Scene #6895: Njorun: The Root of the Problem

Owner	Pose
Eryl Fairfax	The sprawling, varied and multifaceted ruins of Njorun are still in the process of settling. Hence the constant moaning, groaning, and occasional crashing. Thankfully, the latter is always in the distance, as a team of five Njorun Guides escort the Paladin Elites along the routes they've found to be safe. 'Safe' being a relative word, as the path goes across the tops of bathroom stalls bridged by planks of wood, as well as through broken corridors held suspended by dangling roots. These paths are all marked by those who came before. Flags planted, arrows spray-painted, even rest stops set up in stable, protected areas. It does speak of the adaptable nature of the Multiverse denizen that order can be brought even to this chaotic place. But there's a sadness to it all. Like the one great Njorun is just a corpse on a table that is slowly being vivisected. But the further they go, the less frequent these signs of prior visits become, eventually leading to a massive drop. Back when Njoorun stood, there would be great elevators going down this shaft, all the way to the Union's containment vaults. Now, the only way is through flight, or abseiling down the tilted continental plate. "We go first," says one of the guides as they gear up for the descent, burying anchors into the ground and securing ropes to them and their own persons. "You follow when all clear given." He and another begin their descent, leaving the other three and the Paladins to wait. It's about half an hour before they come in over the radio. "All clear. Come down." With that, the other three guides help set up the Paladins to make their descent. One goes first, while the other two descend with the group to help them if needed. It's a long, slow descent through the darkness, punctuated by glow sticks taped to the wall by the first pair. About three quarters of the way down, the radio squawks. Frantic shouting and gunshots can be heard before the sound cuts out. The guides all exchange looks, but continue on. "Part of the job," one says if asked. "They can handle themselves." At the bottom, everyone's feet stands upon soft, warm and slightly squishy ground. It's too dark to make out much. One of the guides is nearby, breathing hard. "T-Things," he says. "They grab Kuschev. Drag him further on." He points at a door, backlit by a strange, red glow.
Shigure	Shigure has come alone, her rigging clinking faintly as she walks. Surprising for some here, she doesn't even make the makeshift bridged bend any more than a girl of her apparent age would, even with all the extra metal. She's mostly silent, somber as the surroundings. She knew this place while it was still alive, she helped evacuate civilians along the water-routes that once sat at the very base of the tree's trunk. She watched it crack, implode, then begin to fall. When the group stops at the main shaft, she peers over the edge, watching the first pair descend until they're out of sight. When the radio call comes through, she attempts to go first, "My armour should protect me if anything happens." Which it does, with the radio barking gunshots at them near the bottom. Shigure quickens her pace as much as possible without dislodging anyone else, and at the very bottom, closes her eyes for a moment, before opening them again to shine a pair of brilliant floodlamps around the area. Her hairflaps also crackle with a pulse of electric-like charge as she radiates a radar sweep, while simultaneously sending out a 'PWEEEEEEEEEEEM', of sonar. "Things? Can you describe them? Humanoid, animal, monsterous, amorphous?" she asks in a curt, but not harsh tone.
Reiji Arisu	Most of the treasure hunters who've come to plunder Njorun's imploded corpse might have an inkling of the sort of... melancholy that suffuses it. But it takes someone who was intimately familiar with the Njorun That Was, someone who spent quiet moments amidst its boughs, soaking in the rich, living spirit of the ancient tree, to appreciate just how tragic its loss really was. Maybe that's why he's put off coming here for so long. Reiji Arisu has always been one to cope with his feelings by focusing on practical problems, looking away from sentimentality and substituting the true emotional catharsis with momentary relief of the finished job and the beer that follows. But he's here, now. At least he's come once. At least he's finally making the pilgrimage to the bombed out corpse of a vast living creature he once took for granted. Reiji hops over gaps in the path forward, following the guides as they work their way through what used to be places of pleasant conversation, hollowed out husks of little homes lost to history and preserved only in memory. His expression is unreadable, but undeniably melancholy. He nods his assent as the first of the guides begins their descent, then follows close behind once the remainder begin their journey down. And then, the sound of battle. The noise of a struggle. "'They can handle themselves?'" Reiji mimics in mild disbelief before hastening his own journey downward. He wastes no time once he gets to the bottom and hears of what happened to the one called Kuschev. "'They' grabbed him? Who's 'they?'" He asks of his guides, though he's already moving toward that door to throw it open, his weapons at the ready. "What's taken up residence down here since the collapse?"
Lory Thumper	The trek through the broken wastes that was once the magnificent Njorun Station is a bit easier for someone small and nimble like the bunny cop, Lory Thumper. Of course, she wasn't part of the Multiverse when Njorun was ripped apart, but it would have been pretty hard to spend any amount of time in the multiverse without hearing about it. She is still grappling with the idea that there even was such a place, much less that some multi-dimensional cataclysm destroyed it and its Confederate counterpart. She is also quite familiar with this sort of descent, although hers are usually much quicker. Her long bunny ears perk at the sounds of gunfire and shouting, and she looks skeptical as the three guides still with them say that those below can handle themselves. They reach the bottom, and it seems that it was only partially true. She looks off toward the indicated direction...and her ears lay back a bit. "And very well, it would seem." she says, adding to Reiji's comments. She checks her weapons, then puts on her helmet and pulls her guns. "I'm guessing it was something you hadn't encountered before?" she asks the guide who managed not to get dragged away. She keeps watching that glowing passage, then shakes her head. "That isn't foreboding at all..." she mutters to herself before heading toward it. She takes cover with her back to the doorframe, then peeks around it to see what she can see.
Gawain	Gawain is alone, despite being recently approved to bring an emergency response unit to missions. There's no one to search and rescue here, he thinks, as he carefully steps across wooden planks, peering down briefly at bathroom stalls, and is gentle through the corridors. When they reach the elevators, he nods as the guides go first. Once they're at the bottom, he decides to take a rope - he could survive the fall, especially in the daytime, but it's not worth the exhaustion and light damage he'd take. Climbing down slowly, illuminated by glowsticks, Gawain stops and grips the rope tightly when he hears the gunshots. And then, he speeds up his descent, though the other guide's mention of them being able to handle themselves reassures him. When they reach the bottom and they grabbed Kuschev, however, Gawain summons his sword and armor, and moves to flank Reiji at the door. He's going to burst straight forward with Reiji. "Time is of the essence, if they took him. Let's go, everyone!"
Eryl Fairfax	Shigure pings her immediate environment, and right away things are weird. Sonar works by bouncing sound waves off the environment to gain a sense of what is in the way. And obviously, different surfaces bounce back the sound waves in different ways. A submarine has a different 'feel' from a whale, so to speak. And right off the bat, the area everyone has descended into 'feels' different. The sound waves don't bounce back as cleanly as one might expect from metal, stone, and the other usual structural materials. The other three guides are producing rifles and loading them while the Elites tend to their compatriot. He doesn't seem hurt, thankfully. "Things. Like... bug-dogs," he says. "With their whole head as a mouth. Clamped down on his leg, dragged him away." He looks to Lory and nods. "No one ever return from coming down here. We are in unknown zone, with unknown threats." Through the door into a corridor. The red light illuminates the smooth, oddly springy ground as one of the guides throws a flare behind him to guide their way back to the exit. The door at the far end of the corridor is broken open and consumed by vines that mus be cut through (and which produce a concerning red, copper-scented sap when cut) to emerge in a more open area. The place is a crater atop a stack of continental plates peppered with cracks, through which plant life has grown and forested the area. The area is in a constant state of growth and flux. Flowers bloom, only for a strangling vine to loop around them and throttle the life out, only for eggs laid in said vine to violently hatch and produce wasp-like insects. The whole area strobes in bioluminescent light of different colours that constantly change as the sources are parasitized by some other form of mutant life. At the bottom of the crater is a smalll, white sapling surrounded by a pool of what is hopefully water. Could that be the target? But before it can be reached, the 'bug-dogs' leap from pale yellow overgrown grass. They are the size of larger hunting dog breeds, but covered with chitin rather than fur. Their 'heads' are, as the guide said, one big jaw segmented eight ways. They open - more blossom, like a flower bud - to reveal each one is lined with teeth and their own tongue that extend massively from their dark, exposed gullet. They begin to spread out, trying to encircle the group as they approach menacingly.
Reiji Arisu	When anything dies and returns to the earth, there exists a plethora of scavengers, fungi and other small lifeforms that thrive upon its corpse. When a life as great as Njorun is lost, it only makes sense that its fallen form would serve as a veritable smorgasbord for a creatures considerably larger than the common mushroom, termite or otherwise. Reiji was certainly not expecting... This, though. This much rot. This much decay. And beyond that, so much /thriving/ upon what was once a nothing less than a world tree. More disturbing is the sap that emerges when the predominant flora is sliced open-- it looks smells like blood. No normal plant should produce anything like that. Was that really a vine, or was it a... vein...? "Giant bug-dogs? This whole place is..." Reiji's face wrankles at the sight-- at the scent-- "...It's like life gone mad. Is this all because of Njorun's decaying body? Sir Gawain, I believe fire would be useful here, but given the circumstances, I don't know if it's particularly safe to use." "Aside from the risk of setting us /all/ on fire," The exorcist gestures at the slender, white sapling at the center of the crater. "I think that one of our objectives is closer than we'd first thought." No sooner than he points it out do the evident 'guardians' of this tainted grove emerge from the rampant flora all around them. The guides weren't kidding, these things /are/ some kind of weird insect dog with monstrous, biting heads. Reiji clicks his tongue, even as a swarm of angry insects buzzes overhead. Limiting his own arsenal is potentially problematic here, but fire is not the only weapon he can wield against such overgrown life. The wolfpack goes to encircle the group-- and Reiji surges into one of their expanding flanks. His hand is a blur, drawing and striking a half-dozen times with a sword that makes no sound and leaves no trace. Each slice is interspersed with a staccato burst of heavy, Metal-aspected rounds, aimed keenly into what would be an ordinary swordsman's blindspots at any beasts that might seek to exploit them. "Fight our way to the sapling," Reiji calls. "We need to break through before the beasts have a chance to surround us!"
Shigure	Shigure frowns as her Sonar returns, weirdly. "This place is not right." she states, following the group and unhitching her rigging from her back; she grasps the handles of her tonfa cannons, and follows behind Reiji and the others, unfolding smaller turrets from the metal plates of the two 'turrets'. Blue eyes scan across the strobing parasitism, life in fast forward, tainted life at that. As the guardians of the grove emerge, and the white sapling is spotted, she speaks commandingly, like a captain to their crew. "Main battery, load high explosive. Set fuse for airburst. AA and secondary battery, weapons free, engage all targets as they enter range. Torpedo crew, standby." As Reiji wades out to one flank, Shigure herself breaks through to the other, trying to draw some of the monstrocities away from the others. The two main cannons belch smoke and fire, their orange-tracer shells detonating in the air near their targets, raining concussive force, and heat around them. And as the smaller turrets track and fire high speed tracer rounds in a 'bubble' around the Destroyer girl.
Lory Thumper	Lory brings up the rear as Gawain and Reiji and Shigure charge in, but comes to a stop once they are inside. Her eyes are wide as she watches the constant flux of parasitic life. And her nose wiggles at the scent coming from that sap. "...is that...blood?" she asks, not really aimed at anyone but loud enough to be heard. And then the bug-dogs show thenselves! But, the missing guide doesn't seem to be with them. She perks her ears, using her highly sensitive hearing to try and find him...if he is still alive. Or perhaps pick up his smell if not. The sapling definitely draws her attention, but saving lives takes priority. "What about the guide?!" she calls out as Reiji declares they fight toward the sapling. Then, she gets a good look at these bug-dogs as their mouths open like that. Her eyes widen and she swallows a bit nervously before reaching to pull a few yellow discs from her belt. "Well, fire may not be a good idea down here, but maybe this will help!" She throws them like ninja stars, and they explode upon impact to cover the targets in foam that rapidly hardens, restricting movement and hopefully making their targets easier to hit.
Gawain	As they move forward, Gawain uses his sword to cut through towards the wide open area, and then lights it ablaze after Reiji talks about fire, despite the concerns. "I'll be careful. I know how to use my blade, after all!" Lory gets a reply. "He's not here presently - there's nothing stopping us from grabbing the sap, searching for him briefly, and then retreating. Let us hurry so he's not pulled too far in!" As the creatures encircle, Gawain starts slicing into them with the fiery blaze, his swordsmanship impeccable, avoiding accidental hits of the rest of the overgrowth. He's not aiming to ignite them, just burn through them, and is keeping the fire levels on his blade low - it's not currently a bonfire, just an added kick of flame.
Eryl Fairfax	The pack is engaged! Gawain's burning sword and Shigure's heated artillery do wonders to break their flanking pattern. No matter what abominations they are, all creatures instinctively fear flame. Small bullets however only seem to slow them, their thick chitin turning away smaller rounds and only staggering them for a moment. That is until one of Reiji's shots flies down the exposed gullet of one that was pouncing him from behind, and rips it apart from within. Swords seem to fare a bit better. The chitin is thick, but it's not seamless. There's plenty of gaps that a trained blade can cut through. Lory tries to go for a restraining option, pinning a couple with foam. But, something awful happens as the bug-dogs struggle against it. Their chitin cracks from within, like an egg, and the creatures erupt from their own bodies, becoming a mass of raw exposed, greenish skin. They even leave their jaws behind, their tongues peeling off to become a mass of writhing muscle. And without the added weight, they're much faster... But thankfully, the guides advance and fire their rifles into their now-exposed bodies, bringing them down quickly. "We'll take you to the sapling then back out," one says. "But 'finding Kuschev' is not on the contract. He knew the risks." Is he trying to shake them down, or just not willing to linger here longer then necessary? Either way, it's time to press on. The hill down is gentle, but with some occasional steeper slopes that demand a jump or a scrabbling descent. The fauna gets thicker, with great weeping blossoms (the nectar is not red, thankfully) and blades of grass wider than they are tall. And suddenly, screaming from behind. One of the guides has received a face-full of pollen from stepping on a bud upon the ground. And immediately, his skin becomes a trypophobic's nightmare. Holes open up all over him, with wasps parasitizing his body into a nest in seconds. He slumps, eyes twitching but no longer sscreaming. And the insects fly from his form, aiming their stingers at the group.
Gawain	As they burn through the hounds, and the guides help take them down, Gawain nods at what they have to say. "You're right. We risk you by lingering here longer to save him. Very well..." And then, as they press on, there's screaming from behind. A guide has been attacked, killed, and turned into a wasp nest. Gawain takes his sword and quickly moves to slice into the wasps, stingers impacting him. He lifts up armor to block them from hitting his skin, in case they're heavily venomous, playing cautious. Hopefully fire can keep them back, but there's a lot of them, and he's being safe. "Don't allow your fear to hold you back! We must get our objective and get out of here, immediately!"
Shigure	Shigure notes her lighter weapons are largely ineffective, but they're mostly to keep things away rather than harm them directly, a defensive bubble of 'stay away'. She changes course as the bug-dogs are dealt with, rejoining the group and taking up a wing position. The screaming from behind earns her attention, and a shocked expression passes over the normally stoic facade she wears. She levels her cannons on the former Guide, and fires both barrels, dropping explosive shells onto him to stem the flow of any further insects. Meanwhile, said insects are treated to the same bubble of 'stay away' as the bug-dogs, tracer rounds filling the air, though the bugs are much harder to hit due to their smaller size. "This entire place is tainted, we should not linger any longer than necessary." she says, echoing Gawain's words in her own way.
Lory Thumper	Everyday in the multiverse brings new experiences! ...unfortunately, this is one that Lory could do without. "Just leave him here?" she says a bit indignantly to the group...until another guide goes down in a rather horrific fashion. "Sweet peas and carrots!" she exclaims, and starts sniping those wasps out of the air with precision shooting. But, single shots are pretty ineffective against swarms. After a few shots she pulls a few black discs from her belt and hurls them. Red blinking lights at their centers might give a clue to what they are. When they get near the insect swarm, they explode like grenades. Hopefully that will give them enough breathing room to reach the sapling. Lory's own armor is less effective than Gawain's, but it does manage to fend off glancing stings as she flips and somersaults through them and toward the tree. "How are we supposed to move it?" she asks as they make their way toward it. "I'm guessing we can't just yank it out of the ground!"
Reiji Arisu	They're just going to abandon their compatriot down here to... whatever hellish fate awaits him? Reiji gives the guide a look like he's grown a second head. "As I recall, the contract was to involve one other task. You wouldn't care if we searched for him as we pursued it, would you?" And then-- And then something /horrifying/ happens. The puff of pollen alone is enough to put the veteran exorcist on edge, and then it becomes abundantly clear /why/ it is that nobody has dared to come down this deep before. "Gods above," he whispers as the guide's flesh is eaten away from the inside out, "The pollen is /wasps!?/" Eggs, or something more insidious? Reiji's hand twitches close to his arsenal moments before a cascade of explosives ripple through the air surrounding what used to be a perfectly normal (relatively speaking) human being. If there was a chance to save that man, it's gone now. Now, all they can do is make sure the rest of the team gets out of here alive and intact. "I'll take care of the tree," Reiji says, darting back towards the radiant sapling. He reaches into his pack and retrieves a traditional shimenawa to wrap a protective and nourishing bounded around the little tree. He continues, whispering a fervent series of prayers as he kneels to start the process of extracting the sapling from its grove. "Gawain," he calls over, "When you've got a free second, I'm going to need your strength."
Eryl Fairfax	The wasps are met with flame and bullets and explosions. They are, mercifully, not that much tougher than normal wasps, just bigger and uglier. Lory throws out a grenade, and the explosion causes the former guide now hive to crack apart, putting him out of his misery. Immediately, surrounding flowers begin to lap with their stamens as if they were tongues, eating the exposed eggs. The wasps turn their attention on the plants, giving the group a chance to make their escape. The guide gives Reiji a filthy looks. "You can if you want, but we're staying put. Once you have your readings, we're moving out, with or without those who go looking." They all wade through the water (yes, it is water, but there do seem to be microbes floating in it which is a bit concerning) surrounding the sapling. It's... unusual. The bark covering it is light, and speckled with bright red bioluminescent nodes. Flowers are growing around it, also red and also glowing. The sapling is... moving. Swaying in some invisible breeze. It also seems to react to everyone's presence, tilting like it was cocking a head in confusion. As Reiji works to extradite it, it offers no struggle. As it comes free, it curls itself up a bit. It's nodes glow as bright as ever, so it doesn't seem like he's hurt it. Its roots wrap around the ceremonial ropes it is swaddled in to provide itself extra security. But the whole surrounding area reacts to its removal. Reacts badly. Plants shake and shudder as if in anger. Yowls can be heard, coming closer and closer. The water around the group begins to bubble, those microbes rapidly undergoing mitosis towards some end. The guides raise their weapons and shout at Reiji. "Wanna go looking in these conditions?! Take your readings, quickly!" Another pack of bug-dogs comes barrelling down the hill, tumbling and rolling into balls to absorb the impact, their tongues lolling. Thick hazes of pollen begin to erupt all around, obscuring vision and no-doubt causing more awful things to happen. Something huge looms forward, some great colossus leaping from some brambles to land by the water's edge. It's a pack of rats, their tails lashed together into a scaffold that holds them all together in a humanoid shape. It, along with the bug-dogs, attack!
Gawain	Gawain hopes, believes, that the man is still alive back there. Even though it's unlikely, he has to have hope. But...to save him would risk the others, would risk the guides here for one man. As much as Gawain wants to look for him, they have an objective here tonight. Before Gawain can get to help remove the sapling, Reiji does it, and the entire surroundings shake, as a swarm of rats and bug-dogs attack. Shouting to his ally to make his readings, Gawain breathes in, dashes forward with superhuman speed, and swings his flaming sword as hard as he can. The fire brightens, as he tries to burn through the cluster of rats primarily, push the colossus back and focused on him long enough. His armor is chewed through, damaged, but they still haven't broken through to his flesh, but even so, he's bleeding off magical energy to take that hit. Grimacing, the knight tries to look for the exit, and ushers towards the guards. "Get ready to retreat! Hurry!"
Shigure	Shigure skates across the top of the water, cautiously eying the clusters of microbes that are oddly visible to the naked eye. She turns once across, and starts to radiate her radar, scanning for incoming hostiles since the swarm of bugs turned back around. And then all hell breaks loose, and the whole grove turns hostile once Reiji pulls the sapling out of the ground. More bug-dogs, some kind of Rat Golem, and the microbes start to super-mitose and erupt from the water. Gawain strikes out at the rat swarm, so Shigure turns her attentions to the Bug-dogs, firing more explosive shells at them as they charge in recklessly. They manage to push through her defensive bubble, gnashing at her body, tearing uniform and rending her 'skin' apart, allowing thick, black oily ichor to leak out in places. Shigure shifts from using her cannons to using her blade, releasing the turrets to swivel and articulate themselves on gimbal arms, as she slashes with the short wakizashi-style short sword she keeps for situations she can't retreat to distance. "I have your back, Sir Gawain." she states simply, trying to keep the Knight clear so he can do his thing more easily.
Reiji Arisu	The way the sapling reacts to their presence, the way it curls around the support his sacred ropes provide, the apparent /intelligence/ within this little fragment of the great world tree is enough to buoy Reiji's spirits. What happens when he begins to remove it, however, does not. It was perhaps expected. The flora surrounding them was likely benefitting somehow from the sapling's presence, of course it would strike out at them to prevent it from being taken. Reiji's prayers continue even as he leans over and jabs his freezing blade into the surrounding waters, hopefully arresting the rapid proliferation of that bacteria for the time being. He has /other/ things to deal with. His senses reach out into the surrounding environment, not searching for the ebb and flow of life and essence (as such a thing would almost certainly drive him mad, given the circumstances), but rather he tunes his geomantic sense toward the surrounding fabric of time-space. He looks for distortions, aberrations, signs of wear and tear beyond what something like 'the world-tree falling into sudden and abrupt decay' might engender, especially in the vague direction of where he'd sensed the Grail's presence, several weeks prior. Memory being as it is, he instead grasps what appears to be a small handmirror. Its surface glows as his whispers intensify, as some manner of arcane information-- a snapshot of what Reiji observes of the surrounding area-- is imprinted upon it for future review. He's sure not spending time to make any conclusions /here/ of all places.
Lory Thumper	With all that's happened, Lory isn't about to step into that water if she can avoid it. Not when there are obvious -things- in there. But, the guides, two of which have met terrible fates, step forward. And that means that Lory can't just stand there. She leaps across, only landing in the water long enough to leap again, and only if necessary. Reiji pulls the sapling free...and they apparently leap from the frying pan and into the fire. The entire place goes crazy! Lory is back across the water in a flash...and comes face to face with that rat-swarm. She hasn't actually seen rats this way before, much less in a massive ant ball, and her usually strong conviction is overcome by her prey instincts. The bunny cop lets out a fearful scream as she runs for it, firing into the rat behemoth as she goes. Images of what might happen once she has inhaled the eggs or spores or whatever they are fill her mind. She has done a lot of training, but nothing could prepare her for something like this! She leaps and flips her way through the creatures, bouncing off of bug-dogs and flora to try and get to the exit, leaving explosions in her wake as she drops a disc grenade on each one. At least, if the way they used to reach here is even still an exit!
Eryl Fairfax	Gawain's burning blade carves through the Rat Hive, but these rodents are clever. The ones that catch alight immediately disengage from the construct, leaping upon the sun knight to gnaw and chew at him, trying to get under his armour and rip at his belly. Shigure engages the Bug-Dogs, her explosives having thinned their ranks thankfully. Her blades do good work carving them apart. But the two have 'blood' drawn, in the form of spent mana and oil, even in spite of their best efforts, and as the cloud of pollen looms, that proves to be a massive risk in and of itself. Shigure's oily cuts seemingly begin to boil while the air about Gawain starts to fill with tiny grubs that instantly grow into full wasps. But unlike the ones before, that were just big, mean ones, these ones now glow with the power of the sun. Their very presence is heating the air around them exponentially as they form. Meanwhile, more are born from Shigure's oil, mechanical wasps with ship-sail wings. "Oh shit!" shouts a guide before producing a flare and approaching the shipgirl. "I'm so sorry!" he shouts, before pressing the burning end against her wounds. "Don't let the pollen get inside you! Don't even breath it!" Reiji puts his mind out to detect the state of the space-time of the area. He gets a reverberation back that feels /akin/ to what he felt that day, but not quite... the same. It almost feels like comparing the ripples caused by throwing a stone into a pond to the small wave that hits the shore soon after. The collapse of Njorun (and the Citadel too presumably) feels like they contributed to this Paradox War, but are not directly linked. All this is recorded onto the mirror with no issue. Lory panics, and decides to lit out before anyone else, distributing explosives along her path back to the exit. This actually creates a somewhat clear path for everyone else back up the hill, mostly free of the pollen and no-doubt more aggressive fauna. The exit is still there, lit by flares left by the guides, now lighting the dark room. And she can see. She can see why the floor was so springy. Every part of it is covered in a layer of human flesh. The broken, blocked windows are boarded by a frame of teeth and hair. Broken lightbulbs have had eyes grow over them, all of which swivel to look at the rabbit. The switches for said lights are now twitching, grasping fingers. And there on the wall is the stretched, distorted face of Kuschev. He was here all along.
Gawain	The rats leap on Gawain, trying to crawl into his armor. He takes one hand off his sword to start grabbing and throwing them, but one manages to get in and bite at him before Gawain can pull it off, drawing blood and causing a yelp. His armor is gashed, blood is pouring, and he's, honestly, scared. As the air around him grows into sunshine wasps, he realizes something. "This place is...it's corruption, it's /growth/. We need to get out of here. Start pulling back!" He turns off the fire of his blade, using instead the sheer holy power to start cutting through wasps and pull back. As the pollen comes through, Gawain covers one hand over his wound to block it, and then sheathes his sword, covering the other over his mouth and nose with a cloth. "Shigure! Take the guide and move!" As he's doubling back, frightened and trying to be brave, Gawain sees Kuschev. His hand is already over his face, otherwise he'd bring it up. Gawain knows they can't save him, even if he hopes they could. He moves to get Lory to the exit, and start climbing up. Hopefully Reiji and Shigure join them. "I'm so sorry, Kuschev...we won't forget you. Lory, move!"
Shigure	Shigure screams, an unnatural sound for the usually quiet shipgirl. The flare lights the oil, sending up a blaze as the fuel burns. It has the bonus of burning the waspthings away too, but the kanmusu is in a bad way. Somehow, her fairies manage to put the flames out, and patch over the damaged holes in her armour. Lory's cut a path, and so, with a wince and a badly blackened body from the fire, the shipgirl grabs the guide, tears some fabric from what's left of her uniform and makes a makeshift mask for herself and him. She then starts to run, letting her turret gimbals fire behind her, blindly lobbing explosive shells to cover the retreat. The entry room doesn't really affect her outwardly, but inside, she's screaming just as badly as Lory. "Go." she tells the guide, turning to train her rigging on the door, in case anything tries to follow. The narrow corridor should make her fire more effective... she's just going to hope that Kuschev doesn't turn hostile and start to eat her shoes or something.
Lory Thumper	As she reaches the hall they used to reach this place and Lory sees just what this chamber seems to be...she has to fight pretty hard not to toss her carrots. "It...it's made of...people!!" she exclaims in horror and disgust. Her ears perk as she hears Gawain. "Me?! You guys need to hurry! I can't say I meant it, but the path I made won't stay open forever!" she says. With the exit so close, seems her nerves have calmed a bit. She keeps throwing out those grenades, trying to keep the way clear for the others. Explosions of both destruction and restraining foam try to keep the hostile life at bay. She stares for a few moments at the face of Kuschev, then looks over where the other guide fell, then shakes her head and keeps going. Once the others are near, she makes her way quickly through the passage and back to the ropes, hopefully still dangling down from above.
Reiji Arisu	This is bad. Not the readings from the dimensional analysis (though Reiji does briefly entertain the idea of what they might imply), but rather the sudden evolution of... /Things./ Lifeforms based apparently on the powers and abilities of the expeditionary party. That is /bad./ It's the pollen, they soon determine. Whatever the hell that pollen is doing, it's... It's like some kind of biological accelerant. Some kind of pluripotent lifeform that devours the essence of other creatures to forment its own evolution. Don't breath it in, he's told-- though after what happened to that other guide, he doesn't much /need/ to be told. Reiji slaps a Shinra-made purification mask across his nose and mouth as he stows his mirror away. "Go," he orders, hooking his arsenal to his hip to free one arm to support the sapling. He retrieves Karin, swiping at the clouds of pollen with the burning blade in the hopes of causing them to burst harmlessly into flame before the infection can spread further. It's awful. Terrible. And yet-- And yet it doesn't at all compare to what they find in the corridor they crossed to get here. Suddenly, the vine and its contents make sense. It /was/ a vein, and this whole room is some kind of aggregate lifeform made of the knit-together flesh of the many explorers who fell prey to the corruption. Corruption. Gawain has the right of it- that /is/ what this is. Reiji fights the urge to vomit, actively forcing down the bile churning at the back of his throat. "Sir... Sir Gawain," Reiji manages, pushing through the corridor as quickly as is reasonable. "As soon as we get clear, are you able to deploy your noble phantasm?" "I don't want to think what might happen if this were to spread."
Eryl Fairfax	It's time to go. The fire and bullets put into the Rat Hive have reduced its mass enough to render movement difficult. So it just collapses into a puddle of rats and begins to pursue everyone that way. The wasps, even as they parasitize Gawain's own power, can't stand up to his sword of the sun and are burned away. The mechanical ones born of Shigure's oil just melt instantly in the heat. Shigure's blindfired shells impact the chasing organisms, taking out the last Bug-Dogs and putting big gaps in the Rat Hive swarm. Karin manages to keep the pollen from becoming dense again, ensuring everyone makes it to the hallway without developing any holes. The guides shudder in revulsion when they realise what their entrance was made of, one of them stopping to vomit. "Let's go," says the curt one, his face pale as everyone approaches the ropes. But there's a hanging question in the air; the guide they found claimed that Kuschev got dragged away by the Bug-Dogs. And yet, he became part of this room. So what really happened? This may become apparent when another face behind the ropes is seen. It's the same face as the surviving guide. The one that has been with them this whole time. There's a wet sound as the guide who vomited is pierced through the back at multiple points by a ribcage that extends out of the imposter. Their head blooms like a flower, their eyes suspended by stalks and a single, great tongue as the stamen. Their nervous system extend from their fingers and dips into the floor of the fleshy room, causing it all to begin to violently convulse. The spastic movements aim to trip and dislodge the elites, as pressurised blood blasts them from vein vines. Thick, ropey hair and ribcages grow about to try and ensnare them while mouths form in the flesh to try and bite them. The last remaining guide screams in horror as he empties his gun into the body of his dead ally, this... /thing/ using it as a shield.
Shigure	Shigure hears a scream, and gunfire, and then finds a mouth trying to bite her foot. The teeth would find her difficult to chew, unless they're super-powered and durable, she's effectively made of metal, even if she looks to be made of flesh. it's successfully keepting her from getting any further away from the door and the incoming horrorshow behind them... so she shifts and attempts to stand her ground, firing everything she has down the hallway to stem the tide. Gawain is going to use his Noble Phantasm, okay she can deal with that. This is going to hurt like hell, but she is the bulwark. At Gawain's call, her turrets gimbal back behind her, and she hunkers down as best she can, using the armoured plates on her rigging to weather what she can of the Sun Knight's Noble Phantasm.
Gawain	As they start to flee, and see another face, and one of the guides turns into a tendrilled horror, Gawain swallows. He turns back, bringing up his blade. He leaps to be in range of as much of the corruption as possible. And then, he lifts his sword into the air. As he does so, he shouts to the others to get behind him. Shigure says she's going to stay and hold them off - she can't move. There's not enough time to stop them. Gawain moves to take the risky maneuver. To ignite his Noble Phantasm, risk himself, Shigure, and the others, to stop this horror as best as he can. "Excalibur...GALATINE!" As the sword is drawn, Gawain throws it up into the air. At the height of the throw, it forms into a sun, a magical pattern forming beneath Gawain's feat. The blade flips back down, landing in his hands, but the sun remains. Holding the sword with two hands, right at the last second, the knight swings. The powerful fire wave scorches forward, engulfing the monstrous horrors, engulfing Shigure, anyone who doesn't make it out. Hopefully, Reiji and Lory can get the guide out behind them. Gawain feels immense guilt doing this. But the alternative would be horror.
Reiji Arisu	No. No this is wrong. All wrong. The guide they were following distends into some kind of... of /Thing./ Reiji recoils in visible and abject horror as things that rightly belong on the inside of a human body (and many things which DO NOT AT ALL belong anywhere near a human body) are suddenly disgorged in grotesque and stomach-churning ways. One of the guides falls victim to the creature almost immediately, and that leaves just the one-- "Lory," Reiji says, thinking as quickly as he can. He darts over, pressing Njorun's sapling into her arms. "Take this and the guide and go. I wouldn't want all this to have been in vain. And... I'll need both arms. Don't worry, we'll cover you." Both arms for what? Excalibur Galatine unfolds behind him, filling the world with raging, solar light. Reiji, both arms now free, darts forward with both Darkdrift and Sorin drawn. The two blades whirl, scattering motes of shadow and frost in rhythmic arcs. "O' blade of dark's quiet repose, o' sword of winter's first snow," he chants, leaping forward with preternatural speed toward shield Shigure and the remaining guide. "O' silver moon, reflect upon the sun's baleful radiance, and grace us with the veil of shadow--" He's... aiming to establish a dichotomy. A Yin to Excalibur Galatine's tremendous Yang in an effort to shield elites and guide alike while, potentially, paradoxically magnifying the manifest sun's might by providing a source of its polar opposite. Of course, doing so also means exposing himself to its scalding flames, but that's a risk he's willing to take. Of course, if Lory /also/ takes care of escorting the guide out while he's busy performing his unique brand of geomantic nonsense, that would /probably/ be a considerable help...
Lory Thumper	Lory is just about to use her high speed to get to those ropes when Reiji calls out to her. She skids to a stop before bounding back quickly. She blinks in surprise and a bit of fear at being handed the sapling. Not the fear that comes from those horrors in the room beyond, but the fear of being handed a very important and fragile package. She takes it carefully, then in an unorthodox move she hops up and wraps her strong legs around the guide's middle. "Hang on!" she exclaims before pulling out her grappel gun and firing it into the wall several feet above the bottom of the ropes, she attempts an acrobatic feat, pulling the guide with her in a move that might look more at home in a trapeez act. It won't get them more than a foot or two off the ground, but it should at least let them behind Gawain before that firey shockwave erupts from his sword! Of course, this is somewhat dependent on how well the guide hangs on to Lory, and how strong the anchor point is. If he looses his grip or the anchor comes lose...Lory may well make it to the ropes without him. Either way, soon enough the swift bunny is making her way up the ropes and toward the exit, pausing every now and then to see if the others are following.
Eryl Fairfax	It's a tense few moments. Gawain and Reiji don't have time to wait for a clear line of fire. Between the /Thing/, the living room, and the rats and Bug-Dogs bearing down on them, there's not a moment to waste. Shigure hunkers down, not having time or means to free herself, and using the chance to buy even an extra second. Without her, Lory would have had to dive into a the swarm in order to extract the last guide. But thanks to the shipgirl's sacrifice, the rabbit officer is able to snag the man, and the sapling, before grappling to safety. The power of the Sun, bolstered by the Yin of Reiji, blast out. Immediately, the living organisms are atomized. The flesh hall suffers catastrophic damage, and even the parts behind the two swordsmen dies from the damage. Every trace of pollen and plantlife is annihilated, and the continental plate is seared. Absolutely nothing lives. The ruins above this point quake under the force of it, no-doubt disrupting the safe paths previously laid. Once the searing light of the Sun ebbs, the damage can be seen. The sheer heat has caused partial liquefaction of the cracked continental plate, the slag filling in the holes. This will, at the very least, keep whatever all this grew from sealed away for a time. The living guide is trembling, and quickly grabs a rope so Lory doesn't have to support him. "Let's get out of here. I need to get out of this line of work," he stammers.
Shigure	The burning light and power of the sun washes over her, searing away the tainted life, atomizing everything in its path... But the shipgirl remains. Rigging slagged, uniform and body seared, one arm entirely missing. Her fairy crew emerge from the lee of her hunkered body, and start patching what they can, trying to get her moving again at least, but she's very badly damaged. "It looks like this is it for me..." Shigure attempts to stand, teetering over to one side, then buckling back to the ground again. She'll need carrying out.
Gawain	Gawain's firestorm does what it needs to do. As it dies down, as the sun vanishes, he slowly puts his sword away, exhausted. But he's not done yet. To conserve his energy, he's slow as he approaches Shigure, lifting the slagged but alive boatgirl. "No, it's not. I knew you'd survive. I had hope." And then, the knight will retreat with Shigure up the rope, to get her to Paladins medical care immediately. The guide will also be offered full use of Paladins mental health connections, because nobody could have expected that to happen, and Gawain knows there'll be nightmares, likely for everybody.
Reiji Arisu	It's done. In the wake of the catastrophic solar flare that is Excalibur Galatine, there is little left but ash and char. Reiji staggers as the last of the heat and light ebbs away, fully expecting the scent of burning flesh to assault his senses, but it seems that even those volatile organic molecules were rendered into so much carbon by Galatine's light. Instead, he turns his attention toward-- Shigure. She's... In a poor state of things. Gawain seems to have her well in hand, but... "Hold on," he says, then, extending a hand toward the Knight of the Sun. "You're not looking too great yourself. Here, you're a Heroic Spirit, right? Borrow some of my mana." ...Is he offering to initiate a mana-transfer...!? (Somewhere, Xiaomu feels a profound sense of excitement wash over her.) Not... Quite. (Somewhere, Xiaomu feels a profound sense of disappointment wash over her.) Reiji focuses his will, bidding a portion of his own spiritual reserves to wash over the injured and fatigued spirit. It may not be able to mend his wounds, but at the very least it should prevent them from enervating him. "Come on," Reiji says, then, "We need to get after Lory. The sooner we're all out of here and going through Decon, the better."
Lory Thumper	Lory keeps the sapling held close as she waits for the others to catch up. She unfortunately can't do much to help Shigure or Gawain up the ropes. But, seems Reiji has that covered with some sort of magic. All that happened kind of sinks in, and Lory is left in a sort of shock. She just has to hang on the rope for a minute, processing and calming herself. When the guide speaks up, she blink a bit before nodding lightly. "Y-yeah..." she says a bit shakily before starting up the ropes once more. All the way up, she keeps the sapling hugged close. It's the whole reason they came down here, something that is obviously very important, and it is the one thing that makes all that happened possibly okay. "This thing better be worth it..." she says quietly to herself as they climb.