“This world isn’t mine either. You have a working sky for one” Rayne confirmed, before also confirming that “and no, I wasn’t asked” before adding “If I was I would have asked the goddess to wait a few seconds before I could replace our own one. I’m… not sure how my world is doing without someone keeping the cycle of life and death going…”
She looked visibly worried for a few moments, biting her lip, eyes turned down, shoulders drawn in, before shaking her head and saying “I guess all we can do is wait, and hope that Lavielle is easier to get in touch with than Gaia is. Or was” forcing herself not to give into her fears. The way the others started talking about their own worlds and places they had in them helped her focus less on hers, at the very least.
Lewa it seemed came from one hosting many different mechanical peoples like himself, ones into which a great spirit had breathed life into, which was pretty familiar, but also not an aspect she wanted to focus on as a result. Instead she focused her mind on trying to imagine a whole world filled with nothing but living machines. Or not machines. Golems? The lack of a specific alternate term was going to mean this kept being confusing for a while, she suspected.
Whatever the case, Rayne thought “that sounds incredible” before thinking for a moment and saying “oh, but, to maybe clear something up, some machines can do things on their own, be alive, sort of. We have machines called golems back in my world, and though they aren't people, they can move and act on their own. Fight, mostly. So that might be where the confusion is coming from. Maybe it would be helpful to know what you call yourself and your siblings? Collectively I mean, like how those matoran you mentioned are, well, matoran, and I’m a halfling and most of the people here are humans… huh, practically everyone else actually” which to her was odd, given how many other people there had been back home, all mingled together.
Where back home. Where. She mentally corrected and insisted to herself.
As for the masked man who introduced himself as Joker, she responded to him by saying “We have cards,” she briefly held up a hand of three translucent blue ones as she said that “but I haven't heard of a joker one before. Nice to meet you all the same” before adding “And, ah, you too Arsene” when he summoned his large spectral companion behind him.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
While they were waiting for the rest of the team to group up, Kamek found himself inexplicably drawn to the book that Robin Goodfellow had been using and reading from. The same one that seemed to have driven him mad from revelation. He had had trepidation about that before, but for some reason the potential cursed nature of the tome held less of a concern for the mage after his fusion.
As it turned out, there had been nothing to fear. It was true, the book did, when he looked it up, contain himself, but it was hardly a complete summary of his life, more of an entry in a bestiary. Indeed it contained nothing about his illustrious career in villainy pre his king’s delivery via stork for example, something he definitely had.
Having suffered zero sanity damage, he then proceeded to flick through it for other entries of note, such as said king, and then attempted to look up Mario, only to find he was not present. Indeed, the book seemed to only contain people and things they had encountered in the prison, which was interesting and odd. As was the way that an entry for a ‘Raziel’ appeared when Therion rejoined the group, sporting a new look, one very reminiscent of the features of the individual in the entry.
He headed over to meet the man, relaying the information about the book to him, and then others via pearl, as well as hearing the thief’s analysis of what they could do about the safe. Namely that without a key, brute force was their only bet.
”Shoulda gone for muscle in the first place” Bowser told his advisor, before he promptly kinetic strike module the safe across the room. This did not open it, but it did dent it a bit, which prompted the king to insist ”See, a bit more of that and we’ll have what’s inside!”
”yes, well, if whatever is inside is not utterly destroyed as well” Kamek muttered irreverently, before sighing and leaving his king to it.
As for the other of the human pair’s question that she asked once she arrived, namely about being ready to leave, Jr’s reply to that was ”Yup! I am one hundred percent ready to blow this joint, coz I am beat”
Indeed that really did go for all of them, except maybe Rika who still had energy from somewhere. Possibly the same source as the lollipop she stuck in her mouth once she learned that they were done fighting and getting a ride out of the dungeon. Specifically they were headed up to dirtmouth for a rest, and though the town wasn't exactly the greatest place to camp down for the night, it was, probably, safe. More so than places unknown or actively turned against them by a consul, so up there they went.
The stag beetle transportation was somewhat unorthodox, but only somewhat, and though a bit bumpy it did the job. Said jostling also helped Bowser, who spent most of the journey biting the safe to try and gnaw it open, resulting in it having a bunch of dents and holes in it by the time they arrived.
Up top they were finally freed from the cold stagnant dark and into the cold fresh dark of the night time air at the surface. So only a moderate improvement. Entirely neutral actually given that the past sundown state of the surface was an indicator of how late it was, one which reminded the Troop that they had not actually eaten dinner yet, and so rather than bunk down at once, they set out in search of somewhere to buy a meal.
Unfortunately, though the town was not entirely abandoned due to the miners, said miners where not exactly the most picky of eaters, and so the best they could find was a stall operating out of the back of a chuck wagon operated by one Bang Ersandmash
“Bilimy, don’t you look famished in a half, chewing on a chunk of metal of all things” the man said as soon as he saw Bowser, who was still gnawing on the safe that did not look anything like a safe any more, before launching into a sales pitch “well then step right up, you've come to just the right place for some top quality nosh. I’ve got coronation chicken sandwiches if you want sumin light, or a classic fish n’ chips or a steak and kidney pie if you want sumin more filling. Though for a big guy like you, I could whip up a full breakfast for dinner. bacon, fried egg, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, hash brown, grilled tomatoes, the works!”
”Deal” Bowser replied at once upon hearing that list
”Sir, we don’t even know the price yet” Kamek began to point out, but his king would have none of it
”I heard bacon and that’s enough for me. So fry it all up chef guy, and give it to me stat. Give me two even” he said to the man, before adding ”and make us some of the other stuff too while you're at it. Pair of pies, two helpings of chips, and … nah skip the sandwiches but the hot stuff, give us the lot”
“Blimy, what an appetite. Don’t you worry, I’ll av your supper done in a jiffy” Bang replied with delight, turning on ovens, stove tops and fryers galore to service the king’s ravenous hunger, only to be interrupted by Kamek asking ”One moment, what do you have on your menu that’s vegetarian?”
The man looked affronted at the very notion, asking “You what? Does it look like I’m serving rabbit food here?”
Kamek breathed in. Breathed out. Then rather than take this floated up in the air so he could look down upon the chef, then leaned so his beak was near to pecking the man’s nose and ”I am the one with the money, so find me something on that little menu of yours, or we’ll have a problem” while mana flowed loosely around him, causing him to radiate directionless, formless power.
“Aright alright, lay off it. It ain’t the time for you, but I can do you a cream tea, with scones and the like” Bang replied, holding up his hands, not wanting to get in a fight. At least not with otherwise paying customers.
”Very good” the Mage replied, as he floated back down and retook a more typical demure posture, yet also looking very smug.
At least up until Rika, having seen all this go down along with the other two (more taken aback) troop members, piped up with ”ooh, ooh, I wanna try” before pointing the barrel of her gauntlet embedded rifle at Bang and demeaning he ”Gimmy all your sweet stuff!”
”Ah, no, young mistress there are limits please do not directly threaten the man” Kamek told her, floating up again and using his want to gently lower the gun for her, before offering Bang a sincere if rather ironic apology ”I’m sorry, I seem to have set a poor example. Please do continue, and also let me pay right away so there are no more misunderstandings”
“I… right. That’ll be … 300 gold?” Bang replied carefully, which got him a look to which he responded “what you think it's easy getting bacon and fish up here? I gotta make a living come on” resulting in a sigh and a shrug from Kamek, before he forked over the gold
“Pleasure doin business with you” Bang said as he raked in the gold, before getting back to his cooking.
Soon enough the troop had been served their exotic meals, which for the most part were greasy and fatty, but at the very least filling, and after a hard day of violence and terror, that was more than enough. Probably not worth 300 gold mind, but it was enough. Kamek, soothed by sorely missed tea, was in no mind to complain however, and so they left without incident, finding their way back to the area the team had decided to squat in.
Having just eaten they weren't quite ready to pack it in for the night, but they also were not in a state to do anything productive either. Jr attempted more repairs on his clown car, but dirtmouth wasn’t exactly somewhere with a bevy of spare parts on hand, and his mind was much too tired anyway. So instead he and Rika ended up playing with some of the games that had been looted from Porky and not gifted to the orphans.
Kamek had less issue getting to sleep, so ironically it was Bowser who was the productive one, waking Kamek back up again with a loud crash as he delivered a flurry of blows, kicks, and tusk goarings to the safe which finally gave up the ghost and snapped open, revealing its contents: a formless, seething mass that defied identification.
Not that the king didn’t try, fail, and then try and pass off the question as to what it was to his advisor ”Kamek, what is that thing?”
”I have no idea. And working out what it is can wait till morning. Goodnight sire” was the mage’s sleepy grumpy reply, before he promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.
”Huh” Bowser replied, before thinking a bit, and then instead of going to get some sleep, went over and joined his kids for some late night gaming.
They lasted about 30 min before they too were all out like lights.
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
”We met Armstrong of all people, and he’d just assassinated president Shinra” Midna informed the team once they’d all regrouped, and were filling each other in on what had gone down apart, holding up the spirit of the old man ”So the city’s lost its head as well as most of its armies now” which was a pretty dire state of affairs.
She could only hope that their sources were right, and that the robots were going to be coming straight for the heart where they were rather than spreading out to sack the city in general. If they did, well, Armstrong would be getting his wish. It would be a slaughter of unimaginable proportions. Hopefully her crushing of the president’s spirit after filling people in on his fate didn’t end up being predictive symbolism in any way.
Shinra's Golden Gun A very expensive-looking pistol with a black grip embossed by the logo of the Shinra Electric Power Company, and engraved golden body. It's only a golden veneer though, otherwise the weapon would be unusable. It's a small sidearm that fires 9mm rounds, just enough to kill the average person, but otherwise lacking stopping power. It has never seen expert maintenance, but then again, it's probably never been fired
They set off as soon as everyone was filled in and fighting fit again, as there was no time to waste, particularly because of the prediction that there’d be at least one Consul standing in their way to slow them down. Not to mention the master hand, assuming he showed up right before this Guardian as well, which Midna brought up as a possibility ”Last time it more or less introduced a natural hazard, one that almost froze us all to death, but it seemed like showing up and interfering was a thing it had done before, and we should probably expect it to either meddle in some way, or be a sign that something really nasty is already up ahead”
After they descended deeper, bypassing what was meant to be an impassable door thanks to Karen’s help, both predictions of opposition unfortunately came to light at the same time.
At least the hand seemed to be polite enough to wait where it was initially, while the Consul sprung his trap all around them, the strange pods snapping open and revealing humanoid figures.
”Your first mistake was sending pawns to capture a princess” Minda shouted at the Consul even as she reacted to the pods opening by slamming her bo staff (already pre-filled with lightning) into the occupant before they could even finish rising. Electricity flared, wrecking the machine who’s own dying surge added to her own, and then the clone was down before it could even act.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for many of the rest who, as Midna stepped back from the one she had prevented from entering the fight, began to summon reinforcements of their own, namely hazy red shapes. Presumably these were similar to the ones they’d seen Nuron use before, though them being red rather than blue was initially a bit concerning.
”Don’t like the looks of whatever those are, but at least my skin isn’t crawling in their presence” she observed however, which meant she probably wasn’t being redshifted, which was something.
Most of the shapes floated by their summoners, but others shifted under them to act like steeds, while yet more seeming to engulf them like armor. One of the latter proceeded to use strength granted by her legion armor to rip the pod she’d just emerged from the wall to hurl at the princess, at which was as good a signal as any for the carnage to begin.
Princess grabbed the improvised projectile out of the air and smashed it down infront of her as a shield to block an incoming blur, only for whatever that was to cleave right through the pod. She stabbed her staff half blind towards it through the gap it had made, and yet her weapon went right through the legion like it was a ghost.
”What the? That’s not fair!” She barked in confusion as she stepped back, before shifting gears to the targets she could hit, raised the shotgun she had in her other pair of arms, and attempted to blast one of the unarmored clones. Yet when she did this, another shape swooped into the way, this one surrounded by a shimmering barrier that absorbed the shot.
Worse still, the foe that had sliced through the pod took this time to circle round her swiftly, wrapping some kind of invisible chain round Midna’s feet, trapping her in place. Then it promptly sliced at her, cutting a gash in her back.
Seeing a sitting duck, another clone came riding in on the back of a legion, looking mostly like she was floating air, forcing Midna back on the defense again. She blocked the clone’s x-batton swing with her staff, only for whatever her foe was riding to claw the shotgun out of her hands before she could use it. In response, Minda crescent moon slashed her Sharpened Volcano Fragment into reality, the obsidian fire ax sweeping through steed striking rider instead, and engulfing her in flames.
The clone bailed off of the side of her steed and onto the ground where she tried to roll around to try and put the fire out, but Midna caught her with a staff strike before she could recover, lightning slamming down into the lightly armored figure along with the strike. Then she kicked her shotgun to portal it home, as she started summoning strikers. The first were her chillfos, that finished the job on the downed clone, skewering her with their frozen and ending her life, which caused the shape that had been about to pounce on Minda to shrivel up into a much smaller and seemingly inert state.
Roadblock came out next, taunting the legion that had chained and slashed her, causing it to wail on its shield instead of trying to strike down Midna. Then she summoned up her initiates who began trading fire with clones using long ranged legions to try and pick off Roadblock from behind.
Finally skywave fired a pulse of energy that healed Midna, and then struck a pair of advancing clones, blinding them and preventing their advance. All of this gave Midna the moment she needed to reach forwards, grab the spirit of the dispatched clone, and press it into her chest.
Spirit absorbed: Clone of Akira Howard The host is a bit more average in all aspects, including height, looks, and build. Her skin (which has lost its artificial feel) is now almost completely flesh-tinted, tan in color, and her hair is both shorter and a less vivid, more brownish red, akin to maroon. Her tail is now completely gone. Her garb has been unified somewhat into a mostly futurustic, slightly fantastical suit of light SWAT armor, mostly black and red with a little bronze. Even her Fused Shadow is sleeker and more modern looking. Her personality is less strong. This spirit confers the Power Mass-produced Legionis, which allows her to use a legatus to summon a bound Beast Legion from its core, connected to her by an astral chain. She can also now see chimeric entities clearly. The Beast Legion is an agile close-range fighter and can be ridden or used to track scents. It cannot be seen or attacked by most enemies. The astral chain can be used to send it out, pull it back, pull the host over to the legion, or bind enemies by encircling them. The Legion can also be modified with spirits. This spirit also confers the Weakness Born for One Thing Only, immediately disabling all of the host's Strikers and spitting out their spirits
The split second plan she’d made worked perfectly, as the princess’s sight suddenly filled with a second set of combatants, specifically 5 different kinds of red hued beings that seemed to be chimaras wrapped in armor with ‘neuron’ and ‘police’ branding stenciled on them. Unfortunately the side effect this new boon came with was greater than usual, as all of her strikers suddenly dematerialised before their time as a result of their spirits spilled from her body and onto the floor.
”Goddesses, stop taking things from me!” she complained, but there wasn’t much time to mourn the loss of power, as the legion that had been distracted by the now gone forever Roadblock now came for her instead.
”Please work” she prayed as she raised her bo staff, blocking the strike of the sword legion, and then swiping the fire ax under her guard to clip its leg, this time connecting. The legion burned, backing away in confusion that it was now targetable, at which point a grinning behind her mask Midna commanded ”Sick him!” as a follow up to attack
Her wolfos burst into reality, only to look very confused, unsure of what target it should be attacking, for it was still blind to what she could see. What was not blind was the beast legion of the clone she had slain to gain the sight, which emerged from its core at her command and pounced on the sword legion right before it could move to strike the confused wolfos.
”What? Yes! Now it's an even fight” Midna cheered before promptly smashed a shadow fist into the sword legion, sending it careening across the room to crash into one of the pods. Unfortunately, she was very wrong about the fight now being even, as that demonstration of her new found ability to fight back against legions promptly put a massive target on her back, half a dozen sets of eyes turning to focus on her specifically.
”Alright then, come on then pawns” she taunted as she tossed her ax into a portal, one that conveniently ate up her dropped strikers (which she could always use for something esle after all), and then launching Erendira‘s Gun-lance into one of her free hands as she used the other to grasp and mount her wolfos ”come fight fight me on an even playing field!”
Seval obliged, chagrin forwards with x-battons raised and various legions at their command, to which Midna responded by counter charging, guiding her wolfos with her hand while her new beast legion raced alongside her.
Far beneath the eastern rim of the land of origins, in Tricity’s demon infested mines, Heroes fought to reclaim what had been stolen. Not just the riches of the earth, but the very souls of the miners who had once extracted that harvest.
They also fought for their lives.
Having discovered the terrible truth after being baited by false cries made by enslaved souls, Jaxx, hero of ages, and his allies Seam the duel wielding avine and Lilly the betentacled goblin, had sought to slaughter more of those terrible beasts. Yet they were in enemy territory, and though the bodies were piled high around them, yet more beasts still came.
“Running low on bolts” Lilly called out as she fumbled one of her few remaining shots into her crossbow, and then immediately spent it to take out the singular pulsating eye of some half seen horror bearing down on them. Its screeches briefly drowned out any talk till Seam gutted it with his knife, after which he added “and I’m low on everything, my limbs are burning here” through labored breaths.
One, two, three, four and with a dodge to the side, six. Jaxx's movements started out fast, dropping smaller demons one by one. No fear in his eyes, only burning determination to kill every single of them.
Yet determination meant nothing against overwhelming numbers. Numerous cuts and bruises started to appear on the hero's body and even Heropentia started to look like it'll break soon.
Jaxx's metal arm was covered in guts and what not from where he used it to deliver a blow to a demon.
Sweating heavily, he echoed the words of the others. “Keep those bolts only for kill shots! Seam, breathe, keep close to me. If they separate us, we're dead. ” he shouted, approaching Seam as much as he could.
Both offered affirmations, Seam pulling back towards him, Lilly switching to focusing on housing her tendrils to fight despite the burn injuries they had suffered. Even with that, it was clear that the two jr heroes were getting close to the ends of their ropes, unable to keep up with Jaxx’s stamina and experience.
While Jaxx was clearly better at fighting than the other two, he too started to slow down and if the assault would continue for a few more minutes, they’d certainly be overwhelmed.
“Back down. Step-by-step. We can’t take them. Better to return later with more people, we definitely didn’t expect this here. ” he said between labored breaths as he cut another demon that got too close.
With a roar, he jumped towards the demon and lifted it up with his sword before throwing it at one that was approaching Seam from the side.
“MOVE!”
The two did not need to be told twice. Seam leapt back and flapped his wings while doing so to pivot around and start moving, while Lilly switched from channeling a goblin warrior past life to that of a miner it could guide her footing. The man who had lived his whole life in this tunnel had no worry of getting lost in the winding branching network they had come through, and so sped them right towards the way they had come in, only to notice something strange.
Cracks and seams in the wall, loose rubble, the tell tale glint of dust in the air. He remembered these from a failed strike breaking attempt. He’d made those same cracks during it. For a brief moment, the goblin thought they could use this, and then as they approached, a shape in the dark moved, a quiet crack resounded through the tunnels, and another terrible truth revealed itself.
“Seam, watch out!” Lilly’s voice shouted at the speedy avian, before she lept, grabbed him, and hurled him back right as the trap the outer beats had concocted with stolen knowledge came crashing down. Right on top of her. There was a brief sight of green fresh rupturing and red blood spraying before the torch she had been carrying was crushed, along with her body, and the lights went out.
“L-lilly!” Seam cried in anguish, reaching futility towards where she had even as the tunnel continued to collapse towards him.
Or so it would’ve happened, if not for Jaxx’s new gift. Time slowed. The rocks seemed to move in slow motion, Lily’s face in pain…and then he came. In a flash, for everyone else, and in a sprint for him, Jaxx ran towards Lily and just at the last moment pulled her from under the massive rock…only for the time slow ability to end and for the group to fall downwards into the darkness.
They all reached the bottom with a loud THUD. Moments passed, with Seam waking up first. What he saw made his feathers stand up. Glittering seams of tin ore reflected the light of their torch, casting a silvery light upon the vile shapes of demons. Many demons. Luck was on the group’s side this time, as the demons didn’t expect them to survive the fall, nor that they’d reach the nests.
Our heroes were surely done for and then it happened.
CELESTIAL EMPOWERMENT!
As it was written in the Khodex of Creation at the end of every heroic arc, for a continuous 24-hour period, the cosmic forces align to infuse the hero or heroes participating in the arc with unparalleled abilities and insights. During this time, not only are heroes enhanced, but all challenges and adversaries they face are similarly amplified. The 24-hour window becomes a crucible of intensified heroism, where heroes must confront formidable challenges on an unprecedented scale, reinforcing the significance of heroes in the fabric of the universe.
Raw, divine power coursed through Seam, Lily and Jaxx. Their injuries healed instantaneously, fatigue gone as if it was never there, their very senses seemed to be turned up to 1000. Minuscule movements of the creatures could be seen with clarity and the darkness of the cave seemed to fade.
Confusion, either from still being alive or from the empowerment itself might have squandered the first moments they had, had their senses not picked up something very important: there were shapes other than Demons in the cave. Pinned to the ground were 3 bodies, a pair of goblins and a hulking aardvark beast blood who they had last seen running off after a phantom cry for help, all three who had been in even more dire straits then. Rejuvenated as well, they found strength to fight back with tooth and claw, but it would not be enough.
The sight of others in trouble was more than enough to prevent any thoughts of how, or why, and instead pushed the heroes towards one simple act: they rushed in.
As the power coursed through his veins, Jaxx stood up and gave a grin to Lily and Seam before slowing down time to an almost halt, such was his power under the empowerment.
In a blur, he cut through the demons who didn't have time to understand that they died. All that they saw and the others, was a flash, an after image of Jaxx cutting demons one by one.
With a few more sword swipes, the demons pinning the goblins were dead, a frozen confusion on their faces. Stopping the effect, Jaxx didn't realize how much distance he actually traveled.
“Oooh, I like this. Come on, demons of incompetence! Charge me! I wanna bathe in your blood! ” shouted Jaxx as he pointed Heropentia at the incoming demons, on his face a massive grin. It was obvious to anyone that he enjoyed this.
The first one to die after his proclamation was not by his hands, but by Seam’s, as the avian plunged down from heights his flightless wings should not have carried him, directly on top of the beast still attempting to salvage the aardvark-kin. Blades plunged into its back, weakening enough that his fellow beastman could haul it off of himself, and join his two goblin companions on their feet.
It also left Lilly on her lonesome, or at least, so it seemed. Yet as beasts tore towards her, their own flesh seemed to betray them, convulsing, rupturing. Or rather, their stolen souls fought for freedom, empowered by Lilly’s grasp on the cycle, talent and divine blood both.
Yet even as some of the souls rebelled, others were wielded, the formerly mostly animalistic beasts coordinating, those attacking pulling away from Lilly to preserve their stolen souls, while others where now wise enough to not give Jaxx what he wanted, and instead attempted to hurl rocks and stones at him. Given their size and often multiple limbs, this resulted in quite the hail that the other heroes scrambled to avoid, Seam launching himself up, while the hulking aardvark-kin put himself between the shower and his goblin companions.
With a roar at Seam in thanks, Jaxx waited for the demons to charge yet they were smarter than Jaxx gave them credit. ‘Alas, it wasn’t the first time Jaxx dealt with ranged attackers. Not quite as big as these were or vicious but enough to give him an idea.
Using his metal arm to shield a part of his body and Heropentia to block anything that came towards his head, Jaxx made himself as small of a target he could and charged the demons which started to focus on him now that he was getting closer. A few stones hit their mark, striking Jaxx in his fleshy arm and one on the stomach which already started to bruise a bit but ‘thus he reached the demons.
One tried to run but was cut down almost straight away and the others, now with an enemy in melee range and not wanting to strike their own allies, stopped their ranged assault, focusing more on defense than attacking. It didn’t stop, of course, the few on the sides that were still far enough from Jaxx to continue their stone throwing towards the group but it was way weaker than before.
It dropped off further when Seam swooped down onto another Beast, slashing with both blades before leaping off to strike at another. Others ended up on the receiving end of ranged attacks meanwhile, Lilly perfectly placing her last remaining blots into vitals of beasts, each one laced with her venom thanks to a bout of inspiration from one of her oldest lives, while the two other goblins darted out from their protector’s cover when the hail slowed to grab their own stones to toss.
The group did more than well defeating the demons and it was obvious as bodies were laid on the ground everywhere. Noticing the thinning numbers, under the rules of the empowerment, the evil side was about to get their own boost. Suddenly the demons seemed to pull away and retreat, giving the group a much needed break from the fighting.
“RUN you bastards! RUN!” shouted Jaxx as he cut another demon that lagged a bit behind. And so the bastards ran…for a bit. Stopping at a reasonable distance from the group, the demons started circling one of them, a bigger specimen onto which they proceeded to vomit some kind of eldritch slime before they pounced upon it. Flesh started to meld together and the screams started. Ethereal screams came from every soul caught by the demons as they got absorbed into one singular being. One tightly bounded mass of souls in one massive creature.
The mass of flesh had faces all over its dark and slimy body and over 30 limbs each ending in razor sharp blades. An almost constant scream came from within it. It no longer had legs but instead it dragged itself using the long sharp limbs. Underneath it, one could clearly see faces of goblins, beastkin and everything else they’ve caught, in anguish and pain. Standing at about 10 meters tall, the demon barely had space in the cave.
With a roar that would send chills in the spines of everyone around, it started dragging slowly to the group as a few of the limbs sprang out to impale or otherwise eviscerate the group.
The weaponless rescued trio fell back from this, while Jaxx’s charged forwards into the fray. Seam leapt up onto one of the limbs attempting to impale him, talons digging into flesh as he ran up it, while Lilly ducked and weaved, and then struck out with her own barrage of limbs, venom tipped tendrils spearing into multiple enemy limbs around her.
While Lily's tendrils necrotising the demon's limbs would've elicited some sort of reply from the usual demons, this one didn't seem to care as it simply severed its own limbs to stop the spread and then grew replacements
As Seam climbed up, it seemed that the faces he'd step on tried to bite him as smaller limbs grew from the spaces in between them like spikes.
Jaxx’s charge didn't seem to do much to the demon either, as each limb would regrow or change directions mid-air whenever he'd dodge. Using his time slow, Jaxx ran around the demon and tried cutting it apart piece by piece but somehow the demon, while affected by the time slow, wasn't as slow as the others were and it still managed to protect itself even as it spilled dark liquid from its body.
Even the return of the other three heroes did little to dent it, the goblins with their war hammers and shields, and the aardvark-kin with a two handed maul fairing little better than the cutting and stabbing heroes where.
Eventually the demon roared once more and hundreds of small spikes appeared all over its body, making Jaxx retreat.
“Does anyone have a plan? This thing doesn't seem to care that we're cutting it apart. ” shouted Jaxx to the others.
“Kinda a one trick roller here!” Seam called out in reply as he landed next to them Jaxx, having backed up upon seeing the senior hero’s own retreat.
“Maybe if a get load of venom into iz body? But am out of bolts, an not fast enough to get close!” Lilly called back before she lept to the side to avoid being skewered.
“We might as well try. Put venom on Heropentia, coat it in it. I can get close enough, just keep it busy. ” said Jaxx as he dodged again and got close to Lily, who promptly dragged her tendril fangs over it, giving it a slick sheen of deadly neurotoxin.
Jaxx activated the time slow again, this time feeling less powerful than before, with the demon’s limbs still moving fast enough to cause Jaxx to dodge or cut them as he ran towards it. Circling the demon, he started slashing it and on one occasion stabbed it deep in one of the faces..and THAT pissed it off.
In comparison to the limbs, the face didn’t regenerate like. Massive spikes appeared once more as the demon roared in pain before moving its bladed limbs like a chainsaw, at a speed that seemed too fast even for the time slow.
Jumping backwards, but not before getting a fresh new cut on his chest, Jaxx pulled Lily away at the last minute before she was cut down.
The chainsaw of limbs and blades swept after them, only for the aardvark's maul to crash into it with excessive force, disrupting the unnatural formation enough that they could get away. Several limbs twisted off out of the collapsing arrangement of blades, but Seam was there in a flash, thrusting and parrying to protect the big guy from a death by a thousand cuts
“Thank ya” Lilly gasped as she steadied her feet after the time sped pull, before looking over the damage he’d done and saying “Now we just gotta do summon with dat”
The other two goblin ladies were already on it, it seemed, having together grabbed one of the demon’s severed blades and then working together in perfect harmony to hurl it like a javelin at their foe, spearing an envenomed face with the beast’s own weaponry.
The demon parried the javelin almost immediately, yet it still managed to hit one of the faces which caused it to roar in pain once more. Again, multiple limbs appeared out of it, hurling themselves towards the group…exactly the same way as the javelins were thrown, the demon was learning.
“Aaadvark, on me. Let's keep it busy! Seam, collect all the bladed limbs we cut off, cut them to size, give them to Lily. Lily, target the faces. Shoot them all!” shouted Jaxx, before running in the path of the javelins and defecting them with Heropentia, earning him yet another cut. Big a target as he was, the Aaadvark took more, yet stubbornly refused to fall as he followed the legend’s lead.
The rest had a difficult plan to put into motion while under fire, but they made it work, mostly thanks to the twins and their shields which offered just enough protection for them to whistle and envenom the improvised crossbow bolts before returning them back to sender.
It took a bit to get going, but once it did Jaxx and the aardvark had the covering fire they needed to get in close, with claws spearing into their foe, crippling arms or whole sections of its body. Yet Lilly only had so much venom, and though the amalgamated beast was crippled by the time she was spent, it still raged on.
Jaxx followed up with his own assault, cutting limbs and faces. Deflecting the now poorly coordinated limbs, Jaxx prepared himself to leap and stab the last remaining face. Yet just as he was about to leap to deliver the final blow, the ground shook. The walls shook. The ceiling shook.
Everything shook. Stones began to fall, the entrance to the cavern they were in collapsed, and then so too did the floor as a distant god casually remodeled the underground.
“What the f-”
And then the ground fell away beneath them, and down they went through the darkness. The concept of time seemed to disappear as they kept falling but that didn’t stop the demon from trying to skewer them, even blind as it was but with its strength almost all drained up, Seam, using his wings, flapped them once or twice and with a shout stabbed the demon…killing it. Once and for all. A massive scream of pain followed as the creature died and the souls, now free from their torment, illuminated the surroundings for a few moments, enough for the group to see the river below them, before disappearing.
“Everyone! Brace for impact! Hug the demon, it’ll soften the blow!” shouted Jaxx and he plunged Heropentia deep in the demon’s body, a hand extended towards Lily for her to hold on.
She reached out a hand, and then when that fell short, a tendril, and was pulled close. Behind, Seam swopped to and fro, grabbing both of the other goblins and then swooping them all to the beast, talons digging into it til they got a grip alongside the aardvark.
A few more moments passed and with a loud BOOM, the demon’s body crashed into the water, splashing gore, slime being expelled in every direction…and then our heroes fell unconscious from the shockwave.
About half an hour later, the group slowly started waking up. Standing upon the demon’s body, it was obvious they were being carried downstream, where was anyone’s guess. Yet in the distance, they could see lights. Very bright lights and a blue ceiling above, hundreds of meters above.
“Everyone alright? Alive and hopefully well? ” said Jaxx with a rough voice.
He got a groaning chorus of confirmations, at least for the alive part. The wellness was debatable, given both bruises from the fall and injuries from the battle. Lilly immediately set about helping with those, digging out a thankfully still intact container of R’kava along with the metal paint brush she’d used to attach Jaxx’s new arm, which she used to stem the worst of the bleeding they were suffering.
Seam meanwhile asked the obvious question, namely: “Where in Galbar are we?”
Looking around, Jaxx didn’t recognise anything. In fact, for once, this was a whole new experience for him. Jaxx had never been underground before. A few caves and small tunnels but never in the actual underground part of Galbar.
“I have no clue but if there’s something that I can tell you for sure, Seam…is that innocents are that way. ” he replied to Seam as he pointed in the direction they were drifting in, towards the lights and whatever else was there.
What came after was a very, very slow drift downstream. Hours, maybe even days passed as they drifted and drifted. Going off the demon proved to be a very bad idea as some very long worm-fish made themselves at home chomping bits off the demon and they didn’t seem the type to discriminate in what they call lunch.
Eventually arriving in what seemed a massive river, the group would notice the structures now that they were closer but still far in the distance. Sadly, slowly, but surely, Jaxx’s mind was shattering. The ringing, first a small afterthought became like a church bell going on and on. First it stopped Jaxx from sleeping and as it continued, it seemed that he was on edge at every moment. Everything set him off, even the smallest grumble would have him twitch and pull Heropentia out.
“WE NEED TO GET OFF THIS PLACE! ” he roared in obvious pain.
His twitchyness was causing everyone to give him a wide berth as was possible on the dwindling mass of flesh, while Lilly was privately attempting concoct some kind of sedative combining venom and R’kava as one final attempt to stave off what the Mother had told her was to be Jaxx’s fate should he be unable to answer the call for too long.
Luckily, someone heard them. Far in the distance, the group could see shapes on the water. Very fast moving shapes…and then, they all had a feeling like they were being watched. A bright yellow light soon enveloped them and the demon’s corpse and poof they were gone.
With another poof they appeared on the shore of the sea they would later find out was named the Obsidian Sea. The lights in the distance they once saw were now closer and before them a massive city stood. Voices in many languages could be heard from afar and a group of what seemed to be shining goblins was running towards them, all clad in armor with 4 gemstones engraved in them.
Behind the goblins guards, the group could clearly see many-many more goblins walking around dressed up in what seemed to be leather from different beasts or even clothes made out of diamond. Many buildings could be seen rising up into the “sky” and some even seemed to go down, clearly towards different levels of the cave.
While behind our group, large shark-like creatures with wings were gliding just above the water. On top of these creatures, a goblin stood on what seemed to be a saddle. Smaller buildings and towers could be seen surrounding the shoreline.
“Who. Where. What?” Lilly stammered, while Seam just cried out “land!” as he fell to his knees, too relieved to be on solid ground again to worry about those questions. It fell to them, the aardvark (who’s name Jaxx’s trio had learned was Desmond only after fighting a life of battle alongside him, Pim and Pam) to give a wave and a call of “Hello there!” to the approaching goblins.
All that Jaxx did was fall on his knees, Heropentia at his side for a few seconds before he started walking towards the goblins. His face blank, as if he wasn’t in control of his own body anymore. He just knew he needed to walk forward. The goblins quickly surrounded the group, pointing large pikes towards them and shouting different variations of “Stop and don’t move” in different languages.
Not that it stopped Jaxx, he kept walking and walking…until a pike poked him in the chest. Only for him to slow time down and in a blur appear behind the goblins, still walking forward…then he stopped.
In fact, all the goblins stopped. Lily, Pim and Pam. In their minds they heard a female voice, beautiful and calm telling them to “Stop. Contain the others. Come.” In a flash, Jaxx had Heropentia in his hands and pointed at Desmond’s neck, two words coming out of his mouth as if forced “Don’t. Move.”
“Wha- uh huh?” Desmond replied, incredibly confused, and even more so when his two companions flanked him from either side, hammers raised and ready to take out the towering beastman’s knees if need be “you two? What is this”
Seam for one was in no position to offer answers, as the other beast man did have the time to rise before he was ensnared by lilly’s tendrils, his own knife pressed to his throat preventing him from uttering even a word.
The voice came again, only heard by the goblins of the group “My name is Maxima. I rule here. Trespassers. Come to me by my order. Listen to my command. ” said the voice and suddenly they knew where to go.
Not that the guards were going to let them go anywhere else.
Jaxx, the hero who picked a fight with Galaxor that one time, Lilly, daughter of Asheel, and Seam, just some bird guy, are all at the bottom of some mines fighting demons. They start to get tired, try to back off, only to get their exit caved in by craft demons that are using the knowledge of the miners they ate.
The trio fall into another cave, and are faced with a whole pile more demons, only for CELESTIAL EMPOWERMENT! To occur, which heals and empowers them. It also heals and empowers 3 other heroes, an aardvark, and his two goblin girl companions who had been trapped in that very same cave.
Jaxx’s 3 save the other 3, and then together they fight first a load of demons, and then one mega demon that the other demons create by fusing themselves together. The mega demon is a tough fight, but they power through, only for Galaxor’s remodeling of the underground to interrupt the final blow.
The resulting earthquakes cause the cavern to collapse, dropping the heroes into a river, but not before Seam kills the demon mid-fall so they can use its corpse as a floatation device. They are then stuck on the corpse raft for 3 days, during which Jaxx goes stir crazy from not being able to save any innocents due to aforementioned floating down an underground river situation.
They then float into an underground sea, before being teleported to land mysteriously upon being spotted by some boats. Then Maxima, ruler of the Dominion (i.e. the goblin underground mk2) remote mind controls the ⅔ of the party who are goblins, and then gets them to arrest the remaining ⅓ for her, before commanding them to come to her.
“Sorry but I have to do better than that. There was no way I wasn’t going to help you help people out after all” Rayne replied, aware that he was joking as much from the lack of any newfound connection as from being able to read him. Or, well, there was a tiny link she realized as she touched her fragile network in-order to take to the air again. It was thin as string, caused by an underlying kindness in the man of metal’s words. That warmed her heart, and so too did his careful lifting up of the unconscious Elaine.
“Thank you both, I wouldn’t have been much use if I’d come to do this alone” she said to both healer and transporter of their rescuee, reflecting again on the irony that a power gained from helping primarily allowed her to do harm.
There was at least one thing she could do, and that was help keep the rain off. Having to admit that she too, was a little lost (“I’m used to navigating caves, not the surface, ours isn’t safe any more”) she had no objection to lending Remilia her hat so she could go have a peak above the canopy. While that was occurring, she pulled out the shield she had ‘borrowed’ from a raven herald and used it to create an improvised rain shield for the baby and at least some of its mother, while getting wet herself.
Seeing as she was already drenched, this hardly mattered to her, which was why she offered to let Remilia either keep using the hat, or if she did get it back, she popped it on Elaine so she could increase the area she was protecting from the rain.
“So, um, lady Remilia, I take it you missed the start of this where we kinda worked out what was going on, ish?” Rayne said to the little lady as they traveled, as much to make conversation as to fill her in “The rest of us arrived in a temple of some kind, where two children were being attacked by the Raven Heralds, the same people who attacked the village we’re going to. One of them said that a goddess spoke to them, one called Lavielle, who summoned us here to save them”
“I’m not sure where here is, but it isn’t my world, that’s for sure. I knew everyone that was still alive in mine, I was Linked to them all, and no one here, and none of you, are from there. So this must be somewhere else” she then explained, heading off what was probably one of the more immediate questions she expected would come up.
That was, unfortunately, all she really had, and so they’d need to wait till they got back to town to see if anyone else had learned anything. Fortunately enough, their trip back was uneventful, and so soon enough they were back at the lodge, where, after reuniting Elaine and her child with a tearful husband, it seemed like there might indeed be more that had been learned, and Rayne for one was all pointy ears with regard to whatever it might be.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The troop groaned awake, collectively tried to get up, and then collectively collapsed back down to the floor out of a dire need for rest. Fortunately, as it turned out they were almost done. Silver keys would surely unlock the way to what they had missed, and they had a ride home to boot.
”Who even puts a train station in a creepy jail anyway?” Jr asked upon hearing this news
”Galeem, for badness knows what reason” Kamek replied, before making a pained sound as he tried to correct the crick in his back sleeping wrong had left him with
”Oh. Huh. Well thanks then Galeem, for your weird level design” jr said to the ceiling, before waiting for a few moments, sighing, sitting up, and asking ”Ok who needs healing?”
Rika raised a hand and reapplied with a ”Me” before adding ”Oh also I need to melt down that weird armor” and then rolling over to yell at Sectonia ”can I borrow that item melty thing?” followed by a ”Thanks,” when she agreed, and then finally a groan when she had to get up and go get it rather than having the queen deliver it to her.
Given that there were 4 items in the Prisoner in Deep Confinement set however, the cooldown on smelting items meant the process ended up taking quite a while, which was fine by her, as it let her keep her brother company while he patched everyone up.
It also left her time to poke at the still forms of the warframes with the tip of her spear in between smeltings.
”Huh. They aren't moving. Is this like a pre-Galeem bodies thing again?” she asked, poking away at the one with the wings on its hips.
”Dunno. I mean they were moving before. Maybe he was puppeting them or something? It's not like they came with us when everything got put to sleep” Jr said in between healing casts.
”Shame. They were pretty strong and tough, and pretty neat looking too. Would have been good spirits” she thought, preparing to give up and blinking her spear onto her back.
”Seeing as their robots, I guess we could scrap them for parts” Jr replied, before looking again and wondering ”Or are they humans in armor? If it is, you could just take it off and use it. Same with their weapons either way”
”Wait, you can just do that?” Rika asked, to which the prince nodded, ”Huh. Neat”
Before she could attempt to go about that however, there was a sickening crunch as Ganondorf snapped the neck of Oberon, prompting a wince from Jr, and a nonplussed comment of ”Huh. Guess it was alive after all” from Rika before she proceeded to immediate yet another poor role model and executed Titania with her own gauntlet powered neck snap.
While that had been occurring, Bowser and Kamek had re-entered the central chamber of the prison. Kamek had first had to poke his master awake seeing as his response to waking had been to roll over and go right back to sleep, which might have been concerning was this not something that occurred every morning.
There would be no more sleeping now however, because prisoners were awake now too, and making quite the ruckus.
”Urgh, lay off it would you!” Bowser yelled up at them, to little avail, before grumbling and finishing strapping his kinetic strike module to his first.
”I do not believe they are going to do so, your oversleepyness” Kamek replied as he mentally wished for some earplugs for both the prisoners and the kings yelling at them.
Bowser just groaned again, and then together they started making their way up, Bowser walking, Kamek floating. While doing so they had to move past the cells full of prisoners banging and yelling, which they tried to ignore.
Bowser cracked first, wondering out loud ”You know, maybe they aren't crazy now that ol what’s his face is dead?”
”I’m not so sure that logic tracks” Kamek replied, attempting to dissuade his king from this line of action, but to no avail. The king had already taken one the ring of copper keys from Kamek’s pockets, and promptly unlocked a random cell, revealing a short turtle of all things.
"Finally! Good job my Schwarzen Guard” the turtle said to Bowser with an air of authority, while at the same time looking at him with somewhat unfocused eyes
”Hey see, it worked” Bowser said to Kamek, before turning to the turtle and telling him ”I’m not a guard though, you’re free to go thanks to me, Bowser, the Koopa King!” only to be cut off by the person they had just freed sharply to that introduction indignation “King? King!? I’m the turtle in charge of the Turtle Terrorists! Me! Devan Shell, not some king … which must mean … must mean … That you’re a filthy traitor!”
”Wow hey now wait a second, what kinda gratitude is this?” Bowser demanded to know, only for the turtle to pull out a plasma gun from his shell which he proceed to blast the king in the gut with a cry of “die mutineer!”
The king ”oof”ed and grabbed his scorched shell in surprise, but the attack was hardly enough to really hurt him. Kamek’s response however could very much hurt their foe, as the mage unleashed the spell he had already begun conjuring as soon as the accusation had been called out, blasting Devan with a close range cosmic spray, bombarding him with a spectrum of elemental damage.
Surprisingly the little turtle took the bombardment with the toughness of a penultimate boss, before turning his gun on the mage who had caused him such pain. Unfortunately for him, doing so turned it away from the Koopa king, who lunged a hand forwards, snatching the turtle terrorist up in his claw, before he promptly spun him around and hurled him down into the central shaft. Devan plummeted down the central shaft and hit the ground with a crunch, body mangled, only for it to start warping further as he transformed into a decidedly more demonic form.
Devil Devan took to the air, reinvigorated, mad, and spitting fire. The moderately sized fireball blazed up towards where Bowser and Kamek were leaning over the railing to see if he’d been dealt with or not.
Bowser promptly spat one back, bigger and better which demolished the opposing fireball before careening into the demon turtle.
”That all you got?!” Bowser demanded to know, and, for once, his ego didn’t result didn’t result in an immediate dose of irony, as it more or less was all the demon had. Well, that and an absurd amount of durability, which was something of a problem for the two elder Koopas, who had been at this all day, while Daven had just woken up from a lengthy nap.
Still, as the demon ascended towards them, he was still met with the last vestiges of the pair’s stamina, Bowser hucking flames, while Kamek, once again out of mana, had to rely on strikers, resulting in Devil Daven receiving a high caliber sniper round to the head as he got close, and then getting a Tonberry hurled at him by a cooperative Bowser.
This second attempt at delivering the incredibly slow but destructive striker also failed, as it just sorta bounced off of their foe due to not having the reaction times to deliver an aerial stab sadly, and so the the winged fire breather arrived back at the floor he had been hurled off of in one piece.
He then experienced a moment of deja vu as Bowser grabbed him by the snout, and promptly spun him around again and threw him into a wall this time, before commanding Marie Korbel to ”Rattle him!”. This prompted the striker of the former skullgirl to appear, look briefly confused, and then to call up a bunch of skeletal mobsters with tommy guns to blast the demon, their bones rattling from the recoil.
”Yeah, how do you-” Bowser had to pause to catch his breath, before finishing his taunt ”- like that?” only to groan thirdly as the Daven once again survived, and took back to the air to keep on spitting fire.
Just then there was a little click, followed by the sound of something being reeled in, and then Rika appeared over the banister behind them. She immediately began to ask ”Hey, Kamek can I borrow-” before being interrupted by having to lean out of the way of a fireball, and then calling ”-borrow the snaktivator?” over her shoulder as she rushed the demon.
A gauntlet smashed him back into the wall, before she rammed two hull blades, a chainsaw bayonet, and four disturbing globules into him all at once. Then she kicked off of him as her gauntlet came back online, grabbed her spear in both hands, and then stabbed the demon repeatedly with it alongside her strikers, which delivered chops and icey spike blows till the demon fell.
In the aftermath, she gave a little ”Phew” stored her weapon, and then explained ”Ganondorf showed me how to get a spirit out of those flippy warrior people” before showing them the spirit of Titania.
”Ah, well, I see” Kamek replied steadily, before offering her the requested item.
”Thanks!”
Notable spirit consumed: Titania Prime (Waist) Spreading out from the point of snacktivation, the host has gained a thin, roughly romper-shamped undersuit of flexible teal and cherry-red alloy lined with black, and her armor in the vicinity has slimmed down somewhat and turned predominantly black decorated with gold. This also includes a sort of skirt of sleek, tapered flaps. The rigging has also been affected, partially converted into a set of gilded, hollowed-out, hip-mounted wings that are less articulate and usable as weapons. This spirit confers the Strength Bullet Jump, substantially boosting the host's movement abilities. The host can launch into a quick slide, double jump, aim glide, wall run, wall climb, and high jump. This spirit also confers the weakness Pixieweight, decreasing the host's effective weight, strength, and durability by 15%
”Oh wow, I feel lighter, let me just” Rika said after the flash of light, promptly hopping into the air, and then hopping again. She declared this ”neat!” she before promptly leaping off of the banister and calling down ”Jr! Watch this” before she began to combine wall runs, air glides, and feather falls to climb all the way up the central chamber without touching a floor, and then descend all the way back down to where her brother was down on the bottom floor in no time at all.
”Ah, youth” the mage commented jealousy, before glancing at the turtle Rika had just finished off for them and enquiring ”Would you mind If i took it?” to which Bowser had no objections.
Spirit absorbed: Devan Shell The host is a little younger, taller, and lankier, and his scales are more green than yellow (except on his undershell), while his shell is larger and patterned with purple. He has a bigger, sharper beak, and a much bigger pair of glasses. He has only three fingers per hand. His personality is more egotistical and cartoonishly evil. This spirit confers the Power Devil Inside. When all of the host's mana is exhausted, he will transform, becoming larger and more muscular with a long, spiked tail and impressive draconic wingspan. In this form the host can't really use other abilities or equipment, but can spit out an infinite amount of explosive fireballs while slowly regaining mana, and once his mana is restored (or his stamina depleted) he will turn back to normal. This spirit also confers the Weakness Hesitancy. After using a special movement ability, like a teleport, the host will be unable to move or two seconds
”Taller, but still me, and I can feel a dark power deep within, ready to be unleashed when I most need it. Marvelous” the mage commented, before enquiring ”Shall we continue?”
Bowser, again, agreed, and so they headed up together, an uneventful climb which eventually brought them before the door that was sealed by a silver lock, the one located by the warden's office which they had failed to enter earlier. Aware now that nothing had changed about the state of the prisoner’s mental states, they followed Jr’s prior advice properly this time, putting an army of dry bones between them and the door, and having a Toady open it up for them so they’d be clear of whatever, if anything, came bursting out of there. The two meanwhile were further back, with Kamek matching his king in size thanks to his using of the small amount of mana he’d recharged since the last fight switching him into his new devil form.
The cell, at least, was unlike the others. Before, those outfitted with bronze locks seemed more intentioned for keeping intruders out than the prisoners in, pacified as they were by unnatural yet blissful dreams. Following the death of Robin, that state of affairs had been turned on its head, with the denizens here awakened and driven mad by the revelation that their realities had been nothing more than dreams. The entire jail now resounded with their anguish, be it tormented cries or uproarious banging on cell doors. Not this particular cell, though. Instead, a discreet ethereal light issued from under it, along with a quiet humming and the intermittent scrape of a knife against wood. It didn’t sound like the sort of noise a human voice could make, but it sounded peaceable nonetheless, unchanged by the shift within Mercy Dreams.
When a toady inserted its key into the lock, the sound of humming and whittling stopped. A voice issued from within, strange but still intelligible. “Please, wait-” Then the door swung open, and a chill swept down the Koopas’ shelled spines. The cell was full of carved statues, at least a dozen of them, all very similar to the ones they, Nadia, and Therion had recovered elsewhere in the prison. No two were quite alike, however, and only through their gestalt could the true shape of Robin Goodfellow be gleaned. Against the back wall leaned a strange staff, wrought black metal affixed with ceremonial beads and shining with the light of a crescent moon inside its head. But there was nobody there.
”Huh, did you hear something just now?” Bowser asked, but his aged advisor simply shook his head in response. ”Weird.” the king concluded, before dismissing it as just another sourceless piece of ambiance. After all, no one had responded when he’d tried to ram the door down earlier, so the cell being empty wasn’t exactly unexpected.
”Ah, but look, might that be what we are here for?” Kamek asked rhetorically, as he pointed out the staff which certainly had something of a dreamcatcher look about it. Add to that the magical half moon at its center, and it was 100% something of value, and so the mage had his minion collect it.
Both had had quite enough of Robin Goodfellow to give the collage of statues more than a raised eyebrow and a quick dismissal, so that got to stay where it was. After having acquired what they came for, and writing everyone left here as a lost cause, there was little interest in letting anything keep them around.
Unfortunately, people had wandered here and there post bossfight, and so once they returned to the room by the stagstation, they had to park their tails and wait for everyone to regroup. Kamek reported about their acquisition of the dreamcatcher, and then also inquired if anyone had found the code to the safe they had found in the warden’s office, unaware that they had just ended the flimsy existence of the person who knew it. As such he also inquired if anyone had any tricks that might let them bypass the lock entirely.
Together Lilly, Seam, and a Jaxx they’d managed to get to sit still primarily because the buggy they were all riding in was faster than walking headed south, rode through the mostly untouched northern district of Tricity, and then crossed the bridge spanning the river running through the middle of the city in-order to reach the south.
In stark contrast to the north, the south was a wreck, as even being out for as long as Jaxx had hadn’t given the people enough time to clean up the carnage caused by the outer beasts. They had, at least, dealt with the bodies, though not, in what other societies might have described as a particularly respectful way.
Several years ago, a seam of R’kava had been unearthed by one of the city’s quarries, and had halted operations there when it flooded the lower layers of the mining operation. It had then laid undisturbed until it was used as the basis for Lilly and some others with Octari past lives as a source for the experiment that had eventually resulted in the goblin’s new combat tentacles. Now pool had grown again due to the bodies of mortal, animal and outer beast alike having all been dragged through the street and ‘fed’ to the now close to overflowing lake of R’kava, off of which a great fog now constantly billowed, contained from overflowing the city by a divine ward that surly showed the three on one’s approval for the project.
The only parts not tossed in were the heads, which were being preserved primarily so that living would be able to identify who had passed on to a new life, rather than for any kind of burial rites.
The mortals of this city did not, it seemed, have that much reverence for the dead. It was not the end as far as they were concerned, merely a change that left behind an empty shell. Still, even Lilly admitted that this was even more dramatic than usual, but it was that or leave everything to rot in the street as there were just too many bodies.
“There wer a lotta people who couldny or wouldny run for da river” she explained, “most of dem sorry bastards tha never stood a chance, but a lot o the miners thought they could hide down in da dark. Beasts dug in, an tho they foguth em hard, kept em off us, they didny win. So da beasts still down there, makin nests. Canny march an army down der, so, heroes gotsta clear em out”
When Lily mentioned a quest to save innocents, Jaxx’s ears perked up and suddenly the ringing in his mind slowed down. He was on the right path then. This was the right quest that he had to take.
“I am not one to judge you for what you do with your dead, but it feels wrong. Either way, your miners made a grave mistake, trapping themselves but it’s alright. I’m here now. You don’t need an army, you’ve got a hero with more than enough experience and you, with your different souls or whatever you call them. It’s more than enough. ” said Jaxx as he swung his longsword in circles with his new arm absent-mindedly.
“Normally this’d be wer I’d offer to open yer eyes to past lives, but yer pretty unique for not havin any” Lilly replied, before clarifying, simply that she had the “same soul, many lives”
“I feel like I might be bringing the team down a bit here” Seam added, in the tone of someone trying and failing to make light of their own feelings
“I mean yer a fullblood, that counts for sommin, and you had the guts to go fight a beast with just a knife, tha count’s for way more” Lilly told him, as she rolled the Buggy further up the mountains, and towards what looked to be an army camp built into the ravaged remains of a mining complex “Miner’s Union HQ, or wuz left of it”
The buggy was a weird contraption that Jaxx never saw before coming to Tricity. It was like an animal but not an animal. Controlled by Lily, this contraption allowed them to travel faster than on foot which worked out well for Jaxx. As the hero sense’s ringing lessened in intensity as he went towards the direction of innocents.
“Can’t say I understand this whole past lives and souls magic. What I understand is what I see and I haven’t seen nor killed any souls yet. I wonder if my tribe’s souls are here somewhere or if I even met them. ” said Jaxx as he remembered what exactly he did to them in order to survive.
Looking at Seam, Jaxx patted him gently on the shoulder before saying, in his most friendly tone “You’re an aspirant hero, kid. Just remember what I taught you, use your strengths against the enemy. Brawn is not everything in a fight. ”
As Seam nodded in thanks for the pep talk, Lilly confirmed that “they out there somewhere, for sure. Souls, they untouchable, immortal things that forever cycle through life and death, an only thing that can stop em coming back would be if there where no new lives to live” with unwavering confidence.
She would soon be proven tragically incorrect in this assertion.
While normally there would have been a rather rigorous interview and testing process to see if they should even be allowed past the military camp and down into the mines they were guarding, Lilly’s position of influence smoothed them through all of that. Her and her vouching for Jaxx’s innocents in danger sense, as there had been occasional discoveries of survivors, and a better way to find them than random digging and praying was more than welcome.
Going through the checking, Jaxx pointed out the few people that were still trapped under the rubble that were long considered dead, the worst of the worst if any would even survive after being saved, using his hero sense to guide them to them. A fact which made his ringing go down in intensity, now only a simple sound at the back of his mind, easily ignorable.
They rapidly found all those who had been missed, and of those there were rather few. The wide variety of acute animal senses beastfolk had already tracked down all but the most buried, and time had taken a fair share of those before Jaxx had gotten to them. That left those in places that could not be sensed by mortal means, namely those on the other side of undug walls, and it was to a place like this Jaxx’s remaining ringing drew them.
In quick succession digging equipment was found and put to work in the depths, and soon enough they were walking past a driller buggy and into a cavern system it had unearthed following Jaxx’s directions. Torches flickered in the gloom, revealing several natural looking tunnels, although closer inspection revealed a few to be nothing of the sort, dug claw, tusk, and fungal root rather than anything of this world, be it force of nature or divine.
“Where to now?” Lilly asked, peering through the gloom, while Seam nervously adjusted the grip on his new pair of weapons, and a small cadre of backup heroes fanned out behind them.
Before he could answer however, there came a childish and alarmed cry of “Help! Help me!” from somewhere down one of the beast carved tunnels, one that would set off the parental instincts in anyone who had them.
One of the other heroes accompanying them, a hulking large aardvark man, certainly seemed to have them, calling out “Don’t worry we’re coming!” before he went running off down the tunnel on all fours, sending a pair of identical looking goblin women running after him. That left Lilly, Seam, a chef hat wearing snouter and beady eyed dwarfess with massive clawed hands of a mole.
The latter noted that “doesn’t smell like anything other than those monsters that way” with considerable amount of concern. Jaxx’s sense for innocent’s in danger seemed to agree, and indeed they were not at all going off in the direction the aardvark and his party members had run off too.
Before Jaxx could even say something, the others went forward to what probably will be their deaths. Alas’ they were heroes and they were more than equipped to fight off whatever came their way. Luckily, the other innocents that needed saving pushed Jaxx in a different direction than theirs for now, they didn’t need saving. Yet.
“Something is off. That cry and the fact that my hero sense doesn’t pull me there is wrong. Those three seem capable enough, hopefully, to deal with whatever is going on there. Come, follow me. The pull comes from a bit further up. ” said Jaxx with a frown before taking Heropentia out and slowly walking forward, his eyes moving in every direction, waiting for the enemy before adding, with a whisper “Eyes open. Quiet. ”
The mole-dwarf seemed a little dubious, but both Lilly and Seam nodded in agreement with the elder hero’s wisdom and set out to follow him, leaving the two other heroes and a few regular soldiers to hold the entrance to the cavern system. As they moved, the goblin let a past member of the mining union take over to guide her steps, while Seam ducked low and did his best to be quiet despite his lack of experience.
The avian-man got impressively far before he stumbled on a loose rock, sending it clacking across the floor, the sound echoing through the caverns.
Almost immediately, someone old and gruffer than the first called out “help me!” the sound echoing through the caves with no clear source. Then another voice, and another, all with various levels of terror or fear for their lives joined in the cry from elsewhere.
Jaxx followed silently as they advanced, Heropentia raised as much as he could in the tunnel but it wasn’t easy. His tall and muscular build didn’t help either but such was the way of the hero, hard. Something was strange in the place, way too quiet for innocents to even be there, yet…he was pulled into this direction.
Then, the rock clacked on the floor and the voices started asking for help.
“Come out. We’re from Tricity, ready to save you!” said Jaxx raising his voice slightly and letting it bounce through the walls of the tunnels. With a deep breath, Jaxx focused deeply on the hero sense and sure enough, there it was. A light ringing, it pushed him in a direction.
“I can feel them. Follow me, keep close as to not lose each other in the tunnels. Last thing we need is to be separated. ” quickly said Jaxx before starting to walk deeper in.
The source of the voices became clearer, going from econing alla round to drawing them forwards. As they did more joined in, calling out that they were “over here!” and begging that they “hurry!” and “save us!” as the ringer got louder and louder, yet still quieter than the one they had been falling despite how close they now where to the source
As they moved, the ground beneath their feet changed. Stone simply cut by otherworldly hands became coated in a thick, black, light devouring substance that looked somewhere between tar or burnt meat.
“I’ve heard of these. The beast’s make nests” Lilly whispered as they crept forwards, before wondering “but why are there people here, what are they doing with them?”
“There” Seam whispered, pointing forwards, and prompting Lilly to lift the touch she was holding with a tendril up to fully reveal what he had seen: three goblin faces, sticking out of the black tar very near each other, the rest of their bodies buried in the substance, stopping them from moving.
Three sets of eyes swiveled to them, three voices spoke in turn “by the gods” “please!” “don’t leave me here!” their voices strained and faltered, perhaps as a consequence of their confinement.
Shaking his head at what he saw, Jaxx took a better look and just before he took a step forward, he checked in with the hero sense and sure enough, it pulled him to the goblins. The ringing’s intensity would go up whenever he looked at them.
“Maybe they’re food for the beasts or a trap to lure saviors. Keep back, let me go forward. ” Jaxx said as he swapped Heropentia to the left hand and walked forward towards the three goblin heads. With a deep breath, he stuck his otherworldly metal arm into the black tar and aimed to grab the hand of one of the goblins.
That’s when something bit him. A dozen points snagged around the metal arm, digging into it as the three faces screamed with horror, only to look confused for a moment when biting the metal arm resulted in no gush of blood, before the entire black mass rose up, hauling Jaxx into the air with it.
Back material sloughed off, revealing a towering wretched beast with a dozen long spindly limbs attached to a pill shaped body, the front of which was split by a mouth filled with hundreds of fangs, as well as Jaxx’s arm. What’s worse was its face, which was not its own, and instead looked like the faces of thee goblins had been fused with its rounded head, all of them screaming death wails as the beast, nay the demon, tried to violently shake Jaxx apart, screams that made his head throb like the suffering of innocents.
His foresight buzzed in his mind the moment the monster grabbed, yet, a second too late. Screaming initially as he was caught unaware, Jaxx, the forever hero, quickly regained his senses. Fighting through the ringing that just made his mind shake in pain, he used his left hand where Heropentia was to stab the creature a few times.
Thrashing about, violently, with Jaxx, it eventually threw him away towards the group, hitting the ground with loud THUD.
“AAAAAGHGGGA! You shall DIE! ” screamed Jaxx as if in pain, as he charged towards the demon with Heropentia in his right arm now. With dodge, he managed to evade one of the limbs before another sprang at him from the back, only for Seam to catch it with his knife and then hacking at the offending limb with his sword as he had been trained.
The monster roared with rage at the light wound with its real mouth now, which opened wider and wider, the dancing firelight revealing rows upon rows of teeth within, before it attempted to simply swallow Seam whole in a single chomp.
It received a crossbow bolt to the esophagus for its efforts, as well as Heropentia's blade deep in its mouth as sparks flew where the metal touched the teeth and BOOM. A small explosion happened as the sparks touched the monster.
As he was thrown back, Jaxx sported a few black spots on his new arm but it was nothing to the cries of pain from the demon, which had ignited, its horrible body burning along with the air around it.
“Get down, mine gas!” Lilly shouted with inherited wisdom, throwing herself to the ground as the upper half of the cavern was ignited in a flash of flame, the other two following suit. The heat of flames baked them, but absolutely demolished the demon, its form wreathed in flame as it stumbled and then sagged, before something strange happened.
The three faces of the goblins, lost to the flames, seemed to press forwards, stretching out from the face of the demon before seeming to tear free, three ghostly forms briefly dancing in the flame before vanishing from sight and place. Despite the flames and the horrific rupture in its face caused by the escaping of something from it, the beast staggered towards them, wanting, it seemed, to take them with it.
Or to replace what it had just lost.
A second before Lily could shout, Jaxx’s foresight kicked in and he went flat to the ground. The heat was intense, scalding them all. The hero sense stopped ringing for a second before starting again, quieter than before but still loud…combined with the foresight’s buzz, Jaxx lifted his head and saw the demon approaching.
“Surround it and fill it with holes. I’ll keep it busy. ” shouted Jaxx as he charged at the creature, Heropentia moving so fast it became a blur for the untrained eye. That is when the Galaxor’s Tenant kicked in. Heroic parties.
With a surge of power, Jaxx parried every single limb thrown at him as he walked forward, pushing the demon towards Lily and Seam, hoping that they’re behind it already.
Lilly certainly was, while a rather singed and still burning on a few feather tips Seam was only about half way around due to being the only one here without supernatural information sources. That left the tiny goblin as the one in an ambush position, but ever since she had drank the R’kava she wasn’t quite as tiny as she had been before. Tendrils that had been neatly curled around her body unwounded, revealing snake fang tipped ends that lanced forwards, skewering the demon in the back even as the fires burning it burned her unnatural limbs too.
The monster screamed in pain as it was attacked from the front and the back. A primal impulse in its brain decided that if back and front are attacked, then go for the sides. Seeing Seam being alone, with a last surge of strength in its burning body, is pounced at him. Mouth open wise, read to eat him whole.
Jaxx quickly sprung to action and Heropentia started hacking into the monster’s flesh. Deeper with each strike. It slowed the monster just enough that Seam could come to his panicked senses, and ram his sword up, and his knife down, driving each blade into each of the beast’s jaws, before he strained to hold them from closing down on him with strength far beyond what his spindly body should manage.
He’d only hold out for so long however. That’s when Jaxx did what one would expect from him. Taking a few steps back from the demon, he looked at Lily and just pointed up, as he started running toward the monster.
Lily’s tendrils extended forward and right when Jaxx stepped, they formed well, a step for him. Launching him up into the air. With Heropentia in the left arm and the metal arm extended forward, it crashed through the demon right into the middle of it. Seconds went by, in which the demon just stopped, not moving or anything and then a grisly explosion of gore covered the cave and Lily and Seam, with Seam getting the brunt of it as Jaxx killed the creature.
At least it put the rest of his feathers out.
The beastman hauled what was left of the monster’s jaws off of himself and then slumped against the black goop covered cavern wall, panting hard, heart beating in his chest, shakenly asking “what. What was that?”
“No normal beast that. The faces… The… The shapes in da flames… It can’t be…” Lilly whispered as she stared at where the goblin’s visages had been before they burst from the body.
Shaking his head, Jaxx took a deep breath as the hero sense finally calmed down. Until it would start again…
“I don't understand it either. It managed to somehow confuse the hero sense. I hate it but it never led me astray. How can these things fool a divine sense? ” started Jaxx to say as he cleaned Heropentia on his pants before turning to Lily “Were those souls that we saw? Were they the ones that screamed for help?”
“I… I… ” Lilly stammered, seemingly horrified by the idea, while Seam just slumped to the floor with a defeated groan of “Mothers tits, they eat souls. Of course they eat souls”
“Nononono” Lilly muttered in a building panic, before suddenly snapping to a realization “No. No, not eat. Steal. Covet. It using the soul, not digesting. I hope. So can still save em. Free em. Kill an kill an kill til they all dead and all are free”
Standing up, Jaxx put a hand on the little goblin’s shoulder and gave her what he wished to be a kind smile, alas his scarred face made it look like a beast that was smiling at its prey.
“Calm yourself. We'll take them down. Emotions will get you killed in the long run. No–”
Suddenly the screams of the damned echoed through the caves, as if to challenge the heroes to come and try it, and reminding them that they were in enemy territory. Seam leaped to his feet, while Lilly loaded another crossbow bolt. Both looked to Jaxx for their next move.
Jaxx swung Heropentia a few times in the air before nodding at the two.
“Let's make sure those souls get their rebirth. ” he said with a grin before, for the first time in his career as a hero, followed the sounds, ignoring his hero sense completely.
With his new arm ready, the group formed of Lily, Seam and Jaxx alongside a few other resident heroes of Tricity, made their way to the cities southside, which is still a mess from the outer beast invasion. They pass by a great pool of R’kava the residents have been throwing all the corpses into, and then head to the mines in the mountains to join in with the combination search and rescue for surviving miners, and the extermination of the outer beasts that have made their nests down in the dark.
Jaxx’s hero senses sends them digging towards what they think is a holdout of survivors, but instead they find a nest belonging to beasts who have claimed souls of dead mortals, and are using them to impersonate their victims to lure adventurers into traps. The trio almost falls for one, but they heroically burn and beat down the outer beast/demon, freeing the souls inside, and in doing so becoming fully aware of said soul stealing ability.
We last see them preparing to face down a horde of beasts, come to claim vengeance for their fallen kinsdemon
Quest ‘reward’ for Tricity: the city has gained a massive quarry sized pool of R’kava, boiling with magic, thanks to them feeding it all the corpses, mortal, animal or demon, into it.
Asheel start mp: 8
1mp (boosted by 1 by witchcraft) to sanctify the pool as a holy site called the Black Cauldron, and adding runes to hold the fog that boils off R’kava pool in place above , concentrating it and also preventing it from spilling over the city.
“Ah, well, I would, but it's not that simple. I can’t teleport myself for one, and in order to teleport someone else they need to be part of my Link, which people join when I've earned their thanks. It's what my magic is all based on. I help people, my magic gets stronger, and that makes me better at helping people. Which is nice, but also makes it unhelpfully conditional at times“ Rayne explained while scratching the back of her head embarrassingly, before concluding “so we’re gonna have to go back the old way. Sorry.”
“Elaine won’t though, which is good, I wouldn’t want to put her through any more than she has been already. I know I’ve already had enough of the rain, the novelty wore off almost right away” she said, as she turned to look at the formerly injured woman, before adding, worriedly “shouldn’t she have woken up yet?”
Indeed despite her wounds being gone, the woman they’d been sent to find hadn’t roused from her unconscious state. At least she hoped it was an unconscious state, and until otherwise she was going to go with that optimistic take, asking Remilia “Should we try and wake her up ourselves? Is that safe to do” hoping she knew what she was doing in that regard.
A potentially alarming prospect, what with the strangers and the golem who’d be greeting her upon awakening, but she needed the woman’s concert before she could send her off anywhere. Also the peace of mind that really was fine and not an immaculately repaired corpse wouldn’t hurt either.
“I mean, I wouldn’t know about those two things… but it's good that you know someone here” Rayne replied to the addition to her description of Sanae, not knowing what the first really entailed, and not really sure why someone would find Sanae insufferable. Not that she’d known her long, of course, but she was going to give both parties here the benefit of the doubt rather than choosing some kind of side.
First impressions wise, the little lady of house scarlet gave quite the complicated one it had to be said, with her the offhand derision of Sanae and her high class attitude clashing with her bedraggled and bloody state which clashed again with her willingness to help despite said state. All in all Rayne didn’t quite know how to think of her, but she was never going to nay say someone’s desire to help.
Well, assuming it wasn’t self destructive anyway. She was going to keep an eye on her in case her situation got worse, but getting out of the rain was going to help anyway, so she was more than happy to let her approach and join them in entering the building, as well as thankful that Lewa’s relaying their task had lead to this outcome.
It was only after she’d tried and failed to shake herself dry (dash blinking through the forest had meant dash blinking through the rain, with predictably soggy results) they were heading down that she took the moment to introduce herself “Oh, and I’m Rayne, and I’m a Knight Witch rather than a witch-witch. It's nice to meet you Rem- Lady Remilia”
Having lived underground for most of her adult life, Rayne was entirely used to the dark. It also helped that a spot on her breastplate over her heart and two spots on the backs of her gauntlets glowed with inner light, not to mention the soft golden aura that surrounded her whenever she floated anywhere, like a literal beacon of hope.
Suffice to say there was little issue navigating in the dark for Rayne as she drifted down the stairs, so she instead focused her attention on Lewa just in case he had any issues, being the only one actually taking the stairs and all, and acting as his lightsource if he seemed to need one as she did so.
“You… said you didn’t know what a child was?” she asked rhetorically as she drifted down, reminded of the odd way he’d said they were looking for Elaine and her child while watching his steps, and then explain “its, um, well children are like small inexperienced people who gradually grown into bigger people as time passes, instead of just being made big right away which I assume happened with you?”
Whether or not that was a good explanation, and the two unusually small adults before him most likely did not help matters, the mechanical man soon got to see a live example, as well as its very injured mother.
“Oh no” Rayne whispered in quiet alarm at the sight, before she floated closer alongside Remilia to inspect the situation. As the vampire quipped and inspected the mother’s injuries the Knight Witch drifted down and to try and to console the crying child “shshsh, it's going to be ok now, we’ll get you both to safety-” before going “huh?” and then “oh wow” in amazement as she watched Remilia casually healed the injured woman right before her eyes.
“That’s amazing!” the Knight Witch whispered-cried (not wanting to upset the baby any more than it already was with loud sounds), looking upon the little vampire with adoration for her healing powers, before realizing with even more amazement“you could help so many people!”
“The town they’re from was attacked, and I’ve been teleporting everyone we’ve found that survived back to this hunting lodge. If we get you back there, could you heal them too?” she asked, filling in a tiny bit more context in the process, before adding “oh, and that’s where Sanae and all the others who were brought to this world are too” which likely only raised further questions.
“We’ll find them, I promise” Rayne reassured the man, making sure to memorize the name and description, and thankful that Lewa had thought to ask for those in the first place, before sending him back to the lodge, where, hopefully, he could help or at the very least some rest.
Once he was gone, the Knight Witch simply said “Let’s go find them” to Lewa and then went ahead with the plan she had proposed, picking up the pace of their search, dashing through the woods in flashes of light that made it fairly easy to keep track of where she was even if they split up a bit.
The new pace swiftly found them a second set of ruins, though these where in far worse repair than the abandoned church, which caused Rayne to wonder if the town had once been bigger, long ago, or if it had just happened to have been settled atop/near some a previous settlement.
She naturally gravitated to the one part that had any structural integrity, floating over the other ruins to reach the tower. Once there, she found the door and then, as she got close, her pointed ears picked up the sound of a baby's cry coming from somewhere down below, prompting a little sigh of relief from Rayne. This certainly was not the kind of weather an infant should be out in, she was pretty sure.
That little rush of relief was immediately replaced with one of concern as, when she turned to look to Lewa her vision slid over and then raced right back to the young girl standing in the rain with blood coating her arm. These were the only features that read as odd for Rayne incidentally, as many of the people she had interacted with on a daily basis back would have been described by some as monstrous, be it for their singular massive eyes, oversized horns, or just being skeletons. Bat wings, slitted pupils and pointy teeth? Not something she’d seen before but entirely within the bounds of the potentially normal.
Thus the first thing that came to Rayne’s mind was to call over “are you hurt?” in a concerned tone before it processed what had been said by the stranger and recognized the name “did you say Sanae? We know a Sanae! Long green hair and can fly? I can bring you to her, somewhere out of the rain”
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