Awesome Land VI: Dawn of a New Era

[Calefrun]

Kayla nodded quietly as Dace and Sindri told their story. "Well, what he was once doesn't really make a difference, yeah? All that matters right now is figuring out where he went and taking him down before he turns Awesome Land into... this." She looked over at Clara and Delta Squad, then tapped on the top of Knox's head and pointed. "Should we uh... should we do something about that?"

---

Elsewhere, Cozaltene finally woke up, and was not in Umbra Isla I guess but was still with Petra. "Thanks for the ride, but I think this is my stop," he said, then he pushed open the pterodactyl's talons and began to fall. "Oh right. I can't fly. Damn." Before he collided with the ground below, however, a stray portal from the portal dimension phased into existence nearby. It pulled in the helpless German, and closed as soon as he was through.

---

The very next sensation that Cozaltene encountered was noise. Loud noise. Some may go so far as to call it music. Next, he saw the flashing lights, which illuminated what looked like the inside a massive building. From his position near one of the walls, he could see a mass of... people? It was hard to tell when the only sources of light were either blinking or sweeping rapidly across the room.

From what he could tell, the people were all jumping and waving their arms around to the beat of the music, and many of them were wearing accessories glowing in a variety of different colors. In front of them was a stage, and through the lights and fog effects he could barely see a man dancing around behind a turntable. Nearby, another mob of people appeared to be gathered around a large ring, though he couldn't tell what was going on inside.

“Where the fuck...?” the boy wasn't sure whether or not he had spoken the words aloud, as he was unable to hear the sound of his own voice.

He was so disoriented, he didn't notice the girl approaching him until she was only a few feet away. While the others all were all garbed in clothing that was either torn, covered in luminescent paint, or both, her outfit looked significantly more... advanced. While it still matched the aesthetic of the rave (and even involved several blinking neon lights of its own), it almost resembled... armor? Her shoulder-length hair was also notably... very pink.

The girl retrieved a phone from a pouch at her side and started typing something into it. A few seconds later, she pointed the device at Cozaltene, and it projected brightly glowing, holographic text into the space between them.

“ONE OF OUR GUYS DROPPED AND WE NEED A FIFTH. YOU DON'T LOOK BUSY; WANT IN?”

“What?” He tried to yell back, but once again his voice was completely drowned out. He tried to gesticulate to convey his confusion, but she apparently took this as his assent. She reached out and grabbed the German's wrist, and started dragging him towards the ring.

[Mizagium]

Clara laughed. Actually laughed. Not a condescending villain laugh or even an amused chuckle. No, the seraph actually doubled over laughing as the men pointed guns at her and demanded she disarm. Life in the order was more often serious than not, and while she experienced moments of levity, very rarely did she laugh. She clutched her gut with one hand and pleaded with the other for them to stop. It was too much; she couldn't handle this right now. Minutes passed before she regained herself.

"Thank you," she told Dom, wiping away tears. "I needed that."

With one final, cathartic inhale, Clara diaappeared in a flash of light. She reappeared before Dom, took hold his rifle, and fused the barrel shut with holy light. She yanked, pulling him towards her, and drove a knee hard into his gut. Then she was gone, repeating this process with Marcus, Baird, and Cole.

Then she conjured up a pattern of light and wove bindings around the four soldiers. "Now," she declared, all lightheartedness gone, "Be purified by the light of the Goddess."

-

Knox mulled over the story. "You know, it sounds like allowing Zais to return here was probably a bad idea. He's dangerously unstable and those kinds of people are always more powerful when completely unhinged."

[Bruce Leroy]

MGF stood amazed at the spectacle he had just witnessed. Not that Clara melted the guns and bound his men, but that Sindri had a popcorn stash in his coat pocket.

"Marcus! Can you tell me what I pay you guys for?"
"You don't actually pay us..."
"Whatever, why do I allow you to live for then. It is stuff like this that makes me believe that there is no hope for the Lands as they are now." Taking a sharp inhale from his cigar and reaching into his pocket he pulled out a remote. "This should fix this," he stated as he pressed a button.

Nothing happens

"Baird... did you change the batteries in the remote like I told you?"
"I might have forgotten to get to it."
"Hey you there, Clara was it, Make sure to kill that one first and preferably slowly. Actually do you want a job?"

---

From a vent in the ceiling

"Sir, I have made contact with the enemy. I appears he and his men have engaged in combat. His men seem hopelessly over their heads and under-powered for this foe. I feel like I should step in to help them, but I am just going to watch them get beat down for a while."

With that the mysterious character decided to drop down next to Kayla.

"Don't mind me, I'm just here for the show for now."

He then pulled a lawn chair out of his inventory and eagerly awaited the females next move against the gears.

[Myrdraxxis]

"yes it...was probably not s good idea." Sindri sighed. "But we're here now so we'll just have to continue onward."

"Speaking of which." Dace interrupted, pulling his attention away from the fight happening behind them. "Where exactly are we? More importantly, where did Zais go?"

Silence hung in the air for a moment as they considered this. Sindri glanced around. "This portal put us out in the farmlands around the city." He noted. "Or what's left of the city." he nodded into the distance, at the jagged remains of civilization looming on the horizon.

"Ah." Dace winced. "So probably..."

"This way." Sindri addressed the group. "Er," he paused, looking at MGF and Clara. "Did you want to continue first or..."

Dace wasn't even waiting, already setting off across the field. Sindri shrugged and began to follow, assuming the others would do the same.

For a while they seemd to be going nowhere in particular; the whole area looked the same. Yet eventually Dace spotted it: a lone house still standing in the middle of dead farmland. How it was still there when all else around it had fallen to entropy was a mystery. Sindri sighed softly upon seeing it.

"Well, this is it."

Dace just gripped the Hero Sword tightly and approached.

The door of the wooden house had long caved inward, and the home was practically falling apart. Dace cautiously stepped into the entry hall, looking around slowly. It was strange how he had been here mere days ago, and yet this place had been abandoned for centuries. 'I swear, I'm done with time travel forever after this.' he thought.

"Been a while." Sindri muttered, following Dace inside.

For a moment it seemed that the house was deserted. Yet Dace thought he heard something.

A faint muttering coming from further into the house. He crept further along through the broken hallway and stopped at the end, the voice coming from the last door on the right.

Dace slowly nudged the door open and saw the huddled figure inside.

Zais didn't look up at first, but when he did his gaze wasn't at Dace, but rather the sword in his hand.

"That..thatthatthat sword." Zais muttered, eyes wide. "Why do you have it you,"

Zais stood suddenly and looked wildly at Dace. "Darren!" His grin was wide and friendly. Dace shuddered. He heard Sindri step into the room behind him. "And Gaius too! It's been too long. I don't think anyone else is here right now." Zais shook his head furiously. "No no no, not for a long time. But!" He spun around, walking further into the room. "We should...I...should..."

Zais trailed off and clutched his face, mumbling incoherently into his hand.

[Mizagium]

Clara Lux did indeed join Sindri's intrepid party to the Sad Farmhouse. She was content to leave the Gears in the grip of the Goddess, certain they would eventually be converted to the light again. She followed in silence, still distrustful of Sindri (and Dace to an extent) but willing to see the journey through.

When they reached Zais, however... "He's mad," she observed.

"Par for the course," Knox muttered.

"Now is the time to strike," she declared, and started to push past.

Knox caught her arm. "No, that...this isn't right. He's...he's not..."

"Is this not why we have come? Did we not journey to this blasted landscape to put an end to the madness?" Knox was silent and didn't resist when she shook his hand away.

Clara shoved past Dace and Sindri, as well. "In the name of the Goddess," she canted, "the Light, and all that is good in the world, I, Clara Lux, seraph of the Acolytes, judge you lost to the darkness and beyond redemption. She raised Belaneir and let it radiate with holy light. "I sentence you to death."

And she drove the spear of light down at the hunched, babbling Immortal of Darkness.

[Bruce Leroy]

The mysterious character figured that since everyone else pretty much ignored the Gears, he probably should as well. He packed up his lawn chair into his inventory and began to leave. Looking up to MGF, "You know why I'm here, but there are bigger fish to fry."

Baird makes a comedy drum roll sounds

"I suggest you help your men and we help them in whatever quest they are on. I mean if the woman could do that to your men, imagine what her enemies can do." With that Cod Commando followed in the direction of the rest of the group.

MGF thought to himself for a moment. 'He does make a good point. If I use them to take down whatever threat they are facing, I can attack them while they are weak'. He looked at his men and sighed heavily. "Men, we have a new object in our mission. We are to assist them in whatever they are doing. Any objection?" Marcus starts to open his mouth. "Or I could leave you all here to die." Marcus shuts his mouth and hangs his head in defeat. "Good!"

MGF jumped down to his men and reached into his pocket and pulled out a prism. He placed it into the light, which then began to separate into different colors and wide enough for the solders to get free. "Follow Commando and assist him as you deem necessary. Try not to embarrass yourselves too much and above all DON"T DO ANYTHING STUPID!" With that MGF attached a Fulton balloon to himself and was lifted into the air and was gone.

"Dom, I think we need better weapons." said Cole.

"Yes. Yes we do." he replied.

Walking towards a weapons rack "These will do for now," Marcus told his men, "You heard our orders. Lets get a move on it boys, double time."

The Gears loaded up, making sure that each of them grabbed an extra rifle in case Clara decided to destroy their weapons again.

[Myrdraxxis]

Dace only watched as Clara beat him to the punch in striking Zais down. Sindri made as if to stop her for a moment, but hesitated and watched as Clara's spear of Light descended, striking the Immortal of Darkness. There was a sick squelching noise, and a horrible hissing sound as the Light reacted to Zais.

Zais didn't even let out a sound as it happened. In fact, he went rather still.

Then he started chuckling, and Dace's blood froze.

"Heheh. That-that's not going to work." Zais straightened up and looked at the group once more, a mad smile stretched horribly across his face.

"Your pathetic Light is nothing before the DARKNESS!" Zais shouted, spreading his arms wide. He started convulsing in apparent pain as the wound left by Clara's spear began to weep Darkness.

Then Zais began to change.

Sindri inhaled sharply as Zais' body began to warp, Darkness seeming to swell out of every part of him.

"Get out!" Dace warned, dashing for the door as Zais' rapidly mutating form began to grow, filling the entire room.

The with a blast of power the house exploded outward.

Dace blinked as his vision returned slowly. He was laying in the field outside of what remained of the farmhouse. His attention snapped back into focus as the ground shook with thunderous footsteps and a shrill cry pierced the unnatural quiet of Umbra Isla.

A towering monstrosity stood in the wreckage of Zais' old home, a beast of pure Darkness. Dark energy burned like flames from its hulking, clawed limbs and visible ribcage, twisting horns and fangs erasing any shred of humanity left in Zais.

"What the hell?" Dace muttered.

"Well he..uh, he's never been able to do that before." Sindri muttered.

[Calefrun]

Kayla, having lowered herself down from Knox's shoulders before the group started their trek to Zais' house, now stood with the others watching the Immortal morph into a terrifying creature.

"Alright, so that's probably not good." She drew her scythe and activated the Lich form she used during the fight in the Whooters basement. "I can't maintain this form for long, but it's the only way I might be able to be of any help."

She pointed her weapon at Zais and started firing bolts of necrotic energy at the Immortal.

[Mizagium]

"Oh, that's not good," Knox observed, severely understating the situation and ruining the drama of it all like some kind of asshole. Luckily no one was paying him any attention, especially not Clara, who fucking charged the monster like a badass.

She raced past Knox and the Gears and Sindri and Dace and didn't even spare a glance at Lich-form Kayla, so focused was she on slaying the beast.

"W-wait," Knox pleaded. "We need to regroup, plan something!"

No one heeded him. Artemis might have, but Artemis wasn't here. And really for no reason; sealing off the battleground had turned out pointless. Zais had escaped and now he wished Artemis was here. He could use her advice.

Clara, on the other hand, suffered no doubts. She lept, catching onto a rib (or maybe a claw? Something sharp and protubing) and gaining hold of the Zais Beast. She steadied herself and drove Belaneir, the spear of holy light as deep into the dark monster as she could, which wasn't very, given the size, but still. She shouted an oath as she poured light into the wound.

"Well?" Knox turned to Sindri and Dace. "What...is that?"

[Bruce Leroy]

As Clara drove the spear into the beast, Cod Commando stood in awe of the monstrosity before him. He pondered what he could do to try to help the situation. Thinking quickly, grabbed the Gears guns.

"I don't think that's going to do much." Baird stated.

Commando shot him a dirty look and began to search through his inventory. With a confident smile, he pulled a roll of hot pink duck tape, a pack of 25 glow sticks, and two LED flashlights. Taping the two flashlights to the barrel of the gun and using some sort of military magic managed to turn the glow sticks into bullets. He tossed Baird his gun back and went back to search through his inventory. 'With any luck I'll at least kill Baird' he thought to himself.

"The hell am I supposed to do with this?" Baird yell at the fish.

"Don't have time to explain. Help the woman while I continue modifying the rest of the guns." Cod replied trying not to laugh at his handy work.

Turning on the flashlights, he pointed the beams of light into the monsters eyes. While attempting to blind the beast he moved forward cautiously.

"I can't believe he is that stupid" Cole mumbled to the rest of the group.

"Now that I have bought a little bit of time I can actually work on making these guns useful. Don't make me regret this." Cod told the rest of the Gears. He reached into his inventory and pulled out three stones and a workbench. He placed the guns on top of the bench and placed a single stone on a barrel of a gun. Smashing a hammer to the stones he embedded them into the guns.

"What in the blue hell are you doing Commando?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm enchanting your riffles."

[Myrdraxxis]

"I honestly have no idea." Sindri answered Knox, not taking his eyes off of Zais' monstrous new form. The Dark Beast let out an ear-piercing shriek as Clara's spear struck it. The beast Shook violently, throwing the paladin away from it and raising a clawed arm in response.

"Shit, move!" Dace yelled and ducked as Zais lunged, nearly taking off the man's head as Zais attacked.

"Fighting Xavian was nothing like this!" Sindri siad, firing off a few spells that only seemed to make the beast angrier.

"Well whatever it is, just kill it!" Dace responded, charging Zais and lashing out with his sword, striking a blow on the beast's arm. Dace grinned, only to suddenly feel blinding pain as the Darkness beast batted him aside with little thought.

Dace stood shakily and turned to look over his shoulder at Sindri. "Got any ideas on how to beat this thing?"

"Dodge!"

"Yeah, I mean besides that." Dace scowled at him.

"No you idiot, dodge!"

Dace jerked back around at that. "Wha-"

Zais' claw blurred through the air in front of Dace's head and in one massive swing struck Dace with a sickening 'squelch'.

Dace expected he would feel a lot of pain, but instead didn't feel anything. In fact everything was rather numb. That probably wasn't a good thing. His vision began to darken and the Dace realized he was dying. 'Aw shit.'

And then, suddenly giant words in red appeared in front of his eyes. Was he hallucinating from that blow to the head?

The last thing Dace saw before dying were the giant hovering words:

THANKS OBAMA

---------

And then he woke up, in the field where the group of protaginists had first arrived in Umbra Isla. Dace stood up and looked around, confused.

"What the actual fuck?"

THen he spotted something on the ground. In all the confusion from first arriving in Umbra Isla, no one had noticed it, but there was something drawn into the dirt. A picture.

A picture of a small cartoonized Zais flipping them off.

"Aw fuck."

[Mizagium]

Knox didn't have any trouble stating out of harm's way. The ability to stop time comes incredibly handy during a fight, you know. It also reduces the necessity for spacial awareness, meaning Dace caught the dead when he wasn't looking. "Fizz," he muttered.

Clara landed upright, but annoyed. That was a powerful light attack, and the Zais Beast had shrugged it off (literally). She wanted to charge back at the beast, but paused top think. It was busy with Sindri and Knox (who appeared to possess some form of teleportation ability that would be INCREDIBLY HELPFUL if he was more creative, but alas), giving her time to think. She walked around the battle zone slowly, studying the creature.

After a few moments, she came to the conclusion it was not mindless, per se, but in a state so enraged and bestial, it hardly made a difference. That was Zais, now. The Immortal of Darkness had become (evolved? regressed?) a monster. Where all Immortals like him? Did they all have some monster lurking within them? Or was Zais the only one? Was Darkness the sole cause of his mutation? Her inability to answer these questions troubled her, but not as much as the thought that, whatever the answers were, she was unlikely to get them from the other Immortals.

And who could blame them? She certainly wouldn't want knowledge of a secret beast mode getting out were she one of them. That made her watch Knox more. He seemed alright. Not the strongest or brightest, but genuine. What would his beast mode be like? He controls Time, apparently. The thought of such a man losing control frightened her, and she didn't frighten easily.

Time, speaking of, was just about up. Zais had to be put down. She'd known this coming in, but this new form, uncontrolled Darkness...well, this was the sort of thing seraphs were trained for.

Clara Lux plunged Belaneir in the ground, pushing back the decay just a little, allowing the soil to return to a healthy brown - but that wasn't her intention; she needed a free hand. She drew a knife and pricked the thumb of her shield hand, drawing a bead of blood. She took up the spear again and smeared the blood across her forehead in the shape of the sun, for the Goddess.

"Great Goddess of Light in High Heaven above, grant unto me the power to slay this beast who defiles your world. I have given my body and soul to you, my life is but an extension of your will. I...I require more. Forgive me for my demands of you, but I believe this is a such a crisis that demands this of me, and so I must ask of you to give more than you have already given. I place my fate in your hands: if I am unworthy of your Gifts, then so be it."

Clara paused, contemplating what she was about to perform.

"I draw upon the strength of the Goddess and revealed through her workings upon the material world. Let the Light invested in the air, the seas, the land, and all things which live upon the world be gathered, but channeled, and come to me, who calls in the name of the Goddess. Sephirot Release: Malkuth!"

For an agonizing moment, nothing happened, and Clara feared she had trespassed into blasphemous territory. But then, she felt it: a trickle of power in her feet. A warm pulse of power that wound up through her body and into her head. It double in strength, and again. And again. And again, until it felt as if a torrent of power rushed into her, threatening to tear her mind and body apart right then and there. She screamed in pain, but held on to her physical form. One must sometimes suffer in service to the Light.

The wings she had manifested before engorged and doubled; her hair spilled out behind her in a wind that could not be felt. Her skin shone like gold and her eyes blazed like the sunrise after a thunderstorm. The faintest of halos shone above her head. When she spoke, her voice warbled as if two spoke as one.

"Immortal of Darkness, Zais, I name you a blight upon the world."

She rushed him, keeping to the ground. Although she was capable of flight and even hovering, contact with the earth rooted her and guaranteed a continuous flow of power. She wanted to fly, for then the pressure would alleviate, but she endured the feeling of being torn apart. When she was within striking distance, she extended not Belaneir, but her shield arm. Light gathered, seemed to reflect, and erupted from somewhere within, bathing Zais in a torrent of white-hot light. Knox had to shield his eyes, for it felt like staring into the face of the Sun. Clara howled with the onslaught, tears of pain evaporating as soon as they formed in her burning eyes.

"BURN!"

[Calefrun]

Realizing that it was having little to no effect on the monstrosity that was Zais, Kayla ceased her attack.
“How the hell are we supposed to beat this thi- OH SHIT WATCH OUT” She watched as Clara was sent flying and Dace was obliterated by a massive claw.

Sindri was out of the way of the attack that had ended Dace, but was still close enough in danger of being struck by Zais' next attack. Before any hazardous monster bits came anywhere near him, however, a massive aegis materialized in the air beside him.

“Oh. Oh yeah. I forgot I can do that.” She took a few steps back and began watching Zais carefully, ready to try and block whatever he did next.

And then Clara got all glowy ran straight towards him.

“Is she insane? Well, whatever. Guess I'll try to help however I can.” She focused her magic on healing whatever damage Clara may have sustained, then created a protective ward around her.

“I'll do what I can to keep him from hitting you!” She called out, “Just focus on kicking his ass!”

---

Cozaltene tried to protest as the girl pulled him by the arm through the mass of rhythmically writhing humanoids, but it was to no avail. It seemed like the only times anyone's voice could be heard in this place were when the crowd started chanting along with the beat - usually in the form of repeated, monosyllabic words like “HEY,” or “JUMP”, which seemed redundant given that most of them were constantly jumping anyway - and when the man on the stage screamed something unintelligible into the microphone.

He tried to catch a glimpse of the ring's contents as they passed by, but the dancing mob around it was too thick. His guide brought him through a door into a room adjacent to the ring, and for a moment, he was blinded by a bright light.

Once his eyes adjusted, Cozaltene found himself to be in what appeared to be something like a small locker room. Unlike the dimly lit rave outside, this room had typical fluorescent lights which allowed him to clearly see the girl that had brought him here and the three other, similarly-armored teenagers on the other side of the room. He also noticed that the music from outside, while still pretty loud, was significantly quieter in here.

“...What?” he asked again, this time vaguely able to hear his own voice through the ringing in his ears.

The pink-haired girl released his arm. “Sorry about uh... ya'know... literally dragging you here,” she said, “but our team is up next, and our fifth guy bailed on us. Said something about thinking that this place was giving him a brain aneurysm or something like that. You didn't respond when I asked you earlier, so I just kinda took that as a yes, but I'll ask again before I start gearing you up; would you be cool with lending us a hand?”

“Uh... where... where exactly am I?”

She laughed. “Partied a little too hard, did ya? Don't worry, it happens to the best of us. You're in Club Supernova, a pocket dimension on the fringes of the 1001 Aravian Nights, known throughout the world for its famous Rave Battles. Oh! I nearly forgot! I'm Mareike!” She extended her hand for a fist bump.

Figuring that this was probably what served the purpose of a handshake in this dimension, Cozaltene obliged. “I'm... I'm Cozaltene.”

“Wow, that's... a mouthful. Can I just call you Cozal?”

“Uh... okay.”

“Great! Okay, nice to meet ya, Cozal. These guys over here,” she walked over to the trio standing by the door into the ring, “are Bartosz, Kohaku, and Kallie.” The three waved as they were introduced. Mareike continued, “Our team is called Soundwave Machine, and we're looking to win this season! Our track record so far isn't... great, but I know we can do it!”

Cozal scratched his chin. “What do you get for winning?”

Mareike's eyes lit up as she spoke, “Well, let's see... there's fame, bragging rights, a cash prize, and a supply of these freakin' awesome glowsticks that can change colors and stuff!”

“And drugs,” Kahaku added, “lots of drugs.”

“Well... okay, yeah, there's that too. Oh, they also have this... machine thingy that lets you travel to other dimensions! Not that I'm really looking to leave the rave right now, but I've always thought it might be cool to go see some other worlds someday, ya'know?”

“Well,” Cozal said, “that's weirdly convenient. Guess I'll help out after all.”

“Great!” Mareike clapped. “Here, I'll help you get suited up!”

[Myrdraxxis]

Clara's attack did damage, this time. Sindri had to avert his eyes to keep from going blind as the paladin burned into Zais with her attack. The beast, Zais, roared in pain and fury as skin was melted away and shadows burned to nothingness even as they writhed around his figure, attempted to wrest control back from the foul light.

'It's actually working.' Sindri realized. He added his own blast of magic to the attack, striking at Zais feet in an attempt to knock the beast off balance.

Zais let out another ear-piercing shriek and swung a mighty arm, swatting away Clara to gain distance, and then leaped into the air, using gravity to bring his massive, burning form down on the paladin.

Sindri's eyes widened at that, but then blinked as Zais seemed to stagger in mid-air as he was struck from behind by a smaller figure.

Zais hit the ground off-target and the figure stood, ripping his sword from the beast's back. Dace rolled from the Zais-beast's shoulders and rejoined the group, looking rather well for someone who had just had his skull crushed mere moments ago.

"Okay so, good news: apparently dying is a lot less punishing here." Dace said.

[Mizagium]

Clara felt a temporary break in her power flow when Zais knocked her back. Leaving the earth, even for that brief instant severed her connection to Malkuth and the power of the divine earth. Thankfully, she landed quickly and the flow was restored. She wasn't beaten, wasn't even injured really. Ordinarily, even she, a full seraph would have suffered immense damage. But Malkuth allowed her to share her pain with the world, to dull her senses in the intoxicating rush of light.

She rushed again, feeling the dirt and rocks beneath her feet - when had her boots disappeared? - and didn't even stop to acknowledge Dace's return or ask if the others were attempting strategy (or thank him from stopping Zais from falling on her). Her body and soul blazed with righteous fury; only death would stop her.

"Burning Wheels of Sandalphon!" Four rings of fire manifested alongside her, hot enough to scorch the stale air around them. They lingered a moment, and then spun off to seek their foe, Zais.

-

Knox frowned at Dace. "That's unusual, but I guess I'm not complaining. We need to figure something out, though." He watched Clara with dissatisfaction. "It doesn't look like she's a team player today. I can bring anyone with me while stopping time, I'm not just not sure how we're going to defeat Zais as he is right now."

[Myrdraxxis]

"That light magic whatever that she's using is actually doing damage." Dace noted. Indeed, despite Zais' furious attacks, his monstrous form was sizzling and burning. One gangling arm was burned almost to a crisp and whatever passed for skin on the beast was wearing away.

"So what do you suggest?" Sindri yelled from his position, firing another barrage at Zais. Zais roared in pain as Clara's attack struck, and actually staggered back. Then Sindri's barrage struck. "Hah!" Sindri cried in victory, a cry that was swiftly cut off as Zais suddenly juked forward impossibly fast and speared Sindri through with a claw. The darkness being twitched for a moment then went limp. Then his body disappeared.

"...He'll be fine." Dace muttered. "Chances are we need to wear away at him until we see a 'core' of some kind. That's how these boss fights usually work right?"

[Calefrun]

“Bah, dammit!” Kayla stamped her foot in frustration. Not only had her protection spells failed to keep Clara from getting swatted like an insect, it seemed like the plot had actually ignored them altogether. “What the hell can I do to... what is that?” Something clinging to Zais' back caught her attention, and after focusing on it, she realized that it was a person. Specifically, a man in a dark cloak with long, silver hair.

She groaned.“Fuck's sake... You kidding me, son?”

From his position atop the Zais-beast, Sark let out a maniacal laugh. “I appreciate you all distracting him for me; excellent work, everyone!” He looked over at Dace. “You said something about wearing away at him until his weakness appears, right? I've got a better idea.” He shoved both of his forearms into Zais, fusing himself with the monster so as to not be shaken off as he started draining the darkness Immortal's power.

“Hah! This.... this is incredible! Such power! I've never felt anything like it!” He summoned several dozen swords around himself for protection, then called out to the heroes, “Feel free to attack him, once the opportunity presents itself!”

“Dammit all...” Kayla muttered. “Zais, Sark, it doesn't matter at this point. I'm just gonna start swinging, and hope I hit someone where it hurts.” She charged at Zais, conjuring shields around herself in the hopes that they would be more effective than the ones she made for Clara. Around 30 feet from the Immortal beast she jumped into the air, and started swinging her scythe in an attempt to hack apart the first thing she came into contact with.

[Sariel of Tevet]

"....WAIT. That voice..."

Heimrall looked up from her phone and found all of the chaos that apparently had been unfolding this entire time. Zais was now a beast thing, Clara was a light thing, Kayla was a lich thing, lots of things were happening. She finally saw Sark, perched atop of Zaid doing yet another thing, and grew angry.

"YOU." She threw her precious phone down on to the ground and the dust from the impact began to rise.

She pointed right at Sark. "You are the one who sent those bird things after us. YOU ARE THE REASON MY FACE GOT SCRATCHED RIGHT BEFORE PROM. YOU ARE THE REASON MALCOLM PROBABLY WON'T EVEN NOTICE I EVEN EXIST ANYMORE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ALL THE THINGS THAT I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS YEAR TO GET HIM TO NOTICE ME? I'VE CHANGED MY HAIR, MY CLOTHES, MY ENTIRE LIFE. AND NOW I WON'T EVEN GET TO BE PROM QUEEN BECAUSE I KNOW EVERYONE WILL VOTE FOR MALCOLM TO BE PROM KING AND HE HAS TO BE MY DATE AND OMG I WILL FUCKING END YOU. "

Dust and dirt began to create a tornado around her. Heimrall fell to her knees and began to beat the ground in frustration. Tears began to flow from her eyes as the whirlwind whipped even harder around her and picked up earth from further and further away. All of the ground around her was being consumed by the gust. Soon, the dust began to stick to her body and sink through her pores. Her soft skin started to harden like stone and she started to exhale dust with each breath. The earth took over her body until even her tears turned to mud. Her eyes browned over as she became lost to either or angst or the earth itself, it was unclear.

She whipped her arms out and they extended all the way across the battlefield over to Zais's back. She pulled herself next to Sark, who was doing his thing, and grabbed him by his throat.

"You will pay. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Captain Albert Alexander was still floating around his ghost ship, and his crew began to bombard the Zais beast thing with their ghost artillery.

[Mizagium]

Knox shrugged. Boss battles are sort of whatever we feel like at the time around, here, but this does feel like an ' uncover the core' type of battle." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Something about this land wasn't right, it felt wrong. Diseased. Dead. He couldn't stop time like he normally could. Well, that wasn't exactly true: he 'could' freeze time, but not for as long as normal. Something about how the land was blackened didn't allow time to be stopped. That didn't make sense. It seemed to Knox that time was already stopped in this land, or at least slowed. He didn't explain all of that to Sindri or Dace, although he suspected Dace would understand. Instead he continued rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"So it looks like I won't be as useful in this battle as I assumed I would be," he stated simply, as if this wasn't a great, if expected, disappointment to everyone involved, including you. "But I can take other with me into my time-stop state, so I think that might be our best bet to reaching Zais' core.

But what Knox had spent way too long discovering, Clara had already discovered intuitively. Of course, being connecting to the heavenly flow power originating from the Goddess herself would do that to you. Still burning with righteous fury and also light, Clara charged Zais, abandoning any sense of self-preservation. Instead of latching onto him like last time, she flew, spear-first, into him. The Belaneir dug into the Dark Beast's flesh and stuck, pumping holy light into him.

Regretfully losing her connection to the earth, and thus the flow of energy through Malkuth, Clara planted both feet onto Zais and shoved Belaneir deep into him. Thick black ichor spewed out of the open wound, sizzling as her aura burned it away. When the spear was too deep for her to maintain a good grip, Clara tore at the cut with her own hands, ripping black flesh and fur, screaming as bloody ichor drenched her, too thick to burn away fast enough

[Myrdraxxis]

"I think we've almost got him!" Dace yelled, charging into the fray after Clara. He lashed out blindly with the Hero sword, scouring wounds into the Dark Beast's flesh as the creature that used to be Zais shrieked in pain and fury. Even as Clara's attack speared into him and burned away, as the ghostly airships bombardment blew away chunks of flesh, as Kayla sliced away at Zai's head and Sark dry humped the creature's back, the Dark Beast drew upon some last reserves of strength and thrashed.

Dace was ready this time, though, and quickly ducked as a clawed hand skimmed over his head. With a roar, Dace slashed upward and struck the arm. He was actually surprised when the Hero Sword sliced clean through the tainted flesh and severed the limb.

The Dark Beast's cries reached a fevered pitch.

It staggered backwartds away from the onslaught of attacks. It tried to recover, catch itself and lash out with its remaining arm, only to take another volley of cannon-fire from the ghost ship's guns. Claras Light cut through the wound in the Dark Beast's hide and cracks began to form on its skin, light worming its way through the fissures.

Then The Dark beast exploded with, well, Darkness.

Where before it had been a full flesh and (sort of) blood creature, most of its body was now pure Darkness. The mangled stump of an arm that Dace had just severed with now flowing with a Dark tendril that lashed and twitched as if of its own mind. Dark fire burned hatefully in the beast's eyes even as tears ran down its face.

And in the center of its chest Dace spied a faint glimmer of something.

"I think I see it!" He called. "Knox, get me close!"