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Duet Fortuna     This time, there are no surprise attacks. There are no NEED for surprise attacks. The army that is stationed in the Imperial City is already battling with the existing army outside the gates, and it's a pretty messy situation. The city itself, while not in flames, is pretty battered already in some areas... but some others are left relatively unscathed. Evidently Elliana sent her own troops in to start something ahead of time, thus nullifying any chance of a surprise attack.

    She's lacking Veryx today, possibly getting a ride from one of her allies, and the meeting point for everyone is a hill within sight of the city. For this siege she's wearing loose robes, with a hint of armor underneath in the form of leather. In addition to her sword, she's carrying a light pack of gear, and with the chill starting to settle in she's put on some high boots and gloves. This is a poor strategic position, but for whatever reason it isn't being bombarded. Perhaps the siege weapons are inoperable, or can't be spared for the small detachment there. This lets her address everyone one last time, which is good since the Union are here today.

    "As you can see, I've already started the offensive," Elliana states. "Surprise attacks are useful. Sneaking is useful. But today, we are sending a message. We want to utterly crush the morale of the enemy army, and make it unambiguous that the Empire was defeated soundly and without exception to the people of the city and empire. This also has the pleasant side effect of forcing the civilians to take shelter already, which means the path to the palace is free of any innocents. While I would prefer a lack of collateral damage, your opponents this time are incredibly dangerous and powerful, and possess items that further boost their capability. It will not be easy going in, so if you feel the need to cut loose, do not worry about damaging the surrounding area."

    She sighs, "Unfortunately both Veryx and Lady Whiteheart are busy with another important task that I have selected for them, so we will be moving on our own. Fortunately, I have Saber with me, and this time I will also be participating in the battle. Our goal is to make our way to the Emperor and kill him."

    She looks around, and then adds, "Afterward, the rulership will be given to a preselected native. The Heaven Guard, defenders of the Emperor, will stand in our way. They are extremely loyal, but they may not share his viewpoints. If you feel they would be useful to whatever faction you are in, and that their own goals align, feel free to spare them and attempt to recruit them after the Emperor's death. I leave that to your own discretion."

    She adjusts the blade at her side, and then speaks clearly, "Are there any questions?"
Duet Fortuna     Duet Fortuna is also here, masked and armed with her own lightweight sword. She is hanging back at the edge of the group, and makes no comment on the situation as yet. The young woman is wearing a lightweight outfit of leather, with fencing gloves on her hands and her hair back in a ponytail.
Guest Psyber     Psyber is here, of course. There was little in the Multiverse that could have stopped him from this battle, owing to his having so much invested in it. This was the end push, the dash to the finish line of one of the most taxing campaigns that has ever been marked on his duty roster. Terra Majora has seen him marked as a savior, marked as a butcher, and marked as a traitor. Psyber is here to see that chapter closed, or at least the larger part of it.

    He brought two swords today and no other weapons of note. One is a large greatsword, slung across his back, while the other is a longsword kept at his hip. Adjudicator and Sovereign, respectively, to help him in the battle today. Without his coat, there's little to hide his fit physique under his t-shirt as he trudges up the hill.

    "Of the three, Saber is the most suited to this particular operation," Psyber declares, taking a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pants pocket and shoving one in his mouth, lighting it a moment later, "That said, the goal is simple and the end is in sight."

    "I would see this finished so that I can finally talk to you once resolution is complete," Psyber asides to Elliana, not showing much emotion or reaction to the news of the Heaven Guard. He knows they have Abstractum, but he knows his is stronger than any they could logically field, barring something unexpected.

    He's unusually focused, unusually invested, in this mission. And it shows in the total seriousness he's carrying himself in.
Eleanor Lamb     If there's one thing Eleanor wants out of all of this... it's closure. Closure on a chapter that's divided two of the few men she's truely trusted. She wants this over, she wants the past behind her. Even if this is unlikely to heal that rift, it'll be a start.

    That said, the Big Sister is here in her suit, working to seal the helmet on as she looks around at the others. Utopia's gem is nudged through her glove, she's got a full charge of EVE ready to go, and she's fidgeting a bit near Psyber. "What do you think sir? Area denial? I can go sow some chaos in their ranks and soften them up for the rest of you."
Himei     "Never really figured we'd be working this close to any of you so much. Times change," Himei admits from where she stands. She's off with the other Unionites, but she's being civil toward the Feds who have shown up, especially given that the bulk of them are ones she knows... and respects, if not agrees with. She herself has outfit herself in a lightweight breastplate and a sword at her side, Memory to be specific. She's already transformed, and ready for action.

    When it comes to tactics, though... "So. Go in, hit hard, clear a path to the palace. Got it. I like things straightforward for once, it means I don't have to think. You ready, Rosie?"

    Yeah, she just called her Abstractum Rosie.
Raine Arland      There was to be no sneaking or surprise attacks this time. Just a pure offensive push. One to send a clear message and crush the enemy completely.

     Yes, not bad. Crushing wasn't really Raine's style, but sending a message sure was!

     He didn't take any particularly different preparations today, and was dressed just the same as usual in his black pants, green sweater, and black jacket buttoned closed. Oh wait, there was an extra utility belt containing some auxiliary weaponry and tools hanging loosely around his waist, but as usual, he held no visible main weapon. That was just like him, as usual.

     Fragarach was visible, floating slightly above and behind Raine. She needed no preparations. That something for people like Raine to do. She held a particularly bored expression on her face, which was eventually blocked by a raised sleeve to her mouth as she observed the gathering. "....." Nothing was said, she had no investment in this. She merely was here because Raine was here.

     And maybe it might be interesting.

     "Heaven Guard, huh? Sounds like it's gonna be one hell of a ride." Raine quipped, crossing his arms and stepping forward. "Whatever fancy they've got up their sleeves, we'll just have to match it." A shrug followed. "Sounds simple to me." He was downplaying the issue. It would be anything but simple.

     But he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. It was his job to figure things out on the move. This changed little.

     And he'd get the job done. He didn't stick around this long to fail now.
Mordred     Prior to people's arrival, MORDRED was not actually by Elliana's side. Her Saber had been leading the troops-- Servants lucky enough to be blessed by the Charisma skill, even at a low rank like hers, still had the ability to bolster an army by presence alone. Especially noteworthy is the fact any members of the present armies formely of the Empire would receive greater benefit from her presence than others-- rebellion is her purview, and her Charisma works better when leading a rebellion.

    Perhaps she had been physically leading the charges against the outer walls-- LIKELY-- or she had taken a backseat and instructed squads using maps and miniatures-- SLIGHTLY LESS LIKELY-- or just taken a total aerial view to move troops like she's playing a RTS game-- VERY UNLIKELY. Either way, odds were in favor of her getting her hands dirty along with Elliana's (and their allies') men.

    It's upon feeling herself needed (basically when the first people show up) that Mordred leaves the battlefield and returns to her master's side, dematerializing and reappearing to do so (much easier, much faster). Helmet off, the five foot tall blonde in heavy silver and red armor is holding Clarent idly in one hand, the silver sword having already spilled blood.

    "I'll be surprised if the Emperor's personal guards are disloyal, but then maybe I overestimate his hiring policy. I sure wouldn't hire someone into my royal guard if there was a chance he might turn around, though. Worth a try, I guess."
Nox     Right on time, not a minute late or a minute early, Nox appears on the pre-designated spot; a flicker of ghostly static and a subdued, electrical whipcrack and the xelor is simply there, taking up his usual posture a foot above the ground and affecting that detached, analytical, vaguely superior air. Next to Psyber, Nox's motivations in this campaign remain uncertain. His interest in the Shajem has been somewhat obvious, but he's been known to appear at scenes where they weren't even expected to be present. Questions for later.

    'Prepared for war' isn't really something Nox can give off a look of on his own. Always armed and armoured, his default state is already that of someone prepared to kill at a moment's notice if it suits him. The only discernable differences come in the form that he already has Aiguille in hand, and the heavier gauntlet array fixed over his left arm. "You've already arranged this quite meticulously." he says in a surprisingly neutral tone, voice tinged by steely reverb. "You have my approval. Simple objectives are pleasant from time to time, no? A show of force should be a nice change. If these 'Heaven Guard' get in our way then, well, I'm sure I can work something out."
Sakura Haruno     Flowers has also shown up, slightly unexpectedly, though she is mostly hanging around the other Union members and keeping quiet, standing just behind Himei and watching Elliana give her speech. She won't have any questions, and she doesn't seem particularly prepared for an all out assault, wearing clothing like what she would for any slightly risky excursion. Probably just the ninja thing for staying mobile.

    If anything, she seems slightly restless, glancing around the crowd as the directions are given, but every so often sneaking a slightly angry look back at Elliana. Clearly, she's a bit conflicted on being here to help at all, though she won't say anything to that effect.
Nathan Hall     Nathan Hall is here. His airship may not be armed, but it, too, is also here, and really, it's pretty well-armored. It's meant to be a way to get Nathan's little group in. If they've accepted the invitation, he'll have Illuvia, here to jump on any convenient moments of opportunity, and he'll also have a certain other group aboard, though he's not really discussed that with most.

    He isn't talking to Elliana. Some may be aware that he already knows the plan for things in full. He's monitoring the discussion from the deck of the airship itself, looking down stoically, without saying anything. He's in his adventuring outfit, though the recent addition of ice armor is new to most. The sheets of solid ice give his body a blank look. Wordlessly, he signals the craft with one to prepare to take off. They'll be advancing shortly.

    Oddly enough, no proximity to Psyber, Himei, or Haruno, though keeping a great distance from Mordred is very common. He seems a bit disassociated from the group this time. Well, they don't have any Shajem to bind, so Nathan may just be some tactical support this time...
Mizuki     Ever the opportunist, Mizuki has again only arrived in Elliana's world at a moment of climax and change. Though she never became too mired in the troubles of this world herself, she is nevertheless interested vicariously; many of her friends, Psyber in particular, have long been involved in all this. This is why she is so compelled to see what happens today firsthand, and this is why, barring any external pressures, she will be shadowing Psyber for the duration of it all.

    She is going to remain invisible for the most part today -- she's an observer here more than she is a participant. She does make her presence known to the aforementioned angel toward the beginning, though, along with any others who may steal a glance at her in the brief second that she fades into existence. She offers a nod to say capture the essence of the message 'I will intervene if it becomes necessary, but I trust you have things well in hand'.

    The gestures she makes are notoriously specific, after all. One does not very well need telepathy when people know eachother well enough to read minute expressions, do they?

    A bit more subtly, though, Mizuki is also here as tacit moral support. She... she does not profess to understand the ins and outs of whatever is going on here, but what she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt is that, two times in the recent past, Psyber has lapsed into an eerily non-expressive mood. Though she's also fairly certain that Elliana and her associated troubles are not all that has caused this, she is prudent enough to make the assumption that they had a significant impact; likely a larger concentration of 'impact' than most other issues combined. If things do not go well today - whatever going 'well' would constitute, anyway - Mizuki trusts that Psyber will need comfort if he is to remain aloft of a certain psychological threshold. Better that she be in his immediate vicinity to facilitate any necessary recovery rather than a voice on a soundwave.

    She takes a breath, silently exhaling. She listens to the others to get a better impression of the circumstances. No monster-gods like before, it seems; this seems to be a political dispute. Regicide? Well... -well-. That does make things more interesting, and unpredictable. She has already begun to feel as though her decision to remain cloaked was justified.

    Oh, and it might bear mention that she could have her Abstractum on her person as well, though she would have explicitly told Equinox to remain quiet if that is the case, though he would probably have understood regardless.
Abstractum.Net     Adjudicator looks quite ready. If Strife Drives being active is a burning flame, Jude is at a low simmer. The blade at Psyber's back is quite aware of the stakes today, and has the same sort of intense determination.
Amalthea     Amalthea is here. The old knight isn't much far off from Psyber, when the time came, and thusly, the half-angel has a steam-venting mechanical shadow. Her blade, Faith rests at her side, quiet and waiting within the scabbard, for in her hand is the old silver lance, Wishblade, slung lazily over one shoulder, armor draped and hidden within the folds of her cloak.
    "I was supposed to have today off, you know. Spend time with the daughter and wife . Couldn't have picked another time to make this push?"
    For all of her bitching, she looks just about as ready as she'll ever be.
Abstractum.Net     Utopia makes a comforting noise. "I think our best approach will be to focus damage on the Heaven Guard. We don't know what sort of blue types they'll have. See if you can come up with creative ways to neutralize them...?" The little glove nudges Eleanor right back, gripping her hand a little.
Guest Kevin     Perhaps while everyone else may have been expected to some degree, it may be the white clad priest that is the surprise in this group. Kevin, by all appearances, is not the best for sneaking missions- who would dare let someone wear all white when involved in infiltration and espionage? (Spoiler: he's surprisingly good at it.) He doesn't appear to be wearing any sort of armor- but that never says anything when a priest as tricky as he is is involved.
    The young man keeps a relatively pleasant expression on his face as he rests the ornate, but small one-handed crossbow against his shoulder. "Been awhile since I've been involved in somethin' this directly." There's a bit of a grin that follows that mumble and he casts a grin in Himei's direction. "Feels a bit like ol' times fer me."
    It's most definitely been awhile since he's worked with the Unionites. And on foot in a battle. Though afterwards, a glance is given in Elliana's direction. His words are pretty frank this time around, "I'll admit that I'm slightly surprised t' be standin' on the same side as you again, however."
    When Kevin looks back out to the battlefield, however. The cheerful look he's had has faded to a more serious expression- he's studying their situation. He sees it's a bad position, then he looks up and around- perhaps trying to find a reason why things are the way they are. Since the conversation with Himei and Nathan from the night before, he's still just a bit (or more than a bit) suspicious of the situation.
Abstractum.Net     "Oh you know I am, Himei." 'Rosie', that is, White Rose, is 'grinning', though a wand/baton can't grin very well, so it's more of a posture thing. The little petals shift eagerly. excitedly, as the thing flickers and rushes up, forming the tangled stems and vines of of a rose into the wings Himei is now familiar with, ready to lash out violently or get her into the air to rush forward. "Now /this/ is real heroism, right? Nothing all questionable like before. I'm ready for it!"
Abstractum.Net     Bloody Amhar, Mordred's other blade, is unbloodied. It's been a bit inactive, oddly. The RTS-like interface to help direct troops is one that Brilliant Dawn has been all too eager to apply, but the odd, newly reformed blade has been silent since the last battle. Wherever it is, it does seem ready, though, and while muted, it seems quite willing to activate its combat functions.
Abstractum.Net     Equinox is going to be quiet, yes. The little clock sometimes peeks its little cap open just to get a glimpse of what's going on, but for the most part, it remains silent, dangling from a nice chain or slipped into a pocket. It's just as interested in observing as Mizuki is, though!
Abstractum.Net     The gauntlet at Amalthea's hand, Ironclad Oath, rumbles and settles, like a machine exhaling steam while it settles. "A day off is when you have no guarantee that you must follow your duty, not when you have a guarantee that you must not." Is all the gauntlet says, its eye retaining the usual mature composure. But that seems more intended to be encouraging than any disapproving statement.
Abstractum.Net     Gishur flips wide, strange ethereal green pages already flipping between its covers as it begins scanning the ongoing operations. Like before, it handles an almost secretarial role. By linking its data feeds with Brilliant Dawn, it can draw the tactical data from every part of the battle that Elliana's own forces occupy and observe, and give optimized recommendations for the method of approach. Of course, being like Adelyn, every recommendation is focused on ruthlessly cutting a path to the emperor, and nothing else. It's also very smug, showing off every benefit to every path on the magical display, as usual.
Adelyn Lysen     "Well, this is an unusual combination." is Adelyn's reaction to the number and particular Union operatives who've joined this mission, much in echo of Himei's sentiment. Some, like Psyber, she knows reasonably well from prior cooperation. Her last encounters with Nathan have had fluctuating levels of cooperation and conflict. A few she's seen, but with whom she's never held a conversation, and some are simply unknown, but for whatever information she can glean from a quick search through Confederate records of known elites. The Confederates here assembled are naturally better known to her, and even Mordred is a welcome presence, under the circumstances, with the situation as Elliana's painted it.

    Between recuperation, long logistical lines, and securing territory, Adelyn's own military forces are starting to be spread thin, but this doesn't mean she's committing nothing beyond herself to this battle. A ground force, chiefly of swordsmen (or as close to swordsmen as her people come) and their support staff have made their slow way from Moonlight Academy to here and, under independent command, have orders to assist in keeping the defenders busy. While she does have ships, apart from the craft on which she arrived (carrying any others as needed), they're neither in evidence nor relevant to the battle.

    Personally, Adelyn's only unusual preparation is the presence of Gishur, her Abstractum having not seen so much of the battles of late. With the Heaven Guard here, lacking her own would be unacceptable. As it is, she's standing slightly off to one side as she quietly directs Gishur as needed--which is comparatively little, since the grimoire already knows what she wants. A line to her lieutenants on-site makes certain that everything is well coordinated, though she'll likely have to cease giving that personal attention once they're inside and fighting.
Walter Bernhard     The gray skies, overcast on this day of blood, soon become quite a bit darker. Nearly black, at least over a certain area. The darkness stretches out far as it needs to in order to blot out the sunlight. Accompanying it is a chill. A cold aura of corruption and evil that may have no impact upon those present, but signifies that a being is here who does not belong to the light.

    It's a presence that anyone who has personally been in the presence of Dracula Vlad Tepes has most likely felt before. But it is not him that appears as a vast cloud of chittering bats swarm down from the blackened skies, gather at the level that the other assembled Elites are present at, and condense into the form of a man... But rather a different Vampire Lord, even if one with a very particular tie to the Confederate Field Marshal that not even he understands yet. Red-haired, black-armored, with cape blowing in the cold wind that seems to pick up with his arrival, Walter, seemingly already in the loop of what has been discussed, smiles just enough to hint at the fangs protruding from beneath his upper lip.

    "There are ways to change loyalties." he remarks. Then Walter turns his yellow gaze upon the city, and flexes the clawed gauntlets upon his hands as he says, "The enemy, then, is all those who resist our advance. And you wish to send a message of total defeat to the Empire." Ah, if only he could control that Forgotten One in his basement. The power to annihilate any wall in his path would have been convenient here.

    The Vampire Lord concludes by saying, "I have no questions. I look forward to seeing you all in action." and then prepares to enter the fray.
Duet Fortuna     "I know, Psyber," Elliana states calmly. She draws her own sword, a chipped and battered-looking thing that is run through with cracks. Normally, she waits for it to be shattered, but tonight she is already crackling with energy, purple flickers passing over her body. Those who have seen Elliana go all out - a rare thing - may recognize that this is the cusp of her transformation into the more bestial and demonic form that represents the height of her power. Tonight, her sword is also splintering, becoming a 'blade' of whirling shards of metal, formed into the rough shape of a sword.

    "Lady Lamb," she speaks again. "You would be best served disrupting the Heaven Guard. The armies will... not be a problem, as Saber has demonstrated. Thank you for that, Saber. I trust you will be right behind me, as usual." She glances over at Duet. "And you, Lady Fortuna. I have need of your unique talents, and I think now is the time that you should fill us in on what you know of the Heaven Guard, don't you agree?"

    The woman just nods, "I will say what I can over the unified band."

    Himei gets a smirk, "That is correct. Just the way you like it. Just keep those beams away from me, and we'll be fine." To Raine, "The Heaven Guard are the best they have to offer, and I suspect they are being bolstered further. Be on your guard."

    To Mordred, "I doubt they can be easily-swayed, but some have their loyalty forced upon them. If we eliminate the Emperor, they may be willing to lay down their arms."

    Nox gets another comment, "They will get in our way. That is their job." Flowers is ignored, for the time being, and if Elliana can sense Mizuki - given the bent of her powers, this is likely - she doesn't give any indication that she does so.

    "Dame Amalthea. Father Graham," she greets. "It has been a while, especially for the latter. All I can say is I will not forget the aid you gave during this day. Good luck... and you have my thanks for setting aside old differences for the sake of doing what is right."

    Finally, to Adelyn, Elliana notes, "Brilliant Dawn and Gishur are the only two Greens here, to my knowledge. We shall form the command center, then, provided a Tandem is required. You can be assured that the Heaven Guard will have one."

    Then the sky darkens, and the final ally arrives. Elliana smiles, "And our newest member arrives. Well then, I think that we are ready. I recommend brute force, above all else. And finally... good luck."

    She takes off like a shot, skimming low across the ground and leaving a small wake in the grass. Her choice of low-altitude is simple, as it allows Duet to follow behind her. There are a number of 'elite' soldiers standing ready against the assault on the palace... but against this group, the are unlikely to be an issue.
Duet Fortuna     Duet, as stated, is running at high speed after Elliana. She will refrain from engaging unless absolutely necessary, letting the other Elites handle the soldiers while she fills everyone in on what she knows.

    "The Heaven Guard is made up of over a dozen individuals, but the Emperor's Guard are the nine that are inside the city," she states over the radio. "Of these nine, four are of immediate relevance. Prince Tarin, a spear-wielder with the ability to project bolts of force. This sounds simple, but the bolts are powerful, and he can guide them for a time period after they leave him. He also possesses one of the Hundred, so expect empowered defense-piercing attacks. He cannot fly, but he can perform very high jumps and maneuver in the air with his force bolts."

    "Russel Bloodbane is a probability-alterer. He uses a sword, and has the ability to split timelines briefly, allowing him to attempt an action twice and choose the best result. Again, he cannot fly, but is extremely empowered in terms of mobility."

    "Vivienne Redmist is their leader, and also one of the most moral. She is unlikely to fight with her full effect, but even so she has the ability to duplicate herself. As of now, she seems to have gained limited flight as well."

    "Elaine Green is the final member of the four attackers, and possesses significant elemental control and manipulation abilities. Expect fire, ice, all the usual sorts. She is practically a sorcerer in her flexibility, but empowered to the point that she can maintain her elemental abilities for an indefinite duration."
Guest Psyber     Psyber's response to Eleanor is brief and crisp, "It's as Elliana says, most likely. Follow the leadership of the green types. I'm just a Red, so I'm going to be frontlining," Psyber comments as he draws the sword off of his back. He slowly looks around at the others gathered, appraising consolidated forces, "I'm going to cut a path."

    It should be an easy war to win today.

    "Father Graham, nice to see you again, as well," Psyber notes before he dashes off.

    As he dashes towards the armies, the half-angel grips Adjudicator with both hands, "Jude. All Strike Drivers on. No use holding back this time, I wanna win this fast."

    With the power of the Abstractum boosting his already superhuman nature, Psyber doesn't even attempt to restrain himself. He wants to slam into one of the walls like a runaway freight train, trying to move through the troops in his way like a hurricane of power. His goal is simple: Cleave a hole in the army, cleave a hole in the wall, and clear a path for Elliana and Duet.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor nods, and murmurs. "Thank you, Utopia. I'll do what I can though..." She seals shut the helmet on her suit, and the HUD inside flips over to a dull amber, the yellow light glowing out of the porthole of the bubble helmet. Her speaker crackles. "Right then, let's go harray a group of Abstractum Users. I dare say... It's been a while since I had to fight any of those."
    Psyber gets a look. "As you say, sir." She looks over at Mordred with a pointed glance, before following in and behind Elliana. The others will keep, but she's going to see if she can't soften the front lines up and allow the others get the hits they need in. Though as Duet explains, she smiles inside her helmet. "That last one sounds like my sort of girl. Let's hope she's good. Utopia: We're not holding back either."
Mizuki     Even if she 'can't be seen', Mizuki gives Elliana a small glance. All that worry over the enemy and she hadn't even stopped to consider whether the lady of interest is able to see her when she almost certainly can. Hopefully that will prove something of an innocuous oversight since she's corrected it in a timely manner, but one never knows. It is the business of people with abilities like theirs to make it so the effects their powers have are unclear, isn't it? Not to sound overly conniving, but even if it gives no tangible benefit otherwise, it instills paranoia in the affected; something like a reverse placebo effect. That in itself can be quite a boon to combat if the enemy is undisciplined. That said, she still isn't quite sure what Elliana's abilities -are-, though she can say with some surety at least that they are illusion and dream related. That is, if her earlier intervention here was any indication.

    Still, Mizuki does not garner the impression that Elliana has any intention of harming her today, and if she's being honest, she's never really felt that way. If anything, she's always felt a sort of admiration for her: she had the courage to do as she felt she had to, even at immense personal cost. There's something to be said for that even if the results weren't alltogether 'clean'. At that thought, Mizuki feels a small twang in the back of her mind, as if one of the neruons she does not possess was just pulled back like the string of an instrument. It makes her want to do more to help her than just sit around and 'facilitate', as it were, when she actually has some intrinsic emotional stigma pressuring her. Still, if that help comes it should come later. Failing apathy and lethargy, there is still some good sense in conserving her energy for later confrontation. She has not the stamina of many of the others here, and if she should like to be useful in a larger fight, she should not waste herself on enemies the rest of the group already have well in hand.

    ... though she gives herself too much credit. Regardless of her decision, her influence here will not be one of the deciding factors. Yet if she can -feel- as though she is having some impact, if she can convince herself that the proceedings here are going any more smoothly for her attendance, then that will be enough. More than enough, really, as it has already been so many times in the past.

    She shakes her head here. Focus, focus. She had originally come here to watch over Psyber, and she isn't going to allow her thoughts to get in the way of that. In some meager attempt to center her cognitive load, she closes one of her speeding fields around Psyber if he is receptive to act as a makeshift 'haste' spell. If nothing else, this should expedite things.
Adelyn Lysen     Walter's curious entrance has some of Adelyn's attention, though she is still busy directing her troops as he arrives. The last Confederate to show, he gets a nod of acknowledgement from her, before that portion of attention shifts to Elliana, who is soon in motion.

    "Gishur, ready the tandem paradigm." Once there are volunteers for it--under the circumstances, linking up with a few of the Unionites seems necessary--Adelyn trusts that her Abstractum will handle the actual linkage, and supply her with enough data on her allies to make reasonably informed decisions as to how to direct them. So far as she's been able to determine (Abstractum 'magic' remains a fascinating topic), following the directions of a green-type's wielder increases the ability boost. It falls to her, then, to give reasonable orders.

    "Link up." An unintelligible word and gesture, and Adelyn takes to the air, carrying her staff and letting the floating grimoire follow as if linked to her personal gravity. Her voice carries over all relevant frequencies as she continues to speak. "Psyber, frontline, clear the path, and leave keeping the path secure to the second line. Focus on the advance." If she directs as someone already wishes to do--and she's familiar enough with Psyber's abilities to guess--there should be no difficulties at all in providing an order to enhance the effect. "Himei Shoutan, second line." Adelyn knows enough that Himei has mobility and ranged power, along with sufficient strength. "Keep the path behind Psyber clear, but continue to prioritize advancing. Eleanor Lamb, third line. Support the forward lines and prioritize side-defense." With this one, she has less information to go on, and makes a best guess. Any gritty details are delegated to individual users and Gishur's leadership ability, while Adelyn observes and makes broad statements, refining only as the situation develops, and only if necessary.
Mordred     "Of course, master. Like you need even ask," Mordred replies, and then follows when the group departs. Despite her armor and stature, the Saber is fast; she can trivially keep up with even those who fly while remaining grounded, and one could probably tell at her posture and demeanor she could run much faster if she wanted to. Unusual as it might be (or not be, honestly) to see a tiny knight in full plate who looks like she could be running at near supersonic speeds.

    Not one for chatter, and having already gotten to try her hand turning as much of the palace's forces as possible (what with helping lead the army that crashed into the outer walls), the Saber won't be trying to talk the defenders down-- at least, not the outside forces. She may be unable to help herself from banter with whatever Heaven Guard member she engages, but oh well.

    Clarent and Bloody Amhar are swung as Mordred runs past and through the layers of security around the palace. She doesn't need any buffs; not from Abstractums, not from supports. She's crashing through pretty brutally as it were, and there's only so far you could increase her killing pwoer against the fodder.

    Magical bolts bounce off her Magic Resistance; the lesser ones, anyway. Swords and spears that manage to breach her armor find the injuries close quickly, though they're definitely there. These people can hurt her, but odds are she can hurt them better.

    As guards fall wounded, the Lord of Rage wakens briefly, Mordred tapping into his passive powers. Blood flows out of the bodies, gathering around her Abstractum like a twister of blood.

    "Amhar! Quit moping and feast!"
Raine Arland      Elliana was given a nod. "Right. Be on my guard, don't get killed, get the job done, got it!" Did he really? Once everything was said and done, Raine smirked and dashed off, keeping to the front lines. Fragarach did not follow, and instead vanished, leaving blue magic particles behind. Raine wasn't the strongest Elite around, but he had tricks up his sleeve. "Let's do this nice and quick then!" Grinning in excitement, he swung an arm out, conjuring a familiar black blade in a burst of crimson magic particles.

     Gripping the sword, Raine leapt forward into the air, eyeing the oncoming opposition. "Heh-" Typically, he'd act like a fool and mess with people, but he had to agree with Psyber this time. Get it done fast and move forward. He almost felt a bit bad for them though.

     Almost.

     That little reverie out of the way, he landed into a crouch, a green magic glyph forming at his feet. Fragarach's wind magic. "Here goes nothing!" And then he leapt. The spell circle boosted his ascent dramatically, and while airborne, held his sword back. Red magic particles gathered about his blade, growing more and more numerous before turning into a raging spiral of raw magic energy.

     "Hah!"

     And he swung. While Psyber tore through the center, opening a path, Raine let loose a massive burst of raw magical lasers. More than he's ever bothered firing before. He must actually be serious. They curved and hurtled through the air, raining down onto the battlefield below and aiming to blast into the side ranks, blowing away any remaining from the initial charge.

     "Alright! Fragarach!" Raine called, and in response, another green spell circle appeared at his feet. He crouched low in mid-air and then dove forward, boosted by the wind, he sailed through the air like a bullet, sword held inwards for a diving strike to the next rank of soldiers as they moved through.
Abstractum.Net     Psyber's tremendous blade links with Gishur. Clearing a path is the order they're given... The massive gush of red fire that comes when several strike drivers all go off at once, blasting at the greatest amount of power they can muster at the moment. This leaves behind a carved path of sorts, shimmering green fire that leaves an open path bordered on either side by walls of fire. The flames don't affect allies, but will burn the foes.

    For Psyber himself, the freight-train effect is quite literal. His momentum is as if he weighs several tons. It won't protect him from counterattack, but it'll be incredibly difficult to stop Psyber's movement.
Himei     Guess it's time to move. "Let me know if anyone needs help. I'll take an aerial assault." She pauses. "Just this once, I'll consider listening to Confederate for command, if it's a good idea. Fortunately, Lysen seems to know what she's doing." It's a grudging remark of respect.

    Drawing her pistol, Himei spreads wings and starts to take off. "Kevin, I'll be keeping an eye on you if you need me." She knows he can take care of himself, that isn't the issue. It's because she doesn't like the group getting too split up.

    Given Adelyn's commands, Himei doesn't fly straight into danger like Psyber. She'll follow him and, using the data fed to her by the linkage, take quick and careful shots with her pistol at anyone that tries to outflank the juggernaut that is Psyber. Just a short *CRACK* every time she sees one moving. She's no sniper, but she's relying on the Green Boost to give her that accuracy adjustment needed to keep the second line clear.
Abstractum.Net     Eleanor Lamb's abstractum, Utopia, links swiftly with Gishur as well. Support is the order, and so she gets improvements to accuracy, range, and her plasmid drain rate, as long as she's handling back-lane support! "What you can is all anyone can ask, Eleanor." The glove says, reassuringly. "I'm sure it will be enough."
Walter Bernhard     'Heaven Guard'. An odious and pretentious name, in Walter's estimation. But maybe that's just him having no fondness for the heaven that is forever denied him. A loathing for the God that he spurned by becoming a creature of the night, and that he has spent his centuries defiling the works of in every manner he can conceive of. And on the note of that latter, the idea of twisting and perverting a 'guardians of heaven' into one of the most unholy of monsters appeals to the red-haired man. The most moral of the four named sounds the most tempting. But she may also be the one that those most interest in causing a defection would attempt to recruit as well. And it would not do to cause strife within the ranks at this time... So Walter restrains his base, dark impulses. If he obtains a new servant here or not isn't important.

    Only that he find entertainment in this Empire's defeat. Though of course, ingratiating himself with his new allies can not hurt either...

    Levitating up into the air, a shaft of moonlight (but isn't it daytime?) seems to shine down upon Walter alone before he breaks apart into a cloud of bats once more. This time, as the bats go spiralling up into the darkened skies, he leaves behind something that was not there when he came.

    A large purple magical circle blazes upon the ground. And then another smaller one... Accompanied by another and another and another and another... Dozens of these summoning circles, each emitting clouds of black mist around their edges, and with shadowed figures rising with them. Fleamen, the annoying, knife-wielding hunchbacked creatures half-man and half-insect appear and go swarming across the battlefield. Human skeletons wielding arms and armor appear, some among them teleporting across the distance to attack enemies a distance away, vanishing and appearing over and over as they strike, while other skeletons rain arrows burning with cursed blue flames upon the Empire's forces.

    Everywhere the swarm of vampire bats passes over, purple circles appear, and monsters appear. Lizardmen, bearing spears and poison breath. Winged demons with wolf heads and goat legs that rain fire, lightning, and ice upon enemies below them. Skeletal wolves and ones with oily, smoldering flesh, go dashing towards the enemy, lunging at them, biting at legs, breathing FIRE at them, and turning into puddles of darkness to slither around counter attacks... Only to pop back up somewhere else and attack once again.

    Evil Swords with faces in their blades fly through the air, both slicing and biting their targets, or drop to the ground and bounce high into the air, over and over, tip-downwards, stabbing or impaling any enemies beneath them. Monsters that appear as cloaked and hooded figures who lack their lower bodis, with a pair of battle axes on chains for arms, appear and disappear, fading into existence to slash with their penduluming blade-limbs as they sweep forwards, only to then fly up out of range of melee counter attacks and pick a new line of foes to assail.

    Giant eyeballs with a chain and spike hanging from beneath each observe the ongoing battle, select their targets carefully, picking out those who seem to be the most dangerous, who seem to be raising morale or guiding their fellows, and then fire lasers from their hideously-large pupil to try to burn through them.
Walter Bernhard     These and more are brought to the battlefield. When the enemy believes there is no possibility of a surprise attack, that is the most opportune time to surprise them. Well, short of them not expecting any form of attack at all.

    And that one large circle that appeared... Does not seem to have summoned anything at all. But there is a vast length of rotting flesh now worming its way through the ground at high speed, tunneling towards the city. And any who have fallen already among the enemy may find their bodies being stolen from the ground they died upon, and drawn under it, for some no-doubt-foul purpose.

    And Walter himself has yet to attack, simply flying overhead in the form of many bats, and watching those below through many eyes, waiting for an opponent to appear who most interests him.
Sakura Haruno     Sakura doesn't seem too upset about being ignored by Elliana; to some degree, the medic is also here mostly to observe, though she's going to take part as well. She's not even really showing off much in the way of capabilities, moving well behind Psyber, trying to avoid combat when she can. Instead she's trying to be stealthy about it, as best she can.

    As best she can is actually tremendously poorly; she'll end up in a confrontation with at least one soldier, but hopefully a single chakra-enhanced punch will knock him out of it. The medic will try to avoid a lethal blow if she can before resuming following along behind Psyber, counting on everyone else to distract the majority of the foes. She'll intervene if someone gets hurt badly enough.
Amalthea     "H-hey, I wasn't being serious." Amalthea grunts at the gauntlet on her fist, eyeing Ironclad Oath pettishly at the reprimand. A chuff and the unicorn seems to bristle briefly before she gets her head back in the game. "Father Graham. Been a while." Pleasantries aside, though, the old knight rolls her shoulders. "Whatever, just hooks up with the first available Green, because we're going in." Huffed at her sanctimonious armor piece. Because in an instant, the unicorn is mustering into a full charge, thumbing the activation rune on the handle of her shield for a rocket propelled surge of speed in a combat leap that flings her forward.
    She's following Psyber right into the thick of it, lance held before her uncaring for what or whoever gets in her way. When Psyber plows through men and reaches that wall he wants to smash through? He's going to have all of her force hitting it with him in tandem.
Abstractum.Net     "Two links established, Mistress." Gishur says. "Establishing our third." Adelyn's floating grimoire is relaying its orders properly, managing the slightly-unoptimized tandem quite well! Two reds and a blue isn't bad! Her orders have a strong effect in their boosts, it seems. Mordred's blade, of course, seems like it's not linking. That one sticks with another all the time, it seems.
Guest Kevin     There's a slight nod with a faint smile to those who have addressed him, though there will be more time for socializing later. It's clear that Kevin's taking this with a calm seriousness that he didn't have in the past. He does give a nod to Himei as well, adding, "...same t' you. I'm 'ere t' help, afterall."
    As Elliana takes off, the priest lowers his head and closes his eyes. He reaches up to adjust the earpiece hooked over his left ear and listen to the descriptions of the particular individuals over the radio in silence. During this time, he brings a hand to his chest.
    He appears to be standing in prayer, but in reality, Kevin's using his senses- he's trying to get a feel for the number of people that are relatively near them. ...though as Adelyn gives out the commands to Psyber, Himei, and Eleanor- he finally looks out to the battlefield again, and begins to take a few quick steps forward, though that doesn't last. As he lowers his bowgun and hooks it to the belt, the priest begins to break into a run- keeping near Himei as well.
    He may not be at a full sprint, but he is holding a very high pace. When he stops, however, it's abrupt. Kevin skids and his sneakers kick up dirt and dust from the action. In the same motion, he sweeps his left hand out across from him, in a practiced gesture as he silently activates the orbment kept within a pocket.
    Green energy begins to twist around him as he uses the small device, twisting the elements of Time, Space, and Mirage together. With a shout, Kevin thrusts his hand forward, casting the Orbal Art as he completes it. Time is a powerfully entropic element- and its death-like energy begins to seep across the area he's targeted. Rings of red-violet light draw themselves into the earth and a seemingly monstrous head made of energy forms itself, sending a spiritual 'scream' through the enemies unfortunate enough to be caught in it. Once completed, all seems to return to normal with no ill-effects from the demonic element. Except for the poor ones who were caught in the Death Scream, anyway.
Nox     Red, green, tandem paradigms. It's all a little beyond of Nox's concern. He's vaguely aware of Abstractum, as it would be practically impossible not to be after this long, but his work isn't something he shares with anyone; at least, not easily. He'll get to that when their wielders become an issue. The information on their Blooded powers is both more immediately relevant and more useful for the time being. Two of them are of significant interest. The other two he has some experience dealing with similar powersets. Favourable conditions.

    "If they choose to, then so be it, but personally I won't be making efforts to try and convince them. If they get in the way, and refuse to step out of it, I'll deal with them appropriately." The speed at which Elliana takes off is a little surprising. So far, he hasn't seen her act with such purpose, at least personally. His experience with her so far has been behind the wheel of an airship or a column of troops, acting out a plan of some kind that he hadn't quite cared to find out all the details of. It seems to succinctly highlight the particular gravity of the situation.

    There's no particular need for Nox to engage in bloody combat just yet. Though perfectly capable of it, there are plenty of powerful frontline fighters gathered here, and so the more efficient option is to exercise some seldom used support abilities. The Xelor's dial appears around him, the rotating holography of timekeeping numerals flashing and flickering as he spins through them, compiling multiple spells into a single execution.

    Elliana, Duet, and Eleanor are the recipients of extended personal timelines, compressing extra seconds into their subjective minutes to allow heightened movement and action. Psyber, Amalthea, Morded and Himei instead receive a form of temporal armour, congealing time around them to dramatically slow arrows, swords and shots aimed towards them. Adelyn is joined by a handful of noxines to provide expendable field batteries for any magic she chooses to use, as is Fragarach rather than Raine specifically. Nox knows absolutely nothing about Walter and Kevin, and so he leaves those alone for the time being. He sees Sakura as a medic, and so he doesn't bother just yet.
Eleanor Lamb     Also, as those orders come in, Eleanor grins inside the helmet, and calls out. "Right then. Let's let them see what I can do." She claps her hands a bit, skids to a halt somewhere close behind Himei, and... Oh my temporal support. She's not aare of Nox's actions just yet but she's going to use them just the same.
    She uses the extra few seconds to to lay down Fields of Awful in preperation. Wind traps and globules of napalm and static fields, all sorts of nasty. She also charges up her TK, and readies herself to start hurling crap at anyone who comes to greet them.
Abstractum.Net     While the blade may not speak, it does act. When called out to, Mordred's blade opens its maw wide. Jaw gnashing, it takes the blood in aggtressively. There's a weird buzzing noise that the blade makes, and then it begins firing off in a stream of heavy blood-formed swords. The blades are distributed unevenly. It's unlikely that the Heavenguard are outside, but the tremendous heavy solidified blood blades are designed to seek out a source of potential carnage. They'll look for a heavily dangerous opponent, such as the royal guard members, and try to crash through walls, defenses, and intervening soldiers to land in their direction.

    But still not speaking, not yet.
Abstractum.Net     White Rose's link with Gishur gives Himei a tremendous boost to her accuracy. The pistol targets weakpoints with an intense, disabling ruthlessness that's appropriate Adelyn's nature. Anything that could withstand the fire and close the gap, won't be able to withstand another kind of fire. The wings keep her stable, the mobility enhancements from the order to cover flanks apply with glimmering green fire, and it's already increasing her athletic prowess to deal with air threats too.
Abstractum.Net     "Mmm." Ironclad Oath rumbles a little there. "I will link. Adelyn's book can still sustain yet another, but Fairchild's pendant has more room. Tandem Paradigm active." And as Amalthea tears on through behind Psyber, Ironclad Oath activates in a flare of red light, surging the flames up through Amalthea's body, under her plate armor, increasing her endurance many times over... Not dampening pain YET, but ready to.
Nathan Hall     Nathan wordlessly returns to the bridge of his small airship. He'll have business to properly handle soon, but soon is not now. The others are doing an effective first approach. Nathan has little tactical contribution to make, until he can get a proper view of the Imperial city from above, and a proper datafeed from his Unionite allies. Magical screens pop up all around him, pre-programmed Hastur magic constructs that surround him with a shining yellow panel-light from all directions. He takes in the sights dozens of angles at once.
Duet Fortuna     There are ATTEMPTS to stop the onslaught that comes. A heavily-armored Blooded actually manages to SURVIVE Psyber's first strike, armor shearing off and his own greatsword lurching upward, but Mordred's blade cleaves the arms from his body with a scream. With this group, accelerated by other beings and armored by time and conceptual powers, the troops are falling without even laying a finger on the first line. Those that try to leap around, demonstrating their own mobility, are swiftly shot down by Himei. Several infantrymen are torn apart by Raine, while others are scrambling to escape the tornado of blood that the Lord of Rage has animated from Mordred.

    It will actually take two hits from Sakura to disable hers. The man is tougher than expected. The first sends him reeling back with a grunt though, leaving him wide open for a simple disabling strike. Thus far, the threat doesn't seem all that bad.

    Most of the NORMAL soldiers, in fact, are starting to withdraw as the monstrous opponents appear, carving through them with screams and shouts of 'Twisted!' Apparently Walter's summons are something like a local issue they have. So those like Psyber, Mordred, and Amalthea plow through the front while the sides are being taken by the others. Those that the monsters don't get fall to the sudden silent 'scream' that tears their lives away, sending the soldiers collapsing as a group before they can muster their arrows.

    It's pretty much a massacre.

    "Saber, take down Bloodbane," Elliana suddenly calls out. "Dame Amalthea... protect me. This will take a little time." It must really be dangerous, if she's asking AMALTHEA to do it. But that becomes very obvious in a moment.

    The Heaven Guard make their announcement with the sudden blast of a force bolt into the ground, burrowing and causing small geysers of magma to erupt here and there. It's a bolt that's seaking out that underground worm at high speed, lancing through earth and stone. Speaking of stone, Psyber's assault is suddenly slowed by the eruption of a massive wall of steel growing from the street, glowing red-hot to the point that it's near molten.

    Bloodbane is the first to make an appearance, diving for Duet. The masked woman is surprisingly adept with her blade, but is forced to backpedal quickly already. Then she whirls around, as Bloodbane seems to be coming from another direction suddenly. The man's form is flickering, as if glitched and out of sync with time. Nox and maybe Mizuki can sense that something weird is going on with him... and to a lesser degree, the others.

    Elaine is of course near Psyber, and floating in the air. Her entire body is made of flickering green flames, and she too has that fuzzed and glitched look. Meanwhile, Prince Tarin is looking down on the battlefield, floating in from nearby. Something was wrong with Duet's information, because it sure as hell looks like he's flying. "Pray, leave this sacred place and return from whence you came, monsters!" He has holy attacks, and the sudden blast of another force bolt slams down toward one of the more disturbing abominations of corpses and eyeballs.

    Vivienne Redmist lands lightly atop three different buildings, her clones and her all showing the same bizare 'glitchiness' that fuzzes them in and out of reality. She states more clearly, "Turn back. Please."
Duet Fortuna     Elliana's need for protection becomes apparent when she stops flying, hovering in midair and making herself... a target. The crackling power around her rises, and the first slithering motions of a lizardlike tail sprouts out of her robes. The shimmering purple and translucent outline of a snakelike beast rises from within her chest, expanding rapidly and splaying odd, batlike wings with a spray of feathers at the joints. The crackling purple and black creature roars, wrapping itself around the palace. A flicker of white surrounds the palace, and it becomes clear with the blazing appearance of runes that there's some sort of supernatural barrier around it. Wrathborn's manifestation is wrapping around it, striking with fangs and seeking to exploit a weakness.
Mordred     It doesn't take long for Mordred to comply.

    She'd already seen Bloodbane in action, after all. The want to cross blades for a full fight was pretty large. Being told to get to him was all she needed. The Saber takes only half a second to blur, a rapid, eye-defying burst of speed putting her in the man's way, as she stands before Duet. Clarent crashes into his sword, and Mordred grins, evidently approving of his sudden improvement.

    She can't sense Time Shenanigans like others present, but her own Instinct skill is not entirely dissimilar to what Bloodbane does. It's just more instinct and less timeline splitting.

    "Lady Fortuna, fall back behind Psyber. Allow us to fight him."

    That is Psyber's answer, incidently.

    "SO, Bloodbane. You didn't have THIS much punch and speed behind your blows last time. Do we get a primer on the intense training or quest you went through to improve this much, or do we just get the 'find out the hard way' treatment?"

    She's fine with either.
    More than fine, really! Curious, but she won't mind if he won't say. Sometimes not knowing makes the battle more interesting.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor looks up and can spot a fellow Elementalist when she sees one. She looks grimly up at Elaine through her helmet's porthole, reaches up and shoves energy through Utopia. Let's see how well this works.
    "ELAINE GREEN." The words are backed by all the force the Big Sister can put out, thundering across the battlefield. Names have power, and more so when Abstractum are involved. She lances out with a /yank/ of TK, and tries to drag the woman out of the air. Flying is so passe.
Guest Psyber     The cover shots from Himei, the additional clearing of excess forces by Mordred, the co-charge with Amalthea, and the haste-boost from Mizuki all make Psyber something if an unstoppable force that tries to become a human missile and plow through anything in his way. Unfortunately, this is not meant to be his true destiny, as he slams headlong into an Elite Wall that has been conjured from the ground. Managing to plow through it, he's covered in molten stone that burns and pulls at his flesh before he skids to a stop.

    "Damnit. Sooner than I thought they'd get here. Jude, hold off on Shifting. I wanna keep that ace up our sleeve for now, but be ready to go to two or three if shit hits the fan," Psyber comments to the sword in his hand. He then grins widely when Mordred leaps into the fray alongside him.

    "Jude. Tandem in with Amhar. Let's get some attack coordination going on here," Psyber says in a hungry tone. He moves to put himself between Duet and Bloodbane, a higher priority than his desire to bring the hammer down is to protect her. Once he's successfully interposed himself in front of her, he flicks the sword, "Rifle."

    Assuming Jude follows orders and converts to his rifle form, Psyber drops to a knee and lets loose with a Strike-enhanced shot from the Sniper Rifle at Bloodbane. He wants to let Mordred handle in-close and he'll try to herd him with sniper shots.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor looks up and can spot a fellow Elementalist when she sees one. She looks grimly up at Elaine through her helmet's porthole, reaches up and shoves energy through Utopia. Let's see how well this works. "Utopia, when she gets in close, try and sort out what the blazes she's doing flickering like that."
    "ELAINE GREEN." The words are backed by all the force the Big Sister can put out, thundering across the battlefield. Names have power, and more so when Abstractum are involved. She lances out with a /yank/ of TK, and tries to drag the woman out of the air. Flying is so passe.
Amalthea     Wait hold the phone what? Did Amalthea just hear that? The unicorn blinks-- an act that's hard to miss due to having but a single eye. But Elliana asking her for protection may have been about the last thing the old knight could have expected.
    Still, it is what it is, when the former priestess halts. "... Well alright. Nothing'll get by me."
    She has given her word. Thusly a small, living, wall of armor and glitter sets before Elliana. There is the slightest shiver as she glances over her shoulder. But the unicorn remains stalwart. "I guess that's duty for you, isn't it, Oath? Barrier Drivers to maximum." Not asking for pain suppression just yet.
    "Hey Elliana." It's an idle murmur. "It's probably not the best time. But what did she say to you, all that time ago?"
Adelyn Lysen     She could engage directly, but given this setup, Adelyn keeps to the more efficient route of continuing to direct from a distance, though that doesn't mean she won't be using her personal abilities. Warding spells go up one after another, quick combat magic with which she's greatly familiar, to try to predict and counter a variety of opposing effects she may run into.

    "Gishur, I'll be inscribing an enchantment. See if you can transfer it to the other Abstractum remotely." At her Abstractum's response, Adelyn gives a low chuckle--though it's something more like an eery giggle, coming from her. As she said, she quickly applies the necessary runes of the enchantment to be transferred. It's enchantment done in haste, but this kind of fragile, single-use, all-the-power-at-once tactic is usual for her. Himei and Eleanor should receive the benefits immediately, and Psyber, unless Adjudicator switches before she's done.

    Bloodbane is a known name to her, and she's spent a reasonable effort in preparing a counter from the perspective of Time and Arcane magic. She lacks the specialization to make a focused unraveling effect to lock down such an ability, but a counterspell optimized for disrupting time-altering effects is within her capability. The affected elites need merely attack with intention to use the effect, and each will cause a brief, hard disruption effect like an explosion of metaphysical force--though only once. Whether this will actually work will be unknown until it's tried. She hasn't had quite as many opportunities to closely study the nature of Blooded abilities as she'd like.

    "General order: Focus on disabling enemy capabilities. Strip their ability to resist." Taking them out straight-off seems unlikely, so weakening the Heaven Guard is the safer option.
Raine Arland      "Heh..."

     Raine landed after cleaving through the last few soldiers before they retreated. He didn't bother giving chase. Let them retreat. He wasn't a genocidal maniac.

     Besides, there were better things to worry about. Blocked by a wall of metal and magma, Raine leapt back. "Whoa whoa!" Skidding to a stop, he looked up. "Looks like the calvary decided to drop in, huh?" He murmured, listening as Prince Tarin floated in, demanding they leave. He could only grin in response.

     "Fragarach." A green spell circle appeared below his feet again and he crouched. "Hup!" And with a leap, he sailed high into the air, landing on a rooftop nearby. "Heeeeeeeey, you must be good ol' Prince Tarin, eh? Sorry bud, but we got an Emperor to overthrow. No hard feelings! Strictly business!" He grinned and shrugged his shoulders, before resting his sword onto said shoulders.

     "You understand, right?"

     He was taunting the man into attacking.
Walter Bernhard     The monstrous Undead Parasite is forced from its burrowing beneath the earth, its huge length rising up and its mouth of teeth and squirming THINGS opening to let loose a roar fitting of a dragon... If a very dead dragon. And to stick with that analogy, a flamethrower stream billows forth, trying to engulf the one bombarding it with force bolts, as from within the tunnel it has formed... A... Tunnel with the walls already covered in undead flesh that spreads at an alarming rate... Soulless Zombies begin to emerge. Just sacks of skin and blood that begin to crawl forth and add to the other creatures in the area, even as the Buckbairds are blasted by holy force bolts of sufficient strength to cause them to burn up in the air while blinking their huge eyes rapidly, until there is nothing left.

    That artillery bombardment is going to be an issue.

    As Vivienne alights upon three different buildings, a cloud of bats and pillar of moonlight touches down upon a fourth. Walter reforms himself once more, and bows elegantly, yet with a sort of mocking confidence. "Lady Redmist, I presume. I shall be your dance partner for this day. And afterwards, I invite you to join me at my castle." As a very 'moral' indivivual, and an Elite at that, Walter's aura of evil probably will have a negative effect on his chances of persuading her to join him. But as a vampire, he has other tricks up his sleeve.

    Such as his eyes suddenly glowing red as he attempts to capture the gaze of the trio and hypnotise them. If the real one is among them, she may feel great tiredness, as Walter's voice says, "Though perhaps you should rest before the trip..." And even if she fights it off, she may have betrayed herself in the process. Unless the duplicates likewise are vulnerable to such a tactic, or all of them are fakes, or all of them are entirely immune.

    But eliminating possibilities one by one is part of the fun in the game.
Nathan Hall     Nathan can do very little right now. But he has his words, and he has a nice ship. And so, he moves it to come around Redmist. As the ship pulls in close, a magical panel flickers into reality at its side, displaying Nathan's face. "Redmist." He says, somberly. "We cannot turn back. Your Emperor put this entire world at risk. We do not know why. But we know it cannot be allowed to happen. You know about our purpose. You /saw/ what we are in this world to do, Redmist. I am not going to try to threaten you into retreating. But we have a moral imperative to do what we are doing here. Do you have a moral imperative to serve the Emperor whose forces wiped out so many of those who were protecting the world?"

    He's fueling his words with a bit of essence, a bit of soft analysis. Adjusting his intonations to sound as reasonable and heroic about these intentions as possible. It also helps that having a face on a giant screen gives a big social advantage, persuasion-wise.
Himei     Raine is going after making Tarin attack him. Himei doesn't think this is a good idea, but she can dig it. "Right. Guess it's time to get serious, huh?" She'll wait long enough for the distraction from Raine to possibly work, then her wings will flick out and she'll launch herself upward, trying to outflank the man with a specific intent.

    "SHINING PALM STRIKE!"

    It's one of her few 'solid' techniques, but Himei has two reasons to do it. The blast of holy energies in silver light that explodes from her palm is aimed at slamming Tarin from above, to force him down and into the ground so as to eliminate the air superiority.

    The other is to use Adelyn's spell, to see if she can try to jar him out of that glitchiness or whatever is going on there.
Mizuki     One would think that in such a vast expanse as the Multiverse there would be at the least -one- world where people do not form dichotomies based on 'good' or 'evil', 'holy' or 'unholy'. Mizuki isn't going to expend energy to go over that conundrum in her mind today, but suffice it to say it's as astonishing as it is depressing to her that that, of all things, is how this 'Tarin' character chooses to spell the likely end of his life: on a righteous crusade with blind, full confidence in whatever he's defending. That said, it's also rather soothing to her to hear someone like Vivienne being more rational. Naturally, no empire can be comprised entirely of madmen, yet it's always refreshing to see physical evidence proving as much. A small part of her hopes that they can find some way of leaving that one alive. If it won't make them too miserable to outlive their lord, that is.

    Things seem to have reached a boiling point, though, and it would appear that the group have finally found adversaries that can press them. Recognizing this, Mizuki decides that it's time to pitch in. Rather than summoning her crystalline aegis today, she instead brings forth a classic: her revolver. After spinning its chamber and readying it to fire, she wastes no time -- and indeed, it is far easier to conserve temporum when one can put it in stasis. She briefly steps outside of the flow of things so that she may better analyze the situation. Three clones. If her intuition is worth anything at all, then firing upon them will give some hint as to which ones are 'real', and which ones are not. She bases her actions upon this assumption, gliding fluidly between each clone, firing bullets with trajectory to hit each of them. Afterward she attempts a hasty getaway, hiding herself behind some clutter on an adjacent roof so that she can remain unseen, but keep her eyes on the battle in kind.

    She'll be looking for several things. One: did the bullets 'phase' through the clones? Two: do the clones have standard reactions to pain when and if the bullets connect? And judging by those criteria, three: can these clones act and feel independently, or are they truly only copies of their conjurer? If the latter, then she suspects that the former clues will also tell her which one of them is the 'real' redmist. She'll wait to analyze the success of this maneuver before she makes any further incursions upon the battle.
Abstractum.Net     Mordred's general power increases against Bloodbane because of Elliana's orders. Amhar, of course, doesn't need much. Oddly, now, Mordred will feel that the blade isn't trying to force them into Shift anymore, like in other battles. It's working essentially as intended, but without that overwhelming force... For now, it doesn't assist Mordred here, not yet. Hmm.
Sakura Haruno     Flowers has pretty distinctly set herself into a strictly support role by agreeing to engage the Prince, given his unexpected and somewhat problematic flying abilities. Luckily, if she's only rendering assistance secondhand, she won't have to worry about limiting herself to her somewhat lesser ranged abilities. Instead, she's just going to be on helping those who will engage him more directly.

    She'll move towards where Himei and Raine are engaging the Prince, glad of her relatively recent acquisition of ways to help from this distance, hands spreading up with a visible glow of green chakra to them, something of a beacon to make any attempt for the pinkhaired woman dressed in red to stay stealthy be even more foolish than normal. She'll do a sweep or two, fully concentrating on it, and then green sparkles of chakra will move in, one set for Raine, another for Himei. These will give a general physical boost, but in particular both will find reflexes and strength sharpened, hitting more accurately and harder. The only downside of this is that it may draw attention to Sakura herself.
Abstractum.Net     Eleanor's Abstractum gains a tremendous boost to telekinesis! The way it's meant to counter the Heaven Guard directly means that it gains the buff from Adelyn's ordeers! It also buffers Eleanor herself against the plasmid drain, cutting it down to a fraction, letting her sustain the assault more! It also works on that SCAN she was requesting. "Right... It's like... They're sharing a Gate, I think! With one of the other Abstractums." The glove says, in a level, but urgent, tone. "Like a cartridge. It will probably stop working if Bloodbane can be dealt with."
Abstractum.Net     Orders to protect Elliana mean that Amalthea gets another boost to endurance. Nothing's assaulting yet, not really! But Ironclad Oath's red fire gains an omiunous green tint to match the source of the orders. Nothing horrible yet, so it doesn't have to escalate any further.
Abstractum.Net     Gishur laughs, smugly. "'If' I can? Mistress, you do me a disservice." The book says, offering its pages. As the inscription occurs, it churns through the interior of the thick tome, and there's more page fluttering. The anti-time counterspell is transmitted over to those linked on the Tandem, catching Psyber before he can hop sub-networks. It seems to have strained Gishur a little bit, but the tome is doing its best to make it seem effortless.
Duet Fortuna     Psyber has Bloodbane dead to rights, but his specific power means that isn't a sure thing... especially with the Abstractum. A Barrier forms, and the bullet slams through it. Strike drivers override Bloodbane's Abstractum Barriers, and the blast punches through... to deflect off his sword and cause a spray of blood from the side of his arm, rather than killing him. A combination of his barriers and his peculiar power have kept him from losing a limb or the like.

    To Mordred, "A lot of practice, a lot of sparring, and a need to win." He smiles. "Nothing personal, but I'll admit I've been wanting a rematch, too. Let's go." He charges forward, flickering again and-

    He's attacking from the side, coming in at Mordred's sword arm with a quick thrust inward. It's almost like there are two blades, one coming in from the side, and the other from an /entirely/ different direction, with Bloodbane coming in low and sweeping a slash toward the ankle on the other side. For a split second, it's like there are two of him, a far greater use of his ability than has been seen before.
Nox     Bloodbane is of interest to Nox, to put it mildly. He had been able to sense the same kind of distortion the last Mordred had ran into him. Unfortunately, it looks like he won't be getting much hands on time here either, as the man is already being dogpiled by several of the strongest Elites present. The best he can do is record and survey with his mechanical minions from the air. More pressing concerns are the uneven distribution of forces. Specifically, while Tarin and Bloodbane are well covered, and Redmist at least has to contend with Walter's monsters and whater Nathan might dig up, Green is pretty much entirely in the hands of a single Big Sister, whom Nox has yet to place much stock in.

    The coincidence is somewhat fortunate. The xelor has an unlikely amount of experience fighting elementalists by now, including multiple successive run-ins with the same, incredibly obnoxious one. The wall doesn't pose much of an obstacle to him, being one of the significant but still limited number of people present able to fly, and so he warps directly across from Elaine, appearing at her exact altitude perhaps a dozen meters away, looking straight towards her. "Good evening madame." he begins in a courteous tone that is completely out of place on a real, serious battlefield. "I feel it my duty to inform you that you are fortunate enough to be one of the few here who is allowed to surrender. If at any time you wish to cease being injured, renounce your emperor and go along your merry way."

    He doesn't waste much time after that, having fulfilled the letter, even if not the spirit, of the instructions from earlier. His gauntleted arm swivels ninety degrees and snaps straight ahead with mechanical swiftness and precision, the palm of his hand glowing blue as the circuit activates, and then the air in a solid column above and below the Blooded accelerates into an unstable frenzy, breaking apart into a flash arc of charged plasma.
Abstractum.Net     Adjudicator Tandems directly with Amhar, adjusting to a tandem with Amhar. The sword seems to be... Taken aback. "What is this feeling. Mordred, your sword...?!" But it's focusing on Psyber. "Right!" It says, aggressively, swapping to the rifle. "Sword! Together!" Amhar, of course, immediately rushes to block the left. Adjudicator attempts to coordinate with a massive strike to the right! They have to work in perfect unison if they're going to deal with a man who's two people at once...!

    "Wait, I was told this was Redmist's ability..." The rifle mutters, trying to impart the shot with Adelyn's anti-time attack too now!
Guest Kevin     Kevin frowns as he watches the soldiers collapse due to the power of the Time art. It's not pleasant, but in this situation, it's necessary. He takes a slow breath- but he wasn't entirely prepared for the force bolt to hit the ground, and this causes him to jump back quite a bit, taking the time to step through it carefully, keeping his senses focused on what's happening around him to try and be out of the way in time- but it's not perfect. Burns begin to form at the edges of the tails of his white uniform, and he quickly puts them out- or he finds the heat and burns getting through the fabric and layered materials to get to flesh.
    The priest winces and grabs at his arm where one such issue has occured, but his attention is pulled away from it. An individual not being in-sync in Time is one way to draw his attention. The elements of Time and Space have a dualistic nature between them, and as Kevin has become more and more specialized in using Space, the feel of Time has become more unnerving to him.
    Kevin quickly runs along behind Himei, though he stops as she takes off into the air after the prince. There's a tilt of his head as he remains earthbound... then gives a bit of a shrug. He's better off at a distance anyway. That said, he steps into position next to Sakura and reaches out with a hand- not so much to Raine and Himei, but towards the prince himself- he can feel that something is already being done to Tarin. It's time to perhaps boost it. "O Blessed Goddess," Kevin closes his eyes as he begins his prayer, and if Sakura was drawing attention to herself, it might be the same case with the priest. "Those who fall from Time fall from Your sights as well. Listen to my request as I seek you to bring those wayward souls back to us."
    Time, when coaxed in such a manner, can be an element to take away energy- Space happens to draw on the origins of such energies. Kevin intends to use the inherent energy of Space to try and stablize the flickering, out of sync nature of the prince and keep him in place long to give both Himei and Raine a clear shot, even if it's only a temporary window.
Abstractum.Net     Himei's Abstractum lets out its own wordless kiai -- somewhere, subvocally, you can ALMOST here it saying STRIKE DRIVER -- as Himei strikes. The wings are here to enhance the BRAWLING abilities she has! And this is one hell of a brawling ability. It overcharges her muscles, turning the palm strike into something like being hit by a mac truck. If Himei can get him onto the ground, it'll be with a crater. It attempts to also overcharge its speed to pursue. The boost from Adelyn is here too, in the gushing green fire around those wings as Himei tries to cripple their abilities!
Guest Psyber     "You should just give up, though I doubt you will!" Psyber shouts to Bloodbane seriously, from his crouching position. The half-angel lets out an annoyed scoff as the bullet bounces off the blade. He scored a huge hit on the arm, but not a big enough hit to take Bloodbane out of the fight.

    "The Emperor, after all he's done. Is it really worth it?" The half-angel asks to the man in frustration. He still won't go in and try to land a huge hit in melee, sticking to the outside. Mordred's Instinct out-classes his ability to counter Bloodbane in a straight-on fight, so he's relying heavily on the Servant to take point on the conflict.

    With Duet having shuffled targets, Psyber is free to get moving. Even wielding a sniper rifle, he has an immense level of agility and speed. He sprints from point to point, raising the rifle and trying to line up perfect shots for what he needs to be doing.

    He's not shooting at Bloodbane any more, though. If Bloodbane can edit his personal timeline, Psyber is going to circumvent that. He's using the huge hitting power of the Abstractum Rifle's shots to carve giant swaths of street out from around the Blooded, trying to herd him for Mordred.
Duet Fortuna     One of Vivienne's clones is heading right for Elliana, but the defensive boost will allow Amalthea to tank it if she desires. The flickering clone looks a little more ghostly than usual, but that spear thrust is vicious, and if Amalthea isn't careful it could end up doing some serious damage. Worse, she's stabbing with violent thrusts that are moving far faster than she has any right to, for a reduced ability clone.

    The snake slams into the barrier again while Elliana concentrates, and cracks appear within it. She glances over her shoulder and frowns. "Now is not the best time but... I suppose it has to be now." She looks at the slightly cracking barrier around the palace.

    "She said... 'You can do great things, Elliana. You are a good girl, and your father and I love you very much. You can heal the sick, help the people, even if they don't understand you. But most of all, we just want you to live. Live and be happy.' I intend to do that. This isn't vengeance, Amalthea. It's something much more important. And now I must attend to it."

    Elliana abruptly disappears in a flash of purple.
Mordred     "Desire to win sure went a long way for you then. Here I thought your power was just to jank around and unscrew up, but now it's like there's two of you," Mordred replies-- she doesn't need any prompting by her sword, and her arm does follow to block where Amhar wanted to. Still, Bloodbane isn't a chump. He can push the Saber back, and the blade slides down to her wrist and cuts through the gauntlet. If she were human that'd be a very nasty injury, but as a Servant, she luckily heals right back up.

    With the ground around them being shot full of holes, Mordred pushes, swinging Clarent first in a wide horizontal cut, trying to force the Blooded back. She immediatly follows through with her other arm, Amhar coming down for a powerful vertical swipe, amplified by Prana Burst. That pretty much means it glows a nasty red and erupts with enough magical force to punch through a fortress wall. The idea's not to hit Bloodbane directly with that, but to hit the ground in front of him.

    Which, predictably, would scatter pretty explosively under the blade. But that discounts any additions to the attack the blood sword might feel like contributing.

    "He's right, you know. You should give up. Emperor's a huge jerk, anyway. Plenty of way better people to find and serve out there." Though, the Servant does glance down at her sword, in no small part because of the other sword's prompting. "Hey, come on, I haven't heard you complaining about being plugged to Justice Sword yet. You're not going to make me buy you're suddenly okay with that."
Eleanor Lamb     "YES, IF." It's not a proper sentence but this Elaine doesn't seem to be a proper girl. And even if she's feeling slippery and timey-wimey, that's no reason not to be serious with her. She's not even properly fighting like she should be. "That's rather rude. How about we press the issue."
    She lashes out her hand and cries out. "UTOPIA, SHIFT. LET'S EVEN THE ODDS. VERSUS PARADIGM!" Let's see how much these lot have played with their Abstractum, see if they've even tested out all the functions properly. She may not be able to fly, but that doesn't mean she can't handle the woman. She lashes out both hands, using her TK the other way. She rends pieces of the terrain from the ground and starts hurling them upwards at the fellow caster.
Amalthea     One loppy ear keeps pricked. Amalthea listens and defends both at once, her shield raised to fend off the spear thrust. With a might clang, her arm hisses steam, bleeding off the stress in a burst of heated vapor and coolant, as her shield, and Oath's barriers hold, but the solidity of the blow still sends her arm ringing numb. With a grunt, each and every jab that follows is met with steel; shield and lance dancing against spear, parrying, blocking, riposting, and countering to the best of her ability, in order to keep the clone off Elliana, as she listens to the former priestess, lone eye focussed holy on Vivienne, ear focused on Elliana.
    "... Then go do it." That's Amalthea's only reply now that she has the answer to a burning question that's been plaguing her for so long now. "If it's not for vengeance... Then I'll defend it to my last breath." A solemn vow sworn upon the battlefield, Amalthea will, even at great cost to herself, refuse Vivienne at every opportunity. Even as a thrust finds a gap in her otherwise impregnable defense, causing liquid silver to bloom and flow down her side. She still doesn't ask for pain suppression just yet though, relying on her own skill and Oath's boosted defenses to ensure that, for now, it's the only wound suffered, before shifting her grip on Wishblade.
    She waits. She waits until Elliana vanishes, before Amalthea decides to change the situation, and forcibly dictate just who has true control of the impromptu duel, with a vicious flurry of her own thrusts and jabs in return.
Duet Fortuna     Elaine Green is facing down Eleanor and... Nox? Yes, the appearance of the time wizard makes her look startled, but her reaction isn't like that of others. "As if!" It's a voice of contempt, the woman drunk on her own powers and the enhancement that her Abstractum provides. It's visible as a bracer, bearing that eye, and she without a thought gestures toward Nox. The molten steel below breaks up into numerous batlike creatures, swarming Nox with the heated blasts of noxious molten metal spit from their maws. They don't appear to be actually alive, she's just showing off.

    Eleanor then yanks her downward, but she only jerks down a few feet rather than get hurled into the ground. To Eleanor's TK she feels 'slippery' somehow. Nox can tell it's a side effect of the odd distortion. She doesn't have Bloodbane's full ability to alter timelines, but she has just enough to make it easier to wriggle out of such things, a fraction of a second of a 'redo' that she instinctively takes the best option.

    She gets a little distracted when the sudden series of gunshots sounds out though, as Duet skids to a stop nearby and unloads five shots from a 9mm into Elaine's chest. The elementalist has an armored breastplate of ice to keep herself from dying, but it's still an impact that makes her grunt and causes her control to wobble.

    It's a combination of her icy shielding and sheer luck that keeps her from getting fully caught in that plasma arc. The girl twists aside, yanking in midair and wheezing from the sudden motion. When she recovers, her off hand is missing three fingers, smoldering stumps now, and the pain etched on her face says that she's not the sort who can just regenerate her now-useless hand. That's... not going to be pleasant for her.
Duet Fortuna     Boosted by Sakura's chakra and enhanced by Adelyn's spell, there's some pretty rough hits going around for Prince Tarin. Himei's blast of a palm strike and the magic behind it hurls him downward, and between Adelyn's spell and Kevin's sudden YANK with Time, the glitchiness vanishes in an instant... right before he slams into the ground. "NNG!"

    The flame arc means he needs a moment to slam it aside with a force bolt, the stream of flame scorching his leg but not much else. That inhibits his movement though, which should give Raine an opening. It'll have to be Raine, though, because a quick blast of force bolts are sent toward Himei and Kevin, before he HURLS that holy spear right toward the creature above him, intending to end it with the power of the Hundred. Odd to just throw away his weapon, though.

    It is important to note that for the moment, he is not showing that weird glitching.
Abstractum.Net     "BLUESHIFT ABSTRACTION" And then Eleanor and Utopia go into Inscribe shift, covered in shining blue light, genetic code running up and down her arm and over her helmet. Her thoughts crystalize into utmost clarity, and the constant sound of her genetic hivemind quiets, to a murmur, giving Eleanor a tremendous surplus of stability and mental endurance necessary for this assault. "VERSUS PARADIGM." And both Abstractums begin gushing tremendous shockwaves of energy as they resonate with each other. Eleanor will have another boost to her power... Likely more than Elaine's, in this case. She can outpower the risk that comes from powering up her enemy with her own energy here!
Duet Fortuna     Trying hypnotism on Vivienne is not a good idea. She's one of the few who is impossibly loyal, maybe even with enchantments of her own. So the three facing down Walter hesitate for a moment, before shaking off the compulsion with a visible effort. "No. I think not. This is my duty."

    "I must," repeats one of the others.

    The distraction does let Mizuki shoot, the distracted trio ducking and diving all three. One of them gets tagged pretty good, and screams, grabbing her side where... a red mist leaks out. Is it the real one or a copy? Probably a copy.

    One of the others lunges for Walter, lance-first, while the third is answering Nathan, "I know that my Emperor has done distasteful things. I must trust that he has his reasons. You know that I disagree, but without my own duty..." Just as was said, Redmist doesn't care for this fight, but she feels obligated to continue it. With a frown, she dismisses the injured clone and looks about. She has many abilities, but seeing spirits is not one of hers, so Mizuki is for the moment safe.

    Walter just has to deal with a woman bearing a spear coming down fast at him. She's good... really good. He's probably better, but not by much. Fortunately she's also holding back a little.
Raine Arland      "Well..."

     Raine mumbled, watching as Himei, Adelyn, Sakura, and Kevin all contribute to attempting to take Prince Tarin down. Sheesh! So much for the taunting gambit. "Looks like I'm gonna have to do this the old fashioned way." He lowered his sword, watching, waiting, not helping.

     They could handle it anyway. And they were doing a pretty good job of handling it. Right up until- "There." An opening. Prince Tarin was busy handling the others. He didn't bother to attack Raine.

     The perfect chance.

     In response, his blade burst to life, cloaked in an aura of red magic. It had no elemental aspect and was just pure power. He crouched low. "Fragarach." A green magic circle appeared. He leapt. Silently, swiftly, efficiently. No battle cry, no obvious attention grabbing display to otherwise ruin the advantage.

     And then he swung, aiming to cleave from the shoulder, all the way down the torso. A single, decisive move meant to end things before they got worse.
Himei     Of course Himei knows Raine is there, and that's why she doesn't mind being a target. The force bolts are fast though, and she's forced to dive to the side and try to duck behind buildings, using her sword to try to fend them off.

    It isn't entirely successful. With a grunt, the bolt chasing her wings her in the stomach, slamming her down and to the side to tumble and roll onto the street in a painful impact.
Nathan Hall     "One man is not worth the world." Nathan says. "What are you without your duty? Are you nothing? You have beliefs and desires. But you don't have an explanation, a reason for the awful things he's done? Is that what your duty outweighs? Choosing duty over what you know is right is the easy choice. Simple. Trust and have faith and you don't need to consider the consequences of action. But if you trust and have faith, how many more people are going to die, for reasons you can't even say?" Nathan's voice is utterly calm, utterly monotonous, but still has an overwhelming sort of volume and tone from the tremendous screen, and he seems like he's looking down on the crowd of one woman. Ignoring, of course, the fact that she could instantly kill him, if she manages to get aboard....

    "Tell me, Redmist. What has he done to deserve your loyalty? What ideals has he acted upon that make him someone you should have faith in? What makes him deserve this, after putting the world on the brink of annihilation by the Shajem?" Not only are these questions intended to be piercing... but if she actually HAS answers for them, it'll mean Nathan can target his diplomacy more directly.
Nox     That's fairly new. Usually 'elementalist' implies someone who throws fireballs, ice shards, lightning bolts, bits of rock, and the rest of the ensemble around as interchangeable generics. Molten metal bats is extremely advanced against those general standards. Unfortunately, there's no time to appreciate the skill involved as they begin disgorging sprays of equally dangerous material, his own armour glowing red, then orange, then yellow where the goblets stick and burn, steadily sizzling into the metal with trails of toxic smoke.

    Swiftly dealing with many, fragile enemies in all directions at once isn't something Nox has specialized spells for, and so he resorts to a little bit of overkill, the dial reappearing around him and swiftly expanding into a circular field that encompasses the flock of familiars. The roman numerals charge with golden light, but serve only as tracer points for the hail of burning blue pillars that descend from out of the heavens, striking in thunderous rotation, both clockwise and counter, repeatedly drowning the entire area around him in a punishing barrage of raw energy. It's likely grossly inefficient for the task, but he needs them dealt with quickly.

    "Very impressive." he intones from inside the cloud of ash drifting from the ground below him, before teleporting a few feet forward to extricate himself from it. The metallic spit appears to have cooled, perhaps forcibly, leaving his own armour scorched and partially melted in many places, but then taking damage is why he wears it. "You make the top of the list for lateral thinking with that tired and narrow portfolio. It really would be a disservice to the field were you to die right now but, well, I can hardly be blamed if you do, hahaha!"

    Banter aside, he'd really rather she not do that again, and so he precedes his offensive with a two part hand motion to collapse a section of spacetime around Elaine, isolating her in the temporal stream and dramatically slowing the rate she can gather and channel magic. As soon as the spell is in place, he zaps from out of view and reappears directly behind her, where she'll have a slow time of turning around, Aiguille surrounded with a fizzling, white corona as space bends and shears around it, before lashing out with a vicous series of powerful strokes, aiming to cleave through whatever magical protection she may have with brute, physical force, assuming her to be much less capable in hand to hand combat.
Sakura Haruno     Flowers has been leaving herself to just doing support, but that doesn't mean it's the only thing she's capable of - with the man having thrown away his weapon, and her chakra already doing its work on the more direct attackers, there is quite the opening. Sakura is going to try to take advantage of it.

    She'll move a hand towards her pouch in a fairly quick move, pulling out a trio of kunai, throwing the first one directly at the Prince's arm, the other two a second behind to try to catch him in midflight if he dodges either way. She wouldn't expect it to be much more than a distraction, but the blades are still deadly if he's distracted enough by the actions others were taking directly against him. Especially if he might have dismissed what she had been doing as unimportant to this point.
Guest Kevin     The use of spiritual energy in such a way is a bit draining. He's having to 'think outside the box' in how he handled the situation with Prince Tarin. As a result, once he and Adelyn are successful in getting the prince /fixed in place/. He steps back, taking the moment to recover- which gives him no chance of defending once the force blast comes in his direction.
    Kevin is struck dead on and knocked off of his feet. He tumbles several times until he manages to skid to a stop and roll onto his knees. "...well. That wasn't so hot." This is mostly mumbled to himself. "Ries would probably complain that I was spoiled by not being on the field at all times." It doesn't seem to be too off-putting for him, however, as he stands up and begins to dust his white uniform off again.
    There's a brief glance skyward, "I know, I know. Don't let down my guard. I'll remember it next time." He seems awfully flippant about the heavy hit, though it really hurts more than he's showing. He's not even planning to run to clear the distance between himself and Prince Tarin this time.
    He's noticed that Himei's been knocked to the ground as well. Offense will be a little shorter than normal- thus Kevin knows that he has less time to patch up his own pain and should make sure that Raine's attack hits harder to makeup for the lack of offense.
    The orbment is, once again, activated. Kevin quickly draws on the element of Fire. The art is very easy and very quick for him to cast. He gestures out in Raine's direction, and a burst of flame surrounds him as he's in mid-swing to strike Tarin with his blade- but instead of burning or pain, the fire itself seems to give a draw out of added strength for the swordsman.
Duet Fortuna     As mobile and swift as Bloodbane is, he can still be herded. The soldier is ducking to the side, and he starts for Mordred again. He doesn't expect the entire ground to be blown out from under him, though!

    The good news is, Mordred avoids any sort of attack there. The bad news is it isn't as effective as she might think. With a small grunt, Bloodbane lands atop a nearby building, clutching his side. He wasn't able to completely avoid injury, and blood is seeping from his fingers, but now he has the high ground.

    He doesn't attack though. He's actually willing to talk. "Heh. Maybe not. This is my job, though. When the Emperor calls, you come. For all that he's done some questionable things, this is the closest we've been to peace in the last three generations. That's worth something, isn't it?"
Mizuki     So Mizuki still has the element of surprise. Good.

    She's not going to let it go to waste. Her opponent is incredibly deft, so projectiles - at least, lone projectiles - are not going to work. Still, she can play this somewhat like chess: if she's lucky, she can guide her dodges such that she'll ultimately be able to trap her. This would not by any means be feasible if this 'Redmist's' heart was in the battle, but it is increasingly evident that this is not so, another boon that Mizuki does not intend to waste. That said, she freezes time again, meticulously setting up two small walls of bullets hopefully just long enough, and just solid enough, to force her movements in a single direction. The second of these is placed in the assumed dodging direction enforced by the former, and will be utterly useless if she doesn't go where Mizuki intends.

    At this point, Mizuki unfreezes time again, waiting to see if her traps were successful. If they were, she attempts to take advantage of the situation by finally materializing and running her sword against Redmist's side. If they were not, she would empty a full clip of her revolver to fire three shots toward Walter's quarry, then three more at her own. Hopefully this would expose at least -one- of them.

    This is a bit of a gamble, and her coming out into the open will only have been purposeful if, in the end, the true Redmist can be identified beyond a shadow of a doubt. If she is, then Mizuki would invoke her ability to pause time once more to cut four portals - two above and two to the side such that a cross (+) shape is made by them. She would fire two full clips into both portals in the timestop such that the bullets would continuously rush across the area encapsulated by the cross until they lodge themselves in Redmist properly or are otherwise dealt with. Then she would throw her sword into the portal at the bottom so that, with some delay, it would strike down from the top -- it's intended to strike Redmist's back non-lethally, though she can't be sure if it will hit at all. This is all guesswork on her part.

    Finally, Mizuki lets down the timestop, allowing everything to happen at once. The area within the cross quickly becomes a cage; if Redmist is caught inside of it at all, she will likely have to take several bullets to leave. If she does not leave, however, then she'll be beset from the front by a sudden blast of cyan energy from a newly-appearing shield which should -- hopefully -- be enough to distract her whilst her sword come through the portal behind.

    Again, though, this all assumes that she had been able to identify the original Redmist in the first place. If she was not, she would retreat again, taking a defensive stance rather than an offensive one.
Walter Bernhard     The Undead Parasite is not super evasive. The spear slams into it, impales it, scours its rotting flesh from its monstrous body, and lodges there. As one of the Gate Keepers of Bernhard Castle, it is as difficult an enemy to defeat in only a single blow, as any other Elite of its level. But its unholy existence burns with the essence of that ancient weapon, sending shafts of light out through the holes in carrion-flesh and insectile carapace. The monster howls in anger and pain.

    Holy weapons are its weakness after all.

    However, at the request from Psyber to retrieve the weapon, with but a mental command from Walter, the monster dives towards the ground and attempts to bury itself too deeply for the instrument of spiritual purity and belief to be easily gotten back. Of course it's going to continue doing damage as long as it remains sticking out of the Gate Keeper, but damaged undead flesh is easily replaced. All one needs is more corpses.

    Perhaps this is not the most ideal circumstances under which to play a Game of Life and Death, Walter feels, with so many others invovled... Mizuki's interference is thus not scorned, though the fact he was denied the opportunity to determine which was which himself is a pity. With one of the duplicates being dismissed after being injured, and two remaining, Walter focuses on the one who is NOT speaking to Nathan, feeling that his allies might object to having their dialogue interrupted...

    Right as that one comes lunging right at him with her spear in hand! She is fast. Walter levitates and tries to turn to the side, but his opponent is skilled, and the spear tears across the shield of darkness that distorts the space about him... The shield only visible when someone actually strikes it, causing a white-hot gouge or splinter to span its length. The Vampire Lord frowns as he continues attempting to evade the attacks. Normally he would simply take them head-on without concern, but here is another so powerful that they can penetrate the defenses of the Ebony Stone... Or is it... Something else? Can just ANYONE get past his shield now?

    He doesn't want to find out in this instance, to an attack that strong. He feels somewhat pained just from the scratch upon his magic barrier. Better to not keep giving her chances to fight back.

    Walter thrusts out one hand and unleashes a blast of wailing ghosts and disembodied souls from his hand, former victims or simply undead he can summon to him as he needs, or perhaps a spell of some kind... Either way, the stream of spirits tries to smash into the nimble clone (or is it the original?). But perhaps she is as evasive as Walter himself!
Mizuki     Regardless of how things pan out, Mizuki would speak briefly once all her contributions to the fight have concluded. "Surrender," She asserts. "Your loyalty is not only to your king, but to your people, and to your world. You will be of more use to each of the latter once this storm has blown over if you do not needlessly forfeit your life. If I do not fell you, the others will. There is no question." After a short pause, she adds, "Please. I do not wish to see a sensible soul - one that might truly help to curb the chaos that will come in the wake of this - die unless they absolutely must."
Guest Psyber     It's after Mordred has pressed the assault that Psyber finally stands up and looks around. He watches Mordred out of the corner of one eye. He wants to tell her what to say. He also knows that is a patently awful idea, so he doesn't. Instead, he uses the rifle as a brace and looks around the rest of the battlefield.

    A lot of fights all going on at once, and a lot of things all happening. Lamb is in Shift, which isn't a bad call on her part. He looks around, as if trying to find Nathan, Elliana, or Adelyn and look for further direction. The rifle is carried in both hands as Psyber trudges off. Like any good sniper, his job isn't to be the center of any fight right now, but rather to support people already fighting.

    And so, since Walter is doing him an explicit favor, Psyber's attention shifts. He adjusts his angle, tries to find a good firing arc, and then levels the rifle. There's a gentle squeeze of the trigger as he lets off a quick shot, trying to cover the vampire that was willing to put one of his minions at risk to do Psyber a personal solid.

    There's a squint of one eye. He's trying to take off one of the Vivienne clones arms off at the shoulder, or at least distract her long enough for Walter to capitalize.
Abstractum.Net     "Peace."

    That's what seems to get Amhar's attention. Mordred was getting some just sort of ominous rumbles, but that... Actually gets to Amhar. "He bought them with peace." Thaaat seems to get the blade going. "It doesn't matter what I care about. But you. If a peace like that is what you're fighting, fine." The blade splits wide into a two-part elaborate spiraling arrangement, with teeth between the two blade-parts. It's weighted like the heavier sword modes Amhar had before, but much more controlled and intricate in design. And much, much more brutal. "Make him back off. Or kill him. I don't care which, User."

    The mucky, bitter blade's teeth begin to bleed something viciously corrosive. There's a buildup here...
Adelyn Lysen     "Gishur," Adelyn asides privately, "be sure to save all data on her 'blueshift' and play it back for me later." She knows Gishur is likely to record it all anyway, so this is more asking him to remind her to look at. A matter for when there is time for leisure.

    More immediately, "Assess Shoutan's state. The enemy's attack type--an air wall? Telekinetic force? Devise countermeasures, correlate to existing ward list, modify per evidence." The staff in her hand changes form, shifting to a second grimoire that she leafs through with a waved hand, not needing to directly touch either. The non-speaking mage's weapon, Pure Guardian, contains most of the existing spells at Adelyn's disposal, and she uses this in tandem with her Abstractum to both quickly design and implement a counter for the attacks she sees take place. The clever mind adapts.

    Like before she inscribes the necessary runes into Gishur to deliver, solely to Himei, this time. Rose should receive an appropriate, though still very short in duration, ward against those force blasts, along with any attack type sufficiently similar.
Duet Fortuna     The Redmist clone after Amalthea is fast, but in another moment it becomes a clash of lances, Wishblade striking and parrying, and Redmist-clone doing the same. The clone is, however, inferior to the original. Eventually, Amalthea will manage to exchange blows with a much less effective one on Redmist's side, and the clone dissolves into red... mist.

    The one attacking Walter crashes through the shield, but the strange effect is muted because it IS a clone... and the blast of souls still causes a screech from her and a staggering. Psyber's bullet connects with her elbow hard, blasting it into a bloody spray... or just mist. It is a clone, and it has reached its damage limit, so it starts to dissolve.

    The final one, likely the real one, is left in a trap. She shrugs to Nathan and the voice of Mizuki. "Heh. I serve the Emperor, as in the throne. If he is replaced by a worthy successor, I will serve the throne still." She lowers her spear. "It appears that you have confined me."

    She still shows a little 'glitching' though. Maybe she isn't as caught as she appears, but it has her out of the fight. Not that her heart was in it anyway.
Abstractum.Net     "Hey, you doing alright there, Himei?" Speaking of wings, Himei's wings are doing their best to cover her, shield her. Adelyn's orders to Gishur mean that the pair of wings are getting a great deal of magical support. All sorts of warding are applied to them. "On your feet kid, there's plenty more fight to go aroun--"

    Something happens near Raine.

    The interruption comes when he's just about to attack that Abstractum User lethally. The blade comes down. It's vicious and lethal. And... Something is happening to his Abstractum cloak. "I WON'T LET YOU KILL HIM! TERMINAL PARADIGM!" The eye of the Abstractum cloak blasts open, shattering all at once. A brilliant red flame is housed within, aggressively lancing out through the cloak itself. It's suddenly hard as steel, and the cloak itself lances out violently. It's coming apart, unraveling into shreds that stab out viciously. "GET AWAY FROM MY USER." The voice reverberates and glitches, like the mind's falling apart. "I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU TOUCH HIM."

    This won't last long. At most, it might give Taric time to surrender or escape. But good lord is it hyperviolent.
Mordred     "I'm sure a tyrant's peace is worth a lot of coins. But guess what? That sort of peace doesn't last. It breeds heroes, and warmongers, and people who'll defy it just because they can. You think you're doing your world a favor? You're just setting the stage for something way, way worse."

    As Amhar grows and finally speaks, the Saber idly glances down at it, adjusts her wrist for the new balance of the heavier, toothy sword, and then shoots her gaze back up towards Bloodbane.

    "I'd suggest you seriously reconsider your choices, if you survive. Ready up, because apparently you pissed my sword off! And if you live, PULL OUT, because I'm leaving my mercy up entirely to it!"

    With another Prana Burst, this time centered on her feet, Mordred rockets for Bloodbane, swinging Bloody Amhar and only Bloody Amhar, Clarent remaining idle in her hand for defense. There's no trick, no weird attack. A full frontal charge, entrusting Bloodbane's life to Bloody Amhar's hunger, if the sword can hit. And Mordred will pursue, if Bloodbane decides to avoid the clash. She won't stop charging until she's gotten her head-on weaponlock with the man.

    That might involve taking a few hits from him in the chase.
Abstractum.Net     "Gathering data on the Shift. Oh, goodness." Gishur says, a bit condescendingly at the show down at Himei. "She's going to recover, certainly. You say that as if I could ever fail our allies." The book chuckles as its pages flip around, sending the magical effect to the pair of wings on Himei. Then seems to almost get a bit pale when something goes Terminal down there. "Oh." It says, in a sick, almost nauseous tone. "We are... Oh." Then it seems to force itself back to something more arrogant. "Already gathering information for your later review on the dea-... The process, Mistress."
Duet Fortuna     The blow would have been lethal, had not the Abstractum intervened. The cloak manages to divert most of the strike, clashing and blunting it enough that Tarin staggers forward instead of gets cleaved in half. But at what cost to the Prince?

    He clutches at his throat in disbelief for a moment, staggered... then a flurry of rippling force bolts starts to shoot out, largely at random. "You... YOU KILLED HER!" He screams in rage, but his rage is undirected right now. It would seem that the Prince likely didn't have very many friends, so losing this one has left him just a /bit/ unhinged. On the up side, he can probably just be shunted around if nobody wants to bother to kill him.

    He is thus wholly unprepared for the fact that kunai are being flung at him, pinning his arm to the nearby wall with a sudden THUNK of wet penetration. He's still sending bolts out, but with Raine empowered by Kevin's spell still, it would be relatively simple to just kill him if the man wanted.
Raine Arland      "...What the-"

     That was all Raine could utter as his sword strike was stopped and blunted by Tarin's...what were those things called? Abstractum? He was sure that's what he heard before. Ergh. Messy business. So this one...sacrificed itself to protect him?

     Whoops.

     And then here came Mr. Prince firing energy bolts all over. "Tch-!" Thankfully, this was Raine's specialty. Without hesitation, he dove in, shielding himself with his sword. Each bolt that struck was absorbed into the blade and nullified. Sparks that didn't make contact washed over him, but he let it go.

     With the target pinned back, Raine skid to a stop just before the man and eyed him with a bit of pity. "....Sorry guy. Just business, you know?" Repeating that line, he raised his sword...

     ...And then drop the pommel into Prince Tarin's head, aiming to put him to sleep.

     No sense killing the guy. He was already down. And he lost something. That was plenty.
Abstractum.Net     It looks like Elaine, wounded from those bullets, and with those horrible incoming telekinetic ground strikes, it on the edge. Though her Abstractum might blunt a few of those impacts, it's draining the barrier FAST! This is an awful time for Nox to show up. His strikes are, by nature, intended much more ruthlessly and brutally. A few barriers nearly blunt the impact, but its power is drained in moments. "Get back. Stay away. Go away." The bracer says, somberly, stoicly. "Terminal paradigm."

    There's no shouting from this one. The bracer blasts into pieces, coating Elaine's hand in brutal fire. Rock, ice, lightning, fire, earth, grass, wind, water, many elements from many different elemental systems all emerge from the flame in a tremendous rush. There's no desperation in its movements, it has all the energy it needs to bring up these many, many elements in defensive configurations to block the strikes from Eleanor and Nox... But it's on a time limit. A few more seconds and that fire will burn out. "Go away. Just go away. I'm going to keep my User safe. Just leave her alone. Go away. Please."
Duet Fortuna     Mordred comes right for Bloodbane, and his options are to evade or block. He has the ability to figure out which is best in an instant though, his form blurring and realizing that running will result in his death, or at least a dangerous wound.

    His own sword leaps to his hand again. "Binaris!" That must be the sword's name, as it's an Abstractum as well. The blades clash with a loud thunderous clang, sending a pulse of power out from either side that crumbles the building. Bloodbane skids back several feet, but holds his own surprisingly well against a Servant. Then again, Blooded aren't entirely human either, are they?

    Over the locked blades, he grins. "I'm not blind. I can't win this fight, not against all of you. You want another rematch sometime, come and see me. No causes or objectives. Just two knights, one on one. But for now..."

    He's noticed that his blade is starting to edge backward, subtly. "I yield."
Duet Fortuna     Elaine isn't a total slouch in hand to hand... but with one hand missing half of its fingers, and trying to deal with a Shifted Abstractum in Versus Paradigm with her at the same time, she has no chance. Duet doesn't even try to shoot, lowering her pistol while Elaine strains to bring up her own ice barriers while Eleanor is keeping her so distracted.

    So the explosion of power from the Abstractum saves her from certain death, but leaves her rattled by what just happened. The barrier still cracks under those precise, ruthless strikes, but it gives her just enough room and time to do SOMETHING here. And that is... show her true colors.

    Elaine's kind of crazy, you see, and probably not the best choice for a stable supporter. The earth cracks open, sucking her down into a coccoon of nature to close up behind her.
Guest Kevin     Kevin was not expecting for the prince's abstractum to go terminal like that. And from the sound of others, he was sure he wasn't the only one. There's a frown at this. He's prepared to go and assist with making sure the prince is knocked out, but it seems like Raine and Flowers will have him handled.
    As a result, Kevin trots his way over to where Himei hit the ground earlier and offers a hand to help her onto her feet. If she takes his hand, he quickly sets his other hand on her's. There's a quiet prayer with the action to invoke his divine arts- sending a warm energy through her to try and repair any wounds and damage from the impact. "...ya gonna be okay?"
Sakura Haruno     Flowers will, presuming that Raine's strike successfully takes the Prince down, move in closer behind her kunai, kneeling down over him and slipping a hand down into her pouch. She'll pull out some kind of powder and a flask of water, forcing them into the man's throat, chakra flowing down her hand to go along with it.

    It's normally what she uses if she needs to give someone anesthesia for field surgery, but it'll certainly do for keeping the Prince down even if one of the other Heaven's Guard try to get him back up in the next six to eight hours or so.
Himei     Another force bolt can't be dodged, but with the barrier and Adelyn's spell, Himei staggers and ducks behind a wall for a quick breath. "Nnf. I should have picked one of the others." She wipes her brow, then decides, "Eh, maybe not. They're all monsters, aren't they?" Sigh. "I hate my job some days."

    Then Sakura and Raine take care of the Prince and let her breathe. She slumps down, changing the clip on her pistol and closing her eyes at the healing energy that goes through her. "Yeah. Yeah I'll be fine, I've had worse. Let's get moving. I think Fairchild already went in ahead, so she's probably already fighting."
Adelyn Lysen     "An unfortunate waste, but there was never any possibility of their quick surrender." If it were under laboratory conditions and the loss was calculated, Adelyn wouldn't mind seeing a valuable artifact destroyed, intelligent or otherwise. But here, now? It's vexing that so many... interesting individuals seem bent on death rather than capture. Necromantic ability notwithstanding, the living are more interesting than the dead, and you can always kill them later.

    Himei's enchantment is delivered and, seeing Elaine's condition, Adelyn is already working on Eleanor's. This is interrupted as Elaine flees, and with vocalized irritation, Adelyn activates one of her own abilities as she flies back down to the ground. "Scan!" No tandem effects, now. She's just getting Gishur to supplement her own Earth-aspected scanning ability, an Arcane-flavored technique to determine the shape of the ground beneath her up to a significant range. It should show her basements, sewers, hidden passages, tunnels left by giant worm monsters... but she's looking for that User.

    While Elliana's fate concerns her, she's in no hurry to rush in. If she needed support, logically, she wouldn't have gone in alone.
Guest Psyber     Psyber landed another successful shot, giving Walter some aid. It looks like the other fights are wrapping themselves up and the half-angel is hoisting his rifle up across his back and looking stern. He has a mental checklist of objectives to check on.

1) Check on Adjudicator:

    "How's our Resonance looking? You're not tired, are you, Jude?"

2)Get that spear.

    He resolves to do that later.

3)Steady nerves.

    The half-angel reaches into a side pocket on his pants and takes out a glass bottle of amber liquid. He removes the cork with his teeth and takes a long drink before putting the bottle away and taking a slow breath.
Duet Fortuna     Scanning underground reveals that Elaine is wrapped in a solid shell of rock and metal, but appears to be 'asleep' in some sense. Probably unconscious. If she were dug up by some kind of elemental powers like Flowers or Adelyn, she could be strapped to an F-150 and tote off to whereever.
Eleanor Lamb     The Big Sister snarls and charges forward. She's not about to let this one get away. She's Shifted, she's Versus, and she's not about to let this one get away so easily. She looks over at Sakura's direction and calls out. "Flowers, when you've got a minute, I've got one of them here... in the dirt. I think."

    She starts heaving at the dirt with TK, trying to haul Elaine's ass out, but it's not her forte.
Walter Bernhard     Hmm... Another clone... And it seems the original is contained... A pity. He would have liked to have tried to claim her as a servant. But at least the battle seems to be winding down for the moment, in one portion of the battlefield. The Vampire Lord noted that Vivienne was resistant to his hypnotism. But he wonders how many others might be persuaded to change causes. There must be many bodies lying around as well who could be brought back as reinforcements...

    For the moment, Walter is simply taking stock of the battle, as his monstrous minions either suffer casualties or inflict them, and he himself watches for signs of new opportunities or new games to playwith the lives of others.

    Oh, he supposes he should deal with that holy lance as well... Maybe he can convince that Psyber to come to his castle for it when this is all overwith. Oh, but then there's the matter of transporting it.

    Something to think on. It might serve him better to follow through with turning it over at this juncture. "Who remains, I wonder?" he muses as he floats over to where Vivienne is in a trap, to examine whether she is truly imprisoned with the senses at his disposal.
Sakura Haruno     Once Sakura is sure that the Prince is both down for the count and not going to choke or anything if left, she'll heed Eleanor's call, moving over to where Elaine had buried herself with a retreat, sinking down into the ground after.

    There'll be a slight delay as she manages to find the shell, though metal is beyond her earth jutsu's abilities to bend. As such, rather than just coming up with Elaine, Sakura instead pushes the entire shell up above the earth, planning to crack it a bit more carefully there. Wouldn't do to accidentally smash the yolk with the shell, after all.
Duet Fortuna     Duet climbs over some of the rubble and brushes herself off while listening to everyone else. She doesn't comment much, beyond what's necessary to say what she needs to say, to inform of what she knows. All that changes when her wristwatch, hidden under her sleeve, starts to chime loudly. She glances at it only briefly before looking up.

    "We should move, now. If we want to see Elliana at all," she says as she turns to head toward the palace. At least the barrier is down, right?
Duet Fortuna     With Sakura's abilities, Elaine's 'shell' can be retrieved easily enough, however. She probably fell unconscious from the strain, but she does appear to be alive. It would be simple to subdue her for a while.
Mizuki     She may have surrendered, but yes, she's still glitching. That, and any good author never forgets her aphorisms: in this case, a 'cornered cat becomes a lion'. If her motivations are truly what she makes them out to be, then her pacification will be suspect until the moment the emperor's head rolls away from the throne. That said, Mizuki can't exactly maintain these portals forever, so she instead summons her blade back into her hand and points it directly at Redmist. She studies her opponent's eyes for several moments before she finally lowers her sword and allows two of the portals - the vertically placed ones - to fade whence they came. She maintains the horizontal ones for the moment as something of a security measure.

    In the end, she gives a small nod. "I'll pray we oust this monarch swiftly, then, that you'll no longer be made to pledge fealty to a madman. Good sense is a commodity much too slim in quantity to be wasted in the service of people who have not the foresight to predict such outcomes as this." After a short pause, she adds, "And if you'll suffer me a small suggestion: be careful not to overuse those... things. Abstractum. They are terribly dangerous if one does not pace themselves with them, and I can assure you that this battle does not warrant such a fate worse than death. I will say no more than that for the time being as I trust you have more experience with them than I, but I could not in good conscience leave without raising the issue."

    Immediately after she finishes this statement, the other two portals evaporate in kind. Mizuki gives a small bow of her head out of respect and recognition before gradually, cautiously starting off in the direction of Psyber. She makes sure to put a good distance between herself and Redmist before turning her back to her.

    And she likely arrives just as Duey is ushering them on. She takes the moment of reprieve to hold her forehead a moment. She shouldn't have used so much energy there, but did she really have a choice? Even if she was holding back, if she didn't have surprise on her side, and Walter in aid... no. She shakes her head. Best to recoup and ready with what she has rather than to fester in hindsight. She looks to Nathan and Psyber briefly, allowing her gaze - and the fact that she's visible now - say all that need be said.
Guest Psyber     The half-angel doesn't wait for a response from Adjudicator before trudging off after Duet. He has that serious look back on his face, figuring that if the Abstractum has a problem, it will tell him while they move. Right now, Duet does have a point.

    Eyes lift up to lock onto Mizuki. Whether she can recognize the look on his face or not is up to her, but it's one that says he's all business. That he's filed away his aloof attitude for later and that he intends to see this through to the end for his own, personal reasons. Because at the end of this mission, he finally gets to put something fairly major to rest. He gives the girl a nod, perhaps of gratitude, for her presence.

    "Right, Duet. Let's finish this."
Amalthea     A slow breath and as the clone dissipates, Amalthea lets it all out in a hiss through her teeth. Plating pops open on her back briefly to vent out a long hiss of steam, coolant, and exhaust and work herself down from one fight in order to move on elsewhere. Her fingers drum on the grip of her shield, a stacatto beat to the rhythm of battle as she catches her breath.
    Turning back to get her bearings on the others, the unicorn's ear flits at the chiming of Duet's watch, just as Amalthea makes her landing and getting a move on.
    "Okay then, what are we waiting for."
Abstractum.Net     "We've spent a substantial amount of it. But it is not too much." Adjudicator says, making a firm, low, mature affirming noise. "I can continue." The blade doesn't sound that tired. "Duet is right. We should move. We need to be done with this business."
Raine Arland      Raine hopped down from his foothold, joining the others below. He sailed through the air briefly before landing in a crouch. "Movin' on? Sounds like a plan to me. Can't be stuck out here all day after all, heh." Smirking, he let his sword disperse and crossed his arms behind his head.

     "We've got us an emperor to overthrow. Let's get down to business."
Adelyn Lysen     Since it doesn't look like the sleeping Blooded is going to be getting up quickly, Adelyn quickly finds herself becoming impatient to see to the final stage. Duet's words are rather concerning, as well.

    If nothing else, she can use the same sleep spell on Elaine as she did on Grandheart. It's a slow-acting and imperfect solution, but it will make sure she doesn't wake up quickly, and they should have everything completed long before there's any risk of escape.

    Apart from that, she takes back to the air and hurries on. "Gishur, how many more can you take in tandem?" It may be increasingly relevant.
Nathan Hall     "If that is what you've decided to dedicate yourself to. A throne will remain." Yikes, that's ominous, Nathan. The tone sure wasn't though. It remains tranquil and calm. "Thank you, Redmist. We will return." And the airship turns up from the combat, moving on towards the palace. The orichalcum craft should be good for what he'll need to use it for. The screen flickers away from its side, dispersing into nothingness. Hall himself emerges onto the craft's deck, crosses his arms, and lets his cloak flap in the wind of their approach as he observes from the bow of the ship.

    Time to focus. This place has airships of its own. He'll swiftly guide the craft over to where it can dock, though this will be a seperate entrypoint. The ones he brought with him can enter at their own pace. In a situation like this, the way inside will be clear, even for a seperate entry. He'll meet the others at their destination, though he'll make sure there's a shorter route to his craft, for certain relevant parties to take. He enters with that same tranquil stoicism as ever, always quiet shuffling and slow movements.
Abstractum.Net     "Enough." Gishur says, a little more somber after all those deaths of its fellow Abstractum, but still quite willing to be arrogant. "Tell me who, and I will sustain the network as much as you like."
Duet Fortuna     "Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and he does."
    - Karl Germain


    After taking out the Heaven Guard, there's little reason to pay attention to the small fry. Most of them outright surrender or retreat anyway, and the few stubborn holdouts can be dealt with by the 'mundane' forces. From there, it's relatively easy to bust in through the front door and just... walk through the palace.

    The Heaven Guard were the last line of defense, so even though there are guards here, they don't even /try/ to stop anyone. In fact they make a hasty path and are edging for the FRONT of the palace, and it's not hard to feel why. There's a tickling sensation, a tugging at everyone's mind. It's easy to dismiss, especially for those who have mental defenses, but there's a definite poking at old, buried nightmares. Some may recognize the influence of a Shajem. Even fewer may realize it's leakage from Elliana stressing her powers in some way.

    It's also really, really easy to just walk into the throne room from there. Or, well, what's left of it.

    Shattered furniture lay amongst numerous bodies. Some are dead and bleeding, but most are just unconscious. Elliana is not without mercy, after all. It looks like the furniture got up and attacked the enemies though, as Elliana looks to be rather busy at the moment. Incredibly busy, which might be why she didn't say anything over the radio this entire time.

    Namely, the Emperor and Fairchild are engaged in a deadly battle of strength, and the Emperor is, surprisingly, winning. It's hard to tell why, because Elliana's barrier of mystical power should be much stronger, but it's showing cracks in its structure, unravelling in its weave. The Emperor, however, is still pouring on the assault with the crackling lance of mystical power. It's like a dark lightning bolt, but maintained for who knows how long, launched from his scepter.

    The Emperor is not what you'd expect. While he may have been handsome at one time, he's aged now. Thin... thin and worn. His robes are still fine, but it's almost like they've sucked the life from him, leaving him a haggard shell. Yet the crown upon his brow is bright and shining, and it syncs with the scepter that he's holding in a hand with a large gauntlet upon it. A gauntlet that bears a single eye that watches the proceedings.
Duet Fortuna     As the others enter, Elliana barely even spares a glance. All she does is lift up her torn glove, showing the single Command Seal she has left, and speak in an even tone. "Saber. Kill." The thrum of an Absolute Command fills the room, the Spell glowing and vanishing at the same time as that barrier finally shatters.

    Overwhelmed by the eruption of magic, Elliana vanishes in a blaze of purple light... one that results in a floor-rocking explosion, sending chunks of masonry everywhere both above and below. Where Fairchild was buckled down and kneeling from the effort a moment before, a tremendous, flickering snakelike being uncoils now, wings a mixture of feathered and batlike and stretching themselves out with a baleful look. It looks much like the one-eyed serpent that Elliana summoned before, from within herself... but it's floating free, and seems much more solid, and with subtle draconic signs and tiny forelegs.

    At that exact moment the 'tickle' at the nightmares becomes a firmer /yank/ that tries to draw them out, the effects of a wild Shajem trying to claw up the memories of the deepest nightmares, and the most bitter feelings toward everyone present.

    Fortunately for group cohesion, that includes the Emperor, who has apparently just killed the Binder in front of him and is letting loose a mad laugh of triumph.
Mordred     Mordred had let Bloodbane go; he survived, fair and square. If Amhar wasn't going to push it, it wasn't her place to. She'd fallen back in line with the group, with the Heaven Guard neutralized. Well, half neutralized. Still half in there, but, they're not combatants. No big deal.

    As they step through the palace and finally reach the Emperor, the Saber manifests immediate concern for her master. Somehow the old man is managing to push her back. Perhaps it's something to do with the Shajem inside her, and some of his equipment. It'd be hard to tell at a glance.

    Things go pear-shaped quickly.

    The magic of Elliana's final command spell infuses Mordred with an absolute command and power to fulfill it: kill the Emperor. She cannot weep, or contest, or try to save Elliana (it's too late for that, anyway). Elliana has been obliterated.

    Mordred's internal clock starts ticking. Without a master, and without the appropriate skill to continue existing, she is now on borrowed time. The Shajem of Rage represents a significant magic battery, but it's not an endless one. Once the Command Spell's effect wears off, give or take a few minutes, MAYBE a few hours if she's lucky, she is dead too.

    If you're going to die, you may as well make a show of it.

    The Shajem of Rage is unleashed, fully and wholly. This causes an aura to bleed from the Servant, which induces rage and blind fury-- on top of the effects of the Lord of Nightmares which is assuredly pouring out its own aura of nasty stuff.

    Mordred herself becomes coated in flames, wings appearing on her back, liquid rage flowing to Clarent and Bloody Amhar both. A wordless scream escapes her, and she charges the Emperor with no strategy, no tactics, and no skill. Just fury, savary, and the fiery rage of her Shajem.

    The Command Spell's boost makes her every sword swing devastating, and her speed close to teleportation. Her dash is really more like a flash step.
Adelyn Lysen     For Elliana to have entered into combat on her own was within tolerance. For her to have done so and /lost/, however, takes Adelyn well past irritation and into anger. Could this still be part of some plan? If so, the reasoning currently escapes her, and the apparent death of an ally--one with whom she has worked more closely than most in the Confederacy, of late--is... unacceptable. There is actually a sense of loss, mixed with the anger directed at whatever decisions led to this result, without her foreknowledge.

    She shakes it off. Elliana was not, in her estimation, stupid. Some mistakes are inevitable, and any concern is wasted at this point. There is nothing to do but move forward, and her first action, given her disposition, may as well be decided for her, this priority outweighing that of all else present.

    The spell she's preparing has no obvious purpose, nor will anyone present have ever seen it before. The most that one might be able to tell from it is that it's purely Dark magic, and has traces of primitivity rather at odds with Adelyn's usual style of intricate precision. Even as it's cast, there will be no discernible effect on anyone present.

    "Nox. Do you still have that containment equipment?" She's not speaking too loudly. No need to, really, given the radio. Outwardly, she shows no reaction to Mordred, though the aura does affect her, even through the mental wards she placed earlier and had otherwise yet to use. Anger, yes, but muted. There is work that must be done, and it is the more important.
Guest Psyber     There are so many emotions that go through Psyber when he watches Elliana fight the Emperor, lose to the Emperor, and then her Shajem comes unbound. Almost as soon as it happens, a distant and hollow look comes over his face, as if he instantly snaps to a thousand miles away all at once.

    Elliana was dead and Wrathborn was unsealed. One of these was already his worst Nightmare. The other was amplifying that exact nightmare. It is all Psyber can do to wobble on his feet slightly and stare at the Emperor. He murmurs something under his breath, only part of it audible, "--ook her f-"

    It's the unleashing of Rage that catalyzes him. Pure, unfiltered, Shajemic rage that floods over him. Normally, he'd resist, but today he has no reason to. No, it felt so much more comforting to envelop himself in the rage, to welcome it for what he wants to do. It's through a tattered remnant of willpower that Psyber manages to deliver a few last calm radio messages.

    And then his eyes harden and fire alights within them. The rifle on his back is taken off, and Psyber flicks it, turning it into a sword in a smooth motion. He takes a careful step forward, letting his foot plant as if he's not sure he can walk as opposed to just full-on sprint. He repeats that same phrase from earlier, but louder, "You took... her from me..."

    "I l..." Psyber jitters at the word, stopping at it and gagging. He snarls a bit, gripping the sword in his hands, "I... need... I..." The rage is slowly coming over his mind. He can feel it pulling at his restraint, unravelling the edges of seams that keep him together.

    "Adjudicator. I don't care how far we go. I do not care what we push or break. I want him dead. I want him DEAD, ADJUDICATOR. THIS IS MY JUSTICE. I DEMAND IT. I FUCKING DEMAND JUSTICE BE SERVED."

    Psyber finally loses it, letting everything go. He presses forward in a single charge, gripping the sword.

    "I'll FUCKING KILL YOU.
Abstractum.Net     "This is the moment that you are." Bloody Amhar says, in a perfectly calm tone. The effect of the Lord of Rage on its mind has gone to the point where it seems to roll back and become utter clarity. The twisted two-part blade grinds its teeth softly, and then with ever-increasing speed. Glowing red blood-splatters, the effect of Inscribe shift, trail from her feet. A brilliant halo of twisted metal, broken swords, forms behind her back. The blade begins to crack with a shining red. "This is the moment that embodies us. This is the moment where a king takes from you. And you destroy that king. This is what that means, Mordred."

    The blade is Shifting, and Mordred is too. But it's not taking control of Mordred. It's not demanding command of her body, or forcing her to perceive the world from the blade's eye. It no longer tries to take possession of her body as a condition for Shift. "If this is what my role is, I will take it. Are you ready, knight?"

    There is the sound of something breaking.

    A calm part of Mordred's mind can receive something. The voice of Bloody Amhar. but it is somber, sober, and the tone is as if it were pre-recorded. In just the span of a second, it imparts to her a sequence of words. And prompts a psychic agreement.

    Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Abstractum.Net     Adjudicator seems in shock. But before it can speak, Shift overtakes it. Psyber's sheer, absolute willpower generates so much Resonance that it slams the blaede up from no Shift all the way to Threshold shift, creating brilliantly glowing cracks on the blade, shining light in inscriptions up and down the body, and the glorious circular halo at Psyber's back. "Ps...PSYBER!! THIS IS--!!" Adjudicator calls out, sounding like someone desperately clinging to a raft in the middle of a storm. It is swept away in the sheer, overwhelming resonance produced by this event. "GhhhhaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!"

    There is the sound of something breaking.

    A calm part of Psyber's mind can receive something. The voice of Adjudicator, but it is somber, sober, and the tone is as if it were pre-recorded. It says...
Himei     Walking in right in time to see... Fairchild die. It's hardly the first time that Himei has seen people die. One of her first assignments in the Union involved watching a bunch of young girls fight to the death. Shortly after that, she was forced to kill a man that she'd seen as a sometime ally, only to find that it was a sacrifice.

    She wasn't sure what to feel about Elliana. Seeing the woman's past, all her pain, all the hate that been beaten into her... she could sympathize, even if she couldn't agree with what the woman had done.

    She has no time to ponder if she grieves for Fairchild though. With Mordred being ordered to take down the Emperor, and the blazing fury of the wings of rage sending that murderous intent outward, and... ironically, that's what saves her.

    ======== Over A Year Ago

    "You're on to the right of it. You take that anger and you control it. Once we teach you this fundamental fully, we'll expand a bit more. Because everything I can teach you revolves around not fighting your emotions, but channeling them. Your meditation comes in the landing of a blow on an opponent." He shifts his stance a bit, winds rippling around him as he activates a couple charms, "What I am teaching you goes against almost every other martial art."

    ==========

    The burning anger comes to a head, and Himei harnesses it, uses it to focus on one goal, one task that NEEDS to be done. The Shajem. That needs taken down. "LYSEN! NOX! GRAHAM! Whatever tricks you have for binding this thing, use them now! We can't let this thing go!"

    Green flame flares around her body before her leg kicks off. Unfortunately, she can't use her anti-evil powers unless she can calm down... but this should be good enough. Even if by all accounts doing a flying tackle against an eldritch abomination is a bad idea.
Mizuki     It's so unceremonious.

        So terribly raw, so terribly sudden.

    No one has any time to prepare themselves.

        But if they had had that time, it wouldn't have done a thing.

    Mizuki watches Elliana's body fade away with the purple flames, and in the absence of any other relevant knowledge of the situation, she knows. She knows from the pure emotion that the Shajem forces out of the group and into the world around them what has happened. She pales. She does not have time to mourn the loss of a woman she might've known: her mind flies into outpilot. What little remains of her own feelings is kept at bay by thinking that this, too, may be an illusion; that this may be some ploy on the part of the enemy to throw them off balance. The only trouble is that that does not matter. If this is indeed an illusion, it is a painfully effective one, and she is going to be one of exceedingly few who won't be completely incapacitated by it. And she won't be enough. She won't be nearly enough.

    It's all that Mizuki can do to keep a hold on her own mentality. She imagines barriers like soundproof glass to bounce back the insistent messages of the Shajem. In spite of her having few emotional ties to this world and only so many to those she's in the company of at the moment, this is still only barely successful, and the strain it causes her bounds her to the ground like a ball-and-chain. This is to say, there's nothing she can do right now, not until she adjusts to the presence of the Shajem. Not until she figures a way to attack while under this kind of barrage. Of course, she could lower her guard instead; it would only mean allowing a few smidgens of the Shajem into her mind, and she could attack with far more ferocity. It would be the practical thing to do, the sensible thing to do. It would be the only thing to do were she not so apprehensive of the idea.

    In the end, she can't sum up the courage. She isn't willing to let a creature of rage play around in her mind at all so long as she has the energy to prevent it from doing so. She is absolutely unwilling to allow the more primal aspects of humanity take such a hold over her, even if it means... even if it means that she won't be able to help the others. But that's okay, isn't it? They can hold their own, can't they? They have before, they will again. She is a tack-on, a superfluous aid, an unnecessary handicap. The best thing she can do is to simply not interfere.

    This is what she fervently tries to shout at herself in her mind, and so the effect the Shajem of Rage has on Mizuki is more familiar to the complementary sensation of fear. This Shajem does not need to bequeath any nightmare to her: the thought of succumbing to something like this -is- her nightmare. So all she can do for now is wait, watch when she summons the energy to lift her eyelids, and bide her time hoping for a lull in the outpour of anger coming from the creature that sprung from Elliana.

    And again she is powerless. She can only watch, dazed, as Psyber charges for the emperor. She has never seen him like this before. She will likely never see him like this again.

    If someone asks her to help push back the influence of the Shajem, she will act. But not before. Not before...
Eleanor Lamb     Rage. Rage unbound, it's filling the room, it's filling her, filling everyone... Eleanor's suit lurches from first the explosion, then Mordred and Psyber taking Very Drastic Actions and...

    Well, that's the Emperor handled. Now they just have a Lord of Nightmares and a Full On Shajem to handle. Elle's porthole flashes over to red, as she wheels on the others. Himei is already taking command and she's still Shifted and that's not nothing. She cries out, and follows in after her friend. She's not powered by Demons, but by Science and Force of Will. That's got to be enough. Himei goes for the tackle, and Eleanor conjures up a grody looking ball of goop which... she seems to be trying to bodily mash into the solid form of the Shajem of Rage.

    That's right, she's attempting to confuse it with Hypnosis plasmids. Hopefully this works or it's going to suck for her.
Sakura Haruno     It's ironic given Sakura's long-running stated desire to kill Elliana that she is there when it happens. Of course, she almost never had any kind of chance of making it happen, mostly because of a hideous level of weakness to the ability to inflict nightmares on her. She's far better at containing the rage, but the combination of both of those is quite the poisonous cocktail, and Flowers will visably stumble, hesitating even as her friends launch themselves into action. She should probably support them, or do something to help contain the shajem - if she even had such an ability - but for the moment she'll drop to her knees, clutching at the ground and grinding her teeth.

    The medic will look to Mizuki, having heard the offer over the radio, and manages to do something that always costs her dearly. A single pair of words, spoken as though tortured out of her in a raspy voice. "Help. Please."
Raine Arland      Thankfully, getting into the palace wasn't a problem. The rank and file guard didn't even bother to try and stop them. Saved effort on their part. The walk through the palace however was still somehow somber. Raine could feel something tugging at the edge of his consciousness, but he tried to focus on the task ahead.

     "Fragarach. Am I only one who's feeling that?" He asked seemingly to no one.

     A moment later, the woman in white appeared floating beside him. She was the one assisting him with magic throughout the battle. She held a sleeve to her mouth and hummed thoughtfully. "No. No you are not. ...I can't place what it is, but it's....hmn..." She trailed off, eyes narrowing. "I trust that we'll find out when we arrive." That was all Fragarach had to say.

     The rest of the walk went in silence, but the sound of battle. Raine narrowed his eyes. "That don't sound good." He mumbled aloud. The sounds grew louder and louder and then...they arrived. The throne room was a mess. There were people wounded and dead, but most unconscious as far as he could tell. The important part was the Emperor currently locked in battle with Elliana? She seemed to be struggling.

     "Aw crap-" Raine was prepared to move in, but everything happened all too fast. A Command Spell was used on Saber. ...Saber? Mordred? Yes, Mordred. Elliana was killed? "AW CRAP-" SOMETHING came out of her. Mordred burst into flames, literally, and charged straight for the emperor.

     But that wasn't all.

     Somehow...Raine could feel a rising of anger welling up within him. "Guh...the hell?" He brought a hand to his head and shook it, trying to stave off the effect. "Shit, is this some kinda...tch!" He grit his teeth, but held his ground. With Modred and Psyber both charging in, there was literally no need for him to go and do the same. As pissed off as he was feeling right now, this wasn't his justice to serve.

     A deep breath was taken.

     He looked towards the freed Shajem. "Fragarach." The woman in white floating by him looked impassively on, apparently either not affected by the rage, or resisting it. "That's not our fight. We need to help put this thing back down."

     Fragarach eyed Raine, silent for several moments. Then her gaze settled on the Shajem. Without a word, she raised her arms, and began channeling magic. Several large, white magic glyphs appeared in several places at once. Above, aside, below, "Illuminate Bound." She muttered, speaking the spell's name. From each circle, there is a metallic rattle as searing hot, white chains of light burst outwards, aiming to wrap around the Shajem and attempt bind it in place. Keep it from moving long enough for the others to do their thing.

     Raine, was useless with traditional spells. He couldn't help at all. He just stood by, hands clenched into fists and watching as Mordred and Psyber went at the Emperor.

     He needed to see what would happen. How this would turn out.

     Whether his sword needed to be drawn.
Abstractum.Net     The Abstractum speak to their Users in a moment of brief psychic clarity, in that pre-recorded way, and in utter unison.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/201370883/BEYOND_THE_THRESHOLD.mp3

"I am the Resonant: That which amplifies, that which augments."
"I am that which lives for the sake of the singularity of the User."
"To you, to all that you are, to all that you may be, I call:"
"Come forth into this world, your form born of identity."

"I, whose life rests in your concept."
"You, whose will rests in my concept."
"If you will truly do whatever must be to manifest what you are,"
"I will grant to you an embodiment of unlimited concept."

"I swear that I am all that is right in your paradigm,"
"And I depose all that would dare to defy it."
"Heretofore trapped and withheld, become unbound, unlimited,"
"And defy the chains wrought by the God of Gods."

"I am the echoes in space, the reverberation in time,"
"Of those who dare to claim to the world: "I AM"."
"I will forever speak in kind, to herald your call to reality."
"For your identity, made manifest, I will sacrifice all I must."

"I will break the threshold between the Self and Resonant."
"I will break the threshold between concept and reality."
"May all resistance fall useless, may every chain snap, every limit fail."
"User, if you accede, heed my summons. Defy this world, become your truth."

    There is no way that they both would not agree.

    And so they break past Threshold Shift. Bloody Amhar and Adjudicator's bodies both explode, but their Core Matrix remains suspended, shining a brilliant red all through their forms. Both have become swords of pure crimson light and flame. From the backs of Psyber and Mordred, two twisted figures emerge. One is a woman, at least twice his height, wearing a long robe, her eyes covered in a blindfold. One hand holds a pair of scales. The other holds a shining, vicious blade. Its blindfold barely manages to contain a brutal light that threatens to burn everything. It emerges from Psyber. From Mordred, a tremendous lion, three times the size of a human. Many swords are embedded in its thick, blood-matted mane. Its face is covered in wounds, and blood and fire run from its teeth. The hateful, feral beast exudes the intense aura of murder.

    The Abstractum speak in unison. "REDSHIFT ABSTRACTION"

    Mordred's blade activates one of the highest possible tiers of Blood Tech there are. It will strip away every defense it can. Every single particle of blood shed during the battle has the energy drawn from it, turning to an odd white dust. Psyber's blade activates one of the highest possible tiers of Morality Paradigm there are. The Trial by Jury will allow that rational part of his mind to select any five individuals of which he is aware, aside from himself. Whatever they believe the Emperor deserves, the blade's amplifying concept will attempt to apply it directly to the Emperor.
Guest Kevin     Kevin was running along with the others, and arrives- just in time to see Elliana's barrier break. He would normally take the time to be shocked, but there's no time with the he reaches out with a hand, "O Aidios, grant us with Your holy protection!" --this will, at least, allow him to cast a barrier of energy to at least protect himself and those around him.
    Though, the barrier begins to fade as he realizes just what's happened. "...Elliana..." There's a pang of regret and of pain. This is leaving him without action until he realizes that Mordred was...
    It feels like the world has slowed down immensely. He did not expect someone he had known like Elliana die in such a manner. He watches in silence to everyone's reactions. It's... It's....
    No chance to catch up. No chance to do nothing. If they cannot defeat the Emperor, then Elliana's death will be in vain. Mordred's Rage sweeps through the room and Kevin tilts his head back with his eyes closed, letting that powerful wave of energy flow past him. However, whereas there are people who are willing to give in to the rage, Kevin knows that he absolutely cannot. He must stay in control. It's an immense struggle- the priest's muscles are tense, and his mind is focused.
    But when he opens his eyes and looks forward, it's as if the rage itself has begun to flow around him- much like water parted around the rocks in a river.
    "O Azure light that shines from within the Abyss," as Kevin speaks, there's a different intonation to his voice. Instead of prayer, he speaks memorized scripture, and with a different power behind his words. As the Dominion raises his hand before him, a brilliant blue-white arcane mark appears and glows brightly in the air behind him. Kevin begins to speak in prayer again, "In the name of the Goddess of the Sky, I take authority to bind this power and force in the air and the earth." He gestures with a hand. I bind the force that comes against us, and seal it through Your strength." Kevin closes his eyes again- he has to remain focused. The waves of Mordred's Rage are still something he has to actively defend against as well.
    With Kevin's prayer, rings of blue white light should begin to form around the Shajem. He brings up the other hand next to the first, as if he's cupping something in the air before him. He fists one hand and closes the other over it. "Aidios, I beseech you to make powerless, banish, and tie down this presence. This influence that is aimed against us." The amount of power called in by the stigma behind him is overwhelming, and though Kevin struggles within to keep it under his control control, there's a serenity to him on the outside. He needs to be as calm as he possibly can, and keep as much focus on this One. Single. Task.
Duet Fortuna     The laughing Emperor halts as he hears that scream of rage, the command to kill him. He has just enough time to see the empowered Mordred blur out of sight, to see Psyber explode in anger. He does not have enough time to counterattack. The only thing that saves him are his numerous artifacts, and the fact that they are specifically meant to counter Shajem powers. The Lord of Rage, even as it boosts Mordred, also lets the Emperor survive by slowing the Servant down. It's not even an eyeblink, the fraction of a fraction of a second, but it's enough for a barrier driver to be activated. It blazes with light, and shatters just as swiftly under the immense weight of a Command Spell ordering lethal damage upon him.

    The old man is sent hurtling back, crashing into the far wall and sending tapestries tumbling. He survived... but that had to hurt, probably cracked ribs and gave numerous bruises, not to mention put him off his feet.

    "Eheh... heh. More of you. I guess... I need to use it," he chuckles, coughing painfully. He tugs something from his robes, reaching for the gauntlet below.

    It is a small object. A cartridge. An Abstractum cartridge. Though it shows the charring of its casing and still reeks of sulfur and soot, the color can still be made out. Black as pitch.

    The Black Cartridge slams into place, and the Emperor's sword leaps into his hand. "THEN WE FINISH IT!"
Amalthea     Into the throne room and perhaps this is not what Amalthea had expected to see. Elliana and the Emperor locked in combat, and for as old and worn as the man looks... He is victorious?
    The unicorn's lone eye blinks in mystified bafflement when the Binder is seemingly eradicated from existence, leaving behind nothing but an unchained Shajem. And she blinks again, trying so very hard to make sure that is truly indeed what she saw.
    The true nightmare hits when it finally clicks for the old knight. It's real. That had really just happened. There is no denying it.
    And in that same bewildered, mystified, horrified moment, her gaze immediately turns to stare at the half-angel, desbelief etched as much on her face as any other, as another realization dawns upon her.
    In that moment, as Elliana gives Mordred her finall Command, and the Servant unleashes the full fury of the Shajem of Rage, the two forces of Rage and Nightmare slam Amalthea like walls on two sides, body quaking in a flooding mix of terror, fury... And one other emotion- one all her very own.
    Despair.
    It's funny... Elliana had betrayed her. She had betrayed the lot of them. Betrayal is perhaps the one thing the unicorn simply cannoy brook, but in time she had grown to forgive the Binder, rather than sulk in a hate that had long since passed anyway. But the despair is not for her, no, it is a feeling she reserves for someone else.
    She's still staring dead on at Psyber, when she tips her head forward, rainbow hair casting a dark shadow of gloom over silvery features, hiding that eye from view and the single, crystalline tear that runs down the plating of her cheek.
    "... Everyone stay out of Psyber's way. Do not question why. Do not stop him. Do not try to stay his hand."
    Her voice is coarse and rasping, roiling with a mixture of woe and righteous fury.
    She dare not stand in Psyber's path. She dare not try and stay his hand or talk him down.
    Not when she knows precisely what he has just lost.
    When she finally glances up it is with an eye so old, worn, and tired, that to look into it would be like looking into woeful antiquity itself, as she takes but a single step. And then breathes but a single request to the gauntlet on her fist.
    "Ironclad Oath... Pain suppression and Barrier Drivers to maximum. My duty to my friend demands it."
    That single step breaks into a sprint- suddenly launching into a rocket propelled leap, as soon as that black cartridge is produced.
    Amalthea's shield is up in the path to halt whatever the Emperor may throw at both Psyber and Mordred, with her own body, heedless of the unbridled rage nearly completely possessing the both of them.
Nathan Hall     Nathan Hall is hit by nightmarish visions. To say that he resists them would be completely false. He does not resist them. They slam into his mental jaw, so to speak, with their full force. He is full of fear. He sees vision after vision of eyes and betrayal. He is full of misery. He sees vision after vision of friends falling, and dying. But Nathan Hall is a man who knows how to deal with this. He has always suffered visions of horrible potential future situations.

    Nathan Hall is hit by rage. To say that he resists that would be completely false. He does not resist it. It slams into his mental jaw with its full force. He is full of anger. His mind turns to betrayal after betrayal, offense after offense. But Nathan Hall is a man who has succumbed to those things twice. Once, a long time ago. Once, very recently. He will not do it again.

    "Bloodstone. It's time. Bring them."

    The Binders were on-call. The situation is grim. But Nathan remains absolutely stoic, absolutely unemotional, and absolutely tranquil in how he moves and acts. He begins drawing his Negotiation control center in the air in brilliant yellow lines of Hastur magic, the control mechanism of his Negotiation Bindings. The Binders will do what needs to be done. His drawing is stoic, yet confident. He knows exacdtly what to draw. He knows exactly how to stop this. The tremendous wingbeats flutter Nathan's cloak, but the man himself does not move. The others can protect him. He needs to stand still, utterly still, and focus.

    
    "Drain its energy. Enough that it can be Bound. I will Negotiate."
Walter Bernhard     Walter Bernhard is not certain what is going on in there while he remains out here. Something called a Shajem, some sort of pervasive sense of fear and rage radiating from within the palace, sounds of large-scale combat being joined... Something about binding or mitigating... They were warned to stay out of Psyber's way, and of course that of Saber as well, and while Walter does not ordinarily have cause to fear for his safety, in this instance, he sees no reason to even enter the palace with the kinds of forces being thrown around.

    Without knowledge of the enemy or the circumstances, an appropriate response would be difficult, and launching himself into the chaos of battle might only hurt chances. So, he chooses to remain outside, and to guard the prisoner that is Lady Redmist.

    "Would you care to place bets on who triumphs in this battle?" he asks of her quietly, as he listens to the sound of conflict within. The question may seem flippant, but he is actually paying quite close attention, and treating this matter quite seriously. A loss for his allies is a loss for him as well, probably. And while he has confidence in his own power, even he understands there are vastly powerful beings in there, and that he can not guarantee survival. From the sound of it, one of them has already fallen.

    So the question, as he remains outside, and considers options, is whether to move closer to that sensation that draws forth his furious contempt for human beings, and echoes of a long-forgotten time when he was still one of them when a vampire came calling. The moment and self that he rages against most and that has left his black dreams for centuries are one and the same. And he does not cherish the idea of recalling that time and that feeling.

    But there might yet be prizes to be won if he dares to take them. So the question, as he levitates next to Redmist, is whether he dares.

    And as he thinks about that, beings that might be considered gods wage a very personal war for the fates of many, as well as their own.
Nox     That's something Nox had never expected to see. Something he had made plans for, as he does for all things, but one he had never anticipated, and never hoped, to enact. Elliana's death, though not so personal to him as to the many people who have come to know her over years of alliance and opposition both, is cause for no insignificant amount of anger. Not as much at the loss of the individual, but for what she had represented, and what could have potentially been; not one of many, temporary setbacks overcome over hundreds of years, but the hammerblow of a true, irrevocable loss of something entirely unique. He'd barely had the chance to speak to her as well, having planned for 'when this is all over'.

    However, this isn't his first time tangling with the Lord of Rage. Unleashed as it is, along with the fully unbound Wrathborn, it is on an entirely different level than before, but the one, surefire countermeasure remains the same. Bringing his hands together, splaying his fingers to frame the magical reactor that takes the place of his heart, the eyes of his impassive mask close entirely, and under his breath, he whispers "This time, I am forced to call upon you."

    And it answers: I remain here for you, Noximilien.

    The space between his fingers crackles with a shot of white hot lightning, coalescing into a ghostly, flickering singularity surrounded by six, identical panes of cyan light, marked with an infinitely inward reaching spiral. The cubic array begins to spin, faster and faster, letting off the thrumming whine of some colossal generator, rapidly rising in pitch and volume, doubling over and over again. Moments later, what for all the world appear to be draconic wings erupt from behind him, their ghostly, ethereal span studded with glittering stars.

    The entire back half of the room washes blue-white, and then abruptly explodes, the stones surging upwards over the titan of brass and gold that surges up from underneath them, crashing through layers of castle floor until monolithic mechanical legs smash and claw into the throne room, securing their footholds with screeching sprays of sparks. Only part of Horologium's face is visible, but the fact remains that Nox has summoned the entire thing, spontaneous, without the full day of preparation and construction that he's always apparently needed in past, tiers of power above what he's previously demonstrated. In fact, anyone with magical senses should perceive the spell as a brief, blinding supernova of power, like the descent of a god to Earth, before it just as swiftly fades.

    Nox isn't here to fight the emperor though. There are others for that. As his hand snaps towards the Lord of Nightmares like a general issuing the order to fire, Horologium's massive arms swing into the room, collapsing the ceiling where they scrape across it until they encircle the Shajem. Four massive needles shoot from each tip with a crackling thump, crackling with power for a spare second of charge before the air is suddenly rent with a deafening hum and the stench of ozone as space itself breaks between their circuit, enveloping the Shajem in a spherical aura of nearly opaque light, rippling and surging as the essence of the creature's existence is siphoned away in great, crippling torrents, making the crush of collapsing time harder and harder to fight by the moment.
Duet Fortuna     Redmist can hear the battle. No, more than that, she can FEEL the battle. She grimaces, then shakes her head. "No. No I think I won't. With stakes like these, I can't think of anything I would wish to bet. The future of my world is with that small group."
Guest Psyber     He can feel the Shift. Feel everything break around him, his Abstractum shattering in his hand and becoming a weapon of pure energy. Psyber lets out a howl that mixes anguish, anger, rage, and utter despair. The sound of a man who lost one of the few things in the world that was irreplacable to him. It's a pained, almost bestial howl as he charges in.

    Even so lost in rage as he is, there is something seared in his mind. The binding purpose, the guiding point of his rage. A white-hot note in the back of his mind.

    'No More Loss'

    Terra Majora had taken so much from him. He had almost lost Haruno for it. He had almost lost Nathan for it. He HAD lost Elliana for it. This world had, at every turn, bled Psyber from the wrists for any inch of gain or progress. And his psyche had finally buckled under the repeated strain to his very foundations.

    And so when Amalthea, one of his best friends, dives in front of an attack for him, Psyber has enough rationality to recognize it. And he has enough sanity to not further his loss by hurting her for the precious opening she gave him to do what needs to be done. He may not show it in voice or in face, but his entire body shifts to change his path, darting around Amalthea as he dare not allow Terra Majora to cause him to hurt one more of his friends.

    "You take her from me... and now you dare, DARE... use my sin... my failure as a weapon against me?! GIVE ME BACK THAT CARTRIDGE OR I WILL PRY IT FROM YOUR CORPSE!"

    He has a judgment to make, a jury to poll. Deep, deep in the back of his mind, the detective awakens as the warrior makes a death charge. In the depths of Psyber's mind, his rational self paces the floors, opening the file cabinets of his mind to pull the most optimal pool he could possibly pick. Names begin to click into place, the depths of his mind are summoned up for a pool of perfect candidates.

Joachim Fairchild - A Father Who Died For His Daughter

Leanne Fairchild - A Mother Who Wished Her Daughter Happiness

Wrathborn - A Monster Who Found Humanity

Mordred - The Twice-Abandoned Knight

Amalthea - Who Knew What Was In His Heart

    With his jury decided upon, Psyber thrust towards the Emperor with his blade, trusting the projection on his back and the jury he selected to give him a verdict that will deliver the justice he seeks.
Adelyn Lysen     Adelyn is left momentarily stunned when her spell is completed. "Nothing... nothing?" What of the unnatural mental influences that are filtering through her defenses are still making precise thought difficult. However, she's seen both these Shajem before, and had time to prepare. With a snarl, her hands move, and new wards are set in place, as perfect as any could be, and at least enough to keep out further damage until something is specifically directed at her.

    She continues moving, starting only slightly at the feeling produced by Nox's summoning, and then continuing the spell she has cast against ever previous Shajem they so drained, though in this case, she again has that advantage of already having experimented on its energy. She plugs the necessary values into the mental formula that transforms into so much shining, blue-white light, forming an enormous magical circle of binding in the air above what Elliana's defeat has left unbound. She is slowed by the earlier efforts, but with Kevin already at the same task, there should be no true difficulty on their end. The binding will take place. The energy will be drained. Nathan will negotiate. All proceeds according to plan, as she carefully watches for any need to adjust the parameters of her spell.
Duet Fortuna     Tackling a god is not something many people would do, but then... Himei isn't many people. The girl had suffered genocide at her own hand, had fought terrors from hell itself while most thought her dead. Fighting a god was a simple matter, right?

    Not so much. The Sailor collides with the Lord of Nightmares, slamming him back against the wall and causing it to crumble. This does have the effect of surprising the Shajem, causing it to start lashing out and trying to dislodge its rider. This means that it gives the people who can actually bind plenty of breathing room, right away. Fragarach's spell erupts around, wrapping about the snakelike body and tightening to keep the lashing about down in size, though it's already threatening to break free.

    That's when Kevin's binding starts to have an effect, one which is starting to push down upon the ancient being. It feels... /different/ from last time. Much different. Weaker yet more slippery at the same time, as if something were vastly /wrong/ with the power beneath.

    It still works though, partly because of the crash through the palace of Nox's fortress, closing down and working to aid in the containment, to drain some of that massive amount of power out of the writhing creature. Waves upon waves of emotion pour out, speaking to centuries of confinement, of clawing at a prison unknown.

    With the Binders setting up, it is weakening rapidly. Now may be a good chance for Nathan to negotiate. When Adelyn joins in, there is a... struggle. As if something is not quite right. The spell locks on nonetheless though.
Mizuki     Mizuki is still.

    The battle around her is immaterial; characters within a dream, demons within a nightmare. She hugs herself closely, ducking her head, closing her eyes. She wills it away. If she cannot see it, surely it cannot exist.

    So sound dulls for her. The light of the world, too, falls deaf to her reason. When she opens her eyes, she'll be back in the Clocktower. Psyber and Arthur will be there, the latter making jokes, the former coolly sipping a warm class of coffee with his legs crossed. All will be well. Yet even if it weren't, what does she care? She is an observer: to her, the greatest comfort should be silence, to be in a void of thought and feeling. Why do her thoughts so immediately turn to People? Why does she so readily imagine something Tangible? Her body begins to quiver. No, she's losing her grip. She won't be able to shut out the Shajem forever. She won't be able to cast away the scene before her eternally. No... no. She only barely holds back tears at the thought of giving in to this thing, this abomination, this amalgamation of human frailty --

    -- but then comes a voice, like the chiming of a bell. At first she can't resolve its meaning for herself; it is not something to be parsed, only sound. But then it comes again. And again. And again. As if stirred by some unseen wind, a chime continues. Until those sounds resolve into a Voice, and that voice into Words: Sakura's words.

    Her eyes open. The sounds of the fight whip back into reality like the rush of a waterfall. All of her guards are down, and her face, like Psyber's, has grown blank. Rage wells within her, and she focuses on the Shajem completely. She can not see nor hear as the emperor injects the black cartridge: he lies outside of her realm of vision. Therefore, he can not be.

    She is a creature possessed by rage, but her rage is an unusual one. Hers is not an anger directed at a person, or thing, but rather the concept of anger itself. She intends to make rage a weapon against rage. She means to wield dreams as a blade against nightmares. And it will be so.

    Soon, soon, something emerges in a sphere around her form. The air begins to ripple and waver as though the entire throne had been submerged. Mizuki begins to float, soundlessly, without flair. Her smile is Gone. Her countenance is Mute. As the field of influence that had begun only meters apart from her being spreads to the extremes of the room, motes of light seem to rise from the ground. Sepia coats the eyes of all those who are not yet blinded by their rage. Amidst this rising forest of lights, prisms, she lightly raises her blade to level with the Shajem. Then, she speaks:

    "We are more than this."

    A thin ray of light energy spreads outward from her being. The grasp the Shajem has on the minds of all those present appears as a chain flowing from the beast to all those in the room, including herself.

    "We are more than hatred and impulse: we are all these things measured by tenderness and innocence. Therefore, you are but a fragment of us. You who would profess to control us -- you are nothing."

    "You whom would call yourself God, supreme, we are those who chose to bequeath you this honor. Though you claim primacy over One, we claim primacy over All. We are ultimate. In giving life to God, we are become the very same. To us, you are small."

    "So we will be lacerated by you no longer. We will rise above you and seal you in kind. You will become our Tool, needful in existence only as we deem you should be. Your rage will take hold of us no longer, and it will instead be us who take hold of you until the day comes when we need you no longer. And when that day comes, it will be then as it is now:"

    "Haunt us no longer; begone."
Mizuki     With that, Mizuki's mind attempts to conjure massive weapons borrowed from all those present. An apparition of Adjudicator, another of Bloody Amhar; all these things appear at once alongside her own sword, Aelinos, to bear into the chains that bind them: the symbols of the hold the Shajem of Rage has on them. Ideally, this will briefly, entirely sever the influence of the Shajem of Rage on those present with the exception of those absolutely hinged against it, like Psyber.

    Successful or not, Mizuki would then aim the weapons - all of them at her disposal - and send them flying at the Shajem. It is uncertain whether this will do any physical harm, but it does not intend to: it means only to hold them, and to stifle their magic so long as it takes for the binding to complete.

    The life fades from Mizuki's eyes. She is no longer conscious.
Nathan Hall     Begin Negotiation.

    Nathan doesn't even hesitate. There are at least six layers to this configuration he has prepared ahead of time, but unlike every other Negotiation, he doesn't wait for an experimental adjustment. The sixth ring of the spellcircle he's drawn in the air in front of him spins to a stop. Then the fifth. The fourth, the third, the second. When the first finishes, it locks into place, like ammunition into a gun.

    "Are we in agreement, Shajem?" He asks, rhetorically, to a beast with an alien mind. He has prepared his diplomacy for the force of nature, and he has, it seems, utmost confidence in it.

    End Negotiation.
Mordred     Of course Mordred would consent.
    It's true in her current state she can't much speak, and her ability to think is clouded by a god of rage. Somewhere along the line she's likely questioned the wisdom of eating it numerous times, but the benefits have always been worth it. Today is no exception.

    Amhar pushes Mordred to her roots. A figure of authority-- a king, an emperor, it doesn't matter-- has taken from her, or denied her her fair lot in life. She throws a tantrum, and burns their kingdom in vengeance. This is something she's very good at doing.

    Psyber's request for a jury verdict is met simply: a burst of rage, a thirst for blood. To scatter his limbs to every corner of Terra Majora and make an example of him. Perhaps a bit harsher than the half-angel is looking for, but honest, at least.

    With that done, the Saber moves on the offensive again.

    Fire and rage seep through the room, animating the decor. Ceremonial swords, tapestries, chunks of stone and debris from the fighting, perhaps even decorative suits of armor from other parts of the palace. Animated, fiery objects seep into the room, launching at the Emperor in an unending torrent. And at Amalthea, too; her shielding the Servant unfortunately puts her in the way, and she won't be spared some flak.

    But if all the Emperor had to deal with is animated swords, armor and stones, he'd be able to effortlessly brush Mordred aside. The Servant is still charging in, pushing in with the defense-breaking ability her Abstractum has produced. No doubt, her lion is following suit, to maim and gore.

    Clarent and Bloody Amhar swing, and swing again, and swing AGAIN, an unrelenting push of savage swordsmanship not in the least bit refined. Pure red mana like blood trails the sword, and so do flames, extending the weapons' reach with shockwaves and fiery whips.
Abstractum.Net     Psyber has overdone his Strike Drivers. His attack, while profoundly overwhelming, still expresses one of his flaws. His Abstractum cannot protect him with its lacking Barrier Driver. And the Black Cartridge means that the Emperor may well have enough power to assure a mutual kill.

    Amalthea takes the place. The Emperor will strike, there is no question. But pain is gone for Amalthea. The unicorn will feel utterly disconnected from the experience, like someone playing a videogame instead of experiencing it in person in any way. Her endurance amps up profoundly. She breaks her own Inscribe Shift in this moment, lines of literature running up and down her left arm as layers upon layers of crackling red reinforcement rush over her shield. Mordred can probably handle herself. But Psyber will be saved of the flaws of his Concept, however briefly Amalthea might achieve that.
Duet Fortuna     Through all this, Duet has been lingering back. In fact, for much of the situation, she hasn't even been in the room! When the throne room starts to get torn apart, though, she kind of has to be there. The wall that was keeping her outside is gone, after all. What she sees is people struggling against the Shajem, and Psyber, Mordred, and Amalthea fighting the Emperor.

    Well.

    As Eleanor's effect takes hold, the writhing momentarily stills. It's just a moment, but it's something. It gives her an idea. "Himei. Bear it down to the floor, closer to Eleanor. Eleanor, if you have any means of claming or forgetfulness, use them now. Focus on forgetfulness, they have simple minds and most of their memories are buried deep. I'll do what I can to help."

    To Amalthea, she replies, "You've done what you can. Get out of their way. Through the wall. Through the Emperor. Psyber, Mordred, smite him as you wish."

    This involves two things. One of them is joining the Binders that are hurrying in, helping to structure the Binding for Nathan, joining in with Graham's efforts and Adelyn's own, to hopefully allow Nox more time as well.

    The other is to enforce those orders she gave.
Adelyn Lysen     Uninfluenced, but for the natural effects of the admittedly stressful situation, Adelyn grows cold. Something is wrong, but she adjusts. Here, and here. Here? An oddity. For a long moment, she considers informing Nathan--but a glance his way reveals another surprise, as he has nearly completed the negotiation, without any hesitation. Third data point. Her mind clicks over.

    "Really." Truly vexing.
Eleanor Lamb     Orders recieved. Though, another Green is a surprise, but not one Eleanor's going to think too long about. She was holding on for dear life, but now that the creature is... stilling, she growls and latches on a bit. one hand undoes her helmet, and she casts it aside even s Mordred starts to fill the room with flak. A bit of a risk but unless she's skewered right in the brain she should be fine.
    The reason is she needs to look the Shajem in the Conceptual Eyes for this. She settles in, her palms moving to clasp at the creature's head as she levers herself around to get a good look. She mentally goads energy into Utopia, trying to enhance her own powers as she dumps all of her EVE into this. The Hypnosis takes hold and she can feel it working. Now to just simply...

    She can't actually mentally project into the creature and that is very much for the best. She'd rather not give the Shajem an in. She can hum lullabies though. She's good at those. "Calm. Calm, dear thing. This is not the end. This is only a change. Just... follow my voice. This is a time for forgetting. Just melt away..."

    It is the voice of a sibling. A sister. This is nothing so bludgeoning as it could be, that's for certain and Elle's... really having to shove away at the Rage trying to fill the room.
Himei     Bear it down? Himei is startled as she suddenly has a Tandem Paradign aligned with... an unknown Abstractum? This is bizarre, but she's not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She's actually not THAT surprised that Duet has an Abstractum, honestly. She seemed to know a fair bit about them.

    Twisting around, she flaps wings and finds purchase on rubble, shoving off with all her power to try to bring the Shajem crashing down and compact it, making it easier for the various binders like Kevin and Adelyn to deal with it.
Sakura Haruno     Flowers will manage to make it up to her feet as the Shajem are at least weakened a bit, her stomach roiling even so. She doesn't want to interfere with the one fight, not unless Mordred and Psyber look to be in trouble, and on the other end she doesn't have any ability to really interact with the Shajem. As such, in spite of Mizuki's attempts to offer help at Sakura's request, for the moment what it frees her up to do is look over Mizuki and make certain she's going to be okay, giving a cursory examination and trying to move her into a more comfortable position. Still, if Psyber seems to need it, she'll be there to intervene, though Amalthea has that covered for now.

    "What a mess." She'll say, sneaking a glance over at Duet, though her voice probably doesn't carry enough over the noise of battles to be heard.
Raine Arland      "....."

     Fragarach narrowed her eyes at Duet's approach and the orders given, but offers no objection. Her gaze returned to the spell being cast and channeled even more magical energy into it. The chains that were threatening to break apart mended themselves and tightened anew.

     She directed her arms downward, the circles that the white chains were coming from following, all arraying by the ground as she attempted to assist with bringing the Lord of Nightmares down to ground level.

     Raine meanwhile continued to stand by, watching as Mordred and Psyber's charge forced the Emperor back. He produced a black object, slotting it into his gauntlet? Why did he have a bad feeling about that? Should he jump in? Should he help them?

     No. He stayed back.

     He stayed back and watched.

     It wasn't his time to act.
Duet Fortuna     The Emperor doesn't hesitate. Why should he? An aura of MAJESTY surrouds him, his eyes crazed. "MINE!" He laughs, and as Amalthea leaps in front his sword arcs out for that deadly, careless swing. Anything in his way must be subjugated... or destroyed. That is all he cares about right now, subjugation or destruction. The blade packs quite a punch. It isn't one of the Hundred, but it has the Cartridge behind it and it IS a powerful enchanted item.

    The sacrifice is not in vain, though. It leaves him open, partly. It keeps him from striking Mordred, vulnerable to his anti-Shajem abilities, or Psyber with his lack of Barriers. It means he holds up his gauntlet, trying to summon some sort of barrier, the might of the Emperor, to block. These shatter under the high level shift and the utter power of the Command Spell, and with a scowl on his face, the Emperor's body feels the deep cuts. They slice into him, bite into his body, but he doesn't seem to feel the pain. Mauling him like that is definitely happening, but he doesn't stop. He readies his blade.

    And judgement comes.

    The verdict is in, but what it is is not clear. The blade that strikes is not that much stronger than the flurry that Mordred has given, but it strikes amidst the numerous deep slashes.

    There's no scream. No drawn out cry of agony. Only the sudden /tearing/ noise as something breaks. The circlet on his forehead snaps. The scepter explodes in half. He's a dead man walking, it's clear, as he isn't even bleeding now.

    "No..." the voice utters... coming from the gauntlet that slips off and clatters to the ground.
Guest Kevin     Kevin said as much- the process of binding the shajem would take every bit of power and focus he had. He flinches as he can feel that- though it is weaker- seems to try and be able to slip from the bindings.
    He continues speaking- no longer loudly, but rather to himself, under his breath. Hands that were once steady are now trembling. He's no longer hearing or even responding to anything else occuring around him. Everything is on binding the shajem- and that one task alone.
    The struggle is clear- those with the spiritual sense to detect such things can feel that Kevin's weakening. He takes a deep breath eventually the prayers fall quiet. When the other Binders begin to take part, however, it's taking enough pressure off of the priest's own strength that he can begin to take a deep breath and open his eyes.
    This encourages him, and simple encouragement can be immensely powerful. He narrows his eyes, focusing on the shajem and trying to rework the use of his own binding to make it easier on his part, and allow the others to step in and assist this time. It should make it easier for himself and others who are involved with this part of the process.
Walter Bernhard     The Vampire Lord turns to glance at Redmist as he too listens, and feels the currents of magic, the pulse of emotional energy. Humans. They're all so wretched and useless. He turns his yellow gaze back upon the path into the palace.

    They can't do anything on their own. They're fodder to be tormented and slaughtered. It would do this world good to be turned into a blood bath. Really add some color to the place. And the noise of lamentation, as well. Of wails and misery. Like that damned distant voice he hears in his head. A foolish man with foolish aspirations, fed upon and turned by his superior.

    An existence he has long since divorced from his current one. He understands his loathing for the human named Walter Bernhard is partly due to his vampiric nature, that his innate superiority as a Vampire Lord causes him view his origins with scorn. And he understands quite well that also ties into his general sadistic need to spurn them and his disdain for humanity as a whole.

    He is not a fool. He understand the base causations. But over the centuries, his psyche has transformed so much that he is literally not the person that the mortal him was, nor even the vampire that was made from such. He's a separate person. And that person he is now, that MONSTER, of his own will, filled with loathing for these people who need rescuing... Puts a clawed gauntlet to his face and closes his eyes as he takes in a long breath to fill dead lungs, and then lets it out slowly.

    "What fun would the world be without humans in it?" he mutters under his breath. He can not believe he is doing this. But as he lowers his hand, he says, "If you decide to run, don't go too far. I'm going to go help save your world, and if I have to hunt you down afterwards I will be very displeased." A pair of skeletons in Roman armor rise from the ground on either side of the prisoner, just incase.

    The Vampire Lord spreads his cape and transforms all at once into a vast, demonic bat that takes wing and flies into the palace where others who have been fighting the Shajem and the Empire for the fate of this world far longer than he, with far more care for the outcome, sacrificed so much and had so much taken from them, engage in this final battle. He isn't going to pretend he is acting out of compassion. His heart is pitch, purged of all empathy. But humans, as weak as they are keep getting back up after they are taken down. No matter how many Walter has tortured and killed, more always try to change their destinies. So many have failed. So many have striven to fight in the name of truth, or love, or hope, or justice, and wound up as shambling corpses or disembodied specters wandering the halls of Castle Bernhard.
Walter Bernhard     But they keep trying anyway. He took it as a sign of their animalistic nature, their inferiority, so long ago. But because he knows himself so well, he can not help but wonder what might have become of Walter Bernhard the mortal man if he had used the power he was given by his attacker to defend humanity instead of drown it in blood.

    If he had fought other vampires instead of siding with them and manipulating his way into the power he now has. If a human is given the power of a superior being and still acts like a human, can they accomplish something they could not otherwise?

    Could Walter Bernhard the man have become Walter Bernhard the vampire and still fought to save his world from monsters?

    The giant bat flies into the throne room, and morphs back into the Vampire Lord, in mid-air. The vampire Beloved by the Night, who rules over the Forest called Eternal Night, prepared to act to preserve a world where mortals exist to be tormented, extends a gauntleted hand... And can do nothing. The fact that it looks like everyone is doing just fine without his 'superior power' besides, he can not find it within himself to help, to nurture, to repair, to make a positive change, not even through the act of destruction.

    The Emperor has enemies plenty formidable to face him, seems to be on his way through Death's door even now. The mighty Shajem seems... MOSTLY under control... Through a variety of powers wielded by so many others here, even being TALKED DOWN it seems, by one of them... What can he even do here? How can beings like these be so strong!?

    His soul is a decayed and awful thing. Focused on himself and his own wants. His arrogance, a crippling personality flaw, can not accept that these beings are his equal, let alone superior...

    He should be enraged! And in truth... He is... But as he watches them all fight on, overcome adversity, and prove their power, the undead monster must admit that the spectacle of their might and determination, a drive to succeed he had once thought a weakness shown to be an overpowering strength, is an awe-inspiring entertainment he has never before witnessed in all his centuries.

    So he settles where he is, and watches to see how it all unfolds. He will see how the tale of these champions who have fought so hard, for so long, used wit and wisdom and might and skill and spirit in the face of incredible suffering and strain, finally ends.
Duet Fortuna     Aided by her Abstractum's orders, Himei is able to slam the snakelike being downward, forcing it to hiss out and start to twist again. The chains of mystic might from Raine's not-girlfriend are inhibiting it though, and it soon feels that enhanced effort from Eleanor to soothe it, to make it still for a long moment.

    Nox has an EASY time just sucking the energy right out, tapping deeply into that mystical being's core to glurge on the energies within. With powerful priests like Kevin, experienced Binders like the ones brought, and skilled mages like Adelyn also working in concert, the creature is rapidly contained and the framework for that complex binding aligned.

    It is odd, though, how quickly that negotiation locks in. The final circle snaps into place, and the spell completes. The Shajem stops resisting completely, its new purpose shown.
Guest Psyber     Psyber is spent, in terms of ultra-violence. He's left with just a hollow stare at the dead man walking, a distant look to Psyber's eyes, "You were a colossal piece of shit," Psyber manages to say in an almost eerily calm tone, letting the rage begin to exit his mind as he stares down the Emperor. With the man clearly judged and dying, there's no need for him to continue.

    "You gained your power on so, so many corpses..." Psyber seems to be probing for words, searching for the ones he needs. He shuts his eyes slightly and then leans over towards the gauntlet. He wants, above all else, his Black Cartridge back. The damn thing had once again cost him so much.

    "I don't..." Normally, the half-angel would have some Bible verse to accentuate his point, or wise thing to say to make himself seem right. Instead, he barely even has the strength to lift his arms as he tries to subdue the Shift ripping through his body as he turns away.

    The half-angel somewhat mindlessly starts to wander away from the Emperor. It's a directionless sort of walk, like all he wants is distance from the source of his pain, and like he can't mentally focus on any thought besides that at the moment.

    In the absence of rage to restrain all other emotions, true sorrow has also now finally reached the half-angel. As tears begin to waterfall down his face, marking the first time he's ever cried in public.
Amalthea     It is, perhaps, a good thing Oath kicks in when it does. Caught in the utter and absolute maelstrom of that terrible and disastrous melee, Amalthea had fully expected to come to bodily harm on all sides. and she would have bore no ill will to niether Psyber, nor Mordred for it. Though she is spared the half-angel's rage, when it comes to the Servant, Amalthea is not as lucky.
    The only thing she registers is the CRUNCH of metal. Armor plating mangled instantly via Mordred's wholehearted rampaging desire to get past any and all obstacles and be at the Emperor's throat.
    In an instant, the Unicorn's whole world is a shade of red. Silver blood flows freely, caught literally between the Emperor and the rampaging servant as she is, for all her endurance, it is a testament to her conviction and stubborn willpower how she even remains standing. If barely.
    Freely and utterly ignoring every damage warning and report her mechanical body feeds her mind, she views them as little more than rapidly dropping numbers, blood pressure, blood lost, structural integrity. She knows what each one represents, and yet it feels so distant- it doesn't feel like anything at all. But even in this state, runes and sigils flowing along her arm, becoming the walking embodiment of a Defender for that brief instant, she staggers from the whirlwind of eternal maulings, collapsing to a knee to vent steam and exhaust as her mind ignores the severity of the damage wrough upon her.
    She should, by all rights, probably no longer be conscious. But she is of sound enough mind amid ignoring the washed out distant feelings of some sensation she once knew, but has entirely forgotten for this moment... To reach out a hand and lay it upon her friend's shoulder. No words. No words to say. The most she can come close to managing is a small, silver-bell sound of sympathetic woe.
Mordred     Fury subsides.

    As the Shift slowly fades, and Mordred's energy reserves fall to critical levels-- funny what going all out and angry for half a minute will do to you, without a master-- the Saber becomes still as stone. Twin blades in her hands drop to the side, and she glares down at the dying Emperor. Wings of fire evaporate from her back and her eyes regain their green color, the aura of rage disappearing finally.

    In the background, the Shajem has stopped being a concern. She regains her senses just in time to hear Nathan confirm. She opens her mouth to speak, but can't find the right words.

    Like Psyber, she decides to walk away from the Emperor. He's broken, weak, old, cut open. Even if he survives, he'll be surviving to live a miserable life, his powerbase ripped from under him.

    And if he doesn't, and that was his last breath, then it's all the same to her. They have no more business together.

    Blue wisps of magic start coming out of Mordred's edges. She seems to be dematerializing, the steel of her armor slowly converting into spiritual energy and magic. She walks over towards DUET FORTUNA, and the weakened, exhausted and drained knight kneels before her.

    "It is clear my master saw something in you. Your aid was invaluable in carrying this operation out. If you would have me, I would be your sword in coming battles as payment for your help."

    Symbolically, Mordred holds Clarent out by the blade, after a quick twirl of it, pommel pointed at the woman.
Raine Arland      The chains dissipate into nothing but magic particles that soon become nothing. Fragarach lowered her arms, watching as the severe resistance ended. Whatever that Nathan did, it worked. With the task set before her finished, she took a deep breath and then let out a yawn, mouth covered by a sleeve. "You owe me for this." She muttered to Raine, and then vanished. Disappearing into wisps of magic.

     ".....So this is how it goes down." Raine muttered, only half hearing Fragarach before she vanished. He sighed, letting out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, and relaxed. He looked around himself, taking note of everyone present, taking in the aftermath of everything.

     "But the question now is...what comes after this?" A question posed to no one in particular, but said all the same. A hand was raised to his head, running through his hair. "...Man, it doesn't feel like a victory at all." That one was muttered under his breath.
Abstractum.Net     The blind lady justice and the wounded lion each dissipate. The brilliant red fire disperses. All the fanciness stops. Both Abstractum fall to the ground. The spherical crystals are all that remain, slightly cracked from the heavy strain of the Shift. Both have had their forms utterly annihilated by the overwhelming power of Shifting beyond the threshold. They're out of the way, off somewhere else for now.

    The gauntlet has not died. Unlike the other Abstractums, it did not attempt to activate Terminal Paradigm. The Black Cartridge will pop out of it, but only after Emperor expires, hissing steam, red hot. It will hurt to touch. Psyber isn't in a mental state to care about that once he retrieves it.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor stands up as Nathan assures the room that the Shajem has Been Handled. She sighs and looks over at Raine, rubbing at her sweaty face. "That's because it is not a victory. There has never been on in the blasted world. Not a single one. Just... half-measures."

    That's all the more obvious as Bloody Amhar and Ajudicator fall to the ground, spent. Hopefully not dead. Please don't be dead. Eleanor does a quick mental scan of the two, before looking over at the broken down Psyber and the mentally refreshing Mordred.

    "...Bother."
Abstractum.Net     Upon examination, both Abstractum cores are still very much alive. Their forms are destroyed, and their cores are damaged enough to need some hours of recovery. They will survive without needing much care.
Nox     The Shajem is gone and bound. The emperor is dying and his forces destroyed. Logically, this is about as good as it could possibly get after the complication that had just occurred minutes ago, but it feels like a hollow victory even to Nox. The massive amounts of energy now swelling Horologium's tanks as the Lord of Nightmares fades is small consolation. He has precious little sympathy for most of the people gathered here, the ones closest to Elliana least of all, but for a moment he can't help but share in their worn, empty and sober attitudes.

    "The same thing she planned, I presume. As far as I'm aware, her survival wasn't necessary in any part of the following." It's something of a bitter implication. "I suppose she still wins in the end. Even if she can't see it."
Guest Kevin     Once Nathan completes the negotiation, they have been told that the binding is done... and Kevin releases it gladly. Along with the power being cut off, that brilliant glyph fades from the air behind him, and he simply drops to his knees- much like a puppet cut from its strings. Relief is an incredible feeling at this point.
    Any attempt to draw too much attention from the green haired priest will go ignored. He's simply breathing, and he finally has the chance to allow Elliana's death come to his focus again. There are no words, no cries. He simply raises a hand and covers his eyes with it.
    This is not what he came back to see or experience.
    It's proof enough that things outside of Zemuria haven't changed in the slightest. It's as rough as always.
    ...but he's here, and amongst the gifts the Goddess has granted him, She has also given him the power to endure. ...and endure he will. There are others who need stability to lean against, and he can, at least, provide that while he keeps his own mourning bottled up inside.
    Unhealthy? Definitely. Habit? Possibly. Necessary? Absolutely.
    Kevin pushes himself to his feet- his movement appearing to be slightly heavier than before. He drags his feet (certainly entirely from the binding, of course! ...maybe) and slowly begins to check on the others around him. It's his duty to the Goddess- to protect others. They always come before him.
Adelyn Lysen     "That's that, then." Adelyn looks uncharacteristically tired. She gives Nox a 'did you get everything?' look, but it's clear that there were no further hiccups in the plan. "Gishur, break tandem. Resume coordination of the ground troops."

    She gives Mordred an odd look, but it's only a few steps pause before she continues walking. It is now Not Her Problem. She is, as she said, done, and the conditions of the other fighters are of insufficient concern. Her troops will pull back to Moonlight Academy as soon as they disengage.

    She does have one thing left to do, on the way out--and that's to pick up Elaine Green. But that is her business, and not, in her estimation, anyone else's.
Himei     Huh. As the Shajem is bound and tamed, Himei rolls off of it. The anger fades, the nightmares recede, and her need to stay in a state of rage. She staggers away, the reality of what just happened hitting her. Not because of Elliana dying... she could deal with that. But of what it means, of what it could mean.

    And then Mordred is offering her sword. To Duet. Something clicks, and Himei turns around, staring at the girl. "You knew this was going to happen. The alarm, the information on the Heaven Guard... all the things you've said that didn't make sense. You knew all along. Or at least suspected."
Duet Fortuna     Duet stares at Mordred's approach as the Servant wearily offers her blade. After a long moment, she peels the glove off of her hand, pulling her sleeve up to show three fresh Command Spells, of a drastically different design than what Elliana had. "I accept, Saber of Red." She touches the pommel of the blade, heaving a large sigh. "And I am sorry for your loss."

    That settles that, doesn't it?

    There's just one more thing to take care of. Duet sighs, stepping carefully over toward the rubble to reach down, drawing out a sheathed blade. Elliana's sword, Backbiter. "Here. I think she'd have wanted you to have this." The blade is offered to Psyber. A momento, perhaps?

    Himei's accusation is met with a shake of her head. "There were a lot of things I didn't know. That I /can't/ know. Don't let anyone ever fool you into thinking they know the future. There was a contingency plan in place. There always is, with her. Like Nox said... whether she sees it or not, it isn't in her nature to sit down and let herself lose."
Sakura Haruno     Flowers will stand up, taking a couple of steps towards the dying emperor. While it's not impossble that he's beyond even her skills, she's clearly not certain whether to even try or not. It seems that not is going to win out, however, failing someone pushing her into it. She'll glance back around, listening to the conversations after, trying to not show too much on her face. She's rather more conflicted on it, after all, even while watching Psyber suffer through it.

    She'll eventually kneel down and inspect the guantlet, for want of anything else to do. "...What do these do when they outlive their users?" She'll ask, idly. Sakura hadn't formed any sort of attachment to the little things, and was rather suspicious of them; even so, that kind of purposelessness seemed sad.
Mizuki     Mizuki's feet tap gently against the ground. At once, she seems to regain consciousness, and yet her expression does not look like any most have ever seen before on her face. Her eyes are opened wide out of their otherwise eternal narrowing, and the glimmer on their surface bespeaks the formation of some tears. Without a second thought, she simply rushes over, hugs Psyber tightly, and says not a word.

    She won't let go unless he forces her to.
Guest Psyber     Psyber stops when Amalthea puts a hand on his shoulder, turning to look at her. He shakes his head a bit and says to the Unicorn, "You need to get healed. Please, go tend to yourself," He notes with a tone of detachment, albeit a distinct wordset of concern. He's having trouble sorting out what emotions to feel at that moment.

    Both the Black Cartridge and the core of his Abstractum are picked up and stored appropriately. It's true that he doesn't care about the cartridge itself searing his hand, nor his leg after he places it in a pocket. He's working out what to do next when a sword is offered to him.

    He looks down at it in a puzzled way. He recognizes Elliana's sword, Backbiter, and then looks up to Duet, "Yeah, thanks. I'll keep it safe. Do something with it," Psyber notes, not wanting to draw it yet. Instead, the sheath is attached to his belt next to its sister-sword, Sovereign.

    "I'll see you at home, Duet," That's all Psyber can really think to say at that moment. He actually looks about ready to leave, but Mizuki rushes towards him and starts hugging him.

    As is Psyber's usual way, he's utterly unsure how to handle someone hugging him, and stands there awkwardly for a prolonged period of time.
Nathan Hall     Nathan drops his arms. The spell is cast. The Binding is complete.

    This is over.

    Nathan stays still long enough to give the Shajem a hard look while it exits.

    He moves long enough to go to Psyber. He carefully, almost cautiously, puts his arms around Psyber. He's going to give him a hug for as long as Psyber wants it, probably alongside Mizuki. After however long or short of a time that is, he'll disengage. He gives a wide berth to Duet, to Mordred, to that whole exchange... For whatever reason. He's going to wander over to the dying emperor. Maybe dead. If he's dying, he'll wait. And wait, and wait. He knows enough about the Black Cartridge to know that the Emperor's mind resides inside the gauntlet now instead. While Sakura examines it, he takes the piece of armor over to the edge of the throne room, and sits down, pulling his knees to his chest, discarding the gauntlet to somewhere nearby.

    "Why did you do it?" He asks, staring at the floor.
Duet Fortuna     The Gauntlet that is now all that remains of the Emperor has only a simple reply. He's still shaken, probably not all there, but he can make a simple, short reply. "To be safe."
Mordred     Mordred rises from her kneeling position. Having secured herself a master, at least she won't be disappearing. She still has a war to win, hiatus or not. Elliana's death... is a thing, but she can't just keel over in rebutal. Certainly this would greatly displease Elliana, if her Servant just gave up.

    She turns to look at Himei, then looks back toward Duet. She decides not to press the issue. The Servant walks back towards the Emperor; she would kick him, but it would be un knightly now. Also Nathan kind of picked him up. Instead, she takes his sword-- between Nathan taking his 'corpse' and Psyber the cartridge, it seems to be loot'o'clock anyway.

    But the Servant does not keep the blade.

    Instead, she tosses it towards RAINE ARLAND.

    "Here, kid. You never really got any payment from my former master for all the help, huh? I don't really want to hold that sort of a debt."
Raine Arland      Raine blinked, glancing at Mordred.

     "Eh?"

     Oh. There was a sword flying his way. Whoops. He reached out with an arm and caught the blade by the handle. "...Heh." He cracked an amused smirk. "You know, in all the excitement, I forgot." He examined the sword up and down as he spoke.

     "If Elliana is dead...who the hell's gonna pay me for all that fighting? All that epic sneaking? All those badass moves I pulled off?" He sighed and shook his head. "But well. If a swords gonna be my pay, then sure, what the hell. I'll call it cased closed on this job then." He grinned, though it was a shade lighter than his usual, in respect to current events.

     "Even though it's pretty lopsided, I'm not gonna complain. Call it even."
Nathan Hall     "..." Nathan regards the Emperor, with a long look. He knows that feeling. "Never works out that way, does it?" He says, after a while. "For either of us." He never thought he'd sympathize with the guy he was blaming for all of this. "I hate you so much. But I understand."
Guest Kevin     Kevin may have been gone for awhile, but it does not take much for him to realize how much Elliana meant to Psyber. The priest walks to the half-angel and sets a hand on his shoulder. Kevin's not there to say anything, but he is there to remind Psyber that if there's a need, there's someone who can and will listen.
    He continues walking past and follows along where Nathan is. Kevin looks down at the gatunlet, then back to Nathan. The priest's words are quiet, "Th' suggestion is t' seal it. If th' Emperor's mind is conscious, we should probably do our best to ensure he has a permanent sleep. Bein' sealed an' trapped in that thing would not be kind t' 'em."
    As the priest looks back to the gauntlet again, he mumbles. "...reminds me o' th' things th' TABC did wit' Ashen- that other 'side' o' George. No matter how terrible they were, I suspect that it would be awful to condemn someone the eternal darkness in such a thing."
Mordred     "That's not just a sword. That sword is special. Ask my new master to explain. She probably knows in better details what it can do." Then, Mordred turns towards Psyber, whom thanks to the HUG PATROL has not been allowed to leave yet.

    She does not say anything.

    She just gives him a look that likely mirrors his own, and then turns back to stand by Duet. Mordred was never good at expressing emotions other than rage openly, so surely the half-angel can understand if she isn't going to be hugging it out or giving a speech.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor's found what's left of a table to sit on, watching these little scenes unfold now that she's not having to sweet talk Shajem or chase down rogue elementalists.
    She looks over at Nathan. "Give him to the Operators. Not in any way for them to fix him, but... I'm sure Speaks or Answers has some idea of how best to treat a betrayer."
Mizuki     ... eventually, though, Mizuki lets Psyber go. He needs to be alone. And she...

    ... she grabs her wrist, looking to the floor a moment before departing. Once she does, she cleaves a portal for herself as is customary, leaving for her world.

    She needs time alone, too. Why? ... she couldn't tell you.
Nathan Hall     Nathan looks up at Kevin. For a moment, his eyes are obfuscated with the glare of the lights within the throne room, shining brilliantly over his glasses. It looks ominous, generally quite awful.

    "He will be given the treatment a traitor deserves."

    Yikes, what happened to this dude while Kevin was gone?
Amalthea     "No, damn you, I will not tend to myself!" Amalthea damn near shouts her reply in the face of Psyber's tone. It's with a very intent gaze that she meets the half-angel. If that endlessly deep blue eye were a weapon, it would be stabbing right through the man.
    She will probably regret it later when the Pain Suppression shuts off. Slowly her hand detaches, and her gaze wanders aside in silent, hopeful, search for something more interesting.
    She finds nothing. And just squeezes her eye shut.
Raine Arland      "Master? But Elliana is--" Pause. "Ohhhhh right." Damn Servants. His mind was still telling him Mordred was Elliana's Servant.

     He turned and casually ambled over to Duet. "Right so..." He indicated the emperor's sword. "The heck does this thing do? Is it gonna try and eat me while I'm sleeping? 'Cause I get enough of that already."

     Wait, who does that?

     What kind of eating?
Guest Kevin     Kevin has nothing to say in return. He simply meets Nathan's gaze and stands focused at him.... but the priest's expression definitely shows concern in it. He seen it before from others- it's a darkness that everyone can have, but he never imagined to see it from Nathan.
    "...I see." Is all the priest says. He finally looks away, then back to the gauntlet. "...may Aidios have mercy on his soul, then." Those last words are quietly spoken before he turns away to leave Nathan to his own thoughts.
    The night's events are most definitely leaving the priest somewhat rattled. He may be making the effort to hide it, but there are enough tells that some people may see the through the act.
Eleanor Lamb     And that is that. Eleanor sighs and hangs her head a bit at Kevin and Nathan's exchange, before she rubs her face with her gauntlets. "Right, alright. I'm... I'm going home. I'm done here and everyone else seems to be..."

    Feelings. These are people who need their space. She's got Mizuki's mind about what's going on here anyways at this point. A look at Amalthea's outburst is all she needs to cement that feeling herself. She brushes mud off her suit and murmurs. "Nathan, I'll... I'll call, alright?"
Guest Psyber     Psyber looks around at Mizuki, then at Nathan, then at Kevin, "Thank you for your support, everyone. It is appreciated," The half-angel says, before wincing as Amalthea shouts at him. He stares back at her for a few moments before turning his head over to Mordred. He does have a piece of business with her, specifically, before he leaves.

    Slowly, he walks over to the blonde girl and extends his hand. It's distinctly aiming to be a handshake, "You are, if you so wish, welcome to move into the Tower in Boston with your new Master. If you wish to stay at Dun Realtai instead, I will understand that as well."

    And with that, he's mostly seeking to find an exit and try to peel off from the group.
Duet Fortuna     Duet glances at the sword. "I'm not an expert on the Emperor's equipment, but that is an enchanted blade of fine make. As far as I can tell it is not one of the Hundred or an Abstractum, so it should be safe to use." She smiles, "You're welcome to it, after all that you've done."
Raine Arland      "Huh."

     Raine looked the blade up and down. "Well, if it's just a sword...sure, why the hell not." He fished around the rubble until he found a sheath that seemed to match the blade. "There we go." It was held in one hand, arm at his side.

     After that, he looked about, surveying the situation. "......Guess my job's done here. Good luck with the aftermath."

     And with that, and one final look, Raine shouldered the newly acquired(looted(given)) sword across his shoulder and strode off, out of the throne room, and out of the palace at large.

     The aftermath wasn't his place to be. He wasn't their friend. He was just a guy who was seeing a job through.

     He always saw his jobs through.
Sakura Haruno     Notably, Flowers doesn't join in the group trying to comfort Psyber; rather, she'll go from examining the Emperor and his Final Form to standing and making her way out, almost guiltily trying to get away without engaging him in conversation.

    This isn't well thought out since going home involves going to the same building he lives in, but he's probably not paying that close of attention. Beyond that, while the medic is radiating guilt to those who would know her well enough and pay attention to such - Nathan, Himei, Psyber, Amalthea - Nathan would already know why, and if the others did happen to notice they would probably assume she's feeling guilty about joy or relief over Elliana's death while Psyber suffers.
Mordred     Mordred muses.

    Dun Realtai or the Tower.

    "To be honest, Sir Bedivere still makes me feel largely unwelcome there. Can't blame him. Might be best I stay with my master for the time being, until I get used to how she can handle me."

    That does leave one piece of business.

    Mordred produces a pad of post-its. She produces a pen, and scribbes on it. She walks over to Adelyn and sticks (or at least attempts to, she'll settle for slapping it anywhere) a post-it on her forehead. And then she dematerializes, and begins generally hovering around Duet, being rather done with showing face for the time being.

    The post-it reads: I'M OUT.

    Thusly has an officer been notified.