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Morgan Berselius The Watch has need of some valuable and exotic resources for what some might describe as relatively dubious business. But then, you could feasibly describe the Watch itself as 'relatively dubious' as well, so really this all goes part and parcel with being a shady guerrilla organization. Stealing property is just some of what they /do./

It's a good thing, then, that today, that property just so happens to be 'actual human beings.'

"It's right over this hill," Morgan says to those following him. The perpetual twilight gripping Othrys draws long shadows from weathered and meaningless signposts, withered husks of dilapidated homes and old, half-upturned fences that dot the blasted hills. The parched scrub of what used to be a rolling prairie is all that remains of natural life in this part of the world, but that hasn't stopped the most resilient of the wildfolk from trying to eke out a hard-fought life from the dusty soil.

Unfortunately, hard-living doesn't count for much when the dominant cult-empire of the region considers you as little more than livestock for consumption.

Over the hill and down in the valley, the Watchmen (and accompanying Hamoneer) can see a small, well-hidden settlement nestled in what used to be a thriving agrarian hamlet. With the withering of the world, there is little left that will grow, but the people here have tried their damnest, and small fields filled with hardy turnips and rootcrops squat alongside ramshackle lean-tos.

All of which are presently on fire.

Winding like a serpent within the valley is a train of wagons pulled by strange, feathered lizards. A small battalion of people in feature-concealing white and gold robes and armor man the caravan, wielding stave-spears made of some brilliant metal. They busily nudge others bound in heavy irons into the covered wagons, many of which already teem with desperately flailing limbs and hollow cheeked faces that peer furtively between iron bars.

"That's them," Morgan murmurs, the darkness growing thicker around his feet as a shroud of concealing shadows spreads to hide the rest of the group. "Followers of the Tyrant Sun. We head down, wipe out the guards, free the prisoners and hijack the wagons. We'll need that caravan to sneak back into the temple-city, so don't bang them up too bad, alright?"
Riva Banari "Anyone tell you that this place looks like hell?" Riva quips to Morgan as she travels through the dark, twisted land. "Like, this is worse than some of the active containment zones on my world. What the hell happened here?"

She crests the hill and looks down into the flame-wracked area, frowning as she answers her own quextion. "Assholes. Looks like you've got an infestation of assholes."

Riva reaches into space and draws out the Ajoran Cross from the rippling distortion, swinging it up onto her back as the Anima Circuits embedded in the weapon light up a burning honey-gold. "Smash the assholes, don't break the caravan. Got it."

A moment later, one of the guard groups will find the Cross slamming down into the center of them, hurled down like a thunderbolt from above. The weapon streams a golden teather back up into the air...

Where Riva descends, the Cross being yanked up off of the ground and back to her hands as she follows up the initial impact with a spinning hammer descent.
August Kohler August Kohler is dressed in a hoodie, hood up over his short red hair, as he grips the mirrored bracelet on his wrist. There's a pistol and a knife at either side of him, ready for combat. The young man himself...doesn't seem as much. He looks like he hasn't slept in a few days, forcing himself to keep going on coffee. Something probably happened to him.

Regardless, August can fight even when sleep-deprived, so he nods to Morgan. "Got it. I'll focus on assault." And then, when Riva moves to descend, August proceeds forward, dashing, and once he gets close enough to the caravans, summons his Persona with a call. "Come to me, Tin Soldier!" The flash of blue energy summons the burn-scarred robot soldier, whose gun-leg is immediately pointed at some of the battalion that Riva isn't dealing with. "Surrender or burn, your choice."

He doesn't want to set them on fire, but those robes probably burn well, and August is in a mood lately. He doesn't have to kill them. He can control the flames, right? He can control their intensity? Well, he's going to find out...

As a blast of flames barrel out if the men in robes don't surrender, carefully avoiding aiming at the caravans, and instead trying to set robes alight. "Better roll on the ground if you don't want to feel the heat!"
Josuke Higashikata Said Hamoneer is here because he doesn't like what's been going on with this world, and has offered to help. He's not so much helping the Watch as he is helping Morgan. Slavery is a thing Josuke doesn't like, so when he heard about it happening? Yeah, he's gonna wanna break that up.

He's dressed differently than normal, in mostly brown -- a V-neck sweater, pair of slacks, gloves, and loafer shoes. The only thing that isn't brown is the mock-neck underneath the sweater, which is lime green. This is his 'sneaky' outfit, despite the fact that there's nothing sneaky about it.

It takes a lot for Josuke to sit by and let these guys capture those poor people, but he keeps it under wraps by telling himself that firstly, they're going to be freeing those people soon, and secondly, the people responsible will have their faces smashed in soon enough.

That and, at some point, he's going to come back out here and fix this place. These people spent too much time putting this little piece of sanity together out here to just have it ripped away. Even freed, they'd have nothing to go back to, and that's unfair.

While Riva goes in shooting -- well, smashing, actually -- Josuke himself utilizes the cover offered by Morgan to circle around. He's going to try to come through the field itself, so he can try to fix a little bit of it on the way in. Of course, as soon as he's close enough, he unleashes his Stand on the nearest Sun Tyrant follower, doing what Crazy Diamond does best -- pummel someone into a pulp.
Morgan Berselius "Hell's not a bad way to put it," Morgan answers, heaving a long, tired shrug. "It's a long story. Basically, there was a war in heaven. Now everything's straight fucked because the gods who're left are mostly assholes. I can explain more later, but for now--"

For now, they have a job to do, and the Watch (+1 Hamoneer) descends upon the unsuspecting caravan guards like death on wings. As they approach, they hear it: someone is reciting a sermon, a figure in robes more resplendant than the others, reading from a great, luminescent tome, "Rejoice, ye children of the earth. We bring you now salvation from this broken world. Within your veins beats the lifeblood of the sun itself, and soon you shall be returning home to become one with the lifegiver once more. Let us sing our praises to the sky, that our voices may be heard and blessings might wash clean the sinstained land and--"

With a crack of thunder, the voice goes silent. Riva's cross slams into the ground in front of the chanter, erupting in a cataclysm of thunder and raw anima that throws the guards into immediate disarray. She descends soon after, smashing her hammer into the nearest available skull and sending the robed figure crumpling lifelessly to the ground.

"What devilry is this?" One of the other robed figures gasps, turning toward August as he levels his threat. "You dare to interfere with our holy mission!? Stalwarts, unleash your flame!" Not merely guards, but fanatics, these soldiers raise their gleaming staves, unleashing a torrent of sunfire from their tips as the Tin Soldier's fire washes into them. The two conflagrations meet and crackle against one another, evenly matched for a brief moment--

Before a psychic ghost straight up caves their one of their torsos in. With the disruption in the firing line, August's flames finds a way to make inroads, and one by one the guards fall, screaming, to the Tin Soldier's assault.

In a few short minutes, the caravan expeditionary forces find themselves beheaded and incapacitated. They came here expecting to round up a town of weakened, battered wildfolk, not to deal with an ambushcade of multiversal heroes. Out of the shadows of one of the caravan carts, Morgan emerges with his lantern-chain garrotted around a dead guard's neck. "Damn, good job. Record time, too. Now let's get these guys broken out and this show on the road."

And yet-- those who are attuned to such things would notice something shift in the winds. A strange, unsettling feeling tingles on the very edge of supernatural perception. The horizon roils with dark clouds. Even Morgan seems... On edge. "We should hurry," he mutters, "I don't like the looks of this."
Josuke Higashikata Not to worry. If there are any injuries, Josuke will fix that. He can also help to free the captured people, having Crazy Diamond either break the restraints or reverting the restraints into their constituent elements. Though that also means he can help to restrain the robed guys -- since yeah, he's gonna try and heal them so they don't die.

Josuke isn't really supernaturally aware... but he's attuned enough to recognize the feeling of getting the willies. He pauses, looking up. "...Anybody else get the feeling we're being watched...?"
August Kohler As guards fall, covered in burns from the injuries (which are super effective), August takes a breath, moving towards the slaves to help them. But when something weird happens...and the dark clouds roll over, August stares up, and then moves to continue to the caravan and start freeing slaves, who he also needs to protect.

"Whatever that is can't be good. Get them out, grab the caravan, and get ready to go. We'll need to be fast about this." If there's no way to open their bars, the Tin Soldier's just going to try and rip through them.
Riva Banari Riva was ready to eat that fire, that's her job, being the tank and all, but August has her back. "Thanks, Kohler." Riva says as she recovers from smashing a dude. She turns, levelling the huge Cross with one hand as she is about to make a declaration... When Josuke solves the problem. "Niiiiice." She says, giving the man a thumbsup.

Riva's about to turn about, smiling, when the smile falls off her face. "Something stinks. And I don't mean the corpses and compost." She mutters. "Get the villagers free, guys. I'll cover your backs." She turns, stepping away from the caravan and looking about as she sets herself to guarding the caravan that just lost its guards to the new arrivals.

She looks antsy.
Morgan Berselius It's a rare thing in this blasted world for anyone to waste time healing someone that they just finished beating into a fine pulp, but Josuke does just that after thoroughly restraining the zealot priesthood. "You'll pay for this transgression," one spits, struggling against the chains that were only moments ago wrapped around a would-be slave's wrists. "Ah, shove your hood in it you damn sockhead," One of the wildmen laughs, kicking his captor firmly in the ribs for his trouble. Nonlethally, of course, so Josuke is free to heal the guy up to get kicked /again./ "I don't know how we can thank you outsiders enough. These bastards took my brother away years back, and they almost took me and mine today, if it weren't for all of you."

August finds himself surrounded by a flood of emaciated humanity, countless voices rise in desperate thanks. How many people had been trapped in this one cart? They're packed in like sardines, more than human beings.

"I don't like it either," Morgan mutters near Riva, the shadows growing long all around him. "It almost feels like..."

Suddenly, his eyes go wide. Morgan turns about, snapping his head toward August, "Get them back in there! Quick! They're coming! Everyone get under cover now!" Suddenly, thunder roars across the sky and the brief gasp of hope finds itself smothered by an unsettling, creeping bleakness. Breath suddenly goes chill as still and stagnant water abruptly begins congealing into some awful melange of unspeakable fluid. The skies open up as the clouds roll in overhead, and down pours... A crimson rain. Blood? It stinks like rot, except with a fetid and yet unidentifiable undertone that stirs the fearful, lizard core of the brain into action. Morgan grits his teeth and hurls one of the cultists into a wagon. Assuming the others help him, only a handful are left in the lurch when the rains begin in earnest, staining the earth the color of exhausted blood.

Soon, strange growths begin splitting the ground. The root crops nearby quake and then burst from the soil with jagged black thorns and tumorous tendrils. The remaining cultists scream and burn with white fire as similar growths erupt from their flesh, dragging their still-screaming bodies up on the unnatural limbs.

"Titan," Morgan snarls, impaling one of the shambling bodies on a distant spike of inky shadow. "Keep out of the rain! We need to hold out until it passes, if you don't want to end up like them!" 'Them' meaning the shambling tumor-locuses scrambling like many-legged insects toward the delicious souls trapped within the caravan...!
August Kohler As people surround him, August wants to smile and reassure them...but everything feels far too wrong. So as soon as Morgan tells him to get them back in there, August starts to move. "Back inside! I'm not going to lock you in, but go, go!" He moves to corral them into the caravan, and ducks inside himself, but when the horrors come out...the Tin Soldier starts to pull up its gun. There's not enough room to spray fire without possibly causing an issue, so August instead moves to spray bullets.

The rifle lights up, and bullets go flying outward. They move to spray into the tumor-monsters, as August tries to find a way to get closer towards them without getting out in the rain. He definitely doesn't want the Tin Soldier getting hit with that stuff, because who knows /what/ it'd do to his psyche.
Josuke Higashikata Josuke nods to August's observation. "Yeah. I don't like this," he agrees. Riva's congrats gets a thumbs-up in return, and a grin. "Great job, guys," Josuke offers to the others. This is to Morgan as well, since his cover allowed them to get close.

Josuke does snicker at the 'sockhead' insult to the cultist. But he nods to the one who spoke. "I'm just glad all of you are all right. Once we get done I'm going to come back and try to help fix some stuff here, so you can..."

And then he pauses, as Morgan gives the headsup. "Back in the wagons, quick!" Josuke calls, trying to get the people nearest him back into the closest wagon. If they know what this is, they probably won't fight too much. Josuke is even going to make sure as many of the cultists as possible are under cover when he finds it as well. Unfortunately that limits his counterattack measures, since most of his means of attack are melee.

He does have a method of counterattack available though. He digs in a pocket and pulls out the wooden pellets, while steadying his breathing. Use the muscles of his abdomen to push every atom of air out of his lungs. Hold. Fill every available square centimeter of lungs space with air. Hold. Repeat a few times.

His body starts to glow faintly -- it probably would be missed if it wasn't so dark suddenly -- and and then he half-summons his Stand again. Passing the handful of pellets to Crazy Diamond, he passes the Hamon charge through his Stand and then directs the Stand to fire the pellets at the approaching monstrosities.
Riva Banari Yeah, that was too easy. Riva grimaces to herself as the environment, if possible, gets even more grimdark and oppressive. The arrival of whatever fell force is causing this causes Riva to bolt into action, getting people into shelter as quickly as possible. However, the sight of the mutated, hoorifying things causes her to pause. "Wait, you mean just going out into the /rain/ can do this?" She says, looking over at the cancerous creatures.

There is a deep frown. She's not kitted out for long range combat. That, and this situation... "Reminds me of the Filth." She mutters. "I'm no good here. Keep up long range attacks, guys, I'll interdict them!"

At that, Riva does something completely stupid by most people's estimations, and leaps into the bloody rain. "RAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" She yells, charging the spindly creeatures. "COME AND GET IT!" She yells, as she brings up her weapon and hurls herself into melee with them, sweeping the Ajoran Cross horizontally with a burst of golden light.
Morgan Berselius     "It's not /normal/ rain!" Morgan snarls out as the shadows within the wagon trains grow more intense, as if they were becoming thick and viscous, a fluid more than a mere level of illumination. His pupils have widened to swallow his eyes entire, with a pair of glowing, golden, slitted rings appearing in lieu of irises. "THIS is why Othrys has gone to shit! THIS is why everything's gone wrong! The Titans! The usurpers! The abhorrent, alien gods that pervert the natural order of the world!"

True to his words, the tumorous creatures that have emerged from the once-living things left exposed to the rain are... Unnatural. Their limbs move at rigid, mathematically perfect angles as they advance. Arms slide back up into pseudopodal terminals before emerging at another angle to drag core bodies forward into battle. One of the tumorous creatures shrieks a sound that human brains interpret as a blast of white noise like jumbled, staticky spiders screaming across their grey matter. Its body is blown open, but begins to knit closed with spindles of jagged black matter.

Others share the same fate, and yet others are pummeled by wooden spheres imbued with the very might of the sun itself. The orbs seem to set the creatures alight, and more buzzing screams reverberate over the hissing rain. Those who survive reciprocate by reaching out with their strange, geometrical bodies, their shadows spreading more tumor-like growth across the ground as they move. Morgan shouts and smashes his lantern into the limbs, breaking them into so many shards of black crystal. But yet other creatures assault the caravan with bolts of congealed, blood-like rain and flung shards of crystallized corruption. Morgan grits his teeth and deflects several barrages, but even he can't protect an entire caravan--

But then, Riva does something stupid.

"What-- wait, stop!" Morgan shouts, but, occupied with the task of shielding the caravan, he's unable to hold her back. Riva charges out into the swarm as more of the strange creatures skitter up over the hills. She roars, surging with golden light and bringing her weapon hard into a creature that had come dangerously close to reaching the caravan. Suddenly, their attention is drawn towards her, giving the others the time and breathing room they need to resume the offense. But...

For Riva, this IS all too familiar. Indeed, her protections /do/ work against this... Corruption. It feels alien, foreign, like something from beyond the pale of the world desperately trying to enfold its pattern within the greater whole of nature. Each raindrop probes at her defenses, searching for some way to slither within and plant its roots in her very essence. And yet, she's faced this sort of thing before. She knows it too well.

Riva Banari will not be an easy host for this nightmare.

And so she must be destroyed. The remaining shamblers focus their attention on her, striking with bizarre limbs and oozing, fetid projectiles. But she is not alone. Something wreathed in shadow surges across the gap, striking one of the beasts with a sphere of solidified darkness. "Damnit, this is /dumb!/" Morgan growls beneath a veil of darkness, "But I can't just let you fight out here on your own!"

But, out from under the cover of the wagons, the two of them would see... Something possibly reassuring, possibly not. The sun in the distance flares and surges, its light somehow gaining a measure of solidity as well as limbs of blazing sunfire sweep into the dark cloud above. It's as if the sun itself was doing battle with... whatever this dark cloud hanging above them is. But with more of the creatures climbing over the hills, will they survive long enough to see who will win...?
Josuke Higashikata Morgan can't protect the entire caravan, and neither can Josuke. But he CAN place himself between the projectiles and one wagonful of their intended targets. He noticed the effect his Hamon has on the creatures, and is counting on keeping his body charged with Hamon being protection enough against it. If it's not... well, he tried. And it's better than letting one of these people get hit by whatever those projectiles are.

He'll keep firing those pellets, though as Riva leaps out, he calls to her, "Be careful!" Hopefully she wouldn't let herself get hurt too badly. He doesn't quite notice the sun flaring; at the moment, he's concerned about keeping these critters off him and the wagon he's protecting. If they get close enough, he'll start with the Hamon-charged punch flurries.
August Kohler As the monsters attack Riva, August keeps up the pressure of the bullets. The Tin Soldier moves to block those bolts with its body, even if they might corrupt it...and as they start to focus on Riva and the giant sun-god starts to fight the darkness, the redhead takes a moment to turn to the civilians.

"Stay behind me and the Tin Soldier. Is anyone injured?" The bullet rain is kept up. Hopefully, they can hold out long enough to protect these people...!
Riva Banari Order. Patterns. The power tries to splash against her, infect her. Corrupt her and usurp her body and mind in order to continue its alien desires. She can't understand the static shriek, even as her head resounds with the sound of vital, intense buzzing.

She doesn't want to hear it. A hand goes to her head as she grits her teeth, her suffused being bleeding light as she uses the stored energy of life to maintain her self. "GET OOOOOOOOOUT!" She yells, both at the creatures and that force endlessly trying to grab hold, only to be stung back sharply every time. Her body and soul is not to be taken.

Some might say that is because it already belongs to something else.

"You idiot! Stay back!" She yells to Morgan. "Let me be stupid on my own! Focus on protecting the people!" She doesn't explain why. There's no time to do so.

She does, however, continue to crash and strike, trudging and slamming through the enemy force with brutal impacts, her body being rent from strikes that reach through her protections.

She doesn't have time to admire the sun fighting against the darkness. She's too busy trying to beat back the horrors.
Morgan Berselius "What the hell do you expect me to do!?" Morgan barks back, shadows surging out from his form only to manifest as jet black stakes impaling the shambling, spider-like creatures crawling up and over the hills. Their bodies form a pallisade wall, over which still other creatures begin to try and surmount. "You've all come here to help me fix my world. What kind of host would I be if I left you out here on your own!?"

Riva's blows bludgeon through the horde of horrors. Light surges with every hammerfall, The killing fields surrorunding the caravan are a veritable paradox of golden brilliance and inky darkness, an interplay of light and shadow that under any other circumstancnes could be described as 'artful.'

It's too bad that these circumstances are... Dire is putting it lightly.

What crawlers manage to penetrate the killing fields direct their attention to the caravan itself. Its stone construction offers some degree of protection from the foul projectiles the crawlers employ, but it's the pair of defenders protecting the wagon train that save the most lives. Josuke absorbs a fusilade of projectiles with his own flesh and blood, and even as the physical corruption attempts to take root, the light of his very own sun forces back against it, burning the vileness away. But it comes at a cost; each hit saps his stamina, eats away at his ability to resist the infection. But still, Josuke has strength enough to plow his fist through one of the creatures, setting its body aboil and shattering its geometric perfection with the might of the resplendant sun.

August absorbs another onslaught not with his body, but with a representation of his very soul. Tin Soldier weathers the blows, even as the dark influence begins to erode at the fringes of August's will. Still, for one who has faced his own Shadow, August's strength of will and knowledge of his self might be enough to press back against the corruption... And even then, his persona's fiery blasts and bolts of gunfire are enough to hammer at the creatures still focusing on the caravan.

Meanwhile, within one of the wagons, August finds... That he's plunged into cool, tranquil darkness. His eyes soon adjust, and he hears a groan of pain from somewhere nearby. Another voice pleads, "Someone was hit! We're trying to staunch the bleeding, but the taint keeps spreading--" There, the same wild man who spoke to Josuke earlier lies clutching at an arm riddled with strange geometric growths. "D-damnit. I fucked up. That's what I get-- fer trying to be a hero. Heh...!" He's... still conscious, but even before his eyes, August can see the veins of taint spread.

Meanwhile, a booming shockwave shakes the heavens above. A cataclysmic bolt of sunfire smashes into the creeping stormfront, and a burst of awful, agonized static surges across the hills. /Something/ is in pain. Over the hills, those outside can see light begin to push back against the bloody rain. The curtain of sunlight will be upon them soon, they need only hold out for a little bit longer...!
Josuke Higashikata Josuke can feel the strength starting to drain from him with each hit. Besides that, while the corruption might be getting boiled away by the Hamon flowing through his body, the projectiles are still breaking the skin. Worse because he's using his own physical body and not the Stand -- if he sent Crazy Diamond out separately, it would break the connection, and then the Stand would get infected if it was struck. So he's injured too.

But Josuke is still standing strong, even if he's visibly in pain, and bleeding. Though he does have to pause a moment to catch his breath. Literally; he kind of needs to 'recharge' after the sapping of his strength by those bolts. He's staying by the wagon, not only to try to protect himself from the rain, but to try and protect the wagon from those projectiles, with Hamon-charged punch flurries, both at the projectiles and at any creatures that get too close. He's unaware of the situation within the wagons as of yet...

He does notice the surge of static, and the creeping sun. Now, 'Solar Tyrant' isn't a good thing, and he's pretty sure this is one of those 'all that I see is my domain' things, which means said Solar Tyrant is going to catch see them doing this. Which will probably mean another attack. But right now, it will bring THIS attack to an end, so... Josuke will take any break he can get!
August Kohler August clutches his head as he feels the corruption, but he thinks about who he is and what he is. He's August Kohler, not one of those monster, and he's not going to become one of those monsters. He pushes through it, screaming, as the Tin Soldier weathers the blows that batter and mar its body. While this is happening, August notices the wild man getting corrupted. Shit.

The first thought is to end his life. August knows why he thinks it first, murder being so close to him right now...but he can't do that. There's another way. He knows there's another way this time, direct and simple. It clicks into his mind, exactly how to help the man whose arm has been corrupted, who is dying. August draws his knife, and moves over to find the joints on the man's arm furthest away from the corruption. He winces, and says to the people helping him. "Hold him still. What I'm about to do might kill him, but it might save him. I don't know."

Sleep deprivation is horrible for plans, as August moves to try and cut the guy's arm off, just saw through it. If it doesn't seem to be working, he throws the knife to the Tin Soldier, so that it can use its superhumanity to try and slice through. This might bring out screams, and it's certainly something August regrets. But again, it might save the man's life. And that's what August cares about right now, as he drowns out his thoughts with whatever he can think about.

Hopefully, at the least, this will keep the man alive long enough for Josuke to heal him later, even if August doesn't know that Josuke is a healer.
Riva Banari Riva grumbles at Morgan as he makes his own excuses. "I don't know what your deal is, but if you're going to insist, I won't stop you." It's his world after all. "Well, more like I /can't/ stop you, not likely with moves like that." She says in appreciation at the massive stake shot.

iva stomps forward, trading blood for blood, her mind pounding with an ever-increasing buzz as her essence continues to repulse the ever-increasing attempts to corrupt her. It's vile. She hates it. It's like trying to spit out a bitter venom that's clogging your throat, only getting worse as the stark, angular shafts pierce her augmented defenses and rip her flesh.

She continues to fight. She will fight until she falls. That's her purpose. It's the same purpose that she was called to in her own world, and there's a sort of warm comfort in it that contrasts with the horrific, deadly assault.

She is not in a position to help the man who was struck. But the others are, she will have to depend on them. If she falls back now, the wagon will be overwhelmed. It's on her to hold the line until whatever bright blaze that is striking out at the source forces that... titan... back.
Morgan Berselius Again and again and again, Crazy Diamond and Josuke's fists smash into growths of alien geometry with the might of the sun beating within his veins. Black crystal shatters like glass before stellar blows in a delicate balance of forces that sees Josuke and the wagon train both protected from the worst of the assault. The blazing march of Othrys' own solar forge seems to have thrown the creatures into disarray, and the fear that bids them to scramble away from the surging sunlight throws off their aim and dampens their fury. Impossibly, it seems he might actually survive this one-- they all might.

Especially once August helps a man bid farewell to his arm.

August and the Tin Soldier cleave through the man's shoulder joint, causing him to issue forth a scream that will probably haunt his nightmares forever. Blood gushes from the wound as the man's limb falls limp to the ground. It begins sprouting similar geometric growths moments before either Persona or wielder deal with the problem permanently. The people look on with awe and fear as the Persona soon turns its attentions to burning the man's wound shut. He grits his teeth and endures every erg of pain, but can't fight back another scream. Few men could, having a limb removed like that, but...

It seems, through his quick thinking, August managed to save this man's life. The corruption no longer spreads. He is safe, but not necessarily out of the woods.

Outside, Riva and Morgan battle against the seemingly endless tide of crawling horrors. Furious hammer blows are joined by waves of impaling shadow or swift strikes of a jet black lash. The corruption is persistent, aggressive, but it cannot find purchase-- not in either of these warriors. "You're not bad yourself," Morgan laughs through the pain as he directs a mass of shadowy tendrils to drag a nearby crawler into a crushing embrace. "Don't worry about me-- this... This is what I was reborn to do!"

Soon, they too notice the storm abate. The might of the Solar Tyrant overturns the vile Titan's influence, pushing the great black cloud back to the fringes of the world with a final flare of coronal fury. The golden orb in the distance seems to flare triumphantly as the last of the malign divinity is broken and forced into retreat. Where the sun's light breaks through the rain, the alien creatures burn and melt as if reality itself rejects their presence. Morgan roars one last time, unleashing a wave of shadow that washes away what's left of the corruption clinging to the caravan. Finally-- /finally/-- they seem to have awoken from this nightmare.

"Damn. That..." Morgan sighs, falling back against one of the marble caravans as shadows knit shut his wounds and the stuff of night swirls over lingering patches of taint, swallowing the alien energies into the abyss. "That never... gets easier. We need to check and make sure everyone's alright, then... Get out of here, before the Tyrant notices us."
Josuke Higashikata Josuke grits his teeth as he presses the attack on the nearing creatures. He's not even sure what they ARE, but he's trying his best to keep it up. His strength is flagging. He can't keep this up forever...

Fortunately the creatures are soon eliminated, on one end by their efforts and on the other by the sun returning to the sky. Which also can be bad, but... right now, it's the best thing that could have happened. Particularly because he probably could hear that scream. So he doesn't relax yet. Morgan's words get a response -- "I think there was some injuries in there; I heard one of them scream. I'm gonna go see if I can help." Hopefully no one's dead. "Be back out in a few -- let me know if any of you need healing too." He's especially talking to Riva because... well, she did kinda LEEROY JENKINS out into the corrupting rain.

For now, though, Josuke quickly heads into the wagon he heard the scream from. "Hey." Addressing anybody inside. Including August. "What's..." Pause. "Oh geez!" Chopped-off arm that's turning into a monster-arm, and a dude with a missing arm. "What happened?" He wasn't in to see August's solution to the problem. Though he's not asking with an accusatory tone.

But he doesn't want to waste time, so he'll start trying to heal the injured man -- as well as others who might have been injured -- with Crazy Diamond. His Hamon practice has taught him better how to calm himself when his heart is racing, so he takes a moment to breathe calmly before summoning Crazy Diamond to do its thing.