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You are Arthur Bernhard: 20 year old fugitive, killer, wielder of the Power of Destruction and Dark Lord Candidate beholden to Chaos.

Hiding aboard a cruise ship from the powerful organization seeking to capture you and traveling to Europe, you've finally managed to earn yourself some peace and quiet, having hopefully dealt with the last of the supernatural issues aboard the ship.

After managing to calm Holly down, she traveled around the ship with you for a time, as you pursued a trail of destruction left by Alura and one of your newest allies, Grigori. An ice magic wielding assassin who seems to value his own life very highly. After successfully recruiting him, it was on his suggestion that you searched through the camera archives of the ship, ultimately leading you to finally find Sophia Hildebrandt, the vampire you were seeking.

Going alone into her domain, you confronted Sophia, who was actually surprisingly welcoming, given the circumstances, and you seem to have managed to achieve some sort of alliance with her for now. She even agreed to let you be the one in charge of Holly. Though whether that is a mistake or not on your part remains to be seen,

Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=WhatIsAQM

Character Sheet: https://pastebin.com/zZKZAjgU

Last Thread: >>4086443
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Watching the girl work, you can't help but wonder just what it is she intends to do with that magic circle on the floor, occasionally, she leans down and makes a correction or a new addition to it by hand, other times she simply makes a gesture with her hand. It's clear that she's somehow measuring something as she makes the gestures, as she continues her work on the circle.

Taking a closer look at the circle reminds you somewhat of the circle you saw a few days ago, back at the hotel, you aren't certain if the script is the same, but the basic layout seems very similar, eventually your curiosity gets the better of you, and you can't hold back any longer from asking about the circle. "So, Sophia, just what is it that you're doing, exactly. What's the point of this magic circle on the floor? I'm quite interested in learning more about magic." It's very likely to do with summoning, but you don't want to blurt it out in an attempt to look more informed than you truly are. The basic visual similarity could just be a trait instrumental in all magic circles, no matter what purpose they might be intended to serve.

Sophia stops her work on her current task and turns to regard you "It's just a basic summoning circle that I've been modifying to suit my purposes, the worst part about being bound like I was for all those years means I could only focus on the theoreticals, and as such, putting what I spent that time thinking of into practice can range from anywhere between effortless to nigh-impossible." Interesting, so despite Sophia's clearly vast knowledge of magic, the majority is untested theoretical knowledge, with no real basis in reality? Though you suppose 'basis in reality' is a strange word to use when referring to magic, and regardless of how much she's tested the results of her isolation, you can't really argue with the results. The existence of this pocket dimension you're currently standing within is simply mind-boggling. You feel slightly pleased with yourself that you correctly surmised the purpose of the circle, even if it was a guess made entirely with coincidence and luck.

"So, what exactly are you attempting to summon then?" You can't hide your interest in the idea of summoning beings to do your bidding, it simply feels appealing, but you can't really place the feeling. A feeling of emptiness quickly wells up inside of you the longer you think about just why you're so interested in the idea. Perhaps it's best not to pursue that particular train of thought, you've already gotten a minor headache from just that few seconds spent thinking about the cause of the empty feeling.
>>
"Seeing as you've decided to watch me, I'll leave it as a surprise for a moment. The one problem with summoning demons is that if you make the opening too wide, hundreds of the blasted things attempt to swarm through at once. It's really quite the inconvenience, having to deal with such a number." She coughs into her hand. "Though of course such a thing will never occur again. I've just had to work on a way to reduce the number that can crawl through at once. They are such an unruly people, these demons. While they were no match for me, they did still cause quite some damage to my room I had to take the time to repair before I erased the last one of them." So Sophia is trying to tell you her spell was too effective? So she's basically been attempting to reduce the power of her magic? You can't help but be impressed by the vampire's magical skills. "Ah, well I also decided to make a few more alterations to the spell in order to properly pinpoint desired targets."

"Then, I hate to be a pain, but when exactly do you believe that your preparations for activating the circle will be complete?" It's not like you can wait around for days just to look at Sophia summoning some demon from the pits of hell. Odds are it will simply attack and give you no choice but to obliterate it. Hopefully Sophia has taken countermeasures against such things from occurring.

"Oh? Preparations?" Sophia makes a long contemplative sound as she looks at you and then back to the magical circle on the floor, occasionally pulsing with a strange energy. "Well~ There is one thing that you can do to help out with this, if you truly wish to..." The way the previously so easily shocked by romance girl is smirking at you makes you want to tease her again, but you decide against it, for now, at least.

"Very well, Sophia, what is it you need from me then?" There's no harm asking, even if you end up having to deny the request later on.

Her smug smirk falters for a second, as you make your reply "Just something small, really. All I need is a single drop of your blood to ensure the summoning ritual runs at peak efficiency..."

>"My blood? Does it have to be my blood?"
>Allow her to go through with extracting a single drop of blood.
>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly
>Write-in...
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>>4133694
>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly

She just said she has problems controlling her summoning power, so she probably wants to drink it and gain a temporary Dracula aura.
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>>4133694
>Allow her to go through with extracting a single drop of blood.
She just said she has problems controlling her summoning power, so she probably wants to drink it and gain a temporary Dracula aura.
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>>4133752
>letting Arthur become a consumable power-up
have you no self-respect? she should learn how to summon all on her own.
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>>4133758
Think of it like a baptism of the Dark Lord. By the act of granting her a boon, a piece of ourself that empowers her, we're taking another step toward our supremacy over the people of Chaos.
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>>4133767
>having trouble summoning? come on down to Arthurs'!
>one drop of his blood and you wont have summoning troubles guaranteed or you get your sacrificed virgin back free!
Supremacy is just that, being better at it than others. Becoming a focus aid is pretty low tier on the totem pole.
>>
>>4133694
>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly
Blood of a Dark Lord Canditate? Nah. Not today, Hilde.
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>>4133778
Sure, and priests see god as a powerless miracle-vendor. It's all in the presentation, anon.
Besides, building dependency would be a great way to cement our influence over her.
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>>4133786
or if it ends up too effective she may just imprison us and drain us to summon infinite armies from hell.
God a shit anyway, all theists should spontaneously combust for being heretical.
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>>4133694
>>Allow her to go through with extracting a single drop of blood.
Let's help her out, sure.
>>
>>4133694
>>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly
I mean if she's trying to fine tune her magic and she doesn't have a vial of human blood nearby she probably doesn't need it for the summoning. So why introduce a new element to your spell? Just try to get it to work normally first. I don't get it. I don't want to accidentally summon fucking Beelzebub or something.
>>
As Sophia looks at you expectantly waiting for you to agree with her, your will almost falters before you harden your resolve. Be it by some form of magic inherent to vampires or just some natural aptitude towards convincing others to do her bidding. It will take more than just that in order to convince you that handing this girl some of your blood would be a good idea. Maybe if you knew what she actually needed it for specifically, but as things are right now, handing over even a single droplet of your blood to her would be tantamount to signing a contract without reading the small print. You've had quite enough of contracts of which you don't know the terms of with Mistral as it is.

"I'm afraid not, Sophia. I would much prefer if all my blood remained firmly within the confines of my body. I don't see any reason for you to need it." Besides, becoming a bloodbag is in no way something that anybody in an equal partnership or alliance should consider allowing themselves to be tricked into. While you don't particularly find Sophia untrustworthy, that doesn't mean you should simply blindly agree to all of her requests.

Sophia pouts in response to your refusal. "Please? I promise it won't hurt a bit, you won't feel a thing!" Her insistence on getting a drop of your blood and not giving you a proper excuse as to why she needs it leaves you thinking that there's some sort of reason behind her asking for it. Unrelated to summoning whatever demon she's attempting to call forth. The strangeness of so casually being involved in the summoning of a demon does however feel like something of a joke to you, something considered both taboo as well as impossible by almost every sane person on the planet, and here Sophia is, practicing the art in her bedroom during her spare time.

Though even with your rising suspicion, the second request feels like it has more weight to it somehow, but once again, you suppress the rising desire to simply go along with the girl's wishes. Seems it really is the nature of the vampire to bewitch others. A man of a lesser will would not being able to resist the charm of the girl in her plea for blood, this has to be her nature of a vampire at play, this girl is acting more persuasive than you even thought possible. You're beginning to understand just why they are considered so dangerous even among those with magical abilities. If all powerful vampires are somewhat similar to Sophia with their own skills, you can't help but imagine the scenario of a vampire hunter training his entire life in order to defeat the creatures of the night, only to have his will falter and be made to lay down his weapons, or perhaps even be turned into that which they set out to slay. But not you, you've made your decision not to hand over you blood, and nobody will manipulate you into doing their bidding.
>>
"I said no, Sophia. That's my final decision. Perhaps were we to know each other better, or if I had a better idea as to what you needed it for, I would be more inclined to part with it, but I can't do so at this point." There's no telling just what damage could be done if Sophia had a sample of your blood, you don't even want to think about what somebody like her could do with even a single drop of blood. From your compass, you know that blood clearly has many uses when it comes to magic. Handing over a drop willingly to Sophia seems a recipe for future misfortune. You aren't confident enough in your current relationship with her to do something that could end up with her getting a powerful weapon to use against you. Though you aren't ignoring the other possibility that she is simply thirsty, and wishes for a drop of your blood. You have very mixed feelings on that possibility however, it seems unlikely that she would only want a single drop of blood if she actually intended on quenching some vampiric thirst though.

Sophia looks somewhat stunned by your second refusal of her request, almost as if she was expecting you to simply immediately comply with her upon her repeating her request. She looks almost bewildered, you're just about to ask what's got her so confused till the confusion is wiped off her face. "Seems that you were born with an unnaturally strong will. To be able to resist me so easily. To be expected of the future Dark Lord, I suppose. But very well, I'll respect your decision, it's not exactly crucial to my success here anyway. But I can't help but wonder..." She trails off with an unsaid question. You consider it something of a relief that the unnatural charisma of the vampire before you failed to persuade you into giving her what she wanted. Seems that if Sophia wants something from you, she'll be unable to rely on that particular ability granted to her to help her better prey upon humans. "Let us not dwell on this matter then. The summoning circle is about ready, you may want to stand back a few steps just in case I summon something that is... less than cooperative with me." After your experience with that demon in the hotel, you don't exactly need to be told twice that being near whatever is about to come through the portal might be a bad idea.
>>
You watch silently as you take a few steps away from the circle. Sophia slashes across the palm of her hand with the sharp nails on her other, blood seeps from the open wound on her palm as she leans down and presses it into the center of the circle, and begins speaking slowly as the circle begins glowing a bright red. "Beings that dwell in the world beneath, I invite you to this world to allow it's inhabitants to witness you in all of your dark glory and to know true despair! Now come forth, Demons! Come and serve your new master!" The incantation is certainly quite dramatic, but before you really get to think of it too much, the red light grows brighter and fills the entire room, forcing you to cover you eyes.

As you recover from the flash of light, you see that the room is coated in a heavy layer of smoke, obscuring the center of the circle. You can see Sophia standing next to the Circle, she looks quite pleased with herself. though you couldn't say why. At least until a female voice rings forth from the plume of smoke. "So was the one who summoned me you then, vampire? Who's the boy? A sacrifice?" The demon within the smoke seems to regard you with a callous lack of interest.

"Absolutely not." Sophia's voice is harsh as she flicks a wrist towards the plume of smoke, causing it to immediately disperse and revealing the one hiding within it. The demon is not a humanoid abomination like you had assumed it would appear as, but rather that of a beautiful maiden, with strange turquoise hair and red eyes, as well as pointed ears. Were you not certain of her being a demon, having just witnessed her summoning, you would much sooner assume her to be some variety of vampire. "You have quite a lot of pride, for a lowly maid of hell, don't you? I'll let you know now that I summoned you here to serve me. You aren't even close to powerful enough to bother with giving a sacrifice, and don't pretend otherwise." Sophia's voice is condescending and smug, almost as if she's dealing with some petulant child that she dislikes.

"Serve you? Now why would I serve you, vampire? I have no obligations to serve one such as yourself." The demon maid attempts to put up a resistance to the overwhelming Sophia's demands. But it's quite obvious as to who has the upper hand in this negotiation, and the demon knows it.
>>
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Sophia giggles before she responds with a smile. "Because, demon, if you refuse, I'll tear that soul of yours right from your body and cast it into the abyss for all eternity." It feels like the temperature in the room was just cut in half at Sophia's frankly chilling threat, you can feel that it's not said with an ounce of exaggeration either, she means exactly what she says. Though the demonic maid seems to still have some measure of defiance in her, even with that level of threat levied against her.

>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.
>Join Sophia in threatening her. She had the gall to consider you a sacrifice, after all, and that just can't stand.
>Write-in...
>>
I guess this is the problem of updating at a different time than usual.
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>>4134198
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.

>>4134281
I was asleep, myself.
>>
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.

We should've gotten a demon butler.
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>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
Sophia needs to calm the hell down.
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>>4134198
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.
Oh.
Persephone.
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>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
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>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
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>>4134198
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.

>>4134393
>Sophia giggles before she responds with a smile
Sounds plenty calm to me. It's a demon. You don't play nice with them unless you want to get fucked over. Sure you're not just looking for any detail to grind your axe on?
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>>4134403
>smiling and laughter mean calmness.
never seen anyone get so mad they laugh?
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>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
>Be the Good Cop to Sophia's Bad Cop and extract information that way.
Just because we're playing nice doesn't mean we're a dumbass.
>>
Seems we've hit a tie, hopefully a tiebreaker can come sooner rather than later.
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>>4134661
Your quest has the most ties I've ever seen.
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>>4134665
As a writer, it's quite nice having been able to have made something that causes disagreements between the readers.
As a QM, ties get tiresome quite quickly.
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>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
Good cop, bad cop.
>>
Writing now.
Though for the other people who voted to convince her peacefully, would you prefer a Good Cop, Bad Cop routine or to just try to convince the maid by yourself?
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>>4135070
Convince alone.
>>
For as effective as Sophia's threats towards the being she summoned seem to have been, you are unsure as to how much longer they will continue to be so. Regardless, while Sophia may intend to break the demon's spirit before forcing it into her employ, there's no doubt that a working relationship built on fear and distrust between an employer and an employee is one that will never end in anything other than sorrow and misfortune for both parties.

So, you take a step forward in order to assist Sophia in convincing this rebellious demonic maid that has been called forth from whatever underworld is linked to that magic circle. "Now, now, I don't think there's going to be any need for you to have to go that far, Sophia. I believe that introductions are in order first. I am Arthur Bernhard, a Dark Lord Candidate. The girl who summoned you is a new ally of mine, Lady Sophia Hildebrandt." You lock eyes with the demon, who is still standing in the center of the summoning circle. "I think you would find things far easier on yourself if you cooperated with me here." If this summoned demon isn't blinded by rage or pride, they'll do well to accept your offer.

"A Dark Lord Candidate? What, you mean a Dark Lord like that vampire Dracula was? How ambitious of you! It explains the darkness I can feel surrounding you, if anything. But yes, now it would be quite impolite for me not to give you my name, wouldn't it? Very well then mortal, I am Adrianne, I have served loyally under the Princes of Hell for over a millenia. I have killed countless scores of my fellow demons simply to gain a position of relative comfort." It seems that she's regaining some sort of confidence as you speak with her. She turns to Sophia, who is glaring at the maid with an irritated look on her " So, as much as I appreciate your summon, whelp, I'm going to use this as my opportunity to wander this realm instead. So if you could be so kind as to show me the do-aiee!" She doesn't get to finish the sentence before cutting off into an earsplitting scream as her left leg suddenly bends out of shape violently, her long dress only enables you to see the effects on the very bottom of her leg as her skin and muscle seems to twist like dough, blood ruptures forth from the leg as the twisting causes tremendous wounds.
>>
You look to see the cause of Adrianne's pain, Sophia has her left arm outstretched reaching towards the maid, specifically towards her leg. "A whelp, am I? You might be older than I am, demon, but you let that pride of yours cloud your judgement again, and I'll make good on my promise to grant you an eternal death. You won't have much luck 'wandering this realm' with only a single good leg. Will you?" The smile she gives as she finishes speaking is of somebody who is clearly enjoying themselves. Sophia's relentless intimidation of the demon continues unimpeded by your attempt to give her a chance, now that she's crossed into delivering physical pain onto her target though, it's clear that Adrianne's resolve can't last much longer. Whatever she was expecting from the vampire, she clearly wasn't expecting her defiance to be met with mutilation. "But, I've not summoned you here to simply torture you. Agree to serve me and to a contract of my terms, and I will heal the injury I've dealt you. You've lived a long time, Miss Adrianne, do you really want to throw it all away for a moment's stubbornness?"

Seems that Sophia has begun to try to be diplomatic now that she's suitably threatened the demon she summoned in addition to mutilating one of her legs. It quickly dawns on you just how easily she could have done that to you, and you find yourself glad that you didn't attempt to pick a fight with Sophia. Even with the Power of Destruction, after seeing the abilities she's presented and what she's accomplished while apparently being completely unburdened by any sort of strain from doing so, you don't have much confidence in defeating her. You'll need to get many times stronger if you are ever to match up to her, you can tell that much. Sophia's abilities aside, you decide it would be best if you were the one to offer Adrianne the choice. Servitude or death, Sophia is really quite ruthless. You hope she wasn't this bad with Holly, if she was, it's no wonder the girl is so eager to leave her service.

"Well then Adrianne, what will you do? I don't want for Sophia to kill you, you know, and I'm sure that you value your life more than just allowing yourself to be killed over this. I don't know just how long Sophia intends for you to serve her, but you mentioned it yourself, didn't you? You're over a thousand years old, what difference does this make to you?" You give it your best shot at sealing the deal with the now scared looking woman half standing in the circle.

Adrianne grits her teeth before finally responding "...Fine. I'll accept this contract then, what... terms will I be serving you under? Vam-" Again she's cut off from speaking, but she doesn't scream this time. It's more like some sort of jolt of electricity that was behind her pain, and not the mutilation of her body.
>>
"Wonderful! All I needed was you to assent to the my proposal, and now the contract is complete! There's really no need for me to inform you of the terms, Oh, other than that you'll refer to me only as Lady Hildebrandt and Arthur her as Lord Bernhard, otherwise you'll suffer for failing to do so, as you just found out." Sophia seems quite happy that she's managed to successfully get the demon to enter her service. "And seeing as how you're already dressed for the job, you'll be responsible for cleaning my mansion, and your first task is to tidy up the circle I used to summon you with." Adrianne glares in Sophia's direction before turning around and working on tidying away the books and tools used to create the circle on the floor. As Sophia's new maid busies herself with her work, the vampire who just took control of her turns to you. "Thank you for the assistance, Arthur. To tell the truth, I've managed to get to the stage of having to convince them to agree to a contract before, and they always refused no matter how I threatened them! A lot of them ended up killing themselves in order to escape back to their native realm before I could punish them for it too! I was hoping to use your blood as an additional component in the circle in order help make it more difficult to resist for them." She seems both genuinely thankful that you helped her out, as well as confused at how the demons she's summoned here in the past could have not wanted to serve her. Though her mentioning how she was planning to use your blood is quite interesting.

Sophia stretches as she watches her newly recruited maid tidy away the mess created by her summoning. "Well Arthur, I suppose you want to return back to the cruise ship and to your other allies by now, don't you? Perhaps when we get to Germany, I can show you the true Hildebrandt estate, and not just this magical copy of it. I can only hope that one of my sisters decided not to abandon it. It would be a terrible shame for it to have undergone such a fate." You may have been intending to head into Europe, but not Germany specifically. You suppose it gives you some sort of goal to reach instead of just wandering aimlessly around the continent, waiting for Shirley and her colleagues to capture you for who knows what purpose.

>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
>"Why don't I bring them all here so they can meet you in this little world of your own you've set up? Knowing you're so powerful is sure to make them think an alliance is acceptable."
>Write-in...
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>>4135291
Apologies, anon, by the time you posted this, I was already mostly done with writing the update.
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>>4135364
>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."
>>
>>4135364
>>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."
We've wasted too much time already, let's see what is waiting for us behind the corner. Didn't Grigori say something about a monster smuggler? Who also got turned into mincemeat by Holly?
>>
>>4135364
>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."

>>4135367
Oh well. Letting Hilda tie nooses around her neck by angering demons is entertaining in it's own way.

>>4135413
No, his target was going to meet the dead monster smuggler.
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>>4135418
It's not the target what I'm worried about, anon.
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>>4135428
Yeah, I misread what you posted. rip. Looks like we might got wild monsters running round the ship, but at the least some monsters who aren't getting fed.
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>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
>>
>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
Time to cause everyone to feel horribly uncomfortable.
>>4135418
>implying demons are more dangerous than vampires in the Castlevania setting.
Vampires are bar none the strongest monsters in the setting.
Older ones are ridiculous.
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>>4135720
>implying demons wouldn't try to get back at her while she can still be put down
Good thing this one is just young enough to get herself killed.
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>>4135721
>implying
Brauner was Death tier at like 70 years old.
Nothing has implied to have challenged Sophia in any way so far.
She literally just toyed with the demon she summoned.
I highly doubt that treating demon subordinates as you should (showing off your superiority) is going to cause resentment.
>>
>>4135364
>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."
They don't trust Sophia enough to be introduced properly just yet, there is a time and place for it.
>>
>>4135723
>Hilda's safe because she's a bitch
all the demons killing themselves immediately instead of working for her kinda makes me doubt that.

Besides, if she mistreats her servants enough, they may create a loophole to exploit just to spite her, if not anything more harmful.
>>
>>4135364
>>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
>>
>>4135726
>all the demons killing themselves immediately instead of working for her kinda makes me doubt that.
I'm guessing that by killing themselves the demons just get to return to the underworld.
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>>4135731
Yeah, but they didn't even want to take the opportunity. Seems to me that Hilda's terms are shit even for fucking Demons, who are pretty lax as long as you don't try to scam them.
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>>4135733
Probably doesn't help that she's threatening to permanently kill them for refusing to serve her.
She's clearly not very good at convincing shit her magic vampire juju doesn't work on.
Demons are the last thing you want running around unrestricted.
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>>4135738
yeah but look, that shouldn't even be happening in the first place since supposedly vampires rank high on the power scale, and any demon should immediately jump at the chance for experience. they shouldn't even get to the permanent death part, cause she's powerful enough to summon them without sacrifices, or looking exhausted, in the first place.
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>>4135740
I guess she's just been unlucky on the Demon Gacha.
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>>4135743
luck can only account for so much my man.
Hilda is heading straight into her own destruction, and she's too bratty to realize it.

Very entertaining to watch the trainwreck in motion.
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>>4135743
>>4135744
If you want to know the specific results of her previous summon attempts, you can always ask her about them.
Just a thought.
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>>4135760
Nah. Tell us more about how you're doing, OP. How's life treating you?
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>>4135798
I'm doing Ok, anon.
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>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
>>
Oh, did we just get tied?
Ok then.
>>
>>4135940
You need to start calling votes before such niggerdry occurs.
>>
Could we summon our own butler though
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>>4136009
I too want to start summoning demons to see what could possibly go wrong.
I think we should have Grigori on hand in case one of them wants a sacrifice.
He's hardly useful for anything else.

I miss Shirley.
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>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
LET'S GO, EVIL DARK LORD CANDIDATE FRIENDSHIP!
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>>4135743
>in a den of summoners
>"YO HOLY SHIT I JUST GOT AN USR FOIL BEACH EDITION SUCCUBUS!"
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>>4136115
Is Brauner a whale?
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>>4136278
What?

Anyway, writing now.
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>>4136765
People who spend enormous amounts of money on gacha games are called whales.
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>>4135760
We'd just get her version of what happened, so it'd be useless anyway.
>>
While it's true that you've been with Sophia for quite some time, and you've accomplished your goals here, you can't help but feel like things won't be resolved until you've had Sophia actually introduced to your other allies. Simply putting things to the side and hoping you'll be able to resolve it later would just be cowardly. You might have managed to have put your negative feelings toward Sophia aside in order to secure both an Alliance with her and for the sake of Holly's safety, but you can't help but feel like you're going to have a harder time convincing your allies of Sophia's value as an ally if you return with only Holly with you. It would be easier if you had her properly introduce herself rather than rely on your ability to convince your allies.

You aren't altogether that worried about Grigori, Anna and by extension of Anna, Coller. But you know deep down that Alura and Sophia are almost guaranteed to clash, so it's probably better to get that out of the way while you're still in a controlled environment. If you intend to work together with Sophia, then you simply cannot allow your two most powerful allies to consider themselves adversaries. If the people coming after you are as powerful as you fear, the two of them squabbling during a battle against your mysterious pursuers could easily prove fatal.

So, weighing the options you have, you suppose you have no choice but to have her come with you to be introduced to the others with you personally. "Actually, Sophia. Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to the rest of my allies? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to get along." Or if the two can't get along, at least not have Sophia and Alura actively trying to cause harm or death to each other. Though you refrain from saying that part, though you have no illusions as to how well that Sophia's introduction is going to go down with the slightly erratic plant woman in particular. Hopefully with you there to properly intervene, you can prevent either party from resorting to violence.
>>
"Oh? You want to introduce me to those minions of yours? Very well. I suppose I should familiarize myself with your underlings properly. They seem to be quite loyal. Well, expect that assassin type you made join you, but that's just how people like him conduct themselves. They'll remain loyal to somebody as long as they are certain it will end in their favor. It's a rather typical attitude, and one very easy to manipulate, honestly. All you need to do is ensure that they either believe that serving you will end with them receiving a reward of some kind, or by simply having them fear you too much to even consider going against you!" Sophia's advice in regards to your newest ally is well intentioned, if a little dark. You don't really have many expectations for Grigori, honestly, you'd be surprised if he hadn't taken this chance you were absent to flee the ship. "Let us be off then, Arthur." Sophia begins to walk towards the door, you notice Adrianne's shoulders slump in relief slightly as she exits Sophia's peripheral vision.

You match Sophia's pace fairly easily, while she walks fairly quickly despite being quite a bit shorter than you, it's not as if you have to strain yourself in order to match her pace. The corridors and halls seem to move past in a blur as you think of just how you're going to get your allies to cooperate with one another. You can already imagine Sophia referring to Alura as an underling and a fight immediately breaking out from just that alone. That isn't even taking into account Alura's other grievances towards Sophia. You can't come up with any particularly effective sounding ideas in the brief walk through the mansion until you find yourself in the first room of the Sophia's mansion. The entrance hall. Holly has taken the opportunity of your delay in order to change out of her quite uncomfortable looking maid uniform into an outfit more in line with the one you saw her wearing when you caught her red handed in the middle of feeding on some hapless passengers.

She immediately straightens herself out as she spots the two of you approaching, readjusting her posture to appear more willing to serve, despite her now lack of a uniform. "O-oh. Lord Bernhard, Lady Sophia! Have you finished your business together now?" Her voice has an element of hope to it that was missing from it when you spoke with her bother. It seems that she really does appreciate no longer being stuck as Sophia's servant.

Though before you can answer, Sophia does for you. "As a matter of fact, I will be accompanying the two of you for a little while longer. Arthur has offered to introduce me his other followers, after all, and without personally meeting them, I won't be able to get a proper judge of their character, even if it feels like I can read some of them like they were books made for children.
>>
"Oh... I see." Holly sounds somewhat disappointed by the revelation of Sophia coming with the two of you in order to introduce herself properly. Hopefully, Sophia and Holly will one day be able to have a better relationship with each other too. According to Sophia herself, the two of them are now permanently linked to the other until their bond to the other is severed by death. Though that means that their bond is potentially eternal, if neither of them are ever slain by an enemy vampire hunter.

Having informed Holly of the situation, you take the lead and walk confidently towards the doorway, there's no longer any point in dwelling here any longer. A brief glance behind you confirms that both Sophia and Holly are following you, Sophia is walking fairly close to Holly, who appears somewhat uncomfortable by her proximity. You push open the door, disguising the awe you still feel at the whole idea of Sophia's pocket dimension as the door opens out into the comparatively cramped ship corridor.

Stepping out of the mansion and onto the carpeted floor of the hallway, you hear a squelching noise as you step in something odd. Focusing on the floor, your can see that most of the hall is covered in some strange translucent mucus trails. Dozens of them coat the floor and walls. You find the strange slime to be quite sticky as well, as you have to put quite some effort into pulling your foot free of the adhesive slime coating the floor. What on Earth happened here? What is this stuff? Sophia looks somewhat intrigued by the slime all over the floor, deftly avoiding stepping in it at all, while Holly's disgust is far more evident as she tears her foot free of the sticky goo.

As much as you just want to be done with things and reunite with your allies, you feel like this should probably be investigated, leaving a loose end like this just wouldn't sit right with you.

>Follow the trails of slime and try to find what left them.
>Ignore the strange mucus and return to your cabin to introduce Sophia to your allies.
>Ask Sophia if she knows what exactly the substance coating the floor is.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4137286
>Follow the trails of slime and try to find what left them.
Oh, disgusting.
>>
>>4137286
>Follow the trails of slime and try to find what left them. While walking, ask Sophia if she knows what exactly the substance coating the floor is.

I see no reason we can't walk and talk.
>>
>>4137286
This >>4137305. We need to keep our wits about us, because this shit got gothic horror on us YET FUCKING AGAIN
>>
>>4137349
>gothic horror
I'm going to be honest and say that this situation would have been a lot more dangerous had you not left Sophia's mansion with two vampires following you.
>>
>>4137831
Heh, Arthur always walks into situations with the best way to de-rail your insidious QM plans, every time.
>>
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>>4137831
>anon's dick deftly avoided or trivialized another hook
DAMNIT
>"But it was to solidify--"
No it wasn't, everybody knows it wasn't.
>>
Not many votes on this choice I see. I might be able to start writing sooner than usual too today.
Maybe you'll even get to kill something in the next few updates!
I understand that some anons are a little upset about the lack of combat recently.
>>
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>>4138053
>Maybe you'll even get to kill something in the next few updates!
hmmmm this is pretty familiar it reminds me of something...... something.... second season
>>
>>4138053
>Maybe you'll even get to kill something in the next few updates!
Oh yay, we salted the slugs that shit the slime on the ship. Splendid.
>>
>>4137305
Supporting this.
So what we got?
Slugs?
Slimes?
Slimegirls?

I kind of feel bad for the monsters.
I hope Sophia won't just dominate the entire encounter at least.
I would prefer she provide us the chance to fight.
>>
>>4138319
Personally I'm hoping she does a burikko "Oh no, how frightening, protect me Arthur" routine.
No matter how powerful she is, it's in the nature of an elegant girl to be weak to disgust, you know?
We probably won't get that though.
>>
>>4138333
she was looking at the slime with interest, instead of disgust.
think you can remove that routine from Hilda's repertoire.
>>
>>4138337
>implying she won't pull that shit anyway so she can pretend Arthur is dashing and have him hold her dramatically
>>
>>4138344
Nah she's too self-involved.
Oh, and she thinks a kiss is embarrassment worthy, so imagine what full-body contact would do.
>>
>>4138337
Do you really think that the girl who just summoned a demon and has been summoning demons the entire week is going to suddenly be terrified about some mucus on the floor that hasn't even touched?
Whatever left it might be a different story, but this is just some random goo on the floor.
I'd imagine curiosity outweighs disgust at this stage.
Up until some touches her at least.
>>4138333
God I hope so. I want more opportunities for us to bond with best girl.
>>4138344
Also this.
>pretend Arthur is dashing.
There's no need to pretend for Arthur.
>>
>>4138357
By the same dint, do you think the girl who eats people to live and summons demons in her spare time is going to feel disgust or horror at whatever creature is responsible for this mess?
She might feel disgust for some slime ruining her clothes, or not, given she can just make them again with magic.
>best girl
When did we summon chaos?
>>
>>4138357
>best girl.
Alura isn't even on the same deck as us right now. And the runner up is AWOL since we haven't seen her in days. Wonder where she's hiding her shiny metal ass.
>>
>>4138364
Because for as far as Blood Drinking and Demon Summoning go into moral depravity, there's still a level of elegance possible with both.

It's not like she sacrificed a virgin maiden and used her entrails to create the circle.
I can't see her acting like Holly when it comes to feeding either.
She almost certainly prefers the Dracula style wineglass approach.

>chaos
Chaos can be joint best girl.
>>
>>4138373
Why can't making slime trails be elegant? All the Queen Slimes that exist would dissolve you for the insult.
>joint best girl
that's not how that position works and you know it.
>>
>>4138373
>>4138378
Personally I see it as Chaos in first place, Sophia in second place, Anna in third, and then a vast, unbridgeable gulf between them and the rest of the female cast.
>>
>>4138378
>slime trail
>elegant.
Nothing more elegant than leaving parts of your body behind as you move around, your majesty.
Now stop staining the carpets you fucking living vore fetish.

>that's not how that position works
Do you think Chaos cares for your rules?
>>
>>4138379
Aw, where's Shirley? Surely shitty yandere vampire hunter would be higher on this list.
And Theresia is cute enough to be fourth or fifth c'mon.

>>4138381
>summon demons that always kill themselves
>pour a persons insides into a wine glass because you dislike the taste of skin
>elegant
It only looks refined, when you actually acknowledge what's happening it's a farce.
>rules
oh you're right, lemme just stop being effected by gravity real quick.
>>
>>4138386
>And Theresia is cute enough to be fourth or fifth c'mon.
Theresia will be back in the running once she reveals she's a bible verse in human form.
>>
>>4138393
It read to me like she was human, then became a vessel for a crimson stone knock-off, which would've given head asshole alchemist something close to eternal life. He wanted us since we had relation to Dracula and probably wanted to try to put our soul inside it as the sacrifice.
We kinda ruined his plan for immortality simply by existing, funnily enough.
>>
>>4138410
I will not accept anything short of shining bright holy light dressed in white Theresia. Anything else is simply a ruse.
>>
>>4138426
Well since she's probably with the Dorin organization now, she might've had the knock-off removed, and had some holy artifact replace it.
Even though I think it's one of the most unlikely scenarios.
Personally I think it would be best for Theresia if she just vanished after the Mansion incident and lived a quiet life. But she'll probably try to save us so she'll end up getting dragged into our messes.
>>
>>4138433
Bro I just want an angel waifu so we can have a fallen angel waifu because fallen angels are primo.
>>
>>4138445
>fallen angels
>ever occurring in castelvania's god's heaven
him making humans was his second error, I doubt he'd let himself make an error like that so close to home.
even in cotm she was more like a succubus than a proper angel.
too bad cotm isn't canon.
>>
>>4138445
>I want to reintroduce Neph--
"No."
>>
>>4138451
You're allowed to have your lame waifu I can at least want mine.

>>4138455
Who doesn't want children with six-fingered hands and destructive dispositions?
>>
>>4138468
Oh I'm just saying it's basically impossible.
Want all you want.
Good luck if you intend to pursue it though.
>>
>>4138473
Pft I don't need luck. I have the power of autism and anime on my side. But thank you I appreciate it.
>>
The mystery of the strange trail of slime is just something that is too concerning to let pass you by. There's no animal on Earth that you know of that should have been capable of leaving behind such a large trail of mucus, in fact, measuring each individual track of slime, whatever left these must be at least 2 feet across. There are two slime trails that are obviously far larger than the others though, twice as wide, in fact. While you can't tell how long the creatures that left these were, you imagine they weren't exactly the smallest of things, going by their width.

You have to admit though, that these trails are reminiscent of those left behind by slugs and snails, though obviously no sort of mollusk can possibly grow to this size. Could it be some sort of magical beast then? Or rather a collection of them, given the sheer number of tracks coating the walls. You begin to follow the tracks while avoiding stepping in the slime as much as you possibly can, though sometimes you have no choice but to do so, much to your chagrin. Simply ignoring this would be foolish, if these do truly belong to some strange variety of magical creature there's no telling what might happen if you just allowed them to go unchecked.

However, you do have somebody currently with you who should be an expert on the matter of all sorts of magical beasts. Sophia with her many years of experience must have some suggestions as to what might have caused these trails of horrible goo. The intrigue on her face has fast turned to one of annoyance as she constantly has to watch her step in order to avoid stepping in any of the disgusting semi solid fluid coating the floor of the hallway. "Sophia, do you have any idea what might have been behind these tracks? I wouldn't mind knowing just what I'm getting into here." Though you're concerned when Sophia doesn't respond.

You turn around just in time to see Sophia gracefully leaping across the floor across a patch of the corridor where there is no possible place to avoid having to step in the mucus, before soaring past Holly, who seems to have accepted having to trudge through the horrid stuff, and landing directly next to you. "I'm afraid that when it comes to monsters, my experience is quite limited. At least those outside of the ones I've summoned forth, anyway. I would never be caught dead summoning something that leaves behind a product so absolutely repulsive. But unfortunately, all I have to go on is speculation, and my conclusions are likely the same as yours." Unfortunate, looks like you'll have to just hope for the best then.
>>
"U-um, actually, I think I might know what made these." Unexpectedly, Holly joins in on the conversation. "When I was helping Arth- I mean, Lord Bernhard, out while I was still... human. I tried to read through as many of the entries on monsters stored on their computers as I could. These look like they could belong to the..." Holly sighs. "...Giant Mollusks. Honestly, I was disappointed by the name too. But t-that's not important. The entry said they were created by infusing dark powers into a group of ordinary slugs in order to create powerful monsters. The experiment was... a little too successful. They broke out of captivity and escaped into the wild. Apparently, they couldn't find anything left of the mage responsible except for his clothing, soaked in slime." Quite the unnerving tale, though it has given you an idea of just what you're up against. Personally, you can't see the danger in giant slugs. After all, their species is quite literally the origin of the term sluggish. You fail to see how such creatures could be considered dangerous to anything.

"Is that all? I was really expecting more. Is there reason we should take these giant slugs seriously at all, Holly? They sound like disgusting jokes. Of course such repugnant creatures were the product of some imbecile human meddling with magic he could neither understand nor control." Sophia is the one to ask Holly for further information on the creatures before you even get the chance to. It's faint, but you can tell slightly from Sophia's face that the creatures are ones she clearly doesn't relish the chance to encounter. Holly on the other hand seems to have quickly gotten over her first disgusted reaction towards the slug mucus.

"W-well, the entry also said they can inject their prey with an incredible potent toxin. But they didn't say how or even what it did, only that it's incredibly deadly and only the most resilient of people have a hope of surviving even long enough for an anti-venom to be applied before it's too late for them." Now that's the sort of horrible trick you should begin to expect from these sorts of creatures at any time. Seems you'll have to take extra care not to let this toxin be injected into you, you don't fancy your chances with being poisoned much, especially by one apparently so deadly that even anti-venom tends to be useless.

"Thank you Holly. I'm sure that knowing this will make dealing with these creatures less of a danger, I'll just have to avoid touching them at all, I suppose." You thank Holly while the look on Sophia's face seems to get more complicated by the minute. Eventually though, after following the tracks for quite some time, you see them all turning a corner. Though just as you go to turn the corner, a running man collides with you before toppling to the ground as the force of the collision makes you stumble and take a step back.
>>
Looking down at the man, he's clearly terrified, his suit in a state of total disarray as he apparently sprinted from something for his life. As his eyes dart from side to side as if looking for invisible enemies. "W-what the hell are you three so calm for?! Don't you know they killed everyone?!" The man chokes out his confused exclamations.

>"Calm down. Who killed everyone? What's going on?"
>"Tell me what happened. Now."
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
>Ignore the man entirely and simply continue onwards towards the destination of the Giant Mollusks.
>Write-in...
>>
Ah, Sophia's reaction is lovely. Truly perfect ojou behavior here.

>>4138885
>Holly on the other hand seems to have quickly gotten over her first disgusted reaction towards the slug mucus.
No femininity. I'd be disappointed, but it's Holly.

>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
Presumably the mollusks killed everyone. I'm more worried about the news getting out.
>>
>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
>>
>>4138887
>>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
Kinda important.

>>4138924
>No femininity. I'd be disappointed, but it's Holly.
>would rather have a dainty snob instead of a girl who can get down and dirty and deal with it
Jokes aside though being able to cope with stuff you don't like is a good quality to have. Holly's pretty adaptable and that's cool. I don't know why she gets the hate she does. Is it like a personal thing or or what?
>>
>>4138997
Hilda just keeps ticking higher and higher on the negative scale.
>>
>>4139018
She isn't bad per se but she isn't anywhere near the top in the girl run. Honestly I'd put her in the middling area. She's probably trying to seem diplomatic and likeable to Arthur and not showing who she honestly and truly is at heart. We got a glimpse when she was flying around harassing people but it wasn't the whole picture.

There's still digging to be done until she gets a complete entry in the waifu bestiary.
>>
>>4139131
>this is hilda trying to look presentable
oh boi, she's gonna ratchet up the negative points like a geyser when that facade falls.
>>
>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
I say we kill him.
Fuck this guy.
>>4139143
>facade
It's not a facade Hollyfag.
Sophia is a best.
>>
Seems like half of my players just vanished.
Where did you all go, folks?
>>
>>4138887
>Ignore the man entirely and simply continue onwards towards the destination of the Giant Mollusks.
We gotta killem ded.
>>
>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
Ok a lot is going on.
>>
>>4138887
Ah shit the Monster Merchant went berserk.
>"Is there anything other then Giant Slugs to worry about?"
>>4139736
People were probably disappointed we weren't stuck under Hilde's boot, others are just annoyed by Hildefags in general. But really that's on them for not realizing what sort of quest this is.
Also it's probably just Boat Arc fatigue, we'll probably get them back soon.
>>
>>4139724
It not being a facade means she's that shallow. I can see that being the case, but either way Hilda a shit.
Chaos reigns!
>>
>>4139977
How is it you can't see that Sophia now has a different opinion of us than she did before and is therefore acting differently around us?
When she met us before she basically just toyed with us to see what we were capable of.
Now that she's confirmed an alliance we're probably seeing her true face.
>>
>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
>>4139736
I had no internet man, and I can't post from the phone for whatever reason. In other news, looks like I fucking called it. >>4135413
>>
>>4140190
Not sure why you're replying to me with that when I implied earlier that even if it isn't a facade she's still trash? Actually, it's even worse since I called her shallow if this is her "true face" which I still doubt. If she was fucking around before, what's to say she isn't now? Because she allied with a human who doesn't know anything and she could crush with a stray thought? Puh-lease.
And honestly, I'm not sure I would call leaving threats behind and playing the shittiest version of hide-and-seek ever toying with us, and if she thinks it is then she's very easy to please, going back to being shallow again.
>>
>>4140190
>we're probably seeing her true face.
People tend to be more honest when they oppose something than when they ally with it. It's the equivalent of telling little white lies on a resume or pretending to be a little bit wealthier when dating.

I don't think this is Sophia as she truly is. Partly but not totally. Sophia is way more sadistic than she's been letting on ever since she sliced up our leg. She's clearly not some absolutely unhinged psychopath but she's not nearly as nice as she's been acting. I'd pin her as being just slightly above Johannes on the grandeur scale but well below Shirley on the mental gymnastics scale.

Obviously she's right to believe she's physically superior to human life but she kinda lets it go to her head. She was probably super deluded before she got interned in that vault to mellow out for a human lifetime. She's quite clearly still not completely mentally sound just by her general antics and demeanor.

tl;dr She's merely pretending and we should be looking at the whole picture and not just what she's showing.
>>
>>4140213
Meanwhile you've got Holly, and the entire dynamic of that relationship is us saving her.
Very interesting.
*yawn*

At least there's some nuance to Sophia.
You can call her shallow, but from her perspective, A potential future Dark Lord has just landed directly in her lap.
Imagine being a vampire and being unable to actually fall in love with anyone because they will either die of old age or spend eternity as your subordinate.
That can hardly be called love. Just an exploitative relationship.

But the dynamic between a vampire falling for a human and a vampire falling for the future Dark Lord is different.
We already ignored her vampiric charm didn't we?
Therefore, it's a sort of relationship between two equals.
>>
Waifu Tier.

S tier: Chaos
A+ tier: Sophia
A tier: Anna, Alura, Shirley, Mistral
B tier: Coller, Theresia, Grigori, Edwin
C tier: Holly, Adrianne

Objectively correct.
>>
>>4140230
Holly is a fish out of water, she hasn't even had a fucking week to establish herself while also absorbing a stupid amount of new information about the world around her. She's just been really unlucky, but when she finds a foothold it'll be interesting to see how she develops.

>Hilda has nuance.
>she never used her magic to at least try to extend the lifespan of any of her lovers
>actually she never used any magic at all until she was captured.
Gigantic hole in your headcanon there, if she really wanted that kind of relationship wouldn't she have been pursuing it before she was interred? By her own admission she didn't use any magic at all until then, and that's the perfect starting point for trying to extend lifespan.
Obviously the answer to this conundrum is that she never really cared about that in the first place.
And you can have a relationship that includes love with your subordinates, so long as you don't abuse your own authority, which Hilda is quite familiar with doing. If she really had problems like that then she'd probably have surrogate lovers that she was never satisfied with that would follow her around like the slaves they are. And we're on a cruise ship so it's not like the selection would be poor, given you need a certain amount of money to get a ticket.
And vampires have eternal boredom as one of their debuffs, so don't try to explain this away by saying she was too busy to try to do any of this, before her capture, or after her escape.
And us being able to resist her charm is actually a negative here, since it shows that she can't just manipulate us by being cute, which would lower our value to her.

>In the future Arthur will be able to wipe Hilda from existence with his pinky.
>Currently Hilda can almost do the same thing to Arthur with her hand.
>sort of relationship between equals.
hmmm...
>>
>>4140230
There's no guarantee Arthur will gain immortality along the way. So the whole "Oh he's a dark lord candidate so he's different" doesn't really change the fact he's still human.

Depending on which canon you take Death is either controlled by one of the stones or just a peon of Chaos. But even if Arthur had dominance over Death his body is still mortal. If Death brought Arthur's soul back to his body and his body was blown in half he'd go back into a body blown in half and immediately die again. Dracula could just regenerate his body all willy nilly being a vampire and all.

And good luck finding the two stones again. If Julius didn't ice those things when he obliterated Dracula they'll be locked away in super hunter jail or something. And if they do still exist the crimson stone might have been depowered and then we'd need to juice it with another powerful vampire's soul. Which as of right now is Sophia. And she's probably not strong enough. Comparatively speaking, anyway. Walter was a fucking beast.

Also her stance on the matter in terms of relationships is quite clear, she would have absolutely turned Arthur if it wouldn't stymie his potential. Thus enslaving him. So she doesn't really care about his free will. She just wants him to get really strong for whatever her reasons are. Probably to kill all the hunters and plunge the world into darkness. Because you know, vampires like that shit.
>>
>>4140254
Interesting arguments
But Holly is still a worst
And Sophia is still a best.

Holly is a vampire with none of their traditional charm.
She's hopeless.
Whereas Sophia is perfect.
>>
>>4140274
>traditional vampire charm
you mean stalking brides and promising them eternal life?
don't see Hilda doing any of that.
>Hilda is perfect.
I'd apologize to your brain cells but your dick is in the way.
>>
>>4140242
Switch Alura for A+, Sophia for B, Holly for A, Mistral for C, Adrianne for B, Coller for C, and you have mine.
>>
>>4140287
I like to think the charm of vampires is that they perfectly foil humanity. They're the worst traits of humanity exemplified and singular entities of immense power that can be overcome by a group of plucky and faithful hunters which together represent the better qualities of mankind. But I'm probably just weird.
>>
>>4140312
Nice opinion there. I see vampires as the traits most people want to believe don't exist, and the hunters as the clean up crew who keeps humanity from ever accepting themselves, left to forever drift in their denial and ignorance because of them.
>>
>>4140312
The classic literary vampire is a cypher for the past. Immense power concentrated in an individual, preying on one's inferiors, elegant refinement, timeless beauty, an inflexible social order, etc. In the original Dracula you can throw in moral corruption, lasciviousness, and disrespect for religion as traits associated with the past, due to the Victorian moral/religious boom. Good and ill, they hold the elements of history and carry them with them.
Contrast that with the group of hunters, who typically represent the union of righteousness and ingenuity, and employ means both modern and holy to destroy the vampire; these represent the idealized future.
Consequently those with a strong sense of and reverence for history tend to sympathize with and be fond of the traditional vampires, while those with a strong sense of modernity, who revile the past as something to be left behind, tend to bear the most repugnance for them.
That's my take on it, anyway.
>>
>>4140326
I should mention that I'm primarily talking about Stoker's book and the works directly patterned on it here. Obviously vampires have been in so much media since that they've been interpreted six ways from sunday.
>>
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>>4140320
>>4140326
These are pretty cool takes.
>>
Holly and Sophia aside.
What exactly are we supposed to do when we reach Europe?
Consolidate power and allies?
Improve our relationships?
Increase our own personal power?
Try to learn magic?
Try to impress Chaos?
Look for Dark Lord Candidates to kill?
Attack our enemies instead of letting them attack us?
Look for the Crimson Stone?
Kill Soma?
Find a base we can operate out of?

We have a lot we can get up to.
But I have no idea what we should prioritize.
>>
>>4140414
Here's my take:
Priority #1: Find a place to live.
Priority #2: Training Montage.
Priority #3: Look for Dark Lord Candidates to kill while also looking for the Crimson Stone.
>>
>>4140414
Finding a base of operations first. In regards to that I'm heavily leaning against shacking up in castle de Hilda since that's probably the first place the hunters will look for her. Maybe just picking an abandoned apartment complex or something, there's plenty of those the farther east in Europe you go.
Then we can focus on improving our personal power, and getting Mistral to give us more blessings while making sure our allies settle in properly so we can actually do business without worrying about them.
Once we're confident enough we can hunt down the other DLCs and decide if we should kill them or not.
I guess we could try to find the Crimson Stone, but why don't we take it a step further and try to make an actual philosophers stone? If Vampires are the top of the totem pole right behind the dark lord himself, can you imagine how ludicrously powerful a real immortal would be?
Trying to hunt down the church would be cool, but it should wait until we're pretty powerful. They're no joke when it comes to smiting.
I'm not sure if we'll kill Soma or not, cause Arthur isn't a complete dick and Soma was a pretty normal kid til he got isekai'd, but it'll come up while hunting down the DLCs anyway so that will come up when it will come up.
Learning magic can take a backseat for now, since it's too time consuming to be a priority until we're not constantly under threat of annihilation, unless it's just little spells here and there that are easy to learn and use.
Impressing Chaos will come with time, and shouldn't be rushed anyway, since the results would be mediocre.
>>
There's really no real need to converse with the passenger, if anything, you're more worried about him being able to be experiencing this panic at all. You haven't really confirmed it with Sophia herself, but she should be the one making it so the passengers aboard the ship don't react to the supernatural goings on as they ought to. So the fact that the effect clearly hasn't worked on the man is an obvious cause for concern. "Sophia, I was under the impression that you were the one behind the people aboard the ship remaining unaware of what was really going on. Is that not the case?" To tell the truth, asking had slipped your mind back inside Sophia's mansion, so this has presented you with a valuable opportunity to actually find out some more about Sophia's magic.

"Oh? The barrier I put up? Yes, I suppose it is concerning that one of it's targets is seemingly unaffected." She looks down at the man in disgust. "The enchantment was a theory I came up with in my isolation, so there's a few problems I've identified with it when I put it into practice here. Firstly, it completely fails to work on a target if they have even the slightest bit of aptitude for magic. It's unfortunate, but this means that there's a minuscule chance of failure if intended target even had an ancestor who practiced magic and the potential was never lost through generations." She gives the man an evil grin that causes him to try backing away from her in confusion and fear, but he just backs into the wall. "Secondly there's a limit to how many people can be affected all at once with it. Of course, I might be able to set it to target the entire population of an area, but the spell can only alter so many people's perceptions at once before it starts to fail to work on them all, leaving them unaffected, it can only concurrently alter the perceptions of roughly one hundred and fifty or so people at once." Sophia turns to you and gives you an innocent smile before continuing, "And of course, finally, there's the problem of extreme physical pain or shock being able to temporarily cause the enchantment to fail, it's quite beautiful that as an unintended side effect, it allows for the humans to witness and feel their own deaths unhindered by any mind altering magic. The first two issues I can remedy with some alterations to the spell, given time. I don't think the third issue is something I'll change about the spell though." She hasn't once taken the smile from her face as she spoke about the enchantment.

The man on the floor is quite clearly confused by Sophia's sudden explanation about perception altering magic, and through his fear, manages to angrily respond to Sophia. "What the fuck are you talking about!? Do you think now is any time to play pretend?! Get help you fucking idiots! I think one of those damn things bit me!" The smile adorning Sophia's face quickly vanishes as she turns to face the man again, contempt resonating from her expression.
>>
She walks up to the man, still avoiding stepping in any of the trails of slime decorating the floor until she's standing directly over him. She looks into the man's eyes, you can't see Sophia's face, but the man's enraged face soon once again becomes terrified. Though now instead of being terrified of the creatures he was fleeing, he's terrified of the girl that at least from this angle lacks any sort of ability to be intimidating at all, but still, the man is trying his absolute hardest to scramble away from what appears to be a teenager. It's almost absurd. The man's attempts to escape from Sophia are rapidly brought to a bloody conclusion as she brings a heeled shoe down on the man's ankle, severing his left foot in a small explosion of gore, interestingly, none of the man's blood seems to even touch her outfit or the shoe responsible for brutally crushing the ankle.

The man screams in agony as he grasps the stump which his foot was attached to moments ago, but when he locks eyes with Sophia again, he stops entirely. His arms go limp and allow the now useless stump of a leg to slam again the ground and his scream is cut off completely. Sophia sighs as she regards the man like one would a particularly revolting piece of garbage. "Worthless insect, would it really kill the mortals in this year to at least show some sort of respect? This era is just so horribly crass. I was going to give you a quick death, but you've shown you don't deserve that mercy. You can at least answer some questions, do you understand?" The man nods, as if caught in some kind of stupor. "See? Even worms like you can be polite! Now, you're going to tell me just what room you came running from like a coward, and just how many people were in that room with you, I may still have some use for you, after all. Oh and tell me if you saw anybody else escape." The vampire is clearly furious at the man for daring to insult her, even if he could have had absolutely no idea of just what he was getting himself into.

The man on the floor seems to pause for a moment as if contemplating something, before opening his mouth to speak in a monotone. "The Concert Hall. There were at least four hundred people attending the conference. Only I managed to escape, that I saw." The man coughs involuntarily.
>>
"Oh, so you don't have magical potential after all and were merely lucky enough to avoid the effects of my magic? A pity, I do need some human magic users to experiment on, but I suppose I can just find some later." Sophia once again turns away from the man. "Or perhaps I can borrow one of your human followers, Arthur? The experiments shouldn't be fatal, after all." Sophia makes a dangerous request, though you don't get to confirm whether she's serious or not before she turns back to the man on the ground, his eyes are starting to glass over completely now, the man is clearly on the verge of death. Though this just seems to make Sophia even more displeased. "A natural born coward, aren't you? Don't think I'm about to let you avoid punishment like that." She rapidly traces a some pattern in the air with a single finger while pointing at the man's chest. Moments after she finishes, blood seeps through his clothing in the pattern of some sort of magic circle. The man's eyes that had begun to take a glassy look have now completely returned to alertness, though as he opens his mouth to speak, only an incomprehensible slurry of words comes out. "Now you won't die until the very last drop of your blood has been spilled from your body, I think that's quite fitting, don't you?"

The man tries to respond to Sophia, but instead he simply gurgles at her, a strange unearthly noise in place of actual words. Then you spot the cause of the man's strange behavior, his crushed ankle, which should be freely spewing forth blood... wasn't. Instead, the lower part of his body has transformed into a strange flesh coloured gel. Sophia doesn't seem to have noticed this as she waits for him to give a proper response, and is quite visibly alarmed when instead, the man's head collapses in on itself and his body decomposes into the strange substance. It clearly wasn't Sophia's doing, as she has actually taken a few steps away from the disgusting remains of the goo that used to be a man in shock.

Sophia looks at the remains of the man with unrestrained disgust as she navigates her way back to your side. "Well, Arthur. That was quite... unexpected, but it seems that we have a location we need, and I got the information I needed, so shall we be off? I don't want to resolve this as quickly as possible. These slug creatures are just too disgusting to be allowed to continue existing. The repulsive things even feed on humans in a nauseating way." Sophia does have something of a point, after watching Alura reduce that poor waitress to a dry dust, you didn't think it was possible for you to witness a human die in a more gruesome manner. But it seems the world exists to surprise you on these things, even Sophia is disgusted, it appears.
>>
In opposition to the disgust of her master, Holly has actually walked over to the goo that used to be a human and started to take a closer look at the slime, even going so far as to prod the gel, which strangely seems to... quiver in response? An impossible thought runs through both yours and Holly's heads at the same time, but Holly is quicker to actualize it into words. "I-I think he's still alive!"

It seems impossible for anybody to remain alive in a condition like that, until a high pitched giggle from next to you rings out as Sophia fails to contain her amusement. She struggles to speak through her laughter. "Oh my, it would seem as if that enchantment I laid upon him has had quite a side effect then! Seeing as how that insect was transformed entirely into an organic gel, including his blood, it seems that blob of goo will remain in a sort of conscious state forever. The spell I cast upon him to ensure his survival until the last drop of his blood drained away now applies to his entire body. In summary, I suppose you could say I just inadvertently created an immortal being!" Sophia seems overjoyed at this unexpected result, even forgetting her disgust for a moment, though Holly looks far less pleased with the situation, and the goo keeps quivering in agony, though you are unsure whether the man can even feel pain anymore.

>Ask Sophia to disable the enchantment she placed upon the man.
>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
>Ignore the goo and continue to your destination.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4140844
>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
Come on now, Sophia. Taking pleasure in the life of something that vile really is a bit crass, isn't it?
>>
>>4140844
>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.

All you had to do was ask the man nicely goddamn.
>>
>>4140844
>>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
I mean that's kinda cool and all but Jesus Hilde have some compassion. You were trapped in a far less miserable state than this dude is now. Can you imagine how shitty it would be? She better hope vampires are immune to these turboslug's venom.
>>
>>4140844
>>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
Yeah, I draw the line at revelling in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream level suffering.
Calm your tits, Sophia.
>>4141198
>vampires
>empathy
>boundaries
Sophia is great, but we really need to work on this suffering fetish she seems to have.
There's limits.
>>
Wow, Sophia laughs at one fate worse than death and suddenly she's crossed the line.
That asshole was fucked anyway.
>>
>>4141568
You're missing the point but I don't think you'd care either way. Just know that I'm frowning at you right now.
>>
>>4140844
Backing >>4141337. I love how unanimous this vote has been so far. Arthur definitely has standards for what is acceptable - and Sophia has crossed it here with this.
>>
>>4141661
>Arthur definitely has standards for what is acceptable - and Sophia has crossed it here with this.
That's how I feel, at least. Sophia may be second-best girl, but this is definitely distasteful.
>>
cringe
>>
>>4141666
Even Satan agrees it's kinda distasteful.
Come on though, it's just a mortal, while she could do with being less heartless it's not like she should care about them.
I don't wanna feed her bad habits though.
>>4141672
A high quality post.
>>
>>4141693
>Even Satan
Hey, what did I ever do to you?
>>
>>4141693
With an attitude like this, it's looking more and more feasible to just get rid of her or ditch her, since she wont deal with living on the run in a human ran world in any reasonable fashion.
That was just unreasonable torture. Just get the info and let him be ffs.
>>
>>4141702
"Just get the info" from someone whose first response was to ridicule us, and was obviously in no state to calmly report. Come on.
Honestly I'd be less supportive of Sophia if it weren't for you harping on the "we need to get rid of her NOW!" schtick every other update. It's incredibly grating.
>>
>>4141704
That dude obviously would've told it to us hysterically, but he would've divulged just fine.

And, well, the opposition doesn't even give any coherent reply to those statements besides "dude vampires are the strongest, ur dumb for not wanting this loose cannon around." Or "Sophia is cute fuck you." Or "Fuck Arthur, you're annoying so imma vote the opposite out of spite."
Are people really incapable of taking the important bits out of people's statements and documenting the rest?
>>
>>4141702
She was just going to let him remain concious while he bled out I think as some sort of punishment to being rude.
Then he melted.
I don't think she expected him to melt into undying goo and we were going to have to kill him anyway if he didn't melt to prevent him from spreading information about us.
She was probably just pleasantly surprised by the outcome from an magical standpoint.
Could make some pretty powerful minions using undying human goo as a base.
>>4141697
Your post ended in 666.
Also you have a preference for the evil waifus.
Who else could you be, if not Satan?
>>4141704
She could've just started by putting the man in a trance and getting the information from him that way.
But there's no use crying over spilled melted goo passenger.
>>
>>4141713
That's quite the over the top response to somebody who probably just went through something really traumatic and was wondering what idiots would want to join the others in that festival of death. Crushing his ankle, hexing him to only die when theres no blood left in his body, then laughing when he puddles and can't bleed, just because he was really frantic is very unhinged. If you really have to kill him, just decapitate him or something like that. He probably would've done his best to forget it ever happened.
>>
>>4141726
Wrong place wrong time.
She was clearly already going to kill him before he managed to irritate her, and she's probably already fed up with how things are in the 21st century and has a zero tolerance for the average human of this era.
>>
>>4141737
Yeah, exactly. Which is why she should go. She'll only bring Arthur ruin.
>>
>>4141737
>has a zero tolerance for the average human of this era.
Well that sounds like a personal problem. Also really doesn't make it easy to blend in when you're acting like people are supposed to behave like they did a few centuries ago.

Really I just don't want to hang out with a bonafide sadist. Because people influence those around them. Next she'll be expecting us to be a gleefully murdering dickwad and she'll be upset if we don't find pleasure in tortuously ending life.
>>
>>4141740
For what?
Hating modern society?
We'll put the world back in it's rightful place as the Dark Lord anyway.
Humanity as it is has become far too decadent and corrupt.
>>4141746
I don't think she's just going to slaughter people at all times. This was just a perfect opportunity to give somebody what was coming to them.
>>
>>4141746
>Really I just don't want to hang out with a bonafide sadist.
Hey, come on, sadists are great! Give sadism a chance.
>>
>>4141775
No, Sundowner.
>>
>>4141780
Sophia just wants to return to the Gool Ol' Days right after 1911.
>>
>>4141767
>give somebody what was coming to them.
>a rightfully panicked, concerned, grounded-in-reality dude trying to get people to get the fuck away from scary shit

>deserved to get his foot stomped off and turned into immortal prison gel
No offense bro but I hope you never get into law school. He actually was just trying to help. Sophia is just melodramatic and crazy.
>>
>>4141767
>why should we ditch the super powerful being who hates the main caste of people we'll be dealling with on a daily basis for the foreseeable future?
>especially when she thinks killing someone who had just witnessed something traumatic, that by all accounts should be completely impossible, in an unnecessarily brutal way, is acceptable behaviour.
>when we have an organization hunting both of us down, and they've taken down beings far stronger than her.
Huh, now that you mention it nothing comes to mind.

>he got what was coming to him
oh, so you're one of those pure evil types. That does belong in Castlevania, but Arthur really isn't that type of villain.
>>
>>4141787
In for a penny.
It's not like things will get worse for us now we have a Kokoro-Alucard taskforce on our tail already.
We'll just have to get Sophia to stop killing as easily and to show restraint where appropriate.
She's been locked away for years, so she's probably getting carried away with herself now she's free.
>>
>>4141787
>No character could possibly change over time or be reformed by the protagonist's influence, we should just ditch everyone inconvenient!
Weren't you the same person arguing we should try to train Holly? Apply some of that same spirit here. A person's personality isn't something 100% static and set in stone.
>>
>>4141799
>how to train your vampire 2: tricentennial boogaloo
>>
>>4141796
>>4141799
You want to change a 170 year old woman's personality to be more suited for living on the run? Peoples personalities aren't static no, but she has what, 100 years of acting like this to get over? 50 at the least? Compounded by a crucible where she could reflect on all her actions and their righteousness compared to the people who locked her away? Even if we got to that point it wouldn't be fast enough to stop her from attracting attention with her audaciousness. And the far more likely outcome is Hilda outright scorning us for "caring about humanity" or "not displaying our overwhelming power to the plebeians" or somesuch.

Training holly is something different altogether, we just help her get her impulses under control, then go on a bunch of infiltration missions to rack up the stealth skill points.
>>
>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
To be quite fair, the enchantment was only for them to not die until all of their blood was gone. It could simply be due to the effects of whatever bite he got.
This situation gives me some Franken-Fran vibes though.
>>
Looking at the pitiful quivering mess the poor man has become, you can't help but feel a sympathy of sorts for him. This man clearly had no idea what was happening at all, and you aren't about to condemn anybody to some sort of twisted eternity of suffering simply because he displeased Sophia. Really, she was already going a little too far just by how she was treating the man. His confused anger towards the three of you was in reality quite justified. He had been one of the only escapees from a scene of absolute carnage and death, and the first people he runs into seem completely calm and nonchalant about the whole situation.

"I'm not going to leave him suffering like this, Sophia. This has gone way too far. This man didn't do enough to deserve this fate." You speak sternly, it's time to see just how much value Sophia has placed upon this alliance you've created with her. So, it's time to see if Sophia has any intention to respect your wishes in this partnership at all.

The vampire standing next to you frowns slightly. "While I wasn't attempting to do such a thing to this insect, this could be a potential breakthrough for the advancement of my magic. Though seeing as he wasn't exactly deserving of this level of punishment, I suppose I can attempt to undo the enchantment, though it's very possible that the magic is inseparable from that goo now and impossible to deactivate, even for somebody like me. It's very likely that when his body was composed into that strange substance that odd venom even broke down the magic I had placed upon this man too." Sophia seems to force herself to walk closer to the goo and inspect it more closely. "As disgusting as the source of this poison undoubtedly is. Such a quality makes it an excellent weapon. If it's a poison that can even break down the conceptual elements of magic into a single mass along with the physical body of it's target, then a single bite from these creatures could theoretically kill anything if the effects were given time to come to fruition." She carries on speaking

Sophia's observations on the poison may be of more interest to you in any other scenario, but as things currently stand, you're far more focused on the remains of the man. Holly looks fairly upset at what happened to the man as she crouches next to the quivering gel, seems that her empathy is still at least partially intact despite her current status as a vampire. "Step aside Holly." You keep your words short as you mentally call out for the Power of Destruction to come to you.
>>
Holly seems to realize what it is you're doing and quickly retreats from the gel, standing next to Sophia, who looks on with great interest at your display. "I'm looking forward to seeing your ability in action, Arthur. The power that marks you as a possible candidate to take the throne of the Dark Lord, I've only seen glimpses of it in action so far while I was observing you. So the opportunity to watch it in use is one I've been looking forward to." Sophia seems cheerful now, despite the filth she's still carefully avoiding standing in.

The power comes to you quite easily this time, quickly calling forth enough of the strange energy granted to you by Chaos to coat your hand with it entirely, you take a look down at the gooey mess that used to be a man and think of just what the best way to use the power to end his suffering would be. Of course, the other methods you've used in the past aren't feasible. You briefly consider trying to replicate that space deleting effect you used back at the mansion, though somehow you can tell that it won't be possible for you to reattain a state where you could use it without a greater understanding of the power that you hold.

So, as strange as it might look, you'll simply have to use the Power of Destruction to destroy the gelatinous remains one line at a time. You hope that the fact that you can't immediately put him out of his misery doesn't cause him further suffering, but it's not like you intend to hang around as you use the Power of Destruction to get rid of the body in 8 swipes. There are some areas of the ground where you accidentally scraped the floor while you were working on disposing of the man, gouging out smooth indents in the floor.
>>
As you stand up once again, you realize that at some point, Sophia had gotten close to you, she must have snuck up behind you while you were busy with getting the man out of that miserable state through the Power of Destruction. "What a truly fascinating ability." Sophia seems to muse to herself. "I only met Lord Dracula a few times in life when I was a very young vampire. My master was something of a close adviser to Dracula, actually, and one of his most trusted generals too." The girl seems to sigh as she recalls something. "Or at least he was, until he vanished one day entirely." She seems lost for a moment as she continues reminiscing about the distant past. "That power you hold is quite incredible. If I'm correct in my belief that the conceptual effect of the magic had left that man unable to be killed, then this power of yours, this 'Power of Destruction' of yours is possibly capable of even granting an immortal a permanent death." Sophia looks at the patch of ground where the man's body used to lay and then to the corner you need to turn in order to reach your destination. "We have no need to continue to loiter around here though, let us be off, I don't want to be forced to sleep anywhere even close to those awful creatures!" You refrain from bringing up the fact that she's actually been residing in that mansion of hers in that apparent pocket dimension she's responsible for creating. As well as the fact that you're pretty certain vampires don't actually need to sleep at all.

Though for as flimsy as Sophia's reasons for wanting to deal with the remaining population of slugs, you quickly get back to walking towards your destination, and after a few delays from Sophia as she continually kept making complex maneuvers in order to avoid stepping in any slime, you arrived. Though it would be a lie if you said the thought of just picking Sophia up and carrying her didn't cross your mind, you don't end up entertaining the idea. There's no telling how she might react to something like that considering how shy she was about a simple kiss on the cheek.

Sophia's strange obsession over avoiding stepping in the slug mucus may have delayed you ever so slightly, but you soon arrive at the concert hall, a sofa has been hastily pushed in front of the door in some hopeless effort to barricade the door shut.

>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
>Have Holly break into the room using that superior strength of hers.
>Use the Power of Destruction in order to cut directly through both the door and the couch blocking your path.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4142291
>>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
If the slugs are rather bitey it makes sense not to bust into the room in case there is one right next to the door.
>>
>>4142291
>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
I don't think there's anything wrong with being cautious here.
>>
>>4142291
>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
I hope vampires are immune to this poison.
We should totally get a few vials of it though.
>>
>>4142291
>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
>>
Why are there even megaslugs aboard anyway?
How did they escape whatever was confining them?
Were megaslugs the only monsters aboard?
I guess that Monster Dealer was pretty shitty if all he had were these fucking slugs.
Though he did get snacked on by a totally inexperienced vampire so maybe he was just a retard.
>>
>>4143022
>be monster dealer
>be on random cruise for a special order of a buncha fuckin slugs
>ez money basically just a courier job
>suddenly a vampire kicks down the door and drags me off to get nibbled
It's not like he was expecting a creature of the night to show up. Probably because vampires and water don't really mesh.
>>
>>4143100
Imagine being so incompetent that even Holly beats you in a fight.
We slapped her shit without even using our deletion bullshit.
We need to figure out a use for her before she gets herself killed.
I don't like our odds if Alucard shows up.
We should make a plan of action for if he shows himself.
>>
>>4143151
Arthur isn't even aware of his existence.
>>
The cautious approach is most likely to serve you the best here. There's no real telling what's behind that door other than some quantity of these huge magical slugs, and after seeing what you can only imagine to be the result of being bitten turn that man into a pile of goo, there's no way you're going to let any of these freakishly large gastropods get anywhere near you!

Moving the sofa blocking the door is an almost effortless task, for a job that should take at least some effort to move the couch, you can easily push it aside without much strain on yourself at all, another thought occurs in that moment. Were you always this strong? Could this newfound strength have come with the discovery of your nature as a Dark Lord Candidate? Though thinking back, you don't really have many events in your past to compare it to. You never really had much incentive to perform what appeared to be backbreaking labour throughout the entirety of your youth, given the wealth of your family, you had basically been encouraged not to bring yourself to that level. You had never gotten into fights in your youth either, though this was likely more Shirley's doing than anything else. With your easy life when growing up, never being challenged physically, it should be impossible for you to have anywhere close to this level of strength. You hadn't given the matter much thought until now, but it really does strike you as strange the more you think about it. You aren't out of shape though, not by any stretch of the imagination, you may not have been obsessed with fitness, but you did enough to ensure. More questions for you to ask either Chaos or Dracula himself, you suppose.

With the door now unblocked, you attempt to pull it open after quickly drawing your revolver with your free hand, only to quickly realize that the door was a push door all along. Whoever spent the time to move that sofa in an attempt to block that door, most likely the man you put out of his misery, was clearly not thinking clearly when they did that. Unless he had intended on slightly inconveniencing the monsters in the concert, that is. Letting go of the handle of the door, you instead push it, only for the doors to unexpectedly be far heavier than you expected. Unlike the sofa which was a nearly effortless task to open, these doors feel like they weigh a ton! You manage to budge them a little inwards, so you know at least that the door is not simply locked.
>>
"What's the problem, Arthur?" Surprisingly, it's Holly who asks you what seems to be wrong, Sophia seems to be hanging back from the door for now. Seems that she really loathes the idea of these disgusting creatures, or it might just be the thick layer of slime covering every surface near the door to the concert hall preventing her from coming closer without soiling her footwear. For somebody as apparently old and experienced and her, she sure doesn't act her age, you find yourself just what sort of life the vampire girl led since she was turned. You can't imagine she had much of a human life, considering she only looks to be a teenager herself. It might be something to ask her for later, if she even bothered to remember that much of her life. "Do you need some help with the door?" Holly's offer to help snaps you out of your musings over the girl who turned her.

"I don't think that will be necessary, Holly. They are just heavier than I anticipated, after all." While the doors are heavier than you thought they would be, they aren't impossible to open, you'll just have to apply a little more force to opening them. Slowly, you increase the force you're applying to the doors until you feel like you're giving it your all, the wood creaks and groans as you up the power you're exterting on the door. For a moment, it seems the doors are stuck, until a sudden burst of power and a gust of wind blasts the door wide open as the blessing granted to you by Mistral finally activates.

Though the door is blasted open at incredible speed from the full force of your pushing strength scaled up by five, there's no smashing noise as it crashes against the wall, instead, there's a horribly loud squelching noise, not unlike that of an over-ripened fruit being squeezed into mush with great force. The noise is quite sickening, but it doesn't even begin to prepare you for the the nightmarish scene laid out before you. In front of you is an immense amount of slime that seems to have been sprayed outwards with incredible force, there's random articles of clothing scattered among the slime too. If you had to guess, it would seem as if the creatures here blocked the door themselves with the corpses of their victims, the possibility that the beasts hold some strange inhuman intellect increases with that thought, and you'd much rather just write it off as a coincidence.
>>
If it were possible, you're pretty sure that Holly's face would look even more pale than it already is as she stands by your side, looking into the room. There are scattered articles of clothing all over the concert hall, each weighed down by the sludge that used to be the human occupants of this room. There are a few corpses that are only half melted into that strange gel too, their bodies still having maintained some sort of human shape. One that particularly sticks out is a woman who seems to have been clambering over the seats in an attempt to escape the concert hall, half of her face and head is still in tact, the other half long since melted away. The terror is etched on her face, which seems to have been frozen entirely as her remaining eye is locked looking at a small puddle of the goo on the chair just below her head.

There must be hundreds of bodies scattered among the hall, with the vast majority concentrated in the center of the room along with the monsters that seem to be engaged in a strange act somewhere between eating and drinking their liquefied victims, the horrible green slug like creatures are all the size of large dogs with the exception of one in the very center of the hall. Actually, considering it's shell, is more a sort of snail. Regardless of whether the huge red skinned mollusk is more a snail than a slug, it's still over three times the size of it's smaller cousins. It's a creature that can be truly called a giant.

Regardless of it's size, there's no way in hell that you're going to let a disgusting monster like this just roam free, there's no telling just what senseless carnage it might yet cause as it just goes about existing. It's two antennae seem to have turned directly towards you, obviously, you can't discern any emotions from such an inhuman beast, but there's no doubt that it's now aware of your existence.

>Unload a few shots of the revolver into the huge beast's soft looking skull. It's clearly the biggest danger here.
>Use the revolver in order to take out as many of the smaller mollusks as you can before they can reach you, slugs are slow, right?
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4143793
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
Bullets are probably not gonna cut it, unless we fire them from our right index finger.
>>
>>4143793
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
She takes one side, we take the other, catch them from both sides.
>>
>>4143793
Yeah it was definitely the slug toxin that kept the guy alive, it's pretty hard to lose every bit of your blood if it coagulates into some sort of slime goop.
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
>Prepare the Holy Burst Dagger for the big boy if necessary
They got their power from Dark Magic, logically a large burst of holy power should disrupt basically everything about them for at least a short while.
>>
>>4144273
Supporting this.
I think that the curse sort of got mixed up.
Like, if you can't die until your body loses all it's blood, and then your body and your blood become an inseparable mass of the same substance, then you can no longer lose all your blood
I think?
>>
>>4143793
backing >>4144273 especially that Holy Burst Dagger use. We have to take advantage of whatever we can.
>>
>>4144273
+1
>>
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Update schedule may or may not get a little sporadic over the next few days/weeks/months due to the Coronavirus and the related panic making everything far more difficult and time-consuming to deal with.

I'll still try to keep to my one update a day schedule, but it might not work out.
Just a forewarning.

>>4143812
Easy there, Yusuke.

I should give you some time to experiment with your abilities though, so far there's almost always been too much pressure on Arthur for any downtime activities to take place.
Depending on how this part of the story ends you might get that free time.
>>
The danger of walking into that room full of potentially unseen enemies is far too great, and while it would be nice if you could simply eliminate the threat the largest creature poses from a distance, you doubt the effectiveness of simply attempting to kill it with the revolver. Holly mentioned these creatures were created with some sort of dark magic, didn't she? Then it stands to reason that the holy dagger you've been reunited will soon find itself being of great use to you once again. It ought to be incredibly effective against a creature born of some dark spell, after all.

Brushing your fingers along the handle of the dagger, just to ensure yourself that it is still there, you turn to Holly, who has assumed a sort of combat position, though her stance is quite clumsy and if not for her incredible strength from her nature as a vampire, she would likely be more a hindrance than a help, by all rights, you shouldn't be able to comment on her own skill in combat at all, considering how limited your own experience is. Somehow though, in dangerous situations, you always seem to know just what to do, is it simply luck? Or is something else at play here? Disregarding the myriad flaws in Holly's fighting style though you're just thankful she's committed to helping, you aren't sure when it happened, but at some point, the tips of her fingers seem to have sharpened into dangerous looking claws.

Sophia meanwhile is still hanging back, her face is a strangely cute mix between apprehension and eagerness, she just doesn't seem to be able to make up her mind about the situation right now, you hardly have the time to worry about her feelings though, as the slugs are far faster than you imagine they could have possibly been given their appearance as... well, slugs. "Holly! We'll stay here! You handle any of them coming through the left side of the doors and I'll handle any coming from the right! Understood?" You quickly shout a few commands at Holly, there's a part of you deep down that longs for this, the danger and the thrill of battle. It's just such a shame your enemies are so disgusting.

"Understood!" Just as she finishes uttering the single word, one of the slug creatures seems to scrunch itself up before leaping towards her at great speed! Holly looks surprised for a single moment before she simply swipes upwards with one of her hands, cleanly bisecting the slug creature and spraying herself with it's foul looking orange blood as the cleaved in half pieces of the slug land somewhere behind her with a squelch.
>>
You don't allow yourself to be distracted by Holly's fighting for very long, as you have your own task to be getting on with, and a moment's distraction in the middle of combat could prove fatal! A giant slug leaping towards you would've likely been your undoing had you allowed yourself to be entranced in Holly's fighting for a moment more, as it is, you barely have time to aim at the creature before it reaches you. Upon pulling the trigger, there's a satisfying spray of that orange blood as the monster's head is utterly obliterated and it splatters to the ground.

You don't want to allow yourself to be blindsided like that again though, so from that point on, you make sure that you don't even allow any slugs on your chosen half of the passageway get within the distance they need to make that deadly leap towards you, soon enough there's enough piled up bodies that the slugs attempting to reach you must first climb over a pile of their fallen in order to reach you, looking at the grotesque pile of slimy corpses, you reload the revolver for the fifth time. Is there no end to these creatures? An incredibly brief glance at Holly allows you to see she's surrounded by even more corpses than you are, even if you discount the fact that a lot of the slugs that approached her where sliced into multiple pieces.

Holly is covered in the orange viscera of the slugs from head to toe, here eyes seem to glow with excitement as she spots another approaching. She seems quite a bit faster now than she did when you fought with her when she lost control of herself too, which is allowing her to easily crush any slug that approaches her. Though now you think about it, her losing control here is a very real possibility the longer the fight goes on. What happens if she can no longer discern friend from foe? It's almost as much of a concern as the fact that you can feel the energy use of multiple reloads of the revolver over a short period of time taking their toll on your reserves. There's only a chance that Holly will lose control of herself, and Sophia is still here to rein her in should she do so, but if your energy reserves run dry, you'll be easy prey for these carnivorous slug monsters.

Though now that you think about it, if Sophia is here, why isn't she helping out more? You turn to look at the immensely powerful vampire after blowing away two more of the slugs sliding towards you. The disgust on her face at the monsters speeding towards the three of you is obvious, though you can also sense that there is a rage within her building up with every moment.
>>
You can't dwell on Sophia for long, as you are forced to turn around in order to protect your side of the chokepoint once again. It seems that no matter how many of these creatures either you or Holly dispatch, there's always another to take it's place, is the giant red snail creature perhaps the source of these creatures then? Or were there just hundreds of them hiding out of your sight when you first examined the room? Regardless, Holly might be able to keep fighting indefinitely, but you can't ceaselessly keep firing upon the creatures as they approach you. It's almost a certainty that you're going to need to deal with the giant in the middle of the room if you truly wish to resolve this situation.

>Continue allowing the slugs to come to you in order to use your surroundings to your advantage. There has to be a limit to them.
>Try to convince Sophia to get involved, there's only so long you can keep holding off this onslaught and she has no reason to simply stand by anyway.
>Have Holly cover you from the approaching slugs while you attempt to get a fatal shot off aimed at the huge snail monster.
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4145351
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
Respawning enemies suck.
>>
>>4145351
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
>>
>>4145351
>Try to convince Sophia to get involved, there's only so long you can keep holding off this onslaught and she has no reason to simply stand by anyway.
Fucking help god damn it.
Why don't we just Power of Destruction the whole room.
Fucking slugs
At least Holly seems to be competent now.
I suppose if Sophia got involved this wouldn't be much of an encounter but hey, if she's so powerful I kinda want to see her in action.
Disgusting opponents or not, this is a kinda lame weakness
>>
I figured there would be more votes or discussion now that you've finally gotten yourself into a dangerous fight.
>>
>>4145793
This is vastly underwhelming when compared to the alchemist who couldn't stop fucking with us.
>>
>>4145793
It's a little difficult to take giant slugs seriously, to be honest.
>>
>>4145796
I suppose that this part of the combat isn't as exciting as that, no.
But there are some things I need to get out of the way as set-up.
It's not wise to assume these slugs are the only monsters aboard, he would've been a very boring Monster Dealer if all he dealt in were slugs.
Especially as I'm getting bored of having to type 'slug' or a term synonymous with it.
>>4145799
I guess they are kind of goofy aren't they?
I was kind of going for a deceptively dangerous enemy.

At least they aren't fleamen.
>>
>>4145811
>he would've been a very boring Monster Dealer if all he dealt in were slugs
>I'm getting bored of having to type 'slug' or a term synonymous with it.
James Herwick, Breeder and Dealer in premium, purebred giant molluscs, slugs, snails, invertebrates, gastropods, and assorted pulmonata.
>>
>>4145814
Imagine going through all the effort to get into contact with an illicit monster seller and all he deals in are slugs.
>>
>>4145351
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
>>4145689
Sophia is examining our combat competency and leadership. Which is why we should finish this ASAP.
>>4145811
>Fleamen
God those are going to be annoying to encounter.
>>
>>4145351
>>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
Still got no internet, sorry.. But I am glad we are fighting.
>>
>>4145976
Surely there's better ways of testing that.
Are you sure she doesn't just consider the slugs too disgusting to get close to?
Is Sophia's weakness monsters from hentai doujinshi?
>>
>computer just bluescreened midway through writing an update.
You have no idea how happy I am that I switched to Notepad++
>>
You can't keep this up, something drastic needs to be done otherwise you're just going to get worn down and Holly might not be in the correct state of mind to properly aid you, having become a victim of that vampiric bloodlust she can now barely conceal. "Holly! I'm going to go after the huge one in the middle of the room! We'll go together as soon as we get the opportunity, Ok?!" You suddenly barking a command at her seems to somewhat snap her back to reality, causing her eyes to refocus on you.

"Ok! Don't worry Arthur, I'll keep you safe!" She seems quite confident now, perhaps this battle against these really quite weak foes has made her feel better about her newfound powers? Up until this point, the only time she's ever engaged in serious combat with the aim to kill her opponent would have been against the people she tried to feed on. Well, one of those people happened to have been you, and you managed to handle her quite easily back then, so you can't imagine being beaten down so easily was good for her self-confidence. This rather one sided massacre of these slug monsters however seems to have bolstered her confidence. She's even talking about protecting you now, it's not really like these creatures have proven themselves threatening enough for you to need protection against them though, despite having a dangerous venom, it's completely worthless if they can't actually poison you with it.

You rapidly reload the revolver and shoot the six nearest slugs in quick succession, watching for a moment as their orange blood and shredded organs spew forth from the large wounds the magical projectiles tear through them before you holster the weapon. This probably won't end until you kill the hideous snail creature, it's very likely the cause of these damn slugs being so numerous, though if it actually is producing them as you fight, you don't want to imagine the actual process at all.

Drawing the dagger in your left hand, you charge into the room, Holly easily matching your pace and covering your left side, you've only got a single shot with the dagger at killing the giant snail, and if it fails, you'll have no use but to draw upon the Power of Destruction while already being somewhat low on energy from reloading the revolver so many times in quick succession, while it's drain on your reserves isn't excessive, it's quite noticeable after being forced to reload so much. It did it's job at dealing with the immediate enemies though, while there are slugs still making their way towards you and Holly, you've got a little bit of breathing distance as you leap over the large pile of slug corpses that built up during your defense.
>>
To your side, Holly seems to have managed to come to her senses entirely now, she gives you a happy smile when she notices you looking at her face for a moment as you run, before she quickly turns and leans backwards, the leaping slug that attempted to attack her during her moment of distraction is immediately bisected when it is directly in front of her as she brings an arm up with impossible speed to cut through the soft flesh of the gastropod with ease, coating her with yet more of the orange blood of the creatures.

Unperturbed by the efforts of the monsters to stop you from reaching the center of the room, you keep moving. Two larger slugs slither forth from the rows of seats to your sides. Though whether these slugs were special in any way, you'll never know, as both you and Holly deliver swift kicks to the craniums of the slug creatures that cause both of their heads to immediately explode in a shower of bloody orange gore. You frown as the orange blood gets on the suit Alura gave you, you hope it won't stain, you don't want to have to ask Alura to make you a new suit so quickly after she gave you this one.

Actually, didn't Alura laud the suit's durability against attacks when she gave it to you? It's fairly likely that these slugs wouldn't be able to pierce through it and deliver their deadly poison even if you weren't fast enough to prevent them from reaching you. Though you aren't foolish enough to put the durability of your armored suit to the test when a failure on it's part would reduce you to a pile of goo on the floor.

You notice that you're over half of the way to the giant snail positioned in the center of the room now, just as you're forced to slam your fist into the soft belly of a snail attempting to leap on you, the wind blessing once again coming in incredibly useful at dealing with these monsters at it is launched across the hall to collide with a wall with a thud. The creatures are very predictable, all they ever do to attempt to halt your progress towards the center of the room is either launch themselves at you or attempt to block you with their bodies, only to immediately get dealt with with very little effort on either you or Holly's part.

Honestly, this kind of feels too easy! Between the ease of which you can deal with the slugs through their complete inability to take a single hit and their predictability, neither you nor Holly are struggling at all! It's kind of strange to think that creatures you can deal with easily caused such a horrible massacre in this hall. If the place was anywhere near full capacity, then hundreds of people must've lost their lives here, and judging by the piles of clothing and gel, the dead at least number in the hundreds.
>>
Once again, a slug tries to block both you and Holly from approaching, this one is far bigger than all the others save the snail, too. Twice the size of it's smaller brothers, it gives a gurgling roar as it blocks your path and you're almost worried that it might cause you some problems and allow for the other slugs to pile up on you. That is at least until Holly deals with the creature almost immediately as in a burst of speed she's suddenly right in front of the creature, her right hand grasping the head of the creature as it twitches in response to the unexpected move. Then all she does is simply squeeze her hand shut, the head of the snail easily molded under the strength of her grip, deforming like wet clay as yet more of that sickly orange blood sprays forth. Strangely, after crushing the head of the hideous creature, you hear what could only have been Holly attempting to stifle a laugh. You find yourself worried about just what state she's in mentally as you leap over the corpse of the larger slug and finally approach the monster sitting in the middle of the hall. You suddenly realize that Holly has turned around now, eviscerating any of the slugs foolish enough to approach her with ease.

The giant snail doesn't move to attack you though, it seems to be waiting for you to make the first move. It's actions contradict it's monstrous appearance, it's almost as if it's waiting for you to make the first move for whatever reason, instead of attempting to use it's huge bulk to just crush you. The creature is terrificly large. With it's head raised upwards, it's far taller than you are, eight foot tall, you'd estimate, not even including it's antennae, or the truly gargantuan shell sitting atop it's back.

Regardless of the size of the opponent, there's no doubt in your mind that you've got to think of a way to kill it. Something tells you things won't be as simple as they were with the other mollusks. You grip the holy dagger in your left hand tightly. All you need to do is pierce it once, and the holy energy held within the dagger should do the rest!

Just as you step forward to enact your plan to deal with the monster, it finally makes a move of it's own, as it spits a large green glob of fluid directly at you!

>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
>Use the Power of Destruction as both your defense and then your offense. Simply protect yourself from the projectile with a shield of the energy before using it do destroy the monster.
>Charge through the liquid projectile, using the suit in order to cover up all the exposed parts of your body. Catch the monster by surprise!
>Write-in...
>>
>>4146689
>Use the Power of Destruction as both your defense and then your offense. Simply protect yourself from the projectile with a shield of the energy before using it do destroy the monster.
>do destroy the monster
Lol.
Nice one, QM.
>>
>>4146689
>Use the Power of Destruction as both your defense and then your offense. Simply protect yourself from the projectile with a shield of the energy before using it do destroy the monster.
>>
>>4146689
>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
We've already observed we're low on energy. Probably better not to try to spread the PoD out into a shield big enough to cover our body.
>>
>>4146689
>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
>Don't be afraid to use the PoD to make the opening if necessary though.
Overusing the PoD has been proven to have genuine consequences, but saying that doesn't mean we can't use it for the original strategy.
>>
>>4147007
We'll be fine.
The drawbacks aren't that bad anyway.
WhatIs basically confirmed these aren't the only monsters aboard though, so we'll just rest up and maybe talk with Chaos until we've recovered enough if we suffer consequences.

Unless it was a red herring and the monster dealer really was a slug salesman.
>>
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>>4147078
>Let's do stuff that'll probably force us to rest and recover while monsters are on the loose within a cruise ship just to meet Chaos
>>
>>4146689
Changing: >>4146973 To:
>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
Cuz yeah, lets not faint just yet.
>>
Would dodging put Holly in the path of the fluid?
>>
>>4147241
It would not.
It's aimed downwards at you.
>>
>>4147078
>tfw all he sells are slugs but he has a rare jet-engine-powered, albino, ocean-floor-dwelling, laser slug
>>
>>4147209
I want to see Chaos damn it!
We've only met Best Girl once!
Though I guess we're gonna need to kill some Dark Lord Candidates before she gives us any more cool shit.
Still, we can ask her questions.
>>
>>4147401
Dracula has more pertinent information atm, and do you really want another time-displacement episode right when we've gotten things close to settled?
>>
>>4147404
Are you implying that Dracula would know something that Chaos wouldn't?
>>
>>4147410
Should I link the post where Chaos asked us where Dracula's castle is?
>>
>>4147411
We really need to find out just what happened with Chaos.
Didn't she get torn apart or something?
I can't remember.
She's obviously still got a lot of power, but she should totally know about the Solar Eclipse.
>>
>>4147422
Yeah, that's why she had no clue where it was.
She also didn't know why we had the same (or was it similar?) aura as Dracula.
That's two things that Chaos didn't know that Dracula would've.
And even if we go we don't have any new information to report, and we'd get rip van winkled.
It's just a losing prospect until we get stability to Visit Chaos instead of Dracula.
>>
>>4147422
Ah, as for what happened to Chaos, my theory is that when the big D got himself erased, he was rocking a chaotic possession as a hail mary.
It failed.
As a consequence Chaos got split along with Dracula's power among the DLCs.
>>
>>4147426
I guess going to meet Dracula does have some advantages.
But Chaos must feel so lonely right now.

>>4147431
>Chaos got split among the DLCs
Doesn't that mean she's technically also working against us?
I wonder what happens when we kill a DLC.
>>
>>4147442
Well, it would be more like the avatar of chaos that descended into Dracula got split.
And I'd think the power without a vessel would go into the nearest and most compatible vessel, i.e. us.
Chaos' remnant should follow the power since that's what it's been tried to in the first place.
Unless Dracula'a power just vanishes, which I dont think would happen given how strongly Dracula resists death even after dying.

But, like I said, it's just my theory.
>>
>>4147456
>And I'd think the power without a vessel would go into the nearest and most compatible vessel, i.e. us.
THE QUICKENING!
>>
>>4147456
I wonder if the other DLCs have different versions of Chaos within them...
How will that affect best Chaos loli Chaos?
Will they fuse?
Will she absorb them?
>>
>>4147486
Given that during our conversation she referred to them separately from herself, I'd think it would be like re-uniting with your family after an earthquake.
They'd probably fuse with each other, but stay distinct, if that makes any sense to you.
Like a hydra but you can't see where the heads are connected to.
>>
>>4147491
Aww man, our head is crowded enough with just two people.
Can't Chaos just eat them?
I don't want her to be ruined by her other selves hanging about.
>>
>>4147508
I'm sure she would be able to choose the manifestations of herself she would want to communicate to us with.
And it probably took her a long time to develop her other selves, given she was pretty lonely in god's prison plane.
She might tone it down if we ingratiate ourselves to her, or generally enjoys our presence.

Honestly don't know how close I am to what Whatis is planning, but so far it seems reasonable enough to me.
>>
>>4147521
I think trusting Chaos is a risk. Then again so is trusting Dracula. Or Hildebrant. Or Alura, or Anna, Holly. Basically trusting anyone is a risk. Except Coller. Because robots follow orders. I mean until she starts to develop agency and self-determining. Then can't trust her. It's too bad we're the bad guys.
>>
>>4147521
I guess that makes some sense.
But I do like Chaos' current form, so here's hoping she doesn't decide to go all abstract concept on us. I'm looking forward to meeting the other parts of Chaos though, even if we need to kill the other DLCs, we know three of them are assholes at least. There might be more than just those three though.
>>4148015
I think that we can at least sort of trust Holly and Alura.
Chaos is much too powerful to need to deceive us.
I don't trust Drac.
Anna is unproven right now.
I feel like we need to cement some of our allies as truly loyal by doing more for them. I think Holly and Alura wouldn't betray us at least considering how we helped the two of them.
Sophia and Anna are unproven.
>>
>>4148025
>Chaos is much too powerful to need to deceive us.
No one is ever too powerful to lie. And even supposing something is, that doesn't mean it won't choose to anyway. Because like, it's in the name you know? Chaos.
>>
>>4148030
Yeah but why would she lie to us?
Our cooperation is important for her goals.
Whatever those goals might be, anyway.
Chaos at it's full power is probably so powerful that her lies become truth anyway.
She's basically the Daughter of God when you think about it.
>>
>>4148038
>why would she lie to us
Because she's Chaos.
>>
>>4148038
>Yeah but why would she lie to us?
Because she wanted to? You think I can imagine what a being older than time and based on whimsy is thinking? You might as well ask me what an amoeba is thinking. Cause I couldn't tell you that either. In the same vein you can't in good faith argue that you know she wouldn't lie to us. We're just ants in this cosmic game man.

>inb4 rhetorical question

>She's basically the Daughter of God when you think about it.
Now THAT is a hot take. Personally though that just sounds silly.
>>
>>4148015
I think everyone on that list is trustworthy, with Hilda just barely easing over the untrustworthiness bar into trustworthyness by an inch.
Dracula and Chaos are almost completely trustworthy, because they don't have much reason to lie to us.
The worst thing I can think of for Dracula to lie about is for him to say that "I'm dead so absorb as much of my power as you can to take my place!" then he possesses us.
But even if he wants to take over our body, or plans to have us get killed by Soma so he can resurrect, he'll want the situation he's in to be favorable to him, and if we do the hard work instead it's all the same to him.
So even if he's a liar I don't think following his advice in general is a bad idea.

>>4148030
>>4148042
>>4148047
Chaotic doesn't mean retarded. She might be mischievous, but I don't think Chaos would outright sabotage us, it would serve no greater benefit than her amusement, and this personality doesn't seem to be bent on self-destruction so it should be stable enough.
Besides that though, Chaos doesn't have the motivation to lie since we're one of the few people in the world who can even contact her in the first place, and people like that were sparse up until 19 years ago, and even then they're sparse.
Chaos has always been rendered a background character due to God's machinations, so any outlet that can make her more than one is a precious opportunity for her, and after the defeat of Dracula she would be wanting someone to take his place so she can continue to influence the world.
Her lying to us does pretty much nothing good for anyone, and she still can't act independently so she'd need to be somewhat transparent in her desires to get anything done at all.
>>
>>4148042
Just because she's Chaos that doesn't mean she's incapable of rationality.
Lying to your future Dark Lord for no reason would be fucking stupid.
>>4148047
>ants in the cosmic game
Might be valid if Arthur was a normal human and an actual ant to her, but he clearly has value to Chaos.
She even gave us Mistral to help us, and Mistral was some kind of Goddess herself. She probably wouldn't have lied because she knows how we'd react to discovering her lies.
I can't imagine her relationship with Dracula was very good.
>that just sounds silly
She's God's first creation. I suppose at a stretch you could call Chaos the independent will of the Universe. Didn't she say she couldn't be killed without destroying the universe or something?
And she came into existence when God decided to make reality?
>>
The spit of the giant snail is travelling towards you at a rapid pace, the green glob of what can't be anything other than that exceptionally deadly venom. If it's half as dangerous as you imagine, just being splashed by a single drop of it might end up with it taking full effect on you and causing you to end up just like that poor man who attempted to flee this disaster. The snail monster isn't as stupid as it looks, by waiting for you to start running towards it, it's made dodging the deadly projectile that much harder!

Harder, but not impossible. You immediately cease your charge towards the huge creature and put all your strength into one of your legs, forcing your body somewhat awkwardly to the side faster than you thought you were able to do so in order to avoid the deadly attack by the monster. You manage to move just in time to avoid the horrible liquid. You feel the displaced air against your face as the liquid narrowly passes you by and splashes on the ground, harmlessly splashing onto the wooden floor of the stage.

This minor success isn't enough to satisfy you, as the monster you face already looks to be readying itself to spit it's venom at you once more. As if you'd give it a chance to! You put all your strength into a bound as you race towards the gigantic snail, dagger in hand, all you need is a single strike with the Holy Dagger and the energy stored within should incinerate the creature from the point of contact.

Once again, your movements feel somewhat awkward as you soar towards the monster at a far greater speed than you though you would be able to reach, could this be an effect of the blessing granted to you by Mistral? Your body doesn't seem to be able to adapt to the bursts of speed very well, though unfortunately, Mistral has either fallen asleep again or is simply too afraid of Sophia to come out of your pocket and provide the aid she should be giving you in this fight. If not for the powerful blessings she is able to bestow upon you, you would have no problem with calling the tiny girl completely useless.

Refocusing on the fight, you realized that due to the burst of speed, you accidentally overshot your target by a little, ending up by the side of the giant snail's head instead of directly in front of it! Thankfully, for as surprised as you were by the burst of speed, your enemy was even less prepared for it. It's neck is perfectly exposed for you to end the life of this pitiful disgusting monster once and for all!
>>
Plunging the dagger deep into the neck of the creature, you allow yourself a smirk. For as much trouble as this monster could have caused you were you caught alone and unaware, instead you've dealt with it as if it were just a slightly more dangerous pest. The slaying of this giant snail doesn't exactly bring to mind the sort of tale of a legendary hero hunting down a monster of similar reputation and engaging in a fearsome fight to the death with it. The monster in this case was really outclassed utterly, both by you and the two monstrous girls accompanying you.

You take a step backwards and cover your eyes as it begins to shine brightly and the monster begins wildly thrashing about in pain. You are forced to stop covering your eyes and instead focus on protecting your ears as the giant mollusk wails incredibly loudly, like nails scraping across a blackboard directly next to your eardrum, it's almost torturous. The reverberations of the terrible screech reach all the way across the concert hall, the other remaining slugs also seem to have started screeching in symphony with the inhuman scream too.

The noise simply gets louder and louder, Holly looks around, apparently bewildered as to what's happening while apparently being totally unaffected by the terrible noise turning the entire hall into a pandemonium. Then, all of a sudden, the bright light shining from the knife burns so brightly that you have no choice but to turn away from it, and a moment later, both the noise and the light has vanished.

There's a loud, hollow clatter as the shell of the snail smashes into the ground, now no longer supported by the snail's fleshy body. You're surprised that the shell managed to survive the burning holy energy that the knife sent coursing through the beast, just how durable is that shell? You don't get to think for long before you feel something tackle you from behind, nearly throwing you to the floor with the strength behind the tackle. Jolting your head to the side you see... Holly?

"We did it, Arthur!" She's happily chirps. True enough, when you tear you gaze from the girl with you in an awkward hug tackle, you realize that the remaining slugs seemed to have perished when you dispatched what could only have been their leader. Or perhaps queen? You don't really care to learn the specifics of giant mollusk behavior, so it really doesn't matter to you. You're just happy that the short ordeal against those disgusting creatures is over.
>>
"Congratulations, Arthur." She coughs a single time, causing Holly to freeze entirely, the arms thrown around you freezing up at a single note of annoyance from Sophia. Before they untangle from you and Holly stands next to you. Her attitude implies she has done something wrong, but you can't really understand why Sophia would be so displeased at Holly's expression of joy. You take a moment to look at Sophia, who finally seems to have overcome her fear of having to wade through the slime, only to see that her lower half is wreathed in red and black flame, the floor being scorched as she stands on it, and the slime bubbling away to nothing before her foot reaches the ground on every step. "I'm happy to see that you can handle yourself quite well, even against overwhelming numbers. I was prepared to step in at any time in case things took a turn, but it seems that wasn't needed at all!" She's also clearly happy with the outcome. "Though it would be quite foolish of us if we didn't investigate the source of these vile beasts." It's something you can agree on. There's no point in having killed these slugs if there might be more lurking aboard the ship, there may even be foes far more perilous than these ultimately easily dealt with mollusks too.

"Well, we shouldn't wait around then, but first, we should probably inform the othe-" A terrible pain in your right forearm cuts off your speech, you look to your side to see a blue transparent javelin having gouged through the arm, it's freezing to the touch, and you soon come to realize the attacker. Standing atop a balcony, there stands Grigori. Frustration on his face evident at his miss, before being replaced by a smirk when he notices he's caught your attention. Damn it! So he's betraying you after all?! Even his arms have both perfectly recovered too! Then he simply turns away and disappears through a door leading out of the balcony.

"Arthur!" both Holly and Sophia cry out in unison, seems that Grigori managed to hide his presence from the two of them just as he did so with you. A rage burns inside you for a moment before you quell it, there's no sense being angered by this betrayal. It's one that you probably should've seen coming, after all.

The spear of ice embedded in your forearm suddenly dissipates into the air as if it were never there, causing you to start bleeding profusely from the wound. You quickly realize that Holly has frozen up entirely, shaking slightly as she seems to focus on the blood freely dripping from the painful wound. No way, could he have been planning to cause Holly to lose control? You don't know how well you'll be able defend yourself from Holly in your injured state, but you have no choice!
>>
Then a row of seats crashes into Holly at truly ridiculous speed, smashing into pieces as the girl is slammed into a wall by the force of the projectile. "Now Holly, what did I tell you would happen if you lost control again?" She raises a hand to her head as she sighs. "But I suppose I can show you some lenience, given the circumstances." Sophia then turns to you and quickly moves towards you, the flames wrapping her disappearing as she reaches you. She takes a hold of one of your arms and with a sharp claw, carves some sort of circle into it, you attempt to recoil as she does so, but her grip is like iron. It's not long before she completes her work though, and as she releases your arm, you can feel the hole in your arm begin to knit itself back together. It's a strange sensation, watching and feeling your body mending itself in a matter of moments. At some point, Holly returned from being smashed away by Sophia, head down and full of remorse for her actions.

"Damn that Grigori! I can't believe I was beginning to trust him!" You finally vocalize your anger at the man who very well may have just killed you had Sophia had less control over her own urges, or if she hadn't been with you at all.

"It seems we have something that might be a little more pressing to see to than just merely dealing with this monster threat, Arthur." Sophia is calm as she speaks, though there is an underlying anger to her words too.

>"You're right. I won't rest until Grigori pays for this, we'll go after him now, we might still be able to catch up to him."
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
>"As infuriating as this betrayal may be, we still have to ensure that more monsters aren't going to pop up and cause even more problems first. We'll go inform my allies first though."
>Write-in...
>>
>>4148574
>"You're right. I won't rest until Grigori pays for this, we'll go after him now, we might still be able to catch up to him."
Time to chop a man up one inch at a time.
>>
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>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."

Fucking Grigori. Why you gotta make me do this.
>>
>"Let's bring the supposedly hostile vampire along with us. What could possibly go wrong?"

>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
>>
>>4148574
>"You're right. I won't rest until Grigori pays for this, we'll go after him now, we might still be able to catch up to him."
There are some lines you don't cross and live. Fuck this asshole.
>>
>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
>>
>>4148574
>>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
I told you we shouldn't trust anyone. Fucking mercs man. I thought he was supposed to be smart. Unless he has some IQ 10,000 play up his sleeve he just signed his own death warrant.

But hey good news now we can get the gang together and bond over a nice cold one.
>>
>>4148735
He's probably the one who released the monsters too, given he knew where the dude was.
also,
>not: an ice cold one.
pathetic
>>
>>4148739
I will not say he is ice cold. He is at best unsticking snow levels of cold. Maybe his family who aren't so shit are ice cold. But either way it doesn't matter, he's going to be room temperature by the end of this cruise.
>>
>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
I get it, you have your target back in the fray.
But you DON'T fucking stab someone out of fucking nowhere, we know your specialty, and we can certainly fucking counterplay against it.
The only reasonable explanation on why he thinks he can take us on is that he has some secrets he hadn't shared, or that he has a new Ally in the fray.
He better have a extremely good fucking excuse if he doesn't want to be erased.
>>
>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
WHY THE FUCK DID THE RUSSIAN ICE ASSASSIN FUCKING BETRAY? LITERALLY WHY? Welp, that's an erasin'!
>>
>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
Now I'm sure hearing his excuses will be fun.
What was his plan?
Kill us then get hunted down by vampires?
Was he planning on Holly losing control?
For what purpose?
You were cool, Grigori!
And now we're obligated to let Alura have him as plant food.
for fucks sake.
Why the fuck?
>>
>>4149218
You phrased it retardedly, but you have a point. This doesn't get him anything, especially since he knows about Hilde and Alura.

>>4148574
>>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
Don't kill him, just grab him.
>>
>>4149218
>>4149254
Y'know, he had a free shot at our head or heart but he aimed for our arm.
His preferred method of assassination is by freezing people's hearts.
Did he really mean to kill us? Or is this just bait to make us walk into a trap.

Maybe he thought we got thralled by Hilda?
>>
>>4149260
He might be trying to warn us about something too. He can't tell us out loud, so he stabbed us in a non-fatal, non-vital spot to try and alert us.
Because like you said, he had a free shot at his preferred method of assassination if he really wanted to kill us.
>>
>>4149264
Or he could be testing his new employer? Maybe?
Probably not.
What if it's an elaborate revenge scheme, he's had his assassins' pride trampled on when he couldn't finish his job, asshole cultists are gonna be on his ass due to this, and we prevented him from regenerating his arm, which I feel is the important piece of evidence supporting this line of thought: He hit our arm instead of literally anywhere else.
>>
>>4149270
>and we prevented him from regenerating his arm
Wait, we did? Then why are both of his arms fine?

>>4148571
>Damn it! So he's betraying you after all?! Even his arms have both perfectly recovered too!
>>
>>4149273
He had recovery potions laying out when we went with him to his cabin. I believe it was 3.
>>
>>4149274
Did he ever have time to use them though?
I don't know, it still feels less like him trying to kill us and more like he's trying to get our attention.
Too bad most of the players are "BLARGH! I'M RETARDED! KILL!"
>>
>>4149281
Arthur hasn't seen a potion work its magic, but potions in Castlevania have instantaneous effects so time wouldn't matter, and if it did take a long time then there's no way his arm would be fully recovered, that's why it was referenced in the narration in the first place. Last we saw of him his arm was useless, but he did have the means to recover.

What I'm not sure about is this: If it's actually a revenge plan, how does he plan to win when Alura beat him to a stand-still, and now we have 2 vampires following us? And our other allies?

If he wanted to send us a message without being able to say anything to either vampire, then why not just send an icicle into the floor near us? It would get our attention just fine.
>>
>>4149284
>>4149284
>If it's actually a revenge plan, how does he plan to win when Alura beat him to a stand-still, and now we have 2 vampires following us? And our other allies?
Yeah, that's why it's weird. If he was going to attack us and then let himself get killed, why not kill us.

>then why not just send an icicle into the floor near us? It would get our attention just fine.
Arthur doesn't seem to pay attention to things unless it's directly causing him ouchies or involves waifus.
>>
>>4149292
>Arthur doesn't seem to pay attention to things unless it's directly causing him ouchies or involves waifus.
>555-come-on-now
>>
>>4149294
He is easily distracted by women.
In fact, I'd say Grigori's odds of survival would shoot up by 80 percent if he was revealed to be a reverse trap.
>>
>>4149493
When we fought the head alchemist, we didn't really care what shirley or theresia were doing when she and the mechanic dude were confronting him, we just walked up and stabbed him then decapitated him gruesomely.
>>
>>4149497
Man, I feel like we probably could've learned more in the mansion before we murdered the boss.
Too bad we failed like all the sidequests except Alura and Coller.
Well Alura was like a super success.
>>
>>4149501
Alura was supposed to be the optional boss... but we found it before completing the area, then convinced her to hang out with us after we killed the head alchemist.
>>
>>4149503
I kind of wonder how she stacks up to Sophia.
Eventually they are all going to kill each other and Arthur over romance because he showed too much affection to some stray loli he picked up off the street.

Also, should we have Sophia vampirize Kokoro? Having a pet vampirized Belmont would be nice.
>>
How should we kill Grigori?
I want to make him suffer.
We've got plenty of methods open to us.
I wouldn't be surprised if everyone we know has some special method to torture people to death.
>>
>>4149593
See >>4148637. Shave thin slices off his body one by one with the PoD, while Sophia uses her magic to keep him alive until he's been completely destroyed.
>>
>>4149593
I'd just wipe his arms from existence and let Alura have at him. She has dibs after all.
>>
>>4149649
That sounds pretty brutal, anon.
Why do you hate him so much?
There has to be a reason he didn't go for a kill shot.
>>4149673
Why go that far?
Can't we just break his arms again?
>>
>>4149882
Females are a bad influence on the players; they give orders and the players fly out, flies down.
>>
>>4149895
Dude Alura lost an arm to the guy.
She'll give him a proper end.
>>
>>4149903
She can literally regenerate.
She regenerated in front of us.
She seemed more annoyed than hurt.

I think we should think of something more original for him than simply killing him.

Why don't we have Holly turn him?
>>
>>4149905
>implying alura wouldn't experiment on grigori like she threatened to do.
>>
>>4149882
>That sounds pretty brutal, anon.
>Why do you hate him so much?
Hey now, didn't you want to make him suffer? Honestly, I just like the idea of a future dark lord using excessive brutality when it comes to revenge, and the PoD provides a great tool for that.
>>
>>4149908
Yeah I want to see him suffer but slowly deleting him like that sounds like it could get messy and his blood will just get all over the place. Also we promised Alura.

Meanwhile, if we have Holly vampirize him we can torture him whenever we want and send him out on suicide missions.
I don't really know how we should go about dealing with him.
We should probably learn why he attacked at least.
Then we'll pick his fate.
>>
>>4148642
>>4148644
>>4148660
>>4148735
>>4149177
>>4149186
>>4149218
>>4149254
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."


I told you the slugs were just the set-up.
Anyway, writing now...
>>
You suppress the urge to immediately go racing after Grigori and try to think clearly about things, you come to a decision, for now, you'll have to restrain yourself. Now isn't the time to be hasty. Grigori might be planning to lead you into a trap. Sighing, you let your choice be known "You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least." It's a pity that Grigori has decided to betray you like this. He would likely have made quite a useful guide to the magical underworld. Still, you can't really imagine him having any excuse for attacking you.

"Hmm? Putting aside the threat of an assassin in order to properly introduce me?" Sophia cheerfully says with a smug grin on her face. It's not actually like that was your intention here at all, though you suppose you do still have to introduce Sophia. In a way, this crisis with Grigori's betrayal is a useful tool for you to exploit. With a common enemy, it might actually be easier for your allies to get along without fighting all too much.

You can already tell that there's going to be friction between Alura and Sophia, their personalities just seem destined to clash with each other, so any factor that will allow for you to minimize the tension between the two even if only for a short period is a godsend. It seems that every cloud has a silver lining, and as much as the sting of betrayal pains you, there's opportunity to be had from it. Not like you ever really trusted him anyway, so the betrayal doesn't hurt at all in comparison to the revelation about Shirley and her organization. For a moment, thoughts of this recent betrayal cause your mind to wander to Shirley and Theresia. What are they doing right now?

Shirley may have been a part of some great conspiracy against you, but she clearly cared about you in her own way, it's obvious from how she's always acted around you that she wasn't acting out of malice or fear. Perhaps one day you'll get the opportunity to ask her. Though with how things seems to be developing, that conversation may simply be the prelude to some battle to the death. At least, it might be if she was nothing but a loyal dog of her organization for the entire duration of the time you knew her. You wish you could determine the truth one way or the other, but when it comes to Shirley, you could hardly ever tell what she was thinking anyway. Even when you didn't know she was some sort of magical secret agent monster hunter, she still seemed unpredictable.
>>
Theresia on the other hand was a girl you knew for barely any time at all, yet seemed to exude an innocent aura that made you want to protect her, even putting yourself at risk for her sake! You never really managed to acquire a proper understanding of Johannes' insane blathering. You regret being forced to flee the mansion before saying goodbye to her. It might be useless considering she'd be an ocean apart from you, but that compass you took from her father should still be linked to her, right?

"Umm... Arthur?" Holly's concerned voice snaps you out of your thoughts. "Are you OK? You zoned out for a little while there? It's not blood loss, is it?" Looks like she's worried that taking that ice spear through your arm might have caused some damage that Sophia didn't immediately repair with her magic.

"Ah, no. I'm fine, just... lost in my thoughts is all. I've got a lot of questions to think about, and not many answers either." You reassure Holly that you're fine and that Grigori's cowardly attack had no lasting effects, but the questions about what happened to your previous allies remain. There is one more ally you made in that mansion though, you knew him for even less time than the rest of you allies, but Edwin may end up a valuable supporter to you yet, should you encounter him again, his magical devices would be exceptionally useful to you. The mysteries of the mansion will have to be wait to be resolved though. You can't keep losing yourself in your thoughts like this.

"Well then what are we waiting for? With every moment we waste, this assassin has a greater opportunity to plan against us!" Sophia hurries you and Holly into a march and before long you find yourself leaving the concert hall flanked by two girls. Each of them walking on a different side of you. Holly seems to edge closer to you as you walk, but you try not to pay any attention to it. There's a question that you need to ask before you leave the hall, and it's really one you can't afford to let slip.

"Sophia. The people in that hall, how exactly do you intend to cover up such a large quantity of deaths?" There have already been hundreds of victims on this cruise already. The madness that has occurred aboard this ship is guaranteed to attract all manner of dangerous organizations, supernatural or otherwise to this vessel like vultures to a carcass. With the manner of their deaths, you can't really think of a way to hide the evidence either.
>>
"Oh, it's really quite simple actually." Sophia stops talking as the three of you leave the hall and the doors seem to close behind you of their own accord. "A gas leak in the faulty pipes caused a massive explosion that completely incinerated the concert room and all 300 or so of the inhabitants enjoying whatever trite it is that mortals enjoy these days." Her voice is cold. You barely even get an opportunity to ask her if she's serious before she snaps her fingers. A massive explosion rocks the ship, the doors you had just shut burst open as a wave of flame roars it's way towards you!

Is she insane?! Couldn't she have waited until you were clear of the concert hall before doing something like this?! Holly abandons all pretenses as she seems to clutch to you in some bid for safety, though if anyone is most likely to die from the flames tearing towards you, it's going to be you! But just before you attempt to bring forth enough energy from the Power of Destruction to defend yourself before you are vaporized by the flames, they part and seem to completely avoid the three of you, instead scorching the area around you.

It only takes a few more seconds for the flames to have vanished, the destruction of the flames is evident however, walls and floors are scorched heavily. Doors to rooms close to the concert hall doors have been blasted open for the flames to reach the occupants within. Most annoyingly however is the low light you are now forced to work with, though it's a miracle even a few lights managed to survive the sudden explosion.

"Sophia... a little warning next time?" It's really unbelievable that she figured that detonating some explosive magic so close to herself was an appropriate course of action. Even if she had some method of protecting the three of you, it was still excessive. Holly is still clutching to you in fear.

"Oh, my apologies. It wasn't my intention to cause you discomfort. It's a problem with the spell. To tell the truth, I had no idea it would have been that effective. I haven't had much opportunity to put the majority of my work to the test." She does seem sincere in her apology at least but it was still incredibly careless of her to test dangerous magic like that though. "It wasn't like we were ever in any real danger though. Not while I have this." She adjusts a partially obscured necklace hidden by her dress. A ruby pendant studded with smaller rubies attached to a silver chain. You only get a brief look at the necklace before she hides it from sight once again. "It was a gift from my master after I completed my training. It wards away flame from any source from both the wearer in addition to any allies in their presence." As interesting as her necklace is, you're still a little shaken by the carelessness. Well, at least you won't have a problem with dealing with the fallout of what happened with the slugs in that concert hall. Just the fallout of a huge explosion instead.
>>
The rest of the journey to your room is observed in an uncomfortable silence. Sophia frowns as she realizes that her detonating the room upset you. She did at least heal you from that wound given to you by that bastard Grigori. Perhaps the explosion was merely a way for her to let off some steam? She was also clearly irritated by Grigori's surprise attack. Sometimes, destroying something can help somebody to calm their nerves.

After a fairly awkward walk back to your room, with Holly continuing to clutch onto your arm despite receiving multiple glares from Sophia. Eventually you arrive at the door, conveniently left ajar, you can hear Alura and Anna inside, conversing about something.

>Open the door and introduce your new allies to Alura and Anna.
>Listen in on their conversation before opening the door.
>Have Sophia introduce herself.
>Go in with only Holly and attempt to break the news about the alliance with Sophia as best you can.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4150794
>Open the door and introduce your new allies to Alura and Anna.
I'm tempted to listen in, but just going forward with introductions is probably wiser.
>>
>>4150794
>Knock on the door and say you're back before introducing your new allies to Anna and Alura.
Considering all the shenanigans going on, they might be on high alert. Should probably warn them before opening the door.
>>
>draw with two votes.
Well there goes my plan to get an early update in.
Ah well, I'll be back in a few hours.
Hopefully we'll have some more votes by then.
>>
>>4150794
>Open the door and introduce your new allies to Alura and Anna.
>>
>>4150794
>Open the door and introduce your new allies to Alura and Anna.
What the fuck Sophia?
Can you stop flexing your magic for five fucking minutes?
Yes.
We get it.
You're a powerful magician.
>>
>>4151417
>Now if we don't sink the ship there will be a weird mark where the explosion conveniently avoided despite nothing blocking it.
>All because Hilda had to be dramatic.

-1 Hilda points
>>
>>4151418
I don't think it matters at this point.
For all our efforts in keeping things quiet hundreds of people are dead.
We will need to run as soon as we reach land.

I'm more worried about how she just went ahead and decided to give us a scare.
>>
>>4151421
We should just write the ship off as a loss and sink it
>>
>>4151422
Fine, but we'll do it when we approach port.
I don't feel like spending however many days in a blacked out lifeboat with girls who loathe each other.
>>
>>4151424
If we do that the ship can be salvaged.
Best to do it a day or two before port.
>>
>>4151425
I really don't feel like getting lost at sea with two vampires, a killer plant, a killer robot, a lazy fairy and an evil gardener.

Maybe we can have Sophia make some explosions look like a terrorist attack?
There's got to be some way to make this look like we weren't involved.

Hopefully a terrorist organization will claim responsibility.
>>
>>4151432
>the remaining cult of Dracula publicly claims responsibility for sacrificing the ship in an attempt to gather his soul.

Wouldn't Alura be able to make a pretty fast plant boat, or propellers?
>>
>>4151435
The cult of Dracula are more likely to try to cause WW3, honestly.
Not blow up a boat.

Also I think a plant boat is going to raise some eyebrows.
Can vampires swim?
Can Coller?
>>
>>4151444
Plants are relatively more bio-degradable than Life-Boats, and you can just pick an uninhabited beach, probably at night, to disembark.
ez.
>>
>>4151424
>>4151425
I don't think we need to blow up the boat. With all the shit that's happened, we can assume someone's using some sort of magic to keep it under wraps.
A bunch of people being murdered and frozen solid is one of those things you call into port for, not just keep merrily trudging along.
>>
>>4151487
>what is Hilda's sep field?

The ship's gotta go, it's too contaminated by the supernatural.
>>
>>4151489
Everything is contaminated by the supernatural. I'd assume Grigori's organization has plans for covering it up, on top of anyone who would cover it up anyways. An explosion is just too obvious.
Besides, we have two vampires with us and a plan that needs to drink blood. A >day or two is nonviable.
>>
>>4151493
>the organization who hired the assassin who kills his victims by freezing their hearts and leaving no trace is going to mobilize to clean up a complete disaster for no reason
>we can't raid the ship we're about to sink
think before posting.
>>
>>4151489
You've been trying to get us to blow up the ship and take a lifeboat to Europe almost from the minute we got on, jumping on every new fight scene as an excuse to say it's too suspicious.
We get it, you don't like the ship arc and you're looking for a reason to skip it.
Just stop. Nobody else wants the same.
>>
>>4151496
>The organization that sent an agent that may need to freeze large groups of people doesn't have a plan to cover it up.
>Let's get onto a boat for two days with a pair of vampires. They'll be fine.
You think before posting first.
>>
>>4151497
>almost from the minute we got on
no, I took a suggestion from a different anon after the fight Alura had with Grigori, that had 20 something deaths, and agreed the most reasonable way to cover it up was a ship-sink.

Do you people want to get Alucarded?

>>4151499
>the assassin who had ONE target and leaves NO TRACE because of his professional pride has a clean up crew waiting for him on shore
>Hilda can't pocket dimension
>Hilda can't control herself
>Nobody on the boat would be able to restrain Holly from her impulses
stop while you're way behind.
>>
>>4151505
>>the assassin who had ONE target and leaves NO TRACE because of his professional pride has a clean up crew waiting for him on shore
Always assume something is going to fuck up, so have a Plan B.
>>Hilda can't pocket dimension
>>Hilda can't control herself
Hilda's pocket dimension may have limits you don't know about. It's retarded to plan around something we don't know the entirety of.
>>Nobody on the boat would be able to restrain Holly from her impulses
They can restrain her, but then what? Leave her tied down during midday? Good work.

The only person behind is you. Nobody wants to blow up the boat, you're the only person who thinks it's a good idea.
>>
>>4151513
>Always assume something is going to fuck up, so have a Plan B.
>This is going to be an awful blemish on my record, I've never once failed in an assassination, did you know that?
t. Grigori

I don't even care if she could use the pocket dimension on the boat, I just threw it out there. It isn't even essential.

Dude what is this argument style?
>Hilda has no control over her impulses.
>We'd tie Holly up when she got hungry instead of slapping her down like last time.
>Leaf canopies can't be made.

I feel like you're frustrated about something, but don't let it effect your arguments. They literally have nothing to stand on.
>>
>>4151529
>>Hilda has no control over her impulses.
Hilda is a bored cat.
>>We'd tie Holly up when she got hungry instead of slapping her down like last time.
Slap her down? On a tiny plant lifeboat? Good plan, we can sink faster.
>>Leaf canopies can't be made.
Leaf Canopies can't filter out all the sunlight unless they're total cover.

>They literally have nothing to stand on.
Hey, then they have something in common with your retarded plan to blow up the boat.
>>
>>4151539
Now you're just straight up denying Alrua's ridiculous growth abilities and ignoring parts of your own failed argument to try to support yours.
There's no reason for the boat to be tiny.
There's no reason she can't layer leaves or intertwine them with vines.
Why would Hilda purposefully fuck up an alliance with a potential future dark lord by acting like a retard? I want to ditch her and even I think this point is in the highest tiers of retardation.

>Getting rid of ALL the evidence at once is a retarded idea.
>Blowing up the ship = SINKING the ship

please m8, stop.
for your sake and mine
>>
>>4151552
>Now you're just straight up denying Alrua's ridiculous growth abilities and ignoring parts of your own failed argument to try to support yours.
>There's no reason for the boat to be tiny.
>There's no reason she can't layer leaves or intertwine them with vines.
She needs to eat people to use her growth abilities. To cover the yacht was what? 100?
Also buoyancy, better control, she probably can't create complex shapes? We'd literally be in a marimo ball made of vines and at the mercy of the waves.

>Why would Hilda purposefully fuck up an alliance with a potential future dark lord by acting like a retard? I want to ditch her and even I think this point is in the highest tiers of retardation.
She's literally been testing us and playing with us ever since we met her. If it's in her best interest to ditch us, then I have no doubt she would. She's a bored cat.

>>Getting rid of ALL the evidence at once is a retarded idea.
>>Blowing up the ship = SINKING the ship
Where are you going to get enough explosives to blow up the ship to the point there is nothing left of it? Also, an explosion of that size would be extremely noticeable. By everyone.
>>
I just want to hang out with Coller. At least then it's quiet. I wonder if you can hear her insides whir if you listen closely enough.
>>
>>4151558
>Alura wouldn't be able to use her growth abilities because she can't eat.
>If we sink the ship properly everyone will die anyway.
>We wouldn't keep some under sleep spells to keep as meals for our sanguine enthusiasts.
>We wouldn't have Alura eat all the passengers to build the boat.
>PLANTS can't form complex shapes.

D U D E
S T O P

>If it's in her best interest to ditch us, then I have no doubt she would.
>Trying to minimize your supernatural footprint so the church doesn't send goons after you by getting rid of a ship riddled with bullshit is the best opportunity to just ditch this up and coming dark lord.

>Where are you going to get enough explosives to blow up the ship to the point there is nothing left of it? Also, an explosion of that size would be extremely noticeable. By everyone.
oh, you aren't even reading what you're posting.
I don't even know what you're doing.
Are you drunk or something?

>>4151563
You're too pure for this thread anon.
>>
>>4151579
>D U D E
>S T O P
That doesn't refute anything I said.

>oh, you aren't even reading what you're posting.
>I don't even know what you're doing.
>Are you drunk or something?
That's not an argument. Did you run out of excuses already?

Also, there's no way to get rid of all the evidence unless you completely eradicate the ship. Otherwise someone shows up with a relic that can create an air bubble, or let them breathe underwater or something. Then after some magic bullshit they're on our trail again.
>>
>>4151579
>You're too pure for this thread anon.
Robots are cool.
>>
>>4151584
Alright, you just don't even have anything to say at this point. You literally just ignored all my arguments instead of refuting them.

>Also, there's no way to get rid of all the evidence unless you completely eradicate the ship. Otherwise someone shows up with a relic that can create an air bubble, or let them breathe underwater or something. Then after some magic bullshit they're on our trail again.
Even if they go through so much trouble, it wouldn't lead them to us as the boat would be... AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN.
Y'know, if they even bother when ship crashes are generally a mundane event.
>>
>>4151592
>Alright, you just don't even have anything to say at this point. You literally just ignored all my arguments instead of refuting them.
Because "DUDE STOP" and "You're drunk, anon." are such compelling reasons for blowing up a boat.

>Even if they go through so much trouble, it wouldn't lead them to us as the boat would be... AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN.
Psychometry, scrying. all sorts of magic they could use to find us. But then, at that point it's better to assume they already know where we are, which makes blowing up the boat even more useless.
>>
>>4151600
>Because "DUDE STOP" and "You're drunk, anon." are such compelling reasons for blowing up a boat.
>Those were my arguments.
...

We're fucking done if they're gonna use magic like that. Blowing up the ship gets rid of any trail.
>>
Can we be honest for a second?
Arguing to blow up the ship is arguing to actively derail the plot and ignore the conclusion of this arc. I don't think it's a very wise plan in character either, but since that's already being debated I don't really want to argue that point. Just consider what it means as a player. After all the plot hooks we've ignored or tried to dodge up until now, I would think nobody would be arguing for things like this, but apparently we haven't learned.
>>
>>4151604
sinking*
>>
>>4151612
>Actually having Arthur act like a survivor derails the plot where he acts like a survivor.
huh?
>>
>>4151615
I bet you're the sort of guy who advocates just burning down the haunted mansion.
Or wonders why they didn't use the eagles to fly to Mordor.
>>
>>4151627
If the goal is inside the haunted mansion why would I want it burnt down?
If the haunted mansion had something that would effect me negatively if discovered, there's a group who'll approach the mansion in a few days that will find it, and the only way to actually get rid of it would be to burn down the mansion? Start pourin' that gasoline.
>Eagles of Mordor
I forgot the explanation but there was one in the book.
>>
>>4151631
Blowing up the ship is pretty obviously not what we are supposed to do here.
Whatever the conclusion of this arc will be, I doubt WhatIs planned for randomly bombing the ship.
It's just silly.
We could just start a huge fire as it pulls into port or something instead of sinking it.
>>
>>4151635
>Making a gigantic spectacle at the port and get continual updates on the story daily for a week.
>When you can just disappear the ship and it'll go out of the news cycle after one day.

>It's not what WhatIs planned
We're gonna go ashore one way or another, that's the conclusion to this Arc, as demonstrated by the thread OP picture.

We got a vote earlier where we could vote to sink the ship over... 23 bodies.
Now 600 more?
>Sinking a ship is silly, but lighting it on fire isn't.
>>
>>4151635
I think since last thread and that guy suggested it Whatis has had it in the back of his head. Not saying it's the ideal scenario or what he would want but I'm sure he's at least got a plan in case everyone wants to just go full scorched earth. Maybe a military naval vessel will be close by if we pick that route. Or some rich dude with a yacht.

I don't think we can avoid going into port so easily.
>>
>>4151642
I don't know, I think that sinking the ship is just dumb.
Exploding shit isn't the way.
>>
>>4151648
We don't even have any explosives.
Alura might be able to perforate the hull.
Anna might be able to make a corrosive acid to eat at the hull.
Coller could just punch the hull.
And we can delete the hull.

No explosions here.

Please explain why sinking the ship is dumb. Just saying it is doesn't add anything substantial to this debate.
>>
>>4150783
>But just before you attempt to bring forth enough energy from the Power of Destruction to defend yourself before you are vaporized by the flames, they part and seem to completely avoid the three of you, instead scorching the area around you.
Oh great, evidence.
>>
Just gonna chime in on the Ship sinking plan that it would leave way too many loose ends.
We're dealing with the supernatural, the culprit or culprits are definitely gonna be able to escape somehow if we just take the easy way out.
And even if we could guarantee a clean getaway for all of our allies and guaranteed the elimination of all the threats in the process, I'm pretty sure Arthur has shown he still has enough of a moral compass to reject the idea on the basis of innocent survivors possibly still being around.
Please don't derail a vote just because no one likes your idea, because we all know the QM is just gonna pull a jet-engine-powered, albino, ocean-floor-dwelling, laser slug like >>4147266 suggested and put them in a clockwork mech suit.
>>
>>4151976
I would love to know when I ever implied we'd be sinking the ship to kill Grigori, or whoever let loose the slugs.
I said 1-2 days from port. IIRC we have 3-5 days left.
>>
Well, you suppose there's not really a better way to do it. You'll just introduce Sophia to Alura and Anna without any attempt to disguise or hide the truth from them. Hopefully neither of them are too taken aback by the idea of this fledgling alliance with Sophia. You force a smile, you can only really hope to mitigate the negative feelings that this development was going to occur. Preventing them entirely was never going to happen.

"Alura, Anna, Coller. I'm back." You step into the room, the flowers and plants that had previously overtaken the room seem to have drawn back slightly, giving the room more the feel of an organized greenhouse than that of an abandoned overgrown building.

"Welcome back, Arth-ugh?" Alura's welcome is abrutly cut off as she catches sight of the two girls walking behind you. "Oh! Holly, it's nice to see you again! And you must be..." There's a growl of resentment in her voice as she glares at Sophia."

"I am Lady Sophia Hildebrandt. I don't believe my full titles and status will be of much use while talking with the likes of you, so I'll instead just say I'm a third generation vampire, you should consider it an honour for me to meet you." Sophia just revealed something about herself that sounds important, but you have no idea just what the implication is here. A sharp intake of breath from both Holly and Anna reveals that the significance of the boast hasn't been lost on them.

Now it's Anna's turn to speak up. "So, you're saying you're only what, a single master down from Dracula himself?" The botanist girl looks impressed at Sophia's braggadocio "How fortunate it is for us to have found you then! I can think of no better ally for our cause than one such as yourself." Anna seems to have realized the danger Sophia represents to her especially. Coller meanwhile is staring at both the vampires as if attempting to decide on how she should feel about their sudden intrusion. She hasn't budged once since she started observing the two women that accompanied you into the room. "Pardon me for asking, but what about the girl accompanying you? She doesn't appear to be an attendant." You can hear the grinding of teeth, it's coming from Alura's direction, but the plant woman's face remains as sweet as ever.

Holly decides to take the initiative and introduce herself rather than allow Sophia to handle her introduction for her. "M-my name is Holly Taylor. I know Arthur, and... I am... I'm a vampire too!" Holly manages to awkwardly stumble through a single sentence to introduce herself to Anna. Sophia's presence clearly making her too nervous to properly get through any sort of introduction, instead she simply ends up yelling the end of her sentence.
>>
Anna for her part seems less than amused by Holly's loud outburst. "Interesting." Is all she responds to the lesser vampire with, before moving to look at you once again. "At any rate, we might have a chance at causing some serious damage to the Dorin Organization should they come knocking. As far as I understand, Lady Hildebrandt will be more than capable of dealing with the majority of their goons." Hearing Anna's assessment of Sophia's strength makes you feel a little better about things. At least now you won't have to worry so much about the ambitions and goals of shadowy organizations. No, you'll only need to be wary of your own allies from now on, Holly and her lack of self control especially.

"So, is there any reason I should trust you, bat? So far, you've only made yourself a nuisance for us for the entire duration of time we've been on this ship" Alura's voice is bitter as she looks at the vampire with the dislike for your newest ally burning clearly in her eyes.

Sophia briefly giggles. "Oh my. The houseplant seems to have developed quite the attitude. Somebody might need to cut it back down to size." She finishes her sentence in a threat, flashing a dangerous grin at Alura. She almost seems to be daring Alura to attack her.

Alura looks as if she's seriously contemplating getting a free hit on Sophia, but eventually the hostility fades just a little. Enough for her to continue speaking, at least. "I believe I asked you a question, you perfumed walking corpse." There's an involuntary twitch in Sophia's face as Alura's second insult strikes true. Things are obviously degenerating now, and fast. You're definitely going to be forced to intervene before things get any worse than they already are. A fight between Sophia and Alura could be a complete disaster!

>Bring up the case of Grigori's betrayal to change the topic. With any luck it will cause Alura to drop the matter with Alura
>Order the girls to stop wasting time insulting each other. Remind them there's more important matters to attend to.
>Retrieve Mistral from your pocket and attempt to have her introduce herself too. Anna hasn't met her yet and that might get the conversation back on topic.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4152529
>With any luck it will cause Alura to drop the matter with Alura
>Alura to drop the matter with Alura
Oh my goodness, how on Earth did I accomplish that one?

It should be "Alura to drop the matter with Sophia."
>>
>>4152529
>>Retrieve Mistral from your pocket and attempt to have her introduce herself too. Anna hasn't met her yet and that might get the conversation back on topic.
I want Mistral to start chanting "Cat fight!". Also even though she's kinda just an accessory for the most part she is still a thinking creature so it'd be rude to not introduce her. I wish she'd stop pretending to be a pocket watch and hiding from the vampires.
>>
>>4152529
>Order the girls to stop wasting time insulting each other. Remind them there's more important matters to attend to.
This will go either wonderfully or terribly. Either way, it'll be a fun scene.
>>
>>4152529
>Order the girls to stop wasting time insulting each other. Remind them there's more important matters to attend to.
Yeah this could be a fun scene.

>>4152676
If we pull her out, she'd just freeze up at Hilda again, and now there's a terminator and a bloodsucking plant too.
>>
>>4152529
>Order the girls to stop wasting time insulting each other. Remind them there's more important matters to attend to.
aw shit cool scene ahead!
>>
>>4152529
>Order the girls to stop wasting time insulting each other. Remind them there's more important matters to attend to
Time to see if we can get that Dark Lord charisma working for us.
I won't stand for these two aimlessly squabbling and bickering.
They are both more intelligent than that.
Maybe they can find common ground in being arrogant bloodsucking monsters?
Did Dracula have to deal with such insubordination among his followers?

Also, who turned Sophia?
The list should be pretty small if she's only one step removed from Vlad himself.
Carmilla?
Elizabeth Bathory?
Olrox?
Camilla (no R)?
Some other rando?
...
Alucard?
>>
>>4153161
I'm going to wager it was Olrox. I think he'd be okay with his little bitelings being wilful and eccentric.
>>
>>4153446
If it was Orlox, shouldn't she look like a goblin creature? He's not exactly handsome.
Arthur meanwhile seems to think Sophia is very attractive.

I'm glad that if we go by VtM rules, Holly has truly ludicrous potential, being fourth generation.
She really has nothing to complain about.
I wonder how Vampires descended from Dracula and Vampires that came from whoever was the original first vampire interact.

I wonder if we'll ever find a truly ancient vampire. Sort of like a pillarman maybe? Preferably a female.
>>
>>4153561
>if we go by VtM rules
Castlevania's canon doesn't go by the rules of that game though. There have already been a few assumptions made based on it that the QM has contradicted, so personally I'd suggest forgetting about it.
>>
>>4153577
Regardless of VtM rules applying or not, I still think that Holly ought to be pretty strong.
But she's pretty clearly nowhere close to her peak right now.
I don't think it's fair to just discount her entirely.
I'm hoping to see her become a fine example of a vampire.

I wonder if Sophia was planning to teach Holly magic.
>>
>>4153583
Whatis has definitely dropped plenty of hints that Holly has good potential. I'm expecting a Seras Victoria situation, with a competent but very non-traditional fighting vampire contrasted with the even more powerful progenitor holding the more classic vampire stylings.
I just meant that it doesn't seem like using Masquerade as a source is likely to put you on the right track in this quest.
Speaking of pillar men, though, I wonder if we'll be able to get any extra power out of the Crimson Stone by setting it in a stone mask once we find it. If we decide to pursue it, our journey will definitely have some entertaining parallels with Kars'.
>>
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>>4153601
Stone Masks you say?
Well, they do exist.
It would require a detour to Egypt to break into a Pyramid for tone though.

Specifically the Pyramid Brauner modelled his desert portrait on.

I shouldn't have to tell you what enemy might reside at the top of that Pyramid...
>>
>>4153561
>If it was Orlox, shouldn't she look like a goblin creature?
Vampires are well known shapeshifters and illusionists. Olrox became a giant green lizard. Dracula turned into a big ol demon thing. Even Alucard had a big demon form as well as the usual vampiric transformations. I don't doubt for a second that Sophia doesn't have some big ugly thing she turns into. Or that she couldn't choose how she appears.

Other than that we don't have many instances of sires and how it affects the lil'uns. All we really get is Brauner and his turning of Stella and Loretta. Which lasted for like a week so they didn't really have any drastic changes. Brauner kinda has the nosferatu look to him as well but the girls didn't turn bald and lanky.

I don't know man. But I think it'd be safer to say it doesn't matter too too much what the sire looks like.
>>
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>>4153630
>Dracula turned into a big ol demon thing.
Dracula has a massive variety of forms he can take, it really only seems to be limited by the imagination, in his case at least.
Not sure why he thought turning into 5 floating heads and a big brain would help.

>All we really get is Brauner and his turning of Stella and Loretta. Which lasted for like a week so they didn't really have any drastic changes.
Technically, it was two years.
I don't know why Sanctuary worked on them at all, considering that fact.
I suppose their Lecarde blood made it harder for them to be completely transformed into vampires.
>>
>>4153721
>Not sure why he thought turning into 5 floating heads and a big brain would help.
It probably gave him a really large IQ.
>>
"Alura. Sophia. Stop this foolishness." It's time to put your foot down. "We can't allow ourselves to be distracted by things that happened in the past right now." You turn to Alura, the one who began these hostilities. "I suggest you put your misgivings about Sophia behind you. At least for now. She may have been a potential enemy in the past, but as of now, she has become our ally." You look deeply into her eyes as you continue speaking. "If we are to survive, we are going to need all the help we can get. Alright?" You finish your authoritative statement off on a softer note. An appeal to her emotions in order to lighten the outrage she might feel at effectively being told to shut her mouth.

Alura looks as if she wants to retort, but instead of her mouth opening, it just curves into a slight frown. While Alura clearly isn't amused with this new development, there's no indication she intends to carry on fighting with Sophia.

Anna is quick to get involved herself, softly speaking to Alura. "Arthur is right, Alura. You don't know just how dangerous the Dorin Organization is. I do. If they sent their best after us, there's no way we could fight them off as we are now. They might make an effort to capture me and Arthur, but those inflexible zealots won't show any mercy at all to you." She seems to be reminiscing about the tragic events of her past, perhaps Anna and Sophia may be able to get along? The two have similar goals, the only problem that might arise is Sophia getting along too well with Anna and deciding it would be better if she also became a vampire instead of a human.

Though should the offer be made, you feel Anna would likely take it, becoming a night creature is a small price to pay in exchange for being able to enact revenge on the ones who wronged you. In fact, considering how affably she's treated Sophia since she showed herself, it might be part of her plan! Perhaps there's nothing to worry about after all then? If the scenario arises where Anna wishes to be turned into a vampire, then is there any reason to worry? Holly's transformation was apparently non-consensual, but Anna should know what she would be getting into.

Anna's potential actions in the future aren't important to you right now. You still need to make sure that Sophia won't unravel the work done to prevent Alura from lashing out at her. The smug, satisfied smirk she's wearing would indicate that she's really thinking about prodding at Alura once again too. "Sophia. In the future, please try not to escalate an exchange of insults into threats. We're all going to need to learn how to get along if this alliance is going to be a success. An alliance might end up an impossibility if it simply leads to infighting." You tell Sophia as sternly as you feel that you'll be able to get away with. She might be at least a century old, but she doesn't act her age at all. Was she sheltered from the outside world or something? Before her imprisonment, even?
>>
Sophia's reaction isn't one you expect at all. Her smug smile doesn't falter for even a moment. "Oh, you needn't worry about me tormenting your followers, Arthur. As long as... Alura, can keep herself under control, I won't cause any problems for her." Her smile grows ever wider when she spots Alura's hateful glare.

Not ideal, but you suppose it will function for now. Though the agreement is clearly fragile and viable to shatter the moment the two of them find themselves in the same room with each other alone, with nobody around to quell their surprisingly volatile emotions. Thankfully, you have some news that ought to chear Alura up. "Besides, as much as Sophia might've seemed like our enemy, our true adversary is none other than Grigori. I have reason to believe he released a large quantity of monsters aboard the ship."

Surprisingly, it's Anna who speaks first. Alura's frown having quickly given way to silent laughter upon hearing your announcement. "Oh! So, the ice magician that Alura told me about betrayed you already? I'm not surprised, honestly. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he thought he might be able to claim some sort of bounty on you by handing you in." That's the problem with assassins and hired mercenaries. No consistency. They'll go ahead and follow the path that will lead to the easiest short term gain for them without fail. Of course, having such an ingrained lack of planning ahead usually leads them to their deaths." Anna hasn't even met Grigori yet here she is speaking about how foolish you were to trust him. Is that really all there is to his betrayal? Greed? What was his reason behind not finishing the job then? All he would've needed to do was adjust his aim a few inches to focus on your head and you would've died instantly.

Alura gets to her feet now, the earlier command for her to tolerate Sophia's presence now seemingly bearing no effect on her emotions. "You should have let me have him from the start, Arthur." Oh, killing him is going to be so delightful. First I'll cut his lim-"

"Calm down, Alura. We can think about his punishment after we have actually successfully captured him. There's no guarantee that he hasn't seen fit to flee from the ship already. But I promise you this, we will find him, and after I've gotten the answers from him, he's going to suffer." Of course, unless his excuse for attacking you happens to somehow change your mind. Which being realistic, it obviously won't be. Not many good excuses exist for attempting to impale somebody who you had already promised to serve. Treachery is something you just can't abide by.
>>
Holly finally makes her way into the conversation. "O-of course. We're going to have to try to find this traitor then. I don't think anybody here wants to let this traitor escape without facing the proper punishment for... doing what he did." Even Holly seems to be out for Grigori's blood. In fact, the only one who doesn't seem to have an opinion on the assassin is Coller, who has sat silently observing the conversation since it began.

It seems that everyone is roughly in agreement about the course of action you should take then. "Of course, you're right. We can't afford to let him escape. all we need to do now is decide how exactly we're going to find him..."

>>>Vote on both options

>Split up into 3 groups of 2. (Pick who you would like to accompany you.)
>Split into 2 groups of 3 (Pick who you would like to accompany you.)
>Remain as a group of 6 while you investigate Grigori's current whereabouts.
And
>Check Grigori's cabin first, he might've left a clue there.
>Return to the concert hall and look to see if any evidence that might have been on the balcony survived Sophia's spell.
>Go visit the lifeboats to see if any have gone missing.
>Write-in...
>>
Well, where do you guys think the monsters came from in the first place?
Holly killed the monster dealer, but she didn't kill any monsters right?
Do you guys think he may have smuggled them into the Engine Room?
>>
Hmph.
Doesn't look like there are too many people around at this time.
Shame, I might have been able to write an additional update today.
>>
>>4154025
>Split up into 3 groups of 2. (Pick who you would like to accompany you.)
Sophia, of course! Anna will obviously be accompanied by her robot, and Alura should get along better with Holly than with anyone else. Holly's the only member of our group Alura doesn't have a grudge against, anyway (aside from us)
>Return to the concert hall and look to see if any evidence that might have been on the balcony survived Sophia's spell.
I don't trust an assassin as skilled as Grigori to have left any evidence in his cabin, but he did run from that balcony in a hurry. There might be something there.

>>4154103
Population times on /qst/ are a mysterious thing. Personally, I was working when you posted this update.
>>
>>4154025
>Remain as a group of 6 while you investigate Grigori's current whereabouts.

>Return to the concert hall and look to see if any evidence that might have been on the balcony survived Sophia's spell.

>>4154365
This guy made a point, but I feel it's more likely he wanted us to follow him, so we should go there to pick up his trail.

No splitting the party.
>>
>>4154025
>Split up into 3 groups of 2. (Pick who you would like to accompany you.)
Taking Sophia it is.
>Check Grigori's cabin first, he might've left a clue there.
Let's see how much of a professional he is.
>>
Man I just realised Arthur doesn't even consider Mistral a proper member of the group.
Just an accessory.
Poor thing.

Poor fairy creature.
Maybe if you weren't smurf sized, way too prideful and immensely lazy you would get more respect.
>>
>>4154025
backing >>4154366 no splitting the party
also throwing in my write-in
>Ask Coller for her own opinion on the events so far and the people we have here helping us out
She's been there quiet the whole time, simply observing. There could be many useful things she might have picked up on that Arthur hasn't, so I feel that it would be nice to AT LEAST ONCE SPEAK TO THE FIGHTING ROBOT WAIFU not quite Super Fighting Robot yet, that'll have to wait to much later
>>
>>4154527
What do you think the robot will have to say?
"Beep boop?"
Though I suppose we should talk to her eventually.
We should find more about her other than just assuming she's a killer robot.
It wouldn't make sense for just a robot to have been near all those homonculi and whatever was in the second tank.
Like
Robots were Edwin's thing weren't they?
>>
Looks like it's split between taking Sophia or taking everyone.
But Concert Hall is winning the destination vote.
>>
>>4154464
Mistral exists literally as a powerup button.
We could've gotten cool non whiny artifacts.
>>
>>4154464
She's a familiar who lives in Arthur's pocket. You don't send your familiar off with someone else.
>>
I would like to write now and it' still a tie.
Am I going to have to postpone the update or use a dice to resolve this?
>>
>>4155310
No need, I just read the update.

>>4154025
>Split up into 3 groups of 2. (Pick who you would like to accompany you.)
Take Sophia for the vampire date.
>Investigate the balcony.
>>
"Alright. We'll split up. With three groups of two, we'll be able to cover all the possible locations that I can think of to search." It's really the fastest way to search. If everyone is together, it will take you all three times the time to search everywhere. Time is something that isn't on your side here, either. All Grigori has to do is escape the ship and it's your loss. All the conditions for his victory are far easier than your own. In fact, if he not only leaves the ship, but also takes measures to sink it, then things could easily get ugly.

Of course, by splitting up, you're exposing yourselves to risk, which is why it's important to have each group be balanced out not only by how well people seem to get along, but also by combat strength. How convenient it is then, that not only does Anna have a loyal guardian in the form of Coller, but that Holly and Alura have gotten along quite well indeed from their interactions so far. Of course that leaves you with Sophia as your partner for this investigation.

"Groups, Arthur?" Alura seems curious at the idea, it now dawns on you that she might oppose the idea of you spending time with Sophia alone. She obviously won't trust the vampire not to try to do something untoward to you, especially not when it's just the two of you. But for better or for worse, you trust Sophia not to do something like that. If even half of what she told you is true, there would be absolutely no reason for her to go back on her word now. "Just how are we organizing these groups then? And where will we be going, for that matter?"

You know she's not going to like the response you're going to give her, but this is just something she'll have to accept. "Right, well, I'm going to head back to the concert hall with Sophia in an effort to look for any evidence Grigori might have left behind. I was thinking that you and Holly could check the lifeboats and ensure that none of them have left the ship." Alura immediately frowns deeply as you mention that you'll be going with Sophia, but once again lightens as you mention that Holly will be partnered with her.

Holly meanwhile seems to awkwardly shuffle along in order to stand beside Alura, hastily moving into the room. It seems that having Holly get along with the vampire who turned her might be a difficult task. You think that Sophia does truly mean Holly well, but her overwhelming personality is one that Holly just seems unable to cope with. Along with her training involving physical pain and Sophia's story about the events behind turning her, it's easy to understand just why Holly is so apprehensive around her master.
>>
"Where do you want Coller and I to investigate then?" Anna notes her current lack of an objective. Obviously she'll be heading off to investigate with Coller. The robotic girl does belong to Anna after all, so it's only reasonable for you to send the two off together. The only problem is Anna has a noticeable lack of combat strength, so she's most at risk from Grigori. Thankfully Coller should be able to defeat him with ease, cold isn't exactly something you can see inhibiting a mechanical lifeform like Coller all too much.

But even so, you don't want to risk your most vulnerable ally like that, so it's only fair you send her to the location that Grigori is least likely to be in. "You'll be investigating his room to see if you can find any leads there." You have faith in the pair to be able to at least get some sort of information from the room.

Anna nods. "I understand, trying to keep me out of danger, huh? I'm not completely defenseless, Arthur." You would have an easier time believing that if your first encounter with her wasn't with her stuffed in a locker like she was some kind of bullied high schooler.

"Even so, Grigori is a dangerous man. He managed to fight even Alura for an extended period of time. If I can help it, I would like to prevent you from encountering him at all" You don't want any of your allies to come to harm. Especially not from the hands of a traitor.

Sophia then finally begins to let her though. "Oh, that's a wonderful idea Arthur! It's a shame that we can't truly attend the theater together and are instead merely investigating it. Though with the entire production crew dead, and the hall itself destroyed, I suppose that's not going to be happening on this ship. It's not too much of a loss though, I can't imagine they were putting on anything even remotely watchable." Sophia sighs, her frustration with the world letting itself be known. It seems that her years of isolation have made her quite bitter about the current state of the world. Or it might just be from the many years alive she spent before that point.

"Wait a minute!" Anna suddenly blurts out a surprised statement. "What exactly do you mean by that? Was that shaking we felt earlier related to you then, Arthur? What happened to the concert hall?" You were wondering whether anybody else noticed the explosion, it wasn't exactly discrete at all.

"Yes... That was Sophia's idea of removing the evidence. There were a couple hundred corpses and goodness knows how many giant slugs in that hall." You grumble a bit as you recall that you would have been roasted by the flames made by the explosion had Sophia not been wearing that flame necklace of hers. It would've been far less offensive had she made the presence of the necklace be known ahead of time, but there's no accounting for the whimsy of vampires sometimes.
>>
Anna seems satisfied by the explanation "Oh, well. That explains that then. Well then Coller, are you ready to go?" The robotic girl nods silently to the question. "Don't be too long, Arthur. If you want to find me, I'll probably be searching this Assassin's room for anything he might have left behind for a while. So if I'm not here when you return, I'll probably be there still... but, um... what room is it?"

"Ah! I almost forgot to tell you. Deck 2. Room... A5, if I recall correctly." It wouldn't do if you simply forgot to tell Anna the most crucial detail of her mission.

"Well, it's a fair distance away, so Coller and I will be going now. Good luck in your own search, Arthur." With that, Anna gets up and leaves the cabin, with Coller following closely behind.

You look at Holly and Alura, and consider saying something, but honestly, you feel as if words aren't going to make the situation much more favourable with Alura. It's best to just let her spend some time with Holly, hopefully some time with the only female she doesn't seem to have some sort of superiority over or hatred for will do her mood some good. She clearly hates the idea of you going off alone with Sophia, but she's keeping her objection silent.

Seeing as the time for conversation seems to have ended, you too decide to make your leave "Well, I'll see you soon then. Alura. Holly. Stay safe, alright?" You give the two girls a reassuring smile. Holly returns the smile, while Alura just pouts.

Leaving the cabin, you quickly see that Anna and Coller have already vanished from sight as they went about their own task. "Well, if you ask me, I think that went rather well. It's nice that at least one of your allies has some sort of respect, though that Alura Une's personality is rather... grating." Honestly, it's a wonder things went as well as they did. You were half expecting at least somebody would've gotten hurt in that clash of personalities.

As you are about to continue conversing with Sophia as you leave the Cabin, you see something out of the corner of your eye for just a moment. It's not much, but it seemed as if... the wall itself shifted slightly? Sophia stops at the same time as you do, did she notice it too, or is she merely being courteous?

>Investigate the wall. Something isn't right here...
>Ask Sophia what she makes of the strange occurrence, if that is indeed why she stopped.
>Ignore it, there's no use letting your nerves get the better of you.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4155789
>nearly four hours and not a single vote.
...
Ok.
>>
>>4155789
>Investigate the wall. Something isn't right here...
>Remember that wall back in the Bunker you broke down... and those ones in the mansion... Perhaps these "breakable walls" are a sort of deceptive magic to fool and ward off unwary passerby?
>>
>>4155789
>>Investigate the wall. Something isn't right here...
>>
>>4155789
>Investigate the wall. Something isn't right here...
Dang distractions getting in the way.
>>
>>4155789
>Investigate the wall. Something isn't right here...
What have we got here?
Ghosts?
Death?
Illusion?
Wall Mimic?
Somebody invisible?
Oh god, Grigori can't reflect the light off himself to appear invisible can he?
Can ice do that?
>>4155997
Why would there be breakable walls here?
It's a damn cruise ship.
Nothing about it suggests it's a magical cruise ship either.
It's most likely Sophia playing a joke on us again.
>>
>>4155789
>Investigate the wall. Something isn't right here...
Pork chop time!
>>
>>4155789
>Investigate the wall. Something isn't right here...
>>
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Oh, there you all are.
I was getting paranoid for a moment there.
>>
There's simply no way you can continue on traveling to the concert hall when there's a potential lead right in front of you. If your eyes aren't merely playing a strange trick on you, then investigating this wall could be crucial for finding the truth behind what's going on aboard this ship. You can't let something like this just slip you by.

You walk closer to the wall, and reach a hand out in order to touch it. Sophia looks on, her eyes focused on your hand. "Arthur, if you notice anything wrong, pull your hand away immediately." Her warning is quick and hushed. She really did see the same thing you did then?

You're about to press your hand up against the wall, there are no obvious locations or areas on the wall that catch your eye, so you simply choose a random portion of the wall. A stray thought stays your hand for just a moment more, is it possibly one of those illusions that was within the Bunker? But if that was the case, who could've set it up? Who would have had a reason to do such a thing? Your palm finally makes contact with the wall, which is warm to the touch. Far warmer than the surroundings would suggest it should be. Yet for as warm as the wall is, the heat is quickly absorbed into your hand after a minute or two of pressing against the wall and trying to find some form of secret latch or hole.

Physically, it looks to be a completely normal wall, but what could that strange movement have been? What could have caused it to have gotten so warm? You turn to Sophia, who still has a determined look of focus on her face as she contemplates the wall you're standing next to. "Have you any ideas, Sophia? I'm fairly clueless when it comes to the limitations and specifics of things like this as I am now." A normal person would've likely just wrote all of this off as some bizarre occurrence that needed no further investigation. A superstitious person might've attempted to avoid this section of the cruise ship as much as they can in the future. But as for yourself, you know better. Things like this wouldn't have just occurred by themselves. Something supernatural is going on here, you're sure of it. But what? Unless his skillset is far more varied than he let on, you can't imagine he was the one behind this!
>>
"Don't feel bad about your lack of knowledge on such matters, Arthur. We all need to start somewhere, after all, and you were held back from achieving your destiny by those who would see it denied to you. Perhaps when we arrive at my true estate, you can wile the hours away reading through our library? We have hundreds of books on the topic of magic and magical creatures after all... Just a pity I took all that information for granted when I still had access to it. There's much I would like to use that archive for now." Sophia wistfully recalls her... youth? It's really quite difficult to tell. "But as to whatever that... thing was. It was alive, that much I'm certain of. It was impossibly faint, but it had the aura of a living creature about it before it disappeared entirely, if it had a heart beat, I couldn't hear it." So you were right! But if Sophia doesn't know what it is other than the fact that it was alive, it seems you're still at square one. Could it have some relation to Grigori's betrayal? Or is this just some bizarre unrelated supernatural being?

No. It has to be related to at least something aboard this ship. There's simply no way that it couldn't be a part of what's going on here. But what exactly is it? Some bizarre monster? Another spellcaster with some sort of ability allowing him to phase into the walls? As odd as it sounds, you can't exactly discount such a possibility. Honestly, you could be dealing with any manner of creature here. Sophia's lack of practical knowledge is a real weak point, if she had been more active before her confinement, then she might have known what the enemy you face here is.

That is, if it's truly an enemy at all. There's no way for you to really tell whether this creature is merely an observer, an enemy, or simply acting as it would naturally. It doesn't seem as directly harmful and mindlessly hostile as those slug monsters though. It at least had the good sense to flee from you and Sophia instead of attempting to defend itself

"Well, I suppose if we encounter that strange... wall burrowing...?" Your best guess is that it was somehow hidden within the walls, yet even so, your words falter at the uncertain information, before you cough and regain your flow "creature again, we'll have to see about capturing it. It may be dangerous, or it may be harmless. It might be highly intelligent or it might be as dumb as a rock. These are things we'll only find out at this point if we actually manage to capture it." It's not exactly your number one priority, but you aren't exactly going to allow the possibility of being observed by a monster that even Sophia has difficulty detecting the presence of to continue forever. Especially when you know from Alura that not all monsters that were born as monsters are mindless beasts. You doubt it's a demon, but from those you have encountered, they too have shown at least human levels of intellect.
>>
"If I notice anything out of the ordinary, I'll be sure to mention it to you, Arthur. But for now, I think we've been distracted for long enough. Let us continue on." Sophia is right. As intriguing as the possibility of yet more monsters aboard the ship are, for every moment you waste here, Grigori's trail grows colder and colder.

"Thank you Sophia, I appreciate it. With your help, I've no doubt that I'll find Grigori. He won't escape from us or from the consequences he's brought upon himself." Sophia turns her head slightly away from you as a red blush colors her cheeks. Was a simple acknowledgment of her abilities really all it took for her to act this way? It's hardly a romantic gesture, yet here she is acting as if you're offering her flowers or a wrapped gift. What a strange girl.

You continue walking for few minutes towards the nearest elevators, you took the stairs on the way up here, and Sophia gives the elevator a dubious look of distrust as the metal doors open. As the two of you are about to step into the metal chamber of the elevator, Sophia suddenly freezes up. "Arthur. Hold it right there." You don't take another step. "That creature is back. Look." She gestures with her head for you to look past her. True to her word, you can see the carpet strangely shift about as something within the floor seems to move in circles. The thing underneath the floor seems to have realized it has your attention, as it suddenly darts underneath a nearby door to a cabin. Is it... asking for you to follow it?

>Oblige the creature. Enter the room, even if you have to batter the door down.
>Oblige the creature, but have Sophia instead be the one to enter first.
>You don't have time to get involved with this, simply continue towards your original objective.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4157414
>Oblige the creature. Enter the room, even if you have to batter the door down.
Alright, I'm curious.
>>
>>4157414
>Oblige the creature. Enter the room, even if you have to batter the door down.
>Tell Sophia to get ahead, this shouldn't take too long.
Chances are we kill it or recruit it but the second one should be easier without Sophia, and we don't want to keep Grigori waiting.
>>
>>4157414
>Oblige the creature. Enter the room, even if you have to batter the door down.
>Tell Sophia to get ahead, this shouldn't take too long.
>>
>>4157414
>Oblige the creature. Enter the room, even if you have to batter the door down.
>Tell Sophia to get ahead, this shouldn't take too long.
Alright, I like this plan.
>>
>>4157414
>>Oblige the creature. Enter the room, even if you have to batter the door down.
Damn tsukich. tsuk. The weird green snake things.
>>
>>4157508
Tsuchinoko?
>>
>>4157514
Yeah that thing.
>>
>>4157414
>Oblige the creature. Enter the room, even if you have to batter the door down.
>Tell Sophia to get ahead, this shouldn't take too long.
>>
Why are we sending Sophia away?
We have no idea what we're getting into here.
So what's the logic behind having her leave us?

What happens if it's a trap?
I'm holding off from voting while I think.
>>
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...
Vote Locked.
>>
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>>4158334
>>
Fine, whatever this creature wants, you'll find out. Who knows? Perhaps it's intelligent enough to listen to reason and join your cause. It being a monster, it should have no reason to oppose you, right? As a candidate for the position of Dark Lord, it would be foolish of any who would be emboldened and likely empowered by the presence of a Dark Lord to oppose you.

That being said, you probably won't need Sophia's support for attempting to convince whatever lays beyond that door to join your side. You're also confident in your ability to defend yourself, if it does end up being hostile to you in some way. So with that in mind, you turn to Sophia. "You go on ahead. Whatever this thing is, I can't imagine it's going to be enough of a threat that I would need you by my side to deal with it. If we both get distracted, we run the risk of Grigori managing to elude us." It's a risk, sending Sophia away so you can investigate this unknown interloper alone, but it's a neccessary one.

Sophia gives you a concerned look "Are you sure? There could be anything beyond that door you know, I'm not sure if it's wise for you to confront it alone." There's worry in her voice, yet it doesn't deter you from your chosen plan. At least one of you needs to search that balcony to see if Grigori left any evidence behind that will let you track him down. While you and Sophia would likely do just as good at that task as each other, you can't help but feel as if Sophia somewhat lacks the aptitude for diplomacy and negotiation. If this unknown party can be made an ally, you don't trust Sophia not to antagonize them.

You lay a hand on Sophia's bare shoulder, in a bid to reassure her and abate her concerns, she flinches at your unexpected touch. It's funny, you always thought that vampires would have a exceptionally low body temperature due to their nature as undead, but in your experience, that just doesn't seem to be the case at all. "I went to you alone, didn't I? It worked out fine for us then, didn't it? You don't have to worry about my well-being so much, if whatever creature is behind that door is simply an enemy looking to deal me harm, then I'll just have to make them regret their attempt at luring me into a trap." It's a solid argument against her presence, and one that would make her a hypocrite if she insisted now. It's not as if you wouldn't enjoy her company, but her presence would both imperil any attempts at negotiation and also cause Grigori to gain an even greater lead on you. Whatever that damn traitor is up to now, you can't let him just slip away.

Sophia pulls away from your touch, quickly turning her face from you as she heads into the elevator. "Just don't get yourself killed, alright? I... I won't forgive you if you do!" With that closing comment, she randomly hammers a button on the elevator control pad and the doors swiftly shut ...You're pretty certain that wasn't even the correct floor she sent the elevator to.
>>
Having sent away your investigation partner, you stand alone in the hallway, just your thoughts to occupy you now. You can't help but feel a little uneasy about walking into a complete unknown, even with the words you spoke to Sophia. While this might be similar to her case, you had the benefit of actually having a slight idea about her personality before you decide to confront her alone. This observer however is a complete unknown.

There's no point in you delaying entering the room any longer though, you're already getting tired of loitering in the hallway, and you do want to find out the truth behind this curious watcher of yours. Pushing the door, you find that it has been unlocked and left opened, as it easily swings inwards.

The room itself is strangely barren compared to all the other rooms you've visited in this ship so far. The only notable aspect of the room is a large black sheet hiding an enormous cuboid on the opposite side of the room. There's no furniture to speak of either, and the curtains have been drawn. Just what is this room supposed to be?

Walking further into the room and shutting the door behind you, you're tempted to rush over and pull the sheet from the large box ahead of you, but you decide against it. As you reach the center of the room, something causes you to freeze. From directly behind you, just in front of the now closed door. Slow clapping.

An infuriatingly familiar voice echoes behind you. "Congratulations, Arthur. I honestly didn't expect this to be so easy." Slowly, you turn around. It's Grigori, standing behind you with an immensely smug look on his face. "I don't think I've got it in me to kill that vampire... but you? You're just another human." He spits the last word with disgust.

You're unable to contain your fury any longer, the smug smile never once leaving Grigori's face as he speaks. "Grigori you son of a bitch! What the hell are you playing at?! You must have realized by now that there's no way that betraying me like you did would be beneficial to you!" Grigori's face remains bored as you rage at him. You begin to move towards him, preparing to draw out as much from the Power of Destruction to eradicate him without a trace.

Only now does Grigori's expression change, but only slightly. The smug smile turns into the cold look of a killer as a thick wall of ice suddenly springs into existence, blocking you off from both Grigori and the exit, the wall itself is at least over a foot thick, it's a few inches from reaching the ceiling though, allowing you to hear him still. "Not so fast, Arthur. I'm not stupid enough to think that letting somebody like you approach me could ever end in my favor. Thankfully, there are other ways to go around getting rid of problems like you. You can see him hold out an arm and press a button on some remote through the blasted transparent ice that blocks you from reaching him.
>>
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You pound against the ice with as much strength as you can muster, hoping to break through the thick wall, but unfortunately, even with the explosion of wind that increases the power of your strikes, you only manage to inflict cosmetic damage upon the wall. Carving through it with the Power of Destruction is something that you just can't do in time to reach him.

"Though seeing as you've been such a good sport about all this. I'm going to let you in on a little secret." He walks right up to the glass-like ice, just out of range of being touched if you were to thrust through the wall. "This is our first time speaking to one another." With that, his face shifts and warps until you're looking at... a perfect reflection of yourself? Down to the outfit, 'Grigori' turned into a perfect copy of yourself. "Now then..." He even speaks in a perfect replication of your own voice. "You had best look behind you, the creatures that were kept in this room haven't been fed for days..." You're greeted to the particularly unpleasant sound of your own laugh mocking you as your impostor exists the room with a smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNqEsLMEhds

A deep growl behind you alerts you to the real danger of the situation, as you quickly turn about to see 5 colossal wolf like creatures slowly pacing towards you, each more the size of a bear than a wolf. Their eyes blaze with an unnatural red and their teeth are as long as knives You can tell you only have a few moments before they pounce and descend upon you!

>Attempt to evade the monsters and strike them physically.
>Draw your revolver and try using it to shoot the wolves before they reach you.
>Try breaking through the ice wall again before they reach you (How?).
>Push the Power of Destruction to it's limit.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4158873
Good job, guys. This was the best plan.

>>Write-in...
Use the power of destruction to carve a hole in the floor big enough for us to fall through, but the wargs can't squeeze through.
>>
>>4158873
Supporting: >>4158884

Do you really think Grigori would've shown up if we'd gone in with sophia?
He would've just opened the cage after leaving the room and locking the door.
>>
>>4158891
>Grigori
At this point, it's pretty safe to say it's not Grigori. Honestly, with the way it turned into a wall, carpet and then us, it sounds like a Doppleganger fucking with us.
>>
>>4158895
>The smug smile turns into the cold look of a killer as a thick wall of ice suddenly springs into existence.
It's Grigori.
He just wasn't honest with us earlier.
Also, aren't doppelgangers kinda retarded?
>>
>>4158901
>"This is our first time speaking to one another."
Dude, he literally says this is our first time meeting him. It's not Grigori.
And no, Dopplegangers are not retarded.
>>
>>4158902
Huh. That's kinda funny actually, the assassin got assassinated.
>>
>>4158873
>"Mistral, cover me!"
>>Try breaking through the ice wall again before they reach you (Shoot it, then stab it).
Wow, we just came out of our room and we already found him, at this rate we'll find Graham Dario and Dmitri all hanging out by a cliff.
Also he literally just turned into us, how that not a Doppleganger.
>>
>>4158913
>Also he literally just turned into us, how that not a Doppleganger.
Hold on he could just be an exceptional impressionist and a world class makeup artist. With the record for fastest application.
>>
>>4158920
I was aiming for the "He was a doppelganger the whole time!" twist, but if this is the first time he's talked to us, it seems Grigori went to the monster dealer's' monsters, and accidentally got killed by a doppelganger.
>>
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>>4158873
Supporting: >>4158884
Oh well.
>>
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>>4158944
>>
>>4158884
Support this guy.
Fuck. It WAS a trap.
A doppelganger?
Guys...
How do we trust Sophia when we meet up with her again?
This Doppelfucker could be anyone.
At least we had a nice moment with Sophia.
>>4158936
I hope Grigori isn't dead.
He was cool.
Pun intended.
>>4158944
Very nice.
>>
>>4158891
I can reveal that he wouldn't have shown up.
Nor would you be in mortal danger.

>>4158901
>aren't Doppelgängers kind of retarded?
The Doppelgänger fights throughout the series disprove that.
Bad SotN AI aside.
Doppelgängers are potentially some of the strongest monsters in Castlevania.

>>4158936
You'll have to find the actual Grigori to find that out.

>>4158944
God damn it, anon.
>>
>>4159432
>he wouldn't have shown up,

That's some crucial intel we gained here by sending sophie away.
>>
>>4159435
It only showed up because you made it feel bad for making things too easy for it.

You made them feel like they were cheating.
This decision was far from wise and I was strongly deliberating on whether or not to have this be a dead end.
>>
>>4159438
>dead end
How would that work?
Would the quest just end?
Would we get a do-over?
>>
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>>4159527
I can't reveal too much about what will happen should you get Arthur killed.
I'm looking forward to getting to write it though.
>>
>>4159641
Will we ever be able to kill or take control of Chaos, QM?
I don't want her in charge of us.
I don't trust her.
>>
>>4158873
Oh good lord. What the hell. Why did you all vote to send Sophia away, again?
I guess I'll support >>4158884. Making the best of an absolute disaster of a misstep.

>>4159876
Sure, we'll set it up right after the pope kills God.
>>
>>4159908
>Why did you all vote to send Sophia away, again?
This is something I would also like to know.
I gave Arthur some IC reasons (For the sake of negotiations and having Sophia to go on and investigate without him to help make the best use of time), but even they feel kind of flimsy.
I couldn't believe it when that write-in appeared.
Nor when it actually won.

>>4159876
Ehhhhh...
>>
>>4159916
They must have hugest of brains. Cause I don't get it either.
>>
Damn it! There's no way you can take on those five beasts all at the same time, you simply don't have the physical capacity in you to dodge all their blows for enough time that you could turn the tide of the battle with the Power of Destruction, nor do you have enough confidence in your ability to manipulate that very power well enough that you could simply deal with the wolven monstrosities bearing down upon you. For a single moment, you even consider attempting to quickly draw your revolver and blast all five of the monsters away with your revolver. Though unfortunately, you aren't exactly trained enough to think about pulling off such an audacious maneuver.

So if you can't evade their blows and you can't kill them in a reliable fashion without likely getting fatally injured by those tremendously powerful looking jaws, you're left with but one option. Escape. But how? The wall behind you is far too thick for you to think of breaking through, and even the Power of Destruction would likely end up taking too long while you trace a path through the wall.

You barely have any time left to think as the hellish jaws of the creatures open up as they approach, each of the monsters charging towards you has a mouth large enough to simply bite you in half and tear you to shreds, you notice the largest of the creatures seems to have tattered scraps of cloth caught in the razor sharp jaws. No doubt from whatever or whoever it last made a meal of.

You could potentially kill two of them, maybe even three, by utilizing the Power of Destruction, but the remaining wolves would almost certainly end your life before you could deal with them. Finally though, a moment of inspiration comes over you as you realize that there's a guaranteed way out of this situation after all!

You quickly call that chaotic energy brought forth from the Power of Destruction into reality as the familiar feeling spreads over your right hand. Though instead of putting the immensely lethal and dangerous power to work in punishing these monsters that would aim to take your life and to make you their prey, you crouch down and simply pass your hand straight through the floor. You don't think that the feeling of seeing the Power of Destruction in action will ever be able to grow old, all that destructive power, confined entirely within you. The unlimited destructive force of Chaos, manifested through an ability that denies the existence of anything it comes into contact with. It's a power that feels as if it is part of you, an intrinsic part of your being that belongs to you and to you alone. Though after your meeting with that apparently all-powerful girl within your dream, you aren't so sure about that.
>>
Even so, the Power of Destruction has yet to fail you outside of matters that are directly related to Chaos and that bizarre realm of hers, and it doesn't fail you now either. You use your right hand to swiftly trace a circle around yourself, cleaving through the floor of the room as you do. The wolf closest to you finally reaches you in the time it took you to make that swift movement, and lunges downwards, jaws opened wide in an attempt to grab a deadly hold on your body.

But it's attempt to devour you fails completely, as it slams it's jaws shut on empty air, wincing slightly as the force of it's failed bite is forced into it's own skull, a bite that would've been more than powerful enough to crush bones and sever flesh. You don't feel bad for the creature at all as you land on top of a table sitting atop a thick chunk of the upper cabin's floor.

You would however have preferred the cabin below you not to have been occupied, as a mother and father look at you with confused looks, while the mother carries a boy, no more than three years old, in her arms. Really, not an ideal room for you to have landed in, and for all your new found ability to ignore the results of tragedy, you feel responsible for putting these poor people in danger. Turning to the room's occupants, who's confusion has now been replaced by vacant looks of acceptance, you speak with the tone of perfect professionalism "Head for the stairs. There's a gas leak on this level, and you need to get to another level immediately, understood?"

The man and woman both slowly nod before they speed out of the room, hopefully that'll be enough for them to get themselves to safety. As for you, you look upwards at the new hole in the ceiling, steadily being widened up by the monstrously strong claws tearing away at the metal as if it were cardboard. But for now, you're in an advantageous position.

>Use the revolver to take shots at any wolf creature that you can see through the hole.
>Run from the room and take the stairs downwards to the next floor, hopefully you can meet up with Sophia somewhere around the Concert Hall.
>Run from the room and instead take the elevator, it's right outside after all, and also faster than taking the stairs.
>Stand your ground to face the monsters when they make it through the hole in the ceiling.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4160722
>Run from the room and take the stairs downwards to the next floor, hopefully you can meet up with Sophia somewhere around the Concert Hall.
Top priority right now is minimizing that doppelganger's ability to cause social damage with its impersonation.
>>
>>4160722
>Use the revolver to take shots at any wolf creature that you can see through the hole
Ah, the old reliable Anti-Warg Circle, the most important technique for camping
>>
>>4160722
>Use the revolver to take shots at any wolf creature that you can see through the hole.

We screwed the pooch by sending out super powerful ally away already but just running to her now that thing got difficult would make us look like a cuck. Need to clean up this mess before reuniting with her.
>>
>>4160722
>>Run from the room and take the stairs downwards to the next floor, hopefully you can meet up with Sophia somewhere around the Concert Hall.
Eh, doggos can do their own shit. Claw at the floor for a while before they realize the door is faster. Hopefully the imposter didn't get a 1:1 translation of our very scary power. Grigori's magic seems tied to bloodline but ours seems tied to soul so hopefully that mucks it all up.
>>
>>4160722
>Run from the room and take the stairs downwards to the next floor, hopefully you can meet up with Sophia somewhere around the Concert Hall.
Get to Sophia, damage control, start being paranoid. inb4 doing something very bold and lewd then checking the reaction is the way to tell who's the real Sophia
>>
>>4160722
>Run from the room and take the stairs downwards to the next floor, hopefully you can meet up with Sophia somewhere around the Concert Hall.

>>4160743
Will the doppelganger have mistral too? Cause if not, that's a perfect way to prove our identity.
>>
>>4160722
>Run from the room and take the stairs downwards to the next floor, hopefully you can meet up with Sophia somewhere around the Concert Hall.
Oh damn. This is gonna be awkward isn't it? Please don't make us prove which Arthur is the real one.
>>4160743
Doppelgangers are just the fucking worst. I wonder what it even wants.
>>4161021
Or we could try attacking her to see if she reacts to it in time.
>>
You simply don't have the time to waste getting rid of those huge dogs. Now that you know your enemy is some sort of shapeshifter, there's no telling what it's plan might be. All you can think about is how it took your form as it left you to die. Whatever this monster you're up against is, it's clearly not like these dogs or those slugs. It's a genuinely intelligent being that is plotting against you now.

It's intelligence even gave way to hubris and arrogance. There was no reason for it to have revealed the truth of it's identity to you, that it wasn't Grigori, but instead some sort of doppelgänger. Though that begs the question, was Grigori always this monster merely faking it's identity? Or was he a real person after all? You can't tell, and it's maddening.

You look at the wolf creatures as they attempt to tear their way through to you, smirking as you realize that it will take them at least a few minutes to successfully tear a big enough hole in the floor that won't lead to their tremendous bulk getting stuck, you almost laugh at them for their huge bodies which made them such a threat merely moments ago being such hindrances to them now. But now isn't the time to taunt huge and likely mindless beasts, so after a few seconds you simply follow the family you had abandon the room into the hallway.

You leave the room and the ship feels dreadfully quiet as you do. You can't hear a noise except the snapping of wood and the rending of metal emanating from the room you just left. About fifty meters away, the previous occupants of the room are clambering into a stairwell. It's slightly odd that the stairs are so far from the elevators right next to you. Perhaps it's simply a design flaw that caused such a strange quirk in the layout of this part of the floor? It doesn't really matter though, the stairs are thankfully not so far away that it's a real inconvenience.

You quickly run to the stairs and begin to descend them, passing the people you sent running from the accommodation in your haste. The quicker you find Sophia, the faster you can put your mind at ease about this damn shapeshifter somehow tricking your allies and having them work against you. What is their goal here? Why are they acting against you and your followers? They can't be allied with the Dorin Organization, surely? That bunch are clearly more the sorts to advocate for the complete extermination of all non-humans, instead of utilizing them as their agents.
>>
After racing down two levels, you finally reach the floor with the concert hall on it, now there's only the matter of finding Sophia, and you can end a problem before it starts! You continue running, hoping that your memory of the place serves you well. It does, and soon enough you are running upon the scorched floors of the area touched by that reckless explosion Sophia set off. It's really quite amazing that such a large explosion seemed to only really deal cosmetic damage to the structure of the ship instead of blowing a huge hole in the vessel and leaving you all to swim.

Though as you turn a corner, your heart sinks like a stone in an ocean. There you see, walking next to Sophia and casually conversing with her... you. This damn shapeshifter has really gone too far now. You can't stop yourself from sprinting down the corridor towards the two of them while the converse about something completely irrelevant to you.

"Sophia! Get away from that thing, it's a trick!" You stop a few meters behind the two of them before shouting at your ally. You have to warn her about this impostor as soon as you can! The two of them stop talking and turn about in almost complete sync with each other. Sophia looks genuinely confused while the thing using your face as it's own also manages to look like it's been taken completely by surprise.

"Arthur? W-what's going on here? Why are there two of you?" She looks completely bewildered by this turn of events as she looks to you and then back to your fake. Though it's not really an appropriate thought for the situation, you can't help but notice how cute she looks with that befuddled look on her face. It's a rare look for somebody who is so at ease with controlling a situation to be wearing.

Unfortunately, you're cut off from speaking before you even get the chance by your own damn voice! "Holly told me about these things, actually. I can say for sure that this thing is a Doppelgänger. Apparently they are powerful shapeshifters that are almost impossible to tell from the real thing. They'll use any method they can think of in order to deceive people into trusting them. They were a major target for humans after Dracula's defeat, as all sorts of organizations moved to capture them for experimentation while others simply aimed to eradicate them." So, it wants to play like that, does it? Fine.

"Don't listen to them Sophia! That room I was led into was a trap designed to kill me! Instead I managed to escape and now that thing you're standing next to you is trying to worm his way out of this!" You thrust an accusatory finger at your perfect copy and angrily pronouncing. "That fake next to you is the real Doppelgänger!"
>>
Your clone looks as if he's about to refute your argument before he is interrupted by Sophia. "That's enough from the two of you I think. Otherwise this is just going to descend into incoherent arguing between the two of you." She takes a step away from the 'Arthur' she is standing next to and towards you and doesn't stop until that both you and the Doppelgänger are an equal distance away from her. "So here's what we're going to do. The real Arthur is going to convince me of his identity, and then the fake is going to face his punishment. Or, the fake can immediately come clean and I might be convinced to let them off with a lighter punishment. IS that clear?" Both you and the fake nod at her words. Doesn't look like 'you' has any intention of surrendering here, but what could he have in store that has led him to have this confidence?

Regardless of what the fake might try to do, you still have to convince Sophia yourself, unfortunately, her prior look of confusion seems to have been replaced by a look of self-control and confidence. It looks like she thinks she has everything under control now. As she looks at you, clearly expecting you to act first, you decide to...

>Point out that you still have all your weaponry, the Doppelgänger shouldn't have been able to replicate that, right?
>Pull the sleeping fairy out of your inner pocket. Mistral being present on you should clear you of any suspicion.
>Use the Power of Destruction as a display of your identity. There's no way that Doppelgänger could copy something so intrinsically yours.
>Instead of trying to prove your identity with some sort of display of your abilities, walk over to Sophia and do something truly audacious. Kiss her.
>Write-in...
>>
>>4162501
>>Pull the sleeping fairy out of your inner pocket. Mistral being present on you should clear you of any suspicion.
>>
>>4162501
>Instead of trying to prove your identity with some sort of display of your abilities, walk over to Sophia and do something truly audacious. Kiss her.
Hahaha.
Sophia route here we go!
>>
>>4162501
>Use the Power of Destruction as a display of your identity. There's no way that Doppelgänger could copy something so intrinsically yours.
It doesn't even really seem to understand it, since it referred to us as "just a human".
>>
>>4162501
>Use the Power of Destruction as a display of your identity. There's no way that Doppelgänger could copy something so intrinsically yours.
And if that doesn't work...
>Pull the sleeping fairy out of your inner pocket. Mistral being present on you should clear you of any suspicion.
>>
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>>4162514
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>>4162501
>Pull the sleeping fairy out of your inner pocket. Mistral being present on you should clear you of any suspicion.
We just used the Power of Destruction to escape, and unless the Doppelganger has another smaller Doppelganger to mimic Mistral or can shapeshift a part of themselves (in which case, more power reveals from the enemy) then he's pretty dang screwed.
>>
I'm not sure how to count these votes.
I think it's a victory for attempting to use Mistral as proof of your identity.
Though I might leave the vote open for another hour or so.
>>
>>4163297
I'll just switch over to that if it'll speed up your writing.
>>
>>4163297
>>4163446

Agreed. So whip out the dumb fairy, basically and watch the doppelganger get wrecked.
>>
>>4162501
>Pull the sleeping fairy out of your inner pocket. Mistral being present on you should clear you of any suspicion.
>inb4 it's like The Thing where it splits part of itself to make a smaller doppleganger, and THAT becomes a fake Mistral to help cover the original's disguise
Wait, if it was like that then the new smaller one would take the closest opportunity to sell out the larger one, since both are sentient and both are self-serving - though if we're not going off classic John Carpenter's The Thing rules, then things are about to get INTERESTING.
>>
>>4163645
>mini-fake-mistral is a part of the bigger doppel
>it can't actually stop being on its person because it is literally a growth
>win because fakestral can't fly off and bother people
I'm sure it won't be so simple. Or I'm overestimating the gang banger.
>>
>>4163666
...this might end with us having to whip out the arm of ruin.
>>
Well then, looks like there's nothing for it. "So, you want me prove my identity to you? Fine, that can be easily done." Sophia looks on with interest in her gaze as you reach into your inner pocket and pluck Mistral from her dual sleeping and hiding place, supporting the still sleeping wind spirit around her shoulders with a finger and a thumb.

She doesn't actually stir at all, despite having being moved with no real regard for her sleeping habit. This sylph is an incredibly heavy sleeper to have not woken up from any of the events that have transpired in the past few minutes. Neither your running as fast as you could handle or the loud shout of anger directed towards your Doppelgänger managed to have any effect on her sleep.

Sophia looks on, slight disappointment in the display of the sleeping fairy. You can tell that she hasn't quite been convinced by the unconscious fairy you hold in your hands. Your impostor meanwhile laughs, as he reaches into his own pocket. "You can't honestly expect a trick like that would have worked, could you?" Amazingly, he also manages to pull Mistral from his pocket, or at least a perfect copy of the girl. "So you can make a copy of more than one thing at once, was that really your trump card, impostor?" You are really starting to hate the sound of your own voice now.

You grit your teeth as you shake the sleeping fairy in your hands to no avail. She's still sleeping soundly even with your best efforts to awaken her from her deep slumber. "Well, it seems that this didn't exactly go anywhere. Unless your apparently lazy wind spirit wakes up from poorly timed decision to rest, we won't know who's being deceptive, will we?"

You can tell the Doppelgänger is happy with Sophia's current standpoint, even though it's trying it's hardest to remain stoic, uninterested in the situation and slightly irritated. It's very difficult to be fooled by your own face. You shake Mistral violently now, hoping that it would be enough to wake her. Unfortunately, her only response is to make an annoyed sound in her sleep. This is getting ridiculous now. Even worse is that your impostor has merely put his own copy of Mistral back in his pocket.

In a last ditch effort to wake Mistral up, you merely allow her to drop from your grip and plummet towards the floor. The wind fairy speeds towards the floor without a single care, her unconscious form freely accelerating in the mere moments it takes for her to hit the ground before suddenly stopping with a confused sound of shock "Pwah!?". A single inch away from the ground, Mistral hovers in place. It takes her no time at all to suddenly come speeding back up into the air to eye level. "What's the big idea, Arthur?! I was resting and trying to conserve what little energy I have and uh---" She looks at you and then your Doppelgänger and then back to you. "What's... going on? Why are there... two of you?"
>>
"Excellent. I'm glad that you finally decided to join us, Mistral. You're a very heavy sleeper you know? I was quickly running out of ideas on just how to wake you. Should I just throw you at a wall or the floor whenever you won't wake in the future?" You aren't pleased with the difficulty you had at waking her up at all. You're being genuinely sincere with that suggestion.

Mistral pales at the suggestion, but before she gets a chance to respond to the suggestion that you start throwing her at surfaces in order to get her to respond, Sophia begins speaking. "Well then, looks like we've got our fake then, doesn't it 'Arthur'?" She turns to the doppelgänger with a malicious smile spreading on her face. "I had an inkling that something was off about you from the moment you returned, I just wanted to see how the real Arthur would attempt to convince me of the truth of his identity."

The fake backs away from Sophia, the fear on it's face is easy for you to see. "W-wait a minute Sophia, surely you aren't going to let yourself be tricked by that thing, right?" It's quite humorous to you how the situation has so rapidly turned about.

"You're right. I'm not. So how about you drop the act now? You aren't going to fool anyone anymore." Sophia is cold and demanding. "Please be aware that if you try to trick me again, I'll remove your head from your shoulders before you even finish speaking."

"I- Uh- Fine." The Doppelgänger's features shift once more, though this time it's whole body glows as it visibly shifts and contorts until it has taken the shape of a young girl with yellow eyes and blonde hair, the thin malnourished body of the girl is covered with tattered looking brown fabric. Physically, she doesn't look to be a day older than 12.

"I do hate to disappoint, but you do realize that attempting to manipulate me emotionally by taking on the form of a child isn't going to work, I hope?" Sophia looks unimpressed by the transformation, and the dangerous look in her eyes hasn't lessened a single fraction.

"Wait! This is my true form! Or at least, my true form that I can still communicate to you in. Please, just give me a chance to explain myself!" The girl is clearly terrified of Sophia, who simply smirks at her in response to her panicked pleading.

>This has to be another trick. Have Sophia get rid of the Doppelgänger.
>After all the damage this shapeshifter has tried to cause you, there's no way you aren't dealing it yourself. Execute it with the Revolver
>Maybe it's worth hearing her out before you decide what you're going to do with her?
>Demand she answer your questions instead of letting her spin her own tale. (Write-in questions)
>Write-in...
>>
>>4163645
Unfortunately, I couldn't reasonably make Doppelgängers into The Thing level opponents, because if I did, there would be no real way for you to have won, or for Vampires to be considered generally more dangerous.

While they are powerful monsters, you kind of ruined everything accidentally by walking into it's trap and then cornering it after it assumed you would die.
>>
>>4163685
>>Demand she answer your questions instead of letting her spin her own tale. (Write-in questions)
What happened to Grigori? Cause if she is the one that put a hole in our arm I'm going to be miffed.
>>
>>4163685
>Demand she answer your questions instead of letting her spin her own tale. (Write-in questions)
>What happened to Grigori?

We should try to recruit it if we can.

>>4163690
Yet again we ruin a QM plan by complete coincidence. Arthur is an expert at this.

>>4163695
It was most likely the Doppelganger. It shot us in the arm to lure us away so it could kill us and take our place.
>>
>>4163700
>We should try to recruit it if we can.
Stop trying to adopt all the strays. We don't even know if we have to feed this one.
>>
>>4163715
>The future Dark Lord is afraid of a Doppelganger.

It could be really useful.
>>
>>4163718
>It could be really useful.
So could a vetting process but apparently we don't have one. Besides this isn't even the cool head swapping kind of shapeshifter.
>>
>>4163721
Who needs a vetting process when the vampire on your side would just decapitate traitors?
>>
>>4163723
>Who needs a vetting process when the vampire on your side would just decapitate traitors?
Whoever got killed by the traitor before it became apparent they were one?
>>
>>4163725
It's a good thing most of our party don't die when they're killed.
>>
>>4163727
The only person who wouldn't die in our party if their soul was removed from this mortal coil is Arthur if Chaos decided to do something about it. Sure actually putting Sophia down for good would be incredibly difficult but it's not like she has any way of forcing her soul to cling to this world. And there's no way I can be convinced she's actually powerful enough to just tell Death to fuck off. If she was met with her true death she'd pass on just like any other mid-tier vampire.
>>
>>4163764
Can we at least hear out the Doppelganger before we decapitate it? Even Sophia gouged out our leg, and shes allied with us now.
>>
>>4163767
Totes. I'm pretty curious both about why she looks like tovarisch on the rocks and whatever sob story about being locked in a cage she has.
>>
Hey QM, is there any chance we could still go down the good guy who doesn't allow wanton and banal violence/cruelty? or is any hope of that pretty much gone?
>>
>>4164005
It's not entirely gone, you might find getting out of the hole you're currently in to be quite difficult though, if you want to get back onto the good guy route.

But honestly, Arthur hasn't really made that many decisions that could be called evil.
He's more running on the true neutral aspect of surviving at any cost.
He's not really doing anything that evil.
His most evil aspect is his ability to tolerate evil around him for the sake of his own survival.
>>
>>4164020
Good to know. Evil gets boring quick.
>>
>>4164036
Good gets super boring instantly.
Evil is at least interesting.
>>
>>4163685
>>Maybe it's worth hearing her out before you decide what you're going to do with her?
>>
>>4163685
>>Demand she answer your questions instead of letting her spin her own tale. (Where's Grigori?)
Answer right and you might live
>>
>>4163685
>After all the damage this shapeshifter has tried to cause you, there's no way you aren't dealing it yourself. Execute it with the Revolver
If it hadn't morphed into a female this wouldn't even be a question.
>>
>>4164317
Nah, even if it morphed into a guy again I still would've voted to interrogate it/recruit it.

I'm already secure in my waifu candidate.
>>
>>4164317
I just want to know what happened to Grigori. If he's just taking a nap in his room and ends up getting Coller'd I'll be just a little sad.
>>
I just replayed Aria of Sorrow, and was reminded again of how much I want the Dark Lord ending to include a second, more difficult boss fight against Julius.
What, I sure hope you give us that chance.
>>
>>4164331
Depending on how things go, you could end up fighting not only a serious Julius, but also a Julius who is only 39 years old, only barely out of his prime.
>>
>>4163695
Support.
Though she can give her story depending on her answer, I want to know more about her.
>>4163715
I will never stop trying to create the ultimate evil organization.
>>4164036
Good is more boring than evil. Just running around killing everything just for daring to exist is boring. Who cares if they prey upon humans? Just one of our monster allies is worth that price.
>>4164317
Maybe that was it's plan?
>>4164732
Tell it to us straight QM, what are our odds on taking Julius right now while he has memory loss and no whip?
What about if we also have our allies to help?
>>
>>4164774
>what are our odds on taking Julius right now while he has memory loss and no whip?
Very poor.
They don't improve that much even with your allies either.
>>
>>4164774
>Good is more boring than evil.
Neither side is inherently exciting.
>>
>>4165989
>>4165989
>>4165989
>>4165989
Update in new thread!



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