Lugubrious

Ashardalon Conquest- Overlord RP

For a cheap and lazy man, a room in reality and a room in fantasy were very much the same, which was to say meagerly furnished. In reality, however, that man needed to make some concessions to accommodate living with his girlfriend, which needed attention, care, and half-decent furniture. Yggdrasil demanded no such requirements. So it was that when he got off a long shift of tending the bar at the back of a busy restaurant, he logged into his DMMO of choice and booted into a dark, squalid chamber with nothing but a private chest for his unneeded belongings in it.

Nut pulled up the player roster first thing. Two names appeared on the virtual dossier as 'online:' Hunk and Blaze. Not bad, but not good. Wasn't that big raid supposed to happen today? They would need a bit more of a concerted effort to plunder the dragon's hoard before the updated rolled out and resigned the ol' lizard to irrelevance possibly forever. Then again, the idea had come together pretty suddenly. Not a lot of people could jump in on short notice for an emergency dungeon run like this. To be honest, Nut wondered why he was bothering. He doubted he would have much use for the rewards in question, and he doubted that the guild's leader or the raid's real beneficiaries would show him much gratitude for it. He guessed he just needed something to do, to work out the piss and vinegar bottled up in him by his lousy shift.

With the use of his guild ring, he began warping around Nazarick to find where everyone was meeting. It took only a few tries to turn up the spot, that being one of the usual meeting places. Nut materialized at the end of the graveyard, spotted a hulking oni and bored-looking kitsune kicking back amid the tombstones, and started floating their way. “Hey, hey,” he greeted them, his voice masked by a distorting filter that suited his character. “What's shaking? We've got more guys coming, right? New dungeons take forever to beat for the first time, and if we're on a time crunch two fire-spitters and I aren't gonna cut it.” Nuttirbuttir's ghastly avatar began its idle animation, moving its arms in rhythmic circles as if channeling some unseen ritual.

Ashardalon Conquest- Overlord RP

NuttirButtir

Username NuttirButtir ('Nut')

OOC profession: Bartender

Character Role: Buff/debuff & Healing Support

Alignment: 0

Appearance:

Aspirant Form

Awakened Form

Race: Careless Whisper, a malfeasant eldritch being who exists for the purpose of sowing discord and unrest in humanity

Classes
Monster Classes:
-Zombie (10)
-Mummy (10)
-Old One (5)
-Careless Whisper (5)

Job Classes:
-Cleric (15)
-Cultist (15)
-Hierophant (10)
-Supplicant (10)
-Invoker (5)
-Entropician (5)

Class type level:
Martial: 20
Arcane: 35
Divine: 45

Attributes:
-HP: 60
-MP: 80
-Physical Attack: 10
-Physical Defense: 50
-Agility: 50
-Magic Attack: 70
-Magic Defense: 80
-Resist: 70
-Special: 90

Abilities:

Cleric
-Lay on Hands: Heal a single target rapidly through sustained physical touch that prevents other actions
-Food for the Hungry: Cure the Hungry status and grant the 'well fed' bonus in a small radius
-Be at Peace: Cure a single non-special mental status of a single target
-In Thy Name: Increase a single ally's defense temporarily
Cultist
-Self-sacrifice: suffer a some HP damage to increase the potency of the user's next spell
-Embrace Disorder: heals a single target by a random amount or causes bleed
-Return: a resurrection spell that requires both channeling and an HP cost
-Bloody Tithe: attack with a phantom dagger deals damage, restores some HP to the user and grants a stack of Frenzy
Hierophant
-Horrible Knowledge – Send a whispered secret to a single enemy that leaves them Weakened, decreasing attack and defense temporarily
-Arcane Secrets – Shorten the cooldowns of a targeted ally's abilities
-Alternative Methods – Raise an arcane crystal. Allies who stand near them enjoy health and mana regeneration, but the crystal breaks after providing a certain amount of regeneration
-Mana Flux – Reach out for the mana of targets in an area and fluctuate it, causing damage and temporarily inflicting Silenced
Supplicant
-Make Way: Grant a movement and attack speed bonus to allies in a radius. Having Frenzy increases the radius and the speed boost
-You Will Understand: Marks single target temporarily. Increases damage dealt to the marked target and inflicts the mark on any enemies that heal or buff the target while active, consuming a stack of Frenzy with each spread. If a marked target dies, another stack of Frenzy is granted
-Cry Havoc: A channeled AoE ability that deals continuous Sound damage to any enemies in its area. Having Frenzy increases each 'beat' of damage, but each consumes a stack
-Wild Idolatry: A fit of passion that leaves the user vulnerable but continuously grants Frenzy while channeled
Invoker
-Visitation: Opens a small rift from the user's hand that extends barbed alien tentacles. They inflict piercing damage, and drain some health from struck enemies, granting the user some healing and Frenzy
-Glimpse Beyond: Opens a large rift that causes a blast of eldritch energy in an area, damaging foes. Grants Frenzy to the user if the user is in the area
-Take Over: an eldritch influence briefly subsumes the targeted ally or the user, granting a defensive shield. The target heals over time while the shield is active, but the shield will break if enough damage is dealt to it, or if enough time passes
-Dream No More: Once at full Frenzy, the user can transform into an Awakened state, knocking away enemies in a radius, gaining an ability damage boost, and applying Delusion. While Awakened, tentacled Black Grass spreads out from the user and anyone either buffed or debuffed by the user. Enemies in contact with Black Grass gain a stack of Delusion every second, causing damage over time and decreased accuracy per stack. Buffs and debuffs imposed by the user will not expire while the allies or enemies in question are in contact with Black Grass. Dream No More and the Black Grass remain active until the battle is over or the user is killed
Entropician
-Isolation: A temporary curse that prevents the target from being healed and deals equivalent damage to any sources of healing imposed on the target
-Breach: A curse that only works on targets that have made themselves invulnerable through some means (that is, immune to damage). It immediately ends the invulnerability and causes an explosion that deals damage and stuns both the target and any other nearby enemies
-Reversal: A spell that changes all debuffs on an ally to buffs with opposite effects, or buffs on an enemy into debuffs with opposite effects
-Dream of Quietude: A curse that can only be applied to dead bodies and has no duration, although it can be cleansed. Any attempt to resurrect the target will instead kill the reviver

Spells/Martial Arts: Nut's toolkit of spells are meant to turn the tide of battle in favor of his allies. He debilitates enemies while strengthening his allies, and healing their wounds. His subversion-type spells counter enemy ploys to use their own cards against them.

Skills: Prayer (Purification, consecration, etc), appraisal, decryption, treasure hunting

Equipment:
-God-King's Corona: a Pharaoh's headdress and the mark of a ruler. Its subjugating presence lowers the Resist of foes in a radius
-Ritual Beads: a string of various 'beads' of dubious origin. Increases the casting speed of spells that do not inflict direct damage
-Defiled Scrap: a length of ancient cloth said to have been worn by a mad prophet who authored books of unholy writ to educate mankind in defiance of a truth that must not be known. If the wearer is successfully affected by the same spell in immediate succession, the second is reflected to the attacker
-Principle Paradox: a profane amulet bearing the holy symbols of a number of different religions, showcasing them all despite their conflicting ideas. Striking the wearer's elemental weakness will inflict that elemental weakness on the attacker and give the wearer a new weakness at random, both for a short time.
-Slipdash Band+: a ring prized among thieves and rogues. When performing a dash, the wearer briefly becomes invisible and will not collide with entities
-One for All: an eye-catching raiment that heralds the champion of the common man, one beloved by all. Single-target buffs applied by the wearer to allies radiate outward to apply to up to three additional allies at 50% strength and duration, where applicable
-All for One: a subtle hood that obscures the features, masking one's true intent. The wearer gains a portion of the magic power of allies who have active buffs imposed by the wearer
-Ars Animo Fingi – translated as 'Arts Unimaginable', this ancient tome is said to contain the sum knowledge of mankind on subjects that truly matter. Increases the duration of statuses imposed by the wearer

In-Game Backstory: Nut's gameplay experience is one colored by his laziness. A lover of strategy games and not really into MMOs, he joined Yggdrasil at the urging of some friends, and chose the easiest and most in-demand role he could think of to play: healer. As he played more, however, he found a hidden side to the healer experience he grew to love: trolling. Being so integral to others' success, he could mess with his allies, let them die or get them killed, and revive them as he pleased. As a result he got more invested in specialization within the game, both PVE and PVP, and he worked to earn more abilities, spells, and jobs that suited him. He didn't even really care about winning or getting the job done, but instead frustrating his opponents and messing up their own tricks and strategies. That mindset resulted in a build that was valuable in a roundabout way, and after falling out with his friends he ended up getting recruited by Ainz Ooal Gown. His bent toward trickery and subversion fit right in there, complimenting the playstyles of other non-optimal builds that needed such support to function properly. This time he fit right in, and while he logged on for only a few hours every few days, his skillset was in demand and his help in clearing high-level content left him with an impressive array of spoils. Though it took a while, he even went as far as to brave the little-desired, little-explored underground desert content known as Nyarlathotep's Luster to gain the ultimate subversive class Entropician on top of his already grind-intense Invoker class.

Ashardalon Conquest- Overlord RP

Changed his base race, the Beyond Reason ability, and Defiled Scrap. Added a bit more to his backstory. Since in the game itself Frenzy was a gameplay mechanic and not something that actually affected emotion, it should be fine (especially as part of class abilities not exclusive to undead) from a logical perspective. In the new world, his emotional state will not fluctuate because of it.

World of Light

Tora & Poppi

Level 7 Tora (67/70) and Level 7 Poppi (66/60)
Location: the End of the Land of Adventure
Word Count: 457

As the heroes wrapped their head around and could begin to appreciate their victory, the aftermath of the Ender Dragon's supernova continued to spread. It radiated outward through the end, further darkening the already-nebulous, scratchy sky. After a few moments, the wave seemed to reach some threshold, and the sky itself began to tear apart.

Tora, Poppi, and the rest watched in amazement as the static-ridden purple void dribbled down like paint over a canvas, developing holes that grew larger and larger until they became the rule rather than the exception. Where the emptiness went away, blue sky shone through. The light of day shone upon the heroes once more as the dimensional pocket dissolved, leaving them standing upon the pillar-profuse largest land mass of an End Stone archipelago, floating high above a beautiful inland sea fringed by pointed mountains. Somewhere in the range behind them lay Spiral Mountain and its surrounding valley, but few could possible turn away from a once-in-a lifetime view such as this. Before them were glistening, pristine waters more dazzlingly blue than the sky itself, hovering reefs flush with life, and at the complete opposite side, a sleek, futuristic tower big enough to house a city inside. The ripple of darkness flowed across the surface of the water and over the far shore, washing across the tower's exterior and the symbol emblazoned there, then vanished.

Unfortunately, another miracle proved far closer at hand—gravity. Out of the bizarre environment of the End, the islands possessed no means of levitation on their own. After a few moments coming to grips with the change in physics, the entire End Stone archipelago began to fall.

Once the situation registered with him, Tora waddled at full tilt toward Kamek to yank Poppi's leg from his clone and begin immediate repairs on Poppi's leg. He then waved his artificial blade over, trying to keep outwardly composed while his inner mind screamed madly. “Poppi sit now! Fix leg in jiffy!” He pulled out his toolbox and started to heat his tools. Luckily the damage appeared to be below the knee joint, so if he could just reconnect the circuits and reattach the frame the leg -and its booster- would be functional again. He couldn't gauge how much time he had before the island hit the water, and he didn't want to take time to make a guess. “Can someone hack off makeshift leg?” he asked without looking, hoping someone would be sufficiently unoccupied by the fall of the island to help remove the metal he'd emergency-welded to Poppi's stump for the battle. He'd already pulled out some wires from both ends for reconnecting, knowing he would need to revisit this repair job later for proper insulation or flat-out replacement.

Dead Zone

@EvilEdd1984

The van cruised on without notable incident, though the weighty baboom of the Blue Rose and the occasional jerk as some poor wretch went splat beneath the tires provided frequent distractions. Nadia pulled herself together in the back, pretty much fine despite the turbulence. The same couldn't quite be said for Pandemonica, who managed to look even more frazzled and weary than usual. After suppressing a chuckle at the state of her demonic acquaintance, Nadia endured the somewhat awkward silence as long as she could until the cat's curiosity got the better of her. “So, big guy,” she began, questioning the Doom Slayer. “I'd be fe-lyin' if I said I didn't want to know what your deal was. Care to help meowt and fill me in?” Her toothy, amiable grin complimented her puns perfectly, and she hoped -perhaps against the odds- that the stoic, brutal, living battlewagon would liven up the ride with an origin story or something.

Ashardalon Conquest- Overlord RP

Alright, sorry for the delay, but here is my sheet.

NuttirButtir

Username NuttirButtir ('Nut')

OOC profession: Bartender

Character Role: Buff/debuff & Healing Support

Alignment: 0

Appearance:

Aspirant Form

Awakened Form

Race: Careless Whisper, a malfeasant eldritch being who exists for the purpose of sowing discord and unrest in humanity

Classes
Monster Classes:
-Zombie (10)
-Mummy (10)
-Old One (5)
-Careless Whisper (5)

Job Classes:
-Cleric (15)
-Cultist (15)
-Hierophant (10)
-Supplicant (10)
-Invoker (5)
-Entropician (5)

Class type level:
Martial: 20
Arcane: 35
Divine: 45

Attributes:
-HP: 60
-MP: 80
-Physical Attack: 10
-Physical Defense: 50
-Agility: 50
-Magic Attack: 70
-Magic Defense: 80
-Resist: 70
-Special: 90

Abilities:

Cleric
-Lay on Hands: Heal a single target rapidly through sustained physical touch that prevents other actions
-Food for the Hungry: Cure the Hungry status and grant the 'well fed' bonus in a small radius
-Be at Peace: Cure a single non-special mental status of a single target
-In Thy Name: Increase a single ally's defense temporarily
Cultist
-Self-sacrifice: suffer a some HP damage to increase the potency of the user's next spell
-Embrace Disorder: heals a single target by a random amount or causes bleed
-Return: a resurrection spell that requires both channeling and an HP cost
-Bloody Tithe: attack with a phantom dagger deals damage, restores some HP to the user and grants a stack of Frenzy
Hierophant
-Horrible Knowledge – Send a whispered secret to a single enemy that leaves them Weakened, decreasing attack and defense temporarily
-Arcane Secrets – Shorten the cooldowns of a targeted ally's abilities
-Alternative Methods – Raise an arcane crystal. Allies who stand near them enjoy health and mana regeneration, but the crystal breaks after providing a certain amount of regeneration
-Mana Flux – Reach out for the mana of targets in an area and fluctuate it, causing damage and temporarily inflicting Silenced
Supplicant
-Make Way: Grant a movement and attack speed bonus to allies in a radius. Having Frenzy increases the radius and the speed boost
-You Will Understand: Marks single target temporarily. Increases damage dealt to the marked target and inflicts the mark on any enemies that heal or buff the target while active, consuming a stack of Frenzy with each spread. If a marked target dies, another stack of Frenzy is granted
-Cry Havoc: A channeled AoE ability that deals continuous Sound damage to any enemies in its area. Having Frenzy increases each 'beat' of damage, but each consumes a stack
-Wild Idolatry: A fit of passion that leaves the user vulnerable but continuously grants Frenzy while channeled
Invoker
-Visitation: Opens a small rift from the user's hand that extends barbed alien tentacles. They inflict piercing damage, and drain some health from struck enemies, granting the user some healing and Frenzy
-Glimpse Beyond: Opens a large rift that causes a blast of eldritch energy in an area, damaging foes. Grants Frenzy to the user if the user is in the area
-Take Over: an eldritch influence briefly subsumes the targeted ally or the user, granting a defensive shield. The target heals over time while the shield is active, but the shield will break if enough damage is dealt to it, or if enough time passes
-Dream No More: Once at full Frenzy, the user can transform into an Awakened state, knocking away enemies in a radius, gaining an ability damage boost, and applying Delusion. While Awakened, tentacled Black Grass spreads out from the user and anyone either buffed or debuffed by the user. Enemies in contact with Black Grass gain a stack of Delusion every second, causing damage over time and decreased accuracy per stack. Buffs and debuffs imposed by the user will not expire while the allies or enemies in question are in contact with Black Grass. Dream No More and the Black Grass remain active until the battle is over or the user is killed
Entropician
-Isolation: A temporary curse that prevents the target from being healed and deals equivalent damage to any sources of healing imposed on the target
-Breach: A curse that only works on targets that have made themselves invulnerable through some means (that is, immune to damage). It immediately ends the invulnerability and causes an explosion that deals damage and stuns both the target and any other nearby enemies
-Reversal: A spell that changes all debuffs on an ally to buffs with opposite effects, or buffs on an enemy into debuffs with opposite effects
-Dream of Quietude: A curse that can only be applied to dead bodies and has no duration, although it can be cleansed. Any attempt to resurrect the target will instead kill the reviver

Spells/Martial Arts: Nut's toolkit of spells are meant to turn the tide of battle in favor of his allies. He debilitates enemies while strengthening his allies, and healing their wounds. His subversion-type spells counter enemy ploys to use their own cards against them.

Skills: Prayer (Purification, consecration, etc), appraisal, decryption, treasure hunting

Equipment:
-God-King's Corona: a Pharaoh's headdress and the mark of a ruler. Its subjugating presence lowers the Resist of foes in a radius
-Ritual Beads: a string of various 'beads' of dubious origin. Increases the casting speed of spells that do not inflict direct damage
-Defiled Scrap: a length of ancient cloth said to have been worn by a mad prophet who authored books of unholy writ to educate mankind in defiance of a truth that must not be known. If the wearer is successfully affected by the same spell in immediate succession, the second is reflected to the attacker
-Principle Paradox: a profane amulet bearing the holy symbols of a number of different religions, showcasing them all despite their conflicting ideas. Striking the wearer's elemental weakness will inflict that elemental weakness on the attacker and give the wearer a new weakness at random, both for a short time.
-Slipdash Band+: a ring prized among thieves and rogues. When performing a dash, the wearer briefly becomes invisible and will not collide with entities
-One for All: an eye-catching raiment that heralds the champion of the common man, one beloved by all. Single-target buffs applied by the wearer to allies radiate outward to apply to up to three additional allies at 50% strength and duration, where applicable
-All for One: a subtle hood that obscures the features, masking one's true intent. The wearer gains a portion of the magic power of allies who have active buffs imposed by the wearer
-Ars Animo Fingi – translated as 'Arts Unimaginable', this ancient tome is said to contain the sum knowledge of mankind on subjects that truly matter. Increases the duration of statuses imposed by the wearer

In-Game Backstory: Nut's gameplay experience is one colored by his laziness. A lover of strategy games and not really into MMOs, he joined Yggdrasil at the urging of some friends, and chose the easiest and most in-demand role he could think of to play: healer. As he played more, however, he found a hidden side to the healer experience he grew to love: trolling. Being so integral to others' success, he could mess with his allies, let them die or get them killed, and revive them as he pleased. As a result he got more invested in specialization within the game, both PVE and PVP, and he worked to earn more abilities, spells, and jobs that suited him. He didn't even really care about winning or getting the job done, but instead frustrating his opponents and messing up their own tricks and strategies. That mindset resulted in a build that was valuable in a roundabout way, and after falling out with his friends he ended up getting recruited by Ainz Ooal Gown. His bent toward trickery and subversion fit right in there, complimenting the playstyles of other non-optimal builds that needed such support to function properly. This time he fit right in, and while he logged on for only a few hours every few days, his skillset was in demand and his help in clearing high-level content left him with an impressive array of spoils. Though it took a while, he even went as far as to brave the little-desired, little-explored underground desert content known as Nyarlathotep's Luster to gain the ultimate subversive class Entropician on top of his already grind-intense Invoker class.

Ashardalon Conquest- Overlord RP

It's been a busy week, but I'm still on board!

World of Light

Tora & Poppi

Level 7 Tora (66/70) and Level 7 Poppi (65/60)
Location: the End
Word Count: 1139

For Tora

New Power acquired:
Rapid Recovery
While he and his party are out of combat (defined as nobody having the 'aggro' of any enemy), Tora heals 20% of his vitality every second.

Through the dust and darkness there descended a metal angel, her arm outstretched, offering salvation to the Nopon on the verge of death. “Blaze-Blade!” Tora just about burst into tears of relief as his friend's healing pumped into him, quickly bringing him back from the brink. Given his impressive vitality it would take a bit for even her concentrated, single-target recovery to get him back into top shape, but he already felt fighting-fit. More than that, he felt like a hero. He's single-wingedly braved the daunting might of the dragon and tanked three brutal blows—a little Nopon like him, weathering that monster's strength! And it was a good thing too, since the Ender Dragon appeared less than eager to relent. After shaking loose the last driblets of her acid blast, she turned to pursue the inventor and crush him for good.

Tora rounded on the leviathan, flanked by Poppi and Blazermate. This time he doubted the angry, badly wounded dragon would try to smash just one hero flat, no matter how much one provoked her ire. As the Ace Cadet could tell, the Ender Dragon was raging. But Tora saw he would have to go it nearly alone. He spotted the others hurrying over, the last of the enderman horde taken off their hands by various minions. Between them and the end of the fight writhed the Ender Dragon's heavy, rock-hard tail, more than enough to to strike a careless hero down on its own. Both Donnie and Geralt took a solid but non-critical hit as they attempted to approach, the raw damage mitigated by their evasive abilities. The others, however, got through, and they put into motion plans to put the Ender Dragon to rest once and for all. Tora knew how he could help, too. He just needed a little more juice.

First to arrive was Sectonia, and the bee queen brought a couple troops with her. Fox flung a momentum-assisted Cadet, surrounded in laser fire, to smash against the dragon's crown. Banjo and Kazooie's Beak Bomb made for the second hit in the heroes' sky-high train of pain, and Fox's explosive Illusion Burst the third. After each hit the dragon reactively swung her head back to attack, only for the next beat in the heroes' killer groove to hit her head-on. Explosive vials softened her cranium up for an even more explosive Power Geyser, and in any other combo that blast would have capped it off, but this one was to end with a bang. A familiar princess sprang from the tower where she landed, popped her parasol for a boost upward, and cruised close enough to meet the Ender Dragon face to face. In her hand she held the revolver of Mr. Grimm, and with clenched teeth she pulled the trigger to unleash a screaming soul blast that utterly destroyed the dragon's eye.

Of course, the others weren't wasting this opportunity. The Ace Cadet raced down as Linkle's cold spread up, and as the latter encased the distracted leviathan in ice the former cut her up. Wielding his friend's gun, Daxter dumped a withering load of root rot into the miserable beast, and Cuphead cleaned her clock with his magnificent beam. Tora, meanwhile, rocket-jumped using the Mech Arms' missiles to get close enough to beat up the dragon's chest, doing a pittance in terms of damage but charging his all-important meter. When Bowser took to the air, Tora knew it was time to get busy, and Poppi confirmed with a resolute nod that their store had maxed out. “Now, Poppi QT!” he called, passing his weapons. “Lay the hurting down!”

“Enemy cannot escape from Poppi,” the blade affirmed. She received the Mech Arms and jumped up so Tora could give her a boost. A little power from her remaining thruster got her all the height she needed. “Should prepare for total beatdown!”

The Mech Arms' silos stretched wide, and from each launched a dozen missiles at once. The wind-infused rockets looped, curled, and spiraled through the air, acquiring their target, then converged en mass on the Ender Dragon's chest. They lodged into the scales like porcupine quills, and for just a second sat there, primed and ready. Poppi landed beside Tora, and they posed together. “Noponic Destruction!”

All at once the rockets detonated, sending shards of scale and end stone spinning. Though no great shakes in terms of damage, it at least applied Seal Blowdown. This far into the fight, Tora didn't know if it would come in useful, but a level three blade combo constituted the most damage he could do. After that, he and Poppi stepped back to watch the show—for Bowser was coming down. His shadow covered the Ender Dragon, and the impact that followed was nothing short of bloodcurdling.

An immense cracking noise resounded across the island. Though the Ender Dragon had tried to move forward out of the way, the injuries that left her head a barely-functional wreck and her frozen rear half prevented her from avoiding the Koopa King's gigantic splash. Her tail broke off completely, and her back and legs were destroyed. Her hollow hit the air, a true siren's song. Yet still she struggled, clawing the ground as she pulled forward out from under Bowser's bulk. Visibly she was breaking down. Odd light leaked out from her flesh. All the energy that remained within her was gathering for a death knell, a majestic move recognizable to the Cadet as the hallmark of Elder Dragons: the Supernova. But this would be the end of her, an ability of desperation, beautiful only in its terrifying power. An indescribable noise filled the End as she collapsed in on herself in an awesome lightshow, until for just a split second all sound had given way to portentous silence.

Then the dragon exploded, the blast itself smaller than the levithan in life, but with a pressure wave that raced across the End at supersonic speeds. Everyone got smacked, but it didn't hurt that badly, and not one soul moved an inch backward. Somehow, the Ender Dragon's death knell amounted to little more than a firm thwack. For a moment Tora stood in shock, but his insight allowed him to piece together what happened quickly.

“Meheheheheheh!” he laughed, rolling on the ground. All the stress flooded out of his body as he guffawed. Poppi fell into a sitting position herself, no less relieved.

After limping over, Peach glanced at him, confused and a little annoyed. “What are you laughing at?”

Tora wiped a tear from his eye and explained. “Meheheh...that big boom...was mostly push power. Probably to throw everyone into pillars or off island. But Tora had Poppi Seal Blowdown, so big boom couldn't knock friends back!”

A large spirit descended not far away, an orb of roiling, oily black leaking out traces purple from within. Though it didn't bear the explicit image of the boss, that confirmation was unnecessary at this point. The Ender Dragon was dead.

Results!

Party: Ace Cadet, Banjo and Kazooie, Blazermate, Bowser, Bowser Jr, Courier 6, Cuphead, Donovan Lee, Fox, Geralt, Hat Kid, Jak and Daxter, Kamek, Linkle, Sectonia, Tora and Poppi
Encounter Reward: 20 EXP
29x Enderman spirits, 1x Ender Dragon spirit

Lumbridge

Location: Land of Adventure
@Zoey Boey

Curly Brace nodded, full of understanding. As a veteran adventurer -or more accurately, adventurers' caretaker- of Lumbridge, she'd seen plenty of new faces come and go. Some didn't care about or didn't even seem to notice the incredible cultural mishmash going on here, but this Sakura needed some help. The machine lent her shoulder for Ryu to lean on, and together with his admirer she helped him toward the guild castle. Ever the tough nut, Ryu did not allow himself to be dead weight, and the trip went smoothly as a result. She used her leftover mental capacity to think about who might be able to get Sakura up to speed. While Ryu clearly knew the basics and boasted a talent for figuring people out, this girl needed someone well-traveled, who could tell her a thing or two about the state of the world. But everyone from that special adventuring group had...ah, not quite. Somewhere in town a few of them had stayed behind.

After leaving Ryu in the care of the guild healer and the company of whatever questers happened to be idle in the guild at the time, Curly led her new acquaintance throughout Lumbridge. Seldom did she manage a full dozen steps without greeting a familiar face. She waved to Eleven, exchanged pleasantries with Mina, and knelt down to hug a cucco being chased by a kid in glasses, and saluted the vigilant Houndmaster. Once back on course, she headed for the smithy, figuring that the heroes might have gone there. “Hey!” she called out, strolling through the door. The sturdy stone brick building foregoing a proper storefront for a down-to-earth look at everyday business, featured racks of smtihing tools and medieval weapons alike that shone in the firelight. “Ramonaaa! You there?”

A red-haired dancer lady, seated by the door, pointed deeper into the forge. “They're working on my keyblade.” Once inside it took just a moment to find the smithy sisters hard at work on a project. The weapon they appeared to be upgrading looked like a rod coated in flowers; how it held up under the duress of blacksmithing was anyone's guess. It certainly didn't look like a blade, but it did bear some resemblance to a key, at least.

The youngest sister spotted the visitors almost immediately, and she made her discovery known. “Hey, it's Curly! And...someone new! I think?”

Rena smiled, a little apologetically. “Pardon us, we do meet a lot of people. How can we help?”

“Have you seen anyone from that amazing adventuring team around?” Curly asked, her hands clasped in front of her. “We wanted to ask them for help.”

A vigorous shake of Ramona's head sent her enormous head of blonde hair swishing side to side. “Can't say we have. Did you check the new shop?”

Curly lit up as if remembering something. “Not yet! I was just headed that way when I saw Sakura here, actually.” She turned to her new friend. “Let's go and see!”

The new 'shop' turned out to be easy to find; it featured a whole herd of townsfolk crowded around. At the center of it all, behind his merchant's cart, stood a pig in overalls. “Steeeeeyep right up 'n have yerselves a ganda at theeeee finest produce in the Land of Adventure!” he oinked in a bassy, twangy voice. “Grown with tender love 'n care out in mah humble home, the beautyful Hamlet, these vittles satisfy like no otha!” A couple other pigs milled around, talking to the townsfolk. They did not appear to be locals, but somehow they fit right in, speaking to the people with a comfortable, self-satisfied ease.

Though the pigs caught her attention, Curly was more interested in a few of the onlookers. She spotted a middle-aged man talking to a vaguely familiar boy with fluffy black hair. She led Sakura his way, and once she got her chance, she greeted the guy with a wave. “Hey there. You're with that crew that came in yesterday, right? My friend here has a few questions for you.” Without so much as a warning, Curly surrendered the floor to Sakura. Although uninvolved, the boy in uniform remained nearby in silence, although he possessed a certain charm that made him seem trustworthy.

Dead Zone

@EvilEdd1984

Results!

Party: @EvilEdd1984's Doom Slayer
Encounter Reward: 10 EXP
4x Fading Necromorph Spirit, 1x Rat King Spirit, 1x King Minos spirit (claimed by Pandemonica)

An acrid smell stung Nero's nostrils. Grumbling, he rolled down the window and looked out at the ravaged streets. “You have to do that in here?” Nico smirked as he tried to fan her cigarette smoke away. “It already smells like ass.”

“That's you,” she shot back.

Leaning out the window, he took a deep breath, trying to clear out the funk. Instead he got a potent whiff of decay despite the rushing air, and he looked ahead. Moving bodies dotted the road in front of Nico's van, some embroiled in conflict with one another. Nero narrowed his eyes at the monsters The demons he knew from his own Qliphoth misadventures as Empusa fought back against zombies. As the van got closer, the devil hunter could see that the shambling corpses had been overtaken by the parasites he'd seen earlier, both to a great degree and in great quantities. “Nico?”

She had already started to accelerate. “Hold yer tits, I see 'em.”

She maneuvered the van back and forth, but it didn't take long for thins to get choppy. After just over a second she hit a flood dead-on, barely making an effort to avoid it. Its juices and wriggling bits splattered over the windshield, although the van's wipers proved much stronger than they looked. Another one disappeared beneath the vehicle's tire, causing the whole thing to jerk abruptly, and a third right after brought the machine into two wheels.

As the van came down, the devil hunter rolled his shoulders and leaned out the window again, reaching into his coat. “Hey, you have to hit every single bump in the road?” Nico just chuckled, causing Nero to sigh. “Gonna ruin my groove.” He squeezed the trigger of the Blue Rose, blasting twin rounds into an Empusa just ahead. The Flood beside it blew apart the next moment, and its brethren turned to face the incoming threat. Nero fired again and again, pausing deliberately between each shot. On the driver's side, a Flood grabbed on and clambered up toward Nico, its grotesque claws reaching for her. Without looking she pulled out her cigarette and jammed it into the monster's head. The stink of burning rot filled the air and the monster fell away. All the while, the Doom Slayer could poke out of other windows or hang out the side door to take shots of his own.

Ahead, wreckage blocked the road. Monsters crawled across piled up cars and debris. Nero paused, a knowing smile creeping across his face. Nico nodded, and laid on the gas. Just before impact she wrenched the wheel sideways, hard enough for the van to ride up on just two tires and ramp off a totaled fourdoor and into the air. Time seemed to slow down as Nero flew out of the passenger's window, sprang away from the vehicle, and laid waste with repeated shots in every direction. In the back, Pandemonica panicked, flipped upside down amid flying objects by the barrel roll of the airborn car. Yowling all the while, Nadia's parts bounced around the interior. V remained in his seat, totally unfazed as he read on. Nico kept her cool, diverting her eyes from the road ahead just long enough to catch a cigarette in her mouth. On the outside, Nero circumnavigated the vehicle, ventilating the demons and Flood one after another. He slipped back in just as one of the other cars blew apart, lighting the entire street up with the explosion. Another second more and the van touched down, speeding away, leaving a scene of destruction behind. Pandemonica lay face on the ground against the van's rear, and Nadia in pieces. “That was...awesome...” she wheezed.

Persona ~ The Beholder

Kirsty Ramaswamy

Compared to the morning, the school day dragged on without any real surprises. As much as Kirsty wanted to keep up her typical sunny demeanor, a pit had formed sooner after she bid Liam farewell and set off about her day, and it only got worse as the hours ticked by. The coming evening held nothing but dread for her, hours upon hours of putting up with whatever Drew and Navarro wanted from her at her own expense. She already wanted to curl up in a ball in bed, but just thinking about the effort it'd take to smile that whole time made her feel ill. But she couldn't turn away. Even putting aside the idea of burning those bridges, there was the principle of it all. She was the kind one, the girl who would put others above herself, and to be that girl she needed to endure these sorts of thing without complaint. If she couldn't, she was nothing at all. Still, as she went through her classes, jotting down notes, making plans, and connecting together ideas, Kirsty couldn't help feel guilty for wanting an escape.

In a roundabout way she felt glad that the minutes seemed to be passing by slowly, and only when her final class of the day come to an end did she realize what time it was. She jerked up from her spiral notebook as if waking up from a dream, forced to confront the fact that she couldn't put off her responsibilities any longer. Paula Navarro stood by her desk, exchanging a few words with another student. Looking at her, one would be hard-pressed to imagine her as anything but the consummate professional. Everything about her from her clothing to her posture to her hairspray-shiny bob cut suggested well-adjusted, middle-aged dignity. Other than her relatively youthful hairstyle, absolutely nothing stood out about her, except the slight but oh-so-noticeable glint in her eyes that made people interested in her. That glimmer never failed to imply that she had seen something nobody else had witnessed, that she was on the hunt for some secret hidden to common folk. No doubt that sort of ambition was what landed her a coveted job like this in the first place. To Kirsty, it made her professor look hungry, like a wolf watching sheep.

Five-oh-five. Kirsty couldn't wait any longer, or Navarro might pack up her things and leave. Trying to steady her breath, she stood and approached the desk. Navarro had been watching her the moment she stood up, and by the time she arrived, she wore a smugly courteous expression. It seemed very much the sort a teacher might put on when a young child came up, hands fidgeting behind her back, to plead for a toy confiscated earlier. But I'm an adult, dammit. I don't have to be ashamed to ask for help. Kirsty told herself. Why is this so hard? My professor is here to help me. I've always been polite and helpful. She must be sympathetic.

Kirsty cleared her throat. “Um, hello.”

Navarro blinked, still smiling pleasantly. She was waiting for Kirsty to state her business. After clearing her throat, the girl hurried to oblige. “I-I was wondering if I could help you out tonight. I need money pretty badly.”

Tilting her head slightly, Navarro allowed her smile to spread. “Badly, hmm? Well, I would be happy to lend you a hand in your hour of need, dear. As usual, I did have some guests over the weekend, so things are a little messy.” She interlaced her fingers. “However...well, I did have other plans for this evening. Since I'm going out of my way to help you, can I count on you to help me in return? You'll clean, of course, but there's something else you help me with. Have you ever wanted to be an actress?”

Kirsty's confusion must have shown on her face. After chuckling through her nose, Navarro explained. “You see, while I work hard as a professor, I wouldn't exactly call the salary 'livable'. So I also work with some...mm, filmmakers. I mostly just provide the location, but I help shoot too, and I also keep an eye out for talent. A pretty young thing like you would work wonderfully, I think.”

Rubbing the back of her neck, Kirsty studied the floor. “I...don't know, ma'am. I've never done any acting before...”

“Oh, that's alright,” the professor assured her. “All you need to do is wear and do what I say, and I'll film you. Just like usual, yes?”

“Like...usual?” Kirsty remembered her previous nights spent working at Navarro's place. Something was crawling beneath her skin. “I did mean to ask you, um, about that. It looked like you were recording me. If...if you don't mind me asking, what was that used for?”

Navarro leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. “Well, to be frank, I do mind you asking. It's not really your concern, is it? Although it's really not that complicated. The fact that you haven't put two and two together says a lot.”

“About what?”

Ignoring that remark, Navarro sighed. “Answer the question, please. Do you agree to co-star in tonight's film?”

That crawling sensation felt a lot worse. Kirsty felt as though she could see something horrible through the fog, a nasty revelation long overdue. And she could just about see the shape of it. “D-did you say...co-star?”

In a flash Navarro's face scrunched up in anger. “Look, you stupid, stupid girl. You little miss perfect, so pretty and kindhearted. This is really quite simple. Either you keep doing as I say, or we can call our little deal off right here. My grace is the only reason why you're still here at this university—that, and a few pigs wanting some eye candy. If you feel like you can make it on your own, though, you won't even get the chance to flunk out. Once the university finds out what you've been up to, you'll be out of here before the weekend.”

By now Kirsty was shaking, her mouth open. Tears welled in her eyes. “B-but I haven't...I haven't done anything wrong. All I wanted...was to...was to make people happy...”

Clicking her tongue, Navarro rose and walked around her desk. She wrapped Kirsty up in a big, warm hug. “Ohh, my dear. You still can. Nothing has to change. Just make sure you show up tonight, six o'clock at my place.” She stepped back with an almost motherly concern written on her face. “With dry eyes and a big smile.”

---

Kirsty stepped out of the girls' bathroom at thirty minutes on the hour. Her face, washed and rewashed, looked down a hallway devoid of students. She thanked her lucky stars for that; she didn't want anyone to look at her, not now, and maybe not ever again. Unfortunately her dream would be short-lived. Though it felt like her heart had turned to lead, she knew that she had no choice. It was time to go.

She rushed through the building and out onto campus grounds, walking as fast as her legs could take her without breaking into an actual run. Anyone looking on would probably think she was just running late for something important, which wasn't exactly untrue, either. The sky seemed darker and the city skyline foggier than usual, but even if that had been unusual in London, Kirsty didn't look up. She hurried down the campus paths, through the thickening mist, until she reached the main gate. Already feeling pretty terrible, she noticed no change up until the point where she just about collapsed against a wall just outside the gate. The world itself seemed to swim, and that plus the fog rendered the street she'd stepped onto virtually unrecognizable. Why is this happening to me?! Kirsty let out a choked sob as she slumped down against the concrete, huddled in the fog.

Overlord/Yggdrasil OC Ainz Ooal Gown RP

I'm always down for an Overlord RP!

World of Light

Tora & Poppi

Level 7 Tora (100/60) and Level 6 Poppi (39/60)
Location: the End
Word Count: 1501

“Ow-ow-ow-ow!” Tora wailed as he hopped across the end stone after Poppi. Each step landed one foot on another trace remnant of the dragon's acid, which made for a problem unique to those who -like him- happened to be going barefoot. His little nubs didn't have a lot of surface area to burn, but that meant a little acid went a long way, so the panicked Nopon flapped his wings to get as much air time as possible while racing toward the spot where his companion crashed down. “Poppi Poppi Poppi!” he yelled, closing in on her position. As he came she turned toward him, proving that she at least remained functional, but Tora could see at first glance that the damage to her leg was severe. Rather, the entire lower half of one leg was gone. Where it could be was anyone's guess; more than likely it flew off the island and into the abyss. Luckily for the artificial blade she couldn't feel pain, with the closest approximation being the registration and ensuing alert of damage, but it hurt Tora just to see his masterpiece wounded.

He babbled nigh-unintelligibly for a few seconds before Poppi cut in. “Am alright, Masterpon,” she assured him. “Core systems unharmed. But balance off, and flight capabilities limited. Overall fighting power decreased. Poppi is sorry, Masterpon.”

Tora squeezed her in a hug, relieved that she hadn't suffered more critical damage from the fall. “It fine-fine, Poppi. You did lots of damage with big, super-cool attack!” He replayed the move over again in his head and remembered its function. “That level two blade finisher, right?” After Poppi nodded, he broke into a determined smile. “That mean just one more round before nasty beastypon can't wind-smack friends again!”

The artificial blade pointed behind him. “We better hurry!”

He turned in time to see the results of the Ender Dragon's wheeling spin attack. Blazermate, who happened to be along the side of pillars facing Tora, took a glancing blow from the dragon tail that still left her rattled. Donnie somehow avoided getting pounded, but his ride wasn't so lucky. A handful of others, however, received the full brunt of the dragon's strike, either from its tail or the wall of air that followed. The Ace Cadet, Fox, Hat Kid, Peach, Banjo, and Kazooie went flying, gaining no height but sailing outward at high speed. Thanks to their position relative to the Ender Dragon's, each and every one ended up headed for the edge. About half of the group escaped it, however, most of them embroiled in some sort of conflict on the ground level. Now that Tora got a good look, he could see his friends fighting off a swarm of endermen. Must have gotten aggro'd by stray fire, he reasoned. Things seemed to be going well, with rapid warps leading up to a combination attack between Linkle, Bowser, and the force of Sectonia. But if they were all killing endermen, who was dealing with the dragon? As much as he wanted to help, he needed to assist Poppi first.

Before he could, Cuphead pelted the leviathan with a worrisome yellow liquid, the Courier's rifle gave a fearsome triple report, and Jak plunged down onto the Ender Dragon in a dark dive. With the freshly-wounded dragon not fully re-oriented from her attack, she proved vulnerable to an strike from above; Jak's weight and power proved to be more than enough for the job. He slammed her to the ground and unleashed a wave of darkness, dealing a hefty chunk of Jarate-enhanced damage but endangering Link at the same time, who clung to the dragon's tail. Following the wave, Euden jumped into attack, and had already started leaving red-hot slashes in the beast's hide by the time Donnie's warning reached him. In just a moment's time the flying machine crashed down, its unguided course far too inexact to hit the dragon's head, but the explosion that followed was nothing short of spectacular. A brutal pressure wave ruptured organs and cracked bones already ravaged by Jak's Dark Bomb and the Courier's bullets, then raced outward to knock the nearby fighters off their feet, and close behind it followed the fire and shrapnel. The Ender Dragon was devastated, but the withering blast rocked Jak, Euden, and Link just as badly if not worse. Euden and Link disappeared together on the Cadet's remaining Palico carts, whisked back to Lumbridge.

While Tora couldn't see all the details, he knew it was past time to get back into the action. “Here!” He opened his toolbox and produced some spare materials. It took only a moment to weld a makeshift lower leg for her, and another to carve it down to an equal height with her other leg. They wouldn't be flying any time soon, but at least she could run. “Okay, let's go!” They rushed back toward the battlefield, plowing across the end stone with as much haste as they could muster. Up ahead, they spotted the other heroes continue to eliminate enderman, a group at a time rather than one by one. Some took potshots at the dragon, but on the whole the leviathan managed to recover unopposed. “Uh oh.” While Tora agreed with removing the enderman menace, not paying attention to the giant dragon was a bad idea. He watched Donnie try to engage her as she rose, only for the injured monk to be batted aside. Worse still, a portion of the heroic company had been scattered by the wheeling strike, and without the miracle of flight Tora could do nothing to help them. Nothing, except...

He and Poppi entered the inner battlefield, skirting by one of the obsidian pillars. A Mech Arm popped open and released a flurry of missiles that flew up to burst against the Ender Dragon's onyx scales as she rose back into the air. Though not nearly as strong as some of the other heroes' projectiles, the missiles got her attention, and the dragon swooped down. She thrust her powerful, clawed limbs at the heroes on the ground as she flew overhead, primarily gunning Bowser but also threatening everyone else down there, especially those distracted by their extermination of the remaining endermen. The Ender Dragon hit the ground running, then turned just enough as she neared Tora to raised a massive foreleg above him. Sucking in his breath, Tora locked the Mech Arms together, sat down, and braced for impact. Poppi stood clear, channeling ether to form an extra layer of protective shielding, but even she was uncertain. All too soon, the dragon brought her limb down on the Nopon like a sledgehammer on a hamster.

End stone shot out in every direction. The weight of the slam half-buried him in the ground, creating a tiny, circular crater. If Tora hadn't seated himself, his legs would have been crushed beneath him, but instead his super spongy body held strong. Still, he was so jarred by the crushing blow that he couldn't do anything but block again even if he wanted to. With the heroes behind her and her badly-wounded head inaccessible, she lashed her tail to bludgeon any comers as she raised her forelimb to slam again. Poppi winced as a second mighty blow buried Tora completely. “Masterpon!” She froze as the dragon opened her mouth, purple acid welling forth to blast the pair into oblivion.

Tora groaned, silently pleading for his allies to deal a decisive blow. There had been no set-up or grand plan, just the urge to protect and the will to take the pain that others could not. His arms fell limply to the side, his guard broken. “Poppi...go...”

The machine shook her head emphatically. “Poppi will not abandon master!”

“It fine...” he rasped, somewhat surprised it was taking the dragon so long to build up acid. Maybe she did have some limits to her output. “Tora use special skill and survive. If still go south, cattypons will save.” Even while saying that, though, he wasn't quite sure. Knowing one had a trump card was one thing, but staring death in the face and trusting in that card to survive was another. If this worked, he had to move. He couldn't close his eyes. He watched, rigid with fearful anticipation, as the acid bomb descended upon him.

A moment later he was flying through the air. Grin and Bear It had activated, granting him a few moments of invincibility. He hit the ground with his little legs on overdrive, running like his ass was on fire. “One HP! One HP! One HP!” he screamed, in burning pain and flailing his wings wildly. Poppi half-ran, half-hobbled in front of him, moving fast. Unbeknownst to Tora, the Ace Cadet's Palico Rescue had been used up. His little feet narrowly avoiding puddle after puddle of leftover acid, carrying him onward against all odds, until his number came up.

Any second Tora's foot could splash in an acid puddle, smaller even than his trusty wrench, and that would be the end of him.

Lumbridge

Location: Land of Adventure
@Zoey Boey

From the way Sakura fell down, one could be forgiven for thinking that she was the one slugged in the neck and bashed in the groin, but no, it was definitely Ryu. It hurt a lot, too. Still, as he labored to keep himself composed while working through the lingering pain, he felt as though he could guess what troubled her. Not everyone got through life with no home, no friends, and no family; few shared his lack of connections. Right now she was thinking, probably for the first time, about the state of the world and those she cared about. From her reaction Ryu doubted that they had resided with her in the Forbidden Kingdom.

The fact that she shouldered her uncertainty and fear in order to help him spoke volumes about her character. For her sake, Ryu attempted to part the grimacing mask that was his face with a reassuring smile. “I'll be fine,” he told her. “You, on the other hand, must be confused. Full of questions. I am afraid the answers I've found from my battles will not provide much comfort.” He extended his own hand to redirect Sakura's toward the brilliant, seraphic icon floating high in the sky, a long ways away. “That thing is Galeem. An evil god that changed reality. Most everyone in this world is under its spell, but now you are free.”

With a groan, Ryu got to his feet. He looked up toward the sound of incoming footsteps and spotted a familiar girl running over the bridge. She sprinted down the dirt path around the shady hill to where his duel ended. “I heard fighting, some kind of huge energy blast,” she explained as she arrived. With her close enough to converse normally, Sakura could see that the stranger appeared to be a robot, or at least a cyborg, despite the natural way she spoke. Curly glanced between the two fighters, noting their condition before her expression turned to one of surprise. “A sparring match, huh...? Wait, you beat him? Or was it a draw? As far as I know, Mr. Ryu's gone totally undefeated!” The subtly odd sunset red of her eyes shone brightly as concern replaced the intrigue in her voice. “You both look pretty banged up. Should probably take a break in the guild hall. Can I lend a hand?”

Ryu tried to gather himself to say something, but he was a little slow on the draw. A moment later, something strange stole the girls' attention. A cloud of smoke burst out of nowhere on the dirt path close by, and from it issued a wooden cart pushed by three bipedal cats. Curly's mouth hung open. “Felynes?” Atop the cart lay a robot that she couldn't identify. Ryu had seen it before, but knew nothing about it, and so watched in baffled silence as the cart got rolled toward and over the bridge into town, jostling and jerking with every bump on the way. Curly glanced at the others but found no answers forthcoming. “Well, whatever that was aside, do you two need any help?”

King Minos, Judge of the Dead

@EvilEdd1984

The Slayer approached the necromorphs and Rat King with his typical macabre relish, more or less ignoring the bone blades and pummeling as he pulled them apart. As one might expect of such a bulking, amalgamated monstrosity, the Rat King took a lot more effort to put down. Piece by piece the Slayer worked through it, trading blows as he tore off portions of the various bodies that composed it. After the thing took a flying slab from Minos, an undead body broke off of its lower section completely, which quickly proved far tougher than its humanoid size and fractional nature might imply. Nero, biding his time, blew a knee out with a well-placed shot so that the Slayer could take it down without having to think too much. By the time the gruesome Rat King rolled over, its killer's heart rate was up, and the Slayer wasted no time reintroducing Minos to the battle with a few good shotgun shells.

“Hmph!” the judge growled through gritted teeth. “I'll condemn you myself!” He flinched as one of the Slayer's shots cratered an eye, but five could do the job just as well. Using two hunks of the ceiling, one in each hand, Minos pounded at the Slayer over and over again.

Nadia saw her chance and jumped on top of the Rat King's corpse to get some altitude. “Hey, six-eyes!” she shouted, wearing a gleeful smile. “You gonna quit thrashin' yours arms sometime soon, or does the wittle baby want his bottle that bad?” Her enemy unleashed a wordless snarl, and she held her arms wide. “What, you mad? You couldn't hit me if you tried!”

Predictably, he tried. Minos swung both hands down at once to smash her flat, but Nadia ducked out of the way, and his fists burst into the Rat King's ripe corpse. They snagged on the twisted organs, fungal growths, and bones, stuck inside. Before the judge could pick up his arms Nadia split herself apart, linked only by muscle fiber, and cast herself over them. With her claws she anchored herself in the ground, and struggle as he might, Minos could not pick his arms back up.

V allowed himself a snicker as he snapped his fingers. The black of his hair dusted off, revealing white, and the air behind him cracked like glass. A hulking black arm burst from it, throwing shards across the battlefield, and Nightmare stepped into this dimension. With a hop V ascended onto the demon's shoulder, and by his guidance Nightmare raised an arm. Just as planned, Nero jumped and used his Wire Snatch to grab hold. Nightmare spun him around like a lasso, and at just the right moment, the devil hunter released his wire to shoot like a bullet directly into Minos' chest.

The Red Queen sank in up to the hilt, and Minos roared in pain. “You like that?” Nero hissed, his teeth gritted. “How 'bout this?” Using his good hand he wrenched his blade back and forth, back and forth, causing Minos' whole upper body to convulse with each twist. “Now you die!” He ripped his sword free in a spray of gray-brown blood and leaped away.

Behind him, Nightmare had already pitched forward onto all fours. Energy flowed into its terrific pink eye, the gathering glimmer seeming to darken the arena around it. Almost casually V extended a pointing finger. “Apocalypse falls.” There came a split second of deathly foreboding silence before the demon unleashed its beam. Particles of black and pink filled the air as the incredible energy billowed forward, a waterfall of annihilation. The lunatic ray melted straight through Minos' torso, and when it faded, the heroes could see straight through the cauterized hole and out into the city behind the courthouse.

Minos slumped forward, groaning. He came to a rest on his forearms, his head on the ground and his long, forked tongue coiled beside it. Were he a more conventional being and not a creature of hell, he would have been dead already, but some life remained in him. Nadia freed and reconstituted herself, flexing her arms. “Oof. Gonna have sore meowscles for a while after that one.”

The sound of footsteps bade the heroes look up from their achievement. “So, that's the strength of a notable demon in another world's hell? And a king, no less.” Pandemonica approached, walking past the heroes and around the malodorous remains of the Rat King. She held a disposable cup of steaming hot coffee in her hands, and something seemed different about her. From the back the others could see her longer horns, and when she turned to sneer down at Minos, her slitted eyes became visible. “Pathetic.” She lifted up a leg and brought her heel down on the judge's tongue, evoking a weak snarl of pain. Grinning, she did it again harder.

Nadia was taken aback. “Uh...Pandy? What's going on?”

“Pandemonica,” the demoness corrected her, glowering. “I believe I said earlier: I'm not myself without my coffee. I doubt you'll enjoy making me repeat myself again as much as I will.”

Nadia bristled. “Say what?”

Shaking his head, Nero released his breath and turned away. “Hey, you,” he told the Slayer, trying to change the subject. “Finish him off already, wouldja? Just make it quick, time's wasting.” He remembered the nuclear fate scheduled to befall the city after that porter made his delivery. While he could very well die before completing his mission, Nero got the impression that he wouldn't fail. Despite being a normal human, that guy seemed like the reliable sort who'd pull through against any odds.

In short order the deed was done. Behind the courthouse, the Qliphoth root started dying right away. Deprived of a life source, it quickly turned gray, brittle, and crumbly, like the countless human victims whose blood the Qliphoth sucked dry. It made for a poetically fitting end to the tree, the sort of thing Nero thought V might appreciate, but the demonic tree couldn't grasp the ironic justice of it. Retribution would need to befall the mindless growth's master. “One down,” Nero remarked. “One to go.”

V looked up from his book. Whatever he seemed poised to say got crushed by Nadia, who skipped forward. “Well, hopefully she's as easy as this guy! We might be a buncha weirdos, but we sure get the job done, huh?” Having her back toward Pandemonica gave a pretty clear indication of who she considered 'we'.

Something she said prompted a sidelong glance from V. “'She', is it? If you have any knowledge of who the final root boss is, who you expect our help to deal with, it would be inconsiderate to leave us in the dark.”

“Uh...” From the look on Nadia's face, the feral clearly messed up. After a moment of consideration in consternation, she glanced back at Pandemonica to make sure she wasn't listening in, but the demoness appeared to be more focused on collecting Minos' spirit. The feral beckoned the others closer. “Yeah, I know who it is. I don't know her name, but she's the Skullgirl. A real strong woman who can control the dead.”

“And why must you defeat her?” V questioned. “You have demonstrated no interest in this region's ruler, like us or that odd group we worked with.”

“The Skull Heart,” Nadia hissed, as if the words were being squeezed out of her. “It can grant a woman's wish. Happy now?”

Nero's eyebrows went up. “Is that right?” His acquaintance nodded. “Huh. Now there's something you don't see every day.”

After slipping his book into a pocket V agreed. “Indeed. While I expect we will continue to help you, I must first ask what you intend to wish for.” His tone and the look on his face all said the same thing: this was a test.

Nadia, however, had nothing to hide. “I want to bring back the Fishbone Gang. My friends...no, my family. The Medicis butchered us, but I survived. So...its like my duty. I owe 'em that much.”

A moment passed before Nero nodded to himself. “Alright, whatever. One down, one to go. Let's get moving.” He made for the back of the courthouse, which presented a much easier route to exit by than the way the group came in. Pandemonica stood by, clutching her coffee. “...You coming too?”

She looked down into her empty cup, annoyed. “As long as you find more coffee. But if it's bad, I'll break your fingers.”

“Uh-huh.” Nero said, wondering why he bothered. He jumped through the hole in the courtroom wall and clambered onto street level. Nadia, V, and Pandemonica followed behind him. “Maybe Nico's got some. Probably just cigarettes though.” The streets looked mostly intact, so the devil hunter got searching for a phone booth.

“Smoking is Zdrada's thing,” Pandemonica ventured, starting to look a little tired. She watched him pile into a half-destroyed booth, deposit a quarter, and make a call. Glaring at him, she crossed her arms. “Now's not the time for chatter. Do I need...!?”

A nearby storefront exploded, and from the dust and debris careened the Minotaurus. The van spun around, tires screaming on the pavement, and stopped just short enough to make Nadia and Pandemonica jump in panic. A moment later the side door popped open, and a brown-haired woman in glasses leaned out. “'Sup?”

Nero went for the passenger's seat in the front. “Can you get us to the other root?”

“Can I?” Nico laughed. “This ain't some rinky-dink go-kart at the state fair. Get in.” Once everyone got inside, Nico floored it, and the crew was headed south.