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When Lucario's hand grasped the scarf, the firm fabric was pulled, making Audrey gasp in surprise as Lucario's own strength allowed him to spin and throw her! With a yelp, Audrey flew towards the walls, spun in mid-air. This allowed her to see where she was going, however, as she steeled herself. Audrey, blade pointed forward, allowed her sword to take the brunt of the impact as it pierced into the rock - Though it didn't leave her unharmed.
"Ngh. Lucky shot." She growled, before trying to remain calm.
Was it harder or easier for her to stay calm this match compared to previous? Even she wasn't sure. On the one hand, she felt she had this in the bag (She always felt that way, but this time was certain), but on the other the weight of what would happen after this match had placed itself on her shoulders.
The Hero shook it off. For now. Not forever.
"But I'm ending this, quickly!" She yelled out, letting herself scrape off the wall back onto her feet. Pointing her blade to the sky, she once again let the lightning flow with it's mighty WHOOSH!
"Impressed? Wouldn't blame you." With lightning charged into the blade from the heavens, the sword lowered as Audrey stepped forward again, dashing straight towards Lucario...!
And launching the lightning straight at him with a near-point blank stab!
Neph was the one to speak up, giving her advice on what Bakura should do next. The teen looked down at his necklace, and sighed sadly again. As much as he didn't want to throw away the ring, she had a point. But how was he supposed to train his mind? He hadn't heard of anything like that before.
"Okay. If it's really for the best, then I'll do it." Bakura said. With a little bit of difficulty, he removed the Millennium Ring from around his neck. The teen held the artifact in his hands, staring at it as it glinted in the light.
Bakura looked up to the group, then offered the Millennium Item to Chai.
"Here." Bakura said to the rock star. "Just... smash it fast, okay?"
Byleth
If Reala's change in behavior confused or unnerved Byleth, the mercenary didn't show it. Byleth kept her emotionless expression, staring through Reala as if the Nightmaren wasn't even there. She was silent for a few moments. Then the sickly green halo around her head pulsed, and Byleth turned her attention to Master Chief and Kalmiya.
"Why is Master Hand holding these tournaments?" Byleth asked the champions.
He was content to let Reala handle this one. Situations like these weren't completely within the Spartan's comfort zone. Capable as he was, this wasn't something he'd been designed for. He'd had to play liaison in tough situations before, sure, even entertained the idea of retiring to become an ambassador, or a senator, but the frontlines was the only life John knew. Outside of it, he was a fish out of water, and it showed.
His A.I. companion seemed a little more engaged in the going on's of this version of Byleth and her demands, enough that Kalmiya spoke to the Chief about it via their neural link.
"What's her deal, anyway?" the disembodied voice inquired privately. "My files on her indicate a little more... um... personality? The halo's new. Not our Halo, of course... what do you think, Chief?"
She was adamant to learn more on Master Hand, that much was certain. The spartan's logic was telling him one thing, but his gut instinct was telling him something else. He reflected on what he recalled from her dossier... and came to a conclusion, enough to actually respond to the much smaller figure when she directed her attention to the supersoldier.
"Why is Master Hand holding these tournaments?" Byleth demanded.
John's attention fell upon her, looking down at the woman. After a brief moment of silence, he answered with a question of his own. "Are you asking, or your boss?"
Intuition and instinct told him that things weren't as they seemed, and from what he'd gathered in his now somewhat extensive interactions with multiversal entities, he couldn't rule anything out, and the green halo over her head, the way it acted and she reacted in response, gave him a very specific impression.
Lucario
The Hero managed to lessen the impact with her sword. She growled towards Lucario.
"Lucky shot."
Here aura darkened for a moment, before lightening up a little. It seemed Audrey had a temper, though she was keeping herself in check...for now.
Audrey pulled her weapon out of the rock wall and held it aloft. It sparkled with electric power, and Lucario raised his fists in preparation. As Audrey took aim, Lucario summoned his bone staff. Lucario spun his staff defensively just as Audrey fired a bolt of lightning.
The aura pokemon was swept off his feet immediately. Though the ground-type move kept the electricity from hitting directly, the sheer force of the attack knocked Lucario and his staff back. Though caught off guard, the pokemon recovered in midair and planted his feet into the floor, skidding a few feet back before coming to a halt. His staff soon followed, embedding itself beside Lucario.
Ignoring the tingling in his paws, Lucario picked the staff up as he rose. Audrey's power had impressed him, but the pokemon couldn't well communicate it, so he simply got back into the fight. Lucario threw his weapon...and seemingly missed Audrey entirely. But the bone staff boomeranged around, bouncing off a rock before going towards Audrey's side. It was expertly aimed so, even if avoided or knocked away, it would bounce off somewhere else and return to Lucario, striking Audrey again if she was in the way.
Following Bakura's explanation and Peppermint's analysis, everyone seemed to agree that the necklace was the real source of the problem. Irnane had already deduced such a thing through her magic earlier, but at least no hostility was actually directed at the boy now. Neph provided her own input: get rid of the amulet and strengthen himself to prevent something like this from happening again.
While Kirin agreed, the way Ryo looked at her sadly before offering the ring to Chai didn't sit right with the priestess. If it was a present from his father, then there was bound to be some emotional attachment to it. So maybe...
"Wait," the priestess intervened. "It's true that it could be dangerous to keep that necklace if you want that evil spirit to stop bothering you, but... if you want to keep it real badly, I can try putting a seal on it with my Septima. I've put a stop to quite a few Primal Dragons with my power before, so it's not too far-fetched for my Radiant Fetters to lock that monster away for ages."
She held out a hand towards Bakura, anticipating the boy's response. Of course, she didn't expect the group to agree with her.
Pit
The angel stared wide-eyed as Dagr continued to explain her relationship with Nótt. What once had been a close relationship had practically fallen apart over a fight for the throne. One that Dagr didn't even want, for that matter. When the jotun shattered the glass in her hand, Pit winced for a moment, though it luckily seemed like she hadn't gotten any cuts.
"No, it's alright!" he eventually replied to the princess' apology. "I had no idea things were like that between you two. She definitely sounds a lot more scary and aggro than she looks. Guess that, uh, makes you the cooler sister, right?" He joked again, taking a sip of his Drink of the Gods. She turned the focus of the conversation back toward him, inquiring about his copy.
"Right. Back in my last big adventure, Lady Palutena sent me on a mission to fight Pandora, the goddess of calamity. No big deal, I already did the same thing twenty-five years earlier. This time, though, she was helping the Underworld Army using this thing called the Mirror of Truth – it could make a loyal copy of whatever it reflected, so if we let her get away with it, she would've made an infinite army of monsters." He began, taking another swig of his incredibly refreshing drink.
"When I finally got past her labyrinth and started fighting her, she let up a little and pointed the mirror at me. Of course, I smashed it up in no time flat with a good kick, but it managed to make a copy of me right as I broke it. He looked just like me, just with all black hair and clothes. But instead of siding with Pandora, he actually helped me defeat her!" Pit explained, before his conveyed surprise quickly died down. "...when we did, though, he just kicked me, stole Pandora's power so he could fly by himself, and got away."
He took a good gulp of his drink before continuing.
"He called himself Dark Pit, but we just call him Pittoo. Turns out, I probably broke the mirror before the copy was complete, so he wasn't loyal to anyone. Did his own thing for the most part, but he usually helped me out a little instead of fighting me. Eventually, he realized we were like two sides of the same coin. No me, no him, as he put it. So by the end of our fight against Hades, he was pretty much fully on our side. He even saved my life when my wings burnt up after he almost died." At those words, the angel shivered for a moment, looking back at his current pair of wings.
"Since Hades' defeat, though, Pittoo joined the goddess of nature, Viridi, as one of her officers. She's still not the biggest fan of humanity, so I've had to get in their way a few times recently. Hopefully they give up soon. It'd be nice to just be buddies, kick back, and have a pizza party or something."
ZedΩ
"Reading it seems plausible," Zed remarked, eyes still on the disc. "If we are able to do that, we should be able to learn more about him. With any luck, that information will allow us to help him and prevent more chaos in the future."
"Sounds about right. I don't remember seeing anywhere we can insert that disc around here, though," Luxia commented. "And as for reading his mind, we'd probably have to find someone who can do that in the first place."
"Correct," the Golden Trillion replied. "This may be outside of Serpentine's field of expertise. If there is no other option, it may be best to find the location he mentioned earlier and obtain as much knowledge as possible from it without inserting the disc. That, or we bring it home to read with our own technology. Although..."
An idea sparked in his head.
"Luxia, do you think you would be able to glimpse information from the disc?" He asked, turning to the Djinn, who stared back in surprise.
"Me? What makes you say that?"
"From ATEMS' research, we've established that your power is indeed quite similar to The Muse, if not more powerful. You were able to use Sumeragi's media tower technology to amplify your song in the past, correct? Perhaps it wouldn't be a stretch for you to interact with the disc in a similar way. No matter how little we can actually obtain, any leads would go a long way."
Despite Zed's evidence-backed conclusion, Luxia appeared rather hesitant. She glanced at the disc for a moment, before looking away as though uncomfortable.
"I got my body taken over for a bit during that fight, y'know. Just like when we dealt with the Azure Spirits. I'm not sure if I want to mess with that guy again..."
Gunvolt
Burning Rush had launched Gunvolt backward, the Adept rolling along the ground before flipping onto his feet, skidding back to the edge of the arena much like Dart had. The dragoon's need to deal with the Dragonsphere gave the Azure Striker enough downtime to recharge his EP, Gunvolt striking a brief flashy pose as electricity flashed across his body, bringing him back up to full.
Little time passed before Dart lunged forward again, dashing across the arena, Gunvolt closing in as well with a sprint as he opened fire with his Dart Leader once more, bolts flying out at his opponent to keep him busy and apply tags. In truth, the young man didn't expect them to be very effective – the dragoon's guard was quite good, and with his speed and acquired knowledge, simple head-on shots would be unlikely to meet their mark.
Dart swung rapidly once more, Heat Blade slashing through the air as the Azure Striker ducked and weaved, deflecting the sword with his bracers at an increasingly rapid pace. Once again, Dart's knee rose to strike Gunvolt – but he'd been expecting it this time.
Lightning that flickers
Like a star, and purges all
That violate its realm
"Astrasphere!"
In unison with the Adept's words, a large electric field suddenly surged out from Gunvolt, threatening to engulf Dart as lightning crackled about, three electric orbs swirling at the edges of the field. Gunvolt's Offensive Skill was simple but effective – at close range, its destructive power was quite high for its cost of one SP, making for a versatile and powerful answer for the Red Dragoon's melee rush.
The boy agreed to the gardevoir's suggestion with little to no resistance - a clear display of how easily the spirit had taken his mind in the first place. His resistance to peers was as strong as his mental barriers. Not to confuse this as an insult, of course, but if the boy was the target of such advances he would be wise to find ways to strengthen his resolve.
Kirin intervened before the amulet could be fully handed off, however, offering instead to seal it. According to her, such a seal would be effective for 'ages.'
Nephthys gave no further input. If Bakura was to strive for a strong mind he'd need to start by making his own decisions, this being one of them.
DART
Astrasphere was unleashed, and this one Dart did recognize. Its scale and direction was practically impossible to block or dodge at point-blank, so the dragoon did what he'd always done... grit his teeth and take it.
The orbs revolved around Gunvolt, the sphere surging into Dart, who braced his leg back and kept his balance even as the attack wore on him, before he took a step back with a grin. "CRUSH DANCE!" he bellowed, and closed the distance again with another flurry of blows - and this time, any block, deflection, or parry would see each strike from the mercenary growing drastically in power - power that would persist until he landed a devastating blow if Crush Dance was allowed to build up enough.
Thanks to Burning Rush, his blade was also ignited, each blow carrying with it a high chance to supernaturally ignite Gunvolt's body in an inferno.
The mercenary blinked at Master Chief's question, but otherwise her expression didn't seem to change. She stared up at the Spartan, silent. It was as if she was trying to look through his gold visor, directly into his mind. What did he know? Could he tell? Or was it just a probing guess? The future soldier seemed to give no indication of anything.
"... We are both curious." Byleth finally said. "Why does it matter to you?"
Bakura
"Kirin..." Bakura said, smiling at the Priestess' offer. He moved to hand the Millennium Ring to Kirin, but stopped himself. Was that really the best idea? Bakura paused, thinking about it for a moment.
"Actually..." Bakura said. "I'm not sure that's the best idea..."
He looked down at the Ring.
"As much as I would like to keep it, just holding onto it seems like asking for trouble. I'm sure you're really good at sealing things with your Talismans. But what if they don't work when I get back to my own world, or something like that? And even they do still work in my own world, he might still eventually get free. Who knows what it would be trying to do once that happens?" Bakura said. The teen shook his head. "No. It should probably be destroyed."
He gave Kirin a sad smile.
"Thank you for the offer, Kirin." The white haired teen said. He handed the artifact back towards Chai.
Dagr
The Princess continued drinking her mead as Pit told the story of his evil copy. Well, 'copy that was kind of a jerk' was a more appropriate title from the sound of it. Finishing her next mead, she looked at Pit's drink curiously. Did angels need to eat? Had she already asked that?
"Hey, bartender. I'll have a Drink of the Gods too." Dagr said, slapping the bar. Another unusual bottle appeared before Dagr, filled with the same pink liquid Pit was drinking. Without hesitation, Dagr took a drink from the potion.
It was sweet and pleasant, and Dagr could feel the same burst of energy she got from drinking an Elixir! But unlike an Elixir, this actually tasted good.
"Wow, that's nice. Sweet." Dagr said.
Pit continued his story, and Dagr noted the concerned glance Pit gave to his wings. Perhaps it was for the best they hadn't fought, Dagr could easily envision herself trying to tear his wings off mid battle. Pit finished his story, and Dagr chuckled and drank again from the Drink of the Gods.
"Yeah, that would be nice." Dagr admitted. "No more big wars or stuff like that. Just fighting competitions and parties."
Dagr nudged pit playfully.
"Maybe we'll see our worlds be like that, one day." Dagr said.
Finally, the fight between Lucario and Audrey kicked off. Dagr watched the two fighters going at it, then looked to Pit.
"So, mister tourny veteran. Who do you think is going to win the tournament?" Dagr asked the angel.
She was as steely as the spartan in her composure. Her retort was another question. They could go running around in circles with those if they weren't careful, and John didn't exactly bear the kind of patience for something like that. Kalmiya was quiet for the moment, likely understanding the spartan's initiative in the interaction was a rarity she didn't yet want to interrupt.
Notably, she hadn't denied his intuitive insight, practically confirming it. Byleth... depending on the realm of origin, it was either a male or a female that took the name, and Kalmiya helpfully pulled up some of their files on his HUD for a refresher. Nothing indicated this attitude, nor this halo.
"I need to know," the Chief replied. "If you're a soldier. Or a tool."
Soldiers followed orders. Soldiers obeyed. The MCPO was under the strong impression that the Byleth before him was not acting of her own accord. The way her eyes stared, as though no actual thoughts went through her own mind... it gave John an eerie reminder to the Flood. When the Gravemind spoke through the corpses it had infected. The blank eyes staring back was all too familiar.
Peppermint felt a twinge of sadness in her, this momento reminded her of her own mother. How she disappeared without a trace, leaving her brother in charge of Vandelay industries. pressing her artificial leg back at her desk, her mother's handiwork, she couldn't imagine if she had to destroy her limb. She was about to call off destroying the thing before Bakura offered for it to be destroyed himself.
"..."
Peppermint silently watched, Chai quickly plucking the necklace. Flinging it up into the air with a flick of his wrists, he grasped hold of his guitar, lifting it up like a baseball bat.
"Batter up!"
SMACK!
The guitar smashed into it, send i g the ring out towards the park bench, clattering against it. Raising his head over to see the damage, he was surprised to see that the golden necklace was undamaged by that, despite looking fragile.
"Maybe it needs a little bit of elbow grease...HIYAH!"
He jumped and smashed down on it with a running start. With a mighty slam, the guitar bashed against the golden device to no avail. And so Chai struck again. And again. Soon enough, Chai was hammering away at it like an angry construction worker.
"Well?? What's the hold up?" Rex demanded.
"It's! Harder! Than! It! Looks!" Chai responded through his smacks.
Reala
As Byleth continued to ignore them and talk to Chief behind him, he closed in his claws on his palm. His thin smile disappeared when his grasp clenched shut, transforming into a grimace.
"Simple. It doesn't concern the two of you." The harlequin spat. "Last thing we need is outside elements complicating matters."
They were entertaining the idea of simply taking the Ideya from her with force. However, with the likes of Chief there and the dubious nature of his nexus relation, it was a variable that he wasn't intending to press.
"Now you answer a question of mine, visitor. Why should we disclose anything to you at all?"
The Professor slowly looked from Master Chief to Reala. Neither Master Chief's cryptic manner nor Reala's irritation appeared to phase Byleth. Both of these champions knew something. But which knew more? Were both of them in on something, working alongside Master Hand? He hadn't done anything like that in Super Smash Brothers, even with longtime competitors like Mario and Kirby. Had he?
Byleth glanced back to Reala.
"Why should I answer your question? You have answered none of mine." Byleth said to Reala flatly. Byleth continued to ignore Reala, but rested a hand on the hilt of her sword in case the Nightmaren should try anything. Despite the fact he was not human, the way Reala held himself and spoke was giving her warning signs.
"A soldier or a tool. Some people would say there isn't much of a difference." Byleth said flatly to Master Chief. The halo floating around her head pulsed softly once more. "I'm a mercenary. I'm paid to do a job, and this is part of it."
Byleth stared at Master Chief expectantly, waiting for him to say what Master Hand's intentions were.
Bakura
Bakura visibly flinched when Chai smashed the Ring. The teen rubbed his arm and looked away. It was for the best, sure. But he still didn't like it. As Chai continued smashing the Ring, Bakura frowned and finally looked back to the rock star.
"Hey, isn't that a little excessive?" Bakura said. Chai's attacks seemed to have no effect on the Ring. Bakura winced again as Chai struck the artifact once more.
"Chai, I don't believe that's doing anything."
"Loyalty for hire is the last sort I would indulge."
Perhaps he wouldn't risk taking her Ideya with direct physical force...but perhaps another approach was required to deal with the likes of this one.
"Am I not getting through to you? Maybe this will."
He put a talon to his lips in a hushing motion, his smile returning, creaking across his face like a a Cheshire Cat as His form began to distort. His frame grew wispy, dissolving into black mist. Before Byleth's eyes, the world would begin to melt alway. A black void consumed their vision, but in Chief's perspective, it would appear as if Reala merely vanished.
Before Byleth, a scene would paint itself like paint on a canvas. Several bodies littered the ground, as their inky black frames gained color, they bodies and faces appeared familiar. They were her students, each one suffering some kind of gash or stab wound, as if mauled to death by a ferocious animal. On the tile they were layed one, bloody footprints of a creature materialized.
The snarling of a creature was heard as a lengthy crocodilian snout came into view. Rows of jagged teeth, parts of corpses stuck between some of them. The creature was too familiar, a Demonic Beast. This scenario seemed like a take on Miklan's transformation after being rejected by the Lance of Ruin.
The Demonic Beast Miklan emitted plumes of black gas from itself as it stood upon a pile of bodies like a dragon over a horde of gold. Its wet breath could be felt all the way from where Byleth stood. As the creature took notice of her, echoes of voices began to fill the air.
The voices of the deceased students rang out, pinging against her ears from all angles. The Demonic beast began to move, raking its limbs against the bodies as it waded across them. Opening it's enlarging snout, the voices got louder and louder, until they were practically shouting at her all in unison.
Chai / Peppermint
"Hey, just means it's harder than! I! thought!"
Chai smashed harder and harder, their arms starting to get tired. Peppermint looked between them, arching a brow at the necklace before peering at Chai.
"Hey, Babe Ruth, chill." She paused him. "This isn't working."
Chai took some deep breaths as they gave up their attack. The feline inhabiting techie plucked up the necklace, flicking one of the dangling bits with their paw.
"...What IS this thing?"
Thinking for a moment, she saw another solution on the horizons. Motioning at Bakura, she raised up the Millenium item.
"Say, Bakura. Different idea. How about I hold onto this and bring it to my world after this tournament is over? That way it'll be away from influencing you, but we have resources and technology where I'm from. Maybe we can analyze this thing and if lucky - be able to get rid of whatever is inhabiting this thing, without destroying it hopefully."
The Professor's emotionless facade melted nearly immediately as Reala's vision was called forth. Shock and surprise were clear on Byleth's face as she drew her sword and quickly moved back from the monster. A demonic beast, over the screaming corpses of her students. Dmitri, Sylvain, even poor Mercedes and Annette! This was some sort of illusion, or vision. It had to be. But everything felt so real. Byleth winced as the screams of her students grew louder and louder, and she could feel herself starting to sweat. The demonic beast drew closer, and Byleth raised her sword to attack!
What is all that racket? Don't they know I'm sleeping?
Everything froze, and the screams stopped. Byleth could feel Sothis awakening once more, and the progenitor goddess yawned.
Goodness gracious, what's all this?! What have you gotten us into this time?! Sothis exclaimed. Byleth didn't respond, just keeping her sword at the ready and staring at the frozen form of the demonic beast. You see, this is what you get when you push me out. Looks like I'm saving you once again.
The vision began to move once more, but it was like a tape being rewound. The student's screams were in reverse as the the demonic beast moved backwards, eventually the entire scene returning to the blank canvas as it was before. Whoever you are, show yourself! Sothis called out into the darkness.
As Sothis called out into the darkness, her voice echoed as if it were an expansive cave. From the void, a voice only the goddess could be heard laughing from places unknown.
"Now what is this? A creature of dreams perhaps? Or...oh...isn't that delicious...!"
The darkness would start to move, plumes of black clouds revolving around the pair. As if they were trapped in the eye of a tornado. Spurts of the clouds would shoot up, as if they were about to attack before diving back in, movements amongst the clouds.
"You may be using divine intervention to aid this visitor..."
Just then, Reala's voice was heard directly behind Sothis, Reala beckoning to her from the darkness, hidden away from Byleth's hearing.
"...But I am the avatar for the god of nightmare himself!"
The black clouds began to burn orange, flames erupting as they set the tempest alight like firewood. The flamenado raced outwards, revealing what was beyond it. Byleth would witness the Demonic Beast was back but far different from before. It's skin was contorted, a swirling mass of ooze and goop, black flames erupting from the fluid that dripped from every once of it's body. The entire area was much wider than before, the horizon looking like it was ablaze in dim orange flames, as if the dark sky was somehow flammable.
The bodies of the students were now mysteriously absent, the new-formed entities ooze like saliva pouring from its opening maw.
For Sothis, they would see Reala fully revealed, and a new form joined them, a robed figure that took up a portion of the inferno that cosplayed as sky. The entity was massive, sporting six disclosed hands with eyes in the center of their metallic palms and had a head atop the robed mass. The head had an overlay of silvery branches a that grew out in a disjointed fashion, their reflective nature being similar to that of the hands. The eyes were focused squarely on her.
"So an upstart seeks to challenge my dominion of nightmare..." the entity boomed. "I shall not allow it."
With that, the creature attacked! It jumped forward, it's maw extending past what would be physically possible, practically unhinging and bending before it would try and snap down on Beyleth
In this space, Sothis found with surprise that she actually had form. As Reala and Wizeman spoke and revealed themselves, Sothis looked over herself in surprise.
"Hm..." Sothis muttered. She slowly floated upwards to the level of Reala, and looked to the Nightmaren and the being behind it. Her hand clenched into a fist, and she frowned.
"I tell you, I have no desire to 'challenge your domain'." Sothis said. "You are the one that is trespassing, not the other way around. But clearly, you are not the type to respond with reason."
Sothis glared at Reala and Wizeman, but her glare slowly turned to a grin.
"How unusual... For once, I am actually able to do something." Sothis said. She suddenly gestured towards Reala. "Begone, creature of darkness!"
Energy took form, swirling around Reala. It attempted to encircle the Nightmaren, trapping it within a sphere before bursting in a powerful, supernova explosion!
Byleth held their ground against the demonic beast. The mercenary narrowed her eyes, the halo around her head pulsing once more. As the beast lunged towards her, Byleth acted in tandem. She stepped forwards, raising her sword once more as energy swirled around it. Byleth slashed towards the demonic beast, her sword extending into it's whip blade form! She attacked with her special Combat Art, the Bane of Monsters. A powerful slashing attack that was proven to be super effective against monster type foes, threatening to cut through the massive beast as if it were made of paper!
Reala seemed taken aback when he was suddenly encircled by energy, not expecting the goddess to preform such a move, a sphere forming over his position. Just then, a powerful supernova originated from Reala's position, burning brightly as the light appeared to shine through the dark...something stirred. Beneath the supernova, the light had begun to condense, folding in upon itself and swirling...into a black hole. The sphere had now been turned into an entirely different stellar phenomenon that consumed the supernova. One of the eyes of Wizeman's hands was glowing purple and wriggling about, signifying it being the one preforming this.
"The realm of the unconscious bows to me alone. For your...indiscretions, you shall know the judgment of a true god."
After saying this, the black hole vanished, leaving no trace of where Reala was. Then, the six hands of nightmare god's fluctuated with a sickening aura that somehow drew unease by looking at them. Moments later, the sky opened up with meteors raining down, each one easily being around twenty feet both wide and tall. These meteors hailed down in swarms, falling down all across the entire zone in attempt to slight the humanoid goddess.
Byleth herself wound see nothing of what Wizeman was doing, but would see what was happening with the creature before her. Her whip like slash cut the beast clean in half, as she expected, but something was off. As the semi liquid beast was slashed, it didn't collapse to the ground, but ended up on either side of her as it slid to a stop.
Both halves of the beast were on either side of her, standing upright, giving her a clear view of its innards. There weren't any organs or stuffings, instead, it was purely some sort of gunk. The goop that made up its outer body appeared to be what made it up all the way through to the center.
Splish!Slpoosh!
Several arms came out from either wall of goop, flailing about desperately trying to grip anything they could. These limbs appeared to be identical to the likes of the corpses that previously were strewn in the room. A few lashed out towards Byleth to grab her face, arms and neck, while others were doing something unexpected. Some interlocked fingers with hands on the other side of the bisected beast, pulling. They were trying to pull the two halves back together - with Byleth still in between!
Reala & NiGHTS
On the outside of the nightmare, Reala rematerialized from dark vapors, kneeling on the ground nearby the scene. Cringing, he looked back up at Byleth, who appeared to use a whip slash right in front of herself.
That second level nightmaren that payed her a visit should be more than a match for a mere visitor. Still...this goddess must be who she was working for. A crude imitation for Master Wizeman's authority. ...I dare not think of what he would do to such a thing.
"Reala!!"
Ah, yes...
NiGHTS soared up to the winner's section, Reala standing up to his floating feet. He should have expected such interference to happen from the rogue nightmaren. Turning to meet NiGHTS eye to eye, he could tell exactly what they were thinking.
"Come come now my dear sibling, you are acting like you haven't seen a dream before."
"Don't be coy, you know exactly what's happening! What's Wizeman doing here?!"
NiGHTS balled their fists tight. They should have known Reala would pull something like this, but they figured he wouldn't be bold enough to do it while so many eyes were around. Reala let out a laugh, chuckling with earnest.
"That needn't concern you. But what you should be asking is: what can you do about it?"
NiGHTS made a move forward, to which Reala held up a finger.
"Ah ah, remember fighters, even failures like you, cannot fight unless express permission is given. Spectators on the other hand..."
NiGHTS thought for a moment if they should break the rules anyway to a chance to free Byleth from the mental attack, thinking of some kind of way to get through Reala's loophole.
"Tch...I'll just call master hand, he'll-"
"-Shut this down? Come now, he didn't bother to assist eliminated visitors going under mental attack, you think he would help a spectator? Have to try better than that."
NiGHTS, racing for options, flipped over to Master Chief and his artificial companion. They gestured to Byleth and Reala, a dumbfounded expression on their face.
"Don't tell me you two are actually okay with this??"
Sothis scowled and raised an arm to the oncoming meteors. The childlike god glowed with energy as she focused, her hair beginning to billow. The few meteors that were falling towards her began to slow, moving more and more sluggishly until they appeared to stop. The time around the meteors had warped, slowing to prevent them from moving faster than a crawl.
"I tell you again. I have neither the interest, nor the power to challenge your domain." Sothis said. "There is still time for you to withdraw. Is it really worth risking the embarrassment of defeat for a single mortal?"
Sothis extended her other hand towards Wizeman. Just as it had with Reala, energy began to form and swirl around Wizeman. It attempted to rapidly compress around the god into a planet-sphere, before detonating in a supernova explosion!
As the demonic beast slid to a stop to either side of Byleth, she stood with her sword at the ready. That was far too easy. She slowly looked to either side of the demonic beast. In truth its interior was not too different from the demonic beasts of her own world, albeit this one was more gooey. But the demonic beasts of her world dissolved into black mist when defeated. This one still remained. Something was wrong.
Sure enough, Byleth's danger sense was right. Arms shot out of either side of the demonic beast, and Byleth was quick to react. The mercenary ducked and dodged under and around the grasping hands, but one still managed to grab her arm. It's grip was tight and cold, and felt like a strange, disgusting slime against her skin. In a swift motion Byleth slashed the arm that grabbed her, easily cutting it off.
The true nature of this strange attack quickly became apparent as the two halves of the demonic beast began to pull themselves together. Byleth broke into a sprint, bobbing and jumping over the arms as she ran for the head of the beast. The two sides grew closer and closer. Byleth lashed out with her sword, using the whip blade to slash through the hands pulling the head together. She dove out of the beast just as it managed to pull itself together, narrowly avoiding being trapped within. In a smooth, calculated motion Byleth turned and attacked with another powerful whip slash, attempting to inflict a deep gash across the face of the demonic beast.
A creature that could just pull itself together. Every being had some sort of weakness, some sort of weak point. Not its head, clearly. She would have to keep a sharp eye for any weak points or vulnerable spots. It was also a possibility that this would be a battle of stamina and outlasting her opponent...
Back in the real world, it would appear that Byleth suddenly dodged in place before slashing something next to her, then turning and sprinting away. As she ran, she attacked with her whip sword in front of her before diving to the ground, jumping to her feet, and slashing something mid air with her whip sword.
Eitri
As Zed discussed with Luxia a possible way for them to proceed, Eitri listened with interest. Luxia had been taken over during the Spamton encounter, somehow. How interesting, that such a feat should be possible... And that the power of the Septima was able to be amplified by technology, and could interact with technology. Truely, the powers of Zed's world were most interesting.
In the distance, a familiar crack caught Eitri's attention. A noise that she had hoped not to hear, at least yet. Looking out into the lobby, Eitri was able to spot the source. Byleth, fighting against some invisible opponent.
"Oh no..." Eitri muttered, frowning. She looked back to the group.
"I think you should listen to Zed, Luxia." Eitri said. "Whatever we are going to be doing with Spamton, we should do it quickly. I believe we will be seeing Master Hand appear in the lobby soon."
Eitri pointed to the situation evolving with Byleth and the champions.
"What is she doing?!" Ótr hissed.
"I don't know." Eitri said. "But she wouldn't have fought if there was any other option. In the meantime, you need to get down there."
"What? Why me?" Ótr said.
"Because someone is going to have to distract Princess Nótt, and the rest of us are busy." Eitri said.
Nótt
The Princess of Jotunheimr sat in the center of the lobby, watching as the battle between Audrey and Lucario progressed. There was something nice about just being able to sit back and watch two skilled warriors fight, and Audrey and Lucario definitely satisfied that. Audrey's magic sword and lightning power was impressive, but Lucario's martial skill and energy techniques were nothing to scoff at. It was an incredibly entertaining match to watch.
Another noise caught Nótt's attention. The crack of a whip, coming from within the lobby. That hadn't sounded like it came from Gunvolt and Dart's fight. What was that? Curious, Nótt stood up and looked around the lobby, trying to find the source of the unusual noise.
Bakura
Chai finally ceased his attempts to destroy the Millennium Ring, much to Bakura's relief. He walked over to the ring with 808, echoing Peppermint's question in his own mind. The ring didn't even have a scratch on it, the rope necklace he wore it on looking more damaged than the artifact itself.
Peppermint voiced another idea through 808, and Bakura considered it.
"I suppose that could work..." The teen said cautiously. "But wouldn't that mean that, if you couldn't find a way to get rid of that shadow monster, you would be stuck with it in your own world? Are you sure you want to risk something like that?"
As Audrey's strike was blocked, she noticed how the earthly bone had dealt with her Lightning despite the force moving Lucario back, before the Hero continued to move forward, bringing up her sword before Lucario tossed this protective stick of his, prompting Audrey to smirk as she assumed it miss her - Allowing her to summon lightning into her blade again as she stopped to do so.
"Hah! Missed-" SMACK!
The bone staff slammed into Audrey's side, getting a yelp of surprise out of her as it rebounded away, knocking Audrey to her left with her foot catching itself before she could land in the lake. She glared daggers at Lucario as Audrey steadied herself, pushing off the ground as she lunged straight at Lucario again, stretching her non-dominant hand forward as the Blade held in the other.
And from Audrey's side, out came a string followed by a Demonic Yo-Yo. It flew out right towards Lucario, attempting to circle him and hold the pokemon still for the Hero to land a jumping slash! It seemed a little clumsy, but not bad for a first time use.
Masaru Takahara
As his suggestion was, rather fairly, shot down, Masaru seemed rather surprised by Zed's suggestion of what Luxia could try, especially with her hesitance.
"I mean, if you're not comfortable with that, I get it. If we're lucky, I know a kid who can read minds anyway, even of stuff like ghosts - Actual ghosts, like the dead kind." He spoke before wincing - Realising it wasn't as if that clarification was needed. "But the chances he's in the crowd are pretty low, I mean-"
"I think you should listen to Zed, Luxia." Eitri had spoken, agreeing with Zed, so Masaru listened once more. "Whatever we are going to be doing with Spamton, we should do it quickly. I believe we will be seeing Master Hand appear in the lobby soon."
As Eitri pointed down to the Lobby and what was happening, Masaru was surprised.
"The heck's going on down there? Why's she moving like that...?" He asked aloud as the martial artist watched Byleth's strange movements and actions, coupled with the nearby conversation of two of the more mysterious people about (He remembered the names. NiGHTS and Reala. The second one was a Champion.) that appeared connected, too. Rather than any sort of pensive, Masaru instead had it in his mind to hop down and figure out things for himself... But Eitri was right in that Master Hand would appear soon. Still, seemed Eitri had a plan, talking to Otr, narrowly catching the name of Nótt amongst the words.
"Oh yeah, Nótt. Hey, I think she had a message for you, little guy, something about not wanting to see you again, and making you wish you were never born-"
Masaru paused.
"That doesn't seem like the best idea, Eitri." He'd ask if Ótr had any clue why Nótt would say that, but even he figured not to pry - Politics never seemed to be his best suit, and going by the mention of a Truce back then, that seemed to be what this was, right?
Bakura actually refused the offer, deeming it too risky an option. There was no guarantee Kirin's Septima would retain its effectiveness in another world, making it best to simply destroy the Millennium Ring. While the Battle Priestess was very confident in her capabilities, she didn't argue any further, respecting the boy's wishes. He handed the ring to Chai, who slammed his guitar down on the artifact...
And it simply refused to shatter under the assault. Kirin raised a brow at this, watching in slight amusement as Chai continued to smash it to no avail, before Peppermint took a closer look at the relic. She proposed bringing it back to her own world for analysis in hopes of getting rid of the evil spirit inside. Ryo seemed fairly okay with the idea, though it was certainly possible for Peppermint to be unable to banish the monster.
"Gotta agree there, it's definitely a big thing to consider. Besides, are people from your world used to dealing with spirits and all that stuff? Not sure how far you could get into your research without any knowledge on that field." Kirin remarked, stepping closer as well. "My organization, Shadow Yakumo, has a pretty long history with spiritual matters. If nothing else, they can probably figure things out if I bring it with me. Not to mention my Septima could help lock it down."
Pit
"Haha, yeah." Pit chuckled, nudging Dagr in return. He finished his Drink of the Gods, which surprisingly refilled itself in an instant. The angel's eyes glimmered with awe at the crazy powers in play. Food and drinks that never ran out? Now that was the good life. All he needed was a hot spring and he'd be all set.
The final battle of the loser's bracket finally began, taking place in a mountain–like stadium, certainly Lucario's choice. Dagr asked for his input on the potential tournament winner, as a veteran in the sport himself. Pit thought about it for a moment, putting a fist to his chin.
"Well, I'm actually pretty familiar with Lucario, or at least his species. There's a similar one in the Supers Smash Brothers tournaments I've been in. Super strong and fast brawlers, boosting all their moves using this energy called aura. Looking at this guy though, it looks like he has a couple extra moves, like Bone Rush. And in a pinch, he can even Mega Evolve for a burst of huge power!" He explained with a smile, showing off his Pokémon knowledge – before he realized he wasn't giving Audrey much recognition.
"Uh, but that Audrey girl's gotta be no joke. She kinda reminds me of a guy I ran into a couple times called Magnus. He's a human just like her, and also fights with a huge sword. Except, well, his didn't shoot some awesome lightning. Which I know hurts a lot from experience."
Pit took another swig of his drink, before he looked towards Dagr.
"Either way, I know Lucario's strong for sure, but that Audrey's gonna give him a run for his money. Makes sense that they'd both make it to the finals. I don't really know what your sister is like in a fight, but she's definitely got her work cut out for her."
ZedΩ
Eitri's words got the attention of both Zed and Luxia, the two looking down towards the lobby to find Byleth acting erratically. It was as if she was doing battle with an unseen foe. The sage suggested they acted fast, to which Zed nodded.
"Certainly. Luxia, we don't have much time. Please, lend us your aid." He requested once more. The Djinn hesitated for another moment, and Masaru showed some support for her understandable apprehension. The Golden Trillion's plea, however, emboldened her to assist, and she approached the disc with a determined glare.
"Alright," she huffed. "Here goes nothing."
Without any more time to lose, her cybernetic hand grasped the disc Magolor held, attempting to interface with it in any way she could.
Gunvolt
Much like their first encounter, Dart was perfectly willing to remain in close range, even as Astrasphere's powerful lightning enveloped him fully. By the time he rushed back in after preparing Crush Dance, the field of electricity began to fizzle out, and Gunvolt found himself on the defensive once more as another flurry of slashes came his way.
The Azure Striker managed to duck under an initial swing, before unleashing a brief burst of electricity to blast a follow-up aside. Dart remained persistent, however, only seeming to pick up speed as he swung again and again – one slash deflected by a bracer, another one blasted away by lightning, Gunvolt firing a small flurry of darts in between––
"Ngh!"
Before one upward slash slipped past Gunvolt's tactics, and Heat Blade slugged into the Adept's left arm with incredible force, much more powerful than the dragoon's past attacks. The armor around his arm shattered on impact, Gunvolt flying upward with a shout as a blaze came over his body. His Flashfield deployed once more as to reorient himself, additionally arcing out lightning toward Dart should he have been tagged, when the Azure Striker pressed a button on the side of his Dart Leader, a small drone emerging from the back of his armor.
The drone let loose a flurry of downward yellow darts in his opponent's direction, coupled with a barrage of more precise shots from Gunvolt himself, having now switched to the Orochi dart type. A blow like that was surprisingly powerful – he'd need to be more careful around Dart's techniques, especially those he hadn't seen from their first battle. For now, he'd play the range game a little more, Flashfield acting to slow his fall as Gunvolt poked at the dragoon's defense, gauging his opponent's response carefully.
Kirby
The puffball cheered as loud as he could as he watched the fight, until he heard a loud impact behind himself. Kirby turned around, eyes widening as they saw Byleth going berserk, attacking seemingly nothing with her sword.
As the puffball flipped away from an uncomfortably close strike, he called out to Byleth in an attempt to snap her out of it. She didn't respond, instead taking off somewhere. Kirby leapt at the Professor, grabbing her jacket and attempting to pull her away from hurting anybody, including herself.
Magolor
Zed had an interesting suggestion, one that Eitri apparently agreed with. Magolor however, raised a brow in response.
"You sure about this, Zed? This is something Spamton gave me. The last thing we need is for Luxia to be used against us."
The Golden Trillion remained firm however, and Luxia seemed to turn around on the idea. Magolor still felt hesitant but, with the majority against him, he sighed and let Luxia grab the disc.
"Here's goes nothing..." the egg muttered.
Lucario
The bone staff struck Audrey directly, then rebounded back to Lucario's hand. Anger surged within Audrey's aura as she leapt at Lucario again. The pokemon did the same and, as the two fighters closed in on each other, Audrey threw out a bladed yo-yo. It moved strangely, acting as if it had a mind of it's own while attempting to coil around Lucario. The aura pokemon would deny it the chance, striking it off himself with his staff. Audrey then came in with her blade held high, and Lucario would try to cut her off with a swift, disorienting kick!
The goddess gave her snarky retort, ready to preform her next attack, energy swirling around Wizeman just as it did to Reala before. Remembering this move, Wizeman's hands positioned themselves to revolve around his mid section. They flared a flash of yellow, and suddenly, from each strand of the attack in their eyesight froze in place. The hands then raised above him, getting closer together, compressing what was in their eyesight all at once. The pupils moved up, combining the ring of energy into a condensed sphere hoisted above his body.
"I shall not be denied by any 'god' that steps outside of their boundaries." Wizeman's deep voice resonated through the void. "If you refuse to obey, then you have no use to me. You shall be unmade, and I will inherit the power you so recklessly squandered."
Unknown symbols were overlayed onto the sphere, each one tainting its color further into a deeper black. The hands began to position themselves behind the sphere, revolving around it rapidly before a cutting beam of pitch black energy was sent cleaving at Sothis. If she were to avoid it, it would seek after her and try to eclipse her movement with its constant swift cutting power.
Back on the ground, Byleth slashed through hands that were attempting to unite the head, several humans screams breaking out as if what Byleth just did was done to them. Annette and Dimitri's voices. As they were yelling in pain, the creature visibly recoiled, backing up and shaking its head. As it fully reformed, the creature snarled, roaring with the cry of many voices. It was angry.
When Byleth motioned to slice at the head again, something manifested at the back of the creature. Its tail shifted form, gaining a large jagged lance with several plates and points sticking out of it. The lance swooped in, parrying the whip attack with its hard shell. After this movement, it would deliver several quick jabs, not unlike a scorpion, trying to impale the professor.
Chai / Peppermint /
What Kirin said had their interest. They actually neglected to ask Kirin much about their world, as they were one of the newcomers in this mix of characters. Magical focus and sigils? Advanced technology? It certainly sounded promising. To be honest, most of what Peppermint was suggesting on her end was hinging on her reclaiming her mother's company from her brother, so wouldn't be able to do much with it in the short term.
"So, this is your area of expertise, huh? In my eyes, so long as this thing isn't attached to anyone or somewhere easily acceptable is already a big step. Before I just hand it over to you...what does thus company do again? Forgive my skepticism, corporations are a tough subject right now."
"Yeah, we are trying to smash an evil corp up, kind of a big deal." Chai added unnecessarily.
Reala seemed to find some form of irritation at Byleth's attitude, but she answered the spartan nonetheless in a manner he expected. She answered with something he'd heard before. A soldier, a tool, and a struggle to distinguish the difference. In the Chief's time through war, and a short period of fragile peace, then right back into an even more dire war, he'd learned the difference.
Soldiers could be spent. Tools could be wasted. Wasted soldiers was a reflection of poor leadership. Spent tools was a reflection of more concern for profit than results.
She proclaimed herself a mercenary. A soldier for hire. A soldier without a war.
"A soldier without a purpose," John said in response. Realistically, he could have become a mercenary himself in the wake of the Covenant War, after he'd been recovered from Requiem during the Didact's revival. The UNSC had changed in the short time he'd been away, into an almost unrecognizable state that didn't seem to want relics the Chief to persist.
He remained a soldier, however. His fight was never for himself, it was always for the benefit of humanity. Mercenaries didn't fight for that.
However, before Byleth could provide her own retort, likely to pose a defense of her 'purpose' in service of her buyer, Reala intervened once more - in a drastic response. He gave a threat, and vanished from the spot.
"Chief..." Kalmiya said, concern in her tone.
The already blank eyes of Byleth glazed over, like she'd been put under the influence of psychedelics - or the vague mental abilities Reala possessed. Yet despite this change, her expression gave way to emotion. She drew he sword, inciting another call from Kalmiya, more urgent this time. "Chief...!"
He calmly stepped to the side as a slash came, releasing an energy at nothing. He wasn't the target, just happened to be in the way. His visor remained fixated on Byleth as Reala emerged into the waking world once more, appearing exhausted. Yet the eyes of Byleth still remained under an influence.
NiGHTS returned, called by the commotion and a claim. Wizeman, Reala's own boss, was apparently involved, and likely the source for Byleth's continued condition. After a brief interaction with Reala that begot nothing more than threats and retorts, NiGHTS turned to the super soldier and his A.I. companion for support.
However, Byleth didn't remain inactive, still seemingly caught in a vision, or a dream. She ducked and weaved and moved, avoiding unseen forces before she took off, still swiping with her unique blade. She was going to hurt somebody. Spectator or not, interfering with the tournament would be grounds for Master Hand's involvement - not to mention if Wizeman was involved. Master Hand didn't like competition, that was evident from the records of the second tournament, when he had disappeared to deal with a different god, letting Crazy Hand host in his absence until he'd concluded.
Others were beginning to get involved, and this could quickly spiral into an unfortunate event. Eyes from the crowd above were beginning to turn away from the screen depicting Audrey vs Lucario to give attention to Byleth's outburst.
Coming to a decision, the spartan glanced toward Kalmiya. "Call Master Hand," he told her.
Given the prior conversation, she seemed hesitant, her form flickering for a moment of indecision, so Chief doubled down. "Do it."
Kalmiya gave a nod, and disappeared to release a pulse to call the gloved host back to them. The situation itself was something he would scoff at undoubtedly, but Wizeman's involvement was the important part. Master Hand knew the risks with keeping someone like Reala involved, but if moves wee being made, the hand wanted to know - and this counted.
DART
As Flashfield activated again, the multitude of darts across the mercenary's armor acted as anchors, volts of lightning coalescing on the Red Warrior, who was stopped in-place from the overwhelming force. For a moment, he struggled - and then a flare of flashing flames funneled over Dart. The various tags over him popped like bugs in a zapper. The incoming yellow darts and orochi darts fared a similar fate, fizzling out against the now bulbous flames encircling Dart, who gave a chuckle.
"It worked!" he grinned widely. "You call that move Flashfield right? This one's my version I just made up, based on yours - does 'Flashflame' sound cool? Flashfire? Uhhh... Firefield? Flamefield...?"
NEPHTHYS & IRNANE
The others collectively watched as Chai proceeded to try and fail to break the amulet. Then he began to wail on it, to identical effect. Irnane folded her arms as she watched the scene unfold. An artifact of high magical substance would require counter-magic to destroy, at least in her world. The physical approach supported this idea, though she didn't yet intervene.
Then the feline offered to take it to her world to study it. Irnane tapped her fingers on her bicep as she looked toward Bakura for his response, which turned out to be wise and challenged Chai and Peppermint's capabilities for something of this caliber. Kirin then offered her own aid in a similar manner, and Peppermint melted immediately at the suggestion, clearly finding it much more favorable. Irnane held her tongue for now - they were discussing methods of long-term solution. They had given up on destroying the artifact far too early after one guy couldn't smash it with his oversized lute.
THE CD
As the disc was interacted with, it suddenly vanished. And a brief moment later, so did Luxia, involuntarily.
The nearby Layla would suddenly drop to the ground on her hands and knees, convulsing and spasming as though she were under an intense pressure, both physically and mentally. Parts of her would flicker in the familiar glitches Spamton had brought last time, before suddenly, it would all stop.
Layla remained in that position on the ground for a moment longer, before slowly sitting up. Any who could see the girl's face would immediately notice a strange flickering behind her irises, almost like television static. However, the girl seemed to be fine otherwise. No sign of damage, no actual mental strain, she only seemed slightly exhausted, as though she'd run a short-distance sprint.
Luxia, however, didn't reappear. And if she did...
Sothis had nothing more to say. Just as she thought, Wizeman was beyond reasoning. The Progenitor god calmly walked to her right as Wizeman stole her attack, enchanting it and powering it up. Clear of the meteors, Sothis released them from their temporal stasis. The meteors crashed down, exploding upon the spot Sothis once stood.
The hands revealed their new attack, slashing a beam of black energy towards her. Just as the beam was about to hit her, Sothis vanished. In the same moment, she reappeared in the place she had begun the battle in. Sothis had moved her body back through time to where it had been before. The beam changed directions, flying back towards her, and Sothis was ready. She raised a hand, and a wall of stars like the night sky appeared to block the attack.
With her other hand, Sothis snapped her fingers. Around one of Wizeman's hands, a miniature version of her Sublime Surge attack formed and attempted to rapidly explode!
The demonic beast changed form slightly, a powerful, whip-like tail appearing. Despite how unnerving the situation was, Byleth was beginning to find her rhythm. Her expression was devoid of emotion, and the demonic beast began it's assault with its scorpion tail, Byleth was quick to parry away the flurry of blows. She would show this creature why they called her the Ashen Demon...
As she moved to parry away the last of the attacks, something yanked on her jacket! Not seeing it coming, Byleth lost her balance. The demonic beast's tail grazed her arm, inflicting a painful wound! Byleth winced, and in one smooth motion ditched her jacket.
What had grabbed her? There wasn't anything there for her jacket to get cut on, it was almost as if the jacket had pulled itself. And that hit the Demonic Beast had got in. Byleth knew it hit her, but as the pain faded, she could tell there wasn't a wound. No cut, no blood.
Byleth moved quickly to the right, away from whatever was pulling on her jacket, and aimed a pair of powerful slashes with her whip sword at the beast!
Dagr
"I asked you which one you thought would win, ya goof. What sort of answer was that?" Dagr said, playfully pushing Pit. The Princess continued watching the fight, taking another drink.
"I get what you mean though. Everyone left is pretty strong, so it's hard to tell." Dagr said. "Honestly, I'm not sure who I want to win myself. Audrey beat me, so I'd like to see her win. Plus, watching her beat my sister would be pretty great. But as much as I don't like my sister, I guess it wouldn't be the worst thing if she won the tournament. Show everyone how tough we Jotun are, ya know?"
Dagr grinned, and flexed a bicep. She drank the rest of her drink and let out a content sigh, putting it back on the bar. The Princess looked to Pit and gave the angel a smile.
"Thanks, Pit. You're a sweet kid." Dagr said. Standing up, the Princess stretched.
"Alright! I don't know if it's the mead or the Drink of the Gods, but I'm feeling wayyy better now." Dagr said. "C'mon! Let's check out that sparring area, I'm gonna see if Rinku's still here. Gotta pay that little brat back for that first round."
The Princess slapped Pit on the back and started to walk out of the Regular Burger.
Eitri
"That doesn't seem like the best idea, Eitri." Masaru said. Ótr scowled and looked like he was about to say something when Eitri stepped forward, putting a hand on Ótr.
"Never fear, Masaru. This is an contingency I've been planning for, for some time now." Eitri said. Reaching into her cape, the sage produced a parcel. Ótr grumbled before taking the parcel from Eitri.
"This plan is stupid." He said.
"It will work, if you do what I told you to do. Now get going." Eitri said. Rolling his eyes, Ótr whistled. In the crowd a few rows back, a pair of figures stood up. Both were dressed in a hooded purple cloak that obscured their appearance. On the right shoulder of the cloak, the bronze gear of Nidovellier could be seen emblazoned. The taller one of the pair moved up, walking past Masaru and staring down into the lobby. A bow was slung across his back.
The second one of the pair followed after as he quickly made his way towards the lobby. As they passed Masaru, the fighter could see that the cloak this person wore had two long slits cut into its back. Eitri watched Ótr and his mysterious companion depart, and patted Masaru's arm reassuringly.
"Don't worry. I'm sure my plan will work." Eitri said.
Then Luxia and the disk vanished. Eitri blinked, then slowly looked to Zed.
"Hm." Was all she had to say. Quickly, she looked back towards where Layla had been sitting. The girl was in the middle of convulsing, before the spasms stopped. She watched as Layla slowly sat back up.
"I believe your friend is in need of assistance." Eitri said to Zed.
Nótt
As Nótt attempted to approach the strange disturbance, Moon-Wing was doing what he normally did, and was surveying the area around Nótt. With his enhanced senses, the eagle spotted Layla and noticed the girl's strange episode. Letting out a concerned squawk, Moon-Wing flapped its wings and took off.
"Wha- Moon-Wing?!" Nótt exclaimed, bracing herself at her eagle's unexpected departure. She watched in confusion as he took off. "What? What are you doing?!"
Nótt gestured to the eagle in confusion, but Moon-Wing ignored Nótt's calls. With a sigh, Nótt rolled her eyes and continued to head towards the disruption. It should just be around the next building...
A mystical barrier was seen around Wizeman's form, glimmering in several colors, before a segment was briefly penetrated by the guardian god's attack. A hand had damage inflicted onto it, albeit reduced by the previously undiscovered barrier.
A deep grunt was heard from the robed god, as if it had their hand bitten by a dog. Thats when the stoic looking Wizeman would fall back several feet before suddenly accelerating at frightening speeds. It didn't appear as if Wizeman was being inflicted by wind resistance, as their robe remained perfectly still despite their speed. The massive Wizeman would crash at Sothis, their barrier smashing against them before he would actually fly right through them as if a ghost.
As a wound was inflicted on the professor, a streak of white shot from the wound, the white substance seemed to sap directly into the tip of the tail. A high pitched slighter could be heard, a singular voice instead of the voice of many like before. Upon the swath white energy being taken, Byleth would feel an influx of intrusive thoughts, ones she couldn't possibly humor. It would be difficult to tell for her, but from a nightmaren's perspective, her white Ideya had been damaged, a chunk gored out of it.
It seemed invigorated by this attack, swiping at her with its claws. However, an arm of it was sliced clean off by the whip slash, sending the severed limb bouncing across the wet floor before coming to a sloshing halt several yards away. Now with it's right arm a dripping stump, the creature hissed, with several whispering voices, clenching it's mouth tightly shut.
It seemed to shut its mouth with a purpose, as something inside of it made the entire head vibrate. Seconds later, it flapped its jaws open, a thick purple miasma spilling out of its mouth! It smelt like a mix of rotten eggs and swamp water as is billowed the strange substance forward in a thick sheet. If it touched her, it would seem sticky, like it would be trying to anchor her down and slow her reflexes while acting like a discombobulating gas.
Master Hand
snap
With a click, Master Hand appeared before the one who summoned him, which in this case was Master Chief and his AI companion. The gloved host rolled it's fingers as cracking was heard, like it was stretching.
"Ah...what do you want now?"
"Isn't it obvious?!" NiGHTS shouted up.
NiGHTS grit their teeth and pointed back towards the unfolding action. Master Hand however didn't seem to even address NiGHTS's presence, as if they hadn't asked a question at all. He was clearly only focusing on Chief.
An invisible shield protecting Wizeman. Well, it was something to note now. Wizeman staggered back, before charging forward at surprising speed! Crashing against the barrier gave Sothis a moment to dive out of the way, but Wizeman still managed to clip Sothis with his charge attack as he burst through the barrier. Sothis fell to the ground, turning to glare at Wizeman. You'll pay for that. Sothis hissed, gesturing towards Wizeman. The space around Wizeman changed, transforming into a beautiful night sky. The space appeared a beautiful dark blue, with motes of stars hanging around the dark god of nightmares.
Sirus. Sothis commanded. It was the same attack she had used before, energy swirling around Wizeman which condensed to a planet, and exploded into a supernova! But when the sphere of energy exploded, so did all the stars around Wizeman. A series of supernova explosions detonated around Wizeman! At the same time, the energy from the explosions seemed to rejuvenate Sothis slightly, restoring some of her energy lost from Wizeman's attack.
You should stop teaching. Professor Manuela is really hot. We should take the Flame Emperor up on their offer! I wonder what Fargeus is like this time of year? Maybe Eitri is right about everything. Let's make a long term reading plan for Pit!
Byleth blinked, and was quick to push back the invasive thoughts to focus on the battle at hand. That was... strange. Was this creature even attacking her body? Byleth couldn't afford to find out what would happen, should she lose.
The Demonic Beast closed its mouth and drew back its head. Whether this simulacrum knew it or not, it was mimicking a technique used by the Demonic Beast Miklan had turned into. In fact, it was a technique nearly every Demonic Beast Byleth encountered had used. A breath weapon attack. Byleth's fast movement broke into a sprint as she dashed around the beast, attempting to avoid the breath attack of the monster. She just managed to keep ahead of the breath weapon attack, and as she ran around the Beast, she attacked it with another slash from her whip sword!
In reality, Byleth appeared to break into another sprint and dashed about in a wide arc. She attacked the nothingness, her attack slashing the ground dangerously close to Kirby. With her mind still trapped in the dream, she had no idea she was running straight towards a wall!
The hand appeared, though that wasn't surprising to the spartan. After the events regarding the Nexus, they'd built a sort of rapport together, enough that the glove displayed a degree of trust, maybe even respect, in the spartan - evidenced by the existence of the Nucleus and its failsafe.
John made a slight gesture toward the still chaotic Byleth. "We have a problem."
It was here that Kalmiya stepped in to try and fill in the blanks, considering Chief's lackluster response, her form appearing again. "By that, he means a potential Empress of Light-tier problem. Apparently, that's a "Wizeman"'s doing, and if there's anything someone like him would want, it would be what this place offers - supposed to be under your protection."
"Could be connected to that energy surge earlier," the Chief tacked on.
Magolor
The egg instinctively backed off as the disc and Luxia suddenly vanished, his eyes flickering around to catch where they might have gone before landing on Layla. She was not having the best time, to put it lightly.
"Now what?" The egg muttered as he approached the girl. But her spasming stopped, and the girl rose back up as if it never happened. Magolor looked over Layla, raising a brow as he noticed nothing different except for faint static in her eyes
"Hello? You okay?" he asked.
Kirby
Kirby yelped as Byleth removed her jacket, leaving the puffball to faceplant on the floor with it. The cloth briefly covered the little puffball, but he raised it just in time to see another sword swing coming his way! Kirby jumped over it and rolled forward, now wearing the oversized jacket.
Byleth had taken off again, this time running full speed towards a wall! With little option, Kirby widened his stance and began to inhale deeply, hoping to at least pull Byleth away from the wall!
As his momentum ceased, his form rotated to face her, meeting with the fresh spawning of hue of blue alongside star like imagery. Creation that wasn't made from his own hands? What a mockery of divine power. But he hadn't a say in it when he stars one by one began to detonate. His multicolored barrier flickered upon the first detonation, but when they began to stack up, the barrier gave way, the explosion hitting against the god of nightmares, having the robed figure stagger back with a deep groan of discomfort.
This dimension wasn't in his domain yet, so he could not draw on all the Ideya reserves he had collected. However, one would be a fool to call him powerless.
Wizeman appeared to turn translucent before vanishing entirely. In his place, his voice boomed in the void space.
"Be forgotten in the depths."
In a flash of blue, it appeared to Sothis that entire realm had turns into a bottomless ocean in which they were already alarmingly deep in. Wizeman was a distance away, an elaborate blue rune the size of his body rotating behind him. His hands shook in anger as they manifested vortexes of water pressure that carried thick sheets of rocks and boulders revolving around them. These vortexes seemed to stretch up and down from view, their end seemingly too far to see. Four of these vortexes would converge on the her position, while a few would within arm's reach of Wizeman, prepared to be used as a defense.
......
Slash!
The creature was once against bisected, this time right down the middle horizontally. The tail flapped wildly about while the back half of the body seemed to slump over. The front side of the body didn't seem as immobile however, using its one good arm to claw over towards Byleth, rowing against the ground gaining more speed. If it got close enough, it would leap at her and ram its snout against her, throwing her in the direction she was headed towards- the wall she couldn't see! All the while through both of their wounds, there appeared to be arms stretching out just like before, reaching out for seemingly nothing in particular.
Master Hand
That energy surge earlier? When the feed was cut out? Ugh, that makes perfect sense. Why is it that these gods are the ones always causing all the trouble?? Can't they let me have my own sandbox and go back to theirs??
Master Hand shuddered at his memory of the empress of light, grimacing as much as a globe could, peering over at Byleth.
"Yeah, that's not going to stand. I won't like it, but I-"
Master hand was mid movement before stopping, scratching his index finger with his thumb when he realized something.
"Wait. You said nothing about two gods." He flipped back to Chief. "Do you have any idea what fighting a god is like? Think pedaling a bicycle up hill as fast as you can for a whole marathon - it's not easy! And you want me to fight two of these at once??"
The notion of fighting two empress of light threats at once revolted the hand, the appendage resembling host seemed to be thinking, balling up his fist and twitching before coming to a realization.
"Seems like whatever is happening there, two god's energies are at odds. Phew. Less work for me. I'll come back when one of them is left standing. I'll be watching, toodles."
With that, he snapped away, clearly the idea of reliving the shenanigans of Bootleg Bros Melee wasn't on his bucket list.
Nótt sighed and continued walking. Finally turning the corner of a building, Nótt was able to get a clear view of the commotion. Master Hand and the champions were there, as well as one of the competitors, NiGHTS. But the one that was causing trouble surprised even Nótt. That unique weapon. That black armor and jacket. That long green hair.
"Byleth?" Nótt muttered.
"Nótt!"
The Princess froze at the sound of a familiar voice. Prince Ótr stood behind Nótt, the young dvegar breathing heavily. Nótt slowly turned to face the prince, forcing a polite smile on her face.
"That is Princess Nótt to you, Prince Ótr." She said. "The time for informality between us has passed."
The Princess stepped towards Ótr, drawing her lance and inspecting it carefully.
"It's fortunate for you that I'm in this tournament." Nott said. "It is yet another reason why I shouldn't run you through here and now."
"Nótt-"
"Princess Nótt." Nótt corrected. "You have a lot of nerve showing your face here, Prince Ótr. Here you don't have that big suit of armor to protect you.
Ótr winced and held up his hand.
"Please-"
"No, Prince Ótr." Nótt snapped. "We are done. No 'Nótt'. No 'Please'. You lost all of that when you betrayed me. How could you do that to me? I thought... I thought we were..."
Nótt blushed, and she stepped forwards again, glaring down at Ótr angrily.
"I thought we were going to be married! But it was all a lie, and you-"
Ótr finally made his move. On his way down the stairs, the prince had opened the parcel and hidden it's contents in his cloak. Now, he drew what the package contained, and jabbed it at Nótt. The Princess stared down in surprise... at the bouquet of flowers that Ótr was presenting her.
"I..."
"I'm sorry." Ótr said, bowing his head. "It's true. Originally, my intentions were nothing more then to gain intelligence on Jotunheimr. But the more time I spent with you, I found my deceptions were becoming... they were becoming more then that. They were becoming real."
The Prince looked up to Nótt.
"Being with you... it was the happiest I have been, in such a long time. And it frightened me. It frightened me because I had begun our relationship in deception. It frightened me because I didn't know what my brother, and my kingdom would think. I didn't know what else to do." Ótr said. "And then, when you found out, I... it was too late for me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry it took me so long to reach you once more, to tell you how I truly. I'm sorry that I lied tore us apart. I'm so sorry. For everything."
Moon-Wing soared over the lobby, finally landing next to Layla. The metal eagle ignored the other Knights, and slowly approached the girl. While its expression was hard to read, it almost appeared to be looking to Layla with concern.
Byleth & Sothis
The area around Sothis changed once again. Now they appeared to be fighting at the bottom of a deep, dark ocean. Despite this, Sothis did not appear to be affected by the water. Looking around, Sothis merely raised an eyebrow. Is this supposed to impress me? Sothis asked.
Wizeman conjured a series of vortexes around him, and launched four of them at Sothis. Energy glowed around Sothis once more, and the Progenitor goddess used her power to quicken her own time. She propelled herself through the water, flying around the vortexes and attempting to circle around Wizeman. As she did, she snapped her finger once more. Another small Sublime Surge explosion attempted to detonate around another one of Wizeman's hands. Achangeofscenerywon'thelpyou! Sothis called out, her words sped up like the rest of her own time.
Byleth's attack was successful, once again slashing through the demonic beast with ease! Still, that didn't stop the creature. With one good arm, it dragged itself after Byleth at a surprising pace. What's more, Byleth felt a strange, familiar sensation trying to pull her back!
Byleth pushed her sprint harder, breaking out of the air vortex that was trying to pull her back. But when she glanced back, the Demonic Beast was still some distance away. It hadn't been causing the vortex pulling her back. Byleth suddenly recalled why that vortex felt familiar. It had been Kirby's inhale attack. But how was he affecting her here, Reala had pulled her into a different place. Or... had he?
Byleth's realization was cut short as she slammed full speed into an invisible wall! She was just barely able to keep her footing, staggering back from being completely blindsided. The Demonic Beast took advantage of Byleth's stunned state, ramming it's snout into her back! Byleth cried out in pain as she was pinned to the wall! She could feel more of her energy get drained away, and the full weight of the massive creature in this awkward position made it difficult for her to move! This was bad, she had to turn back the hands of time. She had to use her
The hands of time were turned back, and Byleth was back to running from the Demonic Beast. Experiencing it a second time, she could definitely tell it was Kirby's inhale attack. Was he the one that was pulling on her jacket earlier?
Using Kirby's inhale attack, Byleth was able to quickly turn back to face the Demonic Beast. She ran to her left, no longer sprinting directly towards the wall. The Demonic Beast reached her, swinging its head to slam into her. Byleth was ready for it. She raised her sword, bracing the flat of the blade with her other arm, and used it to block the attack. The force still sent her sliding back, and she bumped into the invisible wall. Byleth continued running along the wall, and slashed at the Demonic Beast's remaining good arm with her whip sword as she attempted to lead it further and further from its other half of its body and its severed arm.
"Guess it's only fair to tell you, right," Kirin agreed. "Shadow Yakumo's a secret organization that's been around for well over a thousand years in my country, and as you can probably guess from the name, they work from the shadows. Specifically, they specialize in using and managing spiritual powers to protect the land from behind the scenes. Mystic relics, flow of supernatural energy, you name it – they've dealt with it all in spades at some point. Battle Priestesses like me are usually sent out to investigate and subdue all kinds of potential threats, though my Septima does put me a cut above the rest, if I do say so myself."
She placed both hands on her hips with a smile, seemingly quite proud of her role within Shadow Yakumo.
"Either way, if no one's able to banish or destroy that spirit once I bring it back, I bet we can still seal it away so that it can't hurt anyone again. That sound like a good enough plan to you?"
Pit
"I, uh..."
Dagr's initial playful response left Pit at a loss, not having realized that he hadn't fully answered the question. Thankfully, the jotun made it clear that she shared his opinion – this last part of the tournament left the cream of the crop, so it would be hard to tell who the winner of it all would be. Even with his prior experience, the angel couldn't comfortably guess at the tournament champion.
Before he could comment any more on the matter, however, the princess got up from her seat and began to walk out towards the sparring area. It was at that moment that the angel remembered Byleth's earlier request to distract Dagr and keeping her from noticing the professor. While he wasn't sure why that would be a bad thing, he wasn't about to let his friend down on that favor. Pit sprinted up towards the woman, stopping in front of her as he held his hands out.
"Wait a sec! I'm not sure he'd be around there. Since he got eliminated last round and he looks like a little boy, maybe he's at one of the restaurants getting some food! That, or-"
As he looked around towards the lobby, scrambling for excuses, Pit spotted Nótt – who appeared to be in the middle of being proposed to, or something of the sort. He had no idea what was going on, really, but it served as a good enough distractor.
"Uh, who's that with your sister?" He asked, jabbing a thumb at the faraway Nótt.
"Looks like someone has a secret admirer." Palutena chimed in.
Gunvolt
Dart's response was a surprise – he'd copied the Azure Striker's signature move, employing his own omnidirectional elemental field to disperse the tags along his body. It posed no immediate threat to Gunvolt himself, who retracted his Flashfield to drop back down to the ground, taking a moment to recharge his EP once more as the flames around his body began to fade away. No harm in staying topped up.
"I like the sound of Flamefield," Gunvolt called out with a nod. "Then again, I'm not the one who named Flashfield in the first place, so I guess you can call it whatever you like. How about a test run?"
Sky-blue electricity crackled along the Azure Striker's body as he reared his unarmored arm back, before he thrust it forward – and bolts of lightning began to fire out towards Dart one after the other, arcing wildly as they flew. While Gunvolt was indulging the dragoon a little, giving him the chance to try out a new move, he couldn't deny his own curiosity about the technique. Energy and elemental attacks could often pierce through his Flashfield, so evaluating the defensive capabilities of Dart's own flames would be a good measure of the move's utility.
ZedΩ
Just as quickly as she'd grabbed onto the disc, Luxia vanished. A rare feeling of dread washed over the Golden Trillion, whose eyes immediately darted over to Layla. The girl dropped to the ground in an instant, her body spasming and glitching in a way Zed had never seen before, all four of the ATEMS Knights scrambling around her. It was a sight surprising enough for the prince to remain rooted to his spot for several moments, allowing Magolor and even Moon-Wing to approach the girl first.
When Layla came to, she found herself surrounded by many familiar faces. All four ATEMS Knights looked down at her with concern, looking her over for any signs of damage – but outside of the static behind her eyes and her slightly exhausted state, they found nothing. Prado kneeled down next to the girl, holding her right hand up as a cold breeze began to flow from her body in an attempt to cool her down and help Layla relax. Serpentine walked around to the Adept's back, gripping her staff tightly as she closed her eyes, focusing on peering into her mind and memories for answers. That left Grazie and Sistina to call for aid, both women turning toward where they'd last seen Zed.
"Prince Zed! Prince Zed! We have a situation!"
"Ya gotta come up here, mister Zeddy! It's Layla!"
As the two called out to the leader of ATEMS, Moon-Wing arrived to check on Layla. Sistina raised a brow at this, stepping in front of the eagle. She sternly looked down at Nótt's companion. While she recognized it from the princess' earlier approach, the woman clearly didn't seem to trust the creature.
"Shoo! We're all quite busy here, so go back to your master!"
Magolor's following approach had to be handled by Grazie, who moved a little closer to Layla. She gave the salesman a nervous smile, motioning for him to step away slightly.
"I-It's good to see ya again an' all, but I think Layla probably needs a lil' breathing room..."
While the Knights dealt with their respective duties, Zed finally arrived on the scene, touching down with a flap of his flaming wing. Even he appeared to be very concerned, moving past Magolor to crouch down in front of Layla, examining her closely. The static-like flickering behind her irises gave the prince a bad feeling.
"Layla! Are you alright?!"
"...Mm."
Although her response appeared to be the same as always, Zed could tell something was wrong. It was as though she was half-awake, or in a detached state. The prince frowned as he gazed into her eyes once more, feeling as though the static was mocking him.
"Layla... Where's Luxia?"
"Nn..."
She half-heartedly waved an arm aside in response, gesturing to summon the Djinn to her side. For a long moment, nothing happened...
The unwavering goddess continued her attack towards Wizeman, speedily flanking the multi handed god. Right as she preformed her attack and ran through her hasty words, something peculiar happened. The blue rune behind Wizeman pulsated and suddenly, intense pressure would befall the space around him - including were Sothis was located.
As if they were experiencing the actual crushing force of the deep sea, the attack of the rival deity was pressurized, condensing back into itself before it was able to explode outwards. With a hand, he balled his fist, attempting to further localize the pressure around Sothis.
"Mere tricks do not become a being of celestial authority. Power is absolute in this world. Undergo nihility."
Suddenly the pressure would turn extreme as Wizeman's hand twitched whilst surrounded by dark blue light, clenching his fist tight. After a few seconds, he let his grasp go, opening it into a wide palm, the pressure letting go and expelling outwards in a cascade of pressurized water pockets!
With Byleth, the demonic beast was ever persistent, leaping and swiping blindly as their prey grew ever further. Counter attack ensued, its last arm flying off from a swing of a blade, the creature flopping to the ground suddenly without mobility. It seemed subdued for now, the top part of it's body rolling like a crocodile to connect with the recently severed limb.
Further away, the aft half of the beast still sat, the tail reeled back like a scorpion, vibrating...angrily? The tail then stabbed right into the ground. In the wall Byleth was running on, the lance like tail would fire right through the invisible wall and right at her!
Peppermint / Rex
She was filled with skepticism. A shadow organization? Priestess of a secret religion? Sounded more like a cult than it did an agency. However, Kirin's actions with helping Bakura out along with her words helped temper her suspicions. Regardless of this, it was too risky for them to completely co-sign. Especially since whatever was in that device, be it god, genie, or demon, could be unleashed if not careful.
Looking over to Bakura, he could see the situation was weighing on the boy. He just wanted this to be over with, which she could hardly blame him. She'd want it over in his shoes too. Ultimately, it did belong to him.
"It's your call, kid. What do you think is best?"
Meanwhile, Rex was eyeing the item, squinting hard at it. The thing disturbed him, not only because of the near death experience he just endured, but because the thing looked oddly familiar, like he's seen it before.
Wait. Didn't that Yugi guy have something like that around his neck too?? Don't tell me we got another evil thing to deal with!!
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