Mutosi looked over her weaponry and her troops.
Her ability to control the minds of the consorts had grown far greater than she'd thought would be possible. At a certain point, she became aware of the fact that it wasn't just her natural bronze blood animal control, this was something else, something more powerful.
It wasn't just their minds she was controlling anymore; she was bending their actual willpower, their sense of faith and belief, to her will, forcing their minds to submit to her mental control.
She wasn't sure where this secondary controlling power had come from, but she couldn't complain. As much as she hated Risura, she had to admit that the moronic, jade blooded femboy had quite a lot of physical power.
And that was before the game had started. Mutosi was highly driven sure, but she wasn't dumb enough to convince herself that she was the only one who's powers would have increased in intensity since the beginning of the game.
His physical strength, his faith to that bullshit probability and knowledge based religion, and his ability to piss her off would have all likely grown quite a lot.
That gave Mutosi an idea though… her new powers seemed to be based around faith. She could turn a target's devotion to what they believed against them, weakening them mentally. If Risura was still just as faithful to that book and its teachings..
She could use that faith to poison him from the inside. Between that, her miniature army of of camel folk, and her own natural combat power, she was sure she'd be able to defeat Risura, wipe him out of the game entirely.
She'd found the gate leading to his land, and the only reason she'd not yet gone on the war path is that she wanted to alchemize her broom further to make sure it was the strongest it could possibly be. At least, she told herself that's why she was stalling.
She refused to admit to herself even in principle that she might end up regretting what she was about to do.
No, of course she wouldn't regret it. She wouldn't care when he was gone. She'd be happier even. She took a breath, looking over her poison lined, sturdy, sandstone, slightly enchanted broom.
Adding anything else at this point would have just been blatant stalling, and would risk worsening the quality of the weapon. It was to the point of being able to one shot a mini-boss if she landed the shot right. She stepped through the gate, and worried she'd just gone blind.
The bright light of her land vanishing into the dark shadows of Risura's was a massive contrast. It took several moments for her eyes to adjust enough for her to be able to even remotely see. Even when she could see, there wasn't much there to see. Dark, dingy terrain with bizzare, unsettling laughter in the distance. Mutosi called her army in after her, and started her war march after Risura.
She wasn't sure how long it would take her to find him, but with this many soldiers, she was bound to at some point.
Patior had been on his way to his quest bed when his mind finished connecting the dots.
It was a combination of his Mind aspect abilities-one in specific which he had named the Process ability, which allowed him to think through the situation and arrive at the proper conclusion with almost premonition-like accuracy.
It was his first time using the ability to its fullest extend. He would be more proud of himself if the power hadn't revealed Mutosi's plot to attack Risura.
He supposed he couldn't take all the credit for it. Much as he hated to admit it, part of it had come from Aspico. He'd been reading her speculations on the class and aspects of each member of the session. She'd posted her ideas of each member of the session in a public chat so everyone could see it, but most people hadn't paid it much heed so far.
And the moment he saw one idea that she had for Mutosi, everything fell into place. The Witch of Hope, one who actively manipulates and breaks the rules of belief and will power. If that was her power, and she'd been unknowingly cultivating it the entire time, she wouldn't just be heading to fight Risura, she'd be on her way with a fucking gang, perhaps even an entire army.
This went well beyond blackrom flirting now. Attempting to kill your kismesis was common sure, but if that was all this was than it was one fucking hell of an attempt. Patior couldn't take the chance.
If a member of his team got killed, even by someone on his team, it would break the whole system down. He supposed it was partially his fault, as he'd gone on at length explaining to Java and Valtina that it was alright to kill the members of the hero team.
He supressed a bit of bitter laughter at the realization that he'd probably unknowingly fulfilled the function of his team name.
He could see his quest bed now. It was at the top of a metallic structure, the bars just as rusted from the constant rain as everything else on LoRaR, so if he climbed up it, he ran the risk of dying on his way up from the whole structure coming down.
He paused at the bottom of the structure and took out his phone, figuring he should send someone to stop or slow down Mutosi to buy him some time. The only people on were Dustine and Lurabo.
CD: How are things going on your land? Mine's only getting more difficult.
SI: Same, but the tarot cards and magic crook are helping, lol. Plus my telekinesis is getting better as well.
CD: Hey, you're not typing with your quirk, what's that about?
SI: My computer has an autocorrect on it. Usually I go through each word and manually change it back to fit my quirk, but I just don't even feel like bothering right now. Anyway, what's your land even like? You haven't said anything about it yet.
CD: Well.. its just kind of boring honestly. Didn't think you'd want to hear about it. So, found the big snake monster you told us about earlier?
SI: The Denizen? No, no, that's some late game stuff. Not sure when we'll find it. But seriously, what's your land like? You listened to me go on about the ladders and lights in my land, I figured you'd like to talk about your land, if only to blow off a little steam. I figure a combat heavy game like this would be a huge stress for someone like you.
CD: Like..me?
SI: Oh I didn't mean anything by it, it's just that you're always so calm and laid back, and this game kind of demands you keep attention and remain focused on the task at hand, and a lot of the time it's combat. Didn't think that'd be your thing.
CD: Oh.. right..
SI: Sorry if I offended you..
CD: No, it isn't that at all, I just.. Okay, can you promise not to tell this to anyone else?
SI: Um.. yeah, you and Aspico are the only people who I told my.. 'ashenyay ushcray' (got something to tell you about that later though), I can return the favor.
CD: Alright.. Well.. I've actually been loving this game.
SI: Oh. That doesn't seem bad, is your land just not as intense as ours?
CD: If anything I'd say its probably more intense. I just.. Really like it. Its an endless battle royale through a near endless swamp where everything that isn't me wants to kill me, and it's the first chance to blow off steam I've had in a long time. I know it never seemed like it back then, I went out of my way to make sure that it didn't, but I wasn't as calm before the game as I acted. I was super stressed out like twenty-four seven, I was just afraid that if anyone found out about it, they wouldn't like me. I get angry, intense, maybe even too angry and intense, but I got really good at bottling it up so i could talk to you guys.
SI: Oh wow.. I.. I never knew that.. I'm glad you don't have to anymore though, and for what it's worth, it was never your 'chillness' that I liked, it was just the natural nice and even smart things you say and do. Plus the idea of you being feisty is actually pretty cute XP EE: Oi, stop palerom flirting with the enemy.
CD: I wasn't p-
EE: I don't care what you think you were doing, we've got a problem. Mutosi somehow racked up a fucking army and is about to kill Risura, I'm sending you a map to a gate that'll take you to his land, get there and get him out of it. I'm gonna go think of a way out of this.
CD: Oh fuck, uh sorry Lurabo, gotta go before everything gets pear-shaped.
SI: Hurry! We can talk when lives aren't on the line!
[All members have signed off]
Risura, or at least his body, was still laughing.
He'd long since forgotten what had been so funny, but it didn't matter anymore, laughing was just what he was doing now. Maybe he'd stop, maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he'd just laugh until his lungs gave out and he died.
That was a hilarious thought. No, wait, was it? Where was he? He'd lost track. He was still walking through the tall grass, the dark, shadowy mist coming off of his body causing the plant life around him to rot away like he was a walking contagion.
Maybe he was. Who knows. He could feel the voices inside his head, all of them requesting different things from him.
'Hhbl'nm kcmfac, Q kon erwz bvej, eqv! Vc, wxvp, qb kap akbpwnd. Lkc avoryz abwli eqv, bveor ywczd yr owustevjo kcmfac. Zcb, rra, NCV!' 'B chw dbtr aqaj votrjd yoy do. Qaef fwkm uz ck cbgoc. Sb'el nrrb mhlv w cbgoc. Pobek ck ihcr do xpaf, cnfxd ax drkt bb, pobek ck hbls do. Tx'ls bdlp toni, tx'ls bdlp toni xel! Aqav'el huh yx dljz xm oba bbxt!' 'Rdac rws ccwt? fck's ljiiwb, shnma aaz se? xc comn se'az wlu bkiwb po mda aazj't fz? Jo, wj se jman'c, wqt cca occarb vne. Lvj yxp dejm et? R xwn qzwr ro, oen dp, snioe ro. Shnma aaz se pjenp? Rdy jma wn bkiwb wnhrdeaz?'
Risura clawed at his forehead, trying to stop laughing, at least long enough to figure out what he was hearing. Was he hearing something? Yes, yes he was hearing something.
Someone was coming. Something was coming towards him, he could hear them approaching through the grass.
He looked around, trying to focus his eyes so he could see where they where they were hiding.
They were not actually hiding at all in fact so much as charging at him with all the subtlety of a zerg rush, it was just that the voices within his skull were fraying his senses to the point of being unable to notice something as obvious as the camel army with Mutosi at its head charging towards him.
Mutosi…
Risura could remember her through the haze clouding his mind. His hatred of her acted as a single flickering light of recollection in the empty darkness gumming up the gears of him mind.
He turned fully to face her army, fists up to attack whenever she approached.
Mutosi opened her mouth to talk, figuring it was only polite to share a few words before her army steamrolled him, but before she could, Risura started talking, his voice a series of unintelligible noises, sounding like several voices all looping over each other at once.
"ziefp pjluc fjvkn ucyyv htwgp ogqyk wtkuj iidrc aixhm gidag jsgqs etqul lhfys tsrre gklip zyyxu exrdy ohwwb tokxi afthw wtocn vyzeu xpuvr dbpnq xhsqq cxxty qjxfu itmdi odlok yucca rlkwy iozom dhmvs jldom uiiyp cviue bubkj fixzl rsami qkwnj vvvhz mrxxd clkvc yeimq muzzv emzta fhdgi zchrb klbvj jkeid cvbcb hwaoc gewpm bshaf aijil pbxig omctt rgmwa xdzga bvbjn xmjgb slssq litof etfky phoid diedf jarlm oujev shzxk jrejg hrjoh vdimy crhrv jjuhd ylwub aztup lhmjc"
And with that, Risura charged.
ashenyay ushcray: pig latin, ashen crush.
Vigenere Cipher: MADNESS, HATRED, FEAR.
Enigma 1