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>>41025960
>Until the THIEF could usurp control of the DIADEM's systems.
FOOTHOLD GAINED

Time to strike back.

Behind you, the fires continue to burn. Hungry flames - Flames fed by Lachryma, by corpse-fat, by the twice-dead flesh of the behemoth you cast down. Beneath the raised pyramid of the PRESERVATORIUM's control spire, the spiralling stairs are abattoirs of ruptured flesh and boiling smoke, a choking smog that boils ever-upwards towards the vaulted ceiling of the great cathedral-chamber.

"Engaging," the Thief vocalizes, his words a harsh murmur. There is a wail of distant sirens - From the gloom overhead, there is the grinding of immense machinery. Walls of thick black iron descend, with the finality of a guillotine; a great, juddering boom echoing through the chamber, as the compartment seals. The momentary, sickening crunch of severance - as they lock with the seal wells in the deck, bisecting anything in the way - makes Daegal wince within his helmet-

...But not as much as the faint skritch-scratch of blade-limbs, the scraping of claws, the pounding of fists from beyond does.

"Blast shields," Haze mutters. He swallows, hard - a brittle rasp of sound from his speakers, as the banging continue from beyond the metal doors. "Joker - How long will that hold th-"

Armaros's hand clamps down on his shoulder. "We're not done yet," he rumbles, as the Thief does *something* to the riot of alien machinery, the writhing nerve ganglia and leg-like spines twitching, pulsing patterns of sickly light in response-

"Releasing phage." And then there's a sound - an actinic buzzing, buzzing - a roar like the wind, as clouds of spore erupts from beyond. The flow is random, chaotic, like boiling water trapped in a pot; All wired up and with no place to go. All devouring, too - you only catch glimpses, through the viewports set within the blast shields, but you see flesh liquefying, sloughing off the bone, sterile death in fast-forward...

(Continued)

>>41026136

Within, the damnation cloud - a malevolent, churning haze - does its scouring work. You can - or you *think* you can - hear the chittering, the gnawing of mandibles, as the single-minded devourers do their work; EXEC_SWARM is still mingled with it, and as the ravening plague does its work, Rook places a clawed, spined hand against the shield. A feverish violet light pulses within his eyes, as he turns his head.

"Warm," he rasps - only half-audible over the dueling wail of the sirens. "-It's warm."

Armaros gives him a look of fathomless distaste. He doesn't, however, say anything - Even as Kazuya hurries to your side, exhaling slowly. "Jesus," he mutters. "-The *sounds*...That's *fucking awful*-"

[ ] "If it helps, they're already dead."
[ ] "-Don't dwell on it. You've seen worse."
[ ] "We're alive. That's what counts."
[ ] "Totenaz - Is the teleporter ready yet?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>41026219
>[ ] "If it helps, they're already dead."
>[ ] "We're alive. That's what counts."
>[ ] "Totenaz - Is the teleporter ready yet?"

>>41026219
>[ ] "If it helps, they're already dead."
>[ ] "Totenaz - Is the teleporter ready yet?"
"Can you activate the Phage in any room, if you have the time? Can you deactivate it afterwards?
Just in case."

>>41026219
>"If it helps, they're already dead."
>"Totenaz - Is the teleporter ready yet?"

>>41026219

(Gentlemen, my apologies - I have to step away for a moment. I should be back in 20 minutes.)

>>41026377
Are the Greeks nuking your house?

>>41026219
>[ ] "If it helps, they're already dead."

>>41026434
>implying Greece can afford nukes now

>>41026493

(Gentlemen, I'm back. Typing now.)

>>41026493
I wonder what their financial district looks like right now.

Is their Masakaki cackling?

>>41026241
>>41026258
>>41026287
>>41026493

> [X] "If it helps, they're already dead."

"...Yeah," Daegal says, faintly. "-Yeah."

You can tell that he's trying to block out the thoughts of the carnage contained in there, the bodies bursting with liquefied, dessicated organs and fast-acting decay. Corrosive rot.

> [X] "We're alive. That's what counts."

He turns. Looks past you, at the others. At Armaros, the gore scoured free from his armor, patient tics of lightning vaporizing the mashed-black muck that clings to the joints of his sabatons, that would smell like gristle and meat - If your senses extended that far. At Haze, hovering worriedly near Rook - At Rook's stare of lightless and avid wonder.

Daegal avoids looking at the shredding flesh that catches in your high-crested helm, in the pinions of your Tempest Scrander...At the stained and woefully ragged cloak of your Assault Shroud, the rents healing, closing slowly as the nanomaterial colony replenishes itself.

He doesn't say anything.

> "Can you activate the Phage in any room, if you have the time? Can you deactivate it afterwards?
Just in case."

"Hnnnn." The Thief's attention is only half-centered on you, focused on the terminal structure of plates and spines and glowing orange slots. The plumbing trembles under his hand - "-If we find a console. Direct access only."

Not promising.

"How - did you get it working?" Haze asks - He's looking at the centipede spokes of the conduit as if it's about to bite him. "Those controls...They're not like anything I've *ever* seen before-"

"A small shock. The threat of a larger one."

(Continued)

>>41026733

> "Totenaz - Is the teleporter ready yet?"

He makes a sound - Not quite an irritated grunt, but close.

As if in answer, mechanisms deep within the console - the adjoining apparatus - whirrs and clicks. There are grinding, scratching noises, as the adamant ring circling the central architecture - some kind of twisted plumbing everywhere, all tangled and messed up - begin to slow.

-And then it stops stop.

Armaros makes to say something-

And then there is a shrieking whine, throwing a shower of sparks and smoke - jagged saw teeth growing along the inner ring, the code-clusters inscribed along the rim lighting up with tiny, glowing glyphs. It is a storm of sparks, jumping, arching; Gaining speed, until it began to spin like a prayer wheel. A low hum builds - actinic blue light shining out of the grilled slits in the console's sides as radiance scribes skittering shadows across the walls-

The air *tears*, ripping right down the middle. The portal that forms is different from the ones you've seen before - the edges of it are constantly seething, forming eye-bleeding fractals, bleeding pixels; It is deeply unstable, frothing with a churning internal illumination. The crackle of the energy burst shivers across the hall, ozone tainting the air-

"-Where's it going?" Daegal says - sounding deeply, deeply dubious of what he's seeing, shielding his eyes against the light. "Joker, where's it *goin-*"

[ ] "-Where the Smilers are."
[ ] "The Panopticon. We're finishing this."
[ ] "To the end."
[ ] "To somewhere we can *hurt* them."
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>41026880

>"-Where the Smilers are."
>"To the end."

>>41026880
>"-Where the Smilers are."

>>41026880
>[ ] "The Panopticon. We're finishing this."

>>41026880
>[ ] "-Where the Smilers are."
"Daegal, this time you'll be fighting humans. Be prepared."

>>41026880
[X] "To somewhere we can *hurt* them."

>>41026960
Yeah, nah. Wouldn't say that.

>>41026900
>>41026932
>>41026960
I'm one of those three guys.

Why have you voted for that option?
I did so because I wager that we could use a few level ups before we encounter the strongest members. My guess is that the important guys will not be where the main cluster of Smilers is.

>>41026979
Russian straight to the end seems like a shit idea, even if we're on a time limit. I'd like to get some more Essence as well as thin their numbers.

>>41027039
That and I'm loathe to let the quest rush to its end.

>>41027039
>>41027056
Let's just hope that this doesn't give them time to take off.

An encounter against essence-granting enemies would also strengthen Daegal significantly. He needs his trial by fire, as well as his first upgrade and maybe loot.

>>41026976
"Daegal, I'm going to say this one last time. This is the Red. Everything but us is going to try to kill you. Don't hesitate. It makes you an easier target."

Sound any better? So far out of the loop I've forgotten most of Joker's equipment so I'm going to be useless for battle. Might as well try to be shit at dialogue too.

>>41026900
>>41026932
>>41026951
>>41026960
>>41026963

> [X] "Daegal, this time you'll be fighting humans. Be prepared."

For a long, long moment, Daegal is silent. Then - very, very slowly - he nods.

"...It was always going to come down to that in the end, wasn't it?" he murmurs, almost to himself - Despite his gleaming armor, despite the gleaming orichalcum that encases him, he looks weary. Weary, and resigned. "We *have* to stop them - and the only we can stop them is..."

"Kazuya." Akira's voice is clipped, with all the sympathy of a rock. "-Don't get sentimental."

Rook's dry, hissing chuckle comes a heartbeat later, as he pads forward - his talons skritch-scratching against the ground. Haze - while ostensibly attending to the readouts of his chequered armor, making some last-minute adjustments to the toxin mix - is listening.

"-It's not that. Look-" Kazuya casts around for support. "Today has been...Fuck, it's been horrifying. The things I've seen-" his voice falters, just for a moment - but he rallies, magnificently. Carries on. "What happened to the *people* here...What's going to happen to *everyone* - I know - I *know* we have to-"

> "Daegal, I'm going to say this one last time. This is the Red. Everything but us is going to try to kill you. Don't hesitate. It makes you an easier target."

He stares at you. Then at the Thief, watching him - And you can't help but feel that you've scored a point.

(Continued)

>>41027174
I feel reminded that we don't have our Bishamon counter set anymore.

I wish we could have gained the Apex Blade after he left it. It could have had symbolical value for later.

>>41027174

"All right," he says. His arm comes up, and he wipes at his mouth - the way he'll do with his sleeve, when he's troubled. But this time - there is only the *screech* of metal; the sound brittle enough - sharp enough - to draw sparks. And that, more than anything, snaps him back to the here-and-now, as the portal's glow plays off the hard edges of his armor.

It's Armaros who stirs, first. He lumbers forward, ponderous in his articulated superheavy plate - Pausing, for a moment, before the threshold. "Joker-" he utters. His gaze sweeps across the chamber, taking you in - taking in Daegal, Haze, the Thief...And yes, even Rook.

"-It has been an honor."

And then he steps through. There is a *bang* like an electrified grid - He is larger than the portal, but then the portal is larger than him, and it swallows him in a swell of eye-twisting light-

Rook starts forward - But it's Daegal who goes next. "Let me," he says, squaring his shoulders; He hefts the Condemner in one hand, the Adamant locked around the other - as if he's trying to find some comfort in them, or simply steeling himself for what comes next. He's admirably unwavering, as he forces himself forward into the blinding arc...

Another bang. Another one gone.

Rook's hand comes to rest - Briefly - on Haze's shoulder. Haze actually starts, at the unexpected gesture - As the raptor-masked killer's spined shoulders lift in a wry shrug. "-I'll be waiting." Rook growls - He crosses the narrow distance in four loping strides, the cables and snaking veins beneath his armor drawing taut, bunching with effort...

It's Haze who hesitates.

"Joker-" he says, at last - Almost pleading.

"Joker - If I don't...If I-" a pause, fumbling for the words - "You'll take care of Rook, right? You'll make sure that - Whatever's *happening* to him, they won't..." He shakes his head - there's a slight tremor to his gauntleted hands, as they bunch into fists. "He'll be fine, won't he?"

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>41027318
"I'll do what I can, Haze, but it's up to you to make sure I don't have to. Isn't that why you asked me to teach you in the first place?"

>>41027318
>"Joker - If I don't...If I-" a pause, fumbling for the words - "You'll take care of Rook, right? You'll make sure that - Whatever's *happening* to him, they won't..." He shakes his head - there's a slight tremor to his gauntleted hands, as they bunch into fists. "He'll be fine, won't he?"
"Haze, you have been trained by me, the Red Joker, the boogeyman of the Red. There is no reason to be so humble.
Sure, I'll do my best to protect Rook. But I know that he would rather have you at his side.
So do your best. If you fail, I'll be your backup.
But until then, it's your job.
Haze, Rook cares about you as much as you care about him. Try to stay at his side."

>>41027318
"My job is to make sure you survive. Yours is to make sure he survives."

>>41027387
>>41027401

"My *job*..." he echoes, faintly - the slitted triangles of his eyeslits pulsing green.

He draws himself up, to his full, lanky height. He nods - But whether it's determined or just resigned, it's hard to tell. The vent tubes branching out from the exhaust ports in his shoulders, in the grille of his helmet, continue to ooze his namesake haze: the array of faintly-glowing controls rods in his back cycling, as he strides forward into the light.

And then he's gone.

The Thief looks in his direction, for a long, long time.

"-Locked on," he vocalizes. "The center of Smiler activity - the highest concentration of Essence signatures on the ship. One and the same."

"Joker: This feels like the end."

The Fatal Abyss scabbard is locked to the Thief's back, in a breakaway harness - Even at rest, his hand is never far from it, the fingers flexing stiffly as he rises. Behind him, the uncertain hum of the console continues, centipede-spines riling; little patches of orange light flickering, as semi-organic cabling seethes behind the transparent panels as if it were alive.

"Hnnnn," he murmurs - There is stiffness to his motions, like rigor mortis; His other hand grips his wrist, as if attempting to massage some life back into it. An auto-injector hisses - the Lachryma within a mere pulse on your field of vision, compared to the tide of it at your back - and the Thief's rigid stance eases.

"Any regrets, Joker?"

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>41027585
That's beautifully concise.

>>41027600
"Hecate. Mio. Cybele. Plenty. Doesn't matter. Going to deal with the source of it all. I want closure on this mess they dragged me into."

>>41027600
>"I never got a chance to repay Hecate."
>"You?"

>>41027600
"Plenty. Should have far fewer once I'm done here, whatever the result. You?"

>>41027600
>"Any regrets, Joker?"
"Many, but some things can still be rectified. That's why I'm here.
The very least I can do, is prevent these lunatics from hurting more people.
I just hope I don't have to kill anymore friends.

Akira, if we get out of this alive... Let's celebrate.
I know at least one person who will not be mourned outside of the Red, unless I survive.

Until then, no more time for regrets. Less thinking, more doing."

>>41027600
"Several, i suppose. But what we do now is to possibly make amends for those regrets and to hopefully make no more."

>>41027600
More than I can remember. Hecate, Cybele, Mio, Bishomon, and more. But that's not important right now.

>>41027600
"Many.
That's why I will cheerfully slaughter all the people behind this shit.
Time to end this lunacy. I would make it stylish, but that might horrify Kazuya. And I lost the ability to set myself on fire."

>>41027777
Don't cut yourself on all that edge

>>41027791
Even my trips have an edgy number.

Seriously, is there a number with more edges than 7?

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>>41027679
>>41027683
>>41027693
>>41027699
>>41027754

> "Hecate. Mio. Cybele. Plenty. Doesn't matter. Going to deal with the source of it all. I want closure on this mess they dragged me into."
> "I never got a chance to repay Hecate."
> "You?"

He's silent. Solemn, that ivory skull locked in an eternal dead-man's grin.

"I regret...Many things."

The Thief looks up. Up, and away - Looking into the distance, at something only he can see.

"-But there was no other way."

>>41027722

A chance to finish things. A chance to *end* things-

And deep within you, you know one thing for sure - A lot of stories will be ending today.

> "Akira, if we get out of this alive... Let's celebrate."
> "Until then, no more time for regrets. Less thinking, more doing."

He puts out his hand - His real hand, not the skeletal horror concealed beneath his glove. When you take it, the Thief nods, just once; an acknowledgement - a *promise* - at once.

"I'll hold you to that...Anon."

He steps back. The portal's light swells, before you - the sound of your footfalls drowned out in the rising hum of power. The glare-filters of your helm cut in; your alien, abhorrent optics filtering out the radiance from the spaces between infinity.

As the Thief turns back towards the controls, you take a final step forward - into the whirling chaos that rises before you-

There is a dizzying sensation of falling. A burst that scorches and jolts every molecule of your form. For one blank moment, your sensors register only static - and you stumble, your balance screwed for a second - gyros whirring, fighting to keep you standing as the loud double-bang of overstressed air pressure erupts in a thunderclap-

And when your sensors flicker, when they cohere, you see a city aflame.

(Continued)

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>>41027846
>And when your sensors flicker, when they cohere, you see a city aflame.
Goddamn it.
I think our team might be too motivated.

>>41027894
Trap. Enfer, more than likely. That or the Smilers are so batshit they'd set fire to the very city they intended to live in.

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>>41027846
>And when your sensors flicker, when they cohere, you see a city aflame.

>>41027846

For one moment - for one moment - you're certain that you're in the streets of ARCADIA again, the alien spires and the skyscrapers illuminated by the pyrefires, playing across the uneven surfaces of a dozen, a score, thousands of vast shapes...

But only for a moment.

STAGE: PANOPTICON

The vision is stark, in its realer-than-realer intensity; a stage of panoramic destruction, thousands upon thousands of threads of dirty smoke rising into the ochre sky across the giant vista. It is a scale that is difficult to comprehend, like the scenic backdrop of an apocalyptic painting - But this is different. This is unfolding as you watch.

"Look-" Daegal says - His gaze centered on a distant tower, one of five. "*Look*-"

The assault is still unfolding. Players, too small - antlike - battle along the span of an immense tower, one of five. Part of it have blown out, ejecting huge sprays of debris; the cloudbursts little more than exhalations of dust at this distance, but it is simply scale at work again. As you watch, a whole bridge section collapses - You see forms falling, tumbling, tiny, the flamelight catching armor and metal - some, too few, ignite thrusters, jump packs...

Others simply fall.

Along the leading edge of the attack, the air seems to distort. Massive lamp-like turrets rotate, projecting down beams of annihilating energy, turning like the beacons of fatal lighthouses. They leave black, steaming scars where they strike - you see a Player struggling to draw another free, before the annihilating light washes over both of them-

(Continued)

I thought it was the city we live in ablaze.

>>41028135
I wish we could use our railgun here.

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>>41028135
Eyyy we can finally get some more buddies

>>41028183
We are looking at a projection of the outside environment.

>>41028135

"We have-" Haze stammers - "We have to *help* them-"

His words are interrupted by a deep tremor, as the entire face of the Pylon tower slumps like a landslip - its form unforming, structure blurring, weight ripping down off the face of the main tower, exploding outwards into the gulf. In that flash, in that senseless roar, there is a chain of expanding blasts...

-The sky flickers. The *Shield* flickers. It is rent, now - Rent and torn and tattered - omen weather swirling overhead. It wavers, but continues to hold-

There is a rush of wings. Black-fletched, leathery, dripping with bile. A cloud swirls away from somewhere *beneath* you - A morass of flesh-eaters, of Correctors, led by the flying titans of the Cryptids - drawn unerringly to the fight. The scale of the structure beneath you is only now apparently; the chromic spars of a sensor array, the muzzles of atmospheric cannons, segmented in slabs of connected metal. Buttresses, steeples and turrets, flight hangars and lance arrays...

And Armaros intones, over your shoulder:

"Two down." Not without bleak satisfaction - "One left."

It takes you a moment to realize that the space you stand within is not *truly* open to the air. It is a vast actuality sphere, perfectly transparent, enhanced by tactical displays, by sensors, that allow you to track each and every unfolding moment - a long corridor spanning the distance, with a knife-edge's keeness.

It is the place nearest to the Diadem's bridge, a place you've glimpsed only once before.

Another thunderclap. The Thief lands, his legs flexing beneath him to take the impact - he doesn't even stumble, straightening slowly. He's within hand's-breadth of Daegal, who flinches; jarred back into the here and now, as he stammers out-

"Wha-"

"Is this...Is this what's happening, *right now*?" Haze is saying, staring aghast. "-They're *down* there, fighting..."

(Continued)

>>41028261

"Too late," Rook rasps. It's not without sympathy, as his avian helm cranes. "-We go forward."

There is a single path remaining. A long, linear corridor, translucent rather than transparent - Clustered with holographic screens, displaying unknowable readings. Underfoot, smaller displays feed sensor-data and code-chains in neon tracks, in light-pathways to the great quicksilver sphere that hovers in the center of all that vastness, an infinite drop to either side...

There is a door. It is the single most solid thing that exists here, in this chamber of glass and fire - Thick, with a toothed base locked into the slots of the deck, like the gate of a portcullis. It is huge, formed of adamant - spare, functional, utilitarian, shorn of the warping alien architecture that makes up the rest of Diadem.

The emblem of the Smilers - a smile turned into a shriek - is graven on the oiled surface.

And dimly, like a half-forgotten memory, the fires of EXEC_HARROW pulse beyond.

Slowly, ever-so-slowly - with a tectonic rumble, an awful inevitability, it begins to rise. Only a little at a time, as the pulse of the neon pathways underfoot grow brighter - illuminating the way forward.

It reminds you, distantly, of the secret heart of the Hollow Sun.

"What do we do?" Daegal says, turning to face you. "Joker - What do we do?"

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>41028420
"Strike first and strike hard."
Load the Fusion Annihilator from Cobalt Booster while the door opens.


Please don't let this be a hostage situation.

>>41028420
"We get ready for whatever waits ahead."

Activate the Auspex, start charging up the FA with Booster, have level two Sinistral and EXEC_BARRIER ready.

>>41028420
everybody Scanners forward first foremost

Have our hungry little Scylla ready to lash out

Should we deploy the interceptors now?

>>41028498
Right now I'm glad for Forebode and its reflexive activation.

If there's an innocent person behind the door, we can stop the attack in time.

>>41028658
We are already using POWER_TRANSFER on the Fusion Annihilator.

Interceptors would need to be powered by Meter. And Meter is a precious resource right now.

>>41028678
Alright so what if we have Kazbro brace with the Adamant in front of us with Batman behind him in case he gets hit with something extra heavy?

>>41028714
>>41028662

(Yes - With Forebode, it's literally impossible to surprise you. Whenever a combat starts, you act first.)

>>41028730
Oh yeah I forgot about that

>>41028714
Good idea.

And if something heavy actually comes, we activate Fortress Mode.

Man, now I wish we'd have that upgrade that allows us to activate Shroud modules from Fortress mode. Imagine surrounding enemies in the thing, then letting it stab them to death.

Random thought:
Are the Abruption Jets faster in Aquila mode?
After all, if we are already hovering, shouldn't it have less resistance to work against, in addition to having a slight boost from Aquila itself providing horizontal momentum?

>>41028791

(My apologies, but - mechanically - there's no difference.)

>>41028464
>>41028498

Power surges down your arm. Cold light kindles in the Sinistral - the wedge of light expanding, crackling force jagging across the buzzing edges of the ghost-steel shield. Schematics sketch themselves into existence; Burning lines at right-angles to reality, assembling themselves into the lethal, long-barreled shape of the Fusion Annihilator. Within the cannon mechanism, hydraulics turn banks of capacitors in opposing rotation, building charge, cycling to full power - Azoic radiance kindled within the motonic circuitry, the emitter coils pulsing with internal light.

The corridor is wide enough for five to walk abreast. As if all possibilities collapse down towards this moment, a kind of hyper-awareness surging through you, like an amphetamine bloom; Waves of phantom sensation that course through your limbs, waking them up, spiking them into life.

You have always been here, because there is no past. All that exists of the past is the web whose knots are the structure of the present. And you will always be here because there is no future: Everything that is about to happen never will.

There - One of the threads, a simple one, almost straight: that's Hecate, watching from above - shielding her eyes against the light-bloom of BAPHOMET'S death. That thread is tied to an infinite number of others, progressively more tangled - Here is Kazuya, on the long, long journet that brings him here, at your side - but that string is tied to many others, and the others to others still, curling outwards into the invisible, infinite distance.

The future cannot be predicted. It can only be experienced.

It is never a question of whether you'll die.

It is only a question of how.

(Continued)

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>>41028932

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>>41028932
The endgame is afoot.

>>41028932

They fall into line behind you. Daegal, at your right hand - the Thief, at your left. Armaros looms, casting a long shadow - the great blade Ascalon slanting over his shoulder, as Distortion Haze and Rook stand on either side of him. It is a singular moment; a moment that will never be repeated.

The door completes its ascent, and the lights in the chamber beyond come on.

The light is cold, harsh, but bright - deeply unnatural, a mauve glow that issues forth from the countless crystal matrices and conductive circuit paths for the glowing lines of data that flow like blood. There is a chiming chorus of cognition; the translucent steel of the tessellated octagonal tiles underfoot arranged in intricate patterns of mechanistic symmetry, fitting together like the teeth of a fractal dragon. The vast torus chamber is - impossibly - far larger within than without; Ozone hangs thick in the air, beneath the tesseract ceiling, the writhing lightnings beyond sealed away.

They're waiting for you. One for one, your opposite numbers.

Enfer.

Bell Zephyr.

Rust Kaiser.

Calcite Arrow.

Inox Fang.

And - the most exquisite Player form you've ever seen. A gown of midnight, of lace, of shimmersilk, black roses worked into the hem. An immaculate pearl mask, chased with gold, conceals her face; but it leaves her lips bare, full lips of memory-metal with the sheen of quicksilver. It is a marvellous illusion of life, down to the living, rippling strands of hair that cascades down the sleek curve of her back, left bare by the flowing lines of her gown - veined by crystal-threaded circuitry.

She does not move. She *flows*.

The name that flickers across your field of vision - As targeting sensors cohere - is SOLITAIRE. But her name is-

"-Alura."

(Continued)

>>41029271
Does that mean she got a Chalice Queen armor?

>>41029271
So, I guess this is the moment we pit our companions against theirs.
Anyone have ideas who'll duel who?

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>>41029271
Great they have a support unit

>>41029344
First we Castigate Kaiser, then we sweep the Fusion Annihilator.
Then we send our a swarm and fuck people with Rubicante.

THEN the fight starts. Need to soften enemies up first, ya know?

I guess Rook will assault Alura directly. I'd prefer if we could allow Haze to help him directly.
Enfer might be our best opponent. Kazuya could kill Inox Fang, which would mean that we both would be linked by the Inox Fang relic... I'd love the irony.
Our sensors should help against Enfer's traps, at the very least. The environment will prevent Kaiser from casting his sandstorm.

Arrow gets murdered by Thief and then there's Bell Zephyr and Rust Kaiser. Not sure if Armaros could take them both on.

The good news is that Arrow and Fang are only a nuisance. The bad news is that some of our fighters are quite damaged. And that we got Rust Kaiser and Alura as our enemies.

>>41029344
Inbox has a hate boner or bag for us so she's coming for our butt
Kaiser we have that super sekret command that I'm terrified to use until he's heavily injured or contained

So Daegal backs us up and keep Fang off us
We try to disable Kaiser
If Rook can hold it he should stay away from Enfer that black shit in him loves fire maybe he can project his hate on Alura unto bell or something
Thief gets Calcite
Amaros and Haze back each other up?

>>41029344
Armaros is well-equipped for fighting Enfer.
The Adamant, non-degradable armor and lack of external machines/electronics makes Daegal a good counter to Rust Kaiser.
Thief's speed and weapon is good for taking down Bell Zephyr.
Rook will probably bull-rush Alura, but otherwise his mobility is good for dealing with Calcite Arrow.
Joker himself has a great advantage against Inox Fang.
Haze isn't good at fighting anyone directly, but if we distract Alura, he can nuke her.

>>41029423
>First we Castigate Kaiser, then we sweep the Fusion Annihilator.
Castigate takes a full turn to cast, so I'm not sure it's good to use it while everyone is too busy fighting to protect Joker.

>>41029435
>Kaiser we have that super sekret command that I'm terrified to use until he's heavily injured or contained
If we castigate Kaiser, Zephyr will go berserk and assault us.

Hey, one thing we could try:
Use Zalgo for the message "Kouchi, this is your last chance to take Megumi to safety".

>>41029455
The issue is that we can't cast it at any other point.
It has a massive Booster drain.

Whatever we do, don't cast that fucking codeburst at Kaiser if we can afford not to.

>>41029455
Definitely Fusion Annihilator first, then. Might give us a bit of stun effect.

How about Annihilator, followed by Smite?
We can kill Arrow or Fang from the get-go.

>>41029465
I would refine this to "Kouchi, take Megumi and run."

>>41029476
Imago said that we have to kill Megumi first before using it. Neglecting this might let Kaiser resist Castigate, making it a waste of Booster.

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>>41029271

The echo of Rook's hiss lingers in the air, like the bitter rasp of a protracted threat.

They have changed. All of them, except for the ones you do not know.

Enfer's boots send shivers through the ground. Layers and layers of densely packed brass gird his chest and limbs; One fist, the multi-jointed one of disproportionate size, is less like metal - and more like black stone inlaid with brass. Spiraling whorls of green flame bleed from the glyphs acid-etched into the surface, the same nuclear fire that flickers within his core and lights his helm from within.

Rust Kaiser is. He *is*, but he is worse. Infinitely worse.

The pagan horns of twisted bone that rise from Bell Zephyr's mask and limbs - the flickering, overlapping shadows cast by Inox Fang's form as fists clench the hilts of great klaive blades...

But it is Enfer who speaks first. Perhaps the lines between the Red and the world have blurred to nothing, or it is the dim echo of a final revelation - For the harsh growl of Enfer's words is the bitter smoker's rasp of Nanase Ren.

"It's been a long time, Joker."

"-We've been waiting for you."

JOKER QUEST

EPISODE 137

TO BE CONTINUED

>>41029510
Ok, then I suggest trying Zalgo first.

Oh and open with Chain Mines against Enfer. Just for the sake of irony.

>>41029506
>I would refine this to "Kouchi, take Megumi and run."
>>41029465
>Use Zalgo for the message "Kouchi, this is your last chance to take Megumi to safety".

Guys, Kouichi is Bishamon. Rust Kaiser has only ever been referred to as Kou.

>>41029510

(My apologies, but to clarify - He *did* want you to kill Megumi, but he didn't state that killing her was a precondition to using EXEC_CASTIGATE.)

>>41029529

(Gentlemen: I hate to stop here, but it's extremely late on my end. I would love to continue, but tomorrow's the start of a work week - I'm aware this is very abrupt, but I'll pick up from where I left off next week...And hopefully run a longer session, for this to be given the full attention it requires.

Good night, and God bless - I hope to see you again next week.)

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>>41029529
Man I wish if there was one guy that could turn it would be Enfer

Time to kill everything
Again

Okay, so what is the current consensus on next episode?

I think Annihilator is the first thing everyone wants to do.
Do we do a sweep or do we attack a specific target?

Afterwards, what do we follow up with? Swarm? Smite? Trying to Zalgo Kou?

Interceptors would be decisively useless right now. But we will finally get meter again, so mines and everything are finally another option.
...Should we fortress Kaiser if he doesn't react to Zalgo? That would buy us a few rounds to elimiate the weaker enemies first.

>>41029439

I actually thought that Armaros should fight Kaiser. Heavy vs heavy.

>>41029911
It seems inefficient because Armaros is highly lethal against most foes, but putting him against Kaiser will just force him into a standstill.