Brendon and Furlok couldn't accomplish much with training at this point, having unlocked all their powers to the fullest extend.
This left only their items and their natural physicality. Jeff may have been holding time from going forward to give everyone a little extra time to prepare, but it would only be for a few days as far as they were aware, the Heir of Time stretching the minutes into hours to safely give them time without risking the Black King completely destroying Skaia before they could fight him and his army.
Furlok had brought the tadpole that would soon, with any luck, be the Genesis Frog to The Forge-a massive volcano that served as a single purpose alchemiter for creating a new world-and let the little glowing larval frog fall into the magma below.
It was completely unharmed by the heat and lack of water, but would remain in tadpole form until such a time as the rings from the two queens were placed inside as well to start the process.
This couldn't be done yet though, not until the king was driven off and a hole to the core of Skaia was dug; which Risura should have been taking care of already.
In the meantime, the two kismesis-who'd firmly worked their way back into the shiny black quadrant once again-resisted the urge to beat the hell out of each other, fuck themselves into a stupor, or both, and focused on getting their weapons up to date; their sprites giving them a few suggestions.
Patior was sitting with his lusus. The mechanized caretaker made wonderful tea.
Well, he made wonderful most things and had already alchemized Patior's gear as far as it would be capable of going without dipping into the grist reserves received from the denizen, all of which had already been drained into the Forge for the creation of the new world they would receive if they won the battle against the Black King.
If they didn't though.. "Don't do that." Cybersprite said, snapping Patior out of his thoughts before he could even really lose himself in them.
"Hm?" He asked as his lusus/sprite poured him another cup of tea, "I can always tell when you're about to spiral your way down a mental staircase and work yourself into a lather." The robotic lusus said in his monotone, mechanical, and somehow still slightly amused sounding voice.
"Wasn't much I could think to do about it back before I was sprite, wasn't programmed for such things, but I could still always tell. You get this air about you whenever its coming on, a grave sort of feeling."
"Do I?" Patior questioned, "I never noticed.." "Well of course you didn't," His lusus chuckled, "You can't notice what your mind is letting off while you're lodged in it. Same reason that kismesis of yours is always so easy to work up into an emotional spiral. You two are perfect for each other honestly."
"Me and Aspico haven't been spades together in over a sweep." Patior corrected his lusus.
"I'm sure," Cybersprite said, his sarcasm somehow hearable through the mechanical voice, "And I'm sure your first act after winning the battle and entering the new world won't be to pin her down and go for a perfectly timed hate-snog.
"And I'm sure she wouldn't be expecting it and be prepared to do the same." He added, seeming almost smug over the fact that he could still make his ward blush.
Aspico parried the talons of her lusus with her rapier, driving her back with an elbow jab and backing up to take a defensive position with her blade; still unable to see her visually.
She had been blindfolded for this training with Harpysprite, the avian lusus wanting to make sure her soul sense was as sharp as her blade. Olive bloods were innate hunters, and she refused to let her ward get tripped up.
The sprite attacked from every direction. Never anything that Valtina wouldn't be able to heal-which wasn't saying much considering Valtina could heal death given the time-but to her satisfaction, Aspico blocked every strike.
No matter whether it was talons, wings, beak, or flung feathers, no matter what direction, what speed, or what technique she struck with, Aspico could sense, predict, and counter her.
She was so proud of her little olive, remembering their first training session together back when Aspico had only just finished pupating a day before. She'd been off balance and easily confused, weak and slow; only keeping up by relying on innate instincts. And look at her now.
Grinning to herself, she decided to test how well her little wriggler held up in the face of more targeted attacks, and began questioning her about Patior and how much she hated him as she attacked. Her soul had often been blinded by her own conflicted emotions. She couldn't let such conflicts cloud Aspico inside in this battle.
She was rather surprised by how well Aspico managed to focus, even as her entire face blushed a deep olive green as her lusus' comments became more and more suggestive.
Arvis and Java had decided to train together with Cuttersprite on LoBaV.
They had alchemized even stronger gear than what they were already using, Java creating brass knuckles that in addition to the rocket punches her originals were capable of, could also produce spikes and even contain the breath she had stolen like a magic relic.
Arvis' hooksword and hookshot were made stronger and stronger, able to time up and cut through enemies of nearly any size. Arvis had asked Java why she didn't have Pilotsprite join them for the sparring as they took turns fighting with Cutter and improving their skills, and she'd simply told him it was too hard.
Arvis wasn't altogether sure what she meant, but between that, and how quiet she'd been since returning from the denizen lair, the Page of Blood could only assume that something bad had happened to the sprite during the confrontation with Typheous.
He wanted to question what it was, but knew that it wasn't his place to ask about. He simply kept training with her; mentioning off hand that Pilotsprite would be proud of how far she'd come, prouder still of how far they would go in the days that followed.
He wasn't sure how much he had actually cheered her up, but it at least put a smile on her face for the time being and encouraged her to put a little more passion into her training.
Java was still broken up over what she had had to do to her beloved sprite, friend, and temporary lover, but she knew that if she spent her time mopping and wasn't ready for the final battle, than her sacrifice would have been for nothing.
She had to keep going, had to make sure Pilot would indeed be proud.
Dustine breathed a sigh of relief when Risura and his lusus returned to LoMaW.
Molesprite had taken the jade blood femboy up to Skaia to dig out the whole the Genesis Frog would need to go through. They'd spent most of their extended stretched out time training the Bard of Void's Rip ability so he would be ready when the time came to head up.
He would need to go up, get the hole dug with Rip, and come back down without being spotted. He'd managed it thanks to the fact that Rip, in its strongest form, could create a chain of void portals all at once that could act as essentially a bomb, shredding apart everything around and within the chain and taking it all in.
Risura had used this chain attack to dig out a whole to the center of the planet Skaia, and with his sprite's help made it back to Dustine's land safely; where he fully intended to spend the rest of his time cuddling his matesprit and nothing the fuck else until it was time to fight the final battle.
Neither of them needed to do any alchemy, their powers both fully unlocked and their primary source of combat; one using bare fists and the power of the void, the other channeling pure rage into a mace that had grown more powerful every moment it had been in its owner's hands.
Their sprites chatted politely as their respective players found a room in one of the lands for some alone time.
Both were confident they would be able to survive the battle that was to come, but just incase they didn't, they wanted their last moments to be spent together.
Lurabo was fluttering across LoLaS, letting her light grow and extend around her to the towns that had before been trapped in the darkness that the denizen had brought with her.
The light, no longer blocked by the denizen, spread through the darkness and lingered; allowing the consorts to use its luck, knowledge, and literal light to begin sorting things out across their planet. By the time the Black king battle was done and the session over, the consorts would likely have taken their planet back, having moved off the ladders altogether.
Granted, this would likely make the name of the land somewhat incongruous, but still.
Lurabo's thoughts halted as she sensed someone familiar approaching. She continued to fly normally, until her lusus was within slashing range with his tails.
Lurabo spun in mid-air, slamming her Arcane into his side and sending him flying back. Chimerasprite had evidently decided that if Lurabo had time to light up LoLaS, she had time to spar and train. She smiled, knowing that her lusus just wanted to help; and perhaps he really was doing so.
He'd been unable to spar with her for most of the journey, as at first it took him awhile to get used to moving around as a sprite, and then he had to wait for Lurabo to sort through her own issues such as the denizen and alchemizing. But now, he felt, was the perfect time for them to fight.
Lurabo seemed to agree, keeping her tarot cards in her inventory as she took a mid-air combat stance. She wanted to show her lusus how far she'd come.
Valtina took deep breaths to keep herself calm as she stood in the midsts of her sprite.
The living garden moved around her like a sentient labyrinth of vegetation that wished to attack her.
Her healing and her fighting were as good as they were ever going to be, Gardensprite seemed intent on making sure Valtina was up to snuff with her reaction time and alchemized weapons. She had the widest arsenal of any player in the session, and could swap between them at a moments notice.
Her sais, her spade knife, her sawvel, her drill-prongs, her gloves, her weed-killer, her sheers; all alchemized into as powerful as they could become without ceasing to be gardening tools altogether.
The vines, roots, leaves, berries, seeds, branches, and everything else Gardensprite could produce-which was quite a lot do to Valtina's excellent gardening skills-was launched, swung, lashed, and otherwise sent at her to attack. It was an onslaught, requiring Valtina to switch to different weapons, spinning on her heels, ducking, guarding, countering.
She was sweating and panting after only a few minutes, and her sprite intended to keep her at it for hours.
She knew it was just to help her, her beloved garden wanting only to help her grow as Valtina had done for it back before it had been a sentient creature, but it was extremely tiring still.
She supposed as the healer, it was remarkably important that she not let herself take much damage during the battle.
Mutosi wasn't sure what was wrong with her lusus.
The massive Scorpionsprite had been acting strange since she returned. Ever since she started working better with the others, her lusus had been acting as though there was something wrong with her.
She hadn't been talking much, which was strange considering the lusii had been so glad to be capable of verbally speaking with their wards when they'd first become sprites. Mutosi may have been slightly annoyed by how fussy her lusus had been up to now, but she didn't want her to stop caring about her altogether.
She was at least still willing to help Mutosi train, sparring with her so she could increase the power of her broom combat, bronze blooded beast control, and Witch of Hope powers. They planned to train for the entire day and a half, using the remaining time to rest up and be ready for the battle, but the scorpion lusus began to slow down more and more until they couldn't go on anymore.
"Alright, what's wrong?" Mutosi questioned, not wanting to keep going until she figured out what was happening." "I should have paid more attention," the lusus said in her warped, animalistic voice, "I shouldn't have let you do such a thing to yourself." "Do what?" Mutosi questioned her lusus, worried about her caretaker.
"Those powers of yours.. You used them on yourself, you changed who you are. You're not the same troll who I raised, not anymore.." Scorpionsprite poked at the sand with her stinger tail anxiously, "I knew it was going to happen it, I could feel it in the code being a sprite has flowing through me, but I couldn't make myself stop you..
"All those sweeps together, all down the train with a snap of your fingers. Might as well have done nothing for all the good I did. I don't claim to have been a perfect lusus, but I didn't think the troll I raised deserved to be erased from the world."
"I haven't been," Mutosi said, "I promise you. I'm still myself, I'm just.. Okay, so I changed myself. I made it so I could stop being borderline evil, but that doesn't mean I'm gone. I've just grown, changed, become better. I'm just the best version of the troll you used with the worse parts picked away." Mutosi told her with a smile, "I'm still me, even if the denizen seems to think otherwise. I'm just a better me."
Mutosi wasn't sure if she believed it herself, but her words seemed to have at least slightly calmed down her lusus, and they could continue their training.
Jeff couldn't do much training while he focused on keeping time from moving forward by too much.
He didn't need to of course, he'd technically already trained for years longer than everyone else in the session. All he really needed to do was alchemize.
His already powerful bat had been put through Hephaestus' forge, turning it into the even more powerful form; the Molten Master Measuring-Staff. Any baseball hit with this was likely to be sent into orbit, and any skull it collided with was likely to be reduced to a liquid.
He'd taken the rotted skull baseball and combined it with a lightweight metal and an enchanted dark magic rune he'd found buried in one of the steam caved of his land, creating the Brazen Basher's Blight Ball, a single baseball with enough density and decomposing magic within it to take down an army.
It only had one shot, so he had to make sure it didn't miss, and hit with as much strength as he could muster. But he would have to leave that for when the time came.
Jeff nearly lost control of his time powers that were holding back the timeline as he held back the gagging fit brought on by his own unintentional pun.