Overworld:
Echoss's golems continue work on the flooring for the lower floor.


Echoss gives a light smile in response to Omo's query.
"Thank you Miss Omorika, the company would be much appreciated."


Echoss chuckles in response to Salix
"Then keep watch I shall. Good luck with your work Master Salix."


Echoss looks at the thing crawling across the floor with a mixed look of pity and disgust. Without a word, he fires a shot out of his cannon into the thing. Presumably killing it.
"To whatever unfortunate soul ended up as that thing... I hope you find better peace in death than you did here."


In the Everground, Pionobot uses SUPERSTRENGTH to just heave an entire large chunk of the remaining shell of searing clusters into the portal.


One of Echoss's butterflies in the main room transforms into its hologram form.
"If I may, Miss Needleworker, I would just like to say that I have full confidence in your abilities. You've shown phenomenal skill with this kind of thing in the past, and we believe in you now as well."


NPC Assignments:
Using the newly free slot in Chloe's service, Echoss joins Chloe on an expedition to obtain some incendiary scraps.
Since Nia doesn't seem to be being commissioned by folks, Echoss asks Nia to upgrade the Item Iris and Player Crafted Inventory. I'll probably do a craft to upgrade the Inventory Cannon soon.


BATTLE:
Echoss procs ITEMSTORM and then loops around to M4 by traveling through L7 and N5 first.
"Ahem. Would all Rose Cult in the area please file themselves to the nearest trash compactor. The cleanup crew greatly appreciates it when the garbage takes itself out."
Attacks:
3 Water El-Ite knives on Onlooker 1
1 water el-ite knife on Onlooker 3
1 cinderfruit on The Shackled
PCI Crystal Bombshell fire element on Magnolia
PCI Searing Bomb on Magnolia
1 Elemental Blaster Fire Element on Magnolia


Ette is asked to selfcast Curaga to explodinate all the undead surrounding her.

Dorothy quickly pillages the cubby before heading out to the Steps to Oblivion.

---

She spawns into The Steps to Oblivion at (C4) and uses the Helix Totem for a meaty Enlightened5.

She moves to (G2) and shoots a Hidden Flow at Executioner1. She "retreats" to (H2).

The beat this time is MOBILIZE -> ATTACK -> ATTACK.

---

MU continues harvesting the Bastion's corpse, finding a hunting knife and carving out the monster's guts.

She throws her loot up into the Anomaly.

---

/working

Crya meditates, while Crya Nia moves to D5.

Nidra moves her drone to Calibri, plays Valor: Empowered, Power Naps Brutishace, moves to O7, uses the sheep counter on Gorged1, Last Dreams Gorged1, and retreats to N7.

Entering "The Steps to Oblivion"...

The Summa spawned at C4, and looked around the battlefield. Alright, this is quite small... Definitely not something she's used to. She saw Irongutta and R-8733, making a half-attempt to wave at the two. Alright, now that frivolities are over with, they can actually get down to business. They had a small head start on Tsar'ina, but that's no problem! She can easily catch up! Tsar'ina marched forwards to G4, and taunts the Executioner1 right in front of her. She doesn't need to yell, but she's still going to do it.

"I BET YOU HAVE NO HONOR! FIGHT ME, OR FOREVER BE A COWARD!"

Alright, pretty convincing. Just by looking at this person, Tsar'ina can tell that the Executioner's a type of "honorable brawler" type. Well, she sure hopes they are. If she were that Executioner, she'd totally take the bait. Nothing Ventured, nothing gained, right? Tsar'ina holds the Silver Maria in front of her in a purposely open manner, anticipating the Executioner to go in for the easy blow. Little do they know, she's got a counter up her sleeve...



EZ 2 Read Info:

Summa spawns at C4, moves to G4, uses Nothing Ventured on Executioner1

Courier Retrieval

A maid of Venia's appears in Zone 1's river crossing, handily intercepting the Secretary stuck in the ground. She helps yank it out of its unlucky position, and then calmly retrieves the package, depositing it into the inventory.

---

Mariaaaaa

Maria enters the main chapel, only to be re-confronted with the reality of a big scary hole in the floor. Of course, she easily sees another route around it, and starts heading around, careful to put considerable distance between her and the hole... And then she sees the Observer, lets out a small shriek, and hides behind a Pew, out of its line of sight.

"Scary fiend can't see me if I can't see the scary fiend!" She shouts, likely in total antithesis to the concept of stealth. It appears she's too terrified to move of her own accord...

---

Date

Venia smiles at Nia's approach, nuzzles up to her as she does, returning a loving gaze right back, and blushes at her question. "You? Tempting, hrm..." Venia says, faux-quizzically, finger to her lip. "... I'd think I'd want the food first, though. Like, I'm starving. Aren't you?"

Venia opens up the food basket and puts out everything, including the ice cream and sushi, and quite a few other things.

"Wish I didn't have to be so reliant on my power to get me food... But, hey. Work with what you got, and I'd be pretty silly to complain... Enjoy!"

She begins devouring into her sushi. It appears that she's mostly divvied up the food evenly, which is to say there's a lot of food, except that Venia only has one bowl of ice cream and Nia has six.

---

Battle: South Chapel Hall

"OK people, we're going to exorcise that axe as soon as we can!" Venia shouts.

Venia moves to I6 and consumes a total of four Chocobars, restoring twenty HP directly and also giving her nine more HP regen for four rounds. She then takes aim at the Shackled, and performs Three basic attacks-one normal, one from Hyperactive bonus action, and one from CROSS, which consumes the Ordo, all targeted on the Shackled, which ought to kill it even through its tremendous AC and regen.

Venia's Organized moves to I5 and deposits a Crony Organized at J6. The Crony Organized looks like a smaller bronze version of the Boss Organized, with less ornate wear and knife.

Brutishace growls at the third Chosen.

"So, you have chosen to incur my displeasure, in contrast to my protection. Keep that one alive, but incapacitated, everyone! I'll conduct business with him later. For now, fall back and let our foes come to us- take the time to destroy the Iti in these cages."

Brutishace heads to Q7 and launches Drain Life at P6 to strike the third and fourth Seekers, as well as the Gorged. It's a shame that health is going to waste, but this means more bodies to harvest later.

He then retreats to Q8 to finish his turn. The nondescript corpses seem enticing, but they can wait until people are in further need of aid.

Non battle:

It's not entirely clear how Verdana saw sign language while staring at the floor, but he does manage a response. One that is quite tired in tone.

"...I'll be over soon."

Verdana flops further forward, eventually crashing face-first into the ground below the couch, just laying there for a moment. After a while, he pulls himself to his feet, shaking himself off, then wanders over to investigate the thing Ette told him he should investigate.

"Alright."

There's a pause. He shakes himself off again, then closes his eyes and makes a sound of exertion. Moments later, his physical appearance seems to improve quite noticeably, his skin and hair going back to their usual white tones. He also seems a bit more awake in general... After that, he shrugs, just surveying whatever start Marron has made on the ritual, if any.

"I don't really have context for what's going on here, but... I'm here. Need a help with anything?"


Battle:

Calibri frowns as he hears the cultist's reply.

"Well, that explains something I saw elsewhere. Pitch-black, lot of wood, humanoid, kinda disgusting, has a tag labeled #006 on it... That description familiar at all?"

After that, he chuckles quietly as he hears Brutishace being frustrated with the third Chosen.

"No need to be that hard on the lad, Brut. I'm sure he means well enough. Well, aside from being involved in probably-highly-unethical experimentation, that's generally considered indecent, but... could be worse."

After that, he wanders up to R5, takes a slash at Gorged1, and quickly loads a Frigid Crystal into a spare Crystal Bomb Shell. Then he hurls the resulting Frigid Crystal Bomb at Seeker2 to put it on ice. If legal, he quickly autocrafts a replacement Crystal Bomb Shell.

For the purposes of movement, Calibri currently opts to not ZoC-block Cultist3. Not that the fellow would likely be inclined to charge into the middle of the cages. Probably.

Dialogue format dump zone

Laraleaf discuss a plan offscreen; an attempt to assassinate the Siren.

LEAF: Ready?
LARANEI: Yeah! Let's do this!

The plan kicks off with the Splinter Spider using a Helix Totem on Laranei, who gets into position at J7. Next, Leaf rides her Spider to G6. The Spider pierces the Siren twice, allowing Leaf to follow up with a strong whack to its head with her staff. With the help of her Spider, Leaf manages to lob a Soda Bomb at F8. It shatters, sending glass shards in all directions and splashing alcohol on the battlefield. Leaf and her Spider retreat to I8 and signal for Laranei.

LEAF: Now!

Laranei grins.

LARANEI: Fire in the hole!

She aims her blaster at the Siren, firing off a double blast, and finally finishing with a Searing Bomb!

(If no Searing Bombs are available, Laranei instead uses a Cinderfruit.)

The Firing Line (Holding Pens)

Daskter moves to O13 builds (summons rooted) an Heavy Mortar at M13

Conscript1 moves to O12 and summons another Conscript at P12
Both Conscripts attacks seeker6
(Note that Swarmers share the same EXP pool)


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Bhm...t#gid=967607320

Settings:
Attack: Ice
the extra points from my buff can go into MMP
Resist: 30% Crushing
Weak: 10%Slashing, 20%Dark 10% water

Battle action: Auth casts Curaga on T11.

AUTH: Magnolia, I've got to know. Why? Why are you, like... here right now? Fighting us? Why are you part of the Rose Cult? That sort of thing.

---

Auth seems kind of dazed and confused as he returns, blinking a couple of times as Nana freaks out over his sudden scare. He missed, completely, the freakout from Omo and Nana as he was "trapped" within the statue.

AUTH: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Nana... I didn't know this would happen.
AUTH: I didn't mean to scare you so badly, I'm sorry, very sorry...

As Nana leans into his shoulder after he animates again, Auth gives a slight hug. Reassuring her that he's still there, and still okay. Just afterwards, Omo walks over and flicks his body. It causes a loud click, like wood. Instinctively, Auth moves his hand to cover the area soon after, expecting pain. It's unlikely to, though.

AUTH: Venia mentioned something like this to me earlier. She said my ability, hidden deep within, was shapeshifting.
AUTH: I don't know what activated it, really. For all I care, it was "True Love's Kiss" like in all of the fairy tales from my home.
AUTH: Although maybe I should figure out how it does work. So I can put it to further use.

Auth smiles. He appreciates the pair of them fretting over him. It helps his confidence and happiness - that so many people care about him. Auth stretches, as best he can, once again.

AUTH: ...Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I should ask Taeda about how Chairian Biology works. If I'm going to use this form I need to understand how it works.
AUTH: I'm sure you'd understand my concern. I'll ask her later.

Pope Bill joins the South Chapel Hall battle! He moves to F4 and setups a Malignant Tumor at H4.

Irongutta reveled in the fact that the plan worked. "It really worked! Not a bad throwin' arm on ya, R-8!"

Battle: The Steps to Oblivion

And so the strife began! "Roight then! We got 'em scattered an' soft. Everyone get in 'ere!"

Wasting no time, Irongutta moves to H4 (this movement is 4 tiles to avoid Executioner 1's ZoC), activating Unstoppable Force with a total damage bonus of 25%!

Once he reached H4, he used Overpowering Smash on Executioner1!

...Piggo showed up as well, spawning in at C4. Wasting no time, the little pig rushed over to G4 to join Irongutta's side! Piggo then basic attacks Executioner1.

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED NINTY-TWO>

---

Toast does her best to encourage Marron. She wraps Marron in a gentle hug, before planting a gentle kiss on the puppeteer's cheek. Marron's trembling begins to ease up (at the cost of her fluster gauge), and it only continues to ease as Verdana offers his support. The puppeteer pauses for a few moments, before speaking.

MARRON: T-Thanks... you two, but...
MARRON: I-If we're gonna do this... I'd like your help.
MARRON: Just really quick. We should be able to do this ritual a bit more efficiently if we work together.
MARRON: Plus, we can each watch each other to make sure nobody gorillas it up!
VERDANA: Sure thing!
ECHOSS: Of course Miss Needleworker. It is no problem at all.
TOAST: Of course! I'm sure that together everything will go smoothly.

...As the two of them are roped into performing the ritual, Marron's confidence soars. The three reagents are gathered. First, the Splinter of Yggdrasil's Bark is thrown into a mortar and pestle, which the puppeteer deftly grinds up into a powder that radiates a faint green. She slides most of the powder into a simple, wide-mouthed glass bottle. The rest is set aside.

Toast meanwhile, is tasked with measuring out an incredibly precise bit of Gaiadiamond Dust. Fortunately, with the usage of telekinesis (and her egg-based training), she's able to collect an exact portion of the shimmering, crumbled Gaiadiamond, setting aside what remains for later usage, and dumping what she's partitioned out into the bottle. Verdana meanwhile, is tasked with pouring only a few droplets of the Godblossom Extract into the bottle, with not a single drop of the radiant liquid going to waste. The remnants from this too, are set aside.

With all three ingredients collected within the bottle, the four gather around as Marron reads over the recipe. She instructs Echoss to grab Yggdrasil's Vessel, as per instructions. He then measures and then adds a cup of the potion into the bottle. With that out of the way, Marron then whips out a wooden spoon. Ever so gently, she mixes the four substances together. She dares not stir too fast, in case even the tiniest portion of the liquid escapes the bottle. The gentle green of Yggdrasil's Splinter binds to the fluid from Yggdrasil's Vessel, while the Gaiadiamond Dust and Godblossom Extract mingles together, creating a brilliant glow that'd reasonably allow the liquid to light up a room.

Then, turning away from the bottle, Marron grabs a needle. She barely flinches as she pricks it against the tip of her index finger, a minuscule droplet of blood forming upon it. She then holds her finger above the mixture, and allows a single droplet to fall in. It creates a ripple as it splashes into the mixture, a transformation following in the ripple's wake. The heavenly glow of the bottle begins to take on a red tint, matching the color of the puppeteer's blood.

The puppeteer can't help but gaze at her creation.

MARRON: W-Wow...
MARRON: It's like... a liquid ruby, or something.
ETTE: (Is that the thing?)
ETTE: (Is it finished?)
ETTE: (We haven't done any spooky chanting yet, so I don't know if it is done.)
MARRON: Weirdly enough, the ritual doesn't call for any chanting of sorts.
MARRON: Some ritual, right?
MARRON: Anyway, go lie down.

Ette lies down on the living room carpet. As per the instructions, Marron, Toast, and Verdana plant a few candles around the carpet, which is most certainly a fire hazard. A circle of fifteen- one candle for every full year the being has lived for.

MARRON: Wait wait wait.
MARRON: D-Do we use one candle, or f-fifteen?
MARRON: Technically, we're both like, chronologically a year old.
MARRON: But at the same time, I'm biologically seventeen, and you're fifteen, turning sixteen...
MARRON: W-What the hell do we do!?
TOAST: Go with... fifteen.
TOAST: ...You can't really make a circle with one anyway.
ETTE: (Makes sense to me!)
MARRON: Well, alright then.
MARRON: God, I really hope it's fifteen...

With the candles laid out, Marron stands above Ette, potion in hand. She takes a few deep breaths before turning the bottle over, spilling its contents onto Ette's torso. As per the final step, she makes she to coat the "vessel" as evenly as possible with the mixture, mostly succeeding in doing so. Then, she takes a few steps back.

MARRON: ...
MARRON: Is it working?
MARRON: Ette, how do you feel?

...No response.

MARRON: ...Ette?
MARRON: Well, if she's not saying anything, something's probably happening.
MARRON: Mission succes-

One of Ette's seams rips open, and a burst of stuffing flies out. Smatterings of crimson blood stains the cotton. Ette's body begins to twitch and flail, a lack of proper joints causing her appendages to swing in all directions. Candles are knocked over, prompting Toast to swiftly extinguish the small fires they cause. More tears appear in Ette's body, bursting red cotton. The flailing then slowly begins to subside, limb by limb. It seems like most, if not all of the stuffing has been expelled from Ette's body. The carpet is a mess, stained with blood, cotton, and blood cotton. Marron crouches over her sister's form, frantically shaking her.

MARRON: Ette? Ette!?
MARRON: I-I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!
MARRON: O-Of course I'd gorilla it up, I-I shoudln't have e-even tried, a-and now... y-you're...

Ette shakes. A hacking cough can be heard, sputtering from below Ette's fabricated smile. Marron wastes no time acting, pinning down the puppet with her body. She then conjures a needle into her hand and slides it against the stitches of Ette's smile. As the fabric gives way, a pair of rosy pink lips reveal themselves. They continue to cough and hack for a few moments, Marron lifting herself off the fabric body as the puppet's chest begins to rise and fall. A few moments pass, and the coughing is replaced with a gentle breathing.

MARRON: E-Ette?
MARRON: Can... can you hear me?
ETTE: M-Muhh...

Ette's lips move a little, but no words leave her. Her limbs tremble weakly.

TOAST: Oh!

Toast quickly scours the inventory, before bringing out a generic healing potion. With a trembling hand, she brings the vial to Ette's lips. Ever so gently, she tips the potion down her throat. A few moments later, Ette begins to hack and cough for a few moments, before ceasing quickly.

MARRON: Are... are you alright?
MARRON: Can you h-hear me?
ETTE: I-I...
ETTE: I-I'm alright.

Ette's voice is gentle and quiet, if a little raspy at the moment. Tears well up in Marron's eyes, and she pulls her sister into a tight hug before beginning to bawl incoherently. Ette finds the power to move, and wraps her arms around Marron as well.

ETTE: I-It's alright! Y-You don't need to cry!
ETTE: I'm okay! I-I'm alright!
MARRON: I-I know...
MARRON: I-I was so worried that I messed up, a-and I t-though that I-I hurt you, o-or worse...
ETTE: But you didn't.
ETTE: The ritual... it hurt. A lot.
ETTE: But... I knew from the moment you splashed that stuff on me that it'd work.
ETTE: You're amazing.
ETTE: You need to give yourself more credit, y'know!
MARRON: M-Maybe...
MARRON: I-I'm just... h-happy... t-that you're... o-okay...

Ette continues to hold Marron close as she cries into her shoulder, her tears soaking into her fabric. Ette feels the sensation of tears against her skin. The nip of the frosty air against her bare lips. The scent of blood and flowers. It's all quite overwhelming for the puppet, feeling all of these things again after such a long time. However much it is to take in, Ette happily bears it. After all, the ability to feel, to live, to feel the warmth of her sister's body...

...It's all she's ever wanted.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: I Will Put You Back Together

This awards the exclusive armor piece, the Eternal Guardian. Ette's trait also levels up as a bonus for obtaining her body, setting it to Level 3! It now only targets a single ally again... but they won't even be harmed by splash damage, giving her an incredibly effective protection tool!

Anyway, somebody might want to help Ette get sorted out. She has a body, but said body's currently stuck in a full-body puppet suit. Maybe getting Marron to stop hugging Ette for a moment would be a good start. Maybe she could help her get some proper clothes?

---

Chara explains more things to Chloe. She dispels the notion that Chloe lived on her Earth. Probably, anyway. Their Earth had monsters and caves. Chloe's Earth lacked the former, at the very least. Chara then speaks at length about her history- also, she died.

CHLOE: You died?
CHLOE: ...C-Congratulations on getting b-better?
CHLOE: I'm not sure if I should ask or not...

She sits quietly, listening to Chara muse about her home. The moment they mention Toby, reality shudders a little bit.

CHLOE: ...Eh?
CHLOE: That was weird.
CHLOE: Sorry, j-just... keep going!

Chara then goes on talking about multiversal theories. What if the universe was a sea of fragments? Also, what if witches were actually freaking terrifying? Chloe pretends to comprehend what they're talking about, smiling and nodding. Were she to speak, she'd probably get dragged down some further rabbit hole that she couldn't understand with her tiny, limited human mind. She's then given a lovely dosage of nightmare fuel from Chara once she mentions that Chaos is immortal.

CHLOE: Y-You know, I-I'd appreciate it i-if you stopped being... c-creepy.
CHLOE: S-Seriously! I-If you want to make it up to me for the whole suffocation thing, i-it's all I could ask...

CHLOE: But... I really, genuinely think that we can't kill Chaos.
CHLOE: Mostly because I don't think he bothers with... "silly" things like "physics" or "natural order".
CHLOE: I've seen him get beheaded multiple times, I've watched him explode and vanish from sight, and I'm pretty sure Marron knocked him into low orbit once...
CHLOE: I mean, if you got creative, you could probably kill him, but I don't think we have the means to really HURT him properly.

She pauses for a moment, and a silence hangs in the air.

CHLOE: S-So, um...
CHLOE: Why do you want to kill Chaos, again?

Chloe can't help but feel like Chara's going to spook her again. They can hardly go a few seconds without violating reality in some way.

---

Echoss continues his daily dues. He wraps up a chat with Omo. He also wishes Salix good luck with his work, receiving a salute in response. You know. The general, daily chat grind.

He also decides to murder another thing, although this might be more of a "mercy killing" than a murder. He pops a generic item into the head of the hybrid Iti, splattering its head with a sickening crunch. Or at least, he really hopes its dead. You can't ever be too sure with these hybrid beasts. Chloe jumps at the sound of breaking wood and sloshing juices.

CHLOE: A-Ack!
CHLOE: Hopefully, we don't see too many of those things.
CHLOE: I'm feeling sick just thinking about what the Rose is doing...

Also at the same time, Chloe is assigned to go and find some Incendiary Scraps! Echoss follows her out into Zone 3, and soon enough, the two of them return with... what appears to be a military-issued crate.

CHLOE: There were a few Rebels sticking around the area...
CHLOE: Hopefully they don't notice that I stole their stuff~
CHLOE: I mean, I wouldn't have been able to do it without Echoss playing as a distraction, but... it worked!

30 Incendiary Scraps and 4 Refined Wood enter the inventory. Echoss also hands two of his items to Nia: the Item Iris and the Player Crafted Inventory! She takes 200 Credits as pay, then hands Echoss 2 Flux, casually placing it in his palm. He then returns the two items to him! It seems that she hasn't dared tinker with Chloe's design for the Item Iris, instead opting to just generally optimize it. The Player Crafted Inventory meanwhile, has been tampered with! A fourth slot! How dare she!?

...Wait, that's a good thing.

---

Bow Kid and Mustache Kid do some harvesting. Bow Kid pillages a cubby full of electronic goods! This yields 21 Wire Scraps, 12 Circuit Boards, 5 Joltwire, and 5 Fluxfuel Cells. It's not too much, but those cells are kinda interesting! Mustache Girl meanwhile, decides to carve up the Bastion some more. They find 2 more Bastion Thymeports, as well as 7 Thyme Missiles! This is instantly sent up into the inventory.

---

Venia does a variety of things. First, another one of Venia's many maids comes to visit the Secretary that's touched down in Zone 1. They're promptly plucked from the ground, then quietly and calmly takes the package from them. A Mysterious Processor slips out of the box, and goes into the inventory. The Secretary then bows towards the Maid, before hopping off somewhere to the northeast. It seems they have business to attend to. Like trying to bum a ride back to Creation, or something.

Elsewhere, on her date with Nia, Venia decides that she'd rather begin with lunch. The cyanette nods her head, and waits in anticipation as Venia frees both sushi and ice cream (+other things) from her picnic basket. Nia's eyes light up as the sprawling banquet is set in front of her.

NIA: Wow!
NIA: This is amazing!
NIA: Regardless of whether you used your power or not, you really went the extra mile, huh?
NIA: Arigato~

Nia giggles, then begins to partake in the feast. Of course, she's mostly focusing on the ice cream, but there's the occasional bit of other delicacies snatched up just for variety. Despite this, she doesn't hesitate to give Venia a bit of extra ice cream- one extra bowl's worth. In-between bites, Nia poses a question.

NIA: Y'know, just how far can your powers go?
NIA: Like... how much food can you make? Do you need to know how to make it, or do you just sorta... get it?
NIA: I'm kinda curious, is all~

NIA: ...Also because I'd like a waffle. I really like waffles.
NIA: Chloe thinks I'm just an ice cream gal, but like, waffles are a close second.
NIA: Now, if I could like... get a Belgian waffle, then sandwich some ice cream in-between two quarters of it... we'd have a real treat on our hands!
NIA: You gotta try one! I've done it like, once. It was freakin' amazing.

Whilst Nia awaits a waffle, Maria visits the main hall of the Church of Helix. She then witnesses the Grey Observer, which promptly frightens her into hiding. Mari follows her behind the pew, not bothering to crouch behind it.

MARI: Oh, I'm pretty sure the Grey Iti aren't hostile.
MARI: Mostly because they didn't maul Venia while she was up there.
MARI: And this particular species of Iti doesn't really... do much. I mean, it stares at you, but that's about it.
MARI: Unless you touch it. Then it miiiiight try and eat you.
MARI: So, stay away from it, alright?

She reaches a hand out to Maria to help her up. The adventure must go on!

---

Auth notes that he has the power of shapeshifting. Omo raises an eyebrow at this discovery.

OMORIKA: ...Is that so?
OMORIKA: Fascinating.
OMORIKA: I do remember you mentioning something along the lines of this before...
NANA: O-Oh, I do, too!

NANA: S-So... now that y-you're a Chairian...
NANA: What do you p-plan to do?

Nana's hands fidget with the pouch that holds her various buffing darts as she awaits an answer. Omorika meanwhile, poses a few suggestions.

OMORIKA: We could try a few experiments to figure out how your transformations work.
OMORIKA: For instance, you could try... say, kissing miss Elem, and see if that'd-
NANA: N-No! Not happening!
OMORIKA: ...Ah, apologies.
OMORIKA: Hm, what happened around the time you noticed your transformation beginning?
OMORIKA: Did you consume something? Cast some sort of spell?
OMORIKA: They may all be factors that contributed to your transformation.

Omo has pulled out a piece of paper and a crystalline pen. Interview time?

---

<ITI HOLDING PENS, ROUND THREE>
Some of the Iti have broken out. Hopefully, they're not too much of a problem. Blast through them if you can to get to the juicy center that is the objective Iti! Also see if you can save the southern Chosen for an achievement.

<THE STEPS TO OBLIVION, ROUND TWO>
...Piggo has been slain. Despite that, it's probably going okay. Things will likely not be okay for Executioner 2. Please turn him into a fine putty, then see if its even possible to revive the pig. It might be. Who knows?

<THE SOUTH CHAPEL HALL, ROUND THREE>
A decisive victory! That was really fast, too. With all enemies gone, the team is free to go and loot the room! Namely, Magnolia's axe, which is embedded into the ground, only a few feet away from the southern entrance. As Nettle approaches, Auth decides to be prudent, and cast Autorevive on Nettle. Just in case. The axe is motionless (surprise) as Nettle moves up to it. She gives it a firm grip, and lifts it out of the ground. It's incredibly heavy! Using her full strength, Nettle can barely pick it up. Swinging it is another task entirely.

...An eye upon the axe opens up. It stares at Nettle. A voice emits from it, loud enough for everyone to hear. It sounds practically identical to Magnolia's own, except it seems... more vibrant. Probably because it's not coming from the strained vocal cords of a corpse. It seems calm enough for someone who's had their wielder vaporized.

AXE: ...Huh?
AXE: That hasn't... happened before.
AXE: Normally, I get to do something before getting torn apart...

AXE: Anyway, Hi!
AXE: It's me! Magnolia!
MAGNOLIA: It's been awhile since I needed a new body, but I guess I can always just get a new one.
MAGNOLIA: C'mon, let's go! We need to regroup, and-

The Axe (who is apparently Magnolia) pauses. Its eye widens as it gets a better look at Nettle.

MAGNOLIA: ...Um.
MAGNOLIA: You're not one of my friends.
MAGNOLIA: D-Did we lose?
MAGNOLIA: Everything went all foggy after you used t-the... o-old weapons...?

The axe begins to shake gently within Nettle's hands. She wasn't even aware that an axe could tremble in fear.

MAGNOLIA: ...W-Why do you have those?
MAGNOLIA: F-Father always t-told me t-to stay far, far away f-from the old weapons...
MAGNOLIA: H-He said they were a-awful, dangerous devices, and n-no matter what, I should always s-stay far, far away from them...
MAGNOLIA: A-And now you're using them!
MAGNOLIA: I thought w-we lost all of them! Father said we tried our hardest to d-destroy them!
MAGNOLIA: W-Why are you using t-them!? D-Don't you know t-that it's wrong?
MAGNOLIA: O-Or maybe y-you're... all... b-bad p-people?

Magnolia trembles more violently. Crimson energy surges outwards from the eye, travelling across "veins" in the axe's surface. The energy flows throughout the entire weapon. Probably sensing that holding onto an axe is a bad idea, Nettle attempts to drop the axe, but finds that she is unable to. The eye locks onto Lukas's entropic key. Magnolia then begins to scream. A chorus of other voices seem to join her voice, the axe glowing a truly terrifying crimson.

MAGNOLIA: F-FATHER? FATHER!? HELP! HELP!
MAGNOLIA: I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIE! G-GET AWAY! I-I DON'T WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU!

Nettle begins to sprint towards the southern door. With a single swing of Magnolia, the door is firmly freed from the wall. She then raises her arms over her head, and with a powerful swing, hurls Magnolia as far as she can, down into the darkness of the southern room. Nettle seems to regain autonomy as the axe leaves her possession. A shame that she lost Magnolia- she was Tier 6, and had a base of like (18-21) Slashing Damage. You probably could've killed someone with her.

...Anyway, with the battle over, you're free to head south for what looks like a somewhat bigger battle! Brace yourselves: this one might actually have a decently high playercap, so be sure you have troops to spare for when you move in!

Stats:
I equip the new Player Crafted Inventory and Item Iris upgrades, as well as the Inventory Cannon upgrade made further down in the post. I put my spare skillpoint into MMP.


Overworld:
Echoss nods in agreement with Chloe's comment.
"These kinds of... to call them people anymore would largely be disengenuous... will take whatever's right in the world and twist it until it's as wrong as they can get it.
I will be glad to clear out this filthy place."


At the house, Echoss's golems do more work on the flooring of the house.
They also take some time off to autocraft a trio of searing bombs, since those seem to be popular and I don't have time to craft something more interesting just yet.


In the Everground Piono hops up and springboards off the top of the anomaly (somehow) up into the little alcove further up, before gathering the everblooms and dumping them down into the anomaly.


CRAFTPOST: Gonna try and upgrade my weapon
Using: Inventory Cannon, x4 temple bricks, x2 bottled dream, x10 Silver Gears, x3 Assorted Gun Parts, Wire Scraps, Circuit Boards, x1 Elemental Silver, x10 Plasteel Ingots, x20 Durasteel Ingots, x2 Squall Clusters.
Result: High-Power Inventory Cannon. No stat boosts or damage increase, instead all power is put into increasing the strength of the weapon skill.

Echoss steps into CRAFTTIME (Which is like witchtime but for crafting instead of for witches) and pulls out the assorted item from before. First he crafts new ammo out of the last of the temple bricks. For some reason this doesn't actually improve the damage, but it sure is fancy.
Next up he disassembles the inventory cannon. That's right. The whole thing. With a fork. Not actually a fork he does it with gunsmithing tools, but it lets him see a good layout of the cannon. Turns out this thing runs on clockwork. Didn't run on clockwork before? Too bad, it does now through the power of CRAFTING
"I don't think that crafting works like"
QUIET BILLY WE'RE DOING SCIENCE!
Echoss quickly swaps out all the gears for silver ones, increasing their power level exponentially and therefore making them better. He also slots out the old worn lesser gun parts with new cool assorted gun parts. He also slings in the elemental silver and squall clusters so that an extra burst of wind will launch the items further. Nevermind that that's not helpful with gunpowder it'll work for certain!
Next thing to do is wire it up with circuit boards. Electronic is better than analogue, so in this essay Echoss will apply as many of both as he can get away with.
Finally, since higher materials are better, Echoss just drops an entire craft of durasteel and plasteel onto the gun, automatically upgrading to the next

Echoss staggers out of the dream, and looks down at the two shattered bottled dreams on the floor. It seems that when he was collecting all the resources to try and upgrade his gun he dropped the bottled dreams and everything before this has just been the magical equivalent of a fever dream.
Weird to have an ordinary disconcerting dream for once. Fortunately, it also seems to have upgraded the gun successfuly. Hooray dream magic?

Echoss slowly sidles away from the mess and leaves with his newly upgraded gun.

The Firing Line
Daskter attacks Wildcard◆
and also throws a Celefruit at the 1HP seeker

Conscript 3 appears at O11

All three conscripts blast away at Wildcard◆
If they go down in 2 attacks, the 3rd conscript can go to J11 and attack Screamer2

Heavy Mortar lumbers to L11 and blast away at D12

Lukas sheathes the Key, and raises Ga'aunt.

"What is it?"

Mari Squared

Venia receives the Mysterious processor via inventory transfer shenanigans and leaves the base of the tower, and heads off towards Mari-who she instinctively understands to only be a zone behind her.

"Mari, I got something for you-"

"Venny!" Maria shouts.

All of Maria's fear is forgotten (coupled with Mari's earlier exposition), and she immediately dashes to Venia, who in turn crouches down to give Maria a hug. Venia's tone raises a few octaves. "Oh my little muffin! Were you a good little girl for Mari?"

"Yeah!"

"Didn't get into any trouble?"

"Nuh-uh!"

"I got a little treat for you, then, for being such a nice little girl! Here!" Venia says, retrieving a Berrybomb candy from the inventory.

"Candy!" Maria exclaims, taking the little piece of candy, unwrapping it and eating it in record times.

"Oh, yes, Mari... As I was saying. I got something from you. Asked Creation for help... It sent us this," Venia says, handing the Mysterious Processor over to Mari. "I'm not familiar with the local tech. Might be advanced beyond my understanding, might basically be heiroglyphs to me. What do you make of it?"

---

Date

A somewhat-further-along Venia enjoys her date with Nia, happily eating a good deal of food before Nia pops her question. Her face falters a bit. "... I... I've never gone full-on with experimenting with that. I don't know what my exact limits are aside from moral. Oh, and energy. I can't directly create magical aspects or the like. I can create machines to channel them, but unless I can directly channel it I can't directly create anything magical. Other than that, I..."

Venia pauses rather awkwardly.

"OK two amazing Ice Cream Belgian Waffles coming up!" She says, doing her best to avoid the implications of the question as she reaches into one of those shimmering distortions and pulling out... oh, oh! It is delicious. It sings to anyone with a sweet tooth. Waffles and ice cream sandwiched together, topped with whipped cream, strawberries, and a golden syrupy liquid Nia didn't recognize, like syrup but brighter. She sets it before Nia on a silver platter, and then pulls one out for herself. "This looks amazing."

---

Evergroooound

Venia's maid leaps up to the iron chain, climbs it, hops over the fountain again, and moves to the other hole she made earlier. She immediately begins to create an iron chain with a few of the infinite iron ingots, melting down the individual ingots with sheer psychic power forcing friction, then bending the results of that into the appropriate cufflinks. End result? Hopefully enough chain to pin down to the ground here and allow safe passage downwards without having weird rigeramoles.

With this done, the Maid descends below and hops into the unexplored cavern to the right, where the eyeball thing left.

---

The Rosen Catacombs

Venia carefully watches Nettle as she picks up what is quickly revealed to be Magnolia herself-the axe instead of the corpse they just evaporated. Perhaps that wasn't too shocking for her-more shocking is her reactions. "... God. I really hate this cult, now they twist people like this into-"

"NOTHING MORE THAN A MEAL. EAT OF IT AND BE WELL. EAT. EAT!"

In that moment, Venia was endlessly thankful for Nia not being there to have another panic attack over her, even though she only flinched to visibly show her discomfort at her internal thoughts.

She looks back, and notices Echoss conveniently the closest to her, glaring at the leftover Onlooker. She grabs him by the wrist. "Come on!" She shouts, pushing aside Nettle and rushing into the southernmost room. "Prisoners, Magnolia, too important!"

---

Skillpoints

Venia takes out two skill points in HP and RES each and invests them into DEF, giving her 3 AC. A solid amount. She then invests a skill point into AGI.

Crya takes one point out of SPC and then puts a point into SKI and MP.

QUOTE (The_Nonexistent_Tazz @ Nov 15 2019, 11:44 PM)

The Rosen Catacombs Venia carefully watches Nettle as she picks up what is quickly revealed to be Magnolia herself-the axe instead of the corpse they just evaporated. Perhaps that wasn't too shocking for her-more shocking is her reactions. "... God. I really hate this cult, now they twist people like this into-" "NOTHING MORE THAN A MEAL. EAT OF IT AND BE WELL. EAT. EAT!" In that moment, Venia was endlessly thankful for Nia not being there to have another panic attack over her, even though she only flinched to visibly show her discomfort at her internal thoughts. She looks back, and notices Echoss conveniently the closest to her, glaring at the leftover Onlooker. She grabs him by the wrist. "Come on!" She shouts, pushing aside Nettle and rushing into the southernmost room. "Prisoners, Magnolia, too important!"

Echoss is taken off-guard by Venia's sudden wrist grabbing.
"Wait Miss Praefortis hold o-!" yoink, down to the south we go.