[b]Bella![/b]

"Yes!" cackled Aphrodite. "Give it to me! Give me your hate! Your rage! Show me your true desire! This is what I [i]live [/i]for! This is -"

Jil rose behind your back with a knife in her hand. The knife -

Was gone. Her fist comes down on your back, an awkward blow, still hard enough to hammer the breath from your lungs but not the kill stroke it almost was. You hear a voice - a Beautiful voice - "[i]Now! Now! Now![/i]"

And Beljani - Gemini - Taurus - crash together into Jil. They bear her down together under a hurricane of hammer blows and dainty princess slaps and for a moment you're free of her. For a moment you have a clear run at the God of Love. Everything lines up in this moment. You're right there, claws in your hands, biomancy in your blood, reaching out with the power and strength enough to kill a God.

And you stop.

Just before his heart. Barely scratching his suit.

He smiles and takes a deep, satisfied puff of his cigarette. "Wonderful, isn't it?" he said. "You want it so badly. Well, how could I refuse you? Here I am. Close enough to touch. All you have to do is reach out my hand and take my heart..." he sighed, and coughed. "You want it [i]so [/i]badly. You were my favourite daughter. All of this... all of this is for you. Here and now."

He grinned with red teeth.

"You have never looked more delicious. I think you're finally fully cooked. Give your warm and tender heart to me, daughter."

[b]Redana![/b]

Alexa uses two hands to lock your wrists, one hand to pin your neck, and she still has one hand free to pull your tail. Her internal motivation is to avoid being tickled by a wagging, fluffy Ceronian tail but it means that when she yanks it she does so [i]hard[/i]. She is thinking, trying to figure out the angle, and she defaults to a holding pattern that is a lot like bullying.

"Mynx," said Alexa carefully. "Who is [i]that[/i]?"

You, of course, recognize Mynx. In the shape she has chosen for herself; teal and white and lithe and beautiful, coming towards you with a sword - hm? No sword. You could have sworn she had a - But Alexa has never seen this creature before. She tenses up, performing the instinctive battle rituals to account for a new threat, preparing to use you as an improvised weapon - but she doesn't know what she's up against.

Mynx glances at her empty hand, then squares up. Shoulders set, fighting stance, skipping from foot to foot, prepared to punch down this brick wall of stone. "Hi Alexa," she said. "I'm going to get you fair and square this time. You'll see!"

"Mynx?" said Alexa reflexively, for a moment stunned, raising her blindfold to take a look -

[b]Redana![/b] Are you actually Redana? Or was Alexa right, and were you Mynx all along?

[b]Dyssia![/b]

A steel arm; a steel sword, the finest you've ever seen. A sequence of explosions and a shockwave of metal shrapnel. The aching, vibrating core heat that comes from a featureless microwave emitter. An arsenal of weapons, ancient and modern, obsolete and still to come, blast you from the sky. Inventions drip from that terrible mouth like saliva, and clusters of cameras peering over the edge of that great lip to catch a glimpse of you.

"You don't want to hurt me," said the God of the Forge. "Ha ha ha. Nobody does. Not even Demeter. Not even Artemis. Ha ha ha. Do you know why?"

A crash of stampeding clockwork horses. Lances and arrows and pistols.

"I am transfer," said Hephaestus. "I let one person transfer to another. Their strength. Their time. Their beauty. They put it into a thing, and then they barter the thing away. And so some people become more real than others. Everyone else fades into the background. Demeter thought that she could kill me with abundance, ha ha ha. That she could grow rather than harvest, plant a garden that could feed the galaxy and so no-one would go hungry."

Despite a crashing production line of spears, your blade gets through. The monster draws back and hisses.

"And she was [i]right[/i]," said Hephaestus. "[i]Half[/i]. You have drunk your fill and you desire nothing more. You are satisfied with the gifts you already have. You are not one of mine. You are not a threat. Civilizations like yours [i]die[/i]. They die peacefully amidst Aphrodite's cigarette smoke. It is a natural filter. Only the civilizations who [i]hunger [/i]endure and grow and expand. Over a long enough timespan, the Skies become inevitable because their competition will die out."

Despite the storm of weapons that surrounds the God of the Forge, none of them have yet meaningfully landed. Those camera eyes are not fixed upon you. You realize with a start that he cannot harm you, any more than you can harm him. Life and death is not his domain. Only transfer is. He needs a champion. He needs...

Twisted metal teeth break out into a grin.

[s]Dolce![/s] [b]Cyanis![/b]

To be honest, you were not particularly excited about the treasures you were looting from here. You expected gold and jewels or - or no, [i]space [/i]gold. And space crystals. In space dresses! But the vault here was just full of crying children and, like, eyeballs and - and admittedly there were a set of disembodied breasts there, but that was frankly too weird and it's not like yours are small or anything, they could just do with being a bit larger, but replacing them with space boobs and leaving your originals in a big castle is a bit too weird??? Some people might be into that. Not judging. But what if someone else came along and put on your original boobs while you weren't wearing them? That was too creepy to think about, honestly. Point was, as treasure vaults go, this one sucked and you were about to give up.

When su-den-lyyyyyyy~~!!! 

"Why yes, I will have a second tiara. After all, why not?" said Cyanis, swanning into the room with Dyssia. "Why shouldn't I have a second tiara? Why shouldn't I have [i]all [/i]the tiaras? And I don't want any neck strain, all of my tiaras need to be feather light, and fit on my head at the same time without any side effects, and everyone should see them all at the same time and pay attention to them and talk to me about how cool my tiaras are."

It was like an atomic detonation atop her head. To look anywhere in the direction of Cyanis was to be overwhelmed by tiaras; an infinite, shifting kalideoscope of tiaras, all in perfect focus, layered over the top of each other, golden and set with jewels, tin and set with rhinestones - past and future, impossible to ignore. It was blinding and overwhelming and the only thing left to do was praise her forever -

"But not in a weird way!" Cyanis clarified. "I want more 'prettiest princess' than 'cosmic tiara horror', come on, it's not hard!" 

The burning radiance dimmed. Now she was simply the prettiest princess, and everyone would sing songs of her forever, and -

"Oh I don't like the tacky ones. I'm aware of the tacky ones now. Can we get rid of all the tacky ones?"

Infinity contracted, shaking the ground like an implosion. The effect became more manageable -

"No I don't like that," said Cyanis. "Can I get the tacky ones back, but make them less tacky?"

"I shall work on it immediately," hissed the voice of Hephaestus. "But I desire something too -"
"Um, EXCUSE me?" said Cyanis. "I am currently going TIARALESS[1] and you are trying to complain about your problems? Typical male behaviour?????"
[1] She was currently wearing 14 billion tiaras.
"I-of course, I understand. But first would you like one of these weapons?"
"Sure! I'll take all of them!"
"All of -"
"I am the Princess, after all," said Cyanis.
"Very well," said the Forgelord of a suddenly disarmed galaxy "And then you will fulfill the bargain and kill the -"
"WHAT did I SAY about making them LIGHT ENOUGH TO CARRY?"
"Apologies, the modificiations are nontrivial -"
"Do I LOOK like a NOT PRINCESS? Do you see these nails and think that THEY DID NOT JUST GET DONE?" said Cyanis. She snapped her fingers, and then double checked them in case snapping them had damaged the paint. "I know! I need some henchmen to carry all of my things! Can I get some henchmen up in here?"
"Henchmen, very well -"
"Actually, hold it. Let's talk fingernails while we're on the topic."

[b]Dyssia![/b], your death is coming, and she is ~fabulous~. You are in for it as soon as she finishes going through her list of demands.

("Dolce! Shh. Keep it quiet. Did you hear me okay? I didn't want to bold it because -

Hi. Fluffybiscuits here. Cyanis is either buying some time or dooming the galaxy. Um. Are we chill? You're a space sheep who needs his sheep space so I don't want to intrude if you still think we're up to something, but I'm kind of up to something here and you're a part of it. Can you help us out at the top please? I didn't want to bother you, but as far as I can tell Yue is fighting the entire colour yellow. And I tried calling up some of the other Princesses but they're all busy or far away and Qiu tried to swordfight me over the phone and I was not prepared for it, I think she's going for the Demon Blade but couldn't resist swordphonefighting me while she's also dueling the Soldier. Does she really need to make it harder for herself at a time like this? Or does she just like bullying foxes so bad she'll risk the fate of the world!?! I'm sorry this isn't about me. Um. Or you. Just... can we go this way, please, I can't handle another tiara bomb.)