[X] … the path to the right contains a dangerous ninja-like Pokemon.
I want to see Elpis write a ninja. I bet she can make it very interesting.
[X] Practice with Inana when you have time.
Inana's look of superiority is worth it (also, she knows how to work with blades already, look at her claws.)
"An ancient god created five demigods in his image" rings of Regis to me. I can't think of another notable group of five pokemon. Does beg the question of what's buried here, though. Regirock? There's not exactly a Regiground.
Alright, time to get back to cracking opening Update 13, but I wanted to take a sec on this:
The Empire of Sol is a thousand years old. The girl called Aria is hardly seventeen. But this is a ballad, and her name is a song—and Aria refuses to let it be sung with melancholy.
It's the next morning, before the sun even rises. You are on a mission, and it's of the utmost importance. Sophia and Ray are still sleeping, you cannot let anyone distract you from your prey.
Well that's a completely normal way to talk about catching a pokemon.
I've said this before, but it's fun to think this really is the first time Aria has ever decided to get a new pokemon on purpose, reflects how being the one in charge of her life's direction is such a new and bold experience for her.
In the high grass around Olympia, where the plants stand at attention from the charge in the air. The static is lessened inside the city itself, and though you know that part of it is the massive deposits of electricity aspected minerals in the ground, there is a feeling of something more surrounding you.
Or maybe that's just your entire body waking as the sun crawls over the horizon and touches your skin. You feel home—
Inana raises her arm, motioning for you to stop. You do, crouching down to look around and see what she sees. You spot him, the small lizard that you've had your eye on since you sprinted past the grass towards the city.
Helioptile.
Your fingers dig into the dirt as you give Inana a nod—
She tries to sneak up, but Helioptile is already aware of your presence. He jumps back, his ears flapping in the wind as the impressive jump creates a significant distance between the two Pokemon. You're no longer hiding in the grass, instead standing tall as you face your adversary.
Inana can't quite see anything outside of the grass though, too short to look above it. You grab her by the back and throw her forward. "Go, Inana!"
She makes a rude gesture with her arms as she flies through the air and lands on her feet, turning to glare at the quite nimble electric lizard.
The fucking. Commitment to playing off the conventions of random encounters in the games is hilariously in depth, it's like Aria is hearing the battle theme in her head and she's immediately driven to violence:
"Snee," Inana says. Helioptile chirps, sounding vaguely mocking. Inana reacts as expected, shaking her claw at him. "Sneeeeeeeee!"
Though she's clearly upset, she waits for your command. You point at Helioptile and raise your arm. "Go!"
Inana jumps, understanding your motion without looking. You can see bits of ice dancing on her claws as she comes down, her body freezing the water in the air until it becomes a weapon. Helioptile's frills open up, the electricity in the air gathering around his neck and forming a ray of light that shoots forward.
Inana blocks, unable to change trajectory in the air, the beam of light hitting the cross she forms with her arms and sending her tumbling down. You catch her, ignoring the pain as the electricity runs down your arms, putting her on the ground. She shakes for a moment, then rights herself up, twice as angry as before.
The very air makes the Helioptile stronger. The ground itself is filled to the brim with energy. But neither you or Inana will lose a fight over something so trivial! "Inana! Stay low!"
Our first proper Pokemon Battle since Update 1! And already quick to the punch, we're seeing Inana's Ice-Type abilities for the first time, not that it manages to get past Helioptile's Charge Beam, and it's fun to pick up that he's benefitting from what's basically the Electric Terrain Olympia is always basted in.
Aria catching her angry little weasel : )
Wait this is literally getting Aria electrocuted when that's straight up how she and Inana met, what the fuck.
Its ranged attacks are a surprise, but this does not mean you have to keep making the same mistake. If attacks from above don't work, then you'll have to stay low to the ground, make sure the electricity has somewhere to go to, rather than her body.
The approach begins again. Inana rushes over the ground. You can see small bolts of lighting under her feet—
"Inana," you say loudly, "dig your claws into the ground!"
She does, dragging along a cloud of dirt behind her as she runs forward. She knocks some of the dirt into Helioptile's eyes, then follows with a solid kick to its head when it's distracted. Instead of retreating, Helioptile responds by biting into Inana's leg, dragging her to the ground as streaks of blue begin to gather around it.
There's no way to block something like that, so the only way to keep going is to get the hell out. "Inana, the ground's soft! Dig!"
The order manifests in a rather ridiculous display of Inana digging a hole into the ground while Helioptile's teeth are still in her leg. The explosion of electricity happens inside the hole, sending the soft earth around it inside and filling the hole quickly.
Love the interplay of making use of the primary weakness of Electric-Type, Aria telling Inana to ground herself, which the Sneasel intuitively follows up with Sand Attack because she's a bastard, and then Aria straight up gets her to use Dig to avoid the attack and drag Helioptile along for the ride.
You hold your breath for a moment, then watch as Inana digs herself out again, burns and scratches all over her. Helioptile is still holding onto her, though with his frill-ears rather than his teeth. It stumbles for a moment as they both touch normal ground again, then lets go to shout loudly. The sound makes you flinch, and Inana, too, seems irritated and slightly off-center.
She swings at him, only to miss and turn herself around. He tackles her, sending her to the ground.
"Inana, listen to my voice!" you order. She stills for a moment, then nods as she stands up again, still not quite able to stay steady. Helioptile attacks from— "Left!"
She raises her arm, catching the frill with her arm.
"Below!"
She lifts her other arm in front of her chest, catching the other frill. Helioptile looks slightly offended at how easily the attacks were stopped. Inana grins wide.
Oh, FANTASTIC, Helioptile rattled Inana's inner ear and lowered her accuracy, so Aria is playing spotter while Inana reacts with perfect smoothness, this is a showing of high trainer/pokemon compatibility right here.
The fact that Helioptile is straight up boxing with his ear frills is funny as hell, love how bothered everyone is by each other's horseshit.
"Remember the Tauros?" you ask. Inana's grin turns feral. She jumps on the spot, twisting her entire body and dragging Helioptile with her. She spins the poor lizard, the frills tying themselves up before Inana touches the ground again and slams Helioptile down.
It cries out weakly. Though quite nimble, he should avoid close combat. That's something to remember for the future.
You raise the empty Pokeball up and throw it. It aims true, hitting Helioptile while Inana is still holding him down. You swear you can see a grin on his face as the red light takes him into the ball. It wiggles but once before a loud hiss announces the proper capture.
You sigh in relief. It's your first actual capture, and your first battle against a wild Pokemon with Inana. Even if Helioptile is clearly at an advantage in this place, it really shouldn't have been that hard of a fight. You need to practice more with Inana, or perhaps learn more about your enemies before you start approaching them.
This was a fun fight, a great showing for all three of our principal characters.
Aria is a talented but very unpracticed trainer, mostly relying on intuition and strong trust to pull off a win, which makes sense, she had like all of one Pokemon Battles with Skiddle she was actually able to focus on, and the same goes Inana, now that they're out of Wallburg and can just go around together without restriction.
I'm interested in how this thread with progress, since it's been a noticeable implication that Aria hasn't yet internalized that her strongest weapon isn't her sword arm—
You do worry. You grab your sword when you see that not even the guards that are taking a break move out. The door to the tavern slams open, your sword drawn, white steel reflecting the lantern lights which have gone up while you were inside.
—But her partnership with her pokemon, so it'll be interesting to see if her steadily building willingness to rely on other people for help is going to translate smoothly into letting her team take the forward position in fights, or if she's gonna keep stumbling into situations where her first impulse is "Well I have two fists and a bunch of repressed rage, that should see me through."
Inana is really funny for being such a physical powerhouse that there was basically no reason to use her elemental command over the cold once she's close enough to throttle people, you get the sense she'd really like the Fighting-Typing her cousins benefit from, though considering everything in Gildera is constantly freezing, it might just be that she's not used to fighting people without stupid cold resistance.
Helioptile is our first showing of a peer level combatant who relies on projectiles and stat change interplay, and it's a great sign of the future, the back and forth of "So I just start blasting" "DID YOU LEVEL HP ENOUGH FOR WHEN I REACH YOU" was very nice, and the fact he's clearly satisfied by the capture shows how pokemon really do just straight up bond by trading asswhoopings.
Inana falls over and breathes heavily, sneeing at the sky. You sit down next to her, picking up Helioptile's Pokeball. You hold it up, letting the lizard out again. He comes out slightly miffed, though clearly unwilling to make a scene. He walks up to you, poking your arm with his face. You respond by patting him in the head, ignoring the rather strong electric charge that is dancing under his skin.
"Hello," you say. It feels strange, to actually have captured something for the first time. To go out of your way to battle and find yourself a new friend and ally.
Helioptile seems quite new to the experience, too, so at least that makes two of you.
"I am Aria," you introduce yourself. "And this is Inana. I'll have a name for you soon."
Like, look at this. This is expected protocol. The fact neither Aria or Helioptile quite know what to make of each other is just because they're newbies to the standard courtesy of becoming a team through getting ass beat. It's important to the overall social dynamics of Pokemon as a setting because pokemon are clearly independent actors who know full well how they can benefit from human partnership and vice versa, which is why in Gildera (and probably Sol, given how much seeing Inana shocked Lora and Justus) pokeballs are a controlled product, the class system is reliant on it being that much more inconvenient for anyone but the nobility and their sponsored to feasibly train pokemon.
Anyway I love this. Lizard that headbutts you until you pat his weird staticy dome.
You have made a new friend. Helioptile represents your Righteousness, your belief in yourself, and in the path you have chosen. It is also something that resonates with your Authority. In that tall grass, you find yourself with a letter [R]. Imp r al. That's strange, perhaps you can find the others on the way through Sol?
You cannot watch as the world around you treats people badly, for all the wisdom you have you'll never find yourself without the courage to speak up against monsters. This is what you asked for, and you do not regret it.
Your new friend needs a name. He's a bit too exhausted from the fight, though. Some rest and food will surely help.
Helioptile has been caught. Do you want to give Helioptile a nickname?
[ ] Major. The melody keeps going, even when the instruments have long stopped playing.
[ ] Zeus. Though the name is positively electric, you have already chosen a name for Lissy.
[ ] Topaz. The stone shines so beautifully in the sunlight, you are blinded by its brilliance.
[ ] Perun. Thunder and lightning follow where he walks. Drake loved the old myths.
Anyway I like this a lot, the fact that we're basically going down the list of loved ones Aria wants to honor is really charming, and look at this little guyyyyyyyy he's all stanced. Cracked lookin' chrome dome. Genuinely love the way you mildly accent the design of each plot relevant pokemon to match the overall palette of Aria's team.
At this point, we're two letters away before Imperial and Aria's team are complete, I wonder what the full picture will look like?
Helioptile has been caught. Do you want to give Helioptile a nickname?
You decide to investigate the brothel. Ray will check with the temple, and Sophia is going to check out the guards. Though there's suspicion on every faction in this conflict, the ones who have the most to gain are the emperor's knights.
But that does not mean there's nothing wrong with the brothel itself. The temple's cause is clear, they never liked the prostitutes but they accepted their presence in the city as much as they had to with the guards enforcing some sort of truce.
Money speaks, and the amount of gold coins that must be produced from the work of all the men and women you've seen cannot be small. If anything, it'd fit the kind of intrigue that you've read about before. Someone decided to steal the money, frame the matron? It's not impossible.
But until you know the people you are dealing with, the brothel is the target of your own search.
Aria is saying what I'm thinking, the shape of this mystery is interesting, there's so many people who could stand to benefit, but why are they in the position to benefit? The guards' reasons, as an extension of the Centurion's, makes enough sense if we take Justus and Lora's word for it, they want protection money, and the temple and brothel being at each other's throats is great for business, but why is there a conflict to begin with?
We don't quite know why Olympia's clergy is invested in driving out the prostitutes, the one priestess of Raikou we've interacted with hasn't suggested there's any kind of religious contempt motivating it, and it's hard to imagine they're a threat to their power when paying off the guards is the only leverage the brothel has to defend itself, so like...
"The Thunderbringer's blessing is with you, Agnes," the girl says, tracing a bolt of lightning over the air. You can see—
You can see the distinct glimmer of thunderstone shards, sitting on top of the girl's fingers. As she traces the symbol into the air, the shards ignite in yellow light and electricity. A small spark touches the woman, and makes her jolt.
"I can feel it!" Agnes shouts. "The Thunderbringer! He is with me! Thank you, priestess! Thank you!"
The old woman jumps up, running out of the crowd to do what she wants with that blessing now on her.
Except that's not a blessing, is it? You narrow your eyes, and for one moment the girl smiles at you. The crowd becomes rowdy, people pushing and pulling you to get into the front, holdings bags of gold to offer to the priestess. You grab Sophia's wrist again and drag her out, walking towards the inn until you are finally away from the group.
"So here's the thing, high priest Aggamemnon wasn't the most popular person," she says. What a mouthful of a name. You're fairly certain it's a traditional one, you read the name in a book before. "He was a whoremonger, he gambled with donations to the temple, but he was the de-facto leader of the temple so unless someone from higher up the food chain came to Olympia to get rid of him, we were all stuck with him."
"Sounds like a lot of people could have a motive then," Sophia says. She's back to normal now, though still slightly miffed.
"For sure, but we do have one suspect." Ray grabs a scroll from her bag, rolling it out on the table. There's a drawing of an older woman, beautiful in a way that you cannot put into words. "The Matron, Debora, was the last person seen in his chambers. Since the murder, she's been missing."
"That doesn't mean she did it," you say, frowning. "That just means she's missing."
"Well, that's for the temple to decide if they catch her," Ray says, smiling as she rolls up the scroll again. "And you seem like two capable young women, so I've got a proposal. The bounty on catching her is quite high, easily enough to keep trailblazers like you going for half a year. I propose fifty-fifty."
Priestesses are hustling the citizens for donations, a fairly populated brothel can't access their money with the matron because it keeps getting stolen, and both are being bleed dry by the Centurion's protection racket, so like.
It really could be that the brothel is just too much of a business competitor for the temple to tolerate, their businesses being physical comfort and spiritual comfort are too close for comfort in the artificial scarcity imposed by the guards' fees.
If it were simply the weight of greed destabilizing the economy, that'd be interesting enough, but I have to wonder if the biased source of information we got the key ingredient of this analysis from means there's something deeper going on with why the Centurion is taking so much from Olympia's collective coffers, hm hm.
When you're not running to save a life, the brothel looks a bit different. It's a home, in a lot of ways, the outside is taken care of. Flowers and trees, decorations with lights of various colors. While the mansion where the brothel is located lies in a rather suspicious neighborhood, where the sun barely reaches in between the taller buildings which have been built on the higher hills, it begins to look more like a home when you watch the people.
"It's kind of a mess," Tia says. You glance at her. She woke up after a good night's rest, the painkillers and potion doing their work. "Debora was always telling us we had to be prepared for something like this, but we always thought she'd be there to help us through it."
"Like this?" you ask.
"The temple never liked us," Tia says. Her frown is deep. "We never hurt anyone, our profession isn't outlawed, they simply hate us because it's easy to. As if the color of their robes and the target of their worship make them better than us."
You can't comment, because you're unsure just where your own opinions on the matter are. It does feel strange, to you. To have shows of affection so intimate with strangers for coin, is that really alright?
Can you articulate why you think it isn't? Can you articulate why you think it should be?
But in the end, your approach to this follows the way you've always chosen—the people involved all know what they're doing, at least nobody here you've met seems uncomfortable or unwilling.
It's funny how Aria is like. Such a prude that the fact this seems like a pretty nice place with good people keeps taking her aback, but she's practicing the all too critical "Well I don't get it but it doesn't seem like any harm's being done, I'll mind my business", which literally everyone could stand to do on every matter across the board.
Tia: Organized religion is a scam and faith racketeering for manipulating the masses.
Aria: [Is uncertain about this praxis because theocratic oppression has never been her field of study, taking notes regardless]
Debora's people really do trust her, and it's easy to see in how forward thinking they describe her as, though a lot seems to hinge on "None of this works if she's not here to lead", which, interestingly, is a fairly consistent motif in ABfI!
You can hear children playing in the distance, running through the streets uphill.
"I can't say I understand their issue with you." You lean back on the bench, against the wall of the building. "My own issue lies with the guards, are they not supposed to be knights? Is it truly this easy to accept the greed in their hearts as normal?"
"Most of them aren't knights," Lora says. You scowl. "Guards technically don't get involved in the hierarchy of orders that exist in Sol, they can consist of knights, like the border guard, but it's just a job you can apply for. The only condition is that their leadership has at least one knight."
I love how the class politics in ABfI are fairly grounded and reacted to with sobriety, but then when "Knights" come up Aria's brain goes "Hey did you know this is duty ordained by higher fields than sacks of shit nobility could ever comprehend?" Like just a big hole in her political manifesto, always takes her by surprise with a fucking > : O on her face because she demands this office of state power predicated by violence to live up to her standards.
"Centurion Argos Thile" you say. The name fell as you continued asking your questions, and it's one that keeps tasting like bile on your tongue when you say it. The Thile family is one of those that use their knights to harass the Spectrier Knights at the border. Sophia has had a few choice words when she heard the name. "I understand why he doesn't help you with the expulsion, but if he was relying on the money from Agamemnon, would he not be interested in finding the murderer?"
"I don't believe people like him have friends," Lora says. "The next high priest will no doubt pay him what he's owed, so why'd he care about one or two falling over dead?"
"Because he clearly cares about the brothel," you say, putting a finger on your chin as you lean forward again. "No, I think it makes no sense, actually."
"What doesn't?" Tia asks. You think for a moment, the puzzle pieces are nowhere near complete, but…
"I think he knows that only Debora knew about the stash," you say. Tia and Lora don't look happy at the idea. "He waits until she's vanished to approach the brothel, he knows he's going to meet people who don't have enough at hand to pay his demands. So someone at the brothel informed him."
"Nobody would betray her," Tia says, and the conviction in her voice makes you want to believe that as well. The truth is that everyone has a price, and in a group of seventy people, who work hard yet have barely enough to live most days, that price might be lower than you're comfortable with.
"No," Lora says, looking sad. "Some would. We work together, so the money gets put together. Some people try to take a larger cut, they end up expelled when caught."
"Angry former employees," you say, nodding. "That's an angle. Those tend to have loose lips, though if they wanted to hurt you they'd not tell the guards, would they? They'd go to the temple."
"They would," Lora confirms. "They usually don't get to do that, the temple's puritan enough to reject them outright."
So the guards might double dip with that information. Of course. Yet, somehow, you don't think a former prostitute did this. Something about the situation smells fishy, and it's not just the excess amount of perfume on Tia and Lora.
Honestly, I think what's more interesting to ask is "Why is a guy who's only interested in money looking to kick out a faction that's amping up the tension in the city and justifying the income he's draining?" Argos doesn't strictly stand to gain if the brothel gets thrown out, but then, if he didn't have a hand in the circumstances surrounding Agamemnon's death, it could be that he sees the writing on the walls and is looking to squeeze out all he can get before the ceasefire implodes.
The fact that Aria is dismissing former employees, but she's certain that someone in the know made the tipoff, hm...
"Here," the woman says. On the ground floor is a door, far to the right and past more of that overwhelming stench. The woman opens it, and you step in to find yourself in a rather plain looking room with a single bed and a man sleeping in a chair.
"Justus," the woman shouts. The man starts awake, his entire body coming alive to knock the chair over. You can see it in the way he stands, in the way his hand twitches to a sword that used to be on his hips, that he used to be a soldier. "Justus, Tia is injured!"
"Does she have an office?" you ask. Lora tilts her head at you. "Matron Debora, did anyone check her office after she vanished?"
"Justus did," Lora says. You don't know much about him but his mannerisms don't make you suspect him, something about the way he holds himself, the distinct movements of a former knight, makes you biased. "But nothing stops us from checking ourselves, you think you can find something he missed?"
"I think so," you say. If nothing else, it will not hurt. Lora stands up, helping Tia get on her feet before leading you back to the brothel.
Debora's office is… not plain at all. There are various furs on the walls, a desk with so many decorations that you don't even know where she'd write a letter if she had to. You can see a bed that's likely enough to hold four people, a large window that points at a building which blocks out the westward sun.
You sit down at the desk, thinking. If you are a prostitute, where'd you hide a secret? On your person, if the clothes permit. If they don't then—
You rub the bottom of the desk, trying to find something off. Nothing stands out. You bend down under it, checking if there's something off, but from the looks of it it's completely normal. You stand up, perhaps you've read a bit too many—OW.
A loud bang, a hollow thud, you didn't crawl out enough and bashed your head against the bottom of the table. Tia has the decency to say nothing, but Lora laughs loudly. What a, wait, hollow thud?
You stand up properly this time, looking at the table again. The desk is too cluttered. You will apologize later, shoving all the decoration off. Lora protests for a moment, but you ignore her. You knock against the table with your knuckles. Solid wood, solid wood, solid wood—hollow thud.
Near the edge, where you're seated, something is off. You grab the edge, push and pull, even try to twist it, but nothing works. If Sophia was here, surely you'd find some way to finesse your way into this, but right now you're not interested in showing off. You grab your sword, using the pommel to bash against the table. Something cracks. You do it again.
"Hey, that's—why is that cracking so easily?" Lora says. Tia looks in awe as you raise your sword one final time and bash clean through the table's edge, sending wooden chips and dust across the ground. "Justus is gonna be so angry."
Under the cloud of dust you find a key. You hold it up, checking the girls' reactions. They don't recognize it.
"I'm sure there's some mechanism to release the key without breaking the table," you say, shrugging. "But I'm not here to keep a desk intact, I'm here to help you find your matron."
Fair is fair, and the search continues. You point at the north-side wall.
"Remove all the furs from there," you say. You'll take the south-side wall. A key must have a lock. Unfortunately even after ruining most of the expensive furs, which do feel a bit too expensive for what looks like a struggling operation that can just barely afford protection money, nothing on the wall looks off. You knock on the walls, but all of them simply return the hollow noise of a room next door, which you know are the various bedrooms that the people here use for themselves and their customers.
Look, it's important for the ambience. High class courtesans have to be a really expensive feeling experience, and that comes with having really spiffy rooms to fuck in. Which you ripped apart like some angry cat.
"Guys, I think someone ransacked—" "Oh, uh, don't worry Justus, that was just us doing the search." ". You MOTHERFUCKERS."
You check the key again. It makes sense that you can't find the lock in this room, it looks too old for it. Made from the same metal as the armors of Sol's own knights, shining bronze and gold, with cuts from uses over many, many years.
It looks as old as the temple could be, perhaps. But there's no way Debora vanishes from the temple with the key still being here, this could mean that whatever door this opens is nearby.
"What's the oldest building in this neighborhood?" you ask. Tia shakes her head, unable to answer. Lora thinks.
"Probably the old tower," she says. "It used to be a watchtower before the city expanded outwards. It's the building right out the window."
While you do want to believe it can't be that easy, you also know that there's no real need to think too hard. You look out of the window, at the base of the old tower, and spot the strangeness of dead plants in the middle of a patch of living flowers.
Well, in for a gold coin— you open the window, jumping out and holding onto the windowsill, letting go once you get into the right position to roll from the fall, and rush the rest of the way with the key in hand. Fortunately none of the guards are back here, unable to fathom that someone could be scaling the tower to sneak out of the mansion.
Tia and Lora shout something at you. You don't hear them, all your focus is on the key and the patch of dead plants. There in the wall you can see a hole, filled with what looks like wax. You grab some firestones from your bag, igniting them in your fingers and pressing against the wall. The wax melts within a few seconds, leaving a keyhole plain to see.
The key fits perfectly. It does not turn from your hand, instead some mechanism forces it around, and you take a step back as the ground under you opens up. A trapdoor, so silent that nobody in the neighborhood could hear it even on the quietest of nights.
The door opens wider and wider. There's a secret underground dungeon. You try not to sound excited, you really do.
But it doesn't work.
"Lora," you shout back at the window, grinning so wide you must look like Inana when she gets going. "Please get Sophia and Ray here. We have a lead."
How Aria must LOOK LIKE to Lora and Tia. This unhinged baby girl who wants to kill herself for Secret Lore.
I love the locked room design to this entire scenario, because yeah, sure, okay, this is pretty clever, good work Debora.
Aria: I am NOT taking personality traits from Inana by the way.
Aria: [The Sneasel Smiler]
Every little penny in the wishing well, every little nickel on the drum—all them shiny little heads and tails, where do you think they come from?
There is a world under Olympia, where stone has been built up top. You can hear the howls of the wind underground, you can hear the growls of Pokemon you've never heard before.
The electric charge grows stronger the further down you go. The road to hell is paved and quite cold— down here, Sophia seems to be looking for a new friend of her own. Ray joins, looking almost as excited as you.
[ ] You explore the left. You hear a familiar tune there, a melody whistled, the smell of blood.
[ ] You explore the right. You hear a deep howl, a drummed rhythm, the taste of ash in the air.
Cubone is really really cute, truly. Aria must teach her some sick sword skills, maybe she can learn Ground Blade or something and be really cool!!! Some Ray lore too, and poor girl... damn. Lightning Blade is a perfectly good name, smh smh. Calling out names has style! It intimidates your enemy! They won't know what hit them! Perfectly optimal.
Anyway, chapter good, ty epis *patpat*
[X] Practice with Inana when you have time. Inana is aspected to Ice. She's the memory of Gildera, of home.
[X] … the path to the middle contains a dangerous dinosaur-like Pokemon.
