Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

"Of course. We can't risk the possibility that Enoch might attack us despite Hugo being with us.", Japhet says. "Enoch always doted over the boy, shared sweets with him, but with how he's changed..."

"Considering what he did with the Elsen, I'd be more surprised if he didn't attack because of Hugo's presence.", Zacharie says, and Japhet looks awkward due to the mention of the Elsen, who'd driven him to commit his own sins. He sighs.

"It is a fate too cruel.", he admits. Even with how furious he'd been towards the Elsen who forgot about him and his deeds, the processing of Zone 3 wasn't a fate he wished on anyone.

"I just hope this can end in a way that doesn't leave Hugo traumatized as hell," Nicole remarks.

Zacharie lowers his head a bit.

"So do I."

Japhet's expression, while he remains silent, says enough of its own, sharing in their opinion. He then hops onto Zacharie's head, sitting down in his hair.

"You good up there?", he jokingly asks, trying to bring some cheer back into the room. A little wiggle to get more comfortable is Japhet's answer. Zacharie then looks back at Nicole.

"Thanks for letting me ease my worries. If we somehow find Enoch before you and the automaton do, I promise I'll come get you before we go to him."

"Heh, no problem, Zach. And ya'll do manage to find him before me and Plat, I'll hopefully have backup ready to go by then," Nicole replies, flashing a smile at Zacharie.

At long last, the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. After putting out the fire, Miles broke the chains on the Hollow Knight and tossed them aside, "And with this, you're a free man...although..." He frowned at the sight of his wounds. He and the sisters had worked hard but it was clear the poor knight would need a lot more work before he returned to his prime.

"Why don't you join us for a while?" Nebula offered, having re-fused with her sister, "At least until you're all fixed up and you figure out what you want to do with your life?" The knight stood up and brushed past them before stopping at the cave's entrance and looking to them, "I'll take that as a yes."

Now with a new member, the group left the cave and headed down the trail and into the depths of Noctilum.

"I really keep owing you more and more, don't I?", he says, sounding happy. Then he snickers.

"At this rate, one day I might actually have to let you see my face in order to get even again, ahaha~", he jokingly says. He pats Nicole on her shoulder again.

"Au revior, mon amie."

"Yes, goodbye for now.", Japhet says as well. After that, the two of them leave.

???

In a ruined structure somewhere in the Arena, a tall but slender silhouette stands up, hunched over somewhat creepily and gazing in front of itself, eyes wide open.

"Hm... hm-mhm-hm...~"

It giggles.

"I fell asleep again. I've been so tired lately. ... But now I actually feel good to go again. :)"

It looks around for a bit.

"Time to go explore, yes. See what I can find. See if I can dance. My darling, are you here? :)"

Trudging forward despite the ground being flat, the silhouette disappears into the shadows, giggling yet more.

After a while, they may become aware of a flying silhouette steadily getting closer. It seems to be a large translucent flyer with glowing eyes that could be accurately described as a ghost ibis, upon which is mounted a non-translucent humanoid whose features are still difficult to distinguish.

The Hollow Knight found himself drawn to the world around him and the others were more than happy to let him explore and interact. He stopped to examine trees, flowers, and all sorts of other greenery. Even if he and his siblings were made to be without emotions or a voice, they clearly had a will of their own.

Nebula smiled and nodded as she watched from afar, only to see his head suddenly turn upwards sharply, "What's wrong?" The knight pointed with his one remaining arm up to the sky, causing the others to look up as well and see the flyer. The knight put his hand on his weapon, but Nebula stopped him, "You're still in no condition to fight...let us take care of this."

Her and Miles then stood together and watched the figure approach.

Defense simply puts a wall of energy in Horseshoe's way, attempting to block it from what it was trying to do.

Future!Chris is just staring in awe of what just happened.

"What. WHAT. WHAT!"

NLA

After bidding farewell to the departing Zacharie and Japhet, Nicole rises from her seat and departs from the restaurant, then spreads her dragon wings and flies off.

Scion of Thoth

The ghost ibis lands, making a short run before coming to a full stop next to the group. The woman riding it is now in full view. She is quite short, with white and blue hair, and looks at the group with glimmering golden eyes. Her expression is completely neutral and fairly cold. She has two very mangy-looking wings at her back, her head sports two short silvery horns and a crest resembling a wing, and she wears a gothic-style dress. A large tome inscribed with arcane glyphs continuously levitates around her.

Those sensitive to these sorts of things will notice that pretty much everything the woman wears is enchanted and so is her tome, her mount is a summoned creature from a different plane, and she has layers upon layers of beneficial enchantments stacked upon herself. However, her stance is completely relaxed, indicating that she is either not here to fight or does not perceive the people present as a threat. Maybe both.

A young boy and a large turtle stand in front of the castle, discussing future plans.

"So, we're doing what, now?"

"I heard there are some people I've previously worked with, even beyond Dedede, in this Arena. I want to track them down in case the worst happens."

"Huh. Well, that seems fine enough. Are you able to keep up, or should I try to make room?"

"I should be fine, thank you."

Suit yourself."

And with that, Shingo Yabuki climbs on a Wheelie Bike and speeds off, Bowser keeping pace on foot behind him.

"Hi there," Miles waved politely, clearly not feeling that intimidated, "Don't think we've run into each other before. I'm Miles, these are my friends Nebula and Corona," He gestured to the spider lady who briefly separated into her components before re-joining and doing a polite curtsy, "And this fella is...well, he doesn't really have a name but a title, the Hollow Knight. He, um...doesn't really have a voice..."

"Ah yes. You're the ones who have been making all sorts of waves in the Arena recently, then. News about the battle with the Destroyer of Worlds have reached every corner of this place." The woman waves rather lazily. "My name is Tokiko. I originate from the same plane as Mystia and Rumia, whom you have already met. Earth M-2314, as it is designated in Mal'zermairh's Expanded Planar Codex. I am curious about your potential. Sense Magic Aura."

As she says these last words, her eyes glow blue as she attempts to detect the level of magic power that Miles, Nebula, and the Hollow Knight present.

"Oh, you know about that, huh?" Miles scratched the back of his neck nervously while Nebula simply looked away, "Well, it's a lot more complicated than that. We did what we could to help but it was a team effort with Thor, Sonic, a Saiyan named Callis, and so on, but even so...I kinda ended up dying right at the end, anyways." He shrugged.

Nebula cleared her throat, "Scan us if you want but trust us when we say our magic potential isn't that great. There's people in this world who are leagues stronger than us put together and got more experience to boot."

She shrugs. "I believe that to be an overly conservative estimation. I would estimate your magical energy level to be at some 85 mordens, distinctly above average among the residents of this conflux. What's more, I can sense the ability to use multiple schools of magic to an impressive effect, with potential for further growth and some very curious quirks I cannot even fully explain. Though, the creature that accompanies you is even more curious. Instead of radiating magic, it seems to be in the negative mordens... a living void. A very rare and curious case. I have heard of such beings but I have never witnessed one myself."

Edited by Arachnos on Sep 19th 2018 at 9:04:49 AM

"Oh, um...thanks, I guess?" Miles wasn't sure what to make of all that but it sounded like a compliment so he'd take it as one. Upon hearing her impression of Hollow Knight, he found himself nodding in agreement, "You're actually more right thank you think. The reason he appears like a living void in terms of magic is cause...technically, he IS a living Void."

"In fact, he was born out of the Void itself," Nebula added, nodding to their friend who tilted their head at being addressed, "...But he's spent a long time carrying a terrible burden on his shoulders which means he's no longer in his prime. We're hoping with time and enough care that might change."

Krampus makes more spikes from different to directions to damage the loan sharks further, although more preoccupied with the skelecog. He teleports to it, and would attempt to punch it in the chest with such force, perhaps Krampus's hand would go straight through it's chest?

   "Exciting!"    He says with sarcasm and annoyance.

"Fascinating... This would warrant further study, though unfortunately, I don't believe I myself have any way to access either kind of magic. On that note, are you capable f utilizing conventional, incantation-based magic, or 'wizardry' in layman's terms? Or are you limited to instinctual magic, or 'sorcery'?"

Miles and the gang looked at each other like Tokiko had grown a second head and started reciting Shakespeare, "Well...it depends," Miles began, "Some of our magic is instinctive like my ability to manipulate Ki energy in that I visualize what I want the energy to become and then exert the force needed to shape it, kind of like clay."

"Other magic, like mine, requires a bit more...finesse if you will," Nebula explained, "Due to how my ability works, I need to be able to form some type of connection with the magic I want to use. I find Elemental Magics to be easiest for that. Anything more complicated or "abstract" is kinda outside my expertise."

The Hollow Knight simply glanced back and forth between the duo before finally pointing his arm at Miles as if to say "What he said".

"I see... well, if your grasp on some of the absolute bases of the magic system is this poor, then I highly doubt any of you have ever so much as seen a magical tome," she sighs.

"Oh, we've seen magic tomes before," Miles shrugged yet again, "Though we haven't really had a reason to use that kind of thing. I mean, more power to you if that's your kind of thing, but I guess we just don't have the patience or the resources. We're on the move a lot after all."

"We'll also have you know that we're more than capable of thinking outside the box when it comes to our type of magic." Nebula huffed and crossed her arms.

"I imagine that not everyone is blessed with my power to read and understand any book," Tokiko muses. "Still, innate powers are usually inherently limited in their scope. I would love to further estimate your capacity to make use of them in combat, but I doubt a stake-less spar with me would tell me anything about your abilities that I can't already figure out myself."

Nebula's eye twitched but she took a deep breath and composed herself, "Alright...I suppose actions do speak louder than words..." With that said, she suddenly vanished into thin air only to reappear a foot or two behind Tokiko with a couple of apples in her grasp from a tree that was quite far from where they stood.

She took a bite of one apple, "How was that?"

"I suppose that is moderately impressive. Still, any wizard of moderate renown will have mastered teleportation at this range. It is not exactly a unique capability."