As the orders to move against Night Sun were sent out, Brenner moved over to touch Secretary on the shoulder. "Let's you and I go over to Shiroe's spot," he said quietly, on a whim or a nudge - he wasn't sure which the feeling had become so second nature to follow. "If he calls on his kami at the last minute you'll be there to help him and I'll be able to help Nyanta-san if he needs it." They looked at MasterChiefS7 who gave them the nod and they took off that direction instead.
Brenner and Secretary joined central command, standing at rest attention behind Shiroe, Nyanta, and Purrcy, to either side of Marielle, who greeted them in her cheery way, although it was a bit strained given the circumstances. They greeted her back with smiles to help her relax. Naotsugu glanced over his shoulder at them from his position in front of Shiroe and to his left a little. Akatsuki was to Shiroe's right, next to Naotsugu. Obvious positions for his sword and shield.
They were standing on a platform high enough in the air to see what was going on in the battle and be out of reach of those fighting in the main battle. Standing around the main players and their protectors were other felinoids, a mixture of clerics and guards, that the two Eagles recognized from their brief time inside the Temple of Creation.
Set a half-platform below and in front of them was Crusty, watching the battle as well. When Shiroe had asked for the rest of the Caretaker's army to be brought in to participate, Crusty had asked if Mise could also be brought in and if Reed could stand with him. Reed had turned over command of the South Army to MasterChiefS7 so that he and Crusty could have this opportunity to practice their positions in the final World Tree battle. Between the three of them and Shiroe they were directing the battlefield.
Brenner could tell that Crusty had thought hard about how to make all the diverse Adventurer groups work together. It helped that Shiroe had asked for each one to focus on their own dark deity. They had their own vendettas so were quite willing to fight against those temples.
Now they were all being focused against Night Sun's large form. It wasn't a heated statue this time, to everyone's relief. Instead it was a giant form of his black felinoid main avatar, but dressed in dark robes with lava-red embroidered symbols that squirmed in the eye of the beholder, making it difficult to look at him in total.
As the Adventurers moved forward, Shiroe watched for half of a minute then said, "Ō-kami of Alv and Adventurer emotions, it's time to let him feel the worry that he's missed something else important. Take all of the firm emotions and righteous anger of those who fight for peaceful living and return it to the Adventurers as strength of will and mind. Let none of their emotions reach Night Sun. Let him finally starve of that which is rightfully yours.
"But be careful to not feed him your own strong negative emotions. Remember you also must remain balanced and detached from him, or he will become just as strong eating you as he would eating the Caretaker. Continue to hide from him and tease him until it's too late."
Akatsuki said quietly, "Please, Ō-kami, obey Shiroe and be careful. I would be sad and miss you otherwise." Brenner and Secretary both were a bit surprised she got a tender response back.
Secretary smiled a bit and said, "Ō-kami who has waited very patiently, please be obedient so that we can all win this war in the end. If it becomes troublesome, I'll help you. I know Shiroe is very busy. I'm also here to help." His eyes went distant as he watched and felt what the youthful kami did on the battlefield.
Below them, Brenner could hear Reed telling Crusty what they'd learned from their fight with Night Sun's statue form. At least the summary of it. Five forms at the even decade percents. An attempt to restore complete life again at the fifty percent, likely eating the source of greatest strength around - which they would assume in this case Night Sun anticipated it to be the Caretaker herself. Brenner wondered if it would be the young kami instead if it was a game number. That wouldn't be good. He whispered the possibility to Shiroe, who gave a nod that he'd added it to his ongoing calculations.
Even if that was the pattern of fighting an aspect of Night Sun, they couldn't know what the specific attacks were. The Adventurers on the field focused on doing what Adventurers in battle always do - getting to the enemy and attacking it. Slow methodical reduction of HP of the enemy with a sure knowledge it would eventually go down. It was just a matter of smarts and time.
Crusty was experimenting some. With this many fighters on the field, he had the tanks around Night Sun moving in rotation. He'd set a good portion of tanks at the outside ranks of the Adventurers to face the residents of the Gate of Time who still insisted on fighting against the Adventurers. Based on how difficult the attacks were in any given part of the torus around Night Sun, he moved the Attack Class fighters and magic users around to fill in from behind both rings of tanks. Healing Class magic users were in the center line of the doughnut, alternating one facing inward and two facing outward since there were more people facing outward generally.
Crusty's practiced instincts as to area effect attacks from bosses was used to good effect. The eighty percent mark had him calling for the tanks to raise shields, Kannagi's to cast overhead shields, and everyone to either gather under them or to back off the right distance. Only a few Adventurers got clipped by the Dark Rain that fell down on them.
They all adjusted defensive barriers and standing positions quickly after that for each time Crusty called out the next round of that attack. Like the Higan Special, the Dark Rain wanted to turn anyone it touched into a Death Ghoul that Night Sun could control.
The sixty percent mark took a long time to reach. The residents of the Gate of Time had been taught by their deities that the Caretaker would punish them all terribly if the Sect war was brought into the city. They were afraid to relent. All of their desires fed Night Sun as they fought against the Adventurers, and their deaths were the more powerful for it as well.
Night Sun was completely uncaring, however. When his sixty percent mark was reached, his area effect attacks took out whole sections of the field, Adventurer and Person of the Land alike, like the second attack had for his statue aspect. Again it was three flaming attacks, but consecutive ones rather than all together, and in a larger area than the small geysers had been.
A twelve foot circle of hell-fire rose up and blazed fiercely for four seconds, then disappeared. One second later the second blaze rose up. The third one followed similarly. All pain gave Night Sun strength. Any deaths were as if they'd been sacrifices. It took Crusty and Shiroe combined to figure out how to predict where the circles of hell-fire would appear.
When the people outside the ring of Adventurers was finally small enough they backed off, Crusty changed the formation of the Adventurer army. He set a minimal amount of tanks around the outside, then had phalanxes of tanks set up in triangles that the Attack Classes hid behind to be closer to their target and where they could return to for quick healing.
As the fifty percent mark grew close, Crusty gave a nod to Reed. Reed called all the Programmers of the Eagles out of the battle to focus on the needed spells. Night Sun's aspect cast his spell after the fifty percent mark was passed. Black lines of miasma came out of Night's Sun's aspect and reached for the people in and around the battlefield. They hit a barrier. Rather than stop the miasma it made the lines thicken and then writhe in worse form. They broke through that barrier and continued.
"Like last time," Reed said, disappointed but not surprised. "Purification isn't going to work."
The miasma tentacles continued to reach out towards those on the field. They hit a second barrier. This time where they hit lit up with rings of light and the tentacles smoked. The light barrier was able to hold them back until enough time passed that they all thought the spell would have run out. There was a brief pause as the tentacles thinned and began to retract. Then suddenly there was one large tentacle that left the frame of Night Sun and with great speed slammed into the light barrier, headed for a specific location.
Secretary stiffened, watching closely. Just as he was indicating that the emotion kami had sufficiently removed enough of itself to not be the highest point entity on the battlefield, the thick miasma tentacle changed direction and zoomed towards the central command platform. Everyone standing there stiffened some. The light barrier had stopped the first attack of the tentacle, but had gone down by the same attack.
Nyanta held up his hand and there was suddenly a wall of translucent light between central command and the attacking miasma, thicker than anything any Eagle could create. The miasma hit the wall hard, but it held fast and the tentacle smoked and writhed against the wall of light.
"Attack Night Sun quickly, Crusty," Purrcy said, as if from a distance. "It's not got an ending point, except the refill amount, unless he gets down another set percentage points and he has to conserve instead of hold the spell in place."
"And that would be?" Crusty asked as Mise and Reed passed on the orders to the army.
"Roughly forty percent when he needs to have enough to cast the next area affect spell."
No one really wanted to hear that, but it was an achievable number...if Izanagi could hold his light wall up until then. With prayers, hope, and intent that he would be able to, the army attacked the more fiercely, and with more light attacks this time from anyone who had them.
This time, because the Adventurers were only attacking Night Sun himself, and his eating spell was focused on one set location, they were able to drop him down to the forty percent relatively quickly. He dropped past the forty percent mark and the writhing miasma tentacle was withdrawn back into the aspect. There was time for a few breaths, and Crusty was crying to everyone to fall back and put up protections against cursing.
The lower half of Night Sun turned into black smoke that spread out into the army. Where it touched people, there were cries and hands dropped weapons and were put over faces or ears on some. "What is it?" Shiroe asked quickly. No one from the ground was able to answer, because as soon as the smoke reached someone they were immediately affected.
Everyone on the command platform was suddenly wrapped up in the essence of the emotion kami. They could all feel distanced fear, horror, and despair. "The curse is to have to feel that?" Shiroe asked. He got back affirmation. He pursed his lips in anger. "Then it's finally your turn, Ō-kami. Don't let it overwhelm anyone to break them. Siphon off enough that it cuts back on how much Night Sun gains and eats. We don't need him going back up into that fifty percent attack again. Begin to convert it.
"You remember how we of Akiba fought against Izanagi, turning our unnatural desires into righteous anger, remembering the insults of being brought here against our will and using that to fight against the emotions we didn't want. Remind all of them now of the same. They'll be able to fight it themselves if they can be reminded that we Adventurers hate to be manipulated by other beings. Remind them of what they themselves wish, and then when it's reached that right moment, we'll boost it in a sudden burst. The power of our righteous anger will be the weapon to damage him, the same as we used it against Izanagi before."
He got assent and the emotion kami went into stealth mode. Everyone on the command center deck felt along with it, watching by feel what it did. There were a number of Adventurers who very quickly grabbed hold of the thought of their righteous anger at being attacked in this manner. In a very short amount of time, that emotion had built up very high and Shiroe gave the command. The Adventurers on the field rose up and attacked in great strength all at once with a great roar and the damage to Night Sun was great enough to drop him to the thirty percent and below in the fastest run of point loss for any battle against him.
When Night Sun's aspect tried to cast that spell again, every Adventurer roared in anger and froze the spell before it could do more than become a light smoke around his feet and legs. The attacks became even more fierce and the twenty percent mark loomed.
Brenner had to wonder how Night Sun could still be standing though. There were a lot of Adventurers of high level out there. With their own team and Kanami and the Maze of Eternity team combined, it was surprising it wasn't a faster drop. "Does he have multiple aspects also?" he asked.
Nyanta turned his head towards Brenner. "Yes. All kami have them to one degree or another."
"How many does Night Sun have?"
"No one knows any kami's number," Nyanta shook his head. "It's a jealously guarded secret." He glanced at Purrcy. "Even her."
"From you, too?" Brenner asked in surprise. Nyanta nodded.
Brenner mused on that for a bit, then wondered just where and what the other aspects were doing right then. He looked around the field again with his Spirit Sight. Purrcy was three at the moment in front of him, although there could be others hanging around somewhere. Night Sun was two where he was but that seemed like a small number.
Brenner looked around in a broader field of vision, wondering how far out he could see. Suddenly he was seeing something that felt different. He was seeing a knife coming out of nowhere to plunge into Purrcy. It plunged into her five times and each time it looked like a shadow of her fell to the ground until the final one fell and all of her was on the ground, Nyanta beginning to panic over her.
Brenner gasped and shook his head. Purrcy was still in front of him, like she had been just before. He opened his spirit vision again and looked around, looking for something or someone that might be the precedent to what he'd just seen. It had surely been an activation of his Future Sight. He found himself looking up and behind them into the face of Stiletto. Stiletto looked at him curiously. "Any sign of a knife?" Brenner asked him when Stiletto was only in his peripheral vision so his exact location remained hidden.
Stiletto shook his head briefly and Brenner kept scanning. Suddenly there was the feel of a spiritual spell being cast and heading their way. Brenner immediately threw up spirit shields around the group, but he'd not included Stiletto, thinking the Assassin already had shields up, or would feel it and put them up himself.
That was bad thinking. The spell hit Stiletto full on, as if it had been meant for him from the beginning. Without thought, Brenner moved between Stiletto and Purrcy becoming the full Archangel, knowing he might not be enough given Stiletto could go to realms he couldn't.
Stiletto moved and Brenner felt for it. He reached out his hand and caught Stiletto's, preventing the first attack from hitting her in the physical realm. Stiletto was gone. Brenner moved again and his arm bore the brunt of the spirit realm attack. He hissed but felt for the next movement. This time he wrapped his arms around Purrcy and pulled her into the spirit realm wholly. The code realm attack went through space.
Brenner moved again to get Purrcy out of the way of the slash that came for her in two different realms at once. It caught his elbow and burned. He gasped. That one had held a cursing in it. He wondered if it had been in the death realm. That would be like Night Sun to add that one, since it was his own realm. Brenner said a prayer in his heart that the cursing would bleed out and leave him so he could keep defending Purrcy.
The disappearance of Purrcy from the physical realm had made the rest of the group move to search for them. Shiroe's face went as dark as Nyanta's when they figured out what was going on. That was after the next attack and another gash appeared in the back of Brenner's robe. He'd pushed Purrcy back out and into Nyanta's arms and stepped between her and the knife again.
His spell was ready by then and he moved the next time to grab Stiletto and hung on, going with him into the realms with him. With a point blank purification hold and a Casting out of Evil Spirits spell he finally had a Stiletto back that could reason a little better. Brenner was glad the Purification Bullets were cantrip level now. Both his set and the set from Secretary hit the Evil Spirit that had been put into Stiletto, taking it down.
Stiletto walked one more time and Brenner blinked at him. "Well, Grandpa was trying to kill me even so," Stiletto said, rather pale. "At least that wasn't a safe place for me any more."
"How does Night Sun know you personally?" Brenner asked him, not letting go.
"I killed the spy he sent through the Gate of Time from this side to the other side of the veil. Michael said that Night Sun, being the god of the underworld just called him back from death to get what he wanted out of him. Since that would have been after I killed him, perhaps Night Sun knew who I was specifically."
"Hmm. Or the Evil Spirit he sent after you was the same one he called back. It would have been easier to have just told it to target the one who had killed it. If you were assassin enough to kill him, you'd be a likely candidate for killing Purrcy."
"Truue," Stiletto said, drawing it out a bit. His face went back to killing dark, like Nyanta and Shiroe's faces, and they were walking again. "Please don't kill me," was the first thing out of his mouth as they arrived back with central command again. "It was possession. But I know where his hidden aspects are. Grant me the strength of the Adventurer anger and the ability to stay hidden in all the realms from the eyes of Night Sun, and I'll take out the aspects he's using against us outside the ones here on the battlefield. ...I really hate being used like that."
"And if he possesses mew again?" Nyanta asked rather dangerously.
"We purified his one chance. He can't do that again," Stiletto said very quietly, but because he was about to explode.
Brenner shook his head. "I'll continue to stand watch here. He can't hide from me, as you already saw. Now that we know, Secretary can have a spell on hand to cast immediately as soon as I move." Secretary nodded, his lips pressed together grimly. It looked like he was fighting off the emotion kami, which meant Shiroe was still very angry. "Really. I'll watch for him, like I was doing before." Brenner promised. "Michael sent us here to watch, we just didn't expect that particular attack."
"And mew won't be the next one?" Nyanta asked, his eyes narrowed.
Brenner got a bit impatient. "And what if you're the next one? Your protections don't include spiritual ones."
Naynta's ears went stiff and he turned his head away. Brenner and Stiletto looked at Shiroe. He gave a sharp nod and his eyes went a bit distant. Stiletto's fist clenched and Brenner let him go. He disappeared.
"Ah, Secretary...could you give me a hand," Brenner asked and showed Secretary his arm, then turned around.
"God man, speak up sooner!" Secretary was aghast.
"Like I could," Brenner complained. "Stiletto was going to go killing with or without permission if I let go." He was quite relieved to get the healing. It was hard with both of them being healers instead of attack Classes (unless it came to code or clergy), but maybe that was enough for this dungeon room.
-:-:-:-:-
Stiletto was really just done with Night Sun's interference and attempts on his life. He seriously considered being made to be the knife against Purrcy an attempt on his own life. He would have surely died if it hadn't been Brenner to interfere. Any and all of the top three would have killed him if he'd actually damaged Purrcy and they'd found him. He went hunting first the aspect of Night Sun that had sent that particular nasty spell. Following a sniffer set for that scent was easy.
Stiletto didn't even care that it was just inside the realm he hated most. He blinked in, slashed with a full-on light spell that blinded the whole area of darkness and took out everything the light touched. A final finishing touch was necessary for the god's aspect and the deed was done.
He stepped out and shielded from attack for a bit since that got the attention of a couple of other aspects. That gave him lines to follow back to them, though, so he licked his lips hungrily and headed after the one farthest away from the battlefield. There shouldn't be a stray way out this way.
Stiletto was surprised to end up in a different space. It wasn't hard to see it was the Gate of Time. The nice side of it, anyway. He looked around for the next step and found - Michael. Only it was the sixth-level felinoid-disguised Michael that Stiletto knew because he'd been in that side of the Gate of Time, too. He knew better than to contact this one. As he watched, Michael stepped and an attack flew through the space he'd just been in. Ah. That's why this aspect was way over here.
Michael wasn't in a hurry. He looked more like he was just dancing slowly, keeping the aspect busy while protecting...the kittens. Ah. Well, it was time to let them rest, then. Stiletto intercepted at the next pause in Michael's walk and took that aspect down the same as he had the previous one. He stopped by Michael and patted him on the head lightly without showing himself. "Thanks," Michael said and sank down with a sigh.
Stiletto smiled, but didn't answer. It would be okay if Michael thought it had been Purrcy. He disappeared and reappeared back at the battlefield, counting to make sure he'd not drawn another after Michael. They were still all there and the one who had the sniffer pointing at it was looking for him, another spell about ready to cast. Stiletto moved, crossing the distance quickly, and attacked before the spell got off. It rebounded on the other two aspects, rocking them. He'd moved again very fast. Night Sun had protections this close to his main avatar.
It only took another few attacks, carefully placed from safe locations left quickly, to take down all but the final hidden aspect and the physical one the rest of the Caretaker's Army was fighting.
"Shall we," Michael said softly from next to him. "Double and take him down properly?"
"Gladly," Stiletto answered, biting the word, still angry. Michael was hefting the God Cleaver in his hand.
"You ready for the finale, Shiroe?" Michael asked.
"Any time," came back just as quietly angry. They both felt the increase of strength from the emotion kami. They accepted it until it was enough, then they moved synchronously. The invisible aspect was down by Stiletto's blade, followed by Michael appearing as a giant in the physical realm to finish off the physical aspect with a great blow.
A dark mist rose up rather than bubbles, but a song had already begun from below them. In a circle around where Night Sun had been were the boys of Twin Falls. It was a song the Eagles didn't know, but it immediately started to dissipate the black mist and prevent it from coalescing back into a form that could do damage. Still, BillyBoy waved a worried wave at Michael to indicate it wouldn't be long enough.
Stiletto stayed on guard there while Michael disappeared to reappear in front of central command. "This would be the time, please Caretaker, while he registers as dead and before he can become an Undead King. We'd rather not have it go on that long."
Shiroe gave the nod of agreement, Nyanta gave the nod for Izanagi, and Purrcy let the spell go. Between all the clergy on the field they managed to keep Night Sun at the state of dead until the black mist suddenly disappeared in a swirl. Nyanta waved a hand and all the people of the Gate of Time remaining on the field below the command platforms disappeared.
As the Adventurers turned to stare at him, he glared back slightly, then gave an irritated shrug. "If their gods no longer exist in their memories, they either need to not exist, or to become normal Purrsons of the Land not locked into the Gate of Time. I've taken care of it. What does it matter to mew?"
"Well, thank you," Purrcy answered very politely, "both for taking care of it properly, and for letting us know so we wouldn't worry for them."
The High Priest stopped in surprise, his whole body expressing it as he stared at her. Then he was holding her, kissing her rather passionately, and they were staring at him with even more surprise.
When he let her up for air, the look on his face was also one of great surprise. "Mwell," Nyanta said, his ears and tail flicking in great consternation, "I'm not sure if I'm relieved he's finally learned something good, or angry that he's decided that such behavior is acceptable with my wife merely because I've allowed him to use me on occasion."
Purrcy couldn't hold back the laughter, and the rest of them had to smile. "Nyanta," she said, soothingly petting his very unhappy twisting ears, "I like your optimism."
Nyanta stared at her, then slumped, putting his head on her shoulder. "Fine. I'll be pleased he learned something good...but I'll kill him next time," he complained at her.
"Yes, you will. That's the next boss, after all." She kept petting him and smiled at the rest of them.
-:-:-:-:-
Sixth-level Michael slumped against the wall he was sitting next to. "Mister Guard, sir," a small paw patted his cheek. "Excuse me?"
Michael looked down into his arms, then loosened up to let the kittens tumble gently into his lap. "Sorry. I was watching the fighting. It's over now. I needed to know if we needed to run again."
"Are Hahaue and Chichiue all right?" they pleaded to know.
"Yes," he smiled at them. "Their Adventurer friends came to help them. There isn't a fight Shiroe hasn't won yet, unless it's against Akatsuki - or Hahaue." Their eyes got very wide.
"You know them?" MeowLi asked excitedly.
"I do," he said conspiratorially. "I followed your parents into the Gate of Time to stay close to them, but I saw them there, before then."
They begged, pleaded, and demanded stories that he "reluctantly" told until Purrcy came hunting for them to let them know it was really, finally safe. Michael properly went back to servant status, walking through space with her to carry the kittens back, she carrying the girls and he the boys.
They arrived on the master suite balcony where Nyanta was waiting. Michael handed him the boys, then bowed low. Nyanta's quiet, "Thank mew," were the gentlest and kindest words Michael had ever received from Nyanta.
Michael rose from his bow and gave him the knowing look of one father to another. Soberly he answered, "You're very welcome." He disappeared, taking himself to a guard post down the hallway to be close enough to reassure them he was still near, far enough to not be intrusive into their intimate family reunion.
There had been enough actions in that battle that worried him that he used his spells from back when he'd researched all of the people who looked out of Purrcy's eyes to hunt for the moments in her history where his future self had interacted with her. He kept it limited to just the times related to the battle, though. He did like to direct his own life, after all.
With that excitement over, he returned to the rather bored life of being the bottom guard on the rung in the temple. It was even worse to have the remainder of the Courts of the Gods be relatively peaceful affairs. He didn't have to go and fetch Purrcy every now and again, nor did he have the entertainment of getting to watch her feisty self in the political battle ring.
However, he did from then on have several young felinoids come hunt him down in the crazy places he guarded to demand more stories of Hahaue and Chichue and the Adventurers of Theldesia. Even when he was repeating the same old stories for the fifth and then twentieth time. At least it was company on occasion and Nyanta didn't scold him for it.
-:-:-:-:-
There was a lot of work for Purrcy and Nyanta to do in the Gate of Time after she returned the Adventurers to their proper homes and erased the battle space. The first thing they had to do was call all of the remaining deities to the Court of the Gods and learn just what the rewriting had done. They invited Shiroe to go with them so that he could address the deities and also test to see what the final result had been.
Purrcy sent the Eagles and the Twin Falls party into the city to learn just what the effects of the changes had been on the hosts that remained, and to give them a bit of vacation time. Izanagi had put everyone into place where they would have been if there had been no dark deities to begin with, so those who remembered needed to fit themselves back into the new pattern.
It had been such a massive world-wide action on the part of the Inari, that those at the top who remembered understood it had surely taken a great toll on the two AIs. When Inari gave their final instructions to Purrcy and Nyanta and withdrew, no one was surprised. The cunning Eagles knew that if they could find the physical location of the two at that time, even they might be able to overcome them. It was no surprise for them to learn Stiletto and the rest of the Intelligence detail were locked down in that regard.
When Purrcy had made Log Horizon vacation with her long enough, she returned them to the time and space they had been pulled from. The Twin Falls boys she sent back to South Amerka as soon as they asked to go, because they liked to be kept busy doing good things.
When Michael and then Reed asked if the Eagles could also get back to work, Purrcy put them off mildly, telling them to relax while they had the chance, but she would call for them as soon as she'd finished up enough of her tasks to be able to focus on them again. While they gave her suspicious looks and grumbled at her, in reality they did need the depressurize in a bad way. Where didn't matter so much, nor could they really argue with her point that they could stay a month and barely a sleep cycle would pass by outside.
When Clocktower begged for something to do to at least keep the men busy and not getting into trouble, Purrcy sent them to the Children's Park, in its space, and had them clean up the damage Night Sun's miasma had done to it so it would be a peaceful place again. They had fun playing around there for the rest of the day after that chore was done. Still, they had to wonder just what she had in store for them next. It wasn't really like her to keep them around without a purpose.