DRAGON.end
Season 4 Finale - Phase 2 (Cycle 4)
High in the sky, the Mother of Machines recited the
Hymn of Steel. Those who understood Runia might have been able to glean some of the lyrics from the sound of war
(Flavor Roll).
Make an Awareness Check (DC 75). This check requires narrative exposure to Runia or being a magia. On a success, you learn that the Hymn is an elegy to the magia whom had sacrificed themselves to their mission and had embarked on an endless voyage inside the heart of their captain.
In a furious turbo, Hard Plume kicked up dirt and crackled across the battlefield like lightning, appearing where its enemies concentrated in number. There, the murderous war-marchine pumped its firearm, igniting the barrel from which the resulting blast of incendiary shrapnel blew the group of starcalled into the flying buzz-saws hell that was Genocide Moon. The thunderous boom could be heard from across the warzone.
Meanwhile, the poor saps who were taken by the sudden appearance of the steeled siren were all thrown every which way when Szofrit detonated their area. Bodies were hurled across the abrasive remnant of cobblestones, slamming into walls, and catching on the steely carcass of fallen magia.
Next came the three Ley-pronged Lances from the sky, accelerated by a force that rivaled Zeus almighty.
Zelrius watched as the Ley Lances chose him to be their first victim. He could feel the heat of the compressed laser searing his skin as it closed the distance. The initial impact warm, then burned, then the moment the burning made physical contact, his light turned off. Death came quick and without the gratuity of blood and guts.
Hanno and Lune had a similar experience, but their amped up defense denied them Zelrius' quick death. Instead, the laser skewered them like a child plunging its folk into its food, detaching a limb or two as the combination of immense heat and the aggressive healing from their allies fought to reattach and cauterize the wound at the same time, ripping and refusing incorrectly.
The moment all three of the lanced targets were struck, a crater formed beneath them and had they the mind to endure the agonizing impact (Will Save - DC 85), they would have seen
it… as their interfaced vision flashed between five different battlefields. The first was the isolated darkness, which turned into a bigger isolated space, which then flashed into the battlefield they were standing on, before flashing into another one that more resembled the ruined-scape of Vintergard, still enveloped by the darkness. The last shattering would take them to the final stage of the battle, where the wartorn Inner-Dragonhead greeted the dawn.
Next came Baby Magnum's bomb arcing through the dark sky. The bomb's body was lit with a burning radiance as it delivered the cross-shaped firefall to the fighting forces standing at the direct center of its incineration zone. When the bomb detonated in the air, the hindering damage kept its explosion limited to just the center. Fire didn't simply fall, but poured like molten lava from the sky, to envelop the zone in a hellish heat.
As Szofrit watched the bomb detonate, she reached for it, turning her palm to the sky before closing her hand. She then raised her other hand and hurled massive ship-shards down a line, ripping up the earth and crushing anyone who stood in the path of destruction, conducting the orchestra of war.
It was at that exact moment that
@Luthien's could see the connection between herself and the Gold Egg clearly, the radiant
astral link cut through the folds of darkness. Should she choose to follow it, the link would have taken her directly to it before the curtain came down.
Meanwhile, Nu eviscerated all of the enemies who ended up within range of her Genocide Moon, which only served as a distraction for her true target.
The moment the Stained Valkyrie's eyes fell upon
@Alcea, her wings flapped and she was gone.
The bladed wings came down on the faerin's in a single downstroke, from which Alcea shattered like a fallen mirror.
When the Hymn came to an end, all of the flying steel shards all turned, pointing at the Starcalled closest to them and simultaneously embedded themselves.
The damage done to the Starcalled was deep, but conversely, the energy-drain from attacking, defending, and being syphoned by the Red Egg had put enormous strain on Szofrit. Tried as she might, her grip over the battlefield loosened. The layer of false reality shattered.
When the Starcalled next open their eyes, they were in a different battlefield, one that more reflected what Vintergard was supposed to look like. Previously vacant areas of the battlefield were suddenly occupied with brutalized allies. Anyone who stumbled just a bit would have bumped shoulders with someone else who weren't there moments ago.
In that same moment, the Starcalled's death afflictions all returned at once, albeit suppressed by an unknown force.
When the two battlefields merged, the reunited starcalled forces stood witness to the destruction Szofrit had inflicted on them.
Szofrit's strategy to divide the Starcalled had prevailed.
Corpses littered the Szofrit-touched field.
Levi was on his knees, sword broken, pinned in place by a Ley Lance.
"Sari…n…" he grunted through the blood as his trembling fingers extended toward Sarina who was struck with the second Ley Lance. The Knightess was completely unresponsive.
Childress meanwhile had her head pressed into the ground by Hard Plume's heel, her arm half-torn from her ravaged shoulder. She growled in unadulterated anger.
"I'm going to fucking rip your head from your spine, cur!!!"
A short distance away from Childress was a gray-eyed Feodan, who held a shield over himself and a gold whistle as a Ley Lance had cleanly gone through his shield and his body. The wet-eyed explorer blew her whistle again and again, knowing full well that no one was coming for them.
Chad meanwhile was trapped beneath a mountain of dislodged building and ship part with blood drying over his face.
At the center of Baby Magnum's target, was Stephanie, who draped her body over the Gold Egg while Astor and Accelerator had their arms stretch upward, using everything they had to protect themselves and the people around them from EX-Hammer.
When the firefall cleared, they, along with
@Creature, who was the only one from the other group to have survived the Propulsar, and a small group of people from Astor's battlefield found themselves completely untouched by any damage beyond the God Searing Light. All thanks to an invisible dome produced by Szofrit herself, which disappeared the moment the attack ran its course.
"Heh," Accelerator chuckled.
"Just as I had expected. Stephanie, you can climb down from the egg now, Szofrit won't harm it," the blue-haired tactician adjusted his glasses.
"What do you mean?" Steph asked as concerns crossed her face.
"Look at the carnage around you and see if there's a single scratch on the Gold Egg. Think about it. Szofrit's been keeping that egg at her side even though it could fall into our hands at any moment. The red one is the only one that she's actively hatching, so why does the Gold Egg even matter to her? It doesn't make sense." Accelerator replied as he looked up at the floating visage of death.
"I don't know why she's keeping it around, but what I do know is that that bitch can't hurt the Gold Egg. The Red Egg being near our egg somehow damages it, which is why she has to leave it behind when we came. By screwing with our perception, she can split our forces, and, hide the Gold Egg at the same time."
"A windfall amid hell, huh?" Astor commented before turning to the people around them and barked orders at them.
"Whoever is still healthy need to go and pick up all the wounded. The rest of you must go and rally the rest of the group who had just arrived."
Steph headed a short distance away as she pulled out her deck. She had to do something to help, especially with them so far behind.
"Ah… I'm down to the last card. Everything else has been burned for this battle already..." she frowned.
Steph let out an exasperated sigh as she looked at the final card in her hand, knowing full well what the faced down card, because she has never drawn it.
The Jester's Last Laugh was the card with the most potential and also the steepest pitfall. Should she win the gambit against the Jester, it could provide the group a boon as powerful as a legendary card, but lose and the Jester will take it all.
The red-head mulled over her decision for a good minute. After seeing the damage on their side, she clutched her fist tightly before extended her trembling hand toward the card. When she flipped the card, the Jester would wear one of his four faces, each one a boon except the laughing face.
❮ The Jester's Last Laugh ❯
The Jester laughed.
"N-"
"Stephanie?" Astor called out when he heard her. However, she was gone without a trace by then.
Astor paced anxiously near the egg, continually looking for a certain felis, though he was constantly sought for his leadership.
Accelerator who noticed came to his side, his blue eyes piercing through the distressed King.
"Keep your head about you, your people need you. Your majesty," the tactician's words were as sharp as knives.
Before Astor could respond, Accelerator put the last nail in the coffin. "Everyone had lost someone. If we don't end this soon, this will all go to hell.
Accelerator, who had discovered Szofrit's mortal weakness, walked toward the edge of the safe zone and lifted his chin in the direction of his enemy, where he raised his hand up into the air and gestured a pistol.
Bang.
He mimed a shot as a smirk crossed his face.
Szofrit had her hand extended toward the Starcalled rallying around the Golden Egg. Her steely eyes gleamed with silent rage as she held her stiff digits there, unable to close them into a fist and end it all.
The mother heart throbbed.
Even if the Gold Egg were the antithesis to her mission, it was born from the desperation of the magia who opposed her, but independent of the creator's will.
"Cowardly shadows who would exploit a mother's instinct!!!" the formerly-tempered Szofrit vocalized her rage, as anger erupted deep within her core, twisting her expression.
When a series of attack came directly for the Red Egg, it quivered as if trying to rip away from the umbilical cords keeping it bound to the sky. Szofrit swiftly turned her back toward the attack, letting them hit her head-on.
"Do not tremble with fear. You do not have to fight them, for this is not your battlefield. My hope and my dream, I will give my life to see you end the cycle of pain. Come to me,"
Szofrit pressed her forehead against the egg's reflective red shell as her body exuded a dangerous energy. She would cut their flesh, crush their bone, and shatter their hope again and again until the stars break and never shine again.
The Mother of Machines eyes were lit as she cast brief gaze at the sirens and Nu before she turned around and looked down at the vermin beneath her feet.
"You can't hide from the Storm of Judgement forever. Just as a mother is prepared to die for her child, come. Will your broken resolve carry you through the dark night, Starcalled?"
