Their lack of knowledge of the Lord Protector's true capabilities was crippling them in this contest. Without any data on the limits of his sorceries, it would be risky to proceed further.
Imagine if we'd gotten the information EFB of the wandering mage. Or imagine instead that we recruited her, giving us access to an EFB that patches our biggest hole at no Arete cost.
But no, voters want to bring along teenagers. Teenagers!
Directed by his will it enacted some primordial sorcery that matched the form of his desires, the stars of its pattern arranging themselves in the forgotten language of that magic.
I wonder if this is a callback to Nameless's world? If their "primordial" sorcery and its "forgotten language" is actually just a mutated form of the Diagram? It has signs and is associated with the stars.
We've gotten hints that the world of EFB ties into this one, like the liches and the rings. Gisena's world appears to be in this world's past, so perhaps Prolessarch's EFB world is the same? He/it was said to have breached the void between dimensions to arrive here, but so did Gisena and she's from the past apparently. Or maybe a parallel universe?
Her present form was protean, a protoplasmic mass of cells with strength enough to core mountainsides;
Interestingly enough, Chromatic Aberration, the magic that we've theorized is being used by the Arcanist and her chromatic monstrosities, is a shapeshifting magic as well. Users can use pattern shapeshifting "to rapidly force monstrous adaptations appropriate to the present Chroma". Perhaps she learned this from the Arcanist?
It's also interesting that Chromatic Aberration was offered in the first EFB. Maybe the Arcanist was around back then, in a different form? Or maybe just the potential for her?
Dispelling the transmutation she assumed her true form. A strand of hair fell across her eyes, candyfloss-pink against the mask of iron.
She's a princess in the realm of myth, this was inevitable really. The contrast is amusing though, no wonder she needed a powerful male form.
Even the minds of his companions were secured against the possibility of profile-building, and the Purple Bitch was properly immune!
Gisena's protection is obvious, given her Nullity, but for the others my guess is that Undying Vanguard's huge protection bonus is also protecting them from whatever magic she uses to gather info.
For the first time in twelve years she felt the possibility defeat looming. What mattered guile or adroitness in the face of such power, such sheer unfairness, as this?!
We've gotten 7 EFB's. 7! I should hope we're seen as being unfair!
The taste of ash settled her mind and calmed her racing heart, as always. Her memories of the crucible were not dear to her, but they were familiar, and familiarity was the anchor of her vengeance.
I guess I'm a terrible person because my first thought was we should vote for Hunger to check out the crucible for a powerup.
To disguise the form of her strength she'd invented Claumngor. To conceal the form of her weakness she'd created the Lord Protector.
My guess is her strength is something she learned/gained from the Shard. And her weakness is she's a girl with pink bubblegum hair that no one would take seriously on the battlefield. Also previously she was 8?!?! Which is Naruto level's of silliness and makes Adorie look even worse in comparison.
The House of her father had paid in blood, Adorie the only innocent spared. But the clan of her mother was more culpable by far, and she could not rest until her siblings were avenged. It was regrettable that her father had slain himself before she could extract all pertinent information. Had he truly been ignorant, mere unwitting accomplice to her mother's experiments? A hapless genetic donor ensnared by her seduction?
...
Smoke filled the chamber, ash and fibrous dust, bubbling molten steel as work after work emerged from her forge. Her power was to Build, shadow of a shadow that it was,
...
The power of her father's blood was the abatement of all waning. The power of her mother's, was the very sorcery that once had raised the Walls of Myth. She was no trueblood, her awakened strength but a fraction of Adorie's potential, but some part of her was Foremost still,
So it seems mother is the Shard of the Arcanist, given that the Shard is a "remnant of she who once raised the Arcanist's Walls". Father abates waning. So both sisters share the same father but different mothers.
the Purple Bitch's resemblance to her mother
So many questions here, but most importantly I really want Gisena and the Shard to meet now. Would they recognize each other?
Had the monster regained coherence enough to plot again? Was the Purple Bitch one of her avatars, steering the outcome towards her ends, breaking Augustine's grip on Nilfel so that the 'Lord Protector' could not consolidate all the Realm of Myth behind 'him'?
Despite herself, she smiled. If that were true, then her mother had finally acknowledged her as a threat. A worthy opponent.
Spin your wheels, monster. Stand against me if you dare. And if you dare not, then run and hide. It will all come to nothing in the end.
It's always nice to see other people fail miserably at making theories. I feel sympathetic.
Hunger actually had to use a re-roll here to save Versch, Augustine almost decided to liquidate the Armament to empower herself during her prep.
Starting to worry about how casually these Armaments can be liquidated. Apparently it's the work of an hour? Are Armaments just walking batteries or something? What's the point of being a rank 10 war machine god if anyone can suck the juice out of you?
[ ] Glimpse - Hunger receives IC information of the Lord Protector's interlude and may act accordingly.
Cost: the spark of one mind can be traded for another. Be glad that ingenuity is a renewable resource. [-2 Arete]
The high risk, high reward option, which sets us up to negotiate with the Protector and deal with the Shard.
[ ] Shelter - An Astral being capable of shielding Verschlengorge from the Lord Protector's machinations for the span of twenty-four hours. Your hostage 'saved,' nothing now prevents you from Crushing Them, though his Legions will have received the benefits of his preparation. For all the Lord Protector's tricks, you judge it unlikely he can stand directly against 10.4 Blood and 9.4 Military Rank, else he would have simply crushed the rebellion without preamble, as Hunger himself could have.
Cost: it is no easy thing to hold back the tide, much less a tide of Iron. One day this being will call upon you to defend one thing it holds dear for the span of twenty-four hours, and you will not be able to deny them.
The sensible option. High future cost that's ripe for abuse by the Apocrphal, such as being called away during a critical battle, but in return this takes away her most powerful weapon against us and makes it a more simple and straightforward fight. Kidnapping other companions is possible but wouldn't be as easy as kidnapping Versch, who was SOMEHOW the most vulnerable despite everything.
[ ] Might - To Might alone, is given, the power to decide who shall rule. A formidable Astral janissary will assist you in any task that does not involve directly rescuing Verschlengorge, providing enough firepower to hold back a Legion or neutralize a good percentage of the Lord Protector's magics. Hunger will be freed up to pursue other tasks, such as directly rescuing Verschlengorge, while his enemy is suppressed or his allies defended.
Cost: It just wants money. Lots and lots of platinum, enough to reduce your wealth to a mere fraction of its current level. As Verschlengorge was carrying most of your platinum, Adorie will have to pay it from her family treasury, impoverishing her temporarily.
We have enough power, I don't think more will be all that significant.
A janissary is an elite solder, which gives us some picture of what the Astral realm is like powerwise. It's likely that entire legions of beings like this guy exist, all of them roughly equal or merely a little weaker than Hunger. I wonder what their captains are like?
Also the relationship between Astrals and Armaments is explored a bit. Normal astrals attack Armaments mindlessly, but the elites hold different values. The janissary won't directly help retrieve Armament but is fine assisting us in general, and that distinction made between direct and indirect help makes me think this is a political thing, like there's a law about astrals and Armaments and this astral, being a military type that is perhaps in some military organization, is following the letter but not the spirit.
And a different Astral is willing to protect it. I kinda suspect that this Astral is... different. "Evil" maybe, or perhaps an outcast from astral society. Either way this is abnormal behavior for an Astral, and I would be interested in seeing what sort of being would be okay with this.
...
[X] Shelter
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@runeblue360 I concede our bet, she's not a cursebearer.
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