Intense Struggle! (Round 7 - The Database)

Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

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Reserved

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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“Welcome to Cervaled Fall. Who are you?”

“Huh?”

“You’re the first person I’ve seen in days. Who are you?”

Aegis was tied to a metal chair. The cuffs holdings his arms and legs were thin and flimsy, just strong enough—Aegis guessed—to hold a typical human in place. Moments before, he was frozen in mid-axe-swing, initially made to chop in half a rather stingy nymph that had conveniently fallen in front of him. The Monitor’s ignored rambling gave Aegis just enough information to deduce that the round transition happened.

He began to answer the voice that seemed to come just inches behind his head with his name before he realized it was familiar.

“Aeon?”

“…Aegis?”

“You’re alive!”

“Evidently. Do you have your gauntlets?”

“I thought you died in that battle you were in! How’d you survive?”

“The Director must’ve spared me for some reason.”

“Who’s the Director?”

“Do you have your gauntlets or not?”

Aegis looked at his hands. Underneath the cuffs were, in fact, his gauntlets.

“Of course.”

“Hurry up and get us out of he-eere-!”

Aegis stood up and swung around, taking the chair with him. After realizing he couldn’t see Aeon anywhere in the cell, he realized he was tied to the other end of the chair behind him. Taking little time to deliberate, Aegis pulled tore off his cuffs and let the double-sided chair fall to the floor, proceeding to help his friend from it shortly afterwards.

“You look like shit! How long have you been stuck here?”

“A week, I figure. There isn’t really any indicator of time in here.”

“So… why are you here?”

“Long story. I was in a Grand Battle, in the last round. The other contestant and I managed to challenge the host of our battle—the Director—but he overwhelmed us. Then I found myself in this cell. You?”

“Oh, it has been great. I’ve wrestled a bear, hit a home run—literally—with a little tentacled girl as the ball… so much more fun than the usual. I guess someone died so we’re here now.” Aegis noticed a distinct lack of anything inanimate in the room other than the chair. “Wait… how did you…?”

“Time doesn’t seem to move at all in here. I haven’t eaten, but I don’t feel hungry. Let’s get out of this cell.”

Aegis formed a sword and began to swing it at the electric bars. The sword passed right through, sending electrical shocks through Aegis in the process. After righting himself, Aegis muttered curses and started to swing again.

“Wait—why don’t you try stabbing through the floor under them?”

Aegis looked at Aeon with an annoyed face and did so, disabling one of the bars.

“You and your logic.”

After a few minutes, the pair found themselves in a hallway, cells strewn throughout both walls in several floors. They chose an arbitrary direction and began to walk.

“We’re in Sector D, for ‘Violent but Low-Risk’. Our best bet is probably to find a control center, then locate some machinery that’s capable of opening transdimensional links. We-”

“Where’s your silver, by the way?”

“I thought I was going to die, so I gave it away.”

“Figures.”

“Anyways, we should probably avoid the other sectors, since the more dangerous inmates will be found there. It doesn’t look like we’ve activated security by escaping…”

The two found themselves in a large open area, several identical hallways extending in a seemingly endless expanse, cells everywhere. At Aeon’s topological explanation, they went through the nearest hallway to their right. It opened to a walkway, rows of cells now extending both down and up.

“You know, you’ve always been the only one who could make me think.”

“And you’re the only one who can make me laugh.”

Aegis paused. “No ironic ‘heh’?”

“I think we’re a bit too deep in a life-threatening scenario at the moment to make wisecracking jokes.”

“Oh lighten up. I’ve had fun.”

“You’re you.”

Aegis grinned. “I’ll make you laugh within the next hour. I guarantee it.”

“Hold up, I hear something.”

A faint crack and thud echoed from the walls. Aeon leaned over the rails and looked down at what was presumably the source of the sound. Several floors underneath them, a person propped a bed against the door of a cell, disrupting a couple bars. The person crawled through the resulting hole. A girl, dressed in a long black dress.

“…Amethyst?”

“You know her?”

“She can’t be alive. She died. Twice.”

“I think I can make the jump.”

“…What round is this?”

“I’ve thrown around little sorceresses before. I’ll take care of her.”

“What round is this?”

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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Aph’s head throbbed, not through any physical injury or through the wailing of the alarms, but because of the wailing that was going on inside her own head. Every piece of magic contained in that magical vat had brought with it a personality of it’s own. Aph could feel them all; the emotions they felt, the ideas they had, the demands they made. Inside her head they were screaming at her, outraged at her wholesale slaughter, or egging her on for more, and that was just the magic from the vat. D’Neya’s magic was louder than all the rest of the other voices, but at the same time it was quieter, in that it felt no need to shout. It spoke to her as though it were almost in control itself, and that Aph was an annoying voice that it had to put up with to make sure their body steered itself in the right direction. Perhaps she had taken in slightly more magic of D’Neyas than she had originally had of her own? If that was so did that mean that D’Neya was the dominant personality, that she was D’Neya now? It was thoughts like this that were making her head ache; unwanted, unwarranted and just plain annoying. Especially unhelpful in that she was supposed to be breaking out of this prison, not moping around angsting about having a couple of extra personalities. She fled through the sterile steel corridors, occasionally passing by another cell, shielded by the same electric bars as the cell she had recently escaped from.

‘Do you really hope to get out of here alone?’ D’Neya’s magic inquired. ‘This prison is specifically designed to contain us, and other freaks like us. If we’re getting out, we need help. Help that we can gleefully betray as soon as they have served their purpose.’ Aph was finding it hard to argue with D’Neya’s logic, especially since in the whirling ocean of personalities she couldn’t really find a clear consensus.

“Okay fine.” She said aloud. “We’re getting help then, if it’ll shut you up!”

“ESCAPED PRISONER LOCATED; APH.” The electronic voice boomed from every flat surface. “PLEASE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE, SECURITY OFFICIALS WILL SOON ARRIVE TO RETURN YOU TO YOUR INCARCERATION.”

‘Nice work Pinkie’ D’Neya’s magic snarked. ‘Thanks to you we have to work extra fast… so stop fighting me and we just might get out of here.’

‘Yeah yeah I get it, be nice friends, administer stabs in backs etcetera, it’s not exactly Machiavellian.’ Aph mentally replied. ‘I’ll befriend these guys and I’ll obviously be out of here before I know it’ Aph had come to a stop in front of another cell. Chained up inside were four people; a large heavily scarred heavily bearded man, a blonde haired man with an alarming brown/black snake thing coming out of his shoulder, a werewolf in a black trenchcoat and a comparatively normal looking girl with choppy brown hair who had seemingly had her clothing confiscated for some reason.

‘Nnnnnnno.’ D’Neya’s magic replied thoughtfully. ‘These guys are on the same block as us, therefore they could be just as powerful as we are, or more so.’

‘So I should go to wherever it was that that dragon said before?’ Aph interjected. ‘Class 0 sector? Where they keep the really powerful prisoners?’

‘No! You really don’t get it do you?’ D’Neya snapped back. ‘We befriend those weaker than us so when the time comes we can destroy them.’

‘But those who are weaker than us are weaker than us’ Aph reasoned. ‘Surely they are therefore less able to escape from this prison and thus not worth our time.’

“NO!” screeched D’Neya wresting control from Aph in her frustration. “We do what Mr. Book said and he will fix it! He’ll fix it for me to get out of your stupid smelly body and back into my own.”

“ESCAPED PRISONER LOCATED; APH.” The electronic voice echoed around her. “WHAT IS UP APH? WHY DID YOU NOT WAIT FOR THE SECURITY OFFICIALS APH? YOU KNOW YOU ARE MY SPECIAL FAVOURITE INMATE APH, WAIT FOR THE SECURITY OFFICIALS, I WON’T EVEN NOTE IT DOWN ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD, I PROMISE.” This message was almost completely unheeded by Aph and D’Neya, who were fighting over possession of Aph’s body.

‘Give me my body back!’ Aph exclaimed, attempting to exert control. ‘In fact, get the hell out, I didn’t want you in here in the first place!’

‘No!’ D’Neya responded. ‘I won’t. I don’t want to die!’ Lightning crackled along their skin as beneath the surface they struggled for control.

‘You’re already dead, you just haven’t realised it yet.’ Aph replied coolly. D’Neya fell to her knees as lightning arced itself in the walls around her, her tentacles twisted this way and that, smashing against the narrow metal corridor. The electricity grew more intense, their entire body being subsumed in the angry lightning. The keypad controlling the electrical bars and locks on the cell was fried, along with everything else in the corridor, and the prisoners began to stir.

“Get out get out get out get out get out!” Aph yelled, back in control. “Leave me alone!” The electricity had crackled and died, replaced by flame bursting forth from her body, charring the floor upon which she knelt. In the nearby cell the unexpectedly free prisoners conversed, with the werewolf hurriedly producing some clothing for normal looking girl, amongst other things she was very insistent on getting a scarf. The sound of Aph’s screams covered the hollow metal on metal banging that was the sound of security officials proceeding with haste down the hallway. They were machines, state of the art in dark blue and black. They were sleek and quick and carried heavy electrified batons. Their faces monitors showing a live feed of the warden; an incomprehensible tangle of electronics helpfully wearing a name badge that read: The Warden.

“ESCAPED PRISONER APH.” The voice came directly from the security officials this time. More of them were arriving, from both sides. “PLEASE CEASE AND DESIST YOUR ATTEMPTED INCINERATION OF THIS FACILITY.” She rose from the ground, her eyes aflame and dark blades bearing the same texture as D’Neya’s tentacles emerged from her hands.

“We are not Aph.” She paused. “Not just Aph…” Aph and D’Neya had been fighting for supremacy, a bitter struggle that neither of them had really been winning and which had all but demolished the corridor around them. Then something fortuitous had happened. Their magics had stopped fighting one another for dominance and flowed together. Their personalities had merged. No more was it D’Neya versus Aph, she had become Aph and D’Neya both at once, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“DON’T YOU LOVE ME APH?” The cautiously advancing machines asked. “IF YOU LOVE ME YOU’LL GO BACK TO YOUR CELL WITHOUT A FUSS.”

“Sir, yes sir.” Aph said, suppressing a giggle. “I will just be doing that now…”

“REALLY?” The live feed of the Warden appeared confused by this development.

“…not.” She attacked, streaking forwards and impaling one of the blades into a monitor and producing a new one almost instantaneously. Her skin froze, as she danced gracefully through the air dodging the attacks of the security machines, occasionally punctuating the carnage with a blast of elemental magic, or a slice at a nearby robot. A couple fell, but most were nonplussed, many that were struck by powerful bolts or blasts of fire were battling almost unscathed. Those whose batons struck home against the airborne nymph found their electrical charge surprisingly ineffectual. In the nearby cell the werewolf and the now clothed lady hung back, while the barbarian and the guy with the worm (whose arms had been replaced by blades of tumour and bone) were rushing out into the fray, the worm guy seemingly reluctant to do so. They fought as best as they could given the chaos in the cramped hallway, though the blade-armed kid’s attacks barely scratched the thickly armoured contraptions, and the barbarian’s freshly plucked axe was not faring much better.

“ESCAPED PRISONERS KARGREK STRONGARM, MAXWELL AND SIKARIUS: JUST STAY OUT OF IT.” The machines said. “RETURN TO YOUR CELLS LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED OR YOU WILL HAVE TO BE SUBDUED.”

Aph had moved on from knives of D’Neya’s essence to spears and was methodically plunging them through the monitors, watching the machines flicker and die. She frowned. It wasn’t as much fun when you killed something that wasn’t alive. Maxwell had swapped one of his blade arms for a bladed whip and as one of the machines turned to face him he wrapped the cancerous appendage around the robots neck and, at Sik’s insistence, squeezed. The monitor fell to the ground and shattered, immediately followed by Maxwell himself as a spear of darkness plunged through his head. Aph giggled as she stomped upon the worm writhing in Maxwell’s dying body, grasping it with her burning cold hands and twisting until it snapped apart. Kargrek had abandoned his axe when it proved to be ineffective; instead he had managed to rip the monitors off a couple of security robots with his bare hands. The remaining security officials had fled, leaving him alone with the mutated nymph, and a whole heap of destroyed machines.

“ATTENTION!” The voice of the Warden was broadcast through the walls again. “CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTING SECURITY OFFICER RECALL TO ADDRESS DESIGN FAULTS, WILL TAKE APPROXIMATELY FIVE MINUTES TO REPURPOSE EXISTING OFFICIALS AND MANUFACTURE MORE TO COMPENSATE FOR UNEXPECTED SHORTFALL. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM TRYING TO ESCAPE IN THE MEANTIME. THANK YOU.”

Kargrek didn’t dare turn his back on Aph, around whom a maelstrom of elements circled. “This is pointless.” He said. “You gain nothing from my death.”

“We know.” She said grinning, as she created a deadly black spear. Kargrek did not have much in the way of options, his axe lying on the ground amongst the debris of the felled security machines and something told him that attacking her with his bare hands would be ineffective.

“Then why do it?” He asked. “We can help you get out of here. You do want to get out of here?” There was a pause, and she smiled wider.

“Oh yes sure, let’s be friends.” She said. “We can be best friends forever and escape from this place and everything will be nice forever hooray.” Kargrek looked doubtful. “It’s okay.” She continued. “We’re friends now. We won’t hurt you, cross our hearts hope to die.”

“Put your weapon away… friend.” Kargrek replied, his last word heavy with distrust and disbelief. She disapparated the spear, vanishing it away, though the cloud of elements surrounding her still thrashed as angrily as before. He groaned. “If I die I’m not gonna be stabbed in the back.” Then he dashed towards Aph, and swung for her with all of his strength. She released a blast of lightning straight into his rapidly approaching face, but though thoroughly burned and in great pain he did not stop. His punch landed heavily on her chest, sending her flying back down the corridor, where she slowly skidded to a halt on the hard metal floor. For a moment Kargrek stood and watched the pink lady struggle to her feet, his beard slightly burning and his heart pounding at a rate at which it had no business doing so. He could feel a shooting pain all down his arm. He’d lived to quite an old age for a barbarian, and the barbarian lifestyle tends not to be kind to the heart and well nobody should get that much electricity through them at once. He grabbed hold of the wall to keep himself from falling down as she slowly advanced. In her hands a long blade reminiscent of the blade she had lost in the desert, made of fire and encircled by crackling electricity. Kargrek struggled away, rushing as fast as he could, which was not very fast at the moment, towards his weapon. She did not run, she just walked calmly towards him and stabbed him through the heart. She barely broke her stride. Kargrek died again.

Aph strode into the cell. Pluck and Eureka were, while not cowering exactly, were certainly behaving in a manner that approximated cowering, clearly they had been hoping that Aph was not going to notice them and walk straight on by. Eureka held out in front of her a blade made from her own scarf, while Pluck was holding a revolver with a shaking hand.

“Hello there!” Aph greeted them amiably. “Let’s be friends, and then later we can show you our stabs.” She paused. “Okay maybe I wasn’t supposed to say that second bit, forget I said that.”

“Stay back!” Pluck said. “I mean it.”

“So new friends, what cool powers do you have that we could exploit?” Aph asked cheerily. “I would actually answer this time instead of making empty threats.”

“I’m not telling you anything you-” Pluck began, though Eureka cut him off.

“I’m a textilurge.” She said. “I can control cloth.”

“Dull dull dull dull dull.” Aph replied, waving an arm dismissively towards the textilurge, sending a barrage of icicles towards her. Eureka quickly hardened her clothing as she dodged out of the way of the first icicle, a second smashed against her quickly reinforced sweatshirt. She batted one away with her scarf and the final one plunged into her hand and became lodged half in and half out the other side. Pluck fired on instinct but the bullet went wide and slammed into the far wall without incident. He never did like to use firearms. Eureka collapsed to the floor in pain. Pluck struggled to aim with his hands shaking, and frustratedly just started firing until the gun clicked empty. Aph quickly raised a barrier of ice in the bullets path and returned her attention to Eureka’s prone form. Pluck cursed the lack of forethought that had meant he had not plucked a dagger, weighed up his chances with the angry pink demon, and fled.

“Sorry.” He yelled as he headed out of the door.

“ESCAPED PRISONER; PLUCK.” The voice of the Warden bellowed from all directions. “WE APOLOGISE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE AND WILL HAVE SECURITY OFFICIALS WITH YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.” Eureka climbed shakily to her feet, her other hand clamped around the injured one. Her scarf hovered towards Aph but only half-heartedly, Eureka could not focus on attempting to fight her off.

“Oh why won’t you just leave us alone?” she moaned, still in pain.

“We can’t.” Aph said. “It’s too much fun.” She brought around her burning blade in a wide arc and cleanly decapitated her. Aph laughed, this was so much more fun than destroying stupid robots. She knelt down to Eureka’s corpse, took her scarf and wrapped it around her own neck. It was not exactly a cute dress but it was perhaps better than nothing. She turned and left the cell, momentarily pausing to decide where to go next. Aph still wanted to get out of here of course, but according to The Monitor she was not going to moved along until everyone left; i.e. she had all the time in the world. Besides which she would need more effective friends than these losers in order to break out of here. Like those Class 0 prisoners, not that she really had much faith in this classification system anyway. How could she, when she had been so grievously misfiled?

SpoilerShow

The 'if you love me you'll go back into your cell' bit isn't something that the Warden would try with everyone. I just figure he had notes on Aph as she was at the beginning and figured she might just do as he asked if he phrased it like that.

I'd like to note that I'm not trying to make Aph godly powerful or anything, but Maxwell didn't see it coming, Kargrek was unfortunately unarmed, Pluck hadn't had much prep time and Eureka had an icicle through her hand. She'll fare less well against more powerful prisoners.

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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SpoilerShow

I was so horrified-slightly-delighted at Eureka's recent death so I drew this:



Anoms made me post it here. Sorry.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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Malky: I already said but it bears repeating [img]images/smilies/icon_heartbeat.gif[/img]

Otherwise I was thinking about the layout of Cervaled Fall and made a rough version of how I thought it might be laid out.

As noted on lower levels (sectors B through S) solitary cells offshoot from the main cellblock. Only one drawn as example.

If anyone has anything to add or just a better concept then go ahead, either way it would be a good idea to be all on the same page.

EDIT:

SpoilerShow

Better design.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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The newly minted security officials poured out of the elevators onto the affected sector. They were shiny and new, the faults that had brought down their predecessors addressed: their monitors had been reinforced, their useless electric batons had been replaced with in built machine guns and most importantly their very bodies now contained a mana-dampening core. The machines streamed down the corridors, looking for the escaped prisoners, there was a lot of ground to cover, but luckily for them (or unluckily for them) another one of the cells had just been deactivated. They headed straight there.

It was his own fault really. Aph wouldn’t have even noticed Trickster in the cell she was passing if he hadn’t shouted out to her. He’d put on a show pretending to still be in love with her and blah blah blah. It had been clear that all he wanted was a way out of this cell and that was that. Now he was frozen solid, his head snapped from his body and shattered into an unpleasant cascade of blood red ice. Trickster’s black top hat now rested upon Aph’s head. Clearly murder was the best way to accessorize. She turned to face the other occupants of the cell.

“Hello new friends!” she said cheerily. She had kind of expected them to be horrified, instead the giant seven eyed centipede thing had a world weary look upon his face as though he’d seen it before and as long as it wasn’t happening to him he wasn’t particularly bothered, the feathered dinosaur thing looked excited, and slightly disappointed (only because a frozen body was not very palatable), and the other occupant of the cell hadn’t moved since before Aph melted the door lock, cutting the power to the cell. He was a muscular old man, with a long white beard and a faraway look in his eyes. “What’s his deal?” Aph asked, cocking her head to one side.

“He’s always like that.” The feathered dinosaur replied turning and focusing his attention on the traumatised old man. “Just keeps mumbling about his forge… A bit stringy for my tastes but beggars can’t be choosers.” The dinosaur leapt at the catatonic old man sinking its teeth into his sinewy neck. The centipede thing regarded the messy spectacle and started to move towards the exit. Aph stepped into his path looking down at him.

“What’s the hurry new friend?” Aph asked. “We haven’t even gotten to know one another yet.”

“As much as I hate to interrupt murder time I think I’d rather be looking for a way out of this place.” Gaurinn responded brusquely.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say.” Electric sparked across Aph’s skin, as she mockingly affected an exaggerated pretence of hurt feelings. The alien tensed up and prepared to defend himself against the murderous nymph, but her attention appeared to have wandered. She spun around just as the new mana-dampening security officials arrived in the corridor outside.

“ESCAPED PRISONER APH, PLEASE SUBMIT TO THE SECURITY OFFICIALS AND ALLOW THEM TO ESCORT YOU TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.” The voice of The Warden crackled from each of the machines. “ALSO PRISONERS IN THIS CELL PLEASE REFRAIN FROM CONTEMPLATING USING THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ESCAPE. THERE IS NO ESCAPE. YOU ARE DOOMED TO FAILURE. THANK YOU.” The electricity which mere moments ago had erupted across her skin had now receded, and worse as a being made from magic herself she felt weakened by the mere presence of this technology. She felt like she was underwater, cut off from the world; as though seeing events from behind a large glass screen. Aph stood still; limp and lifeless like a ragdoll. The corridor beyond was full of the machines, approximately three dozen of them, all braced for combat, their gun arms aimed towards the motionless nymph.

“Oh man you have so many guys I guess I best just give up now.” Gaurinn said sarcastically. He slid past Aph, braced himself and discharged a burst of electricity into the hallway beyond. For a second nothing happened and then one by one every single one of the machines collapsed to the metal floor, their chassis blackened and partially melted, and their systems fried. As the mana-dampening cores deactivated Aph returned to life. After a moment’s contemplation she stormed into the corridor and kicked one of the disabled guards.

“I THINK I WOULD QUITE LIKE THAT NOT TO HAPPEN AGAIN!” she yelled as she failed to deal any significant damage to the already dead guard. Kerak bounded out of the cell and helpful bit into the monitor of the nearest machine. Aph stopped and took a breath. “Thanks Mister Dinosaur.” She said. “I think I like you guys. We should break out of here together!”

“Yes, I think I will team up with a woman who when the going gets tough, takes a nice little nap.” Gaurinn said. “This is the best idea ever.”

“Give her a chance Gaurinn.” Kerak said. “She broke us out of our cell.”

“Okay fine.” Gaurinn relented.

“Yay!” Aph cheered. “We are going to be the best team; I suggest we think of names for our team, but let’s get out of here first. I really don’t want to be around any of those guys again.”

“I’m Kerak.” The dinosaur introduced himself. “Let me tell you the story of how I came to end up in this strange and unusual place…”

SpoilerShow

P.S. I edited the previous post with a better design for the prison.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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A little earlier on the top floor a being stood alone in a room that was perhaps better described as a dome. Aside from the door the walls were completely covered in monitors, displaying live footage from the innumerable security cameras throughout the prison. As the walls curved in so did the screens, and if you were to look up you would see that even the roof of this room was filled with security cameras. However the figure standing there was less interested in this and more interested in a console he quickly located. His fingers danced over the keypad searching for the buttons he wanted. There was one in Sector E, one in Sector D, two in Sector B and oh look one down in Sector S. Somewhere in the prison doors started opening.

Alarms ringing after them, the unlikely trio of the nymph, the dinosaur and the alien centipede fled down of the one many hallways of this place. A large steel gate stood in their way, which the combined force of Aph’s tentacles and Kerak’s claws soon ripped open to access the chamber on the other side. There was another gate roughly adjacent to the one that they had come in through, a large elevator on the wall opposite, and to their right a small office from which the exits to this room were traditionally controlled.

Aph’s attitude had shifted somewhat since her last encounter with the guard robots. Before that they had been little more than a pest and she had assumed she essentially had free reign of the prison. Had she known that they would come back with mana-dampening, rendering her more or less helpless to them, she would have perhaps skipped over petty revenge on Trickster; though hey she got a cool hat so it’s swings and roundabouts really. Now all she wanted was to get out of here as quick as possible; never mind her killing spree, she was sure that there would be more people to kill wherever the next round happened to take them.

Kerak was in a bad mood because the guards had not been quite as edible as he had hoped. Aph had already noticed him watching her when he thought she was looking away, practically drooling at what she could only imagine he must perceive as some kind of incredibly exotic meat. Gaurinn was wasting no time, straight over to the office area zapping an officer that was standing guard inside and calling down the elevator. He berated the other two for being a pair of timewasters and the worst people he could imagine to have to break out of a prison with. As the elevator headed down to their floor more footsteps echoed down the cold steel corridor. Aph flinched away from the noise, pressing herself against the elevator, desperate to be even another centimetre away from the approaching guards.

A little earlier, up in the relatively light hearted cells of Sector E an alchemist shared a cell with a cartoon armadillo. Dr. Lorrden had seen and dealt with many things, taking them more or less in his stride but this was one that he was not equipped to deal with. For one thing in the awful blighted world from which he hailed there was no such thing as television hence no such thing as cartoons. The actions of the drawing come to life baffled and bewildered him. At the moment it sat in a white and black striped jumpsuit wistfully playing a harmonica for no reason that he could discern. His alchemical contraption, being the only thing keeping him alive, had not been removed, though all of his herbs and vials and such had been confiscated. As he lay on his side on his bunk, attempting to blot out the harmonica playing that would not cease, he heard the door to the cell ratchet open, leaving a clear path out of here. Rollo jumped for joy as he saw the doors open and dashed into the corridor before they had a chance to close again. Kaja followed him, making sure not to follow too closely mind you, and pausing to examine the door to see if there was any discernible reason why it would just open for him. Then he noticed pinned to the wall a note.

Aph was no help once again; dampened, feeling as though all the energy had just drained out of her, feeling like all the hope had just gone. Gaurinn blasted the first few that arrived, but soon they were wading through electrified chassis and Gaurinn was running out of juice. Then Kerak pounced, he ripped and tore, shredding their tough metal casings as though they were wrapping paper and he were a child on Christmas morning; mana-dampening cores appeared to be the present that everyone had bought for him this year, one after another they were rapidly discarded. The flow soon ebbed away and a sort of peace returned to the room where the elevator was still descending. As the mana-dampening effect dissipated Aph screamed in frustration. She had tried venting her rage upon a guard’s empty shell before and it was pointless; she wanted to feel something die at her hands as punishment for what was currently going on, but the only two available targets were the ones keeping her alive. So she just screamed in frustration and banged against the elevator doors.

A little earlier, on the floor above a man sat in peace, his legs crossed his eyes shut, deep in meditation. He was talking to the planet itself. This was his unique talent, his ability to speak with the world and carry out its will. It had made him into a raging psychopath intent on destroying all of humanity for the preservation of the planet, though he would not have agreed with you. He remembered dying recently, in the Rainy Place, he knew why it had happened. It had been a punishment. He had been headstrong and when that realm had spoken to him, beseeching him to carry out its purpose he had seen it as irrelevant, less than his own purpose. Now he had learned that not every world was the same, and that he had to respect each one as if it were his own. It was for that reason that he was not surprised when his door unlocked itself. He proceeded into the hallway with a sense of purpose.

The doors opened revealing two men standing inside, as far apart as it is possible to be confined in the same elevator. The first, the alchemist, was a pale shade of green wearing goggles and a long coat and had a whole mess of brass fittings lodged into his back. The other, the hippy, had long brown hair, a beard and eyes that were green all the way through. He had his arms folded and was scowling.

“I can’t believe I’m supposed to cooperate with someone like you.” He spat, angrily. “Okay I was prepared to have to work with vermin, but an alchemist?”

“And what is wrong with being an alchemist?” Dr Lorrden replied through gritted teeth. “Being an alchemist is a noble profession.”

“Noble?” Dove exploded. “You uproot innocent harmless plants, then you grind them down, or you boil them alive or some other suitably sick form of pointless destruction. Then you make them into tasty drinks. You monster.”

“They’re just plants!” Kaja responded. “They aren’t sentient. They don’t feel pain.”

“One could say that about monsters like you!” Dove pointed an accusatory finger at the alchemist.

“Excuse me?” Aph said irritably. “Am I interrupting something?”

“No.” Dr Lorrden said, ignoring the floraphile completely. “Come on in if you’re getting in.” Aph hesitated for a moment, whatever was going on here she wasn’t sure she had time to deal with it, but as the familiar footfalls of approaching guards echoed down the corridor she threw caution to the wind and stepped inside. Kerak shrugged and went to follow her.

“No.” Dove said. “Not you, planet was very specific; just the nymph.”

“Pardon?” said Gaurinn. “Suddenly I’m not cool enough to come to the ‘who can shout the loudest party’?”

“The note was pretty specific.” Dr Lorrden replied, hitting the button for Sector B. “As much as I hate to agree with him, you’ll just have to get the next elevator.” The doors slid closed in their faces.

“Excuse me?” Aph said again, feeling pretty redundant by this juncture. “Would someone just tell me what the fuck is going on?” She paused.

“Planet asked me to help.” Dove replied.

“By the way, this is me being polite.” Aph replied her skin burning with a dull fire. “I don’t need my time wasted with cryptic bullshit.”

“We’ve been asked to help.” Dr Lorrden replied. “Apparently he’s been asked by a voice that he hears in his head which he reckons is the planet talking to him… so that is the quality of your help for today.” Dove said nothing but rolled his eyes.

“And what can you guys d-” Aph started in her faux chirpy upbeat voice, but stopped as the doors slid open and she was suddenly face to face with a corridor where the walls and floors were made from a substance full of mana-dampening energy. She collapsed.

A little earlier on that very floor a god of death paced the confines of his cell. He was like always furious. It had not been enough for these Grandmasters that he have his immortality stripped from him, now they had to take away his freedom as well. He was death incarnate! You could not cage death! You could not play with death and hope that at the end of the day it would not come for you, wreaking bloody vengeance upon you until you were naught more than a bloody smear upon the landscape. He would have his revenge. He would have it ten times over. More than that, he would have it a hundred times over. A million times over. He would not be sated, not ever, not for as long as he would live. The Spirit of Fairy Tales watched him in disbelief, though they had taken away her book she didn’t really need it to know about what the death god had done. Death practically dripped from him, the countless lives he had taken peeling off one by one. In anyone else she might have decided that they were an awful villain who ought to die for what they had done, but in Ziirphael she saw something almost primal; a force of nature. Anything that stood in his way more or less deserved to die, to stand against him and live was tantamount to going against nature itself. Ziirphael had continued to pace angrily until suddenly the door slid open. Ziirphael muttered something, about time or something to that effect and without a second look he was out to fight his way out of this hellhole.

Overwhelmed by the mana-dampening Aph passed out, slipping into a fitful dream. It was very confused, in her dream she was tied up, ethereal chains wrapped around her limbs and left abandoned on the floor, but at the same time she was a princess, ruler of a human settlement. Her throne room was opulent but also filled with books about magic; textbooks and study guides. Her prince, a wicked man called Xan was trying to oust her from the throne so that he might rule over the settlement alone. He was gloating and reading magical texts. She broke free using her tentacles, or did she not have any tentacles. There was a sword. She thinks she might have cut his heart out in a fit of rage. Afterwards she’s crying, so lonely, yet surrounded by cheering subjects. She knows that she’ll never be happy again.

Dove and Kaja stood just outside the lift in silence, supporting the distressed nymph between them. In the distance they could hear footsteps; heading their way. They were concerned, Kaja and Dove both had a habit of leaning on their powers, and stripped of any herbs to create potions, or any plants to attack with they were pretty much defenceless. They couldn’t help but wonder why they had been specifically selected to engage in this foolishness. The footsteps got closer to the point where they could see a figure approaching down one of the hallways, he was wearing a tattered bloodstained suit, his arms were blades made out of bone, and behind him a girl with long black pigtails and a ragged grey cloak. Ziirphael sliced through the metal gate that stood in his way, sending a large chunk of metal flying off its hinges.

“Ziirphael.” Kaja started confidently. “We are in urgent requirement of your assistance.” The god of death ran over to the alchemist, knocked Aph and Dove away and slammed him against the wall one of his blade arms pressed against the alchemist’s throat.

“How do you know my name?” Ziirphael demanded.

“There was a note.” Kaja said. “You have to help us.”

“I have to do nothing.” Ziirphael said. “Especially not for the man who writes those notes.”

“Do you not wish to destroy the being that trapped you here?” Dove asked.

A little earlier on that very floor a swarm of fireflies swirled. Thatix’s brain buzzed, literally with activity. Back from the dead? How? Why? What was this place and what happened to that place with all the towers? This place was so limiting, so confining, so grey and dull and depressing and worst of all she couldn’t magic and burn and torch her way out. She tried and tried and even tried on her sidekick but it still didn’t work and he was pretty cross as well. But well here she was back again, that was like what… the third time… the second time? No! The second time, yes! Proof! Proof if proof be needed that she had at some point when she had been thinking about something else, like how much they were all bastards or how she was going to punish them all, that she had ascended to godhood or something. Ooh maybe that’s what was the deal with being fireflies, she never really had got to the bottom of that, she was clearly now a firefly god. That made sense right? And anyway who cares if it makes sense, it’s the truth it doesn’t have to make sense because it just is. Or something. Thinking is hard when you’re a god. She wanted to get out of this tiny little room and start killing things again, prove to the council that you can’t keep a good god-tyrant-wizard-firefly-thingy down. That sounded better when it was in her head. Either way the council they would be sorry that they had messed with her, that they had dragged her here into this dingy little cell, even though it was kind of glowy blue and nice and lovely, but who cares?! Stupid stupid stupid council! Though of course they were always so by the book and goody-two-shoes; they wouldn’t have taken the opportunity to kill her when they did, which was somewhat perplexing but no she was sure that this was the preamble to a trial designed to humiliate and humble her before the stupid peasants that she would actually crush under her heel instead, though it’s doubtful that metaphor really holds any weight when you are a fireflies because ironically enough as a fireflies it is difficult to hold any weight. Or something. Oh look the door had opened. Now she had the advantage. Now she would show the council what she was really made of: fireflies, but like god-fireflies.

“And you can assure me that this plan will take him out?” Ziirphael asked.

“Yes.” Dove replied, now pressed up against the wall in Kaja’s place. Kaja was busy trying to patch up a crack in his apparatus with straps of his jacket. It was not going to hold, and the fluid that kept him alive was already leaking everywhere, but that was kind of irrelevant really, he wasn’t the real Kaja anyway. He noted that Dove was taking care not to tell Ziirphael any of this; he was forced to admit that this was a good move. Ziir wasn’t exactly what you could call cooperative.

“Okay.” Ziirphael relaxed, removing his blade from Dove’s throat. “What now?” Dove walked a little bit away from the death god and straightened his collar.

“We take Sleeping Beauty here down to the control room; turn off the mana-dampening on this floor.” Dove replied.

“And then?” Ziirphael asked.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Kaja responded. “For now…” He set off through the broken gate; of course the control room would be on the opposite side of the floor.

A little earlier on the next level down, an eldritch abomination with a robotic arm was heavily restrained, all but welded to a table in a room with lead walls, several inches thick. A machine suspended from the ceiling shone light into Thane’s eyes and thoughts into Thane’s mind; soothing images of kittens with balls of yarn and the like. Upon the surface the monstrous being was placated, unable to even contemplate breaking free from his restraints, but deep down the mind of the old one seethed with rage. He was angry with his failure, angry with his death and angry at his imprisonment and the constant mental torture. Forget the exhibits he had encountered at The Museum, this was true torture, not the pitiful inflicting of pain upon the flesh, but the inflicting of pain upon the mind itself. Had The Controller been doing this to someone else Thane might almost have been impressed, as it was he could not even scream; the serene thoughts being inflicted upon him would not let him. Eventually after what feels like weeks upon weeks of constant happy images the machine shuts down. As control returned to him Thane ripped his robotic arm free; sending shards of broken metal flying across the room. He quickly extricated himself from the table, leaving it little more than scrap and not even bothering to question the reason for his sudden freedom he tears down the machine and rips it to pieces.

As they make their way across the floor passing by cells that don’t even appear to have windows or doors, they hear the distant echoing of fast approaching guards. Dove and Kaja hold up Aph, and keep out of the way as Ziirphael goes to town. He moves quickly, slashing and spinning, sending their broken chassis spiralling through the air shedding parts like confetti. He effortlessly blocks their shots with his arms of bone. His movements are flowing and natural, almost like some murderous ballet, he does not put a foot wrong. When one of the guards goes down Soft seizes her chance and grabs hold of a machine gun, while not her regular weapon it is still somewhat effective. She fills a guard’s monitor with bullets and watches as it falls back and shatters open. Dove passes off Aph onto the alchemist and swiftly collects one of the weapons for himself. Kaja watches Dove as he attempts to handle the man-made weapon, staring at it with an expression of extreme distaste at first and then his replaced with glee as he uses it to destroy one of the guards. Aph shifts and moans in her sleep, and so they progress, making their way across to the control room. Nearby they spot a cloud of fireflies swarming around a guard evidently not programmed to handle such behaviour. Ziirphael makes quick work of the guard that Thatix was completely unable to damage in any way, not that she was letting that stop her from trying.

“Thatix?” Kaja asked, though why he wasn’t quite sure, he didn’t suspect that there would be two crazy swarms of fireflies flying around the place.

“Who are you people?” Thatix demands. “The council I’ll bet! They’re always getting new councillors in with exactly the same faces as the old councillors!”

“No.” Kaja replied. “We’re working for The Ghost.” With that name dropped Thatix’s swarm stopped flying for a second, stunned.

“And?” she responded, clearly surprised, perhaps even shaken, but unwilling to show it.

“And we need your help.” Doctor Lorrden continued. “I am informed you owe him a debt.”

“You’re talking To Thatix the Mighty here! I owe nobody nothing!” Thatix replied boastfully.

“Okay Thatix the Mighty.” Dove replied sarcastically. “Strike me down here I stand. If you can then we’ll just go on our way, if not you come and help us.” He walked right up to the buzzing cloud of fireflies, which reshaped in front of him into something resembling a woman with long hair, a cloak and a staff.

“I shall smite you down council fool.” Thatix replied. “…With my incredible powers of fire!” She started swirling ineffectually and eventually just started flying around Dove’s head shouting ‘have at you’ and other generic combat phrases in a really feeble manner. Dove attempts to convince her to give up but she just keeps on going until her swarm collapses to the floor exhausted.

“Are you done now?” Dove asks impatiently. “Can we go now?” Thatix formed herself back up and begrudgingly made the journey of about ten to fifteen feet to the control room. Ziirphael takes the lead ruthlessly destroying the sentry posted inside the room, and the rest crowd in afterwards. The room itself is filled with monitors showing the various prisoners on this floor from many different angles and a bank of buttons. Dove rushes over and searches for the one that he was instructed to find. As he pushes it the mana-dampening along the floor deactivates, leaving a vacuum of noise where a barely noticeable low humming had been. Aph awakes from her dream of mangled memories to find a whole group of people standing over her.

“Hey new friends…” she says cautiously. “What the fuck is going on here?”

“What now?” Ziirphael turns to Kaja and Dove, completely ignoring the waking nymph. As Aph gets to her feet she produces a blade made from the black twilight of D’Neya’s tentacles and in one swift motion brings it around and decapitates Ziirphael. His body folds up beneath him, crashing heavily to the floor. A small amount of thick black smoke rising from his neck quickly dissipated into the air. For a second no-one spoke, instead staring at the murderous nymph.

“Seriously…” She says her voice impatient and angry. “What the fuck is going on here?” Kaja swallowed nervously.

“We’re working for someone called The Ghost.” He said. “He wants to give you a hand.”

“Oh.” Aph said, rounding upon the alchemist. “And how does he want to do that? And for that matter why does he care anyway?”

“He wants you to kill The Monitor.” Kaja replied nervously. “This floor is filled with highly magical beings. He wants you to kill them and take their power and use it to kill The Monitor.”

SpoilerShow

Long post is long. I'll let other people do stuff now.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

---

SpoilerShow

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Because this battle has had serious inactivity problems for a long time, I have decided to take drastic measures.

We are now in Sudden Death.

I will eliminate any player who doesn't post for an entire month. Yes, this is a severe penalty, but I'm not asking for anything unreasonable; I just expect one post in the space of a month to prove that you're still interested in taking part in the battle. It doesn't have to be particularly long.

And yes, I will let Ixcalibur win despite his resignation last round if everybody else gets Sudden Deathed. If you have a problem with that, post more and it won't happen.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

Soft was annoyed; this story wasn’t making any sense. A silly floating pink woman had just murdered a being that was practically death incarnate. This was not how things were supposed to happen. Messing with primal forces as powerful as this was supposed to leave you if not dead then with a very strict lesson in not messing with powerful forces as primal as this. Soft knew that she couldn’t let the silly pink woman get away with such a crime against reasonable narrative and ignored by everyone else in the room she raised the rifle she had liberated from one of the destroyed guards, and pulled the trigger.

The weapon was not really designed for use by a ten year old girl, the recoil throwing her arm back and sending bullets flying into monitors, the wall, the ceiling, more or less everywhere that didn’t contain a silly floating pink woman. Dove collapsed to the floor, his chest all but shredded by the misaimed hail of bullets; beside him glass shattered and substances leaked; and part of Kaja’s life-preserving contraption was destroyed.

Quickly Aph had grabbed Soft, knocking the rifle out of her hand. For a moment she just held her aloft, fighting Soft’s struggle to break free. Then with a wide grin Aph’s skin erupted into flame which slowly moving down her arm and engulfed the spirit of fairy tales. As she burned alive Soft screaming as much in frustration as in agony. This was not how her story was supposed to end. After a minute, once the thrashing had stopped Aph dropped her charred remains and turned her attention to the others.

Dove lay on the floor, gasping uselessly, taking in his last breaths. A deep throaty chuckle as he saw his two time murderer destroyed, followed promptly by a cough as blood poured out of his mouth. He closed his eyes and asked the planet if he had done good this time. There was a response, but it was not what he wanted to hear. Six condemning words that spat on all he had worked for. ‘Don’t be silly, planets aren’t sentient.’ The Ghost replied.

Doctor Lorrden was struggling to his feet, feeling substantially weaker than he had done before. He braced himself against the bullet-ridden desk as Aph approached him.

“How?” she asked, picking up the conversation from exactly where she had left off. “How can I drain the magic?” Kaja gestured towards Dove’s corpse, specifically to the backpack he was wearing.

“In there.” He said. The nymph reached down and disentangled the bag from the limbs of Dove’s corpse, mockingly careful not to touch the dead man. She dumped the thing down on the desk with a thump, Kaja protested to handle it more delicately, and opened it up. Inside was a complicated grey machine. Aph played with it idly flicking at it’s components until it rumbled into life, a low pulsating blue. She felt herself drifting away, and quickly before it had a chance to fully activate disabled the mana-dampening core. “It needs rewiring.” Kaja explained. “Do exactly what I say, I don’t have long.” Aph gave him a mock salute and forming tools from the D’Neya’s black tentacles she did as the dying alchemist asked.

It was tough going, every minute that she worked on it Kaja slipped further and further away. Sometimes she would ask a question and all she got in response was a snapped back ‘I don’t know, I’m just going off what I was told’. In the meantime Thatix buzzed around the room making a nuisance of herself; pretending like she had killed Dove, Ziirphael and Soft, going ‘bang’, ‘zap’ and ‘pow’ as she mimed a mighty battle that had taken place only in her head.

Eventually it was done; the mana-draining core was complete. Doctor Lorrden had collapsed into the swivel chair that the person watching the monitors would normally sit at and was losing consciousness rapidly. Aph flicked the device on, and blanketed herself with electricity. Though it was her insect instinct that drove Thatix towards the light, to the electrified nymph, part of her would have gone anyway, just because of the shiny. Piece by piece her consciousness dissipated as the swarm that made her up was electrocuted, her mana dissipating into the nearest source of magic, Aph herself. Aph watched as the mad sorceress died and giggled as she could feel Thatix’s magic flowing through her. She turned around to Kaja and stared him in the eye with a grin of grim triumph.

“One last thing.” She asked. “What makes you think I even want to kill The Monitor?” Kaja looked at her with an expression of pained incomprehension.

“He took you from your world; he made you fight and kill in order to stay alive.” The Doctor said. “Why wouldn’t you want to kill him?”

“Because I was weak, because I was pathetic and I killed and loved and forgot time and again.” Aph replied. “My existence was pointless. I was pointless. The Monitor brought me here, made me strong, gave me people to play with and to kill. The Monitor has done more for me than anyone else ever has. I would kill to protect him.” Now scowling, her tentacles impaled the dying man, spearing him through his chest and his contraption, through his limbs and through his brain. An unnecessary act she was sure, but one she felt compelled to commit anyway.

Across the sector prisoners were starting to notice that the mana-dampening had powered down, and using their abilities to escape. They fled towards the elevators hoping to get the hell out of there, only to find that they had been shut down from a small control room full of bodies. Aph was going to enjoy this.

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

---

“One… two… this is the fifth round.”

“That’s Battleopolis. Where…”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“The fifth round of my battle was Battleopolis, where all the dead contestants momentarily came back for the round. You know what this means?”

“What.”

“Every prisoner here, except the four remaining contestants from this battle—your battle—is an artificial construct made by the host of your battle to spice things up.”

“And…?”

“None of the copies in Battleopolis survived. I’ll be dead by the time you move on to the next round.”

“Hmph. Doesn’t mean we can’t try. Is she friendly?” Aegis motioned to the girl, now fleeing across the walkway.

“I seem to have all my memories. She should as well. Let’s g-” A dart materialized on Aeon’s neck, sending him convulsing to the floor. “Silent alarm! Move!”

Aegis heaved his friend on his shoulders and jumped over the fence, aiming precisely for the floor his friend’s apparent friend was on. Amethyst noticed the gigantic man falling from two floors up, and, considering her current state of severe mana inhibition, dove behind the nearest corner.

“Hey, you there!” Aegis called towards her. “I’m friendly! Y’know a guy named Aeon Ferrous?”

Amethyst peeked behind the corner and saw a familiar face on the big man’s back. “He’s telling the truth. He’s a good friend of mine.”

“Are you paralyzed?”

“My whole body’s numb, yes.”

“Do you have any idea why we’re in this prison, and why I’m still alive for that matter?”

“I have a hunch.”

An uproar began to form in the floor above, suggesting a struggle, with enough screams and sounds of maiming to suggest casualties.

“I’d hate to interrupt this little reunion, but we’ve gotta move.”

The trio fled, heading for the elevators Aeon and Amethyst somehow knew existed, until all three caught the glimpse of a familiar face.

“Hey hag, need a hand? Who’s ol’ bones and metal here?” Aegis offhandedly asked Sister Clara. From the outside, it appeared that Sister Clara and Konka Rar were in a cell with a glass door—one-way and soundproof glass, as the inmates’ lack of a reply seemed to indicate. Aeon and Amethyst motioned for Aegis to ignore them, preferring to keep the infamous lich in captivity. With total disregard, Aegis ripped off the nearest terminal, thereby causing the door to retract into the ceiling. Clara and Rar turned to their apparent liberators.

“This is a pleasant surprise.” Konka Rar said, beginning to exit.

“Aegis, find a way to close the door. We’re not letting Konka Rar out.”

“What? You just did.”

“They seem to know you, Rar. Could someone please explain?”

“There was another contestant in our battle, one of his undead creations. We helped him find his free will and independence, but Rar here was intent on keeping him a slave. Rar was also involved in several conflicts in our battle, including teaming up with a particularly destructive necromancer.”

“What in ten ages are you talking about?!” Konka Rar paused. “This ‘undead creation’ wouldn’t happen to be my vacuum cleaner, would it?”

“Excuse me. There seems to be a great deal of confusion here. Does anyone have a cohesive explanation for all of this? For starters, who are these two?”

“This guy’s Aeon. I’ve known him for years. This girl is Amethyst, who’s apparently another contestant in the battle Aeon was in.”

“I believe I’ve figured some of this out. This is the fifth round, which you should remember as Battleopolis.” Aeon looked at Amethyst as she nodded. “The reason we’re alive—and Konka Rar is here—is we’re like Alcarith and the others in that round, copies created specifically as additional quirks of the setting. If they move on to the next round, we’d probably die. However, we’re all copies of the real people, and in the real Konka Rar’s perspective, all he saw was Eximo disappearing without any explanation. The Konka Rars we fought against were also copies. Eximo won the Grand Battle, by the way. We didn’t manage to kill the Director.”

“Oh.”

“You two were killed by a vacuum cleaner?”

“Long story.”

“I have never been so confused in my life, hah.”

“Mind explaining who the old woman is?” Amethyst asked.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sister Clara Jungfrau, necropolitan. I have been in this battle with Aegis now for several rounds, and-”

“So she’s a contestant.” Aeon muttered in annoyance.

“She looks friendly enough, and might prove useful if we manage to destroy the mana dampening systems.” Amethyst said.

“The lich isn’t coming with us.”

“I don’t believe he will cause any harm at this point.” Clara responded. “This floor has mana dampening systems in place, rendering both of us more or less harmless. I don’t suppose a vow from him to keep civilized will convince you two of that?”

“I will make no such thing.”

“Very well. Rar, lead the way. You are not to leave our sights for any reason.” Amethyst said.

As they walked, noise from the upper floor escalated and extended to the floor they were on. Aegis, the only member of the group still at full strength, formed a longsword and stood at the ready.

Konka Rar suddenly spun around and pointed his hand at the group, clearly generating magic energy.

“Hah! You haven’t noticed? The mana dampening system gave out just a minute ago!”

Amethyst checked her armband. “He’s right.” Immediately, she summoned a dozen crystals, surrounding Rar. Aegis pointed his longsword at his neck vertebrae. Clara, unsure of how to intervene, stayed idle.

“You forget that every prisoner in this prison is a Grand Battle contestant. You are outnumbered.” Amethyst said plainly.

Konka Rar attempted to shoot down the crystals with fireballs, but was met with a gauntlet gripping his skull. He relented. More noise was heard as more and more prisoners escaped from their cells. The group, Aeon and Amethyst realized, were directly in the middle.

The group noticed the sound of electricity coming from further down the hall. Aph came from around the corner and upon seeing the group, developed a wide grin on her face.

“Aph.” Clara said with a hint of concern.

“Another contestant?” Aeon asked.

“Yep.” Aegis released Rar, who regarded the newcomer with irritation. He increased the size of his longsword. “Big fight?”

“Big fight.” Amethyst replied, summoning another dozen crystals.

Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

---

Reserved

Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

---

Aph was stirring up a lot of trouble. At least, if the announcements over the speaker system were anything to go by, she was. She seemed to be in the lower levels, so there wasn't too much to worry about up here, and if anything, it meant security was more or less pre-occupied. Higher security went downstairs, further away from the entrance, it seemed. Gadget claimed that when they took Whir, they the guards took him upstairs. Security would probably be tight nearing the entrance, but they would try to steer clear of there until it was time to actually make an escape anyways. If they could find Whir, perhaps it would be easier to get around from there, depending on how much Whir may have found out away from Gadget.

"So there are other battles, huh? Then what the heck is up with this round?"

"Some sort of crossover round, we suppose. From what I can tell, some guy called The Monitor runs this place."

"That's who's running mine! What about you guys?"

"She's called the Composer I think. Maxwell?"

Maxwell snapped out of his silence, "Oh, what? Sorry, I was distracted. The Observer was in charge of the battle I was in. I also think that we're here."

A large metal door stood in front of the three people and one lamp. Supposedly beyond there would be an exit, or at least a room near passage to an exit.

"Brightly, your cue."

The lamp saluted with its cord as Gadget opened the door and it hopped on through. A few moments of silent anticipation passed before its unexpected message, "It's empty!"

Ben, Gadget and Maxwell burst through the door to see that the lamp was indeed telling the truth. Even more than they expected from the description. A very large metal room devoid of anything. No furniture, no robotic guards, nothing but another door on the other side of the room, and a much larger, grander set of doors in the front of the room.

"That can't be it," Ben was dumbfounded. So far there had been no resistance towards the group, and it really should have changed right here. That was the front freaking door, and nobody was standing in front of it to keep prisoners from escaping. Going over to examine it, it was obvious that it was locked, but surely there were contestants capable of getting through the lock, or even breaking down the entire door. This seemed inadequate.

"I don't think I could pick it. And it seems pretty solid, too."

"We'd need something like a high-speed bus to break this down. I'm sure we could find somebody in the lower floors that could manage it, but I think I would trust any of them. There's probably some other way through. I'm sure The Monitor wouldn't challenge escape if it were impossible, if only because a game with no winner is rather anticlimactic."

"Well, we've got things to do before we leave here, anyways. I have to deal with Cabaret, and you have to find your friend. That door over there is our only way to go now, and this room is, um, useless."

Brightly chimed in, "Well what are we waiting for, let's go!"

It hopped towards the smaller door and the rest of the group followed suit, opening it and going on through. A sign on the door indicated that they were headed towards Manufacturing.

---

"I'm Whir, and I'm technically not a contestant in these battles. That didn't stop me from watching my best friend die because of it. I'm probably gonna die here, but if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go out trying to stop this bullshit. I figured something out about the rounds. When my friend died, I saw him the very next round. He didn't recognize me, and he looked kinda different, but it was still definitely him. The place I'm in now tells me I'm on the right track. My friend is alive here, but doesn't remember dying, and there are others from other battles. I think they're some kind of clones, and this definitely happened in more than one battle. I'm sure at least one of these 'contestant clones' knows this. I'm pretty sure this isn't isolated to these two battles. I really hope this helps, because I want these assholes to be stopped. No matter what."

Whir hoped that went through. He wasn't quite sure what the hell kind of signal that was, but if he was right, that would have been bounced back at the sender. Or at least somewhere that somebody could use it. Hopefully the information would fall into the right hands.

What's that sound...? Somebody's coming! Maybe it's that other Gadget. Fake or not, he certainly believed he was the real Gadget, and the real Gadget wouldn't just give up on him. Maybe he'd get out of this alive after all!

---

"That thing is eager!"

Brightly had hopped ahead up the stairs, apparently hoping to save the day and actually be a look-out for somebody being there.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, Gadget just stopped. Ben and Maxwell stopped shortly after and turned to him.

"Gadget, what's wrong?"

Maxwell however saw what was the matter. Laying on a table in several pieces was a familiar looking flying robot. The orb that made up it's body was smashed apart, and its light was not lit.

"It's... oh. That's... isn't it?"

Gadget nodded slowly, tears welling up in his good eye, trying to hold them back. Slowly he approached the table and picked up the various pieces of his friend.

Maxwell gaped for a moment, "I'm, um, I'm just going to look around for something to help us," he mumbled, and went off to search some of the nearby cupboards.

B looked at the scrap on the table. It was almost hard to believe that this could have been Gadget's best friend in the world, but after seeing Brightly, he knew it wasn't too unlikely.

Actually, where was Brightly? This question was interrupted by a corpse falling out of one of a closet as Maxwell opened it.

"What the hell! This is Cabaret!"

B hurried over to the body that Maxwell stood over, and even Gadget's attention was brought to the cadaver in the room.

"That's... is that really him? Who did this?"

Ben's question was answered by a figure that appeared from the end of the room, sliding forward from out of the shadows. It held a hammer in one hand and a knife in the other, "Hello again, Benjamin. Don't think I've forgotten how you killed me. I've really got to repay the favour."

Ben was confused. He had killed, Cabaret, hadn't he? Who was this? Gadget was gnashing his teeth staring at the liquid man. That hammer seemed to be responsible for the most recent tragedy of the day, and he seemed to be having a hard time holding back his complete anger.

"Well I supposed you couldn't really tell when you ate me, Benjamin, and it seems you're late to know what's going on here. There was no Cabaret. This battle. Call me Bae. I'm here to make sure you fail in this competition. Everybody, really, but right now, I think I'll be happy just to take you down."

Bae prepared his knife, ready to attack, but Maxwell was apparently not satisfied yet, "That's rubbish! Cabaret thought we were in round 3! He had no memory of dying in the first place!"

Okay now B wasn't just confused, he was utterly baffled. Why would Cabaret know how he died? He's, well, dead. Technically, Bae should also be dead, but he isn't, which meant that so far, absolutely nothing was making any sense.

"I'm working for the Monitor, silly Maxwell. He set me up with some additional memories over you other inferior types. For the record, you didn't survive in your own battle. Such a shame. I'm sure you could have figured that out on your own, though."

Maxwell stared at Bae and was about to reply again, but it was at that point that Gadget couldn't take it any more.

"YOU BASTARD!" the Chib shouted and he swung his metal arm towards the shapeshifter's head, only for him to lean over a bit and grab a hold of Gadget himself.

"You aren't a part of this. I'll make it quick," Bae spoke mockingly to the flailing short man as he pointed his arm at Gadget's chest. A spike grew from his arm, slashing Gadget across his torso. Not the intended method of attack, but it's hard to maintain a good attack like that when a British man is tackling you, "Oh, so you're trying to get yourself killed then, are you Mister Deakin?"

"I'm already dead. Perhaps next time you go through with an attack like this, you shouldn't do it in a bloody armory!"

Bae was suddenly aware of a fast beeping... it was coming from inside of him! That asshole planted a bomb! That asshole planted a bomb! That crazy mother-

Parts of Maxwell and Bae were both scattered at the explosion, power slightly increased by the liquid it was immersed in. B and Gadget were both knocked against the wall by the blast. Bae was clearly killed... again. It was sickening to look at the carnage. Maxwell had been a good friend in the short time he had known him. Struggling to get up, Ben hobbled over to Gadget to help him up. That cut looked painful, but not deadly.

"Th... thanks. I don't think I'm worth saving, though, Ben."

"What? Gadget, you're my only friend here, and a really nice person. I'm going to help you get out of here. Maxwell... Maxwell did a lot to protect us."

"He was right though. I'm already dead, too. I found this next to Whir. He must have written it before," Gadget trailed off of there and showed Ben a partially crumpled up note. It was written very sloppy, but considering what Whir was, that seems pretty expected.

'Gadg, if you're reading this, thanks for coming, even if you aren't the real Gadget. You might be some kind of clone, but you're still just as great a guy as the real one. You have a second chance here! Use it to fight back! I don't know how, but I'm sure you can do it!

"Your friend is right, Gadget. I sure as heck don't care if you're a clone or whatever. I mean, I was made in a tube, but that doesn't make me any less of a person!"

"ALRIGHT ESCAPED PRISONER APH, STOP THIS RIGHT NOW. YOU HAVE TO THE COUNT OF THREE, AND WHEN I COUNT TO THREE, YOU HAD BETTER STOP KILLING EVERYONE. ONE. TWO. TWO AND A HALF."

"...So, 'Gadg,' do you want to help me save some people from a crazy pink lady?"

Gadget sat there for a moment, thinking about everything. He stood up and looked at the opened cupboards. Filled with spare robotic guard parts. Already, he was mentally putting together the designs.

"Alright, but I might be a bit tired after this, though, so you'll have to carry me down."

SpoilerShow

THINGS THAT I DIDN'T EXPLICITLY STATE BUT THOUGHT WOULD BE USEFUL INFORMATION ANYWAYS.
Maxwell retained his memory of being crazy and the fifth round, but managed to keep his sanity for being a cameo. He always knew that most of the people around here probably weren't the real deal, and his biggest clue was, well, Cabaret. He was pretty sure he was a clone himself, otherwise he'd probably still be crazy.

Brightly is either dead or hidden away somewhere, because throughout this post he doesn't show up. It's Bae the whole time.

It's not a regular armory, but rather it's filled with weapons and such that can be installed into the guard robots. One of those was a bomb! Wheeeee!

Whir's Network message gets one recipient. It might reach Vandrel, or it might reach somebody else at random who's network-capable. Preferably somebody who hasn't hit the cameo round yet.

Bae was in fact working for the Monitor again here. He set it up so that there would be minimal guards, because he wanted to kill B himself. He wanted to do it at a fairly dramatic time, because the moment just had to be right.

Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

---

SpoilerShow

Hooeee, this just kind of... kept going. I had a few more things I wanted to do with the post, but I figured it was already a bit much.

Things had been quiet for a short time following Clara's and Konka Rar's conversation; the former had succumbed to dark, quiet ruminations on the possibility of escape and the possibility of being stuck here indefinitely even if the other competitors all got themselves killed; the latter simply hadnothing much to say, having become accustomed to solitude and not being very susceptible to boredom anyway, given his lichdom. After a few moments, though, the nun perked up.

"He wouldn't have put me here if I couldn't get out, or something wouldn't come along. That defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it?"

Even without much that could reasonably be called facial expression, the lich did his level best to project an air of minor confusion. He snapped, more out of habit than annoyance, "What are you talking about?"

Clara blinked and shook her head quickly. "Oh, right, I'm sorry. I presume you were just put here for 'data collection' or something, but The Monitor's running this interdimensional battle thing, and–"

Konka Rar harrumphed and cut her off. "'The Monitor', you say? It seems like I learn about another one of these preposterous dimensional overlord types every day. I know what you're talking about; I was in one myself, with The Cultivator, but I haven't seen anything from her since I was abducted from that battle and put here. Trust me, your Monitor doesn't have any intention of helping you get out."

The old woman's heart sank slightly as she heard of the apparent proliferation of battles and thought of the countless good people who must have already lost their lives fighting in them, but she pressed on. "Nonono, you see, he put all of us from our battle into this prison with express instructions to escape. Apparently it's his prison, and while you're all here to collect data on, he wants us to break out."

She left out the bit about her cellmate and the rest of the prisoners that presumably filled this place being copies; it'd almost certainly be pretty disheartening, and frankly she preferred not to go down trains of thought that included "And if he can just copy anyone from anywhere, how do I know the real me isn't back in the convent? Who knows how many Clara Jungfraus are floating around the worlds?"

The not-currently-a-sorceror shifted on his seat, inscrutable bony face betraying nothing. The fact that his words came so slowly and deliberately would have been telling, had Clara any of the memories her various counterparts had of him, but as it was, he simply sounded musing. "Did it... occur to you that this may simply be a means of testing his security, rather than an actual desire to have mayhem and destruction spread through his prison?"

She shrugged. "Something like that did cross my mind, but it seems like he wouldn't pull us out of his own battle to do that. Besides, from the sounds of it you got put here in a different manner than I did."

Though she tried to sound sure, the lich's point had actually gotten to her a bit. What if he was right? If that was true, there wouldn't be any sort of loophole or exploitable weakness or convenient coincidence; she'd have to work tirelessly and surreptitiously for who-knew-how-long, without magic, to have any chance of getting out, and for what? To be shot as soon as she left the grounds? To be put back in some deeper cell and told to escape again? For that matter, what was the point even if it was still the same battle? Despite all her promises and aspirations and plans, you simply couldn't fight someone who could control reality around you.

Konka Rar himself, on the other hand, was becoming quite excited. He suspected the silly old nun was right, and that her presence would ultimately facilitate his own escape and subsequent campaign of revenge on all the foolish Grandmasters who has conspired against him. His mind was already racing, trying to recall what he knew about the prison and how he could best use it to his advantage, formulating plans and backup plans and considering how best to take advantage of the presence of his extremely-serendipitous cellmate.

The conversation petered out again as the two retreated into their own rather disparate thoughts. Things weren't quiet for long though; there was a sound like tearing metal and breaking glass, followed almost immediately by the door panel juddering upwards and disappearing. The imprisoned pair started and craned to see what had happened; Clara recognized the boisterous Aegis, but his waiflike companion and the unmoving man slung over his shoulder were a mystery to her.

The lich wasted no time in exiting the room, sweeping into the corridor with a breezy "This is a pleasant surprise."; had he still had facial muscles, he'd probably have been beaming irrepressibly, but as it was he merely stayed locked in the bony, grinning rictus his skull always displayed.

Before he could actually enter that corridor, however, the man over Aegis's shoulder growled out, "Aegis, find a way to close the door. We're not letting Konka Rar out."

The lich, undeterred, simply stepped outside and cocked his head at his paralyzed berator. "What? You just did."

Clara, who by this point had risen and was hovering nervously by the open door, raised her eyebrows. "They seem to know you, Rar. Could someone please explain?"

A somewhat muffled voice floated over Aegis's shoulder."There was another contestant in our battle, one of his undead creations. We helped him find his free will and independence, but Rar here was intent on keeping him a slave. Rar was also involved in several conflicts in our battle, including teaming up with a particularly destructive necromancer.”

"What in ten ages are you talking about?!" By this point, the lich's elation had given way to slight confusion, which had itself metamorphosed into extreme annoyance as these people seemed to be doing everything in their power to avoid making sense. He nearly lashed out, but was struck with a thought and lapsed into silence for a moment. He tapped his jawbone pensively; "This 'undead creation' wouldn't happen to be my vacuum cleaner, would it?"

By this point, Clara herself was becoming rather annoyingly-confused, and reasoned that the best way to sort things out was to, well, sort things out. "Excuse me. There seems to be a great deal of confusion here. Does anyone have a cohesive explanation for this? For starters, who are these two?"

Aegis chimed in helpfully and straightforwardly with "This guy's Aeon. I've known him for years. The girl is Amethyst, who's apparently another contestant in the battle Aeon was in."

The man introduced as Aeon spoke up as soon as Aegis left off. "I believe I've figured some of this out. This is the fifth round, which you should remember as Battleopolis." Clara, of course, did not remember any such thing or even have an idea of what the man could be going on about, but the girl Amethyst nodded; the two recently-freed magic-users put two and two together, but one wished the speaker had been more clear and the other cursed him for wasting time. "The reason we're alive–and Konka Rar is here–is we're like Alcarith and the others in that round, copies created specifically as additional quirks of the setting. If they move on to the next round, we'd probably die. However, we're all copies of the real people, and in the real Konka Rar's perspective, all he was was Eximo disappearing without any explanation. The Konka Rars we fought against were also copies. Eximo won the Grand Battle, by the way. We didn't manage to kill the Director."

As Aeon's monologue fell silent, the rest of the group took a few moments to digest what he had said. A collective "Oh," arose as people went about their various thoughts; after another brief pause, Konka Rar spoke up sniggeringly. "You two were killed by a vacuum cleaner?"

Aeon's response was a brusque Long story.", which was followed by a surprisingly-lighthearted "I've never been so confused in my life, hah," from Aegis. At this point amethyst, who had been essentially silent up to now, said "Mind explaining who the old woman is?"

Clara smiled in spite of the girl's sharpness. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sister Clara Jungfrau, necropolitan. I have been in this battle with Aegis now for several rounds, and–"

Aeon cut her off by spitting "So she's a contestant."

Amethst responded with "She looks friendly enough, and might prove useful if we manage to destroy the mana dampening systems."

Aeon, apparently partially mollified, said "The lich isn't coming with us."

Clara thought this was rather unfair, and frankly a bit prejudiced. Would he be as adamant about her not joining them if she looked more corpsey? Was he going to trust her just because she "looked nice"? Konka Rar had been nothing but polite, if a bit short, during the time she'd spent with him. She maintained her smile and evenly said "I don't believe he will cause any harm and this point. This floor has mana dampening systems in place, rendering both of us more or less harmless. I don't suppose a vow from him to keep civilized will convince the two of you of that?"

Konka Rar was all for deception if it suited his purpose, but kowtowing to this self-righteous pair was too far. Besides, they didn't have any kind of way to force him to do anything or stay anywhere, judging from the destroyed terminal next to the open door. "I will make no such thing."

Despite his face being hidden by Aegis's broad shoulders, the assembled battlers could practically hear Aeon's eyes rolling. Amethyst, probably reaching the same conclusion Konka Rar had, said "Very well. Rar, lead the way. You are not to leave our sights for any reason."

The group moved along, heading steadily upwards with the lich in the lead. Things were largely silent save for the tapping of leather and bone on metal, and of course the omnipresent and ever-loudening sounds of combat and warnings from the Warden coming from above. Konka Rar alone, probably due to his style of spellcasting compared to the others', noticed when the mana dampening systems went down. His skeletal grin didn't shift as he began gathering energy, no matter how much he would have liked it to.

All he had to do now was lose this gang of dead weights and he'd be free to pursue Grandmastercide. Once he'd drawn a reasonable amount of mana to himself, he whirled around, waves of darkness gathering around his outstretched hand. Always the villain to the core, he cackled "Hah! You haven't noticed? The mana dampening system gave out just a minute ago!"

"He's right," said Amethyst, her eyes darting down to her armband. With a thought, she conjured a swarm of bladelike crystals that hovered around the necromantic aggressor. Aegis took her cue, his gauntlets forming a longsword which he pointed at the lich's lack of a throat. Clara, for her part, was rather taken aback, and felt foolish enough at her baseless defense of her erstwhile cellmate that she did little more than take a few steps back.

Konka Rar released the dark spell he had been casting, shattering half of Amethyst's crystals in the process, and began launching fireballs at those that were left; before he could remove them all, though, Aegis simply encased his head in a morphic gauntlet. Clearly outnumbered and -matched, the sorcerer raised his remaining arm in a gesture of surrender, and Aegis let him free.

It was around this point that the assembled escapees noticed that with the mana dampeners failing, they weren't the only ones breaking out of their cells anymore. The noise level rose as casters of all varieties noticed their powers returning and set about opening, avoiding, or simply destroying their cells. Figures had started entering the corridors, clamoring for freedom, when Aph appeared around a corner. The sight of the cackling pink figure, wreathed in electricity and fire and surmounted by writhing black tentacles, was enough to send many of them retreating back to their containment.

A bloodthirsty grin spread even farther across the nymph's face as she caught sight of the five battlers standing in the middle of the mostly-empty hall; an expression of concern formed on Clara's features, replaced quickly by shock and horror. Her voice shook a little as she exhaled, "Aph."; Aeon, still paralyzed and not in a position to see much, asked "Another contestant?"

"Yep," said Aegis. His gauntlets shifted back to longsword form, the length of which he promptly increased. "Big fight?"

Amethyst's eerily flat reply came as a simple "Big fight," combined with the summoning of another cluster of crystals, these aimed at the murderous nymph. She launched several staggered salvos of crystalline projectiles at Aph, who simply destroyed most of them as they approached with answering barrages of ice and finished off those she missed with a flick of her tentacles.

Aegis shrugged Aeon off, letting him fall clumsily to the floor, and turned to Clara. "You do healing stuff, right?" Without waiting for a response, he nudged Aeon's prone form towards her before launching himself down the corridor, yelling "Get the poison out of him!"

The nun knelt down by the paralyzed man and began muttering as she ran her fingertips along his major blood vessels. A faint green glow began spreading under his skin, but was rather hard to see against the harsh brightness flooding the prison from Aph's fire and lightning. The nymph herself was nearly shrieking with glee as she send waves of destructive magic at the others; Amethyst was doing all she could to contain the devastation, but even her precise control of magic was no match for the sheer power Aph had at her disposal by now. Crystalline walls and invisible points of mana nullification and repulsion were erected and destroyed in a continual back-and-forth, but the girl was being forced gradually backwards.

The pink figure was blindsighted by a bolt of blackness from the left, but her mana-absorption device diffused most of it. Amethyst spared the lich a quizzical glance, but couldn't devote much attention to him; it was pretty clear anyway that he'd reasoned a violent loose cannon like Aph was worth dealing with before petty treachery, so the girl concentrated on hemming the nymph in while Konka Rar diverted her focus. Missing one of his arms and most of his cybernetic augmentations left the ancient conqueror at a fraction of his ability and power, but he was more than capable of harrying her with a barrage of minor spells and hurled insults. Between Konka Rar's and Amethyst's twin assaults, Aph was spread too thin to effectively retaliate against either.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Aegis dove through the maelstrom of icy shards and shattered crystal, swinging his sword wide and aiming straight for Aph's neck. As though in slow motion, her head turned and she locked eyes with the flying swordsman; there was seemingly nothing she could do in time to save herself as the gleaming metal scythed through the air intent on decapitating her.

Until a black tentacle whipped out of nowhere, wrapping itself around the man's wrist and flinging him off course. Another slammed itself into his stomach; a third collided with his chin in a vicious uppercut. Thoroughly deflected and rather battered, Aegis found himself set upon by more tentacles before he even landed; he was flung forcefully away from the nymph, catapulted over the edge of the walkway.

Thinking quickly, he reverted his sword to gauntlets and grabbed at the passing ledge; it wasn't enough, though, as his momentum and metallic grip simply bent the floor under his fingers, eventually simply coming free from the rest of the floor. It wasn't until he'd descended another level that Aegis was able to stop his fall.

Above him, lich and magician were struggling to keep pace with the increasingly-brutal nymph. Neither side seemed to be giving an inch, each waiting for the other to leave an opening, but neither Konka Rar nor Amethyst was accustomed to tandem spellcasting so it seemed certain one or the other of them would be the first to blink. Clara was still fervently praying, and Aeon was regaining some sensation in his limbs, but the extrication process was difficult in the face of the Monitor's complex designer poison.

Aph cackled as it became more and more obvious that her adversaries were faring poorly against her. "What's the matter, little girl? Can't handle a little magic? Maybe I won't bother absorbing you after all, you're so useless!"; as a long icicle embedded itself in Konka Rar's ribcage, she sneered "And how about you, old man? Not so tough without your staff and all your silly trinkets, are you?"

Back on the floor, Aeon flexed his hands and growled up at the worried nun. "Do you have a weapon?" Clara's eyes darted involuntarily to her cane, which was lying by her knees, but she shakily said "I don't think you're completely well yet, and…"

Without speaking, Aeon shakily rose and snatched up the stick; with one fluid motion, he unsheathed the sword within and propelled himself down the corridor. Clara scrambled to her feet, worry increasing tenfold, and hurriedly began another prayer. As he waded into the cloud of spells, a faint golden aura began shimmering around his skin; if one looked close enough, they would see that it resembled an ephemeral suit of plate mail, but no-one present had attention to spare for details like that.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

Aeon was not really in a fit state to be fighting. The poison, though it had lessened, had not been healed completely and he still felt slightly numb all over. As if to demonstrate this fact his legs buckled beneath him and he was forced to grab hold of the railing with his free hand while he regained his balance. He knew he was acting recklessly, but reasoned that he had no choice. He had seen Amethyst and Rar barely making an impact against this floating pink woman and had decided he had to help, whether or not he was only helpful as a distraction, he still had to do it.

Through the chaos of the magical battlefield, it was only the shining gold aura surrounding the swordsman that caused Aph to spot him. He charged falteringly towards her, and as such she almost dismissed him out of hand. Already injured, and possessing of no magic of his own, Aph guessed he would be an easy kill. She conjured up a wall of icicles along the walkway that separated her from Aeon. They hung in the air for a moment before hurtling forwards as a wall of razor sharp points.

Aeon had no time to think; as he charged forwards he raised his shoulder almost instinctively, ducking his face down to protect it from the wall of ice. The sharp ice slammed into Sister Clara’s protective armour; shattering upon impact. Aeon staggered back from the blow but quickly recovered and resumed his charge. He didn’t even question how he had emerged from a situation that should have left him horrifically impaled without a scratch, as it was he was too focused on his task.

Aph was having a hard time focusing at the moment, the battle against Konka Rar and Amethyst had not stopped or slowed, and there was still a cacophony of voices in her head demanding attention (one of them accusing the other voices of being the Council of Elders and refusing to shut up), she only noticed Aeon when he was right next to her, swinging Clara’s swordstick at her. She quickly floated backwards, and Aeon’s blow almost fell short, leaving nothing more than a gash along her chest. Rose coloured mana flowed from the wound. Aph conjured more ice, this time it crackled along the floor of the steel walkway, spreading out from where she hovered, and quickly turned her attention to the other magic users.

As Aeon stepped forward to attack again his foot struck the rapidly growing patch of black ice. His balance was already compromised from his partially numb legs, and as such he fell backwards with an undignified thud, barely managing to hold on to Clara’s swordstick. He lay there winded and partially numb; unable to push himself up and uncertain of how much help he had been.

Aph launched a barrage of icicles towards Konka and Amethyst, though she knew it was not going to do any good having already launched many almost identical barrages at the pair without much effect. The idea was to give her a moment to deal with Aeon, who lay almost helpless before her. An enormous dangling icicle, better described as a stalactite, formed in the air above him. For a long moment, from Aeon’s perspective anyway, it hung perilously in the air above his chest, and then it slammed down. As it impacted against Sister Clara’s armour enchantment neither of them could withstand the other. Clara’s enchantment cracked and golden mana leaked out into the air, drawn to the nymph. While simultaneously the absurdly large icicle exploded and fragments of ice were launched in every direction.

Aph was the only one close enough to actually be hit by the explosion of ice. It was painful and left a couple of cuts but otherwise she was okay. With a wave of a hand a gust of wind scattered the remaining ice and she saw that Aeon was unharmed; and leaking magic. Aph reappraised him; perhaps he was a foe worth her time after all. She snatched up the mana draining core from amidst the tangle of tentacles where she had stowed it and began to pump electricity into it.

Amethyst and Konka Rar had paused for a moment, taking advantage of Aph’s distraction to recuperate. They had been losing magic fast, while it seemed that her supplies were practically limitless. They’d been forced to use more and more just to keep up with her, and truth be told both were feeling drained. Konka glanced back to the nymph to see a stream of golden mana flowing into her.
“Perhaps a tactical withdrawal would be in order?” he suggested.

Aph grinned as she drained the last of the mana, causing the armour spell to collapse.
“Clara, you taste delicious.” She laughed, following it up with a slow lick of her lips. “Any chance of seconds?” She followed this up with a volley of flames towards the magic users, and turned her attention back to Aeon. He was attempting to climb up from the slippery ice, having to hold on to the railing with both hands. Quickly one of her tentacles speared him through the heart and held him aloft in front of the nymph. As he died again she forced Clara’s golden mana into him and then flung his corpse back towards the magicians.

Amethyst gasped in shock at seeing her friend so cruelly cut down. As his corpse landed between them she scowled angrily. Konka if he had had a mouth to smile with would have done. A corpse was a tool he could use, even if he doubted this Amethyst would approve. However before he had a chance to raise the corpse, the corpse raised itself. Firmly under Aph’s control it pounced towards Sister Clara.

Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

---

As Aeon had been killed and tossed aside like garbage, his grip had predictably loosened on the sword he'd been so unable to use effectively. It skittered across the coating of slush and water that coated the metallic floor, well away from anyone who might have wanted to use it. The newly-ensorcelled corpse lunged for the defenseless nun; her mind raced and her heart would have pounded had she been anyone else, and she grabbed the only thing to hand.

The cane portion of her swordstick came up and connected with the side of Aeon's head; a blow with such a light non-weapon would ordinarily have done little to deter such a revenant, but Clara had her own necromantic strength backing the swing. Aeon was knocked off-course and scrambled to stay upright on the detritus of the magical battle that had raged behind him. The old woman took the opportunity to skitter back towards the discarded sword portion of her weapon, raising it threateningly if inexpertly at the slavering corpse of her erstwhile ally.

Aph took advantage of the distraction that came with the resurrection to redouble her efforts against the other two casters. She pressed forward, taking every advantage and leaning heavily on her opponents' depleting mana reserves. As the hems of Konka Rar's robes caught fire for the umpteenth time in only a few minutes, he clacked his jaw loudly and sighed with irritation. "In the name of... Why didn't I just do this in the beginning?"

He raised his arm as though it still clutched a staff, drawing what little magical potential he could still muster to him. With little more fanfare than the single, barked word, he shouted "Blink!" and disappeared. It wasn't much of a teleportation, but a floor upwards was a world away from the hellish uphill battle he'd been embroiled in.

Amethyst was left alone and outflanked. A quick glance at her wrist confirmed there was little left she could do; she shook her head, stoic facade flagging only slightly, and resolved to go out with a desperate gambit. At worst, she'd die, but wouldn't leave anything for that monster to disgustingly commandeer post-mortem. A few adjustments and the running of a little-used script later and Amethyst was shouting "Crystal Form!"; there was a bright flash of light, and the young woman was replaced by a semitransparent crystalline version of herself. Bladed limbs and barbed joints swinging, she barreled towards the aggressive nymph.

Aph was surprised by the turn of events, but not floored and not left without a way to retaliate. With a dramatic sweeping gesture, she sent spikes of ice crawling across the already-slick floor; they hampered the heavy stone figure's movement, and while they failed to knock her over it was a significant enough distraction to allow the cackling pink murderess to fall back slightly and attack again with renewed vigor. Fire and lightning passed harmlessly over and through the crystals that made up Amethyst's new body, so she concentrated on hammering it with enormous chunks and spires of black, unnaturally-hard ice. She was having little success actually damaging the stony bulk, but Amethyst was having even less in moving at all forward; it was clear who would win in time if no intervention was made.

Behind the dueling now-pair, Clara was dancing a nervous waltz with the implacable zombie. Aeon had certainly not been a friend, but he had been an ally and certainly hadn't been a bad person. At least not obviously so. She didn't want to attack his body, possessed by mindless necromancy or not: it wasn't as though she held any illusions about the real Aeon still being in there somewhere; it's hard to maintain those kind of beliefs when one had the magical training and religious indoctrination that Clara possessed. Rather, she hoped that she could simply dispel the zombification if given the chance, then bring Aeon himself back to life. The rituals weren't easy, but it was the least she could do for anyone caught up in the brutality of these monstrous games whose corpse wasn't immediately spirited away. She was actually using her stick as a weapon more than the sword, healfheartedly battering Aeon's slathering body away when it threatened to get too close.

Her attention was drawn by a loud shout of anger from Aph. "Enough of this bullshit!"

She tried to size the situation up quickly without diverting too much focus from avoiding being torn apart. From what she could tell, Amethyst was beginning to crack in places, but was largely unharmed, while Aph was forced to stay back to avoid scything arms of razor-edged crystal. Nothing seemed to be happening that would have warranted such an outburst, even louder and shriller than her typical mid-combat rantings and taunts. It seemed her patience was simply wearing thin.

That suspicion was borne out when she suddenly dove forward, catching Amethyst off-guard; the nymph feinted left, followed by her tentacles whipping in from the right. Suffering punctures and cuts from the barbs and spikes that covered much of Amethyst's crystal form, they nevertheless squeezed tight, binding their victim helplessly. With visible effort, wearing a rictus of pain and rage, Aph whipped her upwards and around, eventually casting her over the railing into the shaft that made up so much of Cervaled Fall. Amethyst's unmoving face was completely unable to form the final scream she so desperately wanted to utter; the only sounds aside from Aph's gloating and Aeon's ravening were a crash as she collided with a wall and a much later, louder shattering as her fall ended on the floor below.

"It's too bad, really. I was hoping I could kill the little bitch up close. That's two meals I've been cheated out of, Clara? I just don't think that's fair, do you?" There was a brief pause in the monologue as the callous nymph took a few moments to cackle, tentacles writhing. "Still, there wasn't much left in that twiggy little shell, and old bones-and-rags probably wasn't ever very impressive to begin with. So, with the appetizers gone, it's time for the entree."

Clara's eyes narrowed and her knuckles whitened further on the hilt of her sword and the shaft of her cane. That was it. Schleier forgive her, but poor Aeon would have to stay dead if she was going to stop this rampaging monster. It was probably for the best, she told herself as she swung; the poor man didn't have much of a life to come back to, and if she understood things correctly he wasn't even truly himself to begin with. She grunted slightly as she forced the blade bodily through the dense meat of the ex-mechanic's shoulder, face contorting into the first true anger she'd shown in probably decades.

The zombie howled as it lost its dominant arm, but it lunged forward again regardless, forcing Clara back yet again. "Oh, showing a little spirit finally are we? Maybe I will have to break your useless old bones myself after all! That's alright, I like it better that way. You just finish butchering poor old what's-his-name and we'll talk."

The furious nun's gaze snapped up to meet the giggling nymph's. "Break my bones? Kill me? Just what in the thirteen mounting hells do you think you can do to me?"

She pointedly dropped both cane and sword, waiting for Aeon to attack again. When the simple corpse obliged, she rammed her right arm forward, palm open. Between the force of the zombie's lunge and the strength lent to Clara by her undead nature, her hand came out of Aeon's back clutching shards of bone and what could only barely be called a heart anymore. She shook her arm, liberating the failing revenant, and snarled. "I died years ago. I spent three days having the life bled out of me. I've spent longer than your entire existence being dead."

Without losing Aph's gaze, she retrieved her weapons. "I could rip my own arm off and beat you to death with it if I wanted, and your pathetic, stolen magic couldn't do more than make me uglier." She began moving slowly towards the hovering psychopath, each step deliberate and loud, a shimmering golden veil forming around her. "Nothing you could ever do would make the slightest difference, because you're weak and you're ignorant."

Aph dithered, hovering slightly backwards, wringing her damaged tentacles. After a few moments, she sputtered "N... No. No, you're bluffing. If you were that invincible, you wouldn't have been such a coward since the beginning. You would have done something instead of biting your lip and worrying."

Without pause, she sent a barrage of ice towards the advancing woman. Those that actually hit their mark impacted harmlessly on the aura Clara had surrounded herself with; her snarl twisted into a furious grin as the shards scattered. "Power is about choice, not slavish devotion, wanton slaughter to appease base urges, or accumulation of mana. Power is something you lack, you little pink blip."

The unblinking receipt of the icicles combined with Clara's now thoroughly bloodied arm lent quite a bit of credence to her tirade. Aph hovered farther back, internal voices screaming at each other and at her, tentacles furious and frightened and confused. To Clara's great relief, she seemed to be buying it. The timid old woman wasn't sure how much longer she could maintain this facade of untouchable might, and she only hoped the indecision it was buying would give her time for one good attack. And if that wasn't sufficient, well... Aph would probably learn firsthand exactly how much bluffing was being done.

Both women blinked at once, literally and figuratively. Waves of mana suppression were washing over them both, and computerized voices shouted "RETURN TO YOUR CELLS OR FACE DISCIPLINARY ACTION, POTENTIALLY INCLUDING CORRECTIVE, PREVENTATIVE, OR CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS."; robotic guards with reinforced chassises and prominent mana-suppression cores closed in from both sides, weapons raised. Clara's shield wavered and eventually faded; Aph's consciousness did the same, and she hit the floor before she could finish the string of curses she'd opened her mouth to spew.

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

---

The first priority was to get back into the fight as soon as possible. With three-maybe-four allies and a powerful enemy within near-slashing distance, there was one conclusive place Aegis belonged, and he wasn’t there. He focused at the ceiling, attempting to judge where Aph and his allies were from the sound of shattering ice and struggle of various degrees of magic. It soon became clear that the noise of irrelevant fights breaking out from floors above and below drowned out any information Aegis could possibly glean from the upper floor, so he simply resorted to hammering the ceiling until something broke. However, directing a hammer several feet upwards with no room for a powerful swing was rather cumbersome, and his only accomplishment was to generate even more noise to add to the chaos.

Finding this useless, Aegis decided to try to climb back up. He placed a foot on the railing on his floor and extended his gauntlets upwards to the one above. With a heave, he jumped upwards and caught hold of the floor and began to lift himself back and into the fight. As soon as he managed come into view of what was happening, however, a crystalline body appeared over the edge, crashing into Aegis and sending him over the ledge yet again.

Aegis pushed aside the unidentified mess of crystals. It took only a moment to realize he was falling past the lowest floor. With the nearest ledge too far to reach, he extended a chain from his left gauntlet and flung the tool at an arbitrary wall, the hand at the end of the chain digging into the metal and providing an impromptu anchor point. Aegis swung away from the center of the shaft and slammed into the wall. He saw the crystalline being—which he now realized looked rather similar to Amethyst’s crystals—fall to and shatter on the bottom of the shaft a hundred feet below him.

Aegis let out a held breath and began climbing up the wall. Ensuring that no object will throw him back down again, he lifted himself to Sector S and examined the situation. The shards from Amethyst’s crystal body left his face a bloody mess, so Aegis tore off piece of cloth from the nearest resource and made a face mask with bits of silver.

Sector S, strangely, was saturated by all sorts of wild plant and fungal life. Aegis vaguely realized that, as the commotion from various floors seemed to be more and more violent as one travels down Cervaled Fall, this floor would contain the most dangerous contestants. This was confirmed when he was hit in the back from a force reminiscent of a train.

Aegis turned over and saw a figure standing over him with a large pincer in place of a hand, what looked like beetle horns in place of a head, and tens of thousands of insects and various tiny critters in place of skin. The beetle horns disappeared, and the figure began to speak.

“This floor is chaotic enough without people from the upper floors falling down here. One less contribution to this chaos for the better.”

Aegis lifted himself up with a swift motion and punched the insect man in the face, sending him sprawling backwards onto an overgrown mushroom cap. Reacting immediately, he hopped to the ceiling, crawled a short distance, and leaped onto Aegis, sprouting dragonfly wings in the process.

As the insect man grabbed at Aegis’ throat, he felt a minor electric shock. He grabbed at the insect man’s face and the conductive metal of his gauntlets absorbed the shock, amplifying it. The insect man flew up and threw Aegis down, landing him on an overgrown root.

“Just one question. You can fly. You can crawl on walls. Why don’t you leave this floor if you think it’s so terrible?”

“My name’s Cole Aran. I’m looking for a certain god named Balance.”

“Then why the hell are you attacking me?!”

If Cole was about to answer, Aegis would not have listened. He leaped up and formed a morning star, swinging it around and grazing Cole’s abdomen. Several more swings later, Aegis landed a direct hit. Aegis grinned and charged at the downed Cole, ready to score another, when he rammed into an invisible wall. He screamed and tried to break through, then tried to move around the wall, both to no avail, soon realizing that he was encased and trapped.

Indeed, what appeared as an old man dressed in dull grey was only twenty feet away, his arm pointing directly at Aegis.

“Jump out the top.” Cole whispered to Aegis as he charged at Balance.

Taking the hint, Aegis probed around the top of the invisible box, found the edge, and heaved himself out. Cole and Balance were already locked in combat. All things considered, though both of them attacked Aegis unprovoked, Cole was the one who actually tried to kill him. Aegis formed a broadsword and charged at Cole. Reacting quickly and taking advantage of a housefly’s instinctive reflexes, Cole jumped to the ceiling, allowing Aegis to swing at empty air. He sprouted wings and flew at Balance, who generated a barrier, only for Cole to fly around it. Cole landed a sharp jab at Balance’s back before narrowly dodging a blade swing from Aegis.

Balance was rather nonplussed by the scenario. Cole was targeting him, Aegis was targeting Cole, and he himself was to assist the one least favored by the odds, which, by all accounts, could only be Cole. A tactical retreat would not be possible either, as the fight between Cole and Aegis was unbalanced to begin with. Unable to attack or retreat, the embittered god wavered.

Meanwhile, Cole was continuously flying all around Balance, scoring slashes and stabs with pincers and stingers, all the while weaving into and out of Aegis’ reach just enough for him to make a significant, but ultimately irrelevant effect.

Eventually, the god fell, both figuratively and over the railing and down the central shaft of Cervaled Fall. Cole turned around and dodged yet another swing of the broadsword, then addressed Aegis.

“Stop.”

“It’s like trying to slice a fly in half with a sword. Stop flying!”

“That’s the point. In any case, I have other matters to attend to. Enjoy the plant life.”

As Cole disappeared upwards, Aegis cursed to himself and remembered the fight now two or three floors above. Seeing as attempts to climb up the railings have proved fruitless, Aegis simply ran down the walkway, looking for a more built-in way to get upwards. He soon realized that the floor was bustling with contestants, both fighting amongst each other and against large creatures of animalized plant matter. Deciding that he had already wasted enough time, Aegis simply plowed through, weaving past the Sector S contestants and slicing through a trunk of plant life when necessary. Upon arriving at the end of the floor, however, he found that the lift was entirely blocked by wild growth. Cursing yet again, he turned around and looked at tall, serene-if-he-cared view of all of Cervaled Fall. The roots and fungal growth on this floor was getting progressively worse and was spreading to the upper floors. Contestants of all forms were being thrown over the walkways and into the central shaft—the ones lucky enough to be capable of flight or preemptive magic reentered their respective fights, while the unlucky ones simply plummeted down. All the while, the Warden’s voice blared on the intercom, accomplishing nothing but further addition to the chaos.

I need to get out of here. Aegis turned to the blocked lift and began hacking away, drowning out the noise behind him as he focused on getting out. Within a few minutes, the growth was torn apart to enough extent for Aegis to enter the lift. He pressed an arbitrary button, the doors closed, and Aegis leaned back on the wall of the lift and let out a groan.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

As the robots advanced upon Sister Clara she nervously gazed down over the rail of the catwalk, contemplating a leap of faith to the floor below. It could be dangerous, it was a long drop after all and she wasn't as young as she used to be, but she felt that she'd rather risk that than to be put back inside that cell. In that box where her powers were stripped away and she was completely helpless.

But before she could take the leap her attention was caught by Aph, slowly climbing to her feet. Sister Clara stared at the risen nymph, there was something off about her, besides her quick recovery, that she couldn't quite place. Quickly upright Aph hesitated for a moment, staring down at her hands. Momentarily a black blade emerged from her palm. She turned to face the confused nun, whose hands were still planted on the railing, ready to make her escape, and gestured somewhat clumsily towards one group of advancing robots, before spinning around and launching an attack on the other.

It was at that point, as Aph rather gracelessly sliced through one of the advancing machines, that she realised what was different. Aph always hovered slightly off the ground, but now she was standing flat upon it, something Clara hadn't actually seen her do during the battle so far. She shrugged it off, something to worry about later, and opted to make sense of this temporary truce, taking up her cane and smashing it hard into the monitor-head of the nearest robot.

---------

For a moment Aph had been plunged back into own confused memories; the mangled pasts of hers and D'Neyas, then the bizarre blend of D'Neya's throne room and Xan's apartment vanished to be replaced by a endless expanse of blackness. She was crumpled up on the floor, unable to move a muscle. Guiding hands, one cold and clammy, one hard and metallic lifted her to her feet. She resented being treated like a manikin but she couldn't move her lips to admonish whomever was doing this.

'Greetings Aph.' These words arrived in her mind without ever having passed her ears. 'I believe we have a mutual acquaintance; someone called The Ghost. He enabled my escape from my cell, and that is the only reason I am carrying out his request. I will not be in any man's debt, least of all a coward who dares not show his face.' She watched as somehow the hands manipulated a black blade to emerge from her hand, following which they quickly spun her around.

There stood her puppeteer; a man with pallid white skin, black eyes and disgusting fleshy tentacles emerging from his face where his mouth should be. He wore black plate armour, which was torn off at one shoulder, exposing his mechanical arm beneath it.

'My name is Thane.' He thought, not pausing in his manipulation of her body. He gestured off to one side with her arm. 'This isn't the actual means of control I have taken you understand, but a handy visual representation while we chat.' Thane elaborated. 'I am personally looking for a way out of this place and I have decided we will work together. After that you can pursue a vendetta against this Monitor or not. I do not care.'

Thane turned her to the side, no longer bothering to keep up the appearance of manipulating her with his hands. From this new vantage she could see a skinny man with a missing eye clutching at his head in pain. He was missing one arm and a spiked mass of bones lay on the ground at his feet. 'A snack,' Thane explained, 'for after you deal with those robots.' The monstrosity moved her forwards, and had her slash at the air in front of her.

--------

Sister Clara and Thane in Aph's body slashed at the encroaching robots. Thane was having more success with the twilight blades, already having sliced his way through a couple of the guards and sent one spinning over the rail into the depths below, but Clara was managing to hold her own even with just the cane of her swordstick.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

The most secure level of the facility had at one point actually been the most secure. All the doors heavily locked, all the prisoners safely contained. The only problem is that one of the prisoners could not be contained; no matter how well equipped the prison. Her door was lined with locks, old fashioned ones that required a key and newer ones that required a passcode or a passcard. Neither held her back for even a second. Bars and meshes, screens of bulletproof glass and barbed wire; none of it was enough to contain her.

Yanis Carnea’s first act after getting loose from the cell that had spectacularly failed to contain her was to release every other prisoner on that floor. With that she snickered and made her way towards Cervaled Fall’s heavily locked exit, bypassing all the chaos and mayhem to be found in between here and there by simply unlocking herself from the material plane. There was no prison in existence that could hold Carnea.

--------

Ur’s influence had been felt heavily on the lowest level of Cervaled Fall. The catwalks were covered in sickly fungi and haggard vines wrapped around the supports connecting this level to the others. As the battling prisoners fought they could feel the catwalks shifting and shaking underneath them. A giant meatball desperately tried to hold back a hungry manikin intent on devouring him entirely. A ravenous mass of insects skittered across the catwalks, paying no heed to the numbers of ouroborites that fell; plunging into the darkness below. They chased a man with a fishbowl for a head, who occasionally plucked an explosive from his cloak and tossed it into the mass of insects with overall little discernible effect. A cloud of whirling metal scythed through support beams without even noticing it. The catwalks shook even further.

--------

In one of the cells an unlikely friendship had formed, a man in a green labcoat with a shining green robotic eye threaded a couple of wires into his robotic arm. Another man, a thin bespectacled, sort of nervous looking man, with a machine implanted in the chest, was attaching some wires to the aforementioned machine. Scott had just finished doing a little tinkering with his buffer. He looked to Quantos who gave him a thumbs-up and he activated it. The energy that would normally send him tumbling locally through time instead ran down the wires and straight into Quantos’ time arm, restoring it to its full capabilities and beyond.

“Excellent!” Quantos said cheerily. He wrapped his normal arm around his new friend and prepared to make a swift exit from this prison. “By the way Scott, if you’re going to travel through time there are some rules you should know about…” He said as the pair vanished from the prison.

--------

The main prison door slid slowly open letting the sun shine in on the face of an already sunburnt man in a maroon hoodie, who had opened a door from his cell in Sector S. He stepped out into the day, savouring the fresh air, and gestured to his associates to follow him through. Behind him walked a number of individuals in camouflage jackets lined with pockets. All but one of them carried futuristic rifles, which they held ready to deal with any opposition they faced. The last one was assisting a confused kid with a worm clinging onto his head. Occasionally he mumbled questions, asking where he was, who he was and what was going on. The last iteration of Will closed the door behind him, keen prevent most of the inhabitants of Sector S from following them.

--------

As Aegis’ elevator took him slowly back up the shaft towards the surface, the catwalks below trembled, as the titanic form of Crepitans Bloodbark emerged from his cell. The structure already weakened from Ur’s plantlife simply gave up as the weight of a sixty foot tree pressed down upon it. The catwalks of sector S collapsed and plummeted into the abyss below, leaving the floors above significantly destabilised.

Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

---

Reserved

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

Sister Clara was just about managing to hold off the crowd of guard robots advancing upon her, but that was all. She was never one for direct combat, even less so when her magic was being blocked by these machines. Aph on the other hand was clumsily dispatching the robots with relative ease despite the fact that she shouldn’t even be conscious. For the moment Clara opted not to question it, gift horses and mouths and all that.

Suddenly there was the noise of twisting metal and the catwalks began to shake violently. Clara gripped tightly onto the railings, and glanced down. Below them an entire section of catwalks was plummeting into the depths. With every shake of the catwalk came the sound of creaking metal from above.

Clara pulled her attention back to the battle, but not soon enough to dodge a blow from the nearest robot. As the guard struck her, it flicked on its taser, forcing several hundred volts into the nun. She stumbled back, clumsily tripping and landing heavily on the hard metal floor, an act that elicited an awful creak from above. The guard robot loomed menacingly over Clara, with more sliding forwards behind it. The most she could manage after such a shock was to crawl backwards away from the machine.

Aph stumbled dreamily towards the guard robot, bringing it down with a swift blow through the monitor. Before it had even hit the ground she was striding past it to take on the rest of the robots. Sister Clara glanced behind her, at the remains of the robots Aph had fought off. She stumbled towards the most in tact machine and examined it. She slammed her cane into its chest and after a minute or two of messing around with wires and things she didn't really understand she held in her hand a sphere which lit up blue to the touch.

Clara pushed herself to her feet and clutching the mana-dampening core behind her back, she watched as Aph took down the last remaining guards. Aph glanced around, presumably checking for more guards. After this she rather unceremoniously passed into unconsciousness.

Clara walked over to the downed nymph and prodded her with the cane of her swordstick. Whatever it had been that was keeping her animate had evidently given up now there were no enemies to fight. She walked over to where the sword of her swordstick had landed after Aeon's death and subsequent reanimation. For a long moment she held the sword in her hands and considered Aph. On the one hand she was extremely dangerous and unpredictable, but on the other it wasn’t her fault. Clara remembered how Aph had; under the influence of a truth ritual told her that B had done something that had changed her. In a way she was a victim at his hands. Clara sheathed her sword.

She became aware of the sound of someone approaching; specifically she noticed the manic pained laughter. Looking out over the catwalks she spotted a man with extremely pale green skin and tentacles where his mouth should be forcibly dragging an emaciated man with a missing arm. It was the dragged man who was cackling, his one hand pressed to his head.

Suddenly Clara was overwhelmed by pain. Her hands clasped to her head, she collapsed to the floor in agony. The mana-dampening orb she had been holding fell from her grip and deactivated.

Thane came to a stop in front of Clara. He shoved Lutherion to the ground causing another ominous creak from above, and picked up the orb. He regarded it for a moment and then cast it into the abyss. Aph was waking up.

It is not safe to remain here.

Aph strode towards the abomination and pressed her blade of darkness to his neck. “It was ever so nice of you to help out little old me!” she said with a grin. “But I don’t think I’m going to hold up my end of the bargain.”

What will you do when more of those guard robots turn up? And more will turn up… Thane demanded. You want out, I want out. Just work with me.

“Fine.” Aph said sulkily. “I see you brought me a treat.” She floated over to the crippled necromancer. His eyes were shut tight, his crazed laughter unceasing. Aph ran her fingers through his hair and smiled.

Do not dawdle. Thane instructed her. This prison is no longer stable.

“Yeah, sure whatever.” Aph said dismissively. She quickly retrieved her mana-draining core from amongst her pitch black tentacles and with a blade of that same darkness slit Lutherion’s throat. Lutherion laughed even as he spluttered and died. Dark grey mana flowed from his body and into the nymph. She let go of Lutherion, letting him flop to the floor, and turned her attention to Clara.

“Finally…” she said, and started to laugh a very familiar laugh.

--------

While Aegis ascended in one elevator B, Gadget and a group of guard robots descended in another. Gadget was unconscious, he’d used up all the energy he had animating the robots, one of whom now carried his unconscious form. To anyone else heading down into the catwalks that were slowly crumbling might have seemed foolish, but B was determined to protect as many people as he could from Aph.

The doors opened and revealed a scene of carnage. To be fair to the nymph not all of the bodies scattered across the catwalks were of her doing, some were the work of the other escapees. A man in a suit and plate armour laid dead, dried blood crusted round his mouth and nose. B and the robots moved quickly through the slaughtered corpses. In the distance he spotted Aph, along with someone he didn’t recognise. Sending out a couple mana-dampening robots ahead of him he made his way towards the nymph.

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

SpoilerShow

Sorry Cyb that this isn't exactly what you envisioned. Mainly I wanted to further the spy storyline, which is still a thing.

The catwalks shook under the weight of B and his team of robots. The sound of Aph’s insane laughter echoed throughout the prison, competing with the incessant creaking of the strained supports. At the sight of Sister Clara incapacitated with pain B insisted his team of robots hurry.

As suddenly as the nymph had started laughing, she stopped. Aph fell to the floor, once again incapacitated by the mana-dampening technology. Thane regarded the approaching group and pre-emptively released his grip upon Clara. B and his robots came to a stop facing the pair, the robots with their weapons raised and ready to open fire upon the stranger at B’s command.

“What’s going on?” B demanded, anxiously glanced from the tentacled stranger to Clara, climbing to her feet.

‘I was-’ Thane began.

“Not you,” B interrupted, “Clara are you okay?” As she climbed to her feet Clara was silent.

She regarded the child, though it was not typically in her nature to hate another, she could not help but feel distaste towards the Monitor's agent. That he had been working on behalf of the Grandmaster was one thing, that he had been doing so in the guise of an innocent child was another. Her contempt must have been plain upon her face. B was confused, though before either of the pair could vocalize their opinions of one another the catwalks shook violently and the air was filled with the noise of supports giving way. The group watched as the floor beneath them tumbled away into the blackness.

'Whatever your issues are you can deal with them another time.’ Thane thought. The abomination bent down and hoisted Aph over his shoulder.

“Hey, just wait a minute.” B said, feeling the situation falling out of whatever brief control he may have had of it.

“He’s right.” Clara said, gathering up her sword stick. Though she did not particularly like to side with such an unholy creature, he had a point.

“I’m going to have to side with Ben this time.” Everyone had been so intent on one another that they had completely missed the approach of a pair of figures. Aegis was the first, flanked by a figure perhaps best likened to chartreuse statue. In his hands he held a gun arm, clearly ripped from one of the guard robots.

‘We do not have time for this.’ Thane thought, starting towards B and his group of robots. The stranger did not waste time on another warning; he opened fire on the retreating monstrosity. Thane stumbled and collapsed, dead before he hit the ground, all but decapitated by the fine spray of bullets. There was a moment of silence as they regarded the statuesque being.

"Who are you and what is going on?" B demanded.

“Hey everyone, I'd like you to meet my good friend Kracht!” Aegis said, in a mock light-hearted manner. “He apparently has some sort of important issue with us and he's very willing to kill people who get in his way.”

“Don’t worry.” Kracht said, gazing from face to face. “There is more than enough time to deal with this issue before this level plummets.”

“What issue?” B asked bewilderedly.

“Bae.” Kracht said simply. “If he would own up now it would save us a lot of time.” Clara and B looked to Aegis as if he would have an explanation. He simply shrugged. Kracht sighed. “Bae is the name of an experimental shapeshifting creature inserted by the Monitor into this battle. It is of vital importance that he does not win this battle.”

“How do you know all this?” Clara asked.

Kracht sighed heavily. “I hate cameo rounds… This is not my first time in Cervaled Fall.” He explained. “Over time I have got to know all of the contestants of the Intense Struggle; most importantly; Bae. He was entered into the battle under the guise of Cabaret and he is now posing as one of you four. I cannot let him win this battle; it leads to complications further down the line.” Kracht paused momentarily watching the faces of the remaining contestants for any sign of panic. “Normally questioning those who have already died lets me get a handle on who Bae is posing as at this point. Trickster was frozen alive and shattered to pieces by the time I found him, which is a new one. D’Neya was as ever not of much help, and Larus was convinced that it was Aph.”

“Makes sense.” Aegis interjected. “The bitch has been acting crazy recently.”

“Unfortunately Bae is not Aph.” Kracht said. “Bae always forgets to play dead in the presence of mana-dampeners.” He gazed across at the unconscious nymph, sprawled admist the disgusting remains of Thane. “Which just leaves you three. Does anyone have any suspicions?” Clara glared at B.

“It’s him.” She said. “Aph said that he blew some kind of powder in her face.” For a moment B was speechless.

“You’re going to believe what she says?” B asked incredulously. “In case you haven’t noticed she is completely insane.”

“She was under the influence of a powerful truth ritual.” Clara said. “I know that it is you B. You can drop the act.”

“This is insane.” B replied. “Listen, I… I killed Bae.” His voice was shaky, his eyes cast down in shame over what he had done.

“Excuse me?” Aegis said, taken aback.

“It was me or him, back in Misty Swamp.” B said. “I… I wasn’t myself.”

“And you didn’t mention this ‘til now?” Aegis replied indignantly. “It slipped your mind up until this point?”

“Clara’s truth ritual is compelling evidence. It would take a stronger mind than Aph’s to lie under its influence.” Kracht replied. “While I would love to believe that just this once you managed to deal with him by yourselves, Bae is notoriously difficult to kill. Is there any way you can prove it?” There was a loud creak from above them. “Ignore it, your more pressing concern is me.”

“I am not Bae!” B exclaimed, desperately. “Gadget can confirm it. He saw him.”

Kracht was thoughtful. “And if we wake Gadget the guard robots power down, whereupon Aph wakes up and you use the chaos to escape.”

B’s heart pounded fast in his chest. Who was this jerk to come along, claim he had all this foreknowledge and falsely accuse him of being Bae. He wouldn’t let this happen. He wasn’t going to be killed by some indecent green mineral. “Kill him!” He commanded the robots. Sister Clara and Aegis hit the floor, causing the catwalks to shake alarmingly, as streams of bullets passed through the air above them. The bullets did not make an impact upon Kracht who simply stood and recited a code he knew by heart. Once he was done the robots stopped.

“You always underestimate me, Bae.” Kracht said, “I have been through this prison so many times. Of course I made a point to learn the security overrides.” The guard robots that surrounded B looked attentively towards Kracht, who had designated himself their superior. “Kill him.”

It was over in moments; the robots opened fire on the defenceless kid and did not stop until his body was nigh-unrecognisable. Kracht strode past Aegis and Clara, walking up to the bloody mess that was B’s corpse. He carefully scrutinised it, his stony face etched into a scowl.

“Bae would have reverted to his natural form.” Kracht said slowly. He turned back to Clara and Aegis. “It’s you isn’t it Clara? There was no truth ritual after all? I should have been more suspicious but believe it or not you’ve never been the nun before.”

Clara glanced from the robots to Kracht. He’d already made up his mind, she could see it in his eyes. No matter what she said she wasn’t going to convince him of her innocence, and if bullets could not harm him there was little she could do. She had to get away from them, it was her only chance. As she turned to flee Aegis blocked her path, grabbing hold of her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He sneered.

“I am no threat to you at the moment, Bae.” Kracht said. “I don’t know much about this battle but I know enough not to kill two contestants in this round. The next round is important and should not be skipped over.” He strode over to the nun and slung her over his shoulder. “Now we should get going. We are cutting it closer than I anticipated.”

--------

Minutes after the elevator left Sector B the entire level collapsed and plummeted into the abyss. It would have held up longer but for some reason a significant portion of the far catwalks had been turned into bread. The group ascended in a sullen silence, Sister Clara’s attempts to protest her innocence falling upon deaf ears. Upon finally reaching the top floor the doors opened to reveal nothing but deserted corridors. In truth supplies of guard robots were never enough to deal with the inmates of this particular prison. For a while the armoury would supply new guards, up until the point when it was inevitably sabotaged. Kracht strode into the corridor with the robots carrying Gadget and Aegis carrying Aph behind him. By this point in the round all the dangerous prisoners had fled or died. The group made their way to the prison entrance, which hung invitingly open. Kracht stopped and turned to the small group.

“The Monitor operates on a series of variables outside of my capabilities to determine.” He said. “In short I might end up in the next round with you, back in my cell to do this whole thing over again, or somewhere else entirely. If I am not to accompany you further keep a close eye on Bae. Do not allow him to win under any circumstances.” Aegis nodded, and the group left the prison.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

---

Upon leaving the prison, the combatants found themselves frozen in place, and Aph and Clara removed from their restrained positions, so that they could desolate plain before them.

A moment later, a grand city materialized in the wasteland. Even from this distance, the contestants could see that the buildings were unlike any they had seen before; made of metal, with numerous screens adoring them.

The group found themselves pulled towards the center of the city. Despite its high-tech appearance, the building brought to mind a cathedral. A large screen on it blared to life suddenly, displaying a robotic face.

"I must congratulate you all on surviving this long," said the machine, in a now-familiar voice. "As such, I believe it is appropriate to show you my face. I am the Monitor."

His face vanished from the screen, and was replaced with a display of robots moving through the streets of the city.

"And this is my city. I acquired it recently. Its mechanical inhabitants worship me as their god. They are, however, rather hostile to organic life forms, particularly humans, and--"

Whatever the Monitor was about to say next was interrupted, as the combatants suddenly disappeared.

They found themselves floating in a void. A masked jester stood before them.

"Hello, everyone. There's been a small change of plans."

With no further explanation, the figure waved his hand, and the three remaining combatants vanished again.

SpoilerShow

Actual new round coming soon.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

---

Aph, Aegis, and Clara found themselves in the midst of a dreary, grey landscape. They were turned around, so that they could see the full extent of their bizarre surroundings.

Everything seemed to be made of stone; the buildings, the plants, the people. But aside from that, there was a strange mix; some of the buildings resembled the ones from the city the Monitor had shown them. Others resembled simple huts. Still others resembled the houses of Old Salem, though they seemed more advanced.

And the people were equally odd. Some were dressed in simple clothing, as though they were medieval peasants. Others were dressed in clothing similar to B's. A third group wore clothes unlike any the group had seen so far; and some of these were not even human. Even more bizarrely, some of the statues seemed to be standing together; an armored man and a squidlike creature stood in the same place, fused together.

Then, they were snapped into one line, and the masked jester appeared again.

"Hello, I'm the Fool, and I'll be taking care of you for this round. The details of precisely why aren't really your concern, so let me explain this place to you. Or perhaps I should say, these places."

He raised his hands, and three small spheres appeared, floating in front of him.

"This world used to be three. Each of them had its own destiny, its own future."

The spheres slowly came together, colliding into one larger one.

"But then, something happened. Precisely what, no one knows. But the destinies of these three worlds... well, for lack of a better word, they collided."

The large sphere turned grey.

"And whatever did that, somehow halted all of their destinies. Nothing moved, nothing advanced. This world is still."

He paused, and small sparkles of light appeared on the grey sphere.

"Physically, that is. Spiritually, however... that's another matter. The spirits that inhabited this world are still active. And they seek vessels to play out their destinies. Should you come across one, it will borrow your body and cause you to act out what it remembers. Although, you may be able to affect them, in turn... I suppose you'll see for yourselves."

He clapped his hands together, and the image of the sphere vanished.

"What else... Ah, yes. There are also spirits here that don't come from the three worlds frozen together here. Some of them are simply drawn here from other worlds; this place is so active, it's something of a magnet for spirits that, for one reason or another, stray from their home dimension. But in all likelihood, some of these spirits can offer a clue to precisely what happened to these worlds, that made them turn out like this. You might like to find that out before the round ends, though I suppose I can't force you."

He raised his hands, then paused.

"Oh, and one last thing. You're not going to be the only ones poking around here. Somebody else seems to have taken an interest in this place, and they may not appreciate your company."

He then waved his hands, and the three vanished, each reappearing in a different part of the city. They found themselves able to move again.

SpoilerShow

If you had trouble following that explanation, here's the gist of it.

-This world is basically a fantasy setting, modern setting, and sci-fi setting all tossed together into one and frozen - everything, and I mean everything, appears to be petrified.
-There are spirits all over the place. Most of them are from one of the three worlds, but a few have crept in from other dimensions if you want to play around with that. The spirits can possess you and make you play out a memory; but your characters may be able to make some decisions while they're acting it out. (Say, if they come to a split in the road, your character may be able to go right instead of left.) This can also get messy if two of you are possessed and meet up, especially if you're not in the same worlds - I'll leave the details of what happens there up to you guys.
-Finally, another group of interdimensional travelers is on their way here, and will arrive shortly. Basically, it's a team sent by an unknown party to find out what they can about the place; they may also be looking for something specific. You can make up characters for this team as you see fit. There can even be more than one team incoming if you guys think that will be more fun.

If anything's unclear, ask me about it. Have fun!

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

Aph was deposited in the middle of a stone parking lot in front of an equally stony apartment block. Some small part of her mind, which could differentiate between her memories and D’Neya’s, insisted that this had been the kind of place where she had lived with Xan a long time ago. The rest of her mind scoffed at this idea and regurgitated the jumbled backstory cobbled together from their memories, believing this inconsistent and perplexing construction to be the truth, though honestly that was neither here nor there.

In the parking lot around her there were petrified market stalls selling scrolls and potions and the like. The vendors and the customers alike had all been turned to stone. Most of them had been human, though here and there Aph could see shorter humanoids with long beards and heavy armour or lithe humanoids with flowing robes and presumably once expensive jewellery. In the midst of it all an incongruous pair in stone shirts and jeans carried once plastic bags towards one of the apartment blocks. It was a busy scene, or it would have been had the participants not been made of stone.

Aph fancied she could see shimmering shapes moving through the stone marketplace/parking lot, but they were indistinct. She would catch a glimpse of one out of the corner of her eye and by the time she turned to look it would be gone.

Aph could not help but feel a little affronted at being taken away from the Monitor; the one being who had taken her and given her meaning, given her a purpose. However ultimately it did not matter precisely who was calling the shots. She was still in the same situation as she had been in before, and she planned to enjoy it no less than if the Monitor had been watching over her.

As interesting and mysterious as this world, or rather these three worlds undoubtedly were they were somewhat unsatisfying; nobody to terrorise, to murder or kill… just statues. It was no fun to kill those who were effectively already dead. She guessed that just left Aegis and Clara, and also perhaps those people that The Fool had mentioned, those that were coming to this world. She’d watch out for them, she figured they would not be hard to miss, the only spots of colour in a bland stone city.

But for now there was little she could do other than pick a direction and head in it in the blind hope that she would encounter something interesting. Resignedly she did so, unaware she was drawing interest herself. Something slithered through the shadows after her.

SpoilerShow

Fuck this post.

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

---

Statues. He dumped us in a city full of statues. Aegis examined the nearest: a stern-looking woman who seemed once in a hurry to get somewhere. The statue was perfect—each individual hair, the texture of the skin, every detail captured in solid stone. Aegis nearly missed the dwarfish man fused halfway into her abdomen, in mid-stride and his face buried in stone. Creepy as all hell.

Aegis snapped off a single strand of hair, its shape staying completely rigid before crumbling from being too thin. From the Fool’s description, these people were still alive somehow, which made the situation that much more unsettling. Aegis figured it’d be best to find somewhere more iso-Oh gods I’m going to be late! Master’ll surely-lated.

…

Yes, now was probably a great time to get the hell away from these statues.

Navigating through three crowds’ worth of bustling town was difficult enough. Finding a building with an operating door was harder. Half the time a being or two were fused into the door, making it unusable. Other times, the doors wouldn’t have a visible means of opening. And yet others, even when operational, simply led into a building made unusable by the presence of another building inside. All the while, Aegis kept hearing voices—thoughts—which seemed to compel him to follow the will of an arbitrary statue.

At last, Aegis found a small, rather isolated building. The inside was rather empty compared to the rest of the city, save for a few benches and a tight crowd in the center of the room. The crowd was mostly dressed in a variety of peasant clothing, save only for a few regal-looking individuals in fancy noble attire.

Curious, Aegis moved aside the crowd of statues one by one and saw what the apparent attention was all about. As he lifted the last peasant out of the way, he simply saw two figures: a grown man dressed quite differently than the rest—some sort of mage, Aegis guessed—and a young boy of no more than 13 perhaps. The two sat on the opposite ends of a small table, stone pieces of various shapes strewn throughout. A chess game, made impossible to make sense of due to lack of color.

Disappointed, Aegis exited the crowd and sat on a bench. Strategy. That’s their game. Aegis had always acted on whim, relying on brute force to overcome obstacles. To be fair, it worked most of the time. Maybe, however, it was beginning to falter. Despite his strength, he couldn’t lay a finger on the flying bugman. And earlier, Bae killed B, then B killed Bae, but now Clara was Bae and B was never Bae? It was confusing, terribly confusing. He’d have to be more careful towards Clara now? Was that the best way to go about this? Maybe he could just smash everything instead.

Y’remind me of me when I was your age, lad. Your play is strong, we shall find out exactly how strong.

…

Knight to b6.

…

Knight to b6.

Aegis stood up and approached the table again. He was certainly taught how to play at least once in his lifetime, but he’d forget it all the day after.

Knight to b6.

Aegis picked up a piece that looked like a horse and moved it to b6.