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The Drowned Undercity Pt. 2

Scene details

Setting: He has endured for centuries, imprisoned beneath the ruins of the city he once overthrew, the seal upon him repeated and renewed, the mighty and undaunted rebel worthy of his name -- Deathless Draaken.

Now, as Meloda's Blessing churns on behind him, the whorling watery mass intensifying his menacing mien, all that stands between him and liberty is our heroes.

> A fearsome enemy advances. Determine your party's formation before combat begins.

Log

For centuries, Meloda's Blessing has churned. The enormous watery sphere, floating suspended in casual defiance of nature's laws, draws water from the ocean before the party's very eyes, spitting out what little remains to take from the sea before discarding the emptied fluid back whence it came. It knows no master anymore. Surrounded by the toppled pillars and splintered seats of a forum, the ruins of rational rule, its being abandoned and forgotten has done nothing to sate its unnatural hunger. Still, it endures.

"Ka ha ha."

And the man who stands before it is somehow more terrifying.

"Wanna hear something funny?"

Deathless Draaken's towering form glitters with countless jewels. Even his tail, its serpentine girth lashing more like a cat preparing to pounce, gleams with gems in place of scales. At a glance, our heroes can tell that this man completed what the merfolk leader at the river delta had only attempted. This is a beastkin who embodies blasphemy. His elemental magic has been elevated to its absolute highest. Behind him gleams all the trash and every treasure that the so-called Blessing has pulled from the sea, but he pays it no heed at all. He has one goal.

"I was hoping you'd bar my way."

Freedom.

"Kaaa ha ha ha ha!"

Draaken bears his fangs.

> Combat is about to begin. Confirm your party's formation.

"Nngh... there we go."

Ivo, kneeling behind his friends, tightens the bandage around Argent's thigh, affixing the poultice containing her own healing miracle. His words are calm, but his voice is tight. Sweat drips from his brow. Rather than this being an act of kindness, it may seem as though he is trying to distract himself from their opponent, and what he knows they are about to do.

So he does not notice, though Argent might, that her athame, lying on the stone floor by her side, has begun to shake and rattle, responding to a pulse far stronger than even the Elemental Chaos they encountered at the delta -- or the eidola they summoned to fight it.

"Young champion," that eidola says quietly to Reize, the pendant at the boy's breast pulsing faintly. "The arm of the crux we seek is here, in this room. I feel it."

As the enormous sphere remains suspended in the air, Reize eyes it warily. The boy draws his attention to the one who is manipulating it, the Deathless Draaken. He secures one of his base aether gems in place to his wrist, now shifting his stance.

Those gems signify something dreadful. His eyes widen as he looks at Ruidosa and the others, "... I think this is like the merfolk leader!"

His voice low, "I know, Kernunnos. ... We just have to take down the guardian of it. ... I may have to call upon you soon." But first...



Reize takes the first step forward into a sprint. He is running straight towards the massive serpentine figure. He launches himself from the ground and he rolls his foot forward with a swinging axe kick coming down Draakan's head.

"I'll take the first strike!"

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Confirm Party Formation?

>Anna Primrose. >>FRONT ROW.

After the fiasco with the underground river and white water rafting happy splashy fun times, Anna is... Looking about as happy as a wet cat. Her waterproofed cloak has done nothing to keep her dry and her boots are now waterlogged.

It's a good thing she has a steady supply of unstoppable rage to keep her warm at night.

Right now though, in the face of Deathless Draaken, she needs something to vent that fury upon, and if he stands in their way and the arm of the Crux is here...

Anna starts to hyperventilate.

Her pupils dilate.

Her eyes turn bloodshot red.

And she lets that virulent fury free from where she struggles to keep it chained in the secret place behind her heart.

In an instant the Suryle princess is off like a bullet, blood pounding in her ears as she screeches a battle cry, practically in step with Reize as he sprints straight into the fray, her axe flashes as she brings it high for a mighty, fury-empowered stroke at that gem-glittering hide.

Ruidosa La Crima dislikes people that sound like her grandfather a lot, and this guy has the same candor. 'Want to rule the world and/or destroy it' and just... ugh. This guy must be pretty powerful if he's managed to lay-about in a room for years and years and still survive. What's he been eating? The prehistoric things in here?

Still, she follows up with a blast of dark energy from her hand that kind of starts from her shoulder and seems to resonate down her arm and through her palm, projecting it towards the being's chest to hopefully help Reize kick the jerk in the face with his axe kick.

"Reize, be careful..." she says. She looks over to Ivo and Argent, hoping they're okay over there, and will be able to help soon.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=15.

Comment: Dark Blast into Drakken!

Roll(s): 1. Total result is 1. This is a failure (by 14).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=15.

Roll(s): 15. Total result is 15. This is a success (by 0).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=15.

Comment: I'MMA HIT HIM WITH MY AXE!

Roll(s): 6. Total result is 6. This is a failure (by 9).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

That poultice works its magic, the wound one the homunulus' leg sealing up bit by bit until not a mark is left on her pale skin, though the site of the injury is still quite sore. It wasn't just a simple cut, after all.

Seeming quite unconcered about the danger that's just over there, Argent stretches her leg to test it out. Apparently satisfied she gives Ivo a nod. "I do not believe I require further assistance at this time. As such, it will be optimal for you to begin aggressing upon this individual." she says, tilting her head towards the fight. The athame's reaction doesn't go unnoticed as she plucks it up off the floor, regarding it curiously. Is she deciding what she's going to try with it?

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

"Haaaaaaahhh....."

Priel sighs as... all of this happens. She /just/ got out of that whole shark nonsense and now there's this guy cackling and acting like he's going to take over the word or something. Finishing drying herself off with fire magic, the vanguard shakes her head and shrugs. "Is this some sort of joke? You've been stuck in here how long? And the first thing you want to do if you get out is.... break stuff? Such a waste. Are we really from the same species?"

Another sigh, and Priel conjures a sword of flame in one hand. "So this is what you people keep getting yourselves into, huh? Fun, fun." She takes a stance, gathering flames in her sword before she swings outwards, sending a flaming projectile flying through the air at high speed towards their opponent.

"And by the way... what's up with all the jewels in his body? Is this some sorta fashion statement?" After she attacks, she squints, a hand on her chin and rubbing. "...Wonder how much they'd sell for...?"

Priorities.

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Priel rolls 1d20>=10.

Comment: A simple attack to test his reaction speed

Roll(s): 8. Total result is 8. This is a failure (by 2).

Draaken's eyes gleam like the gems upon him. His fangs flash in their refracted light. His muscles bulge, neck appearing to thicken, and he spreads his arms wide. As he does, batlike wings erupt from his back, further tearing at his aged finery, nearly blotting out the preternatural phenomenon whorling behind him.

"Come!"

Enormous icicles erupt from his hands, elemental weapons.

"I'll endure it all!!!"

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c69eFMQg4MY )

Draaken does not seem to react as Reize leaps, but the boy can sense that his movements are being followed, a hunter's intuition likely suggesting the man before him is a dangerous predator. The moment that, in the background, Argent curiously takes up her athame, Ruidosa's first spell impacts against the dragonkin legend. Quick as lightning, that massive tail rises as though to block the shadow blast. But, stranger still, it seems as though space contorts around his body and, rather than impacting him, the spell is simply-- undone, melting away from within rather than from the edges.

The athame nearly leaps in Argent's hands.

"Ka ha ha!"

One ice-lance collides with Anna's fury-fueled axe swing, shards hewn off and scattering like strewn diamonds to the stone. The other is raised to block Reize's kick, the ice against his boot unnaturally solid.

"Good, good-- hm!?"

But not solid enough. The legend underestimated the boy, focusing on blocking the princess's strike, and the second lance crumbles under Reize's kick, the young hero just breaking through. Shards of ice score bleeding cuts on Draaken's forehead and cheek as he sways back.

"Oh!?"

That ice lance is resummoned in an instant, stronger now, but not to retaliate against Reize. Instead, a mere moment before he would have been struck, he shifts withou seeming to look to block Priel's seemingly casual yet extraordinarily swift projectile attack, ice melting and flames dispersing at once. Draaken's grin just keeps widening.

"Oh!?!?"

His tone jovial, his gaze finally shifts to his fellow dragonkin.

"Not bad, woman! You got a man!?"

In the background, Ivo twitches.

"Ready, kids!?"

But Draaken doesn't wait for an answer, clearly interested in fighting above all. He has taken his opponents' measure and made no effort to repel them. Only now will that seem by design.

"Kaaaaa!"

A single, swift stomp. With that movement, every gem on his body seems to flash, and massive icicles rise in a circle all about him, threatening to skewer his assailants, or at best throw Anna back and propel Reize back into the air.

> Draaken attacks Reize and Anna with Glacial Impact.

"Haaa ha ha ha!"

Sounding truly delighted, Draaken's huge body is a blur as he aims to pursue Reize into the air, somehow moving a mere moment after that powerful attack. His hands and feet becoming encased in ice, he responds to Reize's kick with an unarmed combination of his own, a whirl of punches and kicks that aim to force Kernunnos's champion higher into the air.

> Draaken surges with aether and acts again!

> Draaken attacks Reize with Raging Leviathan.

"Reize!"

Ivo finally seems to shake off his hesitation and draws Hauteclare, preparing to attack. But he hasn't been completely idle. No, he's been circling around the many mysteries that still plague the party. Chief among them--

"Everyone! The crux fragment--"

Why is it *here*?

"Add it to our half-crux and it'll strengthen Kernunnos! It's in that pile!"

For the same reason as every other treasure, no doubt.

"But what," Ivo mutters, "*is* this 'Blessing'...?"

Finally, Argent has steadied her grip on the starmetal athame. It is being pulled almost inexorably toward Draaken, the power of water and ice within him utterly overwhelming. The power of creation emanating from Reize's pendant pales in comparison. But there is something else. Something that makes her dagger shake and jostle. It flashed from Draaken's tail briefly. And if she searches for it, she can sense that same pulse, a sensation fearful and foreign yet vaguely and hauntingly familiar, is coming from within the watery sphere, from its very heart.

> Tune athame to what aspect?

>> Water

>> Creation

>> ?h???

>> Sheathe (Cancel Tuning)

Reize managed to draw 'First Blood', even though that was not the literal intention. The first strike, however, affords Reize the next opportunity for him to maneuver as the second lance lowers. Reize twists his body, launching himself from the dragonkin and he springs up high.

Descending backwards, he skids across the ground and he draws the boomerangs back out as the stronger dragonkin readies himself. However, Reize is caught off-guard as the dragonkin chose to concentrate on his use of Arts rather than his physical prowess.

"Whoa!"

Reize stumbles backwards, nearly getting skewed by the massive icicle. While the boy is not skewered exactly, there is a bit of a graze that knicks him, drawing a bit of blood. He grimaces as he spins backwards.

That was the opening that Draaken needed to exploit the surprise. The boy's head twists uncomfortably to the whirl of punches, followed by the hunching of his body to the kick that flings the boy in the air. "Guuhhhhh!" He smacks against the wall harshly, then he drops to the ground. "ngghh..." He staggers up to his feet, then he brings his boomerangs invertedly.

He rushes towards the large dragonkin once more, "I'll show you....!" As he charges straight ahead, he is preparing for what appears to be a spinning kick. Once he hits mid-air, he twists his body to a roll and flings out a few sparkly dust as he aims to slide underneath Draaken once he hits the ground.

"Right, right, the Crux..." Reize shifts his head around to try to get a good view over to where the fragment is at.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=15.

Comment: Feint to Flash Dust

Roll(s): 2. Total result is 2. This is a failure (by 13).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.

Comment: I tank with my HP.

Roll(s): 20. Total result is 20. This is a success (by 8).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

'Ready kids?' Draaken asks.

Anna's response is an almost guttural snarl. Especially as the giant icicles form up and start stabbing towards the air in her direction.

Anna... Does not dodge.

Several ice spikes embed into her chest and shoulders, causing her to jerk and jolt with each impact that prettymuch impale her.

This...

This uh...

Uh.

This only makes her angrier as she howls in fury, wrenching herself off the ice crystals and climbing over them with a vaulting leap, axe raised aloft as she brings it to bear intent on cleaving into Draaken' shoulder.

She's a little too focused on the fight to think about the Crux at the moment as she goes to town.

Ruidosa watches as her dark bolt basically melts away into nothing and shade overcomes her visage as she 'ehs..!' a moment. That wasn't supposed to happen! Still, she summons up a mass of shadow in front of her first, to act as a shield, in case retribution comes her way. It doesn't, because she's in the back row, while Anna and Reize gets the brunt of it.

She frowns and dispells the shadow wall, gathering up that massed shadow energy into the ball and muttering, "Presagio...!" throwing it towards the dragonkin like a bomb... it'll explode and continues to do so it flashes of strong shadow energy-like effects.

She'll then frown as she smells a familiar uh... blood smell. That makes her worry a lot. but she quickly turns he attention towards making for the pile the crux might be in. They need to find that, right? but they're also fighting this ''beast'' and it's making her worry too much.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

"Please refrain from moving." Argent says to...the athame, apparently. The darn thing is pulling towards Draaken, jerking her arm around as it tries to point itself towards him, seeking those sources of power.

Alas, it doesn't seem to want to listen to her.

After some more wrestling with it she eventually decides to let it do what it wants, letting it orient itself to that odd source emanating from something in Draaken's tail. One of the gems imbedded in it, maybe?

Alchemy is a science, and what advances science more than experimentation? After a slow deep breathe she attunes the athame to whatever it is the thing is finding.

Hopefully this won't go horribly, horribly wrong.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=15.

Comment: DARK OMEN

Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4. This is a failure (by 11).

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

"Oh boy..."

Priel watches as her fireball and Draaken's ice seem to cancel each other out. Opposing elements. What a lovely coincidence, huh? Of course, his quip earns him a careless smile. "Hm.... Maybe... maybe not. Who knows~" She shrugs in a playful manner, dancing backwards as those massive icicles come out. Whew... seems like this one is more interested in going after Anna and Reize. Well... Guess she'll have to intervene, won't she?

Decided, Priel tightens up her stance, and then breaks forward into a dash, her sword flipped into a reverse grip as it erupts into flames. "Hey, buddy! Forget someone!?' She calls, heckling him as she cuts through the debris of the aftereffects of Draaken's previous Art, and then twists herself in mid-air, lashing out with a flaming slash that causes a wave of flame to erupt explosively in its wake.

Seems like others are handling the crux issue, so she'll just focus on keeping this guy's attention. Seems fair.

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Priel rolls 1d20>=15.

Comment: Second Raid

Roll(s): 20. Total result is 20. This is a success (by 5).

"Kehehe!"

Draaken's cackle becomes more of a giggle as he descends to the circle of icicles he himself created moments ago, having repulsed Reize for the moment. He only looks more pleased as the boy recovers and attacks again, but the dragonkin warrior is possessed of the experience of ages and no longer underestimates his opponent. He doesn't even blink at the feint -- instead, he snaps his fingers. A frosted mirror-like square of ice manifests in the air before him and, as Reize tosses the dust, the light is reflected back at him, momentarily blinding the boy instead.

"My champion! This way!"

But Kernunnos is there to help. Even if Reize can't see clearly for a few moments, the pendant starts to pull, the eidola doing more to guide him, tugging toward the depths of the pile.

"Where are *you* going!?"

But Draaken won't simply let Reize walk away. Grinning wildly, he draws one brawny arm back, a fearsome sword of ice forming within his grasp, seeming to be preparing to cleave Reize in two.

"I'll-- geh?"

Strange. Draaken's arm won't move anymore. A little disconcerted, he glances at his side. Oh. There's an axe sticking out of his shoulder. Well. That explains it.

"Kaaaa ha ha ha!"

He forgets Reize for an instant, giving the boy the time to recover or withdraw. Perhaps Draaken could have attacked with his other arm anyway. The pain doesn't seem to be fazing him. Even so, the boisterous warrior stares admiringly at Anna, who appears to have walked right through the glacial impact so she could attack immediately upon his descent.

"You're all fun!"

With one arm currently immobilized, his other hand manifests some cross between a club and a shield, broad and heavy. As Ruidosa's shadow bomb projects toward him, he begins to raise his tail again-- only to lash it to the side instead, sending Hauteclare's blade glancing away, Ivo having timed his attack to try to assist.

"Except you!" Draaken shouts, seemingly at Ivo. "You're still using the same old tricks, huh?"

The Cosmopolitan's grimly resolute expression wavers into utter confusion, before he just rolls his eyes and shakes it off.

"You really can't tell humans apart, huh?" he shouts back before beginning to close in. His heart is quailing at the prospect of fighting Draaken close-up, but Ivo can't simply allow Anna to fight one-on-one, even if Hauteclare is best at range.

Meanwhile, he has at least opened a path for Ruidosa's blast, forcing Draaken to block it with his shield instead, the ice splintering against the explosive impact, leaving him unharmed but damaging his manifested defenses. Still, it is intact enough as a club, which he raises in preparation to bring down heavily on Anna's head.

"Ghaarrgghhh!"

It is not a battle cry. For the first time, Draaken cries out in pain. His instinctive attempt to ward off Priel's blazing fast attack fails, the ice, already damaged by Ruidosa's attack, shattering completely on contact, the full force of the redheaded dragonkin's assault tearing into their enemy's gem-encrusted flesh. Anna's axe is torn from his body, worsening his wound, as the huge man is thrown back by the explosive assault.

> Draaken is staggered and loses a turn.

Yet he does not collapse. Though he is driven away from the pile, allowing Ruidosa to safely approach it and Reize, he flips his huge bulk midair and recovers to land adroitly. He's still grinning. And, his gems flashing, those savage wounds begin to stanch and close before their very eyes.

"More!" Draaken speaks to them and himself. "More!!!"

> Draaken surges with aether and acts again!

The party will have just a moment of warning as the air chills and seems to pull towards the violent man, his body curling up briefly before he unfolds, limbs and tail lashing in all directions, and cries about again, countless small icicles manifesting about him like thousands of needles and spraying in all directions, horrifyingly filling the room. Every single person is in danger unless they take cover-- or are covered.

> Draaken attacks the entire party with Frostbites.

"Ghh!"

Ivo's buckler flashes as he attempts to step in front of Argent, having not fully advanced to the front yet, though he has mixed success, providing the outline of his own body as cover as a great deal of those icy needles deflect against his armor. In the aftermath, he quavers, his arms and legs nevertheless viciously pierced. If Argent has the presence of mind to get behind him, she may be mostly spared. Regardless, so long as she can maintain her concentration with this monumental task, her aetheric tuning--

> Argent begins taking damage over time.

--will start to wear at her from within. A sensation akin to dread takes hold. The resonance between the athame and herself, achieved by the techniques perfected by the Star-Crowned and the craft of the druids that made them, is for the first time dangerous to her. This weapon was not built to handle *this* power. Neither was she.

But it's working. It's holding. An incredible, roiling, unstable, world-undoing force is barely holding together, as though she is standing at the brink of the event horizon of a black hole, one step away from being unable to escape forever, yet still able to channel that force and then turn back. For now...

> Argent's Starmetal Athame is tuned to Chaos.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>10.

Comment: Defending from Frosbite

Roll(s): 17. Total result is 17. This is a success (by 7).

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Priel rolls 1d20>=10.

Comment: Press X to not freeze

Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 9).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.

Comment: Con Save against Frostbite stabby things.

Roll(s): 3. Total result is 3. This is a failure (by 9).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Argent rolls 1d20>=10.

Comment: Has it easier by stepping behind Ivo.

Roll(s): 9. Total result is 9. This is a failure (by 1).

The plan was simple: Blind the dragonkin and give the others an opportunity to strike him down. However, the unexpected happens as the experienced dragonkin manifests a square of ice. Upon contact, the dust explodes a bright flash that washes over the boy's eyes. "Gaaah!"

Hitting the ground, he staggers around. Thankfully, Kernunnos is there to guide him. Instead, Reize is forced to rely on the feeling. That feeling is what guides him to the path of the pile.

Given that Reize is blinded, he would be a sitting duck to the cleaving slash by the brute, had it not been for Anna to the rescue with her axe. The young explorer is following the depths of the pile. He starts rummaging around, trying to take a few deep breaths on occasion.

With any luck or guidance, he won't cut himself on any of the more hazardous piles. While he starts rummaging around, he feels the temperature around him take a drastic dip. "...Eh?"

That... does not sound good.

Ruidosa quickly, with Reize near her, throws up a shadow bubble around the two as the temperature starts to dip. The bubble begins rippling, but protects them from the sheer frostbite. She has to hold it up a moment to weather the attack and then throws it off and disperses it when the attack seems to pass as she nrgs a bit. "T..there...hurry up and look...!" she mutters hotly out. She throws another dark bolt at Drakken trying to do any sort of damage she can.

"Just concentrate on finding the piece!"

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=15.

Comment: Dark Bolt!

Roll(s): 7. Total result is 7. This is a failure (by 8).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Fun is not exactly a word Anna would use for this chaos. Fights are scary. The only thing that spurs her on to act through the fear and terror is her pure unadulterated fury and hotheaded anger.

She presses her attack even as Draaken readies another cold-based assault.

"Rrrraaaaghhh!"

Her axe raises high-- and by this virtue is the only reason she's able to cover her eyes in time, when the hundreds of ice spikes explode through the room, tearing through the berserker princess and her low AC clothing.

She staggers as the frigid little jabs impact her like a shotgun. To her credit she's still standing!

But she sags, breath rasping and heavy as her body shivers from the frigid needles embedded all over. She struggles to move, a heavy shudder taking over as she collapses to a knee.

Give her a second, folks, she needs to catch her breath after that one.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Well, that's quite an interesting reaction. Quite unlike anything else she's attuned the athame to so far. Similar to destruction in some aspects, but quite unlike it in other ways. It's certainly something a woman like Argent is inclined to experiment with. That feeling that her body's mostly natural processes are collapsing into a chaotic mess of broken chemical processes is slightly concerning, but that will probably turn out fine. Maybe

So focused is she on harnessing this odd new force that she barely even notices the attack coming her way. Or, well, every way. Barely a moment before those thin needles launch all over Argent moves a step, setting Ivo between herself and all that ice. She /mostly/ manages to make it away unscathed, getting out the way of the bulk of them...but a quick flurry of them catches her in her side, peppering her with a handful of the little things.

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Priel skids to a stop on the ground after that Art, and she redoubles to a better position immediately to take quick stock of the situation. Looks like Anna and her have forced this cackled dork to finally get serious. Flipping her sword into normal grip, the Vanguard watches his movements as he seems to be gathering Aether for a big attack. The temperature in the chamber drops rapidly, and Priel already feels like she knows what's happening.

Focusing her own aether, her body flares up. Literally. A cloak of flame billowing around her form. The icing on the floor and in the air turns into steam as the opposing elements remain in constant contact. Then, it comes. Innumerable amounts of pierce icicles that fill the room and hurtle out in all directions, threatening everyone.

Here we go.

Priel frowns, and then she runs forward. The intense heat of her aura melts most of the oncoming icicles in her direction, and she weaves through the ones that are too big to melt on contact, making her way to Draaken all the while. Then, with a leap, she dives right at him, sword reared back before she thrusts forward, aiming right at his midsection with the flaming weapon!

No words this time. No funny quips. Just get the job done.

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Priel rolls 1d20>=10.

Comment: Stabbity Stab~

Roll(s): 11. Total result is 11. This is a success (by 1).

With time having been bought by the vampire girl's effortful defenses, Kernunnos guides Reize with nudges and whispers, sometimes pulling him away from sharp edges or rusted nails from the detritus of shipwrecks. While the boy's vision continues to clear, his nose is assailed by a plethora of scents, almost universally foul, as his ears are filled with the roaring of Meloda's Blessing above him. Dried kelp, rotting fish, waterlogged cloth, and corroded metal are all collected in this gargantuan heap. Indeed, as his eyes refocus, one of the first things he notices is, out of the corner of his eye, fish swimming in the pool behind where the Blessing expunges its waters, forever trapped within the confines of the undercity. As Ruidosa surmised, this food source seems to be how Draaken has survived all this time and fed those oversized muscles -- and, perhaps, how there came to be living things within the undercity but not without.

"There!"

By focusing entirely on his search rather than fighting, Reize finds it at last. Its silvery base metal is tarnished from seawater. But the fragment of a star affixed to the arm of the crux is as bright and pure as ever, and the light kindled within his pendant flickers the same hue.

"Take it, my boy!"

The half-crux lies within Reize's bag of tricks, having been entrusted to his care by Ivo. The magitech engineer reconstructed it so that new fragments could be easily affixed on the spot, knowing that while the half-crux could empower Kernunnos to an extent, further completing it would raise the upper limits of that empowerment -- at least, once more aether is channeled into the crux, transmuted into the power of Creation, and fed to Kernunnos, as Argent did at the delta.

"Kaaa ha!"

Draaken pays Reize no heed at all. He watches eagerly as Anna endures the needles, only to look ever so slightly disappointed as she slumps to one knee.

"Don't give up, girl!" he exhorts her. "You're tough as a dragon! And a dragon can always go further -- can become a god!" The impossibly energetic villain's eyes seem to glaze over for a moment. "Nothing is impossible. Nothing can be denied you...!"

The gems encrusting his body are already shining bright, but they begin to brighten to a blinding state, rivaling the powder Reize threw before. It is clear that Draaken's magical power is tremendous, but he seems to build himself to greater heights with every moment that passes, as though unsatisfied with anything less than constant escalation. It is difficult to tell through that eye-searing light, but anyone who squints through it may detect that the wounds Anna and Priel inflicted before are-- reopening.

"Woman! Worthy mate! Surely you know our stories!"

Meloda's Blessing pulses, the sworling sphere splattering water in Reize and Ruidosa's direction, as though fighting its own invisible restraints.

"Meloda was once like you or I! She was raised up to become a true Beast! And what allowed *her* to grant us this Blessing?"

"Argent!" Ivo is saying, turning his head, still standing despite his wounds, fear and pain warring in his eyes but subdued by a loyalty and courage usually hidden by playfulness. "Are you alright!?" She was mostly protected, at least. "Reize has the third fragment! Try channeling-- what is *THAT*?" And wonder overcomes all. The Cosmopolitan completely forgets his pain, or the prospect of attacking, as he gawks at the athame in the homunculus's hand. The star has turned in an unspeakable umbral range of hues, the metal seeming to bubble and pop, starting to bend like a moebius strip. "Are-- you-- alright?"

Ivo's one to talk, sleeves and pants bloodstained.

"What gave her the *RIGHT*?" Draaken is saying, as the massive ice sword he had summoned before returns to his grasp to meet Priel head one. Their powers blaze and flash, red and blue sizzling and hissing, swirling and contorting about one another, their summoned auras visible, illuminated by the competing lights from their bodies. The two seem fixed in the air for a moment, and the room ripples around them, almost suggesting that an explosion is about to erupt from the uncontainable pressure.

But Priel, astonishingly, breaks through. Her sword cracks Draaken's, creating just enough space to slip past his guard, its flaming tip sinking into his abdomen. But this time, he doesn't cry out.

"Yes!!"

He stares the mighty beauty down, his grin maddened.

"POWER!" he exults. "Power is the only difference! Power is what she had! Power is what I was denied! But I will be denied nothing! For my power has only grown!!!"

He could counterattack Priel, but he doesn't. Draaken withdraws with a buffet of his wings, his sword restoring to defend against any attacks of opportunity only to melt away once he is out of range. He thrusts out his hand toward Meloda's Blessing, and it shudders as though in protests before unrecognizable cosmic colors, akin to those reflected in Argent's athame, are pulled from the roiling orb.

"Entertaining ones! I'll honor you," he crows, "with a glorious death!"

That power is drawn into his very body, pulled through the glowing gems, transformed from something almost unseeable to the brightest hue of blue, which pours from him like an unceasing fountain.

> Draaken begins preparing a spell.

> Draaken surges with aether and acts again!

>Draaken continues preparing a spell.

> Warning! The party is in mortal peril!

"Reize!" Kernunnos calls desperately, the eidola's composure cracking, as it only has once before, against a previous spellgunner opponent. "I can protect you -- but I need more power!"

There was a lot that the boy had been trying to contend with, from the sharp edges to trusted nails while blinded. Thankfully, with the aid of both of his pacted partners, Reize is able to safely search. In the face of what Reize thought was going to spell his end, Ruidosa had protected him through her shield. His vision started to clear...

In that brief moment, he could see Lily manifesting the shield to protect him, before it shifts back to Ruidosa. A smile is growing as he could see the sight of his bonded partner, "...Thanks, Rui."

His eyes back to the debris, his nose had noted the scent of the foul parts of the sea from the dried kep, rotting fish, and corroded metal. Once he manages to find the fragment, his eyes light up with glee. "I got it!" he boy quickly reaches for the Crux.

Reaching upon his satchel, Reize takes the half-crux and he starts to drift his gaze and then he starts to take a deep breath. Putting the next part of the crux in with the half-crux, he feels that well of desperation fill him.

In that instant...

Pendant... draw upon his desire. My body can take it. The aether surrounds the young explorer, emanating a bright pulse. However, something pushes beyond that.

"THIS IS MY WILL!"

There is an explosion of energy around the boy. The aether erupts into an inferno around the boy, pushing his body past the limit of what he could usually do. As the Half-Crux gets an addition to the family, it now becomes a 'full third of a Crux'.

"Hey Draaken! How about I give you this instead?!"

The energy around the boy explodes as he pushes himself forward. As if a sonic boom erupts, the boy pushes himself forward as he charges towards the large dragonkin. Part of the reason for the burst is to get away from Ruidosa and the others for what is likely to come next.

"Kernunnos!"

Reize appears point blank within Draaken's range, engulfed into the blue aura that pours along him.

..Reize perserveres.

"COME FORTH!"

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Priel and Anna have this guy getting serious, but Anna is looking pretty rough, bloody, bruised, and wobbling. She doesn't get up because of Draaken's goading.R She gets up because he's being a legitimate danger to her friends.

Casting her axe aside she makes a beeline right for the ice-themed dragonkin and--

Baseball slides under his legs.

Before she whips around and tries to put him into a headlock as Reize summons Kernunnos.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=10.

Comment: I have advantage on Strength based rolls when raging according to D&D rules. >:|

Roll(s): 12. Total result is 12. This is a success (by 2).

Ruidosa La Crima has had enough and basically is seething. This... beast thing is going on about Priel being a worthy mate which is like, creepy has fuck? so Ruidosa eyes glow a second as she suddenly just points at the beast. "FOUL BEAST, DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO YOU MESS WITH!? YOU MESS WITH RUIDOSA LA CRIMA! DUCHESS OF HOUSE LA CRIMA!" she spouts. "YOUR PRESCENE BEFOWLS MINE! GO... DIE IN A FIRE, OR SOMETEHING..." she says as sparking red starts to start at her finger tips and she just expldodes out in.. something, and it doesn't just kind of rake out at Drakken, but ALL of you, like... you can feel little skinpricks itching at you, trying to steal blood, but she tries to focus the epicenter on Darakken as to reduce the collateral damage and there is a little of that, in a waves of weird, purple and red lighting as anything gain seems to travel back from Drakken into Ruidosa as she starts draining Life Force directly, though some from the others too. It can't be helped...

Look, Vampires are just greedy, be lucky you're not the epicenter.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

"I do not believe I fully understand what it is doing. However, it is quite concerning." Argent says to Ivo as her athame undergoes those strange changes, blinking slowly as the metal bends into a one sided surface. "As for myself, it appears that my body is suffering damage as a result of this. My current understanding is that this particular attunement is in addition to other effects forcibly modifying the chemical interactions in my body, causing...ah. It is not important at the current time."

She does have a tendency to get too distracted by something that gets her interest, doesn't she? She might be wrong about how it isn't important, though, as there's a worrying trickle of blood dribbling from out of her nostrils, her grip on her athame getting worryingly shaky.

"Given the current situation, extreme action may be required. As such-" and here she swings the dagger (if it can even be called that any more, given the current shape of it) towards Reize.

Kernunnos did say he needed more power, after all. This might work! Or it might go horribly, horribly wrong.

  • Character: Priel
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

Priel pulls her sword back, quirking a brow at this weirdo as he laughs about getting stabbed. Oh lord, they've got one of those, huh? She can't help but put on a wry expression. But after a moment, she shakes her head. "I might have heard a thing or two, but so what?" Priel shrugs, the aura still shimmering around her. "I dunno how long you've been locked up in here, but the world outside is nothing like what you think it might be." She rolls her eyes. "It's not a perfect place by any means, but it's sure as heck nothing like it was in the stories of the past, don't you know?" She smirks. "Oh right, you don't. Locked up and all." A hand to her mouth, she gives Draaken and amused look.

All of that said, it seems like this situation is somehow still escalating. He still has more power. Sheesh, what is this guy made of? ...Well, okay, she's not really *that* surprised. They are of similar species. But still. It's kind of annoying when you have to fight against it. And now here he is, gathering aether for some sort of massive spell. Priel doesn't need to be a aetherphysicist to tell that this is BAD NEWS.

Of course, everyone seems to be on the case. Good. Then she'll just sit back and take a break! ....Okay, yeah no. Priel's shimmering aura of flame quickens, and then is drawn entirely into her sword. "Y'know, you don't seem like you'd be such a terrible person if you just calmed the heck down and channeled that whole 'Fight me! Power! Blessing!' thing into more productive means." She muses aloud. "You'd probably make a killing as a Vanguard, or heck, go travel the lands and challenge all the strong people you want. Buuuuuut...." Her grip on her sword tightens.

"...I'm not here to try and talk you down." With that, she swings. Not once or twice, but multiple times. A flurry of flaming shockwaves that culminate into a single point that pulses before exploding brilliantly in a blossoming display of bright red and blue.

Goosebumps rise beside Ivo's wounds as he wonders first, almost idly, if he is shivering from blood loss before he realizes how deep the cold that has beset them is and turns toward the relentlessly surging Draaken. For a moment he sags, finding himself without a plan. Even with the bizarre power that Argent has barely managed to contain, are they going to gamble everything on contending with, and surviving, what is to come?

The next moment, he straightens, smirking lopsidedly.

"Extreme action it is, then."

Of *course* they are.

As Reize lunges with will manifest, three-fourths Crux ablaze, plunging into an aura that feels like a solid mass, the boy's skin searing from the cold, he, like his redoubtable foe, endures. At that moment, as Reize prepares to take Draaken's extraordinary assault head-on, Argent aims her athame true. A bolt of roiling energy akin to what Draaken drew from Meloda's Blessing surges toward the Crux, suddenly pulsing and growing even mightier as a shattering sound may be briefly heard over the roars of power. Ivo, standing by Argent's side, is wincing, his hand bleeding now too, as his magitech amplifier falls to pieces in his hands.

> Ivo has sacrificed his Magitech Amplifier.

> Ivo greatly enhances Argent's next spell.

> Argent uses Aetheric Projection.

> Argent casts Forbidden Art: Blasphemous Beam.

> Kernunnos's Summon Gauge is at 100%. Supreme Summoned Art available.

Draaken seems to ignore all of this. It is not clear that he can see anything now beyond his own aura, his own ambitions, himself. As the pressure becomes truly awe-inspiring, enough to drive a lesser hero to their knees, his voice booms as though coming from the cracks in the stone all about.

  None may stir

   All go still

  Creation sealed in frigid shell

  Not a flake

   Of cursed snow

  Falls within this icy hell!

    ABSOLUTE ZERO!!!!!

> Draaken attacks the party with Ultimate Exceed Art: Absolute Zero.

"Hm--!?"

> Anna interrupts Absolute Zero with Grapple.

> Drakken's defense and evasion are greatly reduced.

> Ruidosa interrupts Absolute Zero with Banquete Escarlata.

> The Instant Death effect of Absolute Zero is negated.

Even the princess's incredible toughness would not have been enough alone. Anna can feel her limbs freezing in place, her entire body going numb, and see her vision going white. Movement is truly impossible. And for a moment, she may even think that she has died. But the sensation of pinpricks upon her skin rouse her. They are not merely proof of life. They seem to be sapping Draaken's overwhelming magical might. As his seemingly limitless life force is diminished by the vampiric art, so too is his gathered power, as though he assembled it only for it to be free for Ruidosa's taking. His so-called ultimate spell has been weakened--

> Priel interrupts Absolute Zero with Arc Prominence.

> Drakken's defense and evasion are greatly reduced again.

--more than enough for Priel to break through, driving Draaken, for the first time in a very long time indeed, to his knees, limp in Anna's finally-mobile arms. A large, peerlessly pure gem scatters upon the ground, rent from his flesh after centuries affixed there, attuning to his prodigious fighting spirit. The legendary warrior's eyes are wide and marveling. He visibly strains, attempting to gather yet more power, but his aura only flickers, wavers, and fails to surge.

> Draaken has depleted his aether. He cannot act.

"...Heh!"

As a light surpassing his own flares before him, obscuring the form of the boy behind and rendering him a mere silhouette, the doughty dragonkin looks amused.

"You're even quicker," he muses, "than before."

> Reize interrupts Absolute Zero with Supreme Summoned Art: Conatus.

> Reize becomes immune to damage this turn.

If Kernunnos speaks, it is in a tongue beyond human or beastkin ken. The form of a stag charges forth, carving a channel of light to melt the frigid air, stirring up a wind within this deadened place. Warmth protects the boy, and as the stag collides with the fallen man, it protects Anna and Priel too, the cold abating all at once, the princess left where she stands even as Draaken is swept back--

"Brace yourselves!" Ivo cries.

--directly into Meloda's Blessing.

The undying rebel is consumed by the power he sought to wield and control. Sucked within its mass, swirling and groaning, he is pulled to its very center, gems shattered and spat out by the roiling mass in the form of glittering dust that leaves rainbows in its wake. As the hazy outline of his body, half-hidden by the churning waters, seems to be worn away, his words echo as before, quieter, barely -- but still -- distinct.

  Ah.

   That

    was

     fun...

> Deathless Draaken has disappeared.

> The party is victorious.

Reize Seatlan, the young explorer is the center of it all.

In the brief moment for the Deathless Draaken, he can see the after image of the young Reize Seatlan. That after-image becomes the presence of a long-haired young man within his late-teens to early adulthood.

This was Luan Seatlan.

The after image fades away, revealing to Reize once more. The boy is protected against the frigid air with that warmth. However, that boy stands between the realm of time. There is that distortion that he lies in-between.

The boy closes his eyes, then he re-opens it to let out a defiant cry as he pours his power in with Kernunnos. As those gems shatter, the boy witnesses the form of the dragonkin disappear.

The boy drops to his knees... in that same time, the silhouette of a young Luan mimics the boy's movement, before it too disappears.

"... We did it."

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 9 months ago

"Ah. We did not die." Argent states simply as their foe vanishes away. For some, this is an occasion for a dramatic moment of defiance in the face of near death.

For Argent, it's time to lean over and vomit. Seems like using that particular aspect of her athame really did a number on her.

At least, it's presumably vomit. It came out of her mouth, but for some reason it has some horrible chemical scent to it, and it burns the eyes of those nearby.

Probably best to step away from that.

Gilbert Galvan snorts, a flash of irritation crossing his stern and stoic features as he looks away from his allies, sheathing his sword with a clink.

"*You* did it," he grunts to Luan. "I didn't touch him. That lizard has eyes in the back of his head." It is rare indeed for the proud and fierce Cosmopolitan fencer to admit that he has been bested. "I still need more training."

His hand rests on Hauteclare's hilt...

...

Ivo's hand rests on Hauteclare's hilt.

"Yes," is what he says, softly. "We did it."

Though he bleeds from hand and arms and legs, his face pale and haggard, the remnants of mortal terror etched upon his young face, Ivo is smiling at his friends.

"Though," he murmurs, "even if Draaken *can't* tell humans apart, it's surprising to think he'd encountered an orbital blade before." He pauses, then shakes his head. "Well, we won't be able to ask him now." He looks up at Meloda's Blessing, which seems to have stabilized again, still roiling away. "No one could survive--"

Ivo is silent for long moment, before sighing.

"--I'm not finishing that sentence," he decides aloud, before managing, or perhaps forcing, a grin. "Still, to think that the power of Elemental Chaos was at the heart of Meloda's Blessing all along. I'd assumed it was intrinsic to Chaos that it eats away at reality unceasingly. But the lizardman chief must merely have been inexperienced. And Draaken got-- too close to a Beast's power, perhaps. Or he was judged too reckless to wield it." He sighs again. "That recklessness may have been our greatest advantage, in the end."

Perhaps if Draaken had not chosen to escalate constantly, voluntarily exhausting himself, this battle might have ended differently.

"He must have seen Meloda as a hypocrite, wielding the power that she had forbidden. But she never cursed this place, did she? She merely left her Blessing unattended so that other beastkin would not reach for Draaken's heights. And it continued to consume." Despite his exhaustion, Ivo's eyes begin to brighten. "If we can learn how to manage this Blessing, or even just to dispel it, life could return to--"

*bleeeargghh*

"Argent!?"