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[Sutoratosu Akira]

Yava
"What... really?" Yava took a moment to absorb the information. How curious that the godde-steward would be struck down so soon after they had met and she'd been recruited. Surely a peice of such importance as a steward would be not be slain by a stray bullet or an ordinary meister... right? If she truly was dead, Yava had little idea where to go from there. She had already been drawn into the game, apparently never having a choice to begin with. But if Erina had been the only one who knew of her status, and whatever plotting she'd been up to was now moot...

But if plotting is not moot? What if this is all part of larger plan?

"That is... indeed most unfortunate," she finally concurred, "might I ask how she fell, and to whom?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

For a moment, Monika had to process what Kirari was referring to, thanks to the fact that they were inside a building, but she quickly nodded, remembering the shorter building that they had seen earlier, "Good call. If I were to put underground labs somewhere, that's probably where I'd keep 'em."

Astarte

Lady Astarte. After all these years, the title of Lady was hers. And all it took was was losing an entire arm and becoming a joke to do so. The latter fact was never outright stated, but Astarte could feel it, all thanks to the direct orders to remain in Hell and act as a peacekeeper during a war. In a place where no one acted out of line, in fear of being hunted down by Nyna herself, which in turn left Astarte with nothing to do aside from pace in her office and wait.

... Officially, at the very least.

Thanks to a few new connections, due to her new status as a Lady, word had reached her ears regarding a slight... Oddity. Specifically, how an Esteemed One apparently fought against and survived Solamon, one that practically vanished into air after their fight. There wasn't much to go off of unfortunately, only that the event happened, but without anything to do other than sit around and wait for something to happen, Astarte had time to look into the issue herself.

And naturally, the first place to look for clues related to an Esteemed One is at a Forge.

[Chevaleresse]

Kirari

The former Dame gestured forward, down the hallway. "Then lead on, Major." That was a stroke of fortune, to say the least. Two - or perhaps three - in such a short amount of time. . . perhaps Monika had earned some favor from one of the goddesses on high, or some karmic balancing force was in play after the misfortune of encountering Marionette and being saddled with a sociopath to babysit. "I'll stay by your side. . ."

[Takosher]

Yava

"She was slain by the Dragon of Katria." Sola explained, "I cannot say how, we have only a smoldering crater for evidence, but it seems the Katrian managed to not only repel, but decimate our entire strike team."

Cath-Helel

It was a strange sensation to watch and feel herself fight, but have no control of her actions. The tentacles were a pretty strange sensation too.

Her power was immense, allowing her to bat aside Kallisto's seemingly endless stream of holy weapons like gnats. The tangle of watery appendages couldn't fend off every attack, but they were doing well enough that she didn't feel threatened.

That was bad.

As powerful as Allia's avatar was, she was clearly no match for Kallisto. If the goddess was actually trying to kill her she would be dead. Which meant Kallisto had another target.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Yava
"Hmmm...Dragon, eh?" Yava muttered to herself. That... didn't sound right, with what she had heard of this 'Dragon of Katria' since the invasion began. The beast didn't even breath fire, to start with, and large rock monsters didn't exactly leave smoldering craters in their wake. And the previous damage it had done aside, could the dragon really be that powerful, to have killed not only Erina but also everyone else who'd accompanied her? It all just seemed so... highly unlikely.

"That was all that was really left?" she asked, "Just crater? Not even bodies for either side?"

[Glass]

Jessie

Jessie was just staring, stunned, at the girl. How had she-
Ugh. And Lali had already made it clear that she could see through lies. The whole "Alice" thing had been a bust from the start.
Fuck.
...she could run again. She'd done it before. Goddesses knew how many times.
But what the hell would that accomplish?
She'd have to come clean. Goddesses-damnit.

Outside her head, partially on autopilot, Jessie replied quietly.
"Some jobs are a lot harder than they look."


Silvia

Information about holy weapon acquisition was almost certainly the most directly useful, but also the most likely to be censored. The information regarding the capitol storming might have information on Lanican maesters, but it was equally likely to essentially leave out any details on their weapons - thought they might at least be identified by name. The file on the Eden cult...
Silvia was going to be honest with herself. They had been told about a cult to whoever this "Eden" was, and she was fascinated. This might not have much information about them, but it was something.

She could read the other files afterward. First, she had to know.

[Takosher]

Jessie

Hellia shrugged. "Whatever." she said dismissively, "Just make sure you don't screw the next part, I'm counting on your eyes to keep me out of trouble."

It was time for Jessie to hand Farore over and retreat to keep watch. Once Hellia took the girl, they still had to get her out of the city safely before they could breath easy. Hellia was best equipped to save the mission if things went south, so she'd be staying with the girl. Jessie, on the other hand, would serve better as an observer. That was it. All she had to do was watch Hellia walk away with the kidnapped girl. That was all.

Monika and Kirari

The lab building seemed off somehow. For such a major component of the base, it seemed rather unassuming and barren, even compared against the rest of the place which was already so. That perhaps made sense, given there was apparently a section hidden below the ground. Looking around was easy but finding their goal proved much harder. They were going to need help.

"O! M! G! Is it really you?" A familiar voice cheerily trotted up to the pair, although the speaker was nowhere to be seen. "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMONIKA!"

Suddenly, the back of Monika's skirt flung itself upwards into the air, revealing her plain white briefs.

"Awwwww, boring." Miru groaned as she popped back into visibility, "It's been a while, so I was hoping you might have something more interesting on."

Without skipping a beat, she turned to Kirari. "And Kira! You're not dead!" she said, throwing her hands up in celebration. "Though you do look funny. What's up with that?" Still without pause, she shrugged, "Well, you can tell me later, there's spying to do. And rescuing, I can rescue you! For real this time! Everyone will be so excited to see you. And you can meet our new member, Aia! You'll love her Kira, she's like another you!"

Still going, Miru started to rush down the hall. "Follow me!" she announced, "We have to go find the secret weapon and save the day."

Brigitte

Horror. What the hell, Eilyth?

Confusion. What the hell, Leah?

Despair. "What the hell, Brigitte!"

Brigitte didn't understand what was happening. A giant mass of black tentacles that was once her sole trusted sister was battling a goddess on behalf of Brigitte's wife, who might also be a goddess. She just didn't get it.

She didn't want to get it.

Brigitte knew she should have fled like Patty had, she was even more useless in this fight. But she couldn't, not until she knew for sure that Eilyth and Al- Leah were okay. So she watched. She watched the tentacles and the flames dance like so many mad imps in their awful celebration of death.

A flash of light caught the Tyranian that was helping them, sending her sprawling. Brigitte didn't bother trying to help, she had to conserve her energy for the people she loved. Eilyth managed to gain an opening, and grabbed hold of Kallisto in one of her tentacles. It looked like they might actually win. The tentacles squeezed, prompting a scream. But that scream quickly devolved into laughter. In her haste to crush Kallisto, Eilyth had dropped her guard elsewhere. A glint of red fell from the goddess's hand towards Leah.

Brigitte reacted as fast as she could, but she was too far to stop it. A small dagger shaped like a flame pierced Leah's chest. She slumped to the ground and the tentacle monster vanished. Brigitte didn't question what she had to do as she knelt down beside Leah's body, she knew well before she got there. With one final, sad glance at Eilyth, she shoved her hand into her own heart.

Eilyth

Cath-Helel could only watch the scene before her unfold with her power suddenly disconnected. The tentacles still sprouting from her shoulder blades tried to reach out, but with her returned to her human form they were nowhere near large enough to do anything. Not that there was anything they could do. Either way, she was about to lose someone important to her. She could only watch as Brigitte's final look of sadness was snuffed out.

It wasn't over yet. Kallisto was still alive, and she had no plans to leave Allia intact. The rings around her rained down lasers of golden fury as she drew another weapon from the golden store that accompanied her. A grenade. It didn't take a genius to guess that it was more than just any explosive. Allia was still unconscious, she wouldn't be able to save herself. As always, it fell to her Knight to protect her.

[Chevaleresse]

Kirari

"I see Miru, at least, hasn't changed." She chose to let the irony of her phrasing to hang on its own. "Should we let her know that we were already 'rescued?'" A hint of some less pleasant emotion crept into her tone at the word. Swept up in events, without time to even begin to figure out who I am. What I am. My chance to start anew stolen before my eyes. A slight droop at the corners of her mouth and a small shake of her head were the only other things betraying her mental state. Not that I know I would have taken it. That would require knowing what I mean by "I."

She gave Monika a quick glance, doing her best to smooth out her face. She had her doubts about her ability to fool the Major, but she would rather not discuss that at the moment. With a small nod, she started to walk after Miru; the nonchalant manner of this was somewhat spoiled by the way she had to pick up her pace to keep up. So she knows about a super weapon as well. . . who told her? Not only that, but they had a new team member that was "another Kira." She was fairly certain that was a bad thing for everyone involved in this - but perhaps it truly meant someone like Kira, and not like Kirari, someone truly ashamed of their tendencies and trying to help simply because she cared.

There's no point in considering that now. I can't let my guard down in a place like this.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth Cath-Helel?
No...

Her screams devolved into a hissing screech of pain and sorrow.

No no no no no no...

She watched powerless as the only sister who had ever been kind to her died. The pact had failed. She had failed. She had protected no one, and nothing. She was a fool to rely on some eldritch force to do what she herself had sworn to. A damn fool. Anguish and rage flooded through every part of her being, so intense that she didn't even notice the new additions to her body. But they lashed wildly at the empty air in concert to her fury nonetheless. Her reptilian screech further devolved into a completely unintelligible roar as she lowered herself onto all fours and charged through the fray of searing light raining down upon them. There was a flash of dull bronze, and the tentacled, humanoid abomination was quickly replaced by an archdragon. The beast thundered forward with weight and power that shook the very earth beneath it, four massive wings sprouting from it's back to shield it's main body from the rays of divine wrath. It knew it would not reach Allia's side in time at it's current pace, and pushed off the rocky soil with every ounce of power it could muster. 

Jet black wings unfurled as it seemed to take flight. Maybe for just a moment, that archdragon did take flight. The next moment it didn't matter, however. It crashed back down to the earth close enough to it's ward that it's next few paces allowed it to position itself overtop of her, effectively letting it's bodily mass serve as the shield that would guard against this false goddess. It looked up at the long forgotten deity and issued a defiant roar, every seething ounce of the creature's pain and hatred flowing forth from it's maw in a dreadful dirge that could've been heard for miles.

Pain and hatred that drove it to refuse it's fate, even as it stared down a being infinitely more powerful than it would ever know.

[Takosher]

Cath-Helel

A golden light enveloped the world around Eilyth. A moment later, everything went to hell. Eilyth's scales vanished in an instant, along wirh the ground beneath her. Miraculously, her missing armor seemed to have protected both her and her lady, so they tumbled into the scorched crater fully intact.

Kalliato must have underestimated Eilyth, because she was long gone by the time Eilyth and Allia came to rest at the center of the crater.

Brigitte's lifeless corpse, one leg seared off, joined them a moment later.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Cath-Helel

She was pleasantly surprised to still be alive right now. As the rest of her senses came back, she surveyed the carnage all around them. Looks like her heavy form really had been a good choice, and even that had just barely cut it. Eilyth sincerely doubted she'd have had any hope in her normal armor. She pushed herself off the scorched earth and caught sight of Brigitte in the process. She fought back the wave of enraged tears as she picked up both Allia and her own sister and carried them both out of the crater. Patricia was nowhere to be seen once she reached the lip. Probably fled when things started to really devolve into insanity, and quite honestly Eilyth didn't blame her in the least. She had barely resisted the urge to run herself, after all.
    "I know why you did it..." Her voice was barely more than a whisper as she stared at what remained of her sister, "I'm sorry you had to go that far..."
    She had to move quickly. This fight had caused a lot of commotion, and she wasn't sure whether or not there were any other forces in the area now. She hated that she could not do better for Brigitte than this dreary, death stained place she knew she'd probably hate, but hopefully it would only be temporary. If Patricia truly had managed to get away, she would tell of what had happened here. Her sister would not lie in this goddess forsaken land longer than necessary.
    "I won't let it be in vain." tears began to blur her world as her stone claws dug away at the earth. A task that would've taken far longer with her bare hands was easily finished in moments thanks to them. She carried her sister over and placed her in the shallow grave. Then she wasted little time afterwards collecting some of the larger rocks she had dislodged while digging and assembling them into a small cairn. "I'll keep her safe... and I'll make that bitch pay for everything."

The final step was to drag a large boulder to the head of the grave using her immense strength. With great difficulty she kept both her claw steady and sight clear enough to carve a single name into it's face, so deep that it would not weather away any time soon. She hoped it wouldn't need to last that long, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Brigitte H. Brady

Something tugged gently around her neck as she finished. It had been so long since she'd felt it that the wall of emotion she was barely holding almost broke. "I know... I... I know. It's... time to go. Find... somewhere safer...figure out the rest after..."

Her gaze drifted over to where she had left Leah, checking if the steward was still unconscious.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

For a moment, Monika was caught off guard by the voice she heard within the seemingly empty laboratory. Of all the places, she didn't expect Miru to be around here, seemingly waiting for them. But, in that moment, Monika's was wide open... Giving Miru the prime opportunity to flip her skirt up, causing the Major to bite back a curse as she spun around, quickly patting down the accursed piece of clothing as Miru quickly talked and, as soon as she arrived, began running down the halls, talking about the secret weapon they were also looking for.

"... Eh, we'll tell her later. Not too important right now" Monika replied, giving a quick glance at Kirari before going after Miru. The fact that apparently there was "another Kira" was rather foreboding, and as much as Kirari tried to hide it, Monika could tell she didn't like that news either. But, more importantly, there was the fact that Miru was after the same 'secret weapon' that they were here for.

There was something odd here. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

[Chevaleresse]

Kirari

Kirari forced her thoughts outward, to the task at hand. There was a superweapon to locate; introspection and questions about how far to spread the knowledge of her true identity. It occurred to her that, given her current mission, there were other ways she could provide intelligence to Katria. That possibility was quickly filed away to the back of her mind; her information was stale if described generously, and she wasn't certain she wanted to help Katria at all - or if Katria would accept that particular form. This tangent, guided back to purpose by a silent curse at herself, lead to another thought.

"I have to wonder if there is something more happening here. I don't know how Trick knew what she did, and I doubt she'd be straightforward if I asked, but both her and Miru knowing is. . . strange." She wasn't sure what it meant; it could well be sheer luck. Luck seemed to have followed her so far. "Unless Trick tracked her down and told her, but that raises even more questions. What kind of scheming is happening here. . .?"

[Takosher]

Monika and Kirari

Miru led the pair to the bathroom, wherein a stall marked as out of order actually concealed a secret door. "I overheard some techies talking about this in the break room." Miru explained as she opened the door, "It was a cinch to steal some keys with my power, and presto, I've got us in."

The secret passage led down into a vast underground cavern. The absence of staff finally made sense, as the underground facility was absolutely crawling with both researchers and guards. Monika would be able to quickly note several other meisters as well, more than she could reliably fight her way past.

Of course, the most noteworthy thing was the large construct in the center of the vast cavern. None of them had ever seen anything like it. A large ovoid framework, partially covered over with some kind of fabric. Although exactly how was far beyond the expertise of any present Katrians, there intended function was clear as day. The Neridans were building a flying machine, and by the scale of the construction, they already knew how to make it work.

Silvia

The report unfortunately didn't detail much about the Eden cult itself, but it did reveal to Silvia exactly why Ishma had been so wary of them. The event in question had begun with the rebels and Eden both targeting the same government official. Although they had the same goal, the two groups were unaware of one another, and their plans clashed. Realizing their folly, the rebels moved to cut their losses. But the cult had something else in mind. Rather than give up their target, they simply abandoned secrecy. Seventeen innocents died in the ensuing hostage situation, although the cult did finally get what they wanted. Afterwards, the rebels and cultists had met up to discuss the whole event. This quickly devolved into both sides blaming the other for things going wrong, and the two groups parted on extremely bad terms. Leaders of both factions managed to smooth things over later, but the cultists never showed any remorse for the atrocities they had enacted on Lanican citizens.

"Ooh, you're reading about Eden, huh?" a mysterious voice said from behind. Somehow, a large stack of papers had managed to sneak up on Silvia while she was reading. "They're pretty scary." the papers said, the nervousness in their voice driving the point home.

Eilyth

Cath-Helel's vigil was not held alone. Though still on the ground, Allia was awake. She shed no tears, but the defeat in her shoulders spoke volumes to her emotional state. Patty was also there, quietly standing off to the side. she was accompanied by, of all people, Dame Jane. The two shared a look of somber defiance, although Patty was understandably heavier on the somber than the defiance.

Astarte

Although Tyran was sorely lacking in forges, visiting one was still of little trouble for Astarte. The very forge where she'd acquired her own weapon was in Inferno.

The Esteemed One, Mathyas, was an extravagantly dressed man in his mid-sixties. He spoke with a fake accent and an immense sense of self-importance, further reflected in the many fineries that decorated the pristine building in which he did his forging. When Astarte arrived, he was lounging on a fine couch while reading a book. He was too engrossed to notice her approach, even when he paused momentarily to grab a cookie from the nearby coffee table.

Yava

Sola gave Yava a quizzical look. "No bodies, although there did appear to be a crude grave marker." she explained, "But there's no way anyone caught in whatever made that crater would survive. And if any of ours had escaped, they'd have returned by now. She's dead."

[Chevaleresse]

Kirari

"Flight. . ." The applications were clear and terrifying, especially it could be made fast or durable. Bombardment that could simply bypass fortifications and battle lines, striking down victims with no risk and no emotion, no time to savor their reactions. "Miru, how did you know to come here?" She ensured her voice was low and she remained out of sight as she spoke. "And how did you know we would be here too?" Suspicion and concern both left their faint marks in Kirari's voice; not toward Miru, but toward whatever mysterious "benefactor" had arranged this.