- Pronouns
- Mr
At least Homura won't be alone in her confinement now.
[X] Plan: Historical Verve Medley
Confringentur 2; a Madoka Magica / Fate/Stay Night sequel
- Thread starter SVS
- Start date
- Crossover
[X] Plan: Historical Verve Medley
- Location
- Around here
You would be forgiven for thinking that. They are bastard little troublemakers like that. But no, they've actually just wandered off to find Madoka so they can get their promised juice and hugs. You know, without doing any of the actual work that would deserve them getting juice and hugs. They're bastard little troublemakers like that.
Hey, I figure if Homura deserves to be grounded for spooking her parents when she makes familiars from her own Grief, then Kirika definitely deserves to be grounded for stabbing herself and then using the iron in her own blood to make a bunch of blades.
But also, @PlaguePaladin, when the hell did you give the vote a name? I swear you didn't have one attached to it yesterday.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ah, so GOB isn't special in and of itself, it's just history trying to make up for the fact that Gilgamesh should be the origin of all heroes, but doesn't necessarily serve as the origin of all NPs. So that's why he has a version of Nine Lives tied into a physical bow despite that not really making sense. I'd say that GoB being a microcosm of human achievement would make more sense, but this is the Nasuverse, so yeah. So wait, does this mean that Inguz 'holding hands' with Gilgamesh will make UBW into an actual NP? Or replace all the blades with their 'original forms'? What the hell will that actually do? Or will it just do nothing, and Gil should focus on something different?
Wait, all that's from the iron in her blood? Man, she must be eating rocks. Also, it had the name from the get-go.
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- Around here
Rock candy dissolved in her tea, more like. It's actually a bit more than that, and she could probably get away with doing it without the dramatic stabbing part. It's meant to be reminiscent of Sayaka invoking her witch powers by stabbing herself with her sword, and since Latria is the witch of needles, it makes sense that if irika does it she'd get a shit ton of bladed weapons instead of summoning a big metal mermaid. She's done it before without stabbing herself, but let's be real here, Kirika is just "Ow the Edge" incarnate when it comes down to it.
I dunno. If you're concerned about it not working the way someone else thinks it should, then change it. We do still have a third other miniature world we can make use of. Or we could not, if you think your original idea is cooler and want to stick with that. I'm more partial to figuring out how in the fuck I'm going to depict the end result in a written form than I am with how it's supposed to work in practice.
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PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah, but is the Gate of Skye going to end up with Scathach being okay? I mean, it basically is just her becoming a witch, right?
The good thing is that if Gil actually affects the result, it probably isn't going to have much visual effect, so I won't have to account for that. I believe that since this is the merging of Egypt with the history of various soldiers throughout Human history (and possibly all human legends if Gil is here), it might be less a 'temple complex' or a 'field of ash and swords' or 'a mystical vault' and more a 'representation of Human achievement put into a location'. Now as to what that looks like, the nature of Reality Marbles and Inguz means that it would actually be a mid-point between what Ramesses, Gil, and Emiya think that would look like. Since I don't really know what they would consider to be 'places that represent human history' except for possibly Ramesses (in the form of his temple complex), I don't really know. Perhaps the Hanging Gardens for Gil, or the Garden of Eden for Emiya since he hasn't put much thought into it? High chances of the result being a garden, I guess, if I am right.
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- Around here
I mean, not for nothing but I think there's a pretty big one there for Archer. It's the reason his UBW looks a lot happier now than it did in canon, or even in just the previous quest. Then again, "Muh family" probably isn't peak human history for the definition you're working off of, and even if it were I'm not sure how I'd represent that visually.
EDIT: @PlaguePaladin, I'm at the point in the update where I'm about to be getting on with the activation of this triple NP combination attack you're planning, but I've hit a roadblock. How do you figure that Homura would even come up with the idea? She's used Inguz to hold hands with her teammates' mana before, but if she doesn't have a comprehensive understanding of the metaphysical magecraft stuff you're talking about, how is she supposed to come up with the idea of making a few servants' NPs to hold hands?
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PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think she might moreso understand that they have the same overall function (bring out a world not unlike a witch barrier) and the idea of bringing magic together (helped by the fact that fused witch barriers have been seen before in PMMM), plus the fact that all three of them are the teams' most powerful NPs, so slapping them together might be the next part in the equation. It might also be something Archer could think up, since he does know about all this stuff.
Day 30 Chapter 30
- Location
- Around here
[X] Plan: Historical Verve Medley
The whole team is here now, fighting against the monster Sidonia has become. You hope that it's enough to beat back her endless waves of familiars, and that it will ultimately be enough to beat her as well. But you can only hope.
With Archer at your side, the two of you are loosing arrows left and right. Many of your shots hit their targets, freezing over familiars in flight which Tomoe-san and Oriko are quick to down with their own blasts, before returning their attention to other familiars. Sometimes, your shots are meant to draw attention away from Tomoe-san and Oriko, when you see one particular familiar or another getting too close to them. You and Archer loose your arrows, forcing the familiar to dodge, but in the process getting it away from someone else and opening it up to be blow to pieces by a combination attack from Tomoe-san and Oriko.
With Archer at your side, it feels like the work of dealing with airborne familiars is going somewhat quicker, though it's obvious he isn't happy about seeing you here. "I specifically told you and Kirika to keep yourselves safe, but here you are, throwing yourselves in the thick of the fighting." You just hope that Archer doesn't take your disobedience as an excuse to ground you further. Not like he's almost certain to do to Kirika when he sees what she's up to just up ahead.
In the distance, you can see Kirika's form as she whirls around, a spinning dervish of blades that shreds through every familiar in her path. She stops, presses a Grief Seed to her Soul Gem, and calls out "Infinite Blades!" as a ring of bladed and spiked metal weapons sprouts up from the ground to impale every familiar in range of her attack. You wince, and you're sure Archer feels the same way, when you see Kirika hooking her claws through her own stomach in order to activate her attack.
"Like that. Don't think Minako won't be hearing about this," Archer says. Quickly, he Projects a sword and nocks it against the string of his bow, pushing you own as a vampire familiar takes a flying pass at you. Archer returns fire, loosing his arrow straight at the monster and extinguishing it in one shot. "But… All things considered, I guess there really aren't any safe places to be anymore. So as long as you and Kirika make it out of this in one piece, I'll be happy."
"We will, dad," you say. "I promise."
The two of you draw back the strings of your bows together, and take aim at an approaching airborne familiar. You loose your arrows in unison, striking your target and bringing the familiar down in an instant. "But I'm still telling Minako about what Kirika's cooked up. She can expect to be grounded for her little stunt as well."
Kirika overhears Archer's words, and the response is immediate. "Come on, dad, no!" she cries out. It's almost enough to distract her, but when it looks like she's left herself open to a lunging familiar, Kyouko thrusts her spear over Kirika's shoulder, before Kirika finishes the job with a flurry of slashes from her claws. "Please don't tell mom about that!"
Archer grunts as he looses the sword on his bowstring. It glides at a low angle, piercing through several familiars in sequence before exploding, taking out a large cluster of them all at once. "If I told your mother about what Homura did with her familiars, there's no way in hell I'm not going to tell her about you stabbing yourself in the gut like that!" he says.
Kyouko snickers at Kirika's misfortune, but both Tomoe-san and Maki Kaoru are there to remind her of her place. "Sakura-san, it's impolite to laugh at someone else's misfortune," Tomoe-san says. Maki Kaoru says nothing, but the crack of her fist as it cleaves through the head of a familiar moments before it could lunge at Kyouko is all she needs to say. Maki Kaoru flings her fist to the side, tossing the familiar's lifeless body from her fist, before Tomoe-san opens fire on it, blasting it to pieces. Black goop is sprayed out everywhere as the bullet-riddled corpse splatters on the ground, before dissolving into a puddle of black sludge.
Fortunately, you see three new entrants into the battle who don't go splat upon hitting the ground. The trio of Kazumi, Asami Saki, and Wakaba Mirai all come in for a hard landing, when- "Limiti Esterni!" You see a flash of purple, followed by an explosion that takes out several familiars in a wide radius, and the trio come in for a much softer landing by letting the pressure wave from Kazumi's explosion cushion their fall. "Akemi!" Kazumi calls out, "What's the situation!"
"Lots of familiars, Sidonia's now giant-sized, and the whole world's going to hell!" you call back. "But we're glad to see you three."
The roar of another explosion, going off so close to your ears, means you can't hear what Kazumi's response is. But you're guessing that it's something positive, some reassurance that everything will be fine. Immediately, Kazumi springs into action, putting the combat instruction she's received from Scáthach to good use. She uses her staff to slam into an approaching familiar, before bringing her staff around and, having hooked the familiar by her staff's arms, tosses it into another familiar. The two fly backwards, tripping up several more familiars as they scramble to overtake the defeated pair, but are tragically cut short when Kazumi unleashes a devastating shotgun blast of explosions from her staff.
Near to Kazumi, Oriko throws up a series of barriers to deflect the blastwaves away from her. They break against her barriers and sweep to her left and right instead, knocking down several familiars that had been attempting to flank her. She and Tomoe-san look to each other, and then to you, and the three of you all nod your heads. It's a tactic you've already used in this fight, but it's one you know is effective, so you'll play along as long as the pieces are already there. You an Archer take aim, and you loose your arrows over the top of Oriko's barriers. Some familiars are hit by your arrows, which blossom into flowers of ice that splash their frozen petals like shrapnel into the bodies of nearby aerial familiars, while others scatter, smart enough to get out of the way of your blossoming ice, but not smart enough to avoid what comes next. In unison, Tomoe-san and Oriko step out from behind the cover of Oriko's barriers, and blast the familiars flanking them to pieces.
"Tiro-"
"-Fulmine!"
The white and gold charges of Tomoe-san and Oriko's attacks going off almost blind you to the electric glow wrapping around Asami Saki's legs. She reels back, her leg sparking with electricity as she kicks at an approaching familiar. Lightning leaps from her leg and electrocutes the familiar, and her kick sends it flying high into the air, where you and Tomoe-san open fire on it and bring it down. Still in motion, Asami Saki dashes at breakneck speed over to another familiar, repeating the powerful charged kick from before. She's not as fast as Kirika, but her speed is still more than a match for the familiars she's thrown herself into. This time, her legs slams down, not up, driving the familiar deep into the ground as her kick sends shockwaves of lightning radiating out which electrocute all the familiars nearby. Not content, Asami Saki whips her arm back, and lashes out with her riding crop, sending a massive burst of chained lightning strikes surging through the ranks of familiars in a series of explosions.
There's ringing in your ears, and again, until you see the hands clapping against the ground, you assume it to be from the explosions. Hitomi and Kanna Niko have pressed their hands to the ground, drawing up massive walls of concrete debris which stop the radiating shockwaves of electricity in their tracks. Now locked into a killzone, the familiars are helpless as Hitomi snaps her fingers, sending a torrent of flames forward which incinerates the familiars caught inside. The pair nod their heads, and clap their hands to the ground again, exploding the kill-box out into a spray of concrete shrapnel that impales any nearby familiars. "Saki, now!" Kanna Niko calls out, and Asami Saki listens, sending burst of chain lightning out into another crowd of familiars. As before, Hitomi and Kanna Niko hit the ground, and bring up walls to stifle the electric surges from damaging anyone, before turning their walls inward to create another killzone for the familiars trapped inside. Hitomi snaps her fingers, and-
Flames spill over onto the edges of your peripheral vision, and they aren't all from Hitomi. Wakaba Mirai swings her sword, shooting massive jets of carmine flames into the crowd of familiars in a wide arc. With her flames creating a buffer zone between herself and the horde of familiars, Wakaba Mirai taps her heel against the ground, summoning her teddy bears. A handful of her bears sprout claws and lunge at the familiars, but it soon becomes apparent that it won't be enough. The familiars rip and tear through the fluff of Wakaba Mirai's bears, and not even the blades which spring up whenever a new hole is torn in them is enough. Infuriated, Wakaba Mirai taps her heels together, and her teddy bears come together to take on a much larger, more aggressive form.
Her new, larger bear, its body completely coated in a multitude of bladed weapons, tears into the crowd of familiars, this time being more than enough to deal with them. Wakaba Mirai waves her sword again, and an array of seven points appears in front of her, taking the shape of the constellation- "Ursa Major!" Seven points send seven blazing torrents of flame into the crowd of familiars, bypassing the massive teddy bear destroyer and cutting deep into the lines of familiars as the massive bear advances.
"Hey, nice shooting, Napalm," Kyouko says, sliding up to Wakaba Mirai's side and unleashing another blast of flame from her spear with the Sowilo rune. "How many d'ya think you could kill if ya blew the big one up?"
"Napalm?" Wakaba Mirai asks, incredulous, but not protesting the moniker assigned to her by Kyouko. Rather than test the idea out, however, Wakaba Mirai sends her massive teddy bear destroyer straight into one of the seven-headed dragons, and even manages to hold its own against the monster long enough for Nurse Ortensia to show up and annihilate the dragon with a missile made of holy lightning. "The fuck are you smoking, Sakura?"
Kyouko and Wakaba Mirai meet, back-to-back, and together they send out waves of flame in wide arcs, blasting at anything that comes within range as their flames carve out a wide zone of control for your entire team. "Hey, it's better than calling ya 'Pink Bitch' all the time, ain't it?"
You can see the smile on her face, but you don't hear Wakaba Mirai's response over the crash of an explosion. You see two bright flashes in the sky, one emerald – your Rider, you imagine – and one white, whichever one that is you can't imagine, as they circle over the top of Sidonia's head, occasionally bringing their flashes down into the head of her new, massive form. It's enough to cause a brilliant explosion, but not enough to bring her down. "Insolent!" Sidonia's voice screams out. There's a massive crash as Sidonia drops the spear in her left hand, instead opting to retaliate against Rider and the other flash with several barrages of flaming missiles.
Sidonia's back lights up in a brilliant array of seals, and torrents of fire as wide around as buildings leap out. Rider in his chariot tears off in a peal of emerald lightning, while the other servant darts away leaving a gleaming streak of white in the sky. Sidonia's flaming barrage hits nothing that can't be rebuilt. Flames leap from the open mouth and nostrils of her monstrous form, raining down on the roofs of nearby buildings like a storm which turns into molten slag. You can feel the temperature rising, your lungs choking on the intense heat of the roaring inferno engulfing this part of the city. Droplets of Grief roll off Sidonia's monstrous body, splashing to the ground and hatching into new familiars. "It's useless for you fools to resist! Give up, and I promise your deaths will be painless!"
You're almost surprised you hear it. "What is useless is you, old hag," says the voice of Ramesses, high above your head in the sky. "You could not achieve the victory you sought, so now you lash out like a child having a tantrum. Pathetic. If there is anyone here that is useless, it is you."
Sidonia reaches her monstrous hand out, grabbing for Ramesses' solar boat, but the boat goes wide and high, and once out of Sidonia's reach, Ramesses retaliates by blasting Sidonia with beams of sunlight. The sunbeams hit her, and Sidonia stumbles. It's almost enough to make her cry out in pain. What actually does manage to make her cry out in pain comes from the twinned flashes of emerald and white, as Rider and your other servant – by now, you've guessed that it has to be Medusa, since she's the only servant you haven't managed to identify anywhere else – slice through the air and slam into Sidonia's head, back, and chest, circling around multiple times to cause massive damage.
There's a massive sonic boom from something as it breaks the sound barrier, and the phrase "As above, so below" comes to mind when, similar to the brilliant flashes made by Rider and Medusa as they cleaves through the sky, you see the monstrous form of Heracles, with Aunt Illya riding on his shoulder, as he cleaves through a horde of familiars, tossing them aside just from the force of his advance alone. Aunt Illya hops off his shoulder, running her fingers through her hair and shooting out her familiars-turned-swords out into the crowd, skewering familiars all around her in a wide radius.
Two more sonic booms follow shortly after – you're glad Sidonia hasn't thrown any of her screeching spider familiars at you, but you might as well be just as deaf with all the explosions going off around you – and you see Berserker and a one-armed Boudica crashing through the hordes of familiars, tossing them and slicing through them just from the force of their advance alone. You wonder how Boudica lost her arm, but more importantly, how she's still got the strength to keep going in spite of what looks like an impressive amount of blood loss; and the burns, too. What the heck happened to her? Was she dropped in a pool of lava?
Now that you think of it, that wouldn't be too far-fetched, considering what you're up against.
The trio of Berserkers form up around Sidonia's monstrous feet and ankles, and get to work attacking them, in what you're sure looks like a ridiculous display from afar, except for the fact that it actually appears to be causing Sidonia some level of pain. Heracles makes no vocalisations, save for the bestial cries which escape his mouth each time he swings his sword; and just where did he even get that? Where the hell did Heracles pick up Dáinsleif? Did he pilfer that from Gudrun after she was defeated?
Regardless of how Heracles acquired Dáinsleif, you're glad that at least one person has a weapon that's doing damage to Sidonia. Berserker and Boudica are doing what they can, but their efforts seem to be much more closely aligned with holding the line around Heracles and keeping other familiars off of him as he tears into Sidonia.
You see Kirika use a Grief Seed as her Berserker enters the battlefield; and not a moment too soon. As the trio of Berserkers hack away at Sidonia's feet and ankles, she screams, retaliating against them by unleashing a torrent of flames from her bestial form's mouth, nostrils, and from the seals lit up at her back. Heracles is quick to dodge, but Berserker and Boudica hold fast even as the flames fall on them.
Berserker and Boudica both raise up their swords, and blast at the oncoming spray of flames with the full power of their Noble Phantasms. Surging spirals of blue and gold mana burst from their swords, tearing through the flames and spraying their burning embers away, before surging forward and striking Sidonia's monstrous form somewhere that makes Kirika audibly wince in pain. She quickly cleanses her Soul Gem for a second time, before mockingly saying "Ouch, right in the crotch," even though the actual strike was probably somewhere closer to Sidonia's stomach area.
Does she even still have a stomach in this form? What would happen if she were to eat one of you.
You don't let that train of thought go on for much longer. You wish you could say the same for this fight, but things are dragging on, and you have yet to think of a way to bring this fight to a close at all, let alone within a reasonable span of time. "Is there anything we can do to actually turn this around?"
"Maybe," Archer says, as you realise you must have been thinking a little too loudly. "Kirika said that Berserker thinks we might be in good shape if we can cut Sidonia- Well, that thing, actually, but I guess they're one and the same now, off from their connection to Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed, right? That's what you said to me."
"So, you're thinking we should draw it into Unlimited Blade Works again?"
"Not quite." You aren't sure what Archer is getting at at first, but then he elaborates. "We've already seen that thing break out of a single layer of alternate reality space before, so what I was thinking is that we'd hit it with spaces within spaces. If you would use your, how did you describe it, 'hand-holding' on mine, Caster's, and Ramesses' Noble Phantasms, the three of us could all draw Sidonia into a massive, combined alternate reality space, and really go to town on it. That's what I'm thinking."
You've only ever attempted to hold hands with your friends' mana before. The thought that you could use the same technique to force several servants' Noble Phantasms to hold hands never even occurred to you. But as you ask Archer "Is that even possible?" you can feel your mind snapping to attention, and you can see the path opening up before your mind's eye.
"For obvious reasons, no one's ever tried, and I'm pretty sure your average, not-possessed-of-a-reality-marble mage would say it's impossible."
That's enough to steel your resolve. "Then it's a good thing puella magi exist to break through what magecraft says is impossible," you say. Immediately, you switch your focus to Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai, and- "I need you both to trust me. I'm going to use Inguz, and I'm going to attempt to make Archer, Caster, and Ramesses's Noble Phantasms hold hands. If this works, we might actually have a way to win this."
"What the-?" Wakaba Mirai doesn't seem convinced. "Hold hands… Akemi, what the hell are you talking about? Their attacks are magic, right? Magic doesn't have hands to hold-"
"Wakaba-san, trust Akemi-san." Tomoe-san, fortunately, is willing to vouch for you. "She knows what she's talking about. I've seen her use her Inguz rune to hold hands with our magic before. I know this will work."
It had better.
You feel Tomoe-san's ribbon wrapping itself around your ankle, and as you concentrate, invoking your Inguz rune, you feel the pulse of Tomoe-san's mana mingling with yours as you 'hold' its 'hand'. Then, as her ribbon reaches out and wraps around Wakaba Mirai's ankle, you feel the pulse of her mana as well. It's different, not just from Tomoe-san's mana, but from any mana you've felt from any of your friends. It's almost like a combination of Kyouko and Kirika's mana, but it also has something all its own; a blazing, powerful, and violent surge, but underneath it pulses with gentleness, love, and loyalty. But more than that, you can feel the faint outlines of mana coming into Wakaba Mirai from Kazumi and Hijiri Kanna as well. With your Inguz rune you hold hands with all of their mana, and together, you all say – no, not say, because no words as spoken. You convey to your servants,
"Archer-"
"Caster-"
"Rider-"
"-Activate your Noble Phantasms as one!"
The surge of mana as three servants to whom you and their masters have all tied your mana together to all activate their powerful, world-shaping Noble Phantasms in unison is indescribable. It's like a wave crashing over you, enveloping you in molten gold, the hot, blistering wind and sands of the desert, and the comfort of your father's hug all at once. It's like nothing you've ever felt before, and like nothing you ever will feel again. It's a moment that burns itself into your brain as the three of them, Archer, Caster, and Ramesses II, all activate their Noble Phantasms in unison.
The whole team is here now, fighting against the monster Sidonia has become. You hope that it's enough to beat back her endless waves of familiars, and that it will ultimately be enough to beat her as well. But you can only hope.
With Archer at your side, the two of you are loosing arrows left and right. Many of your shots hit their targets, freezing over familiars in flight which Tomoe-san and Oriko are quick to down with their own blasts, before returning their attention to other familiars. Sometimes, your shots are meant to draw attention away from Tomoe-san and Oriko, when you see one particular familiar or another getting too close to them. You and Archer loose your arrows, forcing the familiar to dodge, but in the process getting it away from someone else and opening it up to be blow to pieces by a combination attack from Tomoe-san and Oriko.
With Archer at your side, it feels like the work of dealing with airborne familiars is going somewhat quicker, though it's obvious he isn't happy about seeing you here. "I specifically told you and Kirika to keep yourselves safe, but here you are, throwing yourselves in the thick of the fighting." You just hope that Archer doesn't take your disobedience as an excuse to ground you further. Not like he's almost certain to do to Kirika when he sees what she's up to just up ahead.
In the distance, you can see Kirika's form as she whirls around, a spinning dervish of blades that shreds through every familiar in her path. She stops, presses a Grief Seed to her Soul Gem, and calls out "Infinite Blades!" as a ring of bladed and spiked metal weapons sprouts up from the ground to impale every familiar in range of her attack. You wince, and you're sure Archer feels the same way, when you see Kirika hooking her claws through her own stomach in order to activate her attack.
"Like that. Don't think Minako won't be hearing about this," Archer says. Quickly, he Projects a sword and nocks it against the string of his bow, pushing you own as a vampire familiar takes a flying pass at you. Archer returns fire, loosing his arrow straight at the monster and extinguishing it in one shot. "But… All things considered, I guess there really aren't any safe places to be anymore. So as long as you and Kirika make it out of this in one piece, I'll be happy."
"We will, dad," you say. "I promise."
The two of you draw back the strings of your bows together, and take aim at an approaching airborne familiar. You loose your arrows in unison, striking your target and bringing the familiar down in an instant. "But I'm still telling Minako about what Kirika's cooked up. She can expect to be grounded for her little stunt as well."
Kirika overhears Archer's words, and the response is immediate. "Come on, dad, no!" she cries out. It's almost enough to distract her, but when it looks like she's left herself open to a lunging familiar, Kyouko thrusts her spear over Kirika's shoulder, before Kirika finishes the job with a flurry of slashes from her claws. "Please don't tell mom about that!"
Archer grunts as he looses the sword on his bowstring. It glides at a low angle, piercing through several familiars in sequence before exploding, taking out a large cluster of them all at once. "If I told your mother about what Homura did with her familiars, there's no way in hell I'm not going to tell her about you stabbing yourself in the gut like that!" he says.
Kyouko snickers at Kirika's misfortune, but both Tomoe-san and Maki Kaoru are there to remind her of her place. "Sakura-san, it's impolite to laugh at someone else's misfortune," Tomoe-san says. Maki Kaoru says nothing, but the crack of her fist as it cleaves through the head of a familiar moments before it could lunge at Kyouko is all she needs to say. Maki Kaoru flings her fist to the side, tossing the familiar's lifeless body from her fist, before Tomoe-san opens fire on it, blasting it to pieces. Black goop is sprayed out everywhere as the bullet-riddled corpse splatters on the ground, before dissolving into a puddle of black sludge.
Fortunately, you see three new entrants into the battle who don't go splat upon hitting the ground. The trio of Kazumi, Asami Saki, and Wakaba Mirai all come in for a hard landing, when- "Limiti Esterni!" You see a flash of purple, followed by an explosion that takes out several familiars in a wide radius, and the trio come in for a much softer landing by letting the pressure wave from Kazumi's explosion cushion their fall. "Akemi!" Kazumi calls out, "What's the situation!"
"Lots of familiars, Sidonia's now giant-sized, and the whole world's going to hell!" you call back. "But we're glad to see you three."
The roar of another explosion, going off so close to your ears, means you can't hear what Kazumi's response is. But you're guessing that it's something positive, some reassurance that everything will be fine. Immediately, Kazumi springs into action, putting the combat instruction she's received from Scáthach to good use. She uses her staff to slam into an approaching familiar, before bringing her staff around and, having hooked the familiar by her staff's arms, tosses it into another familiar. The two fly backwards, tripping up several more familiars as they scramble to overtake the defeated pair, but are tragically cut short when Kazumi unleashes a devastating shotgun blast of explosions from her staff.
Near to Kazumi, Oriko throws up a series of barriers to deflect the blastwaves away from her. They break against her barriers and sweep to her left and right instead, knocking down several familiars that had been attempting to flank her. She and Tomoe-san look to each other, and then to you, and the three of you all nod your heads. It's a tactic you've already used in this fight, but it's one you know is effective, so you'll play along as long as the pieces are already there. You an Archer take aim, and you loose your arrows over the top of Oriko's barriers. Some familiars are hit by your arrows, which blossom into flowers of ice that splash their frozen petals like shrapnel into the bodies of nearby aerial familiars, while others scatter, smart enough to get out of the way of your blossoming ice, but not smart enough to avoid what comes next. In unison, Tomoe-san and Oriko step out from behind the cover of Oriko's barriers, and blast the familiars flanking them to pieces.
"Tiro-"
"-Fulmine!"
The white and gold charges of Tomoe-san and Oriko's attacks going off almost blind you to the electric glow wrapping around Asami Saki's legs. She reels back, her leg sparking with electricity as she kicks at an approaching familiar. Lightning leaps from her leg and electrocutes the familiar, and her kick sends it flying high into the air, where you and Tomoe-san open fire on it and bring it down. Still in motion, Asami Saki dashes at breakneck speed over to another familiar, repeating the powerful charged kick from before. She's not as fast as Kirika, but her speed is still more than a match for the familiars she's thrown herself into. This time, her legs slams down, not up, driving the familiar deep into the ground as her kick sends shockwaves of lightning radiating out which electrocute all the familiars nearby. Not content, Asami Saki whips her arm back, and lashes out with her riding crop, sending a massive burst of chained lightning strikes surging through the ranks of familiars in a series of explosions.
There's ringing in your ears, and again, until you see the hands clapping against the ground, you assume it to be from the explosions. Hitomi and Kanna Niko have pressed their hands to the ground, drawing up massive walls of concrete debris which stop the radiating shockwaves of electricity in their tracks. Now locked into a killzone, the familiars are helpless as Hitomi snaps her fingers, sending a torrent of flames forward which incinerates the familiars caught inside. The pair nod their heads, and clap their hands to the ground again, exploding the kill-box out into a spray of concrete shrapnel that impales any nearby familiars. "Saki, now!" Kanna Niko calls out, and Asami Saki listens, sending burst of chain lightning out into another crowd of familiars. As before, Hitomi and Kanna Niko hit the ground, and bring up walls to stifle the electric surges from damaging anyone, before turning their walls inward to create another killzone for the familiars trapped inside. Hitomi snaps her fingers, and-
Flames spill over onto the edges of your peripheral vision, and they aren't all from Hitomi. Wakaba Mirai swings her sword, shooting massive jets of carmine flames into the crowd of familiars in a wide arc. With her flames creating a buffer zone between herself and the horde of familiars, Wakaba Mirai taps her heel against the ground, summoning her teddy bears. A handful of her bears sprout claws and lunge at the familiars, but it soon becomes apparent that it won't be enough. The familiars rip and tear through the fluff of Wakaba Mirai's bears, and not even the blades which spring up whenever a new hole is torn in them is enough. Infuriated, Wakaba Mirai taps her heels together, and her teddy bears come together to take on a much larger, more aggressive form.
Her new, larger bear, its body completely coated in a multitude of bladed weapons, tears into the crowd of familiars, this time being more than enough to deal with them. Wakaba Mirai waves her sword again, and an array of seven points appears in front of her, taking the shape of the constellation- "Ursa Major!" Seven points send seven blazing torrents of flame into the crowd of familiars, bypassing the massive teddy bear destroyer and cutting deep into the lines of familiars as the massive bear advances.
"Hey, nice shooting, Napalm," Kyouko says, sliding up to Wakaba Mirai's side and unleashing another blast of flame from her spear with the Sowilo rune. "How many d'ya think you could kill if ya blew the big one up?"
"Napalm?" Wakaba Mirai asks, incredulous, but not protesting the moniker assigned to her by Kyouko. Rather than test the idea out, however, Wakaba Mirai sends her massive teddy bear destroyer straight into one of the seven-headed dragons, and even manages to hold its own against the monster long enough for Nurse Ortensia to show up and annihilate the dragon with a missile made of holy lightning. "The fuck are you smoking, Sakura?"
Kyouko and Wakaba Mirai meet, back-to-back, and together they send out waves of flame in wide arcs, blasting at anything that comes within range as their flames carve out a wide zone of control for your entire team. "Hey, it's better than calling ya 'Pink Bitch' all the time, ain't it?"
You can see the smile on her face, but you don't hear Wakaba Mirai's response over the crash of an explosion. You see two bright flashes in the sky, one emerald – your Rider, you imagine – and one white, whichever one that is you can't imagine, as they circle over the top of Sidonia's head, occasionally bringing their flashes down into the head of her new, massive form. It's enough to cause a brilliant explosion, but not enough to bring her down. "Insolent!" Sidonia's voice screams out. There's a massive crash as Sidonia drops the spear in her left hand, instead opting to retaliate against Rider and the other flash with several barrages of flaming missiles.
Sidonia's back lights up in a brilliant array of seals, and torrents of fire as wide around as buildings leap out. Rider in his chariot tears off in a peal of emerald lightning, while the other servant darts away leaving a gleaming streak of white in the sky. Sidonia's flaming barrage hits nothing that can't be rebuilt. Flames leap from the open mouth and nostrils of her monstrous form, raining down on the roofs of nearby buildings like a storm which turns into molten slag. You can feel the temperature rising, your lungs choking on the intense heat of the roaring inferno engulfing this part of the city. Droplets of Grief roll off Sidonia's monstrous body, splashing to the ground and hatching into new familiars. "It's useless for you fools to resist! Give up, and I promise your deaths will be painless!"
You're almost surprised you hear it. "What is useless is you, old hag," says the voice of Ramesses, high above your head in the sky. "You could not achieve the victory you sought, so now you lash out like a child having a tantrum. Pathetic. If there is anyone here that is useless, it is you."
Sidonia reaches her monstrous hand out, grabbing for Ramesses' solar boat, but the boat goes wide and high, and once out of Sidonia's reach, Ramesses retaliates by blasting Sidonia with beams of sunlight. The sunbeams hit her, and Sidonia stumbles. It's almost enough to make her cry out in pain. What actually does manage to make her cry out in pain comes from the twinned flashes of emerald and white, as Rider and your other servant – by now, you've guessed that it has to be Medusa, since she's the only servant you haven't managed to identify anywhere else – slice through the air and slam into Sidonia's head, back, and chest, circling around multiple times to cause massive damage.
There's a massive sonic boom from something as it breaks the sound barrier, and the phrase "As above, so below" comes to mind when, similar to the brilliant flashes made by Rider and Medusa as they cleaves through the sky, you see the monstrous form of Heracles, with Aunt Illya riding on his shoulder, as he cleaves through a horde of familiars, tossing them aside just from the force of his advance alone. Aunt Illya hops off his shoulder, running her fingers through her hair and shooting out her familiars-turned-swords out into the crowd, skewering familiars all around her in a wide radius.
Two more sonic booms follow shortly after – you're glad Sidonia hasn't thrown any of her screeching spider familiars at you, but you might as well be just as deaf with all the explosions going off around you – and you see Berserker and a one-armed Boudica crashing through the hordes of familiars, tossing them and slicing through them just from the force of their advance alone. You wonder how Boudica lost her arm, but more importantly, how she's still got the strength to keep going in spite of what looks like an impressive amount of blood loss; and the burns, too. What the heck happened to her? Was she dropped in a pool of lava?
Now that you think of it, that wouldn't be too far-fetched, considering what you're up against.
The trio of Berserkers form up around Sidonia's monstrous feet and ankles, and get to work attacking them, in what you're sure looks like a ridiculous display from afar, except for the fact that it actually appears to be causing Sidonia some level of pain. Heracles makes no vocalisations, save for the bestial cries which escape his mouth each time he swings his sword; and just where did he even get that? Where the hell did Heracles pick up Dáinsleif? Did he pilfer that from Gudrun after she was defeated?
Regardless of how Heracles acquired Dáinsleif, you're glad that at least one person has a weapon that's doing damage to Sidonia. Berserker and Boudica are doing what they can, but their efforts seem to be much more closely aligned with holding the line around Heracles and keeping other familiars off of him as he tears into Sidonia.
You see Kirika use a Grief Seed as her Berserker enters the battlefield; and not a moment too soon. As the trio of Berserkers hack away at Sidonia's feet and ankles, she screams, retaliating against them by unleashing a torrent of flames from her bestial form's mouth, nostrils, and from the seals lit up at her back. Heracles is quick to dodge, but Berserker and Boudica hold fast even as the flames fall on them.
"Arondight – Overload!"
"Esuprastus!"
"Esuprastus!"
Berserker and Boudica both raise up their swords, and blast at the oncoming spray of flames with the full power of their Noble Phantasms. Surging spirals of blue and gold mana burst from their swords, tearing through the flames and spraying their burning embers away, before surging forward and striking Sidonia's monstrous form somewhere that makes Kirika audibly wince in pain. She quickly cleanses her Soul Gem for a second time, before mockingly saying "Ouch, right in the crotch," even though the actual strike was probably somewhere closer to Sidonia's stomach area.
Does she even still have a stomach in this form? What would happen if she were to eat one of you.
You don't let that train of thought go on for much longer. You wish you could say the same for this fight, but things are dragging on, and you have yet to think of a way to bring this fight to a close at all, let alone within a reasonable span of time. "Is there anything we can do to actually turn this around?"
"Maybe," Archer says, as you realise you must have been thinking a little too loudly. "Kirika said that Berserker thinks we might be in good shape if we can cut Sidonia- Well, that thing, actually, but I guess they're one and the same now, off from their connection to Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed, right? That's what you said to me."
"So, you're thinking we should draw it into Unlimited Blade Works again?"
"Not quite." You aren't sure what Archer is getting at at first, but then he elaborates. "We've already seen that thing break out of a single layer of alternate reality space before, so what I was thinking is that we'd hit it with spaces within spaces. If you would use your, how did you describe it, 'hand-holding' on mine, Caster's, and Ramesses' Noble Phantasms, the three of us could all draw Sidonia into a massive, combined alternate reality space, and really go to town on it. That's what I'm thinking."
You've only ever attempted to hold hands with your friends' mana before. The thought that you could use the same technique to force several servants' Noble Phantasms to hold hands never even occurred to you. But as you ask Archer "Is that even possible?" you can feel your mind snapping to attention, and you can see the path opening up before your mind's eye.
"For obvious reasons, no one's ever tried, and I'm pretty sure your average, not-possessed-of-a-reality-marble mage would say it's impossible."
That's enough to steel your resolve. "Then it's a good thing puella magi exist to break through what magecraft says is impossible," you say. Immediately, you switch your focus to Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai, and- "I need you both to trust me. I'm going to use Inguz, and I'm going to attempt to make Archer, Caster, and Ramesses's Noble Phantasms hold hands. If this works, we might actually have a way to win this."
"What the-?" Wakaba Mirai doesn't seem convinced. "Hold hands… Akemi, what the hell are you talking about? Their attacks are magic, right? Magic doesn't have hands to hold-"
"Wakaba-san, trust Akemi-san." Tomoe-san, fortunately, is willing to vouch for you. "She knows what she's talking about. I've seen her use her Inguz rune to hold hands with our magic before. I know this will work."
It had better.
You feel Tomoe-san's ribbon wrapping itself around your ankle, and as you concentrate, invoking your Inguz rune, you feel the pulse of Tomoe-san's mana mingling with yours as you 'hold' its 'hand'. Then, as her ribbon reaches out and wraps around Wakaba Mirai's ankle, you feel the pulse of her mana as well. It's different, not just from Tomoe-san's mana, but from any mana you've felt from any of your friends. It's almost like a combination of Kyouko and Kirika's mana, but it also has something all its own; a blazing, powerful, and violent surge, but underneath it pulses with gentleness, love, and loyalty. But more than that, you can feel the faint outlines of mana coming into Wakaba Mirai from Kazumi and Hijiri Kanna as well. With your Inguz rune you hold hands with all of their mana, and together, you all say – no, not say, because no words as spoken. You convey to your servants,
"Archer-"
"Caster-"
"Rider-"
"-Activate your Noble Phantasms as one!"
The surge of mana as three servants to whom you and their masters have all tied your mana together to all activate their powerful, world-shaping Noble Phantasms in unison is indescribable. It's like a wave crashing over you, enveloping you in molten gold, the hot, blistering wind and sands of the desert, and the comfort of your father's hug all at once. It's like nothing you've ever felt before, and like nothing you ever will feel again. It's a moment that burns itself into your brain as the three of them, Archer, Caster, and Ramesses II, all activate their Noble Phantasms in unison.
"... So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works!"
"Come forth and open your doors to their fullest! Gate of Babylon, open!"
"Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! Ramesseum Tentyris!"
[ ] Wat do?"Come forth and open your doors to their fullest! Gate of Babylon, open!"
"Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! Ramesseum Tentyris!"
- Location
- Around here
Hopefully you'll forgive me for not dwelling more on the actual summoning of our massive, combined-alternate-reality-space NP. This was already running very long, and if I had to spend any more time writing this I think I would have died. Hell, there were a few times when I almost gave up and posted this in a half-complete state, just so I wouldn't have to type any more. Because this one, in case you couldn't tell from the length, took a lot out of me to write. But we'll be opening up with the full beauty of the combined NP next update. Hopefully. If it were just the temple complex by itself, I'm sure I would be up for the task, but having to think of a way to describe all three of them being shoved together is going to be... Tricky, to say the least.
Now, at this point, it's up to you guys how we're actually going to start attacking once this whole shebang goes live and we're all inside partying like it's 1999 (BC). So, once this party goes live, what's our plan to actually win with it?
Now, at this point, it's up to you guys how we're actually going to start attacking once this whole shebang goes live and we're all inside partying like it's 1999 (BC). So, once this party goes live, what's our plan to actually win with it?
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Plan: Archaic Mélange
-[X] For outright fighers:
--[X] For the Berserkers and Achilles, keep doing what they have been doing; putting chunks in Sidonia and tanking her upfront. This as well as Brynhildr and Diarmuid. Maybe Kazumi, Kaoru and Saki if they feel brave enough, or if there are still familiars to be dealing with.
--[X] For Aife, Kyoko, Scathach, Rin, and Sakura, focus on trying to restrain and hold back Sidobog so that she doesn't make any moves on your NP-support team, and is an easier target for whatever your amalgam does.
-[X] For supporters:
--[X] For your team of NP supporters (Mirai, Mami, Hijiri and you) keep huddled together using Mami's grief suppression and brunt the cost of this massive f***ing thing. For Ramesses, Emiya and Gilgamesh, leave them to directing the results of this amalgam phantasm. As for what to do with whatever the end result of your plan is depends on what it does. If it's roughly the same as what they did before, then give your team blessings and cool weapons, slam Sidonia with curses, and blast her with a magnificent pile of flying swords and laser beams. If it's a mixed result, you're going to have to be a bit more experimental for the opening act, here.
--[X] For your team of less direct supporters, have Nightingale, Ilya and Oriko mainly focus on the survival and maintenance of others, by shielding or giving emergency treatment to them. For the more direct supporters, having Umika start handing out the buffs or replica magics, and have Hitomi and Niko try to work out as much environmental manipulation as they can to deal with any leftover familiars or in minor efforts to trip up Sidonia.
I don't believe I forgot anyone. Rough, group-based plans to prevent things from getting overcomplicated here. I'm sorry I've started to kill you by asking for things that are really hard or long-winded to describe.
-[X] For outright fighers:
--[X] For the Berserkers and Achilles, keep doing what they have been doing; putting chunks in Sidonia and tanking her upfront. This as well as Brynhildr and Diarmuid. Maybe Kazumi, Kaoru and Saki if they feel brave enough, or if there are still familiars to be dealing with.
--[X] For Aife, Kyoko, Scathach, Rin, and Sakura, focus on trying to restrain and hold back Sidobog so that she doesn't make any moves on your NP-support team, and is an easier target for whatever your amalgam does.
-[X] For supporters:
--[X] For your team of NP supporters (Mirai, Mami, Hijiri and you) keep huddled together using Mami's grief suppression and brunt the cost of this massive f***ing thing. For Ramesses, Emiya and Gilgamesh, leave them to directing the results of this amalgam phantasm. As for what to do with whatever the end result of your plan is depends on what it does. If it's roughly the same as what they did before, then give your team blessings and cool weapons, slam Sidonia with curses, and blast her with a magnificent pile of flying swords and laser beams. If it's a mixed result, you're going to have to be a bit more experimental for the opening act, here.
--[X] For your team of less direct supporters, have Nightingale, Ilya and Oriko mainly focus on the survival and maintenance of others, by shielding or giving emergency treatment to them. For the more direct supporters, having Umika start handing out the buffs or replica magics, and have Hitomi and Niko try to work out as much environmental manipulation as they can to deal with any leftover familiars or in minor efforts to trip up Sidonia.
I don't believe I forgot anyone. Rough, group-based plans to prevent things from getting overcomplicated here. I'm sorry I've started to kill you by asking for things that are really hard or long-winded to describe.
- Location
- Around here
No, what kills me is actually having to type the damn things out, not you asking me for them.
- Location
- Around here
You want to know the fucked up thing? She didn't even. Niko had almost 40 on her arm when Sidonia obtained it, plus the three Sidonia obtained for herself form summoning Gudrun. Meanwhile, she only spent 12 or so fusing herself with Chernobog. So in a pinch, she's still got at least two dozen more to spend on herself in whatever way she chooses.
Hans, unfortunately, has become a victim of conservation of detail. We'll know what he's up to when we see him, but until then giving him appearances would take up time and valuable real estate on the page that could be better spent elsewhere.
- Location
- Philippines
Half correct. I'll try to summarize from what I remember from his materials. The GOB really is the origin of NPs but not all of it. You see back in Gil's time humanity's domain was small so Gil can be said to be the ruler of unified humanity when he reign before human domain expanded and split into different civilizations so he collected all of mankind's treasures during this time. This treasures are so high quality that they will eventually become NPs wielded by later heroes after Gil's death and the scattering of his treasures throughout the world like some of his demonic swords making their way to South America and the like. Anyway latter heroes would find this treasures and use them in their legends eventually giving this treasures names and becoming NPs themselves. That is why the NPs in Gil's vault are called Nameless Prototypes they haven't made their way yet to the heroes that would eventually wield them and give this legendary treasures their names.
Also Gil would drown that city in a tsunami of treasures since I remember him mention that his treasures is an endless sea of gold.
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Day 30 Chapter 31
- Location
- Around here
[X] Plan: Archaic Mélange
The surge of mana as three servants to whom you and their masters have all tied your mana together to all activate their powerful, world-shaping Noble Phantasms in unison is indescribable. It's like a wave crashing over you, enveloping you in molten gold, the hot, blistering wind and sands of the desert, and the comfort of your father's hug all at once. It's like nothing you've ever felt before, and like nothing you ever will feel again. It's a moment that burns itself into your brain as the three of them, Archer, Caster, and Ramesses II, all activate their Noble Phantasms in unison.
Your vision is flooded with images of blue and white and gold as reality is overtaken by the combined might of three world-altering Noble Phantasms activating at once. Destroyed buildings and the sea of rubble are overtaken by massive temples of stone and gold, sprouting up from the ground wherever each destroyed building had once stood, their every facet decorated with images of the splendour of ages long since passed. The banks of the river became glossed over by sand and reed-covered hills, and the river itself seems to sparkle with tones of gold and orange from the blazing sun in the clear and sapphire-blue sky. The very air you breathe is charged and warm and pure, cleansing to your palette as though you had dunked your head into the sparkling river and pulled it out as a new person. In the center of the massive complex which this combined Noble Phantasm has spawned for you, is a great pillar, made of stone and capped with gold, at whose tip pulses a brilliant gold sphere, almost as bright as the sun in the sky.
The sun is not alone in the sky, either. Twinkling like stars, you see embedded in the day-time sky countless golden discs, Caster's obvious contribution to the ever-expansive land. Your eyes have trouble locating Archer's contribution, until you notice the pale outline of giant gears, floating in the background of the sky as though they were the distant shadows of planets in outer space. Then you notice the reeds growing along the riverbank, and see that they aren't reeds at all, but thin, needle-like blades coloured in emerald and gold, their colours and the way they sway in the gentle breeze only making them look like reeds. The weapons held by the adorned hands of the reliefs lining every surface of each building and in the hands of each statue at every street corner also stand out, distinct objects in their own right that glisten with silver and gold, red and blue, their own histories written into the metal of their creation. The sight steals your breath away, and you wonder, are Archer, Caster, and Ramesses as in awe of their world as you are?
"Akemi-san…"
"…This is amazing."
If not they, then at least their masters, because beside you Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai take in the sights just as breathless as you are. But the breathtaking beauty can only last for as long as you and the others have the mana to sustain it, and you can already feel the incredible toll that sustaining this incredible work of humanity will take. "Thank you for the Grief dampening," you say to Tomoe-san as you, she, and Wakaba Mirai all reach for Grief Seeds and apply them to your Soul Gems. "I have a feeling we're going to be grateful for it before the end of this."
"Say no more, Akemi-san."
"Now, where should we start?"
"You think a change of scenery will give you a higher chance of victory?" Sidonia's voice bellows from the massive jaws of her monstrous form. "Pathetic! I am a god! What can any of you against a god?"
"We can fight back," you say. "Until there's nothing left of you to be called one." As if she could actually hear your ridiculous response, Sidonia bellows out a derisive laugh, meeting your challenge with the same stubborn self-aggrandisement as ever. "Bring her down," you say to the minds of your teammates. "Whatever it takes."
Normally when Misaki Umika shows herself, your butthole clenches in fear of whatever new violation of another person's bodily sovereignty she's about to commit. Not this time. This time, when you see Misaki Umika appear, spellbook open and her glasses reflecting blue with mana shining off her spellbook, you feel at least a sliver of something positive. Soft blue glows settle over your forms, as well as the forms of Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai, and seals of blue appear at the feet of your nearest allies as they engage with the horde of familiars that have yet to be dealt with.
You see a familiar attempting to make a lunge at your position. A lightning-clad leg ringed by Misaki Umika's blue mana stops the familiar in its tracks, and Asami Saki slams her foot down, driving the familiar into the ground and sending shockwaves rippling outwards. "You girls stay safe," Asami Saki says, though from the direction which her eyes are pointing you can tell she's mostly talking to Wakaba Mirai. "The rest of us will handle these ones. You three just concentrate on keeping your servants going."
Another familiar charges at Asami Saki, but before she can react, the familiar is stopped when a massive spear jumps forward, slamming into it. "Yeah?" Kyouko spits; "And maybe you wanna concentrate on keeping yerself safe, huh?"
"Sakura?" Asami Saki sounds surprised, but grateful, and the two team up to lash out at an approaching column of familiars with fire and lightning. "You're here to keep Tomoe safe?"
"And yer own dumb ass," Kyouko spits. "'Cause if I let ya die, Napalm'll never let me hear the end of it."
As the pair blast fire and lightning towards approaching familiars a second time, one word escapes Asami Saki's mouth; "Napalm?"
"Look, I can't keep calling her 'Pink Bitch' anymore, can I?"
"I suppose not."
With Asami Saki and Kyouko serving as a distraction for the familiars attempting to surround you, Hitomi, Oriko, and Kanna Niko act together in taking the lead away from them, surrounding the three of you and raising up barriers to protect you from incoming attacks. Drones link together in thin strands of gold and become panes of glass, while sand dunes rise up and become solid bunker walls. You've still got a view to the outside, you can still see the splendour of the combined worlds and survey the battle, but inside here, you're at least marginally safer than you would be out there. Out there…
Hitomi snaps her fingers, incinerating an approaching familiar as it attempts to make a pass at you. But now, rather than dissolve into black sludge upon death, you see violet particles crackle and burn at the monster's corpse as it falls, and it burns away into nothingness. They don't even have to be dead, you see, as familiars all over the battlefield are succumbing to the debilitating particulates. Oriko sees several familiars attempting to make a move on you, so she and Aunt Illya join forces, blasting at the familiars nearest to you as they approach, striking them with bolts of mana and wire-frame sword-familiars. They fall as well, burning up and dissolving into violet motes.
"The mana in here is so pure," Archer's voice says, "That Sidonia's familiars are having trouble keeping their bodies together; and the fact that they don't have anywhere for their Grief to go after they're defeated…"
"… Means we might actually stand a chance of winning," you are quick to reply.
As if to reinforce that thought, this time when Rider and Medusa slam their aerial mounts into Sidonia's monstrous form, it's enough to cause her pain. She bellows out as her massive body is rocked by their collisions, and she retaliates by opening fire on them. Red seals flare to life at her back, and she blasts them with missiles of fire, as a roaring torrent of flames pour from her gaping mouth down onto the streets below. Rider and Medusa are quick to get out of the way, and Sidonia's flaming missiles impact with a stone building off in the distance. The impact kicks up a tremendous explosion as flames and stone are sent spraying in all directions-
Until a flash of gold cuts through the explosion, and you see the ruins of the building have fired back at Sidonia, blasting at her with sunbeams and swords of gold and silver. Sidonia's hand is wreathed in flames, and she swats the swords away, but the sunbeam impacts her, searing her arm and leaving a burning mark in the blazing outline of her blacker-than-black body.
Emboldened by the sign of a successful injury, the trio of Berserkers on the ground renew their aggression. You see Heracles with his stolen copy of Gudrun's Dáinsleif as he carves deep, gouging slashes into Sidonia's foot, before Lancer charges in and, with the Isa rune alight at the tip of her spear, fills the slash wound with jagged spears of ice. When that isn't enough at one foot, you see Saber, Berserker, and Boudica clear out for the other foot, and blast into Sidonia's upper leg with impressive jets of mana from their three swords.
Over in the distance, caught in the storm of familiars, you see Kirika and Maki Kaoru fighting together. Maki Kaoru wheels her leg into the body of a familiar as it charges at her, slamming it into the ground before quickly turning and planting her fist through the head of another, before quickly pulling it out as violet particulates sizzle on both her black-slicked hand and over the body of her defeated foe. She stops, staring for just a moment at the sight, but when a familiar attempts to come in and make an example of her for looking away, Kirika is there. She thrusts her claws over the side of Maki Kaoru's shoulder, impaling the wolf-shaped familiar and shooting it out when her claws burst from her frilly cuff on lengths of chain, before whipping those chains around and slamming them into and clean through several other familiars in a row beside her. When their two Berserkers activate their Noble Phantasms, burning through their mana in order to deal their blows to Sidonia, the pair both reach for a Grief Seed, and apply them to the other's Soul Gem, before returning to battle.
Sidonia lumbers forward, spreading a blazing inferno underfoot as she stomps her foot down, "Stay still, you little insects!" trying to catch Lancer and the Berserkers at her feet. "I'll make this quick!" But she can only manage a single step before a massive dome of violet force crashes down on top of her. There stands Tohsaka-san, gemstones glittering in her spread fingers, as she throws them towards Sidonia, bursting them in the air and slamming a second dome of force down on top of Sidonia. Sidonia tries to tear herself away, but even with her new body's monstrous strength, she-
Shackles of sand, stone, and steel wrap themselves around Sidonia's wrists and torso, dragging her back down as she tries to stand upright against the dome. You see Matou Sakura and- "Damnit!" Wakaba Mirai cries out. "Didn't Assassin tell your Assassin to stay put? What the hell's she doing, trying to push herself?"
Joining Matou Sakura is Assassin. She's holding her wand out in front of her blood-stained face, her left arm hanging limply at her face, as she invokes her Tiwaz rune to hold Sidonia down with metal chains. "Assassin," Nurse Ortensia says, appearing at Assassin's side opposite Matou Sakura, "I thought you had orders to stay put and let your injury recover. What are you doing here?"
"'Tis but a scratch," Assassin replies, almost hissing her response to her master. "You really thought I was going to lie down and let the rest of this fight pass me by?"
"Sister," Scáthach says, as she and Kazumi slide up behind Assassin and Nurse Ortensia. "Perhaps you shouldn't be moving with such a severe injury." When Assassin says nothing, her only face conveying the sentiment that she doesn't want to repeat herself, Scáthach sighs in defeat, while Nurse Ortensia turns her head and nods, commiserating with her servant's sister. As Scáthach and Kazumi raise their weapons up, she says "No, I suppose you would not, sister," to Assassin, before the five of them all blast Sidonia together with their combined attacks.
A massive jetstream of water, a spear of red and explosions of violet, a barrage of violet bolts and blinding white holy lightning, all crash into Sidonia in unison. She stumbles backwards, letting out a bellowing, reverberating scream from deep within her massive form's lungs, and though she tries to stumble back, Tohsaka-san's double layers of pressure dome keeps her pinned in place, and all she can do is roar fruitlessly-
The sound of a massive explosion bellowing in your ears proves to you that there's more that Sidonia can do than just roar fruitlessly. Seals of fire light at her back, and Sidonia unleashes a massive barrage of flame that tears through both layers of Tohsaka-san's pressure domes, freeing her. Sidonia stands up, and the sound of her massive joints creaking as her monstrous form rises echo to infinity in the endless, timeless space which Archer has helped to create. Flames spew from her mouth, her nostrils, hands, and from the flaming seals at her back, turning stone to slag and sand to glass as her flames wash over everything they touch.
Several on your team spring into action: Hitomi, Oriko, Lancer, Kanna Niko, and Scáthach all join together to create several layers of barrier which ring around you in several wide arcs. Misaki Umika's eyes flash as the pages of her spellbook tear open, shining blue as she casts strengthening spells on the many ringed barriers. Assassin, Tohsaka-san, and Matou Sakura direct their full might towards spells of ice and water, and blast Sidonia, staunching the lava-flow of her flames from washing over you. Sidonia bellows, letting loose a deep, rumbling echo that sounds like an erupting volcano.
Then, your vision goes white for a moment, before a deafening roar overtakes your ears. The sphere of gold atop the pillar at the center of the temple roars to life, pulsing with magical energy as it blasts Sidonia back with an impressive ray, near around to a skyscraper in diameter. Gold and silver twinkle like stars in the bright daytime sky, and a rain of countless swords join the massive pulsing surge as they slam into Sidonia, rocking her body as they rain down on her monstrous form, each sword bringing with it the full might of its own history and expertise behind it. She roars in retaliation, and sends a torrent of flames blasting towards the golden sphere, which in response only intensifies the strength of its own blast.
Wakaba Mirai grits her teeth as the blast from the golden sphere fights back against the pounding surge of Sidonia's flames, and as her hand clutches tightly at her chest she coughs up a few drops of blood, only for Tomoe-san to press a Grief Seed to her Soul Gem. "Just hold out a little longer, Wakaba-san," she says. "Your servant needs you right now. We all need you right now."
"Yeah," says Asami Saki, who appears as Wakaba Mirai's side to help her to her feet. "You see this, Mirai? Your servant is helping to hold this up. We're all counting on. So please, don't give up."
For a second time, a brilliant explosion of white and gold leaves you blinded, as the deafening roar of a passing shockwave almost knocks out your ears for a second time. There's smoke and dust clouding your vision when the light dies and your sight returns, and when the skies clear, you can see that Sidonia's monstrous beast form still stands.
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
But now, with her massive chest torn open, you can make out the form of Sidonia inside the beating, flame-wreathed heart of the monster. "You insolent little brats were just a few short that time!" Sidonia's voice echoes as she screams at you, as if coming both from the mouth of the Beast, as well as from her own mouth. "I'll just have to crush you all like the worthless bugs you are before you have the chance to do that again!"
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
[ ] So what would be?
The surge of mana as three servants to whom you and their masters have all tied your mana together to all activate their powerful, world-shaping Noble Phantasms in unison is indescribable. It's like a wave crashing over you, enveloping you in molten gold, the hot, blistering wind and sands of the desert, and the comfort of your father's hug all at once. It's like nothing you've ever felt before, and like nothing you ever will feel again. It's a moment that burns itself into your brain as the three of them, Archer, Caster, and Ramesses II, all activate their Noble Phantasms in unison.
"... So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works!"
"Come forth and open your doors to their fullest! Gate of Babylon, open!"
"Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! Ramesseum Tentyris!"
"Come forth and open your doors to their fullest! Gate of Babylon, open!"
"Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! Ramesseum Tentyris!"
Your vision is flooded with images of blue and white and gold as reality is overtaken by the combined might of three world-altering Noble Phantasms activating at once. Destroyed buildings and the sea of rubble are overtaken by massive temples of stone and gold, sprouting up from the ground wherever each destroyed building had once stood, their every facet decorated with images of the splendour of ages long since passed. The banks of the river became glossed over by sand and reed-covered hills, and the river itself seems to sparkle with tones of gold and orange from the blazing sun in the clear and sapphire-blue sky. The very air you breathe is charged and warm and pure, cleansing to your palette as though you had dunked your head into the sparkling river and pulled it out as a new person. In the center of the massive complex which this combined Noble Phantasm has spawned for you, is a great pillar, made of stone and capped with gold, at whose tip pulses a brilliant gold sphere, almost as bright as the sun in the sky.
The sun is not alone in the sky, either. Twinkling like stars, you see embedded in the day-time sky countless golden discs, Caster's obvious contribution to the ever-expansive land. Your eyes have trouble locating Archer's contribution, until you notice the pale outline of giant gears, floating in the background of the sky as though they were the distant shadows of planets in outer space. Then you notice the reeds growing along the riverbank, and see that they aren't reeds at all, but thin, needle-like blades coloured in emerald and gold, their colours and the way they sway in the gentle breeze only making them look like reeds. The weapons held by the adorned hands of the reliefs lining every surface of each building and in the hands of each statue at every street corner also stand out, distinct objects in their own right that glisten with silver and gold, red and blue, their own histories written into the metal of their creation. The sight steals your breath away, and you wonder, are Archer, Caster, and Ramesses as in awe of their world as you are?
"Akemi-san…"
"…This is amazing."
If not they, then at least their masters, because beside you Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai take in the sights just as breathless as you are. But the breathtaking beauty can only last for as long as you and the others have the mana to sustain it, and you can already feel the incredible toll that sustaining this incredible work of humanity will take. "Thank you for the Grief dampening," you say to Tomoe-san as you, she, and Wakaba Mirai all reach for Grief Seeds and apply them to your Soul Gems. "I have a feeling we're going to be grateful for it before the end of this."
"Say no more, Akemi-san."
"Now, where should we start?"
"You think a change of scenery will give you a higher chance of victory?" Sidonia's voice bellows from the massive jaws of her monstrous form. "Pathetic! I am a god! What can any of you against a god?"
"We can fight back," you say. "Until there's nothing left of you to be called one." As if she could actually hear your ridiculous response, Sidonia bellows out a derisive laugh, meeting your challenge with the same stubborn self-aggrandisement as ever. "Bring her down," you say to the minds of your teammates. "Whatever it takes."
Normally when Misaki Umika shows herself, your butthole clenches in fear of whatever new violation of another person's bodily sovereignty she's about to commit. Not this time. This time, when you see Misaki Umika appear, spellbook open and her glasses reflecting blue with mana shining off her spellbook, you feel at least a sliver of something positive. Soft blue glows settle over your forms, as well as the forms of Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai, and seals of blue appear at the feet of your nearest allies as they engage with the horde of familiars that have yet to be dealt with.
You see a familiar attempting to make a lunge at your position. A lightning-clad leg ringed by Misaki Umika's blue mana stops the familiar in its tracks, and Asami Saki slams her foot down, driving the familiar into the ground and sending shockwaves rippling outwards. "You girls stay safe," Asami Saki says, though from the direction which her eyes are pointing you can tell she's mostly talking to Wakaba Mirai. "The rest of us will handle these ones. You three just concentrate on keeping your servants going."
Another familiar charges at Asami Saki, but before she can react, the familiar is stopped when a massive spear jumps forward, slamming into it. "Yeah?" Kyouko spits; "And maybe you wanna concentrate on keeping yerself safe, huh?"
"Sakura?" Asami Saki sounds surprised, but grateful, and the two team up to lash out at an approaching column of familiars with fire and lightning. "You're here to keep Tomoe safe?"
"And yer own dumb ass," Kyouko spits. "'Cause if I let ya die, Napalm'll never let me hear the end of it."
As the pair blast fire and lightning towards approaching familiars a second time, one word escapes Asami Saki's mouth; "Napalm?"
"Look, I can't keep calling her 'Pink Bitch' anymore, can I?"
"I suppose not."
With Asami Saki and Kyouko serving as a distraction for the familiars attempting to surround you, Hitomi, Oriko, and Kanna Niko act together in taking the lead away from them, surrounding the three of you and raising up barriers to protect you from incoming attacks. Drones link together in thin strands of gold and become panes of glass, while sand dunes rise up and become solid bunker walls. You've still got a view to the outside, you can still see the splendour of the combined worlds and survey the battle, but inside here, you're at least marginally safer than you would be out there. Out there…
Hitomi snaps her fingers, incinerating an approaching familiar as it attempts to make a pass at you. But now, rather than dissolve into black sludge upon death, you see violet particles crackle and burn at the monster's corpse as it falls, and it burns away into nothingness. They don't even have to be dead, you see, as familiars all over the battlefield are succumbing to the debilitating particulates. Oriko sees several familiars attempting to make a move on you, so she and Aunt Illya join forces, blasting at the familiars nearest to you as they approach, striking them with bolts of mana and wire-frame sword-familiars. They fall as well, burning up and dissolving into violet motes.
"The mana in here is so pure," Archer's voice says, "That Sidonia's familiars are having trouble keeping their bodies together; and the fact that they don't have anywhere for their Grief to go after they're defeated…"
"… Means we might actually stand a chance of winning," you are quick to reply.
As if to reinforce that thought, this time when Rider and Medusa slam their aerial mounts into Sidonia's monstrous form, it's enough to cause her pain. She bellows out as her massive body is rocked by their collisions, and she retaliates by opening fire on them. Red seals flare to life at her back, and she blasts them with missiles of fire, as a roaring torrent of flames pour from her gaping mouth down onto the streets below. Rider and Medusa are quick to get out of the way, and Sidonia's flaming missiles impact with a stone building off in the distance. The impact kicks up a tremendous explosion as flames and stone are sent spraying in all directions-
Until a flash of gold cuts through the explosion, and you see the ruins of the building have fired back at Sidonia, blasting at her with sunbeams and swords of gold and silver. Sidonia's hand is wreathed in flames, and she swats the swords away, but the sunbeam impacts her, searing her arm and leaving a burning mark in the blazing outline of her blacker-than-black body.
Emboldened by the sign of a successful injury, the trio of Berserkers on the ground renew their aggression. You see Heracles with his stolen copy of Gudrun's Dáinsleif as he carves deep, gouging slashes into Sidonia's foot, before Lancer charges in and, with the Isa rune alight at the tip of her spear, fills the slash wound with jagged spears of ice. When that isn't enough at one foot, you see Saber, Berserker, and Boudica clear out for the other foot, and blast into Sidonia's upper leg with impressive jets of mana from their three swords.
Over in the distance, caught in the storm of familiars, you see Kirika and Maki Kaoru fighting together. Maki Kaoru wheels her leg into the body of a familiar as it charges at her, slamming it into the ground before quickly turning and planting her fist through the head of another, before quickly pulling it out as violet particulates sizzle on both her black-slicked hand and over the body of her defeated foe. She stops, staring for just a moment at the sight, but when a familiar attempts to come in and make an example of her for looking away, Kirika is there. She thrusts her claws over the side of Maki Kaoru's shoulder, impaling the wolf-shaped familiar and shooting it out when her claws burst from her frilly cuff on lengths of chain, before whipping those chains around and slamming them into and clean through several other familiars in a row beside her. When their two Berserkers activate their Noble Phantasms, burning through their mana in order to deal their blows to Sidonia, the pair both reach for a Grief Seed, and apply them to the other's Soul Gem, before returning to battle.
Sidonia lumbers forward, spreading a blazing inferno underfoot as she stomps her foot down, "Stay still, you little insects!" trying to catch Lancer and the Berserkers at her feet. "I'll make this quick!" But she can only manage a single step before a massive dome of violet force crashes down on top of her. There stands Tohsaka-san, gemstones glittering in her spread fingers, as she throws them towards Sidonia, bursting them in the air and slamming a second dome of force down on top of Sidonia. Sidonia tries to tear herself away, but even with her new body's monstrous strength, she-
Shackles of sand, stone, and steel wrap themselves around Sidonia's wrists and torso, dragging her back down as she tries to stand upright against the dome. You see Matou Sakura and- "Damnit!" Wakaba Mirai cries out. "Didn't Assassin tell your Assassin to stay put? What the hell's she doing, trying to push herself?"
Joining Matou Sakura is Assassin. She's holding her wand out in front of her blood-stained face, her left arm hanging limply at her face, as she invokes her Tiwaz rune to hold Sidonia down with metal chains. "Assassin," Nurse Ortensia says, appearing at Assassin's side opposite Matou Sakura, "I thought you had orders to stay put and let your injury recover. What are you doing here?"
"'Tis but a scratch," Assassin replies, almost hissing her response to her master. "You really thought I was going to lie down and let the rest of this fight pass me by?"
"Sister," Scáthach says, as she and Kazumi slide up behind Assassin and Nurse Ortensia. "Perhaps you shouldn't be moving with such a severe injury." When Assassin says nothing, her only face conveying the sentiment that she doesn't want to repeat herself, Scáthach sighs in defeat, while Nurse Ortensia turns her head and nods, commiserating with her servant's sister. As Scáthach and Kazumi raise their weapons up, she says "No, I suppose you would not, sister," to Assassin, before the five of them all blast Sidonia together with their combined attacks.
A massive jetstream of water, a spear of red and explosions of violet, a barrage of violet bolts and blinding white holy lightning, all crash into Sidonia in unison. She stumbles backwards, letting out a bellowing, reverberating scream from deep within her massive form's lungs, and though she tries to stumble back, Tohsaka-san's double layers of pressure dome keeps her pinned in place, and all she can do is roar fruitlessly-
The sound of a massive explosion bellowing in your ears proves to you that there's more that Sidonia can do than just roar fruitlessly. Seals of fire light at her back, and Sidonia unleashes a massive barrage of flame that tears through both layers of Tohsaka-san's pressure domes, freeing her. Sidonia stands up, and the sound of her massive joints creaking as her monstrous form rises echo to infinity in the endless, timeless space which Archer has helped to create. Flames spew from her mouth, her nostrils, hands, and from the flaming seals at her back, turning stone to slag and sand to glass as her flames wash over everything they touch.
Several on your team spring into action: Hitomi, Oriko, Lancer, Kanna Niko, and Scáthach all join together to create several layers of barrier which ring around you in several wide arcs. Misaki Umika's eyes flash as the pages of her spellbook tear open, shining blue as she casts strengthening spells on the many ringed barriers. Assassin, Tohsaka-san, and Matou Sakura direct their full might towards spells of ice and water, and blast Sidonia, staunching the lava-flow of her flames from washing over you. Sidonia bellows, letting loose a deep, rumbling echo that sounds like an erupting volcano.
Then, your vision goes white for a moment, before a deafening roar overtakes your ears. The sphere of gold atop the pillar at the center of the temple roars to life, pulsing with magical energy as it blasts Sidonia back with an impressive ray, near around to a skyscraper in diameter. Gold and silver twinkle like stars in the bright daytime sky, and a rain of countless swords join the massive pulsing surge as they slam into Sidonia, rocking her body as they rain down on her monstrous form, each sword bringing with it the full might of its own history and expertise behind it. She roars in retaliation, and sends a torrent of flames blasting towards the golden sphere, which in response only intensifies the strength of its own blast.
Wakaba Mirai grits her teeth as the blast from the golden sphere fights back against the pounding surge of Sidonia's flames, and as her hand clutches tightly at her chest she coughs up a few drops of blood, only for Tomoe-san to press a Grief Seed to her Soul Gem. "Just hold out a little longer, Wakaba-san," she says. "Your servant needs you right now. We all need you right now."
"Yeah," says Asami Saki, who appears as Wakaba Mirai's side to help her to her feet. "You see this, Mirai? Your servant is helping to hold this up. We're all counting on. So please, don't give up."
For a second time, a brilliant explosion of white and gold leaves you blinded, as the deafening roar of a passing shockwave almost knocks out your ears for a second time. There's smoke and dust clouding your vision when the light dies and your sight returns, and when the skies clear, you can see that Sidonia's monstrous beast form still stands.
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
But now, with her massive chest torn open, you can make out the form of Sidonia inside the beating, flame-wreathed heart of the monster. "You insolent little brats were just a few short that time!" Sidonia's voice echoes as she screams at you, as if coming both from the mouth of the Beast, as well as from her own mouth. "I'll just have to crush you all like the worthless bugs you are before you have the chance to do that again!"
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
[ ] So what would be?
- Location
- Around here
Apologies to anyone who was expecting this to be as long as the previous two updates, because this one is about 1k words shorter. Still, I think I managed to fit everything into it that I wanted to, with the exception of space to show off Nightingale and Hijiri Kanna, which I just was not able to find the space to do with everything else going on. But fortunately, we're making some real progress. We've blown a pretty big hole open in Chernobog's chest, and now that we've cracked open that egg, Sidonia is right there. We're also no longer having to worry about familiars anymore, since the mana in here is so pure and positively charged that it was practically vaporising them where they stood, and any that didn't get turned into particulates got burned when Sidonia used that massive wave of fire towards the end there. So there's nothing to stop us from just slamming into Sidonia with our biggest combined attacks at this point.
At least in theory. It took as much as two blasts from the Dendera bulb plus a bunch of the best swords from Archer and Caster to even crack her shell, so we're probably looking at more than just one or two more good combined attacks.
I hope you all enjoy the way in which I depicted the combined temple NPs. I decided to stick with mostly the temple theming, since that one is the largest of the three, but with heavy influence from Archer and Caster as well, like the reeds by the fake!Nile actually being swords, the swords in the hands of statues and reliefs being NPs, Caster's GoB portals open in the sky alongside the gears from Archer's UBW, etc... It was certainly a challenge to think of something that could incorporate all three of them into a single area that managed to be both unified in its appearance but also bearing the distinct marks of everyone involved.
At least in theory. It took as much as two blasts from the Dendera bulb plus a bunch of the best swords from Archer and Caster to even crack her shell, so we're probably looking at more than just one or two more good combined attacks.
I hope you all enjoy the way in which I depicted the combined temple NPs. I decided to stick with mostly the temple theming, since that one is the largest of the three, but with heavy influence from Archer and Caster as well, like the reeds by the fake!Nile actually being swords, the swords in the hands of statues and reliefs being NPs, Caster's GoB portals open in the sky alongside the gears from Archer's UBW, etc... It was certainly a challenge to think of something that could incorporate all three of them into a single area that managed to be both unified in its appearance but also bearing the distinct marks of everyone involved.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Plan: The Last Go
-[X] Have Mami try to send her ribbons out and connect everyone to you. Using this connection, use Inguz to charge up an attack representing truly everyone on your team, similar to how you once used Quintett Fuoco, and aim the resulting blast straight at her heart.
-[X] Have the attacking and supporting teams shift gears from trying to fight her into trying to stall her and bait her into falling into your sights.
I know SVS just said that we'll probably need more than just a single strong attack, but I figure that we can shift gears if she survives this, taking advantage of the aggregate damage and (probably destroyed) hyper-armor to get the finishing blows in. As always, no clue if this will work, and I'm receptive to change.
-[X] Have Mami try to send her ribbons out and connect everyone to you. Using this connection, use Inguz to charge up an attack representing truly everyone on your team, similar to how you once used Quintett Fuoco, and aim the resulting blast straight at her heart.
-[X] Have the attacking and supporting teams shift gears from trying to fight her into trying to stall her and bait her into falling into your sights.
I know SVS just said that we'll probably need more than just a single strong attack, but I figure that we can shift gears if she survives this, taking advantage of the aggregate damage and (probably destroyed) hyper-armor to get the finishing blows in. As always, no clue if this will work, and I'm receptive to change.
And damn, do I appreciate it. Still, sorry for giving you all this work.
Day 30 Chapter 32
- Location
- Around here
[X] Plan: The Last Go
For a second time, a brilliant explosion of white and gold leaves you blinded, as the deafening roar of a passing shockwave almost knocks out your ears for a second time. There's smoke and dust clouding your vision when the light dies and your sight returns, and when the skies clear, you can see that Sidonia's monstrous beast form still stands.
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
But now, with her massive chest torn open, you can make out the form of Sidonia inside the beating, flame-wreathed heart of the monster. "You insolent little brats were just a few short that time!" Sidonia's voice echoes as she screams at you, as if coming both from the mouth of the Beast, as well as from her own mouth. "I'll just have to crush you all like the worthless bugs you are before you have the chance to do that again!"
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
So what would be?
Sidonia lets out a bestial roar from the mouth of her massive form, and flames spill out from her mouth and nostrils. Oriko and Lancer are the first to leap in front of the waves of flame. They hold their hands out firm, and several layers of barrier form like blossoming flowers in front of them. Circles of blue shine at their feet, as Misaki Umika assists them in making their barriers stronger, and as the flames rise and crash against Oriko and Lancer's barriers, you see Hitomi, Kanna Niko, and Matou Sakura all coming together as well, pressing their hands against the sandy ground and raising up walls of thick earth in between the layers of Oriko and Lancer's barriers to reinforce them even further. When the flames spewed from Sidonia's mouth rise, and manage to spill over even that, Maki Kaoru steps bracing her body against the brunt of the flames and giving the others the time to raise up additional barriers.
Everyone is coming together to keep you, Tomoe-san, and Wakaba Mirai safe, just like the three of you came together along with your servants to create this massive alternate world. That's when it comes to you, that there is something you can do that would be strong enough to put Sidonia down. If a powerful blast from Ramesses' Noble Phantasm, backed by Archer, Caster, and about half of your other servants and a handful of your stronger masters won't do it, then you just need to bring everyone together and attack Sidonia at once; truly at once. "Everyone, we need to hit Sidonia all together," you not. "Not as in, we combine our attacks together and hit her. I mean, we have to hold hands and truly strike Sidonia together, as one single, unified force."
"Akemi-san, do you mean-?"
"Yes," you say to Tomoe-san. "I'm going to use that." The same attack you used to defeat Walpurgisnacht. "Everyone else, soften Sidonia up. With so many of us, it might take me a while to hold hands with everyone here. It's a big risk, but it's the best chance we've got to finish this."
"Akemi, you've lost me," Wakaba Mirai says. "What the heck do you mean when you keep talking about us holding hands? Is this like some kind of 'power of friendship' gimmick like we're in some dumb magical girl anime?"
"No," you say, not refuting that the power of Inguz which allows you to hold hands with the mana of your allies is in fact 'the power of friendship' materialised. Because it isn't just some cheap gimmick in a magical girl anime. "It's real."
Tomoe-san focuses, and her Soul Gem glows with a deep gold as her ribbons shoot out in a spider-web pattern, making beelines for each of your teammates and catching them in her web. "Everyone!" Tomoe-san calls out, "Hit Sidonia with everything you've got! Buy Akemi-san the time she needs to finish this!
Above your head, you can see Rider and Medusa coming in on their mounts. They slam into Sidonia, crashing into her chest and knocking her backwards, before reeling around and crashing into her again from behind. Knocked this way and that, with her balance unsteadied, Rider and Medusa make one final pass, this time targeting her massive form's spindly legs, finally knocking her down and causing Sidonia to fall onto her knees, kicking up a massive wave of sand and water as Sidonia falls down on the banks of the not-Nile.
Tohsaka-san and the Scottish twins are the first to jump into the fray. "Just leave it to us!" Tohsaka-san calls out, as gemstones flash in her hands. She charges them with mana, and throws them at Sidonia, exploding them over Sidonia's head and causing a dome of violet force to come crashing down onto Sidonia's body. It's the same as the one she used before, and– Violet Tiwaz runes shine at the fingers of Assassin and Scáthach –also just like before, Assassin and Scáthach conjure massive iron chains which wrap themselves around Sidonia's wrists and the wide pelvis of her monstrous form, holding her down. Aunt Illya comes in next, running her fingers through her hair and creating familiars in the shape of chain-links which, combined with those from Assassin and Scáthach, bind Sidonia's bestial form. She struggles against her bindings, but can barely manage to swipe her arm before Tohsaka-san slams into her with a second dome of force, one again crushing Sidonia and forcing her back down.
Once Sidonia is pinned down, Asami Saki makes her move. "Hey, Mikuni's cousin!" she calls out to Nurse Ortensia, "Let's hit this thing with everything we've got!"
Holy lightning is already crackling at the fingers of Nurse Ortensia's left arm, even as Asami Saki speaks. "I couldn't agree more," she says.
Together, the two of them hurl a barrage of lightning towards Sidonia. The building-sized missile of holy lightning launched by Nurse Ortensia's quickly overtakes and absorbs the massive ball lightning shot thrown by AsamI Saki, but as the two attacks find their mark, you're sure Asami Saki isn't complaining, as long as she's doing her part you won't complain either. Before Sidonia has a chance to recover from that last attack, your teammates come together and continue to press on.Tomoe-san gestures to Kazumi, and together the two of them charge up attacks of their own. Not willing to be outdone, Wakaba Mirai gestures to Kyouko, and together the pair of once-enemies ready a pair of powerful flame attacks with spear and sword blazing and at the ready. Four attacks all leave the weapons of their masters: a massive cannonball of gleaming golden mana, a swirling violet sphere of void, and two roaring torrents of fire, all strike at the heart of Sidonia's monstrous form, causing her to roar in agony from the attacks.
Without letting up for a moment, the trio of Saber, Berserker, and Boudica all charge in next. Acting as one, they raise up their swords, and unleash three powerful bursts of mana as their Noble Phantasms flare to life, blasting at Sidonia's heart with beams of gold and red and blue and white. Not to be outdone by the contributions of either his master or his fellow sword-wielders in this fight, Heracles is the next to charge in, hot on the trail of the three sword-users. His muscles clench as he reels back the arm in which his borrowed sword is dealt, and he throws Dáinsleif like a javelin, roaring and beating his chest with pride as the cursed blade penetrates the chest of Sidonia's monstrous form.
"You dare to use my own sword against me? You insolent little brats!" Sidonia tears at and struggles against her many layers of bondage, until with a massive burst of flames she manages to break herself free.
"I would have stayed down if I were you." Sidonia's massive head turns towards the source of the voice, locking onto Ramesses' solar boat with malice gleaming in her eyes, and she reaches out her hand to grab for him as he speaks. "Regardless, your time in this world comes to an end. Dendera Ray!"
The glowing golden sphere atop the center tower of the temple flares to life, nearly blinding you as its power surges outwards, crashing into Sidonia in the form of a massive beam of light. The sky twinkles with gold, and you see from every angle in the sky gleaming swords from Caster's portals descend onto Sidonia, striking her. The powerful attack accomplishes all of what it accomplished last time, pushing Sidonia back and breaking open the armour of her monstrous form's chest, revealing even more of the glowing molten core within.
"I don't even care anymore!" Sidonia cries out, her voice echoing over the roar of her flames as they spill out and wash over the buildings of the temple complex. "I'll burn you all to ashes, and then do the same to the rest of this rotten world! If these are the thanks I'll get for my actions, then the whole world can burn along with all of you! That's the only way the ache in my soul can be satisfied!"
The rest of your team breaks, taking cover behind the many layers of barrier which Oriko, Lancer, and all the others have thrown up as Sidonia turns her flames towards you and all of your teammates. But you, standing there in the center of the world, focusing on drawing in the mana of everyone around you and holdings hands with it, are left exposed when the flames spill out over the top of the barrier, and-
"Rho Aias!"
A flower with seven petals blossoms in front of you- It's Archer, holding out his hand in front of you as he weathers the blistering heat of Sidonia's flames. Behind him, keeping him supported with her shoulders braced against his back, and her claws dug deep into the sandy ground, is Kirika, doing everything she can to keep Archer steady against the wave of flames, protecting him.
Protecting you.
"I can't hit her with some big ranged attack like everyone else can!" Kirika screams, her voice breaking from the strain of keeping her weight supporting Archer. "This is the best I can do! But you can do better, sis! You can finish this! So do it, NOW!"
You breathe in deep. It's all up to you now. Your friends, teammates, allies, have all done their part in this fight. Now, it's time to repay all of their hard work. The shining arrow in your hand gleams with every colour of the rainbow, and then some. Gold, crimson, pearl-white and pitch-black, violet, orange, deep blue, silver, pink, and green, as you draw in mana from each and every one of them. You draw from Hitomi, and from Nurse Ortensia, you draw from Hijiri Kanna, and Archer, your father, and from Saber, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker, from Scáthach, Boudica, Ramesses, and Nightingale, from Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, Aunt Illya, and Heracles. You draw from Madoka, tapping into the infinite wellspring of love for her that resides deep within your soul. Once again, because Madoka isn't here to wield it, you must become the arrow. "I am the arrow of Madoka's bow."
Glistening with every colour of the rainbow, you let your arrow loose. You can feel the incredible surge of mana propelling it forward as everyone around you contributes their strength to your payload. The arrow burns a gleaming contrail in its wake, trailing brilliant golds and silvers as it flies. "No!" Sidonia bellows, her voice reverberating like the roar of a volcano as it shakes the entirety of this false world to its core. "I won't be stopped by the likes of you! I refuse to accept that-! I refuse to be defeated here! I'll burn you all to ashes!"
Sidonia's bestial form lets out a terrible roar, and flames spew from her mouth, meeting your arrow in mid-flight. The two great forces push back against one another in a contest of strength, but you know that it's only a matter of time before your arrow wins out. Because you have love, the love of your family, your friends, your allies and all the people who are fighting by your side; and for Madoka. But all Sidonia has is herself. Today, it will be love that triumphs over the anger and hatred which have spent the past four-hundred years festering all alone inside Sidonia's heart. "Everyone!" Tomoe-san calls out, and your heart swells as she says "Lend Akemi-san your strength!"
"Tiro Finale!"
"Bigass Spear Thing!"
"Parafulmine!"
"Infinite Blades!"
"Limit Esterni!"
"Palla di Cannone!"
"Ex Fille!"
"Pietra Di Tuono!"
"Ursa Major!"
"Rendere o Romperlo!"
QUINTETT FUOCO!
Your glorious arrow punches through Sidonia's flames and scatters them to the four winds, striking her monstrous form square in the chest and tearing clean through the other side in a brilliant explosion of every colour of the rainbow, and your vision is stolen from you for the beauty of it all. Ah, you think to yourself, as you feel your body becoming weightless for all the mana you've spent, so this is what victory looks like.
For a second time, a brilliant explosion of white and gold leaves you blinded, as the deafening roar of a passing shockwave almost knocks out your ears for a second time. There's smoke and dust clouding your vision when the light dies and your sight returns, and when the skies clear, you can see that Sidonia's monstrous beast form still stands.
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
But now, with her massive chest torn open, you can make out the form of Sidonia inside the beating, flame-wreathed heart of the monster. "You insolent little brats were just a few short that time!" Sidonia's voice echoes as she screams at you, as if coming both from the mouth of the Beast, as well as from her own mouth. "I'll just have to crush you all like the worthless bugs you are before you have the chance to do that again!"
Even that wasn't enough to put her down.
So what would be?
Sidonia lets out a bestial roar from the mouth of her massive form, and flames spill out from her mouth and nostrils. Oriko and Lancer are the first to leap in front of the waves of flame. They hold their hands out firm, and several layers of barrier form like blossoming flowers in front of them. Circles of blue shine at their feet, as Misaki Umika assists them in making their barriers stronger, and as the flames rise and crash against Oriko and Lancer's barriers, you see Hitomi, Kanna Niko, and Matou Sakura all coming together as well, pressing their hands against the sandy ground and raising up walls of thick earth in between the layers of Oriko and Lancer's barriers to reinforce them even further. When the flames spewed from Sidonia's mouth rise, and manage to spill over even that, Maki Kaoru steps bracing her body against the brunt of the flames and giving the others the time to raise up additional barriers.
Everyone is coming together to keep you, Tomoe-san, and Wakaba Mirai safe, just like the three of you came together along with your servants to create this massive alternate world. That's when it comes to you, that there is something you can do that would be strong enough to put Sidonia down. If a powerful blast from Ramesses' Noble Phantasm, backed by Archer, Caster, and about half of your other servants and a handful of your stronger masters won't do it, then you just need to bring everyone together and attack Sidonia at once; truly at once. "Everyone, we need to hit Sidonia all together," you not. "Not as in, we combine our attacks together and hit her. I mean, we have to hold hands and truly strike Sidonia together, as one single, unified force."
"Akemi-san, do you mean-?"
"Yes," you say to Tomoe-san. "I'm going to use that." The same attack you used to defeat Walpurgisnacht. "Everyone else, soften Sidonia up. With so many of us, it might take me a while to hold hands with everyone here. It's a big risk, but it's the best chance we've got to finish this."
"Akemi, you've lost me," Wakaba Mirai says. "What the heck do you mean when you keep talking about us holding hands? Is this like some kind of 'power of friendship' gimmick like we're in some dumb magical girl anime?"
"No," you say, not refuting that the power of Inguz which allows you to hold hands with the mana of your allies is in fact 'the power of friendship' materialised. Because it isn't just some cheap gimmick in a magical girl anime. "It's real."
Tomoe-san focuses, and her Soul Gem glows with a deep gold as her ribbons shoot out in a spider-web pattern, making beelines for each of your teammates and catching them in her web. "Everyone!" Tomoe-san calls out, "Hit Sidonia with everything you've got! Buy Akemi-san the time she needs to finish this!
Above your head, you can see Rider and Medusa coming in on their mounts. They slam into Sidonia, crashing into her chest and knocking her backwards, before reeling around and crashing into her again from behind. Knocked this way and that, with her balance unsteadied, Rider and Medusa make one final pass, this time targeting her massive form's spindly legs, finally knocking her down and causing Sidonia to fall onto her knees, kicking up a massive wave of sand and water as Sidonia falls down on the banks of the not-Nile.
Tohsaka-san and the Scottish twins are the first to jump into the fray. "Just leave it to us!" Tohsaka-san calls out, as gemstones flash in her hands. She charges them with mana, and throws them at Sidonia, exploding them over Sidonia's head and causing a dome of violet force to come crashing down onto Sidonia's body. It's the same as the one she used before, and– Violet Tiwaz runes shine at the fingers of Assassin and Scáthach –also just like before, Assassin and Scáthach conjure massive iron chains which wrap themselves around Sidonia's wrists and the wide pelvis of her monstrous form, holding her down. Aunt Illya comes in next, running her fingers through her hair and creating familiars in the shape of chain-links which, combined with those from Assassin and Scáthach, bind Sidonia's bestial form. She struggles against her bindings, but can barely manage to swipe her arm before Tohsaka-san slams into her with a second dome of force, one again crushing Sidonia and forcing her back down.
Once Sidonia is pinned down, Asami Saki makes her move. "Hey, Mikuni's cousin!" she calls out to Nurse Ortensia, "Let's hit this thing with everything we've got!"
Holy lightning is already crackling at the fingers of Nurse Ortensia's left arm, even as Asami Saki speaks. "I couldn't agree more," she says.
Together, the two of them hurl a barrage of lightning towards Sidonia. The building-sized missile of holy lightning launched by Nurse Ortensia's quickly overtakes and absorbs the massive ball lightning shot thrown by AsamI Saki, but as the two attacks find their mark, you're sure Asami Saki isn't complaining, as long as she's doing her part you won't complain either. Before Sidonia has a chance to recover from that last attack, your teammates come together and continue to press on.Tomoe-san gestures to Kazumi, and together the two of them charge up attacks of their own. Not willing to be outdone, Wakaba Mirai gestures to Kyouko, and together the pair of once-enemies ready a pair of powerful flame attacks with spear and sword blazing and at the ready. Four attacks all leave the weapons of their masters: a massive cannonball of gleaming golden mana, a swirling violet sphere of void, and two roaring torrents of fire, all strike at the heart of Sidonia's monstrous form, causing her to roar in agony from the attacks.
Without letting up for a moment, the trio of Saber, Berserker, and Boudica all charge in next. Acting as one, they raise up their swords, and unleash three powerful bursts of mana as their Noble Phantasms flare to life, blasting at Sidonia's heart with beams of gold and red and blue and white. Not to be outdone by the contributions of either his master or his fellow sword-wielders in this fight, Heracles is the next to charge in, hot on the trail of the three sword-users. His muscles clench as he reels back the arm in which his borrowed sword is dealt, and he throws Dáinsleif like a javelin, roaring and beating his chest with pride as the cursed blade penetrates the chest of Sidonia's monstrous form.
"You dare to use my own sword against me? You insolent little brats!" Sidonia tears at and struggles against her many layers of bondage, until with a massive burst of flames she manages to break herself free.
"I would have stayed down if I were you." Sidonia's massive head turns towards the source of the voice, locking onto Ramesses' solar boat with malice gleaming in her eyes, and she reaches out her hand to grab for him as he speaks. "Regardless, your time in this world comes to an end. Dendera Ray!"
The glowing golden sphere atop the center tower of the temple flares to life, nearly blinding you as its power surges outwards, crashing into Sidonia in the form of a massive beam of light. The sky twinkles with gold, and you see from every angle in the sky gleaming swords from Caster's portals descend onto Sidonia, striking her. The powerful attack accomplishes all of what it accomplished last time, pushing Sidonia back and breaking open the armour of her monstrous form's chest, revealing even more of the glowing molten core within.
"I don't even care anymore!" Sidonia cries out, her voice echoing over the roar of her flames as they spill out and wash over the buildings of the temple complex. "I'll burn you all to ashes, and then do the same to the rest of this rotten world! If these are the thanks I'll get for my actions, then the whole world can burn along with all of you! That's the only way the ache in my soul can be satisfied!"
The rest of your team breaks, taking cover behind the many layers of barrier which Oriko, Lancer, and all the others have thrown up as Sidonia turns her flames towards you and all of your teammates. But you, standing there in the center of the world, focusing on drawing in the mana of everyone around you and holdings hands with it, are left exposed when the flames spill out over the top of the barrier, and-
"Rho Aias!"
A flower with seven petals blossoms in front of you- It's Archer, holding out his hand in front of you as he weathers the blistering heat of Sidonia's flames. Behind him, keeping him supported with her shoulders braced against his back, and her claws dug deep into the sandy ground, is Kirika, doing everything she can to keep Archer steady against the wave of flames, protecting him.
Protecting you.
"I can't hit her with some big ranged attack like everyone else can!" Kirika screams, her voice breaking from the strain of keeping her weight supporting Archer. "This is the best I can do! But you can do better, sis! You can finish this! So do it, NOW!"
You breathe in deep. It's all up to you now. Your friends, teammates, allies, have all done their part in this fight. Now, it's time to repay all of their hard work. The shining arrow in your hand gleams with every colour of the rainbow, and then some. Gold, crimson, pearl-white and pitch-black, violet, orange, deep blue, silver, pink, and green, as you draw in mana from each and every one of them. You draw from Hitomi, and from Nurse Ortensia, you draw from Hijiri Kanna, and Archer, your father, and from Saber, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker, from Scáthach, Boudica, Ramesses, and Nightingale, from Tohsaka-san, Matou Sakura, Aunt Illya, and Heracles. You draw from Madoka, tapping into the infinite wellspring of love for her that resides deep within your soul. Once again, because Madoka isn't here to wield it, you must become the arrow. "I am the arrow of Madoka's bow."
Glistening with every colour of the rainbow, you let your arrow loose. You can feel the incredible surge of mana propelling it forward as everyone around you contributes their strength to your payload. The arrow burns a gleaming contrail in its wake, trailing brilliant golds and silvers as it flies. "No!" Sidonia bellows, her voice reverberating like the roar of a volcano as it shakes the entirety of this false world to its core. "I won't be stopped by the likes of you! I refuse to accept that-! I refuse to be defeated here! I'll burn you all to ashes!"
Sidonia's bestial form lets out a terrible roar, and flames spew from her mouth, meeting your arrow in mid-flight. The two great forces push back against one another in a contest of strength, but you know that it's only a matter of time before your arrow wins out. Because you have love, the love of your family, your friends, your allies and all the people who are fighting by your side; and for Madoka. But all Sidonia has is herself. Today, it will be love that triumphs over the anger and hatred which have spent the past four-hundred years festering all alone inside Sidonia's heart. "Everyone!" Tomoe-san calls out, and your heart swells as she says "Lend Akemi-san your strength!"
"Tiro Finale!"
"Bigass Spear Thing!"
"Parafulmine!"
"Infinite Blades!"
"Limit Esterni!"
"Palla di Cannone!"
"Ex Fille!"
"Pietra Di Tuono!"
"Ursa Major!"
"Rendere o Romperlo!"
QUINTETT FUOCO!
Now we should make plan to deal with the clock tower and the holy church. Couse no way we can sweep this under the rug. There's no way some magi can't feel a sudden presence of corruption and a group of HS chilling in there
- Location
- Around here
This entire update is shamelessly stolen from the last episode of Symphogear's season 3, and I am not ashamed of that. For as much Symphogear inspiration as the sequel had, I knew that, if we ever ended up using Quintett Fuoco in the final fight, it would be set to the tune of Glorious Break. The fact that it plays three times throughout the update is more of a "You should be listening here at this moment" than to imply that you should listen to it three times on repeat. But you should still listen to it three times on repeat regardless. Mizuki Nana is an amazing singer, and Glorious Break is one of her best songs, if not her best, full stop.
Anyway, somehow this ended up being the shortest of the last handful of updates, clocking in at only 2200 words, and yet in spite of that my only complaints about what I've done here is that I didn't have attack names to give to either Hitomi or Caren, so they unfortunately got left behind in the massive crawl when everyone else was supporting Homura. Don't take that to mean that they aren't, because they are and should be understood as such, it's just that they weren't able to make it into the crawl since we've never had them come up with attacks names (unlike most of the Saints, who even though half of them have never used their canon attack names, still had ones I could fall back onto). Also, I'd run out of colours for them, since Niko stole green away from Hitomi, and Umika and Saki stole blue and silver away from Caren. But they're still there, don't worry.
While I'm on the topic of shamelessly stealing from Symphogear, I hope you all (or Plague only, since I think he's the only one besides myself who's seen all of Symphogear) appreciate my attempt at making a Symphogear-style card for Quintett Fuoco in the style of the cards Hibiki gets for her finishing moves in the finale fight of each season.
There's still two more main story updates to come after this, but this is the end of voting.
Anyway, somehow this ended up being the shortest of the last handful of updates, clocking in at only 2200 words, and yet in spite of that my only complaints about what I've done here is that I didn't have attack names to give to either Hitomi or Caren, so they unfortunately got left behind in the massive crawl when everyone else was supporting Homura. Don't take that to mean that they aren't, because they are and should be understood as such, it's just that they weren't able to make it into the crawl since we've never had them come up with attacks names (unlike most of the Saints, who even though half of them have never used their canon attack names, still had ones I could fall back onto). Also, I'd run out of colours for them, since Niko stole green away from Hitomi, and Umika and Saki stole blue and silver away from Caren. But they're still there, don't worry.
While I'm on the topic of shamelessly stealing from Symphogear, I hope you all (or Plague only, since I think he's the only one besides myself who's seen all of Symphogear) appreciate my attempt at making a Symphogear-style card for Quintett Fuoco in the style of the cards Hibiki gets for her finishing moves in the finale fight of each season.
There's still two more main story updates to come after this, but this is the end of voting.
Dealing with the Mage's Association and the fallout from this was slated to be the events of the 3quel, but given how down-the-drain this whole sequel thing has been, I have no plans to continue into the 3quel until at least mid-July of next year. I do still want to get to the 3quel eventually, but I need to take a break after this so I can work on other projects, recuperate from the burnout of doing this for two straight years without stopping, and so I can figure out whether there's enough interest in, or if it's even worth it, for me to go ahead and do the 3qquel.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh, for fuck's sake, Kyoko-
Regardless, damn, does this feel good. I'm glad that you eventually decided to not give up halfway. I know I can't exactly give you anything for it other than my appreciation, so from the bottom of my heart, that's what I'm going to give you (I know it's a shitty Christmas present, but it's non-refundable).
On the other hand, this means that I now have the time to start up my quest! Guess I should get to work on that, now that the main object of my free time is gone.
- Location
- Around here
Look, she never came up with a name for it, okay? But, unlike Hitomi or Caren (though Caren is arguable, she just doesn't have a name for the massive lightning missile) she at least had a finishing move she could contribute. If we'd ever thought to force Kyouko to come up with a name for her bigass spear thing, this all could have been avoided.
Not quite yet. Voting might be done, but there are still two more main-story updates left, and there will also be a few other things here or there that I'll probably end up asking of the audience. They won't be quite as time-consuming as this has been, but still.