[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5r7OTIh.png[/img]
[b][color=Aquamarine]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,632(+6) (+9) (+4)
[b][color=Aquamarine]Midna: level 9[/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aquamarine]/////////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (25/110)
[b][color=Aquamarine]Location:[/color][/b] The City of Glass 
[color=Aquamarine]Warp Charges:[/color] 1
[hider=warp locations]
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
Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts)
Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel)
Vandelay Campus (Alleyway)
[/hider]
[/center]

Midna found it rather sad, seeing Tora go off on his own, even if she got it. She’d seen him struggle without his partner, and even with the added gear she had lent him (or as it turned out, gifted him, because she found it much too awkward to ask for it back during their farewells), it was clear he couldn’t keep up with the rest of the seekers without her. So it made sense for him to go with the more technical people, and focus on putting his tinkering and engineering skills to use instead.

Still he was now the only one who she’d shared her entire journey with, and indeed, was apparently one of the original group who had started the whole chain of freedom from Galeem off. So even though it made sense, and was on good terms, it still felt like a bigger loss than any of the other departures.

She wished him luck and made sure to insist he not remain a stranger as she gave him a farewell that reflected little of her internal thoughts on the matter. After what he’d been through, Midna thought he deserved a happy farewell.

Yet as one person left the party, another joined. Or two rather. Clara and her invisible friend, Mr. Svarog. The princess was not sure if their dynamic of small person without much combat capability on their own, and powerful robot being who pulled all the weight being rather similar to Tora and Poppy’s was a fel omen or not, but it did leave her with mixed feelings on the matter.

An incident on their trip to regroup with the rest of the party tipped the scales on that feeling.

Having been focused on first saying goodbye, then on retrieving her various bits of ditched arsenal, and finally on the report coming in from their angelic mission control that they needed to get out of dodge, fast, the princess ended up not focusing on a rather important detail.

Namely that she was still carrying around the unconscious body of Zanzo, who, despite being armless, was nowhere close to harmless. 

She was given a rather pointed reminder when they were riding down in the L.I.F.T. 

As it turned out, bashing someone over the head was not a reliable way to maintain unconsciousness, and so the man proceeded to wake up part way through the ride. 

She had been prepared for this, to the extent that she was still armed anyway, and immediately swung the sword she had been holding at his head to knock him out again as soon as she saw him moving, only for the man to tilt his head to the side at just the wrong moment, causing her to smack down on his oversized green mohawk, which cushioned the blow enough for him to remain conscious. 

Worse, it stirred him out of the grogginess of waking he had been in, and kicked him right into fight or flight mode. Bereft of legs to run with, all he had was fight. 

Bars at the side of the princess’ vision tracking his strikers all emptied at once, as he brought out each and every one of his minions around him. The princess cursed, hurling her own summons at them while bringing back her sword for another strike with its flat, only to be beaten by the punch. Literally.

Svarog flashed into visibility, having been watching the man closely, lest he become a threat to little Clara, and delivered a massive right hook straight into Zanzo’s face the moment he did, which was accompanied by a sickening crunch as the man’s battered cranium gave way. At the same time spears, claws and jaws all ripped into the strikers, compounding a flurry of damage that ended the man’s life. And left him as ash on the floor.

[color=Aquamarine]”That. You know what. Maybe for the best”[/color] Midna admitted, after apologizing for letting it happen in the first place, and thanking the robot for preventing anyone from getting hurt. Afterwards it turned out that she was, ultimately, the only one who had really cared that he had been killed, and she’d only really kept him alive in the first place because the option had been there. With his cooldowns all gone, the man had been defenseless, and as much as cutting him down to size had been cathartic, killing him had not felt right in the moment.

Still, even as she had felt bad about it, the 6 resulting spirits gave her the dopamine hit that booted her out of any risk of spiraling into negative emotions, and instead let her mind fixate on what she was going to do with them for the rest of the ride.

She was still on it when she arrived at the rendezvous point, whereupon she caught sight of Sandalphon, now free from Galeem’s influence. Upon seeing that she made an incorrect assumption that the woman had almost died doing a medical rescue like the one she had done for her team, which put her in the mind to thank her for that bit of assistance with more than just words. 

Specifically she approached, and offered both her appreciation [color=Aquamarine]”Thanks for the healing and striker timing thing, those were both real life savers''[/color] and also an offer of some of her pile of spirits to kickstart her journey on the path to the empowerment, loss of self and clashing aesthetics that spirits represented [color=Aquamarine]”Want any of these? Zanzo just would not stay down, and, well, Mr Svarog was having none of it”[/color]

That was how she ended up parting ways with Vigilant, the sniper exo-suit, and while she did sigh about how she’d never learn how to use guns at this rate, she was mostly being facetious in said frustration. Besides, she still had 5 whole spirits left afterwards, and it was quite the haul of powerful ones too.

Having already had time to think about what she was going to do with them before making the offer, she swiftly made use of them before everything could go pear shaped. She went ahead and turned two into strikers (roadblock and skywave) seeing as she had just seen how effective those had been, while Zazo was crushed (who wanted that annoying jerk in their brain or as a summon? Not her that was for sure) producing a pair of impressive looking but rather unwieldy in practice cleavers (that mainly made her miss the two sleek knives she’d had before), which left the other two for carrying on down the path of fusion.

She first took the sword wielding Mursame into herself as a power, which caused her to grow larger once more, the combination of Urbosa, flygon and this new component overruling the smallness of her imp form and the shortness of Orendi, and take on several mechanical attributes. Most notably her skin became somewhat synthetic though it retained all heat and sensation despite this. What she did lose, however, was rather alarming, said alarm occurring when the floating princess dropped out of the air and to the ground, and ended up putting weight on her wounded foot.

[color=Aquamarine]”Ow ow ow ow, goddesses that hurt”[/color] she complained as she summoned her mecha wolf bear to lean on for support, while using her new Skywave striker to heal the injury up somewhat.

[color=Aquamarine]”So fusion can just take stuff? How does that even make sense, a bunch of the other things couldn’t float so why that robot? Am I too heavy or something … huh. I mean I guess I am more me size now”[/color] she said to herself, before admiring her own height. You could hardly tell she had been cursed any more, which she found delightful.

[color=Aquamarine]”Going to have to un-modify the warthog now though, but that’ll have to wait. Next up, this big thing”[/color] she said out loud, before slapping that final spirit into the steed she was using as support. The resulting fusion with the giant mech that was Blodia promptly ruined her ability to do this, causing her to stumble as it shot up to a whopping 30 feet tall.

[color=Aquamarine]”Goddesses, I knew it was big but wow”[/color] she marveled at her new giant even more robotic bear wolfos dragon thing … and then promptly grew concerned when it showed no sign of individual motion. 

[color=Aquamarine]”Hello? Move. Walk?”[/color] she shouted at it, while also rapping her knuckles against the machine’s leg to no avail.  

[color=Aquamarine]”Well, that’s disturbing”[/color] she observed, fusion having seemingly taken the beast’s mind, while also noting other than pure size and more armor from the physical transformation, it was unclear what had even been gained ability wise.

That went the same for her own fusion as well, and though there were benefits to be found, the experimentation to find them would have to wait.

[hider=For Midna (and her summon)]
New Strikers spiritbound:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/FlEvzEU.png]Roadblock[/url][/b]
A hulking robotic exosuit on a long cooldown. When summoned he can perform a hard-hitting three hit punch combo, put up his shield (it can be held for up to ten seconds and has good durability against physical damage, or canceled with a rocket bash), beat his fist against his shield to taunt enemies (one he times out, said taunt transfers to Midna), or if he's been used three times already in one fight, perform a giant tornado lariat

[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/3nOTvrR.png]Skywave[/url][/b]
An aerial exosuit on a long cooldown. When summoned she can use her aether lance to lob three projectiles that explode in a small area to heal allies and damage enemies, send out a short shockwave that blinds enemies and heals allies for three seconds, perform a vertical spinning thrust to carry herself and her summoner into the air, fire a gravity cluster that pulls in surrounding foes for three seconds, and if she's been used three times already in one fight, create a field for five seconds that stops enemy movement

Items created:

[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/2qN2LNp.png]Zanzo’s cleavers[/url][/b] a pair of impractical heavy and squat blades that are very much style over substance. The dense metal backs and sharp steel fronts make them very effective against defenseless training dummies, not so much against combatants with the survival instincts to get out of the way of the weapon’s heavy blows. Trailing cords can be plugged into power sources that can be used to make the screw head like disks on the weapon spin, which adds no additional combat capabilities. 

Spirit absorbed:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/kTaphHp.png]Mursame[/url][/b]
The host is now taller than an average woman. She's gained some futuristic red armor plates, most notable on her shoulders, chest, and thighs, all loosely styled after the armor of a Samurai. Her helmet is now adorned by the same material and is mostly symmetrical except for one covered eye, its faceplate fixed in a demonic scowl. Her skin now has an artificial look to it, with seams as if between interlocking parts, rivets, small built-in metal plates, and a few blue light fixtures. This spirit confers the Power [b]Crescent Moon[/b]. This special sword slash allows Midna to near-instantly draw and strike with a bladed weapon and taunts the enemies it hits, making them more likely to target the host. This spirit also confers the Weakness [b]Can't Fly[/b], making the host unable to fly under her own power

Notable spirit consumed:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/7U4Uydd.png]Blodia[/url][/b]
The summon is now a bulky wolf-bear mech, thirty feet tall but still quadrupedal, completely mechanical in appearance, part bright red, part dull ice blue, and par brown. This spirit confers the Power [b]8 Way Airdash[/b], which allows the mech to dash forward, up-forward, straight up, up-back, backward, down-back, straight down, and down-forward after jumping in the air. This can be performed twice per airtime. This spirit also confers the Weakness [b]Piloted[/b], requiring someone to actually get into the summon to pilot it in order for it to do anything
[/hider]

The reason it had to wait was because two things came along to hurry them in short succession. The first was the arrival of Raz and Luka, the pair bringin news on how they had worked out where Peach had been taken. That and the rather concerning fate of a few Psych-OFS operatives who had gone looking for her, who presumably has not been in on either the resistance or the conspiracy’s side of what had happened to the pink princess.

[color=Aquamarine]”Poor people. I wonder if it was the regime or the rebels who took their memories. Either way, we’d best be careful we don’t fall for whatever trap they wandered into”[/color] she said as she implicitly volunteered. She’d been one of the ones insisting they save her after all, she wasn’t going to back out of that commitment at this hour. 

The second issue introduced itself via slamming through one of the walls.

[color=Aquamarine]”and that is our cue to leave”[/color] she declared, briefly attempting to float closer to the group of psychics, before remembering she couldn’t do that any more and striding over instead, dragon claws biting into the ground to give her the grip to avoid sliding while doing so.

[color=Aquamarine]”Do we need to hold hands or something of the like?”[/color] the princess asked as she offered one of the four she now had to Sakura [color=Aquamarine]”or is proximity good enough?”[/color]