Acting first, Gibbet glares at Spark! Or, well, what was Spark. To be honest, the transformation was a bit gruesome, and Gibbet had to see it with all too-many-eyes! Wiping it off the face of the battlefield would be a mercy, to be honest.
Gibbet moves to F11
Super Big Cutty prepared. Current HP: 1513.

Yato... leans back for a moment at the Tower. Such a shame, twice now that Yato didn't have an opportunity to take the glimpse for themselves.

["A pity. You were warned of the power, and yet, you drank deep regardless. Such a fool moving from this world would be a mercy, and one we shall grant you."]

Gibbler's many eyes gleam, and after following to F10, and Envenoming Yato's next arrow once more, the bird folds itself into a collection of feathers, which then disappear.
...does Yato know we're trying to take him alive? Good question. Not something that will stop them, though, from un-summoning Gibbler for the moment, what with battlefield-wide 15 direct damages incoming, and loosing an arrow directly into the crown.

Bauhaus and Reisz, barely dodging the magic-nullifying blast of Spell Ripper, laugh at Pionobot.
----
< BATTLE: THE TOWER >
Wattle goes first! He casts Squadsight!

[Bauhaus] "Friends-in-war," he shouts at the other Spherebreakers, "we fight as one!"

Bauhaus goes directly next after Wattle, casts Pocket Overdrive on Wattle, Calibri, and himself, then uses Turn().
Planning: 9 / 10
- Bauhaus uses Jaunt+Ping(), moving to J15. (-1 Planning)
- Bauhaus then uses Act+Cull(), basic attacking Spark, using Oil Reserves (-8 MP, +20% damage) and triggering Wattle's Squadsight. (-3 Planning)
Bauhaus ends his Turn(). +2 Planning. He retreats to J14.
Bauhaus ends his turn. +2 Planning.
Planning: 9 / 10

[Reisz] Reisz moves to H14, basic attacks Spark, triggering Wattle's Squadsight, and casts Jaunt to the southeast (hitting PSoldier1, Spark, and PSoldier4, and landing on L18).

Not!Echoss Adventures:
Not!Echoss scoots backwards and performs a card trick, showing the grey meteos the grey iti card. He then scoots forwawrds and checks the room West of the Southern Storage.


Aoki and Gum:
"Gum, I understand you being upset but I am not in the habit of policing an adventuring party I have no particularly special authority over besides what personal respect the others hold for me.
Aoki's original request to join us was because she wanted to gain some control in her life, I am not going to dictate her decisions."

Aoki wakes up. Echoss rummages through the inventory and pulls out a few things. Some simple sandwich supplies on a plate for something light to eat and the Yggdrasil Vessel, which has already recently proved itself to be a good remedy for respawn sickness, on someone who had it even worse. And also will cover for a drink to rehydrate with. He hands them to Gum for Aoki to get through when she's ready.
"A battlefield... well I suppose enemy action doesn't count as 'accident', but... You were unfortunate enough to have a surprise usage of one of the team's backup plans.
You were dead for, by my guess, approximately five seconds. You'll be alright, but most people's first time is rather jarring and I daresay you have it worse than normal. Just eat and drink slowly while your body readjusts, someone else went back in your stead to help finish things up so that you can recover."


INFINITE CRAFT WORKS
1. Erroblight consumable (x4 Ohmetal, x2 Fourth Coffin's Nail, x10 Goneblossoms, x4 Eversteel, x6 Crimson Idols, x2 Entrophies, x4 Soulblessed Alloy)
(Not!Echoss assembles a set of little clamp items, first he takes the Crimson Idols, Goneblossoms, and Entrophies, pulling them all together into little ritual items of glitchy unpleasantness, then puts the back of the Fourth Coffin's Nails into them causing it to channel that power through the point at the end, further after adding in the Ohmetal, for a semi-living application that will latch on to successfully apply the glitch poison. The Eversteel is taken, lectured until it bends into shape around to make a core from which the coffin nail and the ohmetal latches protrude. Finally, the Soulblessed Alloy is added around the edges, woven in so that it stabilizes the whole thing from not exploding into entropic sludge)
x2/4(?) Glitch Needles. When landed on an enemy they apply the "Glitchtoxin" debuff and minor erroblight. Every round that the foe continues to suffer from Glitchtoxin, the erroblight's duration is refreshed and its intensity is increased, and a random DoT is applied to the target as well (refreshing duration and increasing intensity if it rolls one the target currently has).

2. AoE Damage (x5 Fragapples, x10 Blossompetals, x30 Harpy Feathers, x1 Bastion Thymeport, x2 Amphi Aura Extract, x5 Yaga Razorteeth, x5 Fell Blades, x10 Plasteel Ingots, x10 Gunpowder, x1 Maxim Leg)
(Feeling really tired suddenly but basically use the Plasteel to make bomb shells with the fragapples and blossompetals as the central detonation feature, gunpowder and amphi aura extract strengthens the explosion with pieces of the Bastion Thymeport that was Creatively Surgeried using the Maxim Leg to launch everything outwards violently in every direction at once. On top of fragapple spines, the harpy feathers and pieces of the yaga razorteeth and fell blades are all included to make the whole thing even more violent.)
x5 Gre-Blades. Deal Piercing or Slashing damage in Splash1. Maybe inflict light bleeding on the center square.

3. Splinter Variant
I'm feeling kinda blegh so Not!Echoss just shoves 50 Uniform Logs through a wood chipper and chooses the best ones to use as Splinter consumables.


Battle:
Echoss looks at the thing that used to be Spark with contempt and pity in his eyes.
"It seems that as he began, so does he end."
Echobot moves to M12, basic attacks Spark, and then uses alter reality to change his empowered into enlightened.
Echobot tosses a Packaged Lunch to Chloe (+60% effect, 10% change to conserve, 20% chance to dupe. Dupe will be tossed to Yato)
And then he pulls out and drinks a Lively Concoction THE Ñ̵͚̝̌Ī̵͙̫Ā̶͇̪͘ ̶͍̿͊N̴̜͖̍̅I̵̻̚Ȁ̸͚ ̵̢̪͠͠N̷̯̜̍Ȋ̸̲̒A̶̤͇͊ when Not!Echoss swaps the two in his hand. Echoss stares at the drink with dawning horror, who knows what will happen on the inaugural use of BAD DECISIONS:tm:?
Assuming he survives his brush with death Echobot retreats to N11.


To-do List:
Also hand the Subspace Grocery Box to Cypress when he heads back to the house
Consumable requests: AoE healing, HP+MP restore (not mending+energized)

The End.

As Adria recovers from the horrific display of Mari getting dropped, Nidra getting demolished, and Spark transforming further, Hannah chimes in.

HANNAH: Wow. What a shocker.
HANNAH: ...Not really.
HANNAH: Saw that coming from a mile away.

HANNAH: ...Spark's more monster than Chairian. Always has been.
HANNAH: If you guys really want to try and not kill him, even after this... well, give it your best shot, I guess.
HANNAH: I wouldn't get my hopes up. Better off putting his corrupted core in a jar.

HANNAH: (god even she doesn't want him alive anymore... says a lot about his chances)

Once Adria recovers, she balls up a fist in one of her hands.

ADRIA: ...No.
ADRIA: I will not let some... some monster have their way with anyone else.
ADRIA: I do not care if this... thing lives or dies.
ADRIA: I just want it out of my sight.
ADRIA: Forever.

ACTUAL ACTION

Hannah's targeting reticle moves itself to (H7). Then, Hannah herself dives straight into the Thyme Vortex, popping out near the one at (I21), targeting reticle at (H20). It then moves towards (G19).

From there, Hannah fires NorthEast, hitting PSoldier3('s corpse) and Spark.

...

Adria moves to (O15) and takes from the Ammo Crate, removing her Reloader. She uses a Warpjack to move to (L12) to get in Wattle's Squadsight range, waits for Chloe to move closer if she wants to (or not since she's nearly down), and shoots Spark.

---

The Fusion is ready.

Finally. After what felt like a century, Adria has completed development the new Fusion. It seems she was smart enough to create a few backups in case something goes wrong, stuffing the disc and the backups in the inventory for safe keeping.

She disperses the temporal bubble she created for herself... and comes face-to-face with Hangman. Her heart skips a beat, and she starts sweating quite profusely.

Was she too late...?

/maybe more???

---

Big Heckin' Tooth

Shelly approaches the Thymeproof Diving Suit. She almost seems... fascinated by it.

SHELLY: Yes, this will do nicely.
SHELLY: The chains shouldn't be any problem. Think we have some extremely tough ones in here already.

Shelly takes a piece of Creation Meteorite and shapes it into a winch-style system; gears and all. She then attaches some Shackled Chains to it. She winds up the winch so that it's all coiled. Once it is, it's as if the chain has a limitless length bunched up like that.

Shelly then attaches it to the sub's interior via some Durasteel bolts. This thing will not come undone anytime soon.

With that, Shelly starts to climb into the diving suit. Should it be too small to fit her while wearing that skinny dress of hers, she tosses a smoke bomb down before she gets in, her clothing appearifying next to the diving suit with Shelly in it. She also takes the Respirator from the inventory; the one from Sophia's adventure; as EN seems to have forgotten the most important thing for living organisms: air. She also has the Everdrill ready to get the tooth out, and has attached the chain from the winch to her arm. After giving it a small tug loose, she's as ready to go as any of the hydrophobic people nearby.

SHELLY: Well, down I go.

She opens the diving hatch and jumps down into the Thyme Matter, directing herself towards the tooth. If I were a beaver, I would not mess with the heavyweight diving suit approaching the giant god with an unbreakable drill.

---

Hangin' With Mari

Adria noms on the chips, uncaring about the sound because they're heckin' chips, and chips are delicious.

ADRIA: Mmph, thanks!

Mari mentions that it's really unlucky that they don't know what cause the rogue planet to go rogue. Maybe Archaeology would be the only way to determine what actually went down. Adria nods.

ADRIA: We've been working on that. Quite extensively, actually!
ADRIA: There are ruins of a long bygone civilization that came before us out in the vast desert.
ADRIA: Preliminary research into these ruins has determined that those ancestors also used temporal technology, though not in the same method we use it today.
ADRIA: They infused it into their work. All of it. From the floors they walked on to the giant spike we found that one time.
ADRIA: In essence, it makes them timelocked. Only viewable in their current time and at no other time. The future, the past, none of it. Only the present.
ADRIA: It's a part of what makes looking back in time so difficult.
ADRIA: The other part is the planet itself.
ADRIA: For every, say, 1000 grains of dirt, sand, et cetera, there's a single, tiny grain of Chronodust, imperceptible to the naked eye.
ADRIA: There's also a small amount in the air, though it's typically too miniscule to matter for life functions.
ADRIA: As you recall, Chronodust absorbs energy of many different kinds.
ADRIA: It's especially receptive to temporal energy.
ADRIA: So really, the entire planet has adapted to this excess of temporal energy already, ourselves included. It makes looking back even a few years exceptionally difficult.
ADRIA: Out here, it's no issue, though we still have strict regulations about actually going back in time.
ADRIA: Despite how clean our temporal energy is, we cannot go back and change a timeline. We always create a branching timeline to circumvent the paradox. One where we exist, while the "main" timeline remains one where we don't.
ADRIA: As such, we don't disturb the timelines in the slightest, and we circumvent a paradox.
ADRIA: Then we leave that branched timeline, return to the main timeline at the instant we left it, and report our findings.
ADRIA: Though, as I mentioned, it's useless for researching what goes on back home.
ADRIA: Those that came before us likely knew about the attempts we would make long in advance, and thus made our planet imperceptible to those originally from outside of that timeline, in all potential timelines.
ADRIA: They were... very thorough.

ADRIA: So that leaves straight archaeology, which in a desert as wild as ours, is shockingly difficult.
ADRIA: Depending on how the wind blows in the desert, new ruins come uncovered while old ones sink below the sands, hidden once more.
ADRIA: In addition, monsters are constantly on the prowl. Aggressive and territorial ones, too.
ADRIA: They're unusually tough for creatures we should be able to cut in half with an oversized sword, or bludgeon with a megamace.
ADRIA: Sorta like that Monster Hunter game... huh. That's an odd parallel now that I say it out loud.

ADRIA: And, of course, if it were just monsters there likely wouldn't be a problem.
ADRIA: But there are also the... rowdy bandit and pirate bands.
ADRIA: Some Guardians even returned saying there's some sort of cult on the go as well? But nobody's been able to confirm it.
ADRIA: Either way, they're either enigmatic in the case of the "cultists", or outright hostile in regards to the others. They all have the potential to be, or are, detrimental to just about everything.

ADRIA: Some archaeologists theorize that some temples far out in the desert may contain the answers we're looking for. But none have been uncovered.
ADRIA: There's also this giant black tower deep in the desert perpetually covered by an intense sandstorm all day, every day, surrounded by some hard-to-kill monsters on top of that.

ADRIA: So, in short, we're working our butts off to figure things out, but progress is slow. Painfully slow.

Blink.

ADRIA: Hah, there I go again, babbling on!

Mari then asks how the heck Sophia got those games. Do they have shipments from Earth? Adria shakes her head.

ADRIA: No, actually.
ADRIA: Sophia just so happened to stop by the place on one of her adventures.
ADRIA: Adventurous kid, she is. I can't help but admire it a bit.
ADRIA: Anyway, I think she stopped by a ruined shop on the island Hannah was from, and... pilfered a few.
ADRIA: They definitely weren't being sold back there, given they had a Mafia invasion problem.

ADRIA: To be fair, I think if they were being sold, the invading Mafia would have charged exorbitant prices for them individually.

as if they weren't exorbitant enough already

ADRIA: So really, nobody was going to buy them. So why not give them a home?
ADRIA: I even modified her Gamedecahedron to be able to play them, and restored any broken games back to a working condition!

That probably answers the currency question, but just for kicks, Mari does anyway. Adria giggles at the concept.

ADRIA: That'd be one unorthodox trade network!
ADRIA: I'm not entirely sure how it'd work to be honest.
ADRIA: And... honestly, economics was never my strong suit anyway. Couldn't quite wrap my head around it...
ADRIA: I'm better off leaving that kinda thing to the professionals.

Adria seems relaxed. Despite the gaping hole right next to the café.

-Move to I20 via Vortex.
-Self-use an Everfluid Coating.
-Basicattack Spark (+50% total damage modifier), hit Soldier5 with Spike Storm.
-Retreat to J19.
-Spend all MP on Cherry Energy at Spark.

Operation Throw Pottery At Remiel: At the very end of the Spherebreaker phase, if Spark is within about 200 damage of the SBC threshold, do the following:
-Any allies in Range 1-5 who haven't already used their Item Actions throw a Mana Pot at Remiel.
-As each one is thrown, Remiel burns all the gained MP into Cherry Energy on Spark.
-Once Remiel's HP is at or below 12, Remiel will keep 12 MP in reserve, spending that on more Cherry Energy once all the pots are thrown.

Destiny expends 1 stack of Gravity Crush on Soldier 2. After the Pikeman, she moves to I156 and stabs Spark before retreating to F16.

BATTLES - SPARK IS GOING TO FUCKING DIE

Turn order (warning: long):

NPC Orders:

---

ZONE 5.5

The Reflector scoops the tier 1 prototype weapon off the ground and then waves to the scientist.

THE REFLECTOR: hello why hello there dear chairian friend!
THE REFLECTOR: master cypress and the spherebreakers they have taken possession retaken control of this laboratory.
THE REFLECTOR: the iti and spark's fanatics are quite driven, driven out!
THE REFLECTOR: and the rebels are pacified entirely peaceful.
THE REFLECTOR: however we must warn you the floor is missing in parts.

---

PATHFINDER

"THE SCION": Um, maybe I'll be a fighter!
"THE SCION": As weak as my arms are, my magic is usually pretty brutal, haha...
"THE SCION": I want to change it up, so...

"The Scion" peers at the rulebook section for the fighter. She doesn't entirely understand all of it, not really knowing the game's core rules, but she is excited regardless.

Battle - End of Unity

"...We're almost clear of whatever's going on, I'm sure..."

Despite Verdana's attempt to self-encourage, the Calfusion's body is clearly not holding up as well as he wants it to. The whole thing trembles as the patches of pitch-black spread further, cracks appearing in a lightning-like pattern...

---



---

Suddenly, electricity arcs violently over the Calfusion's form, all signs of movement ceasing as ALL the colour drains out of their body, eyes slammed shut. Over the next few seconds, nothing particularly notable happens... Then, they stand back up, still looking much the same.

And then they open their eyes, revealing hollow sockets. Many of the more extravagant details melt away, the majority of those extra wings withdrawing back into the fusion's body, the overall size shrinking down, etc etc. Then, Hangman grins.

"So, this is what their power feelings like."

This is going to be fun for him.


Battle action:

The fusion, now controlled by Hangman, turns to focus on Pionobot. Hangman offers a mirthless smile as he inspects his target. But first, he'll need some help. So he turns to Beech.

"...Hm. Didn't expect them to recruit one of you... Have they taught you about the inventory yet? Now might be a good time to get some practice in - try retrieving a burrito and hand it over."

Translation: Beech use item action to use Burrito on Calfusion

After that, Hangman then uses a Halobloom, restoring some HP and MP before promptly dropping to 1 HP. Good, that's the setup.

Now then. Back to Pionobot. The fusion turns to face Pionobot once again, Hangman's visage grinning more eagerly. Black lightning crawls up and down the length of the special Sol Aeterna. It looks... rather out of place. Especially paired with that expression.

"I hope you can feel pain... I want this to be agonizing as possible for you."

Hangman casts Exertion and Reckless Revenge, then basically executes Pionobot with a terrifyingly overpowered basic attack.

+105% from Exertion buff levels, +5% from Empowered1, +20% from Bushi Road, +304% from Reckless Revenge w/ the below half health boost

(28-29) + 434% = (150-155) -> (150-155) + 30% (glitch weakness) = (195-202)

This extreme overkill essentially manifests as a noose appearing and dragging Pionobot into the air by his neck so he can't dodge, then Hangman hurling the lance-form Sol Aeterna at him with immense velocity, black lightning exploding off of it upon contact with the target. While the noose does promptly dissipate right after and let Pionobot land back on solid ground again, taking a blow like that must've done a number on him.

"Hah, no wonder Calibri's view of you includes the words punching bag."


Hangman then lets the fusion body rest for a bit, waiting until later in the round. Then, once it's time and Omo does the Null Somnum+ on the fusion, Hangman blinks. As much as someone who has eye sockets can blink.

"...Hm. Neat. But this body is a bit low on mana, can you hand me, hmm... a smoothie?"

Omorika: item action give the fusion a Fresh Smoothie

After that, Hangman maneuvers the fusion body over to N15 to reload both Exertion and Reckless Revenge, then moves up to O12. Spark/The Tower might feel an ominous feeling...

"Now then, Spark... Quite frankly, this is a mercy kill. If I had the time and discretion, I would make it anything but merciful. Oh well."

And with that remark, Hangman directs the Calfusion to repeat the same extremely powerful strike once again.

Blah blah blah (150-155).

Spark's transformed body doesn't have a head or neck, so this time, the strike manifests as Hangman summoning a noose to yank the Tower's top section closer to him, forcing it to lean at a really uncomfortable angle... And then hammering the Core as hard as possible, aiming for the eye and pumping in quite the burst of agony-inducing black lightning.

Yeah, Hangman sure seems to like using those two things a lot. Nooses and black lightning. You might have noticed the running theme.

Either way, that's both turns spent, and so now Hangman sighs and relaxes, confident he can still draw upon the fusion body's power for a while longer. Unbeknownst to him, some of the fusion's body is starting to turn Calibri-blue again.

He might not have that shiny new stolen body for as long as he hoped.

---

The Old Pass...?

EN wisely decides to let the non-hydrophobic person handle the aqueous stuff. She does, at least, keep an eye out just in case.

"Lemme know if ya need anythin' down there!"

---

The Everground

I'll just leave this here for later.

---

Receptionist's Hall

:)

Loading.

---

Star Aeterna to the battlefield...?

"..."

While she doesn't voice anything out loud, Lato the person is having some issues. Sol Aeterna the weapon still functions fine, though...

---

The House

"...Sod it, that'll do."

Engie decides that's good enough, promptly warps back to the Tabletopian border by manner of... magic mirror apparently, then presents the tabledudes with the USB.

"Honestly it's a bit hard to pick out everything from there, there's a lot going on, but at some point there should be something useful."

He then turns and looks a fair way into the distance...

"Aaaaaand Sparkles turned himself into a giant purple tree, why did I even bother trying to remember his name."

Berg moves to J15, using a MOV/Polar Piledriver combo (so that they're in range of Wattle's Squadsight). He then uses it on Spark (and Precision Destruction activates, too)!

cA: No more words. They were wasted on you anyway. The only thing you deserve is DEATH.

Battle: End of Unity

Venia clearly looks at Spark's dialogue as an obvious challenge... And then he transforms one last time. Venia can barely look and her eyes stray to Pionobot.

"... I was waiting for him to say that, I had the answer, and now look. Well, nothing more to say to, uh."

Venia briefly looks over to Calibri, who is probably looking at Pionobot.

"OK, nothing more to say period. Let's just hurry up, kill this thing and be done. There goes making him pay for his crimes... "

Venia immediately burns another 16 HP for one last Ordo, moves to M19 to pass through the portal to F13, burns one last Phantasmal Force on Spark, and then uses Purge one last time too... And for good measure, then activates Black, Yellow for maximum DPS, benefitting form Purger. The Vampiric5 on Purger probably makes this strategy less ridiculous than it sounds.

"... I know I talk a lot but I'm not annoying any of you with that, right?" Venia says, sheepishly.

---

-others-

-later-

Zahlia goes up to Spark at I16 and uses Exertion and then moves to F16.
That's about it at this point.

Battle: End of Unity

Irongutta makes his move, following the turn order. He moves 5 spaces up to J9, which activates Unstoppable Force! He felt like it was time to bomb the absolute gorilla out of Spark.

"Ready, Magnolia? Let's give 'em hell!"

He both activates Together, We Dance and makes use of the Rosebomb this turn, lobbing a grenade at Spark. Expecting to get a kill, Irongutta will use the movement from Together, We Dance to move to H9, where he lobs another grenade at Spark. Another kill is expected here, so he will move one more time to F9 and send one last grenade from the Rosebomb at Spark.

Quick post

Pikemen go stabs Spark

Daskter moves to (F12) to nanostorm Spark.

Battle action, fast! Auth quickly floats to L11, looks nervously since he's in the middle of the Thymeswirl but still Liberates the Eliti that was once Spark.

Auth does not like needing to have such prospect of danger. He hopes that the Eliti can be destroyed before he can damage everybody.

---

Auth sighs.

AUTH: Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware that you were mocking me. That doesn't change my sincere pride that you elected to use some modicum of mercy.
AUTH: Rationalise what you did however you'd like. I'm still proud that you chose, for whatever reason, not to cause undue pain on somebody.
AUTH: Better me than somebody else, if that's what you'll insist on. At least in my case, the damage is reversible. For most Chairians, I don't think that is the case.

---

Will talk to Taeda at a later time.

<ROUND 312>

Not!Echoss and Echoss do tasks. To begin, Not!Echoss, Grey Card in hand, shoves the Grey Meteos into the inventory. As it enters, it immediately begins to ricochet around, slamming into things at random. Poor thing's probably horrified. Now go show it the true meaning of fear. He also investigates to the west of the Southern Storage, finding... uh, not much. The tunnel's a bit jammed.

Over with Gum, Echoss explains to Gum that he's not really in the habit to micromanage this entire party. In addition, Aoki joined the party to obtain some semblance of control in her life. Though it would appear that many a question hangs on Gum's tongue, he'd rather not stress out the songstress any further than she is now. He's silent as Echoss recounts the last few moments of Aoki's life to her, in a sense.

AOKI: So I... d-died, in the field of combat.
AOKI: And I... did the impossible. I returned.
AOKI: Unlike the thousands of others before me on the battlefield, I was given the privilege to return.
AOKI: It feels... w-wrong. Like there are many more who would deserve a second chance before me. T-Those who are stronger. Those who could... m-make a difference.
AOKI: I-I am... b-but an idol. Unfit for the battlefield.
GUM: even if you think you're not fit for battle, you deserved that second chance just as much as anyone else
GUM: just because you're not conventionally strong doesn't mean you don't deserve it
GUM: everyone deserves a second chance, really
AOKI: I-I... suppose you have a point.
AOKI: B-But... it still hurts. T-To believe yourself to be e-enough, and to be shown just how wrong y-you were...

Gum pulls Aoki close for a brief moment. Her breathing slowly returns to a steady, consistent pace. She listens about as attentively as she can as Echoss explains that she's probably been dead for about give seconds. In addition, this sort of reaction to death is fairly common. Just... probably have a few snacks to recover some strength. And don't worry about how the battlefield's fairing; someone's taken her place.

AOKI: F-Five... seconds.
AOKI: It's been... f-five seconds?
AOKI: It's... certainly felt longer than that.

Wordlessly, she rolls out of Gum's comfort, and places herself against the wall. Sitting against it, she slowly helps herself to the refreshments provided. While perhaps not as scrumptious as she'd like to have right now, it's certainly doing a nice bit for her drained energy.

Elsewhere, Not!Echoss decides to do a spot of crafting! He takes 2 Ohmetal, 1 Fourth Coffin Nail, 10 Goneblossoms, 2 Eversteel, 6 Crimson Idols, 2 Entrophies, and 2 Soulblessed Alloy to create 4 Glitch Needles! He then spends 5 Fragapples, 10 Blossompetals, 30 Harpy Feathers, a Bastion Thymeport, 2 Amphi Aura Extract, 5 Yaga Razorteeth, 5 Fell Blades, 5 Plasteel Ingots, 10 Gunpowder, and a Maxim Leg to create 6 Gre-Blades! Finally, 50 (40) Uniform Logs are transformed into 4 Splinters.

Echoss also says something to Spark, but... his words are falling on deaf ears, it seems. Frustrating, but not entirely surprising.

---

Shelly goes thymediving! Veiled in the Thymeproof Diving Suit, she prepares a tether from a piece of Creation Meteorite and a Shackled Chain. Bolting it to the ship, she then sets out into the grape juice. A highly lethal form of grape juice, but it probably tastes like grape juice.

Everdrill in hand, Shelly effortlessly makes her way to the tooth. Though she assumed she'd be the most intimidating thing in the world to these infested beavers, they don't seem to be intimidated in the slightest! They barrel towards her at fairly whelming speeds... up until Shelly grabs hold of the tooth. All of a sudden, the approaching beavers let out shrieks, before bolting away from her as fast as possible. Chaos, who has snuck a communicator into the suit, beams a message to Shelly.

CHAOS: did you piss in [t]he pool or some[t]hing
CHAOS: be[c]ause [t]he beavers are fleeing from you
CHAOS: really fas[t]
CHAOS: a[c][t]ually a lo[t] of [t]hem are s[t]raigh[t] up surfa[c]ing
CHAOS: did you spook [t]hem?

...The entirety of the cavern rumbles. It's a bit hard to tell given everyone's in a submarine, but that rumbling noise is pretty unmistakable.

CHAOS: or maybe wha[t]ever [t]ha[t] was spooked [t]hem
CHAOS: probably hurry up before we inevi[t]ably ge[t] he[c]kin' jumped

Dozens of Migi spring from the mouth of the dead Fell God. They attempt to latch onto Shelly, but with no effect. Is that the best they can do? How cute. Still, it'd probably be in Shelly's best interest to grab that tooth, and fast.

While Shelly risks her life in the depths, Mari and Adria enjoy a pleasant evening, consisting of chips n' coffee. They discuss a couple of sophisticated science-lady things- mostly the matter of the whole "rogue planet" situation. Nobody really knows how they got there, but Adria informs Mari about a few things. First, about just how damn difficult it is to figure out the past.

MARI: So... the planet and its ruins have such an absurd amount of chronodust, that it's effectively blocking all forms of timey-wimey gorilla?
MARI: Bold of you to use a time-based energy source then, but whatever works.
MARI: Can't help but wonder why someone would go through all of this trouble to hide their pasts.
MARI: Like, it's pretty damn hard to defend against time travel peeking. Why resist it, though? Did they do some really unspeakable gorilla to warrant this?
MARI: And like, even if they did some stuff... that's already happened, and they're all dead, right? So what if we discover their degenerate internet history?
MARI: I mean, we can assume they're all dead.
MARI: Unless they're not.

Mari snaps her fingers, comboing into dual finger guns.

MARI: Bam. Solved it. They're not dead, and they're really worried about leaving a paper trail and getting gorillaing cancelled.
MARI: ...
MARI: Okay, probably not. But that'd be cool.
MARI: If that actually ends up being right though... caaaaaaaaaaalled it!

Adria changes gears a little, noting that standard archeology is crazy difficult. Desert winds constantly change the landscape, burying and revealing landmarks in a constant, unpredictable cycle. There's also the issue of monsters, and apparently bandit and pirate bands?

MARI: Pirates? Out there?
MARI: Isn't everywhere around Stasis City pretty much a hellscape? How do pirates even manage to live? Subterranean caves or something? Unless you tolerate piracy within the walls for some reason.
MARI: And like, why even bother? All the good gorilla's in Stasis, which also lacks giant monsters.
MARI: Cultists I totally get, though. They're usually more insane than logical. Crazy rogue planet hell desert is par for the course there.

MARI: That giant, black tower though... sounds important.
MARI: It sounds like a damn great setting for a forum game, too.
MARI: Monsters. Sand. Towers. What more does a setting need, other than a couple dozen lesbians, a chaotic/chaotic blob person, and a reason to kill everything?
MARI: Sign me up for that. I'll defo uncover the secrets of that damn thing in a week or two.
MARI: I will slam a gigantic titanium time-powered gorilla into that thing, breach into it with an adventuring party, and have a grand old time ascending the Tower of 100 Trials.
MARI: If only so I can have the liberty of yelling "FIRST" at the top of my lungs once I clear the mysteries of that thing.
MARI: What do you think? You, me, an adventuring party, a mysterious tower, and a gigantic titanium gorilla.
MARI: It'd be goddamn swell.

This is almost certainly an awful idea. Maybe Adria knows more about the tower, though? Adria also mentions just how Sophia got her hands on some of Earth's hottest vidya. Apparently, she robbed the Mafia.

MARI: Robbed them from the Mafia? Sure, why not.
MARI: What sort of a planet wouldn't be selling vidya, though?
MARI: Not a planet that's worth a damn, that's what.

Mari slams down another gulp of coffee. A hearty, happy sigh leaves her.

MARI: This is the stuff!
MARI: Not as strong as what I normally make, but whatever. Coffee's coffee.

...What does Mari brew that's stronger than coffee made with uranium? The universe shall hopefully never find out. But Omorika will. Her caffeine senses are tingling, and not even the threat of universal destruction (or universal 2/3rding) will get in her way.

---

The Reflector decides to go and loot a weapon! They stumble into the lab, wave to the scientist, and inform them of the ongoing situation. Cypress and the Spherebreakers have taken control of the Sky Labs, so things should be fine! They step out behind the corner. Despite clearly being a scientist of sorts, they wear a military helmet.

SCIENTIST: oh nice
SCIENTIST: finally i can go home
SCIENTIST: play some playstation three
SCIENTIST: see you

They no clip through the wall, arriving at the company mandated pizza party. Fortunately for the Reflector, they were not asked for their passport. That would be a massive pain, getting company ID on short notice. Especially since they've never needed to bring it to work before. Anyway, with the scientist out of the way, they pick up the weapon on the ground. Prototype: Polaris obtained! It's... an odd weapon. A handgun? Looks like it has a long way to go.

Back at the house, the Scion reads through the rules for being a fighter. It's not the most complex thing in the world, but surely quite dizzying for someone who's never done this sort of thing before. Chloe naturalyl notices this worry.

CHLOE: Oh, don't worry if you don't know what's going on.
CHLOE: I'll teach you guys the proper rules once we've made our characters!
CHLOE: And if you want help with that... I'll walk you through it!
CHLOE: ...Actually, I'll walk everyone through it, okay?

Once everyone's settled down and decided on what they want to be, Chloe begins going through the systematic approach to creating a character. Rolling dice. Character alignments. Classes. All the good stuff. Roleplaying a whole character creation process would probably be painful, so... why not introduce the character that your character has made?

---

Engie hands over the USB to the Tabletopians. The soldier quietly takes the USB. After confirming the contents, a crate with 50,000 Credits is dropped onto Engie's position. It is unknown what form a "credit" takes, but this is certainly quite the mountain! Unfortunately, conversion rates and taxes reduce this to 500 in-game, usable Credits.

TABLETOPIAN: Pleasure doing business with you.
TABLETOPIAN: Now... do you still have business here?
TABLETOPIAN: If not, you'd best be going.
TABLETOPIAN: This is still a very highly militarized zone. It never stopped being one.

He should probably get going. The guys might get annoyed, and they'll tickle him for irrelevant amounts of damage. OH THE HORROR.

---

Venia asks around. Is she annoying anyone with her banter? Mari raises her hand.

MARI: Yeah. Please shut up.
MARI: You're almost as bad as goddamn Flame Hyenard!
MARI: ...Okay, not that bad. Nobody can be as bad as goddamn flame Hyenard.
CHLOE: H-Hm? You're fine, Venia.
CHLOE: Mari's just being mean. You've done a good job annoying him and putting him off his game!
CHLOE: And if you didn't keep bullying him, he might've just dipped instead of fighting us, y'know?

CHLOE: I wanna say nasty things to Spark too, but...
CHLOE: I'm... not really good with these sorts of things.
MARI: Look at you, being a cute little snowflake.
MARI: Go and say swears! It's gorillaing liberating!
CHLOE: I-I don't know... b-but-
XAVIER: Absolutely not.
CHLOE: o-okay

Chloe legally cannot say swears. I mean, she can. She'd just rather not. Spark however... does not respond. He's still a horrifying purple abomination. He is above smalltalk now. He's all about bigtalk. Whatever that is.

---

<END OF UNITY, ROUND 16>
On the battlefield, two events play out nearly one after the other. The malevolent, dashing destroyer that is Pionobot lunges towards the Calfusion, the Ultimatum swinging downwards. At the bare minimum, this would pound the fusion a foot into the ground. But, what happens when an unstoppable force meets another unstoppable force? The holy light of a Purge slams directly into the Ultimatum! The beam and the effectively fifty billion kiloton "hammer" remain locked in their clash, the battlefield illuminated by their prismatic encounter.

The Ultimatum grows red hot, and under the power of the Thymefield, begins to melt. Flecks shoot across the battlefield. Even now, it's unclear what'll outlast the other. As the light of the Calfusion's purge begins to weaken, a scarlet blur flashes behind Pionobot, a solitary blade flashing across his arms. Maple lands and skids across the ground as Pionobot promptly loses his handle on the Ultimatum.

MAPLE: N-Now! Finish it!

The Ultimatum is rather casually blown to the side by the remaining echoes of the Purge, allowing the beam to properly annihilate Pionobot. He's launched across the battlefield, stone tiles kicking and shooting up in his wake. He stumbles back up onto his feet, thymecursed smoke rippling off across his entire body.

MAPLE: D-Damn it! C-C'mon, how can you s-still be going?
PIONOBOT: You think that's enough to take me down!?
PIONOBOT: I am the great destroyer! A few light blows-

Pionobot's surely well-rehearsed villainous breakdown monologue is interrupted by another large plume of Thymecursed smoke! A pulse of blue light radiates from his eyes, before shooting down his right arm.

PIONOBOT: WHAT? NO!
EREN: Yes!
PIONOBOT: No, no, no, NO! You're supposed to be DEAD!
EREN: This is my body you schmuck, it has been for decades!
EREN: I'm not letting you kill my friends with it!
EREN: Now get the hell out of my code you ridiculous store brand edgelord!

Pionobot's entire body shudders. Blue, green, and amber light strobes across his convulsing limbs. Thymecursed smoke wafts off of him in greater volumes than ever before, accompanied by an ominous glow from the center of his chest.

PIONOBOT: YOU CANT'!
PIONOBOT: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

Perhaps for the last time, Pionobot is cut off. A series of purple explosions ripple across his body, sending rather significant amounts of synthetic skin, hyper advanced alloy, and and tubes of crimson plasma outwards, propelled by violent Thymecurse conflicts. Last and greatest of all, three consecutive blasts of blue, green, and amber rip from his chest, gouging a hole into him. A small crystal of red energy is launched from his body like a bullet, disintegrating into purple mist as it zooms off into the stratosphere.

Despite the catastrophic events that just occurred, Eren is still standing. Even with the constant plumes of thymecursed smoke, the missing chunks of his limbs, and the gigantic hole in the center of his chest.

EREN: ...ow.
EREN: gorilla.

He promptly collapses forward. Maple intercepts his course, jetting right in front of him. He falls onto Maple's back, the thymecursed smoke slowing... and finally stopping. Maple takes hold of Eren, doing her absolute best to support him on her back. He's clearly much too heavy for her, but she does her best anyway.

MAPLE: Y-You'll.... you'll be alright.
MAPLE: You're not going to die on me.
MAPLE: Let's get out of here, you and me. Alright?
EREN: Heh. Yeah, it'll take more than that to keep me down.
???: Negative. You are going to rest when we get back.
???: They're right, Eren. You're not going to be back in fighting shape until the thymefield comes down.
???: Thank you, Maple.

Maple doesn't even question the voices, only responding with a simple nod. If she has questions, she has plenty of time to ask later. What's important here is that she keeps him safe. It's her duty as a heroine, right? She does however, take a moment to loot something of interest. Crimson Core obtained. A trinket. Perhaps it'll come in handy? She hopes so, anyway.

Just moments later, blades clash just across the battlefield. A mech-augmented saber wielded by Xavier, less blade and more "huge piece of iron with a pointy bit", and no less than three thyme-formed claws from Spark's contorting body. A tendril shoots from the mass below his body, gripping his old weapon of Gaiameld, slamming it desperately against the saber. Shock-absorption mechanisms dull the blow to an absurd degree, causing Xavier to barely flinch.

SPARK: DIE! DIE! DIE!
XAVIER: As if I'd die that easily.
XAVIER: A shame I barely even know who you are. Otherwise, I'd be able to say something clever.
XAVIER: But... you like it when people talk like this, don't you?
SPARK: QUIET! I SHALL WIN, I SHALL TRIUMPH, I SHALL FEAST ON YOUR CORPSE
XAVIER: Disgusting.
XAVIER: How the hell were you elected?

Still clashing, Spark puts his weight against Xavier, forcing him and his blade back. He then unleashes a brutal storm of claw swipes against Xavier. Each one is either effortlessly parried or sidestepped. Gunfire flashes from Xavier's body, imbedding them into Spark's body. Shots ripple into his body, doing no visible damage but clearly causing Spark discomfort.

XAVIER: You barely know how to fight, do you?
XAVIER: You're sloppy. Incredibly sloppy.
XAVIER: Your patterns are predictable, your attack power low, and more importantly, you lack even the most basic of tactics.

Xavier backsteps a particularly heavy blow, allowing his two recently repaired God Hands to swing forward and clap Spark's form. The lower half of his body is pulped and liquidated, but it soon begins to reform itself. He'll need to go for that Core of his. But, as it regenerates... he has a perfect opening. He smirks.

XAVIER: Heh.
XAVIER: You're so pathetic, even my sister could kill you.
CHLOE: W-What's that supposed to mean!?

Chloe springs forward, slashing many bladed tendrils before they can even properly form. Though she glares at Xavier, her focus and precision is undeterred. She dances with her blade, effortlessly plowing through what defenses Spark can raise.

XAVIER: It's a simple fact, really.
XAVIER: Chloe wouldn't dare kill anyone. But you... you're too far gone.
XAVIER: To kill you would be a mercy at this point. And Chloe... she'd always show someone that kindness, no matter what happens.

XAVIER: So.
XAVIER: Sister. Shall we finish this?
CHLOE: Sure thing.
CHLOE: You go for his core. I'll keep you covered.

The two step into action! Chloe continues her dance, ensuring that Spark is unable to grow anything from his body. Her sword enchanted with with Sword Beam, she unleashes long-ranged slashes that destroy multiple tendrils at a time. Suddenly, a dozen tendrils root themselves from the ground, armed with his signature weapon- the King's Greatsword. It hurtles down towards Chloe! Rather than try to dodge, or attempt to parry. Chloe springs right below the blade, into the path of danger. She shoots upward, severing the arms that hold the weapon.

Then, one hand on the hilt of Spark's own weapon, she pockets it into the inventory. Xavier doesn't need to be told what to do next. He swings his own blade at Spark's core. Without his weapon, Spark is completely defenseless. His projected eye goes wide as the blade slams directly into his core- directly into the Creation Glyph!

A surge of creation energy shoots from the glyph, vaporizing Spark's form. His core, cracked from the blow, falls to the ground. The Creation Glyph plops out from the wound, miraculously unharmed. It tumbles across the ground, away from what remains of Spark. A pool of Thyme Matter, and a damaged core.

CHLOE: I-Is... is it over?
XAVIER: Of course it isn't.
XAVIER: Someone as vindictive as him won't just stay down.

Indeed, he doesn't. Even with the loss of the Glyph, Thyme Matter continues to build and swirl around what's left of his body. He continues to shriek, words barely legible. He tries to form new limbs, but finds himself completely unable to act.

SPARK: NO! NO!
SPARK: I WON'T DIE! I WON'T DIE! I WON'T DIE!
SPARK: NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!
CHLOE: T-This is... just sad.
OMORIKA: I concur.
OMORIKA: If only he knew when to give up.
CYPRESS: It's almost sad.
CYPRESS: Almost.
CYPRESS: To think. Reduced to this.
THE SLEUTH: The Sleuth surveys Spark's body. It's a miracle he's even speaking at this point.
THE SLEUTH: He figures it must be the Thymefield keeping him alive. Killing him... would be impossible.

As Spark writhes, a voice comes from the Sphere.

WARE: ...
WARE: So it's finally come to this.
WARE: How does it feel? This perpetual pain?
WARE: Did you think, even for a second, how it would feel?
WARE: How I would feel, always trapped like this?
WARE: Feeling the same pain you are feeling, day after day.
WARE: Powerless.
WARE: Completely powerless.
WARE: A slave to the events that have been set in motion.

Crimson and violet begin to blister out of the Sphere, like a freshly-grown pimple. What's it doing?

WARE: But it's okay.
WARE: I'm not like you.
WARE: I won't leave you to rot like this.
WARE: No matter what any of them could do, you'd never die.
WARE: A man like you, filled with rage and vindication, an anger that can never be quenched...
WARE: Something like that could never truly die.

WARE: But... that's okay.
WARE: Any problem can be solved.
WARE: With a proper allocation of charge.

A wave of energy sweeps from the Sphere, threatening to knock everyone over. The "pimple" blooms into a beautiful swirl of color, morphing into a gun roughly the size of the Citadel's central spire. Dozens of crimson eyes plague its surface. A barrel that streaks across the horizon has its crosshairs directly trained onto Spark's core. There's even a little laser pointer trainted directly onto him. Desperately, Spark tries to roll. Roll as fast as he can.

CHLOE: G-Guys?
CHLOE: I think we should take a cue from Spark... and run.

As the party begins to evacuate the area, the forest near the arena lunges towards Spark. A wooden cage forms around him. Acacia giggles as she turns to leave. The voice from the Sphere continues to echo and boom.

WARE: I'll waste this energy, if only to do you a kindness.
WARE: A kindness you couldn't grant me.
WARE: A kindness you wouldn't grant me.

SPARK: NO! NO! NO!
SPARK: STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT
SPARK: I'LL DO ANYTHING
SPARK: YOU CAN BE THE CHAIRHEIR
SPARK: YOU CAN HAVE THE KINGDOM
SPARK: JUST LET ME LIVE! JUST LET ME LIVE!
WARE: ...Really?
WARE: Where did all of that bluster go?
WARE: You were going to take everyone with you, weren't you?
WARE: If you couldn't have it, why let anyone?
WARE: But I guess, now that the people are free of your grasp... living is suddenly on your agenda.
WARE: You could've gone out with honor, at the least.

A swirl of energy builds up at the front of the cannon.

WARE: But, honestly.
WARE: What did I expect? What did anyone expect?
WARE: A coward to the end.
SPARK: NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WARE: Fifty out of fifty, expended.
WARE: KINGSLAYER.

The world seems to stop as space and time bend around the tip of the barrel. All anyone can focus on is the blooming star that's rushing out of the cannon, a beautiful, mesmerizing swirl. The crimson rage of the Chaos Butterfly. The mystic purple of the enigmatic Waluigi. All coalesced into a whirling torrent of destruction. Such a shot could easily level an entire army of troops, slay mechanical menaces the size of dozens of chunks, or even make Richard himself slightly reconsider his tactics.

But all of this instead, is focused on one tiny core. The core of a broken king.



And then for Spark, there was nothingness.

---

Not far from the battlefield, the party gathers on a hill overlooking both the Citadel and what can only be called "ground zero". Despite the sheer size of the beam, the destruction is focused with pinpoint precision. The beam, having been firing non-stop for at least two minutes now, has surely punched a hole through the planet. If there was anything left of Spark, that would be an entirely unreasonable amount of him remaining.

Breathless, Chloe sits on the hill. Xavier sits beside her, equally out of breath.

CHLOE: I-It's... really over, isn't it?
CHLOE: Spark's dead. He's beyond dead.
XAVIER: If my knowledge is correct, there's nothing that could survive that.
XAVIER: Nothing in the Thymefield, anyway.
CHLOE: Y-Yeah...

Silence permeates the hillside. Well, at least from the party, anyway. The roar of the laser, even from here, is deafening. Truly, this is a spectacle to behold. Overkill beyond overkill. A slight feeling of deja vu for the Author, or those who saw the Sphere in Chaos's mindscape. But, over the course of the next few minutes, the laser slowly begins to thin out. And then, it's gone. The gun that had just fired the onslaught begins to recede back into the Sphere, never to be seen again.

CHLOE: ...What now, do you think?
XAVIER: Well, I'd imagine you're going to go and destroy the Sphere now.
XAVIER: Have fun with that. I have my own matters to attend to.
CHLOE: Y-You're... not going to help us?
XAVIER: Of course I'm going to help.
XAVIER: It's just that my entire supply network has been shut down, and I need to get things back up before I can even consider helping you guys properly.
CHLOE: O-Oh.
CHLOE: Of course.

Silently, Chloe rummages around in the inventory. She unveils the Packaged Lunch. While the box is clearly damaged from when she parried it, the contents are probably okay. Probably. She slides it to Xavier.

CHLOE: A-Ah, um! I-I made you this!
CHLOE: I-I thought you'd be hungry, o-out here on the planet alone...
XAVIER: ...You prepared me lunch?
XAVIER: I hope you didn't think I'd really come out here that woefully underprepared.
XAVIER: I have plenty in the way of rations.
CHLOE: I-In my defense, I didn't exactly t-think you'd have... a-an entire army of robots!
CHLOE: I thought you were lost out here, y-you idiot!
XAVIER: ...Sorry about that.

Xavier accepts the Packaged Lunch. Though it's a few days old at this point, Chloe's home cooking almost brings a tear to his eye. Actually, because it's a few days old, and also prepared in a hurry, it's honestly of questionable quality. But still. Not that he'd tell his sister that, after all the effort she went through to deliver this meal.

XAVIER: ...Thank you, random Grubhub employee I don't know.
CHLOE: Oh, s-shut up!
XAVIER: But really. Thanks.
CHLOE: ...You're welcome.

Chloe flops backward onto the hill. It's definitely late. And tomorrow, they're going to be marching on the Sphere. The fallout of all of this... hopefully, it would be manageable. Even if it wasn't... she had everyone with her. Friendships that had been forged through heaven and hell. They would overcome anything that came their way.

XAVIER: I should get going.
XAVIER: Don't die, Chloe.
CHLOE: Wouldn't dream of it.
CHLOE: Stay safe, okay? Mom misses you.

And with that, Xavier mounts the remnants of his God Hands. While not very capable of combat at this moment in time, they would at least, function as the world's clunkiest magic carpet. Chloe waves goodbye as he floats off, across the tree line. They would see each other again. She knew it.

And one day, they would finally get to go home.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Still Something Left To Save

---

The party returns to the house. The next night will the march to Zone 6. This'll be the final stretch of the game, so make sure you're prepared! Your skillpoints and equipment restrictions have been set to their highest levels, which means that this is the strongest you'll ever get! Make any final preparations; in just a few rounds, night will fall. And following that, will be the beginning of endgame.

In addition, Project Thymium will be going on a one-week break. Please take this time to plan and craft accordingly... and I hope you enjoy the endgame!

Somewhere above Sussui, a spaceship floats.

“To your right is the moon of the planet Sussui, known for their coffee and…” In the ship, the pilot scrambles around to find something in a small stack of papers. “...something about Minecraft? Anyways, to your left is the smaller, closer, second moon glowing with a menacing purple light.”

The pilot pauses.

“Wait.” He dives into the papers again.

“I think I’ve heard about this.” After a bit, he leans back onto the pilot’s seat.

“I guess this is the place.”

The spaceship floats down, onto a patch of purple splotched on the ground, with a lot of people gathered around it. The pilot makes sure to land slowly and safely, giving the crowd enough time to disperse. Finally, it lands, and the door opens up. The pilot, in a light, minimalist helmet, a black vest and a well-kept formal suit, walks out slowly as the smoke clears.

“Bauhaus-93?”

A white-haired knight carrying a giant teal sword walks towards the ship. “I heard someone call my name. Does anyone need my assis-”

He drops his sword - and his jaw. “Taylor?”

The pilot throws his arms wide open. “It’s me!”

“I never thought I would see you here!”

Bauhaus steps aside as Taylor jumps down next to him. “Well, I was here to check on what was happening. Which probably wasn’t wise given the few things I’ve heard about it.”

Bauhaus nods. “I am sure nothing will go wrong. We probably have more than enough force to protect you and the rest of your armada. By the way, how have things been with the Neo Couriers?”

Taylor nods. “Pretty good. Pays well, and I get to see cool stuff all over the universe or multiverse or whatever they call it nowadays.”

Bauhaus shakes his hand. “Glad to hear it, friend.”

“By the way?” Taylor points at the sword. “What’s that over there? Is that yours?”

Bauhaus picks it back up. “This is the Transistor. And I think it belongs to her.” He points at Reisz, floating in the corner of the forest. “I thought this thing only existed as a 3D model.”

Taylor laughs. “We have mass 3D printing. I could probably have that made in my sleep!”

Bauhaus shakes his head. “No, not like that. This sword…”

He examines the sword, twisting and flipping it like it weighed nothing.

“This one works like the one in the game.”

Taylor pogs. “With the code magic and everything?”

Bauhaus nods. “Yeah.”

“With how big it is, it almost reminds me of that oar you got back in Konvais.”

“Ah, Konvais. Never could say I missed you, but it was fun.” Bauhaus sighs, looking at the Transistor, still in his hand. “To this day I still have not gotten that thing to turn into an ukulele. Would be awesome if I could.”

“Wait what?” Taylor tilts his head. “Ukulele?” Question marks practically float up from his head.

“Well, it has a small end and a big end, like the instrument, and the short word for it is written on the side.”

Taylor’s face, or the parts of it left uncovered by his helmet, turns red. “Oh. Oh my. I didn’t know!”

Bauhaus stares at the sword, this time with a confused look. “Didn’t know what? What’s wrong?”

Taylor hides his face in his hands. “Never mind.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I can change the topic. Do you still want to talk about Konvais? I could tell you about Killiam’s journey through the fire worm.”

“...oh gosh, oh gosh… ...what did they see in us?...” Taylor, who has now curled up into a ball, whispers to himself.

“This clearly isn’t working,” Bauhaus mutters. “I am truly sorry.” He cups his hand, and shouts at the ship. “Lambert, if you are in there, your friend needs help.”

Another man walks out of the ship, with a red sweater and baggy pants. “Taylor? You okay there?”

Taylor looks up from his hands. “I’m fine.” The way he says it, it sounds almost like a question. “I just need time to process things.”

Lambert walks down from the ship. “Can I help?”

“You can try.”

Lambert takes Taylor’s hand. “C’mon, Taylor. Let’s go inside. You can process things when you get to your bed.”

“Thanks, Lam.”

“No problem.”

The two walk back into the ship, Taylor’s head resting on Lambert’s shoulder.

“I hope they will be okay.” Bauhaus turns to the crowd of Spherebreakers. “Do not worry. They are just friends of mine. They mean no harm.”
----
Bauhaus picks up the wooden weapon from Spark's remains.
"You will join us on our journey," he whispers to the sword. "You will witness your plan unravel before your very eyes." He stows the bow away on his back

----

Bauhaus returns to the ship carrying a bunch of stuff, among which is a helmet with a peculiar, organic shape, just weird enough that he finds it interesting, but not weird enough that it causes any problems for him. There is also a glowing green spirit, bouncing up and down on the pile of stuff in his arms.

He puts it down on a desk, and stands there, looking at it. Then, from a portal, a baby with an eyepatch and a sack jumps through and takes all the stuff. It is the fabled Early Christmas Pirate Baby, and he has some plans with all that stuff.



With the help of the Early Christmas Pirate Baby, Bauhaus respecs. (See "Cool and New Bauhaus")

Thanks, Early Christmas Pirate Baby, for showing us that we can show the spirit of Christmas at any time in the year!

----

A soldier wakes up in the ship, most of his hair seemingly burnt off or otherwise lost, and walks towards the cockpit. He presses a few buttons and looks at a screen. It blinks with various messages and notifications that all say something like "NO WEAPONS ACTIVE". He looks back at the hallway where the rooms of the others reside. "You forgot to get ammo, didn't you?" He growls.

Lambert responds. "That's on purpose. This place disables weapons that weren't built here."

"Well gorilla."

"It'll be fine anyway. It seems like we're in good hands."

"We better be."

((Hi! I’m.. finally returning to the game, now that I finally have the free time. I know it’s the endgame, but I do want to be part of the game’s end.))
((trust me i wont go randomly inactive this time))

What should hopefully be the final character sheet, unless I swap Specials for the final battle:

Hexagon's Return: ONCE MORE

Hopefully Uncertainty and Nerf or Nothing are valid! I’m looking forward to sticking it out for the last few battles of the game.

Hex is still fishing. He.. never stopped doing that. He’s just sitting there, casually fishing, his Slayer’s Helmet set over his head. Finally, after… two zones, he reels in, finishing the world’s longest fishing trip. Maybe he reels in some cool material, since he’s been finishing for like 5 hours? Dunno.

HEXAGON: THAT WAS. SURPRISINGLY ENJOYABLE, FOR A MATERIAL GATHERING EXERCISE- WAIT.

He looks up at the sun, and lets out a long si- Hey, what's that giant gun on the Sphere? What's that- OH.

HEXAGON: ERR. TIME SEEMS.. INCORRECT. INTERNAL CLOCK RECALIBRATING.. OH.
HEXAGON: CHECKING PARTY REGISTRY. I APPEAR TO HAVE. MISSED A LOT. UNUSUAL.
HEXAGON: DOES ANYONE HAVE SOME BLOOD BY THE WAY"

He waves at the Legion, who have probably been watching him fish for literal hours now. Maybe a day.

HEXAGON: APOLOGIES FOR THE INTRUSION. QUERY. WHAT IS THE DAY. AND TIME.

As he talks to him, he also glitches out and poofs out a second clone for other RP purposes, who zips over to the entrance of the house, fishing rod slung over his shoulder, examining the returning people, and lots of new faces. He squints suspiciously at Acacia in particular.

HEXAGON: (ACACIA. THE WITCH. ALLIED NOW? HM. HOPEFULLY SHE DOES NOT RECALL MY PREDECESSORS DEEDS.)

Noting the status of the Glyphs, and the impending march upon the Sphere, he gets to upgrading his equipment.
Hex draws out a copy of Praetorian Armor URIEL, and the Bowler Cap, equipping each. He shifts slightly under URIEL, unaccustomed to the power. The robot then filters through the weapons, noting and sliding out Andre's Occult Foam Hammer of Banning. While he’s never heard of this Andre fellow, this weapon seems quite fine. His allies seem to have pure damage handled anyway.. Perhaps he can lend a more supportive hand.

Finally, he grabs a Power Kore Shardstorm and Rage Catalyst, and does some crafting!

The stats of both of these trinket upgrades can be found on my charsheet! Apologies if these craftposts are below what’s needed. I know T7s need big craftposts, and I hope my rambling dumb logic qualifies.

..or uh, since craftposts are unneeded this update you can just grab the material list from the top of each spoiler and ignore the rest.

Not!Echoss immediately comissions Nia to upgrade Andre's Occult Foam Hammer and Planck Underflow. For the 8th and final time.

Not!Echoss adventures:
Not!Echoss decides to not have the Meteor wreck the inventory, and fast-travels to Droplet's cathedral where he deposits the Meteos into the donation box before deflating like a balloon and blowing away in the wind back to the skylabs.


Aoki and Gum:
"Miss Aoki, you were holding your own quite well. Beyond your contributions through the main portions of the battle, you took a direct, powerful hit from an augmented maniac who was further empowered by the Sphere in a fight that the team was completely unexpectedly dragged into upon achieving the original main objective. And then it took being attacked by another rogue combatant while you were down after that. As one of the single least armored members of the party.
If nothing else you can be proud of your showing in perilously unanticipated circumstances. You have more than earned time to recover."
Seeing that Aoki is keeping the simpler food down, Echoss nods.
"If you are still hungry or thirsty, do you have any requests? I started you on something simpler as is generally standard protocol back home. You're keeping it down, so I think it's okay for you to have whatever you feel like at the moment."
He pauses again, and mutters under his breath.
"And... game."


After the battle (Echoss):
Echoss approaches Chloe and Xavier right before Xavier heads off.
"Master Elem? Sorry to hold you up for just a moment but perhaps instead of riding off on your own you should take a few supplies with you. Most of your gear is damaged or destroyed, and we have more than enough to spare. I would expect that your work will be easier if you have proper replacements on hand while doing it."
If Xavier accepts, Echoss helps him to various items/equips from the inventory that he requests. Raw materials/equipment if he so desires. We've got plenty to spare so long as he doesn't take something like a T8 item.
"And two last things. First:"
Echoss plucks one of the spare portal runes from the inventory and hands it to him.
"When you are ready to meet back up with us, this will bring you right to the building we are using as our base, where you can reach directly to where we are fighting. Additionally if you require a safe place to stay tonight or a quick escape, this would let you do so and return right back to where you were after.
Second of all... If it is not too much trouble, once you have some free time whether that happens before or only after the Sphere falls, I would like to talk with you for a bit. I have something of a request.
Good luck, Xavier."


After the battle (Eren):


After the battle (Extra):
With the battle over, Echoss takes the Party Package and deploys it outside the front door of the house! This is likely to be multiple people's last full day on Sussui, and something to raise morale before the final stretch tomorrow would be good as well.


INFINITE CRAFT WORKS: Personal Respec Edition!
1: Weapon:
T7: Order Blaster When all you need is a hammer...
(5-6)x3 Glitch Range 4-6
Retreat: 1
Counter: 3
Hit: 10
+1 STR, +3 SPC
Weapon Skill: Focused Shot. Deal 17-18 Glitch damage in Range 3-7. You may use any number of Item Actions to load items and consumables into this attack, boosting it in ways related to the item loaded as deemed appropriate by the GM on launch. This counts as a change to the skill and benefits from empowered instead of Know How To Use It. Orderlancers (first use at least) have a special set effect listed in the note.
Passively your basic attack scales with STR at 1/3rd rate and your skill scales normally.
Counter: Swirling Petals.
Range 4-6
Perform a normal counter attack.
If countering an Entropic foe, deal an additional (5-5)x3 Glitch Damage to them, with Armorpierce3 and Slip3 as well as ignoring Glitch resistance.
This special counter scales with STR at a fifth rate.
Effects of first orderlancer is basically purge-lite:

-This attacks applies Purging for two rounds. Downing a foe who is under the effects of Purging may result in something nice!

-If the target is Entropic, this deals 150% DMG, removes 100 SP if they're a Basic foe, is Unavoidable, and ignores Glitch Resistance, AC, SHP, and Divine Shields
Recipe:
-Incandescent Key
-High Power Inventory Cannon
-x1 Order Singularity
-x10 Soulblessed Alloy
-x1 Fusion Weapon Prototype
-x1 Electrophorous Shell

2: Hat
T7: Supreme Executive Overseer Helm. Echoss grumbles about the name whenever he thinks nobody is listening
+5 STR, +4 SPC, +2 AGI, +20% Magic Resistx4
(Higher Vision): When you obtain Focused, you automatically gain Empowered6 for the same duration as the buff.
(Greater Reach): You may, as a Free Action, spend X MP to inflict OversightY on a target in Range 1-4, where Y is X/5. Oversight allows you to target that individual with items regardless of distance or obstacles, with the intensity representing how many times this effect can be used like how Slipthrough works.

Recipe:
-Overseer's Helm
-x3 Elemental Prisma
-x4 Mythril Ingots
-x4 Darkweave
-x7 Termite Remnants
-x2 Creation Meteorite
-x3 Starite

3: Resourceful Satchel to T7
T7: Scavenger's Satchel. Waste not, want not.
+2 SPC, +6 CAV, +20% Magic Resistx4
(Energy Drinks): You start each battle with 2 Energy Drinks, which you may use as an Item Action. These restore (18-18) MP to a target in Range 1-3.
(Random Bullgorilla Go!): You have 1 extra Item Action every round.
(Resourcefulness): You have a 'Scavenge' counter. Every round as a Bonus Action you may do one of two things, deal (10-11) Physical damage of your choice in Range1-3, or uptick the Scavenge counter by 1. At the end of a battle extra consumable items will be added to the battle loot based on how high the Scavenge counter was at the end of the fight.

Recipe:
-Resourceful Satchel
-x20 Fell Beast Hide
-x5 Spiralfloof Floofballs
-x5 Woodreaver Scales
-x4 Fireproof Silkweave
-x2 Creation Meteorite
-x30 Gravcore Ore
-x10 Royal Matter
-x3 Bileprincess Sacs
-x2 Sparkling Cider

All above equipment is swapped in for the previous items (which might have already been obvious given they're all upgrades to the existing gear but)
Echobot becomes Echoss again since he'll be 'awake' properly tomorrow.
Purger is swapped out for Wound Cleansing. Impromptu Caucus is swapped out for Familiar. Skeletal Toss is swapped out for Pow Hammer.



To-do List:
Also hand the Subspace Grocery Box to Cypress when he heads back to the house
Consumable requests: AoE healing, HP+MP restore (not mending+energized)

Adria Respec

Adria does a number of rearrangements.

Skillpoints:
+3 MP
+3 INT
+1 DEF
-2 RES
+5 SPC
Total: -2 KP

Perks:
Fervent Emotion -> Wound Cleansing (+2 KP available)
Total: 0 KP

Gear:
Spark of Creation -> Spark of Creation+ (Resists: Electric, Electric, Water, Crushing)
Mana Flower (Resists: Fire, Ice)
Mysterious Processor -> Helixian Processor

Spells:
Team March -> Symbiote (we're runnin' it back baby)

Trait + Special changes from stat increases:
Trait: +40% DMG, +60% HIT, +8 CRT, Keep You Safe, Have My Vengeance
Special: Mending16, Energized8, Guardian5, Quick Fix, 130 SP

---

End of Unity - Post-Battle
As the battle winds down, and the threat of an imminent megalaser gunshot directly at the battlefield looming nearby, Adria snaps towards Mari's unconscious form, then to the Calfusion.

In the heat of the moment, she whistles for a duo of drones to take Mari to safety. They fly nearby and tether themselves to Mari's legs and shoulders, along with slowing time at and around her wounds to help stabilize them until someone can get to her.

ADRIA: I'll be over in a moment, I need to do something real quick!

The drones lift Mari up, and swiftly start moving out of range of the laser.

Adria also starts moving away from the laser. Once she's far enough away, though, she begins slowing down...

---
Please see Engie/Semple/Calibri's post for the RP that follows.
---

Once everyone's safe and the Fusion was all taken care of, Adria rushes over to Mari. Maybe someone's already gotten to tending to her, but if not, her condition should still be quite stable. She administers a quick dose of nanomachines near the wounds, which should be all it takes to heal Mari up.

ADRIA: Huff... s-sorry about the wait...
ADRIA: You did well out there. I think you've earned your fair share of rest.
ADRIA: Here.

Adria sets down another one of those hardlight chair generating disc thingies, except this time it appears to be a little more mobile. Hence the small, spider-like drone under it. It also generates more of a recliner-style chair this time. The two aerial drones help hoist Mari onto the chair before letting go.

ADRIA: Hm...
ADRIA: Something tells me we're both due for upgrades.
ADRIA: Once you get the itch to work on something, whether it be that satellite project you were talking about earlier, or if you want to work on some of my stuff, let me know.
ADRIA: Especially the satellite. I should be able to get you up to my space station parked up in orbit. The satellite should be much easier to reach from there.

ADRIA: As for your gear... I mean, I know I just upgraded it a little while ago, but I can upgrade it again (now that the tier limits are dead).
ADRIA: Just hand them to me, and I'll get started.

((Thanks Sparked for doing like 90% of the work on these))






Adria hands the completed items to Mari.

ADRIA: Done! I hope you like them!



...

Meanwhile, high in the sky, Hannah is already ages away from the laser. She's still close enough to get a lay of the land and either the giant crater or laser hole WARE made with that gargantuan gun. Hannah starts talking to herself up there, not really expecting anyone to listen.

HANNAH: ...That's what we're up against, huh.
HANNAH: Way to assert your dominance, WARE.
HANNAH: ...But... we have to at least try to stop it. Even if it means devising another warcrime banned in several hundred universes and timelines.
HANNAH: ...As if one wasn't enough...

HANNAH: ...
HANNAH: I'm gonna check on Dorothy.

She turns her glider towards the house and flies off.

---

Hangin' With Mari

Adria interjects as Mari mentions that it's bold of them to use temporal tech in a dense Chronodust field.

ADRIA: Aha, you may recall that our barrier keeps the sand out?
ADRIA: It also acts as a sort of filter, letting air in, keeping sand out, and importantly, trapping the Chronodust within it for harvesting.
ADRIA: It... does mean that certain technologies can only work within the bounds of the city, unfortunately.
ADRIA: I uh... should have mentioned that before. Oh well!

Mari continues. Perhaps the reason they hid everything like this was because they did something deplorable in the past. Adria shrugs.

ADRIA: Who knows. They definitely wanted everyone to forget about them, but for what reason...?
ADRIA: While it's a bit too early to tell right now, hopefully the bigger ruins can help piece that reason together.

Adria giggles as Mari mentions that they might be alive and just want to not get cancelled.

ADRIA: Ha, maybe so!

Mari then questions the pirates and stuff. How do they even survive in the hellscape that is the desert?

ADRIA: Heck if I know why they resort to piracy. As you said, all the good stuff is in the city and other settlements!
ADRIA: Probably some sort of dumb political guff or misinformation or something. Or maybe they're just as insane as the cultists and or get a kick out of hurting others.
ADRIA: Either way, they're a crafty bunch. They study those monsters as much as we do, if not even more so, to the point where they know all their favorite hunting grounds so they can stay away.
ADRIA: In addition, they often make their bases in very hard-to-reach locations. Like under cliffsides near the edge of the ocean. They just sort of... hang their buildings from them, if they don't carve their homes into the stone.
ADRIA: While we don't tolerate piracy or the like within our walls, it's still a major issue outside of them, and very occasionally inside of them where some fool is backing them for... some reason.
ADRIA: Standard enforcement within the city is done for the smaller cases, but suitably large cases as well as cases out on the road need to be taken on by the Guild.

ADRIA: Now, that doesn't mean that everything outside the desert is hostile. We have friendly neighbors outside of our walls.
ADRIA: The Nomads are smaller, almost shadow-like people with large yellow eyes, often wrapping themselves in cloth suited for desert camouflage.
ADRIA: They're not very strong, but they're extremely capable traders and quite slippery, frequently able to slip away from pirate and bandit bands with their cargo still intact.
ADRIA: They typically move in smaller bands to increase that advantage.
ADRIA: They have a positive relationship with us for the additional defensive technology we provide them with, along with military aid from the Guild as needed, facilitating trade between us and our other good neighbor.

ADRIA: Deep in the jungles, across a landbridge linking it and the desert, is the Peacewalkers kingdom. They're already at a huge advantage when it comes to food supplies and other natural materials by virtue of being in the jungle.
ADRIA: You know Dorothy, correct? Darker skin than the rest of us, yet she's able to wield magic unlike the rest of us? She's one of them.
ADRIA: She came to Stasis City to pursue a more fulfilling life than the one she was supposed to lead, and I took her in so she had a place to stay. But that's another topic for another day.
ADRIA: While it's typically not as unstable as Dorothy's is, all of them can wield magic to at least some degree. Which cut the need for technology to help ward off monsters.
ADRIA: As such, they felt little need to advance, sticking to a more wood, brick, mortar, and magic-based lifestyle.
ADRIA: But it's honestly still quite effective for them.
ADRIA: Their city, Sapphire Skyline, is also absolutely gorgeous in its simplicity, and it has many of the amenities that's standard in even Stasis. Recreationally, anyway.
ADRIA: Anything with a technological requirement is supplied by us in Stasis, while anything requiring energy other than electricity or time is provided by them.
ADRIA: We also respond if they need any military aid from the Guild, but it's primarily for larger threats. The Guild also has a base there so that requests can be sent quickly.

ADRIA: These alliances keep everything running smoothly trade-wise, and our borders are always open to one another. And it's not going to crumble anytime soon.

Mari then goes on about the setting (hopefully not too put off by Adria's ramble), suggesting that the planet itself be a very good setting for a forum game.

ADRIA: Hehehe, well, it does sound like something that'd fit, doesn't it?
ADRIA: Maybe someone will run one based off of it someday.

She then mentions breaking into the tower someday with an adventuring party. Adria chuckles, amused.

ADRIA: I certainly appreciate the enthusiasm!
ADRIA: Sounds like a good time! I mean, should we ever manage to get an adventuring party big and powerful enough.
ADRIA: There's a reason why we haven't put a ton of resources into sieging that place, put it one way.
ADRIA: The harsh sandstorm around it, the very weirdly stupidly dangerous monsters roaming there, that sort of thing. Goodness knows what's in the tower itself at that point...
ADRIA: For all we know it could be filled to the brim with monsters or... something.

ADRIA: But whenever we get into that position to take it on, I'm down!

Mari then remarks about the vidya. Adria shrugs.

ADRIA: to be fair they were really pecking stupid oafs

Mari then sips on her coffee, remarking that it wasn't as strong as she'd like. Despite it being literally charged with Uranium. Adria... doesn't seem all that fazed by it.

Oh no.

ADRIA: Huh, didn't know you were into the Good Peck^TM.
ADRIA: Nothing like a good cup of the Good Peck^TM to start a productive day, hm?
ADRIA: Or any day, really.

A normal person would shudder at the thought of anything stronger than the literal radiation-infused coffee in Mari's hand. And it's now in at least two places and known by at least two people. Does Adria even constitute as a normal person anymore?

ADRIA: ...Oh, right, forgot all about coffee this morning! That's... probably why I felt so out of it for the first few hours?
ADRIA: Oh well, that changes tomorrow morning!

---

Big Heckin' Tooth

Of course. There's always something.

Shelly didn't seem all that scared though. If anything, she seems a little excited.

SHELLY: Finally, some intensity!
SHELLY: I was starting to get bored!
SHELLY: Once we surface with this tooth, hopefully whatever that is surfaces with us so we can tear it apart!

While Shelly probably shouldn't get her hopes up, she starts drilling at the root of the tooth in an attempt to dislodge it. Once it's loose, she immediately wraps the chain around it in such a way that it doesn't slip from the tooth. Ensuring that it's secure, she tugs on the chain twice.

SHELLY: Alright, let's pull her up and surface! EN, grab hold of the chain so it doesn't unravel!

I unequip the Mutated Hammer, and equip Nidhoggr and Mimameidr, and replace the Fatal Focus with the Winter Apocalypse Hat.

cA: Well, that's thematically appropriate!

I replace Hidden Force with Nothing Ventured, and replace Cure with Intimidation. I also replace Soul Hauler with Brace for Impact, and Indomitable with Eager Beaver, which takes up 2 skill points total.

I take 2 skill points from MOV, leaving six, just enough for the extra movement range. I also take 3 points from STR, and 1 from DEF. With the 8 from the Spark fight, minus the 2 from the skills, that leaves me 13 points.

I put 8 into SKI, bringing the total up to 17! Turns out being able to use your weapon is important! Then I put 4 into MP, bringing it to 60.