Complete Comms Main Story (S4 Finale) DRAGON.end - Phase 3

[Jin]

"Can we do this later? Huge threat to all of civilization literally standing in front of us right now."

@Raid Boss @Ash Vargold

 

[Ash Vargold]

"...right."

Ash takes a deep breath, settling the rapid staccato of his heart before things get worse. He turns his attention back to the battlefield and the egg he's chosen to pin his own hopes on, redoubling his efforts to clear paths to their safe zone.

"Fucking megaguilds acting like they represent the entire playerbase, you'd think people would stop trying to do that when we're dealing with a fucking death game..."

@Jin @Raid Boss

 

[Tick Tock]

Awwwh...

Her poor little heart, broke into pieces, as @MAI turned down her offer for a new face. But the low spirits didn't last long, not at all. Failure now means success tomorrow.

My, rejected twice in a day, such is the pain of Tock's existence... Anyways, hehe! Where's Kyanna? We need to group up things before things get bad bad bad. Tick is steering the big buffy lady to see if she can be reasoned with!

@Kyanna Wynne

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

Tone down that aura of yours before you frighten the younglings.

There was more that Mizuki wanted to say, but truthfully she had to agree with both @Ash Vargold and @Jin that this conversation had spiralled out of control.

Even though her initial input had boiled down to "try to beat up Szofrit without killing her."

 

[Aerial]

".. fuck's sake.

The woman grumbled beneath her breath. Her head throbbed with pain as the herd of idiots used their mouths rather than weapons.

"Whether Szofrit lives or dies depends on the bitch's actions. We don't really have time to be having a whole fucking philosophical debate on morals and other shit. If she dies, she dies. If she lives, she lives. Deal with all this political crap after she's not trying to turn us all to dust.

Let the landers - let everyone decide for themselves whether they want to keep fighting or not. You're a pretty shitty King if you spread stupid falsehoods that will, eventually, come to light."

Whether real life or Terrasphere, politics sucked. Blue eyes chilled over with ice as they glared daggers at the King and his Tactician.

"And you."

She pointed at Accelerator who had previously rattled off skill names like they were from a game. Of course, they were but how did some NPC know that? Even if they did have the title of "Tactician"?

"You mentioned 'Ley Lance'. Plus some Genocide Moon and Kinesis.. whatever. Did you just decide on that name or do you have information you're not sharing because that sure as hell sounds like something the UI would tell us?"

The former pro-player quizzed the Tactician. She thought these were all NPCs - Er, landers with no access to the user interface. Then again - she hadn't known previously that the King knew their true identities, either. Players from another land who could come and go as they please.

"If you somehow have any further information on her skills.. I'd suggest telling us. Instead of this stupid debate.. we could be thinking of a real strategy with that (rather sus) knowledge. A strategy that doesn't involve praying some egg will deus ex machina this situation."

Aerial wanted to pry as to how he accessed this knowledge but, for now, what they really needed was information.

@Raid Boss​

 

[Luthien]

Even up in the air as they were, with music echoing in their ears and the expanse around them, she could hear the rising bickering from below. The last notes of the song left her violin as the performance culminated, careful to control her magic and deposit @Rael and herself safely onto the sands below, before crimson eyes turned to look at @Accelerator with a frown.

"Kindness and consideration do not bring people home from the battlefield."

 

"Funny, because kindness and consideration are what brought Astor and D'va back when dissonance afflicted them both, no? It's only thanks to the mercy of others back then that your current scapegoat is here right now."

From the very beginning she hadn't trusted the man, something about him had simply felt wrong he failed passing the boricua vibe check, and the feeling had only strengthened as he'd seemingly swept the matter of Vern under a proverbial rug without so much as a second thought... and this second meeting wasn't doing the faerin any favors.

"Instead of over-complicating things by defaulting to tyranny and backhanded schemes, why not just lead with the truth?" It seemed like such an obvious answer too, and far easier than all the mental gymnastic the faerin seemed to be pulling within his mind today. "It worked in the past, and it's even working right now or we wouldn't be having this conversation, so who's to say it won't work for the landers?"

 

 

[Jin]

"...and there goes the neighborhood,"

Jin reached up to clutch his head, fingers still skeletal as skin slowly wove its way back over each digit, carefully stitching back together. His hair sifted between bones, ruffling, annoyed.

"If anyone wants to actually fight, the machine and I will be over here."

 

[Magi Heart]

Magi Heart

Magi stopped twirling her weapon but kept the rings of magic active. She had been using her most advanced evoke for so long.. Being able to communicate sensibly in itself was a miracle. Or was she really sensible at all?

A hand reached for hers. For the first time in memory, she didn't take it. Instead pulling back.

"...pfft. Don't hope, do. I agree. too bad, there isn't going to be a better.♥"

De conjuring her weapon she turned and fell back onto her dress's shadowy tails. Leaning her head in her hand. She only had so much mana to expend even with the grief-based refueling. She didn't have time for a chat like this! Her blackened eye leaked some but she ignored it. A piece of debris blew towards them but she reached out and distorting gravity reflected it back like a ping pong ball. Meanwhile, the gold eye seemed to pulsate while Wendy spoke through Magi's mouth.

"Please don't touch me right now. My friend @Kyanna Wynne did and it hurt her. ..and he..."

The fact @Seigi Ling Ling and @Tick Tock did not was missed by her. Maybe they were somehow more adaptable to whatever that was or didn't care about painful reactions. ..or maybe Wendel purposely hurt Kyanna for other reasons. Easy grief accumulation for buffs which the others were less likely to offer? As if pulling teeth, Magi's right hand gestured in the direction of a certain blue-haired man @Erick Stryker .

"Invaded my personal space while I'm using this form."

Changing position and using her aura to keep her energy up. Magi continued.

"It's not like I see a cool beans solution here. I just know there has to be one. It can't always go bad. Hiato, you, Ra-Seigi, the magia's that were controlled then freed. If enough good things happen they can outweigh the bad. I can... use magic to push in those better directions. I guess it's um.. astraman stuff.. uh astramancy. I'm better at it ever since that time at that camp. I don't have a list of the magic I use. I just use it...or uh feel it out these days."

That sort of thing would have been the coolest thing ever years ago. Now, it was a mix of indifference and fear of lacking understanding.

"I only have so much... uhh. EN right? That's the gamer term I remember? So go sing or something. Gee whiz... you want to know what I see? An ending, but it's a long way off. I need to grow up a lot to help everyone the right way. This is like a filler episode in a way too long anime *Giggle* ...Erick Strykie would be able to tell you more about me than I can...probably. His head almost exploded for looking into a fateless girl's fate. Do you want to lose your head... again?"

The images of Rael's beheading were recent enough to easily divine.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean that... well I maybe I did but it's complicated okay? Let's just do our best here... I only have hope but we can make hope from nothing. That'd be neat...urghhh... "

Overstrain caused Magi to wince as Wendel's domination drowned Wendy out.

"I have a mommy to save!"

Giving a less friendly look to @Rael, Magi regenerated her weapon to show she was through. Wendy wished it wasn't a battlefield like this.

"Love....and... justice....now..."

Her instinct took control.

 

[Erick Stryker]

"Hey now waitaminute,"

Erick saw Wendel point at him and make what sounded like an extremely dark and damning accusation.

"I didn't do anything near that bad. Sure, I saw some things I didn't mean to see... okay, so there's really no good way to verbally defend myself here, but I wouldn't hurt you, Wendel. I promise- if anything I want to help if I can."

He remembered the other girl, the bright and kind face, the source of what he now knew to be a conflicting voice. A second persona trapped inside a single being. That was what he'd seen.

"Not even sure where I would start, though..."

His voice trailed off.

@Magi Heart

 

[Raid Boss]

"@Jin is right. I may have gotten far too heated on the matter. It is simply frustrating to see such indecisiveness from the King, himself.

I was brought on to: one, ensure that we figure out what is going on with the magia and bringing that conflict to an end. And two, to bring the UI-locked back to the real world.

On the first point. With our previously-divided forces reunited, the death afflictions minimally exerting its influence, and Szofrit staving off attacks against those of us standing here, we are in the burn phase. There isn't any telling how much damage she will deal when we engage her in the counter-attack, but her falling is something I'm confident about.

This battle isn't at all like the Kurungaar Mother, who fought purely on instinct. This is an intelligent enemy with a clear objective and it would be in our best interest to exploit that.

Given such, if the King's intention was to capture Szofrit, then it is extremely important that everyone follows a plan. Most Starcalled can be convinced or peer-pressured, but the Landers, who have a lot of stakes in her survival, are motivated to do everything in their power to take down the Mother of Machines.

As such, the King should make his intension clear now and use the crown's power to compel the People of the Land to follow his vision, to stop them from deliver the killing blow.

At this point, even Szofrit's death won't rebuild the trust between Starcalled and Landers or bring back their dead, so we might as well make use out of it.

If we have a single vision that the majority of people follow, then the chance for things to go awry from the last second will be kept to the minimum. I don't believe Childress and the other People of the Land here will stop fighting, but they won't be swayed to spare Szofrit either. I'm appealing to those who are here to make the guarantee that they should they choose to capture Szofrit, they can do so without fear of retaliation against them as they can shift blame onto the King who already desires to leave office, should that what the King wishes to do.

I don't know about the rest of you, but no matter how much the UI-locked pretend like this is their world now, they all want to go home. I tire of this world. I ready to beat the game and find the way back. Thus, acquiring Szofrit is paramount to the objective I was brought on to pursue.

Here is where the King can make his priority known so people can rally rally behind it and make the best decision to carry out that goal."

He turned to @Aerial,

"The point isn't to get them to continue to fight, they were already going to fight no matter what. The point of contention is to get them to stop killing Szofrit when the chance presents itself."

And to @Luthien, he said,

"Do you realize how ridiculous the truth sounds? That the Starcalled is intending on capturing someone who can literally take over the minds of Magia players to inflict mass destruction on the Landers? As been said before, a lot of you can logout any time you want while they have to deal with the threat contained within their land. I don't think the benefits is going to help improve their lives or safety in anyway, which is why I suggested this plan in the first place."

And then back to @Aerial,

"In exchange for combat ability, I have a different set of skills. As for Szofrit's attacks, both you and I have seen the same thing up until now. There is a pattern and a hint behind them that most veteran players here are already aware of on some level from their game sense. I just happen to get a bit more insight on the matter.

At this point though, it's not particularly relevant anymore. During the split, it's managed to keep the King and Steph safe while the rest of the split forces on our side have managed to minimize casually while still doing damage to Szofrit like you all.

As for the Egg... I don't really understand why she's sparing it, but she's not actively hatching it either, just look at how much magical energy the Red Egg is syphoning to get to the point where it's at."

"ENOUGH!

Now is not the time to plan around something so uncertain. Beasts are most dangerous when they are backed into a corner, don't just assume that we will win until it is clear that that's the case, just like the Kurungaar Mother.

Finish healing the wounded and get ready to head out. There are people still needing to be helped and enemies needing to be dealt with. Decisions will be made at the appropriate time, even if it's not the most optimal."

Accelerator pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose as he got back to work reorganizing the rallying forces and got them ready for the burn phase.

"The provocateur has a point. I won't stop fighting here, but I will do everything in my power to kill Szofrit. Her intellect and powers are unimaginably dangerous and there's not telling what harm she could cause in the future.

I originally promised my sword and service to the crown to help explore the world and enlighten the path forward where Starcalled and Landers can exist. Now, it seems like that may no longer be the case.

I await your decision on the battlefield. King."

Childress returned her attention to being tended to, calming her mind of the turbulence surrounding her.

Levi clicked his tongue in agitation, completely divided in where he will fall during the critical junction ahead.

 

[MAI]

"I fail to see why everyone assumes that Szofrit will remain as dangerous as she is currently if we manage to help her. Driving dissonance out of her might just make her as peaceful as some of us here. But it seems you are all ready to act. I will help as much as I can, but for now, I remain with the egg."

@Raid Boss @Ueno Mizuki @Kyanna Wynne

 

[Ash Vargold]

"I fucking hate magical politics."

"I swear, if we end up with Faerin 2.0 after this..."

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

There's too many things going on at the same time so let's keep it simple:

Don't die, keep the golden egg safe, defeat Szofrit, try not to kill her, and either secure or destroy the red egg.

Everything else can be figured out afterwards, so eyes forward and fangs bared!

 

[Kyanna Wynne]

Kyanna blinked slowly at @Tick Tock, wondering if the fungi melting on her face was making her irrecognizable, but above anything, the fact they were alive. which was enough for her to step ahead, giving the puppet girl a warm hug.

"What do you mean 'where is Kyanna'? I am right here." She said, with her smile slowly showing on her lips. "And you are too... And alive! I... I was sure I've seen you..." Her lips pursed, shaking her head as she leaned away, not really letting her friend go yet. "It doesn't matter... I told you to be careful, so make sure to stay closer-" She said.

Her eyes then shifted to @Magi Heart.

"Is that all dissonance, Magi? Touching you did feel... Strange..." She admitted. "But I know you didn't mean ill." Kyanna said, hopeful that her words were right.

Kyanna's attention focused on @MAI.

"We don't know if she will remain safe either, so being careful wouldn't be that bad... But..."

Her eyes slowly turned to Astor, and the rest who roared at each other in a ferocity that barely made it look like they were allies.

"With this much fear and desire to kill... It is hard to think that big robot is the only cornered beast in this place..." Her lips pursed, in both sadness and disappointment.

@Raid Boss

 

[Tick Tock]

Suddently a hug made her stumble one step ahead, glancing over her shoulder. A smile bright enough (in fact, there were sparkling effects all over her teeth!) to shine through the darkness casted itself on her face, and Tock quickly wrapped her arms on the tighest hug she could, spinning around with Kyanna on her arms for a little.

"KYANNAAAAA!" She sobbed with these words, just a little before putting down the witch. "Tock is okay, Tock will die and get back up again, no biggie. You are safe though, tip top condition almost, good good. But now's not the time to be so close to eachother, even if Tock would LOVE to hold you closer, amor mio."

She nodded, if only to let the silliness of her words sway Kyanna's mind of what the twins had in mind. A sole glance over to Tick confirmed it to her: These golden eyes, the beginning of the end... Finally they would use their Evoke, the trump card to save the witch with, or attempt to at the very least.


giving a glance over to @MAI aswell, Tock beckoned to get closer, if only to try and add her into the hug too.

"That's your friend, right Kyanna? What's her name? Is she just a frieend? Do you want Tock to protect her too?"

 

[Luthien]

"The UI locked certainly can't logout whenever they want, @Accelerator, much like the landers of this world. If the King and Queen could be reverted to their regular selves after their dissonant episode then the same could hold for Szofrit, too."

A nod of agreement was given in @MAI 's direction as the magia spoke.

"No one expects everyone to welcome Szofrit with open arms, she'll have to find a way to earn the trust of everyone and atone for her actions, but considering all the dangers and unknowns this gameworld has to offer one would think the landers could look beyond the now and into the future ahead—unless they wanna keep playing a reactive role to whatever force is controlling this corruption."

Her attention turned to @Childress then, a quiet "Tch!" escaping her lips at the beastfolk's words. It was amazing how shortsighted some of these leaders could be.

"Would you say the same if the dissonant one was the Queen? What if it was Zeus, or any other lander strong enough to cause similar destruction? The dead are dead, and killing Szofrit isn't going to change that—but capturing her might prevent others from dying in the future."

A hand reached for her orange whistle, tapping it softly to draw the woman's attention towards it.

"Ad astra per aspera—we all vowed to beat the darkness back and light the way forward, right? Well here's the path, the toughest one yet for many to follow, and only one question remains: will our sole white whistle rise up to the challenge or not?"

The King cound command the landers to do his bidding, but in the end that would only continue to sour relationships between them and the starcalled—not to mention the difficult position that left for the UI locked players. In the end only a lander would be able to truly rally up the others and unite them to accomplish this goal, and in her eyes Childress held that potential—but only if she could remove the blinkers from her eyes and look at the bigger picture.

 

[Kyanna Wynne]

Kyanna's cheek went rosy as she was squeezed in a tight hug. First Magi, now Tock, by the end of all this, her ribs would be pulverized.

"Dying and coming back is no biggie-- Amor mi- hah?!"

She protested, but this once, she didn't mind her... friend being this close.

"Her name is Mai! And she is..." Kyanna paused at the word 'only', with the rosiness on her face becoming redder as the only good thing of all this nightmare ran through her mind. "Wh... What else she would be? She is my friend!"

A sigh then escaped.

"Yes, protect her! She helped to save you from Szofrit. But... Remember to protect yourself too, alright?"

@Tick Tock @MAI

 

[Magi Heart]

Magi Heart

"Wendel!"

"Is that all dissonance, Magi? Touching you did feel... Strange..."

During the battle, voices reached the battle-focused Starallen Savior.

One was vaguely familiar from a few places... @Luthien
The other was that dummy @Kyanna Wynne who just couldn't stop putting herself through grief. Just look at her! She was literally shrooming!

Wendel had the slightest thought to eat her like those tasty shrooms at the Witch's Den...

"...You know my name mama elf? For now... I'm just Magi. Kyanna-chan you need to take a bath *giggle*. Wowzers... we should talk later. If that's what you think. M̷i̸s̵u̵n̵d̷e̵r̸s̸t̶a̴n̴d̴i̶n̷g̶s̸ ̶b̷e̴t̷w̷e̷e̷n̶ ̶f̷r̴i̵e̷n̴d̸s̸ ̵a̴r̶e̵ ̴b̴a̸d̴. Magi Heart says♥!"

For once perhaps the chaos of war prevented a more complicated set of issues from being faced.A single powerful foe is simple storytelling rather than the shadows of all types mingling between the pages.

@Erick Stryker tried to correct Magi's opinions as well but... she didn't pay him any attention. There was only so much distraction before it started to just become the babbling of normies when she had her own dissonant objective to focus on.

Talk less.

Ŝ̷̮̇A̴͍̤͂V̴̼̳͆Ẹ̷͔̀͋ ̵͙̖͒M̸̙̊͜Ŏ̷̝̑R̴̨̕E̴̬̍̓.̷̲̋̉

 

[Rael]

Rael would scarcely be given an opportunity to answer the accusations of one half, and the question of another. Perhaps it was simply that she couldn't come up with a response in due time herself, the hand that had failed to grasp Magi's own falling back to her side as she nodded apologetically. She didn't want to repeat the blue-haired chronomancer's invasive mistakes.

She lifted a hand to her neck, where the memory of the guillotine grazing her skin twice now remained engraved, and by the time she came up with something to say, the girl was gone.

If losing my head is what it took... Perhaps that would be the most compelling story of all.

 

[Harper]

"God, we are still debating on this?" A loud sigh of annoyance could be heard as the tigress arrived near the group.
"I can't really tell you guys what to do, but here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna hurt Szofrit. Really damn bad. I know, I know, I'm definitely an outlier here, but hear me out for a sec."

The tigress would assume a relaxed stance, putting her hands behind her back.

"Besides that, I also just want what's best for this world. And funny thing is, unlike you all who know things most don't or hear things most can't..." She shot a look at @Luthien . "Or in Luth's case there, even see things that for all I know aren't even there, I have ZERO clue on whether killing Szofrit or not is for the best! And I know I'm not the only one here!"

She would smile, shrugging with her shoulders. Not taking a side certainly saved her a headache, and let her be more focused on the smashing side of things.

"So I'm just gonna keep hurting the bastards and hope to all that's good that the bunch of you have arrived at a decision by the time Szofrit falls. Though if not, I'd like to point out that I only know some of you and I'm definitely going to be biased in support of those people, like any good friend would."

Her eyes would dart towards the more familiar faces in the crowd, like @Ueno Mizuki and @Ash Vargold, the beastkin not hiding her allegiances in the slightest as she winked at them, throwing double thumb-ups.