super well, they would have to ask around.

Seeing the two robot ladies as mere robots, some of the more nefarious people in the area attempted to remote hack them. They'd find no success however, as Blazermate's medabot nature combined with her lack of any wireless connection capabilities made her oblivious to the attempts. Susie, asking around with Roland meanwhile, was just too complex of a robot to hack. But unlike Blazermate, she knew someone was trying to do so, commenting. "It seems someone thinks they can take control of me. They had better not show themselves, otherwise they might have a fun meeting with my blaster." This made Roland think. He knew a fully robotic woman back before all of this, and not once did either of them think about 'hacking'. And for a moment, he was reminded of Angela while looking at Susie, but only for a split second.

"There weren't any pure AI robots where I'm from. The Head outlawed pure AI, and because of that no one really hacks it. Do you have to worry about that often?" Roland asked Susie, curious as to how... something like that would work. Susie replied. "Most aren't dumb enough to try. Haltman Works is the most advanced corporation in the galaxy and we have made sure to not allow our own products to be turned against us or our paying customers. So its not really 'worry', just annoyance if anything." Susie said. Roland nodded, before saying. "I heard you mention that name once before. What exactly does your company do?" In truth Roland was only half curious, as he wasn't a fan of the Wings or their singularities form his world, but this was something that was apparently galaxy wide not from his world, so maybe it wouldn't be as cruel as he was used to.

That thought would be quickly quashed as he heard Susie's little sales pitch of her company. Unlike Blazermate though, he paid full attention, and while the 'wishes' part sounded like BS, the whole 'harvest worlds' bit was kind of like something he expected. "So you like, mine worlds or something? That's impressive I guess. Where I'm from, we have corporations that have things called 'singularities' that are basically magic. Like making infinite resources from black holes or packaging time and other weird stuff." Roland said. Little did he know Susie hadn't mentioned the whole 'mechanizing' the world before harvesting it, which would be something almost straight from his world in scope and craziness. Susie herself was intrigued about what Roland had said as well, but she decided it would be better to ask him about that stuff when they were in a more private area. Although she got the idea that he might not know all that much about it anyway besides the basics.

World of Light

Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (14/110)
Location: The Under - Kingdom's edge
Word Count: Less than 750.

Sectonia did ask Kamek about these 'past adventures' of Bowser, and things sounded pretty surreal overall. She knew Kamek wasn't one to lie either, so that just made things more concerning if anything. "Hmm... No wonder why there is so much distrust for this 'ganondorf' if that happened. And from your stories, he tends to be betrayed quite often. He is quite the trusting person." Sectonia said, thinking about it. With how grandiose, yet even grounded these stories had been, it was... again, concerning yet comforting n a way. "I find Bowser boarish at times, but I'd be lying if I said he hasn't earned my respect for his power alone. You can tell him he doesn't have to watch his back with me at least. I doubt his plans and my plans conflict, I'm not interested in Peach and betraying allies would make for a poor kingdom." Sectonia did find the whole 'wedding' thing amusing at least. Perhaps they had just come from that, with Bowser having wore that suit for awhile. This did lead the the morbid question of Bowser being a widower or something, something Kamek was sheepish to answer and deflected with another tale. Sectonia could get the hint, and this story did explain two people she met. One that she had taken the spirit of, and the other she had turned into a striker. Quite interesting they were involved in some multiversal plot.

Sectonia overall enjoyed the strange stories as the two of them ascended easily through the clouds and eventaully made their way to their next destination, being met by... honestly a shady fellow, literally! Apparently to get to the next area, they had to go through some kind of... weird resort or something? And had to sign some contract? Well with how long it was, Sectonia wasn't going to sign it blindly like a few of the others were, and took some time to read it. While she knew statecraft, legal mombu jumbo wasn't her forte as she often just overpowered what caused her issues. And it seemed like this would be one of these times as the terms looped and twisted and turned in ways that she hadn't seen before and confused her enough that she decided on that fallback and signed, although she was one of the later signs because of that.

And overpower it seemed the name of the game was, as apparently somewhere in that scroll was 'you forfeit your soul to the dungeon boss' or something like that. And this was some crypt, which denizens seemed to dance to the beat. Those that had signed the contract could also feel the music flow through them, and Sectonia would find if she didn't move or attack to the beat things were quite annoying in general with her constantly seeming to 'flinch' "Hmph... This is going to be frustrating." Sectonia said, used to dancing to more opulent music than this. She'd also have to control her motions a bit so that she didn't flail about, especially with her able to knock over a few of the smaller people if she did with her abdomin.

She took her time here to figure out how her spells and such worked here. She found her sword swipes and her faster spells, including those new spells she had just learned, worked totally fine if kept on beat. But her longer spells such as summoning her antilions and her rings of light were no gos unless the song was slower. It also seemed like her Haste wasn't as good here, but slowing down an area might be powerful in combat perhaps, if it made the enemies flinch to the beat of the music. "Hm... Well... this is new." Sectonia said, more perplexed than anything. "i have a feeling this "Necrodancer" might have one of those mask shards, if the pattern repeats itself. I suppose we have some work to do." Sectonia said, joining the others in having a snack. She had gotten a great amount of her fill since pizza tower, and eating too much before a stressful dance session would be bad, so she just had a little bit of her dessert pizzas for now.

World of Light

Nobody’s Here: Shmuetax

Word Count: 2373 (+3)

”Well then-” Kamek, who had also expected the hooded figure to vamoose on out of there once she’d pointed them in the right direction vamoose, began once it was clear that this one would be sticking around ”- I don’t suppose you’d be open to answering some more questions we have?” before glancing at the others for support in this.

He did this just in time to see Rika launch herself into the air via featherfall rune, the ship girl leading the way up the platforming challenge by virtue of not being in any danger whatsoever thanks to said rune’s primary feature. Bowser meanwhile gave him a thumbs up of support, before immediately leaving via leaping up a cloud as well, while finally Jr was busy tinkering around with a commendation of his new ferromancy to weld some of the Zonai machine parts they’d gotten earlier onto a pogostick, prompting Kamek to mentally direct his toadies over be available should the mad contraption he was creating fail to live up to expectations.

With the royals to whom he was advisor to all uninterested, he ended up looking elsewhere for support/interest. Sectonia, both being able to fly and bypass the platforming challenge above, and more astute than the other royal, did stay behind to ask her questions as well. Although she doubted she would get much of anything. His fellow spellcaster in Primrose lingered behind as well, curious to hear the hooded person’s answers. During the time she’d spent with Kamek so far she’d found the old Koopa to be very thorough, but she was sure she’d have a few questions of her own to help fill in the blanks. Assuming, of course, the young lady was willing to answer them.

The Organization girl herself looked far more interested in watching the less cerebral Seekers start their climb than answering any questions from Kamek, but after a moment she gave a shrug. "Ehh, I guess? Just don't ask anythin' shtewpid."

Ah, of course, Primrose thought to herself, amused. Let’s hope she isn’t one to equate simple ignorance with stupidity… The dancer thought the chances of that were slim.

”What do you know about these Consuls and their strange powers? It seems you know a fair amount about the area.” Sectonia asked, noting that these black robed figures and the letter named people seemed fundamentally different.

Her inquiry made the girl give a derisive huff. “Psh. Right tossers they are. There’s twenty-six of ‘em, one for every letter of the flippin’ alphabet, and they’ve got all kinds of nasty abilities. They’re the farmers in a world of sheep, pittin’ everyone against one another and gobblin’ ‘em up when they can’t fight anymore. Hats off to you lot for bumpin’ off P, that rotten little blighter ‘ad it comin’. Unfortunately, that leaves you with the Under’s other Consul, F, and he’s way worse. Sure, P was a problem, but at the end of the day he was just a bully, a bratty idjit spoiled rotten by too much power. F is smarter, meaner, and a whole lot stronger. He’s been after me for ages, and I nearly got myself killed just tryin’ to keep ‘im busy while you muppets mopped up P in the city, so take it from me. He can tap into spirits to use their powers, switchin’ ‘em out whenever he likes. So far I seen ‘im use six of ‘em. But he’s got somethin’ else, a trump card I en’t been able to pin down exactly. Somehow he moves me around in the blink of an eye. So when he shows that ugly mug of ‘is again, I hope you’re all good and ready.”

”I had the same experience when I tried to stand up to him. I was taking cover somewhere, and then in a flash I was back out in the open” Kamek added before theorizing ”Thinking about it, I might have ended up exactly where I was only a few moments earlier? P was able to jump back in time, so perhaps F can rewind it? It might be a common trend of abilities among them, though I certainly hope not. Take it from someone who has tried to use it in a scheme, time travel is quite the headache”

"Farmers, you say?" asked the deep voice of Ganondorf, who had also apparently elected to delay his climb. At first he had been busy binding one of the Spirits he collected earlier into a Striker. But now, he was becoming interested in this conversation, "If they are the farmers, then what does that make you? The wolves?" his analogy of course painted the Organization as a group that may not be any better than the Consuls, "If the name of your little club is anything to go by, it sounds to me like you're outnumbered two to one. While we seem to number at least equally to the Consuls if not more so. That all sounds to me like you need us more than we need you."

The warlord’s words seemed to make the kid sound more smug than ever, almost to the point that it sounded forced. “Heheheh, ya think so? Well, since you’re so smart, ‘ow about you wrap that thick ‘ead of yours ‘round this one. Let’s say I uh, I dunno, took a stick an’ snapped it in ‘alf. If someone offed me, would that fix the stick?” She held her hands up as if searching for an answer. “Eh, maybe I oughta put it in terms a big, tough bad guy like you can understand. If you went and slaughtered some poor village, and then some big ‘ero cut you down to take revenge, would that bring anyone back?”

Shaking her head, she crossed her arms again. “The universe en’t a big spring that Galeem’s keepin’ stretched out, just waitin’ to snap back into place the second you beat it. Once it’s outta the way, somebody’s gotta actually go and fix everythin’. Or, in our case...” Summoning her blade, she planted its head in the ground and leaned on the hilt casually. “Nobodies.”

Her sentiment was one that Primrose knew well. It also put some things concerning the Organization into perspective for her. Her own interactions with them had been limited, going off of the stories she'd heard from her fellow Seekers and how one of their members had helped them in the desert, it was quite clear that to her that the Organization and the Seekers of Light were working towards the same goal... even if they weren't exactly on the same side, so to speak. The secrecy surrounding them still cast their members in a suspicious light, but there could be any number of reasons for that. Primrose had her own guesses as to why, but perhaps the helpful young lady would enlighten them.

"It seems to me that if we want the same thing, more cooperation between our two groups would only benefit us - yet you hide most everything about you all." The dancer realized the hypocrisy in the words she’d said and those she was about to say, but she smiled in a way she hoped was disarming. "You would trust us enough to let us take care of the Guardians, but not with anything else?"

“Uh, no?” The girl’s tone suggested that this might be one of those ‘stupid questions’. “Look miss, I’m sure you’re all very strong and cool, but you lot en’t the first buncha ‘eroes to take a crack at the Guardians, and unless you’re really, REALLY lucky, you en’t gonna be the last neither. We’re not the expendable ones here, awright?” She sniffed. “I’m already stickin’ my neck out enough as it is.”

As I thought. Her remark didn't surprise Primrose in the slightest. Based on the information they'd painstakingly collected, she'd judged that this was the case. Why go to the effort to really incorporate would be heroes if they weren't likely to succeed? As much as being on the side left in the dark irked her, and mostly like quite a few of her allies as well, she really couldn't blame them.

"Then how long have you all been doing this for?"

This time, the Organization girl kept quiet for a couple seconds. Only after really thinking did she reply, her response accentuated with a noncommittal shrug. “I dunno. It all sorta blends together. The Clocks don’t tell what time it is, after all. Only ‘ow much is left.”

This made Ganondorf silently narrow his eyes, recalling what he saw in Holograd Castle. So it was important after all. But the man said nothing, not wishing to share information with this girl from the Organization.

”Clocks… Clock… Are you talking about some special type of clock? I was told of something called a ‘flame clock’ but is that what you're talking about? Do you know anything about those?” Sectonia said. She then thought for a moment, thinking, before saying. ”... How many ‘heroes’ have been before us, and how are you sure of all of this?”

“Yes, the Flame Clocks! Could you tell us anything more about them? We attempted to open one earlier, but even our combined efforts proved fruitless,” Rubick said, suddenly popping in. “Because of that, it’s rather difficult to perform research on them. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that those devices are sturdy.”

”And how did anyone else escape Galeem in the first place? Kirby was, as far as I am aware, the only person who was themselves aware of Galeem’s existence who survived its opening attack. No one else had time to prepare or anticipate the end” Kamek added.

Jesse had lingered near the outskirts of the conversation with her arms crossed. Only now did she realize she was looming or brooding again. She uncrossed her arms and cleared her throat to look a little more approachable and stepped in. Not exactly a vote of confidence. We have someone on our side but they view us more like a rising and falling tide than actual allies. Time left until what, anyway? The whole thing rubbed Jesse the wrong way.

What the Organization girl assumed would be the perfect spot to end the conversation, as evidenced by the drama of her vaguely ominous send-off, turned out to be merely a lull in the storm. As soon as Sectonia popped back in to ask about the clocks, the floodgates were open once more. Rubick and Kamek quickly piled on faster than the stranger could answer, and she recoiled as if from a pit of vipers. “Whoa, whoa, steady on!” she exclaimed, her hands held up placatingly. “Look, forget about the Flame Clocks, they don’t matter one way or the other to you lot. You’re free, innit? Free to focus on the stuff that really matters, eh mates?” She pointed a finger at the immense cavern’s distant roof. “There’s plenty you en’t aware of, and you don’t ‘ave to be, neither. And I en’t some encyclopedia, you ‘ear? Best crack on before I get tired of all these flippin’ questions.”

Upon hearing that she had no answers, Rubick lost interest in the topic immediately. No sense trying to find answers where there were none. Instead, he would turn to the Organization girl herself. She was a mystery, and Rubick wanted to see what abilities she possessed.

Sectonia could take the hint, this one wasn’t all that knowledgeable herself, or just wasn’t going to budge. Honestly due to how she spoke, memories of a certain king koopa surfaced for Sectonia, and that was the feeling she got from this person. ”Come on, Kamek. I got a feeling she knows about as much as your ‘king’. In her own methods and ways.” Sectonia said, offering to at least carry the mage up. It could be noted her tone wasn’t mocking or anything, more just ‘well, I guess that’s that.’ than anything.

”I’m quite sure his majesty has more experience in these things to be frank. He has, after all, been part of putting an end to two multidimensional crises already” Kamek replied, as both a refutation and a way to join in on the flippentry. He was in no need of being carried up, however, as he planned to simply teleport to the top once they were done here (and after supplying a flying steed or two for those who wished to bypass the climb as well).

”Hmm. Perhaps you could recount some of those tales if you are aware of them. If they really happened, it could give us all some insight on the bigger picture.” Sectonia said as Kamek gave his little jab at the organization member, declining Sectonia’s aid as he had it covered himself.

“Oh, sorry,” Jesse said dismissively in the Nobody’s direction. “Wouldn’t wanna make you mad. What are you gonna do, expend us even harder?” She said with mock fear in her voice.

“Any of these Consuls ever get offed before?” Jesse asked. “Would they have to find a replacement that had the same letter in their name, or would they just swap the letter over?” Those last two questions were rhetorical, obviously.

The group was certainly not subtle about their frustrations or disdain. Primrose chuckled lightly at Jesse’s comments as a few of them went back and forth badgering the poor girl. If they'd been trying to goad the hooded stranger into giving them more information, they were going about it the wrong way... but honestly it seemed they were just venting without an ulterior motive. Time to get a move on, then.

"Thanks for indulging us a little," Primrose said to the Organization member, the scarf around her neck beginning to glow as she turned to take her leave.