The man looks suddenly somewhat older. Clearly his age and his emotional state must be connected.
"What Una thinks she wants is to be a god, so that no one can hurt her. But what she really needs is to be safe. She wants to feel like she is in control. Go deeper, youngster. You can't trick her with what she wants, because it is an illusion. There will always be something bigger than her, even if she attains the power that is within her grasp. Give her what she needs...Make this retreat of yours a place where she is safe."
"My main open question is our end goal for Una. Need to disconnect her from the dimensions where she draws power and trap her somewhere. I like that fantasy dimension she made for the heroes, but if I could detect the dissonance so might she. Need to be more subtle than that. Vivian, do you think you could you use your connection with her to make her transition into the fantasy dimension believable? Maybe do it when we shatter the titan making her believe that we failed, and her titan plan won the dimensions."
Serena's brows furrow in her typical look of concentration, "I think we could get her there, but she is smart. I mean, you all figured it out. It needs to be more complex, more than a spell can do. I think someone would have to stay there to keep it responsive enough to fool her."
The man looks suddenly somewhat older. Clearly his age and his emotional state must be connected.
"What Una thinks she wants is to be a god, so that no one can hurt her. But what she really needs is to be safe. She wants to feel like she is in control. Go deeper, youngster. You can't trick her with what she wants, because it is an illusion. There will always be something bigger than her, even if she attains the power that is within her grasp. Give her what she needs...Make this retreat of yours a place where she is safe."
"I wish I knew that when we saw her seven years ago. It doesn't excuse the things she's done, but that's... that's something you can connect to someone with... In a world like this, it's easy to want to live inside an impenetrable suit of armor..." She shakes her head.
"Anyway, I've never used the blade to sever souls before... but I'll try to find a way. Once we sever the three... maybe we don't have to trick her. She's already built a paradise for heroes... maybe we can convince her as she has used her own power to create a perfectly safe world, all she needs to do is go there. I'd like to think we could convince her to even just back down but I reckon it's too late for that. Too many have already died."
Serena's brows furrow in her typical look of concentration, "I think we could get her there, but she is smart. I mean, you all figured it out. It needs to be more complex, more than a spell can do. I think someone would have to stay there to keep it responsive enough to fool her."
Max looks at the Hypnotist and Gylfir, the only dead and immortal among their crew. "Any volunteers to torment Una for eternity?" he asks with a grim look knowing full well how much he was asking. "Perhaps, we can create a jailer relay, so the burden does not have to be borne by one alone."
Serena's brows furrow in her typical look of concentration, "I think we could get her there, but she is smart. I mean, you all figured it out. It needs to be more complex, more than a spell can do. I think someone would have to stay there to keep it responsive enough to fool her."Max looks at the Hypnotist and Gylfir, the only dead and immortal among their crew. "Any volunteers to torment Una for eternity?" he asks with a grim look knowing full well how much he was asking. "Perhaps, we can create a jailer relay, so the burden does not have to be borne by one alone."
The Hypnotist brings his thumb and index finger to tug at his beard. "A timeshare of sorts could be possible. The dimension you describe sound not entirely unlike Dream.
Max looks at the Hypnotist and Gylfir, the only dead and immortal among their crew. "Any volunteers to torment Una for eternity?" he asks with a grim look knowing full well how much he was asking. "Perhaps, we can create a jailer relay, so the burden does not have to be borne by one alone."
Gylfir gives a wolfish grin.
"Not to sound too eager, but I have a place of my own I could stow her. And once separated from her own nascent godhead, and ensconced within my domain, it won't matter whether she realizes what has happened or not."
He frowns a bit in thought.
"I had never put much thought into what to do with 'damned' souls. I had always conceived New Valhalla as a place of just reward and rest for the weary. But perhaps there is time to rethink that approach."
”Good. Thank you,” Max nods and replies to Gylfir and the Hypnotist. He turns to everyone and locks eyes with each in succession.
”Alright team. Final review, so everyone knows their roles.”
“Team jailers, Gylfir and Hypnotist. Distract the titan by focusing on their conflicts of interest and motivations.”
“Team cleaver, Gracie, Sandstone, and Eoten. Wedge Calesvol in good and hit it with the power of the gods. Again, your goal is not to damage but to separate them.”
“Team gatekeepers, Serena and me. We first portal you into position. Then, we and the jailers portal Una into her eternal jail.”
“Everyone else, help keep everyone in position and out of harm’s way. Good? We can do this. We’re ready. Oh, and after Una is in jail, the first ones to subdue Dracula and Malador wins a prize.” He smiles at the levity and looks for confidence and commitment among the team.
It isn't hard to see the doubt on Alex's face. "That part of me...I'm not sure what will happen if I open myself up to that power. You may end up having to pull me back or put me down. Don't let me become a monster..."
Winifred Free adds, "My team will work to keep collateral damage down. People mostly avoid the thing whenever it is around."
Serena simply nods, "Let's end this."
Max moves his hand and the air sparkles before the sparkles snap into an image of a wasteland. Team Cleaver leaps through, and it takes a moment to realize that you are in Liberty Park in Freedom City, not far from the iconic Sentinel statue.
The Tripartite Titan, which thinks of itself as Triune, looks out over the devastation. Somehow the statue is unbroken. Triune must enjoy seeing it.
Outside the park, the crumbling city burns...
At the same time, Lady Seven opens a Crooked Path of Kar'Kradas, allowing Gylfir and The Hypnotist to step out onto the shoulders of the Sentinel statue, close to the Titan's eye level.
After putting the UNISON team out at the edge of the park, Max and Serena open a portal above the fray. Serena cloaks them in Shroud of Sirrion, hiding them from all senses...
It isn't hard to see the doubt on Alex's face. "That part of me...I'm not sure what will happen if I open myself up to that power. You may end up having to pull me back or put me down. Don't let me become a monster..."
"We've got you, Alex. Remember Oz... And stay with me. You'll be backing up Calesvol's ability to counter the darkness with the light. Open yourself to the light as we go." She turns to Eoten. "That goes for you too, Eoten. And Professor, if you can hear me."
Grace nods with resolve to her team, and reaches out to squeeze Win's hand before they all step separately through the portal to face the final threat.
She speaks to Alex and Eoten:
"I'm only guessing at what to do here, but we need to power up the blade with the power of the gods that back you. What I want to do is focus in its ability to cut through dark magic, dark power. So put your hands on it and open yourselves to the well of strength into it, and I'll try to draw your strength into the blade."
She looks at them. "And then I need you to chuck me at the Titan as hard as you can."
"Unless you have a better suggestion?"
Alex grimaces as she pulls an amulet from beneath her armor and pulls it, hard, breaking the chain. She lets the chain slither through her fingers as she intones, "Mighty Set, Lord of Storms, Slayer of Apep, No power May stand before you. I ask for your aid, I give myself to your service. I am your bow and spear."
There is a moment, and then her mouth opens in a scream. The scream pouring from her mouth turns into the howl of desert winds. Sand pours from her mouth in a seemingly endless cloud. Her skin peels away, leaving behind but sand, and then even that form dissolves into the sandstorm.
Eoten steps out onto the broken earth and sinks his spade-like hands into it. The earth seems to return the grasp, flowing up the giant's arms and over his body. His head turned downward, he rumbles, "Fee, Fie, Foe, Fane, bend these bones and break these chains."
Eoten's body ripples and tears itself apart, bones tearing through muscle, the whole mass swelling with a massive influx of energy. The giant grows and grows, reaching a height of nearly 60 feet. Two clawed arms burst from his torso, impenetrable scales pour over his skin. His mouth grows wider, and his boulder-like teeth grow thinner and sharper. The giant catches Gracie up in one of his massive hands, giving her a firm platform to stand on. Another hand he draws across Calesvol; black blood flows down the blade. The sandstorm swirls around Gracie, sand sparking against the blade of light.
And then the Giant throws her. Gracie sails through the air, wind and sand surrounding her like a small tornado.
Soliloquizing is hard when you're being tossed at a three-headed being the size of a skyscraper by a pair of giants, so Grace grips her blade and only manages to utter the names "Set... Devourer..."
And focuses on an image: a rosebush. Gorgeous, ancient, with huge white blooms--but also criss corssed with thick, gnarled branches and dead stems nearly impossible to clear away for the thorns. She envisions herself, holding not a mighty blade but a pair of garden loppers, cutting the mighty bush down to the ground, just a few small green stems remaining amid the cleared earth. She pictures winter coming, the spring again, and the rose growing to nearly the size it was, twice as many blooms, now with the dead and the gnarled cut away from it.
You know the truth of me, she sends the gods whose powers have sent her flying. [i]I am not a knight, but a gardener. I know rot and stasis must be cut away for life to return. And so I know your truth: that we need you. We need endings. Without them we can never have beginnings. You are not the dark betrayers people curse you to be. You don't have to be."[/b]
She manages to utter the last aloud. "You can join me. And be the Light that cleanses away the Darkness of Oblivion and the Illusion of Control."
And with that, as she nears the titan's face and thrusts her blade downward, through the center head and toward its heart.
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Calesvol goes into the central face, Una's, like a bullet, and Gracie pushes off from the being's eye socket, turning the blade downward, rending the magically constructed flesh. Una's face is frozen in shock as it falls, the Dracula face contorts into a scowl, and the skull face of Malador somehow expresses delight and calls out an ancient Atlantean curse word.
The Titan falls, slamming into the Sentinel statue, scattering bronze pieces into the part, toppling trees. As Gracie rides the behemoth toward the ground, she finds its heart with Calesvol, severing the cords that bind the three beings together. The matter that composed the Titan's body falls away into great chunks of steel, stone, concrete, and massive gobs of ectoplasm, reverting to the substance from which it was created. The three pieces of the broken Mask of Malador clatter to the broken pavement.
And in the wreckage are the three villains, apparently stunned by the release of power.
Max watched Gracie hurtling toward the titan's in amazement. She was the most courageous person he knew proving it every time. He hoped his plan would work encouraging it with a private c'mon!.
A broad smile erupted on his face when it worked. The titan shattered taking the Sentinel statue with it. They would replace it with a statue of Gracie. He floats a bit into the sky to get line of sight to Una and the three pieces of Malador's mask.
The three pieces of Malador's mask, Una's catalyst to this apocalypse, needed to be secured. "Be bound by the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak," he launches red ribbons from glowing crimson sigils rotating around his wrists toward the pieces to bring them flying to him, and into his pockets.
"Alright, I'm opening the portal. Team jailers, calibrate my portal to a dimension beyond Una's power and put that Una-puck in the net!" The illuminated sigils rotating around wrists change shape, color, and direction. "By the craft of Anog the Keymaker, I open the doors to the..." He hangs the trigger word to repeat what the Hypnotist and/or Gylfir decide.
Worth noting that even though the Titan has been broken up, the sky is still dotted with portals drawing energy from other dimensions. For the moment, that energy isn't being focused anywhere, leaving a real mess, and opportunities for people to do things with that power.
"Let Una be the first to experience the torment of Helviti."
Drawing upon the ambient power in the air, Gylfir crafts the ideation of a new addition to New Valhalla, and sentences Una to these nascent depths. The realm is still half-formed and malleable, but the presence of a being as powerful as Una should solidify it...for better or worse.
"Behold your eternal prison, and despair!" he cries out to the realm-hopping sorceress.
The Hypnotist says, "The Howling Dream..." at the same time as Gylfir says "Helviti," not being well attuned to the team having spent the last several years in a limbo-like state.
Malador's mummified body stays on the ground. It seems to fray at the edges, like a sand castle in a strong wind. Without the mask, it has a hard time remaining coherent. One skeletal hand reaches toward Eldritch.
The pieces of the mask leap from Max's pockets, held in the cerulean fist of Malador's magic and the Crimson ribbons of Eldritch's...
Dracula rises to his feet, quickly surveys the situation and races toward the nearest clump of trees.
Una floats upward from her position face down in the turf of the park. She turns slowly toward you, her face contorted in rage.
"You dare to involve yourselves in my apotheosis. An upstart zombie and a boy wizard?...I have no time for your games. Just die already."
Violet lightning arcs down from the roiling clouds above, striking the ground near Max and Gylfir.
"Gylfir, put her in the pot!" Max calls out when Una remains within their dimension. He maintains his portal to New Valhalla.
Instinctively, the master mage pushes power into the Crimson Bands when Malador strikes. "Team cleaver! Target Malador and Dracula!"
As the Titan sunders back to the trio of villains, the Devourer-Eoten beady eyes follow them from upon high.
”Fum. Foe. Fie. Fee. Three became one. One became three.”
His scaled hide grating as he lumbers forward through the wreckage around him as Max bids him target Malador or Dracual;
”Fie. Fane. Gyre. Geat. Which one should we first eat?”
As Dracula races to the trees under a fortuitous shade, he pauses realising the shadow moves with him...
Standing above him, the monstrous giant grins, teeth sharp as spikes and impossibly wide.
"Fum. Fee. Knyght. Maid. No haven Vampyr, in my shade.
He stoops, and two massive misshapen hand grab in tandem attempting to snatch their prize;
[dice=opposed check with the Crimson Bands]1d20+11
"Gylfir, put her in the pot!" Max calls out when Una remains within their dimension. He maintains his portal to New Valhalla.
Instinctively, the master mage pushes power into the Crimson Bands when Malador strikes. "Team cleaver! Target Malador and Dracula!"
Merlin response to Gracie: "My, my, that does complicate things. Killing you won't serve any purpose. But you are the only suitable and available bearer for the mantle of which I am aware."
Eoten is strong, but is moving with all of the speed of a skyscraper in his new form. Dracula dodges aside with a blur and the giant's hand grabs a handful of sod and concrete instead.
Gracie, presumably lying on the ground after her mighty descent, stands up.
Merlin response to Gracie: "My, my, that does complicate things. Killing you won't serve any purpose. But you are the only suitable and available bearer for the mantle of which I am aware."
Grace drags herself to her feet. "Well, if you won't have faith in your love, have faith in mine." She points at the UNISON team backing up the others on the ground. One tallish woman is looking toward the rubble to see if Gracie is pulling herself out of it. Grace waves at her. "Winifred Free. Loyal daughter of Albion. Protector of the world with her brilliant mind. Ask her."
Gylfir, for the first time, curses his new semi-mortal body as he sweats and gasps.
Calling upon further reserves of strength, he steels himself and attacks Una's mind again.
The sand storm that Alex has become continues to expand, blowing sand in a near tornado near the toppled statue.
While Serena maintains the portal, Max focuses on maintaining possession of Malador's mask. With a focus of will, he pulls back on the Crimson Bands.
Malador
The vibrant blue of Malador's magic hand snaps Eldritch's Crimson Bands, pulling the mask toward the dissolving corpse-wizard. The pieces snap onto his fraying skull, blue light stitching the broken pieces. His form solidifies.
His hands fly to his face, as though trying to ensure it won't slide off.