The leader of Camp Hope, Norn Jormund has been away fighting the battle on the other fronts until now and was able to repel the attack from their side, which made sense, considering he and his troop didn't have to fight the death machine. And, so he marches to the wall and activated his special ability: [ Leader's Tactic ].
[ Leader's Tactic ] You may swap one of your actions with any other from your build. If you have any action with SP mechanics, you may swap them all out. In both cases, keep your current HP the same.
Thrusters blazed red as lightning decimated its surroundings the moment the dynamism-powered DEAD.naught reached the wall. In an effort to halt its momentum, the machine shifted his legs, sliding to a stop before its legs folded at the mid-joint, preparing for a jump amid the thick dust veil. Amid its hyper-focused state, the DEAD.naught was completely unaware of the blue-haired figure following it closely, tampering with things that ought not to be tampered with.
Under his guidance, calamity fell on the DEAD.naught in the form of heaven-parting roaring dragons ripping through the plating while the plate-shattering rail beams eviscerated what was left of it. Despite the damage it had endured, the machine jumped, meeting the swords of spectral judgement in the air while a lightning bolt and a ballista bolt each slammed into its legs.
Kenji's arm was outstretched, fingers brushing against the net.
So close.
He could almost touch the stage.
If only… Almost wasn't good enough. Never was.
Every time Kenji blinked, the net was a little bit further from his grasp.
His body felt heavy, not with the shackles of pity and self-doubt, but a tight embrace.
"Stay with me." I can't.
A kiss.
"I love you."
Me too.
. . .
I don't want to leave.
The blade came.
Thank you and goodbye.
When Kenji fell, they were together.
When Quinn fell, he was alone.
Next time for sure.
DEAD.naught to Handler-1.
Mission unsuccessful.
Now uploading battle footage.
Request for the reopening of emergency transmission granted.
Please upload the battle footage.
Now uploading battle footage.
Data received.
Retrieval for recycling is not possible due to placement.
Now decommissioning Processor-3.
Your sacrifice has been noted.
May you return to the creator in peace.
Immediately after the exchange between the magia, a red light beamed down from the sky and struck the fallen DEAD.naught. It wasn't so much an attack, but a command. Everyone who was within range of the metallic corpse would have gotten flashing UI alerts, warning them about how the DEAD.naught was set to self-destruct in a few seconds.
The battle footage has been analyzed.
The saviors have learned a skill that is detrimental to their own directive.
The battle footage will now be distributed.
Study the footage and learn: Critical.
@Moonsong, who was inside the cockpit, heard the entire exchange between the two magia. Despite her UI warning her about the decommissioning, she stayed with Kenji until the very end. @Erick Stryker, who saw this in one of his visions used the last of his chronomancy to get inside the cockpit, but alas, time had finally caught up to him, opening a fracture that forced him to stay and deal with it.
- BOOOOOOM!!! -
First time?
When the green-haired man opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of a grassy knoll, all manners of items and equipment surrounded him. He sat up and turned his face to the person who was speaking to him.
...?
What's your name?
I... don't know.
Do you remember how you got here?
No.
What do you remember then?
Nothing comes to mind. But it feels like there is something important I have to do.
He grabbed his face. Something? No. Someone. He dug deep, but couldn't recall anything. It felt like something was blocking him from accessing that memory. His body remembered the mission though, sending distressed signals to his brain.
That's not particularly helpful.
Sorry.
Hey, you don't need to apologize. Actually, if your mission is something extremely important, my group and I could connect you with someone who specializes in amnesia. In exchange for our help, you could help us. A scratch for a scratch. What do you think?
Okay. What do I have to do?
Whoa. Slowdown, cowboy. I know you're eager to complete your mission, but let's not rush, okay? Hmm… First, we need to give you a name.
The man looked around the field when he stumbled on a green katana. Upon picking it up for an inspection, a lightbulb switched on.
Ah, I know. This blade seemed to belong to you, there's some writing on it. Perhaps, we can just derive a name for you from it and let it become an anchor to your missing memory. From now on, your name will be Reta.
That sounds cool. What does it stand for?
Blade of Retaliation. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Imagine a lone swordsman fighting back against an indomitable force all by himself.
Ahaha!
Huh, what's so funny?
Nothing. Heh. It's just a really lazy way to name someone.
H-hey, give me a break. I'm trying to be poetic here...
Aha. Sorry, but you don't have to try so hard. Just be yourself.
Hmph. You're a mouthy amnesiac if I have ever gotten the displeasure of knowing one. Anyways, I would recommend that you get used to keeping your identity a secret and put this on. Where we're going, a man's true identity will be his demise.
He handed the green-haired man a helmet.
Where are we going?
We're going back to Tertoria.
The man pointed westward. He then extended his hand toward the green-haired man, who was fiddling with the helmet. Reta, as he had been named, took the man's hand and stood up and looked toward the infinitely stretching horizon.
Ah, right. I never asked, but what was your name?
Ah, it was rude of me not to introduce myself earlier. My apologies. I'm Vern, a Traveler like yourself.
I don't know what a Traveler is, but I'll be in your care from now, Vern Bernstein.
Um. It's just Vern, actually.
Vern, the Mern.
Ah, I see. I'm being teased, aren't I?
The green-haired man responded with a chuckle as he donned the helmet and took a swing of the sword. Despite not having any memory of his past self, the sword felt natural in his hand.
A big thank you to all the staff and helpers who have made the event a success, and also thank you to everyone who has participated in our story. We hope you enjoyed it and will come back for more!
What's Next?
Hope in Danger After. If you would like to wrap up your character's involvement in the event, you can make an exit post here or catch up with other players and/or allies.
The Next Chapter. There is going to be a Narrator-led comms megathread that is a big meeting at Camp Hope with all the relevant characters to ICly exchange information about the story thus far. We will ping everyone on Discord when it's live.
Feedback. The Narrator team is constantly looking for ways to improve our events so we would love to hear about your experience with the event.
Rewards. Come and collect your rewards if your characters have made at least 2 posts in the event. Instead of additional items on the banner, we're awarding 10 gp for every 100 damage everyone dealt below zero this time!
The reward threads below will close in 36 hours, make sure to claim your rewards before they are locked!
Rewards. Come and collect your rewards if your characters have made at least 2 posts in the event. Instead of additional items on the banner, we're awarding 10 gp for every 100 damage everyone dealt below zero this time!
