3719/God Will Rise - Part Six

God Will Rise - Part Six
Date of Scene:	23 January 2016
Location:	The Tundra
Synopsis:	The Union attacks Laurence's mansion while the Confederacy recruits him.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 385, Riva Banari, Sanary Rondel, 821, 908, 916

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Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     The time has come.

     There has been plenty off discussion over this, and now, the decision has been made: Go to Lucrelia, and apprehend Laurence. What comes after, they will work it out. But first, they need to find the man and take him in. That in mind, Lyner Barsett emerges from the Lucrelia warpgate, cloak over his form as usual. "So we're here." He muttered, a pensive look on his face.

     He wished they could have talked more. There was still a lot that they didn't know. But now that they had definitive proof, according to Riva, then maybe they could ask later. Yeah. That's what Lyner would hope. Misha wasn't here this time. That was fine. She didn't need to thrust herself into something she had no heart in anyway.

     And so, to his allies, the knight speaks aloud. "I hope this all goes smoothly, but..." He settled his gaze upon the gates of the city as they got closer and closer. "...based on experience, smooth is nothing but a fantasy."

     Sigh.

     "Be prepared for anything."

     MEANWHILE, AT LAURENCE'S MANSION

     In the man's study, he sat at his desk, elbows on the edge and fingers steepled together. "... I see." His gaze slowly moved to regard both Sanary and then Gudako and her Servants. And then his maid, who stood at the door, prim and proper, and without regard for the manner of conversation taking place.

     "I admit, I'm impressed. I knew that there were...other worlds out there, but I didn't think it would quite as vast as you're describing...I'm interested." He turned to look out the window, observing the rest of Lucrelia from where his residence was located. A bounded field was situated outside the immediate area of the mansion. But otherwise, it looked normal beyond that.

     "...Well, I have no reason not to believe you. I've seen first hand what...you people can you." And then he turns back and leans into his chair. "But I know for a fact that this won't be simple. Both you and I have made our own preparations. However, those people..."

     A chuckle is had, and Laurence shakes his head. "Fine. We'll go with your plan of action." He glances at Sanary and nods. "See to it that it happens." And then he glances towards the maid by the door. "Alweyn. Assist them."

     The maid opened her eyes, and bowed. "As you wish."

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "Yeah, the people on their way are pretty dangerous! They're lead by a goofy but stoic swordsman, he's probably the most powerful of them!" Gudako answers, judging Lyner without having ever seen him fight. But his archetype, well. The guy could probably screw them all up.

    "Ah? Do you already have a secret tunnel going under the house? If not, we can arrange that!" She glances at Berserker, producing a laser pointer. But she'll wait for the answer, first.

    Caster takes position by Alweyn, pre-emptively preparing a set of buffs for her. Strength, speed, senses. A generic set of enhancements that should help Murder Maid perform, while Caster herself tries to hold at least one person herself. "Don't worry, master, Sanary, your majesty. I can withdraw easily once we're done holding them off, and I'll do my best to see to it your servant survives too." But, well, no promises. This is going to be pretty hectic.

    Gudako also hands Laurence a radio, to keep in touch. If Sanary feels like authorizing it, he could be snap-enrolled into the Confederacy and given access to those bands, too, considering the situation, but that's up to the officer!

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     The last few forays into Lucrelia weren't very fun for Sanary, but today... Maybe today will be different. She's actually trying to live up to her title for once, and she's recommended a more strategic course of action for the king that's standing before her and Gudako's crew. "There's a lot to see, King Arnest. We're just here to make sure you live long enough to see it."

     As is her usual strategy for when there's a potential fight brewing, Sanary's decked out in her heavy armor! She's got her gunaxe on her waist and two shields strapped to her (one on the arm and one on the back), and a staff resting against her shoulder that looks like it'd be more useful as a walking stick than anything else.

     "And the sooner we get you out of here, the sooner we can send word to the Union that it's already too late. They're... Usually not bloodthirsty assholes, so..." She looks from Alweyn, then to Caster before nodding at the two. "Stay safe, you two."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"I wish we could expect 'smooth,'" Yuna says to Lyner, "but ... given the welcome we got last time, and the chance that he's hooked up with the Confederacy, it's probably going to be everything *except* smooth going."

She does not look like a happy camper; in point of fact, she looks like she's holding herself out of misery by dint of little more than a decision not to be miserable about this. She's unhappy that Laurence/Arnest III stole God's power in the first place; she's distinctly displeased that Gudako has been following in Arnest's footsteps, and she's upset that they might actually get away with it as a result of joining forces.

But she's also wrestling with the fact that the only way to relieve them of that stolen power *might* be to kill them. She doesn't want to. This isn't her world, nor is it her God in any form; Yuna isn't an agent of the divine in Lucrelia, and those who *are* keep getting their asses kicked and their power taken by the bad guys.

It has to stop somewhere. Yuna is hoping - perhaps even praying - that it can be stopped without killing anyone. But speaking in veiled terms, like last time, got exactly nowhere - and may have given the Confederates the chance to enlist Laurence into their number, meaning progress *lost* instead of simply nonexistent.

Violence may be the only choice left ... and while Yuna doesn't want to resort to it, she has all her options readied for a fight. Elner is flitting along next to her; Jiina, Marina, and Arina are following - in their armored battle forms, unlike the last time they visited the city - and Yuna herself is already in her Light Suit, letting its protective aura keep winter's chill from biting too deeply.

Riva Banari has posed:
Oh, Riva is /so/ here. And Sanary is /right/. The Union usually aren't bloodthirsty assholes.

But getting decapitated, having to run back through a spirit world full of grieving shades, and then finding her corpse disposed of in a trash pile tend to change your opinions on things.

There is no subtlety involved here. Riva is walking directly forward towards the front gate, her two-handed anchor-like hammer on her shoulder and a bandolier of wax-wrapped blocks on her chest.

She does not look happy.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel had been out of the loop a little but with keeping tabs on repors Union side, she had enough of an idea about just what was going on she was here with Layner. The program looked to Layner as he spoke listened to him.

"I will be ready, I brought some supplies thanks to a friend of mine. I should be ready, as for the others. She lookled to Yuna and then to Riva in turn.

"We should make ready for that. Well as ready as we can ever be, right?"

She looked to Riva once as she made for the gate and summoned her keyblade, the Dual Disc appeare din hand, and those who could sense the light or magic? It would be like a becon announcing, that she was here.

Archer (821) has posed:
     He wished he could say he was surprised by the turn of events... but truthfully, Archer felt he knew human nature far too well to have ever believed that.

     Unlike most present, the Counter-Guardian is fully prepared for what he expects to be nothing short of a bloodbath as Lawrence - King Arnest the Third - would likely never willingly part with the power he'd wrested for himself so long ago.

    His Master on the other hand seems more pensive - she knows as well as he that violence is the only foreseeable outcome... yet Tohsaka Rin hopes that, at the very least, not all of Lucrelia is going to be reduced to rubble over the actions of one power-hungry tyrant and one insane, greedy mage.

     "I suppose the question is how far we take our actions" Archer muses openly, glancing to Rin. "I don't see any reason we should let them have the first move. After all... that's half the reason they got this far."

     Looking at Archer for a moment, Rin purses her lips in consideration - and if nobody objects, she finally nods. "Alright. No overdoing it, though."

     A simple smirk and a nod was the only response the bowman gave her... before he took a leap backwards by several meters, providing himself the distance for his intent.

     Rin, for her part, opted to move closer to Yuna, giving her a nod and a small but grim smile - "If you see Gudako in there before I do, feel free to beat me to the punch. I'm pretty sure she has it coming." It doesn't need to be said what punch she means.

     "Trace; On."

     As he spoke, Prana flared to life in Archer's hands, shaping and solidifying into a black western-style bow in one hand... and within the other, the same streams of energy wound together, tightening until the spiraling form of a twisted sword emerged.

     That sword was warped even further as it elongated and coiled in on itself, the Servant mounting the weapon against his bow. Energy gathered at the tip - a powerful-enough draw that anyone aware of magic would be able to sense it - as the drawstrings were pulled taunt.

     "Caladbolg!"

     And then it was released, flying for the gates of Lucrelia like a bullet of light as - as if the gods themselves were unleashing their wrath on the city.

     And considering what they were here for - who that power would likely go back to if they succeeded... it might not be entirely wrong.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     Lyner sighed again. "You're right, Yuna. I just wish there could be a better solution to all of this." He looked behind himself at Mount Luminous. Now quiet and unassuming. "...It just feels like there was a better solution to all of this." He shook his head. "Well, nothing for it now. We'll just do the best we can with what we've got."

     And then Archer unleashes Caladbolg. The Broken Phantasm pierces through the air and impacts the city gates, blowing the stone structure apart and sending rubble crashing to the ground and causing a small quake. "Wh-Whoa!" Lyner exclaimed, eyes widened as he witnessed the first shot. And then he looked towards Archer and Rin. "...." He wanted to object, but...they ALL knew what they were here for. And it wasn't to sit down and have tea.

     Oddly, there was no panicked screams, no confusion...it was silent. Were there even people here? That answer become all too clear when suddenly, from the sky, several volleys of arrows descended. Curving through the air and then raining down upon the approaching group.

     The counterattack had begun.

     MEANWHILE

     Laurence shook his head. "Oh, my preparations didn't involve an escape tunnel. But it's so very simple. I'll go with your plans, and keep mine...in backup." He stood at that. "So, Miss Ordria, please do create this 'tunnel'." He smiled. "I'm actually curious to see this firsthand."

     It was at that moment that the man paused. "...Well, it looks like your friends are here." Laurence said in an entertained manner, sweeping is cape out as he stepped around his desk. "Let's get started. Alweyn, take position. Miss Caster? Keep her alive as much as you can." He smirked. "My first countermeasure should buy us some time, but we should make haste."

     Alweyn glanced aside at Caster, feeling the empowering spells washing over her figure. She raised her arms, clenching and unclenching her hands to test her power. "I see." Convenient. Without any further comment, the maid turns and heads out of the study, through the hallway, and down the stairs to the front door.

     It was opened and the young woman stepped out, pulling on a pair of unassuming black gloves over her previously bare hands. Her expression was even all this time, if a little bit dour. But that may just be how she usually is. "......." Caster gets a sidelong look briefly. And then Alweyn turned her gaze forward. "...Good luck." And that was it.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
If Yuna actually know Riva was packing explosives, she might object. ... Or she might not. She *is* more than a little ticked off at Gudako, so Rin's suggestion elicits a nod and what might be a faint smirk. Yuna doesn't expect to tangle with Gudako directly, but against either of the Servants, she has no intention at all of holding back. Deelel's summoning her Keyblade draws a more distinct (and approving) nod ...

And then Archer takes out the gate. Hard. "Uh, isn't that over--"

She doesn't have time to finish her objection before Caladbolg kicks the town gates in, along with chunks of the nearby wall. And *maybe* some of the structures just beyond the gate. The utter silence of an abandoned city is *almost* a relief as opposed to the screams Yuna's already bracing herself for. "What the ... Elner, search for life-signs -- SHUGOSEIHEKI!!!"

She doesn't have time to finish the request to the robo-faerie before the arrows start landing. Yuna leaps backwards as she calls for her shield, and the blue-and-white kite shield materializes on her left arm *just barely* in time to block several arrows that would have made her a pincushion. "Elner, is there ANYONE in the city?" she calls out over the sound of arrows hitting; she moves to cover either Lyner or Rin, whichever of the two is closer and doesn't have other protection.

She'd protect the rest of the Union party too, if she could, but Shugoseiheki at its normal size isn't big enough for that. Elner actually takes shelter under the shield as well; Yuna's three android partners have to fall back further, out of arrow range, at least for the time being.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "Right, right!" Gudako says, and points the laser pointer down at the ground. Berserker immediatly stands to attention, then slams down on all fours, wiggles her butt a bit trying to position herself, and pounces for the red light. Tearing a hole into the ground, and straight into the mansion's foundations. From there onward, it was just a matter of going down into the hole, and following after Berserker, kept pointed ahead by the red dot. By abusing her already very high strength stat and doubling it with Monstrous Strength, that rabid foxgirl is standing somewhere in the realm of a hundred and sixty times peak human strength. Coupled with her big paws and some Witchcraft, digging a straight tunnel that will hold long enough to get people through, isn't too hard.

    And that doesn't even factor Sanary's contributions, which are undoubtedly significant too! It's not exactly subtle, and Gudako can shield neither herself nor Berserker from detection, but since Murder Maid and Caster are going to be distracting people, they might not HAVE to.

    With people breaching the mansion's gates, the Bounded Field around it becomes fully active. The standard guards and soldiers of the mansion become bolstered, and minor magical traps arm themselves. The Bounded Field is maintained by paper slips in every corner of the mansion, so it's not the easiest thing to disable without nuking the building outright.

    And surging from the inside of the mansion is a volley of ofuda, headed straight for LYNER and YUNA. The paper slips have an assortment of Japanese words on them. WIND, LIGHTNING, CHAOS, STORM. If the paper slips can connect (and they travel absurdly fast), they'll call down slashing winds and thunderbolts on their targets, with enough area of effect to be dangerous to people around them too.

    Caster will come into view moments later, her large mirror already orbitting her, standing just a bit past the destroyed gates. It's weird, she muses, being on THIS end of the arrow rain, for a change. Well, she's not going to complain either.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     Elner will pick up plenty of life signs in the city. There are definitely people within and alive. So the peculiarity of the lack of ny hustle is made stranger.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     "So glad we're in agreement, then." Sanary chuckles lightly before tossing a small bit of magic power towards Caster to try and keep her topped off. Who knows how much opposition the others will face? "Especially after what happened to the last guy that tried to stay... And he wasn't even royalty."

     At least she's leaving the Confederates' part out conveniently. She snickers quietly as Berserker gets to work, taking up the rear guard for Gudako and the king once they start heading into that tunnel. Someone's got to do it, so might as well be the person with the armor! "We should be able to get to the warp gate without too much trouble this way... Eh. Unless they start digging or soemthing."

     After a moment, Sanary's going to start watching the ceiling.

Riva Banari has posed:
It's rare that Riva is motivated enough to draw upon her power in anything other than a moderate fashion.

That's not the case here. The distant ley lines of the mountain are close enough for her, and as the arrows begin to rain down, several of them simply... divert in the air around her, slamming int othe snowy ground without touching her. Others impact her flesh, but skitter off, as if her body itself was made of metal.

When the Bounded Field snaps into existence, that changes somewhat. The rain becomes more intense, several of the arrows leaving long cuts in her flesh and drawing blood from her.

Riva grimaces at the pain, and her eyes flash gold for a moment, Anima swirling around her in a haze... As she explodes forward, augmenting her speed as she leaps through the shattering gate, hurling herself through the moment Caladbolg blows it apart and running in a blur.

She isn't stopping to fight. She has a specific target, and these soldiers are not it.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel pause as Archer kicks down the doors with a heck of a lot o style. The civilians are clear, good there's only combat personel at this point it seems. She uses her keyblade to deflect some of the bolts.

"So this is how they want it?"

Her blade comes up and she starts to deflect some of the incomming arroes. She's looking to Yuna for a moment and then comes the attack she'll wait on Yuna about civilaians. She knows who the target is and she's ready to fight her way to them comes more magic.

Deelel like Riva is pushing through and she'll end up casting a protection spell on her allies to help them get through this. Unless someone comes directly for her she's going to keep moving.

Archer (821) has posed:
"Normally, yes" Rin replies to Yuna, her expression still grim. "But considering who we're up against, I don't know if we have a choice."

     Rin seems weary of the lack of commotion from the destruction of the city gates - she didn't remember Lyner saying anything about an evacuation. But it's obviously not empty - the arrows prove as much.

     Taking cover behind Yuna's shield, Rin uses it as a mock-cover to try and fire pot-shots back at the shooters, leaning out past the side to call out "Gandr!" and discharge a dozen or so rounds of the curse-bullets at their attackers. Whether or not it hits anything though will be the challenge, between the distance and any possible cover the archers are behind. If Yuna starts pushing forward for the group, she will advance as well, working together to try and clear a path.

     Growling, Rin winces as an arrow, bouncing off Yuna's shield, passes far too close to her face for comfort. "I can't believe these people are risking their lives for someone who's just going to let them die to save his own skin!"

     Then the incoming storm of ofuda emerges, electing a curse from the Tohsaka magus as she tries to warn Yuna about the attack with a half-startled "Look out!"

     However, many of those tags would have to avoid an incoming volley of arrows before they can reach Yuna, the Servant of the Bow's rate of fire being absurdly fast in it's own right as Archer tries to snipe out as many of Caster's tags as he can.

     That clinched it - Gudako was most definitely the one behind this.

     ...

     If that was the case, there were likely more then just a few surprises laying around.

     Taking a breath, Archer begins reaching out with Structural Analysis, probing with his magic to try and find any signs of traps in their immediate area - pitfalls, bunkers, secret tunnels - anything that might have been prepared in advance of this attack to ambush or hinder them with.

     He'd learned all too well he couldn't ever leave well enough alone with this particular mage, after all.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     And then came the arrows. "...I knew it wouldn't be simple." Lyner sighed and then crouched low. He tossed his cloak back, revealing a wwhite pod slung behind his waist. With the press of a button, it expanded, a white handle popping out which he grabbed and pulled, revealing a pure, white blade of sleek design. He then reached for his shoulder pauldron with his other hand, pulling a smaller white dagger. "Shield of Bond!" He called, crossing both blades over. Hymmnos runes lit up on the surface of the larger sword, and magic power coalesced into a shimmering barrier that caused the arrows in his path to strike and bounce off uselessly.

     "Tch...!" But then suddenly, several paper tags flew in and attached themselves to Lyner's barrier, at least the ones that Archer couldn't shoot down. It was just two or three. Once they made contact, they exploded into a storm of cutting blades that shattered the knight's arcane barrier. "Guh! That was definitely Caster!" Lyner grunted, lowering his blades and frowning in the direction of the city. "We need to keep moving! Let's go!" And with that, he dashed forward, though keeping a cautious eye out. Elner said that there were life signs, right? But why didn't anyone seem surprised or...well, where was the activity?

     It all became clear when they got closer.

     Among the rubble were dead soldiers, taken by surprise from Caladbolg's firing. Once they pass the gates, they will find many many more knights of Lucrelia awaiting them. Bowmen, swordsmen, lancers, axemen, knights on horseback. They were all over. ...And they all had a dead look in their eyes. They were alive, for sure, but...the spark of life, the spark that made a man who he was, was nowhere to be seen. Those were dull, lifeless gazes. And yet, every last one of those knights moved swiftly and precisely, as if operating under one single command, under one single will.

     Arrows were fired, melee units rushed in and gave chase. They would do everything in their power to keep the trespassers from getting far. The group would also notice that there were townspeople among the knights, equipped with household tools. Anything that could be used as a weapon. And they had similar dead looks in their eyes.

     Cannon fodder.

     Archer's Structural Analysis would reveal that nothing was out of the ordinary. ...Except for two very big things. ONE. There were wires ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was like walking into a spider's web. They criss crossed and weaved through the streets at foot level, neck level, waist level, and some at roof level, aiming to catch anyone dumb enough to barrel through.

     And who was barreling through but one Riva Banari?

     The second thing? There was some manner of odd anomaly happening in the direction of Laurence's mansion. ...It seemed like a new structure was being built? Or maybe dug is a better term. How well Archer can see these things will determine what he can make of it. But something was happening.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     MEANWHILE

     Laurence, otherwise known as Arnest, arched a brow at Sanary. How ominous. Who /was/ this 'other guy'? Hmph. Well, not his concern now, was it? His plans were set and in motion. No need to ask questions about things that were not important in this exact moment. "I will leave the defense to you, Miss Rondel. If things go wrong...I have a plan. But I'll hope we don't need it." For the sake of those trespassers, more than himself, is what he was thinking. Nonetheless, he would follow after Gudako and Berserker without complaint.

     Alweyn watched as Caster sent several paper charms flying out to attack the attacking group, and she calmly eyed her surroundings, adjusting her gloves. "......" Nothing yet. And she wondered if anyone would notice her wire traps. They were all over the place, after all. But...somehow, she had a feeling that she would be seeing someone soon.

     Very soon.

     The knights around the mansion formed up into a defensive wall with shields at the ready, creating a barrier between Caster, Alweyn, and any potential approaching forces.

Riva Banari has posed:
Oh look, the nasty version of a speed trap. While Riva can avoid the oncoming enemies, bull through them with her Anima-augmented speed and strength, even strike in a mostly nonlethal fashion with her hammer... Those wires are another story.

It happens as she's leapfrogging past a group, treating the mind-controlled formation like nothing more than another hurdle to bypass on the way to her destination when she feels something wrong. A gleam caught out of the corner of her eye warns her what's about to happen a split second before the maid senses a powerful tug on that wire.

When she looks, Riva's hanging in the middle of a spiderweb of them, bent over slightly as one of them by all accounts looks like it incised her throat. Blood drips from her body, pooling under her. Looks like she caught herself a stupid Templar.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel keeps going ahead with the rest of the group, she sees the servants are there, the question is where is the master. After all she's been around the multivese long enough to know tht much about them.

"That's the plan Lyner!"

Deelel now starts with the stupid free running tricks as she botls along, she's warned about the razor wire thanks to Archer and at the mid apex of a jump into the air and flips back before she too ends up like Riva does.

Her Keyblade cna lock and unlock thing's pretty sure it's more than just mechanical locks and given hte seeming viral behaviour. She stands there letting a group of melee combatant close with her and she readies her keyblade. The Keyblade reacts a beam of white light fires out of the tip, it's not damaging but it striking at the nearest group of attackers, a mix of troops and villiagers. It strikes them and Deelel is attemping to free their minds by unlocking the mental prisons they seem to be in.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    Berserker dig dig digs. Or from her perspective, SHE IS CATCHING THE RED DOT THIS TIME, YOU WATCH HER. In fairness, she's a Servant, and if you were going to bet on anyone ever catching that red dot and The Flash wasn't available to help you, a Servant is probably a close second candidate. Especially a hyperactive Berserker. There's a none zero chance past a point, behind them, the tunnel might give way.

    There's also a chance it's not a coincidence at all, and Gudako is making fingergun gestures at the ceiling ten meters back, firing black-purple magic bullets at it to cause a collapse. Pew pew.

    "I like backup plans! You should always have a couple. So mister king! What do you want to do after this? Anything you'd like to set your sights on? I bet you're not the kind of person who likes sitting back and doing a whole lot of nothing, huh?"

    Might as well get to know each other!

    Back at the mansion entrance, Caster continues producing slips of inscribed, glowing magical paper past the waves of cannon fodder. But she seems to be slowing down. Without her master to monitor her, she's actually paying attention to the setup. These people aren't people anymore.

    There's no intent. No motivation. These are pawns, individuality overridden by the king. The fox frowns, slowing down her barrage. She doesn't mind death, but this is worse. She's certainly unhappy.

    She makes no further effort to protect the army, or stop the assailants from reaching the mansion. If she's attacked, she'll fight back, but she would find the death of these people preferable to their continued existence in this state.

    Or, as Deelel attempts, their deliverance too. That would be fine.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The situation gets worse in a hurry - those elemental spell-slips, the hordes of blank-eyed soldiers, the maze of razor wire detected by Archer ...

... and Riva running in without time to react, dying amongst the wires.

It's not going to stick. Yuna knows that Riva has a way of not staying dead. Deelel just *confirmed* that Riva is already 'on the way back'. But Yuna still caught sight of the still-bleeding corpse, and ... there's really very little controlling her reaction when she sees a friend killed.

She controls it anyway. Rather than giving her emotions free rein, she clamps down on them *tightly* - because if she goes berserk, there's every chance that she'd wind up sliced apart the same way, and Yuna DOESN'T have Riva's particular knack for not staying dead.

There's a cold, almost detached look in Yuna's eyes as she leans out from behind her shield for a moment, considering the situation. The skies may still be populated by enemy archers, but she can probably deal with those if necessary. But other than arrows raining from the heavens, there doesn't seem to be a lot of anti-air coverage, particularly with the barrage of spell-parchments subsiding ...

"Rin, you need different cover," Yuna says to the dark-haired sorceress. "Erina, combine; we're going aerial. Jiina, with me; Marina, help protect Rin."

Once Marina has moved in to help make sure Rin stays safe, Yuna dismisses her shield and steps away, with Erina joining her - and going translucent, the purple-and-white android 'phasing' over Yuna's body, then vanishing completely with a 'wireframe' appearing around Yuna's Light Suited body. A split second later, pieces of a different set of armor materialize and lock into place, attaching to the Light Suit and to each other; when the transformation is completed, Yuna takes to the air in Flight Form - and at high speed, to boot. She's not busting the sound barrier, but anyone aiming arrows at her is going to have to lead the target *and* get lucky (or maybe be Elite).

Yuna's destination: Laurence's house, by flying *over* the intervening buildings and wires. Jiina is flying close behind her as ordered.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     "Heh.. Leave it to me. Anyone tries following us, I'll hold 'em off for you three to get out." Sanary gives her shield a light knock with her armored gauntlet, glancing back at the path behind them again just in case. Still, she can't help but be a little curious as she follows behind the other three, listening in on her radio and keeping her head down for Gudako to aim more easily at the tunnel.

     "Sounds like the Union's showed up... Hm. Well, we should be long gone by the time they get here. I just hope Caster and what's-her-face make it." She really doesn't care about the other soldiers. There was something odd about them, after all, but she can at least tell that Caster's alive and the maid... Might be? Probably.

     "We've got plenty of resources, so that should help make any plans you've got easier to accomplish." Assuming he does stick around, anyway. It'd be rather rude if he didn't, wouldn't it? "But before that... What's the backup plan for here?"

Archer (821) has posed:
As soon as he senses the interlocked webs of wires, Archer curses to himself, his first action being to warn his allies over the radio.

     His second... was to begin firing swords from his bow down the streets to try and clear the threads - and any of the guards who don't move out of the way - attempting to make a path for everyone. Though it seems he's too late to save Riva.

     In any other circumstance, he'd feel somewhat vindicated by her misstep - that her belief being 'immortal' meant she could barrel through anything had been soundly disproved. But in this instance, he couldn't feel anything but exasperation.

     After all, it seemed time would have to be of the essence. Something was happening at Laurence's mansion - some form of... abscess in the structure's foundations, almost.

     The moment she sees the corpses, Rin winces and grits her teeth... but it's nothing compared to the expression of barely-contained, disparaging anger at the sight of the townspeople intermixed with the guards, all of them with the dead-eyed stare of people who's minds had been broken, if not erased outright.

     This was the kind of thing Arnest was capable of. What the Confederacy wouldn't think twice about.

     However, she becomes somewhat weary when Caster's vigorous attacks suddenly decrease... but when Rin sees Caster's expression, it causes her to wonder if maybe Gudako's Servant being loyal doesn't mean the vulpine-featured spellcaster approves /everything/ the mage agrees with.

     Either way though, she'd keep a tentative watch on her... but if Caster didn't attack, Rin wouldn't provoke her. And when Yuna states a change in tactics, Rin gives a firm nod, wishes her luck and switches up her own attack plan.

     "Es ist gro�. Es ist klein. Vox got Es Atlas!"

     Rin's speed and strength increase instantly, single steps turning into short bounds as she leaps to the top of one building so as to have an easier time avoiding the razor-wire - and to provide better cover for Deleel, intending to defend the Keyblade-wielder's efforts to stop the army. Especially against that maid.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     With knights coming for them from all over, Lyner grits his teeth in frustration, but moves to defend himself, as well as keep Deelel free to do whatever it is she plans to do. He doesn't cut any of these knights, soldiers, and townspeople down. But he parries and uses nonlethal strikes, buying time as much as he could. He did notice that Caster's barrage of spell charms slowed down to a crawl, and then nothing. ...Well that was convenient. He wouldn't complain about it. All they needed to do now was contend with the wires all around and get through safely.

     Deelel's attempt to undo the mind control that has been exercised on these people is met with relative success. The few knights and towns people hit with the keyblade's beam come to a complete halt. And then the life in their eyes returns.

     "....?"

     "What was I...?"

     "...How did I get here? Wasn't I just...?"

     Those are the sorts of things everyone hears from the people struck by the power of the keyblade.

     ....But there are a LOT more people around. What will Deelel do? Free ALL of them? If she does that, then there is no doubt that Arnest will escape. In fact, that certainly must be his plan. Why waste time fighting when you can instead work smartly instead? He must have known that these righteous people would worry about the individual rather than the big picture.

     Lyner glances back at Deelel's results and smiles a tad. "Alright, it works, but... -Whoa!" He raised his dagger, catching a sword strike, and then swerving aside to avoid a lance thrust. "There are a LOT of people still under control here. Deelel, can you do that in a wide spread? Because if not, we're going to be here for a while! I think all of Lucrelia is under control!"

     Just as well. The people who were freed notice what's happening and mass confusion is beginning to set in. This was becoming very complicated.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     MEANWHILE

     Laurence chuckles. "Of course. If you go in, thinking your one plan is enough, you will find yourself very disappointed. But it looks like I'm preaching to the choir here, aren't I?" He was a good natured man still, was that the real Arnest, or simply his Persona as Laurence? Who knew? He watched as Berseker dug and dug, an amused look on his face. If he recalled...she was the one who gave him that not so subtle offer last time. Which meant Gudako was off elsewhere at the time. Mount Luminous no doubt.

     But that was neither here nor there.

     "Anything I'd like to set my sights on?" He brought a hand to his chin, thinking on it as they walked. "Well, first, I think I'd like to see this Multiverse for myself. As much as I can. The rest of the world that Lucrelia came from was a war torn world, ravaged by the greed of other countries, and the complacency of God." He explains, shaking his head. "I took matters into my own hands and relieved God of it's power. But now...none of that matters. I want to see more worlds, I want to see what else the universe has to offer. And perhaps then, I'll find new meaning beyond the borders of this dead country."

     Alweyn meanwhile perks subtly, looking up as her wires catch a very big mouse. A mouse known as Riva Banari. The maid steps forward and waves an arm outwards. Wires contrict around the Templar and reel her in towards the phalanx of shield bearing knights, and from behind their line, the servant peers. "....." Silent, Alweyn observed Riva, coughing up blood, as well as pooling it underneath. It was unsightly, but she didn't bat an eye. "...We meet again." A simple statement.

     "Why are you still alive?"

     No really, she killed you last time.

     Yuna's approach, as well s Rin's hopping to a rooftop is met with an even look, taking her gaze off of the possibly dead Templar. And then Alweyn glanced at Caster, noting that she'd stopped attacking. "...Friends of yours?" A deadpan question. She was not actually curious or even under the assumption. In fact, her other arm swept out, and wires that were previously set elsewhere came to life with countless twangs and thwips, hurtling through the air to slice and ensnare the female Master. She'd leave Yuna to Caster.

     The wires that Archer shot through are not reset. No time for that.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     Laurence glances at Sanary and smiles.

     "You understand that Incarnations and Einherjar are fragments of God's power, right?"

     He let that idea simmer for a moment, and then looked on ahead.

     "...Who controls that power right now?"

     He didn't need to say anything else, he thought.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    Digdigdigdig.

    Gudako simply keeps her 8D face on, at both the comment of preaching to the choir of the king's future plans. It made sense! This place was pretty backwater, for a man who dethroned God. Well, a God. Maybe even just a god. But to people like this, it hardly would matter how accurate the claim was.

    "People should take their fate in their own hands more often, letting God or even just a random god do it for you is boring. You're ahead of your time! You know, by the reference frame of your world's technology level, it'd take another five, six centuries for anyone to ever think like that and not get executed for it! Ah, I wonder if you all think the Earth is flat, still."

    That was probably offense, but since when does Gudako have an internal filter for those comments? She ponders, and then asks: "Say, there was a sealed room in the temple. We never got to see what was in it because grumpy people interfered, and then Incarnations woke up. Any idea what's in there?"

    MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE MANSION.

    Caster shakes her head at Alweyn. "It's not that. Sorry, let me make up for it." The assorted talismans in her hands are shuffled, and then laid in front of herself like a grid. She swings her arms skyward, towards the incoming Yuna.

    A set of the papers slips launches towards the flying magical girl, scribed with VOID, DARKNESS, CHAOS, DRAIN and a few other similar words. The ofuda glow a bright black and purple as they speed towards the idol, almost teleporting right to her.

    On impact, they'll act like powerful bolts of darkness, with a slight power-draining element. These aren't the kind that let Caster 'absorb' the drained energy, though, it's more like a bunch of debuffs and curses rolled in one. Pain, speed down, strength down, generic darkness damage, corrosive burns. That sort of stuff!

Riva Banari has posed:
She totally killed Riva last time.

But last time, Riva wasn't prepared for it. Riva hangs there, a mouse caught in a spider's web of pain and cruelty, either dead or on her way to doing so again from the way things look.

But then Alweyn takes her eyes of Riva. When that happens, the soldiers around her might notice the thin smile Riva makes. There is a sudden spray of blood as Riva slides her arm around, drawing a fine rapier from a back-sheath, the air around her suddenly flickering with the motion of the blade.

A moment later, there the wires separate, cloven away from her.

There is a loud THUD as she drops the hammer, letting it crack the paving stones at her feet as she pulls out a drink, popping it open with a hiss. "You know..." She rasps, before drinking the energy-drink appearing concoction down. Her wounds begin healing before the assembled group's eyes. "Curiosity is a dangerous thing sometimes." Her voice smooths out, the Templar spitting a gobbet of blood to the ground. "You and your boss? You don't really appreciate it. You took what you wanted. You didn't ask questions. You didn't cover your back. And now?"

Her eyes narrow. "Now you betrayed the very people who trusted you all to protect them. And on top of that, you killed me."

She sighs. "You know, I can understand a little killing between frienemies. It happens to me sometimes. But you couldn't even have the /basic decency/ to bury me or something. You left my corpse /in a trash heap/."

She points. "DO YOU EVEN /KNOW/ HOW LONG IT TOOK TO GET THAT TASTE OUT OF MY MOUTH?" Energy begins to seethe around her as she picks up the hammer in one hand, shouldering it once more as she points that fine Celtic-marked rapider at the maid. "I'm giving you one chance. Stand down, or you're going to have a very bad day."

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Sanary's looking a little conflicted. On one hand, she can't really fault Laurence... Arnest... Whoever for wanting to leave and see more of the Multiverse. The really is quite a lot to see, after all! And taking powers directly from a god certainly isn't any easy feat, either. At the same time, though... The fact that he's seemingly content with abandoning his people doesn't really reassure her, either.

     Just grin and bear it. She's still a professional, and Sanary just needs to focus on the good of the Confederacy rather than her own misgivings. Until he proves himself to be a threat... No, enough of that line of thinking. Besides, if he's got the power she and Gudako had tried to abscond with last time?

     He could at least be useful. "Hm... Good to hear. I think you'll get along with the others Confederates pretty nicely, then." Yeah.. Maybe this won't go nearly as badly as the last guy. All she needs to do is keep an eye open! Not that she has any others to keep open.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is doing what she can to free those who she can, she sees that it does seem to work but there's so many people to deal with. She's doing her best to tank what hits she takes in this process. She notices that they snap too. She looks at them for a moment and says.

"Go get clear of here you were being controlled. I'll do what I can get in side, get to cover."

She damn well knows there's a whole lot of people she needs to do. She knows what she's got to do here, but Deelel does have her limits. She looks to Lyner for a moment. "I can try to clear a path. with what I can. We move, we bring down the puppet master than deal with the rest, if I have to deal with this fine, I trust the rest of you can deal with this User."

She means in the context of how he's using everyone.

She does her best to start clearing a path she's done her experiant it works she can try to clear some larger groups but there's no way she can get an entire city at once, she is going to try to clear a path so to speak as her Keyblade gets to work. Given Lyner's, Archer's, Rin's, Yuna's and Riva's abilitie she has no doubt they can handle what's ahead of them.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Of course it wasn't going to be THAT easy, was it? And Yuna can't spare the attention to keep covering Rin - plus, with Rin charging into the fray herself, Marina can't stay focused on protecting her.

Yuna just makes the best of it that she can. The armor on her vambraces pops open, deploying the pulse blasters hidden within, and the flying magical paladin begins spraying 'bullets' (actually, miniature energy bolts) at the approaching ofuda, trying to shoot them down before they can reach her. The slip marked 'Darkness' makes it through the defensive barrage, and Yuna can't evade quite fast enough to avoid it; Caster would get to hear Yuna letting out a cry of pain as its effect tears at her - sapping her energy, eating away at the Light Suit's defensive aura ...

But it's not remotely enough to STOP Yuna. She practically falls out of the sky, but as she descends, the pulse blasters close up and the Matrix Divider appears in her hands, already flaring as Yuna draws back for a swing. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!" Yuna screams at the fox-eared sorceress ...

And if Caster does in fact get out of Yuna's path, the attack is never launched. But if Caster DOES try to keep Yuna from getting into the mansion, the blonde's going to swing at full power ...

Archer (821) has posed:
     As the wires stream for her, Rin promptly reaches for anything convenient enough to use as a makeshift defense - a thick drainpipe, a wooden support beam or even a chimney - and rips it free with one hand to try and snare the wires around it instead of herself.

     Granted, the erratic flailing of the strands don't make it a clean effort - Rin's teeth grit together as some of them whip, grind and cut the edges of her coat and clothes; the sleeves, the fringes, the back. Small trickles of blood leak out, But because her clothes and body are reinforced - enough to rival the strength of steel - the damage is limited to relatively light cuts.

     "You heard her" Rin said, inclining her head at Riva, expression one of determination. "Either get out of the way-"

     With a sudden yank of her arm, she pulls her makeshift shield away to try and rip away the maid's wires with one firm tug, even going as far as to grab some with her other hand and chance having her palm sliced open if her reinforcement isn't enough.

     "- or we go /through/ you!"

     As he speeds for Lawrence's mansion, Archer once again reaches out with Structural Analysis, hoping that closing the distance will let him discern what Gudako's plan is.

     Of course, it will also let anyone with Magic awareness know he's coming since the use of his power was akin to sending out a sonar-pulse - he'd know where they were, but they would likewise know he was searching for them.

     But in the end, as the shape beneath the mansion gradually faded - like a bubble moving beneath the surface of the sea - it became far easier to figure out.

     "They're underground" Archer realized, speaking aloud for the benefit of anyone who made it this far - and over the radio for those that didn't. "They're trying to dig their way out of the city."

     This entire battle - his people, his men, even his own servant. All pawns to cover his own escape.

     However... because it seemed that they were sealing the passage behind them, it meant that they couldn't turn around. And that in turn, that meant this plan wasn't made in advance - so they were effectively relying on no-one reaching them.

     As a result... something of a grim smirk forms on Archer's face, moving for the closest spot over the group's location as the spiral-sword once again took shape in his hand -

     "Caladbolg!"

     -and fires it at the ground, his obvious intent being to cause their own tunnel to cave in and crush them to death. Or, failing that, unearth them to the point that they would be dragged into the fight they tried to escape from. Either way, he doesn't intend to let them escape - or at the very least he wouldn't make it easy on them.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     The numbers slowly but steadily clear as Deelel frees people from mind control. Those freed are completely confused, but seeing other people they know attacking in a mindless frenzy and the warnings from Deelel and Lyner spur them on to get a move out of here. People stream out and into safe havens inside buildings. Some knights stay behind however. "We can't just run away from this! I have no idea what's happening, or how it happened, but...we'll help!" And a good number of knights formed up with Deelel, assisting with keeping her covered as she apparently was the one with the power to break free this strange phenomenon.

     Normally they'd probably wouldn't trust these outsiders at all, but this was a pretty big problem! No time for that. Maybe this was human nature under all of that paranoia and mistrust? Who can say.

     Lyner nodded, glad to see that things were beginning to clear up with the people. There were still a lot of attacking knights and townspeople to defend against. He avoided any obviously dangerous blows, and parried anything else that looked negligable. "Good work Deelel! Keep it going, I've got you covered!" There wasn't much else he could do. And it looked like the others were handling matters at the mansion. Riva was alive and well. Rin and Yuna as well. Now if only they could break through and find Laurence after all...

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     MEANWHILE

     Alweyn blinked as her wires were torn away by Rin with a strength she didn't peg the Master for having. Well, that's...new. Time to recalculate how to deal with this woman. She didn't see worried about her lost wires. Not until RIVA COMES BACK TO LIFE. Now she visibly frowns, looking between the Magus and the Templar.

     "Stand down?" A thin smile formed on the maid's face. "Why would I ever do that?" And then suddenly, she raised one arm sharply, and from her gloves, there was a twang as the ground below ripped apart. A single razor sharp wire erupted and aimed to slash into Riva's feet. "Kill them." She spoke plainly to the knights on defense.

     And it wa with that, that the phalanx converged on Riva, aiming to surround and crush her with shield and sword in hand.

     Alweyn looked towards Rin meanwhile and directed her other arm aside. Another wire was pulled from somewhere and slashed through a nearby building, whirling through the air and aiming for Rin's neck at high speeds.

     She didn't have time to stop Archer. Not with two opponents to deal with.

     MEANWHILE

     Laurence paused and looked up. "...Do you feel that?" There was a faint rumble that got more and more fierce as the moments passed. And then- WHOOSH. Caladbolg pierced through the roof of the makeshift tunnel at that moment. SANARY, YOU'RE UP. IF YOU FAIL, THIS WHOLE TUNNEL COLLAPSES ON EVERYONE. Well. More than it already was.

     It was quaking pretty badly already and rocks and dirt was crumbling around them already...

     The clock was ticking.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Noticing the odd magical aura from above, Sanary braces her shield a little more tightly as she starts glancing behind her. "Think we might have company soon..." She calls out to the three in front of her as she picks up the pace to practically shadow them. She's not quite sure where the attack will come from yet, but that shaking's not a good sign at all.

     Turns out, hwoever, that the shaking is the attack! And just to make matters worse, there's also a familiar-looking screwlike weapon in the ceiling! Or would that be the ground since they're...?

     There's not much time for Sanary to worry about semantics as she brings the shield up, trying to keep the cave intact enough to not completely collapse on the four of them. "There it is! What the... God/DAMMIT/, Archer!" Of course it had to be him. She scowls angrily, but she can't act too much on it as she puts all her focus on holding back the dirt and rocks threatening to fall that group, using both her shield and armored body to do it! The innate power of the armor does help boost her ability to block against normally unblockable attacks, but what does this even count as?!

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    Oh that is an angry magical girl. Caster eeks, and unfortunately stays in Yuna's way. Necessity and all that. Her mirror twirls and interposes itself between the charging, practically berserk paladin and the fox, and Yuna will find herself slamming into that hard.

    With the mirror tied to the Caster the way it is, she ends up pushed back, slamming into the wall of the mansion by the door, and straining with both arms to continue magically directing the mirror to still be her shield. To its credit, there isn't so much as a crack on it despite the impact. To its discredit it doesn't look like it blocked that much damage.

    "Huff! Master said I had to hold you guys back long enough, and it hasn't been long enough yet! So no, nuh-uh! You're stuck with Caster like she's stuck with you! Juso-Kai - Onten Shukusai! APHOTIC CAVE!"


    A sudden, massive surge of magic flows out of the Caster's mirror, and into herself. With Yuna still pushing against it, and likely crushing the Servant's body against that wall, she manages to slap an ofuda on the back of her mirror. "Juso - Kuretsu! VOID CLEFT!"

    Cue a massive discharge of darkness from her mirror. It's not quite on the level of a Noble Phantasm or anything, but it's certainly reaching the upper tiers of what magic can produce. The blast is corrosive and corrupting, although it's unlikely Yuna of all people has to care about that second part at all. It's really just a big point blank darkness laser beam.

    MEANWHILE, DOWN BELOW:

    Gudako continues smiling, trucking on ahead. "Huff. Berserker, faster!" With one hand she motions towards her Servant, providing her with an strength buff. Stacking that on top of her already significant strength produces hilarious results, in that for all intents and purposes the earth and stone ahead offers about as much resistance as paper. Berserker continues digging, predictably, as both the Servant and magus leave the defense to Sanary, who specializes in it. The Gate can't be that much further given how long they've been digging, and the pace to boot.

Riva Banari has posed:
"Why? Simple."

The wire rips upwards, slashing at her feet, but she's already dodging backwards. "It's because..."

The Knights charge, the phalanx pressing in on her. Red-gold Anima surges as she raises her hammer, the weapon seething with energy as she brings the hammer around.

"YOU CAN'T KEEP ME DOWN!"

There is a dull thud as she hammers the ground... And that energy spreads around her into a mass of magmatic-looking cracks, moments before there is a roaring upheval, blasting the knights away from her with a fountain of red-gold light.

A moment later, she is stabbing forward, leaving traces in her wake as she brings that rapier around to slash in towards the maid's neck...

But moments before it lands, she twists, bringing the hammer across in a massive sideswipe meant to knock her flying through the wall of a building. "Hope you got some real tricks, lady, because piano wire garotte is getting pretty /old/!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Don't you *GET* it?!?" Yuna practically screams in Caster's face, the Matrix Divider still crackling with radiant power as she strains against the mirror-turned-shield. "I don't CARE about you! I don't even care about your ditz of a Master, except that both of you are protecting HIM!!"

She doesn't interrupt Caster invoking spell techniques; she's too angry to think strategically at the moment - angry at Arnest, angry at the Confederacy, angry about everything that the good people of Lucrelia are being used for, about the sins that they're being forced to be human shields against.

When it comes to this city, Yuna has a *lot* to be angry about - and she's too angry to keep her emotions contained anymore. So as the darkness flares from Caster's mirror, light crackles not just around Yuna's weapon, but around her armor - and with a sound like circuit breakers being tripped, Flight Form disengages, Erina reassembling behind Yuna as golden light flashes and arcs around the remaining primary Light Suit.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY -- OR BE REMOVED FROM IT!!!"

And when the beam erupts from that mirror, Yuna is STILL at point-blank range. It's pitch darkness against divine light, and Yuna is too mad to do anything other than try to bull her way through it - whatever will utterly flatten the sorcerous fox. It's distinctly possible that, in her stated not-caring about Caster, Yuna also no longer cares if the fox lives or dies.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is not expecting the help from the locals but she's going to take it, she's taxing to do this but what else can she do here? She's working hard, to the point she's not even seeming to breath, she's just got machine like focus on oding what she can for this.

"Thank you."

She does mange to thank the people whom she has freed fo thier aid and it's worth while, she's not sure how long it's going to take but she's focus8ing on it this is the most serious workout of her keyblade since it picked her, and she's not sure how or where this is going to end, but she keeps ar it. All she can do is keep her faith in the rest of the team.

Archer (821) has posed:
     Rin curses loudly as the razor-wire slices through the building to the side of her, letting herself fall backwards as it snaps through the air where her neck once was - and cuts into the rooftop she was standing on, forcing her to backspring off it as she starts free-falling to the ground.

     And as she does, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out three polished sapphire gemstones.

     "Here's a few more reasons!" the magus shouts out as she hurls the stones at the Mage. Each one is charged with enough detonate like quality grenades - and all of them are thrown for the maid and any forces trying to cover her even as Rin lands on the street hard enough to leave small craters under her feet.

     And if the maid is actually still alive after all of that, Rin will pull free two more gems to throw, though will wait until the other actually proves herself a threat.

     Meanwhile, Archer frowns as the ground where Caladbolg vanished not the earth is shattered like glass. If he were to try and use Structural Analysis now, with the ground splintered as it were, he doubted he'd have a very clear image.

     At the same time though, he wasn't sure he needed to. Now that he knew they were underground, he had little reason to be precise - if he could just hinder them, that would be enough.

     Additionally, it helped that Archer felt rather confident about knowing where they were probably headed - when Gudako had attempted to abduct 'Eir', Sanary had tried her hardest to go to the dimensional gate. And if Arnest got off-world to a place no-one could reach him in, it would end any chance of stopping this war anytime soon.

     ...

     Though in reality, Archer wasn't a fool - nor was he one to cling to false hope. Even if he did succeed in unearthing Arnest... what then? Gudako likely had Berserker with her - a Servant more tailor-made to offset his tactics with brute force. If he did force them back above-ground, nothing was going to stop her from using the other Servant to occupy him... and the erratic feline-featured girl wouldn't give Archer anywhere near enough time to try and draw out Unlimited Blade Works with which to trap Arnest and Gudako with.

     No - even if he did stop their underground traversal... he wasn't likely going to stop their escape.

     Though that didn't mean he wouldn't try, if for no other reason then to make it as hard as possible for them to run.

     Leaping into the air and aiming at the ground, Archer decides to completely eschew subtlety in favor of coverage, firing arrows into and across the ground at a rapid pace to try and collapse the earth - there was much less chance any of the shots would actually pierce the group's hiding spot, though... but at this point, Archer would settle for making the ground as unstable as possible so that they couldn't move easily without risking a cave-in.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     "No problem. Do your best, Lady!" One soldier responded, taking a place by Lyner. And several others followed, shields and weapons in hand to defend Deelel. It was hard. Definitely taxing, but it was working. More and more people were being freed and the resistance from the mind controlled troops was lessening with every moment.

     Lyner smiled to himself amid te winding down chaos. They may not have stopped Laurence, but they did something good today. They freed a people from a corrupt man. It was a distraction. A diversion. But it wasn't something they could just ignore. They did their best and that was enough for the knight.

     "It looks like things were winding down here, Deelel. Good job." Lyner called over the din of combat. "I don't think anyone else could have done this, but you!"

     Now, what was happening up ahead at the mansion...? Lyner looked that way and frowned.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     The soldiers are all blown away inconsequentially by Riva and then she dives forward, sword forward to thrust. Alweyn crossed her arms over, about to execute about trick wire maneuver. But then... "...What-" BLAM. The dour maid's eyes widen in an expression of emotion that was more than her usual. The hammer collides with her, and then several gems launch into her, causing an explosion. And she goes FLYING. Past Caster and Yuna, and with a huge, satisfying impact, she CRASHES through the front of the mansion, disappearing inside with a distant impact, as well as a cacophony of other gut wrenching sounds.

     That HAD to hurt.

     There is silence. Well. It looks like that's it. She was just human after all.

     A L W E Y N H A S D I -

     Wait no, there is a pillar of light that explodes upwards into the heavens and then from all around Riva, the earth itself crumbles, coalescing into countless slashing wires. And they all are cloaked in a sickly green aura aiming to wrap around the young woman and drain her life force rapidly.

     From the wrecked hole in the wall that the maid was blown through previously, a white blur surges out and back into Riva's face. It's Alweyn, but something's very different. Her hair is now snow white. Her skin is pale. And her eyes are blood red. Her maid uniform was torn up and she was bleeding in places, but from her back, unfurled a pair of white wings.

     Alweyn was an Einherjar. of course.

     "You unsufferable bitch- At first I was just doing my job, but now...Now I want you DEAD. Permanently!" She clenched both hands into fists, tightening her now soul draining wires and attempting to slice into the Templar at every conceivable angle.

     MEANWHILE

     Laurence narrowed his eyes. "That bowman is tenacious." He surmised casually, using some power to float and speed ahead after Berserker. "By my estimates, we should be well outside of Lucrelia. Try digging upwards and creating an opening before this cavern collapses over us from that man's errant shooting.

     Because it was working. Rocks of all shapes and sizes were crumbling too the floor, and dust was kicking up. They had only a few moments before it all came down!

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     As the ground-ceiling around them keeps shaking, the strain on Sanary's back actually seems to ease up a bit. Not because she's gotten any stronger, but... "... I think he lost us. It's not as close any more, but... Yeah, this should be a good spot." The timing couldn't be better, especially as the healer shakes off a rather solid rock digging into her side. Although the armor's still intact from the rough handling, that doesn't mean there aren't joints and softer parts on it. It's meant for handling giant monsters, not pointed rocks and sharp stabbing knives!

     A certain Servant's already seen to that firsthand. Jerk.

     "Just make sure to be careful on the way up. Never know if we'll end up digging the exit right into someone's ass." It's a long-shot, but Sanary knows better than to dismiss the possibility entirely. Not with her luck!

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "When did I ever say I was happy to protect that sort of person?!" Caster protests, angry. She certainly has no qualms serving Gudako-- ultimately, her intentions are... well, maybe not good, but not bad. Gudako is the sort of master who seeks happiness through power. There's no malice to it, although she does sometime slips into habits that make Caster unhappy. But on the whole, there's a lot worse people out there.

    For what little good it does to argue back, anyway. That is, not a whole lot! Yuna is still coming at her with increased firepower and strength, and now she's glowing. People rarely glow for no reason. Charging through it pushes Caster further back. She's lucky enough her massive mirror can cover her from the worst of it, but Yuna pretty much puts the fox through the wall and then some. It's another wall that stops them, with the fox once again in a position of being crushed against it between her magically floating mirror and a wall.

    "You need-- to CALM DOWN!"

    That's two fights in a row Caster gets in that she's getting absolutely trashed. But unlike last time, it isn't intentional. The pressure from her mirror acting as a shield is pretty much tearing her body apart, and while she might not visually look in pieces she's in a pretty bad spot right now. Bad enough she can call on her secondary Noble Phantasm, at least.

    She lowers one hand, just long enough to be able to activate it. A large, decorated stone appears, slamming into the ground next to her. It glows, and without doubt pumps a very significant amount of magic into Caster's hand, which now shines a bright white and green.

    "Red Spider Lily Killing Stone!"

    Her hand raises, pushes her mirror aside at the last second, and fires the blast at Yuna point blank, right before Yuna plows into her. On the bright side, Yuna may have just gained access to Laurence's office by way of putting Caster through five more walls. The Servant won't be dead, but will dematerialize to avoid further damage and retreat. On the note so bright side if that's the route she chooses to take, she's going to be taking that extremely powerful magical blast and its hellpoison right to the face.

    MEANWHILE:

    "BERSERKER IF YOU DON'T CATCH THE RED DOT YOU DON'T GET FISH TONIGHT," Gudako intones-- managing to maintain her perfect 8D expression through the scolding, as Laurence points out they are short on time. And true enough Berserker redoubles her efforts and, following the laser pointer, starts digging up towards the Warp Gate while Sanary shields them from extremely painful, arrow-related death.

    Though Gudako asks again: "Ah, but, you dodged the question! The door, in the temple. Won't you say what's behind it~?"

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     Laurence glanced at Gudako, and shrugged. "Behind that gate?" He didn't seem too bothered to hide anything. Maybe he really was that confident in himself. "Behind that gate is the seat of God's power." A simple answer. "That's where God's power gathers, overseeing the world from that throne, controlling the Incarnations, and appointing Einherjar."

     He brought a hand to his chin. "Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get in. You see, I never fully absorbed God's power. Part of it resisted me, and expelled me. Thus, there are remnants of God locked behind that gate..." Well that was news. "I don't think I need it, but if I were to get past that gate and absorb that power...then I believe that I would transcend mortality and become a true, immortal being known as 'God'.

     Pause.

     "It would have been nice to get those last remnants, however."

Archer (821) has posed:
     When Alweyn emerges from the gaping hole in Lawrence's mansion, Rin lets out a curse as she sees the wings emerge from the maid's back, the change unmistakable.

     An Einherjar. The maid was an Einherjar.

     That in turn causes Rin's mind to freeze up at the implications.

     Arnest had the power of God. Logically, of course that meant he could control Einherjars - maybe even create them himself.

     ...

     But if that was the case... what did that say about the ones in the mountain? He didn't seem to control them at the moment - anything around before he took the power seemed to still be under the command of the 'old God's will' - but... if he were given the chance...

     However, Rin pushed that thought from her mind for now when Riva warned her to get back - if they didn't win this battle, it wouldn't matter either way. So she did what she was told - and more.

     Reaching into her coat as she pulled away, Rin fished out four gems, pivoted on her foot to spin around, drew her arm back and hurled them at the angelic being and the interwoven mass of tainted wires around her.

     "Sechs, in Flu� Ein Halt. Funf, drew, vier. Der Riese und brennt das in Ende!"

     And then all four of them became magic bullets, shooting through the cables as they arced towards the maid's form - even if they did nothing to her, Rin hoped they would at least distract Alweyn long enough for Riva to do whatever she was planing to do.

     And in a different kind of hopeless battle - this one against superior numbers in a race instead of superior power in a grueling battle - Archer lands on the shattered ground and bounds ahead once more, using a series of leaps to try and close the distance to the gate as fast as he can. Though whether he will outpace the digging rate of the Confederates is yet to be seen, he's giving it his best attempt.

     With every bound, he fires more and more arrows into the ground - if nothing else, he intends to see first-hand just what forces Gudako brought with her. And with every volley, he wonders just what he'll actually accomplish in the end.

     It hardly matters at this point. He won't be able to stop everyone Arnest has with him.

     But then again, hopeless battles were his purpose for existing - regardless of if he volunteered or not. All he could do was keep going... regardless of the futility.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna does not calm down when 'commanded' to do so. Caster is an opponent who stands between her and an enemy she's trying really hard to stop; additionally, Caster's Master has gotten on what normally passes for Yuna's bad side, just by her cavalier lack of caring about what it means to fight, and by her own interest in stealing holy power for her own use.

Really, there's nothing Caster or Gudako could say that would make Yuna stay her hand at a time like this ... but something - maybe an instinctive reaction when Caster pulls out her trump card - causes her to waver before she can unleash yet another attackk. Rather than striking, she brings the Matrix Divider up as if to parry the spell blast; it might protect her from a direct hit - but only by disrupting the focused 'stream' of magic.

It hurts. It hurts a *LOT*, and it's enough to snap Yuna out of the near-hypercharge she'd been riding - if not from the pain itself, then from the way Caster's poisonous spell rips away at the Light Suit's defensive aura, shredding and dissolving through the forces which normally safeguard Yuna's body against injury when she fights.

Just because the Light Suit protects her has never meant that getting hit doesn't hurt Yuna; if anything, the way her armor reacts to 'damage' means that Yuna is MORE likely to notice when something tries to hurt her, because of the flare effect when the aura has to stop an injury. End result, Yuna collapses to her knees, barely keeping the Divider up far enough to point menacingly at Caster; she can still attack one more time if she needs to. Caster retreating would mean that she doesn't need to. Attempting to follow up on her spell would lead to Yuna pulling the trigger immediately.

Elner, for the robo-faerie's part, is more interested in the fact that Yuna has potentially managed to gain entry - however destructively - to Laurence's office, and there could be some very useful information to be gained from within, especially now that Laurence/Arnest is fleeing the city and leaving who knows what information behind.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is doing her best to clean things up here.

"I intend to!"

She could also help with healing the worst off here, she keeps working her keyblde but it is tyring to her, she's really burning through her stambina doing this but it is worht it to her.

"Thanks, get going catch up with the other Lyner, I'll be fine."

The freed guards are doing fine job of covering the basic as she keeps working her keyblade trying to free the remainer of the people coming for them. Shes' too focused to think about the rest of the operation, this is her part after all and that's what she's focused on.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     ARCHER

     As Archer bounded out of the city and towards the gate in the distance, the group, led by Berserker tunnel out of the ground. Right then, the tunnel collapses. Time to get out of there. With everyone out, looking somewhat worse for the wear, Laurence regards the warpgate, and then looks in the direction of Lucrelia. "Hm? ...Well, I see a friend of yours in the distance."

     He smirked, seeing the red form of the Servant of the Bow. He was quite far off, but both groups could surely make out each other vaguely. But they were at the warpgate, and Archer was far off.

     But then again...he wasn't called Archer for nothing, was he?

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva was looking all big and bad putting that maid through the wall. Now to claim her vengeance loot and give her a decent burial and-

Then maid in the face. "Oh. Ffffff-" Her words are cut out as those wires lash out, ripping into her. Immediately, she feels her power start getting torn away, the Anima energy flickering out. Her defenses, gone. Her durability, pierced. Her offense, pointless. The rapier and hammer drop to the ground, useless, as she is slashed over and over again, each one carving into her energy reserves.

"Well. That's a thing." She says, bleeding from a multitude of actually deadly-looking wounds. She staggers forward. "You know... I don't know why you're doing this. I don't think you're in the mood to explain, either." She steps closer, her hands empty and bloody. "You know, those are neat wires. I think you could probably actually kill me with those."

One hand dips into a pocket then, and there is a low chirping noise as she pulls out a cylinder, her thumb on the trigger. "But you know what isn't going to kill me?"

Suddenly, she lunges, grappling for the Einherjiar and pulling her close, a manic expression on her face.

"All these bricks of C4 I'm wearing." There is a laugh.

"By the way, wings are a /really/ bad fit on you." She releases the button.

A moment later, there is a massive explosion that tears through the area, obliterating Riva and a small chunk of the surrounding city.

Did she take the Einherjiar with her? Who knows. It's going to be a bit before she gets back.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Sanary lets out one of the most unbecoming groans as the four of them finally emerge from that hole in the ground, taking full advantage of the non-underground air that she's able to breathe in again. She doesn't even look over right away when Laurence speaks, instead focused on catching her breath and glancing around for immediate threats before finally looking over.

     That coat. That hair. That vaguely similar, yet not quite same skin color. That's Archer, alright.

     "... Of course he'd be here." Breathing in slowly, the armored healer hurries over to start nudging Gudako, Caster, and Laurence towards the warp gate. No sense loitering here for long, although if Archer does look over by the time the rest of the group has left?

     He'll see Sanary waving slowly just before ducking into it the gate as well. She's not about to give up a chance to taunt him, and she's definitely not mature enough to leave gracefully. She's still technically a teenager, after all!

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     Lyner nodded to Deelel. "Alright, I'll leave the rest to you. Guys! Keep it up!" The knights all cheered and created a wall around Deelel with their shields. Lyner ran off, swords in hand as he headed up the path opened by Arche- wait, a red blur just passed him. "...Was that?" He mumbled, looking back. But there was no time!

     He had to go NOW! It sounded like things were heating up over there! Just a little more and- "Huh?" Lyner skid to stop as he arrived at the block where Laurence's mansion was located. It was a warzone here! Yuna and Caster went crashing through the walls of the house, Riva and Rin were fighting that Einherjar. Rin was retreating...

     Wait, Rin was retreating? Why? Lyner squinted, watching Riva lunge forward and grab Alweyn. "What? Wait....no. Are you kidding me-GAH!"

     BOOM.

     From Alweyn's side, she glared, though it began to rapidly de-escalate into her usual calm, dour look. "Why am I doing this? ...I wonder." She responded. Riva's statement is met with an arched brow and a clenching of the fists. She pulled her arms, wires tighening. "I will kill you." She grumbled, aiming to do just that. But then...

     "......!?" She was grabbed! "What- What are you doing? Let go of me!" The maid protested, right before the button was pressed.

     And then everything went white.

     Once the smoke clears, Alweyn is nowhere to be seen... As is Riva.

     Lyner meanwhile was blown away. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah--!"

     Well, he'd be okay at least.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     YUNA/ELNER

     Laurence's office is a mess after they crashed right into it. A cursory search of the room revealing nothing more than papers and documents regarding knightly activities.

     But inside a desk is a peculiar thing. What looks like a worn book with a lock on it. A journal? A diary? Something that must be important.

     But then there's also the EXPLOSION coming from outside what woul tear through the mansion, and everything else in a three block radius...

     Well, Yuna and Elner could weather it. Somehow.

Archer (821) has posed:
     His eyes fixed on the distant form of the gate, Archer curses darkly to himself as he sees the ground split open in front of it, glaring as he takes note of the forms that emerge from it.

     Arnest, Gudako and her Berserker... and Sanary Rondel.

     How unsurprising. Once again, the bowman found himself idly wondering if things might have simply been better for everyone if he /had/ just flat-out killed Sanary the first chance he'd had. There was only so much you could try to justify before the amount of blood you spilled outweighed the amount you saved when it came to how the Cleric was living her life.

     And because of her - as Archer was left wondering if she and her armor were the reason his arrows weren't more successful on the group - the Confederacy was all but taking this world.

     ...

     Well... if they were, he would at least not let it be a smooth victory for them. Had one last parting gift to give, after all. Something he hadn't actually had the chance to use here.

     Something perfect when it came to all four of those at or entering the Gate.

     Landing on the ground and this time steadying his stance, Archer summoned forth one last weapon from the depths of the endless field of swords, streams of prana solidifying into an elongated black shape. One that would hopefully leave more of a tangible impact on the group.

     A long, ebony-colored handle, bound in red midway down it's length. A curving blade sat at one end, like a hooked scythe. A dull aura of radiance in it's design - an intangible feel that, simply from looking at it, told the observer that it was not a weapon forged by humans. Soon after though, that enchanting form is ruined as the weapon is twisted in on itself like a corkscrew, the hooked blade straightening and shifting until it pointed forward.

     It's purpose was simple but frightfully profound; kill those it struck... be they god or mortal. And yet, it's strength was not in it's cutting power, for in that it was no more or less effective then any other weapon.

     Rather... it's strength was in how the wounds it dealt, no matter what, could not be healed by any other method except natural healing. A divine weapon that harmed all who it cut equally - be they God or Beast or simple man, none would be able to heal from the blade by use of any other means then the passage of time.

     He'd taken the image of it from the vaults of the Golden Archer. He'd met the monster of legend who it was used to slay... and now he would use it as his final parting shot as he drew the warped weapon back on his bow-

     "Harpe!"

     -and released the weapon of Perseus, knowing that, if nothing else, he would see here and now whether the so-called 'Immortal-Slaying Scythe' of the Greek Gods was as effective a tool as an arrow.

Archer (821) has posed:
     When Rin finally sees what Riva is about to do, she nearly chokes in shock - immortal or not, it didn't mean Rin wanted to see her be blown up!

     However, she hardly has the time to focus on that, instead turning around to try and get anyone who might even be so much as close to the blast-radius back.

     Of course, Rin herself finds out that she herself is a bit too close as the kickback of the explosion likewise sends her flying several feet, though she manages to dig her heels in and grab onto a wall-

     - and then her expression goes blank when she sees Lyner flying, before muttering exasperatedly to herself and jumping after, landing far enough behind him to deftly catch him in both arms.

     After that, though, she rather quickly let him back on his feet, sighing as she is ever-so-briefly reminded of her world's Shirou. However, she also gives a worried look to the crater where Riva once was, furrowing her brow in concern as she wonders whether or not the Templar's state was recoverable.

     After all... 'immortal' in body didn't really mean her mind was immune to the trauma. Though in hindsight, that might have explained a bit to be honest.

Lyner Barsett (916) has posed:
     Just before they completely disappear through the gate, Harpe is fired. The arrow pierces through the air and just before Arnest can pass through the gate, it grazes past his head. "Urgh-!" He grunted in pain and surprise as blood was immediately drawn from an opened wound on the side of his head, near the eye.

     His first thought was to heal it away of course! ...Except it wouldn't heal. At all. Was that arrow special? Tch, that bowman truly was tenacious.

     He glared back at Archer, hand held to the side of his head with blood streaming through his fingers as he vanished through the gate completely.