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Floating City Arcadios

Scene details

Setting: Our heroes contend with the airborne defenses of the Floating City Arcadios and seek the throne room of the Star-Crowned Emperor.

Log


PREVIOUSLY, ON STAR CHASER STORY: THE LEGACY OF THE STAR-CROWNED:

 From one of the larger chunks of bridge that our heroes were passing by, a smaller shard was launched at an oblique angle, embedding itself in the trunk and circumventing their defenses. None of the shards thus far had behaved as such. What's more, a beam of light connects the tree to the chunk of bridge, and the chunk seems to be being dragged along somehow.
 "A tether of light?" Ivo peers through a gap in the branches before shaking his head, righting himself on a floor that's steady for the moment. "It's slowing us down-- Argent, can you give me more power!? Everyone, be care--"
 Before he can finish his sentence, a blur descends upon the dais atop the Sol Ascent. Passing along from the bridge to the tether of light, as it approaches at breakneck speed, to the sharp-eyed it comes into a view as a figure running along the tightrope thin and hazy thread. Seeming to fly as heedlessly as the craft itself, that figure leaps from the tether to land with a crash among the party, kicking up a cloud of dust and splinters, followed by a cloud of debris.
 "Damned druids," comes an unfamiliar voice. "You still won't quit?"
 A woman is hunched there, towering over the others once she rises to her full height. Her silver hair is dashingly cut short on one side, a scar running over her nose, almost reaching the gem embedded in her forehead. The white cloak about her billows, revealing that, shockingly, only half of her body seems to remain: a torso, a forearm there, a lower leg there. The rest is light in the hazy shape of a body, much like the light that had glimmered within the shards before they began to move.
 "Arcas, bastard... let..."
 She half-grins, half-snarls, revealing filed incisors.
 "...me rest already...!"

> The Star-Crowned Commander, Lyca, has appeared!

 Whipping out one arm, a shining halbard manifests, the crystal on her brow gleaming in time, before she spins, attempting to slash at Reize, Anna, and Ruidosa all at once, a savage whirl!

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98da5UbppY )


  As the effects of the Exceed Art ebb, so does Reize's strength as he collapses back onto the dais, dropping on both knees. He huffs, then he gets back up, feeling a bit weirded out from being within the apex of the eidola's proximity, but it was well worth it. Maybe, he is getting used to it?

 Hm. That may be scary in itself.

 The young explorer brightens as he looks at their path. "It looks like we ---BUH?!" As the tree quakes, the boy collapses back onto his knees and clings onto the ground. "Guh... now what?!"

 As the figure manifests herself through the shroud of dust, his eyes widen as he spots the gem on her forehead. Briefly, the boy tenses at the slight. This woman bears the same look that Lily has. Despite the pause, he stands up to his feet and rushes forward to meet Lyca head-on.

 As she spins the halbard around, the boy's arms lower to bring his crystal boomerangs in front of him to guard. There is the strong clash, however, the fact that he had just finished invoking the pendant's power had left him in a weakened state.

  He is unable to hold his ground and is thus flung from the impact, "Gaaaaaaahh!" He flies backwards and lands hard with a skid. After the drag across the ground, he rolls back onto his feet, trying to catch his breath. "Haaa... haaaa...." He shakily stands up to his feet, drawing both boomerangs up again.

 "Guess talking's out of the question... fine by me."
 

Ruidosa makes herself a smaller target suddenly, largely by turning into a bat and flapping away from the assault in a series of dashes as she huffs. "We're not druids. Dummy." she says bluntly as she unfurls near Reize and frowns a little at the situation. "Leave us alone, go away. Rest if you want." she says bluntly.

She frowns and looks to Reize and then back towards the mystery woman.

Ruidosa flings a dark bolt of energy towards the woman, angrily huffing the whole time.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 This is a little hectic. And the best Anna can do is just kind of... Sit there, hold on, and hope Reize and Rui can handle those crystal-things. When all of a sudden...
 Their tree-vehicle comes under assault.
 The sudden appearance of the silver-haired woman sets the Suryle princess on edge, hands instinctively reaching for the axe strapped to her back.
 It's a good thing she does as the woman launches into a sudden assault. Sparks fly as halberd meets axe and Anne grunts as the impact slams her hard enough to make her budge- to knock her back in fact and skid on her boots to a slow halt.
 "Why IS talking always out of the question?" The rage-filled girl asks lamely while picking herself back up.
 In spite of her complaint, she lunges in, axe raised overhead for a mighty swing!

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  Argent reaches out to steady herself as the craft shakes from the impact, quite carefully placing the hand not holding the athame upon Ivo's shoulder. "Please do not allow this craft to shake." she states, tilting her head at the sound of commotion from above. "...ah. I believe that we may be under attack."

  A moment passes.

% "I am unsuited for combat. As such, I believe it optimal for me to remain here."

  It's just sheer pragmatism, and nothing at all to do with not wanting to risk herself.


 As if on cue, the entire craft quakes forcefully again, Ivo finally losing his footing entirely -- hopefully not taking Argent with him when she puts her hand on his shoulder -- and crashing to the rough deck below the dais on which his friends square off. Sliding to the thicket of branches that serves as a wall, he grimaces and peers through at the cause of yet another impact.
 "That tether of light is pulling us off target," he observes, "and the chunk of bridge to which its attached isn't just dead weight. It's hitting other chunks along the way, and tearing us apart...!"

> Sol Ascent Hull Integrity: 67%

 "Everyone!" he sounds, a little hoarsely. "I know you're busy, but if there's some way you could sever that light tether...!"
 But the impact that took the young man to the ground does not seem to have the same effect upon the new arrival. Her limbs of light flickering as though absorbing the force, Lyca's grim smirk only deepens, her halberd gleaming in the glow emanating from her very form. Loud crashes echo nearby, plumes of dust bursting like bombs and occasionally showering those upon the dais with glittering ash, remnants of the bridge to the floating city destroyed long ago.
 "That's just," she quips to Ruidosa, "what a druid would say."
 Despite her confident tone, she seems wary of the bolt of darkness that the vampire unleashes, trying to weave out of the way. But Anna closes in swiftly, their weapons meeting with a savage clash, and Lyca is unable to avoid the attack entirely. The shadows sear against her left arm, and some of the light that holds her together vaporizes, that limb faltering. Still, impressively, her right arm seems strong enough to hold Anna at bay for now.
 "Well," she then says to Anna, as though she hadn't just lost a part of her body, "it's pretty boring, don't you think?"
 Though her left arm is damaged, it is not fully severed, and she is able to raise it upward (if the mad tilting of the Sol Ascent allows any coherent sense of up). Creation aether gathers there, a glow that turns from brightest white to vivid sunset orange.
 "My warriors! Rise to my aid once more!"
 The result is, first, a proximity explosion that threatens to engulf Anna in magical sunfire. But as heat washes over the deck, a keen eye and steady mind might observe the dust begin to stir. Chunks of the dust that had rained down on the craft from other parts of the bridge are rising, slowly taking shape. Strange sounds emerge from them, first akin to the moan of the wind, then the groans of the damned.
 "...m... mu..."
 Their features are muddied and indistinct. But these husks are like Lyca, taking the shape of homunculi, what is missing from their bodies restored by the light she has unleashed.
 "...muuust feeeeed...!"

> Lyca casts Lesser Starspark, targeting Anna.
> Homunculus Husk A and B have joined the fight.

 One begins to shamble toward Reize, staggering, crumbling hand outstretched toward his chest-- no, his pendant. But the other, scrambling across the ground with its legs unfinished, seems to be trying to leave the dais and descent to where Ivo and Argent are, along with the Crux that powers their vessel.

Ruidosa La Crima frowns. "Sure, Druids, known for their use of black magic and drinking blood. You know. Those druids." she says dryly to the opponent. She eyes the husk coming for Reize, Reize can handle a zombie right? Right. So she throws a ball of black energy into the air towards the other husk trying to barge downstairs. It hovers in the air and crackles out with dark energy bolts towards it, aswell as trying to hit Lyca aswell.

"We're too busy Ivo. We need to get this person off the ship first!" she says.


  After catching his breath, he grimaces as he feels the craft shake once more. "Buh?!" In unfortunate events, the boy finds himself sprawling back against the force of the quake, hitting against one of the railings. "Nnggh." He desperately reaches a hand to his forehead to try to collect himself. He manages to hear Ivo's hoarse message and drift his eyes over to the tether of light.

 "Got it!"

 There are two things on the battlefield that earn a surprise from the youth. The first is the result of the savage clash where the limb seems to vaporize to a degree. "...A remnant?" No, not quite like an eidola or the creatures of the temple in Cosmopolis. The second is...

  A lumbering husk of an homunculus approaching him, reaching for his pendant.

  "Oi! Bad distance!" He twists his boomerangs to hold it up right, sweeping his body around for a spinning kick to knock it aside. His eyes drift over towards the embedding shard. He takes a deep breath and he starts to cling onto the side of the bridge to make his way to that shard.

  ..Climbing on a moving makeshift aircraft.

  . o O ( Pleasedon'tfallPleasedon'tfallPleasedon'tfallPleasedon'tfallPleasedon'tfall... )

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 Anna meets Lyca head on, gritting her teeth as the woman absorbs the shock of the princess' assault.
 "I don't find this boring at all." She replies, tone mild despite the fact that her eyes are turning bloodshot with unfettered rage.
 Though the tilting of the Sol Ascent makes things hectic, Anna can see just what it is the woman is attempting, calling upon Creation and- she is in fact caught in the blast, flung backwards before she lands hard in a skid that skins her knees, but it only makes her angrier. Her eyes dart to the forming dust, giving rise to the homunculi husks.
 "No. No no no no, I'm not going to let you do that." She snarls, picking herself up as she grips her axe tightly, fingers grazing over the Lights of Rebellion socketed into her weapon as she begins to channel pure Chaos, trading her rage and fury for more power as she stamps her foot.
 "Haaaaaaaahhhh..."
 And bull rushes one of the two homunculi, intending to wipe it from this earth with a heavy and merciless swing of her axe to make the one on course for Ivo and Argent very dead.

 >Anna uses Forbidden Art: CHAOS CONTROL

 "RRRRGGGGH!"

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  The continued shaking and quaking sends Argent stumbling over Ivo's prone form, her hand swinging out instinctually for something to support her. Unfortunately, it's the hand holding her athame. Fortunately, Ivo is on the ground, far away from any accidental stabbings. Instead the knife sinks in to the branches that make up the wall, cutting away just a little bit more of the structure of their vessel.

  > Sol Ascent Hull Integrity: 69.9%

  "Ah. Please do not attempt to rest, Ivo." she chides as she recovers her footing. "We require you to focus on the task of piloting this craft." she goes on, giving the athame a quick tug to pull it from the wall of tangled wood. Hopefully nobody was on the other side of that. Well, nobody the party care about, anyway.


 Lyca's smirk twists into a snarl at Ruidosa's words. Her bravado peels away like a thin coat of paint to reveal what festers beneath: a hatred that has endured a century. As the flames from her spell lick about her, mingling with the light emanating from her deteriorated form, they seem to dance in her eyes.
 "Yes," she hisses, "you druids drank our blood. You wrung us dry, until we were just--"
 Her gaze flickers toward her zombified allies.
 "--husks. And your thirst was never slaked."
 The grip of her one strong arm tightens on her halberd's haft.
 "Until Arcas... declared war!"
 Reize's kick sends one voracious homunculus husk staggering back, its outstretches arms leaving it unprepared to defense against the swift strike. Yet as with Lyca, its glowing limbs seem to absorb impacts especially well, and it does not fall. The young man buys himself just enough time to reach the edge of the dais and begin to clamber along the tree. He can see a shard of crystalline light embedded in the Sol Ascent, the tether of light emanating from it and connecting with the chunk of bridge that is dragging them down and colliding with others. Creation aether seems to be spreading from the shard as though it were a disease-ridden parasite infecting the tree, strengthening its connection. Something very forceful or contrary to its nature will be needed to break it loose. And Reize will have to think fast, because his assailant, relentlessly pursuing his pendant, is trying to follow him, scrabbling along the bark of the tree, heedless of the surging winds and certain death below, decaying hand clawing toward him.
 Lyca, meanwhile, rushes to interpose herself between Ruidosa and the other husk, spinning her halberd to project a shield of light that absorbs several bolts from the ball of energy. The shadowy power seems effective against her magical defenses, though, and each impact wears away at her, the warrior sliding back as the light completing her torso flickers precariously.
 "It's rare for an ally of the druids to wield such power," she concedes, "but I've dealt with your types bef--"
 Her eyes widen.
 Both her light and Ruidosa's orb of darkness seem to distort, their power briefly inhibited, as Anna lunges toward the second husk making its way toward Ivo and Anna. The relentless foe, sensing the surge of aether, turns and raises a limb sheathed in light. But, shockingly, Anna's form seems to double, her axe at once striking that limb and sweeping down and around it to cleave at the revived homunculus's undefended body. The axe that impacts the limb seems to suck the light from it, reducing the remnants to dust. The "second" axe tears the husk utterly asunder, leaving nothing in its wake.
 "What..."
 Lyca seems genuinely astonished.
 "...was that...!?"
 So stunned is she, the skilled commander forgets Ruidosa for just a moment, her gaze fixated on Anna.
 "And here I was having such a nice nap," Ivo drily replies to Argent, unaware of just how close he came to having a zombie in their midst, dragging himself toward the Crux, crawling rather than trying to stand. "Can you attune the athame to the Crux? When I rotate it, aim for the lower arm and supercharge it -- and don't miss!"
 Not that would be too bad if she missed. After all, it's just the wall of the deck beneath the dais. And nobody's on the other side of that. Well, nobody the party cares about, anyway.



  As Reize climbs along the side of the tree, he notices that crystalline light emanating towards the shard. He sweatdrops, making his way along the side and then he starts to take a deep breath as he draws his crystal boomerang. There are three elements against him; one of those being the surging wind, the looming certain death below, and the decaying hand clawing towards him.

  He furrows his eyebrow, hissing at the assailant, not unlike his vampire partner. "Ooi! Back-off!" He slams a foot down to the hand, and then he twists his hand over to give a thunderous slam of the boomerang against the shard.

 ONE!

 Slam.

  TWO.

  Slam.

  He winds back....

 THREEE!

  He gives another swing while clinging for dear life to the side with the other hand.

  Reize is just hoping that he lives through this, or at least, not die a death falling.
 

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 With the first of the homunculi sundered, Anna wheels around on her heels, eyes wide and wild as she faces down Lyca. What was that?
 That was a rejection.
 That was a complete desecration of the ordered way the Gods themselves wrote the laws and nature of the universe.
 And now, with that rejection blazing in her heart she approaches Lyca, a slow step at first but her pace quickens. Until she's flat out charging the woman, axe and body wreathed in that formless, shapeless, paradoxical stuff that is Chaos itself.
 Reize will have to fend for himself, climbing the tree as he is; Anna will likely only jeopardize him further as well as put herself in danger.
 Therefore she goes for the target she CAN reach. Though it takes much out of her, for the moment Anna channels her rage into that formless and chaotic stuff that denies Lyca's nature of Creation, intending to bring her axe down upon the woman herself this time.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  "Yes." is Argent's simple reply as she raises her athame again, staring at the device as she starts to concentrate. It glows faintly as it attunes, the power building up as the seconds tick by and the flying tree they call a ship rocks and quakes and and gets just a little bit less airborne.

  "Please begin, Ivo." she says blandly once ready, holding the power for the right moment. Hopefully, the Chaos that Anna is causing won't affect this too much.


 When the awe fades from Lyca's handsome features, the blaze of hatred she had shown is dimmed. She does not regard Anna with fear, however. The loyal and redoubtable commander of the Star-Crowned, veteran of a war of a hundred years before, stares at the approaching berserker with slowly dawning realization.
 "You aren't," she murmurs, "druids at all."
 One might think she's simply thick. But she is not in the habit of believing what her enemies say or hesitating at their words, and this is, after all, obviously a druidic craft that bears them skyward, to disturb the homunculi's rest. Ruidosa's words did not sway their adversary. Somehow, Anna's power has.
 "They'd ally with her to fight us," Lyca continues, meaning the vampire, "but never... never with you." She pauses. "Whatever you are."
 For the first time, her grip on her weapon slackens.
 "The war--"
 Anna's axe bears down.
 "--is it ov--"
 And strikes the crystal upon Lyca's brow.

> Sol Ascent's Hull Integrty: 3%

 So.
 The power of Chaos is not well understood. The beastkin aether gems called The Lights of Rebellion, remnants of the beastkin blasphemy that once drove the great Beasts from their homes and led to the downfall of the beastkin cities like Aurita Meloda, seem to convert aether into elemental power that defies the domains themselves. But it is not clear how Anna wields them, why this manifests as an apparent rejection of causality, or what happens when Chaos and domain meet. Typically, they seem to just cancel each other out. But, as when our heroes first encountered Elemental Chaos in their battle against the merfolk, sometimes Chaos is not negated.
 Sometimes it spreads.
 The shattering of the crystal upon Lyca's brow sends her power tearing through the dais beneath Anna's feet. The power of Creation runs through the whole of the Sol Ascent, permeating its every leaf and branch, and indeed powering it. At that moment, as Ivo turns the Crux, the glow of Argent's athame distorts. As has been previously established, the homunculus, in a feat never before accomplished, is capable of using the arts of the Star-Crowned to attune to and channel Chaos, at great risk to herself. Indeed, that was how Ivo, thinking himself quite clever, had implanted and contained a seed of Chaos from Meloda's Blessing into the center of the Crux itself.
 Well.
 As Reize raises his boomerang for a third time, the desperate homunculus hurls itself upon him, nearly tearing him from the side of the Sol Ascent. The boy is tackled upon the shard itself, which, combined with the force of his final strike, shakes precariously beneath him.
 "My champion," Kernunnos cries, "beware--!"
 It is unclear if the eidola is speaking for Reize's sake or his own, as the ravenous aether-drained vestige of a Star-Crowned warrior reaches for the Star Chaser's pendant, eager to devour its contents. At that moment, a savage ray of light, twisting and bending as though refracted through a million mirrors, tears through the side of the Sol Ascent. But Reize is shielded. Not by Kernunnos, but by the homunculus husk itself, which absorbs the magic, at the cost of being entirely obliterated. The impact jars the shard loose, and Reize feels himself begin to fall--
 "Reize!!!"
 --and then stop short. Has the demigod saved him? Alas, the outcome is far more mundane. Our valiant protagonist, dangling miles above the face of the earth, has had his signature yellow scarf caught on a giant splinter that was left when the tree that carries him was ripped almost to shreds.
 It takes some time for the light and dust to clear, even with the rushing winds, but when at last it all does, the battle seems to be over. Lyca seems herself but a husk, crumpled onto her knees, her form half-fallen in on itself. The shield of light that Reize and Kernunnos cast, the Conatus Modicus, seems somehow to have endured, despite everything. Perhaps such was the strength of the will behind it. Everything else, though, is basically a wreckage, hardly holding together.
 Ivo, blinking the light from his eyes, still clinging to the pedestal in which the Crux remains embedded as though his life depends on it, looks down at the many gaps in the floor beneath himself and Argent, then to his side, where his cloak shows a series of large holes, all precariously close to where it covers his torso.
 "Just another day at the lab," he remarks.
 The Sol Ascent may be falling to pieces, but the surge of power that passed through the Crux seems to have righted its trajectory. The floating city of Arcadios, its glass-like translucent form blazing with sunlight that traces every parapet of its palace, looms below them now as they arc toward it -- with no sign of slowing down.
 "I'm directing the rest of the Crux's power to the shield!" he then calls as loud as he can to be heard above the wind. He doesn't even know if the Conatus Modicus can be bolstered, but he's going to try. "Everyone brace yourself -- one last time!"
 Famous last words.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 And once again Anna sunders. Striking the gem upon Lyca's brow, shattering it to nothing as the woman realizes the truth and isn't even given a moment to even lament for her freedom from a war that ended long ago.
 Anna collapses to her knees, breathless and exhausted, axe falling slack in her grasp.
 The best she can do is hunker down and brace as the tree falls apart all around and hurtles through the skies.


  "GAH!"

  It all seemed for naught as the boy had been grabbed by the homunculi. Even worse is that it seemed like the shard did not shatter. So not only is he within the creature's grasps, but it is reaching for the pendant. However, the ray of light, blonding and savage, tears through with its raw power. It is only by sheer (un)luck that the homunculus is the shielding body of it.

  The good: The shard is loose.

  The bad....?

  Well...

  "GAH!"

  He has a moment of respite, however, when the scarf is caught along the giant splinter. "...Wh---whew...."

  *POOF*

  What was once a boy is now just a mere red robin with the ahoge. The bird flutters its wings and starts to fly back up to join with the rest of the crew. Once more, Reize is a bird that's taking his flight.
 

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  Where Ivo's clothing has suffered, Argent's outfit is completely unharmed as has become typical for the homunculus. With a slight hum she brushes her free hand down herself, brushing away slight bit of dust that's managed to get on to her throughought the chaotic events.

  "I do not believe that this vessel will remain viable." she comments as she eyes a particularly large hole in the wall, leaning forward a touch to peer through it to the airborne city beyond. "If we are to survive, we should attempt to land immediately."

  Not all of them can turn into birds, after all. Ah, some people have all the luck...


 "Yes, well..."
 Ivo, hair almost as tousled as Reize's is every day, looks to Argent with the light and casual air of one resigned to his fate.
 "I expect we'll land in moments."
 As hoped, if not anticipated, Ivo's manipulation of the Crux and Argent's ability to empower it has sent yet more aether into Reize and Kernunnos's enduring Conatus Modicus. The lingering will of our avian hero and the wishes of others imbued into it all shine bright above them, a halo that is their only hope as they hurtle toward their destination.
 "If I don't get another chance," Ivo continues, "I'd like to say: thank you, Argent. You have been a great colleague--" He pauses briefly. "--and a good friend."
 The shining surface of Arcadios looms before them, visible through the many gaps now rent into the Sol Ascent.
 "And," he adds, "if you and Laineth are ever looking for--"
 They crash.
 The shield of light flares as the druid's rocket-tree skids along the outer rim of Arcadios. Though the glassy material has been reduced to crystalline gravel where it met with the erstwhile Bridge of Light, it does not shatter until their vessel's impact. Instead, branches breaking, the Sol Ascent slides, its immense momentum slowing against the many small shards. With many horrible creaks and groans, the tree grinds its way from one side of the rim to the other-- and, at the very edge, at last, just barely, comes to a stop.
 The shield of light, which has protected those borne by the vessel from the effects of the impact, finally flickers into nothingness, and all is still and silent.
 No horde of foes rises to greet them. No homunculi shamble into view or spring upon the shattered remnants of the deck. The city of glass seems frozen in time, the only movement the play of light from above across the smooth surface of the palace that looms above them and the stairs that descend down to the rim, where the pebbles that are left where the floating city has worn away extend like a beach of quartz.
 The halls of Arcadios await.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSZRr0Ch5M )

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE FINAL EPISODE, "THE LEGACY OF VAELTRANDIA"