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Revue of Annihilation

Meisa Amorette

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It was obvious how different this district was. The sense of hopelessness pervading through the streets and the people didn’t spread its rot here, and had Meisa not known better, it would have felt like a scene from non-elven cities of times long gone. But unfortunately, it was not, and she wasn’t here to see the sights, either. The smell of freshly cooked food was enticing.

In the end, she decided on an establishment mostly at random, aside from picking what she felt gave the best opportunity for her. She came in with all the confidence of an elven princess, or an employer seeking the help of hired labor. At the same time, though, she wasn’t bombastic or naïve enough to throw wide the doors and announce her magnanimity in hiring adventures for a quest. No—she was also hungry, despite it all, so she went up to the proprietor first, sliding in between two groups and flagged down the attention of the proprietor. She glanced about, noting the appearance of the adventurers within, and what they were eating and talking about.

As far as food went, it was the basic tavern fare. “Bread and beer please,” she ordered, taking the same quick, cheap meal that the others were. Beer in the morning offended her aristocratic elven sensibilities, but in Oratorio there was an image to upkeep… and despite how decent this district seemed, she wasn’t going to trust the water or milk anytime soon. The two groups that were to her sides contrasted themselves—to her right, a seasoned looking group was keeping to themselves, enjoying their meal with the temperance of adventurers that had seen some shit and knew how to deal with it. On her other side were clear rookies, boisterous, with equipment that seemed untested in the Abyss in Meisa’s opinion.

She deliberated on what type to hire—but fuck it, what if she went for both? Mixing the inexperienced with the experienced? She remembered something similar from a time long ago, to get inexperienced soldiers quickly up to speed. It didn’t translate the best here, but it was better than nothing. Meisa knew full well that this was going to be a tricky affair—she knew adventurers were a finicky sort…

“Say, barkeep,” she began after a while, pitching her voice enough that the nearby adventurers could also hear, “Are any of the groups here looking for a job? See, there’s this issue that some merchants are having…” She quickly summarized the situation, sprinkling in the enticement of discounted supplies and further opportunities while still keeping her voice heard. “We’ll pay handsomely for the protection,” she finished. "Anybody you know here willing to take that kind of job?"

A fucking annoying situation, but if it worked out, she wanted some good connections for the Abyss, too. She just needed to make sure some stupid gang wouldn’t mess things up before she could build up enough to smash them. It would be the stupidest end for a goddess-to-be like her.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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The first two shots found their mark, but to Éliane’s annoyance, even the high-powered rifle rounds were stopped by the woman’s beastly armor. They didn’t do nothing—she no doubt embarrassed Reisa and knocked the wind out of her for a moment, but it didn’t come close to even injuring the woman. The Skaelan girl was almost jealous of the enemy captain’s protection, if her own tactics didn’t depend on being highly mobile, like a budget dragoon. Clearly, though, she’d erred in switching back to standard ammunition.

With her rifle out of ammunition anyway, she reached into her pouch to reload—once again selecting the brightly colored explosive cartridges and pushing them into the magazine from the top. Éliane observed the situation as she did, and was not liking how things were developing one bit. How was that bitch still going!? She glanced down at the still-unconscious form of Eve. The only person that was going to offer explosive firepower now was Éliane.

She was already ahead of Esben when she saw the hand signals from Esben as he entangled himself closer to the action. This was going to be difficult—although Chisaki’s actions meant that Ciradyl, Hien, and Izayoi mostly stayed away, being away didn’t necessarily mean out of harm when it came to explosives. From what Esben just tossed in the direction of the captain, Éliane was pretty sure she was adding to some booms, rather than making them exclusively…

Well, that was still fine by her. She just had to finesse this a bit…

She loaded the last bullet, and she slammed the bolt back into place and took aim just as her fellow Skaeller gave the signal. A moment later, a crack, followed by four others in rapid succession broke out—a textbook Skaelan “Mad-Minute” style barrage as she fired at Reisa once more—explosively. A moment later, and the entire area around the enemy captain was saturated with the orange and red tinge of high explosives and fragmentation, kicking up debris into the air and obscuring the woman—and everything around her as they all detonated.

Even if it didn’t kill her, that was going to be more than enough to cover their escape.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

---

Éliane praised the exceptional teamwork of her allies in her thoughts. Together, she had helped fend off those abominable flying creatures, and not too long after, she was able to catch the familiar forms of the members of team Kirin that had infiltrated the facility. All that they needed to do now was to retreat in good order.

Retreating in good order, though, was going to be harder than planned, because time had run out. As they began to pull back, Éliane could see the offending Valheimian airship train its weapons on their positions, and fire.

“Oh, shit…” Within seconds, the entire area was engulfed in flames and explosions. Even Éliane, as unflappable as she usually was, scrambled for cover, although she was cackling under the sudden adrenaline of being under sustained heavy fire. There was finally a bigger fish than Éliane that didn’t care about collateral damage…

Nearly blown apart by a near miss, sending flaming debris everywhere and pelting the Skaelan woman, she didn’t see much of Eve’s attack until the vessel itself was hit, exploding in an awe-inspiring conflagration in the sky. Despite the risk to herself, she was rooted in place, fixated on the orange and red fireball descending to the ground.

“It’s so beautiful…”

She afforded herself a few more moments of lollygagging before Galahad brought her back to reality as she watched him shoot into the air, catching the unconscious form of the ship’s executioner before landing nearby to Éliane.

“No, but it’s better than expected,” she responded, blinking at the unclothed dragon girl in his arms. She might have been referring to the outcome of the battle… but she was also referring to the spectacle of the ship going down in flames. What a show! With Eve unconscious, though, her training kicked in and she quickly moved to check for injuries. Finding none, she allowed Galahad to preserve her modesty, keeping her in a safe corner of the roof away from any sightlines.

That was just as well, because it didn’t look like the Valheimian resistance was over yet—from their vantage point, she could see a familiar enemy emerge from the wrecked Proudclad. Although Éliane couldn’t see the expression on her face from this distance, she could tell from the body language that she was not emerging to surrender.

Éliane immediately swung her rifle back around, placing the woman in her sights, before taking a brief moment to process what she was seeing.

What was Esben doing!?

Well, whatever, it didn’t matter.

If Reisa was trying to look cool and evil strutting out from the wreckage, Éliane wasn’t going to give her the moment!

Calculating the drop from this distance atop the roof, she aimed her weapon, and pulled the trigger. The rifle cracked out, and she immediately worked the bolt, and fired again, and again.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

---

Together with Ciradyl, and the remainder of team Kirin that wasn’t inside the prison proper, Éliane thought they were putting up some good pressure on the defenders. Her rifle shots came fast and accurate, keeping many of the enemy riflemen on the roofs well-suppressed, but it was quickly becoming apparent that good wasn’t enough. Soldiers from within continued to reinforce the losses that the team had inflicted on them, and a screamed order had what felt like half the entire enemy forces suddenly focusing on Miina.

The Skaelan officer immediately shifted her focus to the Valheimians that were gunning for the poor cat, but it wasn’t enough. She was momentarily stunned by the enemy’s aerial reinforcements.

What kind of abominable creatures did these barbarians have? Some kind of twisted, cruel experiment?

With the aid of Galahad, she bounded across the roof, swinging her gun around and firing at the flying threats.

Why did they have guns!?

Thankfully, Éliane was not a stranger to shooting at flying things. As a properly trained Skaelan officer, she enjoyed a good hunt from time to time, and skeet shooting was good practice, too. These large flying guns were comparatively lumbering… the only issue was that her shots were also comparatively small. They packed a bunch, sure, but it might not be enough to shoot them down in one hit.

But that was why Éliane packed explosive shells. She had them for her gunblade, and she absolutely had them for her rifle, too.

“Don’t count me out yet!” Yelling back at Galahad, she picked out a handful of red-colored cartridges from her leather pouch and fed them into her gun—making sure to save at least a few to use against the impending airship. “I can blow that stupid thing out of the sky, too!”

Slamming the bolt shut, she sighted on the leadership the dragoon had pointed out. She quickly calculated the lead and drop for the flying einhander—or, if it was already shot down by Miina, the closest flying threat. If she was lucky enough, the explosion might take out another. Pulling the trigger, she felt the customary kick of her weapon and watched as the shell arced across the sky and explode against her target, immediately sending it spiraling out of control. She wasn’t quite so lucky to kill two birds with one shot, but the dying bird spinning out of control and sending the others diving out of the way seemed to put the enemy formation into enough chaos for them to better exploit— and get clear of this killbox.

“They’re in disarray. Charge, now!”

Revue of Annihilation

Meisa Amorette

---

The previous evening had been an exercise in a steaming pile of shit. Meisa had navigated the immediate incident with the merchants and the Blackhand Butchers by the skin of her teeth. Firenze was supposed to be there to prevent her from making boneheaded decisions, but the purple-haired woman had too much bloodlust to talk anyone out of a stupid decision if it involved copious amounts of violence.

Her shitty bodyguard spent the entire rest of the night calling Meisa a stupid fucking bitch in the most pleasant terms an elf could offer, too!

Regardless, despite how fucked up the two elves could be, Meisa felt enough responsibility to not get all those merchants ruined or killed. Part of it was the semblance of a conscience lurking under whatever qualified for one in her psyche, and other was simply the fact that not protecting those merchants, and not taking down the shittiest racketeering group that she’d heard of in her entire multiple-hundred year life was counterproductive to her goals to becoming the embodiment of civilization. What kind of shitty goddess of civilization and civility would be so derelict?

Not this lady.

That did put her in a very difficult spot, though. Pissing off some crappy gang was one thing—Meisa and Firenze could hole up in the Atelier, or at worst, in the Abyss proper. She had not forgotten about it, after all. She had barely gotten the merchants’ cooperation, but together, they’d pooled together just enough money to be sufficient to hire a group of adventurer-mercenaries. It wasn’t the best solution—after getting back the house, Camille was helpful enough to inform them that the Blackhands had influence in two whole sectors—but it was a stopgap measure before she could come up with some harebrained scheme to deal with the gang. With that in mind, Meisa was making her way to the Adventurer’s District to hire a group—it remained to be seen how trustworthy they could be, though.

Firenze, on the other hand had her own job to do, and that was to dig up dirt on the Blackhand Butchers to probe them for weakness and information.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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The answer to Éliane’s question, as it turned out, was quite soon. It wasn’t long before the team had split in two according to Esben’s plan. With the usual sense of Skaellan infallibility, she had full confidence in the spy’s competence while inside the facility as a ‘prisoner.’ Éliane joined Galahad and the remainder of the party in spying on the detention facility.

It didn’t take much time at all for them to be in action.

“I didn’t like the suspense anyway,” she grinned in response to Galahad’s comment, already having counted the number of enemy riflemen on the rooftops and memorizing their general positions. Springing into action, she was boosted onto the rooftops by the dragoon. It seemed she would be having another rooftop battle after all. Whether or not it would turn into a running rooftop battle remained to be seen…

The moment the Skaelan officer was on the roof, she unholstered not her gunblade, but unshouldered the long rifle that had yet to be used up until now. It took her but the briefest moment to check the gun before she was in a crouching, aiming position. She was no sniper, but at this range, she was still enough of a marksman with an accurate full-powered gun.

The air cracked as she pressed the trigger, and an unaware soldier fell from the roof, blood blossoming from his chest. There was a smooth clack and then a cling as she quickly worked the bolt, and moved on to the next. Another snap—and a second rifleman fell backwards, just as he was starting to aim in their general direction. After her second shot, she quickly repositioned, and then she was shooting again. Briefly glancing a the airship moving in the distance, she gave it about five to ten minutes before they had to vacate the area entirely.

Even then, staying in place before then wasn’t a good idea. It was a good way to get killed “No, time to reposition,” she replied, nodding at the familiar sounding fox-masked woman that had shown up alongside her.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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“I agree with attacking the detention center.”
With the information provided to her, Éliane was leaning towards an assault on the prison complex out of all the available options. Both battlefield experience and vibes had led her to think it was the most viable option, and that was even before her questions were answered and the others pitched in to strategize.

Esben gave a good summary as usual. If he weren’t a SEED agent, he would make a very good aide to a general on the field. As far as odds went, they really weren’t terrible, if they had the element of surprise. Although Reisa had encountered them previously, she had hardly seen all of the tricks and strategies team Kirin had to offer.

The plan he proposed right afterwards, though…

She stared right at him. “Esben, that is the most insane, unhinged, and ridiculous plan that I have heard from anybody from your organization to date.”

She paused.

“I like it. How soon can we start, and how much gunpowder do we have access to?”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane had not expected to hear Izayoi’s story. She’d heard inklings of it, little bits and pieces from traveling around with the Mystrel woman during their journey together, but she had never actually enquired on it. It was far more of a traumatic tale than she had expected or, ultimately, even properly relate with. How could she, when she had lived a life that was as charmed as could be, up until the Valheimian attack?

It did, though, reinforce in her eyes that Valheim was once more the enemy, and needed to be removed from the world together with the Blight. Again, she felt that the two would ultimately be intertwined issues…

The news of even more Valheimian atrocities, interrupting their little tea party was yet another crime to add onto the mountain of evils. Without even understanding the situation in the capital, she was nearly immediately inclined to agree to Izayoi’s impassioned plea. Had she been younger, she might have immediately, jumped up alongside Izayoi, Rudolf, and Robin in rescuing this young lord from their clutches. After all, it had so many parallels to her own past. A running battle in a capital city to foil some nefarious plot, ultimately to the benefit of Skael, too. It sounded mightily familiar, and it urged on her battle lust.

But she wasn’t exactly in Solitude, with the entire backing of the Royal Guards to put down a nascent rebellion. No, this was the opposite—she would be helping Izayoi and a ragtag band of rebels in fighting an occupation force. It was the kind of thing that needed careful consideration, or they’d just end up alongside this Hien.

Of course, she’d still do it, but it just needed to be carefully done.

It would just have been nice to have a whole company of SEED agents to advise and execute it, as that was what they did best. She turned to Esben, who was already providing some very useful facts and questions to consider, and nodded.

“Since we’re talking a real battle, what exactly are the numbers are we working with here? Against an occupying force, I think forces like yours,” she gestured towards Ciradyl, before adding her questions ontop of Esben’s, “and us, have a very good asymmetric advantage. How many soldiers can Reisa muster to ambush us without compromising the rest of the occupation of the city? If we’re going to rescue him straight from the dungeons, what are the streets or the geography around his prison like?"

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane beamed at the shinobi’s response, which was the opposite of the one she’d given to Robin. “Straightforward but polite is my thing,” she agreed. Of course, she was blunt and rude when such things weren’t reciprocated –A certain Edrenian noble came to mind—but that was hardly a thing that she would mention in a conversation like this. She gave a bob of her head. “Chisa, then,” she replied. The particular subtleties of shinobi culture flew well over her head, but the Skaelan officer wasn’t so clueless to not notice the subtext behind her happiness, even if she didn’t fully understand it. Not wanting to reveal names in an occupied city was easy enough to understand, at least.

Appreciating the space that Esben made for her, she shrugged at his response. “I’m sure you’ll get another chance later,” she batted back.

A pause. “If there is coffee, I will be around.”

As it turned out, there was coffee, although what was available in this Valheimian-occupied place was a pale shadow of the quality she had when in Galahad’s city. It was predictable, but she was disappointed nonetheless.

Coffee woes aside, the rest of the stay in the village was uneventful, as was the trip to the occupied capital of Osprey as well. Éliane had been half expecting to be accosted by a Valheimian patrol, or even set upon by a small force at this point, but they journey went from seeing the peaks of the black towers of Kugane to seeing the walls of the city rise into view before directly approaching the gate unmolested.

It would appear the shinobi was telling the truth—and from the subsequent smooth entry, most of the party’s suspicions and the last of Éliane’s relatively low apprehension evaporated. Éliane remained privately impressed at the shinobi’s spycraft. It almost matched up to the skill of the SEEDs…

They were ushered into a modest building soon after that, to meet Izayoi’s apparent old friend. Ciradyl was a stunningly pretty lady, and before she did anything, she turned her gaze to the new redheaded addition to their party. Éliane had only known Miina for a short time, but she had already become intimately familiar with the Mystrel’s preferences, if she had to go by the way she always stammered and with her gaze always locking right onto her and Izayoi’s chests…

Sadly, the girl had been forewarned, so there was little entertainment to be had, but it was probably for the better.

Unlike Miina and some of the other members of the party, as the Skaelan representative, she was once again obligated to make an introduction. This time, she mirrored Galahad in greeting first, before introducing herself in her full manner as usual. “Éliane Laruelle, of the Household Guards of Skael. Officially, I’m here to behalf of Skael to put an end to the Blight, but it seems that cause is becoming more intertwined with the fight for Osprey the more we investigate.”

Her eyes, nonetheless were drawn towards the tea that had been poured for them, and the pleasant aroma that it emitted. Oh, it was no coffee, but Éliane could still recognize quality caffeine when she saw it. Bergamot was still a fine choice…

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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This journey was truly one of surprises. Most of it was generally of the unwelcome type—a Valheimr attack, roving bands of wildlife, unpleasant hosts, Gardening overreach, and a second Valheimr attack being the notable ones, but coffee delights and unexpected additions to the party were more welcome. Considering how they had met the party, Éliane thought that they had integrated remarkably well!

Integrating remarkably well didn’t mean they did in foreign land, though. Just like Éliane stood out like a sore thumb in her Guards uniform in Edrenian land, everyone else stood out as much as she did in Osprey, too. And that certainly extended to when they met a shinobi on the road.

Esben provided a very typical Garden-like analysis of the woman and the overall situation in Kugane at the behest of the strange draconic girl. Éliane was surprised at how forthcoming that analysis was, but it was definitely something that she wasn’t very good at. Ask her to plan or lead a battle, that she could do, but to give a fundamental analysis on the cloak and dagger business of a foreign occupied state… well, that was what SEED was for!

Really, they had nobody to blame but themselves if she bungled something again for them. After all, her main mission here was still to show the flag and investigate the blight. As far as Éliane was concerned, everything else was still secondary to that.

The encounter, at least, went well, and they were led through the desolate village into the inn. Given her mission, she wanted to properly introduce herself to the big-breasted shinobi woman, if just for diplomatic niceties (it would be very nice if foreign notables would actually be pleasant for once, but what could one do when meeting foreigners) but Robin had beaten her to the chase.

And bungled it.

Not that everybody could see that happening from far away. Nobody had to be an expert analyst at the Garden like Esben to tell how unlike Éliane’s uniform, the Edrenian one nearly made her persona-non-grata in Osprey…

And then Esben got in the way, too!

Approaching, she patted him on the shoulder and joined their conversation, more or less bullying through whatever subtly he was attempting with her typical blunt approach. It was more or less Robin style, but without the Edrenian element, the sparkles, or the kissing. Nearly identical, really.

“Apologies about my fellow countryman. He’s a clumsy fellow. I am Éliane Laruelle, of the Household Guards. I’ve been intending to meet more Ospreyan representatives as a part of our investigation… may we have the pleasure of your name?”