Chevaleresse

Hiroki shook her head. Her misgivings were beginning to resurface. . . all of this scorn of his family, combined with the man's penchant for his "art" led to the worst conclusion. She'd never really been fond of her family, but it's not like she wanted them to die. If they could have just. . . been there, sometime. Any time. But they'll learn as soon as I go back to Tempest once and for all and win the tournament. And then become a god. . . That was a thought that'd been nagging her of late. What was she going to do after she won? She didn't really have any plans in mind for any of the planes. Maybe Blink would help her?

Edmond While he was unable to locate any ballistae being reloaded, by dint of none of them actually being constructed yet (as had been visible on the way in when he would have surely passed one fairly closely, as well as being visible from the walls and from the lack of large, non-magical projectiles flying toward the walls), he did sight a mage somewhat near one of the partially constructed ones. His shot knocked the man over with a telltale magical flash; the wound on the man bled, but not profusely. It seemed that some kind of ward had lessened the impact of the shot. Immediately, a group of twenty or so of the archers started aiming in his direction, some already loosing. Gozer "I see. I suppose I can understand that sentiment." She took a deep breath. "I. . . apologize once again for cutting this conversation short, but I must admit that I would like to be alone right now." She had been about to draw a comparison to Gensokyo and the numerous supernatural creatures she had met there. Somewhat less than shockingly, the continued reminders of her homeworld and its fate were not doing good things for her emotional state. The goddess began to turn away, walking further toward the armory.

"Eh? No, he doesn't reflect damage, although who knows what he'll do to you if you get too close with a sword. The troops near him, though. . . That was a pain. Literally." She nods in response to Isobel. "Three possibilities are better than no guesses at all. I'm sure Lord Silef's diviners can work with that."

"And I yours, Gozer." She frowned ever so slightly. "I must ask though; what feeling do you refer to? I am told mortals can feel a certain. . . weight, in divine presence, but I do not feel that is what you mean."

"The mad dog? He's a beast covered in spikes, that I've seen become even more horrifying with his Noble Phantasm. I believe he has at least two of them; his spear has some sort of powerful curse behind it as well. European, I think. And the few times I shot him, it seemed to hurt more than I'd expect on a monster like him, so I believe he's a demigod of some variety." She cocks her head a bit at Lexiel's theory. "I never heard of the Mongols conquering all of Europe - if they did, it was after my time."

"Alright." James pursed his lips, thinking. He wanted to get an observational network set up, which would ideally circle around the leylines - he didn't want to go directly to them, because that ran the risk of blundering straight into another Master with more time to prepare traps. The teenager glanced over at the sulking Merlin. I might as well. . . He bent over and scribbled a (relatively) simple sigil into the dirt, even simpler than the one used for the summoning ritual and quite a bit smaller. "Follow me, then." He started to head south through the occasionally-winding streets, stopping every so often to scribe another sigil much like the one he'd set up in the yard - though he varied the distance between them, and occasionally took a detour in a seemingly random direction. His end goal - not that he spoke it out loud - was to eventually wind his way toward the cultural district. But only because it weaves between most of the city proper's major leyline intersections. Plus she might be less of a pain.

Ayaka briefly considered looking up herself, just to see how disastrous the results of that first live were, but she didn't have all the time in the world. An article on her homepage nearly dragged her into a vortex of irresistibly cute animals, but she steeled herself and tore her focus away and back to her real objective. Deciding that finding out what kinds of idols the system liked was the fastest way to become one of said liked idols, she searched idol rankings in the system.

"I am a goddess of natural disasters. Particularly storms, but I hold dominion over all of them." In the interest of not breaking down into tears in front of a near-stranger, she neglected to speak of her secondary role as a guardian deity. Normally, the shift would be visible on her face, but as it was already being forced into place as hard as she could manage, the only thing that showed was a slight flicker of her eyes downward.

Mitsurugi nodded. "It is good to meet another nature spirit, different though we may be. I assume you are one, anyway, and not a spirit of simple rock and dirt, if this a true form of yours." His world must have skilled necromancers, to raise spirits from death. Particularly since he did not seem to be warped by the process - not that Mitsurugi would know. The only kinds of resurrection she knew of were the processes that resulted in things like jiangshi and ghosts.

Edmond The mages didn't seem to use a set method, but tended to prefer more efficient methods; attacking critical support methods with fire-based spells seemed to be the most common option. It was mostly pointless to try and eliminate the crews working on them, after all; they were summoned fodder and easily replaceable. "If you expose yourself to attack, they'll fire back, that's all there is to it. And they've got archers right up against the walls." Gozer "I see. Your 'pretending' was effective regardless." An earth elemental. Likely not a fairy, or any relation to them, or the ones referred to as earth spirits in her world. "Pardon my rudeness, but you are rather different than the earth spirits I am familiar with." Don't think about them. . .

The woman blinked. Whoever this being was, it was straight to the point. "I am not occupied with anything currently, no." She wiped at her eyes once more for good measure, doing her best not to sniffle. "I. . . am unsure of whether I would like to leave. I should introduce myself, though; I am Saigai Mitsurugi. You and your partner seem to be able to hold your own."

Mitsurugi, not unexpectedly, noticed the earth elemental following after her. Gozer was not the most subtle or camouflaged being, after all. After taking a moment to gather herself and dry her eyes enough to pretend that tears hadn't just been streaming down her face, she turned to face him. "Yes?" she asked, somewhat shortly and stiffly.

Ayaka, after a relaxing bath and a good night's sleep, seemed to be the first one awake. She wasn't entirely certain of how to spend the rest of her time - more practice wouldn't be good, she still felt a bit sore - so she wandered about aimlessly in what space there was to do so, in an outfit that only she would describe as casual, what with a lacy skirt and just enough frills on the rest of it to be considered "too many." Eventually, she plopped herself down in a chair in front of a computer, and decided to look up the system they were traveling to.

"I see. Much of my world ended up that way or worse; mortals placed their faith in things other than us. . ." She cleared her throat again. "I apologize, I don't mean to leave so abruptly but there is something I must take care of." She turned about rather abruptly and started to head toward the castle, in that stiff, quick walk that one typically associated with being deeply offended by something. She tried as hard as she could to suppress the tears that began to well up in her eyes until she got into a place at least somewhat more private; to her credit she was mostly successful. Everything I see or speak of reminds me of my failure. All of the people that lost their lives because I did not act quickly enough or with enough strength. . .

"You want to help? Unless you're a mage, not sure how you can. Focus on getting the ballistae and other weapons that are focused on killing men. The walls will stand up to plenty of punishment." The man speaking to Edmond is in armor resembling what Rand had been wearing, though with a bit less embellishment. "We only have so many men, though, and we're not getting any more any time soon," he says grimly. "I see. I have never heard of any beings such as that, though there are the greater gods that supposedly begat the rest, or at least paved the way for their creation. It's possible that they could be one and the same. Have you heard of Shinto? That is the name of the faith that birthed me." At the very least, Navin was polite enough to leave her nearly breaking down publicly alone. She silently berated herself for it; it wasn't becoming behavior, especially for a goddess and especially at a time like this.

D10, equip Heavy Lance

Magnum's rather unique method of distribution reveals a couple things: the first being that one or two of these men would probably make excellent wide recievers. The second being that these soldiers are not quite disciplined enough to not squabble over food, though thankfully full-fledged fights don't break out. And third, a few of the magic users are obviously willing to cheat, with a few plates floating rather unnaturally into the hands of men not wearing much armor on their arms compared to their fellows. "One god of many, I should note." And again. At this rate. . . She cleared her throat, trying to discreetly wipe at her eyes with her sleeve. A thing that was very nearly impossible, given that they were doing nothing but standing in a yard talking. "I apologize." She searched for an excuse for her actions, and found none; it's not as if she could feign illness or blame it on the quality of the air. Clearing her throat again, she attempted to restart the conversation. "Pardon my curiosity, but it sounds as if your beliefs are far different from the ones I am familiar with."

Mitsurugi nodded. It was. . . an unusual thought, for her. "Where I am from, most mortals seem very keen on determining their own fates." Though said fates were often bound up in tradition and such, the goddess saw little distinction; it was still mortals determining the fates of mortals, rather than divine intervention. "We gods, and the youkai that are our mirrors-" a mirror that had been dangerously close to becoming reality, and still loomed in the shadows for her - "are born largely knowing our purposes in life, on the other hand. I am a guardian spirit and one who rules over natural disasters. I do not envy the struggle to find meaning." Another shift downward on her face. A guardian spirit who protects naught but a bauble full of vengeful spirits. I should not deign to claim that title.

"Well, you could always start blowing their minions to pieces again! I have several ideas on how to combine your group's various powers to do so already. . . But! As for your actual questions, it will be difficult unless I am already close or they are in the midst of doing something that takes a lot of mana, like unleashing their Noble Phantasms." "Actually, I believe I may have a solution for you. Among my troops, I have several diviners; they are kept at a minimum of combat duty to keep fresh intelligence flowing in as much as possible. Now that we know of at least some information about them," she nods at Nobunaga, "we should be able to scry their locations with more success than before. Though knowing their true names would make this easier still." "If any of you are from Earth, they should still be drawn from its history. Although who knows how closely mine matches yours? They could be men instead of women in your world, or maybe they were never born at all! Or, the timeline could be exactly the same up to a certain point. You never know, really."

Mitsurugi, polite as she was, failed to state her own reasons for not partaking; she'd tried Western beer before once or twice, and it wasn't a taste she was particularly fond of, to say the least. Like cheap sake. Regardless, there was something else that had piqued her interest. "Your duty?" she asked simply, curiosity in her voice. And he spoke of a specific "Destiny" as well. Had he spoken with some sort of fortuneteller? Or did he simply hold a conviction that he was supposed to do something in particular with his life?

Ayaka nodded cheerfully, her expression moving back to a bright one from the rather bemused face she'd had before. "Yep! And you'd better be able to pick something out for me, too!" She spoke with a mock sternness, waggling a finger in Yuki's direction. "Otherwise I'll have to, uh. Do something mean! I don't know what, but maybe Azusa can think of something."

"I see. Just give me a moment, then. . ." The man begins to weave his spell; normally the increase in mana flow would be notable, given the amount of power surging through the confluence at any given moment, but the crackling of magical lightning only about twenty feet away would have informed anyone of why that was not the case here. [Low Roll - 4] Dackly's operation is a resounding success; she gets several potions of "Enemy Officer Armor." She's not certain of what, exactly, they do, but she has a very good feeling about it. "Is that enough? Chances for sleep aren't common."

"I see. . . Well, that does sound helpful. I can spare a few moments, I suppose. You say it just needs to be fed raw mana?" The man rubs his soot-stained hands together, and peers at the crackpot intently - occasionally glancing backward at the castle proper. "I can do that. It's a simple manner of creating a conduit to the leyline. Though, does this device overload at all? I would be hesitant to attach any artifact to this much power at once."

"Wat." James shook his head, trying to sort through everything Merlin had just said. Who was Ansuz? How and why would he relocate an entire world's population to another dimension? "Why would I kill my parents!? That's insane. They've done as much as they could for me, after all. I'm not like, some edgy anime protagonist that's required to either hate his parents or have dead ones. And where would I get a laser cannon?" He shook his head again, placing one hand on his forehead. "Whatever. You promise to not try to set yourself on fire again as soon as I turn around?"

"I don't know what you mean. . ." Hiroki said quietly, under her breath. What is it that she'd supposedly sat out? She barely had any time to sit down before they were dumped into another world with an army of skeleton things to fight. "Yes, you, um, can keep telling your story."