The Dustbin
Day 49: Survey Class Part 3
11th of Guardian Moon, Afternoon
"Your insolence ceases now, heretic," droned Marcelle as she charged forth.
"I'LL SEND YOUR TIN-PLATED BEHIND TO THE SCRAP HEAP AND TOSS WHAT'S LEFT OF YOU INTO A BLAST FURNACE!" roared Bias' voice through her possessed [Hermes] Titanus mobile weapon as they continued to roll across ground, with one flipping over the in an nigh-infinite loop of dominance and submission between the two looking like overly-violent wolf pups playing with each other.
From afar as the hordes of constructs led by Simone closed in towards them, Karna and the others saw the carnage between two giants behind them and all came to the same conclusion. "Okay everyone, avoid those two having it out all the way over there while we deal with this shit before us."
"PURGE THE FILTH," ordered Simone, pointing his hand towards the group, signaling the constructs to stampede towards them. "WIPE THEM CLEAN."
"Constance, Linhardt, blast em," ordered Byleth as she readied her [Sword of the Creator]. "Kill their momentum with heavy ordinance."
"Really wish it wasn't me..." groaned the Bishop as he and Constance readied their strongest spells available.
Up ahead, Claude spotted Snipers acting as advance scouts trying to intercept their spellcasters. "Anyone with a deadeye and a bow, take out the enemy Snipers!"
"Heard you once, Khalid!" Cyrus then pulls out his [Bowgun] loaded with cow dung before pulling the trigger towards the earthen Sniper, blinding it enough for its arrow that it had loosed to miss, only grazing past Constance's cheek before it clumsily fell off the ledge and shattering upon landing.
Choosing to ignore the scar on her cheek, both she and Linhardt unleash their strongest spell as both Claude and Cyrus took out any stray enemy Sniper attempting to anything funny. A combination blast of both [Agnea's Arrow] and [Excalibur] then made contact with the enemy ranks, scattering their formation enough to send them astray.
"There's our opening!" Karna pointed out as they all saw the squabbling constructs writhing on the floor like worms. "Alright, charge in before they can recover!"
The group then run towards the legion in disarray, with Simone sending numerous commands to his legion to regroup back to their prior formations, with his commands being disrupted by the combined bombardment of spells coming from both the Warlock and the Bishop stationed at the group's rearguard section.
Taking aim at the enemy ranks' back-most column, the Altered Golem then conjures a bolt of lightning in its hands before throwing it towards his intended targeted area.
"THUNDERBOLT! 12 O'CLOCK!" Sorcha cried out as the group continued running.
"THEN RUN FASTER YOU MORONS!" ordered Karna as the rest of the group picked up the pace to outrun the blast behind their heels, to which they successfully escaped before they engaged the constructs.
Hilda and Cyrus first made way, with their respective weapons softening the enemy vanguard to allow Yuri, Sorcha, and Byleth to cut the rest down, their combined efforts leaving enough room for Claude, Constance and Linhardt to start providing covering fire for the former groups to sustain a line of defense.
"Engagement successful!" Byleth signaled as she whipped around her extended blade of her Relic to take out Assassins and Warriors from afar. "Now all that's there is to make sure that we have enough time to come up with another plan of attack."
Karna catches an earthen arrow from a Sniper before jamming it into a Fortress Knight's eye before burying his Dark Magic-enhanced hand into a Warrior's head behind himself before ripping it back out and following it up with a decapitation chop. "Right," he agreed before reverse-roundhouse kicking an Assassin that tried to pounce him from behind, sending it tumbling into other Assassins and scrambling Snipers and knocking them down like stiff pins, leaving them open to a magical bombardment that reduced them to dust in a matter of seconds. "The constructs are merely patsies. That walking hunk of iron is the real threat. ... Amongst other, walking, talking hunks of rusted-over metal-bloody hell, that's weird, even for me!"
Guess we finally found his limit, snarked Sothis. Also, 9 o'clock.
Byleth then grabs the earthen Warrior by its face with her left hand before crushing its head back into dirt between her grip. "Thank the Goddess I actually took brawling lessons on the side."
She then ducks under a flung-over Fortress Knight that which then crashed into a group of Warriors, which resulted in them ending up as a pile of shattered limbs. Hilda then made quick work out of the shambling lot with her [Freikugel]'s utterly brutal crushing might behind its strikes.
"PIECES OF SHITE!" Sorcha's voice roared out from afar as several Assassins and Warriors were seen flung into the air by the might of her blows coming from her massive [Claymore]. "IT FEKIN' SUCKS FIGHTIN' BASTARDS DAT DUN'T BLEED OR SCREAM?! WAT KIND OF FEKIN' TORTURE IS DIS?!"
"And we've found the Dustbin's limit," Byleth sighed before backhanding an Assassin before grabbing a Warrior from behind and suplexing it into the ground. "Then again, this whole place is a trap for a reason."
"Tell me about it, Teach," Claude remarked as he shot an arrow from his [Silver Bow], nailing a Warrior in its head before shooting another through the same spot, stunning them long enough for Cyrus to come riding in for a cleanup blow. "An infinitely-respawning legion made of rock and earth commanded by walking towers slinging thunderbolts about? Hate to say it, but I'm genuinely impressed by this simply brilliant design. Wonder why it's solely delegated here and not widely practiced throughout Fodlan."
"Answered your own question, Khalid," Cyrus remarked as Darius neighed menacingly before stamping several Fortress Knights underneath its hooves while the rider swung his [Gradivus] through the necks of Assassins and Warriors alike. "Name one military-based seat of power that wouldn't use this kind of ingenuity to try and take over the world."
The estranged Second Prince of Almyra mentally slapped himself. "... Forgive me for being curious," he snarked as he shot another arrow into an Assassin that got close to Linhardt, much to the latter's lack of awareness. "It's a habit of mine."
"And wars and raids would be a lot less fun if were the case," so replied the Battuian Paladin before he took off to enter into the denser parts of the battlefield.
Around the cluster of earthen foes, Yuri found himself ducking and weaving through several Warriors and Fortress Knights while taking out one or two along the way during his mid-battle flight with his [Levin Sword]. "Good Goddess, this is easily the worst day of my damned life..." he grimaced before spotting and hearing Sorcha and her tirades. "... Make that the two of us."
With a snarling roar, Sorcha then picked up a Fortress Knight over her head before throwing it at a Sniper that had aimed her from an elevated area, causing both to break upon collision, spraying Yuri with their remains as the Brigidian Hero resumed her rampage towards Simone. "IF I FEKIN' KILL DE TIN-ARSE, THEN I CAN FINALLY FIGHT SOMEONE ELSE DAT HAS BLOOD IN EM!"
"Back away, filth," droned Simone as an array of lightning bolts surrounding him in a circle, "do not sully the Goddess's land and her children with your unclean presence any further."
Yuri's eyes widened before he then belted out a warning. "THUNDERBOLT RAIN IMMINENT!" he cried out as he then ran away from the Altered Golem. "FIND COVER OR GET BLASTED FROM ABOVE!"
Simone then unleashes its variant of the Altered Golem's [Light-Lance Barrage], for which he dubbed the [Light-Lance Fusillade]. Rather then focus all of his blasts onto a single general area, this combat art instead focuses more on the "area" aspect of his spell's range in exchange for precision. His calculations has confirmed that this current batch of intruders were too unpredictable for its initial permitters to deal with.
"The Goddess judges..." chanted Simone as the thunderbolts ascended into the sky before they all came raining down, not caring where they land as long as they hit the ground and whoever was near said blast zones, "... I act."
Soon, the whole battleground explodes into a carpet of explosions.
From afar, Marcelle and [Hermes] were still wrestling over each other on the ground and sometimes above it. As the former brandished its thunderbolt into her hand, the latter held onto her [Adharma] handheld blade, transitioning this melee into a roughshod knife-fight between two giants both with the grace of drunkards crawling on the tavern's floor.
As soon as the Titanus mounted atop the Altered Golem, it then raised its [Adharma] blade before thrusting it down, the latter catching the blade into one of her arms before a thunderbolt held in the other blasted both of them into the air, forcing the mobile weapon to then resort using its bare fists to pummel the sentinel into the dirt before pulling both of its [Vel] Viskarm cannons down onto its shoulders and aimed directly towards her face.
"PREPARED TO BE DECOMMISSIONED, YOU OBSOLETE PIECE OF SCRAP METAL!" declared Bias as the barrels of her weapon's twin cannons hummed until reaching their crescendo, the pair of lights ready to bore their way through their aimed target.
But just before the cannons could fire, Marcelle, with her one good arm, summons a thunderbolt into her hand before shoving it into one of the open verniers of [Hermes].
Something then explodes behind the Titanus, distracting Bias long enough to allow the Altered Golem to pitch the former over her herself and escape the deadlock, causing the [Vel] cannons to misfire elsewhere, allowing the latter to stand back up and retrieve its severed arm as an impromptu weapon.
"WHAT THE SHIT?!" Bias' voice echoed out of the Titanus before another explosion was heard. "DID YOU JUST-?!"
The damaged vernier sputters for a second before going quiet.
"... Uh oh," the damaged vernier then flares out of control, sending [Hermes] flying sporadically all over the air right before tackling over Marcelle in its unintended flightpath that which it then beelined towards the smog-filled battlefield-turned-blast zone.
Karna coughed out loudly through the smoke, desperately searching for others. "Okay, headcount!" he belted as he saw Byleth lying on the floor before picking her up over his shoulder. "... ANYONE DEAD?!"
The ex-sellsword next to him coughs onto his face. "... Fuck you bro," she groaned before being able to walk on her own feet.
"Glad to see that you're alright," Karna snarked back. "Now, what of the others?"
A groan followed by a snort was heard, indicated Cyrus and Darius to be still alive. "... A little closer, and I would've had to put him down," sighed the Battuian as he and his horse emerged from the smoke. "Thank Mother Earth and Father Sky that it wasn't the case."
"I'm 'ere!" Sorcha's shadow raised its hand up through the smoke. "And pretty-boyo and 'is twat friend'o is next to me!"
"Pretty boy?" Yuri grumbled at his given nickname by Sorcha. "... Eh, she ain't wrong."
"I for one, find it crass," growled Constance as she brushed herself off. "Now what of my fellow spellcaster?"
A few short moments of wading through the smoke and the group run into Claude and Hilda.
"Hey, you know where Linhardt is?" Karna asked the two. "You know, dark green hair, faints at the sight of blood, chronic narcoleptic?"
Before the two of them can answer, the smoke around them clears, revealing Linhardt, standing semi-dazed from the shock of the whole battlefield being carpet-bombed, but otherwise relatively unharmed.
"Hey," Karna waved his hand at him, "you sleepin' for a minute or sleepin' forever? Groan if its the former."
The young Bishop groans before shaking himself back to the waking world. "... Huh," he then looked at himself before turning his attention at the others before before walking towards them. "Guess that wasn't so bad-"
His pathway was then cut off by the giant (in comparison-scale) [Adharma] handheld blade landing between him and Karna. For Linhardt, this was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back, causing him to faint on the spot before wetting himself from his close brush with instant death.
"... Medic down," Claude remarked as he and everyone else looked down where their healer laid before the giant blade. "Someone else pick him up, because Hilda ain't gonna do it."
Cyrus groans before picking up the fainted Bishop before placing him onto Darius' back before tying him up around his own body into a baby saddle carrying an older teen. "I swear, this whole group is akin to an orphanage!"
"Feel my pain, you bastard," deadpanned Byleth before a creaking noise akin to metal scraping against each other was heard behind them.
"All designated targets confirmed to be present," Simone droned as it marched towards the group before transmitting a remote signal directed to his sister unit. "Requesting backup."
"Ah shit," groaned Karna as everyone (sans Linhardt) drew their weapons and/or in Constance and Karna's cases, readied their spells upon facing the Altered Golem. "Prepare for more suck, kiddos."
Understatement of the century- Sothis' comments were then cut off by another sound coming from behind them. That soon?!
Nope, thought Byleth as she and everyone else heard sputtering sounds coming from behind them. ... I think it's something else.
They all then saw [Hermes] ungracefully flying in a sporadic trajectory vaguely heading towards their way. "FUCK! SHIT! CUUUNNNT!" the machine cursed up a storm as suddenly, its damaged vernier then flared up twice its original output mid-flight, causing it to rocket towards the group all of the sudden.
"IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!" Hilda cried out.
"EVERYONE BAIL!" Cyrus then made headway first as everyone else followed suit, the rampaging/semi-malfunctioning Titanus zooming past between them before it passed. "Okay, is everyone alright?!"
"Wait!" Claude cried out as he then did a quick mental headcount around himself. "... We're short two people."
The remainder of the group then looked towards where [Hermes] was flying off towards, and spotted both Yuri and Karna now finding themselves hitched onto the Titanus for a ride that they never expected, either clinging onto the machine's arm or plastered onto the mech's face like a knight's visor.
"SON OF A BITCH!" cursed Karna as he felt his spine arch back way more than it should from the sheer force of the propulsion of his current "travel method," his face blowing against the full force of the inflicted turbulence. "WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?!"
"THAT'S MY LINE, PROFESSORRRRR-!" Yuri cried out as both he and Karna clung onto [Hermes].
"GET OFF OF ME, YOU FUCKING YONOS!" Bias' voice echoed from the Titanus' head before she then raised her hand towards her own/the Titanus' face, only for the flaring thruster to peter out and sputter again, causing a drastic loss of altitude and ends up crashing into Simone's head, knocking him down as the three resumed their involuntary joyride across the citadel's ruins.
Karna himself was nearly thrown off from this sudden pivot, only for him to save himself after grabbing onto the [Scythe of Sariel] that was buried into the Titanus' eye. Yuri meanwhile, was now clinging onto one of the [Vel] cannon barrels, his legs no longer touching solid surface while Bias' consciousness try to salvage the situation back under her control while her flightpath resembled that of a drunk fly's.
"... They'll be fine," reassured Byleth as she and the others saw Simone get back up in conjunction to Marcelle finally reaching her rendezvous point. "... I think."
Both Altered Golems stare down at their targets with their unmoving visages. "Why are the the children of the Goddess mingling with foreign filths?"
"Stray sheep shall return to their flock," Marcelle declared as she slammed her severed arm into the ground like a judge's gavel as if she was making a statement. "The remaining filth shall be cleansed from this very world. Such is the will of the Goddess."
"... I'll take one-arm," Sorcha gritted her teeth at the aforementioned's remark as she grasped tightly onto her [Claymore]. "... I got sum shite to work out. Ye guys handle dat tin bastard rite in front of ye."
Realizing that negotiation was impossible, Byleth lets Sorcha go on her own before turning towards the group facing down Simone. "Alright everyone, you know the drill," she spoke as the Altered Golem marched towards them. "Hilda and I will get that thing's attention. Cyrus will act as our go-between for offense and defense due to him having to babysit Linhardt. As for the rest, Claude and Constance, mind your surroundings and don't get blasted while you're both providing supporting fire. Understood?"
Everyone nods as Simone then throws another thunderbolt at them.
"BREAK!"
Everyone then scatters as they begun to engage the Altered Golem while Sorcha took on another one all by herself.
Inside the Ring of Ice...
Inside the impromptu colosseum, Byron, Hapi, Ashe, and Selene were facing off against Anacharsis, Scythian, and a Dark Bishop respectively.
The first pair clashed their axes and ice magic against each other, with the Warlock's [Perun] clashing against the Wyvern Rider's [Geri Beil] from both afar and up close, the former's chains wrapping around the latter's shaft, allowing Byron to then move up close to limit his opponent's range and take her out with a point-blank blast with his [Freeze] spell.
Anacharsis however, simply countered the attempt by blasting her own ice magic at Byron, forcing the latter to abort lest he get frozen solid, thus resuming the stalemate between the two.
"You know, out of all the bastards that I had the displeasure of facing, I'd say you're easily the most annoying," Byron grimaced as he recalled his [Perun]'s chains back around himself.
"Guess that makes the both of us," Anacharsis smirked back as she slammed her axe into the ground, causing small icicles to erupt out from where it had struck. "Heard how weak you beasts are, yet here you all are, still resisting."
Meanwhile, Scythian the augmented wyvern was slithering and crawling rapidly all across the ground like a snake with legs, spitting acid at Hapi whlie the latter continued firing [Miasma Δ] at it to maintain a healthy distance while Ashe tried to jump onto it in order to kill it, only for the wyvern to continue to throw him off of his back every time.
"Any luck trying to find a place to stab him in?" asked Hapi as she kept up the barrage of Dark Magic.
"It's not so much wearing armor, but is made of armor," replied Ashe as he picked his hunting knife back up before sheathing it. "It spitting out acid is the least of our worries. Can't take it down like any other regular animal."
Scythian hisses out a shrill shriek before vomiting up another stream of its corrosive green bile, the deluge causing the stone floor of the ruins to hiss and bubble before cracking apart like wet hardtack.
As the two of them evaded the acid, Selene and the Dark Bishop were still fighting, with the latter shooting [Miasma Δ] at the former during her attempt to close in distance between them, before following up with a [Banshee Θ] to slow her movement with his shriek.
"... Hell on the throat, I swear," gagged the Dark Bishop as Selene's ears rang like church bells pulled by a loon.
As the two swayed like a pair of drunkards, Selene manages to recover first, moving in with her [Steel Lance] before thrusting the weapon at the Dark Bishop.
The masked spellcaster snaps out of his stupor in time for him to narrowly evade the weapon's point, at the cost of his mask being ripped off as he shot another [Miasma Δ] from an unseen angle at her, sending her flying into the ice walls of the ring.
"... Dammit, that was my favorite too," grumbled the unmasked Dark Bishop as he threw aside his damaged facewear, revealing a nondescript-looking man with black hair and pale skin, the latter of which began to glow with turquoise lines akin to a straight-laced web, signaling the activation of his own [Agarthian Technology].
Selene takes a deep breath before gripping her [Steel Lance] tightly, now having to fight on her own against a foe that was just as capable as her in terms of pure optics.
Just as the two resumed their fight, Ashe manages to cling himself around the augmented wyvern's neck, for it which then began thrashing about in an attempt to throw the boy off of him.
"HAPI!" Ashe cried out as he manages to plunge his hunting knife into one of the gaps found between the armored scales of the wyvern. "I GOT EM DISTRACTED! BLAST HIM!"
She nods in acknowledgement as she then fired a [Death Γ]] at the panicking wyvern, the skull-shaped blast making direct contact with its face, knocking it out along with Ashe off with it. As the Sniper found himself rolling across the ruins' ground, he eventually stopped right at the moment when Scythian let out his death knell before falling dead.
"... I think we got em," Ashe commented. "... We should probably help the others."
Anacharsis hears of this during her clash with Byron, kicking away the latter and seeing that her pet was now lying dead.
"Eh, not the first time," she then inputs a command code onto a device attached to her wrist. "Internal defibrillators, activate."
A moan followed up by a boom was then heard from within the slain wyvern's chest, causing it to come back from the brink and giving Ashe a nasty tail whip across his ribs that sent him crashing into the ice wall, knocking him out from the blow inflicted to the back of his head.
"Come on..." groaned Hapi, "... can't it just not die more than once?!"
Realizing that she had no other option other than stand still and get melted, she then activates her [Crest of Timotheos] to bring the beast under her thrall. This was the same power was also used to summon a random Demonic Beast to distract the swarm of constructs, one that she barely has any control over, given that it seems to activate either when her emotions reach a fever pitch or if she so much as lets out as a sigh.
Normally, when fully exerting her powers, any creature, big or small, would fall under her complete control. But this augmented wyvern was somehow partially resisting her brainwashing powers due to its neural implants interfering the Crest's emitted frequencies, preventing itself from attacking his own master and entering into a state of complete obstinance.
"... Alright," grimaced Hapi as she kept her eyes locked onto the wyvern's, "... just gotta keep it still."
Anacharsis takes notice of Hapi's efforts and attempts to intercept her, only for her to be stopped by Byron's [Perun] whipping its chain across her body before it then wrapped around her and pulled the Wyvern Rider back into his range.
"Leaving so soon?" taunted Byron as Anacharsis was suspended into the air by his chains. "You still have to deal with me first."
"Figured," growled Anacharsis as she then blasted ice magic from her axe, the explosion of cold sending back Byron enough to make him let her go. Upon her release, the Wyvern Rider then leapt towards the Warlock, now taking the offensive to finish him off in order to retrieve her wyvern.
The Dark Bishop gets the similar idea as well, only for him to be stopped upon a [Crossbow]'s bolt scarring across his nose's bridge.
"Come on," Selene smirked as she lowered her weapon before raising her polearm. "At least give me yer name before ye leave a lass hangin'."
The unmasked Dark Bishop growls before a pair of [Miasma Δ] spells lit up his hands. "Remember the name Diogenes," he hissed, "because I will be the one to send your ass six feet under!"
Rather than throwing his spells, the Dark Bishop instead opts to charge in towards Selene, blocking and parrying the latter's thrusts with her weapon, using his spells combined with his activated augmentations together akin to improvised knuckledusters.
"Don't get coy with me just because I happen to be a spellcaster!" snarled Diogenes as he wildly flailed and swung around his flaming hands against Selene's [Steel Lance]. "I can fight up close too-!"
A sharp twang sound was then heard from below, followed up by a pang of agony from the Dark Bishop's stomach before it worsened significantly after Selene kicks her heel into it, knocking him off of his feet and sending him rolling across the ground. What had transpired in this brief exchange was Selene able to shoot her [Crossbow] from a covert, quickdraw style into the Dark Bishop's stomach after reloading a bolt into the feed in secret while the latter was giving his name. The [Agarthan Technology] was able to prevent the bolt from breaching any further from his wall of flesh, for which Selene took notice and kicked the embedded bolt further in, puncturing into his stomach and out of his back, inflicting severe damage through his enhancements.
"Yeh..." Selene sighed before running towards where he'd laid with her [Steel Lance] ready to stake him, "... der's a reason why melee folk wear plate armor."
Using the pain from his wound to feed his rage, Diogenes shrieks out a close-range [Banshee Θ] that repelled Selene from getting any closer to him, disorienting her long enough for the former to then throw a [Miasma Δ] aimed right towards her head.
The spell explodes in front of her face, due to the upper shaft of her weapon blunting the blow before it could hit her directly, snapping the weapon in two and the broken-off spearhead landing headfirst into the ground not far from where she'd stood. Nevertheless, her face suffers caustic burns save for her eyes (closed them on reflex), resulting in both of them now stumbling towards each other like a pair of blind beggars.
"... Fuck... me," growled Diogenes before he coughed out a glob of blood from his mouth. "... You're not... like... the others... aren't you?"
Selene heaved as she tried to get her head back on straight, her ears ringing and eyes partially blind from the blast. "... Les jus say... dat I ain't from 'ere."
"Yeah..." groaned the wounded Dark Bishop, "... that... checks out."
With what little will he can muster, Diogenes begins to overclocks his [Agarthan Technology] to allow himself to keep fighting while he was literally at death's door. Selene does the same, only without augmentations and solely relying on pure hatred that she'd kept down and ready to be unleashed at no better time than now.
"... Come on," the Dark Bishop smirked as the corners of his lips dribbled with more blood. "... Time to meet... your maker!"
Selene then lets loose her rage as she then first throws her broken shaft of her [Steel Lance] towards the Dark Bishop before picking up the snapped-off spearhead from the ground as she ran before lunging at him with it like a makeshift shiv. "I'LL RIP OFF YER COCK 'ND JUMP-ROPE WITH IT!" she screeched as she pounced onto Diogenes like a wild animal. "I'LL GUT YE LIKE A FISHE 'ND TAKE A PIPIN' HOT SHITE IN YER OPEN RIBCAGE!"
With the two barely-alive people now struggling over each other, Byron and Anacharsis continued with their game of chicken with their respective axes. Byron maintained the distance between themselves, keeping the latter too occupied to leave the engagement while keeping her far enough to not allow her to attack him close up.
Of course, the latter wasn't much of an issue given that Anacharsis was able to shoot ice magic just like him thanks to her Crest Regalia weapon, but given the Warlock's knowledge of this esoteric field of the arcane, he knew how to deal with it and knows how much damage it can inflict.
"You know, I was kind of excited when I discovered that there was another practitioner of ice magic other than yours truly," Byron remarked as the chains of [Perun] snaked around him like a protective buffer layer.
"You don't sound particularly exited right now," Anacharsis pointed out before slamming her [Geri Beil] into the ground, unleashing a line of sharp icicles that snaked towards Byron before she was forced to evade his chain whip.
"The feeling is gone after the tedium," he sighed after he jumped out of the way of the wave of ice before blasting his own [Freeze] spell at the Wyvern Rider. "All that fancy axe of yours does is simply shoot ice magic and looking sharp, no different from a mass-produced [Levin Sword]."
"Hey, as long as it works," Anacharsis then runs towards the spell before batting it back towards Byron, causing the reflected spell to land before his feet and the following blast sending him flying off of the ground.
Taking this opening, the Wyvern Rider then sprints towards Byron to close in the distance made between the two before leaping into the air, her [Geri Beil]'s ornamental eyes began to glow as if they were possessed, further exemplified as the weapon itself faintly let out a hollow howl from its beastly visage as she raised the axe into the air.
"SAY GOODBYE, YOU BEAST!" the stoic Wyvern Rider roared out with elated glee as she brought down her howling axe as the [Crest of Aubin] glowed from her axe unleashing its innate Combat Art. "[ENGORGE]!"
Quickly, Byron rolled out of the way of the axe's descent, but the ensuing impact then unleashed a wave of ice wolves from the epicenter, one of which then bit onto Byron's arm during his retreat.
As the icy fangs sunk through his skin and sinking furthering towards where his bones are, he took the axe head of his [Perun] and began hacking away at the beast's head, chipping its head off of his neck before getting up and finding himself now being pounced from all directions by the other ice wolves unleashed by the Wyvern Rider's [Geri Beil].
In desperation, Byron then unleashes a combination spell of both [Banshee Θ] and [Fimbulvetr] around himself, unleashing an omnidirectional gale force that scattered the wolves off of his surroundings. But breaking through the storm was Anacharsis, bringing down her axe from above, with Byron instinctively putting his bitten arm up to his face while preparing another spell that he embeds into the axehead of his [Perun].
The [Geri Beil] severs off Byron's raised left arm off of his elbow while Byron's enhanced [Perun] then struck Anacharsis in her left eye, with the Wyvern Rider quickly pulling it out of her face alone with the blinded eye before said axehead detonates an implanted [Luna Λ] spell right in front of her face.
As the two found themselves lying across from each other, the adrenaline that was pumping through Byron's head then ceased, causing him to scream in sheer agony of losing his arm and now seeing it shattered into frozen bits in front of him, rendering it unsalvageable.
Anacharsis meanwhile, was now blind out of her left eye and sporting a nasty facial burn from the detonated spell. "... Shit bro," she huffed as she got back up, reorienting herself to her new perception, "you may... be one of them... but you fight with... a heart... not unlike ours..."
Byron winces in pain as he cauterized his bleeding stump with his still-warm blade of his [Perun], steam and bubbling flesh hissing upon making contact with the blade. "... Wanna keep going?!" he snarled, now for one of the few occasions in his life where he was on the verge of losing his cool. "... We came this far... it's be a shame to end this halfway in."
Anacharsis then quickly glances at both Scythian still resisting Hapi's wiles and Diogenes struggling against Selene in their close-range fight before eyeing at the unconscious Ashe, who was now slowly waking up. "... Nah," she smirked before dragging her axe across the ground before unleashing a blast of cold wave aimed right towards both him and Ashe. "WE'LL PICK IT UP SOME OTHER TIME, ASSHOLE!"
Seeing that Ashe was in a fatal predicament, Hapi then quickly abandons her maintenance of keeping the abnormal wyvern at bay in favor of intercepting the spell with her own [Death Γ] shot at the wave.
With Scythian freed from Hapi's enthrallment, he then immediately lunges himself between Byron and his master/rider before whipping his tail across Byron's stomach, causing him to vomit upon making a hard impact against the icy walls that he was knocked onto. With the coast clear, Anacharsis then mounts upon her wyvern and ready to make her escape.
"OI! WE GOTTA GO!" she cried out towards Diogenes, who successfully breaks out of his deadlock with Selene after headbutting into her face.
"SHE'S GETTING AWAY!" Hapi cried as she then tried to use her innate powers to get the wyvern to stop flying, but the hobbling Dark Bishop blasts Hapi from behind with his [Miasma Δ] spell, knocking her down before she could try anything.
"... GO ON WITHOUT ME!" begged Diogenes as he then began casting [Death Γ] onto his own body to turn himself into a bomb. "... I'LL COVER YOUR ASS... SO DON'T YOU DARE DIE FIRST!"
Ashe then slits open Diogenes' throat from behind with his hunting knife in an attempt to stop him from self-detonating by killing him beforehand. However, the dying Dark Bishop's hysteric strength flares up upon inches before his imminent demise, for which he used this opportunity to bear hug Ashe in an attempt to take out one of them before he can expire.
Selene seeing all this, runs towards the glowing Dark Bishop and plants her broken [Steel Lance] into his shoulder, prying the arm off of it and pulling both herself and Ashe out of his loosened clutch before Diogenes himself can explode.
With the last of his fading strength, the Dark Bishop recited the following as he fell to the earth, now departing from this accursed world.
"... To Agartha..." he hoarsely spoke, in a reverence akin to a prayer, "... let there be light."
[Death Γ] explodes beneath the fleeing Anacharis and Scythian around the four. The entirety of the ice ring shatters upon the blast, with its remaining inhabitants ducking for cover.
As soon as the smoke fades from view, Hapi then looks up to find Selene lying atop of Ashe, shielding him with her body from the blast, and Byron, now missing an arm, and on the verge of death as he laid on the ground like a corpse.
It was only the wounded Warlock belting out a wet cough served as an indicator that he was alive, but not well.
"... Byron?" Hapi called out as she saw him worm across the ground. "... You alright?"
"... Do I... look alright... to you?!" he snarled as he then raised his head to spot Selene wiggle off of Ashe, the latter being fine for the most part, but just as rattled as the rest of them.
"... You're fine," she shrugged as Hapi then helped him back up with Ashe doing the same to Selene. "... That said..." she remarked as she looked around, "... we really need to find a place where we can hide."
"... I know a bit of [Faith Magic]," Byron groaned out. "... We'll heal up before we can rejoin the others."
Byrons sighs before giving his answer. "... Sounds like a plan."
The four of them then made their way to the nearest cover to recuperate from their nigh-fatal injuries.
Inside one of the Temple Ruins...
In the dim halls of the long-abandoned temple, sparks flew with each sound of steel clashing against each other rung out.
Caught in the storm were none other than Topaz and Kronya, the two of them facing off against each other in a duel that took them through several roads, halls and covering about a quarter of the whole citadel ruins with gashes and perfectly-cut stone slabs from missed slashes.
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Kronya cried out as she pressed her dual [Kharga] blades against Topaz's [Zulfiqar]. "WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE?!"
"Not my time, fellow sister of death," deadpanned the little Hassashin before breaking out of the blade lock by sliding herself between the Agarthan Assassin's legs before attempting to backstab her, only for the latter attempt to be deflected by Kronya's scorpion kick.
After the two regained some distance from one another, the two swordswomen began sizing each other up as they began to circle around each other, waiting for the other to strike first.
"Tell me, Assassin," spoke Kronya, "do you believe in fate?"
"What do you mean?" Kronya replied with a slight snarl. "... Trying to get into my head or something?"
"You keep asking why I can't die, and I always, repeatedly, answer that it's not my time yet," the Hassashin pointed out as she then disrobed her midriff. "Watch."
She then stabs her sword into her own stomach and all the way out of the back before slipping it out barely covered in her own blood. "See?" she remarked plainly much to Kronya's shock. "I can't die."
In truth, this was all a parlor trick. Topaz actually just stabbed herself into the right place where only the bare minimum of blood vessels and organs had intersected, creating an illusion that she'd survived stabbing herself. Combined with her mutations granting her semi-regenerative properties that allows her wounds to heal faster than the norm, and it made her illusion look all the more plausible.
A normal person would've flinched and messed up the ruse and would've actually killed themselves for real due to their body's natural pain receptors flaring at the moment when their wall of flesh was penetrated through, but Topaz wasn't a normal person to begin with. For her, pain itself felt... pleasurable. She kept it under wraps, as to not dull her focus, and her mind was always on a warpath against the outside world's temptations of food, drink, and ideas.
All things are worthless in the eyes of Azrāʾīl, she thought to herself. "Only my god can choose when I die. And last I checked, you're no god."
"Tch, god," she spat in disgust. "They don't exist. Their believers are a bunch of dumb sheep too weak to think for themselves."
"So what do you even believe in?" asked Topaz, doing her best to keep her sudden surge of repressed rage dammed in her mind.
"I only believe in getting even," she answered. "Someone spills a drink on my clothes? I wring em out until nothing's left of them but a dried up husk. Someone getting the better of me?! FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT!"
Kronya then leapt towards Topaz with her dual [Kharga] blades raised over her head before she sent them down. Topaz dodges the blow before dodging a follow-up flurry of stabs and thrusts that the inflamed Assassin executed.
Topaz's disappointment at the Agarthan increased to the point of disgust at the sight of her performance. She's less of a driven killer and more of an abused dog snapping its teeth at whatever comes close, she mentally sighed at the poor girl's performance.
All the power that was given to her to make her a more efficient combatant was wasted at the girl's own vindictive nature. Her spite wasn't the spur that she'd assumed to be. Rather, it acted as her shackles, holding her actions back from becoming the genuine deal.
"HOLD STILL DAMMIT!" Kronya's screams grew ever louder and juvenile. "STOP... STOP NOT DYING ALREADY!"
"You're not even worth killing, Kronya," Topaz shook her head as she ducked under another stab before parrying another blow with her [Zulfiqar]. "Nor are you worthy of killing me."
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UUUUPPPPP!" the Assassin screeched like a child during its temper tantrum with all of her blows missing Topaz. "I'LL PROVE THAT I'M BETTER THAN YOU! I'LL SHOW YOU AND EVERYONE THAT I'M THE BEST OF THE BEST! I'LL END THIS BULLSHIT HERE AND NOW... BY KILLING YOU MYSELF!"
Both of her blades then glowed a light of blood-red as the [Crest of Ernest] emitted from her weapons' guards.
"EAT THIS YOU HALF-PINT BITCH!" cried out the wrathful Assassin as her blades began to move themselves into a trance-like pattern akin to a dancer high on hallucinogens, the trajectory of the blades leaving behind paths of blood red behind every inch where they rended through the air until it was then stirred up into a veritable typhoon. "COMBAT ART: [MAHAKALI]!"
The crimson slashes then proceeded to cut through every stone column around the temple's ruins until the whole thing collapsed over their heads.
Away from the ruins, the sounds of stone collapsing onto the earth caught the attentions of Edelgard, Dimitri, Vidar, Balthus, and even Periander.
"What was that sound?!" Dimitri pointed out.
"Uh, a fucking rockslide?" the Agarthan Grappler snarked at the Prince's parroting. "Eh, who gives a shit. BACK TO THE FIGHTING!"
In a hair-trigger moment, Periander and Vidar immediately get back to wrestling each other to the earth. Vidar took on the former with the aplomb of that of what a mentally-damaged person would do by first grabbing Periander by his head before attempting to drive it into the dirt.
Periander then bridges his whole body with his hands touching the ground before his head can touch it first. "THAT SAME SHIT AIN'T GONNA WORK TWICE PAL!"
Both fighters then made their move. Periander then extended out his leg to deliver a kick while Vidar used the former's own head as a leverage point before jumping up and performing a close-range flying press onto his own chest with his own.
The former's attempt fails as Balthus grabs the Grappler by his foot before locking him into a calf slicer hold, pressing his thigh and calves into Periander's leg and holding locking it down into a improvised vice grip.
"DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY JOINTS YOU GOT!" Balthus cried out as he tried to keep the snakelike leg under pressure. "A LEG'S A LEG BUD!"
Vidar then crashes his chest into the Grappler's own, knocking the air out of the latter's lungs before transitioning into another hold. Mid-transition, Periander then delivers his electric shock and a swift kick across the other Grappler's jaw from his other leg. Upon being struck across his lower jaw by the Agarthan's other foot, his grip around Periander's leg was loosened enough to let himself slither free from both Balthus and Vidar.
Vidar, upon seeing his transition being broken, backs off from the enemy Grappler's reach, only for his ankle to be grabbed on by Periander's extended hand before he was then dragged towards him and his own back being set upon his shoulders.
"And now, for my next trick!" the Agarthan Grappler then stretched out the bandaged boy's back as he pulled down his head and legs, causing Vidar to struggle himself to break free, but to no avail. "Huh, guess not all of your pain receptors are dead in the water."
"HANG ON BUDDY! I'M COMING!" Balthus then ran towards Periander carrying Vidar over his shoulders, only for him to then suddenly dip his knee towards the ground.
During this sudden drop, Periander then shocks Vidar to load him up with electricity before tossing his conducted body towards the charging Grappler, the applied force behind his knee drop propelling the throw being more than enough to knock him out and electrocute him at once.
Behind the collapsing giant, both Edelgard and Dimitri came running towards him. However, from his prone position, Periander was able to crouch-run into the latter's legs before hoisting him by them before flipping him behind himself and proceeds to butt-stomp the Prince's chin into the stone floor, drilling his head top into the craggy surface before letting go and facing Edelgard.
Just as Edelgard was about to bring her [Silver Axe] down, the Agarthan Grappler then casually gets up from where he was sitting with one smooth, fluid motion akin to flowing water, causing the former to cease her attack lest she accidentally splits open Dimitri's head in half and causing a major political fallout in the process. But just as she's stopped herself from making a fatal mistake, she loses sight of where Periander was at until she then feels something hugging from behind her before her field of vision was then literally turned on its head.
The Agarthan Grappler successfully performs a suplex onto the Imperial Princess' head. "Can't touch me, so kiss my ass, you little bitch," he taunted as he rubbed his ass onto her face, the receiver being semi-conscious throughout, much to the Fortress Knight's chagrin.
... I hate you... so much, she thought as her sight went black, and not because of Periander's spandex rubbing itself against her and obstructing her eyesight.
"Showboating aside..." sighed Periander then looked towards where Vidar was scrambling back up from Balthus. "... Better wrap this up before I end trapped into a stalemate. Really, it's been fun, but I'm on the clock, so can't play forever and all that."
Both of his [Dark Vajra-Mushti] then began to glow with the [Crest of Chevalier] as bolts of electricity sparked out of both halves of the weapon set.
"Oh come on!" Balthus exclaimed upon seeing the familiar sigils being shown off by someone other than himself. "The crest too?! Is there anything else that I don't know about that you ripped off from me?!"
The Agarthan Grappler belted out a wicked cackle as he bashed his two thundering gauntlets together, emitting a giant burst of thunder upon collision. "THAT'S FOR ME TO KNOW AND YOU TO FIND OUT!" he taunted as he drove both of his replica Relics into the earth. "NOT THAT YOU'LL LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO GET AROUND DOING IT!"
In response to Periander's continued cryptic crap that he spewed out, Balthus then banged both of his own [Vajra-Mushti] to produce their own sparks before doing the same as what the other Grappler was doing. "COME ON THEN!" Balthus cried out with unmatched vigor. "I'LL MAKE GOOD ON MY PROMISE OF BEATING THE ANSWERS RIGHT OUT OF YOU!"
The two Grapplers then pounced towards each other with their claws from their respective [Vajra-Mushti] Relics bared in full towards each other.
"[EVISCERATE]!" the two of them then unleashed the exact same Combat Art innate in their legendary weapons.
The two thundering blows clash against each other, with Vidar as their sole witness. "Strong...!" he commented as sparks flew like the birds released to the open. "The two... strong! Strong...! Like kings! ... Of thunder! Like... like...!"
His broken mind tried to remember a name. A divinity's name. But his muddled thoughts were overwhelmed with memories of fire. He struggled, and kept struggling, but was then brought back to reality without being able to find the answer that he'd desired.
Both Balthus and Periander then let out their roars as their fists and bodies pressed against each other like a pair of bulls ramming into each other.
"I GOT YOU NOW!" Balthus remarked. "WRESTLING, PIT BRAWLS, BANDIT EXTERMINATIONS, I'VE BEEN THROUGH EM ALL! NOT ONCE HAVE I EVER BEEN DEFEATED, AND I HAVE NO PLANS OF LOSING EVEN TO THIS DAY! ESPECIALLY TO THE LIKES OF YOU!"
Periander cackles in response to the King of Grappler's declaration of his prowess. "Hey King, are you an avid reader or a theater-goer?" he then asked out of the blue.
"... Read a few novels and saw a few plays during my hoofing days, why?" the King of Grapplers replied, admittedly curious enough to drop his guard slightly at the prospect of getting to know Periander a bit better.
"Well, you know that one kind of story?" the Agarthan explained, still maintaining the deadlock between himself and the giant man. "Of a kind of story where there are two same characters are forced to fight each other usually, the winner turns out to be the original and the loser turns out to be nothing more than a petty fake?"
It only took Balthus a few seconds to realize what the Agarthan was implying, but by then, it was already too late to stop it.
"... Yeah, I'm no fake, your highness," he smirked as his replica Relic gauntlets began to crackle. "I'm the superior copy."
Periander then unleashes his [Dark Vajra-Mushti]'s max voltage, shocking Balthus enough to cause him to keel over. Upon relenting, Periander then takes this opening to deliver the finishing blow into the bigger Grappler's abs.
The Agarthan's [Eviscerate] then makes direct contact against Balthus, causing the latter to spit out blood upon impact before he was then sent flying back like a slung stone.
Vidar, rather than be paralyzed in shock of this sudden reversal, instead uses this opportunity to attack.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Periander exclaimed as he saw Vidar use the flying Balthus as a jump pad as the latter then instead crashed into the recently-recovered Dimitri, knocking him out (again). "DID HE JUST USE HIM AS A SPRINGBOARD?!"
Vidar shrieks out a shrill battle cry as both of his arms armed with the [Baigujing] katars were seen raised over his head as he readied himself to deliver a double-hammer fist. "MY TURN!" the feral Warrior cried out before his bladed gauntlets broke themselves into the ground. "[BĪNGSHĀN DÌYÙ]!"
From where he'd landed, a massive wave of ice was then unleashed towards Periander's direction. He tried to run, but by the time he'd turned around, the shadow cast over by the cold wave was already engulfing him.
He didn't have a second to scream as the ice then surrounded and encased his body from the neck up, trapping him as if he fell into a vat of quicksand. "... Fuck bro...!" he shivered as he tried to muster up the strength to break out of his frozen prison, but the joints from his augmentations creaked like rusted-over door hinges, causing him more pain than he'd like to admit.
Vidar then looked down upon the Grappler as he then raised his bladed gauntlets and aimed their tips towards his exposed head.
"... So this is how things end," he commented with a mirthless chuckle. "... Not the worst outcome."
But just as he was about to deliver the killing blow, he was suddenly then blown off his feet by a sudden turbulence coming from the side, revealing itself to be Kronya and Topaz, their duel dragging them out of their temple prior and into the open where the others were fighting at.
The Agarthan's [Mahakali] Combat Art easily breaks through the ice trapping Periander and freeing him in the process, but as for its intended purpose of wasting Topaz where she stood has so far proven unsatisfactory, with the aforementioned target somehow managing to deflect all of her incoming storm of myriad slashes.
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIIIIIIEEEE?!" screamed Kronya as her dual [Kharga] blades kept failing to so much as make a scar onto the little Hassashin's skin.
"Be grateful that you forced me to use every weapon in my arsenal," deadpanned the little Swordmaster as she wielded her [Zulfiqar], [Cursed Ashiya Sword], and her embedded [Blutgang] swords all at once to deflect all of the incoming blows coming from the Crest Weapons and their innate powers. "You're actually forcing me to try. For that, I thank you, for I was afraid of becoming complacent."
Kronya's screams became louder as her fury and frustration grew with each failed blow. The storm of blades did not relent, nor did Topaz.
Periander, now freed from his frozen prison, saw that Kronya's Combat Art was being deflected by someone who was half her size. Normally, he'd laugh at the Assassin, but he was more afraid for her on the basis of Topaz being barely fazed.
She's a threat, he thought as he saw Vidar still slumping on the ground. Gotta take her out now!
From behind and with Topaz's arms and attention all focused towards Kronya's [Mahakali] Combat Art, Periander then swings the trunk of his outstretched arm into Topaz's head to deliver a electrocuted lariat, knocking both her and her weapons (sans [Blutgang]) to the ground.
"FINISH HER OFF!" he cried out towards the storm of blades before getting out of the way.
Kronya, being the prideful person that she is, would normally accuse the Grappler of kill-stealing, but at this point, she was more than willing to accept a partial victory over no victory.
"TIME FOR BEDDY-BYES, YOU NUISANCE!" cackled the deranged Assassin as her storm of blades now closed in all towards the downed Topaz.
But just before her [Kharga] blades could sink deep into the little Hassashin's flesh, both were then stopped dead in their tracks mid-swing.
"WHAT?!" Kronya cried out as she saw none other than Topaz's hands catching both blades between her index and middle fingers.
She tried yanking them out, but the blades were stuck tightly. As she continued to try and pry them out of her hands, she then saw Topaz exhale a steamy sigh that was visible enough to fog up their nearby proximities.
"... I can't take it anymore..." the Swordmaster's voice trembled.
The fog then clears up, only for Kronya to see that Topaz was now both drooling uncontrollably from behind her veil and both of her eyes now completely dilated and bloodshot.
The clasped fingers then transition into a full-hand grip around the blades themselves. The grips around [Kharga] tightened until the Crest Weapons themselves shattered in her grasps.
Everyone who'd woken up on time saw this unexpected reversal to happen in real time, with them being just as loss for words as the Agarthans standing before Topaz. With her hands now free, Topaz then rips off her veil, revealing that her mouth now nested rows of shark teeth-like incisors that looked and can tear through human flesh.
"I'M HUNGRY!" the now-feral and berserk Topaz then pounced towards Kronya's direction with every intent to eat her alive.
But at the last possible second before Topaz could get her hands onto Kronya, Periander tackles her out of the way, making that he was the one who was pounced on rather than his contemporary.
Regardless of his actions, Topaz simply bit into his throat and ripped out his jugular, the tube of red, raw meat hanging from her fangs before she slurped it into her mouth and then proceeded to devour the rest of him like a wild animal. First came off the rest of his neck, then his torso, then his limbs, and finally his skull.
Everyone who'd seen this macabre scene out of hell were too stunned to take action, letting Topaz devour Periander in deafening silence. Edelgard was on the verge of vomiting at the sight of this grisly cannibalism, Dimitri and Balthus were horrified beyond words, Kronya's legs became lame and limp from the pure terror that she's bearing witness to, and even Vidar, who was no stranger to cannibalism himself, was shocked by this sudden shift in his friend's behavior from a stoic maiden of cloth (of the Reaper's) to that of a crazed she-beast more akin to a predator wearing human clothes.
Eventually, Topaz finishes eating the Agarthan Grappler, left only but nothing his half-exposed skeleton and internal wirings that were inedible even for her current state. Her hungry eyes then shifted towards the rest of them, now seeing them nothing more than food.
Even Vidar wasn't off the menu at this point, a fact that he can easily recognize.
"RUN!" he cried out as he took off, with everyone else, including Kronya, following soon after.
As Topaz was then about to give chase, she then notices a strange wavelength of power emanating from the now-abandoned [Dark Vajra-Mushti] gauntlets. Quickly picking off one of the embedded stones, she then proceeds to swallow one of them whole.
Upon consumption, a surge of power welled within her, the shock then making their way to her legs, morphing them from single-hinged knees into a pair of reptilian digitigrade legs with a sickle-like talon jutting from her large toes. As soon as her legs finished their metamorphosis, she then stomped the remaining gauntlets into pieces, absorbing their remaining power into her new legs as the [Crest of Chevalier] shone from her left upper thigh as an "XIX" was then engraved into her right upper thigh's scale.
"... Don't tempt me..." she hissed before crouching down, now with the Crests of [Gautier] and [Maurice] now shining behind her like multiple halos. "... I can't... hold back... ANYMORE!"
Breaking the ground beneath herself, she then explodes into a bullet of pure speed and ferocity, her humanity now in doubt, looking more akin to a Demonic Beast on the hunt for human flesh.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Yeah, I'm trying hard not to turn this whole thing into another 20k-long chapter. So I'm gonna break this initial draft down into two, rougly-10k word long chapters for the sake of myself and the readers. Burnout was a bitch and a half to deal with prior, and I rather not have immediate repeat performance. Still recovering, but I'm closer to returning to my prior schedule.
So, this chapter is going through more individual group fights with the others still going. The twin Altered Golems are still out an about, the modified Titanus [Hermes] is now malfunctioning even with Bias' consciousness uploaded into its iOS, and oh, and now Topaz is now a pseudo-Demonic Beast after being both hit and electrocuted directly onto her head and now has a craving for human flesh.
I did promise that this arc is when the Dustbin finally bite off more than they can chew. Well, Byron is now an arm short, Selene took Diogenes (the Dark Bishop acting as Anacharsis' plus one) suicide blast meant for Ashe, and Topaz officially goes insane to the point Vidar of all people is now genuinely terrified of her. All that's left is Sorcha and possibly Karna.
And of course, when the Dustbin are involved, literally everyone goes wrong for everyone! The citadel defenders guarding the [Chalice of Beginnings] are now forced to fight at a reduced capacity, the Agarthan Strike Team are now down two members and lost two Relic-based weapons, and the exploration group (Dustbin, the Ashen Wolves, Professor Byleth, and two members from the Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and the Golden Deer each) are all now scattered and fighting their own fatal battles (without a medic, since Linhardt's predisposed and out of commission) and broken bones for everyone.
Like Karna said this chapter, "Prepare for more suck, kiddos."
References:
- Simone's line before unleashing his custom [Light-Lance Fusillade] is taken from Bioshock Infinite's Motorized Patriot enemies. It's [Light-Lance Fusillade] Combat Art is based off MOOSE's "cluster bomb" MLRS weapon from the 2015 sci-fi movie, Chappie. For the two Altered Golems as a whole, them calling non-Fodlaners "filth" comes from how in Shin Megami Tensei IV, the four Archangels and Merkabah refer to all those who live outside of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado.
- The way both Karna and Yuri end up "hitching a ride" onto the semi-malfunctioning [Hermes] is similar to how Master Kohga went out after his final encounter in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
- The Dark Bishop's name, Diogenes, is derived from the late 5th century BC Greek Philosopher, Diogenes of Sinope, who is one of the founders the Cynicism alongside with Antisthenes and Cretes of Thebes, with his contributions being that of the "dog's virtues" of doggedness of Cynicism.
- Scythian's "internal defibrillator" is a reference to Arknights' Blaze's passive skill, [Emergency Defibrillator].
- Topaz's stunt of non-fatally stabbing herself is lifted from a scene from The Elusive Samurai manga, where the main antagonist Ashikaga Takauji did the same to his own throat as an act of showing "penance" of his insurrection and usurpation against the Hojo clan, pretty much exemplifying his own gargantuan sociopathy that he seems partially unaware of (or not, it's not been made clear given how ambiguous his motives are other than power).
- Kronya's Combat Art innate in her [Kharga] Crest Weapon, [Mahakali] means "Great Kali" in Hindi, a name where the mentioned Goddess of Death, Kali, reaches the apex of her strength (to the point where she's the one dancing on Shiva) as the current world is brought to an end, reverting back to her original form as the Goddess of Time and Decay.
- Periander's act of throwing Vidar into Balthus is based off John Cena's signature move, the Attitude Adjustment.
- Topaz's sharp teeth being revealed after ripping off her veil brings into mind of Milleena's teeth from Mortal Kombat franchise, and the way she devours Periander alive is also akin to Milleena and Baraka, but I also had Merkava from Under Night in-Birth in mind (particularly his [I Overrun] EXS). Also, her new legs after absorbing the artificial [Crest of Chevalier] are based off raptor dinosaur's digitigrade legs with massive sickle-like toe claws, particularly the Velociraptor and the Deinonychus.
