Archmage MC

World of Light

Arahabaki - Mental Faculties

Raz’s / Roland’s @Archmage MC vs Rude / Reno / Joryu / Moira
Word Count: 3199 (+4)

Being split from the rest of the group upon using the teleporter, Roland found himself with the psychic kid Raz. The area wasn’t anything remarkable, just your basic industrial urban graveyard much like most of the lower class areas of Midgar. Roland didn’t really care much for those in PsyOPs, mostly because they gave him headaches when he was around them for too long. ”Hey, the teleporters messed up. We’re all split up!” Roland said over the linkpearls he had gotten from the rest of the group. Soon though, he was informed as to why, and could only sigh. Looking at Raz, he said. ”Well, I guess we’re stuck together for now.” Having almost no idea exactly what kind of person Raz was, he would hold his sarcasm and witty banter for now.

”I wouldn’t say we’re stuck together,” Raz replied as he donned his goggles, a clear sign of things getting real, ”I see it more as an… opportunity for stronger, uhh, team cohesion!” He hadn’t passed the Psychonauts’ “Positivity Training” yet, but he had a good feeling about it. Whiiiich was a form of positivity! See, he was nailing it. ”I keep getting paired off with other people with R-names, though. I wonder if that means anything.”

As if they were waiting for someone, a welcoming party appeared hopping off from a high perch to intercept Roland and Raz.Two were Turks which Roland knew, Rude and Reno, who were quite the infamous duo within the organization. The other two he didn’t recognize, though one looked like a Turk -maybe a newbie- and the other looked like someone from R&D. “Well now, look who the cat dragged in.” Reno snarked. “Y’know, I kinda had you pinned as the turncoat kind of guy.”

Roland only rolled his eyes saying. ”More like the guy hunting the guy who has Rufus mind controlled, but who's keeping track.” He then turned to Rude, saying. ”How have you been Rude? Asked out that bartender lady yet?” Rude did not dignify the rather personal question with a response, his eyes inscrutable behind his trademark sunglasses. Seeing this, Roland quipped, ”C’mon man, you gotta make your move sometime before fixer life catches up to you. Especially with those assets…”

Reno interjected, cutting Roland off near the end of that though, saying. “You better watch that big nose of yours, plainface. It’s gonna get you into trouble.”

The “third” Turk, the one Roland didn’t recognize, kept to the back of the four-man group. He regarded Roland coolly, sizing the man up in both physical form and attitude. Even though his fists were clenched at his sides, he wasn’t prepared to brawl like the others. His focus turned to Raz, who himself was gearing up in classic psi-pose. More to himself, he simply said, ”...a kid?”

“Hmph.” Moira, the newcomer, crossed her arms stuffily. “They’re already in trouble, so if you’re quite done palling around, let’s cut to the chase.” She lifted her right arm, her mutated, clawlike nails extending as a purple orb of necrotic energy took form above her palm. “And begin operation.”

Well, it was time for combat. Roland knew Rude and Reno, and not the others. One of the newcomers, the one who was using energy, seemed like more of a threat than those two. Nothing good ever came from an enemy that wielded strange energy in his experience, especially something with that color. And that energy reminded him of a specific fallen Arbiter who was the leader of the Floor of Philosophy.

Roland started with a dash at Moira, swords out as she fired her energy ball at him. Rude however intercepted Roland, seeing him go for his medic and fists met sword in a clash of power and wills as Rude knocked Roland away, Moira’s ball taking away Roland’s counter as he countered it and finding that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it’d be. Instead of being one big blast, it seemed to just be a lot of small hits that siphoned his life, which was a lot easier to manage for him. It still tingled in a bad way though. Still, he was open from an attack from Reno now, before swapping over to his lance to clash with Reno’s followup attack and push him away.

Having clashed, he reached Emotion level 1, and with it gained the power of Long Arms, with a chirpy solemn voice echoing “I condemn you, but you will still commit more sin without end…” and with it, everyone saw a series of two pictures within their minds. The first depicted a forest in forever twilight, saying. “Once upon a time, three birds lived in a dark forest…” with the second picture appearing soon after saying. “To keep the forest’s peace, Long Bird weighed the sins of those who entered the forest. For Long Bird’s scale was just and could weigh any and all kinds of sin.”

“What the?” Reno said upon seeing this weird play in his head. “I knew you were a weird one.”

He and Roland clashed again, Roland matching him this time with his durandal and with it, getting to emotion level 2 and acquiring Big Eyes, a deeper chirpy voice saying “With just one simple act, I’ll give you a permanent and comfortable rest…”. And with it, another scene played out, this time of Big Bird and his many eyes, with the caption “Big Bird, with its many eyes, decided to watch over the forest for intruders. For Big Bird’s eyes could see very far and see things we cannot see.”

Roland had gotten the first strike, drawing most of the attention away from Raz. ”You get ‘em, Roland! Wait, we aren’t doing codenames, are we?” The peanut gallery shtick drew Rude’s attention, and with Roland preoccupied with Rude (who was supported by Moira, keeping his vitals up with her healing spray), the Turk rounded on Raz. Raz, only slightly daunted by Rude’s imposing glower, leveled his psychic aim on him. ”My turn, huh?”

Rude dashed towards Raz. The junior Psychonaut fired off a volley of Psi-blasts, the first two nailing Rude in the chest before he ducked the third. Raz was pulling his punch a little - they weren’t robots, monsters, or cyborgs, but real people. Though it was moot since the first hits had already set Reno and Rude into telltale ‘Galeem Fight Mode’, locking them in a fight to the death.

Rude was on him quicker than expected. A straight jab, nothing Raz couldn’t have dodged himself, but the moment Rude pulled his fist back his arm stopped short of throwing it; with a barely audible wrrzt, thin wire coiled around Rude’s wrist.

”Hmph.” Joryu, the as-of-yet identified man and last person to participate in the fight, scoffed. His arm was outstretched, the wires holding Rude back connected to his watch. ”I can’t tell if this was part of the plan,” Joryu mused, still mostly thinking out loud rather than addressing anyone else, ”but frankly, there’s no way I’m gonna beat on a kid.”

With that, he turned tail and ran. ”Hey, do you know something? Get back here!” Summoning his levitation ball, Raz took off in pursuit, chasing Joryu out of the fight and down a set of conveyor bridges leading away from the area. Of course, that short-sighted maneuver meant misfortune for Roland, who found himself abandoned and pitted against a team of three enemies by himself.

Roland kept his clash going with Reno, first with his daggers, coming out about even with Reno winning a bit, then continuing on with a clash with his hammer, which also came out about even. Getting tired of this, Roland then decided to pull out his big sword and finally overpower Reno in the third clash. He’d find that dealing with Moira’s energy balls wasn’t that bad, but Reno was tactically retreating to her as Roland pursued him and he’d find she had another power that he couldn’t parry when he got close, a more direct draining type move. This made Roland retreat for now, with Reno chastising him for retreating from their medic.

Although with those three clashes on Reno, even if he didn’t do all that much damage, he got Emotion level 3, and gained Tilted Scale with the same solemn voice from earlier saying “My scale won’t cease its duty until the day all evil beings disappear.”. He also gained the EGO page Lamp. Being a more utility based EGO, Roland didn’t use it right away, but instead would start to deal with that medic by pulling out his gun and just shooting her from range, keeping his distance, before going to intercept Rude who was trying to break the restraints of his… ally…? Was binding him with. That was… odd… Was this guy the one controlling Reno and Rude?

Using his lance to knock back Rude, but doing very little damage, Roland said. ”Are you doing ok there? I thought PsyOPs could fight a bit more than that.”
At least shooting the full hp Moira healed Roland a bit from Tilted Scale, so he wasn’t in as bad of a situation, but they did need to make some headway somewhere as Moira could heal Reno with her yellow healing beam.

Headway would eventually come as Roland clashed again with Rude, finding him a bit easier to clash with than Reno. While not as hard of a hitter, Rude was for sure tankier as he erected a barrier around himself and his allies, reducing the damage they took from the duo’s attacks. Which was helpful for Rude as Roland was starting to overpower him having gotten his emotion level up. As he clashed, Raz was dealing with the 4th member that Roland hadn’t even bothered with, with Moira still healing Reno before he went in with another round with Roland. And as Roland clashed and won his clashes against Rude, he healed himself, although slowly. And also gradually increased his emotion level, getting to level 4 and getting Small Beak, a high chirpy voice saying. “Thus, punishment must uproot sin…” and another scene flashed into the heads of those in combat with Roland, this time showing a small bird with a strange portal on its body, the caption saying. “Small bird decided to punish the creatures’ wrongdoers with its beak.” Roland also gained the EGO page Twilight.

“Something is coming. We should wrap this up before things get complicated.” Moira advised, still acting stoic but was getting a bit unnerved by these weird images flashing in her head.

“Yeah, I get whatcha mean. That one’s from the OSF, it's probably coming from him.” Reno replied, looking at Raz. He then got an idea, and as Rude kept Roland busy, Reno dashed to Raz and threw a device at him, which trapped Raz in an energy shield the shape of a pyramid. “There, that’ll keep you busy until we deal with your friend!” Reno said, before powering himself up to deal with Roland.

Roland wasn’t a huge fan of this, and decided to start to use his EGO pages. He started with Lantern, causing the area to turn into a twilight lit forest of dark trees seen in the first scene, which were so tall the canopy couldn’t be easily seen, with Roland donning the appropriate EGO and revealing an antique lantern. As he did, the area went pitch black, with the only light source being his lantern, and as a low ‘dong’ echoed through the area, Rude, Reno and Moira, all getting unnerved as when the lantern flashed, they saw thousands upon thousands of large yellow eyes looking at them from every direction in the dark forest, before the area returned to its twilight lit aesthetic for 10 seconds. Roland used this time to strike at Reno, who found his powerup had been canceled by the eerie light and eyes that had unnerved him.

Seeing Reno getting hurt pretty badly, Moira had no choice but to keep healing him as Rude had his attempt to get Roland off Reno clashed with, and as the two Turks soon realized as Roland topped off his emotion level to 5, it wasn’t Raz that had been causing those images, but Roland. Upon reaching emotion level 5, Roland gained The Beast, and turned into a horrifying visage of some creature that would make any metal band proud. A voice of a monster saying. “I can’t let evil take all these precious things away.” An aura of dread emanated from Roland, which Rude soon found out made his barriers completely useless and any empowerments also useless. Roland also gained the EGO Apocalypse, and the final scene of Apocalypse Bird played out, accompanied by its deep bird like roar, the caption saying. “Then, in the middle of all the chaotic cries, someone shouted: “It’s the beast! A big scary monster lives in the black dusky forest!”

“The hell is THAT? You’ve been holding out on us?!” Reno said, shocked and a bit horrified at what Roland had turned into, but soon shook off his fear as he engaged him.

”Yeah, I learned a lot paling around with this group.” Roland said, his calm voice coming from such a monster. Raising his hand, Roland used Twilight, turning the area into a dark forest much like before, but this time it was pitch black, with the only light emanating from a 50 meter tall monstrosity in the back, the light coming from its many, many yellow eyes along its wings. Eyes that started to pepper the area with laser beams that Reno and Rude had to go onto the defensive to deal with as they rained down. He then took this opportunity to rush Moira with his large sword and powered through her orb to deal some damage.

Moira couldn’t help but take this damage, but she also gained her ult from this and said. “That's ENOUGH, I’ll end this now!” and put her hands together and unleashed her ultimate, a massive beam of both positive and necrotic energy that healed herself, Rude, Reno, and damaged Roland. Or that was the intent as Roland unleashed his second stored EGO, Apocalypse. Pointing at Moira and the rest of them, the massive creature in the back roared and lifted up one of its massive claws, intending to crush Roland’s enemies. And thanks to the size of this claw, Moira found her beam couldn’t overpower it as the creature’s claw crashed right through it and stomped down hard, crushing Moira into ash and dealing some heavy damage to Reno and Rude. She was the weakest in her group, so Roland wasn't expecting her to go down as easy as she did.

Roland turned his gaze to Reno and Rude, and pointed at them again. This time though, he tried the technique he had learned before as the two Turks decided what to do, and pulled out a Friend Heart for each of them, before dashing to them in his monstrous form and Friend Hearting both Turks.

”I’d rather not take the lives of people I used to pal around with if I can help it.” Roland said as the area turned to normal, but Roland still stayed in his apocalypse form. Rude shook his head, his head getting cleared as the influence of Galeem left him.

Reno had to blink twice, his sword in his hand raised in a defensive position looking at Roland. “Urk…” Reno groaned, trying to process what was going on. Memories came flooding back to both Turks, but seeing as this area of the world was roughly what they knew, the only thing they really realized was that Roland wasn’t originally a Turk, and just ‘appeared’ one day with the position.

“Ugh… why do I have the feeling I just woke up from a nightmare,” Rude murmured.

”Eh, that's normal I guess? That's how I felt when they did this to me. There's some like…. Angel thing up in the sky you guys can see later.” Roland said. ”And yeah, I don’t know if you guys remember what I said, but there is a thing controlling Rufus and all the Shinra high ups. They are named Consuls, And they might be the ones behind the ever crisis? Their plan is to use Midgar as some sort of playground for their sick games, and they will mind control whoever they can to make that happen.”

Reno put his baton away and could only scratch his head at hearing that. “Oh, I remember them telling us that you betrayed us and we were supposed to hunt you down, then… something else happened I can’t remember.”

”Yeah. Although I think after me and this group fix what's going on in Midgar, they say there is something even bigger out there. That angel thing I was talking about. I got a feeling I’ll have to deal with that. And also more of those Consuls out there. Then there are these weird shadow robed people you can’t see unless you break out of the mind control I freed you and Rude from. And the guys controlling Rufus and the rest of Shinra can’t influence you now.” Roland said, before sighing and saying. ”It's just a huge, huge mess…”

“Well, uh… I guess we’ll go look into that. Sucks that the medic bit the dust, but between you and me, she was pretty creepy.” Reno said, confused on what was going on but accepting what Roland had said.

Rude nodded solemnly with him. “Although not as creepy as you are now Roland.”

”Yeah, this’ll turn off in a little while, not much I can do about it until then. Believe it or not this is something I used to do back where I’m from. I was only reminded of it when I got freed. Maybe you guys can find something cool you forgot as well.” Roland said. ”Oh, and go find that lady you're into Rude. Maybe you can protect her from that mind control thing, and that’d score some big points for ya.” Rude nodded vigorously at this, and with that, Reno and Rude made their way off to do their own things.

With the combat over, Roland moved forward, hoping to find Raz and the man he’d gone to pursue. It wasn’t long before he discovered another teleporter, which he figured the others must have used. After taking it though, Roland found himself alone, and maybe even farther from Arahabaki’s center than the first place he ended up.. ”Uh…. I dealt with the Turks that were sent to ambush me, but I got separated from Raz again due to a teleporter. Where do I go?” Roland said, and soon after got a bit of direction from Sandalphon, Roland made his way there, getting some time to rest as he traveled.

World of Light

Same Old Story - the Third Turn

The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Ganondorf’s @Double, Ms. Fortune
Word Count: 2992 (+3)

By the time Sectonia got thrown through the air, Nadia was close enough to act. “Enough already!” she cried, pumping out blood to create a Hydro Mimic of a familiar, greatsword-wielding berserker. “Just call it a knight!” Her Artorias mimic leaped forward with his trademark somersault to bring down a heavy slash on Robin’s stomach area. The feral slid to a stop beneath it and hyperextended both legs in an upward kick that blew through the mimic’s back, covering Robin’s chest in her own blood. Her Charge turned her into a lightning tiger that blitzed through the archangel and burst through his back. Lightning reacted with hydro to form electro-charged, and as the sparks flew she twisted around to execute Battery by way of a Curtain Shredder drop slash. “It’s curtains!” The respectable burst of damage made Robin stagger forward for a brief moment, after which he unceremoniously raised one leg and kicked Nadia in the stomach. “MEOWCH!” As she stumbled back, two more of the diamonds in Robin’s halo lit up for a total of four.

Bowser, who had been in the middle of picking himself up, promptly went ”Gah!” as the sleeping form of Sectonia came flying at him and promptly floored him again. He grumbled in complaint, and promptly hauled her off of himself so he could actually get up while complaining about this being no time for beauty sleep.

Once he was up he turned as he heard a call of ”Sire! Throw her over here,” from Kamek, who was gesturing at two of his toady minions.

Rather than question how they were going to carry the big bee, the king simply did this without a thought, hauling the queen up and then hurling her in the intended direction. Her large form should have squished the floating minions like bugs, had Kamek not thrust out his wand, chanted ”compound eyes, transportable size!” and cast a shrinkification spell on her as she flew, resulting in a much smaller and more portable bee who the pair caught with ease, and proceed to transport her the same way others had Jr.

Jr’s Dream - Stage Two

”Owwww!” Jr complained as he rubbed his freshly stomped face ”What you do that for! We’re on the same team right now!”

"Not’a so" the plumber who had performed a little spin before landing to now face Jr’s again replied, before declaring "Im-a take you down!" and then running forwards to give the prince another stomp.

This time, hearing the run up and the following "Hup!" the prince ducked, bringing his spikes up defensively, wrestling in the plumber landing right on them with a cry of pain.

”That’s what you get for messing with me!” Jr shouted, before popping out of his shell and starting to demand ”Now stop this before-” getting confused when he found the plumber lying motionless on the ground ”huh?”

The prince poked him a few times, giving a very confused ”Mario?” not understanding that the hero had died in a single hit. Before he could understand this however, a familiar silhouette jumped up onto one of the walls of the arena, only this one was wearing white and red instead of blue and red.

"It’sa me!" declared mario number 2, this one empowered by a fire flower, before he started bouncing around and hucking flaming balls at the very confused prince.

With the queen being transported after Jr, and thus out of the room and into the middle of a pile of drybones acting as a unliving walls, the two koopas nodded at each other and then focused back on the fight. They were joined in this focus by Rika, who had got her gauntlets back on at last, and who promptly noted the obvious yet awful truth which was ”So is it just going to keep knocking people out?”

”It seems so, so speed is of the essence” the mage assessed, before declaring ”So let’s pull everything out of the bag”

His first step to this was summoning all of his strikers. Quiet and then end promptly opened fire on the titan with their rifles of the lethal and nonlethal variety, while the small green knife armed lizard that was the tonberry started slowly waddling after Robin, with no hope of reaching his evasive form.

”Ah, do you mind delivering that for me?” the mage asked, which got a nod from Rika, who just assumed this was a good idea rather than questioning what the little creature could do. She promptly scooped the striker up in ome massive hand and held it under one arm before dashing forwards.

Not towards Robin directly however, but towards Bowser, at whom she shouted ”Give me a boost!” before firing her grapple at him, and rapidly closing the gap. The king was momentarily confused, but caught on just in time, putting both hands together so she could step into them, before hurling her through the air towards their foe in a team jump maneuver.

Maneuvering thrusters flared as she jetted forwards, followed by her grappling to Robin himself. She winched forwards, launching a distracting swarm of flashing electrical motes as she flew to throw off her foe’s accuracy as she approached, and then should she get in close enough, hold the tonberry striker up to his form so it could stab him. Robin wasn’t stupid, though. Once Rika grappled onto its arm, its gaze turned on the incoming threat, and even she deployed some firefly-like distractions, Robin could tell where she was coming from by tracing her grapple line. It yanked its arm to throw off Rika’s timing, then lashed out with a giant backhand.

In danger, she released the grapple, then fired her rigging disruption cannons to blast herself back with the recoil, while also squeezing her featherfall rune to fire her upwards and out of immediate danger. Unable to be delivered, the tonberry fell to the ground, transferring a little damage to Kamek. Since it hadn’t attacked yet though, it continued to stay active, now much closer to its target.

Rika’s retreat would be covered by Bowser, who, after punching his shell to smash it and give himself an attack and speed boost at the cost of armor, rushed in to take another swing at their foe. As he tried to deliver another leg beat down, he’d summon Marie Korbel, former skullgirl, to raise a wall of skeletons behind Robin to restrict his movements, before blasting him with a volley of flaming skulls.

Once it was clear that Kamek had a handle on defending their sleeping comrades, Primrose left him to it. She could cast her magic while aiding in said defense, but that wasn't what she wanted to do. She needed to go on the attack more aggressively, not just to put a stop to the mule-headed menace as quickly as possible but to release the frustrated tension that she'd built up since its appearance. Though there were better uses for her skills, and allies that she could help out in battle, her sights were set squarely on the archangel.

She moved in, avoiding the battles with Oberon and Titania when they got too close. She collected her lance from where it had fallen and rushed towards Robin. When she used her Ravaging Confession again to teleport behind the angel, she expected him to see her coming and avoid the back attack. She used it anyway to get in close that much sooner, risking retaliation to use her Rites of Termination and summon a large, shadowy lance down on top of Robin.

Sectonia’s Dream - Stage One

Unlike Jr. who had a clearly defined nemesis, Sectonia wasn’t as fortunate. As she slept her dream had her in roughly the same room, but fighting a shadow that seemed to shift between a blob and someone wielding a hammer. The star warrior of pop star, who would have been a thorn in her side in her plans of conquest.

Being an enemy Sectonia didn’t know made fighting this apparition strange. While she could strike at it, either her magic would hit or the apparition would morph out of the way dodging the hit entirely as its nebulous shape changed. And not having a voice, it was completely silent, short of how it moved.

It was frustrating that even its attacks were amorphous, coming in for a swing of its hammer, only to have that hammer move around her sword guard and hit her with a fist. Being asleep was something she really, really didn’t like in this case, but beating this apparition was the way to wake up? So annoying, she’d blast that creature when she was out of this…

From nearby came the angry roar of a newly-enraged Ganondorf. The radiation damage had largely ceased by now, but the man was wildly swinging his swords around himself as a result of the confusion he was inflicted with. But now that, too, was wearing off. The Gerudo King was livid, practically seeing red as he set his sights squarely on Oberon. Unfortunately for the summoned warrior, Ganondorf was far more than just a mere bruiser. He summoned a fresh squad of Moblin archers and ordered them to open fire on Oberon. Then he summoned Riptor who immediately used her Mortar attack to lob a fireball at him, then vanished afterward as was the norm for Strikers. But the angry Ganondorf was far from done. He summoned Phantom Ganon and ordered him to float forward and begin hurling dark energy balls at Oberon as well. The warframe got moving, taking advantage of the various projectiles’ slow travel time to run out of their paths.

And then Ganondorf finally re-brandished his swords, ”DIE!” he roared as he charged forward in a dead sprint. The fire that Oberon was surrounded by did little to deter Ganondorf. Whatever radiation damage he suffered from getting close to Oberon was a price he was willing to pay. He lunged for Oberon and went for any and all openings to strike as he could possibly get. In this instance that wasn’t especially hard, thanks to the near constant cover fire the Gerudo King was given by his servants’ ranged attacks. Ganondorf’s attacks were aggressive and fueled by his own sheer rage. The building power in his Swords of Darkness was also proving to be a key factor in how he was hitting harder and with greater strength than previously.

For his part, Oberon fought defensively, bullet-jumping around his Hallowed Ground at high speed to keep his foes from pinning him down and let the radiation damage pile up. Ganondorf wasn’t veiling his anger at all, and if he’d gotten this mad after taking only a couple hits, Oberon was happy to exploit his blind fury. Rather than fight the warlord head-on he attacked mid-jump and with slam attacks, taking a couple sideswipes but avoiding much of Ganondorf’s fury while the green flames burned.

At one point while trading blows with Oberon, Ganondorf slammed his right hand sword into the ground, tip first. Then he tightened his hand into a fist and went for a powerful Warlock Punch directly at Oberon’s front. The attack was telegraphed enough for Oberon to raise his shield to absorb the blow, but Ganondorf did not rescind his attack. Instead Ganondorf’s Triforce shined with power and he just pressed the attack in an attempt to force through Oberon’s guard as well as his flames and at least knock him down if nothing else. No warframe worth his salt would ever stick around for such a laughably telegraphed attack, however. Rather than get in front of Ganondorf and wait for the Warlock Punch to hit his guard, Oberon slid away through the flames and switched weapons. His ivory-white Sybaris was a lever-action rifle with a two-round burst fire, and Oberon squeezed off shots whether sliding, running, or bullet jumping. Though he looked like a sturdy warrior, Oberon was still first and foremost, a ninja.

Although one that was hopefully still susceptible to an ambush. A white, black, and dusty blue blur shot towards Oberon from the room's shadows; Therion in his beast form, now appearing in battle himself since his striker's time had run out. In his jaws was the Kamura blade, with which he sought to cut a chunk out of the warframe. After the initial surprise attack, the thief's strategy defaulted to his familiar hit and run - trying to anticipate where Oberon would run to avoid Ganondorf, then intercepting him.

While Ganondorf dueled with Oberon and the others battled with Robin, that left Jesse to face Titania. When she dodged her second rock Jesse shifted behind a pillar to avoid the sniper shot, and moved out of cover to avoid the follow up grenade. During that time her Service Weapon reappeared in her hand. Going easy on the Paranatural powers to let her Energy recharge, she switched to Spin. Jesse opened up on Titania as she ran, aiming with one hand, spraying a large volume of bullets for her to avoid. Then she slid behind a fallen rock pillar and switched to Grip, putting out more accurate, more damaging shots at a semi-automatic rate of fire. Jesse would try to navigate to where she could put a pillar or some kind of debris between herself and Titania on a relatively short notice, staying on her feet instead of floating around like she usually did. All that would do would leave her more exposed to fire.

The shootout between the two quickly picked up in both speed and intensity, becoming a high-octane shootout and a race to see whether Jesse or Titania could pick the other gunslinger off first. Though the FBC director had seldom been truly threatened by her fights throughout the World of Light thus far, she quickly realized that this enemy would give her a run for her money. Titania moved at blistering speeds, not just bullet-jumping and aim gliding through the air much faster than Jesse herself could hover, but changing direction on a dime. This made the warframe hard to hit, even with the sheer output of Spin–and that firing mode’s innate spread didn’t help, either. Even when Jesse switched to Grip for crucial accuracy, the shots she landed exposed a new problem: the fact that Jesse wasn’t the only one around with a rechargeable personal shield. If the redhead didn’t place her shots consistently, Titania’s energy shield would just refill itself. Worse still, the warframe stole her strategy of hiding behind the underground chamber’s many columns to give her shields that exact opportunity. Both sharpshooters could do this; the difference was that Titania could also use those moments to shoot at the Seekers fighting Robin Goodfellow, her Corinth shotgun blindsiding them with chunks of damage. Still, Titania wasn’t going to settle for a stalemate with Jesse for long. She kept an eye on Robin, waiting for an opportunity.

At this point, Robin definitely needed her help. After Nadia opened it up with a flurry of attacks, her allies followed suit. Knowing the sting of Bowser’s blows, the archangel tried to backpedal away from him, only to run into a wall of bones brought forth by the Koopa King’s Marie striker. Taken by surprise, Robin got battered by the former Skullgirl’s fusillade of skulls. Primrose surged forward in the wake of the skeletal tide, and this time Robin stepped forward to give the dancer a bone-crushing kick. Instead she vanished and reappeared behind its back, a shadowy slash to his ankles both boosting her critical chance and precipitating a cross-shaped spear of darkness from above. The Dark Lance both pierced its eldritch form and continued to release bursts of pitch-black miasma for a short time, keeping the archangel occupied long enough for Primrose’s friend to lend a hand.

“Tagging in!” White hair streaming behind her, Nadia leaped in after Primrose brought down the Dark Lance to keep the combo going. She flew in and sunk her claws into Robin’s arm, using her momentum to swing around it like a gymnast’s high bar. On the third revolution she let go and flew upward, avoiding Robin’s angry thrash just in time, then airdashed toward his head on jets of blood. She landed a quick three-hit air combo, leaped away, and detached her head to launch toward the archangel with Cat Spike. “Service with a smile!” Her long hair hardened as her head flew, becoming a huge buzz saw that sliced into her target’s chest. As it lost momentum, New Moon activated on the final hit for a burst of damage, and both feral and head fell away. “Saw right through you!”

There. Turning away from Jesse, Titania extended her hand toward Kamek and cast Lantern. A swarm of razorflies immediately coated the magikoopa’s body, creating an irresistible floating beacon. The eyes of every Seeker present were riveted to that spot, and anyone drawn to Kamek within the next ten seconds would also fall victim to the razorflies’ eventual detonation. In quick succession, three things happened. First, Oberon cast Renewal, releasing waves of nature’s power to restore health to himself and Robin, who was within its range. The next second, Robin cast Fairy Dust, instantly plunging Nadia into sleep. Finally, Robin cast Night Mare. A dark presence manifested around all three sleepers, and when horrific eyes stared out from that abysmal miasma, all of them took a chunk of unavoidable damage. As the archangel laughed, two more diamonds appeared in its halo. Six out of ten.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



With a bit of chat with Zenkichi.

Level 4 Roland - (16/40)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (69/120)
Level 6 Susie - (28/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 2092

Getting back after such a rough fight and getting some rest sounded good for Roland and the two bots. While Susie turned in early after checking her sales on her PDA, Blazermate often being one of the last asleep, even if she only did it to pass time, and Roland were still up and chatting a bit before they turned in.

Roland, going to Zenkichi the only other turk in the group, decided to unwind after the fight they just had in his way by commenting on what just happened. "Phew. Hey Zenkichi, that was one rough fight we just escaped from huh?" Roland said, having a more carefree sound to his voice now that he could relax.

Zenkichi turned to Roland, blinked for a moment, and nodded. "That it was. I feel bad for Penance, but...well, those Consul guys are bad news. Its crazy to hold back against them. I dont think anybody would really blame you, don't worry."

Roland figured this would come up and paused for a bit before saying. "Yeah... its never fun needing to do that. Back where I'm from, that sort of thing is either you break their will to fight, and thus the mind control, or its permanent and there is nothing to do but put them down." Roland then paused a bit thinking, before saying. "Well, there is M corp's stones that make you immune to that, and I wasn't aware we had anything like that until Penance got freed... " Zenkichi could tell Roland had a lot more experience with the whole Mind control and dealing with those under it than he was letting on though. "But besides that. What was with that whole turning into a bound angel thing? Was that something she could do, or some sort of corruption of redshift or something?"

Zenkichi thought about that, frowning a little. That sounded horrible. He'd have to try to explain the Friend Heart deal to Roland. He knew he got brought in pretty quickly, but that was an important bit of knowledge to have missed out on!

"Where I come from, it's...weird. A combo of mind control and emotional manipulation. To fight it, you basically have to enter the subconscious mind of the person, beat them into submission, and force them to face reality. It's really weird and kind of hard to explain?"

Moving on, he shrugged. "Anyway, what Giovanna did there is called a Friend Heart. Kind of on the nose, but I didn't name it, and it fits, so oh well. I'm not like 100% sure how it really works, but basically you reach down inside you, and...then you make a heart that breaks Galeem's control and heals someone. It's also weird and kind of hard to explain, but I think it just works. As for Jena...she definitely injected herself with more of that Blue Evolve crap, but I wonder why she didn't aberrate? Maybe she kept the good stuff for herself..."

"Ooh, is that something anyone can do? Would've been nice to know that, but thats that and this is this. I'll have to learn it before tomorrow if thats possible." Roland said, before getting reminded of something. "Or am I wrong and thats something only you guys can do? We can't do that where I'm from. Instead there is this weird thing called E.G.O., but I can tell you that and this aren't the same thing."

Roland then noted Zenkichi's experience with mind control, only saying. "That is a lot nicer than what I had to deal with." Roland said plainly and with a tinge of jealousy. "And yeah, I'd expect the drug kingpin to save the best stuff for themselves. But to do that to yourself, it really wasn't all that great. There are better ways to get stronger."

Oh, for sure, Jena was completely insane. I have no idea why she'd do that to herself, but it...it must have been bad. Whatever happened to her, I mean." Sighing, Zenkichi shook his head. "But you're right. That's that, and this is this. We can't save everyone, we just have to do our best to make it a world worth living in. Or, I guess, get as many people as we can back to their own worlds..."

Frowning, he just shrugged. "We still have no idea what'll even happen if we beat Galeem. Do we all just go back, does everything revert back to normal, or...do we just free everybody and is this the new world we gotta live in?"

Roland nodded sagely at Zenkichi agreeing with him. He knew he liked this guy the moment he saw him! Fixer life wasn't much different even in other worlds it seemed.

Then he asked the question of what would happen when Galeem was beaten, which is something Roland was told about and the cause of all of this. He shrugged himself, before giving a bit of a controversial take. "I'd prefer the latter if I can find my friends here. As dark and corrupt as Midgar seems to these guys, its way better than where I'm from. No worrying about the Night in the Backstreets, no worrying about people going missing because some psycho butcher wanted to turn them into pies, no Syndicates to extort the people of the backstreets, no Pianist.... Heck there is even room to get out of the bad spots of the city into the Nest... err good parts without needing sponsorship from a Wing. Not as much or even no random experiments from Wings testing singularities, no monsters on the streets besides what we just saw.... I do hope its the latter."

This little spark of hope, of being able to actually change things for once, of the cycle of the City being more or less broken or changed, was a new thing to Roland.

Zenkichi nodded a bit, unconvinced but understanding of why Roland would prefer not to return to his own world. "It sounds bad. My world...eh, it wasn't perfect, but it was a heck of a lot better than Midgar. Same corruption, though, just...less death, and a whole lot less monsters to deal with. None, in fact, unless you count the subconscious world things. Just plain boring old animals, and those don't really bother people much."

Zenkichi gave a wistful smile as he remembered his Japan. It certainly wasn't perfect, but it was his home, and he was hoping he'd get to see the fruits of his and the Thieves' labors if they ever got back there.

"Sounds like you grew up in a Nest where I'm from." Roland said, again with a bit of jealousy, but not as much as before. "Still, I suppose we wont know what happens until it does."

"We just call em countries. Or, cities? Depends on how big a Nest is, I guess." Zenkichi chuckled, shaking his head and shrugging. "But yeah. Until Galeem's done and dealt with, we got no clue how it's gonna end."

Roland could only agree with that, and getting on and a bit tired, he decided to try to get to bed. Blazermate only caught snippets of their conversation, but she did catch the part about Roland not knowing how to friend heart and regretting it, and as Roland was making his way to his room, she flew up to block him.

"Whoa! Whats the problem? Need something?" Roland said, taken aback by the sudden blazermate jumpscare.

"Oh, I just overheard your conversation with Zenkichi. You don't know how to friend heart? We've gotta fix that! Its super useful! It seems to override or heal basically EVERYTHING, although only once." Blazermate said. She then explained the whole thing with more direction and explanation than Zenkichi, having done it quite a few times. Roland could only tiredly roll his eyes at first, but it didn't take him long to learn how to do this trick with Blazermate's help. Although with how easy it was, that didn't make him feel all that much better.

"Oh... Well that was easy. Would've been nice to know this earlier." Roland said. Blazermate patted his shoulders, needing to fly to get there due to being 2/3rd of a meter shorter than Roland. "Don't worry, until you've been freed and fought a bunch, you actually can't do this right away. You probably unlocked how to do this after that huge fight we just had. We have a couple royals that had issues with this too for awhile." That indeed made Roland feel a bit better, and with a wave of his hand, he went to bed thanking the medabot for the help, both here and in that fight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Being the robot she was, Blazermate was up when the first person to come down was up. While everything else was getting breakfast, seeing as Susie was the only repair person nearby, Blazermate went to her to get some tune ups before the fights today while Susie herself, having spent almost no time getting ready, was fully dressed and proper with a coffee cup in her hand. While she was a bit annoyed at first, she agreed and found that Blazermate was fairly simple to do fixes on. It was almost like she was made for a child to do repairs on her, which amused Susie for some reason. A battle robot that could fight horrible creatures at the control of a mere child, that must be quite a hectic world.

Roland came down a bit later than most, being a bit of a slow riser. While he ate the bagels and muffins in front of him, he was disappointed in the coffee that was brewed; Chesed had really ruined his taste for basic coffee with his fancy brews. He also looked at Sandalphon just eating honey like a bee, and could only look at her with a little bit of contempt, but amusement. "It feels wrong seeing someone eat only honey. You've gotta have something with it. Next time I'll make breakfast if we're still alive and show you that there are way better foods than just raw honey." Roland was a bit of a foodie, so seeing that was a bit appalling to him, but not to the extent of anything but "why".

Soon their objective for the day was explained, they had to stop the machine part of the evercrisis. Roland found it strange that a problem that had been causing them issues for months was being resolved in mere days by some strangers with superpoweres. If only that could happen in his world... But now wasn't the time to bellyache about that.

And to spurn them into action even more, a cloaked figure appeared and gave them some vague warnings that they were on a clock. Who was this person even? But considering how the rest were handling them, especially Roxas. Much like Roxas, Roland stayed behind to get a bit more info out of this cloaked figure that everyone seemed to be apprehensive about, but unlike Roxas, just stood and observed. And from what he could gather from the conversation, these Organization members would be his enemies. And from what Roxas seemed to talk about, they reminded him of the blue sicko's ensemble. Especially with such vague things as 'fixing the world'. That couldn't be good.

Blazermate had been one of the late leavers as well, but that was more so because Roxas had offered to pair off with her and she was waiting patiently at the portal. Susie had already stepped through with Goldweis, and Roland after following Roxas stepped in with Raz, while Blazermate went with Roxas. Before they all stepped through the portal though, Roland came up to Roxas and put a hand on his shoulder saying. "I don't like what those robed people are doing either. So your not alone there." and went through the portal with Raz. He'd still have to get used to this instant travel, but at least it wasn't as harsh as W corp's singularity.

When they got there, Roxas announced that once they found the door they were looking for, he could open it no problem. "Oh? You've got something from F corp? I had an... acquaintance that had that as well. Lets hope we don't run into her. She could be really bad news if we have to fight her." Little did Roland know Roxas' method of opening doors wasn't anything nearly as brutal as fairy.

World of Light

Mercy Dreams - Solitary Confinement

The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Artorias and Osvalds’ @Dark Cloud, Ms Fortune
Word Count: 5860

Looking up from the ruined fragments of the statue’s decapitated head, Nadia sized up the monstrous perpetrator as it began to move towards her. Ten Piedad stood about triple her height, taller even than the statue in whose cold arms it found some semblance of comfort. Too tall for her to leap over with her usual double jump, that’s for sure. With gnarly flesh somewhere between wood and bone, pierced by a dozen nails and crowned by a ghastly demonic skull, it looked like a paralysis demon come to life. It closed the distance in a floundering stumble, like a man in a drunken stupor or sleepwalking in the grip of an awful dream, cracking floor tiles and crunching dead flowers beneath its sinuous trunks.

Ten Piedad was nothing short of nightmarish, and Nadia had already tensed up in anticipation, but at the same time the smile on her face was one of genuine glee. Just today, the Seekers had already fought a reality-warping, miniboss-summoning maniac, a gigantic mechanical wasp plus the royal pain inside, a dance-obsessed necromancer, and an armada of alien robots. Pulling her hilts from her belt, she inserted the blades in quick succession. Chkk-chkk. If the boss of Mercy Dreams was just some big tree demon, she could blow this joint in time for dinner. Providing her bad luck didn’t jinx things, of course. The feral flourished her boxcutters in the flickering candlelight, and assumed a battle-ready stance.

Sectonia hovered her way down, following Nadia but keeping some distance for now as the feral charged into battle. She unwittingly agreed with Nadia here, this was pedestrian considering what they had just fought all things considered.

Knelt down on one knee moving around as he stared down the Ten Piedad, Artorias looked akin to his namesake; a wolf circling its prey “Tis like the beast moves as though it were half conscious.” the knight observed quietly, the sudden bit of unexpected insightfulness took Osvald by surprise though he only raised an eyebrow.

The scholar's hand glowed brightly flames dancing in the palms of his hands, the light casting a glint in Osvald's round spectacles ‘Whatever monstrosity this is, it looks as if it cannot hold up its own weight easily.’ not surprising considering that it seemed as if it were only just waking up “It should burn all the same.” the scholar shrugged “That shalt be seen.”

Both men stood at the ready, the knight held his hefty blade in one hand while he moved slowly waiting for the moment to leap at the Ten Piedad, the scholar meanwhile stood back standing with one hand out of pocket producing a ball of fire in his palm.

Long before it got into melee range, Ten Piedad raised both its arms, then bent and slammed them into the ground. The earth began to rumble, and thorny briars as tall as itself began to sprout around the arena with enough force to scourge the flesh of its enemies.

Being a flier, Sectonia was immune to the sprouted thorns, but this creature was much larger than other things in the prison for sure. It was a tad bigger than she was now due to that spirit fusion she had done earlier. And with the damaging ground below her, she knew her Antlers wouldn’t survive dealing with that. So instead she gave everyone her pipe of insight shield and haste to reposition. She also summoned her Homing Crystals, which floated about her as she apparently wasn’t close enough to have them launch off yet.

Meanwhile on the ground the melee fighters would need to compete with the spiked briars that shot from beneath the ground, Artorias fared better than his scholarly acquaintance.

Osvald stumbled backward only narrowly escaping being impaled by the briars grunting the scholar scrambled for footing “Flames! Reduce them to ash!” the scholar called out, the Ten Piedad suddenly became engulfed in a blazing conflagration as Osvald's spell took effect.

Through the fire and the flames, the Wolf Knight rushed the Ten Piedad head-on expertly cleaving at the briars as he dashed at the monster.

Nadia followed his example, racing through the vaulted subterranean chamber. Dead flowers crumbled beneath their footsteps, and their swift passage blew out candles not already toppled by the random outcrops of spiky vines, but the flame from Osvald that set Ten Piedad alight rendered it clearly visible to all. “Guess we’re both fired up now.” She darted around the briars rather than try to chop them down, so with her edge in speed over Artorias the two of them reached their target at about the same time. This monstrosity was downright scary up close, its height and demonic visage horrible to behold, but the feral didn’t lose her head just yet. Ten Piedad knelt, one arm raised. Its limb contorted, bending more like a tentacle than an actual arm, then lashed out with crushing force and much greater range. “Nice try!” Nadia uncoiled the muscle fibers in her legs to spring into the air, leaping over the enormous branch slash, then double jumped to somersault toward the monster’s head. “Here’s your treant!”

Klonk! Her flashing blades connected with the ghastly head, and stopped only a couple inches in. Though it looked like a skull, it had the consistency of a log, every bit as solid and durable as it looked. “Wood you look at that.” Nadia wrenched her blades loose, leaving a couple fresh grooves across the nightmare’s face, then planted her feet and flipped backward off Ten Piedad as its thrashing head brought one of its twisted horns within inches of her body. “It’s tough! Who’s got some serious chops?”

Sectonia wasn’t much of a pun lady herself, but she got what Nadia was saying and summoned her new greataxe as she got into throwing range and threw the large weapon at the tree demon. She was sure Nadia had some kind of pun with axes and trees. Her greataxe hurtled through the air and slammed into Ten Piedad’s shoulder from above, its blade embedded about a foot deep into its wooden torso. The function of the arm on that side did not seem impeded though, and when Sectonia got close enough to trigger Homing Crystal Soulmass, the spiky orbs fired off of their own accord and shattered against the monster’s wooden body to barely any effect.

Not much for humorous vernacular himself the feral's jokes flew over the stoic knight's head however her words did illicit a raised eyebrow from the Seekers newest recruit ‘Is she always like this?’ Osvald didn't linger on the thought long, the beastkin though weaving it into a play of words still pointed out something of value.

Meanwhile the headstrong knight lashed out violently with his considerable strength, his intimidatingly large blade though hefty sinking deep into the Ten Piedad’s body causing its body to creak as the place where a human torso would be splintered.

Artorias dislodged his sword, rolling backwards quickly to evade the wooden creature's strikes. Assuming a stance with both knees bent, he placed the palm of his hand on Finstertöter's hilt readying himself to leap and slam his blade down.

As the fight began in earnest, a few teammates waited outside of the danger zone. Primrose and Therion looked on, recovering their stamina and letting the fighters inside do as offered and take care of the beast - for now. They both knew that Ms. Fortune hadn't shown up at the last second during the battle with the two jailers; she and the others she'd had with her must have been waiting in the wings to assist, without getting in the way due to the narrow battlefield. So the two of them returned the favor, keeping an eye on what was going on inside should they be needed.

Then when they heard the several people approaching they promptly got out of the way.

Behind the team, the heavy weight that was Bowser slammed down, the turtle from a world of platforming casually leaping down a story to join the fight. His son landed beside him, wearing a set of headphones connecting to a cachet player. As Rika and Kamek both floated down to complete the quartet, Jr hit play, and transformed into a towering red armored centipede that stood head and shoulders above his father.

With a roar from the two royal koopas, and a whoop from the ship girl princess, the troop came charging into the fray to provide backup. Ironically it was the slower and less enthusiastic Kamek whose influence was felt first, as a magical semi-translucent fist as large as the koopa himself appeared above Ten Piedad’s head and took a swing at its chest at his command. The blow left a handful of cracks in its chest, stretched out like spider’s web. A second after that a singular crack of gunfire joined the fray as Quiet, one of Kamek’s strikers, perfectly slipped a sniper rifle round in between and above the melee fighters, this too aimed straight at the towering brute’s skull. A handful of splinters flew as the bullet buried into and lodged somewhere within the wood, yet Ten Piedad registered the headshot no more than it did the body blow. Was there really a vital organ in there?

The troop’s closer ranged fighters arrived a few moments later, the first pair doing so traveling atop a dozen or more legs as Jr in the guise of the Beast wove between thorny bushes charged in with Rika perched atop his chitin-armored back. The ship girl herself charged up a vaultbreaker punch as they approached, and then unleashed it when they got close, flying across the last remaining distance to deliver an unsteadying strike. Despite its power, the punch collided with Ten Piedad’s own swipe and lost, knocking Rika back just as the much larger target of Jr got into range. He followed up by delivering a Mountain Smash strike with his new horns, an attack that would reduce Ten Piedad’s resistance to further melee attacks, before both royal children got out of dodge, Rika launching herself into the air via feather fall rune and then grappling away, while Jr dove down into the earth, tunneling away from danger. As his long body worked its way in, Ten Piedad lifted its arms to pound his exposed tail against the floor, resulting in an earth muffled yelp.

Luckily, the Seekers also in this way got out of the way of their later arriving father’s own follow up, which was to leap up into the air and drive a powerful dropkick into their foe’s torso, a blow that would launch him back a bit in the process, and free up more space for follow ups.

That mighty dropkick resulted in the first sign of actual poise damage done to Ten Piedad so far, as the monstrosity took a half-step back, its arms and head lolling. Then its gruesome skull snapped to the side, and as Bowser flipped back to land after his dropkick, Ten Piedad stepped forward. It lurched two gigantic steps forward, leaving Nadia’s own attempt at a follow-up in the dust as it did, and lifted its arms to bring both down on top of the Koopa King. “Watch out!” the feral yowled, hoping her warning came in time.

Ten Piedad’s arms descended, unyielding and uninterruptible as it pounded the earth. Immediately a forest of briars, tall as bamboo shoots, shot up around it in irregular and expanding concentric circles. Those thorny brambles tore through the ground itself, an agonizing snare both above and below ground. As she rushed in to try and stab the nightmare in its exposed back, Nadia got blindsided from below by the impossibly fast growth, sliced in a dozen places and launched off her feet. “Nyagh!” By twisting around in the air she barely managed to land on her feet, sliding a short distance in a crouched stance as she bled from fresh cuts on her arms and legs. Worse still, the plant-type attack inflicted Grounded on her, reducing her accuracy. She felt woozy and drained, far more than she ought to be. As the briars disintegrated, she sucked in her breath and stood, ready to push through.

Bowser meanwhile attempted to counter the monster’s plants with his own, slamming both firsts and then a flurry of thorny vines into the ground, prompting his own wave of growth to race forwards to do battle with the titans. Rika meanwhile avoided it by leaping up and grappling up to the ceiling, where she hung for a moment as she used her rigging guns to fire a set of 4 power sapping globules at the foe. The distance between herself and her target, plus the globules’ spread and Ten Piedad’s motion, meant not all of them hit, but those that did splashed and crackled against its massive frame.

Jr and Kamek meanwhile focused on empowering themselves, the mage summoning a quartet of doppelgangers to increase his survivability and firepower, while Jr, after bursting back out of the ground again to get the speed needed to avoid the rootsplosion, pivoted and flashed silver for a moment as he sharpened his Beast form’s natural weapons, readying to come in for another attack.

Artorias was unperturbed by the vicious briars, fearlessly rushing towards the monster the knight swung Finstertöter in a circular arc slashing the forest of thorns as they appeared in his way ignoring the pain as the briars that shot up beneath him caught his legs, with a howl both of pain and battlefury he leapt at the Ten Piedad whom seemed busy slamming its arms down, he landed an overhand slam with his blade that reverberated against the ground.

With laboring breaths he flipped into the air again bringing his blade down the clang of Finstertöter against the hard floor almost deafening.

Then with one final guttural howl the knight somersaulted and brought his blade down like a lumberjack chopped wood. If the monster hadn't moved it would certainly be in danger, but not enough to cause it to fall. The impressive strength behind that heavy cutting edge worked to great effect, hacking so deep into one of Ten Piedad’s arms just above the elbow that when it withdrew the limb, it was dangling by little more than a strip.

It's body would certainly be in rougher shape than it had at the beginning of the fight, meanwhile behind the knight Osvald contested with the thorns doing as much as he could to avoid them “Fire burn these weeds away!” the scholar called, flames exploded outward from the Ten Piedad the knight kicked himself off the monster and into the air narrowly escaping the flames, landing on his feet already assuming a fighting stance.

Sectonia meanwhile summoned back her axe and used it to conjure her massive Rings of Light, which she threw at the tree demon, taking some hits from its erupting briar shoots as this attack kept her stationary for its short duration. With all the others getting into melee, there really wasn’t much room for her at this time, so she was stuck using this attack for now.

It seemed like the entire fifth layer had shaken as the wood monster struck the ground in its room. It was about that time that Primrose and Therion thought that they should lend a hand.

Primrose was already in motion, preparing another buff for her allies. The thing they were fighting seemed to shrug off most physical attacks, but rather than increase the Seekers' physical strength to account for that she chose to give them a boost to something she thought would work out better. She danced, her steps flowing into the powerful, provocative Peacock Strut. Kamek, Osvald, Sectonia, and all other spell casters in their group including herself would see a bump up in their magical power.

Then she entered the room proper, leaving the narrow walkway behind and dashing inside. She flung a Fire Orb at Ten Piedad as soon as it had formed in her hand.

Therion did not enter the room immediately. He might be able to survive in there, avoid the worst of the monster's attacks, but he could tell he'd have a hard time dealing damage to it. And at that point the only thing he'd be able to do is maybe act as bait, which he wasn't about to do.

He could feel Primrose's dance magic increase his fire power, so if it came down to it he could join in and set this massive pile of wood and bone to torch. For now though, he had at least one thing in his arsenal that might work.

"Get in there big guy," he told his striker as he summoned it, giving it a push with his foot to help it get going. The junicorn rolled into the battlefield, with its hard iron shell to protect it from Ten Piedad's attacks as well as any crossfire from the Seekers themselves. It came to a halt when its blood red limbs popped out of the shell, along with the massive lance-like horn. It fired that horn off at Ten Piedad.

Osvald’s conflagration had set Ten Piedad alight, igniting the flames that now smoldered across its body, but it took Primrose’s Fire Orb to really get the beast burning. Now the nightmare was engulfed in an inferno, a truly hellish vision and yet it neither languished nor agonized, just lurching forward toward the nearest Seekers to beat them into the dirt as well. Nadia recoiled from it, giving up on offense for a moment to backpedal toward safety. That Grounded status interfering with her depth perception was even more of a thorn in her side than the actual thorns, making her swings miss frustratingly often. And now she was loath to approach Ten Piedad’s burning body, remembering what happened when the illuminator’s red-hot iron hit her. That gave her an idea, though.

Just after Junicorn’s horn slammed into the demon’s hip, Nadia stuck her boxcutters in the ground and charged forward. “The only spike I need…” Putting her palms together, she conjured a maelstrom sphere of Hydro power that she tossed up into the air. Then she leaped after it and brought her palm down on its roiling surface like a giant volleyball. “Is this!”

Empowered by Peacock Strut, Purrge of Vengeance struck Ten Piedad’s burning body in an explosion of magic water that immediately caused Vaporize, dealing an extra burst of damage in a concussive blast of steam. It also put out the fire, putting the pyromancers’ efforts back to square one. Now that she’d figured out a better strategy than just hitting the thing, though, Nadia was on a roll. She had just enough tension for another Purrge of Vengeance, so when Ten Piedad turned toward her she threw it and ran away. While it hurt less, it left her enemy Wet, so when Nadia grabbed her boxcutters she bolted into and through the monster with Charge. “Just call me the branch manager,” she joked, whipping around to deliver two critical electric slashes that also turned Wet into Electro-charged. “‘Cause here’s some budget cuts!”

Even as lightning coursed across its frame, Ten Piedad didn’t seem too impressed. No sound issued from its head, but for a moment, Nadia could swear that she heard something issuing from inside its torso. It sounded like whimpering, or maybe crying. As she tried to press her advantage, the monster shrugged off her attack and struck Nadia with its dislocated elbow, knocking her away in a corkscrew. “Gah, this thing just doesn’t budge at all!” When Ten Piedad continued to fight, it attacked in a frenzy somewhat faster than before.

Staying out of range of this frenzy was Kamek and his doppelgangers. The latter risked themselves more, as 4 red hued ones swooped in and started flying around Ten Piedad while pelting it with magical blasts. The monster’s incredible reach meant that it gave a lot better than it got, though. Their ranged firepower was joined by a swarm of lighting bugs launched by Rika, and a bolt of lightning fired from the tip of her Ichor Queen striker’s massive blade, both attempts to follow up on Nadia’s soaking of their foe. Unfortunately the latter missed, and while the former hit, the feral had already used up the Wet status she applied to cause Electro-charged, making the lightning bugs no stronger than normal.

Kamek himself meanwhile turned his magic to support, wrapping Jr in an amber sphere of protection that would reduce any physical damage the prince’s large form would take to but a fifth of what it would have been. He did so just in time, as the prince went charging in a moment later to try and sink his sharpened teeth into one of the titan’s arms inorder to steal its hp and restrict its movements for a moment.

He was joined in this by Bowser, who, having ‘won’ the plant war, now went on the offensive, forming grappling roots that tried to intertwine with the ones on their towering foe’s feet to trip up their movement. At the same time he deployed two cruel cannons and unleashed a supersonic bombardment to try and confuse Ten Piedad for good measure. Ten Piedad was nothing if not stubborn, though, and in a way it already seemed confused. It threw its weight around with nigh-unstoppable might, overpowering Junior and dragging him around while the roots only slowed it down. However, Junior’s weight on the arm already carved into by Artorias put extra stress on the remaining material. Any more and it might very well snap off.

It seemed like the elemental attacks had some effect on Ten Piedad, but only after several of them had combined in a volatile way. Was the creature resistant to magic as well? Primrose could certainly keep using her pyromancy, but she could also leave the fire to the Seekers' newest addition. When she attacked next it was to add to the magical bombardment with another spell entirely.

First she had to make it through the monster's frenzied attacks. She leveraged her dexterity to avoid most of its wild swings and the thorny vines it summoned. They were quicker than she'd expected, but at least she ended up with cuts instead of impalement. Then her hands lit up, not with flames but silvery moonlight. Her entire body followed suit when she used up one of her battle points to further increase her magic power.

"Luna!" Glittery moons shaped by the spell converged on the monster. As that glittering moonlight blast cut not just through Ten Piedad’s magical resistance, a very muffled scream issued from inside its torso. For a moment the monster spasmed.

As all this was going on, Therion's striker had just enough time left to roll in and try to stab Ten Piedad in melee range before it was knocked away and disappeared.

Around the same time Therion himself slunk into the large room proper. He stuck to the walls and darker areas, avoiding the monster's attention and keeping out of the way of its vine attacks. With so many allies giving it their all, and the monster itself on the offensive, it was difficult to find an opening for himself to get in close. So he watched and waited. When he got the chance, he could at least try and soften the thing up for the others. And as he watched and waited, he spotted something odd. Another one of those paper butterflies fluttered around one of the nondescript, candle-festooned altars at the periphery of the fight. He’d seen enough of them in Mercy Dreams that it almost didn’t register, but in here it was the only one, and this one fluttered weakly on torn wings. He knew those things had information written on them - and it was possible that there being one monster and one butterfly in the same room wasn't a coincidence. On the edge of the battlefield the thief made a beeline towards it to snatch it up and see what it read.

Inscribed upon the paper butterfly…

I'm still inside the creature. I can hear its roar outside, I can hear the thunderous beating of its heart. I just wanted to sleep, but I saw the Miracle in my dreams. It spoke to me. That is why I lie down in the Lady's open arms. But the Miracle appeared to me again. It was more and more tangible. Then I woke up, but I was no longer myself. I was a prisoner trapped inside a rooted body. A body immersed in constant anger. In constant pain. I am awake in a sleeping body.

Sectonia meanwhile changed her tactics from her rings of light or axes, to try the whole fire thing and electric thing the others were trying. They seemed to elicit some kind of reaction when the creature was hit by them, so Sectonia teleported above it to rain some lightning and fireballs over it before retreating to see what effect it had. Naturally, the wooden demon burned better than it got shocked.

Grounded once again, Nadia quickly learned not to waste any energy or resources on big attacks that her disoriented state might cause to miss. Instead she played a noncommittal hit-and-run game, dashing in for a couple chops with her boxcutters and then hightailing it away from Ten Piedad’s crushing blows whether she connected or not. Although the nightmare flinched for almost nothing, the Seekers’ efforts seemed to be having an effect, especially heavy slash damage and fire damage. She could see a couple cracks across its torso, some with small holes deep enough that she couldn’t see anything but darkness inside. The problem was that Ten Piedad didn’t behave like something alive that felt pain or needed vital organs. It was more like wood animated by some mystical force. But Nadia could swear she heard a voice from inside it, and Primrose’s magic actually got a reaction. So what was this creature’s deal?

When the monster lifted its leg and brought it down for a massive stop, sending a line of thorny vines racing across the floor, Nadia dropped her boxcutters and rushed in. “Grub’s up!” She hurled Athame, which thudded into Ten Piedad’s rib cage and lowered its defense, then jumped up. Without thinking she transformed her right arm with Fluffy Soft, swelling it into the striped limb of a white tiger with a paw as big as her head and kukri-sized claws. “It’s a rib dinner!” Her big swipe ripped out a bunch of wooden chunks, but beneath she could see nothing but petrified flesh. “Tch!” she snarled, landing the next moment. Ten Piedad chased her off with a much bigger, much more dangerous swipe. “Looks like I’m a ‘shallow’ person after all,” she griped. When she pulled out her Free Lemonade, she found it magically refilled, and splashed it on Ten Piedad to do slight damage over time.

At this point the group's other thief actually entered the thick of battle, if only to deliver some information. In light of it, he wasn't sure that his debuffing would have any real effect anyway. Therion weaved through the vines that erupted and spread out, stopping when he was in a close enough position that most of the Seekers would be able to hear him.

"There's someone inside of it," he told the others. He was confident that was the case. He still had the unfolded paper moth in his hand and its contents, like that of a prisoner's firsthand account, explained the noises that his sensitive ears had been picking up. The faint, muted sounds of pain that had seemed like they were coming from the monster, but not from the monster itself.

"Like a mecha?" she suggested, using the term Jesse had used in regards to a smaller entity controlling a larger one. The look Therion threw her clearly said he had no idea what that was. Regardless, now she definitely knew what to do. She could use her Vengeful Spirit or continue to cast Luna to get through the outer shell. She prepared to do the latter.

"They could be trapped," Therion warned before she cast. This he had no basis for besides the writing, but given everything he'd seen in the prison so far, he wouldn't be surprised if this was some other, extremely unique kind of torture device. He didn’t make any suggestion to free that person; they were probably just yet another unfortunate stuck here, but if anyone else was so inclined and actually had any ideas for how to go about doing that, he’d help out.

Primrose had no such ideas. "Noted," she said, and conjured another round of moons.

Having a potential weakpoint exposed, Sectonia wasn’t as worried about there being someone ‘trapped’ inside this creature, in her eyes it was the thing inside piloting this thing. And seeing its super high defense, she had to start using something that got around that. She had a spell just for that, and started throwing her void globules at the creature, the dark energy bypassing its resistances much like the moonlight did beforehand. Being assaulted by both light and void probably wasn’t too comfortable for it.

The Troop members were not exactly sure what they could do about the person within either, particularly given they had been beaten back in each attempted assault. Kamek’s doppelgangers were down, Jr had been hurled clear of the fight despite his damage resistance, and Bowser had uprooted and backed off to avoid being stomped on. They were also rather lacking in coordination, which is why Jr proceeded to group up with and then drop out of his Beast transformation to strategize.

A strategy that mostly boiled down to ”Burn it!” which in hindsight should have been the obvious strategy vs a plant monster, but a desire to try out new tricks had been rather suppressed. Fortunately they had plenty of firepower in their back pockets to pull out now.

Kamek switched to furling blasts using his Fire Materia, while alongside him jr used a combination of his paintbrush and his Ferromancy to form and then fire burning goop coated spikes at the towering tree.

As they did this, Bowser and Rika closed in again. The ship girl made use of the same burning goop that Jr was, but fired at a much more rapid rate from her grizco blaster, at the cost of having to get in close, meaning she had to also focus on dodging and throwing out blocking strikers to avoid getting smashed. All she wanted/needed was to fire 8 however, at which point her all out assault kicked in and hammered their foe with a rapid fire spread shot wave.

Bowser was right there with her, coated in defensive vines thanks to a heal from jr, and had a much more straightforward way of bringing the flame. Fire breath. Admittedly there was a slight increase in complexity, namely that he summoned his trowlon striker, and had it float him to and fro evasive while he focused on burning down the tree, as well as blasting it with armor melting acid from his shoulder cannons while he was at it.

While the beast was pelted with either flame or sword the Koopa Troop seemed to fair just fine without the need for Osvald's magic “So that's what could be making that noise…” the scholar muttered under his breath overhearing the dancer and thief's conversation.

The plume upon Artorias’ helmet whisked this way and that, breathing heavily as he crouched low. The knight's attention solely focused upon the enemy, Artorias ignored the words of those around him. Drawing in one last sharp breath, he filled his lungs. Muscles tensing as the Wolf Knight pushed himself off the ground with a beast like roar, the knight leapt into the air raising his weapon as he went down to strike a deadly blow. If his crushing weight didn't somehow make the creature fall then the length of his blade as it plunged through the Ten Piedad’s body surely would.

By the time Artorias mustered up his ferocious might for a final effort, his strength was practically overkill. At this point, Ten Piedad was missing most of one of its arms, and its wooden flesh -already carved into and gouged in a dozen places- was charred black by the abundance of fire the Seekers inundated it with. His greatsword pierced through the nightmare’s torso, sinking up to the hilt and protruding from the other side. Ten Piedad froze, its back arched. It convulsed once, coughing up a lot of blood, and as more began to seep from the deepest holes in its torso it slowly turned toward the kneeling statue. It took one staggering step, then fell, its one remaining hand outstretched in a final plea for mercy.

“Whew, there we go. Now that’s what I call an unpleasantree.” Nadia let out her pent-up breath, relaxing her shoulders and stance somewhat. Yet she didn’t ease up completely. Though she watched the giant corpse rapidly age and crumble away for a moment, she turned her narrowed eyes around the shadowy room, searching. “Well, take a breather while you can, guys. ‘Cause that felt just a little too easy.”

Therion approached the corpse while it rapidly cooled and disintegrated. He was looking for the sign that this was the prison's boss, something like that item they were sent here to fetch in the first place. So far, the only thing he saw was the monster's spirit - one single spirit. He'd probably never really know if he was right and there had been someone stuck inside of it, but in the grand scheme of things he supposed it didn't matter either way.

He did get the feeling that Ms. Fortune was right, especially because as he sifted through the ashes he found nothing besides the spirit. No keys popped out like when they'd defeated the zombie jailers outside, and no mask fragment fell for the Seekers to claim.

"Yeah. Plus there's nothing here, it didn't drop anything."

”Seriously? After all that? Uuuuurgh” came a whining from jr, and although the other troop members where a little less high pitched in their complaints there was certainly a fair bit of frustrated grumbling to be had.

”Hmm… Or this could just be a magical construct like my Antlers, possibly by the boss itself.” Sectonia pointed out, noting the lack of a spirit.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 4 Roland - (13/40)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (66/120)
Level 6 Susie - (25/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: Less than 750

The ranged attacks of Roland and Susie weren't going to do much it seemed, and after getting punished with more damage, they both groaned a bit before deciding to try to get into melee and beat up this corrupt angel thing. At least Roland reflected a bit of the damage he took back at the angel as mental damage, if that thing was affected by that at least. At least Blazermate got a good use out of her Kritz.

Roland used his skill with his giant sword to deflect a fireball shot aimed at him as he approached, before finally closing the distance to strike her with the same large sword. Susie meanwhile used her transporter to fly over before she got close enough to start beating this thing up with her business suit. Their maneuvers got them off the platform that was about to get blasted, and while they approached the angel, Shinra arrived in a helicopter to aid some 'support', but only really took a laser for them before flying off. At least that gave Roland and Susie enough of a distraction to get close enough to start attacking the already cracked arms.

Roland continued with a couple swipes with his swords, before switching to his polearm for a stab as Susie worked ont he other arm, punching it with her mecha fists. This as well as all the rockets that Shinra had fired managed to break an arm, and before they could work on the other, Goldlewis told eveyrone they had an escape route to leave this thing for the shinra forces to take care of. Roland didn't need be told twice, and disengaged to make his way back, same with Susie as the creature was busy dealing with Shinra's helicopter. Blazermate, being near who was injured, was closer to the copter than the other two, but as Roland tried to make a jump to another platform, being unable to fly like Susie and Blazermate, the platform got blasted by one of the various missiles flying about forcing Blazermate to zoom over and catch the fixer and bring him back her way.

"Ugh, what is even going on anymore." Roland said, sighing as he was being flown to the evac point, Blazermate saying. "A big boss monster. Not the first time this has happened, but more laser beams this time. The consoul is new, but its strange how they're fighting this thing since I figured they caused all of this. Man, this is so confusing." Blazermate said. Susie, having gone ahead due to not needing to carry someone, could only look back at what had been going on and said. "And to think there is something bigger out there, then something bigger than that. We're going to need more firepower to deal with all of this."

World of Light

Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (45/110)
Location: The Under - The prison
Word Count: 1106

Sectonia wasn't too thrilled about the endless sea of goblins coming from the chest, even if they were easy to handle. And juas as she was getting pushed to the stairs, clearing goblins that came after her. With her antillions and tesla coil and the occasional massive Ring of Light, she could keep the goblins and their choppers away from her. This was more or less a case of chasing the unchasable, as she cleared 1 goblin, 3 popped up to take its place. That on top of Nadia coming out of nowhere with some white tiger chasing her, which caused the chest to fall off the railings and down, down deeper into the prison. Considering the group had to eventually get down there, she sighed as she knew they'd have to deal with them as they moved down...

Speaking of moving down, she had to find a way down that wouldn't put her in the center of what would probably be a huge goblin mess first. Considering the sounds she was hearing below and the bright flash of light below, the others had made their way down there so she could do the same. As she moved through the prison, she found an unlocked door which she figured would bring her down to the next level. However instead, she found herself in what others would call a 'modern' room. Well, a modern room with some research equipment. Surrounding a blue tinted black ornate framed mirror was various research equipment, some green herbs, and some audio tapes and a typewriter. Sectonia tried to listen to one of the tapes, but all she got was gibberish. Even so, she was more interested in the mirror since now she can see what she looked like after all those recent fusions.

As she approached the mirror to look at the changes she had undertaken, she noticed right away she was a bit smaller. She knew this as her antillions were now 'bigger' to her than they were, but this confirmed it. Also the extra armor which she didn't really feel was something to get used to, but at least it was opulent and crystalline so it at least looked good. Her eyes were the bit she found to be the strangest, with such weird pupils. But they made her look more... cute than beautiful which she wasn't sure what to think about at this time. As she moved to touch the mirror to get a better look at herself, something... happened. She felt like she went through the mirror, but could still see herself on the other side. It was a strange feeling, and as she turned around after getting a good look at herself and her outfit, she noticed everything had a weird tint to it.

She noticed pretty quickly that she couldn't teleport, nor could she summon antillions in this weird space, and that while she could see herself on the other side of the mirror, that 'self' wasn't moving anymore. It was as if she had been sucked into the mirror. She also noticed that all text was reversed, and if she spoke, she also spoke in reverse. She could only sumize she got trapped in the mirror or some kind of weird mirror world. Now if this was a trap, or the way forward, she wasn't sure, so she decided to at least explore a bit.

She found that where there were guards and other things, the prison was vacant. No chop goblins, no guards, nothing. At least until she got back to the place where the chop goblin chest fell, in which she found something that looked like herself. Considering the whole backward speech thing that Sectonia couldn't understand, all she could gather was this individual was called Ainotces. Considering she wasn't going to decode backwards talk, she got ready for the fight with an alternate looking version of herself.

The battle started with the fake casting a spell Sectonia herself didn't know, a spell that encased the faker in a skin that looked like marble. This slowed them down a little bit, but greatly increased their defense. Sectonia soon figured this out as she found that her arcane prisms did very little, but all she had to do was swap to her void globules to bypass that. But that was just setup for the next spell, a bunch of homing soul projectiles that seeked out Sectonia. Sectonia countered with her own pipe of insight, before blasting her clone with lightning, the void globules beforehand and the lightning shattering the marble armor.

Annoyed with this pretender, Sectonia decided to get rid of this thing using her new weapons after having shattered her marble armor. Although she soon found that, without her telelporting, that she'd have to use her new fancy axe as it seemed to do lots of damage when thrown. Her doppleganger meanwhile attacked her with her own antillions, being actually able to summon them. Sectonia knew how to handle them though, and unleashed a large Ring of Light to clear them out, although that lead to her counterpart showing her third new spell, a longer cast of green energy that Sectonia found went right past her magical defenses and hurt really bad. The cast time was long though, so she wouldn't let her counterpart do that again.

And to make sure of that, Sectonia hasted herself to get in close again to stab and bash her counterpart who was getting ready to cast another one of those homing soul bolts and get in a melee combo mid cast with her swords and staff. And when her counterpart teleported away to use that green bolt again, Sectonia moved to her and just held her giant ring of light right against her counterpart to not only make her drop the spell or get hit really hard, but in an attempt to finish her off. This broke her concentration and forced her to move, which Sectonia followed up by firing the large ring, hitting her counterpart on the teleport arrival and shattering her.

After the fight, Sectonia found herself back in the real world, staring at a blank mirror. She found an item in her hands as well. A scroll that let her cast some homing souls. Although she could only use it a couple times a day. She also found another item that seemed to hold some appearance of some kind, but now wasn't the tiem for that. She had to get down to the third level now, who knows how much time had passed while she was inside the mirror.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 4 Roland - (12/40)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (65/120)
Level 6 Susie - (24/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: Less than 750

With Roland's EGO attack finishing off Vigil, Giovanna giving him a bit of a complex look. Really there wasn't much he could do in the moment. This wasn't the first time he had dealt with something being controlled by another thing, and either they broke free after getting hit a bit, or wouldn't stop until they were dead in his experience. And it seemed to be the latter for Vigil and Penance. Although Giovanna did something Roland wasn't sure how to do, doing a technique to free Penance from the consul's control. "Would've been nice to know you could do that." Roland said in a lower tone of voice. But at least they got one of the mind controlled victims back to their senses. Still, a bleeding heart would get you killed out there, and if Roland was nothing else, he was a survivor even against his own feelings sometimes.

Blazermate meanwhile had gotten blindsided by Akira's partner and ended up getting chained to the ground, unable to move as Akira rained arrows on her from above. That hurt, but seeing that, her allies came to her rescue as she struggled to break herself free. Susie meanwhile had seen what the Consul had done to one of Reunion and that vortex of his. Quite a dangerous ability, but he was a big one to deal with, so... Well, there wasn't much to think about as everyone, even the recently broken free Blazermate and Roland who had quite a 'I'm tired of this" look on his face were pulled towards a single spot and all clumped together. Blazermate saw that Sandalphon was now the most critical, so she started to heal her up as she could, but that pull hurt everyone.

Seeing the situation, and wanting her revenge, Jena did something drastic, and after drinking a concoction, she glew bright, before revealing some kind of crystal angel form. "What now... Did she distort?" And upon seeing this, Sandalphon transformed herself and healed everyone a bit. Roland could only shake his head as he got ready to deal with the element throwing crystal angel lady thing in front of him.

"I got Kritz, if someone is going to do a huge move, let me know! Lets make it hurt!" Blazermate said, giving whoever was going to go in some overheal. Roland saw the platforms leading to this thing, but he decided for now to just use his ranged weapons. Pulling out the gun that he had gotten earlier, he fired that, before swapping to his crossbow, then finally, his own rifle in a combo attack. Susie could deal with ranged attacks as well, as she fired her missile at this thing. Blazermate noted that while the ice couldn't get past a projectile shield, the fire could. Roland found out that his new outfit helped a lot with the fire, but did nothing for the cold.

World of Light

Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (43/110)
Location: The Under - The prison
Word Count: Less than 750

Sectonia having found some success on floor 1, made her way down to floor 2 evading the enemies she was told about. She wasn't sure how she felt about being smaller now, but it did make sneaking easier. She was about the size of her now large fire antillions now, so there was that as well, but oh well. Making her way down to floor 2, she moved around the prison, looking at what was around and a bit miffed that most doors needed a key or something to open. And seeing how few keys they had and how many floors they had left to go through, she wasn't going to waste them on this floor if she could help it.

As she moved through floor 2, exploring the area, she heard a peculiar voice, her own. Well, that wasn't unnerving at all. While she just figured it was a trick of this place, she soon saw a flicker of an image of... herself in the corner of her eyes? Well, it was what she looked like before she became gorgeous, but... that was still really strange. Out of curiosity she decided to see what this spectre was, at least for a little bit as she had really little direction on where to go. And if this was some creature messing with her, she would smite it with all of her wrath.

Wrath which was building, as vague phrases such as "You forgot..." or "Remember your happiness" or "I wasn't sad." came from this specter at the edge of her eyes. This was both confusing, and annoying to deal with. She assumed the mixed negative feelings she got from this was from the area itself, although some of this felt... accurate? And that just made her more confused and angry, so much so that after a little while of this, she fired a few spells when she saw the specter, and after a bit more taunting, the shadow finally left her, for now.

Well, after encountering a literal shadow of her past, Sectonia was a bit disoriented and needed a bit of time to process that in a proper manner. Or a distraction, which she found as she found a door that was barred but not locked soon after losing track of her 'shadow'. Or rather, a door she could force open with her new giant axe. Inside that room was a large, chained chest. It shook a small bit but otherwise was just a large chained chest. Well, whatever is inside was probably something of some kind of renown or power, or perhaps the boss of the area or just general loot? Well, she needed a bit of a distraction at the moment, so she used her magic to break the chains and open the chest. And as soon as the chest lid popped open, a bunch of Chop Goblins appeared from the chest. 15 of them in total, which made strange high pitched mumbling and grumbling sound. (Almost like gremlins.) While a couple charged Sectonia, most just ran around her or down different paths to cause chaos in the jail.

Now, 15 of these things wasn't all that bad. Sure the initial surge made Sectonia back up a bit, but those that attacked her fell to her new axe and her magic without much issue. In fact, those that charged her dropped golden ChopCoins instead of their spirits when defeated, but only about every 5th goblin dropped one. And she got 5 of these coins before she was forced to retreat. Why you might ask? because the chest was vomiting a constant stream of chop goblins, 2 every second or there abouts, which forced the queen back due to sheer numbers as they rushed past and away from her or charged her with their choppers out, and soon it was made apparent why the chest was locked as the swarm of goblins grew and grew.

Using her linkpearl, Sectonia said to the rest of the seekers there. "I found a large chest in a barred off room. However opening it has unleashed a horde of... things which are starting to flood the area. I'll need some of you to come here and help me deal with this horde before we are overrun. They do drop treasure when defeated however, although sparingly." Sectonia reported as she made a tactical retreat, summoning some antillions to distract the chop goblins. She'd need a few allies to push through that approaching horde and lock that chest once again. Although if they could control what these things came out of, they could be useful tools... although she hated how they looked so perhaps destroying the thing would be the best course of action...

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 4 Roland - (11/40)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (64/120)
Level 6 Susie - (23/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: Less than 750

"Tch, this guy is getting annoying." Roland said, having to deal with Vigil's shenanigans. The wall that was Penance also sucked to deal with, having knocked Roland off his balance for a little while with her attack. At least she didn't really hit that hard even when trying, she instead just wore you down. But that wasn't for Roland to handle, as Geralt and Karin had that. Instead he would assist in dealing with Vigil. It was a shame the guy was not in his right state of mind, but thats that and this is this.

Having not all that much experience with her new shield, Susie wasn't sure on how much damage she could take. Although she learned a bit while Vigil landed a few shots on her in her mech, with one of the bullets just... dropping to her feet fully intact. While some of the others hit the shield. Roland had difficulty deflecting his bullets as well, since they were high callibor bullets compared to the machine gun fire before. Still, he could deflect a couple as he went to clash with Vigil, and his Scars made every 5th hit deal no damage but he still took a fair amount of damage. The heal from Sandalphon was well timed, and with that and the three way tag team between Susie, Roland, and Giovanna, Roland went in to deal with the guy.

Vigil wasn't going to take that lying down though, and getting tired of Roland deflecting his shots, sent in his shadow wolves to attack him, which Roland clashed against. While he blocked the first and parried the second attack with his hammer, the third attack landed. That was when Giovanna had gotten Vigil off of Susie though, with Susie taking that opportunity to spike the serve right in front of her right at Roland. Having the eyes of a guy who just didn't care, Roland struck at the grounded Vigil, overpowering his gun whip retaliation before striking him with his longsword. After getting 3 clashes, Rolands emotion leveled up again which gave him Guilt, with a soft girl's voice saying "Don’t shove the responsibility on others. The agony is yours to bear." making it so he took reduced mental damage, and inflicted a small amount of mental damage when attacked. He now had a smaller effect that Penance had, although Vigil wouldn't see that as Roland got an EGO page, Wrist Cutter.

He then used his new EGO page almost right away to finish off the gunslinger and possibly damage any other enemies around him. Donning the EGO of Bloodbath, the area changed to a scarred, bloody flesh bathtub via the glowing will o wisps for 10 seconds as Roland donned the EGO and filled the area around him with a drowning torrent of blood, washing away any buffs to damage or suitability to those that didn't defend themselves from the depression filled blood. While the attack only lasted a second, Vigil didn't have enough vitality left in him to resist and was washed away by the EGO. "Thats that, and this is this." Roland said, getting ready to help the others with the rest of the fight.

Blazermate meanwhile was just healing people and keeping her shield up to block Akira, using it to advance on the guy and attempt to zap him with the energy shield as the engineer's sentry gun plonked away at whatever enemy was close to it.

World of Light

Roland

And
Robot Girls



Level 4 Roland - (10/40)
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (63/120)
Level 6 Susie - (22/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Location: Sector 9
Word Count: 1016

While a big monster that could occasionally hit hard, its telegraphed movements made it fairly easy to fight until it got low, but at that point everyone was able to ramp up their abilities and finish the poor chimera off. Knowing the whole system now with spirits, Roland grabbed the now fallen monster and crushed it during the helicopter ride to the Reunion meeting. For once he had some time to breath, at least until the next fight, so he could process what was going on.

For Roland

Item obtained:
X-Baton
The standard-issue cutting-edge weapon of the Neuron police taskforce. Made in part with matter from the Astral Plane, it is capable of damaging Gates, chimeras, and so forth even in the hands of someone who can't see them, and it can also transform. Its standard telescopic baton form is well-suited to quick, dextrous melee attacks that compliment hand-to-hand techniques. Its blaster form can release bursts of blue bolts, either in sequence or as a shotgun blast, as well as large projectile orbs. This adaptability and range comes at the cost of low damage, pretty high spread, and below-average projectile speed. Its gladius form is a heavy one-sided greatsword that can deal lots of damage with its slow swings

"Well, this has been 'interesting' so far. " Roland said, seeing how much hes been able to dig into the Evercrisis situation since he 'joined' the Seekers. Although having his world turned upside down, then turned upside down again was still something he was getting used to. What really made him conflicted is that, compared to where he was from, this place was great, yet apparently from both the seekers and those others, the city was still bad. And needing some multiversal godlike entity to fix his world was something he was still... processing.

Blazermate took the time in the chopper to try to tune herself up a bit, with Susie seeing that and doing the work for her in a much, much faster timeframe out of something to let her relax after the constant fighting as well than any sort of charity. Out of everyone, Blazermate was the most relaxed with all the fighting. Still annoyed, but she was a robot made to fight, so she was much more used to this. And she figured that there would still be more fighting if they were heading to this Reunion.

Once they reached the rooftop where Reunion was, they found a Consul as well up here. While they couldn't figure out what was going on too much, with how Jena and Reunion were hostile towards the Consul, and the Consul using his mind control powers to take over Penance, Vigil, Hayato and Akira, well, things had spiced up quite a bit now. While Roland sighed as he got ready for another fight, Blazermate decided to try to take advantage of the situation since it was 3 factions all fighting here. "Hey Jena. This guy is the guy who controls Shinra. Take him out, and the city changes overnight. You see how he mind controlled Penance and the others." Blazermate said, making it clear that her group viewed the Consul as the much bigger threat as she went to do her healing and sentry making. Roland was a bit conflicted here, but decided to go with the seekers in this case as they seemed to know about what was going on way better than anyone else here.

Although Blazermate had no idea what a Consul was, so while she hoped they could at least make him retreat, they were an unknown. Even so, they'd have to attack them at some point... Susie hopped into her suit and stayed at range for now to figure out what was going on, using her ranged missiles like she did on the Consul once she got a grasp of what was going on. And finally, Roland got into the frey. He wasn't a fan of mind control or anything unsavory like that, but he also knew that dealing with someone who could do that would be a huge problem for everyone. Although could he control an Arbiter? the Seekers didn't know what that was of course, but he also only knew two of them, and one of them was working for Shinra so... it was up in the air. He'd have a greater concept of what was going on whenever he saw Binah, as much as he disliked the hag.

Thinking of the Library, Roland remembered when he started there on the Floor of General Works. And after his first clash with Penance to keep her off balance, he gained Scars, a womanly voice saying "The depth of a cut depends on the moment’s mind and willpower.", reducing some of the damage he took. Which would come in handy as every 5th hit he took was outright ignored, alongside him taking reduced damage from any attack in general.

Speaking of Penance, Blazermate saw that she had managed to disarm Sandalphon. Also she saw that the battlefield was fairly... small all things considered. So she had an easier time summoning purgatory ghosts as she moved around which zoomed around at the Consul and those he controlled at random, using Roland's diversion to grab the gunstaff and bring it back to Sandalphon as Susie took the attention of Vigil in her business suit. For now, Blazermate looked like she was just moving around making exploding ghosts come out of the ground, but how long it would take for the opponents to realize she was a healer was unknown. These guys were a lot smarter than things they've been fighting so far after all. They also had the distraction of the engineer and his sentry gun to deal with in this chaotic battle, so there was that.

As Susie was starting to get double teamed by Vigil and Akira, Roland came to deflect and clash with Vigil and his guns so Susie could handle Akira. After a clash with his sword and lance against Vigil's guns and followup melee strikes as he soon found Roland was very adept at deflecting his bullets with his varied weapons, Roland got to emotion level 2, and with it got Urging, with a mosnterus voice saying. "Join me in this feverish pulsation.", increasing his speed and health by a fair amount.

When Blazermate was eventually fired upon, she summoned her projectile shield to give herself and those she was fighting with some cover and pressure. While initially being hostile to Jena and her group, seeing the Consul in front of them, she would at least heal up Reunion as long as they were on the same side of the conflict. This could come back and bite them sure, but eliminating one side of the conflict first before dealing with the other was the smart play.

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Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (42/110)
Location: The Under - The prison
Word Count: 1025

With their coordinated assault, the caretaker fell. And much like they did, the koopa clan scooped up the leftover spirits and went to town getting various bits of loot, with or without the symbol of avarice Sectonia held. Still, they left the big thing behind, the caretaker, which Sectonia took. it would be completely useless as anything but an item, and who would fuse with what was essentially a giant inverted immobile pyramid?

For Sectonia

Item obtained:
Data Rack
A large, long, octagonal device with an immense amount of memory, complete with its own internal reciprocal power source that allows it to sustain itself indefinitely. As a result it hums and emits a low-yield electrical aura best described as 'tingly'. In addition to data, it can house sophisticated artificial intelligences. Its adaptive port means that it can absorb data from any device connected to it. If destroyed, it will cause an explosion proportional to the amount of data in its memory, from a minimum of 1 stick of dynamite to a miniature atomic bomb. It's currently empty

After the dwarves had hitched what they came for onto their four legged... molly, things started to get hectic again. With the troop taking the spoils as they had the inventory space for it, which Sectonia would have them divvy up later, she moved with the group, striking at the various glyphids that emerged from the wall. Eventually the group made it to the dwarves 'escape pod', a giant drill looking ship with tracks that let it ride up the wall. Those who couldn't fly were squished into the pod, but thankfully for her, Sectonia could fly and just follow the pod to their next stop instead of being subject to what was probably a foul smelling pod.

And with that pod, they found themselves at the part they were told of, The Mercy Dreams. A prison complex that gave off quite the creepy vibe. Even Sectonia was put off by the oppressive atmosphere. Something was watching them, or so it felt like, and getting spotted by the guards wouldn't end well or so it felt. So Sectonia did a bit of a smart play, being able to see reasonably well in the dark she sent out a single antillion to catch the attention of a guard and lure it away as she moved through the prison. Stealth wasn't her forte, she'd much rather destroy these things, but the air of the place made it seem like doing that with these things, at least while the boss was alive, would be a poor choice. She'd also offer a distraction antillion to anyone else who needed it to go through the prison, but she wasn't going to wait for the koopa clan to do their shenanigans in the office she found. Instead she decided to move forward a bit.

As much as this was a prison, it was also a dungeon. After getting a green antillion to distract an Illuminator, Sectonia moved past its now fading lantern light and soon after, one of Kamek's Toadies delivered her some bronze keys. While she wasn't a dungeon delver herself, as it was shown that neither her or Bowser could open these doors by force, perhaps these were sent as they were what was needed to open one. When there were no guards nearby, she looked at the various doors and the howling of all the various prisoners and decided to just open one to see what it would contain.

The first door she opened contained something she wasn't expecting, someone quite decent looking. but they had been driven mad by the atmosphere of the prison, and attacked as soon as the door was open and freedom lay before them. Secotnia didn't take it well when this crystalline looking knight attacked her with a giant battleaxe with Sectonia only barely able to reduce the damage from the sucker attack by giving a slight deflect with one of her own staffs but still taking some damage. Being as large as she was, Sectonia made it difficult just by her bulk for this knight to get past her beyond the initial push to get out of their cell, and Sectonia wasn't going to take being attacked lying down. Being in such a small area, her projectiles wouldn't miss and would be extra devastating as she used her honey staff to summon her lightning and clash with the axe of the other person. This caused her opponent to reel as the lightning hit them. Seeing this opportunity, and combining her lightning with her tesla coil lightning, she pushed Agate back into her cell and continued to roast the blade with her electrical attacks. She even threw some fireballs from her fire breath for good measure. Still, the blade wouldn't go down so easily, and attempted to fight through the lightning barrage by throwing their axe at Sectonia and doing some damage before the queen backed off the spinning axe before it returned to Agate's hand.

Still, Sectonia had dealt a significant amount of damage from her passive and active electrical attacks, and while Agate had managed to leave her cell again, she wasn't in a great spot with Sectonia using her rings of light to deal more damage and finish the blade off as they continued their desperate escape from the prison. While taking more damage than she would've liked to, Sectonia had felled this aggressor, and claimed their spirit as her prize. She did like the way this one looked, and it was feminine, but she'd only know what she got by fusing with it...

For Sectonia

Notable Spirit consumed:
Agate
The host has gotten about 20% smaller. Her attire is now predominantly white with a gold trim, and her hat is now a blend of a witch's hat and a crown with a wide brim. Her wings are back to being metallic in appearance, wrought of the same gold material, with white ribbon cloth stretched between the metal. There are two glowing blue 'discs' in the wings like the 'eyes' on the wings of a moth. The heart-shaped holes in her wings, as well as the hearts on her attire/body, are now pink crystal, which also adorns her garments. The result is a coherent and glamorous mage-knight aesthetic of white, gold, black, and pink. She has a second set of limbs just below the first, arranged much like an actual wasp's, but rather than hands they end in points with pink crystal spikes beneath them. This allows them to be used as additional arms or as actual legs. Both sets of arms have white armor. The host's personality is a bit more knightly, gallant, and protective. This spirit confers the power Crystalline Knight, allowing the host to manifest a large, double-bladed gemstone greataxe. In addition to being a strong, heavy melee weapon, it can be used as a casting catalyst, and if thrown it can spin through the air like a giant sawblade before flying back to its owner's hands. If it's used to strike the ground, it will create an outcrop of pink crystalline spikes. This spirit also confers the weakness Earthbane, giving the host an inherent elemental weakness to electricity and causing her to count as 'earth/ground' for the purpose of additional elemental reactions

Well, she'd have to see what she looked like, but she felt smaller after fusing with this spirit. That and the extra arms were a bit... Well they'd take some getting used to. But at least this beautiful figure didn't make her look ugly, she felt like she was more radiant than ever. Although at this time that might be an issue potentially. She would see, still she had one more key to use and if the surge of power she felt off this first one was anything to go by, there were some strong people here.

Using her second key, she opened up another jailcell, finding another person, Nocturne. This one was... hollow looking but wasn't outright hostile like the other one. She also didn't look all that pretty or strong, so if she wasn't hostile, perhaps she'd make a new minion. Although minions would have to be strong to be worthwhile, but she has been proven wrong before on the whole 'strength' scale. "If you still have your wits about you, it would be best for you to come with me. Perhaps you can be of use to me and escape this place."