Chevaleresse

"I see." Silef's expression remained guarded. "I'll be sure to have diviners watching for signs of. . . whatever it was that we saw on the way here. Well, you've all done a great service to House Asterlux, and your names will be remembered." She grimaced. "If we survive," she added quietly. "I suppose it's too much to ask for you to help push Shienar back to their lands?" Before anyone could reply, however, another set of hoofbeats sounded from over the ridge. Silef's hand darted to her sword, and just as quickly fell back to her side when the rider that crested it was decked out in her own colors. "Lord Silef!" A wiry and quite exhausted-looking young man, not over 21, sped toward the Asterlux head, skidding to a halt on an equally exhausted-looking mount. "I, haah, sorry, hooh, I came as fast as I could." "Well? What is it?" The noblewoman seemed to have snapped back to her typical haughty attitude, prompting a flinch from the messenger. "Aah, sorry, it's House Shienar! A messenger came and delivered a statement. All of their top generals are dead or comatose, and the rest barely remember invading us! The officers that remain are pulling back the soldiers." "That's. . . excellent news, thank you for delivering it." Her tone was equal parts relieved and confused. "I suppose I won't be needing your help any more." A strange expression crossed her face; it seemed like she had more to say, but she shook her head and turned about, ordering her soldiers to prepare for the ride back to the fortress. The noblewoman seemed to linger in her preparations, though.

A massive wave of fire struck Tiamat, called down by the Primus Councilor. The form of the draconic beast was obliterated in dust and rainbows; it seemed the heroes had won this round. But, as a cold wind rose, and the cloud blew away. . . their hopes seemed to be for naught. Another singsong note, loud enough to seemingly shake the earth, emanated from the beast that still remained; she was charred, blackened, and seemed to be leaking less mud and more of an inky black substance that seemed to be what passed for her blood, but she was still alive, and turning ponderously toward the thing that had wounded her so grievously. Just as the monster seemingly began to draw back, however, reality itself started to quake once more. The air around Tiamat distorted once again, but this time didn't spread out across the world nearby; instead, it rapidly intensified around Tiamat herself. Further and further reality warped, Tiamat distorting and compressing before the party's eyes, before, with a silent yet still thunderous boom, she vanished. A golden cup fell from the sky, around where her head had been, before that too folded in on itself and vanished with a rather-less-menacing pop. All was silent for a moment, as the landscape around them burned. What plant life in the area had remained was reduced to blackened scraps or twisted (but thankfully dead) mockeries of what it had been previously, where the earth had not simply been stripped bare, complementing the warped corpses of the lahmu. There was only a moment to consider the devastation, though, before the sound of hoofbeats echoed from behind the group. Soon enough, an entourage of vaguely-familiar looking faces, lead by Lord Silef herself, appeared over the hills. She looked over the area for a moment from horseback, face unreadable, then drew closer to the party. She spoke a single word, a bit less imperious and more uncertain than she perhaps intended: "Well?"

Tarja made an entirely exaggerated pouting face at being denied her toxin of choice, and was in the middle of opening her mouth to complain when the explanation continued. Unlike the others, she didn't seem to be at all concerned about the plan apparently going south, though she made a mental note to ask Flora a question later about some of the things said. "So that means we're finally done sitting around, right?" The eladrin practically sprung up from her seat, and Flora might have been shocked that she wasn't physically dragged upward with her - though an insistent tugging soon followed anyway. "Come on, I wanna see the monsters."

Tarja, for her part, had run out of attention span roughly five minutes in, had sampled virtually everything in the bar that Flora would allow her to touch, had strongly considered lighting something on fire at least six different times, and had even managed to take a nap at some point during the explanation. Reading the instructions had proven to be entertaining all of one time, and so, rather unusually for the eladrin, she was quite bored. And she had been entertained by studying the grain of wood on the table at one point. She had heard, though, that drinking lots of wine could be fun, so she was currently reaching for a bottle of wine with what appeared to be a green dragon emblazoned across the front - something that someone slightly more knowledgeable would have probably recognized as a warning sign, given the rather toxic nature of that particular variety of flying lizard.

Placeholder, for a future sheet. The edgiest motherfucker ever

Chelchis heads to the room south of the main production line.

Kage gestured vaguely in the direction of the Ferris wheel, looking at Haruki. "Well, you've got the map, right? Lead the way." His voice and expression were still irritable, though it wasn't particularly focused at the other two; he was simply annoyed at how unproductive his own searches had been so far. Not to mention the cops being an absolute pain, though in hindsight he should have expected that.

"I don't understand. She actively expressed a desire to cease existing. Why didn't you attack?" The unblinking gaze turned up toward Haruka again. "It's wrong." Haruka shuffled uncomfortably. She didn't like this place at all, though at this point she was used to Kyubey's. . . Kyubey-ness. "Is it wrong to give people what they want?" That, at least, was enough to get the magical girl to whirl on the white creature, her armor appearing around her and her weapon brandished threateningly, though not pointed at Kyubey. "It is when they want something like that!" Haruka got a bit louder than she intended, nearly startling herself. She continued at a lower volume, but still angrily. "People don't always want things that are good for them, you should know that much." "I gave you precisely what you asked for." ". . . I know." Quieter, almost defeated-sounding. She inhaled, as if she was about to speak further. . . but just sighed, shaking her head slightly. Her armor made faint clanking noises as she walked around the shop toward the entrance, thoughts of her past life not quite dulling the edge of the paranoia this place seemed to afflict her with.

Haruka looked down a bit, awkwardly shuffling toward the exit. "If you change your mind, um, you can come and find me." Her voice got a bit quieter. "I know what you feel like, kind of. . ." The thought was enough to remind her of the end of her career as a magical girl, and so her feet sped up a bit, as if she could distance herself from the memory. She let out one last "Sorry" before she finally crossed over the boundary of the area, nearly stumbling out of the zone of darkness.

Arturia nodded. She supposed it made sense, if Knife was some kind of secret agent. One who had, apparently, put herself at nontrivial risk in order to save her. Her head was still spinning a bit; she still hadn't quite come to terms with magic existing at all (though she was mostly over it, after having plenty of time with nothing to do but ponder it) and the last hour or so had held a lot of things to process. She shook her head slightly at herself; she had things to take care of before she tried to sort through everything. "Come on, Lilith, wake up, all the bad parts are over," she mumbled, mostly to herself. Nevermind all of the further issues with keeping her in the dorms; Arturia wasn't exactly fond of carrying another person any distance. She did her best to shift Lilith into a hold that would hopefully make her easy to move around, and hurried toward her own dorm, hoping that nobody would appear to accost her.

Attack Siege Ogre 1 six times with the Timeslicer. Deals 72+12d8 RES-ignoring damage.

Vaguely considering joining

The Century Child

Kyou stared up at the rocket, at the flash of light, feeling a mix of emotions. It was a majestic sight, and it was good to know that everyone was safe for the moment. . . but with it, the rocket took everything she knew. All of the nooks and crannies, secret shortcuts and greasy machinery, all of her life experience flying away into space and leaving her in an alien world with who knew how many monsters. And her family, or what remained of it. "It's. . . really something." Her expression was unreadable, the androgynous girl trying to sort out how exactly she felt. Her eyes shifted a bit as she gazed off into the distance; not back toward the group, but toward the horizon as the dust cleared. She still wasn't quite used to walking around in a place where there was no ceiling, no light panels or hanging support structures, but this sight. . . "I've never actually seen a sunrise before." Kyou felt a little odd admitting it, and she glanced down for a moment as she realized that she might well be the only one there experiencing it for the first time.

Haruka wasn't quite certain about telling the girl she was bad at something if this moping was a perpetual issue, but she decided not to get into it at the moment. The cat - Sparkles - not being invested in the girl's emotional health wasn't something that shocked her. Though, at least her world seemed to work differently than Haruka's own. . . "Dying does suck," Haruka quietly agreed. She still wasn't quite sure what to do about Shadow - was that really her name? On the one hand, she felt like she should try something to comfort the girl, but on the other, social skills had never been a strong suit of hers. "Um, are you sure you don't want to talk, or something. . .?"

"It's time for you to return to the dust from whence you came." Mitsu lunged forward and upward, leaping through the air with supernatural grace. Her blade flashed toward the bones of the dragon once more, aiming to separate the head from the rest of the body. Attack the "neck" with a sword, dealing (14+14+14 (from perk))+4d4 damage.

Hiroki steadied herself with the assistance of the boosters on her back and Empi's odd "encouragement." "The Knight isn't a ripoff! I don't even know what Iron Man is!" She didn't like the proximity of all these lahmu, either, and they were horrifying and she was tired of dealing with them. Her eyes flicked over her HUD. Mantle recharging, minor plating damage, but all core systems were green and ready to go. "All power to secondary and auxiliary guns." The air around her was filled with a faint whine, as myriad surfaces began to glow on the Knight's body and "wings." "Confirm targeting solutions. Now, Hell's Artificial Sun!" A massive wave of plasma burst outward from the machine, burning through the air towards the screeching monsters around her. Through the mass of lights, the silhouette of the Knight turned, main cannon lighting up and swinging toward the Emitter before releasing a titanic lance of nuclear energy. Hiroki uses Curtain Fire as a free action, then attacks the Emitter with Giga Flare!

Atton raises his officer's saber in an inspiring gesture, healing everyone on the field for [23] HP! Bridgett creates a magical binding around the Bel Lahmu, preventing it from moving! It struggles futilely against the cords of energy, falling to the earth. The Bel Lahmu tries to break free of the spell. Friedhold tosses another singularity, crushing all of the Lahmu against one of Tiamat's limbs for [25] damage to each! Only one of the smaller beasts remains, barely clinging to life. Venus recovers from stun. The Lesser Lahmu throws itself at Venus, only to be killed on the spot by Edmond before it can strike. The Greater Lahmu leaps upward, a mass of whirling limbs clawing at Bridgett. It strikes her twice, twin limbs raking across her for [29] total damage. [4] damage is absorbed by her jacket. It bleeds for 9 damage. Alexandria taunts the beast as it finishes attacking. Extra limbs are so gauche. Initiative Status

Jade takes steady aim. . . Isobel and LOTUS wait for the optimum time. . . Soryn summons forth a phantom, a memory of a banner aloft in the wind, glinting with the light of hope and Victory, held aloft by an earnest girl. . . The sight inspires the party, granting them 20% damage and 25% lifesteal! Jade lines up a perfect shot on Tiamat, a bullet slipping between scales on the titanic beast's neck for [200!] damage! Inky black mud fountains from the wound, and Tiamat actually lets out a singsong note, seemingly in response to the shot. Isobel steadies Soryn, removing his stun! LOTUS is finding it easier to find weak points, granting everyone attacking Tiamat a 10% critical chance. Liliya stabs the second Greater Lahmu, blade sinking into the twisted flesh for [26] damage. Spicy HG shows how she got her name, as flames erupt from the ground and lash all foes in sight for [22] damage per round! The Bel Lahmu's corpse twitches a bit before being burned to ash. Gozer strikes Greater Lahmu A down with a spear of pure starlight! Dackly looks slightly awkward, attempting to parry a strike from a corpse. The lesser Lahmu, or what remains of their number, attempt to tear at the earth elemental that had just dispatched the greater. They bite and claw at Gozer's form for [16] damage total. Both of them burn for [22] damage. The final Greater Lahmu, fighting through the fire and flames, desperately tries to stab at Gozer, dealing another [10] damage to his green essence. Lexiel calls forth Oda Nobunaga! . . . Though it seems victory may have been inevitable before she was summoned, too. Initiative Status

Kyou looked slightly startled at Asuka's apology; she'd figured that punching her in the face had probably been enough to settle whatever was between them. She bowed back at Asuka, not quite as deeply, but still acknowledging the sentiment. A pang of grief surged up - this sort of etiquette was something she'd learned from her mother - but she forced it down for the moment. "It's alright, I shouldn't have acted the way I did afterward." Even if a small part of her was satisfied in being able to lay her out. She straightened, and stayed awkwardly quiet for a moment before trying to break it. ". . .So, uh, what were you going to show us?"

Time seemed to stop for a moment, as Elias tried to process the situation. The man had apparently teleported, then used magic to unleash a roaring fireball. How? Why? Not important. Could be an illusion, but calling the bluff was not worth the price of being wrong. No space to run; it was traveling much faster than his top speed. They'd all likely be incinerated, and furthermore Priscilla seemed to be in shock. Rather more dangerous than one would expect from her, yes, but a trained professional she was not. Elias made a decision. He shouted out toward her, a high-pitched "Priscilla!" as the butler's voice seemingly cracked. He was already moving, hand stretching out to grab the lady. Well, this has been a good run, I suppose. Better than choking to death on smog or starving. There wasn't much point in running; there was a slight chance that he could find cover, but the odds were that if all three of them ran, all three of them would die. This way, he could attempt to reduce that number. Elias yanked Priscilla backward, pushed her down the hall and away from the fireball. And, as it reached them, he dove on top of her, trying to block the flame with his own body as he braced for the end.

"I'm here to talk, I guess. . . I'm tired of fighting magical girls." She shuffled toward the cat, still suspicious. She leaned down toward the tabby as if it were a bear trap, simultaneously trying to keep as far away from it as possible and reaching her hand towards it. Irrational, maybe, but Kyubey and witch hunting had given her a healthy mistrust of things that seemed magical yet harmless. Eventually, taking far more time than was strictly necessary, her hand met the fur on the cat's head, and she gently scratched behind the ear.

"You don't look okay," Haruka said bluntly. She edged closer to the girl, still eyeing the cat suspiciously. She almost hoped that the effect she had on people would at least get her attention, before immediately berating herself for the thought. Don't pretend you know what's good for people. "I just want to figure out how long I can go without fighting someone." She declined to comment on the world around her, for now; were they reflections of the owners or something. Though, as she thought, a more pressing question arose. ". . . Actually, I don't know how to get out without wanting to puke."

Haruka simply swayed in place for a moment. She wiped at her eyes, to make sure they weren't actually bleeding, trying to avoid groaning aloud. A weak stomach was never something she'd really considered herself to have, but this was messing with her. She almost tried to walk up and find a place to sit down, before stopping herself and acknowledging that the other girl might be hostile. As it were, it took a moment to regain her bearings, and another of her awkwardly watching the girl mope for her to do something else. "Uh. . . are you okay?" She squinted at the cat briefly. Magical feline-looking creatures were high on her list of dislikes, at this point. Speaking of the devil, Kyubey appeared, that familiar unblinking stare fixed on the crying girl - though the Incubator didn't seem to have a comment it felt like sharing, for now.

"That's probably for the best." I miss Victoria. Haruka didn't strictly know that Victoria was - or at least, had been, judging by how she ended up - a magical girl, but too much of how she'd acted made sense. If she were here, they could have teamed up. Victoria was friends with her before this all. This girl, though, she wanted to avoid contaminating her thoughts as much as possible. "I'll let you know if I learn anything." She took an awkward step or two back, somewhat belatedly dropping back into her non-magical form. She heard the sadness in Octavia's voice, but Haruka, as usual, wasn't sure how to address it. She supposed it was similar to her own feelings on the matter. I just want to stop hurting people. She'd rarely had a clash more intense than some posturing between her and another magical girl, but in her own life. . . She waved at Octavia. "I'm going to go explore." Turning away from the other girl, she took a moment to assess her own surroundings. A hill of flowers, a tent, a silvery tree. . . it was like something out of a fantasy novel. She squinted at the tree. Silvery bark, silvery leaves. That's a mallorn. If she had to choose any magic tree to camp under, she supposed it would be a mallorn. She took a few steps in a vaguely northern direction, moving down the hill slightly, when she heard the grass rustling next to her feet. "Your best chance of surviving is attacking Octavia right now." "I know," Haruka said, rather dully. "If you continue to avoid fighting, you will likely be killed to empower another girl's soul gem." "I know. Go away." The words were about as heated as water left on the counter for a few hours. "I know much more about this place than you do. It is imprudent to keep refusing to speak to me." "I know." She simply started up moving again, heading toward her destination. The inky black void seemed to be the easiest to deal with. It wasn't that dissimilar to looking through a portal into a labyrinth. Haruka heads northeast.