"A divine entity... I see."
Landia now fully looks back at the door. "Watch yourself if you decide to go in there. It's a restaurant where the food is good, but one of the waitresses... she is frightening. The place taught me something - according to their time, the doors only appear once every seven days, on Saturday or its equivalent in another world. However, in the Arena, their appearances are much more sporadic and random. That must mean that time flows unnaturally here."
He shakes his crown-head. "Ah, sorry for the rambling."
Reyna nods and deactivates the Ancient Bladesaw, putting it on her back. She then walks up and joins Varik at the table.
"Hey Varik, y'want something like this? Can't promise it'll turn out as cool, but I can throw something together from the scraps."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Shadow shakes his head.
"No, not at all. In fact, I was actually worried about not contacting you sooner. With what I know, and what I felt in the past days, the urgency of the situation far outweighs anything I'd usually want to do anyway. Now, as I'm sure everybody knows, is not the time to sit idly by."
He gives a grateful smile to Pilly.
"Good to hear. Thanks for that, I appreciate it."
He nods.
"Yes, indeed I did. Well, more of an aura, actually, filled with anger and loathing, like the feeling itself was alive, and despised every fiber of my being. And, this may be very concerning to hear, but...it's not the first time I've felt that particular aura clashing with me. When the newer incarnation of Devil Areui was active, Areui, Kirue, and I cornered him in a climactic confrontation. I tried to talk him down, but he grew enraged, and rose into the air. He began to manifest runic marks, and a strange, malevolent energy signature overlapped his own, which sent the two Angels into a panic. It was only after the confrontation had ended that the two informed me of the source of the energy, which I have once more sensed staring me in the face from that staff. You see, they told me that said energy was tied to..."
His expression darkens.
"...Navitus. The two said that Areui must have come into contact with one of the artifacts at some point he doesn't even remember, causing some of the evil energy to rub off on him, as it were."
"Life isn't a fairytale. There isn't always a 'Happily Ever After' waiting for you at the end of the road." ~ Isengrim Heath-StalkerThe Factory
Rho noted Blue's charge, and ordered his summon to intercede — which it did in appropriately dramatic fashion by leaping from its perch and attempting pin Blue under its front two legs while unloading a twinned deluge of rapid, needle-like crystal darts!
Rho himself decided to back off, firing off an arcane pulse near his feet as he jumped back to propel himself further away. He wasn't even entirely sure where he had learned that, but everything was happening a bit too quickly to question right now.
"I don't want to hurt you blue, but if we... if we have to—!"
He couldn't even finish his sentence, so thick were the choking emotions that rose in his throat at the thought that crossed his mind.
"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalousRho order his summon to retreat as quickly as possible — which it did, and that's good. However, due to the sawblades, it was severely off-balance on landing and tumbled over as its base and legs attempted to reset in order to bring it upright — which was bad. It would need at least another turn to flip up and get back in order.
In an attempt to buy his summon some more time, Rho swung his staff directly at Blue's head, attempting to daze his corrupted friend for long enough to allow the others to recover.
"Blue, if you're still in there, I'm sorry for what I have to do!"
"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalous"I'd spend pretty much all of my time on preparations until a few days ago, so you don't have to feel bad about that.", Pseudo says.
Both he and his sister then listen intently to what Shadow says.
"I'd heard a bit from this confrontation from Claus. Apparently one of the angels... the blonde one, I think, told Alex about it, who is friends with Claus. There was no mention of Navitus back then though, so the angel might not have told him about that part."
"You felt like it was alive and angry? ... that would actually go with what's said in that document too, right?", Pilly asks, turning to Pseudo, who looks troubled.
"A document we obtained mentioned not only that aura, but also that the staff seemed to whisper the name Navitus to the Queen. Mara has also told us some more details about the legend of Navitus that I believe you might want to hear, just in case the angels didn't know about them."
He sits down in his chair before continuing.
"I'm not sure how much of the legend you know, so I'll quickly go through the important things we were told. Navitus belonged to the first real 'race' of the world, ancient beings with hidden powers, who lived in a stasis of peace. Navitus, for an unknown reason, wasn't content with this, so they, speculated of being a crafter by trade, crafted the artifacts to unlock their power. Ironically, their power and hatred would be sealed within those very artifacts, and despite the attempts to keep them locked in what I'm guessing is Heaven, seeing as Mara told us Arch Angels were the race that would come after the original race, the artifacts eventually made their way into mortal worlds and started causing havoc whenever someone came across them."
"Time moves unnaturally... that would explain the feeling I've had since I first arrived here.", Sothis says. She then appears amused.
"I don't mind. It's nice to find someone interesting to talk to."
After swallowing his food, Varik answers.
"I dunno. My sword's one of a kind, I don't think I'd want to replace it with another one."
He taps his sword.
"It's called Planetbuster. ... I didn't name it so don't judge me.", he says. "The legends say that, if you concentrate and gather energy for long enough, a swing from this blade can cut through anything or anyone, even if they're millions of times stronger than you are."
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Domon's strike indeed failed to cut off anything, and as Blue rose from the ground again, Rho's strike did little more than ensure his attention was solidly on him. With a surprising burst of agility, he jumped Rho, attempting to shove him back into the wall and daze him momentarily.
Domon, not being under under attack at the moment, may notice something - the pile of shards left before beginning to subtly shift and glow.
Domon pauses and looks at the shards. He can't really do anything to 'help' there, so he just focuses on the fight at hand, going for a wild Blade Spam on Blue.
"Well, then."
Landia stretches his wings. Sothis may feel some kind of pull from the crown on his head - an unnatural desire for it.
"I was thinking... more like a backup," Reyna notes. "Y'know, like if you get disarmed you can pull that out too and surprise 'em."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Rho, being a mage and not a warrior, was quite easily shoved, and was soundly dazed — though he managed to stay on his feet and conscious, to his credit.
The Psikros War-Golem finally righted itself, and immediately fired off another Soul Tether, this one attempting to yank Blue back and away from its master. It 'howled', for lack of a better word, and then attempted to stomp with its frontmost legs once again!
"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalousWhile Sothis' divine presence prevents her from giving in to that desire, she does still sense it.
"That crown of yours looks really nice... but it's giving off a dangerous aura."
"That sounds handy, but with me carrying my shield on my back I don't know if I have enough space to carry an extra weapon.", he says. Then he appears thoughtful.
"Do these weapons come in a smaller size? Maybe a dagger that I can strap to my belt would help. Now I wonder if I could enhance its power with my magic."
Edited by DevilPsyco on Jul 22nd 2020 at 9:28:57 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Two sawblades started parrying Domon's strikes as the other two attempt to strike Rho - but are stopped by the Soul Tether jerking Blue backwards. He stayed on his feet, and barely moved, but it did buy just a moment as he focused on breaking its hold first.
Suddenly, from behind Blue, there was a bright blue flash - Rho wouldn't be able to see what was going on, but Domon's angle let him, and it would only be moments before Rho found out too.
"It's not over!"
Blue finally broke the tether and brought his blades down directly on Rho - or rather, where Rho had been, carving two huge gashes into the wall. For Rho, right as the blades came down, there was a blur of motion, and he was suddenly situated several meters away from where he had been attacked, and had Domon between him and Blue. Beside him, Cyan appeared, with a determined look. "Try to get him in the middle of the room, and pin him down. I have an idea."
"Well, I really hope you can keep regenerating, then!" Domon strafes to a good position and does a spinning slice with his sword, sending forth a chain of explosions to try and knock Blue towards the center - and also, if lucky, knock him down to make the 'pinning' part easier. However, his slash cuts a wide arc through the air, putting Cyan and Rho at risk too.
"I get that a lot." Landia's heads all look aside, suggesting it's something of a touchy subject.
"It is for everyone else's sakes that I wear it, so that none may be tempted to wield it with ill intent."
"Fuggit, I can do a dagger, no problem. BRB."
Reyna gets up and runs back down to the smithy.
Edited by KiriK on Jul 22nd 2020 at 12:33:24 PM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Shadow gives another grateful look to Pseudo, and then nods.
"Yeah, that's Kirue, Areui's brother. Surprised that they didn't mention Navitus, but I do believe I understand why, considering they were scared out of their minds when Devil Areui channeled the being's aura. From what I know, which admittedly isn't as much as I'd like, Navitus had an extreme murderous hatred toward the Divine, so Angels and Deities alike are some their most hated targets. I suppose it would make sense for Navitus' energy to seek out a powerful Devil to bond itself to, then, since what else would be a better vessel to assault the divine than an inherently unholy being?"
He frowns.
"I figured as much...the energy signature certainly felt old. And I know old. As one step removed from the creator of my universe, I'm the oldest being active within it. It honestly disturbs me that an entity with a more-or-less similar past to mine took those great gifts that they were given and abused them so harshly. And the artifacts...well, I suppose that explains a little more of how Areui could've ended up siphoning off some of Navitus' essence. The moment I noticed the energy emanating from the staff, I initially tried to keep my cool in order to avoid sullying our negotiation attempts, until I caught it essentially whispering in the Queen's ear. I gave the staff a covert but pointed glare, as I had deduced that it was in fact intelligent, and, as if confirming my suspicions, the wrathful feeling flared up with a vengeance. So it can be said that this staff, if not already being the true occupant of the seat of power in the Cyber Angel Kingdom, is quite likely at least the Queen's conspiratorial advisor with aspirations of becoming so."
"Life isn't a fairytale. There isn't always a 'Happily Ever After' waiting for you at the end of the road." ~ Isengrim Heath-StalkerRho seemed a bit blue-screened after his near-run-in with The Collector of Souls, but once he snapped to, he decided to get a feel for the elevated areas of the room — if indeed there were any. If not, he would just pulse-jump over to the opposite side from Blue, roughly lined with the middle of the area.
"Is this one of those plans that you can explain or does it work best if we don't know the whole thing?"
His summon shot some individual crystalline missiles at Blue while skittering and hopping around the room semi-chaotically, most likely being not much more than a massive nuisance to Blue for the time being.
"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalousPseudo looks more troubled.
"It's too bad you've already dealt with this Devil Areui. If he were still around, capturing him would've allowed us to research the energy, and perhaps figure out if we have anyone worthy of wielding it."
"Would that work? The document also said that researching the energy didn't work.", Pilly noes.
"Ack, that's right. I forgot about that detail."
Then he looks worried.
"You believe the staff is using the Queen to attain a position of power? That's, admittedly, a possibility. But even if that's the case and it ends up succeeding, it's not going to change our situation."
Suddenly a beep can be heard from the monitor, and when the two chimera turn to look, they'll see a notification.
"The next part has been translated.", Pseudo says.
"So it turns out that the book Tahn stole was a diary. Pseudo's been trying to look through the chapters that get translated to see if he can find any helpful details.", Pilly explains to Shadow. "Not me though. Diaries are personal things and I'm not gonna look through someone else's. So I'll leave him to it."
After that she walks out of the room and into the hallway.
"Going by the few chapters that have been translated, it seems to belong to a young, outgoing girl, possibly from the time before the Cyber Angels became who they are.", Pseudo says to Shadow, after which he glances at him.
"I'll explain what I mean by that in a moment. Until then... do you want to read through this chapter with me?"
"So you're a guardian? I must commend you, that cannot be easy.", Sothis says, looking sympathetic.
"I wish I could do something to make the ordeal easier. But my powers aren't really helpful for situations like this."
"Wait, I didn't necessarily mean right n-and she's gone."
He turns back to his plate and resumes eating, waiting for her to return.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Hael Storm shrugs. "Like that clarifies a brickin' thing!"
"My other heads are for that purpose. They keep me company."
Landia... sort-of smirks. "With the Master Crown's power, I could solve everyone's problems just like that. But to tap into that energy is to risk my free will and sanity."
After a few seconds, there's another, smaller flare of blue fire, and Reyna comes running back up with the dagger that gets strapped to an arrow shaft to make an Ancient Arrow.
"It's like a switchblade, but it's a laser switchblade. There's a button on the side you have to push in to activate the blade."
Edited by KiriK on Jul 22nd 2020 at 1:06:28 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Domon's strike sent Blue flying, particularly since Rho's summon was distracting him from actually bracing for it. He went tumbling, and landed quite nicely in the centre of the room - although he began to get up straight away.
Cyan wasn't too concerned with Domon's strike, simply flash-stepping over the explosions and to Rho when he landed. "The shard is healing him, and sustaining the corruption - but it's gotta be exposed to do so. So pin him, and do some damage. Do. Not. Kill him." Cyan flash stepped over to Blue, giving him a quick shove to make sure he doesn't regain his balance, and give some time for either of the two to pin him, before flash stepping away again.
"I agree, taking that risk is a horrible idea.", Sothis says. "If that crown is really that dangerous, you might end up replacing the problems that you solved."
Varik looks thrilled when he sees the dagger.
"This looks awesome!", he happily says as he takes it. For a brief moment his eyes are visible again. And Reyna, if she catches this moment, might notice that, while they still look really exhausted, they actually appear to be looking better than last time.
In fact, his complexion itself also looks a bit better than it did before. He still doesn't look outright healthy, but it's definitely an improvement.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Domon springs up to the ceiling and attempts to land on top of Blue with enough force to momentarily concuss him. If Domon gets the chance, he will then proceed to wrap Blue's extra limbs against his normal arms in a tight arm-locking pin.
"Well, sounds like I'm right at home!" Hael Storm laughs and does a finger-guns gesture at Bokuko.
"I know someone who had that fate. He manipulated a frighteningly powerful yet equally gullible hero into conflict with me, and stole the crown for himself. Despite my other heads being creations of the crown, they remained, and we helped destroy him. However, the crown returned, so I once again took the mantle of its protector."
"Talking about me~?" inquires a shrill voice.
"... He's HERE!?"
"Heh." Reyna chuckles. "I knew you'd like it. But it'll break eventually, so you'll have to see me about replacing it every so often."
She places an order, then says, "Say... you're looking a lot better than before."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Shadow sighs.
"You see, that's a bit of a tense subject. As neatly as the situation regarding Devil Areui did end up resolved, it was still one of the most personal things I've ever had to face in the Arena, owing to my friendship with Areui, which runs just as old and deep as my friendship with Claus. Both of them were just about the first people I met and befriended in the Arena, and, well, they've both been through unimaginable odds to be where they are now. So, I don't think I'd have exactly condoned experimentation on Devil Areui, even just his energy signature, to put it politely."
He nods.
"If the staff is half as smart as the being that created and was imprisoned inside it, then it may unfortunately be a near-guarantee. At least we know that, should we be able to defeat the staff, it should have some theoretical positive effect in removing the major corruptive effect on the Cyber Angels."
He raises an eyebrow when he hears the beep, glancing briefly toward the monitor. He listens to Pilly, tilting his head in curiosity, and then smirks.
"Ah, I see...and that's some impressive morals, too! As a Divine keeper of Secrets, myself, that's nice to hear. I do oversee the darker flipside, as well, to keep the balance between Secrets and Deceit, but I don't abuse my station. I can appreciate your concern."
He gives a respectful nod to Pilly as she leaves the room, and then looks back to Pseudo.
"Well, that sounds so significant that I don't think I really have a choice. And, ah, don't worry. I can glean a lot through even a single chapter. Goes with the territory."
"Life isn't a fairytale. There isn't always a 'Happily Ever After' waiting for you at the end of the road." ~ Isengrim Heath-StalkerSeeing the way Charlotte froze up at the question, Miles quickly realized that this was a delicate subject matter and needed to be handled as such. He once more bent down to Charlotte's level.
"Charlotte..." He said in what he hoped was a gentle tone,"If this topic makes you sad or uncomfortable, don't feel like you have to talk about it. You deserve your privacy as much as anyone else does, and we're going to respect that," He gave a small smile,"But if or when you feel ready...well, there'll be people you can share with, I promise."
Suddenly, Corona came out with a couple of pies already rolled out and set them on the counter,"I apologize again about before. I let myself get carried away. To make up for it, you can each put your own toppings on the pizzas and we'll cook them."
Edited by GamerXZ on Jul 22nd 2020 at 2:24:56 AM

Pseudo... well, he remains as stoic as ever, even if he did get surprised by how... immediate Shadow appearing was compared to last time.
"Indeed we do. I hope we're not calling on you at a bad time."
"We got a summation of how your negotiations went from Wanda and Pietro, but after what happened a few days ago, Pseudo figured it's best to talk to you in person before we even think of making our next move.", Pilly says. "You see... well..."
"According to Wanda and Pietro, you got a bad feeling about that staff the Cyber Angel Queen carries, correct?"
"You may call me Sothis. As for what I am, according to a human I met, I'm a goddess.", she says. "I don't have any memories of that right now, but there was something about that human that makes me feel I can trust her on her word."
Varik looks very impressed and awed by the sword switching appearance. It helps that it consists of three pretty awesome things.
He can't really say anything out loud though... because his mouth's full of food.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Jul 22nd 2020 at 8:24:12 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.