[center][h3]Oblivion’s Ingress II[/h3]
Sectonia, Blazermate, Mokou, Heismay
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3188 (+4)[/center]

After the last cultist fell, the Seekers should have had a chance to catch their breath, but the Altar’s gruesome Azoic End left them even more chilled than the biting winter wind’s bluster. At the touch of that eldritch miasma, it felt as though Heismay’s skin tried to divest itself of him, wrenching itself free of the muscle and bone beneath–a most disquieting sensation. It took only a moment for that wretched gut reaction to stop, but the disturbance it left behind did not fade away, instead coiling around and adhering to the frayed edges of his mind like so many suckered tentacles. His grip on the hilt of his longsaber shook slightly, but he did not slide it back into its scabbard. Something else was coming. He could feel it.

The heroes didn’t have long to wait. From the depths of Oblivion’s Ingress, that lightless portal to the World of Light from tenebrous netherrealms of antediluvian horror, the gleeful shadows divulged an abominable [url=https://darkestdungeon.wiki.gg/images/Exemplar.png?d40ac0=&format=original]Exemplar[/url], pinnacle of its nightmarish brood. It took the form of a giant stooped torso of knotted, melty reddish flesh, with a dessicated humanoid limb on the left side and a writhing cape of tentacles on the other. An elaborate, upside-down iron mask dangled on one end of a spine that seemed to rear up from its corded back as if attempting to escape and ascend to a higher plane, connected to a bloodless torso with arms outstretched in adulant praise. Over its severed neck hung a plume of light blue ghostflame, outlined by a five-pointed crown of darkness that floated in the air, the sign of insidious conspiracy made manifest. 

To one side of the freakish amalgamation floated a [url=https://darkestdungeon.wiki.gg/images/thumb/Cherub.png/800px-Cherub.png?bdd2d3]Cherub[/url], an odious being not much larger than a human child, with three arms and wings like the veiled tentacles of a vampire squid. Bearing scroll and censer, it sported an iron crown of its own, stabbed into a head marked by recessed sockets and yellowed teeth, permanently agape. On the other side wriggled another Altar, and this time it began with a special ritual, Altar of Ambition. Some kind of proud, strident energy washed over the Exemplar, and its candle-flame burned all the brighter.

Heismay forced himself to take a deep breath, his ruby-red eyes narrowing as he steadied his grip on his blade. “Ready yourselves. This won’t be easy.”

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9EfeBasfqk[/youtube][/center]

“When has it been? Either way, these ones are going to die like the others” Mokou states with a shrug, tilting her head to the side to get rid of a sore spot in her neck before she abruptly draws out the Frozen Flame, throwing it directly at the Cherub in the back. She could have focused on the larger one, but it was always the smaller creatures that were the most annoying. Her icy-hot ball struck the Cherub, inflicting one stack of Frostburn, and bounced back to strike the Exemplar from behind. It went on to ricochet off one of the obsidian cathedral’s lightless surfaces, the side of a tentacle the Cherub again, and then sail off to the right between the Altar and the Exemplar. It would take a little bit for it to find its way back to Mokou’s hand.

Even though Heismay hadn’t spent much magla all day, his expenditure against the previous cultists had taken a chunk out of his reserves. Sadly, it looked like he couldn’t afford to conserve against this repugnant monstrosity. Whatever it had in store for the team, hopefully an accuracy debuff would take the edge off. “Some darker arts!” He burst forward as the Assassin and dealt the Exemplar a quick Lurking Nightblade, but the shadowy sword’s bite didn’t seem to take. “Unfortunate.” He leaped backward in an impressive flip, switching archetypes to Gunner as he did to nail the Exemplar with a poisoned parting shot.

Although hurt and more vulnerable thanks to the stacks of frostburn inflicted by Mokou, the Cherub still managed to be even more of an annoyance than she thought. It targeted the Phoenix with a Sightless Miasma from its blighted censer, which did only minor damage but inflicted both Blind to guarantee that her next attack would miss, and a point of Stress to bring her total to 6. An orange flash behind its iron crown also indicated the gain of a Worship token, which for now did nothing.

The Exemplar then took action. Bright white light spilled from the eyeholes of its dangling mask as it targeted Blazermate with Prelude. As the ghostfire around the Exemplar’s severed neck flared up, reality around the medabot seemed to strain, as if some immense cosmic force was bulging against the walls of normalcy, about to burst through. Blight coursed through her systems, the acidic affliction doing damage over time, as she moved toward the Exemplar against her will. Above her head floated a skull surrounded by blue flame, the Combo token that indicated she was marked for death. At least until her Raincoat procced, dispelling the worst part of the debuff, the damage. 

Mokou blinked slightly, her vision blurred so heavily that it was next to impossible to see properly, “Huh, a blinding trick. Whatever will I do-” the Phoenix comments before snapping her fingers, “Heismay! Time for footwork!” With that single warning, a new wall of blazing feathers formed behind her, firing forth at where the cultists were before Mokou’s sight was taken. Her answer to the blinding was simple: Scorched earth.

Sectonia herself was outraged at such hideous things before her. And as such summoned a field of holy swords underneath the cultists before getting in range for all of her auras to hit the cultists as she rained the area with dark lightning. Blazermate, having been partially saved by her raincoat item she had gained from the last time they fought horrors like this in that horrible tree, thought against summoning her strikers in this fight. As the pull effect didn’t last as long as the Exemplar thought it would thanks to her resist all medal, although there wasn’t much she could do about the combo mark. If they had weird debuffs and such she didn’t want those strikers attacking her! So all she really had was to heal and place a debuff on one of the cultists to clone 25% of the damage it took to the other one. She was close to uber from the previous fight though. Since Sectonia had moved up to be the primary focus more than she already was, she had to be closer to the fight than she wanted.

Alerted by Mokou’s call, Heismay whipped around to see a wall of fiery pinions advancing toward Oblivion’s Ingress. “Good grief.” The nimble eugief got moving, narrowly managing to avoid the Phoenix’s fusillade as scorching feathers and dark lightning bombarded the cultists’ position in an elemental deluge. The spellcasters’ efforts did a lot of damage to the Altar and left the weakened Cherub on its last legs, flailing its three arms as its distorted voice wailed in pain. Desperately it raised its scroll and attempted Face Your Confession on Mokou, inflicting Horror on her as it gained Dodge and a second Worship token.

Made of sterner stuff, the gleeful Exemplar withstood the onslaught, its arms raised even as burns, shocks, and poison ate away at its vast constitution. Finally, it was time for The Fall. A wad of shadowy tentacles dropped from the night sky, through the Highlands’ cloud veil to descend upon Blazermate with gruesome force, like a wrathful stomp from some outer god. It dealt massive damage and left her cratered in the ground. Uncanny orange light heralded the accumulation of one worrisome Worship token.

The heavy impact made Heismay flinch, but it also galvanized him into action. If the team lost its healer, everyone else would be in trouble. If the worst came to worst, they could contact Sandalphon for help, but the archangel had seemed to him to be oddly infirm today and he didn’t want to endanger her if he could avoid it. “I’ll draw its ire!” Heismay dashed forward and slashed at the Exemplar’s left arm, dodging a clumsy swipe in the process.

As the Altar began to work its Flesh Weaving to restore the Exemplar’s wounds, one more nasty surprise bore its foul fruit. The Altar of Ambition ritual activated to fill the Exemplar with a surge of eldritch energy, allowing it to act again. Fixing its sightless gaze on Heismay and Sectonia, it unveiled its Rapturous Beauty, implanting the blood-curdling Horror debuff and a Vulnerable token apiece. Heismay shivered as a deep fear, icier than any cold, slithered down his spine, but after a moment’s reeling he continued his assault.

Mokou narrows her eyes at the Cherub’s actions, feeling the mental strain it kept inflicting upon her. Yet even still, the immortal’s mind was a bastion in comparison, having seen horrors far beyond even these. Thus there was no hesitation as she held her arm out to the side… Abruptly catching the Frozen Flame orb as it rebounded back to her hand at long last. The Phoenix then used the momentum from the catch to spin around, throwing the ball at the Cherub, who naturally managed to weave to the side to dodge the projectile. 

Only to get hit in the back as it bounced off of a nearby pillar, catching them at the tail end of their initial dodge, finishing the Cherub off with a burst of ice and fire. At the same time, Mokou turned her focus to the Altar that was trying to keep the Exemplar alive, snapping her fingers to send a stream of flame towards them. She could feel her current body beginning to burn out, which was certainly a problem. But that simply meant she’d have to wait a few moments to get back into the action once it was done and dusted.
Sectonia felt the eldritch evil affect her, and while she was still strong enough to not show it affecting her, she didn’t like it at all. Seeing as the Altar seemed to be healing everything, Sectonia adjusted her focus to that. She unleashed a combo of holy beams, first a round of radial beams at the Altar, then a blast of holy dragon’s breath as that ability had finally charged.

Blazermate meanwhile got out of the crater she had found herself in. [color=0072bc]”OW, that hurt…”[/color] Blazermate said. She saw Sectonia attacking some kind of Altar, a bit confused, but noticed it was alive as her Scan told her it had a health bar and everything. [color=0072bc]”Well, guess its time for my old strategies if they are going to be targeting me…”[/color] Blazermate said as she used the Ubercharge she had gathered to fire a Medaforce beam at the stationary Altar, her beam impacting at the same time as Sectonia’s holy breath beam. While Sectonia’s attack was pure damage, Blazermate’s Medaforce beam healed her for the damage it did, and it wasn’t a pushover attack either although it probably wasn’t as strong as Sectonia’s. 


The pair’s combined efforts proved to be enough to annihilate the Altar, which shriveled away with a hideous shriek, and dispel the Altar of Ambition effect empowering the Exemplar. That left the cultist boss on its own at last. Lashing out at Heismay, it managed to land a clumsy smack, but thanks to the Vulnerable token left on him the eugief took double damage and went tumbling away with an agonized cry and at least one broken bone. Mokou’s flames barraged it the next moment, but in the midst of the inferno, the Exemplar finally spent its Worship tokens to unveil Exultation. All around the Seekers, the shadows wailed and danced, closing in on Mokou and Sectonia like a hundred crushing maws to deal comparable damage to The Fall. As if that wasn’t enough, when the shadows receded another Altar had appeared behind the Exemplar, which itself lost its Worship but gained Death Armor. Sectonia’s arcane intuition could perceive that the boss could now withstand an otherwise lethal hit.

Without delay, the Altar began to repair the Exemplar with Flesh Weaving.

Groaning, and not too far away from the perilous edge of the cliff, Heismay picked himself up and clutched his arm. His longsaber lay at his feet, but he hesitated to pick it up. “It…can summon more support?” The hermit wavered, his confidence breaking, as he saw the state everyone was in. “We…we should retreat!”

A pillar of light descended from the heavens as Sandalphon appeared, the holy light of her halo shining amidst the darkness even after the sky beam faded. Naturally the archangel had been listening in, so even if her allies forgot to call her, she would come to her help unbidden. She planted her gunstaff as she cast Angelic Wings. The ripples of holy water through the aetheric current healed everyone substantially, restoring their fighting ability, and boosted their strength by 15% of her own. “Stand and fight,” she commanded her team as she faced the abyss, unblinking. “Nihility shall not prevail.”

The Exemplar stretched wide its limbs as its nightmare light shone forth. Sandalphon found herself pulled forward, her aching body burned by acid, as the abomination marked her with Prelude.

Blazermate could dispel the DoT part of Prelude on Sandalphon, but not the rest of the debuff. Still, this was getting annoying. She was fully healed now though at least. [color=0072bc]”So… Just blow up the big guy? If he can just summon everything over again…”[/color] Blazermate said, telling everyone how much health it had left. Well, Sectonia wanted this thing over and done with, and this thing was the only thing that still lived so perhaps that was the goal. Or she could just wipe everything out all at once. Blazermate kept on healing duty, having a charged projectile shield she used to deal damage to the Exemplar and slow it down as Sectonia blasted it with multiple rings of light and other hard hitting moves that could pierce on top of that that could hit the adds as well.

The Exultation was enough to put Mokou down, her body falling limp from the air and onto the ground with a thud before swiftly bursting into flame, reforming shortly after Sandalphon’s appearance, the Phoenix glaring at the Exemplar and its new Altar, “Summoning help too. Alright then, we focus on the big one then” she answered, rising slowly into the air as two flaming wings sprouted from her back as she put her entire being into her next attack.

[b]Immortal "Fire Bird -Flying Phoenix-"[/b]

Suddenly, all hell broke loose from Mokou. If her previous attacks were a drizzle, then this new attack was a storm as a truly countless number of feathers and spheres formed in the sky before launching forth to bombard the entire area. While there were openings in the pattern, the Exemplar was too large and clumbering to truly take advantage of them, meaning that it would have to take the full brunt of Mokou’s self-immolating Spell Card.

Heismay joined in the onslaught and slashed the Exemplar with Lurking Nightblade as the Assassin, his magla reserves nearly empty. Sensing her imminent doom, Sandalphon reached into her bag of tricks for her most destructive ability: Headquarters Support Request, obtained from her fusion with Leanne. She highlighted the abomination’s position with a summoned laser pointer, and a moment later a cluster bomb dropped from the sky to pound the Exemplar with a chain explosion. The debilitating blasts hindered its attack, defense, elemental resistance, and status resistance, making the others’ all-out assault that much more effective.

Unfortunately, the Death Armor gained from its Exultation saved the Exemplar from a fatal blow, and the next moment another burst of Flesh Weaving from the nearly-dead Altar pulled it back from the brink. Now that its minion had two Worship tokens, the Exemplar showed its hand with Pillar of Sacrifice. The Altar perished in an instant deathblow as the Exemplar healed even more, gave itself Worship, and two Riposte tokens that would afford it a free counterattack apiece to whoever struck it next.

Reverting to normal, Heismay panted from exhaustion. “This thing won’t die!” He waved his sword to get the archangel’s attention. “Sandalphon! That mark above you, it’s going to crush you!”

Sandalphon understood what he meant and made an executive decision. She hurled a Frost Lock at the Exemplar to slow it down with an icy coating, then performed a quick scan of its vitals as she prepared to depart. “Withdrawing now. You’re on the final stretch. Finish the fight!” With that she warped back down to the stagecoach, preventing the Exemplar from killing her (and giving itself a second crucial Worship token) with The Fall.

Mokou grits her teeth at the Exemplar, just as her flames begin to burn bright blue. It was a mark of her own magic taking more of her body’s life force, but also a mark of an increased level of damage, “Fine then, let’s see you get back up from [i]this[/i]” Mokou calls out as she was swiftly engulfed into a large ball of blue fire, barely wasting a moment before rocketing forth to slam into the Exemplar with a self destructive charge, a normally devastating attack that was buffed even further with Mokou’s cerulean flames. 

While Blazermate couldn’t really help with the finishing blow, having spent much of her resources that did damage and instead could only heal and overheal, Sectonia could. Her big instant attacks had been used, but she still had some standard big hitting attacks to help Mokou finish this thing off with all of its buffs and allies helping it. Although what her attacks would be would just be what she had been doing previously, just more sword rains, but this time she’d throw some void globules at it to see if that would do anything with all the shields and stuff that stopped this thing from dying.

Heismay spearheaded Sectonia’s sword rain as the Assassin, plunging his Lurking Nightblade into the Exemplar from above the moment after Mokou’s azure explosion left it reeling, its front little more than scorched chunks. “This is the end!” He flipped off of the abhorrent thing, messily wrenching his blade free through the monster’s spine. Sectonia’s swords plunged into the wounds, deepening them just enough for the final void globule to detonate within the beast’s body and bisect it, ending its miserable existence for good.

As it howled and died, the Altar behind it disintegrated, and the dark cathedral itself seemed to groan and buckle. The tentacles reaching out from the void within, seared by Sectonia’s antlers but undeterred, shuddered and withdrew. A moment after they disappeared, Oblivion’s Ingress crumpled, shrinking back into the extraplanar netherworld from which it came.