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>>3364276

The world erupts. The ground shakes with impacts, blows given and exchanged. From everywhere and nowhere at once, the twitching un-light of the Gate reflects off the sharp edges of the gashes in metal skin, rents in armor, cracked and splintered optics. There are dull booms, as utter chaos reigns – the fighting swirling around you, fire hammering down from above into the crowd. At this range, this close, it’s impossible to identify friend or foe – corospant sliding and crackling around revenants, limbs shattering beneath the shrieking of blades as they bite into steel.

Gunfire – like rolling thunder – is a contra tempo to the tides of armor slamming together.

Blink. The blurred arc of some industrial cutter, rising and falling, sparks and shredded metal.

Blink. Something lunges at you, from the side – A grease-black maggot revolver spitting burning shots, a gouging hook swinging towards you. The buzzing shots strike the Sinistral’s hissing field with loud, angry cracks, smashing into the burning mantle that shrouds you. You glimpse a name - GRIEF CRAVER – glimpse a chain of leering, cracked helmets slung like a bandolier, heavy footfalls denting deck plating as the carving blow falls-

Your Sword Bits orbit you in furious arcs, mocking gravity as they cut and cut and cut. The hiltless blades are murderous blurs, chopping around their own axis like propellers at maximum rotation – the spinning knife-discs intersect with CRAVER’s form with brutal inexorability, their arc-welder flares shearing through armor and myomer, half-moon sparks raining onto the pitted iron of the deck underfoot.

A limb goes flying, billhook still clamped in spiked fingers.

CRIMSON KLAIVE staggers, his helm cleaved like an anatomical cross-section. You can see something writhe within, something dark like clotted meat, a snarl of vorpal light gathering around his namesake as he wrenches it up to shoulder level. Vapor gusts from the spikes of ice driven into his side, into his back, like streamers of essence-

He has moments left, now. He has to kill you to live, now.

To you, he’s a mere detail. What *truly* matters is the terrible heat you’ve glimpsed, the cataclysmic death-blast about to engulf the entire platform, to incinerate all before it – And Krieger’s looming form, battered but indomitable, one great fist rearing back to wipe Daegal from existence-

The chained wolf’s-head of the ORTHUS CREST chatters, fangs gnashing against the adamant chain forced between the great jaws. Reality flexes, splitting the air around you – Foul winds sucking and screeching, tendrils of seething lightning flickering around your pauldron…

And in that moment of distraction, KLAIVE strikes.

(Continued)

>>3364277
The air screams as it is cut. The snarled mass of hell-red light around his blade lashes out, a knife-edged shadow. It is a distortion, lashing and rending space with razor tendrils, a churning storm of thorns and barbs surrounding a shearing edge-

As proximate space whirls around Daegal, his gauntlets clawing for purchase, his startled yell swallowed up by the yawning void-

As EFREET’s furious form wrenches into the blistering warp that convulses around it-

Your Crisis Arm pistons forward, and you meet the attack head-on. The full force of CRIMSON KLAIVE’s hatred slams into your augmented gauntlet, lacerations opening up like the scrabbling of furious claws. Seething, knife-edged light lashes out at you, sizzling with immaterial fury – You can feel it eating into drivers of your gauntlet, suspensors fighting to hold it back, industrial talons twisting out of alignment as mechanisms seize up, sparks jagging from your elbow-joint with a nasty crackle.

The air opens up with a sledgehammer thump, a pressure-detonation so fierce that it dents the plating underfoot, drags the smoke from the air. As here becomes there and there becomes here, Daegal smashes down into the molten crater Efreet’s form momentarily occupied. He’s on his hands and knees, his ragged Assault Shroud swirling around him – Blind with the shock of teleportation, heedless of the brutal point-blank melee on all sides-

You have a moment. A moment to see reality bulge and spasm, burning away like filmstock put to the torch as it tears open. EFREET’s brass-bound, white-hot figure spirals out, the filthy ichor of the cracks between reality oozing forth like tar-

Then heat. Terrible heat. Razing heat. It scores out of the smoke, out of the fog, a volcanic blast that blisters the air with a sound like an industrial furnace.

It hits WOLFRAM KRIEGER head-on. It sears into him, through him, vaporizing his central mass, coring right through the interlocking plates that coat his gargantuan form.

The blast is as hot as a main sequence star. It vaporizes armor, carapace, endosteel bone, spine. It annihilates the containment field of KRIEGER’s reactors, the edges of the gaping damage molten with superheating, the cut edges glowing. His body is cored, his limbs thrashing – the light beneath his visor, like eyes going wide, straining, staring, the catastrophic damage all-consuming, total.

KRIEGER’s entrails spill from his ruptured plate. Processing sacs, intestinal augmetics, feeder tubes – All of them burning, burning, as he makes a subhuman noise, almost a squeal, through his speakers. It is a sound of dismay, more than pain – Surprise, then fury, at the realization of his own destruction. To be so suddenly, so irreparably dead.

(Continued)

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>>3364280
The death-blast keeps going. It shears across, at a wild angle – Tearing out of KRIEGER’s side – spontaneously excavating a vast canyon into the deck, the air steaming with metal vapor. With a terrible effort, you wrench your fist to the side – the killing force of KLAIVE’s strike deflected wide at last, the rippling unlight whipping past you like the fastest wind-

There is a terrible shriek. A metal-on-metal shriek, one that drowns out the gunfire, the impacts, everything. It is a sound like the crack of doom, the instant before true disaster.

With awful, ponderous slowness, the weakened platform – fatally undermined – shreds.

There is a sudden jarring lurch, as the ground gives. Sheared through, support beams rip themselves apart, the vast structure buckling violently as everything goes *downwards*. Noise is vibration and vibration is noise, as the giant platform tips, superstructure comets toppling like burning comets into the black ocean beyond.

Howls of dismay. Shrieks of buzzing despair. Like a calving iceberg, the great frozen tree of FIMBULWINTER slides into the churning morass, still raining knives of pelting ice. Each hit is like a bomb, whirling shards bounding out in every direction at once. Black figures – warped, twisted, the angles all wrong – pitch to their doom.

Even now, most Players can’t fly.

A fissure opens up beneath CRIMSON KLAIVE, as the dock folds inwards upon itself like a house of cards. His sword carves the arc in blind arcs, as the tipping point is reached – A gesture somehow tragic and infuriated at once, the wake of the heat-beam leaving a seethe of vaporized metal hanging in the air like a miasma.

“Oh shit, oh shit-”
Daegal can’t, either. His segment of dock falls backwards, tilting ever-so-slowly, spilling clouds of debris – the disintegrating remains of pylon and stanchions falling with it. It seems to hang in slow motion, but it is mere moments from the point of no return – He yells, still disorientated, as more Players and revenants fall into space, tumbling down amid the burning fragments as the only solid ground crumbles further. BONE DRINKER - hooked and desperate - latches onto him from behind, frantic barbs sparking as they scale against his peerless armor, as Kazuya tries to grab onto someone or something-

“Joker-” he manages – Hoarse, his words a frantic blurt.

“Help-”

HP: 129.5%
VITAE BOOSTER: 142%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 4%
METER: 19%
ENCROACHMENT: 10%
CARTRIDGES: EMPTY

ENERGY: ERROR
CRUX: ASSAULT SHROUD
PHOTONIC MANTLE ACTIVE

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>3364281
(Gentlemen, my apologies - Your VITAE BOOSTER should be at 105% instead.)

>>3364281
>Activate the Argus Sensor and Auspec and target all flying enemy players
>Send the Vector Coms to give Daegal a Jetpack. All five. If this doesn't work, retreive him ourself.
>Smash Klaive's skull in if he isn't dead. Kill Bone if he is.
>Use the Crux to regenerate as much assault shroud as possible.
>Fire as many concussive missiles as possible at flying enemy players or any stragglers.
>BUY WEAPONISATION SOURCE, NOW.

What weapons do we currently have equipped OP?

>>3364289
(You have PROVIDENCE in your left hand, and all your Sword Bits are active. The platform beneath you is actively collapsing, however.

KLAIVE is some distance away, and is in the process of plummeting to his death.)

>>3364280
Holy shit op that is metal.welcome back!

>>3364290
JQOP, can you adjust >>3364289 by having us fire a missile at Klaive first build up meter/booster?

Then
>Send Vector Coms to attach to Daegal or grab him ourselves. Either way, take flight.
>Activate Argus Sensor + Auspex and aim at all fliers. Use Concussive missiles to blow them out of the sky.
>Use the Crux to regenerate shroud.
>Boost the Sinistral in our other hand to level 2.
>Buy weaponisation source.

>>3364290
Did you make any changes to Golgotha/the system OP?

>>3364297
Voting for this

>>3364283
>>3364289
Seconding this.

> Use left over meter to generate Caesar in its holster.

>>3364303
What if we save the left over meter for smoke out so we can smoke them and stop them from detecting us while we pick them off? Or we could prep smoke out for when we use weaponisation source?

>>3364281
>Save Daegal, We have a Tempest Scrander and Abruption Jets.
>Powerslide to Daegal with Abruption Jets
>Shoot Bone Drinker off of Daegal. use the Auspex or the Carnifex to make the critical shots that unlatches Bone Drinker from Daegal's back. Joker Airlines can only hold 1 passenger, and that passenger already has a VIP ticket.
>Grab Daegal, get the Vector Coms and Sword bits to attach to Daegal. They'll serve as boosters or a makeshift Jetpack.
>Then Activate Tempest Scrander to fly both you and Kazuya to stable ground. You're going to have to hold Daegal and work in tandem with the sword bits and Vector coms to provide enough thrust and lift.
>>3364290
Also, which direction is stable ground?

>>3364309
(The Gate itself is mostly stable ground, though the intervening pier is collapsing.)

>>3364308
Yeah I am ok with doing that first.habing the smoke out loaded gives us more utility plus generating Caesar is a free action so we can do it whenever we have meter.
>>3364309
Amend that so we are attacking the vulnerable opponents as well as saving daegal and I might support it

>>3364309
>>3364310
Fuck stable ground then. Send the incoms to attach to Daegal; he needs only 5 to fly properly.
Use a missile to kill Klaive and build meter. Use the providence to slice Bone off of Daegal.
Send missiles at everything else that's flying after we trigger argus + auspex.
ACTIVATE WEAPONISATION SOURCE.

>>3364310
Ideal conditions for our long range capabilities the cqc was really narrowing our focus imo

>>3364312
Yeah I am for this. Weaponisation source and energy field will be unstoppable with this. Let's get ourselves and daegal left to the gate and destroy the rest of the connecting pier

>>3364300

(I’ll leave that for next time. It’d be disorientating to make changes mid-fight.)

>>3364289
>>3364297
>>3364302
>>3364303

The sine-wave pulse of the ARGUS SYSTEM lights up the world around you – Your autoreactive talons gouging into the crumbling deck below, as you leap. Your Scrander hurls you through the air like a bullet down a barrel, red particles flaring in your wake-

Kazuya.

You twist towards him, dipping your rising form to bank left – Rolling onto your front, banking hard, a half-dozen forms making their own spiraling ascents-

The slam of missiles into your Triskelion Launchers – the flash and roar of launching rockets-

Concussion missiles streak through the air. The shock of the explosions make the inferno around you whip and jump and spit, and is answered by smaller detonations on all sides, as heat-stressed metal shatters. Red-hot shards of half-molten iron slash through the flames – Wherever they land, they stuck, sizzling. Your Assault Shroud smolders, tiny flames igniting across the surface, the shock waves pummeling at you – Your HUD lights up with alert warnings, the Tempest Scrander fizzling and spitting as it lifts you at a shallow angle-

But that was merely to clear the air. You streak forward like a ground-hugging missile, heedless of the wild shots that hail at you from all sides – You can hear the pounding of something heavy and chain-fed, as BLACK CULL shrieks like a child, lashing out with bright claws, cutting and hewing…

-You don’t have time for this.

You wrench to the side as the ragged-winged shape lunges at you, and PROVIDENCE splits the air in a burning arc. A single claw rakes through your entropic field, frost fuming from the razored hooks – It carves into your side, almost in passing, as your tachyon sword lashes out in a single sweeping blow. BLACK CULL rotates as the searing blade catches it, twirling foul ichor like an out-flung cape – It goes tumbling away from you, with an indignant howl, ceramic plating pinging off your armor like enamel-

And like flightless daggers, all five of your VECTOR BITS lance through the air. Daegal – Half-pinned, beneath the twitching horror that claws at him – has a moment to blurt out “Wha-” as they slam into him, one after another, electromagnets deploying. Gravimetric energies seethe, as thrusters deploy – He lets out an inarticulate yell as he’s wrenched up and into the air on a stuttering fork of fire, fighting to get his gauntlets onto the nightmare Player latched onto him like a grotesque tick.

(Continued)

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right as i'm about to sleep, fuck.

welcome back jqop.

i found some art. this is re: the skyshaper. i know we are likely to not gettit, but damn that mask descriptio sounds cool. here!

>>3364276
Remember the anti-Trigon program guys

>Weaponisation: Source and the small area should limit his movement options so he can't use Lightning Ride to its most dangerous effect
>Level 2 Sinistral can absorb and then use the Scrander Bolt to increase its own defense to defend against all future Scrander Bolts.
>The Solition Radar of the Carnifex + Forbode mean that all of Trigon's attempts to use his blinding fast speed will result in crippling counters, made more so by using the Crisis Arm to freeze then punish or Providence to pre-empt/unmake + slow/burn.
>The free attack each round will be dealt with by the Carniex's increased output of Entrophy Generator combing with Black Frost's increased output of Entrophy Generator. Assault Shroud + Desparado should take care of the rest.
>His adamantine claws can't break all of our high level gear/we're fast enough to dodge/with Black Frost we heal instantly.
>Crisis Arm/Sinistral/Peacemaker/Providence/Incoms will provide a varied number of attacks so it can't adapt to one set of energy/kinetic and use that against us.
>Trigon will be enhanced by touching Lachryma but if we use Weaponisation: Source, any Lachryma he touches will be trying to devour him and drag him in where he will be immoblised by too much Lachryma as he transforms and get completely devoured or else he'll panic and try to make distance.

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>>3364309
>>3364312

The angle is poor – It’s not enough to lift him across the yawning chasm, not with the hideous weight that unfolds barbs and spines around him.

“Off-” Kazuya spits, struggling.

“Fuck *off*-”

Light ambles around his pauldron. The baroque bull’s-head crest glows with light, as he manages to get his arm up-

And fires.

A powerful linear distortion – vaguely taurian – blasts forth. The recoil, blunt as a grunt of pain, flings him back. It hurls him towards you, before he slams down on fatally-compromised deck-plating; the entire segment swings downwards like a hinge, your Vector Bits firing at near-random intervals, fighting to keep him aloft for just one moment more…

A spike finds a seam in his armor, punches through. Daegal bellows. He gets a throttling fist around BONE DRINKER’s throat, and – with all his strength – wrenches.

Vertebrae breaks. BONE DRINKER convulses. A hissing howl, a howl with utterly no humanity in it, buzzes across the channels. Daegal punches RUBICANTE into BONE DRINKER’s helmet, so hard that the trigger guard splinters through the ivory teeth that cluster across the void of his opponent’s maw.

He fires.

The ferocious point-blank round shatters the spined, hooked specter’s braincase in a miniature fireball. Even as the splintered form falls away from him, he slams down onto the slope of the expiring platform, scrabbling for a handhold-

The Abruption Jets punch into your spine, and the static charge flings you across the distance like a missile. You hit the ground at an angle, sparks flying from your heels – Sliding, skidding down the face of it, reaching out for him with a muscle-tearing effort-

The industrial talons of the CRISIS ARM punch into a shattered finial. Your gauntlet vices around Daegal’s, the brutal jerk nearly wrenching your left arm out of it’s socket. Loose debris pings off your shoulders and helm, one hitting so hard it momentary crazes your optics.

Above, the noise of the tumult reaches a peak. Most of the deck is just gone, leaving a jagged spire of iron stuck through with severed rib beams and shorting power lines. There is so much dust, so much fire in the air that thick miasma hangs above it all. Strange, terrible sounds echo within.

"Shit-"

Daegal's boots scrape against the floor that's become a wall, his body swinging above the drop.

Always the drop, the long, long fall into oblivion-

When you look down, RUBICANTE's barrel swings up to meet you.

(Continued)

>>3364329
AUSPEX now. See through the storm. Plasma Vulcans, Booster them and shred everything inside.

>>3364335
One of our arms is occupied with daegal. Best switch the incoms to blaster mode to make up for the lose of one cannon arm

>>3364329

Daegal’s finger clamps down on the trigger. The kill-markers etched into RUBICANTE’s surface glow red-hot-

But you twitch your head to the side, and the red-hot shell roars past with a sound like a volcanic eruption. It slams into the form that looms above you, a form with a helm like a twisted snarl – the hellish whirl of the entropic shot crumpling that leering grotesk back upon itself, as the entire figure pitches past you and into the pitch-black ocean beyond. Flames roar up through the open neck of the blazing armor, from the furnace of the torso.

Something without a mouth screams as it falls.

“Oh God,” Kazuya’s saying, static rasping from his speakers as the Colt Python dangles loose in his hand. “Don’t let go-”

As if.

Your Tempest Scrander sputters to life, as you haul him up. Strength stings your limbs, the Vitae Booster’s filaments pulsing with hell-light. There is so much Essence in the air, it swirls around you in burning motes, drawn away as if by the fastest wind.

[ ] “Since when did you get this heavy?”
[ ] “Nice shot.”
[ ] “Next time, *tell* me before you do that.”
[ ] “I’ve got you.”
[ ] “Hold on, Kaz. Hold on.”
[ ] “I think that’s the last of them.”
[ ] “We need to get out of here, and now. The whole place is collapsing.”
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>3364339
"You are starting to get the hang of it."
"I think there's only Trigon left. Let's try to get out before he finds us. Also, the ceiling might be falling."

>>3364339
>Since when did you get this heavy?
>Nice job, you really saved our asses with that control frame stunt. And you said I'm crazy.
>Good shot but warn me first next time.
>I've got you. We need to get out of here now. I haven't seen Trigon at all but he was meant to be approaching.

If we can attach the vector bits fully to Daegal, do so now. If not, turn them into cannon mode and have them look for Trigon/any attackers. Check on the gate to see if it's fully charged yet and, if not, if we have anything to spend on energy.

What's our health/assault shroud/booster looking like OP? Any level ups?

>>3364347
>If we can attach the vector bits fully to Daegal, do so now.
Maybe we should give him the Scrander once we have time.
Having us both be able to fly might be worth it.

>>3364348
We can't give him the Scrander and use it at the same time but once we get him to the Hollow Sun, who fucking knows what could happen?

>>3364348
>>3364350
Please don't, we've already lost 2 relics with level investments.

>>3364339
>Free
Well done Kaz, just keep it up and we will be home in no time. I am gonna drop you by the gate reinforce it and defend it to the death. I am gonna squash the rest of these maggots now.

>>3364353
I don't want to give him our Scrander, I'm saying he can make his own at the Hollow Sun.

Here's a question lads; do you think we'd still have the Cestus if we chose to keep the Athame in us?

>>3364339

"Geez. Been putting on the defense upgrades? Its good. We need to get ready for the next wave - LIKE HELL we're letting trigon follow us through the portal when its ready.

Do you think you could get this place to talk to the sun while the connection's still opening? We could really use the red comet right about now... or figure out how to take all the old-man's work and designs with us.

Did you lose your sword?"

>YOU HAVE CONTROL

Take stock of damage, see if we can't use the Weaponization we bought to make platforms/fighting places -we- control. FIgure out what relics we lost, if any - Snag the Condemner if its blade got wedged in a wall or something.

THEN, check out the doorway leading in - make a push/break out, recon what else is about to hit us. How far away is the death mark, and can we use the deathmark on trigon to target codebursts without seeing it?

>>3364350
I'm gonna agree with >>3364353 Try not to waste relics!

>>3364356
I think its the consolation prize for giving up being an undying, unstoppable rape machine.

>>3364339
>[ ] "I got you."
>[ ] "Pull on my arm and yourself on the count of three: one, two, Three!"
>[ ] "We need to get out of here now. Place is collapsing and having 'danger casual dialogue' will do us no good."
>[ ] Don't idle. Get your Vector Bits and Sword bits firing simultaneously in-sync to push Kazuya from the brink and onto stable ground.

>>3364357
Actually, has Daegal even leveled up once yet?

>>3364344

> "You’re starting to get the hang of it."
> “Since when did you get this heavy?”

“Is – aaarghhhhh – is this *really* the time…?” Daegal manages, as your Scrander coughs at your back – A surge of intent, and your VECTOR BITS unfasten from him, locking onto your jump pack like pinions. Particles fume, the white light of the thrusters pushing you skyward – You clear the edge of the collapsing platform, lifting into the air at last, to see-

“…Holy *fuck*,” Kazuya says, as he sees more and more of the platform tear free. The backward slide is accelerating, metal shrieking on metal – hurricanes of debris, of smoke, whirling around you as you fight for more altitude, Tempest Scrander and Vector Bits burning as one…

For a moment, you think it must’ve sustained some damage – But no, gravity itself has been warped. Essence spirals around you, drawn inexorably to the riling, half-real shape of the Gate as it takes form.

>>3364347
>>3364348

> Nice job, you really saved our asses with that control frame stunt. And you said I'm crazy.
> Good shot but warn me first next time.

“I didn’t – I wasn’t thinking, I just had to get him away…Oh God, there it goes-”

With a terrible groan, the shredded lip of the deck lets go, too – It collapses downwards, as everything you were standing on, fighting on, gives way. More and more of it disintegrates, rubble and massive shards sliding off into the gulf-

> I've got you. We need to get out of here now. I haven't seen Trigon at all but he was meant to be approaching.

You focus. TRIGON’s marker is out there, just beyond the great double-doors. On the other side of the emerging chasm, you see the ragged shapes of the reavers falling back from the drop. By some miracle, enough of the dock remains, the area cleaved into two halves – You’re on the right side of the abyss, the side nearest the gate.

No. Perhaps it’s not a miracle, after all. This was built to last.

You look up. The weird profusion of weaponry that bristles from the writhing spires have fallen silence – Occasionally, a heat-beam or burning mote spits through the smoke, but they’re unfocused, firing fitfully or at uneven intervals.

Something’s not right. You try to access the link-

Feedback carves through you, and static flares across your field of vision.

Why-

“…Shit,” Daegal rasps. He sees it before you do, as your boots alight onto the iron ring that surrounds the emerging Gate – the only solid thing around that ever-shifting mesh of Lachryma and arcane mechanisms. Somehow, somehow, in his death throes, WOLFRAM KRIEGER must have damaged the control surfaces – they’re half-melted, crumpled, the pedestal that holds the Joker’s Memory canted at an oblique angle.

(Continued)

>>3364365
>Somehow, somehow, in his death throes, WOLFRAM KRIEGER must have damaged the control surfaces – they’re half-melted, crumpled, the pedestal that holds the Joker’s Memory canted at an oblique angle.
Fucking hell. Why does it always to be this dramatic?

>>3364365

He scrabbles forward, along the narrow circumference of the great steel ring – It’s about ten meters broad at its most generous, the fathomless drop on all sides. Corposant flickers overhead, as Daegal sinks to his knees next to it.

“Joker, I – I think…”

“-It’s damaged, but…It’s holding together. Somehow. It’s still working, but another hit like that…”

Overhead, the shield flickers – Uncertain, failing.

>>3364357

“I’ve got…” Kazuya reaches for the holster at his side, as if only now aware – the swirling hypersphere of the Vector Trap disgorging the Condemner’s hilt into his hand. He clutches it to his breastplate like a talisman, the fingers of his free hand clenching RUBICANTE in a deathgrip. Smoke rises from the barrel, in lazy contrails.

Within him, his auto-loader cycles. He reaches out for the pedestal, flinches back as sparks spit out at him.

“I – I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s even working at all. Whatever’s happening, I’m not doing anyth-“

Daegal falters, falls silent. You hear it, first – Other sounds, deeper, bigger sounds. Vast, echoing booming noises, quite at odds with the chatter of the Gate, a murmur behind the hiss and spit of industry. The shield distorts everything beyond it, as the gears and mechanisms overhead seem to slow-

And then it accelerates. Cogs spin, as it roars to full life. There is a cackling hum. Wild lightings snap and flicker and buzz overhead, the clattering roar and movement enough to make Kazuya flinch.

The great doors – Far, far away, separated from your perch by the widening rift – wrench open at last.

(Continued)

>>3364375
Time for a showdown
https://youtu.be/JrD8cLVHgWc

I don’t remember the past couple of threads, it feels like years. Are all of our waifus still dead and crippled?

>>3364386
The time for waifus is over anon.
Now's it's a suicide run to save existence from the white and black jokers.

>>3364386
yes. Hectate's dead/coma. Mio is dead from High school chaos, and Natsumi/Chrome Cypher is MIA.

>>3364386
Who cares?
We are taking a stroll through hell with our best friend. We need nothing more.

>>3364375

An army looms on the other side. Twice the size of the first wave, in shades of arterial red and bone-white and all the colors of nightmare. You see banners and symbols thrust high, bearing the heraldry of the insane.

This is what happens when thoughts curdle. When a mind, left too long in the dark, begins to eat itself.

“More of them,” Daegal says. “Oh God, there’s more-”

At first they are just shadows, shapes, holes in the field of light. But not for long. Not for long enough.
Sixty – Sixty or more Players. Armor stretched and splayed over pulsing slabs of myomer muscle, wrapped in ragged strands around hypertrophied limbs, around arms become thick and branching, arms that end in cleaving talons, in in-built blades, around legs that end in hooves, in a dozen blade-tipped points, in vast splaying roots of flesh, in circular pods with a hundred fronds waving in some unknowable pattern, around helmets that bulge with eight arachnid eyes, with fractal insect eyes, that end in the worst imaginable fusions of metal and not-quite-flesh…

VOIVOID is leading them.

There is a shape with him. A huge form, bent and twisted. A form still humanoid, but only just so – Surgeries have been conducted, where carapace plating has been wrenched off. Steel spines have been driven home into joints, into myomer-muscle groups, lifting from the wretched shape’s shoulders like a barbed crest. Each one is tipped with a tiny, glowing glyph.

Riftspikes. Pain-inducers.

The name flickers in your field of vision, even before you see the glistening black armor, like an insect’s exoskeleton.

QLIPPOTH TRIGON

EXEC_HARROW burns, like a beacon, on TRIGON’s gorget. The tortured shape moves its head, utters a low groan – Fluid running from a gaping maw, glassy optics blink-clicking. Bio-liquids dribble from QLIPPOTH’s wounds, like stigmata. Welding scars criss-cross what you can glimpse through the shambling thing’s beetle-black armor, augmetic devices implanted in helm, torso, throat. They look less like weld-marks, and more like open, weeping sores.

Your symbol flickers a little brighter. You can feel the agony that blisters the air, like a palpable force, as it staggers forward. Thick shackles drag from cadaverous limbs.

“-”

Kazuya tries to say-

But VOIVOID is looking at you. Directly at you.

The worst thing of all are VOIVOID’s eyes. They are like pits, like holes into abject nothingness. The frozen, gilded mask of his face cannot move, and yet you can feel the awful, hungry ennui that beats at you. A desperate gnawing that has long since outstripped any hope of being satisfied.

Whatever he has seen – whatever he has done, down, down in the infinite black – lingers, like an imprint of concentric, lightless horror.

Until now.

(Continued)

>>3364403
Take out the Logos. Buy Weaponisation Source.

Kill. Them. All.

>>3364358
I think that, if nothing else, this fight has proven Joker's still an undying and unstoppable rape machine.

>>3364407
Jesus Christ this this !!
>Activate the carnifex too. We need to be ready for the lightning strike off of trigon

>>3364407
>>3364411
Yeah, please activate the Carnifex before we take out Logos. Fire the Familiars and Cannon Bits. This is going to be a slaughter.

>>3364403
Isn't this a perfect situation for fusion annihilators or the railgun?
Just draw a line over the entire army.

>>3364431
But I want to fire the BRRAAAAPPP gun.

>>3364403

“T-they can’t-” Kazuya says, half-turning, his voice almost a plea. “They can’t get to us-”

He’s right. There are no fliers. There’s no way that the army can get across the chasm to you.

But you see what Kazuya doesn’t, even as the CAESAR slams into the holster at your side. Even as the CRUX seals the rents in your armor, new vitality pulsing through your ever-reforged plate.

Every one of the nightmares has a gun.

>>3364407

The hypersphere whirls around you, the LOGOS’s fluted alien shape emerging-

Daegal sees it, first. “Don’t-” he says, his fist clamping down on your arm. “Joker, don’t-”

Somehow, somehow, he manages to wrench his gaze away from the army of horrors. “This close to the Gate, the feedback-“

A flicker of premonition-

Down.

“Wha-“

One of the reavers – withdrawing in ragged order – has a hand raised. Speech buzzes across the distance, inaudible at this range.

A Parasite Rifle fires.

The reaver explodes at the waist, and collapses.

Muzzle flashes light up like starbursts down the ranks of Players, punching heavy shots into the returning mob. A shooting blitz begins – Rounds exploding in the tattered ranks, beams of smoke-light ripping through them. Maggot revolvers spit death, Seeker Gun payloads shattering plate in a hail of toxic splinters. There are worse weapons, too – A swarm of burning gnats, gouting arcs of flame, radiant filth spearing forth in howling lines as reavers fall, split open, incinerated, sliced in half.

It’s a massacre. A slaughter. The blitz of gunfire hurls bodies back, mangled and scorched, blasted and burned. They go down, scythed through, scads of blackened armor flying, the furious shots still retaining their velocity as they slam into the faltering shield. Figures are mown down, ripped apart by the fusillade, spattering the ground with ichor and chips of splintered metal – the sounds muted, distorted, through the enveloping field.

(Continued)

>>3364431
>>3364434
Logos would be better. The fusion annihilator would ahve to be charged to max to take all of these guys and not only will the Logos disrupt their communications, it'll fuck up any attempts at CODEBURSTS and cause insane damage.

We have the shield to block long range attacks.

Fly into the air, gravimetric suspensors + carnifex to use the LOGOS, charge and F I R E.

If we have any energy left, WEAPONISATION SOURCE NOW. Sink the rest into turrets.

>>3364411
>We need to be ready for the lightning strike off of trigo

Actually, fuck, i had a plan for this. It was... ugh. months ago. think think think.

Gimme just asecond, it should flow back to me.

File: joker voivoid.jpg (330 KB, 602x850)

330 KB JPG

>>3364435

“Shit-!”

Overlapping hexagons, an interlocking fractal pattern, fills your vision. Fortress Mode – Daegal’s barrier flung up around you, as he flinches back-

But unlike before, the inside is transparent, like a one-way mirror. Unlike before, you can see *through* it.

“Fucking *hell*-” Kazuya swears – “Holy shit-”

“He’s killing his own men-!”

[ ] “No. He’s planning something.”
[ ] “Stay down. They’ll be coming for us next.”
[ ] “What did you mean ‘the feedback’?”
[ ] “Wait – You used your new level on this?”
[ ] “He’s got TRIGON with him. He’s been waiting for this.”
[ ] “Their weapons can’t get past the shield. We don’t need the barrier.”
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>3364446
Was it
>>3364325
?

quick question. what is logos?

>>3364450
[ ]He's planning something. All he needs is himself and Trigon. Lets end this before he has a chance.
[ ]They'll be coming for us next. Cover me.
[ ]You used your new level on this?

OP, what's our Health/Meter/Shroud like right now?

>>3364450

(Gentlemen, my apologies - An addendum.)

HP: 149.6%
VITAE BOOSTER: 166%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 94%
METER: 37%
ENCROACHMENT: 22%
CARTRIDGES: EMPTY

ENERGY: ERROR
CRUX: ASSAULT SHROUD
PHOTONIC MANTLE ACTIVE

>>3364451

No, actually.

It centers around the crisis arm, and getting in a solid one-three set up punch in melee. Condemner and sininistral to actually survive the dance to set up the kill shot - but its prelude, and planning to take a few hits for the ske of winning.

what was it...

>>3364450
>But unlike before, the inside is transparent, like a one-way mirror. Unlike before, you can see *through* it.
This sounds like a yes to the "did Kazuya upgrade anything?" question.

>[ ] “What did you mean ‘the feedback’?”

>[ ] “No. He’s planning something.”
>[ ] “Wait – You used your new level on this?”
"I hope this isn't the only effect of your upgrade."

"We need to disrupt this somehow. I assume he wants to collect their essence."
Send in the sword bits to at least draw some essence into our direction.
Also, use the Orthus Crest to switch up their ranks. Try to get one of the heavy hitters into a denser part of the fire.

>>3364452
https://pastebin.com/C5ZkTYqY

Bloated with echo chambers and psychosonic resonators, the LOGOS is a grotesquely large weapon, one that barely seems capable of having been conceived by a human mind. With rows of amplifier clusters lodged amid overlapping layers of curving alloy, the LOGOS bears a striking resemblance to an instrument of grand design, weaponized for destructive purposes.

When fired, the LOGOS unleashes a high-yield sonic blast, powerful enough to distort local physics. While the LOGOS's effect is focused in a broad line that extends - for a considerable distance - from the user, the blast is actually twofold: the harmonics generated are in utter, irreconcilable conflict with a conventional existence, reacting violently with the substance of reality, and are actually as harmful (if not more destructive) than the pressure blast unleashed. Use of the LOGOS utterly scrambles all forms of communication in the area, extending to Codebursts - Depending on the complexity of the Codeburst, there's an escalating chance of a catastrophic failure of some kind.

While hardly a subtle weapon (the LOGOS's discharge can be heard from at least a full mile away), there's a momentary warning before the LOGOS fires - It becomes impossible to communicate in the area about to be affected by the weapon's cacophony, which potentially gives targets the chance to evacuate.

Notably, the LOGOS has severely deleterious effects on the fabric of local reality. The weapon bears an integrated failsafe, preventing it from firing once conditions are less-than-optimal. However, this failsafe can be manually disengaged. Due to the intricate nature of the Relic's construction, the LOGOS is relatively fragile - It is highly inadvisable to fire the weapon in rapid succession, or when the Relic is damaged. In fact, there are strong arguments to suggest that it would be highly inadvisable to fire the LOGOS at all.

The LOGOS is a superheavy weapon, requiring both hands to fire.

(PRIMING: 20% ENCROACHMENT and 30% METER. One shot per round.)

>>3364457
Okay, in that case, activate the gravimetric suspensor, fly straight up and make distance from the gate, activate the familiars and fire the Logos. Tell Daegal to cover us/fire on anything that gets close.

Once we fire the Logos, equip the Carnifex. We *cannot* let them finish whatever they're planning.

>>3364461
Addition: Cast EXEC_SWARM. It would be quite appropriate here.

>>3364464
(The Gate's about to warp the two of you out. The field-envelope only extends to the immediate vicinity - i.e. People standing on it.)

>>3364464
This, plus let's use or familiars and incoms for distraction and harrassment. Tell daegal to bring up his neutronium shield to protect the jokers memory and it's pedestal , this is the first time we are using logos max protect the memory!

>>3364469
Sounds like we should assassinate.

Can EXEC_SMITE target through transparent objects, like Kazuya's shroud fortress?

>>3364460

AH! here we go.

>c) CRISIS ARM:
>When empowered by the VITAE BOOSTER, the Crisis Arm’s zero-point energy field can be expanded to momentarily engulf a target in contact with the Relic, temporarily rendering them subject to directed gravimetric effects. This allows for the free manipulation of seemingly impossible burdens, but only for a moment – Pillars can be hurled like spears, massive enemies flung into (or *through*) buildings, or huge components can be ripped free in a single terrible effort.
>The CRISIS ARM may also be duplicated by the Emulator Module.)
> The copy has all the properties of the original, but does not require additional charging elements or further expenditure of Meter/VITAE Booster to wield.

>(tl;dr - Changing weaponry is now a free action.)

Here's what it was:

Plan Skeet.

Do whatever needs to be done to air launch/straight up shoryuken air-toss Trigon -

and beam magnum the shit out of him midair. As long as we have the vector trap not used and the crisis emulated ahead of time, we can use it as a counter/surprise maneuver: the emulator because we get double the gas money from a grav-launch: the second enhancement is free like a two for one special.

i like this because Trigon indeed is fearsome - but on the ground. Getting him off it and hitting it with our strongest weapon is the best plan, because as paradoxical it may be, he got to be dealt with fast.

>>3364469
In that case, use the ceaser to fire 6 Phalanx Chain Mines at them.

If we can't do that, equip 2 Chagans, have the sword bits become cannon bits and load in 2 silver cartridges.

>>3364469
>(The Gate's about to warp the two of you out. The field-envelope only extends to the immediate vicinity - i.e. People standing on it.)

are we about to fuck everything up by using the wrong weapon at the wrong time?

Because this 'one vs army' sound a lot like 'use Full Bore Beam Magnum' time.

>>3364474
Trigon can fly.

The TRIGON grants the following abilities:

- At will, the host of TRIGON can manifest a ten-foot wingspan, allowing the wielder to fly at a natural speed of over a hundred miles an hour. When the TRIGON's primary function (Lightning Ride) is activated, the host can fly at objective speeds of slightly over a *thousand* miles per hour, with near-perfect maneuverability. Further, the cortical enhancements of the Relic enhance the wielder's perceptions, allowing the host to move, evade and react with blinding speed.

It's worth noting that while the lightning wings can endure the tremendous stresses of flight at these incredible speeds, the user cannot - Hence the reason for the extensive (and mutilating) modifications in order to use the TRIGON.

>>3364478
We can't use the Beam Magnum, the Joker's Memory is currently charging the Gate.

>>3364450
Can we use the Beam Magnum yet?

>>3364477
There's one thing to ask:

Gentlemen, why AREN'T we using the Beam Magnum and ceasar?

>>3364473
Hilarious. I approve of Exec_smite to killsteal the essence out of Viviod's kills. Fund it.

>>3364477
Let's give daegal the logos so we can keep that primed while we go at them with the Caesar and the chain mines

>>3364484
>>3364482
Anon please read comments before you start commenting jeez

>>3364484
We'll do as much with either 6 chain mines + cannon bits or else dual chagan and cannon bits.

>>3364473
I suggest we save meter + booster so we can buy some silver cartridges and use 2 absolute zeroes to kill anything not destroyed by our initial firestorm.

>>3364484

> Gentlemen, why AREN'T we using the Beam Magnum and ceasar?

(The Beam Magnum's energy source is currently being used to power the Gate.)

>>3364457

(Gentlemen - My apologies, but it's a work night. I have to turn in for now, but rest assured I'll continue as soon as I get the opportunity. Good night and God bless.)

>>3364487
Daegal just told us LOGOs would fuck the portal.

>>3364494
>I suggest we save meter + booster so we can buy some silver cartridges and use 2 absolute zeroes to kill anything not destroyed by our initial firestorm.
We are sitting behind a barrier, waiting to be teleported.
If we drop the barrier, they might be able to damage the portal.

That's why I want to use options that work even behind the barrier.

>>3364503
>>3364500
These seems like prudent words of advice to heed.

Also not leaving the beam magnum behind.

>>3364491
haha, there's a lot to catch up on. Chill!

thanks for clarifying things, that good old info coming in as you post problem.

>>3364503
The barrier's been modified so our shots go through it now, like all the other barrier upgrades. I don't see Exec Smite being enough to kill either of these guys and we can simply move out from behind the barrier or smash a hole out through the back.

>>3364500
Daegals a noob anon, we taking noob advice now ?? It's a nuclear option anyways hence why he give it to daegal so he can boost it

>>3364450
>[ ] “What did you mean ‘the feedback’?”
>[ ] "He's killing his own men to upgrade himself and a super heavy weapon to destroy the gate.
>[ ] "And he's sending TRIGON to distract us."

>>3364511
>Daegals a noob anon, we taking noob advice now ??
His unique trait is literally "understands Red World machinery on an instinctual level".
If he's warning us, we better fucking listen.

>>3364450
WHY is he trying to kill us so badly? The gate is literally the only way home. Doesn't he even care about that?

>>3364512
>[ ] “What did you mean ‘the feedback’?”
Are you fucking retarded?

>>3364519
He has a lot of quality of life improvements, too. Like the ability to apparently see a Player's real identity in armor.

>>3364511
>>3364519
Not only that, reading Logos' description makes it clear it's not a subtle weapon. If we fire it on the platform, it blows everything to shit. If we leave the platform, we miss the teleport.

Since the barrier is a one way mirror now, I still think Ceasar + Phalanx Chain Mine + Cannon Bits are our best bet and allow us to save up 2 absolute zeroes next turn. If that doesn't work, dual chagans instead of ceasar.

>>3364522
I think he's Koichi.

>>3364477
Supporting the fusillade of chain mines approach. It’s the fastest way to killsteal an entire army and deny Voivod resources.

>>3364527
>>3364519

Yeah I will second this. I see that now is not the time for logos

>>3364450
>[ ] "He's killing his own men to upgrade himself and a super heavy weapon to destroy the gate.
>[ ] "And he's sending TRIGON to distract us."
>Put away logos
>[ ] "Thanks for the warning Kazuya"
>Pull out everything else and start shooting to build meter and ramp up the firepower.

>>3364527
>I think he's Koichi.
I don't see any sword stuff about him. Koichi is a hard sworder.

>>3364732
Bruh do you not remember how Vovoid was introduced? He has a Gates of Babylon where he stores swords and we've only seen him use swords/his mechandrite gates of babylon thing.

>>3364276
>If the red slayer think he slays,
>Or if the slain think he is slain,
>They know not well the subtle ways
>I keep, and pass, and turn again.
I think this is the Black Joker speaking.

>>3364744
Yeah but Koichi is a sword monogamist, not some degenerate philanderer.

>>3365263
He also isn't a psychotic Reaver but after we killed his Hyades in front of him, and apparently murdered a part of his soul, who knows what he had to do to survive? The last sane thoughts he had cursing us, destroying his own sword and abandoning the Apex Blade and the Tri-Stars.

Daegal even said to us Koichi will try to murder us, that he'll never forgive us. Seems like a perfect fit.

>>3364923
It's a poem.

>>3365737
From who's perspective though? It's been mentioned the Black Joker 'sings'.

>>3364450
well, that round could have gone better.

>“No. He’s planning something.”
>“He’s got TRIGON with him. He’s been waiting for this.”
>Can you open an aperture in this?

emulate a second fusion annihilator begin charging from the vitae booster 3 or 4 charges should do it. stagger the blasts into two seperate actions. using vitae booster FA allows us to sweep it across the gathered forces. they have nowhere to dodge to, and the secondary arcs will hit practically everyone, probably multiple times. a 3 charge FA also has much less back blast than the Logos.

If trigon uses his shroud to shield them the first blast will deplete a fuckton of shroud perhaps allowing the second to get through.

More likely trigon will shield himself and Voivod leaving them mostly unharmed.

use the vitae gained from slagging the minions to load 4 silver cartridge.

all trigon or Voivod have to do to follow us through the gate is get close enough, we can't assume the fights over just because it activates.

if Deagal has access to all the basic hollow sun weaponry it might behoove him to grab a positron sniper rifle. the guaranteed critical from behind a see through fortress mode could be amazingly useful.

>>3364527
he is in no way what so ever koichi he has none of koichis armor hallmarks.

koichi is clearly waiting for us in the hollow sun having used his access to get there ahead of us. By now the entire thing is probably rigged to explode along with anyone who retreated there. RIP tristars

I didn't know this was back.

I need a moment to process things, as I have absolutely no idea how to approach this situation. Voivod Is clearly planning something, but I don't know the best way to stop him.

I do remember SMITE targets by sight, could we just let a blast rip right In the middle of them? Can a fusion annihilator stay deadly at this far of a range? We might just try and slag everything and hope for the best.

>>3366082
As it stands we probably cannot deal enough raw damage to cripple or incapacitate Voivod or Trigon in the next few turns.

most likely Voivod is going to have Trigon build a bridge out of assault shroud, or build it himself using orichalcum wire akin to a higher level deagal.

before that happens, most of those 60 players need to be dead.

fortunately Joker is really good at alpha strikes.

I would argue against Smite unless we cast it from the Nihil sphere, and even then I think it's a misappropriation of resources at the moment. The only reason to use it would be in case we want to go full tilt against Trigon and try to kill him THIS TURN. Even then, it's an attack that allows a dodge, and he can instantly move akin to abruption jets so it's a wasted action most likely.

Voivod has orichalcum armor meaning he is impervious to effects like transmutation, and he has a high damage threshold that doesn't denude He might not be able to dodge, but he can tank a truckload of damage.

so, what should we do?

I would argue that murdering the scrubs first thing is the best course of action.
dual vitae Fusion Anihhilators, cannon bits, free action to switch to Ceasar and the chain mine launcher with argus system.

the big question is what cartridges to load. chrome would cost less and let us use smoke out. both deagal and joker have an argus system so they can see just fine.

silver is more expensive, but also more versatile. And Black Frost might be super necessary. Personally I would go chrome and save up for silver for when we use the carnifex.

thoughts?

>>3366603
Fusion Annihilators would take too long to charge and won't do as much damage as 6 chain mines or the two plasma chain cannons.

Black Frost will be wasted as we can't close to kill them; we're being warped out in a turn. Better to fire a fuckton of Void Missiles at them instead. The goal is to lower the enemy population to beneath the amount Vovoid needs.

I think >>3364527 has the best call with loading silvers to use Absolute Zero or just to save them for later.

>>3366020
Of course he wouldn't have his armor hallmarks, he's in an entirely different armor. Who else uses swords and would hate us that much? Who else suddenly disappeared from the story out of nowhere? Who wandered off into the darkness that we were never able to find?

He's either Koichi or Spiral Gigante and I'm pretty sure Gigante is Naoya.

>>3366935
Naoya's White Joker. He literally transformed in front of us!

>>3366938
Yes and Spiral Gigante would be his old identity before he put on the WJ armor.

>>3364744
>>3365286
>>3365263
Koichi being Vovoid doesn't work with this theory:

>>3364525
>He has a lot of quality of life improvements, too. Like the ability to apparently see a Player's real identity in armor.

Just to throw it into the discussion.

>>3366935
literally nothing in this post makes any sense.

firstly, koichi doesn't have a monopoly on swords, secondly he has never been made of orichalcum, thirdly he had no way of arriving in the black, fourth Voivod has been here a long time the narrative has said so -repeatedly-.

As for the white joker, Naoya received the white joker armor from Mikogami. Mikogami died years before the quest even started proper. ergo, Naoya has always been the white Joker for the duration of the quest.

If your just trolling, then it's the "I was pretending to be retarded" kind.

>>3366796
FA's charge faster when boosted by the vitae booster, they also kill players in one shot, something the plasma vulcans just cannot do.

chain mines are a great idea, but I think we might have time to do both. We certainly would if we activated the carnifex after discharging the FA's, but I'd rather keep the carnifex in reserve until a real oh fuck moment.

also, we might not be leaving directly next turn. The gate is close, but we have no way to know how close.

honestly our best bet may have been to just regenerate assault shroud and throw up a fortress mode when deagals breaks. But that feels wrong somehow.

>>3367080
>fourth Voivod has been here a long time the narrative has said so -repeatedly-.
The Black works on a different timeframe, don't forget that.

Same for the orichalcum thing - all kinds of shit could have happened off-screen. JQOP tends to make background characters experience their own adventures while they are out of sight.

But yeah, Bishamon is far from the only sword frame (wasn't the term gaunt-class player?), even if he's one of the most capable ones.


>also, we might not be leaving directly next turn. The gate is close, but we have no way to know how close.
I'm wondering how we'll get back Joker's memory if the teleport happens automatically. Getting to the pedestal with the right timing doesn't sound possible.

>>3367104
I haven't forgotten the black hole like time dilation. It's the only reason I have hope that we can salvage the situation.

But even with all of that Voivod certainly isn't koichi. he doesn't hate us for one thing. He's just driven to murder us by all consuming boredom.

That said, Bishamon is far from through with Anon. which is a god damn shame, because killing him won't bring me any joy.

Presumably the memory will detach or teleport with us. Have faith in JQOP. After all, Kazuya just used Rubicante. Unless a relic is specifically damaged , stolen, or destroyed we can likely recover it.

>>3367051
There's nothing confirming he can actually see a Player's real identity in their armor. I don't even know where people got that from. He recognises Anon, his gf and Tortenz.

>>3367080
>>3367104
>>3367196
Vovoid does hate us.

>And he is laughing. Laughing, in a hideous fluting voice that turns all of him into a mockery, a paen to nothing good.

v͠oivod i̸ ͝am̕ i̷ am͠ vo͞i̴v̷oḑ v̨ ͜fór ̡t̸hȩ voi̷d̢ ͝th̀e̵ scr̸ea͡ḿin̷g̴ ̛mou̴t̕h ̸ţhe͠ ̀a͘bs̨o͘lut̛e ͟ze̴ro ̵
͡òh̀ o̕h oh̶ ͢w͝a͢it̨ed̛ ͢wait̸ed fo̧r ͢y̶ou f͞ou̕nd̢ ͜you fo̸u̶nd ͠ýou ͝jo͡k͘e͜r jus͘t̕ b̨e̸g͞gi͟n͢g b̛ęgging ̵t͜o ̨be̡ bu̴r͝nt͜ and͞ tor͜n ànd̴ The words are not vocal. Their meaning reaches directly to your brain, like burning venom, like a cudgel to the back of the skull. You hear Daegal make a sound, as if he's trying to retch into his helmet, trying to throw up-f̧įlthý ̶ba̡gs òf s̸ti̵n͢k͘i̷n̴g ̧mea̵t̸ ͞filth̡y̧ ͘f͡il͝thy ̶o̵h su͝c̨h͜ ͠f̧i͜lt͝h̶ ̡a͠ll ͝of̛ ̷y̵ou
"-make him stop-" Kazuya's voice crackles over the Dirac channel, as he clings to his steed like a lifeline.

It's not about Koichi being the 'only' one but he's lost a part of his soul. Anon was almost dying when we lost Cybele. Koichi was gone for a few days in the Real and we've spent a few years in the Black on this little jaunt straight through it. Not only that, there seems to be hundreds of Players in the Black, enough that they can be used as resources. If Correctors can leave the Black and enter the Red, the opposite should be true.

He clearly has a personal interest and focus on Joker that goes beyond just the ennui what with that laser like focus when he appears and Koichi is one of the few players with the ability, drive and lack of restraint to do what you'd have to to become the Daegal of the Black.

As for the Joker's Memory, it's probably going to be transported with us. It's what seems to power the Beam Magnum or is at least involved with powering the Beam Magnum, to some degree.

>>3367226
the zalgo speech was an ability similar to megumi's cicatrix, or a previous red joker's cackle. If you haven't noticed from the hollow sun upgrades player abilities tend to fall into similar "channels".

And even if there was more to it, nothing he said is directly related to hating Anon. He's been waiting for a Joker so he can fulfill whatever twisted plans have spawned in the dark aeons. And Koichi, when we meet him again, is going to have an -intensely- personal grudge.

Voivod is more likely the previous Deagal. After all there had to be one otherwise Argent wouldn't have known about him, the Armor of Midas wouldn't be known about, etc.

And yes, Voivod IS focused on Joker, but not because he hates him any more than he hates everything else. He probably wants to leave the Black so he can skull fuck virgins in the real. regardless, he doesn't seem anything like Bishamon.

>>3367226
>>3367257
Guys, you are forgetting that we just walked through a battlefield with remains of Red Joker's involvement.
Most likely Voivod was either another finalist or maybe even one of the original beings that existed in this world.
He talks about filthy meat. This might be madness or this might indicate that he genuinely existed as a player form from his inception.
He might hate the Red Joker because there's history there. Maybe he fought multiple incarnations of Jokers or maybe he even knew the first one.

The finalist armors have to have come from somewhere. Red Joker destroys players and White Joker creates them. But what created these two in the first place? It's possible that the first set wasn't even human and the armors were only passed onto humans in the second generation.
If that's true, Voivod might have been the original, alien, daegal. Remember, the Hollow Sun contained the Midas Armor, so I wouldn't be surprised if, maybe, a Red Joker took the Sun and Midas armor away from him.
Or maybe Argent Providence's endgame plan, which was likely intended to make him Daegal, involved stealing the Midas attribute from Voivod - with the help of a Red Joker.

Just streaming my consciousness into this text window.

>>3367257
It represents madness and corruption. Megumi's Cicatrix was a cursed artifact, and corrupted people have the same jumbled text.

>>3368519
Vovoid's the only Reaver who's expressed it so far.

>>3367257
>>3367305
There probably wasn't a Daegal last time and Daegal's armor resists Orichalcum. Look, it's clear that Vovoid has a personal grudge against Joker because you don't say 'Joker' to just introduce yourself to someone; he'd have said something like "THE RED JOKER, AT LAST!" But he also doesn't seem to be too concerned with Daegal. If he was a previous Daegal or he just hated things generally, we wouldn't get the eye murder fuck that he gave us just now and he'd be directing some of his focus on Daegal but he has *only* focused on Joker except for that time Daegal stepped in to defend us.

Realistically, he's either Kouichi or Spiral Gigante. They both disappeared from Joker's life suddenly and hated him a ridiculous amount. I'm leaning Kouichi because Spiral Gigante probably wouldn't know we were Frost Cestus before and Kouichi always called Joker Joker. He seemed to prefer to Anon-kun even.

The finalists work like this; Red Joker, White Joker, Chalice Queen, Daegal and the wielder of the Fatal Abyss. Last cycle it seems like some slots were missed as the Chalice Queen and Phantom Edge died early while the Red Joker and White Joker had their duel on top of that gate thing.

I just don't think JQOP would focus on Vovoid as much as he is if he wasn't someone important. He loves old faces coming back under new forms. He loves bringing back errors we've made as actual enemies. I don't think you'd have this very directed form of hatred focused on Joker if it wasn't due to a personal connection between the two that goes beyond armor.

>>3364450
What about a NIHIL boosted Smite?

>>3364527
Can we add Auspex to this to see where the essence from those dead players is going?

>>3369069
I am voting for this idea if it works. Additionally we can use terror sight with the rail gun or axanel to attack the target if it is out of sight and well protected

>>3369088
>Additionally we can use terror sight
No.
Just fucking no.

>>3369221
This gate is going to get us home. If we can one shot the machine or player who is gonna harness the essence with terror sight we should take it. Nothing besides that which can damage the gate should be off.the table anon especially against a snake like vovoid.

>>3369228
>This gate is going to get us home
It's taking us to the edge of the underworld, not to the Real.

>>3369248
>>3369228
Well hopefully it'll take us to the Hollow Sun first but no fucking way are we going to the real before the White and Black Jokers are dead, are you kidding?

>>3369249
it has been explicitly stated what will happen. First the Gate will activate, and everyone standing in close proximity (probably the ultra durable iron platform) will be whisked an inconceivable distance to the edge of the wasteland. from there an exit can be made by fighting your way up through a corrector hive as Anon did prior to the story. Finally you emerge into the real in a particularly shitty spot.

>>3369041
>Deagals armor resists orichalcum
.... Deagals armor is MADE of orichalcum.

realistically he cannot be koichi. More likely he's one of the people who were trapped with Anon the first time he wandered the black wasteland. Or a previous Deagal.

there are about a thousand reasons why koichi can't be Voivod, but the biggest one is that he didn't even fucking know the Black existed! And even if he did, Bishamon would never settle for being an insane reaver king. He would grab whatever he thought he needed to kill Joker and then relentlessly journey back to the real alone like the pseudo-samurai he is. Further, you dont see everyone from Seisen High here, so -only- Anon and Deagal were swept into the black.

If that weren't the case we would have opened with a fight with Pazuzu and Phantom Edge.

You might as plausibly claim that he's Utopia Rules, because that makes the same amount of sense.

>>3369781
So where is Bishamon? Most likely he used his access to make a beeline for the Hollow Sun, walked up and started a full 150% terminus upgrade, suffered through it, then started preparing to murder the Red Joker.

If tyrian survived, then Bishamon might even have convinced/coerced him into hacking him access to the relic vault...

going to the Hollow Sun first thing might be a truly bad move

>>3369781
Literally no one has said what will happen; the Marshall said the beam magnum could take us to the edge of the world and the Nihl Eye could take us further. We don't know where we'll end up if we use the Nihl sphere, if we'll go to the Red, the real or just elsewhere in the Black. He didn't use the Gate to escape the Black or help Anon escape, he used it to go directly to the Black Joker.

*resists Lachryma. Unless it's here in the Black anyway. Again, if he was a previous Daegal, he'd be more interested in Daegal but he's focused on Joker. Only two people are really unaccounted for at this point who totally hate our guts and have been absent for long enough that they could have accumulated this level of power and that's Spiral Gigante or Bishamon.

If Bishamon going back to the real to hunt down Joker was true, he wouldn't have 1. thrown aside the Apex Blade and his own broken sword, he would have used them against us and 2. he wouldn't have completely disengaged from the Real and disappeared. If he wanted to hunt us down with the tools he already had, he wouldn't have thrown aside what he was using. Instead, what we know about Kouichi before he finally disappeared was
>The guy who he feared and constantly worried about but also became close to him killed the love of his life and a part of his soul
>He abandoned all of the weapons that had been a part of his Bishamon identity and abandoned the Tri-Stars.
>He went
>He disappeared before the black rain so completely that no one in the real or the Hollow Sun's scanners could find him.
>The Black is where the barely alive, the dregs, the remnants and the pieces left behind go.


Seisin High's zone of exclusion - the boundaries of the alien city of Arcadia - are not set in stone. There is no clear delineation between the real world and the next, only blurry discomfort, only the dull shock of transition that departs as quickly as it comes.

Volt Regios' regal cloak flaps in the rushing wind, the bruised sky of the Red churning overhead. Here, reality is worn and tattered, like the fabric of an old cloth; there is a sense of impermanence to the world around him, like the haze of a half-remembered dream. Destabilized, cast adrift - Barren except for the faintest signal, the pulse of the icon Regios wears.

Not the Joker's icon, but an older one. That, alone, is reason enough for Regios to risk the treacherous passage; striding onwards, despite the unease that spreads cold fingers of doubt through his mind. He is close, now - Close to wherever Bishamon is. The streets of the barren city, before the iron towers of Dis, are empty; the skies dark with the coming maelstrom, Regios' boots crunching against gravel.

What he sees stops him in his tracks.

>>3369900
>The Apex Blade is buried - Point-first - in the ground, the crosspiece of the hilt casting a slanted shadow against the cracked cobblestones underfoot. Placed beneath it, in the shadow of the valley, as red light lifts like lava from the horizon-
...are the fragments of an emblem, cracked cleanly in two.
Place side-by-side, it is possible - just possible - to make out how, once, they formed the mark of three black stars against a field of white.
And at last, Regios begins to understand.
"Joker," he whispers. "Joker-"
"...what did you do?"

And finally, Daegal's comment on the whole situation.


>"And you - And *Kouichi*-"
The Vitruvian Device's atonal moan shifts an octave. Tiny filaments, infinitely fine, etch circuit-patterns across the surface of the black metal, fanning out from Daegal's fingertips.
"An - *Joker* - he's going to kill you for that, you realize? The next time he meets you, he's going to *kill* you."

And finally, to give you an idea of Kouichi, this is how we responded to losing our Hyades.

>A shudder races through you. The world spans, sickeningly - A sensation akin to nausea, a bone-deep sickness that gnaws into the very core of your being. Like what you've felt before, at Alura's hands...Except it begins deep within you, the myomer fibres of your form cording in an involuntary spasm-
Your Emblem - Cybele's Emblem - is burning. You can *feel* it - a slow-building ache from your pauldron, flowing down to your forearm - and it doesn't *stop*, like the nauseous fascination that comes with shock at a spreading injury, as wisps of emerald light bleed from the lines of the crest. The world begins to blur at the edges-
You know what this is. You know what's about to happen.
A rasp from deep within you-
Something wet and black drips from the mouth grille of your helm, thinner than oil, thicker than blood, hissing like acid as it falls to the stone. You're on your knees - a greasy blurt of static flaring in your sensors, your gauntleted fingers digging into the ground, scraping deep furrows-
You're cold. Cold, even though you shouldn't - can't - feel anything. The screech of your armor against the roof echoes, each time your form gives another shudder in time to the faltering pulse within you; You can't seem to-
Black.
Pain. A haze of it. You can hear sounds - Ragged, choking, feral - sounds that are nothing like speech...
There's something in your left hand. Grey, pitiless, gripped so tight you can feel the scarred crimson of your plated fists beginning to dent and deform around it

And from the last thread
>(For she was still your Hyades, and when she died, part of you died too, forever. Part of you was severed - quivering, between the brutal teeth of the vice - dragged into the places beyond, where you could not follow.)

We had the Athame, he had nothing. These are not the actions of someone who is going to return to the tri-stars or is going to use his previous identity against anyone else.

I dunno if you're still reading this thread, JQOP, but do you mind if I ask how you come up with names?

>>3369900
Bishamon threw away the Apex blade because it was a gift from Anon. As such it represented the bond between the two of them, as did the tristar emblem.

he was ritualistically severing ties to his past so he could focus entirely on revenge. Because, in his opinion

no one is arguing that Bishamon doesn't want to murder Joker. that's fucking obvious. the point is that he isn't VOIVOD. the only person VOIVOD is, is VOIVOD.

And here's a small list of why. Bishamon had no way to access the Black, even if he did he wouldn't have been here for the centuries VOIVOD has because while the Black dialates time it doesn't allow time travel and thus at most Bish would have arrived 50-70 years ahead maybe less.

on top of that Bishamon would certainly have fucking mentioned -why- he hated anon, but VOIVOD hasn't mentioned anything about revenge.

on top of THAT, Voivod looks nothing at all like Bishamon, and as we saw from the interaction with proto-deagal and the helix gauntlet orichalcum doesn't change the fundamental appearance of what it bonds to. Even Kazuya has an appearance that is mostly ripped off from the Red Joker because there wasn't another template to use.

Tl;Dr it is chronologically impossible for VOIVOD to be Bishamon and he acts and looks nothing like Bishamon.

of course since you cannot accept that your pet idea is wrong your going to say Bishamon stuck around and was caught up in the temporal storm from the leukocyte while disregarding that even if that were the case he -still- wouldn't have been able to cross the shroud into the Black. And before you start the ixuon fight proves that objects or people displaced by tachyons briefly exist in their new earlier timeline. Thus Bishamon was not warped to a time several days earlier.

>>3370319
actually, on the topic of the Black. AFAWK the -only- ways to get there are the Joker's Memory, possibly using the Nihil Sphere to make a gate, or doing so much damage that you rend the fabric of space/time asunder. The last is specifically something the beam magnum can do. possibly other super heavy weapons like the Logos. And almost certainly a property of the awakened Fatal Abyss.

likely most of the people we see here were brought here by the white or red jokers.

>>3370345
My Interpretation of this Is that this hell Isn't so different from what one might think of hell, and that dead players really do arrive here.

When we kill someone, how do you know that some vital piece doesn't slip beneath the Red, and Is born again as a shade of themselves In the Black? Furthermore this place seems to connect to more than just *our* red, judging by the Nazi players. Seems too vast to be something Isolated around just the Jokers.

>>3370405
deleted a long post about the nature of the Black, but here's the just.

The Black Joker can copy the dead and transmit them via Lachryma. We saw that with Bardiel and the Silencers, and the Amalgams, and even Akira himself who was implied to have been made.

Alura also had the ability to manifest those who were dead.

However, in both cases the product was deficient or lacking in some fashion.

insane as they are our opponents certainly do not lack for vitality. In fact one can make a compelling argument that their vitality itself is what is so at odds with the Black that it drives them insane. Not merely sensory deprivation, but a desperate reaction of the soul rejecting the antipathic nature of the Black Joker.

From this we can tenuously conclude that the players trapped in the Black are alive.

As a fun aside, flinging them into the Lachryma below is literally feeding their souls to the Black Joker.

>>3364453
>>3364461
>>3364477
>>3364478

> [X] “What did you mean ‘the feedback’?”

You look down, as missile pods cycle up on either side of your spine-

Blink.

A halo of filthy light flickers around you. For a moment – Just a moment – you can see flashes of endosteel skeleton through your armor, like sporadic X-rays.

The world seems to stutter, for an instant.

“-op it!” Kazuya is saying, urgent now. “The *entire field* is reacting-!”

You can feel it. Taste it, almost. Lightnings flex, splitting the air around you. A charnel-wind moans, as tendrils of yellow lightning flicker around the shield-bubble. For a moment, you feel fragile, made of paper, less than real.

“Look!”

You follow his pointing hand – Reality is beginning to bend around you, around the Gate. The arcane mechanisms are beginning to gouge through the membrane of space and time, throwing wide a door to-

…To where?

It’s like a vortex, swirling over. Smaller than the one that brought you here. Less controlled, less stable – But a doorway all the same.

A way out.

A mutter seems to pass through the army on the other side. A murmur, a surrusation. An insect drone.

“-What are they waiting for?” Daegal says – the pavise of his Assault Shroud still raised, a wall within a wall. “You think they’re just going to watch us-”

> [X] “No. He’s planning something.”
> [X] “Stay down. They’ll be coming for us next.”

And as if to put your words to the test-

The first shots streak across the distance, and slam into the field envelope. At this range, they’re ranging shots at best, desultory at worse. Jags of sullen lightning writhe across the field, raining down around you – It’s like being inside a plasma globe, glowing conduits feeding the writhing drives. The Gate’s mechanisms twist and warp upon itself, jutting upwards into the vaulted space in a grotesque thrust, wreathed in forks of electrical discharge.

“They can’t get through,” Daegal mutters – It’s equal parts hope and prayer. “They can’t – Can they?”

You don’t know. Waves of light play across your armor, as Daegal holds his gauntlet up – Lightning passing, effortlessly, through gleaming orichalcum. “This stuff – It’s an overspill. It’s not *quite* here-“

Lachryma gurgles. Strange, spidery script etches itself in the air, in twisting glyphs.

Impasse.

(Continued)

>>3371782

The field envelope seems to constrict, a shimmering membrane drawing taut around the gate. It’s like being inside an observation sphere, cut off from the world around you –

But for how long?

The Crux pumps strength through your limbs. The rents in your armor seal over, the way a smile slowly fades. Your tattered Assault Shroud flutters around you, odd highlights dancing over the overlapping hexagons of the nanomaterial shell, as your photonic mantle sheds fragments of crimson light.

There is a KA-CHUNK, as your autoloader racks – A silver cartridge locking in place. Another.

Daegal hovers at your side, his hand gripping the hilt of the Condemner. He’s positively wringing it, now, as writhing lightnings dance overhead.

Not much longer-

You sense, instinctively, what he’s trying to say. The Gate’s field envelope seems to roil, to churn, patient sparks cising across the control surfaces of your armor, across the barrels of your weapons. If you fire, here and now – You don’t know what might happen. The shield’s supposed to be permeable from this side, but if it isn’t…

There is a groan. A deep, dragging groan, a rattle of chains. Something being dragged forward, with a rasping scrape. The initial commotion amongst the army has died away. They stand stock-still, now – gazing into the distance, with their weapons in their hands. There is no sound except the hiss and spit of the field, and that terrible, dragging groan-

Kazuya sees it first, as the bulky shape – A chassis – is dragged through the ruins of the doors. You see clanking chains extend from it, an ugly, leaden bulk scarred by lacerations and gutted by flame-

“Oh,” he says. “Oh, *no*. Joker, that’s-”

You see it.

It’s a siege ram. One of the war-machines from the forgotten war, from the last siege. Like a giant centipede, meant to dig scything talons into the walls, a ramp for the attackers to charge up. This one is half-broken, now, the lower half twitching in a spastic fit, but they’ve given it new life. You can see the stripped-down wiring that coils along the shell-like carapace of overlapped armor, the single superheavy weapon that extends up from the dorsal mount.

Did they drag it down here? Did they take it apart, and reassemble it here? Either way-

Code spirals across your primary visualizer. The air distorts, subtly, in your HUD – Coordinates bleeding into existence, as you target the machine itself. A swathe of dirty cables – Like branching arteries – are vaguely visible, as it grinds forward on vast, clawed wheels set on cantilever arms-

And EXEC_SMITE explodes across the *inside* of the barrier.

(Continued)

>>3371801
>And EXEC_SMITE explodes across the *inside* of the barrier.
God fucking damnit Daegal.

>>3371801

“Shit-!” Daegal flinches, as phantom colours flare. The blast – a plume of half-visible flame – spills along the curve of the field-bubble, in a blast that shakes the great iron ring underfoot. Flickers of energy, dark and unhealthy, flare like troubled synapses out from the disrupted area of the Gate’s shield – But it holds, though odd harmonics echo in the unreal light.

A sense-memory – An odd, bitter taste, as coloured bursts writhe and flicker across the Lachryma-infused structure behind you, as it compensates for the shift-

And then the siege ram opens fire, with a deafening, prolonged blurt of noise. The barrel vanishes in a cross of muzzleflash, fast-cycle fire drumming out – Weaponry of that calibre is mean to shatter masonry, to bring down walls. Streams of explosive shells slam into the barrier, auguring rounds punching more distortions into the field envelope – A jumping lick of fire dancing across the surface, with a shuddering reverberation that you feel in your very core. Even muted, even warped, the sheer intensity of the gunfire is deafening; the lethal blizzard of rounds hammering into the barrier, as the siege ram begins to extend itself across the distance, over the void.

The immense bulk hauls itself forward, wheeled claws digging in – the pugnacious blitz of fire near-constant, now, bursts of flame skittering across the wavering surface-

You can’t hear the roars, the cheers, the savage ululations that must be there, as the first of the army swarms up the extending ramp. With so many bodies, they seem like something dark and liquid, like blood – something that runs and drips, swells and flows again, like blood down a dagger’s spine.

And VOVOID – casually, like he has all the time in the world – takes his first steps forward. His cloak of blades deploys, fanning out around him in a galaxy of razor-edges and spines. The glyphs of QLIPPOTH TRIGON’s riftspikes glow, and the tortured figure lurches after him, with staggering, shambling steps.

His gaze never leaves you.

“Joker-”

Daegal’s stance never wavers, but his gauntlets tremble. His shoulders stiffen.

“-There’s a *lot* of them-”

[ ] “I know. Be ready.”
[ ] “I see them, Kaz. We’ll have to meet them as they come in.”
[ ] “Can you reinforce the shield?”
[ ] “How long until we’re out of here?”
[ ] “See if you can fix the controls. If we can get the guns working-“
[ ] “No. This can’t be it. Something’s not right.”
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>3371801
>And EXEC_SMITE explodes across the *inside* of the barrier.
Seems like "line of sight" is a relative term.

>>3371828
>[ ] “How long until we’re out of here?”
>[ ] “See if you can fix the controls. If we can get the guns working-“
>[ ] “No. This can’t be it. Something’s not right.”

>>3371828
(Gentlemen, my apologies, formatting doesn't seem to be working for me.)

HP: 167%
VITAE BOOSTER: 0%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 150%
METER: 26%
ENCROACHMENT: 6%
CARTRIDGES: SILVER CARTRIDGE (X2)

ENERGY: ERROR
CRUX: ASSAULT SHROUD
PHOTONIC MANTLE ACTIVE

>>3371830
I think "line" is the keyword? We never had to cast it through something like a window before because the Red is a shithole.

Though right now it seems like we're absolutely fucked because we can neither run nor gun.

>>3371834
[ ] “How long until we’re out of here?”
[ ] “No. This can’t be it. Something’s not right.”

Assault Shroud is full, switch the Crux over to Vitae Booster.

>>3371828
>>3371834
>Boost the Vitae Booster with the Crux
>"See if you can get those controls working. Do you still have the destier control frame we can use?"
>"This can't be it. Something's not right, this feels like a distraction. They're moving too slowly, they aren't worried about the gate. Use your Argus scan now, we need to check for them." Use our Argus scans + Auspex to look scan the room for where essence is flowing, if there are any hidden enemies approaching.
>Take out the Nihl sphere to scan for any hidden enemies

>>3371848
Don't we have those Lanterns that show invisible enemies?

>>3371835
Also how probable is it that Vovoid's true goal is hitching a ride with us, -then- killing us, then murdering his way back to the Red? Like I'm not sure how difficult it is to discern what we're up to.

>>3371854
That does sound familiar but I don't remember if it's something we have access to right now.

>>3371848
>>3371854
>>3371869
>These ever-glowing iron lanterns cast a cold, pale-white radiance, an unearthly light that illuminates the immediate area - And in particular, Players. Regardless of how they might be concealed, Players - or other entities with Essence signatures - within the corona's radius are seemingly lit up from within by astral tracers, making it nearly impossible to move unseen while within the bounds of the lantern's illumination. Notably, Correctors (and other non-Player entities) are pained by the light of the LUMEN, and prefer to stay beyond the lantern's range. (However, larger or more malevolent Correctors may risk the discomfort, in an attempt to kill LUMEN's bearer.)

LUMEN bears a secondary, more insidious use - Instead of illuminating the area, the lanterns can produce a cone of cold radiance that cannot be perceived by anyone except LUMEN's holder. This spectral radiance retains the Player-illuminating effect of the primary function.

It appears that these Relics were produced, en masse, in order to hunt down Players who might otherwise have evaded pursuit. Interestingly, the LUMENs are immensely durable, and can sustain a surprising amount of punishment before being rendered non-functional.

You're right, they're called Lumen. OP, can we change using the Argus sensors to taking out a Lumen and using it to light the battlefield? It might also piss off Typhon seeing as how his player signature's all fucky.

>>3371833
>>3371844
>>3371848

Your words seem to snap Daegal out of his fugue.

“I – I don’t *know*,” he says. “It *has* to be soon – It has to be *any moment now*-”

But will it be soon enough?

> Assault Shroud is full, switch the Crux over to Vitae Booster.

A throb, a pulse that reverberates through your form, over the hammer of gunfire. Overhead, the point of contact glows like an arc-welder’s flare, sparks spraying. Your VITAE BOOSTER – the orb dull, inert – begins to swell with crimson light, as the first embers are kindled within it.

>>3371854

The lantern – You reach for it, as the pale light washes around you, filling the immediate area with that eerie glow. Nothing – Nothing *inside* the field with you. There’s something oddly soothing about the radiance: Within the zone of illumination, the fitful lightnings cease their constant writhe, the air clean of the weird arcing loops of electricity.

> [X] "See if you can get those controls working.”

“I-”

Go.

Daegal scrambles away. The void yawns on either side, but it doesn’t slow him in the slightest: For one treacherous moment, he stumbles – haste making him clumsy – but he corrects himself, his boots clattering against the span of iron below. At least it gives him something to look at, besides the oncoming assault.

> [X] “No. This can’t be it. Something’s not right.”

Yes. They’re moving *too slowly*. Even if they can sustain that rate of fire, they’d only destroy the Gate. And the moment the siege ram breaches the field envelope, they’d make the perfect target for your weapons. With those shuffling forms packed in close proximity, dozens would die.

So why-

Wait.

A disturbance gathers around VOIVOID’s distant form. A power, visible mainly in how it makes everything else less real. You’ve seen that power before, even wielded it – The ripple of distortion that comes when something like the Fusion Annihilator is unleashed, as reality warps like a fever nightmare-

There is a wailing note. A squeal, like a finger on glass.

And, without any warning at all, the air fills with blades.

It is as if the entire high-vaulted space of the chamber has been filled with knives, with swords slashing in every direction at once. With lashing, knife-edge distortions, like a cutting edge extended to infinity. There is a huge spray of sparks from the walls, flashes in the abrupt churning darkness – the air thrashing, like waves driven by an ocean gale.

“OH SHIT-!” Kazuya now.

“HOLY SHIT-”

(Continued)

>>3371914
Better drop our own Fortress Mode on top of Daegal's.

>>3371929
I wish Voivoid wasn't so likely to be resistant to EXEC_DISRUPT.

>>3371914

Fractal edges lash out in every direction. The scale is incomprehensible, that screeching noise blotting out all else.

For the span of seconds, for a few terrible instants, VOIVOID’s blades have been augmented to an endless range. It is a singular event – Jagged, piercing, like negative lightning. Like a storm. You see Players fly apart, disintegrating – You see limbs sheared into halves, then quarters, annihilated as if pushed through an industrial shredder. It is a churning, abstract nightmare, a whirling storm of knives that assails the field envelope like a damnation-storm, as thousands of individual razor-sharp edges lacerate and shriek against the ancient walls.

Ichor spatters the shield, boiling away. Meridian Blades – each impact like a ringing chime – ricochet and clatter. The consuming, shredding void takes them all apart. It is like a rushing tide of shadow, detonations flaring as reactors and volatiles detonate, tiny bursts of flame against the whirling darkness – the piercing industrial-cutter screech rising higher, higher-

It takes moments.

It takes an eternity.

The grinding-metal sound cycles down, violent ripples radiating across the shield’s disturbance surface. You can see the lacerations that scar the field’s serene surface – Even as, with a groaning crash, the front half of the siege ram drops away, sheared through. It tumbles forward, into the abyss – shattered forms spilling after it, a billowing cloud of essence swirling thickly in their wake.

The air is filled with so much death, you can actually see the remnants of lives twisting and coiling, like smoke. Those that didn’t simply vanished, shredded, are cut in sections – Cables sparking from bare metal stumps, the oncoming force utterly annihilated.

A hush falls.

There is a carpet of shorn and ragged bodies across the wide floor. None are intact, unspeakable fluids drooling down the scarred walls on either side. It is a jumble of pieces, like a morbid puzzle, sectioned and sectioned again-

Daegal makes a sound. A low, sick sound as he turns his head away. Trying to retch, to vomit.

And then there’s just VOIVOID and QLIPPOTH TRIGON, now. QLIPPOTH has been cut, too, divided along a single shearing cut. A vertical line, opened through TRIGON’s peerless black exoskeleton. The glyphs of his riftspikes burn red, arterial red, bright and hooked, pulsing visible agony through your field of vision as that tortured form slumps forward onto all fours, eviscerated.

The damage is hideous. It is as if he has been split apart, opened out. There are things spilling out of him. Fibrous matter. Something too thick and clotted to be blood.

Need, need, a sharp need-

Around you, the sea of Lachryma roils. The foetid, ink-black stuff begins to rear up, in tiny peaks and spires. Rising, rising, filling the polluted air-

(Continued)

>>3371960
Shit, is his goal to make Trigon suck up so much lachryma that it's no longer fueling the gate?

>>3371960

Thick black ribbons of the inky substance reach out.

They twist. They coil. Like billowing clouds, dragging across the surface of the barrier, like impossibly vast swarms of flies. Searching, seeking-

Towards the thing that needs to be filled.

Towards QLIPPOTH TRIGON.

It flows into the broken, shambling form. Pours into it, running and dripping, swelling, flowing again. Ink-black foulness, too much to fit into a single body.

There is a splintering *CRACK*, a sound like a rifle shot. QLIPPOTH TRIGON’s spine pushes through that glossy black armour, sprouting like a calcified tree trunk. Weird, twisting bones – like the thrashing branches of winter trees – shear outwards in all directions. His ribcage tears open, like skeletal wings – the cancerous, swollen organs within pulsing and growing, smearing across the reshaping skeleton.

His limbs swell and stretch, bristling with thorns. Scales – black scales – swarm across blistered armour, a scythe-bladed tail twisting and thrashing as it grows out of the open ribs, hideous sounds echoing. Pain-twisted optics sink back into that head, Lachryma oozing from that expanding maw, writhing upwards in mutiny against gravity, bubbling and pulsing as they push outwards and upwards-

Horns. Huge, upright horns.

There is a dreadful buzzing, buzzing, the chirring of insect wings-

The thing that was QLIPPOTH TRIGON – Swollen, bloated to eight times a Player’s size – snaps vast jaws together, arching its back. Wings – Black, leathery, dripping with slime – unfurl, a halo of tattered flesh and TRIGON’s lightless substance. Taloned claws clutch rigidly at the ground beneath, helm splitting open to reveal scaled flesh – the maw hideously distended, stippled with teeth that bulge and hinge. As it jerks upright, it *howls*-

“Nnnnnn-”

Daegal staggers, rocked by the force – Clutching at the sides of his helmet, unable to block his auditory sensors. Your own have already cut out – For a moment, his actions are like a pantomime, as his gauntlets clamp around the twisted remnants of the control surfaces-

And then everything outside the shield goes white, blazing with cold fire.

The tableau vanishes. Space is gouged open, the air splitting as reality flexes. The Gate unfurls in a wash of obscene light, groaning right through to its metal core. Blue light spills into the wash of flame, clouds of storm-streaked darkness swirling around the field envelope – Lightnings writhing and fluorescing around the infinite void of the Beyond. You can see corposant crackling and sliding around the Gate’s field of reality, a fizzling noise at the very edge of perception-

A calm descends. A kind of calm.

(Continued)

>>3372029
Wow, looks like Trigon can soak up a lot more than we thought and not reach critical mass. So is Vovoid gonna ride him and charge towards the gate? I feel like that'd be a risky move since I don't know what's keeping Trigon loyal after being carved to pieces and almost certainly losing what's left of his mind, but I don't know what else he can do.

>>3372029

Outside – the tempest, churning, roiling. The sensation of motion, a vast, tumbling descent through tides of dragging madness. It is beyond the capacity of your sensors to process: You see static. A blizzard of white noise. The buzzing grey of a blank cathode-ray tube, boiling with electronic snow. A monotonous still-life, being broadcast from Hell.

Something that flexes and shivers, beyond the sphere of reality that carries you through the howling void. Through the seething nullity, the blue light that comes from everywhere and nowhere at once.

“They’re-”

Kazuya finds his feet, unsteadily.

“They’re *gone*.”

His helm swings from left to right. “All that, and – They’re just gone.”

“Joker – Joker, *where* are we?”

[ ] “Home, Kazuya. It’s taking us home.”
[ ] “Anywhere else is find with me, right now.”
[ ] “Wherever we’re meant to going, I guess.”
[ ] “I don’t know. But we’re alive, and that’s what matters.”
[ ] “Watch your step. If you fall from here-”
[ ] “You all right?”
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>3372055
>You alright?
>I don't know where we're going precisely but anywhere's better than here. The Hollow Sun hopefully.
>Can you still see if you can fix this, control it somehow?

>>3372055
>[ ] “Anywhere else is find with me, right now.”

>>3372055
>[ ] “I don’t know. But we’re alive, and that’s what matters.”
>Keep an eye out, I'm not absolutely certain that they can't follow us.
>Check if the Joker's Memory somehow transferred back to us or if we had to trade it to get out of there.

>>3372083
>>3372144
These.

>>3372083
>>3372144
>>3372157

> [X] You alright?

“I – yeah. I *think*-”

There’s something taut, something controlled, in Daegal’s stance – His wary gaze flickering across the drop on either side. There’s a catch to his words, a sense that he’s holding on as best as he can. When he looks down at the pitted iron underfoot, it’s as if he’s the safest thing to stare at that he can think of-

Anything else, other than what he’s just seen. Other than what just happened.

> [X] “Anywhere else is fine with me, right now.”
> [X] “I don’t know. But we’re alive, and that’s what matters.”

He nods. No words, just a nod, like he doesn’t trust himself to speak.

> [X] “Can you still see if you can fix this, control it somehow?”

“It’s…”

He has one hand on the tangled mess of cables and wiring, a gauntlet buried in the arcane mechanisms. Micro-filaments of oriachulcum fan from his fingertips, hair-thin wires that run in die-straight lines, like intricate circuitry – “…I’m doing what I *can* to keep it stable, to keep it in one piece-”

Then, rather more ominously-

“…I think.”

The eyepieces of Daegal’s helm catching the light – “There isn’t…There isn’t anything to *work* with. There’s just what we brought with us. A, as long as it stays intact, it’d keep-”

> Check if the Joker's Memory somehow transferred back to us or if we had to trade it to get out of there.

The Joker’s Memory – the blazing element sealed within it – remains locked in place, something too brilliant to look directly upon. Like a captured star, like a miniature sun.

How did he create something like this? How did he contain all that power?

Or perhaps he didn’t. Perhaps it, too, came from the deep past.

> Keep an eye out, I'm not absolutely certain that they can't follow us-

And on the crest of a premonition, you swivel your head up into the inky abyss-

The barrier tears open like a gut wound.

There is a monstrous *bang* of decompression. A huge shape explodes through the field envelope, vast fragments of shield-energies raining down like shards of mirror. Light and smoke from the killing ground you’ve left behind swirls in through the ragged tear, a huge, heavy shape searing through the rent-

It is a black mass, blistered, torn. Streamers of black ichor wrench out from those razor-edged wings, the edges of the tear bulging and spasming. It *burns* like a toxic star, the grotesque black bulk’s rancid flesh ramming through-

A massive, repellent shape, smoke boiling from barbed scales. Back-jointed legs, swollen with muscle, malformed skull topped with giant horns-

QLIPPOTH TRIGON rips from one reality into the next, gaping fang-fringed maw yawning wide – And for one terrible instant, as the ghastly shape descends, you glimpse the gleam of gold-

(Continued)

>>3372249
>QLIPPOTH TRIGON rips from one reality into the next, gaping fang-fringed maw yawning wide – And for one terrible instant, as the ghastly shape descends, you glimpse the gleam of gold-
Oh for fuck's sake.

>>3372304
Did you really think we could avoid a boss battle?

>>3372249

“-"

There is a sound like screaming, gale-force winds. The confined space churns, swept by a violent wake. QLIPPOTH TRIGON – the thing QLIPPOTH TRIGON has become moves - with a speed that is wholly and entirely unnatural. It is a speed augmented and accelerated beyond belief, a speed refined to a killing edge by some hellish fusion of galvanic reflexes and synapse web.

It is scale and bone and glistening tissue, serpent-like, sleeved in ropes of taut sinew. Nothing human – or even humanoid – remains in that tortured shape, as it *uncoils*. The first wave of the thing’s breath blasts against you, an exhalation of corrosive ammonia vapor, as scabby, ink-black flesh hurls itself down like a thunderbolt-

Lightning. It seethes with lightnings. Red sparks, crackling across TRIGON’s form as serpent and rider spear down, a jagged black shape against the ghastly white static beyond. The passage has wounded it, blistered it, tufts and wisps of foul grey hair lashing in its wake.

And – behind the knotted bur of QLIPPOTH’s great horns-

-You see VOIVOID’s lightless eyes, utterly black. Utterly mad.

(FOREBODE ACTIVATED)

HP: 167%
VITAE BOOSTER: 68%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 150%
METER: 26%
ENCROACHMENT: 17%
CARTRIDGES: SILVER CARTRIDGE (X2)

ENERGY: ERROR
CRUX: VITAE BOOSTER
PHOTONIC MANTLE ACTIVE

>>3372320
I vaguely feel like our goal should be to slow these guys down so we can exit hyperspace before them and leave them trapped between dimensions but I don't know if that's plausible.

>>3372320
This chain of events is so ridiculous that I can't help but give props to Voivoid.

So, pop the Carnifex, pop in and fire two additional silver cartridges for maximum ice form? Thanks to the carnifex we will be able to load and fire on the same turn.

What's the best revolver for this situation? The monofilament one?

Either way, fire out a fucking flurry of boosted missiles.

>>3372369
To add, Kazuya should focus on getting in targetted shots with Rubicante if he's able to multitask.

>>3372320
OP, give us an idea of the environment please. We need to know what's happening.

>Pop the Carnifex + Blutsauger now
>Use meter and booster we have to load in 2 silver cartridges and activate BLACK FROST
>Sinistrel level 2 to absorb the lightning he's fire at us. Use scrander to fly under it, providence and sinistrel to shred it from underneath while it's distracted
>Have the sword incoms try to slice off Qlippoth's horns and anything connecting Vovoid to the massive brute

We'll have to blow all of our meter this turn on black frost but next turn we can try disrupting the control spikes he's using to guide Trigon.

>>3372369
He gives no shits. His plan is "Kill fucking everyone and escape by myself. Fuck you all, I ride a giant dragon into battle."

>>3372369
Monofilament won't do shit right now to a Corrector this big covered in nanomachines.

>>3372391
>Blutsauger
...Hopefully do this in a way that Kazuya doesn't get leeched.

>>3372400
Yeah, I'd make better suggestions but I can't use the guide right now.
Don't boosted vulcans now have a corrosive effect?

Actually, couldn't we just go ice sword on the fucker thanks to our ice form?

>>3372369
>This chain of events is so ridiculous that I can't help but give props to Voivoid.
He is named after a heavy metal band.

>>3372404
Yeah but I'd rather hack and slash with the Providence + Sinistrel level 2 to start to maximise how safe we can be as we measure them out.

>hopefully do this in a way that kazuya doesn't get leeched.
We've done it when he's close by and it hasn't seemed to hurt him before but that's why I'm suggesting we fly under Trigon and also to draw him away from the bottom and surprise the fuck.

>>3372391
As an addition to this
>Shatterblast Trigon's wings

>>3372320
let's open up a dragon.

dual tau guns to create a rent

summon peacemaker in holster from vitae for when Trigon inevitably opens its mouth for a breath weapon, then quickdraw and fan the trigger, if it doesn't open up then aim for the tau gun holes.

.Deagal should fortress mode around the mechanism and provide cover fire if he can.

>>3372391
(You're standing on the vast iron ring that spans the Gate's core, which is about twenty meters wide at largest. This is some distance from the center, which means there's a drop on either side. Your opponents are diving down at you from almost directly above.

You're fighting inside the shield bubble, which expands in all directions, stabilized by the Gate's mechanisms. Everything outside the field envelope is inimical to your existence.

Note that using extremely powerful weaponry has a chance of destabilizing the Gate and / or damaging essential systems. The Gate's manifested weaponry can fire, but most of the heavier weapons can't depress sufficiently to open fire on TRIGON at close range.)

>>3372414
>>3372404
>>3372400
>>3372371
>>3372369
>>3372366

(Gentlemen, my apologies - It's extremely late for me, but I'll continue at the first opportunity. Good night and God bless, this should be interesting.)

>>3372404
blutsaeger is an indiscriminate AOE. it hits friends as well as enemies.

save it for when the fight has moved further away, or he's behind a fortress mode.
>>3372391
>wanting to charge a dragon and it's melee focused rider when they will be coming to us shortly

no, bad idea. We can switch to melee when it happens imminently, let's not rush to engage close up.

>>3372439
Gotcha.

MAXIMUM ICE JOKER
DUAL CRISIS ARMS
BOOST THE ARMS
ADD VECTOR BITS
THROW THE FUCKER INTO THE FIELD ENVELOPE

Maybe use something to immobilize him, as well. Do we have a good codeburst for that?

>>3372456
If we rush to engage, we stop him slamming into the platform/gate and we can force him into a terrible position because we'll be under him and he'll be struggling to curl around and about himself. Plus, if we keep him further back we can use him as a human shield and have the turrets fire on the motherfucker.

>>3372472
they aren't heading for the Gate.

they are heading for us. We are standing on a ring shaped platform around the Gate which is 20 meters wide at the widest.

I would prefer to have Trigon dead or dying as soon as possible before we close to melee. OP said it was inhumanly fast. that means it can probably react perfectly well to infighting. Let's not rush Bardiel a second time, okay?

In my opinion the Peacemaker revolver is tailor made for killing high HP enemies. With the carnifex and argus active we can fan the trigger and send all six shots down it's mouth or into a hole made via tau gun or weapon fire.

Then we use abruption jets and tempest to dart out from it's falling bulk.

>>3372369
Seriously, he gathers an enormous army, almost immediately kills them all except for his best dude who he just mutilates and mutates, and proceeds to use as a mount. I can't help but feel we've been out fucking skilled.

>>3372391
I am voting for this we need to keep vivid and trogon away from the platform and off balance

>>3372567
Issues with this
>They are going for us and we're standing in front of the Gate. We can't be sure if their target is us or the Gate. Either way, we can't use our most dangerous gunfire and threaten to destablise it and Daegal is keeping it working so it's better to split their targets and charge under/towards them
>Waiting where we are gives them inititive, plus we're going to be able to use the quickening for a full turn with the carnifex and black frost. Since providence is an anti-corrector weapon, this causes insane damage.
>Peacemaker already needs an existent opening in armor to cause damage to the core functions. We also won't have enough meter for it if we load in 2 more silvers.
>It's not a matter of infighting, it's that Trigon is going one direction super fast while we are going the opposite direction also super fast. Since it's 8x the size of a normal player, this will require it to turn around and face us or let us get some free attacks in
>Providence and the Sinistral level 2 are made to take energy attacks and kill correctors; its currently shooting lightning breath at us and it's a giant corrector plus we move away from daegal so we can activate blutsauger and build charge to cast disrupt on Trigon's control rods next turn

>>3372589
We didn't really have a chance to retaliate but it was pretty damn unconventional.

>>3372391
>>3372594
Voting for these. We can't use our big guns right now, plus any meter we have had to go to black frost so we can fight off vovoids and Trigon's attacks. I recommend additionally we give daegal caesar. He can use it with rubicante thanks to the vector trap to fire an enhanced rubicante 5 times hp free

>>3372611
Apologies I am not voting for>>3372594
, I want to engage Trigon immediately with the scrander. I believe if we let Trigon land on the platform, we will not win. Vovoid is dependent on Trigon to stay in the bubble right now. If he gets on the platform we will not be able to face them both in such a confined space

>>3372605
And I gotta wonder if he actually planned this, or if he just improvised immediately after noticing he and his army couldn't walk over to us.

>>3372673
This reeks of improv to me; they brought that useless siege machine after all.

>>3372681
I think he was perfectly prepared to do it as a last resort. He knew Trigon could draw lachryma and he knew what he was going into with the forge. He was obviously getting reports from somewhere

>>3372594
Voivod is driving and the text calls out that he is specifically focused on Joker.

additionally, if he destroys the Gate everyone dies him included.

How is providence an anti-corrector weapon? it's not. it is a tachyon sword.

Trigon has a huge mouth, with no armor in it. A mouth that is open.

regardless of how fast we are going Trigon will get to attack us as we pass, possibly Voivod as well.

You can't target disrupt to certain systems, and it typically targets weapon abilities not control systems. Disrupt is a crapshoot.

>>3372611
He might still have to pay the HP cost, or it might just trigfer a normal shot. we don't know how that works. plus he already has cagnazzo which pairs better anyway.

>>3372673
He definitely planned this. everyone there was just a sacrifice for him.

>>3372320
WAIT!!! Trigger Exec_HARROW! it will hit both of them and stun them while we close.

>>3372865
Joker is standing by the Gate's core next to Daegal; Daegal was just working on it a few moments ago. It's possible he's willing to slam into the Gate and risk destroying us as he was literally able to fly after the things a few moments ago.

Providence is an anti-corrector weapon because it's an upgraded form of Omen which was always an anti-corrector weapon and
>This tight-focus chronological displacement can carve away great chunks of any enemy – Except against superdense plating or heavily armored targets, which exceed the blade’s capability (at maximum output) to displace
Which will be ideal against nanomaterial/regenrating Trigon.

A huge mouth that is open and streaming poison and lightning which we can block with the Sinistral as we close or stand in front of and get hit by; either way, we cannot afford the Peacemaker *and* Black Frost.

Vovoid won't be able to attack us, he's standing on top of Trigon, I'm saying pass underneath where our Solition Radar/Entrophic ice field/Blutsauger can do the most damage.

Disrupt targets relics. Those are relics. There's no reason not to try disrupting it next turn.

Triggering Exec_Harrow is an awful idea because Trigon can go invisible and if we take Harrow off of him, we can't auto aim on the guy/keep him under detection at all times.

>>3372935
Trigon likely has fucktons of HP. the Peacemaker is specifically designed to kill high HP threats. And we have an open shot. We already loaded two silver cartridges which is enough for black ice. We can easily dodge the incoming breathe weapon with carnifex and abruption jets which will also pull them away from deagal and the gate.

he can chameleon, we have the argus system. We don't need harrow to track him.

How does standing here preclude using the sinistral to block? it doesn't.

VOIVOD has both hands free, exactly like when he rode the tank chariot. He can, and will attack us as we close in. being close to him also exposes us to his blade cloak which he can use without hands.

even IF we luck out and Disrupt targets the agony control rods, there's no guarantee that the situation will improve. Its a good plan for later, but a bad opener.

your plan exposes us to attacks from a HIDEOUSLY strong dragon while flying directly into his breath weapon which will destroy our shield for a turn so his rider (who can stick to things with just his feet) can attack us with the ranged melee weapons we already know he has and his whirling blade cloak all while our shield is disabled. also, if our scrander is destroyed for any reason we are fucked.

my plan splits our enemies attention while drawing them away from the Gate and deals heavy damage to one of them. It allows us to dodge the incoming attack and counter attack effectively.

to reiterate this is what I propose.

>action 1
have deagal fire the weapons at Trigon because he's the biggest target.
activate carnifex and use abruption jets to dodge the breath weapon as a free action. this clears us away from Deagal and the gate.
swapping weapons is a free action, so summon peacemaker as a free action in hand and fan the trigger right up Trigon's open mouth. We will have less accuracy, but Trigon is a huge target.

We can also use the Cannon bits once we are out of the path of the breath weapon to increase the damage done to Trigon which will also boost our Meter and Vitae gain. They act independant of us so action economy isn't an issue.

>Action 2

If we haven't had to dodge too much at this point we can engage the scrander And Black Ice and pull then away from the Gate further.

I agree that we should use providence to increase our dodge at this point and then join into melee when necessary.

>>3372667
>>3372865
How about this:
Dual Fortress Mode to engulf the two guys, making them incapable of flight.
Vitae boosted Crisis arm to throw them into the lachryma.

>>3374332
Again, we still have to buy the Peacemaker which is 65% Meter. BF Lvl1 lasts 2 turns with us slowed down and not auto regenerating limbs; BF Lvl3 lasts 6 turns, auto-heals, full speed, shatter blasts and we can create a giant sword if we want AND we can use the Quickening continuously because we can't take system's damage.

That doesn't change the fact Harrow allows us to auto-hit and have way easier hits for free and Argus takes continuous meter drain; the Argus is also unable to go through some forms of invisibility. We also can't fan the Peacemaker's hammer and use the Sinistral to block because the peacemaker requires 2 hands free to use properly but even if we do that, he's still going to smash into us while we stay still.

We don't know if Vovoid has both hands free and again, he'll be on the opposite side of Trigon. To attack us he'll have to go through Trigon.

I didn't say Disrupt now, I said disrupt *later*.

Your plan is awful; you gimp BF, you force us to stand in front of the enemy charge so we can still get the angle on the mouth and fire down it, you don't use the fact we'll be super strong, super fast and super tough and you seem to be forgetting the abilities that BF + Carnifex give us
>Can't be surprised
>Aura of killing frost

By flying beneath and past him, we can drag the Providence up his entire stomach causing torrential wounds while the Sinistral absorbs and slices him up with his own elemental attack *and* we're causing autodamage from the fields and blutsauger *and* we will pin him between two different opponents *and* we can follow up with caesar + axanael next turn along with a control rod disrupt next turn which makes this all better. Also, I keep saying we're going to use the sword bits to distract Vovoid along with the fact he won't be able to get the angle on us while we disembowel Trigon as we fly past it.

>>3375157
Too big. Trigon is 8x bigger than the average player.

File: joker carnifex.jpg (40 KB, 640x358)

40 KB JPG

>>3372369
>>3372437
>>3372460
>>3372667
>>3372865

You do not think.

You feel no conflict, no hesitation.

As the great wyrm spears out of the sea of storm-tossed static-

As that all-consuming maw yawns open, revealing row after row after row of fangs-

The Carnifex snaps into place over your faceplate, clamping down in a gleaming brass mask. The crusher locks in place, filaments of red gold lancing through solenoids, into nerve-connections, through the synapse web that carries your consciousness. Enhancing you – Accelerating you, as the Tempest Scrander swoons to life at your back-

There is a brittle *bang*, plates of armor blasted away from your frame. Static discharge crackles from your limbs as the Abruption Jets fling you into the air. Vector Bits slam into place, adding their acceleration to the Scrander's, blue-fire backwash flinging you high in a single surge.

You outrun your own sonic boom, as you kick off from the ground – Shards of armor rattling like flechettes against Daegal, as he instinctively flinches back from you. But on wings of jetair and flame, in an unblurring rush of real motion, you're already speeding upwards towards the descending terror-

Red armor becomes hyperdense ice. As the Cestus triggers – Twin silver cartridges discharging their hypercompressed payload – your form flash-freezes as it transmutes. The endothermic generators of your entropic field wrench heat from the air, the killing frost blistering across your limbs; The Sinistral's burning wedge sears the air before you, raised in singular defense. Sparks leap and dance across the industrial talons of your Crisis Arm, the metal fist flexing with a melody like snapping girders.

QLIPPOTH TRIGON's maw boils with light. Hell gushes forth.

Not fire. Not lightning. It is a *distortion*, an outpouring, something that roils with all the colors of madness. Neon light streaks your vision, the phantom reek of hot metal and hacked meat flooding your mouth – a mouth you don't have. Your nerves ignite as the burning venom spews across you, [i]around[/i] the Sinistral's field – Where it meets the warping torrent, you hear the hard-light barrier scream.

Your form is translucent, frozen around a pulsing, inexhaustible core – Threads of cold around a burning heart. Like a carved statue of red ice, impossibly articulated, in motion. Where it intersects with you – the writhing death-blast searing past your raised shield – your form boils away. Your substance sifts away, in trailing, twisting streamers of powder-

Ash. It's turning you to ash.

But you plunge through it. You surge through it, your endothermic field making a lie of the forces directed against you. Ice remembers it's own, vapor swirling as it re-freezes, the rents sealing up as soon as they form.

And you-

-A flicker of premonition-

You should have remembered the lightning.

[FATALISM activated]

(Continued)

>>3375599
>didn't load up two more silver cartridges after putting on the carnifex to have max black frost
OP WHY

>>3375609
Fucking wonderful. Wonderful. Did we not have enough booster/meter or something?

>>3375612
No, we had enough. 2 cartridges is 90 Booster + Meter.

>>3375614
Hmm. Would that be enough with Fatalism added on? Because I'm not sure full Black Frost Is worth taking a crit.

>>3375599

Lightning sears from the twisted spires that crown QLIPPOTH TRIGON's wings. Each bolt is a twisting vein of toxic yellow, shot through with threads of galvanic blue and arterial red.

The first one actually flies past you, like a crackling lash. It grounds itself against the rampart of Daegal's Fortress Mode – Erupting in a blinding nova of shock-light, scoring a furious line across the interlocking hexagons of the shield. It eats *through* it, like a hungry flame burning through a sheet of paper.

The second one strikes you.

It hits the Sinistral and detonates it. Feedback lances up the black-streaked crimson ice of your arm, as the field shatters – the concussive blast flinging energy chips in all direction, smiting the photonic mantle that burns around you. It leaves a fading afterimage like a jagged fault-line, sparks shearing from your flanks as your frozen armor ruptures, flaws crazing through your hyperdense shell.

But you have no systems to overload. No internals to destroy. The howling bolt twists *through* you, as it smites you from the air, burned and blasted-

And your draw is as fast as ever.

The PEACEMAKER is in your right hand. The hammer slams down, the peal of a single monstrous shot splitting the air. The single round spits across the distance, instantly lost against TRIGON's blistered black bulk. You are still falling as you fire again, the PEACEMAKER's chromed barrel hurling a second shot-

TRIGON's right wing explodes.

(Continued)

>>3375599
Op can we load two more sliver cartridges now? To enhance us. No one wanted to charge that thing without th max black frost !!!

>>3375619
We can't enhance Black Frost after the fact, anon. We're stuck with It, and our hindered mobility.

>>3374332
Mate you legitimately fucked us here. Buying peacemaker and fanning the hammer, made us unequip providence and gave us no lvl4 black frost. You dolt

>>3375625
Haha, It's almost like we should have bought Revolvers last thread so this wasn't a problem.

Which I fought for repeatedly and got no traction on the issue. Not many people wanted to spend booster on the damn Revolvers, one of us went so far as to say they were shit without even seeing them. Was It you anon? Because the PEACEMAKER just proved Itself.

>>3375624
>>3375625
>>3375631
Stop arguing about it. We aren't in a great position right now due to lacking level 3 Black Frost and unequipping a level 2 Providence but hopefully the Peacemaker and the rest of the turn can make up the gap. Caesar and Peacemaker will still be a powerful combination if we use it right.

Also, we weren't able to buy revolvers, we never had enough energy free to do so which is why we went for Desparado first. Now stop filling up the thread with dumb arguments and wait for a clarification.

>>3375635
I'm not arguing with anyone yet I was merely talking about the previous threads events and what I had wanted.

Also I believe you're wrong about energy sort of, I was wanting to push using the Crux for booster and grabbing a revolver one or two at a time, and It never happened. It could have happened, but that wasn't what the majority wanted and we ran out of chances.

>>3375645
Because we were busy trying to fill in assault shroud and health. The only time we had enough energy to buy a gun, we bought the Caesar after emptying the booster and then refilling with the crux.

>>3375619

(No – The duration can't be extended after the initial activation.)

>>3375618

The antimatter bullet slams into TRIGON's lightless black surface, and ruptures. The lethal reaction of matter / antimatter is a lightless fireball, a howl like the fiercest wind – a nuclear eyeblink. The second round ruptures against the inside of the field envelope, with a hellish anti-light that bleaches all colour from the world – the fission reaction like a perfect sphere of white, there and gone so abruptly it leaves the flash-burned afterimage of itself.

QLIPPOTH howls. It blitzes the air with a shriek beyond sound. There is a rifle-shot *crack* as chips of iron fly from the outer edge of the ring, as QLIPPOTH TRIGON banks hard – One wing stripped to the bone, tendrils of sinew and bubbling black Lachryma lashing across the surface, fighting to reknit. There is something majestically slow about that descent, right towards the Gate's churning core.

“*No*!” you hear Daegal shout - “No – no no *no*-”

The impact will rend the Gate to pieces. The field envelope will collapse, and the static-streaked madness beyond will devour you all. You intuit this even as you smash down on the stabilizer ring, so hard fragments of yourself tumble in all directions – Levering yourself up, the Sinistral's bracer burned-out on your wrist, your hand gouging desperate furrows into the peerless iron for a handhold-

The riftspikes glow red, a furious red. TRIGON wrenches away, contorting violently upon itself, twisting with bone-snapping force. The angle of plummet *shifts*, as the riling leviathan slides through the burning sky, as the first shots explode against it's surface. Solid-shell projectiles, flak – Daegal's firing everything he can, even the weapons he can't bring to bear. Filling the air with ordinance and tracer-wash, the weapons of a thousand years of war clawing the sky to shreds.

Something really substantial hits. Something slams into QLIPPOH TRIGON's bulk, and erupts in a detonation-cloud that spans the immediate space. Through EXEC_HARROW, you can feel it burning closer, closer, plunging through the backwash of the blast – But is it flying, or falling?

HP: 101%
VITAE BOOSTER: 77% (SIGMA CHARGE ACTIVE)
ASSAULT SHROUD: 111%
METER: 42%
ENCROACHMENT: 34%
REVOLVERS: CAESAR (6/6) / PEACEMAKER (5/6)

CRUX: VITAE BOOSTER
PHOTONIC MANTLE ACTIVE

> BLACK FROST: 1 TURN REMAINING
> SINISTRAL - HEAVY DAMAGE

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>3375651
What weapons do we currently have in what hands?

>>3375651
(Gentlemen, my mistake - PEACEMAKER should be 4/6.

Also, please note that extremely powerful attacks have a change of disrupting the Gate. It's like fighting inside a glass house.)

>>3375655
(You have the Peacemaker in your right hand. Note that you haven't taken any limb damage, because of BLACK FROST.)

>>3375649
Yes but saying we didn't have the means to switch to booster Isn't exactly true, It's just that that's what people wanted. It's a difference of opinion. I think we'd have had time to restock just fine with the lull In the fighting and still had the revolvers.

>>3375649
>Because we were busy trying to fill in assault shroud and health.
>Health
Are you a fucking idiot? The resource conversion for health through the Crux is so bad as to be useless in battle. Nobody in their right mind votes for that when we have so many other ways to regain HP.

>>3375656
Okay, in that case-
>Warn Daegal over the comm system to move because Vovoid is doing a surprise attack through Trigon
>Circle Trigon; use the Caesar to fire off 6 shots with the Peacemaker into him along with the flame rounds of the Caesar itself.
>Fire 16 Void missiles aimed all on Vovoid to damage him through his peerless armor + Have the sword bits charge in afterwards to fuck him up.
>Buy Bandlioer - Cell.
>Target a DISRUPT on Trigon's rift spikes and if that doesn't work, try to mark Vovoid with a Harrow too.

>>3375660
After the Efreet attack, we needed it.

>>3375666
Shouldn't we unload the peacemaker, THEN unload Ceasar to use It's ability so that the peacemaker fires while unloaded? We get more shots that way.

>>3375666
Wait. JQOP, do we still damage the field IF WE MISS? Does the Peacemaker count as a disruptive weapon?

>>3375669
(Yes, you're firing the equivalent of micro-nukes.)

>>3375666
>After the Efreet attack, we needed it.
No, 15HP in that situation did less than 60 Booster would have in the long run .

>>3375651
Use Auspex to keep track of Voivod. Keep slamming Trigon with shots and insert a Silver cartridge. Absolute Zero will likely have a devastating effect against him.

>>3375666
>>3375668
>>3375669
Shouldn't we use a fuckload of homing stuff and shit?

I vote for charging in with dual boosted Plasma Casters against our tumbling opponent, after throwing out a chain mine.

Just don't forget Voivoid's involvement.

>>3375668
No, we can't do that because we'd have to use 2 hands to fan the hammer whereas if we use the caesar, we don't have to cock the Peacemaker each time.

>>3375666
>>3375672
>we bought a gun we can't use
Okay, great. OP, can we modify my post above by cutting out using the Caesar and the Peacemaker and instead dual malefactors to melt him to slag while continuing to bounce around and fire at him?

We should save the Peacemaker for towards the end of the fight, to assure the finish.

>>3375680
Plasma Casters? I wouldn't, that's not nearly enough firepower for these two. Chain mine might not be a bad idea.

Also I have no problem letting a full Salvo of Void missiles go, but remember Voivod has his storm of blades bullshit, he might just cut them all to pieces.

>>3375687
>dual malefactors
Huh, that might actually work right now, thanks to us being immune to systems damage while the fucker is falling in our direction.

>>3375689
I'm worried a chain mine might further disrupt the field and we should save that for when we're going for a killing blow.

>>3375687
Either dual casters or dual malefactors, void missiles on vovoid, cast disrupt on the control spikes to stop them working, have the sword incoms move in after the void missiles and slice him apart.

And warn Daegal about that incoming attack.

>>3375656
OP, could we perhaps have a small list of weapons Joker can assume would risk disrupting the Gate, so we can better decide on a course of action?

>>3375698

(Powerful ordinance and large-scale energy weapons, mainly.)

>>3375666
>>3375668
>>3375676
>>3375680

Hunched over the spires and rods of the control surfaces, you hear Daegal swear – But he wrenches away from the damaged podium, miraculously keeping his feet on the treacherous iron walkway. The view is utterly disorientating, his form a gleaming silhouette against all that gnawing, static-streaked whiteness that is also a primordial, churning nightmare.

The spontaneous alchemy of your Silver Cartridges have changed alloyed-plate into articulated ice, veins and artificial nerves driving you on. Like an automaton of ice, building itself out of nothing even as it moves. Frost fumes around you, your footfalls blistering the ground beneath-

The sine-wave of the Argus System pings QLIPPOTH'S form, but it's almost unnecessary – EXEC_HARROW's deathmark coiling at the very edge of your senses. As the TRIGON's mutilated arrow-shaped skull breaks the surface of the smoke, you're already firing.

Your Triskelion Launchers spin up. Black-banded rockets roar through the air. Short-fused, they explode, one after another-

Howling voids open up. Slices in space, gashed open to somewhere utterly inimical to life – You see contrails of frozen flesh, of essence, boiling away from QLIPPOTH's surface as it pulls out of that fatal dive, winding across your field of vision. Every meter of the vast, blistered shape trembles in agony, that snapping maw swinging in-

“Oh shit, here it comes-”

But TRIGON swings it's head to the side. The hell-blast spews past you, going wide – the fitful lightnings continuing to leap and jag across it's surface, as it skims the inside of the field-bubble. That writhing tail lashes out, and smashes a segment of the iron ring to flinders – You see scythe-tipped blade gouge deep into the metal, fist-sized fragments bounding into the air as the terrible speed of it's passage whips past you.

Too close. Too *close*. Kill-markers pulse across your exo-armor, servoes groaning as you wrench your arms up – The twin nozzles of the MALEFACTORS like yawning pits into oblivion. Acid fire boils forth, in broad cones – It sears across TRIGON's blistered surface, clinging hungrily to it as Lachryma ignites. You see it thrash and twist, as fire encases it – flames licking and swirling across the vast body, as if bathed in napalm. Daegal staggers back from the intense heat, as the thing's substance ripples away in blackened flakes – like paint being stripped away, under a blowtorch.

“Why isn't it-”

A buzz, over the Dirac channel-

“-why isn't it attacking-”

But you already know.

Because VOIVOID doesn't want to die.

He must have been dreaming of this, all along. Until his thoughts curdled. Until madness crept in.

A singular dream of-

Escape.

The shadow of wings passes over you, and - As ice sloughs from your form - you know there's more to come.

(Continued)

>>3375742

>Because VOIVOID doesn't want to die.

>He must have been dreaming of this, all along. Until his thoughts curdled. Until madness crept in.

>A singular dream of-

>Escape.

Hahaha, almost like looking In a mirror huh Joker? A funhouse mirror maybe, but a reflection all the same.

>>3375742
Disrupt the control spikes. Lets make Vovoid sweat.

>>3375758
Ok gang let's
> Load 2 sliver cartridges from r absolute zero.
> Switch one of the malefactors for providence (dat precog)
>Fire with the malefactor. The superheat after the super freeze will be devastating.
> Switch malefactor to plasma caster.
> Get in close with plasma caster and providence to wreck hell as he regens.

>>3375742

And just as you think that-

The air fills with blades. Hiltless swords, spitting through the air. The pelting hail of knives is almost silent, as they shear through the intervening space-

“I-”

Daegal hurls himself forward. His dual-phase shield flickers around him with ghostly light, as he skids to a stop – Between you and the volley. He's seen the detonation of your Sinistral, and does the only thing he can – Put himself in the way, the Condemner burning in one hand, his mace in the other.

“-got it-”

The first blade punches through the dual-phase shield, and skewers his thigh. The second embeds itself into his shoulder, and he lets out a shout that's pained and furious at once, swinging both weapons in frantic deflections-

Oriachulcum. VOIVOID's blades are made of oriachulum, too. They punch through Daegal's field like red-hot knives through a soap bubble. One hisses past your helmet, as you wrench your head to the side – The Carnifex accelerates your senses, as will and thought become one-

With a sudden flash, the lightnings that crackle around TRIGON's burning form boil out. They lance out, a jagged, blinding discharge. It strikes Kazuya head-on, into his ragged shield – earthing itself through him, the snap shockwave of heat and debris spearing out in every direction at once.

The blast hurls you from your feet. Gyro-stabilizers deploy, as your autoreactive talons claw for purchase. A plume of electric fire sears skywards, iron glowing red-hot from the lightning strike – Daegal goes skidding, goes tumbling, his singular answer buzzing across the Dirac channel:

“-”

But he's bought you a moment. A moment, to activate EXEC_DISRUPT.

You don't target VOIVOID, or the scarred black exoskeleton that is TRIGON.

You target the riftspikes, the agonizing hooks and goads that burn with the bloody light of activation. The relics that bend TRIGON to VOIVOID's will.

The bloody red glyphs twist and warp in spidery, distorted shapes - Wrenching, gouging, trembling as splinters of raw code overload them-

They don't short out. They *detonate*.

(Continued)

>>3375788
Lets wait to see what happens here. Our goal is to kill Vovoid now. Ideally by trapping him and his pet death beast together.

>>3375794
Based Kazuya, being a big damn hero stepping In front of a wall of knives.

>>3375788
>>3375794
Belay my request op. Let's see how Trigon reacts to vovoid first. I jumped the gun