A commentary on our ability to just go "lol, don't bother us or we'll kill you all" to a sovereign state, most definitively. A total nightmare scenario for most governments for individual groups to be able to do that, but the Human Sphere and those who are connected to it are probably used to such things. If you got an Armament, you can manage, if you don't you are SoL.
They set out on vacation, at last departing the barren wastelands of the Temple exterior in search of a place to recuperate and unwind. With Gisena still meditating in Verschlengorge's cockpit
Finally, we got a vacation. And what a vacation, a total feast for the eyes. "looks at pick choices" a total feast for the eyes. I wish this vacation wasn't to the make mines shaft.
Anyway, I wonder if Gisena choose the cockpit for any particular reason other than it being comfy. Does Versch somehow resonates with Nullity? it's themes of devouring death-singularity are conjunctional concepts with Gisena's magic.
it was up to Hunger to man the Armament's shoulders and keep a lookout for incoming Astral denizens. Though Verschlengorge was considerably more powerful than it had been, still it was too wounded to be a match for Hunger himself, and that showed in the strength of its Astral beacon. Assaulted by mediocre monstrosities, Hunger did not so much as exert himself on the first day of the trip, each incoming wave dispatched before it had finished emerging from its portal.
It was curious that the Astral invaders were never dispirited by failure, their resolve apparently unbreakable. Though the beasts clearly weren't mindless, they attacked with suicidal vigor, even into so utterly hopeless a situation as this. Perhaps they weren't cognizant of the fact that Verschlengorge had bodyguards at all.
How many of them are actually sentient being? And how many of those are sophonts? Astral sounds awfully like WH40K warp, mirroring the normal reality, empowering mortal champions with mystic powers, populated by the infinitive amount of fantastical beings that are close-but-not-quite sentient beings that lean toward some major concept or purpose and exist with it in mind. Sort of like Versh, actually.
...Armaments being reforged and suborned Astral Lords would explain a couple of things actually, but I think this analogy run away from me and is made on very little information besides.
He wondered what dynamics governed the process of their attraction to the Armament, subsequent organization and transport to the physical realm. If Verschlengorge's Astral Beacon did not advertise the existence of any being around it, then he could understand their obliviousness at the presence of a bodyguard. If its presence was fundamentally antithetical to the values of the Astral beings, that would justify their heedless courage.
Or it is actually completely synergetic with that of Astral beings, like a lantern fish-like light in the darkness, and they come expecting some sort of patronage, defense, feat, or any other positive condition and instead fall straight into Versch's waiting, pitiless maw.
Was there some way to exploit this? Could he incrementally increase his own power by slowly healing Verschlengorge and ambushing the steadily stronger creatures that came for it? Possibly, though the method was somewhat unreliable and slow. The former was tolerable, the latter potentially disqualifying. At all times the Apocryphal Curse loomed over them; speed of growth was critical to outpacing its relentless escalation.
Hunger's thought mirroring the thread's; well it is a good tactic. Sadly we needed to expend valuable resources to realize it, and are too injured for that besides. Once we get over it though, it is a good way to prepare for the last push through the temple and Ber encounter. A recipe to almost unlimited power right on your doorsteps.
Live, and grow strong. The very act of the former would necessitate the latter. In that sense it was a convenient yoke, one that impelled him ruthlessly towards his ultimate goal: vengeance against beings whose power was too great for his current mind even to fathom.
That's the prison we choose when we picked Progression-type Cursebearer; I would've preferred to see a combat-type for once, but what is done is done and now we gotta run in this hamster wheel until it is... done.
Well, it is not a terribly bad life by any reckoning. Fighting those who wronged you and then fighting so nobody would be as wronged as you were is good live, even for eternal millions bazillion gajillions of years.
Cutting through another group of Astral invaders, Hunger frowned. There was some disquieting symmetry to the whole situation. The invaders were driven by an inescapable need to destroy Verschlengorge and were blind to the strength of its defender. Was that not an uncanny mirror of his own situation with the Imprisoned Ring?
Yeah, the fact that The Temple overcome all other scaling challengers is troublesome, and does hint that the difficulty spikes sharply once Inner Temple actually deems you a threat. We have been penetrating deeper with ever-increasing difficulty, and after we personally slayed the Middle's shitkicker, Inner's response is likely to be an overwhelming, absurd display of force meant to stop this "Progression Cursebearer Scaling" nonsense right this moment.
Without an EFB I see no point to returning to the temple. But without Temple, we are fucked by Ber. A conundrum. Solution; we gotta pick an EFB.
He too was compelled to reach it, and similarly ignorant of its ultimate guardians. Was it even possible for him to prevail here, when the Temple had stood unconquered for millennia before? What if its final defender was simply so powerful that no amount of strength accumulated against its lessers would suffice to challenge it? He himself was the same to these beasts.
Well, we actually got some hints. Although I misread what happened to Amaralt's Armament, it still looks awfully like inner Star Forges are crafting or fueling something of awful strength, and ritual grounds seems to be channeling adventurers to be drained and killed in the manner not unlike Versch's potential to absorb the power of slain enemies.
A simple massive discontinuity in combat strength would serve as a hard deterrant against invaders like himself or Ber, whose growth was rapid but fundamentally incremental in nature. A meta-contextual moat of sheer ability. The torment of the Ring was nearly unbearable, but even more unbearable was the prospect that he could fail.
Well, there is also the fact that failing any of the current objectives might as well be just loldeath. No biggie. Man, we fucked up when we allowed ourselves to fight Ber in an exhausted condition, this whole mess was so bloody preventable.
And yet the prospect of unnecessary delay filled him with contempt. They who only challenged foes that were unquestionably weaker had discarded the most crucial strength of all. Stagnation of the self, a slow diminishing of the vital spirit, was their inescapable fate, for in their hearts they knew themselves to be cowards.
Hunger, your forebearer is leaking. Also your suicidal tendency to charge at 4-picks enemies.
But anyway - delays are good for arete generation, tho! And distraction could serve as inspirations from in-story perspective, rest, steeling your spirit, letting your allies recharge, preparing to fight those 4 pick enemies properly, etecetera... We really needed a vacation.
"Doing some meditation of your own?" Letrizia asked. Verschlengorge's primary eyes turned in his direction, shimmering gold with fleeting specks of blue.
Meditation on the sword, huh. Well, with a bunch of exotic and conceptual effects nailed to the Forebearer's blade, it was an inevitability that things were going to turn at least somewhat cerebral eventually.
"Was it that obvious?" He propped the Forebear's Blade against a gun turret and rose to meet her gaze.
Aaand they are starting to flirt once again. Quick, Letrizia, do something.
"It's good to be self-absorbed once in a while, but you can brood when we're not on vacation. Just take a look at this scenery!"
The Armament strode through high, sheer canyons of water-sluiced stone, rock of pale violet and ochre that gave way to densely-packed layers of compressed crystal, glittering like stained glass beneath the desert sun. The pulverized dust of stone and crystal formed great sloping lines through the ancient riverbed, sharp color against the stark barrens, the fingerpaint trail of some primordial colossus whose knuckles were the mountain-range, its glacier-sheets his nails.
As I suspected and as it might have been outright said several times before, Voyaging realm is a JRPG-land of fantastic landscapes, improbable beasts, and silly heroes with too many belts and questionable attire choices. Not that Hunger or Gisena are in position to judge. Sometimes these things get even good enough to grant arete! Such a pity this is not sufficiently scenic route.
He nodded. "It's pleasant. Shall we stop for lunch?"
"Hehe. You said it, not me!"
"The words of a woman on the precipice of an eating disorder."
Nothing wrong with enjoying your food. Particularly nothing wrong with pilot of the God-eating mecha to be enjoying their food. I wonder if it is an innate preference of Letrzia's, or result of piloting Gorge for years. Maybe even a pale shade of a pale shade of a pale shade of a pale shade of a Decimation curse, picked up from Gorge after being once synchronized being with him for some long.
Spread out on Letrizia's blue and white picnic blanket, they encamped for lunch with a few of her declining stock of genuine sandwiches. She also produced a clear yellow powder that, when poured into water, resulted in a pitcher's worth of fresh lemonade.
"Verschlengorge's refrigerator is almost empty," Letrizia remarked glumly, pitifully but dutifully enjoying her share.
If only we went to a fishing contest. Alas, raw proper practicality and common sense did not allow us to kill ourself for fish.
He closed his eyes. "I was going to surprise you, but I ordered some specialty meats from a group of merchants I met in the Outer Temple. When we return, we'll pick them up."
"Really!?" She perked up. "You're the best!"
She leapt towards him, tightly hugging his neck. "I take back all the bad things I said about you! This is wonderful! You're the best bodyguard ever!"
Once again, the confirmation that we -really- didn't kill those merchants. It was getting a bit tiresome after awhile.
He patted her head fondly. "I was right. You do have an eating disorder."
"But you've never seen an eating disorder this cute!" Gisena was perched dangerously on the canyon's edge, legs swinging freely. "Too bad, if only I had some way to capture this moment forever..."
Hunger and Gisena teamworking to embarrass Letrizia is such a good civilization.
"I don't care what you say. Nothing can make me unhappy right now." Humming merrily to herself, Letrizia returned to consuming her sandwich, now with ravenous, uninhibited bites.
"Were you always like this, or did piloting Verschlengorge make you this way..."
Well, my above concerns aside, she also was getting decimated for quite some time. Such loss of lifepower would make anyone hungery.
Their idyllic repast was interrupted, however, by the appearance of a matte-gray flying vehicle overhead. He frowned. Its angular lines were almost reminiscent of Verschlengorge's own armor...
Human sphere tech seems to have an actual aesthetic, which is nice. The fact that they don't have any sort of a magical presence we can feel is a bit of an annoyance, however.
Gisena oohed appreciatively as it made a perfectly vertical descent to land near the lip of the canyon. Armored figures emerged swiftly, carrying lean, mechanized rifles alongside torso-length polarized shields.
Faceless armored infantry with cool plasma rifles and energy shields! You can get any more worthless and mook-like in mecha anime than this!
Man, unless they knew that Versch is super-weakened, this is risky as shit move from them. Nevermind Hunger and Gisena are obvious magic people, and could be persons of mass destruction on their own.
"What the..." Letrizia frowned. "That's Empire military surplus. Who are these guys?"
"Stay behind me." Hunger rose, Evening Sky a cloud of menace behind him.
One of the more finely-maintained armors approached, gun slung towards the gun. "You there! Who are you, and what are your intentions towards the Elixir Sovereignty?"
This is a really silly name lol. Guns are not silly though, and Letrizia getting shot also isn't. I wonder if her clothes have any sort of basic protection rating?..
...Man, it would be good if she had some sort of a way to instantly teleport inside Versch when needed. This whole "fragile outside Versch" thing is scary and dangerous.
"Elixir Sovereignty?" Letrizia raised a mildly amused eyebrow, looking as if she were restraining a laugh.
Managing to restrain a laugh is quite an achievement here. Goddamn, seriously. There is a bunch of proper potential names, and they decided to be literally Country of Hot Springs from Naruto. Is there not an ounce of self-awareness in these people?
"We don't have any intentions for you," Hunger said plainly. "You came to us."
"You are impinging on our northeast border," the armored figure replied. "With what appears to be a Imperial Armament. I apologize if we overreacted, but we came to the Voyaging Realm to break free of the Empire's reins. Even if you possess an Armament, if you seek to deprive us of our liberty, know that we will resist your incursion to the last."
Words of a desperate people who are already under an immense, insurmountable threat. If Hunger wanted to do something ruinous to them, Elexir Sovereignty (ha) would be pretty much entirely incapable of resisting. Thankfully, he is a hero. At least mostly so. God knows where time and circumstances are going to lead us, and Hunger has admitted to doing pretty shitty things for the rebellion in the past... Hopefully, we'll progress in a manner that allows us to avoid doing things that are too morally reprehensible this time around.
(EFB would be really good for that)
"Your border means nothing to me," Hunger shrugged. "But I have no intention of killing you unless attacked."
And Hunger is at least somewhat aware of it. It is good to be strong enough to contest military power of nations and sovereign cities. It is particularly good with the Dooom of the Tyrant.
"Hmph. These guys must have made it deep into the Voyaging Realm before I was stationed here. I've never even heard of them." Letrizia frowned. "Separatists. I'm surprised they're still alive."
Considering what Letrz said about the exploitation of of Voyaging realm, the fact that they managed to hang on long enough to produce a generation of actually magically-gifted children before a gigantic Kaju came to wreck their shit is a little bit surprising. Perhaps they were under some sort of a critical mass, and then recently achieved it after growing their population enough/doing something with their magic users?
Man, being a civilization in Voyaging realm is hard. Either you get fucked by magical monsters, or you become Moon Civ-like scumbags, apparently. Still, our sample is pretty small. Maybe somebody, somewhere managed to Cut Through Voyaging realm's bullshit.
"Enemies of yours?" Hunger asked, idly spinning the Blade.
She shook her head. "Not really. Technically I guess they're traitors to the crown, but they're harmless enough. Maybe we can trade with them? Could be a trial run for your mercenary work in the future."
"I see. Probably best for you two to negotiate, then. I'll stand behind you and look menacing."
"Of course, that's a bodyguard's job, after all."
Technically, there is a whole lot of traitors to the crown apparently. Not so technically, yet another statement that confirms that the Voyaging realm is a huuuuuge wild-west like expanse. It is telling that Accursed dos does not actually expect us to conquer it.
On unrelated note, I wonder if the Emperor or Empress have their own giant mech. From the overall theme of the Human Sphere, I strongly suspect they do.
It does help that rank 4.3 superhumanly charismatic warrior is incredibly good at looking intimidating. So intimidating that it is honestly embarrassing for these guys with these small plasma rifles and the like to be posturing, here. Are they lacking in tech that actually could estimate effective ranks of people arriving to their territory? They also seems to be awfully poker-faced about Versch, who is incredibly damaged. Do they know it is damaged, or are they scared shitless of giant megadeathkillerbot?
Gisena walked over to the armors, disarmingly beautiful, the picture of wide-eyed naïveté. "Oh my, such miraculous devices! Excuse me, do you mind if I take a look? What an incredible rifle! I've used kinetic sidearms before, but this one appears to be plasma-powered. It must be tremendously more effective. May I see it? It's just that I've never encountered such advanced technology before in my life..."
And it helps that Gisena is even more superhumanly charismatic... And actually innocent looking, that helps with diplomacy against the unprepared. These people are probably mostly used to magical terrible monsters, not magical social builds. The same probably does not apply to the human sphere at large though.
Hunger blinked. He'd expected one of her usual ploys, but no. She really was just enthusiastically studying their machines.
Well, the fact that it helps their overall goal probably helps. Gisena would also probably actually manage to get at least some sort of details out of them with her magical supercharisma build... Good thing in this instance that we went for the attribute-buff enchant.
