Nicole prepare to announce her triumphant return, only for things to suddenly kick into high gear before she even begin speaking. She does indeed notice Ban looking uncharacteristically angry, but given how everyone was immediately jumping into action, she makes a mental note to see about discussing it with him later.
"Like we needed even more reasons to want King Douchebag dead," she says grimly in regards to Se'arah's mangled remains. "Alright, Corrin, let's him wish he'd abdicated a long time ago."
Upon entering the fray, she wastes no time spreading her dragon wings wide, taking flight so as to avoid any obstacles between her and Garon. Making a beeline straight for the wicked king, she swoops towards him like a falcon descending upon its unwitting prey before attempting to furiously slash him across the face with Olympus' Wrath.
"Have a taste of ZEUS' power, your royal dickheadedness!" she yells, deciding to briefly ham it up a little in honor of her sword's godly creator.
Blast Hornet and Commander Yammark - Pantheon
Both Reploids get blown away by the massive explosion. Despite that, they are still standing. Those earlier prayers and Megaman's pasta must've helped a lot, huh.
"You call those bombs," sasses Commander Yammark out of sheer spite. "Bomb Man could do better than you, and he's outdated tech in my world!"
Commander Yammark summons forth her drones once more, ordering them to blast Siamo Zero from all directions with lasers.
While Commander Yammark rushes in again, Blast Hornet just shakes her head in disapproval towards her fellow insect-like Reploid. Poor girl is an E-Tank short of a full pack.
Edited by josh6243 on Jun 22nd 2023 at 6:32:55 AM
Water Temple
"I suppose I assumed you were here for a fight. Of what kind, I wasn't sure. Obviously, that wasn't an intelligent assumption. You were even polite enough to announce your presence."
Her power is hard to measure because it's kind of... tangled up, but all in all, it can presumed that she is a little more immediately powerful than Oca's base form in her own current base form.
...Not that you didn't already know that.
And this is discounting her magic, which there is a lot of. That is much harder to meaningfully quantify.
Yatta!Hyrule Field
A dark blip in the sky rapidly approaches, the faint roars of a ship's engines growing louder. Accompanying it is the dark presence of a familiar Sith. The dark blip is close enough now to make out that it's an Imperial shuttle, and it's on a crash course for the ground. The shuttle descends straight into the ground in the middle of the fight. The wings snap off the sides and bounce across the ground, sending plumes of dirt sky-high as the durasteel creaks and the shuttle comes to a grinding halt.
A smoldering blaze erupts from the engines and engulfs the ship's rear, but Laxin is nowhere to be found. The durasteel creaks and the whole shuttle is torn in half a moment later. Laxin emerged from the wreckage, raising an open hand toward Malzeno. Suddenly massive chunks of durasteel from the wrecked shuttle shoot out toward Malzeno, skewering his legs and planting him on the ground.
Laxin briefly turns his head to the afflicted Pokémon and the others, raising another hand to unleash an enormous torrent of Force Lightning. It erupted with such force and blinding luminosity it was akin to a flashbang, the lightning whizzing through the air targeting everyone besides the dark lord Drakes.
Turning back to Malzeno, Laxin grumbles. He marches forward, and Malzeno is dragged toward the dark lord until the two are face to face. Laxin digs a palm into Malzeno's face, quietly taunting him.
"Now that I am here, I sense this power isn't even worth collecting wretched worm. Hardly worth all the effort to track down, let alone dominate your mind. Your only advantage over my beasts is your intellect, and as you can see, it is worth NOTHING."
Laxin sighs, breathing deeply.
"But I did not come here for nothing."
Laxin tightens his grip on Malzeno and starts siphoning Qurio from him and the Qurio surrounding him all around. It doesn't take long for Laxin to realize there's... nearly nothing to collect.
"Truly pathetic, no matter, you will collect more for me."
Laxin begins surging some of his energy into Malzeno while simultaneously drawing on Malzeno's to bridge a telepathic link between the two, granting Laxin complete control of the Elder Dragon. Assuming Malzeno doesn't resist, of course.
Nohr
"…As I trudge through the death-ridden swamp, I harbor fear not in my heart for I know that Gor walks with me…" The mumbling voices of the priest floated through the air, even long after others had departed from the grave wherein Se'Arah's corpse resided. He stood over the disturbed dirt with hands clasped and head tilted down, eyes shut as his lips mumbled psalms first put to paper innumerable centuries ago.
At last, he ended the prayer and opened his eyes once more.
The others had all but gone. Only a few remained and in the quiet left by their absence, Pucci sighed. It was time to face what he had spent his time working towards.
When something burst from the water it was not Pucci, but rather his Stand, intending to reside within the My Castle until it was safe. He was, after all, only human. To emerge from the puddle now was tantamount to suicide.
Whitesnake, with Pucci seeing through its eyes, locked onto a Wyvern Lord and dashed towards it to deliver a low blow to the enemy's knee.
With great power…you know the rest.Nohr Rescue Mission (Regicide)
Jeridan burst out of the water after everyone else, before raising his hand to cast a spell. After seeing Iago's message, he decided that there will be no more playing around with his enemies. As much as he dislikes killing, the honorary agent has made up his mind: He will employ lethal force for the sake of keeping his allies alive, and there will be no mercy for the elites employed by Iago.
Clenching his raised hand and simultaneously borrowing Boon Boost
and Boon Boost EX
, Jeridan casted Luster Candy
twice to buff the offense, defense, and agility of every single one of his allies present (including himself) by 66%, with the boost increasing the duration to 6 turns. Immediately afterwards, PI-092-1 gritted his teeth and allowed his mind to be filled with roiling anger as a white uniform decorated with red badges replaced his PIL agent uniform, while a black halberd with two similar badges appeared in his hand.
The glint in his red eyes gained a fiery hue, giving off an ominous light even in the normally dark Nohrian land.
Channeling the self-destructive rage and raw anger of The One Who Shall Grip, Jeridan immediately rammed towards one of Iago's elites, jamming the halberd's tail end towards their neck before flipping the weapon around and slamming the axe blade down onto their head.
Nohr
Ms. Thingies looks horrorized at the corpse... But this time, she does her best to not faint.
Damn! Garon have us in his hands. I'm afraid to say...
...We walked directly in his booby trap?
...I was about to say he outmaneuvered us. We were too obvious...
During the resting time, the Principal gave all of her shurikens to the two girls, herself only keeping the fire tome and the green ring.
Cardboard carries the chainsaw-rifle, while her sister has the retro laser gun.
Nohrin' time
Cardboard and Sawdust run towards the swirling tornado, taking advantage of their short height to pass unnoticed between the soldiers, and slashing some of them with the glass blade... Altough they could be a bit too close of Hans.
...
Meanwhile, Ms. Thingies recites her own Green Lantern oath, since she's too nervous to remember the one the voice said to her:
Bright light or dark night,
Imagination will shine!
Green Lantern, let's go!
After that, her dress turns black, with her apron becoming a glowing shade of green, and the classic icon on it.
I'm ready, Garon.
Edited by BombonBombin on Jun 22nd 2023 at 7:38:37 AM
Three freaking ghosts!Back in My Castle, after Pucci has finished his prayer and returned his attention to the battle, a tremor emanates from where Se'arah's head and body were buried.
A ray of light shines through the astral sky, down upon the grave. For a moment, it seems like nothing, until the light expands and becomes a destructive pillar, blasting open the ground.
—
Somewhere in the Arena, Medusa senses something. "Ah, shit."
—
And when it fades, Se'arah lives again. She's different, though. Streaks of cyan run through her hair like flashes of lightning in a storm cloud, and her eyes, once gray, are now the same sky-blue color.
And most importantly, buried in front of her, blade-first in the crater in which she now stands, is the legendary blessed sword Alondite.
◊
"... Holy shit." Se'arah pats herself all over, especially around the neck, to make sure she's actually alive. Eventually she seems to decide that's good enough as she looks down at the sword in the ground.
"A gift straight from the divine... I had dreams of becoming a big name, but I never thought I'd be that important. Brendan's gonna lose his mind when he sees me."
She pulls Alondite out of the earth like Excalibur from the stone, holding it in both hands as she gets a feel for its weight, then switches to a one-handed grip and slowly raises it up to Stab the Sky.
Then she brings it down like a hammer. "Alright. Time for round two, Garon."
Nohr
The pool of water that serves as the designated entrance point suddenly lights on fire, specifically with a mystical blue flame, before Se'arah erupts out of it.
"GUESS WHAT MOTHERFUCKERS, I'M ALIVE"
Though Emblem Corrin's form is not visibly present, Nicole can hear her astonished gasp, and Mordecai does a Double Take himself.
—
Speaking of Mordecai, he is hanging back, but helping the rescue team with his fourth and final gun - a sniper rifle with rounds that explode like grenades on impact. He crouches, aims, steadies his breath, and starts firing shot after shot. Not a single one goes to waste. Every pull of the trigger is centered on the head.
"¡Quémense en el infierno, pendejos!"
Floating City
Ralsei tries to graze past the pellets on purpose to build TP, but he gets pummeled by some he couldn't dodge, requiring him to eat a star-shaped marshmallow candy to keep himself healthy.
Annie
Desert Luin looks about ready to heed her counterpart's cries, but then the poacher captain and Vulkaros come in, prompting her to stay and watch warily.
Then the captain does something that seemingly vanishes Lutemis out of physical existence, and she and Seliph both stare in utter bafflement.
"... What... was that?" Desert Luin climbs down and runs over to Luin to check on her.
Whiterun
Sunny growls as he continues on his way.
Once at Hotel del Rey, he grabs a fresh steak knife from the dining room, examining his reflection in its blade before haphazardly pocketing it.
Pantheon
Collector Samus isn't interested in pasta right now. She locks on to Siamo Zero and fires another massive barrage of homing Storm Missiles, seeing as it isn't inhaling right now.
Home for the Wayward, Young and Innocent (let's just call it Babey Mansion going forward), Estraole
Something buzzes inside Refia's head, jolting her awake, if she wasn't already.
Or... is it Refia?
Edited by KiriK on Jun 22nd 2023 at 8:38:32 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.""We'll see."
Other!Edelgard's aura starts a startlingly bright white, before quickly changing to an almost pink red. She's technically already started using the Kaioken up to x5, but the technique is so integrated into her fighting style now that it doesn't seem to cause any instability at all.
Unlike Oca, her power doesn't take its time ramping up- she jumps into things straight away, rising into the air just to come flying back down with her signature opening dive-kick.
Without the element of surprise it's not awfully formidable. Though I mean if he lets her kick him in the face it'll definitely hurt like hell.
Yatta!!
He isn't able to react in time - the kick slams him into the ground with an "OUWGF" and sends him bouncing, - off the temple grounds actually, into the open air.
He catches himself in the air a few moments later, and wipes his mouth with his wrist.
"Oh, it's like that, huh? Heh."
"HAGH-"
Fwip! He counters with a sudden boost of his own, dashing straight back for Edelgard through the air. With a few bursts of explosive speed upon reaching the inner temple, he aims to bounce off the various pillars before coming down at her from above.
/\。。/\It would be... impolite of her, at this moment, to demonstrate her magic- so Other!Edelgard goes about this the old-fashioned way, tracking Ocer's movements just to burst-dodge out the of the way at the last second, letting Oca strike the floor below.
It's uncomfortably, tremendously close- but she makes up the difference with sheer intuition.
"Flickering Flower!"
And she retaliates with one of her signature Ki techniques- releasing five blasts of red ki energy, one from each finger, that quickly converge upon Oca's location. Individually these blasts aren't that powerful, but all together they are somewhat formidable.
At least they aren't homing or anything.
Yatta!Hero, Aubrey and Kel get struck by some pellets as well. Good thing they had been healed before.
Omori then motions to his friends, then points at Flowey. Apparently that alone is enough for them to get the picture.
Kel throws another rebounding ball to deal damage to Flowey's vines. One of them gets destroyed as a result.
"You can do it!", Aubrey cheers. Kel becomes ECSTATIC.
Omori points at Flowey. Floating red hands suddenly appear around him and spin for a bit. Aside from giving Flowey slight PTSD from the human souls spinning around him as they defeated him, since he's currently angry this mocking attack decreases Flowey's overall power by a lot.
Oh, and it also does damage to him.
Hero cooks up another Snack Time, once again healing everyone for 40% of their max health. He has to be wary with his skills though, as he's beginning to run out of juice.
"You're being some real pests, y'know that.", Flowey remarks with a grin. He now straight-up starts launching thorny vines at the party of five, seven in total, with the last one being much longer than the others to catch them off guard.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Scarlet Devil Mansion (Arena version), Estraole
Rumia snores in her room as usual, taking a well earned nap while clutching her plush lizard. Something stirs in her head and she shoots up awake.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say someone. Someone who doesn't belong.
Hotel del Rey
Mugetsu actually smiles a tiny amount at Sunny's annoyed reaction. She goes back to her usual expression soon enough though.
"A rather crude choice of weapon but I've seen worse." Mugetsu comments as she inspects the kitchen for her own reasons. "Out of curiosity, what meals do you prefer?"
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."An advantage of being a flighted combatant is that so long as your movement was controlled, even situations like these can be easily 'bounced' back from. Such as right now, wherein Oca retains his momentum by segueing his failed attack into another chain in his series of leaps, continuing after Edelgard.
Oca flicks his hand in front of himself as he does so, sending a spray of weak ki bolts around the battlefield. They're flashy, but if one should happen to hit Edelgard, it would barely hurt - its purpose is to detonate the Flickering Flower bolts early.
/\。。/\Oca's spread of bolts serves a double-purpose, albeit entirely by accident. Not only do they detonate the flickering flower blasts prematurely, but they also distract Other!Edelgard. She is used to fighting opponents with tricky, unusual magic, against whom a single strike from a seemingly small attack can be the difference between a win and a loss.
So she treats those scattered bolts a bit too seriously, giving Oca a shot at the metaphorical upper hand.
"The Kaioken? Just how did you get your hands on a technique like that?"
Edited by Whoma on Jun 22nd 2023 at 6:56:36 AM
Yatta!Hotel
"It was steak. They don't have it here, and I don't eat, so it doesn't matter."
Well that explains the knife of choice, at least.
Dark Lord Nergigante is blown down by Ben's charged Force burst, allowing the others fighting it to bombard it with attacks.
Similar case for Dark Lord Velkhana, which was already down and thus a sitting duck to Nitori's missiles...
And then Laxin shows up, and the Dark Lord Elder Dragons both stop struggling and just stare at him.
Malzeno staggers as his energy is drained, then shrieks to the sky and falls on his side. While the Afflicted Pokémon all collapse on the spot from the malicious energy being removed from their bodies, a link seemingly forms... only to be severed by Malzeno's own will.
"You... will NOT... control ME..."
Physically deprived of all strength, his mind and soul resist the Sith Emperor. Even though he can barely move, he still lifts his head and hisses. He swipes a claw at Laxin, albeit so feebly that even if it hits, it will merely bounce off of his armor.
Edited by KiriK on Jun 22nd 2023 at 9:07:19 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.""Do you choose not to eat or are you physically unable?" Mugetsu asks, tilting her head curiously. "I don't particularly need to eat food but I still enjoy doing so. Many Youkai do the same."
She then smiles again but more mischievously.
"Perhaps I could prepare you some steak. After all, a maid's duty entails such things." she says.
Hyrule field
Well shit. Nitori herself is mostly fine but her mech is short-circuited for the moment. It slouches as she works to get it back online.
Edited by shroobot3000 on Jun 22nd 2023 at 5:14:33 PM
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person.""Dad taught it to me!" he shouts over the wind that I presume is rushing past both of their ears due to the high speed battle.
His charge uninterrupted, Oca's flight screeches to a stop a mere meter or so from Edelgard, at which point he throws both of his hands up and fires a stout "MAN-KI-BATSU!" beam at her.
/\。。/\Morph Moth - Hyrule Field
Despite getting dinged by the force lightning, Morph Moth quickly gets away from the dragons, watching Laxin assert his sinister Sith powers helplessly. She really does not know how to react properly. How can a fleshbag command such impressive power, to begin with?!
Edited by josh6243 on Jun 22nd 2023 at 7:17:09 AM
Ben raises an eyebrow. Why had the two Sithspawn just stopped fighting? Once he puts two and two together, though, he immediately whirls on the newly-arrived Laxin and raises his lightsaber in time to shield himself from the oncoming Force Lightning.
"Laxin. Step away from that creature and face me instead," Ben challenges, glaring daggers at Laxin and tightening his grip on his weapon's hilt.
Floating City, Walter's Bar
Eddie
◊ is currently sitting at the very bar where Pietro had given him a lengthy history lesson about the Arena.
"Do you think Pietro's friend Pseudo knows about the asskicking we gave Polyphemus? It would've made his entire day," Venom rumbles from within in mind.
"I don't know, man. He might be pissed that someone didn't just bite her damn head off when he finally got the chance," Eddie replies, taking a sip from his drink.
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Jun 22nd 2023 at 7:44:26 AM

Pantheon
Space Ex-Boyfriend doesn't seem to care one bit about the fact that the explosive radius will get to him. That, or he simply doesn't know. Regardless, megaman's healing pasta reaches and heals him. Which, funny enough, does cause him to pause with genuine surprise on his face. Did that astronaut just heal him with pasta?
Then Siamo Zero begins to plummet, and Space Ex-Boyfriend too tries to take advantage of this, rushing downwards with his blade in hand, aiming to practically drill his way through-
The explosion from the giant bomb thrown at Commander Yammark now reaches Space Ex-Boyfriends, the winds destabilizing him and interrupting his attack, as well as making him drop his sword into the void. Once he regains his bearings he teleports after it. He'll be able to save his sword, but the opportunity to make use of this opening will be gone by the time he has it.
Final Preparations
Anna comes back now, just about to tell them that Nicole still needs some more time when Nicole already arrives. She's about to comment on it, happy that Nicole's seemingly feeling better, when she now notices Se'arah's corpse as well and gasps in horror. Jake puts his arm around her.
Then Iago's message comes through. Ban initially falls for the hologram, going for a rapid punch strong enough to blow Iago's head off of his body. But of course he simply passes through. After a moment of confusion, he begrudgingly listens to what the hologram has to say, as do the others.
Once the message has ended Ban walks back to the rest of the group, a dark grimace on his face. If Nicole notices him now, she may even be shocked that the normally carefree guy can even make that kind of face.
Morgan tries to search for a Bolt Axe among the weapons brought back from Valla. If there are none in it, he'll get one from Anna and apply a capsule to it instead. He also gets an Arcwind, though does not enhance it.
After that he rips off a small part of the weapon bag and ties it to the belts around the wyvern like a makeshift satchel, after which he puts something in it and whispers something to the wyvern. Once it nods, Morgan pats it on his head and gets a nuzzle in return, making the boy giggle momentarily before looking serious again.
Ban goes to get that gauntlet they got from the weapons chamber, as spears aren't his thing at all. He'd have to be careful to hold back his strength a little when using that hand to punch, as he wouldn't want to risk the gauntlet shattering.
Selena already has her Brave Sword, so she doesn't need any other Vallite weapons. She nods to Beruka, glad to see that they'll both be able to fight.
Anna and Jake open the Einherjar binder.
"Garon and Iago won't know what hit them when we send these out.", Anna says, after which she pulls out the Einherjar cards for the Nohrian royals. By Morgan's earlier argument they can't use Einherjar Garon... but there was no reason to not use the others.
"Xander, Leo and Camilla will emerge elsewhere, so we'll have to make sure that Garon and Iago don't get suspicious when they don't show up. These Einherjar will do the trick. And if we're in need of reinforcements I'll send in the Hoshidan royals as well." —
The beginning of the end
The final 3 hours had passed, and it was time for action.
Selena is the first to jump out. As much as she'd like to just run up to Garon and attack, she knows that'd be a bad idea. As such she sticks with Athos for now, choosing to defend him.
Ban is the second one to emerge, and he starts booking it towards the nearest soldiers, no longer holding back. He aims to literally run with enough force to send the weaker soldiers flying as he starts making his way towards Garon.
Morgan is the third to emerge, this time doing so on the back of his wyvern. Wielding the Bolt Axe, he starts to blast lightning at any nearby archers, aiming to get them out of the way before they can be a problem.
Then the Einherjar of Xander, Leo, Camilla and Elise emerge from the water. To keep up the act that they're supposed to be the 'real' versions from this world, they try to avoid combat with the regular soldiers and head towards Iago and Garon as fast as they can.
And right before Great Tiger emerges, Figure Freeza jumps out as well. With how much different he looks from everyone else, and with Iago not having seen him in RF!Anna's memories (as RF!Anna never even knew of his existence), the Nohrians may be caught off guard just by him being here.
With his signature "OHOHOHOHOHO!" , Figure Freeza points his finger at the distant Hans and sends a Death Beam his way. Now, due to the power difference between Figure Freeza and the real Freeza, this Death Beam is definitely not going to be anywhere close to lethal. But that's not the plan anyway. The plan is to try to disarm Hans and, potentially, knock him off of the platform he was standing on.
Under most circumstances, Figure Freeza would not be this thrilled by being made to go on a rescue mission of all things. But there's one simple fact that really sweetened the deal for him: he gets to kill as many soldiers as he desires. Yeah, he wouldn't have had a choice in the matter when it comes to participating in this, but at least now it's gonna be fun.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.