“Don't have to tell me twice!” Rayne called over the magical machinegun of whom’s proverbial trigger she was holding down, firing and firing and firing like there was no tomorrow. Because when the little timer on the card powering this firepower ran out, there might not be. All she could do was eye the garbage collector card, and hope…
“Death ray? Well. Still don’t have to aim I guess” she said as the mana from kills spell ran out and was replaced with a new card. It was really meant to be a big bot killer, intensifying in power the longer it was locked on, but if the butterflies went down fast… well.
A moment later two things lit up the room. The first was the way forwards going on fire. The second was Rayne activating death ray, prompting a laser light show as an orange beam lanced out, latched onto a butterfly, exterminated it, vanished, and then repeated the process for another butterfly all in less time than it took Rayne’s adrenaline pumped heart to beat.
“Collection, I don’t need you right now the house is on fire” she told the spell that had replaced the spent ghost gun, before making a pained face and saying “if it’s coming down anyway” before casting lighting bolt instead.
The bolt in question slammed down from on high, passed harmlessly through her, and then went down even further till it earthed either in the floor or in any basement. The shower of splinters that rained down on her was less harmless but her hat caught those fortunately enough.
“If the source is up or down we have ways that aren't on fire now!” Rayne called out, before popping collection to grab all the dropped mana and then ending up with a hand full of useless floating rocks and a death spiral, none of which where any good unless Qing could bullet dodge the same way Sanea could.
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) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
The last drenaught exited onto the Ivory Citadel‘s landing pad as the one who had cleared it (according to one of the wounded he had spoken to) returned, along with her battered squad. Going by her dissonant appearance and arrival among the goddess’s forces since he was seized from them, he assumed she was another one of the Seekers. He’d been told about the eyes, of course, but this woman had her’s covered by both a blindfold and her snarling mask, so his confirmation was the way he was quite sure those unseen eyes locked with his, somehow seeing past all that shielded her eyes without trouble.
Hopefully now he could get some proper answers, rather than the verbal equivalent of a student's scribbled notes.
First however, he stepped aside to let the wounded through and informed them that ”The wounded and healers are held up through the first door on your left. There’s been a few corrupt stragglers, so watch your backs till you are there, just in case” getting a nod of thanks from the troops, and one of approval from the dragon knight.
Once they were past he stepped towards the knight and introduced himself as ”Edward Portsmith. Dreadnought, and leader, or I suppose former ladder, of the Commonwealth Remanent” along with a proffered hand to shake. For her part, the knight slipped off her steed and took the hand, while at the same time using the other three to remove her helmet, revealing dark orange eyes that were indeed free of Galeem’s light, ones that looked at him with curiosity. They were found on a face that was not quite as elven as the pointy ears that had been sticking out her helmet had made him assume it would be, but certainly featured a striking grace all of its own.
”Midna, still princess of twilight even away from my people” she replied once the helm was off. She certainly had the air of an exiled royal about her, Edward found, though without the somewhat pitiable arrogant insistence he associated with such types. Here, it seemed, was someone who simply knew that it was only a matter of time till they were back on the throne. Which was its own kind of arrogance of course, but it was at least more charismatic than the former.
The swing then, from that, to a more casual tone for the rest of their conversations was an interesting one, of that there was no doubt, starting with the princess telling him ”Welcome to this herd of cats we call a team. Now where’d you get dug up from? Anything to do with why my heels are on fire instead of the corruption’s forces, hmm?” before clicking the claws of one of her metallic boots on the ground, which were indeed aglow with his magic.
”The corruption dained to take me alive and use me to command its forces, so I am afraid I’ve been something of a bother. One of your number, a Queen Sectonia inducted me into your number as part of releasing its hold on me” he informed her, and at the same time wondered if it was coincidence or not all the members of the seekers he was aware of, himself included, were rulers.
”She was, however, a bit light on the details in the name of expediency. I was hoping you might fill in some of the gaps? And provide transport. I am sadly lacking the tome that will let me sprout wings” He requested, having overheard talk of what the overall goal here was, and wanting to play at least some part in it.
Complete elimination of the corruption in a single day, quite the tall order, and one he assumed the Seekers were involved in inducting the initiation of, given the prior stagnancy of the situation.
”Well you could always gamble for them,” the princess replied in a joking tone, before saying ”but if you’d rather not leave it to fate I can get you to the Harbor at least. Actual combat flying might be out of the question though” and before he could point out that surely assaulting the next would involve aerial combat the island in question lit up behind the princess, silhouetting her in holy light.
It also made them both flinch and shield their eyes (despite the princess looking his way rather than towards the island) rather ruining the dramatic effect of the timely delivery of information.
”I see”
”Good for you, I can’t right now” the princess replied, half joking, half complaining, as far as he could tell.
”Ah, princess of ‘twilight’ I see-I gather” he corrected himself rather than play into the pun/pain and instead winding back the gears of their conversation to ask ”So what was that about gambling?” to which his latest source merely responded ”Spirits” unhelpfully leaving him to deduct what she meant
”Queen Sectonia merely said for me to gather them” he said as he thought, before guessing that ”there is a way to gain power from them? Is that why you Seekers seem to overflow with strength?” not entirely sure how he felt about such a necromantic practice around the would be saviors of all worlds.
Seeming to pick up on his discomfort, the princess swore to him that ”Trust me, you’ll need it. It's not like they are actual souls, Galeem has a tight grip on all of those after all” only adding to the pile of mysteries, before explaining swiftly ”Press one to your head for passive skills, heart for powers, crush for equipment, or form a pact to bring them back for just a moment to aid you in battle as something called a striker. The first two come with some kind of downsides as well, but we have a tool that can undo the resulting ‘fusions’ back at base, so you won’t be stuck with them. Items are permanent, and for strikers, the max is two if you care about your lifespan, but we have another device to swap those out as well”
”That… is a lot to take in” he replied, but, then, well, he had always been a practical man, and if it was reversible, and did not cause additional harm, then the only recourse was to see if this was as useful and necessary as she insisted.
For that, fortunately, he had the resources with which to experiment, reaching a hand into a pocket and retrieving a quartet of fallen feathers, seeking, in a way, to take his failures and in some small way help himself makeup for them.
Shield for mind, bow for heart, sword for fist, and staff for word. Four fruitlessly lost lives for four pearls of wisdom.
”Still, I suppose I am willing to experiment”
Feathershield The host's black armor is now a much shinier dark silver, his sash is now a royal blue, and his hair now sports platinum blonde streaks. This spirit grants the the Skill Mirror Weakness, which gives the host 1 PP. It's spent automatically when a negative status effect is inflicted on him to reflect that status onto the caster instead. If multiple debuffs are cast at once, all are reflected. The host regains all PP at the start of a new engagement. This spirit also confers the Weakness Walk in the Light, inflicting a minor stamina regen and accuracy penalty at night
Item obtained: Heavenswing Shield A slender kiteshield emblazoned with white that's well-suited for safeguarding an offensive frontline fighter. Equipping it seems to clear one's mind and tighten one's reflexes, offering a small boost to accuracy and evasion.
Spirit consumed: Featherbow The host is a little bit shorter and more slender. His hair is a bit longer and straighter, and much more of it is platinum blonde. He's received a silver mask to be worn over the eyes, embellished with wing decorations. His armor is a little lighter and his boots are now leather; the red cloth beneath his cuirass has lengthened into a proper fauld. Angelic wings sprout from his back, though the feathers are a sooty, black-speckled gray rather than white. His personality is slightly more respectful and supportive. This spirit grants the Ability Wings of Albion, allowing the host to take flight. He can only fly about as fast as a dove and flight is quite stamina intensive. This spirit also confers the Weakness Wing Stop, making him vulnerable to projectiles that deal pierce damage and other attacks/weapons effective against fliers
Featherstaff An angelic healer capable of working potent supportive miracles, offset by his long, 2.5-minute cooldown. When invoked, he can use Overheal to restore HP to a whole row of allies at once, with any extra health increasing their max HP up to 150%. Honed Healing can grant a row of allies a minute-long buff that doubles healing received, and Holy Cradle can grant a row of allies a thirty-second buff that allows them to survive a single lethal blow at 1 HP
”Well I can feel that that worked” Edward said calmly even as he found the sensation of having two extra limbs quite disconcerting, though not, he noted, in any way dysphoric. That was certainly an issue reported by the subjects of less skillful or more callous rulers of his reality (modifying entire peoples with magic in the name of enhancing their military capabilities was a common practice there) and one he was glad not to be experiencing right now.
He checked himself over, flexing his fittingly ashen wings and examining change in his clothing, and while he did so he also looked inward to a new well of power within him. Touching it, he found it rather familiar, identifying it as the feather-sheild’s status effect reflector skill. The very same one that had prevented the throne from stealing their minds during the chaos that had been his biggest failure. In this new world at any rate.
A very poignant thing to have gained. ‘Fate’ as the princess had described it, was either mocking him or saying this was a first step on the road to redemption. Then again perhaps that was applying too much agency to random chance.
He added finding out if there was a discernible pattern to what spirit usage granted to the list of things worth researching, which was a rapidly growing list, of that there was no doubt.
Still, even with this internal and external self reflection, he did still desire an actual reflection of himself, namely from a mirror. This was because while he could see part of his changed appearance, he could hardly see his entire new ensemble, let alone what it seemed to have done to his hair. For that appraisal had to rely on Minda’s assessment, which was: ”Not half bad. I’ve seen, and been, some right messes as a result of fusion so you’ve gotten off lightly. Maybe even well, the black and blond look is pretty striking” with just a little bit of a purr in her words on that last.
”Yes, well, while the complement is appreciated, a warning of the physical changes would have been appreciated even more” he replied, unsure of the intent of her tone, only to gain the rather flippant reply of ”It also changes your personality as well”
”Of course it does” he replied, suppressing a sigh and starting to see a pattern here with the Seekers not giving out information in a timely manner
The princess merely shrugged and pointed out that ”We have a war to win” before re-donning her helmet.
”That I suppose we do” he confirmed, strapping his new shield to his arm, and then raising an eyebrow at the way doing so seemed to affect his body and mind just a touch. Magical, clearly.
Before they could set out, however, there was a pounding of boots and flapping of wings behind them, as from the tower emerged a mixed assortment of angels. They were an eclectic group, drawn from recovered wounded of a dozen or more squads, which included those who Edward had been tricked into leading into a trap. These in particular halted in surprise at the sight of the changes he had undergone, but there was a general degree of curiosity as to who this unknown unique angel was.
”Palutana’s blessing for outstanding service” the princess smoothly lied before he could make his own excuse, and unfortunately this got some dark looks from the troops who had served under Edward himself. He was not, in their eyes, deserving. Still, he had words for that, swiftly adding that the false blessing’s were also made ”to ensure purity by her own hands instead of merely mortal ones” throwing Sectonia into the line of fire in the process.
Not that that lie was going to hold up for long, but it would do for now. It certainly stopped any sort of mutiny, and soon enough they were on their way, during which Edward learned something important about flying.
It was bloody hard work.
By the time they touched down on the wiped clean harbor, he was beat, and more or less forced to walk the span of it to reach the far side where the others were regrouping, while the angels themselves went on ahead. He really was doing a terrible job at inspiring confidence in the troops.
This, at the very least, gave him and Minda space to talk that they had not had been surrounded by the flight of angels, though with how out of breath he was, this mostly consisted of her needling him about his fatigue and sunken mood rather than being helpful/informative. At least she let him know that Palutana was one of the seekers and their lie about the source of his new wings would hold up. She also found some sympathy in her for his state and situation, though only once they were in sight of the angels once more, and it was not in a way that made him feel any better: ”If you were under the corruption control for, what weeks? What in the goddess’ name was it making you eat?”
His footsteps faltered, and then, after a moment of horror where memories of meals he now knew to be tainted by the corruption’s deception flashed through his mind, he replied ”I believe I never want to know” with forced calm.
”No wonder you're exhausted from just that flight then, and here I was thinking you were just a out of shape lead from the back kind of general” the princess replied, before opening a portal, catching the launched content, and then offering him a cereal bar, water bottle, and one of the hot cross buns the troops were eating (each one held in one of her four hands) ”here, eat something. The ‘troops’ already are after all”
His stomach protested due to his flashback, but he could entirely see the wisdom in this, and so soon enough had joined the troops in chowing down. Which did wonders for his mood. And his memory.
As the troops prepared to take off and assault the titanic magical construct (the closest reference he had for it was the Commonwealth's Ironclad landships) he instead pulled out another one of his tomes, the tome of enchantment and began to recite another ritual.
This tome one was one he had himself had a hand in forging, and though his mind then had been addled by Urrath at the time, it had not yet bloomed into the destructive fury in which he had written the tome of the reavers or that of the dreadnaught. As such, there was little fight to be had between reader and author when it came to intent or ideology, and so the words needed flowed freely and swiftly.
”What was once made can be unmade. What was forged, unforged. What was crafted, broken. With these enchanted armaments, let no armor stand in your way, let no wall impede your progress. Sunder it all and bring a swift end to this war, so that we may one day unmake all blades and forge them anew into plowshares”
As he finished the words, a golden glow pulsed out. Its magic joined the burning enchantment of the angels and seeker’s, adding an aura of sparks, like those that might burst from a weapon being forged or sliced through, that promised to bite into enemy armor, and leave it ripe for the piercing.
Sundering strikes (tier 1 enchantment): melee and ranged physical attack of the caster and their allies are enchanted with sparkling golden armor breaking aura. This causes them to be able to inflict a sundered defense debuff on their foes on 90% of their strikes (weak fast attacks only have 60%, strong slow attacks have 120%, and physical resistance reduces the chance). The sundered defense debuff reduces enemy armor and status effect resistance by 10%, lasts for 30 seconds, but can be stacked up to 5 times for a total of a 50% reduction.
The debuff visually looks like golden glowing cracks on the armor of the foe, which become larger and more numerous the more stacks have been applied.
”So that’s how you did it. Very rousing” Midna commented from behind him, having approached to see what he was giving a speech to himself about, before asking ”got any more tricks like that in those books?”
”One, if I can re-research it. However other than the marking spell you might have seen, the only other I have re-acquainted myself with would be the construction of golems. That one requires time and space to set up however, which as you might imagine is difficult to find when landing on corrupted sky islands” he informed her, that sort of spell being much more suitable for preparing in advance and then marching into battle.
”About the same amount of time as that one?” she asked, and when he confirmed this, she offered ”Then I’ll find you space to do it. Better golems fall than angels, right?”
With that he was entirely in agreement.
Even with the energy boost from the food, the flight to the train was still an endurance test, though with guidance from Midna and her reduced squad he did at least learn the benefits of gliding, leading to him swooping towards the train in a downward dive alongside them, rather than stubbornly simply flapping his way towards it.
Still, he did slow them down, but that only meant that when they were closing in they spotted the perfect way to provide him an opening: Roxas’ setting up of his deadly obstacle course.
Midna swooped ahead of him and the troops, crashing down ahead of where Roxas was setting up his sweeper, adding her own lighting strikes to the mix with an electrified spear and a brief summoning of a bizarre hybrid golem dragon wolf creature that showered the train with a lightning storm of its own.
”Clever trick! Keep it up!” she called out as her troops swooped in to join her to keep covering Roxas’s back so he could continue his ploy for as long as he was able.
And to cover his own less impressive one.
The last Dreadnought touched down close behind Roxas with a polite ”Smartly done” before pulling out the tome of enchanting again, and beginning his chanting.
”Magic is a tool, and the golem, the greatest of those tools. See here, as copper and tin make bronze, so too do metal and magic melded together make marvels greater than either could hope to achieve alone. By meticulous design be forged, oh towering twin sentinel of the people! Stand tall so that they might never fall!”
This one had a touch of inspiration from a theocrat’s work infused with it, one who had taken the copper golem as a baseline when creating these constructs, so it had been little effort to work back to his own writings and ideals again.
Before him two great constructs were forged, metals spinning out of the astral sea, before being actively forged, the impressions of hammers and tongs upon them as they were made into the form of a towering sentinel. It was as if what was occurring was a far more careful, slow, and meticulous act of creating a golem by hand, which had been recorded, replicated and accelerated by the power of the tome.
By the time he was done speaking, the twin sentinels of which he spoke had been forged and where ready for battle. These Bronze Golems stood at twice the height of the man who had forged them, and their towering helbards even taller still, their points and blades aglow with his enchantments.
Without a word, they marched forwards to join the ranks of Midna’s forces. As they did, Edward experimentally activated his new Featherstaff striker, the fallen angel appearing beside him and overhealing the bronze golems and the ranks of angels they were carefully stepping their way through.
Just in time for them to meet the enemy.
Those great hulking contraptions of corruption, flesh and steel were near impossible for the angles to actually hold at bay. Instead they had simply relied on cutting them down fast enough before they were overrun, which was a very dicey proposition. The introduction of the golems changed that situation. The titans hefted their monster slaying helbards, thrusting them forwards to skewer the masses of blackness as they tried to charge through their ranks. Then they held them back with fearless metal hearts and durable frames while arrows, musical bolts from Midna's lyre, and feather swords darted past them to cut down the pinned foes.
Behind them, Edward nodded to himself as he stowed the tome, before pulling out his magelock pistol, and entered the fray as well. With shield in one hand helping him block and evade stray projectiles, his magical firearm barked like thunder as its red hot armor sundering slugs hammered into the most mechanical of their foes, spreading golden cracks across the infernal engines and setting the corruption ablaze.
“This place is definitely giving me the creeps if that is what you mean” Rayne agreed to the suggestion that she'd feel what was off, but as it turned out Quin was entirely correct, and was so even sooner than she might have guessed. As they moved into the building the miasma within rippled along the edges of the almost always invisible radially extending chains of her Link. In doing so it made her ever so slightly more aware of it, and the connection to the distant villagers it linked her back too, as miasma and spiritual bond brushed against each other, creating a slight resistance to her movement that was noticeable if not in any way actually obstructing.
Like pushing through a thick fog.
It only got worse from there, the ‘fog’ thickening in a way, tugging at the Link in a way she found incredibly unpleasant. She was certainly already sick of it by the time her eyes also got to see the corruption’s influence, be it the black soot or the golden butterflies. Those to her seemed like a rather disjointed pairing to her, nor did she have any real experience with their sometimes relationship with death, so while Sanae thought to shoot first Rayne had herself been hesitant to do so.
The subsequent ‘demonstration’ with whatever the hazy shape Qing summoned answered any questions she might want to ask, and so she was then very much on board shooting part of the plan.
Just in time too, as they started coming out of the walls all around them.
“Ah!” Rayne gave a panicked shout, blinking back and promptly blasted one, but there were far too many for her piddling firing speed to manage. Fortunately after the moment of panic she got her tactical brain in gear, pivoting and activating a spell card. This one burst into a cloud of purple miasma all of her own, shrouding an entire side of the entry room with it as she cast cloud of darkness upon it, one that attempted to smother the golden butterflies as they emerged from the walls.
“That’ll sting you too!” she warned as she emerged from the cloud, though if it looked like they were being overwhelmed it’d probably be preferable to dive into said mist if the butterflies were as bad to have touch you as Qing said. Still, for the moment she’d prefer to hold her ground, specifically because with the cloud devouring butterflies made her next spell incredibly potent. The spell was garbage collector, which caused each and every single butterfly destroyed to give her a pip of mana.
Suffice to say, this put her generally reserved amount of spellcasting into overdrive, as she no longer had to worry about managing her mana. She did still have to worry about friendly fire however, leaving the lighting strike spell clogging up her hand while garbage collector took up the other while it was active.
The remaining slots however was then rapidly cycled through, the witch knight first launching a trio of seeking swords that swatted more butterflies, gained a shimmering barrier of magical armor that might block a single butterfly, gaining a single entirely irrelevant extra pip of mana, and generating a little turret that fired her own magic bullets at nearby butterflies, all within more or less a second of each other.
The next spell however sealed the deal: ghost gun. This little number turned her one shot a second peashooter into a rapid fire machine gun that spat out twin streams of ghostly blue bullets that not only pierced through walls, but also relentlessly hunted down the closest hostile. Suffice to say, no longer needing to aim, and being able to hit the butterflies before they even emerged from the walls, was very handy.
After that, however, with the bullet upgrade sticking in her hand till it timed out as well, her mana spending spree came to a n abrupt end even as mana continued to roll in.
Still.
Who needed spells when you had a magical homing machine gun?
Hurrying along to keep up with the gait of the two taller women, Rayne didn’t really have a lot of time to, well, check out the local nightlife as it were.
She also didn’t dain to comment on whether she’d been to a place like this or not when teased about it, but she didn’t get embarrassed by the prodding either. She wasn’t exactly a chaste maiden or some sort of prude. However, if her world’s last settlement had had anyone practicing the world's oldest profession, she certainly wouldn't have been aware of it.
She hadn’t exactly been left wanting.
Aaaaand now she missed Akai again, and for much less wholesome reasons than the usual bouts of longing and homesickness.
She tilted her hat down to hide the mix of sorrow and… other feelings crossing her face, and tried to put those memories out of her mind and focus on the here and now. She then made a sound of agreement in response to Sana’s insistence they stick to the task at hand, even if it was for different reasons.
That said, she wasn’t really an expert in dealing with curses. Or even an amature. Which meant she was worrying about how she’d actually be able to help right up until Sanae drew her weapon as they stood before the abandoned structure.
“Mmm, better to be safe than sorry when going to an abandoned spooky building” She agreed, as she floated a foot into the air, flicking her left hand as she did so. Before it, the arrow-like glyph she used to fire her magic bullets formed, while in it three shimmering cards where drawn from her spell deck.
“Garbage collector, Cloud of darkness, Lightning” she said, informing Sana of her hand, the content of her spell deck having come up during one of the long empty days of traveling “probably don’t want to use the last one while we are indoors, but if there's lots of, I dunno, nasty creepy bugs or something first two will work out just fine”
That said, her magical might wasn’t going to help if the curse turned out to be black mold or something more mundane, and so, just in case, she also improvised a face mask out of a small towel “in case there’s stuff we don’t want to breath in in there”
wordcount: 1,876 (+3) Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(156/140) Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(75/100) Location: Mafia Town, Deep Blue Seaside
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”What, no way, it's here!” Jr cried out once the unexpected turn of events ending in the ship they’d just been talking about arrived. It was, however, hard to tell if this was Therion being correct about Ⅰ focusing on filling her clock and this being bad luck, of if she’d come for them specifically. Either way, now was no time for lollygagging, the prince declaring ”We gotta get out there and do something!” as he hopped out of his chair and prepared to follow the two fighting ladies out into the brawl
”Wait, hang on” Rika replied from where she was still sitting, before grabbing a generous handful of Nadia’s abandoned Fried Onion Cuttlefish and shoving them into her mouth.
”Siiiiiiis” Jr whined, receiving a full mouthed ”What?” from RIka, who then pointed out she was going to be here for a bit putting her ”Guantlets n rigging on”
Indeed, without the gauntlets in particular, she was a lame duck on land, but she hadn’t exactly expected to fight, and they sorta got in the way of eating. Hence, being ambushed as they were, she was, if not exactly defenseless, then certainly a liability in a fight. Probably. This had never really happened before after all, and Rika was rather annoyed by the interruption it had to be said.
”Fine jeeze let me help you then” the prince replied, leaning his paintbrush against the table and setting about strapping his sister back into her wargear. At least, he thought, with the others charging out to help out like the heroes/battle seekers they were, and the cannon going silent, they were no risk of being attacked.
He thought wrong.
Instead, descending from the sky came a sausage like person in suspenders and dress trousers using a tie as a belt, his fall slowed to a smooth and luxurious ride by his golden parachute.
This person touched down behind where the other seekers had run off to, snapped his suspenders as he watched them take apart some of the other contestants. Then he spun back the way they’d come, namely to the now, seemingly, defenseless restaurant they’d just stormed out of with a deranged look on his face.
“You know what they say, work smarter not harder!” he chirped with the candor of a corporate spokesperson, before strutting in through the doors into the sushi restaurant and asking “now who here’s ready for a once in a lifetime offer; guaranteed to end your life, and enrich mine!”
There were quite a few people inside who had either taken cover or been gawking out of windows, only for all eyes to turn in horror to the horror that was the one, the only: Business Casual Man!
Despite the seekers having mostly vacated however, there were still heroes to be found within.
No, not the junior troop members. Instead a pair of ninja youths who were part of Bancho Sushi’s serving staff, glanced at each other, nodded, and engaged the interloper, drawing massive chopsticks instead of swords from their scabbards.
“Ah, my first sale of the day, and a two for one bargain at that! At this rate I’ll be able to clock out early!” Business Casual Man declared before the girl slashed his chopstick at him. In response, Business Casual Man sat down onto an office chair that appeared out of nowhere, and then spun around the girl while still sitting on it to avoid the boy’s dual wielded sticks.
He got back up, now right between the two, and punched out to both sides with his arms, hands still holding his suspenders like they had been this entire time. As his hands struck, two qr codes generated. These did three things.
They acted like hit stunning repeating explosions that stuck the kids in place as it multi hit them, it generated two 50$ notes out of thin air that slipped their way into Business Casual Man’s pockets, and it also sent the phones of two people recording this off to a pair of strangewebsites.
Then the blasts ended and the pair of heroes were knocked back, bumping into tables. Before they could recover, Business Casual Man strode after the boy, grabbed him, burped dollar bills in his face, and then summoned a water cooler from nowhere, which he proceeded to lean on and slam down on top of the boy, smashing him to the ground.
The girl came in to protect her co-worker and smacked Business Casual Man over the head with her mega chopstick, only for him to contort his torso around 180 degrees to fix her with his toothy smile.
“Don’t worry, you're next in line!” he declared, before lunge at her, mouth opening impossibly wide to snatch her up with it, before hurling her upwards. Then he extended his torso up in a piston like motion to slam her into the ceiling.
A burst of 1 and 5$ bills accompanied the beat downs, further filling Business Casual Man’s pockets with cash.
At this point the customer base of Bansho Sushi was stampeding to get out through the back, despite the other staff members holaring for them to clear the way. All except Jr and Rika, who had foolishly slowed the gearing up of the former to watch, and were now doing double time to make up for the distraction.
Of course, those two, and especially Jr, were never alone.
”Koopa troop! Attack!” the prince commanded, prompting his three pokemon to enter the fray. Close to the ceiling swooped the Flutter Mane Peeka, across the tables hopped the Mimikyu Mimi, and under them seal flopped the Brionne Dazzle, all ready to fight for their trainer’s protection.
“Step right up, marketable plushies, because there’s a fortune to be made!” Business Casual Man declared, stepping over the groaning staff members, telling them that “I’ll cash you out later” before squaring off with the pokemon.
Well, sort of.
Most of them were projectile spammers rather than honorable brawlers.
Peeka shot out a plasma fusion bolt from her necklace of eyes, only for the man to duck under it, torso contracting till just his head stuck out of his trousers, the shot splitting in two above him as he waddled forwards in this bizarre fashion a few steps before he stood back up again.
Mimi and Dazzle also tried to blast him, but he dodged around the electro ball, and raised a translucent kite shield shaped barrier to block a water gun bullet from Dazzle while saying “Just because it's casual Mondays, doesn’t mean I don’t care about keeping it clean”
Then he was upon them, turning over tables and smashing them apart as he chased after the poor mon, chair dodging around Mimi’s sneaking shadow attempts at swiping at him as he gained on a belly flopping Dazzle, only for Peeka to swoop down and deliver a dazzle he didn’t want: her eye necklace glowing and then bursting with light, which was not something he could block or dodge.
“Ah! My business’ Insurance doesn't cover opticians!” he cried out, stumbling back, prompting Dazzle (the pokemon) to pivot and then corkscrew leap into Business Casual Man’s chest, a wave of water washing fourth over him and briefly stunning him, allowing Mimi to finish the combo with an electro ball that slammed the wet man through a nearby table, the man landing in a shower of splinters and dollar bills.
Despite this hit, Business Casual Man picked himself right back up, and seemed more upset by the hit to his finances than to his person, going “ah! my pension fund!” as he snatched the cash out of the air to re-stuff in his pockets.
He wasn’t going to live long enough to retire and use it.
”and done” Jr declared as he finished squiring for Rika: her gauntlets and rigging where all strapped on, her tiara sporting helmet was donned and her (admittedly just cosmetic) gold trimmed black armor encasing her in steel.
The princess was ready for war.
Rather than charge in like a knight (and she did have the gear for that) she instead simply raised a palm, the rotary barrel within whirring up before she upon fire on Business Casual Man with a hail of machine-gun bullets.
Business Casual Man dodged to the side, only for Rika to summon a twin cannon tipped spear into her other hand which roared like a double barreled shotgun as she, well, used it as one, having found shotgun shells much easier to source than cannon shells. Around her hips, her two double barreled turrets had no such logistical issues, blasting renewably sourced globdules of dark magic at her foe.
Business Casual Man chair spun and shielded as he tried to close in on them, and if it were just Rika, maybe he would have made it. However, all of Jr’s pokemon promptly joined in with the shooting, as did jr with hucked fire balls, as did, of all people, Dave the diver. The man had finally sumo’d his way past the fleeing gusts, and emerged from the back of the restaurant with a massive multi barreled cannon in his arms, which he promptly supported on a counter and then unleashed, firing a rapid fire hail of high caliber armor piercing rounds at their intruder.
Business Casual Man was, in the end, just a very weird man, and he could only survive this onslaught for so long, getting clipped and then simply riddled with bullets. His last words, as he fell to his knees and started to dissolve being “Guess I’m… going bust”
There was a panting filled pause as the cacophony came to an end, before it was broken by an appalled cry of “He’s not the only one! Look at this place!” from Cobra, Bancho Sushi’s owner/investor, because the restaurant was looking a lot worse for wear after being defended, what with the broken furniture, bullet holes, scorch marks, and at least one fire.
”uhhhh, gotta go!” jr shouted, running for the exit, only pausing to throw some healing the way of the two serving kids who had miraculously survived the whole ordeal mostly by virtue of having been laying face first on the floor during the latter shooting gallery. Rika for her part stopped only to grab the strange man’s spirit, stuffing it in a pocket for later.
The troop kids excited pretty late into the actual meat and potatoes of the brawl, and by that point everyone was likely on their way to wherever, but if they weren't well, the now kitted out Rika had an idea of what they should do next: ”We should sink the ship!”
”Wait, what, why? What about the town?” Jr asked gesturing vaguely at the chaos ongoing in it
Rika was entirely indifferent to that situation, but then her her reason going after the ship wasn’t the most inspired either ”Consul Ⅰ won’t like it, and I think I’d like that”
With that said, she retrieved and tossed out her golden spinner, releasing her white whale that would make for adequate transport for anyone coming with them. She and Jr however would have no need for it, as they’d be able to sail right out there under ship girl power.
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) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
”alright that’s enough out of you” Midna told the dead end express, flicking a switch and putting an end to the runaway train’s attempts to grind through the massive set of corruption sealed metal doors at the end of the corridor she and Pit and just cleared.
With the machine finally silenced, Midna could just barely hear the sound of fighting from the other side of the other side. Then just as soon as they’d begun to be audible, they were drowned out by an explosion, followed by silence, and then cheers broke out.
”Wonder what that was all about” she asked herself as she rubbed the ear she’d pressed to the door to try and find out what was going on (and got quite the earful of Legion’s explosive end as a result).
Before the princess could turn and tell the troops that the way was barred however, the corruption holding the door shut withered and died along with its master, leaving the thoroughly saw shredded door to collapse and reveal the great hall to be on the opposite side. Within she saw the tail end of the victorious angels ascending through the ceiling, and after calling for her troop’s attention, summoned her flygon and moved to follow them.
As such she arrived outside just in time to get blinded by the return of the sun, and to be the only person not happy about this fact, squinting behind her mask and raising a hand to the glare. ”More twilight would have been just fine” she grumbled as she blinked away the lingering dots in her vision and actually got a look at what was coming.
The haziness of her sight left her initially confused as to what she saw, but at this point flying ships and vehicles weren't exactly out of the ordinary, even if them being shaped like literal ships this time was a bit odd.
As she drew her weapons and prepared for battle, the second support spell arrived in the form of a pulse of slight warmth followed by the idea of a burning ember appearing in her mind. It felt like potential and smelled, or seemed like it would smell away, a bit like Midgar for some reason. A dream of a Midgar that could be: a glowing bastion of hope rather than the blight it had been in reality. Either way, she was initially filled with trepidation, eyeing the magic with analytical suspicion, as were her troops, but another group off to the flank was not, or so it seemed, as their weapons lit up almost immediately.
Exactly like how the corrupted troop’s weapons had been before they all went out suddenly, the princess noted, which she found quite odd.
Still ”Power’s power” she declared after finding no obvious trap in the spell, and accepted the boon as she took off on flygon back. As she did, her lance began to glow red hot, while so too did the claws of her flygon, which seemed to cause it no harm despite its vulnerability to flames. Meanwhile the princess’s other true hand gripped her steed for support, while her two false arms began to pluck at her lyre as they rose adding her own wide reaching support to the battle that caused musical bolts to arch up and out towards a third of the foes who had dared strike at the already embattled angels.
”Let’s rip the fodder from the sky, and then we’ll all tear apart the titan!” Midna commanded her squad as they approached the fighting. With her music already playing havoc on the archers on the ships that should be quite a quick task. Unfortunately the titan in question had different ideas, picking her out as a priority target and unleashing a veritable swarm of cherub-faced missiles her way.
And the way of her squad.
”Scatt-” began to command because no one but a feather-shield would be blocking those and there where not enough of them in her squad to do so, before being struck by a thought and swapping it to ”Up! Gain altitude and stick together!”
The troops reacted quickly, flapping hard to gain altitude, while the princess turned on her steed and watched, waiting, as the missiles arched upwards towards them, closing fast even as they wove to and fro chaotically on their flight path.
”On my signal, we dive towards them” she ordered, holding, holding, and then at the last moment commanding ”Now” right after opening a portal and launching a super-sized darknut out of it, its shield unfurling a massive energy barrier around it.
It, naturally, fell, but it fell down into the path of the missiles as they rose to meet them, shots slamming into the shield. A second later the darknut disappeared into another portal, but the resulting 10mps it was falling at made for a wince inducing landing back in the twilight realm.
She was not using it again till she got it repaired, that was for sure.
The shots that slipped around it tried to arch around the back to try and still hit their targets behind, but said target had dived down after their protector, leaving the missiles to slam into each other as the divers beat their turning speed in their rapid descent.
Mostly.
One survived the multi missile pileup and came rocketing down after them, gaining on the wings powered angels, only for Midna to reach out and grab it with a shadow hand, the princess holding the missile back as her bows spun around in their fall and filled it full of searing arrows, setting it ablaze and detonating it in the process.
”New plan, we take out the big one first!” she ordered now that they were clear, getting them to bank their dive and fly straight for the titan that was Worship.
It tried to stop them, naturally, but its slow to aim prow beam laser was beaten by a ”scatter!” after which they closed in on it… Only to be confounded by a golden hexagonal barrier protecting its front faces, one which Midna slammed a shadow hand into repeatedly to no avail til a feather lose to her relayed a shout she’d not heard about how “the sides aren't protected princess”
Behind the front facing sun shaped array, the rear of the ship was a (comparatively) thin cylinder with two great fins rising and falling from it. The central cylinder also sported another one of those faces the infantile angles all had, one which did not seem pleased when a feather shot an arrow into it.
The hiding swarm of Cachets & Compassions hovering behind the protective front shell didn’t seem very pleased either, buzzing forth to meet them like a flock of angry bees. Still, they were hardly a threat compared to what they’d faced before. The main issue was the hatches opening on the side of the ship that fired spheres of light and a much more manageable amount of missiles at the princess and her troops.
”Swords, take the pests! Shields, protect the others. I’ll see to the ship!” Midna commanded, before diving in on the back of her steed. It weaved around a Compassion, allowing the princess to joust it with her searing hot lance before swooping onward, leaving the burning foe in their wake.
The face on the side of the ship opened its mouth impossibly wide, revealing a cannon that fired another light bolt, but the princess merely slapped this away and retaliated by flicking her lance and sending a slice shaped shot of her own right back at it. The several times taller than her face closed up defensively, leaving it unable to attack as her flygon closed in and began slashing at it with dragon claw attacks that ignited the face as it hacked away.
As it did Midna turned back to watch the skies, arc slashing an incoming Cachet with another lance beam only to be almost bucked from her nonexistent saddle as the flygon suddenly kicked up and away from the ship.
”What’s the problem, thing?” she began to ask, only to see the problem: a fleshy three jawed fanged maw lunging out from where the face had split in half to release it.
”oh. gross” she declared it as her flygon narrowly avoided being snapped up by the mouth that could have swallowed them whole.
The horrific maw snapped shut and then withdrew, covered up again by the face which was looking a fair bit worse for wear. Rather than waste any more time with half measures, she promptly slammed a balled up shadow hand into it over and over till it tried to fight back with its mouth again. When it did, she grabbed it by the ‘neck’ using her shadow hand, dragon claws digging into it as she did, before flow motion leaped off of her flyogon to latch onto the ship’s hull with six claws of her own, dropping her stuff into a portal to do so.
Then she heaved and pulled, straining with muscled and magic till she ripped the maw out from behind the cherub-like face entirely, gutting it in the process. Corrupt meat fell away while the princess flow motion leaped back onto her flygon and then upon it flew back to join her squad.
They were, it had to be said, in rough shape. In killing the face she’d silenced the guns on this side of the ship, but before they'd gone silent they’d given the angels a beating while they kept any enemies off of her back, and they were in no state to do so again.
”We’ve done what we can, let’s fall back to recover” she decided, pulling her beleaguered troops out of the center of the fighting and back towards the ivory citadel.
wordcount: 1,403 (+3) Edward Portsmith: Level 2 //////////////////// (1/20) (1 level up stored)
Edward found himself standing alone at a window of the tower attempting to collect his thoughts when the ship came. The battle to seize his old command room had been hard, leaving many injured or dead in the initial chaos, and resulting in a force that could no longer be used for anything but protecting its own wounded.
After clearing the chamber they’d pulled back to a previously cleared chamber, not wanting to be within the presence even of the shattered remains of the throne of whispers, and once they had done so the commander had more or less left them to it. Even if they did not say it, his failing left him unfit for command in their eyes.
Hence his isolation.
In some ways, he did welcome the resulting distance, loath as he would be to admit that. He needed time to think on what he had learned from Sectonia, who had given him a rather casual rundown of the situation before she had pushed forwards while he had insisted on securing the troops somewhere safe to set up camp. This explanation had included such gems of wisdom as ‘if someone comes calling themselves "Consul <letter after name>” they're your enemy’ with little other context, but it had at least hit the key points of why things were the way they were.
Assuming what the queen had told him was true, and given both his final memories and the inability of a still ‘Galeeming’ soldier he had questioned to grasp the information (something that had further convinced the troops of his inability to lead unfortunately), then the ramifications of it where even grander than the one that had shook his home-world.
Said prior revelation had been that there many, many more worlds like it, floating within a cosmic void known as the astral sea. This latest meanwhile contextualized that entire sea as but one of endless worlds that were in no way like one another, and like the revelation of the sea, that knowledge had come off the back of the victory of a self proclaimed god over his reality.
Over all reality.
One which had once tossed him far from home and afflicted his mind with false delusions to serve its ends (again!) and this time, he had landed without nary a familiar face in sight. Or, rather, supposedly, it had created the he that was him as merely the latest copy of the he that had been, if he’d understood that half explained revelation correctly.
”Or maybe my mind still is lost to the corruption and this is all some mad illusion” he mused quietly, sighing that ”It would make things much simpler”
And yet what could he do but accept what he’d been told?
Verify it, of course.
He would need to question other members of these ‘Seekers’ to see if their stories lined up and, naturally, to seek out actual evidence that what had been explained was the case rather than simply taking them by their world alone. Not to mention getting the actual details in full rather than slapdashidly delivered in between the thunderous bark of him executing the corrupted core.
Still, to do that, he’d have to go along with them, and that meant doing what he could to make sure they got through this battle. Unfortunately, said battle looked to be taking to the skies if the barges sighted approaching where any indication, and unfortunately the only way he would be joining them in the air would be by being carried by angels, a transport method which made him an active detriment to air combat.
Unknowingly, he did actually have a solution to this. Unfortunately a certain queen had only requested he gather spirits rather than taking the time to explain how to use them in the name of expedience (and in her defense they were in a war-zone), correctly assessing that knowledge rather than power was what would get him onboard. As a result the cost of his failings in the battle were currently burning a hole in a belt pouch alongside some of their fallen foes, rather than being used to let him take flight.
Still, he had his means, and so as Palutena unleashed her high tier magic (he was no believer in miracles these days) he prepared to add his own, lesser, magical might/light to the battle.
Reaching down to his waist the last dreadnought clicked a latch on a chain binding a book that was eternally smoldering, releasing it from its binding. Rather than fall, the Tome of Pyromancy floated up as it flicked itself open, revealing on its heated pages detailing spells of fire and flame.
He guided it before him, flicking past instructions on how to train pyromancers or construct ritual pyres, and instead came to the spell he had been using to empower the tower’s defenders, which he now turned to the angel’s aid to defend what they had now seized from it.
As the book floated before him he raised a hand and pressed the palm to the relevant page, mimicking the imprint on the cover, and wincing ever so slightly as it seared his flesh. Heat ran through veins, filling him and causing his eyes to glow like embers as power radiated from him, attempting to overwhelm him.
But they’d done this dance several times before.
”I am no deluded acolyte of you Yaka. Fire is not sacred, it is simply energy. A tool to enact either creation or destruction” spoke with ritualistic cadence, denouncing the author of the tome, a self proclaimed god of fire, even as he made use of their work. He continued the ritual, casting down Yaka’s ideology and methodology and replacing it with his own as he did so ”and today, destruction is what we will bring. Remember the act of your creation, weapons of my warriors, and bring the heat of that crucible to life once more! With every strike you will burn away all that blights the land, so that a new age of peace and prosperity may rise from the ashes!”
No one ever said it was a very nice ideology.
The heat of the tome, having failed to consume him from the inside as he bent them to his will, now instead burst out of him in a faint but wide reaching pulse of magic.
All across the island, each and every warrior, be they seeker or angel, felt a touch of magic like an ember of potential offer it to them. If they accepted it, they would find their blades and arrow heads begin to glow red hot, as if they had only just been plucked from the forge. Despite this, the magic in their weapons would not burn them, merely warmed by their glow. The same could not be said of their foes, who would be seared by the enchanted armaments and quite possibly ignited by the strikes and shots they received.
The effects of this could be seen at once, as one of a group of angels who had once served alongside Edward before he fell to corruption accepted his boon without question, and then unleashed a volley of arrows at one of the kinships, setting it ablaze.
Back in the citadel, the tome snapped shut as Edward gripped it from the underside. His other hand withdrew just in time to avoid being caught between the covers, then held said cover shut as he re-secured the Tome back at his waist.
”Always temperamental that one” he said to alleviate the concerns of one of the feathers who’d come to check what he was shouting about, dusting off lingering ashes from himself before focusing back on the battle, hands gripping the windowsill as he did so.
The ships were much too far away for him to attempt to shoot at them with his magelock rifle with any degree of accuracy or safety, so instead he expended the remaining five charges (the sixth was passively maintaining the searing blade enchantment) of his mana fuel cells Designating Targets.
Whenever he did, arrows flew true, armor broke to reveal corrupt flesh, and ships burned.
After that, rather than stare uselessly at the battle, he checked on the status on the status of the wounded, and then descended the tower to report their location to wherever the main triage center for the battle had been set up.
With the two miniboss of the Ivory citadel well and truly occupied, Edward (equipped with a pair of stylish sunglasses by nastasia upon his conversion that hid his corrupt visage) lead Setonia and a troop of angels on a chain of corrupted core crushes with his pre-knowledge of both their locations and the defenses surrounding them.
However, as they went deeper, the man’s false vision of things, of the corruption’s soldiers as mortals of the commonwealth and the tower not overwhelmed with its black tendrils, caused a few minor confusions. Things not quite where he thought, or what he thought. Still, these were subtle, and with three layers of mental manipulation, Galeem’s, the corruption’s and now the queen’s, all piled on top of eachother, he was not in a mental state to detect that this was occuring before it was too late.
”We’ll be coming up on a chamber soon that holds the second greatest concentration of cores. Yet it also contains a throne that assails the mind of those who witness it, forcing them to attack their allies if it succeeds at overcoming their willpower, and simply stunning those that it does not” he informed the assembled unit within a chamber that had two small entrances and 100% absolutely did not contain third more important one.
”The effect is brief, yet devastating. Which is why we must enter prepared rather than stumbling into it. Feather shields first who can reflect the effect, then only as many swords and bows as the staffs can cleanse as soon as the affliction takes hold of them”
He received nods, and one important question which was “And where is the entrance to this chamber?” to which he replied ”Behind a large gateway, several people wide, engraved with the image of an armored warrior, his sword tip planted to the ground, his eyes weeping”
The angels, more or less to a feather, glanced up a large gateway, several people wide, engraved with the image of an armored angel, his sword tip planted to the ground, and with black tendrils of corruption crawling down from his eyes like tears.
“Like that door?”
”What door?” Edward asked, looking at a blank wall with confusion, before managing to only get an understated ”ah” of comprehension as the gateway the corruption had blinded him to the presence of was flung open and all hell broke loose.
Within sat the described throne, tendrils wrapped around it and reaching to the sky, upon it a tome with feelers and teeth jagging out of its cover, and the sight of this assailed the minds of the troops with visions of madness.
Some went insane the second they saw it, driving blades and arrows into each other or into the backs of those who had merely been stunned by the affliction. Worse, out of the now open gate flooded the forces of the corruption, fallen angels (their lower halves contorted into a writhing sea of tendrils) and their imposterous masters rushed forward to take down their foes before they could recover.
The only ones standing against this were, as Edward had predicted, the feather shields, who merely blinked in the face of the madness before raising their bulwarks to weather the storm. Yet they had their work cut out for them trying to protect their mad or incapacitated comrades both from friend and foe.
Well… A room that caused momentary insanity when entered… Something that not even she was immune to, Sectonia found, though her superior magic resistance caused the stun to only last for a breath.
She’d have to find a way to destroy that thing.
But before that she had to deal with all the corrupted coming out of the room. A simple enough matter, as there was only one door for them to come through, and she had no end of AoE attacks. And at least she could ‘filter’ her attacks to not attack her maddened allies… as long as she stayed back and just peppered the doorway with her rings of light and beams of light.
The corruption, naturally, did not just sit there and take this, and being a large target as she was, the queen was the focus of more or less all of the fire being shot over the corrupted hord’s heads. Trumpets and horns sounded as Affinities fired bolts and beams from musical weapons, bow strings twanged as corrupted feather bows let loose a volley, but far worse than this were the three Enraptured holding the back of the room, each of whom unleashed a devious spell.
The first raised up its staff and flooded the room and corridor with a golden aura, that as long as it continued to project it, drove the regular troops into a berzerk state that both accelerated their movements, and made them far more durable.
The second cast out ensuring tendrils that whipped around, attempting to coil around the queen and ensare her movements.
Worst of all, however, was the third, who instead of projecting or attacking, stole, spinning its staff and draining the queen’s magic, significantly reducing her arcane firepower as long as it was able to continue to do so.
What also didn’t help was the way Edward had turned specifically on her, ignoring the angels slicing at him as he marked her the same way had when they had been fighting on the tower, aiding the aim of the enemy fire power, and then preceding to attempt to shoot her point blank with his maglock pistol.
Sectonia wasn’t surprised there was retaliation, but those three in the back were going to be a problem. Even though it’d cause her Antlers to go crazy for a bit, perhaps they’d just attack what was near them which would be those three casters and as such, Sectonia summoned a gold antler right next to the casters trying to restrain and drain her power to go berserk on them so she could continue clearing out the corruption that lay before her. Her new Death Pulse ability was doing work, with the healing and damage it provided, although it wouldn’t sustain her forever.
Unfortunately the throne’s power was more insidious than she had hoped, and the antlions promptly began attacking each other, ignoring the foes they had been summoned next to. Still, their presence did represent a threat, causing them to soak up fire as the affinities strove to take them down before they could regain their senses.
But while she had to rely on her Antler causing chaos before she could blast those things herself, Edward went crazy as well. Sectonia could only sigh as she had to summon her insight barrier to reduce the magical damage she was taking. She then turned her attention to Edward who was shooting her with his gun. Rolling her eyes she gave an internal groan about this whole ‘galeem enchantment’ business, and it seemed that even overrode her mind control
Well, at least being more of a commander type, it wasn’t too difficult to break that. She wouldn’t want him blocking her next attack to clear out the room anyway, so she simply snapped her fingers and casually threw a friend-heart at the pre-stabbed by his allies commander. With the deed done, she went back dealing with the stuff pummeling her.
The man stumbled as all the layers of control were washed away, memories and context rushing back to him. It could very well have overwhelmed him and left him as vulnerable as the stunned angels, but the screams and cries around him caused him to shunt everything to the side and focus on the battle he’d, functionally, woken up in the middle of.
The feeling of someone trying to stab an arrow into his back certainly helped, even if his armor prevented that from taking him down.
He whirled, bashed the hand of the offending feather with the butt of his gun to make the drop the arrow, before drawing his saber just in time to prevent a feather sword from taking his head off. Then he hefted his pistol at his attacker, only to fire a round over their shoulder, the enchanted slug of a bullet slamming into a corrupt equivalent that was about to stab it in the back.
”They’ll overcome it soon! Hold fast and protect the healers!” he called out, before pushing the blade of the insane feather back, and lunging to the side to shoulder barge another who was about to finish off a stunned feather-staff.
As both Edward and the offending sword recovered from the collision, the feather staff blinked behind his mask, and then shook his head clear of the stun, only to stare back at the carnage that had occurred while he’d been out. All around him, the others did as well, but as many found themselves in the middle of attempting to kill each other, insanity abating to confusion rather than order.
”Staffs, prioritize the front line! Everyone else, fall back 10 paces and form back up!” Edward commanded, rushing past the confused rear rank to join the place where the feather-shields had been desperately trying to hold back the horde even as their allies had been stabbing them in the back. Thanks to Galeem, they now all wanted to repay the favor, which Edwards' commanded tactical retreat, intended merely to clear lingering confusion about friend or foe, helped in preventing.
He thrust himself into a breach in their improvised shield wall, feet planted in the ashes of one of the fallen as he did his best to take their place despite lacking a shield of his own, and instead doing his best to parry or preemptively pistol take down his foes.
As he did, he felt overheal and holy cradle skills washed over him and the shields. The former helped some, healed the battered shields while granting the at full health Edward a protective barrier, but the second was far more important, as it gave them all a boon that would save them from one death blow… several of which were immediately used up as the wave of corrupted foes threatened to wash over them.
Well these hordes would be reduced quite a bit once Sectonia got serious and started to use her large light rings, firing 3 at a time down the hallway. In such a narrow place, these chopped through the corrupt hordes with relative ease and unlike her smaller versions, they didn’t stop until they hit the wall in the back. If it wasn’t for her mask item that tripled her projectile count, it would’ve taken way longer and way more rings to clear out the corruption in front of her. And on top of that, those mages suppressing her power would have to stop what they’re doing to dodge, or get hit with a relatively strong attack. Although the one binding Sectonia in place made an attempt to dodge, the one sapping her magic power did not, and would find these attacks still hurt even with the debuff on her due to the rapid succession of large rings.
And it was a good thing the mage binding her decided to get out of the way, as to finish off a large amount of corrupted soldiers and the one sapping her strength, she unleashed her large laser beam charged quickly due to the damage she was doing at him, overwhelming whatever defenses him and his cohort had and destroying them as well as any corruption in the way.
Though weakened (and lacking target prioritization in Edward’s tactical assessment), the sheer volume of fire and aoe was more than enough to take the pressure off the front lines, great blades slicing through weaker corrupted and softening up others enough that defenses pokes from behind their shields were plenty to take down others. The only real points of contention were the melee affinities, as each of these lesser false angels would still be a deadly foe to a mundane mortal, which made them still quite the threat to the wounded angels.
Not to mention to Edward, who had a gun rather than the shields the feathers were using to hold back the bone shattering blows of the affinities. Yet still had to do his best to hold the line, using his blade to parry earth shattering strikes he would be entirely unable to block.
His pistol's oversized slugs still punched holes though their armor at least.
It was a relief then, when a call of “Swords re-engage!” from the highest ranking of the feathers who’d survived throne induced insanity, heralding their return to the fray post regrouping behind the shield wall.
”Shields, back, swords, hold the front!” Edward commanded, keeping the relife he was feeling from his voice, as he too fell back. The swords took a more offensive approach to keeping the foes at bay, forming a loose formation and darting to and fro to take out foes quickly rather than trying to hold them back.
Still, the increased durability being induced by the final still channeling Enraptured put something of a dent in that strategy. However, now that he had space and coordinated troops, Edward could deal with that, commanding ”Bows, ready volley. On my mark” and then casting Designate Target on the foe he wished them to remove.
”Fire”
A heartbeat later a shower of shots flew through the fray, Swords clearing a path thanks to the forewarning, and pincushioned the marked and vulnerable Enraptured.
The golden light it produced died along with it, bringing an end to the berzerk state it was inducing in its allies. The resulting frontline quickly crumpled, but the ranged core were still a threat, the feathers having not touched them, and Sectonia’s unwieldy shots less able to hit the distant targets.
Well, with the melee group done, Sectonia could handle the ranged corps with a teleport. She had been kept up with their group heals and her own heals and resilience, and now she could show her dominance even though she wasn’t feeling good. Summoning her chaos shield, she used this to teleport to the ranged corps with her swords out and struck them, before letting out a healing pulse and using her lightning to strike the ranged corps below. Even with them focusing her, it would take quite a bit to break her chaos shield, even though she was way out of position. That being said though, if they managed that, she’d retreat back to heal herself back up.
Edward watched on as someone else was the receiving end of Sectonia’s brazen charge without envy. Well. In a way it was still him, because the queen immediately had sycophants drop down from the ceiling to try and punish her for her brazen charge just as he’d set it up. It didn’t work, naturally, both because Sectonia was Sectonia, but also because it was hardly an ambush when they’d already run into this trick of his before, and she’d been forward of it even before then.
Unlike before however, he now casually mused about what you actually could do against someone with such abilities (decoy ranged troops on explosives, or unicorn mounted skirmishes who could teleport away perhaps) in a way that the now cleared mind control had prevented him from doing before (because how could someone loyalty to the queen even consider strategies that might counter her). Incidentally he did this theorizing while pumping maglock rifle slug after magelock rifle slug into the remaining hostiles, helping with the cleanup from a safe distance.
The last of the corrupted forces fell, leaving only the throne, and the corrupt cores nestled around it that they had come to destroy. Upon the throne sat the tome of corruption Edwad had been reading when the fight began. As Sectonia approached to complete their objective, it flipped open on its own accord, pages flipping till it revealed a diagram of a beautiful woman’s torso sat atop a lower body made up of insectile limbs and grasping tendrils labeled in arcane scrawl as an Umbral Mistress.
The best, it seemed, it could find within itself to tempt the queen.
Prior to what many people thought, Sectonia often found the ‘insects’ that everyone thinks she’d like often pretty ugly. They tended on the realm of creepy instead of beautiful and usually they never had vibrant colors or smooth shapes but looked more like monsters. Perhaps a few other seekers would like them, but not Sectonia.
And Sectonia couldn’t let ugly things that made themselves to be her enemy stand. So instead of tempting Sectonia, the book of corruption only managed to enrage her. How dare this thing try and corrupt beauty! Well, she wasn’t going to have that, and what was the best way to deal with a book like this than with fire?
Giving a bit of an inhale, Sectonia spit a small ball of fire at the book. This was much weaker than many other seekers with the same ability, but it was more to set fire to something than an actual attack and was used to show her disdain. Something that started as her fire set the book on fire and caused the creature projected by it to morph and scream. Something Sectonia didn’t appreciate, and decided to just blast it with a beam of holy light to silence it.
”Ah, good” Edward said as he approached, pistol in hand, and explaining that ”I had intended to warn about that before we were interrupted by the illusory ploy, but it seems I didn’t need to worry about your judgment”
He then glanced back at the troops and ordered ”Form a perimeter while we break the cores” before turning back to the queen and requesting ”During which I would appreciate an explanation of what exactly is going on here”
”Yes, I suppose this wouldn’t be a bad time. I need a bit of rest as it is.” Sectonia said, finding a safe spot to rest, resiphon her mana from the ground, and heal herself up. She explained what had been going on to Edward while he point blank executed the cores.
“Aw, that’s a shame” Rayne replied to the comment about the nail polish not being purchasable.
Not that she could have afforded to get some even if it had been on sale. Their belts were looking pretty tight, given that neither she nor Sanae were particularly confident anyone else was doing better off than they were, and that settling down and getting a steady job to make ends meet would be fairly disruptive to the whole getting home thing.
She had some skills that others might describe as peasant-y in nature, and attempting to monetize her Link given powers was both not a thing she had considered (and, one that, now that she did, just felt wrong) so any job she did get wouldn’t exactly rake in the funds needed to feed, house, etc. a whole group of people.
Still, looking at the rather empty looking coin purse she ended up with after getting the book (it wasn’t like she could just read it all in the store after all, let alone remember the contents) she might have to bend her principles a bit. Just a bit though. Flying about delivering parcels through above the busy streets maybe?
At any rate, whatever they were going to do about funds probably needed to be a group project rather than something she could solve on her own, so she naturally agreed to tag along with the other two ladies as they went to investigate this curse.
She wondered if this was anything to do with why the goddess wanted them in the capital or not.
wordcount: 638 (+1) Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(153/140) Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(72/100) Location: Mafia Town, Deep Blue Seaside
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”You bet I am!” Jr responded to the ‘wizz kid’ question, having been entirely willing to work on the gun right here on the table despite how silly that notion was. When he didn’t get what he wanted he just slumped back in a huff again. He did have to admit, to himself and to no one else, that Juri’s whole ‘take no nonsense from nobody’ attitude was actually kinda cool even if she was also kinda a jerk.
Rika meanwhile was more, well maybe not concerned, but tuned in to the state of the deep blue. It was where she had been born, so to speak, after all.
”So they just went and replaced the fleet? Just like that?” she asked, before glancing at her brother and asking ”That’s one of those ‘irony’ things, right? Because that’s how the fleet treated everything like me as disposable, but in the end the whole fleet was all that to I, big bosses included” and then upon getting a nod stated rather flatly that ”I don’t get how Irony is meant to be that funny though. I think it just makes me feel worse”
Jr gave his sister a hesitant pat on the arm (he couldn't reach her shoulder) but Rika wasn’t done being a downer
”Also I guess things are just worse now over there strategically? The fleet never really got close to the city, just threatened it a bunch I think? Plus getting used to fighting on land as a ship girl is a real pain” she added after that vocalized bit of self reflection, looking briefly confused about feeling empathy for the entire navy when she’d barely considered them before. Rather than reflect on that as well however, she sidestepped the feelings and instead wondered ”I wonder where I got the cannon ship from anyway, if it's that dangerous?” throwing a bone to Jr in the process that got him talking.
”Maybe it just spawned after we beat the fleet? Must be something that stops new stuff from being popped in while old stuff is there. Asgore said whole places would get repopulated overnight, and seeing as places that don’t get, uh, all unpopulated don’t just flood with stuff then it must be reactive to when there's, I dunno, space?” Jr theorized before complaining that ”Also I guess guardians are the only things they can’t replace, coz even if we knock down one of these Consuls, apparently they can just make someone else into a new one. So I dunno how much of a point there is in going after them”
He did however note that ”Kinda weird that none of them jumped on the possibility of getting one of their own ‘lieutenants’ powered up though, and so in the end that crazy C guy made Peach into one as a… a joke or something?”
”So maybe we can go back to the city, sink the ship, and then sink I when she shows up afterwards? If it’ll take them a bit to replace her, we can use that space to go take down the big bird” Rika suggested before adding ”Plus I don’t think I like Consul I very much? I mean, the fleet would have been the way they were anyway, probably, but it's all also kind of her fault”
”Huh. I guess so” jr tentatively agreed. It was sort of a Galeem situation if he thought about it though. The state of Rika’s life was both it and I’s fault, but that in a way included her existing at all, which left him strangely grateful to them in a way he did not like.
Rika, it seemed, did not have this dilemma, declaring simply ”So I think I really want her dead” before going back to munching on what was left of their meal.
Timemaster
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Crimson Flame
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Drifting Pollen
