---

The wielder of Sinagtala remained silent letting the azure haired woman finish her words. Among everyone here she might the one with the closest bond with late Qingshe by the virtue of being her prospective student, one that didn’t matter much due to her untimely death. She still have the book, one that she plans give the copies to the everyone after the war for a small fee while she keeps the original to memento.

"I didn't really knew her for long but I knew enough that despite her schemes she really wants better for everyone." she spoke giving her own brief eulogy to the woman. Perhaps if she is still around...

Cristina stopped herself there is no use on musing on the past right now.

"As long as you could convince my bosses to let me, I'll volunteer." she spoke her eyes staring at the Imperial Prince then to everyone in the room. "Not just for her but if this could end the war here and now then it is worth whatever risk we we face."

Callie’s gaze bored up at the young would-be Emperor with burning, evaluating focus and reconfirmed her prior assessment, as delivered to her handler, that his loyalties would likely require more than her own efforts to guarantee.

She reminded herself of her task: securing the interests of the United States of America in this conflict. She reminded herself that, as Spindle had communicated to her, the higher-ups believed that this would be best served by the Qing Restoration Society in power, a single actor upon which the US might confer support and through which their authority might flow.

(Callie mentally hummed at that idea, which seemed to her a great deal like other such ideas those higher-ups’ predecessors had a tendency towards, historically speaking. She’d done her research. Their record of success was far from perfect.)

She reminded herself, therefore, that an outburst summing up her feelings on just how nakedly callous and manipulative Jin Li was being would be counterproductive at best. No matter how much she wanted to.

That boy… Not so much changing what mask he puts on as changing himself to be the right mask. She focused, keeping herself from shuddering. And very, very good at it, too. Must be awful. Callie studied him a moment longer, letting the very edges of her anger in to grant her cold clarity. Unless he takes pride in it. Might well.

Too much – she needed to look away, to put her sight somewhere, anywhere else… Her gaze landed on Cristina and the anger did not merely rise but was joined by the press of guilt. For who else could it be but Qingshe’s own pupil who would be most affected by her mentor’s supposed superior, to whose services she had risked everything to defect, throwing her away –

(Because Lei Qingshe was still alive. Callie knew this, as truth. Even leaving her personal feelings on the matter aside, ones of which she was now distinctly aware, such a woman would not permit herself to die. Not before all her works were complete.)

(She couldn’t.)

The higher-ups will want him weak without them, Callie noted – partially for her handler’s benefit when it came time for her to examine her mind once again. Weaker than he is now – because he refuses to let himself be anything else. Needs unbalancing.

Wonder how he’d react if his former chief ally got free and learned just how quickly he abandoned her.

Across Callie’s thoughts, priorities aligned and a plan began to form.

For now, all she showed of it was a clasping of hands behind her back.

Already having dropped his bags by the door nearby, Lukas slowly gathered with the crowd. He discreetly found his way to the back of the room to listen to the speech, and observe. After a minute or two he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, and paid close attention despite his apparent skepticism. He quickly got a shallow overview of what kind of people they were. He found the addition of color, in contrast to the underworld he'd worked in previously, refreshing. Though he would not underestimate them, and knew fully well this was just another power source seeking pawns to do their dirty work. As the speech ended, Lukas curiously started to be on the lookout for potential, like strength, or power.

When answers were expected from the group of volunteers, Lukas remained silent. The laid back undercover agent, or more precisely; ex undercover agent, was quite the opposite of a public speaker. He didn't even consider his own opinion on the conflict, other than who might win, and thereby, which side to pick. He would pick the winner, or at least someone powerful enough to provide safety. The corners of his lips tugged slightly upwards as the feisty girl, who probably could use a hairclip or two for her annoying bangs, spoke. He liked her. She was simple, and straight to the point. Honest. Honest people were fun to drop into the stiffling air of politics. Lukas had so many good memories of that.

Forsaking any kind of fun for now though, Lukas started looking for a potential protector. Old habits died hard, but this time Lukas would at least be able to choose for himself, from a global pile of potentials. "See? You know it. Without a proper master, a tool is useless," ringed through his mind, and he shook it off before taking matters into his own hands.

Ruining his short lived inner peace, Lukas charged his Noble Arm. Unless anyone in the room had Noble Arm powers that could pick up the use of other Noble Arms, or the like, none would notice Lukas' scan. His powers were that of the mind, so all Lukas would seem to be doing, was concentrate on the serious matter at hand. While his small finger knife of a Noble Arm appeared in its sheath around his ankle, under his jeans, his gaze scanned the crowd as they spoke. He would intuitively understand which ones in the room carried the strongest malevolent intention, if they had any, towards any others in their shared space. Should their goal be elsewhere, he would only understand there to be a goal. Not who or where. The closer the person would be to the act, location and, or, target, the stronger Lukas would sense it.

Humans were so beautiful with their violent nature. Their anger and hatred spiking into violent impulses, that sadly would too often die before they could even be considered a thought, due to the human race's philosophic and ethical evolution. Triggered enough, though, these emotional impulses often did become unmistakable desires and wishes, followed by meticulous or desperate plans of actions, that would span from a day to several years; then, hilariously ending with devastating guilt and regret.

This was Lukas' world.

Suddenly a woman, apparently named Callie, had such an odd energy that Lukas blinked confused, and even squinted to try and decipher it. He quickly let it go, though understood it had been directed at the person on the podium. It bothered him a short while until someone else caught his attention.

Henri sighed, listening to the speech.

"Politics, politics, politics..." He whispered to himself.

He had barely survived being shot and nearly drowning. The Arms-Master could still feel the phantom pains from the place bullet had lodged in, even though it had been removed.

Henri had pretty much recovered at that point, his movements and battle skills having returned to pretty much normal. Although one thing bothered him.

An experience he had should have traumatized him. Or he supposed there was no guarantee of a soldier losing one's guts. Still, Henri was taking everything much better than he expected. Was there something mentally wrong in him... Or could it be because of his Noble-Arm?

Not that far-fetched, actually. Many Arms-Masters, Task Force Obsidian included, were very young, de jure child soldiers, and they too seemed to take things surprisingly in stride. This would require further study.

But first...

"I owe you my life, and should the circumstances permit it, I will seek to pay it back."

Intermission Five - Aftermath of Victory

Municipality of Lubao, Pampanga Province, Philippines - 1/1/2023, 8:40 AM, UTC+8

Peony Loris was quickly accepted as a volunteer, albeit one closely escorted by heavily-armed infantry, some of them with weapons calculated to knock an Arms Master unconcious; sleep reverted 99.9% of all Arms Masters to normal people. She would be told by the guards that Task Force Obsidian was in the City of Lubao, Pampanga, and she would be shown a picture to go along with the verbal description of the municipality given to her by her escorting guards.



The guards, despite the efforts of the middle-aged female drill sergant in charge of their unit, were given to gossip, and Peony would be told that Task Force Obsidian, though powerful, competent, famous and rewarded, also had a very high turnover rate, with a 'core' of only a few very experienced and strong fighters and many Arms Masters who either dropped out to do their own thing or got injured or killed or even captured; one or two were later revealed to be enemy agents trying to inflitrate the Task Force but were stopped before they can even meet with the members of Task Force Obsidian; a very big stroke of luck.

She was also told she was late; there was already a meeting in the New Lubao Town Hall (the image cannot be reposted outside of Wikipedia), where one of TFO's allies was making some sort of heartfelt appeal for support. Either way, she would be guided to the heavily-guarded entrance of the building, then her escort's leader would say, gruffly, "Don't be late again, got it? Arms Master or not, that does not give you the privilege to be late in a war..."

Then the sky changed, and all of a sudden, it was a starry night again. But Peony still felt the heat of the day on the still-fleshy portions of her skin. Was it an illusion? And if so, was it the hologrammic kind, or the mental kind?

And something fell down from the sky, a streak of flame that crashed down to the ground several paces away from her and her guards, causing an impact that broke the concrete, mud, and grass of the courtyard and caused a large explosion of dust and rubble.

It was...

@Paths of Parity

---

Conference Room, City Hall, Municipality of Lubao, Pampanga Province, Philippines - 1/1/2023, 8:40 AM, UTC+8

Jin Li smiled at that and gave a slight bow before saying, "Thank you. The Qing Restoration Movement - Now the New Democratic Party of China - will have a place in a Post-Communist political order thanks to your help -"

Then it all went dark. Anyone who rushed to the windows or outside would find that it was night again, or rather, a holographic barrier covered most of Lubao that projected a starry night sky. but did not keep out heat.

Then the earth shook, as if a heavy weight crashed down on it. The space near the entrance was engulfed in an explosion of dust; did the foe launch an explosive drone?

---

Crater Near the Entrance, City Hall, Municipality of Lubao, Pampanga Province, Philippines - 1/1/2023, 8:40 AM, UTC+8

No; what had crashed was just one person.



"Eheheheheh..." said the girl as she stood up from the center of the cloud of dust and the crater she had formed, then held out her shield, "I am your enemy, Feng Lin, Pig of the Zodiac, Devourer of Noble Arms! I have been sent to avenge the Chinese Pacific Fleet with your lives!"

And to grandstand, the holographic sky above them briefly returned into daylight, then an Eclipse. Then Feng shouted, "Now get your civilians out of here so you can face me at full strength! I can defeat all of you, all at once - You have ten minutes before I use my powers to raze this town to the ground!"

A second later, a giant meteor sponteanously dropped down to just a few inches above the New City Hall... then parked itself there, suspended in midair.

Feng then demanded again, "Now go evacuate all civilians so I can destroy you all singlehandedly!"

@Amidatelion@Chiro@Nimbus@Digmata@Ducksworth@Gerlando@LladyLloki@Creative Chaos@Paths of Parity@Lewascan2 (if returning) @Gerlando (if returning).

When Peony joined, she didn’t expect such a heavy escort from her new… employers? Comrades? In hindsight, she really should have, given the power an average Arm Wielder possessed, she was as much a liability as an asset and that was being generous considering they were almost infiltrated by enemy Masters.

That didn’t stop the image of several heavily armed soldiers escorting a fairly small woman from being any less comical.

At least the guards were amicable enough, the journey would have been incredibly awkward otherwise. The picture they painted of Obsidian was strange and maybe a little concerning. She didn’t know what to expect from the task force but it seemed far more chaotic than a military organization should be. Although, remembering some of the stories her dad told her, perhaps chaos was just something that happened in every military.

She wouldn’t be dissuaded by them at any rate, her decision to fight wasn’t something she made lightly and she wouldn’t be deterred by gossip.

The countryside itself was picturesque enough, far more vast than Saipan at any rate. She could imagine visiting as a tourist under better circumstances. Unfortunately, she couldn’t quite ignore the ruins even if a more clinical part of her mind noted the relatively small amount of them.

Looking at the town hall, she imagined the negotiations occurring inside of it were probably some of the most politically significant that ever occurred in the building. With the amount of security, the military certainly treated it as such.

She was also told she was late; there was already a meeting in the New Lubao Town Hall (the image cannot be reposted outside of Wikipedia), where one of TFO's allies was making some sort of heartfelt appeal for support. Either way, she would be guided to the heavily-guarded entrance of the building, then her escort's leader would say, gruffly, "Don't be late again, got it? Arms Master or not, that does not give you the privilege to be late in a war..."

Even so, she didn’t appreciate the curtness of the sergeant. It was uncalled for even if it was accurate, she gave herself enough grief over the issue.

Peony wouldn’t get any more time to ruminate on the issue when the sky suddenly went dark. A part of her left arm buzzed with an anxious energy. While it still looked normal, it felt as if it was submerged in a viscous fluid at all times. This particular reaction was new in a way that was decidedly unwelcome.

The supernatural change left her and her guards on high alert but she refrained from calling upon her Arm just yet.

A fiery flicker in the corner of her eye caught her attention and a second later that flicker impacted far too close for comfort, nearly throwing her off balance. Deciding she had shown enough restraint, she called upon Plunging Tesseract.

Her left arm from elbow to fingertip turned steely grey though still moved as flesh should. The blade itself was ornate and massive, longer than Peony was tall though she didn’t struggle to move it in the slightest. The Master focused for a few seconds, entering Liminal state and the nature of the weapon shifted. The once steely grey rippled and became a brilliant white-yellow with pink and sky blue creeping along the ends. Its once solid form was now fluidlike, changing shape constantly if slowly. Ripples formed over the surface of the weapon and drops broke away from the blade, hovered in the air for a few seconds, before falling to the ground. The weapon seemed deeper than the surroundings, like it sunk into reality and its body was the hole.

By the time Peony was ready the dust was beginning to clear, revealing a lone girl. She was shorter than Peony, surprisingly, yet the novice Master felt a bone deep dread looking at her.

"Eheheheheh..." said the girl as she stood up from the center of the cloud of dust and the crater she had formed, then held out her shield, "I am your enemy, Feng Lin, Pig of the Zodiac, Devourer of Noble Arms! I have been sent to avenge the Chinese Pacific Fleet with your lives!"

And to grandstand, the holographic sky above them briefly returned into daylight, then an Eclipse. Then Feng shouted, "Now get your civilians out of here so you can face me at full strength! I can defeat all of you, all at once - You have ten minutes before I use my powers to raze this town to the ground!"

A second later, a giant meteor sponteanously dropped down to just a few inches above the New City Hall... then parked itself there, suspended in midair.

Feng then demanded again, "Now go evacuate all civilians so I can destroy you all singlehandedly!"

The meteor certainly helped. Having a blade merely the size of your body never felt so inadequate.

God, what a terrible way to start the new year.

She felt compelled to say something. The girl was here to kill her but she was also giving them time to evacuate civilians so surely she was at least a little bit reasonable.

Tagalog wasn’t her first language but she had a feeling the interloper would understand her second. She cleared her throat. “…Um… There’s a lot of civilians around. To evacuate, I mean. W-We’ll need at least twenty.” She said in fluent Chinese.

She winced at her own milquetoast statement. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this after all. Given the situation, it was a bit late to back out.

The violent intent from afar hit Lukas' already opened senses so hard he jolted before the impact hit the ground outside. The tremor of the impact sent him down into a controlled crouch in order to keep his balance. As he did not want to spend his newly found freedom dying under a rooftop, among strangers, Lukas quickly got up, and dashed towards the exit. His Noble Arm, Marble, gave him the speed he needed to grab his bags and make it outside in matter of seconds. He wanted to figure out what he was up against before deciding whether to run or stay. He knew through Marble in which direction to go, and when ending up outside with other volunteers, Lukas threw his bags on the ground nearby after skidding to a halt. The threat was a sole girl, surprisingly.

The eclipse was, for some reason, terribly uncomfortable for Lukas. Nevertheless, with the alias of Benjamin among the Task Force, he stood battle ready. As the invader made her undermining and playful villainous speech, Lukas glanced around for anyone who might charge in. Surely there had to be a few foolhearted heroes among them that could work as distractions while he went into stealth mode? In the meantime he sharpened his senses to learn what the shield wielding girl's intent could truly be, and who might be her target, if she had any, or several.

She gave them time. Why? Was it to play? Or was it because she truly didn't want to attack? Was someone manipulating her? Lukas would carry sympathy for that, naturally, having been rather manipulated himself up until that day. The crazy girl with a literally ground breaking entrance, could also be stalling for someone else, and simply wait for them to make their move. Lukas would learn something about all of that very soon, assuming their invader had a soul.
Usually the intensity of his target's commitment to their actions, measured up against the level of severity, would reveal whether their actions originated from their own accord, or by others. Lukas dabbled in those kinds of manipulations himself, after all. The less a person wanted or was capable of doing something, the harder it was to make them, thereby, the commitment in their soul would be weaker than what their action would assume. Basically Lukas searched for knowledge about whether this maniac of a girl was bluffing, or if she was being serious. Mass murder and mass destruction was kind of a big anouncement, and it was rather close at hand.

The one or the other would determine his oncoming strategy.

If the loud surprise from earlier, changing daylight and unknown enemy wasn't enough to challenge Lukas' mental concentration, a burning meterorite suddenly hovering above the building, only meters away from him, did the work. "Oh! Fff..." he cursed under his breath when staring up at the burning ball of destruction, realizing that this girl had the power to control not only an eclipse, but burning meteorites as well. He feared what else she could do, so he slowly backed from the hot immensity hanging in the air. Even though he sensed no immediate danger, that could quickly change, and Lukas was not keen on testing whether he could outrun or block burning balls from space. How many could she summon anyway!? While at the mercy of one crazy terrorist, who probably caused eclipses in her spare time, Lukas felt rather inferior. He struggled not to run, and cursed inwardly; He knew something insane like this would happen when involving himself with other Noble Arms. Stupidly insane powers! He had always thought, and would so haunt them all if he was going to die under some dumb burning meteorite!

As the invader continued to hold the thing off though, the steady flow of information continued to come to Lukas, having only been slowed for a handful of seconds due to the fearful distraction.

Lukas waited impatiently for someone to charge ahead, so he could perhaps find his way to her, and grab a hold of her mind. He got murderously fired up by the thought of controlling, or paralyzing someone this powerful. If Lukas was correct in suspecting the enemy's show of might originating from a childish form of superciliousness, it would prove easy to get into the control panel of her mind, but if her audaciousness was rightful to her powers, and her intelligence proved far more than a mere spoiled psychopath, he'd have a challenge.

Lukas might look unarmed, but his professional stance and sharp focus on the situation expressed he was ready to receive orders, or give them. As a trained agent, Noble Arms Master, and opportunist, Lukas was ready to help despite the horrifying scenery of a burning meteorite, an ominous eclipse and the girl's grinning confidence from behind her massive shield.

Suddenly from behind our dashingly handsome raven haired hero:

Peony cleared her throat. “…Um… There’s a lot of civilians around. To evacuate, I mean. W-We’ll need at least twenty.” She said in fluent Chinese.

Lukas understood chinese, but wasn't sure the enemy did. For their sake, he hoped she did. Did they perhaps know each other? Lukas' confusion was kept behind his halted breath for a moment, until the newly arrived girl with too big of a weapon, started negotiating with the other girl with too big of a shield. Should the fireball wielding teenager get insulted by the demand of more time, Lukas was ready to get the hell out of their way, because suddenly Lukas found himself in the middle of the three massive energies. To his right, a burning meteorite. At his front; A maniac probably lacking a healthy hobby. And behind him; a well meaning hero.

Lukas started to mourn his hopes for cake. Why couldn't he just have gone somewhere else for that cake? Maybe cake would be his only dying wish...He thought miserably. Slowly turning his head to look at the seemingly kind girl, wielding an intensely magnificent sword of rainbow goo, Lukas gave her a horrified look that silently said "What?!" Meanwhile he lifted his hands disarmingly so the enemy would not perceive him as a threat, and while having his head turned to look at Peony, he suddenly struggled to hold back a giggle. As the sudden smile forced its way through his forgiving face, he seemed to be amused by her attempt, though also admitting to himself he would probably have tried something similar. He couldn't help but admire her attempt, and spent a moment collecting himself before facing the enemy again.

Should no one else intervene, or otherwise engage Lukas in something, he would slowly continue seeping information while stepping aside. Just in case the invader got mad at Peony, and decided to drop the whole sympathy thing for civilians. Madness was never predictable, after all. Also, should their new heroic arrival decide to use her hovering droplets of rainbow plague, Lukas did not want to find out the hard way what it felt like.

Callie’s instincts screamed.

“We have incoming! Hostile antiquarian, strong – duck and cover!” She herself was already hitting the floor, pushing off to slide under her chair and already summoning Charter to her hand, staring out of the window behind them as a dark blur crashed to the ground beyond it and kicked up a wave of dust.

In the next moment, she was summoning a portal beyond the figure, just big enough to cast her sight across from it and let her take in what had suddenly become a battlefield. What she saw vanished the piercing rime of anger, sublimated at once to the vaporous chill of fear.

Then she took in the rest of the scene – the girl her own age, their newest recruit, surrounded by a guard totally incapable of protecting her from such a threat, their only slightly less new recruit forming in a blur beside her with the haste of one propelled by survival. And the fire of the guardian within her rose to meet it.

Do I – could blow cover – no, we’ve all been told enough to recognise them; familiarity here’s entirely believable. “No lie – that’s her,” Callie intoned, steadily, carefully climbing back out from beneath her seat. She looked away from her spyglass for all the time it took to let her sapphire eyes lock onto a man she could not say she liked but was nonetheless confident in. “Myron, get on the airwaves, now,” she said at a volume only a few degrees from a shout. “We can’t evacuate a municipality in ten minutes but we can get anyone moving who isn’t and keep it from turning to chaos. Someone else, I need everyone in the building who isn’t fighting – get them here in three minutes for evac.”

She turned to the rest of them. “A-Rank Arms Master. Highly resistant to physical and mental effects; uses small arms and agility as complements. Her shield stores people it touches to gain their knowledge and capabilities. No telling what the PRC’s armed her with, besides an unknown flight-adjacent power and some kind of meteor-calling. She has one suspended under her control over the Hall, half-molten, a dozen metres wide. There may be others.”

“Sergeant Janssens, you’re our best direct response to the target but we need to get you close fast enough so she can’t react with her shield or stolen powers. Preliminary proposal is you, Cristina, or me. Anything to slow or pin her would be an ideal accompaniment.” Callie clenched her jaw. “We also need someone who can neutralise the giant rock. I can shred it but that doesn’t solve the weight or the heat.”

She spared a moment’s glance out again – no change yet – before addressing her team once again, determination searing through her. ”What do we have to work with?”

---

Cristina's cough would be heard from the room as she tried to used her to keep herself from inhaling the floating dust. An ambush at this moment? How? Why? She stared at the newcomer before recomposing herself. The concern to other people was new but welcome, if it is someone she previously encountered she would be leaping over fire and attacks by now.

She would then look at Callie at around the five limit mark, it should be enough for everyone to vacate the building.

"We have this." Cristina spoke as the Mirage Space emerged and trapped the Boar with her and her allies.

That should be enough right?

Conference Room, City Hall, Municipality of Lubao, Pampanga Province, Philippines - 1/1/2023, 8:40 AM, UTC+8

Nil was admittedly asleep through the entire meeting, dreaming of beds, seas of saccharine stuff and the color blue… for some reason. Her companions probably believe anything could happen and she’d still be sleeping, well until someone literally crashed the meeting with an explosion (good thing she put her muffs on!). That did wake up Nil, just about.

She observed the entire situation initially with confusion, Task Force Obsidian was scrambling to fight or evacuate, Jin Li was shocked and here for some reason (Nil didn’t hear his speech) and some unknown girl with a big ass shield was standing there… menacingly.

To anyone observing Nil a little (Peony too if you want), they’d see her still groggily waking up and stretching with basically no awareness of the situation.

Peony cleared her throat. “…Um… There’s a lot of civilians around. To evacuate, I mean. W-We’ll need at least twenty.” She said in fluent Chinese.

“Myron, get on the airwaves, now,” Callie said at a volume only a few degrees from a shout. ”We can’t evacuate a municipality in ten minutes but we can get anyone moving who isn’t and keep it from turning to chaos. Someone else, I need everyone in the building who isn’t fighting – get them here in three minutes for evac.”

Callie turned to the rest of them. “A-Rank Arms Master. Highly resistant to physical and mental effects; uses small arms and agility as complements. Her shield stores people it touches to gain their knowledge and capabilities. No telling what the PRC’s armed her with, besides an unknown flight-adjacent power and some kind of meteor-calling. She has one suspended under her control over the Hall, half-molten, a dozen metres wide. There may be others.”

“Sergeant Janssens, you’re our best direct response to the target but we need to get you close fast enough so she can’t react with her shield or stolen powers. Preliminary proposal is you, Cristina, or me. Anything to slow or pin her would be an ideal accompaniment.” Callie clenched her jaw. “We also need someone who can neutralise the giant rock. I can shred it but that doesn’t solve the weight or the heat.”

At first Nil thought it was just that new girl on the other side of the crater that was saying meaningless words, then Callie started to talk and Nil completely lost track of it. She just stared blankly as if Callie was blabbering in ancient sumerian, so Nil decided to just walk away from this mess.

”We have this." Cristina spoke as the Mirage Space emerged and trapped the Boar with her and her allies.

And immediately an imaginary yet very solid wall appeared in front of Nil and she inadvertently smacked her head on it in a comical fashion. Guess she’s in here too.

Intermission Five - Aftermath of Victory

Municipality of Lubao, Pampanga Province, Philippines - 1/1/2023, 9:20 AM, UTC+8

"Fine, twenty minutes!" Feng conceded to the strange woman (Peony). "Then I'll destroy you all!"

Lukas can see, from Feng, genuine combative intent, mixed with a slight - very slight - reluctance to kill and pride in her ability to intimidate before his supernatural sensing abilities hit a metphorical wall; Feng was automatically defending herself from attempts at magical information gathering!

As Callie stepped in to tell everyone what Feng's abilities were; thank god for publicly available dossiers, Bahram Manjyu noticed that Levi and that other guy, Griff, seemed to be paralyzed with fear; he could not fault them if they were. Nevertheless, if he could move fast, and sneak behind Feng -

It was then that Cristina rushed in and put them all in the fabled Mirage Space. This, in turn, made it so that the trump card, Henri and his Anti-Magic Noble Arm, could not be used easily... damnit.

"Hahahahaha!" Feng laughed as she found herself facing a powerful but disorganized group of opponents. "I can see how The Monkey lost to you all... yet almost won. La Astronomica!"

And the Mirage Space's sky was overwritten with the starry expanse that promised a false heaven.

Bahram spoke to Cristina then, the mercenary asking, "Your Noble Arm - Does it count as an Astronomical-themed one?!"

If it was, one of Feng's devoured Noble Arms, the one that originally belonged to Mykhailo Martinez, would be able to control it. If it wasn't... Feng can still cast Heavenfall.

Either way, a dozen, no, two dozen, meteors would appear above Mirage Space, ready to fall down on the group, even as Feng drew a machine pistol using her other hand and began firing at Callie, knowing full well the other A-Ranked Arms Master was her second greatest threat after Henri.

After emptying her clip, Feng danced out of the way, surprisingly nimble for someone who carried her large, cumbesome-seeming shield, and Myron realized that, "She has Noel inside her shield! I can recognize La Luna's Miraculous Evasion in her movements! She probably has another person devoured too!"

Feng gave a slight "tch!" at that, before remembering that as Henri was not going to be able to interfere soon... She can activate Ether Body.

Lukas can detect the change; Feng's entire body just became Magic! Would that strengthen what he can do against her, or the opposite? Either way, Feng was now rushing towards Cristina, even as everyone was suffering bouts of bad luck when trying to hit her with their own attacks or avoid the meteors, which would be harder but not impossible!

@Amidatelion@Chiro@Nimbus@Digmata@Ducksworth@Gerlando@LladyLloki@Creative Chaos@Paths of Parity@Lewascan2 (if returning) @Gerlando

"Fine, twenty minutes!" Feng conceded to the strange woman (Peony). "Then I'll destroy you all!"

The minutes following the agreement were the most awkward and harrowing of her life. Not that she regretted making the offer, she noted the building being evacuated which was one concern addressed if nothing else.

It was also the first time she saw her comrades, not that any of them considered introducing themselves a priority which was understandable given the circumstance. The raven haired one even stood in front of her. He must be particularly brave.

Things only escalated from there. A few minutes before the allotted time ran out, the blond haired women dashed forward and the world shifted. The town disappeared and Peony found herself elsewhere, presumably trapped in alongside her new team and an exceptionally powerful Arms Master.

In the next moment, the false sky was wiped away and replaced with another, more natural looking, false sky.

Despite it all, Peony didn’t feel afraid, whether that was a result of genuine bravery or having simply run out of fear she couldn’t say. She pulled back her sword and flicked it forward, causing its fluidlike body to lash out. The first few attacks were downright pathetic. The first missed completely somehow and the second was thrown off when she tripped over her own feet.

After emptying her clip, Feng danced out of the way, surprisingly nimble for someone who carried her large, cumbesome-seeming shield, and Myron realized that, "She has Noel inside her shield! I can recognize La Luna's Miraculous Evasion in her movements! She probably has another person devoured too!"

If that was due to an ability, then there was little she could do except attack from a different angle.

She gripped Plunging Tesseract’s hilt with both hands and swung in broad strokes, splashing Flux onto the ground between Feng and Callie. The growing puddle looked similar to the weapon it was derived from but its greater size painted a better picture. Sunbeams could be seen disappearing into the deep violet depths of the puddle. As it spread across the false ground, distant shapes and points appeared and vanished within its depths.

It was a balancing act between avoiding the meteors and continuing to swing in order to keep distance between the interloper and her target. Still, the stakes were too big to let up. Ideally she could surround the girl and her cannibalistic weapon with Flux, hemming her in to create a oppurtunity.

It was a balance of probabilities. Taking on Feng inside Mirage Space might give her more freedom of action but it would confine her freedom of action to Mirage Space. Lubao, for now, was safe. More than that, if Henri could get close, they could shut her down just the same as outside – maybe even release her captives and sources of power in the same moment. Callie didn’t know how the two powers would interact.

Of course, getting him there on her own would mean opening a portal next to Feng, which would mean Henri being unable to call on his nullification mid-transit, which would give Feng an opening to devour him.

And with Noel’s reactive mobility, she would absolutely take it.

A part of Callie felt the pain inherent in that recognition. That wasn’t the part rapidly manifesting a portal through the barrel of Feng’s autopistol that sent the bullets aimed at her instead scattering directly into the belt of additional autopistols she was carrying, or the part tapping her foot to subsequently rend the one she was holding; nor was it the part returning suppressive fire from her own assault rifle, retrieved before the civilians were evacuated from the hall and they engaged (because even with Feng’s supernatural resilience, rifle fire from a few dozen feet would still hurt, just as pistol shots from near-contact would). It was instead the part that had offered harsh succour to Mikey and Grif on the roof in Manila – the same part, closely guarded, that resented and regretted and feared so many of the purposes to which she had been bent.

To that part, that had looked upon a young man and admired his tenacity and spark in the face of such oppressive responsibility, this fate felt like a cruel joke.

She would unmake it. And she would do it quickly, lest any of her teammates fall to the same fate by her hesitation. Behind her, Nil, at once far too young and far too old; ahead, their newest recruit bravely interposing herself and unleashing… Oh. Not as rapidly consumptive and transformative as hers, perhaps – not of such beautiful depth – but reminiscent indeed of Qingshe’s power. The longer Feng lived, the less chance she might have to benefit from her tutelage when she returned.

Charter’s portals could not cut people. She and others had tested it many times over the years. And yet, now, if they could… No amount of resilience would stand up to a blade of dimensional sharpness slicing the wielder in half, and then the threat would be gone. She could keep every one of them safe.

Pain and weight and fear, and the need and hope that she would answer it all. Just as before. For the third time, Callie reached beyond her grasp.

She felt nothing answer.

Desperation – clawing desperation. Please! Please, I must…

Again, nothing answered.

Please, I must, or I will fail and they will die.

Yet, however much her indomitable will reached, or asserted, or begged, the nothing answered – immovable and immutable, for a lack of anything to move or change. Any impetus, any drive slid off it, like a wall of polished adamant glass.

And then Feng was energy, and none of it mattered anymore.

Eyes wide, Callie let instinct take over, calling for her teammates to move as reactive awareness guided her they would need to, moving herself, moving Nil – all while her mind tore outwards, seeking some other way to shape the battle – and inwards, to seek the cause of her strength abandoning her.

It was sweet of someone to think of Lukas as brave, though Lukas never considered himself that. It was a waste of time, as well as an unfamiliar feeling. He had no business caring about what people thought of him anyway, when his powers were all about schemes, tricks, manipulations and lies. Those kinds of powers did not fit well in a thirty meter circle wide dome, with balls of fire hanging from the ceiling, and large weapons swung by larger than life heroes.

In the chaos, Lukas only had enough time to make himself invisible to everyone, and not a particular set of people, as he started running, rolling and dodging to avoid being collateral damage to both friend and enemy. "God, fucking damn it..." He cursed in a tumble where his hair bun came loose. Someone might have heard him curse under his breath on that close call, when coincidentally getting passed, or passing by him. Before they could get too distracted by it, Lukas let his team mates see him crouched down at one of the edges of the dome, panting for his life. He wanted the near accidental murdering of his person to stop by reappearing, though he did so as a transparent ghost like figure to let them know he was still in stealth mode. The illusion that let only his allies see him could break and reveal him to Feng should the others make it obvious he was there. With everything else going on though, he doubted that would happen. He had probably not even been seen by everyone yet.

Even though he was thoroughly embarrassed by his near death experiences, and completely out of his element, the Daft Punk fan kept his concentration on Feng while creating simple and short lived distractions to protect the others while they were fighting. The seemingly laid back raven hair seemed to be planning something towards Feng, though a slight wince in his resolve proved he was not exactly looking forward to pouncing her, like he seemed to be waiting for while pouncing around for his own protection. He was like a passive panther waiting for his chance. The main reason for his hesitation was his fear of the shield Feng was carrying, as he'd learned it captured people. They were screwed though, and if no one did something soon to subdue her, they would be Feng's personal barbeque. Sometimes charging the lion's throat was better than running in the range of its claws.

The space was small. They were many. If they could herd Feng close to either Lukas, or Henri, they could gain some form of upper hand. Should Lukas get behind Feng, he could stab her with his fingerknife, Marble. It was small, but efficient. Lukas could further penetrate Feng's mind with unchallenged touch, and it might be all over.

Meanwhile, sweat was trickling down his neck as he struggled to get a grip on Feng's mind. It was impossible for him to create an environment based on what he suspected was a hunger based anxiety for her. He could make the weapons into food, but Lukas was far too busy to concentrate at the moment to make Peony's sword into a sausage, and its flux to gravy. Maybe later.

---

"Yes why-?" Cristina spoke as her attention suddenly turned to the changing void, she could feel her own control slipping away as meteors began falling. Oh fuck what did she do?!

Panicking she dodged her way out of the falling meteors, her powers going awry as she felt it slipping out of her hands as close calls began happening. Before she could get the chance to breath she felt a presence, the Boar charging to her as she raises her sword. She had no time to dodge which means she had no choice but to face it head on.

Using the last of her control she manifested Starflames between her and the boar launching it at her in a desperate bid to halt or even slow her down.

Gosh, Henri hated the Mirage Space. Now, it had its uses, but Henri himself didn't want to risk using Leonidas, or at least Fighting in Shade. And to add insult to injury, the Boar's shield seemed to have some anti-NA properties of its own, and she was using them with impunity.

This time, however, Henri wasn't so helpless. He had learned a couple of things fighting the zodiac. Most notably, he hadn't seen a single helmet on their heads.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" He thought to himself as he loaded his gun. "Fool me thrice, screw you."

Now, there was no guarantee that this Boar fellow would be as an easy target as the previous ones. Not only she must have heard of the defeats of his cohorts, including the one Henri sniped before. That plus Henri had only a pistol this time, and Feng had a shield. But if all else failed, the shooting would hopefully offer a distraction long enough for another soldier to take a change and deal with the Boar.

As the meteor began to fall, Henri knew he couldn't dilly dally anymore. So he took aim at the Boar's exposed head and fired.

Intermission Five - Aftermath of Victory

Municipality of Lubao, Pampanga Province, Philippines - 1/1/2023, 9:20 AM, UTC+8

Feng was mildly glowing, alternating between the royal blue of the avatars of the Seven Virtues she had absorbed and the red of the Avatar of Superbia she had also devoured. This light flared as Henri's bullet disintegrated upon contact with her body, even as Crown Prince Shinyahito shouted, "Mr. Janessens, use your Shield! The Pig of the Zodiac is glowing like that because she turned her body into pure magical energy, which in turn is because she has absorbed various Avatars of the Virtues and Superbia!"

The Crown Prince had thrust his Noble Arm (a spear) into the ground, and it was glowing; some sort of analysis power was at work?

As for the others' efforts, Feng was avoiding the puddles of metallic fluid Peony was releasing onto the ground, dancing out of their way, not botheirng to hide how looking at them scared her a little. She hurled a meteor - one the size of a truck at the American Arms Master, even as Callie's portals shredded her autopistol, forcing her to draw another one - No, more like that other one moved on its own, flying out of Feng's armored dress, and fired wildly at Nil and Marta, forcing them to deal with a spray of bullets.

Then Cristina clashed with Feng, only for the Pig of the Zodiac to bash her shield onto Cristina's sword with surprising strength and force, before Lukas' powers finally found a chink her her mental armor, filling her with the feeling of hunger and memories of starvation.

"NO!" she screamed in rage and fear, bashing Cristina's sword again and again and if Cristina failed to dodge even once, bashing Cristina herself. This outburst opened a way for Henri to charge in; his own shield could overcome her own if it just made contact.

In the meantime, Jin Li was fulfilling his purpose for being here, using his Noble Arm to hurl jets of water that both cooled down and push away the meteors, while Princess Fukuyo was leaping up to cut down each falling rock while Myron and Bahram were shooting down the bits and pieces of each cut and cooled meteors that rained down on them.

Now there was a chance to win! One charge, and Feng could not just be defeated, but Noel, Mykhailo, and another prisoner can be freed...

@Amidatelion@Chiro@Nimbus@Digmata@Gerlando@Lloki@Creative Chaos (if returning) @Paths of Parity@Gerlando (if returning).

[quote=@Chiro]




"What the!?" Henri exclaimed in shock as the bullets just... Disappeared as they met Feng.

"Mr. Janessens, use your Shield! The Pig of the Zodiac is glowing like that because she turned her body through pure magical energy, which in turn is because she has absorbed Avatars of the Virtues and Superbia!"

The Crown Prince had thrust his Noble Arm (a spear) into the ground, and it was glowing; some sort of analysis power was at work?

"I uhh... Yes, Sire." The sergeant stammered after the order and information provided.

Henri knew best not to hesitate. If he had heard the Prince, then so had Feng. And while the Zodiac was busy, she was getting stronger fast, as she absorbed opponents.

Henri pulled out Leonidas, and luckily it didn't cause the Mirage Space to rip apart or similar, as he had feared. Not only that, but there was a perfect opening. Putting Leonidas in front of him, Henri charged at the Boar with confidence. He could curse his earlier foolishness later, once Zodiac was dealt with.

Callie flowed through action, a being of agility, awareness and half-conscious thought. Her instinct told her that a meteor of far greater mass was about to land directly atop her; she glanced up for a space where the sky was clear, formed a portal to the other side of the battlefield in an instant, dragged herself and Nil through and collapsed it before it could be a conduit for debris. Her instinct told her that the woman who brought her out of unending unconsciousness was about to receive a spray of bullets; she manifested another portal, a lattice that rendered the barrel of Feng’s autopistol – seemingly the last survivor of her belt – into so many neat chunks, all of them falling away as the shieldbearer summoned the now-broken remains to her hand.

Callie’s conscious thought was thus free to consider the implications of the Crown Prince’s yell and Henri’s subsequent charge.

She has Evasion. Noel’s power turned against them… Granted, whether Feng could use it effectively was another matter; amongst the myriad effects that Obsidian and its allies had brought to bear was clearly something done to her mind, the woman screaming in a previously unseen battle-fury and bearing down on a Cristina doing all in her power to avoid her strikes.

Still, to count on that alone would be folly. If Feng was off guard, she needed to be caught like that.

Thank God she gave us the chance to grab our gear. “Sergeant, prepare to accelerate to target,” Callie intoned through another portal between her mouth and Henri’s ear, nowhere near knowledgeable enough about the equipment or the circumstances to know whether radio communicators would work in this strange dimension. Even as she did so, she broke Charter from her rifle, letting the firearm drop to the floor as gently as she could manage in her current haste, and with her other hand reached into a pouch to withdraw something she hadn’t had cause to use since she’d joined Obsidian: one of a set of small, common board darts.

Her mind, bestowed talent honed by intense training, conditioning and practice, processed it all in a flash: the precise dimensions of the portal needed to accommodate Henri’s running form safely without being overconservative and sacrificing energy; the action of Henri’s strides, to time that portal’s passage without tripping him; and, as she raised her dart and summoned the portal with one end bound to said dart’s location, the angle and speed of the dart to ensure that portal reached him at just the right moment.

And, Charter guiding her hand, she knew that the dart would match that angle and speed.

From Feng’s point of view, if she could see past Cristina and the storm in her own mind, nothing stood between her and the soldier rushing her, aspis borne before him. One portal backing onto the other, interposed between her and Henri and directly perpendicular to her position, in no way interfered with what she could see – or what Henri could see, for that matter. Then Callie threw the dart, and the end of the portal closer to Henri, anchored relative to that dart, launched towards him – while from Feng’s perspective, Henri and everything behind him suddenly gained a burst of horizontal speed.

The moving end of the portal reached Henri carrying the speed of the dart. Momentum conserved, Henri shot from the stationary portal it was joined to, carrying all the same speed in the other direction – towards Feng.

(And somewhere about Callie’s soul, an adamantine nothing uncurled its grasp.)