The Grand Battle [Game Over!]

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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SpoilerArgh!

Aeon was floating directly above the crystal and Lutherion... Luther. Amethyst had flown towards the edge of the field to examine the trees and possibly find whatever she needed to possibly escape. Nevertheless, an interesting scene was unfolding below.

The vacuum was on its side, its wheels spinning uselessly. It did not seem to take the obvious course of action--righting itself up--and was thus rendered immobile. Luther himself was in a state of mild shock, both by the fact that he was alive, and by the fact that he had no clue where he was. With Nathan wandering aimlessly about the field, as if in a trance, nobody posed an immediate threat at the moment.

Luther examined himself rather thoroughly, as if making sure he was alive in the flesh. He noticed the vacuum, frowned slightly, and reached over to flip it. However, as he reached, the flesh on his arm began unraveling, revealing bits of bone and dripping fresh blood. Luther recoiled, first having a sense of pain on his face, then a sense of fear. He looked backwards, saw the crystal, and backed slightly closer to it.

Aeon took the moment to glide downwards, beside the vacuum. Deciding that it had little incentive to attack him, he righted it and it promptly began vacuuming the bits of flesh and blood left behind from Luther's arm. Aeon turned to Luther.

"Well... hello." Aeon said, attempting to start a conversation.

"Where am I?" Luther replied. His voice was meek and coase, as if not used for years.

"You tell me. All I know is that crystal behind you has healing powers."

"Well... OK then. That would explain... some things."

Aeon said nothing.

"Uh, I don't think I've ever seen a male witch before."

"I'm not. You must be talking about this," Aeon motioned to the broom, which casually fell to the floor. "It's a... gift. From a friend."

"So you have no more of an idea where we are than me?"

"Nope."

Another pause.

"Well, as long as we're here, can you tell me the last thing you remember?" Aeon said.

"Uh... an old woman with healing abilities... I think. Come to think of it, I think I've seen you before recently. You... uh... were fighting a werewolf?"

Aeon made a look of mild confusion. Luther grimaced slightly.

"That must have been a weird dream, then." He muttered, ignoring the obvious paradox. He looked around and saw the grass. "So is this... heaven?"

"Nah. At least I hope not."

Luther looked confused. "You want to go to Hell, then?"

"Well not necessarily. I don't want to be dead at least."

"Eeeh... heh."

"So, what can you tell me about yourself?" Aeon asked.

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SpoilerIf Dex can't reply, let's just say Luther says "I'd rather not say."

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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The Younger dared to look behind it. The amalgamation was moving again; the Elder's last-ditch effort must have been spent. The Younger knew that now it would be consumed in the same way...

I knew you'd come to your senses, came a familiar voice. First, let me put you in a safe place.

A transparent red sphere surrounded the Younger. Eximo rushed for its prey, but simply slammed into the wall of the sphere. The demon came into view, facing the Younger and Eximo, grinning even wider than before.

This is a spirit-proof barrier. You can't get out, and it can't get in. I'll let you out of it when I have use for you. Understand, servant?

From within the sphere, the Younger nodded, weakly. It knew there was no point in arguing over the terms now; not against a demon.

A pity I can't capture the amalgamation as well. But this barrier can only really contain a single spirit.

Give us... our prey...

Sorry. I may be a lot of things, but once I've made a deal, I uphold my end of it. So this little specter won't be a meal for you as long as I have anything to say about it.

Then you... shall feed us...

Unlikely. I'm bound to this human and to the knife he carries. Amalgamations like you can only merge with free-roaming spirits. And demons are far too strong to be swallowed up even if we're not bound.

Your scent... is delicious...

And, of course, you're too hungry to pay any attention to a word of that. The demon sighed, frustrated. Well, since you're such a lousy conversationalist, maybe you can entertain me in other ways.

Nathan's blank eyes suddenly returned to normal.

For instance, I can control what the boy sees. Nathan's face suddenly filled with rage. Right now, he sees that necromancer he hates so much. Right where you're standing. Nathan took out his knife and lunged at the amalgamation. It shrieked in pain.

How... How can he hurt us?

Simple. His knife traps me on the spirit plane. The spell that allows it to do that has a side effect of allowing it to harm anything else on this plane. Not that he has any idea about that... and come to think of it, you're probably not even listening again, because this isn't about 'food' for you.

We will... feed on you... another time... Eximo's voices chanted in unison, as it turned to flee.

Now, now. We can't have you leaving before we're finished, now can we? The demon concentrated on Nathan's feet, allowing him to move faster and keep up with the fleeing amalgamation. Nathan continued to run after what he saw as Lutherion, swinging wildly all the while.

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SpoilerI'm not planning on doing anything around Luther for a while, though obviously that could change if Nathan takes the chase in that direction.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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Amethyst watched as Nathan ran wildly through the battlefield, stabbing his knife at some unseen quarry ahead of him.

She was able to occasionally perceive flashes of energy as he stabbed; a sign that the knife was, in fact, colliding with something. It could be some outside threat, as the werewolf had been in the previous round; or it could be something more benign. After a moment's reflection, she realized the demon was most likely manipulating Nathan; and as such, it would probably be better to intervene. She felt that her mana had been sufficiently recharged for such a confrontation.

She flew down, and cast a Rock Bind at Nathan's feet once she was within range. He broke out of it quickly; Amethyst realized that the demon must have been helping him to do so. Nevertheless, she had gotten his attention.

"What are you doing?" he shouted up at her. "Do you want to help Lutherion get away?"

"Lutherion is not here," she replied, quite simply. "The demon is toying with you - and not for the first time. I'm sure you must realize that by now."

Nathan's mouth suddenly shaped into a grin. Amethyst did not need to see the traces of magic to know this was the demon's work.

"Well, I suppose there's not much point in my hiding it," Nathan said, in an unfamiliar voice. "Yes, I'm toying with him. He's just too much fun. But I can't take credit for everything he's done since we made our little deal."

"What were you pursuing?" Amethyst asked. She would not allow the demon to unsettle her.

"Now, what makes you think we were pursuing anything? I could easily have the boy running after thin air. Ah, unless... Perhaps you can see things that human eyes cannot?"

"I see no reason to give out such information to an enemy."

"Then I suppose you'll just have to figure it out for yourself. Assuming, that is, you survive!"

Nathan suddenly leapt up, lunging at Amethyst in mid-air. She flew back, but Nathan managed to grab onto her broomstick, and seemed to be trying to drag it down.

Eximo watched the confrontation from a distance. It seemed that the demon had lost interest in it, at least for now. It had been severely weakened by the chase, however; Nathan's strikes had taken their toll on it. The pain left it confused, especially as it still felt its hunger.

The hunger... the pain... we must feed... but the pain is too strong...

Moments later, Amethyst's broomstick fell from the sky; Nathan, or rather the demon, had managed to win that struggle. Amethyst happened to land right where Eximo's spirit was nursing its wounds.

A voice spoke in her head.

Help us...

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SpoilerI just noticed the change in the topic title as I was editing this.

Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

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I changed the title to better reflect the story.

Originally posted on MSPA by Draykon.

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Amethyst stood back up, the pain from the fall had subsided almost instantly. She looked up at Nathan, the demon lord seeming eager to hear her response.

She decided not to bother with it, and instead began fiddling with various buttons on her armband. Onscreen, the colorful interface gave way to one far more bland, as pages of some alien language appeared onscreen.

Please... help us...

She heard the weak voice again. Deciding to completely ignore the demon lord- something she hoped would simply annoy it, she instead began whispering, in address to the mysterious voice.

"Who is 'us'?"

Eximo's spirit stopped. It wasn't a concept it could consider, All it knew was it was hungry... but it did know more than that didn't it? For 'it' to be hungry, there would have to be an 'it' to be hungry.
But the girl seemed likely to help, so it expressed this.

Us is I...

We are very hungry...

"And I is who? Is there a place you come from? A place you are now?"

The spirit couldn't understand what she was getting at, but it still felt for some reason that this girl could help.

I is us--

As it whispered those words, it began to consider the paradox. Us is I, therefore I is Us. These two facts are dependent, but by stating both, no new information was created...
The concept was confusing, it addressed the other question instead.


We are here
beside you
but not beside you.

It paused again.

I am here...

Amethyst seemed satisfied with that much. "There is alot of unwatched life somewhere. I believe is it also 'there.'"

She paused for a bit so the spirit could contemplate this. 'There' to her was 'here' to us wasn't it? This seemed to make sense.

"There is a light that is both here and there. Near that light are two souls, and near those two souls is an army of souls, currently unbound and unguarded if I am correct."

The soul looked around, was the 'light' the force that had hurt it before? There did seem to be two souls there now, and-- something else. An amalgamation, like itself, but without purpose. It lay weakly, as though it had been separated from a master it knew dearly.

"That army of unbound souls is without purpose, I do not think anyone would be saddened if they were to become food."

'No one would be saddened.' Was this a good thing? Yes, this was an acceptable condition for which it may devour the souls. In fact, it may even be favorable. It didn't bother with the logic for this one, for it had been promised food.

It whispered a simply Thank you. And started off back towards the crystal.


"Oh, and just what was that supposed to be?"
The demon lord seemed to have been listening, vaguely interested in Amethyst's little 'talk.'

"A soul is a mass of sentience, however when it goes too long without a proper body, it becomes selfish, and childlike. But children are usually honest, and think about what people say. If you ask it the right questions, you can convince it to 'think' alot more than if you just let it do what it wants."

She closed out of the strange alien document.

"At any rate, it would be to my benefit if the spirits within the Weightmaw Arm are to become 'food' for some stray ghost."

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SpoilerI really would post more, but I've been having alot of writers block lately. Plus since Lutherion is being kind of important here, we really need Dex to post more as well.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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Heeding the girl's advice, Eximo returned to the crystal. It could see Aeon and Luther in the middle of a discussion, but it took no interest in what they were saying.

Near Luther was the other amalgamation it had been told of. It seemed to be trying to move towards his body, but the crystal's energy continued to push it back. Eximo moved closer, hoping to satiate its hunger.

It reached out to touch the other amalgamation. Spirits began flowing into Eximo rapidly; but, like the Elder before them, they struggled at first. And by trying to swallow so many at once, the resistance increased. Soon, the other amalgamation realized what had happened, and managed to break free.

Leave us! it screamed.

We... cannot. Our hunger... must be satisfied... Eximo responded. But it was beginning to feel... different about feeding itself. It began to regret what it was doing. Still, the instinct was too strong to ignore, and it continued with the attempt to struggle.

A lone voice spoke up between the two amalgamations.

I can stop this. But only if you let me.

Do whatever... you must... said the nameless amalgamation, desperate to survive. It split off a single spirit. That spirit thought one single word.

Manifest.

In the middle of the conversation, Aeon suddenly stopped, with a surprised look on his face. Luther turned around to see what had caught his attention.

Behind him, there was an elaborate suit of armor. It was lying on the ground, weakly. Luther thought it looked very familiar, though he couldn't place it.

But Aeon could.

"Dorukomets?"

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SpoilerEnding this here for effect, but I'll clarify some things here before explaining them in-story. The rest of Lutherion's army has taken up residence inside Dorukomets' armor; basically, the idea I'm working with here is that Dorukomets, being a ghost, can manifest on the physical plane. This basically serves to bind his spirit to a physical form, so it can't be swallowed by Eximo; and the rest of the spirits are borrowing his body to get the same protection.

The details of how this makes him act, and to what extent the healing crystal is affecting him, are up for grabs. If you've got an explanation you like there, go for it, otherwise I'll come up with something.

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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SpoilerSince, obviously, a vacuum cleaner is going to win this, perhaps let there be a separate game-type-thing for everyone else later on?

Originally posted on MSPA by snoomanwaff.

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SpoilerWell fogel is good at writing.

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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SpoilerYeah, so damn good that no one else has a chance. [img]images/smilies/pc_insolent.gif[/img]

Originally posted on MSPA by Draykon.

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"Truly you are unnecessary creatures"

Amethyst said plainly, as she finally looked back up at Nathan.

"Humanity has always had such a strange desire to personify their fears. When dragons were rationalized as mere beasts, men turned to fear witches. When witches were rationalized and magic given a science, men turned to demons to fear. And when the many, many, weaknesses of demonkind were exposed, mankind began to imagine the 'demon lords' unbound by such weaknesses."

A single black icicle launched itself from behind, directly towards Nathan's left hand. The demon lord effortlessly batted it away, not even having Nathan move.

"I suppose it would be far too much to attempt the same approach against you as that spirit."

The crystal flew back around to behind Amethyst, joining several others.

"Why that'd only be natural. Comparing a being such as myself to a lowly ghost is foolish. But again you have my curiosity. 'Same approach?'"

"Indeed, if you have imagined an entire mythology to justify your existance..."

Amethyst grinned. Not the light smile she had given the others, but a large- almost demonic- grin. It was the grin a prankster makes when she's about to tell some brilliant lie, to completely protect herself from blame, and frame an enemy.

"No amount of 'I is us' will remind you of your true nature. THUNDER NETWORK!"

Three crystals shot forth, carrying a band of lightning between them. Nathan easily jumped out of the way, but a fourth crystal formed behind him.

This crystal joined the network, and a bolt nearly shot straight through Nathan. But the demon's enhancements made him too quick, as he dodged downwards to the left, slashing down his dagger as he went, firing off a bright white arc.

"Force shield" Amethyst whispered, as a black arc of the exact same shape formed and intercepted the demon's attack.

"Kyaha! What I truly am?! Girl do YOU realize what I am?!"

Nathan rushed forward- and tripped over a quickly-cast rock bind. Amethyst spun around, raised her right leg, and brought it down on Nathan's neck.

It wasn't a strong blow, but the demon lord had focused so much on speed after having to dodge lightning, that he forgot about Nathan's frail teenage form. Quite simply, it HURT alot more than the demon expected.


In fact, it really was ALOT more than it should have. Nathan gripped his neck, resisting the demon's possesion out of sheer agony. Amethyst brushed down her skirt, making sure to vaporize the small crystaline spike jutting out from her right leg.


"See how your power is so tightly bound to this boy?" Amethyst mocked, albeit in her usual semi-monotone manner.
"How convenient of your mythology to explain as a 'possesion' what can easily be justified as 'nonexistance'"

The demon spoke directly to Amethyst now, deciding she'd probably hear one way or another. "And just what kind of twisted logic are you trying to use against me? Are you forgetting I'm a DEMON?! Alot more people have tried to deny me with some silly drunken paradox than you seem to think!"

Amethyst looked on cooly. "There is no paradox. There are eight contestants in this 'game.' You would make nine. Therefore, you exist simply as a personification of this boy's magical potential. To say otherwise would be a direct challenge to the word of the 'god' who holds us here. Your nonexistance is certain."

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SpoilerThe demon lord's nonexistance is uncertain. As I implied before, Amethyst is wrong sometimes, and in this case she's mostly just trying to 'break' the demon lord. Though if Oddguy likes the idea it could be canon.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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Eximo could not grasp what had happened. Where there had once been a spirit, there was now a physical form. The other amalgamation entered it; Eximo tried to follow, but was repelled by some strange force.

It was unsure what to do. All other spirits were "bound", as the demon and the girl had called it. They were beyond its reach. How, then, could it satisfy this hunger?

And - should it? It was beginning to doubt that, and it barely understood what "doubt" even was.

Faint memories awakened. Before it had become aware of its hunger, it had been satisfied with... something. Cl... cleansing. Yes. Had it been... "bound"? That seemed... correct. And it had not experienced the hunger at that time.

The amalgamation's focus turned to the prone vacuum cleaner. Yes. It had been bound to that. It had been... content? Yes, that was it. While bound to the machine, it had a purpose beyond this hunger. It remembered that, now.

Perhaps it could go back? It seemed worth a try.

The physical beings were still in conversation, but Eximo paid it no attention. It entered its old body, hoping that perhaps, just perhaps, it might forget the hunger again.

When it entered, the spirit was greeted by the error log. In addition to the earlier transmission error, the machine was now going through numerous cleansing-related errors. With only its mechanical programming guiding it, however, the vacuum could not correct any of the errors on its own.

Eximo concentrated. When it had communicated with Amethyst, the process had been fairly smooth; with a machine, it was significantly harder. If it had been asked, the spirit would be unable to say why it even thought the task possible. But some instinct, something even more basic than the hunger that still filled it, had taken over.

It wanted to live again.

Its focus narrowed. It tuned out the endless error messages, focusing on one word. One purpose that body and spirit had once shared, and it hoped still did.

Cleanse.

The word resonated through the maze that was the machine's mind. After what seemed like an eternity, there was a response.

This unit's purpose is to cleanse.

...cannot cleanse... not like this...

This unit's purpose is to cleanse.

...we can... help...

This unit's purpose is to cleanse.

...our purpose... is to cleanse...

This unit's purpose is to cleanse.

Cleanse.

Cleanse!

The link had been established. It was limited, for the moment, but now that the spirit could actually work within the machine, it could at least address some of the errors.

First error: Not being upright.
Second error: Storage compartment open. Stored items needed to be retrieved.

The machine itself could not address these problems. But, the spirit suddenly believed it could. It recalled the Younger holding back the machine, and realized it had the potential to manipulate physical objects. It decided to experiment. It picked up the loose objects - save for one of the strange discs, which it could not locate - placed them in storage, and closed the compartment. The lifeforms nearby took no notice; their attention was elsewhere.

This task, simple as it would be for a physical being, was exhausting for the spirit. Lifting the machine itself would be even harder. The spirit did not have the strength to attempt it now; it simply remained within its former body, nearly helpless.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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SpoilerWell, it's been a week, and that was how long I was planning to keep up the one-post-a-day plan. I think I'm running out of things I can do with Eximo without leaning more heavily on the other characters, so back to the regular sporadic posting for me.

I think we need to wait for Dex to resurface before getting much further; it would be a shame to move on to the next section without exploring Luther's revival a bit more. Especially as the next section is the wasteland, and we probably won't linger there for as long as the first two sections.

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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"Huh? What? Why did a suit of armor just appear behind me?" Luther said, thoroughly confused. Aeon paid no attention to him.

Instead, he brushed the 'former' necromancer off and picked up the suit of armor by the shoulders. It was much heavier than it looked, and no trace of any underlying garments were visible--Dorukomets' entire spectral body was covered in the pale metal, which itself seemed to mix between the lines of corporeal and spectral.

"Talk." Aeon stated firmly. There was no immediate answer. He reached for the helmet to lift the faceplate. Instantly, Dorukomets' armored hand raised and wrapped around Aeon's wrist, holding rather tightly. Strangely, the rest of his arm seemed to hang limp. An amalgamation of whispers was just barely heard a few seconds later.

"We where serve am Master I Lutherion!” Dorukomets seemed to whisper. It alternated between the semi-confident voice of the ghost and a weak and unsure voice of something else. Luther winced with the comment and bit his lip.

Aeon was tired of this. He raised the armor and rammed it against the crystal only a few inches behind it. As the semi-corporeal metal touched the crystal, however, it emitted a highly unnatural and high-pitched shriek, as dry ice does when pressed against a metal bucket. Dorukomets, or rather, Dorukomets plus thousands of other, unknown voices screamed and pushed Aeon off of the armor. Without ceasing the screaming, Dorukomets turned around, raised his hand, and partially phased it through the crystal. He then wrenched his hand away, making his signature 'ghost-frag' move. At that instant the pieces of crystal broken off instantly split into hundreds of tiny shards, which flew everywhere and embedded themselves into Dorukomets' armor, as well as Aeon and Luther. In addition, the fist-sized hole in the crystal emitted a bright bolt that hit Dorukomets directly through the heart. It did not leave a mark. Instead the oblong circle that was hit by the bolt became silvery-white, as normal steel would be. It was only then that Dorukomets stopped screaming, and collapsed to the grass.

The combined sounds of the eerie shriek, Dorukomets' screaming, and the boom created by the strange bolt shocked Aeon. He looked to his right and saw Luther taking one step too far backwards, becoming again a mangled mess of simultaneous healing and rotting flesh. He looked behind him and saw Amethyst staring aghast at the sudden scene, before being hit by a surprise attack from behind from Nathan. He looked at his hands and saw many bits of crystal embedded like splinters all over his body, simultaneously opening the wound and healing it at the same time.

Aeon at last fell backwards onto the grass, landing on his back with a soft thud.

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SpoilerIn other news, we have a wiki page now.
https://mspafa.wikia.com/wiki/The_Grand_Battle

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SpoilerIf you're wondering, I'm not resigning. I have a few ideas in mind.

Originally posted on MSPA by Draykon.

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Amethyst hit the ground, and rolled towards the crystal. As she began to get up, Nathan lunged at her again, his knife emitting a bright light- to the point that it resembled a glowing broadsword. Amethyst's own crystals slammed into her, barely pushing her out of the way. The light from the knife sliced cleanly through the crystal, causing the top half of it to fall off- as thought it had been made of cardboard.

"Load Preset: SPARK!" Amethsyt yelled, firing a pillar of flames from her right hand. Nathan jumped to the left, as the flames collided with the lower half of the crystal, turning it black. As this happened, the grass around the crystal began to slowly wither, as its source of life was gradually destroyed.

Eximo's sensors interpreted this as filth, thought the machine itself was still immobile. This created a source of irritation, as gradually more bolts of the Demon's light and Amethyst's magic collided with the crystal, slowly killing the flora, and creating alot of dead things to clean up! Eximo's spirit was uncertain of what action to take. It wanted to cleanse, but it had so little influence on the physical world.

It decided, at the least, it could try and clear up some of these ashes. It stepped forward, and began to carefully push the singed remains of the crystal into a single pile. To an outsider, it would have appeared to be a random wind, but it was slowly making progress. As it did this, it began to uncover another pop-up book, this one also labeled "MASTER OF THE WORLD"

By sheer chance, the wind blew against the book, and caused it to open. It passed first through a page filled with drawings of cubes, a couple of which 'popped up' as the page was opened.


The page turned again to something far creepier. This new page was all black- but it hadn't been printed that way. More as though it had been covered in black chalk, defaced by someone. More noticable than that however, was a large occult-looking symbol, written in blood in the center of the page.

The blood began to spread, forming long veins, and eventually streams throughout the field. Gradually, the rest of the world blackened, and tore apart. Countless islands floated around the void, each holding such strange scenery as one of the trees from before, or a chunk of desert, one island even seemed to hold an illogical staircase. The group stood around a single island which houed the remains of the crystal, Amethyst and the Demon Lord ceased their fighting to look around at their new surroundings.

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SpoilerThis round was taking forever, so here's Pop-up land's last stop: Chaos Pop-up Land. Basically, at the beginning of the round, when the Gentlemen wrote down their "suggestions," instead of writing some description, the Gentleman corresponding to myself simply drew a rune of chaos. The "invoking" of this rune occured when the page in Master of the World corresponding to it was turned to, resulting in the entire space being all crazyfied. Little "islands" corresponding to the other pages still exist, the rest of the place is just a void.

I went ahead and asked Cyber for permission with this, and he said it was okay.

Oh, and the crystal isn't completely destroyed, the top half that got cut off could still be used for something, plus all the little shards laying around.

Originally posted on MSPA by bobthepen.

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SpoilerAww, so no crazy GBII mix? It will happen, I say. It will happen.

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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SpoilerMy idea was that the crossover was going to be indirect, and there's still an Escher-esque island. In fact...

The damage to the crystal greatly reduced the flow of healing energy. As the bulk of the energy flowed away from Eximo, its undead parts began their own regeneration process and came to life again. It was slow, but the spirit could sense it beginning.

We can return, thought the amalgamation. It concentrated on the slowly-reviving undead components. Two skeletal arms gradually made their way out of the vacuum, and pushed against the ground.

It was still groggy, and could not fully return to its own body yet. The intact half of the crystal still made it weaker than it had been in the previous round. In an attempt to regain its bearings, it attempted to use the now-functioning life scanner. The mechanical part, meanwhile, was now able to begin cleansing the ashes, and did so. The noise from the vacuum alerted the others to its awakening, but it had no concern of this at the moment.

The scan indicated two standard readings (Amethyst and Aeon - it was slowly recalling their names), one unusual reading of standard strength (Nathan), and one reading that continually fluctuated in strength and occasionally disappeared - though that one appeared to be slowly stabilizing. Process of elimination suggested this was Lutherion, though that theory was unconfirmed. Eximo was beginning to recall what had happened before it had been forced from its body.

But those were not the only lifeforms it detected. There was a significant cluster of them some distance away; the radar did not have enough accuracy at that range to pick out the exact number, however, and something seemed to be interfering. There also seemed to be a large concentration of filth among them, and it actually appeared to be moving. However, there was also filth here to be cleansed, and Eximo did not have enough control over its body yet to delay cleansing and investigate the strange new source of filth.

It would soon have more control, however. The regeneration process had picked up greatly. Eximo focused, and gained more control; it stopped vacuuming for a moment, just to confirm that it could, then resumed. It seemed to be getting easier to issue commands, especially without all of the distracting error messages; they had stopped now.

Including the transmission error.

***

In a distant world, in a foreboding castle, a communications terminal beeped incessantly.

A hooded figure walked to the terminal. Noticing the sender, it decided the actual diagnostic report could wait. With a hand of bone and a hand of metal, it typed in a command to track where the transmission had originated.

The screen displayed: "Location unknown."

"Useless," muttered the figure. "I spent hours assembling this communication grid and imbuing it with dark magics, and it can't even locate a vacuum cleaner."

Konka Rar walked away. It didn't concern him that much, regardless. He was fairly certain who was responsible for the machine's disappearance. After all, he could think of no reason why anyone would want to steal his vacuum cleaner, and that left one obvious suspect.

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SpoilerI just thought I'd have some fun showing a glimpse into Eximo's homeworld.

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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SpoilerUh, bump?

In other news, our wiki page is being spruced up anonymously, to good results.

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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there you go, fellows and fellow-esses. Just finished Round 2 write-up of your very own wiki. (AKA what Schazer was doing while pretending to be dead)

Originally posted on MSPA by dexexe1234.

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Luther was laying on the ground of a small floating island. The black void filled the entire space around him. He felt the peace and the silence. Then he could feel it!

Lutherion was still the giant mass of dying and living bone and meat. He was writhing in pain and anguish. But then it stopped. It all stopped.

He got up in a sitting position, and looked around. "What in my name happened here?!" The black void was everywhere, in the distance was a giant floating icon, looking like it was made of blood, and being the size and as far away as the sun.

Then he felt a pain that he had never experienced before.

Nearly paralyzed, he looked around his body, and saw the different crystal splinters! He quickly started pulling them out, but when he tried with his right hand, nothing came to his sight.

The wightmaw was gone.

His entire being was in a pure state of shock. He got the last splinters out, and then started to survey the situation:

"I... Gotta think very fast! It looks like i have been severely damaged, and im missing the entirety of my wightmaw arm!... Wait! I can feel it!"

Lutherion looked out into the horizon, and spotted Dorukomets laying on one of the islands.

"He, What?!? WHAT?!?!? HE!? He have my ENTIRE ARMY inside of him?! Oooh im gonna make him suffer!"

Lutherion got up on his legs and started concentrating.

After a brief pause, he muttered: "Light Regeneration!" And he suddenly cringed in a very brief moment. His head then began to become younger! Slowly being more and more alive! his head fully regenerated.

"Good. Now that i have lived up my brain, i got to start thinking properly!"

Missing his wightmaw, he didnt have the Skeletal wings he created from before, but this could not just stop him. He stretched his arm fully, and begun swinging it around, creating signs in the air.

"Caras ayights!" He shouted, and from his back two bones sprung out! They grew out to a full length of three meters. Afterwards more bones grew from the bones, and then flesh and skin grew out and wrapped it all up. He had made a pair of batlikes wings on his back.

"Im one of the greatest necromancers alivish in this world! Of course i can manipulate skin!"

He began flying towards Dorukomets.

Originally posted on MSPA by Draykon.

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Amethyst glanced around a couple times to quickly take in her surroundings. Aeon was getting up after being knocked off his feet by the transition. Eximo was vacumming up bits of debri from their current island, Dokurumets- or whatever it was had possessed his form, was simply floating, perhaps having a conversation with itself. And Lutherion...

She looked in the distance, and saw Lutherion- his skeletal wings- though probably not the same ones- returned, she looked back at Nathan, the demon's grin projected upon his face. There were far too many unknown factors to be able to practically continue this battle.

She thrust her hand outward, pulling her crystal broom from some distance away, and hopped on it, before shouting,

"Photon Burst!"

A bright white light emerged from before her, firing off to form several beams. Amethyst quickly chose one, closed her eyes, and flew inside of it. Hopefully escaping the others.


The island she landed on was indescribable. At least, using the language Amethyst knew, she couldn't find the words to describe it. A tower sat at the center, fairly simply, but beside the tower- powering a waterwheel- was a stone waterway, which seemed to tilt down, yet at the same time ascended. The waterway bend around, returning to above its starting point, falling off the waterway, turning the wheel, and starting its journey again. The paradoxical structure provided a source of free energy for the building. However over time the indefinite introduction of energy into the system would gradually increase the local temperature. It was really extremely dangerous, and most likely hadn't been here for long- at least by universe standards.
A source of theoretical destruction, the result of breaking the laws of the universe, no matter how innocent the intended purpose of powering one's home.

Amethyst sat by the tower, and began muttering incoherent commands. She didn't have a preset for this, it wasn't something she had to do alot, but somehow she felt that etching her thoughts into stone would be more practical. Slowly, violet light carved into the stone, and etched words;

"To the one who finds this; I wish to describe my struggles, for I believe they may be the same for those who will read my words in the future. I speak as Amethyst, but I wish to convey the thoughts of my comrades; Dokurumets, Alcarith, Emily, Nathan, Aeon, Eximo, and even- I wish to believe- Lutherion.

We have all been brought here for the sake of some divine being's twisted show, and that we should destroy one another is his desire. Thus far, my every attempt to escape this 'game' has been unsuccessful, and even met with- as I have interpreted it- taunting from my captors. But do not be disheartened, for there is a world beyond this 'game.'

There must be, for I have seen it. We all have seen it before our time here. I do not know just how long that time has been- I cannot judge it from this world- but it can't have been long since I stood within a Godless world, unrestrained by the will of the 'Guy Running the Show'"

Amethyst paused and shook her head, her original world was irrelevant to this. But it was true that for such cataclysm, it must have been Godless...

"The spacial tricks he has used have carved me a cage of noneuclidean alloys. Though this may seem unbreakable, it means they must not be adamantium. If my wit alone shall fail me in my task, I ask you who finds this: Do not bother with loopholes, do not bother with warped space. If my magic will not bend a tunnel out of this barbed wire, then yours must tear a hole through it. We shall attack from two points, and find the weakness of the Director.

Whether this is found in the future, the present, or even- and it would not surprise me at this point- the past. We must not allow this being to proclaim himself God. For if my world is Godless, I will rise up as a Goddess, and tear down those fools who have placed themselves upon pedestals. Please join me in my ascension,

To forever destroy the Grand Battle."

Sensing movement, Amethyst called her broom back to her, and flew from the island.

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SpoilerThere ya go. I would recommend someone in GBII stumble upon this.

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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SpoilerNeat [img]images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Although Vyrm'n's actually flowing up and down that impossible watermill atm... Picking it up would definitely confuse Vyrm'n, if we ever actually made any plot progression this round :/

Originally posted on MSPA by Draykon.

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SpoilerWell then...


uh....

Amethyst didn't notice the large mass of psychedelic matter flowing through the waterway? x.x
Okay yeah, I screwed up. Can't think of a way to fix it though. [img]images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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SpoilerI'unno. Vyrm'n's probably denser than water, schler probably just looked like shadows within the water. Probably. [img]images/smilies/mspa_face.gif[/img]

Wait, so in our battle, I've implied all these places are linked like some sort of huge garden/building/complex/clusterfuck. But in yours each of the escher "images" is on its own island?
I'm not saying that either is wrong, it's just interesting and may cover some discrepancies. Maybe. xD

Originally posted on MSPA by Draykon.

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SpoilerI'm thinking that just as the rest of the void doesn't exist to you guys, certain parts of the gardencomplexclusterfuck don't exist to us. It was probably the exact same structure to us as it still is to you guys, but got "broken," just like the rest of Popup land. Exactly how moving in and out of the common space looks to the other party is probably up for grabs, but I would imagine Amethyst would appear to 'vanish' as she leaves the island.

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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SpoilerThat makes sense. And I also implied that one of the doorways from the screwed-up staircase/selective gravity room leads out to a courtyard where my waterfall is. So I guess in your pop-up book, the waterfall/courtyard just got torn off.
Man this is confusing xD