ok, after peace was reached I'm, like, 99% sure Favour+Guidance won.
As it was my favourite combo, I'm pretty satisfied.
Lord Hunger spoke his wishes, and the Seraph nodded once. Then her power poured forth, a limitless ocean as to shatter all bounds, surging might that climbed ever-higher as if to engulf the universe entire - for what was this dismal place but a speck of a sliver, infinitesimal before that angel's eye, the regard of Heroism Itself which was potential attained and in all ways exceeded ad infinitum? Even this ocean, which to him appeared to encompass all realities that he could or might ever conceive, paled before the infinitely vaster strength that Haeliel bridled still, contained for fear of annihilating him by mere exposure, fury and grandeur such that the scarcest reflection seared his mind even to contemplate-
The fever dream broke, and time resumed, power beyond reason rewoven into a handkerchief the color of the Seraph's hair, which appeared wrapped around Hunger's right arm.
Haeliel smiled softly. "Go forth, my Hero. You, who have wished only for even greater burdens, should bear them with pride."
Yeah, a good (and positive) interpretation of our request.
Hunger shall bear the burden, so that his companions won't have to.
It might even be true, and not just be that we wanted the power (and the handkerchief) all for ourselves!
...will Gisena be jealous? I wonder what she'll
see in that handkerchief...
Still, I don't think there's much better we could have done for our 5th panoply slot than a symbol of favour from an High Cursebearer.
Hunger, still bowed, returned her smile. "Stop by and visit at any time. I'd like the others to meet you, once they can withstand it."
"Then you must ensure they keep up," She teased, "For I am only ever growing stronger! Now that I've imparted you my favor, I expect you to join our ranks someday."
but of course!
And yeah, we should remember that Haeliel is, above everything else, a progression-type cursebearer.
She's infinitely stronger than us, but that doesn't mean she won't grow even stronger in time!
..I'm still wondering if it's theoretically possible for a cursebearer to catch up to the Accursed and/or surpass him...
...Damn, I want Gisena to meet her! It would be
hilarious!
She laid a hand lightly upon Hunger's head, who shivered at the touch, and made to depart. Swiftly her form dissolved into motes and clumps of pure radiance, soft warmth transposed with the sharp brilliance of Glory unconstrained.
Hunger stood, touching the kerchief once, before returning to work.
Haeliel's favor appeared to the eye, and all mystical senses, merely to be a handkerchief of exceptional materials and design - yet held an ineffable presence that all but declared it was something greater.
Gisena:
I don't get it, to all my senses and graces it appears to be just a normal Handkerchief! That's not possible!
...nah, she wouldn't show her distress, I think. And she already got a peek at the Lathe of Heaven, so she KNOWS just how far the power-scale goes.
Defying every conceivable method of supernatural accounting, and yet somehow supernatural nonetheless. That was one way of impressing the object's importance onto even formidable observers, while to the common folk it might seem a relic like any other, perhaps even debatably so.
mh.. makes sense. To the most powerful beings, the ones used to
know and
understand such things at a glance, the sheer dissonance between what their magics and their instincts tell them would certainly make them cautious, which easily explains the apocryphal mitigation it offers.
To its wearer, no such ambiguity existed. It emitted a bone-deep, soul-deep radiance, something like light and heat but invisible to the mundane perception, an echo of an impression of the Seraph's notice which declared, you can be more. The weight of that impression settled on him like a mantle, and he felt the power of Progression itself stir in response, augmented by its presence, shifting into a higher calibre to reinforce his every word and deed.
or, in other words, we got the ISH bonus from OaF II.
nice.
Gisena walked by the room, turning to greet him. "Afternoon, hun! Aww, you healed yourself without telling me?"
She pouted, gliding closer to examine his features. "How strange. Your wounds are all gone, but that grimly sullen expression hasn't changed at all!"
If she was at-all bothered by the kerchief's invisibility to her mage-sight, Gisena gave no indication whatsoever.
oh, come on, I want her to comment on it!
the matter-of-fact way in which she reacts to our being healed is still funny, but then again she saw much worse.
Like that time we came back to her as a ghost
"Of course it hasn't. I know you're a fan," Hunger deadpanned. "And it wasn't my effort that healed these. The Accursed sent me a... sponsor because he was concerned that the Apocryphal Curse would soon end me. Interventions such as these are extremely costly, so we've got to take full advantage of this forewarning and prepare."
"Naturally I wouldn't let you die," Gisena said breezily. "Though you do seem... mightier in some indescribable way. How dashing! I assume your sponsor has already departed? And they left you with this cute kerchief? Hmm, should I be jealous?"
"Do as you please," Hunger grunted. "So long as you work diligently on the former, you can indulge the latter as much as you like."
aaand the banter is back.
I'd normally say I missed it, but Haeliel distracted me enough that I honestly didn't feel it's absence yet!
Also isn't Hunger just so generous, giving her permission to be as jealous as she wishes to?
"So imperious," Gisena said, laying dramatically against his desk. "It sounds like you've got much to do, and too little time in which to do it! How fortunate, I just happen to have the perfect solution for that."
"I'm listening."
Me too! what is it? Time related powers from ring or graces, maybe?
Gisena smirked. "Oh, were you expecting it for free? Even Kings don't receive such exquisite answers gift-wrapped. Shouldn't you reward your poor overworked Princess Regent first?"
"It's customary to issue rewards after the task is completed. And you call me imperious. I've got a Curse, what's your excuse?"
"Well, I'm spoiled?" Gisena cocked her head. "And it really is a wonderful solution. You're getting off cheaply by any reasonable expectation. After all, even an emperor must pay respects to the Sage!"
Ah, right.
She's spoiled.
That's certainly equal to a Curse (capital C) from the Accursed, how could I overlook that?!
ok, you get half the compliments and headpats first, and one princess carry later. If it's beyond our expectations we can discuss further rewards.
If you're really nice we might introduce you to our sponsor, she knows this one magical system which you'd certainly love to learn...
Hunger closed his eyes. "If your solution is as wondrous as advertised, I would not be opposed to any reasonable favor. Explain and you may be able to name your price."
"You absorbed Augustine's power, which has been percolating ever since..." Gisena began, tapping a finger on her chin. "She was able to compress days, maybe even weeks, of preparation into a single hour. Had any results digesting it?"
"Nothing so far," Hunger frowned. It had been a while, unnaturally long for his Ring to process a defeated foe's mythos.
"I performed some calculations with the Truth aspect of the Azure," she said, flashing her own Ring. "You should be able to fully manifest the power you received on the night of the new moon. Which just so happens to be tomorrow night!"
Wait, is this the Pillars proc?
NICE! I thought it would be further away!
Also it's always admirable and praiseworthy how Rihaku explains the reasons behind our gaining a specific advancement from the enemies we defeat.
So, the explanation for Pillars here is that we're basically copying/learning/improving upon Augustine's methods of gaining more time to prepare... I wonder, did she actually have a pocket dimension, maybe related to the Primordial Earth instead of ours being related to the Evening Sky?
"That's it?" Hunger asked. "How do you know this power will be relevant to our situation?"
"I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," Gisena smiled. "Trust me, you'll find it wonderfully appealing. The real difficulty will be deciding, what to do with the time you're given? When that decision is upon you, don't forget your favorite Princess!"
With her mysterious assurances complete, Gisena departed to work on her research, while Hunger turned his attention to the matter of Nilfel's platinum reserves.
..she's fishing for a 3-weeks vacation in heaven!
...well, it's not like it wasn't our plan anyway. Hunger REALLY needs to relax a bit, so we can take it
a bit easier in the Evening Realm.
Empowered by the Seraph's favor, he was confident in at least one solution - he could chip 'pieces' off of the Walls of Myth surrounding Nilfel and infuse mundane platinum with the same, though the details of distillation would be a substantial technical challenge. However, a quicker and dirtier solution now presented itself: with the kerchief expanding his abilities, and the Ring of Blood already operating at a heightened Rank in its chief domain, he could simply use his own blood as a vehicle of essence to infuse the platinum in question, with the Ring manifesting the desired result so long as he could afford to pay the cost.
He would be diminished thereafter, but it was a small loss in comparison to the power Haeliel had granted him; nothing that was unrecoverable with time, and unlikely to make the difference in any serious fight. There was something to be said for discharging his obligations to Adorie swiftly. While he was at it he could grant his companions a sympathetic blood-bond to himself, such that it would be infeasible to physically harm or slay them without overwhelming the regenerative power of his Ring.
ok, so we can either use the Walls, or our blood.. maybe we'd lose a bit of rank from that? or some stats?
It's not exactly clear what the cost would be, though it's at least stated to be much lower than ISH regression.
Perhaps he might even deplete a greater portion of his essence, sprinting for the Sixth Empyreal Sign? But he was not sure Adorie even had that much mundane platinum on hand, to say nothing of the other risks.
if only we got access to the Ordinal Spiral, all we'd need is to have one of our party members pick the metal element!
Sadly it seems like the Advice corner won't be an immediate thing.. hopefully she'll come back soon, we could definitely use a few Ordinal spells (mostly for utility rather than raw power, at least at the lower levels).
Also can you imagine just how happy Letrizia would be to get access to ANOTHER magical system?
Gisena too, but she isn't the "
I'm a Wizard, Hunger!" girl!
Hunger sighed. Haeliel's favor had opened vast realms of possibility, avenues of research with the Ring of Blood alone that would take years to fully explore. But his foremost priority at the moment had to be the upcoming Apocryphal event, which meant familiarizing himself with the effects of the kerchief on his basic abilities in combat.
As it turned out, it augmented every aspect of his person in battle, from strength to Rank to his techniques of the Praxis; but every aspect included finesse and ease of control, so he hadn't needed training at all to utilize these enhancements in the heat of battle. He almost felt bad for continuing to trounce the teenagers after coming to that realization.
mh... 1 rank was mentioned, at our rank levels, to be enough (all else being equal) to COMPLETELY decimate an opponent.
I wonder how much ISH would be needed for the same. I think 0.1 might be enough, actually, in which case I might have underestimated just how GOOD it is when it was first offered.
Yeah, the teenagers are by now hopelessly outmatched. Then again, it's still doubtful if we want to invest too much in them, as we don't know just for how long they'll follow us.
Aeira, at least originally, was in it just for the money. Aobaru has his own quest to pursue, so we'll have to either go our separate ways or follow him on it at some point.
Gisena is the only one I'm completely confident will follow us in the longest-term, and she should be able to keep up for at least a world or two, and likely more if we spend some arete on her semi-regularly and/or get her access to new magic systems.
Letrizia.. I'm not sure.
I trust she'll stay on our side for the whole of our quest, but once she gets back to her lands.. won't she have other duties, as a noble AND pilot armament? and, in the long term, she probably wouldn't want to leave this world.
I think that, in the longest term, we'll probably leave her as the new empress once our geass quest is over and we have to leave for another universe.
I suppose that giving her some extra power wouldn't hurt though. Even beyond the value in the short-medium term, it will help her after we leave.
mh.. Would we even want to bring Verschle with us in the next world? Thought for later I guess.
Before him, Aobaru groaned, and Verschlengorge fell over limp, its mythic armor-plating now badly graven and scarred. Repairs would be a matter of hours, but luckily Adorie's magic engineers were highly attentive and diligent. Letrizia clambered out, picking her way gingerly across Verschlengorge's battle-scarred expanse, while Aobaru turned on his other side and emitted a second groan.
It was a beautiful day in Nilfel.
Eh, if we can still defeat Verschle AFTER he's been completely repaired, THEN I'll be satisfied.
For a short time, at least.
"How am I supposed to compete," Aobaru said. "You weren't even using your Rank that time. What sort of Chosen One am I supposed to be?"
"To be fair," Hunger mused, "Theme park managers don't often engage in combat."
Aobaru, my dear boy... don't overestimate yourself. We're a cursebearer progressing a hundreds of time the usual rate of progression.
You never stood a chance! You don't even your chosen one powers unlocked yet!
Letrizia hopped down, poking Aobaru with a foot. "Hey, it's not so bad. Versch thinks you've been getting stronger. Just because you can't compete with Lord Hunger's rate of growth, doesn't mean it's unimpressive!"
"Thanks," Aobaru said flatly. "I really feel better about myself now."
"I get it, it's a lot of pressure," Letrizia frowned. "But there's no use moping in defeat! You've just got to rise to the occasion even if you don't feel ready! If you had to fight someone on Lord Hunger's level you would be dead already. Just worry about your mission and the entity hunting you"
"Not everyone can be the Duchess Artriez," Hunger remarked. "A prodigy from childhood in the piloting of bio-mechanical war machines."
ehi, He's a prodigy of the Surgecraft magic! Probably the strongest one known yet (except for Hunger, but he doesn't count!)!
that's equally impressive, if not more!
Suddenly he perked up, drawing his Blade again as a party of humanoid figures de-cloaked several kilometers from them, gunnery arms pointed at that very Duchess. Exerting his Pressure to defend the teenagers, he rushed over to the incursion site, where the very first figure - a construct of azure metal and ceramic, man-sized but bristling with stub turrets and missile racks - had begun to aim in Letrizia's direction. Against the influence of his Pressure it moved as if through molasses, and he easily severed the offending arm before disabling its counterparts.
Only now were they beginning to register his presence. A single punch and the Power of Ruin shattered the exoskeleton of one suit. The men inside he extracted swiftly, and quelled his blood into unconsciousness. The magus accompanying them, a young woman with hair in braids of neon pink and green, was only halfway through her warning shout before they were laid all at his feet.
He dispatched the magus with a pommel-strike, holding his strength to leave her alive for interrogation; and, keeping them recumbent with his Pressure, took an example of both man and suit as he returned to Letrizia.
...well, that came out of nowhere.
So, Republic Kill team with magus prisoner/ally. Maybe the divinator of that old blurb? I think she was mentioned to be a Fairbright.
...wait.. Republic kill team + fairbright... will Lucent Thorn make an appearance as well? That would be 2 of the not-picked Apocryphal procs from that old update... If I remember right he others were a contest of primacy for the rings, and..
wait, let me check
ok, in order
1)we already killed Bearic
2)We already killed the Rotbeast
3)We just defeated A Republic kill-team + mage. Gisena might be able to learn something from examining the prototypes.
if 3 was the actual apocryphal proc right now, it was a bit disappointing.. then again we DID just become THAT much stronger through OaF II...
4)Lucent Thorn might be on its way. Gisena is supposed to be the target. Unlikely to be a threat unless in the hand of an actual Fairbright though
5)We'd probably notice if a contest of Primacy was started
And of course, other things might be happening. Maybe the proc is waiting for us in Voyaging City, or in Letrizia's duchy.
well, let's see what Hunger can get out of the would-be-assassins...
"These men just tried to kill you," He said, placing the captive on the ground. "Look familiar at all?"
Letrizia paled. "That armor... a Republic Armor Prototype. Looks like one of their newer models, bleeding-edge tech! They sent a Voyaging Realm kill-team against me... why? How would they even get this far in?"
"There was a magus accompanying them. I've disabled them for now. Aobaru. Go get Gisena."
"On it!" The boy sprinted away, twin jets of Vigorflame propelling him at an impressive velocity.
"Unless they're hardened against social influence to an absurd degree, Gisena will break them trivially," Hunger said cautiously, "But if one kill-team can find you, what's to say there won't be another? Re-locating might fail to shake them, in which case our best option would be to meet them head-on."
"Even their strongest kill-teams should be no threat to you, Lord Hunger." Letrizia said firmly. "But if they bring Procyon, or any other Armament..."
..yeah, the kill teams themselves are definitely not a threat, but an Armament.. I don't think we're quite to that level yet.
It would definitely be AT LEAST a 4 pick fights, even with OaF 2. Maybe a 5 picks.
If we get to prepare, we should be able to win though. We need the time to don the Armor of Midnight, and then we can go hard with Artful Thorn, Cut Through and Deathly Star. Maybe summon an ally to fight against the armaments as well.
..yeah, I think that with preparation we should be able to win, but if they got us by surprise... probably not.
and we can't teleport the whole party away! We can take 4 people with us, so... Hunger, Gisena, Letrizia, Verschle, Aobaru.
yeah, I suppose we could leave Aeira behind, with her stealth she should be able to hide, and Adorie should not get involved anyway.
We might want to talk to Aeira about this, by the way. She's simply the best suited to be left behind if we need to escape, and she can just wait a day or two for us to come back in stealth mode.
"It's possible," Hunger said. "Armaments have an advantage in navigating the Voyaging Realm. For all we know this was the reconnaissance arm of a larger attack, set to break shortly after. In that case, they've likely stalled against the Walls of Myth, but who knows whether those can hold against a full-strength Armament."
"Tsch." Letrizia sighed. "The timing couldn't be worse. Versch is nowhere near fully recovered, and even his auxiliary armor now needs repairs. Not that he would stand much of a chance while injured against a properly-maintained Procyon."
"Nilfel is the most defensible land we've come across," Hunger stood, eyes scanning the horizon. "If we have to fight, we'll fight. I'm confident I can withstand an Armament, at least defensively, with proper forewarning."
Yeah, they really chose a bad time for us. Verschle is not at full strenght, but it can still play support at least!
Well, it could, if it we didn't damage it again..
If we could just hold out for a day.. then we'd get access to the Evening Realm, and 3 more weeks to prepare! That might be all the edge we need against an enemy armament, especially if we can exit the Realm with all our buffs active.
..maybe we might want to teleport away, leave Aeira behind, and hide for a day? We risk leaving an Armament to attack Nilfel though.
"It's not just their Rank," Letrizia said worriedly. "The effects of that Rank are magnified enormously by their Shroud, and then you have their Curse-specific abilities as well... How could things break down like this? I've been gone less than two months!"
"Their raw strength and speed will be an issue as well," Hunger continued, "If they can move quickly enough to be relevant at interstellar scales, and destroy flotillas by hand. But I have more than a few tricks of my own. You needn't be worried. I've directed my growth in ways to counter Armaments for some time. I should be able to hold my own. In some ways it's exciting."
"If they're coming for someone like me, then that almost certainly means war," Letrizia said. "And not just a border skirmish, or they'd have just left me lost in the Voyaging Realm. Assassinating a Duchess and an Armament Pilot... diplomacy must have broken down completely. And there's no way they'd go against an Armament without deploying one of their own, because who knows how badly Versch was hurt, if at all? Hunger, you don't have to do this."
Of course we do!
It's the job your'e paying us for! Hunger's word is his bond, after all.
Letrizia is right to worry, but she IS underestimating us.
Which makes sense. She hasn't seen us use Deathly Star and the Armor of Midnight yet, after all, and admittedly if we only had our previously shown powers (rank, edeldross, stats, first 3 signs) + the ISH boost from OaF II... yeah, that wouldn't be enough.
She also didn't really get to appreciate just how broken Artful Thorn, Refinement of Quickness, Cut Through and our rank-difference debuff are against stronger enemies!
Well, the Apocryphal was hard at work. We'll have quite the
interesting situation to go back to, once we reach the HS.
"Of course I do," he scoffed. "Have you forgotten? I'm your bodyguard, hired at tremendous expense. Once this is over, I intend to collect."
Letrizia smiled sadly. "Who ever heard of a King playing guard to a Duchess? Well, don't take all the glory. You still have a theme-park manager to raise, so no heroic sacrifices, okay? Besides, even if I fall Miss Gisena will surely find some way to bring me back."
"Your surfeit of faith in Gisena is disturbing. But all right. If it comes down to that exact decision, I'll sacrifice you to save my own hide. A mercenary bodyguard is still a mercenary."
"Hmph. I'll hold you to that!"
..well, at least we have her permission.
She's still underestimating us, though. She's basically broadcasting how she doesn't think we have a chance!
..whic his totally understandable, as Hunger has never shown even half the power needed to face a full-strenght armament.. but we can do this!
ESPECIALLY if we can gain just one day of time for Pillars to proc.
---
Live, and grow strong. Time for that resolution to be tested. Gisena confirms what you'd already suspected - War in the Human Sphere, and an Armament well on its way to finish Letrizia.
mh.. Without Haeliel this would have indeed been a hard challenge. Not impossible, but REALLY hard.
We might have faced it by, saying, summoning a "As Above" boosted astral being to fight the armament, or using a boosted Deathly Star maybe.
We could have teleported away, running and leaving one party member behind, but that would have meant leaving Nilfel vulnerable if they decided to take it hostage against us..
I think we would have had to run away, and hope that the 3 weeks in the Evening Realm could cover the difference, and after that maybe ignore them and try to reach the Empire as quickly as possible...
well, next vote will definitely be interesting.
I expect a "cast armor, go fight" option, a "summon support" option, and a "run away and wait for Pillar Proc" option.
Also, maybe a "get Nilfel's armies to support you" option, but they might simply be too outmatched to add anything beyond,
maybe some support depending on the magics they have access to.
