Irongutta seemed flabbergasted that Nia didn't know what he was. "Ya really aren't pullin' my leg on this one, lass? Never 'eard of an Ork in yer life? Zog, I really must've wound up in the sticks... er, no pun intended."

Her going on about the kind of firepower the Rebels were packing, however, lifted his mood greatly. "Now dakka is a language I know well! A movin' fortress sounds roight up my alley. I'm sure they'll end up usin' it against us, but don't worry, I could probably repair wotever damage you lot do to the poor thing!"

At Sequoia's lake, he watches with awe as the great beast, Bar'kwakh suddenly rises from the lake. "Well, this just got more interestin'!" He then spoke to the group in general, asking a question. "You lot think we could make it respect us?"

Before he moves, he notices the Piggo has actually followed him. "Aw, didn't think ya would stick around. Guess I might as well keep ya, eh? I'll 'ave to sit down and think up a good name later, but I guess Piggo will do fer now." He gives Piggo a warm pat on the side before returning his attention to the matter at hand.

He moves to F16, consumes the Green Egg, and then finishes his movement at G15. He then uses Skeletal Toss to move Boshi over to the relative safety of F16.

Piggo will sprint all the way to H11.

(RP Stuff Here if I get time.)

Auth moves to F14, and casts Hope on K18.

Calibri moves to D8 and casts Double Illusory Trap, summoning the secretly-a-bombs at C6 and F6, right in the most annoying places for a chairian legionnaire trying to move in. He then retreats to E10. Might as well use the mana well.

Zedros flies to J14. If the unidentified creature Venia threw to M14 is indeed the NaCelestial, then Zed hits it with a TwinJolts.

<ROUND NINETY-NINE>
Nezira and Chloe have a delightful talk while a battle rages on around them. Nezira goes on in-detail about her backstory. Chloe seems fascinated.

CHLOE: ...There are parallel earths? Earths with MAGIC? Why couldn't I be on that Earth? That'd be awesome!
CHLOE: ...
CHLOE: Anyway, you're like... a universal historian? That sounds pretty fun, actually! I mean, maybe not the whole "getting absorbed into the book" thing, but still!
CHLOE: Ah geez, you must've been all the coolest things! Could... could I take a look at the book? The way you're describing it makes it seem enticing...

Chloe takes a moment to think as she awaits her response. Then, before Nezira can say much, Chloe's eyes light up for a moment.

CHLOE: Oh! The book! I assume it doesn't have this planet noted down, right? I'm guessing that's why you're here!
CHLOE: ...Or are you here for answers to the whole absorption thing? I mean, I wouldn't want to spend all eternity in a book either, even if it's really neat...
CHLOE: Anyway, it's been nice talking with you, Nez!

Chloe would go back to minding her own business, but a spray of bullets whizzing by her head promptly causes her to remember that there's quite literally a war unfolding around her. She clings to the railings of the bridge, trying her hardest to take cover.

---

Venia then words harder. First, she compares Nia's condition to a cancer while mulling over it.

NIA: A-Alright.
NIA: If... If it is a cancer, just sorta wreaking havoc on my body, maybe it'd be better to do it now?
NIA: But uuuugh, I really don't want you rooting around in there...

NIA: ...
NIA: W-With how gross I feel just thinking about this, I'm surprised the Butterfly hasn't spoken up or anything.
NIA: Anyway, see you later? I wanna fight alongside Chloe for once! It'll be fun, in its own, weird way!

Nia skips off towards combat, like there's no brain parasite in her... brain. Venia takes a moment to sneak a few words to her gauntlet...

GA'AUNT: Do it.
GA'AUNT: The Butterfly won't wait. When it finds it opportune, it will strike.
GA'AUNT: While perhaps you might want to progress with your plans first, I'd advise doing this as soon as possible.
GA'AUNT: And, awful as it sounds, you might need to do it should she be unwilling.
GA'AUNT: Better to make her mad than to have her succumb to the Butterfly's allure.

Elsewhere, Mr. Krabs approaches some alternate Chloe at some time before the battle. She asks for her help on fortifying the house.

CHLOE: Hm, sure!
CHLOE: I have enough technical know-how to rig something up.
CHLOE: See you in a bit?

Mr. Krabs goes off to collect and place some sandbags. He uses up 2 charges of the Titanium Lumber Axe to collect wood for the bags, which are then placed around the house. He then tosses together 20 Titanium Ingots, 10 Durasteel Ingots, 30 Wire Scraps, 5 Joltwires, 5 Throwlem Crystals, and a Goddess's Servant charge. This results in 5 Tesla Turrets! He places them around the house, near the sandbags.

...Moments later, there's the sound of splintering wood on the lower floors. Mr. Krabs heads over to investigate, and finds Chloe... and a hole in the wall. Next to her is what appears to be a hybrid of a crank-operated coffee grinder, a somewhat wobbly metal tripod, and a long metal barrel. With built-in sights. Chloe eventually stops coughing long enough to down a quick swig of water from a canteen. She then stands up, and happily presents whatever this mishmash of parts is.

CHLOE: S-Sorry! I-I had it ready for demonstration, b-but I bumped it a little hard and it fired...

CHLOE: Anyway, ta-daaaa!
CHLOE: I know it doesn't look like much... a-and I apologize for not nearly as good a tinkerer as my brother.
CHLOE: It could use more plating or just general stability, b-but I'm pretty proud of what I have here!
CHLOE: I'll just... drag this outside.

For such a flimsy looking device, it's strangely heavy. It takes Chloe a moment to haul it out the front door, and set it up out front. She grabs a Uniform Log from somewhere, and plants it a couple dozen meters away from the weapon.

CHLOE: Okay, so background!
CHLOE: While experimenting with various ways I could make a defensive thingy, I learned that crystals react pretty violently to pulses of electricity!
CHLOE: The full crystals are structurally sound enough to stay together when exposed to low amounts of it... but crystal powder! It reacts INCREDIBLY violently!
CHLOE: It's a bit like a gunpowder explosion, and you can sorta contain the energy, too! CHLOE: If you have... say, a sturdy (and stupidly heavy) durasteel barrel and a blast chamber... you can focus that energy, and it shoots out as a laser!

She gestures to the durasteel base of the weapon.

CHLOE: This here holds the blast chamber, and helps focus the laser! I also installed a simple trigger that sends a pulse of electricity to the blast chamber.
CHLOE: There's also that hand-crank there, which you can use to create your "ammo" of sorts. You can then feed it into this hopper, which'll spew out bits of crystal dust every so often into the blast chamber!
CHLOE: This creates like, a rapid fire blast of lasers! I then stuck a tripod to it so it'd actually be possible to aim, and... ta-daaah! Laser machine gun, by yours truly!

She fires a salvo of lasers at the distant log. While it's somewhat inaccurate, and actually pretty slow firing for a machine gun, the log simultaneously freezes and splinters upon taking a laser. The next laser promptly shatters the log handily.

CHLOE: It might not be automated, but if we're holding down the fort, I can see this being pretty deadly!
CHLOE: I hope you like it!

Laser Machine Gun added to the house! It is awaiting deployment. Mr. Krabs then makes a quick call to Glitch Temmie, asking about the Lucid Hunt and such.

GLITCH TEMMIE: Ah, h0i there.
GLITCH TEMMIE: Lucid was a tough foe, but thanks to a liberal application of coffee and the overwhelming force of Miss Elem and the Operative, Lucid went down.

Krabs then asks for data on Experiment 15. Temmie nods, as visible through the Mindscape Radio's screen.

GLITCH TEMMIE: Certainly. However, this might take some time.
GLITCH TEMMIE: I'll need to mobilize some Temmies to go and check out the house. I'll also make a house call to Miss Elem's residence. However, the two were decently injured in the fight- or at least, Chloe was- and she might not really be in the mood.
GLITCH TEMMIE: Poor girl. The couple was having a hard time wearing down Lucid's shielding, even with all of our support. She got impatient, and threw everything she had at Lucid.
GLITCH TEMMIE: While she managed to smash right through Lucid's shielding, the poor girl took quite a beating in the process. After the battle, the Operative needed to carry her off.
GLITCH TEMMIE: These monsters you're facing seem to be quite the hurdle. Do be careful, alright?

GLITCH TEMMIE: I'll get to you with the data soon, one way or another. Just be sure to call me later, alright? My staff will then surely relay you the information.

Elsewhere, Maria notes to Chaos that she's not allowed to talk about what happened to her before coming here. She does however note that she's a pretty princess with kitties.

CHAOS: whaaaaa[t]
CHAOS: wha[t] am i mean[t] [t]o do [t]hen? make original [c]on[t]en[t]?
CHAOS: as if

Maria's kitsune guardian then notes that the Glorious Head of House Hemmors and Emperor of Arterium some guy has given her permission to talk freely about Maria's backstory.

CHAOS: i[t]'s no[t] gonna be fun if you say i[t] [t]hough
CHAOS: why no[t] like, au[t]horize maria to speak abou[t] i[t] or some[t]hing
CHAOS: wha[t]ever i'll jus[t] like
CHAOS: [c]ome up wi[t]h some[t]hing
CHAOS: for s[t]orytime
CHAOS: be[c]ause [t]his is wha[t] i do now
CHAOS: apparen[t]ly

Chaos promptly pulls out a rather large looking storybook, and a comparatively tiny pen.

CHAOS: okay i need a promp[t]
CHAOS: some[t]hing to wri[t]e abou[t]
CHAOS: qui[c]k gimme some[t]hing

geez this post took too long to process

---

Irongutta then talks with Nia. He shows surprise at Nia's apparent lack of knowledge at his race's existence.

NIA: I mean... I don't really "get out much", if you know what I mean by that.
NIA: So, you're an Ork? I mean, I assume you're not like, a fantasy "dumb meaty orc" type. What do you guys like... do?
NIA: Uh, like... the Chairians can manipulate wood. What do Orks do? Wait, do you guys do anything fancy? I always assume that alien races have this sort of special ability to make them different from other alien races...
NIA: Eh, whatever. You're certainly pretty cool, though!

---

<SEQUOIA'S LAKE, ROUND THREE>
It's started to rain! Make use of the weather to absolutely obliterate your foes! Just watch out for the Storm Robes, who are more than capable of abusing the new weather conditions. Also, Mr. Naclestial's here now! Say hello to him, and the army of Blossom's he's called to the stage. On a more grim note, Terry has died, and watching him die has sorta put Chloe into a bit of a shock. She'll be actively attempting to flee West, unless calmed down.

<VS ACACIA, ROUND FOUR>
...Acacia is not okay. Apparently, fire and Chairians don't mix. Who could've guessed?

It's quite possible to end the battle early, if you want. It's already a pretty decisive victory with both the healer and the DPS out of the way. Alternatively, you could push in, and finish the battle. Shouldn't be too hard.

As everyone else streams towards the fight at Seqouia's lake, Simeon starts to trail behind, until he just stops, right in front of a burned Silverwood tree.


"So, should we do now?"
"Why don't you try contact someone in Chaos' Mindscape?"
"Yeah. Good idea."
Taking out the Mindscape Radio, Simeon turns it on.
"Hello? Anyone here? Could I please speak to Nia?"
--------------------
LATER:

Mockery, how funny. You shall be carved like a chicken at a feast.

Destiny then sees Terry get slaughtered. She chuckles a bit.

Psh, what did you expect-
Oh, Chloe, child, do not fear, If we do this fast you won't get burnt to bits! You just have to move fa-
You know what I'm gonna give up trying to be the nice goddess, I don't do that, I train an order of assassins for crying out loud. Just don't run into the enemy like that fool did and you shouldn't turn into a pile of ash like that guy. We can probably bring you back from the dead either way.

Destiny runs to M13 and hookshots to K16. She keeps the daggers in Bar'kwakh and attempts to pull her daggers around as if she was trying to restrain a horse.

Reminds me of the time we accidentally made a giant.

"Mr. Stark I don't feel so good."
Terry t-poses into the water, then bursts into Roblox R6 character body part bricks.

The Battle of Sequoia's Lake

"Don't worry Chloe... Terry's fine. We're immortal. We don't fear death, for we know that we will be alive at the end of the battle"


The turret fires what most likely shall be its last salvo...
It fires at the Chemist, the Stormrobe happens to get hit in the cross fire.
(+20% Damage from Trait, Target Chemist, T.Bounce to Stormrobe)

The Calvary thunders across the field charging straight at the Chemist!
(Move to H4 then lunges at the Chemist ending at H3)

Calvary1 was not alone. Calvary2 appears at H4.
(Trait activation)

He circles around the Chemist, moving to J3 and stabs the Chemist in the back.
(+20% damage from trait)

I quickly move closer to the frontlines, where ironically it's probably safer for me. I hurt the Blossom 1 a bit.
(Move to G11 then attack Blossom 1)

Teag runs up to J10 and blasts the SaltDestiny, the shot somehow turning 30 degrees inside its body and also hitting the Assassin.

Toast's hailstorm moves to D4.

Toast decides to take Marron's advice and be assertive. Before she makes any rash choices, she looks up the codex entry. Nearly immediately, she has a thought that maybe it won't respond to overconfidence. This makes her unconfident. Realising that she is now unconfident, she regains her confidence in her ability to tame it. However, this makes her think that her attempt will be unsuccessful, providing the side effect of reducing her confidence. This leaves her confident that she is ready.
"Hey!" she shouts, recalling info from the Codex, "You're the type to respect the worthy, right? How's this for 'worthy'?"
Boosting herself into the air with a cantrip. At the apex of her jump, she hovers creature. It doesn't matter if it can't understand English(?), it just needs to understand pictures. Open palm, she thrusts her crystal hand forward, towards its forehead. In that instant, she transfers snapshot memories of her more epic moments on Sussui: Striking fear into a group of rebels with illusions, cracking a hole in space with her portal, standing against two Legion detachments on her own... that sort of thing.
Whether she's successful or not, she tries to catch its neck and using her falling momentum to swing around onto its back. If that fails, she'll probably fall.

"...!"

Calibri, abandoning his initial idea of taking some time to recover his MP, sprints to M11. He seems a little exhausted from charging that far, but he'll be ready to resume doing things next round, probably. For now, he turns to Chloe, noting her state of distress and saying a few things to hopefully help her keep calm.

"Well... I suppose that was to be expected. He kinda overextended. Good thing we've got several people on hand who can bring him back..."

Beat. Calibri sighs quietly, then continues talking. His voice seems to have gained the sort of edge that one would expect from a military commander, not a guy in a hoodie.

"Anyway. Real talk, Chloe. He's gonna be fine the moment someone decides to cast Resurrect. Even if nobody does, he'll still be back after the battle's over. I know it looks quite bad right now, what with him... going down that quick, but I assure you, it's fine. Far as I can figure out, nobody of our number are really gonna stay down, so it's not just him who'll live through something like that."

He breaks off from talking for a moment, just taking a good look at all the potential threats nearby (namely the Naclestial and the rebels), then turns back to Chloe.

"Truth be told? I'm fairly sure that even applies to you... But, well. That won't be necessary. You're not going to die. Not if I have anything to say about it. Hell, you've been doing brilliantly so far. Better than my track record on this planet, even though you've fought more battles here. So, uh."

Calibri chuckles in a rather lighthearted manner.

"Have some more faith in yourself, Chloe. And if that's not enough, you're probably quite welcome to call on any of us to help out. I know for sure I'd answer in a heartbeat, uh, is that the right phrase... Probably is, heh. But yeah. Point is, you'll be fine, I'm sure of it."

Beat. He glances at the Naclestial for a moment, then turns back to Chloe again.

"I wouldn't worry much about that guy, by the by. He's already been driven off twice before. Maybe third time's the charm and he'll stay away after this bout. Or maybe he'll come back again... in which case we'll just beat him again. Honestly, at this point, that guy's just a sad joke no matter how many times he comes back madder."

By the power of square open bracket h r square close bracket, I have the power!

---

Venia sees the NaClestial rage.

"...Pfffffffffff"

Venia laughs.

"AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAA!"

Venia nearly forgets she's having to swim here as she clutches her side from laughter-induced pain, rancorous chortling at the NaClestial's sheer existence unceasing.

And then, it is swiftly broken up by a sudden case of blurring in the water, which took the wind out of her sails instantly. As she shakes off the blurring noise, she hears Chloe's voice. She thinks for a second.

"Don't worry, Chloe! We're... We'll protect you, I promise you that! We did it at the bunker, we'll do it here-you can stab him yourself, get payback! You can fight him! You can fight this!"

She briefly contemplates her own statement.

"OK Nia's actually going to do that for you, but, point stands! Why fear death when you have so much more to fight for back there? Why are you scared of dying when Nia could be mentally devoured by that Butterfly, or when Xavier could be exhausting himself to his certain doom, or when Marron or Toast could drown from a misstep? They're looking to you, Chloe! You're here to be their hope! You can't lose sight of that... I mean, come thegorilla on, he's literally just Xavier when he's angry at a game. HEY, NaClestial!"

Venia shouts at the salty Iti, waving her arms.

"Noob! You've been beaten by the same people three times and you didn't even get me to come out of Mr. Krabs!" Venia shouts. "That's right, you can't even kill a defenseless camper! You're just a weeny little bronze boy playing public to hide his rank, and a weeny little bronze boy you'll stay!" Venia shouts. "I'd take that horn of yours and mount it on my wall, but why would I want the horn of a weeny little bronze boy?!"

Venia waits for Toast and Irongutta to move so the Yggcrawler to her north is out of the way, either from being tamed or being literally moved. She then moves to I12, casts Skeletal Toss (again; also remember Enligthened, Ire!), grabbing the NaClestial again, and this time moving him to M17. Damage doesn't proc, as Venia hasn't moved him far enough, so Venia figures that another session of waterboarding is in order.

Several hands form out of the main skeletal hand, each considerably more smaller, as all of them converge on the NaClestial's big fat mouth. Instead of gripping onto any logical grab point, the sheer mouth that thing has is ripped open, its tongue grabbed, and the NaClestial dunked into the water in this unorthodox grappling position only possible due to magic, forced to drown even harder than before. It'd be easy for it to get out of if it had hands that weren't massive claws that could theoretically cut itself in the process.

Venia's Hat pings Bar'kwakh in the face. If it is still there because Irongutta didn't move it, Venia then uses her Stunning Glove on the 3rd Yggcrawler to stun it into inaction, though if it isn't there she saves the charge. Either way, Venia herself tosses the lone Itisa Grenade into whichever Yggcrawler is at M16, hopefully bursting open into 2 Seekers that will then die of Glacier Drop. Then she retreats, activating Guiding hand to jet herself to H10.

"Nia, uh, do what you gotta do, then let the Glacier drop!" Venia shouts at Nia. "Bar'kwahk is actually kind of being a really big fat menace so we kind of need everything we've got on getting it to consider us worthy!"

---

-ACACIA DUEL-

Venia sighs as she realizes Hex mildly overdid things. "... Wattle, I'll have you know I only allowed that because we knew Acacia would survive the blow. Either way, though, this fight is over, whether or not you wish to acknowledge it. As proof..."

Venia moves to I16, gesturing to Marron to move to H17 and gesturing to Keiko to revive Acacia-you did read that right-on H16. While alive and completely healthy, and also in plain sight, she is also surrounded on all sides and unable to attack except through the world's most inefficient Aerobeam, and only Marron would go down.

After Keiko revives Acacia, Venia speaks up, her glare upon Acacia's body as cold as ice.

"...Acacia Aneura. If you seriously think you stand a chance against us in your current position, surrounded, without the arm-room to even spear us properly, you are very misinformed. The battle is over. Take the fact that Keiko revived you at full strength as proof on the matter. Truth is, I expected you to lose from the very start. You proved my expectations; hotheaded, arrogant, stupid, willing to throw anything and everything into the fires for your chance at power, even your own morality and friends, without a thought."

"... I didn't really mention what would happen if you won, did I? It was a Glyph, the Glyph we stole from the Whispering Library-the first of four we intend to claim to personally stop the sphere, and Spark's plan. It would be un-negotiable proof you did in fact defeat us, or at least successfully manipulated us, and on top of that is an incalculably valuable part of Spark's plan that you personally retrieved. THAT is the only thing we could have done to allow the possibility of you getting back on the Highchair. So, naturally. It's only valid to ask something of equal value in return for your defeat, but I don't think you came here THAT prepared for failure. In fact, I don't think you even considered it for a second, did you."

"I could ask you ANYTHING. If I so wanted, I could pull out a moderately complicated ritual to force your elemental proficiency to switch from Earth to Fire; that would be an interesting punishment, would it not? Fire is a destructive element, easy to channel, and immensely potent against most of the wildlife on this planet, almost perfectly suited to your strengths.. And also, hard to control properly. Near to the opposite of how one would use Earth magic, in principle. You'd be the strongest Pyromancer on all of Sussui, and everyone would be terrified of you as you'd need years of study to properly control the flame. I'm not even sure if you could use your own ability. And I know for a fact that you would absolutely hate it."

"If I so wanted, I could effectively imprison and conscript you to fight for our side, starting right now. After all, we're short-strapped on resources, pretty much all the time; all the manpower and resources we could get would be remarkably useful Your power is one of your few redeeming features as a fighter, and it would be a remarkable asset, as loathe as I am to admit as much. Or, I could force it on, well, anyone else here, Hersilia included. We certainly didn't organize ourselves so thoroughly on just any old cause... Or so desperately."

Venia presses herself against Acacia, closing in on her face. "If I so wanted, I could just kill you. You seemed willing to put your life on the line for this one, after all, might as well follow through, right? You seemed all 'Victory or Death' earlier, or was that just more thoguhtlessness? Totally possible, right now. It'd take just me and Marron. Wattle and Clausa couldn't stop us, and it would permanently end the threat of you exploding on someone and killing them. Or, as mentioned, we could kill her, right now, too, as the cost, and I believe that you would never be able to live with that much."

"You REALLY did not think of the consequences of this, at all. Not once. Not for a second. Not at all. You would never have accepted our terms if you did, not without ordering us to explain, but you did instantly, just to satisfy yourself. And now, here you are, at our mercy, contractually bound to be willing to undergo basically almost anything that I desire. Anything."

Venia pauses for a second, dead still.

...

Venia retreats to J17. This objectively breaks the perfect lock on Acacia's ability to move, the glare, and gets her out of Acacia's face.

"Acacia Aneura, you are free to go." Venia says, relaxing a bit and lightening her voice somewhat. "Absolutely free."

She pauses, taking in Acacia's expression, before continuing.

"I have absolutely no desire to extract from you as the spoils of victory. Absolutely nothing. You and your collected duelists have nothing I can think of that you can do, say, or give to us that can be even remotely worth our group's while, extracted unwillingly anyways. I had no intention of extolling any of those punishments upon you, not even a single thought, except to explain how things could have been. In fact, I do not believe I ever bothered with an idea for what we'd ask of you if we won to begin with until now, ahahaha! Take that as you will. You are free to go at your leisss... Wait! Sorry, no, not yet, I did say I had something for you no matter what, right? I do, two things in fact. A book, and knowledge."

Venia hustles in her inventory for a second, pulling out a book. Its pages are old and tattered but its cover looks brand-new, though it lacks any title to speak of.

"Here, this is yours now. Take it," Venia says, shoving the book into Acacia's chest. "These are Abies' notes on warfare, retrieved from his house and compiled into a single book by yours truly. I do not know what Abies put on his will or anything, but I suppose the ability for someone to carry on his legacy would be nice. I believe you should read it more for the sake of correcting your mistakes than anything else, though. Read through again and again, and understand why Abies strategized the way he did, what he thought was acceptable and what was not, and understand what he was thinking when he made those notes.\."

"If you want my opinion, I stand by my word before; you will never re-enter the Highchair, at least, not as long as Spark's in charge. My most positive outlook on that man is that what has occurred has left him terribly, terribly broken, a miserable wreck of someone that could have been great if not for the incalculable misery intoned upon him scarring his mind, now given the opportunity to exact a terrible vengeance upon his tormentors, and in doing so, become a dead ringer for his most hated enemy, King IKEA... Yeah that was some purple prose right there. Point is he's not reinstating you, as you're a bit of a mar on his whole plan. A plan that's not going to happen, not while we're around to stop him... Or at all, actually, for a separate reason," Venia says.

Venia pauses, breathes a bit. "Believe us or don't, I have to spread the word as to why we're here, doing what we are. I'll pitch the facts with as little irrelevant nonsense as I can, you can ask for the whole mess later if you're interested."

Venia closes her eyes, wiggles her lips a bit, and has to remind herself to cut the tangents. "The Sphere is sabotaged. The Rose Cult-they helped you form it with the Glyphs, right? Well, the Glyphs and the Sphere were the creation of the Rose Cult to begin with. They could prepare for the occasion and sabotage the whole affair undetected. And they did. The Iti are just a symptom, though; the real bad thing they enabled is that they set up the Sphere to release its prisoner in, well, as of right now... It'd be five days. Considering the prisoner, and the Iti they spawn, I'd say that would be the death of all of Sussui, on the spot. We are trying to prevent this outcome on a promise we made to Ire. This is the simplest way I can put things."

Venia pauses, waiting for another reaction to all of that. "Believe it or don't, that's the reason why we're doing what we're doing. If you want details, you can ask them of me... Just be warned, as you are already aware, I talk a lot."

"... I'll be going. If you or anyone else wants to follow, I believe that we'll be at Sequioa's lake. Or, uh, are at Sequoia's lake, time travel is involved, yes." Venia says. "Good, good day."

Venia, if she isn't needed to say anything else, vanishes into thin air, completing this leg of her time shenanigans.

---

Maria ponders Chaos's request for a prompt. "Uhh, Lions, rocks, fruit, uhhh... Giant pizzas!"

Nidra turns to Chloe. It's a bit of an odd effect, considering she's still noticeably asleep. Nonetheless, she begins speaking directly into Chloe's mind.

Hey, hey. He'll be fine. I know that might be hard to believe right now, but just watch. I'm sure he'll be back in the fray within a couple minutes. Magic can do all sorts of things.

Nidra amps up the calming effect on her stuffed koala just a little, then presses it into Chloe's arms.

You'll be fine too. I can't say dying is a pleasant experience, but... well, you'll live. We'll do our best to keep you alive though. Keep each other alive.

She hesitates.

I can't say I usually talk much with, uh, normal people. Sorry if that didn't help.

---

Nidra takes a moment to scan the Cover Trickster.

The Man uses Watchful Eye on L14.

A potion is made: a Burst Bomb made from 5 Brew (because there should be 5 Brew right about now). It deals (19-21) Electric damage.

...

Boshi looks at the Magirifler he just helped. He sneers. "(Normally I'd be beating your gorilla to the high heavens, but I'm feeling particularly generous today. I'll give you a chance.)"

Boshi meditates. On success, gain 2 extra Brew, and the next potion Boshi uses will be a bonus action. He turns to the rest of his allies.

"(Hey, can ya keep that Blossom busy? I'm gonna try something...)"

------

While Had Kid was doing things involving potions, she hears Chloe's crying. She directs Boshi's attention to it.

"(Hm? ...oh.)" Yeah, it's bad. It doesn't seem like his allies were doing a great job, either. Boshi himself was equally as ill-suited to deal with this. That really left only one option.

"(...You know what to do.)"

Hat Kid nods. She jumps off of Boshi's saddle (she'll technically be back by the end of the exchange, because the special isn't able to be used at the moment), and Boshi picks her up. He aims Hat Kid at a decent trajectory, aiming to have her land near Chloe.
...
Launch. Hat Kid goes flying toward the center of the bridge, where Chloe is. She quickly realizes she's going to undershoot, and just as she's about to be level with the railing in front of her, jumps up into the air again and dives over it, landing elegantly next to Chloe. She regains her footing fairly quickly.

She turns to Chloe, and runs up to her, arms held wide open. "Chloe!" She does a very powerful leap, sending her up to around Chloe's height. Hat Kid then does what she does best - be cute and give Chloe a big hug, resting her chin on Chloe's shoulder. Time seems to slow around them, seems they're both in the middle of a freaking warzone.

Hat Kid lets Chloe inevitably hug her for about a minute before speaking up again; "Everything's gonna be alright! I don't like seeing you sad or scared all the time! But it's okay to cry! It's okay..."

Another minute passes as Hat Kid tightens her hug. While some of her allies continue to be humanely bankrupt, failing to see that Chloe's just a normal girl, she tightens her hug further for every sentence they say, as if to protect Chloe. "Please don't listen to them... they don't know you... except maybe him and her--" She gestures to Calibri and Nezira. "--You aren't alone anymore! I promise!"

"We'll get through this together!" Hat Kid repeats the words (paraphrased, of course) that Chloe herself once said to her during their time at the Library, just before Lucid.

After this, she lets Chloe hug her for as long as she needs to, with time slowing to a crawl around the two to prevent any cheap shots from anyone.

Once the hug ends, Hat Kid pulls out a knight's helmet from somewhere. Automagically, it seems to grow to a size that would fit around Chloe's head. Hat Kid puts it on Chloe's head, making sure it's comfortable and doesn't chafe. It fits around her and her headband just nicely. It seems to be linked to the headband now, too, allowing Chloe to will it into and out of existence whenever she wants. This doesn't change the stat distribution at all, but it gives it a new aesthetic. It's actually shockingly well ventilated, staying cool even if it's on for a long time. "You look great with that on!"

"Come on! I'll stay with you!"

She does, indeed, stay with her for the duration of the battle as a sort of support character from Fire Emblem - not directly involved in combat, but there to cheer Chloe on. Another Hat Kid from the future goes to where Boshi is, and picks up where she left off with the potion.

Hex blinks, then looks in shock at what he just did. he doesn't have much time to complement because he's promptly downed. He kneels over in pain, grimacing as he's brought down.
HEX: aaaghhhhhh
HEX: ...oh Helix, what have I done. I'm sorry. What did I... we had it calculated....
He frantically applies compost blobs on her. He then retrieves some frigid crystals, and with shaking hands, applies them to the burn spots.
HEX: Wait... maybe I can...
He rips apart a few of the rebellion banners, and bandages acacia's wounds. He then takes out some soulblossoms, a touch of compost blob, smashes a frigid crystal into some fine cold dust, rubs in some green sap blobs, and sprinkles in some pulverized frost leaves, and then crunches the soulblossoms, and adds it all together with some clay, to create some potent anti fire cold clay stuff, which he applies to Acacia's burn wounds.
HEX: ...That's all I can do, I think. I'm sorry. Please believe me.

Brutishace shouts at Chloe to try to snap her out of her terror.

"Steel yourself, Chloe! There will be worse terrors ahead of us."

Brutishace is in a tight spot himself, though- the group has been completely locked down on the bridge, crowded in a hellish meatgrinder. When are our tanks going to crush through them?

With his limited options, Brutishace downs a Soulblossom Tea and blasts Bar'kwakh's Head with another Drain Life, hoping to topple it before it strikes their bulwark. He also spawns an Apocalypse Rune at the point of impact.

He also reaps the Trickster's soul with Soul Siphon while he's at it, healing Boshi with its power.

Hopefully his group can turn the tide this fight...

"Oh, come on, you pussies, the damage's not that bad!" Keiko shouts in the duel, before immediately dragging Acacia's body next to her at H16 and reviving her. She places cover at H17. "See? Easy! Freaking easy!"

Meanwhile, in the Sequoia's Lake universe, Keiko moves to K10 and sets a Patchwork Totem at L10, nonchalantly pushing the Trickster right there aside. And Omorika, depending on her movement. She sets the Totem's shields to Electric, and spawns additional cover at L9.

==BATTLE ACTION==
Complicated actions ahead!
Nezira moves to F13, and the Realigner moves to F11. Nezira scans Blossom 2 as a Bonus Action (applying Observer Eye), before the Harasser casts Elemental Splitshot, focusing all three shots onto Blossom 2. If Blossom 2 is still alive, Nezira tosses a Cinderfruit at it. The Harasser then retreats to G18. The Realigner casts Restora, and Nezira casts Channel Magic on the Realigner and herself, cloning the Mending and Energized onto herself.

---

Nezira shouts back to Chloe. "I'll be happy to let you take a look at it sometime -- but perhaps that can wait until we're not in the thick of battle! And, um, on that note, Terry will be fine! We can resurrect him, there's magic for that! And I promise that in a second, I'm going to personally hug you, stab that salty gorillahole of an Iti with a Force Nail, or both at the same time!"