Lugubrious

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

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@AlmostEternity

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World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

A week from now, all the PCs in the Qliphoth will begin some challenges, but which one your character ends up in is up to you, so take your pick. Feel free to choose one your character would be good at, or not! Limit is two characters per challenge, so first come is first served. Since there are 24 characters and only 10 challenges, if anyone needs to sit out this week their character can get stuck in the tubes, but if not I can make two more challenges.

Challenges

Infectors
There is a dark, highly infested room with 100 Left 4 Dead zombies in it, including some Special Infector. There are also 3 Infectors from Dead Space in there. An infector’s objective is to latch onto corpses (which zombies are) and inject them with their proboscis in order to transform the zombie into an Enhanced Necromorph Slasher, a process which takes about 10 seconds total. If an infector manages to transform a Special Infected, a special Necromorph will be made instead .The infectors will attempt to make as many necromorphs as possible. This challenge favors the observant, and those with fast and precise single-target damage, or widespread AoE damage.
(Grimm, the Witch)

Guardian
A Guardian from Evil Within 2 is in a clean hollow with a number of mirrors. These mirrors will reflect all magic and projectiles, and the Guardian can travel through them. It’s also smart enough to use these mirrors against its foes. This challenge favors those with strong physical abilities or those able to accurately perceive if they’re looking at a reflection or the real thing
(Sandalphon)

Unsigned
In this infested arena Unsigned, a lich from Metal Slug Attack, will continuously spawn loads of skeletal Bonenoid soldiers, armed with rifles or riot shields. Maybe with more unique/interesting weapons that could be looted, or skeletons of stronger foes. Unsigned himself has an enormous, high-power revolver holstered on his person. This challenge favors those with blunt force, holy/light abilities, and AoE

Core Stone
This unrefined hollow contains a Core Stone from Deep Rock Galactic, which shines purple from within its rocky deposit. Once revealed for the first time, it will begin to float and tear open Core Rifts in the nearby walls, unleashing Corespawn Crawlers. Over the course of the fight the Core Stone will rebuild its shell twice, forcing the challengers to re-expose it. This challenge favors those who can break stone, blocking the rifts, and wipe out plenty of fast, dextrous opponents
(Therion)

Empusa Queen
This relatively clean arena features a large, daunting Empusa Queen and 2 flying Green Empusa. The Greens will avoid conflict while the giant demon fights savagely, but they can heal her (and each other) with pulses on a 10 second cooldown. This target favors those with high single-target damage and high agility
(Ace Cadet, Blazermate)

Killabilly
This infested arena is home to Killabilly from Lollipop Chainsaw, an large zombie that somewhat resembles Elvis. He has a number of abilities, such as high strength, regeneration, laser vision, zombie spitting, and most notably, spawning cars (mostly cadillacs) that he can ride in or just use as projectiles. This challenge favors those with high single-target damage, high defense or sustain, and/or the ability to negate healing
(Roland)

Gaster
An infested hollow with large chunks of the floor missing, home to a lighter-than-air monstrosity that's essentially a mass of misshapen organs, heads, and limbs, with four very long hooked tentacles. The Gaster (from Evil West) will avoid direct combat, fly around the arena, and anchor itself in the Qliphoth flesh to unleash homing projectiles, hellish beams, and flashes of light that can leave heroes blind for several seconds, all while a handful of other bloodsuckers from Evil West fight directly. This fight favors fliers or good jumpers, and long-range fighters

Nyx
A highly infested hollow that’s one of the many battlegrounds between the Qliphoth’s demons and the Floodfestation, with an assortment of random demons and undead monsters, including several that explode when defeated. It also has Nyx, a monstrous B.O.W from Resident Evil Outbreak. This jelly-like organism will assimilate any other monsters it gets the chance to, gaining extra vitality and all the monster’s abilities for itself, though these parts can be destroyed. The only ‘real’ part of Nyx is its core, buried deep in its flesh. This challenge favors those with strong gun damage and/or critical thinking skills
(Zenkichi)

Successor of the Claw
This hollow is constantly burning, its walls and debris engulfed in flames. Inside is the Successor of the Claw from Code Vein. This large, catlike monster is both fast and strong, dealing overwhelming fire and slash damage as she teleports around. She’s also very resistant to fire, and somewhat resistant to slash, pierce, and ice. However, she’s vulnerable to lightning, water, blood, and impact damage. This challenge favors those who can resist fire, take advantage of the Successor’s vulnerabilities, and keep up with such a fast opponent.
(Ms Fortune)

Keepers
A cramped, mazelike hollow of many small passages. Inside is a Keeper from Evil Within. Damage dealt to him is reduced by 90% (100% to the safe on his head), but he still takes break/stagger damage. When he’s stunned/broken, he falls to his knees and his safe bursts open, revealing the evil within. The meat in the safe takes 200% damage, and it stays open for 10 seconds. After his safe is opened once, a second Keeper shows up. This challenge favors those with high break/stagger damage
(Goldlewis, Geralt)

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Dead Zone - the Qliphoth

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (112/140) Lvl 9 Goldlewis (65/90) Lvl 7 Sandalphon (40/70) Lvl 3 Grimm (23/30)
Midna, Junior, Rika & Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate, Sectonia & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt, Zenkichi & Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Ace Cadet, Pit, Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Roxas, Ganondorf, & Captain Falcon’s @Double Venom Snake’s @DisturbedSpec the Witch’s @Drifting Pollen
Word Count: 3689 (+4)

From the moment Nadia first stepped into the Qliphoth, the catgirl had been ready to fight. Everything about this alien place puzzled her senses and sensibilities, creating a profound sense of unease. This place just felt wrong. Somewhere between ‘innards’ and ‘interior’, its various structures seemed organic enough to remind her of the vile Womb she and the others braved deep within the literal bowels of the Under. That in turn threatened to provoke the phagophobia instilled in her by her horrific night in the Maw, but luckily Nadia’s new surroundings struck her as too bizarre to cause any reaction beyond goosebumps. In its pristine state the strange patterns of the Qliphoth’s insides might have intrigued someone like Sectonia by virtue of the unique aesthetic and abundant radial symmetry, like a towering coral reef from another world. But the incursion of not one but several extraterrestrial plagues, visible in the form of enormous, tumorous outcrops and grotesquely fleshy growths filled wasp and feral alike with visceral disgust. The end result was a hellish hybrid of plant and animal, overrun with wretched parasites, with one of the seven remaining Guardians hidden somewhere inside.

Before the Seekers could hunt down their target, however, they would need to contend with the horde. Within moments of the heroes’ arrival, the local vermin sounded the alarm. As the awful outburst of howls and shrieks resounded through the Qliphoth’s cambium, more and more twisted voices joined the spine-chilling chorus, heeding the frontrunners’ summons. Nadia flattened her ears at the horrible din, but stood her ground alongside her teammates, even as the tear in the demon tree’s outer wall began to pull itself together behind them. Once it sewed itself together with fleshy tendrils like a surgeon’s sutures, there was no going back–only breaking through. “There’s a clawful lot of ‘em,” Nadia punned with a toothy smile, sharpening her claws. “Let’s give ‘em a zom-beatdown!”

Grimm’s scarlet eyes narrowed as he observed the incoming mob. “Witless slaves,” he remarked, his tone scathing. “I’ve seen their like before. Hollow vessels of infection…their kind are all of a piece.”

“We must avoid infection at all costs. I will cleanse the team with Angelic Wings regularly,” Sandalphon announced.

“They don’t look like much, but let’s not get cocky, y’all!” Goldlewis cautioned the team as he dropped his coffin. When the lid slid open, the UMA lifted a Skyfish minigun into his waiting hands. He lifted the mass of heavy metal into firing position with a no-nonsense look on his face. “Don’t run off and get yourself surrounded!” The next moment his words gave way to the uproarious report of his minigun as bullets ripped into the first wave of undead monsters.

With their backs against the wall and mobs trickling in from three out of the four sides, Seekers quickly and naturally formed a defensive line, centered around Sectonia. Her auto-targeted volleys of necrotic skulls and dark lightning could seek out and destroy anything that got too close, so long as her teammates thinned the numbers beforehand. The gunslingers and other mages entrenched themselves around her position to cover as many angles as possible. Edward’s three maglock cannons served as the backbone of the team’s artillery, their thunder as dependably regular as the beat of a wardrum, obliterating a whole gang of floodfested monsters every 1.67 seconds. Further forward stood the mobile perimeter of melee fighters, weapons at the ready to reap the undead legions like wheat at a harvest.

Having selected her gunstaff for its higher rate of fire, Sandalphon haunted the center of the Seekers’ formation. Through scanning the area she quickly detected a length of entangled nerve fibers, redundant organs, and thin sensory membranes stretched overhead, and once the archangel vaulted on top of that ganglion she could easily oversee the whole battlefield while still being in range for her skills. Blazermate might excel at sustaining one fighter at a time, after all, and others harbored their own methods of healing, but none could beat the party-wide recovery that Sandalphon offered. Fortunately the Seekers came out of the gate swinging, and since they seemed to be in control, Sandalphon could focus on offense. She took aim at larger targets yet to reach the front lines and opened fire, placing shot after well-aimed shot. When drawn to an infested charger, she noted the disfigured head of the plague’s humanoid host dangling beneath the front of the quadruped’s frame, but when she blasted it off with a bolt of ether the rest of the freakish thing didn’t even slow down. The sharpshooter curled her lip slightly and aimed next for center mass, which obliterated the charger in a burst of technocyte biotics. Lesson learned. Another one down, who knows how many more to go.

While Goldlewis knew he could throw down in the melee alongside Edelgard and Juri, he knew that this fight was just an appetizer and that the team had one hell of a main course ahead of them. He judged it better to not waste his energy on the small fry, or risk the natural ebb and flow of battle leaving him suddenly stranded in a sea of monsters. Instead he hung back at the midrange, his firepower strong but limited thanks to the rate at which the UMA’s Security Level replenished. Forced to be choosy, Goldlewis spent his resource on larger targets, mowing them down with a burst of gunfire from his Skyfish or an explosive Thunderbird drone. In this way he played much the same role as Rika; if any floodfested managed to get through the front lines, they’d have to get through one heavy metal gunner or another before reaching the team’s squishy core. He especially relished the sight of swollen, shambling carrier forms and diseased broodmothers which his bullets could pop like zits, prematurely releasing their stores of scuttling infection forms and purple-red maggots that could be mopped up by Sectonia’s magic or Junior’s paint. Still, he couldn’t get too excited. Every time Goldlewis spotted the distended, glassy-eyed head of a human or animal lolling above protruding crimson feelers, the chill down his spine reminded him why he was here.

Full of adrenaline after her brush with death, Nadia fought at the forefront beside the likes of Geralt and Roland on the front lines. As much as she would’ve liked to keep these pestilential peons at arm’s length, she was a hand-to-hand fighter through and through, so there was nothing for it but to trust in Sandalphon’s cleansing. While she couldn’t swing around a giant sword like Zenkichi to take out half a dozen floodfested at once, she could run circles around any that came her way. With fangs and claws bared, she took the fight to the first runner with a leaping overhead slash, then released a pressurized blood dropkick that blasted it away and herself backward. The bloody burst momentarily staggered a gang of combat forms, but a charge broke through and pounced as Nadia fell. She performed a handspring off the ground to avoid it, then launched her left forearm in midair to snatch the charger like a grappling hook. The next second she landed on the wretch with a Mantread-empowered stomp.

Without missing a bit, a combat form barreled forward to deliver a clothesline with its mutated arm, but Nadia popped off her head to duck underneath it. She whirled around and grabbed the freak by the arm as her head fell back into place, severed the limb with a vertical chop, then swung it with both hands like a baseball bat to send her attacker packing. That stunt earned her a wallop from the next combat form in line, but Nadia drew an Athame as she stumbled backward, then nailed the miscreant with a short-ranged dagger throw that lowered its defense. From there an El Gato axe kick cleaved it apart, and as its halves fell Nadia landed only to see a torso leap at her. She grabbed the crawler out of the air, her claws sunk into its head, stomped a nauseous crawler beneath her boot before it could spray, and then kicked the first into an incoming combat form. A many-legged carnis reared its ugly head too close for comfort, but as she blocked its snapping pincers her tail curled around the handle of her Athame, then hurled it into the beast’s torso. Nadia stepped forward, seized the dagger, and yanked it upward, causing the carnis to reel back just in time for the angry combat form to deck Nadia with a wild swing.

The feral fell back, laid out flat on her beck. In an instant the floodfested swarmed around her, but Nadia was nothing if not a quick thinker. She launched a Fiber Upper from her prone position to kick straight through the loathsome head of the carnis, then snap up to her hyper-extended legs and escape the mob. Turning upside-down as she fell, she pierced the ground with her hardened ear and rotated her body in a lethal Wheel of Fortune. As she picked up speed, her legs extended farther, creating a whirling zone of death. Her technique carved up floodfested for a whole three seconds before her legs hit the solid body of a hulking tank form.

“Uh oh.” The brute grabbed her by the legs, whipped her around, and slammed her down. She lay there, momentarily stunned, and the mob pushed forward with the tank at its head, only for three firebats to explode against its body in sequence. Nadia turned her head to see Grimm as the Troupe Master lifted up his cloak, then extended its ends into the ground. The next moment, spikes shot up beneath the floodfested, spearing the grunts and staggering the tank. “You make some good points!” With a grin she got to her feet, hurled her knife into the monster to cut down its defense, then revved up her arm. “You know the drill!” On a rocket of blood she shot the limb into the tank, which dug into its rotten flesh with gusto. As it did Grimm teleported into the air above and behind her target, then dove down with a corkscrew kick the other direction. After a messy second or two, both arm and Grimm burst through, and the tank slumped down while Grimm slid to a stop by Nadia. “Sick!” the feral smiled, lifting up her stump for a high five. When her ally stared at her quizzically, she launched muscle fibers from the end instead to retrieve her arm. More floodfested were already on the way, so bug and beast sharpened their claws together. “Alright, red eyes,” Nadia grinned, dousing the floor with Free Lemonade to rack up damage on all foes who got close. “Let’s slice ‘em up insections!”

For a time, the Seekers dominated the fight with relative ease, despite the number and variety of enemies. They wouldn’t have to worry about friendly fire as much if they’d set up on a hill, so the long-rangers could shoot over the heads of the melee attackers, but they racked up many kills nonetheless. As the seconds turned into minutes, though, purer Flood and older Infested started showing up, many with nasty surprises like transformation or debilitative auras, and the fodder appeared in much greater numbers. To Goldlewis, it didn’t seem like it’d be long before the floodfested were jostling for space, a shoulder-to-shoulder mosh pit crowded around his merry band. The turning point, however, came with the arrival of a large Abomination that remained at a distance. With flashes of its lambent yellow sacs and waves of its whiplike arms the specialist seemed to take control of the floodfested horde, turning their mindless onrush into a coordinated assault that intelligently targeted specific individuals. Packs began to circle around to flank the Seekers, while in the distance strange tissue masses the size of hot air balloons slowly drifted toward the Seekers’ position. At that, Goldlewis gritted his teeth. It would be bad enough if those things fell on them, but it was whatever they had inside their fleshy mouths that really worried him. “Hey, Sandalphon?” he called. “This ain’t gonna work for much longer. Tell me we got a way outta this doggone mess!”

“I believe so.” The archangel’s voice emanated from the sigils of everyone in her ‘circle’. “It’s taken me some time to map out what I can of the area, but on the basis that the Qliphoth is roughly analogous to an ordinary tree, I have identified a number of veins that appear to pump xylem up from the roots to the Qliphoth’s upper reaches.” Changing her aim, Sandalphon took a shot at one such vein on the periphery of the battlefield. Her ether bolt did enough damage to rupture the tunica layers and send xylem -which looked rather like blood- spilling out. “These veins are susceptible to forced entry. I recommend using the upward flow to quickly escape this battle and ascend the demon tree.”

Pulling his claws from the stinking corpse of a tar-mutalist moa, Grimm glanced at the nearest bloodstream. It snaked upward along the Qliphoth’s inner wall, sometimes dangling in the open air, until it disappeared into the ceiling. Where it ended was anyone’s guess, but it couldn’t be much worse than here. He turned to Nadia as she hurled a Boiler into a mob to explode amongst them, and the two shared a nod. They sprinted away from the horde toward a bloodstream atop a high ledge, where their agility would give them the edge against their pursuers–those that couldn’t fly, at least. After climbing and leaping most of the way with toxic Ospreys hot in their heels, they slashed open the giant vein, and Grimm dove inside. “Ugh!” Nadia groaned. “If this ruins my clothes, I’ll be seein’ red!” As poisonous payloads rained down around her, the feral climbed in.

Meanwhile, one of the floating Genetrix finally opened wide, discharging a swarm of floodfested to rain down on the Seekers’ formation. “I goddamn knew it!” Goldlewis swore as he turned tail and barreled toward a bloodstream by the entrance. Sandalphon quickly stood up as well. She’d been nigh untouchable atop her ganglion, with only the spines of ranged forms to worry about, but with enemies literally pouring down it was time to go. As the first few floodfested shredded themselves on the razor wire she’d set up around her vantage point, she floated down after Goldlewis with Heavensent. She fired down at the swarm in the air, using the recoil to speed up her flight. With the floodfested only a couple hundred feet behind them, the two reached the vein together, but since neither could deal slash damage, they had to improvise. Sandalphon froze the surface of the vein with Frost Lock, allowing Goldlewis to punch through with a shotgauntlet. Without a moment’s hesitation for the sake of her formal wear Sandalphon immersed herself, and Goldlewis squeezed in after not a moment too soon, and the tunica healed itself just in time to block the claws and fangs behind him. For a terrifying moment it felt like the big man might clog the Qliphoth’s artery, but the next second the pressure pushed him through, and the veteran soared skyward.

Borne by the bloodstreams like reverse waterslides, the team sped upward through the demon tree. The damage done to the bloodstreams weakened their flow, however, and it wasn’t long before the pressure diminished enough that the veins burst and the heroes popped out. Soaked in crimson xylem and desperate for a breath of fresh air, the Seekers found themselves either in cavelike hollows or atop large platforms suspended over open space, just large enough to serve as makeshift arenas. In addition to other veins leading even higher into the tree, these arenas tended to contain debris from the wreckage of Redgraccoon City, absorbed into the Qliphoth along with its populace, as well as floodfestation tumors. The Seekers would also find that the demon tree’s branching circulatory system had separated them in transit, meaning the allies that they’d ended up with might not be those who they fled alongside.

Sandalphon remained deadpan as blood dripped from her face and hair, then rose gingerly from the ground. She appeared to be in a Qliphoth hollow with a relatively low roof, cluttered with outcrops of the alien material either as stalactites and stalagmites, or joined in columns. Strangest of all was the abundance of mirrors, scattered and arranged throughout as if this section of the Qliphoth had consumed a carnival’s house of mirrors. “Hm.” It was quiet here, and other than a few boils she couldn’t see any sign of the floodfestation. She approached one of the mirrors, trying to salvage her hair, until a noise from behind her suggested that someone else had arrived. The shape that flopped out of the broken vein didn’t belong to Goldlewis, though. Evidently the team’s method of transit had separated and rejoined them at random, which reminded Sandalphon a lot of Arahabaki. “Hm.”

After confirming that her ally was alright, Sandalphon glanced back at the mirror. Her reflection had been replaced by a nightmarish monstrosity, an amalgamation of corpses tied together with barbed wire, cloaked in raven-black hair, and adorned with a giant buzz saw. Sandalphon’s brows rose as her pupils became dots. “Hm!” The horror’s many faces crowed hideously as it raised its saw. Sandalphon leaped backward, using Heavensent to gain ground, and threw a Frost Lock at the thing in the mirror. The icy cluster reflected off the surface and back at Sandalphon, freezing her solid as the Guardian smashed through the mirror. Laughing with many voices, the Guardian approached with its buzzsaw to finish Sandalphon off.

When Grimm slumped out of a bloodstream, even more scarlet than usual, he blinked his baleful eyes open to see a large, dark chamber half overgrown with floodfestation. Swollen pustules and weeping sores blinked down at him like abominable eyes, but Grimm’s own lingered on what lay in front of him. At least a hundred infected humans could be seen milling about the hollow aimlessly, but when the Troupe Master’s intruded, they took notice. And as they gave voice to their ire with a cacophony of grunts and groans, three disfigured, batlike horrors dropped down from the roof to hide among the crowd and perform their dirty deeds.

Blood was nothing new to Nadia, but usually she ended up covered in her own, not the demonic ichor of some godforsaken tree. Eventually the pressure pushing her upward through the Qliphoth’s veins subsided to the point where the catgirl was essentially stuck in place, but as luck would have it she could see flickering light through the somewhat translucent tunica. She slid the claw of her index finger through the meat and promptly fell through. She plopped down on solid ground in a shower of viscous xylem, coughing and sputtering. When she registered the heat on her face, however, she opened her eyes to see that she’d arrived in a hollow that appeared to be on fire. Its walls, covered in gnarled, twisted protrusions that might have been branches or bone, burned with furious vigor.

Nadia also noticed a huge creature in the center of the area, between her and a healthy bloodstream on the hollow’s opposite side, one clad in a dark leather suit and a cat-eared gas mask. Though human in shape, she splayed herself out on all fours like a beast, with veins, eyes, tails, and claws that blazed like molten lava. Nadia grinned at her. “Wow, never thought I’d run into a fellow feral here,” she drawled, her hands on her hips. “You cause this little in-fur-no? Y’know, our team could use a little firepower. Whaddya say we hightail it together?” Instead the Successor of the Claw rose with a menacing snarl and the hiss of flame. Nadia assumed her fighting stance, bouncing back and forth. “Fine then. I don’t mind a little fire in my kit!”

Meanwhile, Goldlewis wound up in a completely different style of hollow. Once his bloodstream couldn’t push him up any farther, he fought to tear his way out. It took some doing, but after a few moments he flopped down onto the floor, where he laid for a few seconds on his back, chest heaving. He scarcely registered the bloodstream spitting his coffin out behind him, but as he took stock of his situation it slowly sank in just how weird this was. He seemed to be in a basement, with two halls leading out of the small room he’d emerged into. Crumbled sections of wall revealed alien flora poking through, so he reasoned that this whole building must’ve been swallowed up by the Qliphoth at some point. However, he could not explain the safe that lay on the ground beside him, wrapped in barbed wire. As Goldlewis composed himself and got off the ground, another safe down the hall did as well, until the veteran stood opposite a huge, blood-spattered killer as tall as he was, a barbed sack in one hand and a mallet in the other. The Keeper beat his hammer against the safe on his head and strode forward, foregoing the typical song and dance. Goldlewis thought it only right to hoist his coffin and do the same.

Umbra Rose Condos

Classes let out late, as usual, but that wasn’t the reason for the knot in Khalid’s stomach as he made his way through the city back to his place of residence. Many people dreaded school, university in particular, as well as the accompanying studies, but not him. Everyone wanted -if not needed- something to occupy their day to day existence, particularly when not engaged in the routine of actual occupation. For many that took the form of entertainment, something sufficiently diverting to ease the tedium of existence, but for Khalid learning was fun. His occult and cryptozoological research engaged him deeply, allowing him to lose himself in the works of history’s unsung scholars. Hours could fly by in the blink of an eye as he filled his mind with arcane knowledge, high on the quivers of distant, muted horror that so often accompanied peeks into the untold beyond. That was the meaning of erudition: to covet secrets known to very few, even if they be so horrible that one could scarcely sleep at night, and keep alive the truths shunned by the ignorant masses since the days when the world was new. Truly, Khalid could never thank Dr. Muñoz enough for the privilege of access to this hidden world once more, especially after the gruesome death of his grandfather all those years ago (and the diaspora of the Alhazred clan that followed) seemed to close that door for good.

Khalid’s erudition was, however, part of the problem, as much as it pained him to admit it. The fact of the matter was that, no matter how much he longed for something more, he lived his life in a mundane, material world. He’d honed a very particular set of skills, and there were simply not that many career opportunities for someone in his chosen field. He’d needed to get very creative to find a way to make money off his efforts, but as his work with the Crow demonstrated, creativity and financial success didn’t always go hand in hand. Khalid could make it if he became a best-selling author, a famous horror flick writer, or a renowned video game creature designer, but that kind of success demanded everything he lacked: money, connections, time, and luck. Talent as well, if he was being realistic. Of course, that was all immaterial to what he really wanted: to fully immerse himself in that hidden world. With his skills he knew he could be a hunter, but the uncannily consistent deaths of his predecessors made Khalid leery of such dangerous work. Instead he’d prefer to enlist as some secret society’s field agent, venturing forth on expeditions into the world’s untouched recesses to verify for himself the allegations of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Eltdown Shards, and the Confessions of Clithanus.

Without a job in the meantime, though, he’d starve to death well before such dreams could become reality. All day he’d kept his phone within arm’s reach, waiting for a call, a text, or even an email from an unknown sender interested in Al-Azif Shoggoth Therapy. Unfortunately, his phone had remained disquietingly silent. Not one alert had cropped up since that morning. Part of him reasoned that it was simply too soon and not enough Umbra Rose residents had received the news just yet, but part of him fretted that the whole endeavor had been a waste of time from the very beginning. After all, even if he somehow attracted a monstrous client, who knew if he could play the part of a fledgeling therapist well enough to keep them coming back for more? Or if the results of such sessions would even be usable? Maybe it would be better to fail at step one, rather than get all the way to the home stretch before falling short. Admit failure, and try something else. Too much longer on this therapy angle and he’d be vulnerable to the sunk-cost fallacy, after all.

As he turned the corner toward the Condos, Khalid sighed. Al-Azif was the original name of the Necronomicon, authored by Khalid’s very own ancestor all those years ago. Meaning ‘the truth’, it represented not just the true nature of the world, but the core concept of therapy itself, which was ironic given Shoggoth Therapy’s true purpose, and indeed, Khalid’s presence in the condos at all. But he was genuinely interested in the stories of the monsters who lived there, and given the chance he would much rather have them talk through their problems than bottle them up inside. Just from what he’d observed so far, many monsters there were more like people than horrors, and all people deserved a chance at happiness.

That thought made Khalid snicker as he paused at the threshold. Happiness…was that really what awaited him at the end of this journey? It had been a stranger to him on the road he’d traveled so far. Well, no matter. One could hardly relate to another’s suffering if one hadn’t suffered oneself. What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life? If Khalid did a good job as a therapist, the stories of his monstrous clients would surely be worthwhile. He could only hold onto his mantra: ‘the truth is stranger than fiction’. Even if he’d tangled himself in one hell of a web of lies, his convictions were the crucial grain of truth. Khalid took a deep breath, steeled himself, and pushed forward through the magical wards into Umbra Rose Condos.

Once inside, Khalid let out his breath, and released his grip on his talisman. “Never gets easier,” he muttered. For the second time that day he found himself in the complex’s front lobby, though at this hour it was not the gorgon on duty, but the minotaur Dimitrios. Khalid gave him a stiff nod, on the off chance that the big guy glanced his way. From there he made a beeline through the complex toward his room. After dropping off his things, harvesting some ingredients to mix up some fresh serum, and dosing Horace, he could grab a much-needed meal. He almost always showed up to the cafeteria starving, since given his very tight budget, Khalid typically skipped lunch to make the most out of his free breakfast and dinner. He usually ate in uneventful isolation in Building 3, since the few residents there brave or sedated enough to show their faces in public never spoke up or asked questions, but today Khalid reconsidered his routine. It might help his image and overall discoverability if he patronized the restaurant in Building 1 instead. As much as his introverted side loathed that idea, Khalid could swallow his misgivings and make an effort for the sake of his gambit’s success. It was time to put himself out there.

Half an hour after his return to the complex, the seldom-seen eruditionist strode into Cafeteria 1. It had been open for a while now, so hopefully there would not be a line. Once he received two meals, one for himself and one for Horace, Khalid would find an empty table or booth if one remained, and from there he could wait and see if anyone came to him. It went without saying that nobody would invite him over, after all. The real problem would be if no tables were empty, and eating here meant inviting himself to one taken by someone else. At that point, logic dictated would simply have to call it quits and scuttle back to Building 3 with his tail between his legs.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Lewa

Although the situation looked dodgy at the beginning, Lewa knew he could count upon his new allies. Their sheer power quickly turned the tables on those who'd ambushed them. More worrisome was the elusive threat that had crept up from the shadows behind them, unbeknownst to Lewa. Thanks to an unexpected alert from the young fae, though, Anne managed to foil what might have otherwise been an assassination and fend off the other half of the underground pincer maneuver. Once the situation stabilized, with Lewa's summoned winds helping to defend the otherworlders' position and give them some space against their foes, the team's heavy hitters could start going to town.

Unfortunately, the berserker Fran quickly went overboard. Her terrifying, bestial strength proved not just enough to put down the stubborn minotaurs for good, but also to crack and crumble the cavern walls. As the rock's structural integrity plummeted hit by withering hit, the whole area began to shake. The immeasurable weight of earth and stone bore down on the hollow from above, giving forth guttural noises like the creaks of a settling house, but far deeper, louder, and more alarming. Bursts of silicate powder streamed down from the ceiling, soon followed by gravel, pebbles, and fragments of increasingly greater size. Being farther removed from the frontlines of the fight than the others, Lewa balked as he noticed the destruction. Fran had definitively dealt with one problem, but in so doing she'd replaced it with a much bigger one. The cavern was about to collapse.

A choice lay before him: fall back, push further in, or be crushed where he stood. The toa made that choice in an instant--being trapped in this bizarre world was intolerable enough, so he wasn't about to be trapped in some cramped, dingy cave underground. Tunnels were Onua's domain, not his! As for whatever mystery lay at the bottom of this pitch-black underworld, he could care less. Of course, there could very well be an alternative exit farther along, but nothing was certain, except that Lewa needed to be free.

"Everyone!" He shouted, his fear audible in his voice. "Back out the way we came. Hurry!" This time, Lewa couldn't afford to wait to make sure that everyone stood united. He was not the leader here; the others could heed him if they wished or delve deeper into this deathtrap if they so desired. The spirit of air had made his choice clear, so he considered his duty done.

He turned back toward the meandering passage to the shop and broke into a run, his axe held aloft and whirled around to create a spiral wind overhead. That wall of air would shield him -and anyone who fled alongside him- from smaller debris, but it would prove ineffective against bigger, heavier stones. If Anne did not take the initiative to put her incredible speed to use one way or another, Lewa's path would take him right past her, giving her and her young companion the perfect opportunity to join the toa's hasty retreat.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Dead Zone - Weeping Wastes

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (108/140) Lvl 9 Goldlewis (61/90) Lvl 7 Sandalphon (36/70) Lvl 3 Grimm (19/30)
Midna, Junior, Rika & Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate, Sectonia & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt, Zenkichi & Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Ace Cadet, Pit, Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Roxas, Ganondorf, & Captain Falcon’s @Double Venom Snake’s @DisturbedSpec the Witch’s @Drifting Pollen
Word Count: 3166

After witnessing the horrors of war firsthand, and experiencing all that life had to throw at him, Goldlewis Dickinson was not easily frightened. And yet, as he lay half-immersed in eldritch tar and dragged by the legs in the deathgrip of a half-dozen ghouls, the veteran found himself grasped by terror as well. He’d fought heroically against those ink-black cadavers as they welled up from the stygian netherworld below, pitting every ounce of his prodigious strength against them for the sake of everyone’s lives, but by now the veteran knew a losing battle when he saw one. The nightmares snatched and pulled at his limbs and clothes as if desperate to claw themselves back from the afterlife, weighing the man’s massive frame down in the muck, and the pit was loath to give back even one inch that it had taken. Goldlewis grit his teeth, and BB Luigi wept, as his slog grew slower and slower, until finally he’d fallen over backward and could struggle no more.

Then he was whisked away. Violently tugged, yanked, and jolted from side to side as he slid through what had once been solid ground. The filth that coated his clothes spattered his face and glasses, like it wasn’t hard enough to see already. In an instant he’d been removed from the SFE’s safe zone, only moments before the sophisticated device smashed against the earth, and only his personal shield sheltered him from the timefall. What terrified Goldlewis most of all, though, was his own helplessness–that no matter how much experience or strength he achieved, it could all be for naught in the face of some unknown adversary. Right now he could do nothing but cry out in despair, joining the infant strapped to his chest in despondent chorus, but Goldlewis fought back his instincts and kept calm. If the BTs had him at their mercy, but he wasn’t dead, this clearly wasn’t over just yet. Something else must have to happen first, which meant that he and the others had another chance. With that thought in mind, Goldlewis did not struggle in vain, but instead conserved his strength.

After a few moments, his wild ride came to an end. From the rippling expanse of tar that now blanketed the earth, the true threat emerged in all its loathsome glory. When it roared, rapid flashes of brilliant white light spilled out from the rift in its chiralium death mask, their unnatural radiance filtered through the pouring rain. Was that the antimatter that would spell out the heroes’ annihilation, encapsulated in that leonine body? Neither Goldlewis nor his allies intended to find out. The moment they gained their freedom, whether before or after being dragged through the tar, the Seekers took action. Some followed in Grimm’s footsteps and took off in a mad dash for the Qliphoth, while others rounded on the Catcher in an attempt to fight it. Most importantly, though, Zenkichi cast his speed-enhancing Sukukaja spell, which Primrose then spread to everyone else with Sealticge’s Seduction. That one tactic turned what would’ve otherwise seemed like an unwinnable scenario on its head, giving everyone the agility necessary to fight and run for their lives.

Not everyone intended to run, though. As she stood up from the tar, Sandalphon narrowed her eyes at the Catcher. Down in the ravine, and indeed throughout the trip so far, her fledgeling heart had been dominated by fear. That fear could not be quelled completely, but after the incident with the Hell Razer another feeling had been ignited. She felt angry, a little at Zenkichi for not trusting her, but mostly at herself for her weakness. Her very rough treatment at the hands of the BTs after they finally caught her only exacerbated her anger, and now, in a state of tranquil fury, the archangel would not hesitate. Blue mana surrounded her, carving geometric furrows through the tar at her feet. “I refuse to be a liability,” she pronounced. The next second she vanished, replaced by a column of blue light they shot up through the rainstorm and faded among the clouds. Sandalphon had returned to the Avenger.

By the time Goldlewis got up, coffin at the ready, he could see that no weapon or power seemed to be affecting the Catcher. It simply ignored everything thrown its way in order to hunt whatever it pleased, which made distracting it a risky proposition. His allies would need to present themselves as prey, then avoid its vicious savagery as long as possible until someone else happened to catch his attention. Goldlewis did not like his odds, so he turned to make a break for it. Of course, even with his speed boosted he knew he’d be likely to lag behind. When the veteran spotted a white whale in the sea of pitch, and heard Junior’s invitation amidst the cacophonous downpour, he barreled that way.

Between the Seekers and the Qliphoth, a miniature city block seemed to be taking shape. Structures from Redgraccoon City, leveled by the voidout, were rising from the tar like long-dead fossils. Though intimidating at first glance, this was good, actually. If it had been a straight shot through this sticky bog, it might be impossible to escape the massive Catcher even with Sukukaja. Those buildings could break line of sight and provide shelter. Still, the knowledge that just one person’s death could end them all made the veteran’s heart pound. He boarded the white whale, hoisted his coffin onto his shoulder, and cracked the lid. Alien technology flared to life, and a towering energy shield of tessellated hexagons. Laid flat, it provided a much larger canopy than Junior’s iron umbrella, so the kids could focus on other things. With most of the others on their way already, those on the whale couldn’t wait any longer. “Let’s move!”

Compared to Goldlewis, Nadia kept a much less level head. Right on the cusp of escaping the tar pool, a BT had managed to snag her foot and yank it clean off. “Dammit, dammit!” Not thinking straight, she only limped another step or two farther through the quagmire before more of the specters glommed on, pulling her apart pieces by piece. By the time Nadia finally capitulated, only her head and one arm remained attached to her upper torso, and the feral knew she wasn’t getting anywhere like that. One terrifying tar trip later, her pieces were dumped in the sludge only a few dozen feet away from where the Catcher burst forth.

“...Tar-riffic.” Nadia reassembled herself as fast as physically possible, joining her segments together with spools of stretched-out muscle fiber, then took off running while some allies tried to keep the Catcher busy. With her natural agility she knew that she’d probably be a good candidate for distraction, but right now Nadia couldn’t think far beyond herself, and the catgirl had plenty to worry about. She quickly found out that her usual method of running on all fours would only get her stuck twice as often, so the feral elected to flee bipedally. Knowing that she’d be screwed if another stuck limb came off instead of out, she leaped at her first chance to scramble up one of the destroyed city buildings, not bothering to question how such a thing came to be. After another moment she stood atop the tilted tower, where she took a second to catch her breath. The chill of the deluge on her raincoat helped to clear her head as much as wash off mud, but she knew by the flickering of her bubble shield that she couldn’t breathe easy.

In that moment, though, she spotted Ace on a nearby building. Nadia couldn’t tell if he’d seen her as well, and she couldn’t waste time getting his attention, but it heartened her to know that he’d made it this far too. It even looked like he was in a place to help others, which was very like him. She just hoped that he’d remember to save himself. As for her, she had places to be. At the sound of an otherworldly roar, she looked back to see the Catcher split open its face and unleash a glittering gold-black laser. It raked across the landscape, convincing the last few brave souls on decoy duty to flee. Now the chase was really on.

As Rika’s white whale swam around the base of the feral’s perch, speeding its passengers toward safety, Nadia remembered that she had a helper or two of her own. She took a deep breath and willed the Harbor Water Demon into existence. The enormous Abyssal woman appeared without her ordnance platform, knelt upon the roof of the building. Instantly her weight began to tilt the structure even farther forward, but before it could fall the striker balled Nadia up in her giant mitts and hurled the feral like a fastball. “NYAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” Much to her chagrin, unfortunately, the Harbor Demon did not have a good throwing arm. Nadia plopped down only about halfway through the tarry maze, and after extracting herself from the mire she clambered onto a half-submerged bus. From there she could climb, jump, and Charge her way between the buildings as they rose and fell, staying out of the gunk and ahead of the Catcher.

Still, the Seekers’ pursuer was relentless. Nadia lost time as she parkoured around, taking shelter where she could to recharge her shield, and she could feel the horror at her back. “For a fellow cat, you’re really doggin’ my heels,” she hissed. That was when she saw it: a building dead ahead that seemed hauntingly familiar, its formidable facade embellished with an acronym that Nadia wouldn’t soon forget. “No way,” she muttered, her eyes widening. It looked just like that police station–the one where she’d been trapped for half a week along with a handful of survivors, where she first happened to meet the Seekers. It had been annihilated like the rest of that diseased city, and yet here it was. While she didn’t exactly feel nostalgic for such an awful place, the sight of it gave her an idea. That Catcher could climb up and jump between buildings as well as she could, but could it navigate the station’s interior? Its layout had been burned into her memory, so she could use it as a shortcut to the Qliphoth, hidden from the Catcher’s gaze. With her shield generator low and only her coat between her and the timefall, Nadia couldn’t be choosy. She blitzed through the rain with Charge and charged inside.

Without having to worry about the timefall or the BT, Nadia made quick progress. At least, until the entire police station began to sink. She only realized when tar began to seep through the cracks in the floor, quickly covering it. All the relief that the feral felt quickly turned to panic as she realized that the ceiling was descending toward her. Based on her mental map, if she took the winding back hall, she’d be crushed well before reaching an exit. Changing plans, she raced up the lobby stairs three at a time, barely one step ahead of the rising tide. Upon reaching the top she took off at a dead sprint, her hood falling back as she rushed forward. Not a moment too late she threw herself through the rear windows and into the downpour. The sensation of raindrops on her ears and hair prompted her to reach back and pull her hood up, her heart pounding as she worried about how much damage had been done. At the sound of the Catcher’s roar, however, she forgot all about her appearance and took off running. The ground beneath her feet felt firmer now, and the Qliphoth loomed before her.

Meanwhile, the crew of the white whale had a couple close calls. They proved to be a tempting target for the Catcher, especially with its ability to dive into and re-emerge from the tar below, but thanks to its abilities Rika’s summon was in its element. Goldlewis kept them dry, pivoting his shield backward when necessary to defend against a chiral laser, as the cetacean slid through tarry makeshift streets. Once a convenience store rose directly beneath them, but under Rika’s guidance the whale ramped off the roof and splashed back down, its crew excited but none the worse for wear. All around, the other Seekers pushed forward as well. With all the adrenaline in play it felt like ages before the Catcher finally started to lose interest. As its prey gained ground, nearing the Qliphoth, the masked monstrosity made one final pass. It burst through the wall of a highrise overlooking the home stretch with a thunderous crash and hurtled down toward the white whale.

Goldlewis, who’d just been thinking that things had gotten a little two quiet, acted fast. “UMA!” He slammed the side of his coffin, and the Wall of Light went down. From within the cosmic blue arms of the cryptid reached out to grab hold of Rika and Junior. “Hold on, kids! HrrrrrrrAH!” With a mighty heave he hurled his coffin at the Qliphoth, taking both Junior and Rika with it. As they sailed away, the Catcher slammed down atop the whale in an explosion of stony dust and tar.

Nadia, who’d only just slid to a stop by the Qliphoth herself, stared with mouth agape. “Goldlewis!?”

From the cloud of debris, the Secretary of Absolute Defense appeared, flying with the aid of his ’Mothman’ airborne railcannon. With the help of its propulsion Goldlewis soared the last few hundred feet. The thrust ran out as he drew near, and he landed heavily among the rest of the Seekers. Thanks to his Wall of Light, his bubble shield had evidently recharged to full, allowing him to weather the timefall. After a moment, he let his breath out, doubling over from the stress. “Haaaaaah. Whoo-wie, that…was a close one, heh.”

While that wasn’t at all funny, Nadia couldn’t help but laugh, and the tension was broken. Her calico hair had gotten a little whiter, and her ears looked a little gray, but her own exposure hadn’t been too bad. When she looked around, she found only more good news. “We all seriously made it? Hell yeah! We qli-fought the good fight, eh?”

Among all her listeners, Grimm was perhaps the least amused. The Troupe Master had made it here in one piece, with no sign of aging, though at some point he’d lost his coat. Right now, his scarlet eyes peered the direction Goldlewis came from. After the dust settled, he could see no sign of the Catcher, and with its departure the rain seemed a little less heavy, somehow. Those strange buildings had all receded, and the tar drained away into the earth. Once more he could see nothing but a rain-soaked waste. Hopefully none of them would need to worry about going back the way they came.

Just then, a blur pillar of light announced the return of Sandalphon. During the others’ chase sequence she’d apparently found time to send her mud-covered clothes into the Avenger’s washroom, as now she wore her black slacks and blue two-piece collared shirt. Her silhouette seemed strange without her white coat. With a quick look around she confirmed that everyone was present, though it stood to reason that if anyone hadn’t made it, there wouldn’t be anyone left to warp in on. “Well done, everyone,” she told them, focusing only on results. “Now that we’re here, we need only make an entrance.”

She turned toward the Qliphoth’s exterior, scanning for superficial weaknesses. It seemed that the demon tree managed to sustain itself despite the timefall by continuously regenerating layers of tissue to replace the flesh that aged and sloughed off, accomplished via the reabsorption of that decaying matter. If the team stood here for much longer, falling slabs of rotten Qliphoth flesh could very well become a problem. Then again, they wouldn’t be here for long. Sandalphon spun up her gunstaff and opened fire on a weak spot, prompting the others to join in. She hoped that going to town on the Qliphoth’s exterior to break in would provide the others, especially those foul of temper, with some form of catharsis. It sure did for Nadia, who gleefully sharpened her claws and went to town, followed by Grimm in kind. Even Goldlewis joined in, taking up his railcannon to fire off a laser that did heavy damage to the trunk at the cost of the cannon itself. Before long, the Seekers had their way in.

Few could have anticipated what awaited them inside. Within the Qliphoth lay a bizarre environment. It was like nothing Sandalphon had ever seen, but she could tell at a glance that something was very wrong. In its natural state, as quaint a term as that might be, the interior resembled a cross between a tower and an anthill, with both vast atriums and intricate cave systems of pink, black, and red, unmistakably organic and internally inconsistent, but governed by some sort of evolutionary logic that lent its natural lattices and ribcage-like walkways some semblance of alien beauty. It was still stolen blood that pulsed through its veins, some of them big enough to fit a person inside, but the problems went much deeper than the Qliphoth’s purpose. Sandalphon could see some sort of fleshy blight parasitizing the demon tree, in some areas so widespread that entire areas of the Qliphoth had been completed consumed. Like a body fighting back against a virulent disease, this place was a volatile war zone, and where the lines were drawn and the distinction between host and invader became meaningless, the terrain looked the strangest of all.

Given their mission, everyone was on high alert for any sign of the Guardian, but that was not what they encountered first. Instead, the Seekers’ intrusion stirred the Qliphoth’s vile denizens into action. Just as with Redgraccoon City itself prior to the voidout, this place was home to countless Empusa, the twisted insectoid worker bugs of the demon tree. This time they had staunch competition, however, in the form of cadaverous horrors and infested nightmares, many of which seemed to be freakishly mutated humans, animals, or demons themselves, and the parasites seemed to be winning. As soon as the first few wretched sentinels got the scent of fresh meat, the minions of the Floodfestation began to pour in.

Umbra Rose Condos

Hey everyone. Sadly, I will only be able to post on Sunday. Sorry about that.

@Dragonydas

No worries, take all the time you need!

Umbra Rose Condos

While Erikson seemed leery of Khalid’s proposal, which the would-be therapist more or less expected, he at least offered to spread the word, which was all Khalid really needed of him. He offered his fellow man a grateful nod, then let him off the hook to go and handle Rebecca’s papers. Their dynamic was such that the two of them could never really have a normal conversation. One merely imposed upon the other until the other could scurry away. That hardly bothered Khalid, though, as long as Erikson did his job. Compared to her worrywart associate, Theria seemed more enamored with the idea, even if she was simply making a professional effort to be polite. Even if the two essentially said the same thing, the manner of speech made all the difference; one’s assurance could easily be interpreted as disingenuous placation, whereas the other implied considerate appreciation. For her graciousness Khalid offered the gorgon an affable smile and respectful bow of the head. “You’re very welcome, Miss Lasthena.” Recommendations from well-connected, well-liked, and generally trusted individuals like these two carried a lot more weight than the word of an unusual stranger like him–as Holloway’s response a moment later aptly demonstrated.

The veteran regarded Khalid with thinly veiled distrust, a subtle, half-imagined menace in -or behind- her eyes. Now that her aloof, thousand-yard stare lay on him directly, Khalid found her gaze rather intense. Staring at the sun was bad enough without it staring back, burning him away layer by layer in order to ascertain his true intentions. Since Holloway couldn’t actually peel him like an onion, though, she could only make assumptions about him, very few of them favorable. People tended to be most uncharitable the moment they deduced that someone wanted something from them, and the soldier looked down on him like she might some grifter in a back-alley bazaar. Her condescension rankled Khalid, though he kept his expression restrained to one of polite disappointment. He’d barely said anything, so why treat Shoggoth Therapy like a trick? Well…that was rather the point of it, admittedly, but how would she know?

“As you wish,” Khalid told her without any edge to his voice. “Though ‘wants’ have nothing to do with one’s duty, hm?” Before any healing could begin, they would need to earn one another’s trust, and that began with respect. Maybe she could relate to someone else who’d endure unpleasant truths in their line of work, earning him a modicum of respect. Or maybe, since she saw herself as protecting others from her past for their own good, his willingness to gaze into that abyss would be seen as a challenge. Either way, he didn’t plan to push any harder, but Khalid figured it wouldn’t hurt to say something.

Not long after that, more monsters began to come out of the woodwork. A strange procession passed through that consisted of a auricomous fox and a scarlet-haired girl with a rather commanding presence. The multiple tails of the former and the unblinking incandescent eyes of the latter suggested that there was more to them than met the eye, and to someone in the know, the truth was stranger than fiction. They were Miss Yumeiko and Miss Ryu, a fox spirit and a red dragon, respectively. Together they made an odd pair, considering whose company Yumeiko typically kept, and the dragon’s excitement suggested that they were up to something as they headed toward the courtyard. Before Khalid could guess what, though, another woman came the opposite way: Iris Madril, one of the condos’ more infamous werewolves. And judging by the tattered state of her clothes, she’d just concluded another one of her episodes.

It was starting to get a little too crowded around here for Khalid’s liking, so as Iris pulled up, the eruditionist veered away. Better to make himself scarce before ‘the wolf’ decided to eat anything else. Of course, eating a Shoggoth was a suicidal idea in theory, since it would not so much get digested as digest and assimilate its host from within, but the cryptozoologically-challenged couldn’t be trusted to know that, so he stood to lose a great deal to an impulsive, ignorant chomp. Still, Iris’s situation was interesting, especially to an armchair psychologist like Khalid. To him, it seemed that as long as she mentally divided herself into two beings -the woman and the wolf- each would oppose and impede the other. If both halves accepted the other, maybe the werewolf could become more than the sum of her parts. Hopefully word of Shoggoth Therapy would reach her ears.

For now though, Khalid left the building and ventured out into the ordinary world. He would have to trust Erikson, Theria, and his poster to advertise his new practice, as he had too much to do today to stand around and solicit storytellers himself. Classes, meetings, and errands would demand a decent chunk of his time for today. Still, he kept his phone on hand in case anyone called to schedule an appointment, checking it almost as often as he checked on the Shoggoth in his satchel. Things were already getting interesting, and the day had only just begun.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

Dead Zone - Weeping Wastes

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (104/140) Lvl 9 Goldlewis (57/90) Lvl 7 Sandalphon (32/70) Lvl 3 Grimm (19/30)
Midna, Junior, Rika & Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate, Sectonia & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt, Zenkichi & Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Ace Cadet, Pit, Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Roxas, Ganondorf, & Captain Falcon’s @Double Venom Snake’s @DisturbedSpec the Witch’s @Drifting Pollen
Word Count: 2021

Once confronted by the multiple-choice question of where she’d be going, Nadia found herself hesitating. Leaping over the gorge had never been a problem for her to begin with, so Sectonia’s assistance made getting across a cakewalk, but the alternative route tempted the feral as well. Though she’d made plenty of friends among the Seekers already, it hadn’t gotten any easier for her to willingly place her life in others’ hands. In her childhood as a ragged little alley cat scavenging slums for scraps in Little Innsmouth, she learned to rely on nobody but herself to and grant her trust to precious few. For a few wonderful years after that she’d found not just friends, but a family that she could finally rely upon in the form of the Fishbone Gang, but the gang’s slaughter at Black Dahlia’s hands left her heart almost as scarred as her body.

Since then, the Life Gem made death a non-issue for the most part, meaning Nadia seldom needed to take anything seriously. But despite her bravado in front of Juri, she fully believed that a voidout could wipe her out once and for all. She was confident in her own instincts and abilities, but much less so in her allies. She’d been keen to keep some distance between herself and the others from the beginning, which was why Nadia preferred the mud slide to the rock slope, and since then the team had endured at least a half-dozen close shaves with BTs. It wasn’t a huge surprise, given how few of the Seekers seemed to have any stealth experience, but all those near misses definitely had the cat burglar on edge. With so many blunders, it was only a matter of time until someone screwed the pooch, and Nadia didn’t plan on paying the ultimate price for someone else’s incompetence.

So when Primrose and Therion took a detour into the ravine itself, followed by Sandalphon and Zenkichi, Nadia felt very inclined to join them. Anything to get away from this bumbling horde. That changed, however, when she looked toward Ace to gauge his thoughts and found his face filled with uncharacteristic fear. Despite all the horrors lurking around this haunted wasteland, the sight of her knight in distress rather than shining armor took her by surprise, igniting her protective instincts. How dare someone put the ever-courageous, ever-smiling monster hunter on edge! Change of plans, then. If this abysmal place could even get to someone like him, Nadia wasn’t going anywhere. Much to her chagrin she couldn’t sharpen her claws and shred these offending ghouls like curtains, but she could still stick around to support him as best she could. The success of this mission depended on him, after all, and Nadia wanted Ace to know that despite everything she’d been through, he could depend on her, too.

Of course, things went to hell right away. Moments after a few frontrunners moved across the crystalline platform to secure the other side, and Ace himself headed to its center so that everyone could cross the ravine within the safe zone, a pack of demons popped up from below. “I hate bein’ right all the time,” Nadia muttered. Right off the bat 'one rotund, cyclopean demon opened fire at Ace, and without hesitation the feral threw herself into harm’s way. Luckily Pit had the same idea, and was much better equipped to deal with the situation than Nadia. Bounced back by the Guardian Orbitars, the fiend’s barrage blew up in its face, and Ace himself returned fire to neutralize the threat before it could cause any more issues.

Edward, Midna, Edelgard, and Grimm leaped to the team’s defense, and in their weakened state, they fought all the harder. Grimm in particular allowed the others to hog the demons’ attention while he floated around behind them to lacerate their wings and backs with his claws. Nadia, however, just watched. The Cacodemons, Gargoyles, and Lost Souls all seemed vaguely familiar from her previous misadventures in Redgraccoon City, but she’d definitely slept since then, so the best way to deal with these things wasn’t fresh in her memory. And even if it was, this battlefield was a little too crowded with heroes to lend a hand. Given the current conditions, fighting these airborne adversaries was a dangerous game, so while her allies played it Nadia held out in front of the Cadet, content to body-block for him if push came to shove. “Don’t worry, Ace!” she grinned, watching Lost Souls detonate one after another. “I’m not about to let anyone I care about die, so consider this a demon-stration!”

Geralt had occupied a defensive position in the group close to Goldlewis and Snake so far, but when the Witcher moved to the forefront to help put down the demonic incursion, Goldlewis circled toward the opposite side of the crystal, with the SFE between himself and the marauders. This was not a decision borne of cowardice, but one of careful consideration. For one, his fighting style took up too much real estate to employ on an arena this size without jeopardizing his comrades’ safety through friendly fire. He also didn’t want to put another BB at risk, given their vital role in this expedition. For the most part, though, he just didn’t think the others needed his help. Even while suppressed by the SFE, they wouldn’t fall to small fry like that. The much bigger problem was the BTs, given how much noise the skirmish was making, and Goldlewis wondered how much weight Sectonia’s crystal could carry, as well. Keeping an eye on the fight, he led Sectonia, Snake, and Juri around the fight and to the ravine’s far edge, careful not to progress beyond the bounds of the SFE’s safe zone.

Once the furious but brief fight came to an end, and the team reached terra firma, a few members turned their eyes toward the crashed ship. Juri voiced her interest, but it was the trio she ate with that morning who actually left the group to check the wreck out. Junior, Rika, and the Witch scurried out of the white bubble and into the dreadful timefall, protected by their bubble shields until they could dive through a hole in the derelict ship’s wall and take shelter inside. Grimm watched them go, silent as ever, but fully aware of the risks involved after his own brush with a BT. He deigned not to join them, instead sticking with the main group as it pushed forward in the Qliphoth’s direction. Even after a number of Grimm’s teammates split off, this main force still commanded an impressive seventeen, including three BBs. Odradek readings indicated several BTs to the right, in the vicinity of the chasm, so the team gave it a wide berth as they followed its path northward. The echoes of gunshots from within couldn’t be helped.

Compared to the first leg of the journey, this area was much more open and featured fewer landmarks, but the going wasn’t much easier. Like the remains of some old battlefield, first carved up into trenches and then shelled by distant artillery, it was covered in miniature craters and ridges. In this light, it was difficult to tell the quicksand from the mud, but Rika could skate across it once her detachment returned, and Grimm was light enough on his feet that he could dart backward the moment he started to sink. For that reason the Troupe Master took point, next to Edward, as the team advanced. With only three BBs, the carriers naturally arranged themselves like the points of a trident, their followers less spread out. In this way the silent procession snaked around lurking BTs and treacherous obstacles, steadily headed northward without incident.

It wasn’t long before that changed. As the Seekers neared the northern edge of the ravine, Primrose’s team climbed up a slope and rejoined them. Though Sandalphon and the others had run into trouble themselves, their route had turned out to be the easy one. They found their allies weary and on edge after a tedious, stressful, and sometimes circuitous trek through the open wastes. Grimm’s countenance betrayed nothing, and Goldlewis maintained his composure, but this place was definitely starting to get old to Nadia. How much trudging around on all fours in the mud could one girl be expected to take? Still, it wasn’t feral impetuousness that kicked things off. Throughout the trials so far, one of the BBs had been putting on a brave face, but a stressed infant could only take so much. After watching tirelessly for BTs, coming dangerously close several times, and being within inches of vicious demonic attackers, all without a moment’s pause to rest or be comforted, Baby Mario began to break down. Sniffles and whimpers, muffled by his pod, eventually turned to sobs, and then finally, flat-out bawling.

Goldlewis had been watching a handful of drifting gazers when the wailing began. The veteran whirled on Edward, panicked. “What in sam hill!? You gotta shut him up!” He didn’t mean to be so brusque, but to say this outburst could have dire consequences would be an understatement. Not eager to exacerbate the situation, he glanced back over at the BTs, but this time he saw nothing. He froze, looking around in a desperate attempt to pinpoint the dark specters, only to notice that the splashes coming toward him weren’t made by rain, but a dozen handprints incoming from different directions. The odradeks went wild, clicking in a frenzy as they constantly changed direction–left, right, ahead, behind. The Seekers were surrounded.

Immediately, and without a word, Grimm broke formation. The tall bug charged out of the safe zone, protected by his raincoat as he pitter-pattered toward the Qliphoth at high speed. Several handprints veered toward him, picking up the pace like bloodhounds on a scent trail. Before they could grab him, however, Grimm disappeared in a flash of crimson flame. He’d teleported, perhaps to safety since the Qliphoth wasn’t too much farther, but not everyone he’d left behind had that luxury. By that time, a low roar echoed across the area, and a tar pool expanded from Edward’s position that quickly undermined the whole group. An awful chorus of groaning, gurgling voices broke out beneath them, and only the BB carriers could see their sources: corpses molded from pitch, reaching out from the pool by the dozen to seize ankles, calves, coattails, and more. Some of the Seekers could shake them off, but not everyone. There were just too many of them. Nadia managed to escape using Charge to become a bolt of lightning that zipped out of the BTs’ grasp, but she couldn’t get far enough. Sandalphon only managed to delay the inevitable with Vault, and no matter how many times he broke free Goldlewis could not reach the edge of the pool. Once he and the others fell, the hands dragged them along the ground, spreading them out. One by one the heroes were tugged beyond the SFE’s perimeter, until finally Ace’s own struggle came to an end, and the Stable Field Emitter smashed against the ground.

Tar, rippling like the surface of the sea, spread across the whole area. From its depths, buildings from the destroyed city began to rise, sink, and rise again, as if slowly fading in and out of memory. Finally, a monster emerged from the tar, a creature as tall and broad as a garbage truck. It looked to Goldlewis like an enormous lion, but ink-black, with a mane of writhing tentacles rather than fur. A death mask of golden, lustrous chiralium adorned its face, and when it roared, its mask split vertically to give its prey a glimpse of the oblivion that awaited them in its gullet. Though just a lone predator against an abundance, it only needed to catch one.

Over everything, the aging rain poured down. The shield packs wouldn’t last much longer, and the hunt was on.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Lewa

As Lewa advanced alongside the others into the dark passage, he remained alert and ready. He did not jump at shadows, though, or peer about with nervous restlessness. After proving himself amongst his peers, whose remarkable abilities scarcely needing demonstration by now, he felt like he could afford to be more brave--though never cocky. Though much better than a claustrophobic squeeze through cramped nooks and crannies, this spacious tunnel offered its own dangers by virtue of the sheer numbers of angles attack could come from. Furthermore, such huge swathes of inky blackness could be home to unseen behemoths, waiting just out of view to pounce on any prospective intruders and devour them whole. All that meant that any carelessness on Lewa's part could lead to dire consequences, but the toa nevertheless strove to keep his head on straight, and not feed his pessimistic side any further. After all, his travels through this bizarre world had it bloated enough already.

After a few minutes' suspense, the otherworlders' uneventful advance came to an abrupt end. From the darkness loomed two enormous figures, chillingly silent and still. Just when Lewa was beginning to get somewhat used to basic human anatomy, these monstrous bipeds went and defied it, with heads and legs arranged in all the wrong ways. Much more worrying, though, were the huge polearms that the pair soon hefted to wield with lethal intent.

Lewa leaped backward as the minotaurs took their first ferocious swings, putting as much distance between them and himself as possible. As impressive as his axe was, those heavy halberds made his own weapon look like a matoran's plaything, and the toa didn't even want to chance blocking a cleave from one. Luckily this wide-open cavern gave him plenty of room to move, and jumping happened to be something of a talent of his. Assuming that one of the others could put up enough of an up-front fight to get the minotaurs' attention, he hung back in order to support the team effort from afar. With a whirl of his off hand he manipulated the air pressure in the cave, creating a strong current from behind him that would buffet the monsters head-on. Any projectiles -or people- thrown toward them would fly with greater speed, while the two would (hopefully) be harder-pressed to rush the otherworlders down. Next, he gathered his power and began to hurl handfuls of highly compressed air that would rupture on contact with his foes, knocking them askew with blasts of concussive force. With Lewa's full attention on the main event, he did not notice the stealthy assailant come from behind, though perhaps his currents would interfere with rogue projectiles.