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    • As it seems the option to focus development on Pyldret options won, select four (4) of the below. Your training roll was extremely high!

    [ ] Draconic Vigor IV - A passive and permanent improvement to your body's capabilities, active even when not under duress or actively channeling any mana into your body. Almost on the border of achieving Draconic Transcendence. +Physical Statistics, +/2 Mental Statistics, +/2 Spiritual Statistics.

    [ ] Draconic Vigor V - Transcendence

    Seven flawless children, born of magic's breath and the blood of steel. A cruel father and his leering servants. Any weakness; an egg lost. A constant struggle; for survival, for dominance; to avoid the lash of the masters, to curry their favor. At last, a boiling rage, and spite un-ending.

    Access a shard of glory belonging to the Eternal Seven, now transformed into a descendant of the line of Pylmung the Doombringer, third generation, and half-son of Pyldret in blood, law, and spirit. Only a very select few of his squires have experienced this glory and vast burden in the past. A transformation into a dragon should not be seen as a mere power-up, as the forces of darkness have ensured that it will cost you as much as it grants, making you fallible and flawed in the same way as an unrestrained demon.

    Alters your physical appearance externally, moderately bleaching your hair of its natural color, making your skin lose some of its pigmentation, and giving your eyes an unhealthy paleness. Also, you will feel overall unwell, unless actively channeling draconic abilities, particularly Dragon's Body and Dragonscale to cover your mortal form as warm reminders of your true nature. As your blood thickens and regains the potency of its forefathers, your skin will be utterly white, and your eyes and hair stained in the color of your favored element, much like your scales.

    As Pyldret has transcended the ordinary elements of his blood, as well as its vices, you only suffer from the inherent draconic conditions at roughly half-strength. As your transformation completes, you will have to select a vice - one of the classical Seven Deadly Sins - to influence your actions to a modest degree, although you will inevitably become more sinful in general, with the passing of ages and increases in your blood's thickness and power. A typical dragon suffering from the Arch-Sin of Sloth might slumber on his vast hoard for a thousand years, while one afflicted with Lust may kidnap beautiful princesses to put in his tower.

    Also restricts your ability to train any of your draconic abilities. It unlocks many of the ones you do not have yet, but the rest may only be attained with age.

    And lastly, you will gain a penchant for hoarding, completely unrelated to Greed; greatly reluctant to part with possessions of any sort, disliking the spending of money even in moderate amounts, and prone to accumulating a particular 'type' of wealth. (Some dragons hoard poetry, others prefer rare jewels, etc.)

    +++Physical Statistics, +++Spiritual Statistics.

    Requires: Draconic Vigor IV, Dragon's Body

    [ ] Reinforcement II     - An active technique, unlike the above - its benefits are slightly greater in terms of statistical benefits, but have a per-second cost to maintain and can be exhausting or tiring to maintain outside of their allotted time span.

    [ ] Dragonscale - Allows you to almost instantaneously sprout and retract a thin layer of protective scales the color of cloud from your body, granting the effective armor rating of a tank's glacis plating with further resistance at key points, as well as 20% magic resistance.

    [ ] Dragon's Body - Allows you to grow razor-sharp claws on your hands and feet, each sharp enough to cleave apart stone with no issue supported by a merely peak-human physique, with compounding cutting ability relative to your own body's might. Requires Dragonscale.

    [ ] Dragon's Flight II - A long-range burst permits for constant acceleration to be maintained, with finer maneuverability and some resistance to the effects of gravity and inertia. Altogether, stops and starts can be more sudden, with better maneuverability. Also, airburst speed is doubled from its initial baseline (now massively hypersonic.)

    [ ] Dragon Wings - Allows you to sprout a pair of membranous wings to aid in your flying. Requires Dragon's Body and Dragon's Flight II.

    [ ] Dragon's Breath (Basic) - A most basic form of draconic breath: a torrent of the selected element. Also pick a starting element from the below - a starting element is quite important, as the four basic elements give rise to more complex elements (Earth Breath -> Metal Breath. Metal Breath -> Iron Breath. And so on,) as do their combinations.

    -[ ] Fire - Manifests as a straight downpour of almost liquid flame, neither quite a flamethrower nor a directed stream of napalm. Burns stuff.
    -[ ] Water - Manifests as a high-pressure hose of water, sufficiently powerful to throw back men with superhuman balance and resistance across a room.
    -[ ] Earth - Manifests as a shredding and concussive spray of small rocks, gravel, and stone flying at high speeds; sufficiently fast to abrade unprotected skin and break bone.
    -[ ] Air - Manifests as a powerful gale of wind, similar in effects to a hose of water, but with none of the liquid detritus.
    -[ ] Mana - Manifests as a half-tangible distortion of light in the air, occasionally popping with violet-blue sparkles. Its effects are more precise, more selective, and more versatile than with most elements, but it's also supremely costly to use, and most prone to anti-magical dispellation.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Plan Dragon Ace
    -[X] Dragonscale
    -[X] Dragon's Body
    -[X] Dragon's Flight II
    -[X] Dragon Wings

    It makes Zane into a fucking armored, flying combine, shredding everyone in his way.
     
    I don't have a name for this plan but basically Dragon's Body doesn't seem to fit Zane's fighting style and Dragon Wings adds a weakness for people to target in exchange for an unknown degree of benefit to an ability which is already good enough to evade the Mangler, at least, indefinitely. I also consider Dragonsbreath(air) in the place of Reinforcement II, if Zane still needs air to live, but I rather doubt he does.
    [X] Draconic Vigor IV
    [X] Reinforcement II
    [X] Dragon's Flight II
    [X] Dragonscale
     
    Hm, I think, as future training opportunities allow, we should try and grab all the Basic Breath options. If they unlock further options, and hybrid unlocks are an explicit possibility, then maybe there's, for lack of a better example, a Qhaysh of Breath options if you've got all the basic ones. Presumably higher tiers require at least the immediate upgrades for the Basics(ie, having the Metal equivalent for Mana and the others) but it's probably also utter bullshit for it's level. Not to mention the sheer versatility having all the basic Breath options enables, likely serving as a general gateway towards more involved use of their Elements. A Flame Aura probably requires Fire Breath first, for example.

    I think I have a decent name @JOEbob

    [X] Draconic Temperance
    -[X] Draconic Vigor IV
    -[X] Reinforcement II
    -[X] Dragon's Flight II
    -[X] Dragonscale

    I feel we should treat Transcendence as a 'in case of imminent death, break glass' advancement, given that it's supposed to unlock a bunch of things right now while locking a bunch of them from conventional training, not to mention it's Sin downside. Demons are nasty, but not so nasty that I'm uncomfortable with taking the four options we have now. We don't have an anti-existence level threat bearing down on us, so we can afford to be, if not cautious, then particular about when and where we sacrifice things.
     
    [X] Draconic Temperance

    Im Down with this.
    I just hope we dont shoot Zane in the foot for not rushing the silver breath now that the Mangler could hunt us again.
     
    NPAion said:
    I just hope we dont shoot Zane in the foot for not rushing the silver breath now that the Mangler could hunt us again.
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    I think if that was the most important thing to go for it would be... an option. We have four Draconic Advancements available- at the pathway of Earth->Metal->Iron, even if you assume Silver comes after Iron instead of them being on the same level, we would be able to get Silver by picking up Dragon's Breath four times. Currently we're not offered the ability to choose even one level of Dragon's Breath specialization, so even if we'd picked earth before we'd just have metal, not Silver, on the list.
    And since Zane can fly at high speeds and knows it- and has Sheath the blade- and the Mangler can't- I don't think he'd be able to effectively kill Zane. It wouldn't even be a hunt- Zane could just fly high enough the Mangler can't target him and random-walk his directions a bit so the Mangler'll miss even if it does. And then the Mangler would fall down for several minutes, and probably lose track of Zane, or else leap again. and miss again and probably lose track of Zane.
     
    [X] Draconic Temperance

    This seems like what we actually need. Better durability and manueverability to just 'lol nope' and yeet ourselves out there if Mangler gets too nippy. If we can avoid Silver breath that is best, as its something that would become less useful post-Mangler, but everything on the Temperance list will keep paying dividends forever.
     
    @JOEbob And what if Zane cant abide running away?
    Like, he already threw himself on the Manglers Claws to save Johnny what if Olympus forces a confrontation by threatening Zanes friends or Uncle.

    He cant Run away from that.
     
    NPAion said:
    @JOEbob And what if Zane cant abide running away?
    Like, he already threw himself on the Manglers Claws to save Johnny what if Olympus forces a confrontation by threatening Zanes friends or Uncle.

    He cant Run away from that.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Grab the Mangler and drop it from high enough up that it'll hit terminal velocity before it hits the ground? This most recent upgrade makes his top flight speed massively hypersonic. If he goes straight up for a couple seconds, The Mangler is going to take serious damage when it hits the ground, if it doesn't just turn to goo, and it's not like he can't just do it again. He doesn't need to hold onto it or take many hits at that sort of speed to manage that sort of height, and running out of air isn't going to be much of a concern for much the same reason. I don't think he can chuck The Mangler into space at this point, by simple virtue of not being able to fly that high for a number of reasons, in particular that he's probably similarly vulnerable to low-oxygen environments, even if decompression probably isn't a huge concern at this point, though I'd suggest that if I thought it wouldn't kill Zane.
     
    I dont Think we have seen yet what the Mangler is fully capable of.
    The attack he was about to unleash, once he noticed Zane could suddenly keep up with and hurt him, was not a desperation attack and still seemed to Destroy a large area around him just from the build up.
    In the meantime a month could have already passed and given him new abilitys making him even more dangerous then in the last battle

    As is commenly known, animals are most dangerous when Driven into a corner and should the Mangler be directed by Olympus they will likely prepare him as extensively as possible to counter Zanes recorded capabilitys.
     
    A lot of people are saying that the silver breath isn't going to be useful after the Mangler, but I happen to strongly disagree. Silver is a important metal in the supernatural world that is said to hold a lot of esoteric properties. And also I can think of a lot of situations where a blast of molten silver will screw up a person's day. And so with that in mind...

    [X] Draconic Choler
    -[X] Draconic Vigor IV
    -[X] Dragon's Breath (Earth)
    -[X] Dragon's Flight II
    -[X] Dragonscale
     
    NPAion said:
    And what if Zane cant abide running away?
    Like, he already threw himself on the Manglers Claws to save Johnny what if Olympus forces a confrontation by threatening Zanes friends or Uncle.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That's a good point. But, Zane can move very quickly- If he starts flying directly away from the Mangler with an upwards trajectory, he will soon be too far away to actually see the threats, or hear them(hear them will be immediate because of the wind rushing past and him moving faster than sound. See them will sort of be immediate in that he's facing away). And if your threats won't accomplish anything, there's no reason to make them.
    ilbgar123 said:
    Grab the Mangler and drop it from high enough up that it'll hit terminal velocity before it hits the ground?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    ...I'm pretty sure the Mangler is durable enough to carve through the ground if that happens, instead of being notable injured. 'He can't fly' doesn't mean 'he can get hurt from hitting the ground'.
    NPAion said:
    The attack he was about to unleash, once he noticed Zane could suddenly keep up with and hurt him, was not a desperation attack and still seemed to Destroy a large area around him just from the build up.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    ...I think the build-up was the attack? I mean, it was pretty dangerous to the area around him and was sucking away at Zanes magic and whatnot. It seems good enough to be an attack on its own.
     
    That was the attack?

    I thought that was the Kame Hame soandso buildup...
    You know gravity gets screwed up, chunks of the ground start floating, a sort of energy sphere starts gathering, the mouth of the User is opened in a silent or loud scream.

    I thought it would either be a annihilating Wave or Beam of antimatter or a super condensed mass or just a plain old scream that increases the gravitational forces on every molecul in range causing them to reverberate so fast that every bit of Matter Flash boils and exblodes creating, outside the immidiate range, a superheated Wave of sludge taking Down everything else.
     
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    JOEbob said:
    That's a good point. But, Zane can move very quickly- If he starts flying directly away from the Mangler with an upwards trajectory, he will soon be too far away to actually see the threats, or hear them(hear them will be immediate because of the wind rushing past and him moving faster than sound. See them will sort of be immediate in that he's facing away). And if your threats won't accomplish anything, there's no reason to make them.

    ...I'm pretty sure the Mangler is durable enough to carve through the ground if that happens, instead of being notable injured. 'He can't fly' doesn't mean 'he can get hurt from hitting the ground'.

    ...I think the build-up was the attack? I mean, it was pretty dangerous to the area around him and was sucking away at Zanes magic and whatnot. It seems good enough to be an attack on its own.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    If nothing else, if he's dropped from high enough, it'll take a couple minutes to actually get down, which Zane can trivially outpace. A minute is an eternity in a real fight, nevermind one at the level Zane operates at. He can take the chance to flee, or smack around The Mangler's backup from Olympus while he waits for it to land.
     
    ilbgar123 said:
    If nothing else, if he's dropped from high enough, it'll take a couple minutes to actually get down, which Zane can trivially outpace. A minute is an eternity in a real fight, nevermind one at the level Zane operates at. He can take the chance to flee, or smack around The Mangler's backup from Olympus while he waits for it to land.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    ...Yes.
    That is exactly the reason that I think Zane can trivially run from the Mangler now that he is knowingly capable of flight. I just don't think that 'pick up the Mangler and fly him into the sky' is a good way of hurting the mangler (or getting him into the sky, necessarily). The entire time Zane's bringing the Mangler up is time the Mangler can try to bite him, after all (and he won't be hurt by impact probably but I said that already).
     
    I wonder when we'll be capable of spaceflight. Once we can get out of Earth's gravity well, we could hypothetically just haul the Mangler out there and leave him. He might not technically die, but unless he spontaneously develops a reactionless method of propulsion he'd be stuck up there.
     
    I mean... Zane clearly isn't flying by pushing off the air with wings, because he doesn't have those, so I imagine his propulsion works in space. The question for whether we're capable of Spaceflight instead becomes 'Can Zane survive in outer space', which I would expect him to be able to, but honestly dunno. I think the bigger problem of getting The Mangler into space, though, is surviving the way up while he attacks you?

    EDIT: Though- Unhesitating Martial Advance is a multiplier to speed among other things. If the base speed is, per this, 'massively hypersonic'(which means at least five times the speed of sound), then Zane's at a base of 1715 Meters/second, which after a x10 multiplier, if Zane punches the Mangler, he'll reach about 7 million meters up or upper exosphere territory. except UMA's at 12 so... just past the upper atmosphere, actually.
    (not accounting for air resistance)
    Of course, this doesn't mean Zane's at 'punch the Mangler into the upper atmosphere, casually' territory, mostly because Zane probably weighs less than him so the speed would be lower unless Zane's pushing for a while.
    But even at a reasonable fraction, Zane still hits the Mangler up high enough to catch up, hit The Mangler again midair with his second UMA charge, and repeat with the third and possibly get him into space I dunno.
    (Edit2: also Zane isn't at 'punch other people into the upper atmosphere' territory either, because his fist will just go through them.)
     
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    Chapter 40 - A Dragon Whisperer
  • Threadmarks
    • A Dragon Whisperer

    It was somewhere in the dead of midnight when Zane woke up, scratched his nose, and turned over. A few minutes later, he realized that falling back asleep was a fool's task and decided to get up instead and grab something to eat. He'd start training earlier - the difference between six-thirty and seven in the morning wasn't particularly big.

    He grabbed a can of fizzy orange drink from the small and barely-working fridge that Constantine had set up for him, browsed around under the dingy light produced by its interior, and following a moment of deliberation, decided to chow down on some packaged beef jerky.

    "August living conditions you've got over here, Mr. Black," Elsa said from somewhere behind him. Her voice wasn't unfamiliar to his ear, but to hear it over here, in a place he considered safe - a personal sanctum of sorts - sent a minor chill down his spine.

    "Watching me sleep, huh?" he answered, a cut of dry and salty beef pressed firmly between his teeth. He turned around, closing the fridge with the side of his foot. "You're more of a creep than I thought."

    "I only arrived a moment ago," she replied, plucking a thick cob of spiderweb from the darkest corner of the ceiling and watching the spider that had been resting within rouse from its placid rest, walking over her hand. She extended her forefinger, watching as it stalked down to near its tip. He found the behavior rather off-putting and wondered if she was doing it on purpose, to be mysterious, or if she genuinely liked spiders. "As I've known you for a while, I feel rather safe in saying that it's unlikely you'll accept any kind of logical argument that might attempt to sway you to return."

    "Yeah." He cut straight to the point, taking a sip of his drink. "What the fuck do you want?"

    "Olympus sent me to kill you, for good. I accepted, but I'm not going to do it," she replied saliently. He became a little tenser at her words, wondering if she was lying. If maybe there was a tactical squad of demigods right around the corner, or the Mangler himself waiting to transform. She'd probably have been more open about something like that, preferring to avoid more city-destroying conflict. It'd be especially dangerous with her near the epicenter. After watching her expression for a moment - she was occupied with playing around with the spider in her hand, using her thumb to prod it to move over in one direction or the other - he concluded she probably wasn't here to kill him. It was curious how the spider reacted to her actions - the creature didn't seem to mind, complying with the nudges, but seemed to be almost... dead.

    "So what are you doing here?" he asked.

    "I'll leave New York by tomorrow, start a new life elsewhere. Maybe I'll be happier there, outside of the corporate ladder. Maybe." She paused, looking up from her hand, and there was actual, genuine cluelessness in her eyes for once. It was like she wasn't sure how to continue. He'd never seen that kind of expression on her face, that sort of vulnerability. "I'm leaving you with a warning of my own. After the new year, Olympus Corporation will be pulling most of its assets from this Earth. And that includes the Card System Support that lets them update their PCBD - the mechanism that adds new powers. After that, you'll be stranded here. And you know what you're up against."

    He frowned. "More or less."

    "So you don't." She sighed, squared her shoulders, and tossed the spider that had been walking on her hand away. It scuttled across the floor at a rapid pace, away from her, and then disappeared in a crack under some furniture. She approached him, pulling an envelope from somewhere in her dress, handing it over. He gently accepted, looking at her facial expression - no sign of any emotion. She was as stoic as it was possible for her. "Joseph Maximilian von Herff was a member of the Supernatural Division of the SS. After an incident in October 1942, he and a number of other officials related to the Nazi party and government disappeared. We have reasons to believe that he was made into a demon by Baharot, a Meirada'an-associated devil. It'd mean you're dealing with an entire demonic invasion, or at least its beginnings."

    Zane put down his breakfast snack and drink. He opened the envelope she'd handed over and found a number of separate files inside, not contained in their own folders. It was an entire stack of papers, each one with a different date and slightly different style of writing.

    He read into one of the files at random and was astonished by the sort of data it contained. All of it was so casually penned, so normally written, like a simple report of events. It had names, dates, casual details on magical powers, and ceremonies. Another was a list of deceased people, a number of transcripts, and records from strange places, with information that probably would've made sense with the context of the other files, but left his mind reeling without it. A few names were blacked out in dark ink or simply redacted, including the person that wrote the report and prepared it, but the rest was open to his eyes.

    It was a motherlode of information on various Olympus executives and upper management. And there were some mentions of its mother company. It painted an ugly picture, a titanic bulwark of corporate power that had transcended space-time and became a hegemonic trans-capitalist hyper-company, its workings devoted entirely to the greedy accumulation of power for its CEO, whose name wasn't mentioned, at least not in any direct reference. It contained other details, though; specifics of transport lines, workings, rituals to summon gateways into specific facilities in other fucking universes. It was enough that, with some effort, he'd maybe succeed in dismantling the titan.

    He felt like Adam receiving the forbidden fruit.

    "I... what is this?"

    "A lot of that might be useful when you fight your foes, in the coming years. There's also another file on Maximilian von Herff at the bottom of the pile, detailing his known capabilities and past encounters." His reaction was utter befuddlement, as he flipped through the papers in search of the one she mentioned. Elsa chuckled. He looked up and saw that she was leaning forward, pink lipstick glittering on her smiling lips in the dim light of the cellar. She was deeply amused, eyes crinkled up.

    "I wish you luck, Zane Li Black," she said. "I wish you victory."

    He shook his head in confusion. "Who are you? And how did you nab these files?"

    He glanced back down to read, and then back up to keep asking her questions, but she was gone already.

    She'd left.

    He didn't even have a chance to say thank you.

    ---

    A couple of days had passed since his last conversation with Elsa, and for the information she handed over, life was inordinately calm.

    They'd learned a number of things from the files that Elsa delivered, including that Earth had always been doomed to this kind of invasion, drifting along multiversal currents in Hell's direction. It had simply been accelerated significantly due to a number of coincidences, such as the Lotus Maiden empowering Zane as a Knight-Champion. Also, they'd learned that Joseph Maximilian von Herff was not an enemy to be casually messed with - although this was his first major conquest operation, he could achieve through simple conversation what Zane was able to achieve with valiant combat.

    And yet... they were simply waiting, for the news to spread, and for Dionysus to make the preparations necessary for what could very well be one of the last meetings of Cardbearers in New York. Maybe in the entire world.

    As soon as that was done, hopefully, someone would have an idea on how to track down a seed of demonic essence and stop an entire invasion by a bunch of devils.

    "Hm," Helene tipped her head to the side, glancing at his book. He slurped down a few more of Uncle Shen's noodles, while Spike next to him flipped through the TV. "As soon as you get back to school, we'll need to work on your math. This algebra makes me want to cry."

    "Hey, no one's going back to school," Spike remarked morosely. "World's ending, remember?"

    She sighed. "No, it isn't."

    "It kind of is."

    "Cease your prattle. And dig in," Shen interrupted, walking into the back room with another two bowls of noodle soup. He put one down in front of Helene, who smiled and thanked him politely, and another in front of Spike, who grinned and nodded.

    "I think you should add Indian curry to the menu, Mr. Li," Spike proposed, grabbing a spoon and blowing some air on the surface of his bowl. It was steaming hot, the fat in the broth forming neat translucent circles as the liquid sloshed around.

    "I wouldn't dishonor my family so," Shen jabbed in response. He looked down at Zane. "Are you eating? Good. Are you enjoying it?"

    "How could I not?" he spoke through a mouth half-full, prompting Shen to wince with displeasure.

    "Chew. Chew, then speak."

    "Bless you," Spike said, shooting the old man a grin.

    It caused Shen to lose all strength - he sat down in a nearby chair, closing his eyes and pinching his nose.

    Zane merely laughed in response, the liquid of the broth coming out of his parted lips like a rain of untidy droplets. He followed the laughter up with a few sips of the Coca-Cola standing on the table in front of him.

    "I can't believe you're dating my terrible nephew," Shen said to Helene.

    "I can't believe it either..."

    ---

    And this concludes the pre-final Arc of Godcard.

    I have to say, it didn't quite go as planned - in the original draft/conception, there'd have been more focus on Mephistopheles and the McNessa family, and the various conflicts of New York Cardbearers. A bunch of mystery solving, a few more fights and interesting characters to explore and introduce. It'd probably have been somewhat longer and more difficult, too, but your choices have shaped this Quest into an ascension - a footmark in the backstory of a cosmic knight who guards the future of this omniverse. And now, instead, your final match will be against a demon from the past, rather than a demon whose existence is a byproduct of the present times.

    Maybe that's appropriate enough by itself. It's likely we'll reach its conclusion soon enough, at any point.

    It's largely improbable the next Arc will contain any significant training or extreme power-ups, but you currently have 4.8 Ambrosia.

    All that remains is a choice, one that will shape the overall totality of Zane's choices in the next Arc - his very approach to the fight against the entity known as Joseph Maximilian von Herff.

    [ ] Unhesitating Martial Advance

    Strike first. A number of Cardbearers with abilities useful for tracking and detection will be utilized together as a think tank in order to narrow down the actual location of the Essence Seed. After it's found, destroy it and confront Joseph with an army of willing Cardbearers. Use your accumulated capital to hire anyone who's not willing to follow you on their own, bolstering your forces even further. Any number of tactics may be utilized to increase the chances of victory. Also lets you bond with the former members of the police faction people completely unrelated to the NYPD.

    [ ] A Flower Never Wilts

    There's no hurry. At one point or another, Joseph will attempt to kill you in fear of your striking first. He clearly believes you're dedicated to your creed. So let him come first; prepare defenses, and the kind of ambush he wouldn't expect. Constantine will do his best to unlock a variant specialization of the Greater Sign of Conquest to purge the entire world of demonic essence in the meantime, to force a stalemate on the demonic forces. Let them come to you to die, or make them beg you to surrender.

    [ ] A Banishing Blow

    An indirect strategy. A compilation of several files that Elsa gave you revealed a ritual that may be utilized to send every unnatural and magical entity on this Earth back home. It'd require massive amounts of magical power, so it requires you to either shatter your Knight Arm or sacrifice a number of Godcards permanently (equivalent to depowering around 75% Cardbearers,) to the ritual, or something in between (depower your Knight Arm slightly and take half the Cards as a sacrifice.) Afterward, however, the demons will be gone, as will be any signs of their influence.

    [ ] Esoteric Assumption of Responsibility

    A promise made is a promise made forever,
    My bond is my word, whenever --
    And so on thee, I bequest:
    A sword rightly blessed,
    Wielder of the silver crest!

    - An excerpt from, "The Maiden-Song", Chapter 1

    Although he doesn't feel exceptionally guilty, as most of the events of his 'second' life were outside of his ability to influence, a noticeable portion of Hell's interest was a byproduct of his actions, for better or worse. And that, will not stand.

    *A New Year resolution for the character Zane Li Black, an oath and a promise in one: "Protect this Earth and any other." It alters his motivation irrevocably; opening a flower shop and living a calm life are now secondary to his duties as Knight-Aspirant, and his promise leads to him becoming a multiversal traveler by necessity. He does this because he's learned that honoring the past and dwelling on the future are both useless; he should focus on the present, and the people he loves, who are around him right now. This acceptance empowers him and validates him in the eyes of the Knights.

    *A grave cost arrives for this oath, however - you must face Joseph and his forces alone, a bulwark against their evil, to prove that you can. All of the help you receive must be indirect; a knight may receive a blade from a blacksmith, but the smith follows him not against the foe he faces. As soon as Hell's forces are banished, this geas disappears.

    *Allows you to select one of the following benefits:

    - Receive the Forbidden Card. This is the last chance to do so, and only available because one of your actions a few updates ago made lots of progress towards it.
    - Improve your Knight Arm by one Rank.
    - A number of Invocation and Attribute-based Improvements, including learning Invocation: Fist That Saves The World.
    - Become a full Dragon.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Esoteric Assumption of Responsibility
    -[X] Forbidden Card

    We're coming into the end game boys, it's time to procure M A X I M U M P O W E R.
     
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