i like to headcanon that those were the Maltusians.
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Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
- Location
- Whadjuk Noongar boodja
For a moment I was all 'Hey, where did he pick up that ability?', but then t'other half of my brain woke up and game my a smack in the back of the head for the Derp.
😅A nice mix of shifting emotions for Jinx in a pretty short amount of time, all fully believable. 👏
The most coherent and useful definition I've heard explained a petard to be a kind of black-powder/medieval breaching charge, often of roughly WWII or Vietnam era satchel charges size, and therefore being anywhere close to one when the fuse ran out was an exciting but very brief experience. A 'once in a lifetime' experience, in fact, pretty much by definition.
I'm not sure why, but it's always been a particular pet peeve of mine when people incorrectly use 'by' instead of 'with', right from when I first learned about them. Neurodiversity. 🤷♂️
And I already kinda miss Minerva, but it's probably best for all involved that she remain on Earth Bet.
Massive quantities of Wheel of Time Balefire applied in monumental quantities would be the best solution to that particular 'problem', IMHO.
Probably? But I imagine that would be A Very Bad Idea.
Male-resembling/assumed/presenting, but not actually having a gender of it's own I'm pretty sure. Though I'm sure some folks could spend ages interrogating why it was considered important for a power-duplicating humanoid to look explicitly male (and likely many have already).
The TL;DR version conveniently has a final Character Sheet that lists skill, abilities, traits, and assorted other things that Al had at the point he was *Yoink!*'ed away from the Wormiverse. Any of the abilities that hadn't been 'mastered' (practised up to at least level 20) and therefore left behind are even
Do they keep their equipment (and funds) from that sheet as well? We shall see soon, I'm sure.
Of course, after 100 chapters, even that TL;DR is an appreciable chunk of text, and without having read through those chapters there will be some context missing, but it's still going to be a lot less effort that reading 3 months worth of rapid posting.
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Isn't by fine since the context is that the people who had to set the bombs had to run ahead through enemy fire, nail it to the wall, set the fuse and then run back so in their haste a lot found out they'd nailed themselves to it and hence be blown up by their own bomb.
- Location
- washington
say are most versions of trigon similar to dc comics gods in their iterations where they have an oversoul deal in a higher dimension that puppets the gods that go to lower dimensions?
If we (reluctantly) treat TT!Go as a canon universe? Then the answer is yes. Lesser aspects can even join together, or else usurp each other for a greater fraction of power or authority.
Such as when (sigh...) TT!Trigon stole the power of the Go!Trigon to become Hexagon during a crossover episode.
- Location
- washington
you know sadly if alchemist targets the oversoul of zeus and kills them all I'm fairly sure in the reverse dimensions he'd be killing a few good zeus. But might be worth it seeing as he'd be killing a bunch of asshole zeus.
that would require Alchemist to either become Lucifer Himself, or somehow become an Excrucian.
- Location
- washington
I mean not really if he finds a way to share death between connected entities. Unless you mean only targeting the evil ones.
- Location
- washington
Hey @Mister Ficser I was thinking does that power from worm that makes it so he can't lose stats or skills take into account resetting his level inside the system? Like would he keep the stats from level 1600 once he reset to level 1 again?
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Apparently that ability doesn't actually do anything.
- Location
- washington
wow thats weird whats he even leveled it for how has he leveled it?
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The Transmigration or Prestige mechanic is a voluntary loss of current power to raise the overall power ceiling while taking 10% of the current gains and adding them to the Attribute floor.
Temporal Perfection would prevent loss of attributes/levels to things like the Soulsucker spell from Demon's Souls or to DnD's Spells like Spectral Dragon, Enervation or Sword of Darkness as well as to the supernatural weapons of things such as the claws of a Wight.
- Location
- washington
offhand is it 10% of each stat or 10% of his stats total?
Just letting you know you flubbed the link to some social media.
All the mentions of Balefire in the thread made me check and I was somewhat surprised to see that Wheel of Time actually *does* have a video game based on it. I guess it technically is in the cards then.
10% of each stat total as determined by the base value plus the points added through leveling is added to the floor of that stat. HP and MP fall under slightly special rules because, until Alec artificially inflated those attributes back around his meeting with Hephaestus, their values were strictly determined by Vitality and Intelligence, respectively.
For example; Vitality has a base value of 1950 at this point and Alchemist has it set to distribute 2 points to it upon leveling up. Upon reaching his level cap of 3200, it will have reached a total of 8348, that is, 1950 + 2X3199 (6398). So, when Alchemist goes to Transmigrate, Prestige or whatever term is most preferable for you, his new Vitality stat will be... 2784. That is, 1950 (Base) + 834 (8348/10).
Then Alchemist can distribute his leftover Perk Points as permanent bonuses to his attributes, also resetting that value to 0 until he begins gaining levels again.
For example; Vitality has a base value of 1950 at this point and Alchemist has it set to distribute 2 points to it upon leveling up. Upon reaching his level cap of 3200, it will have reached a total of 8348, that is, 1950 + 2X3199 (6398). So, when Alchemist goes to Transmigrate, Prestige or whatever term is most preferable for you, his new Vitality stat will be... 2784. That is, 1950 (Base) + 834 (8348/10).
Then Alchemist can distribute his leftover Perk Points as permanent bonuses to his attributes, also resetting that value to 0 until he begins gaining levels again.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Maybe he should look for perks that improve his stats directly. A perk that grants +2 stat points would be better than burning them between transmigrations.
- Location
- United States
Alchemist has complained before that any kind of list is terrible. Perks, store, inventory, and quests are all just a massive list with no tags categories or filters. The only way he ever finds something is if he can remember the exact name to search for it. So there are probably perks like that but the odds of him finding them are terrible.
I've actually been thinking of something like that recently. I was figuring I could start doing short segments of Kary hunting a few down in Instant Quests as a means of giving her some more agency of her own and something to do that's outside of Alchemist's immediate sphere of influence.
Chapter 312, Legaia 10
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 3.1.2
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
??/??/???? (Legend of Legaia)
Alchemist stood over the pit, staring down at his Juggernaut as laughter bubbled in his chest.
Worm. Of course it had to be Worm. Everyone loved Worm! Every random omnipotent bastard, every inexplicably interdimensional fae, wandering spirit or whatever else, they all loved the worst setting that Alchemist could imagine!
Even his own patron thought the place was just fine and dandy!
~~FROM: Ultra-powerful best goddess Terra-Tan!~~
~~So? Whaddya think? Totes awesome, am I right?~~
He couldn't- Alchemist couldn't dignify that with a response.
Instead, far below, his Juggernaut coiled about the incubator in clear agitation. The machinery cracked and groaned as its coils tightened with Alchemist's turmoil.
The man brought one hand up and covered his face, frustrated tears burning at the edges of his eyes.
...He'd said no.
He'd told her, he didn't want to get involved with that project.
He...
Alchemist dismissed the half of him that was in the woods near the ruins of Rim Elm and dropped his hand so he could make out the blurry form of his Juggernaut. Power thrummed in his veins, magic thrashed beneath his skin as parts of him raged and screamed and cried and-
Alchemist blinked across the distance, appearing before his increasingly-restless Juggernaut. This close, Alchemist could easily smell the dragon's blood- his blood- that went into its creation. He lifted the small collar, still in his hands, and opened the clasp on it. Just pressing the metal to the creature caused it to start shrinking, rapidly becoming smaller and smaller until Alchemist closed the collar around his Juggernaut's throat and the beast was only just large enough to wrap around his shoulders instead of crushing mountains and destroying cities with contemptuous ease.
The mage blinked back to the lookout spot, Juggernaut about his shoulders as he worked his jaw back and forth.
He... had to focus. He could worry about the changes that had happened to him later. He needed to sit down and focus and think about them. He had to... keep himself under control, however, until he was somewhere that he could...
Honestly? Alchemist wanted to scream! He wanted to hit something! Break something!
And a significant part of himself didn't care if what broke was -him-.
But... he couldn't do that. He couldn't -allow- himself to do that.
Jinx needed him. Yuffie needed him. Even Kary...
Well, she wanted him. Whether or not she needed him was entirely debateable.
The mage slid his frigid, yellow eyes along the walls of the facility. His gaze locked on to the various pieces of critical, wicked machinery that had claimed countless young lives.
Then, as he turned to walk away, the mage snapped his fingers.
Behind him, tiny motes of red light formed. As he walked away, those lights collapsed. The sequence repeated, more and more with every step-
And, after a brief moment, Reality screamed in agony as Ultima reached fruition.
The basement shook as critical pieces of equipment, as critical supports for the palace above, were literally erased from existence!
Alchemist inhaled deeply as chaos broke out around him whilst he calmly walked through the collapsing facility. As he continued casting Ultima on the breathing mechanisms behind him.
As he kicked open the doors he'd one magically sealed, revealing the chaos reigning in the palace of Ratayu.
"Halt!" a man in green armor shouted as he held some kind of Seru-taser hybrid towards the mage. "Who are you- What have you-!"
The guard, an unthinking lackey that had once helped to capture and condemn countless women at his mind-controlled liege's orders, fell to the ground with a surprised 'Ribbit!'
The palace rumbled and shifted, courtiers ran about like fools and guards proved ultimately useless in evacuating people.
Meanwhile, Alchemist moved on towards the east wing, his steps unhurried, his pace oddly calm.
He had a series of scientists to deal with. And, unlike the JRPG standard, he wouldn't be letting them get away with the evils they'd taken part in.
-----
Raven sometimes wondered if her newest... allies, she supposed. Raven sometimes wondered if her newest allies were aware of the sheer impact their presence had on the world around them.
Not in what they did or how they interacted with people. She meant literally.
Alchemist, Jinx, Kar'Yashlan and Yuffie all carried a metaphysical weight to them, something she'd never seen before. It was different and distinct for each of them, an almost palpable feeling that brushed against something inside of her.
And, unlike the novels she'd read and wasn't going to tell Starfire about, there was no 'tingling excitement' in those feelings. Just nervousness, anxiety and fear.
Raven had thought that Kar'Yashlan was the most terrifying of the group. The woman reeked of Chaos, thicker and infinitely more pure than any demon the cambion had read about. She doubted even her father was so close to the source of their creation.
And then? For a brief moment?
Raven had felt like a pair of eyes had ripped through every fiber of her being. As though every secret, every thought, every dark desire she kept locked away was revealed. Madness and curiosity ripped into her as the world blinked in black and white-
And then it stopped.
The half-demon was left clutching her book to her chest, her hands trembling and her lungs heaving.
Raven wasn't sure how long she spent, sitting at the base of the tree she'd been reading at as the people around her... carried on. As Jinx and Tiffany both tried to fight Kar'Yashlan and failed. As the hellhounds and Beast Boy chased after a ball, only to have a pair of pearly-white jaws materialize from thin air and steal it away. As Robin and Cyborg argued over the burnt remains of dinner from the other night.
Eventually, she managed to make her way to her feet. Raven stumbled towards the door that stood freely in the forest, like something from a book she'd read, once, and couldn't remember. Her hand was wrapped around the doorknob when she felt another blast like before...
But this one was... less. The intensity was... bearable.
She looked around one final time, to the people still cavorting and joking about before she breathed deeply and entered the demi-plane.
Raven had expected to experience more intensity but... she could feel the aura of unfiltered curiosity around her but it was less... less. Looking around, she soon found the source.
As well as a number of questions.
The demi-plane was larger than she remembered it being, for one. And the trees in the distance had more fruit on them than they'd had when she left this morning.
And the massive giant made of inky blackness and full of white dots that seemed to hover -inside- of it was new, she supposed. It was just sitting in front of the pond with its legs crossed. Staring into the water. Probably.
That would be the source of the oppressive aura.
Approaching with all due caution, Raven figured that the creature sat at a solid five meters tall. Running her eyes over the legs, that would put it at... what? Ten meters if it stood up?
"Hello, Raven," Alchemist's voice whispered in her ear as the colossus turned to face her, revealing a trio of dull, red stars. One burned in the giant's chest while the other two were situated in its wrists. "Are things alright?"
"What happened to you?" the teen asked as she continued to approach. "Is this... your actual body?"
She knew he was a shapeshifter. He didn't make much effort to hide it, really. She'd thought he was a dragon of some sort, but...
"No," the giant denied, its body swaying as it shook its blank, expressionless head. "I suppose this would be a sort of 'combat' form. Or, if I was feeling dramatic, I could call this my 'final boss form'."
There was mirth in the man's voice but it seemed... hollow.
"My... patron decided to play a game, of sorts," Alchemist eventually got out as Raven sat down next to the giant. She looked out over the water, to the silently rotating crystal that sat above, gently weeping tears of magical water from its facets. "Just as we are here and no time passes in the world from which we came, she decided to place me in a world of her choosing against my will."
Raven kept silent, her face impassive as the man seemed to struggle to find the words he needed.
"...An awful place," he continued after nearly a minute. "A world where Hope died long, long ago. A place where everything, everyone slowly falls apart. Where the greatest heroes were slowly corrupted into the worst kinds of villains. A world that needed Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman and got the Joker instead."
"Why would she put you there?" Raven had to ask. It sounded... well, she'd only read about what the Joker got up to and it was honestly horrifying. What would he do to a world without actual defenders?
"I assume it was entertaining," Alchemist answered her, his voice weary. "It is unwise to be entertaining before the gods, Miss Roth. Few of them truly understand how... fragile humans are."
"But you're not human," Raven said.
And neither am I, she did not say.
"I had to pretend I was. At least, at first," Alchemist explained. "I was placed within a human body, in a multiverse that, to the best of my knowledge, has no native magic. I needed to gather my strength, gather tools and hoard power... and I needed to do so while pretending I was one of the unfortunately empowered humans that filled that world."
The giant placed its hands on its knees and leaned back, tilting its blank, star-filled face towards the dimming light overhead.
"The metahumans of this world, parahumans they were called, all have a patron." Alchemist reached up, one long arm stretching towards the heavens. "A malevolent intelligence from beyond the stars. These... creatures, they would seed countless reflections of a single world with trillions upon trillions of their lesser body parts. Some were as small as Illinois, others were as large as North America in its entirety, perhaps even Asia for the largest ones. These pieces would watch people, simulate how they would suffer and, when someone reached the lowest low they ever experienced..."
Alchemist closed his hand and leaned forward with a quiet sigh.
"They would give the unfortunate soul power. Something suited for the situation, based upon the specialty of whichever little fragment, little Shard was watching."
"Why?" Raven found herself asking. Alchemist's head turned towards her and the girl found it unsettling, the lack of any expression on his face. "They had to have a reason for this, right?"
"Survival," Alchemist answered. "They wanted to discover a means of reproducing endlessly. Of devouring worlds without limit. They wanted a future where they could consume, breed, consume and breed. No art. No music. No... value. Just base, animal urges writ large."
Raven heard the man sigh but noted that his chest didn't expand or shrink at all. The giant was just... static.
"I eliminated three of these creatures," Alchemist said without preamble, startling the empath. "In their entirety. But I couldn't do it with the copies I'd made of their own powers."
"How?" Raven asked, her mind struggling and failing to come up with some kind of a plan that could work on so large a scale.
"Magic," the giant admitted as it held a hand out over the water. A small but bright light hovered over its upturned palm. "In the end, I used magic to give the last survivor of those monsters on Earth what it wanted. And, if I remember correctly, it could be as many as three-billion years before another makes its way towards Earth."
...He didn't answer her question, though.
"...My spells hit almost three and a half million people," Alchemist continued, filling the silence. "As they ripped through the Shards, they impacted their unwitting and unwilling contractors."
"...What happened to them?" Raven asked, curious despite herself-
Or perhaps she was curious because of Alchemist? His aura had yet to fade, though she was starting to get adjusted to the new strength of it.
"Most of them were fine. I wormed healing magic through them all, first. A spell that would linger and repair any harm they were inflicted with." Alchemist sighed and uncrossed his legs, drawing his knees to his chest. "One-thousand, one-hundred and ninety-six were not. They died because of me."
"...You mean you ended a multiversal threat and it only took the sacrifice of twelve-hundred-"
"It was not a sacrifice, Raven," Alchemist's tone turned harsh as he said those words and his head turned to face her. Somewhere, somehow, some of the stars along his body began to move, warping in a strange coil about his neck.
"They were mothers, brothers, sisters and sons, Raven. They were not sacrificed." His words were harsh and certain, keeping her silent. "They were killed. Trapped or crushed or cast out into the void between dimensions- I don't know, exactly, how they all died. Just that they did, and that it was by my hand."
The silence grew awkward as Raven considered what the colossus said. Finally, though, after several minutes she managed to find her voice.
"If you knew then what you do now?" the girl asked, unsure of what she wanted to hear. "Would you do it again?"
"...Yes," Alchemist admitted as he wrapped his arms around his legs and pulled them against his chest. "I'd rather find another way. I'd like to hope there's some perfect solution out there. But... if there isn't? If I have to weigh the lives of countless people against a -mere- twelve-hundred? I would do it again."
Raven looked down into the waters, unsure of herself.
She didn't know what she would do, in that situation.
But, for some reason?
Alchemist's answer was... somehow...
Comforting.
-----
Alchemist simply sat and stared over the water of his pond, his mind drifting. He did notice when Raven 'sat' in the air next to him, her eyes closed as she muttered 'Azarath, Metreon, Zinthos...' to herself repeatedly.
He didn't buy into all the 'special' meditation practices. Chanting and auto-hypnosis might work for some people, and that was fine, but he preferred to just sit and think, to let his mind go where it would, make whatever connections it saw fit as it sorted through all of his... everything.
Looking down, the mage focused on the burning stars upon his wrists. They were, in truth, a set of rubies that he'd fitted to his Incorruptus during his unwanted journey into Worm. They, along with the one in his chest, were supposed to act as focusing tools for a sort of magitech forcefield. A tool he barely ended up using.
The 'Final Boss' of Earth Bet, of Worm, had been beaten with a Wish and a bit of trickery.
And, honestly, Alchemist had no idea how he felt about that.
Well, bad. But anything involving that portion of Creation left everyone feeling bad.
Dismissing the form of his Twilight Titan, Alchemist shrank down to a mere seven meters. Then, dismissing his Incorruptus, he returned to his now-natural draconic form. His Juggernaut, tiny compared against any of his forms, coiled restlessly around his neck.
The creature needed a name.
"Hmm..." Alchemist hummed, deep in his throat as he considered the question, his eyes drifting over the still, placid waters.
Even before he'd used the Miracle Water to enhance its attributes as high as the setting allowed, the creature would have been monstrously powerful. It had a natural breath attack that fired a concentrated beam of energy called 'Dark Eclipse' which could topple thick, sturdy walls and carve through divine temples that were previously considered inviolate.
If Alchemist had allowed the corruption of the original Juggernaut to remain, his own creation could have potentially had the ability to devour the world, too... Which wasn't as useful as it sounded, really. Alchemist enjoyed things like electricity and running water, especially in civilization.
The dragon narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before he held out his hand and willed the Juggernaut to move to it-
And smiled, internally at least, when the creature sinuously flowed through the air to reach its destination.
Willing the blank, empty creature to look at him, its four yellow eyes met his two.
"Leventhan," Alchemist declared, slowly enunciating the syllables.
"Azarath, Metrion- It's pronounced 'Leviathan'," Raven said, interrupting her chant to correct him.
"Leventhan," Alchemist repeated. "The Lasst Dragon. No more will come after him."
It would be quite the name for the small, mindless creature to live up to. Then again, the original Leventhan was pretty mindless, too.
Considering the wicked little danger noodle, Alchemist extracted an ingot of Ebony with his free hand. With Transmutation, he turned the ingot into a tiny, tiny ring... and then re-shaped it so that one side had a series of spikes upon it, reshaped it to look like a small crown.
Alchemist narrowed his eyes and tilted his head from side to side, thinking as he considered the small ring.
Juggernaut had some very, very demanding energy requirements. Each use of Dark Eclipse was equal in drain to casting Wish. The original, bonded to Cort, fed its massive appetite on the Rogue's Mist.
Since Alchemist had neutered that particular food source, he needed to consider how else he could keep Leventhan fed and active.
The mage placed the ring upon the ground, then withdrew a trio of coins from his inventory, followed by an equal amount of Greater Soul Gems. He placed the coins around the ring, then began to focus in earnest.
He didn't notice when Raven opened her eyes, watching as he began his enchanting.
The top coin was enchanted with Regeneration. The one to the left of the ring was enchanted with Create Food and Water, giving it the Sustenance property. The final coin, to the right, was enchanted with the Sizing property along with the Curse of Binding.
Repairing and stowing the empty gems in his inventory, Alchemist then focused for a moment-
And the coins twisted and warped, turning into mangled scrap as the lone ring in their midst took on a subtle, green glow.
"Yess..." Alchemist hissed as he plucked the tiny ring from the ground, held aloft between his index and thumb claw. "Thiss will do..."
At his unspoken directions, Leventhan lowered its head and Alchemist slid the ring down one of its horns. Once it settled near the base, the ring locked into place, refusing to budge.
"...Do you do this for all of your pets?" Raven asked, her voice dry but curious.
"Leventhan iss a familiar," Alchemist corrected the girl. "It iss not a-"
"Dad!" a very hyper, very energetic voice shouted, interrupting the man. He turned, his eyes glazing over as a pre-teen missile slammed into his leg-
He'd -missed- Yuffie. He'd missed everyone, truth be told. But he didn't know how to say that, he didn't know how to express it. Especially since, to them, he hadn't even been gone.
"Yuffie," Alchemist greeted as he swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Listen!" she shouted up at him as she waved a... oversized ninja star towards his face? "This is really, really, super-duper cool!"
"I'm lisstening," Alchemist promised as his crowned wyrm slid back up his arm to wrap itself around his neck.
"I was looking at the new weapons and Materia in the shop! The ones you told me about!" Yuffie babbled at him. "And these things are made with Materia inside!"
"O...kay?" Alchemist got out as Yuffie paused to breathe.
"And I think I can learn how to do what the Materia does!" Yuffie explained. "But I gotta try it! Can we go to the Item World? Please?!"
"...Alright," Alchemist agreed after a second of hesitation.
The world refused to wait on him, it seemed.
"Let's get Jinx and Kary," Alchemist suggested as he headed towards the door of his demi-plane.
It...
Felt good to be home.
-----
AN/ Here is a link to Leventhan. The article is poorly written but does cover the basics of what Leventhan was and should offer some insight as to why Alchemist named his Juggernaut after it.
odinsphere.fandom.com
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
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??/??/???? (Legend of Legaia)
Alchemist stood over the pit, staring down at his Juggernaut as laughter bubbled in his chest.
Worm. Of course it had to be Worm. Everyone loved Worm! Every random omnipotent bastard, every inexplicably interdimensional fae, wandering spirit or whatever else, they all loved the worst setting that Alchemist could imagine!
Even his own patron thought the place was just fine and dandy!
~~FROM: Ultra-powerful best goddess Terra-Tan!~~
~~So? Whaddya think? Totes awesome, am I right?~~
He couldn't- Alchemist couldn't dignify that with a response.
Instead, far below, his Juggernaut coiled about the incubator in clear agitation. The machinery cracked and groaned as its coils tightened with Alchemist's turmoil.
The man brought one hand up and covered his face, frustrated tears burning at the edges of his eyes.
...He'd said no.
He'd told her, he didn't want to get involved with that project.
He...
Alchemist dismissed the half of him that was in the woods near the ruins of Rim Elm and dropped his hand so he could make out the blurry form of his Juggernaut. Power thrummed in his veins, magic thrashed beneath his skin as parts of him raged and screamed and cried and-
Alchemist blinked across the distance, appearing before his increasingly-restless Juggernaut. This close, Alchemist could easily smell the dragon's blood- his blood- that went into its creation. He lifted the small collar, still in his hands, and opened the clasp on it. Just pressing the metal to the creature caused it to start shrinking, rapidly becoming smaller and smaller until Alchemist closed the collar around his Juggernaut's throat and the beast was only just large enough to wrap around his shoulders instead of crushing mountains and destroying cities with contemptuous ease.
The mage blinked back to the lookout spot, Juggernaut about his shoulders as he worked his jaw back and forth.
He... had to focus. He could worry about the changes that had happened to him later. He needed to sit down and focus and think about them. He had to... keep himself under control, however, until he was somewhere that he could...
Honestly? Alchemist wanted to scream! He wanted to hit something! Break something!
And a significant part of himself didn't care if what broke was -him-.
But... he couldn't do that. He couldn't -allow- himself to do that.
Jinx needed him. Yuffie needed him. Even Kary...
Well, she wanted him. Whether or not she needed him was entirely debateable.
The mage slid his frigid, yellow eyes along the walls of the facility. His gaze locked on to the various pieces of critical, wicked machinery that had claimed countless young lives.
Then, as he turned to walk away, the mage snapped his fingers.
Behind him, tiny motes of red light formed. As he walked away, those lights collapsed. The sequence repeated, more and more with every step-
And, after a brief moment, Reality screamed in agony as Ultima reached fruition.
The basement shook as critical pieces of equipment, as critical supports for the palace above, were literally erased from existence!
Alchemist inhaled deeply as chaos broke out around him whilst he calmly walked through the collapsing facility. As he continued casting Ultima on the breathing mechanisms behind him.
As he kicked open the doors he'd one magically sealed, revealing the chaos reigning in the palace of Ratayu.
"Halt!" a man in green armor shouted as he held some kind of Seru-taser hybrid towards the mage. "Who are you- What have you-!"
The guard, an unthinking lackey that had once helped to capture and condemn countless women at his mind-controlled liege's orders, fell to the ground with a surprised 'Ribbit!'
The palace rumbled and shifted, courtiers ran about like fools and guards proved ultimately useless in evacuating people.
Meanwhile, Alchemist moved on towards the east wing, his steps unhurried, his pace oddly calm.
He had a series of scientists to deal with. And, unlike the JRPG standard, he wouldn't be letting them get away with the evils they'd taken part in.
-----
Raven sometimes wondered if her newest... allies, she supposed. Raven sometimes wondered if her newest allies were aware of the sheer impact their presence had on the world around them.
Not in what they did or how they interacted with people. She meant literally.
Alchemist, Jinx, Kar'Yashlan and Yuffie all carried a metaphysical weight to them, something she'd never seen before. It was different and distinct for each of them, an almost palpable feeling that brushed against something inside of her.
And, unlike the novels she'd read and wasn't going to tell Starfire about, there was no 'tingling excitement' in those feelings. Just nervousness, anxiety and fear.
Raven had thought that Kar'Yashlan was the most terrifying of the group. The woman reeked of Chaos, thicker and infinitely more pure than any demon the cambion had read about. She doubted even her father was so close to the source of their creation.
And then? For a brief moment?
Raven had felt like a pair of eyes had ripped through every fiber of her being. As though every secret, every thought, every dark desire she kept locked away was revealed. Madness and curiosity ripped into her as the world blinked in black and white-
And then it stopped.
The half-demon was left clutching her book to her chest, her hands trembling and her lungs heaving.
Raven wasn't sure how long she spent, sitting at the base of the tree she'd been reading at as the people around her... carried on. As Jinx and Tiffany both tried to fight Kar'Yashlan and failed. As the hellhounds and Beast Boy chased after a ball, only to have a pair of pearly-white jaws materialize from thin air and steal it away. As Robin and Cyborg argued over the burnt remains of dinner from the other night.
Eventually, she managed to make her way to her feet. Raven stumbled towards the door that stood freely in the forest, like something from a book she'd read, once, and couldn't remember. Her hand was wrapped around the doorknob when she felt another blast like before...
But this one was... less. The intensity was... bearable.
She looked around one final time, to the people still cavorting and joking about before she breathed deeply and entered the demi-plane.
Raven had expected to experience more intensity but... she could feel the aura of unfiltered curiosity around her but it was less... less. Looking around, she soon found the source.
As well as a number of questions.
The demi-plane was larger than she remembered it being, for one. And the trees in the distance had more fruit on them than they'd had when she left this morning.
And the massive giant made of inky blackness and full of white dots that seemed to hover -inside- of it was new, she supposed. It was just sitting in front of the pond with its legs crossed. Staring into the water. Probably.
That would be the source of the oppressive aura.
Approaching with all due caution, Raven figured that the creature sat at a solid five meters tall. Running her eyes over the legs, that would put it at... what? Ten meters if it stood up?
"Hello, Raven," Alchemist's voice whispered in her ear as the colossus turned to face her, revealing a trio of dull, red stars. One burned in the giant's chest while the other two were situated in its wrists. "Are things alright?"
"What happened to you?" the teen asked as she continued to approach. "Is this... your actual body?"
She knew he was a shapeshifter. He didn't make much effort to hide it, really. She'd thought he was a dragon of some sort, but...
"No," the giant denied, its body swaying as it shook its blank, expressionless head. "I suppose this would be a sort of 'combat' form. Or, if I was feeling dramatic, I could call this my 'final boss form'."
There was mirth in the man's voice but it seemed... hollow.
"My... patron decided to play a game, of sorts," Alchemist eventually got out as Raven sat down next to the giant. She looked out over the water, to the silently rotating crystal that sat above, gently weeping tears of magical water from its facets. "Just as we are here and no time passes in the world from which we came, she decided to place me in a world of her choosing against my will."
Raven kept silent, her face impassive as the man seemed to struggle to find the words he needed.
"...An awful place," he continued after nearly a minute. "A world where Hope died long, long ago. A place where everything, everyone slowly falls apart. Where the greatest heroes were slowly corrupted into the worst kinds of villains. A world that needed Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman and got the Joker instead."
"Why would she put you there?" Raven had to ask. It sounded... well, she'd only read about what the Joker got up to and it was honestly horrifying. What would he do to a world without actual defenders?
"I assume it was entertaining," Alchemist answered her, his voice weary. "It is unwise to be entertaining before the gods, Miss Roth. Few of them truly understand how... fragile humans are."
"But you're not human," Raven said.
And neither am I, she did not say.
"I had to pretend I was. At least, at first," Alchemist explained. "I was placed within a human body, in a multiverse that, to the best of my knowledge, has no native magic. I needed to gather my strength, gather tools and hoard power... and I needed to do so while pretending I was one of the unfortunately empowered humans that filled that world."
The giant placed its hands on its knees and leaned back, tilting its blank, star-filled face towards the dimming light overhead.
"The metahumans of this world, parahumans they were called, all have a patron." Alchemist reached up, one long arm stretching towards the heavens. "A malevolent intelligence from beyond the stars. These... creatures, they would seed countless reflections of a single world with trillions upon trillions of their lesser body parts. Some were as small as Illinois, others were as large as North America in its entirety, perhaps even Asia for the largest ones. These pieces would watch people, simulate how they would suffer and, when someone reached the lowest low they ever experienced..."
Alchemist closed his hand and leaned forward with a quiet sigh.
"They would give the unfortunate soul power. Something suited for the situation, based upon the specialty of whichever little fragment, little Shard was watching."
"Why?" Raven found herself asking. Alchemist's head turned towards her and the girl found it unsettling, the lack of any expression on his face. "They had to have a reason for this, right?"
"Survival," Alchemist answered. "They wanted to discover a means of reproducing endlessly. Of devouring worlds without limit. They wanted a future where they could consume, breed, consume and breed. No art. No music. No... value. Just base, animal urges writ large."
Raven heard the man sigh but noted that his chest didn't expand or shrink at all. The giant was just... static.
"I eliminated three of these creatures," Alchemist said without preamble, startling the empath. "In their entirety. But I couldn't do it with the copies I'd made of their own powers."
"How?" Raven asked, her mind struggling and failing to come up with some kind of a plan that could work on so large a scale.
"Magic," the giant admitted as it held a hand out over the water. A small but bright light hovered over its upturned palm. "In the end, I used magic to give the last survivor of those monsters on Earth what it wanted. And, if I remember correctly, it could be as many as three-billion years before another makes its way towards Earth."
...He didn't answer her question, though.
"...My spells hit almost three and a half million people," Alchemist continued, filling the silence. "As they ripped through the Shards, they impacted their unwitting and unwilling contractors."
"...What happened to them?" Raven asked, curious despite herself-
Or perhaps she was curious because of Alchemist? His aura had yet to fade, though she was starting to get adjusted to the new strength of it.
"Most of them were fine. I wormed healing magic through them all, first. A spell that would linger and repair any harm they were inflicted with." Alchemist sighed and uncrossed his legs, drawing his knees to his chest. "One-thousand, one-hundred and ninety-six were not. They died because of me."
"...You mean you ended a multiversal threat and it only took the sacrifice of twelve-hundred-"
"It was not a sacrifice, Raven," Alchemist's tone turned harsh as he said those words and his head turned to face her. Somewhere, somehow, some of the stars along his body began to move, warping in a strange coil about his neck.
"They were mothers, brothers, sisters and sons, Raven. They were not sacrificed." His words were harsh and certain, keeping her silent. "They were killed. Trapped or crushed or cast out into the void between dimensions- I don't know, exactly, how they all died. Just that they did, and that it was by my hand."
The silence grew awkward as Raven considered what the colossus said. Finally, though, after several minutes she managed to find her voice.
"If you knew then what you do now?" the girl asked, unsure of what she wanted to hear. "Would you do it again?"
"...Yes," Alchemist admitted as he wrapped his arms around his legs and pulled them against his chest. "I'd rather find another way. I'd like to hope there's some perfect solution out there. But... if there isn't? If I have to weigh the lives of countless people against a -mere- twelve-hundred? I would do it again."
Raven looked down into the waters, unsure of herself.
She didn't know what she would do, in that situation.
But, for some reason?
Alchemist's answer was... somehow...
Comforting.
-----
Alchemist simply sat and stared over the water of his pond, his mind drifting. He did notice when Raven 'sat' in the air next to him, her eyes closed as she muttered 'Azarath, Metreon, Zinthos...' to herself repeatedly.
He didn't buy into all the 'special' meditation practices. Chanting and auto-hypnosis might work for some people, and that was fine, but he preferred to just sit and think, to let his mind go where it would, make whatever connections it saw fit as it sorted through all of his... everything.
Looking down, the mage focused on the burning stars upon his wrists. They were, in truth, a set of rubies that he'd fitted to his Incorruptus during his unwanted journey into Worm. They, along with the one in his chest, were supposed to act as focusing tools for a sort of magitech forcefield. A tool he barely ended up using.
The 'Final Boss' of Earth Bet, of Worm, had been beaten with a Wish and a bit of trickery.
And, honestly, Alchemist had no idea how he felt about that.
Well, bad. But anything involving that portion of Creation left everyone feeling bad.
Dismissing the form of his Twilight Titan, Alchemist shrank down to a mere seven meters. Then, dismissing his Incorruptus, he returned to his now-natural draconic form. His Juggernaut, tiny compared against any of his forms, coiled restlessly around his neck.
The creature needed a name.
"Hmm..." Alchemist hummed, deep in his throat as he considered the question, his eyes drifting over the still, placid waters.
Even before he'd used the Miracle Water to enhance its attributes as high as the setting allowed, the creature would have been monstrously powerful. It had a natural breath attack that fired a concentrated beam of energy called 'Dark Eclipse' which could topple thick, sturdy walls and carve through divine temples that were previously considered inviolate.
If Alchemist had allowed the corruption of the original Juggernaut to remain, his own creation could have potentially had the ability to devour the world, too... Which wasn't as useful as it sounded, really. Alchemist enjoyed things like electricity and running water, especially in civilization.
The dragon narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before he held out his hand and willed the Juggernaut to move to it-
And smiled, internally at least, when the creature sinuously flowed through the air to reach its destination.
Willing the blank, empty creature to look at him, its four yellow eyes met his two.
"Leventhan," Alchemist declared, slowly enunciating the syllables.
"Azarath, Metrion- It's pronounced 'Leviathan'," Raven said, interrupting her chant to correct him.
"Leventhan," Alchemist repeated. "The Lasst Dragon. No more will come after him."
It would be quite the name for the small, mindless creature to live up to. Then again, the original Leventhan was pretty mindless, too.
Considering the wicked little danger noodle, Alchemist extracted an ingot of Ebony with his free hand. With Transmutation, he turned the ingot into a tiny, tiny ring... and then re-shaped it so that one side had a series of spikes upon it, reshaped it to look like a small crown.
Alchemist narrowed his eyes and tilted his head from side to side, thinking as he considered the small ring.
Juggernaut had some very, very demanding energy requirements. Each use of Dark Eclipse was equal in drain to casting Wish. The original, bonded to Cort, fed its massive appetite on the Rogue's Mist.
Since Alchemist had neutered that particular food source, he needed to consider how else he could keep Leventhan fed and active.
The mage placed the ring upon the ground, then withdrew a trio of coins from his inventory, followed by an equal amount of Greater Soul Gems. He placed the coins around the ring, then began to focus in earnest.
He didn't notice when Raven opened her eyes, watching as he began his enchanting.
The top coin was enchanted with Regeneration. The one to the left of the ring was enchanted with Create Food and Water, giving it the Sustenance property. The final coin, to the right, was enchanted with the Sizing property along with the Curse of Binding.
Repairing and stowing the empty gems in his inventory, Alchemist then focused for a moment-
And the coins twisted and warped, turning into mangled scrap as the lone ring in their midst took on a subtle, green glow.
"Yess..." Alchemist hissed as he plucked the tiny ring from the ground, held aloft between his index and thumb claw. "Thiss will do..."
At his unspoken directions, Leventhan lowered its head and Alchemist slid the ring down one of its horns. Once it settled near the base, the ring locked into place, refusing to budge.
"...Do you do this for all of your pets?" Raven asked, her voice dry but curious.
"Leventhan iss a familiar," Alchemist corrected the girl. "It iss not a-"
"Dad!" a very hyper, very energetic voice shouted, interrupting the man. He turned, his eyes glazing over as a pre-teen missile slammed into his leg-
He'd -missed- Yuffie. He'd missed everyone, truth be told. But he didn't know how to say that, he didn't know how to express it. Especially since, to them, he hadn't even been gone.
"Yuffie," Alchemist greeted as he swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Listen!" she shouted up at him as she waved a... oversized ninja star towards his face? "This is really, really, super-duper cool!"
"I'm lisstening," Alchemist promised as his crowned wyrm slid back up his arm to wrap itself around his neck.
"I was looking at the new weapons and Materia in the shop! The ones you told me about!" Yuffie babbled at him. "And these things are made with Materia inside!"
"O...kay?" Alchemist got out as Yuffie paused to breathe.
"And I think I can learn how to do what the Materia does!" Yuffie explained. "But I gotta try it! Can we go to the Item World? Please?!"
"...Alright," Alchemist agreed after a second of hesitation.
The world refused to wait on him, it seemed.
"Let's get Jinx and Kary," Alchemist suggested as he headed towards the door of his demi-plane.
It...
Felt good to be home.
-----
AN/ Here is a link to Leventhan. The article is poorly written but does cover the basics of what Leventhan was and should offer some insight as to why Alchemist named his Juggernaut after it.
Leventhan
Leventhan is one of the four primary antagonist characters in the main storyline of erion saga book series, leventhan is the vile apocalyptic Dragon spoken of in the prophecies as the "being" that would destroy the world, despite leventhan is not a figure character, the dragon is counted as one...
odinsphere.fandom.com
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- Location
- washington
Wonder how busted his combined character sheet is now also good to have this back. Currently reading through past shit. I kinda stopped reading after you said you were abandoning this and I'd already taken a break before you said that for chapter build up. I know you had good reasons and of course it was a false alarm but it did make me not want to touch things for a while. anyways rereading stuff and have gotten back to when they first went to ff7.
Can't remember what the family issue was but I hope its fine.
Can't remember what the family issue was but I hope its fine.
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- Location
- washington
Haven't read the worm thing yet will take me a while but I assume gaia is more a ditz than malicious.
My dad, who's lived with me since he suffered a sort of mini-stroke, suffered a serious back injury after falling off of a ladder. It took a while for him to get into surgery and have the issue treated so he's fine, now. Back then, however, he needed a lot of help to get around.
Thank you for your concern, though
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
After a certain point, there's no difference whatsoever, and self-defense and avoidance are absolutely justified.
Personally, I'd be working on my own Gamer system or fully co-opting the current one and locking all the other admins out.
- Location
- United States
Your comforted because you now know he will kill 1 person (you) rather then let a demon lord invade the world.