Lugubrious

World of Light

@Lugubrious So one time use correct? (I wonder if Laharl's skin would have become crystalline if he'd taken it's strength?)

@Dark Cloud

Correct.

World of Light

@Lugubrious So I'll crush Kelvin's spirit instead.

@Dark Cloud

I realized that's what you wanted from your first post, I just didn't happen to do it in that one hour. Here:

You have acquired:
Whispering Ice
A grenade that lays down several mines which burst into large icicles when an enemy comes close, or after a set amount of time.

World of Light

I don't think anyone else has claimed him, and since you wrote your previous action mistakenly, it can be edited to claim Kelvin's if you like.

World of Light

@Lugubrious Laharl also went to smash a Wendigo spirit fyi.

@Dark Cloud

They didn't drop spirits. Killing a Wendigo's body just frees the ghost to lurk around the mountain, waiting to possess and mutate a human who consumes another's flesh. So, the only actionable spirit gained from that fight is Kelvin's. In order to truly destroy a Wendigo and get its spirit you'd need something that can destroy ghosts.

World of Light

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Location: Sandswept Sky - Inner-Mountain
Level 9 Tora (132/90) Level 9 Poppi (132/90) Level 5 Big Band (70/50)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Yoshitsune and Sora’s @Rockin Strings, Laharl’s @Dark Cloud, Raz’s @TruthHurts22
Word Count: 1984

While Tora stumbled for a moment over Midna’s word choice, not knowing what she referred to as ‘bat-things’ and wondering if she ran into her own monster problem up on the frozen ship, he spared no effort in his complaints about the Wendigo. “Meh, meh, meh! That freakypon was absolute menace!” he confirmed. “Ridiculous speed, claws sharp enough to slice ether-alloy like butter, and even though it butt naked, it stupid hard to damage!”

“It very lucky we discover fire weakness so fast,” Poppi murmured, her tone suggesting that she’d given thorough consideration to what might have happened had they not made such an expedient breakthrough.

Primrose brought up the creatures’ abnormal deaths as well, which out of everything probably sat with Tora the worst. Since coming to the World of Light, the longest-serving team members had grown accustomed to its laws, relying on little they knew to make sense of everything else. Like the spirits that still puzzled Therion, for instance. The fact that some enemies disobeyed those laws was a profoundly worrisome one, and if Sectonia’s theory held water, it would take a lot more work to put the Wendigo down for good.

“Man,” Mona groaned. “It just had to happen right when half of us split off, too. Either we’ve got majorly bad luck, or this world is actually conspiring against us.” Poppi couldn’t help but agree; out of everyone who got hurt, Therion wasn’t among them, so the team couldn’t even free his gleaming heart.

“Damn flares,” the Scout cursed, eager to deflect any blame that might be headed his way. “Deep Rock seriously needs to invest in some better equipment.”

The thought of his allies getting assassinated while he’d been powerless to help shook even the typically stolid Fox. “We must be more careful about when we split up.”

“For real…”

Other than that brief spark of conversation, the ascent was a muted one, as if the weight of the mountain and settled upon them and brokered a solemn silence. The lift raised the band of heroes to dizzying heights, albeit slowly, and while the team’s gliders meant that a fall wouldn’t be fatal, nobody wanted this ordeal to last a second longer than it had to. While Sectonia’s aura continued to balm their wounds, it was hard for anyone to feel good about the skirmish in the dark, even the chipper and optimistic ones. At the very least they could appreciate the total lack of allied casualties, since the more experienced and jaded among their number knew just how quickly death could take the unprepared, and even the likes of Tora had known the loss of a companion. Even without permanent losses, however, the encounter left its mark, and not just in the blood of comrades forced to retreat.

For the greatest foe that stood between the Seekers and their objective was no frosty giant or slavering ghoul; it was the mountain itself. Every minute that passed, the cold burrowed a little deeper into their bodies. It crept a little closer to their cores, the mountain’s icy grip tightening its grip, little by little. The heroes shivered as the elevator brought them onward and upward, really feeling the cavern’s terrible chill now that the blood-pumping action was over. If it hadn’t been obvious before, it was dawning on them now: this trek had become a battle of attrition, against a foe they could not fight.

Tora’s teeth chattered as he tried to snuggle closer to his companion for warmth, but the roasty-toastiness he sought was not forthcoming. “Poppi, what gives? Why turn down heat, meh?”

It was a moment before the artificial blade replied, her expression serious. “At previous heat level, energy usage outpace ether intake by unsustainable margin,” she murmured. “Ether furnace not operating at full capacity in such extreme conditions. Unless lift drop us off right in front of boss, it only get worse, too. Poppi need conserve ether.”

“O-oh,” Tora fretted. “W-well, we at least in holding pattern, yes?”

Rather than look at him, Poppi stared upward. She watched Big Band’s rocket peter out as he came to a stop over a stone ledge high above, which he proceeded to land on safely. Then, in a low voice, she said, “Unfortunately, Poppi still currently operating at loss.”

A few minutes later, the lift came to a stop at the top of the immense cavern. It came to a rest in the middle of a web of wooden platforms and scaffolding, which also housed the suitably gigantic pulley mechanism for the lift, but the main point of interest was the way out. Two very heavy wooden doors sat at the end of a carved stone passage, the way dark thanks to lightless braziers but otherwise featureless.

Big Band did not look happy. As the brass behemoth shivered, his components let out a subdued symphony of clicks, creaks, and honks. “My regulators ain’t built for this crap,” he informed the others. “An’ the part of me that’s still human’s fixin’ to freeze solid. ‘Course, I don’t suppose any a you bunch are doin’ any better.” When he respired, his instruments gave voice to his uneven gasps, letting off puffs of steamy breath.

“Oxygen’s definitely thinner up here,” Necronomicon warned, before making a quick pivot into a positive spin on the situation. “On the plus side, that means we made a lot of progress.”

Standing near Poppi for whatever heat he could glean, the Scout grumbled, “I’d ‘ope so. We were roidin’ that thing for a bloody long time.”

“Then our mission is nearly complete!” Braum laughed, though even the impressively cold-resistant Freljordan had begun to shiver. He stepped forward to clap a hand on Band’s shoulder. “Come, friend, let us get this door open for everyone!” The detective joined him, and the two put their strength to the task.

It proved to be no easy feat however, as a pressure on the other side of the doors demanded more than a little strength. The reason why became clear as soon as Braum and Band succeeded, for as they finally threw open the doors a mass of bitterly cold wind struck the heroes like a giant, invisible bludgeon. They stepped out into the elements to find themselves near the top of a lesser peak, joined to the main mountain it grew from like a tumor by a snow-covered stone bridge that led between high walls.

Try as he might to get a good view from the bridge, and find encouragement in seeing just how far he’d come, Tora could see nothing through the wintry haze that enveloped the mountain. Only dark stone and white powder awaited him no matter where he looked, although some of the outcrops looked very much like giant faces or even full figures, and way off to one side, across a vast span of emptiness, he thought he saw the outline of a distant structure a bit lower down. Unwilling to give up any progress for the sake of curiosity-driven exploration, Tora hopped down from Poppi’s arms to help lead the team on the path laid out before them, across the bridge and toward the opening between the walls Theoretically the existence of man-made structures offered some comfort, a hint of control amidst the chaos, but practically it was just more frozen rock. They could only hope to find shelter in whatever structure lay beyond them. At least nobody had to worry about the possibility of the wind blowing them off the bridge, since it came at a fortuitous angle. In a silent, focused procession, like pilgrims bound for sanctuary the Seekers marched up the stairs. In like manner they passed through the grand gateway, to where the last leg of their journey began.

Stage Four - Graveyard of the Peaks

Tora blinked, stupefied. No haven or structure of any kind stood before him. Only snow. A breathtaking field of snow at a very appreciable incline, unbroken except for an untold number of small stone rods, chewed up by the biting wind. The horrible thought struck him that those meager stakes, devoid of inscription or ornamentation, must be tombstones–all that remained to mark the final resting places of climbers that came before. He couldn’t tell how many were scattered about, for they extended as far as his vision did into the snowstorm that blanketed the mountainside, obscuring all but the radiance that shone through the split peak, still so heart-rendingly far away. And though no buildings stood beyond these walls, they served the purpose of protection nonetheless–protecting the Seekers from the true force of the mountain’s headwind, until right now. It rolled down across the field and into the heroes with staggering force, enough to send anyone who didn’t hunker down in the snow right back through the gateway.

Appalled, Poppi strained her optics for any sign of shelter that could shield her friends from this cruel wind. Instead, she discovered certain woeful shapes beside a few of the stone memorials, frosted over and still as statues. She spotted a naked man in a black iron pot, a sledgehammer clutched tight against his chest, and she saw a little girl curled up behind a drift of snow, where the wind wasn’t quite so punishing. Then Poppi stopped searching.

It would take anyone a few moments to come to grips with such a sight, but the Seekers failed to receive even that. As they took in the Graveyard of the Peaks before them, squinting against the wind and the flurries of snow driven before it, one patch of shadowy whiteness separated itself from the rest. It grew closer and more distinct, until its recognition could fill a number of the onlookers with anger or dread. Tora bristled with anger at the sight of the floating nemesis that appeared before him twice before, the first to set Poppi against him as an enemy and the second to instigate the binary sniper duel that threatened his mission quite unlike any challenge before or sense. It was, without ceremony, Master Hand.

Its voice, a toneless distortion, thrummed through the air. Its every word sent vibrations through the heroes’ bodies, producing the sound that a grimacing Big Band quickly came to loathe as much as Tora and Poppi.

“Seekers of restoration, bravers of extremity. You have traveled far, and but few steps remain. While last night your compatriots trawled the depths of the sea, you now gaze upon the apex of the world, where the end of the land marks the origin of the sky. And though you have done well to come so far, the prize you seek lies beyond your grasp. For the summit stands above all things. By no power of yours will you attain it.”

Master Hand held itself out, palm upward, as if sharing something of vital import. “At this hour, I bring you neither misfortune nor hardship. No enemies to block your path. For none are needed. The cold, the wind, and the mountain are all that you require. Turn back, lest your last breath be drawn among these countless monuments, raising the peak yet higher with your ashen corpse preserved in ice, as with so many before you. And yet, I know you will not. For is it not the mark of a hero to never surrender, but push forever onward, even unto the end?”

The entity snapped, then turned upward, its fingers closing, and without another word disappeared into the storm, leaving the heroes with its ultimatum, the cold, the wind, and the mountain.

Ms Fortune

Location: Carcass Isle - Where All Things Must Come
Level 7 Nadia (61/70)
Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Blazermate’s @Archmage MC, Hat Kid’s @Dawnrider, Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy
Word Count: 1904

Stunlocked and muscle-impaired by the lightning that coursed through her vital fluid to the point of steam rising from her electro-charged body, Nadia was in no position to see the fate that befell an overconfident Delsin. Shocked mentally as much as physically by the elemental reaction, in fact, she could barely even hear it, but every one of the feral’s comrades still on his or her feet received the full brunt of the horror. The screams of man and monster alike resounded across the beach, their cries intermingled for a brief but awful instant before Delsin fell silent, and only the stomach-churning sound of the Orphan turning its victim to mulch remained.

Rendered vulnerable by his heart-rending stint aboard the Maw, Link could not take it. An immensity of guilt and anguish fell upon him, and beneath its weight the hero crumbled, stricken by the cries that resounded in his mind. He sagged like a deflated balloon until the Orphan’s tide of lightning crashed into him on the rebound a second later, and though without enough Hydro on (or within) his being to share Nadia’s paralysis, he was brought to his knees by its electrifying power.

Given Link’s legendary reputation, it came as a miracle that the youngest and most inexperienced members of the team fared better. While Kamek flew to safety, weaving between the bolts that fell from heaven to strike the wave below at regular intervals, Junior and Rika risked their necks to save Peach’s, and together the three found refuge upon the rocks. The princess came to with fortuitous speed thanks to the white mages’ treatment, downed rather than knocked out by the Orphan’s brutal backhand, and Blazermate’s sudden arrival sped up her recovery even further. From their vantage point the cluster of survivors could watch Hatty dodge through the thunderstorm with expert precision, so much so that the agile child could even summon her Black Mage between storm fronts to plaster the Orphan with some Lighting of his own. Though the spell contributed but little to the nightmare’s demise, its damage continued to stack over time, while Hatty herself could stay on the move.

At the same time, the loss of both Delsin and Bowser spurred the others forward. Brushing off the jolt that gave him pause Geralt flowed across the black sand like a raging river, his fury tempered into wicked strength. The Orphan of Kos met him with a double-handed diagonal cleave, but the Witcher dodged to the right side, and a burst of flame seared the abomination’s stretched-thin flesh. Beside him Sakura’s flying kick struck home, but it would take more than that to overcome the Orphan’s posture. Burned but not broken, it took a follow-up swing and carried on with a second blow from the other side, a blow that demanded the sacrifice of Geralt’s shield. The meaty guillotine rose skyward for the third hit of the sequence, but its would-be victim wisely disengaged. His choice of caution over capitalization spared him a hit from behind from the resurgent wave of lightning, and enough hitstun to guarantee his enemy’s killer finale. Rather than blood, the fall of the Orphan’s blade exhumed a splash of muck from the briny beach.

When Geralt stepped back to bring out the Judicator, Sakura picked up where he left off. Her enemy wheeled around in a terrifyingly huge three-sixty slash, both strong and high enough to decapitate an entire crowd of civilians, but the Orphan’s height allowed the Street Fighter to roll beneath its outrageous swing. Empowered by Sakura Shenpu, she struck back with a brilliant twirling gale kick, then moved again to make sure her next attack didn’t come at a terrible cost. Fighting with a true hero’s courage and determination at a blistering pace, she danced around the Orphan as it launched into a series of wild side-to-side sweeps, able to land only one strike at a time as she struggled to stay one step ahead of the thing. When her number came up, Geralt was there to lend a hand, using his excellent range to thrust and slice at the horror’s winged back while the lash of the Judicator’s thurible provided emergency restoration.

Those who fought the Orphan in the ensuing moments quickly found it to be an entirely different beast. Whereas it fought like a madman before, it now no longer fought like a man at all, instead throwing itself around in immense lunges, pounds, and sweeps that brought it in and out of range. It made for a highly mobile -not to mention stressful- fight, and that posed a problem for Kamek’s mission to revive Delsin. The abomination just wouldn’t stay put, either in the fiery slime the Koopa Prince laid down or when fighting any particular opponent, no matter how much Junior or Rika shot it. Not, at least, until Ace’s arrow zipped down and lodged between its ribs. The Orphan paused a moment to stare at the projectile as its internal pressure forced it out, and when Ace’s shout reached it from the rocky cliffside he’d been climbing, the nightmare leered his way. As the Seekers surrounded it, the nightmare leaped into action.

With a scream it leaped into the air, soaring even higher and faster than it did to swat Junior from the sky before. As it neared the top of its arc, it wrenched a handful of flesh from its placenta and hurled it down at the beach below in a visceral bombing run. Nadia, only just now recovering from her untimely electrocution, stared upward in dismay. “Meatier shower!” she yowled, scrabbling uselessly at the sand with numb limbs in a vain attempt to get out of the way. In accordance with Ace’s shout, however, a familiar blacksteel tail wound around Nadia’s midsection and scooped her out of harm’s way. With the feral on her leviathan’s grasp Bella got clear of the bloody explosion, though the shockwave still knocked both on their rears.

Heart racing from exhilaration and electrical stimulation alike, Nadia spent the first few seconds of her new lease on life panting. “Whoo…whoo…thanks a million, Bell.”

“Je t’en prie.” The Abyssal pushed herself back to her feet with her tail and extended her hand to help Nadia up, noting that the catgirl’s flowy hair was standing on end. “Are you alright?”

“Guess so, but man that lightning hertz.” Nadia pulled off a Nyawn to kickstart her regeneration, then cleared her head -as well as the leftover static- with a hearty shake. When she stood and opened her eyes she saw the full extent of the Orphan’s devastation. While Blazermate’s shield protected both herself and Peach, the bombardment had scattered both her allies and Delsin’s ashes across the black sand, turning Kamek’s already-difficult endeavor into a near impossibility, and now the freak was headed for Ace, all on its lonesome. “Dammit!” she hissed, and without a second’s delay she launched herself across the sand on all fours, running toward the monster hunter as the Orphan hurtled his way.

With that hideous face coming fast the string of his greatbow pulled taut to the max, Ace had one chance to make it count, and he bet the farm on it. His Power shot blazed forth, ripping through the air and into the gristle of the onrushing monstrosity. Unable to pierce through, it conferred its full force into the Orphan’s upper body, enough to throw off its flight pattern. With a wail the thing fell short, slamming into the rocks below. Even that stopped it for only a second, however, and though projectiles rained down upon it from the Koopa Troop, Sakura, and a recovered Peach from her vantage point not so far away, the creature began to climb. Not even a withering railgun shot from Bella managed to knock it down. Its unsettlingly rapid ascent forced Ace to scramble for his life, and though he evaded each blow the margin for error grew slimmer by the second. After the monster paused to hurl another handful of fleshbursters down at the beach, it took to the sky once more to dive down upon Ace from above. Yet even when backed into a corner, the monster hunter managed to escape with a little help, and when the Orphan’s guillotine fell upon salt-weathered stone it split a deep fissure into the cliffside.

It was then, as it stood over the crevice, that something seemed to occur to the Orphan of Kos. Even from her position at the foot of the cliffside where she’d been charging up water purr-essure for a superjump, Nadia could almost see the gears in its head turning. As she rocketed up into the air she watched the monster gouge a huge chunk of meat from its placental blade, but rather than lob it at the Seekers, it plunged the throbbing mass into the stone. “No freaking way,” she whispered, but sure enough, her worst fears came true.

The craggy cliffside exploded in a massive blast of bloodstained stone. Huge boulders flew in every direction, and along with them flew Nadia, Blazermate, Peach, and every other hero in the area, although none quite so high as Ace. It was luck of the draw that none happened to hit Nadia, but watching one breeze right by her made her realize something strange. Both the Seekers and the debris sailed through the air slower than it seemed like they should, and they didn’t fall nearly as fast. For a moment the flying cat burglar thought it was just adrenaline warping her perception, but as the seconds ticked by she became less sure. It was almost as if gravity itself had been turned down a notch or two. Why? Hell if she knew, but considering the impossible location of this beach, anything might as well go. Whatever the cause, she could see both the Orphan drifting down toward the beach through the chaos, and her allies tumbling through the air, and the sight sparked another crazy idea.

“Someone keep it busy!” she called. Airdashing toward one of the flying boulders, Nadia split off a copycat before she kicked off downward, headed toward the earth. At the same time Peach directed her fall toward the Orphan, during which she fired her scatterboom again and again as to scorch the earth where her enemy stood, halting her momentum each time she did. Thanks to that special trick, she managed to evade its retaliatory cleave, although it would take more than one hero’s efforts to keep the monster from wandering off.

Up above, Ace’s flight came to a stop in the arms of Nadia’s watery copycat. “A purr-fect plaything!” she laughed as she grabbed him out of the air and threw him down toward the earth. There, he found the real Nadia Fortune along with another one of her mimics, a net of sturdy muscle fibers pulled between them. It broke his fall, then stretched to its limit beneath the weight of the monster hunter plus all his equipment. Ace got a split second to see Nadia to his left, a kooky grin on her face. “Go get ‘em, tiger!” she decreed, just before her elastic sinews snapped back. Both Ms Fortunes yanked on the net with all they had, ejecting Ace in a high-speed arc toward the beleaguered Orphan of Kos.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Barney Rynsburger

At this point, hearing that food and drink could patch up injuries and restore energy in this Metaverse place might have come as a surprise if not for the seemingly infinite conga line of bizarre and supernatural occurrences that had befallen him in the past…God, had it even been an hour? For the life of him Barney couldn’t get an idea of how much time had passed since he first fell flat on that pier over an infinite quagmire of dreams, but that was par for the course by now. Whether the police girl spoke the truth or not, Barney didn’t really have the luxury of choice. He’d hoped to find Spindle’s exit here, but it sounded like the bedraggled team had a ways yet to go, and if that was the case Barney would be pretty much useless in this condition. It was funny that just that morning he’d thought of himself as a living corpse, sitting on a couch after a night’s rest and a passable breakfast, never imagining what real exhaustion and agony felt like. Next time, I’ll count my blessings, he thought.

So, with no other options, he had to take Spindle’s word for it. It wasn’t as if he doubted her, since she could have at any time done them harm -or just left them to get themselves killed- if she felt like it. Rather, he felt the all-too-familiar sensation of debts piling up. As he followed Lorenzo to the coffee machine, then took a muffin from the breakfast line, he couldn’t help but ponder just how much he and the other jailbirds owed their mysterious benefactor. No doubt everyone else wondered why she, a self-admitted resident of this twisted dreamland, would go to such lengths for complete strangers. Barney hoped that it was just a duty thing, since if debts came due, he would have a lot to answer for.

For now at least, however, the general opinion seemed to be more concerned with the what than the why. Of course, the nature of the Metaverse itself demanded the most attention, and with all of the unknown terminology that Spindle generously slung around, there was a chance to grasp some semblance of understanding. Plus, in all the chaos, introductions had naturally slipped away. Now that everyone had a chance to get themselves together they could afford to share their names, and the bearded student certainly did. “I’m Barney Rynsburger,” he told the rest. Lorenzo, Harriette, and Nick, he repeated in his mind. “And likewise,” he added, following up on the latter’s statement. “As much as I’d like to say I have an idea what’s going on, I’m pretty darn lost.”

“Well, that goes for pretty much everyone, I feel like. Name’s Dakota, by the way,” the former singer added. Though he looked between the others for introductions, neither Vincent, nor Jin, nor Caelum, nor Alina accepted his baton. They kept their silence, not even going to grab a bite to eat to replenish themselves.

“If you’re feelin’ down I can’t say I blame ya,” Spindle offered. “It won’t be long before y’all get yer Personas too, I know it. Jus’ hang in there a li’l while longer. Speakin’ of, I guess it’s past time I explained this crap, yeah.”

After seating herself on a couch in the hotel lobby and waiting for the others to join her with their drinks and snacks, Spindle began. “I dropped a couple lines already, but for now I’ll jus’ start over. To begin with, this place is called the Metaverse. It’s a kinda psycho-cognitive world dealie, formed from the collective unconscious of everyone on the whole doggone planet.” She moved her hands a lot as she spoke, as if her enthusiastic gestures helped get her points across. “Uhh…well, try’n picture this. If reality -that’s the world you know’ is the real thing, then this place is the shadow. And y’all are the light castin’ it! If…that makes any kinda sense.” Clearing her throat, she continued. “Everyone sees the world a li’l differently, mind. Like lookin’ through different glasses.” She tapped her own for emphasis. “This place is a mishmash of all them different perspectives. Everyone’s feelin’s, their hopes and fears, all their wants and woes, all come together to make this, with its own rules and laws. And certain people have a real distorted perspective.”

“The Warlords?” Dakota supplied.

Spindle nodded. “Sort of. But they ain’t just yer Saturday mornin’ cartoon monsters. See, normally the Metaverse and the real world exist side by side, but never touch, ‘cept in dreams maybe. Like train tracks. But sometimes the tracks get bent outta shape. Stress and sufferin’ wear ‘em down ‘til cracks start formin’ in the space between, gettin’ worse and worse until they finally…well, snap.”

Barney gulped. “Is that…what happened to us?”

“Mhm.” The police girl looked grave. “I mean, I don’t wanna pry or nothin’, but that’s the only way ya end up here. And once you’re here, the timer starts tickin’. Sooner or later, every poor sap who falls through the cracks comes face to face with their demons, no matter if they’re in or out. And then ya got only two choices: win or lose.” Spindle took a quick but deep breath. “Everyone’s got an ugly part of themselves they bury down deep. The dark side, hidden from yerself as much as everyone else. If ya lose, that side takes over. Becomes who y’are in the real world. Those people in turn become sources of sufferin’ fer others. It’s a vicious cycle, and the worse stuff ya do out there, ruinin’ folks’ lives and changin’ their cognition, the more powerful ya get in here. Those are Warlords. And that’s why I’m here.”

Spindle put her hand over her heart, a determined expression on her face. “I’m here to help y’all out. Heck, to help out all of humankind, if I can. To stop ‘em sufferin’, an’ to do that I gotta take it to the Warlords. ‘Course, I’m just one gal, an’ I can’t hardly fight, neither. So it’s my job to find folks who fall in here, chase ‘em down before their demons get ‘em, and make sure they win. ‘Cause when you’re able to face yer demons and come out on top, ready an’ willin’ to fight for yer own little world? That’s when ya awaken a Persona.”

At that, Spindle stood. “Odradek!”

In a flare of azure flame, her Persona appeared. Stretched out like a kite of silken thread between two silvery crossbars, and bearing a watchful eye at the center, it hovered behind her without a sound. “Personas are yer true selves. Those deep, inner thoughts, confronted, accepted, and turned from yer demons into yer strength, takin’ form from the stories of yer civilization. They’re the masks ya wear to overcome hardship. In other words, they’re yer best friends, and if ya do right by ‘em they’ll sure as hell do right by you.”

With a wave of her hand, Odradek disappeared. Spindle gazed around at everyone present. “And ya better, ‘cause the Metaverse sure ain’t in a good state these days. In fact, it’s a doggone warzone. If you’re gonna slog through the trenches of the collective unconscious, ya gotta be a soldier against corruption, and yer Persona is yer sword an’ shield.”

Although happy to find out that Spindle had been telling the truth about the food, and that the muffin and coffee legitimately made him feel much better, Barney had been frowning for a while now. “You make it sound like…well, a military campaign. Or some grand quest to save the world. And I’m sure we wish you luck and everything, but all we want is to get the hell outta here and back to the real world. That’s what this is all about, right?”

“Oh, uh, right, right!” Spindle assured the group. “The exit ain’t that far, even. I was just, uh, talkin’ in general. Once everyone’s set we’ll head off. I’m just sayin’ to expect some trouble on the way.”

“Right,” Barney sighed. “Great.”

Infactorium: A New 4Xpansion (Overlord RP) [DISCONTINUED]

I could, but your plan sounds like a good starter.

World of Light

Ok had to make a new account because discord support is lame. Whats the server link again?

@Archmage MC

I'll PM it to you.

World of Light

I'm happy to hear about everyone's favorite moments. For me, the whole span in Limsa, staring with the restaurant fight all the way through dinner at the Drowning Wench through a morning reunion of everyone full of resolve for the coming day, was definitely a highlight. Here's to many more happy memories!

World of Light

At the very least, he did receive healing from Panther and probably Primrose's Warmth, so Laharl should be on the road to recovery.