⇨ EDEN PT. 4 (FINALE)

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 89
Where: Eden
What: The Mirror is taken by the carnival, and several people from the carnival have been taken by Lilith. As Eden's Architects take sides, the battle for Eden's future is set to reach its conclusion.
Warnings: Violence.

INFINITE↴ When the Silver Mirror is taken, the war truly begins. Lilith had seen fit to take her time, gloating over the enemies she perceived as being no challenge to her power - only to sense the moment that the Ringmaster claimed the Silver Mirror and took the skies in challenge. The Ringmaster has taken on her half beast form, black scaled, winged, and horned, and wielding the Silver Mirror as some kind of shield. Only moments ago, she used it to blast a whole clear through the cathedral. Lilith, realizing her mistake, has swept up the darkness created by Bezaliel and begun using it as a weapon against the Ringmaster. She has six silver wings that reflect light like mirrors, as well as strange, geometric horns. Ostensibly, part of the Silver Mirror's magic has been taken into herself, which means that even though the Ringmaster has the Mirror, Lilith still has control over it. She scatters the prisms containing her prisoners across Eden while she counters her foe, drawing on their strength to aid her. Two godlike beings clash in the sky above you. On the ground, a war begins. What do you do? ► FAE VS NEPHALEM: While all of this is going on, the Ringmaster and Lilith are essentially fighting over the Silver Mirror in the sky. It is all very cyclical and unending, and just as outrageous looking as it sounds. They both currently have some degree of hold over the Mirror right now, which means the advantage is wildly vacillating between the two of them. You probably don't want to directly interfere with this, but who knows? Maybe you'd got something really cunning up your sleeve. ► EDEN'S ARCHITECTS: In the aftermath of the Silver Mirror being taken, the Architects of Eden are being forced to choose sides. At first glance, it would appear that Saraqael (wolf), Samyaza (hare), Araqiel (stag), Penemue (raven), and Armaros (spider) have chosen to fight with the Furies of Eden in an attempt to cast Lilith out for good. Bezaliel (bear), Shamshel (tiger), Azazel (crocodile), Chazaqiel (eagle), and Baraqel (stingray) have, alternatively, chosen to defend Lilith, and are attempting to convince as many Honorables to follow in their path as possible. Gadreel (dolphin) and Kakabel (axolotl) seem to be uncomfortably remaining neutral for the moment and seeing how things play out. Not all Honorables or Scholars have followed the choice of their Architect. Many have been pulled one way or the other regardless of their kind, and are generally being accepted into the fight on their claimed side. You can NPC conflicts with random Honorables, but not the Architects. To interact with those guys, you need to do an investigation. ► PRISM BREAK: All of the carnival members that attended Samyaza's garden party (except Herbert) have been captured by Lilith after falling prey to a trap set by Bezaliel. Each of them has been trapped inside mirrored prisms that are now scattered around hard to access areas of Eden, defended by both Honorables supporting their maker and by mirror eyed dopplegangers. The infinite reflections of the characters inside the prisms are being fed on by Lilith, and she is tearing out as many of those reflections as necessary to do her bidding in the meantime. Each reflection is functionally a magical clone with no true will of its own, but will be able to fully mimic the emotions and powers of the characters they're taken from. They serve Lilith above all. Each reflection spawned from a prism take a fraction of their host's spiritual energy with them, meaning the more clones that are spawned, the weaker the real version will become. The more powerful a character is, the more energy each reflection takes to make - so if you have a character with lots of powers, they will probably have something like 1-4 dopplegangers spawned, while characters with few or no powers will be going completely quantity over quality and spawn potentially dozens of mirror clones. Clones shatter and vanish when destroyed, though the prisms will keep spawning new ones until the captive is set free. Captives, it's your job to NPC these clones. Captives will have no idea what's going on outside of their prism besides the abstract idea that these reflections are being harvested from them, and that's bad. The mirror clones will be attempting to protect the source prisms from disruption, as well as generally trying to destroy all enemies. NOTE: all captives will have returned to their natural forms by now (IE are no longer animals) and their clones will reflect this. Those missing "darkness shards" from their chest will also have had those returned. ► EDEN'S FURY: The Furies of Eden are striking back against Lilith at last, and it turns out a lot more of them have lingering rebellious ideas than previously though. Those that take up the cause of the Furies will be fighting on the carnival's side, so you are free to NPC some allied Honorables as well. You can also use the Investigations section to interact with named rebels, if you want, or to get an idea of what they are generally doing. Another potential avenue of investigation is trying to get the Serpent out here, as she'd be undoubtedly a powerful ally if cured of her curse. You might need it. Now that they know of the fae, the Honorables and Lilith-supporting Architects have no qualms using iron again you! They will be utilizing iron in all possible weaponry. ► NEW, CONFUSED, OR BOTH: Did you just get here? Did you fall behind and now you're terribly lost? Don't sweat it - let your character be as confused as you are. Take the opportunity to make top levels asking other characters what's going on in-game, or check out the original setting info post to catch up. The short version is this: the carnival wanted to steal a powerful artifact called the Silver Mirror from Lilith, which was stashed in her realm called Eden. They did just that, and now Lilith is back and she's pissed!

Comments

I feel like have to counter crotch icon with butt

[exaomori]

In the near future, Shura might regret trying to come to Shima's aid. Certainly, the pair rabbits laying prone to the side probably regret going up against whatever they encountered. Still in her lion form, Shura's tail flicks from side to side. Fighting like this was going to be a pain, did she really have to get involved like this--

She doesn't expect her vision to fade suddenly, and she growls. Whipping her head around her doesn't really help without being able to see, but at least she can still hear. There are at least three of them, coming at her. This would be a lot easier if she just had Fang. But she doesn't, life sucks as a lion, and she might be in the mood to vent out just a little of her frustration.

So have fun, Shima clones. She's going to roll to the side to dodge the closest one to her, then kick out a back leg to thump one of the other ones. If she takes care of this noise, she'll be able to see again, right? Probably.

If only the clones had half the appreciation Shima'd have

[worldlyafflictions]

Most likely! The problem with the clones is that Shima without his familiar is basically just a decently trained teenage boy. He's got the addition of a few annoying powers but they're not particularly offensive and the element of surprise is likely already wearing off. Getting kicked around by a full grown lion is actually A Lot for a human.

Unluckily for Shura, there are also a lot of Shimas. A few more notice that some are tangling with someone that is definitely a threat if left alone and come to join the fight.

Too bad they probably will not go to a world with mandatory nudity

[exaomori]

She really hopes that she broke a few clone bones with that hit. It's hard to judge just how much force she put behind that kick with her sense of touch dulled, but she's not going to be pulling any punches like this. But hey, still better than running into Yukio who goes straight for the kill. So long as the clone isn't getting up, she won't bother to finish the job.

Not like she can, anyway. There are just too many of clones for her to really focus on getting some satisfaction from playing whack-a-mole with them. She'll swipe with her paw when she thinks a clone is near enough, maybe even try to take a bite out of one if one of them is dumb enough to get that close to her face, but it's mostly dodging for her. Sheesh, what a pain. If she could see a bit better, she'd just run straight to the prism. Unfortunately, navigating new terrain in a still unfamiliar form in the dark is difficult, even using her nose. The clones may not be strong, but there are enough that one of them might get a decent shot as she tries to make her way to the prism. Whatever he hits, the real Shima best be prepared to make up for the damage his clone does.

[worldlyafflictions]

At least with touch dulled that also means that whatever strikes the clones land with their staffs, she can probably shrug it off and power through it no problem. That's a problem for them though since the whole point of shutting down some of her senses was so they could get a finishing blow in, but Shura's putting too much effort into dodging for them to get a clean hit. Changing strategies, they suddenly all back off as one of them tries to summon Yamantaka. Shura will hear the chanted sutra but if she tries to jump in that direction other clones will block the way.

Unfortunately for them when the demon appears, he scoffs at the idea of following the orders of reflections with no will of their own, wasting no time in slamming down his many hands on top of the clones and blasting them with hellfire.

Shura's vision will return just in time to see a bunch of reflections shatter and disappear. Yamantaka turns to her as he starts to fade too, the source of his summoning destroyed.

[exaomori]

Loss of touch and adrenaline running, it's a recipe for disaster. At least Shura has enough sense to tell that the dull thuds she half-feels are probably not a good sign and that she probably shouldn't be getting too stupid. So it's a game of dodging and striking out all while trying to make it to the prism. she can do this. She can do it, she just has to be careful. At least, that's all she has to do until they suddenly stop coming at her. Her first thought is that something bigger coming their way, more along the lines of another Honorable. But though Shura has never heard the sutra for summoning Yamantaka, she knows damn well what the clone's trying to do. What the crap, she can't take on that kid with his demon like this!

It's time to come up with another plan, especially since the clones are smart enough to block her from getting to the one doing the hard work, and the best Shura can think of is run like hell to the original Shima in his prism.

And then her vision's returning? She didn't hear anyone approaching. But on seeing Yamantaka, Shura has the feeling she knows what might have happened. She couldn't think of many demons that would be happy to be summoned by a bunch of mindless clones like this. Even Hachiro wouldn't like a mindless army of Tatsukos probably.

In another situation, she might throw out a brief thanks, but this isn't really the time and Yamantaka doesn't really strike her as the type to enjoy platitudes in the middle of a fight, so Shura's just going to book it towards the prism unless she's stopped by something else. Breaking it might be a problem like this, but if there aren't any branches or other convenient items to break it, she'll just try to body slam it. It's not normal glass, right?? She'll just be careful-ish about it.

[worldlyafflictions]

"You'd do well to free him before he runs out of spirit to fragment," the demon warns as his form dissipates entirely.

All the clones that had been coming have been taken care of but another one seems to be forming, budding off the prism like a blob of light. Slamming into the prism disrupts it's formation a little bit, the prison vibrating enough that Shima inside can tell there was some kind of impact--though she can't hear any of his attempts to communicate. It doesn't look like that's enough though, it'll take at least as much force as breaking a concrete block, and of course this thing is magically hovering so there's no way to drop it to break it open.

Luckily there are likely all sorts of art tools and things around that Shura might be able to grab. Construction does require large tools for Honorables without the specific Talent for building, after all. The structures here are definitely pretty new, surely somewhere nearby there's a construction site with a sledge hammer or something.

[exaomori]

Why are demons like this??

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He's already gone when she grumbles back, grousing to herself. This was completely not what she signed up for, saving the stupid spy's rear end, especially not when Rin was in trouble. She'd have to trust Rin to Yukio for the time being, hope he wouldn't get in over his head or do something stupid. After she freed Shima, she'd go to them.

But there's her problem. Just how was she supposed to go about getting that spy out of there? Slamming herself against it does little more than disturb the prism, only leaving her shoulder sore. Ugh, this kid better be grateful.

It's going to take her a moment to make a plan. Shura may not be the best schemer, but she can figure a few things out. Without the clone Shimas messing with her vision or other senses, she'll be able to track down a half-finished gazebo, or maybe it was really a half-destroyed gazebo, considering the tools hanging around. Shura won't question. A hammer was a hammer, and there were even a few that were adapted for animals that were lacking in the opposable thumbs department. After picking up a couple of hammers and feeling (and looking) incredibly dumb holding them in her mouth, Shura makes another quick decision. If there were hammers, then there would be nails. Something sharp and hopefully made of iron. It doesn't take long to find a few long, rather dangerous looking nails. Sure, stabbing her left paw with the nail had its own risks, but she's not really worried about tetanus. Changing back to her original form was going to make things a lot easier now that everything had gone to crap. One quick jab to her paw, and it works like magic! Well, yeah, like magic.

Everything seems to be working out well enough for her, but all of this takes time, and every minute counts in a fight like this. A heavy hammer in one hand, some extra nails in her other hand now bloody, Shura just wants to smash the stupid prism before another clone spawns or some Honorable tries to take up the fight, even if it means throwing the stupid hammer at the prism in a pinch.