melodiesofeternity | Apocalypse || Sen Riqeaux Castle

"I already gave you the solution, Finn. You awake the four Legendary Eidolons and then you summon them. I believe you did the first step. So all you need now are four Summoners with the Supreme Skill—" A pause, eyes widening as she feigns surprise. "Oh, right, you have none..."

She smiled at Tyzias and Corrin.

"Of course it was on me. Fear controls our lives. When you manipulate the fear in people's hearts, you can get them to accept anything."

She looked at all of them as they asked those questions, before closing her eyes.

"Let me regale you with a tale. The tale of this world's birth."

She started walking amongst the Heroes, going near Kuja and Naomi first.

"There was once a woman named Kalki. You know her as the Goddess of Death. She was faced with a conundrum. She hated living. Life was, ah, painful to her. But more than that, she was afraid of death. How can one exist when they hate life and fear death? Such an existence is nothing but miserable. Thus she sought to make a new world. One where neither death nor life would exist. One where the very concept of existence as we know it would be revoked and changed."

She then stopped next to Vimes.

"This was made possible by her world of birth, Crystallis and by the monstrosity plaguing it, the Calamity from the Skies: Narayana. An entity born from Crystallis's sins, made from the fragments of dead worlds, made from the broken souls of those who had once lived. Narayana was neither alive nor dead, and in an attempt to become whole again, devoured worlds. Thus, Kalki sought to become one with the Calamity. Her goal was to absorb all existence inside her, and recreate the world as she envisioned it."

Taking a few steps forward, she looked down at Frisk.

"She would have succeeded, if not for those called Heroes of Light. Your predecessors. Once useful pawns, they became her very demise. Following her death, the Heroes of Light tried to heal Narayana. And thus from the Calamity, a new world was born. A world where all the broken souls making up the Calamity could find peace and heal. This world is Vaikuntha. And all who died were reborn. Why, Kalki too."

Finally she stopped by Richard and smiled sadly at him.

"Even though she never wanted it. Even though she never desired it. Her burden was to live once more, to fear death again. And not just once, oh no. The cycle of reincarnation is eternal. How many times has she been reborn on this world? She has lost count. How lucky you are, not to remember all your lives..."

She looked at Dante when saying those words before going back to her original position.

"But there was something else... Something that is still here. Is it sorrow? Sadness? Anger? I am not sure. Vengeance, perhaps... Or could it be envy? Perhaps this is why I did it all this way. So I would see by myself your faces crumble in despair as you realize there is nothing you can do. Perhaps I gave you hope I would see that last flicker of hope be crushed by myself. So I would see you suffer just as much as I have."

[ Please reply to this thread to go forward with the main event. ]

Naoto glanced sideways at the interaction going on, but still looked up at the sky.

"Interesting story, still selfish. Waiting for a better reason."

Just like the Cloud before, Naoto didn't care. Fact was true, she didn't have Supreme Summoning, but there had to be something she could still do with what ability she had - buy the group time to deal with this.

Gave them hope just to watch them crumble? Finn didn't entirely believe that, thinking there must be something more beneath it all. Then again, she did seem the type. Sort of reminding him of Hux a little.

Finn's Aim stayed trained on her, ignoring the calls for restraint. It was too late to stop her now, and with this confession-

"I think I know one Summoner with the Supreme Skill, Kalki." He adjusted the grip on his gun, getting ready to at least buy them more time. "How about you summon Pheonix or someone for us and, in return, we'll make sure you stay dead this time? Otherwise, we'll kill you now, stop Bahamut anyway, and be right back here later."

Tyzias shrugs. Now this? This was a good opportunity to get some shit off her chest. And even she knew that villains always let the heroes monologue back if they were given the chance. Hopefully she'd give the others more time to prepare for... whatever's coming next.

"That scans." She pauses, rubbing the back of her neck. "I had somebody just like you on my home world. The Condesce. Massive bitch. She loved fucking with everybody just for the sake of messing with us, of seeing us suffer. She had a justification too. Conquering the galaxy for all of trollkind.

"Except that's bullshit. Just like all the crap that just spewed out of your mouth.

"You don't care about the suffering of everybody. You don't care about this pseudo-philsophical fuckery about life and death. No. You just like inflicting the same pain, the same emptiness deep inside you on everybody else. You're just like that.

"And like I said before. This stops today. Right here, right now." Tyzias points her sword at Rama, but she's putting most of her attention on the edges of perception, up at the sky. They were all fucked if Bahamut came down along with whatever Kalki had in store for them.

Realization had dawned the moment Kisegawa had seen the Empress's eyes. And the tale she told -- the very end of it, more than anything -- all but confirmed it.

"So that's how it is... I've seen those eyes of yours in a dream before, and I don't mean that as a cliche pick-up line." She readied her staff, glaring at Ramaa.

"I saw them in the Dream Width -- in a memory of yours, if I'm not mistaken. You must have enjoyed giving me all that claptrap about how very sad her statue made you feel."

As if her strange demeanor wasn't enough, the new look in her eyes just drove the point home. Of course. He should have listened to those gut feelings when he first had the displeasure of setting his eyes on her. And now- just like before- she'd gathered up all the heroes of light in one place.

But they were still heroes. They even had some summoners among them. And if Red knew anything, things didn't need to be perfect in order to still work. It may have been a long shot, but going •Sentinel in front of Uendo was something... And Red wasn't the sort to roll over and play dead.

"Give up hope?"

A quiet, splintering crunch sounded from his jaw. His bone snapped and spun out from his bared teeth.

"We're not like you."

Richard didn't like the thought that his whole life was just a cycle of reincarnation and return to this place. It trivialized the struggles of what he went through back in East Point. It trivialized Rooke, Katie, Hightower, Gessler.

He wasn't going to let her have this.

"Afraid you aren't going to get what you want here. Even if you weren't being fitted for a pine overcoat by almost everyone here, I am too damned tired for anything approaching suffering anymore. Bring out your dragon or kindly sit down while we fix all this."

While everyone was shouting their refusals to give up hope, Sasami began thinking back to the encounter with the girl during Starlight.

“It’s like she said. She’s sad about how the world is like... because it’s not hers.” Sasami said. “She doesn’t like this and she wants to try again...”

But, then the words she was told to save her. To bond with her.

“But to save her, we need to bond with her. But, no one’s gonna want to be her friend!”

Perhaps, Kupo, it’s not that kind of bond.” Kujo said, the Moogle pondering.

“What kind of—“ then, it dawned on her, causing her to gasp. “No...”

Kuja laughs. It's more of a cackle, really, high and mirthless and derisive. "Oh, this is rich. You're sad and your life is just so miserable that you'd rather destroy everything than face it. Do stop this ride, I've been on it before and it really is such a bore."

"Do you know what you are, Ramaa, or Kalki, or whomever we're talking to- What you really are? You're a child. A spoilt little bitch who finds playing the game so repugnant that she'd rather burn down the whole playground so she doesn't have to be the one to quit. Well, allow me to burst your little bubble. Your pet lizard doesn't frighten me. I've fought Bahamut before, and I've seen him brought to heel. Your grand master plan isn't even original. You're just the bargain-bin version of someone better than you by far, who fell to a smaller and less-prepared bunch of morons than the veritable army arrayed against you."

"In short, madam, if it's death that you fear, then I have some rather sad news for you, I'm afraid. You won't be the first queen that I've killed."

He's swapping to [Angel of Death] while he's at it. How poetic.

Edited 2019-03-11 21:04 (UTC)

Frisk hadn't realized the irony of Kuja, of all people, joining in to fight Rama until now. It was poetic, really. Thanks to Dante's [Job Mastery], they [LOAD] their file and immediately switch back to [Ninja]. Whistling, they offer a fistbump to Kuja and say, "So, Kuja. I'm curious. What does it feel like to be on the other side of this monologue for once?" they ask, smirking. "Must be a pretty different experience. The irony has to be delicious."

"As for you, Ramaa?" Frisk's cackle is eerily similar to Kuja's laugh. "I don't really have anything to add. Everybody else just stole my monologue right out of my mouth. I guess I just have to jump on the bandwagon,"

All files LOADed!

Frisk (LOVE): Attack Potency up +50%, Healing Potency down -50%!
Frisk (Bravery): Speed up +50%, HP down -5% each turn!
Frisk (Integrity): Skill potency up +50%, Physical Defense and Magical Defense down -50%!
Frisk (Blank x3): HP up +30%!

Their body begins crackling with purple-and-orange lightning, and both eyes glow an eerie, lethal red. "and say that you are going down."

Edited 2019-03-11 21:22 (UTC)

Regret had been a constant companion to Sylvarie, since the events of nearly eleven years ago. Seeing the Empress now, with those distinct purple eyes, it coursed through her again as she berated herself internally. She should have told more people about her trip in the Dream Width, shared her fears that the Goddess of Death was indeed reborn. The group she had initially told were long gone, but she’d done nothing to advance that knowledge further—what a foolish girl she was.

“You told me you believed in reincarnation. You believed Sir Chandius likely wasn’t aware of why he chose us to work alongside him, and now we have memories that aren’t ours.”

A small but bitter smile twisted her lips, seeking the Empress’s eye. “You say we’re lucky, not remembering previous lives. But if everything is true, then we no longer have that luxury. You know what else we also have now?

We have the knowledge that Kalki was defeated. If this really is a repeating cycle as you say, then we’ll defeat you every time. Hope has always and continues to persist, look around you.”

Shaking her head, she breathed in as she recalled a conversation that had haunted her... yet still kept kindling comfort in its seeming innocence, all while casting Protect on herself. “‘But then when you remember another name you had or when you're given a new name, who "yourself" is becomes kinda an issue.’ Is this really what you want, ‘Ramaa’?”

There's too much info being thrown out that's making it hard to process. As the frown on Selphie's face deepens, the SeeD catches the eye chance and feels her blood running cold. There's not much that she can add to this conversation, but the brunette feels several things click into place. She remembers the girl who looked like Princess Zelda from all those months ago. Selphie still finds it alarmingly odd that the housing district in Sen Riqueax looked eerily similar to the one from Aqures Ixen.

Yet, the eyes, Hyne be damned those cold eyes send chills down her spine as the story continues. Selphie doesn't want to believe that it was true, but there's no doubting what she's hearing. Ramaa is making it sound like everything that had been sacrificed had been for nothing as the SeeD eventually makes up her mind. There's no turning back from what's already started.

"If you think for even a minute that you're going to get away this, you're about to be sorely mistaken," Selphie says tartly before beginning to Meditate. "I don't care who you are, this Empress or Kalki but I refuse to let their sacrifices be in vain!"

Hyne be damned, that incorrigible woman wasn't going to pull the same trick again if Selphie has anything to say about it.

"How dare ye." Castor hisses at the Empress. Her face is tight with rage, and she nearly snarls as she steps forward so to better be heard. "How dare ye make the choice like that. It ain't yours te make! Ye don't get te decide to jes end everythin' an' take us with ye!"

Castor was pretty sure she'd had this conversation before. She hoped Arbert and his friends were well, wherever they were.

"Ye fucked up, invitin' us all here. We ain't gonna take this lyin' down."

"A better reason? Naoto, Naoto, Naoto.This isn't a Sherlock Holmes novel. Most humans have very silly and selfish reasons for, well, everything they do in their entire lives. Committing a crime is no different..." She looked at Tyzias. "Even if this crime is the destruction of the world."

And then she heartily nodded at Kisegawa.

"Why, yes, enjoyed it I did. I enjoyed every interaction with you all very much. Except for a few..." She glanced Kuja as he finished speaking. "Like you, Kuja... So very disappointing. I was hoping to find a kindred spirit in you... But even in another world, you are fated to be nothing but a puppet to another Garland, a doll desperately fighting to delay your expiration date. I suppose one cannot defy fate."

Ramaa then turned to Sylvarie and her features shifted entirely. No longer was there a crazed smile, no longer did she seem full of herself and confident. She looked sad, if anything. Or perhaps nothing had changed at all, it was hard to say. After all, a mere second later she was staring at Finn with the same smile.

"Finn, my dear, I am no Summoner. I am far more than that. Summoning Bahamut is simply part of what my Job can do." She then look at all those who had prepared their skills and weapons. "And it seems you're still not getting the message, are you? Perhaps it is about time I demonstrate it to you first hand."

Undyne was MAD. This so-called empress was stringing them along this whole time!

Undyne wouldn't let the empress summon Bahumat. She would keep her promise.

With a "NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!", Undyne prepared to throw her spear at the empress.

"Maybe you're not getting the message, Ramaa." Serge shoulders his old oar, staring the queen down. "You don't have to do this. It's gone the same way over and over, right? Maybe if you do something different this time, we can fix this. Together."

It's a long shot, but it's worth it. He's [Meditating], finding the center in all of this. "Vaikuntha's your home. Our home. Isn't it better to try and fix what's wrong than to just give-" And then Undyne chucks a spear at her.

W e l p

Yeah, no. Not gonna happen. If Tyzias could draw quick enough, maybe, just maybe, she could drop Ramaa before she got the chance to do... whatever she was about to do. She wasn't about to take chances, though.

In the blink of an eye, Tyzias's pistol is out and firing a [Judgment Piercer] at Ramaa, for strong damage ignoring defense and evasion with a doubled critical chance thanks to [Sunslammer Gavel Technique], although it removes the studied status from the Empress.

Physical Power: A
Magical Power: C
Attack Potency: A
Healing Potency: E
Physical Defense: B (-75%)
Magical Defense: B (-75%)
Speed: SS (Evasion and Critical doubled)

Active Effects
-Sunslammer Gavel Technique: Doubles critical chances and allows Tyzias to use Deduction Cutter for free on a critical hit once per skill. Halves Physical and Magical Defense.
-Moonsetter Scales Stance: Doubles dodge chances and allows Tyzias to use Deduction Cutter for free whenever she dodges. Halves Physical and Magical Defense.

Vimes was, if nothing else, a good copper. And good coppers did not let other Watchmen go in alone. Truncheon in hand, he charged with Tyzias, swinging overhand with a [Helm Cleaver]. Negotiations were over, apparently. Time to give Her Majesty a good seeing to.

Nozomi’s eyes go wide. Undyne,Tyzias And Vimes both were attacking Ramaa. And if this was like with the threats from other worlds...

“Wait, you’re wasting your time!” She shouted

All right then, if that's how they're going to play it, Corrin's game. After everything this woman has done, Corrin will gladly join the others in doing what she has to to protect Vaikuntha. She finds herself ready to kill Rama.

She lets fly a [Mjolnir] as the others attack, a bolt of electricity zapping out from her fingers towards Rama that will deal [Thunder] damage and will deal [4x damage on a critical hit].

"This! Ends! Now!"

Finn stumbled back when the spear was loosed and fighting broke out. To think he had been hesitant.

Though, he's still hesitant even now. There was no telling what her Job entailed if it included summoning Bahamut. They could figure out more later, he reasoned and joined the fray.

Since there was no telling what would happen, he used a single Death Penalty with a 10% chance to insta-kill, hoping it would get this done fast.

Edited 2019-03-12 01:40 (UTC)

The look on the Empress’s face made her heart stop, and everything else around her fell silent. That look was one she understood, and had been battling with since they first met. There was more she wanted to say, but time to ask it had run out as all around her emotions were unleashed.

Both instinct and her own inner turmoil acted on her—an honourable Jue protected their royalty, and more than that there were still questions unanswered. Gritting her teeth she unleashed another Protect, but this one on Ramaa herself. Knowing it wouldn’t be enough, Sylvarie’s body followed suit to come between her and the others.

As if the entire reaction wasn’t confounding in itself, she also struck the Empress with her staff imbued with Healing Spellblade, at least hoping to knock her out of the way as she braved herself for the oncoming wave.

So this was it. This was the beginning of the end. To be truthful, Tressa was honestly kind of scared. Even though they've clashed against a great calamity before, it didn't make the experience any less scary. Besides, Bahamut was a far different beast from Galdera.

When all hell broke loose, Tressa jumped back in surprise, and began to notch an arrow, Aiming right for the Empresses head. She had to be taken out, and it had to be done QUICK.

When the chaos erupted Bowser was ready, the talking had bored him and upon the betrayal he wanted nothing more than to just fight, though he did little more than use the Brasier spell, using it against the empress.

Plague Knight barely manages to exit the airship in time to watch the Empress' change in demeanor, having- foolishly, perhaps- thought to spend a few moments cleaning up after the impromptu breakfast he'd brought everyone.

Just in time to hear her betrayal, just in time to watch everything falling apart. Everyone starts attacking at once, but will it truly stop anything? Plague Knight pulls a hi-potion out of his sleeves, and looks around. Whatever happens next, someone's going to need some healing support soon enough.

"Is that really it?? The reason we're here? Just pawns in your little game? Ugh! I take it back, you're exactly like the Enchantress. I'm rolling my eyes beneath this mask, hee hee!"

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Vengeance: 1/5

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