After the duel is done, Packo is breathing deeply, while he looks at his own weapon. He grips its handle tightly. Next to him are all other participants in the duel, recovering from their wounds in battle.

Irongutta found himself flat on his back, sprawled out on the ground. He attempted to take a deep breath, but was cut short by a sharp pain in his chest. Reflexively putting a hand there, he felt a bit of warm blood. Nezira had gotten him good, that’s for sure. Letting out a low groan, he hoisted himself into a sitting position and looked at the others around him. “Wot ‘appened? Did we win?”

Packo replied, still trembling slightly from the aftermath of the battle. “Oh my goodness… Marron and Chloe surrendered to Toast’s power…” He then takes a glance at Nezira. He did whack her until she was rendered unconscious, after all. Finally, he looks back at Irongutta. “They were very powerful together, too…”

Even though his voice sounds way calmer than before, he can’t help but pinch himself in the arm every now and then. When he does, his face reflexively does a small expression of agony, only for it to instantly vanish, like a lamp being turned on and off. ”How are you feeling?”

Nezira slowly gets up from the floor near Packo. ”Well. That was an experience. I’d be lying if I said being dragged around on the ground was fun, but I suppose it was appropriate tactics given what we managed to pull off as well.” She rubs her head, before casting a small healing spell on herself to make sure things aren’t too badly hurt. ”Anybody else need some healing? I know things got a little heated and all, but we are all still allies.”

Packo stays silent for a while. ”... I apologize.” He then presses a button on his own weapon. It starts glowing with a faint green light. [pak]”I can also heal you all.”[/i][/color]

Irongutta gradually rises to his feet, continuing to clutch his chest with one hand. He responded to Nezira’s query. ”Yeah, got some gashes ‘ere that need patchin’ up. Zog, that smarts. Suppose it’d only be fair since yer the one who did it, heh.”

Packo is quick to ask something. [pak]”Are ‘duels’ like this… Something n-normal?”[/i][/color]

Irongutta pondered the question for a brief moment. ”Well, in my experience it’d usually end wivv one or more gits pushin’ up daisies, so to speak. ‘Course this is kinda different, I think. I’z seen ‘em happen all the time where I’m from. If they didn’t end up killin’ each other, you’d probably see ‘em sharin’ a fungus beer the next day.”

Nezira thinks for a second, walking over to Irongutta and surrounding his gashes with a gentle flow of healing magic. ”Given what’s happened so far... it seems like here, at least, they happen, just infrequently. Elsewhere... I’d say they wouldn’t happen as much. Most societies I’ve been in disallow them unless they’re heavily battle-focused. I’d guess duels are popping up here because, well, you have a lot of people with battle experience who’ve more or less been thrown together and had to fight a lot, very little overarching structure, and the natural amounts of conflict.”

[pak]”I don’t like this. I don’t want to be in a duel ever again.”[/i][/color] After a deep breath, he concludes: ”I am scared of having any of you against me…”

”Don’t worry. This was just a friendly duel, and I don’t think anyone here plans on fighting each other for real. Even if people got hurt, nobody was really aiming to actually hurt.”

”Still, did ya see how bloody mad Marron and Toast were at eachotha’? Coulda fooled me on the whole ‘friendly duel’ thing.”

”...” No response comes from Packo this time. Instead, he looks at his weapon again, which is buzzing slightly at its handle as the green light starts to fade.

The magic coming from Nezira recedes as Irongutta’s wounds close over. ”Well, I’d think those two were quite the exception, true.”

Packo clears his throat, as his voice sounded a bit rough. ”I-I am still a bit scared after all of this… But if we are still friendly after this battle, we should do something together.” Packo looks at both sides before quietly lowering his head.

Irongutta scratched his chin while taking his first deep breath since being healed. ”Well, now that I think about it, I was gonna check on that wrecked airship we ‘ave in our possession before we go storm that huge zoggin’ tree the Chairians are holed up in. Felt like it’d be a good time.”

Nezira perked up at the mention of the airship. ”Ooh! I’ve been wanting to take more of a look at that myself. People have been restoring it piece by piece, and I did some work on it myself, but I feel like it could definitely use more fixing up.”

Irongutta perked up similarly, displaying his excitement for the airship. ”We gots to make the poor girl skyworthy again! I put in a bit o’ work on it myself, but I think we’d need to get a crew together if we planned on gettin’ ‘er in the air before uh, the universe ended or wotever it was.”

”An airship?” He says, slightly less scared than before. ”Alright! I-I can help you carry weight, I think... His words are much faster than usual this time. He feels slightly nervous, but excited. ”And… I am sorry. I don’t think I remember your names… He is especially interested in the ork in front of him. After all, he fought at his side.

Venia, completely unaware of any of the previous arrives in the house on the three conversing, spare hand clutching a very intricate series of diagrams, eyebrows dipped as she stares at her papers.

”... This shouldn’t look like I wrote the Necronomicon, no… Uh, oh.” Venia says, noticing the other three people in the room. ”Oh, uh, hi! Hi. Uh, what’s up?” she says, sliding the papers into a shimmering distortion.

Packo is startled as he looks at Venia. ”G-Greetings, Venia! We are going to look at an airship!” He says, grossly simplifying the actual situation.

Irongutta took control of the conversation, stepping forward a bit. ”We were gonna see if we could put some good work into fixing the sorry thing. Seems like various lads from the group ‘ave put a bit in ‘ere and there, but I’d like to see ‘er in workin’ condition as soon as possible.”

Packo just nods back!

Nezira moved forward as well. ”Yeah! I’m sure we’ll be able to do some good work on it as a group -- do you want to join, maybe?”

Venia briefly considers denying it in the face of the more immediately practical idea to make even more stuff for the upcoming fight against Nia-then thinks of the potential fringe benefit of having the Airship ready to fire against a possessed Nia or the Husk. even just its current armaments were probably a significant tier of firepower better than any single Spherebreaker, nevermind that it could fly significantly higher than most of them too.

”Right! Right. Let’s see what we can do. We’re in a bit of a time crunch, though-forces are accumulating at Scale Yggdrasil, not to mention, uh, you may’ve overheard me talking to Auth about Nia… Uh, yeah. We can totally do it, though!” Venia says. ”I’ll meet you guys there, had a few good ideas for stuff for that thing, actually…”

Venia flies right out the door, rushing to the Airship, and already pulling out multiple things. Feeling ready, Packo follows her, walking rather quickly and with some effort. Irongutta trails the other two excitedly, rummaging through his pockets for tools and other miscellaneous bits all the while. Nezira walks along with the group, taking out her Codex and flipping through it for inspiration.

As soon as Packo sees the remains of the airship, he mundanely asks: “Oh! So it was here all along?”

”Don’t think it’d be so ‘ard to miss.” Irongutta responded bluntly.

Packo doesn’t mind the answer at all, and instead just smiles in response. However, his weapon seems to be shaking violently all of a sudden. Even then, he ignores it for a while and keeps smiling.

Meanwhile, Venia’s already thick into things-tearing up what appears to be a small pile of Turbulence Bows and Goddess Dominions, as well as a Tornadopetal. ”Ok, so, uh, first big order of business. The Gravcore. Basically the rest of the ship won’t even fly without it. I got inspired by stuff Mari was working on-Aero Cores, which are pretty similar. They can certainly lift more weight than they should be able to. I’m just, uh, making a very big one here. Uh, anyone got anything to add to this pile?” Venia asks, as she uses the scrap from some of the Dominions to put it all into a relatively large spherical shape.

Irongutta seemed curious about the concept of a Gravcore. ”Gravcore, eh? Think I’ve ‘eard of somethin’ like it before, though usually I just slap some nice, big engines on an’ call it a day. Anyways, after we fragged that Rebel tank to zog, Nia and I managed to recover that Stratoshield of theirs. I think it’d work nicely for defendin’ our airship.” He pulled the Stratoshield out of the inventory, holding it in both hands. Considering the way the R4 violently exploded, it was a miracle that it made it out in one piece.

”Oh, yes, that’ll do nicely for subsystems. Uh, install that rightaway, shouldn’t be hard,” Venia says, pointing at the Airship before resuming work on her odd spherical contraption, muttering spells under her breath. She seems to be trying to draw out most of the Tornadopetals used in the Turbulence bows so she doesn’t waste the untouched sample next to her, as she inlays leylines into the growing metal sphere she’s creating.

Packo, meanwhile, can’t help but to ask: ”... Does this go to space?” It seems that he has absolutely no idea of what’s going on, but he likes the sight of it anyway. His weapon is shaking more and more.

Nodding, Irongutta climbs up into the hull of the airship and works his way to the top of the ship. Considering the way it was positioned on the R4, he felt it would have to be installed on the exterior of the ship to function properly. Judging from how the battle against the R4 went, the Stratoshield shouldn’t be too vulnerable in such a position. He responded to Packo’s question from up above. ”Well I guess that one would depend on how many engines they let me slap on this baby!” Chuckling to himself, he takes a welding torch and an appropriate protective mask. Flipping the mask down over his face, he turns the torch on to begin welding the Stratoshield’s facing to the top of the airship, towards the back.

Nezira pulls the massive black monolith that is Calypse out of the inventory. ”I don’t want to seem too bloodthirsty, but this airship seems to still be lacking in offensive given how much we’ve had to be fighting. It occurs to me that Calypse would be a perfect ersatz weapon... I had planned to study it, but this does keep it intact.” She takes out a few sheets of hardened glass, magically welds them together, and carefully spells them with a replica of the enchantments on Calypse’s cage.

At some point, Packo’s weapon is shaking so violently, that he decides to speak up. ”Excuse me for a second… As he turns around, he presses a button on his handle, and two weird cylinders with speakers pop out of his weapon.

”H-Hey. What do yo-"

THESHIPNEEDSTOBEABLETOSPEAKORELSEITWONTBEFUN They suddenly start screaming in a glitchy tone! USESOMEAISTUFFORELSEWERELEAVING

”Actually, I communed with this ship’s AI before we started,” Venia said as she continued to scrap more Goddess Servants for more metal for her gigantic sphere-nearly 60% complete now. This is a stone-faced lie; while she certainly could do such a thing, the more pressing lie is that the ship doesn’t have an AI. Yet. ”It prefers to be silent.” She then turns to Nezira. ”As for the matter of Calypse… Honestly, I’d rather that thing get out of the inventory. If we rend it as little more than cannon components then I won’t shed a tear. Go ahead. Uh, may I suggest something else while I’m at it?”

COOLCOOLCOOLCOOL As they repeat the word ad nauseam, they start floating away from Packo and the rest of the crew. It seems they really were in need of fresh air. Packo sighs in relief as he sees them leave for a while. ”I am glad the ship has an AI… It would be nicer to speak to it rather than these two every now and then…”. It seems he totally fell for Venia’s lie.

Nezira pauses in her construction of a new enclosure for Calypse -- she’s just taken out a Mental Cluster and is in the process of fusing it to Calypse’s new cage, to allow for direct ‘mental’ control over Calypse’s attacks. ”Sure! Suggest away.”

”Do as to Lucid what you intend for Calypse."

Seemed sound of an idea to Venia-create the legendary ‘Dreamer’ that people occasionally raved about. Or at least, a massively toned-down version. Targeted sleep systems. Take down enemies without even scratching them… And, though it may only be intuition talking, perhaps preventing likewise shenanigans. The only problem, obviously, would be preventing Lucid from sucking everyone into a nightmarish hellscape while it did so.

”Now that’s an idea.” Nezira turns back to her work, eyes flicking back and forth as they focus on something floating in her mind’s eye. ”Yes, that could... Hmmm...”

The drones seem to have momentarily broken Irongutta’s concentration, as he flicks the welding torch off and flips his mask up. He called down to Packo with an irritated tone in his voice. ”Oi! Those buzzy things belong to you, grot? Can ya make sure they don’t come back, I’m tryin’ to work ‘ere!”

”My apologies… But they always come back. They like to keep me company!” As he looks at them finally vanishing behind the House, he continues: ”They just like to be thrown.”

”They are rather irritating, though, even when they’re not actively trying to scrape your ears…” Venia says, trailing off as she focuses on the finishing touches of her frame-its about as large as her, etched with leylines and runes of various types, most of which seemed to look like stylized arrows in fact. They seemed rather dull.

”Yes, they’re quite annoying... but I suppose if they annoy enemies in combat, at least they’re valuable allies. Doesn’t quite redeem their... attitude, though.” Nezira carefully phases Calypse into the prism cage she’s constructed, leaving it floating in the middle of an half-substantial crystal. She carefully taps the glass with a mana-sheathed finger, letting a charge dissipate into the glass and prompting a blast of dark matter from the entombed Calypse. ”There. Now it just needs a proper housing.”

”We don’t really have the ability to argue their presence, given how effective they are, though,” Ven says, breaking the last Turbulence of that crafting charge to rub in the last of the faded Tornadopetals into the massive Aero Core. She sighs, realizing that this won’t actually be enough, and with great reluctance, takes the fragile Tornadopetal and mashes it into a fresh tornadopetal paste, then rubs that into the Core, rubbing in the latent air magic she knows to be in there.

Packo, feeling a little embarrassed about his creations, decides to speak up and actually talk about the ship for once. ”I-Is that shield going to be enough? After all, this airship was destroyed by something… I don’t want it to happen again if I am on board...”

”Well, I figure we could easily upgrade the Stratoshield whenever. Just wanna get the thing on for now.” He returns to the welding job, being over halfway complete.

”I suppose we could also add some extra plating or something of the sort, as well. It occurs to me that Plasteel would be perfect... light and strong.” Nezira has taken out some Gold and Durasteel, building a thick, strong turretlike frame for the enclosed Calypse and creating a set of sturdy gold conductors to focus and redirect its attacks, creating what looks like a classic turret barrel. ”Ooh. Now this has me thinking of ways to improve upon Calypse’s natural abilities... give me a second.”

”Bouncy!” He says, after a few seconds with an empty look. ”If it is bouncy, if they attack us, it will bounce back. A taste of their own medicine! Packo then grabs some Rose Weave. ”If this isn’t bouncy enough… It can always work as sails. T-That is, if this even needs sails…"

”It doesn’t need sails. Or, well, it does, just, this thing is basically the sail,” Venia says, giving the Aero Core a few light slaps. ”... So, guys, uh… Anyone notice what’s happened with Nia? Or, err, what’s happening with Nia?” Venia says, as she finishes rubbing in the Tornadopetal into the giant Aero Core-now a gold-plated hollow sphere just begging for uncontrollable wind to surge through it and pretty much propel anything. Venia proceeds to grasp it by the bottom and lift it up with both hands, easily heaving it over her head, and begins to move into the Airship, the Grav Core barely fitting in the doorway.

”I see!” Packo says, seemingly interested in the entire construction, despite having little idea about Lucid, or Calypse. ”For how long can this ship keep flying?” Then he realizes he was actually asked a question. ”Nia? I don’t know… I haven’t talked to her in a while..."

Irongutta finishes the welding job on the Stratoshield, seeing that it is now secured to the top of the ship’s frame. The next step would be to set up its wiring. He flips up his welding mask again, responding to Venia with confusion. ”Not sure wot yer on about. Nia seemed fine when I saw ‘er last, when we looted the R4 together.” Taking around ten wire scraps out of his pocket, he gets to doing a makeshift soldering job to hook the Stratoshield up to the airship’s systems.

Nezira finishes making some adjustments to her Calypse cannon, adding a pair of extendable and retractable rune-engraved gold prongs on either side of the barrel set up much like a tuning fork; as well, she adds a simple console and some cable hookups so it can be controlled both by a person right next to it and remotely. She carefully programs in some controls, making the turret swivel around and firing a single shot at a clear section of ground nearby. As she extends the golden prongs with a slight grin on her face, she hears Venia’s question. ”Ah, now this addition should be fun. ...Nia? I don’t think I’ve seen much of her recently. Is she okay?”

”Hang on a sec.” Venia says as she moves inside the Airship. Seconds later, the sounds of metal being stressed, then ripped, is heard from within, followed by the noise of metal scraping against metal, concluding with two resounding pounds indicating something’s been slotted in. ”Yeah, Nia… Uh… Yeah. To keep it simple, I… Did something stupid and agitated her, and a possession’s imminent. Now she wants to climb Scale Yggdrasil… Ugh! I’ve been running myself around and around just trying to get ready for the inevitable now,” she says, before falling silent again, only barely visible taking out thirty wire scraps from the inventory-within, she places them along the Aero Core so the power system hooks up with the rest of the ship.

”Then we will keep an eye on her! She is on our team, after all.” Packo smiles!

”I mean, yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing! I’m not irresponsible. I have… I’m doing everything in my power to prepare. I’m guessing getting an entire airship up-and-running just to shoot her down as the Chaos Butterfly possesses her for ease of purging is probably overkill, but whatever.” Venia shouts from within the airship as she rigs everything up.

Nezira levitates the completed Calypse Cannon (as she decides to dub it) in a field of magic, and brings it up to install on the ship’s prow. ”That’s certainly an admirable amount of preparedness... an entire airship might indeed be overkill, but I’ve always said that you can never be too prepared.” She carefully hooks the Calypse Cannon into the ship’s weapon systems with a few cables, stepping back and admiring her work. ”I suddenly find myself interested in test-firing this... but I suppose it’ll have to wait until after I’ve figured out Lucid and after we’ve completed everything else. Speaking of Lucid...” She sits down on the prow of the ship and takes out Lucid itself, letting her hands light up with a blue aura as she delves into its crystalline depths.

”Nezira’s roight. It’d take care of wotever dainty butterfly problem she’s got, and I don’t doubt she’d survive it.” He was ever the one for a direct solution. Continuing his electrical work, he installs one end of the wire bundle to the Stratoshield and, holding the other end, feeds it inside the airship so it can be hooked up to the power supply.

Packo feels too scared to even ask what is going on. Instead, he looks around the ship and smiles, this time a fake one. ”This looks like it’s going to be very powerful… And I don’t even know how to build anything like this. When this is all over, I should cook food for you all. You deserve it.” He says, trying to change the tone slightly. Meanwhile, he looks at a few pieces of the inventory, namely, some Coilgun parts. ”Do you think this could be useful? For more cannons!"

”... Your confidence is appreciated, Irongutta.” Venia says, coming out of the Airship. ”Anyways… I think the Super Aero Core’s at least ready for modification in the future, so… Nezira, let me help you with that,” Venia says, rushing over to Nezira, very careful not to touch directly as she pulls out the Golden Dream Ring and the Psyche Shard. (As the Golden Dream Ring has already been used on Lucid, any use of it would not drain its charge.)

Irongutta warmed up to Packo’s suggestions, both that of a good meal and more dakka. ”You’ve got some good ideas in that ‘ead of yours, runt! Once we crack that Sphere thing, we should all ‘ave ourselves a nice feast. And in my expert opinion, I think this beauty needs more dakka! Those Coilgun parts would do nicely.” Irongutta slapped the roof of the airship as he said this, probably not understanding the memetic significance.

It is at this moment when the Bumblebeeps, Packo’s bots, come back! However… They don’t scream anything this time. The way they strangely hover in the air is much slower and less erratic than before. Packo quickly grabs both and stuffs them in his weapon before they are able to say anything. ”Anyway..." He says, without really considering them. ”One big cannon doesn’t do anything if it is destroyed. Instead, the more cannons, the harder it is to destroy them all at once!”

Her exploratory magical delve into Lucid’s mindscape ending, Nezira lets Venia take over on that and instead pulls out a Seer Crystal and Shock Crystal. ”That gave me a good idea of the abilities it has and the things we can make it do. I think I’ll leave the rest to you. In the meantime, hmm. Lucid was incredibly psychically strong, sure, but it’s going to need extra power for ship-level things -- and maybe we can also use that as a loose means of remote control. Let me see if I can figure out converting electricity to extra psychic energy...” She holds the crystals in contact with each other and closes her eyes, carefully merging them together magically while also blending their properties.

As she does this, Venia takes Lucid’s inert form and activates the Dream Ring, clutching the Psyche Shard with her own telekinetic power. Her work is swift, and dirty-as soon as she cognizes the mindscape, the Psyche Shard activates. She flinches-a horrid reminder of past atrocities plays out in front of her as Lucid’s remaining status as a sapient being is brutally torn, the remains of the sphere representing its mind (and the power within) swiftly being melted and annihilated in a wave of azure. However, it is not an absolute destruction-Venia’s psionic might forces the nearly-destroyed fragments of crystalline power into different shapes, instead, carefully meshing them together into a loose spiderweb-like shape. A mindscape for a being that couldn’t be construed as sapient-more a method of command and control by outside forces (and very, very close-contact outside forces at that) than any realistic method of self-actuated thought. In other words, a perfect replication of the AI systems that Lucid initially appeared to be. No way to store people in mindscapes, either-an excellent bonus. Now, any of Lucid’s victims would only be trapped in a normal slumber, like a Zweet or Reverie might instill. ”OK, Nez, uh, I’ve set up Lucid’s Mindscape to be far more… Adaptable,” Venia says, handing Nezira Lucid’s crystal as Venia deactivates the Ring-the only visible indicator on the outside world that Venia had done anything being a brief eerie blue glow in Lucid’s core, and then a dulling of its color.

Bringing the wire bundle to the newly installed Super Aero Core (as Venia called it), Irongutta finishes hooking up the Stratoshield to the Airship’s systems. Dusting off his hands, he exits the ship and approaches Packo. ”Ya got the right idea there, Packo. Havin’ more cannons will make it so we aren’t helpless if they manage to frag one of ours.” He turned back to look at the ship, making a rectangle with his fingers and peering with one eye. Using his best imagination, he pictured where cannons could be placed. ”Hmm, we could ‘prolly put a pair of manned turrets on top. Dual-barreled, cannon shells, rapid fire… oh yeah!” Irongutta seemed beyond enthused by these thoughts.

”Of course… Sir!” Packo answers. ”Anything that helps this not to get destroyed again… It would be a big waste, and a shame, if I do say so myself." He says, while nodding towards Irongutta. With those words, he grabs all Coilgun parts and holds them. He sends Beep, one of his bots, to transport those parts into the airship, while Packo watches from below. And by “transporting”, Beep actually manages to warp the parts multiple times, in a glitchy way, to its destination.

HEREYOUGOSIR The bot spouts.

Nezira takes Lucid’s core, stowing away a merged crystal crackling with mixed psychic power and electrical sparks. She delves into it again, noting the alterations but not commenting on them as she sends tendrils of magic into the core. She recalls the grasp of its abilities she gained, and begins to impress certain of them into Lucid once again. Meanwhile, Venia starts hustling around for computer components-an AI Core, Wire Scraps and Circuit Boards quickly fall into her hands from the inventory, as well as a few Iron Ingots. A bit of magical muttering later, Venia sets aside the technological items and melts the Iron Ingots, with her bare hands, into the shape of a computer casing, before building up some wires as she pulls out a ‘how to make a computer’ guide on her wrist-mounted… ‘Phone.’ ”So, Nezira, how’d you even wind up here of all places in the middle of all of this? I mean, I think I’ve heard that you’re travelling to have a compendium of literally everything ever, but why here, and why now?”

”Sometimes the Codex gets ideas of its own. It kind of nudged me towards here, I think because it sensed the energy signature of the Sphere. Could be because it wanted me to record the things here before they got annihilated, because it wanted me to help stop the Sphere from annihilating everything, or a mix of both. I feel like it was a mix of both, from my experience with it -- leaning towards ‘stop the Sphere’ more than ‘record the doomed’.” Nezira replies, still largely focused on adding attacks and abilities back into the reshaped Lucid.

”Given I haven’t heard of any ‘codex’ in my time and someone like you would have to have been very well known even in my time… Could just be plain-up self-preservation. Can’t know all the things if you don’t exist,” Venia says, as she continues to piece together the computer-taking the wires and circuit boards and combining them in various precise manners to make CPUs. Given her precision, it almost looks like she’s done this before.

Irongutta appeared baffled by the Coilgun parts being warped up into the airship, but after everything he had seen in the past few days he decided not to question it. Transporting them traditionally took a lot of effort anyways. He overheard the conversation between Venia and Nezira and decided to chime in. ”Nothin’ to fight if ya don’t exist, neither!”

”W-What is a ‘Codex’”- His question, spoken in a voice too soft to be heard from a distance anyway, gets suddenly interrupted by Beep, speaking to Irongutta. Or rather…

THROWTHROWTHROW

Packo is quick to try and explain. ”I-It wants you to throw it!” Meanwhile, he rummages through the inventory, trying to see if something else is needed.

Irongutta didn’t seem to get what the strange drone was requesting. ”Really? Throw the parts after they got up ‘ere?”

”No! Throw… Throw the bot, sir!”

”...Oh! Well then, that I can do gladly!” In a swift motion, he grabbed the drone in a large hand and, pivoting on one foot, threw it as hard as he could in the other direction. Beep is sent flying away from the ship into the horizon!

WOOTWOOTWOOTWOOTWOOT And just like that, Beep disappears into the distance.

Irongutta watched the drone soar out of sight with a look of smug satisfaction. He turned his attention back to the mound of Coilgun parts before him. Looking at their properties, he figured he had enough to make a pair of turrets that could launch a hail of bullets at an incredible velocity. Taking 4 titanium, he starts making housing for the turrets; one under each wing of the airship. Each turret was well-armored and was equipped with two rather long barrels that abuse the Coilgun parts’ magnetic abilities.

”I think it likes you!” Packo smiles.

Meanwhile, Nezira manages to hear Packo's question about a 'Codex' despite the distance, and replies, ”Short version: A magical, incredibly old book I inherited from someone else that has a whole lot of knowledge and information contained in it, far more than something its physical size should. Long version: very complex and I don’t know the whole story, but I’ve studied the Codex itself -- it probably was made using some sort of magical ritual involving (and maybe even consuming) its creator’s soul, it’s magically expanded enough to have some sort of pseudo-pocket-dimension inside it, and it absorbs its previous bearer into itself when someone new inherits it, among other things I’ve learned.”

Venia takes a pause in her work to briefly witness the bizarre request the drones had, before turning back to Nezira. ”That sounds… Yeah, I can’t see myself carrying that thing,” Venia says. ”... Say, uh. I just thought of this… You know how Mari… Uh, Mari’s kind of halfways made of wind, and how I was kind of halfways made of bottles back pre-reset? Uh, I’ve been wondering, y’know anything about a ‘Transcendence’ ritual? Something to make someone as some kind of Elemental-Person hybrid of some kind… And it appears that it may be the ‘cure’ I’m looking for,” she says, installing the AI core in the now-complicated mess of the computer. Several of the wires, and some of the metal, seem to converge on a point wherein Lucid could easily be inserted for issuing commands.

”I wouldn’t call it an artifact for everyone, yes. It more or less chooses its bearers based on how much they’re naturally interested in knowledge, learning, and such -- so if someone has that reaction, it wouldn’t really be for them. It’s not malevolent, per se (despite what you might think when I mentioned souls and absorption), or really benevolent either -- just monomaniacally knowledge-focused. I suspect whoever made it originally was someone who had the same disposition it selects for...” Nezira shakes herself for a second, snapping out of lecture mode. ”Anyway. I can think of some things like that... based on what I myself know about magic, rituals like that would probably involve blending the person’s... not exactly soul, but essence, with a vast amount of elemental energy -- obviously without overloading them -- until it starts to more or less be part of their self. I can look through the Codex for more information later, but that sounds like the skeleton of a concept.” She finishes up the work on Lucid, having reshaped it to both have a few abilities from its previous existence that it can use on command (as well as one spell that works perfectly for it) and also act as a sort of psychic amplifier if needed. ”Hmm. I was thinking we could install Lucid in a pedestal or focus of some sort, let people use it as a psychic focus when it isn’t being controlled remotely?”

”Already on it,” Venia says, pointing at her terminal. ”I had to take potential problems with mental manipulation into account, so this terminal’s wired up so Lucid can be fired remotely, via manual control, or as a psychic focus. You can probably insert the psychic focus in the computer.” Venia states, pointing at the indent where Lucid’s crystal is ready to be placed. ”And on the ritual… That sounds like exactly what I need. It’d be imbuing a new concept to myself so forcefully and so completely that it’d basically redefine who and what I am… And if it gives me some cool new powers, that’s a bonus,” Venia says, for now leaving the computer to work on a small computer screen and keyboard. ”I’d appreciate help. Uh, with the ritual later. Also what we’re doing right now, yes, I appreciate that too, but you’re pretty much the only person I’d wager to know anything…”

”Sure! I don’t think I’ve ever actually worked on a ritual of that type before, so it’ll be valuable experience -- and it’ll help you out, too!” Nezira walks over to the computer terminal Venia created and carefully slots in Lucid’s core, before taking out her merged psychic-electricity crystal and pulling over a power conduit, sheathing the conduit in the crystal, and attaching it to Lucid for extra power.

”Thank you,” Venia says, as she finishes up her relatively basic computer terminal, before beginning to add two small pads to the side, aided by two Brainburn crystals and some small leylines. ”These pads should interface for any potential psionics wanting to use it as a foucs…. And,” Venia says, putting on the computer’s terminal over the whole contraption, making a working turret. ”... If I’m not mistaken, that pretty much completes it.”


Nezira nods. ”Before we finish up, I think I’m going to add some focal crystals to those laser turrets Chloe added. And I still have that urge to test-fire the Calypse cannon...”[color] She takes out a Luminous Crystal and carefully splits it into four smaller crystals, which she carves into lens shapes. She grabs a single Silver Ingot and infuses it with strengthening magic, adding silver lens housings to the barrels of the turrets and slotting in the lenses, adding extra silver post-placement to make sure they stay in. She then carefully enchants the lenses and housings to enhance lasers passing through them. [color=#1155CC]”There we are.”

”Looks great to-” A ring! An alarm! Venia hastily presses a button on her wristband, reading a line of holographic text hovering above it. ”-oh hell, Uh… I need to go, Scale Yggdrasil, there’s an army congregating there! See you guys there!”

Venia abruptly takes off full-tilt back towards the Endless Gadens, already pulling out her Splintershot, once again relentlessly pursuing her next task. Has she even slept, or eaten much? Someone seriously needs to tell her the value of stopping to smell the Gracedias. (Roses may not be a smart idea to mention.)

Packo nods as he sees her leave. He sighs in relief. ”Thank you all for being here. I am less scared now.” He bows! Meanwhile, Beep comes back, tired from its trip, courtesy of the Ork’s mighty throw. It returns to Packo’s weapon, safe and sound. ”I am going to go too. Anything that helps us destroy the ball…" With those words, he starts walking towards Scale Yggdrasil.

---

MATERIALS EXPENDED:
-1 Tornadopetal
-1 Goddess Dominion Crafting Charge
-1 Turbulence Crafting Charge
-1 Stratoshield
-1 Calypse
-2 Hardened Glass Sheets (from Tem Shop)
-1 Mental Cluster
-5 Gold
-9 Durasteel
-1 Lucid
-90 Wire Scraps
-50 Circuit Boards
-1 AI Core
-1 Seer Crystal
-1 Shock Crystal (from Tem Shop)
-3 Coilgun Parts
-1 Luminous Crystal
-1 Silver Ingot

Ship Parts Constructed:
-Super Aero Core (Weak) (GravCore)
-Stratoshield (System)
-Calypse Cannon (Weapon)
-Lucid Laser (Weapon)
-Under-Wing Cannons (Weapon)

Materials used:
1 Mantle Cluster, 25 Wire Scraps, 5 Circuit Boards, 3 Durasteel Ingots, 1 Silver Ingot

She takes a Mantle Cluster and carefully splits it apart into a few crystals, heating the Durasteel until it's malleable and forming small badgelike discs out of it, insetting a crystal in each. She takes the wire scraps and connects them to the badges, weaving some complicated circuitry out of them that connects to the inset crystals in several places, adding in a circuit board on each badge to control them, each with an attached button. She takes the silver and adds some precisely-inset runic traceries in various places on the badges, connecting more wires to those as well and carefully plating some of the wires in silver, especially those that connect to the crystals. As a final touch, she carefully coats the side of the badges that don't have the inset crystal and wiring and circuitboard in a weak adhesive, then covers over the internals of the badges with a thin coating of Durasteel, leaving only the crystal and activation button exposed. As a test, Nezira takes a badge, attaches it to herself, and depresses the button, smiling as a thin force field is projected around her.

Emergency Shield Badge crafted!
Intended effects: Grants Temporary SHP on use; amount dependent on tier (I envision them as T2) and balance.

The Irrigo Plating is a simple thing; a relatively small shield built for Auth, infused with Irrigo Ink to make it easy to forget (and thus make attacks easier to intercept) and easier for the frail Auth to move. Naturally, an immediate improvement would then use these qualities to enable Auth to manipulate the Plating without actually holding it, leaving both of his hands free at all times and allowing the Shield to move as it wishes.

Hat thus takes 1 Mental Cluster and 3 Silverwood Logs. Hat's staring ensures laser-precision cuts as he breaks down the logs into a workable backside for the shield. Hat also removes the strap in the same manner to make way to just crudely jam in a mental cluster directly into the backside. For some reason, despite the blunt force, the mental cluster slides in perfectly.

This done, the more complicated part arises. Hat takes 3 Crystal Pens, jamming two into the Silverwood and the third into the Mental Cluster. Hat doesn't do magic-Hat instead stares at the result hard enough that reality wills itself to allow whatever chichanery Hat's doing instead of suffering Hat's terrible, incredible wrath. What Hat wants is for the ink to soak into both Silverwood and Mental Cluster, making their use responsive to Ink-based magic. Hat performs more vigorous staring at the Mental Cluster, and under the pressure the Mental Cluster develops a primitive AI enabling it to intercept attacks via moving, as well as a modest telekinetic force, allowing it to hover around a potential wielder. Of course, given what has transpired, the 'potential wielder' would have be able to manipulate Ink, of which Auth fits the bill anyways. As a side effect, the wood turns a nice shade of Irrigo, which makes the whole shield an Irrigo shade, which makes the whole shield rather hard to keep focused on... Especially if you haven't already been screwed over by it.

As a final touch, Hat rubs Phase Matter all over the final concouction, which seeps in pretty nicely. As the Morphs could phase through walls, this is the inverse; the shield can harmlessly phase through bodies, as long as its fast. And fast it is-brief testing shows that it is rather receptive to being pinged by Hat's stare. This would mean that the shield can whip through Auth's body to intercept backstabs, and such an unexpected defense would make it extremely hard for a first-time attacker to circumnavigate.

A simple task done, Hat silently presents Auth his newfound floating orbitar shield, and calls it a day.

---

Materials Expended: Irrigo Plating, 1 Mental Cluster, 1 Silverwood Log, 3 Crystal Pens, 3 Phase Matter.

(T4) Everforgotten Defender
No-one sees it coming.
(+2 DEF) (Divine Shield)
Fire (20%) Dark (30%) Water (20%)

Divine Shield: Start every battle with a Divine Shield.

Link to Template.

A beautiful, sunny day, with a perfect temperature. A lake in the distance shimmers the shine of a galaxy. A meadow in full bloom, aromas wafting in the air, petals fluttering. Two clouds lazily drift in the distance of a blue sky. Were it not Ursa, this place would be perfect. And were it not a day of reckoning, certainly it would feel far more like a wonderful last thought to have.

Venia doesn't know how she got here, but however beautiful or familiar it is her heart has sunk to its nadir. She only vaguely recalls what occurred prior to this-she figures Nia stabbed her quite fatally through the heart with the foil. That's what it feels like. It wouldn't be the first time she's had her heart stop.

She can't cry. She can't even really breathe. She feels as hopeless as ever, staring at the ultimate proof of her failure-as a person, as a surrogate mother, as a sister, as a daughter, as a friend. Her duchy felt like a prison of decay wrapped in decadance, but this place forever haunted her nightmares.

Her eyes are locked to her childhood home-her home for sixteen years of her life and more-crushed and buried under its own roof and the remnants of a storm of swords. She thinks she sees a distorted foil among them, but most were broadswords, as they had been that day. The Emperor spared not a soul, but a lucky man and his own daughter. His wrath at the Yakuza was beyond description-or so they say. In reality, the man was wrathless. He had made this decision gleefully smiling, thinking of the return of his daughter and the justice wrought in slaying the "saccharine town of devilish criminals,' and perhaps only regretted it when he saw Maria cry over Venia's corpse, a mantleplace filled with trinkets and photos of better days to stand proof of all of what had caused these events-an infallible love towards Maria that overwhelmed all sense of sanity or patience. And now she was here again, due to an infallible love towards Nia that overwhelmed all sense of sanity or patience.

She was such a sucker for affection she didn't even realize that it was that very affection that destroyed her life. Twice, now.

She can't help but move towards it. Ice freezes in her stomach with every step, the ideological ramifications of self-reflection at war with the utter shame and fear of herself that consumed her being, but she did not stop. The futility of it all be damned-she would make the final moments of her life at least proof, if only to herself, that she understood what brought her here. That what she had experienced and heard did not pass her by. Perhaps Nia would be proud. Perhaps Nia would curse her name for trapping her in her own body when she was supposed to free her. Perhaps there never was a Nia by the time they met-only a facade for a demon.

Venia managed to make it to the door. It opens without her action, as her eyes gaze upon an interior eerily intact. It is almost exactly like her house, prior to the attack-the faint scent of viscera could testify to it. Nominally a homely place, with wooden floors, her house had been ruined by her own hands. The dull rug and the dark blue recliner both stained red, an obvious reminder of her sins, as would be the family safe, ripped out of the floorboards and emptied so as to provide Venia her weapon that day. The den's projector was smashed, the sofa torn in two, and only the mantle over a fake fireplace was left spared the carnage of her brutal dismemberment of her own patriarch. With trembling steps, Venia walks in, knowing this isn't it. She passes by the stairwell, which she knows leads up to four rooms-the bedrooms. All unoccupied. Maria would be missing. Amare would be off with Nyke, fighting battles of greater purpose and meaning than anything Venia had ever put herself forth to try. Her father is dead. And she was off, ready to damn everyone in Ursa for little more than petty vengeance.

Not but a square archway away would be the kitchen. She didn't eat that day. She barely ate at all these days. The stasis and autocook were off, as they were, as they were never used-Venia was exploited to provide for the family instead. The sink was bloodstained-Venia had enjoyed the act of beating her brainwashed victims to near death, and needed to rinse. The pantry was empty, and most of the furniture that she didn't destroy weren't in place; instead, everything was packed into boxes, barely making room to step. Everything that she could take she stored in those boxes-that day, she planned to leave at last, and never look back. The boxes were likely still there, gathering dust and debris. A whole life, wasted.

She sighs, stopping. What else was there to do? She'd done all she could. There was nothing here, no further meaning. Just another sign of failure, she thinks. She gives the room one last look over... And spies something else. That door, right next to it. A basement door. But this wasn't her basement door. This one was different. Wrong. It belonged in a different house. Nyke's house. Her heart picked up-almost like an electric shock, or something. It was obvious what this was. That door. The door that changed her life, broke her childhood and left a hollow shell that never understood it was hollow.

She trembles. She understands. Behind that door is the nadir. The pit. The blackest, most horrid thing in the Mindscape. The kind of things that break minds like twigs if dwelled upon. Splits. Horrors. Monsters. Things that cannot, and must not, be thought of. The darkest nightmares ever to be.

She reaches out. The key-the key Nyke used to open the door. Its in her hand. It always was. She refused to acknowledge it in her despair, but with not even that left, all the facades are gone, only the grim truth. She shakes. She can't even look as she presses it against the door, eyelids and teeth clenched. The door's surface accepts the key, and slides away.

Beyond it is darkness. Absolute darkness. Not even the barest glimpse of the slaves that were contained there. She had only seen behind this door twice before, and the second time was to do what the first time did not-free them. It seemed almost fitting-the first time she entered this door it revealed to her the cold reality of Ursa and the nature of her prison, and the first glimpse of how many were truly caught in it. The second time, she was almost free of it for good, and the prisoners within were about to be freed. Brandon was one of the few she couldn't even attempt to break with her manipulations, so the slaves stored under his house were the very last to be free, only broken out while he was out of the house. Free of their chains, only to be chained to death. Because of her. She could have truly done it, if she trusted him. She didn't. Now she's here. The absolute darkness beckons as she steps down into the abyss.

Only two stairs down and Venia hears it. A lightbulb. A dim lightbulb, trying to flicker to life. Seconds later, she sees it-a single table, with two wooden chairs on opposite ends. Empty chains. A room meant for interrogation and torture. She almost thought she was heroic, then...

...And that was it. No figures, it appeared. Nothing, in fact, other than the table. The racks of tools, the slaves, everything other than empty chains and the stairwell were gone-except that table. She trembles, realizing the only path left. She takes a seat, and pulls herself in, awaiting another occupant. Such was the nature of things that a meeting seemed but destined to occur.

...Several seconds pass.

Several more.

Nothing.

Venia's heart sinks. She realizes it. The answers were never here, just more misery. It was always just misery.

"... I'm... This is it, then? A total waste of time. Fitting."

The light flickers. Venia blinks. The lights return. Another person sits there. About as tall as Chloe. Brunette, wavy hair, electric blue eyes, black horns tapering off into an odd multicolored three-pronged tip. A horon, mostly average beyond the odd horns. Another her. Another Venia. Her eyes burn into the back of Venia's skull. Her heart picks up-she almost feels alive again.

"...Interesting. I'm here. What do you desire so badly to come to the very, very bottom like this?"

"... Answers. Even if its pointless, even if I'm dying, even if these are my last thoughts, I'll go out knowing why I'm here and what I am."

"Very well..."

A pause. The figure in front of her takes a deep breath, closing their eyes. Venia watches, eyes alight. A pulse. A feeling. The other her opens her eyes. Her lips move-