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Unresolved Fury - Battle for the Final Crux

Scene details

Setting: The Star Chasers make their way to a lone island that bears the final fragment according to the nearly restored Crux. However, they come across remnants of the dead as well as an eidola responsible for Anna's destiny with the Star Chasers.

Log


 At long last, the fourth Crux fragment is within reach.
 "Everyone alright!?"
 The wind is tempestuous upon the craggy shore. Ivo must shout to be heard, his cloak raised to shield his face and prevent his voice from being lost. Though the sky is not stormy, showing only some typical seaside clouds, this coastline to the west of the fishing village is notoriously prone to gales and gusts at all times of day.
 Given the party's great successes in finding fragment after fragment, the delay in detecting the fourth and final fragment was a bit surprising. Even with Kernunnos's powers magnified by Ivo's increasingly upgraded sensor, for a long time, nothing showed up. Ivo had begun to question if, given the location of the other fragments, it were safe to assume that the final fragment would be in the north of Granse.
 "There, in the distance," he's saying, pointing out into the water, struggling to maintain his footing on sharp slippery rocks, there being no sand out here, only pebbles at best. "See that small island? The signal was faint, fainter even than the one in Aurita Meloda, but it's in the ruins there!" Indeed, though seaspray somewhat masks it, a crumbling fortress may be made out on the horizon, hewn from the rock itself, garlanded by living trees. They are about as close as they can get on foot now, though the water is between them and their goal.
 Squinting against the damp and salty buffets, Ivo manages to turn his head and flash a grin at Reize.
 "But don't worry, chief. The fisherfolk at the village assured me that we just have to wait."
 He turns back to the island, tone turning serious again.
 "Just... keep your guard up, alright, everyone?"
 Occasionally, with the rolling of the waves, hints of rock are exposed. There is a submerged path leading to the apparent island on foot, one that is clearly only revealed at certain times of day, when the tide shifts. The party has a moment to rest and gather their thoughts, to appreciate the stark and brutal of this place, to gaze upon the resting place of the final fragment, where the last of the secrets of Vaeltrandia may lie. There is no other presence but them.
 Yet they all know why Ivo has warned them. For the reason they eventually found this place was not, initially, because of the sensor's capacity to detect fragments. It was because Ivo had upgraded the sensor after their encounter with Yari in the goblin village. That is--
 He detected eidola first, and the fragment second.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20.
Comment: Fishing Side Quest Result!
Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4.

Ruidosa La Crima is here with everyone else, waiting, and keeping her guard up, but she also has a fishing line out from a pool into the rocky ocean waters and licks her lips. She gets a bite and tugs it upwards, a fish swinging out....

Ruidosa Caught: FLOUNDER, Flounder added to Book. Flounder is a COMMON bottom dwelling fish, renown for it's taste.

"Awww..." she says, looking back at the group. "I caught a flatfish." she pouts, but still puts it in the supplies bag because it can still become supper later.

She then peeks out over the water and to the strange ruins. "Ugh. This place must had been a bastion at one point but it's basically a ruined junk pile now." she says, peering over the water, and throwing her fishing rod's line back out into the rock water. Gotta fill that fish database. Maybe. While there's time to wait.

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago


 Anna has still been a bit on the glum side since the battle with that Black Beast guy. Her rgae had failed her. Though she has been able to tap into it again since, it just doesn't have the same... Feel to it. It's weak. Subdued. Like her heart isn't all in it, and this has earned her a few new scars as a result.
 Her new axe is slung on her back, and she's not sure how much she exactly likes the weight and feel of it. ... It's a perfectly good, perfectly balanced axe. It must be a subconscious thing.
 "I'm fine." The princess says in reply to Ivo's call, able to at least keep her footing on the rocky pebbly shore while the party waits for the tide to make it to the island in the distance.
 "Mm..." She murmurs before turning her head.
 Rui has caught a fish, while playing the fishing mini game.
 "Oh. Nice catch."


  The wind is completely harsh; they bellow fiercely enough to where Reize uses his scarf to cover up everything below his nose. The scarf flaps in the air like a cape, reminiscent to its original state. The gale leaves much desired in terms of additional obstacles that the youth has to contend with.

  Reize looks back at Anna and Ruidosa, "You two okay?!" He calls out to his friends as loud as he can, then he drifts his gaze back ahead. He already suspects that Anna would have everything under control, but he was a bit more concerned for Ruidosa.

  .... Only to see her fishing.

  With a large sweatbead over his head, he remarks, "She's fine."

  The crumbling fortress gets his attention. The young man examines ahead while trying to keep his footing. He stares at the sight of the water that stands between him and the other side.

  ...

  There is the look of dread, though Ivo does re-assure him that they only have to wait, "... I hope so." He furrows his eyebrow. However, seeing Ivo becoming more serious, Reize immediately draws both of his boomerangs in his hand and is ready to fight. They will encounter an Eidola.
 


 "Ah..."
 The sound emerges from Reize's pendant.
 "I... remember this place now."
 Kernunnos is often quiet, observing the proceedings while careful not to needlessly reveal himself. But it is rare that he sounds as he does now when he speaks, confused, even somehow groggy.
 "This was the observatory of the high druidess," he says. "She spoke to me of it often when she would visit me at the shrine. While the warriors of Vaeltrandia fought and ruled, the druids sought the sun here. It was here that the Star-Crowned were born. And it was here that the druids staged their final defense against their creation's rebellion."
 "You remember this place?" Ivo asks, clearly curious. "Did you visit, then? I was under the impression that you remained in your shrine. Or did they have something like Reize's pendant, that could safely transport you?"
 "No, I..." Kernunnos trails off. "I never... but that's..."
 Ivo stares at Reize's pendant as the eidola fades into silence, glancing briefly at the boy and raising an eyebrow before looking toward the island.
 "The last bastion of the druids, huh," he murmurs. "Maybe we'll finally find out what went wrong. How the tyrannical rule of the Star-Crowned came to be... and how it ended."
 He looks upward. Somewhere up there, hidden by the clouds, the lost city of Arcadios is said to float, where the Star-Crowned Emperor is sealed away, along with the arts and artifacts that might revive their homunculus friend Lily. The Crux of Creation, Kernunnos said, would show the way.
 "But why would there be eidola here?" Ivo goes on, thinking aloud. "Let alone such a strong signal. We're far from the Gate of Purification still. Normally, eidola wouldn't be able to sustain themselves, right...? Unless..."
 The water is parting.
 "...they're very weak... or very strong."
 Hauteclare's hilt begins emitting static.
 "Already!?" Ivo draws his blade and flicks a switch on the crossguard, a miniaturized version of his sensor emerging from a hidden compartment. Taking a high stance with his sword pointed forward, he looks through the sensor, slowly turning to track the signal. "Here it comes, everyone!"
 The sea melts away from the rocks, exposing a thin line of a craggy path toward the bastion beyond. And there, visible to all, is a person. A robed and kneeling figure. Briefly, the wind dies, by coincidence or not, it is impossible to say.
 "F..."
 A sound emerges from that figure, audible in the stillness.
 "FffaaAthHeeeEr?"
 The sound is distorted, somehow stretched. The figure looks up, hood of their robe slipping back, and no features can be discerned, only the suggestions of a face through shape and contour. Yet even so, the set of those contours suggests, somehow, a deep satisfaction unto ecstatic release. The figure seems bathed in light, though no light source is visible above, before they vanish all at once. Silence reigns.
 "Uh..." is the best that Ivo can offer.
 Then the figure reappears.
 "F..."
 The sequence begins again. The Cosmopolitan blinks.
 "It's... a remnant," he finally says. "Like the ones at the goblin village. But why would there be remnants here? Kernunnos, do you have any idea?"
 "I... no, I... my child, why..."
 Ivo's face twists in a mixture of perplexion and sympathy before looking back toward the robed remnant, where it repeats its eerie gesture and raspy proclamation.
 "Well, as long as we don't touch it, we--"
 The static intensifies. Loud. Drowning out the remnant's cry.
 And then, with a sonorous boom, from nowhere, a black helm appears upon the robed figure's head. It freezes in place. The air around it warps as armor plating seems to snap into existence, its body convulsing and seeming to solidify, to grow denser. Within seconds, the remnant's appearance has completely changed.
 "That's--"
 It is a dark-armored knight, barbed spear gripped in its gauntleted hands. It begins to stagger and shamble toward the party, the air about them turning sepia-toned, disorientation and queasiness threatening to settle in, all as more dark-armored knights begin to clamber from beneath the waves onto the path before them, like some bizarre twist on turtles coming ashore to spawn. All are armed.
 And all are attacking.

As the path appears and then.... strange weird figures appear, Ruidosa reels in the fishing line and puts away the pole, well. She just leaves it on it's little stand as she sighs and frowns a little, peeking her head up as she opens her book.

"Alright. Here we go." she says, looking to Reize as she sidles a little closer to him, as she eyes the book and looks up at the ruins. Nothing in her book about this place. Mother never bothered visiting. Still...

Armored knights start to crawl from the sea onto the path and all are attacking.

That's hard. She throws a ball of energy outwards after muttering an art name to herself, that sits in the path, and starts zapping armored knights in a chain, she frowns as she looks over to Reize...

"Follow up as they get zapped." she says to the others. Hoping the momentary jolts will provide openings for the others.

"Should we be moving forward as we go or are we gonna try to siege defense?" she asks to Ivo and the others.


  As his pendant becomes active, Reize looks down to see the glow that is followed by Kernunnos's voice. "Kernunnos?" Reize looks with a mild surprise at his activity. Even if the voice is quiet, that grogginess is even more surprising. "The high druidess?"

  looks ahead at the fortress, "I wonder if there are any traces of the warriors left." His glance is drifted towards Ivo, then he considers the bastion that's up ahead. "Hopefully, and then we can find a way to wake up Lily." He glances back at Ruidosa, giving a thoughtful look, "I think you two would get along." He brightens at the thought.

  Reize's eyes follow Ivo's gaze upward, trying to see what he sees, but fails to do so. However, as Ivo becomes alarmed at his hilt's reaction, Reize watches Ivo take a battle stance, following suit himself with his boomerangs held invertedly while he leans forward. He's taking the more aggressive stance.

  As the sea melts away, the path opening before them. A person is not too far, except...

  "A remnant...?"

  The boy takes a deep breath, uncertain as to why they have a remnant in these parts. As the static intensifies, his eyes widen at the sight of a dark-armored knight. As the disorienting aura projects around them once more, Reize witnesses more armored knights clamboring from the waves. "Wh----"

  While Ruidosa inquires about their next move, Reize is already charging full speed ahead towards the knights. Like a speeding bullet, the youth closes the distance between himself and one of the Eidola knights while lunging forward with a roundhouse, which would twist into a raising boomerang swing from the most forward hand, "SAAAAA!"
 

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago


 When Kernunnos speaks, it's as though Anna is pulled from her own inner world, half-lidded eyes staring at Reize's pendant as the Eidola (the good one) tells the party of the Druidess and her observatory and that this place, of all places, was the birthplace of the Star Crowned.
 "Huh..."
 But then the tide flows out and the water parts. The wind dies down.
 And there's a remnant.
 Painful memories of the goblin village bubble up in Anna's mind, and soon she finds herself cradling her skull in one hand, eyes misting silently. Until everything goes so wrong.
 The Eidola turns hostile, and the world seems to lose color.
 Nausea and exhaustion wash over Anna like the waves on the very rocks of the shore and then there are more. Anna brushes off the twisting feeling in her gut the only way she knows how.
 Her eyes turn a bloodshot shade of pink as she unslings her new axe from her back.
 "... Zap them and stay behind me. We're gonna push up." She says to Rui as Reize charges in; Anna takes the opportunity to slam herself wholesale in a rushing shoulder-charge, intending to bowl over the zapped knights courtesy of Rui and buy a little more time.


 Ivo, loading a green elesphere into the pommel of his sword, sends his blade spinning at two dark-armored knights by the edge of the thin path that have been staggered by Ruidosa's arts. The eidola seem oddly resistant to her shadow techniques, but are nevertheless affected sufficiently that, with a burst of wind cutting through the now-still air, the magitech fencer's follow-up strike throws the two from the rocks and casts them back into the sea.
 "We're outnumbered, but we've got them bottlenecked here," Ivo replies to his vampire ally, "and the winds could resume at any moment. Enigma-class eidola don't behave predictably, but if these keep advancing toward us, then--"
 The static from Ivo's own sensor almost drowns him out.
 On the far end of the path, almost upon the island itself, a dark shape looms. It is similar to the knights that, zombie-like, shamble toward the party, spears raised. But this looming monstrosity wields an enormous claymore instead. And, distinct among all its allies, it has no head.
 "Why!?" Ivo shouts over the static. "Kernunnos! What's going on!?"
 The dullahan, their foe from Verdios, Anna's mortal enemy, is here. It is reaching toward a robed remnant, which of course ignores it, merely repeating a similar upward turn toward the sky. But when it grasps that remnant, a pulse of energy is exchanged between the two eidola. The dullahan's armor seems burnished brighter, somehow. And the remnant begins to change, armor metastasizing upon its form, barbed spear growing from nothing in its grasp.
 "No... why?" Kernunnos is saying. "Why would my children...?"
 "Unbelievable!" Ivo says, the demigod in Reize's pendant having failed to respond. "I don't know why there are remnants resembling druids from centuries ago here! But they must have attracted the marauder all the way from Verdios as a source of domain aether! If we don't stop it, it'll have an army--!"
 He thus offers no complaint as Reize and Anna charge in. He too would prefer to confront the marauder before it converts any more remnants into minions. And he wouldn't dream of saying a word of restraint to Anna in this situation.
 "Let's strike it down for good!"
 The dark-armored knights are slow but durable. Yet on this unsteady ground, forceful strikes are able to knock them into the water, from which the dense creatures seem to struggle to emerge.
 "I'll keep an eye on the ones we knock aside, so we don't get pincered!" Ivo calls. "Let's get to the marauder as quickly as-- wait!"
 The dullahan, having finished devouring another robed remnant, has reached out its gauntleted hand toward the party, as though noticing them for the first time. At that moment, pillars of darkness erupt from the waves around them in the exact places where the party has knocked the armored minions aside. One visibly clambering back onto the path evaporates into mist, dissolving into another pillar that gathers with the others into a seething cloud about them.
 "Watch out above!!"
 A rain of destruction follows. Heavy black hail resembling barbed spears showers down upon the party. There is little room to maneuver upon the thin path. Desperately, Ivo slaps a blue elesphere into Hauteclare and, moments before a jagged lance falls upon him, attempts to send his blade spinning horizontally to produce a curtain of ice functioning as a shield, trying to protect himself and at least some of his friends...

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Blocking Rain of Destruction with Magitech Fencing Art: Deep Freeze.
Roll(s): 12. Total result is 12. This is a success (by 0).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Hunting Hawk's iframes to Dark Geyser
Roll(s): 12. Total result is 12. This is a success (by 0).

Ruidosa throws up a shield of darkness around her in response to sudden spear hail...through Ivo's defense attempt makes this moot as he blocks most of the fire. She frowns as she narrows her eyes. "Very well." she says. She throws a swipe forward, a spectral black sword forming as she calls out "Falcata...!" slicing into one of the armored figures as she frowns heavily....oh..oh the big one is here. That's...

"Very well. Monster shall fight monster." she says bluntly.

She suddenly poofs into blackmist. Did she just....explode?

No. Instead, reforming in Ruidosa's pace is some sort of horrible dark shade, with glowing blue eyes, that is vaugely Ruidsoa shape, that lunges out at the nearest creature with large, awful black claws. This happens quickly with some sort of 'screeee!' sounding from the attack.

Ruidosa unleashes: Truest Form.

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago


 Pummelling Eidola aside into the water is no easy feat, but Anna takes advantage of the shocked ones to give them a bunch of good hard shoves back to the murk and mire from whence they came.
 Right up until she turns her head, glancing up from punting another knight into the sea only to see.
 "..."
 A familiar and unwelcome sight. A sight that instills both terror and hate in the young princess' heart, as she *sees* the dullahan- the towering armored *thing* that took her home from her, a chunk of Faruja's lance likely still embedded in the armored behemoth.
 For a beat... For just a beat, Anna Primrose of Suryle quails, a clarity coming over her eyes as they lose their bloodshot sheen. Anna... Loses her cool.
 Hands tremble, knees quake as she stares down her very nemesis looking for all the world like a doe caught in the headlights of an oncoming mack truck.
 Thankfully she has enough clarity of mind in this moment to hunker behind Hauteclare's spinning blade as it fends off the initial wave of dark energies, but Anna is caught for a good beat on her knees holding her head as memories come to the fore of her mind.
 Gretch, the hunter that had taught her how to track footprints in the woods... Pulverized under that behemoth dullahan's boot.
 Fleck taught her how to howl like the wolves at night- disembowelled.
 Gribla, laying in a pool of her own blood. She had taught Anna how to clean meat from the hunt and cook it.
 The ghosts of Anna's tribesmates and goblin kin dance in her haunted eyes as she stares at her nemesis... And... And...
 Anna's eyes turn bloodshot once again.
 The rage is true.
 The rage is pure.
 Her hate flows freely in her blood as her heart pumps it hard into her system; a concentrated mix of adrenaline and pure wrath.
 For the first time since her fight with the Black Beast, Anna is... Anna is so...
 She's so ANGRY.
 Thoughtless, heedless of danger to herself or others, she picks herself up off her knees and chokes her axe in her grasp as she charges right for the Dullahan, releasing the beast from the secret place behind her heart as she lunhes, leaping in a vaulting somersault through the air as she aims to bring the blade down in a monstrous cleaving blow.
 "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL -KILL- YOU!!!"

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20+3>12.
Comment: Frenzy Rage. Engaging Lu Bu.
Roll(s): 7. Total result is 10. This is a failure (by 2).


  Striking down one of the knights was the first intentions of the boy, maybe knock them into the water while he's at it. In fact, the combo ends with him flipping forward to slam his foot at the knight to send them for a swim.

  Once he lands on the ground, he looks over to see Anna is charging headway to strike down the zapped knights. He turns over to face Ruidosa, giving her a thumbs up. He returns his gaze forward to see the further path. "...Huh?"

  Wait, isn't one of those knights familiar? His eyes widen in realization, especially as the dullahan's armor changes as the remnant is absorbed.

  Hearing Kernunnos's anguish, Reize frowns and he pushes the next knight into the water before running ahead. As he runs ahead, he notices thatthe pillars gather around then, followed by the raining barbed spears shooting down at their way.

  That is when Reize gathers his energy... and bolts forward. As the spears hail down towards the youth, time is slowing down around him to where he sees those sharp edges try to graze his skin. He weaves his head aside and then lunges forward in his dash while his arms spread like wings. The boomerangs strike through the beelined knights, bypassing them all and the spears of doom while striking them down.

  His eyes turn towards the back to see how the others are...

  "..Rui?" His eyes widen, now witnessing her in a rare form of a horrible dark shade. He has never seen that before. And... for Anna, he gives a sympathetic frown, as realization hits on the stakes that she has in this fight. "...Let's finish this."
 


 "Anna!!!"
 The first thing Ivo sees once his vision clears from the shards of ice and frost that have scattered upon impact with a falling dark lance, and the dust that was kicked up by the other falling spears striking against the rocks, is the Princess of Suryle throwing herself at the dullahan. The haft of Faruja's spear lodged within the eidola's armor wavers as the monstrous calamity turns its hulking form, slowly taking its enormous claymore in both gauntleted hands.
 "Behind you!!"
 But it does not swing its sword just yet. Instead, the already distorted air about it, so sickeningly twisted, seems to grow more dizzingly contorted, rendering the massive armor difficult to look upon directly. And as its power intensifies, the minions that Reize's expert attack has toppled begin to rapidly twitch and convulse, right as a dark form that Ivo does not recognize darts forward.
 "Rui--!?"
 So vampire curses *are* real, the thought intrudes. He *knew* it. Wait! Now's not the time for this!
 "Rui, you too--!"
 Ivo has no time to say any more. The fallen minions do not dissolve this time. As Anna is descending toward the dullahan, the knights emit an abyssal glow for a split-second, the briefest of warnings, before they *explode*, transformed by the marauder's vile conversion into shambling bombs. With the Princess in mid-attack, the force of the impact is enough to buffet her back and send her skidding upon the rocky path, dark energy washing over her and chunks of flying armor tearing at her body. Ruidosa, too, tearing at minions on her way toward the marauder, is in the direct vicinity of an explosion, and--
 > Any magical energy that Ruidosa has depleted is restored.
 --the wave of pure Destruction that emerges leaves her completely unharmed, if anything possibly intensifying her blackmist form and empowering her claws. Where before her rending strikes seemed to have their effects diminished upon the similarly aspected foes, their power may seem to grow.
 Reize and Ivo, however, may not be so fortunate. The vast majority of the minions are erupting, and it is all the Cosmopolitan can do to dive for cover among the rocks, hoping that the remnants of his ice shield will continue to offer him some cover...

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Ivo is attacked by Sinister Sacrifice.
Roll(s): 12. Total result is 12. This is a success (by 0).

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>12.
Comment: I tank with my HP.
Roll(s): 12. Total result is 12. This is a failure (by 0).

"I'm completely fine! Just. Different for the moment, worry about it later!!!" says Ruidosa, though her voice sounds a little distorted, as this thing doesn't have a mouth it's like..emanating from her, echoily-like. When blackness and darkness explode around her, she absorbs it, and nrgggs--- an energy build up of dark as she creates large claws from her hand and lashes out like many blades at once into the fray again.

She's trying to clear a way for Anna to the big bad, basically, at this point.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=15.
Comment: Ride the Explosions
Roll(s): 14. Total result is 14. This is a failure (by 1).

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago


 As the smaller eidola begin to erupt and explode all around her, Anna skids backwards, boots dragging deep furrows in the rocky ground as she snarls and stamps and screams.
 The stake the princess has in this battle, it's...
 It's personal.
 Shaking off the searing pain and ignoring the ringing in her ears, she bull-rushes again, thoughtless, heedless, charging through the path Rui cuts for her as she raises her axe again, intent on trying to cleave through the Dullahan's armor with a single-minded and murderous intent.

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: I WILL cut you.
Roll(s): 20. Total result is 20. This is a success (by 8).


  There is a look of satisfaction as Reize toppled the minions, but it is short-lived as they do not seem to dissolve. Instead, they are eerily twitching and convulsion.

  Uhh, guys?" Reize calls out to the others, looking very uneasy at the current surrounding. The worst thing is that Reize did get himself pincered, though he did gamble to knock them all in the water which was originally effective. Not wanting to stick around, the boy is alraedy beginning his sprint away from the convulsing knights.

  ....And then they explode.

  His eyes widen, he quickly reaches into his satchel to procure a small orb. Giving the orb a squeeze, he throws the orb into the explosion. "Okay, this should project a barri---..."

  As the orb glows and a field immediately manifests, it is soon enveloped by the explosion and it gains way towards Reize.

  "!!!!" He looks shocked, shielding his face while preparing for the worst of the brunt.
 


 There is little place to hide. As explosions tear at the narrow path, which is expanding all too slowly with the tides, Ivo only barely protects himself from shadowy flame with a combination of jagged rocks and ice that melts completely away. The power of destruction is overwhelming. The aura of the eidola is sickening. Already, Ivo wonders how long they've been fighting on this infernal battleground. A minute? An hour? A year?
 "Kernunnos!" he screams. "Use the power of Creation! Do *something*!"
 The hunkered down fencer dares to look out from his cover only to see Reize engulfed in dark energies.
 "Reize!!!!!"
 ...
 "What could have happened here?"
 Time has stopped. The explosion is frozen, the boy seeing it in shades of sepia, as though the moment before his death has been steeped in amber and preserved. He feels no pain. He cannot move. The only thing that stirs his is pendant, which floats as though caught in free-air, twinkling.
 "Who is responsible for this suffering?"
 Kernunnos's voice is rich with grief.
 "My children... I must know. I must learn."
 A rushing is audible in Reize's ears.
 "My champion... please..."
 A light is pushing back at the darkness.
 "You... must help me...!"
 Time resumes.

> Kernunnos's Affinity Rank has increased to 6.
> Reize may now perform a Summoned Surge.
> A Summoned Surge expends 30% of the Summon Gauge in exchange for increasing any dice roll by +3.
 A barrier of light surrounds his feet. In place of the barrier that he had attempted to evoke, it shields him momentarily, pushing back at the explosions that assail him, not for long...

> Reize's previous roll is increased by 3.
> Total result is 17. This is a success (by 2).
 ...but for long enough.
 As this is happening, Ruidosa, unfazed by the waves of destruction, tears into one of the last of the minions, only a few of them continuing to shamble about, and some of those far behind them near the shore, no threat to the party. The marauder is attempting to meet Anna's assault with its claymore. But the savage impact of the blackmist vampire's claws hurl an armored knight back at its master, catching the blade mid-swing, seeming to stagger the eidola. It is completely open. And Anna is already there.
 Above even the explosions rises the horrific sound of rending metal. The dullahan is cleaved from top to bottom, the entire front of its plate mail sheared, revealing a roiling blackness within. It seems to keen, though perhaps that is the metal shrieking, as it sinks to its knees. The power of the princess's strike is breathtaking, utterly stupendous, the towering foe able only to shudder, its claymore dropping to the rocks. It slowly reaches out one gauntleted hand. Surely it is intending to attack somehow. But as it is, in this moment, delayed by the berserker's furious blow, it looks almost as though it is begging her for mercy.

> The marauder has been stunned and may take no action this turn.

Ruidosa laughs , well more cackles as she throws one of the minion creatures into the big guy and continues to move, slashing and clashing into the remaining creatures as she eyes the stunned beast.... that's...not her place to attack it directly, but she does throw another minio it's way if she can. It won't be a killing blow, but it may weaken it more for what Anna may intend to do.

No Mercy, Anna, come on, do the smart thing. End it. End it. End it. She thinks very hard. Okay she's basking into too much darkness, which means she has to end the form change, letting herself retreat more from the big guy, letting Anna make the final decision without her vocalizing her internal thoughts of death and chaos currently.

She waits.

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago


 Eyes red, Anna's axe stands poised to strike, and strike she does...
 Raining blow after monstrous blow upon the Eidola, she obliges Ruidosa as best she can. Anna INTENDS to end this monster here and now, wailing away with her axe, bellowing gibberish and heated war cries of hate in both common and goblin tongue.
 Her axe sings as it cuts through the air as the dullahan drops to a knee, stunned. She does not intend to give it time to recover as she snarls.
 Did it show mercy when it slaughtered her clan?
 No mercy...
 It took everything she knew and loved away from her.
 No mercy!
 It killed her friends.
 No Mercy!!
 It has to die.
 NO MERCY!!!
 As her axe wails through the air she growls, the double-bladed weapon suddenly catching FIRE in her grasp as she brings the flaming blade down again and again, fuelled by the sheer force of her rage and hate.

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: No Mercy
Roll(s): 20. Total result is 20. This is a success (by 8).


  Everything has stopped before the youth. He had mentally prepared himself for the incoming blow from the explosion and was ready to weather it down as much as he could. However, the delay has him wondering what happened. His eyes slowly open to see that the explosion has frozen, all within the shades of sepia. He can't move, so he too is frozen by time.

  However, he can hear something else.

  Kernunnos's anguish. The desire for the truth and to know what happened.

  When he opens his eyes, he sees the barrior of light surrounduing his feet. It pushes back against the explosion, giving him time to draw upon his pendant.

  After Reize gets a moment to recover, he looks over to the situation, noticing that Anna struck the Dullahan with a devastating blow. What he sees is... the eidola begging for mercy?

  To be honest, Reize has no idea how to deal with it. Had it been him...? He doesn't know. However, given the trauma that this had caused Anna, the slaughter it did to others...

  His eyes furrow and he turns his head away from the mess.

  He'll look away from the scene.

  This is Anna's stake and decision, after all.
 


 That outstretched gauntlet-- is sheared right off.
 Ivo, in contrast to Reize, is transfixed by the devastation that is wreaked before him. Anna is cleaving the marauder eidola to bits before his very eyes. Chunks of blackened metal shatter upon the rocks, their material forms crumbling to dust as they are severed from the raw destruction that is the abomination's essence. That essence, manifesting as a boiling black mist, is being dispersed with every swing of Anna's axe. It pools upon the crags beneath them and fades with the falling metal.
 Moving as though mesmerized, the Cosmopolitan slowly raises his sensor to peer through it. Though he can hardly believes his eyes, the magitech confirms what his intuition posits. Ruidosa and Anna's axe are presenting nearly the same readings. They are radiating an overwhelming aspect of Destruction.
 One that exceeds the eidola's own.
 Keen or shriek, none can say for sure, but the sound that emerge from the crumbling eidola would carve itself into the mind of any rational person forever, like that of a demon that has clung to rage and regret for millennia. Somehow, Anna's black-hafted weapon is undulled by the repeated strikes against aetheric steel, as though it were the perfect instrument of her rage. There, in the center of that mist, is a pulsing tangle of dark essence, a Gordian knot that parodies a heart. It seems vaporous, like any merely physical blow would simply pass through--
 And Anna cuts it right in two.
 Every remaining armored minion collapses. There is only the sound of waves. Moments pass. And finally, in the shadow of the crumbling bastion before them, the wind gradually resumes.

> The Dullahan has been obliterated.

> The party is victorious.

Ruidosa finally lets herself shift back to her humanoid form as she brushes herself off. "That was. Unpleasant. But needed in the moment." she says bluntly. She then holds her head as she looks towards the bastion as the wind resumes. "Shouldn't we... be going?" she asks as she seems to be nursing a massive headache. Too much darkness. Too much of it. Bad bad bad.

She'll probably have more opurtunities to expel it later as she looks towards Reize and frowns a little consolingly as Anna obliterates the Eidola.

That had to be done, she sort of shifts over and says. "Sorry about the..."

"Monster form thing. I'll explain. Later and stuff. But... we should probably..."

"Go?"

"I hear the wind picking up again."

  • Character: Anna
  • 2 years, 5 months ago


 Destroy...
 Destroy!
 DESTROY!
 Kill, maim, crush, smash, /DESTROY!/
 These are Anna's sole thoughts as she snarls, repeatedly hacking into the dullahan with everything she has, every ounce of her fury and hate is brought to bear... Until...
 Until the Eidola can take no more... And dies at her hand.
 The Dullahan has been obliterated.
 he party is victorious.
 Anna... Is... Is still so angry.
 Why?
 She got what she wanted.
 Why is she still so... So angry...?
 Collapsing breathless to her knees, the Suryle princess drops her axe and clutches her chest.
 She got... What she wanted.
 Her tribe has been avenged.
 And yet. Tears begin to well in her eyes as she hunches forward, streaming slowly down her cheeks as her shoulders tremble. Rocking herself in place, Anna can't help but start to sob. Wild, mournful cries of utter agony as she goes from raging to a collapsed crying heap, unable to get ahold of herself now that she finally has gotten what she wanted. The emotions come pouring out.
 And it's not all fury. It's pain.


  And the deed is done...

  Reize waits for the moment the pass, likely for Anna to collect herself and everyone to resume an air of talk. However, the young explorer feels that silence is the most appropriate thing that he can give. That 'shriek' was more than enough to send shivers down his back. He clutches his chest, taking a deep breath before he looks over to see the aftermath.

  They are victorious, but there is still something that remains.

  The young explorer approaches Anna, who is now finally crying. When he looks at Ruidosa, he gives her a nod. He has questions about her form, but she does bring a good point about the wind picking up once more. However, Reize approaches Anna, extending a hand her way to take.

  "....Anna." His smile becomes faint. "...Why don't we rest for a bit once we cross the path?" He looks at Ivo and Ruidosa, " ... But we need to make our way to the other side while the path is clear." It is a pointed glance to Anna, as he doesn't want her to get swept away by the water.

  He closes his eyes briefly. They will find out the truth as to what happened here. That is a promise to Kernunnos. For now, they need to get to the other side and give Anna time to properly grieve.
 


 Ivo heaves a sigh as he sheathes his sword.
 "I'd say it were too easy," he mutters to himself, "if I didn't see how well Anna fought." He's seen the berserker princess exceed her seeming limits before, but her ferocity was beyond anything he's witnessed. He hesitates to say it aloud, as though to do so would be to tempt fate, but quietly he thinks that in that extraordinary sequence, she was a match even for Thael.
 
 His gaze scans the surrounding forms of the fallen minions. They are already crumbling, some swifter than others, but none appear to stir.
 "Ah, right! Thanks, Ruidosa."
 The girl makes a very good point. The wind is rising, those gale forces threatening to reemerge, and the path that they are on is still precariously narrow. Far wiser to hasten the short distance remaining to the shore of the small island, where they can take shelter amongst the rough-hewn walls of the bastion and prepare to seek an entrance. Stirred from his brief reverie, Ivo gathers his cloak about him and does so, hopping between rain-slickened rocks.
 "We should be safe here," he calls as he rejoins his friends near the end of the path, gesturing toward an overhang that blocks against wind and spray. "Let's... take a little time to rest... shall we?"
 His expression softens as he sighs again, gentler this time, seeing and hearing Anna collapse before them. As anticipated, more or less.
 "Reize... give me a hand."
 If she will allow it, Ivo will try to offer the distraught princess a shoulder and help to pull her out of the elements, at least so that wind and water do not lash at her while she, at long last, grieves. Her wails echo against the stone, mingling with the rhythms of nature, the waves crashing against the rocks, the tide going out.
 Focused on his friend, Ivo does not see it. The last of the black mist, sinking into the rocks. Over the din, he does not hear it.
 The faint sound of static from his hilt.
 Far from them, upon the shore, left behind by their ferocious advance, one of the fallen minions has not yet fully crumbled, though waves crash at its form. Mist, reemerging from cracks in the weathered stones, creeps toward it. As the party is distracted, that dark essence sinks into the crumbling armor. Moments later, a heavy wave engulfs it. When the water passes, the dark eidola is gone.
 Only a fallen helmet remains, before it crumbles to dust.