melodiesoflife | Endgame || Apocalypse

Entry tags:

Endgame || Apocalypse

Characters: Anyone
Where: Pandaemonium
When: March 05th
Summary: The first phase of endgame begins! The Heroes of Light are on their way to deal with Garland as they’ve left their unfinished businesses in the hands of their friends amongst the NPCs. How will it end? The mingle threads shall not be modded, only The Guardian will be modded. Please do not start individual threads for The Guardian, reply in a single thread. Starting from now on, the game is officially in endgame. Please do not post any new posts on Mognet or in the Log Community, unless they’re backdated to before this event. The second phase of endgame will be posted once The Killer Of World thread will have been unlocked and completed.
Warning: ̩̼͋ͬͅ.̷̳̗ͦͣ͐ͭͣͬ̈́ ̤̙ͫ̉.̨̯͖̗͓̥̭̣̂̄ͣ̏ͯͫ ̶̼̻̳ͫͧͥ̆.̭͎ͮ͂ ̳̤͓̖̫͌ͪͥ̄͗̐̌.͚͍̀ ͈̻̠̥̜ͦͦ̆ͨ͋.̼̹̹̠̟͚͎ ͙͇̲̘͖̉̌̒͂̈ͮ.͇͙͑̍̽ ̪̭̹̤͓̯̜ͦͣ̒̾͆͗ͦ͟.̝̯̲͗͊̽ ̛̙͌̈ͤ̚.̪̮̰̘͚̏ͦͤ ̲̼̺͓̣̝̐.͗ͨ͜ ̧́̑̄ͥ.ͬ͊̋ͣ ̝̠͍̭̯̽.́ ̊̽̈.̡̥̖̣͓̬̠̰͗͑͂ ͍̭̩̝̉͊̑̃̓ͤ̇.͆̔̀̈́̐̋ ͇̬̤̲͉̜͙̓̍ͦͯͤͥ̔.̯̻̺͔̰̞̙͋͡ ̻̼̣̮͖̮̋ͬ.̖̝̞ ͕̦̙̞̹̲̖̓̃.̌ͯͯ͟ ̺̘̪͊̊.̲͖ ̧̼̙̋ͦͧ̂́̑͑.̷̼̬̭͔͙̹̫ͦͧ̔̄͐̏ͫ ̱͎ͥͥ̈͝.̲̣͖̪͓̯ͩ̓̈̿ͧ̅́ ̪͈͚̺̦̝͎̒ͦ̇̚.̂̆ͯͦͩ̃̀̀ ̬͕̼̆.͎̃́͐̄͒̑ͪͅ ̠̳͎ͬ.̛̭͓͗͌ͪ ̴͉̱͉̘̯̟̔͐.̫̣̥̔͑͛́ ̝̭̤̜͖͎̙̈ͪ̿̓ͯ͂̚.̟̲̥̥͈̭̳̈̋ͥͦ ͔̩̈͋͐͗̚.͓̝̼͍̈ͧ͊ͅ ̥ͥ.̷̬͍͙ͥ̓͋ͅ ̪̯̠ͨ́̂.̱̙̘̫̰͕͈̎̓̊ ̧̻̃̎.̬̇̄ ̘̣̺̼ͯ͋̀.̯ͬ ̆͗͆̆̋͝.̴̞͖̫́ͬ͌̉̍̿ ̪̹̥͙̑ͅ.̵̻̮͓̉̃ͯ͑̊̈́̚ ͚̽̒̚͘.͇̮͇̻͍͈̠͂̓ͣ̀͡ ̩̠̖̋.̺͎͈̦̺̈́ͮͬ͌̋ͧͩ ̳̠͕͙̎ͩ͜.̛̆ͥ̒͑ ̘̠͓͚̱͗͜ͅ.̢̠̠̥͍̬̂̊͋͊̂̄̐ ̦͛.̰͚̫̱͙̩̅̓ ̲̜͌̒ͭ͑͠.̠̆̈̏͆̉ ̰̹̳̻̥̮̬ͨ̍̐̆͗ͫ͜.͕̥͔̳ͩ͞ ̣͓̥̑̍͊̽̄̀.̳̘̭ͭ̔̎̍͜ ̟̞̯̏.̙̯̦̞̱̘ͬ͐ͩ ̯̠̣͉̪̅̅ͣ́ͅ.̡͗̍̿͊͐͊ ̲̙́̽̽́.̝̟͇͈͚̿͝ ̑͜

Mingle Thread
The Guardian
The Killer Of Worlds

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, please, who wants a world that boring?!"

This was almost like what Merlina wanted, but where Merlina wanted Camelot to live forever, Kalki wanted a world that did the same. And honestly, Sonic found it boring.

"No cycles, no life and death, everything would be plain and boring! I like the unpredictability of the world now! The people I've lost and gained shaped who I am! They shape who we all are! Besides, how can we offer alternatives if everyone treats us like we're idiots!"

He brought the foot of his Armor down, shaking the platform somewhat.

"I get it - you were hurt by us failing to save us. You think we're nothing but blood-thirsty people willing to do anything to get home. But that doesn't mean you should go down this path. I'm giving you one chance to back down. If you don't, then I'm gonna have to stop you."

As Chaos receded and the broken, tired out soul of Garland was left behind, it seemed that Sephiroth would quite contentedly have let him to his own slow death.

Even as others soon gathered around where Tear was holding Akane, it seemed that he experienced great difficulty in ripping his eyes from the scene of the two of them even if he -as Masamune was lowered- wasn't positioned all too close. Almost as if he were staring at how she still struggled to keep a hold on life despite the odds stacked against her, spellbound by the compassion that others were delivering. It ached deeply in his chest yet Sephiroth was also paralyzed from assisting. A larger-than-he-liked voice of logic in his head told him that, like Garland, it would be kinder to put her out of her misery at this stage.

The commotion that erupted around Garland, however, shocked Sephiroth from his stupor and once tightened his hand around the handle of the seven-foot long katana he took steady steps away and back over towards where Garland had fallen. For some reason, he felt a distinct lack of emotional reaction towards Parasraya's actions, as her revelation was made and her frame melted into one he recognized only in a second as Kalki one uncomfortable thought quickly surfaced; in so many ways, he had always found himself in reluctant agreement with her logic.

Though he brought Masamune back up and loosened his posture so that it might be ready to pounce back into battle once more, Sephiroth found his drive to do so had been blunted. Hadn't they just proceeded with exactly her instructions from right at the very beginning? Garland lay dead, the cycle halted and now...indeed...he had no alternative.

"I believe-" He started, an involuntary shake to his voice as he got close enough to be in earshot was swallowed back before he continued. "-I expressed the last time we spoke of such things. Without life and death, existence is nothing. You would give all Worlds to the void."

He knew it. He knew it, but it didn't make it any easier. Minato clasped his eyes shut. Conceding with a sip of a potion in honor of the fallen avatar in front of him; knowing he still had many Heroes to patch up, Minato had no time to grieve. His voice shakily croaked out, and Minato raised his face, sadness showing through his formerly empty eyes: "It isn't fair."

"It wasn't fair to Garland, and it's not fair to you--these fates you were born into. One life is hard enough, without going through them multiple times over." Minato stood up. "I've known Death. Death has been with me since I was seven. And what I learned was... as much as I didn't care whether I lived or died, or if the world crumbled around me, I'd been pushing people away all this time; I was foolish. I lived life as if I wasn't alive, because I hated the way people looked at me, as if at least their life didn't suck as much as mine. I hated sadness, I hated anger, I didn't even want that cheap imitation of kindness, so I embraced nothingness instead."

He drew something from his robe, a red armband he had brought in honor of his allies back home who wanted to fight against all odds. Minato never, ever spoke this much. Figures it had to be when he didn't know if he'd come back home alive. He begins to slip it onto his left sleeve.

"When I was forced to help others and be cared for in turn--even if I didn't know how to react... but I needed that wake up call. I learned life is precious, with every step deeper into danger, and friends lost. In my world, despair had awakened forces beyond mortals to end this existence so many in the human race hated. What I'm seeing before me is the opposite. You want to save everyone, which is noble in itself, but... can't you hear yourself? Erase everything, and pretend that making an imitation will suffice?"

Minato frowned. "Look... You could've started already attacking us, but you haven't. So you're curious in what we have to say, aren't you? Help us, to help you. Tell us what can be done that isn't destroying everything there is."

His hand remains on his armband. "Please. I don't want to fight you."

Ales had come into the battle prepared to kill Garland, by acting as Parasraya did if need be. They came to end the cycle with certainty, but to hold back on their actions. He would have thanked the psychiatrist that he had visited with regularity, the woman who had comforted him after the Sage's vision if she had used any other attack. The attack was unfamiliar with him, but the fact that it belonged to an agent of the Calamity gave cause to alarm.

The puppet's gun arm did not rise.

This was Kalki, the woman who sought to control the Heroes. This was Parasraya, the woman that looked out for them. There were many people in Ales' life that offered comfort, but if this was for the sake of the world, could he shoot her? He can send men to kidnap Betilla, his only friend in the Glade, but it wasn't the same as shooting her.

Kalki wanted to save them. She was willing to make necessary sacrifices, isn't that what Palitutu said?

For the first time in a while, Ales didn't know what to think.

"Paras--, no. Kalki. How much of your help was genuine concern and how much of it was to prepare us to accept our Shadows? You're the one who helped me last year. Was that only an act?"

Selphie accepted that fighting and possibly killing Garland was necessary but this? This just felt wrong to her. Kalki was the one who jump started the Calamity, she knew that much from the reports, from what she'd learned over the past year. The hilt of her sword shakes as she wrestles with the conflict of what to do or say. There were countless others who had put their thoughts together more eloquently than she probably could have. It didn't have to end like this did it?

Regardless, Selphie shook her head and cast a pained look in Kalki's direction. There was no time for regrets or despair in the eyes of the perky brunette as she lowered her sword somewhat. What could she say? What could she ask? There was really only one thing on her mind as she levelled a flat look at Kalki instead. She was exhausted and couldn't find any reason to trust this woman who had started everything.

"What about our friends? What about our allies? Doing what you want to do won't bring them back. And what's wrong with rebuilding this world that we live in? I'd rather try to fix what's wrong here than start over..."

And as everyone goes for the Friendship Speeches (TM), Deadpool is...

Walking over to the edge of the platform. He sits down and gazes into the abyss.

"This is it. We're gonna die because everyone would rather try to Power of Friendship when it hasn't worked any other time." He says, dejectedly. "We could be whittling down her HP, but noooo, we gotta deal with the Yu-Gi-Oh Heart of the Cards crap."

He turns back to the others. "Are you guys happy?!"

A woman and a crystal, they struck more fear in Rikku than Chaos had. Every world had its nightmare.

With time the Al Bhed had come to believe the woman's actions were born from fear and sorrow, reminding her of people back on Spira. Sometimes the biggest monsters were people who did bad things.

"This plan of yours -- you hurt a lot of people for it."

Gloved hands are clenched tightly to give her courage to speak. Unlike a number of the heroes voicing their disinterest in eternal life, Rikku can see the lure. She's a big fan of life in general. The latter part tugs at her heartstrings. It sure seemed like people who ought to stay dead had a bad habit of sticking around while the people one cared about were lost.

Kalki had already sacrificed so many, horribly to get to where she was. What she proposed, it was always wrong. There's just that brief moment, where the thief could not help but imagine everyone gathered happy and safe around her.

"The universe isn't some machina you just get to reprogram. It's rough sometimes, but you don't just give up. You don't sacrifice people let alone the world, that's not acceptable! You were, a hero once. Is there, any of that left? What we have left may be small and struggling and dying, but don't just give it up! You're supposed to be fighting with your claws out for this world not destroying it!"

"We've already shown we can succeed without your help," Levy added, stepping forward to lend her voice to the crowd. "You thought we would need Melodies of Death to defeat Garland. We found another way."

Never mind that Kalki herself was the one to strike the final blow, but Levy's reasonably certain someone in their group would have done so eventually.

"And we've found another way to deal with the Calamity, too. A way that doesn't involve sacrificing anyone."

She sends a glance Jade's way, knowing he's the one who's largely been spearheading that research. It might be incomplete, but it's the best chance they've got at this point.

Santa pushed himself to his knees, groaning in pain. "Man, I am not doing that again." Which was totally a lie. If he needed to, he'd pull that same trick in a heartbeat.

He didn't give a single shit about Garland or Parasraya or rallying speeches or any of that. He crawled toward Akane to examine her injuries. It didn't look good for her. A quick glance around confirmed that Duster and Nanami hadn't shown back up, either.

"Can we hurry it up? We got to get Akane to a hospital and look for the others. We ain't got time for this crazy bitch."

"I suppose this is the last chance I get to thank you for your help," Aang said. "When you first guided us away from Aquares Tosef. But I still don't understand why our group was brought here? And why we could die when the others couldn't. And why so many of us did die. And, well, this may be the last chance I get to ask this, since, even if I don't want to kill you, a lot of people do and I can't stop them."

He did want the people they lost back. But Aang had spent years learning that people die and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Well, then, it looks like I have the chance for a rematch. It is a good thing I have learned from our last encounter, Kalki." Tazendra can't help but agree with Deadpool: so many people here have worked so hard to kill them, that she doubts diplomacy will work. Still, it does not bother her to let others make the attempt. She can be patient.

Jade nodded faintly to Levy. However, Kalki must have been present when they had faced Palitutu. Surely she already knew of their plan... and apparently it hadn't satisfied her. He wasn't sure he could really blame her for that. There were still many uncertainties involved.

Honestly, he had been just about ready to fight the moment she had revealed herself, until Jack and the others had gotten in the way. The odds that she'd back down after all this were pretty much nil. Putting aside their doomed meeting in Aqures Tosf, the two times Jade had met Kalki left him with an image of a woman whose resolve was utterly unshakable.

...No, make that three times. He had, after all, met the original Kalki in the last cycle, through Professor Nebilim's eyes. It had been easier to think of doppelgangers as completely separate people, but that wasn't a notion he could truly believe in anymore. That meant the woman standing in front of them had, in another lifetime, been a friend to his mentor.

It wasn't reason enough for him to care about her in the least, but it wasn't a reality he could ignore, either. It also meant that if Kalki remembered her previous life, she may well have heard the exact words he was about to say.

"All living beings will eventually die. All things must come to an end. It is precisely because there is a limit to life that people are capable of change. Because they know everything will end someday, they change. And because people change, they can live."

He smiled glumly. "You may call us foolish, or desperate, or whatever you like. You may even be right. But you should realize why your design stood no chance of ever satisfying us from the very beginning."

He'd let others speak if they wished, but Jade wasn't so sentimental that he'd miss this chance to recast Gift of Crystallis while he still could. Idealistic speeches were well and good, but you had to appreciate certain practicalities.

Edited 2017-03-13 00:52 (UTC)

Sheena had split her attention between the conversations and the condition of those around her. Many were being treated for their wounds by their comrades, and spotting a familiar face, she Dualcast Zelda's Gift on both Vincent and herself, healing whatever wounds she could and giving them both a boost in the barrier department.

Once done, she turned to Kalki and shook her head.

"You know, you didn't answer my question about being the one who spoke to us in the Rift when the ability to come back after death was taken away. It might have been you, or as an avatar, you could have asked the Calamity itself to speak with us and take that away. And for what? To scare us away from fighting because we don't have that ability anymore?" She laughed. "In case you haven't noticed, it didn't work. We're still fighting, and we're still accepting our own mortality."

Glancing around, she continued. "Yes, we fear death. We fight against it, rail against it, but each one of us knows that Death is a part of Life, and why we live each day the best we can--or the way we want. Which is how it should be. What your proposing takes away that freedom of choice. That freedom of life. Of living." Her eyes narrowed, and she glared at Kalki.

"What you want to do is make a world where people have no soul or heart, where everyone is a Lifeless Being merely existing in a stagnant world, never to appreciate the world that could be just by being alive." She stopped to take a breath.

"To quote a friend, 'Dying is easy. It's living that's hard.' But damn, is that hardship worthwhile. And I chose to fight for that hardship, that work. Can you say the same thing?"

"It is a balance that must be maintained. A pool of stagnant water breeds only sickness."

Rukia's words were not the harsh rebuke she might otherwise have given. In the vision of the sage, Rukia had been the one to adopt Kalki's plan. Though there were large gaps that remained enshrouded in fog in her mind, there were other parts she remembered very clearly. She recalled the sharp and poignant ache of losing the first person she had ever dearly loved. It was a pain so deep and so raw, it gave rise to a reckless desperation, and a determination to do anything...anything...to get him back. It went against everything a soul reaper stood for and valued, but in that vision, there was simply no other reality for her.

"I stood where you once did. Hurt that my motivations were not trusted...saddened that the people I counted as friends would rather take my life than let me try. The one person who supported me died to defend my convictions, and there was nothing to be done but press forward, so her sacrifice would not be in vain."

She took a step forward, her face serious. "But the fault did not lie in them. I lacked the faith in my friends to fight back against all odds and believe in their success. I had made the wrong decision. The souls of the Calamity must be healed, not harnessed! Your plan would see those souls forever trapped in a broken existence. No one person can tame that entity. It will absorb you, and it will continue to consume everything."

Vincent was still disoriented, post his transformation back from his limit-break. But he'd had enough presence to find Sheena, and vague memories of what had happened seen through his own form of Chaos' eyes. The smart thing, and he knew many others were ready to do just that but for respect of their comrades, would be to kill her and be done with it.

But right then, it was easier to focus on the smaller things going on. "Sheena." Quietly, left hand with wicked-claws careful as he touched her arm. He'd appreciated the healing, and he agreed with her in some ways. They needed answers--and his friend had asked a very good question. But in some ways even that answer was irrelevant.

For now though, he would simply help steady her. It would help steady him too.

Natalia had little reason to feel much in the way of compassion or understanding for Kalki's plan and motivations. She'd only been a part of this world for a few months. As such, she said nothing to try and persuade her, for there was little she could suggest that the others hadn't.

But she did feel a growing sense of unease and danger. Kalki's convictions made her dangerous, her intentions even moreso. Tear was badly hurt, and the white magic they were using didn't seem to be enough to heal the damage that had been done.

She gave a sharp nod at Santa, agreeing with his sentiments no matter how crudely put they might be. "I'll keep you both protected," she promised as she rose to her feet, casting Camouflage over the little group. If this did erupt into a fight...and she had a strong feeling that Kalki was not about to back down for a heartbeat given that look in her eyes...then the injured would fare a lot better if they couldn't be detected. She drew an arrow from her quiver and held it to her bow, but didn't yet raise the weapon. It was just a precaution...for now.

There was more menace in the dark, whispered pulses of the crystal over Kalki's hand than Kenshin had seen in all of Chaos' brutal magic. His head leaned slightly back, hoping for some cool wind to dry the sheen of sweat upon his brow, but none came. In Kalki's eyes, he saw a power against which even Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū had never been tested.

But it was his hope that, somewhere behind that power, there was someone who could yet be reached.

He offered his voice to the others', as soft as it could be without being lost amidst the pleas. "Miss...Kalki? This one can offer no easy solace to the pain you have surely known, to lead you to such a decision. He, too, knows what it is to desire the way of things to be redone. He does not fault you for wishing so."

Kenshin was not still as he spoke, moving step by step with sword in hand into a careful angle amidst the Heroes' party. At present, the ones called Tear and Akane were at the foremost of his thoughts. They were still not wholly recovered from Chaos' grievous assault. Whatever else Kalki intended, Kenshin made sure to position himself in step so that any line of attack directed at either of the injured women would have to pass first through him. His body would not prove a truly stalwart shield, but it was offered nevertheless.

"But you will find no answer lies to you at the end of such a course. To bind life and death is not something that is tasked to you. Whatever power you have discovered, it is not meant for you to use to such an end." Though his eyes kept their frown, Kenshin willed a smile to his lips, and his off hand rose from the hilt of his sword to offer invitation. "Give your trust to us, Miss Kalki, and let us seek a better way, together."

Cloud could feel the voices, feel the hearts of everyone around him. They may be floundering in the dark, but he had no doubt that they were heroes. Every one of them. Even Deadpool. Though he wouldn't be surprised if he stayed his attack because Jack implied he'd be the first to do it.

"Kalki. Different things drive our lives, and nothing is as easy as we hope, but death can push the living to act. The..." His voice hitched a moment, thinking of a particular crystalized hero again, "The torch gets passed. Even if the living aren't ready for it. That's how life works. That's how the world moves on." He gestured out around them, "Crystallis needs to move on. Whether this planet lives or dies, it doesn't matter. The cycle needs to end, we all agree with that. That's why you sent us down this path."

He started walking forward, putting his sword back on his back but then deployed his shield once more. "The difference between us is that we keep trying to find a way for life to continue. Everything we've done was to try to save as many people as we could, knowing full well it wasn't possible. But you've taken the path of torturing the living, and leaving the people of this world to be consumed by one death or another when you could be using your knowledge to help."

He stopped a moment, taking a long breath, "You could have come to us openly from the beginning. You could have worked with us instead of trying to manipulate us. We could have tried to find the alternatives together." He smiled sadly, "At least, I hope you could have. I really do hope that with all you've done that it has been your choice and you're not the Calamity's puppet...I guess there's only one way to find out." As long as all of this was her own free will, that meant she had the ability to surrender.

That floating black crystal really worried him.

Time to be a hero. Time to be stupid.

He ran forward, right at her, raising his shield but making no other aggressive action apart from his clear intent to try to provoke her. Maybe if he was lucky, he was thinking, she would relent and let herself be subdued.

He smiles slightly at K'pandolu's offer. "I'm okay for now, thanks." He's really not, but right now both of their focuses should be on the woman in front of them. Jaune may not have been around during Kalki's days, but he's read the files, and the world she's talking about? It doesn't sit well with him.

The blond makes no move to attack, but raises his shield defensively, just in case his Limitbreak is needed - he can't take another hit and he knows it. He glances around at his fellow Heroes; while many of them look better off than he is, they're all injured and likely exhausted from the battles so far; quelling this one would be best. He's not certain, but he can only think of one reason why she would want to create the type of world she was looking to.

"Kalki, I know you don't know me, but I know what it's like to be afraid of dying, and I know the pain of losing someone you care about." He hopes, he really does, that Pyrrha did survive the fall like some speculated, but he can't know for certain. And he knows that the utter feeling of despair that he felt when she was suddenly thrown off would forever haunt him. "I understand why you'd want to eliminate that pain and make a world without it." He takes a deep, shuddering breath, trying to steal himself. "But there are some things that you just have to accept, and death is one of them. We all lose people. And at first it hurts. God, does it hurt. But you have to keep moving. It's what they would have wanted."

It's what Pyrrha would have wanted.

He closes his eyes, shaking his head slightly, the words close to home. "You don't have to do it alone, though; you have friends, even here. Let us help you, and together we can find a better way to end this."

Akane was only scarcely coherent of what was happening around her. Voices seemed muted and distant, as if her head had been plunged into a barrel of hot water that dulled everything else beyond the small circle of worried friends into an indistinct murmur. The healing magic had ensured that she would not die, and coupled with a stubborn willpower of her own not to ever give up on her goals, survival seemed likely.

If they were able to leave this place, that is.

She took comfort in the pressure of Tear's shoulder against her cheek as she panted for breath. Would that she had access to the morphogenetic fields, she could at least see the different histories that branched out from this moment, the way the world would soon be shaped based on the decisions made by these people at this exact time and place. But her powers were still denied to her. She couldn't even make use of the jobs she'd equipped, unable to speak or gesture. Her fingers twitched at the feel of someone's hand gently grasping hers, instinctively trying to hold back if not for the shattered bones that dug into her muscles.

However, there was yet one thing she could do with her very limited energy and awareness. At her side, the air rippled, and a second Akane appeared with a ghostly glow around her. The illusions she had at her disposal still worked, as far as she could tell, and she used that to communicate the feelings in her heart.

I'm okay, her illusion nodded once with a small smile. It's hard to speak or move right now, but I'm hanging in there. Don't worry about me! Just finish this fight and do what you need to do to save our worlds.

With that, the image faded as her concentration broke. She wasn't even really sure the fighting was finished; all she knew was that something felt incomplete, and she really couldn't put her finger on what that was.

"Not everything needs to be set in stone. I don't need a plan right away but I can guarantee whatever I come up with it's ten times better this this void you're trying to create. Better do what we can in the here and now than think about what our future would be like.."

He takes another step forward, "Even so, your response was lack luster. Just because you want things the way you want it doesn't mean everyone here has to agree. You're talking to a group of Heroes who have more at stake than just their lives and worlds. I can't account for the various types of things we carry but it's more than what you're making it out to be!"

Everyone was saying the same thing and he -- he didn't need to repeat everything. He was against it and he would fight all of this until the end. The feelings of everyone matter. He understood what Kalki wanted but he wasn't okay with it. He's even more unhappy with the fact that she was taking this too lightly. This was not a small matter. Life and Death, and an existence in a sort of limbo where death wasn't possible and bringing the dead back. He honestly believed the dead should remain as they are, dead. He didn't want them to be subjected to pain or sorrow.

He takes another step, his sword gripped tightly in his arm over his shoulder.

"Plus, if you really care about all of us here, you'd work with us and figure out something together instead of trying to do things your way. Nothing will go your way. I'm not letting it happen. I'll die trying if I have to."

Well too late for that since he saw another fellow Hero going at Kalki but nothing was done yet.

Edited 2017-03-13 05:44 (UTC)

K'pandolu nodded at Jaune, not convinced but willing to let it slide for now. If they were lucky, they might avoid a fight… But Kalki seemed set in her ways.

She shook her head, eyes narrowed. "So this was your desire," she said, and pursed her lips. "What you saw- it convinced you of this, did it not? A vision, perhaps, of calamity unfolding- mayhap even Calamity upon Calamity. To allow such to overtake you, and then take over it from within- if makes a kind of sense. But this- I can only think such power would warp whoever tried to hold it, and that… is no kind of life at all." Nael van Darnus, and all that had happened there. "Our answers may not satisfy you- but we must try."

Her eyes widened as she saw Cloud's movements, and she started forward, ready to support him as best she could.

Lust had stirred faintly when she felt Flynn approach her. For a moment their eyes met, and beneath the marble veneer she wore, there was perhaps a glint of appreciation, followed by the smallest nod of acknowledgment. Like the others, her attention finally moved to Parasraya, but her detachment to the situation couldn't have been more obvious.

That is, up until the moment that guise melted away to reveal the woman who was responsible for summoning her to this world...for putting them through months of hell that whittled away at their numbers after being abandoned...and possibly for killing off so many just when they thought they'd reached a sanctuary after enduring so much. Lust's eyes were wide and completely fixated on Kalki. She was frozen in place, unable to hear anyone else's pleas or threats, unable to even glance at Flynn who stood beside her.

Under other circumstances, perhaps, she might have been grateful to Kalki. She was the one who pulled Lust out of her world from the clutches of an unmourned death and placed her in a mortal, human existence. But her hatred ran deep, and her grudge was no easily forgotten. People she'd felt the stirrings of affection for, like Badou, had been ripped away from her. She'd been put through hell in her struggles to survive within a body to which she was not accustomed to having, denied her powers and fitted with abilities that were entirely foreign to her.

Kalki had tried to use them...kill them... Lust's glare darkened ominously as she lowered her head and narrowed her eyes.

Suddenly she was moving. The elevated heels of her black armored boots beat a rapid staccato as she dashed straight for Kalki. Lust's slitted eyes were burning with malice, her ebony sword yanked from its sheath. She didn't shout in rage, or even so much as snarl. Instead she arced through the heroes, disregarding their attempts to talk her down. It wouldn't work. And Lust knew...knew...the emptiness and eternal longing of an existence where she neither lived nor died. If this woman thought to rob her of this life she'd fought so hard to claim as her own...!

There were things he'd never spoken about, things his Calamity Self had only begun to share with those who had been present for the confrontation, regarding his past. Yet as he stood there, listening to friendship speech after friendship speech, his blood boiled in his veins. Memories flooded back, images of torment and anguish and entrails and Light please make it stop-

"If you think that's what's best, think again," he stated, a hint of panic tainting his voice. "No way in hell can any of us allow that to happen!"

A girl's voice humming such a sickly sweet tune, toys placed in one place suddenly appearing in another location altogether, their advocate being devoured before their very eyes-- Empty halls and empty chambers, stark white disguising the decay. Yes, yes he could see why it would be appealing, to bring back the dead, and yet... he can't. It's too vivid, the tormented faces of those he'd both known and hadn't known, tormenting him from beyond the grave. Souls that had been fractured, lost, unusable and fragmented for the devices - reduced to dark shades of their former selves after their World's death.

He couldn't wish that fate on any, which was why he had so strongly advocated the healing of those souls lost to the Calamity. That this woman wanted a fate worse than death itself for all caused him to want to scream until his throat was hoarse, but he refrained - if only barely. No, that wouldn't help anyone now. Even as he harshly shouted through gritted teeth.

"I've seen what that kind of life does to a person - a little girl, forced to take upon the souls of all those in her world, twisted by her newfound immortality to the point she repeated the same mistakes others had done to her to countless worlds. Timelines and universes that ended because of her insatiable loneliness and curiosity for something new than a stagnant existence! You think for one second anyone in this group wants that?! To be driven insane to the point of willingly committing the gravest sins imaginable?!"

"I've had my share of learned helplessness at the hands of those who would play at gods over others' lives and souls. Of watching idiots play into the hands of people like you who have fallen so low into the darkness that you see no way beyond what you have been able to grasp in the shadows." With that said, his the anger and hate for his former captors fueling his rage even further as a similar darkness seemed to weave its way around his body, transforming his armor, reactivating his Dark Mode.

"May the darkness take you once more, your name and those who would defend such a pitiful existence be remembered as those... of a recusant."

Using his Dark Corridor ability to swiftly make his way through the crowd, ignoring the brief flicker of pain - for now it only seemed to blend together with the unheard screams of his very soul - he lunged forward with blade in hand. If Cloud couldn't reach the Black Crystal, he would at the very least aim to slice off the hand that held it aloft. Whether he had to go through the meatshield that was Jack or not.

Saori shot Ardyn a look for holding her back at just throwing this giant sword at Kalki, but that anger quickly turned to fear. Which may have worked in the man's case or else she would've smack him with the hilt of Garland's sword.

No. She might've possibly lost Mary but if she lost her son, she'd never forgive herself. She cursed herself for not getting to Ira was before he jumped in, pushing anyone who was in her way.

"Damnit, IRA!" She threw down a smoke bomb to help close the distance and to land just to the left of Kalki and Jack but now with a clone at her side. In one hand was Garland's sword, and the other was hers. In her world, the manipulation of souls is perhaps the greatest offense anyone could commit. To see something like it in this large scale was therefore unforgivable.

There was a high chance Kalki might use another multi-targeting move, so she cast Transience to be ready to counter it. Meanwhile, the clone followed after Ira, ready to grab him and get him to safety if things went wrong. "I doubt even the gods of judgment will give you an ounce of mercy for what you've done."

Edited 2017-03-13 09:03 (UTC)

Sonic and the Black Knight spoilers

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