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7 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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Witches in the land of the Dead


Just above a plaza of dark stone, a young croaker child found himself floating. He was, he was quite sure, dead. For one, there was the whole floating thing. For the other, he still had his gills, and should presently be suffocating in the air he had never entered before his untimely demise.

He was not alone in this place, and in coming to this realization. Even as he came to his senses other people were being deposited around him by the same unseen hands that had brought him here. Ahead of them all was a path, stretched out the front of the plaza, leading over a bridge crossing a dark moat/river that surrounded the large island. Around the moat were fields and forests of faded yet still beautiful and serene flowers and trees of a myriad of kinds, within which other spirits, other souls, seemed to frolic or laze contently.
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The bridge did not lead there however, but instead to another island surrounded by its own moat, this one containing a manor of black polished marble, one as equally beautiful and as it was intimidating to even consider approaching. Yet where else was there to go? Certainly not into the water; as the tadpole watched, an avian beastkin attempted to fly over it, only to seem to be repulsed by some unseen barrier and to tumble to the ground. They rose, unharmed, but as their futile attempts to even walk into the river proved, there was no way forwards that way.

So, after making some conversation, and shouting at the spirits across the river who simply pointed them across the bridge, they took the only path available. They crossed the bridge and entered the manor.

Within was a maze of rooms, far more than it seemed it could hold on the outside, which linked to each other nonsensically. There were exits, ones leading out onto more bridges, but these were shrouded in mists, and no one who ever crossed one ever came back. Still, time, impatience and some unknown pull to a specific bridge caused the group to dwindle, till only the tadpole was left, wandering the halls, pressing deeper and deeper till, at last, at the heart of the great house, he finally found him. Sat upon a simple stool before an easel holding an impossibly detailed painting of the realm, pallet in one hand, paintbrush in another with which he was adding yet more detail, was Death himself.

Then the cry of a babe shattered the memory, and the true state of the land of death came into view. Gone where the souls living afterlives in eternal peace. Gone were the forests, fields and gardens of plants reborn after death replaced by a blackened ruin of scorched craters, more desolate even than the outer regions once were, while the labyrinthian home which once stood was gone in its entirety.

In its place was nothing. Just a hole, blasted down into the veil between realms, which a goblin in a pointed hat had just recently climbed out of with a babe carried at her breast.

“Shh shh shh little one, it’s alright” the Mother said, caressing the beastkin infant’s down feathered scalp till it was soothed and calmed. Then she pressed a finger lightly to its forehead and caused the source of the memory to reappear.

The tadpole-like mortal hovered before her, or rather, a representation of it did, for its soul was the same as that of the child. To it she asked, “and what happened then?

“I told him I hadn’t had time for much when I was alive. That maybe I could have another go at it instead of staying wherever this was,” the child told the goddess, “he told me that it was a rare thing to be gifted, but that that was a fair reason, and then just like that, I was someone else.”

The tadpole faded, and was replaced with a dwarven warrior. “It was a good life. Long life. Till the beasts came and I fell in battle. That time, no one took me anywhere. Well, the beasts tried, but El’zadir and me kin dealt with them. After that, me and everyone else, we just sort of, floated about. Not that that’s unusual apparently, a lot of the other dead did that for a bit and then ended up being born again, having never heard of the place I’d been to. Bit of a long wait this time, seeing as so many died during the attacks. So I thought I’d go try and find this place myself again.”

“And found this”

“Sure did. Then I got caught and turned into one of those for a bit,” the dwarf said, as he pointed out into the plain of death at a mist of spectral warriors riding out towards them from the edge of a kingdom that had been built on the ruins of the land of the dead, “got killed again in some war, got out of there, and then came to find you.”

It had been something of a roundabout method, The Mother knew. He’d come to Tricity, having heard the goddess favored it. Then conspired with the ghosts hanging out there to get him reborn specifically into the body of a spiritual family. They had then brought their newborn to the soul speaker as per family tradition, and via that the dwarf had managed to get out a call about the existence of and fate of the land of the dead.

And thus (after she had borrowed the dwarf’s next life to act as her guide) they were now here, at the border of a kingdom of the fay that had begun squatting upon the ruins of the lands of the dead, and they did not seem exactly peaceful. Watchtowers dotted the land with balefire burning atop them forming great eyes that had set their gaze upon her, marking out her location.

Towards it rode a unit of wraiths, cold spectral figures formed of souls bound in glamor, sat upon the backs of similarly undead steeds. The diminutive master of these, fluttering above them and directing them with a handful of spectral chains bound to their necks, was one of the new fairy creatures, wearing a spectral cloak over form fitting leather armor.

“Well well well, what have we here? A lost little goblin? Best you run along home now, lest you end up joining the Witchfeighd’s legions of the damned!” The fay declared as she fluttered above, her wraith-knights forming a threatening circle around the goblin, rather preventing her from running.

Not that the goddess was at all inclined to do so.

“Witchfeighd hmmm? I happen to be something of a witch myself,” the Mother replied, tipping her hat in greeting and entirely unperturbed by the strange copper, gold, and black lances being pointed at her, “more of one than this Witchfeighd, if this is her idea of hospitality. Assuming you are acting under her orders I mean.” She raised a questioning eyebrow at the little fairy and asked, “are you?”

“I am a wand in her arsenal, and her magic flows in my veins,” the fairy replied proudly, though she was in part boasting to cover how unnerved she was by how unconcerned this goblin witch, who had a baby sashed to her chest no less, was about being surrounded.

“That a yes? Good, then you shall take me right to her. I have traveled far to meet the new lord of this land. Or should I be going over there somewhere?” She asked, waving a hand casually towards a differently themed set of fortifications, ones watched over by bounded astral beings, that sat on the opposite side of the massive hole she had just exited from the realm this fay hailed from.

“Them? Hecate rules this land, not those interlopers! We’ll be tossing them out soon enough, her malevolence will see to it sure as death,” the fairy insisted, sneering over at the foe who was camped out on the opposite edge of the great hole into this realm, only to be quite surprised to find the goblin witch sat side saddle on the back of one of her wraith knights.

“Excellent, then let us waste no more time, yes? We don’t want to keep her waiting after all,” the witch stated, and at that point she’d already won.

The confused but smart-enough-to-know-not-to-pick-fights-with-people-exuding-so-much-casual-confidence fay promptly transported her guest as requested. As they did, the guised goddess got a further picture of the nature of the fairies of this realm, who seemed to be between campaigning seasons and preparing for the next. They were preparing such things that would have made mortal armies quail in their boots. Great wells of magical power were being filled from what little remained of the realm of death, its very essence being squeezed from the soil into great cauldrons. Undead legions were being formed, lost souls snatched away from the masses of dead created by the outer beast invasion, bound in spectral facsimile of their former selves, or even their own bones. Blood was drained from captured beasts, inner and outer, and used to prepare profane potions or paint the five pointed stars that seemed to be the basis for much of their equivalent of runework.

Most of their living space seemed to consist of barrows made up of the byproducts of their draining death from the land, transforming the dark substance into a pearly white stone and soil. Their queen lived in the grandest of these mounds, one decorated with great pillars of white stone that curved in like ribs, and at their center held the greatest of the balefire beacons. It's great burning eye stared down at them as they approached.

It wasn’t the only eye upon them, for those of many of fay around had been drawn to the strange goblin riding brazenly towards their lady’s parlor, and the rest caught on when she slipped off and casually strolled inside.

The insides contained the classic witch’s hut essentials, but scaled up to the quantity and quality befitting a witch queen. Racks of strange and rare ingredients lined shelf after shelf (both wooden and those that in an actual barrow would have held the dead), from eyes of newt, snakes oils and bones galore, along with numerous trinkets and artifacts stolen from all across the realms. Nets full of exotic herbs hung from the ceiling, drying in the heat produced by a great balefire burning beneath an even greater cauldron filled with outer beast bile, blood, and even viler fluids, along with a host of ingredients off of the shelves.

The Witchfeighd Hecate herself, rendered wretched and hideous by her deeds most foul, was perched upon the shoulder of a beautiful elf clothed in rags and chains who she was forcing to stir the vial bru with a ladle that contained more power than some fairies had in their whole bodies.

“Ah, I see our uninvited guest has been delivered straight to my doorstep in one piece,” Hecate observed as she ceased her slave’s stirring, before she insisted “this had better be worth my time,” as a clear threat to the fairy who had brought The Mother to her, causing her to back away half a step in fear even as she swore it would be so.

“Greetings, witch Hecate.” The Mother greeted the fairy in lieu of being greeted herself, stepping forwards and tipping her hat to the other witch in such a way that it obscured the fairy that had brought her here, a subtle manner of insisting that she was very much worth the time, and she herself would prove it.

“That’s Witchfeighd to you, stranger, whoever and whatever you think you are, stumbling into my realm like this, thinking you can command my minions to do as you please.” The witch replied with unmasked hostility, for, to a fay like her, there were only kneeling peons and enemies to be crushed, and the simple matter of her guest’s attitude was swinging her rapidly into the latter camp already.

“They call me Rose back in Tricity, and I’m just a simple mother, come to learn the fate of the land of the dead, and see the ascension of its new liege.” The Mother replied with words that were all technically true, seemingly now buttering Hecate up a bit, which the fay found just a touch suspicious.

Still, she was not one to turn down an opportunity to gloat.

“Well you have come at an auspicious time then, Rose of Tricity, for within the hour, my latest brew shall be complete, and when it is, the very earth of this realm shall swallow up my foes, and bury them in a shallow grave,” she declared, earning a cheer from the observing masses.

“Witch Rose, if you’d kindly,” The Mother replied politely, before saying that, “and I must say, you have quite the fascinating demesne,” using the term to refer to a witch’s combination of laboratory and living space, functionally a far more dignified and generalist name for a witch’s hut, “so many fascinating odds and ends you have here, though none less than that,” she said, pointing to a humble paintbrush sitting upon a shelf just behind the Witchfeighd, gathering dust.

This strange selection of interest prompted whispers of speculation among the many fay who had gathered around the outskirts of the large room, peering down from the shelves where they sat amongst the ingredients. One in particular caused one of the goblin goddess’ pointed ears to twitch, a whisper of, “wasn’t that the only thing we found here?” confirming The Mother’s suspicions about the artifact’s quiet power.

“And why is that, Rose?” The Witchfeighd asked with disrespect before asking accusingly “have you come to steal it?”

“Not at all, I’ll gladly barter you for it.” The Mother replied, before offering, “I have many pieces of fine runework from my home city that might interest you. All made with wondrous r’kava to boot.” As she pulled out a knife with the runes of pain painted on its blade, another with a scroll tied around its length that described an intricate transformation into a monstrous beast, and a third that simply had the rune for sharp on it.

“Bah, paltry offerings, you insult me with such base magics,” the Witchfeighd replied, rejecting her outright, “I wouldn't trade a thimble of glamor for the things made by dirt dwellers.”

“Then how about this?” The Mother asked instead, before reaching for a locket around her neck, opening it, and revealing the shrunken heart of Egrioth, one of two greater outer beasts, still beating, its power bound by innumerable runes. In response, all breaths went still for a moment, as its bounded power hurt the eyes of those who looked upon it.

Lesser fay flinched away, but the Witchfeighd’s own stayed locked on it for that moment, before flicking to the paintbrush and back again. She chose, as The Mother had expected, greed. What she had not expected was quite how deep that greed ran, as the fairy flicked out both hands and tried to claim both the heart and the brush, whose value she had clearly underestimated.

The air rippled as a deadly curse ripped forwards, only to crash into the witch’s hat, runes on its rim flaring to life as she used it not to protect her divine form, but instead the babe she carried against her bosoms.

“One of my grandsons got me that as a gift, you know,” she complained, as the hat disintegrated, magic spent protecting her from a single strike. Then she was forced to leap to the side, one hand steadying and protecting the infant in her care as she avoided another deadly curse. When she landed, she thrust a hand over her back and into a satchel she was wearing, out of which she pulled a second hat, informing the fairies with the air of a teacher that, “a proper witch always has a spare,” before popping it upon her head.

“Seize her, bring me that heart! Whoever does so becomes my apprentice!” The Witchfeighd barked at the spectating fay, prompting many to rise up into the air, drawing weapons and wands galore. This did not include the fairy who had brought The Mother here, whose eyes the goddess met and then to whom she gave a quick nod of approval before making all the rest regret rising against her.

Spells and sorcery flew, bolts of death, screaming skulls, balefire, and spectral scythes all raining down on the goddess, who stepped and leapt to avoid them and keep them from harming a feather on her ward’s head. As she moved, and countless shelves and nicknacks around her were destroyed, she retaliated using the heart, forming needle thin lances of pain that lashed out and skewered fairy after fairy, sending them tumbling from the air in bouts of unspeakable pain.

Other more martial ones darted in when the spellcasters failed, sickles and swords at the ready, but the goddess drew the mortal made knife marked with runes of pain, which extended a sword length aura of suffering from its material form. Wielding it, she caught and paired their miniature weapons with the metal blade, before slicing them with the aura of pain, forcing them back or down.

“Idiots! Fools! Are none of you worthy?!” The Witchfeighd castigated from atop her elven slave, even as she began to weave a wide reaching curse that would lay waste to both her foe and any fay who happened to be trying to take her down at that moment.

The Mother promptly tossed the scroll wrapped knife at the elf of all people, skewering her in the chest. Yet instead of killing her the blade pumped power into her, draining wells of r’kava and using it to twist her as the scroll described, transforming her in an instant into a creature like a howler monkey wrapped in chitin armor. In the process of transforming she shattered her chains and threw the Witchfeighd from her shoulder, and the first thing she did with this new freedom was to scream at her captor and tormentor with a voice that could shatter eardrums, or in the Witchfeighd’s case, make concentrating on casting mighty difficult.

Having distracted the Witchfeighd, the goddess continued to fight, happily taking hits to her own body while doing everything she could to prevent even a scratch from landing on the crying infant. The next to try were a squad of wraiths sent in by the fay, spectral forms of undead immune to the pain she had been inflicting on her living foes.

Given that the the souls within were living half lives of suffering due to being bound in these forms however, she had little issue with drawing the blade marked simply as sharp and cleaving into the wraiths with it, the concept of sharpness it was imbued with cutting them far more than the the metal that would have gone right through them otherwise. The undead shattered, freeing the souls from their prisons, all of whom called their thanks and cheered on the goddess as she used the space she had cleaved to unleash another barrage of pain inducing-needles upon the remaining aggressive fay.

She turned then as a new scream came, the elf slave turned monkey knight crying out as the Witchfeighd managed to finish a spell that left her slave a withered aged husk on the brink of death. Sparing her victim not a second glance, the Witchfeighd turned to meet the Mother’s eyes.

The two witches faced each other down, surrounded by the groaning forms of all the rest of the combatants, and watched only by those too cowardly or too wise to not get involved.

The crying infant rather ruined the dramatic atmosphere however, and the Mother was given only a moment to try and soothe it before balefire flames ripped forth from the hands of the Witchfeighd, threatening to wash over everything, minion and goddess alike.

In response she tossed her hat, the second rune-engraved head garment scything through the green flames, devouring the spell and then vaporizing like its predecessor had. In that moment however, the Witchfeighd had time to leap for the paintbrush all this had started over, which she proceeded to toss into her cauldron, causing it to explode with power, much to her cackling delight.

“Realm of death, rise up and claim these wretched lives in the name of the Witchfeighd!” She commanded, prompting the paintbrush to rise up out of the cauldron, and then for power to spear down from it into the earth. This prompted the inert soil of the realm of death to come to life, taking the form of endless grasping hands which grabbed hold of every being but the Witchfeighd, before attempting to drag them back down into it.

“Cease this!” The Mother commanded at the same time as she launched a titanic spike of pain towards the Witchfeighd, but the fay was no lesser minion, and though she suffered there was no breaking the spell that was sure to slay all in her demesne.

Again the Mother speared her foe, but she was holding back, unwilling to inflict deadly pain upon her foe despite the way the hands were close to breaking past her swatting hand to reach the baby. She frowned, began to try to step forwards, only for her eyes widened for just a moment before her form was replaced by that of a woman as old looking as the Witchfeighd, yet also one who had aged far more gracefully.

“Enough of this, if you won’t do it I will!” The Breaker declared, as she flicked a finger across her brow, causing a third and final hat appeared upon her head, this one not mortal made, but undeniably divine in nature. The Witchfeighd’s own eyes widened for just a moment as the Breaker shattered all the Mother’s pretense of being mortal, and then closed forever when in an instant the goddess had crossed the room, wrapped her hand around the tiny fairy, and crushed the life from her, ending her life to save all the ones she was about to claim with her foul sorcery.

The Breaker’s lips were covered with an ever so slight smile as Asheel took her first (natural) mortal life, only for a moment of confusion to cross her face before the Maiden appeared with one of horror on her own.

“She has no soul!?!?!?!?!?!” The youngest of them cried out in horror, as the magic came apart in her hand, and revealed this inexplicable exception to the law she had written in the Khodex.

“No no no. I can fix this. I just need to… I just… I can… I…” she tried and tried, but it was no use. The Witchfeighd was no more, and there was nothing left of her to bring back, at least nothing that would matter. She could build a perfect replica, this she knew, simply by looking back at what once was, but it would not be the same. Her cycle was broken, and there was no way of continuing what had already ended.

And so the Maiden, shocked, gave way for the Mother, who shed tears even for a monster like the Witchfeighd, who gave way for the Breaker, who opened her hand and let the magic both the others had been trying to hold onto, that had once made up the Witchfeighd’s body, drift away.

“The Witchfeighd is dead!” A fay cried out in panic upon seeing this, before above them there roared a mighty explosion as the great baelfire eye of their dead leader fell apart without her, letting the whole realm know of her death and that all her foul workings had been undone.

Her slayer cared not for their plight, instead bending down and pulling the blade she’d thrown at the now mutated withered elf out of their chest, causing the transformation to reverse, and the aging curse having already been undone by the Witchfeighd ‘s death. It was only when a second shout came that, “the armies of Eirgwyn are on the match! They’re coming! We’re doomed!” that she paid attention to the fairies again.

“I’ll lead us to victory!” “No I!” “No I!” called out several fairies who were recovering from the pain the Mother had caused and near-death their former leader had inflicted, all shakingly drawing weapons with clear indication on how they were going to resolve the question of succession.

“None of you will,” the Breaker broke in to say, before pointing at the one who had first met and then brought the Mother here, “she was the only one wise enough to not try and fight a goddess, so she will lead you,” before imbuing her chosen champion with the magic of the old Witchfeighd, and crowning her with a tiny witch’s hat.

“Meanwhile I suppose I will prevent the Mother from shedding any more tears, and make sure no one else dies today, not before we correct this mistake, and you are all granted souls by the Maiden,” the Breaker said as she unstrapped the babe she’d been saddled with, instructing her champion to protect it. Then, grasping the paintbrush all this had been about, she strode back out of the barrow.

As she emerged, she pressed two fingers to her lips, and whistled, causing a mono-wheeled motorcycle with bladed wheels to burst out of a poor snouter’s field, punch into the veil, leap through the hole into the land of death, and to then land perfectly before her, ready to be mounted. The Breaker did so, and then rode her machine forwards at lightning speed, scything across the land of the dead, and dragging the paintbrush across the borders of the fairy nations found within.

Where she brushed it, rivers like the one from the tadpole’s memory of the old land of the dead formed, ones which no mortal being, living or dead, could cross, caring not for how the fay who’s armies she was locking into their kingdoms tried to stop her and, in an instant, halting the advance of Eirgwyn’s armies, and forcing an armistice upon the war for the land of the dead.

Then Asheel, not Maiden, not Mother, not Breaker, Asheel, the Wheel, the Cycle incarnate, rose up above the hole in the land of the dead, and in three and one voices spoke thusly:

“Hear me, o tiny sparks of life who war for this realm: you have been made wrong. As the Maiden decreed, all things that live are to have souls, such that they will live on after death, and be reborn as new lives, to live out new experiences in a cycle that will continue till the end of time. Yet you and you alone will not, for you have no souls and so your death is the final end. This crime against the Khodex we will set right! Yet time it will take. So cease your wars, lay down your arms, put aside your grievances till the day that I grant you what you have always been owed, lest you face the wrath of a goddess who now holds the realm of death in her clutches!”

As the final words boomed, the wheel spun around the handle of Death’s paintbrush, and the fallen god’s realm was granted a new mistress. Bombed out craters were swept away, and in their place was laid a foundation of endless pristine white triangular paving stones, a fresh canvas upon which she would paint her own image of this realm in time.

For now, however, the wheel descended, and then three in one became one of three again, the Breaker riding back to the kingdom of the Witchfeighd. The new Witchfeighd. Whatever she was named before (a suitable name for a follower, no doubt) was swiftly forgotten. Now she was the Witchfeighd, and her name was Morghein.

It was not the new Witchfeighd the fay were hailing upon the Breaker’s return, however, but instead her patron, chanting, “hail her malevolence, hail her magnificence, hail the matriarch of souls!”

“Matriarch, hmmm? I can work with that,” she said to herself, before commanding the fay to clear away and to leave her in peace as she took over Hecate’s barrow, and making it her own demesne, within which she began concocting a brew to grant the fay the souls she had promised them.

After she returned the baby to its parents, that was.






??? — Burnt Town


Rayne awoke stiff, having fallen asleep in her armor with her hat tipped over her eyes. In her defense she had had a very, very, very long day, and unfortunately it had not been some kind of dream. The morning sun shining in through the windows of the hunters lodge alone would have made that clear.

She was tempted to just lower the brim of her hat to block it, but Sanae‘s words prompted the witch knight to pick herself up to face the day.

“I’m up now” she said as she rose into the air, before doing some shoulder stretches and high knees to limber up a bit. Only after that did she join the conversation, sighing that “of course this place also has monsters” in response to the information that there were such things on the prowl, before easily agreeing that “yeah, I’ll help” with regards to dealing with that situation, the thought of saying no not even crossing her mind.

What she did have a little thought about, however, was to actually ask a question that had been lost in all the ‘excitement’ of the previous day, which was “what is this place called anyway? This village, the region it's in, things like that” directing said question specifically at the hunters who they were offering to help with dealing with the local monster problem.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 921 (+2) (+3)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (146/140)
Bowser Jr: Level 13 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (161/130)
Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (146/120)
Rika: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (127/80)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams


”I mean we’ll walk, obviously” was Bowser’s obvious answer to the question of how they were going to get down the chasm, causing Jr to groan loudly and to then turn and ask ””Kamek, make me one of those ridable dragons or something, I don’t wanna walk all day again!”

”I suppose” Kamek agreed with a sight, before beginning to conjure, before reeling what that sounded like and clarifying ”that I can make you a steed I mean. I do not suppose that we can walk down there, as the lift is out, remember?”

”Ohhh. By chasm I thought she meant just the way down to the hole” Bowser replied ”but I mean, can’t we just jump down it again? Land on those flowers”

”I’m not sure if that is wise, we got lucky last time that no one hit the sides of the chasm” Kamek replied as he finished conjuring a king gryphon for the young prince, who excitedly hopped on its back, before taking off, doing a loop de loop and then landing back on the ground again.

”Couldn’t we all just, well, use that to get down?” Rika asked

”No it's mine, and you can’t have it!” Jr disagreed with a mix of brattyness and cheer, before remembering something and saying ”Oh but here, you can have this” before tossing Rika the tape for the Beast.

”The ‘Undyne’ tape fixed itself over night somehow, so I’ve got that now” he explained, before briefly switching to the fishy knight, which made for quite the majestic image atop the king gryphon’s back, before turning it off again. ”Cool huh?”

”Oh? Thanks” Rika replied, catching it, before clarifying ”But I didn’t mean I’d take your bird thing. I can just float down using that floaty rock I have after all”

”Also I can make more. Some more anyway” Kamek clarified ”Not enough for everyone, but if needs must we can just ferry people down a few at a time”

”Sounds like a plan!” Bowser decided, getting up off his butt and declaring ”Alright troop, let’s move out!”

Move out they did, or rather down, following the mining trails and avoiding any kind of trouble this time, till they arrived at the place where the crane had once stood. Reduced to splinters, it would not, as Kamek said, provide a way down. This had not, apparently, stopped the miners however, as while they approached, a figure was seen emerging from the chasm.

She was a blocky figure, in a way very reminiscent of a certain Steve, wearing equally blocky metal armor over a Yellow sweater that looked like it would be quite cozy where it is not at the moment very wet. When flagged down, she introduced herself as Makena and returned to the edge of the pit to explain how she had just gotten out, and in doing so why she was drenched.

Pouring endlessly out of a recently dug nook in the chasm wall was a 1 meter wide cubic waterfall that rolled down and down and down into the dark. She had, apparently, swum all the way up it, and claimed it to be a much superior alternative to her competition’s method. Said method was on the other side of the chasm, and seemed to consist of a single rope that, again, went down and down and down forever into the dark.

Makena espoused the creator said rope to be a fool, specifically for the sin of digging straight down, which was not a debate the troop and any reference for. Bowser promptly asked how in the world else you would dig down, prompting Makena to disavow him. Shortly after, she took her leave, leaving the seekers with a choice of 3 ways down. Leap of faith, vertical swimming, or massive amounts of abseiling.

Well, those or their own power, which 3 out of 4 of them took. After providing a steed or two if they were desired, Kamek simply began drifting down the hole atop his broomstick, while Rika activated her feather fall rune and began to float slowly after while Jr, well, Jr proceeded to divebomb his gryphon mount straight down into the dark while whooping with glee.

That left Bowser with the options of rope or water, and given that the rope was not going to be able to hold him, he opted for water. He could breathe it after all. Unfortunately the big lug forgot he couldn’t swim anymore.

The Koopa king promptly sank like a stone, endangering anyone who’d gone before him with his much too swift pace. Still, while fast for anyone sane, it wasn’t so fast he was gonna go splat, particularly when he added his super bell into the mix, and started to control his descent by scratching his cat claws against the wall. Now descending at a sane speed, he continued on down and down and down till at last he and the rest of the Troop arrived at the bottom and discovered something terrible: someone had cut down all the flowers!

There were also two holes dug into the once fertile ground. Into one the waterfall fell, and for some reason it did not overflow out of it and flood the cave. The second one had the rope descending into it, and from it the sound of metal striking stone could be heard. Suspecting a culprit of the flower devastation, the Troop looked down this hole, and found a rather short individual wearing silvery armor digging a hole straight down into the ground.

He was promptly shouted at, but insisted that the flowers had been like that when he got here. When asked why he was digging down there for, he informed them he was digging something called a ‘hellevator’ and to leave him to it.

So they did.

”Well, if it wasn’t him, I think we all know who did this, though I wonder if this means our survival was an accident, or if we’re scaring him now? Either way, he should be” Kamek declared, having already relayed the lack of a soft landing awaiting them.

At least there wasn’t also a pack of monsters awaiting them either, and so the troop happily set up shop and waited for the rest of the team to join them back down in the depths.
Amelia’s worldly adventures, part 1
A beastly meeting


The light at the end of the tunnel. After a much longer crawl Amelia finally saw it. On her hands and knees she squeezed through the rooted tunnel until she finally managed to squeeze herself through some part-hidden, part-forgotten, part-uncared for hole that she guessed was made by a badger or some other burrowing creature.

She emerged into a small crevasse that hosted the abandoned den, as well as a dozen or so meters of poorly vegetated dirt stick between two cliff faces on either side, and, strangely, at each end, some kind of wall. The furthest of these walls did seem to have some kind of gate, but it was closed, trapping her in here.

“Why did you lead me into… this place?” Amelia asked out loud, seemingly to nobody. As right now only she could see her Godmother. The fairy only gave an undignified ‘hmpf’. She wouldn’t be much help right now, Amelia realized. So she started looking up the cliffsides. Maybe she could crawl up them?

As she was contemplating this strange set up someone had clearly made for a purpose, what the walls were meant to keep in stirred as a trio of hulking bull sized shapes stirred in the shadows of the cliff face where they had been avoiding the beating heat of the tropical midday sun.

One had a round body sporting 10 legs, all from different animals, out of the top of which a formless black neck ending in featureless head hosting only a triple segmented mouth. The next was a big cat with three quadruple eyed raven’s heads and a dozen bladed tendrils instead of a tail. The last was a green shelled beetle with clawed reptilian limbs and shredded eagle wings that flicked out from under their thorax protection when it stretched after rising.

The mix and match creatures were horrible, but they did share one thing in common, and that was a faintly glowing rune on their foreheads, one of a ring with a smaller ring with a dot in the center at its base, that looked a bit like a simplified depiction of Galbar’s waterways, and rings of other much more jagged runes surrounding their necks.

Having unfurled themselves, the outer beasts, for surely that must be what they were, began to stalk towards her with hunger in their eyes and saliva on their jaws.

Amelia froze where she stood. The three monsters started to stalk - each in their unique way - towards the mortal. “Amelia, my little bulb.” The Godmother said, veiling her worry. “You should move.” Amelia didn’t move. “Dear?” Her Godmother asked again. “Move.” Amelia did not move. “Move you foolish child!” The Godmother rammed Amelia, just in time as the cat-like beast lunged for her.

The elf - knocked out of whatever paralysing fear held her - fell to the ground. On her forearms she crawled away. “Roll left!” Her Godmother yelled. She did. Three bladed tails stabbed the ground where she was a moment ago. Above her was now a massive mass of black. An unnatural amount of legs moved around her. A clawed, lizard-like arm grasped at her. She crawled away, through the leg of a cow and a tall bird. Grasping claws grabbed her and lifted her for a second, before sending her to the wall.

Amelia fell badly on her left shoulder. The pang of pain felt familiar. For a second she was in that forest again. With the spindly legged beast that killed her parents. The memory and the pain conjured tears.

“Kill it!” Her Godmother yelled. “Kill them!”

She couldn’t. Killing was wrong. It was one of the worst things one could do. A shadow moved over her. She tried to roll away but two strong, cat-like legs pinned her down by the shoulders. It snarled at her with its three eyes. It’s tails moving over from above to go in for the kill.

“Please, oh Allianthé please don’t let me-” She stopped. The desperate prayer was too familiar. Last she said it, her entire family died. This couldn’t be what she had to do.

The beast drew blood as it slashed her arm. Amelia screamed out in pain. That was enough. The cat growled at her. She punched it hard. Pain jolted through her right hand as her skin split. The beast recoiled but quickly turned back, ready to bite her to death. It wasn’t fast enough.

Amelia had already finished waving her wand. The piece of yew, so unimaginatively crafted, was covered with iridescent veins. “Kill.” She whispered at the cat-beast, which stopped moving for a moment. Then it turned around. The two other beasts were behind it, ready to kill their prey if the cat-beast wouldn’t. Not that they would be given much of a chance. It lunged at the many-legged beast. It was a devastating ambush as it started tearing and cutting away.

It gave a shrieking scream that sounded far too close to a mortal’s cry for comfort as it tried to scramble back, but the cat-like beast just kept slashing and clawing, hacking at limbs. It fully served at least two before the now less multi legged thing fought back, arcing its neck down and biting into one of its attacker’s three heads, cruising it in a single bite. It was only one, however, and so the battle continued, blood spilling everywhere.

Unfortunately, the command to kill was very different to one like, say, protect me, and so the beetle creature was free to, once it was over its confusion, turn its attention back to Amelia instead. As it stalked closer however, there came a shout from one of the walls of “Would you things keep it down” as the white furry face of an opossum topped with a black pointy hat popped over the top.

Said shout was followed by one of “By the Wheel!”when the figure noticed Amelia, followed by a shout of “Over here, quickly!” directed specifically at her he vanished as quickly as he appeared, after which the gate in the wall started to swing open.

Once the gate was open enough to squeeze his goblin sized body though the fullbood opossum-kin slipped through the gap, pausing only to grab and pull his wide brimmed pointy hat from where it had gotten stuck, before hurting forwards. The rest of his garb was similarly witchy, a black coat/robe of some sort, one that sported many pockets. Out of one of these he pulled a small wooden slab on which a number of runes softly glowed, ones that matched the ones on the beast’s neck. He hurried forwards, and once close enough pressed a finger to one of these.

In response, some of the runes on the beetle monster glowed bright, causing it to hiss and stumble in its chase, tumbling to the ground where it began writhing in pain. He hurried past her and it, and pointed the slab at the pair who were rearing each other apart, causing them, too, to collapse in pain as well.

“Oh dear oh dear oh dear, what have you done to each other?” he asked the heavily damaged pair, clearly upset by their injuries, before turning on Amelia and demanding to know “You! Who are you? How did you get in here? Didn’t you see the warning signs?” before gesturing up at the tops of the cliff face where a number of signposts who’s text could not be seen due to it pointing outwards, before pointing at the pair of wounded beasts and demanding to know “and what did you do to them?”

“I-I…” Amelia stood frozen on the ground. All color drained from her face as the carnage finally stopped. Had she ordered one of these things to fight? To kill!? The realization set in. Did she carry responsibility? “I didn’t know…I never saw- In the Veil, I never saw the signs.” She muttered as she tried to take a step back from the halted fighting. “It’s not my fault.” She kept muttering as she took another step back. “I just- I just made it think something.” She made it think that it should kill the other beast. Oh goddess, she had glamoured it into killing.

Then her eyes turned towards the angry opossum-beastman. She could stay frozen and helpless or she could stop being a victim of outer beasts and circumstances. Slowly, with shaky and uncertain hands she raised her ‘wand’ at the opossum man. “I-I’m very sorry for what happened. I really am but… but I’m not going to die myself over this. My life will not end here.” She spoke of death and life with the finality unmistakingly from Arbor. Where it was known as a fact that death was unavoidable end.

“Wow wow wow there missy, there’s no need for that. No one is going to die themselves or anyone else over this, long as you don’t do… whatever you can do with that stick” the pintsized possum-man replied, pointing the rune inscribed controller back at her in a somewhat unconvincing attempt at thereating her back with it “So put it down, and let’s go talk this through over a little something to eat? I have some dried wheel fruit and jerky somewhere in my office for when I get snacky. We could work out a deal, keep this between us, not escalate this to the authorities, that kind of thing? If you really can do magic with just that twig, well now, that would be something else, and I would oh so love to learn all about it”

Amelia lowered her wand as a small smile crept over her lips. “I really am sorry.” She said, sounding a lot more apologetic and a lot less fearful for her life. A few moments later she was looking at the strange wheelfruit, finding no immediate or obvious way to start eating it. The jerky she didn’t touch.

“Sir.” Amelia said as she fidgeted with the wheelfruit. “Where am I actually?”

“Wheels turn. You really aren't from around here are you? How far much of the world did you skip over to have never-” he shook his head, pausing his query and instead answered the unspoken question first as they stepped through the gate, holding up his own little wheelfruit and saying “like this” before squeezing the center between two fingers, causing the disk shaped fruit to spit along the center. Then he simply lifted the top of the hard fruit off, exposing a half circle of dried fruit flesh.

He then put a finger on this flesh and gave it a spin, causing the edible part of the fruit to rotate around the core of the plant. “Nibble your way round the outside as many turns as you like, and then simply pop the other half on like so” he said as he demonstrated, neatly re-packaging his snack before her eyes.

As he had been giving this demonstration, they’ed headed along a little rising road, past a few building side on the other side of the wall, leaving the gate in the hands of a goblin fellow who was mostly just waiting for a box with a strange bug in it to reel the gate back shut. Once they reached the top of the crevasse, little research post and penned beasts behind them, signs warning of them on their right, they could look forwards and see where they were.

To the west, off in the distance, was the unmistakable signifier of the direction of her home, the great tree towering above all. Home itself however was not visible, for the walls of the edge of the crater that was the land of origin blocked that view. Slicing through those walls to the north was a great river, one greater than all others except its equally vast twin on the other side of the world.

That gave her something of an indicator as to where she was, but as to what this place was called, and what gave it its name, well, that sat on the banks of the river. Houses and buildings by the score straddled both sides, and an island in the center, while a great bridge crossed it and linked all three semi separate settlements together.

Hence the name

“Welcome, my dear, to Tricity!” the possum exclaimed, clearly quite proud of the place, despite the side of it they were on having seen better days. Reconstruction work to the half of the city devastated by the outer beast invasion was still ongoing. Part of this might be due to the rather large array of new buildings that had sprung up around what seemed to be a permanently raging stormcloud sat only a little bit to their east. Indeed, this little compounded was almost certainly part of whatever that new settlement within a settlement was.

A little hint as to what it was for came when the possum realized he’d failed to introduce himself, and proceed to tip his hat to her and do just that, saying “Oh, and I am witch Higglesworth, a pleasure to meet you”

The elven girl was wide-eyed staring out from the crater’s edge. Her mouth was agape. She had seen many things when she traveled with her parents but this, this was something else. A city that could rival Arbor. Perhaps do more than rival Arbor. If not for the twin great Trees, Arbor would most certainly be eclipsed. “It’s so big.” She said, “So mixed!” She added, while pointing at the myriad of species she saw working the fields and the water. “There’s so many beastmen here!” Her eyes darted over the great city. Parts of it were clearly older and perhaps grander, but she adored all sides.

“Oh, it’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Higglesworth.” She said then to the opposom-man beside her, while keeping the thought that ‘Witch’ was a very strange first name to herself. “I am Amelia from Arbor.” She quickly returned the greetings. After which she took a few more moments to marvel at the great split city before her. But her mind was already going to other thoughts. “Say… Mr. Higglesworth. Those outer beasts, how did you manage to control them? I mean I know you used runes. We got some in Arbor too but none of the rune mages there know how to use them to control outer beasts.”

“Ah well that-” the witch dithered for a moment on where to explain, before deciding “ah well, it's only fair if we are going to trade” and then launching into an explanation with the dictation of someone giving a lecture.

“So, for one, while they do look it, those are not quite outer beasts, even though they are derived from them. You see in the dark days when they first appeared, our fair city was assailed by a great horde of them. Yet by the power of gods, heroes and mortals, we endured, and were left afterwards with a rather large pile of rotting flesh. So we gathered it all up, and piled it all into a pool of R’kava, one that is now causing that mighty storm cloud over there” he explained, pointing over at it.

“This caused it to grow and grow, giving us a wonderfully large supply of the stuff, which is very handy for rune craft as it turns out. But it also turned it into something called, according to the old Octari, a spawning pool, which is a pool of R’kava that can change creatures into other ones, or even spit out whole new ones. Well, having fed the pool so many outer beasts, along with actual beasts and the dead, we ended up with, well, those” he turned away from the city to look down at the ‘not quite outer beasts’ who a small team of witches and soldiers where currently corralling/medication depending on their current state, before giving them a name.

“Chimeras, we call them, and though they do look like the outer beasts, or demons, there is one key internal difference: They have souls and not stolen ones either. Born as they are from a natural process of this world, they are part of the cycle of reincarnation, rather than strange soulless things that must have come from somewhere beyond it” he revealed, though not how he knew, before actually answering her question which was “well, how you control any beast really, a suitable combination of carrot and stick. These are somewhat early days however, hence the unfortunate incident when you arrived in their pen”

“The stick itself is a curse rune, one of pain, which came from a runestone that formed in the corpse of the greater outer beasts who attempted to assail the land of origin and was felled by the efforts of three gods, and then gifted to us by Asheel, forever may she turn, along with another from which we learned more of the basics” he concluded “all of which has caused quite the magical revolution around these parts. It almost makes up for the collapse of our tin mines.”

The elven girl hung on every word that Higglesworth spoke. It was a fascinating tale to hear. One of ingenuity but also necessity. With her mind she tried to remember the rune. Not that she wanted to hurt anyone with it, but to direct an absolute form of pain at something seemed very powerful. If she could bring some of that knowledge back to Arbor, Irrithae - when she returned - would be very proud of her! Even better, perhaps she could come to an accord to share some information back and forth. After all, Arbor had its own trump cards. As if to conform, she felt a mental nod of confidence coming from her hidden fairy godmother.

But then she was hit by a profound sense of sadness as she realized what the pool of R’kava was. A mass grave of both people and outer beast. “We - I mean Arbor - never really came to your aid, huh?” She said almost absent mindedly. Why did she feel a slight pang of guilt over that? What could they do? Killing was forbidden. It was a curse offered only to the Deathguard. Still, something should've been done.

“Mr. Higglesworth, does Tricity think that the outer beasts will be back? I mean like before, like a great invading wave?”

The man seemed a little confused by her first question, clearly having not expected such aid at all, before sighing sadly in response to her second and admitting that “Yes. Or something else, even worse. What has happened once will happen again, so turns the wheel after all”

“That said, we now know dangers lurk out there, and though this new age may be one of terrors, it also the age of magic” he said, seeming to be quoting someone as he did so “so next time, next time we will be prepared to stand against the darkness with all the myriad of powers our world has to offer. With magic and machinery, we will endure!”

“So says the soul speaker anyway” he added, confirming that the words were not his own, before adding his own perspective which was “as for me, while survival is nice and all, frankly I just find all the recent discoveries about the supernatural to be quite fascinating. Your own very much included”

“It is fascinating.” Amelia returned genuinely. “I’ve only learned a little bit myself. Most of what I could do was with Arcana and well, I’m warned that it’ll make me go bad.” Only now was that reality really sinking in. That some day she might become some horrific monster. A few others had made the same sacrifice as well. Her eyes turned towards the big pool of R’Kava. It looked ugly and it spawned monsters but back at home, the ever coruscating Wellspring did that as well. It just took a while. With that Amelia started to see some similarities between the two civilizations.

“You’ve been nice to me Mr. Higglesworth.” Amelia said as she turned back to her new oppossom friend. “And I know you like magic, so I’ll let you in on some more.” She pulled out her wand again. “There are creatures living in this world called ‘fairies’. They can do all sorts of cool things! Like lying away the darkness.” She slowed down a little again. “That’s also how I did what I did.” She said, her words laced with a deep sense of guilt. Not just for her oppossom friend. Clearly he was taking care of those creatures. She also felt sin towards the creatures. One died at her hand. “It’s called glamour, and you can learn it too!” Her excitement returned quickly though. “All you need to do is find a fairy and let them teach you how to make a wand! They’re tricky though. And-” She stopped, as if listening to words that the witch could hear. She nodded in understanding at nothing, nodded again, and then even said: “Okay.” Then she turned back to the opposom. “My godmother says she’s not the right fairy for you but I’m sure that you’ll find someone!”

“I also have a question for you, Mr. Higglesworth.” Her tone got a bit more serious now. As serious as the young elf could present her self at least. “But first I have to tell you a few things. I lost my parents not too long ago. But then someone took me in. Her name’s Irrithae. She’s Allianthé’s Prophetess. She’s away now on some important business deep below the earth but she’ll be back. And when she is, she’s probably going to rule Arbor. So if it was possible, I’d like to go speak to your ‘soul speaker’. Maybe we can agree that if Tricity ever faces the dangers from those big beasts, Arbor can come to help?”

“Well spin me round and call me a rolly polly, that’s a lot to take in” he admitted, “a new kind of magic, and people we’ve never heard of? I suppose not a lot of them must not have died yet. Lucky them”

“As for the soul speaker, well, he’s not exactly our leader. Maybe our spiritual leader? One of them anyway, and he does have quite the influential seat on the council, so if you want an audience with them, he’s not a bad way to get it” the witch told her, before thinking for a moment and then realizing “wait, hmmm, isn’t he visiting this side of the city today?” before tilting his hat a bit to block out the sun some more as he peered down at the city, before spotting a blue and orange banner fluttering above one of the buildings.

“Yes right there” he confirmed, pointing it out and calling the distance “just a shot trip by buggy”

He, naturally, offered to give her a ride there, and so, bouncing down a gravel road on the back of a bug powered go kart, began Amelia’s adventures in Tricity.







wordcount: 921 (2+)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (74/100)
Location: Arahabaki
Warp Charges: 1


Midna and her wolves slashed and clawed at the hand they had captive with vicious abandon, till they heard a crack in the very foundations of the bridge. It prompted Midna to command her beasts that it was ”Time to get away” as she herself moved to pull away from the chained hand, only for her wrist to be tugged and then held as the chain wrapped around their captor went taught.

She had all of a moment to give a little ”ah” of understanding of the double edged sword of her plan before it cut her, the titan putting all his force into wrenching free of the bindings, vaporizing the chain and the part of the bridge it was bound to in one titanic hail.

Disconnected from the chain, Midna’s Legion returned to its core as its mistress and fellow minion hurtled through the air towards the reactor wall. Midna reached out and grabbed said core as she flew, before opening a portal to the twilight realm that caught her minion and gave it a softer landing in the source of her sands. She could do little in the everpresent glow of mako to prevent herself from smashing into the far wall however, and so promptly did so. The air was knocked out of her lungs, and her back bruised to the nines, but at least she did not get crushed by the bridge segment as it smashed into the wall beside her.

Instead she just had to worry about both falling and the resulting hail of debris, but the latter turned out to be a solution to the former as she narrowly managed to catch a her sized chunk coming her way in her shadow hand, and then proceed to use it as a flotation device preventing her from plummeting down into the abyss below. She only got to cling to it for a few moments to catch her breath however, before she was forced to hurl herself off of it and to another bridge splinter to avoid being laser beamed. Then again to another. And another.

It was, then, something of a relief to end that song and dance by being sucked into their foe, at least after the futile screaming plunge into the vacuum had come to an end, and Sandalphon got an idea of where they were and what they could do.

”Alright” Minda replied, before pausing to block one of the purple lances with her shadow hand, and then continuing ”I’ve already ripped out one heart today, what’s one more?”

That was easier said than done however, especially because when she tried to open a portal to summon minion reinforcements, she couldn't find a link back to her own realm, just as she had failed to do so in the Astral Plane.

”Looks like you are replacing the other thing for now” she told the Legion core she was still holding in her hand, before re-linking her astral chain to it, and summoning the beast legion being beneath her. Mounting it as she so often did her wolfos.

She did this in near perfect sync with the core summoning its own reinforcements.

”Alright, let’s clear them out!” she declared upon taking in the masses, as she prepared to do what she did best: taking out the chaff.

Astride her beast legion she charged forwards, lance in hand, skewering one of the wireframes upon its tip, before pulling it closer with a yank and ripping its faceless head apart with two dragon claw swipes. It shattered into sprues, freeing her legion up to pounce on the next, knocking it down to give her a free stab right through the skull.

Those two loners were something of an exception to their duplicates’ fighting style however, as several more of the wireframes massed up and came at her as a gang, fists at the ready. So out came the shadow hand, and down went powerful ground pounds and slaps, sending wireframes flying or pulping them against the strange white ground.

Just as she had finished making wireframe pancakes, wires of purple circuitry forming on the ground below her, stretching out from the core, helpful reminded her of its existence. Not wanting to stand on whatever that was for any longer than needed, the princess spurred her astral beast to leap back, the legion doing so just in time to prevent them from being skewered by massive spikes spearing up from the ground.

”Awww, you want my attention?” she asked the core with faux sweetness as she turned on it, before raising up her shadow hand and starting to form a twilight volleybomb ”Then you’ve got it!”

She’d observed the squads of wireframes forming protective shield walls in front of it, but this held no concern for her as she let her volleybomb fly, spiking it down directly into them. The meters wide orb smoothly phased through shield, wireframe and then half way into the ground before detonating, scattering the defending wireframes and exposing the core.

She slashed a wide angle energy blast towards it using her lance, and then pivoted to charge another group of wireframes, crashing right into the center of them before winding a dark energy field and having her beast legion leap between their stunned forms, executing them en-mass with precision throat bites.

With her keeping the enemy minion population culled nice and low, she hoped others who where better at taking down singular foes would be able to focus 100% on heart ripping duty.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 2,354 (+3)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (144/140)
Bowser Jr: Level 13 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (162/130)
Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (141/120)
Rika: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (125/80)

& Level 11 Sectonia (holding 5 level up) - (77/110)

Location: The Under - Dirtmouth


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

”Still pretty weird” Jr concluded.

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

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

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

wordcount: 1,579 (3+)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (72/100)
Location: Arahabaki
Warp Charges: 1


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

??? — Unknown Town


“This world isn’t mine either. You have a working sky for one” Rayne confirmed, before also confirming that “and no, I wasn’t asked” before adding “If I was I would have asked the goddess to wait a few seconds before I could replace our own one. I’m… not sure how my world is doing without someone keeping the cycle of life and death going…”

She looked visibly worried for a few moments, biting her lip, eyes turned down, shoulders drawn in, before shaking her head and saying “I guess all we can do is wait, and hope that Lavielle is easier to get in touch with than Gaia is. Or was” forcing herself not to give into her fears. The way the others started talking about their own worlds and places they had in them helped her focus less on hers, at the very least.

Lewa it seemed came from one hosting many different mechanical peoples like himself, ones into which a great spirit had breathed life into, which was pretty familiar, but also not an aspect she wanted to focus on as a result. Instead she focused her mind on trying to imagine a whole world filled with nothing but living machines. Or not machines. Golems? The lack of a specific alternate term was going to mean this kept being confusing for a while, she suspected.

Whatever the case, Rayne thought “that sounds incredible” before thinking for a moment and saying “oh, but, to maybe clear something up, some machines can do things on their own, be alive, sort of. We have machines called golems back in my world, and though they aren't people, they can move and act on their own. Fight, mostly. So that might be where the confusion is coming from. Maybe it would be helpful to know what you call yourself and your siblings? Collectively I mean, like how those matoran you mentioned are, well, matoran, and I’m a halfling and most of the people here are humans… huh, practically everyone else actually” which to her was odd, given how many other people there had been back home, all mingled together.

Where back home. Where. She mentally corrected and insisted to herself.

As for the masked man who introduced himself as Joker, she responded to him by saying “We have cards,” she briefly held up a hand of three translucent blue ones as she said that “but I haven't heard of a joker one before. Nice to meet you all the same” before adding “And, ah, you too Arsene” when he summoned his large spectral companion behind him.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,662 (+3)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (141/140)
Bowser Jr: Level 13 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (159/130)
Kamek: Level 12 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (138/120)
Rika: Level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (122/80)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

”Deal” Bowser replied at once upon hearing that list

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

wordcount: 1,438 (3+) (+6) (+6)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (69/100)
Location: Arahabaki
Warp Charges: 1


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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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