Shamitako

Grima "That's what I thought." Princess said, the look on her face telling Grima all she needed to know, "If Leonard is behind this, then he probably knows what she was up to, and he definitely has a good reason to stop her. Wait here, I'll go try to talk her down." Talking Seeker down proved ineffective and a fight broke out. Princess won handily. Although as far as she was concerned, none of it really mattered much. Fighting like this didn't mean anything to her anymore. It was just a single flash of the blade in the endless battle called life. She was a little saddened when Sarah left in a rage, but it was inevitable. Princess knew what Leonard was doing, and she agreed with his choice of action, but she also knew that Sarah wouldn't let go. Princess returned to Grima with the same look she'd left with. "You'd better stay here for a few weeks until Sarah cools down. She's been searching for Watcher for years, and I'm pretty sure she didn't intend to come back if she found him. I'll get a message to Leonard telling him what happened, and he'll have to deal with Queen. Is that all okay with you?"

Watcher drew Hiroki's power to him, compressing it as it began to orbit around him, forming into a disk that spiraled inwards to be absorbed. At this point Hiroki's charge was more of a shamble, giving him plenty of time to do as he pleased. And try as she might, she couldn't summon up power that no longer existed. So as her fist connected weakly with Watcher's stomach, it was almost certain that she would fail. Almost. Just before her fist connected with Watcher, it passed through the remnants of her power circling around him and they rushed back to her, filling her spirit once more. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to form the arm of her mech. And that arm was just enough to cause Watcher to stagger back a few steps. It might not have sent him flying, or crushed him completely, but it was all Hiroki was going to get, and it would have to be enough. Her strength depleted, Hiroki crumpled to the ground. She might have expected Watcher to finish her off now that she no longer had the capacity to fight back, but he didn't. Watcher had no strength left either, Hiroki's assaults had forced him to purge more and more of his body's functions as he fled from the pain. It didn't matter that he could overwhelm her easily in Favor, because she had trumped him in determination from the start. Neither of them could fight any longer, it was just as Arcturus had said: a stalemate. "Cameron Argyle!" Cardinal's voice rang out from above. Unable to stand, she had dragged herself just far enough to get one of her arms over the edge. Now just a couple meters above, she extended that arm towards Watcher. "Magus title: Watcher. On my authority as the Fourth Prince, I find you guilty of misconduct in the first degree!" Inky black energy began to form behind Cardinal, its appearance not unlike the blackness that had covered the Plane a short while before. It shaped itself into a circle that tapered into itself like it had been drawn with a brush. "You have become a threat not only to yourself, not only to others, but to the very world itself!" Some of the black energy began to gather in Cardinal's palm and her eyes transformed to plain white orbs with the same symbol as behind her painted on their surface. "The world has judged you! Your sentence is death!" The energy in her palm exploded outwards, its appearance not unlike the attack Watcher had used to strike down Cardinal. Accompanied by a sound like rushing water, the beam engulfed Watcher, completely hiding him from view behind its deadly curtain. When the energy faded, Watcher was still there. Half of his torso and a decent chunk of his face had been blown off, leaving a wispy white glow where flesh should have been, but he was not dead. A strange sound began to creep into Hiroki and Cardinal's perceptions. A soft, sad chuckle slowly echoed through the empty tower. "Not bad." Watcher said with a soft smile, "I don't think I've ever been defeated so handily, this universe really is something. I leave you with this warning: Your fight is not over. There is another, one much more powerful. Be ready, or you will lose." More of Watcher began to fade away, turning into light energy and floating off into nothingness. His remaining eye filled with tears as he added a final request to his warning, "Please protect this world, I don't think I could bear to see it end. And... And tell Sarah I love her." With those final words, Watcher's conversion hastened and he rapidly faded from existence, leaving Hiroki and Cardinal alone.

Tai "I'd like that." Temperance mumbled, her short moment of lucidity already fading, "Just keep smiling for me, and I'm sure we'll have a great match." She faded back into her subconscious again, but her rest this time was peaceful. Grima "Can you tell me more about who Seeker supposedly took it from originally? I'd like to know who was trying to stop her." Princess asked. She had a pretty good guess, but best to be sure. If it was who she thought it was, then she needed to get ready for a fight, because Sarah wasn't going to be happy when Princess told her no.

Tendrils of golden light burst into existence in front of Hiroki, winding and twisting around her as they faded in and out, illuminating her against the empty void. The breeze picked up and the source of the light began to move towards her, its warmth dancing across her bare skin. "You have surpassed your humanity and become a star that blazes a path of hope for others. The right is yours, reach out and take it." the breeze instructed. After reaching out to grab the light, Hiroki's instincts would fill in the rest. She would draw it close and push it into her chest, the warmth now spreading from within as her senses faded back into nothing. Reality burst back into existence with Hiroki's fist against Watcher's cheek, and the energy within burst forth around her. Watcher was sent slamming to the floor, his clothing alight and his skin scorched. Following just behind him was a wave of energy which purged the blackness around them, revealing the true nature of the plane. They fought within an endless stone tower which went on infinitely both up and down, with no sign of ground anywhere in sight. The walls Watcher had torn down no longer led to empty void, but simply to the air outside. Hiroki didn't have time to marvel at her new domain, because Watcher wasn't finished just yet. Coughing and spitting out the blood in his mouth, he rose to his feet. "You've taken the first step, but if that's everything you have, the most you'll ever do is defeat me." As he had done before, Watcher took hold of Hiroki's energy and tore it away from her, threatening to steal it from her forever.

Grima Princess looked at the odd little device for a moment before coming to a conclusion. she pocketed the device and stared down the suit of heavy armor that had barged into her living room. "You don't need this." she told Seeker, "So you don't need to attack Grima." "What? no, why wouldn't I need it?" Seeker was taken aback. "Because if you really need to go to Nil, I can send you there." she held up her sword, "Sarah, I know what you want, but you can't force it." "You're one to talk." "Victoria is exactly why I can talk, I got here from trying to force it. If you want him back-" "I don't." Seeker's words caused an uncomfortable silence to fall over the room, "I don't want him back, I want to stop him. Nobody knows him better than I do, I have to be the one to do it." Princess glanced at Grima before sighing again. "Mech off, hand fixed, then we'll talk." she insisted. Seeker complied and desummoned her mech, then Princess took Grima to the kitchen to bandage her hand. As she worked, she decided to further her interrogation, "Before I deal with Sarah, why don't you tell me how you got wrapped up in this. You seemed pretty against doing anything dangerous last time I saw you." Tai Temperance coughed and turned her head, her eyes opening, yet her face still clouded. Whether she cold truly be called "awake" was uncertain. "Thank you." she said, her smile matching the one in Tai's recording, "It's been a while since anyone shared their happiness with me, they're all so gloomy."

Grima The instant Grima's blood touched the dagger, a portal opened in the floor beneath her and she found herself dropping in on Princess, who was in the process of having some tea. It was a surprisingly simple process, considering how impressive the result was. "Well, that didn't take very long." Princess said nonchalantly. Seeker followed Grima through the portal, crashing to the ground and causing something in the next room over to fall and break. It also caused Princess to tense up quite a bit, although she didn't quite let it reach her face. "Give. It. Back." Seeker's spear was now at Grima's throat. Princess sighed, downed the rest of her tea, walked over, and shoved Grima out of the way, putting herself in front of the spearpoint. "Hello Sarah, did you need something?" "That thief took something of mine, I want it back, that's all." Sarah answered, barely keeping herself from bursting with rage and anguish. Princess turned to Grima, "I assume you're here with good reason, what did you take and why?" Although she was mediating, Princess wasn't actually expecting this to end with diplomacy. as such, somewhere during her interrogation, one of her swords had ended up in her hand, just in case.

Hiroki's fist connected with a cracking sound that echoed throughout the tower. That was the last sound that Hiroki heard before everything went silent. Her senses were so rapidly destroyed that she didn't even sense their loss. One instant she could see and hear and feel her fist connecting, the next she couldn't. The only explanation she could think of was that this was her death. It seemed she had been condemned to an eternity of nothingness. But just when Hiroki had given up hope, she felt a cool breeze that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. It whispered to her, speaking ideas directly into her mind, rather than wasting words on her functionless ears. It had a question for her: "Are you prepared to accept the responsibility of being a god?"

Tai "Well, right now, I think she and I would both appreciate it if you kept her company for a bit." Adam said gratefully, "I have more I need to get done, and she's been alone for a while." It was a simple request, but Adam hadn't really planned to make it. He didn't know why, but a feeling in his gut told him that this is what Temperance would want. Grima Grima's slowed perception was just enough to let her dodge the spear that appeared behind her head as she tried to escape down the hall. Behind her, an armored behemoth smashed through the doorway she had just left. Seeker hadn't taken very long to recover and chase after Grima at all. "Give that back, now." she demanded, scratching the walls as she lumbered after Grima.

Rather than landing, Watcher continued smashing downwards through the next floor, keeping his distance from Hiroki. For all the damage he had taken, he still seemed to be at full strength. Hiroki had been a fool to fight him, she had no hope of winning. Watcher was the embodiment of destruction itself, it was insane to try to destroy him. But maybe that didn't matter. The options were to give up and die or to fight and die, Hiroki had chosen to fight. No matter how she struggled, she would never survive, but she struggled anyways. It wasn't fair, it wasn't deserved, but it was the reality she was facing right now. "Your commitment is admirable, but your chance has passed." Watcher announced from below, "I gave you the opportunity to have everything you wanted, to win alongside me, even to rise above me if you wanted. But that time is gone, now all you will know is suffering." As he spoke, Watcher extended his hand, the entirety of the light surrounding him coalescing into his palm. The darkness closed in around him, until only a single tiny point of light remained. A single glint, like a twinkling star, was the only warning given before the light exploded outwards in a beam much larger and more powerful than any Watcher had fired before it. If it struck the Hellfire Knight, there was no doubt Hiroki's mech would be completely destroyed. And although she wasn't a total sitting duck, the sheer size of the beam made it virtually impossible to dodge. It wasn't fair, she didn't deserve this, this wasn't a reality Cardinal could accept. Blinking into place between Hiroki and Watcher, Cardinal raised a chunk of her dimensional barrier to block his attack. Instantly absorbing more energy than it could hold, the barrier vanished. Under normal circumstances the barrier would regenerate in a moment, and her attacker would have a short window to strike at her before it stabilized again. Under circumstances where an attack could overwhelm it faster than it could ever hope to recover, she was defenseless. Under these circumstances, she couldn't afford to be defenseless. "I don't have your spirit. I haven't earned the right to stand in this fight. I don't deserve to stand beside you." Cardinal told Hiroki as another barrier rose to protect them, "But you don't deserve to die. I haven't earned the right to stand by and let him destroy you. I still have my own spirit, and I'm not going to let it go unused." A person's dream space was a vast emptiness that stored Favor, but Cardinal's was special. She was a being born of nothingness, her existence was there to maintain that nothingness until a blazing inferno came along to create the future. She was a steward for reality itself that kept destruction at bay. Her dream space was the void itself. Her dimensional barrier had been created based on what she had seen when her Eye had looked within, and alongside the barrier spell she had created a trump card. Cardinal's final gambit was not made with Favor, but with her very soul itself. And so when Watcher's light smashed into Cardinal's barrier, it was absorbed directly into her internal dimension. Cardinal let out a guttural yell, verbally announcing the presence of her spirit as she pushed herself to hold all of the power being pushed into her. More and more and more, yet Watcher showed no sign of stopping. Cardinal's limit was infinite, yet Watcher was pushing her to it. Cardinal didn't have to use her Eye to know what was happening, she could feel herself being overwhelmed from within. She had been a fool to fight Watcher, she had no hope of winning. But the options were giving up and dying or fighting and dying, and Cardinal had chosen to fight. No matter how she struggled, she knew she would never survive, but she struggled anyways. Perhaps this was fair, perhaps it was what she deserved, for certain it was the reality she was facing. But no matter what, she could not stop now. Not for her own sake, but for the sake of those she wished to protect. For the sake of those who had truly given their all to save her, despite her refusal to listen. For them, she would do anything. Cardinal's yell turned to a scream of pain as a beam of light burst out of her shoulder, and then from her leg, then her back. Her body and soul cracked more and more as she unsuccessfully tried to contain Watcher's power. But even if it meant sacrificing herself, she would not give up. She pushed herself harder, tearing through her reserves of Favor to summon more pocket barriers in a desperate attempt to lighten the load on her dream space. Time seemed to slow as barrier after barrier was destroyed, their pittance of help ensuring that her dream space was certain to follow at any moment. She couldn't sense much anymore, everything felt white. She felt a moment of embarrassment at the thought that her clothes had probably been destroyed by now, but then she realized she probably didn't have much skin left to see either. This moment made her happy, happy that even in such a dire time she could still feel such trivial things. Her screams came to a halt as she let out a single laugh, a laugh which would have turned to a stream of mirth had it not been cut abruptly short by the final failure of her barrier. As everything went white, Cardinal's final feelings were of joy. Just before it failed, Cardinal's barrier had absorbed the last gasps of Watcher's attack. She collapsed on the ground, her body still covered in glowing cracks that pulsed with a sinister energy. By some miracle she had managed to contain it all, saving Hiroki from certain destruction. But the fight wasn't over just yet, Watcher was still standing, his aura of light already reforming around him. It had taken everything Cardinal had just to stall him, now it would take everything Hiroki had to defeat him.

Hiroki's attempt at defense was essentially pointless, as there was no way for her targeting computer to predict Watcher's attack pattern, but that proved irrelevant when she realized that Watcher also had little way to aim his attack. Once she started moving, she was only struck by a few glancing shots before he abandoned the strategy. Watcher didn't care whether his attack kept Hiroki at bay, because the reason he'd risen into the air wasn't to escape Hiroki's range. Clenching his fist as he had with the walls, Watcher caused the floor beneath the Hellfire Knight to erupt, opening the way to the room below. Before Hiroki's mech had a chance to realize that it no longer has a surface to float over, Watcher followed up by throwing his trident at her. The impact sent her smashing straight downwards, and through the next floor beneath. He didn't give her a chance to recover after that either, charging after her while raising a barrier of light in front of him which he used to smash her through the next level. He alternated between trident and ramming in an attempt to prevent Hiroki having time to react, sending them lower and lower with each attack.

Watcher didn't get a chance to feel what Hiroki had done to him, as he preemptively cut off all feeling in his entire body. But not feeling it wasn't enough, because he absolutely heard the sound of something snapping and he most definitely saw his arm moving in a way it wasn't supposed to. The force of spin had caused his free arm to fling out, and it had broken like a twig. Blood spilled from a multitude of cuts and scratches he sustained from the move, and he even coughed some up to drive the point home that she had done a number on him internally as well. Curiously, his blood wasn't red, but rather the same white color as the energy he attacked with, and it seemed to share in destructive potential as it began to cut like acid through everything it landed on. Watcher had a counter planned, but the final stage of Hiroki's attack changed his mind. Allowing his body to hang limply, he took the full force of all of her guns firing. But rather than cloak him in a raging inferno, the plasma stopped just before getting to him. It began to spin around him, coalescing into a disk which slowly spiraled inwards until it was harmlessly absorbed. There was a pause as Watcher composed himself, and then a burst of light exploded out of him, obliterating the Hellfire Knight's arm. Smirking casually, Watcher floated up into the air, a corona of light framing him giving the appearance of an angel. Strands of light stitched across his injured arm, bringing it back under his control. A burst of energy brought a weapon to Watcher's hand, a black trident that stood in contrast to his otherwise completely white getup. He pointed the trident at Hiroki, and loosed another attack in her direction. This time it wasn't simply a blast of raw destructive power, but instead loose bolts of power that looked like arcing electricity. They attacked the Hellfire Knight seemingly at random, taking off small chunks wherever they landed.

Grima It was several minutes, even slower from Grima's perspective, before Seeker stopped mumbling and wiped her face on her sleeve. She reached out to the device and activated it, causing it to glow red. "It's time, Cameron." she said, finally steeling herself for what she was about to do. A ray of light jumped from the Access Attain, seemingly scanning Seeker. And that was Grima's chance, as the scan was happening, Seeker's perception of the world outside her was completely cut off.

Tai As much as Tai's words might have meant to Temperance, she didn't react in the slightest to any of it. "It's no use, I've tried talking to her, words just aren't enough." Adam explained solemnly. Adam didn't blame Tai for Temperance's current state, their fight was regrettable, certainly, but the only person he felt comfortable blaming for this was himself. Temperance looked up to him, and he was certain she had forced her way into the tournament in an attempt to be more like him. Not that blame really mattered anymore, it was too late for that. "Look, I showed you this for a reason." Adam tried to get things on track, even as his own mind told him to take any other path, "I can't seek my own wants just yet, I need to save her first, I want your help. Everyone else has given up on her, but I can't just leave her like this. You didn't give up on me, so I thought maybe you might not give up on her either."