Scene #6838: Big Problems Becoming Smaller

Owner	Pose
Phyllis Lancaster	On one side, a town by an oasis renowned for its agriculture and temples devoted not only to their national religion, but to the advancement of magic and human superiority. On the other side, a testament to the ingenuity of human hands known for its advances in metallurgy, blacksmithing, and physical dominance over nature and those who oppose them. In the middle, a fishing village in a valley that's benefitted greatly from the relative peace between their neighbors. Although the fishing village isn't the largest or wealthiest, it has enjoyed comforts granted to it by virtue of a trade agreement between its neighbors. Recently, however, trade has all but stopped in lieu of competitive posturing and sabotage. Over the past few week and up to today, the spat between the neighboring towns has escalated to violence, and an all out battle is taking place in the valley where the fishing village is located. Armed soldiers charge and fire arrows into the ranks of mages doing their utmost to keep their assailants at bay with flames and barriers, and corpses litter the the village. Flames have begun to spring up from the tents near the river in the valley, and soldiers from both sides launch arrows and spells at each other from atop the cliffs overlooking the valley. Left unchecked, it's likely that the cliffs themselves will be used against their opposition within the valley, and the village caught in the middle will be destroyed. So far, the first responder to appear is someone wearing a white-colored witch's outfit complete with pointy hat, jogging towards the battlefield and muttering something incoherently to herself.
Lezard Valeth	Something fisshing villages always have is a tavern. Fishermen are basically required to have a place to buy good beer and dine on cheap food while boasting about the one that got away. Someone who is not a fisherman is in the tavern today, a dark man who happens to be perfectly fine with drinking a tankard of the local brew, studiously attempting to ignore the hullabaloo outside while he pages through a book. This is getting harder and harder by the moment as the people escalate to outright murder in the streets. His irritation can be observed in the way one brow twitches, despite seemingly having no interest in intervening... yet.
Sarracenia	The distress call goes out. They get a response from the virtually unknown Sundew Kingdom. One of their cruisers is nearby and makes its way here with all haste. But, what pulls up is no spaceship. It is a massive wooden airship some 100 feet long that looks much like a Spanish galleon. Huge propellers spin where sails would be supported on its masts, and as it flies up it takes up a position in the center of the town with all of its dozens of cannons rolled out. And beneath it deploys a cannon large enough that someone could stand up inside of it! There is a blip of static that goes along with a megaphone being turned on, and a tall princess with orange hair steps onto the bow of the ship. "This is Princess Sarracenia, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom! We have been contacted by this town's leader and will not hesitate to use our substantial firepower to stop this! Cease fire at once and either move your fight outside of the town or agree to sit down for peace talks!"
Tomoe	Tomoe also is responding to the distress call along with Sarracenia she'd ended up as one of her ladies and waiting and it's turned out to not be so bad a she stands on the deck of the airship. Her wings are already flared out waiting for the moment she needs to jump into things. With the looks of this, it may be very likely to go to a fight. Still, the Princess is making one last shot getting it to end peacefully. Once her speech is done she will aside to her. % R" I hope they listen, but I'm ready to deploy Princess."
Rean Schwarzer	Rean's also on Sarra's airship, sword at the ready. He nods at Tomoe's comment "Same here. This could get ugly fast..."
Phyllis Lancaster	By the time the witch reaches the village proper, she's looking and sounding a little winded when she starts shouting at the combatants. "Hey! Cut that out! You're hurting the people in the village here!" Naturally, nobody listens. They're too busy stabbing and shooting the crap out of each other. The owner of the tavern simply sighs while cleaning a mug, sliding over another one to Lezard while keeping an eye on the door. Luckily, nobody's come inside just yet, but the clash of steel is unmistakeable. It's probably not a good sign that the tavern keeper has an axe hanging on the wall by the bar, but at least that's two people that look considerably calm about the whole thing. Those outside do finally pay attention when a voice rings out from a flying wooden airship. The roar of battle does stop for a few moments as the fighters on each side weigh their options. "Don't get involved in this, outsider! This is a dispute between our towns, and it doesn't involve your flying boat!" One of the commanders shouts from atop an armored horse, the pair shining in steel and looking impractically massive compared to the archers aiming flaming arrows at the airship. "These muscle-bound oafs have been taking advantage of us for too long! IF we back down now, they'll never let us hear the end of it!" The second commander shouts from the other side of the valley, dressed in ornate black robes and flanked by a pair of similarly dressed warlocks sans the shoulder pads and cloaks that triple the commander's overall volume. Naturally, nobody listens. Again. Well, none of the combatants do. The witch on the ground is thankful for the arrival of the airship princess and the two strangers standing ominously beside her with wings and sword. She greets them all with a big thumbs up, tipping her hat back briefly before pumping her fist confidently. "Thanks for coming! Okay, let's see what could help here..." A beat, and then she snaps her fingers. "Got it!" Her hands go wide out to her sides, she claps them together, and starts murmuring loudly as an ominous purple fog starts swirling around and out of her body. The fog reaches some of the corpses, slipping into the bodies through their mouths and eyes, and soon... The dead rise. Gripping their weapons, magic tomes, and sometimes nothing depending on how many arms they even have, they start to charge at the still-living soldiers, drawing confused yells from them as they're attacked by people they had seen slain mere moments ago. "What the... The Risen?!" "Group up! Let them come to you and cut them down!" "Scatter! Find the necromancer and burn them to ash!" It does not appear that the addition of zombies is helping matters any. If anything, it's just adding more torsos to the mix. At least there's a common foe now! Sort of. Although the soldiers are still taking shots at each other, those in the village have started focusing their efforts on the slowly growing zombie horde.
Lezard Valeth	Lezard nods as he takes the next mug of ale, and drinks from it. One might think that he'd be one of those wine-sipper types, but frankly, when you come from a Norse-based land, you learn to like ale. And mead. Not that he doesn't appreciate wine, though... But that's beside the point. The expression on the tavernkeeper's face is almost mirrored by Lezard's own. No one's busted in yet, but at this rate it's a matter of time until the place becomes collateral damage. It's the mention of undead and necromancers that finally puts him over the edgs. He drains his tankard, emits a longsuffering sigh, and places a couple coins on the bar for the man's service. The man did his job. Lezard can respect that. At that, the book he was paging through hovers up onto his hand as he reaches into a ripple in space and withdraws an ominous, inky-black twisted rod surmounted with soulsteel. You know, exactly the kind of implement a necromancer would use. Holding this in one hand while the book hovers over the other, he steps outside into the street to look over the increasing chaos, his eyes locking onto the undead with a form of professional interest. "Hmm. I wonder who raised them..." He asks himself, even as the local yokels look for a necromancer scapegoat to burn. And thus the tragedy is set.
Sarracenia	"I did give you the option of just fighting somewhere else, you know!" Sarracenia shouts into the megaphone. With her lungs it might have been heard without the use of the megaphone. With it, it is a nearly deafening screeching of angry princess. She looks over as the girl down on the ground thanks them, but blinks worriedly as that fog rises. And when bodies start to rise, her eyes widen. Generally raising the dead is considered bad. Especially when they don't seem to be controlled undead. "What are you doing?!" Sarracenia exclaims over the megaphone. It wouldn't be clear just who she means unless one can see her. She growls lightly, then looks over to a piranha plant standing nearby with a shining chestplate and a conquistador helm. "Fire the ice mushrooms! If they still refuse to take this fight elsewhere we will switch to more lethal weapons!" The plant salutes using one of his leaf arms, then growls and rasps some commands to the other plants, of which there are several dozen. Then, there is a cacophany of cannonfire, and ice blue mushrooms with light blue spots go flying into the two crowds. They explode on impact, sending waves of intense could flowing across the battlefield, threatening to cause major freezer burn and maybe even encase people in ice blocks! "Tomoe! Rean! Try not to kill any of the living if you do not have to! This is a relief mission, and causing deaths in other nations could easily have much larger consequences!" the princess adds. Does she have actual command over them? Not really, but of course she acts like she does.
Tomoe	Tomoe says "All right if we go into a fight let me get in first and try to hold as much attention as I can. She hears the reply to the Princess plea for peace they call at them to not get involved in it. No one listens, sadly. It's so rare that when someone ins this situation listens Tomoe will hold a party after. Well, at least that's how she feels fire arrows are being fired at the ship now. "Rean? Princess? ITs time to get to it." She pauses for a moment "So we target the leaders and hopefully force a retreat?" She hears her orders and nods. "I'll do my best on that." The undead? She won't be holding back, and a question she asks herself where is the source of the undead? Either way Tomoe will leap off the ship and will focus her initial fury upon some of the undead as she set down, she's going to make her path to the mage leader of one of the two factions, but for now, she's got undead to deal with. "When it rains, it pours GET THE HELL BACK IN YOUR GRAVES!" She's hacking and slashing her way through as she will push for her primary target.
Rean Schwarzer	And nope, looks like they're not gonna back down after all. Rean sighs. Well, the best they can do now is keep the village from getting destroyed in the crossfire. He nods to Tomoe. "Ok. You take point, I'll give you as much back up as I can." And then someone starts raising the dead. " What- /Seriously/ " Rean says. Who the heck was doing that? One of the warring factions? Someone in the village trying to scare off attackers? Then an unfortunately familiar voice comes over the radio. What the hell was Lezard doing here? ...Actually, wasn't he skilled in soul manipulation? Could he raise the dead? Rean sighs. He could worry about him later. Rean nods at Sarra's request. "Got it!" He shouts, and then disembarks the airship. Definitely don't want to give this necromancer more fuel. Anyway, he charges forward after Tomoe, unsheathing his sword into a flurry of strikes on any other undead that don't quite focus on the fairy knight.
Phyllis Lancaster	The tavern keeper offers LEzard a nod of acknowledgment and pockets the coins, then resumes cleaning up the counter. Should he come back later, there'll be another tankard waiting. Business is business, and if anyone's crazy enough to come in? That axe is up there for a reason. When the very necromancer-y looking man steps out of the tavern wielding his evil-looking rod of darkness, it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. Indeed, this scene would be the perfect backdrop for a tragic end of an unfortunate wizard who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even Lezard's words won't sway the trio of warriors coming at him with sword, axe, and spear all at once, shouting out his location to their commander watching from atop the valley. "The necromancer has been spotted. Take him out!" As orders from above are relayed to those down below, the chaos on the battlefield grows exponentially even without considering the zombies pulling soldiers down to bury them in sheer bodily volume, teeth, and broken bones. Ice encases those unlucky enough to be hit by the ice mushrooms directly, and those trying to capitalize on their constricted foes find themselves slipping all over the place and winding up with their feet and faces stuck to the frozen grass and shores. They'll be fine. They might need help peeling themselves off and bandaging up later, but they'll probably be fine. The airship isn't going to go ignored any longer, though, as both archers and mages turn their sights upwards. Arrows launch upwards at the airship like an upside-down waterfall on one side while fireballs and wind blades streak upwards to burn and cut the flying machine apart! When Tomoe and Rean go after the undead, the warring groups don't target them for the time being. They're going after the zombies, after all, so they're probably on the soldiers' side! The zombies are surprisingly tough, having been raised from the recently dead with their armor and most of their bodies still intact, but their combined blades make short work of the ones closest to them as they fall apart in various chunks and other assorted parts that are still kind of gross considering how fresh they are. Rean and Tomoe may notice that these zombies exhibit some rather strange behavior for what they are, though. Namely, they're not attacking the Elites at all. They do try to hold their blades in place to slow them down, but not a single one even tries to take a bite out of the hands that hold said blades. "Wha..? W-wait up! Stop, they're here to help!" The witch shouts as she starts running at the pair of melee fighters, still a bit too far to do much other than cast that same ominous purple fog around to raise yet more corpses in that misguided attempt to stop the fighting. She stumbles on a nearby corpse and faceplants, the miasma growing thicker around the witch while the one she just tripped on starts getting up and drawing more of its fallen brethren to it. "Report! Another necromancer has been spotted in the village. They may be working together with the flying monster princess." "Is that so...? Contact the other commander!" "Mages!" "Archers!" "Bring that flying eyesore down on their heads!" On one hand, the commanders have a unified goal. On the other hand, the magic-users and Sarracenia may have just become their common foe. At least Tomoe and Rean are still in the clear! For now.
Lezard Valeth	Were it another wizard, perhaps, it would be tragic indeed. They would have been brained, subdued, tied to a stake and cooked alive or some other sordid end. But today, the tragedy is on the part of the combatants, not Lezard. As the trio of warriors rush the Sorceror of Midgard, the man simply stands his ground, a burst of power rising around him as he waves the Manus Catalyst. A small swarm of black, fuzzy balls appears around him, each gleaming with little beady eyes of pure white. It would be almost cute... If the spheres did not begin relentlessly tracking the warmth of life as the warriors draw within range. Upon contact, the spheres implode, striking the warriors with a terrible heavy darkness that crushes bone and saps energy. If they are lucky, they will live. Lezard doesn't really care. A moment later, Lezard's voice cracks across the battlefield, dire and resonant as he backs it with magical force, making himself heard over the din of battle. "ENOUGH! In your pride and foolishness you have forfeitted your lives. As you are ones to fear death, allow me to cast open the gates of Niflheim! More souls await!" The energy only grows as Lezard shapes the power, a circle of energy forming below him as he casts his hand forward. The air, rippling about him, casts his hair and cloak wildly as he begins to intone, his voice ringing in the air defiantly: "I am he who hath entrusted his soul to the eternal vortex of time. Ye know me! And if ye do not, ye shall be made to know me. It shall be engraved on thy very soul... LEZARD VALETH! If ye shall accept the brand of Hel upon thee, thy sanctions shall in turn be lowered. I shall grant thee the deliverance of thy soul, and ye shall come now before me!" The voice begins to fade away... And the darkness answers. Gaping wounds rip into the air and earth, minor demons, harpies, ghosts, lesser vampires, and undead Viking warriors surging onto the battlefield. Unlike the mindless undead, these creatures are possessed of a dark malice, the demons and undead beasts seeking out the combatants and assaulting them in a variety of fashions. A large number of them are summoned right on top of the mage and archer contingents, suddenly resulting in them being embroiled in deadly melee as Lezard silently directs them with little more than a gesture or a point of the Catalyst. In the meantime, however, he turns towards the girl in white. "Is what they say true, girl? Are you the one who summoned up the undead?" He gestures. "Remain beside me. I will ensure you are not harmed."
Sarracenia	The airship keeps firing, trying to pin down as many of the soldiers and officers as possible. But it is soon under fire itself! And on fire! Sarracenia stumbles back and forth as the ship rocks from all the hits. Flaming pieces of shattered wooden debris start to fall from the sky. And with it a few of those strange plant creatures that are Sarra's subjects. Gravelly cries can be heard each time one falls toward the ground, and once they land...well there are creepy plant zombies to add to the mix. Zombies that shoot fireballs from their mouths and wield spears against their living targets. The airship is tough, but such a concentrated barrage from both sides is hard to weather, and sirens start to sound as fire spreads and suddenly... KABOOOM! Wood and plants go flying everywhere as one of the powder magazines goes up, and the ship shudders before quickly losing altitude. The main mast is no longer spinning, and the two remaining are having trouble keeping it in the air. "Alright! You guys asked for it!!" Sarracenia exclaims, and the huge main cannon underneath swivels toward the mage army. "We gave you the chance to stop! We even offered to let you keep fighting somewhere else! But you chose to engage the Sundew Navy!" She pulls her hammer from her purse, then waves it in a wide arc toward the mages. "Fire the Bonzai Bill!!" With a loud metal on metal sliding sound, a shark-faced bullet that must be the size of a truck appears. And once it is in place there is a thunderous BOOM as it is launched. It flies at a fairly slow pace toward the center of the mage army, taking a slow arc to reach them. And when it does, the casing explodes. Shrapnel from the casing rains across the battlefield...even as a series of growing explosions erupts from the center, threatening to engulf many in fiery death. Then there is a pause before one last explosion. One that is more violent than the rest combined and leaves a good sized mushroom cloud in its wake. Sarracenia can be heard laughing a bit maniacally after the explosion, but when she looks down and sees Lezard trying to get close to another girl, Mikoto flashes to her mind and she growls. "Leave her alone!" she exclaims and leaps from the airship. She rides her hammer down, and though she doesn't land close enough to cause any harm the shockwave is still attention grabbing. "I will not let you lead another astray as you did Mikoto!" she declares, leveling her hammer at Lezard. And possibly in denial about just how much Mikoto was led astray.
Tomoe	These are not some low-end zombies, no they are fresh which means they are going to be quite hard to take down. Well compared to your standard-issue zombies. Still she does take them down and she ties to not think about how fresh they are. This is failing venture, given she's fighting them all upclose. "If it's not one thing it's another, Rean keep moving don't let them bog you down!" The zombies are acting with a form of tactids that are nor normal in her experiance with the undead are just trying to slow her down, not attack her. Tomoe has not taken a serious hit yet so far. That leaves her wondering and soon to be changing her tactics. She pops off a message to Sarra and Rean to coordinate. She turns and is making for the mercenary lines intending to beat down and hopefully by taking out the captain forcing some of them to flee. However, Lezard steps into the fight, showing once more why he's one of the most terrifying mages let alone necromances around. Her wings will flare out and she'll make a blitz at high speed for the captain. "IF I WERE YOU I'd RUN AS ITS ME OR LEZARD YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH AND I AM THE KINDER ONE!" She knows Lezards forces are already growing with the slaughter that's already occurring she also is going to have to think about the townsfolk but Lezard's wrath may be focused on the active combatants.
Rean Schwarzer	Ok, so Lezard wasn't actually the one doing the (initial) zombie summoning. No, he just decided now was the time to summon demons and more zombies. The first set weren't even fighting back, really? Apparently the girl in white was trying to help...using zombies. Rean sighs. Well, once they "If you want to help, try to get your zombies as far from the village as possible!" Rean moves to keep some of the zombies and demons off of Tomoe while she goes after the merc captain, if they're attacking her. Meanwhile, Sarra was trying to beat Lezard's head in. While he totally deserved it, now /really/ wasn't the time. "Your majesty, we're not here to fight Lezard, we're here to help that village, remember?"
Phyllis Lancaster	The trio facing Lezard had no chance. As their bones are smashed and their lives sucked out of them, they have little time left to reflect on their choices in life. Could they have gone down a different path? Probably not, but there's not much else to think about when they're dying. Multitudes of those warriors and spellcasters alike meet that same fate, too, as they're beset from all sides from all manner of flying and grounded monstrosities alike, the white witch's zombies shambling along to join in the attack. The mages fare far better than the archers do, the former at least having some barrier spells to keep the creatures at bay for a little while whereas the archers' short swords barely even delay the inevitable. The commanders, meanwhile, find themselves set upon by the dragon-winged woman and the young swordsman that's proving to be far more resilient than would be expected of someone his size. The armored captain is going to be rather tough to topple from his steed as he clashes his mighty lance against Tomoe's sword, his armor keeping him fairly safe for the time being. The archers accompanying him aren't so lucky, though, as their lack of armor doesn't really do them any favors against someone far faster and more agile than they. Their arrows still pack a punch, though, if they can actually keep up with her speedy flying maneuvers! As for the swordsman, he finds that same issue with dealing with the witch's zombies as before: They're tough as nails, they're slowing him down, but they're not actually attacking him. The soldiers, noticing this odd behavior, turns their attention towards him as well, firing off gouts of flame and arrows alike as if he /he/ was also responsible for all these monsters going after them! The witch, meanwhile, has her work cut out for her. As she pulls herself up onto her feet, a pair of ragged spearmen rush at her, threatening to impale her and halt at least a third of the undead monsters swarming the village. Before they can make contact, however, they're stopped by a combination of explosions from the giant shark-faced Bonzai Bill raining deathly fire down upon them and the various ghosts and demons swooping in to intercept her attackers. The series of explosions rocks the village and the soldiers on both sides alike, and the commanders find themselves having to back off, both to deal with the increasing numbers of swarming monsters and to not get melted in explosions in the process. Naturally, the lady in white looks awestruck. Why wouldn't she be? A handsome mage and a valiant flying princess, joining together with unyielding force to save not only the village, but to save her as well? "Y... Yes! Thank you both, I'm in-" And then the princess goes after the mage with a giant hammer. The witch holds up a hand as if she's about to question something, then lowers it as the confusion sets in. "Aren't you working... Together?" Apparently not. Rean's idea about moving the zombies away from the village does seem to have some merit to it, though, and it doesn't take long before the witch's zombie horde starts pushing back against the two towns' soldiers, spreading outwards and slowly drawing them further away from the village! It's still kind of a mess with so many of them dead or injured, though, and the commanders are still fighting even as they back off from the cliffside facing the valley.
Lezard Valeth	Lezard isn't here to make things /better/. What, you thought he was some kind of hero or something? Hahahaha. That's funny. For his part, he seems to be effectively nonchalant about the entire thing despite having portrayed the demeanor of a vengeful god a few seconds ago. Frankly, the unholy horde is making all the statement it needs to. While the witch's zombies provide a tough cordon, Lezard's demonic horde are left to rampage and murder and such as needed. They leave the village generally alone, at least... When the soldier types don't make ise of the buildings, anyway. There is one exception though: The tavern is left utterly untouched and pristine. The demons don't even go /near/ it. That's right, giving a passing necromancer good service has its benefits. The demons, in the meantime, just keep coming. Unless they can somehow break through the mass and get to Lezard himself, they just seem effectively endless, especially since there seems to be no god-botherers around to banish the things. If the commander thinks they're going to win a war of attrition, they are going to be sorely disappointed. Which leaves Lezard to focus on the girl. He bows to the witch, smiling. "Of course, it is nothing." He says, moments before he is called out by Sarracenia, mainly because he almost falls over from the impact of the hammer on the ground. There is a small scowl on his face as he beholds the Princess. "Speak not of things you do not understand, Princess. I have offered the girl my protection. Do not interfere, I am more than capable of informing you of the gravity of your mistake should you insist on meddling ignorantly."
Sarracenia	"Working together?! I am surprised he is helping at all!" Sarracenia answers Phyllis, still with her hammer held toward Lezard. A hammer that is as tall as the princess herself, and looks like it weighs much more than her. She looks around when Rean points out their objective, then just hmphs and turns her nose up in that way only haughty ladies of class can. "What is more important to a hero than punishing a villain! The enemies are already pulling back, and -this- enemy is here before us now!" She then levels a cold glare at Lezard. "What is the saying? With friends like you, who needs enemies? You may have helped Mikoto, but I am quite confident she would not have agreed to your methods had she been fully aware. And I find it hard to believe that you are placing anyone's well-being above your own." She looks to Phyllis after that. "I will protect you if it is needed. But this man has no interest in protecting anything that does not serve him in some way. And! He caused a friend of mine much grief in the name of 'helping' her! So, once this village is safe I will be teaching him a lesson!" she says, then looks up at her airship. It has managed to stabilize, but she motions for it to land since it is so heavily damaged. Still, the cannons fire and the crew of piranha plants launch fireballs of their own. Instead of the ice mushrooms they have switched to Bullet Bills, smaller shark-faced bullets that track their targets at roughly running speeds. A dozen or so are launched at both sides of the conflict. Sarra however does not lower her hammer, and does not take her eyes off of Lezard.
Rean Schwarzer	Well, at least the witch listened and started shoving her zombies somewhere else. Sarra..../kind of/ listened? Maybe? At least her airship was still firing aat the ac. Speaking of firing, guess who's being fired at! One of the fireballs hits his shoulder, singing his uniform. Rean turns around, and then moves toward the ranged attackers to knock bows out of the archers' hands or tomes out of mages' hands. An arrow or two graze him as he rushes forward. "Please stand down, before things get any worse and even more people get added to the hordes of undead sprouting up here." Rean says.
Tomoe	Tomoe is more trying to get them to run or flee but still it's a pretty furious fight going on here, she will attempt to just drive them off even as she's fighting them she doesn't seem happy for a moment at this she's really not. "This ain't no paycheck worth dying for you have one of the Concords more powerful wizard if not the most enraged at you he's already ut your forces to pieces!" Tomoe will just be trying to knock him the hell out as per her orders, and doubly so for his men. She'll pause and let lose a quickly chanted spell causing a burst of light before she charges into shield slam him. Also there are more of Lezard's demons coming at them and this is just getting to be bad as she knows they may have to deal with Lezard which is something she does not relish the idea of dealing with Lezard after a fight like this.
Phyllis Lancaster	Luckily for the village, nobody is crazy enough to contend with the EVERYTHING going on outside. They're content to hide in their homes with only minimal damage, most of it coming from bodies and spells being thrown about by various forces rather than being direct targets of the warring towns' ire. They're not COMPLETE monsters, after all. They like the town for its convenience and resources. Just not enough to not fight in it. Alas, not fighting in the village seems to be forced upon them at this point between the demons and undead physically forcing them to retreat alongside Sarracenia's airship and army battering or blowing up those who haven't had the good sense to get out of their firing range. Tomoe's maneuvers have the armored commander on the back foot the whole time, outmaneuvering him effortlessly while that light magic goes right through his armor to strike him at his very core. It certainly doesn't hurt that Rean's around to disarm those archers and mages, too, wood and hard pages bashed aside or cleaved in two, and they certainly aren't going to think twice about getting out of there while the getting's good. Why would they stay when they're up against someone that could have easily run them through several times over already? The commanders aren't stupid, either, as the call to retreat goes out on both sides. It's clear they're outmatched and soon, the soldiers begin to disperse while fighting a retreating battle to stave off any pursuing demons at their flanks. When Lezard greets the witch with that smile, meanwhile, he and Sarracenia can easily see a red tinge spreading on her face. Sadly, he doesn't have much of an opportunity to speak to her directly once he and Sarracenia start getting into it, but the witch is hanging onto their every word despite the continued confusion. "Enemy? But you both worked together to stop the fighting! And you all kept me covered when the... Uh." The witch's gaze shifts to the left, then to the right, and then she nods in satisfaction. The town looks like a gigantic blender went through it what with all the bodies lying around, the only real clean spots being that where soldiers were frozen in place or disarmed rather than being burnt, eaten, or chopped apart. "... Right! But I think everything's going to be okay now. I don't think there's any protecting that needs doing, and-oh." Raising a hand, the miasma flows from the fresher zombies into the witch's hand, and then she lowers both hands to offer the Elites a polite curtsey and beaming smile. "My name's Phyllis. It's good to meet you! I think our work here's done, but... Um. I don't really get the rest of what you said." She gestures at Sarracenia, making vague hand gestures that don't really match with anything someone making hand gestures would say. She might just like moving her hands. For better or for worse, though, the threat to the town is largely dispersed by this point. Now the only threat left is whoever's still inside of it.
Lezard Valeth	Lezard actually puts a hand to his face and rubs his temples as the accusations continue to fly. His expression is absolutely now the 'I am absolutely too old for this crap' one that the barkeep had earlier. "Cease your inane prattle and ignorant accusations, Princess. It would not do to injure yourself needlessly. Stand aside and stay out of my business." He turns back to the Witch. "Heed not her words. You will be safe with me. I am most interested in speaking with you about your talent and nature. No harm will come to you, of course." As the armies break and flee, Lezard raises a hand... And the demons halt from chasing the mortals, vanishing back whence they came as quickly as they arrived. That accomplished, he nods to Phyllis. "I am Lezard Valeth, the Sorceror of Midgard. A pleasure to meet you."
Sarracenia	"Greetings Phyllis." Sarracenia says, though she only looks toward the white witch with her eyes rather than turning to face her. "I apologize for my yelling earlier. Even if I am not sure I approve of raising the dead, I recognize you were also trying to help." Her eyes return to Lezard. "...you stand aside. You admitted right to me that you care nothing for the lives you destroy in your efforts." she says, then looks at Phyllis again. "Someone like you who is possessed of a cheerful demeanor and a kind heart will face nothing but tragedy in his company. Did you know that only a few days ago seven young girls who were experimented on by him had to be destroyed because his experiments transformed them into dark monsters who wished only to cause misery? All because someone accepted his help without fully appreciating his methods." The battle seems to be over, and so Sarracenia does take a moment to look around. "Tomoe! Rean! Are you both alright?" she calls out, then looks toward her airship. "Captain! Begin repairs! Get the Sovereign back in the air as soon as possible!"
Tomoe	Tomoe watches as finally, the attackers who still live are fleeing, she's damn well going to have words with the rulers of both of those towns so this mess doesn't. She'll fly to join the others seeing there is not a fight brewing with Lezard she'll banish her weapons back to her inventory she looks a bit concerned, to put it mildly, but she's not making any aggressive actions. She just looks at the strange girl Phyllis. "So you are the other necromancer...." She seems on edge after all when dealing with Necromancy she does not have a good history with it. She'll take a moment to look over to Sarracenia for a moment and then back to Phyllis. "I am Tomoe." She looks to Lezard for a moment "Mr. Valeth."
Tomoe	Tomoe looks to Sarracenia for a moment nodding "I'll live but I need the mother of all showers." She's sure the smell has somehow got past her Avatar somehow.
Phyllis Lancaster	In one of the buildings, nobody sneezes. That's just superstition. The barkeep, however, does have that one specific expression on upon looking out the window. Outside, meanwhile, Phyllis is still lookig a little confused by the banter going between Lezard and Sarracenia. "So you're not friends...? Huh. But you worked pretty well together." She comments while drawing the last of that purple mist into her, followed by her zombies collectively falling over and being good dead bodies. Her eyes go wide behind her glasses as Lezard mentions speaking with her further, her smile brightening further even as she steps towards one of the many corpses. "That'd be great! I mean, I don't... Think you'd try to hurt me, right? Why would you do that? You seem like a nice enough person." Phyllis responds as holds her hand out towards the corpse, several glowing runes appearing in front of her. There's a light shimmer, and the corpse just gets sucked into the runes and disappear not unlike an industrial vacuum cleaner with a comically oversized tube to nowhere. Sarracenia's assessment of her abilities, however, has the witch frowning. "It's a type of magic like any other. All that matters is the person that uses it, and..." She trails off as she listens further, looking between the princess and the necromancer a few times before stroking her chin in thought. "I see, I see... Hm. If they became monsters, then that means..." A dramatic pause, and then Phyllis hits her palm with the bottom of her first. "... They must have been bad from the start! And Mister Valeth was just trying to help them." There's an optimistic tone in her voice as she looks towards Lezard hopefully, all while her hand continues hoovering up more of those corpses. If only she knew. Tomoe's introduction, meanwhile, gets a cheery grin from the witch as well. "Hello!" She also kinda smells like death. Very death.
Lezard Valeth	"Spoken like a true hero. Why waste time understanding when you can stand on righteous indignation?" He says rhetorically. "Never mind that were it not for my efforts, you would have had to kill your beloved Mikoto yourself. Spare me your ignorant blather. If you are so opposed to me associating with a fellow necromancer, than do what you will to try to /stop/ me. Else stand aside and stop this idiocy." He nods in greeting to Tomoe, seemingly with no remaining ill will from the last time they met. "Tomoe." He states simply in greeting, his tone neutral. That said, Lezard turns away from the Princess to look over the hilariously naive girl... and he tilts his head, an odd expression on his face as he notices something and sniffs for a moment. He squints, and gestures. "Phyllis... You are not a normal human, are you?" He asks. "Your flesh does not seem to be alive."
Rean Schwarzer	And thus, the armies retreat! Unfortunately, the village is a mess now, and filled with formerly undead corpses. Rean sighs. Looks like they've got some cleaning up to do. Rean sheathes his sword and then heads over to where Sarra,Tomoe, Lezard and the new person are....and flinches at the discussion of the mess with the glass witch. "That sounds about right. Magic can be used for good or evil, depending on who uses it, and /why they're doing it./" Rean says, looking at Lezard with that last bit. He's /trying/ not to sound salty, but he's failing. Whoops. And then the new girl says something along the lines of 'maybe they were bad and that's why they became monsters,' which was INSANELY off the mark. "That's...Trust me, that's not why that happened. It's a long story." One could argue that Mikoto was the bad one for needing her Soul Gem cleaned out that often, but still. "Anyway, my name's Rean. Nice to meet you, Phyllis." Rean says, smiling.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia's teeth grit at that. "You think I do not understand that? I still have no doubt we could have found another way. One that -didn't- cost seven innocent lives or cause Mikoto the very pain that apparently pollutes a Soul Gem!" Then, Phyllis speaks up with hopeful optimism. Lezard doesn't confirm or deny that they were bad before he got to them. "I doubt he knows. From what I understand his actual contact with them was minimal. But, that is not how things work on that world. They would have transformed whether good or bad thanks to the magical girl curse." The others greet him amicably. Even Rean. And Sarracenia's grip on her hammer tighens audibly thanks to her leather gloves. "I will not stop you from discussing your magical talents. But I have given my warning. And since you are not stricken with the magical girl curse...I think..." And then Lezard says that she might not be alive. "What?! You are some sort of living dead and would trust another necromancer whom you have only just met?!"
Tomoe	Tomoe keeps it neutral she does not want to fight now there are other things to do she looks at the Princess and to Phyllis, for a moment she then looks to Lezard. She looks to Phyills doe a moment and she tilts her head. "You seem pretty chipper. You are a Necromancer... I take it." She takes a moment to look at the town there's clean up to do and people to help she thinks she will need to talk to Phyllis later but for now, she's thinking, and Rean puts it better than she. "Magical girl curse?" She takes a deep breath and pauses. "Wait your undead too?!"
Phyllis Lancaster	Phyllis makes it a point not to go from looking at Lezard immediately to looking at Sarracenia. She's not entirely sure what's gone on between them in the past, but the awkwardness is palpable. Instead, she makes sure to space it out! Lezard gets a nod and an impressed giggle. "That's right! I still feel everything like a regular person, but it's... Technically right. I haven't met a lot of people that would notice that sort of thing, but I had to since I've had a few... Um. Accidents before." The next giggle is considerably more awkward, and she doesn't explain what kind of accidents she means. Rean gets her attention next, and his sort of corroboration of Sarracenia's side of the story makes things a smidge more awkward. "O-oh. Uhm... Hm. Well, I'm sure there was still a good reason, even if it doesn't make sense." She chuckles softly, then offers him a light bow as well before turning to Sarracenia. She's not quite sure what to make of this curse talk. "I don't think I'm cursed, no. If I was, I wouldn't have any control over all my stuff!" Beaming that bright grin once more, she strokes her chin while looking up in thought and nodding towards Tomoe. "That's right. Um... I guess it's less zombie ghost and more... What's the word." She really can't think of the word, and she just shrugs after a moment. "I don't stay dead even if I die. It's really convenient!" Again, no elaboration as to why, but Phyllis seems satisfied enough with leaving it at that. Afterwards, she turns to the four once again. "So... Lezard, Sarracenia, Tomoe, and Rean. What interesting names..." The witch chuckles again as she tips her hat back, then holds her hand out while shaking a broom out of a circle of runes not unlike the one she used to vacuum up several corpses. "It was great meeting you all. Maybe we can work together again sometime!" Straddling the broom and looking the part of the stereotypical witch, Phyllis turns to the four while tilting the back of the broom downwards. "Does anyone need a ride? I've got room for one!"
Lezard Valeth	"Then go forth and find one, silly girl." Lezard replies to Sarracenia. "Instead of pestering me for giving you the time to do so. You may thank me at your leisure." He listens attentively to Phyllis' description of her state. "Fascinating. Are you able to separate your spirit from your flesh? Perhaps you cannot... Hmm." There is a gleam that reflects from his glasses as he muses. Still she produces her broom, and indicates she has room for one. "I believe I shall join you." Lezard says quickly, apparently expecting Sarracenia to try to cut him off. He sits on the broom with her, and presumably takes off, smiling defiantly back at the Princess as he takes his leave with the new acquaintance.