Scene #7806: Temple of Three Winds

Owner	Pose
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	The wreckage of an Omni-Tek juggernaut smolders silently. Your allies--the Green Knight and the 'Meta-Physicist' known as Flux--tend to any wounds you might have. For Bercilak, it's simply a matter of being near him. In Flux's case, it's the creature he's summoned, Mortificant the Eternal, Flux's own compassion made flesh and blood. A floating, spherical creature with dark, sinewy skin and veins of gold, outlining a shadowed cavity where the creature's eyes might be. Its tendrils are suited to fine manipulation; whether it's nanites or some biological process that allow it to synthesize chemicals, the creature is an effective healer. Two others flank the smoking Meta-Physicist as he leans on his mottled, blue-and-black staff. Both follow the same formula, but one radiates calm, and the other aggression, each of them differently colored for being apparently 'made of' that respective emotion, spun from some otherworldly spool. All around the high-ceiling, sandstone prayer chamber, there are also the littered remains of repair droids; a similar model to the skeltal, clunky cargobots from BIOMARE. It was hard work, but Conor is safe. Thanks to a 'personal grid beacon' from Phreak, he's been digitized; taken across Rubi-ka's information highway and deposited securely in a Vanguard safehouse. Your work is technically done, but the cult is a verifiable threat to Tir County in the present, and very likely, the planet, given time. The 'Defender of the Three,' the cybernetic abomination guarding the commons area in the next room, is dead, as is a sizeable portion of the Temple's 'faithful'--so crossing to the other areas of the Temple is easier than it otherwise would be. Flux has therefore suggested that you strike while the iron is hot. "If I was running a cult and trying to build an army, on a planet where most death isn't permanent, I'd want a way to get my guys back if they got iced somewhere," muses Flux, as a tide of nanites incinerates his airborne cigarette butt to nothing. "And I wouldn't want it on the public network. If we're gonna bury this place, we don't want them coming back to throw hands in the middle of it." Bercilak grunts, offering a "Ak if thei die withoute the resuscen devyse hither, thei shalt be--" "Dropped off wherever the fuck they used a terminal last. Which was potentially years ago and could cause acute reclaim sickness, I know. It's not... immediately perfect. But at least then they'd probably be out of the range of the Immortal One's mental influence." "Probabli?" asks the Green Knight. "We're gonna kill him anyway, if he's here. And maybe even if he's not. Someone here's..." There's a glance towards Rita. He doesn't say whatever he's thinking, and returns his attention to Bercilak. "Just trust me. You like direct approaches, don't you?" Bercilak chuckles. "Yea, verily. Art thou al redi?" He shifts, machined plate finishing its self-repair, the heavy armor audibly clinking as he brings his bulk around to check. "We shouldst journei thither titeli," he intones, pointing an armored thumb towards the prayer chamber's sole exit.
Karlan Nobles	Thanks to Bercilak's healing and Mortificant's mixtures, the snow leopard-themed siblings are back to fighting fit! Their clothes are still a bit frazzled, but they don't look too worried about that little problem as they're busy trying to aid in plotting out the next avenue of attack on the cult. Pramanix: "We'll need to find whatever device they use for returning, then." SilverAsh: "I didn't expect you to be so open to killing people." Pramanix: "Wh...? Th-they'll be fine afterwards once Flux's plan works! Besides, it's... Better than the alternative." SilverAsh: "Keep your hands clean, and focus on Flux's plan. Only one of us will be needed to handle the uglier business aside." It's clear that Pramanix still has some anxieties about killing anyone, but not so much that it'll stop her. She nods as Bercilak confirms their preparation, already keeping her bell readied and her shoes clear of obstructions. "I'll focus on helping disable their... Local return, then." "And I shall be ready to cut down any who stand in our way." SilverAsh follows up, flicking the hilt of his sword idly in its sheathe as if keeping his mind sharp and ready to draw it quickly. "What.. Is the plan, anyway?"
Rita Ma	A bit of Mortificant's healing doesn't go amiss, but Rita seems to be in decent shape from the last few battles, if a bit tired. It's just really hard for the enemies here to land a good hit on her, it seems. "So... everyone we kill here is already being brought back, and if we destroy that place, they'll even be back to normal when we do?" The notion has a little trouble getting through Rita's head, but once she processes it, her expression shifts to relief. "That does make me feel a little better about the stuff we're doing." Not that she's shown a great reluctance to kill before. For such a kindly and innocent girl, it doesn't bother her quite as much as it should. Rita returns Flux's glance with one of her own. She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't look confused, either. "I'm ready, Mr. Bercilak," she answers with characteristic pluck. "We've weakened them a lot, but they'll probably try really hard to defend it if it's that important, won't they?" She walks along the path Bercilak's indicated. Again, she's happy to be near the front of the party despite Hibiki and the Green Knight more obviously fitting the role.
Hibiki Tachibana	After the fact, and the Guardian of Tomorrow is laid low, Hibiki made use of the opportunity to get some patching up from their guiding pair and glance over the additional reading material that Flux had handed over. That made for...three of five supposed parts of it, as if experiencing the Ape Fist of Khalum firsthand wasn't enough for her. But that's something that can be left until later. After a heavy breath, she picks herself up off of a sitting position on a piece of rubble nearby Bercilak and rolls the shoulder of her right arm. "...I don't want to," she answers on the matter of the plan to the surprise of likely no one after SilverAsh puts it in those terms, with a quiet muffle into her Symphogear's scarf. "...have to kill them at all, if it can be helped. Honestly, I'd rather just gun right for the One whether or not they keep coming." It only takes a quick look around the room, and the path they took to get here, for it to be obvious that comment is coming a bit late. Even if she's done everything to avoid doing that herself though, her tone isn't judgmental at all. Still, death in a place where 'death isn't permanent' seems to be an awkward subject for her. "...But that sounds pretty silly saying it out loud, huh? If they'll be coming back like that..." Much like Flux, she starts a thought only to cut it off halfway, closing her eyes briefly and seeming to think on something before turning towards the exit. "Right. Let's get a move on." And apparently coming to a decision, she heads forward along with the others, only a step behind Rita as she takes the lead. "Direct approaches, I can do. And there's only way to go, anyway. By the way--what's 'reclaim sickness' supposed to be?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Exiting the prayer chamber to return to the commons area, things are about as you left them--quiet, and oppressively so. Faces, seemingly made of animate stone, glare coldly at you from perches overlooking the temple's sandstone doorways as they whisper passages of the cult's scripture. As before, each of the doorways, save the entrance hall, is marked with a glyph from the language of the Xan, the civilization that lived on Rubi-ka countless milennia before its discovery by humans. The one over the door you just came from was identified by Flux as 'the Wind Yet to Be.' The other two, at the NORTH and WEST, are 'the Wind that Is' and 'the Wind that Was,' respectively. oWhat is the plan, anyway? "After we find and tackle whatever they got for reclaim, we go after the Immortal One. The Xan were masters of spiritech, so there's really not a comparison for anything we've got. Or any more elegant solution than 'smash the shit outta that bitch. Otherwise, Rita gets the picture,'" says Flux, gesturing to her with his staff. "Resurrection is being made whole again. Your soul splits off from your body, and then a new one is made, drawing your soul from across the planet just as that new body takes its first breath." He then lifts the staff and points it at the glyph that reads 'The Wind that Was.' "Let's start there and see what we can find." Bercilak pats Rita's head, but doesn't get in front of her or try to take point. oWhat's that 'reclaim sickness' supposed to be? "Your soul remembers something, but your brain--the meat and tissue part of you--doesn't. The reclaim system's designed to be used regularly. Going a long time without and then being resurrected can cause memory loss, disorientation, confusion--on top of the normal stuff that comes with getting used to what's physically a brand new body, Fatigue, nausea, lethargy. Any combination of those symptoms, we call 'reclaim sickness.'" The Wind that Was' leads you down a hallway which, gradually, appears to darken, as decades turn to centuries of caked-in wear and tear. The stones that comprise the walls here are more unevenly shaped, the dim lighting calling to mind images of a dungeon. It opens up, after a few minutes of gradual downward progress, into a rectangular room. Lit by torchlight, there's just enough light to see a woman in dark robes working at a stone slab. Shelves chiseled into the walls hold jars of fluid with what appear to be miniaturized skeletons inside. Several of the grotesque little creatures are already out, assisting their master. They're all working hurriedly, with tools both advanced, primitive and simply esoteric, to synthezise a brand new human being. As-yet unaware of your presence, they appear to have the skeletal system down. Their tools, no doubt bolstered by invisible swarms of nanites, spin new muscle and knit it to the skeleton in even bundles. The woman wears the black robes of an Exarch, one of the cult's senior members--and while she hasn't seen you, the miniscule skeletons still trapped in their jars turn their heads to look at all of you in unison.
Karlan Nobles	Pramanix: "Knowing they'll come back does make things a little easier, yes." SilverAsh: "If you've not the stomach for it, there's no shame in asking myself or someone else to handle it." Pramanix: "I have the stomach! Come on, let's just break their reclaiming thing already." Pramanix picks up the pace a bit to keep up with everyone else aiming for the front, not realizing for a while that she's probably the least suited person here to doing exactly that. SilverAsh eventually has to hurry up a bit to pull her back, and then he settles into handling the rear guard position, keeping an eye on the group's six while their questions are soon answered. "A straightforward enough plan.. I like it!" Pramanix chimes in, sounding relieved at how non-complex it sounds. Both hands are on her bell to prevent careless ringing as they head down the Wind that Was, and she's about ready to lead SilverAsh on a stealthy route towards the robed master when he halts her with a hand on the shoulder and pointing at the skeletons staring right at them. There's a moment where they weigh their options, and then they split up. Pramanix starts getting her bell-ringing thing going, drawing as much attention as she can with sheer noise and snow-summoning to get localized storm started. SilverAsh, meanwhile, keeps slinking about on the path Pramanix had started taking to see if he can't slip through and get his sword into the Exarch while she's still facing the other way.
Rita Ma	"Otherwise, Rita gets the picture." She nods, a little hesitantly- at least pretty sure she understands- but doesn't seem terribly enthusiastic about it. Bercilak pets her head a moment later, though, which perks her right back up. Rita flashes him an eyes-shut smile, adding in a sunny "Mmmm! Thanks, Mr. Bercilak. I know we'll be alright." She nods along with that same hesitance to Flux's explanation as they walk. Anything to keep her mind off the whispering stone faces. "So, the soul is still crucial to the reclaiming. It's not enough just to rebuild someone's body and brain. Is that right?" She pauses for a moment, frowning slightly in thought. "I wonder if souls work the same way back home..." In a quiet moment, she asides to Hibiki: "I'm sorry. Even if you know in your head that they'll be alright... it doesn't feel any easier to hurt them in your heart, does it?" Her expression is a slight sympathetic grimace. "I don't like hurting them either, knowing they're just being controlled. But it was hard enough to get here. I don't feel like we can take more chances than we have to." The smell of raw human meat, undisguised by skin, makes Rita perk up even before they round the corner. When she rounds the corner, she's already primed to react in record time: Rita flicks into invisibility, sprints towards the Exarch fast enough to scuff the stone underfoot, and takes a flying leap at the back of the woman's head, foot extended for a crushing kick. On impact, she becomes visible again, kicking off into a spinning leap. Cloaked tentacles lash out in a whirlwind of razors as she twirls, clearing the skeletons hear her landing point. Before she's hit the ground, she's cloaked again, hopping to the side to get away from attacks directed at where she landed.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Simple enough plan, yeah. Works for me. And getting used to an entirely new body...yeah, I can see what you mean." It makes sense. She can only imagine what it has to feel like getting thrown into a brand new body after all that time and trying to become accustomed to it again. If it was her, she's not sure how she'd ever get used to it... "You make it sound like something you use if you expect to die a lot. Maybe all that's a small price to pay for being able to come back in body and soul though..." Food for thought, which gives her something to mull over as the passageway gets more decrepit the further they go. That, and Rita intoning quietly to her, where she meets eyes with her briefly before turning them off to the side. "...Yeah. If I didn't know all of that, I'd raise a lot more of a fuss. Don't worry. I'm gonna do what we have to do to put a stop to all of this." Coming into the new chamber of The Wind that Was, it's hard to say what she was thinking they'd have for their reclaiming...but it likely wasn't constructing a human from scratch and by hand, with bite-sized skeletons running around and staring at them. She stops just inside the entrance, exchanging glances with jar-trapped minions and grimacing. "...Seriously..." There's a twist of her expression at seeing what she can see of the in-progress body past the woman, but she quickly turns her attention off of it. Instead, Hibiki braces up a foot into the old stone while Pramanix starts up her localized blizzard, and builds up tension before she pushes herself forward at the same time SilverAsh is making his approach. She doesn't go ahead of him so as to not ruin his surprise attack, but she is right on his tail - a blur of movement rushing past the Exarch and right through all of the skinless helpers on one side of her, lashing out with a leg as she passes through to clear as many of them out as possible as once before skidding to a stop on the opposite side of the slab. "Sorry, but that work of yours is stopping here...!"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Rita's foot impacts the back of the Exarch's head. She is driven forward, bent over by the following impact of her abdomen with the edge of the table. Her hand grasps a weapon--a cudgel, made from a shrunken skull and a vertebrae--just in time wheel around to keep SilverAsh from skewering her. In a test of strength, she's losing, not only for the shot to her focus from Rita's kick, but for the fact that she's nowhere near as strong as either of them.. Her pale skin, shot through with dark, visible veins, is covered in a thin sheen of sweat from her earlier work. With the shredded remains of her servitors around her, Hibiki and RIta have ensured she has no immediate help. Her free hand extends just when it looks like SilverAsh is going to push through her guard. All around, the jars on the shelves tip over, shattering against the ground. Tiny skeletal servitors materialize sharp, blue implements in their hands, charging forward--but the snowstorm is slowing them down, too, being already waist high. Her strength gives out, then, and the sword pierces through the robe, staining her waist red with blood. "You can't stop what's coming," she says, buying some time with a stream of fire spewed from the empty air before her outstretched palm. "LIEN!" Darkness congeals, seeming to flee from the torches even as a few are put out by the snowstorm. Seeps from between the cracks in the uneven stone bricks, pooling and gathering itself together. It takes shape, as rank and file cultists rush in to investigate the noise. Bercilak and Flux wall off the hallway, handling the more obvious reinforcements. 'Lien,' meanwhile, appears before you in the chaos, a tall, shadowed humanoid figure in black gossamer robes. The snowstorm's winds set them to billowing--and there seems to be nothing beneath them. Their 'arms' extend, not a hand in sight within the darkness of their garb, pitiless shadowed hood passing over each of you in turn. At first, nothing happens. Blink, and you miss it--the darkened scenery is replaced by a well-lit stone interior. A circular table sits in the middle of the room. Knights--there can be no other word for the figures in gleaming silver armor and scarlet baldrics--are seated there, their helmets bearing distinctive, singular horns. I will delight in breaking your minds, one by one. Starting with the knight's... Bercilak is here--heading straight for the only knight with no helmet, axe raised. "Sir Bercilak?" There is the sense that this is wrong--very much so. But the Exarch with the skeletal cudgel is here, too, and evidently intends to disallow you from correcting it. She can just barely be seen, escaping into the cloisters of the castle.
Karlan Nobles	The pair may be used to Rita's disappearing prowess by now, as they don't seem too startled when they see her reappearing closer to the Exarch in her initial strike. SilverAsh even has his sword moving just so to deftly avoid stabbing her by accident, twisting it sideways in a fancy-looking flourish that might almost look like he's done this maneuver with her before! He hasn't, but he's certainly skilled enough with his sword to make it look effortless enough that he did. The blade impacts against the cudgel, and he keeps trying to slip it past her guard even when the jars shatter behind him and around Pramanix. When the Exarch lets off that blast of flame, he jerks sideways to make sure he doesn't get his head set on fire, then withdraws weapon to slip it back into its sheathe before turning to face the shadowy figure. Pramanix, meanwhile, keeps that snowstorm going throughout as she's reassured by the slowing of those tiny skeleton warriors, although she doesn't make the connection between that and Lien looking ominous with the billowing robes right away. When the scenery changes, the snowstorm doesn't go with it, and Pramanix has to take a moment to get her bearings straight as a pillar of ice erupts from beside her in that moment of confusion. "Where...? How did we get here?" She asks aloud before turning her attention back to Bercilak, not quite noticing the Exarch's escape in the distance. "Sir Bercilak, your enemy isn't here!" She rings the bell more rapidly to speed up her own rituals, bringing more ice swirling about to try and erect a dense wall in the green knight's path. "They're over... Somewhere else!" She's not actually sure where else their enemies are quite yet. SilverAsh, however, does notice the Exarch making her escape. "Still alive...? How troublesome. Don't do anything rash!" He warns Pramanix before gesturing towards those cloisters in case Rita, Hibiki, or Flux need an extra guide that-a-way and breaking into a run himself. He maneuvers with the expected speed and dexterity of someone that's pretty quick (but not freakishly so), although he doesn't quite have so much going for him beyond that. He'll need to capitalize on his allies' movements instead!
Rita Ma	Lien's arrival draws Rita's attention away from the injured reanimator for just a moment, despite the smell of human blood filling the air. She's been hidden ever since the wraithlike figure arrived, which occurs to her as an advantage. She just needs to wait until they're distracted, and-- "Is- is this real?!" Rita looks around their new surroundings in alarm, trying to find holes in an illusion that might not be one at all. The knights- a round table- something about this seems familiar. "Sir Bercilak?" That helps it click. "This is your memory, isn't it, Mr. Bercilak?" Her attention snaps back to the fleeing Exarch. Whether this place is 'real' or not, she's bleeding, and that means Rita can track her. In fact, it means it's hard for her to pay attention to anything else. "I'll be right back," the thin-air-where-Rita-is murmurs. A breeze rustles SilverAsh's clothes as she races past him, dropping to all fours while she knows she can't be seen. Rita is blazingly fast; as she catches up to the Exarch, she leaps up to run along the wall above her, then drop down in front of her and finally de-cloak while delivering a bone-shattering punch to the jaw. Razor-sharp tentacles sneakily extend to block the corridor behind her, ensuring awful wounds if the Exarch tries to weave around and keep running. Her pupils are constricted to pinpoints.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki said she'd find some way to get by if there wasn't any light - but darkness itself coming together isn't quite the same as that. Still, she swerves clear of the fire before bringing herself back up into a readied stance as cultists file in and the shadowy figure manifests. "Ngh..." That's fine. If it's a living shadow, that's something she can just defeat. It's-- --not that simple. Before she realizes it, the environment is completely different, and the room's inhabitants very far from the mini-skeletons and robed cultists. Her posture goes entirely slack in confusion, and she's left looking around trying to get to grips with what's going on. "What...? Where--" An illusion? Something like the ritual they did before they entered the temple? ...Or a memory? A memory... It's that menacing voice and Bercilak moving right after that gets her to re-focus, grimacing while turning to move before thinking about it. "Oi, Bercilak! What are you trying to do!?" These knights probably aren't real. She can't imagine how they'd be. All the same, she wouldn't want to watch that, and whatever 'Lien' is trying to do, she won't let it happen. She moves, putting her weight into bashing into the Green Knight from the side in a manner vaguely reminiscient of someone bumping into you to try and filch your wallet, only more violently. It gives her a chance to grab at one of the arms hefting his axe aloft and use it try and turn him to towards her, and the escape route the Exarch is taken. Between her and Pramanix, he won't be doing anything he might regret before Rita and Silverash catch their mark. Hopefully. "Remember what we're here for!"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	The ice wall halts Bercilak's passage. He turns, and it's as if he doesn't see Pramanix. "Adversaunt." He walks, as if through heavy water, to the opposite side of the room, away from the circular table. He's not himself. oThis is your memory, isn't it, Mr. Bercilak? Why, it is his memory, for as long as it still exists. When we're finished, he'll be ready to believe anything we tell him. He'd be doing most of the work for us, if you'd let him... The Exarch here is like you--more or less in physical form. She's forced to try and physically hide from you, using hit-and-run tactics. She's not nearly athletic enough to catch up with Rita. She catches up with the Exarch in what appears to be a dungeon. Her acrobatics plant her squarely in front of the wounded Exarch. On one end of the room, the door that leads to the main hall, and on the other, a cell with a solitary occupant--a beautiful red-haired woman, clad in sorcerous robes, sat behind behind a staticky forcefield. She stares pleadingly at Rita from behind the wall. The Exarch is at the end of her rope, clearly not used to all this exertion, nursing the wound from SilverAsh's sword and staring Rita down. A hardlight keyboard appears before her, a command quickly entered via hand gestures. The last of her nanites are used in a dramatic attempt to vaporize Rita--a blindingly hot ray of energy races down the hall towards her, as the prisoner looks on. Lien is able to blend seamlessly in with the scenery. They attack with that same scenery. Their motive here seems to be complete sterilization of Bercilak's memories. It'd make sense--the cult operates by abducting people, and someone (?) like Lien would be invaluable to securing new members. Hibiki's fist crashes into the side of Bercilak's helmet mid-stride, knocking him onto his side. As Bercilak gets back to his feet, Lien makes their appearance, the table, a coat of arms and several unsecured longswords flying through the air at Hibiki and Pramanix. As SilverAsh pursues the Exarch, he must do so chased by the Knights of Avalon--or at least, Bercilak's memories thereof. The armor isn't just for show and neither are the swords. They favor two-handed weapons, and attempt to surround SilverAsh from behind just as he crosses into the dungeon.
Karlan Nobles	Pramanix does not know what that word means. She gives Hibiki a brief glance to see if she might react in a way that'll reveal it, but her attention is soon back on Bercilak as he turns and keeps moving (right up until he gets knocked over by that same Hibiki). "If he won't stay down, we might have to pin him down. But if that menacing figure gets away...!" As Pramanix struggles with Lien's and the Exarch's ploy, she sees those flying weapons coming towards herself and Hibiki. "Incoming!" She shouts while thrusting a hand forward in time with her ritual, calling up another ice pillar that intercepts the weaponry from one side. It's not quite enough to stop all of them, though, and Pramanix has to leap towards the ice pillar just so she some of her arm and sid cut up rather than getting slashed too deeply. It slows down her movements, but she's still working on building up that wall of ice to try penning Bercilak in. SilverAsh, meanwhile, continues his hot pursuit from behind Rita's trail. Noticing the way the wind follows in her wake, he tries to find an alternate path to try and guess where the Exarch might try to come out of next based on his own experience in fancy castles and overwrought manors. It doesn't take long before he's cut off as well, though, when the memories of the Knights of Avalon are soon upon him. Perhaps realizing that pursuing the Exarch might end up giving her too much backup against Rita's own pursuit, he instead turns to face them with his sword drawn. "If you are but shadows of his past, then that would mean there's no need to hold back against you." SilverAsh announces loudly, lowering his stance with one hand on his sheath and the other on his sword as if preparing to strike in an instant. He's clearly trying to get the Knights to square up right then and there, looking like he's ready to do some sick iai slash to cut through them all in an instant. The moment they close in... He starts swinging that sword repeatedly instead, creating a distinctly loud shwinging noise each time. Although his face remains utterly neutral throughout the maneuver, his swings are wild and behave less like conventional slashes and more like straight up sword beams. He's fully aware that trying to fight them properly isn't going to work, so he's banking on doing as much damage as he can in an incredibly short time before they can cut him down and overcome his own regeneration.
Hibiki Tachibana	Can't solve every problem in the world with a good knock to the skull, unfortunately. Not if Lien's taunt is anything to go by. It's too early to tell if clocking the Green Knight actually did a thing to bring him out of whatever stupor he's in - and as far as Pramanix can tell, she got basically nothing out of that utterance either - and she can't help a frustrated sound coming from somewhere in her throat. "People's memories aren't yours to mess around with...! As if you'd ever get away with that!" If she wasn't feeling too energetic about what they were doing before, Hibiki is making up for it now with Lien's appearance giving her something physical(?) to vent towards, clenching her hand tightly. Even weaponizing the memory itself against them...! She doesn't know if that's how it really works, but if she destroys too much of it, would...? The storm of swords comes in, and she lashes out with her gauntlets to knock aside only the ones that'd strike vital points or limit mobility, taking slices of varying levels several places elsewhere while moving past them. "Ngh--then try and keep him down for a second!" She quickly shouts at Pramanix as she goes. "And I'll--!" That table all those knights were seated around is another thing entirely. But as it threatens to ram into her, she leaps and adjusts mid-air to land on it, dashing across its surface as it passes beneath. The moment she hits the edge of it, she launches off of it in another jump as hard as she can. One that'll send her straight at Lien, and she's about to see just how physical that darkness actually is; the magical girl's arm is outstretched to try and grab onto where she figures the figure's neck would be beneath those robes, clutch down, and slam them all the way into the far wall.
Rita Ma	Rita spares a quick glance back over her shoulder at the prisoner in the force-field cell. Despite her wild-eyed look, she tries to flash a reassuring smile. It might or might not be received that way. She glances back at the Exarch, and lets out a hissing noise of shock. The beam forces her to make a desperate calculation. If I dodge, it'll hit the cell behind me! Will the forcefield hold? Will the beam go right through? There's no way for me to dodge it without putting her in danger! The concept that 'death is impermanent on Rubi-Ka' is forgotten, buried by the instinct to protect someone else by sacrificing herself. Rita lunges for the Exarch while taking the beam straight to her chest. In the first heartbeat of sustained contact, it burns a hole through her tentacle-disguise to reveal the blue lappeted flesh beneath. In the second, it starts to burn her body- But her hands close around the Exarch's wrists, wrenching them upwards to force the beam to discharge harmlessly into the ceiling. Her intact tentacles lash out an eyeblink later, aiming to remove hands from arms, lower arms from elbows, upper arms from shoulders, all the way down into ribbons. If the Exarch can be successfully dealt with, Rita turns on the prisoner next. She's not a pleasant sight. The steaming alien flesh of her torso is exposed, ringed with char from her burnt tentacles. Her skin is pale. Her pupils are still pinpricks. "We're getting you out of here," she says firmly. Only after starting to look for a control panel or breakable emitter does she think to ask: "You are real, aren't you?" And then, a better rephrasing: "Do you know Mr. Bercilak?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Hibiki's fears are proven right, partially--though not anywhere she can directly see the cause. When SilverAsh lets loose with his sword, the Knights fight defensively. Most of them respect the projectiles and hang back, but one of them, however, ultimately falls. When he hits the ground, everything--the walls, the floors, the ceiling, even the other knights--momentarily 'buzzes.' It's like someone adjusted a 'focus' dial somewhere. All of it blurs and sharpens. The knight hasn't disappeared; isn't slain. But even 'taking him out of the fight' seems to have had some deleterious effect on Bercilak's memory. "I... knoue not..." Hemmed in by Pramanix's walls, Bercilak pauses, trying to make sense of what's around him. His helmet knocked off, the haze is plain to see in his red eyes. He won't be able to help Lien now, at least. The cult brainwasher is directly in the path of Hibiki's leap, and they clearly underestimated her agility. The shade attempts to melt into the wall, and when she clears the distance between them, Hibiki can see how solid they are. Not very--but there is a concentrated 'core' that wasn't there in the physical world. Striking it causes everything to flicker between the memory and the real world. Moreover, the shadows that comprise the being's form lose cohesion the harder that 'core' is hit. Something inside it is holding them together. Most advantageous of all, grasping it completely disallows the intangibility the being depends upon. "I know him," says the prisoner to Rita. At the other end of the hallway, the knights are having an even more difficult time fighting SilverAsh--every time Hibiki in the other room lands a blow on Lien's core, they seize up and nearly collapse. The re-animator is no more. "Don't worry about me. I'm already out. Don't tell anyone, okay? The knights will come after me." What could that mean? Before long, the memory fades--Flux had been absent from the world of memories, and apparently he'd been putting pressure on Lien from the outside. The real world returns to you abruptly. Flux pants and sticks himself with a blue syringe, the vicissitudes of the skeletal servitors and cultists slowly disappearing as Mortificant tends to his wounds. Nearby, the re-animator is slumped over, a dark trickle of blood trickling down her nose, eyes rolled into the back of her head. "Kill it," he urges--to anyone who'll listen.
Karlan Nobles	That buzzing is a signal to SilverAsh that something either very good or very bad just happened. He's about to assume it's the former, too, but he stays his blade when the others start seizing up and collapsing. He still has something of a sense of honor, at least, and the opportunity to focus on one of the (probably) ringleaders is too much to ignore. Thus, he gets right back to what he can only assume is Rita's chase of the Exarch! Pramanix, meanwhile, finally finds a measure of respite when Bercilak stops trying to go after somebody or another. She settles in with a nice safe ice wall around herself and the Green Knight to check on him, trying to prop his head up on a knee to keep his head elevated and also to make it a little easier to ignore the gashes along her arms and sides. "Easy now. You'll be alright once they..." She trails off, clearly having no idea what is specifically happening in the moment and trying not to think too hard about the bleeding. "... Er. The others are sorting it out now, so don't worry. Conserve your energy, because we'll need it later to finish wrecking up the place. Just don't start rampaging around in here, alright?" And then everyone's back! SilverAsh is still looking just as confused when the hallway he had been in becomes the real world he had been in earlier. Pramanix similarly doesn't look like she's quite aware of what's going on, but there is considerable relief in her eyes when there's no more swords flying at her.
Rita Ma	"You've... already escaped? What do you mean? Are you M-" But Rita never gets an answer. The world of memories disappears. Back in the real world, she doubles over, hands on her knees. The Exarch is still alive, so the burns she'd sustained...? It still hurts, though, and she's still exhausted. Rita grimaces as she touches her chest and catches her breath- then startles in sudden alarm when she realizes Lien is still in the room. "Mr. SilverAsh! Ms. Pramanix! Watch out!" Rita is, evidently, not in the mood for half-measures today. She raises her palm towards the monster. Over the next second, light flows into her arm as if the sun were coursing through her veins, until the glow from within is too bright to look at. There is a sound like a shotgun blast, and from her hand comes a discharge of the kind of energy that tends to reduce people to carbon shadows on the walls. Its concussive force cracks the stone behind Lien and, if they're in any way still bodily intact, probably slams them a foot or two into the rock. Rita lowers her hand- is it steaming?- and breathes heavily, slumping. After a few moments to recover, she thinks to ask: "How are you feeling, Mr. Bercilak? Have you forgotten anything?" Awkwardly realizing he probably wouldn't remember if he had, she glances to Flux with a look of concern. "Would we know if he's forgotten anything for good?" "Let's start with this. Who was that red-haired woman in the cell, Mr. Bercilak? She said she knew you."
Hibiki Tachibana	The moment Hibiki realizes where Lien's core is, nobody can say she has that much mercy in her--if she understands the effect her strikes are having the next room over, that apparently doesn't stop her. She pushes the element of surprise to layer on strike after strike, each one harder than the last, until she finally does reach into the formless shadows to grab onto the one truly solid aspect and seize a tight hold of it to render them helpless. "Hah...hah...as if I'd let you mess with my friend like that..." It's a grip that she holds all the way up until the living memory disappears from around them, and whether or not Lien's 'core' is still something she can interact with or not here, she ends up simply flicking the wrist and hand away and off to the side as if she were touching something disgusting. The look on her faces matches that. Even with the request to 'Kill it.', she doesn't spare a second look in their direction. She's more concerned making sure that SilverAsh and Rita...Pramanix and Bercilak...even Flux are all back and okay. They are. Good. Her eyes close as Rita's blinding blast fills the room, and the sound of stone giving way probably masks the exhale she gives into her scarf. "I really hate this place..." She murmurs quietly, before shifting over to help give Flux some support if he ends up needing it amid his healing. She can't help but side-glance towards Bercilak as she does so though, at Rita's question. "...There was more in that memory than just the knights? Not that we got to see all that much of it...sorry for butting around in your past at all though," she offers to Bercilak, as if it was somehow intentional.