The Dustbin
Day 48: Survey Class Part 2
11th of Guardian Moon, Afternoon
Everything then began moving all at once.
The ancient guardians of the Chasm of the Bound, led by the twin Altered Golems, Simone and Marcelle, all charged towards their perceived intruders from two directions.
The Agarthian strike force, spearheaded by Kronya, all began their assault as their ace in the hole, [Hermes] began unleashing its payload towards whichever area had the most enemies clustered.
The expedition group, caught in the middle of both, now had to make a choice or die via getting trampled underfoot.
"So," Karna remarked grimly as he held onto his [Scythe of Sariel] tightly, "now what?!"
"FOLLOW ME!" Byleth yelled as she then led the group towards an opening between the two clashing armies closing in on one another.
"PIECES OF SHIT! GET BACK HERE!" Kronya beelined towards the expedition group, only for her to be swamped by the constructs who were also after them. "PISS OFF, YOU SHITHEAPS!" the Assassin then throws off the earthen constructs dogpiling atop of her with her enhanced body before cutting through the rest of them with her [Kharga] blades.
She then takes a second to admire their cutting power before resuming her chase towards the group, even going as far as to hitch a ride on Scythian's tail during its flight, much to the mount's ire.
"HEY! WE'RE OVER-CAPACITY!" the Dark Bishop cried out as Anacharsis tried to maintain altitude.
"ARE YOU SAYING THAT I'M FAT?!" Kronya cried out as she swayed side side from the augmented wyvern's tail.
"TO BE FAIR, IT'S NOT LIKE ANY OF YOU GUYS ARE LIGHTER!" cackled Periander as he bulldozed his way through the constructs with his [Dark Vajra-Mushti]. "If you're gonna bitch, then BITCH ABOUT THESE DICKLESS DIRT DOLLS THAT DON'T EVEN BLEED!" he cried out before dropkicking one Warrior into a column of other Warriors, shattering every last one of them into a chain of destruction. "SERIOUSLY?! WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR A MAN TO ENTER AN ACTUAL BLOODBATH?!"
"Death, death, death, death to the heretic," one Golem then formed a bolt of energy in its hands before slinging it towards the Agarthan Grappler.
Periander, with his dark Relic replicas protecting his hands, catches the thunderbolt out of the air before throwing it back to the sender, striking the Golem in its head unit before triggering an explosion of electricity that took out several surrounding constructs and disabling a few nearby Golems caught in the blast.
The latter group, however, were then literally slapped awake by Simone and Marcelle. "Get back to work," ordered Marcelle as the subordinate Golem creaked back into its prior function.
Further above, [Hermes] then pulled down its modified Viskar [Vel] cannons over its shoulders, raining down hell upon the Golems and the surrounding constructs in an attempt to thin their numbers, while at the same time, take out the expedition group just up ahead with its [Ravana] shot-cannon aimed towards them.
"INCOMING VOLLEY!" Karna cried out. "HIT THE DECK!"
The scattershot explosions peppered the ground that the group were running on, sending more than a few of them flying towards several different directions as they all jumped out of the way.
"... Okay, anyone dead?!" Karna then heard a few coughs through the surrounding smoke.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Byleth heaved out as she saw [Hermes] being harassed by the other Golems slinging their thunderbolts at it, causing it to redirect its flightpath towards the giant automatons instead.
Well, that'll keep them busy for a good while, commented Sothis before she turned her attention towards the other Agarthans beelining towards them. Now to deal with them...
Topaz immediately gets up upon hearing Kronya's wicked cackle ringing through the air. "... That exhibitionist clown-bitch is mine," the little Hassashin snarled as she drew her [Zulfiqar] from her back hip. "Don't stop me."
The Swordmaster then clashes with the Assassin jumps down from above with wicked glee and earnest desire to conduct the most violent of murders. "YOU MADE A BIG MISTAKE FACING ME NOW!" Kronya boasted as her [Kharga] blades locked against Toapz's own. "I'VE RETURNED STRONGER THAN I WAS BEFORE! SO, ARE YOU SCARED?!"
Topaz does not answer her as the two then move their blade lock elsewhere in the ruins. Taking place where the two had once stood, Scythian and Anacharsis came flying in, the former now spitting out a giant stream of green acid that melted the stone tiles below their feet that drew its fire towards the group.
"SCATTER!" everyone then ran from the caustic blast upon Yuri giving the order. As the group dissolved before the acid could, Periander runs ahead to go after the group while Anacharsis follows suit as she and her passenger were now being chased by the constructs, with their Snipers now shooting arrows at them.
"Keep the arrows off of our backs," ordered Anacharsis as she raised her [Geri Beil] into the air, gathering a small cold wave around its head to ready an attack, "I'm going to lay on the pressure."
She swings down, blasting a sphere of ice magic towards the expedition group, to which Byron counters the blast with his own [Perun] swung out. Upon interception, an icy explosion is then let out, the chains around Byron now snaking around the Dustbin's Warlock acting as his form of protection.
"Another Ice Magic user?" he raised an eyebrow as he unleashed a blast of [Freeze] at the constructs, leaving all of them frozen in place. "... Smaller world then I presumedly thought."
"Let us help!" Ashe stepped in as he drew back his [Steel Bow].
"His idea, not mine," Selene grumbled as she cranked back her [Crossbow]'s string.
Byron sighs before he snatched the floating axe blade from its chain. "Do me a favor, both of you," he stated to the two of them, "don't die on me playing hero. To each their own."
Just as the two sides were about to attack, the constructs that slipped through [Hermes]'s rain of fire stampeded towards where they were at.
"... Before you say anything," said the Dark Bishop towards his superior operative, "no, don't bother. I'll be a pincushion before I can intercept so much as one arrow."
The earthen Snipers then shoot their arrows towards their frontal direction, forming a rain of quills swarming towards the both sides.
"RUN YE FUCKS!" Selene cried out as she, Byron and Ashe ran for their lives with Scythian carrying Anacharsis and the Dark Bishop following suit as the constructs marched through their allies' arrows, unaffected by this friendly fire during their march. "OH DAT'S JUST CHEATIN'!"
"WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO STOP THAT FUCKING RAMPAGE!" Byron cried out as he ducked under an arrow shot at him from behind.
"FROM THIS MANY?!" Ashe pointed out. "HOW DO WE EVEN LOSE THEM-?!"
Over the patch of the ground that the three of them had ran over, a small tremor was felt before a giant worm-like creature burst out of the earth with an ear-piercing hiss from its dripping jaw-hinged mouth, revealing itself to be a Giant Crawler. During its ascent, it had nearly hit Anacharsis and the Dark Bishop, only for the former to perform a daring aerial maneuvers with Scythian to dodge the monster's snapping maw before the latter was then assailed by all of the remaining constructs and lesser Golems present.
"A DEMONIC BEAST NOW OF ALL TIMES?!" exclaimed the Dark Bishop as he witnessed the Giant Crawler being swarmed by the earthen constructs as if they were an army of ants.
"And in the wrong habitat too," Anacharsis clicked her tongue in frustration.
"IT GOT THEIR ATTENTION!" Byron pointed out as the three of them continued to run for their lives.
"Have a feelin' dat thin's not gonna last forever..." Selene remarked as she kept running.
"How did end up here, I'm not going to bother asking," Ashe commented.
A shrill shriek was heard right behind them, revealing Scythian the augmented wyvern vomiting out another stream of acid from its mouth towards them before it was then followed up by a wave of ice magic from the Wyvern Rider's [Geri Beil] and the Dark Bishop's [Miasma Δ] in a combined volley of magic.
"YOU TWO! GET BACK!" in desperation, Byron then erected a wall of ice with his [Freeze] spell in front of where he was before creating a second layer of reinforcement with his [Perun]'s internal spiritual barrier enhanced around its variable-length chain.
The defensive layers absorb the three attacks before cracking apart as Anacharsis swooped in towards them with her bringing down her [Geri Beil] towards the three for the killing blow.
"Game over, chumps," smirked the Wyvern Rider as she then brought down her axe, only for her attack to be then veered off-course by a blast of [Hades Ω] taken to her side, knocking her, the Dark Bishop, and Scythian to the side and into one of the stairwells of the ruined citadel.
"... Was dat Professor Karna's?" asked Selene as she adjusted her glasses, only to find Hapi walking in.
"Sup," she greeted the trio before looking to the side where the enemies have landed, "... you know, we can either stay here and check if they're dead or go somewhere else and assume that they're already dead."
"Check em," Selene then fired a bolt into the dust cloud, only for the sound of the stake puncturing through ether flesh and bone nor stone to not to be heard.
As soon as the dust had settled, it then revealed where the two riders and their wyvern had crash-landed, all of them looking little to no worse for wear. Anacharsis was then revealed to have caught the bolt right before it could burrow into her skull, while the Dark Bishop himself was visibly rattled but relatively fine enough for all of his physical functions to be adequate, and Scythian himself had already braced itself for his master's next command of attack.
"Clever than the most, aren't you?" the Wyvern Rider taunted before bending crooked the metal bolt grasped in her hand with ease before tossing it aside. "Powerful as is, it is a shame that you can't fire that thing it twice in succession."
With her dominant hand, she then slams her [Geri Beil] to the ground, erecting a circular wall of thick ice around where they stood, trapping all seven (including the wyvern) around it.
"Nowhere left to run, huh?" Ashe remarked. "Guess you guys are confident on your strengths..."
"Oh please, we're going to wipe what's left of you schmucks off the soles of our shoes by the end of today," boasted the Dark Bishop before he turned towards Selene and Byron, "... or at least, that's what I'd hoped for, but really, when it comes to disposing corpses..." he remarked as a pair of [Miasma Δ] lit up in his hands, "... what's the difference between that and one more?"
Scythian then goes into a pre-meditative crouch before letting out a menacing hiss as his master raised her [Geri Beil] and pointed the wolf-headed axe towards the group. "Now which of you bitches are ready to die?"
Byron smirks back as everyone readied themselves to fight, with Selene now brandishing her [Steel Lance], Ashe now drawing his hunting knife in conjunction with his [Steel Sword], and Hapi's hands flaring up with [Miasma Δ] just like the Dark Bishop's.
"Ladies first," the two groups then began their fight inside the icy coliseum of their own making.
Outside, Simone and Marcelle were occupied at both reassessing their current situations, and delegating their subordinate Golems to summon more constructs to make up for their lost numbers upon the introduction to the flying golem that did not belong to them or were part of the attrition from the Demonic Beast that had wondered outside of its desert territory and into their domain.
"Unit Marcelle," spoke Simone, "the intruders are after the Chalice, but have brought with them further chaos to their nil benefit."
"It matters not, Unit Simone," replied the other Altered Golem, "hunt them all down. Show no mercy to those who defy the glory of the Goddess."
The pair then go their separate ways, each with their cabal of constructs accompanying them.
Simone then walks towards the rampaging [Hermes], who, aiming its [Ravana] shot cannon towards the Altered Golem, shot a volley of magical buckshot towards him while the latter then threw a javelin of electricity towards the weapon that the former was carrying.
Each others' shot then connect to one another, with Simone suffering several blasts all over his chassis while [Hermes]'s [Ravana] took the lightning bolt into its barrel's mouth before it was then purged from the automaton's hands and exploded behind itself. Losing one of its primary weapons, it then draws its [Adharma] blade from its thigh-holster as Simone then conjures another bolt of lightning in its hand while directing its constructs to charge towards the flying golem.
At the Agarthan's Base Camp...
"Hey Bias," greeted Myson as he walked in, "you winning yet?"
"I'M BUSY!" the Valkyrie yelled back as she fiddled with her NES (Neurologic Emulative Synchronizer) that she used to remotely control the [Hermes] from afar, with the device's projection screen acting as the "eyes" and the buttons and joysticks acting as the main controls for the humanoid weapon.
Myson himself wondered why she didn't have such groundbreaking contraption mass-produced to make their lineup of Titanus more efficient, but there were rumors that one device alone is worth three Titanus in terms of cost and development. That and Bias herself preferred to keep all exclusivity rights of her own game-changer all to herself.
"Okay... do that," he muttered before he walked out, "gonna go find something else to do... you fucking addict."
As the Warlock walked away from the frenzied sounds buttons being mashed in a disjointed rhythm, he then runs into the white-robed Dark Mage.
"... From the Medical Department?" asked the Warlock.
"Duh, didn't the color of my scrubs give it away?" replied the Dark Mage.
The two then walk in relative silence, both silently agreeing that they have nothing else to do in the meantime other than watch over their stuff.
For a moment, the silence permeated the darkness of the caves, only for the Warlock to break the silence. "So, how was today?"
"Almost ended up as wyvern shit, why?" replied the masked doctor in a surly tone. "I knew we should've brought more slaves to feed that cyborg lizard that Anacharsis kept as a pet..."
"I hate em to keep them around as much you do, but someone's got to work the mines," Myson pointed out. "Better them then us."
"Fair enough," sighed the Dark Mage as the two of them then sat down on the same crate laid before their warp panel that the former had installed days prior.
Again, the two entered into an awkward silence, once again finding themselves with utterly nothing to do in the meantime. "... Hey what do you do when you're bored?" asked Myson.
"Dunno," the Dark Mage replied with a small shrug. "I actually like working. Keeps my hands and head occupied and I still haven't used up a single vacation day I was allotted with. I even became 'employee of the month' for fifteen consecutive months."
"You deserve it pal," Myson sighed before grumbling to himself. "Can't even bring Pittacus with me during this mission..."
"To be fair, the subjects were already dying in droves on their own," the Dark Mage pointed out, recalling the experiment that took place near Hyrm involving him and a few others. "... I think boss was trying to avoid 'contaminated samples' and well, admittedly, you weren't much help back then."
"Yeah, my bad," chuckled the Warlock. "I keep my PDA reserved off-the-clock."
The Dark Mage lets out a small grumble before the panel in front of them began to beep.
"Hey, it's something new," Myson grinned as the Dark Mage ran towards the controls of the warp panel.
"Signal confirmed, coordinates locked," recited the doctor as he operated the incoming warp, "transmission received, teleportation approved. Clear for entry!"
The panel the lights up to then emerge a Bishop, a cadre of Fortress Knights with two of them dragging a coffin behind them by its chains, and lastly, Cleobulus, shedding her disguise as "Cornelia" and revealing her pale-skinned "true self" (admittedly, the rest of the Sages were baffled when they found a lookalike of hers when the rest of them that had to put on facades either had to kill and replace that entirely-different person, or just fabricate an entirely new identity from the ground up).
"Welcome back, Sage Cleobulus," bowed the Dark Mage.
"Sup bosslady," Myson greeted his superior Sage casually in comparison. "How were things?"
The Dark Flier then breathes in before exhaling out a frustrated sigh as the accompanying Bishop then spritzed a perfume into a handkerchief and handing it to her superior. Cleobulus then huffs into the scented rag as a form of aromatherapy, calming her nerves for a few moments before releasing her stress and restoring her mind back to a state of relative soundness.
"... Frustrating," growled the female Sage before she dismissed her bodyguards and Bishop elsewhere. "Dealing with noblemen are like herding cats-no. Herding cats is preferable compared to dealing with aristocrats and their petty politics."
"And we're all the more grateful," Myson reassured as he led her towards elsewhere, silently dismissing the Dark Mage to work on what's inside the coffin that their reinforcements had brought with them. "... So which one? Adrestia or Faerghus?"
"Does it really matter?" grumbled the Dark Flier as she then slouched onto her personal plush couch that she'd pulled out from one of the crates around their base camp. "Between Ionius's court of vultures or Rufus's pet nursery of rats, simply being their intermediary is tiresome."
"On that, I can agree," nodded the Warlock, knowing that the two sovereign nations were effectively run by their noblemen class with their monarchs being relegated to nothing more than puppet rulers (in Ionius IX's case, it's mercury poisoning and advancing age; in the case of Rufus, he's made regent in a kingdom that compares him unfavorably to the previous king, his own brother, Lambert).
"... That depressing notion aside," Cleobulus then looked towards Myson, "how are things proceeding?"
"Smoothly, so far," answered the Warlock. "Dustbin brought a few of their friends, two of each house with the Abyss's own entire house joining, the citadel spawning earthen replicas of Fodlan's martial populace by their Golems... but no confirmed casualties."
"Too soon for that, anyway," she brushed it off. "In any case, I'm here to oversee the execution of our 'Plan B'."
"Plan B?" asked the Warlock before he remember the coffin that her cadre had brought with them. "You mean Plaguebearer?"
"Given the Dustbin's track record, they're inevitably going to get what they want," Cleobulus pointed out. "So rather than resist, I'd figured we make their victory pointless, at least in the short-term."
Myson then takes a moment to interpret what her words meant before coming to the same conclusion as her. "Ooohohoho, you are evil!" he grinned like a madman at the realization. "So simple yet so diabolical!"
"Chaos is opportunity," she pointed out with a relaxed and smug grin. "Chaos when tamed to our whims is the ideal outcome. The Dustbin make chaos their own just from their mere existence? Two can play that game. And even if failure is the possible outcome, I already have Solon's men ready to pick up the remains as future references and Chilon's men as part of our exit strategy. War and politics aren't always about whoever is winning the most battles. It's really a test of endurance."
"And speaking of endurance..." Myson grinned like a fox spotting an open chicken coop, "... none of those noble babydicks can last longer than you, can they?"
Cleobulus chuckles at her fellow Sage's sense of humor. "... Truthfully, they aren't worth my time," she smugly remarked. "At best, they're all gullible pawns who only got as far as they did because of us. I myself, owe them nothing."
"Amen, bosslady," Myson cackled in agreement as he then leaned towards Cleobulus' ear. "Also, old man Solon wanted me to pass this little tidbit along to you. Just between us Sages, nothing to say of those outside of our inner circle."
"Oh really?" she raised an eyebrow. "By all means, enlighten me."
As the Warlock whispered into the Dark Flier's ear of their secret plans, another Sage's voice was heard echoing from afar.
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Bias screamed from the top of her lungs in frustration from afar, still tapping away at her NES's controls like a madman. "LAY OFF ALREADY!"
Back at the Chasm of the Bound...
"Hey, you sure leaving them behind is okay?!" asked Claude as he caught up to the rest of the fleeing group.
"Realistically speaking, it is impossible to rescue them now given how far we've ran," Edelgard pointed out.
"Believe in them," Dimitri reassured, "that's all we can do-"
"BADASS MUTHAFUCKA COMING IN HOT!" a cackling voice was heard from above before it crashed between Edelgard and Dimitri.
From the kicked-up dust emerged Periander, licking his chops in anticipation for a good killing session. "So which of pukes can I break first?!"
Balthus jumps into his sight as he hammered his [Vajra-Mushti] down towards the Agarthan Grappler, only for the latter to parry the crushing blow with his own.
"Ooooh, a volunteer!" giggled Periander as his arms pressed against Balthus' own. "To what pleasure or business do I owe you?"
"Tell me where the hell did you get your hands on that Relic!" asked the larger man as he tried to push the lankier and smaller Grappler down, only for him to not budge an inch despite his superior size. "Last I checked, there was supposed to be only one Relic per Crest!"
"Wouldn't you like to know?!" the smaller Grappler then whipped up a swift kick to Balthus' left elbow to break the lock before delivering a counterpunch to the larger man's stomach, which then emits a nasty shock from the gauntlet's claws (a unique feature to the Agarathan copy of the [Vajra-Mushti]) that forces Balthus to take a knee. "But sorry, that little tidbit is for only me to know and for the rest of you schmucks to find out-!"
From behind, Edelgard and Dimitri jump at him with their [Silver Axe] and [Silver Lance] respectively, with the former swing down her weapon as the latter thrusts his towards the Grappler.
The lanky Agarthan dodges it by simply moving himself forward towards their attacks, causing both to instead clash against each other before Periander then delivers a double-lariat that clotheslines both of their necks at the same time, knocking both of them to the ground as the Agarthan Grappler sneered above them.
"You know, pincer attacks are kinda overrated," he gloated before stomping onto Dimitri's hand before grinding his heel against his fingers to further damage them. "Just move faster then they can meet. It's that simple-!"
From behind, Vidar then hugs his arms around his waist before delivering a suplex that drove Periander's head into the stone floor, the impact causing the ground to fissure around it.
"... You talk... too much," growled Vidar before he was then kicked down by Periander's toes driving into his stomach, causing him slightly buckle enough for him to let the lanky Grappler go and escape the bandaged Warrior's clutches.
"Yeah, my bad," he faux-apologized before he saw Byron immediately recover from his reversal, which compared to the others, who were still reeling from the pain of his blows (every last physical vector around his body are conductible, effectively turning him into a walking taser thanks to the [Dark Vajra-Mushti] acting as the "battery").
The Agarthan Grappler then reassesses the situation as he then compared Vidar to everyone else, immediately connecting the bandages to his physical abnormality. "... Well, what do you know?" he grinned as Vidar slapped on his pair of [Baigujing] gauntlets. "You can't feel pain, can you?"
Vidar immediately attacks Periander as the two then clash their armored fists together, sparks flying between their blows, which for a normal fistfighter, would've been enough to incapacitate them thanks to the [Dark Vajra-Mushti]'s unique features, but Vidar simply kept fighting, as if he didn't feel the electrocution being emitted through his own gauntlets.
Well shit, of course he's immune to feeling pain, thought Periander as he kept up his offensive, gauging Vidar's prowess while keeping himself well to not get mutilated. Either those bandages are hiding some serious scars that have rendered all of his pain receptors non-existent, or he's born with some psychosomatic disorder that prevents his brain from registering all forms of pain in the first place!
But just as he was thinking about Vidar's overall statistics, he was then taken from behind by Balthus, now fully recovered from his initial blow, trapping the lanky Grappler in a crushing bearhug, making sure to trap his arms to prevent him from attacking.
"I GOT YOU!" roared the titanic man as he tightened his embrace around Periander. The latter then unleashes a massive shock all over his body in an attempt to make the larger man release him, but Balthus powered through the pain, refusing to let go of the Agarthan. "That first blow took me by surprise," remarked Balthus as he kept his arms around the Grappler in an iron-lock grasp, "but once the initial shock is over with... then your little gimmick is nothing! THE KING OF GRAPPLERS IS MASTER OF MASTERING ALL FORMS OF AGONY!"
Periander, rather than feel any fear from Balthus' proclamation, instead belts out a laugh, almost as he'd heard a humorous jest. "Well then, your highness..." snarked Periander as the Agarthan's limbs began to make popping sounds all over his body, "... CONSIDER THIS MY REBELLION!"
Suddenly, Periander's whole body transformed from a solid humanoid into that of winding serpent's, the increased amount of bodily articulation causing him to slither himself out of Balthus' bearhug before grabbing both of the larger man's arms and pulling both of them behind, trapping him in a hold reversal, executing a back-mounted Full-Nelson Hold to paralyze the larger man.
"The so-called King of Grapplers is nothing..." sneered Periander as he then shoved Balthus' upper body towards the stone floor into an improvised brain-buster as his arms elongated like a pair of tentacles before trapping Balthus into a torture rack, arching the bigger man's back beyond their initial limits during the former's stretching, "... WHEN THE KING HIMSELF IS FACING AGAINST THE KILLER OF GRAPPLERS!"
"Killer of Grapplers?" Dimitri remarked as he got up.
"His body..." Edelgard grunted as she used her greatshield as support, "... it moved like that of a snake's."
Periander belts a wicked cackle as he continues to stretch Balthus' back even further. "The snake, specifically, the boa constrictor, is nature's ultimate grappler and counter-grappler," he explained as he then transitioned from a torture rack to that of an cross-armbar. "Superior muscle strength dispersal, bone structure consisting of over 300 to 400 joints all aligned within the same vector, and a nervous system just sensitive enough to read its prey's heartbeat and twitch reflexes to react accordingly! My bones are modified to have triple the number of joints compared to that of a normal human being that I can engage and disengage at will! I am impossible to catch, bind, or restrict no matter how physically superior my opponent is!" Periander then transitions Balthus' hold from a cross-armbar into that of an octopus stretch, binding both Balthus' arms and legs with his own wrapped and pulling back like that of the namesake animal's while not a single part of the lanky Grappler's body touched the ground. "In short, grabbing me is like trying to hug water itself! The King of Grapplers prides in his own size and strength, but the Killer of Grapplers turns strength itself into a weakness-!"
From behind, Vidar hammer-fists Periander's head with his [Baigujing] before catching his head into that of an iron claw grip to his head, forcibly pulling Periander off of Balthus, his rubbery arms now slipping off of the larger man's bound limbs before finally ripping him out and slamming the lanky Agarthan into the floor.
As the bandaged warrior was then about to deliver a ground punch to his face, Periander rolls out of the way before sneaking in a kick to Vidar's neck, only for his leg to feel cold and forcibly locking in place, causing him to retract his sneak attack in favor of a pure escape. Balthus himself lets out a large sigh of relief upon being freed, with his body now sore all over, but nevertheless still well enough to fight.
"... And you couldn't save me sooner?" snarked Balthus. "... Not that I'm complaining. I'm pretty tough."
"... He... talking... about... his powers," Vidar grunted. "... Wanted... learn... and you... just said... strong enough... not die."
"Actually, where was he prior?" asked Dimitri, realizing that Vidar had just disappeared right after Balthus' bearhug had been reversed.
"Don't ask me," Edelgard remarked. "I'm as lost as you are."
Periander then begins to assess on why his extra joints remained inactive when Vidar gets close to him, only to notice that frost was emitted from his [Baigujing] gauntlets like Anacharsis' [Geri Beil]. Son of bitch, the Ripperdocs didn't weather-proof my extra joints?! he internally cursed, understanding why he had a harder time dealing with Vidar compared to the others. Whatever the case, hope he doesn't freeze my joints mid-transition, or I'm gonna end up looking real scary for the wrong reason.
Rather than feel frustration at that revelation however, Periander was feeling elation at facing such an unorthodox opponent. Sure, the mission left little-to-no room for enjoyment, but for once, he felt a sense of weird joy of facing an opponent that could kill him before the disease could. The possibility itself wasn't so bad in hindsight.
"... Your... head... not... broken?" asked Vidar, slightly confused that his iron claw had failed to paralyze him from the inflicted strain.
"Nah, you almost got me back there," giggled Periander before he bashed his [Dark Vajra-Mushti] against each other, emitting sparks with each collision. "Compared to the rest of you bozos, you actually have a chance against me," he remarked before realizing that Vidar might not be one of the people "from" Fodlan that his side called "beasts". "So with that said, what is your name?"
"... Vidar," he growled, the [Baigujing] now on full-blast when it came to unleashing their cold wave.
As he revealed his name, the rest of the quartet assembled around Vidar with their weapons drawn.
"It appears that Vidar's weapon can cancel out his snakelike body," Edelgard pointed out. "Follow his lead. We'll use this opening as our advantage."
"No other options, I assume," Dimitri readied his [Silver Lance]. "We'll follow your lead, Vidar!"
"That freakshow's gonna get it after he dissed me like that!" snarled Balthus as he bashed his [Vajra-Mushti] together. "I'll beat the answers out of you of where you got those!"
His elation reaching critical mass, Periander howls out a wicked and gleeful cackle before staring down at the four with hungry-looking eyes akin to a starved predator animal.
"All of you, do me a favor, and don't die on me too quickly," sneered the lanky Grappler as he crouched down, tensing his legs to store up a running start. "I want to gorge on this sensation until I vomit."
Periander then breaks into a frontal sprint speeding towards the four like an arrow let loose, with Vidar meeting his blitz with his own double-punch that clashed against the Agarthan Grappler's own.
Elsewhere, ahead of the conflict taking place, Claude then comes running towards where Byleth and Karna were at in the fleeing herd.
"Oi, where's the rest of you guys?!" Karna asked, seeing that Vidar, Balthus, Edelgard and Dimitri were now missing from the group.
"Got cut off by some weirdo that fell from the sky," Claude explained before he caught his breath. "... But I think that's the last of them."
"Meaning we can finally com up with a plan of attack," Byleth remarked as she then led the group into cover underneath an old stone arch bridge. "... They be fine, right?"
Karna then looked towards the size in slight doubt. "... Given Vidar's with them, I suppose a succession crisis went from 'nigh-guarantee,' to a 'slight possibility," he pointed out, much to the displeasure of the rest of the group. "Hey, take it or leave it."
"Do you actually listen to yourself every time you open your damned mouth?" Constance snapped.
"Ignore him," Yuri interjected, "Balthus and Hapi aren't exactly pushovers, so everyone not with us should be fine. I think."
An explosion was then heard from the mouth of the bridge that they were all next to, spraying a shower of dust and gravel into their faces.
"... I think they found us!" Linhardt pointed towards the constructs and lesser, half-broken Golems all marching towards them.
From afar, Marcelle then began to speak loudly towards the group that she'd spotted underneath the bridge. "TO ALL TRESPASSERS OF THE GODDESS' SACRED DOMAIN, TAKE HEED TO THIS FINAL WARNING," the Altered Golem's voice echoed towards them. "SURRENDER, AND MAY THE GODDESS SHOW YOU MERCY IN THE AFTERLIFE. TO REFUSE SUBMISSION SHALL CONDEMN YOU ALL TO ETERNAL DAMNATION-."
The Altered Golem was then cut off with Karna blasting a [Hades Ω] to her face, much to the shock of everyone around him sans the remaining members of the Dustbin. "... What?" the half-hooded Professor remarked. "Don't tell me you all believe in this afterlife malarky?!"
"Not all of us were ready to fight, you know," Byleth deadpanned.
"Then I have no idea what is wrong with you people," Cyrus sighed with pity. "They had no intention of sparing us, so you assumed that they were going play nice?"
All of the constructs then stampede towards where they were at without so much as a order given, looking more akin to an angry mob than a group of disciplined soldiers that they were designed to emulate.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Constance cried out, grabbing Karna by his collar. "YOU"RE ABOUT TO KILL US ALL-!"
The Professor then backhands her across the disgraced noblewoman's face to make her let him go. He then walks towards the angry mob of constructs before he took off both of his gloves with his teeth. "All of you," he spoke towards the group behind himself as the enemy edged towards them with the sounds of them stamping feet rumbling ever closer, "hold onto your breaths."
Cyrus then immediately then takes his horse Darius as far away from him as possible. "YOU FUCKS!" he roared out. "RUN FOR IT! DON'T ASK! JUST RUN!"
Everyone beneath the bridge then bails out towards the opposite end before Karna's hands then formed a giant magic circle before himself.
"Suck on this," he sneered as a storm of black gas was then blasted out of the array and towards the constructs, the mob drowned out into the smokey black vapors that had engulfed all of them whole, "[Expiration Δ+]!"
Normally, he held back when he'd first cast the upgraded Dark Magic spell at Varley's manor, in lieu of not sustaining unnecessary collateral. But with the enemies now being lifeless husks who fought under the orders of some scrap metal soldier, he was afforded a bit more liberty to unleash the spell's full potential.
Case in point, when he'd spotted several Assassins, Warriors, and Snipers all jump out of the smoke towards him in an attempt to kill him where he'd stood, all of them crumbled into dust on their own before they could even reach the Professor.
From afar, the rest of the expedition group saw the giant cloud of black smoke be expelled out towards the opposite direction of where they've ran.
"... What in the actual Hell was that?" asked Claude, chuckling nervously at what they've all witnessed.
"Allegedly, a new spell," Cyrus explained. "If I remember correctly from the Professor's after action reports, the spell itself is a compound of [Miasma Δ]'s gaseous form with the caustic components of [Mire B] and if performed in the ideal battlefield circumstances, would use [Hades Ω] as a basis for its general output.
Byleth blinked at the horseman's testimony. "I don't remember [Hades Ω] having the output of a volcanic eruption."
"Neither did we," Sorcha pointed out. "Methinks dat de Professor did it without holdin' anythin' bak."
Constance then sniffed the air before retching. "... WHAT ON... THE GODDESS' GREEN EARTH... IS THAT INFERNAL STENCH?!"
"If you think about it," spoke Karna as he came back to the group perfectly fine, "[Expiration Δ+] is just one giant-ass fart that is so rank, that it can cause stone to dissolve. A practical army-killer if used right... although we might want to stop breathing unless we poison ourselves to death."
Everyone in the group then starts falling over from the stench alone sans Sorcha (Cyrus himself was smart enough to get away further from the gas so that Darius doesn't keel over and die), whom Karna then approached with a request.
"One [Samadhi Fire] please," he asked politely. "Something's gotta burn up the gas."
The Brigdian nods as Karna begins to drag everyone away towards where Darius had galloped off towards. Sorcha then slaps on her [Ne Zha] gauntlets before forming a giant globe of holy fire from her katars.
"'Ere we go..." she grunted before throwing the massive fireball towards where the gas was most concentrated at. "[Samadhi Fire]!"
The orb of fire then travels towards where the Golems themselves have entered into, the remaining gas acting as ignition for the exposed flames, turning the whole sea of black smoke into that of an endless expanse of bright flames that begun to spread out from its epicenter, forcing Sorcha to flee unless from the coming wave of fire before she herself was fried well-done.
Within the flames, the Golems that were caught in the inferno began to quickly overheat before one by one, they all began to explode. One combustion after another, the half-melted pieces of brass and old iron flew into the air, with every Golem futilely continuing their march through the inferno with little to no regard to their own preservation.
Only two half-malfunctioning Golems and Marcelle, whom herself was only slightly charred and overheated, had taken their enemy's initial point. To make up for their lost numbers, the Altered Golem then summons another army of constructs around herself, half of which threw themselves into the flames to smother them out, with the remaining half now marching towards the group, who've now recovered and are having a episode of coughing fits before being made aware of their present situation.
"... Well that solved at least half of our problems," Hilda groggily remarked as she raised her [Freikugel] for battle. "... I still smell like an outhouse, though."
"Next time you have some sort of crazy-ass plan in mind, tell us first," Claude remarked. "Granted, its coming from me, but my plans usually don't involve mass deaths."
"If I said 'no' on the boundaries that my plans might not be guaranteed to work all the time, would you believe me?" Karna replied as he readied his [Scythe of Sariel]. "Then again, no usually one does, so I always have no choice but to force the issue through."
"That's not good enough reason to leave us out in the cold!" Constance snapped as she readied her magic. "Not all of us can improvise one crazy gambit after another like you and your pack of lunatics!"
"Den yer a spoiled twat," Sorcha deadpanned as she unfurled her [Claymore].
"Regardless, we're in the final stretch everyone," Byleth then drew her [Sword of the Creator] from her hip. "Just a few more, and we're home free-"
Another explosion then rocks all of them from behind, sending everyone scattering all over the ground before them.
Sorcha then looks back to see [Hermes] and Simone still at it against each other and are now rolling themselves towards their way. "... Shite," she cursed as she struggled to get back up with the others, "... thought I forgot about someone else."
[Hermes] then breaks off of its grapple from Simone before making a beeline towards the expedition group, now rushing towards them with all of its verniers at full blast and its [Adharma] handheld blade pointed towards them.
"Hey Yuri?" Karna coughed out as he slouched towards the giant war machine flying towards them. "... Despite everything I said, do you trust me?"
"As far as I can throw you," he replied as he got back up. "Why?"
Karna smirks, confident about his next move. "Because I'm about to do something so monumentally stupid that it just might work."
First, Karna then activates [Gravity H+] around himself to force everyone's faces back onto the ground while planting his feet firmly into it, anchoring him into one place.
Secondly, he then imbues the spell's properties into the blade of his [Scythe of Sariel] along with reinforcing his whole body with the same spell, achieving a state of gravitational singularity where all laws of physics are rendered mostly null and void.
And finally, with [Hermes] now right before them, Karna, now with the laws of physics as his own personal bitch under the influence of [Gravity H+] and its unorthodox applications, first deflects the war machine's handheld blade by knocking it out of its hands with his [Scythe of Sariel], then with the last of his strength, performs an uppercut slash that causes the scythe's blade to burrow into the [Hermes]'s sole eye before he then flipped over the whole modified Titanus over his head and threw it (along with the scythe now stuck in its broken eye) towards where Marcelle was standing at.
The end result was a violent collision between the two war machines that also resulted in more constructs being crumbled underneath their rolling before the two of them skidded across the earth before the trail left behind their crash-landing was then grounded to a complete halt, leaving both of them unresponsive. As soon as the deed was done, [Gravity H+] is undone and Karna falls onto the floor, coughing out blood upon hitting the ground itself.
Only Sothis (and to a lesser extent, Byleth, on the virtue of them sharing a body) was able to see the whole feat take place in complete detail while everyone looked as if they'd seen an act of the divine taken place before their very eyes. To be able to even conceptualize such madness and bringing to fruition as if he were a mere craftsman instantaneously carves wood into an idol... the spirit commented as her eyes were stuck wide open in pure shock at what she'd witnessed by the man she'd deemed semi-immune to her Divine Pulse. ... Just how powerful is he?
From afar, Cyrus rides back on top of Darius' back and towards where the rest of the group was at. Upon seeing his Professor flip over a steel giant large as a small house over his head while riding past the stunned Simone, the Battuian Paladin then proceeds to summarize everything that had just happened in the last few minutes alone.
"Holy supercrap."
Back at the Agarthan Base Camp...
On Bias' NES's main projector screen, all it read before the static background was "VISUAL LOST."
"... FUUUUUUCCK!" she then proceeds to curse up a thunderstorm of foreign (Almyran, Battuian, Shangrian, Hanafukuian, Dagdan, Brigidian and Duscurian; all variations of "bitch", "fuck", "whore", "cunt", and something about fucking horses and other animals; in that specific order) swear words before throwing her device to the ground, the thing not breaking upon impact due to it being made from the material as the Titanus (and being just as about as heavy).
Needless to say, the Agarthan Valkyrie was beyond displeased that she herself was had, but just before it would look like she was about to blast her controller to kingdom come with a point-blank [Death Γ], she suddenly stops herself from doing such thing before eliciting an amused snort that then explodes into a deranged cackle that reverberated throughout the cavern's walls.
"... Aw shit," Myson grumbled as the subordinates working on Plaguebearer's last-minute maintenance before his deployment all shuddered in horror, "Bias is having her period right now, ain't she?"
"Be a dear and give her a hug as soon as this is over," Cleobulus suggested as she walked off elsewhere, being just as unnerved as everyone else present, only hidden behind her mature facade.
As Bias' laughter ceased, the Valkyrie then exerted some of her own mana into the controller before reciting the following phrase:
"Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B," she spoke as she pressed the following buttons, "and Start."
Her NES then began to glow from its crevices, much to Bias' delight.
"Never used this before," she giggled to herself, "but desperate times call for desperate measures! BEAST MODE, ACTIVATE!"
BEAST Mode, or "Backup Emulator Assistance-Secondary Terminal" Mode, was the NES's hidden feature that allows Bias to directly assume control over the Titanus mech with her own mind. Rather than using her brain itself as the middleman between her and [Hermes], her mind becomes that of the [Hermes] itself.
However, it carried a risk of her own brain being fried if her new "body" sustains sufficient enough damage during the assimilation. So in order to mitigate that, the operational time for BEAST Mode is about ten minutes. After which, her mind will be forcibly ejected from the Titanus and back to her old body, but at this point, she was more focused on causing as much damage as possible and trying to get her toy back in one piece.
"Alright you svoluch-humping joytoys! You wanna play hardball?!" she growled as her screen read "ACTIVATE BEAST MODE? YES/NO" before selecting her cursor towards the "YES" option, her mind now on the precipice of leaving her own body into that of her weapon's. "... THEN LET'S SLAMMIT ON, YOU FUCKING YONOS!"
Back at the Chasm of the Bound...
The broken-eyed Titanus then slowly gets up before faintly seeing one Altered Golem lead the charge along with a new group of constructs.
"... There... you... are..." Bias spoke through the [Hermes] that she'd just possessed, spotting the expedition group that had proven themselves to be a major nuisance to her group's operations. "... NOW DIE-!"
From below, Bias![Hermes] was taken by surprise by Marcelle grabbing her around with her arms to prevent her from going anywhere.
"... Reveal yourself..." droned the Altered Golem as her damaged chassis creaked and emitted sparks from her exposed internals. "... Puppeteer."
Bias![Hermes] belts out a frustrated yell before turning all of her attentions towards the obstinate sentry before the two began rolling against each other into another chaotic brawl.
"... Aight, you tin can..." the Valkyrie's voice echoed in a metallic cadence sounding more akin to that of a growl. "LET'S BOOGIE!"
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Okay, the past week was Hell.
Job and internship applications, almost fell for a scam, went through a really rough PTSD episode from one of the scam calls posing as ICE, finishing up Persona 5 Royal, and going through a writer's block all at once, needless to say, the week long delay for this chapter had a reason. And further into devlopment, I had to cut this battle into another part just so that I don't end up overwhelmed from my post-burnout state. And picking Persona 5 Royal for a New Game+ (I didn't max out Justice and Faith, meaning no Metatron, Lucifer, Satanael, and Maria in the compendium) right after might be a mistake in hindsight since I'm going to end up overwhelmed again, or I can stop, but it no longer feels right when I invested into it too much at this point.
My brain felt like lead, the ideas I had planned for this chapter weren't linking together well as I initially thought, and as a result, about 8-9k's worth of words had to be scrapped and I had to rewrite everything about this chapter from scratch since my work was so bad that I think mere dozen revisions weren't enough to salvage my PTSD-induced mess. That and well, I'm in a spiral of listening to the Misery x CPR x Reese's Puffs meme.
In short, I need about a few more days to recover before I can actually get back to writing. For now, I'm putting this out the way it is because if I don't, the continuous mulling will sour my own efforts of making this arc big as I advertised in the long run.
So, overall, this chapter is really an introduction to the Agarthan Strike Force (name still pending, but might go with this), with Kronya being the least extensive of the three, if only because of the fact that A) she already had her introduction in the last full arc, and B) she's going to play a bigger role later down the arc. The Dustbin along with the rest of the expedition group are in effect, caught in the middle of the shitstorm in their own (mostly Dustbin's) making, but in hindsight, everyone sort of knew that the citadel ruins were rigged with booby traps, so the "Trap is the Only Option"-trope is in effect regardless, since, their job is to find the [Chalice of Beginnings] and GTFO, but the Golems blasting their exit shut means that their mission is no longer a touch-and-go and now they have to stand their ground.
Also, it is around this arc when the Dustbin are now finally going to bite off more than they can chew.
And revisiting my old roots of juggling multiple different battles happening all at once, I have to say, it's kinda hard balancing it when all of the chaos is occurring between three different factions all at once. I know Fire Emblem isn't a stranger when it comes to these kinds of messy "Mêlée à Trois" scenarios (with Engage's Fell Xenolouge IV being the most recent and accurately-portrayed example in the franchise), but doing it for myself (in between this and my Black Clover AU fanfic), I realized that as a writer, not only I have a long way to go before I actualize myself into a state of consistency, but also learn to accept that I can't keep pumping out chapters like a machine as I did back when it was summer break in-between college semesters.
You know, maybe getting a job not having to do with my writing might incentivize me to better my creative process as a fanfic writer or I can still continue to be delusional.
Okay, rambling over, see you readers and hope that my funk is over with by the time I get back.
References:
- Bias' NES (Neurologic Emulative Synchronizer) is based off of the Sheikah Slate and/or the Purah Pad (both of which are based off the real-life Nintendo Switch) from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom respectively, with its acronym being a reference to another Nintendo product, the Nintendo Entertainment System/the NES. It's BEAST (Backup Emulator Assistance-Secondary Terminal) Mode is named after Ms. Tarantula's custom laptop's "beast mode" from The Bad Guys (2022), with its functionality being based off the Permet Score System from Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch From Mercury, and its activation method is literally the Konami Code.
- Periander's modifications are partially based off Yohei Bando's rubberhose-like body condition from Kengan Ashura. Also his pre-asskicking one-liner is lifted from Dr. Peace from No More Heroes.
- Karna's feat of using [Gravity H+] to veer [Hermes] off-course was partially inspired by Raiden's feat of using Blade Mode to destroy Metal Gear RAY Desperado Custom from the opening mission of Metal Gear Rising: Revengence.
