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7 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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The Statue Calls

Ft. Juri, Edelgard and Edward
Words: 3813 (+4 exp) (+2 rapport)


After the seekers had gotten to the Scarlet Swamp they got a little chance for some rest. Most of them. For a pair of them, whispers only they could hear prevented any relaxation from being had.

Edward had heard them since his arrival, and had intentionally followed them with weary interest, wading through swamp water with hands firmly placed on hilts of weapons in anticipation of this being some kind of trap.

They lead him to the island upon which Miss Fortune had tried to wash herself, but by then both she and her companion had abandoned the spot that led him too, leaving only a pool of diluted blood as evidence of her attempt. Instead, he found only the source of the whispers, a talllion-headed statue holding a massive hourglass.

He paused for a moment, examining the artifact with a clinical eye, blood dripping from his wings and clothes, before movement to his right caused him to tense and shift it. He did not find an enemy there however, but instead the armored form of Edelgard causing him to relax, hands moving away from his weapons, and for him to instead rais one in greeting.

”Well met. I’m glad to see you made it out of that gauntlet as well”

Edelgard nodded, eyes focused on the statue before the pair. ”Indeed. It was a…most frustrating experience, if I am to be blunt with you. I hope that your ascent was less unpleasant, at least.” The small talk was helping to keep her mind off of the frustration of being frozen within the Sepulcher, but it could not break her gaze from the statue.

”Another of this tree’s mysteries, you think?” She suddenly spoke after a few moments. ”I noticed that we are the only two so…drawn…to this thing.”

”Hordes and an unkillable hunter, horrors both” Edward replied to the first question, before saying that ”and now this regal statue that would seem rather out of place if not... well…” as he gazed up at the piece of art before them before he glanced at her and asked to confirm ”I assume you hear the whispers too?”

Edelgard let out a huff of air, nodding imperceptibly. ”Were it not for the peculiarities of this place, I’d have thought myself mad. I assume the two of us being the latest additions to this group has something to do with it?” She mused, still staring at the statue. Why was it calling to them? What did it want?

”Hey Ed,” She said, ”If you two like this statue so much, why don’tcha marry it?” She dropped down from where she had been watching. Setting a hand on her hip she balanced on one foot, hooking the other behind. Truth be told she had been hearing whispers, too, but, like, who didn’t? But more than one person hearing voices from the same source was something to investigate.

Edward suppressed a sigh as he turned to face the quarrelsome streetfighter, and then tried to avoid being derailed from the topic at hand, saying ”I suppose that throws a wrench in that theory, unless you joined only somewhat recently as well? Before us, naturally, but how long before?”

”I dunno when you guys joined, you’re all so forgettable. But I was a little over a week ago.” She said.

Edelgard did not suppress her sigh when Juri approached, not looking forward to her intrusion. Thankfully, however, this time her ‘barb’ was more of a juvenile teasing than anything meant to actually rankle a person. ”Regardless, we ought to do something. Does it want us to call out to it? Touch it? I suppose we do not have overly long to wait to test our theories.” And with that, she strode confidently up to the statue and placed her hand upon it.

For a few moments, her vision flashed white and red, before returning to reality. She gasped as the xylem slowly flowed from her arm onto the statue, pooling into a large bubble that floated between her and it. Leaving her hand there, Edelgard watched as her armor was cleansed of the bloodlike substance, which floated into the statue and disappeared. ”How odd…” She muttered, stepping back.



”Even if that is all it does, then this meeting will have been worth it. These wings have already proven a nightmare to keep clean” Edward said as he stepped forwards to touch the same statue, and he too was cleansed of the tree’s stolen vitality. Then he stepped back, blinking as if he’d been blinded by a flash. He waved a hand before his eyes and then looked into the distance, before saying that ”Odd certainly describes it. I think my vision just got sharper?”



”Haaah?” Juri put her fists on her hips and leaned forward, taking a big couple steps before she plopped her hand on the statue. The blood was absorbed from her as well. But in her mind’s eye, she was taken back to her first kill when she was still a freshly orphaned teenager prowling the rainy streets of the criminal underworld in Seoul. Then the one after that, and after that, and after that. Everything she did for SIN and Shadaloo. That long day when she scoured the entire research division of everyone who knew about Seth and the Feng Shui Engine. Every life she’d ever taken. But she didn’t get the impression the statue was judging her. Just acknowledging it, and taking it, and turning it into strength she had yet to remember. The others would see each life represented by a small orb of blood that left Juri’s hand and travelled into the statue, the victim dimly reflected in the orb itself. There was probably a little more than fifty orbs in total.



Juri pulled away her hand and looked at her palm, now clean of blood. ”What the hell?” She asked. But she couldn’t deny, she was brimming with restored power. ”Let’s just hope this lion statue isn’t a snitch.” She looked at the other two.

”You’re tellin’ me neither of you saw anything?” She asked.

Edward glance up at her from where he was checking over one of his floating tomes, one that looked like it could be used as a weapon thanks to the spike lining it, with a questioning look.

”Nothing specific” he replied, before the commander gave it a moment more thought and saying that ”there was something of a blur, as if something was attempting to be communicated, but no discernible details came through” and then asking ”why? Did you see something clearer?”

”I likewise only saw flashes of color. White and red. I have little idea as to what it meant.” Edelgard added, somewhat confused. What did Juri see that they did not?

Juri looked between them. ”I saw every chump I ever merked.” She said, and then cast her eyes upon her own hands. ”Guess the statue didn’t mind all the killin’, though. Hell, I feel stronger for it.”

She set a hand on her hip. ”Either you two goodie two shoes have never killed anyone, or…” She trailed off, letting the implication hang.

The look on Edelgard's face was a mixture of bemusement at being called a ‘goodie two shoes’ and horror at what her empty flashing vision had meant. ”Indeed.” She simply replied, turning away and steeling her gaze.

Edward’s meanwhile was a stern mask, the man effortlessly hiding whatever it was he felt at this revelation, yet not quite well enough to disguise the fact that that was what he was doing. ”I am exactly what I appear to be” the man in military dress holding a tome with which he conjured weapons of war explained simply, before snapping the book shut and moving to affix it back at his hip.

Juri let out an appreciative whistle. ”Mrs and Mr Geneva Suggestion over here! What’s your favorite type of township to raze?”

”Where were you raised?” Edelgard replied with a cold glare, before rolling her eyes and continuing without giving Juri a chance to respond. ”I did what was necessary to root out those who had forced innocent people to toil under an unjust system, hiding a shadow war beneath the noses of an entire continent, all to maintain the last dying throes of the power they once had. And I will do the same to Galeem.”

Juri’s grin widened, feeling like she touched a nerve. ”Oh, forgive my manners, your majesty. Don’t throw me to the lions! You’re right, I’m sure all those dead people are super grateful you came in to save them.”

”and do you consider the deaths at your own hands just, or did you needle them to death with endless provocation for your own amusement?” Edward stepped in to ask, more to diffuse Juri’s attention than to get her to lay off.

Juri swivelled, leaning forward. ”Nah, I killed ‘em cuz I wanted to. Though I’m sure if I asked them, they’d say they were only doing what was necessary.” Juri winked.

”and if you were in our boots, with armies, cities, a whole nation at our beck and call, would you do the same? Kill whoever you wanted too simply because you felt like it?” the man replied, hands folded behind the small of his back as he stared her down.

Juri shrugged, making a face. ”Meh, too much work. I’m not the world-conquering type. Plus, I prefer to kill people with my own hands. Just seems like the decent thing to do.” She added cheekily.

”I will not pretend that what I did was good. Only that it was necessary for people to live a life of their own choosing, rather than being suppressed by hidden societies carrying out a millenium-long war. And if you think I took no pleasure in ending the people who tortured me and turned me into a living weapon, you are as much a fool as you've made yourself out to be already.” Edelgard replied, her voice steady and emotionless.

”I do not need your approval of my actions to assuage my conscience, I assure you. Some of the others gathered here may fancy themselves heroes or champions, but I've a feeling you think yourself their better for your lack of restraint. Such narcissism ill suits a woman of your talents.” Letting out a short breath, Edelgard turned away, a distant look on her face. This woman reminded her of a less magnanimous Ferdinand, though she was just as self-aggrandizing.

Juri raised her hands placatingly, making an exaggerated face of surprise. ”Hey, you’ll get no arguments from me, princess! I’m sure you had a grand old time. That’s why I asked. Not often I get to chat with a fellow carnage enthusiast.”

She took a few steps forward, swooping around Edelgard’s side. ”And so ambitious. And you hate a secret society, too? We have so much in common! Why don’tcha like me, huh?!” Juri asked, pouting.

”I can hardly guess” Edward said with a straight face as he stepped around Edelgard’s other side to keep track of the young woman, and in so doing making circling her like some kind of street shark that much more awkward.

Juri was suddenly in Edward’s face, her eyes bulging. ”She’s a big girl, I think she can handle little ol’ me.” She whispered. ”Maybe you’re just trying to make up for something.” She said with an unimpressed shrug, backing off.

She turned to walk away, raising a hand in a flippant goodbye wave. ”Have fun reminiscing about the good old days, Eds! Don’t lemme get in yer way.”

Once Juri was well out of earshot, Edelgard sighed. ”That woman is insufferable. And I have more than enough to ‘make up’ for than she could begin to fathom.” Gritting her teeth, Edelgard whirled on Edward, before slowing to compose herself. ”Though, I must thank you for attempting to take her attention off me. She is simply a nuisance, and I wonder if she realizes it, or she believes herself clever for managing to get a rise out of us?”

”I spent far too much time trapped in a forest with her and an unkillable mass of bodies, and she was more of a threat to my sanity than it by quite some margin” Edward quipped in response, leaving out the two rogues who had has seen neither hide nor hair of due to their talents. He added that it was ”most certainly not a fate I want someone else to endure, particular when she had latched onto something so… personal” before leaving the floor open for her to vent about or withhold what it was she had made up for, at her own discretion.

Edelgard hummed, nodding. ”I can scarcely imagine how miserable that must have been, Commander. I suppose I should count myself lucky with regards to those I encountered on the scent of this demonic tree.”

Taking the hint, he made no effort to pick up that dropped subject, and pointed the conversation towards the future, saying ”I expect once she is distracted by the chance to commit violence again that’ll be the last we hear of her on the rest of the climb other than the odd bit of inflammatory yelling that the din of battle should mostly drown out” as he scanned the room with his sharpened sense of sight, spotting and then pointing out that ”and there does at least seem to be a path heading upwards. So perhaps we’ll be able to ascend in a more coordinated fashion this time?”

”That would be nice. I grow weary of these strange challenges we face, in limited numbers. I would much rather overwhelm our enemies with unstoppable numbers and power, rather than have to guess at what strange manner of fighting we will need to employ to win.” Nobody ever called her a tactician, that was for sure. ”You remind me of my retainer, Hubert. Only much less…dour in outlook. It might have been easier to get a demonic beast to smile than that man.”

Proving that point, that certainly got a smile from the man, who guessed that ”I take it he was the sort of man to foresee every possible bad outcome? That certainly has its values in a strategist, as long as there is some counter balance”

”He was. After the attack that destroyed Arianrhod, he drafted a letter to release to our enemies should I be felled in battle, giving the location that he determined the weapons had been launched from. It took some time, but he was a military and magical genius, if a bit stone-hearted. He had to be, to do what we did.” Sighing, Edelgard shook her head. ”I look forward to the day I can see him again. If only to have a truly loyal face around. Not that you haven’t been pleasant conversation thus far, but we’ve known each other only a day.”

”Of course” Edward replied matter of factly, along with a slight nod in additional agreement. ”Still, I have so far found your company entirely agreeable. A steady ship in a lake of… eccentricity” he said, choosing the word politely rather than carefully because they were ”competent, certainly, but from different worlds than you and I. More than just literally I mean. This is perhaps the most adhocly run force I have ever been a part of, save perhaps the one that was meant to save my world before Galeem so rudely interrupted our attempt. Some of them where already well past it before starting to style themselves as ‘Godir’ of that I’m sure”

Edelgard let out a small chuckle at Edward’s description of their compatriots. ”Indeed. I am used to people of a much more military bent, whereas this group is very cobbled together from whomever they could find. I understand the reasoning, but it has resulted in a very eclectic group nonetheless.”

”Indeed” Edward agreed, before suggesting ”I suppose we shall simply have to lead from example in the professionalism department”

Shaking her head, Edelgard gave another mirthless chuckle. ”I feel that might be a fool’s errand, Commander. Regardless, let us join the others, it appears that the time has come to mobilize.” Nodding at the group, which had begun to stir and move out, Edelgard likewise followed.

”I suppose, but what else is there to do but try?” Edward asked, only for Edelgard’s point to be hammered down by a tiny turtle yelling ”hurry it up slow pokes!” at them from the exit of the chamber, prompting him to gave a sigh that turned into a slight, genuinely amused, chuckle at the absurdity of it all and add ”If only for the sake of attempting to maintain our own dignity”

”Whatever dignity I had died in the mud, Commander. I have only spite left.” She sighed, rolling her eyes at Junior as she broke into a light jog. The shuffling and clinking of armor heralded her every step.

”Mine alone then” Edward said, only to himself, and then moved to follow, the more lightly armored man catching up and then keeping pace while his mind switched gears to strategizing army compositions.



Two Women Scorned

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (132/140), Midna
Word Count: 3427 (+4) (+4 rapport)


After some time off, and some folks getting out, the seekers were on the road again. Or trail. Or really on the spelunking path when you got down to it, because neither the tree itself nor the floodfested were particularly interested in providing a straight forward route into the Qliphoth’s upper reaches.

Case and point were the massive valves in the biological structure, tough as vault doors and always placed at the most inconvenient points, as well as being spots that whatever intelligence controlled the swarm had delighted in setting up ambushes. There were enough heroes on hand to slaughter the Floodfested before they could call for backup, though, so the bigger concern for Ms Fortune was the opened valves’ resemblance to large lamprey-like mouths, which gnawed at her lingering phagophobia.

For the most part the biological mechanisms for opening these blockades provided little challenge, but in one early case, after whipping the floor with the monsters that had tried and failed to crush the Seekers in these choke points, the associated puzzle did not turn out to be located in plain view of the door.

Various tunnels snaked off from the tricky valve’s main chamber, including one that lead into a ruined chunk of some kind of high tech facility, though it was only large enough to roll a large ball through, rather than crawl in any practically distinguished manner. Well unless you were a child, however Midna, who had found said hole, wasn’t exactly a fan of the idea of sending the koopa kids crawling through no matter how tough they were, because even for Bowser Junior id’d be a squeeze with his hard shell. After a moment she did however come up with a different candidate based on recent interactions with them.

”Miss Fortune?” the princess(who was hanging from the ceiling from her shadow hand to inspect the duct that halfway up the wall) ”Do you think you can get your bits and pieces in here? If you do I can ride your shadow and we can see if the meat buttons have grown into this ruin?”

By this point the team had been trekking long enough that even Nadia’s motor mouth was running on empty, so when Midna hung down to say hello the feral didn’t mind turning her attention away from Ace for a bit. “In there?” Nadia hopped up to grab hold of the ledge and inspect the opening. She was no stranger to squeezing through vents when it came to heists, but these days she wasn’t quite as skinny as she’d been in her vagabond era. Her head would fit with room to spare though, and while she would be loathe to dispatch her noggin on a solo mission in a hellish place like this, Midna’s company offered a little more assurance. Plus, Midna coming to her for help felt pretty nice–no doubt their battles had shown just how capable the catgirl was!

“Yeah, sure! Good thing I’m not claw-strophobic, eh?” She swiveled her head around then waved goodbye to the others with her ears. “Be right back. Won’t be a meowment!” Then she rolled her head backward off her shoulders and into the duct upside-down, where she used her ears to walk. Meanwhile her body dropped back down, detached her tail, and began to dance.

The farther the duo got in the vent, though, the less happy-go-lucky Nadia became–inwardly, at least. As demonstrated by the team’s various encounters throughout the demon tree, the Qliphoth had consumed a great variety of detritus from Redgraccoon City when it first grew. Now, with the city destroyed, the Qliphoth was a literal vertical slice of the Dead Zone itself, housing everything from demons and zombies to ghosts and goblins, with a healthy -or rather, unhealthy- dose of extraterrestrial parasites to boot. Nadia had never seen an area like this before, though. While it still seemed high-tech from the perspective of these two Seekers, the facility they were infiltrating was a far cry from the clean, sheer, well-lit metallic interior of Alcamoth, or the militaristic utilitarian style of the Avenger. Instead a strange smell filled the air, and deposits of unidentifiable meat grew along the seams and cracks in the duct like mold. When Nadia’s head finally reached an opening, she hopped down into a hallway of bizarre and macabre design, equal parts ghoulish and alien, all hewn from some unidentifiable material in unmistakably organic shapes.

“Huh. That’s new,” the feral remarked, struggling to think puns that might suit this unsettling environment. The floor in here was tilted, making her wonder if this whole area would be a little off-kilter. The more pressing concern was the fleshy mold. She looked around, raising an eyebrow. “Midna? You can come out now. Mind carrying my head? I’ve got no-’body’ else.”

Like a demon called, the princess appeared, monochrome form stretching up out of the feral’s shadow before the vibrant red and gold was painted across her armor as she solidified fully and her heels clacked against the tilted ground. Claws of purple energy snapped out of them, preventing her from sliding down the corridor as she took it all in.

”Can’t remember dreaming about a place like this, not that they were ever that exact. Blurred nightmares those two, except for the start and the end” Midna said as she crouched down and picked up Nadia’s (living) severed head. It took a few moments for her to figure out how to actually hold her in all her arms, resulting in her placing two hands on either side of the neck and holding her up in front of her chest.

”There, if that works? Or would you prefer the back of the neck like a kitten?” she asked with a light tease as she summoned up her shield in one of her remaining free hands to let her better defend her cargo if need be. The head was a little less than she’d hoped for assistance wise, but the lady’s strikers would be a help if nothing else.

“This is fine. The more stable, the better,” Nadia reported. “If something comes at us, just chuck me at ‘em. I’ll head ‘em off.”

”Will do” princess replied as they set off down the corridor

At one end of the hallway sat a strange chair festooned by scraps of skin like Spanish moss, wholly unsuitable for any humanoid occupant. At the other end, past what looked to Nadia like a trough of ground beef, lay a decently-sized room. The growths in here were extreme, and strange organisms the size of human heads clung to the dangling masses like polyps. Repelled by the disturbing sight, Nadia failed to suppress a shudder, even though the rest of her wasn’t here right now. “Ugh…what’re we looking for, again? Some kinda switch?” Her eyes fell on what looked like a some kind of console with a number of lit and unlit nodes arranged around a system of rotating connectors. “Uh oh…that looks like a puzzle.” Nadia grimaced. When it came to logic puzzles, Nadia Fortune was the wrong girl to ask.

”I’ll take that over more meat monsters. Maybe it’ll even be fun?” Midna replied, before taking a second glance at all the twisted machinery and revolting growths and making groan that made it clear she had a hard time believing her own statement

”Whoever built this place probably wouldn’t know what that is with all this grey. Still, might open a way forwards or reveal a hidden chest?” she said instead, approaching and using one of her secondary hands to interact with what seemed to be a controller on the right hand of the device ”Let’s see, what do you do”

The controls weren’t immediately obvious, but with a little trial and error they turned out to be relatively simple. A button could be pressed to change which of the four nodes was currently active, and around the button were two dials. The outer dial would rotate the rod attached to the currently active node, while the inner dial would rotate the node itself. Once each rod pointed to the correct dial, that node would light up, but any node connected to another would rotate it if it itself was rotated. Nadia stared at the intricate device as the rotation of rods and nodes caused lights to flicker on and off, thoroughly baffled. After about fifteen seconds she lifted her eyebrows and blinked a couple times, shaking her head. “Ahem! Well, seeing as I don’t have any hands to fiddle with, why don’t I just, uh, keep watch? Set me down somewhere reasonably clean, will ya?”

”Hmmm? Oh” Midna replied, the expression of confusion mixed with focus on her face obscured by her helmet being wiped away by a few blinks. She glanced around, saying ”lets see” and finding nowhere that really, truly, counted as clean, before coming up with an Idea.

A moment later she’d summoned up her Darknut, and had it hold its shield out in front of it horizontally like a serving tray, onto which she popped the feral’s head, before saying ”There, that should work. You can even order it to serve you up in whatever direction you’d like” before returning to fiddling with the dials somewhat ineffectually. During her stint of dungeon crawling, she hadn’t exactly been the one figuring out the last step of the puzzles most of the time.

Nadia gave the skeletal juggernaut a dubious glance from her new perch. “A little knight-marish, but I’ll take what I can get.” She took the chance to scope out the room, but there was not much she particularly enjoyed looking at. All the alien meat, much more visceral than the reddish-purple plant matter that constituted the Qliphoth, made her stomach churn despite her stomach being a good hundred feet away. A shame, she thought, that she couldn’t have left her nose behind as well. With nothing else worth seeing, the feral turned her attention back toward the puzzle. “So, Midna. You went to the desert and the city, while I hit the sea and the caves. Haven’t seen much of each other before today, but I guess we’re makin’ up for lost time now, huh?” She wore a friendly smile, as usual. “I hear you’re some kind of princess? Lotta royals in the Seekers. At least you’re not snooty like Toni, buuut I couldn’t say I’d blame ya. Not every day a royal gets to hang around some mangy alley-cat, or vice versa.” Her tone had become somewhat pointed, as if leveling a vague accusation.

”Toni… Sectonia?” Midna, who had been humming to herself tunelessly while failing to crack the puzzle during Nadia’s look around, guessed. Rather than being annoyed at being interrupted from her task, she was rather thankful Nadia was here for conversation instead of to ask why she wasn’t done yet.

”Maybe not a cat, but I owe a lot to a flea bitten mutt. Well, farm boy turned wolf turned hero but still. Not that I was as above it all as the Queen before him but I had my own kind of contempt I needed to deal with” she replied with more honesty than might be necessary, before really losing track of her tongue, first saying ”I wish he was here” more than a hint of wistfulness before catching herself, switching gears much to hard, and promptly thumping the machine and declaring the reason for that desire was ”so he could solve this goddess forsaken puzzle!” even if that obviously wasn’t all of it

Either Midna hadn’t understood Nadia’s subtle provocation, or she’d rather effortlessly deflected it. The feral didn’t mind, though; so far, Midna’s behavior had been much more down-to-earth fashion than the team’s other royals, so much so that Nadia might have never guessed at her status otherwise. If the Twilight Princess did not acknowledge any disparity between the two of them, the cat burglar wasn’t going to draw any more attention to it. Instead, she considered asking about the farm boy wolf hero Midna mentioned, but truth be told, she wasn’t all that interested. It seemed like neither of them was suited to this task, but at least Nadia had the excuse of not having any hands to help with.

She couldn’t help but smile at Midna when she vented her frustration with the alien mechanism. “Hey, if you don’t have any ideas, might as well go ham on the controls. Gotta luck out sooner or later, right?”

The princess paused, thought about this and then grinned under her mask, saying ”You know what, I can do one better” and setting about a quick little magical scheme. She placed the false set of arms on the controles, and then her real ones on top, sinking the fingers of them into the fake ones and then rapidly rearranged the glowing green runes and lines that appeared as a result of this action. Then she pulled the fingers back and smiled as the second set of limbs did indeed start to go ham on the controles, while Minda rested an elbow between them, turning her focus away from the puzzle entirely and moving it over to Nadia.

”There, now they’ll do it for me” she declared smugly, clearly quite pleased with her little automation trick, before trying to pick up the same conversation from where she’d interrupted it.

”So, yes, odd how that worked out. Not even those silly games put us together” she noted, adding more to the pile of coincidences, they really had missed each other at every turn somehow hadn’t they, before she thought about how to further rectify that ”But maybe next time? Or something before we launch ourselves back into the fray? I could go for another spa visit or twelve after this grim grimy place.”

Though the spectacle of magical automation stole her attention for a moment, the mere mention of Balan’s Big Top was enough to bring a bright smile to Nadia’s face. “Oh man, those minigames were the cat’s pajamas. We’ve gotta go back some time, or find more stuff like that. I like a good scrap as much as the next gal, but we all need breaks, ‘specially after crap like this, yeah.” She chuckled, her nose wrinkled by the ambient foetor. “I’m sure that angel lady feels bad sittin’ out, but even a live wire like me has her limb-its. After the Maw, all of us on Blue Team spent, like, a whole day on a tropical vacation.” She stared off into the middle distance, the morbid architecture fading away into white sands and crashing surf. A heavy sigh escaped her. “Life’s a beach, eh?”

Just then, the swivels and clacks of the alien machine gave way to a loud click, then silence. When Nadia looked over, she found four yellow lights starting back at her. There came a series of loud, mechanical -or possibly organic- sounds, and after another moment, a door near the hallway began to slide open. The sudden movement disturbed a handful of the head-shaped parasites, which flew up toward the rafters. Nadia made the mistake of looking too closely at one as it passed by, and despite being elsewhere, her stomach did not thank her for the experience. Green-tinged smoke wafted through the doorway as it revealed a triangular room. One wall, even more bio-engineered than the rest of this alien facility, hosted a row of canisters in which ghastly homunculi had been grow to fit their containers. The other wall lay in pieces, exposing the familiar Qliphoth matter behind it, and with it the nerve cluster that would open the valve back in the main tunnel. In between lay some sort of workbench, or perhaps operating table, on which a handful of biotech weapons had been fashioned.

“Guns?” Though leery of the freakish tube-babies that were definitely starting back at her, Nadia edged toward the table to satisfy her curiosity. Of the various half-baked projects on the table, only three seemed to be complete: two pistols of flesh and bone, not quite alike, and a scoped SMG. Nadia seemed especially interested in the pistols, but with no hands of her own to claim them with, she could only raise an eyebrow at Midna. “Finders keepers?”

”Power is power but, urgh, it's hardly ever pretty in this world” Midna replied as she caught up, having had to pause to set her false limbs back to normal. Unsurprisingly she used those to pick up and carefully examine the weapons rather than her own ones. Doing so also let her avoid looking at or thinking about the tank beings, but she’d have to get round to what to do about them eventually.

”Not exactly an expert with guns even if they can be useful” she said, implicitly asking if the feral was.

If Nadia had her shoulders around, she would’ve shrugged them. “Not really my deal, to be honest. Only got one, and it’s more for…’meating’ people.” Though the Bait Launcher was a pretty unforgettable weapon, she couldn’t remember if she’d used it around Midna so far. “But I wouldn’t mind tryin’ them. Got an itch trigger finger lately, for whatever reason.” Maybe that cowgirl she’d fused with was rubbing off on her, but Nadia couldn’t help but feel like she had some sort of potential that she couldn’t tap into without a gun or two.

”I know the feeling” Midna replied, as she pulled her Nightsky Ripper scimitar out of a portal ”Wouldn’t have known the first thing about using one of these a few weeks ago, and now it just feels…right”

She then put the guns down on the table again and opened a portal below them while saying ”Once we get you back to your fingers we’ll see if these fit like a glove. If not, trying to give them to Edward would be funny” before then moving onwards to the nerve cluster and slicing into it with her sword.

With their task complete, there was nothing stopping them from heading back. Nothing except well…

With a sigh, Midna stepped towards the pods with the creatures inside, saying/asking ”OK, can’t avoid it any longer, what are you and are you going to be a problem or burden?”

Though the homunculi within tracked her movements with their bloodshot eyes and bared their lipless teeth at her, they couldn't move an inch inside their pods, having been horrifically molded into ovoid shapes by their own steady growth within their cramped confines. Nadia did not like looking at them or thinking about them. “How about we skedaddle before we find out? ‘Uppies’ me!” She hopped her head up and down to signal Midna to pick her up.

Midna glanced down at the feral, up at the trapped creatures that didn’t seem very friendly all things told, and then up at her darknut that was no longer burdened by its body-less cargo before replying ”Sure” and picking Miss Fortune back up in the same manner she had before.

She turned away from the creatures and strode out of the door without looking back, heading for the vent into which she popped Miss Fortune’s head. Right as she did, there came a crash as her darknut ripped the top of one of the pods trapping the homunculi, and prompting the princess to declare it was ”Time to go”.

Whatever the homunculi did with it's freedom now, it wasn't her problem.



Seems very cool, will be taking a closer look at all the many options later in the eve
Dredge III

Edward, Therion, Juri
Word Count: 3390 (+4)


In between the monster's ambushes, the alien hollow was unnervingly quiet. There was the occasional ambiance of foliage shifting, copper golems clomping through brush, and the repaired generators chugging, but otherwise there were hardly any other sounds at all. It was clear that besides the Seekers, and the Dredge, there were no other living beings around. If one could even call that thing alive in the first place.

After separating from the others, beast-Therion slunk through the jungle-like area and took note of any of the machines he passed. Even through the trees it was easy enough to see the gate they were trying to power up, so there was no real concern about getting lost. So long as he didn't need to bail anyone out again, he was fairly confident that he could avoid the monster playing hide and seek with them. So far so good, he thought, as he slowly circled his way back around to where Juri had been when she fixed one of the generators. After making sure the coast was clear he padded over to the machine so that he could get a closer look at what an operational one should look like. His feline eyes flickered over the bulbs, the wires, and various other doodads. Assuming that all of the generators were more or less the same, if Therion just copied Juri's work then he wouldn't have any problems fixing a couple on his own.

Therion's ears twitched and he felt his hackles begin to rise. Trusting his instincts he leapt back into the underbrush, concealed enough that when the mutilated mess of a monster drifted by a moment later it didn't spot him.

The Dredge hovered by the generator, slowly turning its head to search for any signs of its prey. Then, it raised its knotted appendage high before slamming it down onto the machine. The generator sparked and smoked as its lights powered down, making Therion narrow his eyes. Maybe it had been too much to hope for that this thing was some kind of mindless killer. Clearly it knew what they were trying to do and was going to deny their escape however it could.

Therion waited until the Dredge had moved on in its search, then waited a little longer, before he emerged once more. He shifted back into his human form, kneeling in front of the generator. Since he'd just seen how it should look, fixing it from this state had to be possible. Otherwise the monster would have just broken them all beyond repair before they'd even got here. Carefully he reattached wires where they'd been pulled from, shifted plugs into their correct places, and hit the plunger that would start the thing back up. There was a drawn out moment where nothing seemed to happen, and Therion's tail flicked back and forth in agitation.

"Come on," he hissed at the generator, smacking the side of it. It came to life then, rumbling as its lights all blinked on.

After confirming it would stay on (unless the Dredge turned back around to sabotage it again), Therion left it to head to one of the other non-functional ones he'd spotted in order to get them working again as well. It had been a little while since he'd heard any cries for help, so he could only assume that the others were avoiding the thing on another side of the hollow.

Edward for one was indeed out there somewhere, as was Juri, the pair making for a rather effective team despite all the thornyness involved in their cooperation. Stress left the already brittle working relationship full of fractures, but with their unkillable foe lurking out there they more or less had to trust the other to watch their back.

Especially when it was left turned and exposed while focused on fixing a generator as Edward was now. With various tools, from pliers to move wires without risk of shock to a soldering iron to more securely fix them back in place, the job was certainly quicker, but it still left ample time for the killer to come across him, and the increase in heart rate its mere presence caused was too late a warning sign.

It was a good thing then, that he had a look out, no matter how abrasive she was.

Juri silently scuttled back and forth across the floor of the ‘house’ they were in, though it was mostly just a selection of half-broken walls at this point. She was on a patrol, moving from window to window to check all the angles. Even the little red wooden locker a short distance away from the house. Besides making a few quiet noises that implied annoyance at how long Edward was taking, she was keeping her voice down.

The man was certainly making enough noise for both of them, clinking and clanking away, till all of a sudden there was a rumble as the generator flared to life, its flickering lights stabilizing and flooding the room. Unlike the times before, however, this wasn’t the only place that the lights came on as, through the ‘eyes’ of his cannon still parked by the gate, Edward saw that the gatehouse own had also stabilized, which to him indicated that ”I think that's enough power to open the gates”

As if to confirm this, only a short while later, the cannon’s existence came to an end, informing Edward that ”It seems our ‘friend’ agrees with my assessment, and will be rolling out the welcome wagon, which is… inconvenient”

”Gee wiz, talk slower. So the monster will be waiting for us. Big whoop, he can’t stop us.” Juri said. ”Let’s go already.” She dropped any pretense of stealth and began sprinting to where she remembered the gate was, coming short to survey the situation.

Edward followed her there in an even less stealthy approach given the flames wrapping around him as he ran, but as Juri had expected, stealth really did not matter right now. The Dredge knew exactly where they needed to go, and had brazenly parked itself exactly there: namely right in front of the switch they needed to pull to open up the exit to its hunting ground.

Even the man’s flaming arrival did not prompt it to break off and come on at them, leaving mortals and monster staring rather awkwardly at each other before the former ducked into cover to try and work out what in the world to do about this.

Juri stood out in the open, hands on her hips. ”There’s medkits and toolboxes all over for this stupid game. There’s probably somethin’ we could find to get it to budge.” Juri said, moving her hands to behind her head. ”Stupid ugly freakshow thinks he’s real smart. I could just pull the damn lever anyway, I don’t care.”

”Only other thing I have found is this” Edward replied, retrieving the flashlight he’d found and then stored in the toolbox, and offering it to her, while saying ”which I am unsure how much help it would be. So far all that has managed to inconvenience it is it blinding itself after all”

Juri took it and looked it over. It felt useful, even if it was just a normal flashlight.

"Go pull it then so we can get out of here," came a familiar voice following Juri's comment. Therion poked his head out from some nearby plants suddenly afterward, having seen the gate's power activate and coming to the same conclusion as Juri and Edward. He then looked from the former to the later, noting the other man's words. "So at least one thing works against it. We can throw off its senses while someone hits the switch."

Unfortunately while he was off on his own the only thing of note he'd been able to find was a brass key. Intriguing but unhelpful at the moment.

”I blinded it by reflecting a curse that it tried to cast on me when I healed myself nearby it, and unfortunately I think it will be smart enough to not repeat the incident” Edward informed him, getting over the important detail of said curse’s existence in the process.

Therion narrowed his eyes at the Dreadnought. He should have said that when he mentioned the blinding in the first place. "Unless you two have any other ideas, it still might be our best shot."

”She was already aware” Edward replied to the expression of irritation, now two for two on annoying people with how he delivered this information, though in this case he did not consider this his fault. Juri chuckled.

”As for ideas, given it seems content to wait us out, I could always put that time to use to make some more expendable bodies to throw at the problem” he suggested, gesturing to the conveniently timed arrival of one of the only remaining copper golem squads to their impromptu meeting.

”So you just pull these guys outta thin air, or what? Break your toys if you want, it’d be funny to give this creep the runaround.” Juri said, letting the flashlight hang from her palm.

”A touch more complex than that I assure you, but practically speaking” Edward replied, before initiating what was, ultimately, a mildly time consuming process of charging back up his mana fuel cells and then reforging his army. Given he was entirely committed to making copper golems, that resulted in them having twelve whole squads at their disposal. Thus, when they commanded operations, seventy two golems came marching out of the treeline, spears down, metal hearts hardened with unwavering will to fulfill their directive.

All the while the Dredge stared unnervingly, standing guard over the switch. It had all the time in the world to prevent its prey from getting out of there after all, while they would have to go for the exit sooner or later. The monster seemed intent on catching and presumably slaughtering all four of the intruders into its domain.

”Seventy two. That’s hilarious. Go forth!” She pointed to the dredge, commanding the robots onward with her own authority.

Whether it be through good timing or Edward unintentionally responding to the command, the legions did indeed match forward at her order, copper feet stepping in perfect rhythm as they did so. As they moved, Edward cautiously advanced after them, the way his wings were slightly spread out in preparation to retreat the only sign that the steely gazed man was not quite as unwavering as his creations.

For his part Therion was more than content to let the copper constructs get torn in pieces in place of them, and he waited, crouched with his tail swishing, for a better moment to move.

The golems closed in, threatening to form a wall of animated metal around the Dredge. Spears were angled forwards not to try and stab it, for that would be pointless, but to try and sneak past the foe and flick the switch. The only question the was this: how close would it let them get before reacting?

The answer was not that close. As they'd already established, Dredge was not a mindless monster. A calculating killer laid, somewhere, beneath its sagging flesh. It slowly looked between the first line, its head twitching, before it raised its hooked limb and moved in swiftly to destroy the first of many.

As the golems made to slip around it, blackness descended on the area. Suddenly it was as if night had fallen, making it hard for the Seekers and the golems to see more than a dozen feet in front of them. No such issue was present for the Dredge, and in darkness it began tearing into the small army, intent not to let any close to their only means of escape.

What Juri lacked in vision, the Dredge more than made up for in racket. She dropped down from above and blasted the things face with light. Their intuition paid off and the Dredge reeled back, now even more blind than its attempted curse. ”Kyahaha! Sucker!” She jeered as the copper army now easily overwhelmed the beast and reached the lever. There was a shower of sparks and the gate lifted. Juri sprinted over and slid underneath it as it was lifting.

That was also the cue Therion was looking for. Without any fanfare he went along the outside edge of the golem pack and moved towards the exit. The Dredge was still taking golems apart piece by piece but driven almost to frenzy by the fact it couldn't see and thus its prey were probably mid-escape the monstrosity turned and lashed out with a wide slice in the direction of the opening. It was easier to dodge than its regular swings; the thief skated beneath the swipe and crossed the threshold a moment after.

”Why in the worlds did that-” Edward began to ask, questioning the logic of why the device had managed to harm the Dredge when nothing else had, but it really was ”No matter” at that moment. With his many many copper eyes the man had been far less impacted by the darkness than the others, and so was more than able to make a beeline for the exit. With a flap of his wings he rose up over his remaining creation’s ranks, using one of their heads as a stepping stone to get the height he needed and then swooped towards the exit as the remaining troops moved to bodyblock the binded horror while they got away.

As soon as its sight was back, the Dredge ceased its destruction and looked at the open gate. There it could clearly see the Seekers behind it, but strangely enough it did not give chase. It stared after them with an eerie blank look on its mangled face. A few moments later the gate's power shorted out again and the door began to close itself up once more.

”Yeah, see! Chump! Coward!” Juri jeered as the door began to close. ”Know you’d get your ass kicked if you faced me out here! Haha!”

That fact raised one sudden question from Edward, who began to ask ”Wait a moment- did anyone ever see-” only for the man in question to suddenly silently step into view, taking everyone by surprise, including the Dredge itself. The hunter got its first and only view of the master infiltrator who had been repairing generators right under its nose for a mere moment, and then the gate was fully shut and they were left out in the small room found beyond it.

He gave them a curt nod, before turning, gesturing for them to follow and striding towards one of the vines in the wall, slashing it with a knife and entering the bloodstream.

”Tch,” Juri said, kicking the ground and approaching the open bloodstream. ”We should carpet bomb this place after we’re done.”

"No objections here," Therion said, though with only a vague idea of what she really meant by it he understood it was something destructive. He glanced at the mercenary who'd quietly joined them, briefly thinking he's good before continuing forward.

When they were well and truly away from Dredge, and only a short distance away from the Qliphoth's veins they'd have to take to ascend, the world darkened once more. This time it was a much more complete darkness, one that offered a choice of rewards for the victorious Seekers.



It was a somewhat selfish selection, but in the end Edward decided that he could only be of value if he were alive, and the goddess Hestia quite clearly wanted to keep him that way, though very much in her own way. “You’ll find it easier to see what your foes are doing when they're lit up, eh? Now keep on climbing so you can burn this place down already”





Therion's choice was fairly quick. Although getting some free money every fight was amusingly tempting, as always if he wanted something he only had to take it. And while becoming invisible was also a tempting choice, one that could definitely be useful in battle, there could really only be one choice. The middle card was almost tailor made for him, so he didn't hesitate to take it. When he did the same creature he'd had a vision of in the last hollow appeared to him again. It loomed large, and the sounds it produced were even louder, but ultimately like before nothing else happened.

Therion touched a hand to his forehead as the world came back into view. "More of the same..." It seemed the others were finished picking as well. The thief nodded towards the huge blood vessel in front of them.

Juri made her choice as well and looked to the others. To prove some kind of point, she got out her big chainsaw weapon and cleaved a huge hole in the wall, revealing another bloodstream. ”I can make an exit anywhere I damn well please with this puppy. Catch ya later, losers!” She exclaimed cheerfully, and dove into the bloodstream. With her new chainsaw weapon she was confident in her safety and her ability to literally carve out her own path in this fleshy tree gauntlet.

Edward merely signed at this continued irreverence, while being quietly relieved she had not followed up on her promise to (attempt to) ‘kick his ass later’ now that they were free of the Dredge’s domain. Then he drew his machete, gave a small flick of a salute and a farewell of ”I’ll see you on the other side” before hacking his way into the vain and diving in.

Therion rolled his eyes as they left. What a group. And they were all going the same way so what was with the theatrics? He followed after them by just simply slipping into one of the openings they'd made, and shortly after him the mercenary followed, though where the blood stream would take them after this they wouldn't know until they got there.

Wordcount: 1,891 (+3/+3/+3/+4/+5)
Midna: level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (115/110)
Location: The Dead Zone


While watching Miss Fortune try and clean herself ineffectually was quite funny, Midna decided it would be best to remove herself before her uncontrollable urge to tease/taunt/joke about wet cats got inappropriate/grating. In place of that she headed out to go for a little relaxing ride around the lake.

Not that it was the most scenic of views between meat moss, mushrooms and an overlook of the horror infested city below mind, but at least her mask filtered out the smells of blood and rot. For those with an eye for such things, there were valuable resources to be scavenged, but Midna had little interest or appreciation for the possible uses of the scarlet rot corrupted resin or neurode biosensors.

Neither did she for the strange fish paddling around in the pools, but as it turned out there was someone who was in the area who did. Or someone who had access to the area anyway.

Having allowed her wolfos to wonder where it pleased as she rested on its saddle, arms crossed over atop the bar, chin resting atop it, the beast followed its nose, having picked up the scent of something familiar in the corrupted landscape. This led it, and by extension her, to a mound of dirt marked by a sign saying ‘bait + sell’ that also sported a little bell on top.

Bemused by this, the princess guided her wolfos away from where it was sniffing and scratching at the mound, and then reached her shadow hand over and flicked the bell to see what would happen.

At first, nothing, and then after the sound of digging a fox cautiously poked his head out of the mound of soil, looking a fair bit nervous and not entirely enthused by the presence large predator that Midna was riding atop of.

”Uh, hello? Don’t worry it won’t attack without my say so” Midna told the fox, feeling a little silly about doing so, but having met enough animal people to know she shouldn’t just assume this wasn’t a person, before asking ”What are you doing here? It’s dangerous”

In response the fox leaned to the side and tapped the sign, telling her that it was here to “Sell bait, buy fish” in a soft and impossible to gender voice.

”Those weird ones? They look infested, that can’t be good for anything” Midna replied, understandably leery about the health and safety of such things. They certainly wouldn't be good for eating, of that she was sure.

In response the fox just patted the bucket and told her to put the fish “in here” before explaining simply that it had “crafter clients” who wanted the fish, and then looking at her with a tilted head, which was all it needed to communicate the question of if she was going to help him out with supplying them or not.

Well with that vaguely clarified Midna only really had one more question, which was ”Uh huh, and why do you think I’d spend my time doing that kind of busy work?” to which the fox’s onbrandedly short answer was that it would be “Relaxing”

Hence why, if someone was to come looking for Midna, they would need only needed to follow the sound of Lyre music (or at least attempts at it, the princess hadn’t exactly had much time for practice of conventional music since she’d picked up the habit) and find her sitting by the shoreline, back to her dozing wolfos. There she lazed with her helmet in her lap, chewing on cereal bar held in one hand, strumming at her musical instrument with two more, while the final hand, to which her astral chain was attached, lazily drifted too and fro.

There would then come a tug at her wrist, prompting her to yank it back and, from the perspective of the observer, cause a fish-adjacent creature to leap out of the water and then end up hovering in front of her. Of course, the fish was actually being carried in the jaws of her Beast Legion, which could casually phase through the bloody water, making not a single disturbance, as it hunted down prey for its mistress with supernatural ease.

It would then pad over to the fox who’d stopped needing to be called back after the third fish catch she’d made in short succession and deposit it, still wiggling, into the rapidly filling bucket.

Of course, things could only go swimmingly for so long, and so, right after she’d caught and was busy admiring a ‘fish’ that was far more machine than meat she was rudely interrupted when a Deimos Carnis came bursting out of the lake, clearly displeased at this intrusion into its hunting ground.

Alongside it burst several floodfested baslaisks in its thrall, the freaky beasts crawling and hopping up the beach towards her

”Goddesses, it's always something” Minda complained as she rose, but not having enough time to redon her helmet before she had to toss herself out of the way of incoming acid spit.

With her hands full of helm, lyre, and her beast legion’s maw full of the very shiny and valuable looking fish, things weren't exactly in a great state fighting wise. The first basilisk to approche breathing some horrible black mist caused the cold of death to start gripping her bones wasn’t exactly wonderful either, but a flowmotion leap back out of the fog saw to that.

”Want to dance? Alright let’s dance!” she declared, strumming the lyre up to a combat tempo before launching a blast of electrified sand forwards into the oversized eyes of the closest basilisk. It screeched and started rapidly blinking, giving her space to leap full over said eyeballs and to slam both dragon clawed feet into its back, an extra gust of wind joining the double stomp and fully slamming it into the dirt.

As she struck once with sand and once with feet, her new boon activated, surrounding her with two layers of shimmering rainbow barriers that would soften the next blow she took. Given the swarm of basilisks crawling towards her that looked like it might be coming soon, but not if she could help it. With another leap she repeated her gambit against the next basilisk, and then the next, sanding and stomping them with a rhythmic flow that she even managed to put a tune to using her Lyre.

She got so into the tempo that, in-fact, that she entirely lost track of the Carnis, right up until it lunged in and with a slashing claw knocked her entirely off her rhythm. Rainbow barriers burst as they absorbed about a quarter of the damage, and her armor did much of the rest, but it still stung.

”Ach, thank you whatever your name is” she said to the nameless god who’d granted her that boon, and then immediately cursed as the basilisks sought to take their revenge, black mist sweeping towards her.

She, fortunately, was not alone, as her little performance had been quite the distraction that let her beasts harry the foes rear, which they did so more aggressively now. Claws slashed as the wolfos howled, drawing attention, before they retreated back to draw some of the foes away, the beast legion still carrying the fish in its mouth, which amusingly to Midna meant that said fish must seem like the source of the invisible clawstrikes to the infested foes

”Careful with that thing, thing!” Midna called out, before coughing from having inhaled lingering basilisk mist. That was the last straw, the princess declaring ”Alright, enough messing around” as she yanked herself to her beast legion’s back, and then, while riding it away, finally got her helmet on.

Hand free of holding it, she drew a blade and began charging it with lighting as they wheeled back around towards the horde of hopping horrors and their centipede overlord. Not wanting to put her fresh catch in danger of being death misted however, she leapt off her beast legion as she entered the fray, blade flashing as she sliced it down into one of the eyes of a basilisk. Wind howled and thunder roared, as a wind aftershock sliced into the existing wound, and a lighting blast struck the creature’s back, knocking the wind from its lungs and preventing it from using its death breath on her long enough for her to claw its other eye out.

Neither blow actually killed however, rather intentionally, but it took it out the fight more or less. Naturally there were others, but a circular sand blast gave them just enough pause for her to focus on her primary target: the Carnis.

Her shadow hand punched up, smashing the centipede in the face as it came in to try and slash her again, the strike and follow up wind blast stunning it enough that she had time to summon her darknut. It arrived sized up, sword raised high, and then brought it down in a mighty decapitation strike that was meant to sunder the foe in half, but instead only got some of the rear as it recovered more quickly than she’d liked skittered to the side.

A Basilisk lunged blindly at a frustrated Midna, clipping her and expanding her starward barriers, and causing it to receive a trio of musical bolts to the face from the princess’ lyre for its efforts.

”Not interested in you, you wastes of space!” she yelled at the chaff, before shouting ”I want to try my new thing out, so die already you bug!” at the Canis as she went after it with her sword, hacking at its lower limbs, crippling them enough that, in conjunction with the damage to its rear, the monster went crashing to the ground.

It tried to drag itself away with its remaining claws, but the princess leapt onto its back, running along it, sandblasting basilisks as she went, before leaping head over heels over its horns, and slamming her shadow hand down straight down in a punch right onto its head, crushing its already fractured skull.

This strike launched her up, but she yanked herself to her beast again to get controle of her tumbling flight, and as she did so, behind her, the ashifiying remains of the Carnis suddenly bloomed with lunar flowers and the beast rose again, now, briefly, in her thrall. Towering over its former minions, the reanimated Carnis immediately began to lay into them, claws slicing, acid spitting, as it cut a bloody path through them without Midna having to lift even a finger or put any of her more important monsters in danger.

Instead, content to let it finish the job, she rode up to the dirt mound and sign, and rang the bell to sell the fish they’d so rudely interrupted her selling of.

Unfortunately, that would turn out to be her last sale, as the little battle had unfortunately scared off all the fish. Sure, she could have found another spot, but with the one so conveniently near to the fox merchant ruined, she decided to call it a day.

Thus, with a pocket (or rather portal) full of a few thousand extra zenny, and a few extra spirits to boot, she headed back to the rest stop to see if anyone else had shown up since then.
Lilith’s Encroaching Shadow II

Lvl 7 Sandalphon (54/70), Bowser Junior, Rika, Roland
Word Count: 1414



Eager to pay the Seekers -and especially Sandalphon- back for the archangel’s shapeshifting stunt, Lilith kickstarted the action with a powerful -and familiar- hex. For the second time, a great many vortexes manifested along opposite sides of the Qliphoth hollow, facing one another as they gathered energy. As a nice change of pace from Carmelized Sweets, the demon’s challengers didn’t need to worry about any patterns or gimmicks, just survival. Given how fresh in everyone’s mind this attack was, Sandalphon hardly felt it necessary to demonstrate her new strategy by marking spots for the others to run to. They just needed to defy their instincts and approach one of the walls of dark magic, so as to not get blasted from both sides at once.

Unfortunately, given the team’s vitals according to Sandalphon’s scans, this was still a big problem. With Lilith’s wings still intact, these lasers would be unavoidable, and once the smoke cleared her team would be in dire straits. Every few seconds that passed made the Creeping Corrosion in the Seekers’ bodies more lethal, and without any more emergency healing, the archangel needed to charge her skills through damage against Lilith. While the weakness she gained from Azure had seemed manageable at first, the nature of this fight could very well render it fatal. Left with no choice but to press on, however, Sandalphon steeled herself, her eyes squeezed shut. A second later the giant lasers let loose, and an unholy violet luster filled the arena.

Fortunately, while he’d been focused on driving, Jr hadn’t been casting much magic, and so once they were gathered up at the slightly less deadly section of lasers (the prince having painted a trail of ink for him and Rika to sail over there on) the boy started putting it to use

First came two casts of ”Medica!” one before and one after the undodgeable attacks which at least made things a touch more manageable.

”You said something about breaking her wings to stop that?” Rika recalled after recovering from the microwaving, regarding a comment Sandalphon had made near the start of the battle.

”Then let’s break them already!” jr declared, before using ”Presence of Mind!” to boost his casting speed, and using that speed to generate a storm of small metal shanks that he used to ”Sick 'Em”, sending groups of the blades homing in to shank the wings specifically.

Rika joined in on the impalement, deploying her Red Baron Drones and sending the sword sized machines arching towards the foe in a pair of claw swipe like gestures, three blades for each wing.

These lasers that Lilith were firing had an unintended side effect when it came to Roland. With them more or less being canceled out or overpowering his clashes due to their special properties, Roland’s Magical Girls finally had its condition fulfilled and he became immune to all of Lilith’s status effect debuffs, had a massive increase in his own defense, and now whenever Lilith attacked him, a corrosive acidic shadow clinged to her making her take 10% more damage cutting through her defense even more. Still, if the Creeping Corrosion he’d purged claimed his healer and allies, he’d be pushing up daisies nonetheless.

Although this buff came with a downside as all the constant damage had been taking a toll on Roland’s fortitude and with the last laser giving him Magical girls did give him his ability, it also Staggered him. A really bad time to get staggered too as Lilith was still in her super form. The extra defense from Magical Girls would help offset the massive defense drop he got while staggered, but he was stunned for a bit while he recovered.

For the moment, at least, the Koopa Kids were doing their best to keep Lilith busy. Their combined power was nothing to sneeze at, and with the extra attention paid to the demon’s wings, more cracks were starting to show. Even Sandalphon managed to get a few shots in, once she set up a new blue tile to stand on. For now her Eye of Sol remained slung across her back, its extra stopping power useless when she needed a casting catalyst on hand at all times. Instead she plugged her enemy’s wings with one ether bolt after another, as in the zone as the archangel could get.

Sadly, the opportunity lasted only a few seconds, and Lilith clapped back with something new. ”You’ve earned this one…see ya, suckers!” She cast Sugary Surge and immediately disappeared, with seven copies of her winged staff appearing around the arena: one in the middle and six more surrounding it. A red arrow appeared from each, pointing in a random directly. Sandalphon paused, but only for a moment as she scanned the arrangement. Now, more than any point in the fight so far, knowledge was power. “There!” She used her powers to ping one staff with a holographic screen, then jogged toward it. “The one without an arrow pointing to it.” With a moment to spare she reached the staff she’d indicated, where the archangel knew that she would be safe. That said, there was another problem on the horizon: unaccustomed to this much shouting, she found herself beginning to grow hoarse. It wouldn’t be much longer before her pings would be her only means of communication.

Between them, Jr and Rika had the strength to grab and haul Roland to the spot as well. Jr had plenty of experience hauling peach around while running from plumbers, and with Rika’s very large helping hands doing the same with the larger man was no problem either.

With their burden they reached safety with only a split second to spare. Each staff fired off an immense, conical blast of deadly dark magic in the direction of its arrow, blanketing the whole arena in stygian purple save for the spot where the Seekers now stood or slumped. By the time the demon reappeared, Sandalphon had produced yet another blue tile, so an ether bolt straight to the braincase beaned Lilith the second she popped back in. ”Tch!” she spat as she dusted herself off, displeased to see that her challengers had survived. ”Where’s the blood? Where’s the carnage!?”

”Coming right up” Jr taunted, as he formed and magically launched more blades from his metal tattooed arm, while Rika’s gauntlet hangers upended up and unleashed swarms of electrical fireflies that buzzed over to deliver static shocks to the demon. Both attacks were delivered without the kids having to lift a finger, which was good because said fingers where still holding on to Roland.

Roland shook himself out of his stagger, noticing he was being carried around by the two kids. ”Thanks kids. Remind me to give you something later. ” Roland said, getting himself free and ready for more fighting. Annoyed himself, Roland decided to throw an EGO at Lilith, this one being In the Name of Love and Hate, Roland wearing a strange humanoid winged serpent outfit and holding a magic wand in his hand. Behind him appeared a giant heart shaped portal which fired a giant laser at Lilith as the arena temporarily changed into a pink mist filled cityscape.

“AAAGH!” Roland’s spectacular laser soon dissipated, but it left Lilith seared and smoking, her fangs bared in pained anger. “Damn you! Lasers are MY thing!” With a sneer she conjured two more opposing laser arrays, but this time the vortexes seemed different. They were still violent swirls of elemental darkness, but instead of deep dark purple, they appeared to be a less vibrant red, and Sandalphon could tell why. “Her wings are broken,” the archangel calmly informed the others as she moved to one side. “These lasers can now be avoided.”

Caught unawares in her blind rage, Lilith could only whip around and stare at the shreds affixed to her staff. ”What!? FUCK!”

“Language!” As the lasers went off all around, Sandalphon cast her newly-recharged Angelic Praise. It not only restored the bulk of her allies’ health, but allowed her to power through the beam barrage. “Do not succumb to her corruption, children,” she called out to the Koopas Kids as she readied herself to open fire. “We must silence this devil for good.”
Return of None

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (123/140), Midna, Edelgard, Lvl 4 Captain Falcon
Word Count: 3606 (+4)



At this point in his “smashing” career, Captain Falcon had long since learned how to just shrug and roll with the punches. Going from some decaying church to a pristine-looking hotel? Eh, he’d seen weirder, especially while traversing the Great Maze in times past. His previous partner no longer in the room with him despite them using the same vein exit? Odd, but at least the Captain wasn’t alone in this new room. Floating monster with eyes around its body? At least it wasn’t oozing with blood and pus like his previous opponents were.

”Knew we couldn’t trust that guy!” Minda declared, revealing her presence as she stepped out of Emily’s shadow, having tagged along and then waited to choose her moment. That moment specifically was when her ride got left within close proximity of the giant shadow being thanks to Nadia’s impressive backflip away from the shadows, and so the Princess launched right into her defence before the monstrosity could strike.

A large portal opened, out of which her darknut, scaled up to giant sized, lunged out of, driving its shield into the foe to try and drive it back, while the princess herself slammed her shadowhand forwards, open palmed, to try and add to the knockback. Despite the fact that her target floated, puppet-like, in the air, it did not so much fly back as yield ground, wheeling away to resume its ominous stance in the very center of the open area. Though powerful, neither strike left a visible mark on the meme’s body, their physical damage seemingly resisted.

“Emily, stay back! We’ll handle this!” Nadia urged from the backlines, ignoring the soldier’s protest as she pulled her behind the bar.

Edelgard, who had until a few moments ago been wiping herself dry with a towel, pulled up her shield to block the raking of golden claws. ”Bizarre sort of beast…We shall fell it nonetheless.” Hefting Aymr, she charged to attack, though when her axe struck, the beast did not recoil or react in the way she expected. It seemed rather nonplussed by the blow, and retaliated with a lunging thrust of its feathered arm, shrouded in violet and extended like a bladed tonfa. It did not commit to an assault, however, and no sooner had it dealt its blow than it spiralled backward, momentarily evanescing into a vortex before it rematerialized in its chosen place.

Having somersaulted off the bartop when Midna and her summon moved to drive the specter back, Nadia dashed forward and slid to a stop at Edelgard’s side. Her eyes were narrowed at Something Unto Death as she bounced back and forth in her typical stance, trying to size the thing up. Already she could tell that this was no savage aggressor like the guardian had been, but a calculating predator that could strike out or pull back as it deemed fit, biding its time. Though something of a predator herself, Nadia played by a different tune: that the early bird got the worm.

“Shock and claw!” The feral burst forward as a bolt of yellow lightning, using Charge to close the distance. Rather than follow up with Battery like usual, though, she performed a short hop into a near-instant cross slash to slice at the specter’s eye. When she connected she linked into Footloose, first with a lackadaisical double kick and then with a flying knee, but not even tacking on her El Gato axe kick made the memory zone meme falter. Instead it recoiled slightly and emitted a painless pulse that pushed Nadia back, and as she slid backward upon landing it rose into the air. From there it rose into a circle, the eyes on its wing aglow, and launched a dozen violet flechettes into the team with Sunken Rain.

Minda’s darknut was called out again, at its usual size, and its shield snapped open, projecting an energy barrier that absorbed many of the shots, but ultimately shattered under the barrage, letting a few slip through. The Princess herself stayed safe behind the undead knight itself, charging a blade with lighting in preparation to attack.

Having watched the opening moves of his current teammates, the bounty hunter took note of the creature’s ability to shrug off their strikes. Unfortunately, he lacked any other viable weapon outside of just throwing his own punches and kicks. But maybe the fourth time was the charm? The Captain dead-sprinted from his standing location toward the monster in question and used his strong legs to launch himself into a high leap. ”Falcon Kick!” He announced as his body launched back downward with a flying kick engulfed in flames. He also tried to follow that with a ”Ryuugeki Ken!” Cap attempted to blast the creature with a close range burst of fiery chi from his palms before his hang-time in the air ran out. Unlike palm and claw, his flames had a noticeable effect, evidenced by the fiery cracks that briefly flared along Something Unto Death’s body, and the ethereal hiss it gave. Nevertheless, Falcon found himself shunted backward the next moment.

Behind him, Midna stepped onto the flat of her darknut’s sword and was then promptly catapulted forwards by the undead inorder to follow up the captain’s strike. Her nightsky ripper flashed as she flew past the floating creature’s head, calling a bolt of lightning down on-top of it, before she used her shadow hand to grab its tail, using it to channel her momentum into a swing that flipped her up behind and over it.

With two hands she drove the blade into its back in a diving plunge, sparking more lighting, before delivering a quick pair of slashes with her serrated knife and royal war fan. Rather than keep trying to stay up there, she attempted to run along its neck, dragging the tip of her scimitar along it as she did, trailing electric crackles. Instead the meme disappeared beneath her feet, flickering out of existence just long enough to menace her from above. Before it could strike back, however, Midna reeled herself to her beast legion that she’d left back where she’d started this attack run.

Edelgard blocked as the dark flechettes came in, and though Midna’s Darknut blocked most of them, one that broke through hit the Flame Emperor, its magical nature bypassing much of the protection her armor gave her, though not all. Grunting, she retaliated with a Fire spell, the ball of flames quickly launching towards the floating monster.

Nadia sped after the fireball on all fours, following the trail it blazed. Though not always the sharpest tool in the head, the feral had good instincts, and based on what she saw when the Captain took action she had a good feeling about Edelgard’s fireball. Sure enough, it burst against Something Unto Death with more power than one might expect, and fiery fractures spread from the impact point. Unfortunately, the Fiber Upper that Nadia then launched into the same spot had no such effect. Of course, the catgirl snapped up to her hyper-extended feet anyway. While her last fight’s peaceful resolution left her without any flames of her own, she could still help in her own way. Using Fluffy Soft, Nadia transformed her right arm and slashed at the specter with the claws of a white tiger, which cut its defense by 5%, then spiked her head down just before the pulse pushed her back.

As Nadia slid back into position, Something Unto Death attacked with a faint wail. It lunged forward with Funeral Kiss, easily piercing clean through the feral’s belly and out through her back. When it wrenched the blade out, the wound turned out to be quite narrow, but it was enough to make Nadia’s body falter, and her ears flapped wildly as she yowled. Then the meme brandished its blade, its tail feathers floating free as they opened baleful purple eyes.

”Not liking the looks of that” Midna commented, before promptly stepping into a shadow and flicking herself to the back of the room, out of whatever that gaze was. There she ditched the serrated knife, one handed sword and fan, and then flow motion lept up while taunting that ”but you won’t like this either” as she slashed her Sharpened Volcano Fragment out of the twilight realm and nicked its tail with it, setting the foe ablaze.

Then she landed beneath it and experimentally fanned the flames as she retreated, experimenting to see if she could get a reaction similar to the one flames had, based on a very minor one her single shash had previously caused. Green cracks followed the orange ones, but that wasn’t all that she achieved.

One set of eyes shone red, their pupils crossed-through circles. The sun sinks, in dying light.

As Nadia composed herself, she could see that Something Unto Death was up to something, and while she couldn’t tell what, she figured it needed to be stopped. Her body couldn’t charge it all that well right now, but she could do more than rush enemies down. Still on her knee, she reached into a pouch, pulled out the Bait Launcher, and fired it at her foe. A tiger appeared that swatted the meme with heavy claws, but it held firm.

Then two sets of eyes shone red. The sun sinks, dusk arrives.

As Nadia's tiger attacked, Edelgard unleashed a Nosferatu spell, the light magic exploding against Something Unto Death and returning half of the damage dealt to Edelgard as healing. Her magic, and the attacks from Midna and Captain Falcon, seemed to have great effect against the monster. While fire was the immediate assumption, she wondered if other magic would work equally well. Midna, for her part, decided her best move was to get out of the way of the incoming firepower, the princess leaping and then power sliding to the side so that she would not get caught in any kind of crossfire.

Edelgard’s light magic burst against the meme, but through the smoke the last pair of eyes shone red; Losing Eventide Light had been triggered. All six eyes gleamed with unadulterated, paralyzing menace, instantly freezing the Seekers in fear, and a veil of darkness spread over the battlefield. Something Unto Death slid backward into the gloom, its eyes the last to fade, before a crimson spotlight shone down on Edelgard. The shadow of death loomed over her, its bladed arm a guillotine, then descended.

The sun sinks, night falls.

With a scream Edelgard’s soul was severed from her body, which slumped to the ground as a Sombrous Sepulcher took form at the memory zone meme’s side, the woman’s ghostly visage projected from its lidless eye. Then, having returned to its original spot, Something Unto Death powered itself up with Biting Obituary, ready for the three foes that remained.

”Goddesses what did it-?” Midna started to ask as she spun around from where she’d been frozen in her getting clear of the incoming spell barrage, only to gasp ”No” as she saw the slumped over Edelgard.

”What the-?”” Falcon exclaimed when he found himself frozen and unable to move for an unsettling amount of time. He was just about to go on the attack again when he was forced to watch in abject horror as one of his teammates was seemingly cut down in a single attack. Even after he could move again, he found himself hesitating for a fraction of a moment. Were they fighting this thing on borrowed time? If that was the case then not a single one of them could afford to waste attacks or leave things to chance. They had to take this thing out and they had to do it fast!

”Fire, huh?” Falcon muttered to himself while he observed the attacks and tactics of his teammates momentarily. He’d first noticed the cracks during his own initial strike, then noticed them crop again each time someone used a fire attack. A different color appeared for wind, from the looks of it, but Falcon had no wind-based moves. But he did plenty of the former. He had one Power Gauge stock in reserve from the last fight against the carcasses. And he could only think of one way to use it.

”Let’s turn up the heat!” Cap suddenly declared as he channeled chi down his arms and into his hands. ”You want fire? I’ve got plenty to spare! Haoh Shoukou Ken!” He planted his feet and thrust his palms forward, aiming them in the meme’s direction. Then a blazing ball of flame surged forth and shot toward Something Unto Death. But he wasn’t done there, ”Ryuugeki Sen!” Falcon shouted as he continued to throw chi-infused punches and kicks resulting in a volley of four flaming disks that accompanied the larger fireball.

Even after the paralysis induced by the six-eyed sunset wore off, Nadia remained frozen in place, her body near where Edelgard fell and her head not so far from her foe. Her initial and instinctual panic at being inexplicably restrained had given way to horror as she watched her ally cut down before her eyes, but especially after that strange totem took shape, something else had consumed her: confusion. “It can’t be that easy,” she muttered, her tone almost angry. No matter how nightmarish Something Unto Death seemed, it couldn’t possibly be able to instantly kill someone–a feat that not even the Orphan or the Radiance could achieve.

As something a conniving fiend herself, she became increasingly convinced that there had to be some sort of trick to this. From her head’s current position, she could see the Sombrous Sepulcher clearly, as well as the ghostly image of a sleeping Edelgard projected above its eye. Maybe the meme hadn’t so much killed her as trapped her. When she felt Falcon’s fire in close proximity, the heat helped galvanize Nadia into action. She willed her body to circle around the battlefield while the Captain let loose, then used Charge to zip straight through both Something Unto Death and the totem. Much to her excitement, she felt something give, so once it rematerialized she had her body wheel around to nail the sepulcher with Battery as well. Thanks to her attacks, two of the totem’s eye-feathers had broken, and only three remained. Unfortunately, the monster’s pulse pushed her and Falcon back the next moment, leaving her head and body far apart. “I think we can bring her back!” she called, flapping her ears. “Hit that grave thing! Shouldn’t take tomb-any more!”

”On it!” Minda called out, in response to this, running in as the other two were blown back. With her shadow hand, she reached up, grabbed the totem, and then squeezed it with crushing force, before using that grip to haul herself up towards it, blades at the ready.

”Let!”

Both feet kicked into it, dragon claws digging into the surface for purchase

”Her!”

The Sharpened Volcano fragment hacked down, igniting the totem, yet Minda ignored the flickering flames licking at her and kept up her assault

”GO!”

She plunged her nightsky ripper into it, unloading its remaining charge

”Lethergolethergolethergo!” she demanded in rapid fire, each one of the demands punctuated by her war fan slashing back and forth across the totem, each accompanying gust of wind growing stronger and stronger.

Her assault came to an end when Something Unto Death whirled around in another Sunken Rain, and a volley of violet lances shot down. The giant barbs forced the Seekers to flee to safety or hunker down on defense, lest they get skewered; Nadia, unable to properly orient herself with her head so far away, opted to block and take chip damage. By that point, though, the damage to the Sombrous Sepulcher had already been done. After its feathers fell apart in rapid succession, the totem itself cracked apart, and Edelgard’s ghost made a break for it. Something Unto Death lunged at Midna before she could even open her mouth to cheer/taunt, a brutal Funeral Kiss her reward, but even as its blade bit deep Edelgard popped up only a few feet away, half-health but ready to exact her vengeance.

Eyes blazing with fury, Edelgard immediately unleashed a Nosferatu, the holy attack sapping some lost vitality back. ”Thank you for freeing me from that prison.” She said to the others, before pausing to channel a Heal spell and bring herself much closer to full. ”That was…most unpleasant.”

Her incantation turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Once Nosferatu made contact, the yellow cracks that spread across Something Unto Death suddenly burst open with a loud snapping sound. Shards of red, green, and yellow energy flew far and wide as some sort of invisible shell around the meme shattered, and the monster dropped out of the air to the ground.

Nadia knew a vulnerable enemy when she saw one, and her face lit up with glee. “You got it! It’s Edel-guard-broken!” No doubt the others knew just as well as she did that it was time to throw caution in the wide and beat this thing down in an all-out offense. The feral started by pulling out her Free Lemonade to douse the specter with sweet acid, then jumped to deliver a Fluffy Soft divekick and lower its defense. “Yellow…and goodbye!” At that point Nadia went for broke, every ounce of dramatic tension spent to split up and turn her body parts into meme-seeking missiles. “Gonna rocket inside out!” Her parts arced around for slash after slash, leaving trails of blood in the air, before all slamming together in a visceral explosion.

Realizing that Edelgard was not actually gone and could still be saved was quite a relief, albeit one Falcon didn’t outwardly show. It meant they weren’t nearly as screwed as he initially feared. But what was really a morale boost was seeing Something Unto Death drop to ground after the Flame Emperor’s retaliatory spell. And just like Nadia, Cap knew a vulnerable opponent when he saw one. The bounty hunter wasted no time as he sprinted toward the downed meme. He jumped up as he neared and came back down while he winded up his fist. ”FALCON… PUUUUUUNCH!” He practically screamed. It wasn’t often he was given an opening for a full powered Falcon Punch. And Cap had no intention of squandering this one.

Edelgard, for her part, rushed forward and unleashed a Flickering Flower, Aymr flashing across the meme’s body over and over, culminating in a final, heavy overhead slash meant to stun the enemy even further. ”You will not get away with your insolence so easily.” She haughtily taunted.

Midna meanwhile wasn’t in much of a state to rush on over, the princess hauling herself up onto her feet and leaning against the bar, having been launched into the back wall by the Funeral Kiss. Her Breastplate of Valor had prevented her from being impaled like Missfortune had, but the stomach she was clutching was still riddled with bruises, and her weapons were scattered all over the floor.

Still, she was entirely capable of striking from there.

”Rotten soul stealing Poe faced- urgh” she complained, even as she raised her shadow hand up above her head, charging and charging a massive ball of dark magic. Once suitably large, she tosses it lightly, and then with a warning shout of ”Get clear!” promptly spiking the twilight volley-bomb across the hall towards the fallen foe. It would phase right through anyone in the way till it collided with the floor, engulfing the foe and then detonated in an explosion that was the same size of the sphere.

Though typically strong enough to be weakness broken several times in the first half of a fight, Something Unto Death wasn’t ready for the sheer amount of punishment these Seekers could put out. Their combined efforts chewed through its vitality, but if they thought that their all-out assault ought to be enough to put the meme down for good, they would wind up disappointed. As the motes of turquoise magic from Midna’s volley-bomb dissipated, Something Unto Death rose off the ground once more. It bundled itself up as its tailfeather-eyes began to move, each pair opening in turn, then opened up again with a flourish. Its shadow spread across the hollow, and red eyes gleamed in the darkness.

The Capital - Nieve - Underground Caverns


“They're alive!” Rayne elated with relife, before being very confused about what went on afterwards with the sticking of the piece of paper to the confused woman’s face. There wasn’t time to ask, however, as apparently there were intruders downstairs doing.

She did however, take a moment to at least give her name to Yoshika-chan with a quick little “Hello, I’m Rayne” and a tip of her hat using the hand she wasn’t using to support Sanae.

Speaking of Sanae, and well, everyone she was with actually, turned out that downstairs were yet more people from her world, which led her to offer one simple guesstimation, which was that “Guess the goddess who kidnapped us all had a preference for it?”
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