“And so I told her, we don’t sell that kind of truffle but she just wouldn’t-” "-aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!" “-huh?”
Rayne’s retelling of a tale from the happiest and least interesting chapter in her life came to a halt when the interesting times she was currently living in came along and reasserted dominance by taking a boot to the monotonous rhythm she’d gotten into with helping the townsfolk with their scavenging.
And what an interruption it was. It wasn’t every day that you got to see a woman fall out of the sky, let alone find her more or less unharmed when you dashed over to see what was going on.
There was a little moment of tension when the horned person emerged as people, Rayne included, waited to see how this sudden arrival would act, one that was thankfully broken by the awkward greeting and wave the stranger gave them that put them all at ease.
It was enough that Rayne stopped focusing on the distinctive mechanical augments the woman had had done to her head, the equivalent of which she’d seen only once (no, twice now actually with Anne) and took the rest of her in. Other than being generally very pretty the other thing about the rest of her appearance that stood out was her outfit, one that prompted Rayne to to raise her hands to her cheek as she gasped “oh no. She didn’t steal you away on your wedding day did she?” before shaking her head lightly and responding to the situation properly, replying “Hi, hello” (along with her own little wave) to the well, greeting.
As she did so she floated down to hover just above the ground and approached to a distance she deemed close enough to not be standoffish, but not so close that she might worry the stranger with her own strangeness before introducing herself. She did so by tipping her witch hat to the stranger and then saying “I’m Rayne, Witch Knight, and, I hope, a friend” before asking “What’s your name?”
“Representatives, please! There’s no need for all this alarm!” Lilly, secret daughter of Asheel and member of Tricity’s council, called out, attempting to defuse the uproar her clarifications about the nature of the Dominion had caused among her fellow council members.
“Beneath our very feet exists a god chosen civilization ruled by a mind controlling despot, that is most certainly reason for alarm!” retorted a snouter giant in both height and girth as he slammed a fist down onto his sturdily built chair, before pointing a fat finger at Lilly “How do we know you are not compromised right now, and this isn’t some scheme of this ‘Maxima’ you spoke with?”
“How do we know every goblin isn’t compromised?” a young beastkin with the body of a human and head of a tuna added hysterically, jaw flapping at the top of his head while the one eye he was looking at them with wheeled around the room, looking for answers, befre fixing on the closest goblin council member.
“I know my own head you ingrate, and I’ll gut you if you need me to prove I’m not under this peace enforcing princess’ spell” said goblin woman, who had come to the meeting in a set of overalls of all things, and who was the last sitting representative of the greatly diminished miner’s union, bit back at the tuna-kin, before putting one of her boots up on her chair so she could pull a knife from it.
“She’s got her! Assassin! Monarchist assassin!” the tuna-kin shouted in a panic as he rose from his own seat, knocking over his chair, only to fall over it and knock over the representatives who had come to his aid.
It was all Lily could do to hold her face in her hands while her avian companion Seam quietly asked if they were always like this. They were all saved however, when the doors to the chamber were quietly opened, and an aged looking kingfisher wildblood entered the room, his cane and pegleg clacking against the fine stone floor.
The Speaker, a man old as the world, a mortal not from woman born but made by the hands of gods, and thus one of a rare few who could practice the arts of speaking with other’s past lives, took the scene in for a moment. As he did a platypus-goblin attempted to calm the situation, only to be grappled and accused of being mind controlled as well by a muscular croaker, prompting him to try and stab the tuna-kin with his poisoned spurs, at which point the Speaker decided to intervene.
He raised his cane once more, and struck it forcefully into the ground, causing runes on the handle to glow and create a pulse of awe to radiate through the room, while at the same time, he used his actual power to touch every soul found therein for just a moment.
“That is quite enough” the speaker declared, with a voice that, though now withered, still held the command and confidence of a powerful leader. He was, of course, not one, merely a spiritual guide, but still, he brought the council to order and to their senses just long enough for a thankful Lilly to rally a rather simple argument “If she wanted to control everyone and take over, surly she wouldn’t have me tell you what she could do. And especially not that her will could be broken”
“Hmmmmf. Broken by the will of a legendary hero” the large snouter, one Counselor Vontibrath, retorted, clearly unconvinced, though with more of a debative tone now rather than an accusatory one “besides, we had already heard an account of this Dominion from… oh what was that Aardvark-kin’s name?” he snapped his fingers twice, before a pig-kin beast woman whispered something in his ear “ah yes, Desmond. He already told us about how how you, council member, ensnared your companion here while the other goblins held him up and blade and hammer point without a second thought about your prior allegiance”
“Hey, I can vouch for all of this so don’t you dare use me against her” Seam bit back at the big snouter
“Hmm, yes, you say as you wear the gifts of the god who is patron of this land of slaves, a god we may well have misplaced our worship in if he created a land so antithetical to our values” Vontibrath replied in reference to the fancy armor and diamond topped swords Seam had been gifted, prompting several gasps from the more religious among the rest of the council. Only a few however, as Galaxor’s addition to the rota of gods worth veneration was rather recent.
“Galaxor’s worthiness is a topic for another time, but is hardly a reason to distrust Seam” Lilly replied evenly, before pressing forwards with what she hoped would be her winning point “Still, I understand that the council might have difficulty trusting either who’s lives Maxima has touched, which is why I invited the Speaker here”
“Ah, I see it. This Maxima can controle goblins, but you have not always been a goblin, have you, my teacher?” the old bird quietly said as he caught on, despite lacking much of the initial context, before addressing the council at large “If you will allow me just a moment, council members, I shall bring clarity to this situation”
There was some further discussion and a vote on the motion of taking him up on the offer that took a fair bit longer than a moment, but after that, those in their room closed their eyes, followed the Speaker’s steps, and then opened them in a shared vision of sorts. Before them a great serpent-kin, a snake in all but her eyes, one who sat coiled lightly around Lily in a comforting hug rather than a crushing bind, and who spoke in defense of her current life.
“I am here. I am free. I saw all even if could not help when the queen held Lilly’s mind” the serpent-kin said, seemingly ashamed of not being strong enough to intervene, before explaining in her short words that “I saw how god and queen played a twisted game with a hero, threatened to leave him forsworn. Saw too how Lily danced around the queen to prevent that end, and bartered great treasure for home from the god”
The counselors, their own past lives leaning over their shoulders like an ensemble of advisors, nodded along, looking quite relieved, but some, the great snouter Vontibrath Chief among them leaned in with a great deal of interest at hearing one word, and that was “treasure?”
Months in the future, but not many, down in the depths, a wall cracked, and a monster with too many limbs, hardened digging claws and a mouth sloping stone melting acid burst through into a cavern filled with ore, gems and crystals galore. Its arrival was met by a line of armored pike wielding goblins, the miners working this holiest of sites having already long since cleared out after hearing it scratching at the walls.
With a cry of “For the Dominion!” They rushed the beast before it could recover its strength from its digging work, a dozen diamond tipped blades impaling the beast before their owners fell back, and a second row seamlessly charged past them and delivered a second sequence of stabs. These two backed off to get behind a remaining pike wall, preparing slings to continue to contribute to the fight with, but the caution was unwarranted with regards to the beast, reduced to a pincushion, collapsed to the ground.
It was, as it turned out, still warranted however, as no sooner had the beast fallen but 3 figures burst out of the tunnel it had dug. All three were tall and slim, with pointed ears, but that was where their similarities ended. A sea of tawny feathers somehow moving silently on 4 sets of viciously sharp talons that where reinforced with bronze and which starred down the goblins with the massive light drinking eyes of an owl came first, followed by a tower shield carrying humanoid tortoise moving unnaturally fast thanks to the rings carved all over its shell, and a elf with angelic swans wings wielding a glowing trident and covered in shimmering tattoos that hurt to look at.
The shield carrying tortoise-kin immediately put themselves up front, slamming their shield into the ground in a taunt and catching a dozen thrusts and stones upon it as a result while the howling owl started to slip to one side of the pike wall. The goblin commander was no fool however, and she barked two short commands that prompted the wall to start backing up and angling its flank’s pikes after the hulking owl-kin so as to not get flanked by it. A few took jabs at it as it got too close, only to be rebuffed by the most powerful hoot they had ever heard, the sound wave pushing them back with physical force rather despite only momentary deafening them
The third of the bestail figure’s number did not join in this positioning and, rather than attempt to flank the goblins from the other side, the swan-kin called back into the tunnel “someone tell the boss we found the goblins!” before telling the others to “hold you two, hold!” prompting them to back off a few steps.
The goblin commander was quite sure she could take them still despite the unusual abilities they had demonstrated, but she wanted answers rather than blood, and so she was happy to use the space to back up and take an even better defensive position. Once she was situated atop a small ridge and had sent a runner to report the situation with another hyper efficient command, she called down to the beastfolk, demanding to know “Who are you? Who do you serve?” and then regarding the monster they had initially put down “Why are you associating with outer beasts!”
Her answers arrived on cloven hooves that trampled through the blood of the fallen beast, flaked by another such monster, several more beastfolk equally as eclectically armed and armored as the first three, and followed by some kind of plaque that held, of all things, a little garden. “That, is, or was a Chimera made specifically for tunneling. Top of the line and damn expensive” the group’s leader, a certain snouter large of height and girth, informed her as he emerged from the rock dust, lightly brushing it off his fine long coat and tophat, before informing her that “And these fine folks serve me, just as I serve Tricity, and we’re here to stake our fine home’s claim on this god gifted bounty!” as he swept a hand across the caverns the goblin had been protecting
“Any objections?” Vontibrath asked, as yet more beastkin (along with the odd snouter and croaker) peaked out of the freshly breach into the hold site, not a goblin or miner’s union member in sight.
Weeks in the future, but not many, Vontibrath paused in his digging to admire his work. It was a fine patch of land he owned, one he had carefully cultivated only the most fascinating underground plants, all of it growing in soil that had traveled with him from the outskirts of tricity to the heart of its richest district, and now down here into the depths of the world where he might be the first of his kin to stake a claim.
True, it was a touch of a downgrade from his lavish lifestyle up with the movers and shakers on Trictiy’s northside, but his other work made it more than worth it. Setting down his trowel, he stood and looked down from his rooftop garden and out over the burgunning town growing around the entrance to the cave of unlimited bounties. True, there were some hurdles to be found in this new operation. No one made Buggies quite like goblins, and with their banning from the exposition, lest they be compromised by the mind controlling despot they now shared the cave with, they had to rely on newer, more experimental methods of transportation. The only recently tamed Chimeras had resulted in a few unfortunate accidents, it was true, and there had been teething problems with the Runecraft and R’kava modifications made to the miners, but it was all worth it.
With the first outer beast infested and then earthquake collapsed mines restored, and bolstered by the unending ore growth of the cavern, Tricity was once again king of the eastern waterway’s metal trade, and this time it was free from the stranglehold of those dirty unionists. No now it was Vontibrath who had that stranglehold and by Hummus, was he going to milk it for all it was worth.
First thing’s first on his agenda, muscling in on as much of the cave’s bounties as possible. The Dominionites had had a head start after all, it was only fair that they make way for his, or rather Tricity’s, workers for a time. And if that argument never moved back into something more balanced? Well, now wouldn’t that be a damn shame?
Lilly and Seam have finally gotten back to Tricity, and the council is not best pleased by their report that there is a goblin mind control based empire underground. They freak out for a bit, before the Speaker, a first generation kingfisher-kin who can speak to the past lives of others, clears things up.
We are also introduced to the big pig counselor Vontibrath, who proceeds to lead a goblin free expedition down into the underground, and who down there stakes a claim to the city’s promised half of an infinite ore spawning holy site Lilly got out of Galaxor, putting the city properly in contact with the Dominion, and sowing the seeds of future strife.
There is also a small through line about the continued misfortunes of Tricity’s miner’s union, a mostly goblin organization that lost most of its members to the outer beasts, its mines to earthquakes, and now its industry to Vontibrath’s goblin free mining operation. Only time will tell how this will impact the goblins of the city as a whole.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The came a crack as Bowser punched his own shell, causing a spider web of glowing fissures to form upon his armor lighting his load while also increasing his vulnerability to attacks.
”Good, now you can stop taking hits and-” his son began saying, having been the one to advise this change in strategy for the sake of his mana reserved, before being interrupted when the Radiance summoned a ring of white spears and launched them in all directions, prompting the prince to call out a warning of ”-dodge!”
”Huh? Gah!” Bowser replied before half lunging, half stumbling to the side as a spear came right at him, only for its flight to slow down just enough for him to avoid it thanks to Rika ducking in close to protect him with her shot slowing aura.
”Just a bit faster and you’ll be good” she told him encouragingly, before suggesting ”maybe Kamek can have his minions help with that? The green buffing ones” and then wondering ”Wait, where’d he go anyway?” causing all of them to look around in worry for the mage.
Fortunately the brief spike of fear they had was put to bed when they spotted the mage up and to the left, gradually floating his way back towards the battlefield. That fear was then promptly rudely awakened all over again when the Radiance seemed to follow their gaze, and promptly used her next spell on the mage. A string of three glowing homing disk shots were sent flying fourth towards him, each one casually adjusting its trajectory as the mage attempted to float from side to side to avoid them.
”Oh dear” was Kamek’s somewhat understated response to this as the shots grew closer and closer. Then at the last moment he tilted his broom straight down and went into a nosedive, narrowly slipping under the turning arch of the leading shot.
The second, however, smoothly swung down after him and, worse, the first proceeded to do a complete 108 turn so it could also race down after him.
”Well that’s not good” when a now a fair bit more concerned mage who was at risk of plunging down past the hazy cloud barrier surrounded the platform, which he really did not want to dive into without knowing what was down there.
Rather than panic quite yet, the mage waved his wand behind him, conjuring a doppelganger and sent it careening back into one of the chasing shots, only for it to cleave right through the magic construct and continue to race after him.
”Ah. Well. Here goes nothing” the mage declared as he twirled his wand and, mere moments from impacting the clouds, vanished in a puff of his own, before reappearing off on the other side of the arena. He paused there, indecisive, for a full two seconds, which would normally have been disastrous levels of passivity but fortunately the Randince had since transitioned into a vertical lance barrage and so wasn’t ready to target this sitting duck.
Unfortunately, the shots that had been chasing Kamek simply continued to do so. While one vanished into the clouds, never to return, the other two went racing right across the arena, which was very inconvenient for everyone currently raindancing around the falling spears lancing down onto it.
”Incoming from the side!” Rika called out in warning, having been watching Kamek’s chase out of the corner of her eye, before she bunny hopped over the first shot, and then double jumped to avoid both a spear and the second.
Jr was fortunately already out of their path, but Bowser got clipped, toppling to the floor and nearly receiving a lance to the noggin had he not tilted his head to the side just in time to avoid such a fate.
The shots continued on, only to, moments before they struck the dithering Kamek, dissipating into nothing, their power apparently spent.
”Ah, so it was, 2.75 seconds. Noted” he commented, having roughly timed them when they had been chasing after Ganondorf.
Back on the platform, both Jr and Rika helped their papa get back on his feet, but they weren't going to squander the brief opening between attacks by not throwing out their own.
”Bug strike her! Go” Jr commanded, prompting a shower of flukefey strikers, the toothy winged grubs from the home of tear’s sewers, to appear and launch forth to strike into the Radiance like a hail of missiles. They were followed swiftly by Rika’s vespikan queen striker, flanked by a trio of lesser vespikan berzerkers. Together they struck with the cohesion they had had fighting alongside each other in life, 4 large cleavers tenderizing the Radiance before she received a final titanic swing from the vespikan queen.
In response, the Radiance did her best impression of a bug zapper, a shower of beams lancing out from her eyes, scouring several lesser minions from the skies, and striking the Vespikan queen multiple times as said striker stabbed her spear sized venomous stinger to the claver wounds she and her demon worshiping nieces had inflicted upon the divine insect.
Both Jr and Rika stumbled as the feedback damage coming in from the strikers burnt them, but this time Bowser was the one who helped pick them back up as the Radiance blinked away to one side of the arena where she started another volley of lances. Rather than just let her do this again, Bowser dipped into his own bag of striker tricks, summoning Marie Korbel to form a wall of skeletons across that end of the arena. The barricade bent, buckled, and eventually on the third volley shattered under the spear based bombardment, but it was enough to give the troop time to heal up a bit, and the others to do as they will with the moment of respite the former skullgirl had provided.
Kamek for one used it to summon his dopplegangers, not wanting to be the single target for the Radinces shots again thank you very much. Though in a response to a call from Rika, he did convert one of the distractions into a green mage, which proceeded to pop a speed enhancing buff on Bowser. With that added boost, the king finally got the edge he needed to dodge around the last volley of spears, prompting a cheer from his children.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic
Midna blinked in confusion at Nox’s sudden and then her mind went into overdrive as Goldlewis and Sandalphon talked to the man, till right as he blinked away she came to conclusion and acceptance of the fact that ”He just came back from 10 minutes in the future. He already beat us” and wasn’t that a dreadful thing to hear when you were about to throw down all over again.
Yet the man had also just taken himself out of the re-running for the rematch, and in doing so disheartened all but one of his abandoned allies, prompting Midna to declare that ”We can do this” just in time for the Consul to inject himself into the proceedings and forcibly transformed one of the people who he’d brought here when they showed no interest in fighting.
”What is wrong with you?!” she demanded to know, as she launched and caught her Boltok Pistol into two of her free hands, leaving one holding the lance and the other the scruff of her wolf’s neck, keeping her on its back as she sent it straight towards Consul C.
Rather than launch into offense like Karen, the Consul held back, making any movement in his direction obvious. Though his helmet obscured his expression, it was easy to imagine the same smug smile on his face that he'd worn back at the debate the night before last, a poorly-veiled grin that suggested a secret known to nobody else. "The problem is, there's too much in here," C asked as he tapped his helmet, his tone teasingly nonchalant even as the wolf closed in. "'More than one hundred percent pure, unadulterated syrup'. You remember, right?"
”More like 100% nuts!” she sniped back as she closed in, only to spur her wolfos into leaping to the side at the same moment as she prompted her Beast Legion to the other. This put them at about 90 degrees apart as both mounted beast and invisible chimera pounced at Midna’s foe, the princess striking with her lance while the Legion slashed with its claws.
"Ooh, burn! But I've heard better." The combined attack thudded against a magic barrier in the form of a glowing teal smiley face, eyes crossed out and ringed by a ripple of murky darkness. Blocking reduced the combined attack to chip damage. "We can skip the formalities, you know. Why so performative?" C questioned the Twilight Princess. "Aren't you the least bit curious?"
Suddenly, the shield dropped, and C moved forward in a blur. He threw himself into an extremely fast combat roll, occupying not even a full second. Even stranger, his roll seemed to take him directly through Midna and her mount, and when he stood up behind her, he turned around near-instantaneously.
”What?”
He drew his left-hand gun with a flourish that launched Midna off her wolf's back. The instant he readied the pistol, a targeting reticle appeared near Midna, floating in space. It quickly floated toward her like a fairy, and the Consul's barrel traced its path. In two succession he struck her with two light smacks, doing negligible damage but keeping her in hitstun long enough for the reticle to land on her. Then C fired, and it was the shot's turn to juggle her while he wound up a big slug to knock her back a couple feet.
C was prevented from following up by Midna’s beasts darting in to claw and bite at the masked man, interrupting his combo and then attempting to dart away before retaliation, wolf pack style. A few feet away, dragon clawed toes and fingers dug into the ground to slow Midna’s (already slowed by a certain sticker) launch. She was, to her surprise, not that much worse for wares, at least compared to where she would have expected such an oversized hand cannon should have left her.
”That all?” she sneered, before retorting ”Try this on for size” as she whipped her lance up in an arch as she stood, launching a crescent moon shaped projectile at C to keep him on his toes. She finished the swing by letting go of the lance, causing it to fly away and into a portal, before preparing her claws and preparing to charge.
She was prevented from doing so as Mephisto, the man transformed by the Consul (did a thing) and caused clouds (of some kind) to spread across the arena, most inconveniently right on top of where the pair were trying to have their 1 vs 1 (or 3 on 1 really).
Midna hissed in pain through her filter mask that kept her lungs safe but did nothing to protect her exposed skin, and promptly back peddled out of the cloud and away from C, her beasts doing the same to get out of the toxic zone all of them had ended up in.
”Alright, this is going to be a slow one” Midna acknowledged as she tried to require her target through the fields of fog ”So if you wanna talk, then talk. What should I be curious about?”
Another smiley-faced barrier flashed in the haze to intercept Midna's projectile. When it faded, C almost disappeared into the toxic gas, his rabbit-eared helmet faintly visible. It looked like he'd holstered his pistol in order to block, but now he drew it again. "Anything and everything. If this world doesn't tickle your fancy, your life must be terribly dull." Under cover of Mephisto's smoke, he adopted a two handed stance. In an instant his targeting reticle latched onto Midna's the legatus on Midna's arm, the device that allowed her to command her new legion. When the Consul fired with Steady Aim, his shot struck with pinpoint accuracy and enough strength to damage the legatus--or crush Midna's guard if she tried to block. The next second, however, C canceled his stance into order to focus and regain concentration. "Once you've seen the script, you can't unsee it," he muttered, holding his hand to his helmeted face. "But who wouldn't want to sneak a peek? That's just human nature."
Rather than lose her guard or risk her new power Midna blocked the shot with the far more replaceable Boltok Pistol. The unfired gun was blasted both from her hand and into scrap in the same moment, but let both her and her Beast Legion go on the offensive.
”Good thing I’m not human, so your going to have to try harder than that” she replied, both to his ‘offer’ and as a taunt, before sweeping a shadow hand slap through the cloud, kicking up a gust of wind that blew it away in the process. Her legion and wolfos both charged into the clear air, followed a moment later by the princess, all three looking to dart in and take a claw swipe at their foe.
With his face covered, C did not need to avert his gaze when Midna tried to waft away the toxic gas. It wasn't completely effective, and Mephisto would soon replace it, but that didn't concern him. "Technicalities, eh? Well, don't kid yourself." As his foes approached, the Consul hopped backward, casting Scapegoat. Two perfect clones appeared in front of him, both using Steady Aim. Meanwhile he hopped back again, tossing an orb of teal-and-black curse energy at Midna like a basketball. "You're human in every way that matters. Now more than ever. This wouldn't be any fun otherwise."
The words caused Midna to falter for just a step, after all how much of her heritage had she drowned in the spirits of others, but after that moment she decided ”It doesn’t matter. Twili is what I am, heart and soul, and you don’t know what I need” before using the artifact of her people she wore on her head to reach up and pulsing magical power into that hand. Curse and proto vollybomb collide, each annihilating the other
She declared his magical attack ”Cute” before offering ”let me show you mine” before pumping more power into her raised hand, forming it into an orb twice as large as she was tall. As she did so, her wolfos backed off, while she opened portals and blasted accuracy foiling sand forwards at the pair aiming at her.
”How about, instead I tell you my world’s script, repeated all across time: primordial evil rises, takes over, and then heroes rise and take him down. Over and over and over” before she proceed to volleyball spike the magical bomb down on top of all three copies of the Consul, be they real and fake.
The scapegoats didn't shoot, or even move, while Midna rained down sand on them. With his curse orb dispelled, the original just watched his opponent charge up an arcane bomb, reloading his pistol as he did. "Yeah, yeah. I know all about it. I bet you wish you were more of a factor, huh? There's nothing in this universe you, or anyone, can tell me." A moment later the bomb descended, and in the ensuing explosion the scapegoats vanished without a trace. C, however, used a little bit of tension to perform Faultless Defense, negating the chip damage he received while blocking. When the volleybomb's afterglow disappeared, the Consul was standing there in the clearing amidst the toxic smog, no worse for wear. He gave Midna the double finger guns. "That's why I'm so interested in what you humans do. The one thing I can't always extrapolate." He drew his pistol, and the reticle appeared to zero in on his foe once more. "Here's a hint. You won't beat me with pure power. Only by using that one-track mind of yours. You better surprise me!"
Midna hissed between clenched teeth in equal parts frustration, fury and fear as she wondered how in the world she was going to deal with him, only to notice a hint of movement behind C. Hoping it was a friend, she spread her hands out cockily and asked ”Why would I listen to your advice on how to beat you? How about we really test how much power you can handle instead?” before she opened a massive portal behind her, one big she began to pull the Blodia fused mecha wolfos out of as an temporarily enlarged summon, meaning that when it emerged, it would be far grander than the thirty feet tall it had already been. There was however, a reason she had never tried this before, and that was that the mecha wolfos which had been rendered more or less inoperable by its first fight, and thus was presently good for one thing and one thing only.
Being a massive bluff, and an equally massive distraction.
The first thing Rayne did when she got back down was hover over to the wall guards, and gave whoever was incharge of them (or just convenient, depending on how ad-hoc their posting up here was) the lay of the land she’d gotten from up high. No heralds in sight, which meant either they were long gone, or hiding somewhere. Admittedly not the most reassuring news, but at least they knew they weren't mustering for an attack just over the nearest ridge line.
“Plus, if they feel the need to hide, then at least they're scared about us finding them,” she concluded, which was a little boon of hope for all.
After that, well, she wanted to make herself useful, but the first thing she saw getting was the body moving and, she had to admit, she was very much in the squeamish camp on this one. It was, frankly, dreadful to see just how many lives had been lost to senseless violence, and she did include the heralds in that, even if they were to blame for instigating the whole bloody mess.
On a practical level she also wasn’t very well suited to hauling bodies two or more times her size.
She could destroy things fine enough though.
As a result she ended up helping by cutting the none corpse based detritus down into more manageable chunks, summoning runedge and then cleaving it down in two hands to split ruined timber into haul-able sections. Her flight also helped out, letting her float up to the roofs and upper floors of damage building to assess the damage, or even letting her act like a crane via rope tied around her waist which she could then use to haul stuff up and out of tough spots, be it bundles of scrap or buckets or rock or whole items.
While doing this, and between calling out reports from her elevated position, Rayne got plenty of time for small talk that would have been a lot more inappropriate had she been body hauling, picking up bits and pieces of info about the world as she did, and distracting others from the previous days with the tall tales of her adventures and strange home world. She ended up learning a whole lot about farming as a result, which others might have considered a bit worthless, but given that she and her husband had been mushroom farmers in between the two world ending disasters that had befallen their world, that was business as usual for her.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
After the Troop stepped away from brawling with the knight, the rest of the team stepped in, leaving the troop to mostly keep out of the way while Kamek watched and waited for his time to strike usng the dreamcatcher. This was easier said than done in the, rather cramped when it came down to it, boss arena. Bowser did his best to block big cleaves coming their way, while the others were small enough to scurry, leap or float out of the way of incoming harm for the most part.
Once the team had done sufficient amounts of harm of their own, the Organization member who’d sent them to get the dreamcatcher dashed in from the shadows, and immobilized the knight with a giant key.
”Open up, open up, it’s our turn to be the dream team” Kamek chanted as he attempted to improvise how to use the dreamcatcher, and fortunately finding it intuitive enough that in a flash, they were away from the dark dreary egg interior, and in the lumouse realm of dreams.
Then in another flash, their true target was there, a great being of light. Ganondorf wasn’t the only one grimacing at that, as Kamek too found himself squinting behind his specs, something about the being burning away at him as a result of his fusion with Cia. Unlike the king of evil however, he was not at all durable so this was going to get quite dicy if he simply tried to take their foe head on.
So while the others steeled themselves for battle, Kamek did the sensible thing and simply left the boss arena. They’d just had a lesson in how much of an issue a lack of spacing caused within the tight confines of the egg after all, and so if he could avoid being caught by attacks targeted at others, he very much would like to do so.
A wise decision, as it turned out, as the Radiance seemed to prefer indiscriminate amounts of quantity over individually targeted accuracy, unleashing a gauntlet that the rest of the troop had to deal with while Kamek exited stage left.
Rika had the least issue as she bullet jumped between dated sunglasses slowed lances, while also treating the platform like a suggestion. At one point she straight up leapt into the empty air to avoid the wall of light sweeping across the platform, before launching herself up into the air with her feather fall rune and then using both it and aim glid to hang in the air close to the Radiance so she could hammer with her guns.
Disruption cannons stuck magic power reducing globules to the being of light, reducing her damage output, while her grizco blaster splattered her pure white form with shocking or flaming goop, and she spent some of carefully rationed bullets to pepper it with her rifle’s venomous rounds.
Then as the light flared from the Radiance's eyes, she let herself drop down to avoid being blasted away, only to grapple back to the platform. Upon reaching solid ground however, she had to immediately leap once more as spikes stabbed up from the ground, cutting the amount of ground in half.
If Rika was near perfectly suited to dealing with all this, Bowser was distinctly the opposite. The big man was a big target and things started immediately going poorly. He’d got blasted by the wall of light, had lanced rain down on his shell, had energy beams clip his wide form even when he did get between them and had even jabbed in the feet by the floor spikes for good measure. Sure, he was also a tough guy, and shell and steel soled boots meant that things had not been half as bad as if someone else had taken all that, but it still wasn’t good.
Fortunately he had Jr to put that right, at least when the boy wasn’t frantically scampering to and fro to avoid all the stuff that would hurt him a lot more than it would his papa anyway. As team healer he had his work cut out for him already, but if there was one benefit to the spikes coming up and shrinking the arena it was that almost everyone was within 15 yards of himself, which meant than when he called out ”Medica” nearly every seeker got a nice bust of healing from the prince’s circular cure spell.
While doing both that, and running about, the prince had generated quite the collection of floating sears and darts, which he took the moment after the melee fighters had taken their swings to unleash. He was not alone in this, Bowser too blasting back at their magical foe, though his choice of using his flash cannons, based on the fact that all the light made them very easy to charge, was perhaps not his best choice of armament.
”It’s like fighting fire with fire, right?” he replied when Jr questioned this choice.
He wasn’t the only to hit the Radiance with light as it turned out, however Kamek’s light was also joined by fire, physical, blight, frost, and electric damage all at once as he unleashed a cosmic spray to test their foes defenses and to try and sniff out a weakness. However, disappointingly, there was none to be found in that smorgasbord of elements, leading him to hope that perhaps the antithesis to this being of light would work better.
Be it in retaliation to this bombardment or simply her next move, the Radiance proceed shot back, forming more spears, but this time doing so at the edge of the arena from which she launched them across it in waves. Doing so forced those upon it to jump and dodge, yes, but it also had the added benefit of being able to target the fliers as the spikes kept going beyond the platform’s bounds, soaring onwards and outwards towards them.
Kamek had little issue with the first wave due to the amount of prep time he had, but the second coming so close to the first was quite the issue. He had to back off to try and gain more maneuvering time, pushing him further and further from the battlefield till he managed to get above the wave and only then started traveling back to it.
Back on it, a rather frustrated and worried about having to burn through so much mana to keep his Papa healthy prince managed to convince his papa to ditch all of his size boosting magic, which at a bear minimum gave them all more room to maneuver without having to worry about the third set of spikes that was the king’s back.
Rika immediately dropped into that new space and together the three prepared for whatever the Radiance was going to throw at them next, while Jr tried to come up with a plan to coordinate their own strikes better than they just had.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic
Fire rained upon Nox from the side and above as Midna, four hands glowing with draconic claws, charged the Watchmaker, alongside her Beast Legion. With all four of them working together they could strike around the shield, covering each other even if they did get frozen. They could beat him down, get revenge, move on to the smug snake of a swordsman.
Or at least that is what the princess had been thinking.
Then, in an eyeblink, Nox was gone, and there was an immense stabbing pain in her gut. The princess dropped to her knees and doubled over in agony and in doing so bore witness to her death, as blood seeped out from the edges of where a sword was buried in her stomach. It was a deceptively small amount for the carnage that had been wrought on her stomach, yet despite this she couldn’t make her body move. Likely something to do with how the tip of the blade was sticking out the back of her spine
It was without a doubt a lethal blow, but one that gave the paralyzed princess a handful of seconds of life as her vitality drained from her veins and into her digestive tract.
Rather than the sorrow she and hesitation caused by other’s death, rather than visions of her life or loved ones, Minda’s own impending one mainly filled her with rage. Or perhaps it simply caused the rage she had already had to boil over. She screamed with fury as she poured everything she had into the fragment of the fused shadow she wore, tendrils of orange energy engulfing her body as she rose up on a dozen limbs… but for all that power, none of it was going to put the ruins of her stomach back together. Halfway through forming the final smash, the monster's shape forming around her buckled, and then simply impotently collapsed, Midna’s spirit and ashes drifting to the floor.
As Nox had predicted, taking the head of the beastmaster slew her two limbs, though not quite at the same pace. The Beast Legion simply returned to its core, rendered inoperable by the loss of the holder of its chain. Meanwhile the twilight flygon, unable to return to that realm without the princess’ magic withered before any observer’s eyes, becoming deathly pale as the very nature of the light world terminally sickened the creature of shadow, causing it to fall out of the sky and crash into the ground.
Still, the princess’ death was not without consequence, for though her own attempt at revenge had been foiled, the collapsed flyon’s had been entirely automatic. When the lethal blow had been struck, the cactus dragon had practically exploded, unleashing a cloud of spikes and needles which all swung through the air towards Nox and hailed down upon his location.
Whatever the result of that was, it was the last thing the loyal beast saw before Artificial Gravity it had not the strength to even try and avoid went off, and it too was wiped from the face of this world of light.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic
”Goldlewis!” Midna cried out in alarm and horror, arm stretched out towards the agent as she raced towards him, shadow hand outstretched and grabbing onto his leg in an echo of how she had saved him from plummeting off of the bridge. Unlike the momentum of the blow that had sent him towards that pit, upon the frozen time her attempt to pull him away from danger had 0 impact, and before she could react to that failure it was too late.
The man turned to ash that slipped through her fingers, the princess giving a soft ”no..” as her outstretched hand dropped to the ground tandem with the man’s spirit hitting the floor.
She was stunned enough by her failure that the rest of the seekers got moving before she could, most notable among them a screaming with rage Geralt, who rained fire down on Nox, prompting Midna to flinch away despite the well aimed shots not having any risk of hitting her. Then, before she could try and strike him, Nox teleported past her to take Geralt on in close combat, which his new form did not seem suited for.
In that moment, she could have gone after the guardian, fought against or backed up anyone else, but Midna’s one visible eye was locked on Goldlewis’s killer, and it was that more than anything that sent her to back him Geralt, despite Sandalphon appearing to do the same. As it turned out, she closed in just after Sandalphon blinked away anyway, rendering her intervention rather timely.
Unfortunately she could not keep mer mouth shut, and so if her wolfo’s paws and claws pattering over the ground didn’t give her rear charge away to Nox, her cry of ”Die you monster!” certainly did.
She rammed her lance forwards, only for the masked man’s gaze to snap to meet her own, and his shield to jolt perfectly in position to catch her weapon. Knowing what that would cause, she punched her lance from below with a secondary arm to knock it off course, missing both man and shield as a result.
Her wolfos, however, did not have the brains to put two and two together, and promptly pounced, striking Nox with its claws and aiming to do the same with its jaws, only to get taped by the bottom rim of shield on the head, freezing both steed and rider in time in the midst of a too late ”N-” from the princess.
Then, with a clinical flick of his wrist, Nox sliced a blade of energy straight through the beast’s skull.
Ironically the shield itself was the only reason Midna did not receive the same fate, as the wolfos having slipped under its guard left Midna right in front of it. Thus, the time it took for him to move it aside in order to target her, two things hit him.
The first was a fireball courtesy of Geralt, because it wasn’t like Nox’s original target had gone anywhere. The second was a pounce from Midna’s Beast Legion, the vague blur having been hard to pick up on in the midst of all of the pyrotechnics going on on the battlefield. Both knocked Nox off balance enough for his time stop of Midna to time out.
”-O!” Midna finished her interrupted command, only for it to be immediately followed by a confused ”what?” as she fell to the ground amongst the ashes of her Wolfos.
She blinked once and then scrambled backwards, dropping her lance to six limb scuttle clear of Nox’s attempt to finish the job despite the distractions with another energy slash that scored a deep groove in the floor right between her legs.
The Beast Legion darted in to claw at Nox while he was off guard, giving Minda enough time to summon her Flygon, and then use its bulk to ward her as she pulled herself first into a crouch, and then pushed herself back to her feet.
”Cover whoever he goes for. Don’t touch the shield, don’t up like the other thi-” Minda choked on unwanted sorrow, and then fought off the sense loss she did not want to feel, but not to adjust her the way she referred to her fallen wolfos to ”-like them”
The former wolfos nodded just a fraction and with a flap of its wings took to the skies, leaving her on her own again.
But not really.
With Minda on one side of Nox, the Beast Legion on the opposite side, and Geralt having a clear firing line between them with Flygon moving to defensively circle overhead, ready to swoop or rain dragon breath to assist, really it was Nox who was on his own.
They just had to play this smart, Midna thought to herself, yet that little boost of hope was smothered as, in her peripheral vision she caught the sight of Roxas’s ash joining that had already spilled on the floor. His fate basked in the light of what had to be a final smash from Sandalph, only for it to be blocked out as beads of tears formed at the edges of her eyes.
Hanging in the air above the village, Rayne just took a little moment to close her eyes, relax, and experience the sky for all its serene glory. To breathe the untainted surface air, feel the breeze wisp through her hair, feel the touch of the sun on her skin. Then the moment ended as her mind reminded her as to why she was here, and she opened her eyes again to keep them peeled for danger.
First thing’s first, she figured out where the Raven Heralds had run off in the direction of, which revealed no sign of them, mostly because of any kind of road they might have used to travel. Well, other than the hole in the wall they had punched in-order to break into the town.
Indeed there wasn’t much indication of anything else around, other than the picturesque landscape which Rayne was very much enjoying. She’d once signed up to fight a war to protect nature after all (even if she hadn’t ended up fighting it) and it was heartening to see it doing so well in this world. Out here on the frontier anyway. She had to wonder how built up things were, however far back along the dirt road the heart of Riltaea was situated.
“Guess they could be hiding in the woods” she mused, but they’d likely run into the other heroes of the town if they tried to come back that way, which while concerning in its own way, meant that they’d have advanced warning of some kind.
Either way, having got a lay of the land, and made sure that there wasn’t another attack streaming over the plains towards them, she felt confident that she could go back down a bit. Focus more on the village, see what they were up to and if she could help out somehow. Mushroom farming and magical firepower might not be the most applicable skills to a rebuilding effort, but she could probably do something.
Or, well, help bury corpses. Both the Heralds and the Heroes had doubtless left a lot of those strewn around.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”COWARD! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN STOMP YOU” Bowser roared after the absconded F, but it was no use, he wasn’t coming back.
Jr more quietly agreed with his father’s sentiment ”I know this makes it easier for us, but it feels bad to let him get away with this” while Kamek pondered ”It’s strange, he was quite formidable when I tried to take him on. With his ability to reverse time I find it odd he would not even try”
He then had a thought, and proceeded to retrieve and flick through Robin Goodfellow’s tome to see if it had any information on why he might have done so. Unfortunately, unlike the previous owner of the book, F’s entry was rather short.
Robin Goodfellow A trickster straight out of a comedy play, Robin Goodfellow may have once been good-natured. However, when he discovered the play from which he was created, the nature of his existence broke his spirit and turned him cruel and bitter towards humanity.
The incarnation of theatrics, mankind's dedication to the art of theatre and storytelling has birthed Robin Goodfellow. Unlike other Archangels, his manifested form has a singular defined origin - the play Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.
As an Egregore summoned by the Stagmer-line, Robin is a composite being created by the accumulated thoughts, dreams, and desires of humanity, for good or evil. His random magic tricks allow him to help or hinder as he pleases, but once self-aware his chief pastime became trapping sufferers in dreams, the greatest deception of all, to which he ascribed a noble, even vicarious purpose
F One of the twenty-six members of Moebius who operate throughout the World of Light as its Consuls. His true identity is unknown. Being utterly above consequence, he is a malevolent manipulator who delights in the suffering of others, if for no other reason than assuaging his own boredom
”Hmmf, so they can keep secrets even from you. Let us hope you are more useful when we get to dealing with the Guardian then, hmmm” Kamek said to the book, before snapping it shut.
Out of all of the troop, Rika was the only one unconcerned with the runaway Consul, as she was instead distracted by shiny things, namely the pile of items that had once constituted Omari’s inventory, commenting ”wow, look at all these knives he had on him” about its contents.
- Shiny Knife: A shiny new knife. You can see your reflection in the blade.
- Foe Facts! Journal: Omori uses this to record any enemies he's faced so far.
- Tulip Hairstick: Plain, simple, and bulbous. Increases health a decent amount.
- Machete and Pistol: Two piratical weapons bound together. The machete is short and broad, deal unremarkable slash damage while the pistol is a flintlock, with short range, high recoil, and deceptively big damage. However, the pistol is empty and does not accept ammunition. The only way to load it is by landing two subsequent hits with the machete. They share durability and upgrades.
- Dance Instructions: While it looks like a classic treasure map at first glance, this scraw of yellowed paper is actually a step-by-step process by which one might, in theory, ‘do the monkey’.
- Cockatiel Bobblehead: A cute locker ornament owned by a young sailor who wanted a parrot of his own. The merry jig it dances once slapped can bring a smile to even the most world-weary face.
- Endless Summer Life Preserver: (x2) Bearing the name of some long-gone craft, this buoyant inner tube can keep one afloat even on a stormy sea.
- Revolver: A renowned gunblade. What it lacks in power, it more than makes up for with its reliability. Despite its name, it cannot be used as an actual gun, meaning it does not fire projectiles, and can therefore only be used in melee combat. Triggering a round in the gun chamber sends a shock wave through the blade, increasing its damage potential, but the timing required is hard to learn, which is why it takes years to master wielding a gunblade.
- Serrated Knife: A large dagger most infamously wielded by General RAAM of the Locust Horde. Although it is a knife in the hands of RAAM, by human standards, it is a short sword.
- Boltok Pistol: The standard-issue sidearm of the Locust. a high-caliber, double-action revolver with a 6-round capacity, a side swing chamber, and an enclosed hammer. It is heavy, slow to fire, but does unequivocally more damage per shot and has exceptional stopping power.
- Boxing Glove: A gun that shoots a limited-range boxing glove with a chance to stun. Each time it kills an enemy, it gains a star up to 3 stars. When at 3 stars, it can be charged to consume the stars and fire a high-damage super punch.
The ship girl had crouched down to look at all these, and while at it promptly flicked the little Cockatiel Bobblehead, who’s dance she found very amusing. Indeed despite how inappropriate it was to have it be dancing over a child’s grave, it was simply too merry a jig, resulting in a slight bit of mood raising all round.
Enough for the others to approach and inspect the items at least. Or rather at Kamek’s insistence, move them, so he could sweep the ash into a pile and then have some Toadies build a small cairn over it, along with one for all the other fallen Seekers (and Undyne). A bit of respect that made deciding what to do with the spirits and items feel a little less like grave robbing.
In the end, Jr ended up finding himself slipping the tulip hairpin sideways into his topknot, before fusing both Undyne and Omari into his right arm in a bout of sentimentality. Both had deserved better. Nocturne might have also deserved better, but having never actually met her, there was little sentimentality to be found, and she was promptly crushed into an item.
Notable spirits consumed: Undyne and Omori (Right arm) The scales on Junior's right arm turn a bit more blue, but then the colors on his arm got more muted overall. It has some light piece of metal armor strapped around the forearm and bicep, as well as a light gauntlet and shoulder plate. The minor personality changes cancel each other out. These spirits confer the Strengths Lance Aptitude (which includes both wielding and throwing proficiencies) and Emotions, which affect his stats a little based on his emotions: angry (+attack/-defense), happy (+speed/-accuracy), sad (+defense/-speed). These spirits also confer the Weaknesses Worse Depth Perception and Spider/Drowning Phobia
New item obtained: Volt Gun A rather heavy pistol that can essentially fire electric bolts. Their damage is okay, but they can build up stagger quickly and even apply paralysis, as well as trigger electric elemental reactions. While this gun can't run out of power its fire rate is very slow, one shot every five seconds, and the bolts' travel time means they can be dodged
The results of the fusion were nothing flashy, though they did result in jr turning down a replacement mount upon having a rather adverse response to a proposed spider steed, and a slight red glow when he got annoyed at his new irrational fear of the multi legged creepy crawlies.
The volt gun was promptly stashed, along with everything else that wasn’t claimed, and with that they were ready to move on and face the final boss of the area. Well. Almost ready
Kamek level up:
Beast inside (Tigren Sourceress + Devan Shell): augment’s Kamek’s devil form, granting it the claws, fangs and agility of a Dire Panther, allowing for melee attacks as well as a pounce attack mid ranged, which lands the user behind their foe, facing their back and in a defensive posture.
Rika Level up:
Denting Blows(Vi): If Rika can land a series of 3 punches (vault breakers included) on a target within 4 seconds of each other, the third blow will be empowered. This third blow deals extra damage equivalent to 15% of the enemies max hp (though there is a hard cap of 3 punches worth of extra damage, and armor/defense still reduces the damage), as well as increasing her attack speed by 60% and reducing enemy armor by 20% (both for 4 seconds). The effects do not stack, but can have their durations refreshed, and the third blow procs her Hexed-teched weakness, disabling the fist that deals the third blow for 2 seconds.
Jr level up:
Monster metal (Vespikan Ferromancer/Undyne): via a combination of the Ferromancer and Undyne’s magic, Jr can now produce magic infused iron, as long as it comes in the form of spikes and spears. As well as giving it the ability to better harm foes with physical resistance (such as ghosts), it also lets the summoned objects still be manipulated even once they are no longer in contact with his body. They can either float close to Jr to be later launched at targets, or can have their trajectory altered once while in flight, letting the shots re-adjust if they miss, rain down from above when shot over a target, spike up after being launched under, or even orbit around the foe inorder to shoot them in the back.
They also had to open up the seal, a task easily done, though the result certainly was dramatic, followed by a dark and daunting traversal through a gloomily lit corridor, which had Bowser agreeing with Nadia that ”Yeah, definitely building some good tension here”
The area’s bosses chamber was certainly getting a good rating, as the payoff of the heavily chained Hollow Knight and its dramatic escape from its bindings right when they appeared was a nice capping off for the presentation, at least in Bowser’s books.
”Now this is more like it, none of that sad sack of a beach baloney. Let’s rumble big guy” Bowser said, smacking a fist into a palm as he prepared to go toe to toe with the towering foe, each punch reducing that height difference as he enlarged himself as much as he could.
”Less commentary, more taking it down” Kamek insisted, before belated adding ”If you please sire” only for the Hollow Knight to seized the initiative and lunge across half the arena while thrusting its blade towards the king.
The king had barely a moment to bring his guard up, the blade ramming clean into and out the other side of his forearm, but stopping before it reached his chest. In response to this blow there came twin cries of ‘Papa!’ from both Rika and Jr who had been flanking their father, and who both now came to his defense, starting with Jr unleashing a barrage of spears he’d prepped and had floating with him, the blades thunking into the knight even as the prince himself raised his staff to heal his father.
Rika meanwhile went in, fists at the ready, slamming into the knight’s chest with a vaultbreaker to drive it back, and forcing it to extract its blade from her father, before driving her other fist into one of its legs upon landing and then, when the first gauntlet came back online landing a third strike for good measure. That third strike was accompanied by a flash of light and a crack as jagged glowing orange lines formed on the hollow knight’s armor, briefly weakening its defense.
She went in for a fourth punch, only for the knight to have gotten wise to this gnat smacking it, preemptively blocking this next predictable strike with its nail, and then retaliating with a massive slash that sent Rika tumbling back.
A freshly healed Bowser was right there to take over however, declaring ”Now you’re gonna pay” as he full charged the knight on all fours, goreing it with his tusks and launching him up into the air, putting him in prime position to be blasted by Kamek, who, alongside 4 clones, all shot the predictably arcing knight with a Volt Gun each, overcoming its shoddy fire rate with volume of fire.
Briefly staggered by a combination of the bolts and a bad landing, the hollow knight was then assailed by all three of the Troop’s royals at once. Both Rika and Jr (in the form of Undyne) stabbed their spears into it from either side, skewering it, before Bowser came in last to deliver a healthy punch that messily ripped the Hollow Knight off of the impalement and slammed it back into a wall.
Infection dripped from the wounded knight’s guts as it pushed itself away from the wall, but rather than weakening it, all the damage they had done seemed instead to have empowered the Hollow Knight, for while it had moved slowly in between actions before, now it seemed more alert. Or perhaps, more easily compelled to move.
It also pulled out a few new tricks while it was at it.
First it teleported into the air before slamming right back down to the ground with meteoric force, causing columns of infected fire to burst up from the ground around the impact site, blasting the Troop back and away. Then it opened its cloak, revealing its infection dripping wounds in full, out of which globs of infection lept in a barrage of blight, furthur scattering the troop who did not want to get in contact with that one bit.
”I don’t understand, if this is the source of the infection why is only using the infection now that we’ve caused it to leak out” Kamek asked no one particular, and then, remembering he had a source of answers that he had intended to use anyway before them getting targeted first rather distracted him, put the lighting gun away and asked his book.
The Hollow Knight A fully-grown vessel created and trained for the purpose of sealing the Infection and saving the underground kingdom. To harbor such a virulent plague and keep it sealed within, absolute emptiness was required, but in the course of its upbringing the vessel's purity became tainted by its bond with its creator. When the time came for the vessel to fulfill its destiny, it failed to contain the Infection completely, ensuring that one day the plague would rise again
No trace of the original vessel remains except a powerful urge to kill the infection, even within itself. Its nail is ancient, but every bit as deadly as the day it was forged. Deep within lurks a virulent hatred of all living things, but no matter how deep the vessel's nail sinks, it will never reach the source
”Oh… oh dear” Kamek muttered, before calling out a warning ”The Knight is just another level of the seal! A living prison! If we kill it, the real source of the infection may well get out” before remembering what they’d been told they needed.
”Ah. That is why we need the dream catcher? To… enter its dreams? Akin to what Robin did to us? Is that where the infection is? In its… mind? Its soul?” He wondered out loud, as the Troop grouped up defensively around him, opening the way for someone else to take over. ”I dearly wish we’d had a better explanation” the mage complained as he put away the book, and instead brought out the staff they had retrieved from the prison, holding it aloft.
Nothing happened
”So what do we do? Weaken it? Will that make it work?” jr asked, having turned off the Undyne recording so he could heal them all.
”Something like that?” Kamek replied with uncertainty, before deciding the best they could do was ”Put it down, but not out!”
wintersoldier
Snowdrops
LG
Lord Zee
Timemaster
Damycles
Izurich
Villamvihar
FunnierPrez
