Hope in Danger!
Cycle 4
A streak of white and brown through the scorched lands, and the bunny-eared beastfolk shattered the Hexa-Flux Coating, volatile chemicals turning the flames green and purple as she sprang back into action elsewhere, heart beating strong even as life drained swift.
A collection of warriors bold and brave marched steadfast towards the Sky Lance Upgrade Protocol, their heavy armors and stalwart hearts steadying themselves for the upcoming blast. They will not die, but it was certain to hurt. And despite this, the cyberwinged magia took aim and fired, setting off the cataclysmic reaction that would scar them all.
A duo tested their might, circular saws and bulletfire spraying against the hardened Pylon, and yet such weaponry remained ineffectual. It left marks though, fractures. Points of weakness that a man, perhaps the
fastest man, exploited, dashing through the apocalypse to deliver a payload that exploded with thunderous force. A duststorm rose, tides of arcane force buffeting all nearby, and yet...
When the dust cleared, they blinked out the spots that seared their gaze. The Anti-Titan-Buster Composite Plating had been blown to smithereens.
As for the Anti-Anti-Fun Mechanism?
None dared try their hand at it.
And with clicks that sounded like the triggers of a single-shot rifle, the protective shells of the module disengaged, revealing the armaments of the evolving DEAD.naught.
Receiving… receiving… receiving… paused.
What did it need?
Lightning flashed, arcing from cloud to cloud, tendrils of heavenly might searing into the eyes of the Starcalled. Thunder resounded seconds later, a reverberating shockwave that could be felt even to the pits of their stomach, and in that instant of sensory overload, between the flames and the pylons, the sentries and the overseers, the writhing worm and the bursting bomb, it took a moment for them to register it.
To register the DEAD.naught breaking out of its chrysalis. Not to reach out for its new armaments, not to reach out to call for more support from the heavens, but rather for a single individual, lying in the field.
[ Quinn ]
Massive appendages, made of gun barrels and armored plating, plucked the fresh corpse off the ground and, like a farmer snapping a grape off the stem, separated Quinn's head from his body. The body fell, limbs splayed out at impossible angles as it struck the cratered ground, and another flash of lightning lit up the darkening world. Moonsong could see it. The last flash of green hair, before the DEAD.naught retracted Quinn's head into its body.
Assimilation…Completed.
Pseudo-Personality Designation… Completed.
Mastery Duplication… Summoning… Arcanamancy… Illusion Magic… Martial Arts…
…Completed.
Beginning Oversoul Fabrication.
The wind howled, furious, a storm truly descending upon them all. Those with any inkling of an understanding of magic could feel it rippling through their body, the grieving wrath, the sorrowful disdain, and the absolute hatred of the Djinn Zahaadragan! Lightning crashed against the armored plates of the DEAD.naught as gale-force winds whipped debris and shrapnel, scorching and scarring the battle-hardened chassis of the monstrous Magia. It groaned under the duress of the storm spirit's barrage and yet, the howl of the wind began to change.
It began to distort. To deform. To
dissonate. Each howl weaker than the last. Each strike leaving a smaller mark. Until…
What do I need?
A sense of humor. A sense of spite. A sense of…humanity.
The clouds burst, heavy droplets blanketing the slopes that the protectors of Camp Hope IV made their last line of defense. The scorched wastes turned opaque, steam rising up in great plumes. And within the curtain of rain, the DEAD.naught began to contort. Damaged plates fell, embedding themselves into the ground. Gears shifted and switched, breaking out of its sleek, slanted form. Weaponry fused with arcs of lightning and bursts of arcanamancy. Legs locked in sync as the body sank to a lower point of gravity. And, with a final touch, what once was dark green and gunmetal gained a golden hue, all signs of the prior battle wiped away.
The DEAD.naught was reborn. And as its first act?
A voice, familiar even through the static, sounded out bright and cheerful.
"Ha! Amazing. It's like. Everyone. Setting up for a
comPOUNDING. WHOA! Autocorrect: Terminate.
It's wise for. Everyone to log out.
A-hem. Right. That sounds better.
Kay, if you want to stay and tango, let's all become Magia."
And finally, the pylon flew out, anti-projectile defenses studding the MEME.naught's broad back like acupuncture needles! Ah, so this was emotion! So this was
joy! So these were
sensations! The kiss of the rain, the sizzling of pain, the tranquillity of exhaustion, the sheer information overload of human
memory!
Ah, the warmth of another human's body against his own, as they copulated for the sheer pleasure of it.
Pistons pulsated, lightning crackling over his joints as he built up power feverishly. Tubby, that ever-hungering worm, had its love for
@Yugam overridden in that very instant, its bestial instincts kicking in after a short eternity of domestication, telling it to run, run, run! But its own maw had snagged upon the sharpened edges of the plating that it had chewed through and then, it lurched skywards, letting out one final screech.
The MEME.naught had lept. High enough that the storm responded.
Waves of lightning converged upon his golden, majestic form, and, grasping the charred worm that had been such a
bother to him, he RKO'd Tubby, slamming its length down against the side of the trench. Beneath, the Starcalled themselves scrambled, desperate to escape, to withstand the shockwave whilst the very essence of a calamitous storm smashed into them. Even those off in the scorched lands found themselves in peril, the heavy steam that rose conducting the ever-present electricity.
There were sparks, and then, there were
eruptions, beautiful fireworks that lit the dreary day with reds and blues, yellows and greens.
And there was the MEME.naught, looming above it all, that familiar voice sounding out a familiar laugh.
"Exuberant! Excellent! And look! Now you're all lined up!"
His torso rotated, six barrels lined up to aim down the side of trench. Oh, but there were so many of them, huddled together, trying their best to hide like little reckless apes in caves! The ALU counted them up instantly, a wholly miserable collective of seventeen Starcalled! Aim it straight down, and a Sky Lance could vaporize them before they let out another strike!
"Oh, but don't worry. I'm not so into phishing in a barrel, you see? Learned all about tech knuckle support, so we'll take it easy, my friends! It's clear to me, honestly, that you can't really hack it now. I'll even demo it for you. Watch!"
A gun barrel slammed into
@Hyakin Heliodoros, caving in the silver-haired knight's shield. He
flew back, almost too fast to be seen, before being embedded into the wall behind him.
"Welp. I got you there, buddy. What were you thinking, calling me outdated, when you're out and about with C-rank armor? C'mon now! Get some common sense in that thick head o yours!"
A cannon leveled its sights upon
@Hanno Futaba, before a dud of a tank shell shot out, sending the faerin flipping backwards into
@Glamdark, both of them tumbling against the overcharged terrain.
"Oof, I missed the catgirl. Guess bowling with faerin ain't so easy after all. But hey there, Hanno! I'd love to see you try scrapping, but honestly, you're not going to. Got so many friends to protect, right? I can totally understand! Tell you this! Pick three others and leave. I'll let you go for free!"
A foot raised, eclipsing
@Moonsong's entire form…but set down gently beside her instead.
"Ah…but I can't do it after all. Babe, trust me when I say I'll respect your decision. Hell, I can even emphasize with it. The whole remaining human thing. But I can't just let you do this to yourself either. Why fight so hard for Vintergard anyways? It's not real."
A spark of light. The budding of energy. That final Regulator, surviving the onslaught of the Sword of Astorea, charged its beams, prepared to pierce straigh-
"But I am."
Arcane artillery atomized that Magia.
"Take a step back and think about it. Maybe I'm dead in 'reality', but this isn't so bad! Assimilation might even be what's best for us. We'll be immortals, Dayeon! Unaging, unchanging, and utterly invincible. 20k HP don't lie, you know. "
The MEME.naught righted himself once more.
"And as for the rest of you…"
His torso dipped down, then up, and finally, he hopped.
"Kobe Bryant!"
A perfect three-pointer
barrage of arcanamantic warheads smashed into the wall, sending rubble scattering down, down, down.
"Now time is money, and a place is just a place, so how 'bout you all pack up your bags and try next time with Camp Hope V? Think I'm just about ready to switch gears and kick things up a notch anyhow."
Mastery System…Complete.
MP Retrieval…Complete.
Downloading Alter Mastery: Dynamism........6%.....18%....25%...
, Schilva sees something quite distressing sailing right through it and charring in the arc-flash.
