Scene #6202: This Present State of Grace pt.3

Owner	Pose
Morgan Berselius	The last time the wizard trio had laid eyes on this particular section of the multiverse, it was inarguably better approximated as a shithole rather than a proper world. As the specifics of exactly why this world is in such a terrible statte have been covered at length, it is best to recap succinctly and in metaphor. Thus, it can be accurately stated that Othrys' mere proximity, n every possible way, absolutely tanks the property values of all adjacent multiversal regions. However, by their efforts (or if you would rather, by the power of reckless experimentation and SCIENCE), the trio of magi have made an impact on this section of the world. The most obvious change is that the swampwaters are... nowhere near as fetid as they used to be, nor do they rest as high as they once were. It seems that, by draining away the pus of malice filling the wetland, they had actually depleted a significant volume of swamp-matter and restored some level of purity to the remainder. Where the bog has receded, more evidence of human civilization has emerged. The ruined foundations of homes, roads and monuments sprawl throughout the swamp like the dessicated skeleton of a once mighty beast. The temple is where it always had been. Morgan stands at the threshold, looking considerably more well put-together than he had earlier. His face seems to have rebuilt itself completely, and his arm is mostly restored-- though half of it still dangles from a stout tendril of shadowy matter where it should link to his elbow. "Hey," Morgan calls as the various magi arrive. "Welcome back. Place looks a lot more welcoming than it did earlier, doesn't it?" He seems to be in relatively good spirits-- his perpetually exhausted eyes don't seem quite so tired today. "I took the time to clear out the front end of the shrine," he says, "We should be good to head into the sanctum and start putting things back together now." Indeed, while the shrine's interior is still a mess of rubble and ruin, it's also... No longer covered in that terrible, malicious ichor that had afflicted it earlier. The old scriptures and murals, half-crumbled as they are, are now free of the profane images that had previously corrupted their meaning. Most importantly, that old beating heart that had encroached upon the tabernacle-gate at the far end of the temple has been cleared away. Now there's nothing more there than an ornate stone door waiting to be opened. "Just, uh. I'll warn you now, it might get a little disorienting when we head in."
Nie Li	"And why is that?" Nie Li asked Morgan about that warning as he's walking up and adjusting his shielding attire. Not much of a wizard, and having hardly displayed most of his knowledge and tricks, the boy has probably been the least outwardly impressive of the so-called trio. Then again, he's just a boy, right? Or... could he be holding back and letting Aoko and Lezard - both much more outrageous in raw power than he - handle the heavy lifting? The youth's adventurous smile masks most means of getting answers to these questions. He's in good spirits, and dressed in a FIT FOR FANTASY CHINESE ADVENTURES manner as always, revealed as his outer cloak and wrappings turn into misty energy and are sucked into a mystical ring he wears. The same ring that seems to store that sword he wielded last time... "How surprising... just pure violence was able to purify all of that malice? Something about that bothers me."
Lezard Valeth	Lezard is getting used to crappy magically-cancerous hellholes. This one is even worse than the last one he's been in somehow, but that doesn't stop him from basically approaching it in the same way. Figure it out, identify the moving parts, figure out how to break them and reassemble the pieces into the best solution possible. By his standards, naturally. The fact that the swamp is less actively hellish is nice, but he flies over the damn thing anyway. What, you think he's going to trudge through miles of marsh? Hell no. Lezard lands at the temple on his harpy, dismounts, and dismisses the minor demon back into the hellhole he summoned it from. "I suppose it was a fixer-upper." He remarks dryly to Morgan. "And yet our work isn't done yet, is it?" He heads in with the others, looking over the more prosaic envrionment. "Fascinating. Much less annoying when it isn't trying to kill you." He asides, and then nods. "Yes yes, let's get on with it." Impatiently, he looks to Nie Li and gestures to the door. What, you thought HE was going to expose himself when there's a perfectly good Muscle Wizard right there?
Morgan Berselius	"It certainly is not," Morgan nods to Lezard. Sure, violently punching the crap out of an entire swamp's worth of Malice might end up being more /viscerally/ difficult than dealing with whatever lies beyond that gate, but on the other hand... Restoring a spirit was never really going to be a walk in the park. "You'll see when we get inside. It's uh. Better than it was, but there's still a lot to do." "Don't underestimate the power of violence," he says, strolling lazily toward the great stone gate. "Especially focused and carefully calibrated applications of violence. Besides, I did my part too. Get ready," Morgan reaches up and places a hand against the engraved doorway. A thin tendril of shadow shoots up across the stone's center-line, causing the engravings to flicker to life. The door creaks open, and it would suddenly feel as though a great current of water were pulling towards the yawning void within. Morgan leaps into it, vanishing into the rippling nothingness. Light dissolves away, and for a moment you're falling through an endless vacuum, and then... There's a platform. A stone dais materializes out of the murk. Some force arrests your fall, allowing for a safe and gentle landing. As you touch down, the world fades back into view, revealing a great mess of floating stone structures and chambers. Water gushes from one to the other, forming channels that flow from room to room. Several rooms seem to float through a distant, brightly lit space. The source of the light is impossible to discern, it just seems to... /be/ there. Morgan gestures toward the vast maze of flowing water and floating stone, "Welcome to one of Rahu's Emanations. Somewhere in here is one of its anchors. If we can restore it, then this place will probably return to some semblance of order. If not, there miiiight be problems."
Aoko Aozaki	"So I was thinking, next time maybe we use a pug or a corgi, that way we can defeat it with the power of hugs instead of the power of blasting a giant centipede into atoms," Aoko says as she arrives, evidently in a good mood. Probably for Reasons. Assuredly for Reasons. To Nie Li, she simply grins. "You'd be surprised how many problems you can solve with reckless violence. Or maybe you wouldn't, mister Up In Time!" Probably not, a martial artist of his experience must have seen as much if not more fighting than Aoko has. Through the door they go! Aoko makes sure to go WHEEEEE, as is required. Once on safe ground again, Aoko dusts her jeans and glances around, trying to get a feel for the way magic flows in the area, and what its purpose is, with all but a glance. "So what are we looking for? I'm guessing it's not a literal actual anchor. And how DO we restore it? Just put it back together like a puzzle?"
Nie Li	Sensing Lezard's intentions, Nie Li can't help but show the barest hint of a smirk. Lezard might be on to him? Maybe. Maybe just a little. So Nie Li decides to humor the request, and steps forward into the opened gateway... then boldly LEAPS after Morgan!-- WHOAH! So THAT's why it's supposed to be disorienting. Nie Li descends through the void and then... lands! "This sort of environment..." It seems he's not entirely unfamiliar with being flung into some sort of mystical sanctum. He slowly looks about, keeping an eye open for anything out of place or possibly dangerous around them. Like traps. But for the moment, he's finding only... "So what does restoring an anchor entail? First we have to find it of course."
Lezard Valeth	Maybe Lezard is just being overconfident in his abilities again. Or is he being just confident enough? Time will tell. "Violence solves many issues. Unfortunately, some things are distressingly resistant to direct applications of it, else I would have completed my goals already and not need to be here at all." Lezard sighs ruefully, shrugging as his associates head through. Lezard, too, steps into the void without fear. The Sorceror lands on the platform without complaint or issue, smiling as he looks over the area wiuth a cursory examination. "A shattered environment." He comments, sighing. "Very well. Do you know what to look for, or are we to /guess/?"
Morgan Berselius	"I'm not sure using an adorable puppy to contain that much malice would accomplish much outside of turning an adorable puppy into a giant mutated monster-thing," Morgan says, looking clearly a LITTLE uncomfortable at the prospect of murdering adorable puppies. "Way better to use a centipede. Not much will miss a centipede." Except maybe all of its centipede family. Then you have a problem of vengeance-filled centipedes, and do you really want to be in that position? "It'll depend," Morgan explains, fishing something out of his pocket. It resembles a little aquamarine puzzle-chunk, like the corner piece of a sphere. A brief pulse of light emanates from the puzzle-chunk, and somewhere off in the distance a similar waveform reverberates back. "Typically restoring an anchor means somehow bringing function and life back to one of the god's domains. For example, Rahu is the god of rivers, yeah? So the shape and function that his anchor takes might be a flowing stream, or a bubbling spring. In which case, restoring it would involve undamming the stream or unclogging the spring or whatever, and then providing the god with enough strength to manifest and claim the anchor before something else does. I doubt it's either, given the fact that water IS flowing here, but at least we know where to look." "Got this from purifying that swamp-muck," Morgan says about his little blue trinket. "Chunk of crystalized divine essence. That wave that just came back was probably from Rahu's anchor. Come on," he stuffs the little puzzle-chunk back into his pocket and begins walking... right out into the void. Stones whirl out from the abyss, reassembling into a titanic stairway that winds its way up toward a nearby platform-- Whereupon part of Morgan's torso just sort of... vanishes. He hisses a curse, stabilizing himself as best he can as liquid shadow flows out to seal over the gap. A spark of light whirls through the void, darting around in jagged, angular lines. It looks like a fluctuating pattern of colorful shapes, its form comprised of translucent geodesic solids that seem to form from and dissolve again into pure energy without any clear pattern to their oscillation. "Damnit--" Morgan snarls, his body dissolving into shadows and suddenly racing with greater haste up the staircase. "I thought we'd have more time. Move, move!" Reaching the next platform is suddenly rendered complicated by the erratic darting to-and-fro of this strange spark of oblivion made manifest, but there's little safety to be had even upon arrival. The spark begins flashing, firing rays of similarly chaotic light into the stone structure. Pillars of geodesic colors begin to rise from the points of impact, resolving into elegant conical assemblies of sharp shapes that terminate in glowing, crystalline globes. "An agent of one of the Titans," Morgan growls, trying to force his wound shut even as more of the creatures begin to manifest. "I figured one would follow us in here-- we can't let it claim the Anchor. Break through, hurry!"
Aoko Aozaki	"Don't underestimate pugs and corgis! They're cute enough they might be able to turn malice into love, and we wouldn't have to fight at all!" You never know, it might be true. Probably isn't. Morgan's body flickers, though, and Aoko quints, before glaring at the spark of darkness that decides to play a game of lasers with the party. "Hey, it's ripping me off! Damn, your Titans are /jerks/," Aoko says, as she starts running up towards the next set of platforms. She doesn't even fire back! Actually she opts to do something much more effective. "Disappear!" A single word. In that instant it's more like fifty different incantations were uttered, and several counterspells layered one atop another. A form of High-Speed Divine Words, just less divine and more... whatever Aoko claims to be. Human, most of the time. Why recite long incantations when you can cram them into one word and get all the bang for your buck in a fraction of a second? Take notes, Lezard!!! At any rate, the full mystical weight of her word is aimed at the spark. It's probably not enough to actually make it disappear, but it might disrupt it from firing another volley or five, or slow down the formation of the agent(s).
Lezard Valeth	Lezard simply shrugs at the dog discussion. "I reiterate, elves don't even /have/ souls, so we can just use one of them. We wouldn't be losing anything of worth." But then Morgan gets blasted in half. "Well. That looked inconvenient." The Philosopher's Stone whips into position and creates its page barrier, blocking the next couple lasers that go his way. Notably, perhaps, it doesn't block any going for anyone else. Morgan explains the situation, and Lezard simply holds out his hand. "Give me the resonance piece and I will reach it quicker than any of you. I can teleport." He says. "Nie Li, do what you do best." He says, gesturing with his other hand at the Titan agents.
Nie Li	The instant that Nie Li gets a bad feeling - a moment before Morgan starts having BODY PROBLEMS - his body seems to darken a half shade, and eyes shift from human blue to featureless black. Shadow clings to him even, despite all sense... "We're being attacked by ABSTRACT GEOMETRY now?!" This development's among the weirdest that Nie Li's ever dealt with, but since Morgan isn't mortally wounded from such a strange injury, he focuses on making sure none of those things get near him... "Heh." A grin's cast over his shoulder at Lezard... mments before his whole body is consumed by a wave of NOTHINGNESS. But... it was a very different effect that NULLED OUT MORGAN. Which means he did that on purpose...? He's completely off the radar. For those here, with their advanced grasp of mystical principles, only the sensation that Something Lurks Among Them remains. There's no trace of Nie Li's spirit, life force, scent, or anything else... Until space ripples the next that the WANDERING SPARK wanders near a part of the walkway. That's when the VOID FORM peels away and Nie Li re-congeals. Even when he's only half-formed, he's DRIVING his hands forward. From both wrists, darkness and void writhes, and lances out as thick sharp tendrils - sickles, really - aiming to dice through the thing before it knows what hits it.
Morgan Berselius	Somewhen in the near future, Aoko is going to be responsible for some kind of behemoth corgi turning a skyscraper into its favorite chew-bone. Not that that's strictly a bad thing, necessarily. All dogs are good boyes, after all. But /still./ Meanwhile, in the here-and-now, there is something terrible at work. The little spark of apparently utter devastation flickers and weaves like the most deadly shooting star there ever was, even as the first of its minions emerges into the world. And then it runs photoplasm-first into Aoko's singular declaration. Suddenly the thing begins to stutter and writhe in uncomfortable ways. Its summoning operations are interrupted as several of the geodesic patterns are cut away before they can fully manifest. It flashes and writhes, struggling to escape the multiple layers of countermagic being wrought against it. Its form shifts and morphs, but in a way that Aoko can /feel/ happening. It's configuring itself into an antigen against her incantations, remodelling its metaphysical makeup on the fly to form enough exceptions against the counterspells anchoring it in place. But not quickly enough. Lances of pure void scythe into the flickering spark, and the thing is diced to so many pieces, wounding it irrevocably-- Wait, no. A section of the surrounding temple environment seems to unwind and flow into the damaged spark. Its interior logos restructures, as if it were less a life-form and more a living spell or cosmological law rebuilding itself on the corpse of this god's inner world. The thing matures to account for its damage, rewriting parts of itself to account for its attackers. The split-off bits bleed axiomatic motes as they spin out and reform, becoming constructs of solidified light that orbit a still formless central core. Its crystalline body shifts and changes, forming an arcane mandala that seems to be its form of 'spellcasting.' Space itself contorts around the mage and shadow-brawler, chains of mystical energies being proved into reality as fast as the evolving mote can calculate. What creatures /were/ successfully summoned in begin reorienting themselves as well, transforming into whirling crystalline sawblades that seek to cleave straight through their victims. They'll need to be destroyed or blocked, but at least the thing's attention is occupied...! Meanwhile, Lezard makes an offer that is very hard for Morgan to refuse. On the one hand, Lezard Valeth is a noted god-hater and really does not like the very concept of divinity. On the other hand, he has also professed a desire to... somehow salvage this world. ...Well. "Fine," Morgan says, slipping the little fragment of power into Lezard's palm. It feels warm to the touch. "But be careful. If you break the Anchor, this whole place collapses into the void and may very well take all of us with it. I'll fly my way over to help as quickly as I can." His body is changing, too, becoming less physical and more something of living shadow. "Aoko, Nie. I'm going to be leave distracting this thing to you two...!"
Aoko Aozaki	"Sure thing!" Aoko tells Morgan, allowing her full attention to fall onto the spark and the forming agents. And the chains. So many chains. "It's adapting to us!" she shouts to Nie Li. "Not in knowledge, I mean its existence is magically shifting to counter what we're doing specifically. We need to either vary it up, or overwhelm its ability to adapt. I don't know all that many spells, but... YOU probably have a hell of a repertoire! And the kind no god or Titan could possibly adapt to before you teach it to cry uncle." Blue lights flare into being around Aoko, trying to cut and sear away the chains before they can root her in place. The sawblade buzzes past her, grazing her hip through her shirt. The brief respite lets her anchor down and catch the breather she needs. "Eh, well... this place has seem some years, I'm sure it won't mind if I borrow a few. No word of this to anyone, you hear?" Time distorts across the temple. About... ten years' worth of time flows out of the structure, weaved into a prismatic, mostly blue, hue that spirals around Aoko furiously. "I announce! Order has fallen." The incantation is skipped. Or compressed. It's hard to tell. The end result won't be hard to miss, at any rate - the time flows into Nie Li, granting him the experience wielding his techniques that he'll have in ten years.
Morgan Berselius	Should Lezard take the puzzle piece and begin the process of warping across the void, he'd find that the thing would eventually lead him to a marketplace evidently frozen in time. The air feels thick, as if replaced by cool water that is never-the-less just as easy to breathe as any other atmosphere. The stalls are all stocked, and yet nothing changes hands, no wealth flows. The rice vendor who trades basic meals for a pittance of wealth, the grain merchant seeking to diversify his crop, the exotic saleswoman who starves herself to supply the city with spice, the potmaker whose lands lie fallow... Beadmakers, jewelers, butchers, artifact salesmen-- To restore this place, you will need to somehow restore 'flow.' Metaphysical flow. The flow of trade. The flow of wealth...! And in the distance, a winged shadow-- Morgan in his flight form-- approaches at all speeds to do what he can to help.
Lezard Valeth	Lezard accepts the piece and smiles. "Thank you." Simple. Straightforward. "Oh, you have nothing to fear about this. It is in good hands." His, of course. He raises the piece and taps it, sending a resonant pulse through the location, closing his eyes. He's all but ignoring the battle raging around him as a circle of power begins to build around him, the Necromancer slowly fading out of sight while Aoko begins compressing massive power into Nie Li. "Do give them my regards." He says as he teleports directly to the resonance response.
Nie Li	"Ghuh!" Even the Shadow Devil sickles can't cut this thing apart?! Nie Li senses INSANE DANGER from this fact and immediately hightails it away from the spark by kicking off the path and going sailing through the air, teeth clenched and beads of perspiration rolling down his face. But then. Reality warps. And Nie Li has all the time in the world. Ten years pour into him. THE FUTURE IS NOW. Light erupts from the boy's form, a burning silvery aura. It's only silver for a blink though. In a flash the silver refines into a blazing gold, radiating ten times the raw power. With another flash the gold aura deepens to a black radiance filled with golden streaks, a further order of magnitude greater. FLASH again and the aura turns a sparkling white, another jump in magnitude. Nie Li's aura sizzles, tearing at reality around him. And the boy... "Aaaaaahh.... AAAAAARGGGHHH---!" As if this process is QUITE PAINFUL, he begins to scream, arms reaching out for the heavens. Somehow or another though, he's stopped falling. Now, he's floating in the air. But the progression doesn't stop there. Oh no. Wings of gleaming light erupt from his back. One of purest white, the other of pitch black. The Laws of Light and Darkness have been called from the future. Energy swirls around his right hand, forming into what looks to be a gauntlet of spikey bone that radiates Death. The Law of Death. At this point, the energy he's giving off compares to what might call gods, and yet... The boy rapidly adopts a quarter lotus posture, meditating for what can't be more than two seconds in midair... just to control this explosion of progress. Does it help? It's hard to say, exactly. Because eight white flames spear outwards from his stomach and begin revolving around him, faster and faster, around the flame that remains attached to his gut. The white flames quickly shine all different colors. Red, yellow, green... every color of the rainbow is represented. as the flames blur into a multi-colored ring, they're sucked back into the boy's Soul Realm... And as he lets loose a TORNADO FORCE ROAR, stretching out all his limbs and clenching his fists his body's reborn from the feet upwards. A shimmery wave of energy that leaves him... changed. Not only older. Oh, no. His body has been REFORGED. Any basic spiritual senses can tell they're now looking at spirit made flesh. Nie Li's very existence is now something far, FAR beyond the realm of humanity. He's stepped into the realm of the gods and BEYOND, and has a body to match. Aoko, at least, would be able to tell that it's not terribly different from a Servant's body - a materialized soul, for flesh cannot handle this power. Mere flesh would just burn up. Now appearing to be a grown adult, he lands with an uncanny grace, as if he weighs nothing. The young man opens his eyes as if coming out of a trance... and his arm's up in a flash of motion too quickly for the eyes to follow. The Thunder God's Meteorite Sword appears instantly in his outstretched hand. "A Titan, you called this thing? Let's see if it deserves that title." There's a DEAFENING BOOM as DIVINE LIGHTNING flares in every single direction in torrents thick as redwood trees. The ENTIRE ROOM is full of lightning bolts arcing sizzling every which way, twisting around each other and recombining and forking as they please. The lightning is a cage of death and destruction, the sizzling bolts targeting only the spark and its abstract geometry servants. A torrential outpouring of power. And it feels like it was only a casual effort by the young man that's now among them. "Such power... I've reached the status of a Martial Ancestor... what did you DO?" He finally looks over his shoulders, amazed, at Aoko?
Morgan Berselius	Technically speaking, the Titans are nowhere near small enough to fit into your average crystal ball. However, regardless of what the true nature of the little floating sphere might be, it matters little compared to... Well, compared to exponential growth over the course of ten years applied in a singular instance. Evolution is one thing. The capacity for these entities to evolve and grow beyond their current means is impressive, certainly, but they are still for now bound by the limits of time. When Nie Lie's growth is accelerated so ludicrously by Aoko's invokation of the Fifth Magic, there is no hope to match it. Or perhaps there's just something about the essence of the Blue that still lingers to Nie's ensuing electric onslaught that just does not agree with this Titan's particular nature. To consume, to advance, to do this eternally and at an ever more rapid pace is something not necessarily unique to humanity-- but perhaps that little aspect of chaos that comes with the way the binding chains of time itself are so cruelly snapped is simply incompatible with this foreign divinity. The storm of divine lightning pours across the landscape, bolstered by the flowing currents of water churning through the temple-world. The lesser constructs shriek and break apart, their rigid geometries shattering and devolving into chaotic globules of god-stuff before dissolving completely. The spark attempts to weather the onslaught beneath a multi-layered barrier of pure arcane might, but as shield after shield is stripped away by the storm, it seems to realize that it is overmatched and... Promptly tears a little hole in reality and slips back to whatever space it emerged from. ... It seems, for now, the threat is handled. And now... All that is left is to catch up with Morgan and Lezard.
Aoko Aozaki	Aoko swoons, or at least certainly comes close to it. She expected greatness out of the boy after sensing something was amiss with him, but she didn't expect quite that much. No, truly, this shift is on the level she experienced when she tried it on herself years ago. Maybe a bit higher, actually. It's hard to accurately measure. "Whoa, awesome, awesome! You're even more handsome than I pictured!" Is THAT what she noticed first? She did compliment his muscles. Well, her first crush WAS a generic shonen martial artist teenager... maybe it's hard for her not to feel a bit of nostalgia. Although there's nothing similar between Nie Li's power and the Snake style. Lightning flares everywhere, and the magus does her best to stay out of it, a fact helped greatly by Nie Li's acquired skill and control. The spark and the agents of the Titans withdraw until the hail of divine lightning. Aoko laughs, walking over to Li to pat him on the back the moment he's grounded again. "Ahahaha! I just borrowed some time from the temple, that's all. Of course, I can't leave it like this or something bad'll probably happen. When we're done here I'm putting that back in its place, or maybe you'll wear it out and it'll happen on its own. I've never used that on someone else before, so I had no idea if it'd work!" He was a test subject. She had no idea. /Of course./ "Gotta say, you blew my expectations out of the water! And that thing, too. Especially that thing! Alright, question time's done, let's catch up to the others and put that skill of yours to the test, I doubt we're done here!"
Nie Li	How long can ten borrowed years POSSIBLY maintain this progression? As the invading Titan-forces are disprsed into nothingness, Nie Li banishes his weapon... and examines himself. Clenches his fists and unclenches them while looking at his palms a few times. Stretches his arms and legs. "Feels... unstable. This could KILL someone if you're not careful! Time... your specialty is Spacetime manipulation?!" The young man exclaims to Aoko. But he's still too amazed to put any real bark into the 'complaint.' Of course the praise on his looks does trigger some blushing, but the situation's hardly fit for such casual behavior! He's still operating on full adrenaline, even as he banishes the weapon back into his Interspatial Ring. But there's no time to be shocked at his own prowess (which, somehow, does not seem to be surprising him in the least. That's probably odd!) He doesn't even bother to walk, instead just levitating a foot off the ground and WILLING himself forward, propelled by his own monstrous Soul Force! "Haha... this is too ridiculous. I'd better exploit it while it lasts!"