Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

The Tower

Cryoph answered URKEL and Sebastian as he looked to the crowds.

"Obviously the leaders are here discussing things... So some parts of their armies followed... No one seems too happy about it though."

The Compass looked to The Vanguards and bowed her head, before motioning for them to enter the tower, as she passed the gathering room and made her way up the stairs.

"Glad you all made it, a lot is going on, what with Skyrim, Lourent, and Estraole all under attack... I'm The Compass by the way, speaker for the Mekansm. If you have recently become a vanguard, I can answer your questions."

V102

Skolas sees his shot get deflected, and the massive Silent Person stomps his foot in the ground and chitters to himself quietly, raking his bottom pair of claws against the ground.

Tighnari finally sat up, just in time to see at first, Hyu's face be cleaved straight off. Yet it didn't ... Move like flesh. It rolled to the side a shocked expression with eyes and lips leaking out sanguine streams, as Hyu's form shifted uncomfortably. The unified tail split apart, into several powerful yet ribbon like tendrils. Infact, what started at the tail soon moved up the body, as they became a far darker tone of flesh, like those of deep sea ceophalods. The shoulder and arms became ribbon like as well, though the massive scaled gauntlets that were her hands remained, granted now even more hammer like than before. Where her face had been, was a medusa-jelly like mantle, with pale white eyes glaring from beneath the translucent veil. Hyu looked down to where her body had been, her view trailing over to her mask on the ground.

Hyu paused for but a second before turning to V102, the jellyfish like cap lifting revealing a snarling blue face, beastial with red fangs curved like some vengeful Oni. She lunged again, hoping to tackle V102 and continue her assault, though obviously now trying to tackle her into the next best thing. Grimgor wasn't happy his attack had just been not onlt blocked, but that V102 wasn't giving him her undivided attention, and roared out in fury as he tried to take his axe to her back, hoping to stick in their and cut it open.

Tighnari meanwhile knew he couldn't use his magic in this instance and was plotting of what else to do, looking around the scenery for some clue.

The Rangdan meanwhile was close enough now that the newer brawlers and V102 herself had to avoid the whirling ropes of flaming energy, as the Rangdan unceremoniously moved it Horizontally across to try and catch the abstract woman off guard.

Kaaleb watch it all. The confession, and the conclusion. One could read in his brow a negative reaction. Not one of wrath or annoyance, and one from an outside glance could have viewed it as pity or disappointment. Kaaleb looked to the new arrival, to the sky, and walked around, far more bold as he gently glided behind Eve, and qeaved himself to Nagato. Not to distract them or weird them out, but just a casual distraction, before speaking up to V102.

   "Free will is an odd thing. When removed willingly, it is a beautiful transformation. To rid yourself of shackles. To rid yourself of consequence and love. You know this well. But you are bound in new chains. You fight not out of fear but to inflict fear. That's all you are. And that is so, so beautiful."   

He looked to his Axe, as it salivated at the sight of the carnage. But Kaaleb didn't seemed to satisfied, and held out his hand to her, the black and white flame dancing in his palm.

   "I can not sever your fate. You have condemned yourself to another master. But I can only ask, that when the end comes. You will walk unto my court, and kill yourself upon your own scythe. Because I see now, that the Final Truth will always elude you."   

Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Feb 6th 2023 at 5:09:58 AM

Anna

Anna nods towards wet hat, before saying "I'm versed in my studies. Although I'm losing my touch a little..."

She looks to Icarus soon after, before saying "I can also supply you with some basic arcane sciences textbooks, for understanding basic principles of arcane magic and various philosophies, the planes, and so on. Cheaper objects are not often the best research samples..."

She then thinks over the mention of circuitry again, however, and realizes... "Wait, you just casually handle these circuits? Do you have any knowledge on anything more advanced in terms of the mundane sciences past that such as..."

She reaches into a compartment below her desk, before huffing a bit as she lifts a large object onto the desk. around 14 pounds. She lays it down, and says "Such as this?"

It's a railgun. It's an infantry railgun. One which is designed to utilize scrap metal to fire out at frankly ridiculous distances and velocities.

And it iss in the possession of a wizard.

"This is technology from numeria, the land of starfall. Or rather, technology FOUND in numeria, brought here by starfall... And... it works completely without arcane intervention."

She finally asks Icarus "I know this operates with electricity and possibly magnets. But I want to know more. Is this familliar to you?"

Scug?

The Slugcat, while maybe able to understand, doesnt have the time for philosophy. Its panicking, as reality decides to fuck itself. The creature tosses another spear at V102, with a cognition similar to a silent prayer that it lands. The creature is outmatched, but, it will still die if it refuses to fight.

aaaa

Tower

December nods, before saying "My systems have already recieved some information on this "Vanguard" designation. But I'm sure other people here have questions."

Edited by ReynTheLord on Feb 6th 2023 at 7:21:43 AM

The Tower

   Leaders? Armies? Is it one of those political shenanigans? Because I'm not interested in that kind of bee-es.   

Eve remains stoic in the face of Trickery's unleashed power, might scarcely seen in the Multiverse, so she knows her chances to be dim if she panics. Plus, she has generous experience in all manners of fighting: the ground may split, the sky collapse and the air torn and bend, yet Eve will get her spell off no matter what. For she foresaw that it could be useful in taking him down. Why, if things worked out well, she was certain she could kill the beast.

Yet she smiles seeing it hurt anyway, feeling like fate is telling her that this is no doomed errand. You're holding your own, good! Eve keep focusing though, eyes wide but face stoic as Trickery barrels down at her. Teammates are good to have and she has a defensive dome. Who could pierce through an armada, a lightning-frost demonness and a powerful shield held in place with runes plucked from the faraway ruins of Avalon, forged further in the bedrock of reality, grafted unto a sword matching the King of Avalon's legendary blade?

Cracks spread all over the dome, its surface a twisted puzzle more than anything. Eve doesn't show fear but she feels apprehensive for sure, watching Filia be tossed away as Icarus deals with his own obstacle. The advantage is that the dome will block the next attack before shattering but Trickery is about to throw a millions at once at this rate, and she feel like getting an opportunity to cast the spell off won't happen again now that he knows what she's setting out to do.

Nidrugg spins around her, the scythe an impromptu last line of defense. Eve can simply hope that her allies will galvanize, this can still be salvaged..

A FEW SECONDS EARLIER...

Knowing Trickery to be powerful and tricky (duh), Eve moves. Should the beam be split in three successfully, its three blue orbs float around Eve, and she points to Trickery, using Blast Magic to shoot hundred of beams each from the orbs, saturating the battlefield with lines and lines of lasers, impacting the surface of the island hard as multiple blue explosions gas sickly spores surround the orbs, black and yellow orbs orbiting around the casting spells.

The beams are numerous and fast but neither accurate nor strong, meaning to hit Trickery to push him back and toss him about without being dangerous to him unless he remains in there for too long. But some are starting to be imbued with a particular spell: Death Magic, which Eve saw he wasn't immune to last time. Her Death Magic isn't potent no matter what, clone or not, it's Death. But she can shape it better. Either way, the orbs remain in place no matter what energy is leaking from them. Because Eve is making sure they never run out.

A single application of Time Magic within the orbs cause a very localized loop in their cores to activate after a certain time, bringing their energy back to what it was seconds earlier, when first formed. Essentially: unless interfered with, they'll never run out of energy, and can happily spam away at Trickery.

BLAST MAGIC + TIME MAGIC + DEATH MAGIC

And because this is the past, Trickery's past self will treat these beams the same way he treated the original ones: he'll try to tank or deflect, dangerous as they might be. If Trickry can't reach into the past, his only option is stopping Eve in the present to avoid dying in the future. And poised as he is to do that, he need to be careful. Although he doesn't need to worry now about the Death Magic, since Eve is only starting to rewrite the past.

As for Filia and Icarus, the more things go, the more they'll just remember Eve using Death Magic. It's not a memory matter. It's time. Time being rewritten. And though they will be aware something's up, should Time be fully rewritten, then not even they will remember what Eve did. Because that's what's being messed with: Time, the flow of things.

Eve stands in the middle of her dome in a transe, face blank, one hand stopping the counter-clockwise motion for a few seconds... to begin a regular clockwise spin with her index and middle finger after the brief pause, signaling that she's now going back to the present. As for her other hand, it darts and spasms around, as if writing on paper.

TIME MAGIC

Trickery narrows its luminous eyes at Eve, able to discern immediately what Eve is doing, but unfortunately, while multiversal travel is among Trickery's abilities, going back in time is not. What Trickery is capable of, however, is absorption, and it just so happens it got a big bite of a certain demoness. Trickery's motive for seeking a 'real' demon would become blatant. Trickery's aura continues to flare in strength, growing further and further like an uncontrolled blaze in a forest. It seems to have no peak; until Eve's altering of the past by even the slightest moment suddenly douses Trickery's aura in a thick deluge of water, quelling it briefly.

Trickery falls to one knee, hacking up blood and suddenly becoming much more exhausted. Trickery snarls, looking straight up when Icarus unleashes another deluge of missiles, focusing most of its attention solely on the voiding rays accompanying them. Trickery leaps backward with terrible force and speed to create significant distance between itself and Icarus's assault, calling upon the blood it took from Filia for greater strength.

What Eve had taken away was replenished with double the vitality and strength, which again began to grow exponentially. Trickery now regarded Icarus as a threat, especially with so many voiding rays. With Filia's blood coursing through Trickery's veins, the entity screeches, unleashing lightning from its fingertips at the rockets.

The rockets explode mid-air before ever reaching Trickery, either from the raw force of the lightning or some reaction. Trickery flapped its wings once and rocketed forward, calling once again upon Filia's power to freeze the air around it to slow the void rays to a complete crawl so it could fly past them without any issue. Trickery starts flying straight for Eve again.

Trickery causes the landscape to begin wildly changing and cooling down, massive pillars of ice so large they could be considered mountains erupting from the ground everywhere, which should wreak havoc on Icarus's bases.

Filia stared up in shock at Trickery's use of her powers; but quickly surmised the reason, looking down at the gnashing tooth marks dotted upon her forearm. She clutches her father's blade tightly, unbothered by the ever-dropping cold. Filia hoists the blade over her shoulder, using her dominion over ice to cause ice to erupt from the ground right beneath her. She uses the force to be sent rocketing forward at Trickery, trying to intercept the entity halfway to Eve.

Trickery sees Filia coming, laughing.

   "MORE BLOOD?! DON'T MIND IF I DO!"   

It says, rocketing an elastic hand forward to catch Filia by the throat mid-air. Trickery briefly turns its eyes to Eve, unleashing all the rest of the power it stole from Filia plus some of its own at Eve all at once. The ice dome would quickly chill down to a level that freezes all the air within, and Eve too, if she were caught. On top of that, more than a dozen lightning strikes fire off at the dome to completely obliterate Eve.

If all that weren't enough, Trickery unleashes another pair of atomizing eye beams. Turning its attention back to Filia, Trickery sinks its sharpened fingers into Filia's neck. Filia struggles against Trickery's grip, feeling its fingers sink deeper and deeper into her tough demonic flesh.

   "I must admit, I forgot how tough you demons are, not a very tender bunch."   

Filia choked and retorted with a whisper.

   "We are not food, freak."   

Filia grasps Trickery's elongated arm with hers, snap-freezing the entity's entire arm and snapping it like glass in an instant. Trickery doesn't react in the slightest. The demoness drops through the air, taking a deep breath and cauterizing her wound by freezing the blood leaking from her throat. Before she hits the ground, Filia fires a lightning bolt out of her back and into Trickery's chest, sending the entity reeling backward through the air.

Tower of Power

"I'm guessing that's where we come in then?" Sebastien asks, mostly rhetorically. "Where are we headed next?"

He looks at the newbies but isn't the social butterfly type so he decides to let Cryoph handle the introduction. Though he does respond to URKEL.

"More likely we'll have to go and either help defend some place or strike at the enemy." he clarifies.

Markarth

"I might take one or two textbooks...", Icarus responds. "Thing is, I do want to perform some experiments that aren't necessarily given in said textbooks. I assume the knowledge given is on roughly an atomic level - but with the dawn of multiversal physics, that's not enough for me. Besides, who knows what the textbooks are missing out on that me or Exotic Ventures could find out if we did some experimentation. Are you sure you don't have research samples? Like this floating rock of yours?"

A crate secured on a rover safely lands outside. Icarus seemingly ignores it, and instead examines the device.

"Dunno, I can take it apart if you want to. Any ideas what it does?"

VS Trickery

The ground bases do break down partially. The steel domes get ripped out from their anchoring and now loosely lie on top, preventing any weapon fire. One final voiding ray gets shot between Filia and Trickery, aimed in such a way to not hurt Filia or limit her movement, and then the engineers get to work dismantling the bases again. Looks like EV is pulling away...

...but it only looks that way. Trickery may be able to sense something across universes - if he tries to focus on it, he'll only feel his senses towards it being amputated, as if the fingers with which he's sensing (or whatever metaphor you prefer) simply disappear. As it turns out, the odd universe simply doesn't support his existence, and reshapes it into something compatible instead.

What Trickery can sense in that other universe, however, is a floating construction, placed right around the island, with a central element exactly where he is... Before he can figure out what it does, two metal blades suddenly appear right at the central element's position. If they're successfully placed inside Trickery, they then start rotating in opposite directions of each other, hopefully cutting up his flesh.

Another drone falls from the sky - this one has a white and green paintjob, with a green cross on the sides of its hull. It carefully approaches Filia, carrying bandages underneath itself.

Luin thought still about a potential return gift, and though one eluded her for a brief moment, she came to a sudden and well-timed realization.

"Hold on a second, I'll be right back." She stated, turning and slipping away into a hallway. Some thirty seconds later she returned, red leather pouch in hand. She set it down on the table in front of Dawn and stepped back. "As thanks. It's an Item Pouch, carries a lot more than it looks. This one’s filled with shit that'll probably help you on your travels. You got four different types of potions in there, they'll heal your…Uh, pokeymans right up. There’s the normal potion and the mega potion, those are the green liquids. Then you also got two max potions and an ancient potion, those look like pills. The max potions will heal them completely, and the ancient potion'll not just heal them, but put them in prime condition. Then you got the Nulberries, blue nuts that'll absolve your buddies of just about any sort of status effort. Poisoned? No problem! Really really wet or frozen? Easy peasy. They're on fire? This'll put them out…Somehow. Not sure how it works, but it does. There yellow energy drinks in there too, they’ll keep your monsters from falling asleep and they'll even boost their stamina. There's some steaks in there, too, that fully restore their stamina. You got might seeds and adamant seeds, red and tan respectively. The might seed'll raise your monster's energy flow when they eat one, making them hit a hell of a lot harder, and the adamant seed is gonna harden their muscle tissue so they take less damage. There's two drawstring bags full of dust of life, just reach in there and throw it around. The dust'll immensely heal any injuries it lands on.

"But wait, there's more. You got flash bombs and sonic bombs, that do exactly what they sound like. Sonic bombs especially are good for fishing burrowing creatures out of the ground, while flash bombs will temporarily blind most creatures. Finally, shock and pitfall traps. Those are the little discs, they're easy to set up. Put it on the ground, press the button in the middle, and they'll do the rest. More often than not, any creature large enough to set them off is gonna be incapacitated for a few moments, but I'd use them sparingly. There's only one of each."

>potion
>super potion
>literally max potions
>full restore
>lum berries
>ether and elixir
>x attack and x defend
>energy powder
>the backpack she's wearing right now

Okay, the literal grenades are new for her, but unfortunately most of this is stuff she has in abundance. Fortunatey, Dawn has terminal 'RPG protagonist' status and as such is genuinely delighted to receive all sorts of crap, even stuff she already has tons of.

"Oh, wow! Thanks so much! I... well, thanks!"

it's more than she's probably gotten from any one item ball at least

The bag goes. Into her bag. Shwoop.

Edited by Rbade on Feb 7th 2023 at 3:31:58 AM

Luin looks at the camera.

"Oh ho! It just dawned on me…I have to meet someone in Skyrim!"

A laugh track plays. She and Landslide break out laughing. Her skin melts away, leaving only bone. Her eyeballs are liquidated and fall from her sockets, forming a puddle on the floor. Her lower jaw collapses. The house around her burns. It burns away. The flames consume all. Nothing remains. Nothing, save for her spirit crying out, everlasting pain disguised by laughter.

The moment the spacetimewaterocean disappeared, Set Lei returned himself to his fleshy, humanoid form.

He lashed out to strike, sending a powerful bolt of lightning from his outstretched hands and at V102, preparing himself to follow up with a close-ranged attack.

The Tower

The Lone Centurion, like a good little soldier, followed his orders and remained quiet through the whole thing. These continents being under attack was news to him, but he asked nothing because he'd certainly be hearing about it one way or the other soon enough.

Nuba, meanwhile, raised one of her extra skeletal arms.    "I have a question! Typically, how many bodies would you say are buried after these sorts of ordeals? You know, Vanguard fights and whatnot…"   

V102's music returns, t456's own theme beaten out.

VS Moebius V102

   "Was it not me who told you not to be careless? Hahaha..."   

Laughs Other!Heidrun, an inscrutable, manic look on her face.

A bolt of lightning strikes the ground just beside her, lighting her face as she begins to cackle.

   "I would say that only a fool would die to a trick like that, but you weren't a fool, were you!?"   

Is she talking to-

   "How terribly lamentable! How viscerally unfair! Hahaha... hahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"   

Gesturing wildly as she speaks, Other!Heidrun's voice turns dark, the ground beneath her feet trembling and cracking, stones rising into the air by her side-

And she laughs, madly, in grief and rage.

Until the wind catches her hair, and brings it aloft.

And its color turns from black to gold.

   "WE WILL BURN TOGETHER!"   

Her aura explodes out, its color burnt from gray to yellow, and she faces the sky with shadows leaping across both hands.

Other!Edelgard rushes to her side, struck by much the same grief as her trusted retainer at the death of Other!Ferdinand- but hearing a certain level of "you're going down with me" in her voice that she simply isn't willing to accept.

   "Have you come to lecture me, lady Edelgard!? Well, I apologize for my insubordination, but I don't think I'll be following whatever order you give me next!"   

   "Hub- sorry, Heidrun! Pull yourself together. Unless you mean to throw your life away against this foe!?"   

Other!Heidrun, surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly given her origins, listens well to that despite her clouded state of mind. Happens to everyone.

   "I would not dream of it. To give my life for any cause but yours would be-"   

   "Then act like it! Get a hold on your feelings, and help me win this for good!"   

Other!Heidrun nearly interjects, maintaining her ready-to-go battle pose, but ultimately decides upon:

   "Of course, lady Edelgard. How do you suppose we dismantle her!?"   

Other!Edelgard spares her attention to the sky.

   "I think I might know a way."   

...

Mistakes are inevitable. In a process as delicate as this.

Up in the sky, V102 seems... a little shocked.

   "There are more than just us?"    she asks t456.

"You just wait one moment!"

"T-thanks, Nagato, I'm glad I'm here too!"

"Anyways- of course there are more than... us? Oh no... is that the royal "us" or, do you mean... there's more than one of you? Oh, this is terrible!"

t456 shakes her head, hair turning red along with his scythe and eyes.

"It's also hilarious! I can't believe I didn't see that coming."

V102 narrows her eyes, only to pause.

She blinks, and raises her posture.

   "I think I understand. This is a test of loyalty. Of my loyalty to Live Legna. Of my inability to change."   

V102 nods softly to herself.

She grins, at the arrival and words of Super Love. To V102, she is proof thereof incarnate right before her eyes. No magic temptation can sway her.

It is as she will say.

   "The attempt is a failure. I cannot change. I am the unchange."   

Her smile ebbs up. Black fluid streams down the right side of her face.

   "My success is destiny. You will be free of me-"   

She glances over at Kaaleb.

   "And not upon my own scythe."   

She continues.    "Live Legna will save us all. They will create a world that does not change, free of aberrations like myself."   

A Living Contradiction.

Find in lies that which is true.

...

"Hey, wait a minute, that's what Live Legna wants? That's barely even funny compared to what I thought they wanted!" t456... complains? "Jokes are over, let's move on to the rising action!"

That seems about right.

V102 holds out her left hand, and closes it upon the air. A shining light forms within, and V102 flinches as though that light were hotter than she expected. It is, in short, both Nagato's cheap shot and Eve's well-prepared telefrag, both contained in the same state of stasis.

Except, it seems, V102 is having trouble finding a way to get rid of them now that she's got a hold on them. Picking the first option that she deems adequate, V102 transfers the static overlap of possibilities to one of her floating dummy arms.

-Only for it to experience a catastrophic containment failure. With little fanfare, the limb absorbs the uncontained explosion of potential, freezing in place as though anchored relative, before shattering like a drop of glass. Its pieces fall down like a tiny splash of rain, vanishing before they touch the ground.

And that is only the first thing bearing down upon V102.

From all sides still, the Black Eagles of both worlds bombard V102 from every direction, uncountable barrages of beams and blasts and arrows forcing every one of V102's remaining dummy arms- now 5 instead of 6- fully on the defense. Where once this was a relatively easy task, it is no longer. V102's arms struggle to keep up, and she knows full well that makes her an easier target.

So, simple as, she darts to the ground, narrowing the firing window, if only for a moment.

Of course, that's disregarding what waits her down there.

From far off, Other!Lysithea lets loose a shocking electric-looking pink beam of magic from a single finger-gun. V102, her dummy arms distracted elsewhere, glances over, her eyes flashing    ∞    to dissipate the attack in an instant.

In that same instant, Grimgor's axe and Hyu's charge force her attention divided further. She stops Hyu's charge with a warding scythe flick- not likely to hit Hyu unless she turns her brain off and runs right into it without even trying to slow down.

In the same sweeping motion, V102 catches- not Grimgor's Axe, believe it not, but a combination of The Rangdan's flaming whips and the first of Sarah's oncoming barrage of punches. In that moment of ridiculously divided attention, with yet another candy-beam courtesy of Other!Lysithea sailing in to make V102's job even harder, Grimgor's axe catches V102's back.

It carves no wound or gouge, bouncing off as though her skin were utterly indestructible- a fair assessment, because it is, actually- but more importantly, it staggers V102, momentarily shifting her perception, just long enough for Other!Lysithea's second candy beam to hit her.

Unfortunately, it does not turn V102 into a delicious candy treat, but the area it hits- on the damaged left side of her body- discolors- the pink void within staining brown as though it were a liquid someone shoved food coloring into.

The look on V102's face makes it clear this isn't necessarily painful, but that it is distinctly uncomfortable.

And to V102, fleeting discomfort is a much worse sensation than pain.

So The Rangdan hits her- and Sarah hits her, and Sarah hits her again, and again, and again and again and again and again- and before you know it, Sarah's hit her an embarrassing number of times while she's distracted counter-warping Other!Lysithea while trying to stop her heart.

Shame she manages it, though. Other!Lysithea, now having a heart attack, falls to her knees in pain, clutching her chest with heaving futile breaths. An attempt is made to faith-magic her back to health, but it seems nobody immediately available knows the spell to restart her heart.

Someone aught to fix that.

Snapping V102 out of it is a solid duo-strike kick to the top of the head by a Kaioken x40 Other!Edelgard and a Super Saiyan Other!Heidrun. The void within V102's left side turns back to its uncanny Moebius pink as she swats away her aggressors, rising into the air.

From behind, by sheer unlucky happenstance, the poor slugcat finally hits an attack. Its spear bounces off of V102's back. If it did anything at all, such a thing isn't clear in the moment that follows.

All the force from all those strikes seems to stick to her at once. She shudders, the cracks between her utterly-broken left and mostly-undamaged right turning deeper all across her torso, sporadic lines now reaching as far as her shoulders and thighs.

At each of them- The Rangdan, Hyu, Grimgor, Other!Edelgard, Other!Heidrun, and Sarah- V102 targets a barrage of ultra-sharp yellow spines- a storm of them, manifest from the air with but a moment's gesture. These spines, sharp and quick and miraculously good at piercing defenses, proceed to explode, violently and all at once, catching up a firestorm of destruction that tears the immediate surroundings apart... again. There isn't much indication of that second part, so it may come as a surprise.

In that time, t456 swoops down from above with their own scythe in hand colored red, but all her strength available, he can only match the counter-clash V102 brings to bear for a moment. No precious backup puts her in a safer spot, allowing V102 to cleave a savage diagonal gash across t456's chest, revealing the starry void beneath his skin.

Unlike V102's, this void is just that- a void, black save for the stars within. Not in pain but certainly surprised, t456 tumbles for a bit, swat to the side by one of V102's spare dummy arms.

A bolt of lightning sails in, courtesy of Set Lei, and actually manages to strike V102 in the back as she continues further up. A lucky shot, or intentionally ignored? It doesn't seem to stop her either way.

And she rises- further and further, until she reaches what could be her escape if she so wished- the edge of the atmosphere of this section of the arena.

If she so wished, and it were not impenetrable to her. Still a shining star visible in the sky, V102 simply cannot, for whatever reason, leave the arena in her current state.

If she could, she would have left- but right now, she is utterly anchored. Not that it was her intention, of course, to leave in the first place.

   "We are done here,"    she says, and quite flatly as always. Her voice carries across the wind.    Here is the end of this story."   

V102 closes her eyes. The air around her ripples.

The sky, too, ripples.

And something manifests behind her.

It is difficult to pinpoint what it is exactly, at a glance. It takes up almost the entire sky, after all, blotting it out with a view of the Moebius pink void only so far visible in V102's own body- though this void is expansive, and lacks the finer details within V102 herself.

It is invisible, except to those who have been exposed extensively to V102's presence. As such, with no physical indicator of its presence, it is no homing beacon for reinforcements to arrive.

The thing backs off from Skyrim, and the world attached.

Revealing itself to be, as simple as, V102 herself. It is an outline, nearly an image, everything but her eyes devoid of all depth.

To those more inclined to such things, it is recognizable as a psychic projection, maintained by V102's focus.

Quick as it can, it manifests a scythe- and brings that scythe down with all the speed and strength of V102 herself, decently scaled up to the size of the projection, though obviously nowhere near perfectly.

V102 remains in the attacks path. Whether this is because it cannot harm her or because she does not care, is unclear..

It doesn't need saying, but if that hits.

It

Would be Bad.

So it's probably a good idea to find a way to stop it.

Eve groans when Kaaleb pass by her, but also when Super Love intervenes. Useless assholes. She snarls.

Sarah attempts to raise a barrier for the whole group, not just herself, adding her electromagnetic power and a wall of necromatter... but, and she knows it's not because she's dizzy with being swatted away by V102, the spikes pierce through both protections easily. Sarah, having to focus on herself, take off and dart around at high speed to avoid the mess, using her senses to keep up. In the end though...

Ah, shit! Sarah emerges from a blast with burns and scorches mark over her body and face, and her right arm torn off and blown away entirely, chunks missing from her right leg and right side. Simply steeling the pain away, knowing she'll regenerate it, Sarah heads for Lysithea, who seem to need help. Eve does the same, glad to know that her little trick worked. She's slower than Sarah though, who checks with her vision to see if V102 induced a heart attack by blood clots or just... gave her an heart attack despite her heart being fine and not obstructed.

If yes, Sarah points, kneeling next o her. There's clots there and there. I could try to destroy them but I'm not sure... Eve nods and come up with a Eve solution: using Sight Magic, Blast Magic and Size Magic very precisely to break up the blood clots Sarah indicated, from within Lys's body, with miniature blasts. She has experience with it: the blasts are subsequently much smaller than her arteries, enough to fit in, and perhaps assist Lys.

SIZE MAGIC + BLAST MAGIC + SIGHT MAGIC

If no, Sarah frowns. It's like she's having an heart attack without having one. I'll try to see if I can't help. Eve, however, act once more. First, she attempts to use Healing Magic to simply un-heart attack the heart attack, working with the same logic (ergo, V102 gave a random heart attack so Eve un heart attack it). It's a bit of a token attempt, and if not enough, Eve attempts a second option, placing her hand on Lys's stomach and using Time Magic to reverse her to the seconds before V102 attacked her, undoing anything nasty that happened to her previously.

HEAL MAGIC OR TIME MAGIC

There, Eve says, with a nod, assuming it worked. Let my soul be cleansed in hellfire should more of you perish on my watch.

Would be bad if the Arena was a deterministic universe huh? Luckily, V102 seem to be interested in rising up and-oh god she has a giant Stand now. We're stopping that. Sarah takes off, her arm regrowing already. Still, she grows a necromass over it, and grows the OG Necrosword on it, the blade pointing at V102 as Sarah clench its handle with her intact hand. And then her other arm flex off the necromatter, it converging to the sword to make it bigger: Sarah has activated Limit Breaker, her hair gaining a pink hue as her muscular mass gains a small increase, itself less noticeable than her huge power boost, which she attempts to put to work in shredding through V102, attempting to cut through V102 with a swift horizontal strike, aiming to... well it most likely won't happen, but disembowel her.

The air is briefly cut in half, as pressure thick enough to chop a galaxy in half fills it.

A column of black lightning appears in Sarah's wake, attempting to shock V102 as Sarah fly past her and return for round 2. To avoid getting in the way, she transforms her sword into another huge railgun. This one looks like a Symbiote hit it: its barrel is full of sharp teeth and gum, with huge white eyes, spikes all over its dark mass and a trigger that seems to be a bone, complete with huge black tendrils behind the gun.

It fire off/vomit a continuous beam of Black Lightning, channeled through the necrosword, the blast slowly growing stronger as Sarah focus more on it, attempting to let it continuously pierce through her chest.

C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon!

As for Eve, grey lights manifest at the tips of her fingers, all ten of 'em, before she fire off Void Magic beams at V102. If the matter is to pile enough damage to V102, then the beams will do fine: they can't kill her, she demonstrated how invulnerable she was even to them, but removing chunks of V102 could distract her enough for others to step in.

A random beam is shot at her head: right as it is about to fire, she pour just a bit more power into it, trying to remove V102's head from her body with a blast bigger than usual. About, well, the size of her head.

And as for those who can't fly or so, Eve holds her digits out at them. If they nod, they'll be granted FLIGHT MAGIC, allowing them to fly around like Superman, without the use for any armor.

VOID MAGIC

The end of your story maybe you ugly bitch!

Elsewhere, Eve's dimension is back to form: all the chaos weapons have converged into a huge Death-Star esque Dyson Sphere, a gigantic blue orb, glowing alone in wait for an host. Said host being a large star that Eve, her space magic back to normal, plucked and placed within her sphere. Soon, the star begin to power up the savethesday application, magic within grabbing and enhancing the sheer power it can provides.

It has taken a little while to form, and Eve dares not summon it yet. V102's past interferences have caused the Dyson Sphere to be unstable in places, requiring fixing. It can't be deployed now.

Still, the weapon power up smoothly, the star trapped within bathing the void around it in wrathful rays.

Edited by Bolded1 on Feb 8th 2023 at 2:49:10 PM

The Tower

The Compass blinks for a little bit at all the questions, before continuing upwards with her red hair flowing back between her shoulders as she marched further up the staircase.

"I'm second thought save questions for later. Perhaps they have come to a conclusion up there-"

A loud roaring could be heard, as something slammed against the floor above, in which The Compass quickly hurried up the staircase, Cryoph following soon after her. If the Vanguards picked up the pace afterwards, they'd see a fiery tempered Ody'nami baring her fangs as she leaned over a corner of a Great Long Table.

It was a military meeting obviously, many of the beings present dwarfed the vanguards. From Ghua'Hok at her dragging 9 feet in height and her immense shoulder width, to the 6'11 tall Ody'nami and her terrifyingly lithe serpentine form. Kroq-Gar growled as he stayed at attention instead of sitting down at the chair, his golden weapons buzzing with power. Balboa uncomfortably sat at a table, applying Moss and lichens to the exterior of a pylon like floral growth in a ceramic pot, as Wurrzag Da Green Prophet stared blankly ahead, twitching the whole while. A Grineer Eximus, dressed in desert camo who's attentio turned from the table to the newcomers. Ody'nami seemed to be yelling at however, the shortest one at the table, a Goblin with a tall pointed hat of dark purple, and a cloaking showl that hid his feet, as the crooked nosed figure seemed ready to throw hands with the Psyren.

   "Ya Snivelling Hag! Da Kragnos boys are schemin' something in Lourent an' dats why we oughta break in now!"   

Only for Ody'nami to suddenely curbst him with a tongue that was a little too venomous for comfort.

"My forces... My dear anorexic mushroom-huffing theatre nerd... Are between the Rangdan! And whatever fucked up Estraole!"

Kroq-Gar immediately spoke up on the matter, seemingly ignoring their points entirely as he turned to the two.

"Did we ever figure out who or what did that?"

Ody'nami grumbled as she immediately lowered her head and raised her arms to shield her face.

"It came from below... And it went east. That's it. No one alive was on ground level to see who ran off."

Ghua'Hok groveled, clenching her fist as she than saw where the Eximus was looking, and nodded to the Lone Centurion.

"Vanguards, sit at your leisure, we might have proper cordence now."

Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Feb 8th 2023 at 8:43:31 AM

The Tower

The Lone Centurion watched the scene unfold in silence. When Ghua'Hok sent a nod his way, he responded by raising his opened right palm to his left shoulder, a New Roman salute of respect. When Nuba sat with a wide grin on her face, he remained standing.

   "I bet your bones are nice and healthy."    Nuba stated, looking directly into Wurrzag's eyes.

Markath

Wet Hat stares at the railgun, unblinking, since Anna has lifted it onto the desk.

"Interesting... it seems to utilize a magnetic field to propel ammunition. Fascinating..." He steps towards the projector, without leaving the railgun out of his gaze for a moment, and puts his mechanical hand onto it. There is a whirring noise, then the projectors previously blue light turns red as the railguns outer shell appears on it.

"..."

live legna is just the reciprocal of tzeentch smh

She could help with O!Lysithea, but 1. Sarah and Eve are handling it and 2. there is a higher priority - that of t456, someone she actually knows.

Putting her tremendous speed to use, she blinks to the end of their trajectory, trying to catch t456 before they can hit a surface. Her build likely fails due to her relatively diminutive stature, but I guess it's the thought that counts.

Having been the one to construct t456's current body, I assume it's not too much of a stretch to say she can begin weaving it back together, neh?

Nidrugg

Uruth was about ready to lift his mask to eat when the old man stood up, and immediately wanted to pick a fight. No growl or snort came from Uruth, who simply stood up and marched towards the older man, dragging the stone cleaver along the ground so that it could audibly scrape up the stones. For that sweet sweet blade sharpening ASMR. Of course that's not how things work, and it got duller as it dragged along, though now as he raised it up and pointed to the older man, the Ogor let out a sickeningly calm threat:

"If you think you're balls have finally dropped... I can happily take them away... Since you seem to be acting like they too big for someone as scrawny as you to carry."

Uruth than got closer, pressing his hidden gut-plate against Nidrugg's chest, as the man could now hear the Ogor Tyrant's heavy panting.

"I'd hate to have the kid watch a man be hare-skinned."

Tower

Sebastien nodded and after looking at the whole scene he awkwardly sat down at the table where Balboa was. He wasn't particularly comfortable at big meetings like this, especially with this crowd, but Balboa was at least more familiar.

"Er... hello." he greeted him lamely.

Empyrraid

Vildebjørn braced himself to become inducted into the hall of pain, but was pleased to find that the Valkyries did not yet cry his name or sound their horn for him.

Still, the ensuing blast of tree flak hurt like shit. Though much of it splintered into tinier pieces upon hitting his skin, some bits found themselves embedded in his preexisting injuries. Wincing in pain, he looked to Wilhelm, speaking through gritted teeth.

"These manipulators of steel and flame…" Before the viking king could finish his question, he spied something headed towards him at great speeds from above.

Wordlessly yet furious in his body manner, the Lone Centurion finally descended to kill his oldest and biggest enemy, the one he thought he'd never see again. With just as many words shared, Vildebjørn reached his hand out, grabbed the hilt of the man's gravhammer, and slammed him down onto the ground, before delivering him further into the dirt with a mighty and lightning-infused curbstomp. He reached his hand down and grabbed the armored and unconscious man by the arm, lifting him and recognizing him instantly. He initially felt a great and irresistible urge to kill the man who had invaded his homeland many years ago, but realized that event was now in a different lifetime. He was in this new land, a new man, and would not allow his grudges from his previous life to carry over. His only enemy right now was the army he faced, and thus the son of Thor tossed the Lone Centurion to the wayside.

"…Who are they?" He finished his question.

So... we're all set then.

Sarah thinks back of the opportunity. How easily things could have been messed up. How things could be messed up, Taro being a powerful threat the likes of which has her nervous. Why, next to him, there's very few things that don't look trivial. One of those being Set himself, or the thralls shaped after his deformed Sisters from another world, or...

FLASHBACK

Sarah had lied to Kratos, a little. While she did mean to go back to Eve...

GUAK!

... It had become apparent to her that there was a nasty issue to solve before she could proceed with Taro. Something that had been on her mind for a while but had been superseded by more important stuff, life being life for Sarah: she couldn't keep track of all the troublesome things. Even when they were massively powerful Sisters, like Eleven, the spawn of a defunct empire from another timeline, now laying in a crater, Sarah's feet planted firmly on her stomach.

The older sister look upon her technical niece with a wrathful look on her face, the likes even Taro will never get. And though she had her hands on her hips, she's poised to strike nonetheless. She's pleased and a little terrified to see how easily she had dispatched Eleven, who had somehow reached strength similar to hers, just by the mere presence of Eve's magical buffs things on her neck.

Why, although the crater on Riften isn't that big, she feels like she could split the Arena in half with a easy punch at this point. No mere feat in a world that can bind gods! Sarah feels her "necklace", trying not to let her satisfaction creep on her features.

I have no idea how you got as strong as I am, but my cheat is stronger than yours, Sarah says, her voice a little gloating despite her serious façade. I take it Sahdri ran home after seeing you fail? If that blasted lunatic has an home left, of Eleven swings a fist at Sarah, but the latter simply punch faster than she can, nailing Eleven in the face before she can hit her. course. Sarah concludes, not sounding at all like she interrupted herself.

The crater barely get any wider, power to split planet and stars focused on Eleven's dumb face, sparing the pretty trees and hapless P Cs about. She's taking her sweet time, Eleven concedes. Her defiance is pure patchworks, Healing Factor undoing the physical damage without curing her ego, but it still denies Sarah some of the extra satisfaction. ... That's not fair! What the fuck are you wearing?! You cheap bitch, I would've gutted you without it!

Experience would've won this one out, Sarah smirks. She grabs her necklace, threatening to tear it off, but dosesn't. It's useful. I'm your woman for a proper woman-to-woman brawl, either against you or Sahdri, but I've got bigger fishes to fry. If I see you again, I'm going to make your face look like that crater, get it?

As Sarah step off, Eleven sighs and sit up, crushed by her defeat but unwilling to show it. Though she'd usually bash herself for relying on borrowed magic to win, Sarah knock that off: as Oca told her, it's okay to cheat. It'd have been bad for her to spend time with Eleven when Taro was a bigger concern, anyway. So her pride issue sort itself out.

Eleven stares at Sarah, quietly indignant. And though the older woman want to leave, she knows that she has a golden opportunity to perhaps save herself further grief down the road.

... There's a much stronger foe ahead, Sarah smiles. Want to kick his shit in?

...

Alright, let's get to it. Everyone ready? Sarah says. If there's any last strategy or goal or output or prep time to be done, it'd be wise to say so.

Sarah Scene

Ynn doesn't even say anything, just nodding to confirm: She's ready as well.

The Tower

URKEL takes a seat for himself, and watches the meeting in silence. He looks somewhat amused at the amount of different species and ideologies gathered there.

Sarah

Mallol stands up, ready to go... Or almost ready.

If things go south, I can call my friends. They could help us.

V102

Being untargetted by Moebius V102's attacks, Super Love keeps on talking with her.

Everything changes, even the more sturdy things, such as rocks and stars. You can change too!

An universe without change sounds boring! And I will not let you make it so!

She starts charging a magic beam with her palms.

The explorers recognized Super Love as one of the people help them to defeat the Devil Gundam, and they had an idea:

Everybody! Aim for the hands!

They shoot their blasters at V102's hands and arms, trying to stop her to swing her schythe.

Sarah

Marisa takes a deep breath.

"I'm ready." she says. "Let's show this guy that immortality is overrated."