TheWendil

Tower of Fable

Mercy? Compassion? Ridiculous, and the notions of any of that were lost on the rampaging black beast. Hell continued to rain down on the party as a whole. Great chunks of the Abyssal ceiling and splintered off segments of what remained as fireballs crashed into the ground and scattered the already ruinous landscape that was beneath it. It was no doubt a glorious sight for Runa to see. Even Nephy had to have been ecstatic at the prospect of freedom at last, though the bestial roars of the dragon reminded her of current events.

The beast rocketed down and forward just feet away from the ground like a hurled building. By the time it picked up ascension again two stowaways somehow proxied themselves on its back, albeit one slightly scorched from Kanbaru’s lack of care for redirection. What were they trying to do? Reason with it? Absurd. The cat and her Stand further ignited a deep and unsettled rage within the black dragon with its face looking down on the world below. An attempt to destroy it? The suggestion was also futile.

Of all the timelines that led to this conclusion, all of them led in whatever Floor they resided in burned to the ground and no victory against the fell beast. It stoked the dragon’s fires, externally and literally as the black flames leapt up and at any moving thing with a mind of their own. Billowing on the ground wherever they landed, they spread like physical wildfire to consume everything in their inky heat. The dragon puffed its wings and made way to dive again only to halt in its descent with a voice reaching its mind.

Where once before Riku’s words failed to breach even the beast’s skull, now they were magnified and reverberated like a megaphone. This was to be the work of her Serei card no doubt but to the dragon it only caused confusion and a pause in its behavior. Another roar shook the world and the winds as it thrashed its head manically, eager to drown the voice and words in its head. Its tail and body rippled, dangerously daring to toss Riku and Thomas off like bugs.

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Grimoiric Heart

I might give a hint about it later.

Grimoiric Heart

Who will solve the storm Pageless' mystery first. I wonder.

Grimoiric Heart

A boost from Goodhope is fine.

Grimoiric Heart

Between Lilac Shimmer and Burning Heart’s actions, the Pageless had little time to prepare an attack against the Magical Girls. Quite a few of them were ragdolled around by Lilac Shimmer’s devasting moves that left dents and cracks wherever they fell from the sheer force of her tosses and blows. Truly, the area would need a heavy cleansing of magic to put everything back in functional order by the time all was said and done. The Pageless reacted as they did, clawing and swiping defensively if only because they were suddenly attacked. Those that survived Lilac Shimmer were soon crushed and burned under the miraculous tails sprouted from Burning Heart.

The revamped confidence in the foreign Magical Girl caused a good deal of the Pageless to melt where they stood as armor slagged and slogged against their shadowy frames. They dispersed into dark wisps when it became too much, the tell-tale sign of their defeat. Those that remained fled manically with no direction or guidance given. However, they all eventually flocked towards the moving Moonlight Tsubasa who, to their alien surprise, was being attacked by her fellow Magical Girls. This registered contradiction was lost on the Pageless. In their diminishing number they chose to clumsily hide themselves like knights to their queen behind the kimono-clad Magical Girl and her familiars.

By now the sky was a bleak gray on all sides of London. Such weather was to be expected for the course of the city and the rain eventually reached Camelot and her team’s location. The Pageless ran around in danceless circles as the downpour began, yet kept their proximity close once more to Moonlight Tsubasa. Miles away was the answer to the sudden shift in weather that was more than just London’s fickle nature. The great daunting force that was the Pageless stared back down at Lumière’s team with its unyielding eyes that was the only source of light in the dark clouds.

Even now its gaze didn’t flicker or move and the massive body of darkness that was the Pageless remained still and stoic. This hesitation allowed the Magical Girls to clamor together their own plan and take to the skies to divert the fight away from the land below. By now all civilians were indoors, their days ruined by the sudden outcrop of bad luck weather as far as they were concerned. For those that still lingered, they too felt an unconscious surge to move indoors as if compelled by an unseen force much like the safely deposited citizens in the construction site. But that was neither here nor there when the threat still loomed beyond.

As Lumière and her team approached the stormy Pageless the golden eyes flickered briefly. It was the only warning given to the girls. Something suddenly slammed into Captain Goodhope with enough force to smack her off Thyerg’Xolys and send her plummeting in the air. The very same force moved with an unseen speed that collided into the Lady of the Lake as well. Only the howling whistle of the wind was indicative of movement in the air even as the Pageless’ eyes stared hauntingly. The closer they approached, the more the eyes flickered almost as if….

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Grimoiric Heart

TL:DR: She's Goku.

Grimoiric Heart

Firstly, Tesni just tossed the would-be mugger towards the fleeing crowd of civvies. Is he still giving off that negative cloud, the cloud that's possibly still increasing in intensity?

@Lewascan2

It fizzled out quite a bit when Tesni kicked him in the face.

Secondly, due to the image being the same the first few times, I've been operating under the assumption that most "foot-soldier" Pageless look the same, kinda like generic Magical Girl enemy mooks. Is this not the case?

@Lewascan2

This is the case.

If it is the case, does that make the divergent appearance of the Pageless currently surrounding Camelot's group notable, defining them as a different, potentially unknown type of "foot-soldier"?

@Lewascan2

No. They're just cool looking. If you want to draw some meaning from them, they probably look like knights due to Camelot being around as Pageless do twist into forms that fit their surroundings. We saw this at the construction site.

Grimoiric Heart

Are you sneaking around in places you shouldn't be. That's not very Ministry of you.

Grimoiric Heart

Given she’s primarily a support Magical Girl, I think the first ability would be better for her development. It can manifest in small ways in this encounter and become a skill she slowly works on developing, maybe even making it more offensive along the way.

Grimoiric Heart

@Villamvihar

I'm fine with this, though what power do you have in mind.