[center][color=yellow][h3]Mad World[/h3][/color]
[@zarkun][@lazo][@kapuchu][/center]

On course for the dazzling amber radiance of the Third Seal, the great being Ourakekem moved steadily forward.  The transition through the wall of fog brought all eyes to the incandescent obelisk before them, but thoughts invariably drifted to the unknown enemy that the behemoth brought them here to face.  Uhelei, his parts clattering and sputtering like an old, dusty computer, found himself besieged by questions from everyone but the human whom he'd fought alongside.  With visible effort, the biomechanical tribesman picked himself up and labored to construct for his allies an answer.

“Our...noble host...uhm!  Told us of an 'eternal enemy'.  When I cast my mind back to the legends surrounding Ourakekem, and those like him, I can think of only one candidate.  The thought sickens me...it fills me with dread: the idea that we are to oppose any kind of remnant of this realm's mad craftswoman.”

The entire rocky shell shook with a sudden and violent jerk that threw, at the very least, both Uhelei and Souta to the ground.  Panoptos snickered, waiting for the guide to struggle to his feet and translate for Ourakekem, or at least to tell the agents the meaning of this sudden stop as he lay, crumpled, on the ground, but he did neither.  After getting up, Souta, much closer to the front of the behemoth, saw that the gargantuan psychic had effectively parked himself against the sheer side of the floating plateau that lay beneath the Third Seal.  Aside from some vegetation closer to the edges of this area, the rest appeared to be incredibly flat.  In the blazing glow of the Seal, an expanse of ankle-deep water could be seen closer to the landmass's center.  Above, roads in the sky looped and curled toward the goal, unreachable but serving as a rough indicator for the path by which to proceed.  The Charred Council's agents did not waste any time disembarking.  Behind them, Ourakekem's enormous eye loomed very close, pressed against the cliffside as a child might press himself against a window.  A rumble reverberated through Wit's End, and the lambent swarms flowed out from the cracks in the great being's carapace once again.  This time, they swirled around the agents, evidently with no intention to attack, but rather to accompany them forward.  More alien grumbles sounded out from him, and this time Uhelei, having brought up the rear when getting off, deigned to translate.  “I can go no further, but my host will join you and do what it can.  My enemy's affinity for fire may render them useless, but your own may outweigh hers.  Guard against the light of insanity.”  With that, Uhelei grew silent, as the behemoth had done the same.

Naturally, Panoptos took the cue to do the opposite.  [color=50C878]”Let is never be said the big rock eye wasn't helpful!  Looks like we've got our work cut our for us.  If whats-her-face is near the Seal, chances are she'd attack us anyway.  Y'know, I bet the 'liberation' ol' Oura here promises is more metaphorical than anything else.  Sure, the Undersky sucks, but the tribesmen don't seem oppressed or anything.  Grudge, much?  Eh, whatever.  Let's kill the bitch and get this place over with before the demons catch up.”[/color]  Expecting the others to follow along, he started to glide toward his destination.

Due to the flatness of the place, the Agents saw the black speck long before they drew close enough to see what it was.  Standing completely isolated directly beneath the hanging, golden monument was a [url=http://img05.deviantart.net/419c/i/2016/215/8/c/sun_goddess_by_vincent_covielloart-d8l2aza.jpg]strange, vaguely humanoid figure.[/url]  From afar she appeared to be dressed in some manner of priestess garb, but growing closer revealed her extravagant apparel to be part of her body—fleshy and repulsive.  Great proximity also revealed that she was staring directly upward at the Seal, seemingly mesmerized.  The trance broke when Panoptos, leading the group, drew too close.

With a deliberate slowness, as one waking from a dream, the creature's head drifted down until she was looking at the group.  From her crown, there shone a golden glow exactly like that of the Seal.  Her mouth opened and closed dumbly, as if she couldn't figure out how to speak.  A hand came up, reaching out to grasp the intruders into her domain despite the distance that still separated them.  At that moment, the swarms of Ourakekem surrounding the agents in cloudbanks surged forward, able to stand the sight of their master's enemy no longer.  They formed into a handful of giant, pointed arrows, fast and sharp enough to dice this repugnant being up.  In response, the tips of the fleshy branches sprouting from the mad one's neck and head flared to life, at first scarcely more than candles.  As the swarms approached, the gaping holes in her upper body belched forth a mighty, roaring heatwave, hotter and far faster than any stream of flame could be.  Its touch incinerated the outer layer and the front parts of the arrowheads, scattering the swarms.  The bugs still remaining spread out through the air, giving the mad one a wide berth.  Curious, the disgraced being watched, her tentacles shifting restlessly.  Her attention soon returned to the Agents, however.  This time, when her mouth fell open, a lilting, distorted voice rang out, but as nothing more than a wordless shriek.  From nothing two whirling maelstroms of matter appeared next to her, growing larger until, a second later, they resolved into a pair of [url=http://img13.deviantart.net/dd5c/i/2011/048/1/a/skitterclaw_by_igorkieryluk-d39r5zo.jpg]misshapen biomechanical monsters[/url].  The mad one trembled, her sudden fury made her tentacles writhe, while her hunting dogs ran forward.