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Count Kord     Kord sent notice for allies and interested heroic types to help investigate a string of attacks along the roads that lead through the mountains that mark some of Bayern's perimeter. The region they would find themselves in is ... grim. A small settlement, a handful of houses, torn apart and smashed. The dead can be found here, partially destroyed, and liquified in some cases, and in other cases frozen in a state of agony as whatever killed them rendered them to fragile blackened statues. Enormous claw marks gouge into the landscape, and trees and shrubbery are blasted apart. Anything that was standing was a target for whatever attacked this place.

    Some of the attendants of Yveltal are here, helping to deal with the carnage and make sure the spirits rest peacefully where they can. They seem puzzled about the petrified victims, though, surrounding one that crumbled when they tried to move it. They discuss means of sweeping the remains into a container, fairly troubled by the state of the body.

    Kord is here. He's seen better days. One of his horns is snapped off, and his eye on that side is bound with white cloth. His body is marred by faintly glowing red scars from the battle with Regice, the titan's assault having done lasting damage to the immortal wyvern's body. His one visible eye has a bag beneath it, looking as exhausted as he must feel. He stares off down the trail, which paints a picture of a rampaging monster leading off toward a cavern in the distance, down at the bottom of the hill. The hills and mountains cast shade on the area, so his form glows a bit more obviously at the moment than it normally does.

    Anyone arriving by Kord's summons will know the general theory of when this thing attacks: It emerges from its den at night and strikes any and all residents of the mountains and hills that it can find, without exception. Plant, animal, Pokemon, human... it doesn't care. Its behavior is similar to a Hollowed beast or one of the Regi titans. It won't be long before it appears again and attacks, so now is the time to discuss strategy and prepare.
Theurgus     Theurgus walks up to the area, arriving from the direction of the nearest Warp Gate. Shoes crunch against the ground, as the blue-haired magician walks, a silver spike on one hand and a frown on her face. "The Organization grows ever bolder." she muses to herself, crouching near a scorched body, and investigating the agonized expression frozen to the face. "Such wanton destruction..."

    She stands once more, and approaches Kord and any others gathering to talk strategy, planting the spike in the ground and through it, forming a few hard-light seats in the area for people to sit on. "This thing comes at night... then we should wait until nightfall and attempt to ambush it. Are there any other settlements nearby? Could we evacuate them in time?" she asks, lacing fingers together, leaning forwards to rest her elbows on her knees, and chin atop her hands.
Athela Valemore     Athela has seen many things in her career as a 'hero' even if it is short in comparison to many of the others she's come to keep the company of.

    Little compares to the sight torn through this remote settlement. Not even seeing grown men entombed upon their own ships from Regice trying to freeze the entire ocean compared to the carnage that laid before her now, lives wrought in stone and thusly shattered both literally and metaphorically. This was the side of a knight's duty none enjoyed dealing with. But as much as her heart sank for the lives lost Athela had to resolve her will and be concerned with the more pressing, dangerous matters.

    Expression set as sternly as she can muster Athela walked up to Kord, though her eyes fell upon the trail he gazed down rather than the wounded death-bird. "Any idea what it was?", is all she has to ask, or really needs to.

    She doesn't need to ask what will have to be done when the culprit is found.

    The destruction surrounding them already answered that. There was only one type of Justice suitable to one enacting such an atrocity.

Abosulte and final.
Note     Note has responded to the summons! The little martial artist, however, is VERY DISPLEASED and freaked out at the state of things when she floats into the region and surveys the damage.

    As she hovers above the streets and looks around, a dread shiver runs up her spine and causes her tail to stick straight out like a cat's through the shiver. "Br-brwahah... this isn't funny..."

    Not funny at all. The sights are jarring. The SMELL is worse. The horror of it is enough to make her nauseous. Unnecessary deaths are bad enough, but these are so... unclean.

    Eventually she swerves her way down to Kord, and takes to hovering just over his right shoulder. "This... this is just awful. All these people... all killed by WHAT? What kinda monster can... WOULD... do this...?!" Part choked up with disgust and part just angry, she's doubled over in the air and trying to not puke. It's probably good that she's not, what with hovering right over Kord and everything...
Staren     A trail of carnage. Is there anything to be said? Staren doesn't have anything to say. All agree on the obvious, that events cannot be allowed to repeat. When the idea of waiting in ambush is brought up, "It would be better to track it down and stop it beforehand... That cave might have other exits, and it may not always BE a giant obvious monster, despite appearances... We might not know where it is until the next town is already under attack, and that's IF the towns all have radios and people have time to use them before they're killed." Staren looks to Kord, a bit concerned at his appearance. Has he looked like that since RegIce or was there a more recent fight? "Has it attacked anywhere else? Or just this town?"

    Staren's not sure what to say to Note, and gives her a slightly perplexed look. Maybe the monster feeds on horror. Maybe the effects of its natural defenses are just really drastic. Monsters kill, and maybe they have reasons for it but... is this really the first time she's seen anything like this?
Count Kord     The party has a general confusion about what to do, but as there's only one entrance to the caverns and Note has confirmed that there's something powerful down there, the only thing left to do is wait. So Kord finds a place out of the way, nestled in some shrubbery where he blends into the shadows using his innate shadow-shaping abilities. If you aren't looking for him you may not even notice he's there, he's decent at masking his appearance. It'll be a good thing when the creature emerges.

    Nightfall arrives. It's quite around here but for the hum of nearby insects and distant cry of nightfowl. The cavern mouth seems to grow larger as shadows billow out from, and an amorphous shape emerges from it. Great red claws slowly emerge from the dark, and pull the creature along, and a strange halo of red light surrounds its shape, like a collar that hovers around its torso. The creature, horrifyingly, resembles a Yveltal... except it looks warped, gnarled. Its eyes weep red liquid that glows and hisses when it hits the ground, and the very plants it touches wither and die on contact with its shadows. The creature moves with an aimless lethargy, and it moves toward the party.

    The death bird crawls toward them like any undead beast might. Silent, malevolent. Its empty, pale red eyes fixate on the party. It's coming for them. Kord, of course, tries to interrupt the moment he sees it. "Wait!"

    He emerges from his hiding place, and advances on it. His voice shakes as he tries to speak to the twisted creature in front of him, the mockery of a Yveltal. "Are you--"

    He's cut off. The creature grabs him by the face with a quickness it hadn't displayed before, and violently slams him into the dirt three times, then tosses his unconscious form aside with an uncaring flick of its long arm. Kord isn't dead but he's going to be kind of useless after that.
Staren     Ouch. Kord will survive but that was no doubt painful. Staren winces.

    It's a mixed group here. Staren can't command them, and coordinating is more important than taking the optimal action, so Staren puts it to a... vote is the wrong word. More like consensus? Athela and Theurgus aren't going to hold back, and frankly the possibility of learning something is so low he prooobably shouldn't be bringing it up, with how easily he can be swayed to go.

    A swift death it is. It's conveniently tossed Kord aside, so... <"Well then. Attack it after this!">

    Staren lets fly with all the missiles -- something Staren hopes it's never seen before -- and they spread out then converge on the beast from all directions to airburst near it; most of them superheating the air around it to burn it but a few of them using directed explosions to try and punch holes in it.
Theurgus     Theurgus follows the group, pulling her silvery spike from the ground before leaving for the cave entrance. She hides behind a tree, and waits for nightfall alongside the rest.

    Things start to happen rapidly after night falls and the monster emerges. Blue eyes widen as she sees the similarities between it and her comrade... and when Kord reaches out to it, she begins to break cover. "Kord wa---..." too late.

    Theurgus stabs her Relay into the ground behind the tree, and summons her staff as she initiates transformation. "ACCESS!" The woman engulfed in a beam of light, and emerging as the prismatic haired, heterochromic Diamond Soul. "I will not suffer this diseased monster to live another moment!" She gathers energy into the head of her staff as she raises from the ground into the air, back Processors flaring out like two great wings made of clockwork. "Staggering tale of torbidity, humbling cry of alacrity. Stab and sunder, rip and render, Move and become the One, Still and become the Null. A thousand spears clash in the empty castle. Divine Tumult!" After Staren's airburst, beams of white so pure that even calling them 'white' is a disservice, punch through the smoke and flames, seeking to burn through the chinks made by the airburst munitions and strike at something vital within the beast.
Athela Valemore     Waiting upon the rocky slopes of the mountain for the beast to emerge, and ample time to ready themselves. To take precautions while they were uncertain quite what they were going to have to deal with. A answer that quickly comes when the entrance seems to warp with shadows and a broken, twisted version of the Bird of Death emerges from the darkness. That.. explains a few things, but raises many more questions.

    Athela cusses under her breath in a very unlady-like fashion, first at the creature itself and then at Kord doing something foolish just because of what it resembled. Seeing this effigy of one of the legendary creatures only fuels her drive to avenge the broken lives behind them. She props a foot on some rocks and grabs the hilt of Resolute Blade, and while she draws the relic weapon she gives a sharp whistle.

    From admist the cracks of mountain stone water spills out, taking a canid shape with the same swiftness as the beast drew itself from shadows. Being in her elemental form causes Sprite to shimmer a bit as cold runs through her aquamorphic body and she opens her mouth, moisture flash freezing as it's expelled into an Ice Beam at the monster!

    Athela had prepared for this to be some manner of enraged Ground or Rock type and need stronger water attacks, but Vaporeon's ability to manipulate ice was just as fortunate to this turn of events.
Note     Note is totally able to predict the thing's emergence. As soon as she feels it moving towards the cave entrance, she lands ATOP of the cave entrance and suppresses her power. It's not quite the same as hiding, but she doubts this thing will be looking BEHIND...

    And she's proven correct. Instead it beelines for Kord faster than she thought possible.... and creams him.

    The youth can only ringe in sympathy... but she can feel that he still leaves.

    "What's that thing? Looks kinda like..." But could it be? And how?

    Questions to be squeezed from the thing's throat, assuming it can even talk.

    Note gathers herself up, rising from prone to stand tall atop the cave's mouth on an outcropping... and shouts at the top of her lungs.

    With a thunderous crack, her tiny form is engulfed in surging golden power that ignites into a sustained aura. Black hair rises and splits into a myriad of spikes, even causing her ponytail to weirdly lift behind her. An angry green gaze is locked onto the beast where before her eyes were green. Most of all, though....

    Raw POWER streams from her. A brilliant beacon of life and warmth and sizzling energy so palpable one can almost reach out and touch it. That aura isn't the power itself, though... no, it's just wasted energy, more power than she can fully channel and contain. She's losing it in torrents, but stands tall as if this doesn't matter.

    "HYAAAAAAAAAHHH!!" There's no leadup, no testing the thing. She just levels her hands at its back and focuses her power... unleashing a semi-focused beam of pure blue-white energy angled to slam it into the ground and explode!
Count Kord     Suffice it to say that the creature was not prepared for a concentrated onslaught. It doesn't react with surprise or horror, it simply dies as silently as it appeared. Its form evaporates under a hail of explosives, Ki and elemental prowess. Darkness disappates, and then the creature simply isn't there anymore. It hadn't a physical shape, or perhaps their attacks destroyed it utterly. Whatever the case, when the dust clears, something disquieting sits in the crater where it once stood.

    There is a rectangular object, that absorbs all light and has a silhouette of red energy. It's one of the Plates. It sits there, inert, on the ground, exuding its aura of elemental malice and destruction. It hums from the aftershocks of their attacks for a minute and then goes silent.

    Kord lifts his head, dazed, awakened from his several moments of unconsciousness to find the creature had been destroyed. He just stares where it once stood, his body trembling from shock and pain.

    He's crying. Quietly. He isn't even blinking.
Theurgus     Theurgus releases her transformation, dropping back to the ground and walking over to the plate. She inscribes a barrier seal around it before getting too close, yellow energy snaking across the ground... she then enters the field, and kneels beside the Plate, trying to figure out what aspect it holds.
Staren     A... plate? And Kord is sad. Staren turns and looks at him, uncertainly. But Kord's not lashing out in rage, so... "Do you... want to talk about it?" Staren asks, uncertanly.
Athela Valemore     Mayhaps in a different set of circumstances Athela would feel bad for Kord. Maybe even now, a bit.

    But that does not supercede what the creature had done. This was the only just way to ensure it did not do so again.

    Athela patted Sprite on the head as the Vaporeon shifted back to her normal physical form, then walked over to the edge of the crater. "... Huh." she murmured as she looked down, and then looked back to the others, and Theurgus in particular. "You are certain that it is? Like what was left behind Registeel?" And presumably Regice, which she was not present for as she was rescuing ice stranded sailors.
Note     With the creature just sort of dissipating, Note swoops over to Staren and Kord, powering back down to her normal form - the blazing power vanishes as suddenly as it appeared, and her hair and eyes fade back to black.

    "W... weird. REALLY... really... weird..."

    She lands next to Kord now, glances uncertainly at Staren - wondering if he knows what's going on maybe? - and offers Kord a hand.

    Which is kind of hilarious, given their differences in size. She doesn't appear to have thought about that yet. "It's okay! We beat the thing."
Count Kord     Kord looks at Staren, drawn from his stupor. He stares for several seconds, then looks down at the ground where his tears had wetted the earth. Some of it is red from the damage he just took thanks to that beast's attack. He lifts his head again and looks to where the plate is, and then painfully approaches it to get a better look at it. He completely ignores Note's offer of a hand, just brushing past her. Then he gets a look at the Plate and his eye widens for several seconds. As he stares at it, it briefly shimmers, and then a puff of black shadow emerges from it, and a soft resonating song echoes on the wind. Like a bird call. Then it's gone.

    And Kord presses his head into the dirt nearby, his horns digging grooves in the sediment. He begins sobbing aloud.

    This wasn't a happy victory for him, clearly.