15[20:08] By blade and parasol, Cethleann's vanguard was broken, raksha lords dissolving into thistle as their bodies hit the ground. It seemed as if the tide had turned against the larval behemoth and ensorcelled Anathema that remain.. until the awful apparition of the lost Nessun Dorma tore furrows in the earth as it surged toward the circle. [20:09] 14I guess you'd call it cowardice, but I'm not prepared to go on like this... [20:11] 10Whoa whoa whoa whoa! No one said anything about this! Maybe we should regroup. [20:11] 13... [20:12] 5Xu Sim's eyes narrow in hatred. [20:12] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's slightly-ragged breath flames visibly from his mouth as his shoulders rise and fall, carrying the massive weight and leverage of Terminus. He's just claimed the upper hand over Cethleann's Lunar champion - but how long can he hold it? 15[20:12] "I should've killed you... the moment I met you..." the titan's voice echoes oddly beneath its helmet. The great white sledge drags behind him, cutting a crooked path through the street that draws step by step closer to Xu Sim. "But I HESITATED," he thunders, "Overcome by your COWARDICE, and now... I am DAMNED!" [20:13] 14Stranger stops humming to himself. "Worse. Damnation confers power. This is just a shadow of the thing. Nessun Dorma was cheated coming and going." [20:31] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar makes a snap decision, hisses "-good luck with the bear-" 12to all assembled, and then leaps. He doesn't bother moving in a parabolic arc, simply springing from where he stands to draw a perfectly level burning line from south to north, one that blazes orange-red behind his body and traces a wall of silver-flecked gold beneath it that follows the leading edge of Terminus. [20:31] <@Ferrinus> 12The unstoppable juggernaut that is the resurrected(?) Nessun Dorma(?) swerves only imperceptibly to meet the oncoming missile, and the two collide in an actual explosion of stone and fire. [20:33] <@Ferrinus> 12Mortal onlookers probably can't follow it, but Keldar's allies and worthy foes are able to glimpse a brief tableau - Keldar, teeth bared, eyes narrowed, drawing a huge upward arc with his grand daiklave that's clipped Dorma from hip to solar plexus and torn a great diagonal rent through his armored torso. There's no blood coming out, though, just a stream of withered flowers, and by [20:33] <@Ferrinus> 12the time Keldar's landed to round on his foe with shield up Dorma, too, has regained his balance and structural integrity. [20:53] 10Just a moment ago, Jai was on top of the world; now he's starting to feel like a scurrying rat caught between elephants. He spots Stranger on the battlefield making a move for the bear-rider, and sprints off to give the old man a hand. [20:54] 10Jai's part of it winds up a stalemate, at best. And the looming obsidian face and the cursed titan with the lance in its chest? They aren't going anywhere. 15[21:04] In the streets around, the battle still rages. The sky above ruptures into ever-more violent shades of red and purple as the sun goes down, but where the circle makes their stand everything is bright as noon. [21:07] 5Xu Sim steps into another attack from the bears, and twists past it to deliver a ringing blow of his own. [21:12] 14Stranger attempts to bleed the bears a bit more, but he's still a bit rattled from Dorma showing up and, honestly, it's hard to know where to hit bears with a Sun umbrella. [21:13] 13Xia Lan takes a swing, two swings, three, four, but to no effect -- her pointed snake-style has no effect! ...how is she going to help, here. [21:18] <@Ferrinus> 12A terrible, scornful finality wreathes the head of Dorma's hammer as it comes arcing down, and the tolling of a great bell sounds as the weapon smashes headlong into the sunburst on Keldar's upraised silver shield and stops dead. The Dawn Sergeant grunts, but stands fast. "You know, been wondering for a while how this fight actually goes." 15[21:25] "Every fight ends the same way." says Dorma's as it bears down with all its weight on Keldar's raised shield. [21:26] 14War never changes. [21:26] 14Old saws; sharp teeth. [21:27] 13How dare you stand where he stood. [21:30] 5Xu Sim scurries through a flurry of Mata-Yadh's appendages before deflecting one of them away from Xia Lan, and giving it a kick of his own as he weaves his way through its unsettling tangle of limbs. [21:41] 14The second time he has to hit the bears where they're down, the parasol finds teeth. [21:41] 14Still...this doesn't seem sustainable. [21:43] 10Just smashing into this guy head-on isn't accomplishing anything. Jai's gonna have to cheat a little bit to even the scales. Jai flips his spear up into the air. Then in one smooth motion, he pulls a small tube out from his belt, stretches it, puts it to his lips, and puffs a tiny steel needle at the rampaging bear. Krawczyk probably doesn't even feel the pinprick, but the venom will start coursing through his bloodstream [21:43] 10 nonetheless. In the next moment, he's stowed the tube again and grabs his spear on the way down. [21:44] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar shrugs the hammerhead off, steps sideways, and then stabs out. Sparks fly as his blade simply skids off the other side of Dorma's armor, but it sends another cascade of dead petals drifting out of the jagged cut into the plated torso and leaves Keldar almost bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I'm kidding. I never wondered." [21:52] 13A second try at the behemoth, and this one feels better than the last, but Xia Lan still hasn't left a single scratch. Running is out of the question, but she can't help but think: what can she do? [22:01] 5The bears come in again at Xu Sim. Again, Xu Sim leans onto the balls of his feet and prepares to bat away the clumsy blow and deliver one of his own - but Krawczyk hits a lot faster than the sorcerer expects, and his own counterblow is weak by comparison. 15[22:05] A buzzing fills the air as Krawczyk gets the upper hand, and bolts of white light cascade down the hill from the barrels of the Final Word. They score the streets, crumple the walls, and batter the raksha's front lines. Those on the front face the greatest peril, whether friend or foe. [22:10] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's eyes widen as he feels the pressure drop, and he leaps more so than dashes sideways, rolling roughly across the cobblestones and springing back to his feet as a titanic pillar of white-hot essence goes tearing through the spot he'd just been standing. [22:11] 14Danger close. [22:12] 14Dancing between the raindrops was never so hot. [22:12] 5Xu Sim dips, ducks, dives, and dodges the beams from the essences cannons. 15[22:12] The circle is unharmed, which their foes, the street, and the burning buildings around cannot say. [22:13] 10Jai's ilms away from one of the killing beams. Still not used to the weight of this jade monstrosity, although it might've been tough enough to take the blast for him. [22:14] 13Xia Lan dances in between the beams, which almost looks intentional. Takes skill, really. [22:20] <@Ferrinus> 12Dorma's bigger than he was - but slower, too, or so it seems to Keldar. Certainly less able (or at least, less willing) to draw on the invincible earth-essence that he might have fought with in times past. Now that Keldar's well and truly taken the thing's measure, and enjoying the advantage of not having just been charbroiled by the Final World besides, the Dawn Sergeant's really [22:20] <@Ferrinus> 12able to hit his stride. Blow after blow sends Dorma's doppelganger lurching and staggering, unable to bring his hammer properly to bear. [22:20] 14As soon as the light fades, Stranger sends his parasol on a deadly strike -- and watches the bear and his bear bat it away. [22:24] 5Xu Sim scrambles around as the towering monstrosity tries, futilely, to crush him like an ant. Like an ant, he bites back - not much now, but these things build up. 15[22:34] The red-jade-armored bear-man, riding another bear, covered with tiny wounds and panting foam from Jai's poison, takes his mount in his arms and the two of them become doves, yielding the ground as they take to the sky, despite the circle's efforts to contain them. [22:34] 14Ah, pity. [22:35] 14Looks like he just couldn't bear it. [22:36] "Yeah! You'd better run—"10 Not that Jai was all that much of an immediate threat, but hell, his blood's up. [22:36] 13This is a trick. We've got to - "This is a trick! C'mon, let's go!" [22:37] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar frowns as he detects the motion behind him. Those fuckers better not be preparing to swoop back down. At least Xia Lan's still on her guard. [22:43] "You go! I'll hold this thing off!" 10What? Is he NUTS?  [22:44] 10But somehow, impossibly, he managed to scratch the congeries of obsidian and aurora with his plain iron spear. 15[23:00] As Keldar batters away at Dorma, his blade clangs off the fetch's armor like a hammer off a forge. Each spark of a deflected blow seems to feed a fire that blazes within until a torrent of violet light spills out from the titan's armor, disintegrating it and washing over the field. It burns without heat, blistering flesh and curling hair to dust. [23:01] 14These games are insulting, but really, games are all Cethleann has. [23:01] 14Though it would be nice if they were a bit less lethal. 15[23:01] The light dissipates, except for a burning crown on the behemoth's brow, within which stands a slender figure with a wide violet cape and a crooked silver lance. [23:02] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar swears and raises his shield - he's seen things shape rapidly while shaft of light after shaft of light stabs out from their cores before. When the fireworks are over, he's a couple fulms further back than he was and a lot of smoke is rising from his shield, but he's otherwise unharmed. [23:02] 14Stranger: "The most dangerous game. Have at you!" [23:02] <@Ferrinus> 12shake* [23:02] 5Xu Sim sees the blast wave incoming and tries to form a Mudra of Protection as he steps between Dorma and Xia Lan - but it's not enough to stop it. He is blown backwards but manages to land on his feet, his body smoking. 15[23:03] The red sky dims and darkens, given over wholly to violet. [23:04] 10The greatest light casts the darkest shadows, and for a moment, Jai is one with them. [23:05] 5Xu Sim's head swivels around to look at her, murder in his eyes and violence in his heart. [23:09] 13You. 15[23:14] The battle's gone silent all around. No one can hear what's happening the next street over, and vision past a few yalms dissolves into violet mist. [23:30] 13Xia Lan leaps from the side of the building up to where Cethleann has perched herself - slashes - misses. But she's already twirling her hooked swords in preparation for her next swing -- 15[23:33] Blade clashes with blade as Xia Lan's attack is met by the paired swords of Kana Kavu. [23:33] 13!! [23:33] 13She falters. 15[23:35] "At least this time you stabbed me from the front." [23:36] 13Xia Lan: "Wh-- Kana?" [23:36] 13Not real not real not real what if it's real not real what if it is [23:36] 14A strange calm comes over Stranger Visits Heaven. He hasn't been long in Creation, but he feels like he's been here before, and he feels like he knows it. And -- ah, there's the Wyld, encroaching on every side -- he feels like this would be a good death. Not quite a loss; not quite a stalemate. Just a death. [23:36] 14More than anything, he regrets getting her involved. [23:43] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar grits his teeth, raises his sword up from the cobbles he was bracing it in, and turns around. He casts a glance upward, seeing that Cethleann's already been engaged, and then makes another sideways leap. Snarling, shield forward, sword back but point forward like a scorpion's stinger, Keldar leaps through the plasmic torso of Mata-Yadh, his arms and armor trailing fire and [23:43] <@Ferrinus> 12lightning as he rips a ragged tunnel through the core of the behemoth's essence. The Dawn Sergeant lands in a crater, leaving a trail of shattered stone and ruptured essentioplasm behind him... but the behemoth still stands. "Fuck!" [23:43] 14For a second there, it looked like he had it. 15[23:58] "You know what the last thing I saw was? You. Crawling away. Like a dog." 15[23:59] Her blades come from both sides like snapping jaws. [00:00] 13Xia Lan blocks both of them and pulls the fake Kana closer to her, each hook around a blade. "You're not her. And don't fucking wear her face." [00:02] 13Headbutt. Knee-strike. A sword slash. She's been trained for this. [00:02] 13Kana trained her for this. [00:09] 14Stranger sends the parasol out, aiming for Cethleann's eye -- and in a blink of it, the Lady has switched places with Xia Lan, and suddenly he's about to kill -- [00:10] 13Blocked. Her eyes are still fixed on Cethleann, no matter what face she's using now -- but her sword gently pulls Stranger's parasol back to his side. [00:11] 14The corners of Stranger's mouth twist. This is, he realizes faintly, the angriest he's ever been. But it doesn't really feel like it. [00:13] 14That's probably very, very bad. [00:17] 5Xu Sim, the tips of his eyebrows and moustache still smouldering, somersaults between the smashing legs of the Mata-Yadh; its attempts to squash him only drive it into a worse and worse position as he laughs a thin, grim, laugh. [00:24] Jai's down here dancing out of the way of the behemoth's limbs, trying to get a clear shot at Cethleann. But between Stranger and Xia Lan's attacks and Cethleann's tricks, the opening just isn't there. [00:24] 10Jai's down here dancing out of the way of the behemoth's limbs, trying to get a clear shot at Cethleann. But between Stranger and Xia Lan's attacks and Cethleann's tricks, the opening just isn't there.  15[00:52] Atop the behemoth, Xia Lan clashes again and again with the monster wearing her lost friend's face. She gives an ilm, she gains an ilm, both teetering on the brink of falling to the blast-strewn cobbles below. "Maybe I'm not her," she pants, before finding one final opening. And then Xia Lan is looking up at a foreign and thorn-crowned face, staring with cold curiosity down the length 15[00:52] of a crooked spear as it runs her through. "But you never could be either, could you?" [00:52] 14Eventually, there's a point where the whole of your decisions, backwards and forwards, the full compilation of them, the entire avalanche, play out before your eyes first as a tragedy and then, they say, as a farce. But when Stranger Visits Heaven watches the Unfettered Xia Lan die nameless on the end of the Gentry's outstanding weapon, the farce is her reading, and he's left [00:52] 14with...nothing. No story. This is just an end to things. [00:53] 13Xia Lan stares down at the spear impaling her. She looks back up to Cethleann... and falls. [00:54] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's rounding on the behemoth, trying to figure out which of the nearest two limbs are standing the least steady, when he sees the fight atop the saddle come to its conclusion. "Kid! NO!" [00:56] 10Jai feels like he's been dumped in an icy river. He's seen people die before, plenty of times. Even been responsible for it. But this? This10 offends 10him. 10Did I come allt his way just to watch them die? [01:05] 14The parasol misses her by almost a foot, this time. [01:12] <@Ferrinus> "Fuck it," 12Keldar snarls, and nothing bad's ever happened after someone mutters that, right? He rockets into the air again, shattering pavement behind him before stopping to hang above Cethleann, sword perpendicular to the earth. [01:15] 5Xu Sim shouts wordlessly as Xia Lan hits the ground with a thud. Not again. [01:16] <@Ferrinus> 12He plunges downward, his aura of power coalescing around him into a gigantic image of a faceless, armored warrior which also drives his sword downward into the earth. The Dawn Sergeant lands exactly on the mark, which means that the blade of Terminus smashes Cethleann's lance aside and stabs straight through her collarbone, down between her ribs, and out the faerie queen's lower [01:16] <@Ferrinus> 12back. [01:16] <@Ferrinus> 12Flame and darkness is already evaporating off Keldar as he growls: "Welcome to Nexus." [01:17] 13She wasn't supposed to die like this. And yet. Maybe she'll see the real Kana Kavu again. Maybe she'll see the rest of the Ruby Reds. Maybe, maybe, maybe. [01:17] There's a spear in her gut. 15[01:23] Cethleann bleeds black down Keldar's blade, and a wide smile that splits her entire skull, which falls to mis before the rest of her body. Soon Keldar is triumphantly stabbing air, his own visage hazy and indistinct against the gleaming, all-too-real edge of his sword. 15[01:24] She melts into air... and soon Keldar is standing alone atop Mata-Yadh, surrounded by a city in flames beneath a blood-red sky. [01:25] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar handily keeps his balance on Mata-Yadh as he turns his blade sideways to allow Cethleann to slide off it and begin to fall. As he draws the weapon back from the faerie's evaporating body, it fuses back with its shield, gleaming sun-bright in the battlefield's combined anima even as Keldar himself seems to fall out of focus, becoming shadowed and indistinct. Whoever's holding [01:25] <@Ferrinus> 12that daiklave seems to just be another dime-a-dozen Nexus mercenary - but his money still spends, and his blade still cuts. [01:25] 14Stranger hasn't stopped staring at the girl's body. [01:27] 10Jai screams! All that and the fucking raksha queen just melts into thin air? [01:28] "It's not over," 14he says. "Nothing ever ends." 15[01:28] Keldar sees that Cethleann's armies have pressed deeper into the city. The fighting extends past him in all directions, with Lookshyan soldiers standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the risen Lookshyan dead as they hold the raksha back from the Final Word, whose cannons have begun to burn again. Thunder, fire, howling wind and screaming spirits rake the streets, and there's more rubble 15[01:28] than standing in the northern half of the city. [01:29] 14Something inside him stirs, and he shudders. He's not a hero. He's a steward. If he falls here, that something will be back. And it will be worse. 15[01:31] Meanwhile, the Dawn Guard have crushed their foes, despite taking heavy losses, and their line mercilessly collides with the eastern flank of the raksha horde. The tide of the wider battle is turning. But there is no sign of the Emissary, and despite the redness of the sky Balor's star is no longer visible over Sentinel's Hill. 15[01:34] Beneath Keldar, Mata-Yadh's form unsteadies as the aurora animating it bleeds away. 15[01:35] It flickers and fades and then Keldar is riding an obsidian sled straight to the ground. [01:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Some guy is, anyway. [01:35] 10Jai slumps and punches the ground. "Shit! Shit! Shit! I wasn't ready for this!" 10It's true; he wasn't. He went looking for excitement and got, well, a war on a scale he couldn't have possibly imagined. [01:36] 14Stranger is walking over to the girl's body. "None of us were." [01:37] 14But when he reaches her...he picks up the Sol Ring. [01:38] 5Xu Sim brushes past him to Xia Lan's side. "Shut up," 5he urges as he checks her pulse, her wound, to see what can be done. [01:40] <@Ferrinus> 12Somebody - that's Keldar, right? - they stab the very tip of a grand daiklave right into the middle of the Sol Ring, pinning it to the remains of Mata-Yadh's back. "Hey." [01:41] 13There's a moan. The body stirs, slightly. [01:42] 13Her hands flutter to her still-bleeding stomach before she drifts back off. [01:42] 14Stranger stares at the warrior. "The ring doesn't seek a nobody. Focus on staying alive." [01:42] "Y-yeah. Sorry. Look, I'll go get…" 10Jai looks around the smoldering ruins, then to Xu Sim. "I know a little bit of medicine. Tell me what to look for and I'll find it." [01:42] "Thank the Sun!" 5Xu Sim exclaims. "We have to get her somewhere safe, right now." [01:42] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "We need the power, and the war's still going. You staying out here?" [01:42] 14Stranger: "I intend to die out here." [01:43] "And then, I'll get worse." [01:43] "Don't be an ass, Stranger-Visits-Heaven," 5Xu Sim reminds him. "We need to get her behind friendly lines, or something, right now! Which way?" [01:46] 10Jai: "I'll go. I'll find the quickest route. And you can make a stretcher out of spears and cloth if you need to, and…" 10He's going to make himself useful, damn it. It's the best way to keep from sinking into despair. [01:47] "Keldar! Spears for a stretcher!" 5Xu Sim barks. [01:48] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar pauses. It looks like he wants to say something to Stranger here, but the words aren't coming. "...fine, yeah. I'll get the Guard." [01:48] 14Stranger: "It's a crown of death and hate. I'll wear it. And when I fall, you pick it up." [01:49] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar pauses. It looks like he wants to say something to Stranger here, but the words aren't coming. "...fine, yeah. I'll get the Guard." [01:49] <@Ferrinus> 12It's not that easy to get them to hear him amidst the pitched battle, but people recognize the sword. At least a few Guardsmen are mobilized to help carry Xia Lan to safety. [01:49] 14He flicks his wrist, and the ring flies up like a hoop into the air behind his head...and then aligns with it, wreathing it in a twisting circle. [01:50] <@Ferrinus> 12There's some creaking and clanking as the procession moves, and it soon becomes evident that a couple of the guardsmen are carrying "Royal Road", too. Keldar walks along wearing just his undershirt, pants, boots, and badge. [01:51] 14The man from up the river looks much, much older, and he may never smile again. [01:53] 10Jai gets up on one of the few vantage points remaining, and looks over the new lay of the land. 15[01:54] Jai can see that among the ruins of pitched magical combat, the raw power of the ishvara, and the raining fire of the Final Word, there are a number of buildings leveled and gouges torn into the ground. From here he can see that one building was leveled to its foundations, but that it was sitting atop an unsealed entrance to the Undercity. That's the way to go. [01:57] 10It's not long before he's back with the others. He's found something that might have been an awning, or some sailcloth, and splintered cataphract spears. "Looks like underground is our best bet. There's a tunnel entrance in what used to be a basement." [01:59] 14Stranger: "Then let's go. We don't have long." [02:00] "Great," 5croaks Xu Sim, casting an eye to the heavens. "I wonder if they got what they came for?" 15[02:00] NEXT TIME: Hand in unlovable hand [02:00] "Raksha just do things. There's no reason behind any of it… That's what I was told, anyway." [02:00] 14The ring turns, and turns, and turns, and turns...