[Endgame: rise or DROWN]

[warpweft]

[How long have you been exploring Nessa's palace now? You've met her family, viewed her memories, learned how to fight as a witch and tried to find the source of her power and the Treasure of her palace: the Voidheart. And along the way, you've tired your best, with mixed success, to avoid the incarnation of her eldest cousin and the representation of her trauma and fear, the Nightmare of Esmau.]

[Wherever you are in the Palace right now, you feel the ground briefly shake under your feet. Little shakes here and there haven't been out of the ordinary - Esmau is trying to blow the place down to the studs, after all. But that felt different. That felt....worse.]

[Your phone beeps as you receive a message.]

Comments

!!!!

[voidhearts]

[Esmau SLAMS her glaive into the ground. A pulse of Void energy shoots out from her and strikes all four of you --

Bubbles of Void energy suspend you in the air, preventing you from attacking Esmau, helping Caesar or grabbing the Voidheart -- Akira and Sprezzatura in particular are stopped just inches away from the glass box.]

None of you are gonna stop me....!

[If you use a spell to attack the bubble, it starts to crack, but it's happening too slowly...Esmau is right back to Caesar being the only thing between her and the Voidheart.]

[survivaltricks]

[MOTHER. . . with an angry cry, Akira does. . . not use his ability to break the bubble]

[he just punches it]

Re: !!!!

[velluminous]

[ INCHES... she snaps her gaze to Akira, frenzied, wild-eyed— ]

No!

[ pure furious instinct drives her. she will attempt to yank the Wizardly Quill facet back out of her Voidheart and pierce the bubble with the literal point of it ]

[cosplayed_out]

[calmly drawing her survival knife to try to pierce through the bubble]

[messianic]

[ listen, Minato isn't usually one to punch first and ask questions later but in this case

Desperately, he'll also try. ]

W-wait--!

Re: !!!!

[voidhearts]

[Caesar seems to realize he's alone. For a second, he looks like he's at a loss for what to do....but he sucks in a breath, plants himself between Esmau and the Voidheart and slaps his shoulder with his hand twice.]

Come on. Like dad taught you. Vulcan spirit.

[He looks up and glares at Esmau.]

Come on, motherfucker.

[He lifts off the ground. Gravity manipulation. He shoots at Esmau, then suddenly changes direction in mid-air, flying around her back. Esmau spins on her feet. She catches a knee in the side of her head and stumbles back. She swings. Caesar drops to the ground and slides underneath her. He stands up behind her, back-to-back and hooks one of his arms around one of hers. His own gravity increases dramatically, pulling him to the ground and giving him the leverage to pull her down with him, flipping her over top of him, so they're face to face again. His gravity goes back to normal the second they're face to face and he leaps up, kneeing her in the chin. He steps back, then thrusts his foot at into her forehead. He plants one foot, then spins in place, delivering a spinning heel kick into her jaw with as much force as he can muster.

Esmau stumbles to one side...]

[Then lunges at him, thrusting her glaive directly into his shoulder. The attack happens almost instantaneously. One second, Caesar was raining down kicks and knees on Esmau from every angle. The next, she's stabbing him with enough force to send him flying into the opposite wall.]

[She massages her jaw a bit. But seems no worse for the wear as she walks over to the box and punches right through it, grabbing the Voidheart.]



It all starts with this...

[She turns and grins at the four palace explorers, still trapped in their bubble.]

You're gonna wanna leave now. Things are about to get messy.

[She vanishes. The bubbles and the glaive pinning Caesar's shoulder to the wall vanish a second later, leaving everyone to hit the ground in a heap.]

[survivaltricks]

[oh god damn it]

[at least Akira is quick on his feet. he drops to the ground when the bubble vanished and lands adeptly on his feet, immediately jolting to Caesar to heal him, too]

[gravitonn]

Shit...shit.

[He holds his hand over his shoulder as Akira heals him.]

She got it...we gotta tell Agnis and Shadow Nessa what happened...

[survivaltricks]

[drops his hands once the spell is done, setting his jaw tightly as he does so]

We need to get the Voidheart back.

[gravitonn]

She was invincible already. Now she and Lilith have the Voidheart...

[He slams a hand against his own head.]

Shit. What do we even do to get it back....!

[survivaltricks]

No one is invincible. But if we can't take her in a fight. . .

[lifts his chin]

Then we just outsmart her and steal it back instead.

[gravitonn]

Ha....

Shit. If it was a heist, I'd be all over it.

[survivaltricks]

[claps his hands!]

Then let's turn it into a heist.

[cosplayed_out]

[she falls from the suspension and grunts, before she rushes over to him.]

...You are injured.

[she's going to kneel to turn him on his back, at least.]

[gravitonn]

Nrgh....shit...!

[He's clutching his shoulder. Akira is healing him at least, so the damage is slowly going away.]

We gotta...we gotta find Shadow Nessa. We gotta tell her what happened.

[cosplayed_out]

You recognize Shadow Nessa as an authority? Or mere back-up?

[gravitonn]

I recognize her as all of my sister's most annoying qualities and the main thing keeping this palace running, which might not be the case for a whole lot longer.

[cosplayed_out]

Then she is mission command. Her failure to maintain unit cohesion shows lack of leadership. Lack of adequate delegation and assignment of roles and duties.

As the Ultimate Soldier, I will compensate and complete the mission regardless.