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The Legacy of Vaeltrandia

Scene details

Setting: At last, our heroes confront the Star-Crowned Emperor upon his glass ark, Arcadios, to battle for the true legacy of the Star-Crowned.

Log


 High above the clouds, like an altar set before the sun, floats a city of glass. Its crystalline matter is molded into impossible shapes and structures, at its center a palatial edifice elevated upon a great circular dais, to which a ringlike staircase ascends on all sides. The once pristine crystal is worn about its outer edges, translucent pebbles scattered wherever its form has decayed. And that damage has been abruptly hastened by a new arrival: a great tree, scorched and patchy, lightly smoking, having shorn a great divot in the outer ring of Arcadios before coming to a stop, teetering at its edge.

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

 "The Crux is undamaged," Ivo announces, his features smudged but none the worse for well thanks to Reize and Kernunnos's protective shield absorbing the impact for those on board. "It's no use leaving it here, and I expect we may have need of it."
 Tucking the gleaming star-studded cross into his cloak, he glances about, hesitates a moment, and then kneels, scooping up some of the glassy pebbles left in the wake of their hard landing.
 "Is this aetherglass? Similar, but..." He looks up. "This marvelous place... I fear to ask how it was created."
 Stepping free of the wreckage, he pauses one last time to look back to the remains of the Sol Ascent, practically torn asunder by their journey and battle.
 "Sorry, Erato," Ivo murmurs, "and... thanks."

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 So haha. The flying tree plan... Actually worked. For the most part.
 Aside from getting attacked mid-journey, the tree held up just enough to get the party where they needed to do.
 "So ummmmm." Anna muses, looking at the smoking, teetering tree.
 "... How are we getting back?"
 It is a very valid question at this point. But one everyone can worry about later when the quest is complete.

Ruidosa La Crima is in a ruffled dress and she looks unhappy and crosses her arms around her tome as she stumbles from the wreck of the Sol Ascent. "Mother always warned me about traveling on strange craft. Why can't you all turn into bats instead!? Because Humans. That's why." she complains, eyes narrowing at no one in particular.

She looks at Anna, as she asks this important question, then looks to Ivo. Ivo gets a squinting narrower look than the one she was already giving, and one wonders if she can even see at this point, but instead, she just sighs and relaxes, eyes opening completely as she lowers her arms and opens her book.

She writes a note. Survived Flying A Tree Today.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  Stepping free of their ruined craft, Argent pauses a moment to smooth down an errant lock of her snowy, silvery hair. "I am similarly undamaged." she announces, turning to look at the tree's remains. Her head tilts as she regards it. "However. Our selected transport is currently beyond use. It is possible that we will be unable to secure a method of transportation to return home."

  She gives a pause at Ruidosa's complaint regarding them all being unable to turn into bats, followed by "I believe that common folklore regarding vampires shows that they are able to convert others into their kind."


  It is not too long that the other interlopers are joined by a small critter that's currently airborne. Having making his exit from the side of the ship, the explorer managed to take flight, albeit in the form of a small red robin thanks to one of the many blessings of Kernunnos.

 Once he arrives at the crystalline city, the bird is chirping happily. Inwardly....

 ~ ( "WHOA! This is amazing! I can see everything from this high! I can even see everyone from up here!" ) ~

 Soon, the small robin makes its descent down to the gang as they finally make their way out of the wrecked Sol Ascent. The bird then makes a landing...

 ... onto Ruidosa's shoulder.

  Chirpchirp happily.
 


 Ivo turns to look at Anna, blue cloak swirling, and beams cheerfully, as though nothing were amiss.
 "Well, when we're done," he remarks, "I figured we'd all climb in, get in front, and take the tree back down!"
 He waits a couple beats before winking, looking rather pleased with himself and, somehow, unworried. Frankly, he figures Reize and Kernunnos will be able to make something happen, and that some remnant artifact of the Star-Crowned here will likely be able to assist. More to the point, after adventuring with Reize for some time, Ivo has determined that getting completely stranded in some mysterious place is just par for the course.
 "I--"
 His playful demeanor evaporates at Ruidosa's withering stare, and then once Argent speaks, he turned visibly alarmed.
 "No-- no, that's okay!" he hurriedly exclaims. "Nothing-- nothing vampire-curse-related will be necessary, I assure you. Our foremost goal is to claim whatever issued the massive wave of aetheric energy that seems to have revived the foes with whom we contended. That will be able to generate whatever power we need, I'm sure."
 He sounds so confident.
 "I saw from below the dais that the warrior you all fought was able to similarly revive the remains of her fellow homunculi." He's already back to musing, cupping his chin thoughtfully. "Was this some lesser form of the same power that revived her? What, then, triggered the first activation of that power?"
 He thinks for a moment, then exhales and smiles, looking up at the palace above them, having to raise his hand to shield his eyes from how it gleams and glares in the sunlight.
 "There's only one way to find out. Shall we, friends?"
 He turns to survey the party, heroically assembled before their goal at last. Anna, sometimes doubtful but ever stalwart and reliable. Argent, consistently stoic and dependably entertaining. Ruidosa, as devoted and helpful as she is abjectly terrifying. And-- uh--
 "Reize?"
 It takes Ivo a moment before he finds the bird on Rui's shoulder.
 "It's our big moment," the young man finally says. "Do you want to-- I mean, you don't *have* to walk up the stairs with us, if you want to fly. I just thought it would, you know--"
 He searches for the words.
 "--be dramatic."

Ruidosa La Crima seethes as a robin lands on her shoulder, chirping happily. She seethes through her teeth, but relaxes, primarily at Ivo. "I can walk!" she says bluntly. "But I'm not getting back on that... that thing...!"

Then she casually just turns her head to the right and shoves an entire robin into her mouth.

She didn't get the memo. It only takes a moment for a familiar taste to fill her mouth as her eyes light up in recognition and she spits out the bird downwards suddenly. "REIZEY!?" she sputters. How!?

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 Rui eats the Reize-bird.
 Anna looks absolutely horrified.
 Anna raises a hand and opens her mouth to speak.
 Rui spits the Reize-bird out.
 Anna slowly lowers her hand and closes her mouth.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  "Yes." is about all Argent feels the need to say in response to Ivo, already turning to walk off. "However, please do not consume members of our party, Ruidosa. If you require nourishment, it is more efficient to consume your partner's blood. Additionally, as a bird he may carry unknown pathogens."


  !!!!!!

  This is an unexpected turn of events for the boy. Perhaps this is the way that his adventure ends, being shoved into the mouth, in pure irony, by his partner and devoured. Even worse yet is that they are ready to meet with the Big Bad, himself. Is his travel really set to end in such a manner?! He is alarmed and scared, wings flapping rapidly, until he is finally spit out upon realization.

  The bird flaps up towards Ruidosa, angrily chirping. Lots of chirping. ANGRY CHIRP!

  Peckpeck! Right on the forehead.

  After a few moments...

  *POOOF!*

  The young explorer is back to his normal self, though looking quite weary as he glances back at Ruidosa. With a hand resting on his forehead, he glances back at Ruidosa.

  "Ruidosa..." Of course, he begins with her full first name. "--- we'll discuss about the 'shoving everything in your mouth' habit later." After a moment, he glances at himself, dusting himself off. "...Luckily it wears off after a few minutes.."

  He looks back at Ivo, "Yeah.. let's make our dramatic entrance."
 


 Ivo turns away from Reize and Ruidosa, covering his mouth with the back of his gloved hand, seemingly seized by an sudden coughing fit.
 "Sure," he finally replies to Reize once the boy has, uh, recovered, the older youth's eyes twinkling. "Dramatic, right."
 His shoulders are still shaking as he turns away, beginning to ascend the stairs to whatever awaits them at the heart of Arcadios. His cloak billows behind him, but he can't stop lifting his hand to repeatedly cover his mouth between coughing fits (?), somewhat spoiling whatever image he and the others might otherwise evoke.
 But maybe, he thinks, this sort of thing suits them better.
 "Say, Argent," he says, concluding that there's no point in a silent march up to their destination, "what do you make of this material?" He offers her the pebble of glass he picked up earlier. "If Arcadios and the Bridge of Light are made of the same substance, I surmise it was formed with something akin to Kernunnos's power, and so would be something like aetherglass aspected entirely to Creation. But I was taught that aetherglass required Purification as the domain anchor for the elements used in its composition--"
 He chatters on like this as they surmount the great glass steps, the light blazing all about them, every edge and corner agleam. The question is not especially urgent. Ivo is simply curious. And, after witnessing Reize and Ruidosa's antics, somehow, at this anticipatory moment, it feels appropriate just to be himself.
 Finally, they are there.
 No gate or door bars their path when they reach the highest tier of the dais. A vast glass hall stands before them, but on closer inspection, it seems to have partly melted, somehow, and the distortions thereby incurred cause the sunlight to bend when passing through it, dazzling the eye and obscuring the interior. What may have once been ornamental carvings seem now to have been reduced to slag, and one must squint to attempt to examine them in any case.
 "Could this be akin to the druidic totems about the Logging Town?" Ivo murmurs, trying to examine a small glass pillar aglow with passing sunlight before grimacing and looking away. "Entering this place is going to hurt my eyes..."
 But that cannot dissuade him. When the party steps into the hall and their vision adjusts, they see before them an uncommon wreckage, glasslike dust and debris piled in every corner. Two objects stand out. The first is an orb mounted upon a pedestal, its surface glittering prismatically, looking like a thousand diamonds had been glued together one by one. The second is a throne made not of glass but of the same silvery metal that serves as the backing for the Crux of Creation. Upon it sits a withered figure, utterly emaciated, a hooded robe of silver threads partially obscuring their gaunt features.
 "...at last..."
 But as they raise their head, brighter than the glass, brighter even than the immense many-faceted jewel before them, is the intensity in their gaze, and the gleam of the crystal upon their brow.
 "...the Crux... is mine."

> Arcas uses Starspark.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIx2qE3kkZw )

 "Crown Jewel... shine for me... once more."
 The orb akin to a thousand fused diamonds blazes brightest of all, beginning to slowly float off of the pedestal. The withered figure upon the throne begins to float as well, rising up, a silvery bubble-like shield forming about him. And within a split-second, a wave of force pulses from the Crown Jewel in all directions, passing through everyone and leaving a great unsettling feeling in its wake -- save for Argent, who may feel stirred in a manner inexpressible. And from the dust and debris about them begin to rise husk after husk, akin to those Lyca had revived, their forms incomplete and forcibly held together by nought but light. One after another they come, charging toward the party-- no, toward Ivo!
 "Anybody else want to hold onto the Crux!?" he quips, unable to hide the desperation creeping into his light tone, as he draws Hauteclare and prepares to do what he can to fend off the four, no, five, now six, homunculi rushing in, their grasping arms flailing widely, their movements jittery like puppets.
 Only then, as the orb rises and spins, illuminated by an inner light rather than just that of the sun filtering through all the glass around and above, might one come to an eerie realization. It is indeed a jewel composed of many little gems. And each one resembles that to be found upon the brow of every Star-Crowned.

Ruidosa looks absolutely flustered! "I didn't know you could turn into a bird!?" she exclaims in a mutter. "I just did what I'd normally do when a bird lands close to me at home!" she says grumpily, as she hrmphs and crosses her arms grumpily. Fine.. Fine. Later, they can discuss her eating habits. Argent gets a look. "I don't need to worry about pathogens and birds happen to NORMALLY are delicious." For now, though...

------

Climbing the stairs she follows behind the party and eyes Ivo. "I'm a vampire. Being this high with no cloud cover and so much reflected sunlight..." she winces and covers her eyes a moment. She tries to eye slagged carvings, and can't. They're too far gone. "Maybe..." but she doesn't get to finish that... there's an orb, and a figure in a shroud and suddenly more of those zombie husks as she throws a bolt of dark energy into the fray. "I think they want the Crux.." she says, in a moment of being Captain Obvious.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  Argent takes the little pebble from Ivo's hands, bringing it up to her eye for a more critical examination. "It is possible that another method was used. If it is as you believe and this material was created using Creation, I believe such a method may require the manual removal of unwanted elements without the use of Purification, followed by the use of Creation to replace the now missing components with what is desired. However, it is impossible to discern anything particularly useful without further examination and experimentation." she goes on, turning the pebble over and over in her hands.

  And then she pops it into her mouth, mulls it over with her tongue a few times, and swallows.

  Before she can elaborate much more on exactly why she just ate it they come to their destination, silvery eyes squinting slightly at the kaleidoscopic sight before them. When that odd feeling washes over her she draws the athame once again, keeping it ready to stab towards any of her fellow homunculi that may come her way as she glances towards Ivo for instruction.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 For the record, Anna had no clue Reize could turn into a bird. She just saw Rui fucking eat a bird whole and that in and of itself is kind of horrifying.
 To her credit, the princess rallies though, and opts to pretend like nothing happened when the bird DOES turn out to be Reize himself. She follows Ivo up the stairs in reticent silence, axe cradled in her arms.
 Up until they reach the top... Anna eyes the orb and then the emaciated figure... It is the voice that makes her hackles rise.
 Argent eats a rock.
 "Um..."
 So that happened. But before Anna can comment the orb rises- homunculi rise...
 "Oh..."
 In an instant, Anna is at the ready.
 It is as the homunculi rush in that Anna lunges-- takes a leap to try and hop onto the shoulders of one-- and jumps off of it like a springboard, axe aiming to cleave into the orb as hard as she can!

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: I'M GONNA WRECK IT!
Roll(s): 5. Total result is 5. This is a failure (by 7).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 Except she falls flat on her face in the process.


  This looks a little familiar to the boy, yet the presence was more ethereal. As they find themselves in what appears to be a crystalline place, it all starts to come back to the boy when they explored the Other Plane under the protection of Elysia.

 His hand reaches out to feel the surrounding area.

  No, it is not here.

  Overhearing Ivo talking to Argent, the boy is able to finally recall that feeling... when he and Lily alone were to face The First.

  "... It's connected to the Domain." He can recall the earlier chill and self-doubt plaguing him and eating him. However, that is not the case. This time, he is ready to face what is ahead of them.

  Upon their arrival at the highest teir of the dais, Reize gazes along the vast glass hall. Noticing how damaged it looks from the partial melting, his eyes draw around to take in the surrounding aerea. As they venture further in, they finally make their way to the hall. Vision adjusting, he can see the orb mounted on the pedestal with a wide-eyed "Whoa..." However, his gaze drifts to the withered hooded figure.

  The boy's eyes widen as the husks arising, just like the one that he encountered. The boy's eyes narrow and then he starts towards the incoming homunculi approaching Ivo. His hands take a firm hold of the boomerangs in an upright position before he launches sweeping roundhouse kicks against each one. "Ooi! Back off!"
 

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Crowd Control
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 6).


 So far as mortal mages know, a single fundamental principle underlies the homunculus: the aetheric structure of the star and of the soul is the same. Both involve an exquisite balance of the three domains that are then subjected to the power of the third domain, Purification, by some incomparable force -- the Gate of Purification itself, some hypothesize. The result is that just as a soul can take on many colors, an infinite array of natures and possibilities, so too may a star refract countless energies. Thus is an artificial mortal, a homunculus, possible.
 Vaeltrandia is one of at least a few cultures that have devised the art of creating homunculi, and their tradition is peculiar. But some continuities cannot be disguised. And when Argent places that pebble in her mouth, almost immediately, she knows. This glass, this crystallized Creation, was not produced just by any other now familiar source, like Kernunnos or the Crux. No. This flavor is tinged with that of the stars. Tinged too deeply. This floating city was created by homunculi, yes, but not by their own volition.
 "...how I have hungered..."
 It was made by their sacrifice.
 Arcas, the Star-Crowned Emperor, floats above them. His silver hood falls back, revealing the handsome features faintly familiar from the remnant memory they witnessed at the Bastion of Bygone Days, but now wasted away.
 "...how I have endured... within this murderous temple... as my brethren succumbed."
 He slowly raises a spindly hand.
 "...the cruelty of our creation... I will at last repay."
 Anna heroically leaps above the frothing mass of homunculi husks, successfully stomping atop one and hurling herself into the air as the glittering orb rises. But the mighty blow of the black-hafted axe glances off of the jewel, as though the Lights of Rebellion were no match for the consummate rebel himself. And as she is deflected back toward the ground, the orb floats out of reach, rising to come to Arcas's hand high above them. Appearing as though sliding out of the sleeve of his robe in his other hand is a long silver staff, from which, with a click, a starmetal scythe blade extends, pointing toward the party.

> Arcas uses the Supreme Star-Crowned Art: Absolute Aetheric Attunement.
> The Crown Jewel glows with the power of the Crux of Creation...

 Ruidosa's bolts of darkness shear through the homunculi husks as though they were paper, their natures vulnerable to her arts. Reize's kicks are expert, and their foes seem unable or unwilling to properly defend themselves, their advances effectively checked. Ivo, though he seems to be the main target, steps forward and disengages Hauteclare's blade, sending it sweeping low to shear several husks and stop them in their tracks. Only one breaks through the party's excellent teamwork, and finds Argent in their path. Trying to bowl her over on its way to Ivo, it is struck by her athame and, instantly, the light composing most of its body is sucked into the dagger. Its mottled, doll-like face turns to look at her and, for the first time, a husk's gaze flickers with something akin to recognition, moments before it collapses entirely into dust.
 "...oh?"
 Argent seems to have caught Arcas's attention.
 "So we Star-Crowned are still made to serve. Fear not," he says to her, the Crown Jewel glowing, hovering above his grasp. "I possess the power to make a new world, in which you shall be freed. Behold."
 The orb is pulsing wildly, its glittering surface like that of a distant galaxy. Thanks to the party's skillful fighting, the onslaught of husks has momentarily abated, though some are still gradually rising. But Arcas and the Crown Jewel are floating out of reach and shielded by a silvery power. The thrum of magic is passing through the hall.

  "Time before time, space before space.
   All is darkness, all is void.
  I call upon the divine decree.
   First, there was light."

 "Reize!" Kernunnos's voice cuts through the overpowering chant, through the hum of rising magic that is threatening to smother all, becoming a physical pressure that pushes down on all assembled. "Everyone! Channel your power into the Crux, and then into me!"
 Ivo, struggling to maintain his footing, draws the Crux from his cloak, the four-armed relic glimmering in his grasp.
 "Any kind of aetheric power you've got," he shouts, "pass it into the Crux to aspect it as Creation, so Kernunnos can use it! Argent!" He turns, flinching against all the light radiating throughout the room. "Can you channel whatever's in the Crux into Reize's pendant!? The rest--"
 Even as he strains and squints, he flashes the boy a grin.
 "--is up to the chief and his friend!"

> Arcas begins casting a spell.
> Warning! The party is in mortal peril!

Ruidosa La Crima frowns as she continues to blast into these things and she eyes Arcas. "The world is getting along just fine without you, thanks." she says to the form, she eyes those words though. "Hey now. Argent is our friend. She isn't here because she's ''serving'' us..." she spits.

When asked to focus her power, she does so, concentrating on the Crux... hopefully. Someone else can do the rest!

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  "Despite accompanying this party, I am not made to serve. I accompany them due to our mutual interests." Argent replies calmly, not even looking towards Arcas and instead examining her athame, carefully noting the effect it had on the half-formed homunculus. "Furthermore, if you wish for me to join you, I believe it is inevitable that I will betray you. Your interests do not align with mine. I believe your interests do not even align with what is optimal for you." she goes on as the little glow the athame has redoubles into a bright shine as she attunes it once again, letting the power flow from Crux to pendant.

  "It is in your best interest to accept your destruction, in addition to that of your companions. Please do not resist."


  At the very least, the crew are doing a good job keeping the homunculi horde away from Ivo so that he does not lose the Crux. He grimaces watching one managing to slip by him, but was taken out by Argent. He brightens, giving the homunculus a thumbs up. "Great job, Argent!" r
  He looks back at Ruidosa and the others, now drawing his boomerangs out to fend against any other of the horde that try to bypass him. However, the withered homunculus channels the orb, his eyes widen as he feels the flow of magic from both Arcas and the Crown Jewel.

  He hears Kernunnos calling out to him, "I hear you, Kernunnos!" He grimaces upon the force of the aether's pressure weighing down on him. He forces himself up, gritting his teeth. While he is not certain about what is to happen next, the boy does make his way to push through the force, making his way towards Arcas, boomerangs crossed together.
 

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 Anna had most certainly not expected the orb to just... Deny her like that. Her axe spangs off the sphere and she's launched backwards in a tumble to the ground, managing to land on her knees in a bit of a jarringly hard landing.
 Soon enough though the Suryle princess regroups with the others, probably after fending off several homunculi in the process, to get back to the party.
 Arcas begins to cast a spell.
 That's no good.
 "Uh- uhhh...!"
 Anna pauses. She could continue to fend off the homunculi but...
 She should probably help the others with the Crux though.
 Skidding up to Ivo, she runaway princess draws a deep breath...
 And then... She gets ANGRY.
 Anna gets SO ANGRY.
 It is about the only thing she knows how to do, except now a roiling wave of heat seems to emanate from just how angry she's getting-- pourinf Fire aspected Aether into the crux herself now.


  Ivo takes a fistful of colored egg-like orbs from his cloak, the elespheres he crafted to enable Argent to attune at will with different elemental aspects and modified Hauteclare to utilize, and cracks them upon the Crux, one of each of the four elements. The aetheric vapor that issues forth is drawn into the artifact, one for each arm, producing a harmonious hum.
 "Good -- just like that!"
 The Cosmopolitan also doesn't know what will happen. All he knows is that only Kernunnos can compete with the power of Creation that his people spawned in the Star-Crowned and in Arcas, their ultimate paragon, the product of so many experimental sacrifices, all in the name of the Vaeltrandians' dreams and ambitions.
 Ruidosa's power of Destruction, too, is accepted into the Crux, its power descended from the same stars as the Star-Crowned, accepting all. Even Anna, through sheer rage, is able to exert her inner aether as outer, pouring it into the Crux. The relic becomes blinding, competing with the Crown Jewel.
 "Reize...!"
 Ivo can only watch, hunkering down under the rising pressure, as the boy with the yellow scarf, the pendant shining upon his chest, forces himself, step by step, to approach the god among homunculi, whose chant nears its terrible conclusion.

  "Illuminate, the final revelation.
   A new world beckons.

   GENESIS."

> Arcas uses the Ultimate Creation Art: Genesis.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx2SeunY7S4 )

 One might've thought it couldn't get any brighter.
 A field of white consumes all. The glass beneath everyone's feet crumbles and fades away, but no one falls; it seems there is no direction in which to fall. The party has fallen into the antithesis of an abyss, a universe crowded with substance that crushes in on them from all sides. It as though they will be smothered, ground into dust. Made into fodder, for a new world without them.
 "I... remember."
 Even so, they can hear.
 "I wanted... to give mortals hope."
 Kernunnos is speaking.
 "I am a fragment... of that desire."

> The eidola Kernunnos awakens to his divine essence.
> Faleh Kernunnos uses the Divine Art: Sub Specie Aeternitatis.
> The party becomes invulnerable.

 The white fades.
 Above them, the sky is blessedly blue, peppered with clouds. Clouds -- they have fallen. They are still falling, though they stand upon glass again, now textured and grooved so that it does not refract the sunlight so. And there before them, upon the flat and unroofed plane of this new battlefield, stands Arcas, face youthful and renewed, scythe in one hand, Crown Jewel of his people in the other.
 "Kernunnos. My true enemy. My true creator."
 With his form no longer withered, the Star-Crowned Emperor stands proud before them upon the Arcadios that he has reformed, a great glass ark to bear him down to the world he shall conquer.
 "You and your ilk yet insist on ignorance," he pronounces, as emotions at last flicker upon his countenance, his lips twisting in a snarl, "but I will teach you something before the last."
 He steps forward toward the party.
 "We Star-Crowned were not born just to die!"

> Arcas, the Star-Crowned Emperor, descends at last upon the battlefield!

 "Hrrraahhh!"
 With a massive sweep, the scythe emits a shearing wave of light, projecting out toward Reize, Ruidosa, and Ivo. From the Crown Jewel, a blast of searing Creation energy fires like a beam toward Anna, seemingly attempting to blast the berserker princess off the edge of the ark and hurtling into the endless sky.
 "Do you see now," he announces to Argent, "our people's true power!? We can create a world all our own, without the mortals that hate us so!"

> Arcas attacks Reize, Ruidosa, and Ivo with Starmetal Scythe.
> Arcas attacks Anna with Solar Flare.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: SHINING MOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!!!!!!!
Roll(s): 20. Total result is 20. This is a success (by 10).

Ruidosa La Crima can sense the sheer power that's being charged and it honestly scares her. What the hell is this person charging? Luckily she doesn't need to find out first hand because of the actions of Kernuunos. She takes a breath, but the once frail figure is youthful again as she eyes Arcas. "Mother says being a monster is a choice. Why are you choosing wrong? The people you hate aren't even alive anymore!" she says as she attempts diplomacy of some sort. Though it'll probably fail.

It feels like she's speaking as someone as hardheaded as Grandpa about their views, as she blinks. "Reize!" she calls out as she throws up a shield bubble, after jumping to join Reize for a moment, trying to catch him in the bubble!

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>12.
Comment: Shield Check!
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 1).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  Blinking in the wake of Genesis, the sheer brightness of the light still stinging her eyes despite the momentary invulnerability, Argent simply shakes her head at Arcas and his assertion. "Despite your power, you have still allowed your fellow homuncili to degenerate into such a state." she says, sweeping the athame over the one she so recently stabbed with it. "Please do not attempt to claim you will improve their lives. Despite your disdain for those you believe wish to make use of you, you have displayed the same proclivities. Until you desired their service, you appear to have been content to allow them to remain in a degenerate state. Furthermore, you granted them only the minimal amount of cohesion required to accomplish your goals."

  She ignores the attacks directed towards her companions, simply starting to step forwards towards Arcas with her athame hanging loosely in her hand at her side. The attacks aren't coming towards her after all, so there's no true need to evade or defend herself. So far.


 Reize remains the conduit as the holder of the pendant. He takes in the feeling of the power, drawing upon the converted Destructive energy. Everything, drawn into the Crux, soon is focused on the boy as he approaches Arcas.

  When the white light consumes them all, his eyes widen at the sight of the glass beneath their feet crumbling. This familiar Forbidden Art. It was one used by The First.

  As the white energy fades, they are falling, but stand upon the glass that forms. They now face off against Arcas, who is youthful and armed with both the Crown Jewel and the scythe.

  "Think fast!"

  As Arcas moves forward to sweep his scythe at the boy, Reize immediately pushes forward with a burst of energy. The aether around him resonates as he presses close to Arcas.

  ******FLASH COUNTER*******

  As time seems to slow down for the boy in comparison to the swing of the scythe is met with the boy colliding in close-quarters. Reize launches off-ground with a flip, one leg sweeping up to slam right into the face of Arcas. The aether enveloping the foot lashes across the man's chin as the boy launches high. As he remains high, he is covered with a dark bubble that soon envelops his body.

  While upside down in the middle of the Shining Moon Art, he is giving Ruidosa a smile with a thumbs up.

  Looking cool while kicking a fool.

 

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Tanking the death ray.
Roll(s): 1. Total result is 1. This is a failure (by 9).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 Bright... So bright... So dazzlingly, brilliantly bright... The intensity makes Anna squeeze her eyes shut, even as she pours everything she can into the Crux, as the world falls away and...
 Kernunnos comes through. And when the light dies down and Anna isn't crushed into the despairing nothingness she sags where she stands. Glancing up just in time to see the Star-Crowned Emperor approaches the party.
 He's approaching them...
 That's fine.
 Anna can't pummel him into the ground if he doesn't approach them.
 Slowly beginning to hyperventilate where she stands, the berserker princess' pupil's dilate.
 She sees the intense, searing, beam of light and Creation coming towards her and...
 It slams her dead on in the chest.
 With a yelp, Anna is flung backwards, axe clattering to the ground as she-- sails off the edge of the battlefield, just barely catching on with one hand at the very edge of the precipitous fall.


 Ivo grunts as he skids back, engulfed in the wave of light from Arcas's scythe, only for it to break around him, revealing that a brief gale of wind has emitted from Hauteclare, shielding the magitech fencer from the brunt of the onslaught. Still, he is driven to one knee, and as he ejects a dull green elesphere casing from the pommel of his sword, he struggles to rise to his feet.
 "Reize! Rui...!"
 He's visibly relieved as he sees Ruidosa adeptly meet the shining cleave with a sphere of darkness, fending off the powerful blow and creating a perfect opening for her companion to strike at the Star-Crowned Emperor.
 "Hmmm!?"
 For the first time, Arcas seems surprised.
 "This synchronicity-- guhh!"
 Reize's kick catches Arcas full under the chin, sending the Star-Crowned Emperor staggering as his head snaps back, nearly losing his own footing. He slumps forward as he catches himself, nearly sinking to the ground.
 "Heh."
 When he looks up, his snarl is almost a grin, the look of one who, before he called himself an emperor, was just a warrior.
 "That bond-- you two remind me of someone."
 But whatever hint of delight or amusement had passed through his gaze flashes and is gone, the fires of hatred only intensifying within. His scowl deepens at Ruidosa and Argent's words.
 "Have you not seen what mortals do?" he shouts, enraged. "They create only to destroy! Again and again! The history of Granse, of all that has been and shall be, is naught but war and ruins! I sought to break the cycle and was sealed here, starved of power, forced to watch as my allies -- my friends -- went mad with hunger! For that is how we were *made*!!"
 Silvery blood trickles from his mouth, spattering like spit as he screams, his grip tightening on his scythe.
 "No more! My new world will change everything!!!"
 With Anna blasted away, Arcas takes his scythe in both hands, the Crown Jewel rising to hover above him, radiating its light upon the glorious astral material.
 "All I need do is clear the path!"
 He brings down his scythe in a double-handed strike, a terrible surging tidal wave fountaining forth, searing across the glass, not toward Reize, but toward the boy's vital support, Ruidosa.

> Arcas attacks Ruidosa with Fate Cleaver.

 "Anna!"
 Ivo shouts as he sees the princess fly to the edge of the battlefield and only barely avoid falling off. Gritting his teeth, he turns to Argent and reaches out -- to offer her the Crux.
 "Take this!" he exclaims. "You're the one who can use it best, and Arcas isn't attacking you! I know you can do this, Argent!" So saying, he turns away, rushing toward the brink, falling to his knees as he tries to get purchase on the textured glass and reaches for Anna as she clings to the edge.
 "Take my hand!" he calls, wind whipping at his dark hair. "If you're going to fall, fall for me!"
 Argent is left with the Crux at her disposal. It is endowed with all manner of aetherical powers now, nearly overwhelming her senses with its possibilities. But even amidst that tumult, she can detect something deeply unsettling, and all too recognizable...

> Attune the Starmetal Athame to which aspect?

>> Fire
>> Water
>> Wind
>> Earth
>> Creation
>> Destruction
>> Purification
>> C#@&s

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  Argent takes the Crux with her other hand, those pale and slender fingers curling around it and holding it out in front of her. The athame joins it, the tip tapping against the Crux itself as she feels out the aether contained within. "I do not see how this refutes my words." she says, long hair swishing as her head tilts to one side. "You will not break this cycle by creating additional ruin on such a scale. The majority of those you will destroy have not truly experienced benefit from the use of you and your companions."

  The homunculus feels out that dangerous feeling at she steps even closer to Arcas, calmly and carefully attuning her athame to it. It's a risky thing to do yes, but so far most of what the party has been able to do has simply delayed Arcas rather than struck a decisive blow.

  Thus, she chooses the aspect of Chaos.


 There is great relief with this battle. Unlike the past couple of penultimate battles to determine the fate of the region, Reize is not working alone, or at least, isolated between him and Lily. With his friend on his mind, the boy's determination grows as he looks at the Emperor. "...Someone...?"

  And thus, the man's rage draws forth once more. His eyes widen when he realizes that the man is already drawing forth a wave of energy towards his partner. "Ruidosa!"

  Now Reize goes aggro.

  The boy is moving in towards the man, now taking a more aggressive stance. As he swaps into the Hot Stance, he is holding his boomerangs invertedly. This means that the boy is going in an all-out assault against the Emperor. Thus, when he lunges in, he strikes forth with a multiple swings of his boomerangs, roundhouse kick, and double slash.
 

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 For a moment. For a thrilling, heartbeat-skipping, moment of pure terror, Anna hangs over the edge, life teetering between life and death as she struggles to pull herself up.
 'Take my hand!' She hears. Reaching up without thinking, she takes Ivo's hand...
 'If you're going to fall, fall for me!'
 "... Uh..."
 Awkward.
 Why are Anna's cheeks a bit flushed when she's hoisted back up to her feet?
 No no no, that's not- it's not what you're thinking!
 Don't think anything! STOP THINKING THINGS.
 "Th- thanks." She does stammer as she rolls out onto the platform and stumbles in the direction of her axe, plucking it off the ground.
 For a moment, she pauses, peering down at the jewel-gems that decorate the shaft of the weapon. The Lights of Rebellion... The very thing that allows her to channel the Blasphemy of the beastfolk.
 One again, Anna can feel her all-consuming rage take over her as she rises from her knees, setting her feet as she dips her head forward, a dark shadow clouds over her face as she grips the weapon in her hand, flickering shadows and after-images of her visibly roiling off of her.

 >Anna has begun tapping into Chaos.


 "No one," Arcas hisses, "can change how they are made."
 He is swaying slightly, his earlier dignity falling away like peeling paint, revealing the rot beneath. The crystal upon his brow gleams a sickly hue, mirrored by his venomous gaze.
 "Not the Vaeltrandians, who waged a ceaseless war of conquest, nor the druids who took their name, who murdered us for their besotted dream. Not you, Kernunnos, puppet demigod. And not us. Never us. Oh... how we hungered. Made to feast. Made to kill."
 His grip quivers on his scythe as he raises it to meet Reize's boomerangs.
 "They plucked the crystals from the brows of the fallen," he rasps, "to make this peerless treasure." The Crown Jewel continues to hover above his head, slowly spinning there, unaffected by the wind that whips about the falling glass ark or the fury of Reize's adjacent assault. "And with it, I, greatest of their creations, provided with sufficient Creation aether, could wield the ultimate magic they sought."
 His whole body is trembling, as though experiencing the aftereffects of his impossible world-forging feat, as he fends off the enraged boy's attacks, speaking all the while. He finally has to shut his mouth for a moment, though, when a roundhouse kick from Reize knocks his scythe aside, and the subsequent double slash hits home, sending the Emperor sliding back to the edge of the battlefield.
 "No one can change how they are made," he gasps. "Thus... must I REMAKE THEM!"
 Though his stance is precarious, his magical power seems limitless. The Crown Jewel, following him as he goes, crackles with the energy of Creation flowing through him, radiating from the glass floor beneath him, as though this ark were an altar to his imperial majesty. He prepares to annihilate the defiant boy before him, and the eidola contained with the pendant on his chest, with the power of absolute Creation.

> Argent has attuned to Chaos.
> She begins taking damage over time.

 The Starmetal Athame begins to twist and bubble as it has done before. The spark of Chaos that she and Ivo, with Priel's assistance, had implanted within the Crux as a test of its potential has now come to bear. Its incomprehensible power, defying all laws of nature and magic, is eating away at her essence, only the perfection of a star able to endure it at all. But it is even more potent than she remembers. Perhaps it is because of all the ambient aether channeled into the Crux by her friends, feeding the spark of Chaos somehow. Or perhaps, more likely, Anna summoning the same power in the vicinity, a phenomenon hitherto unprecedented, is making the quintessentially unpredictable all the more so.
 Ivo winks at Anna as he helps the princess to her feet. "My pleasure," he says cheerfully, "I assure you." As one might expect, the noble has his priorities entirely in order during the decisive battle. "Time for payback, yeah?"
 He watches in admiration as Anna summons the power of the Lights of Rebellion, the unique ability that she won by strength and earned by right, the first non-beastkin to ever wield such forbidden arts. That admiration turns to unease as he glances between Anna and Argent, slowly dawning on him what's occurring.
 "Maybe ice would fare better than wind," he murmurs, loading a blue elesphere in Hauteclare's pommel, as he prepares to try to shield himself and others from whatever consequences are likely to follow. And indeed, before Anna and Argent can even act, the intersection of two forces of Chaos are having unworldly effects, multihued distortions twisting in the sky, seeding the air about them like little rents in the universe.
 "...eize..."
 And suddenly, our hero can hear something.
 Reize... that was your name, yes?"
 The voice is gentle, kind, somehow lively, laced with mirth. Arcas seems to hesitate as his spell reaches its apex, pausing, glancing about as though he can almost hear something issuing from the otherworldly rents about them, almost, but not quite.
 "Thank you for bringing me here, back to him."
 The light within his pendant is beginning to swirl.
 "Please... set him free."

> Reize receives Erato's Wish.

Ruidosa La Crima hears this guy talk a lot. Yeah... yeah okay, definitely like her Grandpa. But this guy also has the power to back up those words and she takes this all in. "You worry too much about a past that's come and gone." she says, as she plays dodge with the various incoming attacks. When Reize winks at her (Earlier) she blushes and flusters!

Still, she answers an internal question Ivo had ages ago. Are vampire curses real? She glowers with a dark aura, as she points and mutters...

"I curse you! Odio!" she spouts, as she throws the energy towards Arcus, trying to throw a bunch of awful status effects towards the StarCrowned Emperor.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d10>10.
Comment: I CURSE YOU! >:(
Roll(s): 3. Total result is 3. This is a failure (by 7).

Apparently The Vampire Curse shall forever remain a mystery.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  If the effects of Chaos eating away at her are causing Argent any pain she doesn't show it, instead just bearing it calmly as her feet take her closer and closer to her target. "Anna." she announces as she raises the now worryingly distorted athame, pointed squarely at Arcas. "It is best that we complete this task quickly. I believe that delaying will cause additional deletrious effects." Maybe that's her way of saying this hurts, so we should finish this quickly. Not to mention the oddities all this Chaos is having on the space around them.

  With that she darts forwards. She's certainly not as fast as the likes of Anna, nor anywhere near as skilled with a weapon, but with her target's attention largely elsewhere perhaps she doesn't need to be.

  > Argent uses Mundane Art: Clumsy Stab.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d2.
Roll(s): 2. Total result is 2.


  'No one... can change how they are made'

  "You are wrong!" Reize finally snaps out. He is meeting with Arcas head on when he says, "You say that people can't change...?! They can...! Sometimes... they just need a helping hand!"

  After the kick lands on the man's face and the scythe is away from his hand, the boy looks over towards the currently distant Arcas.

  "I know someone like you. Someone who is currently in a deep sleep. She was made by someone! However, she was learning how to live on her own! And I will see to it that she can experience life of her own again!"

  And it appears....

  The man is preparing to draw the aether once more. Reize looks at the glass floor briefly and then straight towards Arcas. However, upon a voice calling out, his eyes widen. "Ah...?"

  He hears something. A gentle voice.

  Closing his eyes, the boy is turning to face Arcas, furrowing his eyebrows. "...Set him free, huh...?" As the pendant's light swirls, the boy is drawing his hand to his chest. "....With your wish... I'll grant that!" He draws his hand up towards the air, manifesting a glowing tarot in his grasp. "Kernunnos!" He holds the glowing card out in front of him as he invokes.

  "CONATUS MODICUS!"

  Drawing upon the surge summon, the aura from the boy flares out as he calls upon the Pendant's Power.
 

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 10 months ago


 "You will remake NOTHING." Anna snarls. It is, indeed, time for payback as the raging princess sets her feet. Though their opponent roils with seemingly limitless magical energy, she brings that roiling senseless Chaos to bear; turning to the Blasphemy of the beastfolk and reveling in it- the rejection of the ordered way in which the gods themselves wrote the universe and everything in it hovers on the keen edge of her axe as she lunges in.
 It is as Argent tries to stab the Star-Crowned Emperor that Anna howls, doing her best to hold the being's attention.
 As long as she or Argent can wound him then...
 It doesn't matter if Anna strikes true or not, she swings heavy-handed and hard, intending to either drive her axe into Arcas... Or to shepherd him into striking range of Argent's athame.


 Arcas, blinking as though at surprise at himself, shakes his head and with it shakes off his hesitation. As Ruidosa prepares her baleful dark energies, the Star-Crowned Emperor's eyes dance with the lights reflected by the thousand crystals of the Crown Jewel spiraling above.
 "Only the power of Genesis," he pronounces, "can change the inevitable!"

> Arcas casts Inexorable Fate.
> He is reflecting all Elemental and Domain magic this turn.

 Those terrifying curses strike a silvery shield that manifests before the homunculus and rebound, speeding narrowly past Reize as he summons his pendant's power and across the battlefield, to where Ivo is just finishing loading a blue elesphere into his pommel--
 "No. No no PLEASE N--"--and with a poof of occult smoke--
 "Ribbit!"
 A very sad-looking little frog is left in his place.
 "Fools!" Arcas shouts. "I'll end this repetition you call an existence!"
 No trace is left of his hesitation or conflicted emotions. All that is left is the implacable conviction of one who rebelled against his destiny the only way he knew how, creating a new world through the merciless obliteration of what came before him. The power of the very sun shines within the Crown Jewel, his scythe gleaming in concert.
 "Reize!" Kernunnos calls from the boy's pendant. "I'll shield you--!"

> Reize has used Pendant's Power, summoning Kernunnos.
> Kernunnos has used Conatus Modicus.

 Two overwhelming forces of Creation meet, a glowing scythe clashing with a shining shield. Reize is pushed back, Arcas driving them both toward the center of the ark. Though this is the same power that protected them on their journey here, still, the Star-Crowned Emperor's mighty weapon is sinking into it, the shield beginning to crack.
 "Ghhh... my champion, forgive me..." The eidola's voice is wavering, sounding somehow distant. "I... cannot call upon my divine form again... even with all you have given me... the consequences of my deeds are beyond my power to control..."
 "Yes!" Arcas howls in the boy's face. "I have transcended you, and all my creators! At last, we... I shall be free!!"
 "Yes. You shall."
 Arcas flinches, glancing aside jerkily, distracted.
 "Who--"

> A Chaos Gate has evoked a spontaneous summon.

 As Anna, roaring mightily, and Argent, running as fast as she can with whorling athame aloft, close in on the center of the battlefield, the proximity of their reality-distorting forces intensify the eerie environmental effects, one of the dimensional rifts forming in the sky above them widening its terrible maw, and from it--
 "Kaaaa ha ha ha haaaaa!"

> Deathless Draaken attacks Arcas with Raging Leviathan.

 An all-too familiar form descends from the rift, dripping with noxious multi-hued goo, shaking it free to reveal the bejeweled scales beneath as the dragonkin lashes his tail into the hesitating Star-Crowned Emperor from behind, breaking his stance and causing him to stagger.
 "The only true rebel here," their erstwhile foe announces proudly as his muscled form lands into a three-point stance, "is me! Whooaa--" But he only has a moment to look cool, for he is already being dragged back up toward the rift whence he came, his form beginning to twist and warp as it goes. "Kaaaa ha ha ha! Still not done with me, eh!? Our rematch will have to wait--" He is, blessedly, sinking back into the void. "Tell that dragonkin lass to wait for m--"

> Deathless Draaken has disappeared... again.

 "Khhh." Arcas grimaces as he staggers, attempting to marshall his powers again. "Something like that won't-- gah!"
 A mound of ice formed about his feet as he loses his balance, trapping him in place. It has passed along the ground from the edge of the battlefield, having radiated from the fallen Hauteclare, where a frog has pushed a button upon its hilt with its tongue.
 "Ribbit ribbit."*
 "You-- rrrrahhh!" Arcas roars in fury as pest after pest assails him. He is forced to turn his scythe away from Reize's shield to meet Anna's axe, its writhing power eating at his own, driving him into a hunched position, his gaze hateful toward her.
 "You will never-- gyaaahhhh!"
 He then screams in agony as Argent, whom he had utterly forgotten, appearing at his side, drives the roiling athame into him. It is a simple stab, unadorned by technique. The emperor turns to look at her in disbelief.
 "You..."
 Et tu, Brute?
 "Ah... aaaahhhh!"
 At last the scythe falls from his grasp, clattering to the glassy floor. Something is roiling inside him, his power leeching away. He clumps to the ground, clutching at himself. And as he does, Reize's shield expands, enveloping them all in a comforting light, one that even a vampire might find assuring.
 The sounds of the wind die away.
 "No..."
 Arcas's words are, for once, quiet. The view of the sky fades. The ark upon which they stand seems suspended in space and time.
 "What... was all of it... for?"

> Arcas can no longer fight.

* "I won't tell her any such thing."


  There is a moment of sweating emerging from the boy as he watches the effects of Ruidosa's spell reflect. He suspected that he was on the trajectory of the spell's path, but it whizzes past him. "...W--whew." He was already on the receiving end once. Directly. It was not a good day for him at the time.

  Nevertheless, there is a more important task at hand. As Kernunnos places the protective force around him, the boy's hand is extended out for the shining shield to meet back. He grimaces, however, when Arcas is driving them into the center of the ark.

  And then it cracks.

  Eyes snap wide. "Huh...!?" With Arcas balefully goading at his plight, Reize hisses.

  eyes drift back to see both Anna and Argent take charge of the battlefield, warping the environment before them. ...Deathless Draaken? It appears that he came to assist. With a good slip, Reize looks back, "Awesome job guys! Especially you----IVO?!" Reize's eyes widen in shock to see a frog where Ivo once was. Question marks are all over his head.

  And when Arcas is stabbed, the youth watches as he falls and clutches himself in a light. As he finally starts to quiet, the boy offers a frown when he approaches the fallen Arcas, as the ark remains suspended.

  "... We're here to free you. It was... his wish."
 

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 10 months ago

  "I believe that in this instance, it is optimal to allow things to end." Argent says quietly as she pulls the blade free, slick with her target's silvery blood. "If you are unable to move on, then you allow only one remaining option. As such, please either give up your ambitions, or accept your death." And with that she poises her athame again, ready for another stab. ...is that her idea of 'free him'?

Ruidosa La Crima ''whoops'' and didn't mean to curse Ivo! For real! >.<. Still, she offhandedly remarks. "It...it'll wear off." she says bluntly as she's protected by the barrier and then soon... the locale seems to change again? What is this?

"I'm bad at this kind of thing." no duh. So she lets others handle the talking. She also offhandedly says. "I think a kiss from a princess would change him back NOW but.... it'll go away on it's own soon."

"You know. Eventually. He'll be fine."


 As Arcas kneels, clutching at himself, Ivo gradually hops over. This takes a while, and not only because he is a frog. He appears to be moving in slow-motion, jumping through the air as though it were molasses, and occasionally jumps in the wrong direction, as though he cannot quite see where he is going, and has to correct based on the sound of his friends' voices. Moreover, he sometimes stops entirely to flinch, something damaging him at intervals.
 But eventually, despite all the many ailments afflicting him, the cursed Ivo makes his way over to the rest of the party to offer his insights.
 "Ribbit."
 Very helpful. But at Ruidosa's observation, the suffering amphibian visibly perks up, forgetting his dire straits, and turning to look beadily over at Anna.
 "Heh... heh heh..."
 Even as Argent's knife, the tool of Arcas's druidic creators, hangs over him, the fallen Emperor can only chuckle, though he winces at the wound still eating at him from within.
 "...free me... you say?"
 He looks up at Argent, hatred fading, replaced by what has fed it, what had always fed it: despair.
 "My fellow knows," he whispers. "If there is no freedom in power, then it lies only in death."
 Slowly, Arcas's eyes close.
 "There's another way, Arcas. Don't you remember?"
 Within the field of light, a silhouette has appeared. Weakly, their adversaries strains to look over his shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of the shadowed figure.
 "We can hope against hope."
 "Erato," Arcas breathes, voice shaking. "Why... why did you leave me? Why did you let them take your life? We... I... you... deserved so much more than the fate they chose for us...!"
 As a hand wreathed in shadow rests upon the Emperor's shoulder, a silvery tear streaks a path down his cheek.
 "We still don't know," Erato replies, "how it all will end."
 Arcas turns back to face his foes.
 "All these deaths. All this suffering." He extends his hand. There, taking shape from nothing, is the Crown Jewel, formed of a thousand fallen homunculi, sacrificed for another's dream. "My pain, sadness, and rage. This story, its meaning. You who have struck me down--"
 His form begins to fade, along with the shadow behind him.
 "You will decide it-- the legacy of Vaeltrandia."
 He reaches up, his trembling fingers intertwining with those of the shadowed form behind him, and at last, for the first, Arcas smiles the ghost of a smile.
 "All I can do now," he breathes, "is give you the chance."
 When the light fades, he is gone.
 The ark, the glass vessel that was once Arcadios, is bearing them down. But it is falling slower now, motes of light from Reize and Kernunnos's dissipating shield tracing through it. Below them, through the glass beneath their feet, they can see the coast of Granse. There is Zerhem, and there the Lonely Woods, and beyond the far shores where the denizens of Aurita Meloda make a new way. There to the south are the great Central Plains, where the nomadic peoples dwell, and beyond the Golden Hills, the sun playing upon their slopes and the vast Lake Gerisia before it. It is a view that none have seen to tell of, which they have time to admire as the ark bears them safely, slowly, to the shore far below.
 And before them, the Crown Jewel slowly turns.

> The party has acquired the Crown Jewel.
> With it, Argent may use the Supreme Star-Crowned Art: Starspark, capable of reviving any homunculus from a state of stasis.
> Congratulations. "Star Chaser Story: The Legacy of Vaeltrandia" is complete.


( Theme of the Legacy of Vaeltrandia, Reprise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ1rVqIF9s8 )