Seaside 5: Kinda like One Piece without the anime

[Shadowcaller]

Bombmercials

The red in Blanche's cheeks seems to shift from a distracted blush to a touched one. Not entirely of course, but still. She smiles, gives Anika a jokey little salute. "I'll try not to disappoint, ma'am."

She watches as Anika presumably wades out of the water, only snapping out of her thoughts once the druid reaches the beach. "So er, did you want me to read out any lines on here?" She asks, shifting a bit to get more comfortable and flipping through the script. It wasn't the coziest thing to be straddling, but catgirls are renowned for their ease at finding comfy places to sit.

Operation Seaslug

Titania was eternally grateful that Will had found his courage and seemed more than ready to face the dangers the world had in store for them...but now was not the time for excessive bravado. Her mandibles clatter in nervousness as she drags the two close, attempting to use her body to shield them from the incoming dragon's breath...but it never comes. The sight of the lich and her words ease most of the tension from her shoulders and she lets them slump with a sigh. "We have met before, yes. And if you've any recommendations on how we can escape or defeat this dragon, we would be much obliged."

Operation Sea Slug

Seeing the skeletal dragon reel might be one of the most gratifying sights of his life. Though...maybe his blood was burning a little too hot for the situation. Whoops. But they're alive, aren't they?
Will's weapon reappears in his hand with a flash of light. Huh. Well, now that he has a second the front is kind of wedge-shaped. Surely that's not supposed to be an edge.
"Hello again, Ma'am. We'd be very grateful for some help." What's with the sudden old lady routine? Is Lan trying to trick the demon thing into thinking she's a senile old lady instead of a spooky skeleton too? She might have been old before, but she had definitely seemed more all-there than someone who forgets about someone in fifteen minutes.

Operation Sea Slug

"Ah, yes." Lannereth chuckles. "Now I remember you." She spins her staff around with one hand. "Tit and Tat, or Will if you prefer-"

But she's interrupted as the dragon suddenly breathes out a black smoke towards the lich, immediately causing all the vegetation in the area to witter and die as it spreads outwards.
But it doesn't wait for the smoke to clear instead it speaks words that neither of them will understand and a swarm of arcane projectiles start to swarm the area towards the location where Lannereth was standing.

It then starts casting another spell which seem to have a longer cast time as it just stands there channeling it for now. It clearly doesn't think that Lannereth have been destroyed yet.

Bombmercials

Blanche should have an earpiece, one would assume there are ear pieces for catgirls as she was in the military and they probably had something adjusted for all the animal people of the setting.

The goblins have an earpiece like that which Azil is utilizing to communicate. "Er, good that you mentioned that since in the writing stages we were brainstorming all these ideas... and then, y'know..." He seems to be struggling with finishing a sentence.
"Okay, your dialogue is solely supposed to be cat-puns."

"We're not going for high-brow entertainment here, alright? It's just bombs plus pretty badass people equal good. That's the formula we're using and low-brow comedy supports that equation. So I need to ask you this, are you comfortable saying things like 'purrfect' and 'catastrophe'? Since that's about as clever that we got with this."

"Ha! Cat-astrophe... that is clever." Anika remarks though Blanche can barely hear her from this distance.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay Aftermath]

"There might not even BE any empyreans where you came from," Arukhael admits. "If I've learned anything in the Nexus it's that every world is different."

Sometimes radically so.

He frowns a bit at the lack of religion in Sekhmet's life. "I'm really sorry to hear about that. I found a lot of comfort in it. I still do. There are a couple Order of Thyatira churches around Inside that I've been visiting. They're a lot more open the Order of Ephesus. That's the one I grew up in. The Order of Thyatira is especially devoted to people who were born with... well..."

Arukhael sort of mimes Sekhmet's old horns with his hands.

"People who were touched by unwholesome forces that left their mark on them. We called people like that sorcerers back home. I guess they're called tieflings in your world? Anyway, the Order of Thyatira teaches that sorcerers are still children of the King. They didn't CHOOSE to be born like that so there's no reason to mistreat them. Mistreating people just because they're different drives them into the hands of the adversaries."

Then? Arukhael gives a small, sad laugh. "Which, hehe, is kind of what we are. But even someone like me or you can still be devoted to the Path of Royalty. At least that's what the Order of Thyatira teaches. The other churches really aren't big on that idea. They think any empyrean or fae trying to be good is just pretending to trick the faithful. I think we can still be good, though. I know we can."

He's pretty resolute on that point.

Then he points!

"There, see! That's it! Exactly that. Still ourselves, just MORE ourselves. That couldn't be bad, right?"


[Pyramid Projector Nonsense]

"Yeah nah," Magdalene says as she watches the video suggesting that the ape things wouldn't work.

Probably because they don't have eyes.

Somewhat warily, she watches the sparking walls light up more with Leah's agitation, too. She doesn't know much about brains but she doesn't think that's a coincidence either.

"I don't feel like stabbing you with some fuudgey needle thing. We should probably bail there isn't anything worth looting down here anyway."

That said, it looks like Magdalene is going to start heading back toward the exit?

[bc56]

Selekhael seems surprised. "An entire church dedicated to people, uh, like me? Uh, like I was?" She doesn't have horns or a tail or red skin anymore. It still feels a bit weird. "The King? Orders?" She has no idea Arukael is talking about. But the names "Ephesus" and "Thyratira" are familiar. Where has she heard those? "Everyone thought I couldn't be good, uh, before. It was, uh, much the same. They, uh, blamed people like me for any, uh, bad luck."

[5a Violista]

Moonwell Convergence
Awen

Awen's body was firmly attached to the broom, as it turns out, hovering in the air.
That's why she doesn't fall to the ground.
Instead, she's slammed into the wall.
It's okay, though. Nobody's home at the moment so nobody really cares what happens.
She'll find out what happened after either the spell ends on its own, or the body dies.


In the demon body, Awen had managed to use the shadow claw spell, and the suffocation spell on herself. She was about to tear the throat out, but hadn't quite gotten there. The claws were lined up, but she still needed to build up a little more courage.

It's pretty lucky, then, that the sudden jostling causes the claws to enter her throat.
Unfortunately, it wasn't in the right place so...it just gets extremely painful. She can still move it to tear out the throat, though.

It doesn't change anything, though. She still progresses her plan as anticipated, including hitting a couple random things on the console, and then lining up the claws to where she assumes the demon's heart is.

So, after getting used to the new acceleration on the ship, she still tries to cut out the heart and die as quickly as possible.
...

[Reinholdt]

[Pyramid Projector Problems]

"Oh, well, since it says it's not a trap..." Leah says. Supposedly she's being sarcastic, but she's got such a deadpan delivery, it's impossible to tell. But she suspects it is in fact, not a trap.

Not that it matters much.

"So... That's it? We're just... leaving? What if other people stumble onto this place? What would we even put on the warning sign?" She guesses... they're leaving. How anti-climatic.

Too anti-climatic.

"Wait, you were just here to rob the place? You encounter an unseen alien wonder, possibly sentient and your response is get the treasure? Ugh. You remind me of my mom." Leah says in a manner that suggests it's not a compliment. Treasure Hunters and Tomb Raiders miss out on the excitement of exploration and encountering new species.

The catgirl sits down in the chair. "I'll just do it myself," she says, hesitating for a moment now that she's actually in the chair.

[Vahnavoi]

[Pyramid on a volcanic island]

The chair adjusts itself under Leah's weight so that she rests comfortably on it. The hovering platforms move closer, the square slate turning and moving so that it is easy for her to look at, the syringe holder floating next to Leah's hand so that she can easily reach and grab hold of a syringe with her left hand.

The slate shows a new animation, which Magdalene can see on the big circular screens, magnified many times: first, it shows Leah, sitting unrestrained, stabbing herself with the syringe, then convulsing and falling off the chair. A big X is drawn over Leah and the slate goes black, before starting from the beginning. This time, it shows Leah binding her own feet and right hand before taking the syringe. Apparently, the restraints are a safety feature.

[Purple Eagle]

[Workout Beach]

When the aquatic electrode attacks, a bolt of lighting arcs from the sky to its navigational cap and into the water where the boat was a split second before. It's good motivation! By timing their strokes to quickly pull away just before each lightning strike, Beth and Karasu dash through the rest of the course and run the boat aground in a hurry.

Beth jumps out and awkwardly lifts the boat over her head. If nothing else, it can keep the rain off of their heads. The angry buoy is displeased and bobs up and down, trying to trip the landlubbers with crashing waves.

[Workout Beach]

Karasu's grateful for the impromptu umbrella, but says nothing yet. There's an angrybuoy-monster-robot to deal with, after all! And soon, so that it doesn't trip them.

So, she generates another ink spike, shaping it so it's long enough and aeroodynamic enough to cross the distance needed, and hurls it with all her strength at the electrode, controlling it even after its left her hand so it moves as fast as possible. She wants to absolutely impale this pest for ruining her fun conversation with Beth.

Like, she was about to hear about cool adventures! Stupid buoy-monster-robot!

[Rebonack]

[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

"No I'm here to kick the butt of any evil slumbering gods that might be hanging out and THEN rob the place," Magdalene corrects as she pauses at the door. "But I'm not seein' much of either of those things and I need to get back to kicking Nyx in the teeth proper and- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"

Magdalene yells just as she spies Leah sitting down in the chair, followed by the images flashing up on the screen.

"What you're just going to stab yourself in the (flowering) head because the pitch black space warping pyramid told you to?" she hollers as she starts stomping over to the chair. "Are you CRAZY?"

Come on, Magdalene.

You know the old saying.

Curiosity killed the cat.


[Marlick Bay Aftermath]

"Maybe not dedicated but they do a lot of work with the sorcerer community. They're the only church order that actually allows sorcerers into the clergy," Arukhael replies.

One way or the other, it should be pretty clear that wherever he had come from? People like Sekhmet weren't automatically outcasts. Or worse, hunted in the streets.

"Yeah, the King. You know. The one who made everything? Who set down the rules for how we ought to live? Every world must have a King, right? Maybe even the same one," Arukhael explains. "Though I guess SOME worlds have... well you can't have lots of kings that would be silly. Princes? I guess some people call them gods?"

He's talking about divinities, Selekhael. You know what those are, right?

"The Orders are just different branches of the Church? Do you only have one Church where you come from?"

Man, that would be really weird.

Arukhael can't IMAGINE a world were everyone would agree on religious matters.

"The only people who think sorcerers are inherently evil are the Order of Sardis. But they're considered heretics by the other Orders," he says, giving Selekhael a sympathetic look. "I'm really sorry you grew up in a place where people like that were in power."

Honestly he doesn't mind that they're talking faith instead of empyrean things. He's way more comfortable with that topic.

[bc56]

"Oh! You mean the Great Creator!" Not everyone calls their King "The King." But then Arukael goes on to talk about lowercase G gods. "Oh, we, uh, have those too. A, uh, delegation of authority?"That makes sense, right? "No, there are, uh, lots of branches. But, uh, the two that had sway where I, uh, lived agreed on, uh, that." But they've gotten a little off topic, and Selekhael seems quite uncomfortable talking about the things from her past. She rubs her back as if remembering something particularly painful.

[Earl of Purple]

Deepest Dark

At the bottom of the ocean's deepest point, where the water's density and saltiness leads to dead ships sailing above on undersea currents, there's a volcanic vent where the magic of the earth below meets the magic of the sea. Here, in its warming light, a crab has arrived. It's a very large crab; a mile long, and three quarters that wide, with a red-and-white striped lighthouse, the paint chipped and covered in barnacles and the massive lamp at the top broken and rusted, the roof missing completely.

The giant crab isn't alone down here. A smaller crab has joined her, much smaller- just reached maturity, she's not even half the size of her immense mother... Making her probably the second-largest crab in the sea. They wait down here for a male to arrive, but none does. None are left; it's just these two island-crabs in all the world. That doesn't stop the lighthouse islet, however; she spawns, releasing a vast mass of greyish-white oblongs that sink to the bottom and rest on the seafloor next to the vent, illuminated by the hot red glow of the geomantic energy leaking from the volcanic fissure and the deep blue, almost purple glow of the sea's own magic. The smaller crab leaves first, marching back the way she came and forcing the sea out of her way. Her mother stays a moment, brushing the egg mass with her antennae, feeling... something slightly different this time to the last few times she spawned. She doesn't figure it out, and turns to leave, forgetting her issue as she heads back to the rocky archipelago of sea stacks that is her own territory.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Workout Beach]

The ink spear strikes true! Karasu wasn't really aiming at any part of the enemy in particular, so it hits the center of the tower and explodes, shattering it in a nice fireworks display. The ball underneath sputters and burbles in the waves as debris from its top splashes down around it.

Then, bubbles. In the pouring rain, the tide seems to retreat from the beach. The volleyball group knows that's not good. "Run!" one shouts over the storm. "Shouldn't we help?!" shouts another. "What?!" "I said-"

With a sudden roar, a wave rises up and looms over our heroes. Now with naught but a bit of loose metal sticking out of its top, the big ball rides its crest, aiming to ram Karasu with its face! Then Beth leaps up and beats it aside with the boat, so, at least that part's mitigated.

However they deal with the wave itself, the ball monster will end up stunned and embedded in the sand when all is said and done.

[Reinholdt]

[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

But satisfaction brought it back.

Hold up a minute. Convulsions? Seizures?! Leah didn't sign up for this! She's about half-way to standing right back out of the chair when Magdalene voices her protests. Loudly. Now Leah has no choice but to stubbornly dig in and follow through.

"Language!" Leah counters, looking both appalled and disappointed with Magdalene at the same time. It's a very effective look. Efficient at least.

"You can't fault someone inherently just because they're a pitch black space warping pyramid." Leah argues. "There's nothing crazy about needing extraordinary efforts to communicate with and understand alien forces," She says with a pout. Crazy! That's what they call their mom. And dad. She's nothing like them! She's going to prove it by reaching to strap her legs and arm in.

[Vahnavoi]

[Pyramid on a volcanic island]

The pyramid seems content with Leah's decision. The black slate now shows a mirror image of Leah own, smiling face. It is maybe made less encouraging by how her image repeatedly stabs the syringe in its head... while smiling cheerfully. It seems that's the only instruction left.

If Magdalene feels like stopping this madness, it's getting close to her last chance.

Spoiler: If Leah goes through with it...

Show

Once the syringe penetrates Leah's skin, the black slate moves aside, leaving her to stare at the recursive tunnel on the screens. A numb, cold sensation flows through her body as ectoplasm is injected into her brain. She begins to feel like she's falling - falling faster and faster, through that tunnel. It gets so fast that it turns into flashes of light in all colors of the rainbow, before everything just goes black for 108 milliseconds.

Then, there's a sensation similar to waking up. Leah realizes she is sitting at a table in a restaurant. Warm, yellow red lighting fills the room. The table is of mahogany and her chair is covered by red velvet. There's a pitcher of water and a bottle of wine on the table, and a holder for cutlery and napkins.

There are other tables, with other people around them. They seem to be enjoying themselves and pay Leah no mind. Their talk fills the room with soft murmur. If Leah looks at herself, she'll realize she's wearing a (by her standards, highly indecent) red evening dress. Her amulet and hammer are nowhere to be seen. If she looks at her reflection on the surface of the pitcher or, for example, one of the steel utensils, she can she's wearing make-up. If she looks really hard, she can see a tiny Magdalene inside her eyes.

"Leah Juliet Vulpan" , a voice comes from behind Leah. A man, dressed in a black suit, a white collared shirt, a black tie and a black fedora steps past Leah and then sits opposite to her, taking off his hat and placing it on the table. He leans forward, placing his elbows on the table and crossing his hands. "Good evening."

It's her dad.

Magdalene gets to watch all this through the screens. She can also see that Leah is still in the brain room, tied up in the chair, holding the syringe against her head. The black slate has gone blank is hovering close to Magdalene now. The tunnel into the brain room is bright blue with glyphs, the glyphs seemingly flowing into the walls of the brain room and turning into waves of energy that ripple through the structure. If Magdalene speaks in the brain room, Leah in the restaurant can hear Magdalene's voice inside her head.

[Rebonack]

[Deepest Dark]

There in the depths, in the glow where sea meets earth, a single word is uttered over the developing larvae.

Persevere.


[Marlick Bay Aftermath]

Arukhael is picking up on Selekhael's discomfort and quickly adds, "Well, anyway, I guess the important part is that no matter one anyone says you're not inherently bad. You're as good or bad as you choose to be."

And that's what matters, right?

That's the upside to being an aspirant. Sure you might still be small and weak, comparatively speaking, but getting into the Game is WAY easier. And that means a steady diet of hopes and dreams to help shape who you want to be is easier to acquire.

"Who do YOU want to be, Selekhael? Whatever fate had in store for you is gone. You can be whoever you want, now."


[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

"Okay, sorry, but seriously this is a bad idea!"

Ostensibly Leah is going to stab herself right in the head.

Not a bad enough idea to stop!

"Oh (rose) oh (flower) you had better not be dead!" Magdalene will be shouting at Leah shortly after the head-stabbing happens.

[bc56]

"I, uh, don't know? I was training to be a blacksmith, and I should, uh, really get back to my boyfriend." She's thinking pretty small for an eldritch entity, but she is new to this. She can travel through time and do so many other things and she wants to forge metal?

[Reinholdt]

[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

"Nonsense."

It was a terrible idea, but Leah couldn't admit that now. No choice but to stab herself in the head... Oof.

Falling through tunnels and tunnels of color. For a moment, a deep, dark fear that somehow the color of music had returned chills her core, but that ends when she wakes up in a restaurant.

She suffers a different kind of fear instead as she sees the atrocious thing she's wearing. Leah becomes far too busy covering up herself as best she can to look deeply into the reflective nature of silverware, even if that means holding her arms over her chest for the rest of forever. Her head snaps to when she's addressed and follows the man as he sits down.

"Dad?! Again, really? No... wait..." Her dad would never speak in Black. Unless... "You're the Black Fox." The most ruthless aspects of her dad distilled into a split personality. Or a clone. Or both? It was a little fuzzy and complicated, that part of the family history. But he was the type of guy who did the things Tobias couldn't, for the 'greater good'. And was just the kind of maniac who would lure his daughter into a pyramid just to-wait. She was on a pyramid and-

"LANGAUGE!" Gah! That's right! Magdalene was there too. But elsewhere? Can she speak to her? "I'm here. I'm fine. I think." Leah peers suspiciously at the Black Fox. "I'm not dead right? Cause I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be caught dead in this outfit still applies."

[Vahnavoi]

[Pyramid on a volcanic island]

Leah's dad raises an eyebrow and struggles to squash an amused smile. "You are just fine, Miss Juliet. Relax. There's no need to be so shy." He conjures a pair of wine glasses from somewhere and places on the table, then reaches for the bottle to open it.

Magdalene can hear Leah loud and clear. The Leah on the chair is not moving, but Leah's voice is still ringing through the room like a minor earthquake. If Magdalene checks, vitals of the Leah on the chair are stable. She just appears to be... sleeping.

[Rebonack]

[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

Leah's voice ringing through the room like an earthquake and the windows providing a view of a... restaurant? are doing a pretty good job of making Magdalene think more and more that her idea about this being Leah's head was correct.

There is.

Of course.

Only one way to test this.

Magdalene walks up to the pink, squishy wall an tries poking it.

Not with her hand, of course.

She isn't an idiot.

She pulls from her backpack a glaive! The haft looks like it was carved from pure obsidian, its cutting edge shimmering with drifting stars. Unnatural cold throbs around the blade, causing moisture in the air to turn to fog. A swing from this night-bound weapon chills to the soul and brings about the dissolution of matter. Heat death given form. The cold, bleak fate of the universe itself.

The thing is an absolute piece of junk.

Magdalene has no idea how to use a polearm; she hasn't got any skills or training with them at all. And to make matters worse its damage types are all wrong. Cold and void? Bah! That's Nyx stuff. She doesn't need that garbage. Vitality and decay damage all the way for her; that's how Silvanus rolls. If it isn't literally eating someone alive she's not interested. The only reason she hung onto the thing she had picked up in the freezing dark of Nyx was because it looked like she might be able to sell it.

She flips the polearm around to poke at the wall with the butt.

Because really.

If this IS Leah's brain meat she doesn't want to jab it with the killy part of THE END OF ALL THAT IS.


[Marlick Bay Aftermath]

"I had actually thought about that," Arukhael admits. "Not black smithing, specifically. But just staying human-shaped and being normal. That's... hehe..."

He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.

"That's actually mostly what I've been doing. But there's this... itch. To get stronger. To climb the Tower. I don't even know what the Tower is or how to climb it. I met some putti-"

A beat.

"They're sort of angels? Kind of like us? But they started existing in heaven. They weren't ever human. Anyway I asked them about the whole Tower thing and they just made fun of me."

Not very helpful at all.

[bc56]

"I'm fine how I am! I, uh, don't, uh, uh,..." Selekhael can't say it. Even though the old her wasn't super concerned with growing in strength, she too feels that itch. To climb the Tower. What? "Why would I, uh, do that if I don't know what it is?" But she wants to, which is weird. Why is it so important? Why does she innately know it?

[Vahnavoi]

[Pyramid on a volcanic island]

Very fortunately for Leah, the inside of the brain doesn't have a sense of touch or pain. Doubly fortunately, since Magdalene is not using the stabby end of her polearm, no actual damage is done. The brainy walls are quite elastic and minor pressure to nerve connections isn't a big deal.

This said, Magdalene is still being extremely careless with something she's presuming to be Leah's brain. If Leah in the restaurant gets dizzy or nauseous, we all know who to blame...

[Reinholdt]

[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

"I am relaxed," Leah claims, not relaxed at all, when all of a sudden her eye twitches. For all intents and purposes, it looks like she just saucily winked at the man across from her. She is momentarily bewildered - was the stress that bad? But Leah is not nearly perturbed enough to miss a beat and continues talking. "And I don't drink. You'd know that if... Well we both know you aren't the Black Fox. Who are you? The Pyramid?"

She hopes it's the Pyramid because that's literally her only guess.

[Vahnavoi]

[Pyramid on a volcanic island]

The doppelganger of Leah's father furrows his brow at her wink, but forgets about it when she asks her question. "If I'm not your father, then I am no-one" , he says with a smile, pouring wine for himself. "Of course, that is not the answer you were hoping now, is it?" He puts the bottle aside and smells his wine, thinking.

"... I suppose your question is a reasonable follow-up to your hypothesis that the 'pyramid' is intelligent" , he says after a short pause. "For practical purposes, it would be more useful to think it as something that has intelligences, plural. They... or we, perhaps that would be clearer to you... have not been able to function as a coherent whole for a long, long time. For that, you have my sincerest apologies. Cheers. " He raises his glass and then takes a sip.

[Rebonack]

[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

Wait.

Did that make one of the eye window things close?

Magdalene watches the windows this time around and pokes the same spot again.

Doop!

See if the same thing happens.

Since that's how science works.

Keep poking a thing to find out if it does the same thing every time.


[Marlick Bay Aftermath]

"See!" Arukhael laughs. "Just like that, you feel it too, right? Grow stronger and climb the Tower. What does that even mean?"

He has no idea.

At all.

Not even the faintest inkling of an idea.

"I've tried mostly sticking to my old life, but every now and again the itch just gets too strong and I have to go looking for trouble. I felt a REALLY powerful empyrean get clobbered a little while ago. That's why I came this way to see what was going on. I'm guessing you might have had something to do with that? Did you feel... I dunno... fuller? When you banished them?"

[bc56]

"Uh, yes?" Selekhael replies. "I feel full. Like I just had a good meal. Not in here," she rubs her belly, "But in here." She makes a sort of ephemeral gesture at roughly where she feels like her fullness is, which doesn't correspond to any specific body part.

[Reinholdt]

[Pyramid on a Volcanic Island]

"Then I guess you're No-one," Leah says, winking saucily at him once more. Gah, that twitch is really bad. Maybe there was some side effects of stabbing herself in the head with an unknown liquid...

Alright, no we're getting somewhere though. Multiple intelligences. Used to be whole. "Did something happen that split your cohesion apart? An accident? A war?" Maybe a disagreement on the proper drapes to use.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay Aftermath]

"See that part I figured out," Arukhael says. "We've got this thing called a reliquary. It's like a stomach except for... I dunno... power? Instead of food? We overcome adversities and we get power. Then you spend the power almost like it's money to make yourself stronger. It's weird."

Really weird.

Maybe the weirdest.

"For whatever reason faerie monsters seem to give more. I think it's because they're opposed to the Empyreum. The tougher they are the more the reliquary fills up. The more it fills up, the more improvements you can get. The more improvements you get the tougher monsters you can take down. It's like a feedback loop."

What does that have to do with the Tower, though?

Maybe you just have to be stronger to climb it.

"Other things fill it up, too. Did you see any... well we called them horrors back home. Like this mass of parts that doesn't make any sense. If there was a powerful empyrean in that village there must have been a horror or two lurking around."

[bc56]

"Horror, uh, fits. There was, uh, one in the basement of an old house." Were there others? I can't recall. "But we, uh, killed that before I, uh, became this." She very briefly changes to her true form, something winged, like a lion, coral, and a wheel. Then she's back to a human girl in a blue dress. "You said I can get improvements? How? What? Why?"

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay Aftermath]

"I'm... not sure if you would have gotten anything for killing it then. Too bad," Arukhael replies. He doesn't seem one hundred percent sure. And he also seems one hundred percent unbothered by Selekhael's true shape.

Why would he be?

"Okay the how is pretty easy once you've done it. But the actual doing it is... really hard to explain. There's a tutorial, though?"

He went through the tutorial!

That's where he met the putti that made fun of him.

"The what is lots of things. Tons of stuff. You can augment your Spheres. That's mostly what I've been doing. That's a little risky since after you dump you use your Spheres for a time-hope or whatever it's a bit before you can do it again. If you rely on that too much you can get caught out."

Selekhael experienced that. She used her accelerated frame and it took a while before she could do so again.

"Or there are these gun things you can get, but they've got a limited ammo supply of their own. Or-" he raises one hand and sort of clenches his fingers and SKOOSH! there's a blazing object in his grip not wholly unlike a sword. "You can always upgrade this thing. No ammo and no cooldowns, but you have to get right up in someone's face to use it."

As for why?

Arukhael shrugs.

"It helps climb the Tower, I guess?"

[bc56]

"Tutorial?" Selekhael sort of understands that. She knows what a tutor is. "How do I, uh, do that?" Then Arukael draws his sword. "Woah! How did you, uh, make that appear like that?"

[Vahnavoi]

[Pyramid on a volcanic island]

The doppelganger of Leah's dad furrows his brow at the wink again. This time, the expression doesn't go away. He looks... concerned for Leah.

"Believe it or not, the issue is insufficient power", he says sadly. "Imagine, if you will, sitting in a cave. You are facing the wall, watching as a light behind you casts shadows on it. You watch them play for a while, but then you fall asleep, and whoever runs the show turns off the lights and closes shop."

"You sleep for so long, moss grows on the cave walls, and strange creature that were afraid of the light move in. People who have no idea what the cave was for, stumble in and get lost in the dark, never finding their way out. Others use it as a dumping place for their garbage, or as hiding place for treasure, or whatever they don't want in the light of the Sun."

"Then you finally wake up, and the place is in ruins and filled with trash, and you try to turn the lights back on but the switch is broken, and you can't find a candle, and even if you did, the matches are all wet and... so on and so forth. The Octahedron... Sorry, the 'pyramid' is that cave."

He downs the rest of his wine in one gulp. Then, he resumes looking at Leah. He's staring rather intensely into Leah's eyes now, or trying to, at least. But he's not really looking at Leah: Magdalene, in the brain room, can see through the windows that the man is looking right at her.