Confringentur 2; a Madoka Magica / Fate/Stay Night sequel
- Thread starter SVS
- Start date
- Crossover
Day 30 Chapter 24
- Location
- Around here
[X] Plan: Too Many Cooks
"Hey, Akemi, we need to come in for an emergency landing," says Kazumi, completely oblivious to the fact that, in directing Ramesses' flying boat towards your position, she is in essence leading the monster directly to you. Hoping that it will be enough is, apparently, not enough anymore. "When that thing threw our other Rider's chariot at our Rider's boat, Kanna ended up taking a pretty bad injury to her leg in the crash. She's losing a lot of blood, and neither Mirai or me are able to stop the bleeding. We need to let her down so Assassin can take a look at her."
"Forget that!" Mirai shouts, as though she actually needs to shout to be heard inside of yours and Kazumi's minds. "I need her to keep Rider fuelled. We can't afford to let her down if we want to keep this stupid boat airborne! So just fuck her leg and let's keep hammering this thing while I'm still able to!"
"No!" Kazumi shouts back. "Yes, keeping Rider fuelled is important, but we can't just shrug it off when someone on our team takes a bad injury! Besides, Rider isn't even putting a dent in that thing! We can afford to take a breather for a few minutes while we bring her in for Assassin to patch up."
You know, you really hate it when enough is just clearly not enough.
"Both of you, be quiet," you say, not really in the mood to hear two people arguing inside of your own head. "We'll bring Nightingale over to you." Silencing both Kazumi and Wakaba Mirai, you turn your head towards Assassin and Nightingale, and hope that the former will be able to manage by herself while you borrow the latter. "Pack it in," you say to the rest of your team. "We're grabbing Nightingale and meeting up with Kazumi and her team on Ramesses' boat."
"Finally," Kirika says with a grin. "I know dad told us to stay put, but I can't just sit around here when I know Oriko's out there fighting her hardest." Kirika stands, and makes ready to head out with you, gesturing to Misaki Umika, AsamI Saki, and Kanna Niko, saying to the three of them "Come on, slowpokes, let's get moving. Sis has a plan and we've been sitting around on our asses for way too long."
"Are you sure?" Asami Saki asks. But despite the hesitance in her voice, she stands up, gently giving Kanna Niko a nudge with her foot as she does. She doesn't need to be told twice – likely, Kazumi contacted her next, since it's her homunculus that is the reason you're moving out – and while she gets a move on, Asami saki addresses you, saying "Kazumi just briefed me on what's going on, and said we'd be bringing Assassin to her. What's the plan?"
"To leave me here to die alone, apparently," Assassin moans. "At least make sure to give me a hero's funeral when you're finished."
"Oh behave, will you?" Nightingale chides Assassin. "The wound didn't even come close to scratching your spiritual core. You'll be fine." Nightingale shuffles out of her red shawl, and hands it to Assassin, pressing it tightly against her injured shoulder. "I've done the best job I could of closing the wound up already. Just keep pressure on it and don't do anything that would agitate the wound, and you'll live."
Assassin pouts, and rolls her eyes as she says "Not even going to leave me with some painkillers, I see."
"Enough," Kanna Niko says. "Assassin, are you ready to go?" Nightingale nods her head, and Kanna Niko asks you "How are we supposed to get there? It isn't as if we can just fly over there ourselves, but if we tell Kazumi and Mirai to bring Rider's boat in closer, we might just cause that thing to start targeting them if they stand still for too long. So how are you thinking of getting us over there?"
It isn't as if we can just fly over there ourselves.
But what if you could?
With the many roars of battle almost encircling the city from all sides, it's difficult for to you find even a moment of peace in which to concentrate. But you have to. For Madoka. Focus your mind on thoughts of Madoka, if only for just a second. Your bird familiars *pop* into existence - and right about now, you find yourself wondering whatever happened to the other familiars you sent out. You've yet to hear anything back from them, even though you sent them out ages ago – and say to Asami Saki "We're going to fly there."
"Sure…" Asami Saki sounds incredulous. She looks incredulous. "So, um… How, exactly, are we flying there again?" she asks. "Are those birds really going to be strong enough to carry us?"
"There's only one way to find out."
"Sis, I really don't like the way you said that," Kirika says to you. "But, I'm going to trust you anyway, because I know you're not going to do anything that'll intentionally hurt us."
You really don't want to dwell on what this looks like, because from your perspective, you've climbed inside of your bird familiar's mouth like fish in the mouth of a pelican, or perhaps a hotdog in the mouth of a particularly ambitious seagull. You'd prefer to think of the former, but you know you've only ever seen the latter in person. In actuality, you aren't sure that your bird familiars even have openable mouths: they have beaks, you know that much, but you aren't actually sure they can open them.
But you're getting off-topic. The point is, while you can imagine what you must look like, travelling by mouth inside your bird familiars, from the outside you don't actually know what you look like, or how – presumably – gross you look when your bird familiars all but vomit you and your company out onto the deck of Ramesses' flying barque.
Wakaba Mirai recoils, getting a disgusted-sounded "E~w" escape her mouth. "Didn't you have a better way to get here?"
"I'd rather not even dwell on it," you reply. Nightingale is with you, and so is Kanna Niko, who immediately scopes out Kazumi's position on the barque, where the two head over. You can just barely see Hijiri Kanna huddled in the corner behind Kazumi, and that is a lot of blood. You aren't going to dwell on what happened to her, either, or how badly chewed up the rear of the barque is.
"Rider's chariot must have hit you guys pretty hard," Kirika says to Wakaba Mirai. "Anybody else need medical assistance, or just the dummy?"
"She's not a dummy!" Kazumi snaps, leaving her girlfriend's side to stare down Kirika. "She's not perfect, and she's made a lot of mistakes, but she deserves to be treated like a human just as much as anyone else does! So I want you, and you too-" Kazumi almost immediately pivots from pointing to Kirika, to pointing to Wakaba Mirai, "-and everyone else who's been saying mean things about her to stop!"
"Will all of you stop screaming?" Nightingale says. It's phrased as a question, but you've heard that tone often enough from your cardiologist to know that it isn't. Nightingale looks up to Kazumi and Wakaba Mirai and says "If the two of you are planning to continue operating as a combat unit, then I'll have to pull her. I can't effectively treat her injuries if you're constantly engaging and disengaging that monster."
"If you pull her, then how the hell am I going to keep Rider supported?" Wakaba Mirai asks.
"I'll take her place," Kanna Niko offers. "I've still got a transmitter. If you give Kanna's to Umika, the two of us should be able to make up for whatever she wouldn't be giving you."
"No, I'll take her place," Asami Saki says. "You and Umika may have more mana combined than I do, but you're also a hell of a lot more versatile than I am. What the hell can I do? Shoot lightning at stuff? Akemi's nurse can do that, but wa~ay stronger. I'm completely outclassed in this fight in a way you two aren't." Asami Saki lays a hand onto Kanna Niko's shoulder, saying "Right now, we're going to need yours and Umika's abilities a lot more than we'll need mine."
"Not to mention you'll be in the same boat, literally, as your girlfriend," Misaki Umika says, as though the colour commentary is desired at the moment. "Frankly, I don't particularly care one way or another."
Without another word, Kanna Niko slips her transmitter off of her finger, and hands it to Asami Saki. "Just remember, you're here to support Miria, not to fool around with her while the rest of us are doing the hard work."
Asami Saki slips the transmitter onto her finger, and shoots a deadly serious glare in Wakaba Mirai's direction. "Don't worry," she says to Kanna Niko. "I'm not going to get up to any funny business while we're working. Come on, Niko, you know I'm better than that."
"Maybe, but we both know that Mirai isn't."
Maybe it was unwise to order Misaki Umika to assist the team fighting Gudrun, since it's otherwise completely impossible for her to communicate with them outside of – oh, you don't know – directly writing her commands in the air in front of them with her magic. But the team fighting Gudrun is going to need additional versatility to make up for the smaller amount of people currently fighting her.
Granted, you've got three servants fighting her already, but if she hasn't gone down now, after Archer has joined in, then maybe the additional versatility isn't unwarranted after all.
You just hope that was the right call. But a call you're far more comfortable with making is to bring yourself, Kirika, and Kanna Niko to reinforce the team fighting Sidonia. She's the real threat here: stop her, and both Gudrun and her giant monster immediately lose their connection to their master, which should make them that much easier to kill, if not kill them outright in and of itself.
You just wish travelling by bird familiar with a cleaner, and less weird-feeling prospect.
Your birds spit the three of you out on top of the roof of Tomoe-san's building. This is only the second time in what feels like as many minutes that you've been spat out by them, and it's only remarkable at all because you don't notice it when your birds swallow you up to transport you. It's like nothing you've ever experienced before, and the complete non-sequitur nature of existing one second, and being inside the mouth-pocket-whatever=the=hell-you-call-it of your familiar the next, with no transition in-between to give you an idea of how it actually happens.
But once again, you're getting off-topic. You're letting your mind wander to thoughts you shouldn't be thinking of in the middle of combat. Least of all not when explosions are going off in the distance, the entire southern edge of the city is awash in flames, and there is literally a giant monster battling with several of your servants just to the south of your current position.
But speaking of that giant monster… Kirika taps you on the shoulder as you descend the ruined stairwell from the roof down to where the fighting is taking place. Probably the same floor as Tomoe-san's apartment, if you had to guess. "Hey, sis, Berserker just got in touch with me about an idea he had."
"What is it?"
"So, Berserker noticed that an injury that thing sustained while it was fighting Rider inside his duel field hasn't healed over, but that every other injury they've dealt to it has. He even said that Boudica carved a huge hole in the monster's chest, from the inside out, and it still managed to heal and get back up in under a minute. So he had an idea."
"What's the idea?"
"He thinks that if we can somehow cut that thing, and maybe Sidonia as well, off of one another, or maybe off of their connection to all the Grief the city's saturated in, we might be able to stop them both from regenerating. Didn't that Matou lady have something set up to that effect?"
"She did. But I think Matou Sakura was waiting to activate her counter-array for when Sidonia tries to activate her blood obrez, to cut her off completely," you say. "But, as long as we can keep any part of any Dáinsleif away from Sidonia, then we should be good."
"You know, both Lancer and Rider have Noble Phantasms that create alternate pocket worlds," Kanna Niko says. "If we use one or both of those, that should be enough to cut her off, shouldn't it?"
"Maybe," you respond. "But until we know what we're looking at, as far as Sidonia being a servant is concerned, then we should hold off on telling Scáthach or Ramesses from unleashing their Noble Phantasms. Ramesses especially, if Wakaba Mirai can't support him." There is also Archer and his Unlimited Blade Works you could call upon, if neither Kazumi or Wakaba Mirai can support or are willing to activate their servants' Noble Phantasms.
You know you've reached the correct level when, after bursting through the door, you find yourself choking against a thick cloud of smoke, flames, and Grief. The lights have died, and flames licking the walls are the only source of light available to you amidst the darkened hallway and the choking black smoke.
Oh, yes, and of course all the people who are here fighting Sidonia. That should be the bigger giveaway. As soon as you see Sidonia- There she is! You master's vision here; and this time, pushing past the blinding headache that attempting to look at her gives you – Oriko must have had to push past the same headache if she was able to see Sidonia for what she truly was – you can finally see exactly what you're up against; And you don't like it one bit.
[ ] Wat do?
NEW
Major character unlocked!
"Hey, Akemi, we need to come in for an emergency landing," says Kazumi, completely oblivious to the fact that, in directing Ramesses' flying boat towards your position, she is in essence leading the monster directly to you. Hoping that it will be enough is, apparently, not enough anymore. "When that thing threw our other Rider's chariot at our Rider's boat, Kanna ended up taking a pretty bad injury to her leg in the crash. She's losing a lot of blood, and neither Mirai or me are able to stop the bleeding. We need to let her down so Assassin can take a look at her."
"Forget that!" Mirai shouts, as though she actually needs to shout to be heard inside of yours and Kazumi's minds. "I need her to keep Rider fuelled. We can't afford to let her down if we want to keep this stupid boat airborne! So just fuck her leg and let's keep hammering this thing while I'm still able to!"
"No!" Kazumi shouts back. "Yes, keeping Rider fuelled is important, but we can't just shrug it off when someone on our team takes a bad injury! Besides, Rider isn't even putting a dent in that thing! We can afford to take a breather for a few minutes while we bring her in for Assassin to patch up."
You know, you really hate it when enough is just clearly not enough.
"Both of you, be quiet," you say, not really in the mood to hear two people arguing inside of your own head. "We'll bring Nightingale over to you." Silencing both Kazumi and Wakaba Mirai, you turn your head towards Assassin and Nightingale, and hope that the former will be able to manage by herself while you borrow the latter. "Pack it in," you say to the rest of your team. "We're grabbing Nightingale and meeting up with Kazumi and her team on Ramesses' boat."
"Finally," Kirika says with a grin. "I know dad told us to stay put, but I can't just sit around here when I know Oriko's out there fighting her hardest." Kirika stands, and makes ready to head out with you, gesturing to Misaki Umika, AsamI Saki, and Kanna Niko, saying to the three of them "Come on, slowpokes, let's get moving. Sis has a plan and we've been sitting around on our asses for way too long."
"Are you sure?" Asami Saki asks. But despite the hesitance in her voice, she stands up, gently giving Kanna Niko a nudge with her foot as she does. She doesn't need to be told twice – likely, Kazumi contacted her next, since it's her homunculus that is the reason you're moving out – and while she gets a move on, Asami saki addresses you, saying "Kazumi just briefed me on what's going on, and said we'd be bringing Assassin to her. What's the plan?"
"To leave me here to die alone, apparently," Assassin moans. "At least make sure to give me a hero's funeral when you're finished."
"Oh behave, will you?" Nightingale chides Assassin. "The wound didn't even come close to scratching your spiritual core. You'll be fine." Nightingale shuffles out of her red shawl, and hands it to Assassin, pressing it tightly against her injured shoulder. "I've done the best job I could of closing the wound up already. Just keep pressure on it and don't do anything that would agitate the wound, and you'll live."
Assassin pouts, and rolls her eyes as she says "Not even going to leave me with some painkillers, I see."
"Enough," Kanna Niko says. "Assassin, are you ready to go?" Nightingale nods her head, and Kanna Niko asks you "How are we supposed to get there? It isn't as if we can just fly over there ourselves, but if we tell Kazumi and Mirai to bring Rider's boat in closer, we might just cause that thing to start targeting them if they stand still for too long. So how are you thinking of getting us over there?"
It isn't as if we can just fly over there ourselves.
But what if you could?
With the many roars of battle almost encircling the city from all sides, it's difficult for to you find even a moment of peace in which to concentrate. But you have to. For Madoka. Focus your mind on thoughts of Madoka, if only for just a second. Your bird familiars *pop* into existence - and right about now, you find yourself wondering whatever happened to the other familiars you sent out. You've yet to hear anything back from them, even though you sent them out ages ago – and say to Asami Saki "We're going to fly there."
"Sure…" Asami Saki sounds incredulous. She looks incredulous. "So, um… How, exactly, are we flying there again?" she asks. "Are those birds really going to be strong enough to carry us?"
"There's only one way to find out."
"Sis, I really don't like the way you said that," Kirika says to you. "But, I'm going to trust you anyway, because I know you're not going to do anything that'll intentionally hurt us."
You really don't want to dwell on what this looks like, because from your perspective, you've climbed inside of your bird familiar's mouth like fish in the mouth of a pelican, or perhaps a hotdog in the mouth of a particularly ambitious seagull. You'd prefer to think of the former, but you know you've only ever seen the latter in person. In actuality, you aren't sure that your bird familiars even have openable mouths: they have beaks, you know that much, but you aren't actually sure they can open them.
But you're getting off-topic. The point is, while you can imagine what you must look like, travelling by mouth inside your bird familiars, from the outside you don't actually know what you look like, or how – presumably – gross you look when your bird familiars all but vomit you and your company out onto the deck of Ramesses' flying barque.
Wakaba Mirai recoils, getting a disgusted-sounded "E~w" escape her mouth. "Didn't you have a better way to get here?"
"I'd rather not even dwell on it," you reply. Nightingale is with you, and so is Kanna Niko, who immediately scopes out Kazumi's position on the barque, where the two head over. You can just barely see Hijiri Kanna huddled in the corner behind Kazumi, and that is a lot of blood. You aren't going to dwell on what happened to her, either, or how badly chewed up the rear of the barque is.
"Rider's chariot must have hit you guys pretty hard," Kirika says to Wakaba Mirai. "Anybody else need medical assistance, or just the dummy?"
"She's not a dummy!" Kazumi snaps, leaving her girlfriend's side to stare down Kirika. "She's not perfect, and she's made a lot of mistakes, but she deserves to be treated like a human just as much as anyone else does! So I want you, and you too-" Kazumi almost immediately pivots from pointing to Kirika, to pointing to Wakaba Mirai, "-and everyone else who's been saying mean things about her to stop!"
"Will all of you stop screaming?" Nightingale says. It's phrased as a question, but you've heard that tone often enough from your cardiologist to know that it isn't. Nightingale looks up to Kazumi and Wakaba Mirai and says "If the two of you are planning to continue operating as a combat unit, then I'll have to pull her. I can't effectively treat her injuries if you're constantly engaging and disengaging that monster."
"If you pull her, then how the hell am I going to keep Rider supported?" Wakaba Mirai asks.
"I'll take her place," Kanna Niko offers. "I've still got a transmitter. If you give Kanna's to Umika, the two of us should be able to make up for whatever she wouldn't be giving you."
"No, I'll take her place," Asami Saki says. "You and Umika may have more mana combined than I do, but you're also a hell of a lot more versatile than I am. What the hell can I do? Shoot lightning at stuff? Akemi's nurse can do that, but wa~ay stronger. I'm completely outclassed in this fight in a way you two aren't." Asami Saki lays a hand onto Kanna Niko's shoulder, saying "Right now, we're going to need yours and Umika's abilities a lot more than we'll need mine."
"Not to mention you'll be in the same boat, literally, as your girlfriend," Misaki Umika says, as though the colour commentary is desired at the moment. "Frankly, I don't particularly care one way or another."
Without another word, Kanna Niko slips her transmitter off of her finger, and hands it to Asami Saki. "Just remember, you're here to support Miria, not to fool around with her while the rest of us are doing the hard work."
Asami Saki slips the transmitter onto her finger, and shoots a deadly serious glare in Wakaba Mirai's direction. "Don't worry," she says to Kanna Niko. "I'm not going to get up to any funny business while we're working. Come on, Niko, you know I'm better than that."
"Maybe, but we both know that Mirai isn't."
Maybe it was unwise to order Misaki Umika to assist the team fighting Gudrun, since it's otherwise completely impossible for her to communicate with them outside of – oh, you don't know – directly writing her commands in the air in front of them with her magic. But the team fighting Gudrun is going to need additional versatility to make up for the smaller amount of people currently fighting her.
Granted, you've got three servants fighting her already, but if she hasn't gone down now, after Archer has joined in, then maybe the additional versatility isn't unwarranted after all.
You just hope that was the right call. But a call you're far more comfortable with making is to bring yourself, Kirika, and Kanna Niko to reinforce the team fighting Sidonia. She's the real threat here: stop her, and both Gudrun and her giant monster immediately lose their connection to their master, which should make them that much easier to kill, if not kill them outright in and of itself.
You just wish travelling by bird familiar with a cleaner, and less weird-feeling prospect.
Your birds spit the three of you out on top of the roof of Tomoe-san's building. This is only the second time in what feels like as many minutes that you've been spat out by them, and it's only remarkable at all because you don't notice it when your birds swallow you up to transport you. It's like nothing you've ever experienced before, and the complete non-sequitur nature of existing one second, and being inside the mouth-pocket-whatever=the=hell-you-call-it of your familiar the next, with no transition in-between to give you an idea of how it actually happens.
But once again, you're getting off-topic. You're letting your mind wander to thoughts you shouldn't be thinking of in the middle of combat. Least of all not when explosions are going off in the distance, the entire southern edge of the city is awash in flames, and there is literally a giant monster battling with several of your servants just to the south of your current position.
But speaking of that giant monster… Kirika taps you on the shoulder as you descend the ruined stairwell from the roof down to where the fighting is taking place. Probably the same floor as Tomoe-san's apartment, if you had to guess. "Hey, sis, Berserker just got in touch with me about an idea he had."
"What is it?"
"So, Berserker noticed that an injury that thing sustained while it was fighting Rider inside his duel field hasn't healed over, but that every other injury they've dealt to it has. He even said that Boudica carved a huge hole in the monster's chest, from the inside out, and it still managed to heal and get back up in under a minute. So he had an idea."
"What's the idea?"
"He thinks that if we can somehow cut that thing, and maybe Sidonia as well, off of one another, or maybe off of their connection to all the Grief the city's saturated in, we might be able to stop them both from regenerating. Didn't that Matou lady have something set up to that effect?"
"She did. But I think Matou Sakura was waiting to activate her counter-array for when Sidonia tries to activate her blood obrez, to cut her off completely," you say. "But, as long as we can keep any part of any Dáinsleif away from Sidonia, then we should be good."
"You know, both Lancer and Rider have Noble Phantasms that create alternate pocket worlds," Kanna Niko says. "If we use one or both of those, that should be enough to cut her off, shouldn't it?"
"Maybe," you respond. "But until we know what we're looking at, as far as Sidonia being a servant is concerned, then we should hold off on telling Scáthach or Ramesses from unleashing their Noble Phantasms. Ramesses especially, if Wakaba Mirai can't support him." There is also Archer and his Unlimited Blade Works you could call upon, if neither Kazumi or Wakaba Mirai can support or are willing to activate their servants' Noble Phantasms.
You know you've reached the correct level when, after bursting through the door, you find yourself choking against a thick cloud of smoke, flames, and Grief. The lights have died, and flames licking the walls are the only source of light available to you amidst the darkened hallway and the choking black smoke.
Oh, yes, and of course all the people who are here fighting Sidonia. That should be the bigger giveaway. As soon as you see Sidonia- There she is! You master's vision here; and this time, pushing past the blinding headache that attempting to look at her gives you – Oriko must have had to push past the same headache if she was able to see Sidonia for what she truly was – you can finally see exactly what you're up against; And you don't like it one bit.
Strength - E
Endurance - E
Agility - C
Mana - A++
Luck - A
Noble Phantasm - A++
Endurance - E
Agility - C
Mana - A++
Luck - A
Noble Phantasm - A++
Avenger - A
Item Construction - D
Oblivion Correction - A
Self-Replenishment (Mana) - A+
Territory Creation - C
Item Construction - D
Oblivion Correction - A
Self-Replenishment (Mana) - A+
Territory Creation - C
Independent Manifestation - C
Magic Resistance - B
Mana Burst (Flame) - B
Self-Modification - C
Witchcraft - A
Magic Resistance - B
Mana Burst (Flame) - B
Self-Modification - C
Witchcraft - A
Twardowskis's Mirror: Infernal Treatise of the Magical Arts – A
A tome of magic written by Jan Twardowski, courtier to King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, all the magic he learned under the tutelage of the Devil. Allegedly. The more skeptical may simply claim that Twardowski got lucky, or that he plagarised his research from other, now-unremembered mages of greater stature than he. Regardless of the truth of this book's origin, what is undeniable is its raw magical power, giving the wielder the ability to summon and bind spirits - including servants - to the summoner's will, mastery over all the elements, and countless other secrets thought to have been lost for centuries. Unlike other Noble Phantasms, this book did not belong to Avenger in life, and had to be manually obtained by her after her summoning. As such, it is possible to take possession of Twardowski's Mirror away from her.
Dáinsleif: Sword of Blood-Oath – A++
The cursed sword of King Högni, which never misses a stroke even when it should by all means be illogical, leaves wounds that never heal, and once drawn, will align fate so that someone will always die by this sword when drawn unless the user or target's luck is high; it is also cursed such that the user will not even be able to attempt to withdraw from combat until the blade's bloodlust is sated with the death of at least one person. In addition to the myriad of curses bound to Dáinsleif, the sword also confers to its bearer a number of modifications to their base parameters, including heightened Strength and Endurance, as well as the Skills Battle Continuation and Madness Enhancement. The closer the bearer is to King Högni, the higher the increase to their parameters and to the ranks of these Skills. However, due to Avenger having never possessed Dáinsleif in life, she is not granted any of the boons to her physical parameters, nor is she affected by the bane to her Luck. Additionally, because this Noble Phantasm is one which Avenger obtained after her summoning, it is possible to take possession of Dáinsleif away from her.
Walpurgisnacht: Celebration on the Witches' Sabbath – EX
Avenger's ultimate, and only "true" Noble Phantasm belonging innately to her, is a recreation of the fabled "Witches' Sabbath" described in legend. The ritual requires access to an immense amount of magical energy to perform, as well as absolute fealty to the pagan Slavic gods of old, but in exchange Avenger is granted control over a Beast derived from Slavic folklore. Additionally, through the sacrifice of twelve witches (with the Beast itself acting as the thirteenth participant of the Sabbath), the summoned Beast's power can be magnified 12-fold. However, sacrifices of fewer witches will not result in a lesser increase in power: it must be all twelve, or none at all, for the summoned Beast to reap the benefits of the sacrifice.
A tome of magic written by Jan Twardowski, courtier to King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, all the magic he learned under the tutelage of the Devil. Allegedly. The more skeptical may simply claim that Twardowski got lucky, or that he plagarised his research from other, now-unremembered mages of greater stature than he. Regardless of the truth of this book's origin, what is undeniable is its raw magical power, giving the wielder the ability to summon and bind spirits - including servants - to the summoner's will, mastery over all the elements, and countless other secrets thought to have been lost for centuries. Unlike other Noble Phantasms, this book did not belong to Avenger in life, and had to be manually obtained by her after her summoning. As such, it is possible to take possession of Twardowski's Mirror away from her.
Dáinsleif: Sword of Blood-Oath – A++
The cursed sword of King Högni, which never misses a stroke even when it should by all means be illogical, leaves wounds that never heal, and once drawn, will align fate so that someone will always die by this sword when drawn unless the user or target's luck is high; it is also cursed such that the user will not even be able to attempt to withdraw from combat until the blade's bloodlust is sated with the death of at least one person. In addition to the myriad of curses bound to Dáinsleif, the sword also confers to its bearer a number of modifications to their base parameters, including heightened Strength and Endurance, as well as the Skills Battle Continuation and Madness Enhancement. The closer the bearer is to King Högni, the higher the increase to their parameters and to the ranks of these Skills. However, due to Avenger having never possessed Dáinsleif in life, she is not granted any of the boons to her physical parameters, nor is she affected by the bane to her Luck. Additionally, because this Noble Phantasm is one which Avenger obtained after her summoning, it is possible to take possession of Dáinsleif away from her.
Walpurgisnacht: Celebration on the Witches' Sabbath – EX
Avenger's ultimate, and only "true" Noble Phantasm belonging innately to her, is a recreation of the fabled "Witches' Sabbath" described in legend. The ritual requires access to an immense amount of magical energy to perform, as well as absolute fealty to the pagan Slavic gods of old, but in exchange Avenger is granted control over a Beast derived from Slavic folklore. Additionally, through the sacrifice of twelve witches (with the Beast itself acting as the thirteenth participant of the Sabbath), the summoned Beast's power can be magnified 12-fold. However, sacrifices of fewer witches will not result in a lesser increase in power: it must be all twelve, or none at all, for the summoned Beast to reap the benefits of the sacrifice.
NEW
Major character unlocked!
Sidonia von Borchk, servant Avenger, one and the same. Given a second life after her execution four-hundred years earlier by the collected curses contained with Walpurgisnacht's massive Grief Seed, and compelled to perform acts of hate and suffering by her nature as an Avenger-class servant, Sidonia will stop at nothing to see the complete eradication of all non-magical humans on earth. She considers it recompense for all the evil they have committed against her kind over the centuries, completely blind to the fact that hate and suffering can only create a world with ever more hate and suffering. Perhaps, had she not died with so much hate inside of her heart, a less destruction-minded Caster-class Sidonoia could have used her incredible magical talents to enact positive change upon the world, but now...
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It's funny, Plague, but if you had just flipped your order of operations around, you would have had a much nicer flow to your vote. Hopefully you don't mind me taking advantage of that nicer flow, since it leads us from the rooftop, to dropping Nightingale off with the boat team, and right into joining up with the versus Sidonia team and getting a read on her parameters.
Anyway, here's Avenger-class Sidonia. Her portrait is from the same Fate fangame that I've cribbed from before, but with an actual background courtesy of Plague. As for her parameters, the short version is that I designed her by taking Jehanne Alter and Caster Gilles and tossing them into a blender, along with a few other odds and ends for good measure. She is meant to be the final boss, after all. Notably, she's packing three NPs, only one of which actually belong to her innately. The last one, the one that's actually hers and is what we're fighting now in Chernobog, is another reference to her Caster-class appearance in that same fangame, wherein her NP is to summon Baphomet. I think. I'm not sure how accurate the translation that I read is. For some reason, Caster Sidonia's Baphomet is only a C-rank if memory serves me, and that just doesn't make sense if she's summoning a full-on Beast.
Anyway, I won't be dwelling on the actual versus Sidonia fight now, since I want to give you guys a chance to read what Sidonia is packing, and to see if Homura, Kirika, and Niko being here makes any difference versus what we've already got, now that we 100% officially know what we're looking at with Sidonia.
Anyway, here's Avenger-class Sidonia. Her portrait is from the same Fate fangame that I've cribbed from before, but with an actual background courtesy of Plague. As for her parameters, the short version is that I designed her by taking Jehanne Alter and Caster Gilles and tossing them into a blender, along with a few other odds and ends for good measure. She is meant to be the final boss, after all. Notably, she's packing three NPs, only one of which actually belong to her innately. The last one, the one that's actually hers and is what we're fighting now in Chernobog, is another reference to her Caster-class appearance in that same fangame, wherein her NP is to summon Baphomet. I think. I'm not sure how accurate the translation that I read is. For some reason, Caster Sidonia's Baphomet is only a C-rank if memory serves me, and that just doesn't make sense if she's summoning a full-on Beast.
Anyway, I won't be dwelling on the actual versus Sidonia fight now, since I want to give you guys a chance to read what Sidonia is packing, and to see if Homura, Kirika, and Niko being here makes any difference versus what we've already got, now that we 100% officially know what we're looking at with Sidonia.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh. So if we hadn't stopped her from getting the Kazumi clones, we'd be fucked. It's a good thing that was actually pretty easy. Also, I apologize for Sidonia looking super crunchy. All the little tiny soft glows and details are hard to work around. Lastly, I actually just internalized what Dainsleif does to people with low luck, which has elicited an 'oh no' from me. Fortunately, most of the people fighting her have high Luck, so hooray for that. I was actually super surprised to find that Bryn's luck stat is extremely high.
Also, unfortunately, I'm not really sure what to vote for here. Sorry.
Also, unfortunately, I'm not really sure what to vote for here. Sorry.
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Then you can help by offering up suggestions for fight choreography. So can @NMS and @K4lepo if they're willing. Because that's where I'm stuck right now on writing the Sidonia fight, because there's a million people there, and while I know how all of them move, I don't really have a good idea of how to put that all together into one fight.
Huh, for some reason, I imagined her hair being a more vibrant shade pink, for some reason.
So glad we killed the clones before Sidonia managed to raid the Saint's base.
Why did my mind go to that stupid Pelican Mouth meme?
How old's the fangame? IIRC, the term Beast showed up long before we were shown what that actually means.
So glad we killed the clones before Sidonia managed to raid the Saint's base.
Why did my mind go to that stupid Pelican Mouth meme?
How old's the fangame? IIRC, the term Beast showed up long before we were shown what that actually means.
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Not sure. I started planning for the sequel in late 2018, but I don't think I had the idea for Sidonia until the middle of 2019. That's when she first appears in my working notes. For some reason, the artist who did the character portraits and a lot of other art for the fangame deleted a whole bunch of their artwork from Gelbooru, but other art by them for the fangame that remains says it was uploaded in 2016, so as far as I can tell, the fangame's Caster Sidonia is at least that old. But beyond that, I don't really know.
Trying come up with an idea for the vote but my brain became completely sidetracked by an idea.
Sidonia is drawing power from Wally's Grief Seed. What is a Grief Seed but a Soul Gem just filled with Grief? So, would Niko's magical EMP thing that disrupts a Soul Gems connection work to cut Sidonia off from Wally's Grief Seed?
Sidonia is drawing power from Wally's Grief Seed. What is a Grief Seed but a Soul Gem just filled with Grief? So, would Niko's magical EMP thing that disrupts a Soul Gems connection work to cut Sidonia off from Wally's Grief Seed?
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Worth a try, I suppose, since she is actually next to Sidonia.
As far as I see it, there's basically multiple teams with their own contributions.
- Suppression team (Mami, Kyoko, Kirika, Oriko, Homura, Rin, Niko) is basically the least involved in the actual fighting.. They're using their magic to dampen or protect against Sidonia's flames (Kyoko, Oriko, Niko, Homura), give suppressing fire (Mami, Homura, Rin), actually hold her down (Mami, Rin, Kirika via timeslow if Sidonia's MR isn't too much for it), and suppress her abilities (Mami, Kirika, Niko via that one technique, Rin). A hilarious idea, if Sidonia's Magic Resistance is too much for Kirika, is to have her give Oriko a piggyback ride so that Oriko isn't a sitting duck.
- Blasting team (Caren, Scathach, Sakura) is basically there to beat her into oblivion so that Diarmuid can land the finishing blow, or at least a blow. Caren blows her grief constructs to pieces and pin her down with NP-based black keys, Scathach uses firepower and probably more than a few Gae Bolgs to blow open her defenses and keep her open, and Sakura directly combats any familiars or projectile attacks.
- And Diarmuid is basically at the front of this operation, working to stick his lances into her in a not-so-naughty way, in hopes of both disrupting the mana flow to her servants and dealing at least a semi-permanent wound. The Suppression team is basically mentioned in the background but not really in detail (except for if Niko's technique works), the Blasting Team plays a secondary role to Diarmuid, often stepping in to react to Sidonia's attacks or defenses and then taking a step to the side to let Diarmuid slide in.
Similarly to Sidonia, I'm going to put this into teams.
- Pinning Team (Ilya, Umika, EMIYA, Gilgamesh) is formed of the people who can't actually hold her down correctly. Ilya, Emiya, and Gilgamesh are basically trying to throw as much fire as they can her way the second she gets far enough away that there won't be any friendly fire. In essence, they make sure she actually stays in place. Ilya might not actually be that helpful here, but she can try at least. Gilgamesh and Umika are unique in that they're actually playing a support role, here. Gilgamesh uses Sha Naqba Imuru to 'instruct' the others and help them not die, basically serving as a commander, while Umika uses as many buffing spells as she can manage in her arsenal, while also using phantom images of the others to take advantage of the fact that Madness Enhancement A makes you extremely stupid and single-minded.
- Up-front team (Brynhildr, Heracles) is basically using Heracles to tank her attacks and do what limit damage he can actually do (maybe toss a copy of Durandal in his hands), while Bryn tries to take her from the back, probably more focused on wearing her down than defeating her. After all, this team is waiting for her to lose her support from Sidonia. Notably, Heracles and Bryn both have great luck stats, and thus can prevent Dainsleif's curse from enforcing their death. Like with Diarmuid, this is the team actually getting the bulk of the attention in the fight.
The boat team will do as it has done, just with Aife, who can use her runes to enhance the divine power of the boat, or simply join in with projectiles of her own, with Kazumi as perhaps the occasional artillery. The rest are just there to supply Ramesses with mana, mostly.
As for Achilles, Lancelot and Boudica, I imagine that (in combination with Ramesses), they're trying to draw Chernobog away from the other fights instead of trying to kill him, with Ramesses and Kazumi providing suppressing fire, Achilles using his shield to tank blows, Boudica to serve as a buff-tank and occasional distraction by sword-beaming lasers into Chernobog and then taking a step back, and Lancelot by slapping him with road-signs; or probably Arondight, actually.
As for Achilles, Lancelot and Boudica, I imagine that (in combination with Ramesses), they're trying to draw Chernobog away from the other fights instead of trying to kill him, with Ramesses and Kazumi providing suppressing fire, Achilles using his shield to tank blows, Boudica to serve as a buff-tank and occasional distraction by sword-beaming lasers into Chernobog and then taking a step back, and Lancelot by slapping him with road-signs; or probably Arondight, actually.
Sidonia
Caren, Mami, Scathach, Kyoko, Oriko, Diarmuid, Homura, Kaoru, Rin, Sakura, Niko
Gudrun
Brynhildr, Ilya, Heracles, Umika, EMIYA, Gilgamesh (I think I'm pretty sure he was accidentally forgotten)
B o a t
Ramesses, Kazumi, Saki, Hijiri, Mirai, Nightingale, Aife
Chernbabobag
Achilles, Lancelot, Boudica
Scared to Death and Probably Cowering In Fear
Hitomi, the poor girl
Caren, Mami, Scathach, Kyoko, Oriko, Diarmuid, Homura, Kaoru, Rin, Sakura, Niko
Gudrun
Brynhildr, Ilya, Heracles, Umika, EMIYA, Gilgamesh (I think I'm pretty sure he was accidentally forgotten)
B o a t
Ramesses, Kazumi, Saki, Hijiri, Mirai, Nightingale, Aife
Chernbabobag
Achilles, Lancelot, Boudica
Scared to Death and Probably Cowering In Fear
Hitomi, the poor girl
This is my best attempt, and probably doesn't help much. On another note, I wonder what Gudrun and Sidonia taste like to Kirika? Not sure about Gudrun, but I imagine Sidonia would be like that one time I accidentally choked on one of those 'atomic fireball' candies in high school and had to wait half an hour, barely able to breathe, before it dissolved enough for me to fully get it down my throat and swallow it.
Juubei:" It seems your friends are in need of assistance. Would you like to make a Wish and become a Magical Girl?"
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Shit, Kirika would do that even if Sidonia's Magic Resistance weren't too high. Don't tempt her with a good time.
Assassin is still on the rooftop where we left her. Nightingale told her to stay put and not do anything strenuous that would agitate her injury and open it back up again. So that is unfortunately not an option. At least, Assassin being on the boat isn't an option. Nothing saying she can't just disobey orders and head over to a vantage point to start blasting regardless.
Phrasing. Even if Sigurd were her and down for a 3some, I doubt you could get Bryn and Gudrun to agree to do anything to each other in that regard.
I'd imagine Gudrun tastes... Weird, like a combination of mint, cilantro, and vanilla ice cream, is probably the closest I can approximate to what I imagine she'd taste like.
Juubey plz. But also, was that a Clippy reference?
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You know, it just occurred to me that having NIko use Rendere o Romperlo here is basically a TPK for us. Sure, maybe it hits Sidonia, but Homura, Mami, Kyouko, Oriko, and Kirika are also all within range of it as well. If she hits the big red button, all five of us go down at the same time.
Didn't the Quintet specifically make things to protect their Soul Gems from Niko's RoR back when she was still an enemy?
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I wish I could say yes or no either way, but I honestly don't remember. This is why having Enetious around was a godsend for me, because not only did he know his Fateshit, but he was also a lot better at keeping track of everything than I was. Maybe we did, maybe it was something the girls talked about but we never voted to get done, maybe it was just something that we OOC talked about that never went anywhere. I really don't remember.
I know we have the charms to protect our Soul Gems from breaking, and we have Luck charms installed in them as well, and Niko also programmed regeneration modules into our Soul Gems like she did for the Saints, but I don't remember if additional RoR protections were also included in that package. @PlaguePaladin, do you remember? Do you remember where I might be able to go looking if not?
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PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I don't remember the specific lines, but what I do know is that this was the original intent of the charms, but we switched gears since the Saints were on our side. I don't know where it was, but I'm pretty sure it was some time after Day 24. I know that's way too wide a range, but that's the best I've got. I'll go digging and get back to you on that.
Edit: @SVS
Well, there we have it. I should also note that our Soul Gem case's 'protection' is fairly nebulous. If it confers magic resistance, we might be able to resist RoR, but that might not be guaranteed. But at that rate, it might not even be able to faze Sidonia's B-rank Magic Resistance, which is probably higher than whatever those cases give us.
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It's not nebulous at all. Oriko's protective charm is designed to prevent our Soul Gems from being broken. It just never came up because they were originally designed in the previous quest and, since we've had their protection, there hasn't been a situation where we've been in danger of our Soul Gems breaking that would have revealed their protection.
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Don't mind me, Plague. I'm just quoting this so that I don't forget Kaoru and lose her again.
Day 30 Chapter 25
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[X] Plan: Too Many Cooks (part 2)
As soon as you see Sidonia- There she is! You master's vision here; and this time, pushing past the blinding headache that attempting to look at her gives you – Oriko must have had to push past the same headache if she was able to see Sidonia for what she truly was – you can finally see exactly what you're up against; And you don't like it one bit.
In that moment, Sidonia turns her head in your direction, as though she knew you were looking at her, and she sneers. "Oh, it's you," she says. "Brought your sister and the little homunculus problem child too, I see. What an interesting combination." Without even moving her hand, Sidonia sends a jet of fire screaming towards your position. You're quick to react, and the flames crash against a wall of both ice from your Isa rune, and against barriers thrown up by Oriko in your path. "I have to say, after she sold your family out to me, I didn't imagine that you'd actually end up siding with the little problem child." You feel your hand clenching into a tight fist. She has no right to taunt you with threats towards your family.
"Oh, wait-" Sidonia stops herself, and considers Kanna Niko more closely. "How did you manage to heal your arm? Did you have to grovel and beg for forgiveness from the people you betrayed to me? Did they fix your little arm up after I went through all the trouble of grafting it onto you like you asked me to?"
"Guess again," Kanna Niko says, before dropping down low, slamming her hands against the floor, and sending a wave of fists made from debris directly into Sidonia.
Sidonia makes no movement to counteract Kanna Niko's attack. Instead, a black sphere, shimmering with colours that shouldn't exist – a sphere made entirely from Grief – shoots out in front of Sidonia, flattening out into a shield against which Kanna Niko's transmuted fists crash without effect. "I've decided," Sidonia says, her voice seeming to amplify itself through every corner of the hallway, "That I'm going to kill the three of you first. The little homunculus problem child, the one who is always getting in my way, and her sister, just to make her suffer before she dies."
Flames converge onto Sidonia, and she releases them in a massive bursting wave that spreads out in all directions. It tears through walls, windows, support beams, anything and everything in its path as it surges outwards. Was she holding back her true powers all this time? Or is her strength increased exponentially because today is November first and she's channelling the power of her god? Even behind the barriers thrown up by Oriko, you can still feel the sweltering heat of Sidonia's attack as her flames wash over everything in their path. You can't imagine surviving this without Oriko's barriers, no matter what sort of protections are set around your Soul Gem.
Then, you hear the sound of voices straining. You can make them out: Kyouko, Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, and Scáthach; you can hear all of their voices straining against the roaring inferno Sidonia has set against you, and eventually, you hear their straining voices winning out. With their combined efforts, the four of them wrest control of the blazing inferno away from Sidonia. It's done its damage: everything that had been above your head is now gone, completely blasted away by the flames, but the inferno has died out, or more accurately been swallowed and redirected by the magic of Kyouko, Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, and Scáthach. You can see a pair of bright red Sowilo runes blazing, several red-hot gemstones held in Tohsaka-san's hands, and a large creature made of flames at Matou Sakura's side that looks like a six-legged lizard.
Then you hear a cry, and Maki Kaoru lunges towards Sidonia, clad from head-to-toe in her shiny black armour. She strikes with her fist, and almost manages to make it to Sidonia, when- "Insolent little girl. Did no one ever teach you to respect your elders?"
Maki Kaoru's arm is caught in a web of Grief, just centimeters from Sidonia's face. The convergence is entirely black-on-black, but even so you can see fingers of black crawling up Maki Kaoru's arm, melting away at her Ultimate Shield and digging into her flesh. Maki Kaoru attempts to pull her arm away, but Sidonia's web of Grief has her in a tight hold, and-
A gold spear plunges into Sidonia's chest, slipping in just out of her peripheral vision as her attention is kept on Maki Kaoru. Droplets of black drip from Sidonia's mouth as she turns her head, snarling at Saber. "If you're going to chastise a child for not respecting their elders, then what about someone who's older?" Saber asks, tearing his spear out and delivering a kick to Sidonia's head. It's too close for her Grief shield to block, and when the blow connects, Sidonia is sent flying. Immediately, the web of Grief binding Maki Kaoru breaks apart, and she withdraws to Kanna Niko's side.
Sidonia picks herself up and, before she can do anything to address the injury Saber has just dealt to her, is immediately forced to counter another strike from Saber. Her shield of Grief forms in front of her as Saber slices through it, but it's enough to buy her time to step back, putting her just into the line of fire of a barrage from Tomoe-san and Oriko. Quickly, you join in with your arrows, and the three of you press the attack. Sidonia responds to your attempts with a counter-barrage of flames, and you bring up a wall of fice to defend yourself, but Sidonia's attempt is quickly defeated by Tohsaka-san, as Saber and Scáthach charge in from opposite sides. They lash out with sword and spears, only for their weapons to be intercepted by a tangling ring of spikes which erupt from the floor. The grief-made constructs grab hold of Saber and Scáthach's weapons, giving Sidonia just enough time to blast them both with a close-range burst of flames, before leaping out of the circle.
"Why are you all so hell-bent on stopping me?" Sidonia screams. "When I'm done here, I'll create a new world where the magical needn't fear for their lives anymore! Where the ignorant masses who have spent countless centuries persecuting us will have all perished! Why can't you see that I'm trying to do you all a favour?"
"Because you aren't," Tohsaka-san says. The burning gemstones she's holding are crushed in her hands, and she blasts Sidonia with a hailstorm of mana bolts, forcing Sidonia to raise up her Grief shield to block them. "If you think killing all muggles will make the world of mages a safer place, then you've sorely underestimated just how fucked up the average mage truly is! All you'd be doing is letting that fucked-up-edness out in the open! You'd be killing seven billion people just so that the few who remain can stratify themselves into a hierarchy based solely on whose families are older, and every single mage on the bottom of that wrung would be vastly worse off than they are now!"
"Be silent!" You can see it; can see how Sidonia is slower than Saber or Scáthach, which forces her to rely on her Grief shield to block their attacks automatically, rather than to allow herself to outpace them. She doesn't have the speed for that. "You know nothing of the suffering I've had to endure, for no other reason than because I was different! My own brother hated me! He couldn't stand the fact that I was different from him!"
A bolt of water strikes Sidonia in the face. You should rephrase that, because it sounds like Matou Sakura shot at Sidonia with a squirt gun. Allow you to rephrase yourself, because it was much, much more akin to her hitting Sidonia in the face with a high-pressure water cannon. "Mage society is no different!" Matou Sakura screams back to Sidonia. "My stepbrother hated me, too! He was jealous that grandfather chose me to be the next heir and not him! If I'd been a normal girl and not the daughter of a mage, then I could have grown up in my own home, with my real family, and not had to endure a decade of suffering because mage families are the worst thing in the world! Growing up, I couldn't tell you how many days I just wanted to be normal! Your insane, genocidal scheme would make what I had to endure the default!"
"You're wrong! I'm doing this to save our kind!"
Sidonia lashes out at Tohsaka-san and Matou Sakura with a tremendous burst of flames, but with great effort, the pair manages to withstand and contain the blast, absorbing its force into more gemstones and another six-legged lizard familiar. Scáthach springs into action, lashing out with a flurry of thrusts from her spear, but Sidonia blocks each of her blows with her Grief shield. But Scáthach is faster, and manages to slip her leg underneath Sidonia's barrier, delivering a sweeping kick to her leg which knocks Sidonia to the ground. As Scáthach brings her spear down, Sidonia rolls out of the way, and her shield reshapes itself into a wicked black spear, which thrusts itself at Scáthach.
But Oriko is there to block the strike with her barriers, and while the black spear digs itself through each of Oriko's seven layers of shield, Saber comes in, slashing through the weapon and sending the puddle of Grief slinking back to Sidonia. "Stop getting in my way!" The sphere of Grief reforms at Sidonia's side, and she sends it shooting out again, taking on the form of many spikes this time. Oriko is shoved behind Saber and Scáthach, who counter the surging black spikes with their sword and spears; and while they defend, you and Tomoe-san go back on the attack.
You bring up your bow, and unleash a volley of ice arrows into Sidonia, while Tomoe-san opens fire with her muskets. Kanna Niko crouches down to the floor, clapping her hands and sending a column of fists surging towards Sidonia as she joins in the attack as well. Even Kirika joins on, ducking down to the floor alongside Kanna Niko and sending a wave of black shadows across the floor to where Sidonia is standing. Sidonia's black shield whips around, blocking your combined barrages and-
Kirika's shadow touches Sidonia's, and a circle appears on the ground at her feet. "Got you!" Kirika declares, before announcing "Time Alter: Double Stagnate!" For a brief moment, it appears as though Kirika's attack has succeeded, and Sidonia's movements appear to have slowed for a second or two. But then a burning red ring appears around Sidonia, slicing through Kirika's circle and returning Sidonia's movements to their normal speed. As if she'd never been slowed down, Sidonia launches into a flaming barrage, concentrates on the five of you while her defensive efforts remain concentrated on blocking attacks from Saber and Scáthach.
"All right!" Kirika declares, "If that won't slow her down, then how about this!" Kirika takes off running; Sidonia tracks her movements, blasting at her with a fiery barrage, but is never able to hit her faster opponent. For one, brief, idiotic second, Kirika lunges into Sidonia's zone of control, slashing at her and raking her claws across Sidonia's chest before she even has time to defend herself with her Grief shield, before ducking back out as another flaming barrage from Sidonia continues to track her. "Up we go!" Kirika proclaims, as she- "Dearest, wha-Ouah!" picks Oriko up on her shoulders and dashes back out. "Now you're not a dead fish on your feet, Oriko!"
"Dearest, I'm never a dead fish," Oriko replies, earning a snicker from Kirika as the two dash to safety, while Sidonia is too busy beating back an onslaught of blades from Saber and Scáthach, or the constant magical barrages from Tohsaka-san and Matou Sakura, to be able to respond to Kirika's aggression.. "But thank you."
Sidonia ramps up the pressure of her flames, cranking their intensity up as she continues to launch blast after blast on everything in her line of sight. You and everyone near you; Tohsaka-san and Matou Sakura; Saber and Scáthach. Somehow, despite the wounds Saber, Scáthach, Tohsaka-san, and Matou Sakura have managed to deal to her, Sidonia barely seems to be slowing down at all. How? How is she still able to keep going even after everything you've pumped into her? You, Tomoe-san, Oriko on Kirika-back, and Kanna Niko are blasting her with everything you've got, but Sidonia just shrugs it off. Kyouko, Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, and Scáthach are doing everything they can to keep her flames under control, but Sidonia just keep spitting out more and more flames without ever running dry. Saber and Scáthach keep pushing back against her as aggressively as possible, but that stupid Grief shield of hers just lets Sidonia block them. She's slower and physically weaker than either of them, and when she does take a hit from one of them it's devastating, but then she just gets back up again and keeps going! She's like the Terminator!
"Damnit!" you cry out. "Isn't there anything we can do to stop her?"
An answer comes to you from Heaven. You eel static electricity crawl up the back of your neck: the only warning you'll get before a missile made entirely from lightning bursts through the wall, striking Sidonia and sending her flying, crashing into a pile of rubble that had once been part of a wall. "How about with that?"
[ ] Wat do?
As soon as you see Sidonia- There she is! You master's vision here; and this time, pushing past the blinding headache that attempting to look at her gives you – Oriko must have had to push past the same headache if she was able to see Sidonia for what she truly was – you can finally see exactly what you're up against; And you don't like it one bit.
In that moment, Sidonia turns her head in your direction, as though she knew you were looking at her, and she sneers. "Oh, it's you," she says. "Brought your sister and the little homunculus problem child too, I see. What an interesting combination." Without even moving her hand, Sidonia sends a jet of fire screaming towards your position. You're quick to react, and the flames crash against a wall of both ice from your Isa rune, and against barriers thrown up by Oriko in your path. "I have to say, after she sold your family out to me, I didn't imagine that you'd actually end up siding with the little problem child." You feel your hand clenching into a tight fist. She has no right to taunt you with threats towards your family.
"Oh, wait-" Sidonia stops herself, and considers Kanna Niko more closely. "How did you manage to heal your arm? Did you have to grovel and beg for forgiveness from the people you betrayed to me? Did they fix your little arm up after I went through all the trouble of grafting it onto you like you asked me to?"
"Guess again," Kanna Niko says, before dropping down low, slamming her hands against the floor, and sending a wave of fists made from debris directly into Sidonia.
Sidonia makes no movement to counteract Kanna Niko's attack. Instead, a black sphere, shimmering with colours that shouldn't exist – a sphere made entirely from Grief – shoots out in front of Sidonia, flattening out into a shield against which Kanna Niko's transmuted fists crash without effect. "I've decided," Sidonia says, her voice seeming to amplify itself through every corner of the hallway, "That I'm going to kill the three of you first. The little homunculus problem child, the one who is always getting in my way, and her sister, just to make her suffer before she dies."
Flames converge onto Sidonia, and she releases them in a massive bursting wave that spreads out in all directions. It tears through walls, windows, support beams, anything and everything in its path as it surges outwards. Was she holding back her true powers all this time? Or is her strength increased exponentially because today is November first and she's channelling the power of her god? Even behind the barriers thrown up by Oriko, you can still feel the sweltering heat of Sidonia's attack as her flames wash over everything in their path. You can't imagine surviving this without Oriko's barriers, no matter what sort of protections are set around your Soul Gem.
Then, you hear the sound of voices straining. You can make them out: Kyouko, Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, and Scáthach; you can hear all of their voices straining against the roaring inferno Sidonia has set against you, and eventually, you hear their straining voices winning out. With their combined efforts, the four of them wrest control of the blazing inferno away from Sidonia. It's done its damage: everything that had been above your head is now gone, completely blasted away by the flames, but the inferno has died out, or more accurately been swallowed and redirected by the magic of Kyouko, Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, and Scáthach. You can see a pair of bright red Sowilo runes blazing, several red-hot gemstones held in Tohsaka-san's hands, and a large creature made of flames at Matou Sakura's side that looks like a six-legged lizard.
Then you hear a cry, and Maki Kaoru lunges towards Sidonia, clad from head-to-toe in her shiny black armour. She strikes with her fist, and almost manages to make it to Sidonia, when- "Insolent little girl. Did no one ever teach you to respect your elders?"
Maki Kaoru's arm is caught in a web of Grief, just centimeters from Sidonia's face. The convergence is entirely black-on-black, but even so you can see fingers of black crawling up Maki Kaoru's arm, melting away at her Ultimate Shield and digging into her flesh. Maki Kaoru attempts to pull her arm away, but Sidonia's web of Grief has her in a tight hold, and-
A gold spear plunges into Sidonia's chest, slipping in just out of her peripheral vision as her attention is kept on Maki Kaoru. Droplets of black drip from Sidonia's mouth as she turns her head, snarling at Saber. "If you're going to chastise a child for not respecting their elders, then what about someone who's older?" Saber asks, tearing his spear out and delivering a kick to Sidonia's head. It's too close for her Grief shield to block, and when the blow connects, Sidonia is sent flying. Immediately, the web of Grief binding Maki Kaoru breaks apart, and she withdraws to Kanna Niko's side.
Sidonia picks herself up and, before she can do anything to address the injury Saber has just dealt to her, is immediately forced to counter another strike from Saber. Her shield of Grief forms in front of her as Saber slices through it, but it's enough to buy her time to step back, putting her just into the line of fire of a barrage from Tomoe-san and Oriko. Quickly, you join in with your arrows, and the three of you press the attack. Sidonia responds to your attempts with a counter-barrage of flames, and you bring up a wall of fice to defend yourself, but Sidonia's attempt is quickly defeated by Tohsaka-san, as Saber and Scáthach charge in from opposite sides. They lash out with sword and spears, only for their weapons to be intercepted by a tangling ring of spikes which erupt from the floor. The grief-made constructs grab hold of Saber and Scáthach's weapons, giving Sidonia just enough time to blast them both with a close-range burst of flames, before leaping out of the circle.
"Why are you all so hell-bent on stopping me?" Sidonia screams. "When I'm done here, I'll create a new world where the magical needn't fear for their lives anymore! Where the ignorant masses who have spent countless centuries persecuting us will have all perished! Why can't you see that I'm trying to do you all a favour?"
"Because you aren't," Tohsaka-san says. The burning gemstones she's holding are crushed in her hands, and she blasts Sidonia with a hailstorm of mana bolts, forcing Sidonia to raise up her Grief shield to block them. "If you think killing all muggles will make the world of mages a safer place, then you've sorely underestimated just how fucked up the average mage truly is! All you'd be doing is letting that fucked-up-edness out in the open! You'd be killing seven billion people just so that the few who remain can stratify themselves into a hierarchy based solely on whose families are older, and every single mage on the bottom of that wrung would be vastly worse off than they are now!"
"Be silent!" You can see it; can see how Sidonia is slower than Saber or Scáthach, which forces her to rely on her Grief shield to block their attacks automatically, rather than to allow herself to outpace them. She doesn't have the speed for that. "You know nothing of the suffering I've had to endure, for no other reason than because I was different! My own brother hated me! He couldn't stand the fact that I was different from him!"
A bolt of water strikes Sidonia in the face. You should rephrase that, because it sounds like Matou Sakura shot at Sidonia with a squirt gun. Allow you to rephrase yourself, because it was much, much more akin to her hitting Sidonia in the face with a high-pressure water cannon. "Mage society is no different!" Matou Sakura screams back to Sidonia. "My stepbrother hated me, too! He was jealous that grandfather chose me to be the next heir and not him! If I'd been a normal girl and not the daughter of a mage, then I could have grown up in my own home, with my real family, and not had to endure a decade of suffering because mage families are the worst thing in the world! Growing up, I couldn't tell you how many days I just wanted to be normal! Your insane, genocidal scheme would make what I had to endure the default!"
"You're wrong! I'm doing this to save our kind!"
Sidonia lashes out at Tohsaka-san and Matou Sakura with a tremendous burst of flames, but with great effort, the pair manages to withstand and contain the blast, absorbing its force into more gemstones and another six-legged lizard familiar. Scáthach springs into action, lashing out with a flurry of thrusts from her spear, but Sidonia blocks each of her blows with her Grief shield. But Scáthach is faster, and manages to slip her leg underneath Sidonia's barrier, delivering a sweeping kick to her leg which knocks Sidonia to the ground. As Scáthach brings her spear down, Sidonia rolls out of the way, and her shield reshapes itself into a wicked black spear, which thrusts itself at Scáthach.
But Oriko is there to block the strike with her barriers, and while the black spear digs itself through each of Oriko's seven layers of shield, Saber comes in, slashing through the weapon and sending the puddle of Grief slinking back to Sidonia. "Stop getting in my way!" The sphere of Grief reforms at Sidonia's side, and she sends it shooting out again, taking on the form of many spikes this time. Oriko is shoved behind Saber and Scáthach, who counter the surging black spikes with their sword and spears; and while they defend, you and Tomoe-san go back on the attack.
You bring up your bow, and unleash a volley of ice arrows into Sidonia, while Tomoe-san opens fire with her muskets. Kanna Niko crouches down to the floor, clapping her hands and sending a column of fists surging towards Sidonia as she joins in the attack as well. Even Kirika joins on, ducking down to the floor alongside Kanna Niko and sending a wave of black shadows across the floor to where Sidonia is standing. Sidonia's black shield whips around, blocking your combined barrages and-
Kirika's shadow touches Sidonia's, and a circle appears on the ground at her feet. "Got you!" Kirika declares, before announcing "Time Alter: Double Stagnate!" For a brief moment, it appears as though Kirika's attack has succeeded, and Sidonia's movements appear to have slowed for a second or two. But then a burning red ring appears around Sidonia, slicing through Kirika's circle and returning Sidonia's movements to their normal speed. As if she'd never been slowed down, Sidonia launches into a flaming barrage, concentrates on the five of you while her defensive efforts remain concentrated on blocking attacks from Saber and Scáthach.
"All right!" Kirika declares, "If that won't slow her down, then how about this!" Kirika takes off running; Sidonia tracks her movements, blasting at her with a fiery barrage, but is never able to hit her faster opponent. For one, brief, idiotic second, Kirika lunges into Sidonia's zone of control, slashing at her and raking her claws across Sidonia's chest before she even has time to defend herself with her Grief shield, before ducking back out as another flaming barrage from Sidonia continues to track her. "Up we go!" Kirika proclaims, as she- "Dearest, wha-Ouah!" picks Oriko up on her shoulders and dashes back out. "Now you're not a dead fish on your feet, Oriko!"
"Dearest, I'm never a dead fish," Oriko replies, earning a snicker from Kirika as the two dash to safety, while Sidonia is too busy beating back an onslaught of blades from Saber and Scáthach, or the constant magical barrages from Tohsaka-san and Matou Sakura, to be able to respond to Kirika's aggression.. "But thank you."
Sidonia ramps up the pressure of her flames, cranking their intensity up as she continues to launch blast after blast on everything in her line of sight. You and everyone near you; Tohsaka-san and Matou Sakura; Saber and Scáthach. Somehow, despite the wounds Saber, Scáthach, Tohsaka-san, and Matou Sakura have managed to deal to her, Sidonia barely seems to be slowing down at all. How? How is she still able to keep going even after everything you've pumped into her? You, Tomoe-san, Oriko on Kirika-back, and Kanna Niko are blasting her with everything you've got, but Sidonia just shrugs it off. Kyouko, Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, and Scáthach are doing everything they can to keep her flames under control, but Sidonia just keep spitting out more and more flames without ever running dry. Saber and Scáthach keep pushing back against her as aggressively as possible, but that stupid Grief shield of hers just lets Sidonia block them. She's slower and physically weaker than either of them, and when she does take a hit from one of them it's devastating, but then she just gets back up again and keeps going! She's like the Terminator!
"Damnit!" you cry out. "Isn't there anything we can do to stop her?"
An answer comes to you from Heaven. You eel static electricity crawl up the back of your neck: the only warning you'll get before a missile made entirely from lightning bursts through the wall, striking Sidonia and sending her flying, crashing into a pile of rubble that had once been part of a wall. "How about with that?"
[ ] Wat do?
- Location
- Around here
I need to stop here for a few reasons. First, I might be heading out in less than an hour, and I couldn't afford to keep going with this - and believe me, I could have kept going for at least another thousand words or so before reaching the point that I actually wanted to stop at - and second, based on how I know the upcoming choreography is going to turn out, I need to know how long a bunch of Black Keys will hold a servant with B-rank Magic Resistance. But third, I might also end up switching to another fight perspective tomorrow, depending.
If you're wondering why Caren only shows up at the end and not before, maybe at the same time as Homura and company, it's because she was moving on foot, from a farther distance away, and doesn't have the magical girl stamina that Kaoru does. So she arrives latest, but just in time to dramatically blast through the wall with a giant holy lightning missile and nail Sidonia with a cliffhanger ending.
Lastly, since i used the off-vocal version of it the last time Sidonia was fighting, now I get to unveil the vocal version of Senkin Dur da Blá as Avenger Sidonia's battle theme. If you've never seen Symphogear before, this is where the phrase "genocide and genocide" comes from that I've always used OOC to refer to Sidonia's plans. Because when you're a psychotic madwoman voiced by Minase Inori, just one genocide isn't good enough.
If you're wondering why Caren only shows up at the end and not before, maybe at the same time as Homura and company, it's because she was moving on foot, from a farther distance away, and doesn't have the magical girl stamina that Kaoru does. So she arrives latest, but just in time to dramatically blast through the wall with a giant holy lightning missile and nail Sidonia with a cliffhanger ending.
Lastly, since i used the off-vocal version of it the last time Sidonia was fighting, now I get to unveil the vocal version of Senkin Dur da Blá as Avenger Sidonia's battle theme. If you've never seen Symphogear before, this is where the phrase "genocide and genocide" comes from that I've always used OOC to refer to Sidonia's plans. Because when you're a psychotic madwoman voiced by Minase Inori, just one genocide isn't good enough.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Usually that'd be enough to get them off, but as Sidonia registers as insanely heretical to Christian magic, I assume, it'd probably hold her for maybe 10 seconds, or somewhere around there.
- Location
- Around here
Damn. I wish I had a better sense of how long an update took in terms of time. If this were D&D I could just say "Ten seconds? Okay, so she's stuck for a whole update while we wail on her"but since updates are clearly taking more than ten seconds, that's going to make things more difficult. That's barely enough time for someone to give a snappy one-liner, and we can all forget about getting through a dramatic monologue in all of ten seconds.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mostly just pulled that number out of my ass. The depth of what I know is that Sidonia can heavily resist it, but she won't be able to nullify it outright, so I thought of how much time it would take to make a significant effort on them. Perhaps it's ten seconds if she's focusing on black keys exclusively and indefinitely (but still being resisted) when she's not working on taking them out. If there's a longer span of time that you could work in there that you want, you can probably do it.
- Location
- Around here
I was mostly just taking the piss out of you because I'm bored. I'll figure something out.
Ten seconds is plenty of time when it comes to Servants. Remember the prologue to Fate/Stay Night? Cu disarms Archer 20+ Times in the span of five seconds. (And Cu kind of calls Bullshit on Archer even having enough weapons for that to have happened in the first place.)