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Kalia PREVIOUSLY: The vengeful demon, Kalia, had attacked a village, targeting the elders above all else. After investigation, it was revealed that the demon had been acting under the influence of a spirit named Gared, who, fifty years ago, had been betrayed by the village on the dawn of his quest to overthrow the evil emperor Abaris.

After visiting the empire and attempting to find Gared's remains, the party was ambushed by Vala, the daughter of the emperor, furious that the party had meddled into their affairs. Sent crawling back to her brother Ral and her father, the party managed to find Gared's remains and exorcised the spirit, presumaby weakening Kalia at the same time. There remained but one part of the story to wrap: the matter of the Empire of Tyron.

NOW: The imperial palace, a massive city-sized block of gold and obsidian containing, indeed, an entire city, is in utter chaos. Every gate leading into the city is barred completely shut by piles upon piles of bodies, zombies, skeletons and other undead. The defenses of the city are unmanned, crushed and bloodied.

Someone, no doubt, will have the means to blow open the gates - to banish the undead preventing entry, or to just brute force through the palace itself. What awaits the party once entry is gained is the sight of a city ablaze. Undead roam the streets, intercepting those who brave the streets. The holographic projectors that lit the entire city with an azure sky and light are off, the massive indoors city cast into an eerie darkness that emergency lights struggle to illuminate. Only the burning buildings provide any meaningful light in here.

But the shape of the palace within a palace, in the center of the domed-city, still looms visibly. It is neither burning nor lit up, but flashes of light inside betray advanced weapons fire and fancy, flashy techniques and spells being used to fight the invaders.

GM NOTE: ALL ACTIONS TAKEN TO SAVE CIVILIANS/ETC. AUTO-SUCCEED AND DON'T CONSUME YOUR ACTION, FOR THE SAKE OF NOT SPLITTING THE PARTY BETWEEN "RESCUE" AND "FIGHT".

Eventually, the party reaches the true palace. Dead guards, mauled in various fashions, litter the area. The throne room far ahead still echoes the sound of steel clashing.

Entering reveals the cause; emperor Abaris, his back turned to the entrance, is up from his throne, facing TWO CREATURES (wait for follow-up pose). He seems exhausted - which is to be expected of a man who looks in his 80s. Though he wears armored black and gold robes, they don't seem to have saved him from a few blows already. His long silver hair is red in most places, with his own blood. In his hands, an ornate black and gold sword with a gleaming red gem in its hilt, as if a sister sword to the Lakeblade used by Gared.

It'd probably not be difficult to end his life right now.

But what stands before him might be more urgent to deal with.
Lezard Valeth Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse...

The throne room shakes under the impact of twisted metal and flesh. Thick, chitinous plates of steel and bone cover a hulking beast of twisted crimson hue. It might have been once recognizably human, but pain and deformity has robbed the once proud man of that humanity. Burning red eyes stare out from a blackened steel cage wrapped around and grafted into the thing's exoskeletal face. Arms like living tree trunks split into dozens of thick cables that whip about his body, lacerating and forming into heavy bludgeons at the will of the beast. The torso is covered in heavy plates, the style recognizably that of the proud son of the Emperor, the coat of arms still visible on his chest and huge shoulderpads while he brings his hands down in a deadly hammerblow upon his father.

And where Ral is, one can expect Vala to be, though she has fared no better. A blurred, shrieking beast of blue, the twisted woman's hair is one of the few recognizable traits she still possesses. The array of metallic arms she had have been overgrown and fused with fleshy claws, merging horror and function together. A hellish neon blue light pulses in her chest and radiates through veiny conduits throughout her body as she flickers from place to place, rending and emitting incoherent shrieks as she assaults her own father. One eye flicks crimson red, designating a path moments before she screams a vaporizing beam of light towards the throne.

It's gotten worse.
Staren     Staren has a 40-foot war machine. It shoves aside the bodies and forces its way through a gate. Panicking civilians are directed to said gate for escape. Staren has a few squads of golems to deploy, directing them to attack undead and protect the living, but... there aren't that many of them. Still, it's something. Then he abandons his machine to fly into the palace. Maybe he can check it now and then and shoot a zombie, but he'll doubtless have his hands full with what's inside. He's still a robot, although his armor looks even more patched up than the other day.

    Staren whistles after he enters the throne room. "Hoo boy, you guys really did a number on yourselves. So, can you still talk or did you go full mindless monster in your pursuit of power? Never go full mindless monster. We can talk this out."

    He starts planning how to get the mecha here. Maybe it's time the throne room got a new skylight?
Spider-Man     Spider-Man is here. He lands near one of the gates, having swung here as fast as he can through Swamp Carnivore, and his goggles go wide. "Oh no no, no no no!!" He scans first through the bodies, trying to check for survivors. Nothing. He immediately takes on the task at hand, lashing a dozen thick strands of spider-web to the gate, and beginning to pull. "We have to get in there! They're /dying/ in there!" He screams himself hoarse, straining as hard as he can to wrench the whole thing open with just his own super-strength, practically crying with the effort before he makes barely enough of a gap to squeeze in, giving him time to work before the others even arrive.

    And now, he's swinging. This interior space is surprisingly condusive to his movement, because Spider-Man swings at a tremendous speed when he has a high point to do it from; as he moves, he dives in to save civilians wherever he can find them, yanking them out of swarms of the undead, diving through masses to deliver them to safety, and taking some surprisingly brutal strikes against the unthinking monsters; this is the only time he allows his fists and kicks to become lethal.

    But this is a symptom. It is not a cause.

    The cause, he assumes, lies with Ral and Vala. As he finally arrives through that familiar path, he screams out in a panic, "ABARIS!! What's going on?! We need-- There's so many people dying!! Where did all these zombies come from!? How do we stop it!?" He moves in quick; Ral is one he won't be able to help with very well, him having such armor and Spider-Man lacking much in the way of armor-piercing. But Vala, at least, he can strike at, trying to web her arms up and limit her movement, hoping he can give Abaris enough room to answer, and even better, to survive a little more. He may not like the man, but... Spider-Man saves people, he doesn't condemn them with inaction.
Haguro Haguro is here to save these people! Sort of. On her way into the city, the undead do indeed get shot at, but mostly those in the direct path of the mass of Elites headed for the palace. The Abyssal's tail heads turn this way and that even as Haguro herself makes a beeline forward, really only taking detours to avoid  all the fire.

She's not fond of all the fire.

Indeed, there's something more important to be done here. She's not going to go out of her way to save anyone since her primary objective is in the palace itself. Confronting the Emperor was the original plan, but she has the sneaking suspicion he's going to be a little occupied with this situation. It'd be bad form to try and talk to him at the same time. Then again...

Doesn't being a hero also involve doing things that other people might not find socially acceptable? She's about to speak up when she notices that the Emperor is not alone. He's facing off against two Creatures donning eerily familiar armor and adorned with technology that's a little too similar to certain other people's for it to be a coincidence.

There's a word for this. She can't remember the word, but there's definitely a word for this.

"Abaris! Your people are dying outside. Shall we save them, or you?" As she lays that choice down, Haguro's tail heads roar in unison as the cannons load and fire a volley of heavy shells at the creatures. They're not the explosive sorts for once, although they do pack a punch if they hit their marks!
Cordelay Levail Cordelay charges through the streets like a whirlwind, her twin blades flashing in the dim light as she scythes through the undead, saving those she can on her way to the palace. Her face is a grim mask of determination as she witnesses the destruction, her resolve hardening with each gruesome sight.

Bursting into the throne room, she spots the Emperor and her fellow Elites doing battle with the two monstrosities before them. "This is awful..." She mutters before drawing her twin swords and facing down the enemy. "In the name of all those who were butchered here, I, Cordelay Levail, daughter of Sartaire the Dragon, will cut you down!"

She rushes at Ral with surprising speed, lashing out with her swords in a flurry of strikes in the hopes of finding a weak spot or chink in his armor.
Avenger One of the gates overran with the undead, there were so many things, without the grace of God.  Avenger, stands a bit back, observing what was happening.  With a sigh, he pulls out a cigarette from his coat, lighting it up, and takes a drag.  There is a bit of time he talks on the radio to someone, and then with a grin, he puts the cigarette out.

"Very well, my conspirator.  Let us do things your way for a time!" As the body of Avenger erupts into black flames, sparks of lightning seem to trickle around his form as he walks towards the gate.  As the first of the ghouls turn around...

Avenger flashes through with speed, as blasts of dark fire burst everywhere.  The corpses burn away, the undead particularly susceptible to these kinds of flames, will quickly burn away as the flames force whatever that is animating them to stop.  Avenger is cutting a line through the city...

Every once in a while he stops, picking up a person, and depositing them somewhere safe, before going back on the path of cutting a trail towards the throne room itself.  Only finally, upon arriving there he watches the old king's plight.  The wicked grin on his face only deepens, though he had nothing to do with it, the irony of the situation makes him happy in a way he was not expecting.

"It appears, oh Emperor, that your children have suffered some great affliction.  Are you to join them, or will you fight against them with all of your might?  Would you even cut them down to preserve the last few years of life you have left?  Khahahaha!  I have taken the burden of the old hero on..."

He speaks, and fires a blast of black fire towards the back of each child, aiming to burn them and let them know that a greater threat to them was there.  The fire /hurts/ upon touching them, burning away at their very life force.
Maya Action was going to have to be taken against this empire at this point. Once again the heir to an empire had tried to have Maya offed and others killed. They had not even the class of the last one who tried it on, Maya. So here Maya was ready for trouble and it was like watching one of the worst events of the Heretic War on her homeworld play out once more before her.

The army here has been slaughtered, the undead are running rampant. Maya will get to work with spell work and gun to clear the way for people to flee, aiding Staren in helping to direct people out. She'll even heal where needed, but she remains on the move the source of this is deeper in. She will aid Spider-Man as well as they fight their way through to the Palace. Then she sees two things that were once people, now twisted and wretched before her.

She will move to act to the Emperor's aid Given he was open to Gil taking over this place? That might keep it from utterly falling apart there seems to be no doubt in Maya's actions as she's got her rifle out, the housing on the weapon opens up and a focusing crystal of some sort is now visible and it fires a focused beam of energy at Vala with a fairly good kick.

She does not waste words on them, Staren's already handled the attempt to talk and she calls out to the Emperor.

"If you can aid in the defence of your people now would be the time to do so Emperor Abaris."
Roxas The fact that this place was going to be trouble really hadn't escaped Roxas, since the Princess of it made a good effort to try to kill him and everyone around him. The whole incident had left a sour taste in his mouth, and a part of him really just didn't want to come back at all. On the other hand, another part of him was feeling more than a little bit spiteful about /the attempted murder/.

That was incidental. He mostly came here as a part of the group of Paladins already present. He's trailing behind Spider-Man when the superhero struggles to open the gate.

It was, he reflects, unfortunate that it wasn't just /locked/.

"I'll catch up!" Roxas calls as Spider-Man swings ahead, glancing back to see whether or not his PARTY MEMBER is still with him. Sometimes she has her own ideas about what should be going on.

Once he's sure that he isn't suddenly alone, Roxas rushes after Spider-Man, running up the side of a building to get a rooftop vantage and leaping along them until one of the next buildings over turns out to be on fire. Then he just takes to the streets again, shouting an occasional, "FIRA!" or "THUNDARA!" as one element or the next leaps into the surrounding undead on his command, eventually arriving -- breathing heavily -- at the doors of the throne room.

He glances back and asks, near-breathlessly, "You okay?"
Xion A city on fire. A lightless dome lit by crackling embers.

Monsters and tyrants both.

And, racing into the city, is a young woman in a black coat, jogging alongside a young man in similar. Her stride was close, eerily in that 'party member lockstep' she could get going on, as the city's gates were wide open.

SIDE CUTSCENE

"Huh, hey, Roxas, you go on ahead!" Xion calls, forking a right as others go to help people or combat the undead. Instead, she dashes for the forge.

When she returns, a few moments later, tossing the still-probably-alive Blacksmith out the window for him to escape, Xion follows shortly after with two armfuls of extra-stupid overwrought ritzy implements and garbage alike clenched in her arms.

BACK IN THE THRONEROOM

Xion rejoins Roxas with a slide as she brings up Spider-Man's rear with a huge overwrought mechanical pitchfork. "Wow, this really is a good mission! We're getting all of it, a big kingdom, a swamp, monsters, betrayal, and now the climactic battle!"

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Xion asks, side-leaping to avoid the scything beam attack from the conjoined monster before thumbing the activation switch on her PITCHFORKENATOR 6000 - and begins the awful, slightly-burned chugging vibro-pitchfork studded in useless gems and jewels aflame with TREMENDOUS PITCHFORK POWER - before aiming like a javelin, and throwing it towards that blasting zombie eye of Necro-Vala's.

"Go, Pitchforkenator!"
Lilian Rook     Though perhaps not *expecting* it, Lilian had set up for today with the hopes of having just one more excuse to kick down the doors and Do As She Wilst. She doesn't reuse the outfit she had custom tailored to look good in this one specific city; she shows up wearing the tactical bodysuit clearly outfitted in a 'battle rattle' state, with additional shaped black ceramic plates, twice the number of odd glassy lines engraved in it, a rifle of some kind fixed across her back opposite the sword, a full belt of ammo, explosives, talismans, vial, and similar, with multiple daggers and a machine pistol involved, and a half-face concealing tactical visor with red optics. Even her hair is fully tied all the way up.

    She'd planned on walking into the throne room like that and let anyone try to do something about it. The fact that most of the place is now on fire just makes her look like a very carefully prepared responder, or someone who cleverly predicted this disaster, and dressed appropriately. That's some silver lining.

    With gates in her way, she amps the stasis rune^5^5^5 up to full and blows holes through them with physical force. The undead she simply skips past. The civilians in the streets, despite her attitude last time about saving villagers, are completely ignored by her, and essentially left to their own fate. She's straight off to the castle in hunting down Vala specifically. This is either Vala's fault, or someone else is about to get to her before she does.

    Actually seeing what variety of clusterfuck the responders are dealing with when she arrives is grounds for a look so extremely displeased that it's obvious even with her eyes not being visible --even to a man currently engaged in life or death combat. Lilian mentally makes some small note that an octogenarian with a sword had lived this long vs both of those things, but mostly dedicates her efforts at the moment to sharpening her mystic senses and focusing the thaumaturgic analytical programs in her headset on the two monsters.

    She wants to confirm they are who she thinks they are, how long they've been like this, and run a general suite on what class or alignment of magic did it to them, what pressingly important abilities they've gained, what they're deriving their juice from, and what any potential elemental or combat weaknesses are. She nominally needs their attention off the emperor for now, so she unholsters the machine pistol and sprays two quick bursts of rounds at the pair (her hand not twitching in the slightest from recoil), while slashing her opposite hand and and sending flashing sparks of magical lightning to chain between them.

    "I'd suggest you get off the throne, your majesty. The following sequence will be a lot easier if you aren't dead." she shouts out, terse and professional, like a very slightly sick-of-this police officer. "Oh and tell me if you understand me, Vala~ I'm sorry I was so late in tracking you down." she then says, in a wildly different tone of voice.
Kalia     The emperor's blade halts his son's massive, demonic arms, but only barely. He grunts, and when his daughter fires a beam of destruction his way, he slashes with his blade. Some of the energy scorches away his armor, some gets deflected away.

    And of course, the emperor looks all the worse for it.

    "I do not know!" he barks at Spider-man, his breaths short and raspy. A glance at Haguro, and he responds: "My people won't be safe until my children are put down. You'll have to forgive this old man for doing what he must to ease his children's pain before anything else!"

    There is sadness in his voice, but the resolve of a warrior also.

    The old man's stare moves towards Avenger, resolute. "I do this to ease their pain. I don't care what happens to me."

    It's a lot of allies, at least. Even if they aren't here strictly to help him, he's fairly certain they'll help put those demons down.

    Getting off the throne, though? The emperor looks at Lilian, almost forlorn for half of a second. "There's no point in me sitting on it anymore."

    The emperor's blade comes alive with a strangely black and white fire, and he adds to the heroes' efforts with a unholy slash-shockwave.
Gilgamesh      This is slightly hilarious.

     The King of Heroes, glorious golden god-child that he is, barely pays the undead any attention. Those that approach him are scattered by the overwhelming force of the Gate of Babylon, literally shredded by an onslaught of proto-legendary weapons. Skeletons are torn to pieces by hammers that could each be a legendary hero's signature. Zombies are blasted apart by spears that gods might wield. Nothing comes close to the King in his black coat and white sweater, with a golden goblet of fine alcohol swirling in his hand. He's not trying to help the citizens, and in truth, he really doesn't care. They aren't his problem. In fact, this city isn't his problem in the slightest. It wasn't sold to him. It's *his*, but this is one of those disasters the King really actually sort of enjoys, the sort of disaster the King finds deeply necessary for human lives to be strained out. There's so much needless excess.

     No, he's just walking through on business.

     The King enters the throne room as the shockwave comes alive. He swirls his drink slightly, but he makes absolutely no move to deal with the monsters. Instead, he just sort of laughs, that high, haughty laugh he's so well-known for.

     "This is what happens when fools play court games with heroes."

     His face takes on an unpleasant leer. "I think it's safe to say that the price of your kingdom has dropped substantially. Of course, if you're ready to sell, then I suppose I'd have no choice but to clean up your mess."

     "On the other hand, if you need more persuasion, I'm prefectly happy to simply enjoy this evening's entertainment! Fu hu ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
Lezard Valeth Staren tries to talk to them as they assault their father. The damage is done, but the beast that was Ral turns to stare over to Staren. His maw gapes open, and he roars at the heavily-armed scientist, "TREACHERY!" With that cry, he abandons striking at the Emperor, instead starting a juggernaut-like charge into the assembled outworlders. "KILL OUTWORLDERS!"

Vala gets clipped by the web, the agile murderbeast being slowed for critical moments as she struggles to rip free of the sticky web. While powerful, she seems to focus more on speed than raw power. Thankfully for the others, Haguro manages to take advantage of the situation to blast her down with her cannons, sending her crashing to the ground, where Maya blasts the speed demon again with her lasers, scorching her... But she hurls herself out of her position as Avenger's dark flames strike, barely avoiding them, as if she could sense the power of that final rest that they carry. Xion comes ROARING IN with her PITCHFORKENATOR 6000, making full use of the shiny and glitzy tool to hurl it at the demon-woman! The good news is that the vibro-pitchfork punches into her body nicely, the PITCHFORKENATOR 6000 stabbing her right where it hurts... At least to hear the banshee-like horror shriek about it. Unfortunately, Vala is neither a haystack or a hockey-mask wearing mass murderer at a summer camp, so she is not immediately defeated by the strike. The demon rips the weapon out of herself and immediately shatters the thing into pieces.

Ral, in the meantime, gets intecepted by Cordelay. The impact of her blades are turned away at first, but her edge is strong. After a few hacking blows, the impact digs into a joint, cutting deep for a moment as Ral roars in anger and pain. Unlike Vala, however, Ral takes the flames head on, trying to ignore the way that they bite into his body and scorch him in ways no normal fire could. Roxas hurls slightly more normal fire and lightning at him, which does a number on his plating... But not his resolve.
Lezard Valeth Lilian checks over the pair to see what their Deal is. They both appear to have suffered intense mutations through some form of necromantic application. They both appear to have co-opted their already-present augmentation and turned it up to 11. Both of them seem to have Actual Demons riding along in their bodies, adding some magical oomph to their existing extensive cybernetically augmented body horror, turning each of them into a hellish war machine in their own right. One seems to be The Fast One and the other seems to be the Strong One, as these tropes are wont to go. Bullets spray over Ral and Vala, the bullets almost uselessly spanging off of Ral's heavily armored body while Vala takes some flesh wounds when the spray manages to catch her blurred body. The Emperor follows up with a wave of unholy power, the pair quickly bracing against it as the flames scorch them... But less than one might expect considering the mighty display.

As he roars, his hand comes up and slams straight down into the floor, trying to crush Cordelay... But that isn't even the beginning. The impact creates a shockwave that ripples across the floor, cracking tiles... and beginning to disguise the true form of Ral's attack as the cables that make him his arms rip up from the ground, barbed and humming rapidly as they work to skewer and rip into each of the enemies present.

Vala, meanwhile, hisses in recognition of Lilian and Staren, basically spitting sizzling drool down as she blurs and vanishes, reappearing right in Lilian's face as she works to sink he claws in and simply tear the mage apart... a feat that she tries to repeat on Staren, almost driven on with some paroxysm of twisted hate and emotion as she then launches herself at her own father in an attempt to rend him apart.
Kalia     "I don't care for this land anymore. You can have it, King Gilgamesh of Uruk. If I have my way, I won't be leaving this throne room, either."

    It might be because he's rather obviously, and crippingly, old. He's still a knight, wielding a fancy magical sword, but his body can't keep up. And odds are substantially high that unholy sword was something he could wield recklessly in his youth, but without reason to use it for a long time, can't handle the strain of anymore.

    Not that he cares.

    He doesn't even want anything for his empire.
    Gilgamesh can just have it.
    What's left of it, anyway.

    His blade erupts with that black and white fire as he raises it against his daughter. The emperor's skills are rusty, but he's sturdy, for his age. The claws crash time and time again into the blade, not chipping it in the slightest, but wearing the man's arms down instead.

    "Would that I had enough vitality to put you down AND find the monster who did this to you," he says to his daughter, before the flames around his sword burst out in a sphere, trying to knock Vala away so he can... power up?

    Seems to be the case. His entire body is engulfed in that unholy fire, and it's getting brighter and hotter by the second.
Staren     Staren's forcefield flashes into visibility as Vala claws at it. The outer layers shatter, but it turns her aside -- for now. "Tch. This is just sad. Hell, this is textbook. You tried to make yourselves more powerful and turned into monsters, and now a buncha heroes show up to put you down. If you make THIS mistake... you were never fit to rule, even if this kingdom weren't doomed from the start!"

    Staren holds out his arms. "Let me show you how to do it /right/." The forcefield drops just long enough for a half-dozen tiny missiles to shoot out at -- Ral. The miniature anti-tank warheads try to blow holes in that thick armor and make an opening for others.
Cordelay Levail Cordelay dives to the side just before Ral's great hand crashes down on her, landing hard on the floor and letting out a growl of pain as the cables bursting from the floor tear at her body. Her leg trembles as she forces herself to her feet and grimaces.

"Leave this juggernaut to me. I will never give up, not until this body of mine can no longer stand!" Despite her wounds, Cordelay rushes toward Ral again with a fiery determination in her eyes.

The warrioress's speed is remarkable as she thrusts out with her blades again, more cautiously this time as she seeks another weak point in the armor or an opening she can exploit, anything to give her an edge against this remarkable foe.
Roxas Roxas just looks incredibly confused at Xion reappearing with a big ol' pitchfork. He blinks at her, rubbing at the back of his head a little uncomfortably. He replies, "I... guess? Most of those things are pretty bad, though, aren't they? I mean, it's fun to hear about that kind of thing, but I'd prefer /not/ to be betrayed."

"And, um..."

"Well, no reason, I guess. You're pretty capable of taking care of yourself." He grants, with a wave of a black-gloved hand.

The whole exchange is interrupted by the sudden assault of Ral -- Roxas is caught abruptly along the edge of the shockwave, hurled across the throne room into one of the walls with a sharp CRACK. He's quick enough to get out of the way of the rending tendrils that follow however, evidently noticing the trick behind the attack and deciding that it's best not to be there.

A specific call for assistance reaches Roxas's ears as he comes down into a roll. Initially he was going to split off after Vala, since that's what Xion seems to be doing but-- but there's plenty of people from one to the next, and the call was specifically for help with Ral.

Roxas's form flickers as he darts in on Ral, heedlessly closing to close range along his flank, keeping out of Cordelay's way. There is a ringing noise as twin weapons -- if they can be call that -- materialize to hand. He turns on the spot and spins, a ring of concussively-charged light radiating out from the arc of the two keyblades as he drives in towards Ral, trying to keep his attention.
Gilgamesh      The instant Abaris says it, Gilgamesh drops the goblet. It vanishes into a ripple in thin air, disappearing in an instant. The King of Heroes runs his fingers through his hair, slicking it back into sharp, spiked points. His eyes flicker with a bright red light.

     "Very well."

     He turns. "Then I'm going to go outside and take control."

     He looks over his shoulder at the Emperor. His eyes linger for a moment, watching the man's struggle. Then they close, and he smirks. "You're a wiser man than your children knew. A pity about their egos. If you had passed that wisdom on to them you might have been a passable king."

     The King throws his hand out. His coat whips around him. "But I am the one and only King of Heroes. None shall ever equal me. So I will do what humans cannot."

     "I will save this land."

     His hands enter his pockets as he walks out, the smirk fully plastered on his face. He walks past guards being attacked by undead, and with a thought pins the monsters to the wall with countless blades. He walks past maids and housekeepers being run down by horrifying birds, and cuts the beasts' wings off in an instant before garroting them. Each time, he snaps his fingers at the survivors, and his golden voice pours out.

     "Grab a weapon and follow me. I am your King now. We will restore order."

     Gilgamesh walks outside, followed by soldiers, housemaids, and servants. He snaps his fingers again and starts ordering barricades as he walks into the street. He will go recover the people. He will go kill the monsters. They will reinforce the castle and ensure that those inside are not struck from behind. They will reinforce the castle as a safe place for people to flee to.

     The King does not brook chaos in his streets, and now these streets are his.
Haguro Haguro simply smiles lightly at Avenger's reaction to her course of action, notwithstanding it largely being the one that the rest of the responders seem to be opting for. Whatever their reasons are, it's all largely aimed towards reaching the same conclusion, and with the revelation from the Emperor that saving the townspeople means helping him, her choice is made!

Plus, the Emperor's monstrous progeny aren't really giving her much to justify /not/ shooting them. They're just going to give a bad name to decent people that just look monstrous. With Ral attacking with the ground itself, Haguro flings herself into the air to avoid the worst of the shockwave. It still sends her flying back towards a wall, but she manages to stop herself by catching into it with her tail before sliding down.

"Easing their suffering is more important than your life? That's... Commendable." Haguro nods slowly in approval even as she shakes her arm off, working out the kinks in her arm before turning her attention back to Ral. She does pause, however, when Abaris all but turns over his kingdom to Gilgamesh and, by extension, the Paladins.

Now she's torn. Is it more important to be a hero, or to be responsible to her allies? To fight for her ideals and hope for the best, or to fight for the long-term gains? The Abyssal hesitates further, but soon...

It's a much easier decision than all that. There's enemies in front of her. They're threatening her allies right now. Whether that works for the long or short term is irrelevant. Her new plan: SHOOT THEM IN THE FACE.

Which she starts doing more of. Switching to explosive shells, Haguro starts rushing in towards Vala, identifying her as the speedier of the two opponents. Two of those explosives shells are fired at each of Vala's sides before the Abyssal moves in to try slamming right into her, aimed at her legs in particular in an attempt to limit her mobility and make her an easier target for everyone else!
Avenger The claw swings for Avenger, but in the moment it took for him to swing, and for him to realize Avenger was just an afterimage, the man was already walking towards the Emperor.  The Avenger stares him down for just a moment, before vanishing again, and appearing above the son.  Hovering there, he stares for a moment.  A demon possession as well as Necrotic rituals to cover the flesh.  

Avenger once more flies down, aiming beams of the black flame towards the son, before flipping off and skidding back around.  Another burst of flame flies from his fist, aiming to smash into the front of the monster.  The fire burns, specifically burning away the unholy.  The flames of absolute death that hang around him.

The fire that brings death to godless monsters.

"You realize, this turn of events comes due to your actions, oh Emperor.  However, it is heartening to see you take responsibility for it in the end.  Most would scream at the unfairness, or cling to life in some way.  Yet you march towards death, with only your desire to end their suffering," Avenger says, perhaps not unkind.  His smile is gone, just the simple plain look of the man that perpetually seems like he is frowning, unless he is smiling madly.

"Then come demons.  Come meet your fate at our hands.  Be scoured from the earth in the flames of retribution! Come see the power that goes beyond love and hate! Kyahahahaha!"
Spider-Man     "Glad you got back!" Spider-Man calls back to Roxas, as he rejoins with his ally! He backflips and handsprings away from the shockwave, evading its damage. But still, his Spider Sense is going off! Why?! He's too late to figure it out. He tries to leap up above the cables, but one whips around and immediately eats shit as one of the cables crashes into him with a heavy crack. He screams in pain that isn't remotely used to the stress of battle like this, and slams into the ground at a bit of a distance. It takes him a moment to scramble to his feet as he slides and tumbles, bouncing onto them as fast as he can. "Gahhhh, someone please-- I need someone to keep Ral off me! I can't deal with his armor, I'll do everything I can to slow down Vala!" There's a quick nod to Cordelay Levail and her own assurances; he'll try to keep the apparently experienced warior between him and that titan.

    He dives as fast as he can towards Ral's sister. "VALA!" He screams. "No! Stop this!! Even if you tried to kill us, wasn't that for some kind of /ambition/?! What are you going to do with this?! You're going to burn out and die, and you won't have a kingdom left to rule, even if you kill him!" He leaps, trying to blast broad arrays of web over the many-armed foe, and keep away from her ranged prowess, while keeping at a distance from Ral's tunneling attacks. "Whatever demon got into you, you have to fight it, /please/! For your people, for your power, your kingdom-- for your /brother/ even!! Don't you have something left to care about besides killing Abaris!?"

    He swings and tries to deliver a solid, meaty kick to one side right when Haguro goes to ram into her, enough to get her off-balance enough that he can start webbing her to the ground, making it harder and harder to avoid strikes or use her flickery, high-speed mobility.
Maya Thing are heating up now, the fight is underway. Then Gilgamesh shows up and Maya does bristle at Gil's words today. She's in a life or death situation at the moment and she's looking to deal with the two cyber horrors. Lilian is able to confirm the state of the two there was nothing left to save if Maya had even had the desire to. At this point? She's more worried about taking them down fast enough so she can get back to hunting the lesser horrors outside.

Then the Emperor makes the call to sell and Gilgamesh gets into action he heads out to deal with things outside. Even though he rubs her the wrong way he is quite thankful for his actions right now. How she really feels about the King of heroes is /very/ complicated.

They should also not get caught up from behind at this point and quite a few more people might indeed live through this day.

The shockwave forces Maya back doing a fair but to rattle and hurt her through rough her armour and then comes to the horrible hooks and the like and that does cut the blue-haired junker up pretty well. She's bleeding but she is not dead yet, and she will pull several cards out the blue fire leaks from her body at her as one green one glows. Power crackles about her free hand and arm dancing about it like a lightning storm formed about her harm she then levels it at Ral and then comes the discharge of electrical power at him.
Lilian Rook     Lilian focuses most of her attention on the two heirs-turned-monsters in front of her, listening for the rhythm of their magical exertions, feeling the ebb and flow of ambient energy around them, zeroing in on its source, examining its particular character and feel, looking at the magnitude of its emission. She compares her sharp perceptions and gut instincts against the visor, combining her third eye with the magitechnological ones, and runs out her conclusion.

    "Got it. High level necromancy confirmed; someone's fused their previous augmentations with their bodies and worked necrotized biomass into their structure to power them with magic instead of those ridiculously inefficient capacitors. Where they're *getting* that magic from, is a considerably powerful demonic spirit implanted each of them. They're husks right now. Physical shells to interface demons with cybernetics; that kind of power is burning their brains out." she runs off. "I don't suppose any of you is an exorcist? An ordained priest or something? Disabling or removing the augmentations will lower their combat power, but otherwise, we're killing the both of them." She certainly doesn't sound bothered by the idea of killing them in the slightest, but people had asked about the faint possibility of somehow saving them, so she shows off what she knows.

    Ral is basically immune to small arms fire, and but a big walking wall against magic. Vala is physically more fragile, but more difficult to hit. That's about what she'd expected. Lilian doesn't carry anything close to 'holy' in her arsenal, and isn't kitted to incapacitate monsters non-lethally; that's the opposite of her job.

    Dedicating all her focus and mental energy to analysis leaves her wide open though, or at least as wide open as someone like Lilian can be. Vala just *appears* right in front of her in an instant, the 'blink' activity Lilian had gotten a handle on last time now cranked up to 11 and well outside of the margins she'd planned for. She can *act* instantly, sure, but her *reactions* are still limited, albeit still far quicker than humanly possible. Vala already has her claws straight through the heavy ceramic breastplate, then the tactical insert below, and has ripped dire gouges in the thick bodysuit below that, before Lilian--
Lilian Rook                 -----[stop]-----
    --Wrenches herself backwards, physically dodging at the same time she'd stopped time as part of the same danger avoidance reflex. The most protective part of the battle configuration is done for completely off the bat, having technically done its job in protecting her vital organs by slowing Vala's claws just enough to escape, but now leaving that area the most exposed out of everything.

    She'd be more upset about that huge issue coming up right at the start, but it takes her a moment to be able to breathe in with how hard her heart had just hammered into her throat and how much adrenaline had just spiked into her system; a small amount of it is stress due to the sudden attack, and the rest is physiological stress from that 'hard' a Stop.

    Attempting to conserve Time for what might be a long haul, Lilian leaps back out of the way and doesn't touch the ground, holding the trigger down until it empties the remains of the magazine and then just tossing the SMG without bothering to reload, leaving a trail of tungsten penetrators in her wake, all lined up with Vala. She circles around 90 degrees, to Vala's 3 o'clock, where only half the tentacles can reach instead of all of them like in front or behind. Then, she charges in and--

                -----[start]-----

    --flashes into Vala's right arc at a near-blindside, a stream of bullets teleported into the monster's face, but Lilian striking her with empty hands from the side, abusing the articulated plating on her knuckles with a rapid fire trio of straight jabs, with an advancing stomp on !Vala's shin to break it at the midsection. She reaches out to grab one of the mechadendrites if given a moment by Vala flinching, getting both arms around it and twisting in opposite directions to wrench it out of her flesh with sheer torsion. It'd look moderately ridiculous if her motions didn't make small supersonic *bangs* from the magic flooding her limbs and the general acceleration of time.

    "Don't think for a *second* that just because someone else made you hideous first, I won't do it to you again. I hope you can understand me in there, because I promised to make you hideous, and I intend to keep my word." Lilian hisses up close.
Xion The monster, combined, is more than any one person - and certainly more than any one 80 year old tyrant man. Who, in the course of things, becomes an 80 year old EX-Tyrant! Gilgamesh's golden presence is ever the beacon of and lightningrod for desire, and he seizes the kingdom, as promised, with words.

Xion seizes the L, with her face, too distracted by the proceedings of the PITCHFORKENATOR to deflect the heavy swing dealt into her, sending her flying away from - and swiftly crashing into - a gilded palace wall, consumed by finely-powdered masonry for a moment.

The moment ends, revealing Xion with a clearing-up 'bruise' across her front, braced on both legs against the wall as if it was simply floor and she was dropping from a moderate height.

"Well, I mean... It's our first mission! Wait, wait, I know! We need to defeat the monster, using the magic sword! Like the prophecy! Miss Lilian, use the magic sword!"

Xion drops to the ground, circling with both hands cupped over her mouth. "Not that magic sword, the other one! Lakeblade!"

Spending a moment to focus, the black-coated girl swiftly finishes casting a spell between sweeping attacks or laser barrages from the joined amalgam. "Demi!"

Much like the guard in the swamp, the blast disforms and mis-shapes space itself around the already pretty jumbled up cyborg zombie, swelling outward before imploding.
Lezard Valeth Vala strikes against her father, and just like any father facing a wayward child, he metes out punishment. The sphere of energy erupts outwards, forcing Vala back for critical moments as she takes the blast to the face, howling as she is repulsed. Staren tells Vala how it is. Can she even comprehend what's going on? Can she understand the underlying morals behind what has happened to her and the final lesson Staren is trying to impart? It's impossible to tell, really, as that core pulses more and more, ichor seeping out around her from the PITCHFORKINATOR 6000 wound, stymied by the forcefield for the moment. Haguro blasts Vala and crashes right into her, the pair going down in a tangle of shredding, armor-piercing claws and Abyssal might. Shooting them in the face seems to be a solid plan. The Spider-Man comes in to help, firing more webs around her as she rolls about with Haguro. She fights to rip away the web and tries to use the Abyssal in a cruel manner to interpose her in the way of Spider Man's kick as much as she can. "OUTWORLDERS MUST DIE!" She cries back. Reasoning with her seems to be difficult at best... Even when normal, she was pretty intractable. Now... How much of her is even there to heed Spider-Man's pleas? She certainly doesn't seem to be resisting... Can she even do so?

Lilian certainly doesn't care, and perhaps she shouldn't. Lilian has her own take on things and her own goals for all of this. Bullets suddenly rip into Vala faster than even she can move, Time itself being used as a weapon against her. Even trying to use Haguri as an Abyssal shield isn't doing to do much when Lilian can just angle herself properly. Suddenly, she's getting straight gangbeaten, the demoness screaming as flesh rips and bones crunch unpleasantly under the impacts.
Lezard Valeth Ral, however, is not expecting the massive bombardment on his flank, and the impact crashes into his back and side, the micromissile blasting huge chunks of armor and bone off while he staggers from the impact. The armor seethes, melting from the anti-tank shots... But the armor begins /regrowing/ rapidly. Did he have a regeneration implant?! It doesn't seem to be doing much for the underlying flesh, but the armor is working to sheathe it as quickly as possible to close up that weak point in his armor. Maya's lightning crackles as it strikes Ral, conducting nicely through the metal with a crack of thunder and pain. The Avenger's dark flames plow into Ral as well, the demonic being becoming a focus of heavy, destructive attacks... As well he should. The flames that burn the unholy sear the beast's flesh, ripping away what defenses Ral is trying to marshal as he begins thrashing about violently in response. Thrashing doesn't stop powerful gravity waves from beginning to compress him, however. Plates buckle and his body begins to shudder under the constant, increasing pressure.

This causes problems for Cordelay, who is able to stab into the weak point... But the next blow begins skidding along fresh metal and chitinous bone. Roxas helps solve that problem as he comes in hard and fast, summoning up his strange dual weapons and carving with speed and power into the juggernaut. Ral's armor begins to get shredded again, the impacts carving into him and ripping away armor plate faster than it can grow. Ral howls in anger at the assault, the cables ripping up from the ground in preparation to crush Roxas... But he gets a better idea. His arm swings out to one side, the cables punching into one of the columns of the throne room... And with a colossal display of raw power, he pulls it out of its place, shattering a huge chunk of rock and whipping it through the air around him like a murderous flail, trying to simply sweep his enemies out of the way before he turns and hurls the stonework straight at his father, who is charging some kind of laser.

Vala, meanwhile, is not going to take any of this lying down. Grappling with Vala might be a poor life decision as she has many, many nasty claws and drills which she applies directly to Haguro, working to shred her apart before she pulls her clawed legs up and thrust-kicks her away, forcing herself to get a moment of space... And that's all she needs. The next thing those around her know, red laser designators begin splaying out all over as she breathes out a murderous beam cannon from her mouth and several smaller laser blasts from her arms at the entire group, trying to wipe them all out at once!
Cordelay Levail Cordelay barely sees the column hurtling toward her - it's all she can do to roll with the blow and be sent flying with as little injury as possible. A short cry of pain bursts from her lips as she slams hard into the wall, which crumbles under the impact and leaves her amidst chunks of masonry.

After a moment she regains her feet and coughs from the dust scattered around her, a thin trickle of blood dripping from under her bangs. "Such power..." She hisses to herself. "But I will not be daunted. I will not be defeated. Not now! Not ever!"

Grasping her swords again, she puts her great speed to use once more as she rushes toward Ral. This time, however, her tactic is different - she slings the chain on one sword toward the armored titan, wrapping it around part of its arm and clambering up onto it, stabbing fiercely at Ral's shoulder in the hopes of piercing the joint.
Kalia     OUTSIDE, Gilgamesh rallies the guards and arms them with devastating weaponry. It goes without saying that under his command, retaking the city will be a matter of time, and not even remotely a maybe. It helps that this time, nothing tries to interfere with his golden charisma, either.

    There's not a whole lot of townspeople left, but the ones who are, shape up in no time.

    Back inside, emperor Abaris is POWERING UP with entirely too much black and white fire, like a DBZ aura with multiple layers. You know, the kind they started doing for absolutely every new form instead of keeping unique, because it's such a visual treat.

    Ral crashes into him, but he refuses to budge. The frame of the old man suddenly stands its ground like an unbeatable brick wall, even though the impact makes him cough up blood. The blade in his hands seems to grow and extend, but his life signs, for those equipped to sense them, drop dramatically as a result.

    "Come now. I'll burn it all for your sakes. SOULFIRE, AWAKEN!"

    He readies his swing. Ral still in melee. The blade goes up at an angle, and then -- it's almost as if time stops, and all sound halts. He slashes, draining the colors from the room.

    The surge of sound, the crashing of black-white flames across the entire throne room, cutting a swath through everything in the slash's path, comes moments later, on a delay, when colors return to the environment.
Haguro Haguro is not made of good life choices. Or good choices generally. Does she think they're good? Of course. Are they objectively good?

In this moment, probably not. She's got strength, durability, and skill in equal measure, but that only goes so far against an opponent with more of... Probably all three of those things. "This is... This is why you need to be stopped here. I might look like a monster, but you... You have the mind of one!"

The Abyssal struggles to keep the demonic fighter held down as she tries to weather both being used as a shield against Spider-Man's devestating kick and those rending claws. Her tail heads bite and snap at the latter while her hands grapple with them as well, but focusing more on holding the crazed daughter down only goes so far in keeping herself from getting torn at and stabbed in multiple places.

Mostly, it doesn't. The kick sends the Abyssal sprawling back, and she doesn't even time to defend herself as lasers sear flesh and draw pained screaming from the Cruiser. "Outworlders are..." She manages to utter in between long breaths, stopping herself as she levels a steady glare at Vala and Ral alike. "... Wait. If your minds are gone, then... THere's no point in talking, is there?"

Darn it. She had some okay lines in her head, too. Staying where she is this time instead of charging forward, Haguro levels her tails and wrist turrets at Vala while keeping low to the ground. She waits until there's a clear shot with so many bodies moving about, and only when there is does she fire a rapid volley of explosives shells, each one aimed squarely at Vala.

No fancy footwork or maneuvers this time. Just a straight up buffet of explosions!
Lilian Rook     Lilian sighs as the feels the bones crunch and the flesh rip underneath her fists and feet, warm blood flicking across her face. It isn't a reluctant sigh, nor a vexed or disappointed one. It's a sigh of something like relief --relief that, in the end, she finally did get to do this. Relief that the young lady who had sought to stab her in the back did, eventually, experience physical mangling at her hands, just like she'd promised.

    Snap go her shins. Rip goes her tendrils. Crack go her ribs. It's eerily therapeutic. She hadn't been this way with the Heartless, the Ghouls, the Vampire, the Antegent --any of the foes so far. It's this specific girl that fills Lilian with an uncanny giddiness to maim and break.

    A laser attack comes swinging at her. "Cute~" Lilian intones, obscenely patronizing for the sheer amount of demonic power being flung her way. She's ready for it this time, though. Ready enough to show off. When Vala breaks off and fires, Lilian keeps walking towards her, strutting forward at a steady, unconcerned pace, until the ridiculously destructive beam comes right towards her head, and--
                -----[stop]-----
    Lilian flits forward under the beam, ducking it by inches while the frozen heat won't radiate into her, and rushing up and under its angle of elevation so that it'll pass right over her. Xion had prompted her --told her she is the prophesied hero today-- and so when up in Vala's face, what Lilian does is unhook the sword-shaped chunk of ornamental gold and steel and sapphire she'd been lugging around uselessly this whole time, letting her magic flow into it and circulate back. She isn't totally sure about using a sword like this, given its kind of awful balance, but . . .
                -----[start]-----

    --Lilian warps right past it, disappearing without special effects and closing the gap again like something had skipped frames. It practically demands a *bip* sound effect, but instead there is the sound of a heavily compressed rasp of steel, and she already has the gleaming gold and sapphire sword in hand. Elemental energy traces glowing arcs of pale watery magic through the air, two trails of clear, luminous water crashing into each other as they intersect with the speed of Lilian's two strikes, angled viciously down through Kala's legs and into her feet.

    *bang bang*. The floor cracks under the shockwave of the tyrand-slaying blade. By the time it's visually processed, Lilian has already reversed it into a streaming uppercut across the monster's chest, even as she bleeds through the shallow cuts across her own, brings the sword around her head, and from a high 'power stance', she yells "Do you get it yet, idiot?! You *don't get to win*! It's your own world's prophecy, you dumb bitch! See this sword? That means I'm the hero destined to slay you!" and then she swings it wild into Vala's shoulder, basically looking to drive it as far as it'll go before Vala's augmented flesh finally stops it, she blinks away, or the sword breaks.
Avenger The Masonry falls, this is a lot harder to evade than the lumbering strikes of a large former human.  Avenger is smacked by a particularly large chunk of the ceiling, but before it can crush him into Pizza Sause (very chunky) he manages to use his overpowered speed boost to burst out from under it.  Hurt, but not out, he turns towards the creatures.

Can he even use the power on them?  The fire seems to be working too well...are they already actually dead?  Taking a breath, there is no reason to bother asking these questions now.  Either the flames would take them, or they would not.  Still...something about the determination from Spider-man /bothers/ him.  He feels something deep in him and is not quite sure what to think about it.  

The thought is dismissed, instead, he vanishes again, appearing behind Vala and aiming to stick his flame burning hand into her, making a knife bladed strike with his hands, before jumping back and away, flying in the air before landing a short distance away.  

"Attendre, Espérer," is all he could say, right now.  There was nothing more he could say or do.  
Maya Maya takes note Ral does not seem to like the lighting, she may want to pour on more or sitch up things just in the event Ral can adapt to what she's throwing at him? It? She's not really sure about that one anymore. What is is sure about though Spider-Man has made an impression on her in the middle of this mess. The damage is adding up on Ral, and even Valla, things are progressing well. Then he starts to bring the house down on all of them debris fall, Maya attempts to get out of the way with not the best luck in the world. She's battered, bruised and beaten by falling masonry and it takes her a second to get back to her feet.

She pulls out a new card it glows blue as more fire bleeds out of her body into it and it hovers free.

"Sir Bowman, I have need of your aid."

More blue fire bleeds forth and they take form into a blue figure glad in light amour which seems to be a mix of old style and high tech carrying a blade without a guard and the Phantom has quite the beard as he looks to Ral and charges at them and should the summon strike home it will let off a powerful burst of kinetic energy on top of the force of a blade strike.

With the summoning finishes the spectral Holy Guardsman will vanish back to where he was called from.
Roxas "D-does it really count if it's them, and not their father?!" Roxas shouts back to Xion, uncertainly. Technically, it probably counts towards /Gilgamesh/ at this particular moment in time, but he doesn't really have a lot of time to think about it because a giant piece of the throne room's supporting structures is pulled out of placed and used as a flail that, in fact, sends him hurtling back into one of the walls again.

This time he doesn't recover /quite/ as gracefully, sliding down the wall and slumping there at the base of it for a moment before forcing himself up with his Keyblades. Both are banished a moment later, disappearing into that ring-and-shimmer.

"Curaja!" He shouts, green particles washing over his form and easing some of the aches and pains of the /massive impacts/ and probable concussion that Roxas is dealing with.

For a moment he stands in place, breathing heavily and trying to get his bearings. After a moment of lingering in this state, Roxas raises both hands and calls, "THUNDAGA!"

An arcing storm of lightning crackles through the area, raining down bolts of destruction sporadically towards Vala and Ral. Evidently, Roxas doesn't think he has it in him to take a physical swing at these guys again.
Spider-Man     Spider-Man's spider-sense is going wild, but the hero himself has trouble getting his footing. Laser-fast strikes are prone to impacting him hard; though he can zip out of the way of a few of those big laserbeams, after a moment there's a massive, pained shout. He takes a shot dead on, crying out. He's slammed hard off his feet, his fresh spider-suit sizzling with heat. "VALA! Ghhh... Vala, god, don't you remember?! You were trying to preserve the future of the kingdom! You cared at least that much for Tyron!" He's off his back, flipping into the air, avoiding more of those shots desperately. "You were willing to try to ambush and take all of us on just for that!! You can't throw it all away like this!"

    "Weren't you going to be a leader?! You had to have done it for something like that! Power, or respect, or tradition, something! If you turn into some, some demonic /monster/, you're throwing that away! Let me find /some way/ to help you, please!!" He skids back, low to the ground, and reloads both web-shooters dramatically, ejecting spent cartridge dramatically. "There has to be /something/ still left in there of someone who was strong enough to do what you did, and it /has/ to still care enough! About Tyron, about Ral, about /something/!"

    He takes something close to a martial artist's stance. He moves in as fast as he can, leaping into the air, then swinging around and between Roxas' bolts. He keeps on the other side of Vala from Haugro, both for Haguro's convenience, and to mess with Vala's targeting. He pulls in close with Avenger and Lilian Rook, crying out and starting to get far more physical. Less webs now, more strikes. Heavy punches, brutal kicks, and concentrated efforts to yank and swing with the webs. He's trying to yank the cybernetics out at times, and other times, break arms on the joint or strike her head, but his barage of high-flying flipping strikes and webs certainly has a sense of determination.

    He won't get in the way of lethal assaults, he won't try to interfere with their lethality, but he sure won't stop crying out for Vala, who he at least knows /slightly/, to think and resist.
Staren     Damn. Armor AND regeneration? Staren's not sure he can properly handle that without blowing everyone up.

    Vala, however, presents an unexpected target: Others are catching her with attacks, stopping her in her tracks! Staren takes aim, keeping the field up until the right moment... now! He drops it, fires the beam cannons, and puts it back up again -- just in time to get hit by a chunk of castle and sent stumbling as his forcefield crumbles, and the Emperor does who knows what, burning away his life (albeit one he seemed not so attached to anyway) to kill his children.

    It would be so sad if there wasn't about to be so much more sadness as countless families bury their zombie-murdered dead and lose everything to economic disaster.

    It's still poignant, all the same. The kind of story legends are made of.

    And that's what the emperor really wants, isn't it?
Gilgamesh      The guards arm themselves with high-tech pitchforks and weapons from the castle as the King walks out into the street. Truth be told he doesn't need the guards, and he doesn't want them around. They'd just get in his way. Instead, he orders them to cordone off areas of the city, to block up the gates and ensure the monsters don't get any more loose into the countryside, and to block up the streets and ensure that he has a single central channel to work with.

     That done, the King starts climbing. He climbs to the top of the castle, to the top of the highest point in the city. In one hand, from the aether, he produces a square of gold with a jewel in the center. In the other, a massive pair of diamond-lensed binoculars. The King speaks into the square of gold, and his booming voice echoes throughout the city.

     "I am Gilgamesh, King of Heroes, King of Uruk and of Babylon and of Denmark and of Tyron. Moments ago your Emperor sold this kingdom to me. Lucky for you that he did. Moments ago you were doomed."

     The King waves an arm. "Now you will live. Your King has come to save you all. Witness my power and be thankful, peasants, that your King is the greatest King that ever has and ever will be! Lift your voices in praise to my name!"

     The magical microphone vanishes. The King spreads his arms. His lips split in a wide grin.

     "Gate Of..."

     "Babylon."

     The sound is unmistakable. The Gate of Babylon opens wide. Countless magical blades, hammers, spears - all manner of artifacts beyond all imagination, things more than mere weapons or legends but the building blocks of legends themselves - rain down. From inside the palace it's like hearing a sudden storm, an impossible rain of cannonballs, a sudden deluge of bombs. The weapons are pinpoint, laser-targetted; Gilgamesh guides them with his hands, striking down monsters in mid-kill, narrowly missing humans by inches and yet inches as wide as canyons. Systematically he guides the monsters in each chunk of the city into the killing field he ordered the guards to set up, the central street, where he can even more easily cut them to pieces. Cover is obliterated. Wagons are blown to pieces.

     The King produces his drink again and starts laughing, loudly and haughtily. He's shooting fish in a barrel with a nuclear bomb. It's enormous overkill.

     But then, he's never really been one for subtle.
Xion Having prompted Lilian to become the Chosen Hero of Promised Legend, Xion has a problem. A rather big problem. Absentmindedly dodging the same way as before, this time the crashing crush crushingly crashes her, leaving Xion not just to get hit-stunned, but bounce off the ground, tasting more floor than a mediocre MMORPG player as she lays there for a second groaning. The bounce was unnatural, and as she rises, her nose flattened and trailing two thin streams of dark red blood. Without time to fix it, and dazed all around, Xion shoves off with her hands back to her feet - and to avoid another whallop to the everything, and another dramatic (and cliche) distance-granting backleap as her face slowly popped back out into shape after being pressed fairly flat into the cracked, broken floor.

Then, while others go into their own attack patterns, pressing in from the sides, harrying from the front, or even zipping to the rear, Xion---

---Looks over her shoulder, out the door, entirely distracted by Gilgamesh. Her eyes twinkle in delight and wonder, from her place near the back.

Like a shitty rubbernecker on the highway, she channels dark magic and black-purple motes for an overlong amount of time while she gazes upon the Gate of Shinylon like a child transfixed in a candy store.

It's not until she feels herself nearly bursting with magic that she realizes - 'oh wait! I'm fighting too!'.

"Uhhhh where was I..." Xion mutters, adjusting her stand-and-channel stance to extend a gloved hand. "Let'sgowithDarkra!"

Lances of explosive darkness flurry out from her palm, and more burst free from her flanks (definitely not at all copycatting the golden ripples of the gate of babylon in black-purple, no sir, that's Legally Distinct Darkra).
Lezard Valeth Cordelay faces a horror that could exterminate the entire city and the lands beyond if left to its own devices, but she is not daunted. She takes the impact, she comes back swinging, a mighty hero that legends would no doubt be spoken of. She is not built for raw power, it seems, but cleverness and speed should make up for it. She thrusts with a desperate impact, striking for the weakened armor while Ral is being overwhelmed. The strike lands true, shearing into his shoulder and piercing deep. The cables on one arm go wild, lashing about as Ral's shoulder slumps, the creature howling in intense pain. This leaves him wide open for the Bowman to crash into him, the blade carving into him and the kinetic blast sending him actually stumbling backwards from the focused, intense strikes. Maya's summon game is on point today.

Vala continues to battle it out with her own opponents, the blue beastfacing down the heavily-armed Abyssal. Haguro, however, twigs to the essential problem with the pair, and decides to communicate in the tried and true naval fashion: With massive explosions. The shells hammer into Vala... Or at least, her proximity as she is buffeted with rampant high-caliber destruction that knocks her well off balance for what comes next. Even her speed can't seem to get past Haguro's targeting calculations and the yield on those munitions! She looks even more hideous than she did before now that people can get a look at her, just as Lillian hoped. Those impacts on her bones probably aren't going to heal anytime soon. Or at all, if people get their way.
Lezard Valeth Lilian, of course, wants her to be that way forever. Or worse. Worse is good. The staggering speed demon is unfortunately in a poor position to receive a clean strike with the blade... But strike Lilian does, the blade cutting into Vala's shoulder in much the same way Cordelay is cutting into Ral... But Vala is in a better position to deal with the problem. She hurls herself backwards, flicker-blurring in a pulse of high-speed acceleration as she is left with her main left arm hanging uselessly. One down, like 9 more to go. Avenger knocks the count up to 2 of 10 as he knife-hands Vala right in the back in the classic attack pattern. Vala, of course, was a little distracted to deal with it so now she has a problem with her demon kidneys. Do demons even have kidneys? Well, Vala doesn't anymore as the hand punches into her and that raging fire blasts her, again physically and spiritually. The shearing pain causes her to almost collapse, screaming.

Spider-Man desperately tries to reach her. He looks into her eyes, he begs her to think, to resist, to do ANYTHING but continue to be a marauding evil thing that has to be put down like a rabid dog. He desperately wants there to be something to save, NEEDS there to be something, so he can have some chance at all to try to achieve what he believes is the right thing to do here. Unfortunately, only madness and pain shine back from those eyes as Vala looks to him in almost uncomprehending fury. He comes in striking at her, and she strikes back, showing that she is certainly capable of fighting even now as she begins to degrade under the rampant assaults she has received. However, he is able to strike at her, landing several good hits before she darts back and away to recover for her own response.... Except Staren still has something to say here, and he says it with lasers. The beam comes in hot, hitting Vala square in the back and dropping her to her hands and hands and hands and knees, a seething blast in her back making her struggle to stay up.
Lezard Valeth Radiant energy surges over his body, absorbed into it as he begins to change form. The light dies, revealing a large, renewed, plated dark knight. Gone are the cables, replaced with countless blades lashes of darkness and fire. The core pulses in his chest, seething with crimson light as a huge cannon swivels out over his shoulder, one hand twisted into a massive scything claw...

And Ralva leaps into the air, massive wings spreading out as the altered juggernaut fires up on rockets, the cannon aiming straight down to fire a coruscating blast of red light that crashes down into the center of the room, exploding in a massive wave of pain and death.
Lezard Valeth Roxas has decided he's had enough of flying Air Ral and perhaps wisely sticks to ranged combat around the juggernaut. He calls up the lightning, and the world is shaken with thunder as both Ral and Vala get to experience a series of lightning bolts crashing down and arcing between the pair, leaving them sizzling.

The Emperor makes his last stand. He channels his life into the blade, using the waning fires in order to power the hungry weapon. Ral and Vala are bathed in terrible soulfire, the energy crashing down across them as the Emperor calles it forth, striking down upon his twisted and possessed children in an attempt to bring them peace. But like so many things in the Emperor's purview, he can't quite finish the job. The soulfire comes down, smashing into Vala and Ral, and Vala falls, shuddering and twisting on the floor in agony. Ral cries out in anger, in anguish... And in unending rage. With a lashing movement, he hurls an arm out, and Vala is promptly grabbed, her barely squirming body pierced through with barbed spines. She is ripped across the room, and he reaches out and rips the flickering blue core from her. With a scream, Vala succumbs, going limp as her brother kills her... And he raises the core in his hand, clenching it tight as he crushes it.
Cordelay Levail Cordelay grits her teeth and raises her leather-guarded arms in defense, knowing that such a move is poor protection from the abomination's devastating attack. The energy wave washes over her and she's unable to restrain an agonized cry as she wills herself to remain standing.

When the blast passes, Cordelay is still upright. She lowers her arms back into her fighting stance, her battle-dress torn and her skin bruised, cut and burned from the rigors of battle. Still she glares at this final enemy, the merged forms of the two foes she and her allies have fought so hard against.

"This is it, everyone! Let's end this here and now!"

She swings both her short swords by the chains the moment Ralva is in range, putting all her might into the attack. The twin blades scythe through the air as she aims for the titan's shoulder, hoping it's still damaged enough for her blow to be effective.
Kalia     OUTSIDE, a shower of golden weaponry ruins the undead horde's day. Thoroughly. It also makes a very good impression of Gilgamesh towards the still-living citizens. He'll have very little trouble convincing them to fall under his rule, considering he just single-handedly saved the city around the palace. Inside the palace. Both.

    The guards, of course, obey. They don't get in the way. They do their best to route the undead in ways that are favorable to Gilgamesh, to stay out of his splash zone, and more importantly, to secure civilians.

    INSIDE, the emperor coughs out enough blood one would expect his lungs were full of blood, not air. But neither his aura nor his blade have died down. His daughter dies before his eyes, to the blade meant to kill him no less. People's words aren't beyond his understanding; he did bring this onto himself.

    But it's too late to care.

    The combined mass of his two children powers up, too. Rockets are sliced out of the air. Red light clashes with his aura. The emperor is blasted back, half of his armor desintegrated on the spot.

    But he smiles solemnly.

    "That's enough out of this old man, I think. I entrust the rest to you all!" Another surge and flare-up.

    "SOULFIRE, BURN!"

    The same maneuver. The same slash that drains color from the world and condenses it into an awful, all-carving line of black-white fire. The palace's throne room is carved open outright by an X-shape from the new slash adding to the first, and walls crumble down to show the flaming city outside.

    In the slash's wake, the emperor falls to one knee, dropping Soulfire to the floor as its unholy flames die down, there being no more lifeforce to fuel them.
Avenger The blast hits the center of the room, washing out in all directions, it was all Avenger could do to just hold on.  The energy and pain flow over him, causing him to grunt.  He is reminded of the tower, for just the briefest of moments.  He pushes through the pain, he was stronger than any pain, he was stronger than any torture.  

This was not his goal, but rather a step on the journey with his conspirator.  He had to push through, to lead her to the end she desired, to show her out of the way of the labyrinth she found herself in.  That was the promise he made...and when the energy washes away, he stands.  Energy fading off of him slightly, due to injury, clothing tattered due to the force of the blast...

"I don't need any mercy, and have none go give.."

He stood, and then started to move towards the fused pair.  The fire burns brighter, still every bit as much of the threat to them as it was before, his eyes, full of anger and hate stare into them.  Boring into their very form as he vanishes.  Well, vanishes isn't quite the word...

He explodes into a brilliant bright ball of the black flames.  He is like a blur, flying all over the place, but then he was on the combined monster.  Multiple times, so fast to be nearly imperceptible to human sight as he slashes and burns the monster away with every pass, just a brilliant burning flame that seems to bounce around them.

"My path goes beyond love and hate.."

This is, until, a dozen Avengers seem to appear around the monster.  Each one pointing their hands at it.  Burning fire seems to roll out as Avenger sears them from multiple angles with the fire.  If they were still alive, they would burn, but if they were not...

However, to Lilian, she could clearly see that he was moving so fast he was occupying multiple spaces at once.  Each Avenger was him, and each place he was, was firing a separate attack.  

"Enfer Château d'If!"

The fire explodes out, burning everything in the center of it, baptizing the monster in the flame.  
Roxas Roxas isn't prepared for the Phase Shift. He in fact is staggering up against the wall to brace himself when it comes, and the angle of the cannon just happens to have him right near the middle of it. He realizes what's about to happen about a half second too late, moving to try to throw himself out of the way only to be caught dead on in the beam. He gives a shout of alarm at the sudden, blinding, everywhere-pain of the blast, that mercifully doesn't last all that long.

At the end of it, he's still standing, but his whole body is smoking. Or, more accurately, something is coming off of him. Like smoke on the wind. Little motes of darkness peeling off, beginning to disperse into the surroundings.

His eyes slide from the regular smoke to the motes of darkness. Roxas narrows his eyes slightly, and -- very literally -- pulls himself back together. The smoke ceases to trail off of him.

It's about that moment that the Emperor makes his final move. Roxas struggles to straighten himself up, staring over at the man.

"Hey..."

"Aren't you..."

"Aren't you afraid to not exist?" He wonders.

The Emperor's attitude is incomprehensible to him. Why just accept it?

"Aren't you sad? Or angry? Or..." Roxas finds his footing properly. He doesn't have the juice left in him for a proper follow-up attack. He reaches into his coat, grasping the first ATTACK ITEM he knows that he has at hand.

He throws it, blearily and with a shaky hand.

                                   White Fang                                  

The whole crumbling Throne Room is momentarily subjected to freezing temperatures as the floor turns to ice and great jutting spikes rise up and fall down towards Ralva's position.
Staren     One down. Staren briefly wonders if it's possible to revive her but... to what end? The emperor is fighting to see her put to rest... and honestly, how high are her chances of redemption anyway?

    Her brother absorbs her power to reveal (what is hopefully) HIS FINAL FORM. All healed up, too.

    "Ffffff--" Staren shoots it with the beam cannons, probably not to much avail though. It rises up, crashing through the ceiling, and CHARGES ITS LASER.

    Staren adopts a similar defensive pose to Cordelay. Flame washes over him... and when it stops, his armor is scorched and warped and starting to glow, but he still stands. See? You can turn yourself into a transhumanist war machine WITHOUT going all crazy!

    And now Staren sees that Ralva has taken itself to the air. Away from his allies, so he doesn't have to worry about friendly fire anymore.

    Staren just starts cackling, "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!" as the missile racks on his back fire over a dozen miniature missiles upwards -- they explode in wide fireballs of scathing heat, but they're not the main attack here, just a distraction so that Ralva isn't watching for--

    --the trio of vehicle-scale missiles that fly in from the direction of the city and detonate with good old high explosives, followed by a hail of hypersonic metal as the 40' war machine Staren left outside unloads on Ralva!
Spider-Man     Spider-Man reloads again, urgently trying to prepare his web-shooters for another barrage against Vala, trying to incapacitate her while he has a moment... And then. Then comes the cannons.

    Then comes death from above.

    If he takes that hit head-on, he is dead. There's just nothing else to say about that; he will die, if he is struck head-on. His spider-sense goes wild. He might die, and so might Vala, Albaris, and thousands of people in the city. Whatever moral objections he has to Tyron and its nature, that thought alone is the sole core of his mind as it springs into action. He can't die. He can't let this happen.

    He leaps. He leaps, out of the way, and he keeps leaping, pulling on web-strands fired to the walls. He yanks a tremendous chunk of the throne room to him, latching onto it with wall-crawling power, and spins it wildly to force it between him and the beam. Don't die. Don't die. Don't die. Stop this.

    His body strains; he is filled with desperation and panic, and adrenaline flows into him like water coming out of a broken dam. The ad-hoc shield threatens to crumble from just the shockwave, and he has to leap back further to evade the shock of the damage. It threatens to slam him into the wall with the force, and so he has to grab onto the opposite walls with webs. His muscles strain from the force needed to keep from being put clean through the wall, to stop from having his bones utterly shattered.

    And then he slams hard into the ground, rolling to break it, panting under his breath. He needs a moment, just a moment to recover his breath. That's a moment too long; Ral kills Vala in cold blood. Peter's goggles go wide, and something in his voice chokes, crying out, "No!!" Albaris burns himself out, undoubtedly devastating the last of his vitality to strike at the foe. "NO!!!" He's struggling to his feet, but he can't struggle fast enough.

    "Get up Peter. Get up, Spider-Man. Get up, get up, please..." He mutters, his whole body shaking with fear, exhaustion, and pain. He can't save Vala, he can't save Albaris, but he can try, god he can try at least to save the citizens. He reaches deeper into what's inside him, into mutant blood and superhuman will, and he stands. He's only standing for a moment before he rushes as hard and as fast as he can forward. "NOOOOOO!!!"

    He dives through the wake of soulfire, flames parting dramatically around him for a titanic punch. It has enough strength to blow a wall out of a building. It certainly does a number on a young teen's knuckles. It's far from the only one. He latches onto a wall with two strands around Ral and yanks /hard/, trying to impact him with a kick that might be strong enough to send the dark knight into or through one of the walls. From there, he tries to latch onto his body and pound him into submission with two clasped fists, slammed overhead. He's hoping it'll stun the huge knight, or get it on the ground, where he can absolutely lay into it with a tremendous amount of webbing, enough to seal an exploding spacecraft or something as spectacular; he reloads at least twice in the barrage.

    He can't try to rip that core out, or strike it himself. Spider-Man, after all, does not kill. But he can try to keep it perfectly immobile for when someone else tries to deal with it. He has to hope it'll work out, even if he can't see a way through.
Xion Xion is distracted, sure, but has a finely honed sense for danger. And this one is off the charts! Not directly in the blast, but farther out, with the nature of her ranged dark magic, she had plenty of space to block.

It doesn't help, and with evasion basically impossible, Xion is forced to clash with a flickering shield of lines of magic black-purple. to keep away the raw 'murder vaporization' of the monster's super-attack'. With her reserves, though - it's fine. Xion was always one of the hardiest of the trio, and with distance and prep time, she emerges on the other end of the blast panting and scorched all across her black coat, gloves, tights, and hair.

"Okay. Okay. Still here. Is everyone okay? Lilian? Roxas? Spider-Man? Everyone else?"

The blasts of ice, lasers, and flashing Noble Phantasm seems to confirm for her. "Okay. We can do this. Roxas, if you're hurt, just pull back! I've still got some juice, so --"

Xion raises her finger like striking a pose, a purple glimmer above her outstretched index finger. "Make sure everyone looks their best - Gravija!"

Dropping her hand to point the finger and its glimmering purple spark, Ralva surrounded by a dark shadowy circle that fills for a moment, an implosive and shattering blast of gravitic power to pin the foe down for the last of the big attacks.
Haguro Spider-Man's heartfelt pleas might be lost on the twins, but Haguro can still feel their weight all the same. If anything, the fact that she knows that they (probably) don't understand makes it all the worse. Sighing once, she steels her resolve as the need to end this fight grows ever more with each passing moment. The clash outside, the battle inside, everything starts to blend together as the ideals and gains all fade away into something simpler.

It's a fight for survival. Haguro starts to process it as just that and nothing more, and things seem easier to comprehend for that moment. No greater reasons, just trying to kill these things before they kill her and her friends. It gets a little more complicated when one kills the other and they merge together, but even then...

It's one less target for her to focus on. It should really make things easier, but it doesn't considering that the monster now has even more explosives and wider-reaching attacks than before. Lacking much in the way of functional cover, Haguro goes for plan B.

She brings her tail up in front of her head, she gets down, and she shields her head with her arms. It's not a dignified pose, but it's still better than being dead. The first wave of heat sears her flesh, blasts off and incinerates armor, and the shockwaves send her flying back once more. She slams into/through a wall with a painful crash, skidding on her front and only barely managing to keep herself from staying down outright.

She's not dead yet, and neither are her friends. Neither are her allies. This is fine. Gripping her arm, she shrieks as she snaps it back into place, then raises both once more as she prepares her next volley.

"It's... Okay." It's not clear right away who she's saying that to, but after a moment, Haguro's head starts tilting sideways slowly as an odd smile creeps across her face, her eyes glowing red while she turns her smile towards Xion and Spider-Man. "It's going to be fine, young man. Young miss. It'll all be over soon."

Haguro's eyes flash once more, and then she starts running towards the beast. All of her guns begin firing in tandem, each one jerking her body back from the recoil as she starts paying no heed to the pain she's putting herself through. All that matters is destroying the monster. Defeating the monster. The monster has to die now.

She's a hero, and the hero has to kill the monster.
Maya The fight against the sibling is reaching a fever pitch as attacks of all sorts are flying around. Maya herself is taking some pretty heavy punishment here as he owns attacks do some damage and then some with her summons, she has no time to take pride in her actions. The siblings turn on each other in the wake of all the attacks more or less and Rel devoured his sister's core. Maya has no chance to stop this,m she does have time to drop a powerful barrier spell upon herself which saves her from being floored.

She is still standing but still scared from the assault. She looks at Ralva for a moment.

She pulls out several card they glow, blue, and red. She focuses on channelling into the two cards the fire comes up to a fever pitch as she now looks right at the horror before her and focuses on the material making up its body. She will attempt to rip it apart, the very structure of horror.

"Be undone."

While she can attempt to pull it apart, she can't hold it forever and it will reform but the damage from the process could be quite vicious.
Lilian Rook     Though Lilian is ready for the fight unfolding all around her now, easily stopping time to slip through the chaotic mess of attacks flying every which way, when Ral fuses with Vala to become Ravala and just nukes the entire room, there's nowhere to really stop time and go *to*. There's no safe place to dodge, yet meeting it head on is probably suicide. She's superhumanly tough, but not *that* tough, and there's a good chance that if she did take it head on and she survived, she'd end up scarred or crippled, which is an unacceptable outcome.

    So--
                -----[stop]-----
    Lilian stops time anyways, as softly as she can given the circumstances, but still hard on her due to the suddenness of the explosion. At top speed, she races from the throne room, out the door, down the stairs, through the corridors, skipping through walls with brief phases of ghostly magic, until she reaches the exterior of the tower, using up more than a full minute of her combat time --after she'd already expended more than one.

    By the time she reaches a safe distance behind that much obsidian and gold, she's gasping, sweating, and bleeding, her heart hammering like crazy, her pulse racing, and her breathing close to hyperventilation. She lets the pause slip before she collapses.

                -----[start]-----

    --Lilian appears at what *is* safe distance, way outside, ducking and dodging throne room shrapnel manually, struggling to catch her breath as if all the energy were punched out of her, sluggishly taking some of the flying debris to the back and side while she tries to rock back from the backfoot. Without the stamina to stop for an attack approach so soon, she simply flies right back, using that weird ghost-like form of flight to rapidly accelerate back in, and crash back down short of actually approaching Ravala.

    She doesn't want to get within arm's reach without a stop on-call. Instead, she tosses aside the Lake Blade, draws Night Mist with a shimmer of ringing glass and black iron, spits blood without a visible injury to the side, spins the black blade overhead, and slams it point down into the long shadow cast by Ravala from all of the flashy attacks going off at once. The blade sinks into the floor without a clank or a crack, *splashing* into the shadow as if a pitch black lake of ink instead.

    The stab then erupts from within Ravala instead, exploding into a cutting points of fey gossamer steel that aims to skewer the core and carve right through it as Lilian rips the long blade through and out of Ravala's own shadow.
Lezard Valeth Ralva looks like he's basically set to annihilate literally everyone and everything in the room. The combined power of the twins incarnated in a single force might be too much to handle. As the BFG 666 begins cooling down in preparation to fire again, the heroes begin their counterattack. Surely, if he fires again everything is going to perhaps literally go to hell.

Cordelay is the first to show defiance, slashing out to lunge up at Ralva. The blades come in, the shortswords slashing in towards his shoulder... And the blades are caught with the dark strands surrounding him, the things shuddering as the weapons inch closer and closer to his body. Ralva, however, simply raises his arm, showing that the merging seems to have repaired his shoulder, just in time for him to bring that blade down on Cordelay's neck...

The Emperor saves her life, as the Soulfire crashes once more into Ralva, the power forcing the beast to reel back and give Cordelay critical moments to literally save her neck.

The Avenger strikes next, blasting out at him with his Noble Phantasm. The mark of iron determination, the essence of vengeance and what a prison that is hell on earth can do to a man, a man who would not break in the darkness. The burning fire collects in dozens of beams, swelling out and engulfing the unholy beast. The corrupted flesh and soul scorches, a flame erupting all over the creature as it emits an agonized, piercing screech. It catches on a terrible flame, beginning to purge the beast from this world... But not yet.

Roxas summons up power of his own, calling up the frozen power as the White Fang crashes up, piercing the burning demon with ice. It doesn't help the problem one bit, tearing into him and shredding him all over, piercing into armor suddenly too brittle and thin to hold back attacks. Transfixed on the ice, Ralva...
Lezard Valeth Is right in position for Staren to call up his mecha to unleash the true power of MDC upon his foes. The micromissiles crash into Ralva, shredding him and pounding him rapidly as the 'anti-vehicular' missiles blast into the beast, beginning to shatter his form into dissolving pieces as it begins to fall down over the throne room.

Spider-Man is treated to a vision perhaps from his nightmares as the woman he was striving to reach was literally cannibalized for her power, consumed by what used to be her own brother in order to become something more terrible, even less human. But he perserveres, he does not lose hope, and he finds himself flying through the fire and the hellish energy to confront Ralva head-on. He strikes the demon with a perfectly-executed kick, and the beast falls, his boosters giving out as he plummets towards the floor, his arms and legs being bound by webbing as he continues to burn from the Avenger's cleansing flames.

Xion drops the (gravity) bomb at that point right on top of Ralva, crushing it in overwhelming waves of deadly gravity. This time, he seems eminently more crushable, the beast beginning to crumple in on itself. A 9999 might be involved somewhere. Dang damage caps. But between that and the webbing, the beast is well and truly pinned.

Haguro gets to shoot fish in a barrel at this point, and Ralva continues to rapidly break down under the onslaught. The explosive, high-caliber shells had always been reliable in the battle, and right now is no exception. The beast roars, things - important things- beginning to crack inside him.

Maya accelerated the process with her own flame, the Destroyer spell beginning to add to the fire already consuming the beast. It thrashes about, desperately trying to hold together just a little longer. The BFG begins to light up again, the cannon charging with a dire whine -
Lezard Valeth But that shadow is long, and Lilian is able to find it easily. The light casts it with a well-defined appearance, letting her skewer through it precisely... And the core crackles and shatters as the blade punches out of her chest. Abruptly, there is nothing left for the demon to draw on, nothing to sustain it in the face of multiple lethal blows.

Finally, it's too much. Everything is too much. The combined twin falls unconscious, the flames scouring the corpse and consuming it utterly. Perhaps in this, the spirits can finally move on to whatever reward or punishment they deserve. Everything begins to go quiet, the aftermath of the battle finally here. Everything can finally be at peace. The Emperor gets the relief of being able to see his children put to rest.

"Soul Arrow."

A piercing arrow of blue light punches right through the Emperor's chest. There is a clapping sound as someone enters the throne room proper. Lezard Valeth, a broad smile on his face, his hands coming together in applause as he looks over the devastation. "Congratulations, everyone. You did quite well!" Casually, he strolls over to the throne, plucking up the ex-Emperor's sword and looking it over nonchalantly. "I suppose that about wraps things up."
Kalia     He expected to go peacefully, after that.
    To just fall and fade, his life force exhausted.

    The sudden pain in his chest causes him to gasp in surprise, but there's no force left in him to say or do anything dramatic.

    Emperor Abaris falls to the ground, dead.
    At least he got to see through putting his children down, and handed his empire off to someone in a position to fix it.

    As Lezard places his hands on Soulfire, he notices the blade immediatly tries to form a bond. It's rather blatant that the weapon wants his lifeforce to do things with, but thankfully, doesn't possess the weight to force that onto him. But the tug is definitely there.
Gilgamesh      With the problem outside dealt with, Gilgamesh comes inside, walking through the castle. He arrives just in time to see Lezard's entrance.

     "Lezard Valeth," he says nonchalantly, "So you're responsible for this."

     He examines the room thoughtfully, looking over the corpses, the various damages. He considers everything with a distant, sort of amoral, apathetic gaze.

     Then he walks over to the throne. He snaps his fingers, and a majestic golden throne falls out of a ripple in space. The King of Heroes places himself on it.

     He produces a piece of stone and a chisel.

     He scratches something onto it.

     Then he hands it to Lezard.

     It's a *bill for damages to the city*, including numerical values of human lives by profession and expected earnings.

     "I will, of course," he says, his eyes transfixed on Soulfire, "Accept that in trade instead of holding you accountable for the subjects your actions have cost me."
Roxas "I'll... I'll be fine, Xion." Roxas waves feebly towards his fellow Nobody, momentarily considering using Cura on himself-- or on Xion, for that matter! The moment he tries to summon up the energy, he realizes that he doesn't have any left work with. So he rifles around in his pockets, locates a bottle full of red liquid, and chugs it. He makes a sour face as he tucks it away in his inventory again.

He doesn't get an answer from the Emperor. Lezard kills him before the chance arises. His gaze swings from Lezard, to the body, and back again.

With a sinking feeling settling into his stomach, Roxas shuffles over to Xion. When he'd come here, Roxas was more than a little angry at the Princess for trying to kill them. He'd wanted to do something about it. But he hadn't wanted them reduced to /that/, and the way Spider-Man handled it...

He didn't have the time to think about it in the middle of the fight. Maybe he should have.

A distressed breath leaves him.

"Huh?" He responds to Xion's remark on the radio. Lifting his head, Roxas looks towards the throne Gilgamesh produced.

"Yeah... do you want a throne, Xion?" Roxas asks, trying to distract himself from the very disturbing thing he's just been involved in.
Haguro      As the smoke clears from the battle and the pile of ash that once was the twins of the Emperor, Haguro is not looking to be in great shape. She's twitching from the pain, her eyes have returned to their usual glowy blue color, and she looks ready to collapse at a moment's notice.

     Instead, she approaches Spider-Man and Xion with a friendly, if incredibly awkward and definitely-not-hiding-the-internal-pain-crying. "Are you alright? You two were really brave to fight the..." She gestures towards the ash pile, then blinks slowly as the Emperor is summarily shot through the chest.

     Oh well. "That's done, then... Good work, everyone. Let's-" She stands up, and she teeters briefly before one of her tails catches itself on the ground to compensate for her leg giving out. She keeps her face thoroughly neutral as she starts for the exit with her makeshift tail-crutch, trying not to tear up nor even make eye contact with Gilgamesh on the way out.

     Maybe another time, but definitely not now.
Staren     Where the hell did Lezard come from?

    Staren stares at him, puzzled. But the pieces are put in place over the radio.

    STAREN'S VALUATION:
    Emperor dead: Neutral. He wanted to die.
    Ral and Vara dead: Positive. They were going to cause problems and were unlikely to be redeemed.

    All the people killed by zombies outside: NO. BAD. BAD LEZARD!

    Staren sighs as he tries to walk the line of 'behaving acceptably towards an ally' without coming across as endorsing the zombie mini-apocalypse.

    He actually thinks 'If what you did to the citizens comes back to bite us that's on you, not the Concord'. But before he can say as much on the Concord channel, Gilgamesh shows up and hands Lezard /a bill/.

    Staren folds his arms and looks at Lezard, amused. "We're not paying that, unless you can show that your experiment with the demons really was worth it to the Concord."

    Mentally, of course, he's already directing robots and golems to check the dead for those he might be able to revive and apply nanobandages to hold them until he can get to them. It's going to be A Project at this scale, though.
Xion Xion finishes watching the ending of the fight - and the King burning himself to accomplish what he wanted to do. His children dead, but the whole situation was confusing. The pieces fell into place in a jumble, and it took long moments for Xion to work it out and watch the ending with a blank expression.

Longer, still, when Gilgamesh comes in and drops a big... golden... throne in the ruined castle.

It takes a good amount of effort for Xion to shake out of that loop, but she manages to wave off Roxas. "I'm fine... But yes, I definitely want a throne. As for this... I think I understand."

Xion raises her voice, so Lezard can hear her decision. "I think he was trying to do a good thing. In the end, the hero destroyed the monster with the power of the Lakeblade, but the monster wasn't the Tyrant, the Emperor. The wizard gave that old man an end he wanted to. Something he decided to do, over keeping on existing. I don't think I'd ever make the same choice, but if he wanted to do it, and accepted that, then is it better to die for something you want to, that matters to you, rather than to a bunch of people long after everything, in a fight he definitely couldn't have won?"

"It's like a different sort of storybook. Isn't it?"
Maya Lezard shows himself shoots the former Emperor before anything can be done and she looks like she's almost ready for another fight from the looks on her face but it's too complex it's too much of a mess to push it now. She had lost track of Spider-Man in the chaos at first. It's not physically healing he's in need of, she frowns a bit. She will lower her weapon further fighting wouldn't do much right now. She looks to Staren for a moment and to Spider-Man.

"I'm going to see what I can do for the injured out in the city."

She notes and she'll head out likely to work with Staren on this.
Lezard Valeth Lezard nods to Gilgamesh, not missing a beat as he replies, "I am!" He doesn't seem to have an iota of shame about it, either. His eyes do remain on the King, however, as he gets into position and chisels out a bill. Lezard takes the stone and looks it over, sighing. "Ah yes. Since you're the lawful king of this place, you /would/ inevitably run it according to your own rules."

Hse hefts the blade in his hand, nearly preventing it from attaching to his own soul. He has better uses for it than using it as kindling. He conisders for several moments, weighting the bill against the blade, considering things...

With a shrug, he relinquishes the blade to Gilgamesh. "Here, take it if you wish it."

At that, he turns away and pulls out a fist-sized gem from his pocket, flicking it in his hand. "A keepsake. I think I will keep it on a shelf. Perhaps I will call it 'Tyron's Folly'. Appropriate, is it not?" He begins walking out, unless someone stops him.
Gilgamesh      The King takes the blade with eager eyes. He looks over it, running his fingers along it like a child receiving a new toy. The look on his face mere *minutes* ago, the cold, cruel King of Heroes, evaporates as people see the King eagerly examining his new treasure. He's even murmuring to it like a lover, running his thumb along the blade to test it, swinging it in the air once or twice, and delightedly playing with it. He's like a big kid. Just, a big, hilariously dangerous, kid.

     Then, minutes later, he's bored of it. He discards it over his shoulder, and it vanishes into the Gate of Babylon, probably to be lost forever.

     He doesn't even slightly care about the moral argument going on. He stands up.

     He snaps his fingers.

     "If you don't have anything to do with reconstruction, get out of my throne room. If you're tired, there are guest rooms somewhere upstairs that I suppose I don't mind you sleeping in for the night, though don't expect me to feed you."

     "If you do have something to contribute to reconstruction, then stay here and wait for orders. I'm sending out guards to survey the damage, compile a list of the wounded, and set up a triage in the main hall. I'll get to you in short order."

     The King stands there for all of a moment before barking, "Well?!"
Roxas "I don't know," Roxas admits to Xion, "and I guess maybe it doesn't really matter at this point. It happened."

After a moment or two of staring off into infinity, he adds, "If you want a throne, I'll see if I can get you a throne. And I guess, maybe, if I can't you can at least share mine."

He is brought to attention by Gilgamesh's instructions. Roxas blinks, and then nods. He's not much use here, so it's probably better if he heads on. Roxas makes a rolling gesture towards Xion.

"RTC?" He asks her.
Spider-Man     Spider-Man staggers to his feet. It's really good that his mask and goggles cover his face, because the soft sniff implies he's tremendously upset right now. His eyes are wide, looking at the corpses. The emperor. The two heirs. So many dead, three when it could have been one, and so many more citizens. A righteous fury wells up inside him. Something in him yells for him to start talking down to Lezard, to start insulting him, to start insinuating that someday, he'll be vulnerable, he'll lose a fight, and he'll /be sorry/ for what he did, wronging and using people like this, and you should /hear/ about how great his powers are that he's gonna use to beat Lezard thoroughly.

    It is quashed. That vile pit of the human brain that tempts people to abandon their responsibilities using toxic thoughts and shitty behaviors is covered over cleanly again, and Spider-Man pushes past it. A chat is had, via the radio. He settles it. He's still... hurt. His soul and spirit feel flayed raw by the experience. But he waits for Gilgamesh to figure out where he'd best be of use helping the city. The moment he knows, he's off, swinging with ruined knuckles, dashing on bruised and battered feet, and lifting with badly strained muscles to free those in need of rescue.
Avenger Things unfold, Avenger asks if anyone is going to do anything about it. The answer appears to be no, which is slightly disappointing to him. Where he would have fallen may have been surprising to anyone not paying attention. However, for now, thanks to Big Chugamesh demanding things and ordering people out. Avenger, with a display of black flame and magical particles, fades away from sight, deciding to leave for now. Though not before giving Spider-man a look.
Cordelay Levail Cordelay nods politely to everyone in the room, then turns on her heel and stalks off without another word.
Staren     Staren quirks an eyebrow at the way Gilgamesh's expression changes when he gets the sword. He'd be offended if he didn't think Gilgamesh didn't /really/ care how many were killed in the first place. He starts to focus his attention elsewhere, when Gilgamesh calls for it. He turns to the King of Heroes and retracts his faceplate. How to put this inoffensively... "I already have machines working on finding the wounded, but not nearly enough. I'd be glad to have them assist. I'm also importing medical equipment." And then he waits for Gilgamesh's orders. The king is taking charge of the situation, and too many kings spoil the broth.

    He's still working out the logistics of trying to get the gear in here to scan brains before they go bad.
Xion There's a hanging moral question.

There's two people Xion thinks (probably both, in fact, being wildly wrong, but her ability to read people is very much nil) are pretty cool folks arguing loudly with each other.

Gilgamesh tells everyone to please kindly eff right the heck off.

Roxas comes over, just as Xion handwaves (a bit TOO energetically) at Spider-Man. "Bye Spider-Man! Nice seeing you again!" as if a multiple homicide didn't happen.

"We can worry about giant thrones later. Let's get chicken fingers, I'm starved! Ooh, maybe the milkshake machine's working, too, Demyx said he'd fix it."

The milkshake machine will not be fixed. Xion will have to repair it. It will be awful but peach milkshake will make it better.
Roxas "Nuh-uh," Roxas replies to Xion with a firm shake of his head, "last time I ate anything out of a food machine Demyx fixed, I got sick. We'll go visit a restaurant and then see about fixing the machine..."