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Post by Rainbow Dragon on Feb 2, 2015 20:39:05 GMT -6
Nobunaga steps into the portal, out onto a windswept grassy plain, deep in thought. My initial assessment of these people was slightly off... If only slightly. It's been a while since that's happened. Still, things may not be as hopeless as I originally thought...
He moves to stand off to the side as the others come through. It wasn't his time yet, but his time would come soon.
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Post by Rainbow Dragon on Feb 6, 2015 18:02:07 GMT -6
Ethan inclines his head to Elia and leaves the room, quickly finding the two Generals, right where he left them. He took some small satisfaction in that.
"The human girl is going to accompany me," Ethan states matter of factly, daring the Generals to question him. "I need a battlesuit for her, or at least a chestguard. Where can I find one?"
Both Generals tense at his stern command, though to their credit, neither backs down. "That goes directly against the Emperor's orders," General Petrine says hotly, her eyes narrowing. "You were ordered to-"
"I believe you're misunderstanding the situation again human," Ethan snaps, cutting her off. "I am merely cooperating with your Emperor because that is the best course of action at this time. However, I am in no way, shape or form his subordinate, or yours for that matter. His orders mean absolutely nothing to me, hence why he has to blackmail me. You will take me to find a battlesuit, and you will do so now. Do not make me repeat myself."
General Petrine tenses even further, and she opens her mouth, probably to say something extremely stupid, but fortunately for her, her counterpart has more sense. "This way," General Galahad says calmly, motioning for Ethan to follow him.
He does, and despite Petrine's very vocal protests, Galahad leads him to a small armory in a side wing of the palace, mainly used by the Royal Guard. Ethan carefully memorizes the way to the armory, the number of guards patrolling the area, and the passcode for the lock, which seemed to operate on some form of electricity, and he did so all without his two escorts noticing. He had a feeling this info would prove very helpful very soon.
Inside the armory, Galahad showed him the armor he believed would fit, based off Ethan's description of her height, build, and estimated weight, and Ethan settled upon a black battlesuit, apparently worn by Ephesian Night Scouts. The suit itself was, in fact, a one piece suit with something called a zipper in the back, that one slipped over their normal clothes. The material turned out to be very light, but also extremely sturdy(As evidenced by Galahad's impromptu field test), and according to Galahad, it's a mixture of Mythril and something called Teflon. It also appears to be enchanted to ward off incoming spells, as well as steel and bullets. The matching helmet is also black, but with a silver visor that the wearer can lower or raise.
Ethan accepted the battlesuit and promptly returned to his room, leaving the Generals at their post in the hallway again. "Will this suffice, Elia?" He asks as he steps into the room. "Most of what they are willing to offer is heavy armor, but if you prefer, we can take this back and you can pick something out yourself."
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 7, 2015 17:15:09 GMT -6
"Very well", said Glinda. "If I may ask, do you recognize the people within your cards?"
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 7, 2015 18:32:04 GMT -6
"I see", said Glinda. "I shall take note of this. You may continue to keep these cards in your possession."
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 7, 2015 20:56:15 GMT -6
"A no small number of them, I'm afraid", said Glinda. "Before we direct our full attention, toward the abominations however, our prime enemy lies against Emperor Grievous of Ephesus. I wish to quell hostilities with them, though they have made clear that they do not seek peaceful negotiations. Once we are no longer in conflict with their armies searching for any weakness to exploit, we will be able to afford to pull our full military might against the abominations.
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 7, 2015 21:55:10 GMT -6
"We are uncertain", answered Glinda.
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 7, 2015 21:59:45 GMT -6
"...I am afraid I do not understand the question", said Glinda.
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 7, 2015 22:14:17 GMT -6
"Do you speak of religious items?" asked Glinda. "Because while we do place a great amount of faith in our beliefs, we do not currently possess any item considered particularly sacred... None that survived history, at least."
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 7, 2015 23:01:56 GMT -6
"We...possess a few weapons of that description", said Glinda. "However, 'sacred' is far from the term I would use to describe them. Some would go as far as to call them... cursed. We know only of a few of them, and possess even less than that. If you are suggesting that Ephesus seeks these weapons, that has been considered a possibility, but as it is mere speculation of their intentions... we remain uncertain."
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 8, 2015 13:52:25 GMT -6
"It is no possibility nor doubt", replied Glinda, "for we have first-hand accounts of the power these weapons hold; a few of our commanders possess and have used their power. Their power has caused many casualties upon the Ephesian forces... As well as our own.
As for the possibility of Ephesus having been able to recruit other Outlanders, that possibility has been thought of. It is truly worrying."
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 8, 2015 19:03:51 GMT -6
"We have a lot of intelligence regarding them available", said Glinda. "For instance, they use primarily black colors and operate by using number and precise movements to win battles, at the cost of falling apart should their communications be hindered or if their commander falls in battle. However, there will be another time to discuss Ephesus in greater detail."
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Post by HHDeception on Feb 11, 2015 2:19:11 GMT -6
A squirrel squeaked "Gimme that! Don't touch it!"
A man spoke "Kay. Jirachi, float it."
Celeste was skipping around Nelson's "lab" which definitely wasn't up to the pokemon scientist's standards. Jirachi was keeping a wand of sorts out of reach, which was apparently the remote control for the force field around Nelson's unconscious human body. The squirrel body he was currently inhabiting would normally be flying after it, but Jirachi was also keeping it pinned down with Gravity.
Nelson had tried shouting for help, but Squirrel voices don't travel very far, and Celeste had dispersed Silence Spray within seconds of setting foot in the lab to sonically isolate the room.
"You have holographic screens. Why don't you use them?" Celeste gestured towards some flasks, and Jirachi psychically triggered something in them, causing a cloud of transparent smoke to rise into the air. Celeste jumped towards a bookshelf and pulled out a tome, fascinated.
Oh, it should be mentioned that Nelson's "lab" was much more akin to a combined library and apothecary, with stocks of potions and books strewn about. Although, Celeste knew almost instantly that they weren't any ordinary books. He flipped through the one had had grabbed, and placed his Files Manager onto it. His pre-programmed equations allowed the formation of a very crude interface between the technological marvel and the horribly antiquated Files Manager. The book jerked up into the air as if it were alive, and after a brief second of downloading the correct drivers, it and a few others began spiraling about on their own. Celeste had to duck out of the way as the tomes consumed the archaic digital storage medium and reupholstered the knowledge inside into a more user friendly format. A new tome materialized and floated gently down to Celeste, who was grinning like an idiot.
"My equations weren't even complete. Quantum mnemonics. There's no other explanation. It's...basically Magic, Jirachi"
The wish pokemon smiled along with his partner, but as an incarnation of reality destroying miracles, it really had to wonder what the big deal with magic was.
"You...you seriously just did that?" The squirrel below had stopped resisting to watch the scene, "You're not even of this world. How can you use magic?"
Celeste beckoned Jirachi to float them upwards, into the cloud of smoke now pooling on the ceiling. Celeste let the book lie in an open hand, and it automatically stabilized itself in the air above it to maximize viewing angle. He waved his free hand before it, and it scrolled through the pages to bring him exactly the information he was looking for in glorious Ultra HD 3D visualizations. He turned the book to some unfinished equations, grabbed them, and tossed them into the air, allowing them to fill the space in the smoke in a sort of spider's web of symbols. And at the center, Celeste's eyes were spinning it.
The symbols ordered themselves into lines and paragraphs scrolling endlessly at the speed of Celeste's thoughts...basically blurring them beyond recognition. And while Nelson didn't recognize what he was doing, Celeste was writing algorithms. At this point, Jirachi had forgotten to keep Nelson pinned, but Nelson didn't even notice. He was too busy watching things fly out of the book and into the smoke. Besides the massively expanding smattering of subroutines, entire volumes of knowledge were brought forth from tomes all about the library. Celeste only had to query and the answer was immediately presented to him. It was like searching Wikipedia, on top of every academic journal, with a search algorithm thousands of times more efficient than Google, using just your thoughts. And beyond all this, in the upper reaches of the smoke, an image from Celeste's subconscious began to take shape...that looked oddly like Rainbow Road.
And then at once, all activity stopped. Celeste looked up, blinked, scrolled through the hundreds of pages he had written in the past minute, fixed a semicolon, and smiled.
"Magic, science, at some point they all become the same thing." Celeste looked down at Squirrel Nelson, "Impressed?"
"...what did you do?"
"You ever use this kind of interface before for research?"
"Um, no. It looks superlatively efficient though."
"That's because it is. This is a Mind Palace," Celeste gestured to the thought filled environment around him, "It's the perfection of UI. It's an extension of not only your mind, but every single body of knowledge at your disposal, working as one."
"But...but these are my books! If they could do that, I would have done it."
"You're right. They couldn't do it. Not before I wrote the source code."
"But...you...used your "Mind Palace" to write the source code."
"Yeah," Celeste gestured to it and waved, scrolling through a highlighted section, "I wrote it to take effect in all moments of time simultaneously upon deployment. So it was available the instant I got here so I could use it to create it. All clear?"
Jirachi gave Nelson a signal to just say yes.
The squirrel blinked. The wand dropped into the rodent's hands. The rodent nodded.
"Good," Celeste replied, banishing the floating images and returning the lab to its more rustic state, "lets get my coat back and end this war you're in."
Meanwhile outside the lab...
"So...got any twos?"
"That is not how you play this game kupo!"
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Post by Rainbow Dragon on Feb 11, 2015 12:02:11 GMT -6
Nobunaga watches the others step through the portal with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance. He wasn't annoyed at them per say, just at the situation in general. He waits for a few minutes, and when it's clear no one else is stepping forward, he sighs and walks over to Queen Glinda.
"I believe it's my turn then. As I requested before, I require a spot closer to the city. I believe I have already assuaged any worries you may have, but if you need any further explanation, I will do my best to oblige."
--------
The Western Plains, north of Yuelia, near the Silver Forest...
A shimmering fog passes over the windswept plains. It is an odd, ethereal fog, like a morning Spring mist come down from the mountains a season early. A flock of wild sheep graze lazily nearby, chewing on tufts of grass. As the fog nears, the sheep perk up their ears, suddenly spooked.
The fog abruptly dissipates, revealing hundreds, even thousands of black boots marching in unison. It is not only humans that march with the vast army. Ogres, giant beasts in obsidian armor, monstrous siege weapons, and rumbling death-machines can be seen within the horde. The combimed sound of their march echoes like thunder, reverberating throughout the plains, causing the poor sheep to flee in terror.
All at once, the order of "Mark Time: March" echoes down the line, and the army ceases its forward advance, and begin to march in place. The order of halt quickly follows, and mighty force ceases all movement, becoming silent lifelike statues. At the rear of the formation, marked by two flagbearers wielding the crest of Ephesus- a green dragon curled around an eye of stone- and a Company of guards in black and golden armor, is the leader of this force; General Mason, a giant man in dark red and brown armor, astride a massive black Chimera, some thirty feet in length. The mount is as impressive and terrifying as the rider, if not more so.
General Mason looks over the pathetic lot the Emperor stuck him with, and spits on the ground. To think, he, of all people, would be stuck leading this damn diversion. If this fails, that snake Galbador will never let him hear the end of it.
His scarred lips slowly twist into a cruel, excited grin. If that snake wants a show, he'll give him one. He won't just give the bastard a diversion, he'll wipe Yuelia off the map.
"All forces, battle formations! For the glory of the Eternal Empire! For the glory of the Green Dragon! Forward... March!"
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 14, 2015 4:51:07 GMT -6
"Hmm... Yes", replied Glinda. "I do believe enough time has passed for--"
Suddenly, a Yuleian mage teleported into the area and bowed to the queen. "My lady, it's the Ephesians! They have a march led by General Mason that has reached the Western Plains! About 5,000 strong!"
"What?!" exclaimed Glinda. "How did they make it past the borders without our notice? Viola and Sterling should have been able to stop them, and Engle should have tracked their motions on radar!"
"We do not know for certain, but the force is estimated to reach the capitol within an hour's time. Within these estimates, the only reinforcements that may arrive in time are Abraham's forces and a few Angelos."
"Send word to Engle to have all howitzers in range targeting the advance, focusing on breaking their formation. Notify Leonard to double the capitol defenses. Have Alvis mobilize and lead the palace army in retaliation. The capitol is to be put on lockdown; red alert!"
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Post by Rainbow Dragon on Feb 14, 2015 10:06:16 GMT -6
Beneath his mask, Nobunaga tried to conceal a look of surprise. Why now? Didn't Queen Glinda say they've only had skirmishes in the past? So why the sudden invasion? And if they had some secret weapon that allows them to move without fear of being detected... Why waste it on so few a number? Now that Yuelia knows of it, they'll be expecting it. This doesn't make any sense. If they wanted to crush Yuelia, why didn't they invade in force, and keep their weapon active until they were at the capitol's gates? Yuelia would have fallen immediately, and there is nothing anyone could have done.
His eyes wander to the Queen. And she knows it... She may be trying to put on a brave face, but she isn't stupid. She's reached the exact same conclusion. If Ephesus had wanted to, they could have destroyed her capitol, but they chose not to. Why? Is it possible the weapon has some sort of cooldown, or other drawback that prevents continuous use? No... They wouldn't have sent out such a force then, if this were merely a test. I don't know why, but something tells me the leader of this Empire is no fool. He, or she, may even know more than Queen Glinda.
The old rusty gears of war begin to grind in his head, and he starts to question the soldier, but stops himself. He turns to Queen Glinda instead. "Queen Glinda, how much time will you need for reinforcements to arrive?"
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 14, 2015 15:28:10 GMT -6
Glinda turned to speak to Nobunaga as the mage teleported away with Glinda's orders.
"The palace force will take between one and two hours to mobilize a fighting force should we prioritize on making a force to match their own as opposed to deploying the entirety of ours. If they are currently at the Western Plains... Then Abraham should be able to mobilize and be able to attack from the side in the same time or less, given their close proximity to the force. Los Angelos, one of our elite forces, can provide a division dedicated to stalling the force's advance, though halting it completely is unlikely. Howitzers -- that is, our long-range cannons -- will definitely be able to calibrate their aim and strike at the force, but they will not fire if the target comes in close enough proximity to the capitol.
In truth, we would ordinarily be able to quell the advance. The true conflict is the lack of time we possess to fully mobilize a counter-assault."
With a wired phone held to his ear and a monitor in front of him, Alvis waited for the phone to pick up. After a few seconds, the monitor sprang to life, showing an Attacktron robot with another monitor for a torso, a hand outstretched and holding down the button for speaker phone. The monitor showed a prominent "=D" emoticon.
"Howdy, General Alvis!" said Professor Engle Simmons. "How may I help you today?"
"Professor, an urgent matter has arisen", explained Alvis. "Through methods unknown, an Ephesian force of 5,000 is marching across the Western Plains as we speak, heading toward St. Elne.
The monitor changed into an "=O' expression. "What?!" exclaimed the professor. "How? When?! Our radars should have picked them up a lot time ago; not to mention Lady Viola and Major Sterling must've seen something!"
"We can worry about that later", said Alvis. "I require you to give your engineers the order to calibrate all Howitzers in-range to target their forces and break their formations. We must do everything in our power to slow their advance until our own forces are ready to mobilize. Once ready, be prepared to fire on my command only."
The robot saluted with his free hand while the monitor changed to a ">=(". "Roger that, sir!"
Alvis hung up the phone and the monitor shut off as he left to oversee his forces.
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Post by HHDeception on Feb 14, 2015 19:34:21 GMT -6
An alarm sounded in the halls and suddenly there were soldiers rushing through past the lab. They scattered Moran's cards, causing him to deflate in an imitation of mild frustration.
Anthea swept them up quick as a blink and handed the Nobody back his deck. She looked around.
"Are we under attack?"
"Yes," Moran replied, scanning the people around, "They're big, and approaching in about an hour. It's written on their faces. They're worried. If we reveal ourselves now they'll think we're moles so we have to-"
He turned to see Anthea had vanished. He shrugged and fell in with the others.
Meanwhile, due to the Silence Spray covering the door to Nelson's lab, its occupants were completely unaware of what was going on outside.
"Ah, that feels better." Nelson said as his human self got up and stretched. The squirrel was napping in a padded little alcove in the ceiling peacefully.
"Hm...I've never seen a creature like that." Celeste said thoughtfully.
"It's a squirrel." Nelson replied, checking some of the settings on his mind-transfer device.
"Right. But what kind of squirrel? Electric squirrel? Ground squirrel? Do they have types here?"
"...just...squirrel. I found it in the garden."
...
"This place is weird," Celeste clapped his hands, "alright, where's my coat?"
Nelson rubbed his eyes and pointed further in, "It's in a containment cell. We couldn't control the field but we managed to teleport it inside of an anti-magic cell."
"Anti-magic? Is that like...anti-matter?"
"It's a bit more...volatile. You'll see. Come on."
The scientist strode over. Celeste quickly looked up anti-magic with his Mind Palace.
Anti-Magic, the Palace read, is less of a substance and more of a concept. It can barely be defined, and is best done so by first defining actual Magic, which in itself is a task that has caused the bloody deaths of many an ambitious scholar. But here it goes anyways.
Magic is the name commonly given a phenomenon that either cannot be rationally explained by observers, or can be explained, but only in the context of its own parameters. Magic only works because that is the way that magic works, in the most literal sense. The fundamental quantum mnemonics that fuel all magical interactions hinge upon the belief of magic's structure, or rather, the suspension of disbelief that may otherwise prevent this phenomena from occurring. To put it bluntly, magic is only magic because one believes it is magic. Otherwise, it is bull***.
Anti-magic allows its wielder to take that principle and distort it to their own advantage. It is not equivocally the opposite of magic as it does not break quantum mnemonic disbelief. Rather, it brings the amount of disbelief to such an incredible level that ordered magic falls apart, leaving only unbridled chaos that can barely be comprehended. Of course, it takes incredible control, precise moderation, and a deft wit to use anti-magic effectively. A lesser user may very well find themselves literally smothered in a pile of their own bull****.
Celeste wouldn't have believed what he just read if it wasn't for his run-in with Palkia. In any case, they had made it to where his coat was being kept. He could see the coat held behind some sort of force-field. He could also see that it was glowing violently, and had a couple of miniature Zebras dancing around it to a dubstep beat, singing about some sort of "Afro Circus".
"What...is...?"
"It's making light the gravity of the situation," Nelson said with a shrug, "It's the best we could do."
Out on the field, Anthea appeared suddenly in front of Glinda and struck a salute.
"Ma'am! I'm an alien!"
Her hologram switched to her idol appearance. She blinked out of where she was, and appeared slightly to the left of that holding a slate with an amateur but still pretty decent and totally recognizable sketch of Mason on it.
"This guy is leading them."
She blinked to the right and another slate was there with a second sketch of a Chimera and the green dragon. A tuft of fur was pinned to it.
"He's riding this thing, about 10 meters long. It has a small bald patch by its left front ankle. That one's on their flag."
Another blink, and to the right of that there were sketches of some siege engines, beasts, ogres, and other machines. A small pile of bolts lay next to it.
"They've got 1980-ish of these. I don't know what the bolts do but they looked like they were holding wheels on."
One last slate appeared, with a sketch of a generic soldier.
"And there's about 3100 of these."
She tossed two left-foot black boots and a broken off spearhead to the ground.
"Two of them have muddy left feet and another is missing the point. May I be of further assistance?"
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Post by GX1997 on Feb 14, 2015 22:11:43 GMT -6
"This will do, thank you. I'm just beginning to feel very anxious about our journey to Yggdrassil, so forgive me if I'm distracted," Elia said to Ethan as she took the clothing from him.
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Post by Neo on Feb 14, 2015 22:39:19 GMT -6
"I'm feeling a bit anxious myself," Ethan admits, smiling. "But that's only natural, hmm? I'll wait in the hall while you get dressed, Elia."
He shares a brief, meaningful look with his daughter, and she gives a subtle nod. He returns the gesture and quits the room without another word.
---------
The gears in Nobunaga's mind begin to work on overdrive as he listens to the strange girl's report. It's almost as if she can move faster than light... No, that's not it. I've seen something like this before, back when I was still active in Shiryu's Pantheon. She reminds me of Zefrian, which can only mean one thing... She can manipulate time.
He quickly turns to her. "What can you tell me about their formation? Did the footsoldiers march in front? If I know their formation, and the surrounding terrain, I may be able to find a way to slow them down long enough for Yuelia to mobilize a counter-assault."
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Post by empireoffire on Feb 15, 2015 16:16:59 GMT -6
Queen Glinda pondered the alien's report as Irving made a comment in the background.
"The dragon's their symbol then? Thank gods. Dragons are among the contracts I don't take, along with children and politicians."
Glinda then gave her reply. "...This information appears sound, for that sketch matches the relative appearance of General Mason, one of their four elemental generals. Those machines with the bolts appear to be their ballistae. If this march is any at all similar to their previous strategies, then their front will be led with their heavy troopers, with light infantry directly behind them and their mages are divided to either control their ogres, or to be scattered amongst the infantry.
If you wish to slow them down, the best method would be to shut down the communications, impair their visibility, or eliminate their archmage, who commands their mages. Their effectiveness will wane considerably was a direct result to this. A crushing defeat will be be assured if Mason, the acting General, were to be defeated, incapacitated, or forcibly extracted from the battle, but I would recommend a different approach from this, as Mason is a formidable opponent in his own right. He projects a high intensity gravitational field around him, so approaching him is difficult, and he has a ball and chain weapon capable of created spires and earthquakes."
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