RE: Grand Battle S3G1! (Round Three: Caelo Ruinam)
05-26-2013, 05:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-26-2013, 05:46 AM by Anomaly.)
An eerie quiet closed around Tengeri as she navigated the ancient, twisting passages of Caelo Ruinam. No eight-armed warriors punching things. No magic bears attempting to claw her eyes out. Most importantly, no Scofflaw. She hadn't seen him (other than his incredibly conspicuous corpse) since he'd contacted her in those caves, but on further thought, wasn't it obvious? Of course Scofflaw wasn't dead. Could've been clones. Could've been holograms. Could've been more of that fake bullshit science that somehow worked. Whatever it was, the real Scofflaw was still alive and well (physically, mind you - not mentally). The very thought was sickening.
What did it matter, though? She was going to get them out of there. All of them. Except, hopefully, Scofflaw, but she'd worry about that later. All she had to do was get a "magic" weapon and use it to kill some higher lifeform who fancied himself a god. A "Meta-Dimensional Entity", as the NSC called them. Extremely powerful - to the point where mortals could have no more effect on them than a single bacterium could have on a mortal - but not necessarily invulnerable.
In all honesty, Tengeri had no idea how the second part was going to work. The Fool could just teleport them around or paralyze them at will. How was she going to take him by surprise? Hell, he was probably watching her every move, reading her every thought. She didn't have the resources to do this alone. As far as she could tell, she had only a telekinetic fieldful of people she could get help from.
One: Tor. Even with his expertise, though, Tengeri doubted he had the know-how to distract a semi-omnipotent being for more than a few insignificant fractions of a second.
Two: TinTen. He scarcely seemed more likely than Tor to be able to assist. What was his expertise, anyway... weapons? He'd probably be willing to help, but that was hardly enough without something more substantial.
Three: Velobo. Velobo? Tengeri wondered why she even entertained the idea. Sure, he somehow managed to interface with an ancient gauntlet of unspeakable power which was activating similar technology across the multiverse, but... Did he know how to use any of it? Doubtful.
Four: ScoffNO. Tengeri didn't want to continue with that thought. No matter what Scofflaw was capable of, he was a disgusting bastard who deserved nothing less than death, as he'd demonstrated numerous times. Recent kindness be damned - all he really wanted was to use her for his own ends. She wouldn't entertain the idea any further. Besides, maybe the weapon would create a diversion on its own.
Speaking of which, Tengeri looked up to find herself floating before the false wall once again. Hopefully the merchant wouldn't give her another incredibly dangerous task for a seemingly insignificant item. There wasn't time for that. At any moment, her final hope could be snatched away from her by situations out of her control.
"Just stay alive, dammit," she mumbled as she floated through the non-wall.
"Don't worry, I'm quite alive!" called the smiling face of Lancelot Mortimer Veritas Garland. He eagerly continued, "Have you brought the feather?"
Tengeri glared in silence as the purple-pink feather floated from the containment unit and placed itself on the merchant's counter. She was still pretty pissed about the fact that she'd almost gotten killed for a goddamn feather.
Garland held the feather toward one of the lights mounted in the ceiling, squinting. He eventually placed it in his pocket, apparently satisfied. "Yes, yes, that will do quite nicely. Should add another ten years to my life!" He laughed. Tengeri didn't join him.
"That is sufficient payment, I hope," she eventually posed.
"Well... I suppose I should save some tasks for other shoppers, although business isn't quite what I expected it to be."
"You expected a lot of business on a floating doomsday fortress?"
"It comes with the trade. Anyway!" The merchant clapped his hands. "I think I have just the thing for you."
He promptly kneeled under the counter, which, as Tengeri noted, contained a link to some sort of pocket dimension. Possibly a storehouse, she guessed. Eventually, the merchant emerged, holding in his hand a dirty gold spear, whatever lustre it might've once held long gone. Tengeri stared, unimpressed, as her sensors tried and failed to make sense of the readings from the weapon.
"The Deicide!" Lancelot exclaimed, beaming. "An old favorite of mine. It's served several generations of heroes in their fights against assorted forces of darkness, and now I pass it to you, uh... I don't think I caught your name."
"Tengeri," she curtly replied.
"Tengeri! Most excellent. Not every day a cybernetic Leviathan comes shopping. Now, then, for the love of whatever Gods you're not interested in viciously murdering, do not touch the pointy bit. And, naturally, generations of use hasn't left it in... the best condition. I'd advise against overusing it."
"You think I'm just going to swim around murdering everything in sight?"
"I was hoping," he sighed. "Well, you paid, so here it-"
The merchant was very rudely interrupted by the sound of gunfire. He took cover behind the counter as the various potions carefully arranged on the shelves began to shatter. He cursed under his breath as Tengeri joined him behind cover, blue-green blood leaking into her waterfield.
"Just grazed. Nothing serious," she mumbled, wincing in pain. Garland, meanwhile, took advantage of a momentary pause in the firing to hurl the nearest weapon (in this case, the Deicide itself) through the false wall. A scream of pain echoed for a fraction of a second before it was silenced.
Of course, Lt. Matthias Leblanc hadn't been expecting a god-killing spear to the face. He and his squad had a fairly simple mission. Murder some kind of merchant that had somehow thought that an ancient flying fortress full of patrolling soldiers was a viable business venture, and take whatever legendary weapons he'd brought with him. He had smirked. Maybe he'd even keep a little something for himself. Who would know, right? It'd make a nice bonus on top of his meager payroll.
Even the announcement from this "Greenman" fellow and the subsequent checking of their pay scrolls didn't deter Leblanc and his two squadmates from their goal - hell, it gave them even more incentive to take out the merchant. They would divide all the loot amongst themselves, they decided. That sounded nice. No need to get involved with the revolution they were sure would break out among the other troops.
Anthony Cavallo, the best gunner on the squad, could finally pay for a cleric to heal his ailing mother. His desperation had led him to join Midday, in spite of her complete insanity. The scrawny Nikolajs Koridze, always hopeful for the future, could finally pay for an education in painting. He'd always said that things were gonna change soon. That he'd make a better life for himself. Even Leblanc had never wanted to join Midday. What he wanted was to go off on his own, to see the world, to be one of the heroes told about in legend. But he'd never had the money to get away from his hometown, until Midday's troops gave him an opportunity. All he wanted was fame and fortune.
Instead, he got a glowing spear to the face. Anthony and Nikolajs looked on in horror as Leblanc's entire body collapsed into nothingness, barely able to scream before they were rent into dust and the dust into a mass of unrecognizable particles.
Tengeri hesitated. No gunshots. No noise whatsoever. Slowly she swam from behind the counter, cautiously poking her head through the fake wall. She found no sign of any attackers, save for some scraps of fabric and some twisted bits of metal that might've once been machine guns. No blood, no corpses, no mess - just the Deicide, broken into several pieces, head buried in the wall.
"Shit," Garland muttered as he emerged from the wall. "This, uh... This wasn't supposed to happen."
"Let me guess, that was your last Deicide?"
"Unfortunately so. Could I maybe interest you in something of equal or lesser value?" The merchant struggled and ultimately failed to pull the spearhead out of the wall.
Tengeri thought for a moment. "You did say you could 'enchant' a weapon to have similar properties."
Lancelot sighed, resorting to hitting the spearhead with a large hammer. "You know, I was going to charge you a million more gilderupees for this, but..." He tossed the hammer aside, then carefully reached into the cracked remains of the weapon. "I guess there's no talking you down. Enchanting it is, then."
The merchant carefully drew out a small, glowing orb, apparently made of [analysis failed] and brightly glowing with [critical error]. Without another word he headed back into his slightly-damaged shop, followed by the floating serpent.
"Did you have a weapon in mind?" The merchant motioned toward the rack of variably outlandish weapons on the wall behind him. Giant swords comprised of unrecognizable alloys, crossbows which could fire at several times the speed of sound, a really nice violin... Tengeri had no clue how to use any of them in a way that wouldn't ultimately get her atomized.
HYP-01: ACTIVE flashed Tengeri's mechanical eyes as the tentaclesque manipulator made its way out of her back. The end of the manipulator fashioned into a large spike (designated use: climbing), she laid it on the countertop. "Will this suffice?"
Lancelot studied it contemplatively. "Hmm. Yes, I believe that will be fine. I've never tried this potent an enchantment on cybernetics before, but I doubt there'll be any side-effects."
"You doubt there'll be any side-effects?" Dammit Tengeri, she scolded herself. This is a stupid idea! Are you trying to get killed?
"Oh, I doubt it'll do any harm. Might even make it more potent! Ha!" The portly merchant looked down at the manipulator for a few seconds. "Hmm."
"Hmm?" Yeah, trust this guy. That'll end well.
"You know, it's been a while since I did this kind of enchantment. I could add more reagents than just the Deicide's core, if you happen to have any on hand. Er, lack of hand. Or, maybe, if you have the money..." Lancelot grinned in the manner that only the greedy can.
"I might have something..." Tengeri trailed off. Bad idea, she couldn't stop thinking in the corner of her mind. Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea what are you an idiot. Tengeri ignored herself, producing from her storage unit an oddly-glowing purple fragment of crystal.
"Oho! What's this?"
"It's a... fragment of chaos? I haven't been able to analyze it, but... Maybe it could help catch the Fool off-guard." Tengeri was starting to listen to her doubts about the whole thing. Infusing a weapon connected to her body with unanalyzable chaotic matter? That had to be the stupidest idea she'd ever had! But... the nature of chaos is its unpredictability. The Fool could easily see a god-killing weapon coming at him on its own. Maybe the chaos would throw him off enough for her to strike the fatal blow...
Everything suddenly seemed a whole lot more real to her. She was actually going to take on a god.Could it really be done? Was the merchant's definition of gods very different than her own? It was impossible to tell. But she had to try.
"...Well? Shall we get started, or do you want to keep staring off into space?"
"Um... Yes. I'm ready." Tengeri slammed her eyes shut. She was afraid to watch what could have been the last moments of her life. She winced with each blow of Lancelot's hammer, with each string of incomprehensile syllables he uttered. But then it was over.
"Done!" the merchant announced, wiping the sweat from his brow. Kavali cracked open a couple of eyes. She wasn't dead at all, unless the afterlife was inhabited primarly by sweaty overweight mammalian entrepreneurs.
Tengeri held the manipulator up, shaking it around. Still worked fine, although the metallic surface glowed a gaudy goldish-purple. It didn't even stop her from switching the end to different tools. Analysis of the system, of course, proved inconclusive. She didn't feel any different, so she was ready to call it a success.
"...Will it still vaporize anything it touches?" Tengeri was a bit worried about that. Especially if it extended to retracting the thing into her body.
"Well... it's a weapon enchantment. If it's not in a weaponized form, it should be fine! Of course, I take no liability for other assorted incidents. Best of luck to you, and be careful!"
Tengeri grimaced as she put her new weapon away. She breathed a sigh of relief when every particle in her body failed to explode at the speed of light. "...Thanks. I hope it was worth the trouble."
Suddenly, the entirety of Ruinam shook as if struck by something massive. The lights in the hidden shop flickered.
"What powers this place?" Tengeri asked Lancelot as the fortress leveled out.
"It's powered by... hm. Some sort of flux core, I believe. Fairly standard mana-based power for a fortress like this one." As he explained, the merchant quietly flicked a switch below the counter. Behind him, his personal teleportation device began powering up.
"Right..." Tengeri set her scanner to display power conduits in the walls. With any luck they'd lead her right to the source. "Thanks again," she added, floating off through the false wall. She didn't want to leave. She didn't want to risk getting killed after she'd gone through so much. But, for all she knew, if she didn't act quickly the whole fortress could explode, taking everyone inside with it.
"No problem," he replied with a grin. At the exact same moment, he heard a loud ding from the machine behind him. And so Lancelot Mortimer Veritas Garland waited. There were supposed to be some heroes in the fortress, but they hadn't shown up yet. He'd give them another ten minutes, but that was it. Didn't want to be around when the whole thing inevitably fell from the sky.
What did it matter, though? She was going to get them out of there. All of them. Except, hopefully, Scofflaw, but she'd worry about that later. All she had to do was get a "magic" weapon and use it to kill some higher lifeform who fancied himself a god. A "Meta-Dimensional Entity", as the NSC called them. Extremely powerful - to the point where mortals could have no more effect on them than a single bacterium could have on a mortal - but not necessarily invulnerable.
In all honesty, Tengeri had no idea how the second part was going to work. The Fool could just teleport them around or paralyze them at will. How was she going to take him by surprise? Hell, he was probably watching her every move, reading her every thought. She didn't have the resources to do this alone. As far as she could tell, she had only a telekinetic fieldful of people she could get help from.
One: Tor. Even with his expertise, though, Tengeri doubted he had the know-how to distract a semi-omnipotent being for more than a few insignificant fractions of a second.
Two: TinTen. He scarcely seemed more likely than Tor to be able to assist. What was his expertise, anyway... weapons? He'd probably be willing to help, but that was hardly enough without something more substantial.
Three: Velobo. Velobo? Tengeri wondered why she even entertained the idea. Sure, he somehow managed to interface with an ancient gauntlet of unspeakable power which was activating similar technology across the multiverse, but... Did he know how to use any of it? Doubtful.
Four: ScoffNO. Tengeri didn't want to continue with that thought. No matter what Scofflaw was capable of, he was a disgusting bastard who deserved nothing less than death, as he'd demonstrated numerous times. Recent kindness be damned - all he really wanted was to use her for his own ends. She wouldn't entertain the idea any further. Besides, maybe the weapon would create a diversion on its own.
Speaking of which, Tengeri looked up to find herself floating before the false wall once again. Hopefully the merchant wouldn't give her another incredibly dangerous task for a seemingly insignificant item. There wasn't time for that. At any moment, her final hope could be snatched away from her by situations out of her control.
"Just stay alive, dammit," she mumbled as she floated through the non-wall.
"Don't worry, I'm quite alive!" called the smiling face of Lancelot Mortimer Veritas Garland. He eagerly continued, "Have you brought the feather?"
Tengeri glared in silence as the purple-pink feather floated from the containment unit and placed itself on the merchant's counter. She was still pretty pissed about the fact that she'd almost gotten killed for a goddamn feather.
Garland held the feather toward one of the lights mounted in the ceiling, squinting. He eventually placed it in his pocket, apparently satisfied. "Yes, yes, that will do quite nicely. Should add another ten years to my life!" He laughed. Tengeri didn't join him.
"That is sufficient payment, I hope," she eventually posed.
"Well... I suppose I should save some tasks for other shoppers, although business isn't quite what I expected it to be."
"You expected a lot of business on a floating doomsday fortress?"
"It comes with the trade. Anyway!" The merchant clapped his hands. "I think I have just the thing for you."
He promptly kneeled under the counter, which, as Tengeri noted, contained a link to some sort of pocket dimension. Possibly a storehouse, she guessed. Eventually, the merchant emerged, holding in his hand a dirty gold spear, whatever lustre it might've once held long gone. Tengeri stared, unimpressed, as her sensors tried and failed to make sense of the readings from the weapon.
"The Deicide!" Lancelot exclaimed, beaming. "An old favorite of mine. It's served several generations of heroes in their fights against assorted forces of darkness, and now I pass it to you, uh... I don't think I caught your name."
"Tengeri," she curtly replied.
"Tengeri! Most excellent. Not every day a cybernetic Leviathan comes shopping. Now, then, for the love of whatever Gods you're not interested in viciously murdering, do not touch the pointy bit. And, naturally, generations of use hasn't left it in... the best condition. I'd advise against overusing it."
"You think I'm just going to swim around murdering everything in sight?"
"I was hoping," he sighed. "Well, you paid, so here it-"
The merchant was very rudely interrupted by the sound of gunfire. He took cover behind the counter as the various potions carefully arranged on the shelves began to shatter. He cursed under his breath as Tengeri joined him behind cover, blue-green blood leaking into her waterfield.
"Just grazed. Nothing serious," she mumbled, wincing in pain. Garland, meanwhile, took advantage of a momentary pause in the firing to hurl the nearest weapon (in this case, the Deicide itself) through the false wall. A scream of pain echoed for a fraction of a second before it was silenced.
Of course, Lt. Matthias Leblanc hadn't been expecting a god-killing spear to the face. He and his squad had a fairly simple mission. Murder some kind of merchant that had somehow thought that an ancient flying fortress full of patrolling soldiers was a viable business venture, and take whatever legendary weapons he'd brought with him. He had smirked. Maybe he'd even keep a little something for himself. Who would know, right? It'd make a nice bonus on top of his meager payroll.
Even the announcement from this "Greenman" fellow and the subsequent checking of their pay scrolls didn't deter Leblanc and his two squadmates from their goal - hell, it gave them even more incentive to take out the merchant. They would divide all the loot amongst themselves, they decided. That sounded nice. No need to get involved with the revolution they were sure would break out among the other troops.
Anthony Cavallo, the best gunner on the squad, could finally pay for a cleric to heal his ailing mother. His desperation had led him to join Midday, in spite of her complete insanity. The scrawny Nikolajs Koridze, always hopeful for the future, could finally pay for an education in painting. He'd always said that things were gonna change soon. That he'd make a better life for himself. Even Leblanc had never wanted to join Midday. What he wanted was to go off on his own, to see the world, to be one of the heroes told about in legend. But he'd never had the money to get away from his hometown, until Midday's troops gave him an opportunity. All he wanted was fame and fortune.
Instead, he got a glowing spear to the face. Anthony and Nikolajs looked on in horror as Leblanc's entire body collapsed into nothingness, barely able to scream before they were rent into dust and the dust into a mass of unrecognizable particles.
Tengeri hesitated. No gunshots. No noise whatsoever. Slowly she swam from behind the counter, cautiously poking her head through the fake wall. She found no sign of any attackers, save for some scraps of fabric and some twisted bits of metal that might've once been machine guns. No blood, no corpses, no mess - just the Deicide, broken into several pieces, head buried in the wall.
"Shit," Garland muttered as he emerged from the wall. "This, uh... This wasn't supposed to happen."
"Let me guess, that was your last Deicide?"
"Unfortunately so. Could I maybe interest you in something of equal or lesser value?" The merchant struggled and ultimately failed to pull the spearhead out of the wall.
Tengeri thought for a moment. "You did say you could 'enchant' a weapon to have similar properties."
Lancelot sighed, resorting to hitting the spearhead with a large hammer. "You know, I was going to charge you a million more gilderupees for this, but..." He tossed the hammer aside, then carefully reached into the cracked remains of the weapon. "I guess there's no talking you down. Enchanting it is, then."
The merchant carefully drew out a small, glowing orb, apparently made of [analysis failed] and brightly glowing with [critical error]. Without another word he headed back into his slightly-damaged shop, followed by the floating serpent.
"Did you have a weapon in mind?" The merchant motioned toward the rack of variably outlandish weapons on the wall behind him. Giant swords comprised of unrecognizable alloys, crossbows which could fire at several times the speed of sound, a really nice violin... Tengeri had no clue how to use any of them in a way that wouldn't ultimately get her atomized.
HYP-01: ACTIVE flashed Tengeri's mechanical eyes as the tentaclesque manipulator made its way out of her back. The end of the manipulator fashioned into a large spike (designated use: climbing), she laid it on the countertop. "Will this suffice?"
Lancelot studied it contemplatively. "Hmm. Yes, I believe that will be fine. I've never tried this potent an enchantment on cybernetics before, but I doubt there'll be any side-effects."
"You doubt there'll be any side-effects?" Dammit Tengeri, she scolded herself. This is a stupid idea! Are you trying to get killed?
"Oh, I doubt it'll do any harm. Might even make it more potent! Ha!" The portly merchant looked down at the manipulator for a few seconds. "Hmm."
"Hmm?" Yeah, trust this guy. That'll end well.
"You know, it's been a while since I did this kind of enchantment. I could add more reagents than just the Deicide's core, if you happen to have any on hand. Er, lack of hand. Or, maybe, if you have the money..." Lancelot grinned in the manner that only the greedy can.
"I might have something..." Tengeri trailed off. Bad idea, she couldn't stop thinking in the corner of her mind. Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea what are you an idiot. Tengeri ignored herself, producing from her storage unit an oddly-glowing purple fragment of crystal.
"Oho! What's this?"
"It's a... fragment of chaos? I haven't been able to analyze it, but... Maybe it could help catch the Fool off-guard." Tengeri was starting to listen to her doubts about the whole thing. Infusing a weapon connected to her body with unanalyzable chaotic matter? That had to be the stupidest idea she'd ever had! But... the nature of chaos is its unpredictability. The Fool could easily see a god-killing weapon coming at him on its own. Maybe the chaos would throw him off enough for her to strike the fatal blow...
Everything suddenly seemed a whole lot more real to her. She was actually going to take on a god.Could it really be done? Was the merchant's definition of gods very different than her own? It was impossible to tell. But she had to try.
"...Well? Shall we get started, or do you want to keep staring off into space?"
"Um... Yes. I'm ready." Tengeri slammed her eyes shut. She was afraid to watch what could have been the last moments of her life. She winced with each blow of Lancelot's hammer, with each string of incomprehensile syllables he uttered. But then it was over.
"Done!" the merchant announced, wiping the sweat from his brow. Kavali cracked open a couple of eyes. She wasn't dead at all, unless the afterlife was inhabited primarly by sweaty overweight mammalian entrepreneurs.
Tengeri held the manipulator up, shaking it around. Still worked fine, although the metallic surface glowed a gaudy goldish-purple. It didn't even stop her from switching the end to different tools. Analysis of the system, of course, proved inconclusive. She didn't feel any different, so she was ready to call it a success.
"...Will it still vaporize anything it touches?" Tengeri was a bit worried about that. Especially if it extended to retracting the thing into her body.
"Well... it's a weapon enchantment. If it's not in a weaponized form, it should be fine! Of course, I take no liability for other assorted incidents. Best of luck to you, and be careful!"
Tengeri grimaced as she put her new weapon away. She breathed a sigh of relief when every particle in her body failed to explode at the speed of light. "...Thanks. I hope it was worth the trouble."
Suddenly, the entirety of Ruinam shook as if struck by something massive. The lights in the hidden shop flickered.
"What powers this place?" Tengeri asked Lancelot as the fortress leveled out.
"It's powered by... hm. Some sort of flux core, I believe. Fairly standard mana-based power for a fortress like this one." As he explained, the merchant quietly flicked a switch below the counter. Behind him, his personal teleportation device began powering up.
"Right..." Tengeri set her scanner to display power conduits in the walls. With any luck they'd lead her right to the source. "Thanks again," she added, floating off through the false wall. She didn't want to leave. She didn't want to risk getting killed after she'd gone through so much. But, for all she knew, if she didn't act quickly the whole fortress could explode, taking everyone inside with it.
"No problem," he replied with a grin. At the exact same moment, he heard a loud ding from the machine behind him. And so Lancelot Mortimer Veritas Garland waited. There were supposed to be some heroes in the fortress, but they hadn't shown up yet. He'd give them another ten minutes, but that was it. Didn't want to be around when the whole thing inevitably fell from the sky.