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

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.

Against all logic and reason, Phoenix was still breathing; he was even still conscious enough to register they were in deep shit.

Until there was a loud crash and a lot of chaos with a familiar voice.

”…well, that’s…one way to solve a problem, certainly.”

Yeah, he’ll be fine.

It’s for the best that Etoile didn’t actually see the moment her blade pierced the girl’s heart through the brightness from her beam of light hitting the door. She’s already panicked enough by seeing Phoenix fall like that, even with Chiron helping. What she does see, once she’s able, is the sight of that blade being pulled back, blackness pouring out of it. She winces as her wrist is twisted at an unnatural angle, sword hanging above her.

For that long, terrifying moment, Etoile stares down the length of her own blade before she’s tossed across the room. This time she’s not able to twist in midair, and she hits the floor with enough force to knock her unconscious. She’ll just be a second.

[ooc: feel free to skip her this round! She’ll be awake again after a turn.]

The ceiling explodes part 2 cavalry boogaloo, and the girl-creature is...cowed? Not subdued, but it's an impressive display by their would-be rescuer.

But it's not his fight, not anymore. Taking in everything at once seems very difficult, but he can focus on what's in front of him - who's in front of him. A wounded man who needs help, no matter what shape the sage healer is in.

"Stay still." Quietly, with a wet rasp. Can he heal something like this? Doesn't matter. His hands start to glow, gently, to begin what he can of the healing process. Should he...go get that hand? Mmmmayhap at some point. Let's at least stem the bleeding first.

Phoenix's hand is still solid and in one piece, at least. The healing takes hold enough to stem the bleeding at least and he should be fine, assuming Medic arrives soon and the mystery girl doesn't turn her attention to them again.

Thankfully for everyone, it seems Ariel's arrival has drawn her ire for the time being. Her hand– claw– whatever it is remains pinned by the cutlass and fluctuates around the blade. It seems to be struggling to take shape and the girl grits her teeth. The sound she makes is closer to animal aggression than human frustration and she shudders violently.

Black smoke spills from her wounds, her mouth. It's thick enough that it almost threatens to envelope her. But then, in a voice that sounds like it's just barely managing to keep itself together–

"enoυgн. enough now. That's enough."

It's not entirely clear if she's talking to Ariel and the others or herself. She takes a moment to collect herself and slowly, shakily straightens up just a bit.

"... So. There's more of you."

Ariel stays firmly in place, grip tight on the cutlass in her hand. Ready to move if necessary. She can't help but smile, a little cocky, at the comment. Swinging her blade idly, before pointing it at the enemy.

"And only one of you. Guess it's not easy finding any friends with your attitude, huh?"

Meanwhile, there’s these guys.

”I’m…alright, Chiron.” He wasn’t, considering his voice barely worked, but he was functional. “What about you, are you…?” Talking was admittedly not the easiest thing in the world, Phoenix forcing himself to sit up and reaching his remaining cracked and ashen hand to touch Chiron’s face to reassure himself neither of them were dead again.

”L…look after the others. I can’t…hear Etoile, and Ariel is the only one…that stands any chance.”

After a few very long moments, Etoile's eyes blink open. She winces as she manages to sit up, one hand cradling her head for a second before she gets to her feet, wobbling before she's sure her feet are under her. She's not going to run back into the fight - she's in no shape to do that - but she can still work on breaking the door open.

"Watch your eyes," she says, voice shaky. It's with a pirouette that's probably ill-advised given her injuries that she fires another star at the door, trying to burn off the rest of the crystal.

She falls as soon as she's fired her shot, but she's done what she can to make things easier for all four Executors.

This is still all a lot happening, and the effort of healing a major injury while himself bleeding from a major injury takes a good deal of effort. He makes calming shushing noises, given how much speaking seems to hurt his companion, and that seems to be all.

Why their attacker isn't being further assaulted, well, given the pounding they just got, he can hardly fault them, but seems their savior has got her on the back foot.

Etoile stands, gives a warning, and Chiron ducks his face against Phoenix's shoulder, shuddering against a new blast of blinding light that does not hurt to feel and yet seems to him like it should.

Even behind her bandages, you get the impression that her eyes are sweeping over the crowd of Executors in the room before finally settling back on Ariel. Etoile's final blast has succeeded in blowing the gymnasium doors open, so the others will be arriving soon enough and they'll come charging right in. And who's to say how many of them will arrive?

That thought very visibly goes through her head and she sighs before reaching over and with a gruesome crunch, she pulls the cutlass from her hand and with a dispassionate throw, lets it clatter to the ground at Ariel's feet.

"Go, then. Tend to your wounded. I can only hope that next time we meet, we are able to bring things to a kinder end."

She takes a wobbly step back and looks to be only a moment away from swooning into a faint. Then, in a flurry of smoke and feathers too thick for you to make any sense of...

The girl is gone and the Executors are alone in the gymnasium.

Ordeal Suspended

Phoenix coughed in a way that was almost possible to mistake for a laugh--they lived, or at least didn't die again. The sound of the doors crashing open was reassurance enough that they would have better help than him; it was almost familiar, like the sound of rushed footsteps on the rain-slicked stone altar and voices calling a name he no longer knew or answered to.

They'd done all they could for now. That was enough, and the rest could come later once they'd regrouped and shared what they all knew. It would be alright, for the moment--he didn't have to hold so desperately to consciousness now, tilting to the side and falling unconscious against Chiron.

"Did we...is she..."

Etoile takes a deep breath, steadying her nerves as best she can.

"What I'm trying to ask is that she's still out there, right? And probably out to kill us for the second time. I guess technically third time?"

Her words are still rushed, and she's looking at the holes in the ceiling as if expecting their foe to descend for a second time, but she's at least processing, or trying to, before she stops in a sudden surge of panic.

"Chiron, he's not...Phoenix didn't..."

Didn't die protecting me, she wants to say. She can't get the words out. Instead she gets up on wobbly feet, wincing before she's down again.

[The second that crystal seal is loosened, the doors slam open as Medic comes charging through.]

[She doesn't even slow down as she enters the scene, just sprinting across the floor and sliding to a stop next to Phoenix and Chiron like a baseball player sliding into home plate, at which point she immediately puts a hand on each of them and channels enough healing to wake the dead.]

[Not that the dead are particularly restful around here to start with...]

Anyone who can move, please help anyone who can't over to me!

[With all the clatter, Wolfsbane picks up the pace on her escort mission, tearing over to the door with barely a glance behind to see if her companion made it okay. She stops in front of the door and stares, taking in the half-dead Executors, the traces of smoke, two large holes blown into the gymnasium, the remains of crystal and feathers, Ariel's back, one of their healers bringing the other back from the brink and --]

What did you do?!

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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

Re: 2/2

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