cancry | Superbia Underside Log

Superbia Underside Log

SUPERBIA DUNGEON LOG
Third time's the charm for the Executors, it seems. Their confrontation with Miss President ended peacefully and with the Superbia loop ended, the school was finally able to enjoy its hard earned festival. But it's not quite a straightforward happy ending – the way back up to the previous layers is still sealed and regardless, if the Executors want to progress, they'll have to make their way through the Underside. Finding the entrance isn't too hard. After all, it's where all of this began. At the spot in the gymnasium the previous Student Council President was corrupted, a familiar stairway stretches down, down, down into the darkness. It's been a long time coming, but it's finally time for you to graduate Superbia.
THE UNDERSIDE
♪♫ Maze Fortress – Sakuzyo ... or so you expect, anyway. Entering the Superbia Underside is just as disorienting as always, but for totally opposite reasons to the other Undersides. While the other Undersides have been vaguely recognizable distortions of their Layers, this one is so similar to Superbia that for a second it's almost unclear whether or not you really are in the Underside or not. It almost feels like a repeat of heading down to Superbia for the first time as you descend the stairs but as you get closer, your intimate familiarity with the Layer allows you to pick out the subtle changes. It's more run down than the school itself and you can see Revenants flitting around to and fro in all directions. A few locations seem to have been switched around and warped but for the most part, Superbia stands as you've always known it, frozen in perfect stasis, just the way a certain someone would have wanted it. AREAS OF INTEREST ⚝ SUPERBIA LOCATIONS: As mentioned above, many of the locations from the Pride Layer are in place as you know them here, carved into place by the repeating loops. They're run down and overrun by Revenants but assume that any locations not mentioned below seem to be the same below as they are above. ⚝ STUDENT COUNCIL ROOM: Given how things started, it seems like the logical place to go. The Student Council Room isn't a big place, so it shouldn't take long to examine, right? Or so you might think. The instant the door opens, dazzling light pours out, blinding you for a second. It takes your eyes a moment to adjust but when you do, you'll see the reason for that is that the walls of the room have been replaced with thick, almost perfectly transparent glass with the summer sun pouring in aggressively from the outside. As you follow the curve of the glass up, you realize this isn't just a room – it's a giant glass birdcage. And... I don't have to tell you it's occupied by a bird, do I? ⚝ CLUB BUILDING: Once a monument to the delightful inanity of high school life, the club building has been completely taken over by Revenants. To call it an infestation would be an understatement – the instant you open the door, you find yourself utterly swarmed by them and in the confusion, you'll be chased away from the exit! All you can do is keep climbing and fighting your way up to the third floor, and from there the roof, which is made a litttle hard by the fact that the Revenants seem happy to weaponize the equipment of the club rooms against you. Watch out for that falling piano!! Make your way to the top roof and you'll find a particularly grouchy Revenant on top who doesn't seem eager to let you go! ⚝ GYMNASIUM: See for yourself. HAZARDS ⚝ Structural Damage: Similarly to the Avaritia layer, many of the buildings around the city have fallen into disrepair due to the presence of the Revenants here. While some of the bigger structures are fine, Revenants may burst through walls to get to you and letting them go on a rampage in an enclosed space could bring the whole building down on top of you! ⚝ Revenant Types Present: Charles, Metrodorus

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

“Merde,” Etoile mutters, as the door is sealed. “I should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as all that.” She’s not down for long, though, moving to parry the violet blade. “We need to find a way to break the seal.”

To that end, she takes a step back, kisses the gem on the hilt of her sword, and charges a beam of light. She aims directly for the bird-girl’s chest, hoping the beam will knock her off balance.

Three Executors vs one enemy would usually be more than enough to turn the tides – and to their credit, she does seem a little perturbed to have them all coming at her at once. But if they're going to box her in from all sides, then the only way to go is

up.

With a clash of weapons against weapons, she strikes out with her blade, dealing glancing damage to Etoile and Phoenix to create an opening for her to surge upwards into the air. It happens so fast that it's hard to follow her movements and the gymnasium is so dark it's almost impossible to pick her out in the blackness of the shadows.

Not that you need to be worrying about her, when a rain of razor-sharp shards of obsidian come pelting down from wherever she's hiding in the rafters. Each Executor takes a blow of damage.

The darkness wasn't exactly a problem for one of them, and perhaps on that front it was lucky Phoenix was there. Tracking something in the air was a little more difficult than on foot, but ???? was ever so kind as to launch a directional attack at them. Impossible to dodge, but easy to survive for now--and easier still to hear whistling through the air.

"Etoile-" he called out, pulling a shard of obsidian from his arm and pointing at where it had come from with his flaming sword, "-fire again in that direction. Chiron, be prepared to intercept when she moves."

Chiron gives a mild grunt of pain when he's cut in several places by the shards. But a minor irritation in comparison. Her movements are difficult to see in the darkness, and he's got half a mind to do something about that--but Phoenix is naturally better able to track her.

A determined-to-the-point-of-insanity young man he may be, but Phoenix is also no fool. He bides his time, eyes toward the ceiling, awaiting Etoile's--and subsequently ???'s--move.

“I’ll take the shot as soon as I can, I need a second,” Etoile answers. She hisses as she plucks a shard of obsidian out of her hair, pricking a finger. As it stands, she’s trying to get a read on where ??? is; even with Phoenix pointing in the right direction, it’s hard to get a glimpse of her in the darkness. “I think I see her, it’s just hard to get a read on her. I’ll line it up, just have to be careful that she doesn’t try to dive bomb us from up there.”

Edited 2021-10-17 23:50 (UTC)

When the clatter and tinkle of the obsidian fades, the gymnasium hangs in a deathly silence. It's so quiet it's difficult to hear anything at all over the sound of their breathing. But then, just to the back of the gymnasium comes just the faintest creak from the rafters.

Before any of them can respond, another shower of obsidian shards come hammering down. All Executors take a blow of damage. In the chaos, the girl has started to move again but now that she's darting around in the rafters, it's easier to get a bead on where she is.

“For all that talk, I’m starting to think you’re afraid to follow through on your intent!”

He staggered slightly under the newest assault, pulling another shard out of his shoulder. This was a real problem; Phoenix could track her, but didn’t have any range to reach that high.

“Chiron, can you get up there? Knock her down and we might have a better shot.”

For his own part, he stepped in front of Etoile to shield her and raised his sword with intent to parry the next projectiles he heard coming.

“Stay behind me until you’re ready to fire again.”

"For Glacian's sake--"

Quite right, if they aren't going to get her to come down, they're going to have to take the party to her. Doesn't mean he has to like this petty cat and mouse game.

But they can hear her knocking about up there better at any rate. Chiron crouches, takes a leap into the air, and vanishes in a moment of magenta afterimage--warps up ceiling-ward to join their mysterious dark counterpart, appearing on a rafter nigh-instantly. Oh how he'd love to take a better look at her magic, when it's not being aimed at them. He still has a few shards in him because fuck this noise.

And wherever she seems to be, Chiron takes a big, arcing swing in her direction--one that, whether he hits her or not, he aims to finish into the ceiling to carve out a part of it with hopes to penetrate the darkness. Even should she not fall, she may not have anywhere left to hide.

"Let's shed a little light on the situation, shall we?"

It definitely doesn't mean Etoile has to like it. This time she doesn't bother picking the shards out of her hair; it's time she can spend trying to target their adversary. She might not be able to attack directly with her sword, but she realizes in that moment that she doesn't have to.

"Chiron, I'm firing up there," she says, gathering what light she can into her palm. "Ready in three, two..."

As she speaks, she goes en pointe, pirouetting and gathering the energy in her palm.

"One!"

With that, she focuses. Even if she doesn't hit, she can at least help get some light in there. In a quick movement, she sends her star upward. If she knocks their foe off-balance, great. If she manages a direct hit, even better.

The star shoots through the darkness, cutting through the darkness like butter. Shadows scatter in all directions and though it's hard to aim at something you can't see, somehow Etoile manages it. The star shaves through the air so close to the mystery girl that it slices her cheek and she feels back in surprise. She's caught off guard enough that it gives Chiron time to swing his scythe and though he just barely misses the girl, the tip buries in the ceiling and bone white cracks splinter out.

Debris rains from the hole and piercing light floods in, drowning out even the worst of the shadows. Like this, she can't hide.

But of course, neither can Chiron.

The girl surges forward, striking out with her blade - the black one. There's a burst of black energy and then--

Then she pierces Chiron with it, all the way to the hilt and out through his back. For a frozen moment, they stay like that up in the rafters. Then the girl shoves him hard and they both come toppling down to the floor with a hard crash.

He feels triumphant for a moment. Only for a moment.

She's hit, even if it's not by him, which means this isn't entirely hopeless. And his strike still allows the light to come flooding in, just as intended. Even if...even if somehow something inside him turns at the idea of sunlight. He hasn't the faintest why, but it's a moment punctuated by a strange, distant revulsion.

And then it's punctuated by the black blade sliding into him, through him.

Strange how this, too, rings a clear and distant bell that cannot be placed, but it's something he'll reflect on later. If he survives the encounter. His hands, still on the scythe, tremble for just a moment before the weapon slips from his hands and seems to shatter midair into a hundred tiny glistening crystals, vanishing as easy as it came to hand in the first place. A strand of pneuma trickles from his mouth, and then she shoves him, and down they go.

In the moments before they hit the ground, he reaches out a hand, like in some kind of slow motion, an attempt to touch her, to make contact, to drain her if only to temporarily take on some of her vitality. But even if he makes contact, it won't be enough, not enough time and not enough thought in the motion to make it happen. They hit the ground with a mighty crash, dust plumed up around them.

“Chiron—!"

This felt too familiar. Like a dream that belonged to someone that was and wasn’t Phoenix himself. An insurmountable dark power standing before him bearing the threat of taking everything, and the complete helplessness to stop any of it. And what had he done, when hopelessness reached its peak and no other options were left to him?

He'd sworn an oath to someone once; someone whose name and face were lost to him here. Someone he'd cared for enough to risk...no, to sacrifice everything to protect. Now as then, he felt something sparking to life in his chest. Desperation? Perhaps, but there was more to it--there was ironclad resolve, and a blazing force about to spin wildly out of control.

If he did nothing, Chiron was going to die. Gods, maybe he was already, for as much as any of them were alive to begin with. Then Etoile, himself, everyone they had grown to know and care about here. What would he do to protect what mattered to him? What would he give up to see all of them leave this layer under their own power?

Whatever it takes, I will-

Phoenix suddenly doubled over and dropped to his knees, choking out an anguished scream as his whole body caught fire with a ghostly blue-purple flame, short sleeves making it abundantly clear that he was burning from the inside out. His skin turned ashen and smoldered in orange cracks as though his whole body was charcoal kindling a wildfire, heat radiating as he glowed as a pyre in the darkness.

Had it hurt so much in his memories? No...this was worse. This was a thousand times the flame it had been then, every inch of him slowly incinerating from within. Testing him, in a sense; daring him to endure the impossible if he wished to do the impossible in turn.

By the immeasurable pain in that agonized scream, all present would have been forgiven for believing he would instead break beneath the strain.

...And then one burning hand gripped the hilt of his sword, the fire engulfing it flaring as though it had just been drenched in gasoline.

In defiance of pain beyond measure or human comprehension, Phoenix stood as straight and tall as he ever had; blazing in ethereal flame that cut orange trails through ashen skin and bearing an unrestrained power he never had before, not even in life. When last he had made such a contract, it had granted a fraction of the force of nature he had become now.

The contract is forged. The ring is now thine to control.

Disregarding what that memory had been or what it meant for him now, Phoenix pulled off his visor and threw it aside to fix an enraged stare burning with an unearthly magenta flame directly on the girl before them. Could he see her? No, but it didn't matter; he knew she was there, and knew what had to be done. There wouldn't be much time. His body would give out long before his will ever did.

He had extended his hand in compassion as promised, and it was beyond clear he would not do it twice. If Sword or anyone else had ever confused his patience and care for weakness, this moment would dispel any doubt now and forevermore.

"This world means nothing to me; it is worthless next to those I've encountered within it. Whether we are saving or destroying Purgatory...that is for us to discover, and for us to rectify if need be. Even if you should be right; even if one and all of us have to disappear to accomplish it. If that truth should come to light, I will accept it."

Phoenix warped in a way identical to Chiron save only that his trail of light was pure cobalt, swinging his sword at ????? with all the power and speed he suddenly had.

"But you'll disappear first!"

There’s no time to do more than shoot off a quick message in the interval between hitting the girl with her magic and seeing Chiron hit the floor. She doesn’t have the luxury of panicking, not even after seeing Phoenix literally catch fire in front of her. Instead, she runs forward, towards the fight. She’s not going to hesitate for more than a second before pointing her blade at the girl, all semblance of patience or kindness gone.

“I didn’t want to have to go this far, but I can’t abide anyone hurting my friends.”

With that, even as shaky as it sounds, she’s going to move downward, aiming to pin the girl down with her sword. She isn’t going to aim for a spot that’s going to be fatal, just one that means she won’t be able to get back up.

Like embers swallowing kindling, the vivid flames pouring off Phoenix eat away at the shadows holding the gymnasium in that deathly gloom. The cold, too, seems to recede as if fleeing from his intensity and though she barely has enough time to properly register what's happening and though her eyes are still hidden, you hear a brief intake of breath that telegraphs her alarm.

Of course, after that, there's nothing else audible under the chaos. She meets Phoenix's blow full-on with the black blade. Somehow, she manages to block it and stay standing but the sheer force of the impact rings out through the gymnasium and all the remaining windows rattle violently. With the two Executors set on her, it's all the girl can do to stay standing in place.

Thanks to that, Etoile's blade pierces true. It plunges down through the girl's thigh and by all accounts should have pinned her to the floor – but rather than a spray of pneuma, what floods out around the wound is something thin and insubstantial like smoke. The wound seems to flow around the blade as if she's plunged her sword into liquid.

That's all Etoile will get a chance to observe before the girl sweeps her sword out and strikes Etoile directly in the solar plexus with the butt of her own sword. The blow sends her spiralling back across the room and she will have to sacrifice one point of Movement next turn to recover.

So much happens at once. He hears Phoenix, sees a blinding crackle of light. And that is familiar in ways he recognizes fully. Etoile attacks, and the injury...shifts strangely. It looks not unlike the scourge but thinner, wispier.

They may yet be able to escape. Through a window, perhaps, or out the roof now opened up. He'd have to take them there, and though he struggles to get to his feet, he wonders if he'll be able to. His face has gone pale, dark thin veins visible beneath, a certain brightness to his golden eyes surrounded by pitch black sclera, even as pneuma seeps freely from his wound. Even as something that has a similar appearance to pneuma seeps freely from his eyes, his mouth.

He staggers first, then regains footing, and launches himself bodily at their mystery opponent from behind. Is it wise, not in the least. If he can get his hands on her, to let his own abilities drain her (after)life from her, that will at least do something to help. Even for a moment.

If he manages that much, he'll aim to claw at the wrappings around her eyes with a hand as well. As an extra fuck you.

If they could keep her on the defensive, maybe there was a chance of driving her off before this went any further. Medic and the others would surely be here soon enough (gods knew they needed her), probably trying to break down the door. If she struggled with three at once, then surely more would send her off to regroup and try again another time.

Meanwhile, Phoenix seemed intent on keeping her attention focused on him rather than the other two; hearing Chiron move he warped to one side to avoid hitting him, bringing his sword down again with the same unearthly strength; aiming for the arm holding the black sword with full intent of taking it off.

Etoile hits the back wall hard, and it's only a last-minute turn in mid-air that keeps her from hitting her head. As it stands, the hit is enough to knock the wind out of her for a second. She has to focus all of her energy into just breathing - she might not strictly have to, but she's used to it.

With that, she shakily gets to her feet. She can tell the moment she gets up that there won't be any running back into the fight, but that's okay. She can still move and still walk, and that's all she needs. If she can get close enough to help with one more shot, then she will. She just needs to wait for the right moment, though as it is, she'll try and get her sword. She can be more precise with it in hand.

Smoke continues to flow out of the wound Etoile dealt, like ink bleeding out into water. It strikes you with that same sense of wrongness as the black pouring off the blade she'd struck Chiron with – as though her soul is held together not with pneuma but something else very strong and very old.

Not that it keeps Chiron from getting his hands on her once he recovers. His drain kicks in but it's different this time than it has been all the other times he's used it. It's like trying to chip away at a mountain and he comes away from the encounter with an extra two Durability. Which is good, because she immediately responds by flipping her sword in her grip and doing the same to Chiron as she had to Etoile – striking with the hilt of her sword hard enough to send him flying back and away from her. He will need to sacrifice one point of Movement next turn to return to the fray.

This distracts her long enough that when she's turning to face Phoenix, he's already moving before she can react. His sword cuts clean through her arm and it splits away from her body. Black smoke spills out not just from the wound, but the arm itself as it fades and dissolves into nothing. The black sword bursts apart into crystals like an Executor's weapon breaking apart.

But then, through the haze of light, the girl's other sword comes cutting through the air. It's too fast to see, almost too fast to even realize what she's doing–

At least until her sword glides clean through Phoenix's wrist, severing it completely from the arm. Still clutching his knife, the detached hand falls to the floor with a splatter of pneuma.

Given the amount of pain and magic-fueled adrenaline state he was simultaneously in, at the moment it actually seemed like Phoenix barely even noticed he had been literally and metaphorically disarmed. Laser-focused on her as he was, whatever their enemy might have been earned exactly zero notice; he planted his still-usable hand on the ground and launched into a backflip to gain distance, aiming to kick her directly in the face as he did. Forget the sword, there wasn’t time. If he could hold her attention for a little longer, the others could—

—…And then the ethereal flames went out like a candle in a stiff breeze, dissipating into smoke and leaving Phoenix’s skin as gray and damaged as spent charcoal. That was right about when the immeasurable pain actually hit full force, falling to his hand and knees in a valiant attempt to stay on his feet before giving out completely.

Edited 2021-10-25 16:03 (UTC)

The moment she sees Phoenix fall, Etoile freezes in place for a second, sure she's seen him die for a second time. She doesn't realize she's crying, not over the sound of her own scream echoing in her ears. She's running, then, not as fast as she normally would, but still running towards the fight. She doesn't care if she hurts their adversary by yanking her sword out of the girl's thigh. She just knows she's frightened, but more than that, she's angry in a way she's never quite felt before.

It's been long enough now that she can charge the beam of light down the length of her sword, and with an anguished cry, she aims that beam at the crystal sealing the door, trying to break it before she plunges the sword itself downward, aiming for the bird-girl's chest.

Edited 2021-10-25 16:19 (UTC)

Chiron gets his ass up. It's a struggle with the air(?) in his lungs (that he doesn't need) beat right out of him, with him flying off along the floor, skidding and flipping over several times before coming to an unceremonious halt. Everything hurts, and he's still bleeding steady, and it all swirls around him. The taste in his mouth is something that is not quite blood but familiar all the same.

Phoenix is maimed. And that cannot stand. Before anything else...before anything else, he is a healer, is he not? Even if the cost is steep.

So he gets up. Etoile is screaming a desperate cry, trying something, anything. And he could keep trying to chip at the mountain, but it's such a large mountain. He sways like a breeze could send him stumbling over.

Fuck this. He warps, instantly by Phoenix's side, and it's no effort at all to nearly collapse beside him, crouched over him, breathing heavy, hands on him. If he can...if he can heal this man before his own vitality gives out or before this being can do anything more to end it...or even simply shield him, perhaps this won't all have been lost-!

In the deathly silence that follows Phoenix's fall, Etoile's cry rings out like a clarion. It's enough to make the girl turn her bandaged face to Etoile, spitting more of that smoky substance after Phoenix's last blow split her lip. For all her speed earlier, Etoile's frantic rush has caught her off guard and between that and the battering she's taken so far, she doesn't have time to retaliate.

Like Phoenix's light before her, Etoile's beam cuts through the dark, slicing away shadows and when it strikes the seal holding the doors shut, the light refracts and bleeds out, a display so dazzling that for a moment, none of them can see. But Etoile doesn't need to see to put her sword to the girl's heart and just as she'd done to Chiron, the sword pierces all the way through and out of her back.

A moment of silence, still and quiet. And then the light fades.

The seal has only partially been destroyed. Stubborn clusters of obsidian hold the door closed and perhaps with more time, it could be broken and an escape could be made.

But the Executors are out of time.

A hand closes over Etoile's. Not a hand - a claw, jagged and sharp and formed from that same inky blackness that had bled from their foe. It looks insubstantial, but it grips her with terrifying strength and it's so, so cold.

A loose strand of inky smoke connects the claw to the clean cut edge of her missing arm. A shape is struggling to asset itself, but it doesn't look human or even humanoid.

It looks like the twisted shape of an Aberrrant.

The girl leans in close to Etoile's face and states at her and cocks her head. Even without her eyes visible, it has the feeling of a horrible animal staring down its prey.

"тнaт'ѕ enoυgн, eхecυтor. тнιѕ ѕнoυld never нave вeen yoυr вaттle."

With that terrifying new strength, she begins to draw Etoile's sword from her own chest. Higher and higher until it's hanging above both of their heads. She twists Etoile's wrist until the sword's point is directed at its owner.

"вυт now yoυ can reтυrn тo a вeaυтιғυl dreaм, wнere yoυ вelong."

The sword begins to arc down.

A CRASH! from the ceiling interrupts. Though there was a perfectly good hole already, bits of ceiling rain down where a second has been created.

Metal rains down. The monster-- the Aberrant's claw pierced by steel, two swords cut straight through. Enough for a distraction, for what follows.

Etoile is grabbed and very much thrown aside, by what simply seems to be a whirlwind of white cloth at first. It might be a rough landing for her, but much better than what was about to happen to her.

There's one cutlass brought up, ready to block, at the same time that another is thrown at ???, with lightning speed.

It's not a hit. It's a warning. Close enough to graze, if the wielder had wanted it.

"If anyone here's gonna go to sleep, it's you!"

Hello, Executors.

Cavalry's here.

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REMAINING DURABILITY: PHOENIX & ETOILE: 2.5 | CHIRON: 4

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REMAINING DURABILITY: PHOENIX & ETOILE: 1.5 | CHIRON: 3

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REMAINING DURABILITY: CHIRON: 0.5

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1/2; cw body horror

2/2

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REMAINING DURABILITY: ETOILE: 0.5

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cw: amputation | REMAINING DURABILITY: CHIRON: 1

1/2 cw: body horror, amputation

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1/2

2/2