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>>5441344
After arming herself with blunderbusses and dragons (shortened blunderbusses) that are enchanted with gravitational magic, and several grenades, Xil call upon her steed once again.

The horse’s name is…

>>Masanaga
Black horse with a grey mane, blessed with the ability to turn itself and the rider into a dark mist, unable to be harmed, only leaving behind small fragments of the horse’s hair.

However, neither the horse or rider can see during the ‘mist form’.

>>Ophelia
Steel horse with a glistening white color, with countless holes around its body - these are steel spike launchers, which primarily act as point defense weapons, able to rip apart gunfire and living beings before they reach the horse. These launchers are enchanted with air magic, able to only shoot out air which can quickly change the horse’s direction and speed.

However, without feeding the horse with metal, the point defense cartridges will run out quickly. Additionally, repeated uses of the launchers for thrust vectoring will heat up the horse.

>>Guang
Chestnut horse gifted with time manipulation abilities, able to accelerate itself and rider to supersonic speed, allowing it to avoid gunfire. Additionally, it can create a sphere of slowed down time or accelerated time around itself.

However, repeated usage of time manipulation will make the horse extremely hungry - without a steady supply food, only short bursts of superspeed or time spheres are possible.

Also, for some reason, it really likes to eat whale bone. It just.. absorbs them somehow.

>>Write in
Describe ability and disadvantage

>>5441344
Story set in the same setting as Goblin Assassin, although you do not need to read prior threads

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5389007/
>>5440066


Schizo QM also wrote…

Return to Highschool
A story about a 30 year old dying and returning to 2007 to change his life

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5379366

Elden Ring oneshot
Action focused story about a godskin apostle
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5344701/

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5385165

>>5441345
>Guang

>>5441345
>Guang

>>5441432
>>5441682
+1

>>5441432
>>5441682
>>5442214
Writing.
Expect it in ~10 hrs

>>5442274
She’s got a long way to go in order to reach heaven.

Xil is on the 7th layer of hell, the second furthest down. The Great Incinerator sector sits on top a mountain of steel, surrounded by walls of thorns that are normally heated to the point of glowing bright orange.

While most personnel spend their days off in their sectors, as the facilities there are usually adequate to relieve stress, many have friends or loved ones in different sectors.

However, during these rest days are also when duels occur, to settle slights or prove oneself to others.

While all personnel are not immortal, and will expire depending on the length of their sentence, should their body be ‘killed’ before that time, they will be resurrected back to the sectors they belong to.

While wardens and the higher ups don’t appreciate this practice, they tolerate it outside of work hours.


Xil and thousands of others stare at the Wardens, waiting for them to deactivate the thorns and enable the teleportation circles to different sectors.

Unlike permanent residents of hell, Xil is merely a contractor, and thus, requiring a vehicle to achieve high mobility. While she might have wings, her chestnut horse ‘Guang’ will serve just fine.

It is time.
The gigantic red skinned wardens tap the metallic ground with their staff. Despite being on her horse, they are still twice as tall than her.

The glow fades away from the thorns as it shrinks back into the ground.
Beyond them are fields of circular engraved stone floors, emanating bright colors that signify a sector.

(Cont)

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>>5442673
Getting to the human world is a luxury, even on holidays. However, Xil has a few plans on accomplishing that.

She chooses to..

>>Go to the first layer, ‘Endless’ Sector, to find anomalies
The first layer is a endless flat land where Wardens, demons, and contractors repeatedly kill and torture killers.
Unlike other sectors, there is a miraculous wind that constantly blows through this sector which resurrects the sinners instantly, to be killed again.

Sometimes, sinners are cursed into tall, ravenous beings and forced out of the underworld, to roam the human world for food and forgiveness. If Xil can get on one of those anomalies, she could leave.


>>Go to the third layer, ‘Crusher’ Sector,
to compete in a dueling tournament
The third layer is filled with factories and mechanical constructs, manned by merciless wardens.

Due to their cruelty, they host a tournament where demons, contractors, and even sinners can fight each other for a chance to visit the human world.

>>Go to the fifth layer, ‘Great Sorrow’ Sector and search for lingering wishes.
The fifth layer is flooded with blessed water, where a kingdom of autonomous lotuses torture thieves, manipulators and scammers.

Since they are not programmed to fix old devices, scraps of old teleportation circles lie in this layer, which could be reassembled into working temporarily. Xil will likely have to contend with a few desperate contractors like her.

>>5442674
>>Go to the third layer, ‘Crusher’ Sector,
Sounds like a swell time to me!

>>5442674
>Go to the fifth layer, ‘Great Sorrow’ Sector and search for lingering wishes.

>>5442674
>Go to the fifth layer, ‘Great Sorrow’ Sector and search for lingering wishes.

>>5442674
>>Go to the third layer, ‘Crusher’ Sector,

>>5442678
>>5442687
>>5442825
>>5442852

Tiebreaker
1=crusher
2=sorrow

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5442892

This was a lot closer than I expected.

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>>5442893
She decides to search for the broken shards of old teleportation circles in the fifth layer of hell, the Great Sorrow sector.

All her gunpowder will be wet.
At least the gun will still work - the barrels are enchanted with gravity magic.

Her horse gallop towards the stone teleportation circle which leads to the fifth layer. Alongside her are nearly a hundred people packed into the circle, with most being fellow contractors, with each having their own means of transport.

With the circle completely brimming with people, the warden nearby tells everyone else to step away and begin charging up the portal.

Alright then, let’s go.

Purple light glows from the engravings.

They reappear in a town with mostly wooden buildings, kept above the water’s surface by pillars of human bones that somehow stick together.

Immediately, a few dozen people split off to the clubs and dueling arenas.

Around ten people begin to look around the town, searching for clues of the fragments of the circle.

The rest head to the edges of town, to search for the fragments underneath the sea of deactivated lotuses.

Rather than dive head first into a place she doesn’t know, Xil decides to spend some time around the town for more information.

…
So, there’s four fragments in total.


The first is held by an angel, north of town.
The second is held by two sea serpents, at the outskirts of town.
The third is somewhere within the hoard of deactivated lotuses, near the water’s surface.
The fourth is somewhere on the sea floor of the sector. She’ll need some kind of map to accelerate the process.


(Cont)

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>>5443539
The angel occupies the dueling arena, north of town. Unlike most, she carries a physical two handed sword and a single handed sword rather than the ethereal weapons - an attempt to make things more fair, as those lack weight. Those that can defeat her in battle will get the fragment.

A test of strength.

The two sea serpents wish for a race, and those that are able to keep up with them as they move around the sector will be rewarded with the fragment.

A test of dexterity and adaptability.

The hoard of lotuses is difficult to navigate due to the softness of it, and the many other contractors looking for the fragment.

A test of speed.

The fragment in the sea floor will be obscured with old buildings, random objects, and environmental hazards.

A test of perception.

Xil decides to visit…

>>The arena
>to steal the fragment
>to challenge the angel

>>The sea serpents
>to steal the fragment
>to compete in their race

>>The hoard of lotuses

>>The sea floor

>>5443541
>>The sea serpents
>to compete in their race
We Redline nao

>>5443541
>>The sea serpents
>to compete in their race

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>>5443595
>>5443677

A race is something she longed for, so it was obvious that the outskirts would be the first place for her to visit.

Wind rush past her face as Guang runs toward the large figures that swirl around the edges of town. It still feels as good as ever.

After galloping across perpetually wet wooden boards and patchwork of bones, she reaches the outskirts of the town.

Two coiling masses with green scales
splash around at the edges of the wooden platforms, observing the people that showed up.

Aside from her, there’s nine other participants. Six are horse riders
while three has mechanical wings.

The two sea serpents shift their heads above the water’s surface to say something.
One of them is adorned with silver and gold accessories around the body, while the other has none.

—Hmm… not bad at all—
—Alright. That’s enough people—

-Two laps around the sector-
-If you can stay near us until the very end-
-You’ll get that piece of teleportation stone-
-Only rule is you cannot try to slow us down-

—Also, We’ll know if you try to steal the stone when we’re going around the sector. Don’t be dumb.—

The contestants nod and look at each other briefly before facing the serpents.

-Honestly, just follow the shiny stuff on me-

—On three—
—Three—

The serpent without the accessories plunges his head down into the sea, splashing water onto the contestants as the one adorned with accessories dash away.

Guang. It’s time.

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>>5444035
Right before the droplets reach their zenith, Xil’s horse has leaped from the wooden platform onto the floating debris nearby the gold adorned serpent.

As soon as she got past that splash, her horse decelerates and time moves normally for her again.

Her back is showered by water somehow, but she doesn’t bother to look back.

She ends up next to the serpent, with Guang jumping and galloping across old wooden boards before the weight makes them sink in order to keep up with the first serpent.

She could hear something ripping through wind and sounds of hooves behind her.
Somehow, those other racers were barely affected by that splash.

Well.
There’s nothing saying that she cannot slow down other racers.

She draws her wheellock pistol and powers up the gravity magic on the barrel. The purple glint of the sigils near the wheel indicates it’s primed.

She turns around and take a look at the other contestants, looking for the other horse riders.

She sees a human that is close to catching up to her, and fires the pistol at the wooden debris he will be jumping to next.

Purple mist gets produced from the barrel, and the gun sends out a burst of decently powerful wind towards the floating wooden platforms. Without a shot loaded, it won’t have the distance nor penetration of a bullet, but it will serve as a means to knock things away.

Not so fast!
A goblin with mechanical wings plays a tune from his flute which briefly causes everyone to fall unconscious. It’s only a moment, but the shot is redirected away from the wooden debris.

Since the serpents are under the water, they aren’t really affected by it.
That goblin is really pushing the limits on the rule.

Before the human rider could retaliate, the undecorated serpent dive into the crevices of the sea while the gold adorned one jumps towards the trails of deactivated lotuses on the water’s surface. They’ll reach the same destination, that being the gigantic lotus in the ocean, but what path should Xil take?

>>Follow the undecorated serpent into the sea
With her gravity enchanted guns, she can propel herself just fine under the water.
Only problem is the environment.

She’ll need to be observant.

>>Follow the gold adorned serpent on the trails of lotuses
She’ll have to contend with a lot of other racers who won’t hesitate to slow her down.

Quick thinking and tricks will keep her in the race.

>>5444036
>Follow the undecorated serpent into the sea

>>5444036
>Follow the undecorated serpent into the sea
'Water' we waiting for!?

>>5444179
>>5444313

She’s not afraid of some water.
Xil commands her horse to dive into the cervices, tailing the undecorated serpent.

The two cause a large splash in the cold turquoise water, causing the serpent to briefly flinch.

She charges up her blunderbuss and fires it behind her, creating a thunderous ripple underwater and pushing her right next to the serpent.

She waves at him she enters his peripheral vision.

—Don’t get cocky, kid—

The undecorated serpent grins and dives deeper into the crevices. His scales effortlessly slide past the sharp hooks and edges of the rocks.

Dammit.
As she tries to maneuver herself and the horse elsewhere, she detects someone nearby.

It’s that flute using goblin from before.
He’s darting through the water by sending jets of air out from the mechanical wings.
He too is stumped by the more perilous parts of the cervices.

They are air enchanted wings - a lot faster than gravity based ones, but they can’t fly for long. If she can get him to exhaust them, she’ll have one less competitor to deal with.

Guang. Bend Time.

Her steed pushes itself against the rocks and accelerates towards the goblin with mechanical wings.

Xil reaches for his wings and turn it around, moving the wings so that jet of compressed air faces the tight, sharpened section of the crevices. The horse decelerates and time moves normally again.

The jet shatters the rocks and sends the winged goblin into the the opposite direction.

Perfect.

With a few more shots from her gravity enhanced barrels, she blitzes through the sea floor and sees the gigantic lotus looming above her.

(Cont)

>>5444652
The serpent is climbing the large lotus by the time Xil manage to move past the recently shattered crevices.

Guang gallops towards the the tree trunk sized stem which are stained with barnacles and moss.

Despite being plant like, several portions of it are recently hardened like steel. Likely a result of that air blast which knocked debris towards the stem and activated its’ defense mechanism.

Guang leaps from the sea floor and is able to reach the wide petals by a well timed shot from her pistol before the momentum stops.

After wrestling with the floaty petals, she and Guang managed to crawl on the petals.

In front of her are the two serpents, circling the seedpod in the center of the flower. She’s the first racer that reached them.

-Hey, nice work!-
-Didn’t think someone with a horse would dive instead-
—Not bad—

…
-Well, since you’re the only one here, you can ask him a question if you’d like-
—Come now, Wan—
—Ugh, fine—

Since she is underwater right now, she’ll have to telepathically ask instead of using her mouth.

She says…

>>”Next checkpoint. Hazards?”
She can’t be caught in a situation like before again - there might not be someone else she could use.

>>”Whalebone. Where can I find them?”
Guang is exhausted all those accelerations. He’ll need some more food soon.

>>”You guys free after this? Need help looking for the fourth fragment.”
She’ll pay them with those whalebones or something.

>>”I like your tiara, Wan.”
Very shiny. And silvery. Your accessories look nice, Wan.

>>Write in

>>5444653
>”Next checkpoint. Hazards?”

>>5444653
>>”You guys free after this? Need help looking for the fourth fragment.”

>>5444653
>”Whalebone. Where can I find them?”

Rolled 2 (1d3)

>>5444695
>>5444842
>>5445174

Tiebreaker
1=hazard
2=free
3=whalebone

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>>5445302
It’s been a while since she used telepathy, so she can only ‘say’ a few words at a time.

[you guys]
[free]
[after this?]

—H.. huh?—
-Yeah?-

[need help]
[looking for the]
[fourth fragment]

—Oh, uhh…—
-What’s in it for me-

[Whalebone discs]
[Human world]
[Willing to give]
[Four]

-Deal-
—Oh. Uh. Sure—

‘Whalebone’ discs are failed products of black arts practitioners. While they fail at being portable recollections, their fragrance can reawaken old memories. Highly prized by the unliving, as they could get a glimpse of their past lives.

Xil managed to get 30 of them before she was reassigned to the underworld.

While waiting other racers to arrive, she feeds Guang a single disc of whalebone.

The glossy ivory texture is mostly covered by nicks and cuts, but the horse still enjoys having it in its mouth regardless.

By the time seven other racers have arrived, the disc has been completely dissolved and the horse is invigorated.

The serpents continue the race.
The gold adorned serpents darts to the surface while the undecorated one opens his mouth and sends out a pressurized
jet of water which blasts the racers up to the surface.

They emerge from the sea, landing on some sand. The blast pushed the racers near the shores which leads to a cave. Reflections of the gold jewelry taunts them.

Even before Xil could take in the surroundings, one of the horses in front of her kicks some sand into her eyes.

Arugh.
No mercy in competition.


(Cont)

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>>5446080
Guang continues to follow the gold adorned serpent into the cave while Xil clears her eyes. She can hear the hooves moving on rocks now.

Her eyes are finally cleared of dust.
She is in a cave filled with transparent crystal pillars that pierce through the darkness with their reflection of the gold adorned serpent.

As Guang jumps from pillar to pillar to catch up with the rest of the racers, she can faintly hear the cries from these crystals.
These are crystallized tears of the wicked sinners being tortured in this sector.
Seems like even the most cold blooded ones can still break. She hears that some occultists use this for spells or enchantments.

Following the trails of broken left behind by the other contestants, she descends into a lake of freezing cold tears. At it’s bottom are glowing crystalized tears which glow a bright turquoise and countless piles of crushed up bones, unable to be recognized as anything more than flakes of white.

In front of her are mangled bones which fused into a bridge that leads to a pathway upwards.

As her horse runs across the bridge, she sees the flute using goblin she encountered earlier lying on the bridge, wet and exhausted. Multiple glowing crystals are attached to the edges of the wings. Must’ve gotten stuck on them when he entered the lake.

As he begins to get up, a swarm of small chunks of bones begins emerging from the water. The flakes of bones is reconstructing itself into spikes.

Xil decides to..

>>Run past him
This is a race, after all.
Helping him won’t make her leave hell faster.

>>Bend Time - snatch those glowing crystallized tears from the goblin
Might as well get some additional reward.

>>Pick him up
He’s a (somewhat) nice person, going out of his way to deflect your shot to keep other racers from slowing down, and yet, no one was willing to help him.

>>Write in

>>5446081
>Pick him up

>>5446081
>>>Pick him up

>>5446081
>Pick him up

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>>5446095
>>5446379
>>5446571

Guang. I will pick him up.

The horse quickens it’s pace and shift itself to the right so that she pick him up by extending her left hand.

The exhausted goblin sees her and reach out for her hand right as her horse is close to him.

Just me.

Xil grasps his hand and pull him to the back of the horse. Luckily, those wings’ enchantments are still active, making his body relatively light.

The droplets that fall from his crystal encrusted wings move at a glacial pace.
His breathing is heavily slowed, and those bone spikes are barely moving.

During these moments when she is accelerating, Xil also shift his hands to wrap around her torso.

Time begins to move normally once again.
She hears a gasp and heavy breathing coming from behind her. As soon as they hear the spikes of bone chunks moving again, his mechanical wings fold around the horse.

The two hear the sounds of bones splashing against water. Those spikes are maneuvering rather than attacking immediately. Fucking smartasses.

As the horse begins climbing the slope of the bridge which leads to a path out, his hands wraps tighter around her waist.
His body is pressed against her, allowing her to feel his erratic breath.

Ugh. Both her front and back is wet now.

The pile of bones aren’t done with them.
Four pillars of bone flakes rise from the lake, standing just beside the bridge.

The two pillars closest to the horse begin their attacks first. The left one shatters, sending out a hail of bone shards in every direction while right one reconstructs itself into a whip, winding up a sweep that covers the entire bridge.

The left pillar furthest from the horse begins shaping itself into a single large spike, intending to perforate both riders while the right pillar furthest from the horse is planting several sharpened pieces of bone across the final stretches of the bridge.

Xil knows what to do.. she just needs to perform the sequence of actions correctly.

>Leap
Jump over danger. This will leave her vulnerable to attacks that can hit them in the air.

>Command the goblin to shield them with his wings
Block attacks with his steel wings.
This will not cover the legs of the horse, however.

>Use grenades
Knock threats away with her gravitational push grenades. Due to their size, they cannot deflect large objects.

>Create time bending sphere
Guang can perform a sphere which will slow down anything inside it temporarily. However, Guang isn’t immune to the effect - getting inside it will also slow it down.

CHOOSE SEQUENCE
DC 70
(correct answers will get a guaranteed +69 bonus to rolls)

>>Shield -> Shield -> Time bend -> Grenade
>>Grenade -> Time bend -> Shield -> Leap
>>Time bend -> Grenade -> Leap -> Shield
>>Leap -> Shield -> Grenade -> Time bend

>>5447191

Miswrote*

Also, you don’t need to roll a dice+3d100. I’ll be rolling them once all players have answered

>>Shield -> Leap -> Time bend -> Grenade
>>Grenade -> Time bend -> Shield -> Leap
>>Time bend -> Grenade -> Leap -> Shield
>>Leap -> Shield -> Grenade -> Time bend

>>5447193
>>5447191
>Shield -> Leap -> Time bend -> Grenade
Shield against the shards.
Leap ocer the whip.
Time bend to dodge impalement.
Grenade to blast away the scattered obstacles.

Rolled 98, 60, 8, 40 = 206 (4d100)

>>5447625

All correct answers
+69 bonus to all 4 four rolls

Well done!

The exploding shards can be shielded
The sweep is leaped over
The powerful thrust is delayed by the time sphere and doesnt get in the way of the horse
The traps get blown away by the grenades

>>5448542
I'd like to thank the academy, my parents, and most of all Lizard Jesus, through whom all things are possssible.

>>5448542
167 & 129 & 77 & 109 vs 70 & 70 & 70 & 70

Xil commands the goblin to cover them with his mechanical wings as a storm of shrapnel vomits out from the pillar closest to her left.

Steel collapses around the horse.
The hoard of bones are stopped by the steel wings. Aside from the sounds of hail slamming against his wings, nothing got through his defenses. Guang isn’t hurt, either. Those wings must’ve covered up his belly and legs pretty well.

Just a glimpse of the amount of bone shards being thrown at them allows Xil to calculate the moment when that whip will swing towards the bridge.

Right after the hail finishes, hearing the faint noise of wind rushing past the bone whip is enough for her to command Guang to leap into the air.

As Guang leaps into the air, Xil orders that the goblin open the mechanical wings. The steel wings swing out, flinging bone shards back into the lake and walls of the cave.
The large cylindrical mass sweeps across the bridge while the riders effortlessly avoid it by jumping over.

Just as the large spike is about to thrust, intending to penetrate both riders while in the air, Xil commands the horse to form a sphere that slows down time on the large bone spike.

Bend Time. Spike.

The chestnut horse glances at the ox sized spike and creares a sphere which slows the bones before the tip could even reach the bridge.

The last pillar remains, still continuing to scatter small spikes across the end of the bridge in an attempt to deter escape.

Xil grabs a single grenade from her belt and loads it onto her pistol. The barrel charges up again with purple energy. Even when the last time she used a grenade was nearly two years ago, she managed to quickly arm it while on horseback.

Her arm is steady.
Her sight is true.
Her timing is perfect.

The grenade is shot into the spike covered ground and detonates within a second upon landing, sending out a shockwave which blasts away all the traps laid by the last pillar.

(Cont)

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>>5448690
With all the bone pillars defeated, they are able to ride into a passage which leads out of the bone infested cave, and into the crystal filled tunnels once more.

The verticality and breakable nature of the crystal pillars have trapped many horsemen and wing users, clinging onto to them like insects in a spider’s web. The horses’ hooves easily got stuck once the pillars were shattered while segments of wings could accidentally stab into the pillars while flying.

The goblin that she rides with decides to fold up his wings completely to avoid this problem, only occasionally opening it slightly to give the horse a boost in jumping by carefully timed air blasts.

Even if he wanted to help the four other people stuck in this cave, he couldn’t - the easily crumbling nature of the pillars mean that they could doom themselves if they approach the others.

Xil and the goblin communicate telepathically while navigating the steep terrain.

[Not like that’s bad.]
[Less competition.]

{Still..}
{Why did you save me, anyway?}

[You deflected my shot]
[So that someone else]
[won’t lose]
[And what did they]
[Repay you with?]

[Nothing]

[That’s what happens]
[When you’re that naive]
[It’s all about winning]
[And people like me]
[Won’t always be there]

{So, why haven’t you let me go already?}
{Your horse could make those jumps on it’s own and you could get rid of one more racer}

[Don’t know]
[But don’t..]

{Alright.}

[…..]
{…..}

[Never got your name]

{Fhang.}
[Xil]

(Cont)

>>5448693
{That.. sounds familiar. You work for Red?}

[Yeah]
[Supposed to be in human world]
[Debt collector]

{Oh! I was assigned here too.}
{Messenger}
{I mean.. since we’re after the same goal - how about we help each other?}
{I have some business to do in the human world, too.}
{We just focus can getting two fragments each}

Xil respond to him by saying..

>>[Fine, but we win this race my way.]
There’s only three others standing between them and winning. No matter the method, they will accomplish this goal.
Load her pistols and span the wheellock while he’s back there.

They’ll win this race together.

>>[Sure. I can do second and fourth]
The serpents will help her search for the fourth. As for the second… she’ll win this race. Fhang can go fight the angel and look around the lotus hoards.

She’ll win this race by herself.

>>[Every man for himself]
Did he not hear what she just told him?
There’s no guarantee she’ll honor this deal.
Don’t expect anything.

>>[Write in]

>>5448694
>[Every man for himself]
It's cute how naive he is.

>>5448694
>[Sure. I can do second and fourth]

>>5448694
>[Every man for himself]

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>>5448776
>>5448816
>>5448820
[Every man for himself]
[Did you not hear]
[What I’ve said at all?]
[Don’t expect me to honor the deal]

{But…}
{…..}

[Without leverage]
[There’s no reason to agree to it]

Fhang remains mostly silent for the rest of the way out of the cave. He passes the time by scraping off the crystal residue on his wings.

After minutes of climbing the perilous pillars and navigating the uneven terrain, the two return to the surface. Much like before, the island consists of rocks and fine sand.

The difference is that the three other contestants are sitting on the mounds of sand, scraping crystals off their wings and horses. The sea serpents are waiting on the shoreline nearby.

The contestants get on their horses and activate their wings again once they see the two heading towards them. Once Guang reaches the group, Xil drops Fhang off.

[Heh. It’s cute how naive he is.]

{..oh.}
{Thanks.}
{I.. I mean, you’re really..}

[Stop]
[And forget what I’ve just said]

Xil really should’ve severed their telepathic connection before thinking internally.

With Xil and Fhang readied, the serpents decide to continue the competition.
They’ve waited long enough.
Not even a single lap has passed and five contestants were too slow to keep up.

The journey with the serpents takes them on a path of lotuses and lily pads floating above water. The petals and leaves are normally soft, but it can quickly turn hard when force is applied to them. If the serpents or horsemen lose momentum, the plants will entangle them like a net.

Even the ones with wings aren’t safe, as rapid change in air temperature will cause them to counteract the effects by producing a cold or hot mist. While their bodies can take it, the mechanical wings can easily overheat or freeze up.

A mechanical wings user decide to be a smartass and try send out a jet cold air in front of her, but Guang leaps over the boiling hot lily pads and pull him towards her by using the gravity enchanted barrels.

Once dragged to the water’s surface, she accelerates and smacks his head into the heated plants with the iron reinforced butt of her pistol before he could react.
The muffled screams and sizzling are all the confirmation she needs.

They eventually reach an island which has faces on everything. Dirt itself is filled with thousands of faces, trying to bite or scream at the serpents and the racers as they trample on then.

After racing around it, rather than leaving the island, the serpents jump into a particular large mouth. Without carefully following the serpents, the racers could end up falling into the wrong holes and end up trapped.

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>>5449282

The first hole transport them to cramped, flesh like tunnels with constant wind blowing that could obscure vision.

The second one send them into a valley where everything is soft and bouncy.
Acid constantly seeps out from the ground and ceiling.

The third and final one sends them into large flesh like tunnels that constantly change directions.

Even with decades of being horseback, Xil feels dizzy and lightheaded from the amount of rapid movement.

She can’t..
She must stay..
awake..

Guang..

As her fades in and out of consciousness, she feels the hooves of her horse hitting something harder again.

She is sinking…
Did she lose?
Why did…
No..
…
..
.


-I think that’s enough-
—But..—
-Nin. you really think anyone can survive another lap?-
—Fine—

Light hits her eyes once more.

She and Guang wake up in a wine red pool.
Her burn wounds from the acid valley have completely healed. Guang doesn’t feel exhausted anymore. Her belongings remain the same.

The center is a stone pillar which has the fragments of engraved stones on top of it.

The two serpents are on the other side of the pool. After she wakes up, they explain that she was the only one that completely got through the island’s insides.

They decide to end the race here because they think the rest of the contestants wouldn’t be able to finish another lap around the sector. Wound regeneration takes way too long.

She agrees.

The stone pillar is lowered, revealing a few oval shaped stones that is engraved with impossibly small writings which faintly gives off a dark blue color.

After taking the second fragment, she says that she need a bit of time off before going to the sea floor to search for the fourth fragment.

The two serpents clarifies that they are already at the sea floor. They can begin the search whenever she wants.

Huh. That’s convenient.
Once they find the fourth fragment, they could drop her off at the hoard of lotuses at the surface and she could search for the third fragment there.

So.. how does she plan to search the sea floor?

>>Get it done quick.
She’ll be exhausted, and likely in no condition to fight the angel for the first fragment, but it won’t take long. Then again, she could try to steal the fragment from her.

>>Get it done quick - make Guang accelerate the process
Guang will be quite exhausted by the end of it, but she won’t need him for the fight.

>>Take it slow.
She needs to save her strength for the fight with the first angel. Cling onto the serpents for most of the time. Probably ride Wan (gold adorned serpent), though. Nin (the undecorated serpent) seems a little nervous around her.

>>Write in

>>5449289
>Take it slow.

>>5449289
>>>Take it slow.

>>5449289
>Get it done quick.
The sooner we're out of Hell, the better. We can rest when we're actually dead.

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>>5449319
>>5449748
>>5449836
Let’s take things slowly.
She needs to conserve her strength for getting the third and first fragment.

She and Guang cling onto the Wan, the serpent with multiple gold accessories as they roam the sea floor. The adornments serve as decent anchor points for both her and her horse.

The depths of the Great Sorrow sector is filled with decayed wooden structures and fleets of rusted metallic lotuses.
Made from surplus material from the Crusher sector that proved inefficient at large scale torture, and were abandoned several hundred years ago.

Xil tries to accelerate the process by acting as a spotter for them, but the mental fatigue from the race means that she can barely focus. Better leave the spotting to people that are better adapted to water, anyways.

She rests her head against his back and closes her eyes.

Watch him, Guang.

…
Reaching heaven.
It will only be a matter of time before the wardens drag her back here again.
But it doesn’t matter anymore.
Just being part of this race was exciting enough.

That rush when evading the mountain of bones.

The feeling of wing rushing past her as her horse gallops across giant lily pads.

A couple days or months of happiness is infinitely better than a lifetime of monotony.
The experience of the race still lingers in her mind, reawakening something in her mind.

It is..
(CHOOSE ONE)

>>Her desire to be with others
She didn’t have many close friends in her old life, but made a consistent effort to befriend and understand others.

By reawakening this desire, Xil will become more proficient at telepathy, and able vaguely sense the emotions or thoughts of others.

>>Her desire to best others
Xil have defeated countless foes in her old life, learning and refining their methods in achieving victory in combat.

To have that drive again would allow her to quickly learn from others and give herself more options when responding to attacks.

>>Her desire to not care about others beyond necessary
All that matters are her horse and the adventures she has alongside him.

To have such a mindset again would allow her to see through deception and shrug off intimidation attempts.

>>5451129
>Her desire to not care about others beyond necessary

>>5451129
>Her desire to best others
I like the perks for detachment more, but it doesn't really line up with how we've behaved so far.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5451205
>>5451209
Tiebreak
1 = not care
2 = best

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>>5452049


In that cave, had she tried to help others, she would’ve ruined the chances of achieving her dream.

Empathy.
Sorrow.
Fear.
Hatred.
Doubt.

These are merely bindings that will slow her down. To cast them aside once more will allow her to not be hindered by thoughts that plague people into hesitation.


-Xil. Wake up-

[Yeah?]

-Fourth fragment-
-Found it-

Her eyes reopen.
The two serpents are moving above a ravine. Beneath them is a large chisel like object that is jammed in between the rocks. It is purely made from metal, with rows of holes running along the length of the vessel. The front has a row of barrels while the back has a single barrel that blooms outward like a funnel.

[That giant chisel thing?]

-Yeah-
-It’s definitely in the Kodachi-
-We’ve searched everywhere else-

[Kodachi?]

—Retired watercraft from the Crusher sector. A few decades ago, it was transferred to Great Sorrow to be cannibalized to make the steel lotus automatons—
—When it drifted too closely to the island of faces, it was infested with the malevolent objects in the island and became abandoned—
—We can cut it open to speed up the search but all the entities will come pouring out—
—Or you could go search there alone.
They haven’t seen people in a long time.
If you could remain undetected, they won’t be a problem—

Xil decides to..

>>Venture into the Kodachi alone
If she can remain undetected, she’ll have plenty of time to search for the fragment.

>>Let Nin and Wan rip apart the Kodachi
Wipe out all the malevolent entities in the ship before she searches for the fragment.
Those serpents can shoot out water jets which will cut through steel.

>>Disengage
Nah. She’ll deal with this problem later.
Ask the two serpents for a ride to the hoard of lotuses at the water’s surface instead.

>>Write in

>>5452757
>Venture into the Kodachi alone
Time for a stealth mission!

>>5452757
>>>Venture into the Kodachi alone

>>5452757
>Venture into the Kodachi alone

>>5452991
>>5453044
>>5453178

She’ll go alone on this one.
Guang will remain on the two serpents.

The barrels of the blunderbuss and her two dragons are powered up. A shot likely won’t kill threats outright, but it will knock both the target and her away from each other.

—Entry point will be right above the funnel—

-Also, try not to move cross the holes along the side-
-They’re gravity enhanced barrels, just like yours. Designed to orient the ship-
-Likely disabled, but you should still be wary of it-

[Got it]


She dives into the crevice, using the rocks to pull herself down and dash from one side of the ravine to the other in order to find the entry point.

Being closer to the vessel allows her to see the perfectly aligned rows of ‘holes’, which are actually barrels built into the ship so they do not poke out.

The entry point is a rectangular door that was forced open by something heavy, with the rusted metal now resembling crumbled up paper.

Xil slowly moves through the opening.

It’s pretty dark.
She’ll have to feel her way around for now.

Seems like the interior is stripped of nearly everything that isn’t the hull. The back of the ship, which would normally hold some kind of equipment to operate the larger thruster (funnel) has been ripped out, leaving only small bits of metal floating in the water.

Movement while in the ship mostly consists of pushing herself against a wall to move from one side to another.

The back of the ship seems to be pretty empty, so Xil moves past it pretty easily.

As she heads upwards, to the more cramped middle section, she spots dormant clusters of stone with a shell of metal objects surrounding them, making them look like crudely made cast iron bombs.
Thin rusted wires and seaweed wrapping around the clusters, attaching them to the sides of the hull.

They don’t seem to be able to see her.
Luckily, her natural night vision has kicked in by now.

Actually, those bone flakes might not be able to see her at all. What if they only detect people through sound and touch?

Looking back, they only targeted Fhang originally, right after he pried himself off the crystals. When they did attack, their attacks are imprecise - the explosion of bone flakes and the sweep of that whip would’ve hit anyone on the bridge. The large spike might’ve been set up as an automated response to the horse leaping up to avoid the sweep.

(Cont)

>>5453803
Since those clusters are concentrated on the sides, Xil decides to take it slow and just swim up with her arms and legs alone.

The force of such has knocked small fragments of rusted metal into the cluster, and the tendrils immediately snatch them up.

As she is about to reach the end of the tight bottleneck, she spots six tendrils blocking the access to the front of the ship.

While analyzing a way to get through it, the tendrils suddenly snap at her. Dammit.
She must’ve gotten too close.

Two tendrils immediately grabbed the metal reinforced butt of the dragons on her chest. The force of such is pulling her towards the rest of the tendrils because the pistols are still tightly attached to the holsters.

The third and fourth one creep around the walls and try to grab the blunderbuss off her back. If they successfully grab it, the tendrils would knock her into the cluster filled walls.

The fifth and sixth tendrils lie still. Both of them have been reinforced with a crust of metallic fragments, transforming old wires into sharpened hazards.

To deal with the first to fourth tendrils, she decides to…

CHOOSE TWO OPTIONS (and specify which, if the option has two choices)

>>Let them have the firearms
>dragons
>blunderbuss
Regrettable, but losing them will be are better than alerting all the clusters.

>>Release the pistols from their holster and grab onto them, letting the tendrils pull her forward
While she is moving head first into sharpened wires, it will allow her to avoid the third and fourth tendrils. The first two tendrils will be still be attached to them, however.

>>Distract the tendrils with the spanner
>first and second tendrils
>third and fourth tendrils
Pull out her wheellock spanner and try to make them take this bait instead.
She has two more (one for each firearm), anyways.

>>Cut the tendrils
>first and second
>third and fourth
Pull out a whalebone disc and slice through the tendrils. The tendrils and clusters will definitely be alerted, but she’s not letting them take her firearms.

>>Bend Time, Guang!
>first and second
>third and fourth
Ask her horse to create a sphere that slows down time. Consecutive uses will make the effects weaker.

To deal with the fifth and sixth tendrils, she..

CHOOSE (AT LEAST) ONE

>>Bend Time!
>on the fifth and sixth tendrils
>on her position
Ask her horse to create a sphere that slows down time.

>>Use gravity grenade
Throw a grenade which will knock away the tendrils, although, anything close by will also be knocked away.

>>Call for fire support
Let’s not bother with stealth any longer.
Nin. Wan. Cut this bottleneck open.

>>5453805
>Distract the tendrils with the spanner
>>third and fourth

>Release the pistols from their holster and grab onto them, letting the tendrils pull her forward

>Bend Time!
>on the fifth and sixth tendrils

Distract two, let the other two pull us down to the dormant/idle tendrils, then slow those down so we can easily avoid them and pass by to our objective.

>>5454000
this x2

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>>5454000
>>5454214
Xil tosses out two spanners towards the third and fourth tendrils, hoping that the small pieces of metal rods will distract them.

As the first two tendrils begin exerting more force on her, she undoes the straps of the holsters and hold onto the pistols, letting herself to flung into the webs of sharp metal fragments.

With the blunderbuss on her back moving along with her, the third and fourth tendrils miss their chance at grasping it, and turn their attention to the metal spanners that are barely drifting in the water instead.

Bend Time!

As she is pulled closer to the dormant tendrils, she commands her horse to create a sphere on it, allowing her momentum to be halted before she could be cut by the drifting metal shards that surround the tendrils.

She lets go of her pistols, letting the first two tendrils take them so that she can use both her hands to push aside the slowed down tendrils away.

Xil mainly uses her fingers to alter the trajectory of other objects to ensure that her limbs and body do not accidentally bump into objects and undo her work.

After moving the metal covered tendrils away from her, she pushes against the cramped walls of the Kodachi to send herself into the front of the ship.

Once she is past the small bottleneck, the sphere fades away. The tendrils fruitlessly swing and swipe everywhere around the compact passage, trying to detect whatever touched them.

She lost both of her pistols, but she still has the blunderbuss and remained undetected.
Good enough.

The front of the ship is unusually normal, with decomposing beds and lockers still loosely attached to hull. Seems like the infestation of the sentient tendrils and metallic shell blobs are not present here.
There’s gotta be someone or something that prevented this.

She spends several minutes checking the furniture of the vessel, going over all the potential locations for the fourth fragment.

Nothing.

Only one place remains, the furthest north of the ship - the weapons control room.

With her blunderbuss charged with gravitational energy in hand, she ventures further into the ship.

She comes across a human with barely any skin and bones on him, with several black lines buried deep along his legs and torso.
Bumps and dark spots on his body shows a trace of cuts and bites he must’ve suffered a long time ago.

Those black lines are a dead giveaway of a sinner being tortured in the second sector, as they primarily brand them with black lines.

His body rests against the boxes of metal rods, the ammunition for Kodachi’s main guns. In his shriveled right hand is the fragment you are looking for.

(Cont)

>>5455824
Xil extends her hand to grab the fragment.

/I cannot let you take that/
/I cannot go back/
/If.. If I let go, they’ll take me again/
The frail man speaks to her telepathically.
His fingers tighten it’s grasp on the engraved stones.

[You’re in the sixth sector]
[Wardens from the second or third]
[They won’t go looking]
[In some crevice at the bottom of]
[the ocean]

/Maybe/
/But I can’t be sure if I won’t get found out/
/I mean, you found me/
/Without the fragment to teleport me and the ship around/
/There’s always a risk that/
/This.. paradise will be taken from me/
/To be free from constant pain/
/The silence of it all/
/Don’t take this away from me/

Xil decides to..

>>Approach him logically
You are in one the deepest parts of the sector’s ocean. Contractors and demons aren’t going to go here on their on, and unless sea serpents decide it would be a good idea to go near a vessel full of sentient bombs, you’re not getting found out. If you try to teleport away, you could end up more exposed.

You don’t need this.

>>Approach him emotionally
I understand that feeling.
I wouldn’t want to leave this place too if I had to be tortured nearly every day.
But I also have a paradise to achieve, too.
I need that fragment to get me to that.
I didn’t enter here on my own. I had help from sea serpents. If you let me have this, I’ll make sure they will watch over you, keep your paradise from being found out.

We can help each other achieve our dreams.

>>Threaten
I need you to give me that fragment.
I cannot get to my paradise without it.
I got here by sea serpents. If I give them the word, they’ll cut these place open.
I might get killed in the process, but I can come back and get your fragment, but you’ll be resurrected in your old sector again.
But let’s say you teleport away before that happens. Maybe you’ll lose us. Maybe you’ll teleport this ship into somewhere more noticeable. And you’ll be back at the second sector again.

I can afford to lose, but can you?

>>Fire blunderbuss
The sheer amount of force being exerted on his arm will rip it apart, and probably damage the hull, too.

Can’t teleport away when he can’t hold on to the fragment.

>>Write in

>>5455825
>Threaten

>>5455825
>Approach him logically

>>5455828
>>5455937
1 = theaten
2 = logic

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5456636

>>5456640
Xil goes with the logical approach.
She gives a few reasons on why he doesn’t need to worry.

->The location of the Kodachi makes it difficult and pointless for people to search the ship.
->The sentient tendrils and bombs on the ship are extremely powerful deterrents. Without metallic objects, it would be nearly impossible to remain undetected.
->Teleporting away from this location could make you end up in a position that is easier to spot
->The reason she came here is the teleportation circle fragment. Without that motivation, there would be no reason for people explore the depths and potentially spot this ship

The frail man goes silent for a few moments.
For a moment, his right hand becomes less tense but quickly snaps back to tightly grasping the teleportation fragments

/I still cannot/
/I’ve.. I’ve worked../
/All the sacrifices I’ve made/
/The effort/
/The time I’ve put in/
/I can’t just let this go/
/I.. I can’t!/
/I can’t just let this go no matter what/

Arugh.
This guy is repeating himself again.
Xil did successfully make him emote more, though, and he did acknowledge her previous points.

However, repeating oneself is a sign of the brain shutting down. Once the flight or fight instinct kicks in, clarity of words become an afterthought.

Xil decides to..

>>Negotiate [trade the second fragment for the third]
How about this - you could have all four of the teleportation fragments once I’m done using it. It’s a one way trip for me, anyways.
As insurance, you could have the second fragment for now.

One fragment for another. Equal.

>>Approach him logically
You never moved the ship. It was decades ago when people abandoned this ship.
All these years, you’ve never used the teleportation fragment once.

Is it really necessary?

>>Approach him emotionally
You don’t need to worry about being found out or having this paradise taken away from you. All these years, and the Kodachi has no scratches, no damage on the ship, no traces of anyone trying to get in. I need you to trust me. I want you to be happy, and the only way to do that is to let this go.

You don’t have to worry anymore.
You don’t need to be constantly prepared anymore.

>>Manipulate
I cannot go back empty handed, alright?
I too have sacrificed many things in order to get here. I pushed myself to the limit, pushed my horse to the limit, pushed away colleagues and all the chances to be happy down here just for a chance to get to heaven.

If I don’t have this, everything I’ve done would be meaningless.

>>Fire blunderbuss
Remove his skull with a blunderbuss shot.

>>Write in

>>5457031
>Fire blunderbuss
We tried. And we established that Xil wants to stop caring about others so much, yeah?

Kill 'im. Let Satan sort him out.

>>5457031
>Approach him emotionally
Continue talk but change approach.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5457035
>>5457089
1 = fire
2 = emotion

>>5457328

Xil goes with the emotional approach.
She empathizes with his dream, but points out that the ship hasn’t been breached or detected all throughout the decades it has been sitting here. She reassures him that he no longer needs to be afraid, to be constantly on the lookout for danger, and that he can trust her about all of this. She’s in a similar position to him, too.

The frail man goes silent again.
His face shifts through several expressions and his fingers rub against each other.
She decides to remain silent while he is fidgeting and thinking internally.

After a minute or two, he raises his arm and loosen his grasp on the engraved stones, allowing Xil to take them. She now has the fourth fragment.

She thanks him and leaves the ship while the tendrils are busy taking apart chunks of metal and transforming into smaller flakes to reinforce themselves.
She’ll get new pistols later.

After heading back to the serpents, she gives them the promised 4 whalebone discs. 25 discs remains. After a ride to the patch of lotus flowers, they’ll part ways.

Two fragments in nearly ten hours is a pretty good pace. It’s time for the last two.

The kingdom of lotus flowers is easily located by the forest of stems that support them underwater. Their large size and asymmetry has made them both obstacle and navigational tool for those who strayed far from the floating town.

As the two serpents are coiling up the colossal stems, they notice there’s a lot more vibrations than usual.

Normally, the softness of the petals force people to not be so harsh with movement, as it could easily fold and wrap around the people exploring.

-They must’ve fucked up and activated the defense systems of the flowers-
—I don’t feel any hotter or colder, though.—

As they move further up, the vibrations becomes harsher and they catch a glimpse of bright lights briefly piercing through the thick petals which cover the water’s surface.

Right after she looks away from the lights, she noticed that Wan is moving incredibly slowly. Adrift debris in the ocean nearly comes to a stop.

Guang must’ve accelerated her for a reason. She looks behind her to see what the horse is doing, and he points his head up, nudging her to look at something.

A shadow looms above the gold adorned serpent.

(Cont)

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>>5458348
Looking up, she sees a human with barely a trace of mechanical wings falling into the ocean, only being a few inches away from being impaled on Wan’s tiara.

Fine, Guang. I’ll help him.

Must’ve fell into the ocean while she was looking away.

Trails of bubbles and cuts in the remaining bits of the metal wings reveal that they cut by an extremely hot object. Likely the summoned weapons of demons and angels.

She grabs onto the human’s arm and pull it forward, shifting the body so that this contractor will continue falling into the ocean rather than suddenly stopping due to being impaled or smacked against the metallic stems of these lotuses.

Time moves normally again.

Wan flinches and lets out a quick gasp.
More people start dropping into the ocean, all with extensive damage to their wings.

Once they finally reach the surface, the sky is filled with people and vehicles trying to shoot each other down.
Strings of explosions and storms of translucent projectiles paint the sky with bright colors, and dictating who or what are still airworthy.

Even the lotus petals aren’t safe.
The summoned projectiles that missed their targets have hit the petals instead, resulting in patches of extreme heat and coldness. A few unlucky people crashed into those sections as well.

-We should leave-
—I’m leaving—

Xil decides to..
>>Stay on the surface - stay on the petals until she can identify who has the third fragment

>>Stay on the surface - Loot the bodies of the people on the lotus petals

>>Leave with the two serpents - go back to the floating town

>>Write in

>>5458353
>Stay on the surface - stay on the petals until she can identify who has the third fragment

>>5458353
>Stay on the surface - Loot the bodies of the people on the lotus petals
Time to get fresh pistols!

But also, then move on to...

>Stay on the surface - stay on the petals until she can identify who has the third fragment

>>5458848
>>5459221

She needs a replacement for her pistols.

[I’m staying]
[Drop me off at that one]

After dropping her and her horse off on a petal with several people crashed into it, the two serpents leave.

Pale pink and white colors of the petals are mostly obscured by the trails of glistening blood and blackened burns of the people and vehicles crashed onto the lotus.

Only scraps of exoskeletons and mechanical wings remain, still glowing hot from the damage from the summoned weapons.
Their pilots have already died and disintegrated, leaving behind their material objects.

As the dance between pilots continues, the gunfire and explosions have dulled the eyes and ears of the participants, allowing Xil to remain largely undetected as she scavenges the things left behind.

There’s only five people left in the sky.
Two angels, one male and female.
Two contractors, with one having mechanical wings and the other having an exoskeleton. And one male demon.

The angels and demon are highly visible due to the right translucent wings behind them, the gold and sliver accessories on their limbs, their lack of clothing (aside from shorts and cloth wraps around their chest), and most importantly, the translucent weapons which float around them.

The contractor with the exoskeleton is a goblin, hovering in the air due to the gravity based thrusters attached to the shoulders and legs of the mech suit. Each limb are also outfitted with purple crystals.

The contractor with large mechanical wings is a pink skinned giant, clutching something in his left hand while his right holds a canister of steel spikes. His wings are also unusual, being as thick as a hand and having multiple holes built into it.

(Cont)

>>5459791
While they are busy fighting, Xil is scavenging…

(CHOOSE AT MOST TWO OBJECTS)
>Hand cannon
Firearm extracted from an exoskeleton’s limb. It’s just a steel barrel with a touchhole.
While it is nearly half her height, the air enchantment makes it light enough for her to carry it around on her back.
Could be used to launch large projectiles.

>2 PDCs (Pilot Defense Canisters)
Hexagonal canisters loaded with flechettes. Once the lever is pulled from the other side, it shoots out a swarm of spikes that could destroy most projectiles in the air before it could reach the pilot. While built for exoskeletons, Xil could hang them on her waist just fine, although they’re the same thickness as their forearms.

>Anti glare plates
Metallic plates that are enchanted with darkness. Can be fitted to cloth to create steel reinforced sleeves, allowing her to deflect attacks from physical weapons and briefly block out bright lights. Scavenged from a pair of mechanical wings.

>Long barreled pistol
Pistol that exclusively uses rows of coils which are gravity enhanced and placed throughout the barrel. Once charged, each ring will pull the projectile forwards.
Slower to load and draw than her usual pistols, but can fire a projectile without requiring gunpowder or a wheel.
Found next to a trail of blood.

>Brush filled with crystal residue
A brush with a layer of crystals stuck to it.
These turquoise crystals are the crystallized tears of sinners she saw before, which easily clings to objects. Could be ground up and thrown at a target, which could bind up mechanisms.

>>5459792
>Long barreled pistol
>Hand cannon

>>5459792
>Long barreled pistol
>Anti glare plates

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5459869
>>5459939
tiebreak

1 = cannon
2 = plates

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>>5460250

She acquires a large cannon and a long barreled pistol, enhanced with air and gravity magic respectively.

After she is done prying the firearms off the constructs, she hides behind the charred black parts of the petals, loading the hand cannon while occasionally watching the fighting in the air.

The combatants have mostly maneuvered around each other, keeping distance and watching the others’ moves, but when the giant with mechanical wings accidentally drops the spike canister from a summoned wheellock pistol from the demon, the two Angels immediately send out a hail of glowing javelins and spikes.

The giant raises his left hand, revealing the engraved stones - the third fragment.
The stones emit a dark blue light and creates a portal in front of the giant, letting the projectiles be redirected elsewhere.

As soon as he does this, the exoskeleton wielding goblin points his hand at the giant.
The purple gem on it glows, jerking the giant’s hand downwards from immense strength of gravity being applied to his body.
Even his wings are beginning to bend and curl.

The wings eventually give into the stress, mangled and losing their enchantments.
As the giant begins falling from the sky, the exoskeleton deactivates the gravity field and pulls the engraved towards his hand.

The angels and demon glance at each other, all three of them being surrounded by their own fleet of translucent glowing weapons. The sky is filled with cannons and firearms with the same coil mechanism as her long barreled pistol.

As soon as the engraved stones reached the hands of the exoskeleton, the goblin forms a gravity field around himself, slowing down the storm of incendiary arrows and rods being fired upon him.

Those angels and demon are going to be a problem. While Xil is deciding on which one to shoot down with her cannon, she notices that there’s a lot of movement underwater.

(Cont)

>>5460713
Emerging from the water underneath the fighting is the goblin she met earlier, Fhang, who managed to pull the giants with steel wings to the surface, appearing to be rendering aid to the mangled wings to make the enchantments operational again.

The angels and demon are too busy summoning more guns to fire upon the exoskeleton and each other to pay attention to someone like him for more than a few seconds.

And a second is all Fhang needs to draw his flute and begin playing a somber melody - the same one that caused her and other racers to momentarily fall asleep.

While the angels and demon begin to fumble and fall into the ocean, the exoskeleton gets perforated by the multiple projectiles that casually burn through the steel. Even with an incapacitated pilot, the hand never loses it’s grip on the third fragment, and slowly descends into ocean.
Fhang snatches it mid air and goes back to the surface to fix up the bent mechanical wings of that giant.

Xil already stuffed some wax into her ears, looted from the exoskeleton that provided her with the cannons. While it doesn’t completely remove sound, it will dampen it heavily.

She decides to..

>>Fire cannon
Not bad, Fhang.

But you didn’t check your surroundings.

>>Bend time - steal the fragment from him
Guang and her will accelerate, jump across the water and snatch the fragment. She’ll escape him by diving underwater and using her firearms to propel her like before.

>>Approach him (talk)
Oh. Interesting.
Let’s see what kind of information she could get out of him. Maybe he has already defeated the angel holding the first fragment?

>>Write in

>>5460714
>Approach him (talk)

>>5460714
>Bend time - steal the fragment from him

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5461095
>>5461755
tiebreaker
1 = talk
2 = bend

>>5461795

Stay here, Guang.

Guang hides amongst the rubble and charred petals while Xil swims towards Fhang and the giant floating on the surface.

Fhang stops correcting the bent steel with his pilers once he notices Xil swimming towards him. The flute is drawn and he nervously fidgets it with both of his hands.

{Hi}

[Hey]

{So}
{You’re the one that won the race}

[Yeah]
[And you have the third fragment]

{The offer}
{That still stands, you know}
{If..}

[I am considering it]
[Again, don’t expect anything]

[.. Also]
[You’re pretty good]
[Took down three angels and a mech]
[No small feat]
[Did you get the first fragment too?]
[… I don’t want to fight]
[Just a question]

Silence follows briefly.
His hands stop fidgeting with the flute, but it remains in his palms.

{I haven’t}
{Well…}
{She’s a bit…}
{Frustrated}
{After the first two or so hours, there weren’t any challengers left that can fight her}
{The next few hours, a bunch of people tried to steal the fragment from her}
{She went on a hunt across town, killing people that tried}
{After cutting them up, she drank their blood}
{She looks pretty happy when doing it}
{But it wasn’t enough}
{She’s at some bar now, trying to find someone that’s willing to let her drink their blood}

[That’s.. odd]
[Blooddrinking is more of a demon thing]

Xil remembers that demons are angels that were reassigned to hell, usually as a punishment. While angels can find enjoyment in drinking blood, they have access to more divine sources of food.

{Yeah}
{I remember hearing that she spent a lot of time as demon, and recently got elevated to an angel again.. or something of sort.}
{That’s all I could gather when I was in town.
Got out of there when there was a fight on the lotus hoard.}

Cont.

>>5462210

[So]
[What do you plan to do now?]

{Well.. probably fix this guy up and then loot the stuff at those flowers, head back to town and sell it to someone who can get me some concoction that keeps me alive when she is drinking my blood.}

[Don’t think she’ll just give it away]
[That easily]

{Maybe not}
{But this will be a foot in the door}
{Might be able to negotiate stuff with her}

{We can get what we want while keeping her stable.}
{Who knows what she’ll do if we decide to fight her right now. She could try to kill us out of spite if she loses.}

Xil decides to..

>>Agree to his plan
If he’s the one being sucked dry and not her, then sure. Might as well head back to the town.

>>She’ll deal with the angel by herself
Just drop her off at the floating town.
Like she said before, everyman for himself. If he emerges victorious, he’ll face her.

>>Let him do the plan alone - tell him about your fragments
She has two fragments already - Xil doesn’t want to get involved in any of this.
She would rather wait here and scavenge for more stuff. Once he gets the first fragment, bring it to the lotus petals so they can assemble the teleportation circle.

>>Write in

>>5462212
>Agree to his plan

>>5462212
>Agree to his plan

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>>5462276
>>5462306


[Sounds good]
Xil agrees to the deal.

After fixing up the giant’s mechanical wings, she helps him scavenge the exoskeletons and wings.

…
His wings fly through the sky, and the piles of of metal and her horse moves behind them, being connected thorough dozens of ropes attached on the wings’ anchor points.

As for Xil, she’s being carried in his arms.
She’s content with having a system of ropes supporting her, but Fhang wants to repay her for pulling him on the horse in that cave.

Is this… flirting?

.. it doesn’t really matter.
Her goal is to get to heaven.
His goal is some business in the human world.

The two of them didn’t talk much on their way to the town, anyways.

The old wooden buildings and waterlogged boards have faint brown color staining it. Traces of dried blood.

While Fhang leaves her to sell off his spoils, she gathers more information about the angel.


Grace was in a similar position to her, being a mercenary that died in battle. She was a criminal who was recruited into the Forlorn Hope division of the Landservants mercenary group, a unit that was sent into battle first, to soften up the enemy pike square before the main force could engage.
Paid double, had short life expectancy, but those that survived had incredible skill with two handed swords and polearms.

She ended up in first layer of heaven, the “Great Four” layer. However, she often got into duels with other angels and was eventually demoted into a demon, serving as a manager for the torture device operators in the Crusher sector.

She managed to make the steel beaked crows work more efficiently than anyone else before her and was able to quickly here groups of tall anomalies on her own.

For her skill, she was reinstated as an angel, now acting as a mentor for soon to be transferred angels.

Cont.

>>5463138
t didn’t take long to figure out where Grace was at. The lack of people and trails of dried blood has led them to a particularly large two story inn. Looks like there weren’t enough people at the bars for her.

Right after drinking the concoction, Fhang marches up the steps of the stairs with Xil accompanying him. Guang waits for her outside the inn.

The angel with one half of a wing sulks on the balcony, looking at the endless sea while holding from a cup. Her puffy white and blue garbs are stained with old blood and several black burns.

「… What is it」

{I.. I noticed that you haven’t.. uhh..}
{Blood}
{You.. you can drink my blood if you’d like}

「And her?」

[An observer]

Grace turns around to face the two goblins.
Even with her pale grey hair obscuring one eye, Xil can feel her glare on her.

「Ah. You. I’ve heard a lot about you.」

「You won those serpents’ race. A lot of people in the bar won’t stop yapping about how much of an asshole you were.」

She propels herself towards Xil, only stopping inches away from her face, and leaving a trail of feathers behind her.

Her lips are cracked and bloody.
The bright red sections scattered throughout likely result from the dried layers being ripped out. She hasn’t had a drink in a while.

「Come on now. Are you really going to stand there and do nothing? I know a capable rider when I see one. You really think another bloodbag is going to persuade me into giving up the fragment? I’ll need more than one guy.」

Xil decides to..

>>Appeal to emotion
Your lips look pretty dry.
This one is a lot tougher than the others.
Try him. You won’t regret it.

>>Deconstruct her words
Your lips are cracked from hours of not drinking blood. There’s no one coming to fight you and there’s no one coming to be sucked on. If there were, you wouldn’t be aimlessly looking at the sea right now.
Are you really going to throw this opportunity away?

>>Reject her offer of fighting
I don’t need to fight someone this pathetic.
You say you want a battle, want some blood, and when someone decides to give that to you, you would prefer to reject them and sit around and look at the sea?

>>Bend Time - Fire Blunderbuss
You brought this upon yourself.
I’ll get that fragment by prying it off your corpse.

>>Write in

>>5463140
>Deconstruct her words
She's looking for an excuse to rumble. Don't give it to her.

>>5463149
Writing..
Don’t worry!

>>5463149


She easily shrugged off the attempts of trying to gloat her into fighting. Grace doesn’t have leverage right now.

Xil points out the lack of options she has, citing her dried lips, the lack of people approaching her, and questions why she would be willing to throw an opportunity away before any proof of her belief is shown.

「What, you think someone like me can’t enjoy the view? I do get lost in thought when I see something beautiful.」

[Your cup was licked clean]
[Dried layers of your lips were ripped off]

「..Hmph」

[Offer still stands]

「Fine. Have it your way. Don’t be surprised if he ends up a skeleton.」

Grace severs the telepathic connection and turns to face the male goblin, resting her hand on his shoulders. Her eyebrows quickly stopped becoming furrowed.

It does make some sense for her to telepathically communicate - it can be quite painful to move dried up and bloodied lips.

While Xil cannot hear what words are being exchanged, she can clearly see the faces of the two - Fhang’s surprised expression and nervous breathing is quite the contrast to the angel’s slightly stern look.

The goblin glances at the chair on the balcony and looks back at the angel.
Her hand is clenched and slowly unravels, finger by finger. She’s probably listing off something. Once all five fingers have unraveled, she points at a room.

Fhang is still somewhat nervous, his fingers fidgeting while they remain on his side. Grace paces around him while keeping her hands behind her back, like an eagle watching her prey.

Surprise briefly appears on her face, before transitioning into a smirk, and finally returning to a neutral expression.
Fhang walks up to her and she rests her hand upon his shoulder again without any resistance. While he a lot more composed now, there’s still some tenseness in his fingers.


Cont

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>>5464018
The two walk to the room Grace pointed at earlier. Before she opens the door, Grace and Fhang telepathically communicate with Xil.

「You should leave. It’ll take at least three hours. Don’t interrupt me under any circumstances. And don’t be a smartass, either. I will know if you’re pressing your ears against the walls.」

{I.. I’ll be fine, Xil.}
{She’s.. she promised that she’ll only drink my blood. I’ll be fine.}


Xil decides to..

>>Leave
>Spend time at the library
It’s been a while since she visited heaven. Maybe she could brush up on her knowledge.
>Spend time meditating at a quiet place in town
Taking time to expel necessary thoughts from her head could be useful. Maybe she’ll reawaken some other memory within herself.
>Spend time with Guang
He’s been through a lot today. It’s best if she make sure he knows that he is appreciated.

>>Observe
Get a room next to hers and make sure Grace doesn’t kill him or coerce him into doing anything he doesn’t want to.

>>Write in

>>5464024
>Spend time with Guang

>>5464263

She decides to leave the two and spend time with her horse instead.

Xil leaves the inn and heads to the edges of the floating town. There’s still some background noise, but her mind has mostly blocked most of it out.

After unpacking all of her items from the horse, she dons an apron and belt which are filled with brushes and other tools for grooming.

After brushing him, she washes Guang off with several buckets’ worth of water, getting rid of any remaining dust or dirt.

Small chunks of soap is crushed and mixed into buckets of water, and rinsed onto the body of the horse.

Scrubbing her horse and wiping the more sensitive spots with wet towels proves to be quite tiring, as she doesn’t have access to stools or large brushes in her apartment.

Still, taking some time off to do something more mundane does cleanse her mind of unnecessary thoughts and stresses.
All that matters right now is the task at hand.

After spending an hour washing Guang and scraping all the water off, she takes a break to look at the sea before continuing the grooming.

From the edge of town, she could see the locations she’s been through during the early parts of the day.

She can faintly see a few serpents in the distance weaving through the crevices and ravines underwater. Much like raindrops racing down a window, there’s some enjoyment to be had by thinking about where they will go next.

The gigantic lotus underwater, which is barely visible due to the bright turquoise water and depths of the ocean, is still moving slightly, shifting back and forth like a pendulum.

The trail of large lily pads remain as still as ever, barely moving despite the strong waves produced by the sea serpents nearby that occasionally jump out of the surface.

Despite the island of crystallized tears being nothing more than tiny dots, she can still feel the hollowness and desolation of that place.

And furtherest away is the island of faces.
Even now, the face like patterns has a near hypnotic effect on her, immediately drawing her attention to that swirling thing in the horizon.

Alright, that’s enough.

The next following hours is spent cleaning Guang’s hooves and playing with him.
His mane is still just as soft and fluffy as back when he was still an ordinary horse.

…
When she does get caught leaving hell, they will definitely take him away.

She’ll miss him.

Before she could think about the implications of her dream any longer, a transmission from Fhang reaches her.


Cont.

>>5465198
{Hey. Xil. It’s done.}
{And uhh… I’ve talked to Grace about the fragment.}
{I got it, but..}
{She’s.. not in the best place mentally.}
{I’ll be staying with her a few more hours.}
{You can come pick up the fragment.}

[About that]
[Already got two]
[Just need hers and yours]

{Oh.}
{That’s..}
{Yeah, just come to the inn again.
We’ll be at the back of it.}

When she arrives at the back of the inn, she sees the two of them on a bench. The angel is resting her head against Fhang’s lap. While her eyes remain angry and eyebrows furrowed, Xil can see traces of tears running down her face.Next to them is a pile of engraved stones.

Just by flicking her fingers, Grace commands the stones to move into a circle around Xil. It forms a perfect half circle, large enough for both her and her horse.

Once she is done placing her half, Grace moves her hand again to align the stones perfectly. There’s a faint yellow glow coming from all the stones. It is activated.
It’ll teleport her into heaven.

Before leaving, she decides to..

>>Tell them about a quiet spot in town
The same spot Xil visited. The view there is nice and it’s a lot quieter than here.

>>Thank Fhang for helping her out
Thank you, Fhang. Good luck on whatever you do next.

>>Nod
A simple nod. An acknowledgment of what he and she did.

>>Write in

>>5464263
Hey. What’s your opinion on this thread overall? I’ve feel like this one hasn’t reached the same high as the last few ones. Thinking of ending it soon as well.

>>5465203
>Thank Fhang for helping her out
>Thank you, Fhang. Good luck on whatever you do next.

>>5465207
I like it. It seems that with me there is one more player so if you want to speed up and end story that's fine.

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>>5465414

This is it.
She’ll reach heaven.

But the question is, which layer would fit her the most?

The six ‘layers’ are actually a part of a mountain, with each one being higher than the last.

>>First layer
‘Great Four’ is the first, being at the bottom of the mountain, and is where people with people who rarely did good things in life, but those outweighed their sins. Guarded by four lords which watch over a direction.

>>Second layer
‘Starfall’ is the second, and is the most connected to nature due to being on the edges of the mountain, being mostly filled with forests and gardens unlike ‘Great Four’, which is a large city.

>>Third layer
‘Everbright’ is the third, and is a city which resides in the mountain. While there is no sunlight, most of the insides are crystals which will generate light. Beyond this layer is where worldly desires become faint.

>>Fourth layer
‘Glassfort’ is the fourth, residing near the peak of the mountain. Most of the buildings are constructed out of transparent material that allows for people to move through it.
While it is filled with vivid colors, the inhabitants here are mostly concerned with mediating and achieving happiness without any external forces.

>>Fifth layer
‘Constructor’ is the fifth, being one half of the summit. Angels residing in this layer have the ability to create anything they wish to, and are mostly concerned with advancing current technology.

>>Sixth layer
‘Creation Director’ is the sixth, being the other half of the summit. In this layer, the angels create designs which will be finalized by the angels in the ‘Constructor’ layer.

While all of them are never truly free from tangible desires, they become fainter in the upper layers.

>>5466663
>>Third layer

>>5465207
You do you, but I'm liking it and was looking forward to seeing the world beyond Hell, and what challenges awaited us to keep us from remaining there.

>>5466717
I’m just a little unmotivated at the moment. I do have some notes and outlines though

>>5466663
>Second layer
After all these hellish views, let Xill and Guang rest close to nature. Peace, quiet and no cities.

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Rolled 2 (1d3)

>>5468151

Tiebreaker time
1 = third
2 = second

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5468184
Wait I messed up whops

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>>5468151
She and her horse are awakened by the sounds of rushing water and wind blowing against them.

Xil puts her hand on the ground to support herself while getting up, but notices that a branch nearby has a butterfly on it. One half of the wings is the same size of her hand.

Looking around, even the piles of roots sticking out of the ground is just as tall as her.

She knew there was a forest, but didn’t expect it to be this big. She decides to follow where the sounds of water is coming from.

While riding Guang, she immediately notices the ease of breathing compared to when she was in the Great Incinerator or the Great Sorrow sector. Air flows throughout her body with every inhalation and exhaustion disappears with exhalation.

She wonders how long could she hold her breath compared to before. Exploring the ponds around the forests will definitely be easier now.

Guang also feels the effect of this air, being able to for what felt like an hour without feeling exhausted.

They eventually reach the edges of the forest. In front of them is an ocean and several mountain like islands sprinkled across them. Buildings adorned with precious metals are found on the peak of each of the islands. The light on the tip of each building reminds her of fireflies.

Sailing in between the tall island is the large ship, which is made to resemble a sea serpent. While the wings obscure most of the people onboard, she can see a few angels drinking a glistening yellow and orange liquid while sitting on the edges of the tall structure in the middle of the ship. Most of them seem to be holding hands or resting their head against their partner’s shoulders.

While angels do not need to eat they do consume everlasting food, a type of substance that is reportedly able to allow the person to experience another’s emotions or memories.

Much like the angels she has encountered before, they wear very little clothing aside from their shorts, preferring to decorate their sculpture like bodies with reflective metals or gems instead.


A lot must’ve changed. Those Wardens would probably be just as surprised as her if they came here.


Cont

>>5469155
As for the buildings atop the mountain like islands, they seem to be a lot less populated, with only a birdman or two being inside it, sculpting or painting some kind of object.

Considering they’re triple her height, they probably won’t mind if she asks to stay in the buildings or hang around on the island.

Xil decides to..
>>Visit the ship
Visiting the ship will allow her the chance to try out the everlasting food, and potentially experience what the angels are feeling or went through. While there’s plenty of couples there, she could probably find someone alone (or maybe ask the couples if they’re open to it)

… but what kind of relationship would she want to look for?
>Platonic
A friend is what she wants.
>Romantic
She never had much time for love in her old life, anyway.
>Sexual
Stress relief. That’s all she needs.

>>Visit the mountainous islands
Visiting the islands, while more challenging, there won’t be as many people and those Birdmen probably won’t bother her much.

>>Turn back, continue exploring the forest
Both options has too much people. While a contractor being in heaven isn’t unusual, those people could be witnesses once the wardens realized Xil isn’t in the Great Incinerator sector anymore.

>>5469158
>Visit the ship
>Sexual
Bit of hedonism to celebrate arriving in heaven. Then we can move onto some fun exploring!

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>>5469166

Choose your option
>>human angel
>>goblin angel
>>giant angel
>>messenger (birdmen)
>>sea serpent
>female
>male
>male and female

>>5469208
Woah! Not even waiting for the others to vote? I mean, alright...

>giant angel
>male and female

Go big or go home.

>>5469221
In case the other anon decides to vote for this as well so he doesnt need to answer twice

>>5469221
>Go big or go home.

Oh, technically theyre not the biggest

For reference

Goblins are around 100-140 cm
Humans are 170cm - 2 m
Giants are 2-3 m
Birdmen are 5-6 m

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>>5469284

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>>5469294

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>>5469301

>>5469208
>goblin angel
>female

>>5469221
>>5469519
1 = giant male + female
2 = goblin + female

souv, is that you? Didn’t take you for a yuri kind of guy.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5469617

yours is also kinda based, RQM.

>>5469618
Alas! Forsooth!
This is fine, too, as long as our protag has a fun time

>>5469618
Thanks. It's that obvious it was my suggestion, though? Eesh.

>>5469720
That and also

>>5459869

>>5469725
>forgot to drop the name again
Damnit, I was getting better at that.

>>5469618

Those soft thighs..
Chiseled abs..
Firm chest..
Shiny bracelets and rings..

Her lust begins to take over her mind after seeing all those beautiful women.
The only thing she wants right now is to bed someone.

After trailing the ship for a few minutes, she finally spots an opportunity when the people are distracted by the buildings on the islands generating bright lights.

The two accelerates and heads to the lower decks immediately. It took a couple more accelerations to avoid people when on their way to put Guang in the contractors storage room, a large hall which holds animals and vehicles of the contractors.

I’ll.. I’ll be fine, Guang. Here’s some whalebone for your trouble.

She can barely contain her excitement, wanting to explore every part of the ship to search for someone to talk to.

The first place she went to is the dueling hall, a large room where the angels demonstrates their martial skills against each other. The weapons they summon are translucent, but do not possess the same glow as before.

Moving upwards, she visits a lounge where people could drink Nectar and experience each other’s memories.

Finally, she reaches the main deck again, where they mostly spend time sightseeing, but a few angels do fly off to find something in the ocean.

Xil decides to flirt with..


>>A duelist
There’s a goblin who fought with rapier and dagger, but is currently resting with her back to the wall. Maybe she could get her a towel or a drink?

>>A lone goblin in the lounge
While the lounge has plenty of couples sharing drinks, there’s a few that drink alone. There’s an empty seat next to hers, anyway.

>>A goblin on the deck
A goblin came back from exploring the ocean with several shiny rocks and showing it off to the others. Xil could try to ask to go diving with her.

>>5471531
>A lone goblin in the lounge
Let's chill. We've done enough diving for a lifetime just recently, and seen plenty of combat. The lounge sounds nice.

>>5471531
>>5471834 <- I agree to this.

>>5472388
>>5471834
Noted.

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>>5471834
>>5472388

Before she finds someone, Xil gets a cup of that glistening orange and yellow liquid from a keg at the edges of the lounge.

In a corner lies a goblin with white hair, wearing a black apron over her white strapless dress and emerald colored skirt.
A gold clip on it creates a slit just far enough to reveal a portion of her garter belt.
Piles of mostly melted candles and empty cups litter the round table next to her.

She pivots between drinking another cup of everlasting drink and slumping on the table.

Hah... Those thighs..

She takes a deep breath and walks up to her.

Hi.

"…"
".. yeah?"

Can I sit here?

Xil points at the untouched wooden chair next to the white haired goblin.

"Yeah. Sure."

Thanks.

Sitting down, she can feel the coldness of the chair. The white haired goblin is still forlorn.

…
After a minute of silence, Xil says

Hey.
Your hair looks nice.

".. ha. Uh.. yeah. Thanks."
"I.. your.. your piercings looks pretty nice too."

The white haired goblin can barely get out a sentence without breathing heavily. Her eyes barely meet Xil’s.

That’s a start.

How should she approach this girl?

>>Be very obvious about her interest
Hey look, you look pretty nice. I like you.
Can we share some memories together?

>>Act in similar fashion to her
Uhh.. hey.
Uhm. If you don’t mind, can we drink together? I.. I don’t have anyone to drink with and I figured that maybe we could do that together?

>>Ask her more about her state
Are you okay..?
If there’s something bothering you, we can talk about it.

>>Get her more candles
Let’s not push her luck. That girl might be appreciate direct approaches. Maybe she could begin with just helping her get more scented candles.

>>Write in

*That girl might [not] appreciate

>>5473533
>Ask her more about her state
No pressure if she doesn't want to talk about it, though. Bring her candles, too!

>>5473533
>Act in similar fashion to her

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5473544
>>5474524

1=ask
2=act same

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>>5474530

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>>5474533

Xil adopts a similar manner of speaking to her, taking pauses in her speech and adding a slight artificial nervousness to her words.

".. yeah. Uhh.. sure."
"I am Ann, by the way."

Xil.

".. so.. what kind of things do you want to see?"

.. something relaxing.. I guess.
Watching rain.. sitting next to a fireplace.. that sort. I’ve done a lot of exciting stuff today. Just want to rest for a bit.

"Alright."

Ann blows on the everlasting drink and imbues it with her memory. She pours some for Xil.

…
Fht.
fhht.
fht.

Surrounded by shelves of half finished statues and covered in a warm light, they experience wood carving from the eyes of Ann.

Slowly, a block of wood becomes two figures. A human male with amber eyes holding hands with a giant.

The human male wears a long sleeve shirt over some cloth wraps around his chest and loose fitting pants.

The female giant wears cloth wraps around her chest, long gloves which extend to her forearms, a skirt and socks. Ann spends a lot of time adding patterns and small accessories to the this giant.
The gemstone and star like patterns on the clothes seem to imply that she was a maid of someone wealthy.

Eventually, Ann pulls out several boxes of painting equipment and begin coloring the wooden figures.

Her painting skills are quite advanced, able to capture the slight darkness of the scar across the human’s face and the dark red tints of old burn wounds. She even remembers to add some slight greyness in the giant’s pink skin around the shaved armpits.

For the most part, Xil remains silent, but eventually says

Those look pretty nice. Are they for a client?

"Nah. It’s a birthday present for my grandma."
"It was.. a very long time ago. Back when I was still alive."

They look nice.

"Thanks."

"…"

She only wrote their first names, 'Makari' and 'Isabelle' on the base of the sculptures due to the small amount of space.


Cont

>>5475233
Huh.
It’s been nearly an hour now.
Both of them were engrossed by that memory.

She is back in that wooden chair once again. It’s about time Xil gets some more candles.

Actually.. her candles are a bit different to the others. They seem to have a slight brighter red to it compared to the more muted pinks of others.

"Oh! They’re actually mine. I’ve made it a while back when I visited the Great Four sector. Figured I might use them now."

"Anyway.. I’ll go get new ones. There’s way too much of it in my room."

Xil says..

>>Sure. I’ll clear the table in the mean time.
That was pretty interesting. When you get back, I’ll show you some of my memories as well.

>>I could help carry those candles.
I could go with you. We’ll clean the table once we’re done drinking.

>>How about we go to your room instead.

>>5475235
>How about we go to your room instead.
let's risk, all or nothing.

>>5475235
>How about we go to your room instead

>>5475342
>>5475447
Hey folks im a bit sick right now
Headache sucks
Unsure of when I can continue writing

>>5476775
Oh no! Get well soon, SQM.

A couple QMs are down with the sickness. My mom, too; bad case of Covid in her case...

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>>5475342
>>5475447

"A.. ah."
".. I .. didn’t realize that you wanted to.."

Ann’s voice shakes as she tries to reply to the proposition.

Her breath quickens and countless thoughts race through her mind.

is this.. is this too early?!?
but.. but if she doesn’t take this chance now, will she be alone again? earlier today ann saw another contractor bringing two men to her room after just drinking with them. ah! she hasn’t cleaned her room too. ha..hah. it’s been so long since she has pleased a man or a woman too.

".. uh.. sure. sure."

Ann nervously fidgets with her fingers while giving Xil her answer.

"but.. uh.. we gotta clean this up first, alright?" Ann looks at the cluttered table.

Sure.
Xil chuckles.

…
After putting the cups into the designated shelves and clearing any residue of wax off the tables, the two walk to Ann’s room.

Metallic discs on the cinnamon brown walls glow a dark red color, allowing the two to see the things in the moderately sized room.

The left of the room is taken up by closets and shelves. The right has a bronze colored table and chair, but it is mostly covered by a mound of books and boxes of candles.

In the back of the room is where a large bed is, filled with several pillows and a thin blanket. There’s two small nightstands next to it.


"Give me a moment."

A pair of translucent white wings emerge from Ann’s back. The piles of books and candles fly across the room, placing themselves in the shelves and nightstands in an orderly block like fashion.

Y’know, Ann.
We could get rid of a lot of candles tonight.

"What.. what do you mean?"

The feeling of candle wax droplets touching your skin is pretty exciting. I’ve done it before. A few years ago. It was really good.

".. really?"

Yeah. It’s mild enough that it doesn’t hurt much, but strong enough to get you excited. That period of waiting for the wax to drip onto you while your partner is caressing your body.. it’s a great feeling.

"I.. I see…"

Ann wants to be..

>>Dominant
Well, since she knows more about the candles overall, perhaps she could be the one dictating the.. pace of things.

>>Submissive
Please teach me more about this, Xil.

>>Dominant at times, submissive at times
She wants to please Xil too, but she’s probably not good enough to set the pace all the time.

>>5477048
Feeling a lot better now. Headache is mostly gone.

>>5477737
>>Submissive
>Please teach me more about this, Xil.

>>5477737
>>Submissive

>>5477737
>Submissive
Xil strikes me as a top, yeah.

>>5477912
>>5478232
>>5478541

Still writing, don’t worry.
Also, It’ll probably be posted on an ao3 link because ghostbin fucking sucks on mobile

>>5479708

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43332768

The bedroom is a mess.
The hoard of candles are mostly spent, there’s liquid everywhere and both goblins’ lust are satiated.

"Xil.."

… yeah?

".. that was great. I really want to do it again soon."

Her hands wrap around Xil’s arm.

Uhh…

Xil doesn’t really know how to respond. Once today ends, the wardens will definitely know that she isn’t in hell, performing her duties as torture device operator. In a few days, they’ll likely launch a search.

It’s only a matter of time before she gets captured and be punished.

But it’s worth it. Going on this adventure, finding and bedding someone she likes, meeting people she have never thought to see.. these fleeting moments have infinitely more valuable than decades of monotony, over a debt she no longer enjoys paying.

She’ll definitely miss Guang, but at least her life won’t be subjected what a spirit tells her to do anymore.

Xil decides to…

>>Stay with her for now

>>Tell her that she can’t stay for long
Look, Ann. It was great for me, too, but I can’t stay for long. I have places to go.
If we meet again.. definitely.

>>Tell her the truth
Ann.. I came here to escape the monotony of being in hell. It’s best if you don’t get involved.

>>Write in

Writing lesbian sex isn’t my forte. How was it?

>>5480531
>Tell her that she can’t stay for long

As a guy, can't confirm the accuracy, but was well-written!

>>5480531
>>Tell her the truth
tl;dr

>>5480531
>Tell her that she can’t stay for long

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>>5480579
>>5481240

>>5481221
Oh hey its the guy from the rabbit quest. Thanks for stopping by.


She tells her that she cannot stay for long.
While Xil would love to stay with her, she has other places to visit. She hopes that she’ll see her again.

Ann is a little saddened by her answer, but understands. A contractor has more responsibilities compared to an angel.

After taking a shower at a public bathroom at the lower decks, Xil and Ann part ways.

Seeing a birdwoman’s back being washed by a human with a brush that’s nearly as tall as him was quite amusing.

With her lust satiated, she heads back to the main deck, looking for some other places to explore.

The ship has sailed past the gigantic forest a while ago. Around them are only oceans and mountainous islands.

Looking up, she sees a egg shaped vehicle with feather like wings that sparkle as it floats through the air, flying past the short island close to the ship. Seems like it is heading for one of those extremely steep ones she saw earlier. Those birdmen must know a thing or two about these contraptions. Maybe she could get wings on herself or on Guang.

The mountainous island near the ship is a lot wider and less steep, having a crystal like structure at the peak and groups of small trees around every patch of grass. Despite the elegant structure and accessibility, there doesn’t to be anyone stopping at this island.
It could provide some peace from everyone else.

>>Visit the island nearby the ship
She’s been through a lot today, and while company is nice, she needs some time alone. The view there seems pretty good too.

>>Visit the steep island where the flying vehicle is going
All these years, Xil and Guang never got to try on those mechanical wings. Let’s do it now before she inevitably gets found out. In six or seven hours, the day off for her will end anyways.

>>5482059
>Visit the steep island where the flying vehicle is going

>>5482059
>Visit the steep island where the flying vehicle is going
We can rest when we're dead!
...Oh, wait.

>>5482059
>Visit the steep island where the flying vehicle is going
Oh, hi. I keep forgetting the trip stays in browser, sorry about that.

>>5482070
>>5482219
>>5482281
Almost done writing.
Expect it in a couple of hours

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>>5483639

It’s now or never.

Xil returns to the lower parts of the ship to retrieve Guang.

The serpent shaped ship actually propels itself by underwater barrels which push water away, propelling the ship forward in the process. Had she not been in such a hurry get into the ship, she would’ve noticed it earlier.

Xil takes the horse to main deck, emerging near a tall, tree like structure designed to resemble a swarm of serpents which adorn the tail end of the ship.

Since most of the people on the main deck are on the central structure or on the front, most do not take notice of her. Being one third of most people’s height also helps.

To not make a scene, Guang merely drops down to the ocean instead of jumping into it.

The freezing cold waters made Xil flinch briefly, but she quickly adjusts to it.

Like before, she propels herself by using the gravity enchanted barrels of her firearms.

One key difference from the Great Sorrow’s ocean is the amount of wildlife near the surface.

Aquamarine in color and embroidered with gold accessories as the angels, swarms of fishes observe Xil from a distance.

The masses swirl around her as she continues to blast herself and her horse forward. Their mouths constantly move, but their words are indecipherable.

This swarm that constantly follows her continues doing so for several minutes.

…
The ocean rumbles.
All of them can feel the earthquake like vibrations coming from the depths of the lazulite blue water.

From the shadowy depths emerge a fish with emerald skin and gold jewelry that is larger than any boulder and longer than a road she has seen.

The gold decorated eye of the fish glares at the hoard and addresses them in a language that can be understood by them and her.

•I Have Listened For Long Enough•
•Your Complaints About Her Weapon Disrupting The Sea, The Inefficiency Of Her Way Of Transportation, And All The Solutions Every Single One Of You Keep To Yourselves•
•Had A Single One Offered Assistance Then This Problem Would Have Been Shortened•
•I Will Step In And Offer Assistance•

Those words, spoken in almost robotic tone, makes the entire school of smaller fishes freeze.

The fish turns its attention to Xil and her horse.

•You Should Have Asked Others For Help•
•Plenty of Angels Are On That Ship, Willing to Carry Contractors Without Wings To Their Destination•

•Where Is Yours•

[That steep island over there. The one where that flying vehicle landed on. Those birdmen fixing the thing might have some spare wings.]
Xil telepathically answers the fish.

•I See•
•Attach Yourself To A Hardpoint On My Right Wing•
Cont

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>>5483792
The gigantic fish’s right wing flutters, and the many hooks and clamps open up. The wings themselves closely resemble mechanical ones.

Once Xil and her horse are secured by these clamps, the fish begins swimming through the sea, traversing a distance that would’ve taken her nearly half an hour to do in just a a minute.

Seeing the ocean turn into a blur..
Is this how Fhang and other mechanical wings users must’ve felt?


While traveling, the fish remains mostly quiet, but asks her a question a few minutes before reaching the island.

•Not Many Contractors In Heaven Have Chosen Their Vehicle To Be A Horse•
•Mechanical Wings. Carriages. Gliders. These Are More Efficient.•
•Why Did You Choose It?•

This guy looks like he’s been here for a while. He might get suspicious if I don’t talk like a contractor that’s supposed to be here.

Xil decides to say..

>>Past life
Guang was always by my side before I came here. I know we’re supposed to leave our past lives behind, but It’s hard to let go.

>>It was a gift
Someone important gave this horse to me. He’s quite.. unique.

>>Confidential
I cannot answer that question. His identity cannot be disclosed with anyone, I’m afraid.

>>5483793
>Past life
It's even true, right?

>>5483796
That is true

although she didn’t mention the fact that she made a deal with one of the most powerful spirits in the human world to keep Guang with her

>>5483830
Nor should she mention such a detail!

>>5483793
>>Confidential

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5483796
>>5484569
1 = past life
2 = confidential

>>5484821
Nice! I won a coin-toss for once!
Beats me why we don't have a third player. Who doesn't like fantasy journeys and goblin girls?

>>5484821
Writing is almost done.

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>>5486101


Xil tells the fish that she had this horse in her past life, and finds it hard to let go.

•Understandable•
•It Can Be Hard For Many•
•As Demonstrated By That School [of fish] You’ve Met Earlier•

…
•To Completely Let Go Of Desires, To Achieve Nirvana And To Never Have To Go Through The Cycle Of Death-Birth-Suffering Again Is Something Few Can Do.•

•Good Luck On Getting Those Wings.•

The fish begins diving down once it is close to the island, preparing to leap up and send Xil to the top of the mountainous island.

[I never got your name.]

•Boon•

[It’s been nice talking to you, Boon.]
[I’m Xil.]

Xil braces for the moment.
Water pushes against her body as the fish begins ascending. The pressure and acceleration makes her vision become blurrier until she can only see a torrent of moving dots. The gigantic fish breaks the water’s surface, casting waves that smack against the island and roared like a thousand men.

As the fish was reaching the apex of the jump, the clamps on her and Guang release, launching them near the top of the island.

The two of them tumble and roll, ripping apart grass and dirt until they land into the bushes.

The waves splash onto the island, dousing the birdman as he flies down to get a closer look at Xil and her horse.


'What is it.'

Can I get two sets of mechanical wings? One for me and one for my horse.

'You came all this way to..'
'Alright. Fine. It will take a couple hours. I’ll be fixing the bird first.'
'You two can stay in my office until then.'

The red skinned birdman opens his palm, lifting Xil and Guang into the air. They have felt this sensation before — this ‘stasis’ like state is similar to when Guang creates the time distorted spheres.

The birdman flies back to the top of the island, landing next to the tall crystal like structure with a light at the top. In front of this building is a large flying vehicle, with metallic bird like wings attached to a egg shaped cockpit.

Countless boxes and tools litter the mats surrounding the vehicle.

The birdman shifts his hand and Xil and her horse float into the crystal structure, a building with large metallic shelves surrounding every corner and a large central table.

Once the two are inside, the stasis sphere disappears, dropping them to the mat covered floor.

There’s another person in there as well, the pilot of the vehicle being fixed — a giant with a long sleeved shirt and pants that hug the skin tightly. He is on the opposite side of the room, briefly glancing at the two before going back to reading a small book which floats in the air. Translucent blue dolls appear in front of the book, talking to each other.

Xil doesn’t bother him, preferring to look at the birdman while he is fixing the vehicle. She can see several metal tools and metal parts floating in the air while the birdman is taking apart a section of the metallic wings.

>>5486383

After seeing him making the metal parts float, orienting them in the air, and inserting it into the vehicle, Xil thinks that she could help accelerate the process, as he can only focus on integrating one piece at a time. Guang’s time dilation spheres could work just fine in this context.

However, time or space manipulation is not a power contractors (of their vehicles) usually have — they require sources of power, such as crystals similar to the ones on the exoskeleton from before. Contractors that usually have these advanced powers would normally have basic powers and equipment as well, such as levitation and mechanical wings. The birdman could get suspicious and potentially find out that Xil doesn’t belong here.

But if Xil were to pretend to be a regular contractor, this process could take several hours — shortening the time she can spend with Guang before being found out.

>>Help the Birdman fix the vehicle

>>Stay hidden

>>5486386
>Help the Birdman fix the vehicle
Goblins are impulsive and impatient, yes?

>>5486414
Xil is not exactly patient

>>5486386
>>Help the Birdman fix the vehicle

>>5486414
>>5486514

She wants to help him.

[Hey.]
[Saw you working on those parts.]
[We could help.]
[We can put your stuff in stasis.]

Xil and Guang walks to the entrance of the crystal structure.

'Didn’t know you..'
'Alright.'

The birdman makes a section of the mat free from tools and metal parts so that Xil and her horse could sit down.

'Any experience?'

[I have assembled and repaired guns before. Matchlocks and wheellocks with gravity enhanced barrels]

'That’s good, but this bird uses air enchantments for the most part. I’ll let you work on the cargo stuff.'

The birdman gives her instructions on replacing and repairing the parts which link the vehicle and the cargo together.

It’s been a while, but Xil still remembers the various types of knots needed to secure an object.

After some guidance from the birdman and going through the manuals he gave her, putting back the chassis which secured the cargo.

Whenever Guang was too tired, Xil would get some towels from her bags and feed him some whalebone discs.

After an hour of using tongs and spikes to nudge the suspended rods and plates into place, her portion is done.

The two are too tired to get back into the crystal structure again, and spend time resting around at the edges of the island.

…
'It is done.'
'About two hours early.'
'Not bad at all.'

The birdman carries Xil and Guang back to the crystal structure to take measurements for the mechanical wings.

Due to her request, the wings will mostly use gravitational magic rather then air — having slower top speed but enables precise hovering and turning, along side requiring less parts to function.

As Xil watches the birdman cobble up old gems filled with gravitational magic and fixing them onto dusty silver wings, she knows that the Uposatha day is coming to an end in an hour or two.

The wardens will inevitably ask around about her, and eventually will launch a search. The punishment for abandoning her duties are unknown, but she knows that she can’t be with Guang anymore.

This paradise.
This dream.
It will end soon.

But before the end approaches, what will be her primary objective?

After this choice, there will only be a few more before this journey ends.

>>Explore the rest of this layer

>>Explore as many layers of heaven as she can

>>Spend time with..
>Ann
>Fhang
>Grace

>>Visit the Kodachi and try to make that frail man’s life better

>>5487438
>Explore as many layers of heaven as she can

>>5487438
>Explore as many layers of heaven as she can

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>>5487747
>>5488120

Xil and Guang quickly get used to the silver wings.

The apparatus quickly proved its worth in long distance flight, requiring very little maintenance despite harsh shifts in temperature.

After gaining the wings, they explored the rest of Starfall layer first. While the elegant crystal structures and finely crafted objects designed to resemble animals or plants were quite beautiful, she can’t stay to admire the view for long.

The second place she went to is the first layer, the ‘Great Four’. A large city with the most diverse types of people, and most closely connected to the human world.

Giants. Serpents. Angels. Birdmen. Wardens.

While all of them have done good in the past life, they are all defined by their vices which prevent them from becoming more enlightened.

Giants are defined by their anger and the lack of restraint in expressing their emotions.

Serpents are defined by their hedonism, indulging in parties and orgies.

Angels are defined by their attachment to their previous life’s hobbies or habits. Watching plays, tasting food (despite not needing to), and other things which they have experienced in their human world.

Birdmen (in this layer) are defined by their ignorance, having biases and extreme beliefs. Unfit to be divine messengers for layers, they are tasked with maintaining the city’s infrastructure.

Wardens, large red skinned beings normally assigned to underworld duties, show up here to maintain security due to being less biased than the birdmen. They’re still prone to laziness although not as much as the angels.

It was definitely an interesting place for Xil. Being the layer most attached to worldly desires, she spent the most amount of time there compared to the others.

Xil engaged in several horse races, recreational explosives detonations, trying out the summoned armaments of the angels, drinking the many types of locally created alcohol and indulging in all of her fetishes. It was hard to let go of a city that provided near instant gratification and fulfilled all of her desires.


Cont

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>>5489308


The third place she visited was the Everbright, a city inside the mountain the heavens are situated. Crystals with mysterious colors which do not exist in the human world reminds Xil of her younger years, when she had less obligations and the limited knowledge of a child.

Within this layer, reality also changes.
The crystal buildings and facilities possess strange geometry, and even stranger gravity. Walking a couple steps in one bridge resulted in her ending up walking on the bridge which sits on the ceiling of the mountain. While this strange world very much captures the wonders of not knowing everything about the world, and provides the peaceful atmosphere that allows her to concentrate on attaining inner peace, she still could only attain it for brief moments.

After a couple hours of unsuccessful attempts, she leaves this layer.

She visits the Constructor layer right after this, hoping to gain some understanding of how the most enlightened of individuals live.

Reaching the summit of the mountain, she encounters a golden spire so large that even her eyes cannot see where it tampers.

The people there are mostly angels, but several birdmen and a few contractors are present to inform them about the lower layers.

Inside this layer, she saw many strange things.

Rooms which housed miniature seas and lands which could be commanded to generate changes in weather, scenarios of interactions between animals, and even recreation of past historical events.

There are also strange devices which can project images and writing when given a command. Apparently, these devices draw from a stockpile of data that is gained through documenting memories of people in all the worlds.

The people here also have very little accessories. Barely anyone has any jewelry on them, with the few that do being the contractors or birdmen that do not have this place as their permanent residence.

Despite wearing only shorts and long gloves, the angels behave much differently than the ones she encountered at the Great Four, being relatively civil with each other and preferring to experience each other’s memories or lucid dream instead of indulging in physically thrilling activities.

It’s an efficient system, but the sterile environment and lack of traditional means of entertainment has left Xil feeling rather unfulfilled.

She eventually heads back to the Great Four layer.

As she sits in the outskirts of the mountain, away from the city, and surrounded by nature, she thinks about her journey.

Cont

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>>5489312
Underneath a tree she lied, thinking about all the steps of the journey out of the underworld, the experiences she had, the people she met, and the reasoning behind her every action.

She feels.. somewhat fulfilled. A certain bitter and sweetness to her journey. A finality to it all. She could probably go to more places if she had more time, or if she wanted to, or check up on all the people she met, but she did not need to. Just doing merely these have given her enough happiness.

A flutter of crackling wings denotes the presence of a Warden approaching her.
Xil has been located and will be brought back for punishment. Trying to fight will be meaningless as it will only prolong the result for a couple hours.

It took four days in total before she got found. Not bad at all.

【I am surprised.】
【I’d expect you to be in that city as opposed to overlooking it.】

Ah. Warden Phrai. She’s the Warden that Xil worked under.

A single disobedient contractor made you come all this way?

【I found it curious. That is all.】
【For someone who seeks an escape from work in the 6th sector, you’re doing things that isn’t exactly optimal.】
【Competitors in the Great Sorrow sector said that you spent time helping another racer despite having another racer in the race makes it more difficult to win.】
【Rather than killing and sending that frail man in the Kodachi for his fragment, you decided to negotiate and spend time to get it from him willingly.】

You knew about that?

【A lot of people lie. Their memories don’t. You don’t need to worry about those serpents.】

【You could’ve taken Fhang’s fragment at the fields of lotus flowers to accelerate the process of leaving the underworld.】
【You took the time to help a birdman fix up a vehicle and revealed your horse’s ability of time manipulation, making you easier to track down.】
【All of this.. you could have taken a faster path and possibly evaded me for longer.】

【Why did you not do that?】

>>They deserved to be helped.
Fhang helped other people for no gain for himself. When time came, no one was there to help him. That’s why I stepped in.
The man in the Kodachi ship did not pose a threat to me — I used as little force as I needed to.
I offered to help the birdman because I am able to.

>>I don’t know.
You are right. Those are more time efficient methods to achieve my goals. I suppose I could’ve thought through all of my actions.
I chose to take those actions because.. I had a feeling that I should do it.

>>I did it for me.
Fhang was useful. His skills with that flute allowed me to retrieve a fragment and led to me another one.
I could easily kill that frail man but that could alert those tendrils.
The birdman worked faster with my assistance.

Everything I did, I did it for my own goals.

>>Write in

>>5489375
>Write in
It was selfish, I guess. Helping people feels good. Hurting or abandoning doesn't. It's as simple as that.

>>5489399
+1

>>5489399
>>5490193

It was selfish, I guess. Helping people feels good. Hurting or abandoning doesn't. It's as simple as that.

【I see.】
【The years have not withered you, at least.】
【.. I’m glad you didn’t let hatred cloud your mind. I’ve seen people that do that fall apart when they got reassigned to other sectors.】

…
It doesn’t mean anything.
Even if I somehow get reassigned, work would still be just as tedious or maybe even more if I had to work in a different sector.

That’s..
that’s why I decided to leave it all.
The past four years…
Four days of rest per month.
On a job I have no control over and barely enjoy doing.
I’d rather be thrown in the upper sectors than spend more time checking oil levels and writing down how many people are in those vats.

I couldn’t deal with any of this anymore.
I know that abandoning my duty for non emergency reasons would fetch me at least a year in one of the first three sectors as a punishment but I’ll just continue to cause trouble so that I remain a 'prisoner' rather than be 'promoted' to a management position again.

I belong out there.

【… suppose you could choose where you would be sent, where would you go?】

>>First Sector - Endless
In the flatlands of the sector, where constant battles and resurrections take place, she will free to indulge in combat without limitations.

Without a commanding officer to answer to, she will be free to master the art of combat.

>>Second Sector - Black Lines
The forest of black lines is where wardens and torturers administer black lines to the sinners that will continuously remind them of the suffering they have caused.

Unlike the frenzied masses of the first sector, she’ll be part of a somewhat cohesive community that is united against a single threat. It’s the closest to resembling her former life.

>>Third Sector - Crusher
A factory of mechanical torture devices and host of dueling tournaments. A sector of broken dreams and incredible fame.

Xil can forge a new life there, potentially becoming a gladiator that will be loved by an audience.

Even if she fails, she’ll have a goal to look forward to.

..
…
….

Oh.
One last thing.

>>Tell Phrai to thank
>The frail man in the Kodachi
>Fhang
>Grace
>Ann
.. on her behalf

>>Tell Phrai to remind her about the Red King
When the day comes that he is brought here, I want to witness how he gets punished.

>>Tell Phrai that she has been a good boss
This is all my doing. I don’t want you to get punished for.. all of this.

>>Write in

Last choice before epilogue. Thanks for sticking with me.

>>5491780
>Second Sector - Black Lines
>Tell Phrai to thank Fhang
We turned out to be benevolent after all. Let's thank our bud, let him know he was right, and not expose our lover or the hidden man to scrutiny.

>>5491787
vote locked

writing..